Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe

Investigation of the contact angles between various molten metals and substrates of niobium and zirconium. Final report. [Sessile drop technique]

The sessile drop technique was utilized for the determination of the contact angles between droplets of liquid tin, indium, and gallium; and substrates of niobium and zirconium. Contact angles, theta, were measured for various substrate surface roughness and over the temperature range 30 to 650/sup 0/C. Values of theta for all of these systems were found to be greater than 90/sup 0/ i.e., constituting a case of nonwetting between the liquid metals and the substrates. Three characteristic regions of the temperature dependence of contact angles were observed. A steady-state region in which the contact angle is relatively independent of temperature was preceded and followed by regions in which theta decreased rapidly with increasing temperature. For the steady-state or second region, contact angles were found to be independent of time whereas in the third region contact angles showed a decreasing trend with time at constant temperature. In accordance with theoretical predictions for theta greater than 90/sup 0/, increasing roughness of the substrate caused a corresponding increase in theta. Electron microprobe analyses showed that only the Ga--Zr system exhibited evidence of diffusion at the interface. Photographs of the sessile drop of this system over a period of time indicated that the drop had spread over a greater area thus supporting the possibility of a surface diffusion mass-transport process

Investigation of the sintering kinetics of lead powders. Final technical report

An analysis of the parameters involved in the sintering of lead powders under vacuum has been made. Sintering was accomplished at temperatures between 250/sup 0/ and 280/sup 0/C. Evaluation of surface area reduction data results in values of the mechanism exponent N between 5.3 and 6.7. Lack of shrinkage and the low vapor pressure of lead at the experimental temperatures lead to the conclusion that surface diffusion is the rate-controlling sintering mechanism. However, comparison of the experimentally measured activation energy, 170 kJ/mol (40.7 Kcal/mol), to that reported in the literature for surface self-diffusion of lead showed a significant discrepancy. Effects of pore isolation and surface oxide layers are proposed as possible explanations for this discrepancy as well as the deviation in the N values from those obtained theoretically. An attempt to isolate the effect of the oxide layer was made by sintering lead in a hydrogen atmosphere. Under these conditions, sintering is accompanied by shrinkage, thus indicating the presence of bulk-transport process. A mechanism exponent corresponding to viscous flow sintering was obtained. Furthermore, the calculated activation energy for this process was in good agreement with that reported for creep in lead

Policies for agricultural productivity growth and poverty reduction in rural Ethiopia

Increasing the productivity of smallholder agriculture holds the key to poverty reduction. The empirical literature is limited to ascertain the linkages and the implications for policy uptake in Ethiopia. We examine the impact of growth in agricultural productivity on household poverty dynamics in rural Ethiopia using a panel data set (1994–2009). Findings suggest that government policies aimed at reducing poverty should adopt a growth plus approach—designing policy interventions to support agricultural productivity growth, plus to protect assets and enhance market access for rural households in the country