Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050

Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached$8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and$1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4$2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7$1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

A multiphase ciliary flow of Casson fluid in a porous channel under the effects of electroosmosis and MHD: Exact solutions

The electro-osmosis effects on ciliary multiphase flow have broad applications in diverse fields, including microfluidics, biotechnology, chemical engineering, and environmental sciences. In the current analysis, the authors have elaborated the electro-osmosis effects on a ciliary two-phase channel flow of Casson fluid in the presence of solid particles and magnetic effects. The governing equations have been considered for the physical problem by applying the wave frame and dimensionless transformations. A lubrication approach has also been followed by the equations. Systems of differential equations have been solved on well-known software Mathematica by a built-in DSolve tool to acquire the exact solutions. From graphical evidences, it is observed that Helmholtz Smoluchowski velocity factor and solid particles contribution affects the electro-kinetic energy and reduces the flow speed

Thermosolutal natural convective transport in Casson fluid flow in star corrugated cavity with Inclined magnetic field

Diffusion mechanism generated because of thermal and solutal buoyant forces in star corrugated cavity filled with Casson liquid is envisioned in this study. Magnetic field making angle of inclination with enclosure is also taken into account. Rectangular plate with isothermal and isoconcentration distributions is installed. To measure optimized variation in associated distributions all the extremities of enclosure are kept at cold temperature and zero concentration. Governing equations are modelled by incorporating conservation laws. After then, complexly formulated model equations and their associated boundary constraint are change in dimensionless structure by obliging variables. Numerical simulations are performed by opting finite element based commercial software renowned as COMSOL. Domain is discretized in the form of triangular and rectangular elements by executing hybrid meshing. Afterwards, non-linear solver (PARADISO) is capitalized to handle system of non-linear equations. Mesh independence test is carried out to assure credibility of conducted simulations. Comparison of results with published literature is also displayed. Graphical and tabular representation describing change is associated fields (velocity, temperature and concentration) against wide range of involved parameters. Change in kinetic energy along with average Sherwood and Nusselt number against different magnitudes of Casson parameter is divulged through tables

One-pot synthesis, characterization and crystal structure determination of novel 1,4,5-Trisubstituted 1,2,3-Triazole with two conformational isomers: 1-Benzyl-5-((4- methoxyphenyl)ethynyl)-4-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole

The title compound 1-benzyl-5-((4-methoxyphenyl)ethynyl)-4-phenyl-1H-1,2,3- Triazole (C24H19N3O) was designed and synthesized using one-pot strategy and structural characterization was done by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, NMR, IR and MS. This compound was crystallized out from an ethanolic solution in triclinic system, space group P1 with a = 9.9038(9), b = 10.2928(9), c = 18.8715(19) Å, α = 103.541(6), β = 90.507(7), γ = 97.157(7)°, V = 1854.2(3) Å3, Z = 4, crystal size (mm) = 0.25 × 0.1 × 0.1 and Rint= 0.068. Its asymmetric unit contains two independent molecules. The crystal structure of the title compound is stabilized by intramolecular interactions of types C-H.........N and C-H.........O. Additionally, X-ray analysis reveals obvious C-H.........π, π-π stacking interactions between two adjacent aromatic ring planes

Semi-transparent thermo-electric cells based on bismuth telluride and its composites with CNTs and graphene

In this paper, semi-transparent thin film thermo-electric cells based on the composite of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3, p-type and n-type) with graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been reported. The voltage, current and Seebeck effect have been measured as a function of the temperature gradient. It was found that the addition of the CNTs and graphene in the Bi2Te3 matrix increase the thermo-electric current and the thermo-electric voltage of the Bi2Te3 based control cells. The thermoelectric performance of the Bi2Te3/CNTs composite was found to be superior as compared to the Bi2Te3/graphene composite. Furthermore, the addition of the CNTs or graphene in n- Bi2Te3 showed better improvement in thermo-electric properties as compared to their composite with p- Bi2Te3. Potentially, the semitransparent thermo-electric cells can be used for fabrication of special windows which can produce the electric power due to the temperature gradient.Scopu

Dechlorane Plus as an emerging environmental pollutant in Asia: A review

Dechlorane Plus (DP) is an unregulated, highly chlorinated flame retardant. It has been manufactured from past 40 years but its presence in the environment was initially reported in 2006. Later, it has been found in various biotic and abiotic environmental matrices. However, little attention has been paid to monitor its presence in Asia. Many studies have reported the occurrence of DP in the environment of Asia, yet the data are scarce, and studies are limited to few regions. The objective of present review is to summarize the occurrence, distribution, and toxicity of this ubiquitous pollutant in various environmental matrices (biotic and abiotic). DP has also been reported in the areas with no emission sources, which proves its long-range transport. Moreover, urbanization and industrialization also affect the distribution of DP, i.e., high levels of DP have been found in urban areas relative to the rural. Tidal movement also incorporates in transport of DP across the aquatic system. Further, bioaccumulation trend of DP in various tissues is kidney > liver > muscle tissues, whereas, blood brain barrier resists its accumulation in brain tissues. Additionally, gender-based accumulation trends revealed high DP levels in females in comparison to males due to strong metabolism of males. Furthermore, methodological aspects and instrumental analysis used in previous studies have also been summarized here. However, data on biomagnification in aquatic ecosystem and bioaccumulation of DP in terrestrial food web are still scarce. Toxicity behavior of syn-DP and anti-DP is still unknown which might gain the interest for future studies

Weed Management in Direct Seeded Rice Grown under Varying Tillage Systems and Alternate Water Regimes

<div><p>ABSTRACT: In direct seeded rice (DSR), flushes of weeds are encountered, and mostly subsequent herbicides need to apply to control weeds that appear later. A farmer friendly approach was hypothesized in present study to integrate the management strategies for water, soil and cost effective weed free rice production. Efficacy of various herbicides in weed control to improve the performance of aerobic rice grown under varying tillage and alternate water regimes was evaluated. Five weed management techniques (weedy check, weed-free, pendimethalin followed by manual weeding, pendimethalin + bispyribac sodium (BS) + bensulfuron (B) and pendimethalin + MCPA) were carried out within the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) regimes (15 and 20 cm depth) under two tillage systems (zero and conventional). All the herbicide treatments reduced the weed intensity as compared to weedy check, however minimum weed density and dry biomass was observed in pendimethalin at 40 and 60 days after sowing, respectively. Under conventional tillage, weed free plots showed maximum leaf area index, leaf area duration and crop growth rate. Maximum plant height, 1000-kernel weight and kernel per panicle along with less percentage of abortive, chalky and opaque kernels were recorded in pendimethalin followed by BS+B as compared to weedy check plots. Among the herbicides application, pendimethalin followed by BS+B gave highest benefit to cost ratio and net benefits under both AWD regimes. Overall, application of pendimethalin followed by BS+B is an efficient and economic approach to reduce weed infestation which results in improved yield of aerobic rice.</p></div