Concept of architectural sphere spaces design for children with autistic spectrum disorders

Autism is a developmental disorder of brain functions. This disorder affects many aspects of growth and development of children which causes information process occurs in different way by senses. Therefore, they overreact or showing no reaction to environment.Architectural design of educational spaces with specific characteristics of children with ASD could have a noticeable effect on increasing bodily functions which includes intellectual growth and social skills of autistic children. Architectural spaces form is an important factor in designing that causes visible effects such as child’s considerable attention at stimulants, improve visual scanning, increase the scale of visual attention moreover child focus on given exercise.This article provides solutions to designing educational spaces for children with ASD. It recommends solution in terms of spherical or hemispherical spaces design which leads to increase the sense of depth and concentration moreover increasing knowledge toward self-concept and surrounded environment in autistic children

Top-down auditory plasticity: Acceptable noise level predicts and reflects the effect of perceptual learning in experience-induced plasticity

Objective: In the auditory system, tinnitus and superior speech perception in noise are examples of negative and positive plasticity that can result from sensory neural hearing loss and life experiences dealing with more complex stimuli and learning, respectively. Positive plasticity occurs as a result of learned skills and sensory stimuli; plasticity involves specific neural pathways and can be observed in auditory ascending or descending pathways.Materials & Methods: In this study, we document a form of plasticity in top-down auditory pathways through the measurement of acceptable noise level in 60 adults (27 females and 33 males) with normal hearing. Individuals were assigned to one of two groups: those with and without occupational experience of speech perception in noise.Result: The results showed that the test group had statistically significant lower acceptable noise level and significantly higher background noise level scores compared with the control group.Conclusion: Using acceptable noise level, we attributed differences in individuals’ abilities to tolerate varying amounts of background noise and speech perception in noise function to the auditory efferent system. We therefore concluded that working in crowded locations due to job nature can influence differences in speech perception in noise function

Evaluating the Effect of Socio-Economic Status on DMFT Index in Children Aged 12 in Iran through Zero-Inflated Poisson Regression

Introduction: The most common index in dental studies is the decayed, missing, or filled teeth (dmft)/DMFT. Risk factor evaluation in order to investigate the significant factors that affect this DMFT in children has an important role in dental epidemiological studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors and dental caries. Materials and Methods:  This cross-sectional study was a part of a national survey for assessing the oral health status of Iranian citizens in 2012. The target population was children aged. The data and oral examination results were collected by the clinical examination form and trained calibrated dental group (dentists and hygienists). A zero-inflated Poisson regression model (ZIP) with a random effect was utilized for evaluating the effect of socioeconomic status on DMFT. Results:  In general, 1564 subjects were studied. From the entire subject in this study, the frequency of zero was 4176 (67%). The result of the ZIP model with random effect in zero part showed that socioeconomic status (OR = 1.97; P-value <0.001) had a significant effect on zero DMFT occurrences. The variance component of the random intercept in zero part was significant too (σ2 =17.11, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The zero-inflated Poisson model with random effect in zero part was fitted to this data. Children from lower socioeconomic classes experienced more DMFT. &nbsp

A Comparison of Emotional-Behavioral Problems of siblings at the Age Range of 3-9 Years Old of Children with Autism and Down syndrome

AbstractObjectives: Children's emotional-behavioral problems will have a huge impact on their future. It seems such problems are more seen in the siblings of children with special needs. The present study sought to compare emotional-behavioral problems in the healthy siblings of autistic children with the healthy siblings of children with Down syndrome in order to identify such children in Iran.Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 174 healthy children aged between 3 and 9 years old among whom 58 cases had autistic siblings, 58 cases had siblings with Down syndrome, and 58 cases had typically development siblings. The participants were selected using convenience sampling technique. All volunteer parents filled in SDQ Questionnaire. The study results were calculated using independent sample t-test, two-way ANOVA, and Tukey post hoc test by SPSS Software V.21.Results: The mean overall score of Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire was reported as 17.98±6.19 in the autism group, 11.01±6.56 in the Down syndrome group and 4.43±4.34 in the healthy group so that there was a significant difference among autism, Down syndrome and healthy groups. In the group of siblings with Down syndrome, the problems were significantly more in the age range of 3 to 7 years old (p <0.05). However, no significant difference was observed in the scores of males and females (p> 0.05).Conclusions: Siblings with autism or Down syndrome can have especial psychological effects on healthy children in families in the way that such effect will be more with autistic children. Therefore, formulating beneficial strategies for their parents is useful to prevent emotional- behavioral problems. 

Estimating CO2-Brine diffusivity using hybrid models of ANFIS and evolutionary algorithms

One of the important parameters illustrating the mass transfer process is the diffusion coefficient of carbon dioxide which has a great impact on carbon dioxide storage in marine ecosystems, saline aquifers, and depleted reservoirs. Due to the complex interpretation approaches and special laboratory equipment for measurement of carbon dioxide-brine system diffusivity, the computational and mathematical methods are preferred. In this paper, the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is coupled with five different evolutionary algorithms for predicting the diffusivity coefficient of carbon dioxide. The R2 values forthe testing phase are 0.9978, 0.9932, 0.9854, 0.9738 and 0.9514 for ANFIS optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithms (GA), ant colony optimization (ACO), backpropagation (BP), and differential evolution (DE), respectively. The hybrid machine learning model of ANFIS-PSO outperforms the other models

