815 research outputs found
Evidence of widespread degradation of gene control regions in hominid genomes
Although sequences containing regulatory elements located close to protein-coding genes are often only weakly conserved during evolution, comparisons of rodent genomes have implied that these sequences are subject to some selective constraints. Evolutionary conservation is particularly apparent upstream of coding sequences and in first introns, regions that are enriched for regulatory elements. By comparing the human and chimpanzee genomes, we show here that there is almost no evidence for conservation in these regions in hominids. Furthermore, we show that gene expression is diverging more rapidly in hominids than in murids per unit of neutral sequence divergence. By combining data on polymorphism levels in human noncoding DNA and the corresponding human¿chimpanzee divergence, we show that the proportion of adaptive substitutions in these regions in hominids is very low. It therefore seems likely that the lack of conservation and increased rate of gene expression divergence are caused by a reduction in the effectiveness of natural selection against deleterious mutations because of the low effective population sizes of hominids. This has resulted in the accumulation of a large number of deleterious mutations in sequences containing gene control elements and hence a widespread degradation of the genome during the evolution of humans and chimpanzees
Influence of Cooled Interstellar Gas on the Fundamental Plane for Elliptical Galaxies
We explore the possibly important influence of cooled interstellar gas on the
fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies. Interstellar cooling is described by
a parameterized sink term in the equation of continuity. Parameters that give
the best fits to the X-ray observations of NGC 4472 are used as a template for
the radial distribution of interstellar cooling in structurally homologous
elliptical galaxies of lower mass. Gas that cools within an effective radius
can contribute an additional 10 - 30 percent to the mass of the old stellar
population. If the cooled gas forms into stars of very low mass, , as is commonly assumed, the cooled mass is optically dark. As a
result, the mass to light ratios determined from stellar velocities
systematically overestimate that of the old stellar population. Moreover, the
total mass and spatial distribution of the optically dark young stellar
population does not scale homologously with galactic luminosity or radius and
the total stellar mass to light ratio varies with galactic radius. We
investigate the non-homologous perturbations of cooled gas on the mass to light
ratio for several idealized homologous elliptical galaxies and show that they
appear to be incompatible with the observed thinness of the fundamental plane.
If optically luminous young stars formed from the cooled gas, the disturbance
of the fundamental plane would be lessened.Comment: 10 pages with 2 figures; accepted by Astrophysical Journa
Tomography of Collisionless Stellar Systems
In this paper the concept of tomography of a collisionless stellar system of
general shape is introduced, and a generalization of the Projected Virial
Theorem is obtained. Applying the tomographic procedure we then derive a new
family of virial equations which coincides with the already known ones for
spherically symmetric systems. This result is obtained without any use of
explicit expressions for the line-of-sight velocity dispersion, or spherical
coordinate system.Comment: BAP-06-1994-016-OAB. 7 pages, postscript file. In press on Celestial
Mechanic
Dynamical friction in multi-component evolving globular clusters
We use the Chandrasekhar formalism and direct N-body simulations to study the
effect of dynamical friction on a test object only slightly more massive than
the field stars, orbiting a spherically symmetric background of particles with
a mass spectrum. The main goal is to verify whether the dynamical friction time
(t_DF) develops a non-monotonic radial-dependence that could explain the
bimodality of the Blue Straggler radial distributions observed in globular
clusters. In these systems, in fact, relaxation effects lead to a mass and
velocity radial segregation of the different mass components, so that
mass-spectrum effects on t_DF are expected to be dependent on radius. We find
that, in spite of the presence of different masses, t_DF is always a monotonic
function of radius, at all evolutionary times and independently of the initial
concentration of the simulated cluster. This because the radial dependence of
t_DF is largely dominated by the total mass density profile of the background
stars (which is monotonically decreasing with radius). Hence, a progressive
temporal erosion of the BSS population at larger and larger distances from the
cluster center remains the simplest and the most likely explanation of the
shape of the observed BSS radial distributions, as suggested in previous works.
We also confirm the theoretical expectation that approximating a multi-mass
globular cluster as made of (averaged) equal-mass stars can lead to significant
overestimates of t_DF within the half-mass radius.Comment: In press on Ap
Radiative feedback from massive black holes in elliptical galaxies. AGN flaring and central starburst fueled by recycled gas
The importance of the radiative feedback from massive black holes at the
centers of elliptical galaxies is not in doubt, given the well established
relations among electromagnetic output, black hole mass and galaxy optical
luminosity. We show how this AGN radiative output affects the hot ISM of an
isolated elliptical galaxy with the aid of a high-resolution hydrodynamical
code, where the cooling and heating functions include photoionization plus
Compton heating. We find that radiative heating is a key factor in the
self-regulated coevolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies and
that 1) the mass accumulated by the central black hole is limited by feedback
to the range observed today, and 2) relaxation instabilities occur so that duty
cycles are small enough (~0.03) to account for the very small fraction of
massive ellipticals observed to be in the "on" -QSO- phase, when the accretion
luminosity approaches the Eddington luminosity. The duty cycle of the hot
bubbles inflated at the galaxy center during major accretion episodes is of the
order of 0.1-0.4. Major accretion episodes caused by cooling flows in the
recycled gas produced by normal stellar evolution trigger nuclear starbursts
coincident with AGN flaring. During such episodes the central sources are often
obscured; but overall, in the bursting phase (1<z<3), the duty cycle of the
black hole in its "on" phase is of the order of percents and it is unobscured
approximately one-third of the time. Mechanical energy output from
non-relativistic gas winds integrates to 2.3 10^{59} erg, with most of it
caused by broadline AGN outflows. [abridged]Comment: ApJ resubmitted. 48 pages, 14 figures (some of them new, bitmapped,
low resolution). New references added, typos correcte
The Mass Assembly History of Spheroidal Galaxies: Did Newly-Formed Systems Arise Via Major Mergers?
