L'Univers est continûement le théâtre d'événements explosifs capables de relâcher une énorme quantité d'énergie sur des courtes échelles de temps. Ces sources transitoires comme les sursauts gamma, les supernovae ou les noyaux actifs de galaxie sont souvent associées à des objets extrêmes comme des étoiles à neutrons ou des trous noirs. De manière générale, ces sources émettent des radiations électromagnétiques dans une large bande spectrale voire sur la totalité du spectre pour les cas les plus extrêmes. Dès lors, une analyse multi-longueur d'onde est vitale pour étudier et comprendre la physique complexe de ces objets. De plus, au voisinage de ces sources, des particules (rayons cosmiques, RC) pourraient être efficacement accélérées jusqu'à des énergies très elevées dans des processus de chocs violents. L'interaction de ces RCs avec l'environnement peut conduire à la production d'un nombre significatif de neutrinos de hautes énergies. Par conséquent, l'étude des objets transitoires par le biais de l'astronomie neutrino offre la possibilité d'identifier enfin la nature des puissants accélérateurs cosmiques.Cette thèse est dédiée à l'étude de deux sources transitoires parmi les plus extrêmes dans l'Univers : les sursauts gamma (en anglais, Gamma-Ray Bursts : GRBs) détectés il y a ~ 50 ans et les sursauts radio (en anglais, Fast Radio Bursts : FRBs) fraîchement découverts il y a ~ 15 ans. Ces sources sont caractérisées par l'émission "prompte" d'un flash gamma (keV-MeV) durant de quelques ms à plusieurs secondes dans le cadre des GRBs et d'un flash intense en radio (GHz) durant quelques ms pour les FRBs. Dans le cas des GRBs une émission rémanente dite "afterglow" est observée dans une large gamme spectrale (X, visible et radio) alors que jusqu'à présent aucune autre contrepartie électromagnétique provenant d'un FRB n'a été découverte. Ces dernières années des modèles d'émission multi-longueur d'onde et multi-messager ont été développés afin d'expliquer ces 2 phénomènes. L'objectif majeur de ce travail de thèse est de tester ces modèles d'émission afin de contraindre la physique et la nature de ces deux objets. Pour cela, une analyse détaillée des propriétés physiques de l'émission afterglow des GRBs a été menée grâce à un large échantillon de données collectées ces 20 dernières années par diverses télescopes. Cette étude a permis de mettre en évidence les lacunes et les réussites du modèle GRB dit "standard" mais aussi les liens physiques subtils existant entre l'émission prompte des GRBs et leurs rémanences. Une recherche de signal neutrino en coïncidence avec les GRBs/FRBs a aussi été réalisée avec le télescope à neutrinos ANTARES. Les résultats sont décrits dans cette thèse ainsi que les contraintes apportées sur les processus d'accélération des particules durant ces phénomènes transitoires. Enfin, ce manuscrit rend compte des différents programmes d'observations innovants qui ont été engagés sur les télescopes optiques TAROT et Zadko et le télescope à neutrinos ANTARES afin de contraindre la nature des progéniteurs des GRBs/FRBs. / The Universe is continuously the scene of explosive events capable of releasing a tremendous amount of energy in short time scales. These transients like Gamma-Ray Bursts, Supernovae or Active Galactic Nuclei are often associated with extreme objects such as neutron stars or black holes. Generally, these sources emit light in a large spectral energy range and sometimes in the whole electromagnetic spectrum for the most extreme cases. Thus, a multi-wavelength analysis is crucial to study and understand the complex physical processes at work. Furthermore, in the vicinity of these sources, particles (cosmic-rays, CRs) could be efficiently accelerated up to very high energies by violent shock mecanisms. The interaction of these CRs with the surrounding environment may lead to a substantial production of high-energy neutrinos. Therefore, the study of the high-energy transient objects through neutrino astronomy offer the possibility to finally identify the nature of the powerful cosmic accelerators a hundred year after the discovery of the cosmic-rays.This thesis is dedicated to the study of two transient sources among the most extreme ones observed in the Universe: the Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected ~ 50 years ago and the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) newly discovered ~ 15 years ago. These sources are characterised by the "prompt" emission of a gamma-ray flash (keV-MeV) lasting few ms up to few seconds for GRBs and an intense pulse of radio light (GHz) lasting few ms for FRBs. In the case of GRBs a late broadband afterglow emission is observed in X-rays/optical/radio domain while up to now no other electromagnetic counterpart has ever been detected in coincidence with any FRBs. These last years, many models predicting a multi-wavelength and a multi-messenger emission from these two phenomena have been developped. The main goal of this thesis work is to test these models in order to constrain the physics and the nature of the GRBs/FRBs. To do so, a detailed analysis on the physical properties of the GRB afterglow emission was made thanks to a large set of data collected these last 20 years by various facilities. The study reveals the major problems but also the successes encountered with the so-called "standard" GRB model. Subtle connections between the prompt and the afterglow emission are also discussed. In addition, a search for a neutrino signal from GRBs/FRBs was realised with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The results are described in this thesis as well as the constraints on the particle acceleration mecanisms occuring during these transient phenomena.At last, this manuscript presents the different innovative observational programs realised in the optical domain with the TAROT and Zadko telescopes and in the astroparticle side with the ANTARES neutrino telescope in order to probe the nature of the GRBs/FRBs progenitors.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4845.pdf: 2916613 bytes, checksum: aa64366fdbe9befa8f14547fa4545763 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-18 / Multi-Electrode Array, MEA, was developed more than thirty years ago. This planar device of multiple microelectrodes has been used to detect local electric potential variations created by the ion movement through the protein channels that traverses the cell membranes in the near neighborhood. MEA offers the possibility of non invasive registering of the cell and their network s activities, allowing to know how the neurons start to connect through the synapses forming a network and generating spontaneous electrophysiological activities. In order to understand the neural network dynamics in face of the spontaneous activities and its evolution in dissociated hippocampal cell cultures, important properties in the synaptic plasticity, in this work it is proposed the analysis of the evolution and modeling of the hippocampal cell cultures in MEA using the theory of Partial Directed Coherence and Complex Networks. There were used the electrophysiological records obtained using MEA60 System, of the dissociated neurons of 18 days old Wistar rat embyo, in an experiment denoted as 371, realized at the University of Genoa, Italy. As the results obtained using the Partial Directed Coherence approach, it was verified that the method is capable to detect neuronal connectivity in the neuron cultures using MEA, even with the noisy signals. It was also verified that different time delays between signals during application of the PDC method do not affect directly on the results of the causality. PDC allowed to show that in MEA the amount of direct connections resulted is less than the amount of indirect connections, through the microelectrodes. This can indicate that the neurons prefer to communicate through existing connections than creating new connections. It was also observed that it is easier to lose direct connections than indirect connections between microelectrodes through the time. Through the experiments it can be observed that the culture in 25 DIV (Days In Vitro) developed more amount of connections between neighboring electrodes, with less overall connections than the culture in 46 DIV, that had more overall connections with less neighborhood connections. Since one of the PDC features is the directionality detection between connections, it was observed direction changes through the connections through the time, even though we do not know the physiological meaning of these changes in the cognitive process. It was also observed that the established connections do not follow random patterns, showing an indicative of a free scale network, although we used small statistical measures to characterize the networks. / Há mais de 30 anos a Matriz de microeletrodos (Multi-Electrode Array,MEA) foi desenvolvida. Este dispositivo planar de múltiplos microeletrodos tem permitido detectar as variações do potencial elétrico local que são criadas pelo movimento de íons através dos canais de proteínas que atravessam as membranas das células neuronais em sua vizinhança imediata. A MEA oferece a possibilidade de gravação não-invasiva da atividade das células e de redes de células, permitindo-nos conhecer como os neurônios se comunicam através de sinapses formando uma rede e disparando atividades eletrofisiológicas espontâneas evocadas. No sentido de poder entender melhor a dinâmica das redes neurais em termos de atividades espontâneas e sua evolução em culturas de células hipocampais dissociadas, que são as propriedades mais importantes na plasticidade sináptica, neste trabalho é proposta a análise da evolução e o modelamento de culturas de células hipocampais na MEA usando a teoria de Coerência Parcial Direcionada (PDC) e de Redes Complexas. Foram usados os registros eletrofisiológicos obtidos usando o sistema MEA60, de neurônios dissociados de embrião de rato Wistar, de 18 dias de vida em um experimento denotado como 371, realizado na Universidade de Gênova, Itália. Como resultados obtidos ao utilizar o método de Coerência Parcial Direcionada, verificou-se que o método é capaz de detectar conectividade neuronal nas culturas de neurônios da MEA, mesmo com sinais com presença de ruído. Também verificou-se que tempos de atraso diferentes na aplicação do PDC não tem uma influência direta nos resultados de causalidade. O PDC permitiu mostrar que na MEA a quantidade de conexões diretas estabelecidas foram sempre em menor quantidade do que as conexões indiretas, através de caminhos. Isso pode ser um indicativo de que os neurônios preferem estabelecer comunicações usando caminhos ja existentes do que criando novas conexões. Também observou-se que com o passar do tempo é mais fácil se perderem conexões diretas do que conexões intermediárias entre neurônios. Através dos experimentos realizados pode se obervar que a cultura no 25 DIV (dias in vitro) desenvolveu maior quantidade de conexões com nós vizinhos, possuindo menos conexões em total, do que a rede no 46 DIV que teve maior quantidade de conexões total mas menor quantidade de conexões com nós vizinhos. Como uma das características do PDC é a deteção da direcionalidade nas conexões, observouse mudanças no sentido das conexões ao longo do registro, embora não saibamos ainda o significado fisiológico dessas mudanças em processos cognoscitivos. Também observou-se que as conexões estabelecidas não seguiam um padrão aleatório, encontrando-se um indicativo de um comportamento de redes livres de escala, embora não possamos afirmar isso por ter utilizado poucas medidas estatísticas para caracterizar as redes.

