Visual skills involved in decision making by expert referees

Previous studies have compared visual skills of expert and novice athletes; referees' performance has not been addressed. Visual skills of two groups of expert referees, successful and unsuccessful in decision making, were compared. Using video clips of soccer matches to assess decision-making success of 41 national and international referees from 31 to 42 years of age, 10 top referees were selected as the Successful group and 10 as the Unsuccessful group. Visual tests included visual memory, visual reaction time, peripheral vision, recognition speed, saccadic eye movement, and facility of accommodation. The Successful group had better visual skills than the Unsuccessful group. Such visual skills enhance soccer referees' performance and may be recommended for young referees.     

Genistein ameliorates learning and memory deficits in amyloid β(1-40) rat model of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by increased β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and neuronal dysfunction leading to impaired learning and recall. Ageing, heredity, and induced oxidative stress are among proposed risk factors. The increased frequency of the disease in women also suggests a role for estrogen in development of AD. In the present study, effects of the phytoestrogen genistein (10mg/kg) on learning and memory impairments was assessed in intrahippocampal Aβ(1-40)-injected rats. The estrogen receptor antagonist fulvestrant was injected intracerebroventricularly in a group of Aβ-lesioned rats. The Aβ-injected animals exhibited the following: lower spontaneous alternation score in Y-maze tasks, impaired retention and recall capability in the passive avoidance test, and fewer correct choices and more errors in the RAM task. Genistein, but not genistein and fulvestrant, significantly improved most of these parameters. Measurements of oxidative stress markers in hippocampal tissue of Aβ-injected rats showed an elevation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitrite content, and a reduction of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Genistein significantly attenuated the increased MDA content but did not affect the nitrite content or SOD activity. These results indicate that genistein pretreatment ameliorates Aβ-induced impairment of short-term spatial memory in rats through an estrogenic pathway and by inducing attenuation of oxidative stress.     

Activation of cannabinoid CB1 receptors in the central amygdala impairs inhibitory avoidance memory consolidation via NMDA receptors

In the present study, we investigated the influence of bilateral intra-central amygdala (intra-CeA) microinjections of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor agents on amnesia induced by a cannabinoid CB1 receptor agonist, arachydonilcyclopropylamide (ACPA). This study used a step-through inhibitory (passive) avoidance task to assess memory in adult male Wistar rats. The results showed that intra-CeA administration of ACPA (2 ng/rat) immediately after training decreased inhibitory avoidance (IA) memory consolidation as evidenced by a decrease in step-through latency on the test day, which was suggestive of drug-induced amnesia. Post-training intra-CeA microinjections of NMDA (0.0001, 0.001 and 0.01 μg/rat) did not affect IA memory consolidation. However co-administration of NMDA with ACPA (2 ng/rat) prevented the impairment of IA memory consolidation that was induced by ACPA. Although post-training intra-CeA administration of the NMDA receptor antagonist, d-(−)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (d-AP5; 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 μg/rat) alone had no effect, its co-administration with an ineffective dose of ACPA (1 ng/rat) impaired IA memory consolidation. Post-training intra-CeA microinjection of an ineffective dose of d-AP5 (0.01 μg/rat) prevented an NMDA response to the impaired effect of ACPA. These results suggest that amnesia induced by intra-CeA administration of ACPA is at least partly mediated through an NMDA receptor mechanism in the Ce-A.     

Memory for words as a function of spelling transparency

The authors investigated the impact of spelling transparency on memory for words written in Persian orthography. Adult Persian university students (N = 212) performed in a memory recall experiment on 160 monosyllabic words printed on 8 cards (20 on each card) manipulated for spelling transparency, frequency, and imageability. Each card was presented randomly to the participants and they were asked to read the words aloud as quickly as possible. After reading each card, the participants were asked to engage in a digital addition task for 20 s (as a distracter), which was immediately followed by a request to write down as many words as possible from the cards in 40 s. No significant difference was found in the time to name aloud the opaque and transparent words, whereas on the memory recall task there were main effects for spelling, frequency, and imageability and significant 2-way and 3-way interactions. The effects were greatest for transparent spellings when they were of high frequency and high imageability or low frequency and low imageability. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Religious and Social Principles of Patients’ Rights in Holy Books (Avesta, Torah, Bible, and Quran) and in Traditional Medicine

Health protection and promotion in healthy people and restoring patients’ health have been the most important themes in medicine and health throughout our history. Therefore, discussion of different aspects of patients’ rights includes implementation of these objectives by the medical community, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc., and the people in charge of health affairs. The principal objective of our research is the study of medical ideology and the approaches of our ancestors in relation to different aspects of patients’ rights. To study the different ideologies of traditional medicine in relation to patients’ rights, appropriate data were extracted from the original resources of traditional medicine and from religious books. By means of library research we studied these resources in addition to electronic versions of the Alhavi book (by Rhazes), the Kamel-al-Sanaah (by Ahvazi), the Canon of Medicine (by Avicenna), the Zakhireye Khawrazmshahi (by Jorjani), the Avesta, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, and many other resources, and, finally, after searching, gathering, and encoding the findings, analyzed them qualitatively for thematic content. The holy Avesta book clearly insists on the competence of physicians and setting the appointment fee in accordance with peoples’ income. The Old Testament (holy Torah) warned government officials who did not observe patients’ rights. In the four gospels (holy Bible) the importance of treatment and taking care of the patient is stressed. After the emergence of Islam, medical students, before beginning the principal courses, had to study Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, logic sciences, natural sciences, geometry, astrology, calculus, and similar courses so that after purifying their soul they could enter the saintly profession of physicians. The holy Quran refers to saving the life of a human irrespective of social class, race, and religion, and insists on exemption of patients from physical activity, including the physical aspects of prayer. In these resources, some warnings are offered in relation to fake drugs, the lack of awareness of some physicians, the need for complete preparedness of medical society, and the need to manufacture appropriate drugs and offer a suitable medical service. This information is to familiarize medical and health authorities and persons receiving health services. According to the evidence available about traditional medicine, there was no specific difference between public and professional ethics, public and professional rights, or rights and ethics—ethics were no different from rights nor rights from ethics. So ethics are similar to the soul in the body of rights, and rights are similar to the litter of ethics, and they have developed in parallel with each other. Traditional medicine is community-based and preservation of the health of healthy people is given priority over the treatment of patients; there is insistence that “health rights” has wider scope than “patients’ rights”. It can be stated that health rights in Iran both before and after the emergence of Islam have been based on guidance from divine religions, observation of humanist ethics, passing suitable courses in the basic sciences, and an introduction to the practical piety of our ancestors, in addition to the syllabus of medical and health education.     

I Belong

ABSTRACT

This essay focuses on the experience of an immigrant returning for a visit to her home country after forty years. She describes her surprise at finding herself “at home,” her changed relationship to her family, and her desire to be buried in her ancestors' crypt. She alludes to the immigrant's fate of not belonging to either country.     

Breaking the Borders/Violating the Norms: An Archaeological Survey of an Intersex in a Traditional Society, Bam (South Eastern Iran)

How does breaking boundaries and passing identity red lines affect social and personal life? How do people with contradictory identities experience life in a traditional society? What will happen if the material and bodily identity of an individual goes against social norms? This research is a narration of some parts of an intersex life, an individual with a vague, unknown identity who contradicts the common norms of the society. In a traditional society, where gender and sexual identity act as a taboo and a powerful source of identity, people with uncommon (gender and sexual) identities suffer from an unstable social status. The story of Setareh/Saman’s life is told based on the archaeological remains from the debris of destroyed layers of a house in Bam. This is the story of transforming from female to male, the story of limitations, social inequalities and pressures on the individuals and the minorities who are condemned because of who they are.     

Does theory of mind performance differ in children with early‐onset and regressive autism?

A deficit in theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to infer the mental states of others, has been implicated as one of the major characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, little attention has been devoted to possible differences in ToM ability within ASD. The current study examined ToM performance in children with early-onset autism and regressive autism in comparison to typically developing children. Results indicated that children in the regressive autism group performed significantly better than the early-onset autism group on the non-verbal appearance-reality task. Additionally, Fisher's exact tests indicated a pattern of lowest scores in the early-onset group and highest scores in the typically developing group, whereas the regressive autism group tended to score in between the early-onset and typically developing groups. The apparent heterogeneity in ToM performance within ASD could account for the lack of universality in ToM ability found in previous studies.     

A pilot investigation into unimpaired and dyslexic Persian children's word naming and spelling: Implications for models of reading and counselling

There is now a growing body of research examining developmental dyslexia in different languages and writing systems. The phonologically transparent Persian orthography is normally transcribed with two distinct spellings, words spelled with vowels (letters) transcribed as a fixed part of the spelling (transparent) and words spelled with vowels (diacritics) omitted (opaque). This peculiarity of Persian would enable one to examine the impact of transparency, as well as the possible psychological factors associated with verbal punishment in Persian schools on the development of reading and spelling. Twenty-nine Persian children (22 male and 7 female) classified as being developmentally dyslexic (mean age 9.4, SD?=?1.4) were compared with 49 unimpaired male children (mean age 9, SD?=?1.3) on two main aspects of reading Persian opaque and transparent spellings, namely: Spelling and word naming. The results showed an expected impairment on all aspects of reading between unimpaired and children with dyslexia. However, performance of both groups of participants was impaired when performing tasks with opaque as opposed to transparent spellings. There was also a strong correlation between the recorded number of times the dyslexic child was verbally punished and the number of errors on the spelling and naming of transparent and opaque words. These results are supportive of the impact of spelling transparency, as well as psychological variables as factors in the development of reading and spelling.