El viaje desde los cuestionarios Likert a los cuestionarios de elección forzosa: evidencia de la invarianza de los parámetros de los ítems

Multidimensional forced-choice questionnaires are widely regarded in the personnel selection literature for their ability to control response biases. Recently developed IRT models usually rely on the assumption that item parameters remain invariant when they are paired in forced-choice blocks, without giving it much consideration. This study aims to test this assumption empirically on the MUPP-2PL model, comparing the parameter estimates of the forced-choice format to their graded-scale equivalent on a Big Five personality instrument. The assumption was found to hold reasonably well, especially for the discrimination parameters. In the cases in which it was violated, we briefly discuss the likely factors that may lead to non-invariance. We conclude discussing the practical implications of the results and providing a few guidelines for the design of forced-choice questionnaires based on the invariance assumptionLos cuestionarios de elección forzosa multidimensionales son bastante apreciados en la literatura de selección de personal por su capacidad para controlar los sesgos de respuesta. Los modelos de TRI desarrollados recientemente normalmente asumen que los parámetros de los ítems permanecen invariantes cuando se emparejan en bloques de elección forzosa, sin dedicarle mucha atención. Este estudio tiene como objetivo poner a prueba empíricamente este supuesto en el modelo MUPP-2PL, comparando las estimaciones de los parámetros del formato de elección forzosa con su equivalente en escala graduada, en un instrumento de personalidad Big Five. Se encontró que el supuesto se cumplía razonablemente bien, especialmente para los parámetros de discriminación. En los casos en los que no se cumplió se discuten brevemente los posibles factores que pueden dar lugar a no invarianza. Concluimos discutiendo las implicaciones prácticas de los resultados y proponiendo algunas pautas para el diseño de cuestionarios de elección forzosa basados en el supuesto de invarianzaThis research is funded by the Spanish government’s Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, projects PSI 2015-65557-P and PSI 2017-85022-

Mining Web Pages Using Features of Rendering HTML Elements in the Web Browser

The Web is the largest repository of useful information available for human users, but it is usual that Web Pages do not provide an API to get access to its information automatically. In order to solve this problem, Information Extractors are developed. We present a new methodology to induce Information Extractors from the Web. It is based on rendering HTML elements in the Web browser. The methodology uses a KDD process to mining a dataset with features of the elements in the Web page. An experimentation over 10 web sites has been made and the results show the effectiveness of the methodology.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2007-64119Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-02602Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-410

Comparación de métodos para el tratamiento de valores perdidos en la EPV-R

Background: The development of an effective instrument to assess the risk of partner violence is a topic of great social relevance. This study evaluates the scale of “Predicción del Riesgo de Violencia Grave Contra la Pareja” –Revisada– (EPV-R - Severe Intimate Partner Violence Risk Prediction Scale-Revised), a tool developed in Spain, which is facing the problem of how to treat the high rate of missing values, as is usual in this type of scale. Method: First, responses to the EPV-R in a sample of 1215 male abusers who were reported to the police were used to analyze the patterns of occurrence of missing values, as well as the factor structure. Second, we analyzed the performance of various imputation methods using simulated data that emulates the missing data mechanism found in the empirical database. Results: The imputation procedure originally proposed by the authors of the scale provides acceptable results, although the application of a method based on the Item Response Theory could provide greater accuracy and offers some additional advantages. Conclusions: Item Response Theory appears to be a useful tool for imputing missing data in this type of questionnaireAntecedentes: el desarrollo de un instrumento eficaz para evaluar el riesgo de violencia contra la pareja representa un tema de gran relevancia social. En el presente estudio se evalúa la escala de Predicción del Riesgo de Violencia Grave Contra la Pareja –Revisada– (EPV-R), una herramienta desarrollada en nuestro contexto, que se enfrenta al problema de cómo tratar la elevada tasa de valores perdidos, que es usual en este tipo de escalas. Método: en primer lugar, se estudia en una muestra empírica (N = 1215) el patrón de aparición de los valores perdidos, así como la estructura factorial del EPV-R. En segundo lugar, se analiza el funcionamiento de distintos métodos de imputación en datos simulados en los que se emula el mecanismo de pérdida de datos encontrado para la base de datos empírica. Resultados: el procedimiento de imputación originalmente propuesto por los autores de la escala ofrece resultados aceptables, si bien la aplicación de un método basado en la Teoría de la Respuesta al Ítem podría proporcionar una mayor precisión y ofrece algunas ventajas adicionales. Conclusiones: la Teoría de la Respuesta al Ítem demuestra ser una herramienta útil para la imputación de respuestas en este tipo de cuestionariosThe research has been funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity of Spain, project PSI2013-44300-

Diagnosis of a Chopper Controlled DC Motor by Boosting

This paper proposes a methodology to diagnose a transient state of a dynamic system using boosting. The methodology is composed by two steps: one off-line process and another on-line process. The off-line phase begins gathering data from the system, both when it is running free of fault and when the system is running in each fault mode. A segmentation and normalization algorithm is used to reduce the large amount of gathered data. The final step is the generation of a decision tree by a classification tool. The boosting technique is used with the aim of improving the classification results. The on-line process of the methodology consists of evaluating a new reading of the system sensors with the generated decision trees. The diagnosis of the system is the result of this evaluation which has very low computational cost due to the simplicity of the decision trees. Also, the implementation cost is very low due to this simplicity.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2003-07146-C02-0

Cuestionario de Fallos de Memoria de la Vida Cotidiana (MFE). Análisis de factores con población española.

