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- Burstein, R., et al.
(author)
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Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017
- 2019
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In: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 574:7778, s. 353-358
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2âto end preventable child deaths by 2030âwe need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000â2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations. © 2019, The Author(s).
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- Kinyoki, DK, et al.
(author)
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Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017
- 2020
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In: Nature medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-170X .- 1078-8956. ; 26:5, s. 750-759
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic.
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- 2019
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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10. |
- Sbarra, AN, et al.
(author)
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Mapping routine measles vaccination in low- and middle-income countries
- 2021
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 589:7842, s. 415-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The safe, highly effective measles vaccine has been recommended globally since 1974, yet in 2017 there were more than 17 million cases of measles and 83,400 deaths in children under 5 years old, and more than 99% of both occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)1–4. Globally comparable, annual, local estimates of routine first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) coverage are critical for understanding geographically precise immunity patterns, progress towards the targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), and high-risk areas amid disruptions to vaccination programmes caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)5–8. Here we generated annual estimates of routine childhood MCV1 coverage at 5 × 5-km2pixel and second administrative levels from 2000 to 2019 in 101 LMICs, quantified geographical inequality and assessed vaccination status by geographical remoteness. After widespread MCV1 gains from 2000 to 2010, coverage regressed in more than half of the districts between 2010 and 2019, leaving many LMICs far from the GVAP goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019. MCV1 coverage was lower in rural than in urban locations, although a larger proportion of unvaccinated children overall lived in urban locations; strategies to provide essential vaccination services should address both geographical contexts. These results provide a tool for decision-makers to strengthen routine MCV1 immunization programmes and provide equitable disease protection for all children.
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- Abbafati, Cristiana, et al.
(author)
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- 2020
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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- Aalbers, J., et al.
(author)
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A next-generation liquid xenon observatory for dark matter and neutrino physics
- 2023
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In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0954-3899 .- 1361-6471. ; 50:1
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the most pressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the available parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles, while featuring extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates. These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decay and through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-based detector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantly advance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, and cosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector.
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- Kinyoki, DK, et al.
(author)
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Mapping child growth failure across low- and middle-income countries
- 2020
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 577:7789, s. 231-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Childhood malnutrition is associated with high morbidity and mortality globally1. Undernourished children are more likely to experience cognitive, physical, and metabolic developmental impairments that can lead to later cardiovascular disease, reduced intellectual ability and school attainment, and reduced economic productivity in adulthood2. Child growth failure (CGF), expressed as stunting, wasting, and underweight in children under five years of age (0–59 months), is a specific subset of undernutrition characterized by insufficient height or weight against age-specific growth reference standards3–5. The prevalence of stunting, wasting, or underweight in children under five is the proportion of children with a height-for-age, weight-for-height, or weight-for-age z-score, respectively, that is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization’s median growth reference standards for a healthy population6. Subnational estimates of CGF report substantial heterogeneity within countries, but are available primarily at the first administrative level (for example, states or provinces)7; the uneven geographical distribution of CGF has motivated further calls for assessments that can match the local scale of many public health programmes8. Building from our previous work mapping CGF in Africa9, here we provide the first, to our knowledge, mapped high-spatial-resolution estimates of CGF indicators from 2000 to 2017 across 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where 99% of affected children live1, aggregated to policy-relevant first and second (for example, districts or counties) administrative-level units and national levels. Despite remarkable declines over the study period, many LMICs remain far from the ambitious World Health Organization Global Nutrition Targets to reduce stunting by 40% and wasting to less than 5% by 2025. Large disparities in prevalence and progress exist across and within countries; our maps identify high-prevalence areas even within nations otherwise succeeding in reducing overall CGF prevalence. By highlighting where the highest-need populations reside, these geospatial estimates can support policy-makers in planning interventions that are adapted locally and in efficiently directing resources towards reducing CGF and its health implications.
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26. |
- Tyrovolas,, Stefanos, et al.
