Size discrimination of transient signals

The importance of spectral cues in size discrimination of transient signals was investigated, and a model for this ability, tAIM, was created based on the biological principles of human hearing. A psychophysics experiment involving 40 participants found that the most important cue for size discrimination of transient signals, created by striking different sizes of polystyrene spheres, was similar to that of speakers listening to vowels – the relative positions of the resonances between comparison signals. It was found possible to scale the sphere signals in order to confuse listeners into believing the signal source was a different size, but two methods of scaling signals in order to sound the same size as another proved inconclusive, suggesting the possibility that transient signals cannot be scaled in a linear fashion as has been shown possible for vowels. Filtering the signals in a number of different ways found that the most important cue in size discrimination of transient signals is the difference between the most prominent resonances available in the spectra of the comparison signals. A model of the auditory system using the dynamic compressive Gammachirp filterbank, and based on the well-known AIM, was created to produce auditory images of transient signals that could be normalised for size. Transient-AIM, or tAIM used the Mellin transform to produce images that showed size normalisation was possible due to the spectral envelope similarities across the sizes of the spheres. tAIM was extended to carry out size discrimination of the spheres using the information contained within the Mellin images. There was a systematic association between Mellin phase and size of objects of various shapes, which suggests that tAIM is able to infer object size from sound recordings of objects being struck

Rebalancing Judicial Protection in Criminal Matters after Lisbon and Stockholm

While EU measures related to criminal and security law have been adopted for the past 20 years, the legal framework of the Treaty of Lisbon and the political impetus behind the Stockholm Programme have given them a new direction. This chapter explores the basis of protection of fundamental rights enshrined in Title V, Chapter 4 of the TFEU entitled ‘Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters and the Stockholm Programme’. This analysis is all the more important in the light of the new legal status attributed to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the EU’s prospective accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

Four layer bandage compared with short stretch bandage for venous leg ulcers: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials with data from individual patients

<p><b>Objective:</b> To compare the effectiveness of two types of compression treatment (four layer bandage and short stretch bandage) in people with venous leg ulceration.</p> <p><b>Design:</b> Systematic review and meta-analysis of patient level data.</p> <p><b>Data:</b> sources Electronic databases (the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and National Research Register) and reference lists of retrieved articles searched to identify relevant trials and primary investigators. Primary investigators of eligible trials were invited to contribute raw data for re-analysis.</p> <p><b>Review:</b> methods Randomised controlled trials of four layer bandage compared with short stretch bandage in people with venous leg ulceration were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcome for the meta-analysis was time to healing. Cox proportional hazards models were run to compare the methods in terms of time to healing with adjustment for independent predictors of healing. Secondary outcomes included incidence and number of adverse events per patient.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Seven eligible trials were identified (887 patients), and patient level data were retrieved for five (797 patients, 90% of known randomised patients). The four layer bandage was associated with significantly shorter time to healing: hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) from multifactorial model based on five trials was 1.31 (1.09 to 1.58), P=0.005. Larger ulcer area at baseline, more chronic ulceration, and previous ulceration were all independent predictors of delayed healing. Data from two trials showed no evidence of a difference in adverse event profiles between the two bandage types.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Venous leg ulcers in patients treated with four layer bandages heal faster, on average, than those of people treated with the short stretch bandage. Benefits were consistent across patients with differing prognostic profiles.</p&gt

A Deep Search For Faint Galaxies Associated With Very Low-redshift C IV Absorbers: III. The Mass- and Environment-dependent Circumgalactic Medium

Using Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of 89 QSO sightlines through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint, we study the relationships between C IV absorption systems and the properties of nearby galaxies as well as large-scale environment. To maintain sensitivity to very faint galaxies, we restrict our sample to 0.0015 < z < 0.015, which defines a complete galaxy survey to L > 0.01 L* or stellar mass log M_* > 8 Msun. We report two principal findings. First, for galaxies with impact parameter rho < 1 rvir, C IV detection strongly depends on the luminosity/stellar mass of the nearby galaxy. C IV is preferentially associated with galaxies with log M_* > 9.5 Msun; lower mass galaxies rarely exhibit significant C IV absorption (covering fraction f = 9 +12-6% for 11 galaxies with log M_* < 9.5 Msun). Second, C IV detection within the log M_* > 9.5 Msun population depends on environment. Using a fixed-aperture environmental density metric for galaxies with rho < 160 kpc at z < 0.055, we find that 57+/-12% (8/14) of galaxies in low-density regions (regions with fewer than seven L > 0.15 L* galaxies within 1.5 Mpc) have affiliated C IV absorption; however, none (0/7) of the galaxies in denser regions show C IV. Similarly, the C IV detection rate is lower for galaxies residing in groups with dark-matter halo masses of log Mhalo > 12.5 Msun. In contrast to C IV, H I is pervasive in the CGM without regard to mass or environment. These results indicate that C IV absorbers with log N(C IV) > 13.5 cm^-2 trace the halos of log M_* > 9.5 Msun galaxies but also reflect larger scale environmental conditions.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures. ApJ, in pres

Directly imaging damped Ly α galaxies at z > 2 – III. The star formation rates of neutral gas reservoirs at z ∼ 2.7

We present results from a survey designed to probe the star formation properties of 32 damped Lyman α systems (DLAs) at z ∼ 2.7. By using the ‘double-DLA’ technique that eliminates the glare of the bright background quasars, we directly measure the rest-frame far-ultraviolet flux from DLAs and their neighbouring galaxies. At the position of the absorbing gas, we place stringent constraints on the unobscured star formation rates (SFRs) of DLAs to 2σ limits of ψ˙<0.09-0.27M⊙ yr−1, corresponding to SFR surface densities Σsfr < 10−2.6–10−1.5M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2. The implications of these limits for the star formation law, metal enrichment, and cooling rates of DLAs are examined. By studying the distribution of impact parameters as a function of SFRs for all the galaxies detected around these DLAs, we place new direct constraints on the bright end of the UV luminosity function of DLA hosts. We find that ≤13 per cent of the hosts have ψ˙≥2M⊙ yr−1 at impact parameters bdla≤(ψ˙/M⊙yr−1)0.8+6kpc, differently from current samples of confirmed DLA galaxies. Our observations also disfavour a scenario in which the majority of DLAs arise from bright Lyman-break galaxies at distances 20 ≤ bdla < 100 kpc. These new findings corroborate a picture in which DLAs do not originate from highly star-forming systems that are coincident with the absorbers, and instead suggest that DLAs are associated with faint, possibly isolated, star-forming galaxies. Potential shortcomings of this scenario and future strategies for further investigation are discussed