Imitation learning provides a promising approach to dexterous hand manipulation, but its effectiveness is limited by the lack of large-scale, high-fidelity data. Existing data-collection pipelines suffer from inaccurate motion retargeting, low data-collection efficiency, and missing high-resolution fingertip tactile sensing. We address this gap with MILE, a mechanically isomorphic teleoperation and data-collection system co-designed from human hand to exoskeleton to robotic hand. The exoskeleton is anthropometrically derived from the human hand, and the robotic hand preserves one-to-one joint-position isomorphism, eliminating nonlinear retargeting and enabling precise, natural control. The exoskeleton achieves a multi-joint mean absolute angular error below one degree, while the robotic hand integrates compact fingertip visuotactile modules that provide high-resolution tactile observations. Built on this retargeting-free interface, we teleoperate complex, contact-rich in-hand manipulation and efficiently collect a multimodal dataset comprising high-resolution fingertip visuotactile signals, RGB-D images, and joint positions. The teleoperation pipeline achieves a mean success rate improvement of 64%. Incorporating fingertip tactile observations further increases the success rate by an average of 25% over the vision-only baseline, validating the fidelity and utility of the dataset. Further details are available at: https://sites.google.com/view/mile-system.

It is well-known that bacterial activity can contribute significantly to corrosion in marine and buried conditions. Herein, the possibility of bacterial influence on corrosion under atmospheric conditions is investigated, using the commercially available LAB-BART ® system to identify and to some degree quantify the major groups of bacteria present in corrosion products, including the sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB), iron reducing bacteria (IRB), heterotrophic aerobic bacteria (HAB), denitrifying bacteria (DN), acid producing bacteria (APB) and slime producing bacteria (SLYM). This is sufficient for most engineering purposes to assess the likelihood of corrosion being influenced by atmospherically borne bacteria. Bacterial testing was conducted at nine widely different atmospheric test locations. Significant SRB were not identified at any of the locations, IRB were identified in significant populations at all locations including, surprisingly, at the desert location. HAB were identified in small amounts at some locations but in greater concentrations at a turf farm and at an inland dam site. DN were not present at any location except at the desert site. APB was present in significant amounts at all sites and SLYM varied from almost nil at the ocean beach to quite high populations at the turf farm and at the dairy. These results are compared with nutrient deposition at these sites.

Cable-driven hyper-redundant robots (CDHRRs) show great potential for confined-space detection due to their dexterity and adaptability. However, the redundant degrees of freedom (DoFs) present significant challenges for CDHRRs in planning feasible paths with stable configurations. To address this challenge, this paper presents a path-planning algorithm to improve the stability and applicability of generated paths. Firstly, the Soft Actor–Critic (SAC) algorithm is used to efficiently plan paths for CDHRR. To address the issue of unstable configurations, a path smoothness index and a reward function are designed to evaluate and enhance the feasibility of generated paths. Then, the Hindsight Experience Replay (HER) and Prioritized Experience Replay (PER) algorithms are applied to solve the sparse-reward problem of CDHRRs with corresponding scenarios. Finally, the proposed method is validated via both simulation and real-world experiments. Simulation results show that, compared to the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree Star (RRT*) and Arc-segment RRT (As-RRT), the computation time of the presented algorithm is reduced by 96.56% and 97.95%, respectively. Moreover, this deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm generates smoother paths with a more stable configuration. In real-world experiments, the proposed algorithm demonstrates a 14.9% and 10% improvement in path smoothness and success rate over As-RRT. • An specialized SAC framework for large-scale CDHRRs in unknown environments. • Instability-aware reward design and path smoothness index for feasible configurations. • HER or PER integrated for sparse rewards with corresponding scenarios. • Validated in simulation and real-world, enhancing robustness and task success rate.

Color photometric stereo enables single-shot surface reconstruction, extending conventional photometric stereo that requires multiple images of a static scene under varying illumination to dynamic scenarios. However, most existing approaches assume ideal distant lighting and Lambertian reflectance, leaving more practical near-light conditions and non-Lambertian surfaces underexplored. To overcome this limitation, we propose a framework that leverages neural implicit representations for depth and BRDF modeling under the assumption of mono-chromaticity (uniform chromaticity and homogeneous material), which alleviates the inherent ill-posedness of color photometric stereo and allows for detailed surface recovery from just one image. Furthermore, we design a compact optical tactile sensor to validate our approach. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that our method achieves accurate and robust surface reconstruction. To facilitate future research and ensure reproducibility, we have made our source code publicly available at https://github.com/yulinjiaxue/near-light-color-ps.

The current review aims to analyze and synthesize the current state of active transport (AT) surveillance and monitoring among children and adolescents globally, leveraging data from the Global Matrix 4.0 to identify gaps and opportunities for improving AT measurement. Two independent researchers systematically reviewed all evidence sources used by 57 countries/jurisdictions to assign AT grades. AT grades were predominantly in the mid-range, with most countries scoring between C- and B+. Over half (54%) of the countries used nationally representative data, although a substantial proportion relied on subnational or mixed sources. AT indicators were based on self-report questionnaires assessing the usual mode of transport (44%) or frequency of travel (34%), most often completed by children and adolescents. A few data sources included items on duration, trip diaries, and previous-day recall. AT assessment was largely restricted to school travel (66%), with minimal inclusion of other destinations. Less than 10% of sources reported any evidence of validity or reliability. The most frequently reported challenges in grade assignment were related to data limitations, methodological inconsistencies, and limited destination focus. Priorities for improvement of AT included infrastructure development, education and awareness initiatives, and urban and transport planning strategies, with consistent patterns observed across country income groups. This review highlights substantial heterogeneity in how countries monitor AT in children and adolescents. The inconsistent constructs, school-centric focus, and lack of reported reliability and validity of the items/tools hinder meaningful comparisons, long-term surveillance, and accurate assessment of children's and adolescents' actual AT behaviors. • Global analysis shows major inconsistencies in active transport assessment worldwide. • Active transport data mainly rely on single self-report items about school trips. • Non-school destinations and psychometric evidence rarely reported. • Methodological gaps hinder comparability and monitoring of active transport trends. • Call for Delphi consensus to harmonize active transport measures and reporting.

Fabric-based soft gloves, due to their safety, light weight, and compliance, exhibit promising potential in assisting individuals with hand impairments. However, most existing soft gloves focus solely on finger flexion and extension, with limited consideration for thumb assistance. This restricts their effectiveness in tasks requiring extensive workspace and dexterous manipulation. In this work, we present a new class of fabric-based soft glove with 15 degrees of freedom (DOFs), including finger flexion/extension, thumb abduction/adduction, thumb opposition/reposition, and finger abduction. The high-DOF fabric-based soft glove integrates bidirectional fabric-based pneumatic actuators (FPAs) for finger flexion/extension, X-crossing pneumatic artificial muscles (X-PAMs) for thumb assistance, and Y-shaped bladed FPAs for finger abduction. To enhance the thumb tip workspace, we optimize the X-PAM positioning by modeling thumb kinematics from an anatomical perspective. The experimental results show that the optimized passive workspace of the thumb, assisted by the glove, encompasses approximately 70% of its active workspace. Through our mirror control system, we further demonstrate the glove's capability to perform complex gestures and versatile grasping tasks with various object geometries, sizes (0.1-11.5 cm), and masses (1.7-500.0 g). The glove supports both power and precision grasps, as well as fine manipulations.

In this paper, we consider the bifurcations and exact solutions in the symmetric [Formula: see text] triple-well model. By using the method of dynamical systems, we obtain bifurcations of the phase portraits of the corresponding planar dynamical system under different parameter conditions. Corresponding to some level curves, we derive possible exact explicit parametric representations of the smooth periodic solution, homoclinic solutions, as well as heteroclinic solutions.

Modeling of corrosion for steel structures in sea or estuary area is still a great challenge in view to analyze their safety and optimize their maintenance. Several inspection campaigns have been performed during the three last decades in some French harbours. Thus a great number of ultrasonic residual measurements are now available for structures in various environments. This information allows to perform a statistical analysis in view to best understand and model the distribution of loss of matter on those structures according to different areas (mainly tidal and immersion areas). Results confirm that the loss of thickness is higher at the interface between the tidal area and immersion area. An analysis of the spatial process is performed: stationarity is analyzed on three marine structures where the amount of data is significant. Finally, a first level of spatial dependent corrosion modeling of steel in marine environment is suggested.

