Friday Facts, August 21, 2015, Vol. 262

Bureau of Nutrition and Health Promotion part of the Iowa Department of Public Health produces of weekly newsletter about the Iowa WIC Program for the State of Iowa citizen.

Iowa AgriNews, August 27, 2015, Vol. 15, no. 17

Crop and livestock summaries for the state of Iowa, produced by the Iowa Department of Agriculture. Previously Agri-News

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, October 27, 2015; With Addendums

Weekly letting report

Endeavors Update, Iowa Medicaid Enterprise, Vol. 1, Issue 5, January 27, 2011

The Iowa Medicaid Enterprise (IME) is an endeavor, started in 2005, to unite State staff with “best of breed” contractors into a performance-based model for administration of the Medicaid program.

Mississippi Drive (Iowa 92) from Main Street to the Norbert F. Beckey Bridge in Muscatine, Iowa, STP-U-5330(614)—27-70, Muscatine County, 2015

The proposed action consists of upgrading Mississippi Drive (Iowa Highway 92) through downtown Muscatine, Iowa. The Mississippi Drive Corridor Project begins south of the Main Street/Grandview Avenue intersection, continuing to the East 2nd Street/Norbert F. Beckey Bridge intersection, which marks the end of the project. It passes through a mix of commercial, residential, Central Business District and industrial land uses. The total length of the project is approximately 1.6 miles, including 19 intersections (6 with traffic signals). Refer to the vicinity map on Figure 1. The current roadway is a 3- to 4-lane, urban facility with both divided and undivided medians. The roadway, ranging from 40 to 64 feet wide, is considered difficult to cross for pedestrians, especially for small children or elderly. The width of this roadway is being considered to be narrowed to improve the accessibility to the downtown from the Mississippi River riverfront area by pedestrians. This project also includes accommodations for bicycles and pedestrians and measures to reduce flooding on the roadway.

Road Safety Audits for County Road X-23 from IA 2 to the South Corporate Limits of West Point and for County Road W-62 from US 218 to IA 27 in Lee County, Iowa, 2010

On October 20–21, 2009, two road safety audits were conducted in Lee County, Iowa: one for a 6 mile section of County Road X-23 from IA 2 to the south corporate limits of West Point and one for a 9.7 mile section of County Road W-62 from US 218 to IA 27. Both roads have high severe crash histories for the years of 2001 through 2008. Using these crash data, the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) has identified County Road X-23 as being in the top 5 percent of similar roads for run-off-road crashes. The Iowa DOT lists County Road W-62 as a high-risk rural road that has above-average crash numbers and is eligible for funding under the Federal High-Risk Rural Road Program. Considering these issues, the Lee County Engineer and Iowa DOT requested that road safety audits be conducted to address the safety concerns and to suggest possible mitigation strategies.

Lipoprotein distribution and biological variation of 24S- and 27-hydroxycholesterol in healthy volunteers.

24S- and 27-hydroxycholesterol are obligatory intermediates of cholesterol catabolism and play an important role in the maintenance of whole-body cholesterol homeostasis. Using an HPLC-MS method for oxysterol quantification, the distribution of esterified and unesterified oxysterols in lipoprotein subfractions as well as the influence of daytime, food intake and menstrual cycle on oxysterol concentrations were investigated in healthy volunteers. Moreover, reference intervals for 24S- and 27-hydroxycholesterol in plasma as well as the corresponding levels for 27-hydroxycholesterol in the HDL subfraction were established in 100 healthy volunteers. Both circulating oxysterols are mainly transported in association with HDL and LDL--primarily in the esterified form. No significant diurnal changes and no variations during menstrual cycle of either absolute or cholesterol-related plasma levels were detected. In contrast to 24S-hydroxycholesterol in plasma and 27-hydroxycholesterol in the HDL subfraction, the 95% reference intervals of 27-hydroxycholesterol both in plasma and the non-HDL subfraction were higher in males than in females. The concentrations of 27-hydroxycholesterol in plasma and the non-HDL subfraction showed strong positive correlations with the concentrations of cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Our data on the lipoprotein distribution of oxysterols as well as on their intra- and inter-individual variation set the stage for future clinical studies.

Iowa Department of Public Health Affordable Care Act Impact Study, October 27, 2014

The mission of the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) is “Promoting and Protecting the Health of Iowans.” In addition to its larger role in population health preparedness, surveillance, and response, IDPH has historically funded a broad array of health-related services to a “covered population” of approximately 1,000,000 Iowa residents through a varied network of local community-based “safety-net” provider contractors. Those health-related services range from funding direct healthcare services like immunizations and vision screening to providing or funding facilitative services like transportation and care coordination. While all Iowans may be eligible for some IDPH-funded direct healthcare service, such as smoking cessation, the individuals most often eligible for these services have traditionally been the uninsured and under-insured. As uninsured Iowans become enrolled in health plan options available through the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan (IHAWP) and the Marketplace, IDPH anticipates that many direct healthcare services funded by IDPH will become covered benefits or services under new plans, changing the demand for IDPH-funded services.