The IAS-MEEG Package: A Flexible Inverse Source Reconstruction Platform for Reconstruction and Visualization of Brain Activity from M/EEG Data

We present a standalone Matlab software platform complete with visualization for the reconstruction of the neural activity in the brain from MEG or EEG data. The underlying inversion combines hierarchical Bayesian models and Krylov subspace iterative least squares solvers. The Bayesian framework of the underlying inversion algorithm allows to account for anatomical information and possible a priori belief about the focality of the reconstruction. The computational efficiency makes the software suitable for the reconstruction of lengthy time series on standard computing equipment. The algorithm requires minimal user provided input parameters, although the user can express the desired focality and accuracy of the solution. The code has been designed so as to favor the parallelization performed automatically by Matlab, according to the resources of the host computer. We demonstrate the flexibility of the platform by reconstructing activity patterns with supports of different sizes from MEG and EEG data. Moreover, we show that the software reconstructs well activity patches located either in the subcortical brain structures or on the cortex. The inverse solver and visualization modules can be used either individually or in combination. We also provide a version of the inverse solver that can be used within Brainstorm toolbox. All the software is available online by Github, including the Brainstorm plugin, with accompanying documentation and test data

On the Empirical Evidence of Microservice Logical Coupling. A Registered Report

[Context] Coupling is a widely discussed metric by software engineers while developing complex software systems, often referred to as a crucial factor and symptom of a poor or good design. Nevertheless, measuring the logical coupling among microservices and analyzing the interactions between services is non-trivial because it demands runtime information in the form of log files, which are not always accessible. [Objective and Method] In this work, we propose the design of a study aimed at empirically validating the Microservice Logical Coupling (MLC) metric presented in our previous study. In particular, we plan to empirically study Open Source Systems (OSS) built using a microservice architecture. [Results] The result of this work aims at corroborating the effectiveness and validity of the MLC metric. Thus, we will gather empirical evidence and develop a methodology to analyze and support the claims regarding the MLC metric. Furthermore, we establish its usefulness in evaluating and understanding the logical coupling among microservices

Support to Design for Air Traffic Management: An Approach with Agent-Based Modelling and Evolutionary Search

To enhance Air Traffic Management (ATM) and meet the future traffic demand and environmental requirements, present ATM system is going to be modified (SESAR Joint Undertaking, 2017), designing new services to be integrated in future architecture considering the evolution of present fragmented structure of the airspace and the entanglement of air routes. Such a change process is complicated due to the nature of ATM, which is a large-scale Socio-Technical System (STS), typically involving a complex interaction between humans, machines and the environment. In such kind of systems, managing their evolution is a complex and difficult task since the social and technical implications of any proposed concept should be fully assessed before a choice is made whether or not to proceed with the related development. Often, simulation tools are also used to support the design of the concept itself by enabling what-if-analyses. However, these may be too effort and time consuming due to the exponential growth of the required analysis cases. A quite common mismatch between the performance evaluations in simulated conditions and those achieved in real life is represented by the partial assessment of human aspects that can be performed throughout the new concept lifecycle from its lowest maturity level up to “ready to market”. The proposed work defines an approach to support the design of new ATM solutions, including the evaluation on human behaviour. The approach adopts a combined paradigm, which involves Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation (ABMS) to specify and analyse the ATM models, and Agent-based Evolutionary Search (AES) to optimize the design of the new solutions. A specific case study is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Transition from Direct Routing Airspace (DRA) to Free Routing Airspace (FRA), respectively described by Solution #32 and Solution #33 in the SESAR solutions catalogue (SESAR Joint Undertaking, 2017), is used for both validation and experimentation activities. In detail, the proposed experimentation case regards the design of sector collapsing/decollapsing configuration to optimize controller workloads. The achieved results are presented and discussed

Arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy Treated with Intravenous Prostaglandin E1 and Steroids.

Arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AAION) is an acute ischemia of the posterior ciliary arteries and/or ophthalmic artery due to inflammation. Therapy is immediate intervention with systemic steroids, especially to protect against vision loss in the other eye. The addition of a potent vasodilator to the steroids could help restore ocular blood flow and improve visual acuity. The objective of the current report was to present the use of prostaglandin E(1) (PGE(1)) - a powerful vasodilator of the microcirculation - in the treatment of AAION. Two patients with AAION were treated with intravenous steroids and PGE(1). The visual acuity improved from 4/50 (less than 20/200) to 6/10 (20/35) in one patient and from 1/50 (20/400) to 1/10 (20/200) in the second patient. The visual fields in both patients maintained small central islands of vision. No complications due to the use of PGE(1) were seen. Intravenous PGE(1) should be considered in addition to steroids in cases of AAION to immediately restore blood flow to the optic nerve and improve visual acuity while the steroids reduce the inflammation

Academic expectations profiles of spanish and portuguese higher education students

