Hasil untuk "Vocational rehabilitation. Employment of people with disabilities"

Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Kurtis Weir et al.

External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) have been proposed to facilitate communication between Automated Vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians. However, no attention was given to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) people. We conducted a formative study through focus groups with 6 DHH people and 6 key stakeholders (including researchers, assistive technologists, and automotive interface designers) to compare proposed eHMIs and extract key design requirements. Subsequently, we investigated the effects of visual and auditory eHMI in a virtual reality user study with 32 participants (16 DHH). Results from our scenario suggesting that (1) DHH participants spent more time looking at the AV; (2) both visual and auditory eHMIs enhanced trust, usefulness, and perceived safety; and (3) only visual eHMIs reduced the time to step into the road, time looking at the AV, gaze time, and percentage looking at active visual eHMI components. Lastly, we provided five practical implications for making eHMI inclusive of DHH people.

Muneeb Hassan, Shehla Ali, Muhammad Kamal Sardar Ali et al.

Abstract: Background: In sports that involve overhead movements, the overuse injuries occurs due to the repetitive exertion of force in an arc overhead exerts significant stress on the shoulder and elbow joints. Objective: To find out the frequency of shoulder and elbow overuse injuries among overhead athletes and the association of frequency with associated factors such as age, gender, sport, years of experience and weekly playing hours. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Peshawar Sports Complex and Hayatabad Sports Complex, Peshawar from July to October 2024. A total of 132 athletes of ages between 18-40 years were included in this study. Data was collected through Oslo Sports Trauma Centre Overuse Injury Questionnaire from the athletes. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27.0 to create graphs and tables. Chi square test was used for statistical analysis to find the association between overuse injuries and its risk factors. Results: A total of 132 athletes were part of this study. The frequency of shoulder overuse injuries was 17.4% while the frequency of elbow overuse injuries was 5.3%. Most of the affected athletes were between the ages of 18-25 years. There was no significant association between the frequency of shoulder and elbow overuse injuries and its risk factors. Conclusion: This study concluded that statistically, the overuse injuries do not show significant association with the factors such as age, gender, sport, years of experience and weekly training hours. Keywords: Elbow Injuries, Overhead Athletes, Overuse Injuries, Shoulder Injuries

Mahnoor Zia, Zainab Noor Qazi, Sana Javaid et al.

Background: Low back pain is a global health issue and leading cause of disability. It is frequently treated by using manual treatments in physiotherapy clinics including mobilizations and spinal traction. Objective: To determine and compare the effects of joint mobilizations and manual spinal traction on pain, disablity and joint range of motion in mechanical low back pain Methodology: In the Physiotherapy Department of Aziz Bhatti Hospital, Gujrat, 34 participants with the complaint of diagnosed and confirmed cases of mechanical low back pain, aged 25 to 65 years were split into two equal groups for a randomized clinical trial. Group A received Passive Translatoric Intervertebral Glides while Group B received Manual Lumbar Traction (MLT) and both received conventional core stability exercises. Data was gathered using Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Modified Oswestry Diability Index (MODI), and a universal goniometer at baseline, 2nd week and 4th week using Non-probability convenient sampling technique. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis. (Clinical Trial Registry Number: NCT05522543) Results: A significant improvement in pain, disability and range of motion was seen in both groups at the 4th week of intervention (p< 0.001). However, Group B (MLT) showed more improvement in NPRS compared with Group A (PTIG). Both the treatment groups including PTIG (p< 0.001) and MLT (p< 0.001) showed significant reduction in disability scores however no statistically significant difference was found in inter-group analysis for disability score (p=0.274), Flexion(p=0.610) or Extension (p=0.170). Conclusion: The study concluded that both treatments are effective in lowering the pain, disability and improving lumbar range of motion. However, significant improvement was found in group B in reducing pain, while overall no significant group differences were observed. Keywords: Joint range of motion, Mechanical low back pain, Mobilizations, Traction

