The CSI Effect: Fact or Fiction?

The CSI effect has been a subject undergoing intense scrutiny in recent years. With the ever-increasing number of television shows, such as CSI and all of its spinoffs, that poorly represent the field of forensic science, there has also been a growing concern over the effects that media has on the legal system. Prosecutors argue that the CSI effect raises their burden of proof and makes jurors more likely to acquit in cases involving little or no forensic evidence, while defense lawyers claim that jurors are more inclined to wrongfully convict based on their unrealistic perceptions of forensic evidence. This paper aims to determine if the CSI effect exists by exploring the effects that crime-show-related media has on the community, analyzing jurors’ perceptions of forensic evidence, and comparing the currently published statistics on pre- and post-CSI acquittal rates

Long-Term Physical and Mental Health Effects of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is an issue affecting people of all ages, races, genders, and sexual orientations. Violence against men and same-sex domestic violence are often considered less of a threat to society and to the people involved, but it is important to understand that male-on-female violence, female-on-male violence, and same-sex violence all involve serious consequences to the victim’s and batterer’s short- and long-term health. This paper determines whether men or women suffer from more long-term health problems caused by domestic violence by comparing the currently published statistics on the prevalence of domestic violence in heterosexual and homosexual relationships, and analyzing the results of existing studies on the short- and long-term health effects of domestic violence. The findings indicate that although men and women sustain many of the same injuries, women suffer from more long-term health problems caused by domestic violence

RGBDTAM: A Cost-Effective and Accurate RGB-D Tracking and Mapping System

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping using RGB-D cameras has been a fertile research topic in the latest decade, due to the suitability of such sensors for indoor robotics. In this paper we propose a direct RGB-D SLAM algorithm with state-of-the-art accuracy and robustness at a los cost. Our experiments in the RGB-D TUM dataset [34] effectively show a better accuracy and robustness in CPU real time than direct RGB-D SLAM systems that make use of the GPU. The key ingredients of our approach are mainly two. Firstly, the combination of a semi-dense photometric and dense geometric error for the pose tracking (see Figure 1), which we demonstrate to be the most accurate alternative. And secondly, a model of the multi-view constraints and their errors in the mapping and tracking threads, which adds extra information over other approaches. We release the open-source implementation of our approach 1 . The reader is referred to a video with our results 2 for a more illustrative visualization of its performance

Particle-vortex duality and theta terms in AdS/CMT applications

In this paper we study particle-vortex duality and the effect of theta terms from the point of view of AdS/CMT constructions. We can construct the duality in 2+1 dimensional field theories with or without a Chern-Simons term, and derive an effect on conductivities, when the action is viewed as a response action. We can find its effect on 3+1 dimensional theories, with or without a theta term, coupled to gravity in asymptotically AdS space, and derive the resulting effect on conductivities defined in the spirit of AdS/CFT. AdS/CFT then relates the 2+1 dimensional and the 3+1 dimensional cases naturally. Quantum gravity corrections, as well as more general effective actions for the abelian vector, can be treated similarly. We can use the fluid/gravity correspondence, and the membrane paradigm, to define shear and bulk viscosities $\eta$ and $\zeta$ for a gravity plus abelian vector plus scalar system near a black hole, and define the effect of the S-duality on it.Comment: 39 pages, no figures; references adde

Almost sharp nonlinear scattering in one-dimensional Born-Infeld equations arising in nonlinear Electrodynamics

We study decay of small solutions of the Born-Infeld equation in 1+1 dimensions, a quasilinear scalar field equation modeling nonlinear electromagnetism, as well as branes in String theory and minimal surfaces in Minkowski space-times. From the work of Whitham, it is well-known that there is no decay because of arbitrary solutions traveling to the speed of light just as linear wave equation. However, even if there is no global decay in 1+1 dimensions, we are able to show that all globally small $H^{s+1}\times H^s$, $s>\frac12$ solutions do decay to the zero background state in space, inside a strictly proper subset of the light cone. We prove this result by constructing a Virial identity related to a momentum law, in the spirit of works \cite{KMM,KMM1}, as well as a Lyapunov functional that controls the $\dot H^1 \times L^2$ energy.Comment: 12 pages; This is version 2. Some typos corrected and sections organized differently for ease readin

S-duality, entropy function and transport in AdS4/CMT3AdS_4/CMT_3

In this paper we consider Abelian vector plus scalar holographic gravity models for 2+1 dimensional condensed matter transport, and the effect of S-duality on them. We find the transport coefficients from the electric and heat currents via usual membrane paradigm-type calculations, and the effect of S-duality on them. We study the same system also by using the entropy function formalism in the extremal case, and the formalism of holographic Stokes equations, in the case of one-dimensional lattices. We study a few generalizations that appear when considering a supergravity-inspired model, and apply the entropy function method for them.Comment: 38 page; added clarifications at the end of subsection 4.