507 research outputs found
Histone deacetylases in replicative senescence: evidence for a senescence-specific form of HDAC-2
AbstractTo analyze mechanisms of senescence-associated gene expression, we have investigated histone deacetylases (HDACs) in human fibroblasts undergoing replicative senescence. We found that the overall acetylation pattern of histones does not vary detectably with replicative senescence. By Northern blot and Western blot, we found a significant decrease in the abundance of HDAC-1 in senescent cells. Biochemical analysis of deacetylase activities in extracts from old and young cells revealed a striking difference. While by anion exchange chromatography we found a single peak of activity in extracts from young cells, which coincided with the elution of both HDAC-1 and HDAC-2, in senescent cells a second peak of activity was found. This second peak of activity is associated with HDAC-2 but does not contain HDAC-1. These results suggest that HDAC-2 is present in at least two distinct forms, one of which is specific for senescent cells. Further biochemical characterization of the enzyme activity revealed that addition of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) did not detectably influence the activity of any fraction, suggesting that NAD is not an essential co-factor for the analyzed HDACs from diploid human fibroblasts
Star Formation in Sculptor Group Dwarf Irregular Galaxies and the Nature of "Transition" Galaxies
We present new H-alpha narrow band imaging of the HII regions in eight
Sculptor Group dwarf irregular (dI) galaxies. Comparing the Sculptor Group dIs
to the Local Group dIs, we find that the Sculptor Group dIs have, on average,
lower values of SFR when normalized to either galaxy luminosity or gas mass
(although there is considerable overlap between the two samples). The
properties of ``transition'' (dSph/dIrr) galaxies in Sculptor and the Local
Group are also compared and found to be similar. The transition galaxies are
typically among the lowest luminosities of the gas rich dwarf galaxies.
Relative to the dwarf irregular galaxies, the transition galaxies are found
preferentially nearer to spiral galaxies, and are found nearer to the center of
the mass distribution in the local cloud. While most of these systems are
consistent with normal dI galaxies which currently exhibit temporarily
interrupted star formation, the observed density-morphology relationship (which
is weaker than that observed for the dwarf spheroidal galaxies) indicates that
environmental processes such as ``tidal stirring'' may play a role in causing
their lower SFRs.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, accepted for Feb 2003 AJ, companion to
astro-ph/021117
On the Structural Differences between Disk and Dwarf Galaxies
Gas-rich dwarf and disk galaxies overlap in numerous physical quantities that
make their classification subjective. We report the discovery of a separation
between dwarfs and disks into two unique sequences in the mass (luminosity)
versus scale length plane. This provides an objective classification scheme for
late-type galaxies that only requires optical or near-IR surface photometry of
a galaxy. Since the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation for these samples produces a
continuous relation between baryonic mass and rotational velocity, we conclude
that the difference between dwarfs and disks must be because of their
distribution of stellar light such that dwarfs are more diffuse than disk
galaxies. This structural separation may be due to a primordial difference
between low and high mass galaxies or produced by hierarchical mergers where
disks are built up from dwarfs. Structural differences between dwarf and disk
galaxies may also be driven by the underlying kinematics where the strong
rotation in disks produces an axial symmetric object that undergoes highly
efficient star formation in contrast to the lower rotation, more disordered
motion of dwarfs that produces a diffuse, triaxial object with a history of
inefficient star formation.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, AJ in press, AASTeX5.
Stromgren Photometry from z=0 to z~1. The Method
We use rest-frame Stromgren photometry to observe clusters of galaxies in a
self-consistent manner from z=0 to z=0.8. Stromgren photometry of galaxies is
an efficient compromise between standard broad-band photometry and
spectroscopy, in the sense that it is more sensitive to subtle variations in
spectral energy distributions than the former, yet much less time-consuming
than the latter. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to extract maximum
information from the Stromgren data. By calibrating the Principal Components
using well-studied galaxies (and stellar population models), we develop a
purely empirical method to detect, and subsequently classify, cluster galaxies
at all redshifts smaller than 0.8. Interlopers are discarded with unprecedented
efficiency (up to 100%). The first Principal Component essentially reproduces
the Hubble Sequence, and can thus be used to determine the global star
formation history of cluster members. The (PC2, PC3) plane allows us to
identify Seyfert galaxies (and distinguish them from starbursts) based on
photometric colors alone. In the case of E/S0 galaxies with known redshift, we
are able to resolve the age-dust- metallicity degeneracy, albeit at the
accuracy limit of our present observations. This technique will allow us to
probe galaxy clusters well beyond their cores and to fainter magnitudes than
spectroscopy can achieve. We are able to directly compare these data over the
entire redshift range without a priori assumptions because our observations do
not require k-corrections. The compilation of such data for different cluster
types over a wide redshift range is likely to set important constraints on the
evolution of galaxies and on the clustering process.Comment: 35 pages, 18 figures, accepted by ApJ
Tversky loss function for image segmentation using 3D fully convolutional deep networks
Fully convolutional deep neural networks carry out excellent potential for
fast and accurate image segmentation. One of the main challenges in training
these networks is data imbalance, which is particularly problematic in medical
imaging applications such as lesion segmentation where the number of lesion
voxels is often much lower than the number of non-lesion voxels. Training with
unbalanced data can lead to predictions that are severely biased towards high
precision but low recall (sensitivity), which is undesired especially in
medical applications where false negatives are much less tolerable than false
positives. Several methods have been proposed to deal with this problem
including balanced sampling, two step training, sample re-weighting, and
similarity loss functions. In this paper, we propose a generalized loss
function based on the Tversky index to address the issue of data imbalance and
achieve much better trade-off between precision and recall in training 3D fully
convolutional deep neural networks. Experimental results in multiple sclerosis
lesion segmentation on magnetic resonance images show improved F2 score, Dice
coefficient, and the area under the precision-recall curve in test data. Based
on these results we suggest Tversky loss function as a generalized framework to
effectively train deep neural networks
On the Nature of Soft X-ray Weak Quasi-Stellar Objects
Recent studies of QSOs with ROSAT suggest the existence of a significant
population of Soft X-ray Weak QSOs (SXW QSOs) where the soft X-ray flux is ~
10-30 times smaller than in typical QSOs. As a first step in a systematic study
of these objects, we establish a well-defined sample of SXW QSOs which includes
all alpha_ox<=-2 QSOs from the Boroson & Green (1992) sample of 87 BQS QSOs.
SXW QSOs comprise about 11% of this optically selected QSO sample. From an
analysis of CIV absorption in the 55 BG92 QSOs with available CIV data, we find
a remarkably strong correlation between alpha_ox and the CIV absorption
equivalent width. This correlation suggests that absorption is the primary
cause of soft X-ray weakness in QSOs, and it reveals a continuum of absorption
properties connecting unabsorbed QSOs, X-ray warm absorber QSOs, SXW QSOs and
BAL QSOs. From a practical point of view, our correlation demonstrates that
selection by soft X-ray weakness is an effective (>=80% successful) and
observationally inexpensive way to find low-redshift QSOs with strong and
interesting ultraviolet absorption. We have also identified several notable
differences between the optical emission-line properties of SXW QSOs and those
of the other BG92 QSOs. SXW QSOs show systematically low [O III] luminosities
as well as distinctive H-beta profiles. They tend to lie toward the weak-[O
III] end of BG92 eigenvector 1, as do many low-ionization BAL QSOs. Unabsorbed
Seyferts and QSOs with similar values of eigenvector 1 have been suggested to
have extreme values of a primary physical parameter, perhaps mass accretion
rate relative to the Eddington rate (M-dot/M-dot_{Edd}). If these suggestions
are correct, it is likely that SXW QSOs also tend to have generally high values
of (M-dot/M-dot_{Edd}). (Abridged)Comment: 34 pages, ApJ accepted, also available from
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/papers/papers.htm
Modeling of the Super-Eddington Phase for Classical Novae: Five IUE Novae
We present a light curve model for the super-Eddington luminosity phase of
five classical novae observed with IUE. Optical and UV light curves are
calculated based on the optically thick wind theory with a reduced effective
opacity for a porous atmosphere. Fitting a model light curve with the UV 1455
\AA light curve, we determine the white dwarf mass and distance to be (1.3
M_sun, 4.4 kpc) for V693 CrA, (1.05 M_sun, 1.8 kpc) for V1974 Cyg, (0.95 M_sun,
4.1 kpc) for V1668 Cyg, (1.0 M_sun, 2.1 kpc) for V351 Pup, and (1.0 M_sun, 4.3
kpc) for OS And.Comment: 9 pages including 8 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journa
WSO/UV: World Space Observatory/Ultraviolet
We summarize the capabilities of the World Space Observatory (UV) Project
(WSO/UV). An example of the importance of this project (with a planned launch
date of 2007/8) for the study of Classical Novae is given.Comment: 4 pages, To appear in the proceeedings of the "Classical Nova
Explosions" conference, eds. M. Hernanz and J. Jose, AI
Mutual Zonated Interactions of Wnt and Hh Signaling Are Orchestrating the Metabolism of the Adult Liver in Mice and Human
The Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/β-Catenin (Wnt) cascades are morphogen pathways whose pronounced influence on adult liver metabolism has been identified in recent years. How both pathways communicate and control liver metabolic functions are largely unknown. Detecting core components of Wnt and Hh signaling and mathematical modeling showed that both pathways in healthy liver act largely complementary to each other in the pericentral (Wnt) and the periportal zone (Hh) and communicate mainly by mutual repression. The Wnt/Hh module inversely controls the spatiotemporal operation of various liver metabolic pathways, as revealed by transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analyses. Shifting the balance to Wnt (activation) or Hh (inhibition) causes pericentralization and periportalization of liver functions, respectively. Thus, homeostasis of the Wnt/Hh module is essential for maintaining proper liver metabolism and to avoid the development of certain metabolic diseases. With caution due to minor species-specific differences, these conclusions may hold for human liver as well
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