Rich Segments Research Articles

Integrated Effect of Comonomer and Catalyst on Copolymerization of Ethylene with Allylcyclopentane or Allylcyclohexane by Using Metallocene Catalysts

AbstractAn integrated effect of the catalysts and the comonomers has been observed when the copolymerizations of ethylene with allylcyclopentane or allylcyclohexane are conducted by using two metallocene catalysts. The effect results in the differences in the microstructure and macroscopic properties (e. g. the melting point and enthalpy) of the copolymers. Under the different combination of the catalysts and the comonomers, the microstructure of copolymer changes from ideal random to rich successive comonomer segment, although the two comonomers are very similar in the structure. Allylcyclohexane prefers to form the copolymer with the feature of rich successive comonomer segment, and the more random structure could be observed in the copolymer of allylcyclopentane. The catalyst used makes the difference even more pronounced.

SDG Bonds: An Exploration, via a Case Study, of the Key Attributes of a Novel Financial Instrument That May Help Achieve Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals

The launch by the United Nations of Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is creating new paradigms for business, capital markets, society, and many other fields of human endeavor. Financing the SDGs is an important part of the solution. While Green bonds have taken a prominent role over the last decade in financing sustainability projects, their application remains a capital markets niche. The SDGs, because of their multiplicity, shift the paradigm from a focus on single “green” projects to a holistic concept of sustainability which goes beyond the single project or asset typically financed with Green bonds. As a result of the growing evidence of the significant business opportunities the SDGs offer, corporations are now increasingly embracing this holistic approach to sustainability and are deeply embedding the SDGs into their long term corporate strategies. Consequently corporations have been looking for a financial instrument that better caters to this holistic, rather than ad-hoc, approach to sustainability. SDG Bonds have been proposed as an answer to this need. The general-purpose SDG Bonds in particular offer the required flexibility to achieve broader goals beyond single project financing and importantly, provide an unambigous signal of this intention to investors who are increasingly seeking opportunities in this space. There are three cornerstones that underpin SDG Bond transactions: 1. A clear link to the sustainability strategy of the issuer, through pre-determined sustainability targets 2. An upfront discount in the pricing of the SDG Bond issue, that reflects the economic value of the sustainability strategy of the issuer 3. The assurance provided by external auditors on the achievement of the predetermined sustainability targets. The successful launch in September 2019 of the first ever general-purpose SDG Bond by ENEL, a multinational corporation, is a milestone in the financing of Agenda 2030. Potentially this expands opportunities to finance Agenda 2030, and indeed could be the beginning of a paradigm shift in debt and, perhaps in future, equity capital markets as holistic approaches to sustainability increasingly define corporate missions and investors’ perspectives. This behavioral shift by corporations and investors, and the creation by capital markets of new financial instruments to accommodate these aspirations may have another consequence. They may also represent further evidence of the declining relevance of economic theories based on “rational economic man”, and much of the microeconomic foundations of neo-classical economics. This paper examines the rationale that has led a major global corporation to issue SDG Bonds and how these differentiate themselves from Green bonds in significant ways. There are some, unexpected, consequences stemming from this event which are also briefly explored in this paper. Market pricing of SDG Bonds is analysed; it points to potential market failures in a number of areas. This, as well as other themes explored here, suggest several avenues of further research in what promises to become a rich new segment of study both for academics and practitioners in the capital markets.

Exploring the potential of natural language processing to support microgenetic analysis of collaborative learning discussions

