| 1. |
- Kassebaum, Nicholas J., et al.
(författare)
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Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 315 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE), 1990-2015 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015
- 2016
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 388:10053, s. 1603-1658
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Healthy life expectancy (HALE) and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) provide summary measures of health across geographies and time that can inform assessments of epidemiological patterns and health system performance, help to prioritise investments in research and development, and monitor progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We aimed to provide updated HALE and DALYs for geographies worldwide and evaluate how disease burden changes with development. Methods We used results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) for all-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, and non-fatal disease burden to derive HALE and DALYs by sex for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We calculated DALYs by summing years of life lost (YLLs) and years of life lived with disability (YLDs) for each geography, age group, sex, and year. We estimated HALE using the Sullivan method, which draws from age-specific death rates and YLDs per capita. We then assessed how observed levels of DALYs and HALE differed from expected trends calculated with the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator constructed from measures of income per capita, average years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Findings Total global DALYs remained largely unchanged from 1990 to 2015, with decreases in communicable, neonatal, maternal, and nutritional (Group 1) disease DALYs off set by increased DALYs due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Much of this epidemiological transition was caused by changes in population growth and ageing, but it was accelerated by widespread improvements in SDI that also correlated strongly with the increasing importance of NCDs. Both total DALYs and age-standardised DALY rates due to most Group 1 causes significantly decreased by 2015, and although total burden climbed for the majority of NCDs, age-standardised DALY rates due to NCDs declined. Nonetheless, age-standardised DALY rates due to several high-burden NCDs (including osteoarthritis, drug use disorders, depression, diabetes, congenital birth defects, and skin, oral, and sense organ diseases) either increased or remained unchanged, leading to increases in their relative ranking in many geographies. From 2005 to 2015, HALE at birth increased by an average of 2.9 years (95% uncertainty interval 2.9-3.0) for men and 3.5 years (3.4-3.7) for women, while HALE at age 65 years improved by 0.85 years (0.78-0.92) and 1.2 years (1.1-1.3), respectively. Rising SDI was associated with consistently higher HALE and a somewhat smaller proportion of life spent with functional health loss; however, rising SDI was related to increases in total disability. Many countries and territories in central America and eastern sub-Saharan Africa had increasingly lower rates of disease burden than expected given their SDI. At the same time, a subset of geographies recorded a growing gap between observed and expected levels of DALYs, a trend driven mainly by rising burden due to war, interpersonal violence, and various NCDs. Interpretation Health is improving globally, but this means more populations are spending more time with functional health loss, an absolute expansion of morbidity. The proportion of life spent in ill health decreases somewhat with increasing SDI, a relative compression of morbidity, which supports continued efforts to elevate personal income, improve education, and limit fertility. Our analysis of DALYs and HALE and their relationship to SDI represents a robust framework on which to benchmark geography-specific health performance and SDG progress. Country-specific drivers of disease burden, particularly for causes with higher-than-expected DALYs, should inform financial and research investments, prevention efforts, health policies, and health system improvement initiatives for all countries along the development continuum.
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| 2. |
- O'Brien, Shane, et al.
(författare)
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Indium tin oxide-silicon nanocrystal nanocomposite grown by aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0928-0707 .- 1573-4846. ; 73:3, s. 666-672
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanocomposite films were successfully grown by aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) in a single deposition step using a mixture of indium tin neodecanoate and ligand stabilised silicon nanocrystals. Samples were analysed by HRTEM and silicon nanocrystals with a density of 1.2 x 10(12) cm(-2) were observed. From the reconstructed 3D tomogram, the averaged distance between the nearest nanoparticles is 8.3 nm and the 3D density of nanoparticles is 1.6 x 10(18) cm(-3). An animation of the 3D reconstruction is supplied in the supporting information. These data show the versatility of aerosol assisted CVD in achieving a nanocomposite with such a density of silicon nanocrystals, of carefully controlled size and shape, within a polycrystalline host matrix. Therefore, meeting the density and size distribution requirements of particle inclusion in active nanocomposites for photovoltaic structures. ITO-silicon nanocrystal nanocomposite samples were analysed by HRTEM and silicon nanocrystals with a density of 1.2 x 10(12) cm(-2) were observed. From the reconstructed 3D tomogram, the averaged distance between the nearest nanoparticles is 8.3 nm and the 3D density of nanoparticles is 1.6 x 10(18) cm(-3). [GRAPHICS] .
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| 3. |
- Perraud, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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Silicon nanocrystals : Novel synthesis routes for photovoltaic applications
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physica status solidi. A, Applied research. - : Wiley. - 0031-8965 .- 1521-396X. ; 210:4, s. 649-657
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Novel processes were developed for fabricating silicon nanocrystals and nanocomposite materials which could be used as absorbers in third generation photovoltaic devices. A conventional high-temperature annealing technique was studied as a reference process, with some new insights in crystallisation mechanisms. Innovative methods for silicon nanocrystal synthesis at much lower temperature were demonstrated, namely chemical vapour deposition (CVD), physical vapour deposition (PVD) and aerosol-assisted CVD. Besides the advantage of low substrate temperature, these new techniques allow to fabricate silicon nanocrystals embedded in wide bandgap semiconductor host matrices, with a high density and a narrow size dispersion.
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| 4. |
- Tinetti, G., et al.
(författare)
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A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL
- 2018
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Ingår i: Experimental Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 46:1, s. 135-209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.
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