Drinking water safety improvement and future challenge of lakes and reservoirs.

To meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.1, China has undertaken significant initiatives to address the uneven distribution of water resources and to enhance water quality. Since 2000, China has invested heavily in the water infrastructure of numerous reservoirs, with a total storage capacity increase of 4.704 × 1011 m3 (an increase of 90.8%). These reservoirs have significantly enhanced the available freshwater resources for drinking water. Concurrently, efforts to improve water quality in lakes and reservoirs, facilitated by nationwide water quality monitoring, have been successful. As a result, an increasing lakes and reservoirs are designated as centralized drinking water sources (CDWSs) in China. Among the 3,441 CDWSs across all provinces, 40.8% are sourced from lakes and reservoirs, 32.6% from rivers, and 26.6% from groundwater in 2023. Notably, from 2016 to 2023, the percentage of lakes and reservoirs categorized as CDWSs has increased consistently across all 29 provinces. This progress has enabled 561.4 million urban residents to access improved drinking water sources in 2022, compared to 303.4 million in 2004. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of water infrastructure construction and water quality improvement jointly promoting lakes and reservoirs as vital drinking water sources. Nevertheless, the nationwide occurrence of algal blooms has surged by 113.7% from the 2000s to the 2010s , which is a considerable challenge to drinking water safety. Fortunately, algal blooms have been markedly alleviated in past four years. However, it is still crucial to acknowledge that lakes and reservoirs face the challenges of algal blooms, and associated toxic microcystin and odor compounds.

The Effects of an Accelerated Auditory Matching Protocol for Early Intervention Students.

We employed a multiple probe design to test the effects of an accelerated auditory matching protocol with five toddlers receiving early intervention services (four males, one female) for developmental delays. All participants emitted poorly articulated vocal mands and tacts. The dependent variables were the number of full echoics, partial echoics, and incorrect responses within a set of 20 two-syllable words. The independent variable was an accelerated Auditory Matching Protocol that targets auditory discrimination using an iPad App. Each phase of the protocol targets different sound discriminations with growing complexity. Four out of five participants emitted more full or partial echoic responses upon mastery of the Auditory Matching Protocol. Moreover, compared to those who received the full dosage of the standard Auditory Matching Protocol in previous studies, the participants in this study required fewer learn units to master all phases and to demonstrate improvement. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00882-1.

Using benefit transfer to estimate housing value increases from improved water clarity: A case study of lakes in Kosciusko County, Indiana.

This study provides step-by-step guidance for practitioners and local stakeholders on how to use existing study results to conduct benefit transfer (BT), and ultimately make informed predictions of how improvements in lake water clarity may benefit surrounding communities. The procedures are demonstrated using a publicly available meta-dataset developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and a subsequent meta-analysis that synthesizes the literature on how improvements in water clarity impact home values. The BT procedures are demonstrated using a case study of 14 large lakes in Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lake-specific average increases in home values, as well as the value of the housing stock in aggregate, are calculated for illustrative improvements in lake water clarity. This analysis provides a critical bridge to better connect high-quality, academic research with real-world policy analysis, and ultimately serves to better equip local governments and stakeholders to make more informed policy and land use decisions.

Reliability and Validity of Ecological Momentary Assessment Response Time-Based Measures of Emotional Clarity: Secondary Data Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Emotional clarity has often been assessed with self-report measures, but efforts have also been made to measure it passively, which has advantages such as avoiding potential inaccuracy in responses stemming from social desirability bias or poor insight into emotional clarity. Response times (RTs) to emotion items administered in ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) may be an indirect indicator of emotional clarity. Another proposed indicator is the drift rate parameter, which assumes that, aside from how fast a person responds to emotion items, the measurement of emotional clarity also requires the consideration of how careful participants were in providing responses. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to examine the reliability and validity of RTs and drift rate parameters from EMA emotion items as indicators of individual differences in emotional clarity. METHODS: Secondary data analysis was conducted on data from 196 adults with type 1 diabetes who completed a 2-week EMA study involving the completion of 5 to 6 surveys daily. If lower RTs and higher drift rates (from EMA emotion items) were indicators of emotional clarity, we hypothesized that greater levels (ie, higher clarity) should be associated with greater life satisfaction; lower levels of neuroticism, depression, anxiety, and diabetes distress; and fewer difficulties with emotion regulation. Because prior literature suggested emotional clarity could be valence specific, EMA items for negative affect (NA) and positive affect were examined separately. RESULTS: Reliability of the proposed indicators of emotional clarity was acceptable with a small number of EMA prompts (ie, 4 to 7 prompts in total or 1 to 2 days of EMA surveys). Consistent with expectations, the average drift rate of NA items across multiple EMAs had expected associations with other measures, such as correlations of r=-0.27 (P<.001) with depression symptoms, r=-0.27 (P=.001) with anxiety symptoms, r=-0.15 (P=.03) with emotion regulation difficulties, and r=0.63 (P<.001) with RTs to NA items. People with a higher NA drift rate responded faster to NA emotion items, had greater subjective well-being (eg, fewer depression symptoms), and had fewer difficulties with overall emotion regulation, which are all aligned with the expectation for an emotional clarity measure. Contrary to expectations, the validities of average RTs to NA items, the drift rate of positive affect items, and RTs to positive affect items were not strongly supported by our results. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings provided initial support for the validity of NA drift rate as an indicator of emotional clarity but not for that of other RT-based clarity measures. Evidence was preliminary because the sample size was not sufficient to detect small but potentially meaningful correlations, as the sample size of the diabetes EMA study was chosen for other more primary research questions. Further research on passive emotional clarity measures is needed.

