Developing the Persian Version of Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale

Objectives: Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) is a useful tool for the quantitative evaluation of auditory behaviors in different situations. The present study aimed to develop the Persian version of IT-MAIS. Methods: There was 4 main steps in the translation and validation of the scale, as follows: forward translation, synthesis, backward translation, and expert committee discussion. Then, the final Persian version of the scale was analyzed in terms of reliability and validity. The scale was studied on the parents of 17 hearing impaired and 17 normal hearing children. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean score of scale between hearing impaired and normal hearing children (P≤0.001). The internal consistency of the items was satisfactory. The Cronbach’s alpha for the overall score was 0.93. Discussion: This study suggested that IT-MAIS-F can be a reliable and valid tool for the evaluation of the auditory function of children. However, the sample size of the study was small. Thus, studies with larger sample sizes are recommended. In addition, test-retest reliability of the scale was not studied

Social representation of hearing aids: Cross-cultural study in India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom

This article was published in the following Dove Press journal: Clinical Interventions in Aging and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S86108Background: The current study was aimed at understanding the social representation of hearing aids in India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. We also compared these results to explore the cross-cultural differences and similarities among these countries. Methods: The study involved a cross-sectional design, and the data were collected from four different countries using the snowball sampling method. Data were analyzed using a content analysis to identify the most-similar categories of responses reported, a co-occurrences analysis to see which of these categories are reported commonly, and a chi-square analysis to study if there was any association between positive, neutral, and negative connotations among participants in different countries. Results: The current study revealed four different social representations of hearing aids from India, Iran, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, and also a global index. Conclusion: The study results provide very useful insights into how hearing aids are represented in the society. These findings may have important implications for public education and also for manufacturers from the viewpoint of designing and marketing hearing aids in different countries

Social representation of “music” in young adults: a cross-cultural study

Objective: This study was aimed to explore perceptions of and reactions to music in young adults (18–25 years) using the theory of social representations (TSR). Design: The study used a cross-sectional survey design and included participants from India, Iran, Portugal, USA and UK. Data were analysed using various qualitative and quantitative methods. Study sample: The study sample included 534 young adults. Results: The Chi-square analysis showed significant differences between the countries regarding the informants’ perception of music. The most positive connotations about music were found in the responses obtained from Iranian participants (82.2%), followed by Portuguese participants (80.6%), while the most negative connotations about music were found in the responses obtained from Indian participants (18.2%), followed by Iranian participants (7.3%). The participants’ responses fell into 19 main categories based on their meaning; however, not all categories were found in all five countries. The co-occurrence analysis results generally indicate that the category ‘‘positive emotions or actions’’ was the most frequent category occurring in all five countries. Conclusions: The results indicate that music is generally considered to bring positive emotions for people within these societies, although a small percentage of responses indicate some negative consequences of music

Social representation of “loud music” in young adults: A cross-cultural study

Background: Exposure to recreational noise, particularly music exposure, is considered one of the biggest public health hazards of our time. Some important influencing factors such as socioeconomic status, educational background, and cross-cultural perspectives have previously been found to be associated with attitudes toward loud music and the use of hearing protection. Although culture seems to play an important role, there is relatively little known about how it influences perceptions regarding loud music exposure in young adults. Purpose: The present study was aimed to explore cross-cultural perceptions of and reactions to loud music in young adults (18‐25 yr) using the theory of social representations. Research Design:The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Study Sample: The study sample included young adults (n = 534) from five different countries (India, Iran, Portugal, the United States, and the United Kingdom) who were recruited using convenience sampling. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected using a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a content analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and also χ2 analysis. Results: Fairly equal numbers of positive and negative connotations (∼40%) were noted in all countries. However, the χ2 analysis showed significant differences between the countries (most positive connotations were found in India and Iran, whereas the most negative connotations were found in the United Kingdom and Portugal) regarding the informants’ perception of loud music. The co-occurrence analysis results generally indicate that the category “negative emotions and actions” occurred most frequently, immediately followed by the category “positive emotions and actions.” The other most frequently occurring categories included “acoustics,” “physical aliment,” “location,” and “ear and hearing problems.” These six categories formed the central nodes of the social representation of loud music exposure in the global index. Although some similarities and differences were noted among the social representations toward loud music among countries, it is noteworthy that more similarities than differences were noted among countries. Conclusions: The study results suggest that “loud music” is perceived to have both positive and negative aspects within society and culture. We suggest that the health promotion strategies should focus on changing societal norms and regulations to be more effective in decreasing the noise- and/or music-induced auditory symptoms among young adults

Evaluting the effect of long-term monaural hearing aid usage via auditory brainstem response

Background and Aim: Studies have shown that long-term use of monaural hearing aid in symmetrical hearing losses may lead to physiological changes. In this research, the possibility of plasticity occurrence in bilaterally hearing impaired listeners fitted with only one hearing aid was investigated.Methods: Our study was carried out on 12 elderly listeners with a mean age of 61.92 years who had symmetrical moderate to severe sensory neural hearing loss in both ears. All of the participants had minimum monaural hearing aid experience of 2 years. We used auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing in order to compare absolute latency and amplitude of wave V between the two ears of cases. Air conduction click stimuli were presented monaurally at 80, 90 and 100 dB nHL.Results: Despite the shorter absolute latency of wave V in the fitted ear, no significant difference was found between the two ears (p>0.389). The difference between wave V amplitude of both ears was greater in 90 dB nHL level (p=0.043). Women showed shorter mean latency than men and the mean amplitude of women was greater than men. Significant gender difference was observed in absolute latency of wave V (p<0.037).Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the use of monaural hearing aid in symmetrical hearing losses can induce neural plasticity within auditory brainstem pathways which can be displayed by auditory brainstem response test

