Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“Liberty Can Be for You One Thing, and for Me Something Different”: Muslim Women's Experiences of Identity and Belonging in Switzerland

Belonging and identity are fundamental human needs, with positive experiences closely correlated with affirmative mental health. This paper investigates how these concepts are experienced by Muslim women in Switzerland, a minority group targeted in the political campaign nicknamed the “burka ban. ” There were two research questions: How do Muslim women construct their identity in Switzerland? How do Muslim women experience a sense of belonging in Switzerland? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants, and data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Six themes were identified: religion as a public versus private identity, Islam and dressing modestly as expressions of gendered liberation, sharing a sense of Swiss identity through sameness, challenging dominant representations, impression management, and religious and cultural identity as psychological strengths. Participants used several strategies to construct a positive identity and experience belonging in response to negative representation. Findings are summarized in the form of recommendations for counselors working in Switzerland.
Poly(ethylene glycol)-Engrafted Graphene Oxide for Gene Delivery and Nucleic Acid Amplification

Graphene oxide (GO) is an oxidized form of graphene accommodating various oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl, epoxy, and carboxyl groups on its surface. GO has been extensively utilized in various biomedical applications including the delivery of biomolecules and the development of biosensors owing to its beneficial properties such as high surface area, nucleic acid adsorption, and fluorescence quenching through fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). However, despite these favorable properties, the direct utilization of GO in these applications is often limited by low dispersibility in a physiological medium, cytotoxicity, low biocompatibility, and a strong binding affinity of nucleic acids to GO surface. The large surface area of GO and the presence of various functional groups on its surface make it highly amenable to facile surface modifications, offering scope for GO surface functionalization to overcome these limitations. When polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is a biocompatible polymer, is conjugated to GO, the PEGylated GO enhances the biocompatibility and dispersibility, reduces cytotoxicity, and allows controlled drug delivery with controllable binding affinity towards nucleic acid. PEG-engrafted GO retains the beneficial properties of GO while effectively addressing its limitations, rendering it suitable for various biomedical applications. In this review, we present the recent advancements of PEGylated GO in gene/drug delivery and the facilitation of nucleic acid amplification techniques, which aid in the development of therapeutic and diagnostic tools, respectively.
Game-Based Education Using Minecraft in Developing Students’ Performance and Interest in Basic Landscaping

This study aimed to delve into the effectiveness of Minecraft as a game-based approach in education in enhancing the performance and interest of thirty-four (34) third year higher education students with no prior knowledge of basic landscaping. Objectives include evaluating the intervention's effectiveness, measuring changes in academic performance and interest. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the Experimental Group (EG) experienced the game-based approach, while the Control Group (CG) received a conventional approach. The data collection process encompassed pre-tests, post-tests, the application of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the solicitation of feedback from the students. The statistical analyses included calculations of median, mean, standard deviation, percentage distribution, and t-tests. The outcomes of the experiment involving the use of Minecraft reveal its noteworthy positive effects on academic performance. The pretest and posttest scores of students in the experimental group demonstrated substantial improvements in their understanding of the principles of basic landscaping.
Geomorphic features and soil formation of arid lands in Northeastern Jordan

Arid and semiarid lands occupy about one-third of the Earth's land surface. Interpretation of soil formation and geomorphic features of arid lands is needed to assess their soil ecological potentials, limitations, problems and management needs. The objective of this paper was to study the geomorphic features and soil formation of the arid lands in northeastern Jordan, to provide information that could be used by land managers in the study area and other arid land areas. Five representative soil pedons were excavated and described in the field. Soil samples from each horizon per pedon were taken to the laboratory for chemical and physical analyses. Geomorphic features of the area were also studied. Most of studied land surfaces are plains where eolian deflation has exposed loose gravels consisting predominantly of pebbles forming desert pavements. Desert pavements cover most of the land surface, excluding the mud playas, and are composed of basalt clasts. The accumulation of calcium carbonate and gypsum within these soils create problems for their agricultural development. Accumulation of eolian fine-grained silt has resulted in the formation of a vesicular horizon. The climatic variations during the late quaternary and the late Holocene periods contributed to the development of the desert pavement and the vesicular horizons. Clay illuviation and argillic horizon development within these soils is assumed to be a relict feature from more humid climates during the Quaternary. Sustainable agricultural development of such arid lands may not be easy. In general, these soils have high erodibility, high runoff generation potential, high susceptibility to seal and crust formation, poor water-holding capacity, pedon hardening and structural instability.
Perception of research ethics among dental fraternity in Chennai: A cross sectional analysis

