378 research outputs found
¿Modifican el PSA los licopenos de la dieta y exógenos?
El objetivo del presente artículo es describir la historia alimentaria y la composición corporal de pacientes con alto
riesgo de padecer cáncer de próstata (CAP) y observar la influencia de la
suplementación con licopeno sobre el PSA de la misma población.Fil: López Laur, José Daniel.
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, C..
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, G..
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, R..
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médica
Nature and statistical properties of quasar associated absorption systems in the XQ-100 Legacy Survey
We statistically study the physical properties of a sample of narrow
absorption line (NAL) systems looking for empirical evidences to distinguish
between intrinsic and intervening NALs without taking into account any a priori
definition or velocity cut-off. We analyze the spectra of 100 quasars with 3.5
< z < 4.5, observed with X-shooter/VLT in the context of the XQ-100
Legacy Survey. We detect a 8 excess in the number density of
absorbers within 10,000 km/s of the quasar emission redshift with respect to
the random occurrence of NALs. This excess does not show a dependence on the
quasar bolometric luminosity and it is not due to the redshift evolution of
NALs. It extends far beyond the standard 5000 km/s cut-off traditionally
defined for associated absorption lines. We propose to modify this definition,
extending the threshold to 10,000 km/s when also weak absorbers (equivalent
width < 0.2 \AA) are considered. We infer NV is the ion that better traces the
effects of the quasar ionization field, offering the best statistical tool to
identify intrinsic systems. Following this criterion we estimate that the
fraction of quasars in our sample hosting an intrinsic NAL system is 33
percent. Lastly, we compare the properties of the material along the quasar
line of sight, derived from our sample, with results based on close quasar
pairs investigating the transverse direction. We find a deficiency of cool gas
(traced by CII) along the line of sight associated with the quasar host galaxy,
in contrast with what is observed in the transverse direction.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 5 table
Regulation of prolactin secretion during the estrus in rats: Possible role of glucocorticoids
Mifepristone (MIF) administration to cycling rats at proestrus induces hypersecretion of prolactin (PRL) at the following estrus.We aimed to assess whether this effect is due to the antiprogesterone or antiglucocorticoid action of MIF and to help underscore the nature of the circulating hormone(s) regulating PRL secretion at estrus. Female cycling rats in proestrus were treated with vehicle; the progesterone (Pg) and glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, MIF (5 mg/kg) or ORG-33628 (5 mg/kg); the glucocorticoid agonist dexamethasone (DEX; 27 mg/kg) ± MIF; or the inhibitor of steroid synthesis aminoglutethimide (AG; 150 mg/kg) ± MIF. The animals' blood was sampled the same day at 1800 h and at 1800 h of the following day to assess for circulating PRL and Pg levels. To distinguish antiglucocorticoid from antiprogesterone effects of MIF, we administered a highly specific neutralizing antibody against Pg. None of the antagonists modified serum PRL values at proestrus but increased PRL levels at estrus. DEX decreased the secretion of PRL at proestrus, yet the effect was entirely blocked by MIF. Furthermore, DEX decreased PRL at estrus in a MIF-reversible manner, suggesting that adrenal corticoids during proestrous may regulate PRL secretion at estrus. AG increased PRL secretion at estrus, whereas its association with MIF produced an even higher response. PRL concentration at estrus was not modified by the antiprogesterone antibody, suggesting that the effect of MIF is a consequence of its antiglucocorticoid effect and not due to its antiprogesterone properties. In conclusion, PRL secretion in the afternoon of the estrus is most likely regulated by glucocorticoids through an inhibitory action.Fil: López Fontana, Constanza Matilde. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Maselli, María Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: de Di Nasso, Florencia E. G.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Telleria, C. M.. Sanford School Of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Caron, Ruben Walter. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentin
Reverse Myocardial Remodeling Following Valve Replacement in Patients With Aortic Stenosis
BACKGROUND: Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, a key process in human cardiac disease, results from cellular (hypertrophy) and extracellular matrix expansion (interstitial fibrosis). OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate whether human myocardial interstitial fibrosis in aortic stenosis (AS) is plastic and can regress. METHODS: Patients with symptomatic, severe AS (n = 181; aortic valve area index 0.4 ± 0.1 cm2/m2) were assessed pre-aortic valve replacement (AVR) by echocardiography (AS severity, diastology), cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) (for volumes, function, and focal or diffuse fibrosis), biomarkers (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and high-sensitivity troponin T), and the 6-min walk test. CMR was used to measure the extracellular volume fraction (ECV), thereby deriving matrix volume (LV mass × ECV) and cell volume (LV mass × [1 - ECV]). Biopsy excluded occult bystander disease. Assessment was repeated at 1 year post-AVR. RESULTS: At 1 year post-AVR in 116 pacemaker-free survivors (age 70 ± 10 years; 54% male), mean valve gradient had improved (48 ± 16 mm Hg to 12 ± 6 mm Hg; p < 0.001), and indexed LV mass had regressed by 19% (88 ± 26 g/m2to 71 ± 19 g/m2; p < 0.001). Focal fibrosis by CMR late gadolinium enhancement did not change, but ECV increased (28.2 ± 2.9% to 29.9 ± 4.0%; p < 0.001): this was the result of a 16% reduction in matrix volume (25 ± 9 ml/m2to 21 ± 7 ml/m2; p < 0.001) but a proportionally greater 22% reduction in cell volume (64 ± 18 ml/m2to 50 ± 13 ml/m2; p < 0.001). These changes were accompanied by improvement in diastolic function, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, 6-min walk test results, and New York Heart Association functional class. CONCLUSIONS: Post-AVR, focal fibrosis does not resolve, but diffuse fibrosis and myocardial cellular hypertrophy regress. Regression is accompanied by structural and functional improvements suggesting that human diffuse fibrosis is plastic, measurable by CMR and a potential therapeutic target. (Regression of Myocardial Fibrosis After Aortic Valve Replacement; NCT02174471)
Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies
(Abriged) Our goal here is to provide merger frequencies that encompass both
major and minor mergers, derived from close pair statistics. We use B-band
luminosity- and mass-limited samples from an Spitzer/IRAC-selected catalogue of
GOODS-S. We present a new methodology for computing the number of close
companions, Nc, when spectroscopic redshift information is partial. We select
as close companions those galaxies separated by 6h^-1 kpc < rp < 21h^-1 kpc in
the sky plane and with a difference Delta_v <= 500 km s^-1 in redshift space.
We provide Nc for four different B-band-selected samples. Nc increases with
luminosity, and its evolution with redshift is faster in more luminous samples.
We provide Nc of M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun galaxies, finding that the number
including minor companions (mass ratio >= 1/10) is roughly two times the number
of major companions alone (mass ratio >= 1/3) in the range 0.2 <= z < 1.1. We
compare the major merger rate derived by close pairs with the one computed by
morphological criteria, finding that both approaches provide similar merger
rates for field galaxies when the progenitor bias is taken into account.
