5,038 research outputs found
A generic map has no absolutely continuous invariant probability measure
Let be a smooth compact manifold (maybe with boundary, maybe
disconnected) of any dimension . We consider the set of maps
which have no absolutely continuous (with respect to Lebesgue)
invariant probability measure. We show that this is a residual (dense
C^1$ topology.
In the course of the proof, we need a generalization of the usual Rokhlin
tower lemma to non-invariant measures. That result may be of independent
interest.Comment: 12 page
Glomerular sclerosis in kidneys with congenital nephrotic syndrome (NPHS1)
Congenital nephrotic syndrome of the Finnish type (NPHS1) is a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in the NPHS1 gene encoding a major podocyte slit-diaphragm protein, nephrin. Patients with NPHS1 have severe nephrotic syndrome from birth and develop renal fibrosis in early childhood. In this work, we studied the development of glomerular sclerosis in kidneys removed from 4- to 44-month-old NPHS1 patients. The pathological lesions and expression of glomerular cell markers were studied in nephrectomized NPHS1 and control kidneys using light and electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry. An analysis of 1528 glomeruli from 20 patients revealed progressive mesangial sclerosis and capillary obliteration. Although few inflammatory cells were detected in the mesangial area, paraglomerular inflammation and fibrosis was common. The podocytes showed severe ultrastructural changes and hypertrophy with the upregulation of cyclins A and D1. Podocyte proliferation, however, was rare. Apoptosis was hardly detected and the expression of antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 and proapoptotic p53 were comparable to controls. Moderate amounts of podocytes were secreted into the urine of NPHS1 patients. Shrinkage of the glomerular tuft was common, whereas occlusion of tubular opening or protrusion of the glomerular tuft into subepithelial space or through the Bowman's capsule were not detected. The results indicate that, in NPHS1 kidneys, the damaged podocytes induce progressive mesangial expansion and capillary obliteration. Podocyte depletion, glomerular tuft adhesion, and misdirected filtration, however, seem to play a minor role in the nephron destruction
Three Different Types of Galaxy Alignment within Dark Matter Halos
Using a large galaxy group catalogue based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Data Release 4 we measure three different types of intrinsic galaxy alignment
within groups: halo alignment between the orientation of the brightest group
galaxies (BGG) and the distribution of its satellite galaxies, radial alignment
between the orientation of a satellite galaxy and the direction towards its
BGG, and direct alignment between the orientation of the BGG and that of its
satellites. In agreement with previous studies we find that satellite galaxies
are preferentially located along the major axis. In addition, on scales r < 0.7
Rvir we find that red satellites are preferentially aligned radially with the
direction to the BGG. The orientations of blue satellites, however, are
perfectly consistent with being isotropic. Finally, on scales r < 0.1 \Rvir, we
find a weak but significant indication for direct alignment between satellites
and BGGs. We briefly discuss the implications for weak lensing measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, ApJL accepte
Study of the interacting system NGC 6845
We present optical spectroscopy, B, V, R and I CCD photometry and VLA neutral
hydrogen observations of the interacting quartet NGC 6845, also know as Klemola
30. NGC 6845 A, the dominant component, sports a broad and bright tidal bridge
and a faint tidal tail, which bifurcate. The tidal bridge has a (B-I) color
bluer than that of NGC 6845 A inner disk. Five strong condensations, identified
as HII regions brighter than the brightest in our Galaxy, are found along the
tidal bridge, with the two most luminous located at the bridge tip. Two giant
HII regions, comparable to 30 Dor, are located where the tidal bridge and the
tidal tail joint the disk of NGC 6845 A. Since the age of the HII regions are
3-8 Myr, star formation has been occurring along the tidal bridge and the tidal
arm well after they had begun to be torn apart (>= 100 Myr). Satoh model
fitting to the rotation curve of the A component reveals a kinematical mass of
4.4(+-1.2)E11 M_sun, inside the central 12 kpc (H_0=75 km/s/Mpc). The HI
emission shows two components, a more massive one that belongs to NGC 6845 A,
and a second one associated to NGC 6845 B. We do not detect gas associated to
galaxies C and D. The total amount of HI is 1.4E10 M_sun, five time the HI
content of the Milky Way. The HI kinematics indicates an amount of dark matter
associated to the A component two times higher than the mass inside its central
12 kpc. The group kinematics indicates an M/L ~ 43(+-2) or M/L ~ 66(+-2) (solar
units), according to two different prescriptions for the internal absorption
correction. In spite of this difference, both values furnish similar group mass
(~1E13 M_sun). Although preliminary results on N-Body simulations indicate that
either B or C might well create a tidal feature like the bridge of the A
component, the collision with B appears to be more favourable.Comment: 24 pages, 11 JPEG figures, uses aastex.cls and natbib.sty (included).
To appear in the June/1999 issue of the Astronomical Journa
Spatial and kinematic alignments between central and satellite halos
Based on a cosmological N-body simulation we analyze spatial and kinematic
alignments of satellite halos within six times the virial radius of group size
host halos (Rvir). We measure three different types of spatial alignment: halo
alignment between the orientation of the group central substructure (GCS) and
the distribution of its satellites, radial alignment between the orientation of
a satellite and the direction towards its GCS, and direct alignment between the
orientation of the GCS and that of its satellites. In analogy we use the
directions of satellite velocities and probe three further types of alignment:
the radial velocity alignment between the satellite velocity and connecting
line between satellite and GCS, the halo velocity alignment between the
orientation of the GCS and satellite velocities and the auto velocity alignment
between the satellites orientations and their velocities. We find that
satellites are preferentially located along the major axis of the GCS within at
least 6 Rvir (the range probed here). Furthermore, satellites preferentially
point towards the GCS. The most pronounced signal is detected on small scales
but a detectable signal extends out to 6 Rvir. The direct alignment signal is
weaker, however a systematic trend is visible at distances < 2 Rvir. All
velocity alignments are highly significant on small scales. Our results suggest
that the halo alignment reflects the filamentary large scale structure which
extends far beyond the virial radii of the groups. In contrast, the main
contribution to the radial alignment arises from the adjustment of the
satellite orientations in the group tidal field. The projected data reveal good
agreement with recent results derived from large galaxy surveys. (abridged)Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
Planetary Nebulae as standard candles XI. Application to Spiral Galaxies
We report the results of an [O III] lambda 5007 survey for planetary nebulae
(PN) in three spiral galaxies: M101 (NGC 5457), M51 (NGC 5194/5195) and M96
(NGC 3368). By comparing on-band/off-band [O III] lambda 5007 images with
images taken in H-alpha and broadband R, we identify 65, 64 and 74 PN
candidates in each galaxy, respectively. From these data, an adopted M31
distance of 770 kpc, and the empirical planetary nebula luminosity function
(PNLF), we derive distances to M101, M51, and M96 of 7.7 +/- 0.5, 8.4 +/- 0.6,
and 9.6 +/- 0.6 Mpc. These observations demonstrate that the PNLF technique can
be successfully applied to late-type galaxies, and provide an important overlap
between the Population I and Population II distance scales. We also discuss
some special problems associated with using the PNLF in spiral galaxies,
including the effects of dust and the possible presence of [O III] bright
supernova remnants.Comment: 38 pages, TeX, with tables included but not figures. Uses epsf.tex
and kpnobasic.tex. To be published in the Astophysical Journal. Full paper is
available at http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/johnf/Text/research.htm
Inclination-Dependent Luminosity Function of Spiral Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Implication for Dust Extinction
Using a samples of 61506 spiral galaxies selected from the SDSS DR2, we
examine the luminosity function (LF) of spiral galaxies with different
inclination angles. We find that the characteristic luminosity of the LF,
, decreases with increasing inclination, while the faint-end slope,
, depends only weakly on it. The inclination-dependence of the LF is
consistent with that expected from a simple model where the optical depth is
proportional to the cosine of the inclination angle, and we use a likelihood
method to recover both the coefficient in front of the cosine, , and
the LF for galaxies viewed face-on. The value of is quite independent
of galaxy luminosity in a given band, and the values of obtained in
this way for the 5 SDSS bands give an extinction curve which is a power law of
wavelength (), with a power index .
