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

The Impacts of National Health Insurance Program of 「Hospital Excellency Project」on Hospital Behavior - A Case Study of a Medical Center in Taiwan

中央健保局自九十三年七月一日起實施『九十三年度醫院卓越計畫支付原則』(簡稱「醫院卓越計畫」) 政策，對於健保給付總額中的門診和住院各訂有固定比例(45:55)之總體目標，由各家醫院擬具醫院卓越計畫書，向健保局各分局提出申請，希望對個別醫院進行總量管制以達到抑制醫療費用逐年上升的目的。 本研究係以個案醫院門診病患就醫情形為對象，探討醫療院所實施「醫院卓越計畫」 政策之影響因子介入前、中及取消後對醫療院所之門診就醫人次及各項醫療費用等醫療行為之變化情形，以估評健保卓越計劃對醫療院所營運所造成之影響。 本研究主要結果如下： 一、門診病患看診人次、醫療費用、檢查費用及藥費方面： 政策實施中期間，門診病患就診人次、醫療費用、檢查費用及藥費有明顯減少；政策取消後，醫療費用、檢查費用及藥費有明顯增加，但門診病患就診人次沒有明顯增加。 二、在醫師平均看診人次改變方面： 政策介入對於醫師門診看診之病患人次有下降，政策取消後醫師門診看診之病患人次仍呈現減少。 三、門診佔率改變方面： 政策實施前每月門診佔率為42.94%，於實施中每月門診佔率為40.39%，但政策取消後每月門診佔率些微上升為42.17%。 四、藥費佔率方面： 政策實施中每月門診藥費佔率減少約3%；政策取消後藥費微幅上升不到1%。 五、對各臨床部科門診之影響： 政策實施中各科之門診看診人次減少，但門診醫療費用包含檢查費及藥費沒有明顯減少。政策消失後各科之看診人次沒有回升，門診醫療費用包含檢查費及藥費也沒有明顯回升。 六、對急診之影響： 政策取消後比政策實施中之急診每週發生之醫療費用沒有明顯增加，但是急診病患每人次的醫療費用有明顯增加。 根據以上的結果，本研究提出的建議如下： 一、對醫療政策制定者的建議 政策制定時應審慎訂定符合就醫病患需求及醫療院所的特性之政策及管理指標，並避免朝令夕改，讓醫療院所能有所依循，以提供就醫病患穩定的醫療品質。 二、對醫院管理者的建議 針對醫療院所的使命與願景提供病患良好的醫療服務品質，並讓不同需求的病患接受適切的醫療照護。 三、對後續研究者的建議 其他醫療院所醫療行為之改變、醫療政策介入對門診病患醫療行為改變、醫師醫療行為特質對政策介入之影響等可列入後續研究之範圍。The Bureau of National Health Insurance officially put into enforcement the “Hospital Excellency Project Payment Principles, 2004”(“Hospital Excellency Project”) on July 1, 2004. Under the Plan, all hospitals should file applications to the Bureau of National Health Insurance with their respective Hospital Excellency Projects in writing at the fixed ratio between outpatient and inpatient services at (45:55). It is hoped that the medical treatment costs can be put under control from further rises year-by-year by means of total quantity control (total mass control) by hospitals themselves respectively. The present study aims at the outpatients who called the case hospitals as the samples to probe into the variation curves of the numbers of patients, medical treatment costs and such medical behaviors before, during involvement of the factors in the “Hospital Excellency Project” enforcement, and after annulment of such enforcement. Through the findings so obtained, the study is to assess the influence of the Hospital Excellency Project upon hospitals and clinics upon their operations. The major findings yielded in the present study are enumerated below: I. In the aspects of number of outpatients, medical treatment costs, examination costs and pharmaceutical costs: During enforcement of such Plan, number of outpatients, medical treatment costs, examination costs and pharmaceutical costs showed significant signs of decline. After the plan was annulled, the medical treatment costs, examination costs and pharmaceutical costs were found to have significant increase while the number of outpatients did not have a significant increase. II. Variation of the number of outpatients attended by doctors/physicians: The involvement of the Plan led to a drop in the number of outpatients attended by doctors/physicians. After the Plan was annulled, the number of outpatients attended by doctors/physicians still showed signs of decline. III. Variation in the ratio taken by outpatient services: The outpatient services accounted for 42.94% to the total every month prior to enforcement of the Plan. The ratio down to 40.39% every month during enforcement of the Plan and a slightly up to 42.17% after the Plan was terminated. IV. Ratio of pharmaceutical expenses: The ratio