A Hybrid Three Layer Architecture for Fire Agent Management in Rescue Simulation Environment

This paper presents a new architecture called FAIS for imple- menting intelligent agents cooperating in a special Multi Agent environ- ment, namely the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System. This is a layered architecture which is customized for solving fire extinguishing problem. Structural decision making algorithms are combined with heuristic ones in this model, so it's a hybrid architecture

The efficacy of prolonged speech technique in boys with mild stuttering

زمینه و هدف: لکنت زبان اختلالی حرکتی در جریان روان و پیوسته گفتار بوده که می تواند در شدت های مختلف بروز کند. بر اساس تجربیات بالینی اینگونه به نظر می رسد که پاسخ افراد دارای لکنت در گروه خفیف، متوسط و شدید به انواع شیوه های گفتار درمانی مشابه و یکسان نمی باشد. لذا هدف از این پژوهش، بررسی اثربخشی شیوه گفتار کشیده در درمان افراد دارای لکنت خفیف است. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه نیمه تجربی 44 پسر 14-8 ساله (با میانگین سنی 9/1±8/10 سال) مبتلا به لکنت خفیف از بین جمعیت دانش آموزی مدارس پسرانه شهر اهواز به روش در دسترس انتخاب شدند. در گروه مورد 30 نفر تحت 20 جلسه گفتار درمانی فشرده با شیوه گفتار کشیده قرار گرفتند. در گروه شاهد 14 نفر بدون شیوه گفتار کشیده فقط جلسات مشاوره و کتابخوانی داشتند. نمرات شدت لکنت قبل، بلافاصله و 3 ماه پس از مداخله به وسیله نسخه سوم ابزار سنجش شدت لکنت (SSI-3) تعیین شده و به کمک آزمون های آنالیز واریانس مقادیر تکراری وt مستقل، مورد تجزیه و تحلیل قرار گرفت. یافته ها: نتایج مطالعه نشان داد که در گروه مورد نمرات شدت لکنت، بلافاصله و سه ماه بعد از مداخله به طور معنی داری کمتر از گروه شاهد بود (001/0PP) در صورتی که در گروه شاهد این اختلاف مشاهده نگردید (067/0=P). نتیجه گیری: نتایج نشان داد شیوه گفتار کشیده روشی موثر و کارآمد در کاهش شدت لکنت پسران دارای لکنت خفیف بوده و همچنین ماندگاری و ثبات این شیوه درمانی در گفتار این افراد حتی تا 3 ماه پس از مداخله نیز وجود دارد

Assessment of the speech disfluencies severity in preschool children with stuttering using sentence modeling and sentence imitation tasks

زمینه و هدف: عوامل زبانشناختی می توانند باعث کاهش یا تشدید ناروانی های گفتاری در کودکان گردند. یکی از این عوامل، نوع تکالیف زبانی است که به کودک ارائه می شود. در این مطالعه، تأثیر دو نوع تکلیف زبانی تقلید جمله و جمله سازی الگویی بر روی شدت ناروانی های گفتار در کودکان پیش دبستانی دارای لکنت خفیف و متوسط بررسی شده است. روش بررسی: این پژوهش توصیفی- تحلیلی مقطعی، بر روی 58 کودک دارای لکنت (29 نفر لکنت خفیف و 29 نفر لکنت متوسط) و 58 کودک دارای گفتار روان با دامنه سنی 6-4 سال انجام شد. شدت ناروانی گفتار توسط دو آزمون مجزا (تقلید جمله و جمله سازی الگویی) سنجیده شد و نتایج دو آزمون با هم مقایسه شد. یافته ها: شدت لکنت در دو تکلیف تقلید جمله و جمله سازی الگویی در پسران دارای لکنت متوسط به ترتیب 26/1±79/23 و 87/1±00/29 و در دختران دارای لکنت متوسط، به ترتیب 93/1±27/25 و 32/2±18/33 بود. در هر دو جنس کودکان دارای لکنت خفیف و همچنین کودکان غیر لکنتی، نمره شدت ناروانی های گفتار بین دو تکلیف تفاوت معنی دار نداشت. نتیجه گیری: در کودکان پیش دبستانی دارای لکنت خفیف و کودکان غیر لکنتی همتا، اجرای تکالیف تقلید جمله و جمله سازی الگویی باعث افزایش شدت لکنت نمی شود؛ اما در کودکان پیش دبستانی مبتلا به لکنت متوسط، اجرای تکلیف جمله سازی الگویی باعث تشدید نمره شدت لکنت می شود. پیشنهاد می شود گفتار درمانگران جهت طراحی تکالیف زبانی با سطوح دشواری متفاوت برای کودکان دارای لکنت از نتایج این تحقیق استفاده کنند

Suicide and Repeated Suicide Attempt in Intoxicated Patients: An Epidemiological Survey in a Tertiary Center

Background: Suicide is one of the most important psychological emergencies and it is necessary to deal with it. The goal of this study was to evaluate the frequency of suicide attempts, suicide re-attempt, and guesstimated risk factors in suicidal patients in the poisoning ward of Loghman Hakim Hospital.Methods: This study was performed on suicidal patients in Loghman Hakim hospital in 2021 (January to August). The suicide attempt and the type of mental disorder were confirmed by a psychiatrist and the data sheets were completed. The sample size was 500 cases based on previous similar studies. Results: Three hundred fifteen cases attempted suicide for the first time and 185 had a history of suicide. In both groups, the numbers of women were significantly more than men. In addition, 196 cases of the first group and 121 cases of the second group were under 30 years old and 65.1% of cases with first-time suicides and 62.2% of cases with suicide re-attempts were unemployed. In both groups, the most common drug for suicide was benzodiazepines (30.5% and 21.6%). Unfortunately, two patients died. Also, 67.6% in the first-time suicide attempt group and 57.3% in the suicide re-attempt group had adjustment disorder. No significant differences were observed between both groups in terms of gender, age, marital status, education, chronic disease, drug and habit history, employment status, diagnosed mental disorder, and type of drug used for the current suicide.Conclusion: Young age, unemployment, mental disorders (especially adjustment disorder), and female gender are the most important risk factors for a suicide attempt and re-attempt

Spoken and Written Narrative in Persian-Speaking Students Who Received Cochlear Implant and/or Hearing Aid

Objectives To compare narrative skills between fourth and fifth grades of Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments and typical hearing students of the same grade and also to evaluate the effects of group, sex, hearing age, and educational grade of the students on their spoken/written narrative performance. Methods The subjects were 174 students aged 10–13 years, 54 of whom wore cochlear implants, 60 suffered from moderate to severe hearing losses and wore hearing aids, with the remaining 60 students being typical hearing in terms of the sense of hearing. The micro- and macrostructure components of spoken and written narrative were elicited from a pictorial story (The Playful Little Elephant) and then scored by raters. Results Compared to the typical hearing, the students with hearing impairments had significantly lower scores in all of the microstructure components of narratives. However, the findings showed no significant difference among different groups in macrostructure components of narratives. It was also revealed that the students had equal performance in spoken and written narrative. Finally, factor analysis manifested that group, sex, hearing age, and educational level of children might alter the outcome measures in various interactions. Conclusion Although cochlear implantation was more effective than hearing aid on spoken and written narrative skills, the Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments were seen to need additional trainings on microstructure components of spoken/written narrative

Prognostic Factors in Metformin Intoxication; A Case Control Study

Background: Metformin is one of the most orally used antidiabetic agents. Intentional and unintentional overdose of metformin can be associated with life threatening condition. In this study we evaluate prognostic factors for metformin intoxication. Methods: This case-control study was performed on patients referred to Loghman Hakim toxicology emergency department due to metformin intoxication. The patient’s information and lab data were subsequently extracted from their medical file and data processing and analysis performed. Results: There was a significant difference between two groups in multiple items, patients in died group had higher age, blood sugar, BUN, Cr, PT, INR, WBC, on the other hand this group had lower blood pressure, O2 saturation, pH, HCO3 and PTT. Receiver operating characteristic curve showed that five items including: Bp, O2sat, pH, HCO3 and Cr had ability to predict the risk of mortality in patients with metformin poisoning. Univariate as well as multivariate analysis showed, factors including: BP<95 (P=0.0184), O2sat<93 (P=0.0094), pH<6.94 (P0.0032), HCO3<17.25 (P=0.0302), and Cr>1.15 (P=0.0216) were related to patient’s mortality. Discussion and conclusion: Our study showed that mentioned clinical and laboratory findings may have an important role in determining the prognosis of patients with metformin poisoning. Extracorporeal treatments may be considered sooner in those who have poorer prognostic factors since admission

