El desencantamiento del Nuevo Mundo. Viaje de un mercante florentino al pa\ueds de la pobreza (Galeotto Cei, 1539-1553)

Il manoscritto del Viaggio e relazione delle Indie, del fiorentino Galeotto Cei, la cui possibile datazione risale al 1556, \ue8 qui analizzato in funzione del rovesciamento del \u201cmito del Per\uf9\u201d, ovvero della ricchezza delle Indie Occidentali, cos\uec come venne divulgato in Italia dalle traduzioni e dalla diffusione delle cronache iniziali della scoperta del Nuovo Mondo. Tuttavia, il codice prevalente nella narrazione di Cei, non \ue8 quello dell\u2019anti-ispanismo di ascendenza lascasiana, cos\uec come accade per Girolamo Benzoni, bens\uec il codice mercantile, o utilitaristico, che in primo luogo \ue8 chiamato a spiegare e giustificare il proprio fallimento personale, e in secondo luogo a fornire le informazioni necessarie, oppurtunamente autorizzate da una voce narrante fededegna, per futuri e pi\uf9 proficui investimenti

Higgs Couplings in Composite Models

We study Higgs couplings in the composite Higgs model based on the coset SO(5)/SO(4). We show that the couplings to gluons and photons are insensitive to the elementary-composite mixings and thus not affected by light fermionic resonances. Moreover, at leading order in the mixings the Higgs couplings to tops and gluons, when normalized to the Standard Model (SM), are equal. These properties are shown to be direct consequences of the Goldstone symmetry and of the assumption of partial compositeness. In particular, they are independent of the details of the elementary-composite couplings and, under the further assumption of CP invariance, they are also insensitive to derivative interactions of the Higgs with the composite resonances. We support our conclusions with an explicit construction where the SM fermions are embedded in the 14 dimensional representation of SO(5).Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; v2: small improvements in the discussion, results unchanged; typos corrected; one reference added. Matches version submitted to PR

Figurazioni del demone del racconto in C\ue9sar Aira e dintorni

Cesar Aira has become a significant presence in contemporary Argentine literature, and not only in terms of influence on the younger generation of Latin American novelists. The figure of himself as Author has taken on the form of a character in his novels, which are by no means necessarily autobiographical. The Aira character may exist independently of him (Aira the Author), by appearing in the works of other writers and thereby transforming him into a true storybook hero. One of Aira\u2019s latest books, Entre los indios (2012), focuses on the character of the Devil as the Narrator, a sort of mythological figure at the origins of narration itself. Is this an ironic inversion of Benjamin's thesis, according to which the Storyteller is the figure in which the righteous man encounters himself? Anyhow, in Entre los indios the Devil seems to have lost his power and he\u2019s just looking for a bit of reality\u202

Resolving gluon fusion loops at current and future hadron colliders

Inclusive Higgs measurements at the LHC have limited resolution on the gluon fusion loops, being unable to distinguish the long-distance contributions mediated by the top quark from possible short-distance new physics effects. Using an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach we compare several proposed methods to lift this degeneracy, including tt\uaf h and boosted, off-shell and double Higgs production, and perform detailed projections to the High-Luminosity LHC and a future hadron collider. In addition, we revisit off-shell Higgs production. Firstly, we point out its sensitivity to modifications of the top-Z couplings, and by means of a general analysis we show that the reach is comparable to that of tree-level processes such as tt\uaf Z production. Implications for composite Higgs models are also discussed. Secondly, we assess the regime of validity of the EFT, performing an explicit comparison for a simple extension of the Standard Model containing one vector-like quark. \ua9 2016, The Author(s)

Model nuclear energy density functionals derived from ab initio calculations

We present the first application of a new approach, proposed in (2016J.Phys.G:Nucl.Part.Phys.4304LT01) to derive coupling constants of the Skyrme energy density functional (EDF) fromab initioHamiltonian. By perturbing theab initioHamiltonian with several functional generators defining the Skyrme EDF, we create a set of metadata that is then used to constrain the coupling constants of the functional. We use statistical analysis to obtain such anab initio-equivalent Skyrme EDF. We find that the resulting functional describes properties of atomic nuclei and infinite nuclear matter quite poorly. This may point to the necessity of building up theab initio-equivalent functionals from more sophisticated generators. However, we also indicate that the current precision of theab initiocalculations may be insufficient for deriving meaningful nuclear EDFs.Peer reviewe

Higgs Mass from D-Terms: a Litmus Test

We explore supersymmetric theories in which the Higgs mass is boosted by the non-decoupling D-terms of an extended $U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry, defined here to be a general linear combination of hypercharge, baryon number, and lepton number. Crucially, the gauge coupling, $g_X$, is bounded from below to accommodate the Higgs mass, while the quarks and leptons are required by gauge invariance to carry non-zero charge under $U(1)_X$. This induces an irreducible rate, $\sigma$BR, for $pp \rightarrow X \rightarrow \ell\ell$ relevant to existing and future resonance searches, and gives rise to higher dimension operators that are stringently constrained by precision electroweak measurements. Combined, these bounds define a maximally allowed region in the space of observables, ($\sigma$BR, $m_X$), outside of which is excluded by naturalness and experimental limits. If natural supersymmetry utilizes non-decoupling D-terms, then the associated $X$ boson can only be observed within this window, providing a model independent `litmus test' for this broad class of scenarios at the LHC. Comparing limits, we find that current LHC results only exclude regions in parameter space which were already disfavored by precision electroweak data.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Effects of β2-receptor stimulation by indacaterol in chronic heart failure treated with selective or non-selective β-blockers: a randomized trial

Alveolar \u3b22-receptor blockade worsens lung diffusion in heart failure (HF). This effect could be mitigated by stimulating alveolar \u3b22-receptors. We investigated the safety and the effects of indacaterol on lung diffusion, lung mechanics, sleep respiratory behavior, cardiac rhythm, welfare, and exercise performance in HF patients treated with a selective (bisoprolol) or a non-selective (carvedilol) \u3b2-blocker. Study procedures were performed before and after indacaterol and placebo treatments according to a cross-over, randomized, double-blind protocol in forty-four patients (27 on bisoprolol and 17 on carvedilol). No differences between indacaterol and placebo were observed in the whole population except for a significantly higher VE/VCO2 slope and lower maximal PETCO2 during exercise with indacaterol, entirely due to the difference in the bisoprolol group (VE/VCO2 31.8\u2009\ub1\u20095.9 vs. 28.5\u2009\ub1\u20095.6, p\u2009<\u20090.0001 and maximal PETCO2 36.7\u2009\ub1\u20095.5 vs. 37.7\u2009\ub1\u20095.8\u2009mmHg, p\u2009<\u20090.02 with indacaterol and placebo, respectively). In carvedilol, indacaterol was associated with a higher peak heart rate (119\u2009\ub1\u200934 vs. 113\u2009\ub1\u200930 bpm, with indacaterol and placebo) and a lower prevalence of hypopnea during sleep (3.8 [0.0;6.3] vs. 5.8 [2.9;10.5] events/hour, with indacaterol and placebo). Inhaled indacaterol is well tolerated in HF patients, it does not influence lung diffusion, and, in bisoprolol, it increases ventilation response to exercise