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The archaeological record varies with the fluvial style and sedimentation of a river, thus controlling the location, preservation, and recognition of archaeological sites. This project identifies archaeological site patterning and preservation along a fluvial system in Iowa that has been relatively stable since the last glaciation. The Upper Des Moines River in Iowa formed approximately 12,500 yr. cal BP as an englacial channel routing glacial meltwater south along the Des Moines Lobe. During the last glacial retreat, the channel incised forming what is now called the High Terrace (TH). Early post-glacial occupations in Iowa would have had access to this the high terrace and uplands. Thus, the Paleoindian and early to middle Archaic site distributions along the Upper Des Moines River are found in upland and upper terrace locations. The intermediate terrace (TI) formed between 4000 and 1000 yr. cal BP and represents the elevation of the river flood plain during this period. Late Archaic people had access to this surface as well as the TH and uplands. By 1000 yr. cal BP, the Upper Des Moines River had eroded down to bedrock and established a floodplain at the level of the lower terrace. Subsequent erosion produced the modern channel configuration with an established series of dated terraces (High Terrace (TH), Intermediate Terrace (TI), and Low Terrace (TL)). The Woodland period peoples would have had access to the current/modern fluvial landscape. To assess site locations strategies of populations that inhabited the Upper Des Moines River valley in the Holocene, 721 archaeological sites were examined and classified using site reports and artifacts as Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, Historic and Unknown. The sites were then mapped and associated with geomorphic features in the valley. As expected, Paleoindian sites and Early to Middle Archaic sites were all located on the upper terrace and uplands because the intermediate and lower terraces had not yet formed. Late Archaic people had access to the floodplain that formed intermediate terrace as well as the uplands and upper terrace. Woodland period sites occurred on high (upland and TH), intermediate (TI), and low (TL and floodplain) elevation landforms along the river. The study demonstrated there was a preference for burials/ceremonial sites being placed at higher elevations (TI and higher) and habitation sites being placed at lower elevations (TL and current floodplain) near the main river channel.

This dissertation explores the boundaries of industrial unionism within and outside of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in the struggle over what direction the American labor movement would take in the Progressive Era. The experiences of Iowa button worker and labor activist Pearl McGill in two nationally significant strikes between 1911 and 1912 enable us to see more clearly the nuances and ambiguities of these boundaries as industrial workers sought to build more inclusive unions. McGill’s advocacy for both the AFL-affiliated and industrially organized button workers in Iowa and the campaign of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, assisted by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), to organize on an industrial basis, shine a light on the conundrum faced by AFL leaders. The AFL and its craft union affiliates held fast to an anachronistic approach to organizing in an environment of rapid and technologically transformative industrialization in which the labor of women and ethnic and racial minorities was critical. The AFL’s early federal labor unions, for which Iowa button workers provide a case study, exemplify the strength of the impulse for unionization among mass production workers and show how AFL leaders fostered an institutional response to the growing demand for industrial unions while ensuring that craft unionists continued to dominate the AFL. The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) walked a fine, and sometimes precarious, line between its loyalty to the AFL and the demand of working women—notably in the garment and textile industries—for new, inclusive forms of organization. The strikes of women button workers and Lawrence textile workers illustrate the predicament faced by WTUL leaders. Pearl McGill’s short but prominent career as a youthful leader of the Muscatine button workers, a spokesperson for the WTUL, an advocate for women strikers, and a prominent activist with the IWW in Lawrence illuminates these tensions and the appeal of industrial unionism for young working women. This study elevates the importance of Progressive Era federal labor unions as a bridge connecting the local assemblies of the Knights of Labor of the 1880s to the industrial unions that would emerge in the 1930s. It examines the institutional history of the AFL and its bitter struggle with the Knights and establishes the link between the local assemblies of the Knights and the first generation of AFL-affiliated federal labor unions that provided a precedent for later industrial unions. The arc of industrial unionism in the United States can thus be seen as a long, interconnected movement rooted in the principles of general unionism embodied by the Knights and animated by the vital impulse for industrial unionism carried forward by industrially-organized workers of which Iowa button workers provide an important example.

Objective: To determine risk factors for cavitated caries incidence and extent of cavitated caries among adolescents. Methods: Three hundred and three Iowa Fluoride Study (IFS) subjects met inclusion criteria for interval between dental examination and the responses from the IFS (ages 13.5 to 17.0) and the Block Kids Food Frequency (ages 13.0 to 17.0) questionnaires, respectively. The analyses focused on the outcome variables of net cavitated caries incidence and net cavitated caries increment counts, respectively. The independent IFS questionnaire variables related to demographics, fluorides, oral hygiene, beverage intakes, dental visits, sealants and previous caries incidence variables, respectively, whereas, Block's questionnaire variables related to intakes of solid foods and beverages, respectively. Two sets of analyses, logistic and negative binomial regression analyses, were conducted to assess the associations between risk factors and net cavitated caries incidence and increment counts from 13 to 17, respectively. Results: In multivariable logistic regression analyses, significant (p<0.05) negative associations were found between age 13 to 17 net cavitated caries incidence and greater frequency of consumption of vegetables, greater brushing frequency and greater frequency of sugar-free beverage consumption. Additionally, significant (p<0.05) positive associations were found between age 13 to 17 net cavitated caries incidence and both net cavitated caries incidence from 9 to 13 and frequency of consumption of solid-foods in the combined category of presumed moderate cariogenicity. The significant interaction effect showed that the effect of the presence/ absence of sealants varied for girls vs. boys. In multivariable negative binomial analyses assessing the association between net cavitated caries increment count from 13 to 17 and risk factors, significant (p<0.05) positive associations were found with greater intake of foods predominant in starch, presence of sealants, greater baseline age, cavitated caries increment count from 9 to 13, and greater frequency of consumption of foods predominant in added sugar, respectively. Significant (p<0.05) negative associations were found between net cavitated caries incidence and greater frequency of consumption of foods predominant in fiber and natural sugar and greater daily fluoride intake from water. However, daily fluoride intake from water was not statistically significant with the significant interaction effect included between baseline age and net cavitated caries increment count from 9 to 13 (dichotomized as Y/N). Conclusion: Presence of sealants, frequency of consumption of vegetables and previous cavitated caries incidence from 9 to 13 were associated with outcomes of incidence and extent of cavitated caries observed among IFS adolescents. The differences in findings for risk factors for incidence and extent of cavitated caries are due in part to the nature of the outcome variables (count vs. dichotomous), emphasizing the need to consider both outcomes in future studies of adolescent caries.

A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was developed for the Iowa-Cedar River Basin (ICRB), a 32,660 km2 watershed dominated by agricultural land cover (∼70%) to simulate hydrology and water quality for the prediction of stream discharge, nitrate loads, and nitrate concentration under climate and land use change scenarios. Iowa exports as much as 20% of the nitrogen entering the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi, contributing to Gulf hypoxia as well as local threats to water quality in the ICRB. The model utilized a combined autocalibration and sensitivity procedure incorporating Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI) and generalized additive models. This procedure resulted in Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) goodness-of-fit statistics that met literature guidelines for monthly mean stream discharge (NSE≥0.60) and daily nitrate load (NSE≥0.50). Artificial neural networks coupled with SWAT stream discharges aided in the simulation of daily mean nitrate concentrations that met the literature guideline (NSE≥0.50). The North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) provided an ensemble of 11 climate change scenarios. NARCCAP is a multi-institutional effort to simulate climate change at the mesoscale by downscaling global circulation models (GCM) with regional climate models (RCM). The resulting GCM-RCM produced synthetic precipitation and temperature time-series that drove the SWAT simulations and scenarios. The land use scenarios were a collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using a rule-based GIS method to generate scenarios that (1) maximized agricultural productivity, (2) improved water quality and reduced flooding, and (3) enhanced local biodiversity. The SWAT simulations and ensemble climate change scenarios resulted in a warmer and wetter climate with greater and more extreme discharge in all seasons except summer where the models indicate a somewhat higher probability of extreme low flows (p-value<0.05). The land use scenarios for SWAT showed that nitrate load and discharge positively and linearly scale with percent of agricultural land area (p-value<0.05).

According to The Joint Commission (TJC), 98 unexpected and unacceptable events related to alarm fatigue were reported in United States hospitals between January 2009 and June 2012. There were 80 deaths, 13 permanent loss of function, and 5 extended care stays that occurred during this time period. The problem identified in this quality improvement (QI) initiative was the TJC report that nursing staff in the US was experiencing alarm fatigue due to the overstimulation of senses from continuous beeping from alarms on the unit. Framed within the Iowa model of evidence-based practice to promote quality care, the purpose of the project was to develop a patient care alarm fatigue initiative as mandated by TJC including a policy and procedure for managing alarm fatigue, a curriculum plan for educating the nursing staff on alarm fatigue, and a survey on nurse attitudes toward alarm fatigue to be administered at the beginning of the education. The developed policy and procedure was approved by the committee with the recommendation to revise the policy to involve all ancillary staff in direct contact with clinical alarms. The curriculum objectives were evaluated by 2 content experts using a 4 item met/not met response format. Findings showed that all objectives were met. The content of the nurse survey was reviewed by the experts using a 3 item Likert scale and all the items were deemed relevant. Finally, team members (n = 9) completed a summative evaluation of the project using an 8 item, 5-option Likert scale. All were in agreement that the project met its intent. The implementation of this project after graduation has the potential to bring about social change by increasing patient safety, patient well being and reducing healthcare costs.

Breast milk is the optimal source of nourishment for babies, providing positive nutritional and psychosocial benefits for infants' growth and development. Rates for initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months in the United States are well below the target rates for the Healthy People 2020 Maternal, Infant, and Children's Health objectives. Using Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this project was to ascertain how knowledge and attitudes influenced a mother's intent to breastfeed during her hospital stay and the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding continuing after discharge. A convenience sample of 68 postpartum mothers was recruited from women who delivered a viable infant between January and March 2017 at a large urban teaching hospital. Mothers completed the 17-question 5-point Likert scale instrument, the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale, and demographic information before discharge from the hospital. Mothers who planned to breastfeed and mothers who did not plan to breastfeed scored above the midpoint on the scale; however, women who intended to breastfeed after discharge scored significantly higher (p < .001). Demographic variables were not significant with the exception of education level. Women with higher education levels scored higher on the scale and were more likely to plan to breastfeed after discharge than women with lower levels of education. Findings may promote social change through development and implementation of tailored nursing interventions, such as community prenatal education and clinical reinforcement, which will support initiation of breastfeeding in the hospital setting and exclusivity of breastfeeding upon discharge.

Background : Atrazine is an agricultural herbicide used extensively in corn production worldwide. Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor and has been linked to many other deleterious health outcomes. Exposure assessment studies have been carried out in Iowa among farm and non-farm populations. However, commercial pesticide applicators have been left out of those studies. Atrazine is also used in developing countries in grain production. In developing countries there is great concern about acute pesticide poisonings, but chronic exposure to less acutely toxic pesticides has not been studied extensively. This study assessed the in-home contamination of atrazine among commercial pesticide applicators in Iowa and then quantitatively analyzed these results with results from similar studies. Occupational inhalation exposure to atrazine was also assessed in Honduras. Methods : Dust samples were taken from 29 commercial pesticide applicator households in four different locations. This sampling was done once during the atrazine application season and again six months later during winter months to assess atrazine persistence. Occupational and household characteristics were analyzed for associations with atrazine dust levels. Data from two previous studies that analyzed farm and non-farm household dust samples for atrazine were combined with data from the commercial applicator's homes. This new and larger dataset was analyzed to identify which population has the greatest risk for take-home atrazine exposure and what determinants were associated with in-home atrazine dust levels. Lastly, corn production practices in Honduras were evaluated and personal air samples were taken from pesticide applicators during atrazine application to assess inhalation exposure. Results : The first study found that atrazine levels persist into the winter months in the homes of commercial applicators. Atrazine handling (days, pounds, and acres sprayed) were all positively associated with in-home atrazine levels. Commercial applicators that change their shoes inside had higher atrazine levels. More frequent floor cleaning was associated with lower atrazine levels. The second study identified commercial applicators' homes as the most contaminated compared with farmers who apply atrazine to their own land, farmers who hire out atrazine application, and non-farm homes. Farmers that apply their own atrazine also had significantly higher atrazine levels in their homes. The association between atrazine handling and household atrazine levels was highly significant in this study (p < 0.001). In Honduras, atrazine is applied to corn fields with tractor/boom equipment and manual backpack sprayers. Despite applying about one-fifteenth the amount of atrazine, backpack sprayers are exposed to nearly equal amounts of atrazine via inhalation exposure and likely have greater exposure via the dermal route. Among backpack sprayers, which type of spray nozzle used is associated with inhalation exposure. Among tractor/boom applicators, tractor drivers have much lower inhalation exposure than workers who operate and observe the boom. Conclusions : The amount of atrazine handled is the most important determinant for predicting in-home atrazine levels in Iowa. Ubiquitous atrazine contamination and its distribution within homes and among household type provide strong evidence for the take-home pathway. While some improvements have been made in Honduras regarding pesticide application, poor farm workers and small farmers still use antiquated pesticide application techniques which leads to a higher risk of inhalation and dermal exposure.

Over the last two decades, dual-polarimetric weather radar has proven to be a valuable instrument providing critical precipitation information through remote sensing of the atmosphere. Modern weather radar systems operate with high sampling rates and long dwell times on targets. Often only limited target information is desired, leading to a pertinent question: could lesser samples have been acquired in the first place? Recently, a revolutionary sampling paradigm – compressed sensing (CS) – has emerged, which asserts that it is possible to recover signals from fewer samples or measurements than traditional methods require without degrading the accuracy of target information. CS methods have recently been applied to point target radars and imaging radars, resulting in hardware simplification advantages, enhanced resolution, and reduction in data processing overheads. But CS applications for volumetric radar targets such as precipitation remain relatively unexamined. This research investigates the potential applications of CS to radar remote sensing of precipitation. In general, weather echoes may not be sparse in space-time or frequency domain. Therefore, CS techniques developed for point targets, such as in aircraft surveillance radar, are not directly applicable to weather radars. However, precipitation samples are highly correlated both spatially and temporally. We, therefore, adopt latest advances in matrix completion algorithms to demonstrate the sparse sensing of weather echoes. Several extensions of this approach are then considered to develop a more general CS-based weather radar processing algorithms in presence of noise, ground clutter and dual-polarimetric data. Finally, a super-resolution approach is presented for the spectral recovery of an undersampled signal when certain frequency information is known.

This thesis compared tooth widths, arch widths, and arch lengths; their differences between males and females, and changes from early mixed dentitions to adult dentitions. Comparing subjects who were known to have Angle Class I normal occlusion in their permanent dentitions to subjects who were known to be Class I or Class II crowded malocclusions in their permanent dentitions. These comparisons can only be achieved utilizing data from a longitudinal study, such as the Iowa Growth Study. Dental casts in the early mixed dentition (average age of 8.85 years) and in the adult dentition (average age 15.45 years) taken from subjects who did not receive orthodontic treatment during or in the dates prior to data collection were measured for this study. The casts utilized were from the Iowa Growth Study; all of the subjects were of European descent. The longitudinal sample of casts in the Iowa Growth study were made from white dental stone poured into alginate impressions from 1946 until 1960. The objectives of this study were to compare individual tooth widths, mean sum tooth widths, arch widths, arch length segments, and arch perimeters of Class I Normal (CIN) and Class I and II crowded dentitions (CD) in the early mixed (MD) and permanent (PD) dentitions to explore new methods of predicting crowding. The goal was to evaluate the significance of differences between MD and PD for tooth widths, arch lengths, and arch widths in both arches of CIN and CD subjects to determine values that may be useful for MD space analysis. Thirty males and thirty females from the Iowa Growth Study with CIN and CD occlusions were selected from the longitudinal study. Casts of MD and PD subjects were double measured with digital calipers by both the primary and secondary investigators. The average of each investigator's two measurements were used to determine measurement error. All other statistical analysis was based on the mean measurements taken by CPW. Descriptive statistics were computed. The normal non-crowded and crowded samples were compared with two-sample t-test, and changes from MD to PD with paired-sample t-test. Examiner measurement errors were tested with intra-class correlation coefficients. When the mean sums of MD and PD tooth widths were compared, using data from all 60 subjects, the CD group had a significantly greater mean sum of tooth widths than the CIN group. In both genders, crowded dentitions had significantly greater mean sum of tooth widths than CIN's for both the maxilla and mandible in MD and PD. When the mean sums of the arch lengths [Perimeters] were compared using data from all 60 subjects, the arch perimeters of the CD and CIN samples did not differ. It was concluded that total arch lengths Perimeters] were not significant indicators for crowding. Gender comparisons: Within the CIN group, males had numerically larger tooth width sums and arch length sums than females. The sum of maxillary and mandibular tooth widths for CIN's and CD (both males and females) mandibular tooth widths for CIN's and CD (both males and females pooled together and sexes separately. In the MD stage the mean sum of maxillary and mandibular arch lengths in the MD were significantly greater than those in the PD, because arch perimeters decrease during the transition from mixed to permanent dentitions. In summary, the results of this research thesis study showed that the sum of tooth widths in both arches had a significant association with dental crowding. In contrast, the sum of arch lengths [perimeter in both arches] did not differ between the normal and crowded samples. Additional analysis of the measurements taken in this thesis research project, the individual arch length segments, especially the canine and posterior arch length segments in the right and left sides of the lower arch in the mixed dentition casts, and their relation to the sum of the widths of the lower permanent canines and premolars in the normal and crowded malocclusions may give us important information about the development of crowded malocclusions.