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This paper aims to present a human-in-the-loop natural teaching paradigm based on scene-motion cross-modal perception, which facilitates the manipulation intelligence and robot teleoperation.

The proposed natural teaching paradigm is used to telemanipulate a life-size humanoid robot in response to a complicated working scenario. First, a vision sensor is used to project mission scenes onto virtual reality glasses for human-in-the-loop reactions. Second, motion capture system is established to retarget eye-body synergic movements to a skeletal model. Third, real-time data transfer is realized through publish-subscribe messaging mechanism in robot operating system. Next, joint angles are computed through a fast mapping algorithm and sent to a slave controller through a serial port. Finally, visualization terminals render it convenient to make comparisons between two motion systems.

Experimentation in various industrial mission scenes, such as approaching flanges, shows the numerous advantages brought by natural teaching, including being real-time, high accuracy, repeatability and dexterity.

The proposed paradigm realizes the natural cross-modal combination of perception information and enhances the working capacity and flexibility of industrial robots, paving a new way for effective robot teaching and autonomous learning.

Many treatment methods for intra-articular fractures of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint are described in the literature without a consensus on the most effective approach. The purpose of this study was to investigate the methods of treatment of PIP joint fractures being used by trauma surgeons in the Republic of Ireland currently and the timing of referral to therapy.

A cross-sectional descriptive study methodology was used to survey trauma surgeons, occupational therapists and physiotherapists in Ireland. An online platform was used. A total of 21 surveys were returned by surgeons and 37 by therapists. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to present the results.

Buddy strapping was reported as the primary treatment method for stable PIP joint fractures. All levels of fracture severity were reported to be treated using traction constructs, which include static and dynamic fixation and orthoses. Unstable fractures were managed using open reduction with internal fixation by 50 per cent of surgeons. Early timing of referral to therapy is reported by more surgeons than therapists. The majority of therapists indicated that they did not have the resources to see patients at the optimal time.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first description of the management of PIP joint fractures across the Irish health service. The findings of this study suggest that additional therapy resources are required within the health service executive to facilitate the desired early referral to therapy and to enable service development for this category of hand fractures.

The post-operative management of flexor tendon injuries has been the focus of considerable exploration and there continues to be variation in approaches and methods of mobilisation. The purpose of this paper is to explore therapy management following repair to flexor tendons at zone II and flexor pollicis longus (FPL) (all zones) in Ireland.

A descriptive survey questionnaire design through an online format was used. Therapists were recruited through the Irish Association of Hand Therapists, the national bodies for occupational therapy and physiotherapy, and therapy managers in acute hospitals, with 29 therapists participating in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the survey data.

Patients were generally seen three to five days following surgery. Early active mobilisation approaches were favoured by all but one therapist, with 62% using the Belfast protocol and 34% the Manchester Short Splint (MSS) protocol. Each early active protocol exercise session commences with passive motion followed by graded active flexion. Tenodesis is incorporated by the majority of respondents within the first four weeks. Therapy programme and splints are modified based on patient presentation. Resistance exercises are commenced from week seven. Patient compliance was identified as the most influential factor in the post-operative intervention approach taken.

This study provides the first Irish profile of current practice in the post-operative management of flexor tendon repairs at zone II and FPL which has not previously been reported. Further research should explore the reasoning behind the interventions chosen and also the implications for practice of changes to surgical techniques.

There are over 40 million amputees globally with more than 185,000 Americans losing their limbs every year. For most of the world, prosthetic devices remain too expensive and uncomfortable. This paper aims to outline advancements made by a multidisciplinary research group, interested in advancing the restoration of human motion through accessible lower limb prostheses.

Customization, comfort and functionality are the most important metrics reported by prosthetists and patients. The work of this paper presents the design and manufacturing of a custom made, cost-effective and functional three-dimensional (3D) printed transtibial prosthesis monocoque design. The design of the prosthesis integrates 3D imaging, modelling and optimization techniques coupled with additive manufacturing.

The successful fabrication of a functional monocoque prosthesis through 3D printing indicates the workflow may be a solution to the worldwide accessibility crisis. The digital workflow developed in this work offers great potential for providing prosthetic devices to rural communities, which lack access to skilled prosthetic physicians. The authors found that using the workflow together with 3D printing, this study can create custom monocoque prostheses (Figure 16). These prostheses are comfortable, functional and properly aligned. In comparison with traditional prosthetic devices, the authors slowered the average cost, weight and time of production by 95%, 55% and 95%, respectively.

This novel digital design and manufacturing workflow has the potential to democratize and globally proliferate access to prosthetic devices, which restore the patient’s mobility, quality of life and health. LIMBER’s toolbox can reach places where proper prosthetic and orthotic care is not available. The digital workflow reduces the cost of making custom devices by an order of magnitude, enabling broader reach, faster access and improved comfort. This is particularly important for children who grow quickly and need new devices every few months or years, timely access is both physically and psychologically important.

In this manuscript, the authors show the application of digital design techniques for fabricating prosthetic devices. The proposed workflow implements several advantageous changes and, most importantly, digitally blends the three components of a transtibial prosthesis into a single, 3D printable monocoque device. The development of a novel unibody transtibial device that is properly aligned and adjusted digitally, greatly reduces the number of visits an amputee must make to a clinic to have a certified prosthetist adjust and modify their prosthesis. The authors believe this novel workflow has the potential to ease the worldwide accessibility crisis for prostheses.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how emerging open standards are replacing traditional industrial networks. Current industrial Ethernet networks are not interoperable; thus, limiting the potential capabilities for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). There is no forthcoming new generation fieldbus standard to integrate into the IIoT and Industry 4.0 revolution. The open platform communications unified architecture (OPC UA) time-sensitive networking (TSN) is a potential vendor-independent successor technology for the factory network. The OPC UA is a data exchange standard for industrial communication, and TSN is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standard for Ethernet that supports real-time behaviour. The merging of these open standard solutions can facilitate cross-vendor interoperability for Industry 4.0 and IIoT products.

A brief review of the history of the fieldbus standards is presented, which highlights the shortcomings for current industrial systems in meeting converged traffic solutions. An experimental system for the OPC UA TSN is described to demonstrate an approach to developing a three-layer factory network system with an emphasis on the field layer.

From the multitude of existing industrial network schemes, there is a convergence pathway in solutions based on TSN Ethernet and OPC UA. At the field level, basic timing measurements in this paper show that the OPC UA TSN can meet the basic critical timing requirements for a fieldbus network.

This paper uniquely focuses on the specific fieldbus standards elements of industrial networks evolution and traces the developments from the early history to the current developing integration in IIoT context.

This study aims to carry out an investigation of design approaches that should be used for the design of unconventional, innovative transmission system for construction yards to privilege a smooth behaviour efficiency, and the use of innovative production techniques. Results are quite surprising, as with a proper method it is possible to demonstrate that a cycloidal drive with Wolfrom topology should be an interesting solution for the proposed application.

With a functional approach, also considering materials and specifications related to the investigated application, it is possible to demonstrate that possible optimal solutions should be quite different respect to the ones that can be suggested with a conventional approach. In particular for proposed applications constraints related to encumbrances, the choice of new material has led to the innovative unconventional choice of a Wolfrom cycloidal speed reducer.

Provided solution is innovative respect current state of the art for machine currently used in construction yards: in terms of adopted transmission layout; in terms of chosen materials, resulting in an innovative solution.

Current research has strong implications on the adoption of polimeric materials for the construction of reliable transmission for harsh industrial environment as the proposed case study (concrete mixer for construction yard).

Proposed transmission system is absolutely original and innovative respect current state of art also considering proposed materials and consequently production methods. This is an example of transmission designed to be built with polymeric materials by optimizing chosen topology respect to chosen material.

The purpose of the work is to provide a comprehensive review of the digital image correlation (DIC) technique for those who are interested in performing the DIC technique in the area of manufacturing.

No methodology was used because the paper is a review article.

no fundings.

Herein, the historical development, main strengths and measurement setup of DIC are introduced. Subsequently, the basic principles of the DIC technique are outlined in detail. The analysis of measurement accuracy associated with experimental factors and correlation algorithms is discussed and some useful recommendations for reducing measurement errors are also offered. Then, the utilization of DIC in different manufacturing fields (e.g. cutting, welding, forming and additive manufacturing) is summarized. Finally, the current challenges and prospects of DIC in intelligent manufacturing are discussed.

The total defence (TD) concept constitutes a joint endeavour between the military forces and civil defence structures within a TD state. Logistics is essential for such joint collaboration to work; however, the mismatch between military and civil defence logistics structures poses challenges for such joint collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to identify logistics concept areas within the TD framework that allow for military and civil defence collaborations from a logistics operations perspective.

Pattern-matching analysis is used to compare patterns found in the investigated case with those prescribed from the literature and predicted to occur. The study seeks to identify logistics concepts within TD from the literature and from the events describing the Swedish response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pattern matching thus allows for the reconciliation of logistics concepts from the literature to descriptions of how the response was handled, albeit under a TD framework.

Findings show quite distinct foci between the theoretical and observational realms in terms of logistics applications. While the theoretical realm identifies four main logistics concepts, the observational realm identifies five logistics conceptual themes. This goes on to show an incongruence between the military and civil parts of the TD.

This study provides basis for further research into the applications and management of logistics activity within TD and emergency response.

Logistics applications within TD have not, until now, received much attention in the literature. Given this knowledge gap, this study is of original value.

One of the biggest challenges in the health sector is that of costs compared to economic resources and the quality of services. Hospitals register a progressive increase in expenditure due to the aging of the population. In fact, hip and knee arthroplasty surgery are mainly due to primary osteoarthritis that affects the elderly population. This study was carried out with the aim of analysing the introduction of the fast track surgery protocol, through the lean Six Sigma, on patients undergoing knee and hip prosthetic replacement surgery. The goal was to improve the arthroplasty surgery process by reducing the average length of stay (LOA) and hospital costs

Lean Six Sigma was applied to evaluate the arthroplasty surgery process through the DMAIC cycle (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) and the lean tools (value stream map), adopted to analyse the new protocol and improve process performance. The dataset consisted of two samples of patients: 54 patients before the introduction of the protocol and 111 patients after the improvement. Clinical and demographic variables were collected for each patient (gender, age, allergies, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) score).

The results showed a 12.70% statistically significant decrease in LOS from an overall average of 8.72 to 7.61 days. Women patients without allergies, with a low ASA score not suffering from diabetes and cardiovascular disease showed a significant a reduction in hospital days with the implementation of the FTS protocol. Only the age variable was not statistically significant.

The introduction of the FTS in the orthopaedic field, analysed through the LSS, demonstrated to reduce LOS and, consequently, costs. For each individual patient, there was an economic saving of € 445.85. Since our study takes into consideration a dataset of 111 patients post-FTS, the overall economic saving brought by this study amounts to €49,489.35.

This paper aims to examine the interrelation between two innovating strategies (product and process) on total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the dynamic linkages between these strategies, for Colombia. The authors first explore whether ex ante more productive firms are those that introduce innovations (the self-selection hypothesis) and if the introduction of innovations boosts TFP growth (the returns-to-innovation hypothesis). Second, the authors study the firm’s joint dynamic decision to implement process and/or product innovations. The authors use Colombian manufacturing data from the Annual Manufacturing and the Technological Development and Innovation Surveys.

This study uses a four-stage procedure. First, the authors estimate TFP using a modified version of Olley and Pakes (1996) and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003), proposed by De Loecker (2010), that implements an endogenous Markov process where past firm innovations are endogenized. This TFP would be estimated by GMM, Wooldridge (2009). Second, the authors use multivariate discrete choice models to test the self-selection hypothesis. Third, the authors explore, using multi-value treatment evaluation techniques, the life span of the impact of innovations on productivity growth (returns to innovation hypothesis). Fourth, the authors analyse the joint likelihood of implementing process and product innovations using dynamic panel data bivariate probit models.

The investigation reveals that the self-selection effect is notably more pronounced in the adoption of process innovations only, as opposed to the adoption of product innovations only or the simultaneous adoption of both process and product innovations. Moreover, our results uncover distinct temporal patterns concerning innovation returns. Specifically, process innovations yield immediate benefits, whereas implementing both product innovations only and jointly process and product innovations exhibit significant, albeit delayed, advantages. Finally, the analysis confirms the existence of dynamic interconnections between the adoption of process and product innovations.

The contribution of this work to the literature is manifold. First, the authors thoroughly investigate the relationship between the implementation of process and product innovations and productivity for Colombian manufacturing explicitly recognising that firms’ decisions of adopting product and process innovations are very likely interrelated. Therefore, the authors start exploring the self-selection and the returns to innovation hypotheses accounting for the fact that firms might implement process innovations only, product innovations only and both process and product innovations. In the analysis of the returns of innovation, the fact that firms may choose among a menu of three innovation strategies implies the use of evaluation methods for multi-value treatments. Second, the authors study the dynamic inter-linkages between the decisions to implement process and/or product innovations, that remains under studied, at least for emerging economies. Third, the estimation of TFP is performed using an endogenous Markov process, where past firms’ innovations are endogenized.