Black holes, cooling flows and galaxy formation.

Central black holes in galaxies are now well established as a ubiquitous phenomenon, and this fact is important for theories of cosmological structure formation. Merging of galaxy haloes must preserve the proportionality between black hole mass and baryonic mass; the way in which this happens may help solve difficulties with existing ing models of galaxy formation, which suffer from excessive cooling and thus over- produce stars. Feedback from active nuclei may be the missing piece of the puzzle, regulating galaxy-scale cooling flows. Such a process now seems to be observed in cluster-scale cooling flows, where dissipation of sound waves generated by radio lobes can plausibly balance the energy lost in X-rays, at least in a time-averaged sense.

Large-scale structure and matter in the Universe.

This paper summarizes the physical mechanisms that encode the type and quantity of cosmological matter in the properties of large-scale structure, and reviews the application of such tests to current datasets. The key lengths of the horizon size at matter-radiation equality and at last scattering determine the total matter density and its ratio to the relativistic density; acoustic oscillations can diagnose whether the matter is collisionless, and small-scale structure or its absence can limit the mass of any dark-matter relic particle. The most stringent constraints come from combining data on present-day galaxy clustering with data on CMB anisotropies. Such an analysis breaks the degeneracies inherent in either dataset alone, and proves that the Universe is very close to flat. The matter content is accurately consistent with pure cold dark matter, with ca. 25% of the critical density, and fluctuations that are scalar only, adiabatic and scale invariant. It is demonstrated that these conclusions cannot be evaded by adjusting either the equation of state of the vacuum, or the total relativistic density.

New upper limit on the total neutrino mass from the 2 degree field galaxy redshift survey.

We constrain f(nu) identical with Omega(nu)/Omega(m), the fractional contribution of neutrinos to the total mass density in the Universe, by comparing the power spectrum of fluctuations derived from the 2 Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey with power spectra for models with four components: baryons, cold dark matter, massive neutrinos, and a cosmological constant. Adding constraints from independent cosmological probes we find f(nu)<0.13 (at 95% confidence) for a prior of 0.1

A measurement of the cosmological mass density from clustering in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.

The large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies is thought to arise from the gravitational instability of small fluctuations in the initial density field of the Universe. A key test of this hypothesis is that forming superclusters of galaxies should generate a systematic infall of other galaxies. This would be evident in the pattern of recessional velocities, causing an anisotropy in the inferred spatial clustering of galaxies. Here we report a precise measurement of this clustering, using the redshifts of more than 141,000 galaxies from the two-degree-field (2dF) galaxy redshift survey. We determine the parameter beta = Omega0.6/b = 0.43 +/- 0.07, where Omega is the total mass-density parameter of the Universe and b is a measure of the 'bias' of the luminous galaxies in the survey. (Bias is the difference between the clustering of visible galaxies and of the total mass, most of which is dark.) Combined with the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, our results favour a low-density Universe with Omega approximately 0.3.

C-raf-1 proto-oncogene expression relates to radiosensitivity rather than radioresistance.

The transfection of several oncogenes, particularly c-raf-1, into mammalian in vitro cell lines has been reported to be associated with increased radioresistance. We have thus investigated (by scanning photodensitometry of western blots) the phenotypic expression of the c-raf-1, c-myc and c-ras protein products in 19 human in vitro cell lines, whose intrinsic cellular sensitivity to 4 MeV photon irradiation has also been determined. High levels of c-raf-1 proto-oncogene product expression did not correlate with increased cellular radioresistance, but rather showed a significant correlation with intrinsic cellular radiosensitivity to photon irradiation for alpha (r = 0.664, P = 0.002), and SF2 (r = -0.655, P = 0.002). There was no significant correlation for the ras family, c-myc or actin. These results conflict with those of previous studies in which transfection of the activated forms of the c-raf-1 oncogene were associated with increased radioresistance, and suggest the possibility that the full length proto-oncogene may influence cellular radiosensitivity in a different manner from that of the activated oncogene.

An in vitro study of the onset of turbulence in the sinus of Valsalva.

During systole a small portion of the mainstream aortic flow is intercepted by the sinus ridge, or downstream corner of the sinus of Valsalva. This fluid curls back toward the ventricle to form a large eddy, or vortex, that spins within the sinus cavity. The fluid motion within similar recirculating flows is known to be unstable with an early transition to turbulence. The stability of the aortic sinus vortex was examined in the current study in an in vitro pulsatile flow rig. The geometry of the experimental test section was the same as the geometry of the natural aortic root. Different model valves, including a natural valve, were placed in the test section, and different flow conditions were studied. Point velocities were measured by hot film probes placed at two locations within the sinus vortex. The velocity waveforms and their power spectra were used to determine the stability of the sinus flow. The experimental results revealed that the aortic sinus vortex becomes turbulent under simulated exercise conditions. Turbulent intensities were highest near the sinus ridge, which is the location of the coronary ostia. Despite the transition to turbulence within the vortex, the mainstream aortic flow upstream from the valve remained laminar. The turbulence within the vortex was also associated with vibration of the valve leaflets under exercise conditions. These vibrations may be related to the systolic ejection murmurs that are heard clinically. Furthermore, the localized turbulence may explain the location of atherosclerotic lesions and dissecting aneurysms, as well as the distribution of the lesions of bacterial endocarditis.

Sudden asphyxial death due to an esophageal leiomyoma.

An exceedingly rare case of an esophageal leiomyoma causing sudden death by asphyxiation due to tracheal compression is presented. A brief discussion of esophageal leiomyomata is included.

Initial in vitro evaluation of a pediatric vortex-mixing membrane lung.

A new design for a pediatric membrane lung is described in this paper. The lung consists of eight blood compartments, each having six U-shaped blood channels, with microporous PTFE membranes supported on rigid plates in such a way that the membranes form furrowed blood channels. Two rolling diaphragm pumps are attached to the open ends of the U-shaped blood channels; these pumps are operated in antiphase. Mean flow is provided by a roller pump placed at the inlet end of the membrane lung. Pulsatile blood flow within the blood channels produces successive vortex formation and ejection, leading to good blood mixing and high efficiency in gas transport. The design of the rolling diaphragm piston pumps ensures that the blood prime volume is low (280 ml), and the grouping of the pumps at one end of the oxygenator allows the driving mechanism to be simple and compact. The relatively wide blood channels (minimum width 0.5 mm) and vortex mixing make priming the membrane lung particularly easy. The membrane area is 0.39 m2. Preliminary performance testing of the pediatric membrane lung was undertaken by pumping blood around a circuit containing a roller pump, the membrane lung, and a bubble oxygenator (to adjust the blood gases at the inlet to the membrane lung). In five such experiments it was shown that the membrane lung transferred 80 ml O2/min and 120 ml CO2/min at a blood flow rate of 1.5 L/min.