The HEX-ACO-18:Developing an age-invariant HEXACO short scale using ant colony optimization

In this study, we developed an age-invariant 18-item short form of the HEXACO Personality Inventory for use in developmental personality research. We combined the item selection procedure ant colony optimization (ACO) and the model estimation approach local structural equation modeling (LSEM). ACO is a metaheuristic algorithm that evaluates items based on the quality of the resulting short scale, thus directly optimizing criteria that can only be estimated with combinations of items, such as model fit and measurement invariance. LSEM allows for model estimation and measurement invariance testing across a continuous age variable by weighting participants, rather than splitting the sample into artificial age groups. Using a HEXACO-100 dataset of N = 6,419 participants ranging from 16 to 90 years of age, we selected a short form optimized for model fit, measurement invariance, facet coverage, and balance of item keying. To achieve scalar measurement invariance and brevity, but maintain construct coverage, we selected 18 items to represent three out of four facets from each HEXACO trait domain. The resulting HEX-ACO-18 short scale showed adequate model fit and scalar measurement invariance across age. Furthermore, the usefulness and versatility of the item and person sampling procedures ACO and LSEM is demonstrated

Warty carcinoma of uterine cervix - review of the literature and case report

Introduction. The Histological Classification of Epithelial Tumors of the Uterine Cervix of the World Health Organization includes inter alia warty carcinoma as a variant of squamous cell carcinoma. Until now several case reports and studies have shown that this particular cancer is associated with human papillomavirus/ HPV infection. Case presentation. A 58-year-old woman presented with a vegetant cervical tumour. Biopsy samples were collected from the tumour, and the histological exam successively confirmed the warty cell carcinoma. Additional tests revealed the presence of single human papillomavirus/ type-45. An immunohistochemistry exam was performed in order to confirm the diagnosis, and also to highlight the relationship between the potential causal factors and the morphological appearance. This allowed the confirmation of the diagnosis, and added new elements able to define the characteristics of this form of cancer. The treatment included radiotherapy and radical hysterectomy with anexectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The evolution was favorable, with no signs of local recurrence or metastasis in the past five years. Conclusions. Warty carcinoma, relatively similar to condyloma acuminatum or verrucous carcinomas, has specific immune-histochemical features that differentiate it from other variants of squamous cell carcinoma. The HPV genotype 45 can be considered a causative factor in the pathogenesis of cervical warty carcinoma. Even so, warty carcinoma appears not to be caused by a specific HPV subtype (or a combination of several specific genotypes), being rather a multifactorial affection

Patients’ perception of childbirth according to the delivery method: The experience in our clinic

Introduction: The aim of this study is to identify the way in which childbirth in general, and the delivery method in particular, influenced the maternal psychosocial status and the perception upon birth during postpartum. Material and method: We conducted a cohort type 2 prospective study. We included patients who had given birth at “Bucur” Maternity of Hospital “St. John” Bucharest from the 1st of January 2017 until the 1st of January 2018. Results: The majority of the patients (21.05%) who chose to give birth vaginally assigned the maximum degree (10) to the difficulty of birth. The patients who gave birth through cesarean section experienced the feeling of sadness in a higher percentage than those who gave birth vaginally (30.52% versus 21.05%). Among the patients who were in favor of having more children, 85.45% preferred the same delivery method. All the patients who gave birth vaginally wished to have other children using the same method, while 81.4% from the patients who gave birth through cesarean section were in favor of more children. Conclusion: The patients’ perception of childbirth was a subjective parameter. Further studies with standardized questionnaires should be applied for more reliable results

An illustration of local structural equation modeling for longitudinal data:Examining differences in competence development in secondary schools

In this chapter, we discuss how a combination of longitudinal modeling and local structural equation modeling (LSEM) can be used to study how students’ context influence their growth in educational achievement. LSEM is a nonparametric approach that allows for the moderation of a structural equation model over a continuous variable (e.g., socio-economic status; cultural identity; age). Thus, it does not require the categorization of continuous moderators as applied in multi-group approaches. In contrast to regression-based approaches, it does not impose a particular functional form (e.g., linear) on the mean-level differences and can spot differences in the variance-covariance structure. LSEM can be used to detect nonlinear moderation effects, to examine sources of measurement invariance violations, and to study moderation effects on all parameters in the model. We showcase how LSEM can be implemented with longitudinal of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) using the R-package sirt. In more detail, we examine the effect of parental education on math and reading competence in secondary school across three measurement occasions, comparing LSEM to regression based approaches and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Results provide further evidence of the strong influence of the educational background of the family. This chapter offers a new approach to study inter-individual differences in educational development.</p

Examining moderators of vocabulary acquisition from kindergarten through elementary school using local structural equation modeling

Parental socio-economic status (SES) is often found to be associated with children's language competence in the first decade of life. To examine the effect of SES on children's vocabulary development, as well as potential compensatory effects of schooling and learning-related activities, we examined the joint and unique effects of parental education, occupational status, and learning environment at home on children's receptive vocabulary competence and growth in early childhood. We used latent growth curve models to assess pre-school receptive vocabulary and growth across primary school. Analyses were based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), a large-scale longitudinal study assessing vocabulary competence and family background from Kindergarten to the 3rd grade of elementary school. To examine the moderating effects of parental education, occupational status, and learning environment at home, we used local structural equation modeling. Results revealed a moderate to strong positive association between parental education and children's receptive vocabulary competence, which fully explained the effect of occupational status on this language skill. With the exception of the activity of reading aloud, we found no effect of learning environment at home. Initially lower performing children showed steeper growth trajectories across school, but rank-orders were relatively stable across time. In summary, the results suggest large initial differences in receptive vocabulary between children from different educational backgrounds, which are reduced, but not fully overcome across elementary school

