PV-Powered CoMP-Based Green Cellular Networks with a Standby Grid Supply

This paper proposes a novel framework for PV-powered cellular networks with a standby grid supply and an essential energy management technique for achieving envisaged green networks. The proposal considers an emerging cellular network architecture employing two types of coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission techniques for serving the subscribers. Under the proposed framework, each base station (BS) is powered by an individual PV solar energy module having an independent storage device. BSs are also connected to the conventional grid supply for meeting additional energy demand. We also propose a dynamic inter-BS solar energy sharing policy through a transmission line for further greening the proposed network by minimizing the consumption from the grid supply. An extensive simulation-based study in the downlink of a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular system is carried out for evaluating the energy efficiency performance of the proposed framework. System performance is also investigated for identifying the impact of various system parameters including storage factor, storage capacity, solar generation capacity, transmission line loss, and different CoMP techniques.Comment: 14 pages, International Journal of Photoenergy, 6189468, 201

Turn on the Lights: Macroeconomic Factors Affecting Renewable in Pakistan

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between macroeconomic factors (i.e., population growth; urbanization, industrialization, exchange rate, price level, food production index and live stock production index) and renewable energy in Pakistan over a period of 1975-2012. In addition, this study uses oil rent as an intervening variable to overcome the biasness of the single equation model. The results indicate that macroeconomic factors positively contributed to renewable energy consumption in Pakistan. The causality test indicate that there is a unidirectional causality running towards macroeconomic factors to renewable energy in Pakistan, however, renewable energy Granger cause oil rent but not via other route. In addition, there is bidirectional causality between exchange rate and live stock production in Pakistan. Variance decomposition analysis shows that economic growth has a major contribution to increase renewable energy in Pakistan

Turn on the Lights: Macroeconomic Factors Affecting Renewable in Pakistan

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between macroeconomic factors (i.e., population growth; urbanization, industrialization, exchange rate, price level, food production index and live stock production index) and renewable energy in Pakistan over a period of 1975-2012. In addition, this study uses oil rent as an intervening variable to overcome the biasness of the single equation model. The results indicate that macroeconomic factors positively contributed to renewable energy consumption in Pakistan. The causality test indicate that there is a unidirectional causality running towards macroeconomic factors to renewable energy in Pakistan, however, renewable energy Granger cause oil rent but not via other route. In addition, there is bidirectional causality between exchange rate and live stock production in Pakistan. Variance decomposition analysis shows that economic growth has a major contribution to increase renewable energy in Pakistan

Safety and effi cacy of alternative antibiotic regimens compared with 7 day injectable procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin for outpatient treatment of neonates and young infants with clinical signs of severe infection when referral is not possible: a randomised, open-label, equivalence trial

Background Severe infections remain one of the main causes of neonatal deaths worldwide. Possible severe infection is diagnosed in young infants (aged 0–59 days) according to the presence of one or more clinical signs. The recommended treatment is hospital admission with 7–10 days of injectable antibiotic therapy. In low-income and middle-income countries, barriers to hospital care lead to delayed, inadequate, or no treatment for many young infants. We aimed to identify eff ective alternative antibiotic regimens to expand treatment options for situations where hospital admission is not possible. Methods We did this randomised, open-label, equivalence trial in four urban hospitals and one rural fi eld site in Bangladesh to determine whether two alternative antibiotic regimens with reduced numbers of injectable antibiotics combined with oral antibiotics had similar effi cacy and safety to the standard regimen, which was also used as outpatient treatment. We randomly assigned infants who showed at least one clinical sign of severe, but not critical, infection (except fast breathing alone), whose parents refused hospital admission, to one of the three treatment regimens. We stratifi ed randomisation by study site and age (<7 days or 7–59 days) using computer-generated randomisation sequences. The standard treatment was intramuscular procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin once per day for 7 days (group A). The alternative regimens were intramuscular gentamicin once per day and oral amoxicillin twice per day for 7 days (group B) or intramuscular procaine benzylpenicillin and gentamicin once per day for 2 days, then oral amoxicillin twice per day for 5 days (group C). The primary outcome was treatment failure within 7 days after enrolment. Assessors of treatment failure were masked to treatment allocation. Primary analysis was per protocol. We used a prespecifi ed similarity margin of 5% to assess equivalence between regimens. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00844337. Findings Between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2013, we recruited 2490 young infants into the trial. We assigned 830 infants to group A, 831 infants to group B, and 829 infants to group C. 2367 (95%) infants fulfi lled per-protocol criteria. 78 (10%) of 795 per-protocol infants had treatment failure in group A compared with 65 (8%) of 782 infants in group B (risk diff erence –1·5%, 95% CI –4·3 to 1·3) and 64 (8%) of 790 infants in group C (–1·7%, –4·5 to 1·1). In group A, 14 (2%) infants died before day 15, compared with 12 (2%) infants in group B and 12 (2%) infants in group C. Non-fatal relapse rates were similar in all three groups (12 [2%] infants in group A vs 13 [2%] infants in group B and 10 [1%] infants in group C). Interpretation Our results suggest that the two alternative antibiotic regimens for outpatient treatment of clinical signs of severe infection in young infants whose parents refused hospital admission are as effi cacious as the standard regimen. This fi nding could increase treatment options in resource-poor settings when referral care is not available or acceptable

