Comparison of Tied-Mixture and State-Clustered HMMs with Respect to Recognition Performance and Training Method

Tied-mixture HMMs have been proposed as the acoustic model for large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition and have yielded promising results. They share base-distribution and provide more flexibility in choosing the degree of tying than state-clustered HMMs. However, it is unclear which acoustic models to superior to the other under the same training data. Moreover, LBG algorithm and EM algorithm, which are the usual training methods for HMMs, have not been compared. Therefore in this paper, the recognition performance of the respective HMMs and the respective training methods are compared under the same condition. It was found that the number of parameters and the word error rate for both HMMs are equivalent when the number of codebooks is sufficiently large. It was also found that training method using the LBG algorithm achieves a 90% reduction in training time compared to training method using the EM algorithm, without degradation of recognition accuracy

Vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 hospitalisation in adults (≥ 20 years) during Alpha- and Delta-dominant circulation: I-MOVE-COVID-19 and VEBIS SARI VE networks, Europe, 2021

IntroductionTwo large multicentre European hospital networks have estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 since 2021.AimWe aimed to measure VE against PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 in hospitalised severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) patients ≥ 20 years, combining data from these networks during Alpha (March-June)- and Delta (June-December)-dominant periods, 2021.MethodsForty-six participating hospitals across 14 countries follow a similar generic protocol using the test-negative case-control design. We defined complete primary series vaccination (PSV) as two doses of a two-dose or one of a single-dose vaccine ≥ 14 days before onset.ResultsWe included 1,087 cases (538 controls) and 1,669 cases (1,442 controls) in the Alpha- and Delta-dominant periods, respectively. During the Alpha period, VE against hospitalisation with SARS-CoV2 for complete Comirnaty PSV was 85% (95% CI: 69-92) overall and 75% (95% CI: 42-90) in those aged ≥ 80 years. During the Delta period, among SARI patients ≥ 20 years with symptom onset ≥ 150 days from last PSV dose, VE for complete Comirnaty PSV was 54% (95% CI: 18-74). Among those receiving Comirnaty PSV and mRNA booster (any product) ≥ 150 days after last PSV dose, VE was 91% (95% CI: 57-98). In time-since-vaccination analysis, complete all-product PSV VE was &gt; 90% in those with their last dose &lt; 90 days before onset; ≥ 70% in those 90-179 days before onset.ConclusionsOur results from this EU multi-country hospital setting showed that VE for complete PSV alone was higher in the Alpha- than the Delta-dominant period, and addition of a first booster dose during the latter period increased VE to over&nbsp;90%.</p