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From fear to empowerment: the impact of employees AI awareness on workplace well-being - a new insight from the JD-R model.

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of the study was to explore the impact of health workers' awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) on their workplace well-being, addressing a critical gap in the literature. By examining this relationship through the lens of the Job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the study aimed to provide insights into how health workers' perceptions of AI integration in their jobs and careers could influence their informal learning behaviour and, consequently, their overall well-being in the workplace. The study's findings could inform strategies for supporting healthcare workers during technological transformations. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study employed a quantitative research design using a survey methodology to collect data from 420 health workers across 10 hospitals in Ghana that have adopted AI technologies. The study was analysed using OLS and structural equation modelling. FINDINGS: The study findings revealed that health workers' AI awareness positively impacts their informal learning behaviour at the workplace. Again, informal learning behaviour positively impacts health workers' workplace well-being. Moreover, informal learning behaviour mediates the relationship between health workers' AI awareness and workplace wellbeing. Furthermore, employee learning orientation was found to strengthen the effect of AI awareness on informal learning behaviour. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: While the study provides valuable insights, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. The study was conducted in a specific context (Ghanaian hospitals adopting AI), which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other healthcare settings or industries. Self-reported data from the questionnaires may be subject to response biases, and the study did not account for potential confounding factors that could influence the relationships between the variables. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The study offers practical implications for healthcare organizations navigating the digital transformation era. By understanding the positive impact of health workers' AI awareness on their informal learning behaviour and well-being, organizations can prioritize initiatives that foster a learning-oriented culture and provide opportunities for informal learning. This could include implementing mentorship programs, encouraging knowledge-sharing among employees and offering training and development resources to help workers adapt to AI-driven changes. Additionally, the findings highlight the importance of promoting employee learning orientation, which can enhance the effectiveness of such initiatives. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study contributes to the existing literature by addressing a relatively unexplored area - the impact of AI awareness on healthcare workers' well-being. While previous research has focused on the potential job displacement effects of AI, this study takes a unique perspective by examining how health workers' perceptions of AI integration can shape their informal learning behaviour and, subsequently, their workplace well-being. By drawing on the JD-R model and incorporating employee learning orientation as a moderator, the study offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding the implications of AI adoption in healthcare organizations.

Humans

Innovation-related perception as a key driver of alternative protein acceptance: evidence from an early-stage model for cultivated meat and algae-/microalgae-based alternative protein products in Italy.

Alternative proteins are increasingly considered part of the transition toward more sustainable food systems, yet their diffusion depends critically on consumer acceptance. This study investigates the early-stage acceptance of two alternative protein categories in Italy-cultivated meat and algae-/microalgae-based alternative protein products. Focusing on the first three phases of acceptance, the analysis examines how innovation-related perception (IRP) shapes consumer perceived value (CPV), consumer perceived risk (CPR), and subsequent affective (AFF), cognitive (COG), and conative (CON) responses. Data were collected through an online survey administered to 238 Italian respondents and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that IRP is the main upstream driver of early-stage acceptance in both product domains: more favourable perceptions strongly increase perceived value and reduce perceived risk. In turn, CPV exerts a much stronger influence than CPR on both affective and cognitive attitudes. A tentative cross-model comparison suggests only a descriptive variation in the final transition toward conative acceptance: affective and cognitive responses were both significant in the two models, with a relatively larger affective coefficient for cultivated meat and more balanced coefficients for algae-/microalgae-based products. Overall, the findings support a process-based interpretation of alternative protein acceptance and highlight the central role of innovation-related perception in shaping early consumer responses. These results provide relevant implications for communication strategies, product positioning, and policy actions aimed at improving the acceptability of alternative proteins in food cultures characterised by strong culinary traditions.

Italy

Long-term petroleum pollution alters soil microbial communities via electron transfer capacity: Evidence from a 35-year chronosequence.

Petroleum pollution poses a serious threat to soil ecosystems, especially in areas surrounding oil wells, where contamination should not be overlooked. Through a 35-year longitudinal study of soils surrounding oil wells, we demonstrate that petroleum hydrocarbons accumulate predominantly in the top 10 cm of soil, reducing the electron acceptor capacity (EAC) by 61.59 % (from 12.68 to 4.87 μmole-/gC) and decreasing the electron transfer capacity (ETC) by 43 %. Structural equation modeling identified ETC as the critical mediator of microbial community shifts, with EAC playing a pivotal role in sustaining redox processes. Notably, hydrocarbon accumulation triggered a microbial succession: The abundance of Actinomycetota (including genera Rhodococcus, Arthrobacter, and Rubrobacter) showed the most significant fluctuations within 2 years, while Pseudomonadota (genera Methylobacter, Thiobacillus, and Pseudomonas), which were dominant in uncontaminated soils, decreased markedly during this period. This transition coincided with peak microbial dysbiosis (microbial dysbiosis index in 2022 reached 31.41 times that of controls). Within two to four years following mild petroleum stress, the bacterial community established a new structural configuration, revealing a crucial window for ecological recovery. The coupling between ETC reduction and microbial succession highlights the pivotal role of electron flux in soil recovery. Our findings establish a mechanistic framework for ETC-targeted restoration strategies to enhance bioremediation in petroleum-contaminated soils.

Soil Microbiology

The contributions of disease activity, sleep patterns, and depression to fatigue in systemic lupus erythematosus. A proposed model.

OBJECTIVE: This study describes lupus fatigue multidimensionally and introduces a multivariate model: Sleep problems and depression, through reciprocal effects on each other, act as mediators through which lupus disease activity increases fatigue. METHODS: Self-reported sleep patterns, depression, and fatigue were assessed in 48 women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 27 women from the general population. Rheumatologists rated current lupus disease activity. RESULTS: The SLE group reported greater overall fatigue than did the controls. Temporal and affective dimensions of fatigue were more differentiating than sensory or severity dimensions. The SLE group also reported longer sleep latency and total sleep time, but not higher depression. Using 2-stage regression, a form of structural equation modeling, the proposed lupus fatigue model was supported. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results describe fatigue as a multidimensional phenomenon arising out of several contributing factors. They suggest that fatigue treatment strategies should address mediating processes such as sleep and depression, in addition to disease activity.

Adult

Measurement invariance in longitudinal clinical research assuming change from development and intervention.

Valid and reliable measures of psychological and behavioral constructs are critical to clinical research, particularly longitudinal treatment research, in which multiple groups are compared over time for possible changes within and between constructs as a result of intervention or development. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis is a class of statistical procedures that can be used to test multiple hypotheses about these relationships simultaneously while controlling for measurement error. The procedures have been applied primarily to testing between-construct relationships in nonexperimental studies, with relatively little emphasis on establishing whether measures are sufficiently invariant across groups and across time to permit these tests. This article uses an empirical example of a longitudinal experimental prevention study with two groups to illustrate the use of SEM, first, to systematically test measurement invariance across groups at each wave of measurement, and second, after establishing measurement invariance, to test structural invariance longitudinally.

Adolescent

Organizational stress in the hospital: development of a model for diagnosis and prediction.

A model of organizational stress in the hospital was developed and tested. The model utilized measures of organizational climate, supervisory practices, and work group relations as predictors of the amount of role conflict and ambiguity that nurses perceived in providing patient care. Role conflict and ambiguity were treated as variables that intervene between organizational variables and the level of stress that the nursing staff experienced. Nursing stress was viewed as a direct cause of job dissatisfaction and as an indirect cause of absenteeism among the nursing staff. Data from 158 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nursing assistants on seven nursing units in a 1,160-bed private teaching hospital were used to estimate the parameters of a structural equation model. The model was used to predict the results of a survey feedback project designed to change the supervisory style used on the units. Pre- and posttest data from four surgical units were used to validate the model. The findings suggest that, as predicted, supervisory practices that led to more open expression of views and joint problem solving resulted in reduced role conflict, ambiguity, and stress; increased job satisfaction; and lower levels of absenteeism among the nursing staff.

Absenteeism

Social support, coping, and depressive symptoms in a late-middle-aged sample of patients reporting cardiac illness.

This study tests a 1-year predictive model of depressive symptoms in a late-middle-aged sample of patients reporting diagnoses of cardiac illness. Results based on 325 individuals (248 men and 77 women) diagnosed with chronic cardiac illness, 71 individuals (52 men and 19 women) diagnosed with acute cardiac illness, and 219 healthy controls (129 men and 90 women) strongly supported the hypotheses. Compared with healthy persons, individuals with chronic and those with acute cardiac illness reported more depressive symptoms at follow-up. Women overall showed more depressive symptoms than did men, and women with cardiac illness were particularly vulnerable to behavioral manifestations of depressive symptoms. Integrative time-lag and prospective structural equation models indicated that, for individuals with cardiac illness, social support and adaptive coping strategies predicted fewer depressive symptoms.

