Zuckerman's reivsed alternative five-factor model: Validation of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire in four French-speaking countries

The aim of this study was to analyze the replicability of Zuckerman's revised Alternative Five-factor model in a French-speaking context by validating the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) simultaneously in 4 French-speaking countries. The total sample was made up of 1,497 subjects from Belgium, Canada, France, and Switzerland. The internal consistencies for all countries were generally similar to those found for the normative U.S. and Spanish samples. A factor analysis confirmed that the normative structure replicated well and was stable within this French-speaking context. Moreover, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses have shown that the ZKA-PQ reaches scalar invariance across these 4 countries. Mean scores were slightly different for women and men, with women scoring higher on Neuroticism but lower on Sensation Seeking. Globally, mean score differences across countries were small. Overall, the ZKA-PQ seems an interesting alternative to assess both lower and higher order personality traits for applied or research purposes.

Two necessary conditions for strategy-proofness: on what domains are they also sufficient?

A social choice function may or may not satisfy a desirable property depending on its domain of definition. For the same reason, different conditions may be equivalent for functions defined on some domains, while different in other cases. Understanding the role of domains is therefore a crucial issue in mechanism design. We illustrate this point by analyzing the role of different conditions that are always related, but not always equivalent to strategy-proofness. We define two very natural conditions that are necessary for strategy-proofness: monotonicity and reshuffling invariance. We remark that they are not always sufficient. Then, we identify a domain condition, called intertwinedness, that ensures the equivalence between our two conditions and that of strategy-proofness. We prove that some important domains are intertwined: those of single-peaked preferences, both with public and private goods, and also those arising in simple models of house allocation. We prove that other necessary conditions for strategy-proofness also become equivalent to ours when applied to functions defined on intertwined domains, even if they are not equivalent in general. We also study the relationship between our domain restrictions and others that appear in the literature, proving that we are indeed introducing a novel proposal.

Space-time within general relativity : a structural realist understanding

ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the, nature of space-time as described by the theory of general relativity. It mainly argues that space-time can be naturally interpreted as a physical structure in the precise sense of a network of concrete space-time relations among concrete space-time points that do not possess any intrinsic properties and any intrinsic identity. Such an interpretation is fundamentally based on two related key features of general relativity, namely substantive general covariance and background independence, where substantive general covariance is understood as a gauge-theoretic invariance under active diffeomorphisms and background independence is understood in the sense that the metric (or gravitational) field is dynamical and that, strictly speaking, it cannot be uniquely split into a purely gravitational part and a fixed purely inertial part or background. More broadly, a precise notion of (physical) structure is developed within the framework of a moderate version of structural realism understood as a metaphysical claim about what there is in the world. So, the developement of this moderate structural realism pursues two main aims. The first is purely metaphysical, the aim being to develop a coherent metaphysics of structures and of objects (particular attention is paid to the questions of identity and individuality of these latter within this structural realist framework). The second is to argue that moderate structural realism provides a convincing interpretation of the world as described by fundamental physics and in particular of space-time as described by general relativity. This structuralist interpretation of space-time is discussed within the traditional substantivalist-relationalist debate, which is best understood within the broader framework of the question about the relationship between space-time on the one hand and matter on the other. In particular, it is claimed that space-time structuralism does not constitute a 'tertium quid' in the traditional debate. Some new light on the question of the nature of space-time may be shed from the fundamental foundational issue of space-time singularities. Their possible 'non-local' (or global) feature is discussed in some detail and it is argued that a broad structuralist conception of space-time may provide a physically meaningful understanding of space-time singularities, which is not plagued by the conceptual difficulties of the usual atomsitic framework. Indeed, part of these difficulties may come from the standard differential geometric description of space-time, which encodes to some extent this atomistic framework; it raises the question of the importance of the mathematical formalism for the interpretation of space-time.

A tale of two logits, compositional data analysis and zero observations

The application of compositional data analysis through log ratio trans-formations corresponds to a multinomial logit model for the shares themselves.This model is characterized by the property of Independence of Irrelevant Alter-natives (IIA). IIA states that the odds ratio in this case the ratio of shares is invariant to the addition or deletion of outcomes to the problem. It is exactlythis invariance of the ratio that underlies the commonly used zero replacementprocedure in compositional data analysis. In this paper we investigate using thenested logit model that does not embody IIA and an associated zero replacementprocedure and compare its performance with that of the more usual approach ofusing the multinomial logit model. Our comparisons exploit a data set that com-bines voting data by electoral division with corresponding census data for eachdivision for the 2001 Federal election in Australia

KAM theory for conformally symplectic systems

We present a KAM theory for some dissipative systems (geometrically, these are conformally symplectic systems, i.e. systems that transform a symplectic form into a multiple of itself). For systems with n degrees of freedom depending on n parameters we show that it is possible to find solutions with n-dimensional (Diophantine) frequencies by adjusting the parameters. We do not assume that the system is close to integrable, but we use an a-posteriori format. Our unknowns are a parameterization of the solution and a parameter. We show that if there is a sufficiently approximate solution of the invariance equation, which also satisfies some explicit non–degeneracy conditions, then there is a true solution nearby. We present results both in Sobolev norms and in analytic norms. The a–posteriori format has several consequences: A) smooth dependence on the parameters, including the singular limit of zero dissipation; B) estimates on the measure of parameters covered by quasi–periodic solutions; C) convergence of perturbative expansions in analytic systems; D) bootstrap of regularity (i.e., that all tori which are smooth enough are analytic if the map is analytic); E) a numerically efficient criterion for the break–down of the quasi–periodic solutions. The proof is based on an iterative quadratically convergent method and on suitable estimates on the (analytical and Sobolev) norms of the approximate solution. The iterative step takes advantage of some geometric identities, which give a very useful coordinate system in the neighborhood of invariant (or approximately invariant) tori. This system of coordinates has several other uses: A) it shows that for dissipative conformally symplectic systems the quasi–periodic solutions are attractors, B) it leads to efficient algorithms, which have been implemented elsewhere. Details of the proof are given mainly for maps, but we also explain the slight modifications needed for flows and we devote the appendix to present explicit algorithms for flows.

Personality disorders and the Five-Factor Model among French speakers in Africa and Europe

Objective: Several authors have suggested that Personality Disorders (PDs) might be more accurately described using a dimensional model instead of a categorical one. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between PDs and the Five-Factor Model (FFM)-a dimensional model describing normal personality traits known for its invariance across cultures-in two different cultural settings. Method: Subjects from nine French-speaking African countries (n = 2,014) and from Switzerland (n = 697) completed both the French-version of the IPDE screening questionnaire, assessing the ten DSM-IV PDs, and the French-version of the NEO-PI-R, assessing the five domains and thirty facets of the FFM. Results: Correlations between PDs and the five domains of the FFM were similar in both samples. For example, Neuroticism was highly correlated with Borderline, Avoidant, and Dependent PDs in both Africa and Switzerland. The total rank-order correlation (rho) between the two correlation matrices was very high (rho = 0.93) and significant (P < 0.001), as were the rhos for all domains of the FFM and all PDs, except Paranoid and Dependent PDs. However, the rhos for PDs across facet-scales were all highly significant (P < 0.001). Moreover, 80% of Widiger and colleagues' predictions and 70 % of Lynam and Widiger's prototypes, concerning the relationship between PDs and the FFM, were confirmed in both samples. Conclusions: The relationship between PDs and the FFM was stable in two samples separated by a great cultural distance. These results suggest that a dimensional approach and in particular the FFM might be useful for describing PDs in a variety of cultural settings.

Salience theory of choice under risk

We present a theory of choice among lotteries in which the decision maker's attention is drawn to (precisely defined) salient payoffs. This leads the decision maker to a context-dependent representation of lotteries in which true probabilities are replaced by decision weights distorted in favor of salient payoffs. By endogenizing decision weights as a function of payoffs, our model provides a novel and unified account of many empirical phenomena, including frequent risk-seeking behavior, invariance failures such as the Allais paradox, and preference reversals. It also yields new predictions, including some that distinguish it from Prospect Theory, which we test.

Validity of the Katz Index to assess activities of daily living by informants in neuropathological studies

Abstract OBJECTIVE To analyze the evidences of construct validity of the Katz Index for the retrospective assessment of activities of daily living (ADL) by informants, to assist neuropathological studies in the elderly. METHOD A cross-sectional study analyzed the functional ability of ADL measure by the Katz Index, of 650 cases randomly selected from the Brazilian Brain Bank of the Ageing Brain Study Group (BBBABSG) database. Sample was divided in two subsamples for the analysis (N=325, each) and then stratified according to cognitive decline assessed by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). Factor analyses with calculations of internal consistency and invariance were performed. RESULTS Factor analysis evidenced a unidimensional instrument with optimal internal consistency, in all subgroups. Goodness of fit indices were obtained after two treatments of covariance, indicating adequacy of the scale for assessing ADL by informants. The scale is invariant to cognitive decline meaning that it can be used for subjects with or without cognitive impairment. CONCLUSION Katz Index is valid for the retrospective assessment of basic ADL by informants, with optimal reliability.

Ratio maps and correspondence analysis

We compare two methods for visualising contingency tables and developa method called the ratio map which combines the good properties of both.The first is a biplot based on the logratio approach to compositional dataanalysis. This approach is founded on the principle of subcompositionalcoherence, which assures that results are invariant to considering subsetsof the composition. The second approach, correspondence analysis, isbased on the chi-square approach to contingency table analysis. Acornerstone of correspondence analysis is the principle of distributionalequivalence, which assures invariance in the results when rows or columnswith identical conditional proportions are merged. Both methods may bedescribed as singular value decompositions of appropriately transformedmatrices. Correspondence analysis includes a weighting of the rows andcolumns proportional to the margins of the table. If this idea of row andcolumn weights is introduced into the logratio biplot, we obtain a methodwhich obeys both principles of subcompositional coherence and distributionalequivalence.

Factor analysis of the North American Spine Society outcome assessment instrument: a study based on a spine registry of patients treated with lumbar and cervical disc arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Studies involving factor analysis (FA) of the items in the North American Spine Society (NASS) outcome assessment instrument have revealed inconsistent factor structures for the individual items. PURPOSE: This study examined whether the factor structure of the NASS varied in relation to the severity of the back/neck problem and differed from that originally recommended by the developers of the questionnaire, by analyzing data before and after surgery in a large series of patients undergoing lumbar or cervical disc arthroplasty. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: Prospective multicenter observational case series. PATIENT SAMPLE: Three hundred ninety-one patients with low back pain and 553 patients with neck pain completed questionnaires preoperatively and again at 3 to 6 and 12 months follow-ups (FUs), in connection with the SWISSspine disc arthroplasty registry. OUTCOME MEASURES: North American Spine Society outcome assessment instrument. METHODS: First, an exploratory FA without a priori assumptions and subsequently a confirmatory FA were performed on the 17 items of the NASS-lumbar and 19 items of the NASS-cervical collected at each assessment time point. The item-loading invariance was tested in the German version of the questionnaire for baseline and FU. RESULTS: Both NASS-lumbar and NASS-cervical factor structures differed between baseline and postoperative data sets. The confirmatory analysis and item-loading invariance showed better fit for a three-factor (3F) structure for NASS-lumbar, containing items on "disability," "back pain," and "radiating pain, numbness, and weakness (leg/foot)" and for a 5F structure for NASS-cervical including disability, "neck pain," "radiating pain and numbness (arm/hand)," "weakness (arm/hand)," and "motor deficit (legs)." CONCLUSIONS: The best-fitting factor structure at both baseline and FU was selected for both the lumbar- and cervical-NASS questionnaires. It differed from that proposed by the originators of the NASS instruments. Although the NASS questionnaire represents a valid outcome measure for degenerative spine diseases, it is able to distinguish among all major symptom domains (factors) in patients undergoing lumbar and cervical disc arthroplasty; overall, the item structure could be improved. Any potential revision of the NASS should consider its factorial structure; factorial invariance over time should be aimed for, to allow for more precise interpretations of treatment success.

