Discrete Objectives Research Articles

Upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot inverse kinematics modeling and solution method based on multi-objective optimization

The inverse kinematics problem of exoskeleton rehabilitation robots is challenging due to the lack of a standard analytical model, resulting in a complex and varied solution process. This complexity is especially pronounced in redundant upper limb exoskeleton robots, where inefficient solutions hinder the robot’s ability to adapt to the kinematic shape of the upper limb. This paper proposes a modeling and solution method based on multi-objective optimization to address the inverse kinematics of upper limb exoskeleton robots. We analyzed and validated this method using a redundant upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot system developed by ourselves. First, we established a multi-objective inverse kinematics solution model by defining the end-position function, joint motion comfort function, system energy consumption function, motion safety, and human-like constraints. Then, the solution was designed based on the Improved Equilibrium Optimization (IEO) algorithm and validated its computational performance in terms of optimization ability, accuracy, and robustness. Finally, we experimentally tested the inverse kinematics solution model with the IEO algorithm on discrete objectives and continuous training trajectories using a redundant upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot system. The results show that by incorporating the joint comfort function, system energy consumption function, and human-like constraints into the inverse kinematics model, we can not only quickly solve the inverse kinematics of redundant upper limb exoskeleton robots but also significantly improve the robot’s motion shape. Furthermore, it has better solution accuracy and stronger robustness than other algorithms when solving this inverse kinematics model based on the IEO algorithm.

Buried filet of limb flaps for the reconstruction of forequarter and hindquarter amputations.

Forequarter and hindquarter amputations have traditionally been closed with local tissues, but the technique is plagued by a high rate of complication such as marginal necrosis, seroma, infection, and dehiscence. Filet of limb flaps have been used when local tissues are insufficient for closure, and despite their use in more extensive and complex wounds, outcomes seem to be better in these cases. Recognizing that filet of limb flaps not only serve to cover the wound, but also eliminate dead space, supplement at-risk and/or radiated tissue, pad underlying hard structures, and facilitate neuroma prevention with target muscle reinnervation, we have change our practice to utilize buried filet of limb flaps even when local tissues are technically "sufficient" to close the wound. The purpose of this article to organize and describe the ways in which buried filet-of-limb flaps can be used to achieve important and discrete surgical objectives in forequarter and hindquarter amputation, and to facilitate increased recognition of collaborative interdisciplinary opportunities for spare-part reconstruction. Retrospective data from the medical records of seven patients, collected between 2010 to 2023 at our single tertiary referral center, were reviewed. This included all patients for whom a buried (or partially buried) filet of limb flap was attempted for forequarter or hindquarter amputation reconstruction. Five males and two females ranging 55 to 75 years of age, met the inclusion criteria. Three cases of forequarter amputation and four cases of hindquarter amputation were included. Six flaps were successfully transferred without major flap-related complications. The mean follow-up period was eight and a half months. Even when local tissues are technically "sufficient" to close forequarter and hindquarter amputation wounds, we have found buried filet of limb flaps to be useful in several ways. These include occupying dead space, providing double-layer coverage, padding hard structures, preventing neuromas, and reconstructing sacro- and spino-pelvic continuity. Our approach emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and highlights the potential advantages of buried filet of limb flaps in optimizing patient outcomes for complex limb amputations.

Energy Citizens “Just Like You”? Public Relations Campaigning by the Climate Change Counter-movement

ABSTRACT The climate change counter-movement (CCCM) was created in 1989 immediately following the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Brulle 2014) and has only deepened its public influence efforts since the Paris Agreement (Besley & Peters 2020). Striving to spread alternative climate change narratives, the CCCM deploys what we characterize as Information and Influence Campaigns (IICs), multimedia campaigns executed by public relations (PR) contractors designed to influence public discourse toward specific conclusions – often by using certain value-laden rhetorical frames. In this paper, we identify the dominant objectives, activities, and rhetorical messaging frames constituting four major IICS surrounding the Waxman-Markey bill debates: one representing each of the three major fossil fuel industries along with the one significant “green” campaign of the era. By tracing the implementation of rhetorical frames across a diverse array of campaign activities to achieve discrete objectives, we demonstrate these fossil actors' clear intentions to steer public opinion toward anti-environmental viewpoints through the use of strategic PR. When considered together with the significant resource advantage held by those that propagate these discourses, the stakes are enormous for both climate policy outcomes and the integrity of the public sphere.

