Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The long lost Ebionites. A relook at the Ibo region of West Africa

The Ebionites were a Jewish sect that knew Jesus intimately; had their own Nazarene Gospel; but held immovable beliefs that challenged key tenets of Christianity. They disappeared in the fourth century leaving a vacuum physically and ideologically. About a millennium later, the Portuguese reported of a people in West Africa with a Pope and Papacy similar in structure and veneration as the Roman Catholic Pope. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, missionaries and anthropologists scouring the region confirmed those reports, as well as the presence of other Levitical influences amongst the Igbos of Nigeria. This paper researches those similarities with a focus on the religious cosmology of the Ibo people of Asaba. It applies ethnographic qualitative research, then places the findings over the tenets of Catholicism with respect to their organizational structure; sacraments; rites; and steps to becoming sons of God. The results show that the ideologies of the Ibo and the Romans were deeply intertwined in every area of the study. The paper posits that the only way the religious ideologies of the Romans and the Ibos could have so closely mirrored each other, is if they were both in the same place at the same time. Thus, concludes that the Ibos [Eboe, Igbo] are the Ebionites. The paper offers hypotheses to explain the role of the ego in creating the core tenet of this unifying cosmology, and possibly how the convergence occurred. The paper could form the basis for renewed research in Hebraic-African studies; Black-American dispersion; Mary Magdalene; Jesus’ crown of thorns; the sequence of biblical gospel events; and even a template for future religion in this ego-driven civilization.
Hypoxic and low pH water in the nearshore marine environments of Monterey Bay, California: characterizing a decade of oxygen and pH, and drivers of variability.

A decade-long time series recorded in southern Monterey Bay, California demonstrates that the shallow, near-shore environment (17 m depth) is regularly inundated with pulses of cold, hypoxic and low pH water. During these episodes, oxygen can drop to biologically threatening levels, and pH levels were lower than expected. Weekly water chemistry monitoring revealed that the saturation state of aragonite (the more soluble form of calcium carbonate) was often below saturation and had a moderate positive relationship with pH, however, analytical and human error could be high. Pulses of hypoxia and low pH water with the greatest intensity arise at the onset of the spring upwelling season, and fluctuations are strongly semidurnal (tidal) and diurnal. Arrival of cold, hypoxic water on the inner shelf typically occurs 3 days after the arrival of a strong upwelling event and appears to be driven by upwelling modulated by internal tidal fluctuations. I found no relationship between the timing of low-oxygen events and the diel solar cycle nor with terrestrial nutrient input. These observations are consistent with advection of hypoxic water from the deep, offshore environment where water masses experience a general decline of temperature, oxygen and pH with depth, and inconsistent with biochemical forcing. Comparisons with concurrent temperature and oxygen time series taken ~20 km away at the head of the Monterey Canyon show similar patterns but even more intense hypoxic events due to stronger semidiurnal forcing there. Analysis of the durations of exposure to low oxygen levels establishes a framework for assessing the ecological relevance of these events. Increasing oceanic hypoxia and acidification of both surface and deep waters may increase the number, intensity, duration and spatial extent of future intrusions along the Pacific coast. Evaluation of the resiliency of nearshore ecosystems such as kelp forests, rocky reefs and sandy habitats, will require consideration of these events.
Human Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Derived Extracellular Vesicles Ameliorate Lung Injury in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Murine Model

This study investigates the therapeutic potential of human placental mesenchymal stem cells (P-MSCs) and their extracellular vesicles (EVs) in a murine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition with growing relevance due to its association with severe COVID-19. We induced ARDS-like lung injury in mice using intranasal LPS instillation and evaluated histological changes, neutrophil accumulation via immunohistochemistry, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell count, total protein, and cytokine concentration, as well as lung gene expression changes at three time points: 24, 72, and 168 h. We found that both P-MSCs and EV treatments reduced the histological evidence of lung injury, decreased neutrophil infiltration, and improved alveolar barrier integrity. Analyses of cytokines and gene expression revealed that both treatments accelerated inflammation resolution in lung tissue. Biodistribution studies indicated negligible cell engraftment, suggesting that intraperitoneal P-MSC therapy functions mostly through soluble factors. Overall, both P-MSC and EV therapy ameliorated LPS-induced lung injury. Notably, at the tested dose, EV therapy was more effective than P-MSCs in reducing most aspects of lung injury.
Soil quality, resistance and resilience in traditional agricultural and agroforestry ecosystems in Brazil's semiarid region

