Visualization Resources for Iowa State University and the Iowa DOT: An Automated Design Model to Simulator Converter, November 2012

The creation of three-dimensional (3D) drawings for proposed designs for construction, re-construction and rehabilitation activities are becoming increasingly common for highway designers, whether by department of transportation (DOT) employees or consulting engineers. However, technical challenges exist that prevent the use of these 3D drawings/models from being used as the basis of interactive simulation. Use of driving simulation to service the needs of the transportation industry in the US lags behind Europe due to several factors, including lack of technical infrastructure at DOTs, cost of maintaining and supporting simulation infrastructure—traditionally done by simulation domain experts—and cost and effort to translate DOT domain data into the simulation domain.

Audit report on the Iowa Water Pollution Control Works Financing Program and the Iowa Drinking Water Facilities Financing Program, joint programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on the Iowa Water Pollution Control Works Financing Program and the Iowa Drinking Water Facilities Financing Program, joint programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2012

Open licensing's impact on higher education resources colombian and catalan approaches

A new initiative has sprung on the path created by the Open Access (OA) movement: Open Education (OE). The initiative's aim is to open up all educational resources at all learning levels. In order to achieve this goal, several international institutions, like UNESCO and the OECD, have published reports, surveys and documents to help educational institutions in this endeavor. This global initiative needs a legal framework; as a result, efforts thus far have usually resorted to Open Licensing (OL), especially Creative Commons (CC) licensing. In fact, as a response to this new movement, Creative Commons launched a new program, ccLearn , which recognizes open licensing's impact on education and directly supports the idea of open educational resources (OER). However, there still remain a good amount of open questions: What is happening locally with OL in higher education? How are educational institutions receiving the initiative? How is it that the OL initiative relates to educational resources? Are there local examples of open educational resources (OER)? How do these local instances incorporate CC into their educational frameworks?. To this effect, this analysis aims to focus on the legal approach and specifically on the way the educational sector is using open licenses outside the English speaking world. It will do so by looking at the current situation in two specific scenarios, the Colombian and the Catalan experiences with open educational projects at the higher education level.

Statistical Modeling of the Eye for Multimodal Treatment Planning for External Beam Radiation Therapy of Intraocular Tumors.

PURPOSE: Ocular anatomy and radiation-associated toxicities provide unique challenges for external beam radiation therapy. For treatment planning, precise modeling of organs at risk and tumor volume are crucial. Development of a precise eye model and automatic adaptation of this model to patients' anatomy remain problematic because of organ shape variability. This work introduces the application of a 3-dimensional (3D) statistical shape model as a novel method for precise eye modeling for external beam radiation therapy of intraocular tumors. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Manual and automatic segmentations were compared for 17 patients, based on head computed tomography (CT) volume scans. A 3D statistical shape model of the cornea, lens, and sclera as well as of the optic disc position was developed. Furthermore, an active shape model was built to enable automatic fitting of the eye model to CT slice stacks. Cross-validation was performed based on leave-one-out tests for all training shapes by measuring dice coefficients and mean segmentation errors between automatic segmentation and manual segmentation by an expert. RESULTS: Cross-validation revealed a dice similarity of 95% ± 2% for the sclera and cornea and 91% ± 2% for the lens. Overall, mean segmentation error was found to be 0.3 ± 0.1 mm. Average segmentation time was 14 ± 2 s on a standard personal computer. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the solution presented outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy, reliability, and robustness. Moreover, the eye model shape as well as its variability is learned from a training set rather than by making shape assumptions (eg, as with the spherical or elliptical model). Therefore, the model appears to be capable of modeling nonspherically and nonelliptically shaped eyes.

A Reply to comments by D. Bar-Yosef M. Stiner on "Prehistoric exploitation of marine resources in Southern Africa with particular reference to shellfish gathering: opportunities and continuities"

I am very grateful to Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer and Mary Stiner for their comments on an article I published in the previous issue of Pyrenae. Having spent many years working with coastal sites in South Africa and now settling in the Mediterranean academic landscape, I value the feedback from these two well-known archaeologists who have dedicated years of hard work in this later part of the world. Their opinions are very much appreciated for they allow me to bring new contexts to some of the (old) questions I have pursued in South Africa, an exercise that would help me with the process of broadening my research interests to the Mediterranean region.

Earliest known use of marine resources by neanderthals

Numerous studies along the northern Mediterranean borderland have documented the use of shellfish by Neanderthals but none of these finds are prior to Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3). In this paper we present evidence that gathering and consumption of mollusks can now be traced back to the lowest level of the archaeological sequence at Bajondillo Cave (Málaga, Spain), dated during the MIS 6. The paper describes the taxonomical and taphonomical features of the mollusk assemblages from this level Bj19 and briefly touches upon those retrieved in levels Bj18 (MIS 5) and Bj17 (MIS 4), evidencing a continuity of the shellfishing activity that reaches to MIS 3. This evidence is substantiated on 29 datings through radiocarbon, thermoluminescence and U series methods. Obtained dates and paleoenvironmental records from the cave include isotopic, pollen, lithostratigraphic and sedimentological analyses and they are fully coherent with paleoclimate conditions expected for the different stages. We conclude that described use of shellfish resources by Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) in Southern Spain started ~150 ka and were almost contemporaneous to Pinnacle Point (South Africa), when shellfishing is first documented in archaic modern humans.

Report on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2012

Report on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the year ended June 30, 2012

Ruling out coronary heart disease in primary care: external validation of a clinical prediction rule.

BACKGROUND: The Marburg Heart Score (MHS) aims to assist GPs in safely ruling out coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients presenting with chest pain, and to guide management decisions. AIM: To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the MHS in an independent sample and to evaluate the generalisability to new patients. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional diagnostic study with delayed-type reference standard in general practice in Hesse, Germany. METHOD: Fifty-six German GPs recruited 844 males and females aged ≥ 35 years, presenting between July 2009 and February 2010 with chest pain. Baseline data included the items of the MHS. Data on the subsequent course of chest pain, investigations, hospitalisations, and medication were collected over 6 months and were reviewed by an independent expert panel. CHD was the reference condition. Measures of diagnostic accuracy included the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and predictive values. RESULTS: The AUC was 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.80 to 0.88). For a cut-off value of 3, the MHS showed a sensitivity of 89.1% (95% CI = 81.1% to 94.0%), a specificity of 63.5% (95% CI = 60.0% to 66.9%), a positive predictive value of 23.3% (95% CI = 19.2% to 28.0%), and a negative predictive value of 97.9% (95% CI = 96.2% to 98.9%). CONCLUSION: Considering the diagnostic accuracy of the MHS, its generalisability, and ease of application, its use in clinical practice is recommended.

Non-conventional water resources in coastal areas: a review of the use of reclaimed water

In an era of increasing concern for limited water resources a wise joint management of conventional and nonconventional water resources must be considered. Water scarcity aggravates in coastal zones which are often characterised by high population density, intense economic activity and tourism; meaning heavy seasonal water demands. The relationships between sea and land-water can also compromise the quality of available freshwater. In this context, the use of non-conventional water increases the availability of water supplies. Non-conventional water resources of low quality could be directed to meet several needs (like watering lawns, washing cars, flushing toilets and cooling systems, among others). Therefore, significantly more potable water would be available to meet human demand for safe water.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Performance Report, FY2006

Agency Performance Report

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Performance Report, FY2007

Agency Performance Report

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Performance Report, FY2008

Agency Performance Report

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Performance Report, FY2009

Agency Performance Report

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Performance Report, FY2010

Agency Performance Report