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Kansas Geological Survey to measure groundwater levels in western Kansas
LAWRENCE — A crew from the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, will be in western Kansas measuring groundwater levels the first week of January. Levels are measured annually as part of a joint project conducted by KGS and the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources to monitor the health of the state’s valuable groundwater resources. Weather permitting, the KGS crew will be working near Colby on Jan. 3, Goodland on Jan. 4, Ulysses on Jan. 5 and Liberal on Jan. 6.
Cessation of Medicaid funding for neonatal circumcision examined in new study
LAWRENCE — Although it is both a religious rite and cultural practice, male circumcision is primarily done in the United States as a means of preventative health care. Yet Medicaid funding for this neonatal procedure has been decreasing for decades. A new article from a University of Kansas professor titled “The 1982 Medicaid Funding Cessation for Circumcision in California and Circumcision Rates” investigates the state’s decision to stop subsidizing Medicaid neonatal circumcision. The research finds that such funding coverage affects circumcision rates, which could magnify health care disparities.
KU Engineering SELF Fellows design bus bench prototype for city of Lawrence
LAWRENCE — Engineering students at the University of Kansas have designed and built a prototype of a new bench for bus stops in the city of Lawrence. The ADA-compliant project was part of a revamped leadership program for undergraduates in the School of Engineering, designed to give students hands-on design and project management experience on real-world projects.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Brownie Wilson, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-2118, [email protected], @ksgeology
Kansas Geological Survey to measure groundwater levels in western Kansas
LAWRENCE — A crew from the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, will be in western Kansas measuring groundwater levels the first week of January.
Levels are measured annually as part of a joint project conducted by KGS and the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) to monitor the health of the state’s valuable groundwater resources.
Weather permitting, the KGS crew will be working near Colby on Jan. 3, Goodland on Jan. 4, Ulysses on Jan. 5 and Liberal on Jan. 6.
Most of the measured wells tap into the High Plains aquifer, a massive network of underground water-bearing rocks and the main source of water in the region. The rest draw from deeper aquifers or shallower alluvial aquifers along creeks and rivers.
Based on 2022 precipitation patterns and widespread drought conditions in western Kansas, Brownie Wilson, KGS water-data manager, expects this winter’s measurements to show an overall decline.
“The lack of moisture across much of Kansas this past year is on par with what we saw in 2011 and 2012,” Wilson said. “Most of the High Plains aquifer region of Kansas has been under some level of drought condition since the start of the year, and that trend is continuing right into 2023. This has resulted in increased pumping demands that have stretched into the fall and early winter. As such, we are expecting water levels to be down across the state.”
The High Plains aquifer underlies portions of eight states. In Kansas, it encompasses three individual aquifers — the Ogallala aquifer, the Equus Beds around Wichita and Hutchinson, and the Great Bend Prairie aquifer around Pratt and Great Bend.
Groundwater levels in much of the state’s portion of the Ogallala aquifer, especially in southwest Kansas, have been on the decline since water use started to rise in the mid-20th century. Dry years lead to increased water usage, primarily for irrigation, which in turn typically causes greater declines in water levels.
The KGS and DWR measure depth to water in more than 1,400 wells in 48 counties, primarily in January to avoid as much as possible skewed data associated with short-term declines caused by widespread pumping during the growing season. This year, KGS will measure 582 wells, and crews from the DWR’s field offices in Garden City, Stafford and Stockton will measure 827.
Wells are accessed with landowners’ permission, and many have been monitored for years, although new wells are added as older wells become inaccessible or to fill in spatial gaps in the monitoring network. The majority are within the boundaries of the state’s five Groundwater Management Districts (GMDs), which are organized and governed by area landowners and water users to address local water-resource issues.
Historical annual measurements for each well are available on the KGS website. Results of measurements made in January 2023 will be added in late February.
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Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Cessation of Medicaid funding for neonatal circumcision examined in new study
LAWRENCE — Although it is both a religious rite and cultural practice, male circumcision is primarily done in the United States as a means of preventative health care. Yet Medicaid funding for this neonatal procedure has been decreasing for decades.
A new article in the journal AIDS and Behavior titled “The 1982 Medicaid Funding Cessation for Circumcision in California and Circumcision Rates” investigates the state’s decision to stop subsidizing Medicaid neonatal circumcision. The research finds that such funding coverage affects circumcision rates, which could magnify health care disparities such as lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and urinary tract infections.
“California’s 1982 decision to defund Medicaid male neonatal circumcision was associated with a 25 to 31 percentage point decrease in West-Medicaid circumcision rates compared to the changes for other groups and other states in this time period,” said David Slusky, professor of economics at the University of Kansas. “Overall this shows that insurance funding decisions have a key impact on families’ health care decisions.”
Co-written by KU economics alumnus Ryan Wendling (who worked on the project as an undergraduate research assistant) and infectious disease physician Rebecca Linfield of Stanford University, this research is the first to use the California case as a natural experiment to see how a defunding policy change affects contemporaneous circumcision rates.
The potential medical benefits of circumcision are well-known: This includes decrease of HIV (up to 60% in clinical trials in multiple countries in Africa), sexually transmitted infections, rates of urinary tract infections and rates of penile cancer.
“Male neonatal circumcision is quite inexpensive relative to other procedures — about $215 per procedure — and therefore a cost-effective way to prevent disease,” Slusky said.
According to his research, Medicaid now pays for any¬where from 30% to 70% of all U.S. births across states. In 1990, only California (1982) and North Dakota (1986) had ended Medicaid coverage of neonatal circumcision. By 2011, a total of 17 additional states had adopted similar policies, with only Colorado reversing its decision in 2017. California cut Medicaid neonatal circumcision funding in 1982 primarily for budgetary reasons.
While this result has affected people based on their income, it also does so based on race.
“Medicaid insures those with lower incomes, which unfortunately in our country is a disproportionately larger share of Black and Hispanic populations than of other populations,” he said. “Newborn males from these groups were therefore more likely to be covered by Medicaid and thus more likely to be affected by defunding Medicaid male neonatal circumcision.”
A KU faculty member since 2015, Slusky specializes in health economics and labor economics. He has conducted research on a variety of topics, including the Flint water crisis, COVID-19 restrictions and abortion care.
“Our results are another example that financial nudges matter. There was no change in circumcision availability, let alone mandates or cultural norms. And there will always both be families that will circumcise their sons regardless of cost and families that won’t even if it’s free. But we show that for a substantial number of low-income families, the financial cost makes a difference,” Slusky said.
“State policymakers need to keep that in mind when they decide what is and is not covered by Medicaid.”
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Contact: Cody Howard, School of Engineering, 785-864-2936, [email protected], @kuengineering
KU Engineering SELF Fellows design bus bench prototype for city of Lawrence
LAWRENCE — Engineering students at the University of Kansas have designed and built a prototype of a new bench for bus stops in the city of Lawrence. The project was part of a revamped leadership program for undergraduates in the School of Engineering, designed to give students hands-on design and project management experience on real-world projects.
Community leadership is especially emphasized during the SELF fellows’ sophomore year. In the past, students utilized their entrepreneurial skills to raise funds for local nonprofit agencies. However, in 2021-22, SELF Program Coordinator Gowri Nagarajan helped pivot the project to instead engage the fellows in unique training in project management. In addition to serving a local agency’s needs, SELF fellows use their community service project as an opportunity to hone their engineering and design expertise.
“It’s always been a focus to develop leadership, to develop entrepreneurial and business skills,” said Paige Salas, a junior in civil engineering from Kansas City, Kansas, who led the bench design team. “With this academic term, I think we’ve been able to put that into practice while helping others.”
The city of Lawrence has provided transit service to its residents for two decades. But its bus stops have often been no-frills affairs — often a simple sign next to the street with no other accommodations provided. The benches that do exist are often ad hoc affairs, provided by neighborhood residents on their own initiative.
So when transit officials were approached by Nagarajan, they were ready to standardize the process a bit — looking to ensure the benches are sturdy, easy to build and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The SELF students produced a design that can be duplicated by those neighborhoods and private individuals, and they built a bench as proof of concept.
“Their criteria was very clear,” Nagarajan said of city transit officials. “They did not want us to build 180 bus benches across the Lawrence community. They wanted us to help them find the Ikea way of doing these benches.”
City leaders said they were pleased with the final product.
“Not only did they build us a really functional, sturdy bench, they also documented the steps it takes to build that bench,” said Felice Lavergne, a transit planner for the city. “That really helps those groups build benches that we know will work for us, and they can be as creative as they want with paints or different touches like that. It’s really a huge win for everyone.”
The transit system isn’t the only winner. SELF students worked on five community projects during the 2021-22 school year and are now working on another half-dozen projects during the current term — projects that range from designing, building and installing a “little library” and key fob system for Lawrence Public Library, to providing enrichment structures for cats at the Lawrence Humane Society.
“I will go and work with local community partners, and I’ll tell them: ‘We have amazing engineers. Do you have any problems you’re facing which you could delegate to us?’” Nagarajan said.
Students benefit from the projects not just by applying their engineering talents but by practicing project management skills. They meet with the agencies, learn about their needs and requirements for projects that range far beyond simple design considerations. The students on the bus project even took their proposal to the Lawrence City Commission for an explanation.
“We did a lot of work on the engineering side, making sure that this was a safe bench for everybody to use, and mainly that it was ADA compliant so that everybody in the community could use it,” Salas said. But her team also “got to work on the more legal side of coming up with legal documents that we signed together. We walked through the project management side of everything and then even worked on something simple as budgeting. We spent a long time working on that.”
Salas also got to see the human effect of her work. “I think as an engineer, I learned how to be more inclusive with our design,” she said. “Our population in Lawrence is incredibly diverse, and so make sure to account for in our design all the populations that could be impacted. That was my biggest takeaway.”
City transit officials are working with a new group of students on another project, a sound-dampening system for the city’s noisy paratransit buses.
“I know they’re sophomores, but they work at almost a professional level, so it’s really nice. And they’re learning how to work with clients,” Lavergne said. “That’s really different than a lot of other potential groups that you can work with because they’re so focused on those skills. It’s been really outstanding to see the work that they can produce at this level.”
And that’s work that will give SELF fellows the chance to benefit the Lawrence community that is home to KU.
“The growth we have as engineers, as leaders and as members of this community is truly incredible,” Nagarajan said.
The Self Engineering Leadership Fellows (SELF) Program was established in 2007 as the result of a contribution to the KU Endowment Association from Madison “Al” and Lila Self. The Selfs’ intention for the program is to identify and develop students who have a passion for engineering and possess a “fire in the belly” mentality.
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