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

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Optionen einer Dekarbonisierung des Verkehrssektors: Ergebnisse des Projektes Renewbility III

Mit dem Projekt Renewbility III konnte gezeigt werden, dass eine vollständige Dekarbonisierung des Verkehrssektors machbar ist. Hierfür gibt es verschiedene Optionen, wobei diese unterschiedliche Chancen/Risiken-Profile aufweisen. Grundsätzlich kann eine Dekarbonisierung des Verkehrssektors bei geeigneter Ausgestaltung die Chance bieten, Klimaschutz bei positivem volkswirtschaftlichem Ergebnis zu erreichen. Aufgabe der Politik ist es nun, die Elektromobilität und damit die Effizienz der Fahrzeuge voranzubringen und das Verkehrssystem so umzugestalten, dass es durch Verlagerung und Vermeidung effizienter wird

Health Behaviors of the Young Adult U.S. Population: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2003

IntroductionHealth-risk behaviors such as eating poorly, being physically inactive, and smoking contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and are often established during adolescence and young adulthood. The objectives of this study were to characterize the health-risk behaviors of young adults (aged 18–24 years) using a large population-based survey of Americans and to determine if behaviors of this group differ by weight category, as assessed by body mass index (BMI).MethodsPrevalence estimates for selected health-risk behaviors were calculated for respondents aged 18 to 24 years to the 2003 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Respondents were categorized by BMI, and comparisons between sex and race and ethnicity were made within the overweight and obese categories.ResultsMore than three quarters (78.4%) of respondents consumed fewer than five fruits and vegetables per day, 43.2% reported insufficient or no physical activity, 28.9% were current smokers, 30.1% reported binge drinking, and 11.9% reported frequent mental distress. One quarter (26.1%) of respondents were overweight, and 13.6% were obese. Of obese young adults, 67.2% reported that they currently were trying to lose weight; however, only 24.3% reported having received professional advice to lose weight. More obese women (34.2%) than obese men (16.7%) reported having received professional advice to lose weight. Only 19.1% of obese non-Hispanic white respondents had received professional advice to lose weight compared with 28.0% of obese Hispanic respondents and 30.6% of obese non-Hispanic black respondents.ConclusionMany young adults engage in unhealthy behaviors, and differences exist in health-risk behaviors by BMI category and specifically by sex and race and ethnicity within BMI categories. The transition from adolescence to adulthood may be an opportune time for intervening to prevent future chronic disease

Renewbility: options for a decarbonisation of the transport sector up to 2050

The project Renewbility presents several climate protection scenarios for the transport sector in Germany, modelling vehicle stocks, transport demand, energy consumption, CO2-emissions and economic effects. Funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, this project has involved a broad range of stakeholders and thus included different positions and interest in the design of the scenarios. Common objective of all scenarios is the full decarbonisation of the transport sector until 2050. The results show the need for future-oriented political action: Electric vehicles need to be an essential pillar of an overall strategy against climate change up to 2050. Power-generated fuels should only be used where no other option exists - probably in air and marine transport. Effective policy measures include the phase-out of the internal combustion engine, which could be realised by more ambitious CO2-standards combined with increasing fuel prices. Moreover, the scenario analysis indicates that increasing sustainable urban mobility would be an effective strategy not only for a higher quality of life for citizens, but also against climate change. In order to offer alternative options for car users, the promotion of sustainable transport modes such as public transport and cycling is necessary. Important policy measures for local authorities include parking space management. Implementing measures for enhancing the quality of public transport, rail freight traffic, and life in cities is even expected to increase GDP and reduce external costs. In summary, the decarbonisation of the transport sector offers the opportunity to combine climate protection with a positive economic balance. It is the role of policy makers to build up the necessary framework to realise these benefits and successfully combat climate change. In order to achieve a fully decarbonised transport sector until 2050, transformation processes in both society and industry have to begin as soon as possible