Mobile phone signal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_signal

 

A display of bars on a mobile phone screen

A mobile phone signal (also known as reception and service) is the signal strength (measured in dBm) received by a mobile phone from a cellular network (on the downlink). Depending on various factors, such as proximity to a tower, any obstructions such as buildings or trees, etc. this signal strength will vary. Most mobile devices use a set of bars of increasing height to display the approximate strength of this received signal to the mobile phone user. Traditionally five bars are used.

Generally, a strong mobile phone signal is more likely in an urban area, though these areas can also have some "dead zones", where no reception can be obtained. Cellular signals are designed to be resistant to multipath reception, which is most likely to be caused by the blocking of a direct signal path by large buildings, such as high-rise towers. By contrast, many rural or sparsely inhabited areas lack any signal or have very weak fringe reception; many mobile phone providers are attempting to set up towers in those areas most likely to be occupied by users, such as along major highways. Even some national parks and other popular tourist destinations away from urban areas now have cell phone reception, though location of radio towers within these areas is normally prohibited or strictly regulated, and is often difficult to arrange.

In areas where signal reception would normally be strong, other factors can have an effect on reception or may cause complete failure (see RF interference). From inside a building with thick walls or of mostly metal construction (or with dense rebar in concrete), signal attenuation may prevent a mobile phone from being used. Underground areas, such as tunnels and subway stations, will lack reception unless they are wired for cell signals. There may also be gaps where the service contours of the individual base stations (Cell towers) of the mobile provider (and/or its roaming partners) do not completely overlap.

In addition, the weather may affect the strength of a signal, due to the changes in radio propagation caused by clouds (particularly tall and dense thunderclouds which cause signal reflection), precipitation, and temperature inversions. This phenomenon, which is also common in other VHF radio bands including FM broadcasting, may also cause other anomalies, such as a person in San Diego "roaming" on a Mexican tower from just over the border in Tijuana, or someone in Detroit "roaming" on a Canadian tower located within sight across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario.  These events may cause the user to be billed for "international" usage despite being in their own country, though mobile phone companies can program their billing systems to re-rate these as domestic usage when it occurs on a foreign cell site that is known to frequently cause such issues for their customers. 

The volume of network traffic can also cause calls to be blocked or dropped due to a disaster or other mass call event which overloads the number of available radio channels in an area, or the number of telephone circuits connecting to and from the general public switched telephone network.

Dead zones

Areas where mobile phones cannot transmit to a nearby mobile site, base station, or repeater are known as dead zones. In these areas, the mobile phone is said to be in a state of outage. Dead zones are usually areas where mobile phone service is not available because the signal between the handset and mobile site antennas is blocked or severely reduced, usually by hilly terrain, dense foliage, or physical distance. 

A number of factors can create dead zones, which may exist even in locations in which a wireless carrier offers coverage, due to limitations in cellular network architecture (the locations of antennas), limited network density, interference with other mobile sites, and topography. Since cell phones rely on radio waves, which travel through the air and are easily attenuated (particularly at higher frequencies), mobile phones may be unreliable at times. Like other radio transmissions, mobile phone calls can be interrupted by large buildings, terrain, trees, or other objects between the phone and the nearest base. Cellular network providers work continually to improve and upgrade their networks in order to minimize dropped calls, access failures, and dead zones (which they call "coverage holes" or "no-service areas"). For mobile virtual network operators, the network quality depends entirely on the host network for the particular handset in question. Some MVNOs use more than one host, which may even have different technologies (for example, different Tracfone handsets uses either CDMA and 1xRTT on Verizon Wireless, or GSM and UMTS on AT&T Mobility). 

Dead zones can be filled-in with microcells, while picocells can handle even smaller areas without causing interference to the larger network. Personal microcells, such as those for a home, are called femtocells, and generally have the range of a cordless phone, but may not be usable for an MVNO phone. A similar system can be set up to perform inmate call capture, which prevents cellphones smuggled into a prison from being used. These still complete calls to or from pre-authorized users such as prison staff, while not violating laws against jamming. These systems must be carefully designed so as to avoid capturing calls from outside the prison, which would in effect create a dead zone for any passersby outside.

In the event of a disaster causing temporary dead zones, a cell on wheels may be brought in until the local telecom infrastructure can be restored. These portable units are also used where large gatherings are expected, in order to handle the extra load.

Dropped calls

A dropped call is a common term used and expressed by wireless mobile phone call subscribers when a call is abruptly cut-off (disconnected) during midconversation. This happens less often today than it would have in the early 1990s. The termination occurs unexpected and is influenced by a number of different reasons such as "Dead Zones." In technical circles, it is called an abnormal release. 

One reason for a call to be "dropped" is if the mobile phone subscriber travels outside the coverage area—the cellular network radio tower(s). After a telephone connection between two subscribers has been completed, it must remain within range of that subscribers network provider or that connection will lost (dropped). Not all cellular telephone radio towers are owned by the same telephone company (though this is not true to all locations) be maintained across a different company's network (as calls cannot be re-routed over the traditional phone network while in progress), also resulting in the termination of the call once a signal cannot be maintained between the phone and the original network.

Another common reason is when a phone is taken into an area where wireless communication is unavailable, interrupted, interfered with, or jammed. From the network's perspective, this is the same as the mobile moving out of the coverage area. 

Occasionally, calls are dropped upon handoff between cells within the same provider's network. This may be due to an imbalance of traffic between the two cell sites' areas of coverage. If the new cell site is at capacity, it cannot accept the additional traffic of the call trying to "hand in." It may also be due to the network configuration not being set up properly, such that one cell site is not "aware" of the cell to which the phone is trying to handoff. If the phone cannot find an alternative cell to which to move that can take over the call, the call is lost. 

Co-channel and adjacent-channel interference can also be responsible for dropped calls in a wireless network. Neighbouring cells with the same frequencies interfere with each other, deteriorating the quality of service and producing dropped calls. Transmission problems are also a common cause of dropped calls. Another problem may be a faulty transceiver inside the base station.

Calls can also be dropped if a mobile phone at the other end of the call loses battery power and stops transmitting abruptly.

Sunspots and solar flares are rarely blamed for causing interference leading to dropped calls, as it would take a major geomagnetic storm to cause such a disruption (except for satellite phones). 

Experiencing too many dropped calls is one of the most common customer complaints received by wireless service providers. They have attempted to address the complaint in various ways, including expansion of their home network coverage, increased cell capacity, and offering refunds for individual dropped calls. 

Various signal booster systems are manufactured to reduce problems due to dropped calls and dead zones. Many options, such as wireless units and antennas, are intended to aid in strengthening weak signals.

ASU

Arbitrary Strength Unit (ASU) is an integer value proportional to the received signal strength measured by the mobile phone. 

It is possible to calculate the real signal strength measured in dBm (and thereby power in Watts) by a formula. However, there are different formulas for 2G, 3G and 4G networks. 

In GSM networks, ASU maps to RSSI (received signal strength indicator, see TS 27.007 sub clause 8.5).

dBm = 2 × ASU - 113, ASU in the range of 0.31 and 99 (for not known or not detectable).

In UMTS networks, ASU maps to RSCP level (received signal code power, see TS 27.007 sub clause 8.69 and TS 25.133 sub clause 9.1.1.3).

dBm = ASU - 115, ASU in the range of 0.90 and 255 (for not known or not detectable).

In LTE networks, ASU maps to RSRP (reference signal received power, see TS 36.133, sub-clause 9.1.4). The valid range of ASU is from 0 to 97. For the range 1 to 96, ASU maps to

(ASU - 143) < dBm ≤ (ASU - 140).

The value of 0 maps to RSRP below -140 dBm and the value of 97 maps to RSRP above -44 dBm.

On Android devices however, the original GSM formula may prevail for UMTS. Tools like Network Signal Info can directly show the signal strength (in dBm), as well as the underlying ASU. 

ASU shouldn't be confused with "Active Set Update". The Active Set Update is a signalling message used in handover procedures of UMTS and CDMA mobile telephony standards. On Android phones, the acronym ASU has nothing to do with Active Set Update. It has not been declared precisely by Google developers.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Fund_to_Fight_AIDS,_Tuberculosis_and_Malaria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Founded	January 28, 2002 (first Board of Directors meeting)
Focus	Accelerating the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics
Location	Geneva, Switzerland
Key people	Peter Sands, (Executive Director, March 2018 -)
Website	www.theglobalfund.org

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to “attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations.” The international organization maintains its secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization began operations in January 2002. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was one of the first private foundations among many bilateral donors to provide seed money for the partnership.

The Global Fund is the world's largest financier of AIDS, TB, and malaria prevention, treatment, and care programs. As of June 2019, the organization had disbursed more than US$41.6 billion to support these programs. According to the organization, in 2018 it helped finance the distribution of 131 million insecticide-treated nets to combat malaria, provided anti-tuberculosis treatment for 5.3 million people, supported 18.9 million people on antiretroviral therapy for AIDS, and since its founding saved 32 million lives worldwide.

The Global Fund is a financing mechanism rather than an implementing agency. Programs are implemented by in-country partners such as ministries of health, while the Global Fund secretariat, whose staff only have an office in Geneva, monitor the programs. Implementation is overseen by Country Coordinating Mechanisms, country-level committees consisting of in-country stakeholders that need to include, according to Global Fund requirements, a broad spectrum of representatives from government, NGOs, faith-based organizations, the private sector, and people living with the diseases. This system has kept the Global Fund secretariat smaller than other international bureaucracies. The model has also raised concerns about conflict of interest, as some of the stakeholders represented on the Country Coordinating Mechanisms may also receive money from the Global Fund, either as grant recipients, sub-recipients, private persons (e.g. for travel or participation at seminars) or contractors.

Creation

At the end of the 20th century, international political will to improve coordinated efforts to fight the world's deadliest infectious diseases began to materialize. Through various multilateral fora, consensus around creating a new international financial vehicle to combat these diseases emerged. In this context the World Health Organization called for a "Massive Attack on Diseases of Poverty" in December 1999. The original concept suggested tackling “malaria, tuberculosis, unsafe pregnancy, AIDS, diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections and measles.” This list would steadily narrow to only include the three diseases the Global Fund fights today: HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.

In April 2001, in Abuja, Nigeria at a summit of African leaders, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan made the first explicit public call by a highly visible global leader for this new funding mechanism, proposing "the creation of a Global Fund, dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases." Secretary General Annan made the first contribution to the Global Fund in 2001. Having just been named the recipient of the 2001 Philadelphia Liberty Medal, Annan announced he would donate his US$100,000 award to the Global Fund "war chest" he had just proposed creating. In June 2001 the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the creation of a global fund to fight HIV/AIDS.

