ALBERT

Description: We present here a review of the latest results on the spatially-resolved analysis of the stellar populations and ionized gas of disk-dominated galaxies based on Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) data. CALIFA is an ongoing integral field spectroscopy (IFS) survey of galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 〈 z 〈 0.03) that has already obtained spectroscopic information up to \(\sim\)2.5 \(r_e\) with a spatial resolution better than \(\sim\)1 kpc for a total number of more than 600 galaxies of different morphological types, covering the color-magnitude diagram up to M\(_{\rm R}〈-\)18 mag. With nearly 2000 spectra obtained for each galaxy, CALIFA offers one of the best IFU datasets to study the star formation histories and chemical enrichment of galaxies. In this article, we focus on the main results from the analysis of the oxygen abundances based on the study of ionized gas in \HII\ regions and individual spaxels and their relation to the global properties of galaxies, using an updated/revised dataset with more galaxies and ionized regions. In summary, we have confirmed previous published results indicating that: (1) the \mz\ relation does not present a secondary relation to the star formation rate, when the abundance is measured at the effective radius; (2) the oxygen abundance presents a strong correlation with the stellar surface density (\Sz\ relation); (3) the oxygen abundance profiles present three well-defined regimes: (i) an overall negative radial gradient between 0.5 and 2 \(r_e\), with a characteristic slope of \(\alpha_{O/H}\) \(\sim\)\(-\)0.1 dex/\(r_e\); (ii) a universal flattening beyond \(>\)2 \(r_e\); and (iii) an inner drop at \(〈\)0.5 \(r_e\) that depends on mass; (4) the presence of bending in the surface brightness profile of disk galaxies is not clearly related to either the change in the shape of the oxygen abundance profile or the properties of the underlying stellar population. All of these results indicate that disk galaxies present an overall inside-out growth, with chemical enrichment and stellar mass growth tightly correlated and dominated by local processes and limited effects of radial mixing or global outflows. However, clear deviations are shown with respect to this simple scenario, which affect the abundance profiles in both the innermost and outermost regions of galaxies.

Description: The flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1510-089 is a monitored target in many wavelength bands due to its high variability. It was detected as a very-high-energy (VHE) γ-ray emitter with H.E.S.S. in 2009, and has since been a regular target of VHE observations by the imaging Cherenkov observatories H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. In this paper, we summarize the current state of results focusing on the monitoring effort with H.E.S.S. and the discovery of a particularly strong VHE flare in 2016 with H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. While the source has now been established as a weak, but regular emitter at VHE, no correlation with other energy bands has been established. This is underlined by the 2016 VHE flare, where the detected optical and high-energy γ-ray counterparts evolve differently than the VHE flux.

Description: Galaxies, Vol. 6, Pages 94: ALMA’s Acute View of pPNe: Through the Magnifying Glass... and What We Found There Galaxies doi: 10.3390/galaxies6030094 Authors: Carmen Sánchez Contreras Javier Alcolea Valentín Bujarrabal Arancha Castro-Carrizo We present recent Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)-based studies of circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) around Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and pre-Planetary Nebulae (pPNe). In only a few years of operation, ALMA is revolutionising the field of AGB-to-PN research by providing unprecedentedly detailed information on the complex nebular architecture (at large but also on small scales down to a few ∼10 AU from the centre), dynamics and chemistry of the outflows/envelopes of low-to-intermediate mass stars in their late stages of the evolution. Here, we focus on continuum and molecular line mapping studies with high angular resolution and sensitivity of some objects that are key to understanding the complex PN-shaping process. In particular, we offer (i) a brief summary of ALMA observations of rotating disks in post-AGB objects and (ii) report on ALMA observations of OH 231.8+4.2 providing the most detailed and accurate description of the global nebular structure and kinematics of this iconic object to date.

Description: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most prevalent lung diseases worldwide. COPD patients show major dysfunction in cardiac autonomic modulation due to sustained hypoxaemia, which has been significantly related to higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a frequent comorbidity in COPD patients. It has been found that patients suffering from both COPD and OSAS simultaneously, the so-called overlap syndrome, have notably higher morbidity and mortality. Heart rate variability (HRV) has demonstrated to be useful to assess changes in autonomic functioning in different clinical conditions. However, there is still little scientific evidence on the magnitude of changes in cardiovascular dynamics elicited by the combined effect of both respiratory diseases, particularly during sleep, when apnoeic events occur. In this regard, we hypothesised that a non-linear analysis is able to provide further insight into long-term dynamics of overnight cardiovascular modulation. Accordingly, this study is aimed at assessing the usefulness of sample entropy (SampEn) to distinguish changes in overnight pulse rate variability (PRV) recordings among three patient groups while sleeping: COPD, moderate-to-severe OSAS, and overlap syndrome. In order to achieve this goal, a population composed of 297 patients were studied: 22 with COPD alone, 213 showing moderate-to-severe OSAS, and 62 with COPD and moderate-to-severe OSAS simultaneously (COPD+OSAS). Cardiovascular dynamics were analysed using pulse rate (PR) recordings from unattended pulse oximetry carried out at patients’ home. Conventional time- and frequency- domain analyses were performed to characterise sympathetic and parasympathetic activation of the nervous system, while SampEn was applied to quantify long-term changes in irregularity. Our analyses revealed that overnight PRV recordings from COPD+OSAS patients were significantly more irregular (higher SampEn) than those from patients with COPD alone (0.267 [0.210–0.407] vs. 0.212 [0.151–0.267]; p 〈 0.05) due to recurrent apnoeic events during the night. Similarly, COPD + OSAS patients also showed significantly higher irregularity in PRV during the night than subjects with OSAS alone (0.267 [0.210–0.407] vs. 0.241 [0.189–0.325]; p = 0.05), which suggests that the cumulative effect of both diseases increases disorganization of pulse rate while sleeping. On the other hand, no statistical significant differences were found between COPD and COPD + OSAS patients when traditional frequency bands (LF and HF) were analysed. We conclude that SampEn is able to properly quantify changes in overnight cardiovascular dynamics of patients with overlap syndrome, which could be useful to assess cardiovascular impairment in COPD patients due to the presence of concomitant OSAS.

Description: A basic pattern in the body plan architecture of many animals, plants and some molecular and cellular systems is five-part units. This pattern has been understood as a result of genetic blueprints in development and as a widely conserved evolutionary character. Despite some efforts, a definitive explanation of the abundance of pentagonal symmetry at so many levels of complexity is still missing. Based on both, a computational platform and a statistical spatial organization argument, we show that five-fold morphology is substantially different from other abundant symmetries like three-fold, four-fold and six-fold symmetries in terms of spatial interacting elements. We develop a measuring system to determine levels of spatial organization in 2D polygons (homogeneous or heterogeneous partition of defined areas) based on principles of regularity in a morphospace. We found that spatial organization of five-fold symmetry is statistically higher than all other symmetries studied here (3 to 10-fold symmetries) in terms of spatial homogeneity. The significance of our findings is based on the statistical constancy of geometrical constraints derived from spatial organization of shapes, beyond the material or complexity level of the many different systems where pentagonal symmetry occurs.

Description: The interpretation of opinion and satisfaction surveys based exclusively on statistical analysis often faces difficulties due to the nature of the information and the requirements of the available statistical methods. These difficulties include the concurrence of categorical information with answers based on Likert scales with only a few levels, or the distancing of the necessary heuristic approach of the decision support system (DSS). The artificial neural network used for data analysis, called Kohonen or self-organizing maps (SOM), although rarely used for survey analysis, has been applied in many fields, facilitating the graphical representation and the simple interpretation of high-dimensionality data. This clustering method, based on unsupervised learning, also allows obtaining profiles of respondents without the need to provide additional information for the creation of these clusters. In this work, we propose the identification of profiles using SOM for evaluating opinion surveys. Subsequently, non-parametric chi-square tests were first conducted to contrast whether answer was independent of each profile found, and in the case of statistical significance (p ≤ 0.05), the odds ratio was evaluated as an indicator of the effect size of such dependence. Finally, all results were displayed in an odds and cluster heat map so that they could be easily interpreted and used to make decisions regarding the survey results. The methodology was applied to the analysis of a survey based on forms administered to children (N = 459) about their perception of the urban environment close to their school, obtaining relevant results, facilitating results interpretation, and providing support to the decision-process.

Description: One possible and natural derivation from the collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) standard cosmological framework is the assumption of the existence of interactions between dark matter (DM) and photons or neutrinos. Such a possible interacting dark matter (IDM) model would imply a suppression of small-scale structures due to a large collisional damping effect, even though the weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) can still be the DM candidate. Because of this, IDM models can help alleviate alleged tensions between standard CDM predictions and observations at small mass scales. In this work, we investigate the properties of the DM halo substructure or subhalos formed in a high-resolution cosmological N-body simulation specifically run within these alternative models. We also run its CDM counterpart, which allowed us to compare subhalo properties in both cosmologies. We show that, in the lower mass range covered by our simulation runs, both subhalo concentrations and abundances are systematically lower in IDM compared to the CDM scenario. Yet, as in CDM, we find that median IDM subhalo concentration values increase towards the innermost regions of their hosts for the same mass subhalos. Similarly to CDM, we find IDM subhalos to be more concentrated than field halos of the same mass. Our work has a direct application to studies aimed at the indirect detection of DM where subhalos are expected to boost the DM signal of their host halos significantly. From our results, we conclude that the role of the halo substructure in DM searches will be less important in interacting scenarios than in CDM, but is nevertheless far from being negligible.