Bulge

Using simulations of box/peanut-(B/P-) shaped bulges, we explore the nature of the X-shape of the Milky Way's bulge. An X-shape can be associated with a B/Pshaped bulge driven by a bar. By comparing in detail the simulations and the observations we show that the principal kinematic imprint of the X-shape is a minimum in the difference between the near and far side mean line-of-sight velocity along the minor axis. This minimum occurs at around |b| = 4 • , which is close to the lower limit at which the X-shape can be detected. No coherent signature of an X-shape can be found in Galactocentric azimuthal velocities, vertical velocities, or any of the dispersions. After scaling our simulations, we find that a best fit to the Bulge Radial Velocity Assay data leads to a bar angle of 15 •. We also explore a purely geometric method for determining the distance to the Galactic Centre by tracing the arms of the X-shape. We find that we are able to determine this ill-known distance to an accuracy of about 5% with sufficiently accurate distance measurements for the red clump stars in the arms.

Despite the significant advances in regenerative medicine, wound healing has remained
a challenging clinical problem. Skin is the largest human organ with many vital functions;
therefore, any damage to its normal structure should be treated as soon as possible. Easy access
to skin stem cells has created a lot of excitement in therapeutic applications. “Cell therapy” is
considered a novel method in regenerative medicine, especially when conventional treatments
fail. Candidate cell populations for therapeutic applications include embryonic, induced
pluripotent, adult mesenchymal, and hair follicle stem cells. It is possible to differentiate stem
cells separated from the bulge area of hair follicle into neurons, melanocytes, keratinocytes,
glia and smooth muscle cells that are negative for the keratinocyte marker kr15.
This review discusses the plasticity of skin stem cells, especially stem cells located in the hair
follicle and their involvement in wound healing, gene expression profile in wound healing,
hair follicle stem cells, and their surrounding epidermis. Moreover, the ability of hair follicle
stem cells for treating wounds and regenerative medicine is going to be discussed. Eventually
we suggest the hair follicle as an ideal source of stem cells for cell therapy and regenerative
medicine because they are abundant with easy access and great differentiation ability.

We present evidence for bimodal stellar age distribution of pseudobulges of S0 galaxies as probed by the D_n(4000) index. We do not observe any bimodality in age distribution for pseudobulges in spiral galaxies. Our sample is flux limited and contains 2067 S0 and 2630 spiral galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We identify pseudobulges in S0 and spiral galaxies, based on the position of the bulge on the Kormendy diagram and their central velocity dispersion. Dividing the pseudobulges of S0 galaxies into those containing old and young stellar populations, we study the connection between global star formation and pseudobulge age on the u-r color-mass diagram. We find that most old pseudobulges are hosted by passive galaxies while majority of young bulges are hosted by galaxies which are star forming. Dividing our sample of S0 galaxies into early-type S0s and S0/a galaxies, we find that old pseudobulges are mainly hosted by early-type S0 galaxies while most of the pseudobu...

DESCRIPTION The centre of the Milky Way is populated with so-called super-massive black holes. In most of the papers and books about black holes at the centre of galaxies, the mass is said to be gigantic. In this paper, we will see how to calculate the mass of these super-massive black holes out of observational data, by using the Maxwell Analogy for Gravitation, and we see how to make the difference between real physical mass and apparent (fictive) mass. We discover that so-called 'super-massive black holes' do not have huge masses at all but that they have an apparent mass that can be thousands times the real mass. This suggests that the energy of such black-holes could decrease very fast in relative terms.

We have derived the photometric parameters for the structural components of a sample of fourteen SB0 galaxies by applying a parametric photometric decomposition to their observed I-band surface brightness distribution. We find that SB0 bulges are similar to bulges of the early-type unbarred spirals, i.e. they have nearly exponential surface brightness profiles (n = 1.48 ± 0.16) and their effective radii are strongly coupled to the scale lengths of their surrounding discs (r e /h = 0.20 ± 0.01). The photometric analysis alone does not allow us to differentiate SB0 bulges from unbarred S0 ones. However, three sample bulges have disc properties typical of pseudobulges. The bulges of NGC 1308 and NGC 4340 rotate faster than bulges of unbarred galaxies and models of isotropic oblate spheroids with equal ellipticity. The bulge of IC 874 has a velocity dispersion lower than expected from the Faber-Jackson correlation and the fundamental plane of the elliptical galaxies and S0 bulges. The remaining sample bulges are classical bulges, and are kinematically similar to lower-luminosity ellipticals. In particular, they follow the Faber-Jackson correlation, lie on the fundamental plane and those for which stellar kinematics are available rotate as fast as the bulges of unbarred galaxies.

Root hair is considered to play important roles in water and nutrient uptake and anchoring the plant to the soil. To gain further knowledge of root hair morphogenesis in rice, we isolated root hairless 2 (rth2) mutant from the mutant panel of Nipponbare. Positional cloning and complementation test revealed that the causal gene of rth2 was Cellulose Synthase-Like D1 (OsCSLD1). rth2 has a premature stop codon in exon 1 as a result of two consecutive nucleotide substitutions and is predicted to produce truncated proteins lacking the D, D, D, QxxRW motif and 8 transmembrane domains. In rth2, bulges were normally initiated from asymmetric divisions of root epidermal cells, but bulges did not elongate. Therefore, rth2 shows completely roothairless phenotype. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that OsCSLD1 was expressed not only in root but also in shoot. In situ hybridization showed that OsCSLD1 was expressed not only in root hairs but also in epidermal and cortex cell walls except for stele. Agronomic character evaluation in pot experiments showed that rth2 did not differ significantly from Nipponbare in all characters examined except for root dry weight, which showed a significant increase in rth2. In paddy field experiment, rth2 was significantly inferior compared with Nipponbare in agronomic performance.

BACKGROUND: Gap junctions form communication compartments between cells. These channels assemble from connexin subunits.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immunoexpression of connexin 43 (Cx43) in adult human hair follicles.
METHODS: Cases were retrospectively obtained from our archives.
RESULTS: We identified immunoexpression of Cx43 in the matrix, the papilla, the outer root sheath, the bulge, the medulla, the cortex, the shaft and the secretory part of the sebaceous gland. There was very low expression (VLE) of Cx43 in the perifollicular sheath, the mantle and the arrector pili muscle. The internal root sheath showed high-density expression in the bulb. Such expression abruptly decreased at different points in each of its layers at the point of keratinization. The isthmus showed Cx43-positive staining in the middle layers and all along, whereas there was VLE in the two outermost layers. The infundibulum showed expression all along the middle layers, whereas it showed VLE in the 2 outermost layers and in the 2 or 3 innermost layers.
CONCLUSIONS: The bulge contains Cx43. Our results suggest that keratinization in the hair follicle is closely related to the decrease in Cx43 expression.