On why the Iron K-shell absorption in AGN is not a signature of the local Warm/Hot Intergalactic Medium

We present a comparison between the 2001 XMM-Newton and 2005 Suzaku observations of the quasar, PG1211+143 at z=0.0809. Variability is observed in the 7 keV iron K-shell absorption line (at 7.6 keV in the quasar frame), which is significantly weaker in 2005 than during the 2001 XMM-Newton observation. From a recombination timescale of <4 years, this implies an absorber density n>0.004 particles/cm3, while the absorber column is 5e22<N_H <1 1e24 particles/cm2. Thus the sizescale of the absorber is too compact (pc scale) and the surface brightness of the dense gas too high (by 9-10 orders of magnitude) to arise from local hot gas, such as the local bubble, group or Warm/Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), as suggested by McKernan et al. (2004, 2005). Instead the iron K-shell absorption must be associated with an AGN outflow with mildly relativistic velocities. Finally we show that the the association of the absorption in PG1211+143 with local hot gas is simply a coincidence, the comparison between the recession and iron K absorber outflow velocities in other AGN does not reveal a one to one kinematic correlation.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS LETTERS. 5 pages, 4 figure

Probing the face-on disc-corona system of the bare AGN Mrk 110 from UV to hard X-rays: a moderate changing-state AGN?

[Abridged] The X-ray broadband spectra of the bare AGN Mrk 110, obtained by simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations (Nov 2019 and April 2020), are characterised by the presence of a prominent and absorption-free smooth soft X-ray excess, moderately broad OVII and Fe Kalpha emission lines, and a lack of a strong Compton hump. While relativistic reflection as the sole emission is ruled out, a simplified combination of soft and hard Comptonisation from a warm and a hot coronae, plus mild relativistic disc reflection reproduces the data very well. We aim to confirm the physical origin of the soft X-ray excess of Mrk 110 and to determine its disc-corona system properties from its energetics using two new sophisticated models: reXcor and relagn, respectively. At both epochs, the inferred high-values of the warm-corona heating from the X-ray broadband spectral analysis using reXcor confirm that the soft X-ray excess originates mainly from a warm corona rather than relativistic reflection. The intrinsic best-fit SED determined at both epochs using relagn show a high X-ray contribution relative to the UV and are very well reproduced by a warm and hot coronae plus mild relativistic reflection. The outer radii of the hot and warm coronae are located at a few 10s and ~100 Rg, respectively. Moreover, combining the inferred low Eddington ratio (~ a few %) from this work, and previous multi-wavelength spectral and timing studies suggests that Mrk 110 could be classified as a moderate changing-state AGN. Our analysis confirms the existence of a warm corona as a significant contribution to the soft X-ray excess and UV emission in Mrk 110, adding to growing evidence that AGN accretion deviates from standard disc theory. This strengthens the importance of long-term multi-wavelength monitoring on both single targets and large AGN surveys to reveal the real nature of disc-corona system in AGN.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Suzaku wide-band X-ray Spectroscopy of the Seyfert 2 AGN in NGC 4945

Suzaku observed a nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC4945, which hosts one of the brightest active galactic nuclei above 20 keV. Combining data from the X-ray CCD camera (XIS) and the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD), the AGN intrinsic nuclear emission and its reprocessed signals were observed simultaneously. The intrinsic emission is highly obscured with an absorbing column of $\sim 5 \times 10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$, and was detectable only above $\sim 10$ keV. The spectrum below 10 keV is dominated by reflection continuum and emission lines from neutral/ionized material. Along with a neutral iron K$\alpha$ line, a neutral iron K$\beta$ and a neutral nickel K$\alpha$ line were detected for the first time from this source. The neutral lines and the cold reflection continuum are consistent with both originating in the same location. The Compton down-scattered shoulder in the neutral Fe-K$\alpha$ line is $\sim 10$ in flux of the narrow core, which confirms that the line originates from reflection rather than transmission. The weakness of the Compton shoulder also indicates that the reflector is probably seen nearly edge-on. Flux of the intrinsic emission varied by a factor of $\sim 2$ within $\sim 20$ ks, which requires the obscuring material to be geometrically thin. Broadband spectral modeling showed that the solid angle of the neutral reflector is less than a few $\times 10^{-2} \times 2\pi$. All this evidence regarding the reprocessed signals suggests that a disk-like absorber/reflector is viewed from a near edge-on angle.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Simulating North American Weather Types With Regional Climate Models