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

BACKGROUND: The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between 1990 and 2013, and an opportunity to assess whether accelerated progress has occured since the Millennium Declaration. METHODS: To estimate incidence and mortality for HIV, we used the UNAIDS Spectrum model appropriately modified based on a systematic review of available studies of mortality with and without antiretroviral therapy (ART). For concentrated epidemics, we calibrated Spectrum models to fit vital registration data corrected for misclassification of HIV deaths. In generalised epidemics, we minimised a loss function to select epidemic curves most consistent with prevalence data and demographic data for all-cause mortality. We analysed counterfactual scenarios for HIV to assess years of life saved through prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and ART. For tuberculosis, we analysed vital registration and verbal autopsy data to estimate mortality using cause of death ensemble modelling. We analysed data for corrected case-notifications, expert opinions on the case-detection rate, prevalence surveys, and estimated cause-specific mortality using Bayesian meta-regression to generate consistent trends in all parameters. We analysed malaria mortality and incidence using an updated cause of death database, a systematic analysis of verbal autopsy validation studies for malaria, and recent studies (2010-13) of incidence, drug resistance, and coverage of insecticide-treated bednets. FINDINGS: Globally in 2013, there were 1·8 million new HIV infections (95% uncertainty interval 1·7 million to 2·1 million), 29·2 million prevalent HIV cases (28·1 to 31·7), and 1·3 million HIV deaths (1·3 to 1·5). At the peak of the epidemic in 2005, HIV caused 1·7 million deaths (1·6 million to 1·9 million). Concentrated epidemics in Latin America and eastern Europe are substantially smaller than previously estimated. Through interventions including PMTCT and ART, 19·1 million life-years (16·6 million to 21·5 million) have been saved, 70·3% (65·4 to 76·1) in developing countries. From 2000 to 2011, the ratio of development assistance for health for HIV to years of life saved through intervention was US$4498 in developing countries. Including in HIV-positive individuals, all-form tuberculosis incidence was 7·5 million (7·4 million to 7·7 million), prevalence was 11·9 million (11·6 million to 12·2 million), and number of deaths was 1·4 million (1·3 million to 1·5 million) in 2013. In the same year and in only individuals who were HIV-negative, all-form tuberculosis incidence was 7·1 million (6·9 million to 7·3 million), prevalence was 11·2 million (10·8 million to 11·6 million), and number of deaths was 1·3 million (1·2 million to 1·4 million). Annualised rates of change (ARC) for incidence, prevalence, and death became negative after 2000. Tuberculosis in HIV-negative individuals disproportionately occurs in men and boys (versus women and girls); 64·0% of cases (63·6 to 64·3) and 64·7% of deaths (60·8 to 70·3). Globally, malaria cases and deaths grew rapidly from 1990 reaching a peak of 232 million cases (143 million to 387 million) in 2003 and 1·2 million deaths (1·1 million to 1·4 million) in 2004. Since 2004, child deaths from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa have decreased by 31·5% (15·7 to 44·1). Outside of Africa, malaria mortality has been steadily decreasing since 1990. INTERPRETATION: Our estimates of the number of people living with HIV are 18·7% smaller than UNAIDS's estimates in 2012. The number of people living with malaria is larger than estimated by WHO. The number of people living with HIV, tuberculosis, or malaria have all decreased since 2000. At the global level, upward trends for malaria and HIV deaths have been reversed and declines in tuberculosis deaths have accelerated. 101 countries (74 of which are developing) still have increasing HIV incidence. Substantial progress since the Millennium Declaration is an encouraging sign of the effect of global action. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Mapping disparities in education across low- and middle-income countries

Analyses of the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017 reveal inequalities across countries as well as within populations. Educational attainment is an important social determinant of maternal, newborn, and child health(1-3). As a tool for promoting gender equity, it has gained increasing traction in popular media, international aid strategies, and global agenda-setting(4-6). The global health agenda is increasingly focused on evidence of precision public health, which illustrates the subnational distribution of disease and illness(7,8); however, an agenda focused on future equity must integrate comparable evidence on the distribution of social determinants of health(9-11). Here we expand on the available precision SDG evidence by estimating the subnational distribution of educational attainment, including the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling, across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017. Previous analyses have focused on geographical disparities in average attainment across Africa or for specific countries, but-to our knowledge-no analysis has examined the subnational proportions of individuals who completed specific levels of education across all low- and middle-income countries(12-14). By geolocating subnational data for more than 184 million person-years across 528 data sources, we precisely identify inequalities across geography as well as within populations.Peer reviewe

Burden of injury along the development spectrum : associations between the Socio-demographic Index and disability-adjusted life year estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background The epidemiological transition of non-communicable diseases replacing infectious diseases as the main contributors to disease burden has been well documented in global health literature. Less focus, however, has been given to the relationship between sociodemographic changes and injury. The aim of this study was to examine the association between disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from injury for 195 countries and territories at different levels along the development spectrum between 1990 and 2017 based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 estimates. Methods Injury mortality was estimated using the GBD mortality database, corrections for garbage coding and CODEm-the cause of death ensemble modelling tool. Morbidity estimation was based on surveys and inpatient and outpatient data sets for 30 cause-of-injury with 47 nature-of-injury categories each. The Socio-demographic Index (SDI) is a composite indicator that includes lagged income per capita, average educational attainment over age 15 years and total fertility rate. Results For many causes of injury, age-standardised DALY rates declined with increasing SDI, although road injury, interpersonal violence and self-harm did not follow this pattern. Particularly for self-harm opposing patterns were observed in regions with similar SDI levels. For road injuries, this effect was less pronounced. Conclusions The overall global pattern is that of declining injury burden with increasing SDI. However, not all injuries follow this pattern, which suggests multiple underlying mechanisms influencing injury DALYs. There is a need for a detailed understanding of these patterns to help to inform national and global efforts to address injury-related health outcomes across the development spectrum.Peer reviewe