Pre-purchase Agreement on the Covid-19 Vaccine and its Impact on the Right to Health

A vaccine is a core solution to decreasing the widespread damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the race to find a vaccine requires a large budget to finance research and development carried out by pharmaceutical companies. This funding is usually accommodated by wealthy developed nations who enter per-purchase agreements with these companies that guarantee a large quantity of the approved vaccines, honored in the agreements between these countries and the pharmaceutical companies. However this agreement blocks the access to other countries, especially developing countries to purchase the same vaccines therefore unable to fulfill their citizens’ right to health as regulated in the universal declaration of human rights and other international legal sources. In analyzing this, the method of research used is a legal normative approach by studying literary materials, international legal documents, and case studies. The conclusion of this research is that pre-purchase agreements are a right of developed nations to fulfill the right of their citizens on one perspective however on the other it violates the right of the international community, especially small and developing countries to fulfill their right to health.

Effects of Solution Viscosity on PLLA Porous Microtubes Fabricated by Core-Sheath Electrospinning

Core-sheath electrospinning is a rapid microfabrication process for creating multi-layer polymer microfibers. This paper presents a process based on core-sheath electrospinning to fabricate poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) microtubes with nanopores on the tube wall. The morphology of the microtubes mimics human fenestrated capillary vessels. This study investigates the effects of the viscosities of the core and the sheath solutions on the microtube outer diameter and the nanopore size. The core solution shows a dominating influence on the microtube diameter. At the same core solution viscosity level, the microtube diameter is negatively correlated to the core-to-sheath viscosity ratio. The pore size is positively correlated to the microtube diameter. Understanding the effects of solution viscosity on microtube morphology is the prerequisite for process control and microtube product development for future biomedical applications.

Fabrication of Nanopores Polylactic Acid Microtubes by Core-Sheath Electrospinning for Capillary Vascularization

There has been substantial progress in tissue engineering of biological substitutes for medical applications. One of the major challenges in development of complex tissues is the difficulty of creating vascular networks for engineered constructs. The diameter of current artificial vascular channels is usually at millimeter or submillimeter level, while human capillaries are about 5 to 10 µm in diameter. In this paper, a novel core-sheath electrospinning process was adopted to fabricate nanoporous microtubes to mimic the structure of fenestrated capillary vessels. A mixture of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene glycol (PEO) was used as the sheath solution and PEO was used as the core solution. The microtubes were observed under a scanning electron microscope and the images were analyzed by ImageJ. The diameter of the microtubes ranged from 1–8 microns. The diameter of the nanopores ranged from 100 to 800 nm. The statistical analysis showed that the microtube diameter was significantly influenced by the PEO ratio in the sheath solution, pump rate, and the viscosity gradient between the sheath and the core solution. The electrospun microtubes with nanoscale pores highly resemble human fenestrated capillaries. Therefore, the nanoporous microtubes have great potential to support vascularization in engineered tissues.

WHOLE CORE COUPLING METHODOLOGIES WITHIN WIMS

The ANSWERS® WIMS reactor physics code is being developed for whole core multiphysics modelling. The established neutronics capability for lattice calculations has recently been extended to be suitable for whole core modelling of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). A whole core transport, SP3 or diffusion flux solution is combined with fuel assembly resonance shielding and pin-by-pin differential depletion. An integrated thermal hydraulic solver permits differential temperature and density variations to feedback to the neutronics calculation. This paper presents new methodology developed in WIMS to couple the core neutronics to the integrated core thermal hydraulics solver. Two coupling routes are presented and compared using a challenging PWR SMR benchmark. The first route, called GEOM, dynamically calculates the resonance shielding and homogenisation with the whole core flux solution. The second coupling route, called CAMELOT, separates the resonance shielding and pincell homogenisation from the whole core solution via generating tabulated cross sections. Both routes can use the MERLIN homogenised pin-by-pin whole core flux solver and couple to the same integrated thermal hydraulic solver, called ARTHUR. Heterogeneous differences between the neutronics and thermal hydraulics are mapped via thermal identifiers for neutronics materials and thermal regions. The ability for the integrated thermal hydraulic solver to call an external code via a Fortran-C-Python (FCP) interface is also summarised. This flexible external coupling permits one way coupling to an external fuel performance code or two way coupling to an external thermal hydraulic code.