We examine the properties of a morphologically-selected sample of 0.4<z<1.0
spheroidal galaxies in the GOODS fields in order to ascertain whether their
increase in abundance with time arises primarily from mergers. To address this
question we determine scaling relations between the dynamical mass determined
from stellar velocity dispersions, and the stellar mass determined from optical
and infrared photometry. We exploit these relations across the larger sample
for which we have stellar masses in order to construct the first statistically
robust estimate of the evolving dynamical mass function over 0<z<1. The trends
observed match those seen in the stellar mass functions of Bundy et al. 2005
regarding the top-down growth in the abundance of spheroidal galaxies. By
referencing our dynamical masses to the halo virial mass we compare the growth
rate in the abundance of spheroidals to that predicted by the assembly of dark
matter halos. Our comparisons demonstrate that major mergers do not fully
account for the appearance of new spheroidals since z~1 and that additional
mechanisms, such as morphological transformations, are required to drive the
observed evolution.Comment: Accepted to ApJL; New version corrects the Millennium merger
predictions--further details at
http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~bundy/millennium
Hydrostatic models for the rotation of extra-planar gas in disk galaxies
We show that fluid stationary models are able to reproduce the observed,
negative vertical gradient of the rotation velocity of the extra-planar gas in
spiral galaxies. We have constructed models based on the simple condition that
the pressure of the medium does not depend on density alone (baroclinic instead
of barotropic solutions: isodensity and isothermal surfaces do not coincide).
As an illustration, we have successfully applied our method to reproduce the
observed velocity gradient of the lagging gaseous halo of NGC 891. The fluid
stationary models discussed here can describe a hot homogeneous medium as well
as a "gas" made of discrete, cold HI clouds with an isotropic velocity
dispersion distribution. Although the method presented here generates a density
and velocity field consistent with observational constraints, the stability of
these configurations remains an open question.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The Tilt of the Fundamental Plane: Three-quarters Structural Nonhomology, One-quarter Stellar Population
The variation of the mass-to-light ratios M/L of early type galaxies as
function of their luminosities L is investigated. It is shown that the tilt
beta=0.27 (in the B--band) of the fundamental plane relation M/L ~ L^{beta} can
be understood as a combination of two effects: about one-quarter (i.e. dbeta
=0.07) is a result of systematic variations of the stellar population
properties with increasing luminosity. The remaining three-quarters (i.e. dbeta
=0.2) can be completely attributed to nonhomology effects that lead to a
systematic change of the surface brightness profiles with increasing
luminosity. Consequently, the observed tilt in the K-band (beta=0.17) where
stellar population effects are negligible, is explained by nonhomology effects
alone. After correcting for nonhomology, the mean value of the mass-to-light
ratio of elliptical galaxies (M/L_B) is 7.1+-2.8 (1 sigma scatter).Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, ApJL, 600, 39, minor changes made to match the
published versio
Embodied CO2 analysis of a secondary school
This paper describes the process, challenges and results of a carbon profiling tool used as part of the design process at White Design Associates. The paper first explores the need amongst designers for a carbon profiling tool to enable and encourage a focus on carbon reduction, as a key element in the fight against global warming. Next it describes the methodology adopted by White Design Associates to develop a tool to be used throughout the building design process, to inform design decisions, and begin to quantify the climate change impact of the finished building. Examples from the most recent iteration of the tool, used during the construction of John Ferneley College, illustrate the development of the tool, the challenges that were faced, and the "headline" results of the analysis. It also illustrates how White Design incorporated the results into the curriculum through web updates and highlights the Carbon Stacks visualisation tool
Morphological Dependence of MIR Properties of SDSS Galaxies in the Spitzer SWIRE Survey
We explore the correlation between morphological types and mid-infrared (MIR)
properties of an optically flux-limited sample of 154 galaxies from the Forth
Data Release (DR4) of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), cross-correlated with
Spitzer SWIRE (Spitzer Wide-Area InfraRed Extragalactic Survey) fields of
ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-N2 and Lockman Hole. Aperture photometry is performed on the
SDSS and Spitzer images to obtain optical and MIR properties. The morphological
classifications are given based on both visual inspection and bulge-disk
decomposition on SDSS g- and r-band images. The average bulge-to-total ratio
(B/T) is a smooth function over different morphological types. Both the
8um(dust) and 24um(dust) luminosities and their relative luminosity ratios to
3.6um (MIR dust-to-star ratios) present obvious correlations with both the
Hubble T-type and B/T. The early-type galaxies notably differ from the
late-types in the MIR properties, especially in the MIR dust-to-star ratios. It
is suggested that the MIR dust-to-star ratio is an effective way to separate
the early-type galaxies from the late-type ones. Based on the tight correlation
between the stellar mass and the 3.6um luminosity, we have derived a formula to
calculate the stellar mass from the latter. We have also investigated the MIR
properties of both edge-on galaxies and barred galaxies in our sample. Since
they present similar MIR properties to the other sample galaxies, they do not
influence the MIR properties obtained for the entire sample.Comment: Accepted for publication by AJ. 18 pages, 14 figures, and 4 table
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