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ObjectiveTo examine the efficacy and safety of combined transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and working memory training (WMT) in enhancing the cognitive functions for individuals with mild neurocognitive disorder due to AD (NCD‐AD).MethodsIn this double‐blind, sham‐controlled randomized clinical trial (RCT), 201 patients with NCD‐AD were randomly assigned for a 4‐week intervention of either a combination of tDCS and WMT, sham tDCS and WMT, or tDCS and control cognitive training (CCT). Global cognition and domain‐specific cognitive function were assessed before and after the intervention with Alzheimer's disease assessment scale‐cognitive subscale (ADAS‐Cog), category verbal fluency test, logical memory, digit, and visual span tests.ResultsStudy participants did not show intervention group differences in baseline demographics, or cognitive characteristics (ANOVA). Cognitive enhancement was found across three groups after 4 weeks intervention. Combined tDCS‐WMT group showed significantly greater improvement compared with single‐modality groups in delayed recall (P = 0.043, η 2 = 0.036) and working memory capacity (P = 0.04, η 2 = 0.038) at 4th week, and logical memory at 12th week (P = 0.042, η 2 = 0.037). Adverse events, including skin lesions (2.2%), were similar between groups.InterpretationtDCS or WMT could be a safe, feasible, and effective intervention for individuals with NCD‐AD. A combination of tDCS and WMT presents greater cognitive enhancement, which may highlight the potential synergistic effects of combined modality intervention on cognition.

Experimental approaches are widely employed to benchmark the performance of an information retrieval (IR) system. Measurements in terms of recall and precision are computed as performance indicators. Although they are good at assessing the retrieval effectiveness of an IR system, they fail to explore deeper aspects such as its underlying functionality and explain why the system shows such performance. Recently, inductive (i.e., theoretical) evaluation of IR systems has been proposed to circumvent the controversies of the experimental methods. Several studies have adopted the inductive approach, but they mostly focus on theoretical modeling of IR properties by using some metalogic. In this article, we propose to use inductive evaluation for functional benchmarking of IR models as a complement of the traditional experiment-based performance benchmarking. We define a functional benchmark suite in two stages: the evaluation criteria based on the notion of "aboutness," and the formal evaluation methodology using the criteria. The proposed benchmark has been successfully applied to evaluate various well-known classical and logic-based IR models. The functional benchmarking results allow us to compare and analyze the functionality of the different IR models.