Seeing Through Noise: Visually Driven Speaker Separation and Enhancement

Isolating the voice of a specific person while filtering out other voices or background noises is challenging when video is shot in noisy environments. We propose audio-visual methods to isolate the voice of a single speaker and eliminate unrelated sounds. First, face motions captured in the video are used to estimate the speaker's voice, by passing the silent video frames through a video-to-speech neural network-based model. Then the speech predictions are applied as a filter on the noisy input audio. This approach avoids using mixtures of sounds in the learning process, as the number of such possible mixtures is huge, and would inevitably bias the trained model. We evaluate our method on two audio-visual datasets, GRID and TCD-TIMIT, and show that our method attains significant SDR and PESQ improvements over the raw video-to-speech predictions, and a well-known audio-only method.Comment: Supplementary video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmsyj7vAzo

Publication Patterns' Changes due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A longitudinal and short-term scientometric analysis

In recent months the COVID-19 (also known as SARS-CoV-2 and Coronavirus) pandemic has spread throughout the world. In parallel, extensive scholarly research regarding various aspects of the pandemic has been published. In this work, we analyse the changes in biomedical publishing patterns due to the pandemic. We study the changes in the volume of publications in both peer reviewed journals and preprint servers, average time to acceptance of papers submitted to biomedical journals, international (co-)authorship of these papers (expressed by diversity and volume), and the possible association between journal metrics and said changes. We study these possible changes using two approaches: a short-term analysis through which changes during the first six months of the outbreak are examined for both COVID-19 related papers and non-COVID-19 related papers; and a longitudinal approach through which changes are examined in comparison to the previous four years. Our results show that the pandemic has so far had a tremendous effect on all examined accounts of scholarly publications: A sharp increase in publication volume has been witnessed and it can be almost entirely attributed to the pandemic; a significantly faster mean time to acceptance for COVID-19 papers is apparent, and it has (partially) come at the expense of non-COVID-19 papers; and a significant reduction in international collaboration for COVID-19 papers has also been identified. As the pandemic continues to spread, these changes may cause a slow down in research in non-COVID-19 biomedical fields and bring about a lower rate of international collaboration.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 11 table

Macrophages, Meta-Inflammation, and Immuno-Metabolism

Current research depicts specific modes of immunity and energy metabolism as being interrelated at the molecular, cellular, organ and organism level. Hence, whereas M2 (alternatively-activated) macrophages dominate insulin-sensitive adipose tissue in the lean, M1-skewed (classically-activated) macrophages accumulate in parallel to adiposity in the obese, and promote inflammation and insulin resistance, that is, meta-inflammation. The latest frontier of immuno-metabolism explores the coregulation of energy metabolism and immune function within hematopoietic cells. M1-skewed macrophages are sustained in edematous, hypoxic tissues by anaerobic glycolysis, whereas mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration dominates in M2 cells. We review the underlying mechanisms and the consequences of the transition from M2 to M1 predominance in adipose tissue, as well as the extracellular signals and transcription factors that control macrophage phenotypes and impose distinct metabolic modes

Evaluating the accuracy of diffusion MRI models in white matter

Models of diffusion MRI within a voxel are useful for making inferences about the properties of the tissue and inferring fiber orientation distribution used by tractography algorithms. A useful model must fit the data accurately. However, evaluations of model-accuracy of some of the models that are commonly used in analyzing human white matter have not been published before. Here, we evaluate model-accuracy of the two main classes of diffusion MRI models. The diffusion tensor model (DTM) summarizes diffusion as a 3-dimensional Gaussian distribution. Sparse fascicle models (SFM) summarize the signal as a linear sum of signals originating from a collection of fascicles oriented in different directions. We use cross-validation to assess model-accuracy at different gradient amplitudes (b-values) throughout the white matter. Specifically, we fit each model to all the white matter voxels in one data set and then use the model to predict a second, independent data set. This is the first evaluation of model-accuracy of these models. In most of the white matter the DTM predicts the data more accurately than test-retest reliability; SFM model-accuracy is higher than test-retest reliability and also higher than the DTM, particularly for measurements with (a) a b-value above 1000 in locations containing fiber crossings, and (b) in the regions of the brain surrounding the optic radiations. The SFM also has better parameter-validity: it more accurately estimates the fiber orientation distribution function (fODF) in each voxel, which is useful for fiber tracking

