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Introduction: Psychiatric rehabilitation activities (PRA) aim at restoring community functioning and improving well-being and quality of life of patients, guiding them towards independence and taking responsibility for their own existence. PRA suitable to psychiatry emergency settings are crucial as they prepare effective postdischarge therapeutic programs. Our psychiatry emergency unit designed rapid group PRA based on a combination of personcentred, evidence-based interventions. Objectives: The aim of our study is to assess several aspects of our PRA: participation rate, degree of participants' satisfaction, perceived utility, and the quality of climate within the group. Methods: Self-report questionnaires were administered in our psychiatry emergency unit to acute patients during their hospitalization. Patients underwent our PRA, a structured weekly program based on a combination of cognitive-behavioural interventions such as Psycho-education, Cognitive Remediation and Social Skills Training. Results: From April to December 2018, 195 self-report questionnaires were administered. 88.5% of participants described PRA as very useful to their recovery process, 87% considered themselves very satisfied with the climate within the group and 86.1% of the sample was very satisfied with the quality of time spent on PRA. Conclusions: Monitoring our group program resulted in a positive feedback on PRA, with high rates of perceived efficacy and satisfaction. High acceptability makes this intervention a promising approach able to promote awareness and recovery in acute patients. The therapeutic effects of PRA possibly unfold through the enhanced ability to cope with stress and to manage personal vulnerabilities, along with an improvement of cognitive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Capecitabine is an oral chemotherapy used to treat many gastrointestinal cancers. Its complex dosing and narrow therapeutic index make medication adherence and toxicity management crucial for quality care., Methods: We conducted a pilot study of PENNY-GI, a mobile phone text messaging-based chatbot that leverages algorithmic surveys and natural language processing to promote medication adherence and toxicity management among patients with gastrointestinal cancers on capecitabine. Eligibility initially included all capecitabine-containing regimens but was subsequently restricted to capecitabine monotherapy because of challenges in integrating PENNY-GI with radiation and intravenous chemotherapy schedules. We used design thinking principles and real-time data on safety, accuracy, and usefulness to make iterative refinements to PENNY-GI with the goal of minimizing the proportion of text messaging exchanges with incorrect medication or symptom management recommendations. All patients were invited to participate in structured exit interviews to provide feedback on PENNY-GI., Results: We enrolled 40 patients (median age 64.5 years, 52.5% male, 62.5% White, 55.0% with colorectal cancer, 50.0% on capecitabine monotherapy). We identified 284 of 3,895 (7.3%) medication-related and 13 of 527 (2.5%) symptom-related text messaging exchanges with incorrect recommendations. In exit interviews with 24 patients, participants reported finding the medication reminders reliable and user-friendly, but the symptom management tool was too simplistic to be helpful., Conclusion: Although PENNY-GI provided accurate recommendations in >90% of text messaging exchanges, we identified multiple limitations with respect to the intervention's generalizability, usefulness, and scalability. Lessons from this pilot study should inform future efforts to develop and implement digital health interventions in oncology.

We present an avatar system designed to facilitate the embodiment of humanoid robots by human operators, validated through iCub3, a humanoid developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. More precisely, the paper makes two contributions: First, we present the humanoid iCub3 as a robotic avatar that integrates the latest significant improvements after about 15 years of development of the iCub series. Second, we present a versatile avatar system enabling humans to embody humanoid robots encompassing aspects such as locomotion, manipulation, voice, and facial expressions with comprehensive sensory feedback including visual, auditory, haptic, weight, and touch modalities. We validated the system by implementing several avatar architecture instances, each tailored to specific requirements. First, we evaluated the optimized architecture for verbal, nonverbal, and physical interactions with a remote recipient. This testing involved the operator in Genoa and the avatar in the Biennale di Venezia, Venice-about 290 kilometers away-thus allowing the operator to visit the Italian art exhibition remotely. Second, we evaluated the optimized architecture for recipient physical collaboration and public engagement on stage, live, at the We Make Future show, a prominent world digital innovation festival. In this instance, the operator was situated in Genoa while the avatar operated in Rimini-about 300 kilometers away-interacting with a recipient who entrusted the avatar with a payload to carry on stage before an audience of approximately 2000 spectators. Third, we present the architecture implemented by the iCub Team for the All Nippon Airways (ANA) Avatar XPrize competition.