Improving the diagnosis of urinary tract infections by the use of enriched media and a 48-hour incubation period.

Introduction. The absence of a gold-standard methodology for the microbiological diagnosis of urinary tract infections (UTI) has led to insufficient standardization of criteria for the interpretation of results and processing methods, particularly incubation time and culture media.Hypothesis. 48-hour incubation time period and use of blood agar enhances the sensitivity of microorganisms isolated significantly.Aim. To determine the sensitivity of blood agar and Brilliance UTI chromogenic agar, incubating for different periods (24-48 hours), for the detection of positive urine cultures.Methodoloy. Comparisons were made between all possible combinations of media and incubation times. As the gold-standard reference, we used the routine methodology of our laboratory, which involves prior screening with available clinical data, flow cytometry, sediment analysis and/or Gram staining. Screened samples were then cultured on blood agar and chromogenic agar and incubated for 48 hours. Also, based on the results of Gram staining, additional media were added in selected cases.Results. The most significant difference was found between chromogenic agar incubated for 24 hours and blood agar incubated for 48 hours, with the latter method allowing the recovery of 10.14 % more microorganisms (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the value of performing Gram staining to guide processing was demonstrated, as it avoided the loss of at least 5.14 % of isolates.Conclusions. At least in urological and nephrological patients it is essential to include enriched culture media (blood agar) or to extend the incubation times due to the improvement of the diagnostic sensitivity of urine cultures. Gram staining also can help detect the presence of fastidious microorganisms or mixed infections, indicating whether rich and/or selective media should be included to enhance the diagnostic sensitivity of cultures. If this methodology is not followed, it should be noted that besides fastidious species, fastidious strains of Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aerugniosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia will also be missed.

Crystalline lens clarity in patients treated with isotretinoin.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Isotretinoin has been the best treatment option for moderate and severe acne vulgaris since the 1980s. Some studies have shown evidence of subclinical anterior segment involvement of the eye in patients treated with isotretinoin. BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate lens clarity with the densitometry software of Scheimpflug tomography in patients treated with isotretinoin and to compare with healthy control subjects. METHODS: Thirty-seven acnepatients treated with isotretinoin who met the inclusion criteria (24 males and 13 females, mean age 22.94 ± 4.21 years) and 39 healthy control subjects were included in the study. Clinical characteristics of the isotretinoin and control subjects were recorded. Lens density was evaluated with the densitometry software of the Scheimpflug tomography device (PentacamHR, Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany). RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in age, gender distribution, spherical equivalent, or anterior segment parameters measured by the Pentacam system (p > 0.05 for all). Lens density values in zones 2 and 3 were significantly higher in the isotretinoin group (p = 0.042, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with cumulative isotretinoin dose (zone 2: r = 0.384, p = 0.032; zone 3: r = 0.384, p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Zone 2 and zone 3 lens density are higher in patients treated with isotretinoin when compared to healthy controls.

Emotional Clarity and Psychopathology in Women Who Have Experienced Physical Intimate Partner Violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a chronic, traumatic stressor related to posttraumatic stress (PTS), depression, and anxiety. As psychological symptoms are exacerbated in those with poor emotional clarity, the present study evaluates the relationship between emotional clarity and PTS, dissociation, depression, and worry in women who experienced at least one instance of physical IPV (n = 88). Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for childhood trauma, IPV abuse severity, and IPV-related brain injury, found that lack of emotional clarity was significantly related to greater PTS, dissociative experiences, depression, and worry. Results suggest that emotional clarity may be a relevant therapeutic target for individuals with a history of IPV and psychological distress.

Clarity tubes as effective citizen science tools for monitoring wastewater treatment works and rivers.

Improved freshwater resource management requires the implementation of widespread, effective, and timely water quality monitoring. Conventional monitoring methods are often inhibited by financial, infrastructural, and human capacity limitations, especially in developing regions. This study aimed to validate the citizen-scientist-operated transparency or clarity tube (hereafter "clarity tube") for measuring water clarity as a proxy for total suspended solids (TSS) concentration, a critical quality metric in river systems and wastewater treatment works (WWTW) effluent in Southern Africa. Clarity tubes provided a relatively accurate and precise proxy for TSS in riverine lotic systems and WWTW effluent, revealing significant inverse log-linear relationships between clarity and TSS with r2 = 0.715 and 0.503, respectively. We demonstrate that clarity-derived estimates of TSS concentration (TSScde) can be used to estimate WWTW compliance with WWTW effluent TSS concentration regulations. The measurements can then be used to engage with WWTW management, potentially affecting WWTW performance. Overall, these findings demonstrate the usefulness of clarity tubes as low-cost, accessible, and easy-to-use citizen science tools for high spatial and temporal resolution water quality monitoring, not only in rivers in Southern Africa but also in WWTW effluent for estimating compliance, with strong global relevance to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;00:1-10. © 2024 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Understanding the Effect of External and Internal Assets on Hazardous/Harmful Drinking Among Chinese College Students: A Serial Mediation Model.

Hazardous/harmful drinking among college students is increasingly becoming a global health concern. Previous studies have mostly paid more attention to the prevalence and risk factors of alcohol use disorder based on the public health approach, and less is understood about psychological mechanisms and protective factors of problem drinking behavior. Grounded in the framework of developmental assets, this study explored the predictive effect of external assets (i.e., social connectedness) and internal assets (i.e., self-concept clarity and drinking refusal self-efficacy) on hazardous/harmful drinking among Chinese college students. Participants were 598 college students with a mean age of 19.41 (SD = 1.21) years. The results of structural equation modeling showed that social connectedness negatively predicted college students' hazardous/harmful drinking. Moreover, our path analyses revealed a serial mediation among these variables: students with high social connectedness tended to report high self-concept clarity, which in turn increased drinking refusal self-efficacy, and consequently decreased the level of hazardous/harmful drinking. This study revealed the mechanisms underlying how external and internal assets predict risky drinking among college students. These findings made significant contributions to prevention and precision interventions for college-aged youth with drinking problems.

Learning in the workplace: Development of a simple language statement assessment tool that supports second-level nurse practice.

AIM: To focus learning through clarity of the enrolled nurse (EN) role (a second tier nurse position) through development of a user-friendly workplace performance assessment tool commensurate with EN standards for practice. BACKGROUND: Internationally, the nursing workforce comprises regulated and unregulated staff. In Australia, similar to other western countries, there are two tiers of regulated workforce, namely Registered Nurses (RNs) and Enrolled Nurses (ENs). Differences in RN and EN standards based on the education preparation are not always clearly differentiated in workplace practice. Roles are often seen as interchangeable: Improved clarity of both regulated and unregulated roles, when numbers of healthcare workers are burgeoning, assists performance assessment that guides further learning and safe practice. DESIGN: Two phase sequential, non-experimental design. METHODS: Phase one used focus groups (n=48), expert reference panel (n=8) and end-users (n=16) to develop simple language statements. Phase two involved field testing of the statements. FINDINGS: A 30-item, criterion-based workplace performance tool was developed. Principal component analysis of completed tools indicated work could be organised around three key areas of practice, namely, higher order thinking and problem solving, routine daily activities of care and personal and social attributes. DISCUSSION: Participants reported the statement items assisted in determining suitable activities and accompanying cues in discussing learning needs. Analysis assisted with discriminating broader elements of EN workplace performance. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace learning is important for nurses to continue to build their capacity to deliver optimum care. Assessment tools that describe professional capability in plain language statements and provide examples of supportive behavioural cues help guide on-going learning through improving the validity and thereby consistency of assessment processes. Furthermore, comprehensible and meaningful statements and cues can readily be adopted by students and educators to target learning and feedback thereby enhancing clarity of the EN role, to distinguish from other nursing roles.

Letter to the editor on "in vitro & in silico study of hypoglycaemic potential of pterocarpus marsupium heartwood extract".

The Short Communication "In vitro & in silico study of hypoglycemic potential of Pterocarpus marsupium heartwood extract" published in Natural Product Research is praised for its depth of inquiry and exploration of hypoglycemic and antioxidant properties. However, there are areas for refinement, such as clearer definitions of key terms related to type 2 diabetes mellitus, updated literature review, improved organization and contextualization of the Results and Discussion section, and a more balanced discussion of the study's implications.

Cost-effectiveness of erosion mitigation to meet water clarity targets in the Manawatu-Whanganui Region of New Zealand.

Soil erosion is a significant environmental issue worldwide. It affects water quality, biodiversity, and land productivity. New Zealand government agencies and regional councils work to mitigate soil erosion through policies, management programmes, and funding for soil conservation projects. Information about cost-effectiveness is crucial for planning, targeting, and implementing erosion mitigation to achieve improvements in sediment-related water quality. While there is a good understanding of the costs of erosion mitigation measures, there is a dearth of literature on their cost-effectiveness in reducing sediment loads and improving water quality at the catchment level. In this study, we estimate the cost-effectiveness of erosion mitigation measures in meeting visual water clarity targets. The analysis utilizes the spatially explicit SedNetNZ erosion process and sediment budget modelling in the Manawatu-Whanganui Region and region-specific mitigation costs. The erosion mitigation measures considered in the analysis include afforestation, bush retirement, riparian retirement, space-planted trees, and gully tree planting. We modelled two scenarios with on-farm erosion mitigation implemented across the region from 2021 to 2100, resulting in a 48% and 60% reduction of total sediment load. We estimate the marginal costs to achieve the visual national bottom line for water clarity, as assessed by the length of waterways that meet the clarity targets. We also estimate the marginal costs of improving average water clarity, which can be linked with non-market valuation studies when conducting a cost-benefit analysis. We find that gully tree planting and space-planted trees are the most cost-effective mitigation measures and that riparian retirement is the least cost-effective. Moreover, cost-effectiveness is highly dependent on current land use and the biophysical features of the landscape. Our estimates can be used in cost-benefit analysis to plan and prioritize soil erosion mitigation at the catchment and regional levels.

The Reciprocal Relations between Parental Psychological Control and Social Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Self-Concept Clarity Among Chinese Early Adolescents.

Although parental psychological control has been well-documented as a significant predictor of social anxiety among adolescents, few studies examine how changes in parental psychological control and adolescent social anxiety are reciprocally related at the within-person level, especially in Chinese culture. This longitudinal study examined reciprocal relations between parental psychological control and social anxiety, and the potential mediating role of self-concept clarity, by disentangling between- and within-person effects. A total of 4731 students (44.9% girls; Mage = 10.91 years, SD = 0.72) participated in a four-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling indicated that parental psychological control directly predicted social anxiety, and vice versa. Parental psychological control indirectly predicted social anxiety via self-concept clarity, and social anxiety also indirectly predicted parental psychological control via self-concept clarity. These findings reveal a vicious cycle of mutual influence between parental psychological control and adolescent social anxiety in Chinese youth, and highlight the crucial role of self-concept clarity in the interplay between parenting and adolescent social functioning.

Use of automated quality assessment algorithms in fingermark detection research - Application to IND/Zn vs DFO.

When developing detection techniques for fingermarks, the detected fingermarks must be evaluated for their quality to assess the effectiveness of the new method. It is a common practice to compare the performance of the new (optimized) technique with the traditional or well-established ones. In current practice, this evaluation step is carried out by a group of human assessors. A new approach is applied in this paper and consists of using algorithms to perform this task. To implement this approach, the comparison between IND/Zn and DFO has been chosen because it has already been the subject of many articles published in recent years and a consensus exists on the superiority of IND/Zn over DFO. The quality of 3'600 fingermarks developed using both detection techniques was assessed automatically using two algorithms: LQM (Latent Quality Metric) and ILFQM (Improved Latent Fingerprint Quality Metric). The distribution of quality scores was studied for both detection techniques. The results showed that fingermarks detected with IND/Zn received higher scores on average than fingermarks detected with DFO, which is in line with the consensus in the literature based on human assessment. The results of this research are promising and shows that automated fingermark quality assessment is an efficient and viable way to comparatively assess fingermark detection techniques.

