FY2012 Highway Construction Program Expenditures/Obligations

This report describes the highway construction program, actual expenditures of the program and contractual obligations of the program for FY 2012.

National register of historic places in Iowa,1978.

This is a list of properties in Iowa in 1978 that are on the National Register of Historic Places. These properties are recognized as being historically, architecturally and archaeologically significant through a program of registration, financial aid and incentive, and partial protection from damage or destruction by federally-funded projects.

FY'12 Biodiesel Fuel Revolving Fund Expenditures report

Pursuant to Iowa Code section 307.20, the biodiesel fuel revolving fund (Fund) was created and is to be used to purchase biodiesel fuel for use in the Department of Transportation's vehicles. The act directed that the Fund receive money from the sale of EPAct credits banked by the DOT on the effective date of the act, moneys appropriated by the General Assembly, and any other moneys obtained or accepted by the DOT for deposit in the Fund. This report is of the expenditures made from the Fund during FY 2012.

2013 Legislative Reception Expenditures report

This report discloses the total amount expended on the reception held for all members of the general assembly, hosted by the Iowa DOT.

The Inaccuracy of National Character Stereotypes

Consensual stereotypes of some groups are relatively accurate, whereas others are not. Previous work suggesting that national character stereotypes are inaccurate has been criticized on several grounds. In this article we (a) provide arguments for the validity of assessed national mean trait levels as criteria for evaluating stereotype accuracy and (b) report new data on national character in 26 cultures from descriptions (N = 3323) of the typical male or female adolescent, adult, or old person in each. The average ratings were internally consistent and converged with independent stereotypes of the typical culture member, but were weakly related to objective assessments of personality. We argue that this conclusion is consistent with the broader literature on the inaccuracy of national character stereotypes.

National Identity and the Preference for State Opting-Out in the Basque Country

We argue that preferences for secession are the expression of a common unobserved mechanisms determining national identity. This paper examines the hypothesis of independence of both preferences for secession (independent Euskadi) and Basque national identity in the light of Akerloff and Kranton (2000). We deal with psychological determinants of individuals' national identity formation as well as those that influence the propensity of individuals to support the secession of their perceived ¿imagined community¿ or nation.. We undertake econometric survey analysis for the Basque Country using a bivariate probit model and publicly available data from the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research. Our results provide robust evidence of a common determination of national identity and political preferences for the secession of the Basque Country consistently with Akerloff and Kranton model.

Audit report on America’s Agricultural Industrial Heritage Landscape, Inc., d/b/a Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area and Silos and Smokestacks Natural Heritage Area Foundation in Waterloo, Iowa for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011

Audit report on America’s Agricultural Industrial Heritage Landscape, Inc., d/b/a Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area and Silos and Smokestacks Natural Heritage Area Foundation in Waterloo, Iowa for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011

First consumption ever of multiple substances: applying an expert-based taxonomy to a Swiss national sample of adolescents.

The use of multiple legal and illegal substances by adolescents is a growing concern in all countries, but since no consensus about a taxonomy did emerge yet, it is difficult to understand the different patterns of consumption and to implement tailored prevention and treatment programs directed towards specific subgroups of the adolescent population. Using data from a Swiss survey on adolescent health, we analyzed the age at which ten legal and illegal substances were consumed for the first time ever by applying a method combining the strength of both automatic clustering and use of substance experts. Results were then compared to 30 socio-economic factors to establish the usefulness of and to validate our taxonomy. We also analyzed the succession of substance first use for each group. The final taxonomy consists of eight groups ranging from non-consumers to heavy drug addicts. All but four socio-economic factors were significantly associated with the taxonomy, the strongest associations being observed with health, behavior, and sexuality factors. Numerous factors influence adolescents in their decision to first try substances or to use them on a regular basis, and no factor alone can be considered as an absolute marker of problematic behavior regarding substance use. Different processes of experimentation with substances are associated with different behaviors, therefore focusing on only one substance or only one factor is not efficient. Prevention and treatment programs can then be tailored to address specific issues related to different youth subgroups.