Consistent solutions in exchange economies: A characterization of the price mechanism

We characterize the Walrasian allocations correspondence by means offour axioms: consistency, replica invariance, individual rationality andPareto optimality. It is shown that for any given class of exchange economiesany solution that satisfies the axioms is a selection from the Walrasianallocations with slack. Preferences are assumed to be smooth, but may besatiated and non--convex. A class of economies is defined as all economieswhose agents' preferences belong to an arbitrary family (finite or infinite)of types. The result can be modified to characterize equal budget Walrasianallocations with slack by replacing individual rationality with individualrationality from equal division. The results are valid also for classes ofeconomies in which core--Walras equivalence does not hold.

An experimental test of loss aversion and scale compatibility

This paper studies two important reasons why people violate procedure invariance, loss aversion and scale compatibility. The paper extends previous research on loss aversion and scale compatibility by studying loss aversion and scale compatibility simultaneously, by looking at a new decision domain, medical decision analysis, and by examining the effect of loss aversion and scale compatibility on "well-contemplated preferences." We find significant evidence both of loss aversion and scale compatibility. However, the sizes of the biases due to loss aversion and scale compatibility vary over trade-offs and most participants do not behave consistently according to loss aversion or scale compatibility. In particular, the effect of loss aversion in medical trade-offs decreases with duration. These findings are encouraging for utility measurement and prescriptive decision analysis. There appear to exist decision contexts in which the effects of loss aversion and scale compatibility can be minimized and utilities can be measured that do not suffer from these distorting factors.

The biased balance: Observation, formalism and interpretation of a dissymmetric measuring device

This paper studies a balance whose unobservable fulcrum is not necessarilylocated at the middle of its two pans. It presents three differentmodels, showing how this lack of symmetry modifies the observation, theformalism and the interpretation of such a biased measuring device. Itargues that the biased balance can be an interesting source of inspirationfor broadening the representational theory of measurement.

Eliciting consumers preferences using stated preference discrete choice models: Contingent ranking versus choice experiment

The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to carry out a theoreticalreview of the most recent stated preference techniques used foreliciting consumers preferences and, secondly, to compare the empiricalresults of two dierent stated preference discrete choice approaches.They dier in the measurement scale for the dependent variable and,therefore, in the estimation method, despite both using a multinomiallogit. One of the approaches uses a complete ranking of full-profiles(contingent ranking), that is, individuals must rank a set ofalternatives from the most to the least preferred, and the other usesa first-choice rule in which individuals must select the most preferredoption from a choice set (choice experiment). From the results werealize how important the measurement scale for the dependent variablebecomes and, to what extent, procedure invariance is satisfied.

Personality and Culture Cross-Cultural Psychology at the Next Crossroads

A review of nearly three decades of cross-cultural research shows that this domain still has to address several issues regarding the biases of data collection and sampling methods, the lack of clear and consensual definitions of constructs and variables, and measurement invariance issues that seriously limit the comparability of results across cultures. Indeed, a large majority of the existing studies are still based on the anthropological model, which compares two cultures and mainly uses convenience samples of university students. This paper stresses the need to incorporate a larger variety of regions and cultures in the research designs, the necessity to theorize and identify a larger set of variables in order to describe a human environment, and the importance of overcoming methodological weaknesses to improve the comparability of measurement results. Cross-cultural psychology is at the next crossroads in it's development, and researchers can certainly make major contributions to this domain if they can address these weaknesses and challenges.