Veterans' Education

Darys J. Kriegel

The United States places an emphasis on equality and mobility to pursue the American dream. Many Americans believe they have access to resources that give everyone a chance at upward mobility. The current job market places a high emphasis on college-level education, and any potential barrier to it is worth studying. Veterans have received little attention in the research on educational attainment, and face different challenges than their civilian counterparts. Veterans are socialized into a different lifestyle with different norms, than asked to reintegrate after their service. My research compares educational achievement of the male veteran and civilian population.

Metabolic Consequences of Deoxycorticosterone Acetate (DOCA)-Salt in Mice

Beth A. Buehrer

Chronic peripheral delivery of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) combined with a high-sodium diet is a classic model of low-renin hypertension. DOCA salt has previously been demonstrated to be dependent upon angiotensinergic activity in the brain. We report that male C57BL/6J mice treated with DOCA and a high-sodium diet exhibited elevated metabolic rates. Treating the mice with the direct vasodilator, hydralazine did not have an effect on metabolic rate. Intracerebroventricular infusion of the angiotensin AT1 receptor antagonist, Losartan did attenuate the metabolic rate as well as increased adiposity. This data documents sound brain-angiotensin-dependent metabolic consequences of DOCA-salt in mice.

New Capabilities for Vison-based Posture Prediction

Lindsey A. Knake

Using Santos™, a real-time predictive physics-based virtual human developed by Virtual Soldier Research, a new vision model was created for digital human models. Although field of view (FOV) is a commonly used evaluation parameter with digital human models, minimal research has involved modeling how eye motion (relative to the head and body) affects the FOV and posture of a digital human striving to see a particular target. Few models incorporate independent eye movement and the effects of obstacles, with the ability to predict human posture realistically. This work presents critical components for simulating how vision affects human posture: eye movement and visual obstacle avoidance.

Predictors of Language Outcomes in 3- and 6-year-old children with Mild to Severe Hearing Loss: Data from the OCHL Project

Keegan M. Koehlinger

Approximately 10% of the population in the United States has a hearing impairment of some severity. A hearing loss is difficult for any individual, but especially difficult for young children who are in the process of acquiring language. Whether the language of children with a hearing impairment (HI) eventually approximates that of their normal hearing (NH) peers is unclear. Some studies suggest that these children perform similarly to their NH peers while others suggest they lag behind. Conversational language samples from 90 3- and 6-year-old children from Iowa, Nebraska and North Carolina were analyzed. Data on hearing aid use and benefit was also obtained. HI children performed worse than NH peers in average sentence length and use of grammatical features. Regressions showed that language development is affected by severity of the hearing loss and benefit obtained from hearing aid use. Implications for early identification and aural habilitation will be discussed.

When in Rome, Reuse as the Romans Do: Moving Statues Around the Ancient Roman Empire

Lindsay M. Morecraft

In Iowa, people tend to buy secondhand goods like household furnishings and clothing for economic reasons. In ancient Rome, emperors and other prominent members of society also acquired secondhand items, including statues, but for reasons other than economic ones. The appeal of this action, especially for emperors, may have been to visually represent Roman dominance over another culture or to legitimize their authority by visually connecting it with an earlier time period and person. Statues were not necessarily reused within their cities of origin, but were sometimes moved to other countries to serve a new purpose. This poster examines a selection of these moved and altered statues in conjunction with their origin and location of discovery in order to better understand the appeal and purpose of this action. By conducting this research, the body of knowledge within this medium is expanded and therefore available to the general public of Iowa and surrounding areas.

Half-Century of Cartooning: Iowa Comments on the World

Kayla M. Garvin

In 1906, the Des Moines Register hired Jay N. Darling, establishing a tradition that endured for a century. Darling produced a daily political cartoon comment on local, national, or international events that it ran, centered above the fold, on its front page. Syndicated and read in over 150 U.S. newspapers, "Ding" retired in 1949. The University of Iowa Libraries had digitized and analyzed 12,000 Darling cartoons.

Tom Carlisle (1949-1953), Frank Miller (1953-1983) and Brian Duffy (1983-2008) followed Darling. The Libraries hold collections representing each of these cartoonists, and under an agreement with the Register, the current project establishes 500 cartoon digital collections of each man's most influential cartoons, collections which will grow over time to include every cartoon published by the Register 1906-2008, a run of cultural commentary unmatched anywhere in length, quality, insight and humor.

Choreographed Culture: Mexican Folk Forms in American Modern Dance, 1935-1955.

Jennifer Pray

American modern dancers have turned to Mexican folk themes to inspire and inform their choreography since the turn of the century. Works have been performed for a broad range of audiences in venues including museums, schools, large theaters, and international stages. My research examines the correlations and differences between the interpretations of Mexican folk forms by American modern dancers. How were Mexican-Americans portrayed in American modern dance? How did this portrayal change over time? Who was interpreting these cultural subjects? By framing dance as a cultural “import” and “export” item, I place the research in the broader context of U.S./Mexico relations from 1935-1955.

Neonatal Negative Emotionality Predicts Childhood Psychopathology

Allison M. Momany

Many parents have had the experience of raising a baby that gets upset easily, remains upset for a long time, and is hard to soothe. Researchers call the temperament of such a child “difficult”. Although the child may outgrow the fussiness in a few months, there is research indicating the child has emotional problems throughout his or her life. Our research concerns the emotional and behavioral outcome of fussy infants. The infants in the study were rated as having a difficult temperament at four weeks of age. Parents provided information regarding emotional or behavioral problems when the children were 8-11 years of age. Results indicate infant temperament is associated with childhood emotional and behavioral problems. These results suggest the possibility of screening infants for early difficult temperament that place them at risk for later emotional and behavioral problems, allowing for better prevention efforts.

Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Retail Pork

Ashley O'Brien

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an organism carried by approximately 1.5% of the human population. MRSA can also colonize animal species, and previous studies have also shown that MRSA may contaminate meat products. To examine MRSA prevalence in retail meats, we tested 395 raw pork samples from three states: Iowa, Minnesota, and New Jersey. Two hundred fifty six (64.8%) were found to be contaminated with S. aureus. Twenty-seven (6.8%) pork products were positive for MRSA . These findings suggest that MRSA on meat may be one way for consumers to acquire this organism.

In vivo expression and analysis of a novel protein, NIAM, in Drosophila melanogaster

Katie Thies

The Arf-Mdm2-p53 is a critical tumor suppressor pathway that is lost in many cancers. A novel protein known as NIAM (Nuclear Interactor of Arf and Mdm2) has functions both dependent and independent of the Arf-Mdm2-p53 pathway. NIAM functions to inhibit chromosomal instability and cell proliferation, both common characteristics of cancers, perhaps indicating a role as a novel tumor suppressor. NIAM contains FYRN/FYRC domains found in many chromatin-associated proteins. The corresponding protein found in Drosophila, dNIAM, also retains FYRN/FYRC domains, which we predict associate with chromatin similarly to the mammalian form. Objectives were to investigate whether NIAM is a chromatin associated protein in flies and determine the biological role of dNIAM in Drosophila melanogaster. When expressed in flies, dNIAM localized to chromosomes at decondensed regions, consistent with a role in chromatin regulation. Understanding the functions and mechanisms involving the protein, NIAM, may provide future avenues for cancer research and treatment.