Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Time to Switch to Second-line Antiretroviral Therapy in Children With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Europe and Thailand.

Background: Data on durability of first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are limited. We assessed time to switch to second-line therapy in 16 European countries and Thailand. Methods: Children aged <18 years initiating combination ART (≥2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors [NRTIs] plus nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor [NNRTI] or boosted protease inhibitor [PI]) were included. Switch to second-line was defined as (i) change across drug class (PI to NNRTI or vice versa) or within PI class plus change of ≥1 NRTI; (ii) change from single to dual PI; or (iii) addition of a new drug class. Cumulative incidence of switch was calculated with death and loss to follow-up as competing risks. Results: Of 3668 children included, median age at ART initiation was 6.1 (interquartile range (IQR), 1.7-10.5) years. Initial regimens were 32% PI based, 34% nevirapine (NVP) based, and 33% efavirenz based. Median duration of follow-up was 5.4 (IQR, 2.9-8.3) years. Cumulative incidence of switch at 5 years was 21% (95% confidence interval, 20%-23%), with significant regional variations. Median time to switch was 30 (IQR, 16-58) months; two-thirds of switches were related to treatment failure. In multivariable analysis, older age, severe immunosuppression and higher viral load (VL) at ART start, and NVP-based initial regimens were associated with increased risk of switch. Conclusions: One in 5 children switched to a second-line regimen by 5 years of ART, with two-thirds failure related. Advanced HIV, older age, and NVP-based regimens were associated with increased risk of switch

The practice of statistics in the life sciences

xxix, 727 p.: ill.; 26 c

Die BTÖV-Methode - Vorgehensweise und Ziele bei der bedarfsgerechten Gestaltung von Telekooperation in der öffentlichen Verwaltung

Dieser Beitrag stellt eine Methode zur bedarfsgerechten Gestaltung der Telekooperation vor. Unserer Meinung nach kommt es bei der Gestaltung der Telekooperation insbesondere auf die integrierte Betrachtung von ‘weichen’ Faktoren (aus der betrieblichen Organisationslehre und Personalwirtschaft) und ‘harten’ Faktoren (Software-Engineering und Wirtschaftlichkeitskriterien) an. Das Projekt BTÖV (= Bedarf für Telekooperation in der öffentlichen Verwaltung) hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, eine solche integrierte Methode für die Gestaltung der Telekooperation in der öffentlichen Verwaltung zu entwerfen und zu evaluieren, die sich am Bedarf der Nutzer orientiert und genauso flexibel und schnell änderbar ist, wie ihr Anwendungsgebiet. Es werden zunächst Ausgangspunkt, Konzept und die Ziele des BTÖV-Projekts erläutert. Daran anschließend wird ein Überblick über die Vorgehensweise und Charakteristika der ”BTÖV-Methode” gegeben. Ein Ausblick auf die Weiterentwicklung der BTÖV-Methode schließt den Artikel

Cancer Among Adolescents and Young Adults Between 2000 and 2016 in France: Incidence and Improved Survival

International audiencePurpose: This study was undertaken to determine cancer survival and describe the spectrum of cancers diagnosed among French adolescent and young adult (AYA) population.Methods: All cases of cancer diagnosed in 15-24 years, recorded by all French population-based registries (18% of the French population), over the 2000-2016 period, were included. Age-standardized incidences rates (ASR), conventional annual percentage change (cAPC) of incidence over time, and 5-year overall survival (5yOS) were calculated.Results: We analyzed 2,734 cancer diagnoses in adolescents and 4,199 in young adults. Overall incidence rates were 231.9/106 in 15-19 year olds and 354.0/106 in 20-24 year olds. The most frequently diagnosed cancers in male AYA were malignant gonadal germ-cell tumors (GCT), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and malignant melanoma, and were HL, thyroid carcinoma, and malignant melanoma in females. Cancer incidence was stable over time with a cAPC of 0.8% (p=0.72). For all cancers combined, 5yOS was 86.6% (95%CI: 85.8-87.4), greater than 85% for HL, non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL), GCT, thyroid carcinomas, and malignant melanomas, and around 60% and lower for osteosarcomas, Ewing tumors, hepatic carcinomas, and rhabdomyosarcomas. The 5yOS has significantly improved from 2000-2007 to 2008-2015 for all cancers pooled, with a substantial gain of 4% for 15-19 year-olds, and 3% for 20-24 year-olds.Conclusion: Notwithstanding the encouraging results for some cancers, and overall, persistent poorer survivals in AYA were shown compared to children for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, osteosarcoma, Ewing tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma and malignant hepatic tumors. These disparities require further investigation to identify and address the causes of these inferior outcomes

Mercury, elemental

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Mercury Chloride

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe