ABSTRACT
Background Understanding health trends and estimating the burden of disease at the national and subnational levels helps policy makers track progress and identify disparities in overall health performance. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides comprehensive estimates for Pakistan. Comparison of health indicators since 1990 provides valuable insights about Pakistan's ability to strengthen its health-care system, reduce inequalities, improve female and child health outcomes, achieve universal health coverage, and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We present estimates of the burden of disease, injuries, and risk factors for Pakistan provinces and territories from 1990 to 2019 based on GBD 2019 to improve health and health outcomes in the country. Methods We used methods and data inputs from GBD 2019 to estimate socio-demographic index, total fertility rate, cause-specific deaths, years of life lost, years lived with disability, disability-adjusted life-years, healthy life expectancy, and risk factors for 286 causes of death and 369 causes of non-fatal health loss in Pakistan and its four provinces and three territories from 1990 to 2019. To generate estimates for Pakistan at the national and subnational levels, we used 68 location-years of data to estimate Pakistan-specific demographic indicators, 316 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific causes of death, 579 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific non-fatal outcomes, 296 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific risk factors, and 3089 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific covariates. Findings Life expectancy for both sexes in Pakistan increased nationally from 61 center dot 1 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 60 center dot 0-62 center dot 1) years in 1990 to 65 center dot 9 (63 center dot 8-67 center dot 8) years in 2019;however, these gains were not uniform across the provinces and federal territories. Pakistan saw a narrowing of the difference in healthy life expectancy between the sexes from 1990 to 2019, as health gains for women occurred at faster rates than for men. For women, life expectancy increased by 8 center dot 2% (95% UI 6middot3-13middot8) between 1990 and 2019, whereas the male life expectancy increased by 7 center dot 6% (3 center dot 5-11 center dot 8). Neonatal disorders, followed by ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections were the leading causes of all-age premature mortality in 2019. Child and maternal malnutrition, air pollution, high systolic blood pressure, dietary risks, and tobacco consumption were the leading all-age risk factors for death and disability-adjusted life-years at the national level in 2019. Five non-communicable diseases-ischaemic heart disease, stroke, congenital defects, cirrhosis, and chronic kidney disease-were among the ten leading causes of years of life lost in Pakistan. Burden varied by socio-demographic index. Notably, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the lowest observed gains in life expectancy. Dietary iron deficiency was the leading cause of years lived with disability for both men and women in 1990 and 2019. Low birthweight and short gestation and particulate matter pollution were the leading contributors to overall disease burden in both 1990 and 2019 despite moderate improvements, with a 23 center dot 5% (95% UI 3 center dot 8-39 center dot 2) and 27 center dot 6% (14 center dot 3-38 center dot 6) reduction in age-standardised attributable DALY rates during the study period. Interpretation Our study shows that progress has been made on reducing Pakistan's disease burden since 1990, but geographical, age, and sex disparities persist. Equitable investment in the health system, as well as the prioritisation of high-impact policy interventions and programmes, are needed to save lives and improve health outcomes. Pakistan is facing several domestic and foreign challenges-the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, political turmoil, catastrophic flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic-that will shape the trajectory of the country's health and development. Pakistan must address the burden of infectious disease and curb rising rates of non-communicable diseases. Prioritising these three areas will enhance Pakistan's ability to achieve universal health coverage, meet its Sustainable Development Goals, and improve the overall health outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Input from a simple sensor-based people counters module is taken as training data for a Linear Regression and a K-Means model for predicting crowds at various public places. The influencing factor can be either time or distance and the outcome factor be crowd strength at a place. By training a Linear Regression and a K-Means algorithm, an efficient predictive model for crowd prediction can be created.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (qualitative). The objectives are as follows:. Objectives The objective of this review is to identify, appraise and synthesise qualitative studies that explored adults’ views and experiences towards vaccination in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A secondary objective is to compare this evidence with qualitative evidence that explores people’s perspectives of vaccines developed in response to Ebola, Hong Kong flu and Swine flu. Copyright © 2022 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague every part of the world. The effect of the current pandemic continues to threaten livelihoods through social, cultural, economic, and physical instability. Confirmed active cases have nearly reached 280 million, and unfortunately almost 5.4 million deaths due to COVID-191. On a positive note, nearly 250 million recoveries have been recorded1. © 2022 Suleman Μ. Η. and Lucero-Prisno D. E. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0)
ABSTRACT
This study examines the diversification and hedging benefits of green investments for conventional stock portfolios in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. While the findings confirm the status of gold as a strong hedge against stock market downturns, we find that clean energy investments, green bonds, in particular, have the potential to serve as a safe haven as well. In fact, compared to the other alternative and sustainable investments in our sample, green bonds are found to be the only asset that serves as a safe haven against large stock market fluctuations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Portfolio analysis further shows that supplementing conventional stock portfolios with green bonds during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the highest risk-adjusted returns, compared to those supplemented with other alternative assets in the sample. Our findings support the emergence of green investments not as a luxury good, but a necessity for improved financial stability and performance, particularly during the turbulent market states driven by the recent pandemic. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
Superior diplomatic power does not necessarily translate into greater diplomatic success. Although diplomatic assets help to frame the range of potential diplomatic activities, it is ultimately whether and how those assets are deployed that determines the range of potential diplomatic outcomes. The Trump administration’s ideological opposition to multilateral diplomacy has provided a unique case study in self-inflicted diplomatic decline. The administration has left a number of senior diplomatic posts unfilled and has withdrawn the United States from certain multilateral institutions altogether, like the UN Human Rights Council. America’s retreat from multilateral diplomacy has limited the potential for US diplomacy to deliver desired policy outcomes. In addition, that abdication of leadership has allowed other actors to fill the void, leading to negative policy outcomes. This article will examine the Trump administration’s experiment in empty seat diplomacy, focusing in particular on the effects it has had on policy outcomes at the UN Human Rights Council and with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Although this diplomatic decline has been significantly costly, the damage need not be permanent. This article discusses various investments in active US diplomatic leadership that can restore the potential for successful diplomatic outcomes through multilateral organizations.