Flavour independent Search for Hadronically decaying Higgs Bosons

The four LEP collaborations ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL have collected around 2.5 fb−1 of e +e − data at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 189 to 209 GeV. This note presents the results from a search for neutral Higgs boson production in the processes e +e − →hZ and e +e − → hA where no assumption is made on the flavour of the hadronic decay products of the Higgs boson. No evidence for a signal is observed and the results are presented as model independent limits on the production cross section for neutral Higgs bosons decaying into hadrons as a function of the Higgs boson mass(es). These limits allow to test predictions from a wide range of (future) models. Preliminary combined results from the four collaborations are presented in the hZ channel. In the hA channel results from the OPAL and DELPHI collaboration are presented separately. In the hZ channel, assuming Higgs boson production with a SM cross section decaying exclusively into hadrons, a limit on the mass of the Higgs boson can be set at 112.9 GeV/c2

The ‘right’ regional development:Seeking spatial justice in the Dutch case of the region deals

Central governments are increasingly preoccupied with problems of regional development, ranging from political discontent to sustainability transitions. New development funds are unfolded with different rationalities about what spatially just redistribution is. This paper aims to uncover in what ways issues are problematized in regional development policies, in which normative principle of redistributive justice the policy problem is primarily grounded, and how this affects regional development investments. This study critically examines an empirical case of policy for regional development in the Netherlands: the Region Deals (Regio Deals). The findings show that even though Dutch central government discursively problematized people who are left behind in the progress of the country, this priority was not maintained for places that are left behind. The Dutch case exemplifies that government rationalities about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ regional development are a crucial factor to which regions benefit most from redistribution. Yet these rationalities are underexposed and inconsistently articulated in policy documents and political discourse

Politics out of place:understanding the geography of discontent in the Netherlands from a spatial justice perspective

In het afgelopen decennium werd het politieke landschap opgeschud door een nieuwe golf van populistische leiders die aan de macht kwamen in lang bestaande liberale democratieën. Geografen wezen snel op regionale patronen in de sterke politieke scheidslijnen. Dit staat bekend als de geografie van onvrede. Deze dissertatie gaat verder dan het perspectief dat onvrede slechts een populistische dreiging is en belicht de geografie van onvrede vanuit het perspectief van ruimtelijke rechtvaardigheid. Met deze benadering wordt onderzocht hoe gevoelens van onvrede zich verspreiden over regionale verdeeldheid en welke regionale verschillen een waarschijnlijke verklaring bieden voor de hedendaagse onvrede in Nederland. Het argument wordt gemaakt dat veel mensen die in de landelijke periferie wonen de perceptie hebben dat de nationale politiek geen oog heeft voor hun regio en voelen zich er niet door erkend. De mate waarin regionale verschillen onvrede verklaren, wordt empirisch getest met een mixed-methods aanpak, die beschrijvende statistieken, correlatieanalyse, kritische beleidsanalyse en named entity recognition omvat. De bevindingen tonen aan dat perifere regio's in Nederland in zekere mate benadeeld worden door ongelijke regionale ontwikkeling, onvoldoende erkenning en politieke ondervertegenwoordiging. Ook toont dit onderzoek aan dat percepties van inwoners niet altijd overeenkomen met de daadwerkelijke regionale ontwikkelingen. Daarmee spreekt dit proefschrift enkele conventionele verklaringen tegen en voegt cruciale nuances toe aan ons begrip van de oorzaken van regionale onvrede.In the last decade, the political landscape was shaken up by a new wave of populist leaders gaining power in long-standing liberal democracies. Geographers were quick to point out regional patterns in the strong political divides. This is referred to as the geography of discontent. This dissertation moves beyond the perspective that discontent is merely a populist threat, and exposes the geography of discontent through the lens of spatial justice. With this approach it is examined how feelings of discontent are spread across regional divides and what regional disparities are likely to explain contemporary discontent in the Netherlands. The argument is made that many people living in the rural periphery perceive national politics to be detached to their region and feel misrecognised by it. The extent to which regional disparities are likely to explain discontent is empirically tested using a mixed-methods approach, which includes descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, critical policy analysis, and named entity recognition. The findings reveal that peripheral regions in the Netherlands are to some extent disadvantaged by uneven regional development, inadequate recognition and political underrepresentation. This research also shows that residents' perceptions are not always aligned with actual regional developments. In doing so, this dissertation opposes conventional explanations and adds crucial nuances to our understanding of the triggers of regional discontent

B-tagging, leptons and missing energy in ATLAS after first data

The start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN marks a new era in particle physics. This paper presents an overview of the ATLAS detector performance and first results extracted from data taken during the early LHC runs

Rethinking the bounds of regional justice:A scoping review of spatial justice in EU regions

This paper contributes to the debate on spatial justice in a geography of regional uneven development in the EU. The purpose of this study is to provide a philosophically grounded and empirically informed review of how regional inequality relates to spatial justice. This is done inventorying spatial injustices through a systematic literature review, unravelling the kind of injustices based on a philosophical principle and categorisation of (in)justice. The paper starts with a discussion of how spatial justice has been conceptualised, looking more particularly into Nancy Fraser’s egalitarian understanding of social justice. Her tripartite distinction of justice as (re)distribution, recognition, and representation allows us to re-examine regional inequality and to sharply formulate what is understood as just or unjust. Through a spatial reinterpretation of Fraser’s prism, we then re-examine 134 empirical papers carefully selected with a scoping review method. Our results reveal six manifestations of regional injustice in the EU, which not only encompass an unequally distributed regional development of economic wealth and access to services, but also signal a cultural hierarchy imprinting territorial stigmas and neglecting environmental issues, as well as a political geographical divide of deeply felt rural and regional misrepresentation