(author)
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Global, regional, and national burden of diseases and injuries for adults 70 years and older : systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study.
- 2022
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In: The BMJ. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 1756-1833. ; 376
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To use data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) to estimate mortality and disability trends for the population aged ≥70 and evaluate patterns in causes of death, disability, and risk factors.DESIGN: Systematic analysis.SETTING: Participants were aged ≥70 from 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019.MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: Years of life lost, years lived with disability, disability adjusted life years, life expectancy at age 70 (LE-70), healthy life expectancy at age 70 (HALE-70), proportion of years in ill health at age 70 (PYIH-70), risk factors, and data coverage index were estimated based on standardised GBD methods.RESULTS: Globally the population of older adults has increased since 1990 and all cause death rates have decreased for men and women. However, mortality rates due to falls increased between 1990 and 2019. The probability of death among people aged 70-90 decreased, mainly because of reductions in non-communicable diseases. Globally disability burden was largely driven by functional decline, vision and hearing loss, and symptoms of pain. LE-70 and HALE-70 showed continuous increases since 1990 globally, with certain regional disparities. Globally higher LE-70 resulted in higher HALE-70 and slightly increased PYIH-70. Sociodemographic and healthcare access and quality indices were positively correlated with HALE-70 and LE-70. For high exposure risk factors, data coverage was moderate, while limited data were available for various dietary, environmental or occupational, and metabolic risks.CONCLUSIONS: Life expectancy at age 70 has continued to rise globally, mostly because of decreases in chronic diseases. Adults aged ≥70 living in high income countries and regions with better healthcare access and quality were found to experience the highest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. Disability burden, however, remained constant, suggesting the need to enhance public health and intervention programmes to improve wellbeing among older adults.
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27. |
- Amanullah, Rahman, et al.
(author)
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Diversity in extinction laws of Type Ia supernovae measured between 0.2 and 2 μm
- 2015
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 453:3, s. 3300-3328
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present ultraviolet (UV) observations of six nearby Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, three of which were also observed in the near-IR (NIR) with Wide-Field Camera 3. UV observations with the Swift satellite, as well as ground-based optical and NIR data provide complementary information. The combined data set covers the wavelength range 0.2-2 mu m. By also including archival data of SN 2014J, we analyse a sample spanning observed colour excesses up to E(B - V) = 1.4 mag. We study the wavelength-dependent extinction of each individual SN and find a diversity of reddening laws when characterized by the total-to-selective extinction R-V. In particular, we note that for the two SNe with E(B - V) greater than or similar to 1 mag, for which the colour excess is dominated by dust extinction, we find R-V = 1.4 +/- 0.1 and R-V = 2.8 +/- 0.1. Adding UV photometry reduces the uncertainty of fitted R-V by similar to 50 per cent allowing us to also measure R-V of individual low-extinction objects which point to a similar diversity, currently not accounted for in the analyses when SNe Ia are used for studying the expansion history of the Universe.
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- Bagloee, S. A., et al.
(author)
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A hybrid machine-learning and optimization method for contraflow design in post-disaster cases and traffic management scenarios
- 2019
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In: Expert systems with applications. - : Elsevier. - 0957-4174 .- 1873-6793. ; 124, s. 67-81
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The growing number of man-made and natural disasters in recent years has made the disaster management a focal point of interest and research. To assist and streamline emergency evacuation, changing the directions of the roads (called contraflow, a traffic control measure) is proven to be an effective, quick and affordable scheme in the action list of the disaster management. The contraflow is computationally a challenging problem (known as NP-hard), hence developing an efficient method applicable to real-world and large-sized cases is a significant challenge in the literature. To cope with its complexities and to tailor to practical applications, a hybrid heuristic method based on a machine-learning model and bilevel optimization is developed. The idea is to try and test several contraflow scenarios providing a training dataset for a supervised learning (regression) model which is then used in an optimization framework to find a better scenario in an iterative process. This method is coded as a single computer program synchronized with GAMS (for optimization), MATLAB (for machine learning), EMME3 (for traffic simulation), MS-Access (for data storage) and MS-Excel (as an interface), and it is tested using a real dataset from Winnipeg, and Sioux-Falls as benchmarks. The algorithm managed to find globally optimal solutions for the Sioux-Falls example and improved accessibility to the dense and congested central areas of Winnipeg just by changing the direction of some roads.
