Multitask and transfer learning for cardiac abnormality detection in heart sounds

We present a deep learning model for the automatic detection of murmurs and other cardiac abnormalities from the analysis of digital recordings of cardiac auscultations. This approach was developed in the context of the George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2022. More precisely, we consider multi-objective neural networks, with several Transformer blocks at their core, trained to perform 3 distinct tasks simultaneously: murmur detection, outcome classification and audio signal segmentation. We also perform pre-training with the 2016’s Challenge data. We entered the challenge under the team name matLisboa. Our results on the hidden test dataset were: Murmur score (weighted accuracy): 0.735 (ranked 15th). Outcomes score (cost): 12593 (ranked 16th).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Acoustic Breath Detection and Classification: Modeling Respiratory Events

A continuation of research into modeling airway events of patients undergoing sedation is described. Sounds recorded at the trachea were recorded and separated by means of a threshold algorithm. The threshold was determined by the expectation maximization algorithm on filtered data. A comparison between the respiratory rate of the threshold algorithm and that of the direct airflow measure is done. Classification of the audio airway events is discussed using both Neural Networks and Polynomial Classifiers. Future work will be discusse

Congenital morbus cordis with special reference to septal defects and pulmonary stenosis

1. Forty -two cases of congenital morbus cordis are reported with detailed observations on 15 selected cases.2. The supposed rarity and extreme gravity of the lesion is doubted, it being shown how the clinical signs may be out of all proportion to the anatomical changes present.3. Etiology: - A familial tendency to congenital heart disease is admitted - rare cases being reported from the literature and one from the writer's experience. It is not thought that there is any significant tendency to parental transmission of acquired organic morbus cordis. Syphilis is undoubtedly a causal factor but not to the extent believed by the French writers. The effect of alcohol is theoretical and the incidence of consanguinity is estimated to be little higher than that of the whole population. The frequent co- existence of visceral and cardiac anomalies and the types of certain congenital cardiac defects suggest that many are developmental in their inception.4. The physical standard, apart from the cyanotic group and the graver anomalies, is little affected nor is the standard of response to education. Comparisons are made with consecutive series of normal children and sufferers from morbus cordis of rheumatic origin.5. The theories of the causation of cyanosis are reviewed, its etiology being seen to be dependent on certain "determining factors", namely the degree of shunt present, the efficiency of pulmonary oxygenation and oxygen reduction in the tissue capillaries.6. The importance óf cardioradiology is stressed. awe A description of the normal cardiac shadow^ the respective merits of teleoradiography, percussion and palpation in determining the size of the heart are given. It is shown that the conception of increase in the heart size is arbitrary, it being affected by the position of the heart in the thorax, the shape of the heart and its relationship to the chest size. The radiographical appearance of the pulmonary artery in its relationship to the oesophagus is described.7. Defects of the auricular septum are common and in the majority of instances "silent ". Closure of the septum is described as occurring at any date from two weeks to two years after birth, 83.8% closing by the end of the first 10 weeks, and 5.7% being still patent at the end of the first year. The foramen ovale is the common site of patency, defects of the upper and lower parts being rare and complicated by other anomalies in adjacent cardiac structures. With gross defect cyanosis may be present, one case of which is described (Case No.15, vol.2, p.50), and physical and mental development be seriously interfered with. In the major number it is clinically silent and only demonstrable on X -ray examination.8. Maladie de Roger is, apart from defect of the auricular septum, the commonest of congenital cardiac lesions. The site of election is at the base of the interventricular septum, but may occur elsewhere. In 80% of cases the site of maximal intensity of the bruit lies between the third and fourth intercostal space; it is harsh and high pitched and is conducted transversely and to the back. Thrill is not constant, being absent in two cases in the present series of 9. The radiological picture is characteristic, namely the globular appearance of the heart. The appearance of the conus of the right ventricle and of the pulmonary stem is described, the former is thought to be dilated and in many cases the pulmonary artery also. The diagnostic point is thought to depend on the X -ray picture, and the intensity of the pulmonary second sound; a dilated "pulmon- ary arc" with an accentuation of the pulmonary second sound being indicative of a dilatation of the pulmonary stem, whilst a similar radiological appearance when associated with a normal pulmonary second sound, suggests dilatation of the conus of the right ventricle. Cyanosis is rare, but may occur as either a temporary or a terminal feature. The bruit is to be diagnosed from exocardial and other systolic murmurs of unknown origin, mitral and aortic stenosis and Eisenmenger's Syndrome.9. "Pulmonary stenosis". The more fitting name of Pulmonary Obstruction is given, it being believed that the clinical signs of pulmonary stenosis and atresia, whether developmental or inflammatory in origin, and the effect on the cardiac septa, are solely determined by the degree and date of obstruction at the pulmonary is valve. The condition classified and described according to this conception. a) Pulmonary obstruction with closed cardiac septa is ;held to be in all instances inflammatory in origin. The pulmonary artery is small or very rarely dilated. The characteristic clinical signs are those of cardiac right side enlargement, a systolic bruit heard over the pulmonary valve and carried up towards the left clavicle and in 50% of cases thrill. b) Fallot's Tetralogy comprises the largest group of defects as associated with obstruction at the pulmonary' valve. Cyanosis is persistent, a count of 13,470,000 being reported; the incidence of thrill varies from 9.1% to 16.5% of cases. The radiological picture is characteristic, namely, a concavity of the upper left cardiac margin an enlarged right heart surmounted by an aorta whose shadow is broad and extends unduly to the right. The freedom of the oesophagus from pressure by the pulmonary artery and its increased liability to pressure from the dilated aorta is shown. The auscultatory features are described and the insignificance of a carotid bruit is stressed. c) A description of the various types of pulmonary imperforation is given.10. Prognosis is held to depend on :- (1) The local mechanical effects of the lesion. (2) The pathological conditions to which the subject is more liable by reason of the cardiac defect, viz: bacterial endocarditis in about 33.4% of cases, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis, bronchopneumonia and paradoxical embolism. (3) The response of the individual to certain physiological events such as pregnancy and puberty. 11. Treatment of Congenital Morbus Cordis is threefold. a) To prevent intermarriage of and procreation from those persons whose type is believed to favour the incidence of congenital heart disease - alcoholics, syphlitics and congenital syphlitics, blood relations, mental defectives etc; parental acquired heart disease is not thought to play a part. b) To guard the patient against any condition which might raise the pressure of the lesser circulation and to keep him within the limits of his cardiac reserve force. c) To have recourse to the free use of oxygen and warmth in emergency.Recent advances in surgical treatment of congenital valvular defects and the intra-arterial and intravenous use of oxygen are referred to

Match-action: the role of motion and audio in creating global change blindness in film

An everyday example of change blindness is our difficulty to detect cuts in an edited moving-image. Edit Blindness (Smith & Henderson, 2008) is created by adhering to the continuity editing conventions of Hollywood, e.g. coinciding a cut with a sudden onset of motion (Match-Action). In this study we isolated the roles motion and audio play in limiting awareness of match-action cuts by removing motion before and/or after cuts in existing Hollywood film clips and presenting the clips with or without the original soundtrack whilst participants tried to detect cuts. Removing post-cut motion significantly decreased cut detection time and the probability of missing the cut. By comparison, removing pre-cut motion had no effect suggesting, contrary to the editing literature, that the onset of motion before a cut may not be as critical for creating edit blindness as the motion after a cut. Analysis of eye movements indicated that viewers reoriented less to new content across intact match-action cuts than shots with motion removed. Audio played a surprisingly large part in creating edit blindness with edit blindness mostly disappearing without audio. These results extend film editor intuitions and are discussed in the context of the Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity (Smith, 2012a)

The hallucinatory aspect of virtual reality and the Image as a "Bilderschrift"

This article discusses the following points: • The analogies which can be identified between Virtual Reality (VR) and the hallucinatory aspects of dream activity make sense within a network of relations characterised by certain important cognitive performances (in particular inferential performances) which can be attributed to the work of the imagination; • To assure the plasticity of these performances, the imagination seems to have to distance itself somewhat from linguistic thought and in dreams this is achieved regressively via the hallucinatory state. Various authoritative neuroscientific approaches to dreams significantly substantiate this theory. • At the time when its correlation with linguistic thought is deactivated, the imagination does not, however, surrender itself to the hallucinatory event but elaborates it with recourse to practices similar to those of syncretic writing – a Bilderschrift or “pictographic script” as defined by Freud; • It is significant that very early cinema also addressed the quasi-hallucinatory aspects of films, practising an “intermedial” Bilderschrift, i.e. a treatment of the images that is attentive to the comparison and integration of the different levels of expression which work together in the composition of a film; • Digital images seem to revive this production model in several ways and I will offer two examples highlighting their affinity with syncretic and intermedial writing

