Crowdsourcing the General Public for Large Scale Molecular Pathology Studies in Cancer

Background: Citizen science, scientific research conducted by non-specialists, has the potential to facilitate biomedical research using available large-scale data, however validating the results is challenging. The Cell Slider is a citizen science project that intends to share images from tumors with the general public, enabling them to score tumor markers independently through an internet-based interface. Methods: From October 2012 to June 2014, 98,293 Citizen Scientists accessed the Cell Slider web page and scored 180,172 sub-images derived from images of 12,326 tissue microarray cores labeled for estrogen receptor (ER). We evaluated the accuracy of Citizen Scientist's ER classification, and the association between ER status and prognosis by comparing their test performance against trained pathologists. Findings: The area under ROC curve was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.96) for cancer cell identification and 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.97) for ER status. ER positive tumors scored by Citizen Scientists were associated with survival in a similar way to that scored by trained pathologists. Survival probability at 15 years were 0.78 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.80) for ER-positive and 0.72 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.77) for ER-negative tumors based on Citizen Scientists classification. Based on pathologist classification, survival probability was 0.79 (95% CI 0.77 to 0.81) for ER-positive and 0.71 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.74) for ER-negative tumors. The hazard ratio for death was 0.26 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.37) at diagnosis and became greater than one after 6.5 years of follow-up for ER scored by Citizen Scientists, and 0.24 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.33) at diagnosis increasing thereafter to one after 6.7 (95% CI 4.1 to 10.9) years of follow-up for ER scored by pathologists. Interpretation: Crowdsourcing of the general public to classify cancer pathology data for research is viable, engages the public and provides accurate ER data. Crowdsourced classification of research data may offer a valid solution to problems of throughput requiring human input

Combination of searches for Higgs boson decays into a photon and a massless dark photon using pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for Higgs boson decays into a visible photon and a massless dark photon (H → γγd) is presented using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit on the Standard Model Higgs boson decay branching ratio is determined to be B(H → γγd) < 1.3% (1.5)%. The search is also sensitive to higher-mass Higgs bosons decaying into the same final state. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level limit on the cross-section times branching ratio ranges from 16 fb (20 fb) for mH = 400 GeV to 1.0 fb (1.5 fb) for mH = 3 TeV. Results are also interpreted in the context of a minimal simplified model

Stromelysin-1 and hepatic stellate cells

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN017159 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

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Not AvailableTwenty six female adult multiparous dromedary camels belonging to the herd of National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner were taken for the present study before first mating at the onset of breeding season. Vaginal smears/samples were taken with sterile swabs using a swab holder of 30 cm length. The samples were taken before first mating during the initial period of breeding season. Samples were processed by standard procedures and isolated samples were identified by primary and secondary biochemical tests along with their growth characteristics. Antibiotic sensitivity test was applied by disc diffusion method. Out of 26 samples 4 samples (15.4 %) failed to show any growth despite of duplicate culture, 8 (30.8%) samples had only one isolate, 11 (42.3 %) samples had 2 isolates, 2 (7.7 %) samples had 3 isolates and only 1 (3.8 %) sample had 5 isolates. Out of these 41 isolates, E. coli, Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., Micrococcus spp., Serratia spp., Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp., Corynebacterium (Actinomyces), Pasturella spp., and Proteus spp. constituted 21.9, 14.6, 14.6, 9.8, 7.3, 7.3, 7.3, 4.9, 4.9, 4.9 and 2.4 per cent, respectively. Gram negative bacteria (63.4 %) were found in slightly higher percentage than Gram positive (36.6%). Low bacterial yield (No. of isolates/sample) reflects otherwise sterile genital tractNot Availabl

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Not AvailableSolar Photovoltaic (PV) pump operated drip irrigation system has been designed and developed for growing orchards in arid region considering different design parameters like pumps size, water requirements, the diurnal variation in the pressure of the pump due to change in irradiance and pressure compensation in the drippers. The system comprising a PV pump with 900 Wp PV array and 800 W dc motor-pump mono-block, micro filter, main and submains and three open-able low-pressure compensating drippers on each plant was field tested. The emission uniformity was observed to be 92–94% with discharge of 3.8 l/h in the pressure range of 70–100 kPa provided by the pump and thus the system could irrigate some 1 ha area within 2 h. Based on the performance of the PV pump and the drip system, it was inferred that about 5 ha area of orchard could be covered. The projected benefit–cost ratio for growing pomegranate orchards with such a system was evaluated to be above 2 even with the costly PV pump and therefore the system was considered to be an appropriate technology for the development of arid region.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIn most of domestic animals, semen biology is well studied, but it is not so well studied in camelids particularly in dromedary camels. In camelids, the ejaculated semen is highly viscous, so before its evaluation and processing for preservation, it is necessary to be liquefied. Our study was designed to evaluate the effect of three different enzymes (0.1% Collagenase, 0.5 X Accutase, 0.1% Trypsin-EDTA - Ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid) on seminal viscosity at different time intervals along with its effects on seminal parameters. Semen was collected from the six adult healthy male camels using female camel as dummy. Bovine artificial vagina was used for the semen collection and ejaculate was kept at 37ºC for further processing after its collection. All three enzymes were diluted in 1x phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and the semen samples were kept at 37ºC. The samples were evaluated at different time intervals 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 240 min (T0–T240) for viscosity and it was evaluated by pipette method. Immediately after collection, the viscosity was very high, and no sperm mass motility was seen. However, after enzyme treatment viscosity was showed declining trend in all treatment groups compared to control. In trypsin treated group maximum motility was reached in 15 minutes. Live-dead percent was observed to be similar among treatment groups. Observations on liquefaction of semen revealed that use of enzymes decreasing the viscosity but with different ratesNot Availabl

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Not AvailableIn most of domestic animals, semen biology is well studied, but it is not so well studied in camelids particularly in dromedary camels. In camelids, the ejaculated semen is highly viscous, so before its evaluation and processing for preservation, it is necessary to be liquefied. Our study was designed to evaluate the effect of three different enzymes (0.1% Collagenase, 0.5 X Accutase, 0.1% Trypsin-EDTA - Ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid) on seminal viscosity at different time intervals along with its effects on seminal parameters. Semen was collected from the six adult healthy male camels using female camel as dummy. Bovine artificial vagina was used for the semen collection and ejaculate was kept at 37ºC for further processing after its collection. All three enzymes were diluted in 1x phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and the semen samples were kept at 37ºC. The samples were evaluated at different time intervals 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 240 min (T0–T240) for viscosity and it was evaluated by pipette method. Immediately after collection, the viscosity was very high, and no sperm mass motility was seen. However, after enzyme treatment viscosity was showed declining trend in all treatment groups compared to control. In trypsin treated group maximum motility was reached in 15 minutes. Live-dead percent was observed to be similar among treatment groups. Observations on liquefaction of semen revealed that use of enzymes decreasing the viscosity but with different rates.Not Availabl