Effects of Abnormal Oral Reflexes on Speech Articulation in Persian Speaking Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

How to Cite This Article: Dadgar H, HadianMR, Lira OA. Effects of Abnormal Oral Reflexes on Speech Articulation in Persian Speaking Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy. Iran J Child Neurol. Summer 2016; 10(3):28-34.AbstractObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the presence of abnormal oral reflexes and speech sound production in children with severe cerebral palsy.Materials&Methods Seven oral reflexes such as, rooting, mouth-opening, biting, chewing, lip, tongue, and suckling were examined in 52Persian-speaking monolingual children with spastic cerebral palsy (ages 5-10 yr).Phonetic information tests were administered to investigate their ability for articulation of the speech sounds.ResultsA significant relationship between three (i.e. the chewing, lip, and biting reflexes) out of the seven abnormal oral reflexes and the speech articulation was noticed. The presence of the chewing reflex was associated with deficits in production of /s, z, š,č/ sounds. The lip reflex was associated with deficits in the production of /p, m, r, j, f, č/ sounds. The biting reflex was associated with deficits in the production of /z, l, y and š/ sounds. No significant relationship was found between the rooting, mouth-opening, tongue, and suckling reflexes and sound articulation.ConclusionThe presence of abnormal reflexes in the children with spastic cerebral palsy would suggest a correlation between these reflexes and sound articulation in Iranian children with spastic cerebral palsy. Hence, these observations might suggest some disturbances in normal speech development. References Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) Collaborative Group. Surveillance of cerebral palsy in Europe: a collaboration of cerebral palsy surveys and registers. Dev Med Child Neurol 2000; 42:816–24.Karen W Krigger. Cerebral Palsy: An Overview. 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Microplastics in Aquatic Environments: Recent Advances in Separation Techniques

Separation and removal of microplastic pollution from aquatic environments as a global environmental issue is classified as one of the major concerns in both water and wastewater treatment plants. Microplastics as polymeric particles less than 5 mm in at least one dimension are found with different shapes, chemical compositions, and sizes in soil, water, and sediments. Conventional treatment methods for organic separation have shown high removal efficiency for microplastics, while the separation of small microplastic particles, mainly less than 100 µm, in wastewater treatment plants is particularly challenging. This review aims to review the principle and application of different physical and chemical methods for the separation and removal of microplastic particles from aquatic environments, especially in water treatments process, with emphasis on some alternative and emerging separation methods. Advantages and disadvantages of conventional separation techniques such as clarification, sedimentation, floatation, activated sludge, sieving, filtration, and density separation are discussed. The advanced separation methods can be integrated with conventional techniques or utilize as a separate step for separating small microplastic particles. These advanced microplastic separation methods include membrane bioreactor, magnetic separation, micromachines, and degradation-based methods such as electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, biodegradation, and thermal degradation

Electrophysiological Studies of Spinal Reflex Pathways From Group II Muscle Afferents

This thesis has investigated aspects of the circuitry located in the spinal cord by which signals originating fronn group II muscle afferents are processed. Studies have focused on two main problems: Part 1. The organisation of neuronal systems mediating group II reflex actions in the lumbar enlargement of the rat spinal cord have been investigated and compared with that in the cat with the aim of determining whether general principles of the organisation of these systems are common to different mammalian species. Group II afferents of different hind-limb muscle nerves were found to evoke cord dorsum and field potentials in particular segments of the spinal cord. Group II afferents of the quadriceps and deep peroneal nerves evoked synaptic potentials mainly at the rostral end of the lumbar enlargement (L1-rostral L3 segments) while the group II afferents of the gastrocnemius-soleus and hamstring muscle nerves produced their synaptic actions mainly at the caudal end of the lumbar enlargement (caudal L5). Group II afferents of the tibialis posterior and flexor digitorum longus nerves produced their synaptic actions mainly in the central lumbar segments (caudal L3 - L4). These results show that in principal the topographical organisation of neurones in group II reflex pathways of the rat is similar to that of the cat. Part 2. The actions of group II muscle afferents on neurones within the lower-lumbar segments of the cat spinal cord have been investigated with the aim of locating candidate last-order interneurones in group II reflex pathways. Only group II afferents of the tibialis posterior nerve produced large cord dorsum potentials comparable to those evoked by other group II afferents in midlumbar and sacral segments. However, field potentials evoked by group II muscle afferents of the quadriceps, tibialis-posterior, gastrocnemius- soleus, flexor digitorum longus, posterior biceps-semitendinosus and popliteus were encountered throughout the L6 and L7 segments. Group II potentials were evoked in both the dorsal horn (laminae V-VI) and intermediate zone (laminae V-VI I) at latencies compatible with monosynaptic actions of the fastest conducting group II muscle afferents. The properties of interneurones receiving excitatory input from group II muscle afferents have been investigated using both extracellular and intracellular recordings. Almost half the sample of interneurones (38 of 76) were characterised by an ipsilateral ascending projection within the lateral funiculus to the L4 level. Both L4-projecting and non-projecting interneurones were located mainly in an area dorsal and lateral to the main region in which interneurones with input from group I muscle afferents are located. Group II afferents of quadriceps and deep peroneal muscle nerves provided the most effective excitation (discharging 70-80% of neurones) while group II afferents of tibialis postenor, posterior biceps-semitendinosus and gastrocnemius-soleus were also effective sources of excitation (discharging 45- 55% of neurones). At least some of the group II EPSPs were monosynaptic. Input to individual interneurones was multimodal and characterised by considerable convergence. Seventy-five percent of interneurones were discharged by group II afferents of two or more muscle nerves and 43% by group II afferents of three or more nerves. In addition, group I muscle afferents evoked small EPSPs in over one quarter of the interneurones and virtually all were strongly excited by cutaneous afferents. Evidence of excitatory input from joint, interosseous and group III muscle afferents was also obtained but inhibition was rarely observed. These interneurones are considered likely to function as last-order interneurones in group II reflex pathways

The Effect of Avoiding Cognitive Errors through Narrative Therapy on Depression and Dysfunctional Attitude in Primary School Girls

Introduction: The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of teaching to avoid cognitive errors through narrative therapy on depression and dysfunctional attitude in primary-school girls.  Methods: This experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design and a one-month follow-up. The assessment tool consisted of the Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS), and DAS-C and clinical interviews were used to evaluate dysfunctional attitude among the students. The sample population consisted of 36 fourth- and fifth-grade, female, primary-school students with depression in Shiraz. The experimental group was exposed to narrative therapy, the placebo group to selective stories (without educational content on avoiding cognitive errors) and the control group received no treatment. The ANCOVA was used to analyze the data.  Results: The three groups were not different in terms of their depression score in the posttest (F=2.36, P=0.11), but the difference between them was significant in the follow-up stage (F=5.53, P=0.009). Significant differences were observed among the groups in terms of dysfunctional attitude and depression in the posttest (F=4.84, P=0.001) and the follow-up (P=0.0001, F=12.08).  Conclusion: Narrative therapy was found to be effective in reducing depression and dysfunctional attitude in the students.  Declaration of Interest: None.

The effect of forward head posture on cervical joint position sense

A number of studies have investigated the effect of age, trauma, disease and fatigue on cervical joint position sense. However, there is an absence in data regarding the role of posture on proprioception. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of Forward Head Posture (FHP) on cervical joint position sense. Twenty Forward Head Posture volunteers (14 women, 6 men), with the mean age of 23.94 (SD=3.26) years, and 17 normal head posture volunteers (8 women, 9 men) with the mean age of 23.50 (SD=2.68) years were asked to perform the Cervicocephalic relocation test (CRT) to the neutral head position (NHP). The aim of this test was to evaluate the participants' ability to relocate the head to neutral position after they actively rotated it to left and right sides. Three trials were performed for each rotation to the left and right. In order to assess cervical joint repositioning accuracy, Absolute, Constant and Variable errors were used. No significant difference in repositioning errors was observed between experimental and control group in absolute and constant errors (P>0.05); however, compared to normal group, Forward Head Posture subjects manifested significantly higher levels of variable errors (P<0.05). Forward Head Posture can significantly affect the positioning consistency of cervical proprioception. Nonetheless, further investigation on the effect of Forward Head Posture on cervical proprioception in altered situations is recommended.

Familial colorectal cancertype X in central Iran: A new clinicopathologic description

Background: Familial colorectal cancer type X (FCCX) is a subtype of mismatchrepair (MMR)-proficient colorectal cancerin whichthe patients are clinicallyat risk for Lynch syndrome (LS), a common hereditary cancer predisposing syndrome.In this study, we describeda new clinicopathological feature of the condition in central Iran. Subjects and Methods: We designed a descriptive, retrospective study to screenat-riskcolorectal cancer (CRC) patients,usingAmsterdam II criteria and Molecular analysis in Isfahan (central Iran) throughout 2000-2013 period. Results: 219 early-onset (≤ 50 years) CRC patients of 1659 were selected for the evaluation. Amsterdam II criteria were positive in 45 families; of whom 31 were finally analyzed by molecular testing. MMR deficiency was detected in 7/31 probands (22.6%) as affected to LS, so 24 families (77.4%) were identified as FCCX. The mean age of the probands at diagnosis among FCCX families was 45.3 years (range 24-69) versus 38.0 years (range 31-50) in LS families.The frequency of CRC among FCCX and LS families was calculated 27.9% and 67.5%, respectively. Also, the most frequent extracolonic cancer among both FCCX and LS families was stomach by 25.5% and 30.8%, respectively. Tumor site was proximal to the splenic flexure in 20.8% and 57.1% of index CRC patients in FCCX and LS families, respectively. Conclusion: Given the relative high frequency of FCCXand its different phenotype among Iranian populations, we need to set up more advanced molecular studies for exploration of unknown molecular pathways leading to tumorigenesis in this class of CRC patients