Hospital service robots must coordinate time-sensitive and heterogeneous tasks while maintaining reliable awareness of nearby robots in structured, human-populated clinical spaces where GPS, wireless communication, and global localization can be degraded. Existing studies typically address perception, task allocation, or path optimization as separate components, which limits their ability to support closed-loop multi-robot coordination under communication-constrained hospital conditions. This paper presents a graph-driven multi-robot coordination framework with situational awareness for hospital service robotics. The framework couples three coordination modules on a shared MAKLINK Graph Theory (MGT) representation of the hospital layout. First, a lightweight CNN-LiDAR module performs point-wise binary segmentation of 2D LiDAR scans to detect peer robots and maintain local fleet awareness during GPS or network outages. Second, the detected peer positions and confidence scores are passed to a priority-weighted Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which allocates asynchronous service tasks according to task urgency, deadline, risk, proximity, and workload balance, with Lazy Theta* generating feasible any-angle initial routes on the MGT graph inside the allocation loop to link assignment decisions to executable navigation. Finally, an improved Moss Growth Optimization (iMGO) module refines the initial routes by optimizing waypoint locations on a compact line-of-sight-preserving MAKLINK domain. Simulation and comparison studies validate the perception, allocation, path-refinement, and integrated pipeline components. The CNN-LiDAR subsystem sustains reliable peer-robot detection during GPS and communication outages, with near-perfect accuracy at the close range most critical for collision avoidance. The priority-weighted SOM improves task-completion behavior and workload balance compared with clustering and non-clustering genetic algorithm baselines. The iMGO module produces shorter and smoother collision-free paths with faster convergence than competing optimizers. The integrated multi-robot simulations further show reduced mission time and travel distance relative to random allocation, supporting the proposed framework as a scalable and safety-aware coordination architecture for hospital service robotics.
We applied marital stress and stability frameworks to investigate how spousal, family, and friend dynamics contribute to marital instability risks during the first 16 years of marriage. Using longitudinal data from the Early Years of Marriage Project and a within-person approach, we examined how family and friend relationships temper or amplify marital risks in couples' more troublesome years. We also considered the sociocultural contexts of gender and race. Both spouses from 373 newlywed mixed-gender couples (199 Black American, 174 White American couples) completed questionnaires in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of marriage. Dyadic multilevel models showed marital distress and instability increased over time, while spousal responsiveness, friend support, and family support decreased across the 16 years. Wives also had poorer marital and family evaluations than husbands. In the years with less responsiveness or more marital distress, having low family support or high family-related tension intensified negative marital effect; in contrast, having more family support or less family-related tension helped protect marriages. Nevertheless, marital instability risks were lowest in years with less distress or more spousal responsiveness, regardless of family support or tension. The benefits of spousal responsiveness and negative effects of family-related tension were particularly potent for Black spouses, showing strong marital and family effects on instability, for better or worse. These findings demonstrate that more positive and less negative marital dynamics may protect spouses from unsupportive or strained families. In contrast, lacking supportive family ties may be especially harmful to spouses in less responsive or more distressing marriages.
Early childhood experiences are associated with the Dark Triad personality dimensions: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. We examined how recalled parenting strategies (praise, indulgence, status, care, denial of psychological autonomy, and encouragement of behavioral freedom) of 720 college students predicted traits from each dimension within the Dark Triad using parallel three-factor models. High levels of recalled parental indulgence and low levels of praise were associated with negative personality outcomes, such as narcissistic antagonism, psychopathic meanness, and psychopathic disinhibition, and with lower levels of relatively positive outcomes like Machiavellian agency, Machiavellian planfulness, and narcissistic extraversion. Denial of psychological autonomy was positively associated with narcissistic antagonism, psychopathic disinhibition, and narcissistic extraversion. A perceived parental emphasis on status was associated with positive and negative traits. We identified a consistent pattern across the Dark Triad dimensions: antagonistic and impulsive traits were associated with low parental praise, high parental indulgence, greater emphasis on status, and higher denial of psychological autonomy, whereas agentic traits were linked to the opposite pattern – lower indulgence coupled with higher levels of praise and status emphasis. These results suggest that perceived parenting features such as praise, indulgence, and status-oriented behaviors may play meaningful roles in the development of Dark Triad traits, highlighting the value of using multidimensional models to more fully explore these associations.
Research has been mixed regarding the consistency of attachment styles across different types of relationships. A handful of studies have shown that insecure attachment styles (avoidant and anxious) in humans are associated with insecure attachment styles with companion animals, but no previous study has examined whether attachment strength and style are similar for multiple companion animals in the same household. Companion animal caregivers (n = 462) completed measures of attachment styles for humans and for two of their animals. They also completed measures of attachment strength for the same two animals. Caregivers responded with regard to any species, but the majority of respondents reported on cats or dogs. Attachment styles with humans predicted attachment styles with companion animals regardless of the species of the animal, but insecure attachment scores were lower for animals than for humans. Women had stronger attachment bonds and lower levels of avoidant attachment compared with men. Avoidant, but not anxious, attachment with humans predicted weaker attachment bonds with companion animals. Contrary to predictions, companion animal caregivers with greater anxious attachments did not form stronger bonds with their animals. Attachment did not significantly differ based on the species of the companion animal, and caregivers' attachment styles were not significantly different across their companion animals regardless of whether their animals were dogs, cats, or another species and whether the animals were of the same or different species. Attachment strength significantly differed between companion animals only when both were dogs. This is the first study to assess attachment style and strength across humans and different companion animals.
The increasingly hostile sociopolitical climate is heightening psychological distress among trans and nonbinary (TNB) youth, who already face elevated risks for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use. Parental support is a key protective factor for TNB youth to prevent these negative mental health outcomes. Yet, there are minimal existing evidence-based interventions that aim to increase parental support among parents and caregivers (PCs) of TNB youth. The Parent Support Program (PSP) is a theory-driven, asynchronous, online intervention that was developed and refined based on community and expert feedback. This study used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 619 PCs of TNB youth to test the effectiveness of the PSP. We applied linear regression models with multiple imputation adjustments and propensity weights to estimate the effects of being assigned to the intervention condition (intent to treat effects) and global dosage of the PSP (total number of activities completed). Results from our intent to treat (ITT) analyses found that the PSP was effective at increasing self-compassion and PCs’ self-rated level of knowledge about gender diversity. However, global dosage predicted self-rated knowledge and the use of affirming language, but not self-compassion. The PSP is a promising intervention that may be a useful resource for some PCs of TNB youth. We address limitations of the PSP and future directions of how the PSP could be further refined and tested to optimize the intervention’s effectiveness and implementation, as well as clinical implications.