AbstractIn this study, we explore the potential of a natural language processing (NLP) approach to support discourse analysis of in‐situ, small group learning conversations. The theoretical basis of this work derives from Bakhtin’s notion of speech genres as bounded by educational robotics activity. Our goal is to leverage computational linguistics methods to advance and improve educational research methods. We used a parts‐of‐speech (POS) tagging program to automatically parse a transcript of spoken dialogue collected from a small group of middle school students involved in solving a robotics challenge. We grammatically parsed the dialogue at the level of the trigram. Then, through a deliberative process, we mapped the POS trigrams to our theoretically derived problem solving in computational environments coding system. Next, we developed a stacked histogram visualization to identify rich interactional segments in the data. Seven segments of the transcript were thus identified for closer analysis. Our NLP‐based approach partially replicated prior findings. Here, we present the theoretical basis for the work, our analytical approach in exploring this NLP‐based method, and our research findings. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Over the last 10 years, several educational research papers indicate that natural language processing (NLP) techniques can be used to help interpret well‐structured, written dialogue, eg, conversations in online class discussions. Two recent papers indicate that NLP techniques can also be used to help interpret well‐structured, spoken dialogue, eg, replies to interview questions and/or comments made during think aloud protocols. Multimodal learning analytic techniques are being used to investigate collaborative learning. These studies use non‐verbal features of data (gaze, gesture, physical actions), prosodic features of verbal data (pitch and tone) and/or turn‐taking and duration of talk per speaker data, as means of predicting group success. None of the MMLA studies attempt semantic analysis of student talk in collaborative settings. What this paper adds A theoretical framework for why and how an automated NLP approach can support discourse analysis research on co‐located, computer‐based, collaborative problem solving interactions. This framework, entitled the Problem Solving in Computational Environment Speech Genre, links children’s physical interactions with computational devices to their verbal exchanges and presents a theoretical rationale for the use of NLP methods in educational research. Description of an interdisciplinary method that combines NLP techniques with qualitative coding approaches to support analysis of student collaborative learning with educational robotics. Identification of student learning outcomes derived from the semantic, PSCE Speech Genre and NLP approach. Implications for practice and/or policy Educational researchers will be able to expand upon our findings towards the goal of using computation and automation to support microgenetic analysis of large datasets. Robust microgenetic learning findings will provide curriculum developers, educational technology developers and teachers with guidance on how to construct and or create learning materials and environments. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this research can support more interdisciplinary exploration of conversational dialogues that are ill‐structured, indexical and referential. This research will support the further development of machine learning techniques and neural network models by computational linguists.

Effects of Economic Inequality on Obesity

Studies in developed countries suggest a link between socioeconomic status with individual weights. In Ghana, the rate of reduction in poverty continues to decline as the gap in poverty between urban and rural areas increase. However, the impact of such an economic inequality on obesity in Ghana has not yet been studied. As such, the goal of the current study is to explain the link between poverty and obesity in Ghana. Data collected by the Ghana Statistical Service from a randomly selected participants (N = 12,328) from a nationwide household survey (GLSS7) designed to generate information on living conditions in Ghana were used for the analyses. The GLSS7 collected detailed information from households, including their socioeconomic characteristics, health, access to financial services and asset ownership. Bivariate probit model was used to estimate the impact of poverty on participants' weight measured by BMI. Our results suggest a strong negative relationship between poverty and overweight/obesity (p<0.00). The variables that cause obesity and poverty were found to be inter-linked. In addition, the impact of poverty on obesity varied among different weight groups mediated by different socioeconomic factors. Different policies should be targeted at the poor and rich segments of the society when formulating policies that aim to reduce obesity. Funding Statement: The authors state: No funding was received to support the writing of this paper. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare they have no competing or conflicting interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The authors declare: Ethical approval was not required for this work as no new empirical data were collected.

The Long Glu-Rich Segments of Troponin T in Flight Muscles of Birds and Insects

The troponin complex plays a central role in the Ca2+-regulation of striated muscle contraction and relaxation. Molecular evolution and comparative structural studies have identified Glu-rich segments specifically expressed in the T subunit of troponin (TnT) in diverse flying species, such as birds and insects. Avian pectoral muscle TnT has a Glu-rich segment in the N-terminal variable region and insect TnT has one in the C-terminal extension. To understand these structural traits of non-homologous evolutionary origins, which may have been selected for analogous functions of flight muscles, will help to understand the mechanisms of striated muscle contraction for the development of therapeutic improvement of skeletal and cardiac muscle functions. We previously demonstrated a potential function of the N-terminal Glu-rich segment of avian pectoral muscle TnT as a myofilament-associated Ca2+-reservoir (Zhang et al., Biochemistry 43:2645-55 2004). To investigate a novel hypothesis that this function reduces the work load of the Ca2+ handling system in myocytes thus saving energy for sustaining the work of muscle especially during long distance flight, we developed a Drosophila line with the Glu rich C-terminal segment of TnT deleted to test its requirement for muscle function and flight capacity. Engineered drosophila TnT proteins are expressed in E. coli for the characterization of changes in biochemical activities. The results showed that the C-terminal truncated Drosophila TnT retains the capacity of binding to troponin I, troponin C and tropomyosin. Tpnt gene-modified flies expressing the Glu-rich C-terminal segment deleted TnT have been generated for functional studies. Together with the development and characterization of genetically modified mice expressing an insect muscle-like TnT in the heart, our study aims at establishing a novel mechanism to improve cardiac efficiency for the treatment of heart failure.

