[Female pelvic floor dysfunction from the perspectives of genetic studies].

Currently, despite the growing prevalence of female pelvic floor dysfunction, no consensus exists among researchers regarding its etiology and pathogenesis. There is no doubt, however, that this is a multifactorial disorder with a genetic predisposition. The risk for developing pelvic floor dysfunction is determined by the interaction of multiple additive genetic (mutations and/or polymorphic alleles) and environmental factors. This review of the world literature presents a rationale for searching specific molecular genetic factors shaping the structure of the genetic susceptibility to female pelvic floor dysfunction. The pelvic organ prolapse in women has been found to be associated with the rs1800012 polymorphism of the COL1A1 gene, genotype rs1800255-A/A of COL3A1 gene and the rs2228480 polymorphism of ESR1, although this data still controversial and need to be validated in the independent samples. The systematic accumulation of data, their reproduction in different populations and ethnic groups is necessary to further generalize the evidence on the pathogenesis and the functional significance of each gene variant.

Skyrmion formation and optical spin-Hall effect in an expanding coherent cloud of indirect excitons.

We provide a theoretical description of the polarization pattern and phase singularities experimentally evidenced recently in a condensate of indirect excitons [H. High et al., Nature 483, 584 (2012)]. We show that the averaging of the electron and hole orbital motion leads to a comparable spin-orbit interaction for both types of carriers. We demonstrate that the interplay between a radial coherent flux of bright indirect excitons and the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction results in the formation of spin domains and of topological defects similar to Skyrmions. We reproduce qualitatively all the features of the experimental data and obtain a polarization pattern as in the optical spin-Hall effect despite the different symmetry of the spin-orbit interactions.

Realization of a double-barrier resonant tunneling diode for cavity polaritons.

We report on the realization of a double-barrier resonant tunneling diode for cavity polaritons, by lateral patterning of a one-dimensional cavity. Sharp transmission resonances are demonstrated when sending a polariton flow onto the device. We show that a nonresonant beam can be used as an optical gate and can control the device transmission. Finally, we evidence distortion of the transmission profile when going to the high-density regime, signature of polariton-polariton interactions.