Integrating cognitive, motivational, and emotional self-regulation in early stage entrepreneurs

Self-regulation refers to the regulation of the self by the self, and requires a change to bring thinking and behaviour into accord with some consciously desired goal (Forgas, Baumeister & Tice, 2009). The primary objective of this research was to advance theorising and research in this field. The model of self-regulatory processes developed in the present research builds on past research and theory across the spectrum of psychological research on self-regulation, and integrates cognitive, motivational and emotional aspects, as they manifest in distal and proximal ways, and across the phases of the action process. The model draws on: Heckhausen’s (1991) Rubicon Model; Frese’s (Frese & Zapf, 1994; Frese, 2007) Action Theory; Locke and Latham’s (1990, 2000) Goal-Setting Theory; Kanfer’s (1992) proximal-distal distinction in classifying motivation theories; Kehr’s (2004) Model of Work Motivation and Volition; DeShon and Gillespie’s (2005) Motivated Action Theory; Carver and Scheier’s (2000, 2009) Control Theory; Bagozzi, Baumgartner and Pieters (1998) Model of Goal-Directed Emotions; Gross and John’s (2003) Model of Emotion Regulation; and Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Model of Coping. The model provides a more complete picture of the aspects of the self and the task that individuals regulate in achievement contexts. More specifically, the model was tested in an entrepreneurial context, typically characterised by high autonomy, and where the entrepreneur has responsibility for managing both themselves and their venture to achieve success. The choice to examine self-regulatory mechanisms in entrepreneurs was based on the idea that “people with good self-control do better than others” (Forgas, Baumeister & Tice, 2009; p. 5). Hence, the second objective of the research was to examine the way in which early-stage entrepreneurs engage self-regulatory processes to aid success. The study adopted a mixed-methods design, utilising an interview and questionnaire, integrated during data analysis. Seventy five entrepreneurs took part. Motivational variables included entrepreneurial orientations, personal initiative, domain specific efficacy, and work engagement. Cognitive variables included goal orientations, goal-setting, planning and taking goal-directed action. Emotional variables included emotion regulation, anticipatory emotions and coping strategies. Three measures of goal attainment were used: an objective measure, an external evaluation, and the individual’s self-perceptions of success, all assessed using multi-item scales. The results confirmed the proximal-distal nature of the self-regulatory processes. For each path (cognitive, motivational and emotional), the results demonstrated clearly that the more distal variables predicted the more proximal variables, but cross-prediction between the paths (e.g. cognitive predicting motivational or emotional, motivational predicting cognitive or emotional etc.) were somewhat more mixed. The cognitive variables had the largest impact on entrepreneurial success, demonstrating an effect on all three success variables. The motivational and emotional variables had an impact only on self-perceptions of success. The results provide insights into the self-regulatory mechanisms relevant for entrepreneurial success. The model provides a more complete integration of self-regulatory concepts than has been observed previously. Examining self-regulation within the entrepreneurial context allows for the disparate psychological perspectives on entrepreneurship to be discussed using a common framework (e.g. entrepreneurial personality; Rauch & Frese, 2007a,b; motivational and cognitive approaches; Locke & Baum, 2007; Busenitz & Arthurs, 2007; process perspective, Baron, 2007, 2008; competence approach, Markman, 2007). Practically, this research points to the meta-skills pertinent to entrepreneurial success that can be trained. Furthermore, future applications of such research are pertinent for employees as they operate in increasingly dynamic and autonomous working environments

