ECHO (Slovenia)

Traditional publishing models, open access and major publishers, cannot adequately address the key challenges of academic publishing today: Speed of peer review, recognition of work and incentive mechanisms, transparency and thrust of the system. To address these challenges, the authors propose Democratisation of Academic Publishing (DAP) platform, which is based on the novel HashNET DLT platform. The DAP introduces several innovative components: tracking the activities of all participants in the peer review process using blockchain and smart contracts, the introduction of the Scholarly Wallet for holding reputation (non-fungible) and reward (fungible) tokens, the use of the Scholarly Wallet as the main interface to the DAP platform, the Virtual Editor that enables automatic discovery of the research area and invitation of reviewers, and finally the global database of evaluated reviewers, ranked by the quality of their previous work. The DAP platform is in the development phase, with the design and functionalities of all modules defined. An exception is the central component of DAP, the Scholarly Wallet module, whose first prototype has already been created, tested and published. The implementation of DAP is planned for the next phase of the HorizonEurope TruBlo project and other research initiatives. The DAP platform will be connected to the publishing ecosystem: 1) as a backend system (distributed blockchain database) for existing publishing platforms and 2) as a standalone publishing platform with its own API interface. The authors believe that DAP has the potential to significantly improve academic peer review and knowledge dissemination. It is expected that the use of blockchain technology, the fast HashNET consensus platform and tokens for reward (fungible) and reputation/ranking (non-fungible) will lead to a more efficient and transparent way of rewarding all participants in the peer review process and ultimately advance scientific research.

Abstract Utilization of maternal health care services significantly influences maternal mortality rate. Although several studies are looking into demographic and socioeconomic factors and inequality in distribution and proper utilization of these services between rural and urban communities, there is a paucity of studies focusing on urban slums. This cross-sectional survey aims to examine the trends and determinants of utilization of maternal healthcare services during antenatal period in urban slums including assessment of fertility, family planning practices, dietary practices, quality of health, and impact of COVID on pregnancy, which was conducted in four urban slums of South Delhi, between April and June 2022 amongst pregnant women (aged 18-44 years). Data were collected from 250 currently pregnant women visiting the Anganwadi centers. The detailed methodology was adopted from the published study protocol. The data was collected electronically using SOMAARTH (developed by The INCLEN Trust International – IN) on an android-based platform, and the tools adopted from National Family Health Survey-5. The results revealed that out of 250 women, 98% were less than 40 years of age, and 169 (67%) were less than 28 years of age. About 93% of the sample population were educated and 234 (93%) were homemakers while the remaining engaged in various occupations. Of the 250 women, 54% had borne children, and 82% of them had a single child. While all the respondents knew about antenatal services, only 2.8% had a high level and the majority (78%) had a medium level of knowledge. Only 47% of women had exposure to media while 51% adopted some form of family planning practices. Of all the women who received antenatal care (ANC), 98%, 97%, and 94% had received iron and folic acid, tetanus toxoid, and ultrasound examination, respectively during the present pregnancy. Only 2 (15.4%) women had COVID exposure during pregnancy. This preliminary study indicates that exposure to media and adoption of family planning continues to be low. However, a majority knew ANC, and all had accessed the ANC services. Therefore, comprehensive strategies need to be planned to ameliorate women’s education and awareness about the importance of ANC and postnatal care. Also, public health infrastructure needs to be strengthened to improve the utilization of maternal services.

The effects of different silica (SiO2) types and different contents of two metallocene propylene-based m-EPR elastomers (differing in molecular weight and viscosity) on interfacial properties, structure and morphology of isotactic polypropylene/SiO2/m-EPR composites were investigated. Four silica fillers differing in size (nano- vs. micro-) and surface properties (hydrophilic vs. hydrophobic i.e. polar vs. non-polar) were chosen and added in 4 vol% to isotactic polypropylene. The m-EPR elastomers were added to iPP/SiO2 96/4 composites as possible impact modifier and compatibilizer at the same time in 5, 10, 15, and 20 vol% per 100 vol% of composites (phr). The investigation confirmed the overall prevailing of separated morphology of ternary iPP/SiO2/m-EPR composites, i.e. selectivity of dispersed m-EPR and silica particles toward iPP matrix as was predicted on the basis of adhesion properties. The increase of crystallinity degree and spherulite size with addition of m-EPR elastomers indicated significant solidification effect of added elastomers in addition to opposite nucleation effect of silica particles owing to surface character of filler. The effects of different silica fillers and different contents of two m-EPR elastomers were discussed within the context of morphology/structure-adhesion property relationships of the iPP/SiO2/m-EPR composites.

Various silica grades differing in particle size (micro- versus nanosilica) and surface modification (untreated versus modified surface) have affected interfacial and mechanical properties of compression-molded polypropylene composites with 2, 4, 6, 8 vol% of added silica. Mechanical properties have been influenced primarily by combination of stiff fillers and tough polypropylene matrix and additionally by restructured matrix. Namely, silica particles with different surface properties have influenced nucleation and spherulite growth differently affecting thus tensile properties of the composites. All composites exhibited best tensile strength in silica content range 2–6 vol%.