Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: A dual process account

© 2019 Springer Nature.This is the final published version of an article published in Psychological Research, licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-bution 4.0 International License. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7.In this article, we address an apparent paradox in the literature on mental time travel and mind-wandering: How is it possible that future thinking is both constructive, yet often experienced as occurring spontaneously? We identify and describe two ‘routes’ whereby episodic future thoughts are brought to consciousness, with each of the ‘routes’ being associated with separable cognitive processes and functions. Voluntary future thinking relies on controlled, deliberate and slow cognitive processing. The other, termed involuntary or spontaneous future thinking, relies on automatic processes that allows ‘fully-fledged’ episodic future thoughts to freely come to mind, often triggered by internal or external cues. To unravel the paradox, we propose that the majority of spontaneous future thoughts are ‘pre-made’ (i.e., each spontaneous future thought is a re-iteration of a previously constructed future event), and therefore based on simple, well-understood, memory processes. We also propose that the pre-made hypothesis explains why spontaneous future thoughts occur rapidly, are similar to involuntary memories, and predominantly about upcoming tasks and goals. We also raise the possibility that spontaneous future thinking is the default mode of imagining the future. This dual process approach complements and extends standard theoretical approaches that emphasise constructive simulation, and outlines novel opportunities for researchers examining voluntary and spontaneous forms of future thinking.Peer reviewe

Modification of the carboxy-terminal flanking region of a universal influenza epitope alters CD4+ T-cell repertoire selection

Human CD4+ αβ T cells are activated via T-cell receptor recognition of peptide epitopes presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II (MHC-II). The open ends of the MHC-II binding groove allow peptide epitopes to extend beyond a central nonamer core region at both the amino- and carboxy-terminus. We have previously found that these non-bound C-terminal residues can alter T cell activation in an MHC allele-transcending fashion, although the mechanism for this effect remained unclear. Here we show that modification of the C-terminal peptide-flanking region of an influenza hemagglutinin (HA305−320) epitope can alter T-cell receptor binding affinity, T-cell activation and repertoire selection of influenza-specific CD4+ T cells expanded from peripheral blood. These data provide the first demonstration that changes in the C-terminus of the peptide-flanking region can substantially alter T-cell receptor binding affinity, and indicate a mechanism through which peptide flanking residues could influence repertoire selection

Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness.

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members' decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members' likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute's 2007-2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed

Using the RDP Classifier to Predict Taxonomic Novelty and Reduce the Search Space for Finding Novel Organisms

BACKGROUND: Currently, the naïve Bayesian classifier provided by the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) is one of the most widely used tools to classify 16S rRNA sequences, mainly collected from environmental samples. We show that RDP has 97+% assignment accuracy and is fast for 250 bp and longer reads when the read originates from a taxon known to the database. Because most environmental samples will contain organisms from taxa whose 16S rRNA genes have not been previously sequenced, we aim to benchmark how well the RDP classifier and other competing methods can discriminate these novel taxa from known taxa. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Because each fragment is assigned a score (containing likelihood or confidence information such as the boostrap score in the RDP classifier), we "train" a threshold to discriminate between novel and known organisms and observe its performance on a test set. The threshold that we determine tends to be conservative (low sensitivity but high specificity) for naïve Bayesian methods. Nonetheless, our method performs better with the RDP classifier than the other methods tested, measured by the f-measure and the area-under-the-curve on the receiver operating characteristic of the test set. By constraining the database to well-represented genera, sensitivity improves 3-15%. Finally, we show that the detector is a good predictor to determine novel abundant taxa (especially for finer levels of taxonomy where novelty is more likely to be present). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that selecting a read-length appropriate RDP bootstrap score can significantly reduce the search space for identifying novel genera and higher levels in taxonomy. In addition, having a well-represented database significantly improves performance while having genera that are "highly" similar does not make a significant improvement. On a real dataset from an Amazon Terra Preta soil sample, we show that the detector can predict (or correlates to) whether novel sequences will be assigned to new taxa when the RDP database "doubles" in the future

Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority

The decline of motor performance of the human hand-arm system with age is well-documented. While dominant hand performance is superior to that of the non-dominant hand in young individuals, little is known of possible age-related changes in hand dominance. We investigated age-related alterations of hand dominance in 20 to 90 year old subjects. All subjects were unambiguously right-handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. In Experiment 1, motor performance for aiming, postural tremor, precision of arm-hand movement, speed of arm-hand movement, and wrist-finger speed tasks were tested. In Experiment 2, accelerometer-sensors were used to obtain objective records of hand use in everyday activities

Quantitative Histomorphometry of the Healthy Peritoneum

The peritoneum plays an essential role in preventing abdominal frictions and adhesions and can be utilized as a dialysis membrane. Its physiological ultrastructure, however, has not yet been studied systematically. 106 standardized peritoneal and 69 omental specimens were obtained from 107 patients (0.1-60 years) undergoing surgery for disease not affecting the peritoneum for automated quantitative histomorphometry and immunohistochemistry. The mesothelial cell layer morphology and protein expression pattern is similar across all age groups. Infants below one year have a thinner submesothelium; inflammation, profibrotic activity and mesothelial cell translocation is largely absent in all age groups. Peritoneal blood capillaries, lymphatics and nerve fibers locate in three distinct submesothelial layers. Blood vessel density and endothelial surface area follow a U-shaped curve with highest values in infants below one year and lowest values in children aged 7-12 years. Lymphatic vessel density is much lower, and again highest in infants. Omental blood capillary density correlates with parietal peritoneal findings, whereas only few lymphatic vessels are present. The healthy peritoneum exhibits major thus far unknown particularities, pertaining to functionally relevant structures, and subject to substantial changes with age. The reference ranges established here provide a framework for future histomorphometric analyses and peritoneal transport modeling approaches. © 2016, EDP Science. All rights reserved

Percentiles of fasting serum insulin, glucose, HbA1c and HOMA-IR in pre-pubertal normal weight European children from the IDEFICS cohort

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to present age-and sex-specific reference values of insulin, glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and the homeostasis model assessment to quantify insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) for pre-pubertal children. METHODS: The reference population consists of 7074 normal weight 3- to 10.9-year-old pre-pubertal children from eight European countries who participated in at least one wave of the IDEFICS ('identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants') surveys (2007-2010) and for whom standardised laboratory measurements were obtained. Percentile curves of insulin (measured by an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay), glucose, HbA1c and HOMA-IR were calculated as a function of age stratified by sex using the general additive model for location scale and shape (GAMLSS) method. RESULTS: Levels of insulin, fasting glucose and HOMA-IR continuously show an increasing trend with age, whereas HbA1c shows an upward trend only beyond the age of 8 years. Insulin and HOMA-IR values are higher in girls of all age groups, whereas glucose values are slightly higher in boys. Median serum levels of insulin range from 17.4 and 13.2 pmol l(-1) in 3-< 3.5-year-old girls and boys, respectively, to 53.5 and 43.0 pmol l(-1) in 10.5-< 11-year-old girls and boys. Median values of glucose are 4.3 and 4.5 mmol l(-1) in the youngest age group and 49.3 and 50.6 mmol l(-1) in the oldest girls and boys. For HOMA-IR, median values range from 0.5 and 0.4 in 3-< 3.5-year-old girls and boys to 1.7 and 1.4 in 10.5-< 11-year-old girls and boys, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides the first standardised reference values for an international European children's population and provides the, up to now, largest data set of healthy pre-pubertal children to model reference percentiles for markers of insulin resistance. Our cohort shows higher values of Hb1Ac as compared with a single Swedish study while our percentiles for the other glucose metabolic markers are in good accordance with previous studies

DYNAMO-HIA–A Dynamic Modeling Tool for Generic Health Impact Assessments

Currently, no standard tool is publicly available that allows researchers or policy-makers to quantify the impact of policies using epidemiological evidence within the causal framework of Health Impact Assessment (HIA). A standard tool should comply with three technical criteria (real-life population, dynamic projection, explicit risk-factor states) and three usability criteria (modest data requirements, rich model output, generally accessible) to be useful in the applied setting of HIA. With DYNAMO-HIA (Dynamic Modeling for Health Impact Assessment), we introduce such a generic software tool specifically designed to facilitate quantification in the assessment of the health impacts of policies

Infant growth disparity in the Khanh Hoa province in Vietnam: a follow-up study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Surveys in Vietnam have indicated that wasting and stunting have been prevalent among children, but the country is undergoing rapid socio-economic changes and little has been known about the relative situation in the different areas of the country. In 2006, the WHO introduced new growth standards applicable to all infant and child populations, which facilitates for improved assessments of the prevalence of growth impairment, independent of time, place and ethnicity. The aim of our study was to assess the growth of singleton infants delivered at term in three main birth clinics in the Khanh Hoa province in Vietnam by using the new WHO standards as reference, and the association between growth and some maternal, birth and health factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of 237 singleton infants born in the period May-July 2005 in three main delivery clinics in the Khanh Hoa province were observed prospectively. Their anthropometrical measures a year later were compared to the WHO sex-specific growth standards for weight-for-age, length-for-age, weight-for-length, and BMI-for-age. These measures were analysed as dependent outcomes using multiple linear regression models including the following independent factors: urban vs. rural birth, 1-minute Apgar score, weight and length at birth, duration of lactation, ever had diarrhoea, dengue fever, pneumonia or dysentery, and maternal age, height, gestational duration and parity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to the standard distributions, 79% were below the median for weight-for-length; 18.0% were within the 5^thpercentile for length-for-age, 9.6% for weight-for-age, 20.3% for weight-for-length, and 19.8% for BMI. A lower length- and weight-for-age were statistically associated with being born rurally.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this delivery-clinic based sample of children in the Khanh Hoa province in Vietnam, the proportions within the WHO-standard 5^thpercentiles for length-for-age, weight-for-length and BMI in late infancy were 3-4 times higher than expected, which indicate that deficient growth is prevalent. The infants born in a rural area had a lower weight- and length-for-age than their urban counterparts, independent of diarrhoea.</p