Connecting the dots: Exploring brain connectivity during responsibility recognition in construction contract negotiations.

Despite recent advancements in monitoring brain activity, causal relationships within the brain during responsibility identification in construction contracts remain unexplored. We aimed to understand the neural mechanisms involved in the cognitive components and their interactions related to contract text reading by delving into the brain mechanisms of contract responsibility identification. This study investigated students' brain connectivity using electroencephalography (EEG) data during a text-based contract responsibility-identification task. It employed an adaptive directed transfer function based on Granger causality to simulate directed and time-varying information flow in observed brain activity. We evaluated the EEG records of 18 participants under two reading conditions (involving or not involving contractor responsibility). During responsibility identification, the most substantial information exchange occurs in the somatosensory area of the brain. The results revealed a "top-down" cortical mechanism for responsibility identification, with the left parietal-occipital area (PO3) as the central hub promoting connectivity structures. These findings indicate that the perceptual processing of contract responsibility texts is associated with higher visual learning and memory quality. Contracts without contractor-responsibility clauses resulted in more substantial information flow output in the frontal cortex and consumed more cognitive resources. Our findings advance the understanding of cognitive processes involved in contract responsibility identification, providing a framework for investigating causal relationships within the brain and novel insights into cortical mechanisms. By identifying the neural basis of responsibility identification, stakeholders can develop effective training programs for negotiators and enhance their ability to interpret and implement construction contracts.

Mitochondrial protein and organelle quality control-Lessons from budding yeast.

Mitochondria are essential for normal cellular function and have emerged as key aging determinants. Indeed, defects in mitochondrial function have been linked to cardiovascular, skeletal muscle and neurodegenerative diseases, premature aging, and age-linked diseases. Here, we describe mechanisms for mitochondrial protein and organelle quality control. These surveillance mechanisms mediate repair or degradation of damaged or mistargeted mitochondrial proteins, segregate mitochondria based on their functional state during asymmetric cell division, and modulate cellular fitness, the response to stress, and lifespan control in yeast and other eukaryotes.

Exploring construction workers' brain connectivity during hazard recognition: a cognitive psychology perspective.

Monitoring brain activity is a novel development for hazard recognition in the construction industry. However, very few empirical studies have investigated the causal connections within the brain. This study aimed to explore the brain connectivity of construction workers during hazard recognition. Electroencephalogram data were collected from construction workers to perform image-based hazard recognition tasks. The Granger causality-based adaptive directed transfer function was used to simulate directed and time-variant information flow across the observed brain activity from the perspective of cognitive psychology. The results suggested a top-down modulation of behavioral goals originating from the dorsal attention network during hazard relocation. The sensory cortex predominantly serves as the information outlet center and interacts extensively with the frontal and visual cortices, reflecting a top-down attention reorientation mechanism for processing threatening stimuli. Our findings of brain effective connectivity supplement new evidence underpinning parallel distributed processing theory for workplace hazard recognition.

Research Paradigm of Network Approaches in Construction Safety and Occupational Health.

Construction safety accidents seriously threaten the lives and health of employees; however, the complexity of construction safety problems continues to increase. Network approaches have been widely applied to address accident mechanics. This study aims to review related studies on construction safety and occupational health (CSOH) and summarize the research paradigm of recent decades. We solicited 119 peer-reviewed journal articles and performed a bibliometric analysis as the foundation of the future directions, application bottlenecks, and research paradigm. (1) Based on the keyword cluster, future directions are divided into four layers: key directions, core themes, key problems, and important methods. (2) The network approaches are not independently applied in the CSOH research. It needs to rely on different theories or be combined with other methods and models. However, in terms of approach applications, there are still some common limitations that restrict its application and development. (3) The research paradigm of network analysis process can be divided into four stages: description, explanation, prediction, and control. When the same network method encounters different research objects, it focuses on different analysis processes and plays different roles.

Perceptual decision-making 'in the wild': How risk propensity and injury exposure experience influence the neural signatures of occupational hazard recognition.

