Versión al español de la Metacognition Self-Assessment Scale (MSAS) para adultos

Background:Although there are other tools in the Spanish language for assessing metacognition, there is no other that is as quick, simple and multidimensional as the Metacognition Self-Assessment Scale (MSAS). Objectives:Adapt and validate the MSAS to Spanish. Method:The sample consisted of 973 volunteers, 68.3% women and mean age of 27.9 years (SD= 12.68). Results:The internal consistency of the Spanish adaptation was generally adequate with a total α = .830, and from α = .658 to .826 for the factors. The original four-factor structure (Self-Reflexivity, Critical Distance, Mastery and Understanding Other Minds) showed adequate fit indices. The evidence of concurrent criterion validity indices was not as expected. Indications of discriminant validity were the low Self-Reflexivity scores of participants with a psychopathological history (d = .222) or psychological treatment (d = .326); in Mastery by those under psychological treatment (d = .345) or medication (d = .482), and in Critical distance for medication (d = .419). Conclusion:The Spanish adaptation and validation of the MSAS seems adequate for assessing metacognition and its subcomponents in the general population, opening a wide field of clinical and research applications.Antecedentes: Aunque existen otras herramientas en español para evaluar la metacognición, no hay una versión disponible desde una perspectiva multidimensional como la Escala de Autoevaluación de la Metacognición(Metacognition Self-Assessment Scale, MSAS), que tiene además la ventaja de ser sencilla y rápida en su aplicación. Objetivos: Adaptar y validar la escala MSAS al español. Método:Participaron975 voluntarios/as, 68.2% mujeres, edad media de 27.9 años (DT= 12.68). Resultados: Los valores psicométricos de la adaptación al español son adecuados, α = .830 (total), y entre α = .658 y .826 (factores). La estructura factorial original de cuatro factores (Autorreflexividad, Distancia Crítica, Maestría y Comprensión de Mentes Ajenas) muestra adecuados índices de ajuste. Sin embargo, los indicios de validez de criterio no han sido los esperados. Los indicadores de validez discriminante fueron bajos en los participantes con antecedentes psicopatológicos (d = .222) y tratamiento psicológico (d = .326) en el factor Autorreflexividad ; en el factor Dominio entre los que estaban bajo tratamiento psicológico (d = .345) y tenían prescrita medicación (d = .482), y en el factor Distancia crítica para los participantes con medicación (d = .419).Conclusión: La adaptación y validación de la MSAS en español para población general parece adecuada para evaluar la metacognición y sus subcomponentes, abriendo un amplio campo de aplicaciones tanto clínicas como de investigación

Interpersonal Violence and Psychotic-Like Experiences: The Mediation of Ideas of Reference, Childhood Memories, and Dissociation

Previous studies have demonstrated the relationship between the accumulation of situations involving interpersonal violence (IV) and psychotic-like experiences. This study explored whether IV is related to aberrant salience (AS), using a sequential mediation model that included memories of relationship with parents (submission, devaluation, and threat; Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES)), ideas of reference (IR), and dissociative symptoms (absorption and depersonalization), and whether the patient/nonpatient condition moderated this effect. The sample was made of 401 participants (including 43 patients with psychotic disorders) aged 18 to 71 years (Mage = 30.43;SD= 11.19). Analysis of a serial multiple mediator model revealed that IR, ELES, absorption, and depersonalization fully mediated the effect of IV on AS, explaining 39% of the variance, regardless of the patient/nonpatient condition. The indirect paths, which place IR and dissociation (especially absorption, the variable to which the IR and ELES lead) in a primordial position for being related to AS, are discussed. This continuum model could be useful for understanding processes related to the onset of psychosis unmoderated by the patient/nonpatient condition

Long-Term Optical Monitoring of Eta Carinae. Multiband light curves for a complete orbital period

The periodicity of 5.5 years for some observational events occurring in Eta Carinae manifests itself across a large wavelength range and has been associated with its binary nature. These events are supposed to occur when the binary components are close to periastron. To detect the previous periastron passage of Eta Car in 2003, we started an intensive, ground-based, optical, photometric observing campaign. We continued observing the object to monitor its photometric behavior and variability across the entire orbital cycle. Our observation program consisted of daily differential photometry from CCD images, which were acquired using a 0.8 m telescope and a standard BVRI filter set at La Plata Observatory. The photometry includes the central object and the surrounding Homunculus nebula. We present up-to-date results of our observing program, including homogeneous photometric data collected between 2003 and 2008. Our observations demonstrated that Eta Car has continued increasing in brightness at a constant rate since 1998. In 2006, it reached its brightest magnitude (V ~ 4.7) since about 1860s. The object then suddenly reverted its brightening trend, fading to V = 5.0 at the beginning of 2007, and has maintained a quite steady state since then. We continue the photometric monitoring of Eta Car in anticipation of the next "periastron passage", predicted to occur at the beginning of 2009.Comment: Accepted by A&A. The paper contains 3 figures and 2 table

