Effects of audibility and multichannel wide dynamic range compression on consonant recognition for listeners with severe hearing loss

Objective—This study examined the effects of multichannel wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification and stimulus audibility on consonant recognition and error patterns. Design—Listeners had either severe or mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Each listener was monaurally fit with a wearable hearing aid using typical clinical procedures, frequency-gain parameters and a hybrid of clinically prescribed compression ratios for DSL (Scollie et al., 2005) and NAL-NL (Dillon, 1999). Consonant-vowel nonsense syllables were presented in soundfield at multiple input levels (50, 65, 80 dB SPL). Test conditions were four-channel fast-acting WDRC amplification and a control compression limiting (CL) amplification condition. Listeners identified the stimulus heard from choices presented on an on-screen display. A between-subject repeated measures design was used to evaluate consonant recognition and consonant confusion patterns. Results—Fast-acting WDRC provided a considerable audibility advantage at 50 dB SPL, especially for listeners with severe hearing loss. Listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss received less audibility improvement from the fast-acting WDRC amplification, for conversational and high level speech, compared to listeners with severe hearing loss. Analysis of WDRC benefit scores revealed that listeners had slightly lower scores with fast-acting WDRC amplification (relative to CL) when WDRC provided minimal improvement in audibility. The negative effect was greater for listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss compared to their counterparts with severe hearing loss. Conclusions—All listeners, but particularly the severe loss group, benefited from fast-acting WDRC amplification for low-level speech. For conversational and higher speech levels (i.e., when WDRC does not confer a significant audibility advantage), fast-acting WDRC amplification appears to slightly degrade performance. Listeners’ consonant confusion patterns suggest that this negative effect may be partly due to fast-acting WDRC-induced distortions which alter specific consonant features. In support of this view, audibility accounted for a greater percentage of the variance in listeners’ performance with CL amplification compared to fast-acting WDRC amplification

Do stellar winds play a decisive role in feeding AGN?

While the existence of a starburst-AGN connection is undisputed, there is no consensus on what the connection is. In this contribution, we begin by noting that the mechanisms which drive gas inwards in disk galaxies are generally inefficient at removing angular momentum, leading to stalled inflows. Thus, a tiered series of such processes is required to bring gas to the smallest scales, each of which on its own may not correlate with the presence of an AGN. Similarly, each may be associated with a starburst event, making it important to discriminate between 'circumnuclear' and 'nuclear' star formation. In this contribution, we show that stellar feedback on scales of tens of parsecs plays a critical role in first hindering and then helping accretion. We argue that it is only after the initial turbulent phases of a starburst that gas from slow stellar winds can accrete efficiently to smaller scales. This would imply that the properties of the obscuring torus are directly coupled to star formation and that the torus must be a complex dynamical entity. We finish by remarking on other contexts where similar processes appear to be at work.Comment: to appear in 'The central kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei', Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), IOP Publishin

The Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: S3MC Imaging and Photometry in the Mid- and Far-Infrared Wavebands

We present the initial results from the Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (S3MC), which imaged the star-forming body of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) in all seven MIPS and IRAC wavebands. We find that the F_8/F_24 ratio (an estimate of PAH abundance) has large spatial variations and takes a wide range of values that are unrelated to metallicity but anticorrelated with 24 um brightness and F_24/F_70 ratio. This suggests that photodestruction is primarily responsible for the low abundance of PAHs observed in star-forming low-metallicity galaxies. We use the S3MC images to compile a photometric catalog of ~400,000 mid- and far-infrared point sources in the SMC. The sources detected at the longest wavelengths fall into four main categories: 1) bright 5.8 um sources with very faint optical counterparts and very red mid-infrared colors ([5.8]-[8.0]>1.2), which we identify as YSOs. 2) Bright mid-infrared sources with mildly red colors (0.16<[5.8]-[8.0]<0.6), identified as carbon stars. 3) Bright mid-infrared sources with neutral colors and bright optical counterparts, corresponding to oxygen-rich evolved stars. And, 4) unreddened early B stars (B3 to O9) with a large 24 um excess. This excess is reminiscent of debris disks, and is detected in only a small fraction of these stars (<5%). The majority of the brightest infrared point sources in the SMC fall into groups one to three. We use this photometric information to produce a catalog of 282 bright YSOs in the SMC with a very low level of contamination (~7%).Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Given the draconian figure file-size limits implemented in astro-ph, readers are encouraged to download the manuscript with full quality images from http://celestial.berkeley.edu/spitzer/publications/s3mcsurvey.pd

The evolution of the photometric properties of Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies

We investigate the present-day photometric properties of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group. From the analysis of their integrated colours, we consider a possible link between dwarf spheroidals and giant ellipticals. From the analysis of the V vs (B-V) plot, we search for a possible evolutionary link between dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) and dwarf irregular galaxies (dIrrs). By means of chemical evolution models combined with a spectro-photometric model, we study the evolution of six Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies (Carina, Draco, Sagittarius, Sculptor, Sextans and Ursa Minor). The chemical evolution models, which adopt up-to-date nucleosynthesis from low and intermediate mass stars as well as nucleosynthesis and energetic feedback from supernovae type Ia and II, reproduce several observational constraints of these galaxies, such as abundance ratios versus metallicity and the metallicity distributions. The proposed scenario for the evolution of these galaxies is characterised by low star formation rates and high galactic wind efficiencies. Such a scenario allows us to predict integrated colours and magnitudes which agree with observations. Our results strongly suggest that the first few Gyrs of evolution, when the star formation is most active, are crucial to define the luminosities, colours, and other photometric properties as observed today. After the star formation epoch, the galactic wind sweeps away a large fraction of the gas of each galaxy, which then evolves passively. Our results indicate that it is likely that at a certain stage of their evolution, dSphs and dIrrs presented similar photometric properties. However, after that phase, they evolved along different paths, leading them to their currently disparate properties.Comment: 13 pages, Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepte

Metal-rich absorbers at high redshifts: abundance patterns

(Abbreviated) From six spectra of high-z QSOs, we select eleven metal-rich, Z>=Z_solar, and optically-thin to the ionizing radiation, N(HI)<10^17 cm^-2, absorption systems ranging between z=1.5 and z=2.9 and revealing lines of different ions in subsequent ionization stages. The majority of the systems (10 from 11) show abundance patterns which relate them to outflows from low and intermediate mass stars. All systems have sub-kpc linear sizes along the line-of-sight with many less than 20 pc. In several systems, silicon is deficient, presumably due to the depletion onto dust grains in the envelopes of dust-forming stars and the subsequent gas-dust separation. At any value of [C/H], nitrogen can be either deficient, [N/C]0, which supposes that the nitrogen enrichment occurs irregularly. In some cases, the lines of MgII 2796, 2803 appear to be shifted, probably as a result of an enhanced content of heavy isotopes 25Mg and 26Mg in the absorbing gas relative to the solar isotopic composition. Seven absorbers are characterized by low mean ionization parameter U, log U<-2.3, among them only one system has a redshift z>2 whereas all others are found at z ~= 1.8. Comparing the space number density of metal-rich absorbers with the comoving density of star-forming galaxies at z ~= 2, we estimate that the circumgalactic volume of each galaxy is populated by 10^7 - 10^8 such absorbers with total mass <=1/100th of the stellar galactic mass. Possible effects of high metal content on the peak values of star-forming and AGN activities at z~2 are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

Ages and Luminosities of Young SMC/LMC Star Clusters and the recent Star Formation History of the Clouds

In this paper we discuss the age and spatial distribution of young (age$<$1Gyr) SMC and LMC clusters using data from the Magellanic Cloud Photometric Surveys. Luminosities are calculated for all age-dated clusters. Ages of 324 and 1193 populous star clusters in the Small and the Large Magellanic Cloud have been determined fitting Padova and Geneva isochrone models to their resolved color-magnitude diagrams. The clusters cover an age range between 10Myr and 1Gyr in each galaxy. For the SMC a constant distance modulus of $(m-M)_0$ = 18.90 and a metallicity of Z = 0.004 were adopted. For the LMC, we used a constant distance modulus of $(m-M)_0$ = 18.50 and a metallicity of Z = 0.008. For both galaxies, we used a variable color excess to derive the cluster ages. We find two periods of enhanced cluster formation in both galaxies at 160Myr and 630Myr (SMC) and at 125Myr and 800Myr (LMC). We present the spatially resolved recent star formation history of both Clouds based on young star clusters. The first peak may have been triggered by a close encounter between the SMC and the LMC. In both galaxies the youngest clusters reside in the supergiant shells, giant shells, the inter-shell regions, and toward regions with a high H$\alpha$ content, suggesting that their formation is related to expansion and shell-shell interaction. Most of the clusters are older than the dynamical age of the supergiant shells. No evidence for cluster dissolution was found. Computed V band luminosities show a trend for fainter magnitudes with increasing age as well as a trend for brighter magnitudes with increasing apparent cluster radii.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

RED SUPERGIANTS AS COSMIC ABUNDANCE PROBES: THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

Red Supergiants (RSGs) are cool (∼ 4000K), highly luminous stars (L ∼ 105L⊙), and are among the brightest near-infrared (NIR) sources in star-forming galaxies. This makes them powerful probes of the properties of their host galaxies, such as kinematics and chemical abundances. We have developed a technique whereby metallicities of RSGs may be extracted from a narrow spectral window around 1μm from only moderate resolution data. The method is therefore extremely efficient, allowing stars at large distances to be studied, and so has tremendous potential for extragalactic abundance work. Here, we present an abundance study of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC respectively) using samples of 9-10 RSGs in each. We find average abundances for the two galaxies of [Z]LMC = −0.37±0.14 and [Z]SMC = −0.53±0.16 (with respect to a Solar metallicity of Z⊙=0.012). These values are consistent with other studies of young stars in these galaxies, and though our result for the SMC may appear high it is consistent with recent studies of hot stars which find 0.5-0.8dex below Solar. Our best-fit temperatures are on the whole consistent with those from fits to the optical-infrared spectral energy distributions, which is remarkable considering the narrow spectral range being studied. Combined with our recent study of RSGs in the Galactic cluster Per OB1, these results indicate that this technique performs well over a range of metallicities, paving the way for forthcoming studies of more distant galaxies beyond the Local Group

Calcification is not the Achilles' heel of cold-water corals in an acidifying ocean.

Ocean acidification is thought to be a major threat to coral reefs: laboratory evidence and CO2 seep research has shown adverse effects on many coral species, although a few are resilient. There are concerns that cold-water corals are even more vulnerable as they live in areas where aragonite saturation (Ωara ) is lower than in the tropics and is falling rapidly due to CO2 emissions. Here, we provide laboratory evidence that net (gross calcification minus dissolution) and gross calcification rates of three common cold-water corals, Caryophyllia smithii, Dendrophyllia cornigera, and Desmophyllum dianthus, are not affected by pCO2 levels expected for 2100 (pCO2  1058 μatm, Ωara 1.29), and nor are the rates of skeletal dissolution in D. dianthus. We transplanted D. dianthus to 350 m depth (pHT 8.02; pCO2  448 μatm, Ωara 2.58) and to a 3 m depth CO2 seep in oligotrophic waters (pHT 7.35; pCO2  2879 μatm, Ωara 0.76) and found that the transplants calcified at the same rates regardless of the pCO2 confirming their resilience to acidification, but at significantly lower rates than corals that were fed in aquaria. Our combination of field and laboratory evidence suggests that ocean acidification will not disrupt cold-water coral calcification although falling aragonite levels may affect other organismal physiological and/or reef community processes

An evaluation of staining techniques for marking daily growth in scleractinian corals

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 440 (2013): 126-131, doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2012.12.003.In situ skeletal markers have been widely used to quantify skeletal growth rates of scleractinian corals on sub-annual time-scales. Nevertheless, an evaluation of different techniques, both in terms of their efficacy and potential impacts on the growth process itself, has not been undertaken. Here the effects of exposure to four different dyes (alizarin, alizarin complexone, calcein, oxytetracycline) and isotope spikes (Ba and Sr) on the growth rates of scleractinian corals are compared. Oxytetracycline increased coral growth. Alizarin, alizarin complexone, calcein, and Sr and Ba isotope spikes had no significant effect on coral growth, but polyp extension appeared reduced during exposure to alizarin and alizarin complexone. Calcein provided a more intense fluorescent mark than either alizarin or alizarin complexone. Isotope spikes were challenging to locate using isotope ratio analysis techniques. Thus, calcein appears best suited for marking short-term calcification increments in corals, while a combination of alizarin or alizarin complexone and calcein may be useful for dual labeling experiments as there is little overlap in their fluorescence spectra.Funding for this work was provided by a Lizard Island Doctoral Fellowship, the Ocean Life Institute, NSF OCE-1041106, and an International Society for Reef Studies / Ocean Conservancy Fellowship. This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a National Science Foundation International Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Red Supergiants as Cosmic Abundance Probes: massive star clusters in M83, and the mass-metallicity relation of nearby galaxies

We present an abundance analysis of seven super-star clusters in the disk of M83. The near-infrared spectra of these clusters are dominated by Red Supergiants, and the spectral similarity in the J-band of such stars at uniform metallicity means that the integrated light from the clusters may be analysed using the same tools as those applied to single stars. Using data from VLT/KMOS we estimate metallicities for each cluster in the sample. We find that the abundance gradient in the inner regions of M83 is flat, with a central metallicity of [Z] = 0.21$\pm$0.11 relative to a Solar value of $Z_\odot$=0.014, which is in excellent agreement with the results from an analysis of luminous hot stars in the same regions. Compiling this latest study with our other recent work, we construct a mass-metallicity relation for nearby galaxies based entirely on the analysis of RSGs. We find excellent agreement with the other stellar-based technique, that of blue supergiants, as well as with temperature-sensitive (`auroral' or `direct') \hii-region studies. Of all the HII-region strong-line calibrations, those which are empirically calibrated to direct-method studies (N2 and O3N2) provide the most consistent results