The "Nitrogen Effect": Complexation with Macrocycles Potentiates Fused Heterocycles to Form Halogen Bonds in Competitive Solvents

Weak intermolecular forces are typically very difficult to observe in highly competitive polar protic solvents as they are overwhelmed by the quantity of competing solvent. This is even more challenging for three-component ternary assemblies of pure organic compounds. In this work, we overcome these complications by leveraging the binding of fused aromatic N-heterocycles in an open resorcinarene cavity to template the formation of a three-component halogen-bonded ternary assembly in a protic polar solvent system.

Spatio-temporal analysis of small-area intestinal parasites infections in Ghana

Intestinal parasites infection is a major public health burden in low and middle-income countries. In Ghana, it is amongst the top five morbidities. In order to optimize scarce resources, reliable information on its geographical distribution is needed to guide periodic mass drug administration to populations of high risk. We analyzed district level morbidities of intestinal parasites between 2010 and 2014 using exploratory spatial analysis and geostatistics. We found a significantly positive Moran’s Index of spatial autocorrelation for each year, suggesting that adjoining districts have similar risk levels. Using local Moran’s Index, we found high-high clusters extending towards the Guinea and Sudan Savannah ecological zones, whereas low-low clusters extended within the semi-deciduous forest and transitional ecological zones. Variograms indicated that local and regional scale risk factors modulate the variation of intestinal parasites. Poisson kriging maps showed smoothed spatially varied distribution of intestinal parasites risk. These emphasize the need for a follow-up investigation into the exact determining factors modulating the observed patterns. The findings also underscored the potential of exploratory spatial analysis and geostatistics as tools for visualizing the spatial distribution of small area intestinal worms infections.

Diarrhea Morbidities in Small Areas: Accounting for Non-Stationarity in Sociodemographic Impacts using Bayesian Spatially Varying Coefficient Modelling

Model-based estimation of diarrhea risk and understanding the dependency on sociodemographic factors is important for prioritizing interventions. It is unsuitable to calibrate regression model with a single set of coefficients, especially for large spatial domains. For this purpose, we developed a Bayesian hierarchical varying coefficient model to account for non-stationarity in the covariates. We used the integrated nested Laplace approximation for parameter estimation. Diarrhea morbidities in Ghana motivated our empirical study. Results indicated improvement regarding model fit and epidemiological benefits. The findings highlighted substantial spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal heterogeneities in both diarrhea risk and the coefficients of the sociodemographic factors. Diarrhea risk in peri-urban and urban districts were 13.2% and 10.8% higher than rural districts, respectively. The varying coefficient model indicated further details, as the coefficients varied across districts. A unit increase in the proportion of inhabitants with unsafe liquid waste disposal was found to increase diarrhea risk by 11.5%, with higher percentages within the south-central parts through to the south-western parts. Districts with safe and unsafe drinking water sources unexpectedly had a similar risk, as were districts with safe and unsafe toilets. The findings show that site-specific interventions need to consider the varying effects of sociodemographic factors.