Sharif Digital Repository

The activity and travel patterns of people with disabilities are generally distinct, as their activities are more dependent on others due to their special physical condition. This paper elaborates on the patterns of regular out-of-home activities (i.e. for different trip purposes) of disabled persons along with the way that they are accompanied to perform the activities. Household Travel Tracker Survey data collected by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is used to develop new travel models. Two multinomial logit models are estimated to explore the influential variables and elaborate the consequences of ignoring their inter-dependency. From the influential parameters perspective,... 

The aim of the study was to predict disability, psychological wellbeing, and somatic health in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with the mediating variable of religiosity. A sample of 128 patients was recruited, and were administered the Expanded Disability Status Scale, the World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index, the Patient Health Questionnaire-15, and a Self-Rating Scale of Religiosity. Religiosity did not predict disability, psychological well-being, or somatic health. Religiosity was positively associated with MS duration and disability, but only in male patients. The predictors for predicting psychological wellbeing were age, disability, and somatic health. Patients with... 

Objectives: Previous research has shown inconsistent findings regarding muscle endurance in chronic low back pain (CLBP). Questions also remain about muscle endurance in patients with clinical instability. The aim of this study was to investigate trunk muscles strength and endurance in CLBP patients with and without clinical instability. Methods: 32 CLBP patients (15 with and 17 without clinical instability) and 39 matched healthy subjects participated in this study. The standing extension test was performed to assess the strength and endurance of the lumbar extensors while recording their electromyographic activity. The patients' disability was evaluated using the Oswestry and Roland-Morris... 

Background: Poor balance performance and impaired postural control have been frequently reported in patients with low back pain.However, postural control is rarely monitored during the course of treatment even though poor postural control may contribute tochronicity and recurrence of symptoms. Therefore, the present study aimed at investigating the effect of a nonextensible lumbosacralorthosis (LSO) versus routine physical therapy on postural stability of patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain.Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial conducted between November 2015 and May 2016 at the outpatient physical therapyclinic of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences. Patients with... 

Introduction: Therapeutic exercises are regarded as one of most important therapeutic interventions for patients with chronic low back pain. Stabilization exercises are among the most practical ones for these patients. Effects of these exercises on psychological factors associated with pain and consequential functional disabilities are still remained unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of stabilization exercises on fear of pain, movement and disability in patients with low back pain. Materials and Methods: Twenty one patients with recurrent non-specific low back pain (14 in experimental, 7 in control group) were participated in this study. The scores for fear of pain,... 

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) disability has been particularly frustrating because its treatment has been a great therapeutic challenge. Disability has been suggested to depend on different factors that should be found and considered in the medical management. The inter-segmental coordination is often impaired in CLBP subjects; however, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence about the relationship between the existence of coordination problems and disability in CLBP patients. Objective: To evaluate the correlation between sagittal plane trunk-pelvis intersegmental coordination parameters during walking and disability level in CLBP patients. Methods: Kinematic data were... 

Study Design.: A descriptive overview of the literature. Objective.: To present a comprehensive descriptive overview of the published papers about epidemiologic features, burden, and current management of low back pain (LBP) in Iran. Summary OF Background Data.: Little is known about the epidemiology, burden, and management of LBP in developing and low- to middle-income countries, such as Iran. Methods.: A literature search was carried out using MEDLINE database to assess existing literature about prevalence, disease burden, impact, and current management of nonspecific LBP in Iran. Results.: Twenty-six articles matched inclusion criteria and included in the study. The findings related to... 

Nowadays the Internet users are from different ages and groups. Disabled people are a group of the Internet users. Some websites are especially created for disabled people and public access to them is undesirable. In this paper, for the first time, a method is introduced for distinguishing between deaf persons and other users using a new HIP (Human Interactive Proofs) system. In this method, the sign language is used. A word is shown as a movie using a sign language. The user should recognize the word and select it from a list. Only deaf persons can understand sign language and recognize the word, therefore other persons and also computer programs cannot enter the website. This project has... 

Background: Hearing loss affects access to spoken language, which can affect cognition and development, and can negatively affect social wellbeing. We present updated estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study on the prevalence of hearing loss in 2019, as well as the condition's associated disability. Methods: We did systematic reviews of population-representative surveys on hearing loss prevalence from 1990 to 2019. We fitted nested meta-regression models for severity-specific prevalence, accounting for hearing aid coverage, cause, and the presence of tinnitus. We also forecasted the prevalence of hearing loss until 2050. Findings: An estimated 1·57 billion (95% uncertainty... 

This paper presents the design characteristics of a new robot Assistant for Social Aims (RASA), being an upper-torso humanoid robot platform currently under final stages of development. This project addresses the need for developing affordable humanoid platforms designed to be utilized in new areas of social robotics research, primarily teaching Persian Sign Language (PSL) to children with hearing disabilities. RASA is characterized by three features which are hard to find at the same time in today’s humanoid robots: its dexterous hand-arm systems enabling it to perform sign language, low development cost, and easy maintenance. In this paper, design procedures and considerations are briefly... 

Nowadays the Internet users are from different ages and groups. The disabled people also use the Internet. Some websites are especially created for disabled people. Many Internet sites offers services for human users, but unfortunately some computer programs are designed to abuse these services. To solve this problem, some systems named CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Human Apart) have been introduced to distinguish between human users and computer programs. CAPTCHA methods are mainly based on the weaknesses of OCR systems while using them is undesirable for human users, especially for disabled people. Therefore some CAPTCHA methods are designed... 

Nowadays the Internet users are from different ages and groups. Disabled people are a group of the Internet users. Some websites are especially created for these people. One group of the disabled people are deaf persons. They have a special talking language which is named sign language. Here we present a method to encourage them, esp. children, to learn the sign language. In this method, when a deaf person wants to enter a website which is created for deaf persons, a word is shown as a movie using a sign language. The user should recognize the word and select it from a list. If the user understands the sign language and recognizes the word, he/she can enter the website. This project has been... 

STUDY DESIGN. Cross-cultural translation and psychometric testing were performed. OBJECTIVES. To cross-culturally translate the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ), and Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (QDS) into Persian, and then investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian versions produced. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA. To the authors' knowledge, there is no validated instrument to measure functional status in Persian-speaking patients with low back pain (LBP) in Iran. To our knowledge, the widely used back-specific measures, the ODI, RDQ, and QDS, have not been translated and validated for Persian-speaking patients with LBP. METHODS. The... 

IMPORTANCE The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) provided systematic estimates of incidence, morbidity, and mortality to inform local and international efforts toward reducing cancer burden. OBJECTIVE To estimate cancer burden and trends globally for 204 countries and territories and by Sociodemographic Index (SDI) quintiles from 2010 to 2019. EVIDENCE REVIEW The GBD 2019 estimation methods were used to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 and over the past decade. Estimates are also provided by quintiles of the SDI, a composite measure of educational...