Cedar Falls Research Articles

Non-structural flood mitigation optimization at community scale: Middle Cedar Case Study

Flooding is the leading natural hazard in Iowa and has resulted in billions of dollars of damage to properties and critical infrastructure over the past couple of decades. Land alterations, urbanization, and changing precipitation regimes increase the magnitude and frequency of flood events. Considering the increasing risk, flood mitigation efforts are significant to reduce future losses. In this study, we present a comprehensive flood mitigation assessment for the cities of Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo in Iowa, utilizing various datasets such as property information, flood inundation maps, mitigation costs, and depth-damage functions. The research revealed that flooding has a minimal impact on Waterloo below the 200-year return period flood scenario, but Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids are significantly vulnerable, requiring more mitigation investments and planning. The study conducted a benefit-cost analysis, indicating that dry floodproofing is the most feasible option to reduce flood impacts in all studied communities. Moreover, the research conducted a climate data-driven analysis, which found that elevating structures significantly increases the number of feasible mitigation options, regardless of various long-term climate projections. The study also analyzed predetermined mitigation budgets, revealing potential avoided losses and benefit-cost ratios for properties with the highest BCRs and prioritizing them to maximize the total benefit to the communities. The study findings offer crucial insights and recommendations to guide decision-makers in the community on prioritizing cost-effective flood mitigation strategies and minimizing flood impact in the studied regions.

On the Road to Italian Church History

On the Road to Italian Church History Paul F. Grendler (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Paul F. Grendler I am an historian of the Italian Renaissance rather than a lifetime church historian. But because it is not possible to study Renaissance Italy without encountering church institutions in various circumstances, the majority of my books deal with the church in Italy in greater or lesser degree. That is the framework for this journey in church history. The journey began on May 24, 1936, in Armstrong, Iowa, population 700, near the Minnesota border. My grandparents on my father’s side came from Silesia, then part of Germany, now part of Poland, while my grandparents on my mother’s side came from Luxembourg. All four emigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1900 and settled in small towns or farms in northern Iowa. A remakable feature of my parents’ lives was that both taught one-room rural schools, grades one through eight, in northern Iowa. My father taught from 1924 to 1942, and my mother from 1926 to 1935. Neither had the opportunity to obtain a university degree. But one could qualify as a teacher in a rural school with a few weeks of instruction. My father attended a teacher-training program one summer, probably in Spencer, Iowa. My mother learned how to teach at a summer program at Iowa State Teacher’s College at Cedar Falls, much later renamed The University of Northern Iowa. That was it. They were obviously talented teachers. The story is that they met at a teachers’ conference. They married in the summer of 1935 during the Great Depression and I grew up in modest circumstances. [End Page 1] My father stopped teaching in 1942 because it did not pay enough to support a growing family of two sons and a third on the way. He became a school custodian, which meant that he was in charge of heating and cleaning a school building. He served as the school custodian in several small towns. My mother helped my father by sweeping classrooms after school and I did the same in my first two years of high school. In those small towns one building, usually three stories and a large basement, housed all twelve grades with maybe a gymnasium attached. The heat came from a large coal-burning furnace for which the school custodian needed a license to operate. When I was ten our family lived in two large rooms in the Bradgate, Iowa, Consolidated School for the academic year 1946–1947, because of the shortage of housing right after World War II. I was a voracious reader as a child. My father took me and my brothers fishing now and then and I brought along a book for when the fish were not biting. After a while I decided that the book was more interesting than the fish and stayed home. Every tiny town in which I lived had a public library which I haunted. Bradgate, population about 250, was such a town. Its public library consisted of some space in the fire house. One could sit on the running board of the fire engine and look at a book. It was open Wednesday and Saturday nights. The bookmobile brought a fresh load of books every three months from the Humboldt County Library located in Humboldt, Iowa. When I was almost out of books to read toward the end of periods between visits of the bookmobile, I was forced to look at the tiny permanent collection, which included a set of Shakespeare’s complete works. I am sorry to say that I did not have enough curiosity to try Shakespeare. My interest in history began as a child during World War II. My parents subscribed to a daily newspaper, The Des Moines Register, and my father listened to radio news commentators such as H. V. Kaltenborn (1878–1965). So I followed the progress of the war and first learned about far away countries. My parents kept track of domestic politics. For example, in the summer of 1948 when I was helping my father scrub floors and wash walls in the school building in Bradgate...

Energy-efficient technology retrofit investment behaviors of Midwest households in lower and higher income regions

• Analysis of differences in energy efficiency investments by household income. • Multiple datasets used for data-driven efficiency investment analysis. • Households in higher incomes areas make more energy efficiency investments. • Households in lower incomes areas invest more in insulation retrofits. • The most common retrofit in the rebate program is higher efficiency HVAC systems. For residential buildings, improving the energy efficiency of buildings helps to reduce energy consumption, as well as to benefit households through reduced energy-related costs. However, very little research has focused on understanding how energy efficiency investments are made, particularly across different socioeconomic groups. This research thus analyzes the energy efficiency investments of households in lower and higher income regions using frequency, correlation, and principal component analysis. Data used are for residential buildings in Cedar Falls, Iowa, including energy efficiency investment data for a utility rebate program, assessors data, and U.S. Census data. Among the technologies studied, air conditioners and furnaces (HVAC) were the most expensive, yet they were among the most common types of investments. Comparing efficiency investments in lower and higher income regions, overall, the higher income tract prioritized efficient lighting and HVAC systems with less insulation investments, while the lower income tract invested most in HVAC systems andinsulation. Results also suggest that for housing units in lower income regions invested more in high efficiency HVAC systems, as compared to the higher income regions. These findings highlight the importance of incentive programs that are tailored to needs and priorities of lower-income and higher-income housing units and the variations in investment behavior.

Flood risk assessment and quantification at the community and property level in the State of Iowa

Flood risk assessment contributes to identifying at-risk communities and supports mitigation decisions to maximize benefits from the investments. Large-scale risk assessments generate invaluable inputs for prioritizing regions for the distribution of limited resources. High-resolution flood maps and accurate parcel information are critical for flood risk analysis to generate reliable outcomes for planning, preparedness, and decision-making applications. Large-scale damage assessment studies in the United States often utilize the National Structure Inventory (NSI) or HAZUS default dataset, which results in inaccurate risk estimates due to the low geospatial accuracy of these datasets. On the other hand, some studies utilize higher resolution datasets, however they are limited to focus on small scales, for example, a city or a Hydrological United Code (HUC)-12 watershed. In this study, we collected extensive detailed flood maps and parcel datasets for many communities in Iowa to carry out a large-scale flood risk assessment. High-resolution flood maps and the most recent parcel information are collected to ensure the accuracy of risk products. The results indicate that the Eastern Iowa communities are prone to a higher risk of direct flood losses. Our model estimates nearly $10 million in average annualized losses, particularly in large communities in the study region. The study highlights that existing risk products based on FEMA's flood risk output underestimate the flood loss, specifically in highly populated urban communities such as Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Davenport, Dubuque, and Waterloo. Additionally, we propose a flood risk score methodology for two spatial scales (e.g., HUC-12 watershed, property) to prioritize regions and properties for mitigation purposes. Lastly, the watershed-scale study results are shared through a web-based platform to inform the decision-makers and the public.

Flood mitigation data analytics and decision support framework: Iowa Middle Cedar Watershed case study

Flooding is one of the most frequent natural disasters, causing billions of dollars in damage and threatening vulnerable communities worldwide. Although the impact of flooding can never be diminished, minimizing future losses is possible by taking structural or non-structural mitigation actions. Mitigation applications are often costly practices. However, they can be more feasible for long-term planning and protection. On the other hand, selecting a feasible option requires a comprehensive analysis of potential risk and damages and comparing the costs and benefits of different mitigation types. This paper presents a web-based decision support framework called Mitigation and Damage Assessment System (MiDAS) that analyzes flood risk impacts and mitigation strategies at the community and property-level with the goal of informing communities on the consequences of flooding and mitigation alternatives and encouraging them to participate in the community rating system. The framework utilizes regulatory flood inundation maps, damage functions, property information, scenario-based climate projections, and mitigation inputs and guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). It will help users select the appropriate flood mitigation measures based on various characteristics (e.g., foundation type, occupancy, square footage) and provide cost estimates for implementing measures. The system also provides a decision tree algorithm for analyzing and representing the mitigation decision by reviewing existing guidelines (e.g., FEMA, USACE). We analyzed the community-level mitigation for three major cities in Eastern Iowa (Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo) and found certain measures (e.g., wet/dry floodproofing) are cost-effective for community-level mitigation. Implementation of mitigation measures can reduce the property's vulnerability and improve the response to a flooding event.

