HIV/AIDS as a Fiscal Liability

The costs of HIV/AIDS programs are significant from a macroeconomic or fiscal perspective in a number of countries. Assessing the fiscal implications is complicated by the long lags between infection and the need for HIV/AIDS-related services, and the long duration over which these services (notably treatment) are required. The paper interprets the fiscal costs of HIV/AIDS programs as quasi-liabilities, which are incurred by HIV infections and are paid off as HIV/AIDS-related services are delivered. On the microeconomic level, the analysis yields estimates of the costs incurred by single HIV infections, which - together with other criteria - can be used in assessing the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS program allocations. On the macroeconomic level, the analysis highlights the large magnitude of the HIV/AIDS quasi-liability (according to criteria for the sustainability of public debt), and quantifies the fiscal savings achieved or projected as a consequence of declining HIV incidence. --HIV/AIDS,health shocks,health expenditures,social expenditures,fiscal space,debt sustainability,quasi-liabilities,Africa,Botswana,South Africa,Swaziland,Uganda

Electropneumatic rheostat regulates high current

Electropneumatic rheostat maintains a constant direct current in each of several high-power parallel loads, of variable resistance, across a single source. It provides current regulation at any preset value by dissipating the proper amount of energy thermally, and uses a column of mercury to vary the effective length of a resistance element

Risk and Cost Assessment of Nitrate Contamination in Domestic Wells

This study combines empirical predictive and economics models to estimate the cost of remediation for domestic wells exceeding suggested treatment thresholds for nitrates. A multiple logistic regression model predicted the probability of well contamination by nitrate, and a life cycle costing methodology was used to estimate costs of nitrate contamination in groundwater in two areas of Nebraska. In south-central Nebraska, 37% of wells were estimated to be at risk of exceeding a threshold of 7.5 mg/L as N, and 17% were at risk of exceeding 10 mg/L as N, the legal limit for human consumption in the United States. In an area in northeastern Nebraska, 82% of wells were at risk of exceeding the 10 mg/L as N legal threshold. Reverse osmosis Point-of-Use (POU) treatment was the option with the lowest costs for a household (3–4 individuals), with an average of $4–$164 total regional cost per household per year depending on the threshold for treatment. Ion exchange and distillation were the next most cost-effective options. At the community level (~10,000 individuals), a reverse osmosis Point-of-Entry (POE) treatment system was the most expensive option for a community due to high initial costs and ongoing operation and maintenance costs, whereas the biological denitrification system was least expensive due to economies of scale. This study demonstrates integrated modeling methods to assess water treatment costs over time associated with groundwater nitrate contamination, including quantification of at-risk wells, and identifies suitable options for treatment systems for rural households and communities based on their cost

Portfolio for GEOL 488/888: Groundwater Geology

Groundwater Geology is a course that draws undergraduate and graduate students from multiple units, including the College of Arts and Sciences, Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Civil and Environmental Engineering. The course material focuses on groundwater as a resource, and includes the use of computer programming (Python programming language) to analyze groundwater data. Many students who enroll in the course are new to either geosciences or Python, despite the fact that it is an advanced course. The course has been redesigned recently to include materials suitable for a groundwater engineering course, because it is newly offered with sections listed by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This has provided opportunities for course updates, but also challenges due to the hybrid nature of engineering classes, since the department is split between two campuses. By focusing on course objectives and using backward design for assignments and assessments, the Spring 2023 student cohort was successful in mastering the course materials and made excellent strides in applying Python programming to groundwater applications

Effective communication to 4th graders about vector borne diseases

This summer I have worked on a vital research project that is important to overall public health. This project has also afforded me the opportunity to develop a lesson plan around this research to be used in an elementary classroom setting. The first part of this research experience has centered around studying how the general public learns best through classroom activities and exhibits. I have expanded my understanding of how people learn by reading several books, articles, and shadowing teachers educators here at NCAR. This preliminary research was important so that I can communicate effectively with 4th grade students. The second part of this research has focused on learning about the vector mosquito Aedes Aegypti and vector borne diseases like zika, yellow fever, and dengue through fieldwork. In addition, to the vector mosquito, this project also looked at the environments that it can survive in as well as the habitats that it chooses to live in. People should care for their health through prevention by learning about what contributes to such vectors and vector borne diseases. It is important that the public including children learn about the dangers of vector borne diseases to the public. After conducting fieldwork this project has now focused on strengthening my writing and speaking skills to be better prepared to inform the public with a focus on 4th grade learners. This research complied from fieldwork and in the classroom inspired the creation of a short book and activity about the vector mosquito Aedes Aegypti. In the end, I have been able to translate my research and fieldwork into the classroom where numerous people/students can learn about the vector and vector borne diseases

Economic growth in development---health, demographics, and access to technologies.