Formation of G-quadruplex structure in supercoiled DNA under molecularly crowded conditions.

G-quadruplex is a secondary structure of nucleic acids that plays crucial roles in many significant biological processes. Potential G-quadruplex-forming sequences exist widely in various regions of the genome such as telomeres and gene promoters. In spite of the fact that G-quadruplex can be readily assembled from a single-stranded segment of DNA, its formation from duplex DNA is very difficult under physiological conditions because Watson–Crick interactions in guanine rich segments need to be weakened first. It is demonstrated in our studies that intrastrand G-quadruplex generated from a perfectly matched guanine-rich duplex in a circular DNA as a result of significant quadruplex stabilization and duplex destabilization created by the combined actions of negative DNA supercoiling and molecular crowding conditions.

2D-COS-FTIR analysis of high molecular weight poly (N-vinyl carbazole) undergoing phase separation on purification and thermal annealing

The effect of purification and annealing on the molecular structure of commercial poly (N-vinyl carbazole), PVK, has been probed by two-dimensional Fourier Transformation Infrared correlation spectroscopy, 2D-COS-FTIR. Subtle changes in the spectra of PVK were determined and correlated with changes observed to the multiple glass transition temperatures and the phase separation behaviors. Bands at 1626, 1600, 1575, 1482, 1454, 1332 and 1224 cm−1 were assigned to syndiotactic rich chain segments and decreased on annealing. While bands at 1616, 1590, 1550, 1478, 1444, 1322, and 1218 cm−1 were assigned to isotactic rich segments, and increased on annealing. The commercial PVK consisted of some sections of the polymer chains, which were predominantly syndiotactic and others isotactic. The predominantly isotactic sequences were insoluble and separate on thermal annealing into two phases with different compositions. 2D-COS-FTIR enabled the assignment of the FTIR bands that were related to change in tacticity.

Fatty acids and oxidized lipoproteins contribute to autophagy and innate immunity responses upon the degeneration of retinal pigment epithelium and development of age-related macular degeneration

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) damage is a primary sign in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) the leading cause of blindness in western countries. RPE cells are exposed to chronic oxidative stress due to constant light exposure, active fatty acid metabolism and high oxygen consumption. RPE cells phagocytosize lipid rich photoreceptor outer segment (POS) which is regulated by circadian rhytmn. Docosahexaenoic acid is present in high quantity in POS and increases oxidative stress, while its metabolites have cytoprotective effects in RPE. During RPE aging, reactive oxygen species and oxidized lipoproteins are considered to be major causes of disturbed autophagy clearance that lead to chronic innate immunity response involved in NOD-Like, Toll-Like, Advanced Glycation End product Receptors (NLRP, TLR, RAGE, respectively), pentraxins and complement systems. We discuss role of fatty acids and lipoproteins in the degeneration of RPE and development of AMD.

«NEGATIVE MOBILIZATION» OF THE POPULATION AS THE RESULT OF INFORMATION INFLUENCE IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE «HYBRID» WAR

