Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunological effect of aqueous extract of Vernonia amygdalina and a known immune booster called immunace and their admixtures on HIV/AIDS clients: a comparative study

Two decades have now rolled by, since the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Nigeria in 1986. In that period, many individuals, families, communities, businesses and Nigeria at large have experienced the devastation of the epidemic. Every community or any aspect of the nation has been affected. Nigeria’s burden of care/epidemic now ranks third in the world[1]. The key to the pathogenicity of this virus is its genetic heterogeneity which is the result of several features, such as the error-prone enzyme reverse transcriptase which is estimated to introduce an average of one error per genome per replication cycle and the rapid turnover of HIV in vivo[2]. Recombination occurs at a rate of about 2% per kilobase per replication cycle with its selective immune pressures by the host[3]. The CD4 lymphocyte count plays a major role in HIV/AIDS patients[4]. It is said to be decreased in HIV state as a result of destruction and inappropriate nutrient in the patient. Insufficient nutrient in client was directly affecting patients’ performances on antiretroviral therapy (ART)[5]. Several prospective, randomized clinical trials now suggest that the clinical outcomes have been improved in HIV-infected patients who take micronutrient supplements. Researches have shown that daily doses of a micronutrient supplement taken by HIV-infected Tanzanian women, in multiple of the recommended dietary allowances including B-complex, vitamin C, and vitamin E, produced a significant increase in CD4 and CD8 cell counts when compared with those given placebo[6]. This CD4 cell decrease has been traced to the activity of oxidative cell, thereby affecting the immune system and patients’ recovery rate on ART. Vernonia amygdalina (V. amygdalina) (compositae) is a small shrub that grows predominantly in the tropical Africa. In Nigeria, the plant is locally called bitter leaf due to its bitter taste. The macerated leaves of the plant are used to make soup while the water extract serves as a tonic drink ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Title: Analysis of Shared Heritability in Common Disorders of the Brain

Disorders of the brain exhibit considerable epidemiological comorbidity and frequently share 62 symptoms, provoking debate about the extent of their etiologic overlap. We quantified the genetic sharing 63 of 24 brain disorders and 16 phenotypes based on summary statistics from genome-wide association studies. 64 Psychiatric disorders show substantial sharing of common variant risk, while neurological disorders appear 65 more distinct from one another. We observe limited evidence of sharing between neurological and 66 psychiatric disorders, but do identify sharing between several quantitative measures and brain disorders. 67 We also performed extensive simulations to explore power and the impact of diagnostic misclassification 68 and phenotypic heterogeneity. These results highlight the importance of common genetic variation as a 69 source of risk for brain phenotypes and the value of heritability-based methods in understanding their 70 etiology. 71
Validation of TRMM precipitation radar monthly rainfall estimates over Brazil

[1] In an attempt to validate the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) over Brazil, TRMM PR estimates are compared with rain gauge station data from Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica (ANEEL). The analysis is conducted on a seasonal basis and considers five geographic regions with different precipitation regimes. The results showed that TRMM PR seasonal rainfall is well correlated with ANEEL rainfall (correlation coefficients are significant at the 99% confidence level) over most of Brazil. The random and systematic errors of TRMM PR are sensitive to seasonal and regional differences. During December to February and March to May, TRMM PR rainfall is reliable over Brazil. In June to August (September to November) TRMM PR estimates are only reliable in the Amazonian and southern (Amazonian and southeastern) regions. In the other regions the relative RMS errors are larger than 50%, indicating that the random errors are high.
A 25‐year Survey of Geoecological Change in the Scandes Mountains of Sweden

The paper reviews various kinds of geoecological change in the tree‐limit ecotone of the Scandes Mountains during the period 1970–95. The focus of the study is a part of a regional network of sites intended for long‐term tree‐limit monitoring, with special stress on effects of climatic variability. The elevational tree‐limits of Betula pubescens sp. Sortuosa, Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris, which rose in response to the climatic amelioration earlier this century, now show clear symptoms of increasing climatic stress and disturbance. This manifests as defoliation, growth recession and reproductive failure, locally leading to some initial elevational tree‐limit retraction (unbalanced mortality). Defoliation was preceded by decades of weak summer cooling and an increasingly maritime climate, but recently it correlates significantly with low winter soil temperatures, causing death of needles, shoots and buds. In some habitats, Betula pubescens has suffered from mechanical stress and disturbance by increased.
Asymptotic Behavior of Cox's Partial Likelihood and its Application to Variable Selection.

For theoretical properties of variable selection procedures for Cox's model, we study the asymptotic behavior of partial likelihood for the Cox model. We find that the partial likelihood does not behave like an ordinary likelihood, whose sample average typically tends to its expected value, a finite number, in probability. Under some mild conditions, we prove that the sample average of partial likelihood tends to infinity at the rate of the logarithm of the sample size, in probability. We apply the asymptotic results on the partial likelihood to study tuning parameter selection for penalized partial likelihood. We find that the penalized partial likelihood with the generalized cross-validation (GCV) tuning parameter proposed in Fan and Li (2002) enjoys the model selection consistency property, despite the fact that GCV, AIC and Cp , equivalent in the context of linear regression models, are not model selection consistent. Our empirical studies via Monte Carlo simulation and a data example confirm our theoretical findings.
A Revised Land Surface Parameterization (SiB2) for Atmospheric GCMS. Part II: The Generation of Global Fields of Terrestrial Biophysical Parameters from Satellite Data

Abstract The global parameter fields used in the revised Simple Biosphere Model (SiB2) of Sellers et al. are reviewed. The most important innovation over the earlier SiB1 parameter set of Dorman and Sellers is the use of satellite data to specify the time-varying phonological properties of FPAR, leaf area index. and canopy greenness fraction. This was done by processing a monthly 1° by 1° normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset obtained farm Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer red and near-infrared data. Corrections were applied to the source NDVI dataset to account for (i) obvious anomalies in the data time series, (ii) the effect of variations in solar zenith angle, (iii) data dropouts in cold regions where a temperature threshold procedure designed to screen for clouds also eliminated cold land surface points, and (iv) persistent cloud cover in the Tropics. An outline of the procedures for calculating the land surface parameters from the corrected NDVI dataset is given, and a brief d.
Non-invasive prenatal aneuploidy testing at chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y, using targeted sequencing of polymorphic loci

Methods—166 samples from pregnant women, including eleven trisomy 21, three trisomy 18, two trisomy 13, two 45,X, and two 47,XXY samples were analyzed using an informatics-based method. Cell-free DNA from maternal blood was isolated and amplified using a multiplex PCR assay targeting 11,000 SNPs on chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y in a single reaction, then sequenced. A Bayesian-based Maximum Likelihood statistical method was applied to determine the chromosomal count of the five chromosomes interrogated in each sample, along with a sample-specific calculated accuracy for each test result.
Distribution and severity of hypoxic–ischaemic lesions on brain MRI following therapeutic cooling: selective head versus whole body cooling

Background Whole body cooling (WBC) cools different parts of the brain uniformly, and selective head cooling (SHC) cools the superficial brain more than the deeper brain structures. In this study, the authors hypothesised that the hypoxic–ischaemic lesions on brain MRI following cooling would differ between modalities of cooling. Aim To compare the frequency, distribution and severity of hypoxic–ischaemic lesions on brain MRI between SHC or WBC. Methods In a single centre retrospective study, 83 infants consecutively cooled using either SHC (n=34) or WBC (n=49) underwent brain MRI. MRI images were evaluated by a neuroradiologist, who was masked to clinical parameters and outcomes, using a basal ganglia/watershed (BG/W) scoring system. Higher scores (on a scale of 0 to 4) were given for more extensive injury. The score has been reported to be predictive of neuromotor and cognitive outcome at 12 months. Results The two groups were similar for severity of depression as assessed by a history of an intrapartum sentinel event, Apgar scores, initial blood pH and base deficit and early neurological examination. However, abnormal MRI was more frequent in the SHC group (SHC 25 of 34, 74% vs WBC 22 of 49, 45%; p=0.0132, OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.3 to 8.8). Infants from the SHC group also had more severe hypoxic–ischaemic lesions (median BG/W score: SHC 2 vs WBC 0, p=0.0014). Conclusions Hypoxic–ischaemic lesions on brain MRI following therapeutic cooling were more frequent and more severe with SHC compared with WBC.
Significant marine ice accumulation in the ablation zone beneath an antarctic ice shelf

High-resolution crystallographic, salinity and isotopic analyses of a 45 m ice core reveal the presence of a thick layer of marine ice near the grounding line of the Nansen Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The anomalous formation of marine ice in a zone assumed to be the site of active basal melting leads us to propose the hypothesis of large basal crevasses as a favorable environment for important marine-ice accretion. This hitherto unexplored possibility is supported by the overall field configuration and by the discrepancy in some ice properties between this core and the marine-ice sections of previous drilling projects. These findings could have important implications for the general stability of ice shelves and their disintegration processes. The specific properties of this core reveal that marine ice is post-genetically deformed.
Regional representativity of AERONET observation sites during the biomass burning season in South America determined by correlation studies with MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth

[1] This paper presents an analysis of ground-based Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) observations by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) in South America from 2001 to 2007 in comparison with the satellite AOD product of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard TERRA and AQUA satellites. Data of 12 observation sites were used with primary interest in AERONET sites located in or downwind of areas with high biomass burning activity and with measurements available for the full time range. Fires cause the predominant carbonaceous aerosol emission signal during the dry season in South America and are therefore a special focus of this study. Interannual and seasonal behavior of the observed AOD at different sites were investigated, showing clear differences between purely fire and urban influenced sites. An intercomparison of AERONET and MODIS AOD annual correlations revealed that neither an interannual long-term trend may be observed nor that correlations differ significantly owing to different overpass times of TERRA and AQUA. Individual anisotropic representativity areas for each AERONET site were derived by correlating daily AOD of each site for all years with available individual MODIS AOD pixels gridded to 1° × 1°. Results showed that for many sites a good AOD correlation (R2 > 0.5) persists for large, often strongly anisotropic, areas. The climatological areas of common regional aerosol regimes often extend over several hundreds of kilometers, sometimes far across national boundaries. As a practical application, these strongly inhomogeneous and anisotropic areas of influence are being implemented in the tropospheric aerosol data assimilation system of the Coupled Chemistry-Aerosol-Tracer Transport Model coupled to the Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CCATT-BRAMS) at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). This new information promises an improved exploitation of local site sampling and, thus, chemical weather forecast.
P wave attenuation of the Yellowstone Caldera from three‐dimensional inversion of spectral decay using explosion source seismic data

Using explosion source, seismic refraction data, recorded in the 1978 and 1980 Yellowstone-Snake River Plain seismic experiments, a three-dimensional inversion of differential P wave attenuation was used to assess the relative variations in Q−1 in and around the volcanically active, 45 km by 70 km, Yellowstone caldera, northwestern Wyoming. Differential attenuation was derived from spectral decay of upper crustal Pg phases, observed from six explosions and recorded at 90 temporary stations. Because of the relatively short time windows used to determine the spectral content, a maximum entropy technique was employed to estimate the spectra that yielded an optimally small variance. Differential P wave attenuation was calculated from least squares determinations of the spectral ratios corrected for source and path effects. The observed differential attenuation parameters were then inverted using a weighted least squares technique for a discretized, 70×105 km, three-dimensional surface and upper crustal Q−1 model of the Yellowstone caldera and surrounding region. Results showed that the surface layer, to depths of 2 km within the Yellowstone caldera, is characterized by relatively high attenuation with low Q values less than 30, compared to values of 38 to 50 outside the caldera. The higher attenuation in the caldera's surface layer is thought to be associated with Quaternary lake sediments, highly altered rhyolites, and the possible influence of steam in areas of hydrothermal activity. In the crystalline upper crust, at depths of 2 km to 12 km, Q values of 40 to 70 were observed in areas of thick sedimentary fill northwest of the caldera and in areas of hydrothermal activity. Within the caldera, upper crustal attenuation generally corresponded to Q of 200 in areas that are interpreted to be associated with hot but now solidified granitic material. In comparison, relatively high attenuation, Q = 40, was observed in the upper crust of the northeastern Yellowstone caldera in an area that also corresponds to a 20% reduction in Pg velocity, a prominent negative Bouguer gravity low of −20 mGal, near Yellowstone's largest area of hydrothermal activity and near a Quaternary, volcanic resurgent dome. On the basis of constitutive models of velocity and density, this zone of high attenuation is likely a product of unusual hydrothermal activity, highly altered upper-crustal rocks, a shallow magmatic source or a highly porous, steam-saturated body. Outside the caldera, the upper crust is relatively unaffected by high temperatures and thermal alteration, and the corresponding attenuation is low with Q values greater than 200.
Importance of Sustainability on Agriculture in Southern Africa

This paper seeks to describe and discuss the impact that climate changes, and other challenges in terms of sustainability, have had on Africa and particularly on South Africa. It seeks to discuss the extent to which these changes directly and indirectly impact agriculture and the measures that are currently underway, with particular reference to South Africa, as well as suggest other strategies that could be implemented to attenuate the effects of climate change, thereby advancing the global shift towards sustainability. The paper discusses environmental and other changes that have taken place in Africa and asserts that the continent is in a particularly difficult situation in light of the debate on sustainability versus productivity. The fact that most of the world’s rural poor depend on agriculture and that climatic changes have created new complications makes it more difficult to meet the MDGs and impedes economic development. This is especially relevant in light of the financial crisis and the drop in aid from the developed world. However, although more still needs to be done, it should be noted that significant progress has been made and projects and strategies are currently underway to utilize the region’s natural advantages.
A key role for iron-bound phosphorus in authigenic apatite formation in North Atlantic continental platform sediments

