68 research outputs found

    The TEEBAgriFood theory of change: from information to action

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    KEY MESSAGES • Information alone often fails to motivate change. Manipulation of data has led consumers to doubt scientific results, serving special interests at the expense of public benefit. Information overload implies the need for synthesis to enable better access and impact. • Rationalizations against the need for change include: fatalism, arguing that business is already changing of its own accord, that cheap food is more important than good food, and that the marketplace will adjust for externalities. • These views do not address the long-term systemic consequences of the global corporate model of food systems in a society that derives calories from corn syrup and protein from hamburger resulting in obesity and disease. • Free market, neoliberal policies are incapable of resolving externalities that affect public goods such as ecosystem services. Faith in the infallibility of the market is a shortcoming of mainstream economics. • Path dependency is a key barrier to change in food systems, causing inertia, but may also lock-in positive systemic change. A science of intentional systemic change is arising, grounded in better understanding of human economic behavior as the basis for collective action. • We espouse not one theory but rather a range of actor-relevant theories of change. • Consumer advocacy can bring businesses to assume greater responsibility for the effects of their actions. This theory of change has found expression in the threat of boycotts and reputational risk. • Certification has led to improvement in production practice within market niches but its true success begins when it pressures change in policy and practice throughout supply chains. • Governance of intentional transformation in food systems requires knowledge of political pressure points, and systematic efforts to shape narratives of principal actors, to redirect financial resources and to promote institutional and societal learning and adaptation. • We address the potential of multilateral organizations and agreements, national governments, the financial industry, agribusiness, producers and consumer groups to respond to the need for change. The roles of different actors are interlocking: there is no single point of entry for a theory of change. • The roles of principal actors are drawn along a continuum of change, suggesting specific roles and types of actions to be addressed in evaluation and intervention. Given societal concern, agents for change may persevere within government, agribusiness or civil society organizations; their ability to bring change is dynamic and opportunistic, and driven by strategic alliances. As levers of agrifood system transformation, it is crucial to engage influential governmental actors as change agents. • Actors’ respective ability to adopt the results of TEEBAgriFood studies as a tool to direct change will depend on how well those results are communicated and adopted as narratives by influential actors and as entry points for education and consumer consciousness

    Transitioning to more sustainable, low-emissions agriculture in Brazil

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    KEY FINDINGS Cattle producers joined sustainability initiatives primarily to increase production, reduce production costs, learn new practices and access innovations, and because of their interest in sustainability. Farmers who shifted to sustainable intensification practices increased their productivity. Some also accessed new markets and a minority earned higher prices. Producers sought farming advice mostly from nearby farmers and technicians promoting sustainability initiatives. The cost of changing farm practices, insufficient technical assistance or capacity, and difficulty in complying with legal standards were the major barriers preventing other cattle producers from participating in sustainability initiatives. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per kg of beef of cattle farmers in sustainable intensification programs were 18% lower compared to neighboring farms not in the programs. Early life-cycle cattle ranching (e.g. calving, early rearing), commonly associated with deforestation, has been more engaged with NGO initiatives providing support and agronomic outreach rather than formal standards and reporting. Coffee Coffee farmers joined a certification program because of requests from buyers, potential for receiving price premiums on their coffee, and to access new markets with certified products. Coffee farmers producing certified coffee increased their economic efficiency, mainly due to higher productivity, compared to before they certified. Coffee producers' connections to technicians and access to information mostly revolved around their participation in cooperatives.POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Build on market development lessons from the coffee sector to enhance sustainability, quality, traceability, and branding in the cattle sector. Expand sustainability initiatives’ capacity to deliver market access, technical assistance, and finance services to more cattle farmers. Continue support to producers in sustainability initiatives over multiple years, as they are likely to increase the sustainability of their practices with time. Expand agronomic outreach and sustainability initiatives to calving and early rearing operations to reduce associated deforestation and GHG emissions

    Measurements of Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quarks from vector boson fusion production with the ATLAS experiment at √=13TeV

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    The paper presents a measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson decaying to b-quark pairs in the vector boson fusion (VBF) production mode. A sample corresponding to 126 fb−1 of s√=13TeV proton–proton collision data, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, is analyzed utilizing an adversarial neural network for event classification. The signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model for VBF Higgs production, is measured to be 0.95+0.38−0.36 , corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.6 (2.8) standard deviations from the background only hypothesis. The results are additionally combined with an analysis of Higgs bosons decaying to b-quarks, produced via VBF in association with a photon

    Measurements of differential cross-sections in top-quark pair events with a high transverse momentum top quark and limits on beyond the Standard Model contributions to top-quark pair production with the ATLAS detector at √s = 13 TeV

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    Cross-section measurements of top-quark pair production where the hadronically decaying top quark has transverse momentum greater than 355 GeV and the other top quark decays into ℓνb are presented using 139 fb−1 of data collected by the ATLAS experiment during proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The fiducial cross-section at s = 13 TeV is measured to be σ = 1.267 ± 0.005 ± 0.053 pb, where the uncertainties reflect the limited number of data events and the systematic uncertainties, giving a total uncertainty of 4.2%. The cross-section is measured differentially as a function of variables characterising the tt¯ system and additional radiation in the events. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo generators, including comparisons where the generators are reweighted to match a parton-level calculation at next-to-next-to-leading order. The reweighting improves the agreement between data and theory. The measured distribution of the top-quark transverse momentum is used to search for new physics in the context of the effective field theory framework. No significant deviation from the Standard Model is observed and limits are set on the Wilson coefficients of the dimension-six operators OtG and Otq(8), where the limits on the latter are the most stringent to date. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