UPPER FRASNIAN (UPPER DEVONIAN) POLYGNATHUS AND ICRIODUS CONODONTS FROM THE BAHRAM FORMATION, HUR SECTION, KERMAN PROVINCE, SOUTHEASTERN IRAN

Conodont fauna from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) Bahram Formation at the Hur section, north of Kerman, southeast Iran, is dominated by species of Icriodus and Polygnathus. This fauna allowed discrimination of two biointervals from the Lower rhenana Zone to an Upper rhenana-linguiformis interval. The age of the lower part of the studied section is tentatively considered to be older than the Lower rhenana Zone.

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Group Therapy for Enriching Marital Relationships and Forgiveness on Interpersonal Motivations Related to the Mistakes of Women Involved in Emotional Divorce in Isfahan, Iran

Background: Emotional divorce is an unpleasant event in married life that involves emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, and even economic changes. In this regard, the use of new therapeutic approaches to improve and repair emotional divorce is increasing. The present study aims to compare the effectiveness of group therapy of enriching marital relationships and forgiveness on interpersonal motivations related to the wrongdoing of women involved in emotional divorce. Methods: The method of the present study was experimental with pre-test, post-test design and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with emotional divorce who were referred to clinics affiliated to Isfahan Welfare Organization to receive family counseling services in 2020-2021. Using purposive sampling method, 60 women were selected and randomly divided into three groups of first experiment (n = 20), second experiment (n = 20), and control (n = 20). The experimental groups received the marital relationship enrichment intervention in seven sessions and forgiveness intervention in nine sessions over two months. Guttman Emotional Divorce Questionnaire and McCullough et al. Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) scale were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings: Training in enrichment of marital relationships and forgiveness was effective on revenge and avoidance of women involved in emotional divorce. Moreover, a significant difference was found between the two educational interventions in the post-test and follow-up stages, so that the relationship enrichment treatment was more effective on the avoidance component and the forgiveness intervention was more effective on the revenge component. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the interventions can be used as an effective solution to improve the psychological performance of couples with emotional divorce in family counseling centers, specialized clinics, and premarital educational centers

Comparison of Perceptions of Nurses and Premature Infants’ Mothers about Mothers’ Needs in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background & Aim: An important goal of nursing care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is to provide holistic care as well as the best possible outcome. Understanding perceived needs of mothers is valuable to achieve these goals. This study aimed to compare perceptions of nurses and premature infants’ mothers about mothers’ needs in the NICUs.   Methods & Materials : This was a cross-sectional study in which 63 nurses and 63 mothers with premature infants were selected from the NICUs of four educational hospitals affiliated to the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences through stratified sampling method in two months. Data were gathered using the NICU Family Needs Inventory of Ward and were analyzed using descriptive-analytical statistical methods in the SPSS v.16.   Results: Among the subscales related to family needs, the following items were reported to be important by mothers: Proximity (95.3%), Assurance (94.1%), Information (91.1%), Support (79.7%) and Comfort (72.8%). On the other hand, nurses believed that the following items were the most important needs of the mothers: Assurance (80.3%), Proximity (75.2%), Information (70.8%), Comfort (66.3%) and Support (64.8%).   Conclusion : According to study findings, nurses should periodically assess needs of the mothers in the NICUs to be aware of the actual needs instead of placing subjective assumptions on mothers needs. This can improve effective communication and interaction with mothers and enhance satisfaction of the mothers with care

Comparison of the effectiveness group exploring training and conceptual learning on academic motivation Elementary school 5th Grade Boy students.

Background and Aim: Students experience different emotions in academic situations. Emotions are always present in educational and clinical environments. Academic resilience also refers to high levels of motivation for progress and performance, despite limited conditions. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching compassion, academic counseling based on a narrative approach, on resilience and academic emotions of students with academic failure. Methods: The research method of this research was a quasi-experimental type of research with a pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a control group, and in terms of its purpose, it was an applied research. The design of this research was three groups (two experimental groups and one control group). The statistical population of the research included male students of the fifth grade of elementary school in Kiyar city in the academic year 2019-1400, and the studied sample included 75 male students, 25 in the exploratory group teaching experimental group, 25 in the conceptual learning experimental group, and 25 in the experimental group. Controls were selected by multi-stage random sampling. The research tool included Harter's (1981) academic motivation questionnaire, whose reliability was 0.89 with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics including Bonferroni's post hoc test and multivariate covariance analysis were used in Spss24 software. Results: The findings showed that exploratory group training and conceptual learning have a significant effect on academic motivation (P<0.05). In other words, exploratory group teaching methods and conceptual learning increased the average scores of academic motivation. Also, there is no difference between exploratory group teaching method and conceptual learning method on students' academic motivation. Conclusion: It can be concluded that teachers can use the method of exploratory group teaching and concept learning in the presentation of elementary science lessons, considering the concreteness of the experimental science lesson contentation