9,278 research outputs found
Organs from animals for man
In the following review some of the problems of xenotransplantation shall be discussed, based on the few experimental data available so far and on reports in the literature describing investigations which may be of importance for xenotransplantation. The impact of gravity on the upright posture of man versus almost all other mammals, the dysfunction between enzymes and hormones in different species and the lack of interactions between interleukins, cytokines and vasoactive substances will be taken into consideration. The question must be asked whether different levels of carrier molecules or serum proteins play a role in the physiological network. Even though the development of transgenic animals or other imaginative manipulations may lead to the acceptance of any type of xenografted organ, it has to be established for how long the products of the xenografts are able to act in the multifactorial orchestra. We are far from understanding xenogeneic molecular mechanisms involved in toxicity, necrosis and apoptosis or even reperfusion injury and ischemia in addition to the immediate mechanisms of the hyperacute xenogeneic rejection. Here, cell adhesion, blood clotting and vasomotion collide and bring micro-and macrocirculation to a standstill. All types of xenogeneic immunological mechanisms studied so far were found to have a more serious impact than those seen in allogeneic transplantation. In addition we are now only beginning to understand that so-called immunological parameters in allogeneic mechanisms act also in a true physiological manner in the xenogeneic situation. These molecular mechanisms occur behind the curtain of hyperacute, accelerated, acute or chronic xenograft rejection of which only some folds have been lifted to allow glimpses of part of the total scene. Other obstacles are likely to arise when long-term survival is achieved. These obstacles include retroviral infections, transfer of prions and severe side effects of the massive immunosuppression which will be needed. Moral, ethical and religious concerns are under debate and the species-specific production of proteins of the foreign donor species developed for clinical use suddenly appears to be a greater problem than anticipated
Relationship of management factors with prevalence of respiratory problems in beira antelope (Dorcotragus megalotis)
Most of the Beira antelopes (Dorcatragus megalotis) that ever lived at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) showed respiratory signs and since winter 2005/2006 many Beiras have diedfrom a Fibrinous Pleuropneumonia Syndrome (FPPS) with Mycoplasma spp. as suspectedcausative agent. Neither therapies with different drugs nor vaccinations yielded a sustained success against the respiratory disease so far. This study aimed to test if there is a relationship between management factors and the prevalence of respiratory problems, in order to find indications whether changes in management might decrease the risk of respiratory diseases. For this reason, environmental factors such as temperature and humidity as well as individual appearance (coughing, nasal discharge etc.) and feeding of vitamin/mineral supplements were recorded daily for over a year. There was a noticeable increase of affected Beiras during winter months
The reaction 13C(alpha,n)16O: a background for the observation of geo-neutrinos
The absolute cross section of the C(,n)O reaction has
been measured at E = 0.8 to 8.0 MeV with an overall accuracy of 4%.
The precision is needed to subtract reliably a background in the observation of
geo-neutrinos, e.g. in the KamLAND detector.Comment: LaTex file, 13 pages including 3 ps figures. Any request to
[email protected]. Phys. Rev . C, to appea
Star formation rates of distant luminous infrared galaxies derived from Halpha and IR luminosities
We present a study of the star formation rate (SFR) for a sample of 16
distant galaxies detected by ISOCAM at 15um in the CFRS0300+00 and CFRS1400+52
fields. Their high quality and intermediate resolution VLT/FORS spectra have
allowed a proper correction of the Balmer emission lines from the underlying
absorption. Extinction estimates using the Hbeta/Hgamma and the Halpha/Hbeta
Balmer decrement are in excellent agreement, providing a robust measurement of
the instantaneous SFR based on the extinction-corrected Halpha luminosity. Star
formation has also been estimated exploiting the correlations between IR
luminosity and those at MIR and radio wavelengths. Our study shows that the
relationship between the two SFR estimates follow two distinct regimes: (1) for
galaxies with SFRIR below ~ 100Msolar/yr, the SFR deduced from Halpha
measurements is a good approximation of the global SFR and (2) for galaxies
near of ULIRGs regime, corrected Halpha SFR understimated the SFR by a factor
of 1.5 to 2. Our analyses suggest that heavily extincted regions completely
hidden in optical bands (such as those found in Arp 220) contribute to less
than 20% of the global budget of star formation history up to z=1.Comment: (1) GEPI, Obs. Meudon, France ;(2) CEA-Saclay, France ;(3) ESO,
Gemany ;(4) IAC, Spain. To appear in A&
Microjansky sources at 1.4 GHz
We present a deep 1.4 GHz survey made with the Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA), having a background RMS of 9 microJy near the image phase centre,
up to 25 microJy at the edge of a 50' field of view. Over 770 radio sources
brighter than 45 microJy have been catalogued in the field. The differential
source counts in the deep field provide tentative support for the growing
evidence that the microjansky radio population exhibits significantly higher
clustering than found at higher flux density cutoffs. The optical
identification rate on CCD images is approximately 50% to R=22.5, and the
optical counterparts of the faintest radio sources appear to be mainly single
galaxies close to this optical magnitude limit.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ Letters 4 May 199
Generalized Swiss-cheese cosmologies: Mass scales
We generalize the Swiss-cheese cosmologies so as to include nonzero linear
momenta of the associated boundary surfaces. The evolution of mass scales in
these generalized cosmologies is studied for a variety of models for the
background without having to specify any details within the local
inhomogeneities. We find that the final effective gravitational mass and size
of the evolving inhomogeneities depends on their linear momenta but these
properties are essentially unaffected by the details of the background model.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, revtex4, Published form (with minor
corrections
Multiwavelength Observations of one Galaxy in Marano Field
We report the multiwavelength observations of one intermediate redshift
(z=0.3884) galaxy in the Marano Field. These data include ISOCAM middle
infrared, VLT/FORS2 spectroscopic and photometric data, associated with the
ATCA 1.4 GHz radio and ROSAT PSPC X-ray observations from literature. The
Spectral Energy Distribution obtained by VLT spectroscopy exhibits its
early-type galaxy property, while, in the same time, it has obvious [OIII]5007
emission line. The diagnostic diagram from the optical emission line ratios
shows its Seyfert galaxy property. Its infrared-radio relation follows the
correlation of sources detected at 15 \mu and radio. It has a high X-ray
luminosity of 1.26*10^{43} ergs/s, which is much higher than the general
elliptical galaxies s with the similar B band luminosity, and is about 2 orders
of magnitude higher than the derived value from the star forming tracer, the
FIR luminosity. This means that the X-ray sources of this galaxy are not
stellar components, but the AGN is the dominant component.Comment: 6 pages, 1 PS figure and 4 tables. Publication in ChJAA, Suppl., the
Special Issue for The Fifth Microquasar Workshop 2004:
http://chjaa.bao.ac.cn/, 2005, Vol.5, 335-34
A large sample of low surface brightness disk galaxies from the SDSS. I: The sample and the stellar populations
We present the properties of a large sample (12,282) of nearly face-on low
surface brightness (LSB) disk galaxies selected from the main galaxy sample of
SDSS-DR4. These properties include B-band central surface brightness mu_0(B),
scale lengths h, integrated magnitudes, colors, and distances D. This sample
has mu_0(B) values from 22 to 24.5 mag arcsec^{-2} with a median value of 22.42
mag arcsec^{-2}, and disk scale lengths ranging from 2 to 19 kpc. They are
quite bright with M_B taking values from -18 to -23 mag with a median value of
-20.08 mag. There exist clear correlations between logh and M_B, logh and logD,
logD and M_B. However, no obvious correlations are found between mu_0(B) and
logh, colors etc. The correlation between colors and logh is weak even though
it exists. Both the optical-optical and optical-NIR color-color diagrams
indicate that most of them have a mixture of young and old stellar populations.
They also satisfy color-magnitude relations, which indicate that brighter
galaxies tend generally to be redder. The comparison between the LSBGs and a
control sample of nearly face-on disk galaxies with higher surface brightness
(HSB) with mu_0(B) from 18.5 to 22 mag arcsec^{-2} show that, at a given
luminosity or distance, the observed LSB galaxies tend to have larger scale
lengths. These trends could be seen gradually by dividing both the LSBGs and
HSBGs into two sub-groups according to surface brightness. A volume-limited
sub-sample was extracted to check the incompleteness of surface brightness. The
only one of the property relations having an obvious change is the relation of
logh versus mu_0(B), which shows a correlation in this sub-sample.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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