Exploring mixed lepton-quark interactions in non-resonant leptoquark production at the LHC

Searches for new physics (NP) at particle colliders typically involve multivariate analysis of kinematic distributions of final state particles produced in a decay of a hypothetical NP resonance. Since the pair-production cross-sections mediated by such resonances are strongly suppressed by the NP scale, this analysis becomes less relevant for NP searches for masses of the BSM resonance above 1 TeV. On the other hand, $t$-channel processes are less sensitive to the mass of the virtual mediator and therefore larger phase-space can be potentially probed as well as the couplings between the NP particles and the Standard Model fields. The fact that transitions between different generations of quarks and leptons may exist, the potential of the search presented in this article can be used, as a reference guide, to enlarge significantly the scope of searches performed at the LHC to flavour off-diagonal channels, in a theoretically consistent approach. In this work, we study non-resonant production of scalar leptoquarks which have been proposed in the literature to provide a potential avenue for radiative generation of neutrino masses, accommodating as well the existing flavour physics data. Final states involving just two muons at the LHC ($\mu^+, \mu^-$), are used as a well-motivated case study.Comment: 26 pages; 8 figures; 4 table

Therapeutic change, innovative moments and the reconceptualization of the self: a dialogical account

Innovative moments (IMs) are exceptions toward the problematic self-narrative that brought the client to therapy, which emerge in the therapeutic conversation. Dialogically, an IM might be conceived as an expression of an alternative I-position which challenges the dominance of problematic voices, thus having the potential to transform the self-narrative as they are expanded and elaborated. Reconceptualization is a particular type of IM which usually emerges in the middle of the process of a successful treatment, increasing steadily until the end. Moreover, reconceptualization seems to be a distinctive feature of a successful psychotherapy process, as it is almost absent in poor outcome cases. This IM has two main features: the presence of a contrast between a previous self-narrative and a new emergent one, and the access to the process which allowed for the transformation from the former to the last. This innovative moment clearly involves a special I-position which Hermans has characterized as a metaposition. We discuss four functions of this type of IM in the change process: (1) providing a narrative structure for change; (2) bridging the past and present self-narratives; (3) facilitating the progressive identification with the new self-narrative; and (4) allowing surpassing the ambivalence often involved in the change process

Maintenance and transformation of problematic self-narratives: a semiotic-dialogical approach

This study focus on how the emergence of novelties in psychotherapy, which we term Innovative Moments (IMs), progresses to the construction of a new self-narrative. Novelty’s emergence challenge a person’s dominant self-narrative (i.e., usual way of understanding and experiencing), generating uncertainty. Frequently, clients resolve the uncertainty, by attenuating the novelty’s meaning, making a quick return to the dominant self-narrative. From a dialogical perspective, a dominant voice (which organize clients’ self-narrative) and a non-dominant (or innovative) voice (expressed during IMs) establish a cyclical relation – mutual in-feeding – throughout the therapeutic process, blocking self-development. In this article, we analyze a successful psychotherapeutic case focusing on how the relation between dominant and nondominant voices evolve from mutual in-feeding to other forms of dialogical relation. We have identified two processes, using the microgenetic method from a semiotic autoregulatory perspective of the dialogical self: (1) Escalation of the innovative voice(s) and thereby inhibiting the dominant voice and (2) Dominant and innovative voices negotiate and engage in joint action

Narrative processes of innovation and stability within the dialogical self

Proo

Phenomenology of vector-like leptons with Deep Learning at the Large Hadron Collider

In this paper, a model inspired by Grand Unification principles featuring three generations of vector-like fermions, new Higgs doublets and a rich neutrino sector at the low scale is presented. Using the state-of-the-art Deep Learning techniques we perform the first phenomenological analysis of this model focusing on the study of new charged vector-like leptons (VLLs) and their possible signatures at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In our numerical analysis we consider signal events for vector-boson fusion and VLL pair production topologies, both involving a final state containing a pair of charged leptons of different flavor and two sterile neutrinos that provide a missing energy. We also consider the case of VLL single production where, in addition to a pair of sterile neutrinos, the final state contains only one charged lepton. We propose a novel method to identify missing transverse energy vectors by comparing the detector response with Monte-Carlo simulated data. All calculated observables are provided as data sets for Deep Learning analysis, where a neural network is constructed, based on results obtained via an evolutive algorithm, whose objective is to maximise either the accuracy metric or the Asimov significance for different masses of the VLL. Taking into account the effect of the three analysed topologies, we have found that the combined significance for the observation of new VLLs at the high-luminosity LHC can range from 5.7σ, for a mass of 1.25 TeV, all the way up to 28σ if the VLL mass is 200 GeV. We have also shown that by the end of the LHC Run-III a 200 GeV VLL can be excluded with a confidence of 8.8 standard deviations. The results obtained show that our model can be probed well before the end of the LHC operations and, in particular, providing important phenomenological information to constrain the energy scale at which new gauge symmetries emergent from the considered Grand Unification picture can be manifest.publishe

Actividades experimentais no Jardim-de-Infância: projecto aprender e gostar de aprender ciências

A comunicação apresentada diz respeito a um trabalho realizado com crianças e educadoras. Esse trabalho faz parte de um Projecto mais amplo, “Aprender e Gostar de Aprender Ciências”, que envolveu também crianças e professoras do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. O Projecto, que decorreu no ano lectivo 2006/2007 e foi financiado pelo Programa Ciência Viva VI “Ensino Experimental das Ciências na Escola”, teve como grandes finalidades a implementação de um programa de actividades experimentais para crianças e a aquisição de materiais para as escolas e os jardins-de-infância. A comunicação descreve o impacto do Projecto nas crianças, essencialmente em termos de desenvolvimento de capacidades sócio-afectivas, como a autonomia e a responsabilidade, e de construção e/ou aprofundamento de conhecimento. Descreve também a avaliação que as educadoras fizeram do Projecto, bem como o impacto deste no seu desenvolvimento profissional e nas crianças. O Projecto desenvolveu-se num concelho desfavorecido do meio rural, o Concelho de Vinhais, distrito de Bragança e ocorreu em três fases: na primeira ajudaram-se as educadoras/professoras a implementar actividades de ciências concebidas e organizadas pelos formadores. Na segunda fase ajudaram-se as educadoras/professoras a conceber e a explorar outras actividades experimentais, contribuindo para o seu desenvolvimento profissional. Na terceira fase avaliou-se o impacto do Projecto junto das crianças e das educadoras/professoras. Pela análise dos dados colhidos no decorrer do Projecto, com base na opinião das crianças e num conjunto de registos efectuados pelas crianças e pelas educadoras, pode-se afirmar que foi notória a motivação e o empenho com que participaram nas actividades; por outro lado, pensamos que o Projecto contribuiu para o desenvolvimento de competências por parte das crianças

On sampling collection procedure effectiveness for forest soil characterization

One of the most important measures to prevent wild forest fires is the use of prescribed and controlled burning actions as it reduce the fuel mass availability. The impact of these management activities on soil physical and chemical properties varies according to the type of both soil and vegetation. Decisions in forest management plans are often based on the results obtained from soil-monitoring campaigns. Those campaigns are often man-labor intensive and expensive. In this paper we have successfully used the multivariate statistical technique Robust Principal Analysis Compounds (ROBPCA) to investigate on the sampling procedure effectiveness for two different methodologies, in order to reflect on the possibility of simplifying and reduce the sampling collection process and its auxiliary laboratory analysis work towards a cost-effective and competent forest soil characterization

