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  Ruthenium-BODIPY Complexes as Potential Photodynamic Therapy Agents

  Jake Swavey, Darcy Setter, Frederick Willits

  Photodynamic therapy is a process by which light, a photosensitizer, and molecular oxygen are utilized to generate reactive oxygen species in a targeted microenvironment. The project presented will describe the synthesis of three new 4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) dyes capable of strong absorption within the visible region of the spectrum. Incorporated within these dyes are conjugating Lewis Bases capable of coordinating to Ruthenium(II) complexes. There synthesis and characterization along with their ability to photo-react with plasmid DNA when irradiated with low energy light will be presented.

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  Saving Light

  Trevor Benning

  From the moment you walk in a room and turn on the light, how much energy is used? To solve this, an Arduino microcontroller will be used to automatically detect when a door is opened and track how much energy is being consumed from lighting the room. Utilizing Arduino and Node Red, the data that tracks the energy consumption will be sent to a virtualization platform where the data will be analyzed and displayed. This data will help limit the amount of wasted energy by only turning the light on when someone enters the room and turns the light off when they leave.

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  Scalable purification of High Purity Recombinant Lanthanide Ion Selective Protein from Methylorubrum extorquens and metal binding affinities

  Courtney Henthorn

  I will be discussing a novel purification method for isolating the lanthanide-sequestering protein, Lanmodulin, from an E.coli expression process, in addition to discussing comparative metal binding affinities of Lanmodulin to Europium(III) and Iron(III). This research topic is of major interest due to the unfulfilled demand for a national, sustainable supply of rare earth elements (REEs), for applications such as permanent magnets, energy storage devices, biomining, and metal waste valorization. My findings include a reproducible and scalable purification method for the isolation of His6-tagged LanM, its resulting activity compared to a LanM purified using a published method, and confirmation that heat treatment does not hinder the metal binding properties of LanM nor reduce the yield of the LanM.

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  Secondary “Success”-ion: Healing Post-Agricultural Soils Through Prairie Plantings

  Valerie Thurston

  Ecological restoration in landscapes heavily impacted by industrial agriculture is a pressing scientific concern that will require the development of techniques that facilitate the establishment of biodiverse habitats in post-agricultural fields. Ecological invasion is a significant concern in old-fields of the American Midwest and early establishment of problematic trees such as Pyrus calleryana may alter the course of secondary succession. Some evidence suggests that more biodiverse habitats may inhibit ecological invasion in some settings (i.e. the diversity-resilience hypothesis), but little is known about how prairie diversity may influence woody establishment in Midwestern old-fields. Working with our community partners at the Five Rivers Metroparks (Dayton, Ohio), we have established a fully replicated long-term restoration experiment on a 30-acre former agricultural field. The long-term management goal for this abandoned farmland is to establish a prairie community that transitions to mature oak forests. The experimental design includes four prairie seed mix treatments each replicated 5 times in 50 × 50 m plots and applied in spring of 2020: (1) high diversity with high legume content; (2) high diversity with low legume content; (3) low diversity with high legume content; (4) low diversity with low legume content. Each of the plots was then subdivided into four subplots and each of these received one of four soil amendment treatments: (i) leaf mulch; (ii) whole soil inoculation; (iii) whole soil + leaf mulch and (iv) control. Vegetation was assessed systematically using two transects to establish six 1m² quadrat within each subplot. Initial observations suggest that higher diversity seed mixes establish more diverse plant communities, and those diverse communities garner more niche space in the plant community. These results offer preliminary support for the diversity – resilience hypothesis given that a reduction in open space in the community should make it more difficult for invasive species to establish. Ongoing work seeks to discern the presence of exotic and invasive species throughout the restoration experiment and relate the abundance of invasive species to biodiversity of the established prairie community.

