The effect of reverberant sound level on the intelligibility of spoken Malay words

Reverberant sound is known to degrade Speech Intelligibility (SI). For instance, it has been found that amplitude of English speech signal, syllable continuum from “sir” to “stir”, is affected in reverberant condition. However, there are currently no studies on the effect of reverberation on spoken Malay words. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of reverberant sound on spoken Malay words. The project started with the development of Malay word list. The list consists of 5924 distinct Malay words and was based on the texts from 52 Friday sermon transcripts that were spoken in Kuala Lumpur mosques. The Malay words spoken in mosques were used because SI in many mosques suffers from reverberant sound. From this, two sets of phonetically balanced word lists were developed with each contain 50 words. These words were then recorded in an audiometry room with the help of two trained speakers, a male and a female. The recorded words were then played back in seven different room samples with different reverberant sound levels. Reverberation time was used as level indicator (in seconds) of reverberant sound. The effect of each room sample on clean recorded words was analysed in terms of fundamental frequency (F0), first and second formant frequency (F1 and F2), and spectral tilt. The effect of reverberant sound on F0 for female speaker was more profound and statistically significant. The F1 of both speakers were not affected by reverberant sound. However, only F2 of female speaker was affected by reverberant sound. The value of spectral tilt shows that vowel /a/ is the most susceptible to reverberant sound. In conclusion F0, F2, and spectral tilt are relevant parameters, and have been able to demonstrate the effect of reverberant sound on spoken Malay words

Unusual Presentations of Wegener\u27s granulomatosis: Pitfalls in Early Diagnosis

Wegener\u27s Granulomatosis (WG) is a disorder characterized by necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis that primarily affects the upper and lower respiratory tracts and the kidneys. Although the cause is unknown, there is strong evidence that this is an autoimmune disease and immunosuppressive therapy with cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids efficiently relieves the symptoms and, prevents relapses. We report on four cases of WG that presented with unusual features. The first patient presented with vague joint pain, blackish discoloration of the skin and leg ulcers. The second patient presented as fever of unknown origin and gingival hyperplasia. The third patient presented with hearing loss while the fourth presented with arthritis, conjunctivitis and painful swelling of the ear. It is emphasized that WG is a complex disease and can involve multiple organ systems. Early recognition and institution of proper treatment are crucial for optimal outcome

Stiff person syndrome: a diagnostic and management challenge

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neurological disorder characterized by progressive muscle stiffness and rigidity, mostly involving axial muscles, resulting in functional disability. It is associated with elevated anti- Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibody levels. Electromyography findings are often diagnostic. We present a case of a 48 years old male, who presented with progressive stiffness and rigidity of axial muscles and limbs. His EMG was consistent with SPS. Anti GAD antibodies were markedly elevated. He was treated with rituximab and has improved significantly. SPS is a difficult diagnosis, usually under diagnosed due to lack of awareness among medical community. There is a dire need to further study the disease and invent better treatment options for patients suffering from SPS

Renal involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus in Pakistan

Objective: To find the prevalence of lupus nephritis, delineate its clinical, immunological and therapeutic characteristics and compare them with the data worldwide.PATIENTS AND Methods: Between 1985 and 2001, 198 patients with SLE fulfilling the clinical and laboratory criteria of the American Rheumatism Association (ARA) admitted to the hospital were studied by means of a retrospective review of their records.Results: Renal involvement was found in 89 (45%) patients. Biopsy showed lupus nephritis in 42 patients; there were 9 male and 33 females. Mean age at initial presentation was 27 years and mean duration of follow-up was 2 .3 years. The histological types (WHO Classification) were mainly class. 4 (n = 27), class 3 (n = 7) and class 5 (n = 6). Immunoflourescence showed a predominantly granular pattern of IgG, IgA and C3. Renal manifestations included renal failure (50%), microscopic hematuria (67%), active urine sediment (22%), and proteinuria (74%). Proteinuria was nephrotic range in 45% patients. Treatment was with combinations of prednisolone and cyclophosphamide (n = 13), prednisolone and azathioprine (n = 27). 19 patients received high dose methyl prednisolone (1 gm/day for 3 days). There was no difference in mortality rate between prednisolone and cyclophosphamide and prednisolone and azathioprine treatment groups. The overall mortality rate was 17% (n = 7). Mortality was higher in WHO class 4 and 5 as compared to class 2 and 3 (p \u3c 0.001).CONCLUSION: The prevalence of lupus nephritis in our population is an intermediate between Caucasians and other Asians. Certain clinical characteristics in our patients with lupus nephritis are different as compared to various other studies. Because of limited resources for treatment in developing countries, we believe that patients with lupus nephritis should be treated with improved ancillary medical therapies and more effective immunosuppressive regimens

