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With medical advancements, more Canadians are surviving a stroke. However, many live with residual impairments that can affect their everyday function. Regaining the ability to drive is often a priority among patients after stroke. Current evidence indicates there is a critical need for evidence-based interventions that support their return to this occupation. In the first study, OTs identified assessments and interventions they used to address driving post-stroke. From the breadth of interventions, the use of mobile applications was identified as a major and significant knowledge gap by clinicians, as to how their patients perceived and used this technology when deployed. Following this study, community-dwelling patients with stroke and their caregivers were provided with DriveFocus®; a new mobile application for driving rehabilitation. Their use of DriveFocus® was tracked for four weeks from which distinct patterns with using this technology emerged. Follow-up interviews with participants explored these patterns. Guided by a technology acceptance model, this mixed-methods analysis showed how the presence and absence of certain factors (e.g., having a ‘tech-savvy’ caregiver) can support technology adoption. Participants also described how OTs play a key role with introducing and monitoring their use of this technology during stroke rehabilitation. In the final study, clinicians from the first study as well as additional OTs were recruited. Their interviews identified factors that influenced how they selected and deployed mobile applications, like DriveFocus®, to address a patient’s goal of returning to driving. These factors included clinician awareness of emerging technology and mobile applications, workplace policies that support the upkeep and integration of technology as well as the patients’ level of impairment and comfort with using mobile technology. Having caregivers to facilitate uptake of this technology was also raised during these interviews. This thesis opened by exploring the process by which the occupation of driving is addressed by OTs in stroke rehabilitation where subsequent studies identified factors specific to the uptake of mobile application by individuals with stroke, their caregivers, as well as clinicians to address this occupation. In the closing chapter, these factors are described using an OT model that highlighted opportunities and challenges for implementing mobile technology for driving within stroke rehabilitation. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Returning to driving is often a goal for individuals after their stroke. This thesis examined how driving is addressed during stroke rehabilitation. The first study investigated assessments and interventions used by occupational therapists (OTs) where mobile applications were identified as a promising approach to address this goal. In the next study, individuals with stroke and their caregivers trialled a mobile application called DriveFocus®. While some reported difficulty learning to use this application, family and friends who were comfortable with technology helped participants navigate these difficulties. The final study identified factors that can influence the uptake of mobile applications by OTs working in stroke rehabilitation. Factors included selecting suitable applications, having workplace policies that support the integration of technology, and how a patients’ level of stroke impairment alongside caregiver support can affect technology adoption. Overall, this thesis identified areas of priority to facilitate the adoption of mobile applications for driving in stroke rehabilitation.

<p>Det svenska förarprovet har vuxit fram ur praktisk yrkeserfarenhet. Oavsett vilken trafikinspektör som bedömer ett specifikt körprov ska bedömningen göras lika. Kognitiva egenskaper bedöms i körprovet genom att observera handlingar och beteenden. Syftet med denna uppsats var att ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv undersöka hur trafikinspektörer bedömer kognition, för att undersöka vilka likheter och skillnader som finns. Tre analyser gjordes utifrån tolv intervjuer med trafikinspektörer vid två av Vägverkets förarprovskontor.</p><p>Trafikinspektörerna ombads beskriva vad som är viktigt hos en bilförare. Samtliga formella kriterier för körprovet nämndes av någon informant. Utöver kriterierna nämndes även många andra begrepp av ett fåtal personer vardera. Dessa begrepp kan räknas till områdena kognitionspsykologi, allmän psykologi, bilkörning och övergripande egenskaper. De tre mest nämnda begreppen var uppmärksamhet, erfarenhet och riskmedvetande.</p><p>Sju körprovskriterier definierades av trafikinspektörerna. Många olika begrepp användes för att definiera kriterierna och samtliga kriterier definierades olika av informanterna. Definitionerna delades in i kategorier och de kategorier som användes för samtliga kriterier var förberedelser, handlingar och perception.</p><p>Ur det som sades av informanterna gjordes en analys om hur begrepp kopplas samman med varandra, för att hitta alla associationer som görs till varje begrepp. Många olika kopplingar kunde hittas genom denna analys och av dessa nämndes hälften av enbart någon informant. Två kopplingar nämndes av elva av informanterna. Den ena var manövrering – automatisering, den andra var uppmärksamhet – syn.</p><p>Studien påvisade både likheter och skillnader i åsikter informanterna emellan. I viss utsträckning använda sig informanterna av samma begrepp, men de lade olika innebörder i begreppen. Trafikinspektörernas olika synsätt medför en risk för att de bedömer körprov olika trots att de använder samma bedömningskriterier.</p> / <p>The Swedish driving license test has developed from practical professional experience. Regardless of which traffic inspector judges a specific driving test, the judgement is to be equal. Cognitive qualities are judged in the driving test by observing actions and behaviours. The purpose of this essay was to investigate, from a theoretical perspective, how traffic inspectors judge cognition, in order to investigate differences and similarities. Three analyses were made, based on twelve interviews with traffic inspectors working at two of the Swedish Road Administration’s offices for driving license tests.</p><p>The traffic inspectors were asked to describe what is important in a car driver. All formal driving test criteria were mentioned by some informant. In addition to the criteria, many other concepts were mentioned by a few persons each. These concepts belong to the areas cognitive psychology, general psychology, car driving and overall qualities. The three most mentioned concepts, including criteria and other concepts, were attention, experience and risk awareness.</p><p>Seven driving test criteria were defined by the traffic inspectors. Many different concepts were used to define the criteria and all criteria were defined differently by the informants. The definitions were divided into categories. The categories preparations, actions and perception were used for all criteria.</p><p>An analysis about how concepts were connected to each other was made, in order to find all associations made with each concept. Many different connections were found in this analysis and more than half of these were mentioned by only one informant.</p><p>Two connections were mentioned by eleven informants. One of these was manoeuvring – automation, the other was attention – vision.</p><p>Both similarities and differences in opinions were found among the informants in this study. The informants used the same concepts to some extent, but they associated different meanings with the concepts. The traffic inspectors’ differences in opinions lead to a risk of judging driving tests differently, although the same judgement criteria are used.</p>

