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

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

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

Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered

Renal pericytes: regulators of medullary blood flow

Regulation of medullary blood flow (MBF) is essential in maintaining normal kidney function. Blood flow to the medulla is supplied by the descending vasa recta (DVR), which arise from the efferent arterioles of juxtamedullary glomeruli. DVR are composed of a continuous endothelium, intercalated with smooth muscle-like cells called pericytes. Pericytes have been shown to alter the diameter of isolated and in situ DVR in response to vasoactive stimuli that are transmitted via a network of autocrine and paracrine signalling pathways. Vasoactive stimuli can be released by neighbouring tubular epithelial, endothelial, red blood cells and neuronal cells in response to changes in NaCl transport and oxygen tension. The experimentally described sensitivity of pericytes to these stimuli strongly suggests their leading role in the phenomenon of MBF autoregulation. Because the debate on autoregulation of MBF fervently continues, we discuss the evidence favouring a physiological role for pericytes in the regulation of MBF and describe their potential role in tubulo-vascular cross-talk in this region of the kidney. Our review also considers current methods used to explore pericyte activity and function in the renal medulla

Complete Genome Sequences of Paenibacillus Larvae Phages BN12, Dragolir, Kiel007, Leyra, Likha, Pagassa, PBL1c, and Tadhana

We present here the complete genomes of eight phages that infect Paenibacillus larvae, the causative agent of American foulbrood in honeybees. Phage PBL1c was originally isolated in 1984 from a P. larvae lysogen, while the remaining phages were isolated in 2014 from bee debris, honeycomb, and lysogens from three states in the USA

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

A primary care, multi-disciplinary disease management program for opioid-treated patients with chronic non-cancer pain and a high burden of psychiatric comorbidity

BACKGROUND: Chronic non-cancer pain is a common problem that is often accompanied by psychiatric comorbidity and disability. The effectiveness of a multi-disciplinary pain management program was tested in a 3 month before and after trial. METHODS: Providers in an academic general medicine clinic referred patients with chronic non-cancer pain for participation in a program that combined the skills of internists, clinical pharmacists, and a psychiatrist. Patients were either receiving opioids or being considered for opioid therapy. The intervention consisted of structured clinical assessments, monthly follow-up, pain contracts, medication titration, and psychiatric consultation. Pain, mood, and function were assessed at baseline and 3 months using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale scale (CESD) and the Pain Disability Index (PDI). Patients were monitored for substance misuse. RESULTS: Eighty-five patients were enrolled. Mean age was 51 years, 60% were male, 78% were Caucasian, and 93% were receiving opioids. Baseline average pain was 6.5 on an 11 point scale. The average CESD score was 24.0, and the mean PDI score was 47.0. Sixty-three patients (73%) completed 3 month follow-up. Fifteen withdrew from the program after identification of substance misuse. Among those completing 3 month follow-up, the average pain score improved to 5.5 (p = 0.003). The mean PDI score improved to 39.3 (p < 0.001). Mean CESD score was reduced to 18.0 (p < 0.001), and the proportion of depressed patients fell from 79% to 54% (p = 0.003). Substance misuse was identified in 27 patients (32%). CONCLUSIONS: A primary care disease management program improved pain, depression, and disability scores over three months in a cohort of opioid-treated patients with chronic non-cancer pain. Substance misuse and depression were common, and many patients who had substance misuse identified left the program when they were no longer prescribed opioids. Effective care of patients with chronic pain should include rigorous assessment and treatment of these comorbid disorders and intensive efforts to insure follow up

Good Random Matrices over Finite Fields

The random matrix uniformly distributed over the set of all m-by-n matrices over a finite field plays an important role in many branches of information theory. In this paper a generalization of this random matrix, called k-good random matrices, is studied. It is shown that a k-good random m-by-n matrix with a distribution of minimum support size is uniformly distributed over a maximum-rank-distance (MRD) code of minimum rank distance min{m,n}-k+1, and vice versa. Further examples of k-good random matrices are derived from homogeneous weights on matrix modules. Several applications of k-good random matrices are given, establishing links with some well-known combinatorial problems. Finally, the related combinatorial concept of a k-dense set of m-by-n matrices is studied, identifying such sets as blocking sets with respect to (m-k)-dimensional flats in a certain m-by-n matrix geometry and determining their minimum size in special cases.Comment: 25 pages, publishe