Enhancement of noisy speech signal based on variance and modified gain function with PDE preprocessing technique for digital hearing aid

332-337This paper deals with a single-channel speech enhancement algorithm, preprocessed using partial differential equation, used to overcome degradation of noisy speech signals in digital hearing aids. Adaptive threshold is estimated using variance in time index. Gain is modified based on adaptive threshold estimated in frequency bins and used to enhance noisy signal. By proposed method, definite improvement in SNR and reduced MSE can be obtained compared to conventional method. This method provides a greater degree of flexibility and control on noise subtraction levels that reduce artifacts in enhanced speech, resulting in improved speech quality and intelligibility

Clinicopathological features of Adult Granulosa Cell Tumour of Ovary- A Case Series of 14 Cases

Adult Granulosa Cell Tumour (AGCT) is the most common sex cord stromal tumour of ovaries. These tumours in comparison with epithelial tumours are of low-grade malignant potential and have low recurrence rate after surgical procedure. In this case series, a retrospective search for ovarian AGCT cases from January 2016 till January 2021 was done. A total of 14 cases were included. Parameters studied in this case series were age, laterality, gross, architectural pattern, call Exner bodies, nuclear grooves, necrosis, mitotic count and tumour staging. After studying all the cases, it was reported that mean age of presentation was 44 years (range 21-64 years), unilateral with right-sided dominance (71.4%), grossly 78.5% of the cases were solid cystic with haemorrhagic area, with mean tumour size of 9 cm, 57.1% cases had call Exner bodies, and all the cases showed nuclear groves. Most of the cases, 85.7% presented with low mitotic count of <4/10 High Power Field (HPF). Rare presentation of endometroid carcinoma-endometrium World Health Organisation (WHO) Female Genital Tract (FGT) fifth edition), and mature teratoma of contralateral ovary presented in one case each. This case series outlines characteristic histomorphological feature, frequent presentation at lower stage, and low mitotic count, these characteristic features act as prognostic marker for recurrence prediction

The large protein ``L' of Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus exhibits RNA triphosphatase activity, the first enzyme in mRNA capping pathway

Peste-des-petits-ruminants is a highly contagious and fatal disease of goats and sheep caused by non-segmented, negative strand RNA virus belonging to the Morbillivirus genusPeste-des-petits-ruminants virus (PPRV) which is evolutionarily closely related to Rinderpest virus (RPV). The large protein L' of the members of this genus is a multifunctional catalytic protein, which transcribes and replicates the viral genomic RNA as well as possesses mRNA capping, methylation and polyadenylation activities; however, the detailed mechanism of mRNA capping by PPRV L protein has not been studied. We have found earlier that the L protein of RPV has RNA triphosphatase (RTPase), guanylyltransferase (GTase) and methyltransferase activities, and unlike vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), follows the conventional pathway of mRNA capping. In the present work, using a 5-end labelled viral RNA as substrate, we demonstrate that PPRV L protein has RTPase activity when present in the ribonucleoprotein complex of purified virus as well as recombinant L-P complex expressed in insect cells. Further, a minimal domain in the C-terminal region (aa1640-1840) of the L protein has been expressed in E. coli and shown to exhibit RTPase activity. The RTPase activity of PPRV L protein is metal-dependent and functions with a divalent cation, either magnesium or manganese. In addition, RTPase associated nucleotide triphosphatase activity (NTPase) of PPRV L protein is also demonstrated. This work provides the first detailed study of RTPase activity and identifies the RTPase domain of PPRV L protein

Modulation of dendritic cell and monocyte subsets in tuberculosis-diabetes co-morbidity upon standard tuberculosis treatment

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor for the development of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), with development of DM pandemic in countries where tuberculosis (TB) is also endemic. However, the effect of anti-TB treatment on the changes in dentritic cell (DC) and monocyte subset phenotype in TB-DM co-morbidity is not well understood. In this study, we characterized the frequency of DC and monocyte subsets in individuals with PTB with (PTB-DM) or without coincident diabetes mellitus (PTB-NDM) before, during and after completion of anti-TB treatment. PTB-DM is characterized by diminished frequencies of plasmacytoid and myeloid DCs and classical and intermediate monocytes at baseline and 2 months of anti-TB treatment but not following 6 months of treatment completion in comparison to PTB-NDM. DC and monocyte subsets exhibit significant but borderline correlation with fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels. Finally, while minor changes in the DC and monocyte compartment were observed at 2 months of treatment, significantly increased frequencies of plasmacytoid and myeloid DCs and classical and intermediate monocytes were observed at the successful completion of anti-TB treatment. Our data show that coincident diabetes alters the frequencies of innate subset distribution of DC and monocytes in TB-DM co-morbidity and suggests that most of these changes are reversible following anti-TB therapy