Background: Physical exercises can affect executive function both acutely and chronically, with different mechanisms for each moment. Currently, only a few reviews have elaborated on the premise that different types of exercises have different mechanisms for improving executive function. Therefore, the primary purpose of our systematic review was to analyze the effects of acute and chronic exercises on executive function in children and adolescents.Objective: We identified acute and chronic exercise studies and randomized controlled trials of executive function in children and (...) adolescents that reported overall effect, heterogeneity, and publication bias of acute and chronic exercises on executive function.Methods: We searched for RCTs of exercise interventions in children and adolescents from databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang, from January 1 2009 to December 31 2019. We performed methodological quality evaluations on the included literature using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database Scale and graded evidence with a meta-analysis using Stata 12.0 software.Results: In total, 36 RCTs were included ; the overall results of the meta-analysis indicated that acute exercises significantly improved working memory = −0.72; 95% confidence interval −0.89 to −0.56; p < 0.001), inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, whereas chronic exercises significantly improved working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility.Conclusion: Acute and chronic exercises can effectively improve the executive function of children and adolescents. The effects on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility are considered as small effect sizes, while the effects on working memory are considered as moderate effect size. Limited by the quantity and quality of the included studies, the above conclusions need to be verified with more high-quality studies. (shrink)

The human brain shows neuroplastic adaptations induced by motor skill training. However, the description of the plastic architecture of the whole-brain network in resting-state is still limited. In the present study, we aimed to detect how motor training affected the density distribution of whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (FC) brain in fast-ball student-athletes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of student-athletes (SA), and non-athlete healthy controls (NC). The voxel-wise data-driven graph theory approach, namely global functional connectivity density (gFCD) mapping (...) was applied. The results showed that the SA group exhibited significantly decreased gFCD in brain regions centered at left triangular part of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), extending to opercular part of left IFG and middle frontal gyrus (MFG) compared with NC group. The findings supported the idea of an increased neural efficiency of athletes’ brain in the brain regions associated with attentional-motor modulation and executive control. Furthermore, the behavioral results demonstrated that in the SA group, faster executive control reaction time was associated with smaller gFCD values in left IFG. The findings implied that the motor skill training would decrease the numbers of FC in IFG to accelerate the execution control with high attentional demands, and focus the attention to the target detection the athletes are interested in. (shrink)

Prior research has demonstrated that the adverse consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic may go beyond its economic hardships and physical health concerns, having a significant influence on psychological distress for individuals under quarantine. Nevertheless, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring the risk and protective factors in the link between COVID-19 infection risk and psychological distress among young adults. Following a socioecological framework, the current study examines the moderating role of grit and social support in the association (...) between COVID-19 infection risk and depressive symptoms. A sample of 1,251 young adults under home quarantine was involved in this study, and they were asked to complete a set of self-reported questionnaires online. Results of a linear regression analysis exhibited that COVID-19 infection risk was positively associated with depressive symptoms in young adults in quarantine. Moreover, moderation analyses showed that this association was moderated by perseverance and social support. To be specific, for those reporting higher levels of social support, this linkage was not significantly positive; in contrast, for those reporting lower levels of social support, perseverance was a significant protective factor for depressive symptoms when young adults were exposed to a high infection risk of COVID-19. The current study suggests that greater social support is essential to helping young adults deal with possible negative emotions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, university-based counseling services should pay specific attention to those young adults with relatively insufficient social support resources and low levels of perseverance. (shrink)

According to the PubMed resource from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, over 750,000 scientific articles have been published in the ~5000 biomedical journals worldwide in the year 2007 alone. The vast majority of these publications include results from hypothesis-driven experimentation in overlapping biomedical research domains. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of information being generated by the biomedical research enterprise has made it virtually impossible for investigators to stay aware of the latest findings in their domain of interest, let alone to (...) be able to assimilate and mine data from related investigations for purposes of meta-analysis. While computers have the potential for assisting investigators in the extraction, management and analysis of these data, information contained in the traditional journal publication is still largely unstructured, free-text descriptions of study design, experimental application and results interpretation, making it difficult for computers to gain access to the content of what is being conveyed without significant manual intervention. In order to circumvent these roadblocks and make the most of the output from the biomedical research enterprise, a variety of related standards in knowledge representation are being developed, proposed and adopted in the biomedical community. In this chapter, we will explore the current status of efforts to develop minimum information standards for the representation of a biomedical experiment, ontologies composed of shared vocabularies assembled into subsumption hierarchical structures, and extensible relational data models that link the information components together in a machine-readable and human-useable framework for data mining purposes. (shrink)