Yue Xu, Bo Chen, Kelly Hsieh

<i>Background</i>: People with disabilities, particularly those from developing countries, often fare worse during disasters, pandemics, and other emergencies. China is located in the most disaster-prone region in the world. However, no study has examined emergency evacuation planning among people with disabilities in China. The latest literature on emergency preparedness tends to focus on individual-level factors such as demographic characteristics, self-efficacy, and disability status. A focus on individual-level factors overlooks the importance of environmental influences on disaster preparation. <i>Objective</i>: This paper explores how individual and environmental factors are associated with emergency preparedness among people with disabilities in China. <i>Methods</i>: Two hundred and forty-eight people with various disabilities filled out an online cross-sectional survey on the level of emergency preparedness among people with disabilities in China. We conducted a hierarchical logistic regression to examine which environmental-level factors are associated with emergency preparedness after controlling for individual-level factors. <i>Results</i>: The results show that when entering only individual-level factors, self-efficacy in evacuation and previous emergency experiences are significant factors associated with being prepared. After including the environmental-level factors, self-efficacy remains significant. People with a physical disability and those from Hubei province, when compared with respondents from the rest of China, are less likely to be prepared. Another protective factor other than self-efficacy is being part of an online disability peer-support group. <i>Conclusions</i>: When designing risk management interventions, public health officials should consider both individual- and environmental-level factors. Using an online peer-support community may be considered an innovative component when designing these interventions.

Maxime Usdin, Lito Kriara, Licinio Craveiro

Early multiple sclerosis (MS) disability progression prediction is challenging due to disease heterogeneity. This work predicts 48- and 72-week disability using sparse baseline clinical data and 12 weeks of daily digital Floodlight data from the CONSONANCE clinical trial. We employed state-of-the-art tabular and time-series foundation models (FMs), a custom multimodal attention-based transformer, and machine learning methods. Despite the difficulty of early prediction (AUROC 0.63), integrating digital data via advanced models improved performance over clinical data alone. A transformer model using unimodal embeddings from the Moment FM yielded the best result, but our multimodal transformer consistently outperformed its unimodal counterpart, confirming the advantages of combining clinical with digital data. Our findings demonstrate the promise of FMs and multimodal approaches to extract predictive signals from complex and diverse clinical and digital life sciences data (e.g., imaging, omics), enabling more accurate prognostics for MS and potentially other complex diseases.

Yordan Kalmukov

In the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots, based on large language models that can generate programming code in any language, write texts and summarize information, it is obvious that the requirements of employers for graduating students have already changed. The modern IT world offers significant automation of programming through software frameworks and a huge set of third-party libraries and application programming interfaces (APIs). All these tools provide most of the necessary functionality out of the box (already implemented), and quite naturally the question arises as to what is more useful for students - to teach how to use these ready-made tools or the basic principles of working and development of web applications from scratch. This paper analyzes the results of a survey conducted among IT employers, aimed to identify what, in their opinion, are the necessary technical skills that graduating students in the field of Web Programming should possess in order to join the company's work as quickly and effectively as possible.

Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Ruiying Hu, Sharon Lin et al.

Blind and Low Vision (BLV) people have adopted AI-powered visual interpretation applications to address their daily needs. While these applications have been helpful, prior work has found that users remain unsatisfied by their frequent errors. Recently, multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have been integrated into visual interpretation applications, and they show promise for more descriptive visual interpretations. However, it is still unknown how this advancement has changed people's use of these applications. To address this gap, we conducted a two-week diary study in which 20 BLV people used an MLLM-enabled visual interpretation application we developed, and we collected 553 entries. In this paper, we report a preliminary analysis of 60 diary entries from 6 participants. We found that participants considered the application's visual interpretations trustworthy (mean 3.75 out of 5) and satisfying (mean 4.15 out of 5). Moreover, participants trusted our application in high-stakes scenarios, such as receiving medical dosage advice. We discuss our plan to complete our analysis to inform the design of future MLLM-enabled visual interpretation systems.

Natalia Kucirkova, Alexis Hiniker, Megumi Ishikawa et al.

This paper outlines the challenges and opportunities of research on conversational agents with children and young people across four countries, exploring the ways AI technologies can support children's well-being across social and cultural contexts.

Ikekhwa A. Ikhile, Azwihangwisi H. Mavhandu-Mudzusi, Ndlovu Sinegugu

Background: This article addresses the intersectional challenges faced by Queer people living with disabilities (QPwD). Objectives: The article aims to highlight the nature and extent of their struggles while proposing inclusive policies for societal integration and equality. Amid global efforts to promote Queer rights, discrimination and violence persist, particularly affecting those with disabilities. Method: Drawing upon a comprehensive review of literature and empirical research, this study investigated the experiences of QPwD, identifying key challenges such as limited access to inclusive services, heightened vulnerability to abuse and systemic unemployment. The methodological approach used in this study involves synthesising existing scholarship and empirical evidence to inform the proposed inclusive policies. Results: The findings reveal pervasive barriers encountered by QPwD, including societal stigma, attitudinal biases and physical obstacles. Discrimination in employment, education and healthcare further exacerbates their marginalisation, necessitating proactive measures to address systemic inequalities and promote social inclusion. Conclusion: In conclusion, this article underscores the urgent need for policy reforms and societal interventions to uphold the rights and dignity of QPwD. By advocating for Queer-inclusive workplace policies, enhancing accessibility in public infrastructure and fostering governmental support for equality initiatives, this study contributes to advancing social justice and inclusivity. Contribution: The article calls for concerted efforts to create a more equitable and inclusive society where all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or disability status, can thrive and fulfil their potential.

Safar M. Alqahtani

<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto" id="d29149e104">Osteoarthritis (OA), also referred to as degenerative joint disorder, is a common kind of arthritis that affects millions of people worldwide and is characterized by cartilage degradation in joints. Complementary alternative medicine has recently sparked interest due to the potential of bioactive phytochemicals to control molecular pathways with fewer side effects. This study utilized a network pharmacology (NP) approach to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of active constituents of <i>Trianthema portulacastrum</i> L. in treating OA. Active components were obtained from the indian medicinal plants, phytochemistry and therapeutics (IMPPAT) and KNApSAcK databases and the literature, while their related targets were obtained through the Swiss Target Prediction and STITCH databases. Additionally, OA-related targets were obtained from microarray datasets (GSE55235 and GSE55457) using the Gene Expression Omnibus. To annotate target proteins, the DAVID Gene Ontology database was utilized, while KEGG pathways were employed to analyze such signaling pathways in which potential targets are involved. The STRING database along with Cytoscape was utilized to establish protein–protein interaction networks, and CytoHubba’s degree centrality scoring was utilized to identify core genes. Molecular docking analysis was conducted using PyRx. The KEGG pathway and network analyses identified one gene named Jun proto-oncogene (JUN) as mainly involved in OA. Three active ingredients, namely quercetin, stigmasterol, and ecdysterone, were found to influence JUN expression and potentially act as therapeutic targets for OA. The three complexes (JUN_ecdysterone, JUN_quercetin, and JUN_stigmasterol) also revealed stable dynamics and showed no major conformational changes during the simulation time. These observations were validated in the simulation-based binding free energy analysis. The integrated NP and docking study suggested <i>T. portulacastrum</i>’s preventative effect on OA by targeting OA-relevant signaling pathways. </p>

Ilhaam Hoosen, Fiona Breytenbach, Janine van der Linde

Background: Healthcare transition (HCT), the process of transitioning an adolescent from paediatric- to adult-oriented care, is vital for improving the long-term health of adolescents with chronic conditions. The role of occupational therapy in HCT has not been well-researched. Effective HCT practices are necessary to ensure that adolescents have access to coordinated, optimal and uninterrupted occupational therapy services throughout this period of development. Objectives: This study describes occupational therapists’ self-perceived knowledge of HCT within the context of South African public health facilities, the HCT practices used, and the factors that promote or hinder the success of HCT within this context. Method: The study utilised a quantitative, non-experimental and descriptive cross-sectional design. Simple convenience and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants via professional databases and social media forums. An online survey was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and simple content analysis were used to analyse the information. Results: This study identifies limitations in the knowledge and practical implementation of HCT within South African occupational therapy practice. Healthcare transition is characterised by inadequate use of policies, insufficient transition preparation and poor outcome measurements. Conclusion: There is a need for the development of training programmes and practice guidelines to optimise and support HCT implementation within South African occupational therapy practice. Contribution: This study provides novel data on HCT practices utilised by occupational therapists in South African public health facilities. This study has potential use for the development of effective HCT programmes that can improve the functional outcomes of South African adolescents.

Nahar Afrin, Mohammad Shaikhul Hasan, Nahid Parvez Tonmay et al.

Objectives: The speech and language therapy (SLT) profession in Bangladesh has been around for a decade. Yet, therapists are facing challenges in measuring the effectiveness of SLT services after providing this therapeutic intervention to the patient for a certain period. Due to patients’ demands, there is an increasing need to develop and adapt outcome measurement tools for patients with communication difficulties. Accordingly, this study examines the validity and reliability of communication outcomes after the stroke scale developed in the Bengali language for individuals with stroke.  Methods: Content validity of the communication outcome after stroke Bengali (COAST-BD) scale was determined by item objective congruence (IOC) as ≥0.67 of three experts. Meanwhile, 110 stroke survivors and their caregivers from the SLT department of CRP hospital were enrolled in this study, considering one-to-two-week intervals for examining the test re-test reliability of the scale. The Cronbach α, correlation matrix, the Kaiser-Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test and the Bartlett test (χ2), in addition to the intraclass correlation coefficient, were applied to compute the psychometric properties of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to identify the potential item structure in the scale.  Results: The Cronbach α coefficient for the internal consistency of the overall scale was 0.97 and 0.89. The interclass correlation coefficient for the test re-test reliability of the COAST-BD scale was 0.96 and the composite reliability score ranged from 0.70 to 0.91. The COAST-BD scale estimated correlated values among its subscales on visit-1 (0.370 to 0.661) and visit-2 (0.288 to 0.520), respectively. The KMO test and χ2 were also calculated correlation values on visit-1 (KMO=0.628; χ2=82.90) and visit-2 (KMO=0.614; χ2=48.10), respectively.  Discussion: The COAST-BD scale showed significant internal consistency, test re-test reliability, correlation matrix, and construct validity.

Jordyn Young, Laala M Jawara, Diep N Nguyen et al.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is integrated into everyday technology, including news, education, and social media. AI has further pervaded private conversations as conversational partners, auto-completion, and response suggestions. As social media becomes young people's main method of peer support exchange, we need to understand when and how AI can facilitate and assist in such exchanges in a beneficial, safe, and socially appropriate way. We asked 622 young people to complete an online survey and evaluate blinded human- and AI-generated responses to help-seeking messages. We found that participants preferred the AI-generated response to situations about relationships, self-expression, and physical health. However, when addressing a sensitive topic, like suicidal thoughts, young people preferred the human response. We also discuss the role of training in online peer support exchange and its implications for supporting young people's well-being. Disclaimer: This paper includes sensitive topics, including suicide ideation. Reader discretion is advised.

José M. Alcalde-Llergo, Carlos García-Martínez, Manuel Vaquero-Abellán et al.

Homelessness is a social and health problem with great repercussions in Europe. Many non-governmental organisations help homeless people by collecting and analysing large amounts of information about them. However, these tasks are not always easy to perform, and hinder other of the organisations duties. The SINTECH project was created to tackle this issue proposing two different tools: a mobile application to quickly and easily collect data; and a software based on artificial intelligence which obtains interesting information from the collected data. The first one has been distributed to some Spanish organisations which are using it to conduct surveys of homeless people. The second tool implements different feature selection and association rules mining methods. These artificial intelligence techniques have allowed us to identify the most relevant features and some interesting association rules from previously collected homeless data.