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31. |
- Buyck, P. J., et al.
(author)
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Diagnostic accuracy of noncontrast CT imaging markers in cerebral venous thrombosis
- 2019
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In: Neurology. - : Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). - 0028-3878 .- 1526-632X. ; 92:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective To assess the added diagnostic value of semiquantitative imaging markers on noncontrast CT scans in cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Methods In a retrospective, multicenter, blinded, case-control study of patients with recent onset (<2 weeks) CVT, 3 readers assessed (1) the accuracy of the visual impression of CVT based on a combination of direct and indirect signs, (2) the accuracy of attenuation values of the venous sinuses in Hounsfield units (with adjustment for hematocrit levels), and (3) the accuracy of attenuation ratios of affected vs unaffected sinuses in comparison with reference standard MRI or CT angiography. Controls were age-matched patients with (sub)acute neurologic presentations. Results We enrolled 285 patients with CVT and 303 controls from 10 international centers. Sensitivity of visual impression of thrombosis ranged from 41% to 73% and specificity ranged from 97% to 100%. Attenuation measurement had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.78 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74-0.81). After adjustment for hematocrit, the AUC remained 0.78 (95% CI 0.74-0.81). The analysis of attenuation ratios of affected vs unaffected sinuses had AUC of 0.83 (95% CI 0.8-0.86). Adding this imaging marker significantly improved discrimination, but sensitivity when tolerating a false-positive rate of 20% was not higher than 76% (95% CI 0.70-0.81). Conclusion Semiquantitative analysis of attenuation values for diagnosis of CVT increased sensitivity but still failed to identify 1 out of 4 CVT. Classification of evidence This study provides Class II evidence that visual analysis of plain CT with or without attenuation measurements has high specificity but only moderate sensitivity for CVT.
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- Graetz, N, et al.
(author)
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Mapping disparities in education across low- and middle-income countries
- 2020
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 577:77917789, s. 235-238
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Educational attainment is an important social determinant of maternal, newborn, and child health1–3. As a tool for promoting gender equity, it has gained increasing traction in popular media, international aid strategies, and global agenda-setting4–6. The global health agenda is increasingly focused on evidence of precision public health, which illustrates the subnational distribution of disease and illness7,8; however, an agenda focused on future equity must integrate comparable evidence on the distribution of social determinants of health9–11. Here we expand on the available precision SDG evidence by estimating the subnational distribution of educational attainment, including the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling, across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017. Previous analyses have focused on geographical disparities in average attainment across Africa or for specific countries, but—to our knowledge—no analysis has examined the subnational proportions of individuals who completed specific levels of education across all low- and middle-income countries12–14. By geolocating subnational data for more than 184 million person-years across 528 data sources, we precisely identify inequalities across geography as well as within populations.
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34. |
- Karimi, Sara, et al.
(author)
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CANDYRL : A Hybrid Reinforcement Learning Model for Gameplay
- 2022
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In: 2022 21ST IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MACHINE LEARNING AND APPLICATIONS, ICMLA. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). ; , s. 567-572
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although Reinforcement Learning (RL) is becoming increasingly popular in gameplay, making a generalized RL model is still challenging. This paper presents CANDYRL, a generalized RL solution for match-3 games, particularly Candy Crush Friends Saga. CANDYRL rewards RL agents not only for achieving the game objectives but also for learning some intrinsic basic skills, which are not directly related to the game objectives. CANDYRL also includes a hybrid model that combines several pre-trained agents to determine the actions. We propose two approaches to determine the weights of the pre-trained agents in the hybrid model to reflect their importance by using (i) a heuristic method and (ii) an RL-based approach. We show that the hybrid model outperforms all the pre-trained agents used as its building blocks through the experiments. Moreover, the RLbased approach of learning weights in the hybrid model shows better generalization than the other approaches as it performs better on unseen new game levels.
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35. |
- Lorenzo, Francesco, et al.
(author)
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Use All Your Skills, Not Only The Most Popular Ones
- 2020
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In: 2020 IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2020. - : IEEE. ; , s. 682-685
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Reinforcement Learning (RL) has shown promising results across various domains. However, applying it to develop gameplaying agents is challenging due to sparsity of extrinsic rewards, where agents get rewards from the environments only at the end of game levels. Previous works have shown that using intrinsic rewards is an effective way to deal with such cases. Intrinsic rewards allow to incorporate basic skills in agent policies to better generalize over various game levels. In a gameplay, it is common that certain actions (skills) are observed more often than others, which leads to a biased selection of actions. This problem boils down to a normalization issue in formulating the skill-based reward function. In this paper, we propose a novel solution to this problem by taking into account the frequency of all skills in the reward function. We show that our method improves the performance of agents by enabling them to select effective skills up to 2.5 times more frequently than that of the state-of-the-art in the context of the match-3 game Candy Crush Friends Saga.
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- Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar, et al.
(author)
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Trend of Socio-Demographic Index and Mortality Estimates in Iran and its Neighbors, 1990-2015 : Findings of the Global Burden of Diseases 2015 Study
- 2017
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In: Archives of Iranian Medicine. - 1029-2977 .- 1735-3947. ; 20:7, s. 419-428
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The Global burden of disease and injuries study (GBD 2015) reports expected measures for years of life lost (YLL) based on socio-demographic index (SDI) of countries, as well as the observed measures. In this extended GBD 2015 report, we reviewed total and cause-specific deaths and YLL for Iran and all its neighboring countries between 1990 and 2015.METHODS: We extracted data from the GBD 2015 database. Observed YLL measures were calculated by multiplying the number of deaths by standard life expectancy at each age. SDI was a composite index, calculated based on income per capita, average years of schooling, and total fertility rate. The GBD world population was used for age standardization.RESULTS: All-ages crude death rate in Iran reduced from 665.6 per 100,000 population (95% uncertainty interval: 599.3-731.6) in 1990 to 487.2 (414.9-566.1) in 2015. The ratio of observed to expected YLL (O/E ratio) for all-causes ranged between 0.54 (Turkey) and 1.95 (Russia) in 2015. For Iran, the all-causes O/E ratio was less than 1 in all years (1990-2015), except 2003. However, cause-specific O/E ratio was more than 1 for some causes, including the top leading causes of YLL (ischemic heart disease, road injuries, and cerebrovascular disorders). Ischemic heart disease was the first or second cause of YLL in all comparator countries except Afghanistan.CONCLUSION: The leading YLL causes with high O/E ratios should be prioritized in public health efforts. In addition to research evidence, countries with low O/E ratios should be scrutinized to find feasible innovative interventions.
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37. |
- Neumann, Patrick, et al.
(author)
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An artificial potential field based sampling strategy for a gas-sensitive micro-drone
- 2011
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a sampling strategy for mobile gas sensors. Sampling points are selected using a modified artificial potential field (APF) approach, which balances multiple criteria to direct sensor measurements towards locations of high mean concentration, high concentration variance and areas for which the uncertainty about the gas distribution model is still large. By selecting in each step the most often suggested close-by measurement location, the proposed approach introduces a locality constraint that allows planning suitable paths for mobile gas sensors. Initial results in simulation and in real-world experiments witha gas-sensitive micro-drone demonstrate the suitability of the proposed sampling strategy for gas distribution mapping and its use for gas source localization.
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38. |
- Neumann, Patrick P., et al.
