168 research outputs found
Multi-band optical variability of three TeV Blazars on Diverse Timescales
We present our optical photometric observations of three TeV blazars, PKS
1510-089, PG 1553+113 and Mrk 501 taken using two telescopes in India, one in
Bulgaria, one in Greece and one in Serbia during 2012 - 2014. These
observations covered a total of 95 nights with a total of 202 B filter frames,
247 images in V band, 817 in R band while 229 images were taken in the I
filter. This work is focused on multi-band flux and colour variability studies
of these blazars on diverse timescales which are useful in understanding the
emission mechanisms. We studied the variability characteristics of above three
blazars and found all to be active over our entire observational campaigns. We
also searched for any correlation between the brightness of the sources and
their colour indices. During the times of variability, no significant evidence
for the sources to display spectral changes correlated with magnitude was found
on timescales of a few months. We briefly discuss the possible physical
mechanisms most likely responsible for the observed flux variability.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 9 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Evolution-guided Engineering of Alpha/Beta Hydrolases
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2017. Major: Biochemistry, Molecular Bio, and Biophysics. Advisor: Romas Kazlauskas. 1 computer file (PDF); xx, 321 pages.This work applies principles from evolution to engineering enzyme properties. Specifically, by examining the phylogeny and evolved sequence diversity in a group of α/β-hydrolase fold enzymes from plants, we are able to engineer proteins with broader chemoselectivity, altered enantioselectivity, and increased stability. A number of ancestral α/β-hydrolases fold proteins were reconstructed in one set of experiments. These were more likely than related modern proteins to have relaxed chemoselectivities and, in one case, was more useful for synthesizing medicinally important molecules. Relative to modern enzymes, ancestral enzymes near functional branch points could catalyze more esterase and hydroxynitrile lyase reactions, as well as a number of other types of reactions: decarboxylation, Michael addition, γ-lactam hydrolysis, and 1,5-diketone hydrolysis. This finding helps to demonstrate the important role that enzyme promiscuity plays in the evolution of new enzymes. Additional experiments and structural analysis on one of these reconstructed ancestral enzymes, the early hydroxynitrile lyase HNL1 found that it is both more thermostable and more promiscuous than its modern relatives, HbHNL and MeHNL. X-ray crystallographic studies revealed, counterintuitively, that larger amino acids in the active site of the ancestor actually increased the size of the substrate binding pocket relative to modern relatives. To take advantage of the promiscuity observed in HNL1, it was used in the asymmetric synthesis of a precursor for the important pharmaceutical propranolol. Another set of experiments altered enantioselectivity by making phylogenetically informed mutations. The active sites from two related hydroxynitrile lyases, HbHNL and AtHNL, were modified to resemble their last common ancestor. This resulted in altered enantioselectivity, and in the case of AtHNL, reversed enantioselectivity. Surprisingly modeling suggested that some of these mutants use a previously undescribed mechanism. This may have been the extinct ancestral mechanism that served as an evolutionary stepping stone that allowed descendant lineages to diverge to either the S-HNL mechanism used by HbHNL, or the R-HNL mechanism used by AtHNL. A final set of experiments used a variety of methods to identify stabilizing mutations in another plant α/β-hydrolase, SABP2. All of the methods were able to identify stabilizing mutations. The most stabilizing mutations were identified by methods that used no structural information. Random mutagenesis identified highly stabilizing mutations, but required screening thousands of mutants. The most efficient approaches were found to be those that used sequence information from either one stable homolog, or the consensus of many homologs, to identify potential stabilizing mutations. Residues that evolution has conserved are often important for stabilizing a protein. We created a software application, Consensus Finder, to automate the process of identifying stabilizing mutations by consensus
Multiband optical variability of the blazar OJ 287 during its outbursts in 2015 -- 2016
We present recent optical photometric observations of the blazar OJ 287 taken
during September 2015 -- May 2016. Our intense observations of the blazar
started in November 2015 and continued until May 2016 and included detection of
the large optical outburst in December 2016 that was predicted using the binary
black hole model for OJ 287. For our observing campaign, we used a total of 9
ground based optical telescopes of which one is in Japan, one is in India,
three are in Bulgaria, one is in Serbia, one is in Georgia, and two are in the
USA. These observations were carried out in 102 nights with a total of ~ 1000
image frames in BVRI bands, though the majority were in the R band. We detected
a second comparably strong flare in March 2016. In addition, we investigated
multi-band flux variations, colour variations, and spectral changes in the
blazar on diverse timescales as they are useful in understanding the emission
mechanisms. We briefly discuss the possible physical mechanisms most likely
responsible for the observed flux, colour and spectral variability.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRA
Multifrequency Photo-polarimetric WEBT Observation Campaign on the Blazar S5 0716+714: Source Microvariability and Search for Characteristic Timescales
Here we report on the results of the WEBT photo-polarimetric campaign
targeting the blazar S5~0716+71, organized in March 2014 to monitor the source
simultaneously in BVRI and near IR filters. The campaign resulted in an
unprecedented dataset spanning \,h of nearly continuous, multi-band
observations, including two sets of densely sampled polarimetric data mainly in
R filter. During the campaign, the source displayed pronounced variability with
peak-to-peak variations of about and "bluer-when-brighter" spectral
evolution, consisting of a day-timescale modulation with superimposed hourlong
microflares characterized by \,mag flux changes. We performed an
in-depth search for quasi-periodicities in the source light curve; hints for
the presence of oscillations on timescales of \,h and \,h do
not represent highly significant departures from a pure red-noise power
spectrum. We observed that, at a certain configuration of the optical
polarization angle relative to the positional angle of the innermost radio jet
in the source, changes in the polarization degree led the total flux
variability by about 2\,h; meanwhile, when the relative configuration of the
polarization and jet angles altered, no such lag could be noted. The
microflaring events, when analyzed as separate pulse emission components, were
found to be characterized by a very high polarization degree () and
polarization angles which differed substantially from the polarization angle of
the underlying background component, or from the radio jet positional angle. We
discuss the results in the general context of blazar emission and energy
dissipation models.Comment: 16 pages, 17 Figures; ApJ accepte
Optical intra-day variability of the blazar S5 0716+714
We present an extensive recent multi-band optical photometric observations of
the blazar S5 0716+714 carried out over 53 nights with two telescopes in India,
two in Bulgaria, one in Serbia, and one in Egypt during 2019 November -- 2022
December. We collected 1401, 689, 14726, and 165 photometric image frames in B,
V, R, and I bands, respectively. We montiored the blazar quasi-simultaneously
during 3 nights in B, V, R, and I bands; 4 nights in B, V, and R; 2 nights in
V, R, and I; 5 nights in B and R; and 2 nights in V and R bands. We also took
37 nights of data only in R band. Single band data are used to study intraday
flux variability and two or more bands quasi-simultaneous observations allow us
to search for colour variation in the source. We employ the power-enhanced
F-test and the nested ANOVA test to search for genuine flux and color
variations in the light curves of the blazar on intraday timescales. Out of 12,
11, 53, and 5 nights observations, intraday variations with amplitudes between
~3% and ~20% are detected in 9, 8, 31 and 3 nights in B, V, R, and I bands,
respectively, corresponding to duty cycles of 75%, 73%, 58% and 60%. These duty
cycles are lower than those typically measured at earlier times. On these
timescales color variations with both bluer-when-brighter and
redder-when-brighter are seen, though nights with no measurable colour
variation are also present. We briefly discuss possible explanations for this
observed intraday variability.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for Publication in MNRA
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