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  Seizure Identification and Prediction Using DeepLearning

  Abigayle Hahn

  Epilepsy is often characterized by uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain that manifests as seizures. Behavior has been used to identify seizure activity in humans for a long time and it is the most commonly used way to identify human patients with epilepsy. However, most of the behavioral scales that are used to identify seizures are observer biased and do not capture the dynamics of seizure activity. Importantly, we don’t have any reliable methods to predict the onset and severity of seizures. Recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence offer us new avenues to automate the identification of seizures from video datasets. We hypothesize that seizure activity in a preclinical mouse model of epilepsy can be reliably captured using a DeepLearning approach. Using a large dataset of clinically-relevant seizure activity in mice, we have annotated key anatomical features across different epileptic stages. We used the DeepLabCut toolbox to train a model to identify 28 key body components across our entire dataset. Our model is able to capture kinematic data in novel seizure videos with a high degree of accuracy. We plan to further refine the accuracy of our model using an active learning approach and by increasing the amount of training data. Using the kinematic data from our video data sets, we plan to identify and define seizure states from a purely data-driven standpoint. Our ultimate aim is to translate our approach to a clinical setting in order to prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).

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  Semiotics and Religious Images: St. Joseph Statue

  Caroline Duarte, J. LaVonn Berry, Jennifer Reckers

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  Semiotics of the Nun Doll Collection

  Mary Sabatino, Christierra Williams, Anthony Martine

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" for woodwind quintet

  Andrea Garrison, Ashleigh Muir, Rachel Gleberman, Joseph Barnett

  This performance is a retelling of the age-old story of Peter and the Wolf using Prokofiev's musical score arranged for woodwind quintet.

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  Seroton-ing down the stress: serotonergic activity in response to predators in threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

  Michaela Rogers, Hayden Ott

  Animals constantly face stress in the environment due to rapid human-induced changes. A strong interest lies in the evolution of coping mechanisms that can help organisms deal with and respond to these stressors. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is highly conserved across taxonomic groups and is upregulated in response to a broad range of stressors, including predator exposure. Serotonin upregulation can help organisms cope with the threat of a predator by decreasing fear and anxiety. Previous studies have shown an increase in serotonergic activity following acute predator exposures in mice, rats, and fish after only one exposure, but less is known about repeated stimulation of the serotonergic system. I chased stickleback for 15 seconds with a model trout predator every other day for 12 days. I used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to measure serotonin (5-HT) and its metabolite (5-HIAA) in whole brain tissue after the last day of exposure. We will use the 5-HIAA/5-HT turnover ratio to further assess the activity of the cells that integrate the synthesis, release, reuptake, and/or metabolism of serotonin. If predator exposure increases stress, then predator-exposed individuals will have higher levels of serotonergic activity. Individual differences in monoamine levels (e.g. serotonin) following stress exposure have been associated with individual differences in aggressiveness and risk-taking behaviors. Higher levels of serotonin in the brain following predator exposure provide implications on behavioral responses such as predator inspection and conspecific interactions following stressful events. These results can be linked to behavioral studies to explain variation in predator-exposed individuals.

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  Sexual Assault Cases and the Claim of Consent

  Nina Vaccaro, Lauren Sears

  In our research project we are interested in looking at the impact and implications of suspects claiming consent in sexual assault cases. The first question we are looking to answer is do different types of evidence, such as witness testimonies, DNA evidence, or other case facts on the victims and suspects, have an impact on the likelihood that the defendant will use a defense that the sexual assault was consensual. The second question we would like to analyze is how does claiming that the sexual assault was consensual impact the sentence imposed to the defendant. Previous research has been done on the effectiveness and weight of evidence collected by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners as well as how consent is perceived in sexual assault cases. However, we would like to compare these aspects of sexual assault cases together to get a better understanding of the more comprehensive implications that consent has throughout the entire process of the case.

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  Sharing Library and Outdoor Space

  Annie Waters, Natalie Blue, Sarah Abed

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  Silly Goose! We Can Have Clean Energy, Too

  Nichole Dunham, Elizabeth Rhodes, Adelaide Starks, Alyssa Hack

  As the climate continues to change at catastrophic rates, research to mitigate environmentally-devastating effects have been globally conducted. Solar energy has become a widely understood renewable energy source, yet its implications on wildlife remain relatively unstudied. With concern from local communities and solar companies regarding implications of solar panel implementation on surrounding biodiversity, our research project aimed to investigate vertebrate activity in both undeveloped lawns (Sherwin Williams and Water Treatment) and an established lot (Daniel Curran Place Solar Prairie). We predicted a greater level of vertebrate activity and greater diversity at the solar prairie compared to the open lot facilities. To compare vertebrate activity across different habitats and understand solar panel effects on wildlife, we utilized the two empty grass lots and the solar prairie. Four transects were constructed at each of the three study sites (two additional added to the outside regions of the solar prairie) to collect scat data and document burrow observations. Both the scat and burrow type and location per transect were recorded. Camera traps were positioned throughout each site to capture supplemental photographic data of local vertebrates.We found more diversified scat at the solar prairie as well as burrows belonging to various burrowing vertebrates which implies that infrastructure can provide suitable habitat for vertebrate species. Based on this data, implementing solar prairies would provide a renewable energy source while simultaneously promoting vertebrate diversity in a human-dominated area.

