Public Health and Health Care Task Force Report, August 2008

The Rebuild Iowa Public Health and Health Care Task Force respectfully submits its report to the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission (RIAC) for its consideration of the impacts of the tornadoes, storms, and flooding on Iowans. As the RIAC fulfills its obligations to guide the recovery and reconstruction in Iowa, the impact on the health and well-being of Iowans should be of primary concern. With many areas of the state experiencing devastating damage to their communities, public health and health care are but one of the major challenges. There are critical immediate needs to address the health, safety, and well-being of affected Iowans. This report provides background information on the damages incurred in Iowa from the disasters and additional context for policy and rebuilding discussions. It also offers recommendations to the RIAC for steps that might be taken to address these significant and important challenges.

Bionomic data and larval density of Scarabaeidae (Pleurosticti) in sugarcane in the central region of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Bionomic data and larval density of Scarabaeidae (Pleurosticti) in sugarcane in the central region of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Phytophagous larvae of Scarabaeidae cause damage to diverse crops. Information on these pests is scarce; therefore, the objective of this study was to determine biological aspects and larval density of species occurring in an area of sugarcane. The studies were developed in Sidrolândia from April 2009 to March 2010. Scarab beetle larvae were collected in sugarcane roots every fifteen days, taken to the laboratory and reared to obtain the adults and determine biological parameters. A total of 2,656 larvae were collected, being 162 Liogenys fuscus, 120 Cyclocephala verticalis, 37 Cyclocephala forsteri, and 2337 Anomonyx sp. In January, 53.65 larvae m-2 were obtained, and the most abundant species was Anomonyx sp, representing 87.99% of the total larvae collected. From November to March, the greatest densities of Anomonyx were observed in the field. The adults of this species occurred from May to September, and egg laying from September to November. Eggs measured 1.1 x 1.7 mm, and incubation period last 15.4 days. First instar larvae were observed mainly in October; second instar larvae from November to April; and third instar from January to July. Pupae were observed from May to August. The most abundant scarab beetle, Anomonyx sp. in roots of sugarcane presents one generation per year in Sidrolândia, MS.

Fact Sheet: Floods and Flash Floods, 2009

Mitigation pays. It includes any activities that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening, or lessen the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies. Investing in mitigation steps now such as constructing barriers such as levees and purchasing flood insurance will help reduce the amount of structural damage to your home and financial loss from building and crop damage should a flood or flash flood occur.

Executive Order Number Twenty-Five, August 6, 2010

July 24, 2010, the breach of the Lake Delhi dam caused flash floods and massive damage to persons and businesses and public infrastructure in Delaware and Jones counties and surrounding areas, including Jackson County, resulting in gubernatorial declarations of emergency and applications for federal disaster assistance for these areas.

Kinetics of K release from soils of Brazilian coffee regions: effect of organic acids

Kinetic studies on soil potassium release can contribute to a better understanding of K availability to plants. This study was conducted to evaluate K release rates from the whole soil, clay, silt, and sand fractions of B-horizon samples of a basalt-derived Oxisol and a sienite-derived Ultisol, both representative soils from coffee regions of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Potassium was extracted from each fraction after eight different shaking time periods (0-665 h) with either 0.001 mol L-1 citrate or oxalate at a 1:10 solid:solution ratio. First-order, Elovich, zero-order, and parabolic diffusion equations were used to parameterize the time dependence of K release. For the Oxisol, the first-order equation fitted best to the experimental data of K release, with similar rates for all fractions and independent of the presence of citrate or oxalate in the extractant solution. For all studied Ultisol fractions, in which K release rates increased when extractions were performed with citrate solution, the Elovich model described K release kinetics most adequately. The highest potassium release rate of the Ultisol silt fraction was probably due to the transference of "non-exchangeable" K to the extractant solution, whereas in the Oxisol exchangeable potassium represented the main K source in all studied fractions.

Education Task Force Report, August 2008

The Rebuild Iowa Public Health and Health Care Task Force respectfully submits its report to the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission (RIAC) for its consideration of the impacts of the tornadoes, storms, and flooding on Iowans. As the RIAC fulfills its obligations to guide the recovery and reconstruction in Iowa, the impact on the health and well-being of Iowans should be of primary concern. With many areas of the state experiencing devastating damage to their communities, public health and health care are but one of the major challenges. There are critical immediate needs to address the health, safety, and well-being of affected Iowans. This report provides background information on the damages incurred in Iowa from the disasters and additional context for policy and rebuilding discussions. It also offers recommendations to the RIAC for steps that might be taken to address these significant and important challenges.

Education Task Force Report, August 2008

The Rebuild Iowa Education Task Force is composed of Iowans with experience and expertise related to the impact of the tornadoes, storms, and floods of 2008 on the educational system in Iowa. The massive damage greatly impacted educational facilities and enrollment, resulting in thousands of displaced students and significant long-term rebuilding needs. In addition, the education system is a “community center,” and in many ways acts as a first responder to Iowans experiencing the disasters. It is important to also recognize this role and the need for “non-educational” (and often non-quantifiable) supports as a part of the overall recovery effort. There are a few parts of the state that sustained significant structural and other damage as a result of the disasters. However, many school districts and educational institutions throughout the state experienced damage that resulted in re-allocating building usage, enrollment issues (because of housing and relocation issues in the community), or use of school facilities to assist in the recovery efforts (by housing displaced community agencies and providing temporary shelter for displaced Iowans). At this time, damage estimates are only estimates and numbers are revised often. Estimates of damage are being developed by multiple agencies, including FEMA, the Iowa Department of Education, insurance companies, and schools themselves, since there are many different types of damage to be assessed and repaired. In addition to structural damage, educational institutions and communities are trying to find ways to quantify sometimes unquantifiable data, such as future revenue capabilities, population declines, and impact on mental health in the long-term. The data provided in this report is preliminary and as up to date as possible; information is updated on a regular basis as assessments continue and damage estimates are finalized.

Housing Task Force Report, August 2008

Few disaster recovery initiatives are more important than those that house the people and assist them to repair or replace their homes. The widespread damage to housing from the tornadoes, storms, and floods in 2008 creates greater challenges in housing than the state has faced from previous disasters. The Housing Task Force gratefully submits its Report to the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission as an opportunity to place data, issues, priorities and recommendations before residents, communities, state officials, and policymakers at all levels for consideration of how best to guide, support, and resource these efforts. Quantifying the impact of the disasters on communities is daunting. The many personal accounts and sets of community statistics paint pictures of Iowans who have emerged from the rubble or muck of their homes with a determination and commitment to rebuild not just like they were previous to the disasters, but better and stronger. Damage statistics are telling.

Protective effect of divalent cations against aluminum toxicity in soybean

A large proportion of soybean fields in Brazil are currently cultivated in the Cerrado region, where the area planted with this crop is growing considerably every year. Soybean cultivation in acid soils is also increasing worldwide. Since the levels of toxic aluminum (Al) in these acid soils is usually high it is important to understand how cations can reduce Al rhizotoxicity in soybean. In the present study we evaluated the ameliorative effect of nine divalent cations (Ca, Mg, Mn, Sr, Sn, Cu, Zn, Co and Ba) in solution culture on Al rhizotoxicity in soybean. The growth benefit of Ca and Mg to plants in an acid Inceptisol was also evaluated. In this experiment soil exchangeable Ca:Mg ratios were adjusted to reach 10 and 60 % base saturation, controlled by different amounts of CaCl2 or MgCl2 (at proportions from 100:0 up to 0:100), without altering the soil pH level. The low (10 %) and adequate (60 %) base saturation were used to examine how plant roots respond to Al at distinct (Ca + Mg)/Al ratios, as if they were growing in soils with distinct acidity levels. Negative and positive control treatments consisted of absence (under native soil or undisturbed conditions) or presence of lime (CaCO3) to reach 10 and 60 % base saturation, respectively. It was observed that in the absence of Aluminum, Cu, Zn, Co and Sn were toxic even at a low concentration (25 µmol L-1), while the effect of Mn, Ba, Sr and Mg was positive or absent on soybean root elongation when used in concentrations up to 100 µmol L-1. At a level of 10 µmol L-1 Al, root growth was only reverted to the level of control plants by the Mg treatment. Higher Tin doses led to a small alleviation of Al rhizotoxicity, while the other cations reduced root growth or had no effect. This is an indication that the Mg effect is ion-specific and not associated to an electrostatic protection mechanism only, since all ions were divalent and used at low concentrations. An increased exchangeable Ca:Mg ratio (at constant soil pH) in the acid soil almost doubled the soybean shoot and root dry matter even though treatments did not modify soil pH and exchangeable Al3+. This indicates a more efficient alleviation of Al toxicity by Mg2+ than by Ca2+. The reason for the positive response to Mg2+ was not the supply of a deficient nutrient because CaCO3 increased soybean growth by increasing soil pH without inducing Mg2+ deficiency. Both in hydroponics and acid soil, the reduction in Al toxicity was accompanied by a lower Al accumulation in plant tissue, suggesting a competitive cation absorption and/or exclusion of Al from plant tissue stimulated by an Mg-induced physiological mechanism.

Uncoupling phosphate deficiency from its major effects on growth and transcriptome via PHO1 expression in Arabidopsis.

Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is one of the most limiting nutrients for plant growth in both natural and agricultural contexts. Pi-deficiency leads to a strong decrease in shoot growth, and triggers extensive changes at the developmental, biochemical and gene expression levels that are presumably aimed at improving the acquisition of this nutrient and sustaining growth. The Arabidopsis thaliana PHO1 gene has previously been shown to participate in the transport of Pi from roots to shoots, and the null pho1 mutant has all the hallmarks associated with shoot Pi deficiency. We show here that A. thaliana plants with a reduced expression of PHO1 in roots have shoot growth similar to Pi-sufficient plants, despite leaves being strongly Pi deficient. Furthermore, the gene expression profile normally triggered by Pi deficiency is suppressed in plants with low PHO1 expression. At comparable levels of shoot Pi supply, the wild type reduces shoot growth but maintains adequate shoot vacuolar Pi content, whereas the PHO1 underexpressor maintains maximal growth with strongly depleted Pi reserves. Expression of the Oryza sativa (rice) PHO1 ortholog in the pho1 null mutant also leads to plants that maintain normal growth and suppression of the Pi-deficiency response, despite the low shoot Pi. These data show that it is possible to unlink low shoot Pi content with the responses normally associated with Pi deficiency through the modulation of PHO1 expression or activity. These data also show that reduced shoot growth is not a direct consequence of Pi deficiency, but is more likely to be a result of extensive gene expression reprogramming triggered by Pi deficiency.

Regulatory roles of the GacS/GacA two-component system in plant-associated and other gram-negative bacteria.

The sensor kinase GacS and the response regulator GacA are members of a two-component system that is present in a wide variety of gram-negative bacteria and has been studied mainly in enteric bacteria and fluorescent pseudomonads. The GacS/GacA system controls the production of secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes involved in pathogenicity to plants and animals, biocontrol of soilborne plant diseases, ecological fitness, or tolerance to stress. A current model proposes that GacS senses a still-unknown signal and activates, via a phosphorelay mechanism, the GacA transcription regulator, which in turn triggers the expression of target genes. The GacS protein belongs to the unorthodox sensor kinases, characterized by an autophosphorylation, a receiver, and an output domain. The periplasmic loop domain of GacS is poorly conserved in diverse bacteria. Thus, a common signal interacting with this domain would be unexpected. Based on a comparison with the transcriptional regulator NarL, a secondary structure can be predicted for the GacA sensor kinases. Certain genes whose expression is regulated by the GacS/GacA system are regulated in parallel by the small RNA binding protein RsmA (CsrA) at a posttranscriptional level. It is suggested that the GacS/GacA system operates a switch between primary and secondary metabolism, with a major involvement of posttranscriptional control mechanisms.

Evaluation of sample preparation methods and optimization of nickel determination in vegetable tissues

Nickel, although essential to plants, may be toxic to plants and animals. It is mainly assimilated by food ingestion. However, information about the average levels of elements (including Ni) in edible vegetables from different regions is still scarce in Brazil. The objectives of this study were to: (a) evaluate and optimize a method for preparation of vegetable tissue samples for Ni determination; (b) optimize the analytical procedures for determination by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS) and by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption (ETAAS) in vegetable samples and (c) determine the Ni concentration in vegetables consumed in the cities of Lorena and Taubaté in the Vale do Paraíba, State of São Paulo, Brazil. By means of the analytical technique for determination by ETAAS or FAAS, the results were validated by the test of analyte addition and recovery. The most viable method tested for quantification of this element was HClO4-HNO3 wet digestion. All samples but carrot tissue collected in Lorena contained Ni levels above the permitted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The most disturbing results, requiring more detailed studies, were the Ni concentrations measured in carrot samples from Taubaté, where levels were five times higher than permitted by Brazilian regulations.

Optimal Usage of De-Icing Chemicals when Scraping Ice, November 2003

One of the challenges that faces the winter maintainer is how much chemical to apply to the road under given conditions. Insufficient chemical can lead to the road surface becoming slick, and the road thus becoming unsafe. In all likelihood, additional applications will have to be made, requiring additional effort and use of resources. However, too much chemical can also be bad. While an excess of chemical will ensure (in most circumstances) that a safe road condition is achieved, it may also result in a substantial waste of chemical (with associated costs for this waste) and in ancillary damage to the road itself and to the surrounding environment. Ideally, one should apply what might be termed the “goldilocks” amount of chemical to the road: Not too much, and not too little, but just right. Of course the reality of winter maintenance makes achieving the “goldilocks” application rate somewhat of a fairy tale. In the midst of a severe storm, when conditions are poor and getting worse, the last thing on a plow operator’s mind is a minute adjustment in the amount of chemical being applied to the road. However, there may be considerable benefit and substantial savings to be achieved if chemical applications can be optimized to some degree, so that wastage is minimized without compromising safety. The goal of this study was to begin to develop such information through a series of laboratory studies in which the force needed to scrape ice from concrete blocks was measured, under a variety of chemical application conditions.

Least limiting water range in soil under crop rotations and chiseling

Soil water availability to plants is affected by soil compaction and other variables. The Least Limiting Water Range (LLWR) comprises soil physical variables affecting root growth and soil water availability, and can be managed by either mechanical or biological methods. There is evidence that effects of crop rotations could last longer than chiseling, so the objective of this study was to assess the effect of soil chiseling or growing cover crops under no-till (NT) on the LLWR. Crop rotations involving triticale (X Triticosecale) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in the fall-winter associated with millet (Pennisetum glaucum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) as cover crops preceding soybean (Glycine max) were repeated for three consecutive years. In the treatment with chiseling (performed only in the first year), the area was left fallow between the fall-winter and summer crops. The experiment was carried out in Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil, from 2003 to 2006 on a Typic Rhodudalf. The LLWR was determined in soil samples taken from the layers 0-20 cm and 20- 40 cm, after chemical desiccation of the cover crops in December of the first and third year of the experiment. Chiseling decreases soil bulk density in the 0-20 cm soil layer, increasing the LLWR magnitude by lowering the soil water content at which penetration resistance reaches 2.0 MPa; this effect is present up to the third year after chiseling and can reach to a depth of 0.40 m. Crop rotations involving sunflower + sunn hemp, triticale + millet and triticale + sunn hemp for three years prevented soil bulk density from exceeding the critical soil bulk density in the 0- 0.20 m layer. This effect was observed to a depth of 0.40 m after three years of chiseling under crop rotations involving forage sorghum. Hence, chiseling and some crop rotations under no tillage are effective in increasing soil quality assessed by the LLWR.

Fact Sheet: Floods and Flash Floods, 2011

Mitigation pays. It includes any activities that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening, or lessen the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies. Investing in mitigation steps now such as constructing barriers such as levees and purchasing flood insurance will help reduce the amount of structural damage to your home and financial loss from building and crop damage should a flood or flash flood occur.