Search for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry with a Compressed Mass Spectrum in the Vector Boson Fusion Topology in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

The Temporal Pattern of Mating Behavior of the Fruit Fly, Anastrepha zenildae in the Laboratory

The state of Rio Grande do Norte is an important fruit-producing and exporting area in northeastern Brazil. The success of this industry depends on fruit fly population control, especially in fly-free exporting zones. However, many fruits are not exported because of quarantine restrictions imposed by importing countries. A survey in the state has detected a considerable increase of the fruit fly, Anastrepha zenildae Zucchi (Diptera: Tephritidae), probably a result of the introduction of irrigated guava orchards that make fruit available all year. Knowledge of the sexual behavior of Tephritidae has great importance to pest control programs, particularly those that employ the Sterile Insect Technique. In order to characterize the reproductive behavior of A. zenildae, 32 individuals (16 males; 16 females) in each of six generations were submitted to an artificial 12:12 L:D cycle (750: < 1 lux, lights on 07:00–19:00) and observed over their lifetimes. The courtship and copulation occurred in leks and the episodes varied with the time of day, courtship being most frequent between Zeitgeber time (ZT) 3 and ZT 7, peaking at ZT 5–6. Copulations occurred between ZT 2 and ZT 8, with a higher frequency between ZT 5–7 and a peak at ZT 6. Mean duration was 0.28 ± 0.03 min/male (range: 5–163 min). Males in the leks attempted to copulate mainly between ZT 3 and ZT 7 with a peak at ZT 6, and males outside leks peaked at ZT 7. The different timing of sexual behaviors among related sympatric species, including A. zenildae, may contribute to species isolation

Transparency in the Insurance Contract Law of Portugal

In Portugal, mostly by virtue of its EU membership, there has been a dramatic increase in transparency requirements in the course of the last 20 years. In view of this, I argue that another question is begging to be asked: does it make sense to put all one’s eggs in the basket of information? In particular, should transparency as an ideal be allowed completely to replace trust in contractual relations? Information plays a central role in traditional contract formation models: contracting parties are meant to acquaint themselves with all the terms of the contracts they contemplate entering into so as to make an informed decision whether or not to make a commitment thereto. I argue that the protection of insurance customers can best be achieved if one complements the informational approach with a different approach consisting of treating financial products much like any other products, placing upon the insurer the burden to check that the products it offers to its customers are consistent with their demands and needs.authorsversionpublishe

Costs Associated with Low Birth Weight in a Rural Area of Southern Mozambique

BACKGROUND: Low Birth Weight (LBW) is prevalent in low-income countries. Even though the economic evaluation of interventions to reduce this burden is essential to guide health policies, data on costs associated with LBW are scarce. This study aims to estimate the costs to the health system and to the household and the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) arising from infant deaths associated with LBW in Southern Mozambique. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Costs incurred by the households were collected through exit surveys. Health system costs were gathered from data obtained onsite and from published information. DALYs due to death of LBW babies were based on local estimates of prevalence of LBW (12%), very low birth weight (VLBW) (1%) and of case fatality rates compared to non-LBW weight babies [for LBW (12%) and VLBW (80%)]. Costs associated with LBW excess morbidity were calculated on the incremental number of hospital admissions in LBW babies compared to non-LBW weight babies. Direct and indirect household costs for routine health care were 24.12 US$(CI 95$ (CI 95% 6.33; 10.72). Of the 3,322 live births that occurred in one year in the study area, health system costs associated to LBW (routine health care and excess morbidity) and DALYs were 169,957.61 US$ (CI 95% 144,900.00; 195,500.00) and 2,746.06, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This first cost evaluation of LBW in a low-income country shows that reducing the prevalence of LBW would translate into important cost savings to the health system and the household. These results are of relevance for similar settings and should serve to promote interventions aimed at improving maternal care

HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries

Measurement of inclusive very forward jet cross sections in proton-lead collisions at \sqrt{sNN} = 5:02 TeV

Measurements of differential cross sections for inclusive very forward jet production in proton-lead collisions as a function of jet energy are presented. The data were collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC in the laboratory pseudorapidity range −6.6 < η < −5.2. Asymmetric beam energies of 4 TeV for protons and 1.58 TeV per nucleon for Pb nuclei were used, corresponding to a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of \sqrt{sNN} = 5:02 TeV. Collisions with either the proton (p+Pb) or the ion (Pb+p) traveling towards the negative η hemisphere are studied. The jet cross sections are unfolded to stable-particle level cross sections with p_{T} ≳ 3 GeV, and compared to predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. In addition, the cross section ratio of p+Pb and Pb+p data is presented. The results are discussed in terms of the saturation of gluon densities at low fractional parton momenta. None of the models under consideration describes all the data over the full jet-energy range and for all beam configurations. Discrepancies between the differential cross sections in data and model predictions of more than two orders of magnitude are observed