On 6 April 2023, Dr. Sabine K. Witting, Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) from Leiden University, together with Dr. Mark R. Leiser (VU-Amsterdam) and Amy Crocker (ECPAT International)... Show moreOn 6 April 2023, Dr. Sabine K. Witting, Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) from Leiden University, together with Dr. Mark R. Leiser (VU-Amsterdam) and Amy Crocker (ECPAT International) are launching the outcome report of the 2nd Expert Workshop on the EU Proposed Regulation on online Child Sexual Abuse. The second in a series of workshops was held at VU-Amsterdam on 2nd & 3rd March 2023 and jointly organised by VU-Amsterdam, ECPAT International and Leiden University.The workshop aimed to facilitate open discussions and identify areas of common ground around the proposed Regulation with technical experts from various fields relevant to the proposed Regulation, including child rights, privacy, data protection, platform regulation, and fundamental rights. The proposed Regulation seeks to establish a clear and harmonised legal framework for preventing and combatting online child sexual abuse and has sparked lively debate amongst child rights and fundamental rights experts in the past months. While the goal of protecting children is a common one, concerns have been voiced from a range of groups that mandatory detection measures, if imposed at scale under the proposed Regulation, would violate the rights to data protection, privacy, and free expression as set out under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, particularly if applied in the context of end-to-end encryption. The second expert workshop was scheduled to discuss the technology-related aspects of the proposed Regulation. Key themes, including end-to-end encryption and detection technologies, were discussed to support a constructive conversation about whether and how the proposed Regulation in its current form can be applied in the existing legal and technological landscape. The main objective was to better understand the relevant provisions in the proposed Regulation, the current state of the art of detection technologies, the functioning and purpose of end-to-end encryption, and the associated risks related to fundamental rights, including privacy and security. Participants took a distinct fundamental rights perspective to assess which risks are imposed on fundamental rights and what procedural/substantive safeguards might be required in the proposed Regulation to protect such rights.The outcome of the discussions led to recommendations set out at the end of this report (see section 5). These recommendations will be used to discuss potential amendments to the relevant provisions dealing with technology and related safeguards outlined in the proposed Regulation. Show less
Smith, J.D.T.; Croxall, K.; Draine, B.; De Looze, I.; Sandstrom, K.; Armus, L.; ... ; Wolfire, M. 2017
We use the near-infrared Br{$γ$} hydrogen recombination line as a reference star formation rate (SFR) indicator to test the validity and establish the calibration of the Herschel/PACS 70 {$μ$}m... Show moreWe use the near-infrared Br{$γ$} hydrogen recombination line as a reference star formation rate (SFR) indicator to test the validity and establish the calibration of the Herschel/PACS 70 {$μ$}m emission as a SFR tracer for sub-galactic regions in external galaxies. Br{$γ$} offers the double advantage of directly tracing ionizing photons and of being relatively insensitive to the effects of dust attenuation. For our first experiment, we use archival Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Br{$γ$} and Ks images of two nearby galaxies: NGC 5055 and NGC 6946, which are also part of the Herschel program KINGFISH (Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel). We use the extinction corrected Br{$γ$} emission to derive the SFR(70) calibration for H II regions in these two galaxies. A comparison of the SFR(70) calibrations at different spatial scales, from 200 pc to the size of the whole galaxy, reveals that about 50% of the total 70 {$μ$}m emission is due to dust heated by stellar populations that are unrelated to the current star formation. We use a simple model to qualitatively relate the increase of the SFR(70) calibration coefficient with decreasing region size to the star formation timescale. We provide a calibration for an unbiased SFR indicator that combines the observed H{$α$} with the 70 {$μ$}m emission, also for use in H II regions. We briefly analyze the PACS 100 and 160 {$μ$}m maps and find that longer wavelengths are not as good SFR indicators as 70 {$μ$}m, in agreement with previous results. We find that the calibrations show about 50% difference between the two galaxies, possibly due to effects of inclination. Based on observations obtained with WIRCam, a joint project of CFHT, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, France, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institute National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, and the University of Hawaii. Show less
We present ~{}kiloparsec spatial resolution maps of the CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor ({$α$}$_{CO}$) and dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) in 26 nearby, star-forming galaxies. We have simultaneously... Show moreWe present ~{}kiloparsec spatial resolution maps of the CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor ({$α$}$_{CO}$) and dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) in 26 nearby, star-forming galaxies. We have simultaneously solved for {$α$}$_{CO}$ and the DGR by assuming that the DGR is approximately constant on kiloparsec scales. With this assumption, we can combine maps of dust mass surface density, CO-integrated intensity, and H I column density to solve for both {$α$}$_{CO}$ and the DGR with no assumptions about their value or dependence on metallicity or other parameters. Such a study has just become possible with the availability of high-resolution far-IR maps from the Herschel key program KINGFISH, $^{12}$CO J = (2-1) maps from the IRAM 30 m large program HERACLES, and H I 21 cm line maps from THINGS. We use a fixed ratio between the (2-1) and (1-0) lines to present our {$α$}$_{CO}$ results on the more typically used $^{12}$CO J = (1-0) scale and show using literature measurements that variations in the line ratio do not affect our results. In total, we derive 782 individual solutions for {$α$}$_{CO}$ and the DGR. On average, {$α$}$_{CO}$ = 3.1 M $_{☉}$ pc$^{–2}$ (K km s$^{–1}$)$^{–1}$ for our sample with a standard deviation of 0.3 dex. Within galaxies, we observe a generally flat profile of {$α$}$_{CO}$ as a function of galactocentric radius. However, most galaxies exhibit a lower {$α$}$_{CO}$ value in the central kiloparsec{mdash}a factor of ~{}2 below the galaxy mean, on average. In some cases, the central {$α$}$_{CO}$ value can be factors of 5-10 below the standard Milky Way (MW) value of {$α$}$_{CO, MW}$ = 4.4 M $_{☉}$ pc$^{–2}$ (K km s$^{–1}$)$^{–1}$. While for {$α$}$_{CO}$ we find only weak correlations with metallicity, the DGR is well-correlated with metallicity, with an approximately linear slope. Finally, we present several recommendations for choosing an appropriate {$α$}$_{CO}$ for studies of nearby galaxies. Show less
