Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head motion correction shapes functional network estimates: evidence from healthy and Parkinson’s disease cohorts

An open discussion in studies of intrinsic brain functional connectivity is the mitigation of head motion-related artifacts, particularly in the presence of peculiar symptomatology such as in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Previous studies show that Independent Component Analysis (ICA) denoising improves the reproducibility of functional connectivity findings by detecting sources of non-neural signals. However, there is still no consensus about which pre-processing pipeline should be applied in natural high motion populations such as PD, particularly in relation to novel functional network descriptions derived from dynamic connectivity analyses. In this study, we investigated how different pre-processing pipelines affect intrinsic brain connectivity metrics, both static and dynamic, derived from a group of young healthy controls (HC) and a group of PD participants. A total of 20 HC and 20 PD subjects participated in this 3 T MRI study. Resting-state functional MRI images were used to test the effects of the pre-processing pipeline of static (sFC) and temporal-varying functional connectivity (dFC) estimations. Both MRI datasets were pre-processed using three different workflows differing in the motion correction approach: (i) standard motion realignment (mc); (ii) motion outlier detection and deweighting based on image intensity change estimations (DVARS) and (iii) ICA-based noise removal using reference noise features (AROMA). Furthermore, the PD dataset was also processed with a fourth method by applying an ICA-based denoising (FIX), previously trained on the HC group. sFC analysis was performed using Group ICA, by temporally concatenating different pre-processing types in pairs of different runs. Two types of dFC analyses were considered: innovation-driven co-activation patterns (iCAPs) and co-activation patterns (CAPs). CAPs allow dFC estimations that do not require the deconvolution of the hemodynamic response function and its derivative, thus potentially being less sensitive to head-motion related noise. We found that regardless of substantial head motion differences in the two groups, sFC results were consistent across denoising strategies. Conversely, dFC was extremely sensitive to denoising strategies, particularly for the PD group with the transient-based dFC analyses. Indeed, the use of the peak-based dFC framework enables the detection of time-varying networks but in a way that is highly dependent on the motion correction pipeline. In conclusion, we show that dynamic functional network representations are highly sensitive to both head motion and to fMRI denoising methods. These findings stress the importance of considering and reporting these experimental aspects to help with the reproducibility and interpretation of different studies. Future work is needed to further investigate transient-based dFC strategies that are more robust to head motion.
Visionary Leadership and Individual Academic Staff Performance: The Mediating Influence of Knowledge Sharing

This study is aimed at examining how visionary leadership directly as well as indirectly influences individual performance of academic staff in the Nigerian public universities via the instrumentality of knowledge sharing practices. An investigation was carried out on 510 academics at 13 public universities sited in north-central geo-political zone, Nigeria. The analysis of the perceptual responses was conducted deploying the partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings divulge that the mediating influence of knowledge sharing on the relationship between visionary leadership and individual academic staff performance is complete, in that, it has a non-significant direct relationship. Along with the above, is the disclosure that visionary leadership has a direct influence on knowledge sharing practices among academics and in turn, knowledge sharing practices directly shape the performance of academics. Thus, the empirical, theoretical and practical implications were discussed. Article Information: This paper was first presented at the First International Conference on Management and Social Sciences (ICMSS 2019), organised by the School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, on 27 April 2019. Published after peer review: November 2019.
Animal welfare, etológia és tartástechnológia Animal welfare, ethology and housing systems

In this study the quality of ejaculate from 20 male dogs of 8 different breeds was evaluated. The dogs were divided into groups according to the age, body weight and labour utilization. We focused on these parameters: volume of ejaculate, sperm activity, concentration of sperm, morphologically normal sperm, total number of sperm with changes on the head and changes on the flagellum. Based on the results can be stated that, in case of the quantitative and qualitative parameters of dog ejaculate, the age and body weight had the greatest influence. In case of the age, as well as body weight, was found statistically highly significant difference (P ≤ 0.01) in these follows evaluated parameters: morphologically normal sperm and total number of sperm with changes on the head. Another, significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) was proved in volume of ejaculate and concentration of sperm. Between sperm activity as well as total number of sperm with changes on the flagellum was not found statistically significant differences (P ≥ 0.05) with measured parameters. Effect of labour utilization is shown by worst results of police dogs in all evaluated parameters.
Delft University of Technology Active Electrodes for Wearable EEG Acquisition Review and Design Methodology

Active Electrodes (AE), i.e. electrodes with built-in readout circuitry, are increasingly being implemented in wearable healthcare and lifestyle applications due to AE’s robustness to environmental interference. An AE locally amplifies and buffers μV-level EEG signals before driving any cabling. The low output impedance of an AE mitigates cable motion artifacts thus enabling the use of high-impedance dry electrodes for greater user comfort. However, developing a wearable EEG system, with medical grade signal quality on noise, electrode offset tolerance, common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR), input impedance and power dissipation, remains a challenging task. This paper reviews state-of-the-art bio-amplifier architectures and low-power analog circuits design techniques intended for wearable EEG acquisition, with a special focus on AE system interfaced with dry electrodes.
Functional Properties of Circuits, Cellular Populations, and Areas

A central goal of systems neuroscience is to understand how the brain represents and processes information to guide behavior (broadly defi ned as encompassing perception, cognition, and observable outcomes of those mental states through action). These concepts have been central to research in this fi eld for at least sixty years, and research efforts have taken a variety of approaches. At this Forum, our discussions focused on what is meant by “functional” and “inter-areal,” what new concepts have emerged over the last several decades, and how we need to update and refresh these concepts and approaches for the coming decade. In this chapter, we consider some of the historical conceptual frameworks that have shaped consideration of neural coding and brain function, with an eye toward what aspects have held up well, what aspects need to be revised, and what new concepts may foster future work. Conceptual frameworks need to be revised periodically lest they become counterproductive and actually blind us to the signifi cance of novel discoveries. Take, for example, hippocampal place cells: their accidental discovery led to the generation of new conceptual frameworks linking phenomena (e.g., memory, spatial navigation, and Group photos (top left to bottom right) Kenneth Harris, Jennifer Groh, James DiCarlo, Wolf Singer, Jason MacLean, Andrew Schwartz, David McCormick, Pascal Fries, Terry Sejnowski, Kenneth Harris, John Reynolds, Matthias Kaschube, Jennifer Groh, Wolf Singer, Gilles Laurent, James DiCarlo, Gordon Pipa, Pascal Fries, Terry Sejnowski, Gilles Laurent, Martin Vinck From “The Neocortex,” edited by W. Singer, T. J. Sejnowski and P. Rakic. Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 27, J. R. Lupp, series editor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-04324-3 224 K. D. Harris et al. sleep) that previously seemed disparate, revealing unimagined mechanistic connections. Progress in scientifi c understanding requires an iterative loop from experiment to model/theory and back. Without such periodic reassessment, fi elds of scientifi c inquiry risk becoming bogged down by the propagation of outdated frameworks, often across multiple generations of researchers. This not only limits the impact of the truly new and unexpected, it hinders the pace of progress. Outline and Basic Concepts Two ideas have driven theories of the cortex for decades: the “column” and the “ canonical circuit. ” Although these concepts certainly have a grain of truth to them, it is now clear that they are oversimplifi cations in need of improvement.
Morphological Investigations of the Effect of Thermal Manipulation During Embryogenesis on Body Performance and Structure of Pectoral and Thigh Muscle of Ross Broiler Chicken

The aim of this study was to determine the optimum timing of thermal manipulation during early, mid, late and long lasting embryogenesis that may result in improvement of body performance and myofiber development (fiber diameter and thickness of perimysium) of pectoral and thigh muscles by a comparative morphometrical investigation on post-hatch day 35. 1440 fertile Ross broiler eggs were divided randomly and equally into 5 treatment groups: control (no TM), TM1, TM2 TM3 and TM4 were thermally subjected to 39oC for 18h with 65% relative humidity daily during embryonic days ED 7–11, ED 11–15, ED 15–18 and ED 7–18 respectively. Out of TM conditions that were investigated, TM1 resulted in a significant improvement of hatchability rate (95.14%) and body performance when compared to the control. On post-hatch day 35, there were significant differences in BW, skinned carcass, breast, thigh and gut weight for all groups when compared to each other with a higher significant in TM1 and TM2 when compared to those of the control. FCR in this study was lower in TM groups when compared to the control group. In TM3 and TM4 the chicks show a significantly lower value of body performance when compared with those of the control group, TM1 and TM2.The histological evaluation of Pectoral muscle revealed myofibers of different diameter (38.39-40.27 μm) and perimysial thickening (17-30.5 μm), while myofibers diameter of thigh muscle ranged between (29-32.9 μm) and the perimysial thickening ranged between (14.36-22.15 μm). Thus, these results indicate that TM duringED7-11 improved muscle growth and body performance and this finding may be applied by commercial breeders to produce more enhanced broiler chickens.
SMART WALKING STICK FOR BLIND PERSON

