Middle East Journal of Rehabilitation and Health Studies
Volume:2 Issue: 2, Apr 2015

Videoinsight® means to gain insight by looking at a work of contemporary art. It focuses on the aim and the psychological effect that are potentially provoked by the interaction with some selected contemporary works of art. The insight promoted by the work of art is the outcome of the activation of transference, of projections and reflections on the artistic product, of the unconscious elaboration that leads to the development of transformation. Videoinsight® is a theoretical concept, a working method and a psychological process. It is based on the experience of exchange and integration between the contemporary artwork and the psychology of individuals who relate to it. Some works of contemporary art provoke and stimulate the psyche and activate psychological mechanisms. They trigger an intellectual and emotional experience: they make us think and feel a certain way. Interacting with selected works of art leads to the development and activation of human potentials. The Videoinsight® method can be applied in prevention, diagnosis, psychological support and psychotherapy for treatment of all psychological and psychosomatic diseases. It has been already applied in Medical Orthopedic Researches for rehabilitation and psychological support

Stuttering is one of the most prevalent speech and language disorders. Symptomatology of stuttering has been surveyed from biological, developmental, environmental, emotional, learning and linguistic viewpoints. Literature shows that syllable structure as a linguistic feature, may influence the frequency of disfluencies.

This study aimed to determine the effect of syllable structure on the frequency of disfluencies in adults with stuttering.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed on 16 adults (14 males and 2 females) who stutter with the mean age of 24.56 years. The frequency of disfluencies was evaluated by asking the subjects to read two lists, one list contained 60 words and another one consisted of 60 nonwords. The words and nonwords were selected based on simple and difficult syllable structures. The data were statistically analyzed through paired t-test using the SPSS software.

The results of this study showed a significant difference between the frequency of disfluencies between the simple syllable structures and difficult syllable structures in nonword reading tasks (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the frequency of disfluencies between the simple syllable structures and difficult syllable structures in word reading tasks (P > 0.05).

The findings of this study indicate that the frequency of disfluencies was increased in difficult syllable structures in comparison to simple syllable structures. According to the results, it seems that certain linguistic features, such as syllable structure can affect speech-motor output in people who stutter through affecting phonological encoding.

Naming is a simple and basic skill of the language which involves semantic, lexical, and phonological levels. There are many different factors affecting the speed and convenience of naming. One of these factors is the word Age of Acquisition (AoA) and since language processing occurs at an extremely fast rate, psycholinguistics needs a method that has very good temporal resolution. The Event-related Brain Potentials (ERP) method is almost ideal among the imaging techniques of studying a language.

The current study aimed to investigate the electroencephalograph signals related to the time period of phonological encoding during immediate picture naming through the analysis of AoA effect.

In this cross-sectional study 15 male, native Farsi speakers, aged 18 - 25 years participated. The test involved naming 80 pictures including 40 early-acquired words and 40 late-acquired words, presented by a monitor screen. EEG (electroencephalogram) was recorded continuously from 64 electrodes mounted on an electrode cap. The waves related to early and late-acquired groups were investigated in terms of amplitude, latency, and scalp distribution within a 300 millisecond time range linked to phonological encoding process.

The results showed that the pictures of the early-acquired words were named 40 millisecond faster than those of late-acquired words (P = 0.022). The difference between the two groups was significant on the latency and scalp distribution, but not significant on amplitude.

According to the results of the study, AoA modulated response latencies (early acquired words were produced faster than late-acquired ones), indicating increased processing time-cost for late acquired words, which happens during the phonological encoding period (phonological code retrieval and syllabification). Furthermore, the results seem to support a phonological encoding locus for the main AoA effects

The aging process is a complex medical condition that leads to many unfavorable and inevitable changes in body composition, muscle strength, aerobic capacity, health status, and eventually functional capacity of individuals.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the sequence order of combined training on maximal strength, aerobic capacity, and body composition in older women.

 Forty healthy female volunteers (age = 67.35 ± 1.40 years old) were randomly divided into three experimental groups and one control group: resistance followed by endurance training (E + S, N = 9); endurance training followed by resistance training (S + E, N = 10); alternating concurrent training (ACT, N = 12); and control (C, N = 16) groups. The training program was performed 3 times per week for 8 weeks. All the participants were evaluated before and after the training period.

