Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ex-utero third trimester developmental changes in functional brain network organization in infants born very and extremely preterm

Introduction The latter half of gestation is a period of rapid brain development, including the formation of fundamental functional brain network architecture. Unlike in-utero fetuses, infants born very and extremely preterm undergo these critical maturational changes in the extrauterine environment, with growing evidence suggesting this may result in altered brain networks. To date, however, the development of functional brain architecture has been unexplored. Methods From a prospective cohort of preterm infants, graph parameters were calculated for fMRI scans acquired prior to reaching term equivalent age. Eight graph properties were calculated, Clustering Coefficient (C), Characteristic Path Length (L), Modularity (Q), Local Efficiency (LE), Global Efficiency (GE), Normalized Clustering (λ), Normalized Path Length (γ), and Small-Worldness (σ). Properties were first compared to values generated from random and lattice networks and cost efficiency was evaluated. Subsequently, linear mixed effect models were used to assess relationship with postmenstrual age and infant sex. Results A total of 111 fMRI scans were acquired from 85 preterm infants born at a mean GA 28.93 ± 2.8. Infants displayed robust small world properties as well as both locally and globally efficient networks. Regression models found that GE increased while L, Q, λ, γ, and σ decreased with increasing postmenstrual age following multiple comparison correction (r2Adj range 0.143–0.401, p < 0048), with C and LE exhibited trending increases with age. Discussion This is the first direct investigation on the extra-uterine formation of functional brain architecture in preterm infants. Importantly, our results suggest that changes in functional architecture with increasing age exhibit a different trajectory relative to in utero fetus. Instead, they exhibit developmental changes more similar to the early postnatal period in term born infants.
Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India

IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management. ABSTRACT: The paper presents estimates of poverty [extreme poverty PPP$1.9 and PPP$3.2] and consumption inequality in India for each of the years 2004-5 through the pandemic year 2020-21. These estimates include, for the first time, the effect of in-kind food subsides on poverty and inequality. Extreme poverty was as low as 0.8 percent in the pre-pandemic year 2019, and food transfers were instrumental in ensuring that it remained at that low level in pandemic year 2020. Post-food subsidy inequality at . 294 is now very close to its lowest level 0.284 observed in 1993/94.
3-D Stratigraphy and Fracture Characterization in Late Cretaceous Carbonates (Madonna della Mazza, Italy)

of a thesis at University of Miami Thesis supervised by Professors Gregor P. Eberli and Mark Grasmueck. No. of pages in text. (105) Comprehensive fracture assessment is not an easy task as most fracture analyses rely on two-dimensional outcrops. A newly developed acquisition system of full resolution 3D Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and subsequent migration of the data allow, for the first time, to image fracture and deformation band networks in three dimensions. A full resolution GPR data set was acquired in the Madonna della Mazza quarry in the Maiella mountains, Italy. The quarry is cut into the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Orfento Formation in the limb of an anticline. Combining 3D GPR and outcrop analysis reveals both the sedimentology and fracture characteristics in the quarry. The GPR data images the strata in more detail than what is visible in the quarry walls. For example, GPR data reveal a series of prograding bedsets that are interpreted as subaqueous dunes resulting from a unidirectional bottom or tidal current in the outer ramp environment. A fine-grained carbonate, lithofacies B, appears intermittently throughout the whole strata. In the massive grainstone beds extensive bioturbation destroyed the sedimentary structure and prevents the interpretation of the depositional process. The fracture development in the quarry is partly stratigraphically controlled. Deformation bands preferentially occur in the high porosity and high permeability massive grainstone unit, while stylolites are extensively developed in the thin-bedded packstone-grainstone lithofacies. The fracture analysis in the GPR data corroborates results of the outcrop analysis of previous workers. Performing a manual interpretation of the GPR data, faults with two dominant orientations (N-NW and E-W) were identified. The automated “Ant Tracking” analysis of the GPR data, however, revealed four dominant fracture orientations (N-NW, NW, W-NW, and EW). Furthermore, the automated (“Ant Tracking”) 3D GPR analysis reveals a mechanical unit boundary; lithofacies C contains almost twice the density of deformation bands as the strata below. Integrating the outcrop analysis with the automated analysis of the 3D GPR data using “Ant Tracking” is essential for accurately quantifying the entire fracture population in the quarry. Total fracture diversity and abundance has previously been underestimated by 2D outcrop mapping and is also not completely depicted using manual interpretation of 3D GPR data.
Luteolin peracetate and gossypolone inhibit immune complex-mediated neutrophil activation in vitro and dermal-epidermal separation in an ex vivo model of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita

Introduction Natural products have been shown to an important source of therapeutics for human disease. In this study, we aimed to identify natural compounds as potential therapeutics for epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA), an autoimmune disease caused by autoantibodies to type VII collagen (COL7). Methods Utilizing an in vitro experimental system, we screened a natural product library composed of 800 pure compounds for their inhibitory effect on COL7-anti-COL7 IgG immune complex (IC)-mediated neutrophil activation and on neutrophil-mediated tissue damage. Results Three natural compounds, namely luteolin peracetate, gossypol, and gossypolone were capable in inhibiting the IC-induced neutrophil adhesion and oxygen burst in vitro. Furthermore, luteolin peracetate and gossypolone were able to inhibit the anti-COL7 IgG induced dermal-epidermal separation in an ex vivo model for EBA. Discussion In summary, this study demonstrates that luteolin peracetate and gossypolone are potential therapeutics for experimental EBA, which deserves further investigation.
MIXED REALITY APPLICATION FOR STAIRCASE INSPECTION

Mixed Reality (MR) solutions for the construction industry have been studied, with many bringing in a Building Information Model (BIM) within the mixed reality environment for visualization to assist with inspections. While some studies have been done to determine the efficiency of mapping indoor scenes using mixed-reality headsets, few have conducted research for specific applications that utilize the mapping capabilities of mixed-reality hardware. In the construction industry, building authority standards have to be complied with, which are typically manually inspected. Wearable mixed reality solutions could potentially be used to facilitate such inspections by using native sensors available in the hardware to make sense of the environment, followed by a comparison of the acquired data against a set of authority requirements. The objective of the research is to study the feasibility of utilizing a wearable mixed reality device as a tool for building staircase inspection, where such inspections are usually tedious since it involves manual measurements of several staircase parameters. Using data gathered from sensors on the device, holograms representing staircase features are generated for visualization and computing distance measurements, which are then used for checks against a set of standards. Due to hardware limitations, the application was only able to gather and analyze data for parts of staircases with reasonable accuracy. Nonetheless, the mixed reality application showed that simpler structures with fewer features than staircases can be successfully deployed for measurement-type inspection checks.
Deep Glider Development

Abstract : Our long-term goal is to make routine full-depth hydrographic surveys of the ocean orders of magnitude less expensive than they now are so that mesoscale, seasonal, and interannual evolution of ocean structure can be described much more completely than is presently affordable. Higher space-time resolution description of oceanic processes will lead directly to their fuller understanding and prediction.
The role of graph-based methods in urban drainage networks (UDNs): review and directions for future

ABSTRACT To mitigate urban drainage network pressures and seek sustainable solutions, novel tools like graph theory are presently being studied. This paper presents a systematic literature review of graph-based approaches through an intensive content analysis based on 144 published papers. Comparisons are drawn between water distribution networks and urban drainage networks in terms of convergence and divergence, revealing more divergence in network topological characteristics but more convergence in functional features. The findings provide convincing evidence for applications in UDNs, despite limited numbers and depth. Subsequently, a comparison between graph-based and hydraulic-based approaches is shown, demonstrating distinct advantages of graph-based methods in cases with limited data and time constraints. Based on these findings, the paper suggests several potential directions, including the improvement of parameter calculation formulas, the definition of parameter mathematical ranges and the popularization of recommended values. Finally, the paper examines its own shortcomings.
M2VDet: Midpoints-to-Vertices Detection of Oriented Objects in Remote-Sensing Images

Oriented object detectors provide many scientific solutions for object detection tasks in remote-sensing scenes. Among them, anchor-free oriented object detectors have attracted much attention because of their flexibility and conciseness in recent years. However, the positive sampling strategy adopted by most modern anchor-free oriented detectors is inadequate to reflect remote-sensing objects characterized by arbitrary orientation, densely packed, and extensive scale variation. Besides, there is still a lack of a general representation to describe oriented objects shaped with arbitrary convex quadrilaterals. In this article, we present a one-stage anchor-free oriented object detector, called M2VDet, which focuses on designing the sampling strategy and oriented bounding box (OBB) description. First, an adaptive sampling strategy is proposed to generate positive sample spaces, which take full account of objects’ characteristics like scale, shape, and orientation. The resulting candidate regions provide a superior space constraint to construct the heatmap, and then 2-D oriented Gaussian distribution is employed to generate prior labels for positive candidates. Second, a general OBB representation is designed by adopting the midpoints-to-vertices strategy, which provides a unified approach to describe the arbitrary convex quadrilaterals without brutal approximation. Extensive experimental results on four public datasets (e.g., DOTA, HRSC2016, UCAS-AOD, and SODA-A) demonstrate that M2VDet has a simple pipeline, but it can achieve more robust and available performance when compared with state-of-the-art baseline detectors, especially on the detection of densely packed objects with arbitrary orientation as well as small objects.
Long-Term Effects of ART on the Health of the Offspring

