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This study describes development and validation of a questionnaire as an adjunct to Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis of Yin-Deficiency Syndrome (Yin-DS). The Yin-Deficiency Questionnaire 1 (Yin-DQ1) consists of 10 items. Seventy-nine healthy volunteers and 44 patients diagnosed with Yin-DS were enrolled for the evaluation of discriminant validity and factorial validity. Another group of 83 healthy volunteers participated for test-retest reliability test. Internal consistency was high in both groups (Cronbach's α = 0.8615). Test-retest reliability (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient) ranged from 0.54 to 0.79 (p < 0.01). Factor analysis demonstrated that a two factor solution best explained the variance in responses (51.62%). The scores of all items in patients diagnosed with Yin-DS were significantly higher compared with those of healthy volunteers. The data show the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and strong discriminative properties of the Yin-DQ1. Further research determining the optimal cut-off score for Yin-DS and testing its usage as an outcome measure in a clinical trial is needed.

While pattern identification (PI) is an essential process in traditional medicine (TM), it is difficult to objectify since it relies heavily on implicit knowledge. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a machine learning (ML)-based analysis tool to evaluate the clinical decision-making process of PI in terms of explicit and implicit knowledge, and to observe the actual process by which this knowledge affects the choice of diagnosis and treatment in individual TM doctors. Clinical data for the development of the analysis tool were collected using a questionnaire administered to allergic rhinitis (AR) patients and the diagnosis and prescription results of TM doctors based on the completed AR questionnaires. Explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge were defined based on the doctors’ explicit scoring and feature evaluations of ML models, respectively. There were many differences between the explicit and implicit importance scores in this study. Implicit importance is more closely related to explicit importance in prescription than in diagnosis. The analysis results for eight doctors showed that our tool could successfully identify explicit and implicit knowledge in the PI process. This is the first study to evaluate the actual process by which explicit and implicit knowledge affect the choice of individual TM doctors and to identify assessment tools for the definition of the decision-making process in diagnosing PI and prescribing herbal treatments by TM clinicians. The assessment tool suggested in this study could be broadly used for the standardization of precision medicine, including TM therapeutics.

Human Response to a question with multiple alternatives can be imprecise or fuzzy for various reasons. Part of this fuzziness can be attributed to the lack of sincerity and clarity in the thought process of the respondent. A formal measure of this aspect of fuzziness is formulated in this work on the basis of consistency of the respondent's response to the same question repeated in multiple scales. Discarding haphazard and insincere respondents can improve the quality of data resulting in more efficient survey analysis. This may be achieved in the framework of statistical testing of hypothesis using the probability distribution of the proposed fuzziness measure. Similarly, an attribute can be fuzzy, and it may generate inconsistent response from many respondents. The application of the proposed methodology extends to identifying such fuzzy or unclear attributes. The paper also proposes an algorithm for screening inconsistent respondents and fuzzy attributes simultaneously.

We performed a study to determine whether the results of a questionnaire could be used to predict the results of nerve conduction tests in patients with suspected carpal tunnel syndrome. Two hundred and eleven consecutive patients underwent electrophysiological testing, and completed the questionnaire designed by Kamath and Stothard. Two questionnaire threshold scores were identified, which classified with high sensitivity and high specificity those patients who had normal, and abnormal nerve conduction tests respectively. Patients who scored greater than 6 on the questionnaire could be classified with 87% specificity as having abnormal tests, and patients scoring below 3 on the questionnaire could be classified with 87% sensitivity as having normal studies. We suggest therefore that patients who score above 6, or below 3 on this questionnaire may not need to be referred for nerve conduction tests, as the result can be predicted with adequate accuracy.

The software industry depends intensively on its actor’s knowledge to develop its products. This knowledge is crucial to leverage innovation and market sustainability within the software industry companies. Knowledge Management (KM) processes are accomplished in the small- and medium-sized software industry companies daily, however, sometimes not formally. This paper proposes a questionnaire aimed to diagnose KM in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) of the software industry, namely, KMD Quest-SW. The KMD Quest-SW was designed to fill up the gap of KM diagnosis in SME in the software industry. The KMD Quest-SW has 46 statements distributed in six dimensions: so-called creation process, registration process, knowledge sharing, knowledge use, innovation process, and knowledge in the software industry. From the software industry perspective, our proposal appears as a promising tool to diagnose and map the knowledge flow in SMEs. From a scientific perspective, the questionnaire breaks new grounds for KM theoretically and practitioners to be adapted for other SME companies interested in KM.

Employee turnover has been identified as one of the principal causes of poor performance, low competitiveness and high technology loss in the construction industry. Construction managers normally acquire knowledge and skills in construction methods and management techniques on the basis of long-term practice, and their turnover can significantly impact on a construction organisation's survival and development. Therefore, there has been an increasing need to understand the major critical variables affecting the turnover of construction managers. The aims of this research were to determine these variables and use them to develop a quantitative turnover prediction model. A system framework was first developed to categorise all turnover variables into job satisfaction, organisation commitment and demographic variables and the turnover intention was measured in diverse directions. Based on an empirical study in Hubei province in China, the statistical results indicate that seven job satisfaction and organisational commitment variables dominate the turnover intentions of construction managers.

Background: Congenital hand differences (CHD) exhibit enormous diversity and heterogeneity. Surgeons and parents often have different concepts of severity, making things difficult during parental consultation. This study aims to align surgeon/parental views on the severity of the child’s CHD using a novel severity classification.

Methods: Parents of affected children were asked to score the severity of their child’s abnormality pre- and post-consultation using a subjective scale (1–4) without any explanation. Furthermore, parents were asked to rate their concerns about the future function and appearance of their child’s hand condition using a similar scale of 1–4. They were then asked to rate the severity of the CHD post-consultation and three months post-operatively following explanation of the 4-point scale, as follows: 1 = treatment possible to normal; 2 = treatment possible to near normal; 3 = treatment possible but always some hand differences; 4 = treatment not possible. The surgeon also independently scored all children using his perception of the scale.

Results: Forty-three children with a range of CHD were recruited into the sample. Linear weighted kappa analyses comparing inter-rater agreement showed no agreement between surgeon and parents during the initial scoring without any explanations. However, with explanations added, agreement rose significantly (kappa = 0.437 post-consultation and kappa = 0.706 three months post-op). No correlation was found between severity with both appearance and function (r = 0.277 and r = −0.184, respectively).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the use of a simple scoring system was able to improve parental understanding of the severity and prognosis of CHD. The system demonstrated a good correlation between surgeon and parents. Such a scoring system can be easily utilised in the outpatient department to manage expectations and reduce anxiety.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the WOrk-Related Questionnaire for UPper extremity disorders (WORQ-UP) questionnaire in a working population with upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders.

Methods: We enrolled 181 patients with upper extremity conditions to complete the Persian WORQ-UP. A total of 35 patients returned after 1 week to complete the questionnaire again. To test the construct validity, patients responded to the Persian Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (Quick-DASH) at the first visit. The correlation between Quick-DASH and the WORQ-UP was assessed using Spearman correlation coefficient. Internal consistency (IC) was tested using Cronbach’s alpha, and test–retest reliability was measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results: Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.630 (p < 0.001), indicating a strong correlation between Quick-DASH and WORQ-UP. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.970, which is considered excellent. ICC for the total score of the Persian WORQ-UP was 0.852 (0.691–0.927), indicating good to excellent reliability.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the Persian version of the WORQ-UP questionnaire has excellent reliability and IC. Construct validity showed a moderate to strong correlation between WORQ-UP and Quick-DASH, which provides a platform for the workers’ population to assess the extent of disability and follow the progress along the treatment course.

Level of Evidence: Level IV (Diagnostic)

Theta frequency at the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is often related to the cognitive process in early childhood. In the present study, we focused on the types of playing activities that could enhance the theta frequency in preschoolers at their PFC area with study on individual brainwaves. The selected playing activities included LEGO and wooden blocks with and without instruction, iPad apps and flash card comparison. A total of 12 individual cases were analyzed in this study. The mean theta amplitudes of their PFC were measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). Children brainwaves showed profoundly high theta frequency while playing LEGO without guidance. Meanwhile, tablet-based computer educational tool with pictures, sound, and motion initiated greater theta frequency as compared to the conventional flash card. Brainwaves analysis is a great tool to determine the cognitive development of children, based on the types of activities allocated to them.

Requirements gathering and analysis is the most important phase of software development. If done properly, it reduces future maintenance costs. It can also stop projects that are unlikely to succeed before costs have become excessive. Different software systems require different approaches to requirements engineering. A mature requirements process can be based on a generic requirements process from which specialized processes can be adapted. We discuss such a generic process. The aim is to achieve for requirements engineering a capability level that is comparable to Level 3 of the Capability Maturity Model of SEI for the software process in general. We survey in some detail the parts of the process that deal with project purpose and feasibility, the techniques of requirements gathering, and the representation of requirements.

This paper presents the design of an eLearning Index (eLI) to determine the adaptability of a corporation or education institution for eLearning. Firstly, it describes the framework of eLearning. Secondly, it describes the methodology and the evaluation of eLearning Index. Thirdly, it reports the research results of two surveys. Finally, it concludes its findings on how to assess an organization's adaptability to eLearning. The principal aim of this paper is to design an eLI which is used to determine the adaptability of a corporation or education institution to eLearning before full implementation of an eLearning strategy. In the determination of eLI, staff of a corporation or education institution are required to answer twenty key questions. The average score of the eLI of the staff is used to determine the adaptability to eLearning. The higher the average score of the eLI is, the better the adaptability of the corporation or education institution to eLearning is.

Salesman is the main executor of product sales activities, playing an important role in the development of the enterprise. In this paper, we mainly studied competency model about the salesperson of Endurance Ltd. We adopted Behavioral Event Interview and questionnaire to analyze the salesman of the Endurance Ltd. And then defined the competency features and competency model of the salesman. In the article, the competency model consists of 27 competency features which was divided into 6 modules, including basic quality, customer-oriented, professional knowledge and skills, communication skills, self-learning ability and cooperation and solidarity. The competency model can provide reference for its employee selection and training and performance evaluation.

Knowledge economy is resulting into competition which increases the demand for innovation. The wave has urged libraries which faced no competition before to think of ways to add and show more value to its users. The coming of digital libraries and other information providers challenges traditional libraries to improve its practices before becoming obsolete. This paper is based on the findings from the research for the Master thesis focused on establishing the relationship between intellectual capital and knowledge sharing. It is an explanatory survey addressing the issue of intangible assets as unseen value in public libraries. The research intended to use both a questionnaire and interview to ensure validity. A questionnaire was designed in such a way that key questions were asked alternatively in the same questionnaire to compensate the interview which its feasibility was constrained by time and distance. The questionnaire was then administered to six different universities to ensure reliability of the findings. As a consequence of distance and difficulties in selecting respondents, snowball sampling was used. Descriptive narrative and mapping were then used to explain the findings. Due to time and distance constraints the research focused only on the aspect of human capital and structural capital and leaves such aspects as customer capital, renewal capital and process capital to be covered by other researchers.