• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• Publications close
• QA close

Abstract Qurʾān exegesis (tafsīr) in African Muslim societies represented the pinnacle of scholarly achievement, and public explanation of the Qurʾān was the event that marked the emergence of one of Africa’s most successful Sufi revivals, the “Community of the Flood” of the Senegalese Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (d. 1975). Niasse’s network of knowledge transmission, foregrounding the direct experiential knowledge of God (maʿrifa bi-Llāh), continued to emphasize Qurʾān learning, but Niasse’s own recorded Arabic tafsīr demonstrated a shift away from traditional West African sources in this field. Prior understandings of the West African tafsīr discipline locate the fifteenth-century Egyptian Tafsīr al-Jalālayn as the primary influence on West African understandings. But Niasse’s tafsīr exhibits a clear preference for an early eighteenth-century Ottoman multivolume work, Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī’s “Spirit of Explanation” (Rūh al-bayān), one of the most comprehensive summaries of Sufi understandings of the Qurʾān. This paper not only demonstrates the globally-connected nature of Islamic knowledge production in West Africa but also argues that Niasse’s emphasis on gnosis built on the Rūḥ al-bayān to ultimately occasion a noteworthy addition to the existing literary corpus of Qurʾān exegesis.

This article explores how Jews in Finland relate to the musical traditions of their synagogues and the changes that have occurred in the customs over time and as the result of various cultural and spiritual influences. Based on ethnographic data, it focuses on rituals, liturgy, and music as contexts for negotiating relationships between the institution and the individual, memory practices, and contemporary innovation – being and doing Jewish, to use concepts from the vernacular religion framework. The article outlines the historical development of Minhag Finland, the vernacular liturgical customs. It concludes that the “turn to traditions” should be stated in the plural, as several Jewish customs, cultures, and context are engaged in the negotiations around liturgy. This is not just a way to freeze time and preserve the status quo. Instead, seeking for meaningful models in the past paves the way for change – especially when turning toward a broad range of traditions. Peer reviewed

PURPOSE Treatment of non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is guided by risk stratification using clinical and pathologic criteria. This study aimed to develop a natural language processing (NLP) model for identifying patients with high-risk NMIBC retrospectively from unstructured electronic medical records (EMRs) and to apply the model to describe patient and tumor characteristics. METHODS We used three independent EMR-derived data sets including adult patients with a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2011-2020 for NLP model development and training (n = 140), validation (n = 697), and application for the retrospective cohort analysis (n = 4,402). Deep learning methods were used to train NLP recognition of medical chart terminology to identify seven high-risk NMIBC criteria; model performance was assessed using the F1 score, weighted across features. An algorithm was then used to classify each patient as high-risk NMIBC (yes/no). Manually reviewed records served as the gold standard. RESULTS The F1 scores after model training were >0.7 for all but one uncommon feature (prostatic urethral involvement). The highest area under the receiver operating curves (AUC) was observed for Ta (0.897) and T1 (0.897); the lowest AUC was for carcinoma in situ (CIS; 0.617). For high-risk NMIBC classification, positive predictive value was 79.4%, negative predictive value was 93.2%, and false-positive rate was 8.9%. Sensitivity and specificity were 83.7% and 91.1%, respectively. Of 748 patients manually confirmed as having high-risk NMIBC, 196 (26%) had CIS (of whom 19% also had T1 and 23% also had Ta disease); 552 tumors (74%) had no associated CIS. CONCLUSION The NLP model, combined with a rule-based algorithm, identified high-risk NMIBC with good performance and will enable future work to study real-world treatment patterns and clinical outcomes for high-risk NMIBC.

Purpose: One of the successful and sustainable methods to restore low-fertility soils over the past few decades has been the integrated effect of biochar made from various feedstocks and chemical fertilizers. However, the impact of combining chemical fertilizers with pinewood-chip biochar to restore low-fertility calcareous soils has not been studied. The current study aimed to describe the integrative effects of pine-woodchip biochar and reduced NP fertilizer on soil fertility and maize productivity and to reduce dependency on inorganic fertilization. Materials and methods: In this regard, a 55-day pot experiment was conducted in the semi-arid agroecosystem to assess the integrated effect of pine-woodchip biochar (pyrolyzed at 450 °C) with reduced NP fertilizer on soil organic carbon, NPK availability, its uptake by maize, and maize productivity. The experimental design was completely randomized and consisted of six treatments: control, 100%-NP (NP), 5 tons ha−1 biochar (5-BC), 10 tons ha−1 biochar (10-BC), 5 tons ha−1 BC integrated with 50%-NP (5-BC + NP), and 10 tons ha−1 BC with 50%-NP (10-BC + NP). Results: Biochar amendments at 5 and 10 tons ha−1 with and without reduced NP fertilizer significantly increased maize growth and biomass production. Soil pH and electrical conductivity also varied between the treatments, and values were generally higher in BC and NP treatments. Soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen concentrations were significantly higher in the 5-BC + NP and 10-BC treatments. Effects on NPK availability and their uptake by maize plants varied between the treatments. A significant positive correlation between soil nitrogen and plant nitrogen and uptake was observed, whereas similar relationships were non-significant and non-consistent for phosphorus and potassium. However, the relationships between the phosphorus and potassium concentrations of the soil and the plant were not significant and inconsistent. However, soil organic carbon was positively correlated with plant NPK uptake, suggesting the contrasting effects of pine-woodchip biochar on NPK availability and their uptake. Conclusion: Our study concluded that the pine-woodchip biochar with reduced NP fertilizer could enhance maize growth and biomass production while improving soil organic carbon with differential effects on NPK availability and uptake.

Socio-ecological systems have increasingly faced climate-change impacts, which have adversely affected the lives and property of inhabitants. The present study aims to prioritize adaptation actions along an altitudinal gradient (<1200 m asl (Zone A), 1201–1800 m asl (Zone B), and >1801 m asl (Zone C)) in Pauri District, Uttarakhand. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to prioritize adaptation action from 545 randomly selected households in 91 villages. A multi-disciplinary bottom-up indicator-based approach was applied to identify and normalize sectoral indicators, and PCA was used to prioritize sectoral indicators. Adaptation actions were designed with prioritized sectoral indicators along the altitude and stakeholder consultations. The prioritized indicators varied along the altitudinal gradient, and more than 50% of the indicators for the same sector were different along an altitudinal gradient. Sectoral adaptation planning along the altitude is pertinent in the mountain because they contribute to adaptation planning differently. Additionally, the mainstreaming of adaptation strategies with national and regional development measures is also required. Finally, cross-sectoral resource management that combines users, planners, scientists, and policymakers should be formulated along the altitude within the district. These findings contribute to minimizing the gap between policy/program fabrication and local requirements. The evidence-based valuable knowledge for decision-makers could enable Himalayan communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change effectively. Adaptation planning is also critical for designing adaptation projects for the Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, and funds from multilateral and bilateral agencies. It will facilitate Nationally Determined Contributions, which aims to adapt better to climate change by enhancing investments in development programs in vulnerable sectors.