Background: Dental research is fundamental to advancing the field, but ethical considerations are paramount. This study explores the perception of research ethics among dental professionals in Chennai, aiming to identify areas for improvement and enhance ethical awareness. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to October 2023, involving 146 dental students and dentists. A questionnaire assessed their understanding of research ethics. Data were collected via Google Forms, ensuring anonymity and privacy. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Version 26. Results: Most participants were involved in research (65.8%), but awareness of ethical principles varied. While many understood about informed consent (59.6%), there was limited knowledge of the Helsinki Declaration (40.4%). Participants recognized the need for special procedures for vulnerable populations (21.9%). The majority expressed interest in Research Ethics workshops (66.4%). Conclusion: Dental professionals' awareness of research ethics varies. Comprehensive ethics education is essential to uphold ethical standards, ensure participant rights, and maintain professional integrity. Participants' interest in ethics education offers an opportunity for improvement.
Effect of additives and moisture on the fermentation quality and bacterial community of high moisture ear corn

Maize (Zea mays L) is one of the most widely cultivated crops used as energy feeds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of two lactic acid bacteria additives on the fermentation quality and bacterial community of high moisture ear corn (HMEC) silage at different moisture levels. The study utilized corn kernels and cobs harvested at the stage of complete ripeness as the primary material. The cob was crushed and divided into three treatment groups: an untreated control group (CK), a group treated with a mixture of Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brucei (TQ), or a group treated with a mixture of Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus brucei (KT). Moisture contents were adjusted to 37.5% (L), 42.5% (M) or 47.5% (H) and then silaged for 180 days. Compared to CK, TQ, and KT elevated the dry matter, crude protein, starch, lactic and acetic acid content of HMEC and reduced the pH, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and ammonia nitrogen content (p < 0.05). Even though both additives improved the bacterial community structure after fermentation, KT experienced the greater enhancement. At a phylum and genus level, KT had the higher relative abundance of Firmicutes and Lactobacillus, respectively. Compared with the group of 37.5% (L) moisture content, the 42.5% (M) and 47.5% moisture content (H) group increased lactic acid, acetic acid and ammonia nitrogen concentrations and reduced the pH value (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the addition of TQ and KT at the appropriate moisture content might be helpful for producing high-quality HMEC. Among the three moisture contents, 42.5% (M) moisture content provides the best silage qualities.
State‐Dependence of the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity in a Clear‐Sky GCM

The climate sensitivity peaks around 310 K in a wide variety of climate models, ranging from idealized single column models to fully comprehensive climate models. Here, we increase CO2 using a clear‐sky three‐dimensional atmospheric model with a radiation scheme which maintains accuracy for high CO2 and temperature levels. In contrast, the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) of our model plateaus around 310 K. We show that this is due to the moistening of the subtropical regions caused by a slowdown in atmospheric circulation, which increases the ECS at very high CO2 values. When relative humidity is fixed, the ECS peak is consistent with single column model results. This work does not rule out that clouds or other complex processes impact the ECS in comprehensive climate models. Though the changes in CO2 here are extreme, this study underlines the importance of changes in atmospheric circulation and relative humidity in quantitative assessments of climate sensitivity.
Performance Evaluation of Building Blocks of Spatial-Temporal Deep Learning Models for Traffic Forecasting

The traffic forecasting problem is a challenging task that requires spatial-temporal modeling and gathers research interests from various domains. In recent years, spatial-temporal deep learning models have improved the accuracy and scale of traffic forecasting. While hundreds of models have been suggested, they share similar modules, or building blocks, which can be categorized into three temporal feature extraction methods of recurrent neural networks, convolution, and self-attention and two spatial feature extraction methods of convolutional graph neural networks (GNN) and attentional GNN. More importantly, the models have been mostly evaluated for their entire architectures with limited efforts to characterize and understand the performance of each category of building blocks. In this study, we conduct an extensive, multi-faceted experiment to understand the influence of building block selection on traffic forecasting accuracy, considering environmental characteristics and dataset distributions. Specifically, we implement six traffic forecasting models using three temporal and two spatial building blocks. When we evaluate the models on four datasets with diverse characteristics, the results show each building block demonstrates distinguishable characteristics depending on study sites, prediction horizons, and traffic categories. The convolution models demonstrate higher overall forecasting performance than other models, whereas self-attention models show competitiveness in less frequent traffic categories, transition states, and the presence of outliers. Based on the results, we also suggest an adaptive model evaluation framework for category-wise predictions of test sets based on the performance of the models on validation sets. The results of this evaluation framework demonstrate improved forecasting accuracy at most by 3.7% without further sophistication in existing model architectures. The results enhance the utility of existing models and suggest guidelines for researchers building traffic forecasting model architectures and for practitioners implementing these state-of-the-art techniques in real-world applications.
UPDATED CATCH-AT-AGE ANALYSES OF WEST ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA 1960-1997

SUMMARY The age-structured model CATCHEM (Porch and Turner, 1997) is applied to catch and index data for west Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) from 1960 to 1997. The predictions for recent years are similar in trend to those from the base case assessment of the 1998 SCRS. However, both spawning stock biomass and recruitment were estimated to have been higher during the 1960's than for any subsequent period. Recruitment was more highly correlated with spawning stock biomass than with the NAO index. Although the winter NAO can explain about 25% of the variability in recruitment estimates for the time series examined when used alone, SSB alone can explain about 65% of the variability in year class strength estimates (model 2 in Table 2). When considered jointly, the winter NAO provides no significant additional predictive power relative to SSB (model 3, Table 2). RESUME
The Effect of Osh (Occupational Health and Safety) and Organizational Culture on Employee Performance in Pamong Praja and Damkar Police Units South Bengkulu

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of K3 (Occupational Health and Safety) and organizational culture on the performance of employees at the Civil Service Police Unit and Damkar Bengkulu Selatan. The sample in this study were 66 employees of the Civil Service Police Unit and Damkar Bengkulu Selatan. Data collection using a questionnaire and the method of analysis used is multiple linear regression, test of determination and hypothesis testing. The results of the regression analysis show Y = 9.719 + 0.326X1 + 0.450 X2, this illustrates a positive direction of regression, meaning that there is a positive influence between X1 (K3 (Occupational Health and Safety)) and X2 (organizational culture) on performance (Y). This means that if the K3 (Occupational Health and Safety) variable and organizational culture increase, it will increase performance. The value of the coefficient of determination is 0.403. This means that X1 (K3 (Occupational Health and Safety)) and X2 (organizational culture) have an effect on performance (Y) by 40.3% while the remaining 59.7% is influenced by other variables not examined in this study. The results of the t test at the 0.05 significance level explained that partially the K3 (Occupational Health and Safety) variables and organizational culture had a significant influence on the employee performance variables at the Civil Service Police Unit and South Bengkulu Damkar. The results of the F test at the 0.05 significance level explain that the K3 (Occupational Health and Safety) variables and organizational culture have a significant simultaneous influence on the performance of employees at the Civil Service Police Unit and South Bengkulu Damkar.
ExRec: a python pipeline for generating recombination-filtered multi-locus datasets

Abstract Summary ExRec (Exclusion of Recombined DNA) is a dependency-free Python pipeline that implements the four-gamete test to automatically filter out recombined DNA blocks from thousands of DNA sequence loci. This procedure helps all loci better meet the “no intralocus recombination” assumption common to many coalescent-based analyses in population genomic, phylogeographic, and shallow-scale phylogenomic studies. The user-friendly pipeline contains five standalone applications—four file conversion scripts and one main script that performs the recombination filtering procedures. The pipeline outputs recombination-filtered data in a variety of common formats and a tab-delimited table that displays descriptive statistics for all loci and the analysis results. A novel feature of this software is that the user can select whether to output the longest nonrecombined sequence blocks from recombined loci (current best practice) or randomly select nonrecombined blocks from loci (a newer approach). We tested ExRec with six published phylogenomic datasets that ranged in size from 27 to 2237 loci and came in a variety of input file formats. In all trials the data could be easily analyzed in only seconds for the smaller datasets and <30 min for the largest using a simple laptop computer. Availability and implementation ExRec was written in Python 3 under the MIT license. The program applications, user manual (including step-by-step tutorials), and sample data are freely available at https://github.com/Sammccarthypotter/ExRec.
A comprehensive ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants for 80 villages in Trabzon (Türkiye)

