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Assessing Knowledge Sharing Among Academics: A Validation of the Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale (KSBS)

Ramayah T, Yeap JAL, Ignatius J

Eval Rev, 2014 Apr;38(2):160-187.
PMID: 25015259 DOI: 10.1177/0193841X14539685

BACKGROUND: There is a belief that academics tend to hold on tightly to their knowledge and intellectual resources. However, not much effort has been put into the creation of a valid and reliable instrument to measure knowledge sharing behavior among the academics.
OBJECTIVES: To apply and validate the Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale (KSBS) as a measure of knowledge sharing behavior within the academic community.
SUBJECTS: Respondents (N = 447) were academics from arts and science streams in 10 local, public universities in Malaysia.
MEASURES: Data were collected using the 28-item KSBS that assessed four dimensions of knowledge sharing behavior namely written contributions, organizational communications, personal interactions, and communities of practice.
RESULTS: The exploratory factor analysis showed that the items loaded on the dimension constructs that they were supposed to represent, thus proving construct validity. A within-factor analysis revealed that each set of items representing their intended dimension loaded on only one construct, therefore establishing convergent validity. All four dimensions were not perfectly correlated with each other or organizational citizenship behavior, thereby proving discriminant validity. However, all four dimensions correlated with organizational commitment, thus confirming predictive validity. Furthermore, all four factors correlated with both tacit and explicit sharing, which confirmed their concurrent validity. All measures also possessed sufficient reliability (α > .70).
CONCLUSION: The KSBS is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used to formally assess the types of knowledge artifacts residing among academics and the degree of knowledge sharing in relation to those artifacts.
Human T-cell receptor V gene segment of alpha and beta families: A revised primer design strategy

Ch'ng ACW, Chan SK, Ignatius J, Lim TS

Eur J Immunol, 2019 08;49(8):1186-1199.
PMID: 30919413 DOI: 10.1002/eji.201747328

The application of human TCR in cancer immunotherapy has gained momentum with developments in tumor killing strategies using endogenous adaptive immune responses. The successful coverage of a diverse TCR repertoire is mainly attributed to the primer design of the human TCR V genes. Here, we present a refined primer design strategy of the human TCR V gene by clustering V gene sequence homolog for degenerate primer design based on the data from IMGT. The primers designed were analyzed and the PCR efficiency of each primer set was optimized. A total of 112 alpha and 160 beta sequences were aligned and clustered using a phylogram yielding 32 and 27 V gene primers for the alpha and beta family. The new primer set was able to provide 93.75% and 95.63% coverage for the alpha and beta family, respectively. A semi-qualitative approach using the designed primer set was able to provide a relative view of the TCR V gene diversity in different populations. Taken together, the new primers provide a more comprehensive coverage of the TCR gene diversity for improved TCR library generation and TCR V gene analysis studies.
Fulltext Multi-isotype antibody responses against the multimeric Salmonella Typhi recombinant hemolysin E antigen

Ong EB, Ignatius J, Anthony AA, Aziah I, Ismail A, Lim TS

Microbiol. Immunol., 2015 Jan;59(1):43-7.
PMID: 25399538 DOI: 10.1111/1348-0421.12211

The detection and measurement of different antibody isotypes in the serum provide valuable indicators of the different stages of typhoid infection. Here, the ability of S. Typhi recombinant hemolysin E (HlyE) to detect multi-isotype antibody responses in sera of patients with typhoid and paratyphoid A was investigated using an indirect antibody immunoassay. Nanogram amounts of HlyE were found to be sufficient for detection of IgG and IgA isotypes and, in a study of individuals' sera (n = 100), the immunoassay was able to distinguish between typhoid and non-typhoid sera. The overall sensitivity, specificity and efficiency of the ELISA were 70% (39/56), 100% (44/44) and 83% respectively.
Fulltext Comparative study of IgA VH 3 gene usage in healthy TST(-) and TST(+) population exposed to tuberculosis: deep sequencing analysis

Chin ST, Ignatius J, Suraiya S, Tye GJ, Sarmiento ME, Acosta A, et al.

Immunology, 2015 Feb;144(2):302-11.
PMID: 25158076 DOI: 10.1111/imm.12372

The acquired immune response against tuberculosis is commonly associated with T-cell responses with little known about the role of B cells or antibodies. There have been suggestions that B cells and humoral immunity can modulate the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, the mechanisms involving B-cell responses in M. tuberculosis are not fully understood, in particular the antibody gene preferences. We hypothesized that a preferential use of V genes can be seen associated with resistance to infection mainly in the IgA isotype, which is of prominent importance for infection by pathogens via the mucosal route. We studied healthy individuals with long-term exposure to tuberculosis, infected (TST(+) ) and uninfected TST(-) ) with M. tuberculosis. From a total of 22 V genes analysed, the TST(-) population preferred the VH 3-23 and Vκ1 genes. The VH 3-23 genes were subsequently subjected to 454 amplicon sequencing. The TST(-) population showed a higher frequency of the D3-10 segment compared with the D3-22 segment for the TST(+) population. The J segment usage pattern was similar for both populations with J4 segment being used the most. A preferential pairing of J4 segments to D3-3 was seen for the TST(-) population. The antibodyome difference between both populations suggests a preference for antibodies with VH 3-23, D3-3, JH 4 gene usage by the TST(-) population that could be associated with resistance to infection with M. tuberculosis.