13 research outputs found
Crowdsourcing snake identification with online communities of professional herpetologists and avocational snake enthusiasts
Species identification can be challenging for biologists, healthcare practitioners and members of the general public. Snakes are no exception, and the potential medical consequences of venomous snake misidentification can be significant. Here, we collected data on identification of 100 snake species by building a week-long online citizen science challenge which attracted more than 1000 participants from around the world. We show that a large community including both professional herpetologists and skilled avocational snake enthusiasts with the potential to quickly (less than 2 min) and accurately (69–90%; see text) identify snakes is active online around the clock, but that only a small fraction of community members are proficient at identifying snakes to the species level, even when provided with the snake's geographical origin. Nevertheless, participants showed great enthusiasm and engagement, and our study provides evidence that innovative citizen science/crowdsourcing approaches can play significant roles in training and building capacity. Although identification by an expert familiar with the local snake fauna will always be the gold standard, we suggest that healthcare workers, clinicians, epidemiologists and other parties interested in snakebite could become more connected to these communities, and that professional herpetologists and skilled avocational snake enthusiasts could organize ways to help connect medical professionals to crowdsourcing platforms. Involving skilled avocational snake enthusiasts in decision making could build the capacity of healthcare workers to identify snakes more quickly, specifically and accurately, and ultimately improve snakebite treatment data and outcomes
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New measurement of the p-{anti p} total cross section at {radical}S = 1.8 TeV
A new type of detector capable of reaching very small angles was successfully used in Fermilab E811 in Jan. 1996. It consists of a bundle of 15,000 scintillating fibers each of 100 {micro}m diameter. The fibers are oriented parallel to the beam and gave a measuring resolution of 38 {micro}m transverse to the beam. In this report the authors analyzed about 50,000 elastics as close as 3 mm from the beam. Simulated data runs show that the total cross section should be obtained to an accuracy of {+-}2%. The smallest t-bin used has a background subtraction of {approximately}20%, but for most of the t-bins the background is much smaller and the detection efficiency is over 95%. Very preliminary analysis gives a total cross section of {approximately}71 mb at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV using a luminosity-independent method. This is consistent with the earlier Fermilab E710 result which used a different kind of elastic detector. The rho-value analysis has not yet been completed. A personal interpretation (by Orear) of a slower rise in the total cross section is given at the end
Antiproton—proton elastic scattering at from |t| = 0.034 to 0.65 (GeV/c)2
Abstract The differential cross section for elastic antiproton—proton scattering at s =1.8 TeV has been measured over the t range 0.034⩽|t|⩽0.65 (GeV/c)2. A logarithmic slope parameter, B, of 16.3±0.3 (GeV/c)−2 is obtained. In contrast to lower energy experiments, no change in slope is observed over this t range
Diffraction dissociation in pp collisions at √s=1.8 TeV
Abstract We have studied single diffraction dissociation ( p p→ p X ) in proton-antiproton collisions at √s=1.8TeV, covering the ranges 3⪅MX⪅200 GeV and 0.05⪅|t|⪅0.11 (GeV/c)2. Parameterizing the production to be of the form dσ ( d t d M 2 X ) = (M 2 X ) −α exp (bt) , we obtain α = 1.13±0.07 and b = 10.5±1.8(GeV/c)−2. The total single diffraction dissociation cross section is 2σSD=8.1±1.7 mb. Comparisons are made to previous lower energy data, and to an earlier measurement by us at the same energy