Fusion frames and block sparse recovery are of interest in signal processing and communication applications. In these applications it is required that the fusion frame have some desirable properties. One such requirement is that the fusion frame be tight and its subspaces form an optimal packing in a Grassmannian manifold. Such fusion frames are called Grassmannian fusion frames. Grassmannian frames are known to be optimal dictionaries for sparse recovery as they have minimum coherence. By analogy Grassmannian fusion frames are potential candidates as optimal dictionaries in block sparse processing. The present work intends to study fusion frames in finite dimensional vector spaces assuming a specific structure useful in block sparse signal processing. The main focus of our work is the design of Grassmannian fusion frames and their implication in block sparse recovery. We will consider burst error correction as an application of block sparsity and fusion frame concepts. We propose two new algebraic methods for designing Grassmannian fusion frames. The first method involves use of Fourier matrix and difference sets to obtain a partial Fourier matrix which forms a Grassmannian fusion frame. This fusion frame has a specific structure and the parameters of the fusion frame are determined by the type of difference set used. The second method involves constructing Grassmannian fusion frames from Grassmannian frames which meet the Welch bound. This method uses existing constructions of optimal Grassmannian frames. The method, while fairly general, requires that the dimension of the vector space be divisible by the dimension of the subspaces. A lower bound which is an analog of the Welch bound is derived for the block coherence of dictionaries along with conditions to be satisfied to meet the bound. From these results we conclude that the matrices constructed by us are optimal for block sparse recovery from block coherence viewpoint. There is a strong relation between sparse signal processing and error control coding. It is known that burst errors are block sparse in nature. So, here we attempt to solve the burst error correction problem using block sparse signal recovery methods. The use of Grassmannian fusion frames which we constructed as optimal dictionary allows correction of maximum possible number of errors, when used in conjunction with reconstruction algorithms which exploit block sparsity. We also suggest a modification to improve the applicability of the technique and point out relationship with a method which appeared previously in literature. As an application example, we consider the use of the burst error correction technique for impulse noise cancelation in OFDM system. Impulse noise is bursty in nature and severely degrades OFDM performance. The Grassmannian fusion frames constructed with Fourier matrix and difference sets is ideal for use in this application as it can be easily incorporated into the OFDM system.

