Reliability of intracerebral hemorrhage classification systems: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Accurately distinguishing non-traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) subtypes is important since they may have different risk factors, causal pathways, management, and prognosis. We systematically assessed the inter- and intra-rater reliability of ICH classification systems. METHODS: We sought all available reliability assessments of anatomical and mechanistic ICH classification systems from electronic databases and personal contacts until October 2014. We assessed included studies' characteristics, reporting quality and potential for bias; summarized reliability with kappa value forest plots; and performed meta-analyses of the proportion of cases classified into each subtype. SUMMARY OF REVIEW: We included 8 of 2152 studies identified. Inter- and intra-rater reliabilities were substantial to perfect for anatomical and mechanistic systems (inter-rater kappa values: anatomical 0.78-0.97 [six studies, 518 cases], mechanistic 0.89-0.93 [three studies, 510 cases]; intra-rater kappas: anatomical 0.80-1 [three studies, 137 cases], mechanistic 0.92-0.93 [two studies, 368 cases]). Reporting quality varied but no study fulfilled all criteria and none was free from potential bias. All reliability studies were performed with experienced raters in specialist centers. Proportions of ICH subtypes were largely consistent with previous reports suggesting that included studies are appropriately representative. CONCLUSIONS: Reliability of existing classification systems appears excellent but is unknown outside specialist centers with experienced raters. Future reliability comparisons should be facilitated by studies following recently published reporting guidelines

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

Nucleolar Proteome Analysis and Proteasomal Activity Assays Reveal a Link between Nucleolus and 26S Proteasome in A. thaliana

International audienc

Nucleolar Proteome Analysis and Proteasomal Activity Assays Reveal a Link between Nucleolus and 26S Proteasome in A. thaliana

In all eukaryotic cells, the nucleolus is functionally and structurally linked to rRNA synthesis and ribosome biogenesis. This compartment contains as well factors involved in other cellular activities, but the functional interconnection between non-ribosomal activities and the nucleolus (structure and function) still remains an open question. Here, we report a novel mass spectrometry analysis of isolated nucleoli from Arabidopsis thaliana plants using the FANoS (Fluorescence Assisted Nucleolus Sorting) strategy. We identified many ribosome biogenesis factors (RBF) and proteins non-related with ribosome biogenesis, in agreement with the recognized multi-functionality of the nucleolus. Interestingly, we found that 26S proteasome subunits localize in the nucleolus and demonstrated that proteasome activity and nucleolus organization are intimately linked to each other. Proteasome subunits form discrete foci in the disorganized nucleolus of nuc1.2 plants. Nuc1.2 protein extracts display reduced proteasome activity in vitro compared to WT protein extracts. Remarkably, proteasome activity in nuc1.2 is similar to proteasome activity in WT plants treated with proteasome inhibitors (MG132 or ALLN). Finally, we show that MG132 treatment induces disruption of nucleolar structures in WT but not in nuc1.2 plants. Altogether, our data suggest a functional interconnection between nucleolus structure and proteasome activity

So vielfältig ist Vereinheitlichung: Warum Praktiken ähnlicher werden und welche Rolle Vergleichspraktiken dabei spielen

Ackermann M, Al-Bayaa N, Bohé J, et al. So vielfältig ist Vereinheitlichung: Warum Praktiken ähnlicher werden und welche Rolle Vergleichspraktiken dabei spielen. Praktiken des Vergleichens. Working Paper des SFB 1288. Vol 14. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2024.Vereinheitlichung wird häufig als eine wichtige Dynamik der Moderne beschrieben. Das Working Paper arbeitet die wichtige Rolle von Vergleichspraktiken in Vereinheitlichungsprozessen heraus. Es entwickelt ein breites Verständnis vielfältiger Formen von Vereinheitlichung und unterscheidet heuristisch vier Dimensionen des Verhältnisses zwischen diesen Prozessen und Vergleichspraktiken: Vereinheitlichung als Voraussetzung für Vergleichspraktiken, Vereinheitlichung von Vergleichspraktiken, Vergleichspraktiken in Debatten über Vereinheitlichung und Vergleichspraktiken als Motor von Vereinheitlichung. Um zu illustrieren, wie eine solche Heuristik zu einem tieferen Verständnis von Vereinheitlichungsprozessen beitragen kann, präsentiert das Working Paper mehrere kurze Fallstudien, die ein breites Spektrum empirischer Phänomene abdecken: rassistische Vergleiche, die Entwicklung des literarischen Feldes, Diskussionen um Standards im Automobilbau und in der Immobilienbewertung, Debatten über weltpolitischen Wandel, die Verbreitung von Rankings sowie Vergleiche zwischen Metropolen und ihren Kolonien.Homogenization is often described as a key dynamic of modernity. This working paper teases out the crucial role that comparative practices play in processes of homogenization. It develops a broad understanding of variegated forms of homogenization and heuristically distinguishes four dimensions of the relation between these processes and comparative practices: homogenization as a precondition for comparative practices, the homogenization of comparative practices, comparative practices in debates about homogenization and comparative practices as engines of homogenization. To illustrate how this heuristic can be productively used to generate deeper insights into processes of homogenization, the working paper presents several brief case studies which cover a broad spectrum of empirical phenomena: racist comparisons, the evolution of the literary field, discussions about standards in the automobile sector and the real estate market, debates about world political change, the diffusion of rankings as well as comparisons between metropoles and their colonies

Polysaccharides and lignin based hydrogels with potential pharmaceutical use as a drug delivery system produced by a reactive extrusion process

International audienceCurrently, there is very strong interest to replace synthetic polymers with biological macromolecules of natural source for applications that interact with humans or the environment. This research describes the development of drug delivery hydrogels from natural polymers, starch, lignin and hemicelluloses by means of reactive extrusion. The hydrogels show a strong swelling ability dependent on pH which may be used to control diffusion rates of water and small molecules in and out of the gel. Also the hydrogels degradation rates were studied in a physiological solution (pH 7.4) for 15 days. The results indicated that for all three macromolecules, lower molecular weight and higher level of plasticizer both increase the rate of weight loss of the hydrogels. The degradation was extremely reduced when the polymers were extruded in the presence of a catalyst. Finally the dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that the degradation of the hydrogels induce a significant reduction in the compressive modulus. This study demonstrates the characteristics and potential of natural polymers as a drug release system