Agency Fact Sheet, Department of Information Technology, FY2002

This document produced by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/department on a single sheet of paper. The facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave and benefits information and affirmative action data.

Film-free laser forward printing of transparent and weakly absorbing liquids

A laser-based technique for printing transparent and weakly absorbing liquids is developed. Its principle of operation relies in the tight focusing of short laser pulses inside the liquid and close to its free surface, in such a way that the laser radiation is absorbed in a tiny volume around the beam waist, with practically no absorption in any other location along the beam path. If the absorbed energy overcomes the optical breakdown threshold, a cavitation bubble is generated, and its expansion results in the propulsion of a small fraction of liquid which can be collected on a substrate, leading to the printing of a microdroplet for each laser pulse. The technique does not require the preparation of the liquid in thin film form, and its forward mode of operation imposes no restriction concerning the optical properties of the substrate. These characteristics make it well suited for printing a wide variety of materials of interest in diverse applications. We demonstrate that the film-free laser forward printing technique is capable of printing microdroplets with good resolution, reproducibility and control, and analyze the influence of the main process parameter, laser pulse energy. The mechanisms of liquid printing are also investigated: time-resolved imaging provides a clear picture of the dynamics of liquid transfer which allows understanding the main features observed in the printed droplets.

Agency Fact Sheet, Department of Information Technology, FY2003

This document produced by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/department on a single sheet of paper. The facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave and benefits information and affirmative action data.

3D reconstruction and comparison of shapes of DNA minicircles observed by cryo-electron microscopy.

We use cryo-electron microscopy to compare 3D shapes of 158 bp long DNA minicircles that differ only in the sequence within an 18 bp block containing either a TATA box or a catabolite activator protein binding site. We present a sorting algorithm that correlates the reconstructed shapes and groups them into distinct categories. We conclude that the presence of the TATA box sequence, which is believed to be easily bent, does not significantly affect the observed shapes.

Bi-planar 2D-to-3D registration in Fourier domain for stereoscopic X-ray motion tracking

In this paper we present a new method to track bonemovements in stereoscopic X-ray image series of the kneejoint. The method is based on two different X-ray imagesets: a rotational series of acquisitions of the stillsubject knee that will allow the tomographicreconstruction of the three-dimensional volume (model),and a stereoscopic image series of orthogonal projectionsas the subject performs movements. Tracking the movementsof bones throughout the stereoscopic image series meansto determine, for each frame, the best pose of everymoving element (bone) previously identified in the 3Dreconstructed model. The quality of a pose is reflectedin the similarity between its simulated projections andthe actual radiographs. We use direct Fourierreconstruction to approximate the three-dimensionalvolume of the knee joint. Then, to avoid the expensivecomputation of digitally rendered radiographs (DRR) forpose recovery, we reformulate the tracking problem in theFourier domain. Under the hypothesis of parallel X-raybeams, we use the central-slice-projection theorem toreplace the heavy 2D-to-3D registration of projections inthe signal domain by efficient slice-to-volumeregistration in the Fourier domain. Focusing onrotational movements, the translation-relevant phaseinformation can be discarded and we only consider scalarFourier amplitudes. The core of our motion trackingalgorithm can be implemented as a classical frame-wiseslice-to-volume registration task. Preliminary results onboth synthetic and real images confirm the validity ofour approach.

Report on a review of selected application controls over the Iowa State University of Science and Technology Facilities Planning and Management - Facilities Administrative Management Information System for the period of April 18, 2011 through May 16, 2011

Report on a review of selected application controls over the Iowa State University of Science and Technology Facilities Planning and Management - Facilities Administrative Management Information System for the period of April 18, 2011 through May 16, 2011

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa, for the year ended June 30, 2011

Report on Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa, for the year ended June 30, 2011

The oxygen concentrator : an appropriate technology for treating hypoxaemic children in developing countries

RÉSUMÉ L'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS) recommande d'administrer l'oxygène par concentrateurs dans les pays en voie de développement (PVD), les cylindres posant des problèmes logistiques et financiers trop importants. Cette technologie a été proposée aux enfants d'un hôpital sénégalais (Ndioum) qui présentaient les critères d'oxygénation de l'OMS. Les bénéfices cliniques et financiers ont été majeurs. En revanche, les connaissances des soignants sur les diverses techniques d'administration d'oxygène ainsi que les prestations du service de maintenance étaient insuffisantes. L'implantation de concentrateurs doit être encouragée dans les PVD, mais doit respecter une stratégie englobant enseignement, maintenance et suivi de l'opération. Diverses actions correctrices ont été entreprises à Ndioum où plusieurs concentrateurs fonctionnent désormais régulièrement. Summary: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends supplying oxygen in developing countries by concentra¬tors because cylinders pose considerable logistic and financial problems. This technology was employed to treat children in a hospital in Ndioum, Senegal, who met the WHO oxygenation criteria. There were clear clinical and financial benefits, but neither the nurses' knowledge of the various techniques of oxygen supply nor the maintenance service were satisfactory. The use of concentra¬tors should be encouraged in developing countries. A strategy including technical training, maintenance and monitoring should be adopted. Corrective actions were undertaken in Ndioum, and several concentrators are now being used on a regular basis.

Defining the level of evidence for technology adoption in the localized prostate cancer pathway.

New technologies in prostate cancer are attempting to change the current prostate cancer pathway by aiming to reduce harms while maintaining the benefits associated with screening, diagnosis, and treatment. In this article, we discuss the optimal evaluation that new technologies should undergo to provide level 1 evidence typically required to change the practice. With this in mind, we focus on feasible and pragmatic trials that could be delivered in a timely fashion by many centers while retaining primary outcomes that focus on clinically meaningful outcomes.