Climate change-associated declines in water clarity impair feeding by common loons.

Climate change has myriad impacts on ecosystems, but the mechanisms by which it affects individual species can be difficult to pinpoint. One strategy to discover such mechanisms is to identify a specific ecological factor related to survival or reproduction and determine how that factor is affected by climate. Here we used Landsat imagery to calculate water clarity for 127 lakes in northern Wisconsin from 1995 to 2021 and thus investigate the effect of clarity on the body condition of an aquatic visual predator, the common loon (Gavia immer). In addition, we examined rainfall and temperature as potential predictors of water clarity. Body mass tracked July water clarity strongly in loon chicks, which grow chiefly in that month, but weakly in adult males and females. Long-term mean water clarity was negatively related to chick mass but positively related to adult male mass, suggesting that loons foraging in generally clear lakes enjoy good foraging conditions in the long run but might be sensitive to perturbations in clarity during chick-rearing. Finally, chick mass was positively related to the density of docks, perhaps because angling removes large fishes and thus boosts the abundance of the small fishes on which chicks depend. Water clarity itself declined strongly from 1995 to 2021, was negatively related to July rainfall, and was positively related to July air temperature. Our findings identified both long-term and short-term water clarity as strong predictors of loon foraging efficiency, and suggest that climate change, through water clarity, impacts freshwater ecosystems profoundly. Moreover, our results identified the recent decrease in water clarity as a likely cause of population decline in common loons.

Communication from below: Feedback from employees as a tool for their stabilisation.

Given the current organisational changes in a turbulent global economic context, is the appropriate setting of the communication process, with an emphasis on feedback from employees to management for organisations to cope with external changes. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, communication from below is required as it is a primary issue in the context of significant organisational change and can help to shape positive perceptions of change. The main aim is to evaluate the relationships between selected organisational variables regarding the use of different forms of employee-to-management communication. A questionnaire survey of Czech organisations (n1 = 183) was conducted, and the data obtained were evaluated using statistical tests (Wald statistic) to determine whether a demonstrable relationship existed between the traits. The results showed a relationship between the application of most types of bottom-up communication and organisation size in terms of the number of employees, majority ownership, and, for selected types of communication forms, annual turnover. However, none of the communication types examined depended on the sector in which an organisation operated. The results of the qualitative research confirmed that grassroots communication was crucial in all the types of organisations examined and helped to improve organisational climate. This study contributes to theory and practice by confirming that feedback from employees is a tool for their stabilisation. The managerial implications include the finding that effective feedback settings help prevent conflicts in organisations. The study contributes significantly to the deepening of knowledge on the issue of systematic communication leading to the sustainability of organisations, which is also demonstrated by the almost zero overlap with previous studies.

Daily associations between global self-esteem and self-concept clarity and their relationships with subjective well-being in a sample of adult workers.

OBJECTIVES: The present pre-registered study examined the reciprocal day-to-day associations between global self-esteem and self-concept clarity and their incremental validity with respect to daily life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. METHODS: We used intensive longitudinal data from 153 adult workers (45.1% women), over a period of 31 days. Data were analyzed using dynamic structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Results attested higher global self-esteem and self-concept clarity mean levels for older vs. younger participants, and lower global self-esteem and self-concept clarity variability for older vs. younger participants. Furthermore, global self-esteem and self-concept clarity were correlated at a cross-sectional daily level, yet only self-concept clarity states positively predicted subsequent global self-esteem states, while global self-esteem states did not predict subsequent self-concept clarity states. Daily global self-esteem and daily self-concept clarity further predicted subsequent daily higher life satisfaction and positive affect, respectively. CONCLUSION: Overall, our findings shed light on the short-term relationships linking global self-esteem and self-concept clarity, pointing to their discriminant validity in predicting individuals' subjective well-being.

