Women's beliefs about medication use during their pregnancy: a UK perspective

Background: Previous research has examined the number and extent of medicines taking in pregnant women but not their beliefs and risk perception surrounding their use. Objective: To describe beliefs and risk perception associated with medicines use for the treatment of common acute conditions among UK women and explore whether this is related to actual medicines use. Settings: Cross-sectional, web-based study in the UK Methods: Pregnant women and mothers within one year of giving birth were invited to participate in an online cross-sectional questionnaire-based study via a pregnancy website in the UK. Anonymous data were collected from women regarding their use of medicines (both over-the-counter and prescribed) and their beliefs regarding medicines use during pregnancy. Main outcome measures: Pregnant women’s beliefs about medicines and their relation to pharmacological treatment of acute conditions in pregnancy. Results: Pharmacological treatment of conditions in pregnancy ranged from 65.4% for urinary tract infections (UTIs) to 1.1% for sleeping problems. Almost three out of ten women avoided using some medications during pregnancy. For heartburn and UTIs, women who did not treat the condition viewed medicines in general as being overused, more harmful and less beneficial, than those who treated the condition. In general, UK pregnant women perceived medicines to be beneficial and slightly overused. Conclusions: Women’s beliefs about medications impact on treatment of specific conditions in pregnancy such as heartburn and UTIs. Healthcare professionals should explore patient’s beliefs regarding medication at the first maternity care visit to promote appropriate medication use in pregnancy

ttˉbbˉt\bar{t}b\bar{b} predictions at NLO in QCD and bb-jet modelling

In this contribution we report on the latest theoretical predictions for $t\bar{t}b\bar{b}$. These results are obtained for the fully decayed final state $pp \rightarrow e^+ \nu_e \mu^- \nu_{\mu} b \bar{b} b \bar{b}$ at next-to-leading order accuracy in QCD. We present predictions with full off-shell effects and in the Narrow Width Approximation. Specifically, we report on the size of the NLO QCD corrections and the size of the full off-shell effects. Finally, we study the nature of the $b$-jets present in the final state.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the Proceedings of the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP 2022), Bologna, Italy, 6-13 July 202

Seismic reflection data in the Umbria Marche Region: limits and capabilities to unravel the subsurface structure in a seismically active area

Before seismic data were made available, the subsurface setting of the Umbria-Marche area was mainly derived from the extrapolation of surface data and from models resulting from analogies with other mountain chains around the world. During the ‘90s industrial seismic data availability considerably increased, allowing the definition of new, previously unknown features. Beside the industrial seismic data availability, a deep crustal, near vertical seismic section trending E-W was acquired (CROP-03) across the Italian peninsula from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic coast. The subsurface data defined the compressional deformation style (thin- Vs thick- skinned) and the extensional deformation style. A set of east-dipping low-angle-normal faults, which dissect the previous compressional structures and which are the dominant features controlling the extension of the Apennines were recognised. The subsequent application of the seismic data interpretation to seismotectonic issues, defined in more detail the subsurface geometries of the active faults and the relationships between upper crust structure and seismicity

A study of additional jet activity in top quark pair production and decay at the LHC

We report on the calculation of the NLO QCD corrections to top quark pair production in association with two hard jets at the LHC. We take into account higher-order effects in both the production and decays of the top-quark pair. The latter are treated in the narrow width approximation and $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations are preserved throughout the calculation. This is the first time that such a complete study for this process is conducted at NLO in QCD. We present results for fiducial cross sections at the integrated and differential level. Furthermore, we investigate kinematic properties of the additional light jets and their distribution in the $pp\to t\bar{t}jj$ process. We examine jets in production and top-quark decays as well as the mixed contribution, where the two hardest non-$b$ jets are present simultaneously in the production and decay processes.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Biginelli Reaction and \u3b2-Secretase Inhibition: A Multicomponent Reaction as a Friendly Educational Approach to Bioactive Compounds

Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) represent very interesting tools to reach eco-friendly and sustainable transformations in organic chemistry. In particular, the Biginelli reaction furnishes a very easy approach to the synthesis of a library of biological active compounds in an academic course. Here we describe the realization of several experiments involving the synthesis of potential inhibitors of \u3b2-secretase by the Biginelli reaction. All of the obtained compounds were tested with a FRET fluorimetric assay. The experiments were proposed to students either at entry level or during advanced laboratory courses of organic and bioorganic chemistry. The learning objectives at the advanced level were to introduce the students to the practice of combinatorial synthesis and to the evaluation of biological activity of combinatorial libraries by enzyme inhibition assays. The meeting of the learning objectives was probed first by analyzing their daily performance in the laboratory and their increasing proactive attitude, and the contents of their final presentations. The resulting marks obtained by the students were compared with the average evaluation of their career. Second, the students were asked to evaluate the course and their own experience, and the outcome of their evaluation was compared with that of the teachers

The pseudo-symmetric n-benzyl hydroxyethylamine core in a new series of heteroarylcarboxyamide hiv-1 pr inhibitors: Synthesis, molecular modeling and biological evaluation

Here, we report the synthesis, enzyme inhibition and structure–activity relationship studies of a new potent class of HIV-1 protease inhibitors, which contain a pseudo-symmetric hydroxyethylamine core and heteroarylcarboxyamide moieties. The simple synthetic pathway furnished nine compounds in a few steps with high yields. The compounds were designed taking into account our previous results on other series of inhibitors with different substituents at P’ and P” and different ways of linking them to the inhibitor core. Potent inhibitory activity was obtained with nanomolar IC50 values measured with a standard fluorimetric test in 100 mM MES buffer, pH 5.5, containing 400 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT and 1 mg/mL BSA. Compounds 9a–c, containing the indole ring in P1, exhibited an HIV-1 protease inhibitory activity more powerful than darunavir in the same assay. To obtain molecular insight into the binding properties of these compounds, docking analysis was performed, and their binding properties were also compare