The G8 formally endorsed the call for the creation of the Global Fund at its summit in July 2001 in Genoa, Italy, although pledges were significantly lower than the US$7 billion to US$10 billion annually Kofi Annan insisted was needed. According to the G8's final communique, “At Okinawa last year, we pledged to make a quantum leap in the fight against infectious diseases and to break the vicious cycle between disease and poverty. To meet that commitment and to respond to the appeal of the UN General Assembly, we have launched with the UN Secretary-General a new Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We are determined to make the Fund operational before the end of the year. We have committed $1.3 billion. The Fund will be a public-private partnership and we call on other countries, the private sector, foundations, and academic institutions to join with their own contributions - financially, in kind and through shared expertise.”

The Global Fund's initial 18-member policy-setting board held its first meeting in January 2002, and issued its first call for proposals. The first secretariat was established in January 2002 with Paul Ehmer serving as team leader, soon replaced by Anders Nordstrom of Sweden who became the organization's interim executive director. By the time the Global Fund Secretariat became operational, the organization had received US$1.9 billion in pledges. 

In March 2002, a panel of international public health experts was named to begin reviewing project proposals that same month. In April 2002, the Global Fund awarded its first batch of grants – worth US$378 million – to fight the three diseases in 31 countries.

Fundraising

Since the Global Fund was created in 2002, public sector contributions have constituted 95 percent of all financing raised; the remaining 5 percent comes from the private sector or other financing initiatives such as Product Red. The Global Fund states that from 2002 to July 2019, more than 60 donor governments pledged a total of US$51.2 billion and paid US$45.8 billion. From 2001 through 2018, the largest contributor by far has been the United States, followed by France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. The donor nations with the largest percent of gross national income contributed to the fund from 2008 through 2010 were Sweden, Norway, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Spain.

The Global Fund typically raises and spends funds during three-year "replenishment" fund-raising periods. Its first replenishment was launched in 2005, the second in 2007, the third in 2010, the fourth in 2013, and the fifth in 2016.

Alarms were raised prior to the third replenishment meeting in October 2010 about a looming deficit in funding, which would have led to people undergoing ARV treatment losing access, increasing the chance of them becoming resistant to treatment. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé dubbed the scenario of a funding deficit an "HIV Nightmare". The Global Fund stated it needed at least US$20 billion for the third replenishment (covering programs 2011-2013), and US$13 billion just to "allow for the continuation of funding of existing programs." Ultimately, US$11.8 billion was mobilized at the third replenishment meeting, with the United States being the largest contributor - followed by France, Germany, and Japan. The Global Fund stated the US$1.2 billion lack in funding would "lead to difficult decisions in the next three years that could slow down the effort to beat the three diseases."

In November 2011, the organization's board cancelled all new grants for 2012, only having enough money to support existing grants. However, following the Global Fund's May 2012 board meeting, it announced that an additional US$1.6 billion would be available in the 2012-2014 period for investment in programs.

In December 2013, the fourth replenishment meeting was held in Washington D.C. USD 12 billion was pledged in contributions from 25 countries, as well as the European Commission, private foundations, corporations, and faith-based organizations for the 2014–2016 period. It was the largest amount ever committed to fighting the three diseases.

The fifth replenishment meeting took place September 2016 in Montreal, Canada, and was hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Donors pledged US$12.9 billion (at 2016 exchange rates) for the 2017-2019 period.

France hosted the sixth replenishment meeting in 2019 in Lyon, raising US$14 billion for 2020–2022.

Leadership

Richard Feachem was named the Global Fund's first executive director in April 2002 and faced early criticism from activists for stating the Global Fund has "plenty" of money to start.

Feachem served from July 2002 through March 2007. Dr. Michel Kazatchkine was then selected as executive director over the Global Fund's architect, David Nabarro, even though Nabarro was “considered the strongest of three shortlisted candidates to head the Global Fund ... A selection committee has evaluated the three nominees' qualifications and ranked ‘Nabarro first, Kazatchkine second and (Alex) Cotinho third,’ according to a Fund source.”

In September 2011, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation called for Kazatchkine's resignation in the wake of isolated yet unprecedented reports of "waste, fraud, and corruption" in order that "reforms may begin in earnest". In January 2012, Kazatchkine ultimately declared his resignation, following the decision made by the Global Fund board in November 2011 to appoint a general manager, leaving Kazatchkine's role to that of chief fund-raiser and public advocate. Communications later disclosed by the United States government stated that Kazatchkine's performance was deemed unsatisfactory by the Global Fund board, notably in relation to the funding of activities related to the First Lady of France at the time, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Following Kazatchkine's resignation, the Global Fund announced the appointment of Gabriel Jaramillo, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Sovereign Bank, to the newly created position of general manager. Jaramillo, who had retired one year earlier, had since served as a Special Advisor to the Office of the Special Envoy for Malaria of the Secretary General of the United Nations, and was a member of the high-level independent panel that looked at the Global Fund's fiduciary controls and oversight mechanisms. Jaramillo reorganized and reduced Global Fund staff in response to the previous year's critics of the Global Fund.

