Presentation of Social Stories with Tablet Computers in Social Skill Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an advanced and complex developmental disability. Furthermore, it is described as a disorder that occurs during the early developmental stages, characterized by limited, repetitive behavioral patterns and interests or activities, problems in various forms of social communication and interaction that persist throughout life. The problems that children with ASD experience in social communication and interaction skills also lead to problems in acquisition of social skills. Children with ASD experience mutual social communication difficulties, as well problems in non-verbal social behavior and establishing social relationships. Social stories are written with a perspective of a child in a special format to explain social situations to children with ASD, to instruct social skills and allow them to cope with difficulties in social situations. In the present study, the effectiveness of social story tablet computer software on the acquisition of social skills by children with ASD was analyzed. Two male and 1 female 5-7 years old students who were diagnosed with ASD were included in the study. The social stories developed by the authors before the instruction were adapted to tablet computer environment. The teachers employed in the institution and were the instructors of the students in the study group were informed about the presentation of these stories to the children with ASD and the application. The “sharing” behavior was selected among the social stories that were developed based on the course requirements. In the first two study sessions, the authors provided feedback for the teachers who conducted the study. The study was conducted with a single-subject design with multiple probe model with probe conditions across participants design. The study findings demonstrated that social story tablet computer program was effective on the acquisition of social skills by children with ASD. An increase in the sharing behavior of all three participants was observed. Furthermore, three participating teachers expressed positive views on the social story tablet computer software

Role of spinal mobility on unsupported upper extremity exercise capacity in asymptomatic young adults: A crosssectional study

Purpose: Upper extremities are essential to perform activities of daily living. Along with many factors, the spinal region has an important effect on performing upper extremity movements. Our study's first aim was to examine the relationship between unsupported upper extremity exercise capacity (UUEEC) and spinal mobility. The second aim of the study was to determine whether spinal mobility is a predictor of the UUEEC. Methods: Forty asymptomatic and volunteer individuals (age=21.50±1.51 years, 52.5% of females) were included in the study. The 6-minute pegboard and ring test (6PBRT) was performed to assess the UUEEC. Spinal mobility was assessed to use a hand-held, computer-assisted electromechanical device (the Spinal Mouse System, Idiag, Fehraltorf, Switzerland). The spinal mobility analysis in the sagittal (SAP - maximal extension/flexion) and the coronal (CRP - maximal left/right lateral flexion) plane was measured. Results: The 6PBRT score had a moderate and positive correlation with the SAP spinal mobility (r=0.361, p=0.022) and the CRP spinal mobility (r=0.322, p=0.043). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that the SAP spinal mobility was a significant and independent predictor of the 6PBRT score with 11% of the variance. Conclusions: The SAP spinal mobility was found as a predictor of the UUEEC in asymptomatic individuals. This study demonstrates that UUEEC could be improved by increasing spinal mobility. © 2021 Turkish Physiotherapy Association. All rights reserved

The effectiveness of intracytoplasmic sperm injection combined with piezoelectric stimulation in infertile couples with total fertilization failure

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) combined with piezoelectric stimulation in infertile couples with a history of total fertilization failure (TFF). Design: Prospective controlled trial. Setting: Clinical IVF laboratory. Patient(s): Seventy-one couples undergoing ICSI on sibling oocytes having at least one previous ICSI attempt with TFF. Intervention(s): ICSI or ICSI with piezoelectric activation. Main Outcome Measure(s): Fertilization rate. Result(s): The patients were allocated to two groups: group I included 21 patients with only one previous TFF and group II included 50 patients with more than one previous TFF. Collectively, a total of 823 metaphase II (MII) oocytes were retrieved in 78 oocyte retrievals. In Group I, combined ICSI with piezoelectric stimulation was applied to 123/211 (58.2%) of MII oocytes (group IA), whereas standard ICSI procedure was applied to 88/211 (41.8%) of MII oocytes (group IB). The fertilization rate was 62% and 12% in group IA and group IB respectively. In group II, piezoelectric activation was applied in all 612 MII oocytes, of which 296 (48.3%) were fertilized. The rates for implantation and pregnancy/embryo transfer were obtained as 30.6% and 44.1%, respectively. Conclusion(s): Piezoelectric activation seems to improve IVF outcome in patients with previous TFF history

Treatment of head lice with dimeticone 4% lotion: comparison of two formulations in a randomised controlled trial in rural Turkey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dimeticone 4% lotion was shown to be an effective treatment for head louse infestation in two randomised controlled trials in England. It is not affected by insecticide resistance but efficacy obtained (70-75%) was lower than expected. This study was designed to evaluate efficacy of dimeticone 4% lotion in a geographically, socially, and culturally different setting, in rural Turkey and, in order to achieve blinding, it was compared with a potential alternative formulation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Children from two village schools were screened for head lice by detection combing. All infested students and family members could participate, giving access to treatment for the whole community. Two investigator applied treatments were given 7 days apart. Outcome was assessed by detection combing three times between treatments and twice the week following second treatment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the intention to treat group 35/36 treated using dimeticone 4% had no lice after the second treatment but there were two protocol violators giving 91.7% treatment success. The alternative product gave 30/36 (83.3%) treatment success, a difference of 8.4% (95% CI -9.8% to 26.2%). The cure rates per-protocol were 33/34 (97.1%) and 30/35 (85.7%) respectively. We were unable to find any newly emerged louse nymphs on 77.8% of dimeticone 4% treated participants or on 66.7% of those treated with the alternative formulation. No adverse events were identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results confirm the efficacy of dimeticone 4% lotion against lice and eggs and we found no detectable difference between this product and dimeticone 4% lotion with nerolidol 2% added. We believe that the high cure rate was related to the lower intensity of infestation in Turkey, together with the level of community engagement, compared with previous studies in the UK.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN10431107</p

Some related fixed point theorems for multivalued mappings on two metric spaces

The definition of related mappings was introduced by Fisher in 1981. He proved some theorems about the existence of fixed points of single valued mappings defined on two complete metric spaces and relations between these mappings. In this paper, we present some related fixed point results for multivalued mappings on two complete metric spaces. First we give a classical result which is an extension of the main result of Fisher to the multivalued case. Then considering the recent technique of Wardowski, we provide two related fixed point results for both compact set valued and closed bounded set valued mappings via F-contraction type conditions