981 research outputs found
Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
The massive galaxies in the young universe, ten billion years ago, formed
stars at surprising intensities. Although this is commonly attributed to
violent mergers, the properties of many of these galaxies are incompatible with
such events, showing gas-rich, clumpy, extended rotating disks not dominated by
spheroids (Genzel et al. 2006, 2008). Cosmological simulations and clustering
theory are used to explore how these galaxies acquired their gas. Here we
report that they are stream-fed galaxies, formed from steady, narrow, cold gas
streams that penetrate the shock-heated media of massive dark matter haloes
(Dekel & Birnboim 2006; Keres et al. 2005). A comparison with the observed
abundance of star-forming galaxies implies that most of the input gas must
rapidly convert to stars. One-third of the stream mass is in gas clumps leading
to mergers of mass ratio greater than 1:10, and the rest is in smoother flows.
With a merger duy cycle of 0.1, three-quarters of the galaxies forming stars at
a given rate are fed by smooth streams. The rarer, submillimetre galaxies that
form stars even more intensely are largely merger-induced starbursts. Unlike
destructive mergers, the streams are likely to keep the rotating disk
configuration intact, although turbulent and broken into giant star-forming
clumps that merge into a central spheroid (Noguchi 1999; Genzel et al. 2008,
Elmegreen, Bournaud & Elmegreen 2008, Dekel, Sari & Ceverino 2009). This
stream-driven scenario for the formation of disks and spheroids is an
alternative to the merger picture.Comment: Improved version, 25 pages, 13 figures, Letter to Nature with
Supplementary Informatio
On the onset of galactic winds in quiescent star forming galaxies
We studied the effect of supernovae feedback on a disk galaxy, taking into
account the impact of infalling gas on both the star formation history and the
corresponding outflow structure, the apparition of a supernovae-driven wind
being highly sensitive to the halo mass, the galaxy spin and the star formation
efficiency. We model our galaxies as cooling and collapsing NFW spheres. The
dark matter component is modelled as a static external potential, while the
baryon component is described by the Euler equations using the AMR code RAMSES.
Metal-dependent cooling and supernovae-heating are also implemented using
state-of-the-art recipes coming from cosmological simulations. We allow for 3
parameters to vary: the halo circular velocity, the spin parameter and the star
formation efficiency. We found that the ram pressure of infalling material is
the key factor limiting the apparition of galactic winds. We obtain a very low
feedback efficiency, with supernovae to wind energy conversion factor around
one percent, so that only low cicrular velocity galaxies give rise to strong
winds. For massive galaxies, we obtain a galatic fountain, for which we discuss
the observational properties. We conclude that for quiescent isolated galaxies,
galactic winds appear only in very low mass systems. Although that can quite
efficiently enrich the IGM with metals, they don't carry away enough cold
material to solve the overcooling problem.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, submited to A&
Double-Stranded RNA Attenuates the Barrier Function of Human Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells
Circulating RNA may result from excessive cell damage or acute viral infection and can interact with vascular endothelial cells. Despite the obvious clinical implications associated with the presence of circulating RNA, its pathological effects on endothelial cells and the governing molecular mechanisms are still not fully elucidated. We analyzed the effects of double stranded RNA on primary human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (hPAECs). The effect of natural and synthetic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) on hPAECs was investigated using trans-endothelial electric resistance, molecule trafficking, calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis, gene expression and proliferation studies. Furthermore, the morphology and mechanical changes of the cells caused by synthetic dsRNA was followed by in-situ atomic force microscopy, by vascular-endothelial cadherin and F-actin staining. Our results indicated that exposure of hPAECs to synthetic dsRNA led to functional deficits. This was reflected by morphological and mechanical changes and an increase in the permeability of the endothelial monolayer. hPAECs treated with synthetic dsRNA accumulated in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Additionally, the proliferation rate of the cells in the presence of synthetic dsRNA was significantly decreased. Furthermore, we found that natural and synthetic dsRNA modulated Ca2+ signaling in hPAECs by inhibiting the sarco-endoplasmic Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) which is involved in the regulation of the intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and thus cell growth. Even upon synthetic dsRNA stimulation silencing of SERCA3 preserved the endothelial monolayer integrity. Our data identify novel mechanisms by which dsRNA can disrupt endothelial barrier function and these may be relevant in inflammatory processes
Observational Diagnostics of Gas Flows: Insights from Cosmological Simulations
Galactic accretion interacts in complex ways with gaseous halos, including
galactic winds. As a result, observational diagnostics typically probe a range
of intertwined physical phenomena. Because of this complexity, cosmological
hydrodynamic simulations have played a key role in developing observational
diagnostics of galactic accretion. In this chapter, we review the status of
different observational diagnostics of circumgalactic gas flows, in both
absorption (galaxy pair and down-the-barrel observations in neutral hydrogen