Problem setting. Formulation of the problem. The destabilization of the situation in the «peaceful» territory of the country in any war is beneficial to the aggressor country, but in the hybrid war it is of particular importance, since it is very important to convincethe world community and its own people that the war is a civil war. The provocation of the conflict between the government and the people, between individual groups within the country takes place by means of information influence, that is, the use of special informa- tion technologies and tools that will not only affect the consciousness of people but change their behavior. The destabilization of the situation becomes possible through the «negative mobilization» of the population. Information war is now an important part of the hybrid war. It is worth paying attention to how the power of the aggressor state affects its own people, also a victim of disinformation, manipulation of consciousness. In general, the means of influence on both the people of other countries and in their own way are the same, but the purpose of the impact is different. This makes it possible to distinguish the «two fronts» of the information war.Recent research and publications analysis. The problems of political mobilization,«negative mobilization», peculiarities of manipulation of the people’s consciousness for achieving certain goals, were reflected in the scientific works of such researchers asA. Boyko, D. Goncharov, L. Gudkov, O. Meleshkina, etc. Recently, The problem of informa- tion warfare, which is a compound hybrid war. The information component of the hybrid war is explored by D. V. Dubov, A. V. Manoilo, G. G. Pocheptsov, M. P. Trebin and others. Paper objective. Based on the above, the purpose of the study is to elucidate the pos- sibility of «negative mobilization» of the population through information impacts in ahybrid war.Paper main body. There are different approaches to the definition of political mobi- lization. Many researchers believe that such a mobilization is not a manifestation of an independent identification of the desire to engage in a political process for the realization of certain interests, but such activity is prompted by politicians or political parties that have their own interests, which often do not coincide with the interests of those whom they manipulate. Therefore, the actions of the groups thus included in the political process are not rational.The concept of «negative» mobilization is used to characterize mobilized political participation. The precondition for the process of negative mobilization is the statement of the «state of the crisis», the belief that a certain boundary has been reached (or is approaching it), which can lead to irreversible changes in the people’s situation. Negative mobilization can be a consequence of state policy. and the consequence of the intervention of a third party, which is interested in destabilizing the situation and violat- ing stability. The information war, one of the tasks of which is to resolve stability, is part of a hybrid war against Ukraine. The country the aggressor uses, using the monopoliza- tion of the information field, forms certain stereotypes, myths, manipulates the conscious- ness of his citizens to gain support for foreign policy. Investigating the consequences of Russia’s information war against Ukraine, it is important to find out the factors that are favorable for achieving the goal in this war. Such factors include: the lack of a single identification, the unfinished process of forming a political nation; the disintegration of society (a large gap between the poor and rich segments of the population, regions, ter- ritories, ideological delimitation, cultural differences, the lack of consensus among thepolitical elite even in the conditions of war.) The existing schisms in society will not be overcome until the political elite of the state itself is split.Conclusions of the research. The more unresolved problems in society, the more vul- nerable it is, the more opportunities for unfriendly states to destabilize the situation, trig- gering conflicts in a country that is subject to aggression in the hybrid war. Success in the economy, culture, science, in the formation of a mature civil society, which controls power, forms it through elections, as well as the unity of society, are the conditions for victory in the hybrid war.

Unwinding Induced Melting of Double-Stranded DNA Studied by Free Energy Simulations.

DNA unwinding plays a major role in many biological processes, such as replication, transcription, and repair. It can lead to local melting and strand separation and can serve as a key mechanism to promote access to the separate strands of a double-stranded DNA. While DNA unwinding has been investigated extensively by DNA cyclization and single-molecule studies on a length-scale of kilo base pairs, it is neither fully understood at the base pair level nor at the level of molecular interactions. By employing a torque acting on the termini of DNA oligonucleotides during molecular dynamics free energy simulations, we locally unwind the central part of a DNA beyond an elastic (harmonic) regime. The simulations reproduce experimental results on the twist elasticity in the harmonic regime (characterized by a mostly quadratic free energy change with respect to changes in twist) and a deformation up to 7° was found as a limit of the harmonic response. Beyond this limit the free energy increase per twist change dropped dramatically coupled to local base pair disruptions and significant deformation of the nucleic acid backbone structure. Restriction of the DNA bending flexibility resulted in a stiffer harmonic response and an earlier onset of the anharmonic response. Whereas local melting with a complete disruption of base pairing and flipping of nucleotides was observed in case of an AT rich central segment strong backbone changes and changes in the stacking arrangements were observed in case of a GC rich segment. Unrestrained MD simulations starting from locally melted DNA reformed regular B-DNA after 50-300 ns simulation time. The simulations may have important implications for understanding DNA recognition processes coupled with significant structural alterations.

Memory for temporally dynamic scenes.