Evaluation of early life experiences: The ELES scale and its clinical use

Antecedentes: la escala de Experiencias Vitales Tempranas (ELES) evalúa el recuerdo de la amenaza y subordinación percibidas durante la in-fancia en las relaciones familiares partiendo de la teoría del rango social. Se propone adaptar al español dicha escala y comprobar su estructura factorial mediante una validación cruzada y explorar sus propiedades psicométricas. Método: participaron 960 sujetos (863 de población general y 97 pacientes). Resultados: los datos confirman la estructura factorial de la versión inicial de Gilbert, Cheung, Grandfield, Campey, y Irons (2003), obteniendo tres fac-tores: sumisión, amenaza, y desvalorización, explicando un 66.31% de la varianza. La versión española de la escala ELES resultó estar compuesta por el mismo número de ítems que la original y mostró índices adecuados de validez, consistencia interna, fiabilidad retest, fiabilidad compuesta e in-varianza por género. Conclusiones: la escala de Experiencias Vitales Tempranas (ELES) puede ser de utilidad para evaluar las experiencias vitales tempra-nas, estudiar la relación entre dichas experiencias en diferentes manifesta-ciones psicopatológicas y establecer posibles modelos explicativos.Background: The Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES) evaluates the memory of threat and subordination perceived in childhood family rela-tionships based on social rank theory. This scale was adapted to Spanish, its factor structure was tested by cross-validation, and its psychometric properties were explored. Method: 960 subjects participated (863 subjects from the general population and 97 patients). Results: Data confirm the factor structure of the original version by Gilbert, Cheung, Grandfield, Campey, and Irons (2003), obtaining a similar model with three factors: submission, threat, and devaluation, which explained 66.31% of the vari-ance. The Spanish version of the ELES was comprised of the same num-ber of items as in the original study and showed adequate indices of validi-ty, internal consistency, retest and combined reliability, and invariance by gender. Conclusions: The Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES) can be a useful measure for evaluating early life experiences. Its application may be very relevant in studying the relationship between these experiences and psy-chopathological manifestations in constructing explanatory models

Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm for the Double Exchange Model

The Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm is adapted to the simulation of a system of classical degrees of freedom coupled to non self-interacting lattices fermions. The diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix is avoided by introducing a path-integral formulation of the problem, in $d+1$ Euclidean space-time. A perfect action formulation allows to work on the continuum euclidean time, without need for a Trotter-Suzuki extrapolation. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method we study the Double Exchange Model in three dimensions. The complexity of the algorithm grows only as the system volume, allowing to simulate in lattices as large as $16^3$ on a personal computer. We conclude that the second order paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition of Double Exchange Materials close to half-filling belongs to the Universality Class of the three-dimensional classical Heisenberg model.Comment: 20 pages plus 4 postscript figure