Pregled otrovanja aluminijevim fosfidom i prijedlog dijagrama tijeka njegova liječenja

The use of pesticides such as aluminium phosphide (AlP) has increased in the recent years and improved the quantity and quality of agricultural products in a number of developing countries. The downside is that AlP causes severe chronic and acute health effects that have reached major proportions in countries such as India, Iran, Bangladesh, and Jordan. Nearly 300,000 people die due to pesticide poisoning in the world every year. Poisoning with AlP accounts for many of these deaths. Unfortunately, at the same time, there is no standard treatment for it. The aim of this article is to give a brief review of AlP poisoning and propose a treatment flowchart based on the knowledge gained so far. For this purpose we reviewed all articles on the management of AlP poisoning published from 2000 till now. Using a modified Delphi design, we have designed a handy flowchart that could be used as a guide for AlP poisoning management of patients in emergency centres.Primjena pesticida poput aluminijeva fosfida (AlP) raste iz godine u godinu, povoljno utječući na količinu i kakvoću poljoprivrednih proizvoda u mnogim zemljama u razvoju. Nažalost, AlP može uzrokovati i snažne kronične i akutne zdravstvene posljedice, koje su u zemljama poput Indije, Irana, Bangladeša i Jordana dosegnule zabrinjavajuće razmjere. U svijetu svake godine od otrovanja pesticidima umre gotovo 300.000 ljudi. Mnoge od tih smrti uzrokovane su aluminijevim fosfidom. Svrha je ovoga članka dati kratak pregled literature vezane uz otrovanje AlP-om te predložiti algoritam njegova liječenja koji se temelji na dosadašnjim spoznajama. U tu smo svrhu pregledali sve članke o liječenju otrovanja AlP-om od 2000. naovamo. Oslanjajući se na prilagođeni Delphi-dizajn, osmislili smo koristan dijagram tijeka koji bi se mogao koristiti kao vodič kroz liječenje otrovanja aluminijevim fosfidom u hitnim službama

Estimating the Risk for Chromosomal Abnormalities and Heteromorphic Variants in Azoospermic and Severe Oligozoospermic Men

Objectives: A reasonable number of male infertility cases are related to genetic factors. Considering the high prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities related to male infertility, this study investigated the association of the chromosomal aberrations and chromosome variants with hormonal levels, a positive family history, parental consanguinity and a specific lifestyle. We also aimed to find a predictive factor to estimate the risk of the presence of an abnormal karyotype in the azoospermic and especially sever oligozoospermic men. Materials and Methods: A total of 230 infertile men and 50 healthy controls enrolled in the study for cytogenetic evaluation. Data on patients" characteristics were gathered, accurately. Results: Among aforementioned factors, only luteinizing hormone (LH) >12 IU/l raised the chance of detecting a chromosomal abnormality (P < 0.05). The results also showed a higher level of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and parental consanguinity and a positive family history of infertility in infertile men compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The incidence of chromosome abnormalities and chromosomal variants were 15.2% and 10.9%, respectively. The investigated variables revealed no association with the prevalence of chromosome heteromorphic variants. Conclusiond: This study suggests a positive family history of infertility, parental consanguineous marriages and high levels of FSH as strong determinants or risk factors for male infertility. Nonetheless, the presence of these patient characteristics did not prove to have a direct correlation with chromosomal abnormalities in male infertility. Among the various possible risk factors studied, an elevated gonadotropin level provides a better risk assessment for the incidence of chromosomal abnormality in infertile men