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Geospatial approaches to sampling frame development for household surveys: A systematic review of methods, limitations and future directions

This systematic review evaluates how geospatial technologies are transforming household survey sampling frames in low- and middle-income countries to address outdated census limitations, identifying four key methodological approaches while highlighting persistent challenges in validation and implementation that require further comparative evidence and standardized protocols.

Nazim Gashi, Andy Tatem, Sarchil Qader2026-07-27
📄 other

Spatial distribution, hypervolumes, niche overlaps, and dynamics of the forest plant-community of Triplochiton scleroxylon, Terminalia superba, and Antiaris toxicaria in the context of climate change across Africa

This study utilizes machine learning algorithms to predict that climate change will drive niche shifts and a spatial redistribution of the *Triplochiton scleroxylon*, *Terminalia superba*, and *Antiaris toxicaria* plant community across Africa, characterized by expansion in West and Central regions and contraction in East and Southern areas where only select species may persist.

Jean Cossi GANGLO2026-07-27
📄 other

Evolutionary dynamics and selection modeling of climate-driven Vibrio vulnificus expansion into high-latitude environments

This study reveals that *Vibrio vulnificus* strains in the Baltic Sea, comprising a mix of environmental and clinical isolates, have adapted to the cold, brackish environment through positive selection on specific genes like *opsX* and *menC*, while undergoing a genomic trade-off characterized by a drastic reduction in defense system complexity and increased mobile genetic element integration to facilitate human infection.

Hevar Barznji2026-07-27
📄 other

The Ground-Truth Problem in Regulatory Genomics: An Empirical Analysis of Reference-Dependent Method Rankings

This study demonstrates that the ranking of gene regulatory network inference methods is highly sensitive to the choice of reference network, revealing that over half of method comparisons can reverse depending on the biological definition and coverage of the ground truth, thereby arguing that reference selection should be treated as a critical experimental variable rather than a fixed background assumption.

Liu Chen2026-07-27
📄 other

How Much Does a Benchmark Weight Move a Leaderboard? An Empirical Analysis of Single-Cell Integration Rankings

This empirical analysis of the scIB single-cell integration benchmark reveals that while the published ranking is locally stable, the winning method and overall ordering are sensitive to defensible changes in weight priorities and task composition, suggesting that benchmark reports should include sensitivity curves and uncertainty estimates rather than relying solely on a single rank table.

Liu Chen2026-07-27
📄 other

Reading Mechanism off Biological Foundation Models: An Empirical Analysis of Genomic Neighborhood Structure in scGPT Gene Embeddings

This empirical study demonstrates that the scGPT biological foundation model exhibits a small but reproducible association between its static gene embedding geometry and linear genomic neighborhood, revealing that genes located close together on the same chromosome are more similar in the model's representation than distant genes, even though this spatial information was not explicitly provided during training.

Liu Chen2026-07-27