Frequency-reuse planning of the down-link of distributed antenna systems with maximum-ratio-combining (MRC) receivers

Distributed antenna systems (DAS) have been shown to considerably outperform conventional cellular systems in terms of capacity improvement and interference resilience. However, the influence of frequency reuse planning on the performance of DAS remains relatively unknown. To partially fill this gap, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the down-link of DAS versus conventional cellular systems using different values of frequency reuse factor. The analysis assumes Rayleigh fading channels and it also considers maximum-ratio-combining (MRC) receivers at the user terminals to exploit diversity both in the transmission and reception links. Numerical evaluation of the analytical expressions shows that, in general, for most of the cases DAS can achieve better performance figures than conventional cellular systems using considerably smaller values of frequency reuse factor. Conversely, DAS can significantly improve the throughput (2x-3x) and power consumption (6-10 dB) of conventional systems when using the same frequency reuse factor. An interesting result shows that in some particular cases DAS outperform conventional cellular systems no matter the frequency reuse factor used by the latter one, which indicates an effective capacity gain provided by the combined operation of DAS and MRC receivers

Ecological and Physiological Studies of Gymnodinium catenatum in the Mexican Pacific: A Review

This review presents a detailed analysis of the state of knowledge of studies done in Mexico related to the dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum, a paralytic toxin producer. This species was first reported in the Gulf of California in 1939; since then most studies in Mexico have focused on local blooms and seasonal variations. G. catenatum is most abundant during March and April, usually associated with water temperatures between 18 and 25 ºC and an increase in nutrients. In vitro studies of G. catenatum strains from different bays along the Pacific coast of Mexico show that this species can grow in wide ranges of salinities, temperatures, and N:P ratios. Latitudinal differences are observed in the toxicity and toxin profile, but the presence of dcSTX, dcGTX2-3, C1, and C2 are usual components. A common characteristic of the toxin profile found in shellfish, when G. catenatum is present in the coastal environment, is the detection of dcGTX2-3, dcSTX, C1, and C2. Few bioassay studies have reported effects in mollusks and lethal effects in mice, and shrimp; however no adverse effects have been observed in the copepod Acartia clausi. Interestingly, genetic sequencing of D1-D2 LSU rDNA revealed that it differs only in one base pair, compared with strains from other regions

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980-2015 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background Improving survival and extending the longevity of life for all populations requires timely, robust evidence on local mortality levels and trends. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides a comprehensive assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. These results informed an in-depth investigation of observed and expected mortality patterns based on sociodemographic measures. Methods We estimated all-cause mortality by age, sex, geography, and year using an improved analytical approach originally developed for GBD 2013 and GBD 2010. Improvements included refinements to the estimation of child and adult mortality and corresponding uncertainty, parameter selection for under-5 mortality synthesis by spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, and sibling history data processing. We also expanded the database of vital registration, survey, and census data to 14 294 geography-year datapoints. For GBD 2015, eight causes, including Ebola virus disease, were added to the previous GBD cause list for mortality. We used six modelling approaches to assess cause-specific mortality, with the Cause of Death Ensemble Model (CODEm) generating estimates for most causes. We used a series of novel analyses to systematically quantify the drivers of trends in mortality across geographies. First, we assessed observed and expected levels and trends of cause-specific mortality as they relate to the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary indicator derived from measures of income per capita, educational attainment, and fertility. Second, we examined factors affecting total mortality patterns through a series of counterfactual scenarios, testing the magnitude by which population growth, population age structures, and epidemiological changes contributed to shifts in mortality. Finally, we attributed changes in life expectancy to changes in cause of death. We documented each step of the GBD 2015 estimation processes, as well as data sources, in accordance with Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER). Findings Globally, life expectancy from birth increased from 61.7 years (95% uncertainty interval 61.4-61.9) in 1980 to 71.8 years (71.5-72.2) in 2015. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa had very large gains in life expectancy from 2005 to 2015, rebounding from an era of exceedingly high loss of life due to HIV/AIDS. At the same time, many geographies saw life expectancy stagnate or decline, particularly for men and in countries with rising mortality from war or interpersonal violence. From 2005 to 2015, male life expectancy in Syria dropped by 11.3 years (3.7-17.4), to 62.6 years (56.5-70.2). Total deaths increased by 4.1% (2.6-5.6) from 2005 to 2015, rising to 55.8 million (54.9 million to 56.6 million) in 2015, but age-standardised death rates fell by 17.0% (15.8-18.1) during this time, underscoring changes in population growth and shifts in global age structures. The result was similar for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with total deaths from these causes increasing by 14.1% (12.6-16.0) to 39.8 million (39.2 million to 40.5 million) in 2015, whereas age-standardised rates decreased by 13.1% (11.9-14.3). Globally, this mortality pattern emerged for several NCDs, including several types of cancer, ischaemic heart disease, cirrhosis, and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. By contrast, both total deaths and age-standardised death rates due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, gains largely attributable to decreases in mortality rates due to HIV/AIDS (42.1%, 39.1-44.6), malaria (43.1%, 34.7-51.8), neonatal preterm birth complications (29.8%, 24.8-34.9), and maternal disorders (29.1%, 19.3-37.1). Progress was slower for several causes, such as lower respiratory infections and nutritional deficiencies, whereas deaths increased for others, including dengue and drug use disorders. Age-standardised death rates due to injuries significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, yet interpersonal violence and war claimed increasingly more lives in some regions, particularly in the Middle East. In 2015, rotaviral enteritis (rotavirus) was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to diarrhoea (146 000 deaths, 118 000-183 000) and pneumococcal pneumonia was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to lower respiratory infections (393 000 deaths, 228 000-532 000), although pathogen-specific mortality varied by region. Globally, the effects of population growth, ageing, and changes in age-standardised death rates substantially differed by cause. Our analyses on the expected associations between cause-specific mortality and SDI show the regular shifts in cause of death composition and population age structure with rising SDI. Country patterns of premature mortality (measured as years of life lost [YLLs]) and how they differ from the level expected on the basis of SDI alone revealed distinct but highly heterogeneous patterns by region and country or territory. Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes were among the leading causes of YLLs in most regions, but in many cases, intraregional results sharply diverged for ratios of observed and expected YLLs based on SDI. Communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases caused the most YLLs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with observed YLLs far exceeding expected YLLs for countries in which malaria or HIV/AIDS remained the leading causes of early death. Interpretation At the global scale, age-specific mortality has steadily improved over the past 35 years; this pattern of general progress continued in the past decade. Progress has been faster in most countries than expected on the basis of development measured by the SDI. Against this background of progress, some countries have seen falls in life expectancy, and age-standardised death rates for some causes are increasing. Despite progress in reducing age-standardised death rates, population growth and ageing mean that the number of deaths from most non-communicable causes are increasing in most countries, putting increased demands on health systems. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Forging the neoliberal competitiveness agenda: planning policy and practice in the Dutch and Colombian cut-flower commodity chains

This paper analyzes comparatively the role of planning policy and practice in the diffusion of the neoliberal competitiveness agenda to improve the position of the Dutch and Colombian cut-flower agroindustries in world markets. The Netherlands seeks to meet national competitive aims by deploying an infrastructure approach to planning, coupled with a framing concept to generate cross-scale coordination. The Colombian government seeks to diffuse the competitiveness agenda through the formation of institutional arrangements at the national scale and processes of decentralization, yet it meets resistance from municipal governments through their land-use plans. The findings indicate that national governments rely on context-specific mechanisms and endogenous planning tools to diffuse the competitiveness agenda across scales. While this partially accounts for variation in its diffusion, the findings point to the significance of the social organization of commodity chains in the uptake of the competitiveness agenda subnationally. The analysis draws from field research in the Netherlands and Colombia, and the critical examination of planning policy and practice in both sites

Effectiveness of a web platform on university students’ motivation to quit smoking

Objetivo: conhecer a dependência da nicotina e a motivação para parar de fumar em estudantes de Enfermagem e Fisioterapia de uma universidade no sul da Espanha e avaliar o impacto de uma intervenção baseada no uso de tecnologias da informação na motivação para parar de fumar. Método: estudo piloto em duas fases: a primeira transversal e a segunda de intervenção antes-depois. A motivação para parar de fumar foi avaliada usando o questionário Richmond, a dependência da nicotina através do questionário de Fagerström e uma intervenção baseada no uso de uma plataforma online foi realizada para aumentar a motivação para parar de fumar. Estatística descritiva e inferencial foram aplicadas. Resultados: a prevalência de consumo de tabaco foi de 4,33% (n=29). 3,45% dos participantes tinham alta dependência e 6,90%, alta motivação. O nível de motivação não foi alterado após a intervenção (p=0,10). Conclusão: a maioria dos estudantes tem baixo nível de motivação para parar de fumar e dependência física à nicotina. O nível de motivação para parar de fumar não é diferente após a realização da intervenção.Objetivo: conocer la dependencia a la nicotina y la motivación para el cese tabáquico en estudiantes de Enfermería y Fisioterapia de una universidad del sur de España y evaluar el efecto de una intervención basada en el uso de tecnologías de la información en la motivación para el cese tabáquico. Método: estudio piloto de dos fases: la primera transversal y la segunda de intervención antes-después. Se valoró la motivación para dejar de fumar mediante el cuestionario Richmond, la dependencia a la nicotina a través del cuestionario Fagerström, y se llevó a cabo una intervención basada en el uso de una plataforma web para incrementar la motivación del cese tabáquico. Se aplicó estadística descriptiva e inferencial. Resultados: la prevalencia de consumo de tabaco fue del 4.33% (n=29). El 3.45% de los participantes presentó alta dependencia, y el 6.90%, alta motivación. El nivel de motivación no se vio alterado tras la intervención (p=0.10). Conclusión: la mayor parte de los estudiantes tiene un nivel bajo de motivación para dejar de fumar y de dependencia física a la nicotina. El nivel de motivación para el cese tabáquico no es diferente tras realizar la intervención.Objective: to know the dependence on nicotine and the motivation to quit smoking in Nursing and Physiotherapy students of a university in the South of Spain, and to evaluate the impact of an intervention based on the use of information technologies on the motivation to quit smoking. Method: a pilot study in two phases: the first being cross-sectional and the second, a before-and-after intervention. The motivation to quit smoking was assessed by means of the Richmond questionnaire, and the dependence on nicotine through the Fagerström questionnaire; additionally, an intervention was performed based on the use of a web platform to increase motivation to quit smoking. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. Results: the prevalence in the use of tobacco was 4.33% (n=29). 3.45% of the participants had a high level of dependence; and 6.90%, a high level of motivation. The level of motivation did not change after the intervention (p=0.10). Conclusion: most of the students have low levels of motivation to quit smoking and of physical dependence to nicotine. The level of motivation to quit smoking does not change after performing the intervention