Does haste make waste? The human factors of overtaking land design

The aim of this research was to improve overtaking safety and efficiency through improvements in road signage, markings, geometry and speed control associated with the placement and layout of passing lanes. The approach of the research was to explore the effects of several types of overtaking lane treatments in the safety and controlled environment of a state-of-the-art driving simulator. It was found that under the most benign conditions there were no differential effects of the three treatments. With poorer visibility or more taxing road geometry, the drivers relied more heavily on the road markings and signage and the effects of the treatments become more pronounced. The sensitivity to the more "challenging" situations was borne out by the greater speed differential between merge area sections at these sites

Conditions of Accountability for Gender Policy: The Organizational, Political and Cognitive Contexts

Summary Gender policy cannot be designed and implemented without an analysis of institutions within which it is practised. Whether institutions are responsive to gender issues or not determines the success of gender policy. This article discusses the responsiveness of institutions (multilateral and bilateral development agencies, NGOs, and state institutions) in terms of the organizational contexts (goals, procedures, incentive systems and staffing), political contexts (political commitment of stakeholders, democratic accountability and state?civil society relations) and the discursive context (differing gender discourses) as they affect the design and implementation of development projects and programmes. It ends by offering some strategies for improved accountability. RESUME Les conditions qui déterminent la responsabilité pour la politique du genre: les contextes organisationnels, politiques et cognitifs La politique du genre ne peut être conçue ni mise en vigueur sans que ne soit pratiquée une analyse des institutions où elle doit être instaurée. Le succès de la politique du genre est déterminée par le degré de réponse ou de non?réponse aux questions du genre. L'auteur de cet article discute le degré de réponse des institutions (agences de développement multilatéral ou bilatéral, ONG, et institutions étatiques) en termes des contextes organisationnels (objectifs, procédures, moyens d'encouragement, personnel), des contextes politiques (engagement politique des dépositaires, responsabilité démocratique, et rapports état?société civile) ainsi que le contexte discursif (différences dans les discours du genre) relativement à leurs effets sur l'élaboration et la mise en exécution des projets et programmes de développement. A la fin de l'article l'auteur propose certaines stratégies pour augmenter la responsabilisation. RESUMEN Condiciones de responsabilidad para políticas de género: los contextos organizativos, políticos y cognitivos Las políticas de género no pueden ser diseñadas ni implementadas sin un análisis de las instituciones dentro de las cuales son practicadas. El éxito de las políticas de género depende del grado de sensibilidad de las instituciones a las cuestiones de género. El presente artículo examina ese grado de sensibilidaden instituciones como agencias de desarrollo bilaterales y multilaterales, NGOs, e instituciones estatales, en sus contextos organizativos (objetivos, procedimientos, sistemas de incentivos y personal), contextos políticos (responsabilidad política y democrática y relaciones entre el Estado y la sociedad civil), y el contexto discursivo (disertaciones diversas sobre género) según afectan al diseño e implementación de programas y proyectos de desarrollo. Finalmente se ofrecen algunas estrategias para el aumento de la responsabilidad

Exploring Difference or Just Watching the Experts at Work? Interrogating Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in a Cancer Research Setting Using the Work of Jurgen Habermas

Patient and public involvement (PPI) has emerged as a key consideration for organisations delivering health research and has spawned a burgeoning literature in the health and social sciences. The literature makes clear that PPI in health research encompasses a heterogeneous set of practices with levels of participation and involvement ranging from relatively minimal contributions to research processes to actively driving the research agenda. In this paper, we draw on the work of Jurgen Habermas to explore the ways in which PPI was accomplished in a cancer research setting in England. Drawing on ethnographic data with PPI participants and professional researchers, we describe the ways in which the life-world experiences of PPI participants were shaped by the health research system. We argue that PPI in this setting is less about exploring differences with regard to a plurality of expertise and more about simply watching or supporting the professional researchers at work

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters