25 research outputs found
Asthma insights and reality in the United Arab Emirates
No full textBackground : The burden of asthma in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the extent to which guidelines are being followed for optimum asthma control are largely unknown. This survey assessed the current level of asthma control, the burden of the disease, and adherence to asthma guidelines by patients. Methods : A face-to-face interview of 200 asthmatics in the UAE was conducted. In addition to the questionnaire administered by expert interviewers, each respondent self-completed an Asthma Control Test. The sample was stratified by region within the country and sampled proportionately. Results : Sudden severe attacks of asthma were reported by 64% in the past year. Day time symptoms and night time symptoms were reported by 57.5% and 35.5%, respectively, in the past 4 weeks. Overall, 52.8% of the children and 17.1% of the adults missed school and work in the past year, respectively. The percentage of asthmatics that had emergency room visits within the past year was 27.5%, and 4% were hospitalized. Only 5.5% used inhaled corticosteroids in the past year and 47.5% were on short-acting beta-2 agonists. Only 17.8% ever owned a peak flow meter and only 30% ever had a lung function test. Only 17% had scheduled follow-up and 66% were followed-up by general practitioners. Conclusion : This survey shows that the current level of asthma control in the UAE is far from optimal. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the awareness among patients and update doctors about asthma control guidelines for attaining optimal asthma control, and thus reducing the burden of the disease
The Arab Avant-Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East
No full textIn the early nineteenth century, the term “avant-garde” began to capture greater semantic territory. Once purely a military phrase used to distinguish crack troops, it then assumed a high-ranking position within cultural expression, marking out art work that forged ahead and broke new ground. What can it mean to conjoin this French phrase with the word “Arab”? French forces, along with other imperial intruders, are no strangers to Arab terrain. The colonisation of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Greater Syria followed in the wake of the brief Napoleonic “mission” to Egypt between 1798 and 1801. It was during this military foray that some of modern Europe’s most expansive data on Egyptian music was collected, information that comprised two whole volumes of Guillaume André Villoteau’s Description de l’Egypte. The Napoleonic campaign gathered not only military, but also cultural intelligence, if the two can be so easily separated
Prevalence of symptoms and risk of sleep apnea in Dubai, UAE
No full textBassam Mahboub, Shahid Afzal, Hassan Alhariri, Ashraf Alzaabi, Mayank Vats, Annie SoansSleep Disorders Center, Department of Medicine, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesPurpose: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ranks 18th on the 2007 Forbes list of fattest countries with 68.3% of its citizens with an unhealthy weight and it is well known that weight gain and obesity are important determinants in the progression of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of symptoms and risk of OSAS in the primary health care setting in Dubai, and the relationship between obesity and sleep apnea.Methods: In this prospective survey, a trained medical nurse administered the Berlin Questionnaire to a consecutive random sample of patients in the age group older than 14 years, who attended the primary health care center in Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE, from September 2011 to March 2012. Based on the questionnaire answers, individuals were classified into high risk and low risk groups for OSAS.Results: Based on the responses and measurement of the Berlin Questionnaire of 1214 subjects studied, 58% (n = 704) of the respondents were female, while 42% (n = 510) were male. Two-hundred-fifty-four respondents met the criteria for the high risk scoring. This gives a prevalence rate of 20.9% (out of which 22.9% of the male respondents were high risk for OSAS, while 19.5% of the females were high risk for OSAS), while the remainder of the participants were classified as low risk. The overall mean age of the high risk for OSAS female respondents was 39.95 years (standard deviation [SD] 11.73 years) and was 41.18 years (SD 14.95 years) for male respondents The highest prevalence was observed between age 51 to 60 in both genders. Seventy percent of the high risk group had a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 and nearly 75% of the low risk group had a BMI < 30 kg/m2, and the mean BMI was 32.06 kg/m2 (SD 5.67 kg/m2) for males and 33.59 kg/m2 (SD 6.44 kg/m2) for females.Conclusion: In the primary health care setting, the prevalence of symptoms of OSAS among adult UAE citizens is very high, and UAE patients are at risk for OSAS and may benefit from proper evaluation for OSAS.Keywords: obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, daytime sleepiness, prevalence primary care, Berlin Questionnaire, Duba
Adaptations of Hamlet in Different Cultural Contexts: Globalisation, Postmodernism, and Altermodernism
No full textAlthough there has traditionally been a resistance to the study of adaptations, adaptation studies as a subsection of 'intertextuality‘ currently has a significant place in academic debates. Hamlet is "the Mona Lisa of literature" (T.S. Eliot), and has been the subject of constant scrutiny, mythologizing and adaptation. Hamlet has been adapted and appropriated into and by various cultural contexts. Even confining our attention to the same medium as Shakespeare‘s text, there exists an array of theatrical adaptations in languages and cultures as diverse as Persian, Korean, Arabic, German, Russian, and Turkish. Borrowing Ludwig Wittgenstein‘s metaphor of 'family resemblance,‘ I argue the usefulness of his idea, enabling us to examine not simply a small number of common properties among adaptations of Hamlet, but rather to explore the 'complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing‘ (Philosophical Investigations, §66). I further propose subdividing the 'global family‘ of Hamlets from around the world that participate in this/these web-like resemblances into 'local families‘ of adapted Hamlets, to enable better intercultural and cross-cultural studies.
In this thesis I analyse seven theatrical adaptations of Hamlet in Turkish, Russian, Arabic and Persian cultural contexts, from the perspectives of postmodernism, globalisation and altermodernism. I also scrutinise the Persian family of Hamlet in the light of 'intertextuality‘. Given that each adaptation per se brings together 'self‘ and 'other‘ at the same time, I go on to coin two new terms: homointertextuality and heterointertextuality, in order to explore fully the various connections of the adaptations of Hamlet in Iran with the 'cultural self‘ (Persian culture) and the 'cultural other‘ (Anglophone culture)
Continuous positive airway pressure therapy suppresses inflammatory cytokines and improves glucocorticoid responsiveness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and asthma: A case–control study
No full textCONTEXT: Asthma and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are prevalent respiratory disorders that frequently coexist. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the standard treatment for OSA. However, its effects on systemic inflammation and glucocorticoid responsiveness in OSA patients with asthma are largely unknown.
AIMS: To examine the potential role of CPAP therapy in reducing systemic inflammation and improving glucocorticoid responsiveness in asthmatic patients with OSA.
SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A case–control study was conducted at the respiratory and sleep clinics involving patients with OSA and patients with asthma and OSA.
METHODS: The levels of inflammatory asthma biomarkers (interleukin [IL]-4, IL-17A, IL-8, IL-2, and interferon-γ [IFN-γ]), and glucocorticoid receptors (GR)-α and GR-β, were determined to compare systemic inflammation and glucocorticoid responsiveness between pre- and post-1-month CPAP treatment in both groups.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare inflammatory biomarkers before and after CPAP therapy. P < 0.05 considered statistically significant. The analysis was performed using SPSS.
RESULTS: Recruited patients (n = 47), 51% (n = 24) had OSA and 49% (n = 23), had OSA with asthma. Interestingly, the blood levels of IL-17 and IL-8 were significantly decreased post-CPAP therapy in OSA patients, whereas IL-4, IL-17, and IFN-γ were significantly reduced post-CPAP treatment in OSA patients with asthma. Remarkably, CPAP therapy improved glucocorticoid responsiveness in asthmatic patients with OSA, but not in the OSA group and an increase in the GR-α/GR-β ratio was noted post-CPAP therapy.
CONCLUSIONS: Continuous positive airway pressure therapy improved responsiveness to glucocorticoid treatment and demonstrated a suppressive effect on proinflammatory cytokines in asthmatics with OSA
England Calling: A Narratological Exploration of Martin Amis’s 'London Fields'
No full textThis paper will explore connections between fictional narrative methodology and contemporary conceptions of Englishness by applying aspects of Gerald Prince’s (2005) conceptions of a ‘postcolonial narratology’ to Martin Amis’s “London Fields” (1989). Amis has commented that ‘it’s almost an act of will on my part trying not to be an English writer’. However, this paper will suggest that the novel under consideration here exhibits methodological tendencies which have their roots in a protracted engagement with problematic notions of English identity (principally, instability and disengagement) and that postcolonial approaches to narrative technique can lead to very interesting results, even when applied to the work of writers not typically identified with such constituencies. The central point of investigation will be the novel’s exhibition of metafictional tendencies. In “London Fields”, Amis narrates via an authorial surrogate, Samson Young, who purports to be the author of the text, yet becomes implicated in the events of the novel to the point where his actions, rather than his imagination, determine its outcome. It is interesting also in this connection that the novel is voiced by an ‘outsider’ to England, an American.
