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

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

Differences and effects of medium and large adult cuffs on blood pressure readings in individuals with muscular arms

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) reading differences in individuals with muscular arms, using medium and large adult cuffs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Resting blood pressures (BPs) were measured in bodybuilders competing at the Mexican National Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship. The means of two bilateral simultaneous arm BP measurements were obtained using two different cuff sizes, 12 cm (medium adult) and 16 cm (large adult). RESULTS: A total of 193 bodybuilders completed the measurements. With an arm circumference greater than 33 cm, the SBP and DBP average taken with the medium adult cuff was higher than that obtained with the large adult cuff, 8.2�10.6 and 1.6�7.4 mmHg, respectively; however, a significant difference was observed only with the SBP. With the medium adult cuff, 48 of 144 individuals showed SBP at least 140 mmHg, whereas with the large adult cuff there were only 17 of 144 individuals. In those participants with an arm circumference less than 33 cm, the BP was nonsignificantly lower with the large cuff, -4.24�9.2 and -2.24�5.4 mmHg for the SBP and DBP, respectively. CONCLUSION: Incorrect cuffing of a muscular arm leads to significant errors in the measurement of SBP and DBP, similar to that observed in miscuffing of nonmuscular arms. � 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc

[Contribution of bladder biopsy to the study of urogynaecological patient]

BACKGROUND: One of the characteristics of urinary symptoms in women is their lack of specificity. Patients with stress incontinence or urgency, local irritation, infection, distal stenosis or a neoplastic process have very similar symptoms. OBJECTIVE: Determine the frequency of bladder structural lesions detected by urethrocistoscopy in which we performed bladder biopsies. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Descriptive, retrospective, analytical study of files and videos of 331 patients treated in Urodifem de Occidente (private Urogynecology Center). Thirty-five biopsies were taken. The statistical analysis was expressed as means standard deviations, ranges, percentages and Fishers test. RESULTS: Patients ages range 30-90 years average 60+13.76. Predominant symptoms were: irritative vesical syndrome 62.8%; pelvic pain 45.71%; urge incontinence 31.4%; hematuria 31.4%; vesical voiding dysfunction 11.4%. Principal endoscopic findings: Urethrotrigonitis; glomerular lesions or Hunner ulcers; vesical trabeculations; tumor or suspect lesions. Histopathologic findings were: Interstitial Cystitis 42.9%; chronic Cystitis 11.4%; Cystitis glandularis 8.6%; Cystitis follicular 11.4%; bladder cancer 5.7%; Vesical Papilloma 5.7%. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the practice of vesical biopsy when lesions other than those from chronic infection are observes in the presence of tumors or suspect lesions

[Contribution of bladder biopsy to the study of urogynaecological patient]

BACKGROUND: One of the characteristics of urinary symptoms in women is their lack of specificity. Patients with stress incontinence or urgency, local irritation, infection, distal stenosis or a neoplastic process have very similar symptoms. OBJECTIVE: Determine the frequency of bladder structural lesions detected by urethrocistoscopy in which we performed bladder biopsies. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Descriptive, retrospective, analytical study of files and videos of 331 patients treated in Urodifem de Occidente (private Urogynecology Center). Thirty-five biopsies were taken. The statistical analysis was expressed as means standard deviations, ranges, percentages and Fishers test. RESULTS: Patients ages range 30-90 years average 60+13.76. Predominant symptoms were: irritative vesical syndrome 62.8%; pelvic pain 45.71%; urge incontinence 31.4%; hematuria 31.4%; vesical voiding dysfunction 11.4%. Principal endoscopic findings: Urethrotrigonitis; glomerular lesions or Hunner ulcers; vesical trabeculations; tumor or suspect lesions. Histopathologic findings were: Interstitial Cystitis 42.9%; chronic Cystitis 11.4%; Cystitis glandularis 8.6%; Cystitis follicular 11.4%; bladder cancer 5.7%; Vesical Papilloma 5.7%. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the practice of vesical biopsy when lesions other than those from chronic infection are observes in the presence of tumors or suspect lesions

Evaluation and effects of the Omron 725 CIC device for measuring blood pressure in a hypertension clinic

BACKGROUND: We compared the Omron 725 CIC device (Omron Healthcare Inc., Vernon Hills, Illinois, USA), which is designed to register the blood pressure on the arm, with a mercury sphygmomanometer. In addition, we evaluated the possible impact that this device might have on the decisions made in a hypertension clinic. METHODS: Patients (n=183) older than 18 years (range 18-84 years) with a wide range of systolic (87-197 mmHg) and diastolic (48-108 mmHg) blood pressures were included. Some of the standards of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation and of the British Hypertension Society were used to evaluate the results of the automated device in clinical practice. RESULTS: Using Bland-Altman analysis, an underestimation of both measures was observed with the automated Omron 725 CIC device; the systolic pressure was 3.6±8.8 mmHg too low with a very wide range of -13.7 to 20.9 and the diastolic pressure was also 4.4±6.3 mmHg too low with a range of -8.1 to 16.9. Clinical decisions could have been changed in 24 of the 116 hypertensive patients (20.6%) if the readings of the automated device had been used instead of using the readings of a mercury sphygmomanometer. These could have included modifying the dosage or changing the medicine used. CONCLUSION: The blood pressure measurements by Omron 725 CIC are different from those of blood pressure readings taken with a mercury sphygmomanometer and this could affect clinical decisions in the diagnosis and follow-up of a hypertensive patient in an office environment. © 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc

Multidimensional latent traits of perceived organizational innovation: Differences between Thai and Egyptian employees

Item response theory, Multidimensional latent regression, Employee creativity, Organizational innovation, Thailand, Egypt,