Autonomy and isolation experienced by patients and primary caregivers during COVID-19 hospitalization in Barcelona (Spain).

This study aims to describe patients' and family caregivers' hospitalization experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using qualitative exploratory descriptive methods, 13 patients admitted to the largest hospital in Barcelona (Spain) due to COVID-19 were interviewed by telephone once discharged, as were eight primary caregivers. Data were analyzed using the content analysis method proposed by Krippendorff. Two main themes were identified: (i) Acceptance of mandatory isolation for patients and family caregivers, which refers to the verbalization of a feeling that justifies the imposed isolation and the need for the use of personal protective equipment by the health team for everyone's safety; and (ii) Limited autonomy during hospitalization for patients and family caregivers, which describes participants' perceptions of autonomy during hospitalization. Patients and caregivers experienced feelings of loneliness, which negatively affected their emotional health. In addition, they experienced reduced autonomy due to new habits and routines intended to control the pandemic for the benefit of public and global health.

A generalization of the membrane-plate analogy to non-homogeneous polygonal domains consisting of homogeneous subdomains.

The well-known membrane-plate analogy that relates the natural frequencies when dealing with polygonal homogeneous domains is herein extended to non-homogeneous systems comprised of homogeneous subdomains. The analogy is generalized and demonstrated and it is shown that certain restrictions among the frequency parameters of the membranes and plates arise. Several examples of membranes and plates with interfaces separating areas with different material properties are numerically solved with different approaches. The subdomains are separated by straight, curved, and closed line interfaces. It is shown that the analogy is verified provided that the restrictions are satisfied. The analogy is first demonstrated and presented as a practical methodology to find the natural frequencies of membranes knowing the corresponding ones of the plates or vice versa. Second, the plate and membrane vibration problems, governed by the bi-Laplacian and Laplacian differential operators, respectively, can be solved without distinction, though under certain conditions, i.e., solve one of them and deduce the other using the analogy. Various numerical examples validate the analogy.