and metals; kinematic and azimuthal angle diagnostics; the cosmological column
density distribution; and metallicity) and emission (Lya; UV metal lines; and
diffuse X-rays). We conclude that there is no simple and robust way to identify
galactic accretion in individual measurements. Rather, progress in testing
galactic accretion models is likely to come from systematic, statistical
comparisons of simulation predictions with observations. We discuss specific
areas where progress is likely to be particularly fruitful over the next few
years.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dave, to be published by
Springer. Typos correcte
Expression of thymidylate synthase in human cells is an early G1 event regulated by CDK4 and p16INK4A but not E2F
Thymidylate synthase (TS) is the enzyme that catalyses the last step in de novo thymidylate synthesis. It is of interest clinically because it is an effective target for drugs such as 5-fluorouracil, often used in combination therapy. Despite a number of earlier reports indicating that TS is a cell cycle-dependent enzyme, this remains equivocal. Here, we show that in HCT116 cells synchronised by serum starvation, there is a clear dissociation between the expression of cyclin E (a well-characterised cell-cycle protein) and TS. Although both cyclin E and TS mRNA and protein increased during G1, TS upregulation was delayed. Moreover, TS levels did not decrease following S-phase completion while cyclin E decreased sharply. Similarly, clear differences were seen between cyclin E and TS as asynchronously growing HCT116 cells were growth-inhibited by low-serum treatment. In contrast to previous reports using rodent cells, adenovirus-mediated over-expression of E2F1 and cyclin E in three human cell lines had no effect on TS. Cell-cycle progression was blocked by treatment of cells with pharmacological inhibitors of CDK2 and CDK4 and by ectopic expression of p16INK4A. Whereas CDK2 inhibition had no effect on TS levels, inhibition of CDK4 was associated with decreased TS protein levels. These results provide the first evidence that drugs targeting CDK4 may be useful with anti-TS drugs as combination therapy for cancer
Gas Accretion in Star-Forming Galaxies
Cold-mode gas accretion onto galaxies is a direct prediction of LCDM
simulations and provides galaxies with fuel that allows them to continue to
form stars over the lifetime of the Universe. Given its dramatic influence on a
galaxy's gas reservoir, gas accretion has to be largely responsible for how
galaxies form and evolve. Therefore, given the importance of gas accretion, it
is necessary to observe and quantify how these gas flows affect galaxy
evolution. However, observational data have yet to conclusively show that gas
accretion ubiquitously occurs at any epoch. Directly detecting gas accretion is
a challenging endeavor and we now have obtained a significant amount of
observational evidence to support it. This chapter reviews the current
observational evidence of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springer. This chapter includes 22 pages with 7 Figure
Magnetic Field Amplification in Galaxy Clusters and its Simulation
We review the present theoretical and numerical understanding of magnetic
field amplification in cosmic large-scale structure, on length scales of galaxy
clusters and beyond. Structure formation drives compression and turbulence,
which amplify tiny magnetic seed fields to the microGauss values that are
observed in the intracluster medium. This process is intimately connected to
the properties of turbulence and the microphysics of the intra-cluster medium.
Additional roles are played by merger induced shocks that sweep through the
intra-cluster medium and motions induced by sloshing cool cores. The accurate
simulation of magnetic field amplification in clusters still poses a serious
challenge for simulations of cosmological structure formation. We review the
current literature on cosmological simulations that include magnetic fields and
outline theoretical as well as numerical challenges.Comment: 60 pages, 19 Figure
Elliptical Galaxies and Bulges of Disk Galaxies: Summary of Progress and Outstanding Issues
This is the summary chapter of a review book on galaxy bulges. Bulge
properties and formation histories are more varied than those of ellipticals. I
emphasize two advances: 1 - "Classical bulges" are observationally
indistinguishable from ellipticals, and like them, are thought to form by major
galaxy mergers. "Disky pseudobulges" are diskier and more actively star-forming
(except in S0s) than are ellipticals. Theys are products of the slow
("secular") evolution of galaxy disks: bars and other nonaxisymmetries move
disk gas toward the center, where it starbursts and builds relatively flat,
rapidly rotating components. This secular evolution is a new area of galaxy
evolution work that complements hierarchical clustering. 2 - Disks of
high-redshift galaxies are unstable to the formation of mass clumps that sink
to the center and merge - an alternative channel for the formation of classical
bulges. I review successes and unsolved problems in the formation of
bulges+ellipticals and their coevolution (or not) with supermassive black
holes. I present an observer's perspective on simulations of dark matter galaxy
formation including baryons. I review how our picture of the quenching of star
formation is becoming general and secure at redshifts z < 1. The biggest
challenge is to produce realistic bulges+ellipticals and disks that overlap
over a factor of 10**3 in mass but that differ from each other as observed over
that whole range. Second, how does hierarchical clustering make so many giant,
bulgeless galaxies in field but not cluster environments? I argue that we rely
too much on AGN and star-formation feedback to solve these challenges.Comment: 46 pages, 10 postscript figures, accepted for publication in Galactic
Bulges, ed. E. Laurikainen, R. F. Peletier, & D. A. Gadotti (New York:
Springer), in press (2015
- …