Ultrastructural localization of intracellular antigen using enzyme-labeled antibody fragments

The efficiency of small enzyme-labeled tracers for the demonstration of intracellular antigen was investigated in tissues fixed with picric acid-formaldehyde. The influence of fixation on the immunological activity was tested in vitro by radial immunodiffusion. The experimental model consisted of newborn pig jejunum after absorption of ferritin from the intestinal lumen. Ferritin was located after 1 hr in vacuoles scattered in the cytoplasm of the absorptive cells and represented an easily recognizable intracellular antigen. After immunohistochemical treatments with antiferritin preparations, the distribution of labeling enzyme reaction product was examined by morphometry. The ratio of the labeled volume to the total volume of vacuoles containing ferritin indicated the degree of specific labeling of the antigen. In both direct and indirect methods, the degree of labeling was low when enzyme-labeled immunoglobulin G was the tracer. With antigen binding fragments (Fab), the labeling was significantly increased. In the indirect method, the degree of labeling was influenced by the first-step reagents. Onlywhen the serum titer was optimum was a high degree of labeling obtained. With antigen binding fragments or papain-digested serum the effect of the titer was negligible and maximum labeling was achieved. In both methods, with peroxidase as the labeling enzyme, a diffuse nonspecific deposition of reaction product was observed. This could be avoided by using cytochrome c instead

ULTRASTRUCTURAL LOCALIZATION OF CALCITONIN IN THE PARAFOLLICULAR CELLS OF PIG THYROID GLAND WITH CYTOCHROME c-LABELED ANTIBODY FRAGMENTS

Parafollicular cells in mammalian thyroid glands are thought to be responsible for the secretion of calcitonin. In this study, calcitonin was localized in pig thyroid gland by an indirect immunocytochemical technique using rabbit antiserum directed against synthetic porcine calcitonin for the first step, and sheep Fab fragments prepared against rabbit Fab and coupled to cytochrome c for the second step. The antigenic determinants of calcitonin were present only in the parafollicular cells, whose secretory granules were heavily labeled. Labeling of the cytoplasmic matrix is thought to indicate a possible leakage of the polypeptide from the granules. A striking observation was the complete absence of labeling in the cisternae of the rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum and of the Golgi apparatus. It is concluded that the secretory granules of parafollicular cells contain calcitonin; the mechanism of synthesis of this peptide is not clearly understood

Oscillating fidelity susceptibility near a quantum multicritical point

We study scaling behavior of the geometric tensor $\chi_{\alpha,\beta}(\lambda_1,\lambda_2)$ and the fidelity susceptibility $(\chi_{\rm F})$ in the vicinity of a quantum multicritical point (MCP) using the example of a transverse XY model. We show that the behavior of the geometric tensor (and thus of $\chi_{\rm F}$) is drastically different from that seen near a critical point. In particular, we find that is highly non-monotonic function of $\lambda$ along the generic direction $\lambda_1\sim\lambda_2 = \lambda$ when the system size $L$ is bounded between the shorter and longer correlation lengths characterizing the MCP: $1/|\lambda|^{\nu_1}\ll L\ll 1/|\lambda|^{\nu_2}$, where $\nu_1<\nu_2$ are the two correlation length exponents characterizing the system. We find that the scaling of the maxima of the components of $\chi_{\alpha\beta}$ is associated with emergence of quasi-critical points at $\lambda\sim 1/L^{1/\nu_1}$, related to the proximity to the critical line of finite momentum anisotropic transition. This scaling is different from that in the thermodynamic limit $L\gg 1/|\lambda|^{\nu_2}$, which is determined by the conventional critical exponents. We use our results to calculate the defect density following a rapid quench starting from the MCP and show that it exerts a step-like behavior for small quench amplitudes. Study of heat density and diagonal entropy density also show signatures of quasi-critical points.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

New XMM-Newton observation of the Phoenix cluster: properties of the cool core

(Abridged) We present a spectral analysis of a deep (220 ks) XMM-Newton observation of the Phoenix cluster (SPT-CL J2344-4243), which we also combine with Chandra archival ACIS-I data. We extract CCD and RGS X-ray spectra from the core region to search for the signature of cold gas, and constrain the mass deposition rate in the cooling flow which is thought to be responsible of the massive star formation episode observed in the BCG. We find an average mass deposition rate of $\dot M = 620 (-190 +200)_{stat} (-50 +150)_{syst} M_\odot$/yr in the temperature range 0.3-3.0 keV from MOS data. A temperature-resolved analysis shows that a significant amount of gas is deposited only above 1.8 keV, while upper limits of the order of hundreds of $M_\odot$/yr can be put in the 0.3-1.8 keV temperature range. From pn data we obtain $\dot M = 210 (-80 +85)_{stat} ( -35 +60)_{syst} M_\odot$/yr, and the upper limits from the temperature-resolved analysis are typically a factor of 3 lower than MOS data. In the RGS spectrum, no line emission from ionization states below Fe XXIII is seen above $12 \AA$, and the amount of gas cooling below $\sim 3$ keV has a best-fit value $\dot M = 122_{-122}^{+343}$ $M_{\odot}$/yr. In addition, our analysis of the FIR SED of the BCG based on Herschel data provides $SFR = (530 \pm 50) M_\odot$/yr, significantly lower than previous estimates by a factor 1.5. Current data are able to firmly identify substantial amount of cooling gas only above 1.8 keV in the core of the Phoenix cluster. While MOS data analysis is consistent with values as high as $\dot M \sim 1000$ within $1 \sigma$, pn data provide $\dot M < 500 M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ at $3\sigma$ c.l. at temperature below 1.8 keV. At present, this discrepancy cannot be explained on the basis of known calibration uncertainties or other sources of statistical noise.Comment: A&A in press, typos corrected, revised text according to published versio

Near-adiabatic parameter changes in correlated systems: Influence of the ramp protocol on the excitation energy

We study the excitation energy for slow changes of the hopping parameter in the Falicov-Kimball model with nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. The excitation energy vanishes algebraically for long ramp times with an exponent that depends on whether the ramp takes place within the metallic phase, within the insulating phase, or across the Mott transition line. For ramps within metallic or insulating phase the exponents are in agreement with a perturbative analysis for small ramps. The perturbative expression quite generally shows that the exponent depends explicitly on the spectrum of the system in the initial state and on the smoothness of the ramp protocol. This explains the qualitatively different behavior of gapless (e.g., metallic) and gapped (e.g., Mott insulating) systems. For gapped systems the asymptotic behavior of the excitation energy depends only on the ramp protocol and its decay becomes faster for smoother ramps. For gapless systems and sufficiently smooth ramps the asymptotics are ramp-independent and depend only on the intrinsic spectrum of the system. However, the intrinsic behavior is unobservable if the ramp is not smooth enough. This is relevant for ramps to small interaction in the fermionic Hubbard model, where the intrinsic cubic fall-off of the excitation energy cannot be observed for a linear ramp due to its kinks at the beginning and the end.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Role of clusters of galaxies in the evolution of the metal budget in the Universe

Using the guidelines on SN element production provided by XMM-Newton, we summarize the results of ASCA observations on the element abundance in groups and clusters of galaxies. We show that while the metal production in groups could be described by a stellar population with a standard local IMF, clusters of galaxies require a more top-heavy IMF. We attribute an excess heavy element production to an IMF evolution with redshift. Dating the galaxy formation in clusters by observations of the star-formation rate, we conclude that the IMF variations have occurred preferentially at z>~4. We further combine our metallicity measurements with the mass function of clusters to estimate the role of clusters in the evolution of the metal content of the Universe. We argue that at no epoch stars are a major container of metals, unless groups of galaxies are not representative for the star-formation. This lends further support for the reduced (0.6 solar) mass-averaged oxygen abundance in the stellar population.Comment: 8 pages, 2003, ApJ, 594, September 1 issu

Non-Abelian Einstein-Born-Infeld Black Holes

We construct regular and black hole solutions in SU(2) Einstein-Born-Infeld theory. These solutions have many features in common with the corresponding SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills solutions. In particular, sequences of neutral non-abelian solutions tend to magnetically charged limiting solutions, related to embedded abelian solutions. Thermodynamic properties of the black hole solutions are addressed.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 6 postscript figures; typos corrected in reference

Cosmological Effects of Powerful AGN Outbursts in Galaxy Clusters: Insights from an XMM-Newton Observation of MS0735+7421

We report on the results of an analysis of XMM-Newton observations of MS0735+7421, the galaxy cluster which hosts the most energetic AGN outburst currently known. The previous Chandra image shows twin giant X-ray cavities (~200 kpc diameter) filled with radio emission and surrounded by a weak shock front. XMM data are consistent with these findings. The total energy in cavities and shock (~6 \times 10^{61} erg) is enough to quench the cooling flow and, since most of the energy is deposited outside the cooling region (~100 kpc), to heat the gas within 1 Mpc by ~1/4 keV per particle. The cluster exhibits an upward departure (factor ~2) from the mean L-T relation. The boost in emissivity produced by the ICM compression in the bright shells due to the cavity expansion may contribute to explain the high luminosity and high central gas mass fraction that we measure. The scaled temperature and metallicity profiles are in general agreement with those observed in relaxed clusters. Also, the quantities we measure are consistent with the observed M-T relation. We conclude that violent outbursts such as the one in MS0735+7421 do not cause dramatic instantaneous departures from cluster scaling relations (other than the L-T relation). However, if they are relatively common they may play a role in creating the global cluster properties.Comment: 69 pages, 30 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Main Journa

The x-ray luminosity function of bright galaxy clusters in the local universe

We present the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) for clusters of galaxies derived from the RASS1 Bright Sample. The sample, selected from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey in a region of 2.5 sr within the southern Galactic cap, contains 130 clusters with flux limits in the range similar to 3-4 x 10(12) ergs cm(-2) s(-1) in the 0.5-2.0 keV band. A maximum likelihood fit with a Schechter function of the XLF over the entire range of luminosities (0.045-28.0 x 10(44) ergs s(-1)) gives alpha = 1.52(-0.11)(+0.11), L* = 3.80(-0.55)(+0.70) x 10(44) ergs s(-1), and A = 5.07 +/- 0.45 x 10(-7) Mpc(-3) (10(44) ergs s(-1))(alpha-1). We investigate possible evolutionary effects within the sample, out to our redshift limit (z similar to 0.3), finding no evidence for evolution. Our results are in good agreement with other local estimates of the XLF, implying that this statistic for the local universe is now well determined. Comparison with XLFs for distant clusters (0.3 &lt; z &lt; 0.6) shows that no evolution is present for L-X less than or similar to 10(44) ergs s(-1). However, we detect differences at the 3 sigma level between our local XLF and the distant one estimated by Henry et al. for the Einstein Extended Medium-Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) sample. This difference is still present when considering the EMSS sample revised by Nichol et al