While previous studies have extensively explored the neural mechanisms of perceptual decision-making, most of them used paradigms with limited real-life consequences and largely neglected participants' individual differences. In this study, to resemble a perceptual decision-making scenario with real-life consequences, construction workers were recruited for an occupational hazard recognition task by categorizing construction site images as hazardous or safe with their EEG recorded. Event-related potential (ERP) analysis revealed distinct influences of perceptual decision-making by two dispositional factors of risk propensity and injury exposure experience. Risk propensity was positively correlated with the stimulus-locked difference waveforms (hazardous minus safe) at approximately 200 ms post-stimuli-onset over right-lateralized parietal-occipital areas. The difference waveforms showed reversed polarity between groups with high and low-risk propensity. Injury exposure experience was negatively correlated with the response-locked difference waveforms approximately 450 ms before motor response over right-lateralized parietal-occipital regions. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report how individuals' injury exposure experience influenced the neural signatures of one's perceptual decision-making. These results extended previous findings for perceptual decision-making by setting up a scenario with high ecological validity and suggested possibly substantial different mechanisms for individual workers by the intrinsic factor of risk propensity and the extrinsic factor of injury exposure experience.

Touch and Go: Membrane Contact Sites Between Lipid Droplets and Other Organelles.

Lipid droplets (LDs) have emerged not just as storage sites for lipids but as central regulators of metabolism and organelle quality control. These critical functions are achieved, in part, at membrane contact sites (MCS) between LDs and other organelles. MCS are sites of transfer of cellular constituents to or from LDs for energy mobilization in response to nutrient limitations, as well as LD biogenesis, expansion and autophagy. Here, we describe recent findings on the mechanisms underlying the formation and function of MCS between LDs and mitochondria, ER and lysosomes/vacuoles and the role of the cytoskeleton in promoting LD MCS through its function in LD movement and distribution in response to environmental cues.

Reinvestigation of the Psychological Mechanisms of Construction Experience on Hazard Recognition Performance.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to reinvestigate psychological mechanisms of the influence of construction workers' experience on hazard recognition performance, with signal detection theory (SDT) and electroencephalogram (EEG) readings. BACKGROUND: Existing evidence regarding the effect of experience on hazard recognition performance in the construction industry remains inconsistent. Behavior-wise, identification of dominant hazard recognition factors (sensitivity or response bias, or both) would help determine appropriate training strategies to improve hazard recognition. In terms of neuro-responses, induced gamma-band activity was expected to reflect the cognitive functions mediating the psychological effects of experience. METHOD: Seventy-seven construction workers participated in a predesigned hazard recognition task, in which participants judged whether a hazard was present from a series of construction scenario pictures. We computed and compared the sensitivity and response bias of SDT and time-frequency representations of recorded EEG signals of the two experience-level groups. RESULTS: Novice workers had higher hazard recognition rates. Behavior-wise, novices were more sensitive than more experienced workers. Compared with experienced workers, novices showed stronger gamma-band difference power (hazardous minus safe) in the left frontal and right posterior parietal areas during the hazard recognition process. CONCLUSION: Novices performed better at hazard recognition, indicating their sensitivity to the hazards without a clear difference in response bias. Based on the EEG data, novices' sensitivity may be attributed to more efficient working memory and attentional control. APPLICATION: There is a need for continuous refreshment of hazard recognition skills for experienced workers for safety interventions.

Lipid droplets in stress protection: distinct mechanisms of lipid droplet microautophagy.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are organelles that function as sites for lipid storage. LDs have also been implicated in the cellular response to proteotoxic or lipotoxic stress as sites for sequestering dysfunctional or excess proteins or lipids, and targeting those cargos for degradation by LD microautophagy (microlipophagy, µLP). Here, we describe two mechanisms for µLP in yeast, which are triggered by different stressors. µLP occurs at raft-like liquid ordered microdomains in the vacuolar membrane in yeast exposed to severe nutrient limitations. In contrast, in yeast exposed to ER stress or less severe nutrient limitations, LD uptake at the vacuole is liquid ordered (Lo) microdomain-independent and dependent upon vacuolar membrane remodeling mediated by endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT).

Leading indicators of mental representation in construction hazard recognition.