Absolute monocyte count and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio predict outcome in nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma: Evaluation based on data from 1450 patients

Objective: To verify whether absolute monocyte count (AMC) and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) at diagnosis are valid prognostic parameters in classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). Patients and Methods: Data were collected from 1450 patients with cHL treated in Israel and Italy from January 1, 1988, through December 31, 2007. Results: The median age of the patients was 33 years (range, 17-72 years), and 70% (1017) of the patients had nodular sclerosis (NS); the median follow-up duration was 87 months. The best cutoff value for AMC was 750 cells/mm3, and the best ratio for LMR was 2.1. The adverse prognostic impact of an AMC of more than 750 cells/mm(3) was confirmed for the entire cohort, and its clinical significance was particularly evident in patients with NS histology. The progression-free survival (PFS) at 10 years for an AMC of more than 750 cells/mm(3) was 65% (56%-72%), and the PFS at 10 years for an AMC of 750 cells/mm(3) or less was 81% (76%-84%; P<.001). The overall survival (OS) at 10 years for an AMC of more than 750 cells/mm3 was 78% (70%-85%), and the OS at 10 years for an AMC of 750 cells/mm(3) or less was 88% (84%-90%; P=.01). In multivariate analysis, both AMC and LMR maintained prognostic significance for PFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.54, P=.006, and HR, 1.50, P=.006) after adjusting for the international prognostic score, whereas the impact on OS was confirmed (HR, 1.56; P=.04) only in patients with NS and an AMC of more than 750 cells/mm(3). Conclusion: This study confirms that AMC has prognostic value in cHL that is particularly significant in patients with NS subtype histology. This finding links the known impact of macrophages and monocytes in Hodgkin lymphoma with routine clinical practice

Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio at diagnosis is an independent prognostic factor in patients with nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma: Results of a large multicenter study involving 990 patients

Several studies have demonstrated the prognostic value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with solid tumors and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In contrast, there is only sparse data on its prognostic role in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). The aim of our study was to establish whether NLR could serve as an independent prognostic factor in a cohort of 990 patients with nodular sclerosis (NS)-cHL. After analysis of the log hazard ratio (HR) as a function of NLR, we chose the value 6 as cutoff. Patients with NLR &gt;6 had a worse progression-free survival and overall survival compared to those with NLR ≤6; 84% vs 75% and 92% vs 88%, at 5 years, with an HR of 1.65 and 1.82, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the risk remained high with HR 1.44 and HR 1.54 in progression-free survival and overall survival, respectively. In summary, our study shows that NLR is a robust and independent prognostic parameter in NS-cHL, both in early and advanced disease. It is inexpensive and simple to apply. Thus, we conclude that NLR, possibly in combination with the international prognostic score and absolute monocyte count, is a useful guide for physicians treating NS-cHL patients

A Genome-Wide Scan of Ashkenazi Jewish Crohn's Disease Suggests Novel Susceptibility Loci

Crohn's disease (CD) is a complex disorder resulting from the interaction of intestinal microbiota with the host immune system in genetically susceptible individuals. The largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association to date identified 71 CD–susceptibility loci in individuals of European ancestry. An important epidemiological feature of CD is that it is 2–4 times more prevalent among individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) descent compared to non-Jewish Europeans (NJ). To explore genetic variation associated with CD in AJs, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) by combining raw genotype data across 10 AJ cohorts consisting of 907 cases and 2,345 controls in the discovery stage, followed up by a replication study in 971 cases and 2,124 controls. We confirmed genome-wide significant associations of 9 known CD loci in AJs and replicated 3 additional loci with strong signal (p<5×10−6). Novel signals detected among AJs were mapped to chromosomes 5q21.1 (rs7705924, combined p = 2×10−8; combined odds ratio OR = 1.48), 2p15 (rs6545946, p = 7×10−9; OR = 1.16), 8q21.11 (rs12677663, p = 2×10−8; OR = 1.15), 10q26.3 (rs10734105, p = 3×10−8; OR = 1.27), and 11q12.1 (rs11229030, p = 8×10−9; OR = 1.15), implicating biologically plausible candidate genes, including RPL7, CPAMD8, PRG2, and PRG3. In all, the 16 replicated and newly discovered loci, in addition to the three coding NOD2 variants, accounted for 11.2% of the total genetic variance for CD risk in the AJ population. This study demonstrates the complementary value of genetic studies in the Ashkenazim

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements