The quest for universal health coverage: achieving social protection for all in Mexico

Mexico is reaching universal health coverage in 2012. A national health insurance programme called Seguro Popular, introduced in 2003, is providing access to a package of comprehensive health services with financial protection for more than 50 million Mexicans previously excluded from insurance. Universal coverage in Mexico is synonymous with social protection of health. This report analyses the road to universal coverage along three dimensions of protection: against health risks, for patients through quality assurance of health care, and against the financial consequences of disease and injury. We present a conceptual discussion of the transition from labour-based social security to social protection of health, which implies access to effective health care as a universal right based on citizenship, the ethical basis of the Mexican reform. We discuss the conditions that prompted the reform, as well as its design and inception, and we describe the 9-year, evidence-driven implementation process, including updates and improvements to the original programme. The core of the report concentrates on the effects and impacts of the reform, based on analysis of all published and publically available scientific literature and new data. Evidence indicates that Seguro Popular is improving access to health services and reducing the prevalence of catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures, especially for the poor. Recent studies also show improvement in effective coverage. This research then addresses persistent challenges, including the need to translate financial resources into more effective, equitable and responsive health services. A next generation of reforms will be required and these include systemic measures to complete the reorganisation of the health system by functions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Mexican quest to achieve universal health coverage and its relevance for other low-income and middle-income countries

Search for pair-produced resonances decaying to quark pairs in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A general search for the pair production of resonances, each decaying to two quarks, is reported. The search is conducted separately for heavier resonances (masses above 400 GeV), where each of the four final-state quarks generates a hadronic jet resulting in a four-jet signature, and for lighter resonances (masses between 80 and 400 GeV), where the pair of quarks from each resonance is collimated and reconstructed as a single jet resulting in a two-jet signature. In addition, a b-tagged selection is applied to target resonances with a bottom quark in the final state. The analysis uses data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1), from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The mass spectra are analyzed for the presence of new resonances, and are found to be consistent with standard model expectations. The results are interpreted in the framework of R-parity-violating supersymmetry assuming the pair production of scalar top quarks decaying via the hadronic coupling lambda ''(312) or lambda ''(323) and upper limits on the cross section as a function of the top squark mass are set. These results probe a wider range of masses than previously explored at the LHC, and extend the top squark mass limits in the (t) over tilde -> qq' scenario.Peer reviewe

Individuare il comportamento di acquiferi carsici complessi: la sorgente di Bossea

Gli acquiferi carsici sono una fonte di acqua di primaria importanza e molti sforzi sono stati fatti per studiare il comportamento complesso dei sistemi carsici (e.g. Hartmann, et al., 2015). In questo lavoro si prende in considerazione il sistema carsico delle grotte di Bossea in provincia di Cuneo e sulla base dei dati di portate della sorgente e delle altezze di precipitazione/neve si individua il comportamento dell’acquifero. Allo scopo viene applicato l’algoritmo denominato Ensemble Smoother with multiple data assimilation. Il problema esaminato è rilevante in uno scenario di cambiamenti climatici per valutare la risposta della sorgente di fronte a variazioni del regime idrologico

Characterization and Validation of a‑Si Magnetron-Sputtered Thin Films as Solid He Targets with High Stability for Nuclear Reactions

In this work, we present our magnetron sputtering based methodology to produce amorphous silicon coatings with closed porosity, as a strategy to fabricate solid helium targets, in the form of supported or self-supported thin films, for nuclear reactions. We show how by changing the He working pressure it is possible to obtain highly porous homogeneous structures incorporating different He amounts. These porous coatings (a-Si:He) are very reproducible from run to run, and the high He amount incorporated makes them excellent candidates for solid He targets. The possibility of producing self-supported films is illustrated here, and its potential use in inverse kinematics experiments with radioactive beams is shown through the dispersion in forward geometry of a stable 6Li beam. Also the elastic scattering cross-sections for proton from helium were determined using an a-Si:He coating. The results agree well with the ones reported in the literature. These two examples validate our coatings as good candidates to be used as solid He targets in nuclear reactions. The stability of He inside the coatings, fundamental for its use as solid He targets, was investigated, both over time and after irradiation. The coatings proved to be very stable, and the amount of He inside the pores remains unaltered at least 2 years after deposition and after high irradiation fluence (5 × 1017 particles/cm2; with a dose rate of 5 × 1012 particles/(cm2 s)).This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry MINECO (projects FPA2013-47327-C2-1-R and MAT2015-69035-REDC), the CSIC (PIE 201460E018) and the EU 7FP (Project Al-NanoFunc CT-REGPOT-2011-285895) and the OpenAIRE FP7 Post-grant open access pilot program for open access publication funding.USD 2,000 APC fee funded by the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access PilotPeer reviewe

Measurement of the cross section for tt‾ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}} production with additional jets and b jets in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Measurements of the cross section for the production of top quark pairs in association with a pair of jets from bottom quarks $$\left({\sigma}_{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}}\right)$$and in association with a pair of jets from quarks of any flavor or gluons $$\left({\sigma}_{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{jj}}\right)$$and their ratio are presented. The data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The measurements are performed in a fiducial phase space and extrapolated to the full phase space, separately for the dilepton and lepton+jets channels, where lepton corresponds to either an electron or a muon. The results of the measurements in the fiducial phase space for the dilepton and lepton+jets channels, respectively, are $${\sigma}_{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{jj}}$$= 2.36±0.02 (stat)±0.20 (syst) pb and 31.0±0.2 (stat)±2.9 (syst) pb, and for the cross section ratio 0.017 ± 0.001 (stat) ± 0.001 (syst) and 0.020 ± 0.001 (stat) ± 0.001 (syst). The values of $${\sigma}_{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}}$$are determined from the product of the $${\sigma}_{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{jj}}$$and the cross section ratio, obtaining, respectively, 0.040±0.002 (stat)±0.005 (syst) pb and 0.62±0.03 (stat)±0.07 (syst) pb. These measurements are the most precise to date and are consistent, within the uncertainties, with the standard model expectations obtained using a matrix element calculation at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics matched to a parton shower

Observation of the Λb0→J/ψΛφ decay in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV

The observation of the Λb0→J/ψΛφ decay is reported using proton-proton collision data collected at s=13TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 60fb−1. The ratio of the branching fractions B(Λb0→J/ψΛφ)/B(Λb0→ψ(2S)Λ) is measured to be (8.26±0.90(stat)±0.68(syst)±0.11(B))×10−2, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the last uncertainty reflects the uncertainties in the world-average branching fractions of φ and ψ(2S) decays to the reconstructed final states

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to charm quarks

A direct search for the standard model Higgs boson, H, produced in association with a vector boson, V (W or Z), and decaying to a charm quark pair is presented. The search uses a data set of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016, at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The search is carried out in mutually exclusive channels targeting specific decays of the vector bosons: W → lν, Z → ll, and Z → νν, where l is an electron or a muon. To fully exploit the topology of the H boson decay, two strategies are followed. In the first one, targeting lower vector boson transverse momentum, the H boson candidate is reconstructed via two resolved jets arising from the two charm quarks from the H boson decay. A second strategy identifies the case where the two charm quark jets from the H boson decay merge to form a single jet, which generally only occurs when the vector boson has higher transverse momentum. Both strategies make use of novel methods for charm jet identification, while jet substructure techniques are also exploited to suppress the background in the merged-jet topology. The two analyses are combined to yield a 95% confidence level observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section $$\sigma \left(\mathrm{VH}\right)\mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left(\mathrm{H}\to \mathrm{c}\overline{\mathrm{c}}\right)$$of 4.5 $$\left({2.4}_{-0.7}^{+1.0}\right)$$pb, corresponding to 70 (37) times the standard model prediction

Search for an excited lepton that decays via a contact interaction to a lepton and two jets in proton-proton collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Results are presented from a search for events containing an excited lepton (electron or muon) produced in association with an ordinary lepton of the same flavor and decaying to a lepton and two hadronic jets. Both the production and the decay of the excited leptons are assumed to occur via a contact interaction with a characteristic energy scale Λ. The branching fraction for the decay mode under study increases with the mass of the excited lepton and is the most sensitive channel for very heavy excited leptons. The analysis uses a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at $$\sqrt{s}$$= 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 77.4 fb−1. The four-body invariant mass of the two lepton plus two jet system is used as the primary discriminating variable. No significant excess of events beyond the expectation for standard model processes is observed. Assuming that Λ is equal to the mass of the excited leptons, excited electrons and muons with masses below 5.6 and 5.7 TeV, respectively, are excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the best limits to date