Hazard recognition is mainly a visual search and cognitive process. Mental representations of hazards may impact mental states of hazard recognition. We assessed the effects of critical indicators of mental presentations of construction hazards on prefrontal cortex activation, a proxy for the mental states of hazard recognition. Students participated in a hazard inspection experiment, with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) used to record prefrontal cortex activation. The effects of critical indicators of the hazards' mental representations on prefrontal activation were analyzed. Results demonstrated that site familiarity, risk tolerance and safety knowledge have significant effects on medial prefrontal activation for hazards at a low visual clutter level. High levels of site familiarity and risk tolerance reduced medial prefrontal activation and saved cognitive resources. Theoretically, the findings supplement the knowledge of safety hazards' mental representations; and practically, the findings guide provision of individual-specific guidance for improving workers' hazard inspection performance.

Optimizing safety-measure combinations to address construction risks.

Objectives. Most methods used to develop construction risk responses address the risk-mitigation optimization problem by solving the objective functions. They are passively achieved by satisfying constraint conditions, which are not adequate for efficient construction management. This study aims to provide an active optimization strategy for selecting risk responses. Methods. We combined set pair analysis (SPA) with the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) to control the construction risks to an acceptable level instead of excessively to the minimum level. SPA is employed to assess the pre-mitigation and post-mitigation risk levels based on the uncertainty theory, and the TOPSIS is used to rank safety measures based on their risk-mitigation effects. A case study of concrete pumping for a super high-rise building was used to exemplify how the proposed optimization model assists risk control and to validate its reasonability. Conclusion. The developed TOPSIS-SPA-based method figures out the optimal safety-measure combination reducing construction risks economically to an acceptable level with the fewest number of measures. The findings can assist decision-makers in formulating cost-effective risk-control schemes.

Incorporation of hazard rectification performance for safety assessment.

Objectives. Safety assessment helps the development of continuous improvement strategies in construction safety, especially coping with dynamic changes to the on-site environment with uncertainties. This article proposes a composite safety assessment based on on-site conditions to facilitate improved and proactive construction safety management. Methods. First, based on evident rectification records, we utilized set pair analysis, a grey rough approach and a coevolution approach to quantify overall safety performance. Second, we incorporated two safety performance indicators into a composite assessment framework, using rough set theory and fluid dynamics. Finally, the assessment results of the seven completed projects were compared. Results. The coevolution approach had novel advantages in assessing rectification performance and the fluid dynamics approach could enhance the proactive warning ability of the safety assessment. Conclusion. Theoretically, the research contributes to new insights into the quantification of construction safety assessment under dynamic on-site conditions. Practically, it also contributes to the active and objective measurement of management performance and promotes the dynamic and stable safety performance evaluation for on-site construction.

Roles for L o microdomains and ESCRT in ER stress-induced lipid droplet microautophagy in budding yeast.

Microlipophagy (µLP), degradation of lipid droplets (LDs) by microautophagy, occurs by autophagosome-independent direct uptake of LDs at lysosomes/vacuoles in response to nutrient limitations and ER stressors in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In nutrient-limited yeast, liquid-ordered (Lo) microdomains, sterol-rich raftlike regions in vacuolar membranes, are sites of membrane invagination during LD uptake. The endosome sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) is required for sterol transport during Lo formation under these conditions. However, ESCRT has been implicated in mediating membrane invagination during µLP induced by ER stressors or the diauxic shift from glycolysis- to respiration-driven growth. Here we report that ER stress induced by lipid imbalance and other stressors induces Lo microdomain formation. This process is ESCRT independent and dependent on Niemann-Pick type C sterol transfer proteins. Inhibition of ESCRT or Lo microdomain formation partially inhibits lipid imbalance-induced µLP, while inhibition of both blocks this µLP. Finally, although the ER stressors dithiothreitol or tunicamycin induce Lo microdomains, µLP in response to these stressors is ESCRT dependent and Lo microdomain independent. Our findings reveal that Lo microdomain formation is a yeast stress response, and stress-induced Lo microdomain formation occurs by stressor-specific mechanisms. Moreover, ESCRT and Lo microdomains play functionally distinct roles in LD uptake during stress-induced µLP.