This paper proposes a novel method to reliably calibrate a pair of sensorized insoles utilizing an array of capacitive tactile pixels ( taxels ). A new calibration setup is introduced that is scalable and suitable for multiple kinds of wearable sensors and a procedure for the simultaneous calibration of each of the sensors in the insoles is presented. The calibration relies on a two-step optimization algorithm that, firstly, enables determination of a relevant set of mathematical models based on the instantaneous measurement of the taxels alone, and, then, expands these models to include the relevant portion of the time history of the system. By comparing the resulting models with our previous work on the same hardware, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the novel method both in terms of increased ability to cope with the non-linear characteristics of the sensors and increased pressure ranges achieved during the experiments performed.

Antenatal depression may be distinct from postpartum depression in terms of prevalence, severity of symptoms, comorbidities, prognosis, and risk factors. Although risk factors for perinatal depression have been identified, it is unclear whether there are differences in the onset of perinatal depression (PND). This study explored the characteristics of women requiring mental health support during pregnancy or postpartum. A sample of 170 women (58% in pregnancy; 42% postpartum) who contacted the SOS-MAMMA outpatient clinic was recruited. Clinical data sheets and self-report questionnaires (EPDS, LTE-Q, BIG FIVE; ECR; BSQ; STICSA) were administered, hypothesizing possible risk factors, such as personality traits, stressful life events, body dissatisfaction, attachment style, and anxiety. Hierarchical regression models were carried out in the pregnancy (F 10;36 = 8.075, p < 0.001, adjR2 = 0.877) and postpartum groups (F 10;38 = 3.082, p < 0.05, adjR2 = 0.809). Recent stressful life events and conscientiousness were associated with depression in both the pregnant (29.3%, 25.5% of variance) and postpartum groups (23.8%, 20.7% of variance). In pregnant women, "openness" (11.6%), body dissatisfaction (10.2%), and anxiety (7.1%) symptoms were predictive of depression. In the postpartum group, "neuroticism" (13.8%) and insecure romantic attachment dimensions (13.4%; 9.2%) were the strongest predictors. Perinatal psychological interventions should consider the differences between mothers with depression during pregnancy and postpartum.

Action understanding is a fundamental computer vision branch for several applications, ranging from surveillance to robotics. Most works deal with localizing and recognizing the action in both time and space, without providing a characterization of its evolution. Recent works have addressed the prediction of action progress, which is an estimate of how far the action has advanced as it is performed. In this paper, we propose to predict action progress using a different modality compared to previous methods: body joints. Human body joints carry very precise information about human poses, which we believe are a much more lightweight and effective way of characterizing actions and therefore their execution. Estimating action progress can in fact be determined based on the understanding of how key poses follow each other during the development of an activity. We show how an action progress prediction model can exploit body joints and integrate it with modules providing keypoint and action information in order to be run directly from raw pixels. The proposed method is experimentally validated on the Penn Action Dataset.

Competing Interests: Dr. Mamtani reported receiving honoraria from Flatiron Health and research funding from Merck. He also served in an advisory role for Genetech/Roche and Seattle Genetics/Astellas. No other disclosures were reported.