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  Sketch to Image Synthesis

  Samah Saeed A Baraheem

  Sketch-to-image is an important task to reduce the burden of creating a color image from scratch. Unlike previous sketch-to-image models, where the image is synthesized in an end-to-end manner, leading to an unnaturalistic image, we propose a method by decomposing the problem into subproblems to generate a more naturalistic and reasonable image. It first generates an intermediate output which is a semantic mask map from the input sketch through instance and semantic segmentation in two levels, background segmentation and foreground segmentation. Background segmentation is formed based on the context of the foreground objects. Then, the foreground segmentations are sequentially added to the created background segmentation. Finally, the generated mask map is fed into an image-to-image translation model to generate an image. Our proposed method works with 92 distinct classes. Compared to state-of-the-art sketch-to-image models, our proposed method outperforms the previous methods and generates better images.

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  Smart Clock and Hub for Improved Sleep Health

  Jonathan Hoopes

  The purpose of this project is to demonstrate an understanding of the Internet of Things (IoT) by applying it to a smart light alarm clock and hub. To accomplish this task, sensors will collect meaningful data about the room and inform the owner about the room status. Sleep is a very important for the human body aiding in recovery, mental health hormone balance and many more vital functions. Having a bedroom in the proper temperature range and very dark are two of the leading ways to improve sleep quality The project will result in a prototype device as well as an increased understanding about circadian rhythm, sleep, and IoT.

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  Smart Weather Station

  Jayasree Rangu

  The Smart Weather Station IoT project aims to collect real-time weather data on temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation in a given area using sensors and transmit this data to a cloud-based platform for analysis and visualization. The project will provide accurate weather forecasts and support climate research.The weather station will consist of various sensors as required such as a temperature sensor, humidity sensor, anemometer, and rain gauge. These sensors will be connected to a microcontroller board, such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, which will collect data from the sensors and transmit it wirelessly to a cloud-based platform.The cloud-based platform will receive the data from the weather station and process it to provide useful insights on weather patterns and trends. The platform will use different algorithms to analyze the data and provide accurate weather forecasts. It will also store the data for future analysis and support climate research.The Smart Weather Station IoT project has several potential applications, including agriculture, transportation, and emergency management. Farmers can use the weather data to optimize their crop yield by adjusting irrigation and fertilizer schedules. Transportation agencies can use the weather data to plan for road closures and detours due to severe weather conditions. Emergency management teams can use the weather data to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.Overall, the Smart Weather Station IoT project has the potential to provide valuable insights into weather patterns and trends, leading to better decision-making in various fields.

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  Social Media as a Community Organizing Tool

  Hannah Bair, Patrick Hoody, Elizabeth Kolb, Sophia Locker, Elizabeth Worpenberg, Riley Cronin, Claire Pawlecki, Anna Luepke, Simone Schuller, Sarah Behnke

  Representing Dayton Civic Scholars as the 2023 cohort, we are presenting our senior capstone project focused around social media as a community organizing tool. We are an interdisciplinary group of students following a three year framework, creating an intentional pathway from classroom to community through servant leadership and community engagement. Our cohort is honored to be working with City Wide and the Edgemont community to present two workshops focused around using email and Facebook for community organizing. Our poster outlines our three year experience together as well as our project implementation steps during our final semester.

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  Social Stigma and Psychosis: Examining Content Valence, Diagnostic Context, and Participant Spirituality

  Alicia Wilhelm Villanueva Van Den Hurk

  While stigma is generally attached to all mental illnesses, individuals who experience psychosis are reported to be one of the most stigmatized minority groups in society. The aim of this study is to explore different factors that might play a role in the stigmatization of individuals with this condition. More precisely, the present project will examine the effects of auditory content valence (i.e., pleasant vs. neutral vs. unpleasant), participant spirituality (i.e., high vs. low), and diagnostic circumstance (i.e., psychosis in the context of a psychiatric disorder vs. a medical condition) on stigma towards psychosis, as well as the interaction between these three variables. To do so, undergraduate students will be recruited and asked about their level of spirituality (part 1). A week after completing the initial survey, participants will be asked to complete part 2. During part 2, they will then be presented with three fictional patients who are experiencing psychosis symptoms either in the context of: 1) bipolar disorder I, or 2) a brain tumor. After reading each patient description, they will listen to five recordings of simulated auditory hallucinations (which will be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral). For each fictional patient participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will measure their level of stigma.

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  Spectroscopic Study of UV-Irradiated DNA

  Reed Dowling

  In this project, we analyze the changes to DNA upon irradiation with UV light. We used threespectroscopic techniques: UV-Vis absorption, Circular Dichroism (CD), and fluorescence to follow thechanges in four different nucleic acid sequences irradiated at selected exposure times with an Hg Lamp.We analyze: calf thymus DNA, poly (deoxyadenylic-deoxythymidylic) acid [poly(dA-dT) 2 ], poly(deoxyguanylic-deoxycytidylic) acid [poly(dG-dC) 2 ] and poly (deoxyadenylic acid) · poly (deoxythymidylicacid) [poly(dA) · poly(dT)]. In all cases, both the CD and UV-Vis spectra undergo sequence dependentchanges. On the other hand, fluorescence was observed only when thymine and adenine base pairs arepresent and is enhanced when the thymine nucleobases are adjacent to each other on the same strand.Poly(dA) · poly(dT) undergoes changes more rapidly than the other sequences investigated andtherefore represents the most interesting results obtained in this project. In particular, after irradiationwith UV light we observed: 1) a fluorescent photo-product with an emission spectrum with a maximumat approximately 402 nm produced upon excitation of the samples at 298 nm; 2) the CD spectrum ofpoly(dA) · poly(dT) gradually undergoes an inversion, suggesting a change in helicity, beforedisappearing due to the unfolding of the double strand.

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  Stander Inside: Interventions for Social Problems by Students Experiencing Incarceration and Freedom

  Nina Vaccaro, Caitlin Sheridan, Audrey Dewitt, Ashleigh Jurosic, Alexander Stottner, Julia Lindenschmidt, Emily Graham, Wendy Valdivia, Caroline Cochran, Allison O'Gorman, Kathleen Schreel, Sarah McLeeson, Alex, Daryl, Hakeem, Kareem, Kodzo, Randy, Rick, Rodney, Shayron

  Students in the Spring 2023 Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program course, Modern Social Problems, have developed innovative interventions to pernicious problems facing society. Students will present their proposed programs or policies, discuss methodologies of implementation, and envision the outcomes and implications of their ideas. The class includes students who reside at or near the University of Dayton ("outside students") and students experiencing incarceration ("inside students").

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  Statue of Our Lady, Serenity Pines Garden

  Ellie Finnigan, Joe Zern, Phil Leon

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  Structure-function analysis of Defective proventriculus (Dve) in Drosophila melanogaster eye growth and development

  Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan

  Axial patterning is required to delineate Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), and Proximo-Distal (PD) axes in a sequential manner to transform a monolayer organ primordium to a three-dimensional organ. During eye development, DV axis is the first lineage restriction event and any deviation results in developmental birth defects. During this process, generation and establishment of morphogen gradient plays important roles such as negative regulator of eye development, growth and determination of eye versus head fate. Previously, we have identified defective proventriculus (dve, an ortholog of SATB1) as a novel dorsal patterning gene that regulates wingless (wg) transcription. Loss-of-function of dve results in dorsal eye enlargement and decrease in Wg, while gain-of-function of dve results in eye suppression and increased wg. In addition to eye versus head fate, SATB1, the human ortholog of dve is highly upregulated in cancers and is known to activate various signaling pathways to trigger growth. Here we present our structure-function analysis to determine the domains of Dve required for growth regulation and Wg mediated determination of eye versus head fate. Dve has a ULD domain for tetramerization, two HOX domains for DNA binding and a PPP4R2 domain for H2AFX dephosphorylation. We have developed several transgenic fly lines, which will allow us to ectopically induce expression of the specific Dve protein domain(s) alone or in combination and assay their effect in the eye. Our preliminary data suggests that HOX domain alone can induce wg expression and exhibit weak eye suppression phenotype, but it is not enough to fully exhibit Dve mediated eye suppression function during development. We will present data from our studies to dissect the growth versus eye fate function of Dve protein domain(s) using this structure-function analysis. Understanding this can increase our knowledge of which domains might be dispensable or pathogenic in human development or disease.