Mohammad Karimi, Hossein-Ahmed Barabadi, Abbas Nesayan et al.

Objectives: Recently, considerable attention has been paid to the field of positive psychology, and one of the variables that has been investigated in this field is narrative therapy. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of narrative therapy on the psychological capital of mothers of children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Methods: This study was an applied experimental research (pre-test-post-test with a control group). The study’s statistical population includes mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Aliabad Katul City, Iran, in the academic year of 2021-2022 who volunteered to participate in the research. From this population, 30 mothers who scored low on the psychological capital questionnaire were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two groups (experimental and control). Luthans psychological capital questionnaire was used to collect data. The intervention was a narrative therapy educational program implemented in eight 50-minute sessions in a group format. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis in SPSS software, version 22. Results: The results demonstrated that narrative therapy has a significant effect on increasing psychological capital (P=0.05). Also, the results showed that narrative therapy significantly affects dimensions of psychological capital including self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism. Discussion: Therefore, a training program in narrative therapy can be used as a helpful treatment to increase the psychological capital of mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Anahita Giti, Vahid Rashedi, Parisa Jalilzadeh Afshari et al.

Objectives: Accurate scientific planning and societal macro policies require reviewing and evaluating research output. Scientometrics offers a valuable approach for assessing the activity of journals that publish a majority of scientific productions. This study aims to analyze the scientific activity of the Iranian Rehabilitation Journal (IRJ) by examining its publication history in the Scopus database. Methods: This bibliometric analysis adopts a scientometrics approach and includes all documents published in IRJ indexed in the Scopus database. Data collection and analysis were performed using VOSviewer and Excel software. Results: IRJ has been active since 2003, initially publishing seven articles in the Scopus database. The journal boasts an H-index 11 and has produced 701 documents over 20 years. The citation score for the journal in 2022 was approximately 0.6. The University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences had the highest number of affiliated articles (n=395). The most productive author was “Dadkhah” with 42 documents; the most cited author was “Masah”. Most documents are articles written in English, and the most frequently used keyword is “Rehabilitation”. Discussion: This study offers an overview of the status of IRJ, indicating an increasing trend in the number of documents published and citations received since its establishment. The research findings can serve as a road map for researchers in the field of rehabilitation, providing valuable insights for future studies. Coresponding author: Marzieh Golchin, E-mail: golchinlib@yahoo.com You can also search for this author in: Google Scholar

Yichun Zhao, Miguel A. Nacenta, Mahadeo A. Sukhai et al.

Diagrams often appear as node-link representations in many contexts, such as taxonomies, mind maps and networks in textbooks. Despite their pervasiveness, they present significant accessibility challenges for blind and low-vision people. To address this challenge, we introduce Touch-and-Audio-based Diagram Access (TADA), a tablet-based interactive system that makes diagram exploration accessible through musical tones and speech. We designed and developed TADA informed by insights gained from an interview study with 15 participants who shared their challenges and strategies for accessing diagrams. TADA enables people to access a diagram by: i) engaging in open-ended touch-based explorations, ii) allowing searching of specific nodes, iii) navigating from one node to another and iv) filtering information. We evaluated TADA with 25 participants and found that it can be a useful tool for gaining different perspectives about the diagram and participants could complete several diagram-related tasks.

Hsiang-Wei Huang, Cheng-Yen Yang, Zhongyu Jiang et al.

