Ionization correction factors and dust depletion patterns in giant HII
  regions
  We provide new ionization correction factors (ICFs) for carbon, nitrogen,
neon, sulfur, chlorine, and argon in giant H II regions. The ICFs were computed
using the most representative photoionization models from a large initial grid.
The models were selected using an observational sample of 985 giant H II
regions (GHR) in spiral galaxies and blue compact galaxies (BCG). The
observational sample was also used to assign a weight to each model describing
how well it agrees with observations in the [O III]/Hbeta versus [N II]/Halpha
diagram. In addition to the ICFs we provide, for the first time, analytical
expressions for their formal uncertainties. We use our ICFs to compute the
abundances of nitrogen, neon, sulfur, and argon in our samples. Our abundances
are robust within the adopted framework, but may require revision in the case
of important changes in atomic data or in the spectral energy distribution of
the ionizing radiation in H II regions. Considering the abundance patterns we
obtained for the BCG sample (abundances for the GHR sample are less reliable)
we find that oxygen is depleted into dust grains at a rate increasing with
metallicity and reaching 0.12 dex at solar abundances. The discussion of
possible depletion of sulfur and argon requires considering recent Type Ia
Supernova yields, which are still uncertain.
