Because they are key components of aircraft, improving the safety, reliability and economy of engines is crucial. To ensure flight safety and reduce the cost of maintenance during aircraft engine operation, a prognostics and health management system that focuses on fault diagnosis, health assessment, and life prediction is introduced to solve the problems. Predicting the remaining useful life is the most important information for making decisions about aircraft engine operation and maintenance, and it relies largely on the selection of performance (...) degradation features. The choice of such features is highly significant, but there are some weaknesses in the current algorithm for RUL prediction, notably, the inability to obtain tendencies from the data. Especially with aircraft engines, extracting useful degradation features from multisensor data with complex correlations is a key technical problem that has hindered the implementation of degradation assessment. To solve these problems, deep learning has been proposed in recent years to exploit multiple layers of nonlinear information processing for unsupervised self-learning of features. This paper presents a deep learning approach to predict the RUL of an aircraft engine based on a stacked sparse autoencoder and logistic regression. The stacked sparse autoencoder is used to automatically extract performance degradation features from multiple sensors on the aircraft engine and to fuse multiple features through multilayer self-learning. Logistic regression is used to predict the remaining useful life. However, the hyperparameters of the deep learning, which significantly impact the feature extraction and prediction performance, are determined based on expert experience in most cases. The grid search method is introduced in this paper to optimize the hyperparameters of the proposed aircraft engine RUL prediction model. An application of this method of predicting the RUL of an aircraft engine with a benchmark dataset is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (shrink)

The behavior of somatic stem cells is regulated by their niche. Interaction between hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and their niches are a representative model to understand stem cell‐niche interplay. Here, we provide an overview of crosstalk between HSCs and their niches in bone marrow and extramedullary organs following the life journey of HSCs from emergence, development, maturation until aging. We highlight the unique differences of HSC niches in different life stages within various organs focusing on recent literature to propose new (...) speculations and hypotheses. (shrink)

Greenwashing has become a common way in which many enterprises address expectations related to corporate social responsibility. As an abnormal and fake type of social responsibility behavior, greenwashing causes many problems, thus highlighting the importance of exploring the impact of corporate greenwashing. However, previous studies have mainly examined the impacts of greenwashing on enterprises, industry, and society, and the impact of greenwashing on individual employee behavior, which is important with regard to the sustainability of the enterprise, remains limited. The main (...) purpose of this study is to explore how perceived greenwashing affects employee green behavior (EGB). Based on the stimulus–organism–response theory and social cognitive theory, a two-wave survey was conducted to investigate 232 Chinese enterprise employees. The impact of perceived greenwashing on EGB was analyzed. The mediating role of green organizational identity (GOI) and the moderating role of self-serving leadership in this context were examined. The results reveal that perceived greenwashing is negatively related to EGB. Furthermore, GOI mediates the direct relationship between perceived greenwashing and EGB. Self-serving leadership weakens the positive relationship between GOI and EGB. This study thus develops a theoretical model of greenwashing and EGB. It also provides empirical evidence that can support attempts to promote EGB. (shrink)

Objectives: To explore the effect of social support and ability perception on stress coping strategies for competitive stress, and to reveal the mediating effects of primary and secondary evaluation, so as to further improve the theoretical model of stress coping in soccer players.Methods: A total of 331 male athletes from 22 teams in the Chengdu Middle School Campus Football League were taken as survey samples, and surveys were conducted on their stress experience, social support, ability perception, cognitive assessment, and coping (...) strategies for competition stress. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical analysis software were used. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to process the obtained data.Results: Positive primary assessment acted as a full mediator in the relationship between social support and secondary assessments, and negative primary assessment acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between competence perception and secondary assessments; Secondary assessment played a partial mediating role between positive primary assessment and positive coping strategies, and a full mediating role between negative primary assessment and positive coping strategies; Secondary assessments played the mediator neither between social support and a coping strategy for stress nor competence perception and a coping strategy for stress; Positive primary assessment, positive negative assessment, and secondary assessment all had significant positive benefits for positive coping. Still, the impact of positive primary assessment on positive coping was significantly better than negative primary assessment and secondary assessment.Conclusion: The coping strategy for the competitive stress model proposed by this study has a very good fit for the causal model. It can be used to explain the observed data from soccer players in middle schools. The primary and secondary assessments play different roles in the model. The combination of problem focuses and emotional focus on the positive stress coping strategy is suitable in the field of competitive sports. Still, the relevant research results need to be further explored and verified in the future. (shrink)

