Towards Deep Cellular Phenotyping in Placental Histology

The placenta is a complex organ, playing multiple roles during fetal development. Very little is known about the association between placental morphological abnormalities and fetal physiology. In this work, we present an open sourced, computationally tractable deep learning pipeline to analyse placenta histology at the level of the cell. By utilising two deep Convolutional Neural Network architectures and transfer learning, we can robustly localise and classify placental cells within five classes with an accuracy of 89%. Furthermore, we learn deep embeddings encoding phenotypic knowledge that is capable of both stratifying five distinct cell populations and learn intraclass phenotypic variance. We envisage that the automation of this pipeline to population scale studies of placenta histology has the potential to improve our understanding of basic cellular placental biology and its variations, particularly its role in predicting adverse birth outcomes.Comment: Updated MRC funding material. Corrected typo that suggested ensembling and Inception accuracy were the same (updated to reflect the fact the ensemble model is 1% better than previously reported

Search for Fractional Charges in Water

Results are presented from a search for fractional charges in water from a variety of natural sources. About 30 000 water drops have been measured, comprising 51 μg of water and dissolved materials. No evidence for fractional charge was seen

Outcome of index upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients presenting with dysphagia in a tertiary care hospital-A 10 years review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with malignant tumours of the upper gastrointestinal tract tumours exhibit important alarm symptoms such as dysphagia that warrant clinical investigations. An endoscopic examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract will be required in most cases. This study evaluates the diagnostic potential of index endoscopy in a random population of patients with dysphagia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data over 10 years. Patients with previous endoscopic evaluation or upper gastrointestinal pathology were excluded from the study. Data was analysed to see the number and frequency of abnormal findings in upper gastrointestinal tract, and their significance in relation to the presenting symptoms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Total number of index endoscopies was 13, 881. 913 patients were included in the study including 465 males (age range: 17–92 years, median: 55 years) and 448 females (age range: 18–100, median: 59 years), with male to female ratio of 1.04: 1. Oesophagus was abnormal in 678 cases (74%) and biopsies were taken in 428 patients (47%). Superficial oesophagitis, Barrett's oesophagus, oesophageal cancer, and oesophageal ulcer were main histological findings. Age more than 50 years and weight loss were significant predictors of oesophageal cancer (p < 0.0001). Male gender, heartburn, epigastric pain, weight loss and vomiting were significantly related to Barrett's oesophagus. A total of 486 gastric and 56 duodenal biopsies were also taken. There were 20 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>OGD is an effective initial investigation to assess patients with dysphagia, especially males above the age of 50 years. Patients may be started on treatment or referred for further investigations, for example, a barium meal in the absence of any anatomical abnormality.</p

Costs and Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis. A Cross-Sectional Observational Study in the UK

Abstract: We performed a cross-sectional, "bottom-up" observational study of resource consumption and quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United Kingdom. Three centers participated in the study. Patients received a questionnaire either by mail or during a clinic visit, and a total of 619 patients returned the questionnaire (the answer rate being around 70%). Patients provided information on all resource consumption, medical and non-medical, work absence and informal care related to their MS. Disease scores (Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS) were available for a majority of patients from the study centers, and were assigned using a matrix of disease (mobility) descriptions and EDSS scores. Mean total cost per patient and year was 16’717 £. When this cost is extrapolated to an estimated patient population in the UK of 80’000, total costs to society are estimated at 1.34 billion £. Direct costs represented 28%, informal care accounted for 26% and indirect costs amounted to 46%. Of the direct costs, an estimated £ per patient or % of total costs are paid for by the NHS. Intangible costs were estimated at 5000 £ per patient and year. The mean age of the cohort was 44 years (disease onset 34), the mean utility measured with EQ-5D was 0.487 (0.919 to –0.594), and the mean EDSS score 5.1 (1.0 to 9.5). All costs (direct, informal care, indirect) increased with increasing EDSS scores, while utilities decreased.multiple sclerosis; cost-of-illness; quality of life; EDSS; utility

Search for Fractional Charges Produced in Heavy-Ion Collisions at 1.9 GeV/nucleon

An experiment was performed to capture fractionally charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions and to concentrate them in samples suitable for analysis by various techniques. Two of the samples so produced have been searched, with use of an automated version of Millikan\u27s oil-drop apparatus. The beam was 56Fe at 1.9 GeV/nucleon, incident on a lead target. Less than one fractional charge per 1.0× 104 Fe-Pb collisions was found to be produced, and, with further assumptions, less than one per 2.0× 106 collisions

Convergent Evolution in Aquatic Tetrapods: Insights from an Exceptional Fossil Mosasaur

Mosasaurs (family Mosasauridae) are a diverse group of secondarily aquatic lizards that radiated into marine environments during the Late Cretaceous (98–65 million years ago). For the most part, they have been considered to be simple anguilliform swimmers – i.e., their propulsive force was generated by means of lateral undulations incorporating the greater part of the body – with unremarkable, dorsoventrally narrow tails and long, lizard-like bodies. Convergence with the specialized fusiform body shape and inferred carangiform locomotory style (in which only a portion of the posterior body participates in the thrust-producing flexure) of ichthyosaurs and metriorhynchid crocodyliform reptiles, along with cetaceans, has so far only been recognized in Plotosaurus, the most highly derived member of the Mosasauridae. Here we report on an exceptionally complete specimen (LACM 128319) of the moderately derived genus Platecarpus that preserves soft tissues and anatomical details (e.g., large portions of integument, a partial body outline, putative skin color markings, a downturned tail, branching bronchial tubes, and probable visceral traces) to an extent that has never been seen previously in any mosasaur. Our study demonstrates that a streamlined body plan and crescent-shaped caudal fin were already well established in Platecarpus, a taxon that preceded Plotosaurus by 20 million years. These new data expand our understanding of convergent evolution among marine reptiles, and provide insights into their evolution's tempo and mode