The wide adoption of occupational shoulder exoskeletons in industrial settings remains limited. Passive exoskeletons were proved effective in a limited amount of application scenarios, such as (quasi-)static overhead handling tasks. Quasi-active devices, albeit representing an improved version of their passive predecessors, do not allow full modulation of the amount of assistance delivered to the user, lacking versatility and adaptability in assisting various dynamic tasks. Active occupational shoulder exoskeletons could overcome these limitations by controlling the shape of the delivered torque profile according to the task they aim to assist. However, most existing active devices lack compactness and wearability. This prevents their implementation in working environments. In this work, we present a new active shoulder exoskeleton, named Active Exo4Work (AE4W). It features a new flexible shaft-driven remote actuation unit that allows the positioning of the motors close to the wearer’s center of mass while it maintains a kinematic structure that is compatible with the biological motion of the shoulder joint. in vitro and in vivo experiments have been conducted to investigate the performance of AE4W. Experimental results show that the exoskeleton is kinematically compatible with the user’s workspace since it does not constrain the natural range of motion of the shoulder joint. Moreover, this device can effectively provide different types of assistance while the user executes various dynamic tasks, without altering perceived comfort.

Advancements in wearable robots aim to improve user motion, motor control, and overall experience by minimizing energetic cost (EC). However, EC is challenging to measure and it is typically indirectly estimated through respiratory gas analysis. This study introduces a novel EMG-based objective function that captures individuals’ natural energetic expenditure during walking. The objective function combines information from electromyography (EMG) variables such as intensity and muscle synergies. First, we demonstrate the similarity of the proposed objective function, calculated offline, to the EC during walking. Second, we minimize and validate the EMG-based objective function using an online Bayesian optimization algorithm. The walking step frequency is chosen as the parameter to optimize in both offline and online approaches in order to simplify experiments and facilitate comparisons with related research. Compared to existing studies that use EC as the objective function, results demonstrated that the optimization of the presented objective function reduced the number of iterations and, when compared with gradient descent optimization strategies, also reduced convergence time. Moreover, the algorithm effectively converges toward an optimal step frequency near the user’s preferred frequency, positively influencing EC reduction. The good correlation between the estimated objective function and measured EC highlights its consistency and reliability. Thus, the proposed objective function could potentially optimize lower limb exoskeleton assistance and improve user performance and human–robot interaction without the need for challenging respiratory gas measurements.

Rice in Mississippi is often in early seedling growth stages when paraquat-based herbicide treatments are commonly applied to corn, cotton, and soybean; therefore, off-target movement of the herbicide onto adjacent rice fields may occur. After an off-target movement event has occurred, weed management in the rice crop is still necessary. Field studies were conducted from 2019 to 2021 in Stoneville, MS, to evaluate rice injury and barnyardgrass control with labeled herbicides after exposure to a sublethal concentration of paraquat. Herbicide treatments were label-recommended rates of imazethapyr, quinclorac, propanil, bispyribac-sodium, cyhalopfop, and florpyrauxifen-benzyl applied following rice exposure to a sublethal concentration of paraquat. Rice injury was detected 7 and 28 d after treatment (DAT) and was ≥35% and ≥14%, respectively, for all herbicides. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl and imazethapyr caused the greatest rice injury at 28 DAT. Following paraquat exposure, barnyardgrass control was similar for all labeled herbicide treatments at 7, 14, and 28 DAT except for florpyrauxifen-benzyl and no herbicide (paraquat alone) at 7 DAT. Across all evaluations, barnyardgrass control was at least 12% greater following paraquat exposure and labeled herbicide treatments than with no paraquat exposure. The current research demonstrates that labeled rates of herbicides applied following exposure to a sublethal concentration of paraquat resulted in <36% injury and provided as great as 95% control of barnyardgrass, depending on the herbicide treatment. Therefore, the labeled herbicides choice following rice exposure to a sublethal concentration of paraquat should be based on weed spectrum.

Occupational back-support exoskeletons, categorized as active or passive, hold promise for mitigating work-related musculoskeletal disorders. However, their impact on combined physical and cognitive aspects of industrial work performance remains inadequately understood, especially regarding potential differences between exoskeleton categories. A randomized, counterbalanced cross-over study was conducted, comparing the active CrayX, passive Paexo Back, and a no exoskeleton condition. A 15-min dual task was used to simulate both cognitive and physical aspects of industrial work performance. Cognitive workload parameters included reaction time, accuracy, and subjective measures. Physical workload included movement duration, segmented in three phases: (1) walking to and grabbing the box, (2) picking up, carrying, and putting down the box, and (3) returning to the starting point. Comfort of both devices was also surveyed. The Paexo significantly increased movement duration in the first segment compared to NoExo (Paexo = 1.55 ± 0.19 s; NoExo = 1.32 ± 0.17 s; p < .01). Moreover, both the Paexo and CrayX increased movement duration for the third segment compared to NoExo (CrayX = 1.70 ± 0.27 s; Paexo = 1.74 ± 0.27 s, NoExo = 1.54 ± 0.23 s; p < .01). No significant impact on cognitive outcomes was observed. Movement Time 2 was not significantly affected by both exoskeletons. Results of the first movement segment suggest the Paexo may hinder trunk bending, favoring the active device for dynamic movements. Both devices may have contributed to a higher workload as the movement duration in the third segment increased compared to NoExo.

Suppose that A is a k × d matrix of integers and write $\Re _A:{\mathbb N}\to {\mathbb N}\cup \{ \infty \} $ for the function taking r to the largest N such that there is an r-colouring $\mathcal {C}$ of [N] with $\bigcup _{C \in \mathcal {C}}{C^d}\cap \ker A =\emptyset $. We show that if ℜA(r) < ∞ for all $r\in {\mathbb N}$ then $\mathfrak {R}_A(r) \leqslant \exp (\exp (r^{O_{A}(1)}))$ for all r ⩾ 2. When the kernel of A consists only of Brauer configurations – that is, vectors of the form (y, x, x + y, …, x + (d − 2)y) – the above statement has been proved by Chapman and Prendiville with good bounds on the OA(1) term.

We show that there is an absolute $c>0$ such that if $A$ is a finite set of integers, then there is a set $S\subset A$ of size at least $\log ^{1+c}|A|$ such that the restricted sumset $\{s+s^{\prime }:s,s^{\prime }\in S\text{ and }s\neq s^{\prime }\}$ is disjoint from $A$. (The logarithm here is to base $3$.)

For $G$ a finite non-Abelian group we write $c(G)$ for the probability that two randomly chosen elements commute and $k(G)$ for the largest integer such that any $k(G)$-colouring of $G$ is guaranteed to contain a monochromatic quadruple $(x,y,xy,yx)$ with $xy\neq yx$. We show that $c(G)\rightarrow 0$ if and only if $k(G)\rightarrow \infty$.

We show that if f is a Boolean function on F2n with spectral norm at most M then there is some L ≤ exp(M3+o(1)) and subspaces V1,. . .,VL such that f = Σi ± 1Vi.

We develop a version of Freĭman's theorem for a class of non-abelian groups, which includes finite nilpotent, supersolvable and solvable A-groups. To do this we have to replace the small doubling hypothesis with a stronger relative polynomial growth hypothesis akin to that in Gromov's theorem (although with an effective range), and the structures we find are balls in (left and right) translation invariant pseudo-metrics with certain well behaved growth estimates.

Our work complements three other recent approaches to developing non-abelian versions of Freĭman's theorem by Breuillard and Green, Fisher, Katz and Peng, and Tao.

We show that if G is a group and A⊂G is a finite set with ∣A2∣≤K∣A∣, then there is a symmetric neighbourhood of the identity S such that Sk⊂A2A−2 and ∣S∣≥exp (−KO(k))∣A∣.

This report summarises a workshop convened by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) on 14 October 2008 to discuss current FSA-funded research on carbohydrates and cardiovascular health. The objective of this workshop was to discuss the results of recent research and to identify any areas which could inform future FSA research calls. This workshop highlighted that the FSA is currently funding some of the largest, well-powered intervention trials investigating the type of fat and carbohydrate, whole grains and fruit and vegetables, on various CVD risk factors. Results of these trials will make a substantive contribution to the evidence on diet and cardiovascular risk.

Suppose that G is an abelian group and that A ⊂ G is finite and contains no non-trivial three-term arithmetic progressions. We show that |A+A| »ε|A|(log|A|)⅓−ε.