Independent Component Analysis and Time-Frequency Masking for Speech Recognition in Multitalker Conditions

When a number of speakers are simultaneously active, for example in meetings or noisy public places, the sources of interest need to be separated from interfering speakers and from each other in order to be robustly recognized. Independent component analysis (ICA) has proven a valuable tool for this purpose. However, ICA outputs can still contain strong residual components of the interfering speakers whenever noise or reverberation is high. In such cases, nonlinear postprocessing can be applied to the ICA outputs, for the purpose of reducing remaining interferences. In order to improve robustness to the artefacts and loss of information caused by this process, recognition can be greatly enhanced by considering the processed speech feature vector as a random variable with time-varying uncertainty, rather than as deterministic. The aim of this paper is to show the potential to improve recognition of multiple overlapping speech signals through nonlinear postprocessing together with uncertainty-based decoding techniques

Slide, Constrain, Parse, Repeat: Synchronous SlidingWindows for Document AMR Parsing

The sliding window approach provides an elegant way to handle contexts of sizes larger than the Transformer's input window, for tasks like language modeling. Here we extend this approach to the sequence-to-sequence task of document parsing. For this, we exploit recent progress in transition-based parsing to implement a parser with synchronous sliding windows over source and target. We develop an oracle and a parser for document-level AMR by expanding on Structured-BART such that it leverages source-target alignments and constrains decoding to guarantee synchronicity and consistency across overlapping windows. We evaluate our oracle and parser using the Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) parsing 3.0 corpus. On the Multi-Sentence development set of AMR 3.0, we show that our transition oracle loses only 8\% of the gold cross-sentential links despite using a sliding window. In practice, this approach also results in a high-quality document-level parser with manageable memory requirements. Our proposed system performs on par with the state-of-the-art pipeline approach for document-level AMR parsing task on Multi-Sentence AMR 3.0 corpus while maintaining sentence-level parsing performance

Bootstrapping Multilingual AMR with Contextual Word Alignments

We develop high performance multilingualAbstract Meaning Representation (AMR) sys-tems by projecting English AMR annotationsto other languages with weak supervision. Weachieve this goal by bootstrapping transformer-based multilingual word embeddings, in partic-ular those from cross-lingual RoBERTa (XLM-R large). We develop a novel technique forforeign-text-to-English AMR alignment, usingthe contextual word alignment between En-glish and foreign language tokens. This wordalignment is weakly supervised and relies onthe contextualized XLM-R word embeddings.We achieve a highly competitive performancethat surpasses the best published results forGerman, Italian, Spanish and Chinese

Manejo Multidisciplinario en gestante de Quintillizos durante tiempos de pandemia en Guayaquil

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pathology that was first identified in Wuhan - China in the month of December 2019, affecting the population worldwide with clinical conditions rangingfrom mild with a common cold to more severe cases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome so late January 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international pandemic and public health emergency as a consequence of the COVID-19 disease. The objective of this study was to describe an obstetric clinical case of quintuple spontaneous pregnancy that occurred during the COVID 19 pandemic in the city of Guayaquil in 2021, its multidisciplinary management and evolution. For the presentation of the clinical case, informed consent was requested from the patient, authorization was obtained from the Department of Teaching and Research of the Alfredo G Paulson Hospital, allowing the review of clinical history and images for publication. We present the case of a 34-year-old female patient with a history of obstetric gynaecology: 3 live children, presented with multiple gestation (quintuplets) conceived spontaneously without any method of assisted reproduction or infertility treatment, an extremely rare case from which 5 live newborns are obtained with a weight of 1400 gr on average, of different sexes. It should be noted that this is the second quintuple pregnancy that occurred in 2021 at the Alfredo G Paulson hospital, The first was seen 4 months earlier in a nulliparous 28-year-old female patient who used ovulation inducers and in which 5 live newborns of different sexes were obtained and are currently in good health. The incidence of quintuples in Ecuador increased in 2021, as a result of assisted reproduction techniques and probably to the drastic and different changes that arose from the presentation of the pandemic by COVID 19.La enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19) es una patología que se identificó por primera vez en Wuhan - China en el mes de diciembre de 2019, afectando la población a nivel mundial con cuadros clínicos variables desde leves con un resfriado común hasta casos más severos como el síndrome respiratorio grave agudo, por lo que, a finales del mes de enero del 2020 la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) declaró una pandemia y emergencia de salud pública internacional como consecuencia de la enfermedad por COVID-19 . El objetivo de este trabajo fue describir un caso clínico obstétrico de embarazo quintuple espontáneo que se presentó durante la pandemia por COVID 19 en la ciudad de Guayaquil en el año 2021, su manejo multidisciplinario y su evolución. Se realiza un reporte de caso observacional, se solicitó el consentimiento informado a la paciente, se obtuvo la autorización del Departamento de docencia e investigación del hospital Alfredo G Paulson, permitiendo la revisión de historia clínica e imágenes para su publicación. Se presenta el caso de un paciente femenino de 34 años de edad con antecedentes gineco obstétricos: 3 hijos vivos, presenta gestación múltiple (quintillizos) concebidos de forma espontánea sinningún método de reproducción asistida ni tratamiento de infertilidad, un caso extremadamente raro del cual se obtienen 5 recién nacidos vivos con un peso de 1400 gr aproximadamente en promedio, de diferentes sexos. Cabe recalcar que este es el segundo embarazo quintuple que se presentó en el año 2021 en el hospital Alfredo G Paulson, el primero fue atendido 4 meses antes en una paciente femenina de 28 años nulípara que utilizó inductores de la ovulación y en cual se obtuvieron 5 recién nacidos vivos de diferentes sexos y actualmente se encuentran con buen estado de salud. La incidencia de quintuples en Ecuador aumentó en el año 2021, como resultado de técnicas de reproducción asistida y probablemente a los drásticos y diferentes cambios que surgieron a partir de la presentación de la pandemia por COVID 19

