Underwater Noise Pollution as an Ecological Crime: A Global Problem in the Anthropocene

Noise pollution is recognized globally as a genuine environmental pollutant. Its effects are not limited to just terrestrial ecosystems, they can also affect aquatic environments at different levels. The scientific community has provided ample evidence of this. It is essential that legal systems and environmental protection regulations reflect this understanding. The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of international legislation concerning noise pollution, as a response by legislative bodies to the environmental impacts it can have. These impacts have been classified on the basis of the ecological studies which are the subject of the analysis. Thus, the possible configuration of some types of noise pollution as criminal is analysed according to the concept of Green Criminology. The ecological damage generated at the different levels of the ecosystem approach is the focus of this analysis. This classifying system could allow us to configure an appropriate criminal response to the effects generated by this polluting activity.Lärmbelästigung ist weltweit als Umweltverschmutzung anerkannt. Ihre Auswirkungen beschränken sich nicht nur auf terrestrische Ökosysteme, sondern können auch die aquatische Umwelt beeinträchtigen. Die Wissenschaft hat dies hinreichend bewiesen. Es ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, dass die Rechtssysteme und Umweltschutzvorschriften diese Erkenntnis widerspiegeln. Ziel der Studie ist es, die Entwicklung der internationalen Gesetzgebung zur Lärmbelästigung zu analysieren, die eine Reaktion der Gesetzgeber auf mögliche Umweltauswirkungen darstellt. Diese Auswirkungen wurden auf Grundlage ökologischer Studien, welche Gegenstand der Analyse sind, klassifiziert. So wird die mögliche Einstufung einiger Arten von Lärmbelästigung als Straftatbestand nach dem Konzept der Green Criminology analysiert. Die ökologischen Schäden, die auf den verschiedenen Ebenen des Ökosystemansatzes entstehen, stehen im Mittelpunkt dieser Analyse. Dieses Klassifizierungssystem könnte es ermöglichen, eine angemessene strafrechtliche Antwort auf die Auswirkungen dieser umweltschädigenden Aktivitäten zu finden

Correlation energies of inhomogeneous many-electron systems

We generalize the uniform-gas correlation energy formalism of Singwi, Tosi, Land and Sjolander to the case of an arbitrary inhomogeneous many-particle system. For jellium slabs of finite thickness with a self-consistent LDA groundstate Kohn-Sham potential as input, our numerical results for the correlation energy agree well with diffusion Monte Carlo results. For a helium atom we also obtain a good correlation energy.Comment: 4 pages,1 figur

Dispersion interaction between crossed conducting wires

We compute the $T=0K$ Van der Waals (nonretarded Casimir) interaction energy $E$ between two infinitely long, crossed conducting wires separated by a minimum distance $D$ much greater than their radius. We find that, up to a logarithmic correction factor, $E\propto -D^{-1}| \sin \theta | ^{-1}f(\theta)$ where $f(\theta)$ is a smooth bounded function of the angle $\theta$ between the wires. We recover a conventional result of the form $E\propto -D^{-4}|\sin\theta | ^{-1}g(\theta)$ when we include an electronic energy gap in our calculation. Our prediction of gap-dependent energetics may be observable experimentally for carbon nanotubes, either via AFM detection of the vdW force or torque, or indirectly via observation of mechanical oscillations. This shows that strictly parallel wires, as assumed in previous predictions, are not needed to see a novel effect of this type.Comment: 4 pp, 1 fig, 1 tabl

Spin Resolution of the Electron-Gas Correlation Energy: Positive same-spin contribution

The negative correlation energy per particle of a uniform electron gas of density parameter $r_s$ and spin polarization $\zeta$ is well known, but its spin resolution into up-down, up-up, and down-down contributions is not. Widely-used estimates are incorrect, and hamper the development of reliable density functionals and pair distribution functions. For the spin resolution, we present interpolations between high- and low-density limits that agree with available Quantum Monte Carlo data. In the low-density limit for $\zeta = 0$, we find that the same-spin correlation energy is unexpectedly positive, and we explain why. We also estimate the up and down contributions to the kinetic energy of correlation.Comment: new version, to appear in PRB Rapid Communicatio

Cerebellar Integrity in the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Frontotemporal Dementia Continuum

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are multisystem neurodegenerative disorders that manifest overlapping cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor features. The cerebellum has long been known to be crucial for intact motor function although emerging evidence over the past decade has attributed cognitive and neuropsychiatric processes to this structure. The current study set out i) to establish the integrity of cerebellar subregions in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia spectrum (ALS-bvFTD) and ii) determine whether specific cerebellar atrophy regions are associated with cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor symptoms in the patients. Seventy-eight patients diagnosed with ALS, ALS-bvFTD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), most without C9ORF72 gene abnormalities, and healthy controls were investigated. Participants underwent cognitive, neuropsychiatric and functional evaluation as well as structural imaging using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine the grey matter subregions of the cerebellar lobules, vermis and crus. VBM analyses revealed: i) significant grey matter atrophy in the cerebellum across the whole ALS-bvFTD continuum; ii) atrophy predominantly of the superior cerebellum and crus in bvFTD patients, atrophy of the inferior cerebellum and vermis in ALS patients, while ALS-bvFTD patients had both patterns of atrophy. Post-hoc covariance analyses revealed that cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms were particularly associated with atrophy of the crus and superior lobule, while motor symptoms were more associated with atrophy of the inferior lobules. Taken together, these findings indicate an important role of the cerebellum in the ALS-bvFTD disease spectrum, with all three clinical phenotypes demonstrating specific patterns of subregional atrophy that associated with different symptomology

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state

A search is presented for a massive particle, generically referred to as a Z', decaying into a t t-bar pair. The search focuses on Z' resonances that are sufficiently massive to produce highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks, which yield collimated decay products that are partially or fully merged into single jets. The analysis uses new methods to analyze jet substructure, providing suppression of the non-top multijet backgrounds. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. Upper limits in the range of 1 pb are set on the product of the production cross section and branching fraction for a topcolor Z' modeled for several widths, as well as for a Randall--Sundrum Kaluza--Klein gluon. In addition, the results constrain any enhancement in t t-bar production beyond expectations of the standard model for t t-bar invariant masses larger than 1 TeV.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics; this version includes a minor typo correction that will be submitted as an erratu

Measurement of the Z/gamma* + b-jet cross section in pp collisions at 7 TeV

The production of b jets in association with a Z/gamma* boson is studied using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and recorded by the CMS detector. The inclusive cross section for Z/gamma* + b-jet production is measured in a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 inverse femtobarns. The Z/gamma* + b-jet cross section with Z/gamma* to ll (where ll = ee or mu mu) for events with the invariant mass 60 < M(ll) < 120 GeV, at least one b jet at the hadron level with pT > 25 GeV and abs(eta) < 2.1, and a separation between the leptons and the jets of Delta R > 0.5 is found to be 5.84 +/- 0.08 (stat.) +/- 0.72 (syst.) +(0.25)/-(0.55) (theory) pb. The kinematic properties of the events are also studied and found to be in agreement with the predictions made by the MadGraph event generator with the parton shower and the hadronisation performed by PYTHIA.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physic

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO