Deep rest-frame far-UV spectroscopy of the giant Lyman-alpha emitter 'Himiko'

We present deep 10h VLT/XSHOOTER spectroscopy for an extraordinarily luminous and extended Lya emitter at z=6.595 referred to as Himiko and first discussed by Ouchi et al. (2009), with the purpose of constraining the mechanisms powering its strong emission. Complementary to the spectrum, we discuss NIR imaging data from the CANDELS survey. We find neither for HeII nor any metal line a significant excess, with 3 sigma upper limits of 6.8, 3.1, and 5.8x10^{-18} erg/s/cm^2 for CIV $\lambda$1549, HeII $\lambda$1640, CIII] $\lambda$1909, respectively, assuming apertures with 200 km/s widths and offset by -250 km/s w.r.t to the peak Lya redshift. These limits provide strong evidence that an AGN is not a major contribution to Himiko's Lya flux. Strong conclusions about the presence of PopIII star-formation or gravitational cooling radiation are not possible based on the obtained HeII upper limit. Our Lya spectrum confirms both spatial extent and flux (8.8+/-0.5x10^{-17} erg/s/cm^2) of previous measurements. In addition, we can unambiguously exclude any remaining chance of it being a lower redshift interloper by significantly detecting a continuum redwards of Lya, while being undetected bluewards

Power filtration of CMB observational data

We propose a power filter Gp for linear reconstruction of the CMB signal from observational maps. This Gp filter preserves the power spectrum of the CMB signal in contrast to the Wiener filter which diminishes the power spectrum of the reconstructed CMB signal. We demonstrate how peak statistics and a cluster analysis can be used to estimate the probability of the presence of a CMB signal in observational records. The efficiency of the Gp filter is demonstrated on a toy model of an observational record consisting of a CMB signal and noise in the form of foreground point sources.Comment: 17 pages; 4 figures; submitted to International Journal of Modern Physic

Expression and autoregulation of transforming growth factor beta receptor mRNA in small-cell lung cancer cell lines.

In small-cell lung cancer cell lines resistance to growth inhibition by transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1, was previously shown to correlate with lack of TGF-beta receptor I (RI) and II (RII) proteins. To further investigate the role of these receptors, the expression of mRNA for RI, RII and beta-glycan (RIII) was examined. The results showed that loss of RII mRNA correlated with TGF-beta 1 resistance. In contrast, RI-and beta-glycan mRNA was expressed by all cell lines, including those lacking expression of these proteins. According to Southern blot analysis, the loss of type II mRNA was not due to gross structural changes in the gene. The effect of TGF-beta 1 on expression of TGF-beta receptor mRNA (receptor autoregulation) was examined by quantitative Northern blotting in four cell lines with different expression of TGF-beta receptor proteins. In two cell lines expressing all three TGF-beta receptor proteins beta-glycan mRNA was rapidly down-regulated and this effect was sustained throughout the 24 h observation period. RI and RII mRNAs were slightly increased 24 h after treatment. In one cell line sensitive to growth inhibition by TGF-beta, 1 but lacking beta-glycan expression, and one cell line expressing only beta-glycan and thus TGF-beta 1 -resistant, no autoregulation of mRNA of either TGF-beta receptor was demonstrated. The results suggest that TGF-beta 1 regulates the expression of its receptors, in particular beta-glycan, and that this effect is dependent on co-expression of beta-glycan, RI and RII

Recovering the properties of high redshift galaxies with different JWST broad-band filters

Imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow for observing the bulk of distant galaxies at the epoch of reionisation. The recovery of their properties, such as age, color excess E(B-V), specific star formation rate (sSFR) and stellar mass, will mostly rely on spectral energy distribution fitting, based on the data provided by JWST's two imager cameras, namely the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid Infrared Imager (MIRI). In this work we analyze the effect of choosing different combinations of NIRCam and MIRI broad-band filters, from 0.6 {\mu}m to 7.7 {\mu}m, on the recovery of these galaxy properties. We performed our tests on a sample of 1542 simulated galaxies, with known input properties, at z=7-10. We found that, with only 8 NIRCam broad-bands, we can recover the galaxy age within 0.1 Gyr and the color excess within 0.06 mag for 70% of the galaxies. Besides, the stellar masses and sSFR are recovered within 0.2 and 0.3 dex, respectively, at z=7-9. Instead, at z=10, no NIRCam band traces purely the {\lambda}> 4000 {\AA} regime and the percentage of outliers in stellar mass (sSFR) increases by > 20% (> 90%), in comparison to z=9. The MIRI F560W and F770W bands are crucial to improve the stellar mass and the sSFR estimation at z=10. When nebular emission lines are present, deriving correct galaxy properties is challenging, at any redshift and with any band combination. In particular, the stellar mass is systematically overestimated in up to 0.3 dex on average with NIRCam data alone and including MIRI observations improves only marginally the estimation.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication at the ApJ

Phonon-induced quadrupolar ordering of the magnetic superconductor TmNi2_2B2_2C

We present synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies revealing that the lattice of thulium borocarbide is distorted below T_Q = 13.5 K at zero field. T_Q increases and the amplitude of the displacements is drastically enhanced, by a factor of 10 at 60 kOe, when a magnetic field is applied along [100]. The distortion occurs at the same wave vector as the antiferromagnetic ordering induced by the a-axis field. A model is presented that accounts for the properties of the quadrupolar phase and explains the peculiar behavior of the antiferromagnetic ordering previously observed in this compound.Comment: submitted to PR

Growth suppression by transforming growth factor beta 1 of human small-cell lung cancer cell lines is associated with expression of the type II receptor.

Nine human small-cell lung cancer cell lines were treated with transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1). Seven of the cell lines expressed receptors for transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta-r) in different combinations between the three human subtypes I, II and III, and two were receptor negative. Growth suppression was induced by TGF-beta 1 exclusively in the five cell lines expressing the type II receptor. For the first time growth suppression by TGF-beta 1 of a cell line expressing the type II receptor without coexpression of the type I receptor is reported. No effect on growth was observed in two cell lines expressing only type III receptor and in TGF-beta-r negative cell lines. In two cell lines expressing all three receptor types, growth suppression was accompanied by morphological changes. To evaluate the possible involvement of the retinoblastoma protein (pRb) in mediating the growth-suppressive effect of TGF-beta 1, the expression of functional pRb, as characterised by nuclear localisation, was examined by immunocytochemistry. Nuclear association of pRb was only seen in two of the five TGF-beta 1-responsive cell lines. These results indicate that in SCLC pRb is not required for mediation of TGF-beta 1-induced growth suppression