A search for the Higgs boson decay to two electrons with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment

A search is presented for the Higgs boson decay to a pair of electrons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data set was collected with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider between 2016 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 inverse femtobarns. The analysis develops event categories targeting Higgs boson production via gluon fusion and vector boson fusion, defined by selection on dedicated machine learning-based classifiers. An upper limit on the Higgs boson branching fraction to an electron pair is determined as 3.0 x 10^(-4) at the 95% confidence level, which is the most sensitive limit to date.Open Acces

An Analysis of the Questions on University Teaching Surveys and the Universities that Use Them: The Australian Experience

This paper is the first attempt to perform an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in all Australian Universities by investigating how they compare across Universities. We categorize the questions on each university’s QTS into one of 18 types and then define a proximity measure between the surveys. We then use an agglomerative cluster analysis to establish groupings of these institutions on the basis of the similarity of their QTSs as well as groupings of question types by their frequency of use. In addition, we also determine if the form of the survey is related to the responses recorded by the Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) that is administered to all graduates of Australian Universities. This was done by the use of regression analysis to establish if the form of the questionnaire is related to the overall good teaching scores earned by the universities from the CEQ.Tertiary Education; University Rankings; CEQ

A Systematic Analysis of Quality of Teaching Surveys

All tertiary institutions in Australia use the same Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) however for the internal evaluation of teaching they use their own surveys. This paper performs an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in Australian Universities. We classify the questions within the QTS surveys. This classification is used to explore how different universities’ surveys are similar to each other. We find that some universities use a QTS that is quite distinct from other universities. We also investigate whether there is a particular pattern to the types of questions used in the surveys. We find that there are some question types that are employed widely in a typical survey and others that are All tertiary institutions in Australia use the same Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) however for the internal evaluation of teaching they use their own surveys. This paper performs an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in Australian Universities. We classify the questions within the QTS surveys. This classification is used to explore how different universities’ surveys are similar to each other. We find that some universities use a QTS that is quite distinct from other universities. We also investigate whether there is a particular pattern to the types of questions used in the surveys. We find that there are some question types that are employed widely in a typical survey and others that are All tertiary institutions in Australia use the same Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) however for the internal evaluation of teaching they use their own surveys. This paper performs an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in Australian Universities. We classify the questions within the QTS surveys. This classification is used to explore how different universities’ surveys are similar to each other. We find that some universities use a QTS that is quite distinct from other universities. We also investigate whether there is a particular pattern to the types of questions used in the surveys. We find that there are some question types that are employed widely in a typical survey and others that are not. This analysis can be used by universities to determine how their surveys compare to their peer institutions and other institutions across Australia.

The progenitors of calcium-rich transients are not formed in situ

We present deep VLT and HST observations of the nearest examples of calcium-rich 'gap' transients -- rapidly evolving transient events, with a luminosity intermediate between novae and supernovae. These sources are frequently found at large galactocentric offsets, and their progenitors remain mysterious. Our observations find no convincing underlying quiescent sources coincident with the locations of these transients, allowing us to rule out a number of potential progenitor systems. The presence of surviving massive-star binary companions (or other cluster members) are ruled out, providing an independent rejection of a massive star origin for these events. Dwarf satellite galaxies are disfavoured unless one invokes as yet unknown conditions that would be extremely favourable for their production in the lowest mass systems. Our limits also probe the majority of the globular cluster luminosity function, ruling out the presence of an underlying globular cluster population at high significance, and thus the possibility that they are created via dynamical interactions in dense globular cluster cores. Given the lack of underlying systems, previous progenitor suggestions have difficulty reproducing the remote locations of these transients, even when considering solely halo-borne progenitors. Our preferred scenario is that calcium-rich transients are high velocity, kicked systems, exploding at large distances from their natal site. Coupled with a long-lived progenitor system post-kick, this naturally explains the lack of association these transients have with their host stellar light, and the extreme host-offsets exhibited. Neutron star -- white dwarf mergers may be a promising progenitor system in this scenario.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 9 figure

Sponsorship Scale Development: A Study of a National Sports Event in New Zealand

Despite the growing interest in sponsorship in the marketing literature, there have been few documented research efforts devoted to understanding the value or effect of sponsorship or evaluating the results for a sponsorship effort. As a step towards better understanding the effects of sponsorship on consumers, Lee et al (1997) developed and empirically tested scales to measure consumer attitudes towards sponsorship of global sports events. This paper presents the findings of a study that replicates the work of Lee et al (1997) on the measurement of consumer attitudinal constructs towards sponsorship. In particular, the study focuses on evaluating the psychometric properties of three sponsorship constructs in the context of an annual national sporting event in New Zealand. Using a mail questionnaire, 370 respondents were surveyed for their attitudes towards sponsorship of the National Provincial Rugby Championship (NPC). The results of the study demonstrate reliable and valid scales for three consumer attitudinal constructs towards sponsorship, and widen the scope of application for these scales as a research tool

教養教育英語科目におけるTOEIC® Speaking and Writingの導入

本論文では，広島大学外国語教育研究センターで実施したTOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP テストの結果を報告する。広島大学が2014年に文部科学省の「スーパーグローバル大学創成支援タイプA：トップ型」を受ける13大学の一つとして認定されたことを受け，本センターでは2016年に小規模編成型英語授業プログラム，HiSPEC プログラムを開始した。本論文で実施報告をするTOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP テストは，このプログラムの成果を評価するために導入されることとなったものである。HiSPEC プログラムは2年後に中止となったが，TOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP テストはその後も通常カリキュラムの下で2019年まで4年連続で実施された。本論文では，2016年から2017年までのHiSPEC プログラムの下でのTOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP テスト実施を振り返り，2018年と2019年の通常カリキュラムの下での実施への移行について，2019年のスコア報告を中心として述べる。スピーキングとライティングの総合的なスコアを見ると，2019年が四年間で最も成果をあげた年であり，比較的短期間で学生のスコアを向上させることができた。しかし，ライティングのみのスコアの向上は，過去3年間の成績に比べて小さいものであった。This paper reports the results of the TOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP test administered by the Institute for Foreign Language Research and Education at Hiroshima University. In response to Hiroshima University’s accreditation by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as one of the 13 universities involved in the “Top Global University Project” in 2014, the administration of the TOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP test was initiated at our institute to evaluate the outcomes of a small-scale English language accelerator program launched in 2016. The program was discontinued after two years, but the TOEIC® Speaking and Writing IP test continued to be administered for four consecutive years, until 2019. This paper reviews the program from 2016 to 2017 and describes its integration into the mainstream curriculum in 2018 and 2019. When looking at the overall results for speaking and writing, 2019 was the most accomplished year. The results showed that students were able to improve their scores in a relatively short period of time. However, the improvement in writing scores was smaller than those in the previous three years