Composite Higgs under LHC Experimental Scrutiny

The LHC has been built to understand the dynamics at the origin of the breaking of the electroweak symmetry. Weakly coupled models with a fundamental Higgs boson have focused most of the attention of the experimental searches. We will discuss here how to reinterpret these searches in the context of strongly coupled models where the Higgs boson emerges as a composite particle. In particular, we use LHC data to constrain the compositeness scale. We also briefly review the prospects to observe other bosonic and fermionic resonances of the strong sector.Comment: 6 pages. Contribution to the proceedings of Hadron Collider Physics Symposium 2011, Paris Nov. 14-1

First Glimpses at Higgs' face

The 8 TeV LHC Higgs search data just released indicates the existence of a scalar resonance with mass ~ 125 GeV. We examine the implications of the data reported by ATLAS, CMS and the Tevatron collaborations on understanding the properties of this scalar by performing joint fits on its couplings to other Standard Model particles. We discuss and characterize to what degree this resonance has the properties of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs, and consider what implications can be extracted for New Physics in a (mostly) model-independent fashion. We find that, if the Higgs couplings to fermions and weak vector bosons are allowed to differ from their standard values, the SM is ~ 2 sigma from the best fit point to current data. Fitting to a possible invisible decay branching ratio, we find BR_{inv} = 0.05\pm 0.32\ (95% C.L.) We also discuss and develop some ways of using the data in order to bound or rule out models which modify significantly the properties of this scalar resonance and apply these techniques to the global current data set.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, v2 post ICHEP data updat

Antiamoebic Properties of the Actinomycete Metabolites Echinomycin A and Tirandamycin A

Entamoeba histolytica infects 50 million people per year, causing 100,000 deaths worldwide. The primary treatment for amoebiasis is metronidazole. However, increased pathogen resistance combined with the drug’s toxic side effects encourages a search for alternative therapeutic agents. Secondary metabolites from marine bacteria are a promising resource for antiprotozoan drug discovery. In this study, extracts from a collection of marine-derived actinomycetes were screened for antiamoebic properties, and the activities of antibiotics echinomycin A and tirandamycin A are shown. Both antibiotics inhibited the in vitro growth of a E. histolytica laboratory strain (HM-1:IMSS) and a clinical isolate (Colombia, Col) at 30- to 60-μM concentrations. EIC50 (estimated inhibitory concentration) values were comparable for both antibiotics (44.3–46.3 μM) against the E. histolytica clinical isolate

TEACHER-EVALUATORS’ NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS IN ASSESSING SELF-LEARNING MODULES (SLM)

This study aims to describe the narrative accounts of teacher-evaluators in assessing the quality of SLMs. This study uses a narrative research approach to examine five teacher-evaluators from the Koronadal City Division. As part of Bruner's theoretical framework, individuals produce new ideas or concepts based on prior information. Their expertise is needed to choose and process data. This study applies this approach because the cognitive structure organizes perceptions and helps individuals go beyond knowledge because evaluating self-learning material quality teaches teachers new concepts (SLMs). The finding reveals that participants feel honored and pressured, some are ready to carry out any assignment, and some are happy and excited. Participants indicated the advantage indicated learning new things and meaningful experiences, while the disadvantage indicated adding workloads. This research may support and motivate teacher-evaluators to tailor instruction to meet individual needs. Whether they differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, ongoing assessment and flexible grouping make this a successful approach to assessing students' SLMs quality. This study would provide a framework to build certain tasks, activities, or modules to motivate teachers and help them focus attention, organize information for understanding and remembering, monitor and assess learning, encourage self-monitoring, and self-correct tools for reflecting on and assessing their own learning in evaluating the quality assurance of SLM's.  Article visualizations

Pre-meeting support views based on SISCO model

This report presents and compares three different approaches on the implementation of a pre-meeting support sstem. The prototypes described here were developed by three independent teams, two from Brazil and one from Chile. SISCO-Recife and SISCO-Rio are the Brazilian prototypes and USISCO is Chilean. The development of the three prototypes was based on the same SISCO discussion model. SISCO has as its main goal the enhancemnt of meetings productivity through previous discussion. The developed prototypes support asynchronous collaboration, as a preparation for a face-to-face meeting