Research Trends of Human-Computer Interaction Studies in Construction Hazard Recognition: A Bibliometric Review.

Human-computer interaction, an interdisciplinary discipline, has become a frontier research topic in recent years. In the fourth industrial revolution, human-computer interaction has been increasingly applied to construction safety management, which has significantly promoted the progress of hazard recognition in the construction industry. However, limited scholars have yet systematically reviewed the development of human-computer interaction in construction hazard recognition. In this study, we analyzed 274 related papers published in ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus between 2000 and 2021 using bibliometric methods, systematically identified the research progress, key topics, and future research directions in this field, and proposed a research framework for human-computer interaction in construction hazard recognition (CHR-HCI). The results showed that, in the past 20 years, the application of human-computer interaction not only made significant contributions to the development of hazard recognition, but also generated a series of new research subjects, such as multimodal physiological data analysis in hazard recognition experiments, development of intuitive devices and sensors, and the human-computer interaction safety management platform based on big data. Future research modules include computer vision, computer simulation, virtual reality, and ergonomics. In this study, we drew a theoretical map reflecting the existing research results and the relationship between them, and provided suggestions for the future development of human-computer interaction in the field of hazard recognition from a practical perspective.

Temporal Visual Patterns of Construction Hazard Recognition Strategies.

Visual cognitive strategies in construction hazard recognition (CHR) signifies prominent value for the development of CHR computer vision techniques and safety training. Nonetheless, most studies are based on either sparse fixations or cross-sectional (accumulative) statistics, which lack consideration of temporality and yielding limited visual pattern information. This research aims to investigate the temporal visual search patterns for CHR and the cognitive strategies they imply. An experimental study was designed to simulate CHR and document participants' visual behavior. Temporal qualitative comparative analysis (TQCA) was applied to analyze the CHR visual sequences. The results were triangulated based on post-event interviews and show that: (1) In the potential electrical contact hazards, the intersection of the energy-releasing source and wire that reflected their interaction is the cognitively driven visual area that participants tend to prioritize; (2) in the PPE-related hazards, two different visual strategies, i.e., "scene-related" and "norm-guided", can usually be generalized according to the participants' visual cognitive logic, corresponding to the bottom-up (experience oriented) and top-down (safety knowledge oriented) cognitive models. This paper extended recognition-by-components (RBC) model and gestalt model as well as providing feasible practical guide for safety trainings and theoretical foundations of computer vision techniques for CHR.

TAT-Conjugated NDUFS8 Can Be Transduced into Mitochondria in a Membrane-Potential-Independent Manner and Rescue Complex I Deficiency.

NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) Fe-S protein 8 (NDUFS8) is a nuclear-encoded core subunit of human mitochondrial complex I. Defects in NDUFS8 are associated with Leigh syndrome and encephalomyopathy. Cell-penetrating peptide derived from the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription protein (TAT) has been successfully applied as a carrier to bring fusion proteins into cells without compromising the biological function of the cargoes. In this study, we developed a TAT-mediated protein transduction system to rescue complex I deficiency caused by NDUFS8 defects. Two fusion proteins (TAT-NDUFS8 and NDUFS8-TAT) were exogenously expressed and purified from Escherichia coli for transduction of human cells. In addition, similar constructs were generated and used in transfection studies for comparison. The results showed that both exogenous TAT-NDUFS8 and NDUFS8-TAT were delivered into mitochondria and correctly processed. Interestingly, the mitochondrial import of TAT-containing NDUFS8 was independent of mitochondrial membrane potential. Treatment with TAT-NDUFS8 not only significantly improved the assembly of complex I in an NDUFS8-deficient cell line, but also partially rescued complex I functions both in the in-gel activity assay and the oxygen consumption assay. Our current findings suggest the considerable potential of applying the TAT-mediated protein transduction system for treatment of complex I deficiency.

The Mediating Role of Job Competence between Safety Participation and Behavioral Compliance.