A design of experiments based on the Normal‐boundary‐intersection method to identify optimum machine settings in manufacturing processes

AbstractFinding the appropriate machine settings for a given manufacturing process is an important issue in industrial production. A set of minimum and maximum machine settings correspond to the lower and upper quality limits that are specified for the produced product, and by this define the boundaries of all appropriate machine settings. This paper shows that these boundaries are the solution of a multi‐objective optimisation problem, which is called the optimum machine settings problem. However, for most processes there is no mathematical model of the manufacturing process available, which maps the setting parameters on the quality key figures in a way that allows to compute the optimisation problem. In this case, experiments may provide the required empirical data simultaneously while executing the optimisation procedure. Using a case study on heat sealing in industrial packaging, the paper shows, how to develop a design of experiments based on the Normal‐boundary‐intersection method (NBI), and how to generate the Pareto‐frontier by executing test according to this test plan. It addresses the specific limitations inherent in solving an optimisation problem by experiments. The behaviour of the method towards discrete and binary objectives and constraints is discussed.

Comprehensive Utilization Model of Yarlung Zangbo River Water Resources Based on Discrete Multi-objective Optimization Model

The Yarlung Zangbo River is rich in water resources, which is of great significance to the comprehensive utilization of water resources. The reasonable development of the hydropower resources of the Yarlung Zangbo River is realized, through the water diversion project and the establishment of the trapezoidal hydropower station. A comprehensive utilization model of hydropower resources optimized by discrete objectives is constructed, based on the discrete multi-objective optimization theory. It combined with the reading of geographic data by GPS and Matlab. The number and orientation of the optimal construction of hydropower stations and the proportion of the water transfer volume of the water diversion project are obtained, combining the cost of hydropower station construction and water diversion project implementation and the benefits brought by hydropower resources.

Study of optimal allocation of water resources in Dujiangyan irrigation district of China based on an improved genetic algorithm

Abstract In order to distribute water resources reasonably, it is advantageous to make full use of resources and produce high economic and social benefits. Taking the Dujiangyan irrigation area of China as an example, we discuss the idea of establishing and solving the optimal allocation model of water resources. With this aim, a two-dimensional constraint model with highest economic value, minimum water shortage, minimum underground water consumption and necessary living water demand was established. In order to solve this model, we improved a multi-population genetic algorithm, extending the genetic optimization of the algorithm into two dimensions, taking population as the vertical dimension and the individual as the horizontal dimension, and transforming the cross genetic operator to copy the genetic (crossover) operator and the mutation operator to only act on the vertical dimension, so as to optimize the allocation of such discrete objectives of water resources in the irrigation area with a particular model suitable for the region. The distribution results successfully control the water shortage rate of each area at a low level, which saves the exploitation of groundwater to the maximum extent and produces high economic benefits. The improved algorithm proposed in this paper has a kind of strong optimization ability and provides a new solution for the optimization problem with multiple constraints.

Incorporation of multimodal multiobjective optimization in designing a filter based feature selection technique

Current work reports about the development of a new feature selection technique fusing two concepts, multimodal multiobjective optimization and filter-based feature selection. Use of the concept of multimodality in multiobjective based feature selection helps in generating diverse set of feature subsets on final Pareto front. This approach evaluates the quality of the reduced feature set by utilizing different quality measures. This process of feature selection focuses on achieving two discrete objectives: (1) identification of a large number of Pareto-optimal solutions along with achieving a good distribution in both objective and decision spaces; (2) making a selection of feature subset with minimal redundancy and high correlation with classes. To achieve the second objective, a variety of objective functions based on information-theoretic measures like normalized mutual information and correlation with class attributes are utilized. A multiobjective ring-based Particle swarm Optimization (PSO) and non-dominated sorting with special crowding distance are employed to cover the aspects corresponding to the first objective. An evaluation is carried out on seven publicly available datasets concerning different classifiers. The results of these experiments illustrate that the multimodal PSO based feature selection approach finds more feature subsets than its simple PSO counterpart in multiobjective environment. And, the results are also compared with those of existing wrapper based multimodal multiobjective feature selection methods.

Can modern multi-objective evolutionary algorithms discover high-dimensional financial risk portfolio tradeoffs for snow-dominated water-energy systems?

Hydropower generation in the Hetch Hetchy Power System is strongly tied to snowmelt dynamics in the central Sierra Nevada and consequently is particularly financially vulnerable to changes in snowpack availability and timing. This study explores the Hetchy Hetchy Power System as a representative example from the broader class of financial risk management problems that hold promise in helping utilities such as SFPUC to understand the tradeoffs across portfolios of risk mitigation instruments given uncertainties in snowmelt dynamics. An evolutionary multi-objective direct policy search (EMODPS) framework is implemented to identify time adaptive stochastic rules that map utility state information and exogenous inputs to optimal annual financial decisions. The resulting financial risk mitigation portfolio planning problem is mathematically difficult due to its high dimensionality and mixture of nonlinear, nonconvex, and discrete objectives. These features add to the difficulty of the problem by yielding a Pareto front of solutions that has a highly disjoint and complex geometry. In this study, we contribute a diagnostic assessment of state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms’ (MOEAs') abilities to support a DPS framework for managing financial risk. We perform comprehensive diagnostics on five algorithms: the Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGA-III), Reference Vector Guided Evolutionary Algorithm (RVEA), and the Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition (MOEA/D). The MOEAs are evaluated to characterize their controllability (ease-of-use), reliability (probability of success), efficiency (minimizing model evaluations), and effectiveness (high quality tradeoff representations). Our results show that newer decomposition, reference point, and reference vector algorithms are highly sensitive to their parameterizations (difficult to use), suffer from search deterioration (losing solutions), and have a strong likelihood of misrepresenting key tradeoffs. The results emphasize the importance of using MOEAs with archiving and adaptive search capabilities in order to solve complex financial risk portfolio problems in snow-dependent water-energy systems.

Correction to: An Interprofessional Framework for Telebehavioral Health Competencies

The Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) has developed an interprofessional, evidence-based, measurable framework for telebehavioral health (TBH) competencies. The paper presents the development of the CTiBS TBH framework, identifies the theoretical rationale and need for such competencies; outlines methods used; provides two detailed discussions of applications; presents a tabulized form of the framework, then discusses limitations and future research. In the CTiBS TBH competency framework, the term telebehavioral health is meant to include telemental health and e-therapy. The TBH competency framework is offered as an initial working document to identify and organize discreet, measurable telebehavioral practices derived from a review of the literature, technological advances and day-to-day clinical practice. It reflects core knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for competent telebehavioral health practice. The competency framework is directly applicable to psychiatry/medicine, psychology, social work, counseling, marriage/family, behavior analysis and other behavioral sciences. The CTiBS TBH framework organizes seven topic domains and five subdomains according to competency level i.e., Novice, Proficient or Authority. In turn, each competency level is categorized into 51 discrete telebehavioral objectives, which are then distinguished by 149 cumulative and measurable telebehavioral practices. The seven TBH competency domains identified by CTiBS include: 1) Clinical Evaluation & Care, with three subdomains addressing Assessment & Treatment, Cultural Competence & Diversity and Documentation & Administrative Procedures; 2) Virtual Environment & Telepresence; 3) Technology; 4) Legal & Regulatory Issues; 5) Evidence-Based & Ethical Practice, with two subdomains addressing Standards and Guidelines and Social Media; 6) Mobile Health and Apps and 7) Telepractice Development.

Application of oil-film interferometry image post-processing technology based on MATLAB

The image post-processing technology based on MATLAB was applied in oil-film interferometry to calculate the skin friction coefficient. This method can recognize the bright and dark fringes by the algorithm based on standard deviation, which is efficient and robust. Furthermore, it can process low-quality images and extract fringe spacing by converted grayscale image and the proper sliding window can catch the discrete objectives precisely by multiple selected windows. In addition, the calculation window size can adjust automatically, which improved the robustness of the algorithm greatly. By comparing the experimental results with the numerical results, it is proved that the method of post-processing based on MATLAB can accurately measure the skin friction in hypersonic flow.

A health care delivery model focusing on development of a cadre of primary care physicians-Recommendations of Organized Medicine Academic Guild.

Organized medicine is the academic guild of professional medical organizations in India. It was founded at the annual conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (PEDICON) on January 7, 2018. Organized medicine is constituted by leading professional medical organizations and mandated to support the sustainability of health agenda of the Government of India. A group of experts on behalf of Organized Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG) of India was constituted to facilitate adequate theories and models on how to make primary care integral to participation of people and intersectoral collaboration in equitable delivery of health care. A subtle, flexible, and comprehensive approach instead of a “compartmentalized existing in silos” approach is likely to be needed. This paper is a formal recommendation on behalf of OMAG with an aspiration to deliver to the people of India, what they need, focusing on discrete objectives with long-term plans.

Correction to: An Interprofessional Framework for Telebehavioral Health Competencies

The Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) has developed an interprofessional, evidence-based, measurable framework for telebehavioral health (TBH) competencies. The paper presents the development of the CTiBS TBH framework, identifies the theoretical rationale and need for such competencies; outlines methods used; provides two detailed discussions of applications; presents a tabulized form of the framework, then discusses limitations and future research. In the CTiBS TBH competency framework, the term telebehavioral health is meant to include telemental health and e-therapy. The TBH competency framework is offered as an initial working document to identify and organize discreet, measurable telebehavioral practices derived from a review of the literature, technological advances and day-to-day clinical practice. It reflects core knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for competent telebehavioral health practice. The competency framework is directly applicable to psychiatry/medicine, psychology, social work, counseling, marriage/family, behavior analysis and other behavioral sciences. The CTiBS TBH framework organizes seven topic domains and five subdomains according to competency level i.e., Novice, Proficient or Authority. In turn, each competency level is categorized into 51 discrete telebehavioral objectives, which are then distinguished by 149 cumulative and measurable telebehavioral practices. The seven TBH competency domains identified by CTiBS include: 1) Clinical Evaluation & Care, with three subdomains addressing Assessment & Treatment, Cultural Competence & Diversity and Documentation & Administrative Procedures; 2) Virtual Environment & Telepresence; 3) Technology; 4) Legal & Regulatory Issues; 5) Evidence-Based & Ethical Practice, with two subdomains addressing Standards and Guidelines and Social Media; 6) Mobile Health and Apps and 7) Telepractice Development.

An Interprofessional Framework for Telebehavioral Health Competencies

The Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) has developed an interprofessional, evidence-based, measurable framework for telebehavioral health (TBH) competencies. The paper presents the development of the CTiBS TBH framework, identifies the theoretical rationale and need for such competencies, outlines methods used, provides two detailed discussions of applications, presents a tabulized form of the framework, and then discusses limitations and future research. In the CTiBS TBH competency framework, the term telebehavioral health is meant to include telemental health and e-therapy. The TBH competency framework is offered as an initial working document to identify and organize discreet, measurable telebehavioral practices derived from a review of the literature, technological advances, and day-to-day clinical practice. It reflects core knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for competent telebehavioral health practice. The competency framework is directly applicable to psychiatry/medicine, psychology, social work, counseling, marriage/family, behavior analysis, and other behavioral sciences. The CTiBS TBH framework organizes seven topic domains and five subdomains according to competency level, i.e., Novice, Proficient, or Authority. In turn, each competency level is categorized into 51 discrete telebehavioral objectives, which are then distinguished by 149 cumulative and measurable telebehavioral practices. The seven TBH competency domains identified by CTiBS include (1) Clinical Evaluation and Care, with three subdomains addressing Assessment and Treatment, Cultural Competence and Diversity, and Documentation and Administrative Procedures; (2) Virtual Environment and Telepresence; (3) Technology; (4) Legal and Regulatory Issues; (5) Evidence-Based and Ethical Practice, with two subdomains addressing Standards and Guidelines and Social Media; (6) Mobile Health and Apps; and (7) Telepractice Development.

Integrated cell and process engineering for improved transient production of a "difficult-to-express" fusion protein by CHO cells.

Based on an optimized electroporation protocol, we designed a rapid, milliliter-scale diagnostic transient production assay to identify limitations in the ability of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells to produce a model "difficult-to-express" homodimeric Fc-fusion protein, Sp35Fc, that exhibited very low volumetric titer and intracellular formation of disulfide-bonded oligomeric aggregates post-transfection. As expression of Sp35Fc induced an unfolded protein response in transfected host cells, we utilized the transient assay to compare, in parallel, multiple functionally diverse strategies to engineer intracellular processing of Sp35Fc in order to increase production and reduce aggregation as two discrete design objectives. Specifically, we compared the effect of (i) co-expression of ER-resident molecular chaperones (BiP, PDI, CypB) or active forms of UPR transactivators (ATF6c, XBP1s) at varying recombinant gene load, (ii) addition of small molecules known to act as chemical chaperones (PBA, DMSO, glycerol, betaine, TMAO) or modulate UPR signaling (PERK inhibitor GSK2606414) at varying concentration, (iii) a reduction in culture temperature to 32°C. Using this information, we designed a biphasic, Sp35Fc-specific transient manufacturing process mediated by lipofection that utilized CypB co-expression at an optimal Sp35Fc:CypB gene ratio of 5:1 to initially maximize transfected cell proliferation, followed by addition of a combination of PBA (0.5 mM) and glycerol (1% v/v) at the onset of stationary phase to maximize cell specific production and eliminate Sp35Fc aggregation. Using this optimal, engineered process transient Sp35Fc production was significantly increased sixfold over a 12 day production process with no evidence of disulfide-bonded aggregates. Finally, transient production in clonally derived sub-populations (derived from parental CHO host) screened for a heritably improved capability to produce Sp35Fc was also significantly improved by the optimized process, showing that protein-specific cell/process engineering can provide a solution that exceeds the limits of genetic/functional diversity within heterogeneous host cell populations. .

Tuning of robotic therapy controllers for stroke gait: Using isometrically constrained EMG modular structures.

The development of EMG based controllers for automated gait orthosis is a promising intervention for post-stroke gait rehabilitation and assistive device applications. However, the integration of stroke specific modular neuromuscular patterns for the design of active gait assistance controller is largely unexplored. To this end, this work presents preliminary evidence of the associated variability between lower limb muscle activation patterns underlying discrete isometric control objectives and the analogous dynamic subtask during treadmill gait using matrix factorization algorithms. We find that common muscle coordination patterns underlying both isometric and dynamic gait submovements can be used to reconstruct relevant spatio-temporal patterns for healthy locomotion. We propose that synergies extracted isometrically may be sufficient to tune adaptive controller assistance for disruptive linkages in the EMG control signal to impact gait dysfunction.

Finding Your “Spanish Voice” Through Popular Media: Improving Students’ Confidence and Fluency

This article shares an innovative course design that incorporates cultural connections and comparisons, interpersonal communication, and a relaxing classroom environment to facilitate learning and language development. By using authentic texts as the medium for learning, it provides a case example of an upper-division curriculum that focused on cognitive skills, elicited conversational dialogues, exposed and promoted the use of different registers, and tapped students’ existing schema around stimulating topics to foster engagement, reflection and enthusiasm. We advance that a curriculum that focuses on the affective domain over discrete academic or grammatical objectives can develop students’ sense of linguistic creativity and language ownership, thus improving their confidence and level of competency in the target language.

