The Effect of the AIDS Epidemic on Economic Welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa

The existing literature on health and development contains increasing numbers of assessments of relations between health conditions of countries and their per capita GDP, but it has not assessed health as an aspect of economic welfare. Early work of Usher and more recent work of Nordhaus and others has, however, begun to use empirical assessments of what societies appear willing to pay to reduce death rates (e.g. through costly environmental or safety regulations) to allow incorporation of mortality change into measures of changes in economic welfare that are more comprehensive than the rate of change in per capita GDP. This paper applies the method utilized by Nordhaus to assess the contribution of mortality changes in Sub-Saharan Africa to rates of change in economic welfare. Between 1960 and 1990 life expectancy in Africa increased by a very substantial 9 years. The impact was to add between 1.7% and 2.7% per annum to the growth rate of per capita GDP in generating a more inclusive measure of change in economic welfare. The AIDS epidemic, however, is more than reversing these gains: for Africa as a whole the AIDS induced decline in economic welfare was about 1.7% per annum, leading to an overall growth rate of welfare of –2.6% . In countries heavily impacted by AIDS, Bostwana for example, the effect has been to decrease economic welfare by over 8% per year for the past decade

Comparing the health and social protection effects of measles vaccination strategies in Ethiopia: An extended cost-effectiveness analysis

AbstractVaccination coverage rates often mask wide variation in access, uptake, and cost of providing vaccination. Financial incentives have been effective at creating demand for social services in a variety of settings. Using methods of extended cost-effectiveness analysis, we compare the health and economic implications of three different vaccine delivery strategies for measles vaccination in Ethiopia: i) routine immunization, ii) routine immunization with financial incentives, and iii) mass campaigns, known as supplemental immunization activities (SIAs). We examine annual birth cohorts of almost 3,000,000 births over a ten year period, exploring variation in these outcomes based on economic status to understand how various options may improve equity. SIAs naturally achieve higher levels of vaccine coverage, but at higher costs. Routine immunization combined with financial incentives bolsters demand among more economically vulnerable households. The relative appeal of routine immunization with financial incentives and SIAs will depend on the policy environment, including short-term financial limitations, time horizons, and the types of outcomes that are desired. While the impact of financial incentives has been more thoroughly studied in other policy arenas, such as education, consideration of this approach alongside standard vaccination models such as SIAs is timely given the dialog around measles eradication

Undirected Graphs of Entanglement Two

Entanglement is a complexity measure of directed graphs that origins in fixed point theory. This measure has shown its use in designing efficient algorithms to verify logical properties of transition systems. We are interested in the problem of deciding whether a graph has entanglement at most k. As this measure is defined by means of games, game theoretic ideas naturally lead to design polynomial algorithms that, for fixed k, decide the problem. Known characterizations of directed graphs of entanglement at most 1 lead, for k = 1, to design even faster algorithms. In this paper we present an explicit characterization of undirected graphs of entanglement at most 2. With such a characterization at hand, we devise a linear time algorithm to decide whether an undirected graph has this property

Annual rates of decline in child, maternal, HIV, and tuberculosis mortality across 109 countries of low and middle income from 1990 to 2013: an assessment of the feasibility of post-2015 goals

Background Measuring a country’s health performance has focused mostly on estimating levels of mortality. An alternative is to measure rates of decline in mortality, which are more sensitive to changes in health policy than are mortality levels. Historical rates of decline in mortality can also help test the feasibility of future health goals (eg, post-2015). We aimed to assess the annual rates of decline in under-5, maternal, tuberculosis, and HIV mortality over the past two decades for 109 low-income and middle-income countries. Methods For the period 1990–2013, we estimated annual rates of decline in under-5 mortality (deaths per 1000 livebirths), the maternal mortality ratio (deaths per 100 000 livebirths), and tuberculosis and HIV mortality (deaths per 100 000 population per year) using published data from UNICEF and WHO. For every 5-year interval (eg, 1990–95), we defi ned performance as the size of the annual rate of decline for every mortality indicator. Subsequently, we tested the feasibility of post-2015 goals by estimating the year by which countries would achieve 2030 targets proposed by The Lancet’s Commission on Investing in Health (ie, 20 deaths per 1000 for under-5 mortality, 94 deaths per 100 000 for maternal mortality, four deaths per 100 000 for tuberculosis mortality, and eight deaths per 100 000 for HIV mortality) at observed country and aspirational best-performer (90th percentile) rates. Findings From 2005 to 2013, the mean annual rate of decline in under-5 mortality was 4·3% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 3·9–4·6), for maternal mortality it was 3·3% (2·5–4·1), for tuberculosis mortality 4·1% (2·8–5·4), and for HIV mortality 2·2% (0·1–4·3); aspirational best-performer rates per year were 7·1% (6·8–7·5), 6·3% (5·5–7·1), 12·8% (11·5–14·1), and 15·3% (13·2–17·4), respectively. The top two country performers were Macedonia and South Africa for under-5 mortality, Belarus and Bulgaria for maternal mortality, Uzbekistan and Macedonia for tuberculosis mortality, and Namibia and Rwanda for HIV mortality. At aspirational rates of decline, The Lancet’s Commission on Investing in Health target for under-5 mortality would be achieved by 50–64% of countries, 35–41% of countries would achieve the 2030 target for maternal mortality, 74–90% of countries would meet the goal for tuberculosis mortality, and 66–82% of countries would achieve the target for HIV mortality. Interpretation Historical rates of decline can help defi ne realistic targets for Sustainable Development Goals. The gap between targets and projected achievement based on recent trends suggests that countries and the international community must seek further acceleration of progress in mortality

Gaugephobic Higgs Signals at the LHC

The Gaugephobic Higgs model provides an interpolation between three different models of electroweak symmetry breaking: Higgsless models, Randall-Sundrum models, and the Standard Model. At parameter points between the extremes, Standard Model Higgs signals are present at reduced rates, and Higgsless Kaluza-Klein excitations are present with shifted masses and couplings, as well as signals from exotic quarks necessary to protect the Zbb coupling. Using a new implementation of the model in SHERPA, we show the LHC signals which differentiate the generic Gaugephobic Higgs model from its limiting cases. These are all signals involving a Higgs coupling to a Kaluza-Klein gauge boson or quark. We identify the clean signal $p p \to W^(i) \to W H$ mediated by a Kaluza-Klein W, which can be present at large rates and is enhanced for even Kaluza-Klein numbers. Due to the very hard lepton coming from the W decay, this signature has little background, and provides a better discovery channel for the Higgs than any of the Standard Model modes, over its entire mass range. A Higgs radiated from new heavy quarks also has large rates, but is much less promising due to very high multiplicity final states.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Advanced composite elevator for Boeing 727 aircraft. Volume 1: Technical summary

The design, development, analysis, and testing activities and results that were required to produce five and one-half shipsets of advanced composite elevators for Boeing 727 aircraft are summarized. During the preliminary design period, alternative concepts were developed. After selection of the best design, detail design and basic configuration improvements were evaluated. Five and one-half shipsets were manufactured. All program goals (except competitive cost demonstration) were accomplished when our design met or exceeded all requirements, criteria, and objectives

International health and Hispanic culture

This research project focuses on the interrelations between health and culture in the Hispanic countries and their impact on individuals and communities. The research explores medical diseases and conditions, people\u27s traditions, beliefs, and perceptions related to concerns related to health issues, home remedies, behavior change, family and community, doctor-patient relationship, and social aspects of public health (ethnicity, gender, poverty). Students will have the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic with the researchers and participate in service learning activities to help Hispanic communities and collect data for this research project. CI students will lead the following research topics in the Dominican Republic: 1) self-medication, low-income population accessibility to medicines, and the governmental pharmacy system (Boticas Populares) (Caleb Addis); 2) domestic violence as a public health concern (Aliyah Anjarwalla); 3) how chronic diseases are promoted, prevented and controlled (Deepti Athavale); 4) hepatitis A as a public health concern (Thomas Cotton); 5) challenges/barriers of people with disabilities to access physical therapy services (Breci Davis) ; 6) cultural and socio-economic determinants of childhood obesity (Michelle Fuentes); 7)medical equipment maintenance at public health care settings: advantages and disadvantages of donated equipment (Hannah Haire); 8) challenges and opportunities for the implementation of the HIV Vertical Transmission Prevention Program (Ashley Jamison); and 9) a behavioral theory analysis of drug abuse (Katherine Orellana)

Rainbow domination and related problems on some classes of perfect graphs

Let $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and let $G$ be a graph. A function $f: V(G) \rightarrow 2^{[k]}$ is a rainbow function if, for every vertex $x$ with $f(x)=\emptyset$, $f(N(x)) =[k]$. The rainbow domination number $\gamma_{kr}(G)$ is the minimum of $\sum_{x \in V(G)} |f(x)|$ over all rainbow functions. We investigate the rainbow domination problem for some classes of perfect graphs