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Rejection sensitivity (RS) can be defined as the disposition of a person to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. Individuals with high RS are likely to suffer from mental disorders. The association between individual differences in RS and spontaneous neuronal activity at resting state has not yet been investigated. In this study, resting state data were used to investigate the relationship between RS and spontaneous neuronal activity in a large sample of healthy men (137) and women (172). The participants completed the rejection sensitivity questionnaire and underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and rejection sensitivity scores adjusted for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) was positively associated with RS. Furthermore, functional connectivity with the middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with RS when sgACC was used as the seed region. These findings suggest that the spontaneous neuronal activity of sgACC and its functional connectivity with the lateral prefrontal cortex which are involved in experiencing social exclusion and regulating negative emotions are associated with individual differences in RS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies found an association between mindfulness and forgiveness. However, the effects of self-construal on this association are still unclear. In the present study, self-reported forgiveness and a behavioral measure of forgiveness were used to explore the moderating effect of self-construal plays between mindfulness and forgiveness among 126 participants recruited based on their mindfulness scores. Results showed that participants with high level of mindfulness in the interdependent self-construal condition reported greater forgiveness and gave more money donations towards transgressors than those in the independent self-construal condition, while there is no significant difference between interdependent and independent self-construal groups among participants with low level of mindfulness. These findings suggest that self-construal moderates the relationship between mindfulness and interpersonal forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of building information modelling (BIM) has become a central topic to the improvement of the AECOO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner and Operator) industry around the world, to the point where the concept is being expanded into domains it was not originally conceived to address. Transitioning BIM into the domain of infrastructure projects has provided challenges and emphasized the constructor perspective of BIM. Therefore, this study aims to collect the relevant literature regarding BIM within the Infrastructure domain and its use from the constructor perspective to review and analyse the current industry positioning and research state of the art, with regards to the set criteria. The review highlighted a developing base of BIM for infrastructure. From the analysis, the related research gaps were identified regarding information integration, alignment of BIM processes to constructor business processes & the effective governance and value of information. From this a unique research strategy utilising a framework for information governance coupled with a graph based distributed data environment is outlined to further progress the integration and efficiency of AECOO Infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of the lighting environment inside the tunnel has a profound impact on the long-term operation of the tunnel. The existing field studies, full-scale experiments and simulation methods, mostly focus on the luminance level inside the tunnel, ignoring the effect of the luminaires and decorations from the visual perspective. This paper proposed a novel digital-twin-based integral method, including virtual world design (the virtual reality (VR) experiment and the numerical simulation) and real-world validation (the tunnel mock-up experiment and the field experiment), to improve the design of the luminaires and decorations in the interior zone of the tunnel. The VR experiment and numerical simulation in lighting software were firstly conducted to determine the lighting parameters. Then the obtained lighting scheme was tested and validated in the real scenarios, where tunnel mock-up experiments and field experiments were conducted respectively. According to the results from the numerical simulations and VR experiments, the double-side luminance scheme is more conducive to driving safety and once the power of the luminaires is excessive low, the driver's attention variation rate is also unsatisfied. Moreover, the use of the anti-collision lower-side luminaires enhances the luminance level of the road surface and the sidewall to a certain level. The obtained lighting scheme was applied in a newly built tunnel in Hangzhou. The statistics of accidents data indicate that the installed luminaires and decorations, which are obtained from virtual simulation, can provide a considerably safe lighting environment. Ten months of accident statistics show that the breakdown rate in this tunnel was only 10% of the similar tunnels, and the accident rate was only 3%, thus the safety and environmental performance have been proved to be significantly improved. • A digital-twin-based integral method was proposed to optimize the tunnel lighting environment. • Numerical simulation and VR experiments were conducted to determine the scheme of luminaires. • Mock-up and field tests were conducted to validate results obtained from virtual simulations. • Valuable guidance and references are provided for the tunnel lighting design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-stimulus oscillation activity in the brain continuously fluctuates, but it is correlated with subsequent behavioral and perceptual performance. Here, using fast Fourier transformation of pre-stimulus electroencephalograms, we explored how oscillatory power modulates the subsequent discrimination of perceived simultaneity from non-simultaneity in the audiovisual domain. We found that the over-scalp high beta (20–28 Hz), parieto-occipital low beta (14–20 Hz), and high gamma oscillations (55–80 Hz) were