ItaliaNLP @ TAG-IT: UmBERTo for Author Profiling at TAG-it 2020

In this paper we describe the systems we used to participate in the task TAG-it of EVALITA 2020. The first system we developed uses linear Support Vector Machine as learning algorithm. The other two systems are based on the pretrained Italian Language Model UmBERTo: one of them has been developed following the Multi-Task Learning approach, while the other following the Single-Task Learning approach. These systems have been evaluated on TAG-it official test sets and ranked first in all the TAG-it subtasks, demonstrating the validity of the approaches we followed

Living Labs en la región noroeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires

A fines de los años 90 surge el concepto de living labs como una metodología de investigación centrada en el usuario. Este concepto fue adoptado por distintas comunidades científicas las cuales reinventaron el concepto de laboratorio viviente o living lab definido hoy como un ecosistema de innovación abierta basado en la co-creación integrando procesos de investigación e innovación en contextos de la vida real. A diferencia de los típicos de los modelos de innovación denominados de Triple Hélice, las redes de living labs introducen a un nuevo actor, los ciudadanos y forman una Cuarta Hélice. Al ser esta una propuesta de innovación e investigación relativamente nueva se pretende con la presente línea determinar el estado del arte focalizando en la estructura adoptada por los laboratorios vivientes, metodologías empleadas, formas de gestión y operación para converger en el proceso asociado. Todo esto nos permitirá luego desarrollar o adaptar un modelo de referencia para la instalación y desarrollo de un laboratorio viviente, el cual se pretende validar en la región del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.Eje: Innovación en Sistemas de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Living Labs en la región noroeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires

A fines de los años 90 surge el concepto de living labs como una metodología de investigación centrada en el usuario. Este concepto fue adoptado por distintas comunidades científicas las cuales reinventaron el concepto de laboratorio viviente o living lab definido hoy como un ecosistema de innovación abierta basado en la co-creación integrando procesos de investigación e innovación en contextos de la vida real. A diferencia de los típicos de los modelos de innovación denominados de Triple Hélice, las redes de living labs introducen a un nuevo actor, los ciudadanos y forman una Cuarta Hélice. Al ser esta una propuesta de innovación e investigación relativamente nueva se pretende con la presente línea determinar el estado del arte focalizando en la estructura adoptada por los laboratorios vivientes, metodologías empleadas, formas de gestión y operación para converger en el proceso asociado. Todo esto nos permitirá luego desarrollar o adaptar un modelo de referencia para la instalación y desarrollo de un laboratorio viviente, el cual se pretende validar en la región del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.Eje: Innovación en Sistemas de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Living Labs en la región noroeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires

A fines de los años 90 surge el concepto de living labs como una metodología de investigación centrada en el usuario. Este concepto fue adoptado por distintas comunidades científicas las cuales reinventaron el concepto de laboratorio viviente o living lab definido hoy como un ecosistema de innovación abierta basado en la co-creación integrando procesos de investigación e innovación en contextos de la vida real. A diferencia de los típicos de los modelos de innovación denominados de Triple Hélice, las redes de living labs introducen a un nuevo actor, los ciudadanos y forman una Cuarta Hélice. Al ser esta una propuesta de innovación e investigación relativamente nueva se pretende con la presente línea determinar el estado del arte focalizando en la estructura adoptada por los laboratorios vivientes, metodologías empleadas, formas de gestión y operación para converger en el proceso asociado. Todo esto nos permitirá luego desarrollar o adaptar un modelo de referencia para la instalación y desarrollo de un laboratorio viviente, el cual se pretende validar en la región del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.Eje: Innovación en Sistemas de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Informática y tecnologías emergentes

Las tecnologías emergentes son innovaciones en desarrollo que como su nombre lo dice en un futuro cambiarán la forma de vivir del ser humano brindándole mayor facilidad a la hora de realizar sus actividades. Estas tecnologías innegablemente están modelando nuestra sociedad, nuestras costumbres, la forma de relacionarnos y comunicarnos, la forma en la que las empresas producen, la forma en la que se educa. Hemos pasado de un modelo de sociedad industrial a un modelo de producción del conocimiento donde las demandas de las tanto de las empresas como de la sociedad, han cambiado. Incluso el modo de interactuar con esta tecnología está cambiando. Hoy en día esa interacción es mucho más dinámica dando al usuario un rol activo, convirtiendo al mismo usuario en parte de la tecnología. El proyecto descripto en este documento tiene como propósito identificar, contextualizar, evaluar, desarrollar y aplicar diversas herramientas informáticas en tecnologías emergentes, las cuales tendrán un impacto en forma directa en áreas tales como: telecomunicaciones, salud, seguridad, gobierno, educación, industria, entre otras. El trabajo se cimentará en cuatro ejes fundamentales: tecnologías exponenciales (IT), tratamiento masivo de datos (big data), tecnología en educación (e-tecnología), y robótica e interacción hombre-máquina (HCI).Eje: Innovación en Sistemas de Software.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe

Baseline BMI and BMI variation during first line pembrolizumab in NSCLC patients with a PD-L1 expression >= 50%: a multicenter study with external validation

Background The association between obesity and outcomes in patients receiving programmed death-1/ programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitors has already been confirmed in pre-treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, regardless of PD-L1 tumor expression. Methods We present the outcomes analysis according to baseline body mass index (BMI) and BMI variation in a large cohort of metastatic NSCLC patients with a PD-L1 expression ≥50%, receiving first line pembrolizumab. We also evaluated a control cohort of metastatic NSCLC patients treated with first line platinum-based chemotherapy. Normal weight was set as control group. Results 962 patients and 426 patients were included in the pembrolizumab and chemotherapy cohorts, respectively. Obese patients had a significantly higher objective response rate (ORR) (OR=1.61 (95% CI: 1.04– 2.50)) in the pembrolizumab cohort, while overweight patients had a significantly lower ORR (OR=0.59 (95% CI: 0.37–0.92)) within the chemotherapy cohort. Obese patients had a significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) (HR=0.61 (95% CI: 0.45–0.82)) in the pembrolizumab cohort. Conversely, they had a significantly shorter PFS in the chemotherapy cohort (HR=1.27 (95% CI: 1.01–1.60)). Obese patients had a significantly longer overall survival (OS) within the pembrolizumab cohort (HR=0.70 (95% CI: 0.49–0.99)), while no significant differences according to baseline BMI were found in the chemotherapy cohort. BMI variation significantly affected ORR, PFS and OS in both the pembrolizumab and the chemotherapy cohorts. Conclusions Baseline obesity is associated to significantly improved ORR, PFS and OS in metastatic NSCLC patients with a PD-L1 expression of ≥50%, receiving first line pembrolizumab, but not among patients treated with chemotherapy. BMI variation is also significantly related to clinical outcomes

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P &lt; 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men