This document discusses how SciStarter connects regular people to real science projects they can participate in as citizen scientists. It notes that millions enjoy science but thousands of scientists need volunteers, and SciStarter helps connect them. Examples are given of large citizen science projects in fields like astronomy, environmental monitoring, and health. The document promotes SciStarter's role in organizing these projects, matching volunteers with researchers, and helping to scale up citizen science.
Presentation about SciStarter and Science Cheerleader by founder Darlene Cavalier.
Presented at OpenAccessPHL, April 2014, part of Philly Tech Week at City Coho/Philly Nexus.
What's the Big Idea - Societal Fission or FusionDavid Wortley
What’s The Big Idea? Societal Fission or Fusion?
Treating modern day society like a nuclear reactor
The internet and atomic energy have certain things in common. They are man-made discoveries which can be used for good or evil and now that they have been invented there is no going back – we cannot un-invent either of them. The difference between nuclear energy and the internet is that our global society seeks to prevent a proliferation of nuclear energy to stop it falling into the wrong hands whereas we have made the power of the internet accessible to virtually everyone on the planet regardless of their potential usage for good or evil.
My question is whether the internet has triggered the equivalent of a societal chain reaction in which the massive volume of interactions causes exponentially increasingly unstable consequences. If this analogy is valid, how can we put into place the equivalent cooling mechanisms to harness this power for good ?
TraitBank is the structured data service of the Encyclopedia
of Life. Launched in 2014, it currently hosts 9 million
data records for 1.7 million taxa, including trait records
(eg: cell size, life history traits) and other attributes including
administrative ones (eg: IUCN status, type specimen
repository). Marine datasets include verbal localities
from WoRMS, habitat categories from AlgaeBase, water
temperature ranges based on known occurrence records
from OBIS, and literature derived datasets including cell
masses of phytoplankton and tissue mineralization types
of algae and invertebrates. Hosted records include all
available metadata, including detailed attribution, url of
data source if online; organism information including sex
and life stage; date, locality and method information for
field studies, and any other fields provided by the source.
TraitBank is not a repository. Most hosted records are
deposited with a scholarly publication, or an institutional
or aggregator database. Presence in TraitBank makes
individual records findable by EOL search (http://eol.org/
data_search) or web search engine. Search results on EOL
are available by CSV download and records are available
to semantic web applications via a JSON-LD web service,
including all metadata. Fresh Data is a data search service
in development primarily for the Citizen Science community,
funded by NSF. Interested occurrence data providers
will register to be indexed. Their data will be deposited at
GBIF, using the IPT, if possible, and in TraitBank otherwise
(eg: presence/absence or abundance data, if GBIF
cannot accommodate them). Searchers can query the
index for recent records by time, location and taxonomic
group. Registered researchers will also be able to save and
publish their data queries, which will alert them if new
data appears matching their criteria, and alert the data
provider that their data was delivered to a subscriber.
Presentation about SciStarter and Science Cheerleader by founder Darlene Cavalier.
Presented at OpenAccessPHL, April 2014, part of Philly Tech Week at City Coho/Philly Nexus.
What's the Big Idea - Societal Fission or FusionDavid Wortley
What’s The Big Idea? Societal Fission or Fusion?
Treating modern day society like a nuclear reactor
The internet and atomic energy have certain things in common. They are man-made discoveries which can be used for good or evil and now that they have been invented there is no going back – we cannot un-invent either of them. The difference between nuclear energy and the internet is that our global society seeks to prevent a proliferation of nuclear energy to stop it falling into the wrong hands whereas we have made the power of the internet accessible to virtually everyone on the planet regardless of their potential usage for good or evil.
My question is whether the internet has triggered the equivalent of a societal chain reaction in which the massive volume of interactions causes exponentially increasingly unstable consequences. If this analogy is valid, how can we put into place the equivalent cooling mechanisms to harness this power for good ?
TraitBank is the structured data service of the Encyclopedia
of Life. Launched in 2014, it currently hosts 9 million
data records for 1.7 million taxa, including trait records
(eg: cell size, life history traits) and other attributes including
administrative ones (eg: IUCN status, type specimen
repository). Marine datasets include verbal localities
from WoRMS, habitat categories from AlgaeBase, water
temperature ranges based on known occurrence records
from OBIS, and literature derived datasets including cell
masses of phytoplankton and tissue mineralization types
of algae and invertebrates. Hosted records include all
available metadata, including detailed attribution, url of
data source if online; organism information including sex
and life stage; date, locality and method information for
field studies, and any other fields provided by the source.
TraitBank is not a repository. Most hosted records are
deposited with a scholarly publication, or an institutional
or aggregator database. Presence in TraitBank makes
individual records findable by EOL search (http://eol.org/
data_search) or web search engine. Search results on EOL
are available by CSV download and records are available
to semantic web applications via a JSON-LD web service,
including all metadata. Fresh Data is a data search service
in development primarily for the Citizen Science community,
funded by NSF. Interested occurrence data providers
will register to be indexed. Their data will be deposited at
GBIF, using the IPT, if possible, and in TraitBank otherwise
(eg: presence/absence or abundance data, if GBIF
cannot accommodate them). Searchers can query the
index for recent records by time, location and taxonomic
group. Registered researchers will also be able to save and
publish their data queries, which will alert them if new
data appears matching their criteria, and alert the data
provider that their data was delivered to a subscriber.
The emerging biodiversity data ecosystemCyndy Parr
A talk given at iEvobio11, a conference about Informatics for Phylogenetics, Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, held in Norman, Oklahoma June 21-22, 2011
A High-Performance Campus-Scale Cyberinfrastructure: The Technical, Political...Larry Smarr
10.10.11
Presentation by Larry Smarr to the NSF Campus Bridging Workshop
Title: A High-Performance Campus-Scale Cyberinfrastructure: The Technical, Political, and Economic
Anaheim, CA
Sciencescape: Research Scientists Put a Twist on Social Media | MD BuylineMD Buyline
MD Buyline discusses Sciencescape, a research delivery and exploration service based in Canada which streams breaking scientific papers on over 50 million categories into a "Twitter" like tool. For more insights and medical device and technology research from MD Buyline, visit www.mdbuyline.com
Scratchpads: Building web communities supporting biodiversity scienceVince Smith
Presented by Dave Roberts at a meeting titled "Information Technology in Biodiversity Conservation and in Agriculture" organized by the Club of Rome and the EU ICT-ENSURE project, at UNESCO, Paris. January 15th, 2009.
Feedback of a couple of eco-informatic tools for soil invertebrate functional...Alison Specht
The presentation of the CESAB group BETSI at the 2016 french ecology conference in the FRB-CESAB session "Using a treasury of knowledge to tackle complex ecological questions." Presenter: Johanne Nahmani
In a speech for the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Calit2 director Larry Smarr addresses the issue of biological diversity and the importance of monitoring the microbiome.
The emerging biodiversity data ecosystemCyndy Parr
A talk given at iEvobio11, a conference about Informatics for Phylogenetics, Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, held in Norman, Oklahoma June 21-22, 2011
A High-Performance Campus-Scale Cyberinfrastructure: The Technical, Political...Larry Smarr
10.10.11
Presentation by Larry Smarr to the NSF Campus Bridging Workshop
Title: A High-Performance Campus-Scale Cyberinfrastructure: The Technical, Political, and Economic
Anaheim, CA
Sciencescape: Research Scientists Put a Twist on Social Media | MD BuylineMD Buyline
MD Buyline discusses Sciencescape, a research delivery and exploration service based in Canada which streams breaking scientific papers on over 50 million categories into a "Twitter" like tool. For more insights and medical device and technology research from MD Buyline, visit www.mdbuyline.com
Scratchpads: Building web communities supporting biodiversity scienceVince Smith
Presented by Dave Roberts at a meeting titled "Information Technology in Biodiversity Conservation and in Agriculture" organized by the Club of Rome and the EU ICT-ENSURE project, at UNESCO, Paris. January 15th, 2009.
Feedback of a couple of eco-informatic tools for soil invertebrate functional...Alison Specht
The presentation of the CESAB group BETSI at the 2016 french ecology conference in the FRB-CESAB session "Using a treasury of knowledge to tackle complex ecological questions." Presenter: Johanne Nahmani
In a speech for the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Calit2 director Larry Smarr addresses the issue of biological diversity and the importance of monitoring the microbiome.
This is a citizen science overview particularly aimed at graduate students enrolled in a new course at Arizona State University, aptly titled "Citizen Science." The author of this presentation, and course instructor, Darlene Cavalier, will talk students through its nuances and intersections with science, technology, and society.
An overview of citizen science including the diversity of projects and people involved. Includes a nod towards the potential influence citizen scientists may have on policy matters .
All Hands on Deck - Getting Visitors Involved in the Work of the Museum (AAM ...sloverlinett
It’s the age of participatory engagement, and the crowd is making vital contributions in areas where only experts used to tread. How can museums harness their visitors’ collective skills and intelligence, not just to make exhibits and programs more engaging but also to help carry out the museum’s scientific, historical, aesthetic, or environmental work? In this panel, we looked at how three science-themed institutions are approaching this new frontier and what the future holds in three state-of-the-art facilities now on the drawing boards: a new learning space at the National Museum of Natural History; a redesigned visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and the new Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. In the q&a, we debated the whys and hows of bringing citizen science inside the museum and inviting visitors to lend their hands, eyes, and minds to the cause.
Darlene Cavalier's keynote presentation, More Can Be Done, at Quebec STEM con...Darlene Cavalier
Copy of presentation delivered at Quebec STEM symposium. (note: some videos will not appear in slideshare): https://sites.google.com/site/quebecstem2012/
Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing in the Digital Age: Birds, Bees, Brains —> A ...Crowdsourcing Week
Geoffrey Hainess-Stiles, Passport to Knowledge, Producer/director, Carl Sagan’s original COSMOS series (1980), producer/writer THE CROWD & THE CLOUD (2017)
The ContentMine system (Open Source) can search EuropePMC and download hundreds of articles in seconds. These can be indexed by AMI dictionaries allowing a rapid evaluations and refinement of the search
Citizen Science: An applied research designed for amateurs & volunteers - A ...Peri Kourakli
It is a type of research in which the citizens (amateurs and no professional researchers) take action and support a targeted research. The selection of the participants for this research varies from a very simple (open to anybody) to more complex processes (eg. to a selected audience or a selected number of participants).
The results of the research are analyzed by expert researchers who also ensure their publication to a broader or targeted audience.
Biodiversity Informatics: An Interdisciplinary ChallengeBryan Heidorn
"Impacto de la Informática en el Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad: Actualidad y Futuro” at Universidad Nacional de Colombia on August 12, 2011. https://sites.google.com/site/simposioinformaticaicn/home
The Singularity: Toward a Post-Human RealityLarry Smarr
06.02.13
Talk to UCSD's Sixth College
Honor's Course on Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near
Title: The Singularity: Toward a Post-Human Reality
La Jolla, CA
The Rise of Citizen-Scientists in the Eversmarter World - Alex Lightman - H+ ...Humanity Plus
Alex Lightman
Executive Director, Humanity+
The Rise of Citizen-Scientists in the Eversmarter World
Knowledge may be expanding exponentially, but the current rate of civilizational learning and institutional upgrading is still far too slow in the century of peak oil, peak uranium, and "peak everything". Humanity needs to gather vastly more data as part of ever larger and more widespread scientific experiments, and make science and technology flourish in streets, fields, and homes as well as in university and corporate laboratories. In this talk, H+ Executive Director Alex Lightman will give an introduction and overview of the big picture of H+ the organization, the magazine, and the conference, and how the participants can make the most of their experience and relationships at the conference. The case for ending embargoes and other beaver dams in the rivers of potentially global knowledge will be made. Lightman will offer a vision of a properly functioning Eversmarter world, ending with a call to action to become a citizen-scientist, and a recruiter of other citizen-scientists.
