Technology: driving specialization or enabling diversification (or both)?

Financial services industry ; Technology

Lime Treated

products Statements addressing origin, composition and manufacturer of all materials and product

Why we do what we do: the views of bankers, insurers, and securities firms on specialization and diversification

Financial services industry

SUBJECT: PESTICIDE VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUND EMISSION ADJUSTMENTS FOR FIELD CONDITIONS AND ESTIMATED VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUND REDUCTIONS–INITIAL ESTIMATES

The purposes of this memorandum is to develop refined emission adjustment factors to account for the effect of application method on volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from pesticides, with particular emphasis on fumigants, and to estimate the VOC reductions associated with changes to fumigant application methods. Each year, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) updates an inventory of pesticide VOC emissions for May–October for specified areas and compares the emissions on a relative basis to 1990 or 1991 as the base year. DPR currently assumes 100 % of applied fumigants volatilize to the air. Field monitoring data shows that fumigant emissions are less than 100 % and vary with application method. There are several dozen field studies that measured fumigant emissions. Emissions vary from 9 to 100 % of the amount applied, depending on the fumigant and application method. However, data is not available for all application methods in current use or in use during the 1990/91 base year. When no data is available, emissions have been estimated with surrogate data. In addition to emission estimates associated with each application method, DPR has estimated the frequency with which the various application methods were used during 1990/91 base year, as well as currently. Registrant data and pesticide use reports (PURs) were used for these estimates

Shifts in the Properties of the Higgs Boson from Radion Mixing

We examine how mixing between the Standard Model Higgs boson, $h$, and the radion present in the Randall-Sundrum model of localized gravity modifies the expected properties of the Higgs boson. In particular, we demonstrate that the total and partial decay widths of the Higgs, as well as the $h\to gg$ branching fraction, can be substantially altered from their Standard Model expectations. The remaining branching fractions are modified less than \lsim 5% for most of the parameter space volume.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figs., LaTex; revised versio

Supersymmetry and the LHC Inverse Problem

Given experimental evidence at the LHC for physics beyond the standard model, how can we determine the nature of the underlying theory? We initiate an approach to studying the "inverse map" from the space of LHC signatures to the parameter space of theoretical models within the context of low-energy supersymmetry, using 1808 LHC observables including essentially all those suggested in the literature and a 15 dimensional parametrization of the supersymmetric standard model. We show that the inverse map of a point in signature space consists of a number of isolated islands in parameter space, indicating the existence of "degeneracies"--qualitatively different models with the same LHC signatures. The degeneracies have simple physical characterizations, largely reflecting discrete ambiguities in electroweak-ino spectrum, accompanied by small adjustments for the remaining soft parameters. The number of degeneracies falls in the range 1<d<100, depending on whether or not sleptons are copiously produced in cascade decays. This number is large enough to represent a clear challenge but small enough to encourage looking for new observables that can further break the degeneracies and determine at the LHC most of the SUSY physics we care about. Degeneracies occur because signatures are not independent, and our approach allows testing of any new signature for its independence. Our methods can also be applied to any other theory of physics beyond the standard model, allowing one to study how model footprints differ in signature space and to test ways of distinguishing qualitatively different possibilities for new physics at the LHC.Comment: 55 pages, 30 figure

A Multivariate Analysis of the Effects of Money in Congressional Elections on Incumbents and Challengers

The use of money in congressional elections will be the principal issue of this thesis. The money decides who will mount a serious contest and who will not. In determining the effect of money in congressional races, it is hypothesized that campaign spending has a much greater effect on the challenger\u27s chances of winning than it does on the incumbent\u27s. One of the many implications of this thesis is that people and groups determine how well a candidate will do on election day. Such topics as long term trends in the House, congressional competition, voting behavior, conservative and liberal political action groups and why people contribute to their congressional candidates are examined. The different methods that congressional incumbents use to fend off well-financed and executed challenges against their seats are examined. In the final chapter, a statistical analysis is employed which updates Gary C. Jacobson\u27s multivariate analysis on congressional spending. Using his methodology, 209 congressional districts in the 1980 election are analyzed. The results obtained are generally consistent with those of Jacobson. Challenger\u27s expenditures are found to be the most important in determining the outcome of an election. Incumbents gauge their spending to that of the challenger. In addition, the challenger\u27s party strength is an important factor affecting election results. However, the results of this study indicate a smaller increase in the challenger\u27s vote due to an increase in spending than does Jacobson\u27s study

Theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the NMSSM

We analyse the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the framework of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. After performing a detailed analysis of the parameter space, taking into account all the available constraints from LEPII, we compute the neutralino-nucleon cross section, and compare the results with the sensitivity of detectors. We find that sizable values for the detection cross section, within the reach of dark matter detectors, are attainable in this framework. For example, neutralino-proton cross sections compatible with the sensitivity of present experiments can be obtained due to the exchange of very light Higgses with m_{h_1^0}\lsim 70 GeV. Such Higgses have a significant singlet composition, thus escaping detection and being in agreement with accelerator data. The lightest neutralino in these cases exhibits a large singlino-Higgsino composition, and a mass in the range 50\lsim m_{\tilde\chi_1^0}\lsim 100 GeV.Comment: Final version to appear in JHEP. References added. LaTeX, 53 pages, 23 figure