Kind Of Impairment Research Articles

The Emotional and Physical Problems of People with Friedreich’s Ataxia and Their Perception about Discrimination

Living with disabilities might be difficult because of environmental and societal barriers. Societal barriers against people with disabilities generally include discriminative ideas of people with no disabilities. In this study I focus on the experiences of people with specific kind of disability namely Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA). Since it is a progressive disorder, people with FA might experience different kinds of impairments at the same time and they might confront many obstacles from society. To understand their emotional and physical problems one qualitative and one quantitative study were conducted in the current research study. In quantitative part it was found that perceived social support is an important factor for the affect situation of people with FA. In qualitative part it was revealed that people with FA confront both environmental obstacles like the disabling streets for wheelchairs and societal obstacles like discriminative behaviors toward them. In this light in future studies researchers might focus on the ways to reduce discriminative ideas of non-disabled people.

The reality of tourism for people with disabilities (accessible tourism) in Najran region, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Purpose: This research identifies the reality of accessible tourism—traveling to places that are welcoming to individuals with disabilities. Additionally, variations in the respondents' responses were examined in relation to the factors of gender, kind of impairment, and the purpose of the visit.
 
 Methods: To accomplish the objective of the study, the descriptive approach using a survey method was utilized. The research team created a "electronic questionnaire" for the study, which included sixteen items split over three domains: promotion, access, and reception. It was applied to a group of (106) male and female volunteers who had mild visual, mild hearing, and mild movement impairments. The stratified random method was used to choose the sample from the area of Najran in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
 Results: The results demonstrated that, from the perspective of the study sample, the reality of tourism for individuals with disabilities (accessible tourism) in Najran region was at a low level. The promotion and reception domains placed second and third consecutively at low levels, while the domain of access to tourist destinations came out on top at a medium level. According to the replies of the survey sample, statistically significant disparities were also discovered in the reality of accessible tourism for individuals with disabilities in Najran region, favoring visual and hearing impairments. In addition, there were differences because of the variable nature of the visit in favor of the nature of the visit with the center; however, no statistically significant variations showed up regarding the variable gender.
 
 Implications and values: In order to promote accessible tourism, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage in Najran region and the various community institutions need to exert more efforts to support and promote this kind of tourism.

Experimental Testing and Validation of Adaptive Equalizer Using Machine Learning Algorithm

Due to the increasing demand for high-speed data transmission, wireless communication has become more advanced. Unfortunately, the various kinds of impairments that can occur when carrying data symbols through a wireless channel can affect the network performance. Some of the solutions that are proposed to address these issues include channel equalization, and that can be solved through machine learning techniques. In this paper, a hybrid approach is proposed that combines the features of tracking mode and training mode of adaptive equalizer. This method utilizes the concept of machine learning (ML) to classify different environments (highly, medium, low, open space cluttered) based on the measurements of their RF signal. The results of the study revealed that the proposed method can perform well in real-time deployments. The performance of ML algorithms namely Logistic Regression, KNN Classifier, SVM Classifier, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree classifier and Random Forest classifier is analyzed for different number of samples such as 10, 50 and 100. The performance of these algorithms is evaluated by comparing their accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1 score and Confusion Matrix. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that a single ML algorithm cannot perform well in all kinds of environments. In order to choose the best algorithm for a given environment, the decision device has to analyze the various factors that affect the performance of the system. For instance, the random forest classifier performed well in terms of accuracy (100 percent), specificity (100 percent), sensitivity (100 percent), and F1_score (100 percent). On the other hand, the logistic regression algorithm did not perform well in low cluttered environment.

Later-Life Functionality in Married Women: The Mediating Role of Self-Perpetuating BMI and Pain Trajectories.

The current study investigated how pain and BMI trajectories mediate the influence of family stress (1991-1994) on later-life impaired functionality (2017) in women. The study used prospective data from 244 mid-older rural Midwest Caucasian women who were in long-term marriages over a span of 27 years. Within the structural equation framework, the analytical model used latent constructs of family stress and trajectories of pain and BMI to predict later-life functionality. BMI and pain trajectories mutually influenced each other in forming a self-perpetuating cycle over time in mid-older women. Further, midlife family stress shaped BMI and pain trajectories, and these trajectories had consequences for later-life functionality, as defined by three kinds of impairments: physical, cognitive (subjective memory), and social (loneliness). The findings emphasize the need for policies and interventions that focus on reducing women's stressful family circumstances in middle years to weaken and redirect their association with BMI and pain trajectories.

