Guidelines for effective workplace HIV/AIDS intervention management by construction firms

Construction firms have an important role in combating HIV/AIDS in the South African construction industry. The HIV/AIDS intervention management practices of 12 construction firms in Cape Town are examined through interviews and documents. From thematic analysis, five themes emerged: construction firms’ perceptions of HIV/AIDS as a threat to the firm; construction firm interventions; barriers to the success of interventions; the role of service providers; and state-led interventions. A tension exists in managing HIV/AIDS interventions as firms are concerned with productivity and profit maximization, but are becoming more engaged with corporate social responsibility and a higher duty of care towards employees. Interventions should extend beyond awareness and prevention campaigns to include testing and treatment programmes. A guideline checklist for such interventions is proposed. Partnering with specialized service providers is recommended, as well as engaging closely with public sector services. Firms successfully managing their HIV/AIDS response should share their experience with others struggling to respond. Employee issues of stigma and reluctance to disclose need to be addressed. Attention should be paid to the employment structure of the construction industry and to the needs of the informal sector.     

The Effect of Adolescent Neighborhood Poverty on Adult Employment

Abstract: Neighborhood environments affect the long‐term labor market success of America's urban youth. Urban poverty grew more spatially concentrated during the 1970s and 1980s as industrial economies dramatically restructured. Some policies attempted to address the problems of impoverished neighborhoods by stimulating in‐situ economic development, while others sought to geographically disperse the poor. Poverty grew less concentrated during the 1990s because of robust national economic growth and dispersal‐oriented federal policies. Before celebrating, however, the long term effects of growing up in poor neighborhoods need to be considered. We used National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, geocoded to census tracts, to examine the effects of neighborhood poverty rates encountered during adolescence on adult employment. Living in poor neighborhoods during adolescence carries a long‐term labor market disadvantage, caused at least in part by the limited ability to accumulate early work experience. Males appear to be more sensitive to these neighborhood effects than females.     

Analysing spatial spillovers in corruption: A dynamic spatial panel data approach

Previous studies on the determinants of corruption have seldom addressed cross‐border spillovers of corruption in a panel data setting. In this paper, we first propose a theoretical model of spatial corruption spillover based on network analysis. Then, we analyse spatial spillovers in corruption using a dynamic spatial panel approach. The results indicate that corruption not only exhibits spatial spillovers but also a persistent effect over time. More importantly, increase of income per capita, economic freedom, and percentage of women in the parliaments have a long‐term effect on the perceived levels of corruption. Policies and programmes aiming at abating corruption must take into consideration those results.     

Simulation dynamisch‐thermischen Langzeitverhaltens in Gebäuden mittels CFD

Dynamic CFD simulation of thermal long‐term behaviour of buildings. The design of complex buildings increasingly demands the usage of simulation programmes. Actual dynamic thermal simulation programmes in use are incapable to determine the air flow and the temperature distribution in a room. One solution is to displace building simulations to a CFD platform which involves extremely long calculation times and large amounts of data. To reduce the calculation time a new freeze‐flow method was developed for ANSYS CFX‐5. It is based on the periodic freezing of the hydrodynamic equations enabling long term simulations. The CFD simulations were validated for free convection which is the dominating driving force of flow in rooms. Freeze‐flow simulations of simple test models confirmed a dramatic reduction in calculation time without any loss in accuracy compared to full dynamic CFD simulations.     

Optimal Performance‐Based Building Facility Management

Abstract: It is a great challenge to efficiently manage and operate the facilities of a set of buildings, which are of different structural types, ages, and locations and serve for different functions required by different users, over a long‐term planning horizon using limited resources to achieve multiple and often conflicting objectives. This article proposes an optimization system for the management of facilities in a set of buildings. First, a systemic approach is taken to standardize the various kinds of facilities in the set of buildings into a hierarchical structure, the condition states of these facilities into a state space, and the alternative management actions on different facilities in different condition states into an action set. Second, infinite‐ and finite‐time linear programming models are formulated to maximize the long‐term performance of the set of buildings subject to a number of technical and economic constraints. Third, life‐cycle management policies are established for both infinite‐ and finite‐time planning horizons. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to discuss the application and usefulness of the proposed optimization system for facility management in a set of buildings.     

Toward an Integrated Smart Sensing System and Data Interpretation Techniques for Pavement Fatigue Monitoring

Abstract: Currently, pavement instrumentation for condition monitoring is done on a localized and short‐term basis. Existing technology does not allow for continuous long‐term monitoring and network level deployment. Long‐term monitoring of mechanical loading for pavement structures could reduce maintenance costs, improve longevity, and enhance safety. In this article, on‐going research to develop and validate a smart pavement monitoring system is described. The system mainly consists of a novel self‐powered wireless sensor based on the integration of piezoelectric transduction with floating‐gate injection capable of detecting, storing, and transmitting strain history for long‐term monitoring and a novel passive temperature gauge. A technique for estimating full‐field strain distributions using measured data from a limited number of implemented sensors is also described. The ultimate purpose is to incorporate the traffic wander effect in the fatigue prediction algorithms. Preliminary results are shown and limitations are discussed.     

