A highly maneuverable robot vehicle for snow travel is required for robot rescue to avalanche. The variably configured segmented wheel (VCSW) seems to be applicable because of its high surmounting capability. Formerly, this VCSW has been developed to traverse rough terrain, muddy roads, water and underwater. VCSW consists of six vanes, a hub, spokes, and a drive wheel. These vanes are pushed and towed by the eccentric hub through spokes periodically based on wheel rotation. Vane movement effectively prevents slippage and sinking in snow. Vane control was located at the wheel center in the original design, so when traversing snow surfaces, scooped-up snow caught between a vane and the vane control mechanism remained stuck in the wheel. The modification we designed for the wheel locates vane control on one side of the wheel to make the wheel center empty so that scooped-up snow is discharged efficiently, as confirmed in experiments.
Nicotine excites the inferior olive (IO) neurons and induces kinetic tremor via activating α7 nACh receptors. Meanwhile, nicotine is also known to enhance dopamine release by activating presynaptic nACh receptors, but the role of dopaminergic system in regulating nicotine-induced tremor remains unknown. Here, we investigated the effect of various dopamine receptor antagonists on nicotine-induced tremor in mice and rats. Animals were pretreated with dopamine antagonists 15 min before nicotine (1 mg/kg) injection. Nicotine tremor was significantly facilitated by the selective D 1/5 antagonist SCH-23390 while it was significantly inhibited by the D 3 selective antagonist U-99194.Neither D 2 (L-741,626) nor D 4 antagonist (L-745,870) affected nicotine tremor. In addition, microinjection of SCH -23390 into the IO tended to enhance nicotine tremor, but its injection into the striatum showed no effect. Microinjection of U-99194 into the IO or the striatum did not change nicotine tremor, however, its injection into the cerebellum significantly attenuated nicotine tremor. These results suggest that the dopaminergic system regulates nicotine-induced tremor biphasically, D 3 receptors in the cerebellum being facilitatory and D 1/5 receptors in the IO inhibitory.
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