White Matter Tract Covariance Patterns Predict Age-Declining Cognitive Abilities

Previous studies investigating the relationship of white matter (WM) integrity to cognitive abilities and aging have either focused on a global measure or a few selected WM tracts. Ideally, contribution from all of the WM tracts should be evaluated at the same time. However, the high collinearity among WM tracts precludes systematic examination of WM tracts simultaneously without sacrificing statistical power due to stringent multiple-comparison corrections. Multivariate covariance techniques enable comprehensive simultaneous examination of all WM tracts without being penalized for high collinearity among observations. METHOD: In this study, Scaled Subprofile Modeling (SSM) was applied to the mean integrity of 18 major WM tracts to extract covariance patterns that optimally predicted four cognitive abilities (perceptual speed, episodic memory, fluid reasoning, and vocabulary) in 346 participants across ages 20 to 79years old. Using expression of the covariance patterns, age-independent effects of white matter integrity on cognition and the indirect effect of WM integrity on age-related differences in cognition were tested separately, but inferences from the indirect analyses were cautiously made given that cross-sectional data set was used in the analysis. RESULTS: A separate covariance pattern was identified that significantly predicted each cognitive ability after controlling for age except for vocabulary, but the age by WM covariance pattern interaction was not significant for any of the three abilities. Furthermore, each of the patterns mediated the effect of age on the respective cognitive ability. A distinct set of WM tracts was most influential in each of the three patterns. The WM covariance pattern accounting for fluid reasoning showed the most number of influential WM tracts whereas the episodic memory pattern showed the least number. CONCLUSION: Specific patterns of WM tracts make significant contributions to the age-related differences in perceptual speed, episodic memory, and fluid reasoning but not vocabulary. Other measures of brain health will need to be explored to reveal the major influences on the vocabulary ability

Functional Network Mediates Age-Related Differences in Reaction Time: A Replication and Extension Study

INTRODUCTION: A functional activation (i.e., ordinal trend) pattern was previously identified in both young and older adults during task-switching performance, the expression of which correlated with reaction time. The current study aimed to (1) replicate this functional activation pattern in a new group of fMRI activation data, and (2) extend the previous study by specifically examining whether the effect of aging on reaction time can be explained by differences in the activation of the functional activation pattern. METHOD: A total of 47 young and 50 older participants were included in the extension analysis. Participants performed task-switching as the activation task and were cued by the color of the stimulus for the task to be performed in each block. To test for replication, two approaches were implemented. The first approach tested the replicability of the predictive power of the previously identified functional activation pattern by forward applying the pattern to the Study II data and the second approach was rederivation of the activation pattern in the Study II data. RESULTS: Both approaches showed successful replication in the new data set. Using mediation analysis, expression of the pattern from the first approach was found to partially mediate age-related effects on reaction time such that older age was associated with greater activation of the brain pattern and longer reaction time, suggesting that brain activation efficiency (defined as "the rate of activation increase with increasing task difficulty" in Neuropsychologia 47, 2009, 2015) of the regions in the Ordinal trend pattern directly accounts for age-related differences in task performance. DISCUSSION: The successful replication of the functional activation pattern demonstrates the versatility of the Ordinal Trend Canonical Variates Analysis, and the ability to summarize each participant's brain activation map into one number provides a useful metric in multimodal analysis as well as cross-study comparisons

The development and validation of the Virtual Tissue Matrix, a software application that facilitates the review of tissue microarrays on line

BACKGROUND: The Tissue Microarray (TMA) facilitates high-throughput analysis of hundreds of tissue specimens simultaneously. However, bottlenecks in the storage and manipulation of the data generated from TMA reviews have become apparent. A number of software applications have been developed to assist in image and data management; however no solution currently facilitates the easy online review, scoring and subsequent storage of images and data associated with TMA experimentation. RESULTS: This paper describes the design, development and validation of the Virtual Tissue Matrix (VTM). Through an intuitive HTML driven user interface, the VTM provides digital/virtual slide based images of each TMA core and a means to record observations on each TMA spot. Data generated from a TMA review is stored in an associated relational database, which facilitates the use of flexible scoring forms. The system allows multiple users to record their interpretation of each TMA spot for any parameters assessed. Images generated for the VTM were captured using a standard background lighting intensity and corrective algorithms were applied to each image to eliminate any background lighting hue inconsistencies or vignetting. Validation of the VTM involved examination of inter-and intra-observer variability between microscope and digital TMA reviews. Six bladder TMAs were immunohistochemically stained for E-Cadherin, β-Catenin and PhosphoMet and were assessed by two reviewers for the amount of core and tumour present, the amount and intensity of membrane, cytoplasmic and nuclear staining. CONCLUSION: Results show that digital VTM images are representative of the original tissue viewed with a microscope. There were equivalent levels of inter-and intra-observer agreement for five out of the eight parameters assessed. Results also suggest that digital reviews may correct potential problems experienced when reviewing TMAs using a microscope, for example, removal of background lighting variance and tint, and potential disorientation of the reviewer, which may have resulted in the discrepancies evident in the remaining three parameters

