49 research outputs found
Density waves and star formation in grand design spirals
HII regions in the arms of spiral galaxies are indicators of recent
star-forming processes. They may have been caused by the passage of the density
wave or simply created by other means near the arms. The study of these regions
may give us clues to clarifying the controversy over the existence of a
triggering scenario, as proposed in the density wave theory. Using H
direct imaging, we characterize the HII regions from a sample of three grand
design galaxies: NGC5457, NGC628 and NGC6946. Broad band images in R and I were
used to determine the position of the arms. The HII regions found to be
associated with arms were selected for the study. The age and the star
formation rate of these HII regions was obtained using measures on the
H line. The distance between the current position of the selected HII
regions and the position they would have if they had been created in the centre
of the arm is calculated. A parameter, T, which measures whether a region was
created in the arm or in the disc, is defined. With the help of the T parameter
we determine that the majority of regions were formed some time after the
passage of the density wave, with the regions located `behind the arm' (in the
direction of the rotation of the galaxy) the zone they should have occupied had
they been formed in the centre of the arm. The presence of the large number of
regions created after the passage of the arm may be explained by the effect of
the density wave, which helps to create the star-forming regions after its
passage. There is clear evidence of triggering for NGC5457 and a co-rotation
radius is proposed. A more modest triggering seems to exist for NGC628 and non
significant evidence of triggering are found for NGC6946.Comment: 10 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Effects of photon escape on diagnostic diagrams for HII regions
In this article we first outline the mounting evidence that a significant
fraction of the ionizing photons emitted by OB stars within HII regions escape
from their immediate surroundings and explain how an HII region structure
containing high density contrast in homogeneities facilitates this escape. Next
we describe sets of models containing inhomogeneities which are used to predict
tracks in the commonly used diagnostic diagrams (based on ratios of emission
lines) whose only independent variable is the photon escape fraction, xi. We
show that the tracks produced by the models in two of the most cited of these
diagrams conform well to the distribution of observed data points, with the
models containing optically thick inhomogeneities ("CLUMPY" models) yielding
somewhat better agreement than those with optically thin inhomogeneities ("FF"
models). We show how variations in the ionization parameter U, derived from
emission line ratios, could be due to photon escape. Using a rather wide range
of assumptions about the filling factor of dense clumps we find, for a selected
set of regions observed in M51 photon escape fraction ranging between 30% and
50%. We show, using oxygen as the test element, that models with different
assumptions about the gas inhomogeneity will give variations in the abundance
values derived from diagnostic diagrams, but do not claim here to have a fully
developed set of diagnostic tools to improve abundance determinations made in
this way. We finally propose a combination of line ratios with the absolute
Halpha luminosity of a given HII region, which allows us to determine the
photon escape fraction, and hence resolve the degeneracy between U and xi.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Blue compact dwarf galaxies with nitrogen overabundance: a view from integral field spectroscopy
This is an electronic version of the poster presented at the IX Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), held on September 13-17, 2010, in Madrid.The summary of the poster appears in Zapatero Osorio, M.R. et al. (eds.). Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VI. Proceedings of the IX Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), held on September 13-17, 2010, in Madrid. Barcelona: Sociedad Española de AstronomĂa, 2011. 39
FIR-detected Lyman break galaxies at z ~ 3: Dust attenuation and dust correction factors at high redshift
Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) represent one of the kinds of star-forming
galaxies that are found in the high-redshift universe. The detection of LBGs in
the FIR domain can provide very important clues on their dust attenuation and
total SFR, allowing a more detailed study than those performed so far. In this
work we explore the FIR emission of a sample of 16 LBGs at z ~ 3 in the
GOODS-North and GOODS-South fields that are individually detected in PACS-100um
or PACS-160um. These detections demonstrate the possibility of measuring the
dust emission of LBGs at high redshift. We find that PACS-detected LBGs at z ~
3 are highly obscured galaxies which belong to the Ultra luminous IR galaxies
or Hyper luminous IR galaxies class. Their total SFR cannot be recovered with
the dust attenuation factors obtained from their UV continuum slope or their
SED-derived dust attenuation employing Bruzual & Charlot (2003) templates. Both
methods underestimate the results for most of the galaxies. Comparing with a
sample of PACS-detected LBGs at z ~ 1 we find evidences that the FIR emission
of LBGs might have changed with redshift in the sense that the dustiest LBGs
found at z ~ 3 have more prominent FIR emission, are dustier for a given UV
slope, and have higher SFR for a given stellar mass than the dustiest LBGs
found at z ~ 1.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A letter
The electron temperatures of SDSS high-metallicity giant extragalactic HII regions
Spectra of high-metallicity (12+log(O/H) > 8.2) HII regions where oxygen
auroral lines are measurable in both the O+ and O++ zones, have been extracted
from the Data Release 6 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our final
sample consists of 181 SDSS spectra of HII regions in galaxies in the redshift
range from ~0.025 to ~0.17. The t_2,O-t_3,O diagram is examined. In the SDSS
HII regions, the electron temperature t_2,O is found to have a large scatter at
a given value of the electron temperature t_3,O. The majority of the SDSS HII
regions lie below the t_2,O-t_3,O relation derived for HII regions in nearby
galaxies, i.e. the positions of the SDSS HII regions show a systematic shift
towards lower t_2,O temperatures or/and towards higher t_3,O temperatures. The
scatter and shift of the SDSS HII regions in the t_2,O-t_3,O diagram can be
understood if they are composite nebulae excited by two or more ionizing
sources of different temperatures.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures accepted for publication in the MNRA
A randomized, phase 2 study of deoxyuridine triphosphatase inhibitor, TAS-114, in combination with S-1 versus S-1 alone in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer
Summary
Introduction TAS-114 is a potent inhibitor of deoxyuridine triphosphatase, which is a gatekeeper protein preventing uracil and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) misincorporation into DNA. TAS-114 has been suggested to enhance the antitumor activity of 5-FU. This randomized, phase 2 study investigated TAS-114 plus S-1 (TAS-114/S-1) vs. S-1 in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods Patients with advanced NSCLC, previously treated with â„â2 regimens, were randomized 1:1 to receive TAS-114 (400 mg)/S-1 (30 mg/m2) or S-1 (30 mg/m2). Progression-free survival (PFS, independent central review) was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints included disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), overall response rate (ORR), and safety. Results In total, 127 patients received treatment. Median PFS was 3.65 and 4.17 months in the TAS-114/S-1 and S-1 groups, respectively (hazard ratio [HR] 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.71â1.88; Pâ=â0.2744). DCR was similar between groups (TAS-114/S-1 80.3%, S-1 75.9%) and median OS was 7.92 and 9.82 months for the TAS-114/S-1 and S-1 groups, respectively (HR 1.31, 95% CI 0.80â2.14; Pâ=â0.1431). The ORR was higher in the TAS-114/S-1 group than the S-1 group (19.7% vs. 10.3%), and more patients with tumor shrinkage were observed in the TAS-114/S-1 group. Incidence rates of anemia, skin toxicities, and Gradeââ„â3 treatment-related adverse events were higher in the TAS-114/S-1 group compared with the monotherapy group. Conclusions Although the TAS-114/S-1 combination improved the response rate, this did not translate into improvements in PFS. Clinical Trial Registration No. NCT02855125 (ClinicalTrials.gov) registered on 4 August 2016
Integral field spectroscopy of nitrogen overabundant blue compact dwarf galaxies
We study the spatial distribution of the physical properties and of oxygen
and nitrogen abundances in three Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxiess (HS 0128+2832, HS
0837+4717 and Mrk 930) with a reported excess of N/O in order to investigate
the nature of this excess and, particularly, if it is associated with
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars We have observed these BCDs by using PMAS integral field
spectroscopy in the optical spectral range (3700 - 6900 {\AA}), mapping their
physical-chemical properties, using both the direct method and appropriate
strong-line methods. We make a statistical analysis of the resulting
distributions and we compare them with the integrated properties of the
galaxies. Our results indicate that outer parts of the three galaxies are
placed on the "AGN-zone" of the [NII]/H{\alpha} vs. [OIII]/H{\beta} diagnostic
diagram most likely due to a high N/O combined with the excitation structure in
these regions. From the statistical analysis, it is assumed that a certain
property can be considered as spatially homogeneous (or uniform) if a normal
gaussian function fits its distribution in several regions of the galaxy.
Moreover, a disagreement between the integrated properties and the mean values
of the distribution usually appears when a gaussian does not fit the
corresponding distribution. We find that for Mrk 930, the uniformity is found
for all parameters, except for electron density and reddening. The rotation
curve together with the H{\alpha} map and UV images, reveal a perturbed
morphology and possible interacting processes. The N/O is found to be constant
in the three studied objects at spatial scales of the order of several kpc so
we conclude that the number of WR stars estimated from spectroscopy is not
sufficient to pollute the ISM and to produce the observed N/O excess in these
objectsComment: 17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Lyman break and UV-selected galaxies at z ~ 1: II. PACS-100um/160um FIR detections
We report the PACS-100um/160um detections of a sample of 42 GALEX-selected
and FIR-detected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 1 located in the COSMOS
field and analyze their ultra-violet (UV) to far-infrared (FIR) properties. The
detection of these LBGs in the FIR indicates that they have a dust content high
enough so that its emission can be directly detected. According to a spectral
energy distribution (SED) fitting with stellar population templates to their
UV-to-near-IR observed photometry, PACS-detected LBGs tend to be bigger, more
massive, dustier, redder in the UV continuum, and UV-brighter than
PACS-undetected LBGs. PACS-detected LBGs at z ~ 1 are mostly disk-like galaxies
and are located over the green-valley and red sequence of the color-magnitude
diagram of galaxies at their redshift. By using their UV and IR emission, we
find that PACS-detected LBGs tend to be less dusty and have slightly higher
total star-formation rates (SFRs) than other PACS-detected UV-selected galaxies
within their same redshift range. As a consequence of the selection effect due
to the depth of the FIR observations employed, all our PACS-detected LBGs are
LIRGs. However, none of them are in the ULIRG regime, where the FIR
observations are complete. The finding of ULIRGs-LBGs at higher redshifts
suggests an evolution of the FIR emission of LBGs with cosmic time. In an
IRX- diagram, PACS-detected LBGs at z ~ 1 tend to be located around the
relation for local starburst similarly to other UV-selected PACS-detected
galaxies at their same redshift. Consequently, the dust-correction factors
obtained with their UV continuum slope allow to determine their total SFR,
unlike at higher redshifts. However, the dust attenuation derived from UV to
NIR SED fitting overestimates the total SFR for most of our PACS-detected LBGs
in age-dependent way: the overestimation factor is higher in younger galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA