Inequalities in purchase of mosquito nets and willingness to pay for insecticide-treated nets in Nigeria: Challenges for malaria control interventions

Objective: To explore the equity implications of insecticide-treated nets (ITN) distribution programmes that are based on user charges. Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect information on previous purchase of untreated nets and hypothetical willingness to pay (WTP) for ITNs from a random sample of householders. A second survey was conducted one month later to collect information on actual purchases of ITNs. An economic status index was used for characterizing inequity. Major findings: The lower economic status quintiles were less likely to have previously purchased untreated nets and also had a lower hypothetical and actual WTP for ITNs. Conclusion: ITN distribution programmes need to take account of the diversity in WTP for ITNs if they are to ensure equity in access to the nets. This could form part of the overall poverty reduction strategy.This study received financial support from the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical diseases

Documentation of ice shapes accreted on the main rotor of a UH-1H helicopter in level flight

Icing tests were conducted on a UH-1H helicopter in level flight behind a spray tanker near Duluth, Minnesota, during the winter of 1983-84 as part of the joint NASA/Army HIFT program. On landing, the ice formations on the main rotor were documented by casting a set of ten-inch molds on the blade using a Dow-Corning silicone rubber compound which was initially liquid at sub-freezing temperatures. Such documentation was accomplished for eight flights in which the temperature ranged from -11 C to -22 C and the in-cloud flight times ranged from 5 to 9 minutes

Oceanographic features in the lee of the windward and leeward islands: ERTS and ship data

Analysis of the ERTS data in portions of the eastern Caribbean are presented for October 1972 showing features which are, as yet, not explained. Ground truth data obtained in that area during November 1972 are presented. These include vertical temperature structure in the mixed layer and thermocline, and surface measurements of salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED GRASS-BASED FARMING SYSTEMS IN THE NORTHERN TALLGRASS PRAIRIE REGION

We develop a series of new grass-based budgets for use in FINPACK, a standard farm finance analysis tool. The new budgets are then applied to an evaluation of plausible grass-based systems on three farms in the Northern Tallgrass Prairie region of Minnesota and North Dakota. The farms are used for illustration purposes only. We find no grass-based alternative that financially outperforms current non-grass operations. Nor do any score particularly well under a lender credit rating process that we adapted for this study. Our results suggest caution before one accepts claims that grass-based systems are uniformly feasible and financially desirable. There undoubtedly are individual situations in which such alternatives make financial sense, but their use may have to be accompanied by income supplements from external sources in order to further wide-spread adoption." (p.3)Agricultural Finance,

Remote detection of ocean features in the Lesser Antilles using ERTS-1 data

The author has identified the following significant results. Photographic data received from the ERTS-1 satellite over the Lesser Antilles Islands show distinct ocean features on the leeward side of each island. Attempts to relate these features to ocean eddy formations with the aid of ground truth data proved unsuccessful. However, surface and upper air wind data indicate a good correlation with the size, shape, and downwind extent of the ocean features. Studies to date indicate strongly that these features result from horizontal differences in sea surface roughness due to the wind shadow effect of the islands. The results suggest that horizontal variations in the reflectance of the sea surface will make remote sensing of the ocean mixed layer more difficult than previously anticipated. The surface reflection seems to be large enough to mask the smaller horizontal variations in backscattered energy from the mixed layer

The hydrology of prehistoric farming systems in a central Arizona ecotone

The prehistoric land use and water management in the semi-arid Southwest was examined. Remote sensing data, geology, hydrology and biology are discussed along with an evaluation of remote sensing contributions, recommendations for applications, and proposed future remote sensing studies

Persistent Homology in Sparse Regression and its Application to Brain Morphometry

Sparse systems are usually parameterized by a tuning parameter that determines the sparsity of the system. How to choose the right tuning parameter is a fundamental and difficult problem in learning the sparse system. In this paper, by treating the the tuning parameter as an additional dimension, persistent homological structures over the parameter space is introduced and explored. The structures are then further exploited in speeding up the computation using the proposed soft-thresholding technique. The topological structures are further used as multivariate features in the tensor-based morphometry (TBM) in characterizing white matter alterations in children who have experienced severe early life stress and maltreatment. These analyses reveal that stress-exposed children exhibit more diffuse anatomical organization across the whole white matter region.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Imagin

Decomposition of NO studied by infrared emission and CO laser absorption

A diagnostic technique for monitoring the concentration of NO using absorption of CO laser radiation was developed and applied in a study of the decomposition kinetics of NO. Simultaneous measurements of infrared emission by NO at 5.3 microns were also made to validate the laser absorption technique. The data were obtained behind incident shocks in NO-N2O-Ar (or Kr) mixtures, with temperatures in the range 2400-4100 K. Rate constants for dominant reactions were inferred from comparisons with computer simulations of the reactive flow

Application of the Nicoya OpenSPR to Studies of Biomolecular Binding: A Review of the Literature from 2016 to 2022

The Nicoya OpenSPR is a benchtop surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument. As with other optical biosensor instruments, it is suitable for the label-free interaction analysis of a diverse set of biomolecules, including proteins, peptides, antibodies, nucleic acids, lipids, viruses, and hormones/cytokines. Supported assays include affinity/kinetics characterization, concentration analysis, yes/no assessment of binding, competition studies, and epitope mapping. OpenSPR exploits localized SPR detection in a benchtop platform and can be connected with an autosampler (XT) to perform automated analysis over an extended time period. In this review article, we provide a comprehensive survey of the 200 peer-reviewed papers published between 2016 and 2022 that use the OpenSPR platform. We highlight the range of biomolecular analytes and interactions that have been investigated using the platform, provide an overview on the most common applications for the instrument, and point out some representative research that highlights the flexibility and utility of the instrument