Standard Model Higgs Searches at the Tevatron

We present results from the search for a standard model Higgs boson using data corresponding up to 10 fb-1 of proton-antiproton collision data produced by the Fermilab Tevatron at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data were recorded by the CDF and D0 Detectors between March 2001 and September of 2011. A broad excess is observed between 105 < mH < 145 GeV/c2 with a global significance of 2.2 standard deviations relative to the background-only hypothesis.Comment: 5 pages, contributed to the Proceedings of the XX International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects, March 2012, Bonn, German

Conceiving Comparative Policy Analysis : Implementing Air Quality Improvement Programs

The comparative analysis of air quality control policies provides an interesting field for studies of comparative policy analysis including program formulation and implementation processes. In European countries, the problem is comparable, whereas implementation structures, programs and policy impacts vary to a considerable extent. Analysis testing possibilities and constraints of air control policies under varying conditions are likely to contribute to a further development of a theory of policy analysis. This paper presents the analytical framework applied in a continuing empirical study explaining program formulation and implementation processes with respect to the different actors involved. Concrete emitter behavior can be explained by interaction processes at the very local level, by program elements of national legislation, and by structural constraints under which such programs are produced

Rationality changes in West European clean air policies (1960-2000)

Le présent texte propose, à l'aide de concepts toujours plus utilisés par l'analyse de politiques publiques et comparées, une nouvelle lecture de l'évolution des politiques de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique ces dernières cinquante années. L'auteur part de l'hypothèse que, dans cette évolution, différentes perceptions et définitions du problème se succèdent et que, pour chacune des phases ainsi distinguées, on peut observer des rationalités de construction et d'intervention des politiques étatiques différentes. Ces différences se manifestent notamment au niveau des hypothèses causales, des hypothèses d'intervention, des ressources publiques privilégiées, des arrangements politico-administratifs et institutionnels ainsi que des rapports changeants entre les politiques de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique et d'autres politiques publiques co-responsables des problèmes visés par celles-là. L'application de ce concept analytique mène l'auteur à distinguer quatre phases de politiques se démarquant par une rationalité d'action fort variée. --------------- Based on an increasingly common concept primarily applied in the field of public policy analyses, this paper proposes a new reading of the history of clean air policies in central European countries over the past fifty years. The author argues that different perceptions and policy definitions for the problem of air pollution can be observed during this period and that different rationalities within the construction and operational mode of the various public policies established in this field can be observed on the basis of these varying problem definitions. These differences lead to varying causal hypotheses, intervention hypotheses, different types of privileged public resources, varying political institutional arrangements and variations with regard to interpolicy relations between clean air policies and other public policies that are, at least, in part responsible for the targeted problems. The author distinguishes four phases characterised by different rationalities of action through the application of this analytical framework