Ce travail vise à étudier l’apport des technologies d’intégration 3D à l’imagerie CMOS ultra-rapide. La gamme de vitesse d’acquisition considérée ici est du million au milliard d’images par seconde. Cependant au-delà d’une dizaine de milliers d’images par seconde, les architectures classiques de capteur d’images sont limitées par la bande passante des buffers de sortie. Pour atteindre des fréquences supérieures, une architecture d’imageur burst est utilisée où une séquence d’une centaine d’images est acquise et stockée dans le capteur. Les technologies d’intégration 3D ont connu un engouement depuis une dizaine d’années et sont considérées comme une solution complémentaire aux travaux menés sur les dispositifs (transistors, composants passifs) pour améliorer les performances des circuits intégrés. Notre choix s’est porté sur une technologie où les circuits intégrés sont directement empilés avant la mise en boitier (3D-SIC). La densité d’interconnexions entre les différents circuits est suffisante pour permettre l’implémentation d’interconnexions au niveau du pixel. L’intégration 3D offre d’intéressants avantages à l’imagerie intégrée car elle permet de déporter l’électronique de lecture sous le pixel. Elle permet ainsi de maximiser le facteur de remplissage du pixel tout en offrant une large place aux circuits de conditionnement du signal. Dans le cas de l’imagerie burst, cette technologie permet de consacrer une plus grande surface aux mémoires dédiées au stockage de la séquence d’image et ce au plus proche des pixels. Elle permet aussi de réaliser sur la puce la conversion analogique numérique des images acquises. / This work aims to study the inflows of the 3D integration technology to ultra-high speed CMOS imaging. The acquisition speed range considered here is between one million to one billion images per second. However above ten thousand images per second, classical image sensor architectures are limited by the data bandwidth of the output buffers. To reach higher acquisition frequencies, a burst architecture is used where a set of about one hundred images are acquired and stored on-chip. 3D integration technologies become popular more than ten years ago and are considered as a complementary solution to the technological improvements of the devices. We have chosen a technology where integrated circuits are stacked on the top of each other (3D-SIC). The interconnection density between the circuits is high enough to enable interconnections at the pixel level. The 3D integration offers some significant advantages because it allows deporting the readout electronic below the pixel. It thus increases the fill factor of the pixel while offering a wide area to the signal processing circuit. For burst imaging, this technology provides more room to the memory dedicated to the image storage while staying close to the pixel. It also allows implementing analog to digital converter on-chip.

One of the most powerful and important applications that the brain accomplishes is solving the sensory "cocktail party problem:" to adaptively suppress extraneous signals in an environment. Theoretical studies suggest that the solution to the problem involves an adaptive filter, which learns to remove the redundant noise. However, neural learning is also in its infancy and there are still many questions about the stability and application of synaptic learning rules for neural computation. In this thesis, the implementation of an adaptive filter in the brain of a weakly electric fish, A. Leptorhynchus, was studied. It was found to require a cerebellar architecture that could supply independent frequency channels of delayed feedback and multiple burst learning rules that could shape this feedback. This unifies two ideas about the function of the cerebellum that were previously separate: the cerebellum as an adaptive filter and as a generator of precise temporal inputs.

This thesis deals with the possibilities of determining perfusion parameters of vascular system, using contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, which is non-invasive method. Properties of ultrasonography and use of contrast agents are briefly summarized. The methods selected for perfusions analysis were Bolus-tracking¬¬, Burst-replenishment and both of them combined – Bolus&Burst. Parametric models based on these methods were created for modelling an approximation of set perfusion parameters with the use of blind deconvolution.

This work deals with possibilities of ultrasound perfusion analysis for the absolute quantification of perfusion parameters. In the theoretical part of this work are discussed possibilities of using of the ultrasound contrast agents and approaches for the perfusion analysis. New methods for the perfusion analysis are suggested and tested in the practical part of this work. The methods are based on convolutional model in which the concentration of the contrast agent is modeled as aconvolution of the arterial input function and the tissue residual function. The feasibility of these methods for the absolute quantification of perfusion parameters is shown on data from phantom studies, simulations and also preclinical and clinical studies. The software for the whole process of the perfusion analysis was developed for using in hospitals.

Gamma-ray burst light curves are notoriously irregular, yet a significant number consists of a single fast-rising, exponentially decaying pulse. These are called single-peaked light curves. The goal of this thesis is to analyse a sample of 2710 GRBs collected by the Fermi space telescope by identifying single-peaked bursts and comparing their properties to those of the multi-peaked bursts. Furthermore, the validity of the relativistic shock breakout theory as an explanation for single-peaked, low-luminosity GRBs is investigated using a closure relation. For this investigation, the Fermi sample wascomplemented by low-luminosity GRBs observed by other instruments. A criterion for selecting single-peaked bursts was successfully developed, yielding 48% long and 79% short, single-peaked GRBs. Significant differences between the populations were found in multiple properties. In general, single-peaked GRBs appear to be weaker and more slowly varying than multi-peaked ones; however, a larger sample of GRBs with redshift measurements is needed to draw conclusions about possible intrinsic differences in energy connected to the progenitor systems. The investigation of low-luminosity GRBs’ compliance with the shock breakout closure relation showed that 64% of the low-luminosity GRBs were within a factor 5 of fulfilling the relation as opposed to only 24% of high-luminosity GRBs. It was further shown that only a small number (< 5%) of Fermi GRBs without redshift measurements could be low-luminosity shock breakout GRBs according to this theory. In conclusion, while the shock breakout closure relation does hold for a greater proportion of low-luminosity GRBs than high-luminosity GRBs, there is still a large number of low-luminosity GRBs left unexplained by this theory. / Gammablixtljuskurvor är ökänt oregelbundna men en betydande andel består av en enda snabbt stigande och exponentiellt avtagande puls. Dessa kallas singelpeakade ljuskurvor. Målet med detta examensarbete är att analysera de 2710 gammablixtar som Fermirymdteleskopet har observerat genom att identifiera singelpeakade blixtar och jämföra deras egenskaper med multipeakade blixtars. Dessutom undersöks den relativistiska shockbreakoutteorin som förklaringsmodell för singelpeakade lågluminositetsgammablixtar. I denna undersökning kompletterades fermiblixtarna med lågluminositetsblixtar från andra instrument. Ett kriterium för identifikation av singelpeakade gammablixtar utvecklades och detta resulterade i 48% långa och 70% korta, singelpeakade gammablixtar. Flertalet egenskaper uppvisade signifikanta skillnader mellan populationerna. I allmänhet verkar singelpeakade gammablixtar vara svagare och variera långsammare än multipeakade. Dock behövs en större population av gammablixtar med uppmätta rödskift för att med säkerhet kunna avgöra om singelpeakade blixtar verkligen släpper ut mindre energi. Undersökningen av huruvida lågluminositetsgammablixtar kan förklaras med shockbreakoutteorin visade att 64% av lågluminositetsblixtarna uppfyllde kravet upp till en faktor fem medan bara 24% av högluminositetsblixtarna gjorde det. Vidare visades att endast ett litet antal (<5%) av fermiblixtarna utan uppmätta rödskift skulle kunna vara lågluminositetsshockbreakoutblixtar enligt denna teori. Även om shockbreakoutteorin kan förklara en större andel av lågluminositetsblixtarna än högluminositetsblixtarna återstår ett stort antal oförklarade lågluminositetsblixtar.

La stimulation magnétique transcrânienne répétée (SMTr) est une technique de neuromodulation utilisée dans le traitement de la dépression majeure. La stimulation thêta-burst intermittente (STBi), une forme spécifique de SMTr, bénéficie d’un temps de stimulation plus court. Ses mécanismes d’action et sa durée optimale de stimulation restent toutefois inconnus. En effet, en clinique, la durée standard de STBi tend à être allongée dans l’espoir d’augmenter les effets thérapeutiques. Cette hypothèse n’a cependant jamais été vérifiée empiriquement. Le présent mémoire vise ainsi à mieux comprendre les mécanismes neuronaux de la STBi du cortex dorsolatéral préfrontal gauche et à déterminer la durée optimale de stimulation parmi les trois durées les plus fréquemment utilisées : 600 (standard), 1200 et 1800 impulsions. La question est explorée chez 14 participants neurotypiques. Chaque participant a pris part aux trois conditions expérimentales lors de trois sessions distinctes. L’activité cérébrale induite a été mesurée par l’utilisation combinée de la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne et l’électroencéphalographie, via les potentiels évoqués par la SMT (PÉS) et les perturbations spectrales liées à l’évènement (PSLE). Ces mesures ont été comparées avant et après chaque condition à l’aide d’un modèle linéaire mixte. Pour l’ensemble des mesures de l’activité corticale, aucune différence significative n’a été obtenue entre les trois durées. Spécifiquement, la STBi a induit une réduction de l’amplitude de la majorité des PÉS et des PSLE de la bande thêta. Ainsi, le protocole STBi standard engendre une modification de l’activité cérébrale comparable aux durées prolongées, dénotant l’importance de répliquer cette étude auprès d’une population clinique. / Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a neuromodulation technique used as a treatment of major depressive disorder. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a specific kind of rTMS, offers a reduced stimulation duration. Yet, its mechanism of action and optimal duration are still largely unknown. In clinical settings, standard duration is often increased with the expectation of increasing therapeutic effects. However, this hypothesis has never been tested. This master thesis aims to provide better understanding of neuronal mechanism associated with iTBS on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of healthy participants and to determine the optimal stimulation duration over the three more commonly used durations in clinical practice: 600 (standard), 1,200 and 1,800 pulses. This was explored in 14 neurotypical participants who experienced each of the three conditions during three different sessions. The induced brain activity was measured combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography, via TMS evoked potentials (TEP) and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP). These measures were compared before and after each condition using a mixed linear model. For the three durations, no significant difference was found in all cortical activity measures. Specifically, after iTBS, the amplitude of most of the TEPs, as well as of the ERSP of theta band, are reduced. Therefore, the iTBS standard protocol induces a modification of cortical activity which is similar to longer durations, showing the importance of replicating this study on a clinical population.