The bamboo slip essay Hengxian 恒先 is historically valuable because it serves to further the ontological understanding and comprehension of issues related to the existence of the universe from the perspective of Laozi's Daoist thought. Hengxian explores important propositions such as how "Qi originated and activated itself and "they came out of the same source but differed in nature" from several aspects. The idea that "Hengxian is ' being' without any defmiteness" responds to the issue of the relationship of difference (...) and identity of all things in the world, and thus examines the interdependent relationships between subjects and objects. It proposes that humans can further understand the existence of the universe through cognitive activities and practices such as "analysis and comparison" in which objective realities are checked. The issues discussed in Hengxian are consistent with Laozi's Dao de jing, the works of Zhuangzi, Huangdi sijing 黄帝四经 (The Four Classics from the Emperor Yellow) and other Daoist works, and deserve significant attention. /// 摘要竹书 "恒先" 的历史价值在于以存在论的立场，深化了老子开创的道家思想 学说对于宇宙存在问题的认识理解。"恒先无有" 因通过 "气是自生自作" 与 "同 出而异性" 等重要命题的多方面阐释，回答了宇宙万物差别与同一关系问题，并且 以此为依据考察了主客体之间的依存关系，认为人类可以通过 "校比" 的认识实践 活动，与客观存在相对照检验，实现对宇宙存在的洞察。所论与老子 "道德经" 以 及庄学、"黄帝四经" 等多有一致之处，非常值得重视。. (shrink)

BackgroundSocial responsibility can motivate disaster relief nurses to devote themselves to safeguarding rights and interests of people when facing challenges that threaten public health. However, few studies focused on the relationship of moral courage, job-esteem, and social responsibility among disaster relief nurses.ObjectiveTo explore the influence of moral courage and job-esteem on the social responsibility in disaster relief nurses and clarify the relationship model between them.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 716 disaster relief nurses from 14 hospitals in central China through (...) an online survey, including moral courage scale, job-esteem scale, and social responsibility questionnaire. The data were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation, and the mechanism of the effect of moral courage and job-esteem on social responsibility was completed.Ethical considerationsThis study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (Approval Number: 2019016).ResultsDisaster relief nurses’ moral courage positively impacted social responsibility (r = 0.677, p < 0.01), and moral courage could affect social responsibility through the mediating role of job-esteem.ConclusionJob-esteem mediated between moral courage and social responsibility among disaster relief nurses. Nursing managers regular assessment of nurses’ moral courage and interventions such as meetings and workshops can reduce moral distress, foster morally courageous behavior, enhance job-esteem, and improve social responsibility performance among disaster relief nurses. (shrink)

G. Priest's anti-consistency argument (Priest 1979, 1984, 1987) and J. R. Lucas's anti-mechanist argument (Lucas 1961, 1968, 1970, 1984) both appeal to Gödel incompleteness. By way of refuting them, this paper defends the thesis of quartet compatibility, viz., that the logic of the mind can simultaneously be Gödel incomplete, consistent, mechanical, and recursion complete (capable of all means of recursion). A representational approach is pursued, which owes its origin to works by, among others, J. Myhill (1964), P. Benacerraf (1967), J. (...) Webb (1980, 1983) and M. Arbib (1987). It is shown that the fallacy shared by the two arguments under discussion lies in misidentifying two systems, the one for which the Gödel sentence is constructable and to be proved, and the other in which the Gödel sentence in question is indeed provable. It follows that the logic of the mind can surpass its own Gödelian limitation not by being inconsistent or non-mechanistic, but by being capable of representing stronger systems in itself; and so can a proper machine. The concepts of representational provability, representational maximality, formal system capacity, etc., are discussed. (shrink)

A core feature of drug-resistant epilepsy is hyperexcitability in the motor cortex, and low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a suitable treatment for seizures. However, the antiepileptic effect causing network reorganization has rarely been studied. Here, we assessed the impact of rTMS on functional network connectivity in resting functional networks and their relation to treatment response. Fourteen patients with medically intractable epilepsy received inhibitive rTMS with a figure-of-eight coil over the vertex for 10 days spread across two weeks. We designed (...) a 6-week follow-up phase divided into four time points to investigate FNC and rTMS-induced timing-dependent plasticity, such as seizure frequency and abnormal interictal discharges on electroencephalography. For psychiatric comorbidities, the Hamilton Depression Scale and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale were applied to measure depression and anxiety before and after rTMS. FNC was also compared to that of a cohort of 17 healthy control subjects. The after-effects of rTMS included all subjects that achieved the significant decrease rate of more than 50% in interictal epileptiform discharges and seizure frequency, 12 patients with the reduction rate above 50% compared to the baseline, as well as emotional improvements in depression and anxiety. In the analysis of RSNs, we found a higher synchronization between the sensorimotor network and posterior default-mode network in epileptic patients than in healthy controls. In contrast to pre-rTMS, the results demonstrated a weaker FNC between the anterior DMN and SMN after rTMS, while the FNC between the aDMN and dorsal attention network was greater. Importantly, the depressive score was anticorrelated with the FNC of the aDMN-SMN, which was markedly different in the good and bad response groups treated with rTMS. Based on the vertex suppression by rTMS, it is possible to achieve temporary clinical efficacy by modulating network reorganization in the DMN and SMN for patients with refractory epilepsy. (shrink)

Low frequency oscillation is an important attribute of human brain activity, and the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation is an effective method to reflect the characteristics of low frequency oscillation, which has been widely used in the treatment of brain diseases and other fields. However, due to the low accuracy of the current analysis methods for low frequency signal extraction of ALFF, we propose the Fourier-based synchrosqueezing transform, which is often used in the field of signal processing to extract the (...) ALFF of the low frequency power spectrum of the whole-time dimension. The low frequency characteristics of the extracted signal are compared with those of FSST and fast Fourier transform through the resting-state data. It is clear that the signal extracted by FSST has more low frequency characteristics, which is significantly different from FFT. (shrink)

The target article offers an important cautionary note on the interpretation of the heritability index. However, it does not directly address how culture and genes might interact. Here, we suggest that one allele of the dopamine D4 receptor gene promotes the acquisition of cultural values and practices and likely has coevolved with the human culture over the last 50,000 years.

The goal of this study is to investigate whether different types of structures and lexical tones of Chinese characters cause different processing fluency. In Experiment 1, participants’ explicit affective assessments of Chinese characters with different structures, frequencies, and lexical tones were analyzed. Results indicated that participants showed explicit preferences and dispreferences to different structures and lexical tones. In Experiment 2, participants’ implicit responses to different structures and lexical tones were investigated using a metaphor experimental paradigm. Results were consistent with the (...) major findings of Experiment 1. In Experiments 3 and 4, participants’ recognition of words of different structures and lexical tones were analyzed. Results revealed that participants had a better memory for Surround structure characters when stimuli were visually presented and for Tone 3 when stimuli were auditorily presented. Finally, the significance and implications of this study are discussed. (shrink)

This study investigates the strategies for learning Cantonese that are adopted by non-Chinese English-speaking ethnic minority university students in Hong Kong. The aim is to identify the challenges these students face in applying their strategies to learn Cantonese and to explore their learning experiences when implementing them. Drawing on questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews with 30 EM students at a university in Hong Kong, this study identifies these learners’ strategies, elicits their views on the use of these strategies and examines (...) their learning experiences. The findings suggest that EM students are “medium strategy users,” with social strategies being their most commonly used types of learning strategies, followed by compensation and metacognitive strategies. The more proficient Cantonese users tend to use metacognitive strategies that promote planning and are goal-oriented. Taken together, this study sheds light on the complex interplay of sociocultural variables in shaping EM university students’ Cantonese learning experience in Hong Kong. It also highlights the importance of analysing EM students’ linguistic repertoire and the local language ecology in understanding Cantonese learning in a multilingual context like Hong Kong. (shrink)

Brain structural covariance network can delineate the brain synchronized alterations in a long-range time period. It has been used in the research of cognition or neuropsychiatric disorders. Recently, causal analysis of structural covariance network, winner-take-all and cortex–subcortex covariance network, and modulation analysis of structural covariance network have expended the technology breadth of SCN. However, the lack of user-friendly software limited the further application of SCN for the research. In this work, we developed the graphical user interface toolkit of brain structural (...) covariance connectivity based on MATLAB platform. The software contained the analysis of SCN, CaSCN, MOD-SCN, and WTA-CSSCN. Also, the group comparison and result-showing modules were included in the software. Furthermore, a simple showing of demo dataset was presented in the work. We hope that the toolkit could help the researchers, especially clinical researchers, to do the brain covariance connectivity analysis in further work more easily. (shrink)

Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of Philosophy.

Dynamic multiobjective optimization problems bring more challenges for multiobjective evolutionary algorithm due to its time-varying characteristic. To handle this kind of DMOPs, this paper presents a dynamic MOEA with multiple response strategies based on linear environment detection, called DMOEA-LEM. In this approach, different types of environmental changes are estimated and then the corresponding response strategies are activated to generate an efficient initial population for the new environment. DMOEA-LEM not only detects whether the environmental changes but also estimates the types of (...) linear changes so that different prediction models can be selected to initialize the population when the environmental changes. To study the performance of DMOEA-LEM, a large number of test DMOPs are adopted and the experiments validate the advantages of our algorithm when compared to three state-of-the-art dynamic MOEAs. (shrink)

Online learning has received extensive attention in the field of education in the recent decade, especially after COVID-19 swept the globe in 2020. Online learning satisfaction has become the focal point of the research, since it is of vital significance to enhance online learning efficiency. This paper reviews the research on OLS from the dimensions of online learners, online instructors, online platforms and online instructional design to have a clear picture of factors affecting OLS. Based on the review of previous (...) studies, this mini review presents the prospect of future research on OLS and believes that breakthroughs on OLS research can be achieved by innovating research methods, expanding research subjects, and enriching research topics. OLS is a complicated dynamic system influenced by a diversity of factors, and it is worth more in-depth research by scholars and educators in future. (shrink)

文化的最後一級台階，最終極的成果，就是集體人格，也就是為靈魂找到故鄉，或者說，找到有故鄉的靈魂。而中國人的集體人格應該是什麼樣的呢？這個問題，既帶有歷史性、現實性，又帶有理想性。 與西方的「聖徒人格」、「紳士人格」、「騎士人格」、「靈修人格」、「浪人人格」、「牛仔人格」等不同，中國文化的集體人格模式，是「君子人格」。君子人格是龐大的中華民族在自身早期文化整合中的「最大公約數」。 從神話開始，埋藏著一個遙遠而深沉的夢，積澱成了一種潛意識的「原型」。 君子作為一種集體人格的雛形古已有之，卻又經過儒家的選擇、闡釋、提升，成了一種人格理想。 對中國文化而言，有了君子，什麼都有了；沒有君子，什麼都徒勞。 這也就是說，人格在文化上收納一切，沉澱一切，預示一切。 任何文化，都是前人對後代的遺囑。最好的遺囑，莫過於理想的預示。 後代應該成為什麼樣的人？中國文化由儒家作了理想性的回答：做個君子。 我一直認為，中國文化沒有淪喪的最終原因，是君子未死，人格未潰。 中國文化的延續，是君子人格的延續；中國文化的剛健，是君子人格的剛健；中國文化的缺憾，是君子人格的缺憾；中國文化的更新，是君子人格的更新。 如果說，文化最初的蹤影，是人的痕跡，那麼，文化的最後結晶，是人的歸屬。.

