Exploring Interface Problems in Taiwan’s Construction Projects Using Structural Equation Modeling

Social Media Tools for the Development of Pre-Service Health Sciences Researchers during COVID-19 in Pakistan

The development of health sciences researchers has immense significance during a pandemic to control, manage, and prevent future outbreaks of the disease. This study focused on the use of social media tools (SMT) among pre-service health sciences researchers to complement their research competencies (RCT) and research completion levels (RC) during COVID-19. This study used the Vitae research development framework (RDF) to measure research competencies as a mediator between the use of social media tools and research completion levels among post-graduate health sciences students. A cross-section survey research approach was adopted to collect data from the post-graduate students (n = 410) enrolled in health sciences departments at universities in Pakistan. The SmartPLS 3.3.8 software was used to analyze data through Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that different social media tools such as communication, information management, and multimedia have a direct influence on the research competencies of the pre-service researchers and have an indirect effect on the research completion levels. Health sciences institutions may devise social-media-based instructional strategies to develop post-graduate students' research competencies, such as personal effectiveness, research governance, and research engagement, to help them compile their research and complete their degree program in time during an emergency.

Forest Resource Management: An Empirical Study in Northern Pakistan

Community participation for forest sustainability and use of forest resources for community development is considered a vital way in all societies. This study was conducted to assess the public views toward sustainable forest management in the area of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, through collecting data from 255 respondents. Views about forest management techniques at different levels were discussed. Three main areas of focus to manage forest resources were: strategic-level management, local-level management, and communication-level management. To provide confidence and to measure factors affecting sustainable forest management, this study applied the structural equation modeling approach and built a model that explained and identified the critical factors affecting sustainable forest management. A quantitative approach via Smart Partial Least Squares version 3.2.8 was used for analysis. The findings of the study show that the R2 value of the model was 0.653, which means that the three exogenous latent constructs collectively explained 65.3% of the variance in sustainable forest management. In this study, the goodness of fit of the model was 0.431, which is considered valid for further analysis. Among the three proposed levels for forest management, the strategic-level-management factor was found the most important of the three variables. This study concluded that for better and sustainable forest management, policies should flow from the strategic level to the local and also focus on communication-level management because all these factors appear to be significant in measuring sustainable forest management. Community engagement and awareness are also found to be an important way for forest resource management.