of pharmaceutical expenses decreased by approximately 3% every month during enforcement and rose insignificantly within less than 1% after the enforcement came to a halt. V. The influence upon outpatient services of various clinical departments: During enforcement of the Plan, the numbers of outpatients visiting various departments came down. The outpatient service expenses, including examination expenses and pharmaceutical expenses did not come down. After the Plan was suspended from enforcement, outpatient service expenses, including examination expenses and pharmaceutical expenses did not come up significantly. VI. The influence upon the emergency cases: The emergency treatment expenses incurred every week did not show a significant increase after the Plan was suspended from enforcement compared with the expenses incurred during enforcement. The per patient treatment costs, nevertheless, showed a significant rise. Summing up the key findings quoted above, the present study would offer the following proposals: I. Proposals posed toward the medical treatment policymakers: Upon policymaking process, it is advisable to come to the politic and managerial targets which would accurately aim at patients’ demand and hospital characteristics. The policies, once made, should be enforced consistently as far as possible, with as little change as possible. In turn, the hospitals will get a firm rule to comply with and thus upgrade the quality of medical treatment. II. Proposals posed toward hospital management: Aiming at the respective hospital missions and visions, the hospitals should try their utmost efforts to offer the best possible quality of medical treatment. Meanwhile, they should try to have patients of varied demands receiving medical care as appropriate. III. Proposals posed toward subsequent researchers: Change in other medical treatment behaviors of hospitals, change in the behaviors of medical care toward outpatients, the characteristics of doctors/physicians toward the involvement of the policies and such issues are advisable issues for subsequent study in the future.摘要 ………………………………………………………………… i 目錄 ………………………………………………………………… v 表目錄……………………………………………………………… vii 圖目錄……………………………………………………………… ix 第一章　緒論………………………………………………………… 1 第一節 研究背景………………………………………………… 1 第二節 研究動機與目的………………………………………… 3 第二章　文獻探討…………………………………………………… 4 第一節 各國健康保險制度……………………………………… 4 第二節 醫療保險之道德危機度………………………………… 15 第三節 總額支付制……………………………………………… 17 第四節 台灣地區總額支付制度實施狀況……………………… 27 第五節 目前我國台灣地區支付制度實施現況………………… 35 第三章　研究方法…………………………………………………… 38 第一節 研究對象及範圍………………………………………… 38 第二節 研究架構………………………………………………… 38 第三節 研究設計與抽樣方法…………………………………… 40 第四節 研究假設………………………………………………… 41 第五節 資料蒐集………………………………………………… 42 第六節 資料分析………………………………………………… 43 第四章 研究結果…………………………………………………… 44 第一節 門診病患平均就診次數及費用分析…………………… 44 第二節 醫師平均看診人次分析………………………………… 60 第三節 門診佔率之分析………………………………………… 62 第四節 藥費佔率之分析………………………………………… 62 第五節 對各臨床部科影響之分析……………………………… 63 第六節 對急診影響之分析……………………………………… 66 第五章 研究討論…………………………………………………… 74 第一節 門診病患平均就診次數及費用之探討………………… 74 第二節 醫師平均看診人次改變之探討………………………… 79 第三節 門診佔率之探討………………………………………… 80 第四節 藥費佔率之探討………………………………………… 81 第五節 對各臨床部科影響之探討……………………………… 82 第六節 對急診影響之探討……………………………………… 83 第六章 結論與建議…----………---……………………………… 86 第一節 結論……………………………………………………… 86 第二節 研究限制………………………………………………… 92 第三節 建議……………………………………………………… 93 參考文獻 …………………………………………………………… 96 英文部分……………………………………………………………… 96 中文部份 …………………………………………………………… 97 附件………………………………………………………………… 9