Renal cortical necrosis: A case series of nine patients & review of literature

Background: The purpose of this study is to review cases of renal cortical necrosis (RCN) which we came across during a period of five years, confirmed on needle biopsy specimens, with literature available so far.Methods: All renal biopsy records between January 1996 to December 2001 at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan were reviewed to identify patients with histologically proven renal cortical necrosis. Seven patients were also referred by the department of Nephrology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan. Patients\u27 medical records were reviewed for demographic, clinical, and follow up data.Results: There were total of nine patients identified with renal cortical necrosis. The mean age was 26.21 +/- 13.01 year. Five cases (55.5%) were caused by obstetric complications. The most common histology type of RCN was patchy cortical necrosis in seven patients (77.8%). Three patients were alive at last follow up; remaining patients were lost to follow up.Conclusion: Obstetric complications remain the leading cause of renal cortical necrosis in our setting. The recognition of this entity and value of renal biopsy in cases of acute renal failure needs to be emphasized as this helps in establishing diagnosis, to assess prognosis and to aid in selection of a rational approach to therapy

Ischemic monomelic neuropathy: a complication of vascular access procedure

Ischemic monomelic neuropathy (IMN) is an infrequently recognized type of ischemic neuropathy produced by shunting blood or acute occlusion of a major proximal artery in the extremities. IMN predominantly occurs in diabetic patients with evidence of peripheral atherosclerotic vascular disease and neuropathy. We report a case of ischemic monomelic neuropathy occurring in a diabetic patient with end-stage renal disease following the placement of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) graft as a vascular access in the proximal upper arm for chronic hemodialysis

Research Ethics Review in Humanitarian Contexts: The Experience of the Independent Ethics Review Board of Médecins Sans Frontières

Doris Schopper and colleagues describe the functioning of the Médecins Sans Frontières independent ethics review board and the framework used for ethics review, and discuss challenging ethical issues encountered by the board since its inception

Do clinical manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Pakistan correlate with rest of Asia?

Objective: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is known to be different among people with different racial, geographical and socio-economic back grounds. Asia has diverse ethnic groups broadly, Orientals in the East and Southeast Asia, Indians in South Asia and Arabs in the Middle East. These regions differ significantly from the Caucasians with reference to SLE. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to delineate the clinical pattern and disease course in Pakistani patients with SLE and compare it with Asian data.Methods: Patients with SLE fulfilling the clinical and laboratory criteria of the American Rheumatism Association admitted at the Aga Khan University Hospital between 1986 and 2001 were studied by means of a retrospective review of their records. The results were compared with various studies in different regions of Asia.Results: Demographically, it was seen that SLE is a disease predominantly of females in their third decade, which is generally consistent with Asian data. There was less cutaneous manifestations, arthritis, serositis, haematological and renal involvement compared to various regions in Asia. The neurological manifestations of SLE, however, place Pakistani patients in the middle of a spectrum between South Asians and other Asian races.CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the clinical characteristics of SLE patients in our country may be different to those of other Asian races. Although our population is similar to South Asians, but clinical manifestations of our SLE patients are considerably different, suggesting some unknown etiology. Further studies are required to confirm the above results and to find statistically sounder associations

Preprints in times of COVID19: The time is ripe for agreeing on terminology and good practices

Over recent years, the research community has been increasingly using preprint servers to share manuscripts that are not yet peer-reviewed. Even if it enables quick dissemination of research findings, this practice raises several challenges in publication ethics and integrity. In particular, preprints have become an important source of information for stakeholders interested in COVID19 research developments, including traditional media, social media, and policy makers. Despite caveats about their nature, many users can still confuse pre-prints with peer-reviewed manuscripts. If unconfirmed but already widely shared first-draft results later prove wrong or misinterpreted, it can be very difficult to unlearn what we thought was true. Complexity further increases if unconfirmed findings have been used to inform guidelines. To help achieve a balance between early access to research findings and its negative consequences, we formulated five recommendations: (a) consensus should be sought on a term clearer than \u27pre-print\u27, such as \u27Unrefereed manuscript\u27, Manuscript awaiting peer review or \u27\u27Non-reviewed manuscript ; (b) Caveats about unrefereed manuscripts should be prominent on their first page, and each page should include a red watermark stating \u27Caution-Not Peer Reviewed\u27; (c) pre-print authors should certify that their manuscript will be submitted to a peer-review journal, and should regularly update the manuscript status; (d) high level consultations should be convened, to formulate clear principles and policies for the publication and dissemination of non-peer reviewed research results; (e) in the longer term, an international initiative to certify servers that comply with good practices could be envisaged

Research ethics governance in times of Ebola.

CAPRISA, 2017.Abstract available in pdf