The incidence of preterm birth exceeds 10% worldwide. There are significant disparities in the frequency of preterm birth among populations within countries, and women of African ancestry disproportionately bear the burden of risk in the United States. In the present study, we report a community resource that includes ‘omics’ data from approximately 12,000 samples as part of the integrative Human Microbiome Project. Longitudinal analyses of 16S ribosomal RNA, metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and cytokine profiles from 45 preterm and 90 term birth controls identified harbingers of preterm birth in this cohort of women predominantly of African ancestry. Women who delivered preterm exhibited significantly lower vaginal levels of Lactobacillus crispatus and higher levels of BVAB1, Sneathia amnii, TM7-H1, a group of Prevotella species and nine additional taxa. The first representative genomes of BVAB1 and TM7-H1 are described. Preterm-birth-associated taxa were correlated with proinflammatory cytokines in vaginal fluid. These findings highlight new opportunities for assessment of the risk of preterm birth.

The microbiome of the female reproductive tract has implications for women’s reproductive health. We examined the vaginal microbiome in two cohorts of women who experienced normal term births: a cross-sectionally sampled cohort of 613 pregnant and 1,969 non-pregnant women, focusing on 300 pregnant and 300 non-pregnant women of African, Hispanic or European ancestry case-matched for race, gestational age and household income; and a longitudinally sampled cohort of 90 pregnant women of African or non-African ancestry. In these women, the vaginal microbiome shifted during pregnancy toward Lactobacillus-dominated profiles at the expense of taxa often associated with vaginal dysbiosis. The shifts occurred early in pregnancy, followed predictable patterns, were associated with simplification of the metabolic capacity of the microbiome and were significant only in women of African or Hispanic ancestry. Both genomic and environmental factors are likely contributors to these trends, with socioeconomic status as a likely environmental influence.

Measuring picometre-scale shifts in the positions of individual atoms in materials provides new insight into the structure of surfaces, defects and interfaces that influence a broad variety of materials' behaviour. Here we demonstrate sub-picometre precision measurements of atom positions in aberration-corrected Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy images based on the non-rigid registration and averaging of an image series. Non-rigid registration achieves five to seven times better precision than previous methods. Non-rigidly registered images of a silica-supported platinum nanocatalyst show pm-scale contraction of atoms at a (1 11)/( 1 11) corner towards the particle centre and expansion of a flat (1 11) facet. Sub-picometre precision and standardless atom counting with o1 atom uncertainty in the same scanning transmission electron microscopy image provide new insight into the threedimensional atomic structure of catalyst nanoparticle surfaces, which contain the active sites controlling catalytic reactions.

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Aims and MethodTo describe implementation of crisis resolution/home treatment (CRHT) teams in England, examine obstacles to implementation and priorities for development. We conducted an online survey followed by a telephone or face-to-face interview among 243 teams.ResultsConsiderable progress has been made in implementation with a subset of teams demonstrating strong fidelity to the Department of Health's guidance, particularly in urban settings. However, only 40% of teams described themselves as fully established. Many teams reported a high assessment load, understaffing, limited multidisciplinary input and patchy fulfilment of their gate-keeping role.Clinical ImplicationsSuccessful implementation of the CRHT teams as alternatives to hospital admission requires resources for home treatment out of hours, effective systems working among local services, stronger local understanding and advocacy of the teams' role.

Camera trapping is widely used to monitor mammalian wildlife but creates large image datasets that must be classified. In response, there is a trend towards crowdsourcing image classification. For high-profile studies of charismatic faunas, many classifications can be obtained per image, enabling consensus assessments of the image contents. For more local-scale or less charismatic communities, however, demand may outstrip the supply of crowdsourced classifications. Here, we consider MammalWeb, a local-scale project in North East England, which involves citizen scientists in both the capture and classification of sequences of camera trap images. We show that, for our global pool of image sequences, the probability of correct classification exceeds 99% with about nine concordant crowdsourced classifications per sequence. However, there is high variation among species. For highly recognizable species, species-specific consensus algorithms could be even more efficient; for difficult to spot or easily confused taxa, expert classifications might be preferable. We show that two types of incorrect classifications -misidentification of species and overlooking the presence of animals -have different impacts on the confidence of consensus classifications, depending on the true species pictured. Our results have implications for data capture and classification in increasingly numerous, local-scale citizen science projects. The species-specific nature of our findings suggests that the performance of crowdsourcing projects is likely to be highly sensitive to the local fauna and context. The generality of consensus algorithms will, thus, be an important consideration for ecologists interested in harnessing the power of the crowd to assist with camera trapping studies.

SynopsisDynamic mechanical properties of cellophane, amylose, and dextran have been obtained over the temperature range 100-520°K and frequency range to Hz on specimens containing various amounts of water. Four mechanical transitions have been characterized. At about 180°K, there is a y transition that has been assigned to rotation of methylol groups; no comparable transition was found to exist in dextran. At about 240°K, there is a (3 transition that has been assigned to rotation of methylol-water complexes, but the (3 transition in dextran appears to be due to some other kind of motion. In cellophane at about 450°K there is an a2 transition which appears to have contributions from motion of chain segments in disordered regions. The a1 transition for cellophane occurs at temperatures too high to measure and may be due to segmental motions in chains within crystalline regions. Dextran and amylose were found to have at these same temperatures a loss processes that probably correspond to glass-rubber transitions in amorphous material. The changes in these mechanical loss mechanisms due to moisture uptake suggest that sorbed water associates with glucose repeat units in ways ranging from those which stiffen molecular structure to those which allow greater freedom for other types of motion to occur.

Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy at the sub-Å ngström resolution allows imaging the structure of catalytic materials at the single atom level and permits fundamental studies of the behavior of heavy metal catalytic species as a result of elevated temperature gas-treatments. The present study is aimed at understanding the development of clusters and nanoparticles of Pt on c-alumina during reduction treatments of a pre-oxidized highly dispersed catalyst. A special built ex situ reactor and a specimen holder allowing cyclic anaerobic transfer between the reactor and microscope were used for the study. The number of atoms in a nascent cluster can be determined along with the general shape of the cluster. Reduction experiments without air exposure of the sample showed that although clusters are formed at 500°C, many Pt atoms are not associated with the cluster and are still dispersed on the catalyst support. After a 700°C reduction, all of the Pt atoms are associated with the clusters. Movement of the clusters on the catalyst support is different depending upon the catalyst support.