DasFormer: Deep Alternating Spectrogram Transformer for Multi/Single-Channel Speech Separation

For the task of speech separation, previous study usually treats multi-channel and single-channel scenarios as two research tracks with specialized solutions developed respectively. Instead, we propose a simple and unified architecture - DasFormer (Deep alternating spectrogram transFormer) to handle both of them in the challenging reverberant environments. Unlike frame-wise sequence modeling, each TF-bin in the spectrogram is assigned with an embedding encoding spectral and spatial information. With such input, DasFormer is then formed by multiple repetition of simple blocks each of which integrates 1) two multi-head self-attention (MHSA) modules alternately processing within each frequency bin & temporal frame of the spectrogram 2) MBConv before each MHSA for modeling local features on the spectrogram. Experiments show that DasFormer has a powerful ability to model the time-frequency representation, whose performance far exceeds the current SOTA models in multi-channel speech separation, and also achieves single-channel SOTA in the more challenging yet realistic reverberation scenario.Comment: 5 pages, accepted by ICASSP202

Natural Inflation, Planck Scale Physics and Oscillating Primordial Spectrum

In the ``natural inflation'' model, the inflaton potential is periodic. We show that Planck scale physics may induce corrections to the inflaton potential, which is also periodic with a greater frequency. Such high frequency corrections produce oscillating features in the primordial fluctuation power spectrum, which are not entirely excluded by the current observations and may be detectable in high precision data of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and large scale structure (LSS) observations.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. To appear in Int J Mod. Phys.

Assessing the Effects of the Uncertainty in Reheating Energy Scale on Primordial Spectrum and CMB

The details of reheating energy scale $\rho_{reh}$ is largely uncertain today, independent of inflation models. This would induce uncertainty in predicting primordial spectrum. Such uncertainty could be very large, especially for spectra with large running $n_S$. We find that for some inflation models with a large $d\ln n_S(k)/d\ln k$, $\rho_{reh}$ could be highly restricted by current CMB observations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Predicting 1-, 3-, 5-, and 8-year all-cause mortality in a community-dwelling older adult cohort: relevance for predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine

Background: Population aging is a global public health issue involving increased prevalence of age-related diseases, and concomitant burden on medical resources and the economy. Ninety-two diseases have been identified as age-related, accounting for 51.3% of the global adult disease burden. The economic cost per capita for older people over 60 years is 10 times that of the younger population. From the aspects of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (PPPM), developing a risk-prediction model can help identify individuals at high risk for all-cause mortality and provide an opportunity for targeted prevention through personalized intervention at an early stage. However, there is still a lack of predictive models to help community-dwelling older adults do well in healthcare. Objectives: This study aims to develop an accurate 1-, 3-, 5-, and 8-year all-cause mortality risk-prediction model by using clinical multidimensional variables, and investigate risk factors for 1-, 3-, 5-, and 8-year all-cause mortality in community-dwelling older adults to guide primary prevention. Methods: This is a two-center cohort study. Inclusion criteria: (1) community-dwelling adult, (2) resided in the districts of Chaonan or Haojiang for more than 6 months in the past 12 months, and (3) completed a health examination. Exclusion criteria: (1) age less than 60 years, (2) more than 30 incomplete variables, (3) no signed informed consent. The primary outcome of the study was all-cause mortality obtained from face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and the medical death database from 2012 to 2021. Finally, we enrolled 5085 community-dwelling adults, 60 years and older, who underwent routine health screening in the Chaonan and Haojiang districts, southern China, from 2012 to 2021. Of them, 3091 participants from Chaonan were recruited as the primary training and internal validation study cohort, while 1994 participants from Haojiang were recruited as the external validation cohort. A total of 95 clinical multidimensional variables, including demographics, lifestyle behaviors, symptoms, medical history, family history, physical examination, laboratory tests, and electrocardiogram (ECG) data were collected to identify candidate risk factors and characteristics. Risk factors were identified using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) models and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. A nomogram predictive model for 1-, 3-, 5- and 8-year all-cause mortality was constructed. The accuracy and calibration of the nomogram prediction model were assessed using the concordance index (C-index), integrated Brier score (IBS), receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and calibration curves. The clinical validity of the model was assessed using decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: Nine independent risk factors for 1-, 3-, 5-, and 8-year all-cause mortality were identified, including increased age, male, alcohol status, higher daily liquor consumption, history of cancer, elevated fasting glucose, lower hemoglobin, higher heart rate, and the occurrence of heart block. The acquisition of risk factor criteria is low cost, easily obtained, convenient for clinical application, and provides new insights and targets for the development of personalized prevention and interventions for high-risk individuals. The areas under the curve (AUC) of the nomogram model were 0.767, 0.776, and 0.806, and the C-indexes were 0.765, 0.775, and 0.797, in the training, internal validation, and external validation sets, respectively. The IBS was less than 0.25, which indicates good calibration. Calibration and decision curves showed that the predicted probabilities were in good agreement with the actual probabilities and had good clinical predictive value for PPPM. Conclusion: The personalized risk prediction model can identify individuals at high risk of all-cause mortality, help offer primary care to prevent all-cause mortality, and provide personalized medical treatment for these high-risk individuals from the PPPM perspective. Strict control of daily liquor consumption, lowering fasting glucose, raising hemoglobin, controlling heart rate, and treatment of heart block could be beneficial for improving survival in elderly populations