265 research outputs found
On the Unusual Depletions toward Sk 155, or What Are the Small Magellanic Cloud Dust Grains Made of?
The dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), an ideal analog of primordial
galaxies at high redshifts, differs markedly from that in the Milky Way by
exhibiting a steeply rising far-ultraviolet extinction curve, an absence of the
2175 Angstrom extinction feature, and a local minimum at ~12 micron in its
infrared emission spectrum, suggesting the lack of ultrasmall carbonaceous
grains (i.e. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules) which are ubiquitously
seen in the Milky Way. While current models for the SMC dust all rely heavily
on silicates, recent observations of the SMC sightline toward Sk 155 indicated
that Si and Mg are essentially undepleted and the depletions of Fe range from
mild to severe, suggesting that metallic grains and/or iron oxides, instead of
silicates, may dominate the SMC dust. However, in this Letter we apply the
Kramers-Kronig relation to demonstrate that neither metallic grains nor iron
oxides are capable of accounting for the observed extinction; silicates remain
as an important contributor to the extinction, consistent with current models
for the SMC dust.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; The Astrophysical Journal Letters, in pres
Production of s-process elements in AGB stars as revealed by Gaia GSP-spec abundances
The recent parameterisation by the GSP-spec module of Gaia/RVS spectra has
produced an homogeneous catalogue of about 174,000 AGB stars. Among the 13
chemical elements presented in this catalogue, the abundance of 2 of them (Ce
and Nd) have been estimated in most of these AGBs. These 2 species formed by
slow n-captures in the interior of low- and intermediate-mass stars, belong to
the family of 2nd-peak s-process elements. We defined a working sample of
19,544 AGB stars with high-quality Ce and/or Nd abundances, selected by
applying a specific combination of the GSP-spec quality flags. We compared
these abundances with the yield production predicted by AGB stars evolutionary
models. We found a good correlation between the Ce and Nd abundances,
confirming the high quality of the derived abundances and that these species
indeed belong to the same s-process family. We also found higher Ce and Nd
abundances for more evolved AGB stars of similar metallicity, illustrating the
successive mixing episodes enriching the AGB star surface. We then compared the
observed Ce and Nd abundances with the FRUITY and Monash AGB yields and found
that the higher Ce and Nd abundances cannot be explained by AGB stars of masses
higher than 5Msun. In contrast, the yields predicted by both models for AGB
stars with an initial mass between ~1.5 and ~2.5Mssun and metallicities between
~-0.5 and ~0.0dex are fully compatible with the observed GSP-spec abundances.
This work based on the largest catalogue of high-quality second-peak s-element
abundances in O-rich AGB stars allows evolutionary models to be constrained and
confirms the fundamental role played by low- and intermediate-mass stars in the
enrichment of the Universe in these chemical species.Comment: Accepted by A&A in october, 202
Multiwavelength Observations of the Low Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS 0335-052
New infrared and millimeter observations from Keck, Palomar, ISO, and OVRO
and archival data from the NRAO VLA and IRAS are presented for the low
metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335-052. Mid-infrared imaging shows
this young star-forming system is compact (0.31"; 80 pc) at 12.5 microns. The
large Br-gamma equivalent width (235 Angstroms) measured from integral field
spectroscopy is indicative of a ~5 Myr starburst. The central source appears to
be optically thin in emission, containing both a warm (~80 K) and a hot (~210
K) dust component, and the overall interstellar radiation field is quite
intense, about 10,000 times the intensity in the solar neighborhood. CO
emission is not detected, though the galaxy shows an extremely high global H I
gas-to-dust mass ratio, high even for blue compact dwarfs. Finally, the
galaxy's mid-infrared-to-optical and mid-to-near-infrared luminosity ratios are
quite high, whereas its far-infrared-to-radio and far-infrared-to-optical flux
ratios are surprisingly similar to what is seen in normal star-forming
galaxies. The relatively high bolometric infrared-to-radio ratio is more easily
understood in the context of such a young system with negligible nonthermal
radio continuum emission. These new lines of evidence may outline features
common to primordial galaxies found at high redshift.Comment: 28 pages including 6 figures; accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journa
A Comparative Analysis of Weizmannia coagulans Genomes Unravels the Genetic Potential for Biotechnological Applications
The production of biochemicals requires the use of microbial strains with efficient substrate conversion and excellent environmental robustness, such as Weizmannia coagulans species. So far, the genomes of 47 strains have been sequenced. Herein, we report a comparative genomic analysis of nine strains on the full repertoire of Carbohydrate-Active enZymes (CAZymes), secretion systems, and resistance mechanisms to environmental challenges. Moreover, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) immune system along with CRISPR-associated (Cas) genes, was also analyzed. Overall, this study expands our understanding of the strain’s genomic diversity of W. coagulans to fully exploit its potential in biotechnological applications
The effects of star formation on the low-metallicity ISM: NGC4214 mapped with Herschel/PACS spectroscopy
We present Herschel/PACS spectroscopic maps of the dwarf galaxy NC4214
observed in 6 far infrared fine-structure lines: [C II] 158mu, [O III] 88mu, [O
I] 63mu, [O I] 146mu, [N II] 122mu, and [N II] 205mu. The maps are sampled to
the full telescope spatial resolution and reveal unprecedented detail on ~ 150
pc size scales. We detect [C II] emission over the whole mapped area, [O III]
being the most luminous FIR line. The ratio of [O III]/[C II] peaks at about 2
toward the sites of massive star formation, higher than ratios seen in dusty
starburst galaxies. The [C II]/CO ratios are 20 000 to 70 000 toward the 2
massive clusters, which are at least an order of magnitude larger than spiral
or dusty starbursts, and cannot be reconciled with single-slab PDR models.
