This article highlights the additions and changes in the DeCS vocabulary in 2015.

Overview of vocabulary development and changes

Totals by type of terminology

• 310 new MeSH descriptors and 57 synonyms were added and translated to Spanish and Portuguese;

• 3 new DeCS descriptors were added in all three languages;

  Concentration (Chemistry)

  Arachnid Control

  Quaternary Prevention

• 25 MeSH descriptors and 109 DeCS descriptors were replaced with more up-to-date terminology in English

• 255 DeCS descriptors had their Spanish version updated

• 169 DeCS descriptors had their Portuguese version updated

• 4 MeSH descriptors and 11 DeCS descriptors were eliminated
  

• 2 MeSH synonyms were added in existing concepts and translated to Spanish and Portuguese;
  

• 5.182 DeCS synonyms were added (of which 189 in English, 1868 in Spanish, and 3.125 in Portuguese) in existing concepts; read more below about the Harmonization of the Health Thesaurus of the Brazilian Health Ministry and DeCS;
  

• 308 definitions and 48 indexing annotations for the new MeSH concepts were translated to Spanish and Portuguese;
  

• 286 definitions and 281 indexing annotations had their texts updated in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The ten subcategories receiving the greatest additions:

A08 - Nervous System (105)
D27 - Chemical Actions and Uses (86);
G03 - Metabolic Phenomena (41);
G07 - Physiological Phenomena (33);
D12 - Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins (26);
D08 - Enzymes and Coenzymes (19);
C23 - Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms (17)
E05 - Investigative Techniques (16);
N06 - Environment and Public Health (14);
L01 - Information Science (14)

New Descriptors by Tree Category

DeCS 2015 edition is available for online searching through the DeCS Search or directly from the VHL Search Portal.

Helpful Links

Please consult the DeCS 2015 edition or the online Introduction to 2015 MeSH for more details. A complete list of new and changed vocabulary is available at these links:

Vocabulary changes

New descriptors

Replaced descriptors

Deleted descriptors

MeSH tree number changes

MeSH and DeCS tree number changes

2015 MeSH Vocabulary Project Highlights

Neuroanatomy content in the Central Nervous System tree [A08.186] was updated to reflect the current progress in neurobiomedical science and to accommodate search and retrieval of literature in brain connectome and related disciplines. This update was validated by projects such as the White House BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative and the hippocampal spatial representation research by the Laureates for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2014. In summary, 451 new terms in 108 existing Descriptors; and 281 new terms in 54 newly created Descriptors were added.

Update: Unique Ingredient Identifiers (UNIIs) added to MeSH Descriptors

The UNII Project, started in 2013, is a collaborative effort between NLM and Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) informatics scientists to include FDA Substance Registration System (SRS) - Unique Ingredient Identifiers (UNIIs) in MeSH. NLM continues to add FDA-SRS UNII unique identifiers to MeSH pharmaceutical compounds and now has over 11,000 concepts defined by UNII. In 2014, coverage was expanded to include drug absorption pathways and other processes that determine the fate of drugs. The Pharmacologic Actions tree was also expanded to include 48 new headings and a new major category “Metabolic Side Effects of Drugs and Substances" was created to accommodate a broad variety of side effects that drugs have on the cytochrome P-450 system. For additional information see, A New System of Registry Number Identifiers for Chemicals in the MeSH Database.

MeSH on Demand

MeSH on Demand, launched in May 2014, was developed to allow an easy way to identify relevant MeSH terms for text up to 10,000 characters (such as manuscript abstract, summary statement or description of a project) automatically. In the first full month of operation, 140,940 requests were made to MeSH on Demand. For additional information on MeSH on Demand see, MeSH on Demand Tool: An Easy Way to Identify Relevant MeSH Terms and MeSH on Demand Update: How to Find Citations Related to Your Text.

Harmonization of the Health Thesaurus of the Brazilian Health Ministry and DeCS

In order to improve the recovery of information indexed with this thesaurus, 1403 extra Portuguese see cross-reference terms from this source were added to the 2015 DeCS vocabulary concepts. This version of DeCS now contain 64% of the terms from this thesaurus.

