Search results for " Invariance"
showing 10 items of 219 documents
Latent structure and factor invariance of somatic symptoms in the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-15).
2019
Abstract Background Somatic symptoms are highly prevalent in primary care although insufficiently understood. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15) is a valuable screening test but it has not yet been possible to unequivocally demonstrate its latent structure and measurement invariance. Methods A total of 1,255 patients from 28 primary care centres suffering symptoms of anxiety, depression or somatisation participated in a clinical trial. They completed the PHQ-15 at baseline and 374 retook it at three months. Exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) was used to compare three models: 1) a single global factor for somatisation, 2) four specific correlated factors, and 3) a bifact…
Primordial power spectrum features in phenomenological descriptions of inflation
2016
We extend an alternative, phenomenological approach to inflation by means of an equation of state and a sound speed, both of them functions of the number of $e$-folds and four phenomenological parameters. This approach captures a number of possible inflationary models, including those with non-canonical kinetic terms or scale-dependent non-gaussianities. We perform Markov Chain Monte Carlo analyses using the latest cosmological publicly available measurements, which include Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from the Planck satellite. Within this parametrization, we discard scale invariance with a significance of about $10\sigma$, and the running of the spectral index is constrained as …
Orientation-Dependent Handedness of Chiral Plasmons on Nanosphere Dimers: How to Turn a Right Hand into a Left Hand
2016
Optical activity, which is used as a discriminator of chiral enantiomers, is demonstrated to be orientation dependent on individual, and nominally achiral, plasmonic nanosphere dimers. Through measurements of their giant Raman optical activity, we demonstrate that L/R-handed enantiomers can be continuously turned into their R/L-handed mirror images without passing through an achiral state. The primitive uniaxial multipolar response, with demonstrable broken parity and time reversal symmetry, reproduces the observations as resonant Raman scattering on plasmons that carry angular momentum. The analysis underscores that chirality does not have a quantitative continuous measure and recognizes t…
Electric-magnetic duality and renormalization in curved spacetimes
2014
We point out that the duality symmetry of free electromagnetism does not hold in the quantum theory if an arbitrary classical gravitational background is present. The symmetry breaks in the process of renormalization, as also happens with conformal invariance. We show that a similar duality-anomaly appears for a massless scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions.
A Brief Measure for the Assessment of Competence in Coping With Death: The Coping With Death Scale Short Version.
2019
Context. The coping with death competence is of great importance for palliative care professionals, who face daily exposure to death. It can keep them from suffering compassion fatigue and burnout, thus enhancing the quality of the care provided. Despite its relevance, there are only two measures of professionals’ ability to cope with death. Specifically, the Coping with Death Scale (CDS) has repeatedly shown psychometric problems with some of its items. Objective. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a short version of the CDS. Methods. Nine items from the original CDS were chosen for the short version. Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in Spanish (N ¼ 385) and Argent…
Sign test of independence between two random vectors
2003
A new affine invariant extension of the quadrant test statistic Blomqvist (Ann. Math. Statist. 21 (1950) 593) based on spatial signs is proposed for testing the hypothesis of independence. In the elliptic case, the new test statistic is asymptotically equivalent to the interdirection test by Gieser and Randles (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 92 (1997) 561) but is easier to compute in practice. Limiting Pitman efficiencies and simulations are used to compare the test to the classical Wilks’ test. peerReviewed
Teachers' self-efficacy and the sources of efficacy: A cross-cultural investigation in Japan and Finland
2019
The study explores the extent and sources of Teachers’ Self-Efficacy (TSE) for inclusive practices among 261 Japanese and 1123 Finnish teachers. Measurement invariance was tested to ensure the chosen scales’ cross-cultural validity. In both countries, mastery experience was identified as the strongest of the four sources contributing uniquely to TSE. However, the two groups differed in how verbal persuasion predicted TSE. The findings indicate that the effects of the four sources on TSE depend strongly on sociocultural context, and that, in Japan, other sources may exert a powerful influence. Practical implications are discussed, with particular regard to teacher training programs. peerRevi…
Cross validation of hard-copy and web-based formats of the Sport Imagery Ability Measure
2018
The purpose of this multi-sample study was to examine the psychometric characteristics, factor structure, and measurement invariance of the hard-copy and web-based versions of a measure of sport imagery ability, termed Sport Imagery Ability Measure (SIAM). In the first sample, Spanish athletes (N = 274, 161 men, 113 women, Mage = 21.91, SD = 6.67) completed a hard-copy version of the SIAM. A newly developed web-based version of the SIAM was cross validated in an independent group (N = 266, 147 men, 119 women, Mage = 25.93, SD = 9.84). A small group of participants (n = 16) completed both versions. Exploratory structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis of the data from th…
Assessing positive body image, body satisfaction, weight bias, and appearance comparison in emerging adults: A cross-validation study across eight co…
2020
Positive body image refers to individuals' ability to conceptualize their bodies with love, respect, and appreciation. The study of positive body image is relatively new, and instruments used to investigate this multi-faceted construct have received limited use in non-English speaking countries. Thus, the aim of this investigation is to consider four measures that are associated with positive body image across eight different countries. Participants (n = 6272) completed the Body Appreciation Scale-2, the Body Areas Satisfaction Scale, the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale, and the Weight Bias Internalization Scale. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (MG-CFAs) and item-response theo…
Form constancy
2020
Form constancy denotes the appearance of the invariant shape of objects in the environment, notwithstanding the variability due to changes of the viewpoint, caused by subjects movement, to objects displacement, to illumination, lightness, color, and texture whose variation can affect the internal and external boundaries of the surfaces that fall in the simultaneous or successive views of solid objects. In early psychology of perception, shape invariance was called form constancy to highlight the perceptual ability to derive something constant from the changing forms of the multiple views of objects. Shape is an attribute of 2D surfaces and 3D objects, which are invariant across the transfor…