Aligned Molecular Clouds towards SS433 and L=348.5 degrees; Possible Evidence for Galactic "Vapor Trail" Created by Relativistic Jet

We have carried out a detailed analysis of the NANTEN 12CO(J=1-0) dataset in two large areas of ~25 square degrees towards SS433 (l~40 degree) and of ~18 square degrees towards l~348.5 degree, respectively. We have discovered two groups of remarkably aligned molecular clouds at |b|~1--5 degree in the two regions. In SS433, we have detected 10 clouds in total, which are well aligned nearly along the axis of the X-ray jet emanating from SS433. These clouds have similar line-of-sight velocities of 42--56 km s^-1 and the total projected length of the feature is ~300 pc, three times larger than that of the X-ray jet, at a distance of 3 kpc. Towards l~348.5 degree, we have detected four clouds named as MJG348.5 at line-of-sight velocities of -80 -- -95 km s^-1 in V_LSR, which also show alignment nearly perpendicular to the Galactic plane. The total length of the feature is ~400 pc at a kinematic distance of 6 kpc. In the both cases, the CO clouds are distributed at high galactic latitudes where such clouds are very rare. In addition, their alignments and coincidence in velocity should be even rarer, suggesting that they are physically associated. We tested a few possibilities to explain these clouds, including protostellar outflows, supershells, and interactions with energetic jets. Among them, a favorable scenario is that the interaction between relativistic jet and the interstellar medium induced the formation of molecular clouds over the last ~10^5-6 yrs. It is suggested that the timescale of the relativistic jet may be considerably larger, in the order of 10^5-6 yrs, than previously thought in SS433. The driving engine of the jet is obviously SS433 itself in SS433, although the engine is not yet identified in MJG348.5 among possible several candidates detected in the X-rays and TeV gamma rays.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, already published in PASJ, 2008,60, 71

A Catalog of MIPSGAL Disk and Ring Sources

We present a catalog of 416 extended, resolved, disk- and ring-like objects as detected in the MIPSGAL 24 micron survey of the Galactic plane. This catalog is the result of a search in the MIPSGAL image data for generally circularly symmetric, extended "bubbles" without prior knowledge or expectation of their physical nature. Most of the objects have no extended counterpart at 8 or 70 micron, with less than 20% detections at each wavelength. For the 54 objects with central point sources, the sources are nearly always seen in all IRAC bands. About 70 objects (16%) have been previously identified, with another 35 listed as IRAS sources. Among the identified objects, those with central sources are mostly listed as emission-line stars, but with other source types including supernova remnants, luminous blue variables, and planetary nebulae. The 57 identified objects (of 362) without central sources are nearly all PNe (~90%).which suggests that a large fraction of the 300+ unidentified objects in this category are also PNe. These identifications suggest that this is primarily a catalog of evolved stars. Also included in the catalog are two filamentary objects that are almost certainly SNRs, and ten unusual compact extended objects discovered in the search. Two of these show remarkable spiral structure at both 8 and 24 micron. These are likely background galaxies previously hidden by the intervening Galactic plane

ASCA observations of the nearby galaxies Dwingeloo 1 and Maffei 1

We present ASCA observations of the nearby galaxies Dwingeloo 1 (Dw1) and Maffei 1 (Mf1). X-ray sources are clearly detected within 3 arcminutes of the optical nuclei of both galaxies. Despite the low Galactic latitude of these fields (|b|<1\degmark) we conclude, on probability and spectral grounds, that the detected sources are intrinsic to these galaxies rather than foreground or background interlopers. The Dw1 source, designated Dw1-X1, is interpreted as being either a hyper-luminous X-ray binary (with a 0.5--10\,keV luminosity of more than 10^{39}\ergps) or an X-ray bright supernova. The Mf1 emission is hard and extended, suggesting that it originates from a population of X-ray binaries. Prompted by the Dw1-X1 results, we discuss the nature of hyper-luminous X-ray binary systems. Such sources are commonly seen in nearby galaxies with a frequency of approximately one per galaxy. We present a possible connection between these luminous systems and Galactic superluminal sources.Comment: 9 pages (4 ps figures included). Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Higher quality reproductions of Figure 1 available upon reques

The Molecular ISM of Dwarf Galaxies on Kiloparsec Scales: A New Survey for CO in Northern, IRAS-detected Dwarf Galaxies

We present a new survey for CO in dwarf galaxies using the Kitt Peak 12m telescope. We observed the central regions of 121 northern dwarfs with IRAS detections and no known CO emission. We detect CO in 28 of these galaxies and marginally detect another 16, increasing by about 50% the number of such galaxies known to have significant CO emission. The galaxies we detect are comparable in mass to the LMC, although somewhat brighter in CO and fainter in the FIR. Within dwarfs, we find that the CO luminosity, L_CO, is most strongly correlated with the K-band and the far infrared luminosities. There are also strong correlations with the radio continuum and B-band luminosities, and linear diameter. We suggest that L_CO and L_K correlate well because the stellar component of a galaxy dominates the midplane gravitational field and thus sets the pressure of the atomic gas, which controls the formation of H_2 from HI. We compare our sample with more massive galaxies and find that dwarfs and large galaxies obey the same relationship between CO and the 1.4 GHz radio continuum (RC) surface brightness. This relationship is well described by a Schmidt Law with Sigma_RC proportional to Sigma_CO^1.3. Therefore, dwarf galaxies and large spirals exhibit the same relationship between molecular gas and star formation rate (SFR). We find that this result is robust to moderate changes in the RC-to-SFR and CO-to-H_2 conversion factors. Our data appear to be inconsistent with large (order of magnitude) variations in the CO-to-H_2 conversion factor in the star forming molecular gas. [abridged]Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, 5 tables, ApJ accepte

State-Of-The-Art Review

Focal adhesions (FA) are large macromolecular assemblies relevant for various cellular and pathological events such as migration, polarization, and metastatic cancer formation. At FA sites at the migrating periphery of a cell, hundreds of players gather and form a network to respond to extra cellular stimuli transmitted by the integrin receptor, the most upstream component within a cell, initiating the FA signaling pathway. Numerous cellular experiments have been performed to understand the FA architecture and functions; however, their intricate network formation hampers unraveling the precise molecular actions of individual players. Here, in vitro bottom-up reconstitution presents an advantageous approach for elucidating the FA machinery and the hierarchical crosstalk of involved cellular players