Developing Strategic Marketing Plan

This publication is first in a series targeted for Coordinators and Managers within Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach Programs concerned with developing continuous quality improvement approaches. This early publication focuses on understanding strategies for market position, strategic planning and provides a tool for conducting an organizational self-assessment along with a stakeholder analysi

Symmetry Restored in Dibosons at the LHC?

A number of LHC resonance search channels display an excess in the invariant mass region of 1.8 - 2.0 TeV. Among them is a $3.4\,\sigma$ excess in the fully hadronic decay of a pair of Standard Model electroweak gauge bosons, in addition to potential signals in the $HW$ and dijet final states. We perform a model-independent cross-section fit to the results of all ATLAS and CMS searches sensitive to these final states. We then interpret these results in the context of the Left-Right Symmetric Model, based on the extended gauge group $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)'$, and show that a heavy right-handed gauge boson $W_R$ can naturally explain the current measurements with just a single coupling $g_R \sim 0.4$. In addition, we discuss a possible connection to dark matter.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, V2: references added, extended discussion of Minimal Left-Right Dark Matter, small correction to decay width - conclusions unchanged, V3: expanded discussion of input parameters and statistical procedure, V4: matches published versio

Constitution d'un espace d'enfermement: Essai sur une phénoménologie de l'enfermement

National audienceDans une visée phénoménologique identifier comment un espace devient espace d'enfermement et de quoi il est constitué, revient à porter son regard sur le rapport naturel, spontané, irréfléchi de l'individu à l'espace. L'enfermement, ou plutôt la situation particulière qui va entraîner un phénomène spatial d'enfermement, correspond à un ensemble de pratiques, d'usages, de relations avec autrui... qui vont réduire l'emprise que l'individu à sur son monde. Autrement dit, cette situation se caractérise par une altération du rapport Moi-Le Monde. Si l'incarcération dans un édifice pénitentiaire est un bon exemple pour comprendre cette approche de l'espace d'enfermement, celle-ci nous offre un angle d'analyse pertinent d'espaces qui de prime abord ne sont pas des lieux d'enfermement mais n'en ont pas moins la saveur

Alternative Approaches for Medical Countermeasures to Biological and Chemical Terrorism and Warfare

The desire to develop and evaluate drugs as potential countermeasures for biological and chemical threats requires test systems that can also substitute for the clinical trials normally crucial for drug development. Animal models have limited predictivity for drug efficacy, as is well known from many disappointments in clinical trials. Traditional in vitro and in silico approaches are not really game changers here, but the substantial investment into novel tools now underway might bring about a second generation of alternative approaches. The avenue pursued focuses primarily on the development of a Human on a Chip, i.e., the combination of different three-dimensional (stem) cell-based organ equivalents combined with microfluidics. The prospects of such approaches, their impact on the field of alternative approaches, and necessary complementary activities are discussed. The need to adapt quality assurance measures and experiences from validation is stressed

More Energy, More Searches, but the pMSSM Lives On

We further examine the capability of the 7 and 8 TeV LHC to explore the parameter space of the p(henomenological)MSSM with neutralino LSPs. Here we present an updated study employing all of the relevant ATLAS SUSY analyses, as well as all relevant LHC non-MET searches, whose data were publically available as of mid-September 2012. We find that roughly 1/3 of our pMSSM model points are excluded at present with an important role being played by both the heavy flavor and multi-lepton searches, as well as those for heavy stable charged particles. Nonetheless, we find that light gluinos, 1st/2nd generation squarks, and stop/sbottoms (\lsim 400-700 GeV), as well as models with 1% fine-tuning or better, are still viable in the pMSSM. In addition, we see that increased luminosity at 8 TeV is unlikely to significantly improve the reach of the "vanilla" searches. The impact of these null searches on the SUSY sparticle spectrum is discussed in detail and the implications of these results for models with low fine-tuning, a future lepton collider and dark matter searches are examined.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figure

Assessing procedural descriptiveness: rationale and illustrative study

Journal ArticleProcedural descriptiveness refers to the extent to which the activities defined in a procedure are complete and specific. Procedures used in research or human service that are poorly described raise important questions such as whether the procedures can be replicated or generalized and, in the case of human service, whether they can be properly evaluated and made accountable. The assessment of procedural descriptiveness is an important and heretofore neglected area that should be an integral part of assessment methodology