Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality and life expectancy, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

BACKGROUND: Assessments of age-specific mortality and life expectancy have been done by the UN Population Division, Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UNPOP), the United States Census Bureau, WHO, and as part of previous iterations of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD). Previous iterations of the GBD used population estimates from UNPOP, which were not derived in a way that was internally consistent with the estimates of the numbers of deaths in the GBD. The present iteration of the GBD, GBD 2017, improves on previous assessments and provides timely estimates of the mortality experience of populations globally. METHODS: The GBD uses all available data to produce estimates of mortality rates between 1950 and 2017 for 23 age groups, both sexes, and 918 locations, including 195 countries and territories and subnational locations for 16 countries. Data used include vital registration systems, sample registration systems, household surveys (complete birth histories, summary birth histories, sibling histories), censuses (summary birth histories, household deaths), and Demographic Surveillance Sites. In total, this analysis used 8259 data sources. Estimates of the probability of death between birth and the age of 5 years and between ages 15 and 60 years are generated and then input into a model life table system to produce complete life tables for all locations and years. Fatal discontinuities and mortality due to HIV/AIDS are analysed separately and then incorporated into the estimation. We analyse the relationship between age-specific mortality and development status using the Socio-demographic Index, a composite measure based on fertility under the age of 25 years, education, and income. There are four main methodological improvements in GBD 2017 compared with GBD 2016: 622 additional data sources have been incorporated; new estimates of population, generated by the GBD study, are used; statistical methods used in different components of the analysis have been further standardised and improved; and the analysis has been extended backwards in time by two decades to start in 1950. FINDINGS: Globally, 18·7% (95% uncertainty interval 18·4–19·0) of deaths were registered in 1950 and that proportion has been steadily increasing since, with 58·8% (58·2–59·3) of all deaths being registered in 2015. At the global level, between 1950 and 2017, life expectancy increased from 48·1 years (46·5–49·6) to 70·5 years (70·1–70·8) for men and from 52·9 years (51·7–54·0) to 75·6 years (75·3–75·9) for women. Despite this overall progress, there remains substantial variation in life expectancy at birth in 2017, which ranges from 49·1 years (46·5–51·7) for men in the Central African Republic to 87·6 years (86·9–88·1) among women in Singapore. The greatest progress across age groups was for children younger than 5 years; under-5 mortality dropped from 216·0 deaths (196·3–238·1) per 1000 livebirths in 1950 to 38·9 deaths (35·6–42·83) per 1000 livebirths in 2017, with huge reductions across countries. Nevertheless, there were still 5·4 million (5·2–5·6) deaths among children younger than 5 years in the world in 2017. Progress has been less pronounced and more variable for adults, especially for adult males, who had stagnant or increasing mortality rates in several countries. The gap between male and female life expectancy between 1950 and 2017, while relatively stable at the global level, shows distinctive patterns across super-regions and has consistently been the largest in central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia, and smallest in south Asia. Performance was also variable across countries and time in observed mortality rates compared with those expected on the basis of development. INTERPRETATION: This analysis of age-sex-specific mortality shows that there are remarkably complex patterns in population mortality across countries. The findings of this study highlight global successes, such as the large decline in under-5 mortality, which reflects significant local, national, and global commitment and investment over several decades. However, they also bring attention to mortality patterns that are a cause for concern, particularly among adult men and, to a lesser extent, women, whose mortality rates have stagnated in many countries over the time period of this study, and in some cases are increasing

