Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Weatherization Program Interim Study Committee, 2007

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and Weatherization Program Interim Study Committee was created by the Legislative Council and charged to review issues involving the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and Weatherization Program including financial assistance, the application and intake processes, the community action agencies' assessment and resolution proposal, and whether to involve the Department of Human Services in the administration of the programs to enable low-income persons to access additional assistance programs through a single location.

Association between the A-2518G polymorphism in the monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 gene and insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The molecular mechanisms of obesity-related insulin resistance are incompletely understood. Macrophages accumulate in adipose tissue of obese individuals. In obesity, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), a key chemokine in the process of macrophage accumulation, is overexpressed in adipose tissue. MCP-1 is an insulin-responsive gene that continues to respond to exogenous insulin in insulin-resistant adipocytes and mice. MCP-1 decreases insulin-stimulated glucose uptake into adipocytes. The A-2518G polymorphism in the distal regulatory region of MCP-1 may regulate gene expression. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of this gene polymorphism on insulin resistance. METHODS: We genotyped the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) cohort ( n=3307). Insulin resistance, estimated by homeostasis model assessment, and Type 2 diabetes were diagnosed in 803 and 635 patients respectively. RESULTS: Univariate analysis revealed that plasma MCP-1 levels were significantly and positively correlated with WHR ( p=0.011), insulin resistance ( p=0.0097) and diabetes ( p<0.0001). Presence of the MCP-1 G-2518 allele was associated with decreased plasma MCP-1 ( p=0.017), a decreased prevalence of insulin resistance (odds ratio [OR]=0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.97, p=0.021) and a decreased prevalence of diabetes (OR=0.80, 95% CI: 0.67-0.96, p=0.014). In multivariate analysis, the G allele retained statistical significance as a negative predictor of insulin resistance (OR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.65-0.93, p=0.0060) and diabetes (OR=0.80, 95% CI: 0.66-0.96, p=0.018). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In a large cohort of Caucasians, the MCP-1 G-2518 gene variant was significantly and negatively correlated with plasma MCP-1 levels and the prevalence of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. These results add to recent evidence supporting a role for MCP-1 in pathologies associated with hyperinsulinaemia.

Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force Report, August 2008

The Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force is acutely aware of the critical role infrastructure plays in Iowa’s communities, the lives of the residents, and the economic well-being of the state. With encouragement to the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission (RIAC) for its consideration of great need for infrastructure and transportation repairs, the Task Force provides its assessment and recommendations. As the RIAC fulfills its obligations to guide the recovery and reconstruction in Iowa, infrastructure and transportation must be recognized for its impact on all Iowans. The tornadoes, storms, and floods were devastating to infrastructure and transportation systems across the state. The damage did not distinguish between privately-owned and public assets. The significance of the damage emerges further with the magnitude of the damage estimates. Infrastructure includes components that some might initially overlook, such as communication systems, landfills, and water treatment. The miles of damaged roads and bridges are more evident to many Iowans. Given the reliance on infrastructure systems, many repairs are already underway, though gaps have emerged in the funding for repairs to certain infrastructure systems.

Socio-economic benefits of using space technologies to monitor and respond to earthquakes

Earthquakes represent a major hazard for populations around the world, causing frequent loss of life,human suffering and enormous damage to homes, other buildings and infrastructure. The Technology Resources forEarthquake Monitoring and Response (TREMOR) Team of 36 space professionals analysed this problem over thecourse of the International Space University Summer Session Program and published their recommendations in the formof a report. The TREMOR Team proposes a series of space- and ground-based systems to provide improved capabilityto manage earthquakes. The first proposed system is a prototype earthquake early-warning system that improves theexisting knowledge of earthquake precursors and addresses the potential of these phenomena. Thus, the system willat first enable the definitive assessment of whether reliable earthquake early warning is possible through precursormonitoring. Should the answer be affirmative, the system itself would then form the basis of an operational earlywarningsystem. To achieve these goals, the authors propose a multi-variable approach in which the system will combine,integrate and process precursor data from space- and ground-based seismic monitoring systems (already existing andnew proposed systems) and data from a variety of related sources (e.g. historical databases, space weather data, faultmaps). The second proposed system, the prototype earthquake simulation and response system, coordinates the maincomponents of the response phase to reduce the time delays of response operations, increase the level of precisionin the data collected, facilitate communication amongst teams, enhance rescue and aid capabilities and so forth. It isbased in part on an earthquake simulator that will provide pre-event (if early warning is proven feasible) and post-eventdamage assessment and detailed data of the affected areas to corresponding disaster management actors by means of ageographic information system (GIS) interface. This is coupled with proposed mobile satellite communication hubs toprovide links between response teams. Business- and policy-based implementation strategies for these proposals, suchas the establishment of a non-governmental organisation to develop and operate the systems, are included.

The Prenatal Lausanne Trilogue Play: A New Observational Assessment Tool of the Prenatal Co-Parenting Alliance

The goal of this study is to present a new observational assessment tool, the prenatal Lausanne Trilogue Play situation (LTP). Expectant parents were asked to role play their first meeting with their baby using a doll, and the videotaped interaction was subsequently coded. Scores were correlated with measures of the couples' marital satisfaction as well as the postnatal family alliance 3 months after the baby's birth. Results showed that the prenatal co-parenting alliance was positively linked to both fathers' marital satisfaction as well as to the postnatal family alliance at 3 months. Thus, the prenatal LTP allows for assessment of the prenatal co-parenting alliance at the interactional level. It predicts the place the parents will afford their baby after birth and can contribute to methods of clinical assessment and prevention.

High-energy gamma-ray emission from microquasars: LS 5039 and LS I+61303

The possible associations between the microquasars LS 5039 and LS I +61 303 and the EGRET sources 3EG J1824-1514 and 3EG J0241+6103 suggest that microquasars could also be sources of high-energy gamma-rays. In this work, we present a detailed numerical inverse Compton (IC) model, based on a microquasar scenario, that reproduces the high-energy gamma-ray spectra and variability observed by EGRET for the mentioned sources. Our model considers a population of relativistic electrons entrained in a cylindrical inhomogeneous jet that interact through IC scattering with both the radiation and the magnetic fields.

A flood geodatabase and its climatological applications: the case of Catalonia for the last century

Floods are the natural hazards that produce the highest number of casualties and material damage in the Western Mediterranean. An improvement in flood risk assessment and study of a possible increase in flooding occurrence are therefore needed. To carry out these tasks it is important to have at our disposal extensive knowledge on historical floods and to find an efficient way to manage this geographical data. In this paper we present a complete flood database spanning the 20th century for the whole of Catalonia (NE Spain), which includes documentary information (affected areas and damage) and instrumental information (meteorological and hydrological records). This geodatabase, named Inungama, has been implemented on a GIS (Geographical Information System) in order to display all the information within a given geographical scenario, as well as to carry out an analysis thereof using queries, overlays and calculus. Following a description of the type and amount of information stored in the database and the structure of the information system, the first applications of Inungama are presented. The geographical distribution of floods shows the localities which are more likely to be flooded, confirming that the most affected municipalities are the most densely populated ones in coastal areas. Regarding the existence of an increase in flooding occurrence, a temporal analysis has been carried out, showing a steady increase over the last 30 years.

Bilan préopératoire pour la chirurgie cardio-vasculaire en urgence [Preoperative assessment in emergency cardiovascular surgery].

In the emergency situation, preoperative patient work-up for cardio-vascular surgery is quite different from the elective setting. We have analyzed a consecutive series of 5576 cases out of which 823 underwent emergency procedures (14.8%). The most frequent problems requiring emergent intervention were peripheral vascular (186 cases; 22.6% of the emergent procedure), followed by coronary artery disease (156 cases; 19.0%), thoracic aortic aneurysms (86 cases; 10.4%), abdominal aortic aneurysms (54 cases; 6.6%), congenital heart disease (36 cases: 4.4%), heart and heart lung transplantation (31 cases; 3.8%), problems with cardiac rythm (25 cases: 3.0%), and others (267 cases: 32.4%). Classification by proportion of urgent procedures with reference to elective operations shows a different picture. As a matter of fact transplantations were always emergency procedures (100%), whereas repair of aortic dissections type A and B was an emergency procedure in 81.5%. Emergency thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysm repair accounted for 30% and 20% respectively and the corresponding proportion for peripheral vascular surgery is 19%. However, emergency surgery for acute coronary ischemia, valvular and congenital heart disease accounted for somewhat less than 10% for each group of these pathologies. Systematic pre-operative diagnostic work-up is a recognized tool for procedure related risk assessment and superior management of diseases. However, hemodynamic instability and other time related events correlated with negative outcome, are the main driving forces for accelerated diagnostic pathways

Work motivation and pro-social behavior in the delivery of public services : theoretical and empirical insights