Introduction: Recently, many industrial exoskeletons for supporting workers in heavy physical tasks have been developed. However, the efficiency of exoskeletons with regard to physical strain reduction has not been fully proved, yet. Several laboratory and field studies have been conducted, but still more data, that cannot be obtained solely by behavioral experiments, are needed to investigate effects on the human body., Methods: This paper presents an approach to extend laboratory and field research with biomechanical simulations using the AnyBody Modeling System. Based on a dataset recorded in a laboratory experiment with 12 participants using the exoskeleton Paexo Shoulder in an overhead task, the same situation was reproduced in a virtual environment and analyzed with biomechanical simulation., Results: Simulation results indicate that the exoskeleton substantially reduces muscle activity and joint reaction forces in relevant body areas. Deltoid muscle activity and glenohumeral joint forces in the shoulder were decreased between 54 and 87%. Simultanously, no increases of muscle activity and forces in other body areas were observed., Discussion: This study demonstrates how a simulation framework could be used to evaluate changes in internal body loads as a result of wearing exoskeletons. Biomechanical simulation results widely agree with experimental measurements in the previous laboratory experiment and supplement such by providing an insight into effects on the human musculoskeletal system. They confirm that Paexo Shoulder is an effective device to reduce physical strain in overhead tasks. The framework can be extended with further parameters, allowing investigations for product design and evaluation., Competing Interests: Authors state no conflict of interests. Some authors work for Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA, a manufacturer of industrial exoskeletons., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Programming by demonstration has received much attention as it offers a general framework which allows robots to efficiently acquire novel motor skills from a human teacher. While traditional imitation learning that only focuses on either Cartesian or joint space might become inappropriate in situations where both spaces are equally important (e.g., writing or striking task), hybrid imitation learning of skills in both Cartesian and joint spaces simultaneously has been studied recently. However, an important issue which often arises in dynamical or unstructured environments is overlooked, namely how can a robot avoid obstacles? In this paper, we aim to address the problem of avoiding obstacles in the context of hybrid imitation learning. Specifically, we propose to tackle three subproblems: (i) designing a proper potential field so as to bypass obstacles, (ii) guaranteeing joint limits are respected when adjusting trajectories in the process of avoiding obstacles, and (iii) determining proper control commands for robots such that potential human-robot interaction is safe. By solving the aforementioned subproblems, the robot is capable of generalizing observed skills to new situations featuring obstacles in a feasible and safe manner. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through a toy example as well as a real transportation experiment on the iCub humanoid robot., (Copyright © 2020 Duan, Camoriano, Ferigo, Huang, Calandriello, Rosasco and Pucci.)

Wearable sensors are gaining in popularity because they enable outdoor experimental monitoring. This paper presents a cost-effective sensorised insole based on a mesh of tactile capacitive sensors. Each sensor's spatial resolution is about 4 taxels/cm 2 in order to have an accurate reconstruction of the contact pressure distribution. As a consequence, the insole provides information such as contact forces, moments, and centre of pressure. To retrieve this information, a calibration technique that fuses measurements from a vacuum chamber and shoes equipped with force/torque sensors is proposed. The validation analysis shows that the best performance achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) of about 7 N for the contact forces and 2 N m for the contact moments when using the force/torque shoe data as ground truth. Thus, the insole may be an alternative to force/torque sensors for certain applications, with a considerably more cost-effective and less invasive hardware.

Overhead work is a frequent cause of shoulder work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Exoskeletons offering arm support have the potential to reduce shoulder strain, without requiring large scale reorganization of the workspace. Assessment of such systems however requires to take multiple factors into consideration. This paper presents a thorough in-lab assessment of PAEXO, a novel passive exoskeleton for arm support during overhead work. A list of evaluation criteria and associated performance metrics is proposed to cover both objective and subjective effects of the exoskeleton, on the user and on the task being performed. These metrics are measured during a lab study, where 12 participants perform an overhead pointing task with and without the exoskeleton, while their physical, physiological and psychological states are monitored. Results show that using PAEXO reduces shoulder physical strain as well as global physiological strain, without increasing low back strain nor degrading balance. These positive effects are achieved without degrading task performance. Importantly, participants' opinions of PAEXO are positive, in agreement with the objective measures. Thus, PAEXO seems a promising solution to help prevent shoulder injuries and diseases among overhead workers, without negatively impacting productivity.

A crucial part of dynamic motions is the interaction with other objects or the environment. Floating base robots have yet to perform these motions repeatably and reliably. Force torque sensors are able to provide the full description of a contact. Despite that, their use beyond a simple threshold logic is not widespread in floating base robots. Force torque sensors might change performance when mounted, which is why in situ calibration methods can improve the performance of robots by ensuring better force torque measurements. The Model-Based in situ calibration method with temperature compensation has shown promising results in improving FT sensor measurements. There are two main goals for this paper. The first is to facilitate the use and understanding of the method by providing guidelines that show their usefulness through experimental results. Then the impact of having better FT measurements with no temperature drift are demonstrated by proving that the offset estimated with this method is still useful days and even a month from the time of estimation. The effect of this is showcased by comparing the sensor response with different offsets simultaneously during real robot experiments. Furthermore, quantitative results of the improvement in dynamic behaviors due to the in situ calibration are shown. Finally, we show how using better FT measurements as feedback in low and high level controllers can impact the performance of floating base robots during dynamic motions. Experiments were performed on the floating base robot iCub.

The paper presents a stochastic methodology for the simultaneous floating-base estimation of the human whole-body kinematics and dynamics (i.e., joint torques, internal and external forces). The paper builds upon our former work where a fixed-base formulation had been developed for the human estimation problem. The presented approach is validated by presenting experimental results of a health subject equipped with a wearable motion tracking system and a pair of shoes sensorized with force/torque sensors while performing different motion tasks, e.g., walking on a treadmill. The results show that joint torque estimates obtained by using floating-base and fixed-base approaches match satisfactorily, thus validating the present approach.