With energy outputs >~10^51 erg in 0.1-1000 seconds, Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful events yet observed in the Universe. As such they are potential probes of the very early Universe, back to the era of re-ionisation and the first stars, but at the same time they have been observed to span a wide range in luminosity and redshift from the relatively local Universe (z~0.0085) out to z~6.29. GRBs divide into two classes based primarily on their duration as measured by T90 (the time taken to observe 90% of the total burst fluence). Long bursts (L-GRBs) have T90>~2 seconds, and shorts (S-GRBs) T90<~2 seconds. Though much has been learned regarding long duration GRBs since the first afterglow discovery in 1997 (including their likely association with massive core collapse supernovae), much remains unknown regarding short duration GRBs. In this work, after a brief historical introduction and review, we present analyses of the angular cross-correlation on the sky of short GRBs from the BATSE catalogue with galaxies in the local Universe sampled from the PSCz Redshift Survey and the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3). In particular we show that 20%+/-8% (1 sigma) of all BATSE short duration bursts (localised to 10 degrees or better) show correlation with galaxy samples (morphological T-type<=4) within ~112 Mpc. Our statistics thus provide evidence that a substantial fraction of BATSE short GRBs show a tendency to be associated with large scale structure on the sky traced by a variety of galaxy types. Short GRBs are believed to be produced in the final merger of compact object (neutron star-neutron star or neutron star-black hole) binaries, though other possible progenitors are known to exist. The short initial spike of a giant flare from a Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) such as the December 27th 2004 event from SGR1806-20 would have been detectable by BATSE as a short GRB if it occurred in a galaxy within ~30-50 Mpc (assuming a distance to SGR1806-20 of 15 kpc). Using the observed luminosities and rates of Galactic SGR giant flares, as well as theoretical predictions for the rate of binary mergers, we investigate the ability of plausible Luminosity Functions (LF), singly and in combination, to reproduce our observed correlations and a cosmological S-GRB population. We find the correlations are best explained by a separate population of lower luminosity S-GRBs, with properties consistent with them being due to giant flares from extra-galactic SGRs. Overall predicted number counts are a good fit to the observed BATSE number counts, and furthermore, the wider redshift distribution is consistent with the early Swift S-GRB redshift distribution. The three closest GRBs which have been observed to date were all long duration bursts, and we have therefore also searched for cross-correlation signals between the BATSE long GRBs and local galaxies. The three nearby bursts shared several similar properties such as being under-luminous, spectrally soft and of low variability. We have therefore also investigated a subset of L-GRBs with light curve properties similar to these known nearby bursts. The whole sample is found to exhibit a correlation level consistent with zero (1 sigma upper limit=10%, equivalent to 144 bursts) out to a radius of ~155 Mpc, but a spectrally soft, low observed fluence and low variability subset shows a correlation level of 28%+/-16% (=50+/-28 bursts) within 155 Mpc. These results are consistent with low-luminosity, low-variability bursts being a separate sub-class of L-GRBs which may be much more prevalent in the local Universe than their high-luminosity, cosmologically distant counterparts. To investigate this further, we once again examined plausible luminosity functions for single and dual high and low luminosity populations, based on observed intrinsic rates from the literature. The local population was once again found only to be produced to a sufficient level (while maintaining consistency with the observed overall number counts) by a separate low luminosity population with intrinsic rates several hundred times greater than their cosmological counterparts. Constraining the models via the Swift overall redshift distribution instead of threshold-adjusted BATSE number counts showed that the dual LF models were able to produce excellent fits to the entire redshift distribution while adequately reproducing a local population. Finally, suggestions are made as to the direction future work may follow in order to build on these initial investigations, as well as to how observations with future missions and detectors such as Fermi (formerly GLAST), Advanced LIGO and LOFAR may shed further light on nearby GRBs.