The first substantive chapter (II) addresses the macroeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS, with reference to sub-Saharan Africa. The framework is designed to capture some interactions between the formal and the informal sector, and - reflecting open capital markets of many economies affected by HIV/AIDS - to address the implications of capital mobility. Additionally, our study is the first academic study of the growth impact of scaling up antiretroviral treatment. Allowing for capital mobility, our analysis returns a stronger impact of HIV/AIDS on output and income per capita than the corresponding closed-economy models. The estimated impact on the informal sector is more pronounced than for the formal sector, reflecting a stronger impact of HIV/AIDS on savings rates. GDP per capita is lower in the scenario with comprehensive scaling-up of antiretroviral treatment, as rising costs of care and treatment affect savings rates. Chapter III adapts a microeconomic framework with forward-looking agents to study the contributions of health, as well as income, to living standards, drawing on empirical work on the value of statistical life. For leading industrialized countries, the contribution of health over long periods of time has been of similar magnitude as rising incomes, but the contribution of health has slowed down since about 1950. For developing countries, the slowdown occurred somewhat later. HIV/AIDS has resulted in steep declines in living standards in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Chapter IV focuses on the impact of capital-deepening arising from falling relative prices of ICT equipment. The estimated impact of ICT-related capital deepening on growth in developing countries is substantial (about 0.3 percentage points), although lower than comparable estimates for leading industrialized countries. Unlike in some industrialized countries, the impact of ICT-related capital deepening has not slowed down after 2000, owing to growing absorption of communications equipment

Preliminary Evaluation of a Number of Ablative Heat-shield Materials Exposed to Combined Radiative and Convective Heating

Ablating materials tested at combined radiative and convective heating for manned reentry vehicle heat shield

Subsonic Wing Loadings on a 45 deg Sweptback Wing and Body Combination at High Angles of Attack

A study has been made of the subsonic pressure distributions and loadings for a 45 deg sweptback-wing and body combination at angles of attack up to 36 deg. The wing had an aspect ratio of 5.5, a taper ratio of 0.53, and NACA 64A010 sections normal to the quarter-chord line and was mounted on a slender body of fineness ratio 12.5. Test results are presented for Mach numbers of 0.30 and 0.50 with corresponding Reynolds numbers of 1.5 and 2.0 million, respectively. The stall patterns and spanwise loadings at high angles of attack for the present model are correlated with those for other 45 deg sweptback wing and body combinations having aspect ratios between 4.0 and 8.0. A tentative approach is presented for extrapolating the Weissinger span-loading method to higher angles of attack, and for deriving the spanwise-load distributions for 45 deg sweptback wings at angles of attack above 20 deg. The investigation also included tests of the body in combination with only one panel of the swept wing. The problem of estimating the normal-force coefficient for the single panel at high angles of attack is considered

Influence of Irrigation Drivers Using Boosted Regression Trees: Kansas High Plains

Groundwater levels across parts of western Kansas have been declining at unsustainable rates due to pumping for agricultural irrigation despite water-saving efforts. Accelerating this decline is the complex agricultural landscape, consisting of both categorical (e.g., management boundaries) and numerical (e.g., crop prices) factors that drive irrigation decisions, making integrated water budget management a challenge. Furthermore, these factors frequently change through time, rendering management strategies outdated within relatively short time scales. This study uses boosted regression trees to simultaneously analyze categorical and numerical data against annual irrigation pumping to determine the relative influence of each factor on groundwater pumping across both space and time. In all, 45 key water use variables covering approximately 19,000 groundwater wells were tested against irrigation pumping from 2006 to 2016 across five categories: (1) management/policy, (2) hydrology, (3) weather, (4) land/agriculture, and (5) economics. Study results showed that variables from all five categories were included among the top 10 drivers to irrigation, and the greatest influence came from variables such as irrigated area per well, saturated thickness, soil permeability, summer precipitation, and pumping costs (depth to water table). Variables that had little influence included regional management boundaries and irrigation technology. The results of this study are further used to target the factors that statistically lead to the greatest volumes of groundwater pumping to help develop robust management strategy suggestions and achieve water management goals of the region. Plain Language Summary Water use for crops has lowered groundwater levels in western Kansas. Past studies have shown that this water use is driven by many factors spanning policy, economics, and the physical environment. Because of this complexity, it has been difficult to fully understand which factors most drive irrigation use relative to each other. This study uses a machine-learning model to rank the influence of 45 factors on irrigation pumping. These factors are analyzed over space (∼19,000 wells across western Kansas) and time (2006–2016). Based on this study, drivers to water use include total irrigated area, summer rainfall, and depth to the water table. Factors that have little influence include management district boundaries and irrigation system type. These results are used to make water management suggestions for the region