Dynamic Patterns of Brain Structure-Behavior Correlation across the Lifespan

Although the brain/behavior correlation is one of the premises of cognitive neuroscience, there is still no consensus about the relationship between brain measures and cognitive function, and only little is known about the effect of age on this relationship. We investigated the age-associated variations on the spatial patterns of cortical thickness correlates of four cognitive domains. We showed that the spatial distribution of the cortical thickness correlates of each cognitive domain is distinctive and depicts varying age-association differences across the adult lifespan. Specifically, the present study provides evidence that distinct cognitive domains are associated with unique structural patterns in three adulthood periods: Early, middle, and late adulthood. These findings suggest a dynamic interaction between multiple neural substrates supporting each cognitive domain across the adult lifespan

Prognostic performance of TNM8 staging rules in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Two major changes to the staging of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) were adopted in TNM8: (1) depth of invasion is now used for T staging and (2) extranodal extension for N staging. The aim of this study was to evaluate if TNM8 stratifies OCSCC patients more accurately than TNM7 based on overall survival (OS) statistics and hazard discrimination. Methods: Retrospective study of 297 patients with OCSCC who underwent surgery at our institution. Clinical and pathological data were previously populated from review of medical charts and histological reports. Slides were re-reviewed for depth of invasion measurements. Patients were staged using both TNM7 and TNM8 with overall survival statistics analysed. Results: Overall 118 patients (39.7%) were upstaged using TNM8. Both TNM7 and TNM8 stage categories were highly significant for OS (all p values < 0.0001). Hazard discrimination analysis showed that TNM7 could only differentiate stage III from stage IV disease with significance (OS p = 0.01). In comparison TNM8 could distinguish between stage II and III disease (OS p = 0.047) and between stage III and IV disease (OS p = 0.004). Subsite analysis suggested that both editions of the staging system perform best for tongue primaries. Conclusions: Although TNM8 showed improved hazard discrimination in comparison to TNM7, problems with discriminative ability persisted with 8th edition staging criteria. Large scale validation studies will be required to direct future refinement of the staging rules and to establish if the continued use of a single staging system for all oral cavity subsites is appropriate

Differences between Chronological and Brain Age Are Related to Education and Self-Reported Physical Activity

This study investigated the relationship between education and physical activity and the difference between a physiological prediction of age and chronological age (CA). Cortical and subcortical gray matter regional volumes were calculated from 331 healthy adults (range: 19-79 years). Multivariate analyses identified a covariance pattern of brain volumes best predicting CA (R(2) = 47%). Individual expression of this brain pattern served as a physiologic measure of brain age (BA). The difference between CA and BA was predicted by education and self-report measures of physical activity. Education and the daily number of flights of stairs climbed (FOSC) were the only 2 significant predictors of decreased BA. Effect sizes demonstrated that BA decreased by 0.95 years for each year of education and by 0.58 years for 1 additional FOSC daily. Effects of education and FOSC on regional brain volume were largely driven by temporal and subcortical volumes. These results demonstrate that higher levels of education and daily FOSC are related to larger brain volume than predicted by CA which supports the utility of regional gray matter volume as a biomarker of healthy brain aging

Prevalence and architecture of de novo mutations in developmental disorders.

The genomes of individuals with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders are enriched in damaging de novo mutations (DNMs) in developmentally important genes. Here we have sequenced the exomes of 4,293 families containing individuals with developmental disorders, and meta-analysed these data with data from another 3,287 individuals with similar disorders. We show that the most important factors influencing the diagnostic yield of DNMs are the sex of the affected individual, the relatedness of their parents, whether close relatives are affected and the parental ages. We identified 94 genes enriched in damaging DNMs, including 14 that previously lacked compelling evidence of involvement in developmental disorders. We have also characterized the phenotypic diversity among these disorders. We estimate that 42% of our cohort carry pathogenic DNMs in coding sequences; approximately half of these DNMs disrupt gene function and the remainder result in altered protein function. We estimate that developmental disorders caused by DNMs have an average prevalence of 1 in 213 to 1 in 448 births, depending on parental age. Given current global demographics, this equates to almost 400,000 children born per year

Creative destruction in science

Drawing on the concept of a gale of creative destruction in a capitalistic economy, we argue that initiatives to assess the robustness of findings in the organizational literature should aim to simultaneously test competing ideas operating in the same theoretical space. In other words, replication efforts should seek not just to support or question the original findings, but also to replace them with revised, stronger theories with greater explanatory power. Achieving this will typically require adding new measures, conditions, and subject populations to research designs, in order to carry out conceptual tests of multiple theories in addition to directly replicating the original findings. To illustrate the value of the creative destruction approach for theory pruning in organizational scholarship, we describe recent replication initiatives re-examining culture and work morality, working parents\u2019 reasoning about day care options, and gender discrimination in hiring decisions. Significance statement It is becoming increasingly clear that many, if not most, published research findings across scientific fields are not readily replicable when the same method is repeated. Although extremely valuable, failed replications risk leaving a theoretical void\u2014 reducing confidence the original theoretical prediction is true, but not replacing it with positive evidence in favor of an alternative theory. We introduce the creative destruction approach to replication, which combines theory pruning methods from the field of management with emerging best practices from the open science movement, with the aim of making replications as generative as possible. In effect, we advocate for a Replication 2.0 movement in which the goal shifts from checking on the reliability of past findings to actively engaging in competitive theory testing and theory building. Scientific transparency statement The materials, code, and data for this article are posted publicly on the Open Science Framework, with links provided in the article

Bi-allelic Loss-of-Function CACNA1B Mutations in Progressive Epilepsy-Dyskinesia.

The occurrence of non-epileptic hyperkinetic movements in the context of developmental epileptic encephalopathies is an increasingly recognized phenomenon. Identification of causative mutations provides an important insight into common pathogenic mechanisms that cause both seizures and abnormal motor control. We report bi-allelic loss-of-function CACNA1B variants in six children from three unrelated families whose affected members present with a complex and progressive neurological syndrome. All affected individuals presented with epileptic encephalopathy, severe neurodevelopmental delay (often with regression), and a hyperkinetic movement disorder. Additional neurological features included postnatal microcephaly and hypotonia. Five children died in childhood or adolescence (mean age of death: 9 years), mainly as a result of secondary respiratory complications. CACNA1B encodes the pore-forming subunit of the pre-synaptic neuronal voltage-gated calcium channel Cav2.2/N-type, crucial for SNARE-mediated neurotransmission, particularly in the early postnatal period. Bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in CACNA1B are predicted to cause disruption of Ca2+ influx, leading to impaired synaptic neurotransmission. The resultant effect on neuronal function is likely to be important in the development of involuntary movements and epilepsy. Overall, our findings provide further evidence for the key role of Cav2.2 in normal human neurodevelopment.MAK is funded by an NIHR Research Professorship and receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, and Rosetrees Trust. E.M. received funding from the Rosetrees Trust (CD-A53) and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. K.G. received funding from Temple Street Foundation. A.M. is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and Biomedical Research Centre. F.L.R. and D.G. are funded by Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. K.C. and A.S.J. are funded by NIHR Bioresource for Rare Diseases. The DDD Study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant number HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (grant number WT098051). We acknowledge support from the UK Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. This research was also supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. J.H.C. is in receipt of an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The research team acknowledges the support of the NIHR through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, Department of Health, or Wellcome Trust. E.R.M. acknowledges support from NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, an NIHR Senior Investigator Award, and the University of Cambridge has received salary support in respect of E.R.M. from the NHS in the East of England through the Clinical Academic Reserve. I.E.S. is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Program Grant and Practitioner Fellowship)