Evaluating the pronunciation of proper names by four French grapheme-to-phoneme converters

International Speech Communication Association (Isca) - International Astronautical Federation.ISBN : 13 9781604234480.This article reports on the results of a cooperative evaluation of grapheme-to-phoneme (GP) conversion for proper names in French. This work was carried out within the framework of a general evaluation campaign of various speech and language processing devices, including text-to-speech synthesis. The corpus and the methodology are described. The results of 4 systems are analysed: with 12-20% word error rates on a list of 8,000 proper names, they give a fairly accurate picture of the progress achieved, the state-of-the-art and the problems still to be solved, in the domain of GP conversion in French. In addition, the resources and collected data will be made available to the scientific and industrial community, in order to be re-used in future bench-marks

Perforated Meckel's diverticulitis complicating active Crohn's ileitis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>In Crohn's disease, the extension of active terminal ileitis into a Meckel's diverticulum is possible, but usually has no impact on clinical decision-making. We describe an original surgical approach in a young woman presenting with a combination of perforated Meckel's diverticulitis and active Crohn's ileitis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 22-year-old woman with Crohn's disease, who was admitted for abdominal pain, fever and diarrhoea. CT scan demonstrated active inflammation of the terminal ileum, as well as a fluid collection in the right iliac fossa, suggesting intestinal perforation. Laparoscopy was performed and revealed, in addition to extensive ileitis, a 3 × 3 cm abscess in connection with perforated Meckel's diverticulitis. It was therefore possible to avoid ileocaecal resection by only performing Meckel's diverticulectomy; pathological examination of the surgical specimen revealed the presence of transmural inflammation with granulomas and perforation of the diverticulum at its extremity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Crohn's disease of the ileum may be responsible for Meckel's diverticulitis and cause perforation which, in this case, proved to be a blessing in disguise and spared the patient an extensive small bowel resection.</p

Clinical Outcome in Acute Small Bowel Obstruction after Surgical or Conservative Management

Background: Small bowel obstruction (SBO) is characterized by a high rate of recurrence. In the present study, we aimed to compare the outcomes of patients managed either by conservative treatment or surgical operation for an episode of SBO. Methods: The outcomes of all patients hospitalized at a single center for acute SBO between 2004 and 2007 were assessed. The occurrence of recurrent hospitalization, surgery, SBO symptoms at home, and mortality was determined. Results: Among 221 patients admitted with SBO, 136 underwent a surgical procedure (surgical group) and 85 were managed conservatively (conservative group). Baseline characteristics were similar between treatment groups. The median follow-up time (interquartile range) was 4.7 (3.7-5.8) years. Nineteen patients (14.0%) of the surgical group were hospitalized for recurrent SBO versus 25 (29.4%) of the conservative group [hazard ratio (HR), 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9]. The need for a surgical management of a new SBO episode was similar between the two groups, ten patients (7.4%) in the surgical group and six patients (7.1%) in the conservative group (HR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.4-3.1). Five-year mortality from the date of hospital discharge was not significantly different between the two groups (age- and sex-adjusted HR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.6-2.1). A follow-up evaluation was obtained for 130 patients. Among them, 24 patients (34.8%) of the surgical group and 35 patients (57.4%) of the conservative group had recurrent SBO symptoms (odds ratio, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.8). Conclusions: The recurrence of SBO symptoms and new hospitalizations were significantly lower after surgical management of SBO compared with conservative treatment

Pre-retrieval reperfusion decreases cancer recurrence after rat ischemic liver graft transplantation

