BackgroundSince their introduction in 2009, the BioNLP Shared Task events have been instrumental in advancing the development of methods and resources for the automatic extraction of information from the biomedical literature. In this paper, we present the Cancer Genetics (CG) and Pathway Curation (PC) tasks, two event extraction tasks introduced in the BioNLP Shared Task 2013. The CG task focuses on cancer, emphasizing the extraction of physiological and pathological processes at various levels of biological organization, and the PC task targets reactions relevant to the development of biomolecular pathway models, defining its extraction targets on the basis of established pathway representations and ontologies.ResultsSix groups participated in the CG task and two groups in the PC task, together applying a wide range of extraction approaches including both established state-of-the-art systems and newly introduced extraction methods. The best-performing systems achieved F-scores of 55% on the CG task and 53% on the PC task, demonstrating a level of performance comparable to the best results achieved in similar previously proposed tasks.ConclusionsThe results indicate that existing event extraction technology can generalize to meet the novel challenges represented by the CG and PC task settings, suggesting that extraction methods are capable of supporting the construction of knowledge bases on the molecular mechanisms of cancer and the curation of biomolecular pathway models. The CG and PC tasks continue as open challenges for all interested parties, with data, tools and resources available from the shared task homepage.

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Although metabolic acid load has been associated with many well-known risk factors for mortality, its clinical implications are not yet clear. To evaluate the association between biomarkers of metabolic acid load, such as serum bicarbonate, serum anion gap and urine pH and mortality, we analyzed the health records of 31,590 adults who underwent a health screening between January 2001 and December 2010 and had an estimated glomerular filtration rate ⩾60 ml min(-1) per 1.73 m2. Urine pH was measured by a dipstick test performed on fast morning urine sample and categorized as acidic (urine pH ⩽5.5), neutral and alkaline (urine pH ⩾8.0). Using the Cox proportional hazard model, the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of all-cause mortality of the lowest quartile of serum bicarbonate was 1.460 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.068-1.995) compared with the highest quartile, after a median follow-up of 93 months. The aHRs of cardiovascular and cancer mortality of the lowest quartile of serum bicarbonate were 2.647 (95% CI 1.148-6.103) and 1.604 (95% CI 1.024-2.513), respectively, compared with the highest quartile. Acidic and neutral urine pH were significantly associated with a higher all-cause mortality (aHR 2.550, 95% CI 1.316-4.935; aHR 2.376 95% CI 1.254-4.501, respectively), compared with an alkaline urine pH. In conclusion, higher metabolic acid load was associated with an increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a healthy population. The association between metabolic acid load and mortality and the causality of the relationship need to be confirmed.

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Backfilling techniques are widely used in large-scale underground mines. Massive pillars, which have been left in place for stability, limit mining activity. Backfilling allows for safe recovery of the ore remaining in pillars and assures long-term stability. The high rock stresses which result from deep mining operations can be relieved by backfilling. Initially, waste rock was used to fill the openings left by mining operations, though with mixed results. The need to improve safety and reduce costs has prompted the mining industry to investigate alternative backfill methods. Hydraulic filling with Portland cement has shown considerable promise, but little has been done to define the parameters for an effective design. The objective of this paper is to enhance the understanding of current paste backfill practice.Sixty to seventy weight-percent solids-cemented backfill slurries are currently being used in the mining industry (as a matter of practicality). However, deficiencies in this particular ratio need to be examined. Physical properties of mine tailings are unique based on their geology and the milling process. Flaws in the cemented backfill slurries are usually a result of poor hydration and slime build-up to levels that cause additional dewatering, high equipment/operating costs, and work delays. Furthermore, the required strength and quality of the fill may be affected by high water-cement ratios, as well as by its consolidation time, permeability, and volume changes.

In this paper, novel micromachined coplanar waveguide(CPW) transmission lines for application in millimeter-wave circuits are proposed. Two types of transmission lines with the length of 1 cm are fabricated and the measured characteristics are compared with those of the conventional CPW transmission line. One is the elevated CPW(ECPW) transmission line and the other is the overlay CPW(OCPW) line. These transmission lines are composed of 3-µm-thick electroplated gold lines with overhanging parts. By elevating the metal lines from the substrate using micromachining technology, the conductor and substrate dielectric loss can be reduced and easily integrated with conventional monolithic microwave integrated circuits. Compared with the conventional CPW line showing 2.65 dB/cm insertion loss at 50 GHz, the loss can be reduced to 1.9 dB/cm and 1.25 dB/cm at 50 GHz in the case of the ECPW and OCPW transmission lines, respectively. Also, the OCPW transmission line shows that the insertion loss does not vary with the change of the characteristic impedance. As shown in the measured and simulated results, the insertion loss is maintained below 1.4 dB/cm over wide impedance ranges.

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