Application of the exponential grey model on the maintenance cost prediction for a large scale hospital / Eksponentinio pilkojo modelio taikymas prognozuojant didelės ligoninės eksploatacines sąnaudas

Realizing the maintenance cost distribution and predicting the future tendency are important for facility managers to efficiently arrange the limited budget. This paper collects 16,228 maintenance records of a representative hospital in Taiwan and further analyzes the cost distribution. Besides, by calculating the maintenance cost of per square meter of floor area per year (dollar/m2/year) and comparing with the previous studies, this paper also points out the relationship between maintenance cost and the operation ages. moreover, this paper establishes a hybrid grey model termed as EGM(1,1), which adopting exponential series to identify the residual error series resulted from grey model, to predict the maintenance cost. The repair cost of hospital building from 1998 to 2006 is adopted to demonstrate the applicability and practicability of EGM(1,1). Results show that the proposed model can predict the tendency precisely. Santrauka Norint efektyviai išdėstyti ribotą biudžetą, pastatų ūkio valdytojai turi suprasti eksploatacijos sąnaudų pasiskirstymą ir sudaryti ateities tendencijų prognozes. Šiame darbe surinkti 16 228 įrašai apie reprezentacinės Taivano ligoninės eksploataciją ir jais remiantis analizuojamas sąnaudų pasiskirstymas. Apskaičiavus metines eksploatacijos sąnaudas vienam kvadratiniam metrui (doleriai/m2/metus) ir palyginus jas su ankstesniais tyrimais, darbe taip pat parodomas ryšys tarp eksploatacijos sąnaudų ir objekto amžiaus. Be to, darbe sudaromas hibridinis pilkasis modelis, pavadintas EGM(1,1), kuriame naudojant eksponentines eilutes nustatomos liktinės paklaidų eilutės, gautos pilkajame modelyje, taip siekiant prognozuoti eksploatacines sąnaudas. Naudojant 1998–2006 m. ligoninės pastato remontui išleistą sumą pristatomas EGM(1,1) taikymas ir praktiškumas. Rezultatai rodo, kad pasiūlytas modelis tendencijas gali prognozuoti tiksliai

Microstructure of Butt Joint of High-Silicon Steel Made Using CO2 Laser Welding and Inconel 82 Filler

A nickel-based filler wire, Inconel 82, was applied to weld a high-silicon steel plate with a chemical composition in wt% of 2.6 Si, 0.5 Al and Fe balance. The chemical composition of the heterogeneous weld bead was deviated from that of the conventional alloy due to incomplete mixing/convection between the filler wire and base metal in the weld pool. The microstructure of the weld bead was examined in greater depth by FESEM/EBSD, EPMA/WDS and STEM/EDS in the experiment. The heterogeneous weld bead was primarily composed of austenite and martensite, and mainly governed by the Ni concentration. A Schaeffler diagram based on the ratio of Cr and Ni equivalents in the selected positions of the weld bead was used to predict the structure and phase(s) of the Fe-based weld bead. A methodology for the analysis of a weld metal with an unconventional alloy composition has been proposed in the study

Intra/Inter-Particle Energy Transfer of Luminescence Nanocrystals for Biomedical Applications

Elaborate design of energy transfer systems in luminescent nanocrystals revealed tremendous advantages in nanotechnology, especially in biosensing and drug delivery systems. Recently, upconversion nanoparticles have been discussed as promising probes as labels in biological assays and imaging. This article reviews the works performed in the recent years using quantum dot- and rare-earth doped nanoparticle-based energy transfer systems for biomedical applications

Assessing energy precarity and heat-related health risks from climate change in Asian cities

International audienc