Vital Statistics of Iowa, 2007

This publication is an historical recording of the most requested statistics on vital events and is a source of information that can be used in further analysis.

Vital Statistics of Iowa, 2008

This publication is an historical recording of the most requested statistics on vital events and is a source of information that can be used in further analysis.

Vital Statistics of Iowa, 2009

This publication is an historical recording of the most requested statistics on vital events and is a source of information that can be used in further analysis.

Vital Statistics of Iowa, 2010

This publication is an historical recording of the most requested statistics on vital events and is a source of information that can be used in further analysis.

First-passage-time statistics for diffusion processes with an external random force

We present exact equations and expressions for the first-passage-time statistics of dynamical systems that are a combination of a diffusion process and a random external force modeled as dichotomous Markov noise. We prove that the mean first passage time for this system does not show any resonantlike behavior.

Iowa Public Library Statistics, July 2010-June 2011

The 2010-2011 (FY11) edition of Iowa Public Library Statistics includes information on income, expenditures, collections, circulation, and other measures, including staff. Each section is arranged by size code, then alphabetically by city. The totals and percentiles for each size code grouping are given immediately following the alphabetical listings. Totals and medians for all reporting libraries are given at the end of each section. There are 543 libraries included in this publication; 525 submitted a report. The table of size codes (page 5) lists the libraries alphabetically. The following table lists the size code designations, the population range in each size code, the number of libraries reporting in each size code, and the total population of the reporting libraries in each size code. The total population served by the 543 libraries is 2,339,070. Population data is used to determine per capita figures throughout the publication.

Statewide Economic Impacts of Disaster-Related Payments to Support Household and Private and Public Sector Recovery in Iowa, January 2010

There have been a multitude of programs providing assistance to the state of Iowa in the past 18 months. Springtime 2008 disasters resulted in tornado damage and widespread flood damage to large fractions of the state. In consequence, there was a very large flow of federal and state resources dedicated to assisting community and statewide recovery efforts. The nation was in recession as well and continued to be in recession through much of 2009. A sizeable amount of assistance found its way to Iowa under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in the forms of infrastructure stimulus spending, income supports and other safety net spending for households, and stabilization assistance for essential public services like education. On top of that, the state of Iowa authorized the I Jobs program as an additional infrastructure development program, and as a jobs stimulus program. The total amount of spending for all types of programs, disaster or economic recovery related, is perhaps as high as $7.5 billion over the next few years.

Statistics of depth probed by cw measurement of photons in a turbid medium

Photon migration in a turbid medium has been modeled in many different ways. The motivation for such modeling is based on technology that can be used to probe potentially diagnostic optical properties of biological tissue. Surprisingly, one of the more effective models is also one of the simplest. It is based on statistical properties of a nearest-neighbor lattice random walk. Here we develop a theory allowing one to calculate the number of visits by a photon to a given depth, if it is eventually detected at an absorbing surface. This mimics cw measurements made on biological tissue and is directed towards characterizing the depth reached by photons injected at the surface. Our development of the theory uses formalism based on the theory of a continuous-time random walk (CTRW). Formally exact results are given in the Fourier-Laplace domain, which, in turn, are used to generate approximations for parameters of physical interest.

Prevalence and factors of intensive care unit conflicts: the conflicus study.

RATIONALE: Many sources of conflict exist in intensive care units (ICUs). Few studies recorded the prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors for conflicts in ICUs. OBJECTIVES: To record the prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors for conflicts in ICUs. METHODS: One-day cross-sectional survey of ICU clinicians. Data on perceived conflicts in the week before the survey day were obtained from 7,498 ICU staff members (323 ICUs in 24 countries). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Conflicts were perceived by 5,268 (71.6%) respondents. Nurse-physician conflicts were the most common (32.6%), followed by conflicts among nurses (27.3%) and staff-relative conflicts (26.6%). The most common conflict-causing behaviors were personal animosity, mistrust, and communication gaps. During end-of-life care, the main sources of perceived conflict were lack of psychological support, absence of staff meetings, and problems with the decision-making process. Conflicts perceived as severe were reported by 3,974 (53%) respondents. Job strain was significantly associated with perceiving conflicts and with greater severity of perceived conflicts. Multivariate analysis identified 15 factors associated with perceived conflicts, of which 6 were potential targets for future intervention: staff working more than 40 h/wk, more than 15 ICU beds, caring for dying patients or providing pre- and postmortem care within the last week, symptom control not ensured jointly by physicians and nurses, and no routine unit-level meetings. CONCLUSIONS: Over 70% of ICU workers reported perceived conflicts, which were often considered severe and were significantly associated with job strain. Workload, inadequate communication, and end-of-life care emerged as important potential targets for improvement.

Feasibility of non-invasive pressure support ventilation in infants with respiratory failure after extubation: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility and effects of non-invasive pressure support ventilation (NIV) on the breathing pattern in infants developing respiratory failure after extubation. DESIGN: Prospective pilot clinical study; each patient served as their own control. SETTING: A nine-bed paediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary university hospital. PATIENTS: Six patients (median age 5 months, range 0.5-7 months; median weight 4.2 kg, range 3.8-5.1 kg) who developed respiratory failure after extubation. INTERVENTIONS: After a period of spontaneous breathing (SB), children who developed respiratory failure were treated with NIV. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Measurements included clinical dyspnoea score (DS), blood gases and oesophageal pressure recordings, which were analysed for respiratory rate (RR), oesophageal inspiratory pressure swing (dPes) and oesophageal pressure-time product (PTPes). All data were collected during both periods (SB and NIV). When comparing NIV with SB, DS was reduced by 44% (P < 0.001), RR by 32% (P < 0.001), dPes by 45% (P < 0.01) and PTPes by 57% (P < 0.001). A non-significant trend for decrease in PaCO(2) was observed. CONCLUSION: In these infants, non-invasive pressure support ventilation with turbine flow generator induced a reduction of breathing frequency, dPes and PTPes, indicating reduced load of the inspiratory muscles. NIV can be used with some benefits in infants with respiratory failure after extubation.

Decision Support Model for Assessing Archaeological Survey Needs for Bridge Replacement Projects in Iowa, 2006

The Bridges Decision Support Model is a geographic information system (GIS) that assembles existing data on archaeological sites, surveys, and their geologic contexts to assess the risk of bridge replacement projects encountering 13,000- to 150-year-old Native American sites. This project identifies critical variables for assessing prehistoric sites potential, examines the quality of available data about the variables, and applies the data to creating a decision support framework for use by the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) and others. An analysis of previous archaeological surveys indicates that subsurface testing to discover buried sites became increasingly common after 1980, but did not become routine until after the adoption of guidelines recommending such testing, in 1993. Even then, the average depth of testing has been relatively shallow. Alluvial deposits of sufficient age, deposited in depositional environments conducive to human habitation, are considerably thicker than archaeologists have routinely tested.