The central nervous system (CNS) depressant and anticonvulsant activities of citronellal (CT) were investigated in animal models. The CT in doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg injected by i.p. route in mice caused a significant decrease in the motor activity of animals when compared with the control group. The highest dose of CT significantly reduced the remaining time of the animals on the Rota-rod apparatus up to 2 h. Additionally, CT at doses 100, 200 and 400 mg/ kg (i.p.) was also capable to promote an increase of latency for development of convulsions induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). It was efficient in prevents the tonic convulsions induced by maximal electroshock (MES) in doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg, resulting in 30 and 40% of protection, respectively. This compound was also capable to promote an increase of latency for development of convulsions induced by picrotoxin (PIC) at 400 mg/kg. In the same way, the anticonvulsant effect of CT was affected by pretreatment with flumazenil, a selective antagonist of benzodiazepine site of GABA A receptor. These results suggest a possible CNS depressant and anticonvulsant activities.

Citral (CIT), which contains the chiral enantiomers, neral (cis) and geranial (trans), is the majority monoterpene from Lippia alba and Cymbopogon citratus. The present study aimed to evaluate CIT for antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities in rodents. Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects were studied by measuring nociception through acetic acid and formalin tests, while inflammation was verified by inducing peritonitis and paw edema with carrageenan. All tested doses of CIT had significant protection (p<0.001) against acetic acid (0.8%) induced nociceptive behavior and the effects were also similar to morphine while formalin induced nociception was significantly protected (p<0.05) only at higher dose (200 mg/kg) of CIT in the first phase of the test. CIT significantly reduce (p<0.001) nociceptive behavior emanating from inflammation in second phase at all the doses.The pretreatment with CIT (100 and 200 mg/kg) significantly reduced the paw edema induced by carrageenan. Moreover, systemic treatment with CIT (100 and 200 mg/kg) significantly reduced (p<0.001) the leukocyte migration in the carrageenan-induced migration to the peritoneal cavity. Our investigation shows that CIT possess significant central and peripheral antinociceptive effects. It was also verified an anti-inflammatory activity. All together these results suggest that CIT might represent important tool for treatment of painful conditions.

Este artigo trata de controle robusto e controle tolerante a falhas de movimentos coordenados de robôs móveis com rodas. O controle robusto é baseado em controle H∞ não linear por realimentação da saída. O controle tolerante a falhas é baseado em controle H∞ por realimentação da saída de sistemas lineares sujeitos a saltos Markovianos para garantir estabilidade da formação quando um dos robôs é perdido durante o movimento coordenado. A coordenação é realizada em função de um lider e qualquer robô da formação pode assumir a liderança de maneira aleatória. Os robôs móveis trocam informações de acordo com um grafo de comunicação direcionado (dígrafo), definido a-priori.

This paper deals with robust and fault tolerant controls of wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) in formation. The robust approach is based on output feedback nonlinear H∞ control. The fault tolerant approach is based on output feedback H∞ control of Markovian jump linear systems to ensure stability of the formation when one of the robots is lost during the coordinated motion. The coordination is performed with the robots following a leader, and any robot of the formation can assume the leadership randomly. The mobile robots exchange informations according to a pre-specified communication directed graph (digraph).

OBJETIVO: O presente estudo buscou avaliar o possível efeito anticonvulsivante do novo análogo da triptamina, N-saliciloiltriptamina (NST), em roedores. MÉTODOS E RESULTADOS: Na avaliação do efeito anticonvulsivante, os animais tratados com NST (100 e 200 mg/kg, i.p.) foram protegidos de maneira estatisticamente significativa (p<0,05) quanto a latência e incidência do aparecimento das convulsões induzidas pela administração do pentilenotetrazol (PTZ) e da picrotoxina (PIC). O efeito protetor do NST nas convulsões induzidas pelo PTZ foi revertido pela administração do flumazenil (10 mg/kg, i.p.), um antagonista dos receptores GABA-benzodiazepínicos (GABA A-BZD). A administração de NST (100 e 200 mg/kg, i.p.) protegeu de forma estatisticamente significativa (p < 0,05) os animais no teste das convulsões induzidas pelo eletrochoque-auricular em camundongos. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados do presente estudo sugerem que o efeito anticonvulsivante de NST está associado, pelo menos em parte, ao sistema GABAérgico.

AIM: In the present study we verified the anticonvulsant properties of the new tryptamine analogue, N-salicyloyltryptamine (NST), in rodents. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the evaluation of the anticonvulsant activity, NST protected the animals from the incidence of seizures induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) and picrotoxin (PIC), in doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg. NST (100 and 200 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly eliminated the extensor reflex of maximal electric-induced seizure tests in 40% of the experimental animals. However, in the PTZ model FLU (10 mg/kg, i.p.), an antagonist of the benzodiazepine (BZD) site in the GABA A-BZD receptor complex, inhibited the prolongation of seizure latency induced by NST. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated an anticonvulsant activity of the new analogue that could be, at least in part, associated to the involvement of the GABAergic mechanism.

ABSTRACT This paper deals with robust control of underactuated manipulator robots. It presents a comparative study of four combined controllers H2, H∞ , H2/H∞ and µ-synthesis, pluscomputed torque method. These controllers are applied in an actual underactuated manipulator robot with 3 degrees of freedom, of which joints can be configured as active or passive ones. The study performed in this paper compares the robustness of each controller when different disturbances are considered.

Neste artigo, o problema de controle robótico baseado em modelo com atenuação de distúrbios (ou problema de controle H<FONT FACE=Symbol>¥</FONT> robótico), apresentado em Chen et all (1994), é estendido para robôs manipuladores subatuados. O acoplamento dinâmico entre os elos é usado para controlar todas as juntas livres do manipulador. Uma solução explícita global é encontrada resolvendo um problema minimax definido através de uma equação de Bellman-Isaacs gerada pela teoria dos jogos. Resultados experimentais, obtidos com o manipulador UArm II, considerando as configurações totalmente atuada e subatuada, são apresentados.

In this paper, the model-based robotic control problem with disturbance attenuation (or robotic H<FONT FACE=Symbol>¥</FONT> control problem), presented in Chen et all (1994), is extended to underactuated manipulators. The dynamic coupling between the links is used to control all manipulator's free joints. A global explicit solution is found solving a minimax Bellman-Isaacs equation, generated via differential game theory. Experimental results, obtained from UArm II manipulator, considering fully actuated and underactuated configurations, are presented.