A combination of pore water and solid phase analysis was used to determine whether authigenic carbonate fluorapatite (CFA) is currently forming in the sediment at two locations (OMEX I and II) on the North Atlantic continental platform Goban Spur (southwest of Ireland). Results of selective P extractions suggest that an early diagenetic redistribution of Fe-bound P to an authigenic P phase may be occurring at both stations. A steady-state diagenetic model describing the depth profiles of pore water HPO 4 2- and three solid phase forms of P (organic P, Fe-bound P and authigenic P) was developed and applied to the data of station OMEX-I. The model results indicate that CFA formation can account for the observed increase of authigenic P with depth at this station. Furthermore, the results show that an intense cycling of P between Fe-bound P and pore water HPO 4 2- at the redox interface can create conditions beneficial for CFA formation. This internal P cycle is driven by downward, bioturbational transport of mainly in-situ-formed Fe-bound P into the reduced sediment zone. Losses from the internal P cycle due to CFA formation and HPO 4 2- diffusion are compensated for by sorption of HPO 4 2- released from organic matter to Fe oxides in the oxidized surface sediment. Fe-bound P thus acts as an intermediate between organic P and CFA. CFA can account for between 25 and 70% of the total burial flux of reactive P at station OMEX-I and thus may act as an important sink for P in this low sedimentation, continental margin environment.
Upper Paleocene biostratigraphy in the Mediterranean region: Zonal markers, diachronism, and preservational problems

The Paleocene‐Eocene transition is one of the most interesting and intensively investigated time intervals because of the significant changes in global climate and in oceanic circulation that occurred and due to unresolved controversies related to the search for a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the P/E boundary. In order to characterize and understand these changes, numerous sections have been studied in the former Tethys region, an area characterized by sedimentary sequences with fairly continuous sedimentation and rich microfossil contents. The integrated stratigraphy obtained has provided a high-resolution biostratigraphy and important data for paleoenvironmental reconstructions of this time interval. Many of the studied sections are located in Spain (Zumaya, Alamedilla, Caravaca, and Tra
Turning Weaknesses into Strengths: Nordic Tourism, Potentials for Growth and Major Challenges

Nordic region is a geographical area which is characterized by a combination of nature, culture, history and technology and regarded as a common entity in political, economical and historical sense. Although rich in its resources, Nordic tourism has not actualized its potential in full. The present paper aims to identify weaknesses of the region, to outline a new set of directions for improving Nordic tourism and to delineate major challenges. Its geographical and natural beauties, cultural characteristics, technological advancement and policy development are identified as assets for tourism advancement in the region. Winter tourism, adventure tourism, nature-based tourism and cultural tourism are demonstrated as potential routes of growth. Marketing strategies and changing trends are discussed as major challenges, with suggestions for implementation.
Bayesians and frequentists

There are two competing philosophies of statistical analysis: the Bayesian and the frequentist. The frequentists are much the larger group, and almost all the statistical analyses which appear in the BMJ are frequentist. The Bayesians are much fewer and until recently could only snipe at the frequentists from the high ground of university departments of mathematical statistics. Now the increasing power of computers is bringing Bayesian methods to thefore. Bayesian methods are based on the idea that unknown quantities, such as population means and proportions, have probabilitydistributions. The probability distribution for a population proportionexpresses our prior knowledge or belief about it, before we add the knowledge which comes from our data. For example, suppose we want to estimate the prevalence of diabetes in a health district. We could use the knowledge that the percentage of diabetics in the United Kingdom as a whole is about 2%, so we expect the prevalence in our health district to be fairly similar. It is unlikely to be 10%, for example. We might …
Response of maize growth and yield to different irrigation and fertilization regimes under sprinkler irrigation in semi-arid region

Abstract. Farmers are encouraged to shift conventional surface irrigation to sprinkler irrigation in semi-arid regions of China to cope with the decreasing availability of water for agricultural irrigation and frequent occurrence of droughts. This study was aimed at providing an optimal management practice of irrigation and fertilization for sprinkler irrigation of maize. The experiments were conducted on a 14.8 ha field with sandy soil irrigated by a one-span (85.5 m) lateral move sprinkler system in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Three irrigation levels of 40, 70, and 100% of full irrigation (referred to as I1, I2, and I3, respectively) and four nitrogen rate of 80, 160, 240, and 320 kg ha -1 (referred to as N1, N2, N3, and N4, respectively) were tested using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Irrigation level demonstrated a substantially more important influence on plant height, leaf area index (LAI), dry matter above ground, and yield than nitrogen applied. A higher irrigation level produced a significantly greater plant height, LAI, dry matter above ground, and yield. The yield averaged over the four nitrogen rates for the full irrigation (100%) level was 19.3% and 5.3% greater than the 40% irrigation level and the 70% irrigation level, respectively. For a given irrigation level, the nitrogen rate of 160 kg ha -1 (N2) usually gave a slightly higher yield than the other three nitrogen levels. A management practice of nitrogen rate of 160 kg ha -1 and 100% full irrigation was recommended by the current study to obtain a high production at a relatively low fertilizer input.