Skeletal Muscle Health and Cognitive Function: A Narrative Review

Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function with advancing age. It involves both complex genetic and modifiable risk factors, such as lack of exercise, malnutrition and reduced neurological drive. Cognitive decline refers to diminished or impaired mental and/or intellectual functioning. Contracting skeletal muscle is a major source of neurotrophic factors, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which regulate synapses in the brain. Furthermore, skeletal muscle activity has important immune and redox effects that modify brain function and reduce muscle catabolism. The identification of common risk factors and underlying mechanisms for sarcopenia and cognition may allow the development of targeted interventions that slow or reverse sarcopenia and also certain forms of cognitive decline. However, the links between cognition and skeletal muscle have not been elucidated fully. This review provides a critical appraisal of the literature on the relationship between skeletal muscle health and cognition. The literature suggests that sarcopenia and cognitive decline share pathophysiological pathways. Ageing plays a role in both skeletal muscle deterioration and cognitive decline. Furthermore, lifestyle risk factors, such as physical inactivity, poor diet and smoking, are common to both disorders, so their potential role in the muscle–brain relationship warrants investigation.     

中国石油工业上游发展面临的挑战与未来科技攻关方向

石油和天然气是全球和中国最重要的一次能源。石油工业的生存发展是由油气资源、市场、技术和社会政治经济环境等要素决定的，其中，技术进步是最活跃和最关键的因素之一。中国已成为全球油气生产消费大国，中国石油工业上游的发展也高度依赖石油科技的进步。中国石油工业已形成了先进完整的理论技术研发和装备制造体系，支撑了油气产量持续稳产和增产。未来是中国社会经济发展的关键期，石油工业必将面对重大挑战与新的技术需求，大力实施国家创新战略，发展具有国际领先水平的新一代勘探开发理论技术，支撑油气产业发展，保障国家油气能源安全。中国石油工业上游在未来面临的重大挑战与技术需求包括：①满足中国未来现代化建设的巨大油气需求和保障油气供应安全，这当中必须加大中国油气勘探开发，同时进一步扩大全球及"一带一路"油气投资与生产；②实现中国石油长期稳产2×10⁸t/a以上；③实现中国天然气产量上升至3 000×10⁸m³/a并长期稳产；④发展海洋及深水油气勘探开发先进技术与装备；⑤形成新一代石油工程服务技术装备和数字化转型。中国石油工业上游未来的科技攻关方向和研发重点包括：①先进的石油大幅度提高采收率技术；②大气田勘探与复杂气田提高采收率技术；③非常规油气勘探开发技术；④海洋及深水油气勘探开发技术及装备；⑤"一带一路"油气勘探开发技术；⑥新一代石油工程服务技术装备和数字化转型。     

A Tradeoff Between Accuracy and Speed for K-Means Seed Determination

With a sharp increase in the information volume, analyzing and retrieving this vast data volume is much more essential than ever. One of the main techniques that would be beneficial in this regard is called the Clustering method. Clustering aims to classify objects so that all objects within a cluster have similar features while other objects in different clusters are as distinct as possible. One of the most widely used clustering algorithms with the well and approved performance in different applications is the k-means algorithm. The main problem of the k-means algorithm is its performance which can be directly affected by the selection in the primary clusters. Lack of attention to this crucial issue has consequences such as creating empty clusters and decreasing the convergence time. Besides, the selection of appropriate initial seeds can reduce the cluster’s inconsistency. In this paper, we present a new method to determine the initial seeds of the k-mean algorithm to improve the accuracy and decrease the number of iterations of the algorithm. For this purpose, a new method is proposed considering the average distance between objects to determine the initial seeds. Our method attempts to provide a proper tradeoff between the accuracy and speed of the clustering algorithm. The experimental results showed that our proposed approach outperforms the Chithra with 1.7% and 2.1% in terms of clustering accuracy for Wine and Abalone detection data, respectively. Furthermore, achieved results indicate that comparing with the Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) search approach, the proposed method has a higher convergence speed.     

Training visual attention in a naturalistic visual environment

The efficiency of training visual attention in the central and peripheral visual field was investigated by means of a visual detection task that was performed in a naturalistic visual environment including numerous, time-varying visual distractors. We investigated the minimum number of repetitions of the training required to obtain the top performance and whether intra-day training improved performance as efficiently as inter-day training. Additionally, our research aimed to find out whether exposure to a demanding task such as a microsurgical intervention may cancel out the effects of training.

Results showed that performance in visual attention peaked within three (for tasks in the central visual field) to seven (for tasks in the periphery) days subsequent to training. Intra-day training had no significant effect on performance. When attention training was administered after exposure to stress, improvement of attentional performance was more pronounced than when training was completed before the exposure. Our findings support the implementation of training in situ at work for more efficient results.