This paper investigates the influence of board network centrality on corporate social responsibility decoupling. CSR decoupling refers to the gap between corporate internal and external actions in CSR practices. Specifically, we measure CSR decoupling as the difference between corporate social disclosure and corporate social performance. This paper uses a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms during 2009–2018, takes the technical dimension score and content dimension score of RKS ratings as proxies of CSD and CSP, and obtains CSR decoupling as the (...) difference between CSD and CSP. Our results show that board network centrality is positively related to over-decoupling in the pre-adoption period of the new environmental law but negatively related to over-decoupling in the post-adoption period and centrality is not related to under-decoupling in the pre-adoption period but a significantly positive related in the post-adoption period. Our finding reveals a complex role of the board network in CSR practices in China. (shrink)

The coevolution process enables organizations to adapt to and influence their external environment. Multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in dynamic foreign markets use this capability to achieve operational sustainability. MNCs in China operate in a changing stakeholder environment that features rising consumer activism and local stakeholders' persistent ethical problems and encounter recurrent consumer crises. Coevolving with this environment requires MNCs to react to consumer challenges and actively influence the environment by improving stakeholders’ ethical behavior. Based on the attention-based view and bounded (...) rationality studies, we propose that the tension between _expansion attention_ and _stakeholder attention_ hinders MNCs from coevolving with this environment. Our analysis of MNC-linked consumer crises in China reveals that MNCs can reduce the consumer crisis risk by maintaining continuous attention to improving the ethical behavior of local employees, suppliers, and dealers. In contrast, MNCs' rapid local expansion weakens this stakeholder's attention, expanding MNCs' crisis risk. Our findings reveal an attention-based constraint to MNCs' coevolution and inform approaches to overcoming this constraint. This paper also extends international attention studies by affirming the significance of matching the focus of attention with environmental change for MNCs’ operational sustainability in foreign markets. (shrink)

The vital role of reward in guiding visual attention has been supported by previous literatures. Here, we examined the motivational impact of monetary reward feedback stimuli on visual attention selection using an event-related potential component called stimulus-preceding negativity and a standard contextual cueing paradigm. It has been proposed that SPN reflects affective and motivational processing. We focused on whether incidentally learned context knowledge could be affected by reward. Both behavior and brain data demonstrated that contexts followed by reward feedback not (...) only gave rise to faster implicit learning but also obtained a larger CC effect. (shrink)

The growth of strawberry will be stressed by biological or abiotic factors, which will cause a great threat to the yield and quality of strawberry, in which various strawberry diseased. However, the traditional identification methods have high misjudgment rate and poor real-time performance. In today's era of increasing demand for strawberry yield and quality, it is obvious that the traditional strawberry disease identification methods mainly rely on personal experience and naked eye observation and cannot meet the needs of people for (...) strawberry disease identification and control. Therefore, it is necessary to find a more effective method to identify strawberry diseases efficiently and provide corresponding disease description and control methods. In this paper, based on the deep convolution neural network technology, the recognition of strawberry common diseases was studied, as well as a new method based on deep convolution neural network strawberry disease recognition algorithm, through the normal training of strawberry image feature representation in different scenes, and then through the application of transfer learning method, the strawberry disease image features are added to the training set, and finally the features are classified and recognized to achieve the goal of disease recognition. Moreover, attention mechanism and central damage function are introduced into the classical convolutional neural network to solve the problem that the information loss of key feature areas in the existing classification methods of convolutional neural network affects the classification effect, and further improves the accuracy of convolutional neural network in image classification. (shrink)

IntroductionTranscranial direct current stimulation is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that applied to modulate brain activity and enhance motor recovery. However, the neurobiological substrates underlying the effects of tDCS on brain function remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the central mechanisms of tDCS on improving the athletic performance of male rowing athletes.MethodsTwelve right-handed male professional rowing athletes received tDCS over the left primary motor cortex while undergoing regular training. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired before (...) and after tDCS. Measures of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and regional homogeneity were calculated and compared between baseline and follow-up, as well as topological measures including global and local efficiency of functional brain networks constructed by graph theoretical analysis.ResultsMale rowing athletes showed increased isokinetic muscle strength of the left knee and left shoulder after tDCS. Increased ALFF values were found in the right precentral gyrus of male rowing athletes after tDCS when compared with those before tDCS. In addition, male rowing athletes showed increased ReHo values in the left paracentral lobule following tDCS. Moreover, increased nodal global efficiency was identified in the left inferior frontal gyrus of male rowing athletes after tDCS.ConclusionThe findings suggested that simultaneous tDCS-induced excitation over the primary motor cortex might potentially improve the overall athletic performance in male rowing athletes through the right precentral gyrus and left paracentral lobule, as well as left inferior frontal gyrus. (shrink)