Uno de los instrumentos más utilizados para valorar los olvidos cotidianos es el Cuestionario de Fallos de Memoria de la Vida Cotidiana (MFE). Los objetivos del presente estudio fueron: a) examinar la estructura factorial del MFE, b) explorar las relaciones de los factores resultantes con el rendimiento objetivo de memoria (Listas de Palabras y Escenas de la Escala de Memoria de Wechsler - III), el estado de ánimo y la ansiedad (Escala de Depresión y Ansiedad de Goldberg) y con dos preguntas generales sobre quejas de memoria. Los datos se recogieron de una muestra de 647 adultos jóvenes (19-64 años). Los resultados mostraron la existencia de una estructura de tres factores, que explicaban el 29.3 % de la varianza: Recuerdo de Actividades, Monitorización de la Comunicación y Reconocimiento. Los dos primeros factores mostraron una correlación positiva más alta entre ellos y una asociación mayor con el estado de ánimo y las quejas generales de memoria. Por el contrario, el factor Reconocimiento presentó una correlación positiva más alta con la edad y negativa con el rendimiento objetivo de memoria

Salt sheet extrusion and emplacement within the South-Central Pyrenean fold-and-thrust belt: the Les Avellanes Diapir case-of-study

A detailed geological map of the Les Avellanes salt Diapir (South-Central Pyrenees, Spain) that includes both the diapir body and adjacent areas is presented to understand the diapir evolution and geometry. Structural, stratigraphical, and sedimentary data north and south of the diapir is used to infer the timing of its emplacement. The northern diapir boundary is characterized by a set of extensional faults oblique to the main Pyrenean trend, while the southern boundary is an extrusive salt sheet that overlays the late Eocene-early Oligocene sequence in three adjacent sub-basins. Salt extrusion occurred due to synorogenic folding.The topography created as salt extruded trapped the arrival of external sediments from the north, blocking the transport pathways southward. Low sedimentation rates southwards allowed for the lateral salt extrusion, advancing southwards from the feeder. The salt sheet emplacement was postdated by Oligocene conglomerates, indicating that the salt extrusion was a relatively quick event.</p

An Open-Source Proactive Security Infrastructure for Business Process Management

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) have emerged in the IT arena as cornerstone in the automation and orchestration of complex services for organizations. These systems manage critical information that is crucial for the organizations. The potential cost and consequences of security threats could produce information loss for the reputation of organizations. Therefore, the early response regarding to the non-compliance of security requirement is a real necessity overall during the business process execution. Currently, an active response requires a human intervention with high know-how and expertise in both business process management and security. In this paper, we propose an initial work which presents an open-source proactive infrastructure for the automatic continuous monitoring and checking compliance of security requirements at runtime of business processes

Prevalence of electrocardiographic findings associated to sudden cardiac death: spontaneous type 1 and type 2 Brugada patterns and QT disorders in spanish population older than forty years

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Allochthonous salt advance recorded by the adjacent syn-kinematic sedimentation: Example from the Les Avellanes diapir (South Central Pyrenees)

This work aims to present the Les Avellanes diapir as a field analog to inquire how the origin, advance, and emplacement of an allochthonous salt body in continental settings influence the local sedimentation in terms of facies distribution, sediment provenance, and stratigraphic relationships. At the frontal part of the South-Central Pyrenean fold-and-thrust belt (Spain), the Les Avellanes diapir is an outcropping salt structure made of Triassic evaporites, lutites and carbonates. At the diapir's western boundary, a structurally controlled sub-basin presents a well-preserved, early Oligocene in age, mixed clastic-evaporitic sedimentary sequence which recorded the lateral extrusion of the diapir and its emplacement as an allochthonous salt sheet. To define the events and processes recorded by the adjacent sedimentary sequences, and to unravel the diapir evolution and the nature of the diapir contact at the study area, we have combined sedimentary, petrologic, and stratigraphic data. Three stratigraphic sections have been built, from which 8 lithostratigraphic facies associations have been described, interpreted, and correlated across the sub-basin. The deformation within the diapir deposit is also described and interpreted together with the sedimentary rocks. A prograding alluvial to colluvial system is associated with the piercing of the salt, which was exposed at the surface towards the NE area of the sub-basin. The dissolution of the salt resulting in the formation of a caprock with stacks of stringers of intrasalt carbonates and dolerites layers. The ongoing uplifting at the NE caused the incision of the local drainage network, marked as a paleo-relief in the stratigraphic sequence, filled by syn-kinematic breccias derived by the erosion, transport, and sedimentation of the caprock. The headward erosion reached the salt underneath the caprock, triggering the lateral extrusion. Thus, salt flowed southwards, favored by the local topography, overriding the syn-kinematic breccia deposit. Foliation and other shear-related deformation structures are observed in a megabreccia made of caprock remnants which overlap the sedimentary, syn-kinematic breccias along the base of the salt sheet deposit. These structures were probably formed during the advance of the salt sheet. The data acquired and interpreted in this work allows for the conceptualization of the relative lateral movement of a salt sheet front as recorded by adjacent syn-kinematic sedimentation in continental settings. Salt supply and erosion rates are compared with topographic slope, sedimentation, and salt dissolution as major controlling parameters of the salt sheet advance. The resulting combinations are expressed by the progradation, aggradation, and retrogradation in terms of proximal over distal facies