COVID-19 and the Conundrum of Mask Requirements

As states begin to loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, public debate is underway about what public health measures are appropriate. Many states have some form of mask-wearing orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. Public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization has conflicted. From a public health point of view, it is not clear what the right answer is. In the absence of directives, individuals are also making their own choices about mask use. At a time when public health measures, like shelter-in-place orders and social distancing, are being used to stop the spread of coronavirus, wearing masks can be seen as a form of solidarity and desire to not infect others. Similarly, not wearing a mask can also be a political statement of sorts. Additionally, black men wearing masks have reported being asked to leave stores and fearing for their own safety. This essay provides an overview of the legal and policy landscape and focuses on the potential for policing against African Americans when mask mandates are in place. Despite the public health benefits of mask usage, due to mask mandates likely being enforced discriminatorily, we advise caution against mask mandates

Resolving Tensions Between Disability Rights Law and COVID-19 Mask Policies

As states reopen, an increasing number of state and local officials are requiring people to wear face masks while out of the home. Grocery stores, retail outlets, restaurants and other businesses are also announcing their own mask policies, which may differ from public policies. Public health measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus such as wearing masks have the potential to greatly benefit millions of Americans with disabilities, who are particularly vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. But certain disabilities may make it difficult or inadvisable to wear a mask.Mask-wearing has become a political flashpoint, putting people with disabilities at risk. There are reports emerging that people with disabilities have been challenged, excluded from retail establishments, and even threatened with arrest for not wearing masks. Some anti-mask activists encourage their followers to falsely represent themselves as disabled to confound mask requirements, which has the potential to amplify skepticism and mistrust of people with non-obvious disabilities. Reports of violent conflict over mask-wearing add to these tensions. The first lawsuit challenging a mask requirement under federal disability rights law was filed in late May, and more are likely to follow.Federal laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and require appropriate modification of public and private mask-wearing policies to accommodate the needs of individuals with disabilities. These laws, like other civil rights statutes, remain in force during the pandemic and should operate as a check against any discrimination that might result from a mask requirement. However, misunderstanding of and noncompliance with these laws limits their effectiveness.This article provides the first expert analysis of the federal disability law framework that applies to mask policies issued by state and local officials, as well as by stores, restaurants and other businesses that serve the public, and the often confusing interaction between public and private policies. It argues that contrary to some popular assumptions, mask policies can be employed in a manner consistent with the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. Finally, it offers specific recommendations for the design and implementation of mask policies in manner that accommodates both the rights of people with disabilities and developing scientific knowledge of efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19

Study of an Alternate Mechanism for the Origin of Fermion Generations

In usual extended technicolor (ETC) theories based on the group ${\rm{SU}(N_{ETC}})_{ETC}$, the quarks of charge 2/3 and -1/3 and the charged leptons of all generations arise from ETC fermion multiplets transforming according to the fundamental representation. Here we investigate a different idea for the origin of SM fermion generations, in which quarks and charged leptons of different generations arise from ETC fermions transforming according to different representations of ${\rm{SU}(N_{ETC}})_{ETC}$. Although this mechanism would have the potential, {\it a priori}, to allow a reduction in the value of $N_{ETC}$ relative to conventional ETC models, we show that, at least in simple models, it is excluded by the fact that the technicolor sector is not asymptotically free or by the appearance of fermions with exotic quantum numbers which are not observed.Comment: 6 pages, late

Francisella Tularensis Blue–Gray Phase Variation Involves Structural Modifications of Lipopolysaccharide O-Antigen, Core and Lipid A and Affects Intramacrophage Survival and Vaccine Efficacy

Francisella tularensis is a CDC Category A biological agent and a potential bioterrorist threat. There is no licensed vaccine against tularemia in the United States. A long-standing issue with potential Francisella vaccines is strain phase variation to a gray form that lacks protective capability in animal models. Comparisons of the parental strain (LVS) and a gray variant (LVSG) have identified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) alterations as a primary change. The LPS of the F. tularensis variant strain gains reactivity to F. novicida anti-LPS antibodies, suggesting structural alterations to the O-antigen. However, biochemical and structural analysis of the F. tularensis LVSG and LVS LPS demonstrated that LVSG has less O-antigen but no major O-antigen structural alterations. Additionally, LVSG possesses structural differences in both the core and lipid A regions, the latter being decreased galactosamine modification. Recent work has identified two genes important in adding galactosamine (flmF2 and flmK) to the lipid A. Quantitative real-time PCR showed reduced transcripts of both of these genes in the gray variant when compared to LVS. Loss of flmF2 or flmK caused less frequent phase conversion but did not alter intramacrophage survival or colony morphology. The LVSG strain demonstrated an intramacrophage survival defect in human and rat but not mouse macrophages. Consistent with this result, the LVSG variant demonstrated little change in LD50 in the mouse model of infection. Furthermore, the LVSG strain lacks the protective capacity of F. tularensis LVS against virulent Type A challenge. These data suggest that the LPS of the F. tularensis LVSG phase variant is dramatically altered. Understanding the mechanism of blue to gray phase variation may lead to a way to inhibit this variation, thus making future F. tularensis vaccines more stable and efficacious