1 Faculdade de Educação, Ciências e Letras do Sertão Central Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Quixadá-CE, 69000-000, Brazil. 2 Post-graduate Program in Ecology and Natural Resources, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza – CE, 60455-760, Brazil. 3 Instituto Federal de Educação Ciência e Tecnologia do Piauí, Corrente – PI, 64980-000, Brazil. 4 Departamento de Ciência do Solo, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza – CE, 60455-760, Brazil. 5 Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária – Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas – MG, 35701-970, Brazil. 6 Departamento de Solos, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa – MG, 36570-000, Brazil.
IgE and IgG4 epitopes of the peanut allergens shift following oral immunotherapy

Background Oral immunotherapy (OIT) with peanut (Arachis hypogaea) allergen powder-dnfp (PTAH; Aimmune Therapeutics) is an FDA-approved treatment to desensitize peanut allergic participants. Objective Here we assessed shifts in IgE and IgG4 binding to peanut allergens and their epitopes recognized by United States (US) peanut allergic participants (n = 20) enrolled in phase 3 PTAH OIT clinical trials. Methods Pre- and post- trial participant sera were collected approximately 12 months apart and tested for IgE binding to intact peanut proteins via ImmunoCAP ISAC immunoassays. IgE and IgG4 linear epitopes were identified based on binding to synthetic overlapping 15-mer linear peptides of 10 peanut allergens (Ara h 1-11) synthesized on microarray slides. Results Statistically significant decreases in IgE binding were identified for intact Ara h 2, 3, and 6, and known and newly identified IgE epitopes were shown to exhibit shifts towards IgG4 binding post-OIT, with most linear peptides having increased IgG4 binding after treatment with PTAH. While PTAH does not seem to alter the actual peptide binding patterns significantly after one year of treatment, the IgE and IgG4 binding ratios and intensity are altered. Conclusion At a population level, the linear IgE and IgG4 epitopes of 10 peanut allergens overlap and that increase in IgG4 with OIT results in displacement of IgE binding to both conformational and linear epitopes. Furthermore, it appears as though the increase in IgG4 is more important to achieve desensitization at the 12-month timepoint than the decrease in IgE. This type of knowledge can be useful in the identification of IgE and IgG4-binding allergen and peptide biomarkers that may indicate desensitization or sustained unresponsiveness of allergic individuals to peanut.
Southern Ocean Deep Circulation and Heat Uptake in a High-Resolution Climate Model

AbstractThe dynamics of the lower cell of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the Southern Ocean are compared in two versions of a global climate model: one with high-resolution (0.1°) ocean and sea ice and the other a lower-resolution (1.0°) counterpart. In the high-resolution version, the lower cell circulation is stronger and extends farther northward into the abyssal ocean. Using the water-mass-transformation framework, it is shown that the differences in the lower cell circulation between resolutions are explained by greater rates of surface water-mass transformation within the higher-resolution Antarctic sea ice pack and by differences in diapycnal-mixing-induced transformation in the abyssal ocean.While both surface and interior transformation processes work in tandem to sustain the lower cell in the control climate, the circulation is far more sensitive to changes in surface transformation in response to atmospheric warming from raising carbon dioxide levels. The substantial reduction .
Recovering Static and Time-Varying Communities Using Persistent Edges

This article focuses on spectral methods for recovering communities in temporal networks. In the case of fixed communities, spectral clustering on the simple time-aggregated graph (i.e., the weighted graph formed by the sum of the interactions over all temporal snapshots) does not always produce satisfying results. To utilise information carried by temporal correlations, we propose to employ different weights on freshly appearing and persistent edges. We show that spectral clustering on such weighted graphs can be explained as a relaxation of the maximum likelihood estimator of an extension of the degree-corrected stochastic block model with Markov interactions. We also study the setting of evolving communities, for which we use the prediction at time <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t-1$</tex-math></inline-formula> as an oracle for inferring the community labels at time <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed methods on synthetic and real data sets.
Nature inspired-based remora optimisation algorithm for enhancement of density peak clustering

Abstract Density peak clustering (DPC) has shown promising results for many complex problems when compared with other existing clustering techniques. Inspite of many advantages, DPC suffers with lack of cluster centroids and cut-off distance identification. Cut-off distance is the prominent parameter used in the calculation of local density. The improper choice of cut-off distance leads to improper cluster results. Currently, the cut-off distance is selected using decision graph or delta density or knee point detection or silhouette score or kernel functions. The main problem with the above functions for selecting the cut-off distance in DPC is that they often rely on heuristic or visually subjective criteria, making the choice of the optimal cut-off distance challenging and potentially sensitive to data characteristics. By leveraging metaheuristic optimisation algorithms, the process of selecting the cut-off distance becomes less subjective and data-driven, potentially leading to improved clustering results in DPC. This motivated us to work on the choice of cut-off distance by the usage of remora optimisation algorithm (ROA). The cluster results are improved by the usage of remora in selection of reliable cut-off distance (${d_c})$dc). The effectiveness of the updated DPC with ROA is evaluated by applying on the eight datasets and compared with K-means, traditional DPC, DPC merged with other optimisation results. The three parameters used here to check the quality of the cluster are homogeneity, completeness and silhouette analysis. ROA is new and built on the inspiration of remora which moves from one place to another using the sea fishes like shark, whale, sword fish, etc. It is clear from the results that DPC with ROA has produced the better homogeneity value of 0.807, completeness of 0.699 and silhouette analysis of 0.79 than the other clustering algorithms.
Formulation and implementation of operations strategy for energy-efficient street lighting: the case of Nairobi city county

x CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION. 1 1.1 Background . 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem. 5 1.3 Objectives of the Study. 8 1.4 Importance of the Study. 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 2.
Characterization and scaling of mesoscale heterogeneities in sandstones

A core‐flooding technique to measure core‐ and subcore‐scale capillary pressure curves is applied to the characterization of a naturally heterogeneous sandstone core. N2 and water are used as the nonwetting and wetting fluid phases, and X‐ray imaging is applied to precisely visualize multiphase flow at the subcentimeter scale. The spatial variability in the Pc(S) relationship is represented in terms of scaling factors, which are further translated into a corresponding distribution of permeabilities, thus creating a unique and consistent framework where multiphase and rock properties are integrated. The analysis introduced here provides a practical and efficient method for characterizing subcore‐scale heterogeneities, whose effects can be substantial on both single and multiphase flows.
Thai COVID-19 patient clustering for monitoring and prevention: data mining techniques

This research aims to optimize emerging infectious disease monitoring techniques in Thailand, which will be extremely valuable to the government, doctors, police, and others involved in understanding the seriousness of the spread of novel coronavirus to improve government policies, decisions, medical facilities, treatment. The data mining techniques included cluster analysis using K-means clustering. The infection data were obtained from the open data of the digital government development agency, Thailand. The dataset consisted of 1,893,941 cumulative cases from January 2020 to October 2021 of the outbreak. The results from clustering consisted of 8 groups. Clustering results determined the three largest, three medium-sized, and the two most minor numbers of infected people, respectively. These clusters represent their activities, namely touching an infected person and checking themselves. The components of emerging diseases in Thailand are closely related to waves, gender, age, nationality, career, behavioral risk, and region. The province of onset was mainly in Bangkok and its vicinity or central Thailand, as well as industrial areas. Adult workers aged 19 to 27 years and 43 to 54 years or over were seeds of new infection sources.
Loss of Foreign DNA Inserts from Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus Vectors—Potential Consequences for Use in Functional Genomics Studies

Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV)-based vectors are frequently used in virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and, more recently, viral overexpression (VOX) studies in wheat. Two general strategies are employed to initiate infection in wheat plants with BSMV in VIGS and VOX studies. One method involves the direct infection of wheat using viral RNA produced via the in vitro transcription of BSMV constructs. The second class utilizes viral replication in an intermediate host plant to produce large amounts of BSMV viral particles that are then used to inoculate wheat plants. This study was designed to examine the potential for BSMV-VIGS constructs to rearrange during replication in the intermediate host and result in initiating the VIGS studies with a virus that is significantly different from the original experimental construct. It is shown that in the case of BSMV-VIGS constructs harboring a PDS-silencing fragment, significant rearrangement can occur during replication in the intermediate host that has the potential to introduce artifactual experimental outcomes.
The Palynology of the Triassic—Jurassic Transition in Southeastern Queensland, Australia, and Correlation with New Zealand

New evidence is presented on the Triassic—Jurassic boundary in eastern Australia, based on miospore assemblages from three continuously cored drillholes which penetrated the Raceview Formation to Ripley Road succession in the eastern Clarence-Moreton Basin of southeastern Queensland. Evidence for the age of this continental succession is provided by correlation based on the first appearances of five distinctive species. These taxa first appear at or close to the Rhaetian—Hettangian boundary in the marine, ammonite-dated succession of New Zealand and in the lower Ripley Road Sandstone of Queensland. The more gradual introduction of these species in the Queensland succession, as opposed to their near-synchronous appearance in New Zealand, is probably due to their gradual migration into an inland environment in contrast to their origin from a nearshore region in New Zealand. At higher levels the first appearance of intrastriate Classopollis, closely followed by its marked increase in abundance, is regarded as evidence for correlating assemblages from the upper Ripley Road Sandstone in the eastern Clarence-Moreton Basin with the earliest Sinemurian of New Zealand. The views of some previous workers that the Hettangian of eastern Australia is characterised by the appearance of abundant Classopollis must now be modified. From the aspect of biotic change, associated with climate change at the Triassic—Jurassic boundary, this study indicates a rapid local change in New Zealand. A new type of biozone, the Association Zone, is proposed as a type of interval zone. The need for a distinctive biozone to characterise palynofloral assemblages is indicated to allow for the frequent recycling of palynomorphs and also to better define the body of an interval zone. New Early Jurassic miospore zones are proposed for southeastern Queensland. Granamegamonocolpites campbellii sp. nov. is described and one new combination, Anapiculatisporities helidonensis (de Jersey) comb, nov., is proposed. Morphological and stratigraphical evidence is provided for gradualism in the lineage development of intrastructure in Classopollis, from massive (unstructured), to intrapunctate, to intrastriate specimens.
ULTRASOUND-ASSISTED EXTRACTION OF STARCH FROM OIL PALM TRUNK: AN OPTIMIZATION BY RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Higher production of palm oil in Malaysia has resulted in a significant amount of oil palm biomass including oil palm trunk (OPT). OPT has been studied as an alternative starch source. To date, reports on the extraction of starch from OPT using ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) are limited. The application of UAE is considered to be a simpler and effective way in starch extraction compared to conventional extraction methods. This study aims to investigate the potential of ultrasound-assisted extraction to extract starch from OPT, and optimization using response surface methodology. A three-factor central composite design (CCD) was designed to determine the effects of variables on response. The three variables involved in the study, namely: sonication temperature (45-65°C), sonication time (30-60 min) and sodium metabisulfite concentration (0.5-1.5% w/v). All of the data were analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The R2 value (95.6%) and model (p <0.0001), indicating the acceptability of the model and significance in the interaction between independent variables. At the optimum conditions of 52.84°C temperature, 30.66 min exposure time and 0.58% w/v sodium metabisulfite concentration, the starch yield achieved its optimum value by 34.21%. Therefore, this study proved the potential of UAE in extracting higher OPT starch.
What is the P value of Siberian soils? Soil phosphorus status in south-western Siberia and comparison with a global data set

Abstract. Climate change is particularly strong in northern Eurasia and substantial ecological changes are expected in this extensive region. The reshaping and migration northwards of bioclimatic zones may offer opportunities for agricultural development in western and central Siberia. However, the bioclimatic vegetation models currently employed for projections still do not consider soil fertility, in spite of this being highly critical for plant growth. In the present study, we surveyed the phosphorus (P) status in the south-west of Siberia where soils have developed on loess parent material. We selected six sites differing in pedoclimatic conditions and the soil was sampled at different depths down to 1 m in aspen (Populus tremula L.) forest as well as in grassland areas. The P status was assessed by conventional methods and by isotope dilution kinetics. We found that P concentrations and stocks, as well as their distribution through the soil profile, were fairly homogeneous on the regional scale studied, although there were some differences between sites (particularly in organic P). The young age of the soils, together with slow kinetics of soil formation processes have probably not yet resulted in a sufficiently wide range of soil physico-chemical conditions to observe a more diverging P status. The comparison of our data set with similar vegetation contexts on the global scale revealed that the soils of south-western Siberia, and more generally of northern Eurasia, often have (very) high levels of total, organic and inorganic P. The amount of plant-available P in topsoils, estimated by the isotopically exchangeable phosphate ions, was not particularly high but was intermediate on the global scale. However, large stocks of plant-available P are stored in subsurface layers which currently have low fine-root exploration intensities. These results suggest that the P resource is unlikely to constrain vegetation growth and agricultural development under the present conditions or in the near future.
Small Baseline DInSAR Approach with Constraints and Its Applications

Small baseline Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry(DInSAR) generates interferograms between two SAR images with small spatial baseline,and it is capable of obtaining deformation maps with high spatial and temporal sampling rate.However,it links the different subsets using Singular Value Decomposition(SVD) method without considering any prior knowledge on the investigated deformation,and the solution is characterized by minimum norm constraint on the phase signal.In this paper,a new small baseline DInSAR approach with constraints is presented,in which a cubic behavior for the time variation of the deformation phase signal is assumed as constraints for the investigated area,and the deformation parameters obtained in a least square way directly.The results of 13 differential interferograms generated by 8 SAR images in Nanjing from 1996 to 2000 demonstrate its efficiency.