Directing human attention with pointing

© 2014 IEEE. Pointing is a typical means of directing a human's attention to a specific object or event. Robot pointing behaviours that direct the attention of humans are critical for human-robot interaction, communication and collaboration. In this paper, we describe an experiment undertaken to investigate human comprehension of a humanoid robot's pointing behaviour. We programmed a NAO robot to point to markers on a large screen and asked untrained human subjects to identify the target of the robots pointing gesture. We found that humans are able to identify robot pointing gestures. Human subjects achieved higher levels of comprehension when the robot pointed at objects closer to the gesturing arm and when they stood behind the robot. In addition, we found that subjects performance improved with each assessment task. These new results can be used to guide the design of effective robot pointing behaviours that enable more effective robot to human communication and improve human-robot collaborative performance

A qualitative study exploring the patients' perspective from the 'Reserved Therapeutic Space' nursing intervention in acute mental health units

This study aimed to explore the perspective of people who had experienced treatment as patients at acute mental health units, regarding an intervention model to improve therapeutic relationships in the units, which had been previously designed by the nurses. The study participants were people linked to collectives for social activism in mental health. Six focus groups were held. The results were classified into three themes: (a) the meaning of a space to enable the establishment of a therapeutic relationship, (b) the procedures to implement the space, and (c) the difficulties to overcome to establish the space. For the participants, the Reserved Therapeutic Space intervention was perceived as a space where they could share expectations and needs with the nurses, considering it as both valid and useful to improve the therapeutic relationship in acute units. For the participants, the intervention should be structured in three stages: orientation, follow-up, and discharge. The content of the intervention should be proposed by the patients based on their needs and concerns. The barriers identified for carrying out the intervention were the lack of relational competence, the violation of rights, and the lack of accessibility of nurses. The facilitating elements were the availability of nurses, active listening, and empathy. The resulting intervention model includes realities of both groups, providing insights for nurses to initiate a space with patients and improve their therapeutic relationship. This intervention model could be used by managers to test its effectiveness

Impact of the 'reserved therapeutic space' nursing intervention on patient health outcomes: An intervention study in acute mental health units.

Aims To evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘reserved therapeutic space’ intervention for improving the nurse–patient therapeutic relationship in acute mental health units in Spain. Design Multicentre intervention study with control group. Methods The study will be carried out in 12 mental health units. The ‘reserved therapeutic space’ intervention to be tested has been co-designed and validated by both nurses and patients. The quality of the therapeutic relationship, the care received and perceived coercion among patients will be assessed. An estimated 131 patients per group are expected to participate. Funding was granted by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Co-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (PI21/00605)) and College of Nurses of Barcelona (PR-487/2021). The proposal was approved by all the Research Ethics Committees of participating centres. Results This project will lead to changes in clinical practice, transforming the current models of organization and care management in mental health hospitalization units. No patient or public contribution

Espacio Terapéutico Reservado: una intervención enfermera para unidades de agudos de salud mental. Guía breve de implementación

Esta Guía breve se centra en describir la intervención Espacio Terapéutico Reservado. Esta intervención ha sido diseñada por enfermeras de salud mental y personas con experiencia propia en unidades de hospitalización de salud mental. La finalidad de la intervención es mejorar el proceso de relación terapéutica enfermera-paciente, proceso que es considerado tanto por las enfermeras como por los pacientes como el eje central de los cuidados en enfermería de salud mental. Además, se sabe que su adecuado establecimiento mejora la efectividad de cualquier intervención enfermera en la práctica clínica

Almost sure H∞ sliding mode control for nonlinear stochastic systems with Markovian switching and time-delays

This paperinvestigatesthealmostsure H1 sliding mode control (SMC) problem for non linear stochastic systems with Markovian switching and time-delays. An integral sliding surface is first constructed for the addressed system. Then, by employing the topping time method combined with martingale in equalities, sufficient conditions are established to ensure the almost surely exponential stability and the H 1 performance of the system dynamics in the specified sliding surface. ASMC law is designed to guarantee the reach ability of the specified sliding surface almost surely. Furthermore, the obtained results are applied to a class of special nonlinear stochastic systems with Markovian switching and time-delays, where the desired SMC law is obtained in terms of the solutions to a set of matrix in equalities. Finally, a numerical example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed SMC scheme

Maximal conductances ionic parameters estimation in cardiac electrophysiology multiscale modelling

International audienceIn this work, we present an optimal control formulation for the bidomain model in order to estimate maximal conductances parameters in the physiological ionic model. We consider a general Hodgkin-Huxley formalism to describe the ionic exchanges at the microcopic level. We consider the parameters as control variables to minimize the mismatch between the measured and the computed potentials under the constraint of the bidomain system. The solution of the optimization problem is based on a gradient descent method, where the gradient is obtained by solving an adjoint problem. We show through some numerical examples the capability of this approach to estimate the values of sodium, calcium and potassium ion channels conductances in the Luo Rudy phase I model

A systematic review on the use of action research methods in mental health nursing care

Aims: To identify and synthesize evidence on the use of action research methods in mental health nursing care. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases were searched in January 2021. Review methods: Data were selected using the updated Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis framework. Two reviewers independently conducted the study selection, and quality appraisal using Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research, data extraction and data analysis procedures. Results: Sixteen studies, half of which used participatory action research, were included in this review. Nurses, along with other stakeholders, were an active part of the action research process. The main topics of interest addressed were categorized as improving the adoption of a person-centred approach to care and improving decision-making procedures. The use of action research helped the participants to identify the meaning they attached to the topic of interest to be improved. Moreover, this method helped to identify needs and strategies for improving care. The studies concurred that the use of action research enabled participants to gain awareness, improve attitudes and acquire knowledge. In addition, it enabled participants to gain confidence and security in the group context, as key aspects of their empowerment. Conclusion: This review shows the usefulness of action research in any mental health nursing context, contributing to the improvement of care at both the individual and collective levels. Impact: This paper demonstrates the use of the action research method in the field of mental health nursing. Its use has improved the clinical practice of nurses as well as that of teams in both community and hospital settings, addressing issues of the person-centred approach to care and decision-making procedures

The therapeutic relationship from the perspective of patients and nurses in the first days of admission: A cross‐sectional study in acute mental health units

The therapeutic relationship (TR) is essential in mental health nursing care and plays a fundamental role in the understanding and treatment of the patient's health status. Despite being a bidirectional construct, limited evidence is available to shed light on this issue in mental health units and even less so in the first days of admission. This study aimed to examine the association and differences between nurses' and patients' perspectives on the establishment of the therapeutic relationship in acute mental health units during the first days of hospitalization. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 12 Spanish mental health units. Data were collected from patients and nurses using the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S) questionnaire. A total of 234 cases were analysed, including 234 patients and 58 nurses. The results showed a positive association between nurses' and patients' perspectives on the therapeutic relationship, but also revealed significant differences on each WAI-S dimension. Nurses assigned higher scores compared to patients on the perception of the quality of the therapeutic relationship. The dimensions with the greatest weight from the patients' perspective regarding the quality of the therapeutic relationship were the perception of greater agreement on goals and tasks among nurses. This study demonstrates the importance of establishing shared goals and tasks with nurses from the first days of hospitalization to improve the quality of the therapeutic relationship as perceived by patients. These findings underline the need to consider the different perspectives of both parties to promote a high-quality therapeutic relationship

Measurement of W± boson production in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02Te with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of W± boson production in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02Te is reported using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 0.49nb-1. The W± bosons are reconstructed in the electron or muon leptonic decay channels. Production yields of leptonically decaying W± bosons, normalised by the total number of minimum-bias events and the nuclear thickness function, are measured within a fiducial region defined by the detector acceptance and the main kinematic requirements. These normalised yields are measured separately for W+ and W- bosons, and are presented as a function of the absolute value of pseudorapidity of the charged lepton and of the collision centrality. The lepton charge asymmetry is also measured as a function of the absolute value of lepton pseudorapidity. In addition, nuclear modification factors are calculated using the W± boson production cross-sections measured in pp collisions. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-leading-order calculations with CT14 parton distribution functions as well as with predictions obtained with the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions. No dependence of normalised production yields on centrality and a good agreement with predictions are observed for mid-central and central collisions. For peripheral collisions, the data agree with predictions within 1.7 (0.9) standard deviations for W- (W+) bosons

An adaptive version of k-medoids to deal with the uncertainty in clustering heterogeneous data using an intermediary fusion approach

This paper introduces Hk-medoids, a modified version of the standard k-medoids algorithm. The modification extends the algorithm for the problem of clustering complex heterogeneous objects that are described by a diversity of data types, e.g. text, images, structured data and time series. We first proposed an intermediary fusion approach to calculate fused similarities between objects, SMF, taking into account the similarities between the component elements of the objects using appropriate similarity measures. The fused approach entails uncertainty for incomplete objects or for objects which have diverging distances according to the different component. Our implementation of Hk-medoids proposed here works with the fused distances and deals with the uncertainty in the fusion process. We experimentally evaluate the potential of our proposed algorithm using five datasets with different combinations of data types that define the objects. Our results show the feasibility of the our algorithm, and also they show a performance enhancement when comparing to the application of the original SMF approach in combination with a standard k-medoids that does not take uncertainty into account. In addition, from a theoretical point of view, our proposed algorithm has lower computation complexity than the popular PAM implementation