Transcription and processing of 45S rRNAs in the nucleolus are keystones of ribosome biogenesis. While these processes are severely impacted by stress conditions in multiple species, primarily upon ...heat exposure, we lack information about the molecular mechanisms allowing sessile organisms without a temperature-control system, like plants, to cope with such circumstances. We show that heat stress disturbs nucleolar structure, inhibits pre-rRNA processing and provokes imbalanced ribosome profiles in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Notably, the accuracy of transcription initiation and cleavage at the primary P site in the 5'ETS (5' External Transcribed Spacer) are not affected but the levels of primary 45S and 35S transcripts are, respectively, increased and reduced. In contrast, precursors of 18S, 5.8S and 25S RNAs are rapidly undetectable upon heat stress. Remarkably, nucleolar structure, pre-rRNAs from major ITS1 processing pathway and ribosome profiles are restored after returning to optimal conditions, shedding light on the extreme plasticity of nucleolar functions in plant cells. Further genetic and molecular analysis to identify molecular clues implicated in these nucleolar responses indicate that cleavage rate at P site and nucleolin protein expression can act as a checkpoint control towards a productive pre-rRNA processing pathway.
We present multiwavelength observations of the ultraluminous blazar-type radio loud quasar PKS 0528+134 in quiescence during the period 2009 July-December. Four Target-of-Opportunity observations ...with the XMM-Newton satellite in the 0.2-10 keV range were supplemented with optical observations at the MDM Observatory, radio and optical data from the GLAST-AGILE Support Program of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope and the Very Long Baseline Array, additional X-ray data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (2-10 keV) and from Suzaku (0.5-10 keV) as well as Delta *g-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope in the 100 MeV-200 GeV range. In addition, publicly available data from the SMARTS blazar monitoring program and the University of Arizona/Steward Observatory Fermi Support program were included in our analysis. We found no evidence of significant flux or spectral variability in Delta *g-rays and most radio bands. However, significant flux variability on a timescale of several hours was found in the optical regime, accompanied by a weak trend of spectral softening with increasing flux. We suggest that this might be the signature of a contribution of unbeamed emission, possibly from the accretion disk, at the blue end of the optical spectrum. The optical flux is weakly polarized with rapid variations of the degree and direction of polarization, while the polarization of the 43 GHz radio core remains steady, perpendicular to the jet direction. Optical spectropolarimetry of the object in the quiescent state suggests a trend of increasing degree of polarization with increasing wavelength, providing additional evidence for an unpolarized emission component, possibly thermal emission from the accretion disk, contributing toward the blue end of the optical spectrum. Over an extended period of several months, PKS 0528+134 shows moderate (amplitude 50%) flux variability in the X-rays and most radio frequencies on ~1-2 week timescales. We constructed four spectral energy distributions (SEDs) corresponding to the times of the XMM-Newton observations. We find that even in the quiescent state, the bolometric luminosity of PKS 0528+134 is dominated by its Delta *g-ray emission. A leptonic single-zone jet model produced acceptable fits to the SEDs with contributions to the high-energy emission from both synchrotron self-Compton radiation and Comptonization of direct accretion disk emission. Fit parameters close to equipartition between the energy densities of the magnetic field and the relativistic electron population were obtained. The moderate variability on long timescales, compared to expected radiative cooling timescales, implies the existence of ongoing particle acceleration, while the observed optical polarization variability seems to point toward a turbulent acceleration process. Turbulent particle acceleration at stationary features along the jet therefore appears to be a viable possibility for the quiescent state of PKS 0528+134.
The flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C454.3 underwent an extraordinary 5-day γ-ray outburst in November 2010 when the daily flux measured with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) at photon energies E > ...100MeV reached (66±2) × 10−6ph cm−2s−1. This is a factor of 3 higher than its previous maximum flux recorded in December 2009 and > 5 times brighter than the Vela pulsar, which is normally the brightest source in the γ-ray sky. The 3-hr peak flux was (85±5)×10−6ph cm−2s−1, corresponding to an apparent isotropic luminosity of (2.1±0.2)×1050 erg s−1, the highest ever recorded for a blazar. In this talk, we investigate the features of this exceptional event in the γ-ray band of the Fermi-LAT.
Aims. We present a method enabling the creation of constant-uncertainty/constant-significance light curves with the data of the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT). The adaptive-binning method enables ...more information to be encapsulated within the light curve than with the fixed-binning method. Although primarily developed for blazar studies, it can be applied to any sources. Methods. This method allows the starting and ending times of each interval to be calculated in a simple and quick way during a first step. The reported mean flux and spectral index (assuming the spectrum is a power-law distribution) in the interval are calculated via the standard LAT analysis during a second step. Results. The absence of major caveats associated with this method has been established by means of Monte-Carlo simulations. We present the performance of this method in determining duty cycles as well as power-density spectra relative to the traditional fixed-binning method.
We present the second catalog of high-energy gamma -ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from ...data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24 month period. The second Fermi -LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are flux measurements in five energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. We provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. The 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely gamma -ray-producing source classes.
The second catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in two years of scientific operation is presented. The second LAT AGN catalog (2LAC) includes 1017 ...Delta *g-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 10?) that are detected with a test statistic (TS) greater than 25 and associated statistically with AGNs. However, some of these are affected by analysis issues and some are associated with multiple AGNs. Consequently, we define a Clean Sample which includes 886 AGNs, comprising 395 BL Lacertae objects (BL Lac objects), 310 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), 157 candidate blazars of unknown type (i.e., with broadband blazar characteristics but with no optical spectral measurement yet), 8 misaligned AGNs, 4 narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1s), 10 AGNs of other types, and 2 starburst galaxies. Where possible, the blazars have been further classified based on their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) as archival radio, optical, and X-ray data permit. While almost all FSRQs have a synchrotron-peak frequency <1014 Hz, about half of the BL Lac objects have a synchrotron-peak frequency >1015 Hz. The 2LAC represents a significant improvement relative to the first LAT AGN catalog (1LAC), with 52% more associated sources. The full characterization of the newly detected sources will require more broadband data. Various properties, such as Delta *g-ray fluxes and photon power-law spectral indices, redshifts, Delta *g-ray luminosities, variability, and archival radio luminosities and their correlations are presented and discussed for the different blazar classes. The general trends observed in 1LAC are confirmed.
We report on the Delta *g-ray activity of the high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lacertae object Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) during the first 1.5 years of Fermi operation, from 2008 August 5 to 2010 March 12. We ...find that the Large Area Telescope (LAT) Delta *g-ray spectrum above 0.3 GeV can be well described by a power-law function with photon index Delta *G = 1.78 ? 0.02 and average photon flux F(> 0.3 GeV) = (7.23 ? 0.16) X 10--8 ph cm--2 s--1. Over this time period, the Fermi-LAT spectrum above 0.3 GeV was evaluated on seven-day-long time intervals, showing significant variations in the photon flux (up to a factor ~3 from the minimum to the maximum flux) but mild spectral variations. The variability amplitude at X-ray frequencies measured by RXTE/ASM and Swift/BAT is substantially larger than that in Delta *g-rays measured by Fermi-LAT, and these two energy ranges are not significantly correlated. We also present the first results from the 4.5 month long multifrequency campaign on Mrk 421, which included the VLBA, Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments that provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign (2009 January 19 to 2009 June 1). During this campaign, Mrk 421 showed a low activity at all wavebands. The extensive multi-instrument (radio to TeV) data set provides an unprecedented, complete look at the quiescent spectral energy distribution (SED) for this source. The broadband SED was reproduced with a leptonic (one-zone synchrotron self-Compton) and a hadronic model (synchrotron proton blazar). Both frameworks are able to describe the average SED reasonably well, implying comparable jet powers but very different characteristics for the blazar emission site.
We present the first catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the LAT, corresponding to 11 months of data collected in scientific operation mode. The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) includes ...671 gamma-ray sources located at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 10 deg) that are detected with a test statistic (TS) greater than 25 and associated statistically with AGNs. Some LAT sources are associated with multiple AGNs, and consequently, the catalog includes 709 AGNs, comprising 300 BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), 296 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), 41 AGNs of other types, and 72 AGNs of unknown type. We also classify the blazars based on their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) as archival radio, optical, and X-ray data permit. In addition to the format 1LAC sample, we provide AGN associations for 51 low-latitude LAT sources and AGN "affiliations" (unquantified counterpart candidates) for 104 high-latitude LAT sources without AGN associations. The overlap of the 1LAC with existing gamma-ray AGN catalogs (LBAS, EGRET, AGILE, Swift, INTEGRAL, TeVCat) is briefly discussed. Various properties--such as gamma-ray fluxes and photon power law spectral indices, redshifts, gamma-ray luminosities, variability, and archival radio luminosities--and their correlations are presented and discussed for the different blazar classes. We compare the 1LAC results with predictions regarding the gamma-ray AGN populations, and we comment on the power of the sample to address the question of the blazar sequence.
We present a detailed statistical analysis of the correlation between radio and gamma-ray emission of the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by Fermi during its first year of operation, with the ...largest data sets ever used for this purpose. We use both archival interferometric 8.4 GHz data (from the Very Large Array and ATCA, for the full sample of 599 sources) and concurrent single-dish 15 GHz measurements from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO, for a sub sample of 199 objects). Our unprecedentedly large sample permits us to assess with high accuracy the statistical significance of the correlation, using a surrogate data method designed to simultaneously account for common-distance bias and the effect of a limited dynamical range in the observed quantities. We find that the statistical significance of a positive correlation between the centimeter radio and the broadband (E > 100 MeV) gamma-ray energy flux is very high for the whole AGN sample, with a probability of <10--7 for the correlation appearing by chance. Using the OVRO data, we find that concurrent data improve the significance of the correlation from 1.6 X 10--6 to 9.0 X 10--8. Our large sample size allows us to study the dependence of correlation strength and significance on specific source types and gamma-ray energy band. We find that the correlation is very significant (chance probability < 10--7) for both flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects separately; a dependence of the correlation strength on the considered gamma-ray energy band is also present, but additional data will be necessary to constrain its significance.
The flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C454.3 underwent an extraordinary 5 day Delta *g-ray outburst in 2010 November when the daily flux measured with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) at photon ...energies E > 100 MeV reached (66 ? 2) X 10--6 photons cm--2 s--1. This is a factor of three higher than its previous maximum flux recorded in 2009 December and 5 times brighter than the Vela pulsar, which is normally the brightest source in the Delta *g-ray sky. The 3 hr peak flux was (85 ? 5)X10--6 photons cm--2 s--1, corresponding to an apparent isotropic luminosity of (2.1 ? 0.2)X1050 erg s--1, the highest ever recorded for a blazar. In this Letter, we investigate the features of this exceptional event in the Delta *g-ray band of the Fermi-LAT. In contrast to previous flares of the same source observed with the Fermi-LAT, clear spectral changes are observed during the flare.
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