A Nonstationary Spatial Covariance Model for Processes Driven by Point Sources

We introduce a new nonstationary spatial covariance model for analyzing geostatistical point-referenced data that contain point sources (i.e., known locations that impact the outcome). Our model is based on viewing the spatial domain on the polar coordinate scale, with the point source representing the reference location. As a result, we incorporate distances from the point source and angles of the separation vector with respect to the point source into the covariance model definition in order to describe complex correlation patterns that may be induced by the point source. We apply the new model and several competing options to analyze the impact of a hog lot on house sales prices in Cedar Falls, Iowa. We find that the new model offers improved model fit and predictive ability through Watanabe–Akaike information criterion and cross-validation, respectively. Additionally, we design a simulation study to determine the impact that mean misspecification has on each model’s ability to produce quality predictions. Overall, the new model is shown to consistently outperform the competitors and is useful even when the point source has no impact on the outcome.

City-scale single family residential building energy consumption prediction using genetic algorithm-based Numerical Moment Matching technique

Growing energy consumption in urban areas has increased the importance of planning for future energy systems. Thus, improving the modeling abilities for predicting energy consumption at the city scale is critical. In this study, a Genetic Algorithm-Based Numerical Moment Matching (GA-NMM) method is adopted as a primary uncertainty estimation technique to predict the electricity consumption of a large dataset of single family homes by utilizing key features in energy audit and assessors data. This data is used as an input to the GA-NMM to develop a set of index buildings and associated weighting factors that represent statistical characteristics of the dataset. Energy models are then developed for the index buildings using physics-based energy modeling in EnergyPlus. These, in combination, are used to estimate the energy behavior of single family homes of the studied dataset. The proposed method is applied to a large dataset of 8370 single family homes in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the expected annual and monthly electricity consumption from the model is calculated and compared with measured data. The expected site electricity consumption for single family buildings in Cedar Falls is estimated as 10,219 kWh/yr, which is within 6% of the measured average annual electricity consumption. At a monthly level, the Coefficient of Variation of Root Mean Square Error and Mean Bias Error are 7.8% and 4.5%, respectively. This method can be used to generate small set of representative homes for demonstrating the energy behavior of a larger set of homes.

A non–stationary non–Gaussian hedonic spatial model for house selling prices

This work proposes a hedonic random field model to describe house selling prices from 2000 to 2005 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. This real estate market presents two distinctive features that are not well described by traditional stationary Gaussian random field models: (a) the city has, on its periphery, a hoglot that acts as an externality, affecting both the mean and variance of the selling prices, and (b) the distribution of house selling prices display heavy tails, even after the distance to the hoglot and house–specific covariates are accounted for in the mean structure of the model. A non–stationary and non–Gaussian random field model is constructed by multiplying two independent Gaussian random fields tailored to model the probabilistic features displayed by the Cedar Falls dataset. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that uses data augmentation is employed to fit the proposed model.

Viking Pump expands Cedar Falls lab

Rotary positive displacement pump manufacturer Viking Pump Inc has spent US$1.75 million expanding its full-service research and testing laboratory in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA.

Review of Citrus Oils: Composition, Advanced Analytical Techniques, Contaminants, and Biological Activity

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVBook ReviewNEXTReview of Citrus Oils: Composition, Advanced Analytical Techniques, Contaminants, and Biological ActivityKirk P. ManfrediView Author Information University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, United StatesCite this: J. Nat. Prod. 2017, 80, 4, 1229Publication Date (Web):February 16, 2017Publication History Published online16 February 2017Published inissue 28 April 2017https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00094Copyright © 2017 The American Chemical Society and American Society of PharmacognosyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views276Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit Read OnlinePDF (166 KB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Impurities,Lipids,Pharmacology,Plant derived food Get e-Alerts

You've Got A Deal! Using the Film Draft Day to Teach Fundamental Contract Law and Analytical Skills

