Application of ICT and Electronic Technology in Election Management: Challenges in Rural Areas in South-Eastern Nigeria

This paper has presented the applications of Information Communication Technology and election management. The study has reviewed several challenges and bottleneck encountered in the electoral democratic system in Nigeria election. During the study, the use of electronic technology adoption in the electoral process has actually reduced human involvement in election process; this is due to irregularities and incessant increase in violence among electorates, party agents and other stakeholders. The relevance of this paper is to address the integration of ICT as well as electronic digital devices in carryout electrons in Nigeria. The research was conducted in the rural areas of the South-Eastern Nigeria States, it was discovered that about 60% of the respondent stated that the use of electronic technology in the deployment to rural areas has inadequate trained personnel in effective handling of the gadgets, issues on the use of card reader malfunctioning was also sported out. It was recommended that the electoral bodies should sensitized, make adequate available of electronic devices for efficient and effective election management in Nigeria

Association between composite scores of domain-specific cognitive functions and regional patterns of atrophy and functional connectivity in the Alzheimer's disease spectrum

Background: Cognitive decline has been found to be associated with gray matter atrophy and disruption of functional neural networks in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in structural and functional imaging (fMRI) studies. Most previous studies have used single test scores of cognitive performance among monocentric cohorts. However, cognitive domain composite scores could be more reliable than single test scores due to the reduction of measurement error. Adopting a multicentric resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and cognitive domain approach, we provide a comprehensive description of the structural and functional correlates of the key cognitive domains of AD. Method: We analyzed MRI, rs-fMRI and cognitive domain score data of 490 participants from an interim baseline release of the multicenter DELCODE study cohort, including 54 people with AD, 86 with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), 175 with Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), and 175 Healthy Controls (HC) in the ADspectrum. Resulting cognitive domain composite scores (executive, visuo-spatial, memory, working memory and language) from the DELCODE neuropsychological battery (DELCODE-NP), were previously derived using confirmatory factor analysis. Statistical analyses examined the differences between diagnostic groups, and the association of composite scores with regional atrophy and network-specific functional connectivity among the patient subgroup of SCD, MCI and AD. Result: Cognitive performance, atrophy patterns and functional connectivity significantly differed between diagnostic groups in the AD-spectrum. Regional gray matter atrophy was positively associated with visuospatial and other cognitive impairments among the patient subgroup in the AD-spectrum. Except for the visual network, patterns of network-specific resting-state functional connectivity were positively associated with distinct cognitive impairments among the patient subgroup in the AD-spectrum. Conclusion: Consistent associations between cognitive domain scores and both regional atrophy and networkspecific functional connectivity (except for the visual network), support the utility of a multicentric and cognitive domain approach towards explicating the relationship between imaging markers and cognition in the AD-spectrum