A representation of abstract linguistic categories in the visual system underlies successful lipreading.

There is considerable debate over how visual speech is processed in the absence of sound and whether neural activity supporting lipreading occurs in visual brain areas. Much of the ambiguity stems from a lack of behavioral grounding and neurophysiological analyses that cannot disentangle high-level linguistic and phonetic/energetic contributions from visual speech. To address this, we recorded EEG from human observers as they watched silent videos, half of which were novel and half of which were previously rehearsed with the accompanying audio.

Nutrient treatment of greywater in green wall systems: A critical review of removal mechanisms, performance efficiencies and system design parameters.

Greywater has lower pathogen and nutrient levels than other mixed wastewaters, making it easier to treat and to reuse in nature-based wastewater treatment systems. Green walls (GWs) are one type of nature-based solutions (NBS) that are evolving in design to support on-site and low-cost greywater treatment. Greywater treatment in GWs involves interacting and complex physical, chemical, and biological processes.

The integration of continuous audio and visual speech in a cocktail-party environment depends on attention.

In noisy environments, our ability to understand speech benefits greatly from seeing the speaker's face. This is attributed to the brain's ability to integrate audio and visual information, a process known as multisensory integration. In addition, selective attention plays an enormous role in what we understand, the so-called cocktail-party phenomenon.

Influences of zinc loads in urban catchment runoff: Roof type, land use type, climate and management strategies.

The contribution of ecotoxic dissolved metals from metallic roofs into urban waterways is a global issue. Identifying the specific origin of dissolved metals is critical to enabling appropriate stormwater management approaches that can provide the intended outcome of cleaner urban waterways. An event load pollutant model, Modelled Estimates of Discharges for Urban Stormwater Assessments (MEDUSA2.

Lip, Oral Cavity and Pharyngeal Cancer Burden in the European Union from 1990-2019 Using the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study.

-The recent burden of lip and oral cavity, nasopharynx and other pharynx cancer (LOCP) has not been specifically investigated in Europe. -In this descriptive epidemiological study, LOCP was categorised into lip and oral cavity cancer, nasopharynx cancer and other pharynx cancer, with European trends documented using the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Summary statistics included deaths, age-standardised incidence rates (ASIR), mortality rates, YLLs (years of life lost), YLDs (years of life lived with disability) and DALYS (disability-adjusted life years).

Neurophysiological Indices of Audiovisual Speech Processing Reveal a Hierarchy of Multisensory Integration Effects.

Seeing a speaker's face benefits speech comprehension, especially in challenging listening conditions. This perceptual benefit is thought to stem from the neural integration of visual and auditory speech at multiple stages of processing, whereby movement of a speaker's face provides temporal cues to auditory cortex, and articulatory information from the speaker's mouth can aid recognizing specific linguistic units (e.g.

The influence of urban surface type and characteristics on runoff water quality.

Untreated runoff was collected over multiple rain events from 19 impermeable urban surfaces, including nine roofs, six roads and four carparks, to quantify the differences in water quality due to surface type, age, condition and location. All 19 sites were exposed to the same climatic conditions. Samples were analysed for key urban pollutants of concern, namely total suspended solids and total and dissolved copper and zinc.

Look at me when I'm talking to you: Selective attention at a multisensory cocktail party can be decoded using stimulus reconstruction and alpha power modulations.

Recent work using electroencephalography has applied stimulus reconstruction techniques to identify the attended speaker in a cocktail party environment. The success of these approaches has been primarily based on the ability to detect cortical tracking of the acoustic envelope at the scalp level. However, most studies have ignored the effects of visual input, which is almost always present in naturalistic scenarios.

Visual Cortical Entrainment to Motion and Categorical Speech Features during Silent Lipreading.

Speech is a multisensory percept, comprising an auditory and visual component. While the content and processing pathways of audio speech have been well characterized, the visual component is less well understood. In this work, we expand current methodologies using system identification to introduce a framework that facilitates the study of visual speech in its natural, continuous form.

Untreated runoff quality from roof and road surfaces in a low intensity rainfall climate.