The objective of this thesis is to analyse driving behaviour and to characterize the effectsof an efficient way of driving, termed eco-driving, that enables the driver to reduce fuelconsumption and CO2emissions.The approach used to assess driving style is a collection of data from a CAN bus of acar equipped with OBD-II (on-board diagnostic) system. The driving experiment wasperformed for nine drivers who drove in a normal way or regular driving style and onedriver was an eco-driver who drove in an economical driving style. The driving routewas approximately 18.7 kms (which took between 25 to 30 minutes) in Halmstad city,Sweden.The drivers are compared using a statistical analysis of the driving parameters such as,speed, accelerator (gas pedal) and brake pressure, which are obtained from CAN busdata. A hierarchical clustering algorithm also used to classify the drivers based on theaverage result of the signals.In the results, a driving difference between the eco-driver and the normal drivers is visi-ble, most of the normal drivers have more or less similar behaviour. The average speed ofthe eco-driver lower than the normal drivers and the accelerator (gas pedal) result is alsoshown less usage by the eco-driver than the normal drivers. On the other hand, the eco-driver has braked more often than the normal drivers, but gently. Nevertheless, differenttraffic conditions during the experiment obstructs comparisons between the drivers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003. / Includes tables and questionnaires. Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 29, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Medicine. Degree awarded 2003; thesis submitted 2002. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

Driver fatigue is a complex phenomenon that has a range of causal factors including sleeprelated and task-related factors. These manifest as different safety and performance outcomes. Extensive research has been applied to linking these factors to performance impairment. However, little research focuses on the mechanisms by which this link exists. This research project therefore focuses on the processes underlying how driving performance is controlled and maintained during the development on non-sleep-related driver fatigue. The main aim was to establish whether progressive impairment of driving control over a prolonged drive could be attributed to a depletion of attentional resources, as proposed by Resource Theory, or to a withdrawal of effort, as proposed by Effort-Regulation Theory. As a multicomponent skill, driving requires perception, cognition and motor output. The secondary aim of this research was therefore to assess whether a prolonged drive impairs stage-specific information processing. Participants (n=24) in three experimental groups performed a 90-minute simulated drive wherein they were expected to keep the bonnet of a car on a lane (tracking task). The three groups differed in terms of lane width: small, medium and large, corresponding to low, medium, and high task-demand, respectively. To assess the impacts of this task on stagespecific information processing, participants performed a set of resource specific tests before and after the prolonged drive. Each task had two difficulty variations to ensure that performance decrement was due not only to the task-characteristic, but specifically to resource depletion. The tests probing information processing were: a modified Fitts' tapping task for motor programming, a digit recall task for perception, and an object recognition reading task for cognition. Performance was measured as lateral deviation of the car. Physiological measures included heart rate frequency (HR) and various time- and frequencydomain heart rate variability (HRV) parameters, eye blink frequency and duration. The Borg CR-10 scale was used to evaluate subjective effort and fatigue during the task. Driving control declined over time and was supplemented by HR, HRV, blink frequency and duration, indicating an increase in parasympathetic activity (or a reduction in arousal). An increase in blink frequency was considered as a sign of withdrawal of attentional resources over time. Driving control declined to a greater extent in the large road width group and reflected a lower parasympathetic activity, whereas the inverse was observed for the small road width group. Resource tests reveal a non-specific impairment of information processing following the prolonged drive. However, this was accompanied by an increase in parasympathetic activity. Overall, results indicate that Effort-Regulation Theory better accounts for the impairment of driving control in prolonged driving than does Resource Theory. This suggests that the impact of fatigue is guided more by task goals and intrinsic motivation than by the manner in which the fatigue state developed. Moreover, performance impairment by effort-regulation is dependant more on time on task than on task-demand