Recognition memory was investigated for individual frames extracted from temporally continuous, visually rich film segments of 5-15min. Participants viewed a short clip from a film in either a coherent or a jumbled order, followed by a recognition test of studied frames. Foils came either from an earlier or a later part of the film (Experiment 1) or from deleted segments selected from random cuts of varying duration (0.5 to 30 s) within the film itself (Experiment 2). When the foils came from an earlier or later part of the film (Experiment 1), recognition was excellent, with the hit rate far exceeding the false-alarm rate (.78 vs. 18). In Experiment 2, recognition was far worse, with the hit rate (.76) exceeding the false-alarm rate only for foils drawn from the longest cuts (15 and 30 s) and matching the false-alarm rate for the 5 s segments. When the foils were drawn from the briefest cuts (0.5 and 1.0s), the false-alarm rate exceeded the hit rate. Unexpectedly, jumbling had no effect on recognition in either experiment. These results are consistent with the view that memory for complex visually temporal events is excellent, with the integrity unperturbed by disruption of the global structure of the visual stream. Disruption of memory was observed only when foils were drawn from embedded segments of duration less than 5 s, an outcome consistent with the view that memory at these shortest durations are consolidated with expectations drawn from the previous stream.

Mini-DNA barcode in identification of the ornamental fish: A case study from Northeast India

The ornamental fishes were exported under the trade names or generic names, thus creating problems in species identification. In this regard, DNA barcoding could effectively elucidate the actual species status. However, the problem arises if the specimen is having taxonomic disputes, falsified by trade/generic names, etc., On the other hand, barcoding the archival museum specimens would be of greater benefit to address such issues as it would create firm, error-free reference database for rapid identification of any species. This can be achieved only by generating short sequences as DNA from chemically preserved are mostly degraded. Here we aimed to identify a short stretch of informative sites within the full-length barcode segment, capable of delineating diverse group of ornamental fish species, commonly traded from NE India. We analyzed 287 full-length barcode sequences from the major fish orders and compared the interspecific K2P distance with nucleotide substitutions patterns and found a strong correlation of interspecies distance with transversions (0.95, p<0.001). We, therefore, proposed a short stretch of 171bp (transversion rich) segment as mini-barcode. The proposed segment was compared with the full-length barcodes and found to delineate the species effectively. Successful PCR amplification and sequencing of the 171bp segment using designed primers for different orders validated it as mini-barcodes for ornamental fishes. Thus, our findings would be helpful in strengthening the global database with the sequence of archived fish species as well as an effective identification tool of the traded ornamental fish species, as a less time consuming, cost effective field-based application.

A versatile water soluble ball-type phthalocyanine as potential antiproliferative drug: the interaction with G-quadruplex formed from Tel 21 and cMYC

G-quadruplexes are biologically important DNA conformations exist generally in guanine rich segments of DNA, such as telomere and proto-oncogene. The formation of these secondary structures is thought to inhibit the expression of certain genes, such as the inhibition of telomerase. The inhibition of telomerase and suppression of a specific gene expression are important approaches for interruption of cancer cell's proliferation. In the present study, the effect of a versatile water soluble ball-type phthalocyanine on G-quadruplex formation and stabilization was investigated to demonstrate its potential usage in cancer chemotherapy. Two important guanine rich oligomers, cMYC and Tel 21 were used as G-quadruplex former sequence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study about the interaction of a ball-type phthalocyanine with G-quadruplex structures. The interactions of the compound with G-quadruplex molecules were monitored spectrophotometrically. The structural differentiations of G-quadruplex after binding were investigated with circular dichroism spectrophotometry. The replacement ability of the molecule with a known DNA binding molecule, ethidium bromide, was clarified fluorometrically. The Stern-Volmer studies were conducted for determination of the quenching mechanism. The strong interaction of the molecules (ball-type phthalocyanine with oligomer) showed us the potential usage of these drug conjugates for targeted photodynamic therapy in the future.

Puertos Turísticos y Navegación de Recreo: El Caso de Cerdeña.

