Home Care Workers Wage and Benefit Survey

Study to determine the wage and benefit status of Iowa's Home Care Workers.

Pool Worker Survey

Study to examine the motivation of Iowa’s direct care workers to work in medical personnel pools or temporary staffing agencies.

Soil Survey of Black Hawk County, Iowa, 2005

The general soil map, which is a color map, shows the survey area divided into groups of associated soils called general soil map units. This map is useful in planning the use and management of large areas. To find information about your area of interest, locate that area on the map, identify the name of the map unit in the area on the color-coded map legend, then refer to the section General Soil Map Units for a general description of the soils in your area.

Soil Survey of Clay County, Iowa, 2005

The general soil map, which is a color map, shows the survey area divided into groups of associated soils called general soil map units. This map is useful in planning the use and management of large areas. To find information about your area of interest, locate that area on the map, identify the name of the map unit in the area on the color-coded map legend, then refer to the section General Soil Map Units for a general description of the soils in your area.

Prevalence of alcohol-impaired drivers based on random breath tests in a roadside survey

Sobriety checkpoints are not usually randomly located by traffic authorities. As such, information provided by non-random alcohol tests cannot be used to infer the characteristics of the general driving population. In this paper a case study is presented in which the prevalence of alcohol-impaired driving is estimated for the general population of drivers. A stratified probabilistic sample was designed to represent vehicles circulating in non-urban areas of Catalonia (Spain), a region characterized by its complex transportation network and dense traffic around the metropolis of Barcelona. Random breath alcohol concentration tests were performed during spring 2012 on 7,596 drivers. The estimated prevalence of alcohol-impaired drivers was 1.29%, which is roughly a third of the rate obtained in non-random tests. Higher rates were found on weekends (1.90% on Saturdays, 4.29% on Sundays) and especially at night. The rate is higher for men (1.45%) than for women (0.64%) and the percentage of positive outcomes shows an increasing pattern with age. In vehicles with two occupants, the proportion of alcohol-impaired drivers is estimated at 2.62%, but when the driver was alone the rate drops to 0.84%, which might reflect the socialization of drinking habits. The results are compared with outcomes in previous surveys, showing a decreasing trend in the prevalence of alcohol-impaired drivers over time.

O Estado da Guiné-Bissau e os seus desafios político-institucionais

Este trabalho procura abordar o percurso da construção do Estado da Guiné-Bissau tendo como pressuposto os efeitos da colonização portuguesa na instalação do novo regime político oficialmente assumido a partir de 10 de Setembro de 1974. A análise em questão concentra-se simultaneamente na avaliação do comportamento político do PAIGC durante a primeira, segunda e terceira República. Nesse sentido, observa-se respectivamente a marca da transição do poder das mãos do colonizador às do PAIGC - que então representava uma aspiração binacional Guinéo-Caboverdiana -; o rompimento do pacto e o domínio de cada um sobre o seu território, e a adesão do país ao multipartidarismo. O propósito se insere na perspectiva de visualizar os cenários que influenciaram as frequentes alterações do poder constitucional e que obstaculizam a construção do Estado.

European French-speaking study from the GEMO group on bone metastases management: a special focus on external beam radiotherapy practice survey.

This study seeks to perform a survey of patterns of practice among the different physicians involved in the bone metastases management, with special focus on external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).A questionnaire about bone metastases based on clinical cases and supplemented with general questions, including medical therapies, EBRT and metabolic radiotherapy strategies, surgery, and supportive care approaches, was sent to 4,706 French-speaking physicians in Belgium, France, Luxemburg, and Switzerland.Overall, 644 questionnaires were analyzed. Twenty-eight percent concerned the radiotherapy approach and were judged adequate to respond to the part dedicated to EBRT. Sixty-nine percent of physicians used a total dose irradiation of 30 Gy delivered in ten fractions. A large majority (75%) used two opposed fields prescribed at mid-depth (30%), or with non-equally weighted fields (45%). Seventy percent irradiated also above and below the concerned vertebra. A dosimetry planning treatment was done in 85% and high-energy megavoltage photons were used in 42%. Moreover, 54% physicians used short course radiotherapy in routine.Radiotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment of bone metastases, but there is substantial heterogeneity in clinical practice. Guidelines and treatment protocols are required to improve the treatment quality.

Consciência nacional, democratização e conflito político: semelhanças e diferenças entre Guiné-Bissau e Moçambique

Este trabalho debate a consciência nacional, a democratização e o conflito político vivenciados pela sociedade e pelo Estado guineense e moçambicano durante o processo de construção do Estado Nacional, bem como suas implicações nas recentes experiências de institucionalização da democracia minimalista-liberal que resultou num acentuado processo de diferenciação e pluralização de identidades e de atores sociais e políticos. Queremos entender, especificamente, o conflito entre a identidade nacional e as identidades étnicas surgido das tentativas do primeiro em controlar politicamente estas últimas durante a construção do nacionalismo. Não obstante a essa tentativa da homogeneização das diferenças étnicas e regionais, o discurso proto-nacionalista que defendia, pelo menos em termos da retórica, a bandeira da unidade nacional, mostrou-se insuficiente com a proliferação e a reconfiguração identitária dos grupos étnicos que as ideologias nacionalista-revolucionárias tentaram abafar ou reduzir a meros instrumentos ideológicos da luta de classes dentro do Estado burocrático-autoritário.

Sobre o Escândalo Político em Ccabo Verde

Cabo Verde será realmente um país com condições excepcionais de transparência, como é geralmente reconhecido pela comunidade internacional ? Os governantes cabo-verdeanos fi zeram sempre questão de se apresentarem como uma excepção em África. Ora, podemos interrogar-nos sobre as condições sociais de sucesso das denúncias da grande corrupção em Cabo Verde e sobre o quadro moral instaurado à volta dos assuntos de Estado desde a abertura ao multipartidarismo. Uma análise dos principais escândalos salienta simultaneamente as estatégias organizadas no processo de denúncia e os jogos de verifi cação a que se submetem os actores políticos durante as crises políticas ligadas a estes escândalos. Isto permite elucidar tanto as condições de possibilidade de denúncia como a pertinência das redes de corrupção nesta democracia pequena e recente.

A Condição de Mediador Político-Cultural em Cabo Verde: Intelectuais e Diferentes Versões da Identidade Nacional

Este artigo examina dois processos correlacionados à constituição de elites intelectuais em Cabo Verde: a disputa das várias versões sobre a identidade cultural das ilhas e a problemática da mediação política e cultural, isto é, de como diferentes lógicas (políticas, literárias) se articulam na relação entre a posição de produtor cultural e a condição de mediação cultural e política. Em Cabo Verde essa condição de mediador político-cultural tem sido disputada, ao longo deste século, por grupos que se definem como intelectuais. Além de demonstrar o caráter arbitrário da invenção de “essências” nacionais como a “cabo-verdianidade”, pretende-se aqui estabelecer correlações entre as lutas de legitimação das diversas versões de identidade nacional e a constituição de um espaço de mediação que proporciona importantes lucros materiais e simbólicos a quem o monopoliza.

Decision-making in lumbar spinal stenosis: A survey on the influence of the morphology of the dural sac.

Surgical decision-making in lumbar spinal stenosis involves assessment of clinical parameters and the severity of the radiological stenosis. We suspected that surgeons based surgical decisions more on dural sac cross-sectional area (DSCA) than on the morphology of the dural sac. We carried out a survey among members of three European spine societies. The axial T2-weighted MR images from ten patients with varying degrees of DSCA and morphological grades according to the recently described morphological classification of lumbar spinal stenosis, with DSCA values disclosed in half the assessed images, were used for evaluation. We provided a clinical scenario to accompany the images, which were shown to 142 responding physicians, mainly orthopaedic surgeons but also some neurosurgeons and others directly involved in treating patients with spinal disorders. As the primary outcome we used the number of respondents who would proceed to surgery for a given DSCA or morphological grade. Substantial agreement among the respondents was observed, with severe or extreme stenosis as defined by the morphological grade leading to surgery. This decision was not dependent on the number of years in practice, medical density or specialty. Disclosing the DSCA did not alter operative decision-making. In all, 40 respondents (29%) had prior knowledge of the morphological grading system, but their responses showed no difference from those who had not. This study suggests that the participants were less influenced by DSCA than by the morphological appearance of the dural sac. Classifying lumbar spinal stenosis according to morphology rather than surface measurements appears to be consistent with current clinical practice.

Lane Closure Policy Development, Enforcement, and Exceptions: A Survey of Seven State Transportation Agencies, February 2007

Traffic volume increases and an aging infrastructure create the need for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of existing facilities. As more motorists feel that delays should be minimal during highway renewal projects, lane closures that reduce capacity through the work zone should not create unreasonable delays. In order to facilitate the determination of when a lane closure is permitted during the day, some state transportation agencies (STAs) have developed lane closure policies, or strategies, that they use as guidance in determining daily permitted lane closure times. Permitted lane closure times define what times of the day, week, or season a lane closure is allowed on a facility and at a specific location or segment. This research addresses the lane closure policies of several STAs that were reputed to have good lane closures policies or strategies and that were selected by the project advisory committee for further research.

Survey of the leg exocrine glands in termites(Isoptera)

A survey of the leg exocrine glands in the termite workers of 16 species of the families Kalotermitidae and Termitidae was carried out through scanning electron microscope. Glandular openings were not found in the legs of Anoplotermes sp., Ruptitermes sp. (Apicotermitinae, Termitidae) or Glyptotermes planus (Kalotermitidae), but they are present, spread over the ventral surface of the first, second and third tarsomeres of other Termitidae such as Armitermes euamignathus, Cornitermes cumulans, Nasutitermes coxipoensis, Rhynchotermes nasutissimus, Syntermes nanus, Embiratermes festivellus (Nasutitermitinae), Amitermes beaumonti, Hoplotermes amplus, Microcerotermes sp., Neocapritermes opacus, Orthognathotermes sp., Spinitermes brevicornutus and Termes sp. (Termitinae). The pores are usually isolated but they can also be grouped inside a round depression. The occurrence of leg exocrine glands in the family Termitidae is reported for the first time.

Prensa escrita y poder político en Argentina (2007-2013) : estudio de caso sobre Papel Prensa S.A.

Papel Prensa es l’ única empresa argentina fabricant de paper per a consum dels diaris. Els grups Clarín i La Nación han estat els seus accionistes majoritaris des del 1976, desprès del cop d’ Estat cívic militar. El Govern va aconseguir aprovar el mes de desembre del 2011 una llei que declarava “d’interès públic” la producció, comercialització i distribució de paper per a diaris. El conflicte desfermat pel control de l’empresa paperera enfronta al poder executiu amb el poder dels grups de comunicació tradicionals amb una més gran influència social i també política. L’ anàlisi de les informacions i opinions publicades mostren la progressiva polarització del país