Prototyping of manual wheelchair with alternative propulsion system

Aim: This paper presents the study, design and prototyping of a manual wheelchair, named handwheelchair.q, with an innovative propulsion's system. The research is based on a novel system of propulsion that is more efficient and ergonomic than the hand rim one. The main goal of the designed prototype is to facilitate the mobility and to extend the reachable areas while reducing the required time. Methods: The propulsion is realised through a rowing-inspired gesture. Results: This gesture avoids the damages caused on shoulders by the compressive force of the hand rim and lever systems. Conclusion: The prototyping allowed the analysis of the project parameters and their influence on the kinematic characteristics of the prototype and the biomechanical characteristics of the gesture. The same propulsion's system can be adopted on wheelchairs devoted to sport activities, representing the starting point for a future prototype of racing wheelchairs. In this regard, the wheelchair's braking system has been redesigned in order to improve efficiency and safety.Implication for rehabilitation The use of the Handwheelchair.q may have positive impacts in terms of the quality of life, in order to reduce the shoulder pain caused by the handrim and lever system. In addition, it can be a good tool for rehabilitation because the activity can be performed outdoor

The design of a new manual wheelchair for sport

In this paper, an innovative system of propulsion inspired by a rowing gesture for manual wheelchairs is shown. The innovative system of propulsion, named Handwheelchair.q, can be applied to wheelchairs employed in everyday life and to sports wheelchairs for speed races, such as Handbike and Wheelchair racing. The general features of the innovative system of propulsion and the functional designs of the different solutions are described in detail. In addition, the design of the mechanism for the transmission of motion, employed in a second prototype, Handwheelchair.q02, is presented and analysed. Finally, the dynamic model of the Handwheelchair.q has been developed in order to obtain important results for the executive design of Handwheelchair.q

La imposición social de cuidar

El cuidado -entendido como el trabajo destinado al bienestar de las personas- es, en clave feminista, relación interpersonal, trabajo y costo, práctica social y herramienta política, subsidio a la producción, conflicto, ética, derecho y responsabilidad. Los avances de las últimas décadas en el reconocimiento de los derechos de las mujeres son innegables. Pero estos avances luchan con ciertos nudos problemáticos persistentes en diversas áreas, como el mundo político, económico y social, y, principalmente, el mundo de lo reproductivo. En Argentina, a partir de la división sexual del trabajo, se ha delegado tradicional e históricamente la responsabilidad del cuidado de los miembros del hogar a las mujeres; así, el cuidado aparece como una dinámica social, personal y económica que afecta de un modo transversal a todas esas áreas, pudiendo convertirse en un obstáculo para que muchas mujeres logren avanzar en sus ocupaciones y/o carreras profesionales, dando lugar a lo que se conoce como "doble jornada femenina". La presente tesina se propuso analizar y poner en evidencia que la actual manera de la sociedad argentina de organizar el cuidado de sus miembros es una fuente de desigualdad social y de género e, incluso, de reproducción de la pobreza, demostrando la esca sa presencia del Estado como garante de protector social en lo que al cuidado atañe. El resultado que arrojó la investigación es que gran parte de la producción de la protección social en la región es de resolución individual y privada, está fuertemente estratificada y segmentada, y es una expresión de la división sexual del trabajo, uno de los principales factores de la desigualdad presente en nuestras sociedades. Sintetizando, frente a las carencias del sistema público de protección social, son las mujeres las que con su trabajo no remunerado resuelven las necesidades de bienestar y la calidad de vida de los integrantes de sus familias, poniendo su cuerpo y su tiempo al servicio de otro(s), en detrimento de sus propios deseos y necesidades.Fil: Cavallone, Delfina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales. Escuela de Trabajo Social; Argentina

Fernanda Wittgens - Clara Valenti. Tra impegno politico e storia dell'arte

Questo studio raccoglie alcune delle lettere conservate presso la Fondazione Elvira Badaracco a Milano che Fernanda Wittgens, la grande direttrice della Pinacoteca di Brera negli anni della guerra e della ricostruzione, inviò all’amica Clara Valenti tra il 1954 e il 1956. Dalla loro lettura e dal commento che le accompagna emergono con chiarezza l'altezza morale e la forte personalità della soprintendente, impegnata indefessamente per tutta la sua esistenza nella salvaguardia del patrimonio artistico e, intrisa di un afflato messianico, nella promozione della funzione sociale dell’arte, «una delle più alte forme di difesa dell''umano». The article presents some of the letters Fernanda Wittgens, who brilliantly leads the Pinacoteca di Brera during  the  Second  World  War  and  the  postwar  Reconstruction, sends  to  her  friend  Clara  Valenti between 1954 and 1956 and that today are kept at the Fondazione Elvira Badaracco in Milan. These letters shed a new light on her strong personality and moral stature: they indeed confirm her lifelong, tireless commitment to save and guard the cultural heritage and to encourage art's social role, seen as one of the noblest form men have to defend their humanity

On the Suspension Design of Paquitop, a Novel Service Robot for Home Assistance Applications

The general and constant ageing of the world population that has been observed in the last decade has led robotics researchers community to focus its aims to answer the ever-growing demand for health care, housing, care-giving, and social security. Among others, the researchers at Politecnico di Torino are developing a novel platform to enhance the performance offered by present-day issues, and to assess many others which were not even taken into consideration before they have been highlighted by the pandemic emergency currently in progress. This situation, in fact, made dramatically clear how important it is to have reliable non-human operators whom one can trust when the life of elderly or weak patients is endangered by the simple presence of other people. The platform, named Paquitop, features an innovative architecture conceived for omni-directional planar motion. The machine is designed for domestic, unstructured, and variously populated environments. Therefore, the mobile robot should be able to avoid or pass over small obstacles, passing through the capability to achieve specific person tracking tasks, and arriving to the need of operating with an high dynamic performance. Given its purpose, this work addresses the design of the suspension system which enables the platform to ensure a steady floor contact and adequate stability in every using condition. Different configurations of such system are then presented and compared through use-case simulations

Rehabilitation Machine for Bariatric Individuals

Obesity is known to be growing worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that obesity has tripled since 1975. In 2016, 39% of adults over 18 years old were overweight, and 13% were obese. Obesity is mostly preventable by adopting lifestyle improvements, enhancing diet quality, and doing physical exercise. The workload of the physical exercises should be proportionate to the patient’s capabilities. However, it must be considered that obese people are not used to training; they may not endure physical exertion and, even more critically, they could have some psychological impediments to the workouts. Physical exercises and equipment must, therefore, guarantee comfort and prevent situations in which the bariatric individual may feel inadequate. For these reasons, this study aims to design an innovative system to approach simple physical activities, like leg and arm exercises, to bariatric users to enable them to recover mobility and muscle tone gradually. The leading feature of this architecture is the design of hidden exercise mechanisms to overcome the psychological barriers of the users toward these kinds of machines. This paper proposes the initial design of the main sub-systems composing the rehabilitation machine, namely the leg curl and leg extension mechanism and its control architecture, the upper body exercises system, and a series of regulation mechanisms required to accommodate a wide range of users. The proposed functional design will then lead to the development of a prototype to validate the machine

Wheeled Mobile Robots: State of the Art Overview and Kinematic Comparison Among Three Omnidirectional Locomotion Strategies

In the last decades, mobile robotics has become a very interesting research topic in the feld of robotics, mainly because of population ageing and the recent pandemic emergency caused by Covid-19. Against this context, the paper presents an overview on wheeled mobile robot (WMR), which have a central role in nowadays scenario. In particular, the paper describes the most commonly adopted locomotion strategies, perception systems, control architectures and navigation approaches. After having analyzed the state of the art, this paper focuses on the kinematics of three omnidirectional platforms: a four mecanum wheels robot (4WD), a three omni wheel platform (3WD) and a two swerve-drive system (2SWD). Through a dimensionless approach, these three platforms are compared to understand how their mobility is afected by the wheel speed limitations that are present in every practical application. This original comparison has not been already presented by the literature and it can be used to improve our understanding of the kinematics of these mobile robots and to guide the selection of the most appropriate locomotion system according to the specifc application

Variation of high mannose chains of Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein confers differential binding to type 1-fimbriated Escherichia coli.

Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein (THP), the most abundant protein in mammalian urine, has been implicated in defending the urinary tract against infections by type 1-fimbriated Escherichia coli. Recent experimental evidence indicates that the defensive capability of THP relies on its single high mannose chain, which binds to E. coli FimH lectin and competes with mannosylated uroplakin receptors on the bladder surface. Here we describe several major differences, on both structural and functional levels, between human THP (hTHP) and pig THP (pTHP). pTHP contains a much higher proportion (47%) of Man5GlcNAc2 than does hTHP (8%). FimH-expressing E. coli adhere to monomeric pTHP at an approximately 3-fold higher level than to monomeric hTHP. This suggests that the shorter high mannose chain (Man5GlcNAc2) is a much better binder for FimH than the longer chains (Man6-7GlcNAc2) and that pTHP is a more potent urinary defense factor than hTHP. In addition, unlike hTHP whose polyantennary glycans are exclusively capped by sialic acid and sulfate groups, those of pTHP are also terminated by Galalpha1,3Gal epitope. This is consistent with the fact that the outer medulla of pig kidney expresses the alpha1,3-galactosyltransferase, which is completely absent in human kidney. Finally, pTHP is more resistant to leukocyte elastase hydrolysis than hTHP, thus explaining why pTHP is much less prone to urinary degradation than hTHP. These results demonstrate for the first time that the species variations of the glycomoiety of THP can lead to the differential binding of THP to type 1-fimbriated E. coli and that the differences in high mannose processing may reflect species-specific adaptation of urinary defenses against E. coli infections

Significados y sentidos que le otorgan los profesores en educación especial a sus prácticas profesionales

Se presentan algunos de los resultados alcanzados en la investigación titulada: “Significados y sentidos que le otorgan los Profesores en Educación Especial a sus Prácticas Profesionales”. La misma se centró en las voces de los protagonistas y su percepción acerca de su campo profesional. La indagación se abordó desde una metodología cualitativa. Para la recolección de datos se realizaron entrevistas abiertas a profesores en educación especial egresados de la Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC) que ejercen en la misma ciudad. Además se realizó análisis de documentos referidos a normativas nacionales y provinciales y se presenciaron y analizaron tres ateneos que se llevaron a cabo en el 2019. Estos fueron organizados por el Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación de la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas de la Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC) e intervinieron profesores en educación especial. Las categorías de análisis emergentes permitieron construir una nueva perspectiva acerca del contexto de actuación profesional del profesor en educación especial, lo cual puede ser un aporte significativo para la construcción de nuevos desarrollos teóricos sobre el campo de la educación especial