Informal Influences in the Process of IDIQ Contractor Selection for Task Award

The selection of a contractor for task award using the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract often involves dynamics and relationships that are difficult to understand. There are unanswered questions that relate to how government agents define best value to the government. The selection decisions often differ between government agents. The government streamlined the acquisition process by creating the multiple award IDIQ contract. Government agents are relied upon to make sound business judgments in determining which contractor represents the best value to the government. Informal influences can impact the determination of the final selection of a contractor. This thesis attempts to create a better conceptual framework for the informal influences that affect the dynamic selection process of contractors for task award. The research consisted of interviews with members of government agencies that routinely make IDIQ contract task awards. Results indicate that informal, or soft, factors play a large role in determining which contractor will be awarded a task. The most influential factors that affect task award are identified and discussed in depth. The research determined that some marketing processes can be totally ineffective or even counterproductive at times. The results also show that formal rating systems are often replaced by informal peer networks. Existing research on selection processes in the private sector proved comparable to processes used at the government agencies participating in this study

Courting Apocalypse: Creating a Zombie-Themed Evidence-Based Medicine Game

In 2015, two librarians at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa turned their dreams into a reality and secured funding to build a zombie-themed evidence-based medicine game. The game features a “choose your own adventure” style that takes students through a scenario where a disease outbreak is taking place and a resident is asked to use evidence-based medicine skills to select a screening and diagnostic tool to use on potentially infected patients. Feedback on the game has been positive, and future plans include building additional modules on therapy, harm, and prognosis

Hearing and dementia

Hearing deficits associated with cognitive impairment have attracted much recent interest, motivated by emerging evidence that impaired hearing is a risk factor for cognitive decline. However, dementia and hearing impairment present immense challenges in their own right, and their intersection in the auditory brain remains poorly understood and difficult to assess. Here, we outline a clinically oriented, symptom-based approach to the assessment of hearing in dementias, informed by recent progress in the clinical auditory neuroscience of these diseases. We consider the significance and interpretation of hearing loss and symptoms that point to a disorder of auditory cognition in patients with dementia. We identify key auditory characteristics of some important dementias and conclude with a bedside approach to assessing and managing auditory dysfunction in dementia

China : intraglobal positioning for a prevailing superpower / by Jason E. Blevins.

In order to determine the ability of the People's Republic of China to become an international superpower, three elements must be analyzed and compared to the current superpower, the United States, and a former superpower, modern Russia. First, using the gross domestic product of China and the current oil consumption rate to determine technology level, analysis demonstrates that China is an economically stable in comparison to the United States and Russia. Second, analysis of China's political system reveals that China is politically stable and meets overall criterion for superpower status. Finally, the military of China reveals an overall stability and meets the third overall criterion, thus meeting all three criterions for becoming an international superpower.Thesis (B.?.)"A Senior Political Science Thesis (Pols 404)."Department of Political Scienc