Practitioner Summary: Visual attention is important in an increasing number of workplaces, such as with surveillance, inspection, or driving. This study shows that it is possible to train visual attention efficiently within three to seven days. Because our study was executed in a naturalistic environment, training results are more likely to reflect the effects in the real workplace.     

Crowdwork platform governance toward organizational value creation

Crowdwork, a new form of digitally mediated employment and part of the so-called gig economy, has the capacity to change the nature of work organization and to provide strategic value to workers, job providers, and intermediary platform owners. However, because crowdwork is temporary, large-scale, distributed, and mediated, its governance remains a challenge that often casts a shadow over its strategic value. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the making of value-adding crowdwork arrangements. Specifically, the paper explores crowdwork platform governance mechanisms and the relationships between these mechanisms and organizational value creation. Building on a comprehensive review of the extant literature on governance and crowdwork, we construct an overarching conceptual model that integrates control system and coordination system as two complementary mechanisms that drive crowdwork platform governance effectiveness and the consequent job provider benefits. Furthermore, the model accentuates the role of the degree of centralization and the degree of routinization as critical moderators in crowdwork platform governance. Overall, the paper highlights the potential of crowdwork to contribute not only to inclusion, fair wages and flexible work arrangements for workers but also to organizations’ value and competitive edge.     

Two-level intelligent modeling method for the rate of penetration in complex geological drilling process

The rate of penetration (ROP) model is of great importance in achieving a high efficiency in the complex geological drilling process. In this paper, a novel two-level intelligent modeling method is proposed for the ROP considering the drilling characteristics of data incompleteness, couplings, and strong nonlinearities. Firstly, a piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation method is introduced to complete the lost drilling data. Then, a formation drillability (FD) fusion submodel is established by using Nadaboost extreme learning machine (Nadaboost-ELM) algorithm, and the mutual information method is used to obtain the parameters, strongly correlated with the ROP. Finally, a ROP submodel is established by a neural network with radial basis function optimized by the improved particle swarm optimization (RBFNN-IPSO). This two-level ROP model is applied to a real drilling process and the proposed method shows the best performance in ROP prediction as compared with conventional methods. The proposed ROP model provides the basis for intelligent optimization and control in the complex geological drilling process.     

新时代多学科诊疗模式中放射科医生的价值

伴随着医疗体系的改革,放射科医生的工作模式正在发生变化,由既往仅书写大量的放射影像报告转变为多学科诊疗团队的核心成员,在患者安全和医疗质量、教育、科普宣传、临床科学研究及卫生经济学等层面均发挥着重要作用。多学科诊疗模式为放射科医生提供了向临床各科室、患者、医疗机构和社会展现自我价值的重要机会。     

Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering

Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering, the studies related to risk analysis methodology, design, and operational management, physical phenomena, and emergency preparedness and nuclear security, have been progressed. Especially, ‘risk analysis methodology’ and ‘design and operational management’ are the main categories of the field, in which more than half of published articles on Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology are related to these categories.     

Predicting employee information security policy compliance on a daily basis: The interplay of security-related stress,emotions, and neutralization

We conceptualized security-related stress (SRS) and proposed a theoretical model linking SRS, discrete emotions, coping response, and information security policy (ISP) compliance. We used an experience sampling design, wherein 138 professionals completed surveys. We observed that SRS had a positive association with frustration and fatigue, and these negative emotions were associated with neutralization of ISP violations. Additionally, frustration and fatigue make employees more likely to follow through on their rationalizations of ISP violations by decreased ISP compliance. Our findings provide evidence that neutralization is not a completely stable phenomenon but can vary within individuals from one time point to another.     

Weighted power means of q-rung orthopair fuzzy information and their applications in multiattribute decision making

Weighted power means with weights and exponents serving as their parameters are generalizations of arithmetic means. Taking into account decision makers' flexibility in decision making, each attribute value is usually expressed by a $q$-rung orthopair fuzzy value ($q$-ROFV, $q\ge 1$), where the former indicates the support for membership, the latter support against membership, and the sum of their $q$th powers is bounded by one. In this paper, we propose the weighted power means of $q$-rung orthopair fuzzy values to enrich and flourish aggregations on $q$-ROFVs. First, the $q$-rung orthopair fuzzy weighted power mean operator is presented, and its boundedness is precisely characterized in terms of the power exponent. Then, the $q$-rung orthopair fuzzy ordered weighted power mean operator is introduced, and some of its fundamental properties are investigated in detail. Finally, a novel multiattribute decision making method is explored based on developed operators under the $q$-rung orthopair fuzzy environment. A numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed approach, and it is shown that the power exponent is an index suggesting the degree of the optimism of decision makers.