significantly stronger before audition-then-vision sequence when they were judged as simultaneous rather than non-simultaneous. In contrast, a broad range of oscillations, mainly the beta and gamma bands over a great part of the scalp were significantly weaker before vision-then-audition sequences when they were judged as simultaneous versus non-simultaneous. Moreover, for auditory-leading sequence, pre-stimulus beta and gamma oscillatory power successfully predicted subjects' reports of simultaneity on a trial-by-trial basis, with stronger activity resulting in more simultaneous judgments. These results indicate that ongoing fluctuations of beta and gamma oscillations can modulate subsequent perceived audiovisual simultaneity, but with an opposing pattern for auditory- and visual-leading sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the use of chitosan and its derivatives as flocculants in water treatment has received considerable attention due to their many advantages, including their widespread availability, environmental friendliness, biodegradability, and prominent structural features. However, it is a significant strategy for selection and design of the high-performance materials on the basis of their structure-activity relationships. Here we describe several of the chemical modification methods commonly used to prepare chitosan-based flocculants. These methods allow convenient control and adjustment of the structures of the obtained materials to meet the different practical requirements. The influence of structural elements of the chitosan-based flocculants on their flocculation properties are emphasized in this review by examining different flocculation mechanisms and their applications in the treatment of various wastewaters containing different pollutants (insoluble suspended colloids but also dissolved matters). Above all, the chitosan-based flocculants with proper structures by precise structure control bear great application potentials in water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has emphasised that an increasing number of enterprises need computation environments for executing HPC (High Performance Computing) applications. Rather than paying the cost of ownership and possess physical, fixed capacity clusters, enterprises can reserve or rent resources for undertaking the required tasks. With the emergence of new computation paradigms such as cloud computing it has become possible to solve a wider range of problems due to their capability to handle and process massive amounts of data. On the other hand, given the pressing regulatory requirement to reduce the carbon footprint of our built environment, significant researching efforts have been recently directed towards simulation-based building energy optimisation with the overall objective of reducing energy consumption. Energy optimisation in buildings represents a class of problems that requires significant computation resources and generally is a time consuming process especially when undertaken with building simulation software, such as EnergyPlus. In this paper we present how a HPC based cloud model can be efficiently used for running and deploying EnergyPlus simulation-based optimisation in order to fulfil a number of objectives related to energy consumption. We describe and evaluate the establishment of such an application-based environment, and consider a cost perspective to determine the efficiency over several cases we explore. This study identifies the following contributions: (i) a comprehensive examination of issues relevant to the HPC community, including performance, cost, user perspectives and range of user activities, (ii) a comparison of two different execution environments such as HTCondor and CometCloud and determine their effectiveness in supporting simulation-based optimisation and (iii) a detailed performance analysis to locate the limiting factors of these execution environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are responsible for the depletion of natural resources and agricultural lands, and 70% of global CO 2 emissions. There are significant risks to cities from the impacts of climate change in addition to existing vulnerabilities, primarily because of rapid urbanization. Urban design and development are generally considered as the instrument to shape the future of the city and they determine the pattern of a city's resource usage and resilience to change, from climate or otherwise. Cities are inherently dynamic and require the participation and engagement of their diverse stakeholders for the effective management of change, which enables wider stakeholder involvement and buy-in at various stages of the development process. Sustainability assessment of urban design and development is increasingly being seen as indispensable for informed decision-making. A sustainability assessment tool also acts as a driver for the uptake of sustainable pathways by recognizing excellence through their rating system and by creating a market demand for sustainable products and processes. This research reviews six widely used sustainability assessment tools for urban design and development: BREEAM Communities, LEED-ND, CASBEE-UD, SBTool PT –UP, Pearl Community Rating System (PCRS) and GSAS/QSAS, to identify, compare and contrast the aim, structure, assessment methodology, scoring, weighting and suitability for application in different geographical contexts. Strengths and weaknesses of each tool are critically discussed. The study highlights the disparity in local and international contexts for global sustainability assessment tools. Despite their similarities in aim on environmental aspects, differences exist in the relative importance and share of mandatory vs optional indicators in both environmental and social dimensions. PCRS and GSAS/QSAS are new incarnations, but have widely varying shares of mandatory indicators, at 45.4% and 11.36% respectively, compared to 30% in BREEAM Community. Considerations of economic and cultural aspects are only marginal in the reviewed sustainability assessment tools. However, the newly developed sustainability assessment tools such as GSAS/QSAS and PCRS diverge from their predecessors in their consideration of cultural aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]