State Legislation Monitoring Report FY2004, February 2005

The Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning issued its first state legislation monitoring report in February 2002, covering the first six months’ impact of Senate File 543 (which enacted a number of sentencing changes) on the justice system; monitoring of the correctional impact of this bill was at the request of several members of the legislature. Since then, the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Advisory Council has requested that CJJP monitor the correctional impact of enacted legislation of particular interest. This report covers monitoring results or future plans to monitor the following: 1. Changes in “crack” cocaine and “powder” cocaine penalties under Chapter 124.401 (effective FY2004; see p.3). 2. Commitments to prison involving manufacture, distribution, or possession of methamphetamine under Chapter 124.401 (see p.5). 3. Prosecution of offenders for child endangerment under Chapter 726.6(g) for permitting the presence of a child or minor at a location where a controlled substance manufacturing or a product possession violation occurs (see p.7). 4. Provision of an enhanced penalty for manufacturing of controlled substances under Chapter 124.401C when children are present and the offender is not charged under section 726.6(g) (see p. 7). 5. Creating a new offense when a retailer sells more than two packages of any product containing pseudoephedrine (chapter 126.23A) and providing for an enhanced penalty under Chapter 714.7C when a theft involves more than two packages of similar products (see p.8). 6. Establishment of parole eligibility at 70% of time served for persons sentenced under the “85% law” provisions of Iowa Code Section 902.12. (effective FY2005; see p. 9).

An Illustrated Guide for Monitoring and Protecting Bridge Waterways Against Scour - Project TR-515 - Final Report, March 2006

This report is a well illustrated and practical Guide intended to aid engineers and engineering technicians in monitoring, maintaining, and protecting bridge waterways so as to mitigate or prevent scour from adversely affecting the structural performance of bridge abutments, piers, and approach road embankments. Described and illustrated here are the scour processes affecting the stability of these components of bridge waterways. Also described and illustrated are methods for monitoring waterways, and the various methods for repairing scour damage and protecting bridge waterways against scour. The Guide focuses on smaller bridges, especially those in Iowa. Scour processes at small bridges are complicated by the close proximity of abutments, piers, and waterway banks, such that scour processes interact in ways difficult to predict and for which reliable design relationships do not exist. Additionally, blockage by woody debris or by ice, along with changes in approach channel alignment, can have greater effects on pier and abutment scour for smaller bridges. These considerations tend to cause greater reliance on monitoring for smaller bridges. The Guide is intended to augment and support, as a source of information, existing procedures for monitoring bridge waterways. It also may prompt some adjustments of existing forms and reports used for bridge monitoring. In accord with increasing emphasis on effective management of public facilities like bridges, the Guide ventures to include an example report format for quantitative risk assessment applied to bridge waterways. Quantitative risk assessment is useful when many bridges have to be evaluated for scour risk and damage, and priorities need to be determined for repair and protection work. Such risk assessment aids comparison of bridges at risk. It is expected that bridge inspectors will implement the Guide as a concise, handy reference available back at the office. The Guide also likely may be implemented as an educational primer for new inspectors who have yet to become acquainted with waterway scour. Additionally, the Guide may be implemented as a part of process to check whether existing bridge-inspection forms or reports adequately encompass bridge-waterway scour.

Monitoring the effects of adult psychotherapy in routine practice in Switzerland: A feasibility trial

Background: Several studies have been published on the effects of psychotherapy in routine practice. Complementing traditional views summarised as 'dose-effect models', Stiles et al. put forward data consistent with the responsive regulation model underlining the importance of the client's active participant role in defining length of treatment. One may ask what level of change reached by a patient is considered to be the 'good enough level' (GEL) and if it is related to the duration of psychotherapy. Aims: The main objective of the present feasibility trial was to monitor the patient's session-by-session evolution using a self-report questionnaire in order to define the GEL, i.e. the number of sessions necessary for the patient to reach significant change. Method: A total of N=13 patients undergoing psychotherapy in routine practice participated in the study, completing the Outcome Questionnaire - 45.2 (OQ-45), which assesses the symptom level, interpersonal relationships and social role after every psychotherapy session. The data was analysed using multi-level analyses (HLMs). Results: High feasibility of fine-grained assessment of effects of psychotherapy in routine practice in Switzerland was shown; response rates being acceptable; however, detailed analysis of the GEL was not feasible within the short study time-frame. Conclusions: Reflections on the political context of monitoring in the specific case of routine psychiatric practice in Switzerland are discussed.

Monitoring of the Launched Girder Bridge over the Iowa River on US 20, March 2004

The objective of the study presented in this report was to document the launch of the Iowa River Bridge and to monitor and evaluate the structural performance of the bridge superstructure and substructure during the launch. The Iowa Department of Transportation used an incremental launching method, which is relatively unique for steel I-girder bridges, to construct the Iowa River Bridge over an environmentally sensitive river valley in central Iowa. The bridge was designed as two separate roadways consisting of four steel plate girders each that are approximately 11 ft deep and span approximately 301 ft each over five spans. The concrete bridge deck was not placed until after both roadways had been launched. One of the most significant monitoring and evaluation observations related to the superstructure was that the bottom flange (and associated web region) was subjected to extremely large stresses during the crossing of launch rollers. Regarding the substructure performance, the column stresses did not exceed reasonable design limits during the daylong launches. The scope of the study did not allow adequate quantification of the measured applied launch forces at the piers. Future proposed esearch should provide an opportunity to address this. The overall experimental performance of the bridge during the launch was compared with the predicted design performance. In general, the substructure design, girder contact stress, and total launching force assumptions correlated well with the experimental results. The design assumptions for total axial force in crossframe members, on the other hand, differed from the experimental results by as much as 300%.

