The H.E.S.S. extragalactic sky

The H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescope array, located on the southern hemisphere in Namibia, studies very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from astrophysical objects. During its successful operations since 2002 more than 80 galactic and extra-galactic gamma-ray sources have been discovered. H.E.S.S. devotes over 400 hours of observation time per year to the observation of extra-galactic sources resulting in the discovery of several new sources, mostly AGNs, and in exciting physics results e.g. the discovery of very rapid variability during extreme flux outbursts of PKS 2155-304, stringent limits on the density of the extragalactic background light (EBL) in the near-infrared derived from the energy spectra of distant sources, or the discovery of short-term variability in the VHE emission from the radio galaxy M 87. With the recent launch of the Fermi satellite in 2008 new insights into the physics of AGNs at GeV energies emerged, leading to the discovery of several new extragalactic VHE sources. Multi-wavelength observations prove to be a powerful tool to investigate the production mechanism for VHE emission in AGNs. Here, new results from H.E.S.S. observations of extragalactic sources will be presented and their implications for the physics of these sources will be discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, invited review talk, in the proceedings of the "International Workshop on Beamed and Unbeamed Gamma-Rays from Galaxies" 11-15 April 2011, Lapland Hotel Olos, Muonio, Finland, Journal of Physics: Conference Series Volume 355, 201

First genome-wide CNV mapping in FELIS CATUS using next generation sequencing data

BackgroundCopy Number Variations (CNVs) have becoming very significant variants, representing a major source of genomic variation. CNVs involvement in phenotypic expression and different diseases has been widely demonstrated in humans as well as in many domestic animals. However, genome wide investigation on these structural variations is still missing in Felis catus. The present work is the first CNV mapping from a large data set of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data in the domestic cat, performed within the 99 Lives Consortium.ResultsReads have been mapped on the reference assembly_6.2 by Maverix Biomics. CNV detection with cn.MOPS and CNVnator detected 592 CNVs. These CNVs were used to obtain 154 CNV Regions (CNVRs) with BedTools, including 62 singletons. CNVRs covered 0.26% of the total cat genome with 129 losses, 19 gains and 6 complexes. Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis of the detected CNVRs showed that breeds tend to cluster together as well as cats sharing the same geographical origins. The 46 genes identified within the CNVRs were annotated.ConclusionThis study has improved the genomic characterization of 14 cat breeds and has provided CNVs information that can be used for studies of traits in cats. It can be considered a sound starting point for genomic CNVs identification in this species.Peer reviewe

Monte Carlo Performance Studies of Candidate Sites for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation gamma-ray observatory with sensitivity in the energy range from 20 GeV to beyond 300 TeV. CTA is proposed to consist of two arrays of 40-100 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, with one site located in each of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The evaluation process for the candidate sites for CTA is supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations, which take different attributes like site altitude and geomagnetic field configuration into account. In this contribution we present the comparison of the sensitivity and performance of the different CTA site candidates for the measurement of very-high energy gamma rays.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589