Dr. Mark R. Dybul was appointed executive director in November 2012. He previously served as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, leading the implementation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from 2006 to 2009. Dybul ended his appointment in 2017. 

A nominating process to find a successor to Dybul ran into trouble in 2017 because nominees had spoken out against Donald Trump as a candidate for president of the United States. The Global Fund board named Global Fund Chief of Staff Marijke Wijnroks of the Netherlands as interim executive director while the nominating process restarted.

The Global Fund board selected banker Peter Sands as executive director in 2017. He assumed the role in 2018.

Operations

The Global Fund was formed as an independent, non-profit foundation under Swiss law and hosted by the World Health Organization in January 2002. In January 2009, the organization became an administratively autonomous organization, terminating its administrative services agreement with the World Health Organization.

The initial objective of the Global Fund — to provide funding to countries on the basis of performance — was supposed to make it different from other international agencies at the time of its inception. Other organizations may have staff that assist with the implementation of grants. However, the Global Fund's five-year evaluation in 2009 concluded that without a standing body of technical staff, the Global Fund is not able to ascertain the actual results of its projects. It has therefore tended to look at disbursements or the purchase of inputs as performance. It also became apparent shortly after the organization opened that a pure funding mechanism could not work on its own, and it began relying on other agencies – notably the World Health Organization – to support countries in designing and drafting their applications and in supporting implementation. The United Nations Development Programme, in particular, bears responsibility for supporting Global Fund-financed projects in a number of countries. As a result, the organization is most accurately described as a financial supplement to the existing global health architecture rather than as a separate approach. 

The Global Fund Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, employs about 700 staff. There are neither offices nor staff based in other countries.

In 2013, the Global Fund adopted a new way of distributing its funds in countries to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Under this funding model, eligible countries receive an allocation of money every three years for possible use during same the three-year period. The total amount of all allocations across all countries depends on the amount contributed by governments and other donors through the "replenishment" fundraising during the same three-year period. The countries, through their “country coordinating mechanism” committees, submit applications outlining how they'll use the allocation. The committees name entities, called “principal recipients,” to carry about programs within their respective countries. An independent "technical review panel" reviews the applications. Once the applications are approved, the Global Fund provides funding to the principal recipients based on achievement toward agreed indicators and actual expenses. Performance and expenses are periodically reviewed by a “local fund agent,” which in most countries is an international financial audit company.

Corruption and misuse of funds

In January 2011, the Associated Press reported vast corruption in some programs financed by the Global Fund, citing findings of the Global Fund Office of the Inspector General – an auditing unit independent from the Global Fund Secretariat – that up to two-thirds of funds in some of the reviewed grants were lost to fraud. The Office of the Inspector General report showed that systematic fraud patterns had been used across countries. The Global Fund responded to the story with a news release, stating, "The Global Fund has zero tolerance for corruption and actively seeks to uncover any evidence of misuse of its funds. It deploys some of the most rigorous procedures to detect fraud and fight corruption of any organization financing development."

After the Associated Press story, a number of op-eds, including one by Michael Gerson published in the Washington Post in February 2011, sought to put the controversy surrounding the misuse of Global Fund grants in perspective. Gerson stated, "The two-thirds figure applies to one element of one country's grant - the single most extreme example in the world. Investigations are ongoing, but the $34 million in fraud that has been exposed represents about three-tenths of 1 percent of the money the fund has distributed. The targeting of these particular cases was not random; they were the most obviously problematic, not the most typical."

Global Fund spokesman Jon Liden told the Associated Press, "The messenger is being shot to some extent. We would contend that we do not have any corruption problems that are significantly different in scale or nature to any other international financing institution." Subsequent Global Fund statements omitted any reference to other agencies.

Previous reviews of grants and the Global Fund had shown substantial misconduct in some programs, lack of adequate risk management, and operational inefficiency of the Global Fund. Cases of corruption had also been found in several African countries such as Mali, Mauritania, Djibouti, and Zambia.

Sweden, the Global Fund's 11th-biggest contributor at the time (2011), suspended its US$85 million annual donation until the corruption problems were resolved. Germany, the third-biggest contributor at the time, also blocked any financing until a special investigation was complete. Funding was eventually restored. 

Other cases of abuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement in a series of grants forced the Global Fund to suspend or terminate the grants after such dealings became publicly known in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Philippines, and Ukraine.

In February 2011, the Financial Times reported that the Global Fund board failed to act previously on concerns over accountability including on the conclusion of an external evaluation in 2009 that criticized the organization's weak procurement practices. Warnings of inadequate controls had also been reported periodically. The Financial Times also reported that its own review found that neither Global Fund staff nor “local fund agents” (the entities entrusted with audit-like tasks at the country level) had noticed the deficiencies reported by the inspector general.

In 2012, the Global Fund hired a chief risk officer, Cees Klumper. After pushing countries to reclaim stolen funds from the parties responsible and recovering only about half, the organization began in 2014 as a last resort reducing future grants by twice the amount of misappropriated funds. As of February 2016, this resulted in US$14.8 million of reductions (collectively) for Bangladesh, Guatemala, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

World Tuberculosis Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tuberculosis_Day 

 

World Tuberculosis Day
Observed by	All UN Member States
Date	24 March
Frequency	annual

World Tuberculosis Day, observed on 24 March each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and efforts to eliminate the disease. In 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.3 million died from the disease, mostly in low and middle-income countries.