Finally, we estimate that the total (major+minor) merger rate is ~1.7 times the
major merger rate. Only 30% to 50% of the M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun early-type
(E/S0/Sa) galaxies that appear z=1 and z=0 may have undergone a major or a
minor merger. Half of the red sequence growth since z=1 is therefore unrelated
to mergers.Comment: Accepted in A&A. 14 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables. We have tested the
method with a local, volume-limited spectroscopic sample
The evolution of the dust and gas content in galaxies
We use deep Herschel observations taken with both PACS and SPIRE imaging cameras to estimate the dust mass of a sample of galaxies extracted from the GOODS-S, GOODS-N and the COSMOS fields. We divide the redshift–stellar mass (M star )–star formation rate (SFR) parameter space into small bins and investigate average properties over this grid. In the first part of the work we investigate the scaling relations between dust mass, stellar mass and SFR out to z = 2.5. No clear evolution of the dust mass with redshift is observed at a given SFR and stellar mass. We find a tight correlation between the SFR and the dust mass, which, under reasonable assumptions, is likely a consequence of the Schmidt-Kennicutt (S-K) relation. The previously observed correlation between the stellar content and the dust content flattens or sometimes disappears when considering galaxies with the same SFR. Our finding suggests that most of the correlation between dust mass and stellar mass obtained by previous studies is likely a consequence of the correlation between the dust mass and the SFR combined with the main sequence, i.e., the tight relation observed between the stellar mass and the SFR and followed by the majority of star-forming galaxies. We then investigate the gas content as inferred from dust mass measurements. We convert the dust mass into gas mass by assuming that the dust-to-gas ratio scales linearly with the gas metallicity (as supported by many observations). For normal star-forming galaxies (on the main sequence) the inferred relation between the SFR and the gas mass (integrated S-K relation) broadly agrees with the results of previous studies based on CO measurements, despite the completely different approaches. We observe that all galaxies in the sample follow, within uncertainties, the same S-K relation. However, when investigated in redshift intervals, the S-K relation shows a moderate, but significant redshift evolution. The bulk of the galaxy population at z ∼ 2 converts gas into stars with an efficiency (star formation efficiency, SFE = SFR/M gas , equal to the inverse of the depletion time) about 5 times higher than at z ∼ 0. However, it is not clear what fraction of such variation of the SFE is due to an intrinsic redshift evolution and what fraction is simply a consequence of high-z galaxies having, on average, higher SFR, combined with thesuper-linear slope of the S-K relation (whileother studies finda linear slope). We confirm that the gas fraction (f gas = M gas /(M gas + M star )) decreases with stellar mass and increases with the SFR. We observe no evolution with redshift once M star and SFR are fixed. We explain these trends by introducing a universal relation between gas fraction, stellar mass and SFR that does not evolve with redshift, at least out to z ∼ 2.5. Galaxies move across this relation as their gas content evolves across the cosmic epochs. We use the 3D fundamental f gas –M star –SFR relation, along with the evolution of the main sequence with redshift, to estimate the evolution of the gas fraction in the average population of galaxies as a function of redshift and as a function of stellar mass: we find that M star > ∼ 10 11 M ? galaxies show the strongest evolution at z > ∼ 1.3 and a flatter trend at lower redshift, while f gas decreases more regularly over the entire redshift range probed in M star < ∼ 10 11 Mo galaxies, in agreement with a downsizing scenario
The metallicity properties of zCOSMOS galaxies at 0.2<z<0.8
We study the metallicity properties of galaxies in the zCOSMOS sample between
0.2<z<0.8. At z<0.46, where Ha and [NII] are detected, we find the same
dependence of metallicity on stellar mass and Star Formation Rate (SFR), the
Fundamental Metallicity Relation, found by Mannucci et al. (2010) in SDSS
galaxies on a similar redshift range. We extend this relation to higher
redshift, 0.49<z<0.8 where the R23 metallicity index can be measured in our
data, finding no evidence for evolution, and a metallicity scatter around the
relation of about 0.16 dex. This result confirms, with a much higher level of
significance with respect to previous works, the absence of evolution of the
FMR during the last half of cosmic history.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Discovering extremely compact and metal-poor, star-forming dwarf galaxies out to z ~ 0.9 in the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey
We report the discovery of 31 low-luminosity (-14.5 > M_{AB}(B) > -18.8),
extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) at 0.2 < z < 0.9 identified by their
unusually high rest-frame equivalent widths (100 < EW[OIII] < 1700 A) as part
of the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS). VIMOS optical spectra of unprecedented
sensitivity ( ~ 25 mag) along with multiwavelength photometry and HST
imaging are used to investigate spectrophotometric properties of this unique
sample and explore, for the first time, the very low stellar mass end (M* <
10^8 M) of the luminosity-metallicity (LZR) and mass-metallicity
(MZR) relations at z < 1. Characterized by their extreme compactness (R50 < 1
kpc), low stellar mass and enhanced specific star formation rates (SFR/M* ~
10^{-9} - 10^{-7} yr^{-1}), the VUDS EELGs are blue dwarf galaxies likely
experiencing the first stages of a vigorous galaxy-wide starburst. Using
T_e-sensitive direct and strong-line methods, we find that VUDS EELGs are
low-metallicity (7.5 < 12+log(O/H) < 8.3) galaxies with high ionization
conditions, including at least three EELGs showing HeII 4686A emission and four
EELGs of extremely metal-poor (<10% solar) galaxies. The LZR and MZR followed
by EELGs show relatively large scatter, being broadly consistent with the
extrapolation toward low luminosity and mass from previous studies at similar
redshift. However, we find evidences that galaxies with younger and more
vigorous star formation -- as characterized by their larger EWs, ionization and
sSFR -- tend to be more metal-poor at a given stellar mass.Comment: Letter in A&A 568, L8 (2014). This replacement matches the published
versio
The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey: Ly Emission and Stellar Populations of Star-Forming Galaxies at 2<z<2.5
The aim of this paper is to investigate spectral and photometric properties
of 854 faint (<~25 mag) star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at 2<z<2.5 using
the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS) spectroscopic data and deep multi-wavelength
photometric data in three extensively studied extragalactic fields (ECDFS,
VVDS, COSMOS). These SFGs were targeted for spectroscopy based on their
photometric redshifts. The VUDS spectra are used to measure the UV spectral
slopes () as well as Ly equivalent widths (EW). On average, the
spectroscopically measured (-1.360.02), is comparable to the
photometrically measured (-1.320.02), and has smaller measurement
uncertainties. The positive correlation of with the Spectral Energy
Distribution (SED)-based measurement of dust extinction, E(B-V),
emphasizes the importance of as an alternative dust indicator at high
redshifts. To make a proper comparison, we divide these SFGs into three
subgroups based on their rest-frame Ly EW: SFGs with no Ly
emission (SFG; EW0\AA), SFGs with Ly emission (SFG; EW0\AA), and Ly emitters (LAEs; EW20\AA). The fraction of
LAEs at these redshifts is 10%, which is consistent with previous
observations. We compared best-fit SED-estimated stellar parameters of the
SFG, SFG and LAE samples. For the luminosities probed here
(L), we find that galaxies with and without Ly in emission
have small but significant differences in their SED-based properties. We find
that LAEs have less dust, and lower star-formation rates (SFR) compared to
non-LAEs. We also find that LAEs are less massive compared to non-LAEs, though
the difference is smaller and less significant compared to the SFR and E(B-V). [abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 19 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl
GRB 050904 at redshift 6.3: observations of the oldest cosmic explosion after the Big Bang
We present optical and near-infrared observations of the afterglow of the
gamma-ray burst GRB 050904. We derive a photometric redshift z = 6.3, estimated
from the presence of the Lyman break falling between the I and J filters. This
is by far the most distant GRB known to date. Its isotropic-equivalent energy
is 3.4x10^53 erg in the rest-frame 110-1100 keV energy band. Despite the high
redshift, both the prompt and the afterglow emission are not peculiar with
respect to other GRBs. We find a break in the J-band light curve at t_b = 2.6
+- 1.0 d (observer frame). If we assume this is the jet break, we derive a
beaming-corrected energy E_gamma = (4-12)x10^51 erg. This limit shows that GRB
050904 is consistent with the Amati and Ghirlanda relations. This detection is
consistent with the expected number of GRBs at z > 6 and shows that GRBs are a
powerful tool to study the star formation history up to very high redshift.Comment: 3 figures, 5 pages, accepted for publication in A&A Letters. One
figure added, minor modifications. Full author list in the pape
- …