World Health Organization Member States and Open Health Data: An Observational Study

BackgroundOpen health data has implications for clinical care, research, public health, and health policy at regional, national, and global levels. No published attempts have been made to determine, collectively, whether WHO member states and governments have embraced the promise and effort required to officially share open health data. The observational study will provide evidence that World Health Organization (WHO) member states individually and collectively have adopted open data recommended principles, providing access to open health data. MethodsUsing the WHO list of member states (n=194), the researchers identified the presence of open health data or initiatives. With each country, the following types of official government web pages were recorded: a Ministry of Health web page; a conspicuous link on a government web page to open health data; additional government health web sites; national government-sponsored open data repositories; unique attributes of national health data web sites; and adherence to the principles of open government data for health. A supplemental PDF file provides a representation of data used for analysis and observations. Our complete data is available at: https://goo.gl/Kwj7mb Observations and DiscussionOpen health data is easily discoverable in less than one-third of the WHO member states. 13 nations demonstrate the principle to provide comprehensive open data. Only 16 nations distribute primary, non-aggregated health data. 24 % of the WHO observed member states are providing some health data in a non-proprietary formats such as comma-separated values. The sixth, seventh, and eighth open government data principles for health, representing universal access, non-proprietary formats, and non-patent protection, are observed in about one-third of the WHO member states. While there are examples of organized national open health data, no more than a one-third minority of the world’s nations have portals set up to systematically share open health data. At least 15 WHO member states are observed to not even have a government health ministry representation online. ConclusionWe hope the data collected in our Google Sheet and the discussion provided in this paper will generate international interest and advocacy for open health data

The effect of calcium co-ingestion on exogenous glucose oxidation during endurance exercise in healthy men:A pilot study

The benefits of high exogenous glucose availability for endurance exercise performance are well-established. Exogenous glucose oxidation rates are thought to be limited by intestinal glucose transport. Extracellular calcium in rodent intestine increases the translocation of the intestinal glucose transporter GLUT2 which, if translated to humans, could increase the capacity for exogenous glucose availability during exercise. Therefore, this pilot study aimed to explore the effect of calcium co-ingestion during endurance exercise on exogenous glucose oxidation in healthy men. Eight healthy men cycled for 2 h at 50% peak power output, ingesting either 1.2 g min −1 dextrose alone (GLU) or with the addition of 2000 mg calcium (GLU + CAL), in a randomised crossover design. Expired breath samples were collected to determine whole-body and exogenous glucose oxidation. Peak exogenous glucose oxidation during GLU was 0.83 ± 0.15 g min −1, and was not enhanced during GLU + CAL (0.88 ± 0.11 g min −1, p = 0.541). The relative contributions of exogenous carbohydrate (19 ± 3% vs. 20 ± 2%, p = 0.434), endogenous carbohydrate (65 ± 3% vs. 65 ± 3%, p = 0.822) and fat (16 ± 3% vs. 15 ± 3%, p = 0.677) to total substrate utilisation did not differ between trials. These results suggest the addition of calcium to glucose ingestion, at saturating glucose ingestion rates, does not appear to alter exogenous glucose oxidation during endurance exercise in healthy men. </p

Shining Light on the Microscopic Resonant Mechanism Responsible for Cavity-Mediated Chemical Reactivity

Strong light-matter interaction in cavity environments has emerged as a promising and general approach to control chemical reactions in a non-intrusive manner. The underlying mechanism that distinguishes between steering, accelerating, or decelerating a chemical reaction has, however, remained thus far largely unclear, hampering progress in this frontier area of research. In this work, we leverage a combination of first-principles techniques, foremost quantum-electrodynamical density functional theory, applied to the recent experimental realization by Thomas et al. [1] to unveil the microscopic mechanism behind the experimentally observed reduced reaction-rate under resonant vibrational strong light-matter coupling. We find that the cavity mode functions as a mediator between different vibrational eigenmodes, transferring vibrational excitation and anharmonicity, correlating vibrations, and ultimately strengthening the chemical bond of interest. Importantly, the resonant feature observed in experiment, theoretically elusive so far, naturally arises in our investigations. Our theoretical predictions in polaritonic chemistry shine new light on cavity induced mechanisms, providing a crucial control strategy in state-of-the-art photocatalysis and energy conversion, pointing the way towards generalized quantum optical control of chemical systems