Modelling Nutrient Leaching Below Crop Root Zone of Onion under Drip Fertigation

An experiment was conducted during the year 2008 and 2009 to study nutrient distribution (phosphorus, P; potassium, K and sulphur, S) under different fertigation strategies and to quantify the leaching of nutrients in onion crop. The study involved field experiment, laboratory analysis and modelling of P, K and S leaching and scenario generation for different types of soil and emitter discharge rates. Field data were used to calibrate and validate HYDRUS-2D model for solute transport. From the model performance parameters, HYDRUS-2D model was found to be good for predicting the P, K and S distribution in soil. The validated model was used for the simulations which were carried out on different soil types as well as with different fertigation and irrigation strategies. The results revealed that leaching of these nutrients was negligible in fine textured silty clay loam soil, whereas highest leaching occurred in coarse textured sandy loam soil. While considering discharge rate, more leaching was observed in case of emitter with higher discharge rate. Fertigation strategy also played an important role in leaching of P, K and S. Maximum leaching was observed in fertigation during first half of irrigation duration, whereas minimum leaching of P, K and S was observed with fertigation during second half of irrigation duration with two-day irrigation interval. It was concluded that 2.5 l.h-1 emitter discharge rate is suitable to reduce the leaching of nutrients, as well as minimize the free drainage of water with two-day irrigation interval in onion field

Response of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) to Trickle Irrigation under Different Irrigation Intervals, N Application Rate and Crop Geometry

Field experiments were conducted on the sandy loam soils of Center for Protected Cultivation Technology (CPCT), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India during October - February seasons for 2 years (2008-2010) to evaluate the economic feasibility of trickle irrigation in combination with different irrigation intervals, N application rate and crop geometry for lettuce crop. Reference evapo-transpiration for lettuce crop was estimated using FAO-56 Penman-Monteith method. The net irrigation volume (V) was determined after deducting the effective rainfall. The plan of experiment included three crop geometries [45×30 (G1); 30×30 (G2) and 17.5×30 (G3) (Row × Plant spacing in cm)], two irrigation schedules [2 day (I1) and 4 day (I2) interval] and 2 levels of nitrogen application [60 kg ha-1 (N1) and 100 kg ha-1 (N2)]. For both the experiments, three replications were given. The study indicated that 2 day irrigation interval with 100 kg N ha-1 application in 17.5 × 30cm crop geometry gave the highest yield (41.4 t ha-1) with 6 per cent increase in yield as compared to rest of the treatments. The same treatment has resulted into maximum net seasonal income, benefit-cost ratio (BCR) and lowest payback period for both the years, respectively

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Not AvailableIn view of increasing groundwater pumping to meet irrigation demand of major crops there is a need to use groundwater efficiently. A study was conducted at Rasoolpur jatan village of Muzaffarnagar district to determine the crop water requirement (Et ) c and irrigation scheduling of sugarcane, maize and wheat using CROPWAT 8.0 model. In the study area, reference evapotranspiration (ET ) varied from 1.89 to 7.33 mm day 1 o similarly effective rainfall (R ) varied from 0 to 148.4 mm. At the initial stage ET of eff c maize and wheat were found to be lower (28.8 mm and 36.4 mm) and for sugarcane it was maximum (50.6 mm). During the mid–season stage water requirement (ET ) for c wheat was minimum (141.4 mm) and maximum for sugarcane (1098.9 mm). The peak water requirement was 9.27 mm day–1 with application efficiency of 60%. The average crop water demand estimated for sugarcane, maize and wheat were 1580 mm, 387.7 mm and 315.4 mm whereas net irrigation requirement (NIR) were 1072 mm,138.2 mm and 192.1 mm, respectively. Proper irrigation scheduling can save 20.05 ha–m and 2.64 ha–m of groundwater in sugarcane and wheat. The study shows that R was not eff sufficient to meet the water requirement of sugarcane, maize and wheat crops. Hence irrigation is needed to meet water requirement of crops and appropriate scheduling practice may be followed in the study area to reduce the load on the groundwater.Not Availabl

Voluntary development of environmental management systems: motivations and regulatory implications

Encouraging firms to develop voluntarily more comprehensive environmental management systems (EMSs) is touted as a policy tool to augment mandatory environmental regulations. Using a unique dataset of environmental management practices of Japanese manufacturers and controlling for self-selection bias in survey responses, we find that proxies for regulatory pressures and consumer pressures are the most important factors that motivate firms toward more comprehensive EMSs. Despite the oft-claimed “voluntary” nature of EMS development, our results show that the government may have a role to play in both directly and indirectly affecting EMS development by firms. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Environmental management, Japan, Pollution, Voluntary approaches, Q5, L5,