Human-Robot interaction with low computational-power humanoids

This article investigates the possibilities of human-humanoid interaction with robots whose computational power is limited. The project has been carried during a year of work at the Computer and Robot Vision Laboratory (VisLab), part of the Institute for Systems and Robotics in Lisbon, Portugal. Communication, the basis of interaction, is simultaneously visual, verbal, and gestural. The robot's algorithm provides users a natural language communication, being able to catch and understand the person’s needs and feelings. The design of the system should, consequently, give it the capability to dialogue with people in a way that makes possible the understanding of their needs. The whole experience, to be natural, is independent from the GUI, used just as an auxiliary instrument. Furthermore, the humanoid can communicate with gestures, touch and visual perceptions and feedbacks. This creates a totally new type of interaction where the robot is not just a machine to use, but a figure to interact and talk with: a social robot

ROLE OF POST-TRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS IN MODULATING APE1 FUNCTIONS IN TUMOUR CELLS

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is the main mammalian endonuclease involved in the repair of DNA lesions caused predominantly by oxidative and alkylating stresses through its participation in base excision repair (BER) pathway. Although APE1 was discovered for its ability to cleave and remove AP-sites and to enhance the DNA binding properties of several cancer-related transcription factors, through redox-dependent mechanisms (involving its so-called Ref-1 activity), in the latest years investigators have described new and broader functions for this DNA repair enzyme. In fact, it has been demonstrated a direct role for APE1 in the regulation of gene transcription and an unexpected role in the RNA metabolism being able to cleave damaged or site-specific RNAs. Despite different works regarding the transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms that cells used to control and to redirect APE1 to its several functions, it is still a matter of debate the role of the first 33 amino acids, a unique evolutionary N-terminus specific for the mammalian protein, that impacts, through macromolecules interaction and post-translational modifications, on controlling APE1 activities. In this work of Thesis, new acetylated lysine residues were identified in vivo and the role of acetylation sites at N-terminus (Lys 27-35) in regulating APE1 functions and subcellular localization were studied. Moreover, seventeen new interacting partners were identified. Among these, the attention was focused on APE1 and Nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) interaction within nucleoli and nucleoplasm. NPM1 is a nucleolar protein, mainly involved in ribosome biogenesis, stress responses and genome maintenance. Growing body of evidences emphasizes a role for NPM1 in DNA repair field, but its exact role(s) has not been identified yet. Interestedly, patients with acute myeloid leukemias (AMLs), characterized by the expression of a mutated form of NPM1 (NPM1c+), causative for its aberrant cytoplasmic localization, represent better responders to chemotherapy and for favorable overall survival. At present, the molecular reasons underneath the role for NPM1 in tumorigenesis of solid tumors and in AMLs are still lacking. In this framework, a clear contribution of NPM1 in DNA repair control, through the functional regulation of the APE1 endonuclease activity in BER pathway, its subcellular localization and stability has been demonstrated in vivo. In this light, the positive clinical impact of NPM1c+ in chemotherapeutic response might be related to the potential interference with the functions of NPM1 interacting partners, once delocalized in the cytoplasm. An intriguing mechanism for explaining also the biological effects of APE1 genetic variants, considered in this work of Thesis, supported by the observation that the majority of the polymorphisms presents an altered complex network of interactions, protein stability and stress response, affecting the APE1 functional status. Our findings provide a glimpse into the role of the nucleolus and NPM1 in controlling APE1 functions, suggesting a critical role for the intricate network of APE1 interacting partners, especially NPM1, and post-translational modifications in BER in vivo that might be important for explaining the APE1 dysregulation seen in different types of tumors

Circular health: a needed approach to promote health and prevent pandemics and other health hazards

SARS-Cov-2 is a perfect example of the intimate relationship between human, animal and environmental health. Circular health goes beyond the biomedical concept of health, operating on the interface between individuals, microorganisms and ecosystems. The World Health Organization endorses this concept and stresses the importance of protecting the environment and addressing and reversing the negative impact of climate change. The application of circular health to the governance for population health is based on protection of all forms of life, interdisciplinarity, involvement of all of society, big data, artificial intelligence, and correct scientific information. It also considers a combination of health, environmental, social and economic problems caused by the synergistic interaction between the acute diseases - in this case caused by SARS-Cov-2, and a number of non-transmittable chronic pathologies. Disinformation and misuse of social media could be more dangerous for the pandemic's development than the virus itself. The adoption of circular health is an urgent necessity in restructuring development policies and making them more effective and sustainable, and protecting and promoting individual and collective health. Within public health, circular health should urgently become the mainstream approach to prevent pandemics and other health hazards. Given the many social, economic, and cultural changes undergoing in the countries of the South-Eastern European Network the conceptual and policy framework related to circular health could be of great value in further advancing progress in this part of Europe

Autonomía y luchas en el campo jurídico : la Corte de Justicia en las primeras décadas del siglo XX en San Juan

Esta ponencia presenta resultados de un proyecto que propuso analizar el proceso histórico de conformación del campo jurídico a fin de establecer las formas de articulación históricas entre éste y el campo político. El proyecto tiene como anclajes teóricos la teoría de los campos y el análisis del campo jurídico desde una perspectiva sociohistórica, enfoque que promueve la producción del conocimiento sobre lo social. El proceso de reconstrucción histórica del campo jurídico permitió analizarla forma que han asumido las relaciones entrelos poderes del Estado, que ha seguido caminos diferentes en la Nación y en San Juan. En la provincia será recién en 1920, cuando el radicalismo asuma el gobierno al amparo de la Ley Sáenz Peña y con la llegada al poder de nuevos grupos, que aparecen los conflictos entre poderes obedeciendo a la incorporación de "nuevo" agentes, vinculados al poder de turno, a la Corte de Justicia.Fil: Riverós de Corradi, Mónica. Universidad Nacional de San JuanFil: Lirussi, María G.. Universidad Nacional de San Jua

Novel robotic skill synthesis with Conditional Neural Movement Primitives

Humans are capable of executing a wide variety of complex tasks, based on prior experience. Often, they accomplish them by breaking them down into minor actions that are composed together one after the other to achieve the goal. These actions are not always learned directly but adapted from previous similar experiences to the current context. In this study, we propose a computational model that is biologically inspired and aims to integrate into robotics the human ability to adapt movements and combine them to achieve high-level skills. A novel approach to high-level skill synthesis is explored by leveraging movement primitives learned through Conditional Neural Motion Planning (CNMP) models. The research introduces two methods for generating and composing new actions based on demonstrated ones. In the first approach, trajectories are blended by utilizing the task interpolation capabilities of the neural network and a developed mathematical system for parameterization. Additionally, two alternative architectures for the CNMP model are proposed, both achieving results comparable to the original model while accommodating partial information. The second approach achieves action synthesis through the concatenation of primitives, spatial interpolation, and the network's ability to encode multidimensional data to embed the environment representation. Both proposed methods are finally showcased in several experiments with real robots

Artists!, not muses: inequality, music and work

El presente artículo plantea una reflexión sobre la división sexual del trabajo de las mujeres en el campo de la música a partir de algunos conceptos desarrollados por teóricas del feminismo materialista francés. La reflexión se centra en la tesis desarrollada por Paola Tabet sobre el subequipamiento técnico de las mujeres, vinculado a los conceptos de relaciones sociales estructurales entre los sexos (Nicole-Claude Mathiew) y apropiación (Collete Guillaumin) como categorías nodales para pensar las distintas formas en que se produce y sostiene la desigualdad. Partiendo de la ley de cupo femenino para pensar sobre el acceso diferenciado a los medios de producción musical (instrumentos y tecnología), se toman también algunos de los aportes desarrollados por Lucy Green en torno a la música y el género en contraste y vinculación con las ideas propuestas por Tabet y Guillaumin.This article proposes a reflection about the sexual division of women’s work in the field of music based on some concepts developed by French materialist feminist theorists. The reflection focuses on the thesis developed by Paola Tabet on the technical sub-equipment of women, linked to the concepts of structural social relations between the sexes (Nicole- Claude Mathiew) and appropriation (Collete Guillaumin) as nodal categories to think about the different ways in which inequality is produced and sustained. Starting from the female quota law to think about differentiated access to the means of musical production (instruments and technology) and some of the contributions developed by Lucy Green around music and gender in contrast and connection with the the ideas proposed by Tabet and Guillaumin.Facultad de Arte

APE1 polymorphic variants cause persistent genomic stress and affect cancer cell proliferation

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is the main mammalian AP-endonuclease responsible for the repair of endogenous DNA damage through the base excision repair (BER) pathway. Molecular epidemiological studies have identified several genetic variants associated with human diseases, but a well-defined functional connection between mutations in APE1 and disease development is lacking. In order to understand the biological consequences of APE1 genetic mutations, we examined the molecular and cellular consequences of the selective expression of four non-synonymous APE1 variants (L104R, R237C, D148E and D283G) in human cells. We found that D283G, L104R and R237C variants have reduced endonuclease activity and impaired ability to associate with XRCC1 and DNA polymerase \u3b2, which are enzymes acting downstream of APE1 in the BER pathway. Complementation experiments performed in cells, where endogenous APE1 had been silenced by shRNA, showed that the expression of these variants resulted in increased phosphorylation of histone H2Ax and augmented levels of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated (PAR) proteins. Persistent activation of DNA damage response markers was accompanied by growth defects likely due to combined apoptotic and autophagic processes. These phenotypes were observed in the absence of exogenous stressors, suggesting that chronic replication stress elicited by the BER defect may lead to a chronic activation of the DNA damage response. Hence, our data reinforce the concept that non-synonymous APE1 variants present in the human population may act as cancer susceptibility alleles

La CAVIC: el juego del poder en una política pública

Este artículo intenta analizar una de las instituciones productivas más novedosas en la historia de la provincia de San Juan, que se concretó en la creación de la Corporación Agrovitícola Industrial y Comercial (CAVIC). Esta Corporación surgió en respuesta a los requerimientos del sector de los viñateros durante el período de Sustitución de Importaciones en la provincia. El objetivo general del trabajo es el análisis de la implementación de una política pública productiva vitivinícola, que se concretó en la creación de la CAVIC. Se pretende realizar, en torno a la política señalada, una representación conceptual descriptiva que trate de “enumerar y ordenar las características de los jugadores, lo que está en juego, las apuestas, las estrategias y tácticas, los recursos necesarios para poder entrar al juego, las reglas de juego y las de juego limpio, la naturaleza de las comunicaciones permitidas entre los jugadores, el grado de incertidumbre respecto del resultado del juego, los que no tienen interés de participar en el juego, los espectadores o los que exige cambios para entrar a jugar (…)”, utilizando para ello las categorías propuestas por (Bardach, 1982: 61, 62) Metodológicamente se utilizaron fuentes secundarias, a través de una búsqueda exhaustiva en diarios y bibliografía referente a la época. El estudio realizado muestra que la CAVIC se creó con el objetivo de regular el mercado de uvas y vino para consolidar la situación del pequeño y mediano productor, no obstante este grupo siguió siendo históricamente el sector más vulnerable en el escenario productivo sanjuanin