ß-amyloid accumulation enhances microtubule associated protein tau pathology in an APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: The study of the pathophysiology study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been hampered by lack animal models that recapitulate the major AD pathologies, including extracellular -amyloid (A) deposition, intracellular aggregation of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT), inflammation and neurodegeneration. Methods: The humanized APPNL-G-F knock-in mouse line was crossed to the PS19 MAPTP301S, over-expression mouse line to create the dual APPNL-G-F/PS19 MAPTP301S line. The resulting pathologies were characterized by immunochemical methods and PCR. Results: We now report on a double transgenic APPNL-G-F/PS19 MAPTP301S mouse that at 6 months of age exhibits robust A plaque accumulation, intense MAPT pathology, strong inflammation and extensive neurodegeneration. The presence of A pathology potentiated the other major pathologies, including MAPT pathology, inflammation and neurodegeneration. MAPT pathology neither changed levels of amyloid precursor protein nor potentiated A accumulation. Interestingly, study of immunofluorescence in cleared brains indicates that microglial inflammation was generally stronger in the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and entorhinal cortex, which are regions with predominant MAPT pathology. The APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse model also showed strong accumulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which was recently shown to be elevated in the AD brain. m6A primarily accumulated in neuronal soma, but also co-localized with a subset of astrocytes and microglia. The accumulation of m6A corresponded with increases in METTL3 and decreases in ALKBH5, which are enzymes that add or remove m6A from mRNA, respectively. Discussion: Our understanding of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been hampered by lack animal models that recapitulate the major AD pathologies, including extracellular -amyloid (A) deposition, intracellular aggregation of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT), inflammation and neurodegeneration. The APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse recapitulates many features of AD pathology beginning at 6 months of aging, and thus represents a useful new mouse model for the field.

Financial Self-Efficacy, Retirement Goal Clarity, and Preretirement Anxiety Among Nurses in Southeast Nigeria: The Mediating Role of Job Embeddedness.

Background and Objectives: It has been evidenced that retirement transitions are accompanied by preretirement anxiety about transitioning from a work-oriented lifestyle to retirement. Most employees do not proactively address these concerns during this transitional period. Thus, identifying the factors inherent in preretirement anxiety is imperative for a positive retirement transition. This study explored the role of financial self-efficacy and preretirement goal clarity on preretirement anxiety and the mediating role of job embeddedness in such relationships among prospective retiree nurses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Research Design and Methods: This cross-sectional study used self-report measures of the Pre-retirement Anxiety Scale, Financial Self-Efficacy Scale, Retirement Goal Clarity Scale, and Job Embeddedness Scale for data collection. A total of 236 nurses participated in the study. Descriptive analyses were done to determine the bivariate correlations among the study variables, while regression-based path analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses. Results: Results revealed that goal clarity and financial self-efficacy showed a strong negative association with preretirement anxiety. Also, higher job embeddedness was negatively associated with preretirement anxiety. In addition, there was a significant indirect relationship between financial self-efficacy and preretirement anxiety, as well as preretirement goal clarity and preretirement anxiety through job embeddedness. Hence, the influence of financial self-efficacy and preretirement goal clarity on preretirement anxiety was mediated by job embeddedness. Discussion and Implications: The results emphasized that financial self-efficacy and preretirement planning are imperative for a positive perception toward retirement transition. In addition, job embeddedness should be encouraged among employees because it facilitates connectedness and interrelatedness in social fusion, ideas, and projections toward retirement transition. This connotes that the development of attachment to place and the formation of strong social ties are sacrosanct for retirement transition. These results are crucial for developing a methodology for support services for prospective employees in retirement transition.

Examining the predictive validity of a managerial coaching scale: a longitudinal study.

Managerial coaching remains a widespread and popular organizational development intervention applied across numerous industries to enhance critical workplace outcomes and employee attitudes, yet no studies to date have evaluated the temporal precedence within these relationships. This study sought to assess the predictive validity of the widely used Employee Perceptions of Supervisor/Line Manager Coaching Behavior Measure managerial coaching scale (CBI), employing a longitudinal design and following the testing of the causal hypothesized relationship framework. Three hypotheses were evaluated using three commonly associated variables with managerial coaching (role clarity, job satisfaction, and organization commitment), using longitudinal data collected over two waves from full-time US employees (n = 313). The study followed a two-wave design, collecting data over two time points to test for longitudinal measurement invariance and three reciprocal cross-lagged models. Results detected statistically significant cross-lagged and reciprocal cross-lagged effects in the role clarity and organization commitment models, highlighting a reciprocal relationship between managerial coaching behaviors and the two variables. However, only the reciprocal cross-lagged effect was statistically significant in the job satisfaction model. Findings suggest the predictive validity of the CBI scale for role clarity and organization commitment. Moreover, results indicate employee attitudes influenced managerial coaching behaviors over time across all three models, emphasizing the potential impact of employee attitudes on leadership effectiveness. This study highlights the complex relationships between managerial coaching and workplace outcomes, offering nuanced insights for improved understanding.