Las expectativas académicas de los estudiantes son hoy reconocidas como una variable importante en la explicación de su adaptación y éxito académico. Esa importancia es mayor en los alumnos del primer año, ya que, frecuentemente presentan expectativas iniciales muy elevadas que no siempre llegan a concretarse. Con la pretensión de conocer cuáles son esas expectativas iniciales, el trabajo que se presenta analiza el perfil de las mismas en estudiantes de Enseñanza Superior (ES) de primer año. La muestra está compuesta por 719 estudiantes de diversas titulaciones académicas de las Universidades de Vigo-Campus de Ourense y Minho. A los participantes se les aplicó el Cuestionario de Percepciones Académicas (CPA). Los resultados han sido analizados tomando la nacionalidad y el ámbito de estudio (cientifico, juridico-social, tecnológico). Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes portugueses tienden a presentar expectativas más elevadas en general, traduciéndose en una valoración superior de su entrada en la Universidad. A su vez, considerando las siete dimensiones de expectativas evaluadas, se comprueba un perfil similar para ambos países en relación a las expectativas más o menos valoradas. Se destacan las expectativas de obtener una formación que permita acceder a un buen empleo o carrera, en primer lugar, y las expectativas de tener en la Universidad oportunidades de desarrollo personal y social, en segundo lugar, como las más valoradas por los estudiantes.Academic expectations are recognized as an important variable for students’ adjustment and academic success. This importance is higher for first year students, because they often present initial expectations that may not be met. Aiming at identifying these initial expectations, this study presents and analyses the profile of first year students' academic expectations. The sample included 719 students attending different undergraduate programs at University of Vigo - Campus of Ourense, and at University of Minho. Participants completed the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ). Analyses were based on students’ nationality and study domain (scientific, juridical-social, technological). Results show that Portuguese students present higher expectations, in general, which shows they attribute a higher value to their access to University. On the other hand, and regarding the seven dimensions of assessed expectations, we can see that this difference in average scores is not structural, because there is a similar pattern of higher and lower expectations, for both countries. The most valued expectations are, in first place, expectations of having an education that will lead to a good job or career, and in second place, expectations of having opportunities of personal and social development in University

Iterative focused screening with biological fingerprints identifies selective Asc-1 inhibitors distinct from traditional high throughput screening

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) mediate glutamatergic signaling that is critical to cognitive processes in the central nervous system, and NMDAR hypofunction is thought to contribute to cognitive impairment observed in both schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. One approach to enhance the function of NMDAR is to increase the concentration of an NMDAR coagonist, such as glycine or d-serine, in the synaptic cleft. Inhibition of alanine–serine–cysteine transporter-1 (Asc-1), the primary transporter of d-serine, is attractive because the transporter is localized to neurons in brain regions critical to cognitive function, including the hippocampus and cortical layers III and IV, and is colocalized with d-serine and NMDARs. To identify novel Asc-1 inhibitors, two different screening approaches were performed with whole-cell amino acid uptake in heterologous cells stably expressing human Asc-1: (1) a high-throughput screen (HTS) of 3 M compounds measuring 35S l-cysteine uptake into cells attached to scintillation proximity assay beads in a 1536 well format and (2) an iterative focused screen (IFS) of a 45 000 compound diversity set using a 3H d-serine uptake assay with a liquid scintillation plate reader in a 384 well format. Critically important for both screening approaches was the implementation of counter screens to remove nonspecific inhibitors of radioactive amino acid uptake. Furthermore, a 15 000 compound expansion step incorporating both on- and off-target data into chemical and biological fingerprint-based models for selection of additional hits enabled the identification of novel Asc-1-selective chemical matter from the IFS that was not identified in the full-collection HTS

Enhancing the early student experience

This paper is concerned with identifying how the early student experience can be enhanced in order to improve levels of student retention and achievement. The early student experience is the focus of this project as the literature has consistently declared the first year to be the most critical in shaping persistence decisions. Programme managers of courses with high and low retention rates have been interviewed to identify activities that appear to be associated with good retention rates. The results show that there are similarities in the way programmes with high retention are run, with these features not being prevalent on programmes with low retention. Recommendations of activities that appear likely to enhance the early student experience are provided

Patient, interrupted: MEG oscillation dynamics reveal temporal dysconnectivity in schizophrenia

Current theories of schizophrenia emphasize the role of altered information integration as the core dysfunction of this illness. While ample neuroimaging evidence for such accounts comes from investigations of spatial connectivity, understanding temporal disruptions is important to fully capture the essence of dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. Recent electrophysiology studies suggest that long-range temporal correlation (LRTC) in the amplitude dynamics of neural oscillations captures the integrity of transferred information in the healthy brain. Thus, in this study, 25 schizophrenia patients and 25 controls (8 females/group) were recorded during two five-minutes of resting-state magnetoencephalography (once with eyes-open and once with eyes-closed). We used source-level analyses to investigate temporal dysconnectivity in patients by characterizing LRTCs across cortical and sub-cortical brain regions. In addition to standard statistical assessments, we applied a machine learning framework using support vector machine to evaluate the discriminative power of LRTCs in identifying patients from healthy controls. We found that neural oscillations in schizophrenia patients were characterized by reduced signal memory and higher variability across time, as evidenced by cortical and subcortical attenuations of LRTCs in the alpha and beta frequency bands. Support vector machine significantly classified participants using LRTCs in key limbic and paralimbic brain areas, with decoding accuracy reaching 82%. Importantly, these brain regions belong to networks that are highly relevant to the symptomology of schizophrenia. These findings thus posit temporal dysconnectivity as a hallmark of altered information processing in schizophrenia, and help advance our understanding of this pathology

Inverse Modeling for MEG/EEG data

We provide an overview of the state-of-the-art for mathematical methods that are used to reconstruct brain activity from neurophysiological data. After a brief introduction on the mathematics of the forward problem, we discuss standard and recently proposed regularization methods, as well as Monte Carlo techniques for Bayesian inference. We classify the inverse methods based on the underlying source model, and discuss advantages and disadvantages. Finally we describe an application to the pre-surgical evaluation of epileptic patients.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur