Factors That Contribute to Effectiveness of Foster Care Networks in Securing Permanency for Children: An Exploration of Network Participants\u27 Perceptions in Urban and Rural Settings

The purpose of this study was to identify possible factors that may contribute to the variations in effectiveness of foster care networks in a rural and an urban Ohio county. The effectiveness of the networks was assessed based on the success of the foster care networks to provide permanency for children who are placed in out-of-home care. For the purpose of this study the foster care network organizations in each county included the child welfare agencies, the juvenile courts, private foster care agencies and foster families. The child welfare agencies in each of Ohio counties operate independently, and their success in securing permanency for foster children varies for each county. This variation is particularly evident when comparing the Ohio\u27s rural and urban counties. The available descriptive data indicates that the foster care networks in Ohio\u27s smaller rural counties are on average more successful in securing permanency for children than the larger urban counties. The existence of such variations was confirmed through comparison of existing descriptive data for 40 counties (20 rural and 20 urban) for the child permanency indicators. Since this researcher could not find information in the existing literature to explain these variations, this study was designed to identify the possible factors that may be responsible for such variations through exploring the perceptions of individuals who are closely connected with the foster care networks. This study explored the perceptions of 30 foster care network stakeholders through in-depth field interviews. The individuals interviewed for this study (15 from each of the urban and rural counties selected for this study) included staff from the child welfare agencies, the juvenile courts, private foster care agencies, as well as the foster families. The staff members from various levels of each organization were interviewed, which included child welfare agency directors, juvenile court judges, private foster care agency directors, as well as supervisors an

A Dynamical System Approach for Catching Softly a Flying Object: Theory and Experiment

Mirrazavi Salehian SS, Khoramshahi M, Billard A. A Dynamical System Approach for Catching Softly a Flying Object: Theory and Experiment. IEEE Transaction on Robotics. Accepted

Benefits of an Active Spine Supported Bounding Locomotion With a Small Compliant Quadruped Robot

We studied the effect of the control of an active spine versus a fixed spine, on a quadruped robot run- ning in bound gait. Active spine supported actuation led to faster locomotion, with less foot sliding on the ground, and a higher stability to go straight forward. However, we did no observe an improvement of cost of transport of the spine-actuated, faster robot system compared to the rigid spine

Influence of facial feedback and mind perception during a cooperative human-robot task in schizophrenia

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.Rapid progress in the area of humanoid robots offers tremendous possibilities for investigating and improving social competences in people with social deficits, but remains yet unexplored in schizophrenia. In this study, we examined the influence of social feedbacks elicited by a humanoid robot on motor coordination during a human-robot interaction. Twenty-two schizophrenia patients and twenty-two matched healthy controls underwent a collaborative motor synchrony task with the iCub humanoid robot. Results revealed that positive social feedback had a facilitatory effect on motor coordination in the control participants compared to non-social positive feedback. This facilitatory effect was not present in schizophrenia patients, whose social-motor coordination was similarly impaired in social and non-social feedback conditions. Furthermore, patients’ cognitive flexibility impairment and antipsychotic dosing were negatively correlated with patients’ ability to synchronize hand movements with iCub. Overall, our findings reveal that patients have marked difficulties to exploit facial social cues elicited by a humanoid robot to modulate their motor coordination during human-robot interaction, partly accounted for by cognitive deficits and medication. This study opens new perspectives for comprehension of social deficits in this mental disorder.This experiment was supported by a grant from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7 ICT 2011 Call 9) under grant agreement n FP7-ICT-600610 ALTEREGO

Recording behaviour of indoor-housed farm animals automatically using machine vision technology: a systematic review

Large-scale phenotyping of animal behaviour traits is time consuming and has led to increased demand for technologies that can automate these procedures. Automated tracking of animals has been successful in controlled laboratory settings, but recording from animals in large groups in highly variable farm settings presents challenges. The aim of this review is to provide a systematic overview of the advances that have occurred in automated, high throughput image detection of farm animal behavioural traits with welfare and production implications. Peer-reviewed publications written in English were reviewed systematically following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. After identification, screening, and assessment for eligibility, 108 publications met these specifications and were included for qualitative synthesis. Data collected from the papers included camera specifications, housing conditions, group size, algorithm details, procedures, and results. Most studies utilized standard digital colour video cameras for data collection, with increasing use of 3D cameras in papers published after 2013. Papers including pigs (across production stages) were the most common (n = 63). The most common behaviours recorded included activity level, area occupancy, aggression, gait scores, resource use, and posture. Our review revealed many overlaps in methods applied to analysing behaviour, and most studies started from scratch instead of building upon previous work. Training and validation sample sizes were generally small (mean±s.d. groups = 3.8±5.8) and in data collection and testing took place in relatively controlled environments. To advance our ability to automatically phenotype behaviour, future research should build upon existing knowledge and validate technology under commercial settings and publications should explicitly describe recording conditions in detail to allow studies to be reproduced

Clinical and electrocardiographic predictors of positive response to the intravenous sodium channel blockers in patients suspected of the Brugada syndrome

Background/objectives: Sodium channel blockers are used to unmask the diagnostic ECG pattern of the Brugada syndrome (BrS) in case of a non-diagnostic baseline ECG. The aim of the study was to determine clinical and ECG predictors of a positive challenge test in patients suspected to the BrS. Methods: A total of 106 consecutive patients (91 men; mean age, 35 ± 12 years) suspected of the BrS underwent the intravenous sodium channel blocker challenge test with procainamide or flecainide. Results: Of the 106 patients, positive tests were detected in 20 (19) patients. During test, a transient episode of a second-degree atrioventricular block and isolated ventricular ectopies were observed in 1 (0.9) and 2 (1.9) patients, respectively. A QRS prolongation � 30 was observed in 4 (3.8) patients. Baseline QRS duration in V1 � 110 ms had a sensitivity of 70 and a specificity of 80 for a positive response. An ST-segment elevation � 0.17 mV in V2 had a sensitivity of 60 and a specificity of 82 for a positive response. Of the multiple clinical and ECG variables entered into a binary logistic regression analysis, a history of syncope (P = 0.001), previous cardiac arrest (P = 0.001), baseline QRS duration in V1 � 110 ms (P = 0.001), and baseline ST-segment elevation in V2 � 0.17 mV (P = 0.012) emerged as the independent predictors of a positive response to the intravenous challenge with sodium channel blockers. Conclusion: The results of the sodium channel blocker challenge test can be predicted by clinical presentation and baseline ECG features. © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd

About the Health and Safety Executive. Process Safety Based on Risk and Performance Indicators

From the perspective of risk-based safety, the risk level of the risks in the process industry is not the same and it is necessary to identify larger risks, with the approach of the various resources available in the organization, which are often finite, in an optimal and effective manner. The section will be used. Measuring and monitoring performance indicators in this strategy is very important. These indicators provide a complete picture of the usefulness and effectiveness of the safety-related activities of the process, while identifying gaps and weaknesses in the system, will provide a good guide for complementary actions in order to enhance the safety of the process. In this paper, while describing the principles of safety of the risk-based process, its elements have been introduced and 105 functional indicators, including progressive and bottom-up, have been defined for it. From the indicators defined in this research, we can select the most suitable ones and use them to improve the safety of the process industries

Guidance on Health and Safety at Work. Design Safety and Fire-fighting Systems in Urban Rail Transport Networks

In this paper, considering the importance and safety status of urban train systems, we study and assess the urban management requirements and requirements for equipping the inner city network using the results of “cost-benefit” techniques in order to analyze the methods Fire control and fire, as well as the use of fire safety systems in the urban train network. On the other hand, the development of tools for measuring and comparing the effectiveness of fire prevention and fire prevention measures in various rail transportation systems, which are very useful in various safety engineering methods in the design of mass transportation systems such as LRT or tram. And can be effective in analyzing the fire safety of its systems