| 1. |
- Abbafati, Cristiana, et al.
(author)
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- 2020
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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| 2. |
- Micah, Angela E., et al.
(author)
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Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050
- 2021
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In: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 398:10308, s. 1317-1343
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$ per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached $8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total, $40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this, $13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and $1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4%) of the funds focused on country-level coordination and $2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7%) of COVID-19 development assistance for health went to Latin America, despite this region reporting 34.3% of total recorded COVID-19 deaths in low-income or middle-income countries in 2020. Spending on health is expected to rise to $1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| 5. |
- Hussain, Arsalan, et al.
(author)
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Parametric Optimization of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) of Dissimilar Aluminum Alloys with Newly Developed Tool
- 2023
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In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical, Automotive and Mechatronics Engineering (ICMAME 2023). - : ICMAME. - 9786250015261
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Friction stir welding is a rising solid-state material joining procedure which has revolutionized the world. It’s majorly utilized for joining aluminum and alike soft materials for industrial and commercial use. The present study comprised of experimental investigation of FSW operation parameters like tool rotational speed, tool transversal speed, and tool pin geometry profile on the tensile strength of friction stir welded joint between Al alloy 6061-T651 and Al alloy 5083-H321. Two newly developed pin profiles that are cylindrical quad slotted and cylindrical threaded quad slotted are used along with cyclindrical threaded tool pin profiles. Tool rotation speed selected for the operation are 600, 900 and 1200 revolution per minute and tool transversal speeds are 20, 40 and 60 milimetre per minute. Tools were produced from TS (Tool Steel) H-13. The FSW operation was conducted on vertical-axis milling machine. Tensile test, most widely used to experimentally varrify the strength of material is applied to check the weld strength performed through FSW. Taguchi design of experiment was used in order to investigate the optimum parameters with minimum number of experiments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis are applied for evaluating the relative significance and importance of individual parameters affecting mechanical behavior of the weld joints. The result imply that tool’s pin geometry profile has a significant impact on the strength of weld joint cylindrical threaded quad slotted tool pin profile produced the best weld joints. This study also suggests that the increased motion of plasticized phase of Al in horizontal and vertical trajectory simultaneously, which was achieved with the help of cylindrical treaded quad slotted pin profile gives the best weld joint under the same circumstances in relation to other tools under studies. The study also suggests that best weld was achieved with highest tool rotational speed and lowest tool transversal speed.
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| 6. |
- Khan, Kifayatullah, et al.
(author)
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Heavy Metal Occurrence, Pathways, and Associated Socio-ecological Risks in Riverine Water : Application of Geographic Information System, Multivariate Statistics, and Risk Assessment Models
- 2023
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In: Water, Air and Soil Pollution. - 0049-6979 .- 1573-2932. ; 234:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Heavy metal (HM) pollution is one of the major issues of concern in the world due to its serious health consequences on humans and ecology. In this study, riverine water from the River Kabul in Pakistan was studied using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine the variation, routes, and possible socio-ecological hazards of chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). The results revealed significant HMs variation (p < 0.05) in the sequence of Cr > Zn > Ni > Cu > Cd > Pb > Mn > Co > Hg, indicating prevalent metal contaminations in the river. Multivariate statistics showed significant strong positive correlations (p ≤ 0.01) between the individual HMs contents along the monitoring sites. The strong-moderate levels of Cu, Co, Zn, Mn, Pb, and Cd in riverine systems were observed to be caused by surrounding industrial, agrochemicals, mining, and domestic wastewater discharges along with geogenic sources, the weak levels of Cr and Ni could be induced by erosion of mafic and ultramafic rocks, and mining activities, whereas the low contamination of Hg suggests minimal atmospheric deposition with fewer industrial discharges in the environment. The overall mass flux of the ∑HMs was estimated to be around 164.10 kg/year, with significant HM pollution index (HPI) and pollution index (PI) variations along the river characterizing the potential risk of HMs in decreasing order of Cd > Hg > Cr > Ni > Co > Pb > Mn > Cu > Zn and Cd > Hg > Ni > Pb > Cr > Co > Cu > Mn > Zn, respectively. Individual HM contamination was within the ecological risk threshold (ERI < 110), where, the chronic daily intake (CDIs), hazard quotients (HQs), health indices (HIs), and cancer risks (CRs) of Cd, Ni, Co, Cr, and Pb by daily riverine water ingestion and dermal contact posing considerable human health concerns. To protect the environment and public health, our findings suggest that untreated anthropogenic wastewater discharge into the river system be strictly controlled and regulated through public awareness campaigns and legislation prohibiting the use of herbicides and fertilizers containing high levels of Cr, Ni, Co, Cd, and Pb.