Conducting effective classroom dialog is an important foundation for high-quality classrooms. This study investigates the characteristics of effective classroom dialog from the perspective of Chinese mathematics classrooms. Classroom videotapes from 40 expert and 33 novice teachers were selected from a national project and analyzed through a developed coding framework. Results showed that the dominant types of dialog in expert teachers’ classrooms were related to Basic Knowledge, Construction, Analysis, and Personal Information. Compared to novice teachers, expert teachers’ classrooms have a significantly (...) lower proportion of dialog on Basic Knowledge and significantly higher proportions of dialog on Personal Information and Speculation. Based on expert teachers’ classrooms, the characteristics of effective classroom dialog in the Chinese context were discussed. The analytical framework for classroom dialog developed in this study could be a powerful tool for subsequent research. Suggestions are provided on increasing the effectiveness of classroom dialog. (shrink)

Female-entrepreneurship plays a significantly important role in rural areas of China today. In fact, it is a driving force behind inclusive economic development of the country as a whole. However, notably very little literature out there has focused on the impact of how widespread usage of information technology tools affects the mothers entrepreneurship in the outskirt regions. Here, in this paper, the authors attempt to explore the finer details of such an impact by utilizing the data from the 2017 China (...) Integrated Social Survey; along with the IV-Probit model to explore the transmission mechanism. Interestingly enough, it was discovered that Internet applications and tools do indeed increase entrepreneurship among women with children by a roughly 7.88%. In addition, this paper finds that the utilization of such “InfoTech” promote a continuous progress in entrepreneurship among those women with children who endeavor to start a self-managed enterprise in the less developed areas. Lastly, when looking the analysis of the transmission mechanism, this paper found that the role of Internet-usage in promoting rural mothers entrepreneurship was mainly through three factors – the gender equality effect, the information learning effect, and the financing effect. This accumulated data will be thoroughly presented here in the ensuing sections. (shrink)

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 has resulted in widespread university lockdown. However, impacts of the university lockdown on the learning and academic development of university students have not been thoroughly investigated. The current study examined college students’ changes of learning outcomes during the COVID-19 lockdown period and clarified what might explain individual differences in students’ learning outcomes after they had learned from home for a whole semester when universities were physically closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were (...) derived from a longitudinal study examining the development of college students including students’ academic achievement and critical thinking before and after the university lockdown. We observed significant decreases in critical thinking skills and dispositions from pre- to post-lockdown. Both perceived academic achievement and critical thinking exhibited greater variability after the lockdown. In addition, students’ readiness for online learning, especially their self-management skills, consistently predicted post-lockdown learning outcomes after controlling for pre-lockdown outcomes and family socioeconomic status. Those who have assumed more responsibilities at home, or who were more vulnerable to emotional distress during the pandemic, performed less well in post-lockdown learning outcomes. These findings call for better management of student learning and development when major changes are required in higher education practices for responding to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as well as other potential situations. (shrink)

Water saving irrigation is promoted as a strategy to mitigate future water stresses by the Chinese government and irrigation scientists. However, the dissemination of WSI in China has been slow and little is understood with respect to why farmers adopt WSI or how WSI interacts with the social and institutional contexts in which it is embedded. By analyzing qualitative data from 37 semi-structured and 56 unstructured interviews across 13 villages in northwest China, this paper examines smallholder farmers’ knowledge and perceptions (...) of WSI, and how WSI interacts with farmer livelihood decision-making and extant systems of land and water management. The results show that smallholders’ willingness to adopt and continuously use WSI was dampened by a lack of communal capital and measures for conflict resolution, a disconnect between the temporal demands of practicing WSI and the ways farmers prioritize different livelihood strategies, misconceptions about WSI systems and how they work, market risks, and landownership structure and economies of scale. These results suggest that programs for promoting WSI must be holistic in nature and address smallholders’ day-to-day problems. Understanding why WSI did not succeed in some places will help formulate policy interventions that avoid reproducing conflicts, risks, and technological malfunctions responsible for previous failure. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose to incorporate the local attention in WaveNet-CTC to improve the performance of Tibetan speech recognition in multitask learning. With an increase in task number, such as simultaneous Tibetan speech content recognition, dialect identification, and speaker recognition, the accuracy rate of a single WaveNet-CTC decreases on speech recognition. Inspired by the attention mechanism, we introduce the local attention to automatically tune the weights of feature frames in a window and pay different attention on context information for (...) multitask learning. The experimental results show that our method improves the accuracies of speech recognition for all Tibetan dialects in three-task learning, compared with the baseline model. Furthermore, our method significantly improves the accuracy for low-resource dialect by 5.11% against the specific-dialect model. (shrink)

The poor denoising effect for noisy grayscale images with traditional processing methods would be obtained under strong noise condition, and some image details would be lost. In this paper, a parallel array model of Fitzhugh–Nagumo neurons was proposed, which can restore noisy grayscale images well with low peak signal-to-noise ratio conditions and the image details are better preserved. Firstly, the row-column scanning method was used to convert the 2D grayscale image into a 1D signal, and then the 1D signal was (...) converted into a binary pulse amplitude modulation signal by signal modulation. The modulated signal was input to an FHN parallel array for stochastic resonance. Finally, the array output signal was restored to a 2D gray image, and the image restoration effect was analyzed based on the PSNR and Structural SIMilarity index. It is shown that the SR effect can be exhibited in an array of FHN neuron nonlinearities by increasing the array size, and the image restoration effect is significantly better than the traditional image restoration method, and larger PSNR and SSIM can be obtained. It provides a new idea for grayscale image restoration in a low PSNR environment. (shrink)

The energy hole is a severe problem for underwater acoustic distributed networks in that it affects the normal operations of the network and shortens the network’s life span. To deal with this problem, a loop-free routing control technique is proposed in this paper. The classical shortest-path routing control method is used to generate multiple disjointed routing tables. The residual energy of the nodes and the changing information of the uplink/downlink matrix are added to the data frames for distribution. The source (...) node specifies the routing path to transmit the data frames based on the changing information, and the relay nodes route the data frames strictly according to the routing path designated by the source node. Besides, the energy consumption of the relay node is saved by replying to the pseudo-ACK frame. Simulation experiments are implemented in four typical scenarios, and the results reflect that the proposed technique could extend the network’s life span by approximately 10% when compared to other mature techniques. Besides, it has no other negative effects on the normal operations of the network. (shrink)

Angle is an important concept in geometry. Young children have difficulty separating angle size from other dimensions such as the length of angle sides, perhaps due to whole-object bias in word learning. The present study used the pre-test–training–post-test design to investigate the effectiveness of two ways of separating angle from angle size in 3–6-year-old Chinese preschoolers. A total of 228 children were given a pre-test and 219 of them failed the crucial test. 168 of the 219 children were present at (...) school during the training phase and were randomly assigned to three groups: the “toma” group, which received training to call the whole angle figure as “toma” and angle size as angle size; the “angle/angle size” group, which received the training of separating “angle” from “angle size”; and the control group, which used “angle size” alone to represent both the overall angle figure and angle size. Results showed that the “toma” group improved significantly more than the other two groups, the latter of which did not differ from each other. These results suggest that it is insufficient to have two separate words/phrases for children to learn to differentiate angle from angle size, perhaps due to their shared usage of the word angle. Instead, the use of a novel term is necessary and sufficient to improve learning. Implications for preschool education are discussed. (shrink)

Clustering algorithm is one of the important research topics in the field of machine learning. Neutrosophic clustering is the generalization of fuzzy clustering and has been applied to many fields. This paper presents a new neutrosophic clustering algorithm with the help of regularization. Firstly, the regularization term is introduced into the FC-PFS algorithm to generate sparsity, which can reduce the complexity of the algorithm on large data sets. Secondly, we propose a method to simplify the process of determining regularization parameters. (...) Finally, experiments show that the clustering results of this algorithm on artificial data sets and real data sets are mostly better than other clustering algorithms. Our clustering algorithm is effective in most cases. (shrink)

The impostor phenomenon refers to a false internal experience of low intelligence or ability that is associated with anxiety, depression, psychological distress, and burnout. The emotions associated with the IP affect not only personal mental health but also patient care. To address this issue, we need to completely understand the prevalence of and factors related to the IP and ways to resolve/overcome IP feelings. The aim of this scoping review was to identify the existing evidence regarding the IP among nursing (...) students and nurses and determine gaps that can be addressed in future research. We conducted our study based on the scoping review methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and advanced by Levac et al.. After searching the Embase, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and ProQuest databases, we identified 11 studies for inclusion in this review. We found that while the IP exists in nursing students and nurses, clinical nurse specialist students and final-year nursing students are at significant risk of impostor behavior. We also found that research in the nursing field has focused on the prevalence of and factors related to the IP, but few studies have addressed ways to resolve/overcome IP feelings. Thus, research in this area should be increased. This scoping review presents research gaps that may serve as a starting point for future work on the IP in the nursing field. (shrink)

Background: We described the prevalence of anxiety and depression related to COVID-19 pandemic among different types of population and examined their potential risk factors.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect demographic characteristics, exposure histories, and many other concerns about COVID-19. The Zung's self-rating anxiety scale and self-rating depression scale, followed by a four-step multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with mental health outcomes.Results: Out of 3,303 participants, the quarantined people, community workstation staffs-policemen-volunteers and general public (...) reported higher percentages of depression than the general medical staff. Moreover, the quarantined people also showed higher prevalence of anxiety than the general public and the general medical staff. The quarantined people had the highest risk of anxiety and depression, whereas the self-rated health was negatively associated with the risks of anxiety and depression. Younger age group showed higher risks of anxiety and depression. People who had exposure history or contact from Hubei province after December 1, 2019, had family or friends engaged in front-line health care work, had confirmed case nearby were all more likely to suffer from anxiety. Moreover, the negligence or overindulgence toward the epidemic information was associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety.Conclusions: Our findings show that the CPV and quarantined people were most at-risk population. We have identified that the young people, people with exposure histories and negligence or overindulgence toward epidemic information are in grave need of attention. (shrink)

Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem services rises. Land regulation of the principles of landscape ecology is necessary to develop more sustainable approaches to land use planning. The research evaluated the present land patterns and determined best practices for its regulation of Dongwang Township in Quyang County, located in the Taihang Mountain area of Hebei Province, China. The research used the landscape ecology theory to construct an index system for landscape pattern analysis based (...) on the GIS and Fragstats 3.3 software. In this study, we examined the specific reasons that landscape ecology is superior to traditional methods in land consolidation planning and design, which is conducive to the comprehensive development of land ecological benefits. Landscape ecological planning can effectively reduce landscape fragmentation and improve intensive management. The result found that the descending order of the Shannon index was current landscape, landscape ecological planning, and traditional planning. Landscape ecological planning could protect the natural diversity than traditional planning. Landscape ecological planning enables the creation of long corridors, with higher densities and connectivity and lower average corridor widths than traditional planning. Besides, it can improve ecological service function values in the study area to varying degrees, thus discouraging residents from limiting themselves to grain production. This research has great potential to improve the visibility of ecosystem services in local land use planning and, thus, to improve the ecological functioning of future landscapes. (shrink)

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical and mental health of older adults has been threatened. Promoting physical and mental health through physical activity has therefore become a strategy for healthy aging. In order to better understand the impact of the participation of older adults in physical activity, this paper selects different types of physical activity, and examines the relationship between them and subjective well-being through the analysis of the mediation effect of outdoor exercise environment and the regulating (...) effect of exercise form. In this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire survey was conducted in mainland China. The main data come from 903 older adults in five urban areas in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The surveys were carried out using the Physical Activity Rating Scale, Newfoundland Subjective Well-Being Scale, Exercise Environment Scale, and Exercise Form Scale. SPSS was used for statistical analysis, linear regression analysis was adopted for processing data, and AMOS was used to establish a mediation model. The mediating variable is the outdoor exercise environment, and the moderating variable is exercise form; gender, age, education level, and monthly income were used as control variables. The study results showed that different physical activities were significantly, positively correlated with the subjective well-being of older adults ; among the activities, tai chi had the strongest effect on the subjective well-being of older adults. Outdoor exercise environment played a mediating role between different physical activity types and subjective well-being of older adults [tai chi: β = 0.030, 95% CI ; health qigong: β = 0.018, 95% CI ; walking and jogging: β = 0.034, 95% CI ]. Exercise form moderated the subjective well-being of older adults in different physical activities. The results of this study demonstrate that the outdoor exercise environment plays a mediating role between different physical activities and the subjective well-being of older adults, and the form of exercise can also moderate the impact of different physical activities on the subjective well-being of older adults. This study has enlightening significance for psychological intervention with older adults facing stress, anxiety and depression. (shrink)

