Background: Meditation practices have been found to improve both cognitive and psychological functions related, in particular, to attention and well-being in both healthy people and those with chronic health conditions, including stroke. Considering the range of cognitive and psychosocial consequences in people with post-stroke aphasia, meditation has been identified as a potential rehabilitative tool to target these areas, investigating also, in some studies, any potential impact on language abilities. Even with growing numbers of studies exploring the effectiveness of meditation techniques in the stroke population, no study to date has sought to explore the impact of meditation from the perspective of the lived experience of people with aphasia.Aim: This preliminary study explored the perceived impact of meditation on a range of activities and areas of participation for people with chronic aphasia who, with the exception of one participant, learned how to meditate after the onset of their stroke. a sense of calm were also prominent themes. The positive experience of meditating in a group was a further motivator to participate regularly in the meditation practice. Conclusion:Meditation can have psychosocial benefits for people with aphasia and may offer a positive and complementary approach when living with aphasia following stroke. Individual variation in responsiveness to meditation techniques highlighted the importance of monitoring participant preferences when delivering and interpreting meditation outcomes with people with aphasia. The role of meditation in language rehabilitation with people with chronic aphasia as a complementary treatment tool remains an area of future enquiry.

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This work presents an optimal recharging strategy for Electric vehicles (EVs) using Quadratic Programming (QP) to flatten the peak power demand on the utility. The increase in penetration of EVs in distribution systems causes a significant increase in peak power demand due to synchronization between the peak load hours and EV charging period. The optimization technique aims to assess the effects of optimal scheduling considering the initial State-of-charge (SOC) level, Demand Side Management (DSM) functionalities that meet both the grid and EV owners’ requirements. The feasibility of the scheme is verified with two case studies using different aggregator units and the effect on the system is analyzed by determining the load demands from local utilities and EVs. The aggregator units collect data from EV users with common interests such as EV battery specification, Battery SOC, recharging period and mediate with utility operators such as Transmission system operator (TSO), Distribution system operator (DSO). Further, other parameters such as peak power reduction, peak-to-average ratio (PAR), standard deviation, and peak-to-valley differences are also compared to test the effectiveness of the implemented optimization technique. The outcomes of the study show that using load demand profile and optimal rescheduling using aggregated EVs can flatten the load curve for the utility and lower the demand charges for the end-users.

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