Les stratégies politiques et foncières des grands propriétaires fonciers au niveau national : étude comparée

Ce cahier résume les résultats d'analyses des stratégies politiques et foncières des grands propriétaires fonciers suisses et les compare au niveau national. Les grands propriétaires fonciers sont les cantons et les communes, les bourgeoisies, les Chemins de fer fédéraux, Armasuisse, Pro Natura, les caisses de pension, les sociétés immobilières, fonds et fondations de placement, les entreprises de commerce de détail ainsi que les banques et assurances. Les principaux enseignements tirés de la comparaison des stratégies politiques et foncières de ces propriétaires concernent la transformation des rapports à la propriété, se manifestant, entre autres, dans une financiarisation du secteur foncier et immobilier, une « titrisation », une fragmentation de la propriété, une montée en puissance des acteurs intermédiaires, un allongement de la chaîne décisionnelle, une anonymisation de la propriété, une dilution des responsabilités ainsi qu'une montée en puissance des ratings. Die vorliegende Publikation enthält die Zusammenfassung von Analysen der Strategien ausgewähltter grosser Grundeigentümer unter den Gesichtswinkel ihrer Verhaltensweisen als eigentümer und ihrer politischen Strategien auf der Ebene der Raumplanung. Diese Strategien werden auf gesamtschweizerischer Ebene miteinander verglichen. Die einbezogenen Grundeigentümer sind die Kantone und Gemeinden, die Burgergemeinden, die Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen, Armasuisse, ProNatura, die Pensionskassen, die Immobiliengesellschaften, Immobilienfonds und Immobilienstiftungen, Detailhandelsunternehmungen sowie Banken und Versicherungen. Die hauptsächlichsten Ergebnisse der vergleichenden Analyse betreffen die veränderten Organisationsstrukturen und die Transformation der Strategien der Akteure bezüglich der Ausübung ihrer Eigentumsrechte und ihrer Interventionen auf der Ebene der staatlichen Raum planung. Diese finden ihren Ausdruck insbesondere in Gestalt einer zunehmenden Finanzialisierung des Immobiliensektors, einer ,,Titrisierung", einer Fragmentierung, einer zunehmenden Bedeutungintermediärer Akteure oder einer Verlängerung der Entscheidungsketten. Feststellen lässtsich ebenfalls eine Anonymisierung des Grundeigentums, eine zunehmende Verwischung der Verantwortlichkeiten und ein beachtlicher Bedeutungsgewinn des ratings.

Debris flow modeling for susceptibility mapping at regional to national scale in Norway

Debris flows and related landslide processes occur in many regions all over Norway and pose a significant hazard to inhabited areas. Within the framework of the development of a national debris flows susceptibility map, we are working on a modeling approach suitable for Norway with a nationwide coverage. The discrimination of source areas is based on an index approach, which includes topographic parameters and hydrological settings. For the runout modeling, we use the Flow-R model (IGAR, University of Lausanne), which is based on combined probabilistic and energetic algorithms for the assessment of the spreading of the flow and maximum runout distances. First results for different test areas have shown that runout distances can be modeled reliably. For the selection of source areas, however, additional factors have to be considered, such as the lithological and quaternary geological setting, in order to accommodate the strong variation in debris flow activity in the different geological, geomorphological and climate regions of Norway.

City of Oakville public assistance grants independent auditor’s reports, schedule of expenditures of federal awards, schedule of findings and questioned costs, year ended june 30, 2009.

Audit report on the City of Oakville, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2009.

Risk adjustment in Switzerland

In Switzerland the new law on Health Insurance, effective since 1996, introduced pro competitive changes in the market of sickness funds. The legislator expected high mobility between sickness funds of both healthy and sick insured as open enrolment was introduced with the new law. That is why the risk adjustment scheme, that was already introduced 1993, was limited until 2005. However, consumer mobility remained low and risk selection strategies are still profitable, since risk-adjustment is based only on demographic variables. This paper describes risk adjustment, consumer mobility, risk selection activities of sickness funds and the impact of imperfect risk adjustment on the development of HMO and PPO models. The paper concludes with a description of the current political and scientific discussion in Switzerland.