: The current study targeted to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of medicinal plant taxa used in folk medicine in Trabzon. Due to its historical significance, diversity of plant species, and hosting a wide range of cultures, the Turkish city of Trabzon has significant ethnobotanical potential. Ethnobotanical data including family name, scientific name, local name, used parts, therapeutic uses, preparation methods, administration routes, and cited locations were gathered by face-to-face interviews with 645 participants mostly over 50 years old. The quantitative analyses were executed by the determination of frequency values of citation (FC), use value (UV), fidelity level (FL), and informant consensus factor (ICF). A total of 119 medicinal plant taxa belonging to 55 families were recorded with therapeutic uses for more than 100 different diseases. The most commonly used plant part and administration routes were detected as leaves (32.43%) and oral application (51.58%), respectively. The highest ICF value was assigned for the skin diseases (ICF: 0.96). Piceae orientalis possessed the highest value of FC (82.326%), while Plantago major owned the highest value of UV (0.873). Tilia rubra subsp. caucasica , Vaccinium myrtillus , and Nicotiana tabacum were the remarkable taxa due to their FL value (100%), besides the high number of user reports. The present study supplies comprehensive ethnobotanical qualitative and quantitative data (FC, UV, FL, and ICF) from 80 villages in Trabzon. The obtained ethnobotanical data are expected both provide the preliminary information to discover novel herbal drugs and passing on to next generations as an important heritage.
Urban waste upcycling to a recyclable solid acid catalyst for converting levulinic acid platform molecules into high-value products

The conversion of levulinic acid (LA) into alkyl levulinates is highly significant due to the wide range of applications for these products, including their use as fuel additives, solvents, and fragrances. In order to meet the growing need for environmentally friendly chemical production, this study takes a circular economy approach by upcycling a common urban waste, i.e., pine needles, to synthesize a robust heterogeneous acid catalyst, subsequently used to efficiently upgrade LA into levulinates. By utilizing a single-step procedure under mild operating conditions, the resulting PiNe–SO3H catalyst demonstrated good performances and flexibility in synthesizing diverse bio-derived levulinates. In fact, the catalyst showed an exceptionally broad range of applicability, resulting in isolated yields ranging from ̴ 46% to ̴ 93%, which is an unprecedented achievement. The catalyst's ability to be reused was tested, revealing remarkable performance for up to 10 consecutive cycles with negligible loss in efficiency. Additionally, a significant focus was directed towards developing a method that minimizes waste during the isolation process. This involved optimizing reaction conditions and rationalizing work-up procedures, resulting in low Environmental factor (E-factor) values ranging from 1.2 to 8.9. To comprehensively assess the overall environmental sustainability of the process, various additional green metrics were calculated, and the Ecoscale tool was employed as well. Furthermore, mechanistic investigations elucidated the favored reaction pathway, underscoring that, under the optimized conditions, the prevailing mechanism entails direct esterification, as opposed to the generation of a pseudo-ester intermediate.
Digital soil mapping of compositional particle-size fractions using proximal and remotely sensed ancillary data

ABSTRACTThe soil particle-size fractions (PSFs) are one of the most important attributes to influence soil physical (e.g., soil hydraulic properties) and chemical (e.g., cation exchange) processes. There is an increasing need, therefore, for high-resolution digital prediction of PSFs to improve our ability to manage agricultural land. Consequently, use of ancillary data to make cheaper high-resolution predictions of soil properties is becoming popular. This approach is known as “digital soil mapping. ” However, most commonly employed techniques (e.g., multiple linear regression or MLR) do not consider the special requirements of a regionalized composition, namely PSF; (1) should be nonnegative (2) should sum to a constant at each location, and (3) estimation should be constrained to produce an unbiased estimation, to avoid false interpretation. Previous studies have shown that the use of the additive log-ratio transformation (ALR) is an appropriate technique to meet the requirements of a composition. In th.
Diversity in organic and agroecological farming systems for mitigation of climate change impact, with examples from Latin America.

This chapter reviews the impact of climate change on, and the adaptation potential of, ecologically intensive systems such as those known in different parts of the world as organic farming, or agroecology. To fit into the rationale of this book, this chapter focuses on Latin America, and on the array of organic and agroecological farming systems (OAFS) that coexist in the region. The chapter starts by defining the farming systems focused on in the chapter. Then climate change predictions for Latin America are reviewed and their impacts assessed. Next, recent evidence from global meta-analyses on the performance of OAFS is summarized. Information from OAFS from Latin America is included in the reviews but is too scant to warrant a specific section. Instead, two specific OAFS from Latin America are focused on: coffee production systems and natural grassland systems. Their current status, challenges in view of climate change predictions and adaptation options proposed in the literature are reviewed. The chapter ends by discussing the key features and impediments of OAFS and how they can help to build farming systems in the face of global and climate change.