Warty carcinoma of uterine cervix - review of the literature and case report

Introduction. The Histological Classification of Epithelial Tumors of the Uterine Cervix of the World Health Organization includes inter alia warty carcinoma as a variant of squamous cell carcinoma. Until now several case reports and studies have shown that this particular cancer is associated with human papillomavirus/ HPV infection. Case presentation. A 58-year-old woman presented with a vegetant cervical tumour. Biopsy samples were collected from the tumour, and the histological exam successively confirmed the warty cell carcinoma. Additional tests revealed the presence of single human papillomavirus/ type-45. An immunohistochemistry exam was performed in order to confirm the diagnosis, and also to highlight the relationship between the potential causal factors and the morphological appearance. This allowed the confirmation of the diagnosis, and added new elements able to define the characteristics of this form of cancer. The treatment included radiotherapy and radical hysterectomy with anexectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The evolution was favorable, with no signs of local recurrence or metastasis in the past five years. Conclusions. Warty carcinoma, relatively similar to condyloma acuminatum or verrucous carcinomas, has specific immune-histochemical features that differentiate it from other variants of squamous cell carcinoma. The HPV genotype 45 can be considered a causative factor in the pathogenesis of cervical warty carcinoma. Even so, warty carcinoma appears not to be caused by a specific HPV subtype (or a combination of several specific genotypes), being rather a multifactorial affection

Patients’ perception of childbirth according to the delivery method: The experience in our clinic

Introduction: The aim of this study is to identify the way in which childbirth in general, and the delivery method in particular, influenced the maternal psychosocial status and the perception upon birth during postpartum. Material and method: We conducted a cohort type 2 prospective study. We included patients who had given birth at “Bucur” Maternity of Hospital “St. John” Bucharest from the 1st of January 2017 until the 1st of January 2018. Results: The majority of the patients (21.05%) who chose to give birth vaginally assigned the maximum degree (10) to the difficulty of birth. The patients who gave birth through cesarean section experienced the feeling of sadness in a higher percentage than those who gave birth vaginally (30.52% versus 21.05%). Among the patients who were in favor of having more children, 85.45% preferred the same delivery method. All the patients who gave birth vaginally wished to have other children using the same method, while 81.4% from the patients who gave birth through cesarean section were in favor of more children. Conclusion: The patients’ perception of childbirth was a subjective parameter. Further studies with standardized questionnaires should be applied for more reliable results

The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Premature Birth—Our Experience as COVID Center

Information about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on pregnant women is still limited and raises challenges, even as publications are increasing rapidly. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on preterm birth pregnancies. We performed a prospective, observational study in a COVID-only hospital, which included 34 pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection and preterm birth compared with a control group of 48 healthy women with preterm birth. The rate of cesarean delivery was 82% in the study group versus 6% for the control group. We observed a strong correlation between premature birth and the presence of COVID-19 symptoms (cough p = 0.029, fever p = 0.001, and chills p = 0.001). The risk for premature birth is correlated to a lower value of oxygen saturation (p = 0.001) and extensive radiologic pulmonary lesions (p = 0.025). The COVID-19 pregnant women with preterm delivery were older, and experienced an exacerbation of severe respiratory symptoms, decreased saturation of oxygen, increased inflammatory markers, severe pulmonary lesions and decreased lymphocytes

Personality change through a digital-coaching intervention: Using measurement invariance testing to distinguish between trait domain, facet, and nuance change

Recent intervention research has shown that personality traits can be modified through psychological interventions. However, it is unclear whether reported effects represent changes in the trait domain or only some facets or items. Using data ( N = 552) from a recent intervention trial, the present study examined the effects of a digital-coaching intervention on self- and observer-reported personality facets and items. We focused on participants who wanted to decrease in Negative Emotionality, increase in Conscientiousness or increase in Extraversion. We used measurement invariance testing to examine which level of the trait domain hierarchy changed during the intervention. For the self-reports, we found some heterogeneity in the effects on all three trait domains, but most notably Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Specifically, participants reported to increase strongly on sociability (Extraversion), and moderately on productiveness and organization (Conscientiousness), but not on the other facets of these trait domains. Observers generally reported small but non-significant changes, with no scalar invariance violations except for Extraversion. Overall, this suggests considerable heterogeneity in intervention-related personality change that can be overlooked if only focusing on the trait domain level. We discuss the relevance of measurement invariance testing and measurement approaches for personality development and intervention research

Personality change through a digital-coaching intervention: Using measurement invariance testing to distinguish between trait domain, facet, and nuance change

Recent intervention research has shown that personality traits can be modified through psychological interventions. However, it is unclear whether reported effects represent changes in the trait domain or only some facets or items. Using data ( N = 552) from a recent intervention trial, the present study examined the effects of a digital-coaching intervention on self- and observer-reported personality facets and items. We focused on participants who wanted to decrease in Negative Emotionality, increase in Conscientiousness or increase in Extraversion. We used measurement invariance testing to examine which level of the trait domain hierarchy changed during the intervention. For the self-reports, we found some heterogeneity in the effects on all three trait domains, but most notably Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Specifically, participants reported to increase strongly on sociability (Extraversion), and moderately on productiveness and organization (Conscientiousness), but not on the other facets of these trait domains. Observers generally reported small but non-significant changes, with no scalar invariance violations except for Extraversion. Overall, this suggests considerable heterogeneity in intervention-related personality change that can be overlooked if only focusing on the trait domain level. We discuss the relevance of measurement invariance testing and measurement approaches for personality development and intervention research