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) significantly increase the chance of successful pregnancy and live birth in infertile couples. The different procedures for ART, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), intrauterine insemination (IUI), and gamete intrafallopian tube transfer (GIFT), are widely used to overcome infertility-related problems. In spite of its inarguable usefulness, concerns about the health consequences of ART-conceived babies have been raised. There are reports about the association of ART with birth defects and health complications, e.g., malignancies, high blood pressure, generalized vascular functional disorders, asthma and metabolic disorders in later life. It has been suggested that hormonal treatment of the mother, and the artificial environment during the manipulation of gametes and embryos may cause genomic and epigenetic alterations and subsequent complications in the health status of ART-conceived babies. In the current study, we aimed to review the possible long-term consequences of different ART procedures on the subsequent health status of ART-conceived offspring, considering the confounding factors that might account for/contribute to the long-term consequences.
Pricing and Access : Lessons from Randomized Evaluations in Education and Health

This paper surveys evidence from recent randomized evaluations in developing countries on the impact of price on access to health and education. Debate on user fees has been contentious, but until recently much of the evidence was anecdotal. Randomized evaluations across a variety of settings suggest prices have a large impact on take-up of education and health products and services. While the sign of this effect is consistent with standard theories of human capital investment, a more detailed examination of the data suggests that it may be important to go beyond these models. There is some evidence for peer effects, which imply that for some goods the aggregate response to price will exceed the individual response. Time inconsistent preferences could potentially help explain the apparently disproportionate effect of small short-run costs and benefits on decisions with long-run consequences. 1 We thank Rachel Glennerster, Paul Romer, David Weil, and participants in the Brookings Conference What Works in Development: Thinking Big and Thinking Small for many useful comments and suggestions.
Parents’ concerns about the negative effects of television viewing on children’s behavior and school performance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Very little is known regarding parents’ concerns about the undesirable effects of unsupervised TV viewing on children’s development in Ethiopia. This study investigated the extent and areas of parents’ concern about the harmful effects of TV viewing on children’s behavior and school performance. A mixed-methods study design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 390 parents of schoolchildren aged 7–15 in Addis Ababa using a standardized measure of parental concern. Qualitative data were also collected from Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA) members using FGDs. Results showed a moderate-to-high level of parental concern about the adverse effects of viewing on children’s behavior and school performance. The findings further indicated that children’s learning of offensive language, premature exposure to sexual content, engagement in violent activities, and drug use were reported as parents’ areas of concern in relation to children’s behavior. In the same way, disengagement in academic activities, mainly not doing homework, not studying, and getting poor exam results have been reported as parents' areas of concern in relation to school performance. Statistically significant differences in level of concern across parents’ and children’s socio-demographic characteristics were observed. As children’s screen and digital media environment is fast-changing in Ethiopia, future studies in the area by child developmentalists, educationalists, and health professionals are highly warranted.
Effect of treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection on the long-term recurrence of gastric or duodenal ulcer. A randomized, controlled study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of treating Helicobacter pylori infection on the recurrence of gastric and duodenal ulcer disease. DESIGN Follow-up of up to 2 years in patients with healed ulcers who had participated in randomized, controlled trials. SETTING A Veterans Affairs hospital. PARTICIPANTS A total of 109 patients infected with H. pylori who had a recently healed duodenal (83 patients) or gastric ulcer (26 patients) as confirmed by endoscopy. INTERVENTION Patients received ranitidine, 300 mg, or ranitidine plus triple therapy. Triple therapy consisted of tetracycline, 2 g; metronidazole, 750 mg; and bismuth subsalicylate, 5 or 8 tablets (151 mg bismuth per tablet) and was administered for the first 2 weeks of treatment; ranitidine therapy was continued until the ulcer had healed or 16 weeks had elapsed. After ulcer healing, no maintenance antiulcer therapy was given. MEASUREMENTS Endoscopy to assess ulcer recurrence was done at 3-month intervals or when a patient developed symptoms, for a maximum of 2 years. RESULTS The probability of recurrence for patients who received triple therapy plus ranitidine was significantly lower than that for patients who received ranitidine alone: for patients with duodenal ulcer, 12% (95% CI, 1% to 24%) compared with 95% (CI, 84% to 100%); for patients with gastric ulcer, 13% (CI, 4% to 31%) compared with 74% (44% to 100%). Fifty percent of patients who received ranitidine alone for healing of duodenal or gastric ulcer had a relapse within 12 weeks of healing. Ulcer recurrence in the triple therapy group was related to the failure to eradicate H. pylori and to the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. CONCLUSIONS Eradication of H. pylori infection markedly changes the natural history of peptic ulcer in patients with duodenal or gastric ulcer. Most peptic ulcers associated with H. pylori infection are curable.
PRIVATISATION OF LEISURE TIME USE: A COHORT PERSPECTIVE

