551 research outputs found
Phase transitions in biological membranes
Native membranes of biological cells display melting transitions of their
lipids at a temperature of 10-20 degrees below body temperature. Such
transitions can be observed in various bacterial cells, in nerves, in cancer
cells, but also in lung surfactant. It seems as if the presence of transitions
slightly below physiological temperature is a generic property of most cells.
They are important because they influence many physical properties of the
membranes. At the transition temperature, membranes display a larger
permeability that is accompanied by ion-channel-like phenomena even in the
complete absence of proteins. Membranes are softer, which implies that
phenomena such as endocytosis and exocytosis are facilitated. Mechanical signal
propagation phenomena related to nerve pulses are strongly enhanced. The
position of transitions can be affected by changes in temperature, pressure, pH
and salt concentration or by the presence of anesthetics. Thus, even at
physiological temperature, these transitions are of relevance. There position
and thereby the physical properties of the membrane can be controlled by
changes in the intensive thermodynamic variables. Here, we review some of the
experimental findings and the thermodynamics that describes the control of the
membrane function.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure
Consórcios de caupi e milho em cultivo orgânico para produção de grãos e espigas verdes.
No período de outono-inverno-primavera de 2007, foi conduzido um estudo em Seropédica, Região Metropolitana do estado do Rio de Janeiro (Baixada Fluminense), com o objetivo de avaliar diferentes tipos de consórcio entre caupi (cv. Mauá) e milho (cv. AG-1051), em sistema orgânico de produção. O experimento foi instalado em área de Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo no delineamento de blocos ao acaso, com quatro repetições. Os tratamentos constaram de diferentes épocas ou intervalos de tempo de semeadura do caupi em relação à do milho, a saber: (E1) 21 dias antes do milho; (E2) 14 dias antes do milho; (E3) 7 dias antes do milho; e (E4) no mesmo dia do milho. Tratamentos correspondentes aos cultivos solteiros do caupi e do milho foram incluídos, ambos semeados na data do tratamento E4. O cultivo consorciado com o caupi não interferiu na produtividade do milho em espigas verdes e também em termos de comprimento e diâmetro basal dessas espigas, independentemente do intervalo entre semeaduras. Com referência ao caupi, a produtividade em grãos verdes no cultivo solteiro foi superior à dos consórcios com o milho. Os valores obtidos para os Índices de Equivalência de Área (IEA), foram todos acima de 1,0, indicando que os consórcios foram eficientes quanto ao desempenho agronômico/biológico. Considerando, ainda a produtividade de cada cultura participante do consórcio, a semeadura do caupi antecipada de 21 dias em relação à do milho afigura-se mais adequada ao manejo orgânico adotado e às condições edafoclimáticas da região
Quantum physics in inertial and gravitational fields
Covariant generalizations of well-known wave equations predict the existence
of inertial-gravitational effects for a variety of quantum systems that range
from Bose-Einstein condensates to particles in accelerators. Additional effects
arise in models that incorporate Born reciprocity principle and the notion of a
maximal acceleration. Some specific examples are discussed in detail.Comment: 25 pages,1 figure,to appear in "Relativity in Rotating Frame
Judging Time-to-Passage of looming sounds: evidence for the use of distance-based information
Perceptual judgments are an essential mechanism for our everyday interaction with other
moving agents or events. For instance, estimation of the time remaining before an object
contacts or passes us is essential to act upon or to avoid that object. Previous studies have
demonstrated that participants use different cues to estimate the time to contact or the time
to passage of approaching visual stimuli. Despite the considerable number of studies on the
judgment of approaching auditory stimuli, not much is known about the cues that guide listeners’
performance in an auditory Time-to-Passage (TTP) task. The present study evaluates
how accurately participants judge approaching white-noise stimuli in a TTP task that
included variable occlusion periods (portion of the presentation time where the stimulus is
not audible). Results showed that participants were able to accurately estimate TTP and
their performance, in general, was weakly affected by occlusion periods. Moreover, we
looked into the psychoacoustic variables provided by the stimuli and analysed how binaural
cues related with the performance obtained in the psychophysical task. The binaural temporal
difference seems to be the psychoacoustic cue guiding participants’ performance for
lower amounts of occlusion, while the binaural loudness difference seems to be the cue
guiding performance for higher amounts of occlusion. These results allowed us to explain
the perceptual strategies used by participants in a TTP task (maintaining accuracy by shifting
the informative cue for TTP estimation), and to demonstrate that the psychoacoustic cue
guiding listeners’ performance changes according to the occlusion period.This study was supported by: Bial FoundationGrant 143/14 (https://www.bial.com/en/bial_foundation.11/11th_symposium.219/ fellows_preliminary_results.235/fellows_ preliminary_results.a569.html); FCT PTDC/EEAELC/112137/2009 (https://www.fct.pt/apoios/projectos/consulta/vglobal_projecto?idProjecto=112137&idElemConcurso=3628); and COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The impacts of land use changes in the mercury flux in the Madeira River, Western Amazon
Problematizando o conceito de risco em diretrizes éticas para pesquisas em ciências humanas e sociais na Saúde Coletiva
Audiometric thresholds and auditory processing in children with early malnutrition: a retrospective cohort study
Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications
Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation
with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of
quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the
Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise
kernel. In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via
two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. In the second part, we
describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider
metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point
correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime
is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure
formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint. Third, we discuss the
backreaction of Hawking radiation in the gravitational background of a black
hole and describe the metric fluctuations near the event horizon of an
evaporating black holeComment: 100 pages, no figures; an update of the 2003 review in Living Reviews
in Relativity gr-qc/0307032 ; it includes new sections on the Validity of
Semiclassical Gravity, the Stability of Minkowski Spacetime, and the Metric
Fluctuations of an Evaporating Black Hol
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