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An ecological survey of the Gulf of Naples area : conducted during September 15 to October 15, 1976, for the Region of Campania
Submitted to Assessore Dr. Silvio Pavia, Region of Campania, Naples, Italy 80100, June 20, 1977Marine Scienc
A cortical potential reflecting cardiac function
Emotional trauma and psychological stress can precipitate cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death through arrhythmogenic effects of efferent sympathetic drive. Patients with preexisting heart disease are particularly at risk. Moreover, generation of proarrhythmic activity patterns within cerebral autonomic centers may be amplified by afferent feedback from a dysfunctional myocardium. An electrocortical potential reflecting afferent cardiac information has been described, reflecting individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity (awareness of one's own heartbeats). To inform our understanding of mechanisms underlying arrhythmogenesis, we extended this approach, identifying electrocortical potentials corresponding to the cortical expression of afferent information about the integrity of myocardial function during stress. We measured changes in cardiac response simultaneously with electroencephalography in patients with established ventricular dysfunction. Experimentally induced mental stress enhanced cardiovascular indices of sympathetic activity (systolic blood pressure, heart rate, ventricular ejection fraction, and skin conductance) across all patients. However, the functional response of the myocardium varied; some patients increased, whereas others decreased, cardiac output during stress. Across patients, heartbeat-evoked potential amplitude at left temporal and lateral frontal electrode locations correlated with stress-induced changes in cardiac output, consistent with an afferent cortical representation of myocardial function during stress. Moreover, the amplitude of the heartbeat-evoked potential in the left temporal region reflected the proarrhythmic status of the heart (inhomogeneity of left ventricular repolarization). These observations delineate a cortical representation of cardiac function predictive of proarrhythmic abnormalities in cardiac repolarization. Our findings highlight the dynamic interaction of heart and brain in stress-induced cardiovascular morbidity
Correlated dynamics of inclusions in a supported membrane
The hydrodynamic theory of heterogeneous fluid membranes is extended to the
case of a membrane adjacent to a solid substrate. We derive the coupling
diffusion coefficients of pairs of membrane inclusions in the limit of large
separation compared to the inclusion size. Two-dimensional compressive stresses
in the membrane make the coupling coefficients decay asymptotically as
with interparticle distance . For the common case, where the distance to the
substrate is of sub-micron scale, we present expressions for the coupling
between distant disklike inclusions, which are valid for arbitrary inclusion
size. We calculate the effect of inclusions on the response of the membrane and
the associated corrections to the coupling diffusion coefficients to leading
order in the concentration of inclusions. While at short distances the response
is modified as if the membrane were a two-dimensional suspension, the
large-distance response is not renormalized by the inclusions.Comment: 15 page
Direct Detection of Galactic Halo Dark Matter
The Milky Way Galaxy contains a large, spherical component which is believed
to harbor a substantial amount of unseen matter. Recent observations indirectly
suggest that as much as half of this ``dark matter'' may be in the form of old,
very cool white dwarfs, the remnants of an ancient population of stars as old
as the Galaxy itself. We conducted a survey to find faint, cool white dwarfs
with large space velocities, indicative of their membership in the Galaxy's
spherical halo component. The survey reveals a substantial, directly observed
population of old white dwarfs, too faint to be seen in previous surveys. This
newly discovered population accounts for at least 2% of the halo dark matter.
It provides a natural explanation for the indirect observations, and represents
a direct detection of Galactic halo dark matter.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Note added after Science Express online
publication: This text reflects the correction of a few typographical errors
in the online version of the table. It also includes the new constraint on
the calculation of d_max which accounts for the fact that the survey could
not have detected stars with proper motions below 0.33 arcseconds per year.
Published online at ScienceExpress www.sciencemag.org 22 March 2001;
10.1126/science.1059954; To appear in Science 27 April 200
Torque-Limited Growth of Massive Black Holes in Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
We combine cosmological hydrodynamic simulations with analytic models to
evaluate the role of galaxy-scale gravitational torques on the evolution of
massive black holes at the centers of star-forming galaxies. We confirm and
extend our earlier results to show that torque-limited growth yields black
holes and host galaxies evolving on average along the Mbh-Mbulge relation from
early times down to z = 0 and that convergence onto the scaling relation occurs
independent of the initial conditions and with no need for mass averaging
through mergers or additional self-regulation processes. Smooth accretion
dominates the long-term evolution, with black hole mergers with mass ratios
>1:5 representing typically a small fraction of the total growth. Winds from
the accretion disk are required to eject significant mass to suppress black
hole growth, but there is no need for coupling this wind to galactic-scale gas
to regulate black holes in a non-linear feedback loop. Torque-limited growth
yields a close-to-linear relation for the star formation rate and the black
hole accretion rate averaged over galaxy evolution time scales. However, the
SFR-AGN connection has significant scatter owing to strong variability of black
hole accretion at all resolved time scales. Eddington ratios can be described
by a broad lognormal distribution with median value evolving roughly as (1 +
z)^1.9, suggesting a main sequence for black hole growth similar to the cosmic
evolution of specific SFRs. Our results offer an attractive scenario consistent
with available observations in which cosmological gas infall and transport of
angular momentum in the galaxy by gravitational instabilities regulate the
long-term co-evolution of black holes and star-forming galaxies.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, replaced by published versio
A model of the geochemical and physical fluctuations of the lava lake at Erebus volcano, Antarctica
Erebus volcano, Antarctica, exhibits periodical surface fluctuations of both geochemical and physical nature. Modeling the physics driving the lake oscillation is a challenge, even with a relatively simple theoretical framework. We present a quantitative analysis that aims to reconcile both lake level and gas geochemical cycles. Our model is based on the assumption that the periodicity is caused by the regular release of magma batches and/or core annular flow that have a fixed volume of melt and ascend and degas in equilibrium. Results suggest that cycles are not caused by the mixing between magma residing in the lake and a deep magma but by two distinct deep sources that rise separately. These sources of bubbly magma come from at most 2â3 km depth and rise buoyantly. Individual batches detach from the rising magmas at depths of 20â250 m. The two batch types can coexist in a single conduit up to a depth of ~ 30 m, above which they rise alternately to release respectively 19 and 23 kg/s of gas at the lake surface every 10 min. The temperature of the descending flow is between 890 and 950 °C, which is roughly 100 °C colder than the ascending currents. Batch pairs have shapes likely constrained by the conduit width. Regardless of their shapes, the pairs reach very high porosities near the surface and have diameters of 4â14 m that are consistent with video observations showing spreading waves at the lake surface. The alternating arrival of these large batches suggests a lava lake mostly filled with gas-rich magma.This work is part of the first author's PhD thesis, which was funded by the 7th Framework Program of the EC (ERC grant 202844) and by Senescyt under the Prometeo Program (Ecuador). CO acknowledges support from the Isaac Newton Trust (project âPhysical constraints for the interpretation of open-vent volcanismâ) and the Natural Environment Research Council (National Centre for Earth Observation: COMET).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2015.10.02
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