Joint equalization of EEPN, RSOP, and CD with the sliding window assisted extended Kalman filter for a high baud rate Stokes vector direct detection system.

Equalization-enhanced phase noise (EEPN) has emerged as one of the major impairments that cannot be ignored for a high baud rate Stokes vector direct detection (SVDD) system. When EEPN interacts with the rotation of state-of-polarization (RSOP) and chromatic dispersion (CD), the joint impairment effects become even more complicated. To achieve the joint equalization of EEPN, RSOP, and CD impairments of a high baud rate SVDD system, this paper first derives a joint impairment model of these three kinds of impairments, and then proposes a joint equalization scheme of EEPN, RSOP, and CD with a sliding window assisted extended Kalman filter (SWA-EKF). The SWA-EKF scheme first tracks RSOP in the time domain, subsequently compensates CD in the frequency domain, and finally performs EEPN mitigation in the time domain again. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme has been verified by a 60 GBaud SVDD-16QAM simulation system. The results show that when these three impairments are jointly equalized, the SWA-EKF scheme can track RSOP as fast as 3Mrad/s, cumulative dispersion up to 1600ps/nm, and EEPN caused by laser linewidth up to 3MHz. In addition, with an optical signal-to-noise ratio penalty of 0.3dB, it could increase 35G baud rate under 3MHz laser linewidth for the SVDD system. More importantly, its total complexity can be reduced to an order of O(N log N).

Disrupted visual input unveils the computational details of artificial neural networks for face perception.

Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN), with its great performance, has attracted attention of researchers from many disciplines. The studies of the DCNN and that of biological neural systems have inspired each other reciprocally. The brain-inspired neural networks not only achieve great performance but also serve as a computational model of biological neural systems. Here in this study, we trained and tested several typical DCNNs (AlexNet, VGG11, VGG13, VGG16, DenseNet, MobileNet, and EfficientNet) with a face ethnicity categorization task for experiment 1, and an emotion categorization task for experiment 2. We measured the performance of DCNNs by testing them with original and lossy visual inputs (various kinds of image occlusion) and compared their performance with human participants. Moreover, the class activation map (CAM) method allowed us to visualize the foci of the "attention" of these DCNNs. The results suggested that the VGG13 performed the best: Its performance closely resembled human participants in terms of psychophysics measurements, it utilized similar areas of visual inputs as humans, and it had the most consistent performance with inputs having various kinds of impairments. In general, we examined the processing mechanism of DCNNs using a new paradigm and found that VGG13 might be the most human-like DCNN in this task. This study also highlighted a possible paradigm to study and develop DCNNs using human perception as a benchmark.

Life design counselling with a learner from a vocational school setting

This article reports on the usefulness of life design counselling for a learner from a vocational school (learner with intellectual impairment) when making post school decisions. Vocational and/or career research and reporting on people with intellectual disability/impairment, especially in the South African education context, is limited and infrequent. A purposively sampled, single, intervention case study was utilised. Data generation and analysis were approached simultaneously. The intervention uncovered career/vocational themes significant to the participant. These themes highlighted the meaning he attributed to work and his role and purpose in the world of work. The intervention also proved effective in cultivating his self- and career-efficacy and adaptability. Post intervention, the participant more confidently pursued his passion and was able to identify and utilise resources more definitely. Further, longitudinal research with groups of people with different kinds of impairment from vocational school settings is needed to further examine the value of the intervention described here.

The role of age on speech development in subjects with cochlear implants

The cochlear implant has been approved as a method of treating bilateral deep deafness since the 1980s, and since then candidate selection methods have changed several times. Initially, the candidates were only adult patients, and in 1990 the cochlear implant was approved for the first time in children under 2 years of age by the US Food and Drug Administration. In 2000, the same US Administration reduced the limit to one year. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age at cochlear implantation on speech recognition abilities. Concerning the age groups in which the subjects were assigned to, the best results on the tests were achieved by the group who underwent cochlear implantation at the youngest age. In conclusion, the benefit from cochlear implant in subjects with pre-lingual hearing impairment of the most severe degree has to be stressed and it is much bigger in comparison to individual amplifying hearing aids. If cochlear implant is placed at the youngest age, the results might lead to even 100% of active involvement in the social life of individuals with this kind of impairment.

The Extra Costs Associated With Living With a Disability in the United States

People with disabilities encounter many financial expenses that those without disabilities do not incur. In this article, we provide estimates of the extra costs associated with living with a disability in the United States. Drawing on four nationally representative surveys, we estimate that a household containing an adult with a work disability requires, on average, 29% more income (or an additional $18,322 a year for a household at the median income level) to obtain the same standard of living as a comparable household without a member with a disability. Single adults with disabilities are estimated to have higher costs than those with disabilities who are married, and adults with cognitive impairments are estimated to have higher costs compared to those with other kinds of impairments. We further calculate the federal poverty rate for households that include adults with disabilities adjusted for the direct additional costs of disability. The rate rises from 24% to 35% after adjusting for the extra costs of disability, which would result in an estimated 2.2 million more people with disabilities counted as poor. This suggests that the official poverty measure in the United States substantially underestimates the degree of deprivation experienced by people with disabilities.

Early warming stress on rainbow trout juveniles impairs male reproduction but contrastingly elicits intergenerational thermotolerance

The exposure of adult fish to warm or high temperatures is known to impair reproduction, yet the long-term reproductive impacts for treatments at early life are not well clarified. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of warm temperature (WT) during juvenile stage on gonad maturation, gamete quality, and offspring thermotolerance in rainbow trout. While the comparison of basic reproductive parameters in WT females did not reveal any kind of impairment, many WT males showed an atrophied, undeveloped gonad, or a smaller testis with lower milt volume; sperm quality parameters in WT males and deformity rates in the respective progeny were also highly affected. However, despite of such negative effects, many of the remaining progeny presented better rates of survival and growth when exposed to the same conditions as those of parental fish (WT), suggesting that thermal stress in parr stage males elicited intergenerational thermotolerance after a single generation. The present results support that prolonged warming stress during early life stages can adversely affect key reproductive aspects, but contrastingly increase offspring performance at upper thermal ranges. These findings have implications on the capacity of fish to adapt and to cope with global warming.

Hand Kinesics in Indian Sign Language using NLP Techniques with SVM Based Polarity

With the advent of new technology every year, human beings continue to make clever innovations to benefit not only themselves but also those with some kind of impairment. Communication is carried out by talking to each other for regular people, but people who are deaf interact with each other through sign language. Taking this problem into account, we are proposing a methodology that allows to ease the communication with each other by translating speech into sign language. This paper explains a methodology that translates speech into the corresponding Indian Sign Language (ISL). In India, it is spoken in almost 28 different languages. So, language has always been a problem. Thus, we have come with a project just for India in which the person can communicate with the app in any Indian language they know, and it will convert it into Indian Sign Language. This is applicable to not just literate but also illiterate people across India. The idea is to take the speech input and translate to text, which will then undergo text-pre-processing using NLP for better analysis and will be connected to the HamNoSys data for the generation of sign languages. The polarity detection will also be included. It is implemented using the SVM algorithm for Sentimental Analysis. Thus, the main objective of this project is to develop a useful project which can be used to capture the whole vocabulary of Indian Sign Language (ISL) and provide access to information and services to mute people in ISL.

Educação inclusiva no Ensino de Química: uma análise em periódicos nacionais

O presente artigo apresenta os resultados de uma revisão bibliográfica da literatura online dos artigos publicados sobre a temática Educação Inclusiva em Ciências/Química em seis periódicos nacionais voltados para o Ensino de Ciências/Química. O acervo digital consultado totalizou 2.031 artigos publicados, no recorte temporal de 2006 a 2016. Foram encontradas apenas 24 publicações relacionadas ao tema nos últimos dez anos. A seleção inicial dos artigos foi realizada a partir da leitura dos títulos e resumos de cada exemplar e volume publicado, incluindo edições especiais. As 24 publicações que se enquadram na temática foram lidas na íntegra, sendo qualificadas, quantificadas e agrupadas em tabelas e gráficos percentuais, a fim de identificar a periodicidade das publicações, levando em consideração a quantidade de artigos ao longo dos anos, a localização das instituições de origem dos autores, o nível de ensino, o enfoque temático e os tipos de deficiências consideradas. Por meio de uma abordagem quanti-qualitativa, verificamos: (i) baixo crescimento na taxa anual de publicações; (ii) concentração de publicações na região centro-oeste do Brasil; (iii) predominância de estudantes do ensino superior como sujeitos de pesquisa; (iv) a formação de professores como enfoque temático majoritário e (v) predominância de estudos sobre deficiência visual em detrimento de outros tipos. O panorama delineado revela a necessidade de uma ampliação na proposição e divulgação de atividades e materiais didáticos que auxiliem os professores em todos os níveis de ensino a lidarem com as demandas que se apresentam no âmbito da educação inclusiva.

