The Gender Gap in Life Expectancy in South Africa from 2000 to 2015: The Role of Age- and Cause-Specific Mortality

In the last two decades, South Africa has experienced a marginal increase in life expectancy due to high mortality burden. It coincides with variations in age- and cause-specific mortality among females and males. The study aimed at quantifying the role of age- and cause-specific mortality to the gender gap in life expectancy in South Africa from 2000 to 2015. The study measured the trends in cause-specific mortality and contributions of each cause to life expectancy among South African males and females. Andreev’s decomposition method was applied to decompose the contributions of age- and cause-specific mortality to the gender gap in life expectancy. The study revealed that recorded gender gap in life expectancy concentrated in the age group 15-34 was as a result of the differences in the contributions of the infectious diseases and external causes of mortality. In the elderly years, the gap in life expectancy among males and females were due to the variations in the contributions of mortality from circulatory and respiratory diseases. Given these, health policies and programs should target infectious diseases and external causes of death in the young adult years, the leading causes of mortality and circulatory and respiratory diseases, emerging major causes of mortality in the elderly years in South Afric

Then and now: investigating anthropometrics and child mortality among females in Malawi

Information on the concentration of body mass index and child death among females in Malawi, where the epidemics of weight gain have been disconcerting and preventable deaths among children linger, is limited. Therefore, the study examined the polarity of body mass index and the death of children among females. Using data from the Malawian Demographic and Health Survey from 2000 to 2015–2016, the study applied for the first time the index of concentration at the extremes and indirect demographic techniques to estimate the polarity of body mass index and child mortality among 65,499 females aged 15 to 49 years. The preponderance of obesity more than doubled from 2000 to 2015–2016 and was highest among females who were older (35–49 years), urban dwellers, rich, and located in districts within the central and southern regions. In addition, child survival was low among underweight, overweight, and obese females. While national-, regional-, and individual-level statistics are in development, these findings provide helpful information for health experts and other stakeholders to initiate appropriate age-region specific programs and interventions in Malawi, including targeting females in the high socio-economic bracket

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1,000 cases of unexplained paediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK1. Here we report an investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator participants, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in the liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27 of 28 cases. We found low levels of adenovirus (HAdV) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) in 23 of 31 and 16 of 23, respectively, of the cases tested. By contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected and at low titre in the blood or the liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded the emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T cells and B lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV-mediated and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and, in severe cases, HHV-6B may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children