The aim of this work is to describe the situation of nautical tourism in one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean through the analysis of the marinas and the sailing habits of the boaters. After outlining the typology, characteristics and functions of the marinas in the introduction, we briefly present the quantitative-qualitative analysis methodology that was carried out through interviews to the stakeholders and subsequent processing of the original information obtained. The presentation of the results concerns the context of Italian ports and then focuses on Sardinia in terms of ports and berths. The discussion, on the other hand, is based on the original analysis of the use of Sardinian ports, the navigation mode of the boaters, including the characteristics of the boats used. In the conclusions, it is emphasized that Sardinia is at the centre of a boating area that extends to the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea, within which it represents a hub and the favourite area for the most important and rich segment of yachts. This, however, does not preclude existing structures from pursuing an improvement in the supply from the point of view of environmental compatibility, of the quality of the services offered and, above all, of a stronger connection to the tourist offer of the hinterlands. A possible development of the present study may cover other similar cases in the Mediterranean, regarding in particular the specific aspect of the degree of openness towards the boaters coming from continental territories.

Gradient terpolymers with long ε-caprolactone rich sequence derived from propylene oxide, CO2, and ε-caprolactone catalyzed by zinc glutarate

We report here an efficient one-pot synthesis of terpolymers from propylene oxide (PO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ε-caprolactone (CL) with long CL rich sequence using zinc glutarate as catalyst. The terpolymer yields increase significantly from 50 to 103 (g polymer per g catalyst) with the introduction of CL as a third monomer. The propylene oxide conversion increases by nearly 44% at relatively low polymerization temperature (60°C). Moreover, the differences in reaction rates of polycarbonate and polyester moieties were examined by in situ infrared monitoring. 1H NMR, GPC and DOSY NMR results show the as-prepared polymer being a gradient terpolymer. As confirmed by XRD and DSC methods, the synthesized terpolymers are a kind of semicrystalline polymer in which the crystalline domains consist mainly of PCL rich segment. Consequently, the semicrystalline terpolymers exhibit much better thermal properties and superior mechanical strength compared with amorphous polycarbonate PPC.

Molecular dynamics, conductivity and morphology of sodium deoxycholate-based poly(ester ether)urethane ionomer biomaterials

Broad-band dielectric spectroscopy technique was used to investigate the molecular dynamics of new sodium deoxycholate-based poly(ester ether)urethane ionomers of particular interest in biomedical devices. These polyurethane ionomers have identical hard segment containing bile salt moiety but with different soft segment chemistries. Poly(ethylene oxide)-rich soft segment promotes stronger ionic interactions and solvation capacity of ions and higher ionic conductivity in these polyurethane ionomers. The universal power law was employed to study the evolution of alternating conductivity (AC) with frequency and temperature. The calculated values of fractional exponent ranged between 0 and 1 which indicate AC conduction through hopping mechanism. Direct current conductivity evidences Arrhenius behaviour in the function of temperature and the estimated values of activation energy for poly(ethylene oxide)-rich soft segment polyurethane ionomers are found higher. The increase in the conductivity with temperature can be interpreted as a hopping mechanism assisted by chain relaxation. AFM and SAXS investigations evidence lamellar arrangement at the sub-micron scale and the nanophase-separated morphology for these polyurethane ionomers. The tensile tests evidenced that the polyurethane with highest molecular weight exhibits the highest values of mechanical properties and ductile behaviour.

Actions on social determinants and interventions in primary health to improve mother and child health and health equity in Morocco.

BackgroundOver the last two decades, Moroccan authorities launched a number of actions and strategies to enhance access to health services and improve health outcomes for the whole population in general and for mother and child in particular. The Ministry of Health launched the action plans 2008–2012 and 2012–2016 and created the maternal mortality surveillance system. The Moroccan government opted for national health coverage through a mandatory health insurance and a scheme of health assistance to the poorest households. Other initiatives were devoted indirectly to health by acting on social determinants of health and poverty reduction. In this paper, we present results of an evaluation of interventions and programmes and their impact on health inequity in Morocco.MethodWe used data provided by national surveys over the last decades, information released on the website of the Ministry of Health, documentation published by the Moroccan government and international reports and studies related to Morocco and published by international bodies like the World Health Organisation, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank.A short review of scientific publications was also carried out in order to select papers published on health equity, social determinants, health system and interventions in primary health in Morocco.Inferential and descriptive statistics (including principal component analysis) were carried out using software SPSS version 18.ResultsThe findings indicate that substantial achievements were obtained in terms of access to health care and health outcomes for the whole Moroccan population in general and for mothers and children in particular. However, achievements are unfairly distributed between advantaged and less advantaged regions, literate and illiterate women, rural and urban areas, and rich and poor segments of the Moroccan population.DiscussionStudies have shown that it is difficult to trace the effect of a primary health intervention on the access to health care due to synergetic and overlapping effect of interventions and initiatives aiming to improve the wellbeing of the Moroccan population. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to illustrate the correlation existing between different variables measuring access to health and health outcomes on one side and variables like income, education, employment and health staff on the other side.ConclusionIn Morocco, average access to health care and services as well as health outcomes have improved during the last decades. However, socio-economic inequalities and health inequity are persistent. The present study indicates that urgent and efficient actions on social determinants of health are needed in order to sustain average achievements and improve health equity for the whole Moroccan population.