Background & Aims Liver transplantation from marginal donors is associated with ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) lesions, which may increase the risk of post-transplant hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence. Graft reperfusion prior to retrieval (as for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – ECMO) can prevent I/R lesions. The impact of I/R on the risk of cancer recurrence was assessed on a syngeneic Fischer-rat liver transplantation model. Methods HCC cells were injected into the vena porta of all recipients at the end of an orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Control donors were standard heart-beating, ischemic ones (ISC), underwent 10min or 30min inflow liver clamping prior to retrieval, and ischemic/reperfused (ISC/R) donors underwent 2h liver reperfusion after the clamping. Results I/R lesions were confirmed in the ISC group, with the presence of endothelial and hepatocyte injury, and increased liver function tests. These lesions were in part reversed by the 2h reperfusion in the ISC/R group. HCC growth was higher in the 10min and 30min ISC recipients ( p =0.018 and 0.004 vs. control, as assessed by MRI difference between weeks one and two), and was prevented in the ISC/Rs ( p =0.04 and 0.01 vs. ISC). These observations were associated with a stronger pro-inflammatory cytokine profile in the ISC recipients only, and the expression of hypoxia and HCC growth-enhancer genes, including Hmox1 , Hif1a and Serpine1 . Conclusions This experiment suggests that ischemia/reperfusion lesions lead to an increased risk of post-transplant HCC recurrence and growth. This observation can be reversed by graft reperfusion prior to retrieval

Guide to Interpreting the Spring 2008 MCAS Reports for Schools and Districts

The role of intraoperative cholangiogram (IOC) during cholecystectomy is debated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility, benefit and risk of performing systematic IOC in patients undergoing cholecystectomy for acute gallstone-related disease

Analyse de comportements relatifs exceptionnels expliquée par des textes : les votes du parlement européen

National audienceL'algorithme de fouille DEBuNk permet d'identifier des groupes et des contextes montrant un comportement relatif exceptionnellement différent par rapport à celui généralement observé pour ces mêmes groupes. Pour rendre la compréhension et l'interprétation des résultats plus aisées, l'interface graphique inclut un module de génération de texte qui transcrit les motifs trouvés en langage naturel. Nous illustrons notre approche avec la plateforme web ANCORE, sur les données de vote du parlement européen durant les deux derniers mandats

VLTI status update: a decade of operations and beyond

We present the latest update of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope interferometer (VLTI). The operations of VLTI have greatly improved in the past years: reduction of the execution time; better offering of telescopes configurations; improvements on AMBER limiting magnitudes; study of polarization effects and control for single mode fibres; fringe tracking real time data, etc. We present some of these improvements and also quantify the operational improvements using a performance metric. We take the opportunity of the first decade of operations to reflect on the VLTI community which is analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Finally, we present briefly the preparatory work for the arrival of the second generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE, 9146-1

A 2.3-Day Periodic Variability in the Apparently Single Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134: Collapsed Companion or Rotational Modulation?

We present the results of an intensive campaign of spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the peculiar Wolf-Rayet star WR 134 from 1989 to 1997. This unprecedentedly large data set allows us to confirm unambiguously the existence of a coherent 2.25 +/- 0.05 day periodicity in the line-profile changes of He II 4686, although the global pattern of variability is different from one epoch to another. This period is only marginally detected in the photometric data set. Assuming the 2.25 day periodic variability to be induced by orbital motion of a collapsed companion, we develop a simple model aiming at investigating (i) the effect of this strongly ionizing, accreting companion on the Wolf-Rayet wind structure, and (ii) the expected emergent X-ray luminosity. We argue that the predicted and observed X-ray fluxes can only be matched if the accretion on the collapsed star is significantly inhibited. Additionally, we performed simulations of line-profile variations caused by the orbital revolution of a localized, strongly ionized wind cavity surrounding the X-ray source. A reasonable fit is achieved between the observed and modeled phase-dependent line profiles of He II 4686. However, the derived size of the photoionized zone substantially exceeds our expectations, given the observed low-level X-ray flux. Alternatively, we explore rotational modulation of a persistent, largely anisotropic outflow as the origin of the observed cyclical variability. Although qualitative, this hypothesis leads to greater consistency with the observations.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journa

The EHA Research Roadmap : Malignant Lymphoid Diseases

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