Journal of Legal Studies EducationVolume 34, Issue 1 p. 41-61 Article You've Got A Deal! Using the Film Draft Day to Teach Fundamental Contract Law and Analytical Skills Judith Kish Ruud, Judith Kish Ruud Attorney, Adjunct Professor Department of Communication, Marietta College, (formerly Adjunct Instructor of Management, University of Northern Iowa).Search for more papers by this authorWilliam N. Ruud, William N. Ruud President and Professor of Management, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio (formerly, President University of Northern Iowa).Search for more papers by this authorFarzad Moussavi, Farzad Moussavi Chaired Professor, Robert & Margaret Bradford Chair in International Business, University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration, Cedar Falls, Iowa.Search for more papers by this author Judith Kish Ruud, Judith Kish Ruud Attorney, Adjunct Professor Department of Communication, Marietta College, (formerly Adjunct Instructor of Management, University of Northern Iowa).Search for more papers by this authorWilliam N. Ruud, William N. Ruud President and Professor of Management, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio (formerly, President University of Northern Iowa).Search for more papers by this authorFarzad Moussavi, Farzad Moussavi Chaired Professor, Robert & Margaret Bradford Chair in International Business, University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration, Cedar Falls, Iowa.Search for more papers by this author First published: 09 February 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12056 Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume34, Issue1Winter 2017Pages 41-61 RelatedInformation

Gerald Stanford Guralnik

Gerald Stanford Guralnik

Peregrine Financial Group: Two Years and Counting

Wasendorf began to systematically forge PFG’s financial statements in 2006. The scheme involved renting PO Box 706 in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where PFG had it headquarters. Wasendorf himself received all bank statements from US Bank. He then used a computer, scanner, and Photoshop to doctor the numbers and replace the bank’s return address with PO Box 706. These falsified statements were forwarded to regulators and to PFG’s accounting department, who were unaware of his actions.

Effectiveness and Acceptability within a Skilled Nursing Facility Setting

ABSTRACTAims: The program evaluated the effectiveness and acceptability of the Stepping On protocol (Clemson L, Swann M, Mahoney J. (2011). Stepping On: Building confidence and reducing falls in older adults (3rd ed.). Cedar Falls, IA: Freiberg Press Inc.) in reducing fall risk in older adults when delivered in a skilled nursing facility (SNF). Method: Stepping On was delivered by an occupational therapist to participants (n = 11) over 7 weeks followed by a 3-month session (Clemson et al., 2011). Results: Through comparison of pre and post data (n = 7) and 3-month outcomes (n = 4), trends revealed an overall increase in the use of protective behaviors and self-perceived physical health. Trends showed sustained outcomes at all measures, with exception of a decline in fall efficacy. The program was well received by participants and staff at the SNF with high satisfaction rates. Conclusion: Stepping On has the potential to be an effective fall prevention program for older adults with trends towards fall prevention while providing needed support to current and past SNF residents, and community members.

Sherrie Elzey and De-Hao Tsai win ABC Best Paper Award.

Sherrie Elzey was born in 1981. She earned her B.S. degree in chemistry and B.A. degree in physics from the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA, USA). She received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship and earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA, USA). She was then awarded a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, MD, USA). At NIST, she conducted research in the Materials Measurement Laboratory focusing on method development for measuring the size and elemental composition of representative therapeutic nanoparticles with functionalized surfaces. After her postdoctoral research, she joined TSI (Shoreview, MN, USA) as an applications engineer, where she applied a variety of sizing methods to measure airborne and liquid-phase nanoparticles. She is currently a regional sales manager at TSI. De-Hao Tsai was born in 1976. He earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the National Cheng Kung University (Tainan, Taiwan) in 1998, and an M.S. degree in chemical engineering from the National Tsing Hua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan) in 2000. He received his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Maryland (College Park, MD, USA) in 2007 under the supervision of Michael R. Zachariah. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at NTHU. Prior to joining NTHU, he worked as a research scientist at Cabot Microelectronics (Aurora, IL, USA; 2008–2009) and as a research associate at NIST (2009–2013). During his tenure at NIST, his research work focused onmeasurements for applications in nanomedicine supervised by Vincent A. Hackley. In 2013, he received the 2013 Distinguished Associate Award for Technical Achievement at NIST to acknowledge his exemplary leadership in the development of innovative physical and chemical metrology for applications in cancer nanotechnology.

Preparation for and response to the flood of 2008 in Cedar Falls, Iowa

The purpose of this paper is to examine the preparation for, and responses to, the 2008 flood in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The analysis of this study was based on qualitative research methodology that includes interviews of key personnel (e.g., emergency planners) who were involved in emergency planning, decision making, response, and recovery efforts during and after the 2008 flood in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Cedar Falls had adequate emergency plans and took proper initiative in terms of warnings, evacuations, and rescue operations during this flood, introduced notification service for emergency severe weather or important community notices, and adopted effective recovery efforts (property buy out and a new floodplain regulation). After the flood, Cedar Falls adopted new 500-year floodplain regulations, thereby creating Iowa's first floodplain ordinance. Such floodplain ordinance could be a model for other cities in the USA.

A note on a non-stationary point source spatial model

A point source, non-stationary covariance structure model is proposed, having only one additional parameter over a standard, stationary covariance structure, spatial model. Additionally, the proposed model is demonstrated to fit better than the three extra parameter, point source, non-stationary spatial model proposed by Ecker and De Oliveira (Commun Stat Theory Methods 37:2066–2078, 2008). The proposed model is fit from a Bayesian perspective and illustrated using a house sales dataset from Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The Relative Age Effect Among Female Brazilian Youth Volleyball Players

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKey words: Player selectionSport participationTalent identificationYouth sports Additional informationNotes on contributorsFabio E. FontanaPlease address correspondence concerning this article to Fabio Eduardo Fontana, 203 Wellness/Recreation Center, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0241.

Web-Based Spatial Decision Support System andWatershed Management with a Case Study

In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and Stormwater Management Priority Index (SMPI) land. Within each category, spatial factors are rated based on their influence on water resources and critical areas can be identified for soil conservation, water quality protection and improvement. The WebWMPI has user-friendly client side graphical interfaces which enable the public to interactively run the server side Geographic Information System to evaluate different scenarios for watershed planning and management. The system was applied for Dry Run Creek watershed (Cedar Falls, Iowa, US) as a demonstration and it can be easily used in other watersheds to prioritize crucial areas and to increase public participation for soil and water conservation projects.

E Pluribus Unum: out of Many, One

Susan, a teacher who lives in a Midwestern city with much diversity, drives 20 miles to teach in a small town. She has driven and taught there for more than 30 years. When she first started teaching, the people and town reminded her of her own childhood spent in a small town. Susan has been comfortable in that teaching environment that, in many respects, is homogeneous. Sometimes, though, diversity comes to us even when we don't seek it. That small town is becoming increasingly diverse, and Susan has had to learn to embrace diversity as the students in her classes have changed. When change occurs, our natural human tendency is to gravitate toward familiar people and places, as Susan did in the vignette above. For example, immigrants to this country have sought places that look like the lands they left, and they have often settled near people who speak their native languages. The novelty of a new nation, a new home, and new friends, while exciting, can also be stressful. Our nation's motto reflects the diversity as well as the spirit of unity on which the United States was founded: E Pluribus Unum, which means of Many, One. Members of the educational community, especially teachers and students, need to understand the roles of diversity, prejudice, and privilege in the educational community, but an understanding of a multicultural perspective must begin with self-inquiry (Levin & McCollough, 2008, p. 157). In addition to self-inquiry, brain-based research validates that long-term understanding comes through personal experiences, such as incidental experiences that occur in daily life, experiences that are sought out by the adventuring person, or simulated events in a safe environment (Sylwester, 2000). This article describes how preservice middle level teachers at a small regional university planned and hosted a leadership conference for local eighth grade students to engage them in simulations and other learning experiences about diversity, social equity, and privilege. The goal for the teacher candidates, who served as the conference facilitators, and the eighth grade conference participants was to learn about and appreciate their own diversity as well as others' cultural backgrounds and experiences (National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, 1999). Although this particular conference was led by teacher candidates, this experience could benefit others who want to acquire a better understanding of diversity, social equity, and privilege. Middle level teacher leaders, student leaders, or principals could replicate these activities and ideas to benefit the teachers and students in their schools. A call to leadership The Student Association of Middle Level Educators (SAMLE) at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls is one of the nation's oldest active middle level student associations. At one meeting, the guest speaker, Dr. Geraldine Perrault, suggested that the SAMLE-UNI members host a middle grades student leadership conference. The members of SAMLE-UNI, intrigued by the possibility of this service-learning opportunity, embraced Dr. Perrault's challenge. What would planning a conference for young adolescents take? It started with leadership from the teacher candidates themselves. SAMLE-UNI members decided to set up a committee structure in five areas: program planning, sponsorship/budget, food, T-shirts, and publicity/registration. Officers and leading members of SAMLE-UNI then signed on as committee chairs or co-chairs. At the first meeting of the chairpersons, they decided that understanding diversity was a critical component of leadership. Social Equity was the overall theme of the day-long conference, and the group settled on E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One as the conference title. All the teacher candidates had been educated in various aspects of diversity. First, several of the leaders had undergone extensive training for the Residential Advisory Program and served as Resident Advisors of dormitories. …