Participation in everyday occupations among persons with stroke in Iran: An exploration of perceived participation, associated factors and lived experience

The general aim of this thesis was to explore and describe perceived participation in everyday occupations, and the factors associated with participation among persons with stroke in a sample from Iran. Furthermore, the aim was to describe and understand the lived experience of participation in everyday occupations following stroke. This thesis was based on four studies. The first three studies were performed using quantitative methods and the last study used a qualitative method. In Study I the focus was on producing the Persian version of the Impact on Participation and Autonomy (IPA) questionnaire and the psychometric evaluation of the translated version to be used for persons with stroke. In Study II perceived participation and autonomy was described among persons with stroke, and different aspects of functioning and contextual factors associated with participation after stroke were explored and identified in the sample. In Study III the Persian translated version of the Occupational Gaps Questionnaire (OGQ) and the LiSat-11 checklist were produced and psychometrically evaluated to use for persons with stroke. Moreover, this study focused on describing occupational gaps after stroke and exploring their relation to different aspects of functioning and perceived life satisfaction. In Study IV the lived experience of participation in everyday occupations was explored among persons with stroke using the phenomenological approach. The findings of Study I demonstrated that participation can be measured as two different but related dimensions, performance-based participation and social-based participation. The findings of Study II showed that most participation restrictions were perceived in autonomy outdoors activities. It also identified physical function, mood state, and access to caregiving services as the most influential variables associated with dimensions of participation. The findings of Study III supported the psychometric properties of the Persian versions of the OGQ and the LiSat-11, and found “helping and supporting others” and instrumental activities of daily living to be the most common occupations in which individuals perceived gaps in participation. This study also identified the combination of three factors of physical function (including ADL ability), motor function and perceived life satisfaction as being the most influential factors associated with occupational gaps after stroke. The findings of Study IV showed that in order for individuals to adapt to their new life after stroke and be able to live their life, both doing and identity should be addressed in rehabilitation as the aspects defining the phenomenon of participation. In conclusion, this thesis contributes by generating new knowledge regarding the definition of the concept of participation. The findings highlight the importance of both dimensions in the facilitation of adaptation and participation in everyday occupations. Moreover, this thesis emphasises the importance of providing culturally sensitive rehabilitation based on the individuals’ needs and consistent with the sociocultural context when planning appropriate rehabilitation interventions. As a first exploration of participation in everyday occupations after stroke in an Iranian context, this thesis provides instruments for measuring participation and life satisfaction for use in clinical practice and research within rehabilitation in Iran

Robust high-capacity audio watermarking based on FFT amplitude modification

This paper proposes a novel robust audio watermarking algorithm to embed data and extract it in a bit-exact manner based on changing the magnitudes of the FFT spectrum. The key point is selecting a frequency band for embedding based on the comparison between the original and the MP3 compressed/decompressed signal and on a suitable scaling factor. The experimental results show that the method has a very high capacity (about 5 kbps), without significant perceptual distortion (ODG about -0.25) and provides robustness against common audio signal processing such as added noise, filtering and MPEG compression (MP3). Furthermore, the proposed method has a larger capacity (number of embedded bits to number of host bits rate) than recent image data hiding methods

High capacity audio watermarking using FFT amplitude interpolation

An audio watermarking technique in the frequency domain which takes advantage of interpolation is proposed. Interpolated FFT samples are used to generate imperceptible marks. The experimental results show that the suggested method has very high capacity (about 3kbps), without significant perceptual distortion (ODG about -0.5) and provides robustness against common audio signal processing such as echo, add noise, filtering, resampling and MPEG compression (MP3). Depending on the specific application, the tuning parameters could be selected adaptively to achieve even more capacity and better transparency

International recommendations for outpatient palliative care and prehospital palliative emergencies - a prospective questionnaire-based investigation

BACKGROUND: To determine the international recommendations and current practices for the treatment and prevention of palliative emergencies. The primary goal of the study was to gather information from experts on their nationally practised concepts. METHODS: One hundred and fifty self-report surveys were distributed by email to selected leading experts (palliative and emergency medical care) in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. An expert in this context was defined as an author of an article that was ranked by three reviewers as relevant to outpatient palliative and emergency medical . RESULTS: The total response rate was 61% (n = 92 experts). Survey responses were obtained from 35 different countries. The following standards in the treatment of palliative emergencies were recommended: (1) early integration of "Palliative Care Teams" (PCTs) and basic outpatient palliative care systems, (2) end-of-life discussions, (3) defined emergency medical documents, drug boxes, and "Do not attempt resuscitation" orders and (4) emergency medical training (physicians and paramedics). CONCLUSIONS: This study detected structurally and nationally differences in outpatient palliative care regarding the treatment of palliative emergencies. Accordingly, these differences should be discussed and adapted to the respective specifications of individual single countries. A single established outpatient palliative emergency medical care concept may be the basis for an overall out-of-hospital palliative care system

Wireless Body Area Networking: Joint Physical-Networking Layer Simulation and Modeling

An electronic device equipped with sensors and antennas is the main part of the wireless body area networking (WBAN). Such a device is placed near human body and it usually works in a populated environment with many surrounding objects (e.g., building walls). The human body and the objects can change the radiation characteristics of the antenna and impact the performance of the wireless communication system. The wireless communication system’s performance is also affected by the networking layers established on top of the physical layer. Therefore, any designing method for WBAN application should be pervasive, offering a joint physical-networking layer simulation and modeling strategy. To this end, in this chapter, a comprehensive simulation and modeling method is presented. First, antenna design limitations and challenges for wireless body area networking are studied with emphasis on evaluating the antenna’s performance near the human body. Then, the antenna miniaturization techniques to reduce the antennas’ dimension are reviewed. Later, a system level analysis and modeling are used to study short-range communication between the wearable antennas with remote nodes using IEEE 802.11g wireless networking protocol

Synthetic aperture radar-based techniques and reconfigurable antenna design for microwave imaging of layered structures

In the past several decades, a number of microwave imaging techniques have been developed for detecting embedded objects (targets) in a homogeneous media. New applications such as nondestructive testing of layered composite structures, through-wall and medical imaging require more advanced imaging systems and image reconstruction algorithms (post-processing) suitable for imaging inhomogeneous (i.e., layered) media. Currently-available imaging algorithms are not always robust, easy to implement, and fast. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques are some of the more prominent approaches for image reconstruction when considering low loss and homogeneous media. To address limitations of SAR imaging, when interested in imaging an embedded object in an inhomogeneous media with loss, two different methods are introduced, namely; modified piecewise SAR (MPW-SAR) and Wiener filter-based layered SAR (WL-SAR). From imaging system hardware point-of-view, microwave imaging systems require suitable antennas for signal transmission and data collection. A reconfigurable antenna which its characteristics can be dynamically changed provide significant flexibility in terms of beam-forming, reduction in unwanted noise and multiplicity of use including for imaging applications. However, despite these potentially advantageous characteristics, the field of reconfigurable antenna design is fairly new and there is not a methodical design procedure. This issue is addressed by introducing an organized design method for a reconfigurable antenna capable of operating in several distinct frequency bands. The design constraints (e.g., size and gain) can also be included. Based on this method, a novel reconfigurable coplanar waveguide-fed slot antenna is designed to cover several different frequency bands while keeping the antenna size as small as possible --Abstract, page iii

Synthetic strategies for preparing BEDT-TTF derivatives functionalised with metal ion binding groups

The syntheses of BEDT-TTF (ET) derivatives with potential metal ion binding pyridyl, bipyridyl and terpyridyl groups are achieved either by stepwise construction of the organosulfur core or via reactions of hydroxymethyl-ET for which a cheap and efficient four step route is reported. The tosylate of hydroxymethyl-ET, reported for the first time, undergoes nucleophilic substitutions with pyridyl, bipyridyl- and terpyridyl-thiolates to give new donors. The X-ray crystal structures of two substituted ET derivatives show considerable deviation of the organosulfur donor system from planarity by bending about the short molecular axis of the ET group