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

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Regulation of autism-relevant behaviors by cerebellar-prefrontal cortical circuits.

Cerebellar dysfunction has been demonstrated in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however, the circuits underlying cerebellar contributions to ASD-relevant behaviors remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated functional connectivity between the cerebellum and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in mice; showed that the mPFC mediates cerebellum-regulated social and repetitive/inflexible behaviors; and showed disruptions in connectivity between these regions in multiple mouse models of ASD-linked genes and in individuals with ASD. We delineated a circuit from cerebellar cortical areas Right crus 1 (Rcrus1) and posterior vermis through the cerebellar nuclei and ventromedial thalamus and culminating in the mPFC. Modulation of this circuit induced social deficits and repetitive behaviors, whereas activation of Purkinje cells (PCs) in Rcrus1 and posterior vermis improved social preference impairments and repetitive/inflexible behaviors, respectively, in male PC-Tsc1 mutant mice. These data raise the possibility that these circuits might provide neuromodulatory targets for the treatment of ASD

Phase 3 Safety and Efficacy of AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) Covid-19 Vaccine

BackgroundThe safety and efficacy of the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) vaccine in a large, diverse population at increased risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the United States, Chile, and Peru has not been known.MethodsIn this ongoing, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 clinical trial, we investigated the safety, vaccine efficacy, and immunogenicity of two doses of AZD1222 as compared with placebo in preventing the onset of symptomatic and severe coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) 15 days or more after the second dose in adults, including older adults, in the United States, Chile, and Peru.ResultsA total of 32,451 participants underwent randomization, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive AZD1222 (21,635 participants) or placebo (10,816 participants). AZD1222 was safe, with low incidences of serious and medically attended adverse events and adverse events of special interest; the incidences were similar to those observed in the placebo group. Solicited local and systemic reactions were generally mild or moderate in both groups. Overall estimated vaccine efficacy was 74.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 65.3 to 80.5; P<0.001) and estimated vaccine efficacy was 83.5% (95% CI, 54.2 to 94.1) in participants 65 years of age or older. High vaccine efficacy was consistent across a range of demographic subgroups. In the fully vaccinated analysis subgroup, no severe or critical symptomatic Covid-19 cases were observed among the 17,662 participants in the AZD1222 group; 8 cases were noted among the 8550 participants in the placebo group (<0.1%). The estimated vaccine efficacy for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection (nucleocapsid antibody seroconversion) was 64.3% (95% CI, 56.1 to 71.0; P<0.001). SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binding and neutralizing antibodies increased after the first dose and increased further when measured 28 days after the second dose.ConclusionsAZD1222 was safe and efficacious in preventing symptomatic and severe Covid-19 across diverse populations that included older adults. (Funded by AstraZeneca and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04516746.)

Regulation of autism-relevant behaviors by cerebellar-prefrontal cortical circuits

Cerebellar dysfunction has been demonstrated in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however, the circuits underlying cerebellar contributions to ASD-relevant behaviors remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated functional connectivity between the cerebellum and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in mice; showed that the mPFC mediates cerebellum-regulated social and repetitive/inflexible behaviors; and showed disruptions in connectivity between these regions in multiple mouse models of ASD-linked genes and in individuals with ASD. We delineated a circuit from cerebellar cortical areas Right crus 1 (Rcrus1) and posterior vermis through the cerebellar nuclei and ventromedial thalamus and culminating in the mPFC. Modulation of this circuit induced social deficits and repetitive behaviors, whereas activation of Purkinje cells (PCs) in Rcrus1 and posterior vermis improved social preference impairments and repetitive/inflexible behaviors, respectively, in male PC-Tsc1 mutant mice. These data raise the possibility that these circuits might provide neuromodulatory targets for the treatment of ASD