News, I-74 Iowa-Illinois Corridor Study, Issue 3, Fall 2003

Newsletter updating the corridor study of the Mississippi Bridge project for the states of Iowa and Illinois.

I-35 Corridor Trade Study Newsletter, Winter 1998

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct The I-35 Trade Corridor Study.

I-35 Corridor Trade Study - Final Executive Summary, 2005

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct a study of Interstate Highway 35 (I-35) from Laredo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota. The purpose of the study was to assess the need for improved local, intrastate, interstate, and international service on I-35 and to clearly define a general feasible improvement plan to address those needs

I-35 Corridor Trade Study Newsletter, Fall 1999

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct The I-35 Trade Corridor Study.

I-35 Corridor Trade Study Newsletter, Spring 1999

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct The I-35 Trade Corridor Study.

I-35 Corridor Trade Study Newsletter, Fall 1998

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct The I-35 Trade Corridor Study.

I-35 Corridor Trade Study Newsletter, Spring 1998

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)and the Departments of Transportation in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota combined their efforts to conduct The I-35 Trade Corridor Study.

Hakunilan Kultsa/Urban II hanke : pohdintaa yhteisöteatterin merkityksestä alueelle

This thesis analyses what local community theatre activity means to an area and its residents, and whether this kind of activity is meaningful. The objective was to explore whether and how community art can help urban areas to move in the direction of sustainable development: whether art can be part of regional policy development work. Hakunilan Kultsa was founded in 2003. It is an Urban II, European Union project and part of the Community Iniative Programme 2001-2006, financed by the EU. Hakunilan Kultsa is also a co-operation between Vantaa city council's culture and youth services. The project encourages Hakunila residents of different ages to take part in versatile art and cultural intrests in the Hakunila youth centre. People have the opportunity to participate in theatre, expression, arts, dance, performing arts and writing groups. One of the main aims is to found a sustainable community theatre in the area. The thesis examines what effects Hakunilan Kultsa has had so far. Inquiry form and thematical interviews have been used as research methods. Interviews and questionnaires were gathered between Autumn 2004 and Spring 2005. The whole process lasted from Spring 2004 until Spring 2006. The author also made participatory observations during the research process which in turn affected the conclusions. The thesis also deals with associated topics such as urban programmes, sustainable development, Hakunila as a suburban area, resident stimulation, and community thetare work. Hakunilan Kultsa has proved its importance. Based on the enquiries and interviews, the project has effectively presented the possibility for art forms to become hobbies. There is no cultural, age or economical discrimination. The easily accessible site and the low threshold principle make it easy for people to participate. The community theatre has improved the area's public image, increased participation and initiative, and given a voice to the community.

News, I-74 Iowa-Illinois Corridor Study, Issue 5, Spring 2006

Newsletter updating the corridor study of the Mississippi Bridge project for the states of Iowa and Illinois.

Great River Regional Waste Authority, Auditor of State's Report, For the Period July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003, and Selected Activity through June 30, 2005

Other Audit Reports

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%.

Starting a Family at Your Parent's House: Multigenerational Households and Below Replacement Fertility in urban Bulgaria

In societies with strong multigenerational links, economic uncertainty results in choosing to stay with one child, sometimes in association with postponement of first births (i.e. Italy) and sometimes in early childbearing (i.e. Bulgaria). The interaction between intergenerational family practices in lowest-low fertility contexts is likely to play a role on differences timing to parenthood. In this paper, we focus on the phenomenon of women who have one child in their early twenties in Bulgaria and do not intend to have a second child. We argue that the key to this process is the persistence of extended multigenerational households in the Bulgarian context and their effect on young couples' fertility decision making. We use semi-structured interview data from the project Fertility Choices in Central and Eastern Europe and ethnographic fieldnotes. The interviews were collected from a sample of 22 couples resident in Sofia and representing different permutations of educational level, marital status and number of children (0 or 1). The four-year ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in both rural and urban Bulgaria between 1997 and 2009. Results suggest that as long as the economic situation remains dire, and young Bulgarians hopes for the future remain cynical, multigenerational households represent the accepted practice of entering into parenthood for young families.

Changing Diets in China’s Cities: Empirical Fact or Urban Legend, November 2006

China’s economic reforms, which began in 1978, resulted in remarkable income growth, and urban Chinese consumers have responded by dramatically increasing their consumption of meat, other livestock products, and fruits and by decreasing consumption of grain-based foods. Economic prosperity, a growing openness to international markets, and domestic policy reforms have changed the food marketing environment for Chinese consumers and may have contributed to shifts in consumer preferences. The objective of this paper is to uncover evidence of structural change in food consumption among urban residents in China. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to test for structural change in aggregate household data from 1981 to 2004. The tests provided a reasonably clear picture of changing food consumption over the study period.

Audit report on the Great River Regional Waste Authority for the years ended June 30, 2005 and 2006

Audit report on the Great River Regional Waste Authority for the years ended June 30, 2005 and 2006.