World TB Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.

Background

24 March commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing to a small group of scientists at the University of Berlin's Institute of Hygiene that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. According to Koch's colleague, Paul Ehrlich, "At this memorable session, Koch appeared before the public with an announcement which marked a turning-point in the story of a virulent human infectious disease. In clear, simple words Koch explained the aetiology of tuberculosis with convincing force, presenting many of his microscope slides and other pieces of evidence." At the time of Koch's announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch's discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing tuberculosis.

History

In 1982, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Robert Koch's presentation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that 24 March be proclaimed an official World TB Day. This was part of a year-long centennial effort by the IUATLD and the World Health Organization under the theme "Defeat TB: Now and Forever.” World TB Day was not officially recognized as an annual occurrence by WHO's World Health Assembly and the United Nations until over a decade later. 

In the fall of 1995, WHO and the Royal Netherlands Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV) hosted the first World TB Day advocacy planning meeting in Den Haag, Netherlands; an event they would continue co-sponsor over the next few years. In 1996, WHO, KNCV, the IUATLD and other concerned organizations joined to conduct a wide range of World TB Day activities.

For World TB Day 1997, WHO held a news conference in Berlin during which WHO Director-General Hiroshi Nakajima declared that "DOTS is the biggest health breakthrough of this decade, according to lives we will be able to save." WHO's Global TB Programme Director, Dr. Arata Kochi, promised that, "Today the situation of the global TB epidemic is about to change, because we have made a breakthrough. It is the breakthrough of health management systems that makes it possible to control TB not only in wealthy countries, but in all parts of the developing world, where 95 percent of all TB cases now exist."

By 1998, nearly 200 organizations conducted public outreach activities on World TB Day. During its World TB Day 1998 news conference in London, WHO for the first time identified the top twenty-two countries with the world's highest TB burden. The next year, over 60 key TB advocates from 18 countries attended the three-day WHO/KNCV planning meeting for World TB Day 1999.

U.S. President Bill Clinton marked World TB Day 2000 by administering the WHO-recommended Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS) treatment to patients at the Mahavir Hospital in Hyderabad, India. According to Clinton, "These are human tragedies, economic calamities, and far more than crises for you, they are crises for the world. The spread of disease is the one global problem for which . . . no nation is immune."

In Canada, the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health noted on World TB Day 2014 that 64% of TB cases reported nationally were among foreign-born individuals and 23% among Aboriginal people, highlighting TB as a key area of concern about health equity.

Today the Stop TB Partnership, a network of organizations and countries fighting TB (the IUATLD is a member and WHO houses the Stop TB Partnership secretariat in Geneva), organizes the Day to highlight the scope of the disease and how to prevent and cure it.

Themes by year

Each World TB Day addresses a different theme. The following is a list of annual themes:

1997: Use DOTS more widely 1998: DOTS success stories 1999: Stop TB, use DOTS 2000: Forging new partnerships to Stop TB 2001: DOTS: TB cure for all 2002: Stop TB, fight poverty 2003: DOTS cured me – it will cure you too! 2004: Every breath counts – Stop TB now! 2005: Frontline TB care providers: Heroes in the fight against TB 2006: Actions for life – Towards a world free of TB 2007: TB anywhere is TB everywhere

2008–2009: I am stopping TB 2010: Innovate to accelerate action 2011: Transforming the fight towards elimination 2012: Call for a world free of TB 2013: Stop TB in my lifetime 2014: Reach the three million: A TB test, treatment and cure for all 2015: Gear up to end TB 2016: Unite to End TB 2017: Unite to End TB 2018: Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world 2019: It's time 2020: It's time to end TB!

2008–2009: I am stopping TB

The two-year World TB Day campaign "I am stopping TB", launched in 2008, highlighted the message that the campaign belonged to people everywhere doing their part to Stop TB.

2010: Innovate to accelerate action

The World TB Day 2010 recognized people and partners who had introduced a variety of innovations in a variety of settings to stop TB.

On the occasion of World TB Day 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) declared that attempts to stem the spread of tuberculosis across the globe are likely to fall well short of what is needed unless authorities in affected countries significantly increase their efforts to stop the deadly disease from breeding inside prisons. As a result of overcrowding and poor nutrition, TB rates in many prisons are 10 to 40 times higher than in the general public. The ICRC had been fighting TB in prisons in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa for more than a decade, either directly or by supporting local programmes.

2011: Transforming the fight

For the World TB Day 2011 campaign, the goal was to inspire innovation in TB research and care.

2012: Tell the world what you want to see in your lifetime

For World TB Day 2012, individuals were called upon to join the global fight to stop TB in their lifetime.

2013: Stop TB in my lifetime

The World TB Day 2013 campaign provided an opportunity to mark progress towards global targets for reductions in TB cases and deaths: TB mortality fell over 40% worldwide since 1990, and incidence was declining. Further progress would depend on addressing critical funding gaps: an estimated 1.6 billion US dollars needed to implement existing TB interventions.

2014: Reach the three million

Of the 9 million people a year who get sick with TB, 3 million of them are "missed" by health systems. The focus of World TB Day 2014 was for countries and partners to take forward innovative approaches to reach the 3 million and ensure that everyone suffering from TB has access to TB diagnosis, treatment and cure.