This Ph.D. dissertation seeks to study the work motivation of employees in the delivery of public services. The questioning on work motivation in public services in not new but it becomes central for governments which are now facing unprecedented public debts. The objective of this research is twofold : First, we want to see if the work motivation of employees in public services is a continuum (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations cannot coexist) or a bi-dimensional construct (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations coexist simultaneously). The research in public administration literature has focused on the concept of public service motivation, and considered motivation to be uni-dimensional (Perry and Hondeghem 2008). However, no study has yet tackled both types of motivation, the intrinsic and extrinsic ones, in the same time. This dissertation proposes, in Part I, a theoretical assessment and an empirical test of a global work motivational structure, by using a self-constructed Swiss dataset with employees from three public services, the education sector, the security sector and the public administrative services sector. Our findings suggest that work motivation in public services in not uni-dimensional but bi-dimensional, the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations coexist simultaneously and can be positively correlated (Amabile et al. 1994). Our findings show that intrinsic motivation is as important as extrinsic motivation, thus, the assumption that employees in public services are less attracted by extrinsic rewards is not confirmed for this sample. Other important finding concerns the public service motivation concept, which, as theoretically predicted, represents the major motivational dimension of employees in the delivery of public services. Second, the theory of public service motivation makes the assumption that employees in public services engage in activities that go beyond their self-interest, but never uses this construct as a determinant for their pro-social behavior. In the same time, several studies (Gregg et al. 2011 and Georgellis et al. 2011) bring evidence about the pro-social behavior of employees in public services. However, they do not identify which type of motivation is at the origin of this behavior, they only make the assumption of an intrinsically motivated behavior. We analyze the pro-social behavior of employees in public services and use the public service motivation as determinant of their pro-social behavior. We add other determinants highlighted by the theory of pro-social behavior (Bénabou and Tirole 2006), by Le Grand (2003) and by fit theories (Besley and Ghatak 2005). We test these determinants on Part II and identify for each sector of activity the positive or the negative impact on pro-social behavior of Swiss employees. Contrary to expectations, we find, for this sample, that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors have a positive impact on pro-social behavior, no crowding-out effect is identified in this sample. We confirm the hypothesis of Le Grand (2003) about the positive impact of the opportunity cost on pro-social behavior. Our results suggest a mix of action-oriented altruism and out-put oriented altruism of employees in public services. These results are relevant when designing incentives schemes for employees in the delivery of public services.

The weaker points of fish acute toxicity tests and how tests on embryos can solve some issues.

Fish acute toxicity tests play an important role in environmental risk assessment and hazard classification because they allow for first estimates of the relative toxicity of various chemicals in various species. However, such tests need to be carefully interpreted. Here we shortly summarize the main issues which are linked to the genetics and the condition of the test animals, the standardized test situations, the uncertainty about whether a given test species can be seen as representative to a given fish fauna, the often missing knowledge about possible interaction effects, especially with micropathogens, and statistical problems like small sample sizes and, in some cases, pseudoreplication. We suggest that multi-factorial embryo tests on ecologically relevant species solve many of these issues, and we shortly explain how such tests could be done to avoid the weaker points of fish acute toxicity tests.

Supplement Information to the August 2008 Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force Report, August 2008

The Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force is acutely aware of the critical role infrastructure plays in Iowa’s communities, the lives of the residents, and the economic well-being of the state. With encouragement to the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission (RIAC) for its consideration of great need for infrastructure and transportation repairs, the Task Force provides its assessment and recommendations. As the RIAC fulfills its obligations to guide the recovery and reconstruction in Iowa, infrastructure and transportation must be recognized for its impact on all Iowans. The tornadoes, storms, and floods were devastating to infrastructure and transportation systems across the state. The damage did not distinguish between privately-owned and public assets. The significance of the damage emerges further with the magnitude of the damage estimates. Infrastructure includes components that some might initially overlook, such as communication systems, landfills, and water treatment. The miles of damaged roads and bridges are more evident to many Iowans. Given the reliance on infrastructure systems, many repairs are already underway, though gaps have emerged in the funding for repairs to certain infrastructure systems. Supplement Information to the August 2008

Spatial variability of aggregate stability in latosols under sugarcane

The spatial variability of soils under a same management system is differentiated, as expressed in the properties. The spatial variability of aggregate stability of a eutrophic Red Latosol (ERL) and a dystrophic Red Latosol (DRL) under sugarcane was characterized. Samples were collected in a regular 10 m grid, in the layers 0.0-0.2 and 0.2-0.4 m, with 100 points per area, and the following properties were determined: geometric mean diameter (GMD) of aggregates, mean weight diameter (MWD) of aggregates, percent of aggregates in the > 2.0 mm class and organic matter (OM) content. The eutrophic Red Latosol (ERL) had a higher aggregate stability thn the dystrophic Red Latosol (DRL), which may be attributed to the higher clay and OM content and the gibbsitic mineralogy of this soil class. The differentiated evolution of the studied Oxisols explains the wider range and lower variation coefficient and variability, for all properties studied in the eutrophic Red Latosol.