Using the dust extinction for galaxies obtained by Kauffmann et al. (2003), we
derive an `extinction-corrected' luminosity function for spiral galaxies. Dust
extinction makes dimmer by about 0.5 magnitudes in the -band, and
about 1.2 magnitudes in the - band. Since our analysis is based on a sample
where selection effects are well under control, the dimming of edge-on galaxies
relative to face-on galaxies is best explained by assuming that galaxy disks
are optically thick in dust absorptions.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Ap
Probing the Intrinsic Shape and Alignment of Dark Matter Haloes using SDSS Galaxy Groups
We study the three-dimensional and projected shapes of galaxy groups in the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4, and examine the alignment between the
orientation of the central galaxy and the spatial distribution of satellite
galaxies. The projected ellipticity of a group is measured using the moments of
the discrete distribution of its member galaxies. We infer the
three-dimensional and projected axis ratios of their dark matter haloes by
comparing the measured ellipticity distributions with those obtained from Monte
Carlo simulations of projected, triaxial dark matter haloes with different axis
ratios. We find that the halo shape has a strong dependence on the halo mass.
While the haloes of low-mass groups are nearly spherical, those of massive
groups tend to be prolate. For groups containing at least four members, the
statistical distribution of their measured ellipticities does not have a strong
dependence on the colors of their central galaxies. Our analysis further shows
that the average three-dimensional axis ratio for haloes with is about , resulting in a
projected axis ratio of . Our results for the alignment between the
orientation of the central galaxy of a group and the distribution of their
satellite galaxies are in broad agreement with those obtained by Yang et al.
The distribution of satellite galaxies preferentially aligns with the major
axis of the central galaxy, with a clear dependence on both halo mass and
galaxy colors. (abridged)Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Serum Calcium and the Risk of Breast Cancer: Findings from the Swedish AMORIS Study and a Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies
To investigate the association between serum calcium and risk of breast cancer using a large cohort and a systematic review with meta-analysis. From the Swedish Apolipoprotein Mortality Risk (AMORIS) Study we included 229,674 women who had baseline measurements of serum total calcium and albumin. Multivariable Cox regression was used to assess the association between total and albumin-corrected calcium and breast cancer risk. For the systematic review, an electronic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE databases was performed to identify other prospective cohorts assessing the relationship between serum calcium and breast cancer risk. We pooled the results of our AMORIS cohort with other eligible studies in a meta-analysis using a random effects model. I² test was used to assess heterogeneity. In the AMORIS study, 10,863 women were diagnosed with breast cancer (mean follow-up: 19 years). We found an inverse association between total serum calcium and breast cancer when comparing the fourth quartile to the first quartile (HR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88-0.99, p value for trend 0.04) and similar results using albumin-corrected calcium. In the systematic review, we identified another two prospective cohorts evaluating pre-diagnostic serum total calcium and breast cancer. Combining these studies and our findings in AMORIS in a meta-analysis showed a protective effect of serum calcium against breast cancer, with a summary RR of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.66-0.97). No substantial heterogeneity was observed. Our findings in AMORIS and the meta-analysis support an inverse association between serum calcium and breast cancer risk, which warrants mechanistic investigations
The Anisotropic Distribution of Galactic Satellites
We present a study of the spatial distribution of subhalos in galactic dark
matter halos using dissipationless cosmological simulations of the concordance
LCDM model. We find that subhalos are distributed anisotropically and are
preferentially located along the major axes of the triaxial mass distributions
of their hosts. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov probability for drawing our simulated
subhalo sample from an isotropic distribution is P_KS \simeq 1.5 \times
10^{-4}. An isotropic distribution of subhalos is thus not the correct null
hypothesis for testing the CDM paradigm. The nearly planar distribution of
observed Milky Way (MW) satellites is marginally consistent (probability \simeq
0.02) with being drawn randomly from the subhalo distribution in our
simulations. Furthermore, if we select the subhalos likely to be luminous, we
find a distribution that is consistent with the observed MW satellites. In
fact, we show that subsamples of the subhalo population with a
centrally-concentrated radial distribution, similar to that of the MW dwarfs,
typically exhibit a comparable degree of planarity. We explore the origin of
the observed subhalo anisotropy and conclude that it is likely due to (1)
preferential accretion of subhalos along filaments, often closely aligned with
the major axis of the host halo, and (2) evolution of satellite orbits within
the prolate, triaxial potentials typical of CDM halos. Agreement between
predictions and observations requires the major axis of the outer dark matter
halo of the Milky Way to be nearly perpendicular to the disk. We discuss
possible observational tests of such disk-halo alignment with current large
galaxy surveys.Comment: 14 pages (including appendix), 9 figures. Accepted for Publication in
ApJ. Minor changes to reflect referee's comment
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