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

Ways to resolve the debt crisis of the eurozone through integration and disintegration processes

This article states the basic peculiarities of the behavior of the debt crisis in the Eurozone, and defines basic areas of overcoming this crisis. Based on the materials stated in this article, we made the following principal conclusions: The European Union is the most powerful and important economic and political union of states that plays the leading role in the global politics and world economy. The Eurozone formed in the European Union (economic currency union) consists of the strongest and rather weak economies. It affects the financial and economic state of the Eurozone (Euro-19), as well as the efficiency of managing state debt obligations. Further expansion of the European Union is characterized by the limiting factors, including by reason of the incompletion of institutionalization and integration processes in this economic and political union of countries. It creates new financial risks and potentiates the development of the debt problem. Solving the debt problem of the Eurozone has two variants (soft and tough models). The use of the tough model may finally cause the formation of the federative state (integration strengthening). It will affect national, economic, and political component of the European Union development. The use of the soft model can cause the disintegration, i.e. it will stipulate the exit of the economically weakest European countries from the zone. It will affect the reputation of the European Union and its positions in the world economy. Probably, in order to solve the debt problem, a complex of solutions will be used. It includes separate components of the soft and the tough models. It will also mean the transfer to a new institutional formation of the European Union, as well as legal basics of the economic and political union of European countries

Ways to resolve the debt crisis of the eurozone through integration and disintegration processes

This article states the basic peculiarities of the behavior of the debt crisis in the Eurozone, and defines basic areas of overcoming this crisis. Based on the materials stated in this article, we made the following principal conclusions: The European Union is the most powerful and important economic and political union of states that plays the leading role in the global politics and world economy. The Eurozone formed in the European Union (economic currency union) consists of the strongest and rather weak economies. It affects the financial and economic state of the Eurozone (Euro-19), as well as the efficiency of managing state debt obligations. Further expansion of the European Union is characterized by the limiting factors, including by reason of the incompletion of institutionalization and integration processes in this economic and political union of countries. It creates new financial risks and potentiates the development of the debt problem. Solving the debt problem of the Eurozone has two variants (soft and tough models). The use of the tough model may finally cause the formation of the federative state (integration strengthening). It will affect national, economic, and political component of the European Union development. The use of the soft model can cause the disintegration, i.e. it will stipulate the exit of the economically weakest European countries from the zone. It will affect the reputation of the European Union and its positions in the world economy. Probably, in order to solve the debt problem, a complex of solutions will be used. It includes separate components of the soft and the tough models. It will also mean the transfer to a new institutional formation of the European Union, as well as legal basics of the economic and political union of European countries

Cryobanking of Korean allium germplasm collections : results from a 10 year experience

This paper reviews a 10-year experience in establishing a cryopreserved Allium germplasm collection at the genebank of the National Agrobiodiversity Center, Republic of Korea. A systematic approach to Allium cryopreservation included: 1. revealing the most critical factors that affected regeneration after cryostorage; 2. understanding the mechanisms of cryoprotection by analyzing the thermal behavior of explants and cryoprotectant solutions using DSC and influx/efflux of cryoprotectants using HPLC; 3. assessing genetic stability of regenerants; and 4. revealing the efficiency of cryotherapy. Bulbil primordia, i.e. asexual bulbs formed on unripe inflorescences, proved to be the most suitable material for conservation of bolting varieties due to high post-cryopreservation regrowth and lower microbial infection level, followed by apical shoot apices from single bulbs and cloves. A total of 1,158 accessions of garlic as well as some Allium species have been cryopreserved during 2005-2010 using the droplet-vitrification technique with a mean regeneration percentage of 65.9% after cryostorage. These results open the door for large-scale implementation of cryostorage and for simplifying international exchange for clonal Allium germplasm

Calorimetry for Lepton Collider Experiments – CALICE results and activities

The CALICE collaboration conducts calorimeter R&D for highly granular calorimeters, mainly for their application in detectors for a future lepton collider at the TeV scale. The activities ranges from generic R&D with small devices up to extensive beam tests with prototypes comprising up to several 100000 calorimeter cells. CALICE has validated the performance of particle flow algorithms with test beam data and delivers the proof of principle that highly granular calorimeters can be built, operated and understood. The successes achieved in the past years allows the step from prototypes to calorimeter systems for particle physics detectors to be addressed