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

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Transvesical removal of huge seminal vesicle cystadenoma

Benign tumors of the Seminal vesicle that occur more commonly then malignant tumors. Cystadenoma is an extremely rare benign tumor of the seminal vesicle. Management of these tumors remains debatable due to the limited data in the literature. We present a cystadenoma of the seminal vesicle was resected using an open transvesical approach. A Sonography reported enlarged prostate with volume of 560 ml with multiple cystic area inside it. CT scan and abdomen and pelvic MRI with and without Gadolinium also performed and huge (120 * 100 * 100mm) heterogeneous mass in anatomic site of prostate reported. Patient underwent pelvic mass resection by retro vesical abdominal approach. Final pathology report is consistent with cystadenoma/epithelial stromal tumor of the seminal vesicle with no suggestion for malignancy. After recovery from surgery patient was symptom free and totally continent with preserved erectile function. Surgical intervention may be considered when a cystadenoma of the seminal vesicle is diagnosed and symptoms or tumor growth occurs transvesical removal of seminal vesicle mass is an effective surgical procedure for seminal vesicle disease

Nano-iron fertilizer effects on some plant traits of dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) under different sowing densities

<p>evaluate the effects of iron nano-fertilizer rates (0, 1, 2 and 3 g l^-1) and planting density levels (10, 15, 20 and 40 cm) on the fresh herb, essential oil content and other traits under the natural conditions. Traits such as number of flowering branches (NFB), height of first flowering branch (HFB), number of secondary branches (NSB), stem diameter (SD), essential oil content (EOC), dry mass (DM), essential oil yield (EOY), total anthocyanins (TA), chlorophyll a (CA), chlorophyll b (CB), flavonoid 270 nm (F270), flavonoid 300 nm (F300), and total flavonoid (TF) were measured. Results showed that the nano Fe treatment × trait (TT) biplot accounted 39 % and 25 % of total variation, respectively. The vertex treatments in polygon biplot were D2-N2 (15 cm density and 1 g l^-1 nano-fertilizer) was the best in the EOC, DM and EOY, while D4-N3 (40 cm density and 2 g l^-1 nano-fertilizer) was the best for TA, F270, F300 and TF. Sowing densities (10, 15 and 20 cm) with iron nano-fertilizer treatments (1 and 2 g l^-1) were the best combinations of evaluated factors for all the measured traits of the dragonhead.</p

Pre-Sowing Seed Treatments with Silicon Nano-Iron and Nano-Silicon Particles on Germination of Dragonhead

Nanotechnology is an emerging field of science widely exploited in agriculture in recent years. In this investigation, application of nanotechnology in agriculture via application of some nano-particles (nano-iron and nano-silicon) have been investigated in seed priming of dragonhead. Seeds were subjected to pre-hydration treatments by factor nano-silicon dioxide as; (S1) 0 mM or distilled water, (S2) 1 mM concentration and (S3) 2 mM concentration and and factor nano-iron oxide as; (F1) 0 Mm or distilled water, (F2) 1 mM concentration and (F3) 2 mM concentration. Germination percent, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, root length, shoot length, dry weight of the seed residue, root dry weight and shoot dry weight were measured. Analysis of variance showed significant variation for the main effect of nano-silicon dioxide as well as nano-iron dioxide in root length and dry weight of the seed residue. The interaction effect of nano-silicon × nano-iron priming treatments were significant in all of the measured traits except germination percentage and root fresh weight. The highest germination percentage was recorded in S2-F3, S3-F1 and S3-F3 while the root fresh weight was high in S2-F3 and treatments S1-F1 following to S2-F3 and S3-F2 produced the highest shoot fresh weight. Also, S2-F3 has the highest root length (16.1 cm) and the highest shoot length (18.4 cm). The best treatment combination suitable for obtaining of high values of germination characteristics of dragon-head was identified as S2-F3 (1 mM nano-silicon dioxide plus 2 mM nano-iron dioxide)