Optimization of a gravity‐driven membrane (GDM) system operated with simple manual cleanings for household drinking water treatment

Manual cleaning protocols were developed for a gravity‐driven membrane (GDM) module. Such a module is a promising solution for household water treatment in low‐ and middle‐income countries. A filtration system equipped with the GDM module was tested in a batchwise manner using three different feed water solutions. Two types of manual cleaning protocols were performed to delay the permeability decrease, namely cleaning between batches and long‐term cleaning (every 15 batches). The optimized protocol for cleaning between batches consisted of 3 twisting and 10 vertical shaking movements; the optimized long‐term cleaning protocol consisted of 70 vertical shaking movements for both the middle region of the module and the module header. These cleaning protocols allowed the filtration system to produce sufficient water to meet the minimum requirements for a five person family using all three kinds of feed water solutions. The module produced water without Escherichia coli, even for the wastewater influent.     

人类免疫缺陷病毒感染者和获得性免疫缺陷综合征患者眼部病变相关的基础与临床研究

目的总结北京协和医院眼科诊治的人类免疫缺陷病毒(human immunodeficiency virus,HIV)感染者和获得性免疫缺陷综合征(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,AIDS)患者眼部病变的发病率及其临床特征、治疗效果和房水、泪液病毒学检测结果。方法回顾性分析2001年1月至2015年12月在北京协和医院眼科诊治的223例HIV/AIDS患者的眼部并发症的临床特征和治疗效果。其中男性157例,女性66例;平均年龄(39.2±9.7)岁(8.0~78.0岁)。对所有患者的感染方式、眼部并发症的临床表现、检查、治疗等进行回顾性分析。结果 223例HIV/AIDS患者中,有眼部并发症者99例(44.4%),共156只眼,其中并发巨细胞病毒(cytomegalovirus,CMV)视网膜炎64只眼(40例),HIV视网膜病变54只眼(35例),HIV/梅毒双重感染合并眼底病变20只眼(13例),免疫重建炎症综合征(immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome,IRIS)16只眼(10例),慢性泪腺炎2只眼(1例)。CD4+T淋巴细胞计数小于50/mm3的HIV/AIDS患者泪液分泌低于正常人(P=0.008)。在行高效抗逆转录酶病毒疗法(highly active antiretroviral therapy,HAART)治疗有效且血浆HIV检测为阴性的16例HIV/AIDS患者的泪液中发现HIV-1病毒,中位病毒载量为2291(519,6667)拷贝/ml。结论在HIV/AIDS患者眼部病变中,CMV视网膜炎是AIDS晚期最常见的机会性感染,早期发现和及时给予全身及眼部治疗,可改善患者的视力预后。患者血液HIV检测阴性时,房水和泪液HIV仍持续阳性,提示防止HIV病毒播散,采取有效的预防措施至关重要。     

Tackling Informality: Why HIV/AIDS Needs to be a Critical Component of Urban Development Policies

Cities in the South are faced with the double challenges of underdevelopment and poverty on the one hand and urbanisation on the other. As the developing regions of the South continue to urbanise at an incredible rate, it is clear that many cities do not have the necessary capacity to respond to the increasing needs and demands by urban residents. As a result, many new city residents have no other option but to settle in informal areas. These areas have long been associated with poor and unhealthy living conditions and, more recently, the links between these living conditions and HIV/AIDS have become increasingly clear. Research suggests that developmental factors like poverty, unemployment, gender inequality and inadequate shelter, water and sanitation all play a role in increasing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. These conditions further affect the ability of HIV-positive individuals, households and communities to cope with the consequences of the epidemic. This in turn leads to further impoverishment and reduces the likelihood that people living in informal settlements will be able to improve their livelihoods. Yet, little attention has been paid by policy makers and planners to the relationship between HIV/AIDS and informality despite the challenge it provides for cities and the implications of the epidemic for government institutions and local government in particular. This paper argues that informality is complex and that its heterogeneous nature is not effectively understood and thus not given appropriate recognition and support. It looks at the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within this context of informality and the inevitable wave of urbanisation. The paper suggests that the only way to deal effectively with HIV/AIDS (and informality) is through planning and building integrated and sustainable urban settlements that respond to the complexities of informality in cities of the developing world.     

POVERTY,POLITICS, AND A “CIRCLE OF PROMISE”: HOLISTIC EDUCATION POLICY IN BOSTON AND THE CHALLENGE OF INSTITUTIONAL ENTRENCHMENT

ABSTRACT: Cash‐strapped municipalities throughout the United States are increasingly proposing innovative education policies linking school‐based reforms with neighborhood‐level interventions. Boston is one such city. In this paper, we describe, analyze, and critique the City of Boston's “Circle of Promise” initiative, a holistic education policy designed to coordinate school reforms with local community‐based organizational resources. We link our discussion of challenges and critiques with the term “institutional entrenchment,” referring to institutional barriers to successful urban policies and the defense of the status quo. We conclude with suggestions for future policy to overcome the impediments of institutional entrenchment, and by extension, improve educational opportunities for students in underperforming urban schools.     

DAWN OF THE DEAD CITY: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF VACANT ADDRESSES IN BUFFALO,NY 2008–2010

ABSTRACT: This article examines residential vacancy patterns in Buffalo, NY, using data from a unique data set. It includes variables from HUD Aggregate USPS Administrative Data on Address Vacancies, the American Community Survey (ACS) 5‐year estimates for 2005–2009, housing choice voucher (HCV) records of local public housing agencies, and municipal in rem property records. Multiple regression is used to identify significant relationships between vacancy patterns, socioeconomic characteristics, and institutional factors. The findings from this analysis suggest that the percent of vacant residential properties increases in census tracts with elevated poverty rates, higher percentages of renters receiving rental assistance, and long‐term vacancies. They also suggest that the percent of abandoned residential properties increases in census tracts with highly concentrated black populations, elevated poverty rates, long‐term vacancies, and higher percentages of business addresses. We conclude that these relationships are unique to older core cities experiencing systemic population and job losses. These cities struggle with a distinct type of long‐term vacant and abandoned structures, which we label zombie properties. They can be contrasted with vacant and abandoned properties in transitional or regenerating areas. We offer recommendations for further analysis of zombie properties in these urban settings.     

Bi‐objective Modeling Approach for Repairing Multiple Feature Infrastructure Systems

A bi‐objective decision aid model for planning long‐term maintenance of infrastructure systems is presented, oriented to interventions on their constituent elements, with two upgrade levels possible for each element (partial/full repairs). The model aims at maximizing benefits and minimizing costs, and its novelty is taking into consideration, and combining, the system/element structure, volume discounts, and socioeconomic factors. The model is tested with field data from 229 sidewalks (systems) and compared to two simpler repair policies, of allowing only partial or full repairs. Results show that the efficiency gains are greater in the lower mid‐range budget region. The proposed modeling approach is an innovative tool to optimize cost/benefits for the various repair options and analyze the respective trade‐offs.     

Hygrothermische Beanspruchung und Lebensdauer von Wärmedämm‐Verbundsystemen

Hygrothermal loads and service life of external wall insulation systems. Service life and aging behaviour of external wall systems depend on their hygrothermal loads. Apart from the fluctuating climatic conditions temperature, solar radiation and humidity there are often additional exterior or interior sources of moisture, e.g. driving rain, construction moisture or surface condensation acting on facades. External wall insulation systems (ETICS = E xternal T hermal I nsulation C omposite S ystems) are especially affected due to their low mass. However, the long‐term observation by repeated inspections of the same objects over a period of 30 years proves that ETICS show not more damage than traditional facades. Apart from minor esthetical problems due to soiling or microbial growth their long‐term behaviour is very encouraging. Maintained at normal intervals ETICS are as durable as traditionally rendered masonry walls.     

THE LIMITS AND POTENTIAL OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN PARTICIPATORY PLANNING: A CASE STUDY OF THE NEW YORK HIV PLANNING COUNCIL

ABSTRACT: In addition to providing a wide range of essential services in local communities, service‐providing nonprofit organizations play an important role in shaping de facto local social policy through their participation in community‐based planning processes that guide or determine the distribution of federal funding for health and social services. This social policy role has become increasingly important in the United States as the federal government continues to privatize health and human services through providing grant funds to states and cities that are ultimately used to support local nonprofit health and social service organizations. The important role of service‐providing nonprofits in shaping local social policy has been understudied, as most studies on nonprofits and policy‐making focus on citizen advocacy organizations and their lobbying and protest activities, primarily at the national level. This study uses the case of the New York HIV Planning Council to address this gap in the literature, highlighting the benefits and pitfalls of an urban community planning process dominated by service providers from local nonprofit social service organizations whose own organizations are affected by the planning group's decisions. Factors that contributed to nonprofit providers' dominance as well as factors that limited their self‐interested behavior are reviewed. The relationship between the HIV nonprofit service system and the AIDS social movement is explored in light of theory on new social movements to help explain why nonprofit providers were sometimes able to promote attentiveness to the general public good while also advocating for their more self‐interested organizational needs.     

Alcohol,substance and drug use among urban slum adolescents in Nairobi,Kenya

Alcohol, substance and drug use among urban slum adolescents is not only a risky behavior in the era of HIV/AIDS but also a potential security threat to a growing city. Based on the Nairobi Urban Slum Survey, adolescent males are more than 20 times more likely to engage in drugs, and 5 times more likely to consume alcohol than girls. In addition, being out-of-school increases the risk of alcohol and drug abuse. There is a gender dimension to this; societal expectation, division of labor, and nature of upbringing is different for males and females. While the government policy of free primary education is likely to reduce the alcohol and drug incidence, gender targeted interventions, providing alternatives for both boys and girls, would be equally essential.     

Forecasting global HIV-AIDS dynamics: modelling strategies and preliminary simulations

Given that today's AIDS cases are merely a delayed reflection of HIV infections which occurred in years past, forecasting systems can be used to backtrack and infer HIV prevalence from AIDS data. Process-based models mimicking the timing of the host-HIV relationship have also produced findings about the reasons for the current slow growth of the epidemic among homosexual men. Many systems have been derived to predict the incidence of HIV and AIDS in closed communities, but they avoid forecasting the spread of infection. The author shows, however, that the basic recurrent-disease model can be converted to a multiregional format and applied to the forecasting of the global spread of HIV. Beginning with a suite of HIV models which build upon the standard community model for a population of homosexual men, a multiregional specification is developed with a cross-infection mechanism where high-risk and low-risk populations are distinguished by their promiscuity rates. The author compares the nature of this mixing with some existing modelling formats, and some preliminary simulations are presented for the timing and spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a sixteen-city global system.     

The economics of housing programmes in Ghana, 1929–66

Researchers have generally assumed that housing policies of the colonial and the immediate post‐colonial governments were shaped solely by social and political considerations. From a social perspective, some have argued that governments intervened in the housing field purely on health grounds to create good sanitary conditions and prevent the spread of diseases, especially amongst the colonizers and indigenous educated elites. From a political perspective, writers have argued that the key goal for most housing programmes was to prevent unrest and ensure political longevity. Even though each of these arguments has some merit, little, if any, consideration has been given to the economic logic of housing policies and programmes. Indeed, researchers have generally assumed that colonial and immediate post‐colonial governments never considered the economic significance of housing. This assumption is incorrect. Through surveying published and archival sources, this paper aims to rectify the neglect of the economic logic of housing policies by demonstrating that economic implications were considered in the implementation of housing policies and programmes. As will be shown, housing was seen not only as a necessary tool to secure labour and improve productivity, but also as an essential element for the success of economic development projects, especially industrialization programmes.     

Employment generation in public works: recent South African experience

Unemployment remains one of South Africa's most pressing problems while at the same time there is a great need for physical infrastructure in both urban and rural areas. Concurrently there is also a lack of individual skills and institutional capacity. From a theoretical perspective, substantiated by large scale experience elsewhere in Africa (and research and development in South Africa) there are reasons for advocating the establishment of carefully formulated, long term programmes using employment-intensive methods for the construction and maintenance of the required infrastructure. These programmes have also improved institutional capacities and developed individual skills. Proper employment-intensive construction results in a significant increase in employment generated per unit of expenditure. It can be financially competitive with conventional (equipment-based) construction and can produce the same quality of product within the same time. From a development perspective there are additional socio-economic benefits to be gained such as the development of individual skills and institutional capacities and a contribution to the alleviation of poverty. The concepts and principles, taken together with the processes and results of successful long term, large scale programmes provide criteria by which to evaluate other projects and programmes. In 1994 the South African National Public Works Programme (NPWP) was launched based on the principles outlined above. This paper briefly describes the NPWP and evaluates progress in satisfying its objectives.     

Universities’ effects on regional GDP and unemployment: The case of Germany

There is a large consensus that higher education institutions exert notable effects on their regional environment. So far, however, much of the related evidence is based on case studies. Few findings are available on a more generalizable level. To bridge this gap, our study uses spatial panel‐data models to identify the impacts of higher education institution (HEI) activities on GDP per capita and unemployment in Germany. Beyond demand‐side effects, we seek to identify the, arguably more important, indirect long‐term effects of knowledge generation. Accounting for regional spillovers, we find that on average HEI contributed €8,300 to regional GDP per capita in the period 2000 to 2011. Furthermore, we find that they help to significantly reduce unemployment rates in the long run.     

Influence of policy support on the development of organic farming in the European Union

The paper explores the influence of policy support on the development of the organic sector. Policies include the agri‐environment programme (EU Regulation 2078/92), the EU regulation 2092/91 defining organic crop‐production in statutory terms and policies to support market and regional development and the information provision of organic farming. Policy makers have been interested in organic farming for its environmental and health benefits and the potential to contribute to the goals of regional development programmes. The evaluation suggests that the variation in support policies alone cannot explain the different rates of conversion to organic farming in the EU.