Statewide Economic Impacts of Disaster-Related Payments to Support Household and Private and Public Sector Recovery in Iowa, January 2010

There have been a multitude of programs providing assistance to the state of Iowa in the past 18 months. Springtime 2008 disasters resulted in tornado damage and widespread flood damage to large fractions of the state. In consequence, there was a very large flow of federal and state resources dedicated to assisting community and statewide recovery efforts. The nation was in recession as well and continued to be in recession through much of 2009. A sizeable amount of assistance found its way to Iowa under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in the forms of infrastructure stimulus spending, income supports and other safety net spending for households, and stabilization assistance for essential public services like education. On top of that, the state of Iowa authorized the I Jobs program as an additional infrastructure development program, and as a jobs stimulus program. The total amount of spending for all types of programs, disaster or economic recovery related, is perhaps as high as $7.5 billion over the next few years.

Striking a Balance, Presentation to the Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee, February 2011

This presentation covers the rise in prison and cbc populations while at the same time seeing a decrease in appropriations. Staffing has not kept up with growth of the corrections population either.

Corrections Today, Presentation to the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, January 2008

An overview of the Iowa Department of Corrections, Institutions and Districts

Corrections 101, Presentation to Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, February 13, 2007

An overview of the Iowa Department of Corrections, Institutions and Districts

Reentry: Communities and Corrections United, Presentation to 2008 Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, January 2008

An overview of offender reentry from institution to the community and the work that is done between corrections and the community.

Evaluation Gives STAR High Marks, Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, February 2010

The Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) recently released an evaluation of the intensive substance abuse treatment program at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW) – STAR (Sisters Together Achieving Recovery). STAR is a licensed inpatient program utilizing a genderbased therapeutic community model (TC).

Long-Term Community Recovery Report, Parkersburg, Iowa, December 2008

At approximately 5pm on May 25, 2008, City of Parkersburger was struck by a powerful EF5 tornado, estimated to be three-quarters of a mile wide. As it moved across the southern half of the City, the tornado cased severe damage, destroying at least twenty businesses and over two hundred fifty homes along with city Hall and Aplington-Parkersburg High School. Numerous other homes, businesses and civic buildings were damaged. Approximately two weeks later, Beaver Creek was among the many Iowa streams to flood. While Parkersburg was not affected significantly by flooding, a number of properties were damaged, including Beaver Meadows Golf Course and a City park with athletic fields.

RECOVERY OF AN OXISOL DEGRADED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT

ABSTRACT The removal of thick layers of soil under native scrubland (Cerrado) on the right bank of the Paraná River in Selvíria (State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) for construction of the Ilha Solteira Hydroelectric Power Plant caused environmental damage, affecting the revegetation process of the stripped soil. Over the years, various kinds of land use and management systems have been tried, and the aim of this study was to assess the effects of these attempts to restore the structural quality of the soil. The experiment was conducted considering five treatments and thirty replications. The following treatments were applied: stripped soil without anthropic intervention and total absence of plant cover; stripped soil treated with sewage sludge and planted to eucalyptus and grass a year ago; stripped soil developing natural secondary vegetation (capoeira) since 1969; pastureland since 1978, replacing the native vegetation; and soil under native vegetation (Cerrado). In the 0.00-0.20 m layer, the soil was chemically characterized for each experimental treatment. A 30-point sampling grid was used to assess soil porosity and bulk density, and to assess aggregate stability in terms of mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD). Aggregate stability was also determined using simulated rainfall. The results show that using sewage sludge incorporated with a rotary hoe improved the chemical fertility of the soil and produced more uniform soil pore size distribution. Leaving the land to develop secondary vegetation or turning it over to pastureland produced an intermediate level of structural soil quality, and these two treatments produced similar results. Stripped soil without anthropic intervention was of the lowest quality, with the lowest values for cation exchange capacity (CEC) and macroporosity, as well as the highest values of soil bulk density and percentage of aggregates with diameter size <0.50 mm, corroborated by its lower organic matter content. However, the percentage of larger aggregates was higher in the native vegetation treatment, which boosted MWD and GMD values. Therefore, assessment of some land use and management systems show that even decades after their implementation to mitigate the degenerative effects resulting from the installation of the Hydroelectric Plant, more efficient approaches are still required to recover the structural quality of the soil.

Water Erosion on an Oxisol under Integrated Crop-Forest Systems in a Transitional Area between the Amazon and Cerrado Biomes

ABSTRACT Water erosion is one of the main factors driving soil degradation, which has large economic and environmental impacts. Agricultural production systems that are able to provide soil and water conservation are of crucial importance in achieving more sustainable use of natural resources, such as soil and water. The aim of this study was to evaluate soil and water losses in different integrated production systems under natural rainfall. Experimental plots under six different land use and cover systems were established in an experimental field of Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril in Sinop, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, in a Latossolo Vermelho-Amarelo Distrófico (Udox) with clayey texture. The treatments consisted of perennial pasture (PAS), crop-forest integration (CFI), eucalyptus plantation (EUC), soybean and corn crop succession (CRP), no ground cover (NGC), and forest (FRS). Soil losses in the treatments studied were below the soil loss limits (11.1 Mg ha-1 yr-1), with the exception of the plot under bare soil (NGC), which exhibited soil losses 30 % over the tolerance limit. Water losses on NGC, EUC, CRP, PAS, CFI and FRS were 33.8, 2.9, 2.4, 1.7, 2.4, and 0.5 % of the total rainfall during the period of study, respectively.

Diffusion Spectrum Imaging after stroke shows structural changes in the contra-lateral motor network correlating with functional recovery

There is growing interest in understanding the role of the non-injured contra-lateral hemisphere in stroke recovery. In the experimental field, histological evidence has been reported that structural changes occur in the contra-lateral connectivity and circuits during stroke recovery. In humans, some recent imaging studies indicated that contra-lateral sub-cortical pathways and functional and structural cortical networks are remodeling, after stroke. Structural changes in the contra-lateral networks, however, have never been correlated to clinical recovery in patients. To determine the importance of the contra-lateral structural changes in post-stroke recovery, we selected a population of patients with motor deficits after stroke affecting the motor cortex and/or sub-cortical motor white matter. We explored i) the presence of Generalized Fractional Anisotropy (GFA) changes indicating structural alterations in the motor network of patientsâeuro? contra-lateral hemisphere as well as their longitudinal evolution ii) the correlation of GFA changes with patientsâeuro? clinical scores, stroke size and demographics data iii) and a predictive model.

Report on the Iowa Department of Justice for the year ended June 30, 2011

Report on the Iowa Department of Justice for the year ended June 30, 2011

Missouri River Flood Recovery, January 27, 2012 Vol. 1, no. 5

The Missouri River Flood Recovery newsletter is published by the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division in cooperation with members of the Missouri River Recovery Coordination Task Force.

Missouri River Flood Recovery, December 2, 2012 Vol. 1, no. 3

The Missouri River Flood Recovery newsletter is published by the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division in cooperation with members of the Missouri River Recovery Coordination Task Force.

Missouri River Flood Recovery, November 4, 2012 Vol. 1, no. 1

The Missouri River Flood Recovery newsletter is published by the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division in cooperation with members of the Missouri River Recovery Coordination Task Force.