Counterfactual thinking in cooperation dynamics

Counterfactual Thinking is a human cognitive ability studied in a wide variety of domains. It captures the process of reasoning about a past event that did not occur, namely what would have happened had this event occurred, or, otherwise, to reason about an event that did occur but what would ensue had it not. Given the wide cognitive empowerment of counterfactual reasoning in the human individual, the question arises of how the presence of individuals with this capability may improve cooperation in populations of self-regarding individuals. Here we propose a mathematical model, grounded on Evolutionary Game Theory, to examine the population dynamics emerging from the interplay between counterfactual thinking and social learning (i.e., individuals that learn from the actions and success of others) whenever the individuals in the population face a collective dilemma. Our results suggest that counterfactual reasoning fosters coordination in collective action problems occurring in large populations, and has a limited impact on cooperation dilemmas in which coordination is not required. Moreover, we show that a small prevalence of individuals resorting to counterfactual thinking is enough to nudge an entire population towards highly cooperative standards.Comment: 18 page

Enhanced annealing of mismatched oligonucleotides using a novel melting curve assay allows efficient in vitro discrimination and restriction of a single nucleotide polymorphism

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many SNP discrimination strategies employ natural restriction endonucleases to discriminate between allelic states. However, SNPs are often not associated with a restriction site and therefore, a number of attempts have been made to generate sequence-adaptable restriction endonucleases. In this study, a simple, sequence-adaptable SNP discrimination mechanism between a 'wild-type' and 'mutant' template is demonstrated. This model differs from other artificial restriction endonuclease models as <it>cis- </it>rather than <it>trans-</it>orientated regions of single stranded DNA were generated and cleaved, and therefore, overcomes potential issues of either inefficient or non-specific binding when only a single variant is targeted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A series of mismatch 'bubbles' that spanned 0-5-bp surrounding a point mutation was generated and analysed for sensitivity to S1 nuclease. In this model, generation of oligonucleotide-mediated ssDNA mismatch 'bubbles' in the presence of S1 nuclease resulted in the selective degradation of the mutant template while maintaining wild-type template integrity. Increasing the size of the mismatch increased the rate of mutant sequence degradation, until a threshold above which discrimination was lost and the wild-type sequence was degraded. This level of fine discrimination was possible due to the development of a novel high-resolution melting curve assay to empirically determine changes in Tm (~5.0°C per base-pair mismatch) and to optimise annealing conditions (~18.38°C below Tm) of the mismatched oligonucleotide sets.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>in vitro </it>'cleavage bubble' model presented is sequence-adaptable as determined by the binding oligonucleotide, and hence, has the potential to be tailored to discriminate between any two or more SNPs. Furthermore, the demonstrated fluorometric assay has broad application potential, offering a rapid, sensitive and high-throughput means to determine Tm and annealing rates as an alternative to conventional hybridisation detection strategies.</p

Quem Recorre ao Serviço de Urgência de Pedopsiquiatria de Lisboa?

Introdução: A recorrência de crianças e adolescentes aos serviços de saúde mental em Portugal tem vindo a aumentar. Em contexto de serviço de urgência pedopsiquiátrica também se tem constatado um aumento na frequência e na severidade dos casos. Porém, estas questões não têm sido claramente avaliadas nos últimos anos. Objetivos: O presente estudo pretende, neste contexto, identificar os padrões de acesso e caracterizar a população que recorreu ao serviço de urgência de pedopsiquiatria de Lisboa ao longo do ano de 2013. Métodos: Revisão bibliográfica. Seleção de variáveis (caracterização demográfica, acompanhamento atual por serviços de saúde mental; motivo de admissão; visitas prévias ao serviço de urgência pedopsiquiátrica; tipo de intervenção). Os dados foram recolhidos a partir do sistema de software informático do serviço de urgência (HCIS®), com posterior cruzamento de dados com os da folha de registo de atividade do médico de urgência de pedopsiquiatria. A informação foi submetida a processamento estatístico (em SPSS®), com análise descritiva e correlação de variáveis.Resultados: Os nossos resultados mostram uma maior prevalência de adolescentes a recorrer ao serviço de urgência, predominantemente com idade superior a 15 anos, com alterações de comportamento, problemas de humor e episódios auto-lesivos. Verifica-se uma variabilidade mensal, com maior afluência em maio, outubro e novembro. Conclusões: Este resultados revelam haver uma grande afluência de crianças e adolescentes à urgência pedopsiquiátrica de Lisboa, muito superior a dados pontuais de anos anteriores. Devido à sua prevalência, os adolescentes mais velhos com patologias graves são o foco da nossa preocupação. São necessários mais estudos que permitam compreender as suas causas, consequências e as necessidades de mudança em prol da melhoria dos cuidados de saúde mental infantil.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sleep and energy intake in early childhood

Background And Objectives: Shorter sleep is associated with higher weight in children, but little is known about the mechanisms. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that shorter sleep was associated with higher energy intake in early childhood. Methods: Participants were 1303 families from the Gemini twin birth cohort. Sleep duration was measured using the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire when the children were 16 months old. Total energy intake (kcal per day) and grams per day of fat, carbohydrate and protein were derived from 3-day diet diaries completed by parents when children were 21 months old. Results: Shorter nighttime sleep was associated with higher total energy intake (P for linear trend=0.005). Children sleeping <10 h consumed around 50 kcal per day more than those sleeping 11–<12 h a night (the optimal sleep duration for children of this age). Differences in energy intake were maintained after adjustment for confounders. As a percentage of total energy intake, there were no significant differences in macronutrient intake by sleep duration. The association between sleep and weight was not significant at this age (P=0.13). Conclusions: This study provides the first evidence that shorter nighttime sleep duration has a linear association with higher energy intake early in life. That the effect is observed before emergence of associations between sleep and weight indicates that differences in energy intake may be a mechanism through which sleep influences weight gain