Animal breeding phenology in temperate and high latitude regions is often predicted by weather variables, such as temperature. Much work on this topic has focused on taxonomic groups that employ adaptive plastic responses to annual variation in an environmental cue, with analytical approaches developed to determine when weather has an effect and the magnitude of response. However, adaptive responses are not always likely, so it is important to consider the assumptions and limitations of an approach when analysing similar questions in distinct taxonomic groups. The prolonged period between conception and birth means parturition date in seasonally breeding ungulates, such as red deer, is unlikely to show adaptive plastic responses to variation in weather. Prior studies of red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, have documented that parturition date is sensitive to summer temperature and getting earlier over time, while birth weight is sensitive to spring temperature but shows no temporal trend. Here, we reinvestigate this topic with updated statistical methods to establish confidence in previous results by deploying two approaches: permutations, combatting anti‐conservative aspects of sliding window analyses, and detrending, a valuable tool for weather attribution studies containing temporal trends. Incorporating detrending within the sliding window analyses of parturition date identified a different window as best fitting with a shallower temperature slope estimate compared to sliding windows that did not detrend. Permutations then showed all our parturition date results could be achieved by chance. In contrast, and consistent with earlier work, birth weight was predicted by spring temperature. Our novel results regarding the environmental sensitivity of parturition date in red deer suggest a lack of plasticity in response to weather and highlight the distinction between the phenology of mammals with long gestations and many more commonly studied taxa. We encourage the use of permutations and detrending within sliding window analyses when a trait shows temporal trends, to prevent inaccurate windows and effect sizes being identified.

Bellow-shaped soft continuum robots with parallel mechanisms feature an excellent balance between structural stiffness and contact compliance, making them highly promising in various applications. However, their complex structures and nonlinear elastic characteristics pose significant challenges in modeling and control. In this work, we propose a kinetostatic model and a corresponding position-orientation controller for bellow-shaped soft continuum robots. First, bellow-shaped soft actuators are simplified into hyperelastic cylinder soft actuators with mechanical equivalence. In addition, the overall deformation is decoupled into elongation and bending components to enhance computational efficiency. Based on these two simplifying strategies, the kinetostatic model is developed with absolute nodal coordinate formulation theory. Then, forward and inverse kinetostatic mappings are defined, and the numerical solution algorithm is presented. Finally, the developed model is experimentally validated through configuration simulation and feedforward trajectory tracking. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed model achieves low prediction errors, with configuration simulation errors of 3.43%. Furthermore, with the model-based feedforward controller, a two-segment soft continuum robot can accurately follow desired trajectories with specified bending angles, achieving average position and angle errors of 4.14 mm and 1.58<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ }$</tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively.

BACKGROUND: To promote regular physical activity (PA), health promotion campaigns must be relevant to the intended audience based on the process of developing, enacting, or maintaining their PA intentions. Previous research has identified 4 major PA persona profiles of campaign audiences based on intention, behavior, habit, and identity: "nonintenders," "unsuccessful adopters," "successful adopters," and "successful maintainers." To maximize uptake, PA promotion campaigns must also be tailored to the sociodemographic characteristics of the intended audiences. The purpose of this study was to assess sociodemographic differences across these persona profiles. METHODS: Secondary cross-sectional analyses were conducted on a pooled sample of 3 survey data sets (ntotal = 8122): a national poll of the Canadian population and audience feedback from 2 Canada-wide PA promotion campaigns. Participants were classified into persona profiles using an existing classification. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses assessed whether persona profiles differed on sociodemographic variables: age category, gender, sexual orientation, duration lived in Canada, race, education, and income. RESULTS: With univariate analyses, persona profiles could be characterized by age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, and income; odds ratios ranged from very small to small. With multivariate analysis, disability (odds ratio: 1.68-2.51) and sexual orientation (odds ratio: 1.90-2.14) were the most distinct of other persona profiles compared with "successful maintainers." CONCLUSIONS: Participants with disability or who identified as 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual) were the least likely to enact or maintain PA intentions. These audiences with lower societal privilege are most likely to need tailored PA promotion campaign content addressing unique barriers and facilitators to becoming "successful maintainers."

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are promising artificial muscles featuring large actuation strains, high energy densities, and fast response speeds. However, their reliance on kilovolt-level driving voltages remains a substantial barrier to their application in untethered systems. Here, low-voltage and high-output DEAs (LVHO-DEAs) were developed by synthesizing an elastomer material-high-dielectric constant processable high-performance dielectric elastomer, with optimized stress-strain behavior and an improved dielectric constant-and by multilayering its thin films through a scalable dry-stacking process. The developed LVHO-DEAs achieved an energy density of 38.4 joules per kilogram and a power density of 452 watts per kilogram at a nominal electric field of 20 volts per micrometer without any prestretching or high-frequency resonance. Driven by LVHO-DEAs, untethered wearable devices and soft robots with different actuation mechanisms were fabricated, demonstrating effective operation at 200 volts. These findings bridge the gap between the theoretical promise of DEAs and their practical application in untethered soft systems by enabling them to serve as high-performance actuators at low driving voltages.