AGREGADOS TUBULARES DE RETÍCULO ENDOPLASMÁTICO LISO EM OVÓCITOS HUMANOS E SUA INFLUÊNCIA NAS TAXAS DE FERTILIZAÇÃO E GRAVIDEZ

O impacto da presença de anomalias morfológicas ovocitárias na fertilização e taxas de gravidez é um tema controverso na literatura. A presença de agregados tubulares de retículo endoplasmático liso (AT-REL) foi associada a taxas de gravidez mais baixas e a maior incidência de complicações obstétricas. A estrutura ultramiscroscópica destes AT-REL não está descrita. Este trabalho teve como objectivos: a) determinar a influência da presença de AT-REL nas taxas de fertilização e gravidez; b) descrever a ultrastrutura dos AT-REL de ovócitos humanos maduro

A note on topological brane theories

We consider the theory of closed $p$-branes propagating on $(p+1)$-dimensional space-time manifolds. This theory has no local degrees of freedom. Here we study its canonical and BRST structures of the theory. In the case of locally flat backgrounds one can show that the $p$-brane theory is related to another known topological field theory. In the general situation some equivalent actions can also be written for the topological $p$-brane theory.Comment: 14 pages, latex, no figure

From topological to parametrized field theory

It has been proposed to study the theory resulting from setting the gravitational constant to zero in the first order formalism for general relativity. In this letter we investigate this theory in the presence of matter fields, establish its equivalence with parametrized field theory on a flat background, and relate it to previous results in topological field theory (BF theory).Comment: 8 pages, latex, no figure

aPKC regulates apical constriction to prevent tissue rupture in the Drosophila follicular epithelium

Funding: We thank Daniel St Johnston, Juergen Knoblich, Patrick Laprise, Stefano de Renzis, Xiaobo Wang, Yohanns Bellaiche, and the Bloomington and Kyoto Drosophila Stock Centers for reagents. We also thank Yohanns Bellaiche, Ivo Telley, and Romain Levayer for insightful comments on the manuscript. This work is funded by National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project PTDC/BIA-CEL/ 1511/2021. E.M.-d.-S.’s salary is funded by the ‘‘FCT Scientific Employment Stimulus’’ program. M.O.,A.B.-C., and A.M.C. were supported by PhD fellowships from FCT. M.O.’s salary was also supported by the Maria de Sousa Award Research in the J.J. lab was supported by Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, and BBSRC (BB/V001353/1). The authors acknowledge the i3S Scientific Platform ALM, member of the national infrastructure Portuguese Platform of Bioimaging, and the Dundee Imaging Facility for excellent support.Apical-basal polarity is an essential epithelial trait controlled by the evolutionarily conserved PAR-aPKC polarity network. Dysregulation of polarity proteins disrupts tissue organization during development and in disease, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear due to the broad implications of polarity loss. Here, we uncover how Drosophila aPKC maintains epithelial architecture by directly observing tissue disorganization after fast optogenetic inactivation in living adult flies and ovaries cultured ex vivo. We show that fast aPKC perturbation in the proliferative follicular epithelium produces large epithelial gaps that result from increased apical constriction, rather than loss of apical-basal polarity. Accordingly, we can modulate the incidence of epithelial gaps by increasing and decreasing actomyosin-driven contractility. We traced the origin of these large epithelial gaps to tissue rupture next to dividing cells. Live imaging shows that aPKC perturbation induces apical constriction in non-mitotic cells within minutes, producing pulling forces that ultimately detach dividing and neighboring cells. We further demonstrate that epithelial rupture requires a global increase of apical constriction, as it is prevented by the presence of non-constricting cells. Conversely, a global induction of apical tension through light-induced recruitment of RhoGEF2 to the apical side is sufficient to produce tissue rupture. Hence, our work reveals that the roles of aPKC in polarity and actomyosin regulation are separable and provides the first in vivo evidence that excessive tissue stress can break the epithelial barrier during proliferation.proofepub_ahead_of_prin

Decomposition of Hilbert space in sets of coherent states

Within the generalized definition of coherent states as group orbits we study the orbit spaces and the orbit manifolds in the projective spaces constructed from linear representations. Invariant functions are suggested for arbitrary groups. The group SU(2) is studied in particular and the orbit spaces of its j=1/2 and j=1 representations completely determined. The orbits of SU(2) in CP^N can be either 2 or 3 dimensional, the first of them being either isomorphic to S^2 or to RP^2 and the latter being isomorphic to quotient spaces of RP^3. We end with a look from the same perspective to the quantum mechanical space of states in particle mechanics.Comment: revtex, 13 pages, 12 figure

Immirzi Ambiguity in the Kinematics of Quantum General Relativity

The Immirzi ambiguity arises in loop quantum gravity when geometric operators are represented in terms of different connections that are related by means of an extended Wick transform. We analyze the action of this transform in gravity coupled with matter fields and discuss its analogy with the Wick rotation on which the Thiemann transform between Euclidean and Lorentzian gravity is based. In addition, we prove that the effect of this extended Wick transform is equivalent to a constant scale transformation as far as the symplectic structure and kinematical constraints are concerned. This equivalence is broken in the dynamical evolution. Our results are applied to the discussion of the black hole entropy in the limit of large horizon areas. We first argue that, since the entropy calculation is performed for horizons of fixed constant area, one might in principle choose an Immirzi parameter that depends on this quantity. This would spoil the linearity with the area in the entropy formula. We then show that the Immirzi parameter appears as a constant scaling in all the steps where dynamical information plays a relevant role in the entropy calculation. This fact, together with the kinematical equivalence of the Immirzi ambiguity with a change of scale, is used to preclude the potential non-linearity of the entropy on physical grounds.Comment: very minor stylistic changes, version published in Phys. Rev.

Indicadores de qualidade do solo em sistemas de cultivo orgânico e convencional no semi-árido Cearense.

A qualidade do solo pode mudar com o passar do tempo, em decorrência de eventos naturais ou ações antrópicas. A adoção de práticas de cultivo orgânico reduz o revolvimento do solo, favorecendo a recuperação de suas propriedades físicas e químicas. Este trabalho teve como objetivo comparar propriedades físicas,químicas e biológicas de solos cultivados com algodão em bases orgânicas e no sistema convencional, assim como identificar as que possam ser utilizadas como indicadores de qualidade do solo. Selecionaram-se seis áreas submetidas ao cultivo orgânico e três ao cultivo convencional para coleta de amostras de solo deformadas e indeformadas, nas camadas de 0–10, 10–20 e 20–30 cm. Técnicas de estatística univariada e multivariada foram utilizadas para análise dos dados. Os resultados mostraram que os indicadores físicos e químicos testados individualmente não foram sensíveis para diferenciar as áreas sob sistema de cultivo orgânico daquelas sob cultivo convencional. No entanto, a aplicação de técnicas de análise multivariada – no caso, componentes principais e a discriminante de Anderson – permitiu a distinção entre algumas áreas cultivadas sob cultivo orgânico comparativamente às convencionais, até mesmo as que estavam em transição.Dos indicadores biológicos, a fauna edáfica mostrou-se mais precisa na avaliação da qualidade do solo, distinguindo de forma satisfatória as áreas sob sistema de cultivo orgânico das que estavam sob sistema convencional