Alex Lightman is the Executive Director of Humanity+ and the chair of the H+ Summit @ Harvard and of the inaugural H+ Summit held December 2009 in Irvine, California. He is a director of Fortune Nest Corporation (Bahrain, Beijing and Beverly Hills, CA) and of Inova Technology. He is an award-winning educator, an inventor with several US patents issued or pending and the author of over 800,000 words, including 12 articles in h+ magazine, and Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and The Infinite Internet, the first book on 4G wireless. He has advised NATO, the US Dept. of Defense, and a number of governments on Internet Protocol version 6, the 128-bit successor to the current Internet, IPv4. Lightman's advocacy led to the only Congressional hearings held on US Internet Leadership, conducted by The Government Reform Committee and at which Lightman testified, leading to implementation of Lightman's recommendations to mandate IPv6 for the US government and require IPv6 as part of government information technology contracts. Lightman studied Civil and Environmental Engineering, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 (Course I-A), and attended graduate school at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He lives in Santa Monica, California, where he runs marathons, and attempts his first Ironman triathlon, in the UK, on August 1, 2010.
Citizen science in life science research, and its relevance to professional researchers. Poster at Vita Scientia 2016 conference. Featuring WeCureALZ, HeroColi, BOINC, crowdcrafting.org, PyBossa, Citizen Grid, RedWire, EpiCollect+; other CS examples.
Scott Edmunds from GigaScience on 'Publishing in the Open Data Era", at the "Open, Crowdsource and Blockchain Science!" hangout at Hackerspace.sg, 23rd March 2015
Similar to Citizen Science: Association of American Medical Colleges conference (20)
The increased availability of biomedical data, particularly in the public domain, offers the opportunity to better understand human health and to develop effective therapeutics for a wide range of unmet medical needs. However, data scientists remain stymied by the fact that data remain hard to find and to productively reuse because data and their metadata i) are wholly inaccessible, ii) are in non-standard or incompatible representations, iii) do not conform to community standards, and iv) have unclear or highly restricted terms and conditions that preclude legitimate reuse. These limitations require a rethink on data can be made machine and AI-ready - the key motivation behind the FAIR Guiding Principles. Concurrently, while recent efforts have explored the use of deep learning to fuse disparate data into predictive models for a wide range of biomedical applications, these models often fail even when the correct answer is already known, and fail to explain individual predictions in terms that data scientists can appreciate. These limitations suggest that new methods to produce practical artificial intelligence are still needed.
In this talk, I will discuss our work in (1) building an integrative knowledge infrastructure to prepare FAIR and "AI-ready" data and services along with (2) neurosymbolic AI methods to improve the quality of predictions and to generate plausible explanations. Attention is given to standards, platforms, and methods to wrangle knowledge into simple, but effective semantic and latent representations, and to make these available into standards-compliant and discoverable interfaces that can be used in model building, validation, and explanation. Our work, and those of others in the field, creates a baseline for building trustworthy and easy to deploy AI models in biomedicine.
Bio
Dr. Michel Dumontier is the Distinguished Professor of Data Science at Maastricht University, founder and executive director of the Institute of Data Science, and co-founder of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data principles. His research explores socio-technological approaches for responsible discovery science, which includes collaborative multi-modal knowledge graphs, privacy-preserving distributed data mining, and AI methods for drug discovery and personalized medicine. His work is supported through the Dutch National Research Agenda, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Horizon Europe, the European Open Science Cloud, the US National Institutes of Health, and a Marie-Curie Innovative Training Network. He is the editor-in-chief for the journal Data Science and is internationally recognized for his contributions in bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, and semantic technologies including ontologies and linked data.
Earliest Galaxies in the JADES Origins Field: Luminosity Function and Cosmic ...Sérgio Sacani
We characterize the earliest galaxy population in the JADES Origins Field (JOF), the deepest
imaging field observed with JWST. We make use of the ancillary Hubble optical images (5 filters
spanning 0.4−0.9µm) and novel JWST images with 14 filters spanning 0.8−5µm, including 7 mediumband filters, and reaching total exposure times of up to 46 hours per filter. We combine all our data
at > 2.3µm to construct an ultradeep image, reaching as deep as ≈ 31.4 AB mag in the stack and
30.3-31.0 AB mag (5σ, r = 0.1” circular aperture) in individual filters. We measure photometric
redshifts and use robust selection criteria to identify a sample of eight galaxy candidates at redshifts
z = 11.5 − 15. These objects show compact half-light radii of R1/2 ∼ 50 − 200pc, stellar masses of
M⋆ ∼ 107−108M⊙, and star-formation rates of SFR ∼ 0.1−1 M⊙ yr−1
. Our search finds no candidates
at 15 < z < 20, placing upper limits at these redshifts. We develop a forward modeling approach to
infer the properties of the evolving luminosity function without binning in redshift or luminosity that
marginalizes over the photometric redshift uncertainty of our candidate galaxies and incorporates the
impact of non-detections. We find a z = 12 luminosity function in good agreement with prior results,
and that the luminosity function normalization and UV luminosity density decline by a factor of ∼ 2.5
from z = 12 to z = 14. We discuss the possible implications of our results in the context of theoretical
models for evolution of the dark matter halo mass function.
Professional air quality monitoring systems provide immediate, on-site data for analysis, compliance, and decision-making.
Monitor common gases, weather parameters, particulates.
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
Richard's aventures in two entangled wonderlandsRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Introduction:
RNA interference (RNAi) or Post-Transcriptional Gene Silencing (PTGS) is an important biological process for modulating eukaryotic gene expression.
It is highly conserved process of posttranscriptional gene silencing by which double stranded RNA (dsRNA) causes sequence-specific degradation of mRNA sequences.
dsRNA-induced gene silencing (RNAi) is reported in a wide range of eukaryotes ranging from worms, insects, mammals and plants.
This process mediates resistance to both endogenous parasitic and exogenous pathogenic nucleic acids, and regulates the expression of protein-coding genes.
What are small ncRNAs?
micro RNA (miRNA)
short interfering RNA (siRNA)
Properties of small non-coding RNA:
Involved in silencing mRNA transcripts.
Called “small” because they are usually only about 21-24 nucleotides long.
Synthesized by first cutting up longer precursor sequences (like the 61nt one that Lee discovered).
Silence an mRNA by base pairing with some sequence on the mRNA.
Discovery of siRNA?
The first small RNA:
In 1993 Rosalind Lee (Victor Ambros lab) was studying a non- coding gene in C. elegans, lin-4, that was involved in silencing of another gene, lin-14, at the appropriate time in the
development of the worm C. elegans.
Two small transcripts of lin-4 (22nt and 61nt) were found to be complementary to a sequence in the 3' UTR of lin-14.
Because lin-4 encoded no protein, she deduced that it must be these transcripts that are causing the silencing by RNA-RNA interactions.
Types of RNAi ( non coding RNA)
MiRNA
Length (23-25 nt)
Trans acting
Binds with target MRNA in mismatch
Translation inhibition
Si RNA
Length 21 nt.
Cis acting
Bind with target Mrna in perfect complementary sequence
Piwi-RNA
Length ; 25 to 36 nt.
Expressed in Germ Cells
Regulates trnasposomes activity
MECHANISM OF RNAI:
First the double-stranded RNA teams up with a protein complex named Dicer, which cuts the long RNA into short pieces.
Then another protein complex called RISC (RNA-induced silencing complex) discards one of the two RNA strands.
The RISC-docked, single-stranded RNA then pairs with the homologous mRNA and destroys it.
THE RISC COMPLEX:
RISC is large(>500kD) RNA multi- protein Binding complex which triggers MRNA degradation in response to MRNA
Unwinding of double stranded Si RNA by ATP independent Helicase
Active component of RISC is Ago proteins( ENDONUCLEASE) which cleave target MRNA.
