A value-belief-norm (VBN) model for understanding the pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) of Taiwanese was developed. This formulated VBN model included personal values, openness to change, awareness of consequences, personal norms, social norms, and PEB. Ecological world view and ascription of responsibility were excluded to develop a tighter model. A total of 1079 completed questionnaires were collected and structural equation modelling was utilized, where standard estimates and coefficients of determination validated the formulated VBN model\'s effectiveness. Each construct served its role as the mediator between its distal variable and outcome variable, with a substantial level of predictive accuracy, and 74.3% of the variance in PEB was accounted for. Further findings found that mature individuals had a stronger tendency towards awareness of consequences due to personal values; the young had a stronger tendency towards personal norms due to awareness of consequences; men had a stronger tendency towards personal norms due to awareness of consequences; and women had a weaker tendency due to a greater emphasis on altruism. Future interventions, such as sharing of personal pro-environmental lifestyles verbally or through social media, periodically decluttering personal items and maintaining a minimalist lifestyle, where these personal norms are in line with collective social norms, could help to strengthen PEB.

Exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) is an alternative to the well-known method of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). ESEM is mainly used to assess the quality of measurement models of common factors but can be efficiently extended to test structural models. However, ESEM may not be the best option in some model specifications, especially when structural models are involved, because the full flexibility of ESEM could result in technical difficulties in model estimation. Thus, set-ESEM was developed to accommodate the balance between full-ESEM and CFA. In the present paper, we show examples where set-ESEM should be used rather than full-ESEM. Rather than relying on a simulation study, we provide two applied examples using real data that are included in the OSF repository. Additionally, we provide the code needed to run set-ESEM in the free R package lavaan to make the paper practical. Set-ESEM structural models outperform their CFA-based counterparts in terms of goodness of fit and realistic factor correlation, and hence path coefficients in the two empirical examples. In several instances, effects that were non-significant (i.e., attenuated) in the CFA-based structural model become larger and significant in the set-ESEM structural model, suggesting that set-ESEM models may generate more accurate model parameters and, hence, lower Type II error rate.

Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) has changed significantly under various disturbances over northern China in recent decades. This research examines the dynamics of FVC and how it is affected by climate and human activity during the period of 1990-2018 in northern China. The effects of climate change (i.e., temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and soil moisture) and human activity (socioeconomic data and land use) on vegetation coverage change in northern China from 1990 to 2018 were quantified using the Sen + Mann-Kendall test, partial correlation analysis, and structural equation modelling (SEM) methods. The findings of this research indicate the following: (1) From 1990 to 2018, the overall trend in FVC in northern China was increased. The areas with obvious increases were mainly situated on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, the Loess Plateau, the Northeast China Plain, and the Sanjiang Plain, while the areas with distinct degradation were located in the Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Changbai Mountain and the eastern part of north China. (2) In the past 29 years, the FVC in northern China has been mainly affected by precipitation and soil moisture. (3) Based on structural equation modelling, we discovered that certain variables impacted the main factors influencing the amount of FVC in northern China. Human activity has had a larger impact on FVC than climate change. Our findings can accelerate the comprehension of vegetation dynamics and their underlying mechanisms and provide a theoretical basis for regional ecological environmental protection.

According to the trait activation theory (TAT), personality characteristics are dormant until contextual elements stir them into action. Personality traits are expected to be activated in the context of abusive supervision. From this perspective, our paper examines whether abusive supervision affects organisational gossiping behaviour through the dark triad. To this end, this study examines the mediating effects of the dark triad on the relationship between abusive supervision and organisational gossip based on cross-sectional data gathered from two separate samples. Using the results from structural equation modelling, it is evident that abusive supervision activates the dark triad, and its context influences organisational gossip in line with the TAT. In addition, our results show that abusive supervision positively affects gossip for information gathering and relationship building, with the dark triad proving to be completely mediating. This finding implies that abusive supervision is a contextual factor, and as such, behaviours such as consistent ill treatment and non-violent, verbal or non-verbal hostile acts will have long-term and lasting effects on organisational communication in many organisations. This study offers significant policy implications concerning behavioural issues within education-centred organisations.

UNASSIGNED: Compared with other medical sciences, Chinese medicine provides professional advantages in disease prevention and the diagnosis of chronic diseases. The training of Chinese medicine practitioners is worthy of investigation. The present study focused on how structural equation modelling (SEM) can be used to analyze the competencies of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners to help training an eligible TCM doctor and select suitable staff for TCM hospital.
UNASSIGNED: Before the analysis of competence factors for TCM, we developed the scale, including literature review, expert consultation, item pool for the proposed competency model, pilot test of the item pool, and finalization of the scale items. We analyzed questionnaires from 400 TCM practitioners in Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, and then performed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to extract the valuable items for TCM practitioners. Finally, SEM was employed to develop a competency structure.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 21 items in this study\'s questionnaire were identified as being closely related to the competencies of TCM practitioners, which were further categorized by principal component analysis into five categories: (I) professional values; (II) basic medical knowledge; (III) communication skills; (IV) clinical skills; and (V) information management. Subsequent analyzes showed that clinical skills were the most important competency metric for TCM practitioners; additionally, the mediating role of basic medical knowledge and communication skills could not be ignored in both theory and practice.
UNASSIGNED: This research presents a preliminary methodology for evaluating the competence of TCM practitioners and provides hospitals with criteria theoretical reference for training and finding TCM practitioners.