The intra-session sequence order did not influence the adaptive response of the waist-to-hip ratio (P = 0.55), body fat percentage (BF %) (P = 0.08), and upper-limb maximal strength (P = 0.07) throughout the study. However, there were significant differences between the groups for VO2max (P = 0.029), lower-limb maximal strength (P = 0.000), body mass (P = 0.017), waist circumference (P = 0.006), and body mass index (P = 0.023).

Independent of the training sequence, an 8-week concurrent training program caused positive changes in the body composition and physical fitness of our aged female subjects. However, there was no benefit derived from sequence order training

Health and treatment groups have the chief responsibility for controlling the risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and encouraging appropriate lifestyle changes that affect the prevention of this disease.

We sought to assess the lifestyle of physicians, nurses, and faculty members and to determine the most important risk factors of CVD among them.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on the physicians, nurses, and faculty members of Semnan University of Medical Sciences. The risk factors of CVD under consideration included smoking; sporting habits; life- and work-related stress; consumption of fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and fast food; body mass index; systolic and diastolic blood pressures; control of cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels in the preceding two years; history of depression; and family history of CVD.

Totally, 108 subjects who filled in their questionnaires were included in the study. The study population, including 68.5% females, had a mean age of 36.30 ± 8.878 years. Smokers comprised 1.8% of the subjects. Exercise more than twice a week was reported by 19.4%. Correspondingly, severe and moderate life-related and work-related stress was reported by 61.1% and 63.9% of the subjects. Also, 17.6% and 51.9% of the respondents consumed vegetables and fruit, respectively, more than once a day; 5.6% had fish more than once a week; and 69.4% and 4.6% ate meat and fast food, respectively, more than twice a week. The mean body mass index was 24.67 ± 3.77, and 39.8% of the participants were overweight or fat. A history of CVD was reported in 0.9%, history of hypertension in 2.8%, history of diabetes in 1.9%, and history of depression in 6.5% of the subjects. High triglyceride levels were detected in 7.4%. Additionally, 45% and 53.7% had controlled their cholesterol and triglyceride levels and blood sugar, correspondingly, for the preceding 2 years. A history of CVD was reported in 20.4% of the study population. The emphasis on CVD risk-factor control was lower among the physicians than among the nurses and faculty members.

The findings of the present study indicate the necessity of modifying lifestyle and controlling CVD risk factors to upgrade the programs of the national health system for reducing the incidence of this disease.

Hand Grip Strength (HGS) is a predictor of upper extremity function, and changes in muscles strength and physical function and capabilities to undertake activities of daily living. Despite toll of pregnancy on musculoskeletal system, assessment of HGS in antenatal care is not a routine practice yet.

The current study aimed to compare HGS in pregnant and non-pregnant females and also investigated the correlation of HGS among the groups.

The current case control study included 174 females (87 pregnant and age-matched non-pregnant controls respectively). HGS was assessed using a hand held Jamar dynamometer. Body adiposity was assessed by a Bioelectric Impedance Analysis machine. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics at P < 0.05.

The results showed that the pregnant and non-pregnant subjects could be compared regarding the age (29.7 ± 5.3 vs. 28.2 ± 5.8 years; P = 0.440). There was significant difference in dominant HGS (26.8 ± 8.9 vs. 29.3 ± 7.1 kgf; P = 0.044) and non-dominant HGS (24.7 ± 8.5 vs. 28.6 ± 8.4 kgf; P = 0.002) between pregnant and non-pregnant subjects, respectively. Physical characteristics weakly correlated with HGS for both dominant and non-dominant hands [correlation (r) ranges from 0.00 - 0.250]. Measures of adiposity significantly correlated with HGS in pregnant and non-pregnant females, respectively (P < 0.05). However, there were significant increases in the measures of adiposity with high parity, gravidity, and advances in stage of pregnancy (P < 0.05).

The current study revealed that pregnant females had significantly lower HGS compared with non-pregnant ones. High parity and gravidity and later stage of pregnancy led to significantly lower HGS. Higher level of adiposity led to poorer performance of HGS in females. It is recommended to evaluate HGS in antenatal care, which may have diagnostic and prognostic benefits.