DICER: endonuclease (RNase Family III)
Argonaute: Central Component of the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex (RISC)
One strand of the dsRNA produced by Dicer is retained in the RISC complex in association with Argonaute
ARGONAUTE PROTEIN :
1.PAZ(PIWI/Argonaute/ Zwille)- Recognition of target MRNA
2.PIWI (p-element induced wimpy Testis)- breaks Phosphodiester bond of mRNA.)RNAse H activity.
MiRNA:
The Double-stranded RNAs are naturally produced in eukaryotic cells during development, and they have a key role in regulating gene expression .
3. Millions of people
enjoy
science and
nature.
Thousands of
scientists need
volunteers.
But they can’t find
each other.
4. We
connect
them
Scientist image
and cit scientist
images tk to
illustrate “we
connect them”
We
connect
them
5. Someone you know is a
CITIZEN SCIENTIST
eBird
1.5 million
reports
Water testing
1.5 million
monitors
SETI@ home
5 million
volunteers
6. Citizen Science IS Serious Science.
Accelerating
analysis of
tumor samples
in huge
datasets.
Forecasting
solar activity
that poses
radiation risks
to humans and
hardware in
space.
Analyzing wild
algae species
for their
potential to
produce
biofuels.
7. Organized, searchable inventory of projects.
Distribution partners include Discover, PLOS, NSTA.
WHYY.
Matchmaker to help researchers ccoonnnneecctt wwiitthh ccoommmmuunniittiieess..
8. Citizen Science in Space!
ArduSat, Nanosatisfi
Put YOUR citizen science experiment in space.
DIYers + Space Enthusiasts.
Unite communities.
9. University of Waterloo’s Snow Tweets
goal Help researchers calibrate accuracy of snow measurement tools
task Measure snow where you are, tweet or upload your geotagged data
10. Examples of Citizen Microbe Projects:
Human Microbiome Project (NIH) aims to develop tools and
datasets for the research community to study microbes in
human health and disease.
Earth Microbiome Project (Templeton Foundation, Keck):
Massive, interdisciplinary effort to analyze microbial
communities across the globe.
American Gut: Largest crowdfunded/citizen science human
microbiome effort (3,000 participants). Open data.
Project MERCCURI.
15. “Each vertical bar is one shoe or cell phone. The color
represents a different species of bacteria.”
www.MicroBE.net
16.
17. From citizen science to citizen policy.
Founders:
Arizona State University (Consortium for Science, Policy &
Outcomes), SciStarter, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars,
Boston Museum of Science, Loka Institute
18. Help Inform NASA’s
Asteroid Initiative!
Text “GO” to
202.759.2340
ECASTonline.org
20. Chris Schaffer,
Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University
Alzheimer
Mouse Brain
Imagery
Credit: Pietro Michelucci,
Human Computation Institute
Treatment
Target
3D microvessel
topology
Blood Flow
Annotations
60 Years
TODAY
< 2 Years
Adapting Successful
Citizen Science Models
21. We aim to make research more efficient by connecting
communities of citizen scientists AND fields of research.
-Protocols, Methodologies
-Data collection/classification, sharing, visualization tools
-Privacy
-Recruitment, persistence (incentives, motivations)
-Open data sets
-Evaluation tools
-Best practices, case studies
-Societal, economic, cultural, political context
To GET STARTED, contact Darlene Cavalier Darlene @
SciStarter [dot] com (267) 253 1310 .
Editor's Notes
Microbial diversity depended greatly on how recently they took antibiotics. Spikes in microbial populations take place around the holidays. No single organism found in every person, some are more common across populations. People who sleep more and exercise outdoors, have more diverse microbiomes.
The Home Microbiome Study is led by Jack Gilbert, Dan Smith and Jarrod Hampton Marcell at Argonne National Lab. It’s funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation They work with MicroBE.net (the Eisen Lab from UCDavis) and the Earth Microbiome Project to bring together microbial samples from as many environments as possible in order to understand how microbial community structure is shaped by environmental factors.
