Post-Traumatic Intra-Cocoon Mesenteric Tear: A Case Report

Sclerosing peritonitis, more commonly called abdominal cocoon, is a rare intra-peritoneal disease that is characterized by complete or partial encapsulation of the small intestine by a thick collagenous membrane. This disease mostly presents in the form of small bowel obstruction, however in our case the patient presented with intra-cocoon bleeding following a motor vehicle accident

Black Holes in the Early Universe

The existence of massive black holes was postulated in the sixties, when the first quasars were discovered. In the late nineties their reality was proven beyond doubt, in the Milky way and a handful nearby galaxies. Since then, enormous theoretical and observational efforts have been made to understand the astrophysics of massive black holes. We have discovered that some of the most massive black holes known, weighing billions of solar masses, powered luminous quasars within the first billion years of the Universe. The first massive black holes must therefore have formed around the time the first stars and galaxies formed. Dynamical evidence also indicates that black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses ordinarily dwell in the centers of today's galaxies. Massive black holes populate galaxy centers today, and shone as quasars in the past; the quiescent black holes that we detect now in nearby bulges are the dormant remnants of this fiery past. In this review we report on basic, but critical, questions regarding the cosmological significance of massive black holes. What physical mechanisms lead to the formation of the first massive black holes? How massive were the initial massive black hole seeds? When and where did they form? How is the growth of black holes linked to that of their host galaxy? Answers to most of these questions are work in progress, in the spirit of these Reports on Progress in Physics.Comment: Reports on Progress in Physics, in pres

The effect of bars on the M*- e relation: offset, scatter and residuals correlations

We analyse a set of collisionless disc galaxy simulations to study the consequences of bar formation and evolution on the M•-σe relation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The redistribution of angular momentum driven by bars leads to a mass increase within the central region, raising the velocity dispersion of the bulge, σe, on average by ˜12 per cent and as much as ˜20 per cent. If a disc galaxy with an SMBH satisfying the M•-σe relation forms a bar, and the SMBH does not grow in the process, then the increase in σe moves the galaxy off the M•-σe relation. We explore various effects that can affect this result including contamination from the disc and anisotropy. The displacement from the M•-σe relation for individual model barred galaxies correlates with both the bulge-to-total stellar mass ratio, M(B)/M(B + D), and the 2D anisotropy, βφ(B + D), both measured within the effective radius of the bulge. Overall, this process leads to an M•-σe for barred galaxies offset from that of unbarred galaxies, as well as an increase in its scatter. We assemble samples of observed unbarred and barred galaxies with classical bulges and find tentative hints of an offset between the two consistent with the predicted. Including all barred galaxies, rather than just those with a classical bulge, leads to a significantly larger offset, which is mostly driven by the significantly larger offset of pseudo bulge

Kinematics and simulations of the stellar stream in the halo of the Umbrella Galaxy

We study the dynamics of faint stellar substructures around the Umbrella Galaxy, NGC 4651, which hosts a dramatic system of streams and shells formed through the tidal disruption of a nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxy. We elucidate the basic characteristics of the system (colours, luminosities, stellar masses) using multiband Subaru/Suprime-Cam images. The implied stellar mass ratio of the ongoing merger event is ∼1:50. We identify candidate kinematic tracers (globular clusters, planetary nebulae, H ii regions) and follow up a subset with Keck/DEIMOS (DEep Imaging Multi-object Spectrograph) spectroscopy to obtain velocities. We find that 15 of the tracers are likely associated with halo substructures, including the probable stream progenitor nucleus. These objects delineate a kinematically cold feature in position–velocity phase space. We model the stream using single test particle orbits, plus a rescaled pre-existing N-body simulation. We infer a very eccentric orbit with a period of ∼0.35 Gyr and turning points at ∼2–4 and ∼40 kpc, implying a recent passage of the satellite through the disc, which may have provoked the visible disturbances in the host galaxy. This work confirms that the kinematics of low surface brightness substructures can be recovered and modelled using discrete tracers – a breakthrough that opens up a fresh avenue for unravelling the detailed physics of minor merging

Galaxy bulges and their massive black holes: a review

With references to both key and oft-forgotten pioneering works, this article starts by presenting a review into how we came to believe in the existence of massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. It then presents the historical development of the near-linear (black hole)-(host spheroid) mass relation, before explaining why this has recently been dramatically revised. Past disagreement over the slope of the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) relation is also explained, and the discovery of sub-structure within the (black hole)-(velocity dispersion) diagram is discussed. As the search for the fundamental connection between massive black holes and their host galaxies continues, the competing array of additional black hole mass scaling relations for samples of predominantly inactive galaxies are presented.Comment: Invited (15 Feb. 2014) review article (submitted 16 Nov. 2014). 590 references, 9 figures, 25 pages in emulateApJ format. To appear in "Galactic Bulges", E. Laurikainen, R.F. Peletier, and D.A. Gadotti (eds.), Springer Publishin

Substructure and Tidal Streams in the Andromeda Galaxy and its Satellites

Tidal streams from existing and destroyed satellite galaxies populate the outer regions of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This inhomogeneous debris can be studied without many of the obstacles that plague Milky Way research. We review the history of tidal stream research in M31, and in its main satellite galaxies. We highlight the numerous tidal streams observed around M31, some of which reside at projected distances of up to 120 kpc from the center of this galaxy. Most notable is the Giant Stellar Stream, a signature of the most recent significant accretion event in the M31 system. This event involved an early-type progenitor of ~10^9 solar masses that came within a few kpc of M31's center roughly a gigayear ago; almost all of the inner halo debris (within 50 kpc) in M31 can be tied either directly or indirectly to this event. We draw attention to the fact that most of M31's outer halo globular clusters lie preferentially on tidal streams and discuss the potential this offers to use these systems as probes of the accretion history. Tidal features observed around M33, M32, NGC 205 and NGC 147 are also reviewed. We conclude by discussing future prospects for this field.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures. Book chapter in Tidal Streams in the Local Group and Beyond, eds. Heidi Newberg and Jeff Carli

The nature and origin of substructure in the outskirts of M31-II. Detailed star formation histories

While wide-field surveys of M31 have revealed much substructure at large radii, understanding the nature and origin of this material is not straightforward from morphology alone. Using deep HST/ACS data, we have derived further constraints in the form of quantitative star formation histories (SFHs) for 14 inner halo fields which sample diverse substructures. In agreement with our previous analysis of colour-magnitude diagram morphologies, we find the resultant behaviours can be broadly separated into two categories. The SFHs of 'disc-like' fields indicate that most of their mass has formed since z~1, with one quarter of the mass formed in the last 5 Gyr. We find 'stream-like' fields to be on average 1.5 Gyr older, with <10 percent of their stellar mass formed within the last 5 Gyr. These fields are also characterised by an age--metallicity relation showing rapid chemical enrichment to solar metallicity by z=1, suggestive of an early-type progenitor. We confirm a significant burst of star formation 2 Gyr ago, discovered in our previous work, in all the fields studied here. The presence of these young stars in our most remote fields suggests that they have not formed in situ but have been kicked-out from through disc heating in the recent past.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures (+12 figures in appendix). MNRAS, in pres