    Search for dark matter in events with missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    A search for dark-matter particles in events with large missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson candidate decaying into two photons is reported. The search uses 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected at s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC between 2015 and 2018. No significant excess of events over the Standard Model predictions is observed. The results are interpreted by extracting limits on three simplified models that include either vector or pseudoscalar mediators and predict a final state with a pair of dark-matter candidates and a Higgs boson decaying into two photons

    Two-particle azimuthal correlations in photonuclear ultraperipheral Pb plus Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with ATLAS

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    Two-particle long-range azimuthal correlations are measured in photonuclear collisions using 1.7 nb − 1 of 5.02 TeV Pb + Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Candidate events are selected using a dedicated high-multiplicity photonuclear event trigger, a combination of information from the zero-degree calorimeters and forward calorimeters, and from pseudorapidity gaps constructed using calorimeter energy clusters and charged-particle tracks. Distributions of event properties are compared between data and Monte Carlo simulations of photonuclear processes. Two-particle correlation functions are formed using charged-particle tracks in the selected events, and a template-fitting method is employed to subtract the nonflow contribution to the correlation. Significant nonzero values of the second- and third-order flow coefficients are observed and presented as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum. The results are compared with flow coefficients obtained in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions in similar multiplicity ranges, and with theoretical expectations. The unique initial conditions present in this measurement provide a new way to probe the origin of the collective signatures previously observed only in hadronic collision

    The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2

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    The design and performance of the inner detector trigger for the high level trigger of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2016-2018 data taking period is discussed. In 2016, 2017, and 2018 the ATLAS detector recorded 35.6 fb(-1), 46.9 fb(-1), and 60.6 fb(-1) respectively of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV. In order to deal with the very high interaction multiplicities per bunch crossing expected with the 13TeV collisions the inner detector trigger was redesigned during the long shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider from 2013 until 2015. An overview of these developments is provided and the performance of the tracking in the trigger for the muon, electron, tau and b-jet signatures is discussed. The high performance of the inner detector trigger with these extreme interaction multiplicities demonstrates how the inner detector tracking continues to lie at the heart of the trigger performance and is essential in enabling the ATLAS physics programme

    Direct constraint on the Higgs–charm coupling from a search for Higgs boson decays into charm quarks with the ATLAS detector

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    A search for the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of charm quarks is presented. The analysis uses proton–proton collisions to target the production of a Higgs boson in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. The dataset delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of and recorded by the ATLAS detector corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. Flavour-tagging algorithms are used to identify jets originating from the hadronisation of charm quarks. The analysis method is validated with the simultaneous measurement of WW, WZ and ZZ production, with observed (expected) significances of 2.6 (2.2) standard deviations above the background-only prediction for the (W/Z)Z(→cc¯) process and 3.8 (4.6) standard deviations for the (W/Z)W(→cq) process. The (W/Z)H(→cc¯) search yields an observed (expected) upper limit of 26 (31) times the predicted Standard Model cross-section times branching fraction for a Higgs boson with a mass of , corresponding to an observed (expected) constraint on the charm Yukawa coupling modifier |κc|<8.5 (12.4), at the 95% confidence level. A combination with the ATLAS (W/Z)H,H→bb¯ analysis is performed, allowing the ratio κc/κb to be constrained to less than 4.5 at the 95% confidence level, smaller than the ratio of the b- and c-quark masses, and therefore determines the Higgs-charm coupling to be weaker than the Higgs-bottom coupling at the 95% confidence level

    Measurements of Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quarks from vector boson fusion production with the ATLAS experiment at s√=13TeV

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    Observation of electroweak production of two jets in association with an isolated photon and missing transverse momentum, and search for a Higgs boson decaying into invisible particles at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    This paper presents the measurement of the electroweak production of two jets in association with a ZγZ\gamma pair with the ZZ boson decaying into two neutrinos. It also presents the search for invisible or partially invisible decays of a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV produced through vector-boson fusion with a photon in the final state. These results use data from LHC proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb1^{-1}. The event signature, shared by all benchmark processes considered for measurements and searches, is characterized by a significant amount of unbalanced transverse momentum and a photon in the final state, in addition to a pair of forward jets. For electroweak production of ZγZ\gamma in association with two jets, the background-only hypothesis is rejected with an observed (expected) significance of 5.2 (5.1) standard deviations. The measured fiducial cross-section for this process is 1.31±\pm0.29 fb. Observed (expected) upper limit of 0.37 (0.34) at 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio of a 125 GeV Higgs boson to invisible particles, assuming the Standard Model production cross-section. The signature is also interpreted in the context of decays of a Higgs boson to a photon and a dark photon. An observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on the branching ratio for this decay is set at 0.018 (0.017), assuming the 125 GeV Standard Model Higgs boson production cross-section
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