Coherent versus coincidence detection of gravitational wave signals from compact inspiraling binaries

We compare two multi-detector detection strategies, namely, the coincidence and the coherent, for the detection of spinless inspiraling compact binary gravitational wave signals. The coincident strategy treats the detectors as if they are isolated - compares individual detector statistics with their respective thresholds while the coherent strategy combines the detector network data {\it phase coherently} to obtain a single detection statistic which is then compared with a single threshold. In the case of geographically separated detectors, we also consider an {\it enhanced} coincidence strategy because the usual (naive) coincidence strategy yields poor results for misaligned detectors. For simplicity, we consider detector pairs having the same power spectral density of noise, as that of initial LIGO and also assume the noise to be stationary and Gaussian. We compare the performances of the methods by plotting the \emph{receiver operating characteristic} (ROC) for the two strategies. A single astrophysical source as well as a distribution of sources is considered. We find that the coherent strategy performs better than the two coincident strategies under the assumptions of stationary Gaussian detector noise.Comment: Based on the presentation at the 1st Galileo Xu Guangqi conference, Shanghai

Environmental concentrations of anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals do not impact sexual disruption in fish alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Sexual disruption in wild fish has been linked to the contamination of river systems with steroid oestrogens, including the pharmaceutical 17α-ethinylestradiol, originating from domestic wastewaters. As analytical chemistry has advanced, more compounds derived from the human usage of pharmaceuticals have been identified in the environment and questions have arisen as to whether these additional pharmaceuticals may also impact sexual disruption in fish. Indeed, pharmaceutical anti-androgens have been shown to induce such effects under laboratory conditions. These are of particular interest since anti-androgenic biological activity has been identified in the aquatic environment and is potentially implicated in sexual disruption alone and in combination with steroid oestrogens. Consequently, predictive modelling was employed to determine the concentrations of two anti-androgenic human pharmaceuticals, bicalutamide and cyproterone acetate, in UK sewage effluents and river catchments and their combined impacts on sexual disruption were then assessed in two fish models. Crucially, fish were also exposed to the anti-androgens in combination with steroid oestrogens to determine whether they had any additional impact on oestrogen induced feminisation. Modelling predicted that the anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals were likely to be widespread in UK river catchments. However, their concentrations were not sufficient to induce significant responses in plasma vitellogenin concentrations, secondary sexual characteristics or gross indices in male fathead minnow or intersex in Japanese medaka alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens. However, environmentally relevant mixtures of oestrone, 17β-oestradiol and 17α-ethinylestradiol did induce vitellogenin and intersex, supporting their role in sexual disruption in wild fish populations. Unexpectedly, a male dominated sex ratio (100% in controls) was induced in medaka and the potential cause and implications are briefly discussed, highlighting the potential of non-chemical modes of action on this endpoint