Toward the 2 massive star-forming regions, we find that L[CII] is 0.5 to 0.8%
of the LTIR . All of the lines together contribute up to 2% of LTIR . These
extreme findings are a consequence of the lower metallicity and young,
massive-star formation commonly found in dwarf galaxies. These conditions
promote large-scale photodissociation into the molecular reservoir, which is
evident in the FIR line ratios. This illustrates the necessity to move to
multiphase models applicable to star-forming clusters or galaxies as a whole.Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel Special Issu
High Excitation Molecular Gas in the Magellanic Clouds
We present the first survey of submillimeter CO 4-3 emission in the
Magellanic Clouds. The survey is comprised of 15 6'x6' maps obtained using the
AST/RO telescope toward the molecular peaks of the Large and Small Magellanic
Clouds. We have used these data to constrain the physical conditions in these
objects, in particular their molecular gas density and temperature. We find
that there are significant amounts of molecular gas associated with most of
these molecular peaks, and that high molecular gas temperatures are pervasive
throughout our sample. We discuss whether this may be due to the low
metallicities and the associated dearth of gas coolants in the Clouds, and
conclude that the present sample is insufficient to assert this effect.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables. To appear in Ap
Towards an Understanding of the Mid-Infrared Surface Brightness of Normal Galaxies
We report a mid-infrared color and surface brightness analysis of IC 10, NGC
1313, and NGC 6946, three of the nearby galaxies studied under the Infrared
Space Observatory Key Project on Normal Galaxies. Images with < 9 arcsecond
(170 pc) resolution of these nearly face-on, late-type galaxies were obtained
using the LW2 (6.75 mu) and LW3 (15 mu) ISOCAM filters. Though their global
I_nu(6.75 mu)/I_nu(15 mu) flux ratios are similar and typical of normal
galaxies, they show distinct trends of this color ratio with mid-infrared
surface brightness. We find that I_nu(6.75 mu)/I_nu(15 mu) ~< 1 only occurs for
regions of intense heating activity where the continuum rises at 15 micron and
where PAH destruction can play an important role. The shape of the
color-surface brightness trend also appears to depend, to the second-order, on
the hardness of the ionizing radiation. We discuss these findings in the
context of a two-component model for the phases of the interstellar medium and
suggest that star formation intensity is largely responsible for the
mid-infrared surface brightness and colors within normal galaxies, whereas
differences in dust column density are the primary drivers of variations in the
mid-infrared surface brightness between the disks of normal galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, uses AAS LaTeX; to appear in the November
Astronomical Journa
Excited OH+, H2O+, and H3O+ in NGC 4418 and Arp 220
We report on Herschel/PACS observations of absorption lines of OH+, H2O+ and
H3O+ in NGC 4418 and Arp 220. Excited lines of OH+ and H2O+ with E_lower of at
least 285 and \sim200 K, respectively, are detected in both sources, indicating
radiative pumping and location in the high radiation density environment of the
nuclear regions. Abundance ratios OH+/H2O+ of 1-2.5 are estimated in the nuclei
of both sources. The inferred OH+ column and abundance relative to H nuclei are
(0.5-1)x10^{16} cm-2 and \sim2x10^{-8}, respectively. Additionally, in Arp 220,
an extended low excitation component around the nuclear region is found to have
OH+/H2O+\sim5-10. H3O+ is detected in both sources with
N(H3O+)\sim(0.5-2)x10^{16} cm-2, and in Arp 220 the pure inversion, metastable
lines indicate a high rotational temperature of ~500 K, indicative of formation
pumping and/or hot gas. Simple chemical models favor an ionization sequence
dominated by H+ - O+ - OH+ - H2O+ - H3O+, and we also argue that the H+
production is most likely dominated by X-ray/cosmic ray ionization. The full
set of observations and models leads us to propose that the molecular ions
arise in a relatively low density (\gtrsim10^4 cm-3) interclump medium, in
which case the ionization rate per H nucleus (including secondary ionizations)
is zeta>10^{-13} s-1, a lower limit that is severalx10^2 times the highest rate
estimates for Galactic regions. In Arp 220, our lower limit for zeta is