Yuan Dynasty was an era with austere political reality and thinking reality. As a result of despisement to ruling of different races, a large majority of scholars in Yuan Dynasty chose seclusion without other choice, but the “internal beauty” they pursued was amazingly unanimous, which was, without doubt, owing to the spirit of the mountains and forests. When they tried to find enjoyment in painting, they put their willpower in it, which was a spontaneous awareness of cultural spirit and was, (...) moreover, a peak experience of Chinese traditional culture. Achievement of Yuan Dynasty painting was impressive, and extended the aesthetic space of human beings. Thus, it enriched and development and manifestation connotation of landscape painting to a great extent, and would be engraved forever in the spiritual and cultural history of human beings. (shrink)

As a rapidly growing emerging capital market, China has attracted the attention of both investors and scholars. To alleviate the expectation of external users of listed companies’ financial statements to “discount” items in levels 2 and 3 of the fair value measurement, listed companies will treat these items as conditional conservatism. It refers to the conservatism of companies when confirming bad news of unrealized gains and losses sooner than confirming good news. A sample was selected for empirical analysis to verify (...) the existence of this relationship. The results are as follows: the higher the proportion of levels 2 and 3 fair value measurements, the stronger the conditional conservatism of the company’s profit and loss; the higher the proportion of cash holding of operating activities in a company’s operating profit and the higher the audit quality, the higher the proportion of levels 2 and 3 fair value hierarchy measurements, and the stronger the conditional conservatism of the company’s profit and loss; and the lesser the internal control defects in a company, the higher the proportion of levels 2 and 3 fair value hierarchy measurements, and the stronger the conditional conservatism of its profit and loss. The findings provide empirical evidence to identify listed companies adopting conditional conservatism to alleviate discounting expectations of fair value items of financial statements’ external users and provide a reference for improving the standards and regulation of listed companies. (shrink)

Innovation is considered to be a dominant cause for sustainable business success. Knowledge management and intellectual capital are powerful tools to promote innovation in the organization. Therefore, this study aims to explore the influence of knowledge management process and intellectual capital on innovation with the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation and moderating role of leader education level. Data were collected from a sample of 393 IT firms listed in the Pakistan Software Houses Association and applied a partial least squares structural (...) educational modeling technique. The results show that the knowledge management process and intellectual capital have a positive effect on innovation. Moreover, the study confirms that entrepreneurial orientation partially mediates the relationship between knowledge management and intellectual capital on innovation. Furthermore, the moderation effect of a leader’s education was confirmed for the knowledge management-innovation relationship whereas, the moderation effect of the leader’s education on intellectual capital and innovation relationship was insignificant. Recommendations for practitioners and future research directions were also discussed. (shrink)

Fully embracing previous achievements in the research of Taoist philosophy, this paper attempts to create a sound analysis and investigation of the value concern of Taoism and reconstruct a new set of Taoist philosophy conforming to the requirement of modern science from the perspective of modern philosophy. The author sincerely wishes that the preliminary understanding of the Taoist philosophy presented in this paper would contribute to the construction of the Taoist philosophy.

In the past half century, the research on emotions of foreign language learners has shifted the focus from an exclusive analysis of negative emotions to a more holistic study of both negative emotions and positive emotions, and currently to mediators of multiple emotions. Of the FLL’s negative emotions, foreign language anxiety attracts the most attention. Researchers have widely discussed the relationship between FLA and foreign language achievement, the influencing factors of FLA, the dynamicity of FLA as well as regulation and (...) intervention strategies of FLA. Foreign language enjoyment is the most heavily studied research subject on FLL’s positive emotions. Researchers generally focus on the influencing factors of FLE, the dynamicity of FLE and the relationship between FLE and FLA. With the implementation of holistic education, emotional intelligence, a mediator of multiple emotions of FLL, has been becoming a newly hot topic in the field of FLL’s emotions. By reviewing the previous studies, this paper proposes that the future research on FLL emotion needs to expand the research perspectives, enrich the research topics, and innovate the research methods. (shrink)