2015: Gear up to end TB

World TB Day 2015 was seen as an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of TB worldwide and the status of TB prevention and control efforts, highlighting WHO's vision of a world free of TB with zero deaths and suffering.

2017: Unite to end TB

World TB 2017 focused on joining efforts to raise awareness and eliminate Tuberculosis.

2018: Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world

World TB 2018 focused on building commitment to end TB, not only at the political level with Heads of State and Ministers of Health, but at all levels from Mayors, Governors, parliamentarians and community leaders, to people affected with TB, civil society advocates, health workers, doctors or nurses, NGOs and other partners.

2019: It's time

The theme for World TB day 2019 is "It's time". The emphasis for this year's event is to pressure world leaders to "act on [their] commitments".

2020: It's time to End TB

The theme for World TB day 2020 is "It's time to End TB!"

National Security Study Memorandum 200

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200 

 

National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200) was completed on December 10, 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger.

It was adopted as official US policy by US President Gerald Ford in November 1975. It was classified for a while but was obtained by researchers in the early 1990s.

Findings

The basic thesis of the memorandum was that population growth in the least developed countries (LDCs) is a concern to US national security, because it would tend to risk civil unrest and political instability in countries that had a high potential for economic development. The policy gives "paramount importance" to population control measures and the promotion of contraception among 13 populous countries to control rapid population growth which the US deems inimical to the socio-political and economic growth of these countries and to the national interests of the United States since the "U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad" and the countries can produce destabilizing opposition forces against the US.

It recommends for US leadership to "influence national leaders" and that "improved world-wide support for population-related efforts should be sought through increased emphasis on mass media and other population education and motivation programs by the UN, USIA, and USAID."

Named countries

Thirteen countries are named in the report as particularly problematic with respect to US security interests: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. The countries are projected to create 47 percent of all world population growth.

It also raises the question of whether the US should consider preferential allocation of surplus food supplies to states deemed constructive in use of population control measures.

General oversight

The paper takes a look at worldwide demographic population trends as projected in 1974.

It is divided into two major sections: an analytical section and policy recommendations.

The analytical section discusses projected world demographic trends and their influence on world food supply, minerals, and fuel. It looks at the relation between economic development in the least developed nations and investigates the implications of world population pressures on US national security.

The policy recommendations is divided into two sections. A US population strategy and action to create conditions for fertility decline. A major concern reiterated in the paper concerns the effect of population on starvation and famine.

"Growing populations will have a serious impact on the need for food especially in the poorest, fastest growing LDCs.[least developed countries] While under normal weather conditions and assuming food production growth in line with recent trends, total world agricultural production could expand faster than population, there will nevertheless be serious problems in food distribution and financing, making shortages, even at today's poor nutrition levels, probable in many of the larger more populous LDC regions. Even today 10 to 20 million people die each year due, directly or indirectly, to malnutrition. Even more serious is the consequence of major crop failures which are likely to occur from time to time.

"The most serious consequence for the short and middle term is the possibility of massive famines in certain parts of the world, especially the poorest regions. World needs for food rise by 2.5 percent or more per year (making a modest allowance for improved diets and nutrition) at a time when readily available fertilizer and well-watered land is already largely being utilized. Therefore, additions to food production must come mainly from higher yields.

"Countries with large population growth cannot afford constantly growing imports, but for them to raise food output steadily by 2 to 4 percent over the next generation or two is a formidable challenge."

Key insights

• "The U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries [see National Commission on Materials Policy, Towards a National Materials Policy: Basic Data and Issues, April 1972]. That fact gives the U.S. enhanced interest in the political, economic, and social stability of the supplying countries. Wherever a lessening of population pressures through reduced birth rates can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resource supplies and to the economic interests of the United States.... The location of known reserves of higher grade ores of most minerals favors increasing dependence of all industrialized regions on imports from less developed countries. The real problems of mineral supplies lie, not in basic physical sufficiency, but in the politico-economic issues of access, terms for exploration and exploitation, and division of the benefits among producers, consumers, and host country governments" [Chapter III, "Minerals and Fuel"].
• "Whether through government action, labor conflicts, sabotage, or civil disturbance, the smooth flow of needed materials will be jeopardized. Although population pressure is obviously not the only factor involved, these types of frustrations are much less likely under conditions of slow or zero population growth" [Chapter III, "Minerals and Fuel"].
• "Populations with a high proportion of growth. The young people, who are in much higher proportions in many LDCs, are likely to be more volatile, unstable, prone to extremes, alienation and violence than an older population. These young people can more readily be persuaded to attack the legal institutions of the government or real property of the 'establishment,' 'imperialists,' multinational corporations, or other -- often foreign -- influences blamed for their troubles" [Chapter V, "Implications of Population Pressures for National Security"].
• "We must take care that our activities should not give the appearance to the LDCs of an industrialized country policy directed against the LDCs. Caution must be taken that in any approaches in this field we support in the LDCs are ones we can support within this country. "Third World" leaders should be in the forefront and obtain the credit for successful programs. In this context it is important to demonstrate to LDC leaders that such family planning programs have worked and can work within a reasonable period of time." [Chapter I, "World Demographic Trends"]
• "In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion."
• Abortion as a geopolitical strategy is mentioned several dozen times in the report with suggestive implications: "No country has reduced its population growth without resorting to abortion.... under developing country conditions foresight methods not only are frequently unavailable but often fail because of ignorance, lack of preparation, misuse and non-use. Because of these latter conditions, increasing numbers of women in the developing world have been resorting to abortion....

Demography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demography (from prefix demo- from Ancient Greek δῆμος dēmos meaning "the people", and -graphy from γράφω graphō, ies "writing, description or measurement") is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.

Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging, and death. As a very general science, it can analyze any kind of dynamic living population, i.e., one that changes over time or space. Demographics are quantifiable characteristics of a given population.

Demographic analysis can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion, and ethnicity. Educational institutions usually treat demography as a field of sociology, though there are a number of independent demography departments. Based on the demographic research of the earth, earth's population up to the year 2050 and 2100 can be estimated by demographers.

Formal demography limits its object of study to the measurement of population processes, while the broader field of social demography or population studies also analyses the relationships between economic, social, cultural, and biological processes influencing a population.

History

Demographic thoughts traced back to antiquity, and were present in many civilisations and cultures, like Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, China and India. Demography is made up of two word Demos and Graphy . The term Demography refers to the overall study of population. 

In ancient Greece, this can be found in the writings of Herodotus, Thucidides, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Polus, Plato and Aristotle. In Rome, writers and philosophers like Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the elder, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato, and Columella also expressed important ideas on this ground.

In the Middle ages, Christian thinkers devoted much time in refuting the Classical ideas on demography. Important contributors to the field were William of Conches, Bartholomew of Lucca, William of Auvergne, William of Pagula, and Muslim sociologists like Ibn Khaldun.

One of the earliest demographic studies in the modern period was Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality (1662) by John Graunt, which contains a primitive form of life table. Among the study's findings were that one third of the children in London died before their sixteenth birthday. Mathematicians, such as Edmond Halley, developed the life table as the basis for life insurance mathematics. Richard Price was credited with the first textbook on life contingencies published in 1771, followed later by Augustus de Morgan, ‘On the Application of Probabilities to Life Contingencies’ (1838).

In 1755, Benjamin Franklin published his essay Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc., projecting exponential growth in British colonies. His work influenced Thomas Robert Malthus, who, writing at the end of the 18th century, feared that, if unchecked, population growth would tend to outstrip growth in food production, leading to ever-increasing famine and poverty. Malthus is seen as the intellectual father of ideas of overpopulation and the limits to growth. Later, more sophisticated and realistic models were presented by Benjamin Gompertz and Verhulst. 

In 1855, a Belgian scholar Achille Guillard defined demography as the natural and social history of human species or the mathematical knowledge of populations, of their general changes, and of their physical, civil, intellectual and moral condition.

The period 1860-1910 can be characterised as a period of transition wherein demography emerged from statistics as a separate field of interest. This period included a panoply of international ‘great demographers’ like Adolphe Quételet (1796–1874), William Farr (1807–1883), Louis-Adolphe Bertillon (1821–1883) and his son Jacques (1851–1922), Joseph Körösi (1844–1906), Anders Nicolas Kaier (1838–1919), Richard Böckh (1824–1907), Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), Wilhelm Lexis (1837–1914), and Luigi Bodio (1840–1920) contributed to the development of demography and to the toolkit of methods and techniques of demographic analysis.

Methods

There are two types of data collection—direct and indirect—with several different methods of each type.

Direct methods

Direct data comes from vital statistics registries that track all births and deaths as well as certain changes in legal status such as marriage, divorce, and migration (registration of place of residence). In developed countries with good registration systems (such as the United States and much of Europe), registry statistics are the best method for estimating the number of births and deaths. 

A census is the other common direct method of collecting demographic data. A census is usually conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate every person in a country. In contrast to vital statistics data, which are typically collected continuously and summarized on an annual basis, censuses typically occur only every 10 years or so, and thus are not usually the best source of data on births and deaths. Analyses are conducted after a census to estimate how much over or undercounting took place. These compare the sex ratios from the census data to those estimated from natural values and mortality data. 

Censuses do more than just count people. They typically collect information about families or households in addition to individual characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, literacy/education, employment status, and occupation, and geographical location. They may also collect data on migration (or place of birth or of previous residence), language, religion, nationality (or ethnicity or race), and citizenship. In countries in which the vital registration system may be incomplete, the censuses are also used as a direct source of information about fertility and mortality; for example the censuses of the People's Republic of China gather information on births and deaths that occurred in the 18 months immediately preceding the census.

Map of countries by population

 

Rate of human population growth showing projections for later this century

Indirect methods

Indirect methods of collecting data are required in countries and periods where full data are not available, such as is the case in much of the developing world, and most of historical demography. One of these techniques in contemporary demography is the sister method, where survey researchers ask women how many of their sisters have died or had children and at what age. With these surveys, researchers can then indirectly estimate birth or death rates for the entire population. Other indirect methods in contemporary demography include asking people about siblings, parents, and children. Other indirect methods are necessary in historical demography. 

There are a variety of demographic methods for modelling population processes. They include models of mortality (including the life table, Gompertz models, hazards models, Cox proportional hazards models, multiple decrement life tables, Brass relational logits), fertility (Hernes model, Coale-Trussell models, parity progression ratios), marriage (Singulate Mean at Marriage, Page model), disability (Sullivan's method, multistate life tables), population projections (Lee-Carter model, the Leslie Matrix), and population momentum (Keyfitz). 

