Beneficiary Survey-Based Feedback on New Medicare Informational Materials

In response to the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated a massive information and education campaign to promote effective health plan decisionmaking. Early results suggest that the pilot version of the Medicare & You handbook and other new Medicare informational materials were viewed favorably overall. Despite their limitations, most beneficiaries found the information useful. The longer, more comprehensive materials were not perceived to be more useful than the shorter, less complicated version. Additional research is needed to determine which subgroups of beneficiaries may need more and, possibly less, information

Experimental Infection of Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) with West Nile Virus

Abstract. Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) have shown high West Nile virus (WNV) seroprevalence, and WNV infection has been suggested as a cause of morbidity and mortality in this species. We experimentally infected nine eastern gray squirrels with WNV to determine the clinical effects of infection and to assess their potential role as amplifying hosts. We observed no morbidity or mortality attributable to WNV infection, but lesions were apparent in several organs. We detected mean viremias of 10 5.1 and 10 4.8 plaque-forming units (PFU)/mL on days 3 and 4 postinfection (DPI) and estimated that ∼2.1% of Culex pipiens feeding on squirrels during 1-5 DPI would become infectious. Thus, S. carolinensis are unlikely to be important amplifying hosts and may instead dampen the intensity of transmission in most host communities. The low viremias and lack of mortality observed in S. carolinensis suggest that they may be useful as sentinels of spillover from the enzootic amplification cycle

Common and low Frequency variants in MERTK are independently associated with multiple sclerosis susceptibility with discordant association dependent upon HLA-DRB1*15:01 status

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The risk of developing MS is strongly influenced by genetic predisposition, and over 100 loci have been established as associated with susceptibility. However, the biologically relevant variants underlying disease risk have not been defined for the vast majority of these loci, limiting the power of these genetic studies to define new avenues of research for the development of MS therapeutics. It is therefore crucial that candidate MS susceptibility loci are carefully investigated to identify the biological mechanism linking genetic polymorphism at a given gene to the increased chance of developing MS. MERTK has been established as an MS susceptibility gene and is part of a family of receptor tyrosine kinases known to be involved in the pathogenesis of demyelinating disease. In this study we have refined the association of MERTK with MS risk to independent signals from both common and low frequency variants. One of the associated variants was also found to be linked with increased expression of MERTK in monocytes and higher expression of MERTK was associated with either increased or decreased risk of developing MS, dependent upon HLA-DRB1*15:01 status. This discordant association potentially extended beyond MS susceptibility to alterations in disease course in established MS. This study provides clear evidence that distinct polymorphisms within MERTK are associated with MS susceptibility, one of which has the potential to alter MERTK transcription, which in turn can alter both susceptibility and disease course in MS patients

A Radio Flare in the Long-lived Afterglow of the Distant Short GRB 210726A: Energy Injection or a Reverse Shock from Shell Collisions?

We present the discovery of the radio afterglow of the short gamma-ray burst (GRB) 210726A, localized to a galaxy at a photometric redshift of z ∼ 2.4. While radio observations commenced ≲1 day after the burst, no radio emission was detected until ∼11 days. The radio afterglow subsequently brightened by a factor of ∼3 in the span of a week, followed by a rapid decay (a “radio flare”). We find that a forward shock afterglow model cannot self-consistently describe the multiwavelength X-ray and radio data, and underpredicts the flux of the radio flare by a factor of ≈5. We find that the addition of substantial energy injection, which increases the isotropic kinetic energy of the burst by a factor of ≈4, or a reverse shock from a shell collision are viable solutions to match the broadband behavior. At z ∼ 2.4, GRB 210726A is among the highest-redshift short GRBs discovered to date, as well as the most luminous in radio and X-rays. Combining and comparing all previous radio afterglow observations of short GRBs, we find that the majority of published radio searches conclude by ≲10 days after the burst, potentially missing these late-rising, luminous radio afterglows

A Radio Flare in the Long-Lived Afterglow of the Distant Short GRB 210726A: Energy Injection or a Reverse Shock from Shell Collisions?

We present the discovery of the radio afterglow of the short $\gamma$-ray burst (GRB) 210726A, localized to a galaxy at a photometric redshift of $z\sim 2.4$. While radio observations commenced $\lesssim 1~$day after the burst, no radio emission was detected until $\sim11$~days. The radio afterglow subsequently brightened by a factor of $\sim 3$ in the span of a week, followed by a rapid decay (a ``radio flare''). We find that a forward shock afterglow model cannot self-consistently describe the multi-wavelength X-ray and radio data, and underpredicts the flux of the radio flare by a factor of $\approx 5$. We find that the addition of substantial energy injection, which increases the isotropic kinetic energy of the burst by a factor of $\approx 4$, or a reverse shock from a shell collision are viable solutions to match the broad-band behavior. At $z\sim 2.4$, GRB\,210726A is among the highest redshift short GRBs discovered to date as well as the most luminous in radio and X-rays. Combining and comparing all previous radio afterglow observations of short GRBs, we find that the majority of published radio searches conclude by $\lesssim 10~$days after the burst, potentially missing these late rising, luminous radio afterglows.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap

Development and validation of HERWIG 7 tunes from CMS underlying-event measurements

This paper presents new sets of parameters (“tunes”) for the underlying-event model of the HERWIG7 event generator. These parameters control the description of multiple-parton interactions (MPI) and colour reconnection in HERWIG7, and are obtained from a fit to minimum-bias data collected by the CMS experiment at s=0.9, 7, and 13Te. The tunes are based on the NNPDF 3.1 next-to-next-to-leading-order parton distribution function (PDF) set for the parton shower, and either a leading-order or next-to-next-to-leading-order PDF set for the simulation of MPI and the beam remnants. Predictions utilizing the tunes are produced for event shape observables in electron-positron collisions, and for minimum-bias, inclusive jet, top quark pair, and Z and W boson events in proton-proton collisions, and are compared with data. Each of the new tunes describes the data at a reasonable level, and the tunes using a leading-order PDF for the simulation of MPI provide the best description of the dat

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Probing effective field theory operators in the associated production of top quarks with a Z boson in multilepton final states at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe