Measuring the Correctness of Double-Keying: Error Classification and Quality Control in a Large Corpus of TEI-Annotated Historical Text

Among mass digitization methods, double-keying is considered to be the one with the lowest error rate. This method requires two independent transcriptions of a text by two different operators. It is particularly well suited to historical texts, which often exhibit deficiencies like poor master copies or other difficulties such as spelling variation or complex text structures. Providers of data entry services using the double-keying method generally advertise very high accuracy rates (around 99.95% to 99.98%). These advertised percentages are generally estimated on the basis of small samples, and little if anything is said about either the actual amount of text or the text genres which have been proofread, about error types, proofreaders, etc. In order to obtain significant data on this problem it is necessary to analyze a large amount of text representing a balanced sample of different text types, to distinguish the structural XML/TEI level from the typographical level, and to differentiate between various types of errors which may originate from different sources and may not be equally severe. This paper presents an extensive and complex approach to the analysis and correction of double-keying errors which has been applied by the DFG-funded project "Deutsches Textarchiv" (German Text Archive, hereafter DTA) in order to evaluate and preferably to increase the transcription and annotation accuracy of double-keyed DTA texts. Statistical analyses of the results gained from proofreading a large quantity of text are presented, which verify the common accuracy rates for the double-keying method

Malignant Vascular Tumors of the Head and Neck—Which Type of Therapy Works Best?

Malignant vascular tumors of the head and neck are rare neoplasms with variable clinical presentation, wide age distribution, and variable clinical courses. The heterogeneous presentation of angiosarcomas and epithelioid hemangioendothelioma often leads to misdiagnosis and unsuitable treatment. While risk factors for angiosarcomas are previous radiation, chronic lymphedema, and exposure to arsenic, thorium oxide, or vinyl chloride, there are only limited and retrospective data available on prognostic factors in EHE. In both angiosarcomas and EHE, surgery is the mainstay of treatment. There is limited evidence regarding the role of radiotherapy in EHE, although EHE is considered relatively radiosensitive. In angiosarcomas, adjuvant radiotherapy is recommended according to retrospective case series. A standard medical therapy for metastasized malignant vascular tumors is lacking. Chemotherapy, which is effective in angiosarcoma, is mostly ineffective in EHE. Targeted therapy, antiangiogenetic drugs and immunotherapy have been studied as new treatment options. The goal of this review is to summarize the current data regarding malignant vascular tumors along with their diagnosis and management

Perspectives of Induction With Chemo and/or Immune Check Point Inhibition in Head and Neck Organ Preservation Treatment

Induction chemotherapy (ICT) is an attractive option for advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients which has been prospectively evaluated in the context of a multimodality treatment approach. The theoretical benefit is the ability to suppress distant metastases and shrink the tumor while chemotherapy is better tolerated when given sequentially than concurrently. However, clinical trials have failed to show consistent benefit of ICT over concurrent radio-chemotherapy and due to so far lacking level 1 evidence ICT outside larynx organ preservation remains rather investigational. Immune modulation by inhibition of immune checkpoints is an exciting recent development in HNSCC which has mainly been investigated as second line treatment after progression on platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. Due to the promising results in these trials and even more in the first-line trial KEYNOTE-048 and encouraging first preliminary results of preoperative Anti-PD1-application, the role of neoadjuvant immunotherapy is currently under investigation in HNSCC

The DTA “Base Format”: A TEI Subset for the Compilation of a Large Reference Corpus of Printed Text from Multiple Sources

In this article we describe the DTA “Base Format” (DTABf), a strict subset of the TEI P5 tag set. The purpose of the DTABf is to provide a balance between expressiveness and precision as well as an interoperable annotation scheme for a large variety of text types of historical corpora of printed text from multiple sources. The DTABf has been developed on the basis of a large amount of historical text data in the core corpus of the project Deutsches Textarchiv (DTA) and text collections from 15 cooperating projects with a current total of 210 million tokens. The DTABf is a “living” TEI format which is continuously adjusted when new text candidates for the DTA containing new structural phenomena are encountered. We also focus on other aspects of the DTABf including consistency, interoperability with other TEI dialects, HTML and other presentations of the TEI texts, and conversion into other formats, as well as linguistic analysis. We include some examples of best practices to illustrate how external corpora can be losslessly converted into the DTABf, thus enabling third parties to use the DTABf in their specific projects. The DTABf is comprehensively documented, and several software tools are available for working with it, making it a widely used format for the encoding of historical printed German text

Choosing the Right Treatment Option for the Right R/M HNSCC Patient: Should We Adhere to PFE for First-Line Therapy?

Background: The landmark EXTREME trial established cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil and cetuximab (PFE) as first-line chemotherapy (1L-ChT) for recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). We were interested in outcome differences of R/M HNSCC in 1L-ChT and factors influencing outcome in certain subgroups, especially patients receiving PFE, and the value of PFE compared to other 1L-ChT regimens to provide real world evidence (RWE). Methods: For this retrospective monocentric study, 124 R/M HNSCC patients without curative surgical or radiotherapy options receiving at least one cycle of 1L-ChT were eligible. We analyzed their outcome using Kaplan-Meier plot and Cox regression to identify predictors for prolonged survival. Results: Subgroups benefiting significantly from PFE were patients suffering from an index HNSCC outside the oropharynx. The PFE regimen proved to be superior to all other 1L-ChT regimens in clinical routine. Significant outcome differences between PFE treatment within or outside controlled trials were not seen. Conclusion: This retrospective analysis provides RWE for factors linked to improved outcome. Subgroup analyses highlight the lasting value of PFE among the growing spectrum of 1L-ChT. Importantly, fit smokers with high level alcohol consumption benefit from PFE; considering the patient’s lifestyle factors, PFE should not be ignored in decision-making

Course of Self-Reported Dysphagia, Voice Impairment and Pain in Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC)-specific symptoms have a substantial impact on health-related quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine whether self-reported dysphagia, voice problems and pain of HNC patients changed over time and whether specific clinical or sociodemographic variables were associated with these symptoms. Methods: HNC patients (n = 299) in an outpatient setting answered questionnaires (Eating Assessment Tool-10; questions from the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC H&N35) on dysphagia, voice problems and pain, collected with the software “OncoFunction” at three different timepoints (t1–t3) after diagnosis. The mean score changes from t1 to t3 were expressed in terms of effect sizes d. The impact of sociodemographic and clinical factors on the course of the variables was tested with multivariate analyses of variance. Results: Dysphagia, voice impairment and pain in HNC survivors significantly improved over a period of approximately 14 months after diagnosis. Tumor site, stage, treatment modality, occupational state and ECOG state were significantly correlated with self-reported functional outcome. The pain level of the HNC patients was rather low. Conclusions: Patients suffer from functional impairments after HNC treatment, but an improvement in self-reported symptoms could be demonstrated within this time period

Quantifying proton NMR coherent linewidth in proteins under fast MAS conditions: a second moment approach

International audienceProton detected solid-state NMR under fast magic-angle-spinning (MAS) conditions is currently redefining the applications of solid-state NMR, in particular in structural biology. Understanding the contributions to the spectral linewidth is thereby of paramount importance. When disregarding the sample-dependent inhomogeneous contributions, the NMR proton linewidth is defined by homogeneous broadening, which has incoherent and coherent contributions. Understanding and disentangling these different contributions in multi-spin systems like proteins is still an open issue. The coherent contribution is mainly caused by the dipolar interaction under MAS and is determined by the molecular structure and the proton chemical shifts. Numerical simulation approaches based on numerically exact direct integration of the Liouville-von Neumann equation can give valuable information about the lineshape, but are limited to small spin systems (o12 spins). We present an alternative simulation method for the coherent contributions based on the rapid and partially analytic calculation of the second moments of large spin systems. We first validate the method on a simple system by predicting the 19 F linewidth in CaF 2 under MAS. We compare simulation results to experimental data for microcrystalline ubiquitin (deuterated 100% back-exchanged at 110 kHz and fully-protonated at 125 kHz). Our results quantitatively explain the observed linewidth per-residue basis for the vast majority of residues

Exploratory study of functional and psychological factors associated with employment status in patients with head and neck cancer

Background Compared with other malignancies, head and neck cancer (HNC) increases the risk of not returning to work (RTW). Methods Within a cross-sectional study, patients with HNC filled out the OncoFunction questionnaire, a version of the International Classification of Functioning Core Sets for HNC. In 231 patients below 65 years of age, associations of sociodemographic, clinical, functional, and psychological factors with employment and participation in rehabilitation program were explored. Results Unemployed patients reported more swallowing difficulties and speaking problems. Being unemployed was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, fatigue, and lower global health. Rehabilitation participation was not significantly associated with any of the assessed factors except for smoking. Conclusions Unemployed patients with HNC are more burdened than employed patients with HNC regarding clinical, psychological, and functional factors. These differences are more evident later in recovery. Rehabilitation participation was not associated with psychological and functional burden which indicates the need for tailored HNC rehabilitation programs