Questioning morals and moral questions in organizations: review and response

Steven Feldmans introduction is prefaced by a short remark from William James extolling the importance of prayer to the establishing of a self that is responsible to the `higher tribunals. From there on it becomes increasingly clear that Feldmans task is to direct us toward such higher tribunals. In the preface Feldman advises us that he establishes a theory of moral tradition, designed to investigate the historical and cultural context of moral commitment. It should be clear that this is theorizing with definite auspices: the religious beliefs that Feldman `professes (and Webers caustic remarks on the professing of religion in his essay `Science as a Vocation are, I think, worth recalling here) are as central to the enterprise as they are absent. They are central in the grounding of the book as a moral project while they are absent because they are never spelled out clearly as a set of specific commitments

Impact of baseline hemodynamics on the effects of a transcatheter interatrial shunt device in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Background: Interatrial shunt device (IASD) effects have been described in patients with heart failure and ejection fractions (EFs) ≥40%. However, baseline characteristics that correlate with greatest hemodynamic effects are unknown. On the basis of fundamental principles, we hypothesized that larger pressure gradients between left and right atria would yield greater shunt flow and greater hemodynamic effects. Methods and Results: REDUCE LAP-HF (Reduce Elevated Left Atrial Pressure in Patients With Heart Failure) was a multicenter study that investigated IASD safety and performance. Sixty-four patients with EF ≥40% underwent device implantation followed by hemodynamic assessments at rest and exercise, including pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP, surrogate for left atrial pressure) and central venous pressure (CVP). At 6 months, IASD resulted in an average pulmonary-to-systemic blood flow ratio of 1.27 and increased exercise tolerance. The PCWP-CVP gradient (ie, the driving pressure for shunt flow) decreased at peak exercise from 16.8±6.9 to 11.4±5.5 mm Hg, because of increased CVP (17.5±5.4 to 20.3±7.9 mm Hg; P=0.04) and decreased PCWP (34.1±7.6 to 31.6±8.0 mm Hg; P=0.025). Baseline PCWP-CVP gradient during exercise correlated with changes of both PCWP-CVP and PCWP: Δ(PCWP-CVP)=10.0−0.89·(PCWP-CVP)baseline (r2=0.56) and ΔPCWP=7.54−0.60·(PCWP-CVP)baseline (P=0.001). Hemodynamics of patients with EF ≥50% and those with EF <50% responded similarly to IASD. Conclusions: In heart failure patients with EF ≥40%, IASD significantly reduced PCWP and PCWP-CVP at peak exercise. Patients with higher baseline PCWP-CVP gradient had greater reductions in both parameters at follow-up. Results were sustained through 12 months and were independent of whether EF was ≥50% or between 40% and 49%. Additional studies will help further define the baseline hemodynamic predictors of exercise, hemodynamic, and clinical efficacy of the IASD. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01913613

Limits on Production of Magnetic Monopoles Utilizing Samples from the DO and CDF Detectors at the Tevatron

We present 90% confidence level limits on magnetic monopole production at the Fermilab Tevatron from three sets of samples obtained from the D0 and CDF detectors each exposed to a proton-antiproton luminosity of $\sim175 {pb}^{-1}$ (experiment E-882). Limits are obtained for the production cross-sections and masses for low-mass accelerator-produced pointlike Dirac monopoles trapped and bound in material surrounding the D0 and CDF collision regions. In the absence of a complete quantum field theory of magnetic charge, we estimate these limits on the basis of a Drell-Yan model. These results (for magnetic charge values of 1, 2, 3, and 6 times the minimum Dirac charge) extend and improve previously published bounds.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, REVTeX

Psychophysics, Gestalts and Games

International audienceMany psychophysical studies are dedicated to the evaluation of the human gestalt detection on dot or Gabor patterns, and to model its dependence on the pattern and background parameters. Nevertheless, even for these constrained percepts, psychophysics have not yet reached the challenging prediction stage, where human detection would be quantitatively predicted by a (generic) model. On the other hand, Computer Vision has attempted at defining automatic detection thresholds. This chapter sketches a procedure to confront these two methodologies inspired in gestaltism. Using a computational quantitative version of the non-accidentalness principle, we raise the possibility that the psychophysical and the (older) gestaltist setups, both applicable on dot or Gabor patterns, find a useful complement in a Turing test. In our perceptual Turing test, human performance is compared by the scientist to the detection result given by a computer. This confrontation permits to revive the abandoned method of gestaltic games. We sketch the elaboration of such a game, where the subjects of the experiment are confronted to an alignment detection algorithm, and are invited to draw examples that will fool it. We show that in that way a more precise definition of the alignment gestalt and of its computational formulation seems to emerge. Detection algorithms might also be relevant to more classic psychophysical setups, where they can again play the role of a Turing test. To a visual experiment where subjects were invited to detect alignments in Gabor patterns, we associated a single function measuring the alignment detectability in the form of a number of false alarms (NFA). The first results indicate that the values of the NFA, as a function of all simulation parameters, are highly correlated to the human detection. This fact, that we intend to support by further experiments , might end up confirming that human alignment detection is the result of a single mechanism

Electroweak Supersymmetry around the Electroweak Scale

Inspired by the phenomenological constraints, LHC supersymmetry and Higgs searches, dark matter search as well as string model building, we propose the electroweak supersymmetry around the electroweak scale: the squarks and/or gluinos are around a few TeV while the sleptons, sneutrinos, bino and winos are within one TeV. The Higgsinos can be either heavy or light. We consider bino as the dominant component of dark matter candidate, and the observed dark matter relic density is achieved via the neutralino-stau coannihilations. Considering the Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA), we show explicitly that the electroweak supersymmetry can be realized, and the gauge coupling unification can be preserved. With two Scenarios, we study the viable parameter spaces that satisfy all the current phenomenological constraints, and we present the concrete benchmark points. Furthermore, we comment on the fine-tuning problem and LHC searches.Comment: RevTex4, 28 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables, version to appear in EPJ

Modeling magnetospheric fields in the Jupiter system

The various processes which generate magnetic fields within the Jupiter system are exemplary for a large class of similar processes occurring at other planets in the solar system, but also around extrasolar planets. Jupiter's large internal dynamo magnetic field generates a gigantic magnetosphere, which is strongly rotational driven and possesses large plasma sources located deeply within the magnetosphere. The combination of the latter two effects is the primary reason for Jupiter's main auroral ovals. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the only known moon with an intrinsic dynamo magnetic field, which generates a mini-magnetosphere located within Jupiter's larger magnetosphere including two auroral ovals. Ganymede's magnetosphere is qualitatively different compared to the one from Jupiter. It possesses no bow shock but develops Alfv\'en wings similar to most of the extrasolar planets which orbit their host stars within 0.1 AU. New numerical models of Jupiter's and Ganymede's magnetospheres presented here provide quantitative insight into the processes that maintain these magnetospheres. Jupiter's magnetospheric field is approximately time-periodic at the locations of Jupiter's moons and induces secondary magnetic fields in electrically conductive layers such as subsurface oceans. In the case of Ganymede, these secondary magnetic fields influence the oscillation of the location of its auroral ovals. Based on dedicated Hubble Space Telescope observations, an analysis of the amplitudes of the auroral oscillations provides evidence that Ganymede harbors a subsurface ocean. Callisto in contrast does not possess a mini-magnetosphere, but still shows a perturbed magnetic field environment. Callisto's ionosphere and atmospheric UV emission is different compared to the other Galilean satellites as it is primarily been generated by solar photons compared to magnetospheric electrons.Comment: Chapter for Book: Planetary Magnetis

Supersymmetry Without Prejudice

We begin an exploration of the physics associated with the general CP-conserving MSSM with Minimal Flavor Violation, the pMSSM. The 19 soft SUSY breaking parameters in this scenario are chosen so as to satisfy all existing experimental and theoretical constraints assuming that the WIMP is a conventional thermal relic, ie, the lightest neutralino. We scan this parameter space twice using both flat and log priors for the soft SUSY breaking mass parameters and compare the results which yield similar conclusions. Detailed constraints from both LEP and the Tevatron searches play a particularly important role in obtaining our final model samples. We find that the pMSSM leads to a much broader set of predictions for the properties of the SUSY partners as well as for a number of experimental observables than those found in any of the conventional SUSY breaking scenarios such as mSUGRA. This set of models can easily lead to atypical expectations for SUSY signals at the LHC.Comment: 61 pages, 24 figs. Refs., figs, and text added, typos fixed; This version has reduced/bitmapped figs. For a version with better figs please go to http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~rizz

Observation of a 1750 MeV/c^2 Enhancement in the Diffractive Photoproduction of K^+K^-

Using the FOCUS spectrometer with photon beam energies between 20 and 160 \gev, we confirm the existence of a diffractively photoproduced enhancement in $K^+K^-$ at 1750 \mevcc with nearly 100 times the statistics of previous experiments. Assuming this enhancement to be a single resonance with a Breit-Wigner mass shape, we determine its mass to be $1753.5\pm 1.5\pm 2.3$ \mevcc and its width to be $122.2\pm 6.2\pm 8.0$ \mevcc. We find no corresponding enhancement at 1750 \mevcc in $K^*K$, and again neglecting any possible interference effects we place limits on the ratio $\Gamma (X(1750) \to K^*K)/\Gamma (X(1750) \to K^+K^-)$. Our results are consistent with previous photoproduction experiments, but, because of the much greater statistics, challenge the common interpretation of this enhancement as the $\phi (1680)$ seen in $e^+e^-$ annihilation experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure