Pandemics and Domestic Violence during Covid-19

The year 2020 met us with the COVID-19 pandemic. The covid-19 pandemic has gone past a mere health challenge. Its effect can be felt in the economy and society in general. Women form a large chunk of the response efforts geared at flattening the curve of the COVID-19 scourge. As the first point of contact, caregivers, medical personnel, volunteers, logistics facilitators, researchers and scientists and other professionals critical to the fight against the virus, women are making profound contributions in the fight against the spread of the outbreak. Most of the caregivers found in our homes and communities today are women. Furthermore, women stand a higher risk of infection and loss of their sources of livelihood, and as the outbreak continues to spread, there is all likelihood that they may not be able to access programs vital to their reproductive and sexual health. There is also a rise in cases of domestic violence against women in this crisis period. This study will be exploring a wide range of literature about pandemics that have happened in the past and previous public health emergencies and crisis, to enable it to ascertain patterns by which pandemics can further heighten the different kinds of violence against women. Evidence gathered from this study will be used to make recommendations to governments, civil society organizations, community-based agencies, and international donor agencies to help make women and children’s health priority, keeping them safe and preparing them adequately for another possible pandemic.The year 2020 met us with the COVID-19 pandemic. The covid-19 pandemic has gone past a mere health challenge. Its effect can be felt in the economy and society in general. Women form a large chunk of the response efforts geared at flattening the curve of the COVID-19 scourge. As the first point of contact, caregivers, medical personnel, volunteers, logistics facilitators, researchers and scientists and other professionals critical to the fight against the virus, women are making profound contributions in the fight against the spread of the outbreak. Most of the caregivers found in our homes and communities today are women. Furthermore, women stand a higher risk of infection and loss of their sources of livelihood, and as the outbreak continues to spread, there is all likelihood that they may not be able to access programs vital to their reproductive and sexual health. There is also a rise in cases of domestic violence against women in this crisis period. This study will be exploring a wide range of literature about pandemics that have happened in the past and previous public health emergencies and crisis, to enable it to ascertain patterns by which pandemics can further heighten the different kinds of violence against women. Evidence gathered from this study will be used to make recommendations to governments, civil society organizations, community-based agencies, and international donor agencies to help make women and children’s health priority, keeping them safe and preparing them adequately for another possible pandemic

Morphologic Mapping of the Sublingual Microcirculation in Healthy Volunteers

PURPOSE Monitoring the sublingual and oral microcirculation (SM-OM) using hand-held vital microscopes (HVMs) has provided valuable insight into the (patho)physiology of diseases. However, the microvascular anatomy in a healthy population has not been adequately described yet. METHODS Incident dark field-based HVM imaging was used to visualize the SM-OM. First, the SM was divided into four different fields; Field-a (between incisors-lingua), Field-b (between the canine-first premolar-lingua), Field-c (between the first-second premolar-lingua), Field-d (between the second molar-wisdom teeth-lingua). Second, we investigated the buccal area, lower and upper lip. Total/functional vessel density (TVD/FCD), focus depth (FD), small vessel mean diameters (SVMDs), and capillary tortuosity score (CTS) were compared between the areas. RESULTS Fifteen volunteers with a mean age of 29 ± 6 years were enrolled. No statistical difference was found between the sublingual fields in terms of TVD (p = 0.30), FCD (p = 0.38), and FD (p = 0.09). SVMD was similar in Field-a, Field-b, and Field-c (p = 0.20-0.30), and larger in Field-d (p < 0.01, p = 0.015). The CTS of the buccal area was higher than in the lips. CONCLUSION The sublingual area has a homogenous distribution in TVD, FCD, FD, and SVMD. This study can be a description of the normal microvascular anatomy for future researches regarding microcirculatory assessment

Cell sheet as a bioink for 3D bioprinting

Cell sheet technology is a growing area in tissue engineering. It enables a sheet of interconnected cells which is enriched with cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) and cell-cell interactions. Poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) coating based thermoresponsive culture dishes are used as one of the advanced cell sheet technology methods [1]. It allows the surface to demonstrate temperature responsive wettability changes in aqueous environments. Different methods can be used to fabricate PNIPAm surfaces such as initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) which offers a control of the polymer thickness [2]. In this research, we showed that thermoresponsive surfaces can create cell sheet which can be used as a bioink in 3D direct cell bioprinting [3]. The aim of this work is to show that cell sheets can be used to increase mechanical strength of bioink

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| &lt; 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe

Search for Physics beyond the Standard Model in Events with Overlapping Photons and Jets

Results are reported from a search for new particles that decay into a photon and two gluons, in events with jets. Novel jet substructure techniques are developed that allow photons to be identified in an environment densely populated with hadrons. The analyzed proton-proton collision data were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in 2016 at root s = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The spectra of total transverse hadronic energy of candidate events are examined for deviations from the standard model predictions. No statistically significant excess is observed over the expected background. The first cross section limits on new physics processes resulting in such events are set. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the rate of gluino pair production, utilizing a simplified stealth supersymmetry model. The excluded gluino masses extend up to 1.7 TeV, for a neutralino mass of 200 GeV and exceed previous mass constraints set by analyses targeting events with isolated photons.Peer reviewe

Measurement of b jet shapes in proton-proton collisions at root s=5.02 TeV

We present the first study of charged-hadron production associated with jets originating from b quarks in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The data sample used in this study was collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 pb(-1). To characterize the jet substructure, the differential jet shapes, defined as the normalized transverse momentum distribution of charged hadrons as a function of angular distance from the jet axis, are measured for b jets. In addition to the jet shapes, the per-jet yields of charged particles associated with b jets are also quantified, again as a function of the angular distance with respect to the jet axis. Extracted jet shape and particle yield distributions for b jets are compared with results for inclusive jets, as well as with the predictions from the pythia and herwig++ event generators.Peer reviewe

Calibration of the CMS hadron calorimeters using proton-proton collision data at root s=13 TeV

Methods are presented for calibrating the hadron calorimeter system of theCMSetector at the LHC. The hadron calorimeters of the CMS experiment are sampling calorimeters of brass and scintillator, and are in the form of one central detector and two endcaps. These calorimeters cover pseudorapidities vertical bar eta vertical bar ee data. The energy scale of the outer calorimeters has been determined with test beam data and is confirmed through data with high transverse momentum jets. In this paper, we present the details of the calibration methods and accuracy.Peer reviewe

Measurement of the Jet Mass Distribution and Top Quark Mass in Hadronic Decays of Boosted Top Quarks in pp Collisions at root s=13 TeV

A measurement is reported of the jet mass distribution in hadronic decays of boosted top quarks produced in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The measurement is performed in the lepton + jets channel of t (t) over bar events, where the lepton is an electron or muon. The products of the hadronic top quark decay t -> bW -> bq (q) over bar' are reconstructed as a single jet with transverse momentum larger than 400 GeV. The t (t) over bar cross section as a function of the jet mass is unfolded at the particle level and used to extract a value of the top quark mass of 172.6 +/- 2.5 GeV. A novel jet reconstruction technique is used for the first time at the LHC, which improves the precision by a factor of 3 relative to an earlier measurement. This highlights the potential of measurements using boosted top quarks, where the new technique will enable future precision measurements.Peer reviewe