Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Don’t Let a Contractor “Put the Fix in” on YOUR Home Repairs & Improvements!, April 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Don’t Let a Contractor “Put the Fix in” on YOUR Home Repairs & Improvements!

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, A Lesson in For-Profit Colleges, May 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: A Lesson in For-Profit Colleges

Iowa Energy Savings Guide Saving Energy Saves You Money, 2003

This guide describes things you can do around your home to reduce your utility bills and save you money. It offers some easy, practical steps that you can take to save energy and reduce the cost of heating and cooling your home. There are also tips on ways to reduce your electric and water usage. In addition, energy related health and safety information is also included. So, take a few minutes to read this guide and save it so you can refer to it in the future.

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Choosing and Buying the Right Pet, June 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Choosing and Buying the Right Pet

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Work-at-Home Scams: Money for Nothing, July 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Work-at-Home Scams: Money for Nothing

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Work-at-Home Scams:So You Didn’t Order That? Protecting yourself from unauthorized credit card charges, August 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: So You Didn’t Order That? Protecting yourself from unauthorized credit card charges

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Credit Card Offers: They’re Not All the Same, October 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Credit Card Offers: They’re Not All the Same

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Giving Wisely: A Guide to Charitable Giving and Avoiding Charity Fraud, November 2012

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Giving Wisely: A Guide to Charitable Giving and Avoiding Charity Fraud

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Reverse Mortgages, January 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Giving Wisely: Reverse Mortgages

Velocity fluctuations of fracturelike disruptions of associating polymer solutions

Velocity has been measured as a function of time for propagating crack tips as water is injected into solutions of end-capped associating polymers in a rectanguar Hele-Shaw cell. Measurements were performed for flows with different values of cell gap, channel width, polymer molecular weight, and polymer concentration. The condition for the onset of fracturelike behavior is well described by a Deborah number which uses the shear-thinning shear rate of the polymer solution as a characteristic frequency for network relaxation. At low molecular weight, the onset of fracturelike pattern evolution is accompanied by an abrupt jump in tip velocity, followed by a lower and approximately constant acceleration. At high molecular weight, the transition to fracturelike behavior involves passing through a regime that may be understood in terms of stick-slip dynamics. The crack-tip wanders from side to side and fluctuates (in both speed and velocity along the channel) with a characteristic frequency which depends linearly on the invading fluid injection rate.

Feedback control of unstable cellular solidification fronts

We present a feedback control scheme to stabilize unstable cellular patterns during the directional solidification of a binary alloy. The scheme is based on local heating of cell tips which protrude ahead of the mean position of all tips in the array. The feasibility of this scheme is demonstrated using phase-field simulations and, experimentally, using a real-time image processing algorithm, to track cell tips, coupled with a movable laser spot array device to heat the tips locally. We demonstrate, both numerically and experimentally, that spacings well below the threshold for a period-doubling instability can be stabilized. As predicted by the numerical calculations, cellular arrays become stable with uniform spacing through the feedback control which is maintained with minimal heating.

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Paper or Plastic? Gift Certificates & Gift Cards, February 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Paper or Plastic? Gift Certificates & Gift Cards

Consumer Advisory: Auto Repairs: Going Under the Hood, April 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about:Auto Repairs: Going Under the Hood

Consumer Advisory: Buying a Used Vehicle? Don’t Get Taken for a Ride!, May 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about:Buying a Used Vehicle? Don’t Get Taken for a Ride!

Consumer Advisory: Student Loans & Loan Debt,July 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Student Loans & Loan Debt