compatible with estimates for the cosmic ray energy density inferred previously
from the supernova rate and synchrotron radio emission, and also with the
expected ionization rate produced by X-rays. In NGC 4418, we argue that X-ray
ionization due to an AGN is responsible for the molecular ion production.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Beyond the two-infall model I. Indications for a recent gas infall with Gaia DR3 chemical abundances
The recent Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) represents an unparalleled revolution in
Galactic Archaeology, providing us with numerous radial velocities chemical
abundances for millions of stars, with all-sky coverage. We present a new
chemical evolution model for the Galactic disc components (high- and low-
sequence stars) designed to reproduce the new abundance ratios
provided by the GSP-spec module for the Gaia DR3 and also constrained by the
detailed star formation histories for both the thick and thin disc stars
inferred from previous Gaia releases. Sophisticated modeling based on previous
Gaia releases has found evidence for narrow episodes of enhanced SF inferred in
recent time. Additionally, Gaia DR3 highlighted the presence of young (massive)
low- disc stars which show evidence of a recent chemical impoverishment
in several elements. Hence, in this study, we compare Gaia DR3 chemical
abundances with the predictions of a three-infall chemical evolution model for
the high- and low- components. The proposed three-infall chemical
evolution model nicely reproduces the main features of the abundance ratio
[X/Fe] versus [M/H] (X=Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, ) of Gaia DR3 stars in different
age bins for the considered elements. Moreover, the most recent gas
infall - which started 2.7 Gyr ago - allows us to predict well the Gaia
DR3 young population which has experienced a recent chemical impoverishment.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A), 17
pages, 16 figure
Prebiotic properties of Bacillus coagulans MA-13: production of galactoside hydrolyzing enzymes and characterization of the transglycosylation properties of a GH42 β-galactosidase
Background: The spore-forming lactic acid bacterium Bacillus coagulans MA-13 has been isolated from canned beans manufacturing and successfully employed for the sustainable production of lactic acid from lignocellulosic biomass. Among lactic acid bacteria, B. coagulans strains are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for human consumption. Low-cost microbial production of industrially valuable products such as lactic acid and various enzymes devoted to the hydrolysis of oligosaccharides and lactose, is of great importance to the food industry. Specifically, α- and β-galactosidases are attractive for their ability to hydrolyze not-digestible galactosides present in the food matrix as well as in the human gastrointestinal tract. Results: In this work we have explored the potential of B. coagulans MA-13 as a source of metabolites and enzymes to improve the digestibility and the nutritional value of food. A combination of mass spectrometry analysis with conventional biochemical approaches has been employed to unveil the intra- and extra- cellular glycosyl hydrolase (GH) repertoire of B. coagulans MA-13 under diverse growth conditions. The highest enzymatic activity was detected on β-1,4 and α-1,6-glycosidic linkages and the enzymes responsible for these activities were unambiguously identified as β-galactosidase (GH42) and α-galactosidase (GH36), respectively. Whilst the former has been found only in the cytosol, the latter is localized also extracellularly. The export of this enzyme may occur through a not yet identified secretion mechanism, since a typical signal peptide is missing in the α-galactosidase sequence. A full biochemical characterization of the recombinant β-galactosidase has been carried out and the ability of this enzyme to perform homo- and hetero-condensation reactions to produce galacto-oligosaccharides, has been demonstrated. Conclusions: Probiotics which are safe for human use and are capable of producing high levels of both α-galactosidase and β-galactosidase are of great importance to the food industry. In this work we have proven the ability of B. coagulans MA-13 to over-produce these two enzymes thus paving the way for its potential use in treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
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