Reduced Number of Pediatric Orthopedic Trauma Requiring Operative Treatment during COVID-19 Restrictions: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Cited by: 28; All Open Access, Green Open AccessPeer reviewe

Reduced Number of Pediatric Orthopedic Trauma Requiring Operative Treatment during COVID-19 Restrictions: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Cited by: 28; All Open Access, Green Open AccessPeer reviewe

Heavy Higgs production and decay via e+e−→Z0H0→bbˉZ0Z0e^+e^-\to Z^0 H^0 \to b\bar bZ^0Z^0 and irreducible backgrounds at Next Linear Colliders

The complete matrix element for e^+e^-\ar b\bar bZ^0Z^0 has been computed at tree--level and applied to $Z^0H^0$--production followed by Z^0\ar b\bar b and H^0\ar Z^0Z^0, including all the irreducible background, at Next Linear Colliders. We find that, assuming flavour identification of the $Z^0$--decay products, this channel, together with e^+e^-\ar b\bar bW^+W^- in which Z^0H^0\ar (b\bar b)(W^+W^-), can be important for the study of the parameters of the Standard Model Higgs boson over the heavy mass range 2M_{Z^0}\Ord M_{H^0}\Ord 2{m_t}.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX (uses Feynman), 7 figures (.ps files or hardcopies of figs.2-7 available upon request

Gastroschisis in Finland 1993 to 2014-Increasing Prevalence, High Rates of Abortion, and Survival: A Population-Based Study

Introduction The study aims to assess the changes in prevalence and mortality of gastroschisis, and to identify associated anomalies.Materials and Methods It is a population-based nationwide study. All gastroschisis cases were identified in the Finnish Register of Congenital Malformations and the Care Register for Health Care from 1993 to 2014 including live births, stillbirths, and terminations of pregnancy due to fetal anomalies. Associated anomalies were recorded, and analyzed, and prevalence and infant mortality were calculated.Results There were 320 cases of gastroschisis; 235 (73%) live births, 16 (5%) stillbirths, and 69 (22%) terminations of pregnancy. Live birth prevalence of gastroschisis in Finland was lower than generally reported (1.73 in 10,000). However, due to relatively high rates of abortion, our total prevalence of 2.57/10,000 was similar with other reports. The most common risk factor was young maternal age. Babies with gastroschisis were born prematurely, on average on the 36th week and most are delivered by caesarean section. There was a significant increasing trend in live birth prevalence (p = 0.0018). Overall infant mortality was 7.7% (18/235), 7.2% (16/222) in simple gastroschisis and 15% (2/13) in complex gastroschisis. Associated anomalies were rare both in aborted fetuses and neonates, and there was only one case with a chromosomal abnormality.Conclusion Gastroschisis is usually an isolated anomaly with increasing birth prevalence and excellent survival rates. Regardless of the good prognosis, the abortion rates in Finland are higher than previously reported, and we hypothesize this to be due to lack of appropriate antenatal counselling.</p

Predictions for Higgs production at the Tevatron and the associated uncertainties

We update the theoretical predictions for the production cross sections of the Standard Model Higgs boson at the Fermilab Tevatron collider, focusing on the two main search channels, the gluon-gluon fusion mechanism $gg \to H$ and the Higgs-strahlung processes $q \bar q \to VH$ with $V=W/Z$, including all relevant higher order QCD and electroweak corrections in perturbation theory. We then estimate the various uncertainties affecting these predictions: the scale uncertainties which are viewed as a measure of the unknown higher order effects, the uncertainties from the parton distribution functions and the related errors on the strong coupling constant, as well as the uncertainties due to the use of an effective theory approach in the determination of the radiative corrections in the $gg \to H$ process at next-to-next-to-leading order. We find that while the cross sections are well under control in the Higgs--strahlung processes, the theoretical uncertainties are rather large in the case of the gluon-gluon fusion channel, possibly shifting the central values of the next-to-next-to-leading order cross sections by more than $\approx 40$. These uncertainties are thus significantly larger than the $\approx 10$ error assumed by the CDF and D0 experiments in their recent analysis that has excluded the Higgs mass range $M_H=$162-166 GeV at the 95% confidence level. These exclusion limits should be, therefore, reconsidered in the light of these large theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 40 pages, 12 figures. A few typos are corrected and some updated numbers are provide

Composite Higgs Search at the LHC

The Higgs boson production cross-sections and decay rates depend, within the Standard Model (SM), on a single unknown parameter, the Higgs mass. In composite Higgs models where the Higgs boson emerges as a pseudo-Goldstone boson from a strongly-interacting sector, additional parameters control the Higgs properties which then deviate from the SM ones. These deviations modify the LEP and Tevatron exclusion bounds and significantly affect the searches for the Higgs boson at the LHC. In some cases, all the Higgs couplings are reduced, which results in deterioration of the Higgs searches but the deviations of the Higgs couplings can also allow for an enhancement of the gluon-fusion production channel, leading to higher statistical significances. The search in the H to gamma gamma channel can also be substantially improved due to an enhancement of the branching fraction for the decay of the Higgs boson into a pair of photons.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figure

Reduced Number of Pediatric Orthopedic Trauma Requiring Operative Treatment during COVID-19 Restrictions: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Background and Aims:The coronavirus outbreak significantly changed the need of healthcare services. We hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic decreased the frequency of pediatric fracture operations. We also hypothesized that the frequency of emergency pediatric surgical operations decreased as well, as a result of patient-related reasons, such as neglecting or underestimating the symptoms, to avoid hospital admission.Materials and Methods:Nationwide data were individually collected and analyzed in all five tertiary pediatric surgical/trauma centers in Finland. Operations related to fractures, appendicitis, and acute scrotum in children aged above 16 years between March 1 and May 31 from 2017 to 2020 were identified. The monthly frequencies of operations and type of traumas were compared between prepandemic 3 years and 2020.Results:Altogether, 1755 patients were identified in five tertiary hospitals who had an emergency operation during the investigation period. There was a significant decrease (31%, p = 0.03) in trauma operations. It was mostly due to reduction in lower limb trauma operations (32%, p = 0.006). Daycare, school, and organized sports-related injuries decreased significantly during the pandemic. These reductions were observed in March and in April. The frequencies of appendectomies and scrotal explorations remained constant.Conclusion:According to the postulation, a great decrease in the need of trauma operations was observed during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, in case similar public restrictions are ordered, the spared resources could be deployed to other clinical areas. However, the need of pediatric surgical emergencies held stable during the COVID-19 restrictions