How do types of procedure affect the degree of politicization of European Constitutional Courts? : a comparative study of Germany, Bulgaria, and Portugal

Do different types of procedure affect the degree of politicization of constitutional courts in European democracies? We argue that they do and we find evidence that supports this assumption in our analysis of the German, Bulgarian and Portuguese courts. We show that two features of the types of procedure lead to a higher politicization of court decisions: lower legal requirements on the part of the applicants and broader opportunities for them to weaken political opponents. This kind of moderating effect appears equally for all groups of applicants

Evaluation of Virtual Acoustic Environments with Different Acoustic Level of Detail

Virtual acoustic environments enable the creation and simulation of realistic and ecologically valid daily-life situations with applications in hearing research and audiology. Hereby, reverberant indoor environments play an important role. For real-time applications, simplifications in the room acoustics simulation are required, however, it remains unclear what acoustic level of detail (ALOD) is necessary to capture all perceptually relevant effects. This study investigates the effect of varying ALOD in the simulation of three different real environments, a living room with a coupled kitchen, a pub, and an underground station. ALOD was varied by generating different numbers of image sources for early reflections, or by excluding geometrical room details specific for each environment. The simulations were perceptually evaluated using headphones in comparison to binaural room impulse responses measured with a dummy head in the corresponding real environments. The study assessed the perceived overall difference for a pink pulse, and a speech token. Furthermore, plausibility and externalization were evaluated. The results show that a strong reduction in ALOD is possible while obtaining similar plausibility and externalization as with dummy head recordings. The number and accuracy of early reflections appear less relevant, provided diffuse late reverberation is appropriately accounted for.Comment: This work has been submitted to the I3DA 2023 International Conference on Immersive and 3D Audio for possible publicatio

Prevalence of dental caries in children with congenital heart disease

Background: Congenital heart defects (CHD) affect about 8 out of 1000 births worldwide. Most of the patients reach adulthood and are exposed to an increased risk of endocarditis. Since bacteria already enter the bloodstream during everyday activities, oral hygiene is given special importance in the prevention of endocarditis. Methods: In this study 81 boys (55.1%) and 66 (44.9%) girls with CHD received a dental exam and additionally an assessment using the DIAGNOdent (R) pen. This study group consisting of patients with CHD was matched with a healthy epidemiological control group in Germany. Results: Eighty-one boys (55.1%) and 66 (44.9%) girls were examined. The mean age was 11 & PLUSMN; 4 years. 38.8% showed at least one untreated carious lesions. 37.4% had a dmft/DMFT & GE;2 and thus represented a group with an increased caries risk. The dmft value was 2.12 & PLUSMN; 1.25 in the age group 3-6 year olds. In the group of the 7-12 year old patients the DMFT/dmft was 2.06 & PLUSMN; 2.27, whereas DMFT in 13-17 year olds was at 2.12 & PLUSMN; 1.58. However, children and adolescents with CHD had a higher DMF index than healthy children in the same age group. Conclusions: The present study reveals that more than one third of those examined have a dental condition in need of rehabilitation. In future, close interdisciplinary cooperation between pediatric cardiologists and dentists should ensure regular dental check-ups