The United Kingdom has a series of four national birth cohort studies, the first three spaced apart by 12 years: the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development, the 1958 National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study, and the Millennium Cohort Study, begun much more recently in 2000. These have followed the lives of samples of people (typically beginning with around 17,000 in each study) for many years, and are still continuing. As the samples have been drawn in a nationally representative way, inferences can be drawn from these studies about the differences between four distinct generations of British people in terms of their health, education, attitudes, childbearing and employment patterns.

Common rates and ratios

• The crude birth rate, the annual number of live births per 1,000 people.
• The general fertility rate, the annual number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age (often taken to be from 15 to 49 years old, but sometimes from 15 to 44).
• The age-specific fertility rates, the annual number of live births per 1,000 women in particular age groups (usually age 15–19, 20-24 etc.)
• The crude death rate, the annual number of deaths per 1,000 people.
• The infant mortality rate, the annual number of deaths of children less than 1 year old per 1,000 live births.
• The expectation of life (or life expectancy), the number of years that an individual at a given age could expect to live at present mortality levels.
• The total fertility rate, the number of live births per woman completing her reproductive life, if her childbearing at each age reflected current age-specific fertility rates.
• The replacement level fertility, the average number of children women must have in order to replace the population for the next generation. For example, the replacement level fertility in the US is 2.11.
• The gross reproduction rate, the number of daughters who would be born to a woman completing her reproductive life at current age-specific fertility rates.
• The net reproduction ratio is the expected number of daughters, per newborn prospective mother, who may or may not survive to and through the ages of childbearing.
• A stable population, one that has had constant crude birth and death rates for such a long period of time that the percentage of people in every age class remains constant, or equivalently, the population pyramid has an unchanging structure.
• A stationary population, one that is both stable and unchanging in size (the difference between crude birth rate and crude death rate is zero).

A stable population does not necessarily remain fixed in size. It can be expanding or shrinking.

Note that the crude death rate as defined above and applied to a whole population can give a misleading impression. For example, the number of deaths per 1,000 people can be higher for developed nations than in less-developed countries, despite standards of health being better in developed countries. This is because developed countries have proportionally more older people, who are more likely to die in a given year, so that the overall mortality rate can be higher even if the mortality rate at any given age is lower. A more complete picture of mortality is given by a life table, which summarizes mortality separately at each age. A life table is necessary to give a good estimate of life expectancy.

Basic equation

Suppose that a country (or other entity) contains Population_t persons at time t. What is the size of the population at time t + 1 ?

${\displaystyle {\text{Population}}_{t+1}={\text{Population}}_{t}+{\text{Natural Increase}}_{t}+{\text{Net Migration}}_{t}}$

Natural increase from time t to t + 1:

${\displaystyle {\text{Natural Increase}}_{t}={\text{Births}}_{t}-{\text{Deaths}}_{t}}$

Net migration from time t to t + 1:

${\displaystyle {\text{Net Migration}}_{t}={\text{Immigration}}_{t}-{\text{Emigration}}_{t}}$

This basic equation can also be applied to subpopulations. For example, the population size of ethnic groups or nationalities within a given society or country is subject to the same sources of change. When dealing with ethnic groups, however, "net migration" might have to be subdivided into physical migration and ethnic reidentification (assimilation). Individuals who change their ethnic self-labels or whose ethnic classification in government statistics changes over time may be thought of as migrating or moving from one population subcategory to another.

More generally, while the basic demographic equation holds true by definition, in practice the recording and counting of events (births, deaths, immigration, emigration) and the enumeration of the total population size are subject to error. So allowance needs to be made for error in the underlying statistics when any accounting of population size or change is made.

The figure in this section shows the latest (2004) UN projections of world population out to the year 2150 (red = high, orange = medium, green = low). The UN "medium" projection shows world population reaching an approximate equilibrium at 9 billion by 2075. Working independently, demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria expect world population to peak at 9 billion by 2070. Throughout the 21st century, the average age of the population is likely to continue to rise.

Science of population

Populations can change through three processes: fertility, mortality, and migration. Fertility involves the number of children that women have and is to be contrasted with fecundity (a woman's childbearing potential). Mortality is the study of the causes, consequences, and measurement of processes affecting death to members of the population. Demographers most commonly study mortality using the Life Table, a statistical device that provides information about the mortality conditions (most notably the life expectancy) in the population.

Migration refers to the movement of persons from a locality of origin to a destination place across some predefined, political boundary. Migration researchers do not designate movements 'migrations' unless they are somewhat permanent. Thus demographers do not consider tourists and travellers to be migrating. While demographers who study migration typically do so through census data on place of residence, indirect sources of data including tax forms and labour force surveys are also important.

Demography is today w(?) Great Depression many universities across the world, attracting students with initial training in social sciences, statistics or health studies. Being at the crossroads of several disciplines such as sociology, economics, epidemiology, geography, anthropology and history, demography offers tools to approach a large range of population issues by combining a more technical quantitative approach that represents the core of the discipline with many other methods borrowed from social or other sciences. Demographic research is conducted in universities, in research institutes as well as in statistical departments and in several international agencies. Population institutions are part of the Cicred (International Committee for Coordination of Demographic Research) network while most individual scientists engaged in demographic research are members of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, or a national association such as the Population Association of America in the United States, or affiliates of the Federation of Canadian Demographers in Canada.