Relación entre trauma, disociación y síntomas psicóticos positivos

The purpose of this research was to study traumatic and dissociative experiences in a sample of Spanish patients with psychosis and their relationship to hallucinations. Seventy-one patients with psychosis filled in a dissociative experiences scale (DES-II, Carlson & Putnam, 1993), a trauma questionnaire (TQ, Davidson, Hughes & Blazer, 1990) and the PANSS delusion and hallucination items (Kay, Opler & Lindenmayer, 1988). The results showed that subjects who had hallucinations and delusions had undergone a significantly larger number of traumatic experiences in childhood, but not as adults. Subjects with hallucinations and delusions had higher scores in dissociation than those who did not have these psychotic symptoms. It was also found that subjects with hallucinations had had experienced more physical abuse and threats in childhood, while there were no differences in the type of trauma for presence or not of delusions. Finally, of the factors studied in this research, only depersonalization predicted the presence of hallucinations, and none of these factors predicted the presence of delusions.ResumenEl objetivo de esta investigación fue estudiar experiencias traumáticas y disociativas en una muestra de pacientes españoles con psicosis y su relación con las alucinaciones. Setenta y un pacientes con psicosis completaron una escala de experiencias disociativas (DES-II, Carlson y Putnam, 1993), un cuestionario de traumas (TQ, Davidson, Hughes y Blazer, 1990) y se les administró también los ítems de delirios y alucinaciones de la PANSS (Kay, Opler y Lindenmayer, 1988). Los resultados mostraron que los sujetos que presentaban alucinaciones y delirios habían experimentado un número significativamente mayor de las experiencias traumáticas en la infancia, pero no en la edad adulta. Con respecto a la disociación, los sujetos con alucinaciones y delirios presentaban puntuaciones altas en disociación que los sujetos sin estos síntomas psicóticos. Respecto al tipo de trauma, se encontró que los sujetos con alucinaciones presentaban más abusos físicos y amenazas en la infancia, no encontrándose diferencias en el tipo de traumas en función de la presencia o no de delirios. Por último, de los factores estudiados en esta investigación, solamente la despersonalización predijo a la presencia de alucinaciones, encontrándose que ninguno de dichos factores predijo la presencia de delirios. AbstractThe purpose of this research was to study traumatic and dissociative experiences in a sample of Spanish patients with psychosis and their relationship to hallucinations. Seventy-one patients with psychosis filled in a dissociative experiences scale (DES-II, Carlson & Putnam, 1993), a trauma questionnaire (TQ, Davidson, Hughes & Blazer, 1990) and the PANSS delusion and hallucination items (Kay, Opler & Lindenmayer, 1988). The results showed that subjects who had hallucinations and delusions had undergone a significantly larger number of traumatic experiences in childhood, but not as adults. Subjects with hallucinations and delusions had higher scores in dissociation than those who did not have these psychotic symptoms. It was also found that subjects with hallucinations had had experienced more physical abuse and threats in childhood, while there were no differences in the type of trauma for presence or not of delusions. Finally, of the factors studied in this research, only depersonalization predicted the presence of hallucinations, and none of these factors predicted the presence of delusions

VOSA: Virtual Observatory SED Analyzer. An application to the Collinder 69 open cluster

The physical properties of almost any kind of astronomical object can be derived by fitting synthetic spectra or photometry extracted from theoretical models to observational data. We want to develop an automatic procedure to perform this kind of fittings to a relatively large sample of members of a stellar association and apply this methodology to the case of Collinder 69. We combine the multiwavelength data of our sources and follow a work-flow to derive the physical parameters of the sources. The key step of the work-flow is performed by a new VO-tool, VOSA. All the steps in this process are done in a VO environment. We present this new tool, and provide physical parameters such as T$_{\rm eff}$, gravity, luminosity, etc. for $\sim$170 candidate members to Collinder 69, and an upper-limit for the age of this stellar association. This kind of studies of star forming regions, clusters, etc. produces a huge amount of data, very tedious to analyse using the traditional methodology. Thus, they are excellent examples where to apply the VO capabilities.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

XMM-Newton investigations of the Lambda Orionis star-forming region (XILO). I. The young cluster Collinder 69

This is the first paper of a series devoted to the Lambda Orionis star-forming region, from the X-ray perspective, which will provide a comprehensive view of this complex region. In this paper we focus in uncovering the population of the central, young cluster Collinder 69 (C69), and in particular those diskless members not identified by previous near- and mid-infrared surveys, and to establish the X-ray luminosity function for the association. We have combined two exposures taken with the XMM-Newton satellite with an exhaustive data set of optical, near- and mid-infrared photometry to assess the membership of the X-ray sources based on color-color and color-magnitude diagrams, as well as other properties, such as effective temperatures, masses and bolometric luminosities. We detected a total of 164 X-ray sources, of which 66 are probable and possible cluster members. A total of 16 are newly identified probable members. The two XMM-Newton pointings east and west of the cluster center have allowed us to verify the heterogeneous spatial distribution of young stars, probably related to the large scale structure of the region. The disk fraction of the X-ray detected cluster sample is very low, close to 10%, in remarkable contrast to the low-mass stellar and substellar population (mostly undetected in X-rays) where the disk fraction reaches about 50%. The X-ray luminosity function of C69 provides support for an age of several Myr when compared with other well known young associations. With our improved cluster census we confirm previous reports on the untypically low disk fraction compared to other clusters of several Myr age. The different disk fractions of X-ray detected (essentially solar-like) and undetected (mostly low-mass stars and brown dwarfs) members can be understood as a consequence of a mass-dependence of the time-scale for disk evolution.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figure