Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) are presented based on the electroweak pair production of neutralinos and charginos, leading to decay channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons and undetected lightest SUSY particles (LSPs). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The main emphasis is neutralino pair production in which each neutralino decays either to a Higgs boson (h) and an LSP or to a Z boson and an LSP, leading to hh, hZ, and ZZ states with missing transverse energy (E-T(miss)). A second aspect is chargino-neutralino pair production, leading to hW states with E-T(miss). The decays of a Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair, to a photon pair, and to final states with leptons are considered in conjunction with hadronic and leptonic decay modes of the Z and W bosons. No evidence is found for supersymmetric particles, and 95% confidence level upper limits are evaluated for the respective pair production cross sections and for neutralino and chargino mass values

Levels of Organochlorine Pesticides in Blood Plasma from Residents of Malaria-Endemic Communities in Chiapas, Mexico

Organochlorine (OC) pesticides have been extensively used for pest control in agriculture and against malaria vectors in the region of Soconusco, Chiapas, in southern Mexico. Our study aimed to identify whether the inhabitants of four Soconusco communities at different locations (i.e., altitudes) and with different history of use of OC pesticides, have been similarly exposed to residues of these pesticides. In particular, we analyzed the potential relationship between levels of OC pesticides in plasma and the age, gender, and residence of the study population (n = 60). We detected seven pesticides in total (gamma-HCH, beta-HCH, heptachlor, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT, beta-endosulfan, endrin aldehyde). Of these, p,p'-DDE and beta-endosulfan were the most frequently found (in 98% and 38% of the samples, respectively). The low-altitude (60 years) had the highest p,p'-DDE level (56.94 +/- 57.81 mu g/L) of all age groups, while men had higher p,p'-DDE (34.00 +/- 46.76 mu g/L) than women. Our results demonstrate that residents of the Soconusco region are exposed to p,p'-DDE because of high exposure to DDT in the past and current environmental exposure to this DDT-breakdown product

Measurement of the mass of the Z boson and the energy calibration of LEP

In 1985 the French government created a unique circuit for the dissemination of doctoral theses: References went to a national database “Téléthèses” whereas the documents were distributed to the university libraries in microform. In the era of the electronic document this French network of deposit of and access to doctoral theses is changing. How do you discover and locate a French thesis today, how do you get hold of a paper copy and how do you access the full electronic text? What are the catalogues and databases referencing theses since the disappearance of “Téléthèses”? Where are the archives, and are they open? What is the legal environment that rules the emerging structures and tools? This paper presents national plans on referencing and archiving doctoral theses coordinated by the government as well as some initiatives for creating full text archives. These initiatives come from universities as well as from research institutions and learned societies. “Téléthèses” records have been integrated in a union catalogue of French university libraries SUDOC. University of Lyon-2 and INSA Lyon developed procedures and tools covering the entire production chain from writing to the final access in an archive: “Cyberthèses” and “Cither”. The CNRS Centre for Direct Scientific Communication at Lyon (CCSD) maintains an archive (“TEL”) with about 2000 theses in all disciplines. Another repository for theses in engineering, economics and management called “Pastel” is proposed by the Paris Institute of Technology (ParisTech), a consortium of 10 engineering and commercial schools of the Paris region