The effective improvement of employee behavioral compliance and safety performance is an important subject related to the sustainable development of the construction industry. Based on data from a Chinese company (n = 290), this study used a partial least squares-structural equation model to clarify the relationship among safety participation, job competence, and behavioral compliance. Empirical analysis found that: (1) safety participation had a significant positive impact on employees' behavioral compliance; and (2) job competence played a partial mediating role between safety participation and behavioral compliance. By selecting two new perspectives of safety participation and job competence, this study derived new factors affecting behavioral compliance, constructed a new theory about safety management, and conducted an in-depth discussion on improving behavioral compliance theoretically. Practically, the research put forward a new decision-making model, deconstructed the mechanism between safety participation and behavioral compliance, and provided new guiding strategies for improving employee behavioral compliance.

Re-Thinking the Mediating Role of Emotional Valence and Arousal between Personal Factors and Occupational Safety Attention Levels.

Emotions strongly affect occupational safety attention and public health; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We investigated the mediation mechanisms of emotional valence and arousal on safety attention using real time data. In all, 70 Chinese workers performed 8400 trials of hazard recognition tasks according to a pre-designed experiment. Their emotional and safety attention levels were recorded based on their facial expressions and eye movements, and the mediating mechanics of emotional valence and arousal were examined through a hierarchical regression. The study results show that: (1) emotional valence and arousal significantly and positively affect safety attention; (2) risk tolerance and personality significantly affect emotional valence and arousal but do not significantly affect safety attention; and (3) emotional valence and arousal significantly mediate safety attention levels and personal factors. From a theoretical viewpoint, this study corroborates the mediating role of emotion on occupational safety attention and personal factors by highlighting valence and arousal. Practically, managers can develop more specific training methods tailored to the results that pertain to workers' higher emotional resilience for better occupational safety performance and health.

Influence of semantic cues on hazard-inspection performance: a case in construction safety.

Constant improvement in hazard identification is key to personnel safety in the workplace. Semantic cues have been proposed to simplify knowledge retrieval for site inspectors in building construction. However, the effectiveness of this approach and its internal mechanisms remain unexamined. This study assesses the influence of semantic cues on inspection performance from the perspective of visual behavior during elevator installation. Our results indicate that semantic cues drive selective attention toward goal-relevant information more effectively compared with when no such cues are provided. Second, semantic cues can improve performance regarding goal-relevant hazards and not diminish performance for incidental hazards. Third, the improvement of working memory and inspection performance is more pronounced in experienced workers than in novices. This research highlights the influence of semantic cues for hazard identification on visual behavior and inspection performance, and can serve as a foundation for the allocation of resources to aid inspection during construction.

Membrane dynamics and protein targets of lipid droplet microautophagy during ER stress-induced proteostasis in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Our previous studies reveal a mechanism for lipid droplet (LD)-mediated proteostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) whereby unfolded proteins that accumulate in the ER in response to lipid imbalance-induced ER stress are removed by LDs and degraded by microlipophagy (µLP), autophagosome-independent LD uptake into the vacuole (the yeast lysosome). Here, we show that dithiothreitol- or tunicamycin-induced ER stress also induces µLP and identify an unexpected role for vacuolar membrane dynamics in this process. All stressors studied induce vacuolar fragmentation prior to µLP. Moreover, during µLP, fragmented vacuoles fuse to form cup-shaped structures that encapsulate and ultimately take up LDs. Our studies also indicate that proteins of the endosome sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) are upregulated, required for µLP, and recruited to LDs, vacuolar membranes, and sites of vacuolar membrane scission during µLP. We identify possible target proteins for LD-mediated ER proteostasis. Our live-cell imaging studies reveal that one potential target (Nup159) localizes to punctate structures that colocalizes with LDs 1) during movement from ER membranes to the cytosol, 2) during microautophagic uptake into vacuoles, and 3) within the vacuolar lumen. Finally, we find that mutations that inhibit LD biogenesis, homotypic vacuolar membrane fusion or ESCRT function inhibit stress-induced autophagy of Nup159 and other ER proteins. Thus, we have obtained the first direct evidence that LDs and µLP can mediate ER stress-induced ER proteostasis, and identified direct roles for ESCRT and vacuolar membrane fusion in that process.