A study of medical terminology pertinent to the educational preparation of the medical secretary and medical assistants

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversityStatement of the Problem The major problem of this investigation was to determine the most commonly dictated medical terms in hospital records and to provide authors, teachers, and test constructors with scientifically determined lists of technical medical data which may be used in the educational preparation of medical assistants. Summary of Procedures 1. Utilizing the records of three hospitals, two case histories for each of 17 medical systems and specialties were selected for analysis each month for a two-year period. 2. Blakiston's New Gould Medical Dictionary was utilized to identify technical medical terms and the Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words by Thorndike and Lorge was used to delimit the study. 3. A common list of medical specialties offered in the general hospital field was determined to facilitate classification of the medical terms analyzed. 4. The validity of the sampling method utilized vas verified by comparing the proportion of cases discharged from each medical department in the hospital with the sampled cases analyzed. 5. Although the hospitals utilized were in one state, the writer made an effort to show the geographic representativeness of the study by analyzing the distribution of the medical colleges and hospitals attended by the physicians involved in the study. 6. The medical data were arranged alphabetically in eight lists. Those terms with a frequency of five or more were considered commonly dictated words and were listed in rank order according to frequency. 7. A series of tables were constructed for the purpose of guiding teachers and authors in determining the extent of practice that may be devoted to the common technical data reported in the study. Summary of Findings 1. The sampling method employed produced 816 case histories dictated by 289 physicians and represented 17 specialized fields of medicine. 2. The case histories analyzed contained 325,061 running words which included 41,798 medical terms, 23,528 medical phrases, 4,065 medical abbreviations, 1,064 weights and measures, 1,539 medical diseases and operations, and the medical terms contained 19,139 prefixes and 41,258 suffixes. 3. The following medical terminology had a frequency of occurrence of five or more in the case histories analyzed and were considered commonly dictated in medical practice: (1) 1,746 medical terms, (2) 973 medical phrases, (3) 289 medical abbreviations, (4) 15 weights and measures, (5) 51 medical diseases and operations, and (6) 77 prefixes and 80 suffixes. 4. Neurologists dictated the largest number of technical medical terms in each case history, 95, and psychiatrists dictated the largest number of running words in each case history, 1,057. 5. The percentage of technical medical terms in the 325,061 running words was 14.13 per cent. 6. The 289 physicians involved in the study (a) have attended 39 of the 78 medical colleges in the United States and 32 medical colleges in 17 foreign countries, (b) have completed their internship and residency training in 135 hospitals in 22 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada, and (c) have had 4,205 collective years of active medical practice. Conclusions and Recommendations 1. The common medical vocabulary utilized by physicians is difficult and extensive. 2. The seven types of common technical medical data reported in the study should be considered an essential part of the medical vocabulary of every medical assistant. 3. Prospective medical assistants should be taught the definitions and the common medical terminology of the 17 areas of medical specialization. 4. As indicated by the wide geographic distribution of the training schools of the physicians participating in the study, it may be concluded that the medical terminology in this study is representative of the terminology utilized by physicians in many parts of the United States and the world. 5. The findings of this study appear to be a reliable basis for the writing and revising of classroom materials and textbooks for the educational preparation of the medical secretary and medical assistants

Dreamland : a novel, and, Modes of textual division in the post-2000 novel : critical thesis

This thesis comprises two parts. The novel, Dreamland, is the story of seventeen-year-old Joe Duffy, who leaves his family home in Liverpool in search of his older brother who has gone missing in London. The themes, techniques, and findings examined in the critical thesis have informed the composition of the novel: in particular, the creative work exploits the capacity of techniques of narrative division to interact with linguistic content in the representation of the protagonist’s consciousness. The second part is a critical study that investigates the form and function of a mode of textual division in a group of twenty-first-century novels whose linguistic content is presented in short narrative sections divided by horizontal margins of white space; it is a technique that imparts an unconventional ‘gappy’ appearance to the pages. This gappy mode of textual division in certain contemporary novels is historicized in two preliminary chapters: the first chapter surveys formative pre-novelistic influences on conventions of narrative division; the second chapter follows the course and career of modes of narrative division in novelistic practice. The primary focus of the thesis is contained in the third chapter where case studies are made of four twenty-first-century novels that share the distinctive gappy format. By a close reading of these works, the thesis analyses how their modes of textual division interact with the linguistic content of the novels to generate a range of interpretative possibilities for their narratives

Glosarium Biologi

601 p.; 24 cm