Spindle cell sarcoma of sphenoid bone

Primary bone tumors involving skull are extremely rare and they constitute 0.8% of all bone tumors. The common tumors that are seen in skull base include fibrous dysplasia, giant cell tumor, chordoma, ossifying fibroma, angiosarcoma. We report a rare case of spindle cell sarcoma arising from right sphenoid bone in a 70-year-old male which presented as unilateral defective vision with mild proptosis

The LandSense Innovation Challenge

The LandSense project aims to build an innovative citizen observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, by connecting citizens with Earth Observation (EO) data to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. Through EO-driven mobile and web applications, LandSense promotes citizens to not only play a key role in environmental monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such applications. Currently within the EU’s EO monitoring framework, especially in the domain of LULC dynamics, there is a need for low-cost methods for acquiring high quality in-situ data to create timely, accurate and well-validated data products. LandSense aims to disrupt the EO data economy by creating marketable solutions that can provide a step-change in LULC monitoring activities both within and beyond Europe. In order to promote and stimulate the fast adoption of the project outcomes, the consortium proposes organization of the LandSense Innovation Challenge: Finals at the ECSA Conference 2020. This interactive session would facilitate collaboration and innovation among stakeholders within the value chain related to land mapping and citizen science. As such, the LandSense Innovation Challenge targets individuals, web-entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs coming from all participating Horizon 2020 countries, to present innovative IT solutions addressing one of the three LandSense domains: Urban Landscape Dynamics, Agricultural Land Use, and Forest & Habitat Monitoring. The challenge focuses on exploiting data streams coming from the LandSense Citizen Observatory, which consist of a diverse set of data including land cover change detection, threats to natural habitats, greenspace monitoring, etc., to design novel LULC solutions targeted at the citizen science community. In addition, participants will be encouraged to access data from the Sentinel Hub Service or other relevant EO data sources as well as the LandSense Quality Assurance Service in their solution. The process for the LandSense Innovation Challenge will be divided into two stages. First, there will be public call for ideas (Feb/March 2020) to which teams can submit proposals. After a review of the applications, a select number of shortlisted teams (5 to 10) will be invited to join the finals in Trieste to pitch their ideas to a jury of experts. Teams attending the finals will have the opportunity to discover more about LandSense, get coaching/mentoring to improve their pitches and network with the vibrant EO and citizen science communities. The winning team will not only receive a grand prize but also continue collaboration with the LandSense consortium to further advance their solution

Churn, Baby, Churn: Strategic Dynamics Among Dominant and Fringe Firms in a Segmented Industry

This paper integrates and extends the literatures on industry evolution and dominant firms to develop a dynamic theory of dominant and fringe competitive interaction in a segmented industry. It argues that a dominant firm, seeing contraction of growth in its current segment(s), enters new segments in which it can exploit its technological strengths, but that are sufficiently distant to avoid cannibalization. The dominant firm acts as a low-cost Stackelberg leader, driving down prices and triggering a sales takeoff in the new segment. We identify a “churn” effect associated with dominant firm entry: fringe firms that precede the dominant firm into the segment tend to exit the segment, while new fringe firms enter, causing a net increase in the number of firms in the segment. As the segment matures and sales decline in the segment, the process repeats itself. We examine the predictions of the theory with a study of price, quantity, entry, and exit across 24 product classes in the desktop laser printer industry from 1984 to 1996. Using descriptive statistics, hazard rate models, and panel data methods, we find empirical support for the theoretical predictions

Stellar populations of bulges at low redshift

This chapter summarizes our current understanding of the stellar population properties of bulges and outlines important future research directions.Comment: Review article to appear in "Galactic Bulges", Editors: Laurikainen E., Peletier R., Gadotti D., Springer Publishing. 34 pages, 12 figure

Systematic review of studies generating individual participant data on the efficacy of drugs for treating soil-transmitted helminthiases and the case for data-sharing