The energy-limited time-varying formation control problem of second-order multiagent systems is addressed for both leaderless and leader-following communication topologies in this paper. Different from the previous results, the joint consideration of energy limitation and formation design is more challenging and practical. First, an ETVF control protocol is presented, and the total energy supply is pregiven and limited, which is more common in practical applications. Then, by an orthogonal transformation, the formation control problem is converted into the consensus stabilization problem for (...) second-order leaderless MAS, where sufficient conditions for the ETVF are derived by joint design of control gains and the total energy. At the same time, the explicit formula that forms the formation center function is obtained to depict the macroscopic movement of the multiagent system as a whole. Moreover, the proposed method is also extended to the leader-following communication structure. Finally, two examples are given to verify the effectiveness of our theoretical results. (shrink)

This study explores the relationship between individual birthplace [rural birthplace (RB) and urban birthplace (UB)] and consumer unethical behavior (CUB). As a result, CUB is verified to closely relate to individual birthplace, and those new urban residents with RB are found to behave more ethically than the patrimonial urban residents with UB in CUB4 (“no harm/no foul”). This study also finds that the differentiation of CUB between two categories of consumers is correlated with the personal moral ideology or Machiavellianism (MA) (...) functioning with varying degree, which idealism ideology is a main variable impacting on the unethical behaviors of the members born in the rural subculture while MA for those in the urban one. Additionally, the “no harm/no foul” (CUB4) and the “actively benefiting from a questionable action” (CUB3) in the list of CUBs are found to be more efficient in discriminating the two groups than the other two kinds, the “passively benefiting at the expense of others” (CUB2) and the “actively benefiting from an illegal activity” (CUB1). The results shed light on the roles of individual birthplace in influencing CUB and contribute to a better understanding on the effects of subculture on CUB. (shrink)

Math anxiety (MA) has been suggested to decrease the math performance of students. However, it remains unclear what factors moderate this relationship. The purpose of this study was to analyze the link between MA and math performance. Studies that explored the relationship between MA and math performance, conducted from 2000 to 2019 (84 samples, N = 8680), were identified and statistically integrated with a meta-analysis method. The results indicated a robust negative correlation between MA and math performance. Furthermore, regarding the (...) analysis of moderator variables, this negative link was stronger in the studies that involved Asian students, whereas it was the weakest in the studies that involved European students. Moreover, this negative link was stronger in the studies within a senior high school group, whereas it was the weakest in the studies within an elementary group. Finally, this negative link was strongest among studies that used a custom test and studies that assessed problem-solving skills. Potential explanations and implications for research and practice are discussed. (shrink)

Background and PurposeTranscranial direct current stimulation is an emerging non-invasive neuromodulation technique for focal epilepsy. Because epilepsy is a disease affecting the brain network, our study was aimed to evaluate and predict the treatment outcome of cathodal tDCS by analyzing the ctDCS-induced functional network alterations.MethodsEither the active 5-day, −1.0 mA, 20-min ctDCS or sham ctDCS targeting at the most active interictal epileptiform discharge regions was applied to 27 subjects suffering from focal epilepsy. The functional networks before and after ctDCS were (...) compared employing graph theoretical analysis based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging data. A support vector machine prediction model was built to predict the treatment outcome of ctDCS using the graph theoretical measures as markers.ResultsOur results revealed that the mean clustering coefficient and the global efficiency decreased significantly, as well as the characteristic path length and the mean shortest path length at the stimulation sites in the fMRI functional networks increased significantly after ctDCS only for the patients with response to the active ctDCS. Our prediction model achieved the mean prediction accuracy of 68.3% after the nested cross validation. The mean area under the receiver operating curve was 0.75, which showed good prediction performance.ConclusionThe study demonstrated that the response to ctDCS was related to the topological alterations in the functional networks of epilepsy patients detected by fMRI. The graph theoretical measures were promising for clinical prediction of ctDCS treatment outcome. (shrink)