Prince is intrigued by the possibility that a postcolonial narrative discourse might emerge ‘free of any narratorial introduction, mediation, or patronage.’ He also points to the significance of narratological features such as hybridity, migrancy, otherness, fragmentation, diversity and power relations. Amis’s novel exhibits all of these features, and takes the ambition of authorial invisibility to a paradoxical extreme. Voices, characters, reliability and even actantial events are brusquely ‘disowned’ by the author, resulting in a textual instability and uncertainty which, it will be demonstrated through close textual analysis, is intimately linked to England’s postcolonial condition
Obesity and Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders in Middle East and UAE
No full textA pandemic of obesity is sweeping all across the globe and the Middle East region also does not remain untouched by this prevailing pandemic. In fact, as per WHO report, Kuwait has the second highest obesity prevalence followed closely by other Middle East (ME) countries, namely, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Apart from direct medical, psychological, and quality of life related adverse effects of obesity, many indirect medical comorbidities, namely, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS), diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), and metabolic syndrome, imposes a significant health burden on the individual and community with consequent morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this review is to shed light on the very high prevalence of obesity, undiagnosed sleep apnea, and other obesity related disorders with discussion of the contributing factors specific to the region including the fair insight into the current status of sleep medicine services in Middle East and UAE despite huge number of patients having undiagnosed sleep disorders. We will also suggest to control this epidemic of obesity and OSA so that the corrective measure could be taken at health ministry level to help people of this region to fight against obesity and related disorders, primarily OSA
Late Breaking Abstract - Use of AI in accurate diagnosis of TB using Medical Imaging: a promising result from UAE
No full textEarly Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges and Strategic Recommendations
No full textIn the United Arab Emirates (UAE), lung cancer (LC) was the third leading cause of deaths due to cancer in 2017. Around 80% of the patients in the UAE are diagnosed at a late stage, rendering the treatment less effective in improving survival outcomes. Lack of awareness of disease symptomatology, deficient screening initiatives, misdiagnosis, and delayed referral to the specialist are contributing factors for delayed diagnosis. Effective screening at a primary care setting can be crucial for early diagnosis, referral to specialists, and enhancing patient outcomes. It is important to establish screening and referral guidelines through which each suspected case can be identified and provided timely intervention. Although the international screening and referral pathway framework are comprehensive, several regional barriers need to be addressed before they can be adapted at the national level. A group of LC experts from the UAE deliberated on issues like delayed diagnosis of LC and strategic recommendations for overcoming the challenges. The discussion was based on the review of the published evidence, international and regional guidelines for screening and early diagnosis of LC. Herein, we present a guideline, endorsed by the esteemed panel of experts, for aiding early diagnosis and optimizing the management of LC in the UAE
The role of mobile phones as a possible pathway for pathogen movement, a cross-sectional microbial analysis
No full textIntroduction
Mobile phones are used the world over, including in healthcare settings. This study aimed to investigate the viable microbial colonisation of mobile phones used by healthcare personnel.
Methods
Swabs collected on the same day from 30 mobile phones belonging to healthcare workers from three separate paediatric wards of an Australian hospital were cultured on five types of agar plate, then colonies from each phone were pooled, extracted and sequenced by shotgun metagenomics. Questionnaires completed by staff whose phones were sampled assisted in the analysis and interpretation of results.
Results and discussion
All phones sampled cultured viable bacteria. Overall, 399 bacterial operational taxonomic units were identified from 30 phones, with 1432 cumulative hits. Among these were 58 recognised human pathogenic and commensal bacteria (37 Gram-negative, 21 Gram-positive). The total number of virulence factor genes detected was 347, with 1258 cumulative hits. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were detected on all sampled phones and overall, 133 ARGs were detected with 520 cumulative hits. The most important classes of ARGs detected encoded resistance to beta-lactam, aminoglycoside and macrolide antibiotics and efflux pump mediated resistance mechanisms.
Conclusion
Mobile phones carry viable bacterial pathogens and may act as fomites by contaminating the hands of their users and indirectly providing a transmission pathway for hospital-acquired infections and dissemination of antibiotic resistance. Further research is needed, but meanwhile adding touching mobile phones to the five moments of hand hygiene is a simple infection control strategy worth considering in hospital and community settings. Additionally, the implementation of practical and effective guidelines to decontaminate mobile phone devices would likely be beneficial to the hospital population and community at large