Optimal Design of Permit Markets with an Ex Ante Pollution Target, August 2006

In this paper, we examine the design of permit trading programs when the objective is to minimize the cost of achieving an ex ante pollution target, that is, one that is defined in expectation rather than an ex post deterministic value. We consider two potential sources of uncertainty, the presence of either of which can make our model appropriate: incomplete information on abatement costs and uncertain delivery coefficients. In such a setting, we find three distinct features that depart from the well-established results on permit trading: (1) the regulator’s information on firms’ abatement costs can matter; (2) the optimal permit cap is not necessarily equal to the ex ante pollution target; and (3) the optimal trading ratio is not necessarily equal to the delivery coefficient even when it is known with certainty. Intuitively, since the regulator is only required to meet a pollution target on average, she can set the trading ratio and total permit cap such that there will be more pollution when abatement costs are high and less pollution when abatement costs are low. Information on firms’ abatement costs is important in order for the regulator to induce the optimal alignment between pollution level and abatement costs.

Iowa Water Pollution Control Works and Drinking Water Facilities Financing Programs, (Joint Programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources), Independent Auditor's Reports, Financial Statements and Supplementary Information, Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2005

State Audit Reports

Is nurse-measured blood pressure a valid substitute for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring?

BACKGROUND: Because ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is not available everywhere, the objective of the study was to determine whether nurse-measured blood pressure could be an acceptable substitute to ABPM. METHODS: We analyzed the data of 2385 consecutive patients referred to our hypertension clinic for the performance of ABPM. Before ambulatory monitoring was performed, a nurse-measured BP was obtained three times using a Y-tube connecting the sphygmomanometer and the recorder. We compared the mean value of the three nurse-measured blood pressures with that of the 12h daytime ambulatory monitoring, considered as the reference. RESULTS: The difference between the nurse-measured and the ambulatory blood pressure was small but statistically significant, indicating that nurse-measured blood pressure tends to overestimate both diastolic and systolic blood pressure. The difference between the nurse blood pressure and ABPM was greater among treated hypertensive patients than untreated patients. To diagnose hypertension, defined as a blood pressure of over 140/90mmHg by ABPM, the positive predictive value of the nurse blood pressure was 0.81 and the negative predictive value 0.63. However, these predictive values could be improved with less stringent cut-off values of blood pressure. Thus, for a diastolic blood pressure above 100mmHg, the positive predictive value of nurse blood pressure was 0.55 and the negative predictive value 0.91. These figures were relatively similar for previously treated and untreated patients. CONCLUSION: Nurse blood pressure is less accurate than ABPM in diagnosing hypertension, defined as a blood pressure of over 140/90mmHg. It could, however, be an acceptable substitute, especially to exclude people who do not need to be treated, in situations where lower resources require a less rigorous definition of hypertension.

La prévention du tabagisme passif [Prevention of air pollution by indoor tobacco smoke in France]

A majority of smokers and non-smokers mind tobacco smoke. Passive smoking causes death by sudden infant death, lung cancer and coronary heart disease. 3000 to 6000 persons are killed every year in France. The lack of implementation of the Evin's law published in 1991 explains why non-smokers are not given the protection they can expect. The trend of scientific knowledge and of French and international public opinions support a growing demand for a complete protection of non-smokers with a total ban of smoking in all public or working places.

Iowa Adult Literacy Local Program Monitoring Guidelines Revised, July 2007

The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for the annual monitoring and evaluation of Iowa’s adult literacy funded local programs. Section 224(b)(3) of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) states that the State Education Agency (SEA) will provide “a description of how the eligible agency [Iowa Department of Education] will evaluate annually the effectiveness of the adult education and literacy activities based on the performance measures described in section 212.” In compliance with that mandate, the following describes the Iowa Department of Education’s procedures for local adult literacy program evaluation strategies.

The effects of tourism, beachfront development and increased light pollution on nesting Loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) on Sal, Cape Verde Islands

Loggerhead Caretta caretta is now the only species of marine turtle nesting on the island of Sal, Cape Verde Islands. Since 2008, ADTMA - SOS Tartarugas has patrolled all the southern beaches of the island in order to protect nesting females and to collect nesting data. Although hunting is still a major issue, with 90 turtles killed in 2009, habitat loss and light pollution are becoming an ever more serious threat. Construction sites, hotels, apartment buildings and restaurants close to beaches, bright lights and illegal removal of sand are contributing to a marked decrease in the total number of nesting turtles on some beaches. In 2009, beaches on Sal experienced an average increase in nests of 200%, while the beach most affected by construction (Tortuga Beach) saw a decrease of nests of 7.3% (from 19.1% of total number of nests in 2008 to 11.8% in 2010). This beach also recorded a much lower nest to emergence ratio than normal (17.6% of emergences resulting in nests compared to 29.9% in other areas), indicating reluctance to nest due to light pollution and other disturbances.

Iowa's Water - Ambient Monitoring Program: Bacterial Monitoring of Iowa's Beaches, January 2001

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has produced an 4 page article about how to assess Iowa's streams and rivers. How to use ambient monitoring of streams and river in Iowa.