Factors related to pregnancy status and unwanted pregnancy among lebanese women during the COVID-19 lockdown: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Home confinement and lockdowns have created challenges and vulnerabilities, causing relevant changes in sexual health and couple stability, particularly in women. The objective of this study was to evaluate the socio-economic and psychological factors related to current pregnancy status and unwanted pregnancy among Lebanese women during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Methods: A cross-sectional online study conducted between June 8 and August 1, 2020, enrolled 369 Lebanese women using the snowball technique for data collection.

Factors related to autonomy among Lebanese women: a web-based cross-sectional study.

Background: Autonomy involves making independent decisions and creating lasting and equitable power relationships within families. Many factors, dependent on both the woman and her partner, can influence self-dependence, and subsequent decision-making, exerting a protective or triggering effect on its development. Therefore, the primary objective of the study was to assess autonomy in a sample of Lebanese women.

Quantifying circulating cell-free DNA in humans.

To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on the influence of several pre-analytical and demographic parameters that could be a source of variability in the quantification of nuclear and mitochondrial circulating DNA (NcirDNA and McirDNA). We report data from a total of 222 subjects, 104 healthy individuals and 118 metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. Approximately 50,000 and 3,000-fold more mitochondrial than nuclear genome copies were found in the plasma of healthy individuals and mCRC patients, respectively.

Mitochondrial Dynamics Impacts Stem Cell Identity and Fate Decisions by Regulating a Nuclear Transcriptional Program.

Regulated mechanisms of stem cell maintenance are key to preventing stem cell depletion and aging. While mitochondrial morphology plays a fundamental role in tissue development and homeostasis, its role in stem cells remains unknown. Here, we uncover that mitochondrial dynamics regulates stem cell identity, self-renewal, and fate decisions by orchestrating a transcriptional program.