Multi-camera multiple people tracking has become an increasingly important area of research due to the growing demand for accurate and efficient indoor people tracking systems, particularly in settings such as retail, healthcare centers, and transit hubs. We proposed a novel multi-camera multiple people tracking method that uses anchor-guided clustering for cross-camera re-identification and spatio-temporal consistency for geometry-based cross-camera ID reassigning. Our approach aims to improve the accuracy of tracking by identifying key features that are unique to every individual and utilizing the overlap of views between cameras to predict accurate trajectories without needing the actual camera parameters. The method has demonstrated robustness and effectiveness in handling both synthetic and real-world data. The proposed method is evaluated on CVPR AI City Challenge 2023 dataset, achieving IDF1 of 95.36% with the first-place ranking in the challenge. The code is available at: https://github.com/ipl-uw/AIC23_Track1_UWIPL_ETRI.

K. Brongers, T. Hoekstra, L. Wilming et al.

Abstract Purpose Although most clients on work disability benefits face multiple problems, most traditional interventions for (re)integration focus on a single problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the “Comprehensive Approach to Reintegrate clients with multiple problems” (CARm), which provides a strategy for labour experts to build a relationship with each client in order to support clients in their needs and mobilize their social networks. Methods This study is a stratified, two-armed, non-blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT), with a 12-month follow-up period. Outcome measures were: having paid work, level of functioning, general health, quality of life, and social support. Results We included a total of 207 clients in our study; 97 in the intervention group and 110 in the care as usual (CAU) group. The clients’ mean age was 35.4 years (SD 12.8), 53.1% were female, and 179 (86.5%) reported multiple problems. We found the CARm intervention to have no significant effects superior to those of the CAU group on all outcomes. Conclusion As we found no superior effect of the CARm intervention compared to CAU, we cannot recommend widespread adoption of CARm. A process evaluation will give more insight into possible implementation failure of the intervention. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Most traditional interventions for (re)integration into the labour market are problem-centred, i.e., focusing on a single problem, and have limited effectiveness in persons with multiple problems. A strength-based intervention may be suitable for vocational rehabilitation and disability settings, since it contains many elements (e.g., being strength-based, focused on clients’ wishes and goals, and involving activation of the social environment) also likely to improve chances of re-employment of persons with multiple problems. In this study a strength-based intervention did not show a superior effect on paid employment and functioning within one year follow-up compared to care as usual in people with multiple problems on a work disability benefit.

Rabbiya Riaz, Omar W Althomali, Bushra Sultana et al.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a persistent joint disorder, which normally affects the weight bearing joints especially knee joint. Lateral wedge insole is one such approach suggested by professionals to manage the knee osteoarthritis. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of lateral wedge insoles on knee osteoarthritis outcomes in Pakistani population Design: A single-blinded, pretest-posttest comparison. Setting: District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital, Bahawalnagar and National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (NIRM), for a time period of one month. Population: Patients with the age criteria of 40-70 years, and who had knee OA were included in the study. Methods: Participants were randomly divided in two groups; lateral wedge insoles (LWI) group (n=20), and conventional physical therapy (CPT) group (n=20). Pain, stiffness, activities of daily living, sports and recreational activities, and quality of life was assessed on Urdu version of Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score scale (KOOS) on every week till 4th week of intervention. Mixed ANOVA was used for interaction effect of between-subject factor (group) and within-subject factor (time) with-in group analysis and one way ANOVA for between group comparisons with their effect size (ɳp2). Results: Significant improvement with large effect size was observed in Symptoms and stiffness (p<0.001, ɳp2=.329} , pain (p<0.001, ɳp2=.559), functional activities (p<0.001, ɳp2=.394), recreational activities (p<0.001, ɳp2=.369) and quality of life (p<0.001, ɳp2=.280). The CPT group showed more significant improvement (p<0.001) in all domains of KOOS as compared to LWI group. Conclusion: Lateral wedge insoles (LWI) and conventional physical therapy (CPT) both have positive impact on knee osteoarthritis outcomes. But conventional physical therapy was more effective in improving functional independence. Clinical rehabilitation impact: This study provides the evidence on the use of LWI and CPT as alternative strategies to improving Knee OA outcome measures. Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, functional independence, geriatric population, musculoskeletal physiotherapy, orthotics, quality of life, rehabilitation