Reliability and factorial validity of Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitude (ATI-TA) Scores in Scottish and Northern Irish adolescents

The contemporary literature investigating the construct broadly known as time perspective is replete with methodological and conceptual concerns. These concerns focus on the reliability and factorial validity of measurement tools, and the sample-specific modification of scales. These issues continue to hamper the development of this potentially useful psychological construct. An emerging body of evidence has supported the six-factor structure of scores on the Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitudes Scale, as well as their reliability. The present study utilized data from the first wave of a longitudinal study in the United Kingdom to examine the reliability, validity, and cross-cultural invariance of the scale. Results showed that the hypothesized six-factor model provided the best fit for the data; all alpha and omega estimates were >. .70; scores on ATI-TA factors related meaningfully to self-efficacy scores; and the factor structure was invariant across both research sites. Results are discussed in the context of the extant temporal literature.

Novel DGT method with tri-metal oxide adsorbent for in situ spatiotemporal flux measurement of fluoride in waters and sediments

Natural mineral-water interface reactions drive ecosystem/global fluoride (F−) cycling. These small-scale processes prove challenging to monitoring due to mobilization being highly localized and variable; influenced by changing climate, hydrology, dissolution chemistries and pedogenosis. These release events could be captured in situ by the passive sampling technique, diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT), providing a cost-effective and time-integrated measurement of F− mobilization. However, attempts to develop the method for F− have been unsuccessful due to the very restrictive operational ranges that most F−-absorbents function within. A new hybrid-DGT technique for F− quantification containing a three-phase fine particle composite (Fesingle bondAlsingle bondCe, FAC) adsorbent was developed and evaluated. Sampler response was validated in laboratory and field deployments, passing solution chemistry QC within ionic strength and pH ranges of 0–200 mmol L−1 and 4.3–9.1, respectively, and exhibiting high sorption capacities (98 ± 8 μg cm−2). FAC-DGT measurements adequately predicted up to weeklong averaged in situ F− fluvial fluxes in a freshwater river and F− concentrations in a wastewater treatment flume determined by high frequency active sampling. While, millimetre-scale diffusive fluxes across the sediment-water interface were modeled for three contrasting lake bed sediments from a F−-enriched lake using the new FAC-DGT platform.