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 designer's guide to Verilog-AMS

The Verilog Hardware Description Language (Verilog-HDL) has long been the most popular language for describing complex digital hardware. It started life as a prop- etary language but was donated by Cadence Design Systems to the design community to serve as the basis of an open standard. That standard was formalized in 1995 by the IEEE in standard 1364-1995. About that same time a group named Analog Verilog International formed with the intent of proposing extensions to Verilog to support analog and mixed-signal simulation. The first fruits of the labor of that group became available in 1996 when the language definition of Verilog-A was released. Verilog-A was not intended to work directly with Verilog-HDL. Rather it was a language with Similar syntax and related semantics that was intended to model analog systems and be compatible with SPICE-class circuit simulation engines. The first implementation of Verilog-A soon followed: a version from Cadence that ran on their Spectre circuit simulator. As more implementations of Verilog-A became available, the group defining the a- log and mixed-signal extensions to Verilog continued their work, releasing the defi- tion of Verilog-AMS in 2000. Verilog-AMS combines both Verilog-HDL and Verilog-A, and adds additional mixed-signal constructs, providing a hardware description language suitable for analog, digital, and mixed-signal systems. Again, Cadence was first to release an implementation of this new language, in a product named AMS Designer that combines their Verilog and Spectre simulation engines

Zur 6kologie von Phrynocephalus helioscopus (Pallas, 1771) in der Dschungarischen Gobi (Reptilia, Agamidae)

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Acute Effects of Short-Term Local Tendon Vibration on Plantar Flexor Torque, Muscle Contractile Properties, Neuromuscular and Brain Activity in Young Athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of short-term Achilles tendon vibration on plantar flexor torque, twitch contractile properties as well as muscle and cortical activity in young athletes. Eleven female elite soccer players aged 15.6 ± 0.5 years participated in this study. Three different conditions were applied in randomized order: Achilles tendon vibration (80 Hz) for 30 and 300 s, and a passive control condition (300 s). Tests at baseline and following conditions included the assessment of peak plantar flexor torque during maximum voluntary contraction, electrically evoked muscle twitches (e.g., potentiated twitch peak torque [PT]), and electromyographic (EMG) activity of the plantar flexors. Additionally, electroencephalographic (EEG) activity of the primary motor and somatosensory cortex were assessed during a submaximal dynamic concentric-eccentric plantar flexion exercise using an elastic rubber band. Large-sized main effects of condition were found for EEG absolute alpha-1 and beta-1 band power (p ≤ 0.011; 1.5 ≤ d ≤2.6). Post-hoc tests indicated that alpha-1 power was significantly lower at 30 and 300 s (p = 0.009; d = 0.8) and beta-1 power significantly lower at 300 s (p < 0.001; d = 0.2) compared to control condition. No significant effect of condition was found for peak plantar flexor torque, electrical evoked muscle twitches, and EMG activity. In conclusion, short-term local Achilles tendon vibration induced lower brain activity (i.e., alpha-1 and beta-1 band power) but did not affect lower limb peak torque, twitch contractile properties, and muscle activity. Lower brain activity following short-term local Achilles tendon vibration may indicate improved cortical function during a submaximal dynamic exercise in female young soccer players

Back from Exile? First Records of Chewing Lice (<i>Lutridia exilis</i>; Ischnocera; Mallophaga) in Growing Eurasian Otter (<i>Lutra lutra</i>) Populations from Northern Germany

Arthropod ectoparasites of aquatic wildlife often have complex relationships with their host species that have developed over long evolutionary time scales. Specialist parasite occurrence might depend on these hosts’ distributions. Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) populations are recovering in Northern German federal states, such as Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. Chewing lice (Lutridia exilis; Ischnocera; Mallophaga) are considered otter-specific yet rare parasites in their known range. In 2022, they were recorded for the first time on nine otters found dead in Northern Germany. All otters originated from the years 2021–2022 and were dissected during population health monitoring programs in 2022. Females (n = 6) were 0–5.5 years old and showed signs of disease in five cases. Males (n = 3), in contrast, were 0–1.6 years old and showed disease in a single case. Individual lice intensity of infection ranged from 1 to 75 specimens per otter. No direct adverse health effects of chewing lice on the otters were noted. Lutridia exilis morphological characteristics were documented and measurements were taken to study specialized adaptations that allow lice to attach to semi-aquatic otters. In addition, morphology was compared between lice from different geographical regions and specimens from previous reports. A region of the COI mDNA was amplified to molecularly characterize L. exilis for the first time and detect genetic differences between otter lice populations in Germany. It is believed that specialist parasites reduce in numbers even before their host populations decline. Recovering otter populations in Northern Germany could be an example of a reverse effect, where the comeback of a host species results in the return of a specialist parasite, which reflects an ultimate boost in overall species biodiversity

Adhesion of human and animal escherichia coli strains in association with their virulence-associated genes and phylogenetic origins

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