(author)
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Autonomous gas-sensitive microdrone wind vector estimation and gas distribution mapping
- 2012
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In: IEEE robotics & automation magazine. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 1070-9932 .- 1558-223X. ; 19:1, s. 50-61
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article presents the development and validation of an autonomous, gas sensitive microdrone that is capable of estimating the wind vector in real time using only the onboard control unit of the microdrone and performing gas distribution mapping (DM). Two different sampling approaches are suggested to address this problem. On the one hand, a predefined trajectory is used to explore the target area with the microdrone in a real-world gas DM experiment. As an alternative sampling approach, we introduce an adaptive strategy that suggests next sampling points based on an artificial potential field (APF). Initial results in real-world experiments demonstrate the capability of the proposed adaptive sampling strategy for gas DM and its use for gas source localization.
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- Nurmio, M, et al.
(author)
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Effect of Previous Alkylating Agent Exposure on Follicle Numbers in Cryopreserved Prepubertal and Young Adult Ovarian Tissue after Long-Term Xenografting
- 2022
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In: Cancers. - : MDPI AG. - 2072-6694. ; 14:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose and methods: To elucidate whether previous cancer treatment affects graft recovery and follicle numbers, morphology, and development in grafts, cryopreserved ovarian biopsies obtained from 18 cancer patients aged 1–24 years with and without exposure to chemotherapy were xenografted as 1 mm3 fragments to immunodeficient mice for 22 weeks with exogenous stimulation. Results: Graft recovery showed no association with chemotherapy exposure, pubertal stage, or leukemia contamination. Total follicle number per recovered graft varied between 0 and 1031 in the chemotherapy-exposed and between 0 and 502 in the non-chemotherapy-exposed group. Atretic follicles formed the largest proportion of the follicle pool in chemotherapy-exposed grafts. Increased atresia correlated with exposure to alkylating agents (mean ± SD 8866.2 ± 9316.3 mg/m2) but not with anthracyclines, pubertal stage, or leukemia contamination. Conclusion: The observation confirms the harmful effects of alkylating agents on ovarian tissue. Therapy at the median cumulative dose of 8866 mg/m2 leads to the decreased quality of cryopreserved ovarian follicles in children and young adults.
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- Yaseen, Zaher, et al.
(author)
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Novel Hybrid Data-Intelligence Model for Forecasting Monthly Rainfall with Uncertainty Analysis
- 2019
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In: Water. - Basel : MDPI. - 2073-4441. ; 11:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this research, three different evolutionary algorithms (EAs), namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA) and differential evolution (DE), are integrated with the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model. The developed hybrid models are proposed to forecast rainfall time series. The capability of the proposed evolutionary hybrid ANFIS was compared with the conventional ANFIS in forecasting monthly rainfall for the Pahang watershed, Malaysia. To select the optimal model, sixteen different combinations of six different lag attributes taking into account the effect of monthly, seasonal, and annual history were considered. The performances of the forecasting models were assessed using various forecasting skill indicators. Moreover, an uncertainty analysis of the developed forecasting models was performed to evaluate the ability of the hybrid ANFIS models. The bound width of 95% confidence interval (d-factor) and the percentage of observed samples which was enveloped by 95% forecasted uncertainties (95PPU) were used for this purpose. The results indicated that all the hybrid ANFIS models performed better than the conventional ANFIS and for all input combinations. The obtained results showed that the models with best input combinations had the (95PPU and d-factor) values of (91.67 and 1.41), (91.03 and 1.41), (89.74 and 1.42), and (88.46 and 1.43) for ANFIS-PSO, ANFIS-GA, ANFIS-DE, and the conventional ANFIS, respectively. Based on the 95PPU and d-factor, it is concluded that all hybrid ANFIS models have an acceptable degree of uncertainty in forecasting monthly rainfall. The results of this study proved that the hybrid ANFIS with an evolutionary algorithm is a reliable modeling technique for forecasting monthly rainfall.
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