Regional climate models (RCMs) are able to simulate small-scale processes that are missing in their coarser resolution driving data and thereby provide valuable climate information for climate impact assessments. Less attention has been paid to the ability of RCMs to capture large-scale weather types (WTs). An inaccurate representation of WTs can result in biases and uncertainties in current and future climate simulations that cannot be easily detected by standard model evaluation metrics. Here we define 12 hydrologically important WTs in the contiguous United States (CONUS). We test if RCMs from the North American CORDEX (NA-CORDEX) and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model large physics ensembles (WRF36) can capture those WTs in the current climate and how they simulate changes in the future. Our results show that the NA-CORDEX RCMs are able to simulate WTs more accurately than members of the WRF36 ensemble. The much larger WRF36 domain in combination with not constraining large-scale conditions by spectral nudging results in lower WT skill. The selection of the driving global climate model (GCM) has a large effect on the skill of NA-CORDEX simulations but a smaller impact on the WRF36 runs. The formulation of the RCM is of minor importance except for capturing the variability within WTs. Changing the model physics or increasing the RCM horizontal grid spacing has little effect. These results highlight the importance of selecting GCMs with accurate synoptic-scale variability for downscaling and to find a balance between large domains that can result in biased WT representations and small domains that inhibit the realistic development of mesoscale processes. At the end of the century, monsoonal flow conditions increase systematically by up to 30% and a WT that is a significant source of moisture for the Northern Plains during the growing seasons decreases systematically up to –30%

BC4GO: a full-text corpus for the BioCreative IV GO task

Gene function curation via Gene Ontology (GO) annotation is a common task among Model Organism Database groups. Owing to its manual nature, this task is considered one of the bottlenecks in literature curation. There have been many previous attempts at automatic identification of GO terms and supporting information from full text. However, few systems have delivered an accuracy that is comparable with humans. One recognized challenge in developing such systems is the lack of marked sentence-level evidence text that provides the basis for making GO annotations. We aim to create a corpus that includes the GO evidence text along with the three core elements of GO annotations: (i) a gene or gene product, (ii) a GO term and (iii) a GO evidence code. To ensure our results are consistent with real-life GO data, we recruited eight professional GO curators and asked them to follow their routine GO annotation protocols. Our annotators marked up more than 5000 text passages in 200 articles for 1356 distinct GO terms. For evidence sentence selection, the inter-annotator agreement (IAA) results are 9.3% (strict) and 42.7% (relaxed) in F1-measures. For GO term selection, the IAAs are 47% (strict) and 62.9% (hierarchical). Our corpus analysis further shows that abstracts contain ∼10% of relevant evidence sentences and 30% distinct GO terms, while the Results/Experiment section has nearly 60% relevant sentences and >70% GO terms. Further, of those evidence sentences found in abstracts, less than one-third contain enough experimental detail to fulfill the three core criteria of a GO annotation. This result demonstrates the need of using full-text articles for text mining GO annotations. Through its use at the BioCreative IV GO (BC4GO) task, we expect our corpus to become a valuable resource for the BioNLP research community

Patterns of variability in Be/X-ray pulsars during giant outbursts

The discovery of source states in the X-ray emission of black-hole binaries and neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries constituted a major step forward in the understanding of the physics of accretion onto compact objects. While there are numerous studies on the correlated timing and spectral variability of these systems, very little work has been done on high-mass X-ray binaries, the third major type of X-ray binaries. The main goal of this work is to investigate whether Be accreting X-ray pulsars display source states and characterise those states through their spectral and timing properties. We have made a systematic study of the power spectra, energy spectra and X-ray hardness-intensity diagrams of nine Be/X-ray pulsars. The evolution of the timing and spectral parameters were monitored through changes over two orders of magnitude in luminosity. We find that Be/X-ray pulsars trace two different branches in the hardness-intensity diagram: the horizontal branch corresponds to a low-intensity state of the source and it is characterised by fast colour and spectral changes and high X-ray variability. The diagonal branch is a high-intensity state that emerges when the X-ray luminosity exceeds a critical limit. The photon index anticorrelates with X-ray flux in the horizontal branch but correlates with it in the diagonal branch. The correlation between QPO frequency and X-ray flux reported in some pulsars is also observed if the peak frequency of the broad-band noise that accounts for the aperiodic variability is used. The two branches may reflect two different accretion modes, depending on whether the luminosity of the source is above or below a critical value. This critical luminosity is mainly determined by the magnetic field strength, hence it differs for different sources.Comment: Complete missing words in title. Proof corrections adde

BeppoSAX observations of soft X-ray Intermediate Polars

We present broad-band (0.1--90keV) spectral and temporal properties of the three Intermediate Polars, RE0751+144 (PQ Gem), RXJ0558.0+5353 (V405Aur) and RXJ1712.6-2414 (V2400 Oph) based on simultaneous soft and hard X-ray observations with the BeppoSAX satellite. The analysis of their spectra over the wide energy range of BeppoSAX instruments allows us to identify the soft and hard X-ray components and to determine simultaneously their temperatures. The black--body temperatures of the irradiated poles of the white dwarf atmosphere are found to be 60--100eV, much higher than those found in their synchronous analogues, the Polars. The temperature of the optically thin post--shock plasma is well constrained in RXJ1712.6-2414 and in RE0751+144 (13 and 17keV) and less precisely determined in RXJ0558.0+5353. In the first two systems evidence of subsolar abundances is found, similarly to what estimated in other magnetic Cataclysmic Variables. A Compton reflection component is present in RXJ0558.0+5353 and in RE0751+144 and it is favoured in RXJ1712.6-2414. Its origin is likely at the irradiated white dwarf surface. Although these systems share common properties (soft X-ray component and optical polarized radiation), their X-ray power spectra and light curves at different energies suggest accretion geometries which cannot be reconciled with a single and simple configuration.Comment: 12 pages, 15 postscript figures, LateX, uses aa.cls. Accepted for publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics Main Journa

Real-world and natural history data for drug evaluation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: suitability of the North Star Ambulatory Assessment for comparisons with external controls

Using external controls based on real-world or natural history data (RWD/NHD) for drug evaluations in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is appealing given the challenges of enrolling placebo-controlled trials, especially for multi-year trials. Comparisons to external controls, however, face risks of bias due to differences in outcomes between trial and RWD/NHD settings. To assess this bias empirically, we conducted a multi-institution study comparing mean 48-week changes in North Star Ambulatory Assessment (NSAA) total score between trial placebo arms and RWD/NHD sources, with and without adjustment for baseline prognostic factors. Analyses used data from three placebo arms (235 48-week intervals, N = 235 patients) and three RWD/NHD sources (348 intervals, N = 202 patients). Differences in mean ΔNSAA between placebo arms and RWD/NHD sources were small before adjustment (-1.2 units, 95% CI: [-2.0 -0.5]) and were attenuated and no longer statistically significant after adjustment (0.1 units (95% CI: [-0.6, 0.8]). Results were similar whether adjusting using multivariable regression or propensity score matching. This consistency in ΔNSAA between trial placebo arms and RWD/NHD sources accords with prior findings for the six-minute walk distance, provides a well-validated framework for baseline adjustment of prognostic factors, and supports the suitability of RWD/NHD external controls for drug evaluations in ambulatory DMD