The challenges of viewpoint-taking when learning a sign language: Data from the 'frog story' in British Sign Language

Little is known about how hearing adults learn sign languages. Our objective in this study was to investigate how learners of British Sign Language (BSL) produce narratives, and we focused in particular on viewpoint-taking. Twenty-three intermediate-level learners of BSL and 10 deaf native/early signers produced a narrative in BSL using the wordless picture book Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969). We selected specific episodes from part of the book that provided rich opportunities for shifting between different characters and taking on different viewpoints. We coded for details of story content, the frequency with which different viewpoints were used and how long those viewpoints were used for, and the numbers of articulators that were used simultaneously. We found that even though learners’ and deaf signers’ narratives did not differ in overall duration, learners’ narratives had less content. Learners used character viewpoint less frequently than deaf signers. Although learners spent just as long as deaf signers in character viewpoint, they spent longer than deaf signers in observer viewpoint. Together, these findings suggest that character viewpoint was harder than observer viewpoint for learners. Furthermore, learners were less skilled than deaf signers in using multiple articulators simultaneously. We conclude that challenges for learners of sign include taking character viewpoint when narrating a story and encoding information across multiple articulators simultaneously

Preterm Birth a Risk Factor for Postpartum Depression in Pakistani Women

A Pakistani cohort of 170 mothers of full-term infants and 34 mothers of preterm infants were screened at 6 weeks after delivery to compare the rate of PPD, and examine the contribution of parenting stress and mother-infant interaction to PPD among mothers of preterm infants. Mothers completed the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, and a general questionnaire. Mothers of preterm infants also completed the parental stress scale and parental bonding questionnaire. The rate of PPD was significantly higher with the adjusted odds increasing by 2.68 (95% Confidence Interval 1.16 - 6.17, p = .015) in mothers of preterm in- fants. Significantly more depressed mothers of preterm infants did not receive some level of support from their husbands (p = .014), and had some level of difficulty feeding (p = .03) or identifying the amount to feed their infant (p = .02). A large proportion of mothers reported no support from friends in rearing children

Cultural practices of rearing preterm infants: A qualitative study in a tertiary care hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

The research work explores the cultural practices of feeding and hygiene of preterm infants in the Pakistani context. A Qualitative descriptive-exploratory design has been used. Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit 17 mothers, who met inclusion criteria from a largest government tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The semi-structured interview was used to collect the data, which lasted for approximately 45-60 minutes. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the key findings of the study. Welcoming newborn with \u27honey\u27 and herbal remedies were reported as a common ritual among mothers. Findings revealed differences in the time period of initial bath given to the preterm, ranges from 3 days to 1 month. These custom variations of rearing preterm have its own meaning in the prescribed culture; however, these customs are the insights to explore more on its effects on infants\u27 health. This study provides useful insights into several practices of cultures, which serve as the determinants of infants\u27 nutrition and health status. It provides an insight to the health care professionals to provide quality care to preterm infants

Deaf academics' perceptions of 'trust' in relationships with signed language interpreters

The concept of 'trust' is frequently used when discussing the working relationship between deaf signers and signed language interpreters, with interpreters often claiming that trust is a prerequisite to a successful interaction. This paper presents original data from an in-depth research project which used collaborative autoethnography to gather the experiences of seven deaf academics who work regularly with British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters, who interpret between BSL and spoken English, to analyse the concept of 'trust' in our working relations with BSL interpreters. We found that 'trust' is not a useful or productive concept for our interpersonal and professional aims. Instead, we outline multiple ways in which deaf academics can assess and evaluate interpreters' values, competencies, and performance without relying on 'trust'. Our findings provide an important, powerful and under-explored perspective on the working relations between deaf academics and interpreters. We suggest these findings can be applied by deaf BSL signers and interpreters in contexts beyond academia, and constitute an important contribution to the literature on interpreting

Facial Emotion Recognition in Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder and First-degree Biological Relatives

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show biases in their perceptions of facial emotional expressions. In studies that ask individuals with BPD to label or recognize emotional expressions, they frequently misattribute negative emotions to faces intended to convey no emotion and are less accurate at recognizing negatively-valenced emotional expressions. In the present study, we examined whether these emotion recognition findings are also present in individuals at familial risk for BPD. We administered a standardized measure of facial emotion recognition (FER) to 243 participants (probands, n=89; first-degree biological relatives, n=67; and controls, n=87). Our findings indicate that probands were slower and less accurate at identifying neutral faces compared to relatives and controls. Additionally, results indicated a misattribution bias wherein sad faces were mistaken as fearful more frequently in probands and relatives compared to controls. This is the first family study to investigate the extent to which the FER biases observed in individuals with BPD are familial.M.A

How are signed languages learned as second languages?

This review addresses the question: How are signed languages learned by adult hearing learners? While there has been much research on second language learners of spoken languages, there has been far less work in signed languages. Comparing sign and spoken second language acquisition allows us to investigate whether learning patterns are general (across the visual and oral modalities) or specific (in only one of the modalities), and hence furthers our understanding of second‐language acquisition (SLA). The paper integrates current sign language learning research into the wider field of SLA by focussing on two areas: (1) Does ‘transfer’ occur between the spoken first language and signed second language and (2) What kind of learning patterns are the same across language modalities versus unique to each modality

Intraoperative epidural analgesia practices and their outcomes in major abdominal surgeries at a tertiary care hospital

Objective: To investigate the association involving site, concentrations and dosing of local anaesthetics used intraoperatively on postoperative pain scores, motor block and need for rescue analgesia. Method: The observational study was conducted June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised patients planned for major abdominal surgeries with epidurals as primary analgesic modality. They were followed prospectively from placement of epidurals to 24h postoperatively. Data was collected from anaesthesia chart and pain management notes. Data was analysed using SPSS 19. Results: Of the 170 patients, 96(56.4%) were females and 74(43.5%) were males. The overall mean age was 54.1±12.6 years and mean body mass index was 26.7±5.5Kg/m2. More than half of the patients 110(64.7%) had thoracic epidural, while 60(35.3%) had lumber epidural. Requirement of opioid co-analgesia intraoperatively was significantly high with higher compared to lower concentration of local anaesthetics (p=0.004). The difference in frequencies of motor block was significantly associated with catheter length (p=0.006). Conclusions: Intraoperative management of epidurals is an essential but overlooked component of perioperative pain management. Guidelines should be formulated for intraoperative epidural analgesic regimens to improve postoperative outcomes. Key Words: Epidural management, Pain management, Local anaesthetics, Intraoperative period, Thoracic epidural, Practice trends