State of the Art Review on Mobile Robots and Manipulators for Humanitarian Demining

Robotics solutions properly sized with suitable modularized structure and well adapted to local conditions of dangerous unstructured areas can greatly improve the safety of personnel as well as the work efficiency, productivity and flexibility. In this sense, mobile systems equipped with manipulators for detecting and locating antipersonnel landmines are considered of most importance towards autonomous/semi-autonomous mine location in a proficient, reliable, safer and effective way. This paper reviews the most relevant literature and previous research activity regarding mobile robots and manipulators for humanitarian demining.Robotics solutions properly sized with suitable modularized structure and well adapted to local conditions of dangerous unstructured areas can greatly improve the safety of personnel as well as the work efficiency, productivity and flexibility. In this sense, mobile systems equipped with manipulators for detecting and locating antipersonnel landmines are considered of most importance towards autonomous/semi-autonomous mine location in a proficient, reliable, safer and effective way. This paper reviews the most relevant literature and previous research activity regarding mobile robots and manipulators for humanitarian demining

Mesozoic rock suites along western Philippines: Exposed proto-South China Sea fragments?

An ancient oceanic crustal leading edge east of mainland Asia, the proto-South China Sea crust, must have existed during the Mesozoic based on tectonic reconstructions that accounted for the presence of subducted slabs in the lower mantle and the exposed oceanic lithospheric fragments strewn in the Philippine and Bornean regions. Along the western seaboard of the Philippine archipelago, numerous Mesozoic ophiolites and associated lithologies do not appear to be genetically associated with the younger Paleogene-Neogene ocean basins that currently surround the islands. New sedimentological, paleomagnetic, paleontological, and isotopic age data that we generated are presented here, in combination with our previous results and those of others, to reassess the geological make-up of the western Philippine island arc system. We believe that the oceanic lithospheric fragments, associated melanges, and sedimentary rocks in this region are exhumed slivers of the proto-South China Sea ocean plate

Factores socio-laborales asociados al malestar psicológico en trabajadores sanitarios durante la pandemia por la COVID-19

Introducción: El malestar psicológico debido al impacto de la pandemia por la COVID-19 se ha vuelto muy frecuente, sobre todo en los trabajadores sanitarios, quienes han sido una de las poblaciones más afectadas. Objetivo: Determinar los factores socio-laborales asociados al malestar psicológico en trabajadores sanitarios durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 en la serranía peruana. Métodos: Estudio de diseño transversal; se aplicaron 3 escalas previamente validadas, las cuales miden malestar psicológico, miedo a contagiarse con la COVID-19 y carga laboral (valores alfa: 0,79; 0,91 y 0,83 respectivamente); además se analizaron otras variables socio-laborales y se obtuvo estadística descriptiva y analítica. Resultados: Con el análisis multivariado se encontró que, quienes tenían mayor puntaje del miedo al contagio por la COVID-19 (RPa: 2,24; IC95 %: 1,75-2,88; p< 0,001) y quienes tenían mayor percepción de sobrecarga laboral (RPa: 1,45; IC95 %: 1,12-1,87; p= 0,005), fueron los que tenían mayor percepción de malestar psicológico, además, al comparar con los médicos, los psicólogos tenían mayor malestar psicológico (RPa: 2,73; IC95 %: 1,67-4,46; p< 0,001). Conclusión: Se hallaron asociaciones importantes; predomina el hecho de que existe una fuerte asociación entre el malestar psicológico y el miedo por el posible contagio ante la COVID-19, así como con la percepción de sobrecarga laboral, principalmente, en los profesionales psicólogos.Campus Arequip

The structural bases for agonist diversity in an Arabidopsis thaliana glutamate receptor-like channel

Arabidopsis thaliana glutamate receptor-like (GLR) channels are amino acid-gated ion channels involved in physiological processes including wound signaling, stomatal regulation, and pollen tube growth. Here, fluorescence microscopy and genetics were used to confirm the central role of GLR3.3 in the amino acid-elicited cytosolic Ca2+ increase in Arabidopsis seedling roots. To elucidate the binding properties of the receptor, we biochemically reconstituted the GLR3.3 ligand-binding domain (LBD) and analyzed its selectivity profile; our binding experiments revealed the LBD preference for L-Glu but also for sulfur-containing amino acids. Furthermore, we solved the crystal structures of the GLR3.3 LBD in complex with 4 different amino acid ligands, providing a rationale for how the LBD binding site evolved to accommodate diverse amino acids, thus laying the grounds for rational mutagenesis. Last, we inspected the structures of LBDs from nonplant species and generated homology models for other GLR isoforms. Our results establish that GLR3.3 is a receptor endowed with a unique amino acid ligand profile and provide a structural framework for engineering this and other GLR isoforms to investigate their physiology

Effects of collagen membranes enriched with in vitro-differentiated N1E-115 cells on rat sciatic nerve regeneration after end-to-end repair

Peripheral nerves possess the capacity of self-regeneration after traumatic injury but the extent of regeneration is often poor and may benefit from exogenous factors that enhance growth. The use of cellular systems is a rational approach for delivering neurotrophic factors at the nerve lesion site, and in the present study we investigated the effects of enwrapping the site of end-to-end rat sciatic nerve repair with an equine type III collagen membrane enriched or not with N1E-115 pre-differentiated neural cells. After neurotmesis, the sciatic nerve was repaired by end-to-end suture (End-to-End group), end-to-end suture enwrapped with an equine collagen type III membrane (End-to-EndMemb group); and end-to-end suture enwrapped with an equine collagen type III membrane previously covered with neural cells pre-differentiated in vitro from N1E-115 cells (End-to-EndMembCell group). Along the postoperative, motor and sensory functional recovery was evaluated using extensor postural thrust (EPT), withdrawal reflex latency (WRL) and ankle kinematics. After 20 weeks animals were sacrificed and the repaired sciatic nerves were processed for histological and stereological analysis. Results showed that enwrapment of the rapair site with a collagen membrane, with or without neural cell enrichment, did not lead to any significant improvement in most of functional and stereological predictors of nerve regeneration that we have assessed, with the exception of EPT which recovered significantly better after neural cell enriched membrane employment. It can thus be concluded that this particular type of nerve tissue engineering approach has very limited effects on nerve regeneration after sciatic end-to-end nerve reconstruction in the rat