7,224 research outputs found
The Isolation, Culture, and Cryopreservation of Human Rectus Sheath Fibroblasts
The vast majority of pelvic and intra-abdominal surgery is undertaken through at least one incision, through either the linea alba or the rectus sheath. These connective tissue layers are formed from the aponeuroses of the rectus muscles (anterior and posterior rectus sheath) and are vital for the structural integrity of the abdominal wall. Poor healing of these connective tissues after surgery can lead to significant morbidity for patients, who can develop unsightly and painful incisional hernias. Fibroblasts within the rectus sheath are responsible for laying down and remodeling collagen during the healing process after surgery. Despite their importance for this healing process, such cells have not been studied in vitro. In order to carry out such work, researchers must first be able to isolate these cells from human tissue and culture them successfully so they may be used for experimentation. This article provides an extensive and detailed protocol for the isolation, culture, cryopreservation, and thawing of human rectus sheath fibroblasts (RSFs). In our hands, this protocol develops confluent cultures of primary fibroblasts within 2 weeks, and sufficient cultures ready for freezing and storage after a further 2 to 4 weeks. © 2023 The Authors. Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol: Collagenase digestion of human rectus sheath and isolation of RSFs Alternate Protocol: Collagenase digestion of human rectus sheath and isolation of RSFs, digestion in flask Support Protocol: Cryopreservation and thawing of human RSFs
First Results from the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey (KLASS): Kinematics of Lensed Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
We present the first results of the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey
(KLASS), a new ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) large program, doing multi-object
integral field spectroscopy of galaxies gravitationally lensed behind seven
galaxy clusters selected from the HST Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space
(GLASS). Using the power of the cluster magnification we are able to reveal the
kinematic structure of 25 galaxies at , in four
cluster fields, with stellar masses . This sample includes 5 sources at with lower stellar masses
than in any previous kinematic IFU surveys. Our sample displays a diversity in
kinematic structure over this mass and redshift range. The majority of our
kinematically resolved sample is rotationally supported, but with a lower ratio
of rotational velocity to velocity dispersion than in the local universe,
indicating the fraction of dynamically hot disks changes with cosmic time. We
find no galaxies with stellar mass in our sample
display regular ordered rotation. Using the enhanced spatial resolution from
lensing, we resolve a lower number of dispersion dominated systems compared to
field surveys, competitive with findings from surveys using adaptive optics. We
find that the KMOS IFUs recover emission line flux from HST grism-selected
objects more faithfully than slit spectrographs. With artificial slits we
estimate slit spectrographs miss on average 60% of the total flux of emission
lines, which decreases rapidly if the emission line is spatially offset from
the continuum.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
The story of supernova 'Refsdal' told by MUSE
We present MUSE observations in the core of the HFF galaxy cluster MACS
J1149.5+2223, where the first magnified and spatially-resolved multiple images
of SN 'Refsdal' at redshift 1.489 were detected. Thanks to a DDT program with
the VLT and the extraordinary efficiency of MUSE, we measure 117 secure
redshifts with just 4.8 hours of total integration time on a single target
pointing. We spectroscopically confirm 68 galaxy cluster members, with redshift
values ranging from 0.5272 to 0.5660, and 18 multiple images belonging to 7
background, lensed sources distributed in redshifts between 1.240 and 3.703.
Starting from the combination of our catalog with those obtained from extensive
spectroscopic and photometric campaigns using the HST, we select a sample of
300 (164 spectroscopic and 136 photometric) cluster members, within
approximately 500 kpc from the BCG, and a set of 88 reliable multiple images
associated to 10 different background source galaxies and 18 distinct knots in
the spiral galaxy hosting SN 'Refsdal'. We exploit this valuable information to
build 6 detailed strong lensing models, the best of which reproduces the
observed positions of the multiple images with a rms offset of only 0.26". We
use these models to quantify the statistical and systematic errors on the
predicted values of magnification and time delay of the next emerging image of
SN 'Refsdal'. We find that its peak luminosity should should occur between
March and June 2016, and should be approximately 20% fainter than the dimmest
(S4) of the previously detected images but above the detection limit of the
planned HST/WFC3 follow-up. We present our two-dimensional reconstruction of
the cluster mass density distribution and of the SN 'Refsdal' host galaxy
surface brightness distribution. We outline the roadmap towards even better
strong lensing models with a synergetic MUSE and HST effort.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables; accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal - extra information on data analysis added, all model
predictions and results unchange
How Efficient Is The Langacker-Pi Mechanism of Monopole Annihilation?
We investigate the dynamics of monopole annihilation by the Langacker-Pi
mechanism. We find taht considerations of causality, flux-tube energetics and
the friction from Aharonov-Bohm scatteering suggest that the monopole
annihilation is most efficient if electromagnetism is spontaneously broken at
the lowest temperature () consistent with not having
the monopoles dominate the energy density of the universe.Comment: 10 page
A highly-ionized region surrounding SN Refsdal revealed by MUSE
Supernova (SN) Refsdal is the first multiply-imaged, highly-magnified, and
spatially-resolved SN ever observed. The SN exploded in a highly-magnified
spiral galaxy at z=1.49 behind the Frontier Fields Cluster MACS1149, and
provides a unique opportunity to study the environment of SNe at high z. We
exploit the time delay between multiple images to determine the properties of
the SN and its environment, before, during, and after the SN exploded. We use
the integral-field spectrograph MUSE on the VLT to simultaneously target all
observed and model-predicted positions of SN Refsdal. We find MgII emission at
all positions of SN Refsdal, accompanied by weak FeII* emission at two
positions. The measured ratios of [OII] to MgII emission of 10-20 indicate a
high degree of ionization with low metallicity. Because the same high degree of
ionization is found in all images, and our spatial resolution is too coarse to
resolve the region of influence of SN Refsdal, we conclude that this high
degree of ionization has been produced by previous SNe or a young and hot
stellar population. We find no variability of the [OII] line over a period of
57 days. This suggests that there is no variation in the [OII] luminosity of
the SN over this period, or that the SN has a small contribution to the
integrated [OII] emission over the scale resolved by our observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The influence of the Lande -factor in the classical general relativistic description of atomic and subatomic systems
We study the electromagnetic and gravitational fields of the proton and
electron in terms of the Einstenian gravity via the introduction of an
arbitrary Lande -factor in the Kerr-Newman solution. We show that at length
scales of the order of the reduced Compton wavelength, corrections from
different values of the -factor are not negligible and discuss the presence
of general relativistic effects in highly ionized heavy atoms. On the other
hand, since at the Compton-wavelength scale the gravitational field becomes
spin dominated rather than mass dominated, we also point out the necessity of
including angular momentum as a source of corrections to Newtonian gravity in
the quantum description of gravity at this scale.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
- …