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Northeast Colorado Conference Discusses HIV/AIDS Needs Assessment Findings
Rural Solutions, an organization in northeast Colorado, held the "Community HIV/AIDS Education and Action Conference" as part of its ongoing effort to address issues related to HIV, the Sterling Journal-Advocate reports. At the conference, the organization presented the results of a recent needs assessment of HIV/AIDS services in the northeastern part of the state - conducted in partnership with the Center for Research Strategies and funded through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment - which found that HIV prevention services in the area are limited; barriers exist for HIV testing including confidentiality and costs; and mental health and substance use services for at-risk people also are limited, according to the Journal-Advocate (Jones, Sterling Journal-Advocate, 6/17).
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Rural Communities Should Benefit From Budget Health Boost
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) National Rural Faculty has welcomed the increased funding for some existing programs and funding for new programs announced in this week"s federal budget. These increases in funding are welcome given the difficult economic climate in which this budget has been delivered.
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Some Groups Say Iowa HIV Transmission Law Worsens Stigma, Hinders Testing Efforts
Some Iowa groups are concerned that the state"s criminal HIV transmission law adds to the stigma associated with the virus and hampers testing efforts, and are urging lawmakers to revisit the law, the Iowa Independent reports. According to the Independent, criminal transmission of HIV is classified among the second-most serious felonies that can be committed in the state. Those that have been convicted under the law have been sentenced to a few months to several decades in prison. Former state Rep. Ed Fallon (D) who supported the 1998 law, said, "It seems to me that since it is now 11, almost 12, years later, it wouldn"t be [a] bad time to take a look at it again," adding that "surely [there] are some tweaks or changes that the legislature could consider relevant to this law, especially with all the new knowledge we have of the disease" (Waddington, 7/1).
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Purdue-developed Tool Can Get Most Pollution Control For The Money

There may be thousands of things large and small that can be done to better control pollution on even the smallest waterways, and a new tool developed at Purdue University may help sort out how to choose the best ones. Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, combined a best management practices tool with a complex genetic algorithm that can search out the best solutions for non-point pollution control in a watershed. By analyzing data from an area, in just a few hours the tool can compute the most cost-effective pollution-control strategies for water res affected by agriculture, a process that currently takes weeks or months. A paper on the work appeared this past week in the journal Water Res Research. "When you have got limited res to control non-point pollution in an area, you have to decide where to best use your res," Chaubey said. "At the same time, you want to be sure you don"t disrupt the agricultural production in an area." Chaubey has spent the last several years developing a best management practices tool that takes into consideration all feasible solutions for decreasing non-point pollution, or pollution that gets into water through runoff. The tool determines the best solution - such as changes in tillage practices, grass coverage and structural changes on the land - based on the amount of pollution that can be eliminated, the economic impact to agricultural land and other factors. The calculations used include soil, water, topography and other data usually collected by governmental agencies. The algorithm assesses which of those practices will result in the most pollution control for the amount of money available with as little disruption to agriculture as possible. "You have to look at the economic information at the same time. If the solution we provide will negatively impact farmers, it will not be adopted," Chaubey said. "Combining economic analysis with environmental analysis gives solutions that are more likely to be acceptable to farmers and watershed managers." Current methods used to choose watershed-management practices include funding projects based on a first-come basis or spending on the project or projects seen as most beneficial. The problem is that one major project might break the budget, while several smaller projects could result in better pollution control for the same money. Chaubey said the system was tested with information from the L"Anguille River Watershed in eastern Arkansas. Further testing is being done on six locations in Indiana. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the research. Chaubey also expects to develop the tool in a format accessible by government officials to evaluate projects in their jurisdictions. Written by Brian Wallheimer Purdue University


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