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| 8. |
- Fodor, Gábor, et al.
(author)
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An Overview of Device-to-Device Communications Technology Components in METIS
- 2016
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In: IEEE Access. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 2169-3536. ; 4, s. 3288-3299
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As the standardization of network-assisted deviceto-device (D2D) communications by the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project progresses, the research community has started to explore the technology potential of new advanced features that will largely impact the performance of 5G networks. For 5G, D2D is becoming an integrative term of emerging technologies that take advantage of the proximity of communicating entities in licensed and unlicensed spectra. The European 5G research project Mobile and Wireless Communication Enablers for the 2020 Information Society (METIS) has identified advanced D2D as a key enabler for a variety of 5G services, including cellular coverage extension, social proximity and communicating vehicles. In this paper, we review the METIS D2D technology components in three key areas of proximal communications – network-assisted multi-hop, full-duplex, and multi-antenna D2D communications – and argue that the advantages of properly combining cellular and ad hoc technologies help to meet the challenges of the information society beyond 2020.
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| 9. |
- Gbedande, Komi, et al.
(author)
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Infections with Plasmodium falciparum during pregnancy affect VAR2CSA DBL-5 domain-specific T cell cytokine responses
- 2016
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In: Malaria Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1475-2875. ; 15
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Current knowledge of human immunological responses to pregnancy-associated malaria-specific Plasmodium falciparum protein VAR2CSA concerns almost exclusively B cell-driven antibody-mediated activity. Knowledge of VAR2CSA-specific T cell-mediated activity is minimal by comparison, with only a single published report of a study investigating VAR2CSA-derived peptide-specific T cell responses. The study described here represents an attempt to redress this balance. Methods: Within the framework of a cohort study of 1037 pregnant Beninese, sub-groups were selected on the basis of the documented presence/absence of infection with P. falciparum and conducted detailed immunological assessments both at inclusion into the study and at delivery. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated, stimulated in vitro, and VAR2CSA DBL-5 domain-specific, IFN-gamma-secreting T-cell frequencies and cytokine responses were quantified using flow cytometric techniques. Multivariate analyses were used to determine primarily whether the T cell-mediated DBL5-specific activity measured was associated with infection by P. falciparum adjusted for gravidity, anaemia and other cofactors. Results: Infections with P. falciparum detected at inclusion were associated with enhanced non-specific TNF responses, whilst diminished non-specific and DBL-5-specific IL-10 responses were associated with infections detected at delivery. Infections during pregnancy led to enhanced non-specific and DBL-5-specific IFN-gamma responses detectable at delivery but to concomitantly lower DBL-5-specific CD8+ IFN-gamma responses. Prospective assessments indicated that non-specific pro-inflammatory responses detectable at inclusion in the study were associated with the occurrence of infections subsequently during pregnancy. Conclusions: The findings represent a first step in elucidating the quantity and quality of cellular immunological responses to VAR2CSA, which will help in the development of the primary vaccine candidate for prevention of pregnancy-associated malaria.
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| 10. |
- Kazerani, Farzaneh, et al.
(author)
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Eight new species of Dolichopodinae (Diptera: Dolichopodidae) from northern Iran
- 2017
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In: Zootaxa. - : Magnolia Press. - 1175-5334 .- 1175-5326.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dipterological surveys were conducted in different sites in western and central parts of northern Iran (Guilan, Mazandaran, Kordestan, East and West Azerbaijan and Ardabil provinces) during 2010–2011 using Malaise traps, and during 2012–2014 employing sweep nets. A total of 110 species were collected, including 42 Dolichopodinae. Eleven dolichopodine species proved new to science, eight of which are described here: Dolichopus fuscicercus sp. nov., D. subimmaculatus sp. nov., Gymnopternus flavitibia sp. nov., G. atratus sp. nov., Hercostomus setitibia sp. nov., H. albicoxa sp. nov., Poecilobothrus annulitarsis sp. nov. and P. innotabilis sp. nov. Some of these species strongly resemble European species and even share near identical conspicuous male secondary sexual characters.
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