State-of-the-art of 3D cultures (organs-on-a-chip) in safety testing and pathophysiology.

Integrated approaches using different in vitro methods in combination with bioinformatics can (i) increase the success rate and speed of drug development; (ii) improve the accuracy of toxicological risk assessment; and (iii) increase our understanding of disease. Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models are important building blocks of this strategy which has emerged during the last years. The majority of these models are organotypic, i.e., they aim to reproduce major functions of an organ or organ system. This implies in many cases that more than one cell type forms the 3D structure, and often matrix elements play an important role. This review summarizes the state of the art concerning commonalities of the different models. For instance, the theory of mass transport/metabolite exchange in 3D systems and the special analytical requirements for test endpoints in organotypic cultures are discussed in detail. In the next part, 3D model systems for selected organs--liver, lung, skin, brain--are presented and characterized in dedicated chapters. Also, 3D approaches to the modeling of tumors are presented and discussed. All chapters give a historical background, illustrate the large variety of approaches, and highlight up- and downsides as well as specific requirements. Moreover, they refer to the application in disease modeling, drug discovery and safety assessment. Finally, consensus recommendations indicate a roadmap for the successful implementation of 3D models in routine screening. It is expected that the use of such models will accelerate progress by reducing error rates and wrong predictions from compound testing.

Soil infiltration based on bp neural network and grey relational analysis

Soil infiltration is a key link of the natural water cycle process. Studies on soil permeability are conducive for water resources assessment and estimation, runoff regulation and management, soil erosion modeling, nonpoint and point source pollution of farmland, among other aspects. The unequal influence of rainfall duration, rainfall intensity, antecedent soil moisture, vegetation cover, vegetation type, and slope gradient on soil cumulative infiltration was studied under simulated rainfall and different underlying surfaces. We established a six factor-model of soil cumulative infiltration by the improved back propagation (BP)-based artificial neural network algorithm with a momentum term and self-adjusting learning rate. Compared to the multiple nonlinear regression method, the stability and accuracy of the improved BP algorithm was better. Based on the improved BP model, the sensitive index of these six factors on soil cumulative infiltration was investigated. Secondly, the grey relational analysis method was used to individually study grey correlations among these six factors and soil cumulative infiltration. The results of the two methods were very similar. Rainfall duration was the most influential factor, followed by vegetation cover, vegetation type, rainfall intensity and antecedent soil moisture. The effect of slope gradient on soil cumulative infiltration was not significant.

FluxEXPLORER: a new high-speed laser Doppler imaging system for the assessment of burn injuries.

BACKGROUND: Deep burn assessment made by clinical evaluation has an accuracy varying between 60% and 80% and will determine if a burn injury will need tangential excision and skin grafting or if it will be able to heal spontaneously. Laser Doppler Imaging (LDI) techniques allow an improved burn depth assessment but their use is limited by the time-consuming image acquisition which may take up to 6 min per image. METHODS: To evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of a newly developed full-field LDI technology, 15 consecutive patients presenting with intermediate depth burns were assessed both clinically and by FluxExplorer LDI technology. Comparison between the two methods of assessment was carried out. RESULTS: Image acquisition was done within 6 s. FluxEXPLORER LDI technology achieved a significantly improved accuracy of burn depth assessment compared to the clinical judgement performed by board certified plastic and reconstructive surgeons (P < 0.05, 93% of correctly assessed burns injuries vs. 80% for clinical assessment). CONCLUSION: Technological improvements of LDI technology leading to a decreased image acquisition time and reliable burn depth assessment allow the routine use of such devices in the acute setting of burn care without interfering with the patient's treatment. Rapid and reliable LDI technology may assist clinicians in burn depth assessment and may limit the morbidity of burn patients through a minimization of the area of surgical debridement. Future technological improvements allowing the miniaturization of the device will further ease its clinical application.