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Increasing trend in the number of vehicles and consequently intensifying the traffic volume, traffic lights optimum timing plays a vital role in congestion mitigation in the critical intersections of urban areas. This paper gives an insight into traffic light timing using simulation modeling methods. In fact, this study aims at minimizing the average time that entities (vehicles) spend in the system (intersection). First, real data including vehicles arrive and leave times, and the time spent waiting at a red light etc. is collected through monitoring an intersection in downtown Urmia, Iran. Then, a simulation model is developed using Arena Simulation Software. The most important feature of the proposed model is the replacement a four-stroke traffic light with the current three-stroke one. After model validation, several alternatives are considered for traffic light timing and the one which resulted the minimum average time spent in the system is selected. According to the simulation results, the four-stroke traffic light yielded a better performance compared to the three-stroke one.

Objective Early diagnosis and coherent rehabilitation programs play a key role in improving receptive and expressive language and communicational skills of deaf children. Communication with their parents could influence the development of languages and communication skills in these children. It is important to ensure parental involvement in the rehabilitation of deaf children as parent-therapists show the necessity for the provision of a comprehensive family-centered rehabilitation program along with the diagnosis of hearing loss and audiological and etiological evaluations. Materials & Methods This is an experimental study, with pre-test and post-test design. Sixty-two 0-2 years-old deaf children (30 girls and 32 boys), who either had undergone cochlear implant surgery or were candidates for cochlear implant surgery and had medical records at the Cochlear Implant Center in the Rasul Akram Hospital, were selected using purposive sampling. The subjects were then randomly divided into two groups (experimental and control groups). The subjects of the experimental group received the Navayesh parent-based comprehensive rehabilitation program in 18 group and individual sessions (6 group sessions and 12 individual sessions). To investigate early language and communication skills, the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, third edition, and the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile were used. In addition, the Univariate and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used for the analysis of data. Results The findings of this study demonstrated that post-test average scores in communication skills increased in the experimental group compared to the control group with respect to pre-test (43.33). In addition, the MANCOVA results suggested that Navayesh comprehensive rehabilitation program was effective in increasing the scores in the areas of communication skills, expressive language, and symbolic behavior (P<0.001). Conclusion The results are indicative of the effect of the Navayesh parent-based comprehensive rehabilitation program on the development of early language and communication skills of deaf children. Therefore, it is recommended that this program should be used at rehabilitation centers for deaf children, aiming at training parents as the primary therapists of deaf children.

Introduction: The importance of early detection and intervention of communication and language problems has increased the need for appropriate tools in this area. This study with aim to evaluating the psychometric properties of Persian version of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS DP) infant/ toddler questionnaire has been done. Methods: In a cross-sectional study the Persian version of the CSBS DP was submitted to 157 participants randomly drawn from 8 kindergartens of Tehran city (Iran) in year 2020. Internal consistency, reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity were evaluated. Concurrent validity was explored with total score of two questionnaires (Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)). Results: The correlation between CSBS DP questionnaire with ASQ-3 and CDI were 0.88 and 0.64 respectively. The test-re-test reliability and internal consistency were 0.78 and 0.77 respectively. The confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate construct validity of the Persian version of the CSBS DP questionnaire. RMSEA, GFI and AGFI were <0.000, >0.9 and >0.9 respectively; moreover, other indexes were satisfactory. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the validity and reliability of Persian version of CSBS DP questioner is approved and these tools can be used for early detection of evaluating language problems in in infant toddler.

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