Experimental studies of Strong Electroweak Symmetry Breaking in gauge boson scattering and three gauge boson production

If no light Higgs boson exist, the interaction among the gauge bosons becomes strong at high energies (~1TeV). The effects of strong electroweak symmetry breaking (SEWSB) could manifest themselves as anomalous couplings before they give rise to new physical states, thus measurement of all couplings and their possible deviation from Standard Model (SM) values could give valuable information for understanding the true nature of symmetry breaking sector. Here we present a detailed study of the measurement of quartic gauge couplings in weak boson scattering processes and a possibility for same measurement in triple weak boson production. Expected limits on the parameters alpha_4 alpha_5,alpha_6, alpha_7 and alpha_10 in electroweak chiral Lagrangian are given.Comment: talk presented at LCWS05, Stanford, USA, March 200

INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN MIXED-HANDEDNESS, DIGIT RATIOS AND HAND AND FOOT MINOR ANOMALIES IN PREDICTING SCHIZOPHRENIA

Background: According to the neurodevelopmental theory, brain structuring early markers could be seen in different body parts as minor physical anomalies. Alongside minor physical anomalies, handedness and index to ring finger ratio are brain development indicators, specifically brain lateralization. Studies are consentient about the association of these findings with schizophrenia, though there is inconsistency about individual anatomical regions\u27 contribution. We proposed that handedness in combination with morphological indicators of early brain development could be sensitive and specific in predicting schizophrenia status. Subjects and methods: Within the list for the assessment of schizophrenia patients and normal controls of the Caucasian race were seven categorical minor physical anomalies of hand and feet, handedness, and index to ring finger ratio. In this cross-sectional study the examinees were recruited from January 2012 to December 2015. Results: Forced-entry binary logistic regression model correctly classified 86.5% of patients and 99.2% of the comparison subjects with a 92.8% overall accuracy. Mixed-handedness, hyperconvex fingernails, big gap between 1st and 2nd toe, and partial syndactyly of 2nd and 3rd toe made a significant independent contribution to the patient-control prediction group status. Furthermore, these items showed a significant correlation with the predictors of the head from the previous study. Conclusion: Briefly, the limb components, assessed independently of other body regions, proved to be worthy as schizophrenia predictors

CP Studies and Non-Standard Higgs Physics

There are many possibilities for new physics beyond the Standard Model that feature non-standard Higgs sectors. These may introduce new sources of CP violation, and there may be mixing between multiple Higgs bosons or other new scalar bosons. Alternatively, the Higgs may be a composite state, or there may even be no Higgs at all. These non-standard Higgs scenarios have important implications for collider physics as well as for cosmology, and understanding their phenomenology is essential for a full comprehension of electroweak symmetry breaking. This report discusses the most relevant theories which go beyond the Standard Model and its minimal, CP-conserving supersymmetric extension: two-Higgs-doublet models and minimal supersymmetric models with CP violation, supersymmetric models with an extra singlet, models with extra gauge groups or Higgs triplets, Little Higgs models, models in extra dimensions, and models with technicolour or other new strong dynamics. For each of these scenarios, this report presents an introduction to the phenomenology, followed by contributions on more detailed theoretical aspects and studies of possible experimental signatures at the LHC and other colliders.Comment: Report of the CPNSH workshop, May 2004 - Dec 2005, 542 pages. The complete report as well as its individual chapters are also available from http://kraml.home.cern.ch/kraml/cpnsh/report.htm

European Vegetation Archive: now EVA really starts!

European Vegetation Archive (EVA) was announced as a new initiative of the European Vegetation Survey at the EVS Meeting in Vienna in 2012. The aim of EVA is to create a centralized database of European vegetation plots by storing copies of national and regional databases on a single software platform using a unified taxonomic reference database. EVA does not affect the ongoing independent developments of source data­ bases and it guarantees that data property rights of the original contributors are re­ spected. EVA Data Property and Governance Rules were approved and the EVA website (www.euroveg.org/eva­database) was established in 2012. Since then several European vegetation­plot databases joined EVA. In the framework of the parallel Braun­Blanquet project, we obtained experience with handling multiple databases based on different taxonomies, and a prototype of Turboveg 3 was developed as a software tool for joint management of multiple databases. This prototype has recently been accepted as the platform for technical management of EVA according to the approved Rules. A spe­ cific challenge for EVA is joining multiple species lists with different taxonomies used in national and regional databases. To solve this issue, EVA took over the SynBioSys Taxon Database, developed earlier for the SynBioSys Europe project, which is a system of taxon names and concepts used in the individual databases and their matches to a unified list of European flora. This taxon database is currently being extended to ac­ count for new vegetation­plot databases and revised by taxonomic experts working in a newly established EVA Taxonomic Advisory Board. These technical developments made it possible that after two years since its formal establishment, first data sets could be uploaded to EVA, forming a basis for large­scale analyses of European vegeta­ tion diversity for both scientific purposes and applications