Effects of orthography on production and perception of English initial consonant clusters by L1 Persian speakers

There are different views on how systems of speech perception and production function and if they are governed by the same system of rules and restrictions. The interrelation between learners’ perceptual and productive learning remains one of the central questions for investigation. This study investigated the influence of L1 orthography on Persian speakers’ production and perception of English initial consonant clusters. In contrast to English, word-initial consonant clusters do not occur in Persian. This structural difference between Persian and English may lead to L1interference and cause errors in the production and perception of L2 sounds. Previous studies reported that Persian speakers insert a vowel to break up the initial consonant clusters to comply with their L1 phonotactic rules. It was hypothesized that Persian speakers may depend on their first language orthography for reading in English and may produce more errors when faced with orthographic representation of words containing initial consonant clusters. In the perception of these clusters, Persian speakers were hypothesized to assimilate the consonant clusters to clusters containing vowels in order to adapt it to their native language phonology. To examine the production and perception of initial consonant clusters among Persian speakers and the effect of orthography, two production tasks and two perception tasks with different conditions were conducted. The first production task was a pseudoword repetition task with no orthographic representation and the second task was a pseudoword reading task with orthographic representation. The results from the speech production experiments showed fewer cases of vowel epenthesis when repeating the auditory stimuli, whereas, a significantly higher amount of vowel epenthesis occurred in reading the pseudowords. The results showed the inhibiting effect of orthography on speech production and its impact on the intelligibility of speech. In the perception tasks, there was an auditory task with no orthographic representation and an orthography task with orthographic representation. The results from the perception experiments showed significantly better performance with the visually presented pseudowords than the aurally presented pseudowords. In contrast to production, the findings suggest a facilitating effect of orthography on the perception of non-native consonant clusters. Persian speakers could create lexically contrastive representations for auditorily presented pseudowords containing initial consonant clusters when they were provided with visual support in the form of written forms. The results of the tasks showed that production and perception are not mirror images of one another, and are not governed by the same system of rules and restrictions

Patient Safety Culture as Viewed by Medical and Diagnostic Staff of Selected Tehran Hospitals, Iran

Background: Today, patient safety is an important issue in providing hospital services. Any failure in this area can cause undesirable consequences. Objective:  The present study evaluated the status of patient safety culture in Educational Hospitals of Tehran, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed 205 therapeutic and diagnostic personnel of three Tehran hospitals selected using the clustered method; samples were collected in a randomized manner. To examine patient safety culture, the standard questionnaire of patient safety culture with 12 dimensions was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: In the 12 dimensions of patient safety culture, exchange of data, expectations, and organization management had the lowest means of 3.28 (±0.87), and 3.32 (±0.74) among the various aspects of patient safety culture. Additionally, the two dimensions of teamwork within the organization’s units and frequency of reporting events with means of 3.71 (±0.79) and 3.73 (±0.7) had the highest means among the studied 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. The total mean of patient safety culture in the studied hospitals was 3.5 (±0.5). Conclusion: Increasing the attention paid to patient safety culture will lead to the development and progress of hospitals in the country and will guide them toward becoming patient-friendly hospitals. Those dimensions which had low mean values in this study should be paid more attention so as to promote and protect them

Effect of Licorice and Green Tea Gargle on Post-Extubation Sore Throat, Cough and Hoarseness in Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Endotracheal extubation is associated with high complications such as sore throat, cough, and hoarseness.Aim: This study was performed aimed to compare the effect of green tea and licorice gargle on sore throat, cough, and hoarseness after endotracheal extubation.Method: This randomized controlled clinical trial was performed in the operating rooms and surgical wards of two hospitals in Tehran during 2020-2021. A total of 102 candidates for elective surgery were allocated to licorice, green tea, and control groups by simple random allocation. The scores of sore throat, cough, and hoarseness were assessed one hour after endotracheal extubation. After the gag reflex returned, 30 cc of the prepared solutions was given to the patients to gargle for 30 seconds. The intervention was repeated two hours later. The scores were assessed in the three groups immediately after the first stage of the intervention (post test1), and two hours after the second stage of the intervention (Post-test 2). Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 16) and One-way Analysis of Variance-ANOVA, Repeated Measure ANOVA and post hoc test. P 0.05).Implications for Practice: Gargle of licorice solutions or green tea is recommended as a non-pharmacological and low-cost intervention to reduce post-extubation complications

Osthole attenuated cytotoxicity induced by 6-OHDA in SH-SY5Y cells through inhibition of JAK/STAT and MAPK pathways

Objective(s): Natural coumarin called osthole is regarded as a medicinal herb with widespread applications in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has various pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic effects. In some neurodegenerative diseases, osthole also shows neuroprotective properties. In this study, we explored how osthole protects human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells from the cytotoxicity of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Materials and Methods: Using the MTT assay and DCFH-DA methods, respectively, the viability of the cells and the quantity of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were evaluated. Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT), Janus Kinase (JAK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and caspase-3 activation levels were examined using western blotting.Results: In SH-SY5Y cells, the results showed that a 24-hour exposure to 6-OHDA (200 µM) lowered cell viability but markedly elevated ROS, p-JAK/JAK, p-STAT/STAT, p-ERK/ERK, p-JNK/JNK ratio, and caspase-3 levels. Interestingly, osthole (100 µM) pretreatment of cells for 24 hr prevented 6-OHDA-induced cytotoxicity by undoing all effects of 6-OHDA. Conclusion: In summary, our data showed that osthole protects SH-SY5Y cells against 6-OHDA-induced cytotoxicity by inhibiting ROS generation and reducing the activity of the JAK/STAT, MAPK, and apoptotic pathways