The smart walking stick helps blind people to perform navigation and to do their work easily and comfortably. In normal stick, the detection of the obstacle is not done and normal stick is not efficient for visually impaired persons. Because the blind person does not know what type of things or what type of the objects come in front of him or her. The person cannot recognize what is the size of that object and how far is he/she from the object. It is difficult for blind person to move here and there. In smart walking stick, the object is detected with the help of a camera and also it measures the distance between objects by using ultrasonic sensor. If any obstacle comes in front of blind person, he/she can know about the obstacle by hearing the sound generated by the head phone. The system is very useful for people who are visually impaired and are often need help from others.
A Progressive Stereo Matching Algorithm based on Texture Extension

It is difficult to get accurate stereo matching for the occluded and smooth areas of an image. In this paper, a stereo matching algorithm is proposed based initially on texture region and then on smooth region. First, the reasonable texture points in the left and right image pairs are obtained, and the texture point disparity values of the left and right images are calculated respectively using the adaptive-weight cost aggregation method. Then, starting from the texture points, the disparity values of the smooth areas are calculated by expanding the disparity maps of the left and right textures. Finally, the expanded left and right disparity maps are fused to obtain the final one.In the matching process, the algorithm effectively avoids the occluded area and adds constraint methods to improve the matching accuracy and speed. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm is fast and has higher accuracy disparity between discontinuous and smooth regions.
A Hybrid Approach to Face Detection And Feature Extraction

This paper presents a hybrid approach to face classification and detection. The remarkable advancement in technology has enhanced the use of more accurate and precise methods to identify and recognize things. Face detection and identification is a new field because face is undeniably related to its owner except in case of identical twins. This paper presents a combination of three well known algorithms ViolaJones face detection framework, Neural Networks method to detect faces in static images. Face recognition is a kind of biometric detection using the physiological measure to identify and detect face. It allows the user to passively identify the person and its features using biometric. The proposed work emphasizes on the face detection and identification using Viola-Jones algorithm which is a real time face detection system. Neural Networks will be used as a classifier between faces and non-faces.
Challenges and opportunities of fibre-reinforced polymers in additive manufacturing with focus on industrial applications

Functional parts made by additive manufacturing of polymers have entered the area of industrial applications in recent years providing a wide range of materials with various mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. These additive manufacturing processes can be combined with known fibre-reinforcements applying modified material parameters with the use of fibrereinforced polymers. An increase of tensile strength and Young’s modulus result from the application of short fibres in a polymer matrix opening up perspectives for a variety of industrial applications such as injection moulding, biomedical engineering, aerospace, racing, and train technology. A literature survey was conducted in order to identify challenges and opportunities in these fields. Additive Manufacturing Technology, Review, Fibre-reinforced Polymers, Industrial Applications
LINEAR CHOLESKY DECOMPOSITION OF COVARIANCE MATRICES IN MIXED MODELS WITH CORRELATED RANDOM EFFECTS

Abstract Modelling the covariance matrix in linear mixed models provides an additional advantage in making inference about subject-specific effects, particularly in the analysis of repeated measurement data, where time-ordering of the responses induces significant correlation. Some difficulties encountered in these modelling procedures include high dimensionality and statistical interpretability of parameters, positive definiteness constraint and violation of model assumptions. One key assumption in linear mixed models is that random errors and random effects are independent, and its violation leads to biased and inefficient parameter estimates. To minimize these drawbacks, we developed a procedure that accounts for correlations induced by violation of this key assumption. In recent literature, variants of Cholesky decomposition were employed to circumvent the positive definiteness constraint, with parsimony achieved by joint modelling of mean and covariance parameters using covariates. In this article, we developed a linear Cholesky decomposition of the random effects covariance matrix, providing a framework for inference that accounts for correlations induced by covariate(s) shared by both fixed and random effects design matrices, a circumstance leading to lack of independence between random errors and random effects. The proposed decomposition is particularly useful in parameter estimation using the maximum likelihood and restricted/residual maximum likelihood procedures.
Role of Computer Aided Drug Design in Drug Development and Discovery : An Overview

The process of drug development and discovery is very challenging, expensive and time consuming. It has been accelerated due to development of computational tools and methods. Over the last few years, computer aided drug design also known as in silico screening had become a powerful technique. This review provides an insight about developmental chain, approaches and applications of CADD, various data sources, computational method for the discovery of new molecular entities. The crucial steps of in silico drug designing like docking, multitarget searching and design, pharmacophore development, conformation generation, quantitative structure activity relationship(QSAR).
Reiter's disease in a 13-year-old girl