Adaptation, Psychological

Differentiation of early adolescent predictors of drug use versus abuse: a developmental risk-factor model.

Many psychosocial factors are associated with adolescent drug use, though most have not been tested as true predictors of drug use in prospective studies. Studies to date have also not differentiated predictors of drug use from abuse and have not addressed differential effects for specific substances. To address these concerns, we expanded the multiple risk-factor approach using 2-year longitudinal data from a sample of seventh graders. Frequencies of use for alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, and hard drugs were assessed at Time 1 and Time 2 and used to reflect latent constructs of polydrug use. From a set of 29 risk factors, unique predictors of any substance were separated conceptually according to whether they most related to initiation/experimental or problem/heavy drug use and were then summed into two-unit weighted indexes at each time. Distribution-free structural equation models were used to accommodate the nonnormal distributions of the illicit drug use measures. The problem risk index was strongly correlated with polydrug use at Time 1 and increased polydrug use at Time 2. Several specific relationships between risk and drug use across time also were noted.

Adolescent

Assessing the stages of pain processing: a multivariate analytical approach.

A four-stage model of pain processing was proposed, consisting of pain sensation intensity, pain unpleasantness (stage 1 affect), suffering (stage 2 affect), and pain behavior. We studied 506 chronic pain patients (230 male and 276 female) using a multivariate statistical technique (LISREL) in order to demonstrate the structural relationship among multiple indicators of pain processing; and to characterize these stages in terms of their interactions. A strong relationship was revealed between the majority of the underlying indicators of each pain processing stage. A linear stage sequence best fitted the relationship between the four stages. Successive stages did not have recursive effects on earlier pain components. A confirmatory LISREL analysis was conducted with an additional sample of 502 chronic pain patients. In this replication analysis the structural equation model consisted of pain intensity, unpleasantness (stage 1 affect), emotional suffering (stage 2 affect), and pain behavior. This study extends the validation of these pain dimensions, as well as the validity of the measure(s) of each separate stage.

Adolescent

Psychosocial, behavioral, and medical outcomes in children with epilepsy: a developmental risk factor model using longitudinal data.

OBJECTIVE: We studied factors predicting the risk of adverse long-term psychosocial, behavioral, and medical outcomes in children with epilepsy. METHODS: Children (N = 157, 4.5 to 13 years) were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study when first seen. Potential subjects were excluded if they were moderately or severely mentally retarded, had motor or sensory handicaps interfering with testing, or did not speak either English or Spanish. MEASURES: To develop risk predictors, we collected information regarding the child's medical and seizure history, cognitive functioning, and behavior problems, and family functioning. Children and their families were followed for a minimum of 18 months, then underwent reassessment of medical status, parent's attitudes toward epilepsy, and the child's behavioral and cognitive functioning. Data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis to develop baseline factors (Sociocultural Risk, Seizure Risk, and Behavior Problems) and outcome factors (Medical/Seizure Problems, Parent's Negative Attitudes Toward Epilepsy, and Behavior Problems), followed by structural equation modeling to determine across-time causal effects. Eighty-eight subjects completed all baseline and outcome measures. RESULTS: Among significant across-time effects, Medical Outcome was predicted by Seizure Risk. An increased number of stressful life events predicted better Medical Outcome. Low acculturation increased Parent's Negative Attitudes and was associated with increased Behavior Problems at baseline. Behavior Problems were stable across time. It is interesting that IQ did not affect any of the outcomes, although its effect may have been mediated through other baseline measures. CONCLUSIONS: Seizure history was the best predictor of ongoing medical difficulties, whereas the most important causes of ongoing parental anxiety and negative attitudes toward epilepsy were sociocultural. Variation in medical or attitudinal outcomes was not influenced by either the child's IQ or reported behavioral problems. These findings suggest that to alter attitudes toward epilepsy, programs should be tailored to the sociocultural background of the family. Studies of quality of life of children with epilepsy should include appropriate sociocultural measures.

Acculturation

Testing a causal model of community-based education in the Sudan.

