Global patterns of healthy life expectancy in the year 2002

BACKGROUND: Healthy life expectancy – sometimes called health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) – is a form of health expectancy indicator that extends measures of life expectancy to account for the distribution of health states in the population. The World Health Organization reports on healthy life expectancy for 192 WHO Member States. This paper describes variation in average levels of population health across these countries and by sex for the year 2002. METHODS: Mortality was analysed for 192 countries and disability from 135 causes assessed for 17 regions of the world. Health surveys in 61 countries were analyzed using new methods to improve the comparability of self-report data. RESULTS: Healthy life expectancy at birth ranged from 40 years for males in Africa to over 70 years for females in developed countries in 2002. The equivalent "lost" healthy years ranged from 15% of total life expectancy at birth in Africa to 8–9% in developed countries. CONCLUSION: People living in poor countries not only face lower life expectancies than those in richer countries but also live a higher proportion of their lives in poor health

European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA)/Heart Rhythm Society (HRS)/Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS)/Latin American Heart Rhythm Society (LAHRS) expert consensus on risk assessment in cardiac arrhythmias: use the right tool for the right outcome, in the right population.

In clinical practice and for scientific purposes, cardiologists and primary care physicians perform risk assessment in patients with cardiac diseases or conditions with high risk of developing such. The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS), and the Latin American Heart Rhythm Society (LAHRS) set down this expert consensus statement task force to summarize the consensus regarding risk assessment in cardiac arrhythmias. Objectives were to raise awareness of using the right risk assessment tool for a given outcome in a given population, and to provide physicians with practical proposals that may lead to rational and evidence-based risk assessment and improvement of patient care in this regard. A large variety of methods are used for risk assessment and choosing the best methods and tools hereof in a given situation is not simple. Even though parameters and test results found associated with increased risk of one outcome (e.g. death) may also be associated with higher risk of other adverse outcomes, specific risk assessment strategies should be used only for the purposes for which they are validated. The work of this task force is summarized in a row of consensus statement tables

Middle-Tier Extensible Data Management

this paper, we discuss how extensible, middle-tier data management can address the twin challenges of flexibility and efficiency for today's e-commerce applications. Specifically, we make several contributions: . We present an architecture for deploying eXtensible Data Management in the middle tier of an ecommerce applicatio

Extensible Data Management in the Middle-Tier

Current data management solutions are largely optimized for intra-enterprise, client-server applications. They depend on predictability, predefined structure, and universal administrative control, and cannot easily cope with change and lack of structure. However, modern ecommerce applications are dynamic, unpredictable, organic, and decentralized, and require adaptability. eXtensible Data Management (XDM) is a new approach that enables rapid development and deployment of networked, data-intensive services by providing semantically-rich, high-performance middle-tier data management, and allows heterogeneous data from different sources to be accessed in a uniform manner. Here, we discuss how middle tier extensible data management can benefit an enterprise, and present technical details and examples from the Index Fabric, an XDM engine we have implemented. 1

Role of Hydrogen-Bonding in the Formation of Polar Achiral and Nonpolar Chiral Vanadium Selenite Frameworks

A series of organically templated vanadium selenites have been prepared under mild hydrothermal conditions. Single crystals were grown from mixtures of VOSO4, SeO2, and either 1,4-dimethylpiperazine, 2,5-dimethylpiperazine, or 2-methylpiperazine in H2O. Each compound contains one-dimensional [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](n)(n-), secondary building units, which connect to form three-dimensional frameworks in the presence of 2,5-dimethylpiperazine or 2-methylpiperazine. Differences in composition and both intra-secondary building unit and organic-inorganic hydrogen-bonding between compounds dictate the dimensionality of the resulting inorganic structures. [1,4-dimethylpiperazineH(2)] [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](2) contains one-dimensional [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](n)(n-) chains, while [2,5-dimethylpiperazineH(2)] [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](2)center dot 2H(2)O contains a three-dimensional [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](n)(n-) framework. The use of racemic 2-methylpiperazine also results in a compound containing a three-dimensional [VO(SeO3)(HSeO3)](n)(n-) framework, crystallizing in the noncentrosymmetric polar, achiral space group Pca2(1) (no. 29), while analogous reactions containing either (R)-2-methylpiperazine or (S)-2-methylpiperazine result in noncentrosymmetric, nonpolar chiral frameworks that crystallize in P2(1)2(1)2 (no. 18). The formation of these noncentrosymmetric framework materials is dictated by the structure, symmetry, and hydrogen-bonding properties of the [2-methylpiperazineH(2)](2+) cations. --auhtor-supplied descriptio

Understanding an Order-Disorder Phase Transition in Ionothermally Synthesized Gallium Phosphates

A physical phase transition in some organically templated gallium phosphates is discussed. Differences associated with the use of ionic liquids as the reaction solvent are also discussed. Two Haverford undergraduates appears as co-authors.--author-supplied descriptio

Role of Hydrogen-Bonding in the Formation of Polar Achiral and Nonpolar Chiral Vanadium Selenite Frameworks

A series of organically templated vanadium selenites have been prepared under mild hydrothermal conditions. Single crystals were grown from mixtures of VOSO₄, SeO₂, and either 1,4-dimethylpiperazine, 2,5-dimethylpiperazine, or 2-methylpiperazine in H₂O. Each compound contains one-dimensional [VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]_n^n‑ secondary building units, which connect to form three-dimensional frameworks in the presence of 2,5-dimethylpiperazine or 2-methylpiperazine. Differences in composition and both <i>intra</i>-secondary building unit and organic–inorganic hydrogen-bonding between compounds dictate the dimensionality of the resulting inorganic structures. [1,4-dimethylpiperazineH₂]­[VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]₂ contains one-dimensional [VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]_n^n‑ chains, while [2,5-dimethylpiperazineH₂]­[VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]₂·2H₂O contains a three-dimensional [VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]_n^n‑ framework. The use of racemic 2-methylpiperazine also results in a compound containing a three-dimensional [VO­(SeO₃)­(HSeO₃)]_n^n‑ framework, crystallizing in the noncentrosymmetric polar, achiral space group <i>Pca</i>2₁ (no. 29), while analogous reactions containing either (<i>R</i>)-2-methylpiperazine or (<i>S</i>)-2-methylpiperazine result in noncentrosymmetric, nonpolar chiral frameworks that crystallize in <i>P</i>2₁2₁2 (no. 18). The formation of these noncentrosymmetric framework materials is dictated by the structure, symmetry, and hydrogen-bonding properties of the [2-methylpiperazineH₂]²⁺ cations