In support of Alan Irwin’s definition of citizen science: The process of producing reliable knowledge could be developed and enacted by citizens themselves. People bring into science such things as local contextual knowledge and real-world geographic, political, and moral constraints generated outside of formal scientific institutions. As Dr. Caren Cooper puts it “While the “participatory” version of citizen science describes how people can serve as instruments in the scientific method, the “democratic” version shows how people can influence and transform the larger scientific enterprise. “The lowest common denominator to citizen science projects is the collection and/or processing of data. From that focal point, the collaboration between scientists and non-scientists can expand. If the collaboration expands enough, the resulting new relationship then takes on the vision presented by Irwin, characterized by new perspectives, collaborative action, trust, etc., leading ultimately to societal influence shaping scientific agendas and norms.
Grants to support training, development of new tools, to monitor local air, water and soil quality. Depend on citizen scientists to formulate questions, cocreate or use tools to collect data/evidence, share data, help interpret results.
What would you do with this information?How can you help connect more dots?
BACKGROUND
Since the discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), one well-known symptom has been reduced blood flow to the brain, but the mechanism causing this decreased flow has been elusive. For this reason, no current therapies aim to improve brain blood flow, although this symptom likely contributes to cognitive impairment and accelerates disease progression. Using novel imaging methods that reveal the structure and function of the cerebral microvasculature, we have recently discovered a compelling potential explanation for reduced brain blood flow in AD. We have found that leukocytes adhere to the wall of brain capillaries in AD transgenic mice and stall flow in these capillary segments, leading to reduced blood flow.
CITIZEN SCIENCE / CROWDSOURCING APPROACH
The current research track seeks to identify the molecular pathways that cause leukocyte adhesion in capillary segments in AD, with the goal of identifying treatment targets to improve blood flow with minimal side effects, with the potential to disrupt disease progression and delay symptom onset. Because the imagery analysis for these studies requires extensive human curation, homing in on the specific pharmaceutical targets using traditional methods would take about 60 years. By crowdsourcing the blood flow analysis to citizen scientists, we expect to reduce that time to less than two years. In addition, this project provides fantastic opportunities to educate participating citizen scientists about AD and the process of biomedical research, leading to both improved science literacy and increased public understanding of and support for biomedical research.
BUILD ON SUCCESSES
Combining the perceptual and cognitive abilities of a distributed network of humans with the quantitative and administrative power of machines, when properly conceived and executed, has led to unprecedented research capabilities (e.g., fold.it, MalariaSpot, Parkinson’s Voice Initiative, PatientsLikeMe). The proposed approach seeks to employ such human computation methods to supplant the existing curation system with an ultrahigh-throughput, distributed online curation system in order to greatly accelerate the analysis of microvasculature structure and function in support of the biomedical research goals.
REDUCE TREATMENT DISCOVERY FROM 60 YEARS to TWO YEARS
The existing curation process would be renovated in stepwise fashion over the course of the project. The proposed approach seeks to reduce risk by opportunistically adapting existing components of successful human computation systems, where possible, to relevant curation operations. Thus, the three key curation steps would be renovated as follows:
3D mesh modeling - Adapt EyeWire model to extract topology of brain microvasculature
Vessel annotation - Adapt stardust@home to score individual capillary segments as flowing or stalled
Vessel classification – develop workflow and interface to crowdsource classification of cause of stalled capillaries, to keep pace with increased throughput in steps 1 & 2.
IMPACT BEYOND ALZ
The potential utility of the system that would result from the proposed work extends beyond AD. Microcirculatory dysfunction is likely present in many diseases – diabetes, hypertension, brain trauma, malignant tumors, etc. Due to a lack of tools to analyze disrupted capillary flow it is not clear how extensive or how significant such dysfunction may be. The proposed work will lead to an end-to-end, crowd-powered experimental toolkit for expeditiously investigating the role of micro-vessel flow dynamics in a variety of diseases. Resultant disease models could give rise to new treatments.