Summary and discussion This study has shown, for instance, that total leisure time did not change during the last decades in Finland, but the time used watching TV increased strongly, whereas the time spent outside the home decreased strongly. These types of results are already known on the basis of previous Finnish studies, as well as on the basis of international studies. The new element in this study was the cohort perspective: how much cohorts differ in their time use, and whether the time use of different cohorts persists throughout the lives of cohort members. In addition, we investigated whether there were socio-demographic fractions within cohorts which differ from each other in their use of time. In general, an obvious fact was that cohort did not very well explain time use when other socio-demographic variables were controlled, except, in some activities such as reading. Older cohorts increased their reading as they aged whereas younger cohorts did not. A special emphasis was given to the cohort of baby-boomers (people born 1945-1954), which in the literature is regarded as being more active both in participating in different organizations and movements and in socializing with other people. Time use data do not indicate such a special position for baby-boomers: the activity of this group has fallen at the same pace as that of other groups. Especially among the most active fractions of baby-boomers – entrepreneurs and upper white collars – still in the end of 1970s, the out-of-home leisure activities have decreased dramatically. Sometimes it has been argued, as in the case of Putnam, that it is TV watching which has taken time from other leisure activities. This may be true in the cases of extreme watching. On the basis of our data, this is not on average true. We conducted a factor analysis (not documented here) which revealed that reading, television watching, and different home hobbies were concentrated in the same factor which indicates that TV watching is only one activity in the home-centred way of life. Another point is that we can not consider all TV watching to be just passive time use. It is a pity that some very important variables were not included into this data. One of them is housing conditions. We were not able to get information on these from 1979.
Improved tracheostomy-dependent patient outcomes after implementation of the Pediatric Resident Education in Pulmonary (PREP) Boot Camp.

INTRODUCTION Children with tracheostomies are high risk for morbidity and mortality. Pediatric resident physicians are not routinely taught skills to care for this vulnerable patient population. Few reports link educational interventions to improved patient outcomes. This study evaluates the impact of an intensive educational training program on pediatric residents' observed skills and tracheostomy-dependent patient outcomes. METHODS Pediatric post-graduate year 2 (PGY2) resident physicians rotating through the inpatient pediatric pulmonology month at Children's Hospital Colorado July 2018-2019 participated in the Pediatric Resident Education in Pulmonary (PREP) Boot Camp, an intensive educational program with an interactive lecture and simulation experience on patients with tracheostomy-dependence. PGY2s who partook in PREP and PGY3s who rotated before PREP initiation were invited to be studied. Primary outcomes included: (1) resident skills assessed by direct observation during simulation encounters and (2) rates of intensive care unit (ICU) transfers in tracheostomy-dependent patients following acute events before and after introduction of PREP. We hypothesized that increased education would enhance resident skills and improve patient outcomes by decreasing the rate of ICU transfers. RESULTS PGY2 residents retained skills learned during PREP up to 11 months following initial participation, and significantly outperformed their PGY3 counterparts. There was a significant decrease in ICU transfer rate in patients with tracheostomies admitted to the pulmonary team during the 19 months following initiation of PREP. CONCLUSIONS Enhanced early education may improve resident physicians' ability to care for complex patients with tracheostomies and could improve outcomes in this high-risk population.