Planning and conducting focus group research with nurses.

Focus groups are increasingly popular in nursing research. However, proper care and attention are critical to their planning and conduct, particularly those involving nursing staff. This article uses data gleaned from prior research to address the complexities present in clinical settings when conducting focus groups with nurses. Applying their combined experiences of conducting studies with nursing staff, the authors present a data-derived approach to thorough preparation and successful implementation of focus group research, offering a unique contribution to the literature regarding this research strategy.

Environmental characteristics of the cemeteries of Buenos Aires City (Argentina) and infestation levels of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)

Cemeteries with many water-filled containers, flowers, sources of human blood, and shade are favorable urban habitats for the proliferation of Aedes aegypti, a vector of yellow fever and dengue. A total of 22,956 containers was examined in the five cemeteries of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The vector was found in four cemeteries that showed an average infestation level of 5.5% (617 positive out of 11,196 water-filled containers). The four cemeteries positive for Ae. aegypti showed significantly different (p<0.01) infestation levels. Vegetation cover and percentage of infestation were significantly correlated (p<0.01), but neither cemetery area nor number of available containers were significantly related to the proportion of positive vases. Our results suggest that the cemeteries of Buenos Aires represent a gradient of habitat favorableness for this vector species, some of which may act as foci for its proliferation and dispersal.

Comparisons of preoperative three-dimensional planning and surgical reconstruction in primary cementless total hip arthroplasty.

Reconstruction of important parameters such as femoral offset and torsion is inaccurate, when templating is based on plain x-rays. We evaluate intraoperative reproducibility of pre-operative CT-based 3D-templating in a consecutive series of 50 patients undergoing primary cementless THA through an anterior approach. Pre-operative planning was compared to a postoperative CT scan by image fusion. The implant size was correctly predicted in 100% of the stems, 94% of the cups and 88% of the heads (length). The difference between the planned and the postoperative leg length was 0.3 + 2.3 mm. Values for overall offset, femoral anteversion, cup inclination and anteversion were 1.4 mm ± 3.1, 0.6° ± 3.3°, -0.4° ± 5° and 6.9° ± 11.4°, respectively. This planning allows accurate implant size prediction. Stem position and cup inclination are accurately reproducible.

Iowa Women and the Law

Information on the laws that affect Iowa women.

Common law and civil law as pro-market adaptations

We argue that in the development of the Western legal system, cognitive departures are themain determinant of the optimal degree of judicial rule-making. Judicial discretion, seen here as the main distinguishing feature between both legal systems, is introduced in civil law jurisdictions to protect, rather than to limit, freedom of contract against potential judicial backlash. Such protection was unnecessary in common law countries, where free-market relations enjoyed safer judicial ground mainly due to their relatively gradual evolution, their reliance on practitioners as judges, and the earlier development of institutional checks and balances that supported private property rights. In our framework, differences in costs and benefits associated with self-interest and lack of information require a cognitive failure to be active.

Le juge en droit européen et international = The Judge in European and International Law

Le juge et son rôle ont été thématisés abondamment en théorie du droit, mais toujours sous l'angle du droit et du juge internes. On pensera ainsi aux questions des rapports entre justice et politique ou démocratie, ou encore au rôle créateur de droit du juge en cas de lacune juridique et à la légitimité du droit dit prétorien. Pour autant que l'on considère qu'il s'agisse bien d'un juge, le juge international ou européen et sa fonction judiciaire posent des problèmes de même type certes bien que plus aigus, mais aussi des difficultés nouvelles auxquelles la théorie du droit n'a pas encore donné de réponses. Le présent ouvrage tente d'identifier ces difficultés théoriques propres au juge international ou européen et d'apporter des débuts de réponse. Fruit du sixième colloque doctoral de l'Ecole doctorale Fondements du droit européen et international et quatrième volume de la collection du même nom, il réunit des contributions en anglais et en français rédigées par des doctorants des universités suisses romandes et alémaniques et d'universités européennes partenaires, mais aussi d'intervenants externes invités aux différentes sessions du colloque.

The economics of organized crime and optimal law enforcement

This paper extends the optimal law enforcement literature to organized crime.We model the criminal organization as a vertical structure where the principal extracts some rents from the agents through extortion. Depending on the principal's information set, threats may or may not be credible. As long as threats are credible, the principal is able to fully extract rents.In that case, the results obtained by applying standard theory of optimal law enforcement are robust: we argue for a tougher policy. However, when threats are not credible, the principal is not able to fully extract rents and there is violence. Moreover, we show that it is not necessarily true that a tougher law enforcement policy should be chosen when in presence of organized crime.

Driving Retirement Planning and making it work, August 2, 2007

The value of driving We as Americans - and especially as Iowans - value the independence of getting around in our own vehicles and staying connected with our families and communities. The majority of older Iowans enjoy a more active, healthy and longer life than previous generations. Freedom of mobility shapes our quality of life. With aging, driving becomes an increasing concern for older Iowans and their families. How we deal with changes in our driving ability and, eventually, choose when and how to retire from driving, will affect our safety and our quality of life.

A Local DLP-GIS-LP system for geographically decentralized wood procurement planning and decision making

Summary

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

Integrated random processes exhibiting long tails, finite moments, and power-law spectra

A dynamical model based on a continuous addition of colored shot noises is presented. The resulting process is colored and non-Gaussian. A general expression for the characteristic function of the process is obtained, which, after a scaling assumption, takes on a form that is the basis of the results derived in the rest of the paper. One of these is an expansion for the cumulants, which are all finite, subject to mild conditions on the functions defining the process. This is in contrast with the Lévy distribution¿which can be obtained from our model in certain limits¿which has no finite moments. The evaluation of the spectral density and the form of the probability density function in the tails of the distribution shows that the model exhibits a power-law spectrum and long tails in a natural way. A careful analysis of the characteristic function shows that it may be separated into a part representing a Lévy process together with another part representing the deviation of our model from the Lévy process. This