A novel concept—the contact-based landing on a mobile platform—is proposed in this paper. An adaptive backstepping controller is designed to deal with the unknown disturbances in the interactive process, and the contact-based landing mission is implemented under the hybrid force/motion control framework. A rotorcraft aerial vehicle system and a ground mobile platform are designed to conduct flight experiments, evaluating the feasibility of the proposed landing scheme and control strategy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle has been implemented to conduct a contact-based landing. To improve system autonomy in future applications, vision-based recognition and localization methods are studied, contributing to the detection of a partially occluded cooperative object or at a close range. The proposed recognition algorithms are tested on a ground platform and evaluated in several simulated scenarios, indicating the algorithm’s effectiveness.

People who are overweight and obese suffer from significant health impacts that have increased globally. Concurrently, usage of information and communication devices such as television and mobile phones have also been growing, affecting people’s weight. This study examined the association between watching television and owning a mobile phone with overweight and obesity among reproductive-aged women in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). Data of 21 LLMICs reported between 2015 and 2020 were collected from the Demographic and Health Surveys. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine the association into three pooled segments: a group of 21 countries, the World Bank income classification and the regional categorisation of the countries. The all-inclusive prevalence of overweight or obesity was found at 27.1% among 175,370 reproductive-aged women, and this prevalence varied among countries. Overall, the odds of being overweight or obese were 1.20 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15–1.24), 1.40 (AOR=1.40, 95% CI: 1.35–1.44) and 1.18 (AOR=1.18, 95% CI: 1.03–1.35) times higher among those who watched television less than once a week, at least once a week and almost every day, respectively, compared with those who did not watch television. Besides, women’s mobile phone ownership is more likely to experience overweight or obesity (AOR=1.72, 95% CI: 1.67–1.77). Consistent results were found for the countries categorised according to the World Bank income and regional classification. Focus on sedentary behaviour, such as television watching and mobile phone use, of women and regional or country-specific innovative strategies and programs are of great immediate importance to decrease the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

Les jeunes en difficulté constituent un problème important de société et de santé publique. Une étude a été conduite par les Centres d’Examens de Santé de l’Assurance Maladie et les Missions Locales pour mieux connaître la santé mentale des jeunes [1]. Cette étude établit l’existence de fortes corrélations entre la précarité, des traumatismes vécus dans l’enfance et des troubles psychiques. Elle souligne l’importance de considérer la souffrance des jeunes dans une approche globale de leurs difficultés. Plus le jeune est en souffrance, moins il semble enclin à demander de l’aide. Les manifestations de sa souffrance et de ses troubles se déposent dans les lieux dits du social, ou bien souvent, restent enkystées dans sa famille. Dans la filiation des EMPP [2], une Équipe Mobile pour les Jeunes en Souffrance Psychique (EMJSP) a été crée et mise en place dans l’établissement psychiatrique du Centre Hospitalier des Pyrénées de Pau (64), en juin 2013. Cette équipe pluridisciplinaire – composée d’une psychiatre, d’une psychologue, d’une assistante sociale et d’une infirmière – intervient auprès des jeunes (18–25 ans) qui sont en situation de précarité et/ou qui présentent des troubles psychiques. L’EMJSP rencontre le jeune dans son environnement (institution, rue, famille), dans une posture de proximité, là où il a été identifié par un partenaire ou par sa famille. Les objectifs sont alors de prévenir l’émergence des troubles psychiques, de faciliter l’accès aux soins et de préserver le risque de rechute. Les jeunes accompagnés vers le soin présentent des troubles mentaux, des troubles de la personnalité et du comportement. Il s’agit donc d’expliciter les premiers pas d’une équipe mobile spécialisée pour les jeunes et conçue pour répondre à la complexité de leur situation intriquant des problématiques sociales, éducatives, familiales et psychiatriques ; tout comme l’a développé le Dr Tordjman [3] pour les adolescents.

Mobile health care technology (mHealth) has the potential to improve communication and clinical information management in disasters. This study reviews the literature on health care and computing published in the past five years to determine the types and efficacy of mobile applications available to disaster medicine, along with lessons learned.

Five types of applications are identified: (1) disaster scene management; (2) remote monitoring of casualties; (3) medical image transmission (teleradiology); (4) decision support applications; and (5) field hospital information technology (IT) systems. Most projects have not yet reached the deployment stage, but evaluation exercises show that mHealth should allow faster processing and transport of patients, improved accuracy of triage and better monitoring of unattended patients at a disaster scene. Deployments of teleradiology and field hospital IT systems to disaster zones suggest that mHealth can improve resource allocation and patient care. The key problems include suitability of equipment for use in disaster zones and providing sufficient training to ensure staff familiarity with complex equipment. Future research should focus on providing unbiased observations of the use of mHealth in disaster medicine.

Case T, Morrison C, Vuylsteke A. The Clinical Application of Mobile Technology to Disaster Medicine. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012;27(5):1-9.

We consider the problem of distance estimation in the context of a mobile camera, as, for example, when the camera is attached to a robot arm. It is natural in this case to consider stereo motion, and we present here the theoretical basis for an axial stereo method based on cross-correlation using the Fast Fourier Transform, which is appropriate in the context considered here. Finally, we describe the state of implementation of the system in our laboratory.

In the paper a formal model is presented of the discrete control of a bile robot moving over a plane. The model synthesis has been directed in such a way as to justify the use as a controller of the automaton with internal and external parameters. It has been shown that, while controlled in discrete time the mobile robot performance can be expressed by a one-sidely optimized tree of a two-person extensive game. The tree, after transforming into the form of the state diagram of an automaton, serves as a basis for the synthesis of the automaton with internal and external parameters playing the role of a controller. A method is presented of synthesizing an automaton of this type, being a hardware realization of the mobile robot controller.

This study addresses the challenges faced by Modern Foreign Language teacher trainees when asked to investigate the potential of a Personal Digital Assistant to support them both in their learning and in their teaching during their training year. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) such as the Windows Pocket PCs used in this study have previously been found supportive by trainees in other professions with a large information content. Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) was chosen as the subject for this investigation as a particularly wide range of potential opportunities specific to MFL was foreseen. These opportunities ranged from supporting student teachers' learning by enabling access to email and other internet resources wherever they were based to enabling ‘on the spot’ audio or video recordingto support their teaching. For this investigation, seven student teachers from an MFL initial teacher training programme were loaned PDAs for the duration of their course. This paper reports on interviews conducted at the end of the training year with six of the student teachers in order to elicit their views on the PDAs they were loaned. They were all experienced information technology users and willing to explore the devices but there had always seemed to be a preferred alternative technology available either at home or in the classroom. Their reports shed much light on the current climate in schools and subject culture pressures as interpreted by student teachers in MFL departments but told us only a little about the functionality of a PDA and how it can support mobile assisted language learning. The socio-cultural context within the MFL departments where the trainees were placed meant that they did not feel comfortable about exploring the PDA functionality. They were not yet confident in their pedagogical identities and mostly felt they could not disrupt the established practice with the novel technology. However, when the devices were used, applications that appeared most effective in supporting learning to teach MFL with PDAs were those that enabled the capture of on-the-spot events and reflections. This could be either through the inbuilt recording functions, especially video, or by making notes using either the on-screen keyboard or by handwriting recognition.