Preventive chemotherapy and transmission control (PCT) by mass drug administration is the cornerstone of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s policy to control soil-transmitted helminthiases (STHs) caused by Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm), Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) and hookworm species (Necator americanus and Ancylostama duodenale) which affect over 1 billion people globally. Despite consensus that drug efficacies should be monitored for signs of decline that could jeopardise the effectiveness of PCT, systematic monitoring and evaluation is seldom implemented. Drug trials mostly report aggregate efficacies in groups of participants, but heterogeneities in design complicate classical meta-analyses of these data. Individual participant data (IPD) permit more detailed analysis of drug efficacies, offering increased sensitivity to identify atypical responses potentially caused by emerging drug resistance

Validating maps of land cover and land degradation with citizen science and mobile gaming

Peatland comprises around 24% of South Sumatra, a province on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Following catastrophic fires in 2015, peat restoration has become a priority for this area. To identify candidate areas for restoration, both land cover over time and land degradation have been mapped using optical and radar remote sensing. Limited field data have been used to help validate these maps but more validation data are still needed. One way to fill this gap is to tap into the power of citizen science, which has become an emerging area of interest. In citizen science, any member of the public can take part in scientific research, whether this is through data collection, analysis of the data or hypothesis generation. Here we present the results from a citizen science campaign using the Urundata mobile gaming application, which has been developed as part of the Restore+ project. Urundata has two main components: a rapid image assessment tool that allows users to classify satellite imagery by the type of land cover/land use visible or to examine pairs of images for detection of change over time (developed from an application called Picture Pile). The second component sends users to specific locations on the ground via a mobile device and asks for information related to land cover and evidence of land degradation (developed from an application called FotoQuest Go). Together these two components have been used to help validate land cover and land degradation maps of South Sumatra through citizen science

Understanding Technology as Situated Practice: Everyday use of Voice User Interfaces Among Diverse Groups of Users in Urban India

Abstract: As smartphones have become ubiquitous across urban India, voice user interfaces (VUIs) are increasingly becoming part of diverse groups of users’ daily experiences. These technologies are now generally accessible as a result of improvements in mobile Internet access, [-8.5pc]Biography is Required. Please provide. introduction of low-cost smartphones and the ongoing process of their localisation into Indian languages. However, when people engage with technologies in their everyday lives, they not only enact the material attributes of the artifact but also draw on their skills, social positions, prior experience and societal norms and expectations to make use of the artifact. Drawing on Orlikowski’s analytical framework of “technologies-in-practice” we engage in an interview-based exploratory study among diverse groups of users in urban India to understand use of VUIs as situated practice. We identify three technologies-in-practice emerging through enactment of VUIs on users’ smartphones: looking up, learning and leisure. We argue that – instead of asking why and how users appropriate VUIs – identifying different kinds of enactments of VUIs present researchers and practitioners with a more nuanced understanding of existing and potential use of VUIs across varied contexts

Comparing the Clinical and Histological Diagnosis of Leprosy and Leprosy Reactions in the INFIR Cohort of Indian Patients with Multibacillary Leprosy

Leprosy affects skin and peripheral nerves. Although we have antibiotics to treat the mycobacterial infection, the accompanying inflammation is a major part of the disease process. This can worsen after starting antibacterial treatment with episodes of immune mediated inflammation, so called reactions. These are associated with worsening of nerve damage. However, diagnosing these reactions is not straightforward. They can be diagnosed clinically by examination or by microscopic examination of the skin biopsies. We studied a cohort of 303 newly diagnosed leprosy patients in India and compared the diagnosis rates by clinical examination and microscopy and found that the microscopic diagnosis has higher rates of diagnosis for both types of reaction. This suggests that clinicians and pathologists have different thresholds for diagnosing reactions. More work is needed to optimise both clinical and pathological diagnosis. In this cohort 43% of patients had Borderline Tuberculoid leprosy, an immunologically active type, and 20% of the biopsies showed only minimal inflammation, perhaps these patients had very early disease or self-healing. The public health implication of this work is that leprosy centres need to be supported by pathologists to help with the clinical management of difficult cases