In Italy, following the closure of psychiatric hospitals in 1978 and the release of psychiatric patients into community care, there was a mismatch between common psychiatric patients and the convicted mentally ill who were sentenced to serve in state forensic psychiatric hospitals. The recent closure of such structures following the Prime Minister's Decree of April 1, 2008, fostered the need to create new structures. These are called "REMS," and they are based in the community and led by psychiatrists and healthcare staff who may rely on the collaboration of public security staff. This act completed a course of progressive deinstitutionalization of all psychiatric patients. However, some problems remain, and persons regarded as "partially mentally disabled" at the time of crime perpetration must serve part of their sentence in prison and the rest in the aforementioned structures or in psychiatric rehabilitation communities, depending on their claimed "social dangerousness." Psychiatric services now face the ambiguity of treating persons who are considered dangerous by court orders, while the civil law criteria for involuntary hospitalization is based only on the need of care. The complete closure of forensic hospitals may be considered a decisive step forward in the humanization of society, but there are still some issues to address to make it work better. The implementation of multidisciplinary teams and effective psychotherapy, psychoeducational, and rehabilitation interventions can help., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The iCub open-source humanoid robot child is a successful initiative supporting research in embodied artificial intelligence., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Background: Asenapine is a second-generation antipsychotic approved in Europe for treating moderate-to-severe manic episodes in adults affected by type I bipolar disorder (BD-I). We aimed to compare its efficacy in psychiatric inpatients with BD-I, with or without substance use disorder (SUD)., Methods: We administered flexible asenapine doses ranging from 5-20 mg/day to 119 voluntarily hospitalized patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) BD-I diagnosis, with or without SUD. Patients were assessed with clinician-rated questionnaires [i.e. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)]. Assessments were carried out at baseline (T0, prior to treatment), and 3 (T1), 7 (T2), 15 (T3), and 30 days (T4) after starting treatment for all clinical scales and at T0 and T4 for the GAF., Results: Patients improved on all scales ( p < 0.001) across all timepoints, as shown both by paired-sample comparisons and by applying a repeated-measures, generalized linear model (GLM). Patients without comorbid SUD showed greater reductions in BPRS scores at T2 and T3, greater reduction in YMRS scores at T3, and lower HARS scores at all timepoints. HDRS scores did not differ between the two groups at any timepoint. However, the reduction in HARS scores in the comorbid group was stronger than in the BD-I only group, albeit not significantly. Side effects were few and mild-to-moderate., Conclusions: The open-label design and the relatively short observation period may expose to both type I and type II statistical errors (false positive and false negatives). Asenapine showed effectiveness and safety in hospitalized BD-I patients. Its effect was stronger in patients without comorbid SUD., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Total soluble polyphenols (TSP), total monomeric anthocyanins (TMA), radical scavenging activity (RSA), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and a number of anthocyanins, phenolic acids, coumarins, flavanols, dihydrochalcones and flavonols were investigated in Tuscan bilberry (i.e. Vaccinium myrtillus) and "false bilberry" (i.e. Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides Bigelow). V. myrtillus berries showed much higher TSP, TMA, RSA and FRAP values than V. uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides fruits. Moreover, very different profiles of individual phenolics were observed in the two species, being V. myrtillus mainly characterised by delphinidin and cyanidin glycosides, together with chlorogenic acid, and V. uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides dominated by malvidin derivatives and flavonols. Strong differences between the two species regarded also metabolites investigated herein for the first time, such as scopoletin, which was approximately two magnitude orders higher in V. uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides than in V. myrtillus berries. Very different abundances were also highlighted for cryptochlorogenic acid and quercetin-3-rhamnoside that were about ten-fold higher in bilberry than in "false bilberry". When the anthocyanin composition pattern of Tuscan "false bilberry" was compared to those elsewhere reported for V. uliginosum fruits harvested in different world areas, some important differences were observed., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify hiccup cases among patients hospitalized in a psychiatric ward and focus on their treatment, so to establish intervention risk., Methods: We reviewed records of 354 consecutively admitted patients during the year 2013 to identify hiccup cases., Results: Hiccup occurred in 7 patients on both aripiprazole and benzodiazepines and in one on delorazepam. No patient on aripiprazole alone developed hiccup. No patient on drugs other than aripiprazole or benzodiazepines developed hiccup. The symptom subsided in 3 cases upon discontinuing aripiprazole and in 5 cases after discontinuing the benzodiazepine (including the case on delorazepam alone); in 2 cases of persistent hiccup, the symptom resolved after adding the calcium channel blocker, pregabalin. All patients developing hiccup were male. There was a 70-fold increase in the risk for developing hiccup in the aripiprazole/benzodiazepine intake condition versus all other conditions, and it further increased if limiting to the male sex., Limitations: The retrospective nature of the study was its limitation., Conclusions: Hospitalized psychiatric patients on both aripiprazole and benzodiazepines may be at significant risk of hiccup. This clinical awareness could lead to antipsychotic and/or benzodiazepine discontinuation or switch or to the addition of calcium channel blocker inhibitors.

Empirical and theoretical studies support the notion that anomalous self-experience (ASE) may constitute a phenotypic aspect of vulnerability to schizophrenia, but there are no studies examining the relationship of ASE with other clinical risk factors in a sample of ultra-high risk (UHR) subjects. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between ASE, prodromal symptoms, neurocognition, and global functioning in a sample of 45 UHR adolescents and young adults (age range 15-25years) at first contact with Public Mental Health Services. Prodromal symptoms and global functioning were assessed through the SIPS interview. ASE was evaluated through the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE); for neurocognition, we utilized a battery of tests examining seven cognitive domains as recommended by the Measurement And Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia. In the UHR group, higher levels in two domains of the EASE (stream of consciousness and self-awareness) were found in comparison with help-seeking subjects. Correlational analysis corrected for possible confounding variables showed a strong association (p>0.001) between higher EASE scores and global functioning. A principal factor analysis with Varimax rotation yielded a two-factor solution, jointly accounting for 70.58% of the total variance in the UHR sample. The first factor was comprised of SOPS domains, while the second was comprised of EASE-total, EASE-10, and GAF variables. Our findings provide support for the notion that disorders of self-experience are present early in schizophrenia and are related to global functioning. As such, they may constitute a potential marker of risk supplementing the UHR approach., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)