Increase in the number of MeSH terms translated to Spanish and Portuguese

With the beginning of the use of NLM's MeSH Translation Maintenance System (MTMS), BIREME has also started translating not only the so called MeSH print-entry terms (PE), but also the non-print entry terms (NPE), and they will also appear in DeCS.

Example of New DeCS-exclusive hierarchical codes

With the elimination of some descriptors, which are generally absorbed by others, these in turn often keep their hierarchical codes. This often happens when MeSH creates a descriptor whose concept already existed in a category that is exclusively DeCS or when the BIREME team identifies the existence of a conceptual duplication. For example, the descriptor "Reef" which until 2014 belonged only to category SP, is now also in subcategories G, N, and SP. This occurred because "Coral Reefs" was created in 2011 MeSH and since the two terms are synonymous, the term "Reef" has been incorporated in the "Coral Reef" descriptor record as an alternative term. Below is how its is now located in the hierarchical structure.

PHENOMENA AND PROCESSES [G]
   Biological Phenomena [G16]
      Ecological and Environmental Phenomena [G16.500]
         Environment [G16.500.275]
            Ecosystem [G16.500.275.157]
               Coral Reefs [G16.500.275.157.130]

HEALTH CARE [N]
   Environment and Public Health [N06]
      Environment [N06.230]
         Ecosystem [N06.230.124]
            Coral Reefs [N06.230.124.130]

PUBLIC HEALTH [SP]
   Environmental Health[SP4]
      Water Resources [SP4.016]
         Water [SP4.016.132]
            Surface Waters [SP4.016.132.553]
               Oceanography [SP4.016.132.553.929]
                  Coral Reefs [SP4.016.132.553.929.190]

PUBLIC HEALTH [SP]
   Disasters [SP8]
      Risk [SP8.473]
         Hazards [SP8.473.654]
            Geology [SP8.473.654.517]
               Coral Reefs [SP8.473.654.517.217]

See Helpful links above to see other changes in hierarchical codes made this year. The ones below are those relating to the solution of conceptual MeSH-DeCS duplications or changes in hierarchical codes from exclusively DeCS categories:

• The existing descriptor Noxae, from categories D and VS, absorbed Noxa, from category HP, and now appears in all three categories;
• The new MeSH descriptor Public-Private Sector Partnerships, from categories J and N, absorbed Public-Private Partnership, from category SH, and will now appear in all three categories;
• The existing descriptor Poultry, from categories B and J, absorbed Aviculture, from category SP;
• The existing descriptor Equipment and Supplies, in categories E and VS, absorbed Equipment, from category SP, and now appears in all three categories;
• The new descriptor Livestock, in category B, absorbed Farm Animals (Environmental Health), from category SP;
• The existing descriptor Seasons, in categories G and N, absorbed Seasonal Variations, from category SP, and now appears in all three categories;
• The existing descriptor, Food and Nutrition Security, until last year called Food Security, from category SP, absorbed Nutritional Rights, from category SP; the term Food Security was moved to a historical term in the record of the descriptor Food Supply, because in MeSH it is a NPE (an acronym for Non-Print Entry in MeSH) in this descriptor;
• The existing descriptor Nutritionists, from categories M and N, absorbed Nutritionist, from category SP, and now appears in all three categories;
• The existing descriptor Coral Reefs, from subcategories G16, N06, and SP4, absorbed Reef, from subcategory SP8, and now appears in all four subcategories.

Other pertinent articles:

MEDLINE/PubMed Year-End Processing Activities

2015 MeSH Now Available

MeSH Browser Now Updated More Frequently

MEDLINE Data Changes — 2015

What's New for 2015 MeSH

Cataloging News 2015

Newly Maintained MEDLINE for 2014 MeSH Now Available in PubMed

Source: Schulman JL. What's New for 2015 MeSH®. NLM Tech Bull. 2014 Nov-Dec;(401):e6.
Available on Internet: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd14/nd14_mesh.html

Adaptation by: Health Terminologies and Classifications Section at BIREME/PAHO/WHO

Date of update: March, 2015