Cistoadenoma Mucinoso gigante de ovario asociado a adenomucinosis peritoneal diseminada.

Introduction: Mucinous cystadenoma is a multilocular tumor that secretes mucin in the epithelium, is most often formed in the ovary, but can also be located in the pancreas, appendix and very rarely in the urinary bladder or retroperitoneal level. Mucinous neoplasms are mostly benign tumors, however in smaller percentages they may be borderline or potentially malignant. Objectives: This research aims to report a clinical case of giant ovarian mucinous cystoadenoma associated with disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, retrospective study was performed to describe a clinical case of giant ovarian mucinous cystoadenoma associated with disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis. Obtained informed consent from the patient and authorization from the Teaching and Research Department, for the review of clinical records and access to images, for the publication of the present case.Clinical case:A 70-year-old female patient who presented a clinical picture of 1 year of evolution characterized by pelvic pain, progressive increase in the abdominal perimeter and abnormal uterine bleeding. To the physical examination in abdomen: presents a large mass that occupies all quadrants of the abdomen and that causes compression and breathing difficulty. as a surgical finding: giant tumor of ovary was found measuring 32x24 x15 cm, weighing approximately 20,000 grams. According to a pathological report, it was a low-grade mucinous cystoadenoma associated with disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis, which provides a better prognosis. Results: As a benign neoplasm, satisfactory results were obtained. Patient with a good prognosis who is currently in stable clinical conditions, with follow-up at regular checkups. Conclusion: Mucinous cystadenoma is a neoplasm that can originate in the ovary and that can grow much more than other annex masses, Behaving as benign but also recognized as precursors of ovarian cancer and can slowly transform into bordering tumors and evolve into invasive ovarian cancer, so prompt and accurate treatment is vital.Introducción: El Cistoadenoma Mucinoso es un tumor multilocular que secreta mucina en el epitelio, se forma con mayor frecuencia en el ovario, pero también puede localizarse en el páncreas, el apéndice y en muy raras ocasiones en vejiga urinaria o a nivel retroperitoneal. Las neoplasias mucinosas son tumores en su gran mayoría benignos, sin embargo en menor porcentaje pueden ser limítrofes o potencialmente malignos Objetivos: Esta investigación tiene como objetivo reportar un caso clínico de Cistoadenoma Mucinoso gigante de ovario asociado a adenomucinosis peritoneal diseminada. Materiales y Métodos: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo, retrospectivo para descripción de un caso clínico de Cistoadenoma Mucinoso gigante de ovario asociado a adenomucinosis peritoneal diseminada. Se obtuvo consentimiento informado de la paciente y autorización del departamento de Docencia e Investigación, para la revisión de historias clínicas y el acceso a las imágenes, para la publicación del presente caso. Caso clínico: Paciente femenino de 70 años de edad que presentó cuadro clínico de 1 año de evolución caracterizado por dolor pélvico , aumento progresivo del perímetro abdominal y sangrado uterino anormal. Al examen físico en abdomen: presenta una gran masa queocupa todos los cuadrantes del abdomen y que provoca compresión y dificultad respiratoria. como hallazgo quirúrgico: se encontró tumoración gigante de ovario que midió 32 x24 x15 cm, con un peso de 20.000 gramos aproximadamente. Según reporte de anatomía patológica se trató de un cistoadenoma Mucinoso de bajo grado de malignidad, asociado a adenomucinosis peritoneal diseminada, lo que brinda un mejor pronóstico. Resultados: Por tratarse de una neoplasia benigna se obtuvieron resultados satisfactorios. Paciente con pronóstico bueno que actualmente se encuentra en condiciones clínicas estables, con seguimiento en los controles periódicos. Conclusión: El cistoadenoma mucinoso es una neoplasia que puede originarse en el ovario y que puede crecer mucho más que otras masas anexiales, comportándose como benigna pero que también se reconocen como precursores del cáncer de ovario y pueden transformarse lentamente en tumores limítrofes y evolucionar hasta cáncer de ovario invasivo, por lo que, el tratamiento rápido y preciso es vital

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)