Evolution induced by dry minor mergers onto fast-rotator S0 galaxies

Tapia, Trinidad et al.[Context] Numerical studies have shown that the properties of the S0 galaxies with kinematics intermediate between fast and slow rotators are difficult to explain by a scenario of major mergers.[Aims] We investigate whether the smoother perturbation induced by minor mergers can reproduce these systems.[Methods] We analysed collisionless N-body simulations of intermediate and minor dry mergers onto S0s to determine the structural and kinematic evolution induced by the encounters. The original primary galaxies represent gas-poor fast-rotator S0b and S0c galaxies with high intrinsic ellipticities. The original bulges are intrinsically spherical and have low rotation. Different mass ratios, parent bulges, density ratios, and orbits were studied.[Results] Minor mergers induce a lower decrease of the global rotational support (as provided by λe) than encounters of lower mass ratios, which results in S0s with properties intermediate between fast and slow rotators. The resulting remnants are intrinsically more triaxial, less flattened, and span the whole range of apparent ellipticities up to εe ∼ 0.8. They do not show lower apparent ellipticities in random projections than initially; on the contrary, the formation of oval distortions and the disc thickening increase the percentage of projections at 0.4 0.9), but exhibit a wide range of triaxialities (0.20 < T < 1.00). In the plane of global anisotropy of velocities (δ) vs.? intrinsic ellipticity (εe,intr), some of our models extend the linear trend found in previous major merger simulations towards higher ε e,intr values, while others clearly depart from it (depending on the progenitor S0). This is consistent with the wide dispersion exhibited by real S0s in this diagram compared with ellipticals, which follow the linear trend drawn by major merger simulations.[Conclusions] The smoother changes induced by minor mergers can explain the existence of S0s with intermediate kinematic properties between fast and slow rotators that are difficult to explain with major mergers. The different trends exhibited by ellipticals and S0 galaxies in the δ - εe diagram may be pointing to the different role played by major mergers in the build-up of each morphological type. © ESO 2014.Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under projects AYA2006-12955, AYA2009-10368, AYA2009-11137, AYA2012- 30717, AYA2010-21322-C03-02, AYA2010-21887-C04-04, and by the Madrid Regional Government through the AstroMadrid Project (CAM S2009/ESP-1496, http://www.laeff.cab.inta-csic.es/projects/astromadrid/main/index.php). Funded by the Spanish MICINN under the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Program grant CSD2006- 0070: “First Science with the GTC” (http://www.iac.es/consolider-ingenio-gtc/), and by the Spanish programme of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). A.C.G.G. is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow of the Spanish MINECO.Peer Reviewe

A MPC Strategy for the Optimal Management of Microgrids Based on Evolutionary Optimization

In this paper, a novel model predictive control strategy, with a 24-h prediction horizon, is proposed to reduce the operational cost of microgrids. To overcome the complexity of the optimization problems arising from the operation of the microgrid at each step, an adaptive evolutionary strategy with a satisfactory trade-off between exploration and exploitation capabilities was added to the model predictive control. The proposed strategy was evaluated using a representative microgrid that includes a wind turbine, a photovoltaic plant, a microturbine, a diesel engine, and an energy storage system. The achieved results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach, outperforming a global scheduling planner-based on a genetic algorithm by 14.2% in terms of operational cost. In addition, the proposed approach also better manages the use of the energy storage system.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2016-75294-C2-2-RUnión Europea (Programa Horizonte 2020) 76409

Publicidad in-Game. Los videojuegos como soporte publicitario

Los videojuegos se han convertido en una opción de primer orden de ocio no sólo en jóvenes, sino en sectores tradicionalmente alejados de esta forma de ocio como adultos o mujeres. Estudios de desarrollo, anunciantes y organizaciones que median entre ambos han descubierto el potencial que ofrecen los videojuegos como soporte de comunicación publicitaria. Así, el advergame y la publicidad in-game han devenido un potente y dinámico medio para comunicar ideas, productos, servicios u objetos de modo original, que además ofrece a los estudios de desarrollo de videojuegos una interesante vía de financiación y fuertes retornos de inversión. Los anunciantes pueden elegir tanto soportes tradicionales –vallas, opis, etc– como novedosos –que incluyen soportes fantásticos o simplemente imposibles en el mundo real–. Destaca en el caso de la publicidad in-game la posibilidad de ofrecer al anunciante la interacción directa del jugador con la marca, aportando en este caso al jugador efectos positivos en el discurso narrativo –cuando la publicidad es pertinente– y al anunciante niveles de recuerdo muy positivos, superiores a los mostrados en medios tradicionales, además de la construcción del discurso de la marca a través de la interacción con el jugador. En este artículo se examinan y clarifican los conceptos de advertainment, advergame y publicidad in-game; se analiza la situación actual de la industria de desarrollo de videojuegos en relación a las inversiones publicitarias en ese medio, y se estudian los efectos que la publicidad in-game genera en los videojugadores.Video games have become a prime choice of entertainment not only for young people but also in adults or women. Development Studies advertisers and organizations that mediate between them have discovered the potential of videogames as a medium for marketing communication. Thus, the advergame and the in-game advertising have become a powerful and dynamic medium for communicating ideas, products, services or items in an original manner, which also offers video game development studios an interesting way for finding receiving incomes. Advertisers can choose both traditional media –billboards, opis, etc.– as novel media –including fantastic or simply impossible in the real world. In the case of in-game advertising can offer the advertiser the player's direct interaction with the brand, providing in this case the player a positive impact on the narrative, when the advertising is relevant and poster-levels of memory very positive, higher than those shown in traditional media, plus the construction of discourse of the brand through interaction with the player. This article examines and clarifies the concepts of advertainment, advergames and in-game advertising, examines the current state of game development industry in relation to advertising spending in that environment, and studies the effects of advertising in -game generates among gamers

The Use of ICTs in Internal Communication of the University: The Case of Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes

El estudio de caso que se presenta tiene por objetivo el análisis del uso y la opinión de los directivos, profesores y alumnos de la Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes sobre las herramientas tecnológicas existentes. Mediante la encuesta se pone de manifiesto los altos niveles de conocimiento en las dos herramientas evaluadas: campus virtual y webmail (con un bajo nivel de uso efectivo, especialmente en el colectivo de estudiantes). En conclusión, si bien las TICs son positivamente valoradas, su uso efectivo presenta ciertas deficiencias que podrían subsanarse si se mejora el contenido de estos espacios y son usadas como canales esenciales de información entre los públicos implicados.The case study presented aims to use analysis and the opinion of management, professors and students of the Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes on existing technological tools. Through the survey it shows high levels of knowledge assessed in the two tools: a virtual campus and webmail (with a low level of use, especially in the student group). In conclusion, while ICTs are positively valued, their actual use has certain shortcomings which could be remedied by improving the content of these spaces are used as key channels of information between the public involve

Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Bulge-disc structural coupling resulting from major mergers

Observations reveal a strong structural coupling between bulge and disc in S0 galaxies, which seems difficult to explain if they have formed from supposedly catastrophic events such as major mergers. We face this question by quantifying the bulge-disc coupling in dissipative simulations of major and minor mergers that result in realistic S0s. We have studied the dissipative N-body binary merger simulations from the GalMer database that give rise to realistic, relaxed E/S0 and S0 remnants (67 major and 29 minor mergers). We simulate surface brightness profiles of these S0-like remnants in the K-band, mimicking typical observational conditions, to perform bulge-disc decompositions analogous to those carried out in real S0s. The global bulge-disc structure of these remnants has been compared with real data, and they distribute in the B/T - r_e - h_d parameter space consistently with real bright S0s, where B/T is the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio, r_e is the bulge effective radius, and h_d is the disc scalelength. Major mergers can rebuild a bulge-disc coupling in the remnants after having destroyed the structures of the progenitors, whereas minor mergers directly preserve them. Remnants exhibit B/T and r_e/h_d spanning a wide range of values, and their distribution is consistent with observations. Many remnants have bulge Sersic indices ranging 1<n<2, flat appearance, and contain residual star formation in embedded discs, a result which agrees with the presence of pseudobulges in real S0s. Contrary to the popular view, mergers (and in particular, major events) can result in S0 remnants with realistically coupled bulge-disc structures in less than ~3 Gyr. In conclusion, the bulge-disc coupling and the presence of pseudobulges in real S0s cannot be used as an argument against the possible major-merger origin of these galaxies.Comment: 23 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (version after minor language corrections

Evolution induced by dry minor mergers onto fast-rotator S0 galaxies

We analysed collisionless N-body simulations of intermediate and minor dry mergers onto S0s to test whether these mergers can generate S0 galaxies with kinematics intermediate between fast and slow rotators. We find that minor mergers induce a lower decrease of the global rotational support than encounters of lower mass ratios, which results in S0s with properties intermediate between fast and slow rotators. The resulting remnants are intrinsically more triaxial, less flattened, and span the whole range of apparent ellipticities up to $\epsilon_\mathrm{e} \sim 0.8$. They do not show lower apparent ellipticities in random projections than initially; on the contrary, the formation of oval distortions and the disc thickening increase the percentage of projections at $0.4 < \epsilon_\mathrm{e} < 0.7$. In the experiments with S0b progenitor galaxies, minor mergers tend to spin up the bulge and to decrease slightly its intrinsic ellipticity, whereas in the cases of primary S0c galaxies they keep the rotational support of the bulge nearly constant and decrease significantly its intrinsic ellipticity. The remnant bulges remain nearly spherical ($B/A \sim C/A > 0.9$), but exhibit a wide range of triaxialities ($0.20 < T < 1.00$). In the plane of global anisotropy of velocities ($\delta$) vs. intrinsic ellipticity ($\epsilon_\mathrm{e,intr}$), some of our models extend the linear trend found in previous major merger simulations towards higher $\epsilon_\mathrm{e,intr}$ values, while others depart from it. This is consistent with the wide dispersion exhibited by real S0s in this diagram compared with ellipticals, which follow the linear trend drawn by major merger simulations. The different trends exhibited by ellipticals and S0 galaxies in the $\delta$ - $\epsilon_\mathrm{e}$ diagram may be pointing to the different role played by major mergers in the build-up of each morphological type.Comment: Corrected typos. 20 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publishing in A&

PERCEPCIONES DE LOS PROFESORES DE LA BENEMÉRITA UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE PUEBLA (BUAP) EN TORNO A LA DISPONIBILIDAD DE INFRAESTRUCTURA TECNOLÓGICA

This article has the aim to identify the perception of professors about the availability of technological infrastructure at BUAP. From a quantitative methodology that involved the application of a questionnaire to 71 professors, trough an exploratory factor analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 15). Three factors explain the result. The first comprises the perception of network availability in the academic unit. The second refers to the perceived availability of hardware, and the last one is related to the perception of computers availability, showing that professors have a better perception of network availability respect to the other two factors. In addition, teachers in humanities' areas perceive a scarce availability of TIC. Also is evidenced that professors with part and full time at university have a better perception of availability of computers compared to professors that are hired per hour class. Thus, this configures a bias in the perceptions availability of technological infrastructure by university professors

Synthetic RGB photometry of bright stars: definition of the standard photometric system and UCM library of spectrophotometric spectra

Although the use of RGB photometry has exploded in the last decades due to the advent of high-quality and inexpensive digital cameras equipped with Bayer-like color filter systems, there is surprisingly no catalogue of bright stars that can be used for calibration purposes. Since due to their excessive brightness, accurate enough spectrophotometric measurements of bright stars typically cannot be performed with modern large telescopes, we have employed historical 13-color medium-narrow-band photometric data, gathered with quite reliable photomultipliers, to fit the spectrum of 1346 bright stars using stellar atmosphere models. This not only constitutes a useful compilation of bright spectrophotometric standards well spread in the celestial sphere, the UCM library of spectrophotometric spectra, but allows the generation of a catalogue of reference RGB magnitudes, with typical random uncertainties $\sim 0.01$ mag. For that purpose, we have defined a new set of spectral sensitivity curves, computed as the median of 28 sets of empirical sensitivity curves from the literature, that can be used to establish a standard RGB photometric system. Conversions between RGB magnitudes computed with any of these sets of empirical RGB curves and those determined with the new standard photometric system are provided. Even though particular RGB measurements from single cameras are not expected to provide extremely accurate photometric data, the repeatability and multiplicity of observations will allow access to a large amount of exploitable data in many astronomical fields, such as the detailed monitoring of light pollution and its impact on the night sky brightness, or the study of meteors, solar system bodies, variable stars, and transient objects. In addition, the RGB magnitudes presented here make the sky an accessible and free laboratory for the calibration of the cameras themselves.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Generation of Arc-Like and OIB-Like Magmas Triggered by Slab Detachment in the Eastern Mexican Alkaline Province: Petrological Evidence from the Cenozoic Sierra de San Carlos-Cruillas Complex, Tamaulipas

The origin of the Eastern Mexican Alkaline Province has been explained by landward arc migration and subsequent asthenospheric upwelling after slab roll-back of the Farallon Plate. In this work, we present new petrographic, mineral chemical, geochemical, and geochronological data of the Sierra de San Carlos-Cruillas (SSCC), one of the most important complexes in the province. This information, together with published data, helped us to reinterpret the tectonic processes operating during the generation of this province, as well as the mantle sources involved in the partial melting process. Detailed geochemical analysis suggests the participation of two types of metasomatized mantle regions: a lithospheric source modified by past subduction processes and an asthenospheric source slightly affected by carbonatite-related metasomatism. Variations in the partial melting degrees controlled the extent of magma enrichment in the latter. Major and trace element geochemistry, together with geochronological data and field relations, evinced an older post-orogenic setting related to the arc-like rocks (Eocene) and a younger intraplate extensional environment associated with all enriched igneous rocks (Oligocene-Miocene). Bivariate diagrams of SiO2-trace element ratios and multi-element patterns indicate that magmas from the SSCC complex dominantly evolved through fractional crystallization with a limited crustal contribution. Petrographic and mineral chemistry features suggest that some of these magmas experienced open-system processes (e.g. recharge events) in a complex and dynamic magmatic feeding system. In contrast to the traditional petrotectonic model, we propound that the passage and subsequent foundering of the Hess conjugate under northeastern Mexico resulted in its eclogitization and triggered slab tearing and succeeding detachment. This latter process occasioned mantle upwelling and the partial melting of the two recognized metasomatized mantle sources, thus generating the San Carlos-Cruillas magmatism