Dynamics of photo-induced ferromagnetism in oxides with orbital degeneracy

By using intense coherent electromagnetic radiation, it may be possible to manipulate the properties of quantum materials very quickly, or even induce new and potentially useful phases that are absent in equilibrium. For instance, ultrafast control of magnetic dynamics is crucial for a number of proposed spintronic devices and can also shed light on the possible dynamics of correlated phases out of equilibrium. Inspired by recent experiments on spin-orbital ferromagnet YTiO3 we consider the nonequilibrium dynamics of Heisenberg ferromagnetic insulator with low-lying orbital excitations. We model the dynamics of the magnon excitations in this system following an optical pulse which resonantly excites infrared-active phonon modes. As the phonons ring down they can dynamically couple the orbitals with the low-lying magnons, leading to a dramatically modified effective bath for the magnons. We show this transient coupling can lead to a dynamical acceleration of the magnetization dynamics, which is otherwise bottlenecked by small anisotropy. Exploring the parameter space more we find that the magnon dynamics can also even completely reverse, leading to a negative relaxation rate when the pump is blue-detuned with respect to the orbital bath resonance. We therefore show that by using specially targeted optical pulses, one can exert a much greater degree of control over the magnetization dynamics, allowing one to optically steer magnetic order in this system. We conclude by discussing interesting parallels between the magnetization dynamics we find here and recent experiments on photo-induced superconductivity, where it is similarly observed that depending on the initial pump frequency, an apparent metastable superconducting phase emerges

UV Spectral Characterization of Low-Mass Stars With AstroSat UVIT for Exoplanet Applications: The Case Study of HIP 23309

Characterizing rocky exoplanet atmospheres is a key goal of exoplanet science, but interpreting such observations will require understanding the stellar UV irradiation incident on the planet from its host star. Stellar UV mediates atmospheric escape, photochemistry, and planetary habitability, and observations of rocky exoplanets can only be understood in the context of the UV SED of their host stars. Particularly important are SEDs from observationally favorable but poorly understood low-mass M-dwarf stars, which are the only plausible targets for rocky planet atmospheric characterization for the next 1-2 decades. In this work, we explore the utility of AstroSat UVIT for the characterization of the UV SEDs of low-mass stars. We present observations of the nearby M0 star HIP 23309 in the FUV and NUV gratings of UVIT. Our FUV spectra are consistent with contemporaneous HST data and our NUV spectra are stable between orbits, suggesting UVIT is a viable tool for the characterization of the SEDs of low-mass stars. We apply our measured spectra to simulations of photochemistry and habitability for a hypothetical rocky planet orbiting HIP 23309 and elucidate the utility and limitations of UVIT in deriving UV SEDs of M-dwarf exoplanet hosts. Our work validates UVIT as a tool to complement HST in the characterization of exoplanet host stars and carries implications for its successor missions like INSIST.Comment: Accepted to A

Storage Life of an Aluminised HE Composition .

Most high explosive compositions are organic in nature and they tend to undergo slow decomposition during storage under different environmental conditions. The decomposition degrade the molecular stability of the explosive, thereby resulting in reduced performance and service life. The knowledge of decomposition behaviour of the explosive mass determines the storage life of the composition. Hence, change in the chemical stability, sensitivity, mechanical strength and performance are of utmost importance in the prediction of storage life of explosive/ammunitions systems. This paper presents the results on the rate of gas evolution, change in sensitivity, and thermal stability and weight loss of high explosive compositions, viz., Dentex and TNT when exposed to elevated temperature. Based on the collected data, a tentative storage life for the aluminised (Dentex) composition has been computed to be 15 years. The data has been compared with TNT, a standard explosive for assessing the storage life