Assistive Tasks Research Articles

What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent.

Earlier research found that the mere sight of tears promotes the willingness to provide support to the person shedding the tears. Other research, however, found that deliberate responses towards tearful persons could be more negative as well. We think this is because tears have ambivalent effects on person perception: We predicted that tearful people are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. In three studies, we asked participants (total N = 1,042) to form their impression of someone based on a picture. The depicted person either displayed visible tears, or the tears had been digitally removed. Tearful individuals were perceived as being warmer, but also as less competent. In Study 2, we also added a measure of perceived sadness. Seeing a tearful face increased perceived sadness, and this (partially) explained the reduction in perceived competence of the target person. There was no such indirect effect of the tear on perceived warmth via perceived sadness. Study 3 found that people would be more likely to approach a tearful person to offer help than a tearless individual. At the same time, tearful individuals would be more likely to be avoided in situations in which the observer needs assistance for an important task.

Insider attacks as one of the main threats to resolute support personnel in Afghanistan

<i>From July 2015, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) moved into the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) and started acting in the supporting role. From that time, one of the most important Security Force Assistance tasks has been maintaining and developing relationships with its counterparts in the Afghan Security Institutions (ASI) and Afghan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF). Being aware of the importance of those connections, the enemies of Afghan society have attempted a tactic named Insider Attack (IA).</i><br><br> <i>Insider Attack is not a new means of tactic. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Britain and the Soviet Union were victim to insider attacks. Insider attacks have a significant strategic impact on the campaign, as they erode the relationship between the Afghan National Defence Security Forces and Coalition Forces.</i><br><br> <i>Insider attacks occur for numerous reasons, including personal grievances, insurgent influences, psychological distress, and ideological motivations. More than half of the attackers have insurgent ties. NATO utilises Target Focused Analysis & Neutralisation and Counter Intelligence Support Teams to screen, vet, and interview persons of interest, as well as collect, analyse, and exploit biometric data, documents, and media. Other measures implemented to mitigate insider threats are the threat Awareness and Reporting Programme (TARP) and the Terrorism Espionage and Sedition briefing to RSM personnel.</i><br><br> <i>Incorporating appropriate lessons learned from the British, Russian and ISAF experience into RSM training and operations will have a positive impact on responding to Insider Attacks while reducing their frequency across the Combined Joint Operational Area - Afghanistan.</i><br><br> <i>It is clear that the common approach to defeating Insider Threats must be holistic and each activity should be conducted according to equal principles.<i><br><br> <i>The conceptual framework for countering Insider Threats has five functions: prepare, deter, detect, respond, recover and exploit.</i><br><br> <i>This conceptual framework underpins the common approach and guides of counter - measures. While skills and drills are important, combatting Insider Threats is first and foremost about mindset and therefore it needs to be command-led. If proper preparation makes Coalition Forces members culturally adaptive, develops effective systems and procedures, and hones military skills and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, NATO will be able succeed in the Resolute Support Mission.</i>

A critical review of the long-term disability outcomes following hip fracture.

BackgroundHip fractures are an increasingly common consequence of falls in older people that are associated with a high risk of death and reduced function. This review aims to quantify the impact of hip fracture on older people’s abilities and quality of life over the long term.MethodsStudies were identified through PubMed and Scopus searches and contact with experts. Cohort studies of hip fracture patients reporting outcomes 3 months post-fracture or longer were included for review. Outcomes of mobility, participation in domestic and community activities, health, accommodation or quality of life were categorised according to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning and synthesised narratively. Risk of bias was assessed according to four items from the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement.ResultsThirty-eight studies from 42 publications were included for review. Most followed a clearly defined sample from the time of fracture. Hip fracture survivors experienced significantly worse mobility, independence in function, health, quality of life and higher rates of institutionalisation than age matched controls. The bulk of recovery of walking ability and activities for daily living occurred within 6 months after fracture. Between 40 and 60 % of study participants recovered their pre-fracture level of mobility and ability to perform instrumental activities of daily living, while 40–70 % regained their level of independence for basic activities of daily living. For people independent in self-care pre-fracture, 20–60 % required assistance for various tasks 1 and 2 years after fracture. Fewer people living in residential care recovered their level of function than those living in the community. In Western nations, 10–20 % of hip fracture patients are institutionalised following fracture. Few studies reported impact on participation in domestic, community, social and civic life.ConclusionsHip fracture has a substantial impact on older peoples’ medium- to longer-term abilities, function, quality of life and accommodation. These studies indicate the range of current outcomes rather than potential improvements with different interventional approaches. Future studies should measure impact on life participation and determine the proportion of people that regain their pre-fracture level of functioning to investigate strategies for improving these important outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0332-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Approach to Assistive Robotics Based on an EEG Sensor and a 6-DoF Robotic Arm

This work presents an approach to Assistive Robotics based in a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) on the Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP), using a 6-DOF Robotic Arm, an Emotiv EPOC sensor and a Kinect camera. The proposed architecture has the objective of integrating different systems, with the aim of creating a robotic assistant for the disabled or movement restricted user, improving the life quality of those people. The robot assistance assignment is related with actions like pick and place, or feed and hold food for the user, etc. The proposed methods are based in image and signal processing, BCI decision making, localization of a target point, trajectory planning for the robot arm, and execution of the assistive task. The most remarkable results validate the proposed approach as a good integration method of different technologies for assistive robotics tasks.

Household task demands for quiet and focused behavior facilitate performance by ADHD youth.

This study evaluated the associations among symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in children and adolescents' performance in household tasks and assistance provided by caregivers. Parents of children from 6 to 14 years old with ADHD (n = 67) were interviewed with the Children Helping Out: Responsibilities, Expectations, and Supports (CHORES) instrument. Significant correlations were found between symptoms of ODD and assistance in self-care tasks (r = -0.31; p = 0.01); symptoms of hyperactivity correlated with assistance in self-care (r = -0.30, p = 0.01); and family-care (r = -0.25, p = 0.04) tasks. Age was directly associated with the number of tasks performed by children and inversely related to the assistance provided by caregivers. A greater number of ODD symptoms resulted in more household assistance from caregivers. Characteristics of ODD symptoms, such as disobedience and hostility in the face of authority, may limit these children in accessing household tasks by their own initiative, requiring assistance from caregivers.

Modeling Human Understanding of Complex Intentional Action with a Bayesian Nonparametric Subgoal Model

Most human behaviors consist of multiple parts, steps, or subtasks. These structures guide our ac- tion planning and execution, but when we observe others, the latent structure of their actions is typ- ically unobservable, and must be inferred in order to learn new skills by demonstration, or to as- sist others in completing their tasks. For example, an assistant who has learned the subgoal struc- ture of a colleague’s task can more rapidly rec- ognize and support their actions as they unfold. Here we model how humans infer subgoals from observations of complex action sequences using a nonparametric Bayesian model, which assumes that observed actions are generated by approxi- mately rational planning over unknown subgoal sequences. We test this model with a behavioral experiment in which humans observed different se- ries of goal-directed actions, and inferred both the number and composition of the subgoal sequences associated with each goal. The Bayesian model predicts human subgoal inferences with high ac- curacy, and significantly better than several al- ternative models and straightforward heuristics. Motivated by this result, we simulate how learn- ing and inference of subgoals can improve perfor- mance in an artificial user assistance task. The Bayesian model learns the correct subgoals from fewer observations, and better assists users by more rapidly and accurately inferring the goal of their actions than alternative approaches.

The prevalence and profile of disabilities affecting daily activities among the elderly population in Bengaluru city, India

Background: Age related changes and non-communicable diseases are the main causes of disabilities and few such disabilities require assistance for everyday tasks. The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of disabilities affecting daily activities and its profile among the elderly aged population in urban area.Methods:A community based, quantitative and cross sectional study was conducted among the 370 elderly subjects residing in ward 32 of Bengaluru city, India during July and August 2015. Data was collected about disabilities in basic and instrumental activities using a pretested questionnaire at their doorsteps. Scoring method was applied to assess the severity of disabilities and analysis was done.Results: The total prevalence of disabilities affecting daily activity as unable to do and with much difficulty was 13% and 9% respectively and it was more among the females. Major difficulty was in climbing the stairs (steps). Non communicable diseases lead to increase in the prevalence of basic daily activity disabilities; it was 39% in males and 50% in females. Basic activity disability between healthy and diseased elderly people was statistically significant in both males and females (p <0.05). The difference between the basic activities and instrumental activities in both males and females is statistically significant (p <0.05).Conclusions:The overall prevalence of disability of daily activities was 21%. Basic daily activities like climbing stairs, using toilet and instrumental daily activities like cooking food, and washing clothes had a higher prevalence of disabilities. Non communicable diseases increased the prevalence of disabilities.

Accessing enterprise knowledge: A context-based approach

This paper deals with the challenge of knowledge reuse and its adaptability to each activity context in the working environment. The scientific work focuses on the context idea as defined by the ubiquitous computing paradigm. The purpose of this approach consists of conceptual models design allowing knowledge structuration according to multiple completeness scales. The proposed approach allows the management of contextual information in a knowledge-based system. A prototype has been implemented to demonstrate the industrial feasibility and the contextual task assistance tool is called “Digital Factory Assistant”. The Assistant is dedicated to production line workers and can also be applied in design context.

On the Use of the Humanoid Bioloid System for Robot-Assisted Transcription of Mexican Spanish Speech

Within the context of service robotics (SR), the development of assistive technologies has become an important research field. However, the accomplishment of assistive tasks requires precise and fine control of the mechanic systems that integrate the robotic entity. Among the most challenging tasks in robot control, the handwriting task (transcription) is of particular interest due to the fine control required to draw single and multiple alphabet characters to express words and sentences. For language learning activities, robot-assisted speech transcription can motivate the student to practice pronunciation and writing tasks in a dynamic environment. Hence, this paper is aimed to provide the techniques and models to accomplish accurate robot-assisted transcription of Spanish speech. The transcriptor is integrated by a multi-user speech recognizer for continuous speech and the kinematic models for the Mexican Spanish alphabet characters. The Bioloid system with the standard humanoid configuration and no special modifications or tools was considered for implementation. Particularly, the proposed transcriptor could perform the handwriting task with the Bioloid’s two two DOF (degrees-of-freedom) arms. This enabled writing of one-line short and long sentences with small alphabet characters (width <1.0 cm). It is expected that the technique and models that integrate the transcriptor can provide support for the development of robot-assisted language learning activities for children and young adults.

Toward cognitive pipelines of medical assistance algorithms.

Assistance algorithms for medical tasks have great potential to support physicians with their daily work. However, medicine is also one of the most demanding domains for computer-based support systems, since medical assistance tasks are complex and the practical experience of the physician is crucial. Recent developments in the area of cognitive computing appear to be well suited to tackle medicine as an application domain. We propose a system based on the idea of cognitive computing and consisting of auto-configurable medical assistance algorithms and their self-adapting combination. The system enables automatic execution of new algorithms, given they are made available as Medical Cognitive Apps and are registered in a central semantic repository. Learning components can be added to the system to optimize the results in the cases when numerous Medical Cognitive Apps are available for the same task. Our prototypical implementation is applied to the areas of surgical phase recognition based on sensor data and image progressing for tumor progression mappings. Our results suggest that such assistance algorithms can be automatically configured in execution pipelines, candidate results can be automatically scored and combined, and the system can learn from experience. Furthermore, our evaluation shows that the Medical Cognitive Apps are providing the correct results as they did for local execution and run in a reasonable amount of time. The proposed solution is applicable to a variety of medical use cases and effectively supports the automated and self-adaptive configuration of cognitive pipelines based on medical interpretation algorithms.

The Effect of Vocational Training through Workplace Observation and Integrated Supplementary Learning on Meal Assistance Task Skills of Middle School Students with Intellectual Disabilities

The Effect of Vocational Training through Workplace Observation and Integrated Supplementary Learning on Meal Assistance Task Skills of Middle School Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Flourishing via Workplace Relationships: Moving Beyond Instrumental Support

In a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, we developed a model of the functions of positive work relationships, with an explicit focus on the role that these relationships play in employee flourishing. Stories that employees told about positive relationships at work revealed that relationships serve a broad range of functions, including the traditionally studied functions of task assistance, career advancement, and emotional support, as well as less studied functions of personal growth, friendship, and the opportunity to give to others. Building on this taxonomy, we validated a scale—the Relationship Functions Inventory—and developed theory suggesting differential linkages between the relationship functions and outcomes indicative of employee flourishing. Results revealed unique associations between functions and outcomes, such that task assistance was most strongly associated with job satisfaction, giving to others was most strongly associated with meaningful work, friendship was most strongly associated with positive emotions at work, and personal growth was most strongly associated with life satisfaction. Our results suggest that work relationships play a key role in promoting employee flourishing, and that examining the differential effects of a taxonomy of relationship functions brings precision to our understanding of how relationships impact individual flourishing.

An approach to unified cloud service access, manipulation and dynamic orchestration via semantic cloud service operation specification framework

Cloud computing offers various computational resources via convenient on-demand service provision. Currently, heterogeneous services and cloud resources are usually utilized and managed through diverse service portals. This significantly limits the effectiveness and efficiency for tasks implementation. Fundamentally, it is due to the lack of adequate specifications for service concepts, operations and interfaces from diverse cloud service models and types. This paper proposes a service management operation semantic description framework for comprehensive cloud service operation specification. Relying on ontological modelling techniques, cloud service operations are specified via entity classification, attribute assertion, relationship assertion and annotation assertion. Further, the proposed framework benefits from operation reasoning application. It enables intelligent assistance for multiple operation preparation and remote execution tasks. Based on the approach, a cloud service operation ontology and a unified service access and manipulation system prototype are implemented. Extensive experiments are conducted over different cloud service providers and for distinct service models. Obtained results demonstrate that the approach outperforms existing practices by facilitating reliable and effective service access, manipulation and interaction tasks.

Predictive Factors of Household Task Participation in Brazilian Children and Adolescents.

Home environment is an important setting for child participation. This study investigated the participation of Brazilian children and adolescents in household self-care (SC) and family-care (FC) tasks. Interviews were conducted with 109 caregivers of children and adolescents ages 6 to 14 years residing in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). Multiple regression models revealed that a greater number of FC tasks were performed by children and adolescents (R2 = .23) from families who did not have a housekeeper and those in which the mothers did not work outside of the home; children and adolescents from this subgroup also received less assistance from the caregivers (R2 = .21) and showed greater independence in task performance (R2 = .20). On average, Brazilian children and adolescents participate in about half of the SC and 25% the FC household tasks. Factors related to family structure and child's age were associated with task performance, caregiver assistance, and child and adolescent independence in household tasks.

Parental Cultural Socialization of Mexican-American Adolescents' Family Obligation Values and Behaviors.

The current study examined how parents' cultural socialization efforts contribute to adolescents' family obligation values and behaviors and how these processes may depend upon the relational climate at home. Utilizing survey and daily diary methodologies, 428 Mexican-American adolescents (50% males; Mage =15years) and their parents (83% mothers; Mage =42years) participated in the study. Adolescents reported on their family obligation values and engagement in family assistance tasks across 14days. Parents reported on their cultural socialization practices. Results indicated that parental cultural socialization was associated with adolescents' family obligation values and behaviors when parent-child relationships were low in conflict and high in support. Findings suggest that the transmission of cultural values and practices is best facilitated through positive parent-child relationships.

