Extracting Leading Joint Causes of Death and Mining Associations between Them

The gains in analyzing death from a multiple cause perspective have been recognized for a very long time. Methods that have been adopted have sought to determine additional gains made by treating death as a multiple cause phenomenon as compared to analysis based on a single under-lying cause. This paper shows how association rules mining methodology can be adapted to determine joint morbid causes with strong and interesting associations. Results show that some causes of death that do not appear among the leading causes show strong associations with other causes that would otherwise remain unknown without the use of association rules methodology. Overall, the study found that the leading joint pair of causes of death in South Africa was metabolic disorders and intestinal infectious diseases which accounted for 18.9 deaths per 1000 in 2008, followed by cerebrovascular and hypertensive diseases which accounted for 18.3 deaths per 1000.

Mortality from chronic liver disease:Recent trends and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Prepandemic time trends in mortality from chronic liver disease(CLD)differed according to specific cause of death(decreasing for liver cirrhosis,stable or increasing for liver cancer),etiology(increasing for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,generally decreasing for other etiologies),and world region(decreasing in areas with the highest burden of hepatitis B virus,increasing in Eastern Europe and other countries).The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic affected mortality of patients with CLD both directly,with a higher risk for severe illness and death depending on age,stage and etiology of the disease,and indirectly,through social isolation and loss of support,harmful drinking,and difficulties in access to care.Nevertheless,only sparse data are available on variations in CLD as a cause of death during the pandemic.In the USA,in 2020-2021 a growth in mortality was registered for all liver diseases,more marked for alcoholic liver disease,especially among young people aged 25-44 years and in selected ethnic groups.COVID-19 related deaths accounted only for a minor part of the excess.Further data from mortality registers of other countries are warranted,preferably adopting the so-called multiple cause-of-death approach,and extended to deaths attributed to viral hepatitis and liver cancer.

High-speed and high-performance polarization-based quantum key distribution system without side channel effects caused by multiple lasers

Side channel effects such as temporal disparity and intensity fluctuation of the photon pulses caused by random bit generation with multiple laser diodes in high-speed polarization-based BB84 quantum key distribution(QKD) systems can be eliminated by increasing the DC bias current condition. However, background photons caused by the spontaneous emission process under high DC bias current degrade the performance of QKD systems. In this study, we investigated the effects of spontaneously emitted photons on the system performance in a high-speed QKD system at a clock rate of 400 MHz. Also, we show further improvements in the system performance without side channel effects by utilizing the temporal filtering technique with real-time fieldprogrammable gate array signal processing.

Analysis of Air Pollution Impact Factors in China： A MIMIC Modeling Approach

In this study, we investigate the impact factors on air pollution in terms of CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions simultaneously in China and compare changes in air pollution across provinces from 1998 to 2011 using a Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes Model （MIMIC） within a Structural Equation Model （SEM） framework. Our findings reveal that GDP per capita and total population have the largest impacts on air pollution, followed by energy intensity, foreign direct investment, population density, and industrialization. The results also reveal that the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve （EKC） hypothesis exists in China. Our findings also demonstrate that Shandong, Jiangxi and Liaoning are the top three provinces with the most deteriorated air quality while Xinjiang, Fujian and Ningxia are with the best. These results not only contribute to advancing the existing literature, but also merit particular attention from policy-makers in China.

Examining unobserved factors associated with red light running in Vietnam:A latent class model analysis

Red-light running(RLR)is a crucial violation that causes traffic accidents and injuries.Understanding factors that affect RLR is very significant to reduce the potential of this violation.Current studies have paid considerable attention to the observable factors,but not to unobservable factors.This study aims to examine the effects of observable and unobservable factors on RLR.This study uses a latent class model(LCM)to assign individuals into two classes—red-light-respectful and red-light-disrespectful road users—by surveying 751 respondents who use private transportation modes.This study incorporates psychological determinants into the LCM to account for unobservable factors.The contribution of this study is the in-depth investigation into law-respectful and law-disrespectful behaviours and intentional and unintentional violators.Such a study has not yet been conducted in the existing literature.In addition,a comprehensive comparison of the LCM and a traditional ordered probit model was conducted.Overall,the results suggest that the LCM is superior to the model that does not consider latent classes.Our estimation results are in alignment with previous studies on RLR:males,younger drivers/riders,less educated road users and motorcyclists are more likely to run red lights.An analysis of the latent variables shows that surrounding conditions—the behaviour of other violators,the absence of traffic police,and long waiting times—increase the possibility of violations.Based on these results,we provide suggestions to policymakers and traffic engineers:the implementation of enforcement cameras and penalties for violators are critical countermeasures to minimize the potential of RLR.