Hierarchical neural network with high storage capacity

A recent method used to optimize biased neural networks with low levels of activity is applied to a hierarchical model. As a consequence, the performance of the system is strongly enhanced. The steps to achieve optimization are analyzed in detail.

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, June 19, 2012; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Modelling diffusion of innovations in a social network

A simple model of diffusion of innovations in a social network with upgrading costs is introduced. Agents are characterized by a single real variable, their technological level. According to local information, agents decide whether to upgrade their level or not, balancing their possible benefit with the upgrading cost. A critical point where technological avalanches display a power-law behavior is also found. This critical point is characterized by a macroscopic observable that turns out to optimize technological growth in the stationary state. Analytical results supporting our findings are found for the globally coupled case.

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, July 17, 2012; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Iowa Department of Corrections Presentation to Transportation, Infrastructure, Capitals Appropriations Subcommittee, February 2008

An update of the following: Status of capital projects from prior year appropriations, appropriation from RIIF, and other other projects, current prison population, expected growth and over population, overview of revised classification system and how it affects bed planning, timeline for construction, 2009 funding, plan for the governor recommended $500,000 for project management and other infrastructure priorities.

Exact long-time behavior of a network of oscillators under random fields

We present an exact solution for the order parameters that characterize the stationary behavior of a population of Kuramotos phase oscillators under random external fields [Y. Kuramoto, in International Symposium on Mathematical Problems in Theoretical Physics, Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 39 (Springer, Berlin, 1975), p. 420]. From these results it is possible to generate the phase diagram of models with an arbitrary distribution of random frequencies and random fields.

Remote Synchronization Reveals Network Symmetries and Functional Modules

We study a Kuramoto model in which the oscillators are associated with the nodes of a complex network and the interactions include a phase frustration, thus preventing full synchronization. The system organizes into a regime of remote synchronization where pairs of nodes with the same network symmetry are fully synchronized, despite their distance on the graph. We provide analytical arguments to explain this result, and we show how the frustration parameter affects the distribution of phases. An application to brain networks suggests that anatomical symmetry plays a role in neural synchronization by determining correlated functional modules across distant locations.

2013 - 2017 Iowa Transportation Improvement Program,

This document describes planned investments in Iowa’s multimodal transportation system including aviation, transit, railroads, trails, and highways. A large part of funding available for highway programming comes from the federal government. Accurately estimating future federal funding levels is dependent on having a multiyear federal transportation authorization bill in place. The most recent authorization, Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), expired September 30, 2009, and to date it has been extended nine times because a new authorization has not yet been enacted. The current extension will expire June 30, 2012.

Effect of Wildlife Highway Warning Reflectors on Deer-Vehicle Accident, December 1984

he number of deer-vehicle accidents in Iowa and around the country has steadily increased during the past 30 years. This i s basically due to: ( 1 ) increased volume of traffic; 12) an expanding network of hard surface roads, especially 4 lane interstates; and (3) a general increase in deer populations. Initidtion of a 55 MPH speed limit in 1974 and gasoline shortages in 1975 reduced deer-vehicle accident rates briefly, but since 1975, rates have continued to climb. Various methods of reducinq these accidents have been attempted in other states. These include: instal lation of rc?flective devlres, deer crossing signs, fencing, underpasses, clearing right--of--waysa,n d controlled hunting to reduce deer population s i z e . These methods have met with varying degrees of success, depending on animal behavior, deet- population fluctuations, method used, topoyr-aphy, road-side vegetation, traffic patterns, and highway configuration. This project was designed to evaluate a new ntethod of reducing deer-vehicle accidents. There are qenerally 4 important aspects of deer-vehicle accidents: danger to human l i f e , vehicle damage, loss of a valuable wildlife resource, and cost of processing accident reports. In !owe, during 1983, there were over 15,OOC) reported deer--vehicle accidents and probably many more that were not reported (Gladfelter 1984). The extent of human injury or death in Iowa i s not known, but studies in southern Michigan show that human injur ies occurred in about 4% of the deer-vehicle accidents (A1 lcn and MrCullough 1976). T h i s would indicate that in Iowa there could have been 200 human injury cases from deer-vehicle accidents i n 1983. These injuries usual 1 occur from secondary collisions when motorists try to avoid a deer on the highway, and hit some other object Vehicle darnaye from these accidents can into thousands of dollars because of the high speed involved and the size of the animal. The total amount of vehicle damage occurring in Iowa is unknown, but if the average vehicle damage was between $500-$800 per accident, estimated property damage would be between $2 1/2--$4 million annually. The value of deer lost in these accidents cannot be estimated, but recreational potential of this natural resource is surely diminished for hunters and wildlife enthusiasts. Also, there ir a great deal of money spent by governmental agencies for manpower to process accident reports and remove dead animals from highways.

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, August 21, 2012; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Midwest Transportation Consortium Annual Program Report, October 2000

The MTC’s main focus is on education and human capital. This focus is in recognition of the fact that the transportation industry, both public and private, in the region served by the MTC faces a serious shortage of well-trained human capital. For this reason, the MTC is in volved in creating totally new transportation education programs at two of its member universities. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls Iowa had no courses or students in transportation when the MTC grant began. During the first year of the grant, UNI’s Geography Department took the lead in developing courses, attracting students, an getting involved a a partner in transportation activities in its service region. A similar start-up effort is now underway at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The MTC has also been able to strengthen and add quality to transportation education efforts at universities in the region that were already leaders in transportation.

Midwest Transportation Consortium Annual Program Report, October 2002

The MTC’s main focus is on education and human capital. This focus is in recognition of the fact that the transportation industry, both public and private, in the region served by the MTC faces a serious shortage of well-trained human capital. For this reason, the MTC is in volved in creating totally new transportation education programs at two of its member universities. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls Iowa had no courses or students in transportation when the MTC grant began. During the first year of the grant, UNI’s Geography Department took the lead in developing courses, attracting students, an getting involved a a partner in transportation activities in its service region. A similar start-up effort is now underway at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The MTC has also been able to strengthen and add quality to transportation education efforts at universities in the region that were already leaders in transportation.

Midwest Transportation Consortium Annual Program Report, October 2004

The MTC’s main focus is on education and human capital. This focus is in recognition of the fact that the transportation industry, both public and private, in the region served by the MTC faces a serious shortage of well-trained human capital. For this reason, the MTC is in volved in creating totally new transportation education programs at two of its member universities. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls Iowa had no courses or students in transportation when the MTC grant began. During the first year of the grant, UNI’s Geography Department took the lead in developing courses, attracting students, an getting involved a a partner in transportation activities in its service region. A similar start-up effort is now underway at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The MTC has also been able to strengthen and add quality to transportation education efforts at universities in the region that were already leaders in transportation.

Comparative genomics of the vertebrate insulin/TOR signal transduction pathway: A network-level analysis of selective pressures

Complexity of biological function relies on large networks of interacting molecules. However, the evolutionary properties of these networks are not fully understood. It has been shown that selective pressures depend on the position of genes in the network. We have previously shown that in the Drosophila insulin/target of rapamycin (TOR) signal transduction pathway there is a correlation between the pathway position and the strength of purifying selection, with the downstream genes being most constrained. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary dynamics of this well-characterized pathway in vertebrates. More specifically, we determined the impact of natural selection on the evolution of 72 genes of this pathway. We found that in vertebrates there is a similar gradient of selective constraint in the insulin/TOR pathway to that found in Drosophila. This feature is neither the result of a polarity in the impact of positive selection nor of a series of factors affecting selective constraint levels (gene expression level and breadth, codon bias, protein length, and connectivity). We also found that pathway genes encoding physically interacting proteins tend to evolve under similar selective constraints. The results indicate that the architecture of the vertebrate insulin/TOR pathway constrains the molecular evolution of its components. Therefore, the polarity detected in Drosophila is neither specific nor incidental of this genus. Hence, although the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear, these may be similar in both vertebrates and Drosophila.

Preparing Tomorrow's Transportation Workforce: A Midwest Summit, 2010

regional transportation workforce development summits held across the United States in 2009 and 2010 as part of a coordinated initiative to ultimately develop a national strategy to address future transportation workforce issues. The initiative is being led by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). This particular summit was hosted by Iowa State University’s Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC) and Institute for Transportation (InTrans). The purpose of the Midwest summit was to assess the educational and training needs of the future transportation workforce and identify strategies to address those needs across various career paths. It addressed a broad spectrum of topics including strategies to attract women and under-represented minority groups, pre-college opportunities and strategies, post-secondary education, post-college continuing education, professional licensure, and specific industry perspectives. The goals of the summit were (1) to gain an improved understanding of the transportation workforce needs of Iowa and the surrounding states and (2) to identify best practices in addressing the workforce development needs. This event had two tracks: one focused on pre-college education and the other focused primarily on college education and practitioners. Attendees provided a good cross-section of the larger transportation industry. From what was learned at the summit, Iowa State University, like other regional hosts, can develop a “profile of needs” for Iowa including specific job categories over specific time horizons. The summit was also successful in identifying best practices in addressing the workforce needs that can be utilized by us and others as potential tools or in a “national-level list of attributes.” Each regional summit has provided some guidance in developing statewide profiles. The collection of best practices or tools from all the regional summits can be shared and applied to address state (or regional) needs profiles to attract, develop, and retain an effective workforce.