A Timeless God? A Critical Appraisal of John Swinton's Theology of Time and Memory

In two recent publications the practical theologian John Swinton has given extensive attention to the concepts of time and memory. He considers in what way these have a bearing on how, in Western culture, we view and treat people with disabilities or other kinds of impairment. The authors of this article argue that despite the many pastoral merits of Swinton's thinking on these subjects, his theology of time and memory is unsatisfactory as far as his interpretation of the relevant terms is concerned. Especially his appeal to the doctrine of divine timelessness which is shown to be flawed and unnecessary for his overall argument. A rejoinder to this article is presented by John Swinton at https://doi.org/10.1558/hscc.40527 and also in the print issue (HSCC 8.1).

Trauma in childhood and adolescence and impaired executive functions are associated with uncertain reflective functioning in mothers with substance use disorder

AimsImpairments in reflective functioning are known to have adverse effects on the ability to display sensitive parenting as a caregiver. Several factors are associated with impairments in reflective functioning, such as impaired executive functioning and experienced trauma. We investigated how these factors contribute to an impaired reflective functioning style, such as pathological certain or uncertain reflective functioning. Extreme scores on these two subscales reflect two kinds of impairments in reflective functioning. We assessed executive functions, reflective functioning, and trauma in 43 mothers diagnosed with substance use disorders (SUD). MethodsCertain or uncertain reflective functioning were assessed using the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire 8 (RFQ-8). Executive functions and trauma were assessed by administering various questionnaires, interviews and neuropsychological tests. ResultsHigh uncertain reflective functioning was more than six times as common (odds ratio) in mothers reporting high amounts of trauma in childhood and adolescence compared with mothers reporting low amounts of trauma. Impaired executive functions were also significantly associated with high uncertain reflective functioning. Certain reflective functioning did, however, not show any significant associations. ConclusionWhen the SUD mothers give information about relational trauma in childhood and adolescence, it might therefore be worth investigating and addressing the potential tendency to have an uncertain reflective functioning style.

Rehabilitation of emotion recognition in Alzheimer's disease and study of the consequences on gaze strategy, behavior disorders and family caregivers’ burden

Backgrounds Emotion recognition is impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD) [1] . Recently, we have highlighted that this kind of impairment is linked to atypical gaze strategy and behavior disorders [2] . Neuropsychiatric disorders are major factors of caregiver's burden, much more than cognitive impairment [3] . A positive impact of the training of affect recognition (TAR) has been found in AD [4] . This emotion recognition program is based on error-less learning, over-learning, immediate positive feedback and abstraction of facial features. This research aimed to confirm the improvement of facial emotion recognition performance in AD by using the TAR program, and aimed to study the consequences on gaze strategies, behavior disorders and caregiver's burden. Methods Four couples of caregivers-patients between 56–88 years old, with AD (mild and mild-moderate stage), were recruited. Participants with AD received 12 sessions of TAR (2 per week). Emotion recognition was assessed by using 28 items of the Ekman faces library. Eye movements were recorded with a Mobile EyeBrain Tracker®. The caregivers completed the ‘NeuroPsychiatric Inventory’ (NPI) to measure behavioral disorders and the ‘Zarit’ to measure the level of burden. Assessments were conducted before and after rehabilitation. Results A positive impact of TAR is highlighted with 11% improvement in emotion recognition. Especially, for sadness (133% improvement) and fear (62.5% improvement). Modification of gaze strategies is observed: eye region for anger and mouth region for happiness are more explored. Finally, there is a decrease in NPI and Zarit scores. Conclusions Emotion recognition abilities can be improved in AD by modifying gaze strategies during emotion decoding. This kind of rehabilitation has beneficial effects on caregivers’ burden due to the decrease of behaviors disorders.

Blind Fractionally Spaced Channel Equalization for Shallow Water PPM Digital Communications Links.

Underwater acoustic digital communications suffer from inter-symbol interference deriving from signal distortions caused by the channel propagation. Facing such kind of impairment becomes particularly challenging when dealing with shallow water scenarios characterized by short channel coherence time and large delay spread caused by time-varying multipath effects. Channel equalization operated on the received signal represents a crucial issue in order to mitigate the effect of inter-symbol interference and improve the link reliability. In this direction, this contribution presents a preliminary performance analysis of acoustic digital links adopting pulse position modulation in severe multipath scenarios. First, we show how the spectral redundancy offered by pulse position modulated signals can be fruitfully exploited when using fractional sampling at the receiver side, which is an interesting approach rarely addressed by the current literature. In this context, a novel blind equalization scheme is devised. Specifically, the equalizer is blindly designed according to a suitably modified Bussgang scheme in which the zero-memory nonlinearity is replaced by a M-memory nonlinearity, M being the pulse position modulation order. Numerical results not only confirm the feasibility of the technique described here, but also assess the quality of its performance. An extension to a very interesting complex case is also provided.

Future assistive devices: What's at stake for you or me?

In the future, small portable devices will be available for all kinds of purposes, not least as a support for people with different kinds of impairments. But is this purely a good development or are there possible dangers? In the latter case, how can we find a proper balance?

The biopsychosocial condition of childhood cancer survivors in the transition towards adult care: a national survey from the joint pediatric and adult transition care group.

To provide successful transfer from childhood to adult-oriented healthcare is one of the priorities of survivorship care plans. This study describes adolescent and young adult childhood cancer survivors' conditions at the moment of the transition to adult care deepening their biological, psychological, social and assistant state and their associations with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. A biopsychosocial check-list in four health domains (biological, psychological, social and assistant) was filled in by healthcare professionals (oncologists, psychologists, social workers and nurses) through qualitative interviews and clinical observations of 79 survivors (58% boys; Mage = 20 years old) at the moment of the transition from the Pediatric Oncology Unit to the Transition Unit of the Childhood Cancer Survivors. At the moment of transition, 38% of survivors showed a positive condition in all the four health domains without any kind of impairment. Biological (37%) and psychological areas (44%) were found to be those with major incidence of impairments. Association phenomena were found between psychological and social condition (p < 0.05) and between social and assistant condition (p < 0.05). Biological condition was also significantly associated with the type of cancer (χ = 6,2414, p < 0.05). Although many survivors entered in adult care system without any impairment, the biopsychosocial approach highlighted that there is a presence of impairments in at least one of the main health domains.

Factors associated with activity limitations in elderly people: A systematic review

Independence in performing activities of daily living (ADLs) is a central aspect of functioning. Elderly people often experience different kinds of impairments and limitations in their various life areas. So, the objective of this systematic review is to identify activity limitations and associated factors in elderly people. We systematically searched four electronic databases (Scopus, EBSCOhost, CINAHL & MEDLINE, and PubMed) and bibliographies for relevant studies published between 2000 and 2017. Of the initial 629 identified articles, 37 met inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed. The content analysis involved categorizing the factors into six domains representing factors associated with activity limitation. In multiple studies, elderly people exhibited significant activity limitations. Six domains were significantly associated with activity limitations in elderly people. These included socio-demographic factors, chronic health conditions, mental health status, health behaviors, psychosocial factors, and health-related factors. Older age (in 21 studies) and female gender (in 19 studies) were the most prevalent factor for activity limitation. In addition, stroke, arthritis, eye diseases, diabetes, anxiety, depression, cognition, physical inactivity, and poor mobility exhibited high evidential strength. This review revealed various demographic, health conditions, mental status and behavioral factors associated with activity limitation among elderly people. Our findings may help to establish priorities for future research, and assist early detection and health and social program planning efforts for those at higher risk of activity limitation.

A Variability Study on Spatial Concentration of Different type of Disabilities in North Bengal and Murshidabad

Health is the prime indicator for social well being of a society. Since, health is related to the individual efficiency of doing perfect work; a geographer should focus his development studies in light of health aspects. People in different part of the world are suffering from different degenerative and contaminated health issues. All the issues can be considered and controlled in a wiser way. But, a physical disability and its proper management lie far away from the human clutches. It is not viable that a person would suffer from a certain disability. Better to locate the particular disability in spatial aspects and find out the relevant causes for such kind of disabilities. The study has focused on the spatial concentration of certain kind of disability and its relevant causes for prevalence. The study area is selected for the North Bengal's district apart from Murshidabad. The result shows that certain kinds of disabilities are concentrated in the particular part of the study area. In this regard the study seeks to find out few chief relevant causes for such kind of evil's suffering to someone. Measures of concentration, measures of correlation, significance test and cartographic thematic mapping techniques through ArcGis 10.1 software are used for the better analysis of primary and secondary data. Analysis of the data revealed that the spatial pattern of disability was largely regionalized because each type of disability clustered around some definite regions. The broad future and prospects of the study is to find out the relevant causes for such kind of impairment and disability and to mitigate the health issues by the medical experts with great care. Different kind of disabilities have been identified such as seeing, hearing, movement related, mental retardation, speech etc. A segment of population in North Bengal still is reeling under such kind of disability evil. The study has also carried out to enhance the awareness of the people about what ought to do or not to do the things, which might avoid from happening these different kind of disability and the need of government emergency to monitor health status of the people suffering from the disability.