Monolingual and bilingual spanish-catalan speech recognizers developed from SpeechDat databases

Under the SpeechDat specifications, the Spanish member of SpeechDat consortium has recorded a Catalan database that includes one thousand speakers. This communication describes some experimental work that has been carried out using both the Spanish and the Catalan speech material. A speech recognition system has been trained for the Spanish language using a selection of the phonetically balanced utterances from the 4500 SpeechDat training sessions. Utterances with mispronounced or incomplete words and with intermittent noise were discarded. A set of 26 allophones was selected to account for the Spanish sounds and clustered demiphones have been used as context dependent sub-lexical units. Following the same methodology, a recognition system was trained from the Catalan SpeechDat database. Catalan sounds were described with 32 allophones. Additionally, a bilingual recognition system was built for both the Spanish and Catalan languages. By means of clustering techniques, the suitable set of allophones to cover simultaneously both languages was determined. Thus, 33 allophones were selected. The training material was built by the whole Catalan training material and the Spanish material coming from the Eastern region of Spain (the region where Catalan is spoken). The performance of the Spanish, Catalan and bilingual systems were assessed under the same framework. The Spanish system exhibits a significantly better performance than the rest of systems due to its better training. The bilingual system provides an equivalent performance to that afforded by both language specific systems trained with the Eastern Spanish material or the Catalan SpeechDat corpus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Wavelet transforms for non-uniform speech recognition

An algorithm for nonuniform speech segmentation and its application in speech recognition systems is presented. A method based on the Modulated Gaussian Wavelet Transform based Speech Analyser (MGWTSA) and the subsequent parametrization block is used to transform a uniform signal into a set of nonuniformly separated frames, with the accurate information being fed into a speech recognition system. The algorithm needs a frame characterizing the signal where necessary, trying to reduce the number of frames per signal as much as possible, without an appreciable reduction in the recognition rate of the system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Lack of efficacy of standard doses of ivermectin in severe COVID-19 patients

Ivermectin has recently shown efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in-vitro. We retrospectively reviewed severe COVID-19 patients receiving standard doses of ivermectin and we compared clinical and microbiological outcomes with a similar group of patients not receiving ivermectin. No differences were found between groups. We recommend the evaluation of high-doses of ivermectin in randomized trials against SARS-CoV-2

Re-Os and U-Pb Geochronology of the Doña Amanda and Cerro Kiosko Deposits, Bayaguana District, Dominican Republic: Looking Down for the Porphyry Cu-Mo Roots of the Pueblo Viejo-Type Mineralization in the Island-Arc Tholeiitic Series of the Caribbean

Hosted in the Early Cretaceous bimodal tholeiite volcanic series of the Los Ranchos Formation, the Doña Amanda and Cerro Kiosko deposits in the Bayaguana district represent significant Au, Cu, and Ag resources in the Cordillera Oriental of the Dominican Republic. At Doña Amanda, a dense stockwork of quartz-sulfide veins is hosted by volcanic rocks with intense transitional phyllic-advanced argillic and silicic hydrothermal alteration assemblages, indicating a high-sulfidation environment. Wavy quartz veins with central sutures and rims of pyrite + enargite + molybdenite + fahlore (B veins) are cut by planar quartz-pyrite D veins. Primary fluid inclusions in quartz from B veins (Th: 160°->400°C; salinity: 7.9-16.4 wt % NaCl equiv) are interpreted as porphyry-type fluids. Inclusion fluids in quartz of quartz-pyrite veins (Th: 125°-175°C; salinity: 4.8-12.2 wt % NaCl equiv), quartz from silicic altered wall rocks (Th: 150°-175°C; salinity: 8.3-13.9 wt % NaCl equiv), and late, distal calcite veins (Th: 120°-160°C; salinity: 5.0-13.3 wt % NaCl equiv) indicate limited mixing with more dilute fluids and rule out mixing with fresh meteoric water. In Cerro Kiosko, a swarm of fault-controlled massive chalcopyrite + enargite + bornite + fahlore D veins and lodes are hosted by rocks with pervasive kaolinite alteration after sericite. δ34S values of vein sulfides from both deposits are all close to −2¿ and consistent with a predominance of magmatic sulfur and sulfide deposition from an oxidizing magmatic fluid. These data are consistent with a transitional environment between a deeper porphyry Cu(-Mo) and an overlying high-sulfidation epithermal deposit. An Re-Os age (112.6 ± 0.4 Ma) for molybdenite from the Doña Amanda deposit places the porphyry-epithermal mineralization as Early Cretaceous, coeval with the Los Ranchos Formation host rocks and with the Pueblo Viejo deposit. New sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U-Pb ages on zircons from plagioclase-phyric rhyolite domes in the Bayaguana district are consistent with porphyry-high-sulfidation epithermal mineralization occurring along the Los Ranchos Formation during tonalite batholith emplacement in the basaltic island-arc basement at ca. 118 to 112 Ma and finalization of felsic volcanism at ca. 110 to 107 Ma

Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial: Treatment of early intrauterine growth restriction with low molecular weight heparin (TRACIP)

Introduction The incidence of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is estimated at about 3% of pregnancies, and it is associated with 30% of all perinatal mortality and severe morbidity with adverse neurodevelopmental and cardiovascular health consequences in adult life. Early onset IUGR represents 20%-30% of all cases and is highly associated with severe placental insufficiency. The existing evidence suggests that low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) has effects beyond its antithrombotic action, improving placental microvessel structure and function of pregnant women with vascular obstetric complications by normalising proangiogenic and antiapoptotic protein levels, cytokines and inflammatory factors. The objective of our study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of LMWH in prolonging gestation in pregnancies with early-onset IUGR. Methods and analysis This is a multicentre, triple-blind, parallel-arm randomised clinical trial. Singleton pregnancies qualifying for early (20-32 weeks at diagnosis) placental IUGR (according to Delphi criteria) will be randomised to subcutaneous treatment with bemiparin 3500 IU/0.2 mL/day or placebo from inclusion at diagnosis to the time of delivery. Analyses will be based on originally assigned groups (intention-to-treat). The primary objective will be analysed by comparing gestational age and prolongation of pregnancy (days) in each group with Student''s t-tests for independent samples and by comparing Kaplan-Maier survival curves (from inclusion to delivery, log-rank test). A linear regression model for gestational age at birth will consider the following covariates: Gestational age at inclusion (continuous) and pre-eclampsia (binary). Ethics and dissemination The study will be conducted in accordance with the principles of Good Clinical Practice. This study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee (CEIC) of Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, on 13 July 2017. The trial is registered in the public registry www.clinicaltrial.gov. according to Science Law 14/2011, and the results will be published in an open access journal

Galectin-3 shapes toxic alpha-synuclein strains in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative and progressive disorder characterised by intracytoplasmic inclusions called Lewy bodies (LB) and degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Aggregated α-synuclein (αSYN) is known to be the main component of the LB. It has also been reported to interact with several proteins and organelles. Galectin-3 (GAL3) is known to have a detrimental function in neurodegenerative diseases. It is a galactose-binding protein without known catalytic activity and is expressed mainly by activated microglial cells in the central nervous system (CNS). GAL3 has been previously found in the outer layer of the LB in post-mortem brains. However, the role of GAL3 in PD is yet to be elucidated. In post-mortem samples, we identified an association between GAL3 and LB in all the PD subjects studied. GAL3 was linked to less αSYN in the LB outer layer and other αSYN deposits, including pale bodies. GAL3 was also associated with disrupted lysosomes. In vitro studies demonstrate that exogenous recombinant Gal3 is internalised by neuronal cell lines and primary neurons where it interacts with endogenous αSyn fibrils. In addition, aggregation experiments show that Gal3 affects spatial propagation and the stability of pre-formed αSyn fibrils resulting in short, amorphous toxic strains. To further investigate these observations in vivo, we take advantage of WT and Gal3KO mice subjected to intranigral injection of adenovirus overexpressing human αSyn as a PD model. In line with our in vitro studies, under these conditions, genetic deletion of GAL3 leads to increased intracellular αSyn accumulation within dopaminergic neurons and remarkably preserved dopaminergic integrity and motor function. Overall, our data suggest a prominent role for GAL3 in the aggregation process of αSYN and LB formation, leading to the production of short species to the detriment of larger strains which triggers neuronal degeneration in a mouse model of PD

Mirroring the Zika epidemics in Cuba: The view from a European imported diseases clinic

Dear Editor, the changing epidemiology of Zika virus infection has been described before and in this letter we would like to show how the local epidemiology of Zika in Cuba is reflected in imported cases in returning travellers to Barcelona. The spread of the 2015 Zika epidemic was mostly reported in South America and the Caribbean. While increasing numbers of cases raised in South-America, Cuba was still free of cases. On 2nd March 2016 the first imported case from Cuba (Artemisa province) was reported. The first autochthonous case was reported on 16th March 2016 in La Habana. Onwards, cases were reported in Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, Havana and Santiago. During 2017 transmission has been reported in municipalities of Arroyo Naranjo and Regla in the province of Havana

Infectiousness of patients with smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis, assessed by Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Xpert®MTB/RIF

Currently, pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) isolation recommendations are based on serial sputum smear microscopy. To assess infectiousness of smear-negative/GeneXpert-positive (Sm-/GXpert+) pulmonary TB, we evaluated 511 contacts of pulmonary TB patients attended at a teaching hospital in Spain (2010-2018). There were no statistically significant differences in rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (46.2% contacts of smear-positive and 34.6% contacts of Sm-/GXpert+ pulmonary TB patients, p=0.112). Sm-/GXpert+ pulmonary TB poses a substantial risk of transmission of M. tuberculosis infection. Our results add evidence to support including Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (Xpert®MTB/RIF) in the work-up diagnosis of suspected pulmonary TB cases to make decisions on air-borne isolation