PURPOSE: To develop and test a model of community-based education. METHOD: In 1995, after developing a hypothesized causal model for community-based education, the authors collected data for 106 students at the University of Gezira, the Sudan, who had participated over three summers in an interdisciplinary field training research and rural development course. The students rated each other on leadership, interaction with the community, subject-matter contributions, and effort. Teaching staff assessed the readiness of the community to collaborate. The students' achievement was measured by short essays measuring knowledge, supervisors' assessments of the students' performances in the community, the community's observations of the students' activities, the community's satisfaction, and a group-produced report evaluated by faculty. The effect of the students' activities on the community was measured by comparing baseline and post-intervention community health data. The students also indicated their levels of interest in the community's problems. The authors analyzed the resulting covariances using structural-equations modeling. RESULTS: After minor adaptations, the model fitted the data reasonably well. The path coefficients were quite high, particularly among the peer ratings. Leadership had a potent effect on the outcome measures, as did, to a lesser extent, the readiness of the community to collaborate with the students. CONCLUSION: This study was the first reported attempt to test a model of community-based education. Although the fit of the data to the model in the study was reasonable, further study is needed to unearth additional important elements of community-based education. This article also discusses methodologic shortcomings of the present study, such as a possible "halo effect" in the peer ratings and the retrospective nature of many of the measurements.

Ambulatory Care Facilities

Path analysis in genetic epidemiology: a critique.

Path analysis, a form of general linear structural equation models, is used in studies of human genetics data to discern genetic, environmental, and cultural factors contributing to familial resemblance. It postulates a set of linear and additive parametric relationships between phenotypes and genetic and cultural variables and then essentially uses the assumption of multivariate normality to estimate and perform tests of hypothesis on parameters. Such an approach has been advocated for the analysis of genetic epidemiological data by D. C. Rao, N. Morton, C. R. Cloninger, L. J. Eaves, and W. E. Nance, among others. This paper reviews and evaluates the formulations, assumptions, methodological procedures, interpretations, and applications of path analysis. To give perspective, we begin with a discussion of path analysis as it occurs in the form of general linear causal models in several disciplines of the social sciences. Several specific path analysis models applied to lipoprotein concentrations, IQ, and twin data are then reviewed to keep the presentation self-contained. The bulk of the critical discussion that follows is directed toward the following four facets of path analysis: (1) coherence of model specification and applicability to data; (2) plausibility of modeling assumptions; (3) interpretability and utility of the model; and (4) validity of statistical and computational procedures. In the concluding section, a brief discussion of the problem of appropriate model selection is presented, followed by a number of suggestions of essentially model-free alternative methods of use in the treatment of complex structured data such as occurs in genetic epidemiology.

Asian

The lifetime history of major depression in women. Reliability of diagnosis and heritability.

BACKGROUND: In epidemiologic samples, the assessment of lifetime history (LTH) of major depression (MD) is not highly reliable. In female twins, we previously found that LTH of MD, as assessed at a single personal interview, was moderately heritable (approximately 40%). In that analysis, errors of measurement could not be discriminated from true environmental effects. METHODS: In 1721 female twins from a population-based register, including both members of 742 pairs, LTH of MD, covering approximately the same time period, was obtained twice, once by self-administered questionnaire and once at personal interview. RESULTS: Reliability of LTH of MD was modest (kappa = +.34, tetrachoric r = +.56) and was predicted by the number of depressive symptoms, treatment seeking, number of episodes, and degree of impairment. Deriving an "index of caseness" from these predictors, the estimated heritability of LTH of MD was greater for more restrictive definitions. Incorporating error of measurement into a structural equation model including both occasions of measurement, the estimated heritability of the liability to LTH of MD increased substantially (approximately 70%). More than half of what was considered environmental effects when LTH of MD was analyzed on the basis of one assessment appeared, when two assessments were used, to reflect measurement error. CONCLUSIONS: Major depression, as assessed over the lifetime, may be a rather highly heritable disorder of moderate reliability rather than a moderately heritable disorder of high reliability.