Ambivalence resolution in emotion-focused therapy: The successful case of Sarah

Ambivalence can be understood as a cyclical movement between two opposing positions of the self: one expressed in a novelty—an innovative moment (IM)—and another one conveyed by a return to the maladaptive pattern. If not properly addressed and resolved during therapy, ambivalence can prevent change and lead to psychotherapeutic failure. Two processes of ambivalence resolution have been suggested: (1) the dominance of the innovative position and consequent inhibition of the problematic position and (2) the negotiation between both positions. Objectives: To empirically study both processes of ambivalence resolution in a successful case of emotion-focused therapy. Method: Sessions were independently coded with three coding systems—the IMs, the return to the problem and the ambivalence resolution. Results: Ambivalence tended to be resolved from the initial to the final sessions. Although resolutions through dominance tended to decrease and resolutions through negotiation seemingly increased along treatment, dominance was, nonetheless, the most prominent process of resolution along the whole treatment. Conclusions: Although it has been suggested that integrating opposing parts of the self is a necessary process for psychotherapeutic success, a less integrative process of ambivalence resolution may also be an important resource along the process.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Part- nership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653

Aprender a gostar de aprender ciências

Com o projecto que aqui se apresenta, pretende-se promover a realização de actividades experimentais de ciências por crianças do 1ºCiclo do Ensino Básico (CEB) e do Jardim-de-infância (JI). O projecto desenvolver-se-á em 3 fases: na 1ª ajudam-se os professores e os educadores a implementar actividades de ciências concebidas e organizadas pelos formadores. Na 2ª fase ajudam-se os professores a educadores a conceber e a explorar outras actividades experimentais, contribuindo para o seu desenvolvimento profissional. Na 3ª fase avalia-se o impacto do projecto junto das crianças e dos professores.Escola Superior de Educação de Braganç

ALE - advanced learning environments: work-based learning

Com o aumento do conhecimento e o progresso tecnológico da sociedade, as Tecnologias da Informação (TI) no desenvolvimento educacional têm sido reconhecidas mundialmente como prioritárias, a fim de apoiar o desenvolvimento acadêmico e científico, alcançar alcance universal e ampliar o conhecimento, bem como facilitar a educação ao longo da vida. Passamos da aprendizagem centrada no professor para a aprendizagem centrada no aluno, fornecendo meios pedagógicos modernos intuitivos e envolventes para que os alunos aprendam sozinhos. Existe, no entanto, uma componente essencial do saber-fazer que muitas vezes só é adquirida no mercado de trabalho, ou quando o ensino envolve actividades práticas do mundo real, o que não é comum nos cursos de primeiro ciclo (Quadro Europeu de Qualificações para a aprendizagem ao longo da vida (QEQ), nível 6). Em Portugal, no nível 4 do QEQ, equivalente ao ensino secundário, existem cursos profissionais especializados destinados a formar pessoas para uma vida profissional ativa muito mais cedo, sem a exigência curricular e científica que é normal no ensino superior. Em 2006, no âmbito do processo de Bolonha, foram implementados os Cursos Técnicos Superiores Profissionais correspondentes ao nível 5 do QEF. Estes cursos têm a propriedade de exigir um estágio obrigatório de 6 meses pela instituição de ensino superior que se realiza em empresas e organizações que exercem atividades profissionais na área para a qual o curso se prepara e que têm as qualificações do formando. Em cada um desses níveis de ensino os objetivos e metodologias de aprendizagem são diferentes e, portanto, os resultados também são diferentes. Hoje em dia, estamos tentando entender como o treinamento em ambientes do mundo real é importante para melhorar o aprendizado. O objetivo do nosso projeto é avaliar o impacto da mudança, enfatizando a inter-relação de organização, currículo, infraestrutura, pedagogia e práticas na construção do ambiente de ensino e aprendizagem (ELT). Este estudo basear-se-á na análise dos currículos, metodologias, durabilidade e competências adquiridas em cada um dos diferentes níveis, a fim de avaliar a pertinência da combinação de estratégias existentes nos diferentes percursos, podendo passar pela necessidade de reformular a realidade atual, quer introduzindo mudanças, quer aumentando os métodos pedagógicos ou os conhecimentos, com vistas a uma formação mais completa e próxima do mercado de trabalho sem descurar toda a formação essencial ao indivíduo e ao seu desempenho profissional.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio