Epoch, Epistemology and the Virtual Organization

This paper engages with contemporary discussions of ?the virtual organization?. Starting with some influential accounts that were published in the 1990s, the paper highlights the continued significance of control ration alities in the increasingly dispersed and disaggregated organizations of the advanced industrial societies. The paper also takes issue with the ?epochalist? tendency to equate virtuality with the ?end of organization?, and it puts the case for a more historically situated view of technology in ?post bureaucratic? or ?virtualised? organizational settings

Distinguishing between exotic symplectic structures

We investigate the uniqueness of so-called exotic structures on certain exact symplectic manifolds by looking at how their symplectic properties change under small nonexact deformations of the symplectic form. This allows us to distinguish between two examples based on those found in \cite{maydanskiy,maydanskiyseidel}, even though their classical symplectic invariants such as symplectic cohomology vanish. We also exhibit, for any $n$, an exact symplectic manifold with $n$ distinct but exotic symplectic structures, which again cannot be distinguished by symplectic cohomology.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures. Final version, accepted by Journal of Topolog

Discovery Mass Reach for Topgluons Decaying to b anti-b at the Tevatron

In topcolor assisted technicolor, topgluons are massive gluons which couple mainly to top and bottom quarks. We estimate the mass reach for topgluons decaying to b anti-b at the Tevatron as a function of integrated luminosity. The mass reach for topgluons decreases with increasing topgluon width, and is 0.77 - 0.95 TeV for Run II (2 fb^-1) and 1.0-1.2 TeV for TeV33 (30 fb^-1).Comment: 5 pages, 3 Figures, LaTex, macros epsf.sty, snowtimes.sty, and snow2e.cls. To appear in the proceedings of DPF/DPB Summer Study on New Directions for High Energy Physics, Snowmass, Colorado, June 25-July 12, 1996. Postscript file of full paper also available at http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/conf96/cdf3872_snow_topgluon_bbbar.p

Search for New Particles Decaying to Dijets, Bottom Quarks, and Top Quarks at CDF

We present three searches for new particles at CDF. First, using 70 pb^-1 of data we search the dijet mass spectrum for resonances. There is an upward fluctuation near 550 GeV (2.6 sigma) with an angular distribution that is adequately described by either QCD alone or QCD plus 5% signal. There is insufficient evidence to claim a signal, but we set the most stringent mass limits on the hadronic decays of axigluons, excited quarks, technirhos, W', Z', and E6 diquarks. Second, using 19 pb^-1 of data we search the b-tagged dijet mass spectrum for b anti-b resonances. Again, an upward fluctuation near 600 GeV (2 sigma) is not significant enough to claim a signal, so we set the first mass limits on topcolor bosons. Finally, using 67 pb^-1 of data we search the top quark sample for t anti-t resonances like a topcolor Z'. Other than an insignificant shoulder of 6 events on a background of 2.4 in the mass region 475-550 GeV, there is no evidence for new particle production. Mass limits, currently in progress, should be sensitive to a topcolor Z' near 600 GeV. In all three searches there is insufficient evidence to claim new particle production, yet there is an exciting possibility that the upward fluctuations are the first signs of new physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 10 pages and 10 figures in postsript file. Published Proceedings of the 10th Topical Workshop on Proton-Antipron Collider Physics, Fermilab, May 9-13, 1995. Postscript at http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/conf95/cdf3192_pbarp_new_particles.p

New polymers for low-gravity purification of cells by phase partitioning

A potentially powerful technique for separating different biological cell types is based on the partitioning of these cells between the immiscible aqueous phases formed by solution of certain polymers in water. This process is gravity-limited because cells sediment rather than associate with the phase most favored on the basis of cell-phase interactions. In the present contract we have been involved in the synthesis of new polymers both to aid in understanding the partitioning process and to improve the quality of separations. The prime driving force behind the design of these polymers is to produce materials which will aid in space experiments to separate important cell types and to study the partitioning process in the absence of gravity (i.e., in an equilibrium state)