The field testing of a vortex sewage overflow.

A full scale prototype of a vortex storm sewage overflow with peripheral spill has been build in Sheffield, its design being based on the results of model tests. The project described has been involved in monitoring this prototype with the aims of i) Assessing its hydraulic performance, ii) Assessing its ability to retain polluting material, particularly large 'gross solids' in the sewer, iii) To compare its performance with predictions made by the model tests. A review of previous work concerning storm overflows, the development of vortex overflows and sewer monitoring techniques was undertaken. The overflow was monitored with flow measurement equipment, bottle samplers and equipment designed to count the numbers of gross solids in the sewage entering and spilling from the chamber. The latter worked by pumping large volumes of sewage through a transparent cell, where it was filmed by a video camera. Objects passing were counted by eye when the film was examined later. The hydraulic monitoring showed that the overflow was effective at controlling flows in the sewage, and that mathematical and physical models predicted its performance. Analysis of discrete samples collected using bottle samplers showed little difference between the fine suspended solids and the dissolved material in inlet or spill. The results from measuring gross solids appeared to show that their concentration in the spill was less than that in the inflow by 20-40%. However insufficient storms were recorded to be sure to what extent the method of sampling affected the results. The results from the gross solid monitoring bore some resemblance to the predictions made by the model tests using estimates of the nature of particles in the storm sewage. This suggested that model tests using synthetic gross solid particles could give a good indication of the performance of full scale overflows

Estimation of Cell Cycle States of Human Melanoma Cells with Quantitative Phase Imaging and Deep Learning

Visualization and classification of cell cycle stages in live cells requires the introduction of transient or stably expressing fluorescent markers. This is not feasible for all cell types, and can be time consuming to implement. Labelling of living cells also has the potential to perturb normal cellular function. Here we describe a computational strategy to estimate core cell cycle stages without markers by taking advantage of features extracted from information-rich ptychographic time-lapse movies. We show that a deep-learning approach can estimate the cell cycle trajectories of individual human melanoma cells from short 3-frame (~23 minute) snapshots, and can identify cell cycle arrest induced by chemotherapeutic agents targeting melanoma driver mutations

Deriving alpha angle from anterior-posterior dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans : an automated and validated approach

Grant information: RE, MF, FS are supported by, and this work is funded by a Wellcome Trust collaborative award (209233). BGF is supported by a Medical Research Council (MRC) clinical research training fellowship (MR/S021280/1). BGF, MF, JHT, GDS work in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, which is supported by the MRC (MC_UU_00011/1). CL was funded by the MRC, UK (MR/S00405X/1).Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cam morphology but neither acetabular dysplasia nor pincer morphology is associated with osteophytosis throughout the hip: findings from a cross-sectional study in UK Biobank

Objectives: to examine whether acetabular dysplasia (AD), cam and/or pincer morphology are associated with radiographic hip osteoarthritis (rHOA) and hip pain in UK Biobank (UKB) and, if so, what distribution of osteophytes is observed.Design: participants from UKB with a left hip dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan had alpha angle (AA), lateral centre-edge angle (LCEA) and joint space narrowing (JSN) derived automatically. Cam and pincer morphology, and AD were defined using AA and LCEA. Osteophytes were measured manually and rHOA grades were calculated from JSN and osteophyte measures. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationships between these hip morphologies and rHOA, osteophytes, JSN, and hip pain.Results: 6,807 individuals were selected (mean age: 62.7; 3382/3425 males/females). Cam morphology was more prevalent in males than females (15.4% and 1.8% respectively). In males, cam morphology was associated with rHOA [OR 3.20 (95% CI 2.41–4.25)], JSN [1.53 (1.24–1.88)], and acetabular [1.87 (1.48–2.36)], superior [1.94 (1.45–2.57)] and inferior [4.75 (3.44–6.57)] femoral osteophytes, and hip pain [1.48 (1.05–2.09)]. Broadly similar associations were seen in females, but with weaker statistical evidence. Neither pincer morphology nor AD showed any associations with rHOA or hip pain.Conclusions: cam morphology was predominantly seen in males in whom it was associated with rHOA and hip pain. In males and females, cam morphology was associated with inferior femoral head osteophytes more strongly than those at the superior femoral head and acetabulum. Further studies are justified to characterise the biomechanical disturbances associated with cam morphology, underlying the observed osteophyte distribution