Aids and Economic Growth: A Human Capital Approach

It is estimated that by 2001 20 million people had died from AIDS, which is now the world´s fourth biggest cause of death. While the highest prevalence and death rates and number of infected persons are reported for sub-Saharan Africa, where life expectancies at birth are declining rapidly and infant mortality rates are increasing, there is evidence that the epidemic is accelerating in Asia and Eastern Europe. While the human and social costs of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are the major causes for concern, the econometric results reported in this paper indicate that the macroeconomic affects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been substantial; especially in Africa where the average marginal negative impact on income per capita of a one percent increase in HIV prevalence rate is 0.59 percent. Even in countries where the HIV prevalence rates are lower the marginal impacts are non trivial

The impact of HIV and AIDS on Africa's economic development

The macroeconomic effects of HIV/AIDS in Africa are substantial, and policies fill. dealing with them may be controversial-one is whether expensive antiretroviral drugs Should be targeted at economically productive groups of people. The authors review the evidence and consider how economic theory can contribute to our response to the pandemic

Process facilitates photoresist mask alignment on SiC crystals

Growth of silicon dioxide on a silicon carbide crystal ensures proper orientation of photoresist masks on the crystals used for semiconductor devices. The crystal is heated in a water vapor-saturated gas to delineate p-n junctions that intersect the crystal surface

Reservation Wages, Labour Market Participation and Health

The concept of the reservation wage has played an important role in labour market theory; particularly in models of job search, labour supply and labour market participation. Despite this core theoretical role, there is a scarcity of empirical research which explores the setting of reservation wages at the individual level. In this paper, we focus on the determinants of reservation wages, with a particular focus on health, which has attracted very little attention despite its importance from a policy perspective. We use data for males from 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey and estimate an endogenous switching model which predicts reservation wages for the unemployed and market wages for the employed. We employ methods to deal with the endogeneity of health, measurement errors in our self reported health variable and selection into economic activity. Our results suggest that health is an important determinant of selection, both into economic activity and into employment (versus unemployment) but that, once these participation effects are accounted for, health is not a significant determinant of either the reservation wage or the market wage. This casts doubt on the results of a number of previous studies that have failed to appropriately account for selection in models of male wages. Our results have important policy implications since they suggest that poor health is a major cause of economic inactivity

Thin film process forms effective electrical contacts on semiconductor crystals

Process makes microscopic, low-resistance electrical contacts on hexagonal n-type silicon carbide crystals used for microelectronic devices. A vacuum deposition of aluminum is etched to expose the bare silicon carbide where the electrical contacts are made. Sputtering alternating layers of tantalum and gold forms the alloy film

Similarity, attraction and initial conditions in an example of nonlinear diffusion

Similarity solutions play an important role in many fields of science. The recent book of Barenblatt (1996) discusses many examples. Often, outstanding unresolved issues are whether a similarity solution is dynamically attractive, and if it is, to what particular solution does the system evolve. By recasting the dynamic problem in a form to which centre manifold theory may be applied, based upon a transformation by Wayne (1997), we may resolve these issues in many cases. For definiteness we illustrate the principles by discussing the application of centre manifold theory to a particular nonlinear diffusion problem arising in filtration. Theory constructs the similarity solution, confirms its relevance, and determines the correct solution for any compact initial condition. The techniques and results we discuss are applicable to a wide range of similarity problems

Characterisation and textural analysis of Middle Bronze Age Transdanubian inlaid wares of the Encrusted Pottery Culture, Hungary: a preliminary study

Inlaid ceramics belonging to the Encrusted Pottery Culture and dated to the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BC) are highly distinctive vessels with complex decorative motifs found in large numbers in the Transdanubia region of Hungary. Despite this considerable corpus of material there has been little systematic investigation of the composition of the inlays. Micro-analysis of Transdanubian inlaid wares by X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides new compositional, structural and textural information on the inlays. In contrast to common statements in the literature regarding the materials used to make inlays, these new data show that the majority of inlays are composed of hydroxyapatite (bone) that was previously ashed, although some of the inlays are composed of calcium carbonate. Additional compositional and textural variation in the bone inlays suggests that bone material from different skeletal elements and/or of different age may have been used, and that contrasting recipes for inlay preparation were employed during fabrication. These results suggest that the production of inlaid vessels of the Encrusted Pottery Culture was more complex than has hitherto been thought

The gender reservation wage gap: evidence from British panel data

Our findings suggest the existence of a gender reservation wage gap, with a differential of around 10%. The presence of children, particularly pre-school age children, plays an important role in explaining this differential. For individuals without children, the explained component of the differential is only 5%, which might indicate that perceived discrimination in the labour market influences the reservation wage setting of females