Solvent Assisted Coaxial-Electrospun Poly Methyl Methacrylate Polymer and Study of Resultant Fibers

Electrospinning of dispersions with higher viscosity and limited flow may be carried out, based on the solvent assisted coaxial technique, where the flow of the core dispersion is supported by a free flowing sheath solvent. In the present work, the sheath solvents used are chloroform, toluene and dimethyl formamide and we discuss the fiber formation of Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA) (dispersion-25 wt%). PMMA dispersed in chloroform is taken as the core solution and the sheath is pure solvent. The In-Situ effect of different sheath solvents in fiber formation at two different tip to collector distances are studied. The fibers formed are subjected to SEM analysis and the characteristics are analysed. The fiber formation of high viscos polymer dispersions makes the same materials subjectable to electrospinning and further applications.

How Europe Is Preparing Its Core Solution for Exascale Machines and a Global, Sovereign, Advanced Computing Platform

In this paper, we present an overview of the European Processor Initiative (EPI), one of the cornerstones of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, a new European Union strategic entity focused on pooling the Union’s and national resources on HPC to acquire, build and deploy the most powerful supercomputers in the world within Europe. EPI started its activities in December 2018. The first three years drew processor and platform designers, embedded software, middleware, applications and usage experts from 10 EU countries together to co-design Europe’s first HPC Systems on Chip and accelerators with its unique Common Platform (CP) technology. One of EPI’s core activities also takes place in the automotive sector, providing architectural solutions for a novel embedded high-performance computing (eHPC) platform and ensuring the overall economic viability of the initiative.

FD3D_TSN: A Fast and Simple Code for Dynamic Rupture Simulations with GPU Acceleration

We introduce FD3D_TSN—an open-source Fortran code for 3D dynamic earthquake rupture modeling based on the staggered grid fourth-order finite-difference method employing a regular cubical spatial discretization. Slip-weakening and fast-velocity-weakening rate-and-state fault friction laws are combined with vertical planar fault geometry, orthogonal to a planar free surface. FD3D_TSN demonstrates good agreement with other methods in a range of benchmark exercises of the Southern California Earthquake Center and U.S. Geological Survey dynamic rupture code verification project. Efficient graphic processing units (GPU) acceleration using the OpenACC framework yields a factor of 10 speed-up in terms of time to solution compared to a single-core solution for current hardware (Intel i9-9900K and Nvidia RTX 2070). The software is fast and easy-to-use and suitable explicitly for data-driven applications requiring a large number of forward simulations such as dynamic source inversion or probabilistic ground-motion modeling. The code is freely available for the scientific community and may be incorporated in physics-based earthquake source imaging and seismic hazard assessment, or for teaching purposes.

Waste Management in Cosmopolitan West African Cities: Towards the Need for Environmental Education of Populations

The majority of cosmopolitan cities are affected by the environmental problems inherent in the phenomenon of urbanization, which have a negative impact on people's lives. This article analyzed actors' perceptions on strategies for managing the environmental problems facing cosmopolitan West African cities through the case study of Parakou in Benin. The exploratory qualitative approach based on group and individual interviews was used. The data collected relate to the environmental problems of the city, the reasons for the persistence of the problems, and the strategies to be implemented for a better management of these problems. Qualitative speech analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. It emerged that household waste (solid and liquid) is the main environmental problem of the city. The persistence of these problems is explained by the incivility characterized by ignorance, irresponsibility and indifference of the population. The population supports that awareness raising and education in environmental management is a core solution to prevent and avoid the environmental problems of big cities. But how to ensure this environmental education of the population for an efficiency management of the environmental problems of cities?