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- Abdo, A. A., et al.
(author)
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A Population of Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars Seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
- 2009
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 325:5942, s. 848-852
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pulsars are born with subsecond spin periods and slow by electromagnetic braking for several tens of millions of years, when detectable radiation ceases. A second life can occur for neutron stars in binary systems. They can acquire mass and angular momentum from their companions, to be spun up to millisecond periods and begin radiating again. We searched Fermi Large Area Telescope data for pulsations from all known millisecond pulsars (MSPs) outside of globular clusters, using rotation parameters from radio telescopes. Strong gamma-ray pulsations were detected for eight MSPs. The gamma-ray pulse profiles and spectral properties resemble those of young gamma-ray pulsars. The basic emission mechanism seems to be the same for MSPs and young pulsars, with the emission originating in regions far from the neutron star surface.
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- Abdo, A. A., et al.
(author)
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PULSED GAMMA RAYS FROM THE MILLISECOND PULSAR J0030+0451 WITH THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE
- 2009
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 699:2, s. 1171-1177
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of gamma-ray pulsations from the nearby isolated millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR J0030+0451 with the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST). This discovery makes PSR J0030+0451 the second MSP to be detected in gamma rays after PSR J0218+4232, observed by the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The spin-down power (E) over dot = 3.5 x 10(33) erg s(-1) is an order of magnitude lower than the empirical lower bound of previously known gamma-ray pulsars. The emission profile is characterized by two narrow peaks, 0.07 +/- 0.01 and 0.08 +/- 0.02 wide, respectively, separated by 0.44 +/- 0.02 in phase. The first gamma-ray peak falls 0.15 +/- 0.01 after the main radio peak. The pulse shape is similar to that of the "normal" gamma-ray pulsars. An exponentially cutoff power-law fit of the emission spectrum leads to an integral photon flux above 100 MeV of (6.76 +/- 1.05 +/- 1.35) x 10(-8) cm(-2) s(-1) with cutoff energy (1.7 +/- 0.4 +/- 0.5) GeV. Based on its parallax distance of (300 +/- 90) pc, we obtain a gamma-ray efficiency L-gamma/E similar or equal to 15% for the conversion of spin-down energy rate into gamma-ray radiation, assuming isotropic emission.
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3. |
- Abdo, A. A., et al.
(author)
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Detection of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae with Fermi
- 2009
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 325:5942, s. 845-848
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the detection of gamma-ray emissions above 200 megaelectron volts at a significance level of 17 sigma from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, using data obtained with the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Globular clusters are expected to emit gamma rays because of the large populations of millisecond pulsars that they contain. The spectral shape of 47 Tucanae is consistent with gamma-ray emission from a population of millisecond pulsars. The observed gamma-ray luminosity implies an upper limit of 60 millisecond pulsars present in 47 Tucanae.
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4. |
- Birney, Ewan, et al.
(author)
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Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project
- 2007
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 447:7146, s. 799-816
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the generation and analysis of functional data from multiple, diverse experiments performed on a targeted 1% of the human genome as part of the pilot phase of the ENCODE Project. These data have been further integrated and augmented by a number of evolutionary and computational analyses. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge about human genome function in several major areas. First, our studies provide convincing evidence that the genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases can be found in primary transcripts, including non-protein-coding transcripts, and those that extensively overlap one another. Second, systematic examination of transcriptional regulation has yielded new understanding about transcription start sites, including their relationship to specific regulatory sequences and features of chromatin accessibility and histone modification. Third, a more sophisticated view of chromatin structure has emerged, including its inter-relationship with DNA replication and transcriptional regulation. Finally, integration of these new sources of information, in particular with respect to mammalian evolution based on inter- and intra-species sequence comparisons, has yielded new mechanistic and evolutionary insights concerning the functional landscape of the human genome. Together, these studies are defining a path for pursuit of a more comprehensive characterization of human genome function.
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8. |
- Margulies, Elliott H, et al.
(author)
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Analyses of deep mammalian sequence alignments and constraint predictions for 1% of the human genome
- 2007
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In: Genome Research. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1088-9051 .- 1549-5469. ; 17:6, s. 760-774
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A key component of the ongoing ENCODE project involves rigorous comparative sequence analyses for the initially targeted 1% of the human genome. Here, we present orthologous sequence generation, alignment, and evolutionary constraint analyses of 23 mammalian species for all ENCODE targets. Alignments were generated using four different methods; comparisons of these methods reveal large-scale consistency but substantial differences in terms of small genomic rearrangements, sensitivity (sequence coverage), and specificity (alignment accuracy). We describe the quantitative and qualitative trade-offs concomitant with alignment method choice and the levels of technical error that need to be accounted for in applications that require multisequence alignments. Using the generated alignments, we identified constrained regions using three different methods. While the different constraint-detecting methods are in general agreement, there are important discrepancies relating to both the underlying alignments and the specific algorithms. However, by integrating the results across the alignments and constraint-detecting methods, we produced constraint annotations that were found to be robust based on multiple independent measures. Analyses of these annotations illustrate that most classes of experimentally annotated functional elements are enriched for constrained sequences; however, large portions of each class (with the exception of protein-coding sequences) do not overlap constrained regions. The latter elements might not be under primary sequence constraint, might not be constrained across all mammals, or might have expendable molecular functions. Conversely, 40% of the constrained sequences do not overlap any of the functional elements that have been experimentally identified. Together, these findings demonstrate and quantify how many genomic functional elements await basic molecular characterization.
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10. |
- Birney, Ewan, et al.
(author)
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Prepublication data sharing
- 2009
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 461:7261, s. 168-170
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rapid release of prepublication data has served the field of genomics well. Attendees at a workshop in Toronto recommend extending the practice to other biological data sets.
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