The Adaptive Marine Policy (AMP) toolbox: Supporting policy-makers developing adaptive policies in the Mediterranean and Black Sea

Adaptive management is essential to the practical application of the Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA). Despite there are frequent assertions that adaptive management is being used, evidence on its success is still limited. Indeed, it is difficult to bring the different elements of adaptive management together in a robust way and to choose the appropriate tools to do it. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a practical framework for adaptive policy action, consistent with the EBA. Accordingly, to operationalize the design and implementation of adaptive policies on the basis of the EBA, the Adaptive Marine Policy toolbox has been developed. The objective of the toolbox is to provide policy-makers a practical framework to design and implement adaptive policies. To show the functionality of the toolbox, the guidelines and resources provided within the toolbox have been applied to the marine litter issue in the Mediterranean and Black Sea as an example. The example application has shown that the toolbox is a useful and operational framework to build a science-policy interface according to the EBA. Despite some resources could be missing from the toolbox, they provide a practical and useful starting point to support the application of the different steps and key activities

Study of Spin and Decay-Plane Correlations of W Bosons in the e+e- -> W+W- Process at LEP

Data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV are used to study correlations of the spin of W bosons using e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ events. Spin correlations are favoured by data, and found to agree with the Standard Model predictions. In addition, correlations between the W-boson decay planes are studied in e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ and e+e- -> W+W- -> qq~qq~ events. Decay-plane correlations, consistent with zero and with the Standard Model predictions, are measured

Ultrarelativistic sources in nonlinear electrodynamics

The fields of rapidly moving sources are studied within nonlinear electrodynamics by boosting the fields of sources at rest. As a consequence of the ultrarelativistic limit the delta-like electromagnetic shock waves are found. The character of the field within the shock depends on the theory of nonlinear electrodynamics considered. In particular, we obtain the field of an ultrarelativistic charge in the Born-Infeld theory.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of the Cross Section for Open-Beauty Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP

The cross section for open-beauty production in photon-photon collisions is measured using the whole high-energy and high-luminosity data sample collected by the L3 detector at LEP. This corresponds to 627/pb of integrated luminosity for electron-positron centre-of-mass energies from 189GeV to 209GeV. Events containing b quarks are identified through their semi-leptonic decay into electrons or muons. The e+e- -> e+e-b b~X cross section is measured within our fiducial volume and then extrapolated to the full phase space. These results are found to be in significant excess with respect to Monte Carlo predictions and next-to-leading order QCD calculations

Search for Branons at LEP

We search, in the context of extra-dimension scenarios, for the possible existence of brane fluctuations, called branons. Events with a single photon or a single Z-boson and missing energy and momentum collected with the L3 detector in e^+ e^- collisions at centre-of-mass energies sqrt{s}=189-209$ GeV are analysed. No excess over the Standard Model expectations is found and a lower limit at 95% confidence level of 103 GeV is derived for the mass of branons, for a scenario with small brane tensions. Alternatively, under the assumption of a light branon, brane tensions below 180 GeV are excluded

Production of Single W Bosons at \sqrt{s}=189 GeV and Measurement of WWgamma Gauge Couplings

Single W boson production in electron-positron collisions is studied with the L3 detector at LEP. The data sample collected at a centre-of-mass energy of \sqrt{s} = 188.7GeV corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 176.4pb^-1. Events with a single energetic lepton or two acoplanar hadronic jets are selected. Within phase-space cuts, the total cross-section is measured to be 0.53 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.03 pb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Including our single W boson results obtained at lower \sqrt{s}, the WWgamma gauge couplings kappa_gamma and lambda_gamma are determined to be kappa_gamma = 0.93 +/- 0.16 +/- 0.09 and lambda_gamma = -0.31 +0.68 -0.19 +/- 0.13

K0s K0s Final State in Two-Photon Collisions and Implications for Glueballs

The K0s K0s final state in two-photon collisions is studied with the L3 detector at LEP. The mass spectrum is dominated by the formation of the f_2'(1525) tensor meson in the helicity-two state with a two-photon width times the branching ratio into K Kbar of 76 +- 6 +- 11 eV. A clear signal for the formation of the f_J(1710) is observed and it is found to be dominated by the spin-two helicity-two state. No resonance is observed in the mass region around 2.2 GeV and an upper limit of 1.4 eV at 95% C.L. is derived for the two-photon width times the branching ratio into K0s K0s for the glueball candidate xi(2230)

Search for an invisibly decaying Higgs boson in e^+e^- collisions at \sqrt{s} = 183 - 189 GeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into invisible particles is performed using the data collected at LEP by the L3 experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 183 GeV and 189 GeV. The integrated luminosities are respectively 55.3 pb^-1 and 176.4 pb^-1. The observed candidates are consistent with the expectations from Standard Model processes. In the hypothesis that the production cross section of this Higgs boson equals the Standard Model one and the branching ratio into invisible particles is 100%, a lower mass limit of 89.2 GeV is set at 95% confidence level

Search for Charginos with a Small Mass Difference with the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle at \sqrt{s} = 189 GeV

A search for charginos nearly mass-degenerate with the lightest supersymmetric particle is performed using the 176 pb^-1 of data collected at 189 GeV in 1998 with the L3 detector. Mass differences between the chargino and the lightest supersymmetric particle below 4 GeV are considered. The presence of a high transverse momentum photon is required to single out the signal from the photon-photon interaction background. No evidence for charginos is found and upper limits on the cross section for chargino pair production are set. For the first time, in the case of heavy scalar leptons, chargino mass limits are obtained for any \tilde{\chi}^{+-}_1 - \tilde{\chi}^0_1 mass difference

Direct Observation of Longitudinally Polarised W Bosons

The three different helicity states of W bosons, produced in the reaction e+e- -> W+W- -> l nu q q~ are studied using leptonic and hadronic W decays at sqrt{s}=183GeV and 189GeV. The W polarisation is also measured as a function of the scattering angle between the W- and the direction of the e- beam. The analysis demonstrates that W bosons are produced with all three helicities, the longitudinal and the two transverse states. Combining the results from the two center-of-mass energies and with leptonic and hadronic W decays, the fraction of longitudinally polarised W bosons is measured to be 0.261 +/- 0.051(stat.) +/- 0.016(syst.) in agreement with the expectation from the Standard Model