The Devil's in the Details: Trading Policy Goals for Complexity in Medicaid Nursing Home Reimbursement

There is great variability in how much nursing home providers are paid for a day of care for a Medicaid recipient, how the payment level is set, and what mechanisms are used to reimburse facilities. Given the absence of recent, comprehensive in-depth analyses of state reimbursement systems, this article undertakes a comparative case analysis of Medicaid nursing facility reimbursement in Alabama, California, Minnesota, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Findings indicate that states design their methods of reimbursement to achieve desired policy outcomes related to facility cost and quality, access to care, payment equity, service capacity, and budgetary control. The result, however, has been the development of enormously complex and demanding rate-setting methodologies, the adverse consequences of which can outweigh and overwhelm the discrete policy objectives contained in the reimbursement formula. This complexity highlights the potential trade-off between achieving desired goals and costly administrative burdens, opportunities for appeal and disagreement, difficulties understanding the ramifications of system changes, reliance on simplified decision-making rules, and exclusion of otherwise interested parties from the policy process.

Comprehensive Primary Health Care: a new phase?

Clinical Director, Ealing Primary Care Trust, Southall, London, UKIn the first commentary on Alma Ata in this editionof the London Journal of Primary Care, Exworthydescribes how, in 1978, 134 countries and 67 inter-national organisations committed themselves to de-velop a social model of health, to complement thebiomedical model that was dominant at the time. Itaimed to engage all citizens and organisations in asharedeffortforhealth.Theycalledit‘comprehensiveprimary health care’. It emphasises participation,inter-sectoral collaboration and equity. In the secondpaper Macdonald laments the failure to achieve thisambitious model. He concludes ‘it is time to eithertreat seriously the term ‘Primary Health Care’ orabandon it, to avoid the situation where generalpractitionersthinktheyaredoingitmerelybyencour-aging life-style change’.But with hindsight, 1978 was not the right time tomoveforwardthisambitiousvision.AlmaAtadidputits finger on the things a society needs to be healthy.But it forgot to say how difficult these things are toachieve. As Exworthy mildly put it ‘the rhetoric hasbeen comparatively easy compared to the implemen-tation’.Here is the nub of the problem, we lack adequatetheoriesandmodelsofhowtomakeparticipationandinter-sectoral collaboration for health and equity thenorm. A subtle, encouraging approach is likely to beneeded.Butthedominanttheoryusedtogetpeopletodo what we want is instrumental and direct, focusedon discrete projects and short-term objectives. It hasbeenenshrinedinthesoundbite–‘CarrotsandSticks’– a metaphor made to move donkeys short distances.1978 was not the beginning, but the end of an era.Big Politics were about to take an abrupt change.McNultyandFerlieremindusthatthosedayswitnesseda ‘taxpayers revolt’ against the cost of governing theextendedsocialdemocraticState,demandingacurbofState growth and stimulation of markets.

A Critical Comparison between Australian and Canadian Creditor Protection Regimes: Voluntary Administration and CCAA

This article compares Canadian and Australian corporate insolvency regimes. The principles and application of the Canadian Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) and Australian Voluntary Administration (VA) are critically examined in light of the other's strengths and weaknesses. Extensive comparisons with regards to corporate insolvency have been made between these countries and major economies such as Great Britain and the United States, but there is limited literature directly comparing Australia with Canada. Comparisons with economically eminent nations can help provide indicators of successful principles, however, the broad and concise similarities between Canada and Australia produce a particularly valuable comparison because of the specific points upon which applicable recommendations can arise. While the CCAA lacks some of the statutory controls of VA, particularly with respect to the liability of the supervisory 'monitor' role, VA is more rigid, which may hamper the restructuring of larger complex corporations. Both countries have ambiguities: CCAA exists alongside the Business Insolvency Act, an alternative creditor protection regime in Canada; VA caters to two discrete but simultaneous objectives: returning to solvency and maximizing return to creditors. Finally, Canada has accepted a debtor-in-possession model similar to that of the United States, whereas Australia has pointedly rejected such a model, requiring an immediate appointment of an external administrator. The authors show that there are clear and substantial benefits to both countries' regimes and that each country can learn and benefit from the experiences of the other.

Computational support for building evaluation: Embedded Commissioning Model

Persistent evaluation of design throughout the building delivery process is a challenging task. Isolated measurements with discrete objectives typify current practices. However the goal of the AEC industry should be the improvement of the quality of buildings through continuous evaluation. This paper describes our research on an Embedded Commissioning Model, which proposes a building information model to make architectural evaluation a persistent part of the building lifecycle.