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This study examines the residual geographical variations in infant and child mortality and how the different categories of the risk factors account for the spatial inequality in West African countries. To this end, we pooled data for 10 of the countries extracted from Demographic and Health Surveys and used the spatial extension of discrete-time survival model to examine how the variables exert influence on infant and child mortality across space. Inference was Bayesian based on the computational efficient MCMC technique. We found different geographical patterns for infant and child mortality. In the case of children under five, demographic factors inherent to the mother and child as well as maternal status variables when accounted for explain away a good part of the huge variations observed in the crude rates. There are no evidence of significant variations, however, in infant mortality except for three neighbouring regions of Liberia and Sierra Leone. The findings can guide in evidence-based allocation of scarce resources in West Africa with the aim of improving the survival chance of young children.

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In this paper, entropy generation rate in the flow of couple stress fluid undergoing exothermic chemical reaction through a porous vertical channel is studied by applying the second law of thermodynamics. A semi-analytical solution for the governing equations is obtained using Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The effects of couple stress parameter, internal heat generation parameter, Dufour number on the velocity, temperature distribution, entropy generation rate and Bejan number are investigated and the results were presented graphically. The results show that solutal diffusivity has significant effect on the entropy generation rate and irreversibility of heat in a couple stress fluid flow.

This paper investigates the effect of non-Newtonian material effect on the thermal stability of a reactive fluid flow through a channel saturated with porous medium by using Brinkman model. Approximate solution of the dimensionless nonlinear ordinary differential equation governing the fluid flow is obtained by using Adomian decomposition method together with special Hermite-Pad e approximant. Effects of various non-Newtonian fluid parameters on both the velocity and temperature fields are constructed and discussed.