Socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy in Papua New Guinea: a decomposition analysis.

BACKGROUND: Teenage pregnancy is a global public health issue, and it poses a serious threat to the health and socioeconomic status of mothers and their newborn children. Although Papua New Guinea has recorded one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates among Asia-Pacific countries, few studies have conducted research on the related inequality in the country. Therefore, this study aimed to assess socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy and its contributing factors in Papua New Guinea. METHODS: Data for this cross-sectional study were obtained from the 2016-2018 Papua New Guinea Demographic and Health Survey. The analytical sample consisted of 2,864 girls aged 15-19 years. We employed Erreygers normalized concentration index (ECI) and concentration curves to measure and depict socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy. Decomposition analysis was likewise performed to identify the contributions of determinants to the observed inequality. RESULTS: Weighted ECI for teenage pregnancy was - 0.0582 (P < 0.001), thereby indicating that teenage pregnancy in Papua New Guinea is disproportionately concentrated among poor girls. Decomposition analysis suggested that education level (65.2%), wealth index (55.2%), early sexual debut (25.1%), region (8.5%), and sex of household head (4.1%) are the main determinants explaining the pro-poor socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: A pro-poor socioeconomic inequality of teenage pregnancy was present in Papua New Guinea. This inequality may be alleviated by such interventions as ensuring that teenage girls receive education; implementing poverty alleviation projects, eliminating child, early, and forced marriages; strengthening promotion for household head to support teenagers in accessing sexual and reproductive health education; improving geographical accessibility to health facilities on contraceptive services, and taking necessary precautions and responses to sexual misconduct.

The influence of natural environment in residential areas on subjective well-being of the elderly.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the natural environment of residential areas and the subjective wellbeing of the elderly and the role of elderly's evaluation of the government's environmental protection work in both. Methods: Based on the China Social Survey Database in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, Stata were used to process the data screened according to the restricted conditions. Ordered Probit Model and Sobel were used to test the effect relationship among the variables. Results: The subjective wellbeing of the elderly is roughly increasing. The natural environment of the living area has a significant positive effect on the subjective wellbeing of the elderly. The evaluation of the elderly on the government's environmental protection work has a positive impact on the elderly's subjective wellbeing similarly and plays an increasingly important intermediary role in the impact of the natural environment in the residential area on the elderly's subjective wellbeing. Conclusion: To improve the subjective wellbeing of the elderly, the government should continue to play a leading role in coordinating environmental protection and pollution control, strengthen publicity of environmental protection work. Moreover, improve the residential environment governance and protection system oriented by the elderly's evaluation of the government's environmental protection work.

Synergistic Effect of WN/Mo2C Embedded in Bioderived Carbon Nanofibers: A Rational Design of a Shuttle Inhibitor and an Electrocatalyst for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

To improve the innate shuttle effect and the sluggish redox kinetics of lithium-sulfur batteries, a composite made of a bimetallic compound embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers (CNFs) is synthesized by employing biomass collagen fibers (CFs) as a structure template. Metal anions WO42- and MoO42- are grafted on plant polyphenol-modified CFs and then in situ converted into WN/Mo2C implanted in a matrix of CNFs (WMCNFs). The obtained WN/Mo2C is of quantum size and uniform distribution, exposing the active sites maximally. Further, the heterostructure of the bimetallic composite enables unique electronic interaction, thereby synergistically enhancing its adsorption capability toward soluble intermediates and activating its catalytic function for liquid-liquid and liquid-solid conversions. Combining these merits, when used as a separator modification material and a sulfur host simultaneously, the WMCNFs composite exhibits remarkable cycling stability with 91.45% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 2 C and also prominent rate performance of delivering 552.75 mAh g-1 at a current rate of 10 C. Meanwhile, the stable luminescence operation of LED lights powered by the assembled pouch cell demonstrates the application potential of this biomaterial-derived composite.

Selective Nitridation Crafted a High-Density, Carbon-Free Heterostructure Host with Built-In Electric Field for Enhanced Energy Density Li-S Batteries.

To achieve both high gravimetric and volumetric energy densities of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, it is essential yet challenging to develop low-porosity dense electrodes along with diminishment of the electrolyte and other lightweight inactive components. Herein, a compact TiO2 @VN heterostructure with high true density (5.01 g cm-3 ) is proposed crafted by ingenious selective nitridation, serving as carbon-free dual-capable hosts for both sulfur and lithium. As a heavy S host, the interface-engineered heterostructure integrates adsorptive TiO2 with high conductive VN and concurrently yields a built-in electric field for charge-redistribution at the TiO2 /VN interfaces with enlarged active locations for trapping-migration-conversion of polysulfides. Thus-fabricated TiO2 @VN-S composite harnessing high tap-density favors constructing dense cathodes (≈1.7 g cm-3 ) with low porosity (<30 vol%), exhibiting dual-boosted cathode-level peak volumetric-/gravimetric-energy-densities nearly 1700 Wh L-1 cathode /1000 Wh kg-1 cathode at sulfur loading of 4.2 mg cm-2 and prominent areal capacity (6.7 mAh cm-2 ) at 7.6 mg cm-2 with reduced electrolyte (<10 µL mg-1 sulfur ). Particular lithiophilicity of the TiO2 @VN is demonstrated as Li host to uniformly tune Li nucleation with restrained dendrite growth, consequently bestowing the assembled full-cell with high electrode-level volumetric/gravimetric-energy-density beyond 950 Wh L-1 cathode+anode /560 Wh kg-1 cathode+anode at 3.6 mg cm-2 sulfur loading alongside limited lithium excess (≈50%).