Probing Unstable Massive Neutrinos with Current Cosmic Microwave Background Observations

The pattern of anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background depends upon the masses and lifetimes of the three neutrino species. A neutrino species of mass greater than 10 eV with lifetime between 10^{13} sec and 10^{17} sec leaves a very distinct signature (due to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect): the anisotropies at large angles are predicted to be comparable to those on degree scales. Present data exclude such a possibility and hence this region of parameter space. For $m_\nu \simeq 30$ eV, $\tau \simeq 10^{13}$ sec, we find an interesting possibility: the Integrated Sachs Wolfe peak produced by the decaying neutrino in low-$\Omega$ models mimics the acoustic peak expected in an $\Omega = 1$ model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Cosmic microwave background and large scale structure limits on the interaction between dark matter and baryons

We study the effect on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and large scale structure (LSS) power spectrum of a scattering interaction between cold dark matter and baryons. This scattering alters the CMB anisotropy and LSS spectrum through momentum transfer between the cold dark matter particles and the baryons. We find that current CMB observations can put an upper limit on the scattering cross section which is comparable with or slightly stronger than previous disk heating constraints at masses greater than 1 GeV, and much stronger at smaller masses. When large-scale structure constraints are added to the CMB limits, our constraint is more stringent than this previous limit at all masses. In particular, a dark matter-baryon scattering cross section comparable to the ``Spergel-Steinhardt'' cross section is ruled out for dark matter mass greater than 1 GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, use RevTeX4, submitted to PRD replaced with revised versio

Comparative Immunohistochemical Analysis of EHD1 Expression in Adjacent, Metastatic, and Normal Thyroid Tissue

The discovery of prognostic biomarkers plays a crucial role in enhancing the treatment and care of individuals with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) who are at risk of disease progression. A significant breakthrough came with earlier research, which revealed higher levels of the EHD1 protein in papillary DTC when compared to the surrounding healthy tissue. This exciting finding served as the driving force behind the initiation of a more extensive investigation aimed at validating EHD1 as a potential biomarker and exploring its connection with clinical outcomes. By unraveling the potential implications of EHD1 in DTC cases, this study holds the promise of advancing our understanding and approach to managing this type of cancer effectively.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/surp2023/1001/thumbnail.jp

Moderate Supersymmetric CP Violation

It is well known that supersymmetry (SUSY) gives neutron and electron electric dipole moments ($d_n$ and $d_e$) which are too large by about $10^{3}$. If we assume a SUSY model cannot contain fine-tunings or large mass scales, then one must require that the SUSY breaking mechanism give real soft breaking parameters, in which case the minimal SUSY model has no $CP$ violation other than from the CKM matrix (besides possible strong $CP$ violating effects). We show that in non-minimal SUSY models, a moderate amount of $CP$ violation can be induced through one loop corrections to the scalar potential, giving an effective phase of order $10^{-3}$, and thus implying $d_n$ and $d_e$ can be near their current experimental bounds $naturally$. This moderate amount of SUSY $CP$ violation could also prove important for models of electroweak baryogenesis. We illustrate our results with a specific model.Comment: 19pp plain LATEX, 1 fig (by EMAIL request), TRI-PP-93-86. (Some clarifying comments about renormalizability added--version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

Real and complex random neutrino mass matrices and theta13

Recently it has been shown that one of the basic parameters of the neutrino sector, so called theta13 angle is very small, but quite probably non-zero. We argue that the small value of theta13 can still be reproduced easily by a wide spectrum of randomly generated models of neutrino masses. For that we consider real and complex neutrino mass matrices, also including sterile neutrinos. A qualitative difference between results for real and complex mass matrices in the region of small theta13 values is observed. We show that statistically the present experimental data prefers random models of neutrino masses with sterile neutrinos.Comment: v3: Discussion about 3+1 scenario extended, fig 5,6 adde

3-3-1 Models at Electroweak Scale

We show that in 3-3-1 models there exist a natural relation among the $SU(3)_L$ coupling constant $g$, the electroweak mixing angle $\theta_W$, the mass of the $W$, and one of the vacuum expectation values, which implies that those models can be realized at low energy scales and, in particular, even at the electroweak scale. So that, being that symmetries realized in Nature, new physics may be really just around the corner.Comment: 10 pages, version to be published in Physics Letters