Sediment and heavy metals in stormwater runoff are key pollutants of urban waterways, and their presence in stormwater is driven by climatic factors such as rainfall intensity. This study describes the total suspended solids (TSS) and heavy metal concentrations found in runoff from four different urban surfaces within a residential/institutional catchment, in a climate where rainfall is typically of low intensity (<5.1mm·h(-1)).

Particle size distribution variance in untreated urban runoff and its implication on treatment selection.

Understanding the particle size distribution (PSD) of sediment in urban runoff assists in the selection of appropriate treatment systems for sediment removal as systems vary in their ability to remove sediment across different particle size fractions. Variation in PSD in runoff from individual urban surfaces both during and across multiple rain events is not well understood and it may lead to performance uncertainty in treatment systems. Runoff PSDs in international literature were compiled to provide a comparative summary of PSDs from different urban surfaces.

Build-up and wash-off dynamics of atmospherically derived Cu, Pb, Zn and TSS in stormwater runoff as a function of meteorological characteristics.

Atmospheric pollutants deposited on impermeable surfaces can be an important source of pollutants to stormwater runoff; however, modelling atmospheric pollutant loads in runoff has rarely been done, because of the challenges and uncertainties in monitoring their contribution. To overcome this, impermeable concrete boards (≈ 1m(2)) were deployed for 11 months in different locations within an urban area (industrial, residential and airside) throughout Christchurch, New Zealand, to capture spatially distributed atmospheric deposition loads in runoff over varying meteorological conditions. Runoff was analysed for total and dissolved Cu, Zn, Pb, and total suspended solids (TSS).

Life Cycle Assessment modelling of stormwater treatment systems.

Stormwater treatment technologies to manage runoff during rain events are primarily designed to reduce flood risks, settle suspended solids and concurrently immobilise metals and nutrients. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is scarcely documented for stormwater systems despite their ubiquitous implementation. LCA modelling quantified the environmental impacts associated with the materials, construction, transport, operation and maintenance of different stormwater treatment systems.

Effect of age and rainfall pH on contaminant yields from metal roofs.

Metal roofs are recognized for conveying significant metal loads to urban streams through stormwater runoff. Metal concentrations in urban runoff depend on roof types and prevailing weather conditions but the combined effects of roof age and rainfall pH on metal mobilization are not well understood. To investigate these effects on roof runoff, water quality was analysed from galvanized iron and copper roofs following rainfall events and also from simulating runoff using a rainfall simulator on specially constructed roof modules.

Effects of hydraulic and solids retention times on productivity and settleability of microbial (microalgal-bacterial) biomass grown on primary treated wastewater as a biofuel feedstock.

High biomass productivity and efficient harvesting are currently recognized challenges in microbial biofuel applications. To produce naturally settleable biomass, combined growth of native microalgae and bacteria was facilitated in laboratory sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) using primary treated wastewater from the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWTP) in New Zealand. SBRs were operated under a simulated, local, summer climate (i.

Atmospheric deposition and storm induced runoff of heavy metals from different impermeable urban surfaces.

Contaminants deposited on impermeable surfaces migrate to stormwater following rainfall events, but accurately quantifying their spatial and temporal yields useful for mitigation purposes is challenging. To overcome limitations in current sampling methods, a system was developed for rapid quantification of contaminant build-up and wash-off dynamics from different impervious surfaces. Thin boards constructed of concrete and two types of asphalt were deployed at different locations of a large carpark to capture spatially distributed contaminants from dry atmospheric deposition over specified periods of time.

Heavy metal contamination in an urban stream fed by contaminated air-conditioning and stormwater discharges.

Purpose: Urban waterways are impacted by diffuse stormwater runoff, yet other discharges can unintentionally contaminate them. The Okeover stream in Christchurch, New Zealand, receives air-conditioning discharge, while its ephemeral reach relies on untreated stormwater flow. Despite rehabilitation efforts, the ecosystem is still highly disturbed.

Sulfate and metal removal in bioreactors treating acid mine drainage dominated with iron and aluminum.

Bioreactors represent an emerging technology for removing metals and sulfate commonly found in acid mine drainage (AMD). Six continuously fed anaerobic bioreactors employing organic and alkaline waste materials were operated to investigate relationships between metal and sulfate removal from AMD. Median AMD influent chemistry was 65.