[ investigation of the effect of stuttering on personality characteristics in adult men]

Deficit in fluency of speech is named stuttering. Stuttering could influence the personality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of stuttering on personality characteristics in male individuals. In this study, 31 stuttered men aged upper than 18 years old were compared with another 32 unstuttered men of the same age and education in terms of their personality characteristics by applying the Neo-FFI test. Results from student t test showed that the mean score of mental racial, extraversion and agreeableness of personality was statistically different between two groups. The present findings indicate that individuals with stuttering problem have different personality compared with fluent speakers; however, this different does not mean abnormal personality

[Detecting normal values of nasalance scores in 7-11- year-old boys]

The purpose of this study detecting normative nasalance scores for 7-11- year-old male students in Mashhad during incessant speech. Participants consist of 26 boys aged 7-11 years with normal articulation skills, resonanceand voice and speech structure were randomly selected from different regions of Mashhad and voluntarily had participated in the study. The test was run by NasometerII [model 6450] inspeech therapy clinic of Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad. Subjects read the following Persian texts of which their validity and reliability have been determined: 1."Bahareh's Bag" [made from oral consonants] 2.the text combines "four seasons" [with normal frequency of nasal consonants] 3.and nasal sentences [loaded with nasal consonants]. Nasalance means in the text "Bahareh's Bag", 12.13 +/- 4, in the text "four seasons", 30.68 +/- 4.8 and 61.5 +/- 5.7 in the nasal sentences were calculated. The results of this study have not found any statistical significance for difference in age. Normal nasalance means are calculated at one accent of Persian language, in 7-11- year-old students. Valid and reliable texts were produced [four seasons and nasal sentences] to evaluate nasalance. Given data and standard sentences can apply in speech pathology clinics for assessment and treatment of voice resonance deficit in [cleft palate, velopharyngeal Insufficiency etc.]

[Comparison of rhyme detection skills between 7-9 years age children with dyslexia and normal children]

The objective of this study is to compare the rhyme detection ability between 7 to 9 years age children with their natural peer group of the same age. In this study, 15 dyslexic children aged between 7 to 9 were examined with another 15 normal children of the same age and gender, to investigate their rhyme recognition ability by applying phonemics awareness test. Results showed that the output of two groups from rhyme recognition ability test was 8.73+1.53 for dyslexic group and 6.47+1.64 for normal the group with an average grade of 6.88+1.94 for both of them. -Student t test showed a remarkable decline in average grade of rhyme recognition ability test in dyslexic group in comparison with the normal group [t =3.907; p =0.001]. Findings derived from this survey represented a noticeable difference in dyslexic children's rhyme recognition ability and their peer normal group in a way that dyslexics have a weaker performance and more faults than normal individuals

[Confrontation naming ability in patients with traumatic brain injury referred to shahid kamyab hospital of Mashhad]

The prefrontal cortex is highly vulnerable to Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] resulting in the dysfunction of many high-level cognitive and executive functions such as language and word finding. The present study investigates the confronting naming ability in patients with TBI. Present research was a prescriptive-analytic cross-sectional study examined 20 TBI patients [10 male and 10 female], with the age ranged between 18 to 45 years. Participants, with a score above of 20 in Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE], were assessed with Persian naming test. Our findings demonstrated that the mean of correct answers without cue was 87.9, and the mean of correct answers with semantic and phonological cues were 3.3 and 1.2, respectively. However, the mean of false answers was 4.8, and the mean of no answered questions was 2.8. Furthermore, the mean of semantic and phonological pseudo-words were 4.5 and 0.4, respectively, while the sum of correct answers was noted as 92.4. This research differs from other researches in severity of the disorders in population and definition of the naming process. Naming disorder in TBI patients with mild to moderate damage was mild, and semantic pseudo-words were less correct than other words. Therefore, semantic cue could be helpful for word retrieval in TBI patients. Therefore, in these patients to retrieve words, semantic priming may be effective and recommended as a treatment strategy