Difficulties with loss-related memories are hypothesised to be an important feature of severe and enduring grief reactions according to clinical and theoretical models. However, to date, there are no self-report instruments that capture the different aspects of memory relevant to grieving and adaptation after bereavement over time. The Oxford Grief-Memory characteristics scale (OG-M) was developed using interviews with bereaved individuals and was subject to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in a community sample (N = 676). Results indicated the scale was unidimensional and demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. The impact of memory characteristics on symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) according to both ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR criteria were investigated using cross-lagged structural equation modelling in a three-wave longitudinal sample (N = 275) at baseline and 6 and 12 months later. Results indicated that loss-related memory characteristics predicted future symptoms of PGD after controlling for autoregressions, and concurrent associations between symptoms and memory characteristics. Cross-lagged associations between memory characteristics and symptoms were significant in the first 6 months of follow-up. After that, memory characteristics predicted future symptoms, but not the other way round. Theoretical and clinical utility of the scale and its features are discussed.

Seed dormancy determines the environmental niche of plants in seasonal environments, and has consequences for plant performance that potentially go far beyond the seed and seedling stages. In this study, we examined the cascading effects of seed dormancy on the expression of subsequent life-history traits and fitness in the annual herb Arabidopsis thaliana.
We planted seeds of >200 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between two locally adapted populations (Italy and Sweden), and both parental genotypes at the native site of the Swedish population in three consecutive years. We quantified the relationship between primary seed dormancy and the expression of subsequent life-history traits and fitness in the RIL population with path analysis. To examine the effects of differences in dormancy on the relative fitness of the two parental genotypes, we planted dormant seeds during the seed dispersal period and non-dormant seeds during the germination period of the local population.
In the RIL population, strong primary dormancy was associated with high seedling survival, but with low adult survival and fecundity, and path analysis indicated that this could be explained by effects on germination timing, rosette size and flowering start. The relationship between primary seed dormancy and germination proportion varied among years, and this was associated with differences in seasonal changes in soil moisture. The planting of dormant and non-dormant seeds indicated that the lower primary dormancy of the local Swedish genotype contributed to its higher germination proportion in two years and to its higher fecundity in one year.
Our results show that seed dormancy affects trait expression and fitness components across the life cycle, and suggest that among-year variation in the incidence of drought during the germination period should be considered when predicting the consequences of climatic change for population growth and evolution.

We explore the moderating role of trade openness (TO) by gauging its main and interaction effects on the economic growth and environmental quality nexus. In this direction, we implement a novel approach by using three different measures of pollution emissions (CO2-CH4-PM2.5) in the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and applying a structural equation modelling methodology to 115 countries, grouped into low-, middle- and high-income countries, spanning the period 1992-2018. The evidence suggests that energy consumption has a positive impact on CO2 emissions for all income panels whilst the moderating effect of TO appears to be a key degrading factor of environmental quality in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, TO\'s interaction with GDP growth is found to negatively affect environmental quality across all income groups. Given that global economies are on the verge of returning to pre-pandemic levels of industrial operations along with emissions in the wake of the failure of COP26 and that COVID-19 has reminded the world the urgency of developing sustainable approaches in fostering \'green economic growth\' models; a host of policy measures are proposed in support of this whilst their likely implications are discussed with reference to different income level countries.

Contemporary societies challenge long-standing projects of the \"good society\" and social equality through neoliberal economic policies. Social forms of uncertainty generated by financial deprivation, precarity, and inequality seem to have effects on agency and coping and so socioeconomic and psychological consequences. This study aims to test these relationships, as well as a hypothesis on the potential impact of these constructs on beliefs of sociopolitical control and social dominance, which have implications for social justice. A mediation model explores the effects of financial access (the manifest benefit of work) on psychosocial uncertainty (which reflects the perception of uncertainty in the social context and the experience of its consequences within work, relationships, and the adoption of self-defeating beliefs) and on emotional coping strategies towards uncertainty, and their effects on personal agency, sociopolitical control (SPC), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Data are derived from a study of 633 participants in Portugal. Although personal agency is influenced by financial access and psychosocial uncertainty, it is not proved as a significant mediator for SPC and SDO. Nevertheless, financial access, psychosocial uncertainty, and emotional coping significantly contribute to the model, supporting the hypothesis that financial access protects against psychosocial uncertainty. Both have an impact on SPC and SDO. Therefore, financial deprivation and psychosocial uncertainty potentially contribute to extremism and populism in societies characterised by socially created forms of uncertainty. Implications of results for psychological intervention, namely in vocational/professional counselling, are discussed.

BACKGROUND: The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) is a tool that helps in the assessment of the readiness of the students to pursue Self-Directed Learning (SDL). There are no documented studies on the validation of internal structure of the SDLRS among Indian medical students. Hence, the objective of this study is to validate the internal structure of SDLRS among Indian medical students using factor analysis and the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach.
METHODS: We administered Fisher\'s 40-item SDLRS to 750 students after receiving the ethics clearance and the author\'s permission and taking written informed consent from all the study participants (response rate: 92%). The exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Cronbach\'s alpha were performed using SPSS version 25 and the Lavaan package of R version 3.1.2.
RESULTS: The values of the comparative fit index (CFI), standardised root-mean-square residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) were ≥ 0.9, ≤ 0.08, and ≤ 0.08, respectively, for a model fit to be acceptable. EFA showed that except for Q2 (loading score: 0.210), Q12 (loading score: 0.384), Q13 (loading score: 0.362), and Q25 (loading score: -0.219), all the items loaded well. After the exclusion of the aforementioned items, the factor loading scores for the items in the self-management, desire for learning, and self-control factors ranged from 0.405 to 0.753 (Cronbach α: 0.775), 0.396 to 0.616 (Cronbach α: 0.730), and 0.427 to 0.556 (Cronbach α: 0.799), respectively. The updated model was used for CFA, which displayed a good model fit.
CONCLUSIONS: The resultant model consisting of 36 items is shown to have internal structure validity for Indian version of SDLRS, which can be used to assess medical students.