Knowledge and attitudes among Lebanese pregnant women and women seeking fertility treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak: a cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 has been recognised as a global health emergency necessitating collaborative efforts to halt further disease spread. The success of public health interventions and vaccination campaigns is contingent on the knowledge and awareness level of the public. We aim to assess COVID-19 knowledge and attitudes among Lebanese pregnant women and women seeking fertility treatment. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using telehealth administered survey. SETTING: University-affiliated tertiary care centre. PARTICIPANTS: The data of 402-Lebanese women pregnant or seeking fertility treatment aged 20-45 years were analysed. OUTCOME MEASURES: Extent of COVID-19 general knowledge, pregnancy-specific knowledge and attitudes toward COVID-19 practices. RESULTS: All participants reported being knowledgeable about COVID-19, 70% of which rated their knowledge as 7 or more on a numerical scale of 0-10. The mean general COVID-19 knowledge was 22.15 (SD 2.44, range 14-27) indicating a high level of knowledge. The mean pregnancy-specific COVID-19 knowledge 6.84 (SD 2.061, range 0-10) indicated poorer pregnancy-specific knowledge compared with general COVID-19 knowledge. A trend towards higher knowledge was noted with higher income status. Reproductive age women with higher pregnancy-specific knowledge had more positive attitudes toward COVID-19 pregnancy practices. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a deficiency in pregnancy-specific COVID-19 knowledge stressing the necessity for targeted public health education interventions. It highlights the need for enhancing COVID-19 pregnancy-specific awareness which can serve as a stepping stone in the success of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and in halting further disease spread. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ

Character strengths of women with polycystic ovary syndrome in a single center

Purpose To investigate the difference in character strengths (CSs) between patients with and without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and the association between biological (i.e., testosterone levels) and psychological factors (i.e., character strengths). Patients and methods A total of 99 women divided into PCOS (49) and non-PCOS (50) groups who presented to the gynecological clinics at the women’s center in the American University of Beirut Medical Center in 2017 were included. Women were assessed for testosterone bioavailable levels and completed a questionnaire that included Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Values in Action Survey-72. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to examine the association of CSs between the two groups and its predictors. Results The scores of hope, judgement, perspective, and transcendence of the PCOS group were significantly higher in comparison with healthy participants. An increase in free androgen index was negatively correlated to the score of judgement only. Conclusion Women with PCOS have their own profile of character strengths and virtues that constitute judgement, hope, perspective, and transcendence. This in turn can be utilized to reinforce those personality strengths and thus decrease the psychological distress and mood disorders accompanied with this disease. Copyright: © 2022 Ghazeeri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Measurements of the Electroweak Diboson Production Cross Sections in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=5.02 TeV Using Leptonic Decays

The first measurements of diboson production cross sections in proton-proton interactions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV are reported. They are based on data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 302 pb(-1). Events with two, three, or four charged light leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state are analyzed. The WW, WZ, and ZZ total cross sections are measured as sigma(WW) = 37:0(-5.2)(+5.5) (stat)(-2.6)(+2.7) (syst) pb, sigma(WZ) = 6.4(-2.1)(+2.5) (stat)(-0.3)(+0.5)(syst) pb, and sigma(ZZ) = 5.3(-2.1)(+2.5)(stat)(-0.4)(+0.5) (syst) pb. All measurements are in good agreement with theoretical calculations at combined next-to-next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics and next-to-leading order electroweak accuracy

Search for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson in the mu tau and e tau final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson to mu t and et. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess has been found, and the results are interpreted in terms of upper limits on lepton-flavor violating branching fractions of the Higgs boson. The observed (expected) upper limits on the branching fractions are, respectively, B(H -> mu t) e tau) < 0.22(0.16)% at 95% confidence level.Peer reviewe

Observation of γγ → ττ in proton-proton collisions and limits on the anomalous electromagnetic moments of the τ lepton

The production of a pair of τ leptons via photon–photon fusion, γγ → ττ, is observed for the f irst time in proton–proton collisions, with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations. This observation is based on a data set recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Events with a pair of τ leptons produced via photon–photon fusion are selected by requiring them to be back-to-back in the azimuthal direction and to have a minimum number of charged hadrons associated with their production vertex. The τ leptons are reconstructed in their leptonic and hadronic decay modes. The measured fiducial cross section of γγ → ττ is σfid obs = 12.4+3.8 −3.1 fb. Constraints are set on the contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment (aτ) and electric dipole moments (dτ) of the τ lepton originating from potential effects of new physics on the γττ vertex: aτ = 0.0009+0.0032 −0.0031 and |dτ| &lt; 2.9×10−17ecm (95% confidence level), consistent with the standard model

Measurement of the W gamma Production Cross Section in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV and Constraints on Effective Field Theory Coefficients

A fiducial cross section for W gamma production in proton-proton collisions is measured at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 137 fb(-1) of data collected using the CMS detector at the LHC. The W -> e nu and mu nu decay modes are used in a maximum-likelihood fit to the lepton-photon invariant mass distribution to extract the combined cross section. The measured cross section is compared with theoretical expectations at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics. In addition, 95% confidence level intervals are reported for anomalous triple-gauge couplings within the framework of effective field theory.Peer reviewe

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

Measurement of the top quark mass using events with a single reconstructed top quark in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

Abstract:A measurement of the top quark mass is performed using a data sample en-riched with single top quark events produced in thetchannel. The study is based on proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1, recorded at√s= 13TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016. Candidate events are selectedby requiring an isolated high-momentum lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets,of which one is identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminantsare designed to separate the signal from the background. Optimized thresholds are placedon the discriminant outputs to obtain an event sample with high signal purity. The topquark mass is found to be172.13+0.76−0.77GeV, where the uncertainty includes both the sta-tistical and systematic components, reaching sub-GeV precision for the first time in thisevent topology. The masses of the top quark and antiquark are also determined separatelyusing the lepton charge in the final state, from which the mass ratio and difference aredetermined to be0.9952+0.0079−0.0104and0.83+1.79−1.35GeV, respectively. The results are consistentwithCPTinvariance