Redshifts, Sample Purity, and BCG Positions for the Galaxy Cluster Catalog from the First 720 Square Degrees of the South Pole Telescope Survey

We present the results of the ground- and space-based optical and near-infrared (NIR) follow-up of 224 galaxy cluster candidates detected with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in the 720 deg^2 of the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey completed in the 2008 and 2009 observing seasons. We use the optical/NIR data to establish whether each candidate is associated with an overdensity of galaxies and to estimate the cluster redshift. Most photometric redshifts are derived through a combination of three different cluster redshift estimators using red-sequence galaxies, resulting in an accuracy of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.017, determined through comparison with a subsample of 57 clusters for which we have spectroscopic redshifts. We successfully measure redshifts for 158 systems and present redshift lower limits for the remaining candidates. The redshift distribution of the confirmed clusters extends to z = 1.35 with a median of z_(med) = 0.57. Approximately 18% of the sample with measured redshifts lies at z > 0.8. We estimate a lower limit to the purity of this SPT SZ-selected sample by assuming that all unconfirmed clusters are noise fluctuations in the SPT data. We show that the cumulative purity at detection significance ξ > 5(ξ > 4.5) is ≥95% (≥70%). We present the red brightest cluster galaxy (rBCG) positions for the sample and examine the offsets between the SPT candidate position and the rBCG. The radial distribution of offsets is similar to that seen in X-ray-selected cluster samples, providing no evidence that SZ-selected cluster samples include a different fraction of recent mergers from X-ray-selected cluster samples

Weak-Lensing Mass Measurements of Five Galaxy Clusters in the South Pole Telescope Survey Using Magellan/Megacam

We use weak gravitational lensing to measure the masses of five galaxy clusters selected from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey, with the primary goal of comparing these with the SPT Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) and X-ray based mass estimates. The clusters span redshifts 0.28 < z < 0.43 and have masses M_500 > 2 x 10^14 h^-1 M_sun, and three of the five clusters were discovered by the SPT survey. We observed the clusters in the g'r'i' passbands with the Megacam imager on the Magellan Clay 6.5m telescope. We measure a mean ratio of weak lensing (WL) aperture masses to inferred aperture masses from the SZ data, both within an aperture of R_500,SZ derived from the SZ mass, of 1.04 +/- 0.18. We measure a mean ratio of spherical WL masses evaluated at R_500,SZ to spherical SZ masses of 1.07 +/- 0.18, and a mean ratio of spherical WL masses evaluated at R_500,WL to spherical SZ masses of 1.10 +/- 0.24. We explore potential sources of systematic error in the mass comparisons and conclude that all are subdominant to the statistical uncertainty, with dominant terms being cluster concentration uncertainty and N-body simulation calibration bias. Expanding the sample of SPT clusters with WL observations has the potential to significantly improve the SPT cluster mass calibration and the resulting cosmological constraints from the SPT cluster survey. These are the first WL detections using Megacam on the Magellan Clay telescope.Comment: Main body: 18 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Appendix: 6 pages, 10 figures. Accepted by ApJ. New version incorporates changes from accepted articl

Very low-frequency vibrations of bacteriochlorophyll C oligomers in chlorosomes, the main light-harvesting antenna of the green nonsulphur bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus

Фотосинтез и фотобиологи

Energy transfers in the B808-866 antenna from the green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus.

Energy transfers within the B808-866 BChl a antenna in chlorosome-membrane complexes from the green photosynthetic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus were studied in two-color pump-probe experiments at room temperature. The steady-state spectroscopy and protein sequence of the B808-866 complex are reminiscent of well-studied LH2 antennas from purple bacteria. B808-->B866 energy transfers occur with approximately 2 ps kinetics; this is slower by a factor of approximately 2 than B800-->B850 energy transfers in LH2 complexes from Rhodopseudomonas acidophila or Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Anisotropy studies show no evidence for intra-B808 energy transfers before the B808-->B866 step; intra-B866 processes are reflected in 350-550 fs anisotropy decays. Two-color anisotropies under 808 nm excitation suggest the presence of a B808-->B866 channel arising either from direct laser excitation of upper B866 exciton components that overlap the B808 absorption band or from excitation of B866 vibronic bands in nontotally symmetric modes

Major results of a phase III comparative multicenter study on the follitropin alfa biosimilar (Primapur®) and the original follitropin alfa (Gonal-f®)

A clinical study on the efficacy and safety of follitropin alfa has been conducted. The aim of the study was to confirm the therapeutic equivalence between the follitropin alfa biosimilar (Primapur®) and the reference medication (Gonal-f®) in controlled induction of superovulation within the assisted reproductive technologies (ART) programs. Materials and methods. This multicenter, randomized, blind at the embryological stage, in parallel groups, comparative study of phase III (RCT 754 from 26.10.16/NCT03088137) involved 110 women aged 20-35 years with established causes of infertility (tubal factor, male factor). The patients were randomized into 2 equal groups of 55 participants each. The primary end-point for assessing the therapeutic equivalence was the number of aspirated oocytes. The secondary end-points included the number of fertilized oocytes, the number of days of stimulation, the total dose of the injected drug, the occurrence rate of biochemical and clinical pregnancies. Results. In this study, the follitropin alfa biosimilar was shown to be equivalent to the original follitropin in terms of the number of aspirated oocytes. Also, no statistically significant differences were found in the number of mature and fertilized oocytes, the days of stimulation, the dose of the drug administered during the treatment, and the rate of the onset of biochemical or clinical pregnancy. Conclusion. The therapeutic equivalence between the follitropin alfa containing Primapur® and Gonal-f® has been demonstrated