Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, June 2014

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, October 2014

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, August 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, January 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, March 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, May 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, December 2015

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Genetic bottlenecks driven by population disconnection.

Connectivity among populations plays a crucial role in maintaining genetic variation at a local scale, especially in small populations affected strongly by genetic drift. The negative consequences of population disconnection on allelic richness and gene diversity (heterozygosity) are well recognized and empirically established. It is not well recognized, however, that a sudden drop in local effective population size induced by such disconnection produces a temporary disequilibrium in allelic frequency distributions that is akin to the genetic signature of a demographic bottleneck. To document this effect, we used individual-based simulations and empirical data on allelic richness and gene diversity in six pairs of isolated versus well-connected (core) populations of European tree frogs. In our simulations, population disconnection depressed allelic richness more than heterozygosity and thus resulted in a temporary excess in gene diversity relative to mutation drift equilibrium (i.e., signature of a genetic bottleneck). We observed a similar excess in gene diversity in isolated populations of tree frogs. Our results show that population disconnection can create a genetic bottleneck in the absence of demographic collapse.

Avalanche-like vortex penetration driven by pulsed microwave fields in an epitaxial LaSrCuO thin film

Different vortex penetration regimes have been registered in the output voltage signal of a magnetometer when single microwave pulses are applied to an epitaxial overdoped La2− x Sr x CuO4 thin film in a perpendicular dc magnetic field. The onset of a significant variation in the sample magnetization which exists below threshold values of temperature, dc magnetic field, and pulse duration is interpreted as an avalanche-type flux penetration. The microwave contribution to the background electric field suggests that the nucleation of this fast vortex motion is of electric origin, which also guarantees the occurrence of vortex instabilities under adiabatic conditions via the enhancement of the flux flow resistivity. Flux creep phenomena and heat transfer effects act as stabilizing factors against the microwave-pulse-induced fast flux diffusion.

Knowledge Licensing in a Model of R&D-driven Endogenous Growth

In this paper I present an endogenous growth model where the engine of growth is in-house R&D performed by high-tech firms. I model knowledge (patent) licensing among high-tech firms. I show that if there is knowledge licensing, high-tech firms innovate more and economic growth is higher than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge among high-tech firms. However, in case when there is knowledge licensing the number of high-tech firms is lower than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge.

State of Iowa Employee Handbook, 2015

This information is based on Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) rules and policies and does not create an employment contract. Much of the information in this handbook is also covered in the State’s collective bargaining agreements. Where there are differences between a collective bargaining agreement and this handbook, the collective bargaining agreement prevails for employees covered by the agreement. Where there are differences between this handbook and DAS rules and policies, DAS rules and policies prevail.

Asymmetric stochastic switching driven by intrinsic molecular noise

Low-copy-number molecules are involved in many functions in cells. The intrinsic fluctuations of these numbers can enable stochastic switching between multiple steady states, inducing phenotypic variability. Herein we present a theoretical and computational study based on Master Equations and Fokker-Planck and Langevin descriptions of stochastic switching for a genetic circuit of autoactivation. We show that in this circuit the intrinsic fluctuations arising from low-copy numbers, which are inherently state-dependent, drive asymmetric switching. These theoretical results are consistent with experimental data that have been reported for the bistable system of the gallactose signaling network in yeast. Our study unravels that intrinsic fluctuations, while not required to describe bistability, are fundamental to understand stochastic switching and the dynamical relative stability of multiple states.

Knowledge Licensing in a Model of R&D-driven Endogenous Growth

In this paper I present an endogenous growth model where the engine of growth is in-house R&D performed by high-tech firms. I model knowledge (patent) licensing among high-tech firms. I show that if there is knowledge licensing, high-tech firms innovate more and economic growth is higher than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge among high-tech firms. However, in case when there is knowledge licensing the number of high-tech firms is lower than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge.

Benefit News: Employee Benefit News, Department of Administrative Services, January 2016

Benefit News, brought to you by the DAS Benefits Team, providing you with the most up-to-date information about the state of Iowa’s employee benefits.

Audit report on the Iowa Innovation Corporation for the year ended June 30, 2015

Audit report on the Iowa Innovation Corporation for the year ended June 30, 2015