Proof of Concept for Robot-Aided Upper Limb Rehabilitation Using Disturbance Observers

This paper presents a wearable upper body exoskeleton system with a model-based compensation control framework to support robot-aided shoulder–elbow rehabilitation and power assistance tasks. To eliminate the need for EMG and force sensors, we exploit off-the-shelf compensation techniques developed for robot manipulators. Thus, target rehabilitation tasks are addressed by using only encoder readings. A proof-of-concept evaluation was conducted with five able-bodied participants. The patient-active rehabilitation task was realized via observer-based user torque estimation, in which resistive forces were adjusted using virtual impedance. In the patient-passive rehabilitation task, the proposed controller enabled precise joint tracking with a maximum positioning error of 0.25 $^\circ$ . In the power assistance task, the users’ muscular activities were reduced up to 85% while exercising with a 5 kg dumbbell. Therefore, the exoskeleton system was regarded as being useful for the target tasks, indicating that it has a potential to promote robot-aided therapy protocols.

Design and Control of a Powered Hip Exoskeleton for Walking Assistance

The wearable powered exoskeleton is a human-robot cooperation system that integrates the strength of a robot with human intelligence. This paper presents the research results into a powered hip exoskeleton (PH-EXOS) designed to provide locomotive assistance to individuals with walking impediments. The Bowden cable actuated exoskeleton has an anthropomorphic structure with six degrees of freedom (DOF) in order to match the human hip anatomy and enable natural interaction with the user. The mechanical structure, the actuation system, and the interaction kinematics of PH-EXOS are optimized to achieve preferable manoeuvrability and harmony. For the control of the exoskeleton, a real-time control system is established in xPC target environment based on Matlab/RTW. A Cascaded PID controller is developed to perform the trajectories tracking tasks in passive control mode. Besides, based on the pressure information on the thigh, a fuzzy adaptive controller is developed to perform walking assistance tasks in active control mode. Preliminary treadmill walking experiments on a healthy subject were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed device and control approaches in reducing walking effort.

A light-weight active orthosis for hip movement assistance

In the last decades, wearable powered orthoses have been developed with the aim of augmenting or assisting motor activities. In particular, among many applications, wearable powered orthoses have been also introduced in the state of the art with the goal of providing lower-limb movement assistance in locomotion-related tasks (e.g.: walking, ascending/descending stairs) in scenarios of activities of daily living. In this paper we present a light-weight active orthosis endowed with two series elastic actuators for hip flexion–extension assistance. Along with the description of its mechatronic modules, we report the experimental characterization of the performance of the actuation and control system, as well as the usability test carried out with a healthy subject. Results showed a suitable dynamic behavior of the actuation unit: the closed-loop torque control bandwidth is about 15 Hz and the output impedance ranges from about 1 N m/rad to 35 N m/rad in the frequency spectrum between 0.2 and 3.2 Hz. Results from the tests with the healthy subject proved the overall system usability: the subject could walk with the device without being hindered and while he received a smooth assistive flexion–extension torque profile on both hip articulations.

Robotized Tele-Echography: An Assisting Visibility Tool to Support Expert Diagnostic

This paper presents a robotized tele-echography system with an assisting visibility mode that helps the medical expert diagnosis. This autonomous mode is based on a multitask control approach that maintains the visibility of an anatomic element of interest while the medical expert teleoperates a 2-D ultrasound (US) probe held by a 4-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) robot. The main task is used to automatically maintain several visual constraints that guarantee an intersection between the US image plane and the organ of interest (OI). A secondary task allows the medical expert to manually apply the probe motion through the teleoperation mode. The main advantage of this approach is to give to the clinician the control of all the DOFs of the probe to examine the patient while automatically preserving the visibility of the OI when required. Experimental results, performed on a phantom and a human abdomen, demonstrate the efficiency of the visibility assistance task.

Grand challenge: on the way to scarless visceral surgery.

Grand challenge: on the way to scarless visceral surgery.