Spatial immune profiling of the colorectal tumor microenvironment predicts good outcome in stage II patients

This study was funded by Medical Research Scotland and Indica Labs, Inc., who also provided in-kind resource.Cellular subpopulations within the colorectal tumor microenvironment (TME) include CD3+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, CD68+ and CD163+ macrophages, and tumor buds (TBs), all of which have known prognostic significance in stage II colorectal cancer. However, the prognostic relevance of their spatial interactions remains unknown. Here, by applying automated image analysis and machine learning approaches, we evaluate the prognostic significance of these cellular subpopulations and their spatial interactions. Resultant data, from a training cohort retrospectively collated from Edinburgh, UK hospitals (n = 113), were used to create a combinatorial prognostic model, which identified a subpopulation of patients who exhibit 100% survival over a 5-year follow-up period. The combinatorial model integrated lymphocytic infiltration, the number of lymphocytes within 50-μm proximity to TBs, and the CD68+/CD163+ macrophage ratio. This finding was confirmed on an independent validation cohort, which included patients treated in Japan and Scotland (n = 117). This work shows that by analyzing multiple cellular subpopulations from the complex TME, it is possible to identify patients for whom surgical resection alone may be curative.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The impact of physical computing and computational pedagogy on girl's self - Efficacy and computational thinking practice

Research studies provide some evidence that computing and education robotics have a positive impact on female students' engagement in Computational Thinking (CT) practices and their self-efficacy for CT. Other issues raised by research concern the decontextualization of computing education from the actual lives of students which causes problems for students underrepresented in the fields of computing and engineering, such as female students. To tackle this problem, paper aimed to develop (STEM-Computational Thinking (CT)-Computing) scenarios related to students' actual lives and their local communities in order to help female students to develop STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) competences, when core disciplinary ideas and cross-cutting concepts are infused in the scenarios. All scenarios were implemented using the didactic model of inquiry teaching and learning and the engineering design thinking instruction strategy using physical computing activities. A validated questionnaire for self-efficacy and CT practices was applied before and after the intervention to female prospective engineering school teachers studying at Higher Education Institutes in Greece. Results show a strong evidence for the effectiveness (enhancement of CT efficacy of female students) by using the STEM content epistemology through activities implemented with physical computing platforms. © 2021 IEEE

The diet of the Eleonora's falcon (Falco eleonorae) in the Aegean archipelago (Greece)

Xirouchakis, S. M., Alivizatos, H., Georgopoulou, E., Dimalexis, A., Latsoudis, P., Portolou, D., Karris, G., Georgiakakis, P., Fric, J., Saravia, V., Barboutis, C., Bourdakis, S., Kakalis, E., Kominos, T., Simaiakis, S. (2019): The diet of the Eleonora's falcon (Falco eleonorae) in the Aegean archipelago (Greece). Journal of Natural History 53 (29): 1767-1785, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2019.166897

Data from: Agriculture shapes the trophic niche of a bat preying on multiple pest arthropods across Europe: evidence from DNA metabarcoding

The interaction between agricultural production and wildlife can shape, and even condition, the functioning of both systems. In this study we i) explored the degree to which a widespread European bat, namely the common bent-wing bat Miniopterus schreibersii, consumes crop-damaging insects at a continental scale, and ii) tested whether its dietary niche is shaped by the extension and type of agricultural fields. We employed a dual-primer DNA metabarcoding approach to characterise arthropod 16S and COI DNA sequences within bat faecal pellets collected across 16 Southern European localities, to first characterise the bat species’ dietary niche, secondly measure the incidence of agricultural pests across their ranges, and thirdly assess whether geographical dietary variation responds to climatic, landscape diversity, agriculture type and vegetation productivity factors. We detected 12 arthropod orders, among which lepidopterans were predominant. We identified >200 species, 44 of which are known to cause agricultural damage. Pest species were detected at all but one sampling site and in 94% of the analysed samples. Furthermore, the dietary diversity of M. schreibersii exhibited a negative linear relation with the area of intensive agricultural fields, thus suggesting crops restrict the dietary niche of bats to prey taxa associated with agricultural production within their foraging range. Overall our results imply that M. schreibersii might be a valuable asset for biological pest suppression in a variety of agricultural productions, and highlight the dynamic interplay between wildlife and agricultural systems