Adult

Does participation in psychosocial treatment augment the benefit of clozapine? Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study Group on Clozapine in Refractory Schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: This study examines the role of participation in psychosocial treatment as a mediator of the clinical effectiveness of clozapine. METHODS: Subjects participated in a 12-month double-blind random-assignment trial comparing clozapine and haloperidol in patients hospitalized 30 to 364 days for refractory schizophrenia at 15 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. A broker-advocate case management intervention was used to facilitate participation in psychosocial treatments and to document such participation. RESULTS: Between those who continued receiving clozapine (n=122) or a conventional antipsychotic drug (n=169) for 12 months, those receiving clozapine were more likely to participate in psychosocial rehabilitation treatment. Although they were no more likely to receive clinical recommendations for such treatments, they were more likely to both verbally accept recommendations and to act on them. Structural equation modeling shows that participation in psychosocial treatment did not play a mediating role in clozapine's effect on outcomes at 6 months, but was associated with both reduced symptoms and improved quality of life at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: Clozapine facilitates participation in psychosocial treatment, and such enhanced participation is associated with improved quality-of-life and symptom outcomes. Psychosocial rehabilitation should be offered concomitantly with clozapine.

Adult

Peer, family, and motivational influences on drug treatment process and recidivism for probationers.

Treatment efforts appear to be effective in reducing crime among drug using individuals, but components of the treatment process associated with client improvement need to be identified. Furthermore, these elements of treatment may play an intermediate role in the connection between client background characteristics and later criminal activity. The current study examines a structural equation model including client perceptions of their drug related problems, peer deviance, and family dysfunction as influences upon the formation of therapeutic relationships during treatment and rearrests following treatment. Results showed therapeutic relationships were positively associated with recognition of drug related problems and negatively related to rearrest. Peer deviance also was positively related to rearrest.

Adolescent

Genetic factors in the aetiology of mouth ulcers.

The aetiology of mouth ulcers is uncertain, and prior research has indicated both environmental and genetic factors. In this study, information on mouth ulcer incidence was collected for 290 twin pairs--127 monozygous (MZ) and 163 dizygous (DZ)--and their parents, a total of 1,160 people. Self-reported data on mouth ulcer incidence were available for the twins, and in each family the mother also reported on the mouth ulcer incidence in the twins, the twins' father, and herself. A structural equation model--combining a measurement model, a rater bias model, and a model including genetic and environmental influences--was used to explain variation in mouth ulcers. The fitted model explained the variation in a latent phenotype of mouth ulcer incidence for the twins in terms of an additive genetic factor (64%), a common environment factor (26%), and a specific environment factor (10%). The mothers' ratings showed a significant positive bias.

Bias

The utility of locus of control for predicting adolescent substance use.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the utility of locus of control (LOC) for predicting adolescent substance use. As part of a larger three-wave cohort-sequential study (1983-1989), 155 secondary school-based adolescents completed questionnaires on substance use, personality characteristics, family/peer influences, and health behaviors. Latent variable indicators were developed from the Nowicki-Strickland Personal Reaction Survey and substance use survey items. LOC was a weak predictor of substance use. In two instances were relationships significant: (a) 7th grade LOC predicted 11th grade alcohol use; and, (b) 9th grade LOC correlated with 11th grade cannabis use. Small samples precluded analysis of gender and social class effects. SEM with panel data offers a methodological approach for examining the explanatory capability of LOC.

Adolescent

Genetic, environmental, and phenotypic links between body mass index and blood pressure among women.

Greater relative weight is associated with higher blood pressure, but the reasons are unknown. The inability of current technology to induce sustained weight loss among overweight persons precludes experimental tests of whether this association is causal. We evaluated the degree to which the covariation between body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) and blood pressure (BP) among women is due to pleiotropic genetic factors, environmental factors, or phenotypic causation. The sample included 75 monozygotic (MZ) and 39 dizygotic (DZ) pairs of adult female twins. "BP" was calculated as the unit-weighted mean of systolic and diastolic. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling. A model was specified stipulating that additive genetic effects (A) and unique environmental effects (E) each contributed to the covariance between BMI and BP, thus allowing for both pleiotropic and unique environmental influences on the covariance between BMI and BP. Dropping the pleiotropic influences significantly worsened the model (chi 2 = 4.62, df = 1, P = .032), suggesting significant pleiotropic effects. Dropping the environmental influences on the cross-phenotype covariance did not significantly worsen the model (chi 2 = 1.42, df = 1, P = .233). This indicates no significant effect of the environment on the covariance between BMI and BP. Finally, a model of phenotypic causation in which BMI directly influenced BP was fitted. This model provided the best single parameter explanation of the BP-BMI covariation. These data suggest that, among women, regardless of the source of variation, changes in BMI should lead to long-standing changes in BP.

Adult