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  Student Songwriter Concert Guitar Students of Jim McCutcheon

  Chris Yakopcic, Miles Lockrem, David Colao, Dont'e Stevenson, Grace Caffoe, Isaac Burkart

  Guitar students of Jim McCutcheon, Lecturer in Guitar in the UD Department of Music, will perform original songs. This concert has been a part of the Stander Symposium since its inception and is always an insightful presentation of our musical student creators.

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  Studying Glioblastoma on a Microfluidic Model

  Laura Bender

  Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is among one of the most deadly, aggressive, and invasive types of cancer. Currently, there is no cure for patients diagnosed with GBM. Due to the cancer’s high rates of motility and invasion, even with treatment, patients are often given a survival time of 12-15 months after diagnosis. This makes GBM of particular interest to scientists who intend to improve the outcomes of GBM patients. In my study, I utilized the nonadherent method and microfluidic channels to generate a three-dimensional tumor model of GBM cell lines and the brain’s tumor microenvironment. In this model, we fabricated GBM spheroids to mimic the primary tumor. The spheroids were introduced to a PDMS device that has microfluidic channels and matrigel to simulate physical confinements and the extracellular matrix in the brain tissue, respectively. Using this model, I was able to successfully observe the migration and sprouting behavior of four different GBM cell lines, U-118 MG, U-87 MG, LN-229, and A-172. The success of this project will allow us to learn more about the invasion of GBM cancer so that better treatments can be developed to prevent the progression of GBM infiltration and recurrence.

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  Studying the Role of Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Dorso-Ventral Patterning

  Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan, Soumya Bajpai; other authors: Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

  During organogenesis, 3-dimentional organs arise from a monolayer of cells and this requires axial patterning to establish Dorsal-Ventral (DV), Anterior-Posterior (AP) and Proximal-Distal (PD) axes. Among them, the DV axis is the first to form during eye development. Morphogens have also been associated with a multitude of developmental processes, including organ patterning and the control of organ size. The Hedgehog (Hh) family of molecules play an important role in eye development as it regulates formation of the retina in Drosophila by orchestrating a differentiation wave that allows for the rapid and precise differentiation of the fly retina. We wanted to understand how Hh signaling interacts with a previously identified dorsal selector gene, defective proventriculus (dve). Dve is a K-50 homeodomain containing transcription factor, a Drosophila ortholog of human SATB1. We know that loss-of-function of dve results in dorsal eye enlargement while gain-of-function results in complete eye suppression. We wanted to understand how this transcription factor can regulate Hh signaling pathway that is crucial for patterning, growth and eye development. Here, we present our results from modulating Hh signaling pathway in dve expression domain and how it affects eye development.

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  Surgical Reconstructive Techniques Within The Management Of Breast Cancer

  Jessica Garvin

  Did you know that breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the most common cancer diagnosed in the United States? There are currently nearly 4 million women in the United States alone that are diagnosed with breast cancer and as many as 50% of cancer patients who have undergone a mastectomy or lumpectomy elect to have breast reconstruction surgery. Restoring the anatomical wholeness of someone is just as important to a person mentally as it is physically. With the multitude of people that are victims of breast cancer, understanding the different approaches to how the removal of malignant breast tissue is done and how breast reconstruction takes place, has value to learn about. The purpose of this study is to share and explain some of the different approaches breast cancer patients may choose after a lumpectomy or mastectomy to restore anatomical correctness. Among several of the different options available, implant reconstruction is one of the most popular reconstruction techniques. This works by utilizing a breast implant to replace the breast tissue that was removed to restore the original shape and volume. A second widely-used surgical procedure used for reconstruction is autologous reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction is also commonly known as “flap” reconstruction, this works by using skin, fat and sometimes muscle from areas such as the abdomen or buttocks to better resemble breast tissue in look and feel. Fortunately, there are many options for patients that may decide to undergo reconstructive surgery and there are many innovative techniques constantly being discovered. This study is able to educate and also bring awareness to ways that breast cancer can be prevented and also serve as a resource to learn an in-depth understanding of options breast cancer patients have after cancer removal.