Report of Recommendations to the Iowa Department of Human Services - Central Distribution Center, June 30, 2005

Other Audit Reports - DHS Institutions

Iowa State Center Business Office, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Independent Auditor's Reports, Financial Statements, June 30, 2005 & 2006

State University Audit Report

Care in a birth center according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization

Birth centers are maternal care models that use appropriate technology when providing care to birthing women. This descriptive study aimed to characterize intrapartum care in a freestanding birth center, in light of the practices recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), with 1,079 assisted births from 2006 to 2009 in the Sapopemba Birth Center, São Paulo, Brazil. Results included the use of intermittent auscultation (mean=7 controls); maternal positions during delivery: semi-sitting (82.3%), side-lying (16.0%), other positions (1.7%), oral intake (95.6%); companionship (93.3%); exposure to up to three vaginal examinations (85.4%), shower bathing (84.0%), walking (68.0%), massage (60.1%), exercising with a Swiss ball (51.7%); amniotomy (53.4%), oxytocin use during the first (31.0%) and second stages of labor (25.8%), bath immersion (29.3%) and episiotomy (14.1%). In this birth center, care providers used practices recommended by the WHO, although some practices might have been applied less frequently.

Evaluation of U.S. and European Concrete Pavement Noise Reduction Methods, July 2006

Highway noise is one of the most pressing of the surface characteristics issues facing the concrete paving industry. This is particularly true in urban areas, where not only is there a higher population density near major thoroughfares, but also a greater volume of commuter traffic (Sandberg and Ejsmont 2002; van Keulen 2004). To help address this issue, the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) at Iowa State University (ISU), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA), and other organizations have partnered to conduct a multi-part, seven-year Concrete Pavement Surface Characteristics Project. This document contains the results of Part 1, Task 2, of the ISU-FHWA project, addressing the noise issue by evaluating conventional and innovative concrete pavement noise reduction methods. The first objective of this task was to determine what if any concrete surface textures currently constructed in the United States or Europe were considered quiet, had long-term friction characteristics, could be consistently built, and were cost effective. Any specifications of such concrete textures would be included in this report. The second objective was to determine whether any promising new concrete pavement surfaces to control tire-pavement noise and friction were in the development stage and, if so, what further research was necessary. The final objective was to identify measurement techniques used in the evaluation.

Adair County Sanitary Landfill and Recycling Center, Independent Auditor's Reports, Financial Statements and Required Supplementary Information, Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2006

Other Audit Reports - 28E Organizations

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.

Orientation Center Newsletter, Winter 2004

The Orientation Center newsletter is produced three times a year, and includes articles written by students, staff, and former students. It also contains news about what is happening to other students who have been in the Center.

Orientation Center Newsletter, Summer 2003

The Orientation Center newsletter is produced three times a year, and includes articles written by students, staff, and former students. It also contains news about what is happening to other students who have been in the Center.

Orientation Center Newsletter, Summer 2004

The Orientation Center newsletter is produced three times a year, and includes articles written by students, staff, and former students. It also contains news about what is happening to other students who have been in the Center.

Orientation Center Newsletter, Summer 2005

The Orientation Center newsletter is produced three times a year, and includes articles written by students, staff, and former students. It also contains news about what is happening to other students who have been in the Center.

Orientation Center Newsletter, Summer 2006

The Orientation Center newsletter is produced three times a year, and includes articles written by students, staff, and former students. It also contains news about what is happening to other students who have been in the Center.

Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center, Independent Auditor's Reports, Financial Statement and Required Supplementary Information, Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2006

Other Audit Reports - 28E Organization

Portuguese validation of the Symptom Inventory of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Objective To analyze the reliability and validity of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the instrument for symptom assessment, titled MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - core. Method A cross-sectional study with 268 cancer patients in outpatient treatment, in the municipality of Ijuí, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Results The Cronbach’s alpha for the MDASI general, symptoms and interferences was respectively (0.857), (0.784) and (0.794). The factor analysis showed adequacy of the data (0.792). In total, were identified four factors of the principal components related to the symptoms. Factor I: sleep problems, distress (upset), difficulties in remembering things and sadness. Factor II: dizziness, nausea, lack of appetite and vomiting. Factor III: drowsiness, dry mouth, numbness and tingling. Factor IV: pain, fatigue and shortness of breath. A single factor was revealed in the component of interferences with life (0.780), with prevalence of activity in general (59.7%), work (54.9%) and walking (49.3%). Conclusion The Brazilian version of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory - core showed adequate psychometric properties in the studied population.

In the context of a daycare center: nursing and their representations of child care as an educational act

This study aimed to analyze the social representations in the professionals of technical staff, who work with children at USP daycare centers. Eight professionals of the nursing field underwent a semi-structured interview. The interviews were recorded and transcribed in their entirety and the content of the discourse was subjected to thematic-categorical analysis. The categories were transformed into variables and processed by the software Classification Hiérarchique Classificatoire et Cohésitive (CHIC®) and analyzed by the hierarchical similarity tree. The results indicate that actions to promote health are reported as educational and transformative, in which health care gains new meaning through contextualized conceptions in the field of child education. We conclude that professionals attribute new meanings to their practices in the health care environment of daycare centers as their representations shifts from the logic of the biomedical field to a logic of educational care. In this sense, they perceive themselves as being challenged to establish an interaction with the children in terms of their activities related to the promotion of health and in an educational act.