[Frequency of pharyngeal neisseria carriage among 10-12 years old pupiles in Tehran, Iran]

Neisseria meningitidis is an obligate pathogen of human and temporary colonizes the mucosa of upper respiratory tract. This study was done to determine the frequency of pharyngeal Neisseria Carriage among 10-12 years old pupiles. This cross sectional study was carried out on 364 pupiles at four primary schools in Tehran during spring 2008 and winter 2009. The samples were collected from pharyngeal region and were cultured on Thayer-Martin Agar. Among 364 collected samples from pharynx of pupiles, Neisseria meningitidis not found on the selective media, but three of pupiles were carrier of Neisseria lactamica. This study showed that Neisseria meningitides colonization was not observed in the pharynx of 10-12 years old pupiles

[Detection of E.coli strains containing shiga toxin [stx1/2] gene in diarrheal specimens from children less than 5 years old by PCR technique and study of the patterns of antibiotic resistance]

Shiga toxin- producing Escherichia coli [STEC] is an emerging bacterial pathogen in developing countries that causes several diseases such as diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis [HC] and hemolytic uremic syndrome [HUS], particularly in children. Aim of the research was detection of STEC in diarrheal specimens from under 5 year olds and study of the patterns of antibiotic resistance of these strains. In the study, 300 fecal samples were collected from children with diarrhea referring to Ali Asghar Hospital. E.coli species were isolated by standard bacteriological and biochemical tests. Presence of shiga toxin genes [stx 1/2] was investigated by PCR technique [Qiagen]. Antibiogram test for strains containing the toxin gene was performed using 16 different antibiotic discs [MAST] by disc diffusion agar [Kirby- Bauer] method. From 39 E.coli isolates, 9[23.1%] strains were detected by PCR to contain stx 1/2 gene. One strain was resistant to all 16 antibiotics. All the STEC strains were sensitive to meropenem [MRP], imipenem [IMI], gentamycin [GEN] and nitrofurantoin [NI]. 4[44.44%] strains showed multi-drug resistant pattern. All these 4 strains were resistant to cotrimoxazole [SxT]. Also, 6[66.66%] strains were resistant to at least one antibiotic. In Iran, shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli [STEC] may be a commonly bacterial pathogen causing diarrhea, particularly in children. Therefore, we should use new techniques for investigation of these strains. Increase in number of emerging and new strains that could be resistant to classic antibiotics such as cortimoxazole may be foreseen. It is suggested that antibiotics prescription programs in treatment of diarrhea causing E.coli strains be updated

[Cloning and Sequencing of sacol a novel gene from Staphylococcus aureus]

Natural staphylococcal infections and vaccines based whole bacteria lead to poor antibody responses, but recent research reveals that specific antibodies based on recombinant staphylococcal antigens are much more protective. Sacol is a novel antigen that its structural and immunological traits poorly characterized. This research aimed to clone of sacol, a novel gene from Staphylococcus aureus. The specific primers with suitable restriction sites were designed and sacol amplified by PCR. The sacol and plasmid were produced as sticky ends by restriction enzymes NdeI and XhoI. To amplify the recombinant plasmid the pET21 sacol transferred into competent cell E.coliTOP10. The recombinant plasmid harvested from the host and analyzed by restriction enzymes and sequencing. Finally, sacol gene analyzed by bioinformatics tools. The sacol gene has 723bp which amplified, cloned and sequenced successfully. Sacol is highly conserved in Staphylococcus aureus strains. Moreover, software analysis shows that sacol encodes a protein with 32KDa molecular weight [267 amino acids] which has similarity with C51 peptidase in N-terminal with one alpha helix and 14 beta sheets. The sacol gene is conserved in majority of Staphylococcus aureus strains and may exist and express in most of staphylococcal infections. The role and regulation of the gene is thus of great interest