Cluster Lenses

Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects - probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author

Modulation of ADPase activity and tPA release by radiographic contrast media in aortic bovine endothelium

Vascular endothelial injuries induced by intravascular administration of radiographic contrast agents may be clinically relevant to the development of thrombosis and platelet activation. In this connection, we investigated the in vitro effects induced by iodamide, iopamidol, and ioxaglate on vascular endothelial ADPase activity and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) release in bovine aortic endothelium, in order to extend knowledge required to evaluate endothelial compatibility of radiographic contrast media. Undiluted and Tris-diluted contrast agent formulations were employed, and mannitol and sucrose hyperosmolar solutions were used as comparison. Results demonstrated that the high-osmolar ionic contrast agent iodamide, and to a lesser extent, the low-osmolar nonionic agent iopamidol, stimulated endothelial ADPase activity of the aortic endothelium; the low-osmolar ionic agent ioxaglate left endothelial ADPase activity unchanged. Furthermore, the diluted formulations of iodamide and iopamidol, as well as high-osmolar mannitol and sucrose solutions, were devoid of activity in ADPase. This suggests that the endothelial ADPase stimulation induced by both radiographic contrast media was a hyperosmolar-independent pharmacodynamic activity. Iopamidol and ioxaglate reduced endogenous t-PA release from bovine aortic endothelium only in undiluted formulation, while iodamide showed this inhibiting action in both diluted and undiluted formulations. No effect was observed when using mannitol solutions at different osmolarity values. Our in vitro findings agree with published data on the different thrombotic tendency attributed to the contrast agents used, suggesting endothelial enzymatic activities (ADPase and t-PA release) as suitable tools for evaluating endothelial vessel wall compatibility with radiographic contrast media