Reiter's disease or reactive arthritis is characterized by the classic triad of urethritis, arthritis, and conjunctivitis, usually following a genitourinary or gastrointestinal infection. Reiter's syndrome has been reported in children, but they usually do not manifest with the typical triad. Only a few such cases have been reported, and these have affected males predominantly. Furthermore, human leukocyte antigen B27 association in children is not well-established. However, in our case, it was positive. We, herein, report a case of a 13-year-old girl who presented with redness of eyes and joint pains followed by skin involvement is reported. She was managed with topical steroids and keratolytics along with oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and showed complete resolution in 3 weeks.
Moderating Factors and Customer Loyalty of Selected Hotels in Lagos State, Nigeria

The moderating variable has the tendency of increasing or decreasing the strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. However, factors that moderate this relationship have scarcely been research upon in the hotel services sector. This study therefore examined the moderating effects of five salient demographic variables (sex, age, education, occupation, income) on the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study employed descriptive research design with cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire to collect the data. The data were analysed using percentages and General Linear Model (GLM). The results show that age, education, and occupation significantly moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty while sex and income do not at the 0.05 significant level. Based on the findings of this, it is therefore recommended that hotel managers should consider the significant effect of age, educational qualification, and occupation in determining the extent of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty when formulating and implementing marketing strategies.
The Importance of Personality Traits in Agile Soft- ware Development: A Case Study

During the last decade, more and more companies have transformed their way of working to agile, making it the most common software development methodology in the industry. The core principle of Agile as given in the original manifesto states, that individuals and their interactions are more important than the tools and processes. This convention leads to the need for the study of the software developer individuals in the psychological level of personality and the performance results associated with the specific personality. There researches that study the personality of the developers and their performances have been set either, in academia, or in the different software development methodology environment, than agile. This study aims to describe the relationship between the software developers’ personalities based on the Big Five model and the performance of the developers based on agile software development metrics. Within this research, the logs of 8 open-source projects that use the most common agile issue tracker, JIRA, are used to retrieve the personality trait of the developers involved and to calculate their performance metrics. Finally, association rules are mined using this dataset, and the consistency of the findings are checked against the existing literature. Evidently, the analysis shows interesting relationships between the personality types and metrics, that can favour the work of both, the management of the software development teams and the developers themselves.
A Review on Content Based Image Retrieval

Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system receives paramount importance now days. This is because of its wide applicability found in many areas including medical, science, security, Bioinformatics and entertainments. It has emerged as one of the growing field of research in engineering and the sciences. CBIR system searches large image database based on the contents of the images. The recent work carried out in this field is focused to achieve efficiency and accuracy in the image retrieval process. The major limitations encountered during review of the literature are an effective representation of image by extracting visual contents, mismatches found due to semantic gap between image representation and user’s interpretation of the image and high dimensional feature vectors.
A Novel Technique to Protect the Stealing of Authorization Code Using Hybrid Approach

In personal identification and online banking authorization codes play an important role require users to provide a code for authorization purposes. However, authorization codes in application can be stolen and forwarded by attackers, which introduces serious security concerns. In this paper, we propose Code Tracker, a hybrid approach to track and protect authorization codes. When the authorization code is sent out via either SMS messages or network connections (taint sinks), we extract the taint tag of the data and enforce standard security policies to prevent the code from being hacked and attacked from unauthorized access. SMS-stealing Android malware samples to evaluate the system. In this paper we used cryptographic algorithm to protect from SMS stealing from unauthorized access. The results show that Code Tracker a lightweight and hybrid approach can effectively track and protect SMS authorization codes with a high performance.
HABITAT REQUIREMENTS OF MOSQUITO LARVAE

We studied basic habitat requirements of the mosquito species occurring in Hungary. 1239 samples were taken (mainly around Lake Balaton and in the Tisza Region). Our results showed that the basic indicator variables in the colonization of different mosquito species are: (i) water surface area, (ii) presence of pondweed vegetation, (iii) depth, transparency and temperature of the breeding water. These variables related closely to the regime (permanent or temporary) of the water body. It was confirmed by quantitative ecological analyses that the most important human-biting mosquito species (e.g. Aedes vexans, Ochlerotatus sticticus, Ochlerotatus annulipes, Ochlerotatus cantans, Aedes rossicus) usually occur in shallow, quick-warm, regularly drying, clear water bodies with minimal cover of the water surface and without presence of hydrophyta plant species (both in shaded and lightened places).