A Randomized Controlled Trial on Very Early Speech and Language Therapy in Acute Stroke Patients with Aphasia

Background: Aphasia affects one third of acute stroke patients. There is a considerable spontaneous recovery in aphasia, but impaired communication ability remains a great problem. Communication difficulties are an impediment to rehabilitation. Early treatment of the language deficits leading to increased communication ability would improve rehabilitation. The aim of this study is to elucidate the efficacy of very early speech and language therapy (SLT) in acute stroke patients with aphasia. Methods: A prospective, open, randomized, controlled trial was carried out with blinded endpoint evaluation of SLT, starting within 2 days of stroke onset and lasting for 21 days. 123 consecutive patients with acute, first-ever ischemic stroke and aphasia were randomized. The SLT treatment was Language Enrichment Therapy, and the aphasia tests used were the Norsk grunntest for afasi (NGA) and the Amsterdam-Nijmegen everyday language test (ANELT), both performed by speech pathologists, blinded for randomization. Results: The primary outcome, as measured by ANELT at day 21, was 1.3 in the actively treated patient group and 1.2 among controls. NGA led to similar results in both groups. Patients with a higher level of education (>12 years) improved more on ANELT by day 21 than those with Conclusions: Very early intensive SLT with the Language Enrichment Therapy program over 21 days had no effect on the degree of aphasia in unselected acute aphasic stroke patients. In aphasic patients with more fluency, SLT resulted in a significant improvement as compared to controls. A higher educational level of >12 years was beneficial

Effects of indoor air quality on the occupant's health and productivity in an office building

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is an important parameter in deciding the status of Sick Bulding Syndrome (SBS). Poor IAQ which leads to SBS can result in adverse effect on the health of the occupant which causing lower productivity. This study was conducted to establish correlation between IAQ and employee’s productivity. Five parameters of IAQ which include air velocity, air temperature, relative humidity, particulate matters ≥ 0.3 μm and CO2 were considered in this study. The values of these parameters were measured using Davis Anemometer, Particle Counter GT 521 and YES Plus LGA Meter. The measured data were then used as an input data for simulation model of the room using Comsol Multiphysics software. The simulation generated the indoor air velocity of the room and particle distribution. For validation purpose, only the predicted velocity was compared with the measured value, and found that the percentage difference were in the range of 1.5% to 8.45% (below than 10%). Once the model had been validated, the parametric study of air supply inlet position was conducted on the model and found that the position of air supply inlet with x = 2.5 ft, y = 10 ft and H = 6.5 ft give the most efficient air distribution model for diluting the impurities due to the particulate. The questionnaire survey distributed amongst the occupants of the room showed that the occupants were less satisfied (75%) with the IAQ which can lead to SBS problem. The analysis of correlation between IAQ and occupant's productivity depicted that both of the factors were correlated with Rank-Spearman value of 0.648. This study serves as a good platform in assessing IAQ based on the modelling and simulation approach

Structural Model Of Counseling Competence

Counseling competence is a set of essential abilities which is prominent to be employed in conducting counseling. This counseling competence research took students of counseling as a counselor candidate. This study aims to analyze the correlation between basic knowledge, basic communication skill, and cultural skill to the counseling competence. This work used Ex Post Facto Causal Relationship Explanatory research design. The research subjects were 120 students of Department of Guidance and Counseling from three State Universities in Java Island. Samples were taken by using cluster random sampling technique. The data analysis was conducted through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The research results show that there is a significant relationship between knowledge, basic attitude, basic communication skill and cultural skill to the counseling competence. The implication of this research finding to the education of the Department of Guidance and Counseling is the significance of considering the factors forming the academic counseling competence to produce the professional counselor candidate

The impact of time management on students’ academic achievement

Time management is very important and it may actually affect individual's overall performance and achievements. Students nowadays always commented that they do not have enough time to complete all the tasks assigned to them. In addition, a university environment's flexibility and freedom can derail students who have not mastered time management skills. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the time management and academic achievement of the students. The factor analysis result showed three main factors associated with time management which can be classified as time planning, time attitudes and time wasting. The result also indicated that gender and races of students show no significant differences in time management behaviours. While year of study and faculty of students reveal the significant differences in the time management behaviours. Meanwhile, all the time management behaviours are significantly positively related to academic achievement of students although the relationship is weak. Time planning is the most significant correlated predictor

Measurements of mass-dependent azimuthal anisotropy in central p + Au, d + Au, and 3He + Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV

We present measurements of the transverse-momentum dependence of elliptic flow upsilon(2) for identified pions and (anti)protons at midrapidity (vertical bar eta vertical bar \u3c 0.35), in 0%-5% central p + Au and He-3 + Au collisions at ,root s(NN) = 200 GeV. When taken together with previously published measurements in d + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV, the results cover a broad range of small-collision-system multiplicities and intrinsic initial geometries. We observe a clear mass-dependent splitting of upsilon(2) (p(T)) in d + Au and He-3 + Au collisions, just as in large nucleus-nucleus (A + A) collisions, and a smaller splitting in p + Au collisions. Both hydrodynamic and transport model calculations successfully describe the data at low p(T) (\u3c1.5 GeV/c), but fail to describe various features at higher p(T). In all systems, the upsilon(2) values follow an approximate quark-number scaling as a function of the hadron transverse kinetic energy per constituent quark (KET/n(q)), which was also seen previously in A + A collisions

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations for extracting event-by-event elliptic and triangular flow in Au + Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV

We present measurements of elliptic and triangular azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles detected at forward rapidity 1\u3c|η|\u3c3 in Au + Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV, as a function of centrality. The multiparticle cumulant technique is used to obtain the elliptic flow coefficients v2{2},v2{4},v2{6}, and v2{8}, and triangular flow coefficients v3{2} and v3{4}. Using the small-variance limit, we estimate the mean and variance of the event-by-event v2 distribution from v2{2} and v2{4}. In a complementary analysis, we also use a folding procedure to study the distributions of v2 and v3 directly, extracting both the mean and variance. Implications for initial geometrical fluctuations and their translation into the final-state momentum distributions are discussed

Measurements of directed, elliptic, and triangular flow in Cu plus Au collisions at root sNN=200 GeV

Measurements of anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients (upsilon(n)) for inclusive charged particles and identified hadrons pi(+/-), K-+/-, p, and (p) over bar produced at midrapidity in Cu + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV are presented. The data were collected in 2012 by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC). The particle azimuthal distributions with respect to different-order symmetry planes psi(n), for n = 1, 2, and 3 are studied as a function of transverse momentum p(T) over a broad range of collision centralities. Mass ordering, as expected from hydrodynamic flow, is observed for all three harmonics. The charged-particle results are compared with hydrodynamical and transport model calculations. We also compare these Cu + Au results with those in Cu + Cu and Au + Au collisions at the same root s(NN) and find that the upsilon(2) and upsilon(3), as a function of transverse momentum, follow a common scaling with 1/(epsilon N-n(part)1/3)

Pseudorapidity Dependence of Particle Production and Elliptic Flow in Asymmetric Nuclear Collisions of p + Al, p + Au, d + Au, and 3He + Au at √sNN = 200 GeV

Asymmetric nuclear collisions of p+Al, p+Au, d+Au, and 3He+Au at √sNN=200  GeV provide an excellent laboratory for understanding particle production, as well as exploring interactions among these particles after their initial creation in the collision. We present measurements of charged hadron production dNch/dη in all such collision systems over a broad pseudorapidity range and as a function of collision multiplicity. A simple wounded quark model is remarkably successful at describing the full data set. We also measure the elliptic flow v2 over a similarly broad pseudorapidity range. These measurements provide key constraints on models of particle emission and their translation into flow

Measurement of ϕ-meson production at forward rapidity in p+p collisions at √s=510 GeV and its energy dependence from √s=200 GeV to 7 TeV

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the differential cross section of phi(1020)-meson production at forward rapidity in p + p collisions at root s = 510 GeV via the dimuon decay channel. The partial cross section in the rapidity and P-T ranges 1.2 \u3c vertical bar y vertical bar \u3c 2.2 and 2 \u3c p(T) \u3c 7 GeV/c is sigma(phi) = [2.28 +/- 0.09(stat) +/- 0.14(syst) +/- 0.27(norm)] x 10(-2) mb. The energy dependence of sigma(phi) (1.2 \u3c vertical bar y vertical bar \u3c 2.2,2 \u3c p(T) \u3c 5 GeV/c) is studied using the PHENIX measurements at root s = 200 and 510 GeV and the Large Hadron Collider measurements atroot s = 2.76 and 7 TeV. The experimental results arc compared to various event generator predictions (PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, PHOJET, AMPT, EPOS3, and EPOS-LHC)

Measurement of emission-angle anisotropy via long-range angular correlations with high-pT hadrons in d + Au and p + p collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV

We present measurements of two-particle angular correlations between high-transverse-momentum (2 \u3c pT \u3c 11 GeV/c) pi(0) observed at midrapidity (|eta| \u3c 0.35) and particles produced either at forward (3.1 \u3c eta \u3c 3.9) or backward (-3.7 \u3c eta \u3c -3.1) rapidity in d + Au and p + p collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The azimuthal angle correlations for particle pairs with this large rapidity gap in the Au-going direction exhibit a characteristic structure that persists up to pT approximate to 6 GeV/c and which strongly depends on collision centrality, which is a similar characteristic to the hydrodynamical particle flow in A + A collisions. The structure is absent in the d-going direction as well as in p + p collisions, in the transverse-momentum range studied. The results indicate that the structure is shifted in the Au-going direction toward more central collisions, similar to the charged-particle pseudorapidity distributions