Comparison of the Effect of Recaldent and Xylitol on the Amounts of Salivary Streptococcus Mutans

 Background:Dental caries is associated with oral pathogenes and Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans)is one of the primary cariogenic organisms. The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate the effect of sugar free chewing gum containing casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate(CPP-ACP) and Xylitol on salivary Streptococcus mutan. Materials and Methods: 60 dental students, who volunteered after signing an informed consent, were randomly allocated to receive one of the following interventions: (A) Chewing gum containing CPP-ACP, (B) Chewing gum containing Xylitol. Subjects within the experimental groups chewed gum for 20 minutes, three times a day after meals for 3 weeks. Pre- and post-intervention unstimulated saliva samples were quantified for Streptococcus mutans count. Results: A statistically significant reduction (p<0.05) of salivary S. mutans was displayed in both groups A and B after the intervention. When results compared with baseline, and group A shows more statistically significant reduction of salivary S. mutans than group B.Conclusion: In conclusion, daily chewing gum containing CPP-ACP and xylitol reduce the level of salivary S. mutans in a significant way, but chewing gum containing CPP-ACP can reduce the level of salivary S. mutans in a significant way than Xylitol chewing gum

Test-retest & Inter rater Reliability of Persian version of Pediatric Balance Scale in Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Objective: Children affected with spastic cerebral palsy have a lot of difficulties in terms of movement and balance. Balance is one of the necessary variables of movement, which facilitates functional skills. The aim of this inter rater & test-retest reliability study relating to Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) for children withspastic cerebral palsy, was based on mild to moderate motor impairment or loss of movement.Materials and Methods: In this analytical-descriptive research performed in the rehabilitation centers, south of Tehran, Iran in 2016, psychometric method was used. For investigating the inter-rater reliability, two examiners performed the scale simultaneously with 50 children with spastic cerebral palsy. Moreover, to investigate the test-retest reliability, the scale was implemented by one examiner, in two different sessions, among 50 children with spastic cerebral palsy. There was a two-week period between the first and the second session.Results : The inter rater reliability (ICC = 0/99) as well as the  test-retest reliability (1/100) was quite highConclusionPBS is appropriate for measuring functional balance in children with spastic cerebral palsy with mild to moderate motor impairment

Considering time-interaction terms using parametric survival models for interval-censoring data

Background: Many of the variables which are investigated in survival research are time-invariant, i.e. their values do not change over time. But their effects, may yet vary over time. Thus, the change in behavior that occurs over time needs to be included in the analysis. This can be done by adding time-interaction terms to the model. Method: In this research, a parametric survival model, which is capable of evaluating the effects of time-dependent variables, was applied for interval-censored data such that the time to invariant variables interaction terms were considered as time-dependent variables. Results: Using a practical example, the results of the study show that this model can alter the interpretations regarding the effects of exploratory variables. Conclusion: when dealing with fixed variables whose effects change over time, the researcher can incorporate their interaction effect with time, and treat them as time-dependent variables and obtain appropriate inferences

Effect of Massage Using Camel Hump Oil Compared to Olive Oil on Muscle Tone of Children with Spastic Diplegia: Single Participant Design

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of massage with camel hump oil on muscle tone in the lower limb compared with olive oil on children with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. Materials and Methods:  The study was performed using a single subject design. Six children were selected based on available sampling. The study lasted 10 weeks for each person, which includes five phases: 1-baseline (two weeks), 2-massage with olive oil (two weeks), 3- baseline (two weeks), 4- massage with camel hump oil (two weeks), and 5- baseline (two weeks). At each stage, muscle tones of Hamstring, hip adductors, and calf muscles were evaluated using the Modified Ashworth Scale. The visual analysis and Mann-whitney U test were used to evaluate differences between phases. Results: A significant difference was observed between the adductor (in 4 cases), hamstrings (in 4 cases), and calf muscles tone (in two cases) (P<0.05), demonstrating the higher effect of massage with camel hump oil compared to that with olive oil. Conclusion: It seems that camel hump oil may be more effective in some cases than olive oil in reducing muscle tone, but the overall conclusion requires further studies.Keywords: Camel hump oil; Massage; Muscle tone; Spastic diplegi

Evaluation of Group Consulting on Pregnancy Anxiety: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction: Anxiety is a disorder of mental health in pregnant women reported by 20 percent of health care providers and is accompanied by adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study aimed to determine the effect of obstetric counseling on the anxiety of pregnant women. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind controlled trial, 90 pregnant women attending to Sheibani Health Care Center in Tehran aging from 18 to 35 years old and with a gestational age of 8 to 18 weeks were evaluated first pregnancy. They were randomly assigned to counseling (group counseling with routine perinatal care) and control (only routine perinatal care) groups. The group counseling was designed according to different needs of pregnancy for five sessions in five weeks (a duration of 60 to 90 minutes for each session). The questionnaires of demographic information, Beck Depression, and Spielberg spiel Berger State-trait anxiety were used. The data analysis was performed by SPSS software version 13 using parametric and non-parametric tests. Results: According to the results, there was a significant difference between post-intervention scores in state anxiety (P = 0.014); however, there was no significant difference in trait anxiety (P = 0.19). Also, the changes in trait anxiety were more in the consoling group compared with the control group (P = 0.002), which is also seen for the state anxiety group (P = 0.0001). Conclusions: It is concluded from this study that group counseling is effective in the reduction of state anxiety and trait anxiety in pregnant women