Attitudes toward learning communication skills among Iranian medical students

Abstract Background Attitudes determine behavior, and alterations in attitude may result in behavioral changes. Medical students would benefit from learning communication skills. This study aimed to determine the attitude of medical students toward the importance of learning communication skills and the training courses and their role in contributing. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 442 medical students from three different levels of medical training were enrolled. Students in the first 4 years of the medical program were classified as basic sciences and physiopathology students, those in the fifth and sixth years were classified as clerkship students, and those in the last three terms of medical training were classified as interns. The attitude among these three groups was assessed by the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) questionnaire, and the contributing factors were determined. Results The mean total points for attitude in positive and negative aspects were 50.7 and 30.9, respectively showing a positive attitude toward communication skills among medical students. The median scores of the scales Important in Medical Content, Excuse, Learning, and Overconfidence varied significantly from highest to lowest, respectively. Gender, educational level, ethnic origin, language, family burden, paternal literacy, history of presence in communication skills courses, self-report from communication skills, and need to further learning in this era showed significant association with attitude (P < 0.05). Conclusions It may be concluded that generally, medical students have a positive attitude toward communication skills, and this perspective is a multi-factorial entity that programming according to the various related factors would help to attainment of additional communication capabilities among medical students

Assessment of job satisfaction among staff at Yas Hospital complex and its relation with demographic factors: Validation of the Yas Job Satisfaction Questionnaire

Background and Objectives: the  purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Yas Job Satisfaction Questionnaire in order to develop a useful tool for measuring and evaluating job satisfaction among Yas Hospital Complex staff. Materials and Methods: Face validity, content validity ratio, and content validity index were used to evaluate the questionnaire's validity and reliability. Cronbach's alpha and the halving technique were used among 150 medical personnel in this cross-sectional study The key elements of the final questionnaire were four dimensions of leadership style, job nature, reward system, performance appraisal, and organizational climate.To report the mean of quantitative variables at different levels, qualitative factors were evaluated and analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: There were 111 females and 39 males among the 150 participants. The content validity ratio and content validity index were both acceptable.Cronbach's alpha method reported a reliability of 0.92 for the questionnaire, indicating that the internal reliability is acceptable.The lowest level of satisfaction was in the leadership style dimension, with an average of 10.53 4.91, while the highest level of satisfaction was in the job nature dimension, with an average of 21.24 7.05. Conclusion: The Yas Job Satisfaction Questionnaire has acceptable validity and reliability to assess the level of job satisfaction among medical staff, according to the findings of this study. Furthermore, job satisfaction was moderate in most of the dimentions surveyed

Psychometric properties of the communication skills attitude scale (CSAS) measure in a sample of Iranian medical students

Introduction: Communication skill (CS) has been regarded as one of the fundamental competencies for medical and other health care professionals. Student’s attitude toward learning CS is a key factor in designing educational interventions. The original CSAS, as positive and negative subscales, was developed in the UK; however, there is no scale to measure these attitudes in Iran. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristic of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS), in an Iranian context and to understand if it is a valid tool to assess attitude toward learning communication skills among health care professionals. Methods: Psychometric characteristics of the CSAS were assessed by using a cross-sectional design. In the current study, 410 medical students were selected using stratified sampling framework. The face validity of the scale was estimated through students and experts’ opinion. Content validity of CSAS was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. Reliability was examined through two methods including Chronbach’s alpha coefficient and Intra class Correlation of Coefficient (ICC). Construct validity of CSAS was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and explanatory factor analysis (PCA) followed by varimax rotation. Convergent and discriminant validity of the scale was measured through Spearman correlation. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 19 and EQS, 6.1. Results: The internal consistency and reproducibility of the total CSAS score were 0.84 (Cronbach’s alpha) and 0.81, which demonstrates an acceptable reliability of the questionnaire. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) and the scale-level content validity index (S-CVI/ Ave) demonstrated appropriate results: 0.97 and 0.94, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the 25 items of the CSAS revealed 4-factor structure that all together explained %55 of the variance. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable goodness-offit between the model and the observed data. [χ2/df=2.36, Comparative Fit Index (CFI)=0.95, the GFI=0.96, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)=0.05]. Conclusion: The Persian version of CSAS is a multidimensional, valid and reliable tool for assessing attitudes towards communication skill among medical students