BackgroundIndividuals who use methamphetamine for a long period of time may experience decreased inhibition and increased impulsivity. In order to reduce impulsivity or improve inhibitory control ability, high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has attracted much attention of researchers. Recent studies on addiction have shown that rTMS can stimulate different brain regions to produce different therapeutic effects. Recent work also suggests that HF-rTMS over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not affect the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder; while HF-rTMS over (...) left DLPFC could improve the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder and cigarette smokers. However, it should be noted that empirical studies applying HF-rTMS over left DLPFC of patients with MA use disorders are still lacking.MethodsTwenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS. In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.ResultsIn total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time. For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay, the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.ConclusionAdd-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness. (shrink)

This paper examines an aspect in Levinas’ thinking that has rarely been brought into scholarly discussion: How does Levinas consider the relation between non-Western cultures and Western intellectual tradition? First, I explicate the central notion of sense in Levinas’ essay “Meaning and Sense”. Sense is absolute and transcendent. It precedes and makes possible the meaning of all cultures. Second, I explore Levinas’ discussions of non-Western cultures in some of his essays and interviews. On these occasions, Levinas articulates the view that (...) there is an essential difference between non-Western cultures and Western tradition that is predominantly Judaeo-Greek. In the last section, I consider the role which Levinas’ notion of sense plays in his reflection on the relation between non-Western cultures and Western tradition. (shrink)

Why do people comply with coronavirus disease 2019 public health guidance? This study considers cultural-psychological foundations of variation in beliefs about motivations for such compliance. Specifically, we focused on beliefs about two sources of prosocial motivation: desire to protect others and obligation to society. Across two studies, we observed that the relative emphasis on the desire to protect others as an explanation for compliance was greater in the United States settings associated with cultural ecologies of abstracted independence than in Chinese (...) settings associated with cultural ecologies of embedded interdependence. We observed these patterns for explanations of psychological experience of both others and self, and for compliance with mandates for both social distancing and face masks. Discussion of results considers both practical implications for motivating compliance with public health guidance and theoretical implications for denaturalizing prevailing accounts of prosocial motivation. (shrink)

Machine learning is an increasingly significant part of modern healthcare, transforming the way clinical decisions are made and health resources are managed. These developme...

DNA–protein interactions are fundamental to many biological processes, including the regulation of gene expression. Determining the binding affinities of transcription factors (TFs) to different DNA sequences allows the quantitative modeling of transcriptional regulatory networks and has been a significant technical challenge in molecular biology for many years. A recent paper by Maerkl and Quake1 demonstrated the use of microfluidic technology for the analysis of DNA–protein interactions. An array of short DNA sequences was spotted onto a glass slide, which was then (...) covered with a microfluidic device allowing each spot to be within a chamber into which the flow of materials was controlled by valves. By trapping the DNA–protein complexes on the surface and measuring their concentrations microscopically, they could determine the binding affinity to a large number of DNA sequences that were varied systematically. They studied four TFs from the basic helix–loop–helix family of proteins, all of which bind to E‐box sites with the consensus CAnnTG (where “n” can be any base), and showed that variations in affinity for different sites allows each TF to regulate different genes. BioEssays 29:717–721, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In a congested large-scale subway network, the distribution of passenger flow in space-time dimension is very complex. Accurate estimation of passenger path choice is very important to understand the passenger flow distribution and even improve the operation service level. The availability of automated fare collection data, timetable, and network topology data opens up a new opportunity to study this topic based on multisource data. A probability model is proposed in this study to calculate the individual passenger’s path choice with multisource (...) data, in which the impact of the network time-varying state on passenger path choice is fully considered. First, according to the number and characteristics of OD candidate paths, the AFC data among special kinds of OD are selected to estimate the distribution of passengers’ walking time and waiting time of each platform. Then, based on the composition of path travel time, its real-time probability distribution is formulated with the distribution of walking time, waiting time, and in-vehicle time as parameters. Finally, a membership function is introduced to evaluate the dependence between passenger’s travel time and the real-time travel time distribution of each candidate path and take the path with the largest membership degree as passenger’s choice. Finally, a case study with Beijing Subway data is applied to verify the effectiveness of the model presented in this study. We have compared and analysed the path calculation results in which the time-varying characteristics of network state are considered or not. The results indicate that a passenger’s path choice behavior is affected by the network time-varying state, and our model can quantify the time-varying state and its impact on passenger path choice. (shrink)