Estimation of Initial Position Using Line Segment Matching in Maps

While navigating in a typical traffic scene, with a drastic drift or sudden jump in its Global Positioning System (GPS) position, the localization based on such an initial position is unable to extract precise overlapping data from the prior map in order to match the current data, thus rendering the localization as unfeasible. In this paper, we first propose a new method to estimate an initial position by matching the infrared reflectivity maps. The maps consist of a highly precise prior map, built with the offline simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technique, and a smooth current map, built with the integral over velocities. Considering the attributes of the maps, we first propose to exploit the stable, rich line segments to match the lidar maps. To evaluate the consistency of the candidate line pairs in both maps, we propose to adopt the local appearance, pairwise geometric attribute and structural likelihood to construct an affinity graph, as well as employ a spectral algorithm to solve the graph efficiently. The initial position is obtained according to the relationship between the vehicle's current position and matched lines. Experiments on the campus with a GPS error of dozens of metres show that our algorithm can provide an accurate initial value with average longitudinal and lateral errors being 1.68m and 1.04m, respectively.

Effect of Thiophene Units on the Properties of Donor Acceptor Type Monomers and Polymers Bearing Thiophene-Benzothiadiazole- Scaffolds

In this article, a series of benzothiadiazole and thiophene based donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) type monomers and their corresponding polymers, via potential cycling, were reported. Effect of increasing number of thiophene units in the electron rich donor segment on the electrochemical and photophysical properties of the monomers and their corresponding polymers were reported. Electrochemical and optical properties were determined by cyclic voltammetry, UV-Vis and emission spectrometry. Monomers with one, two and three thiophene units on both sides of benzothiadiazole (TBz, T2Bz, T3Bz) exhibited better conjugation and intramolecular charge transfer with increasing thiophene length. On the other hand, the inverse trend was observed in their corresponding polymers (PTBz, PT2Bz, PT3Bz). Blue shift of the absorption edge in polymer thin films resulted in wider optical bandgap (from 1.70 eV to 1.99 eV) with increasing donor/acceptor ratio on the polymer chain. Based on our experimental and theoretical studies, molecular weight or branching on these polymers together with degree of stiffness and conformational degree of freedom might be an explanation for these controversial observations.

Water modulates the ultraslow dynamics of hydrated ionic liquids near CG rich DNA: consequences for DNA stability.

Ionic liquids are known to stabilize DNA for much longer than water can. While the source of this stability has commonly been attributed to thermodynamic aspects, we probe the dynamical aspects of the ionic liquids near DNA to further our understanding of this stability. Using molecular dynamics simulation, we calculated the mean residence time (MRT) of the cations of five different ionic liquids (ILs) in the grooves and around phosphate groups of AT and CG rich DNA segments. We find the residence time of different cations next to CG rich DNA to be much higher compared to that next to AT rich DNA, with a negligible difference with the variation of anions. The interaction energy between cations and DNA, however, shows exactly the opposite trend; it is much lower (indicating a stronger interaction) for AT than for CG. Investigation of DNA parameters reveals an insignificant difference for the DNA sequences under consideration. Analysis of water behavior provides a rationale for the long MRTs of cations; water molecules have been found to be denser and to possess higher MRT when next to CG-rich DNA, thus resulting in a crowded environment. Our results indicate that the dynamics influence the binding of ILs to different DNA sequences, possibly by modulating the entropy of the binding process.