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  Exploring the Ethics of “Sharenting”

  Brooke Baker

  “Sharenting” is the rather new phenomenon of parents sharing pictures or videos of their children on social media. This trend has amassed popularity in the digital age, especially with the rise of new social media apps such as Tik Tok. There are more apps than ever to post on. Consequently, parents divulge personal information about their children such as how they look and what they like to do when posting them online. This information helps to shape their digital personas sometimes, long before they decide whether or not to have an online presence. This case study takes a deep dive into the “sharenting” story of 3-year-old Tik Tok star Wren Elenor along with her mom, Jacqueline, and some of the ethical questions related to privacy and autonomy that this story poses.

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  Exploring the Relationship Between Treatment While Being Incarcerated and Recidivism in Virginia Juvenile Facilities

  Beth Lewandowski, Riley Stamm

  This study aims to identify significant variables that relate to juveniles, recidivism, and substance use. The goal is to uncover if substance abuse programs will aid juveniles in escaping the criminal justice system. Juveniles were chosen to be studied because, due to their young age, they are more susceptible to the effects of incarceration and, in turn, more likely to recidivate. This study will run a longitudinal analysis on the sample population of 818 male juveniles in Virginia who were between the ages of 11-18 and serving a sentence of 6-18 months. 406 of these juveniles were held in the Barrett Treatment Program during their incarceration, while the 412 male juveniles were held in a traditional facility. Linear and binary logistic regression will be run on the independent variables in order to see if they have any significance to the four variables of recidivism.

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  Faces of Faith: Monastic Identity and Protestant Theology in the Swiss Reformation

  Kevin O'Gorman

  Religious Orders were ever-present in medieval life. Their influence was not limited just to the pulpit or the physical area around monasteries but extended into the daily life of entire kingdoms. Each religious community was unique in the interpretation and expression of its rule of life, both between and within Orders. Religious communities faced pressure from newly converted Protestant authorities alongside theological conversations within their own walls. The new Protestants carried with them an anti-monastic theology that challenged religious communities to reexamine their lives fundamentally. Nowhere were these choices as complicated as in Switzerland, where monks and nuns encountered Lutheran, Zwinglian, Anabaptist, and Reformed theology. I argue that these encounters occurred in conversation with the spiritual traditions of their respective orders, both in those who remained in or left their vows. I specifically look at the first-hand accounts and manuscripts of Swiss Franciscans and Benedictines and place their words in the context of their respective Rule and spiritual traditions. I found that religious that remained Catholic more explicitly expressed their particular spirituality when encountering Protestant theology, while religious that left the habit saw their new beliefs as a different expression, or even a fulfillment, of their original vows. Current historiographical approaches to religious orders in the early Reformation deemphasize individual communities, seeing their interactions with Protestant theology defined by their geography or political status. This paper seeks to approach the Reformation through the lived spiritual experience of religious and recognize the impact their monastic lives had on their decisions.

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  Facial Gesture Recognition for User Authentication

  Ishwar Sandip Jadhav

  Do you know the feeling when you go out and realize you left your phone at home? Yes, this feeling is uneasy. Our mobile device these days are more than just a tool for communication, it has a lot of serious data and personal information, such as contacts, emails, photos, and passwords that can put our privacy at risk. A modern security feature like FaceID though prominent is not sufficient to safeguard our data. “For instance, Security researchers attending the annual Black Hat hacker convention in Las Vegas have managed to bypass the iPhone FaceID user authentication in just 120 seconds. These researchers were able to demonstrate that they could bypass the FaceID user authentication and access the iPhone of the victim in less than 120 seconds. To do so, they needed three things: a pair of spectacles, some tape, and a sleeping or unconscious iPhone user”. Therefore, in this project we would like to develop a secure user authentication via facial expression analysis.II. Methods Using facial landmark point detection, facial gesture recognition involves collecting a dataset of facial gesture images or videos, pre-processing the data by identifying and extracting facial landmarks, and extracting features for recognition. A machine learning model then is trained, its performance is evaluated, it is integrated into an authentication system, potential security risks have been considered, and user testing is done. The facial landmark detection and feature extraction method such as MediaPipe is effective and reliable. Key facial features are identified and extracted as part of the approach to produce relevant features for recognition. These characteristics are used to train a machine-learning model to differentiate between genuine and fake facial motions. The user is prompted to make a particular gesture, which the system compares to the trained model to confirm their identity, spoof-blocking methods and potential security theft.III. Significance When paired with facial recognition technology, facial gesture recognition is a promising technique that can offer additional benefits for unlocking mobile devices. Asking the user to make a specific facial gesture in addition to face recognition, adds an extra layer of security and can assist prevent unauthorized access to the device. Also, instead of inputting passcodes or utilizing fingerprint scanners, face movements can unlock a smartphone more quickly and conveniently. Facial gesture recognition can also increase accessibility for people who find entering a passcode or using a fingerprint scanner challenging. Last but not least, it can provide a pleasant and unique user experience by letting users select memorable or meaningful actions that increase a sense of ownership.

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  Faith & Foliage

  William Hach, Kieran Winthrop, Thomas Skiba

  This project is a literature review on several articles about the intersection between religious beliefs and opinions on nature and sustainability. Our findings include the fact that there is a very wide and notable gap between the environmental practices of eastern and western religions, and that all religion as a whole leads to more environmentally conscious beliefs. We also found that these practices go back to very old civilizations and the connection is not recent.

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  Feeding Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants Following Implementation of Probiotics in a Tertiary NICU

  Elinor Tighe

  This study aims to compare the outcomes of very preterm infants pre- and post-implementation of a probiotic protocol using Lactobacillus reuteri with the goal to reduce the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and improve feeding outcomes. There is currently debate among neonatologists on whether the practice is both feasible and safe, and this study aimes to prove that the practice is not only feasible and safe but also beneficial. This research was conducted for BIO 421 in Dr. Amy Hair's Lab at Texas Children's Hospital.

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  Female Xiphophorus maculatus Body Size Influence on Male Mate Choice

  Emily Berkshire, Allyson Allen, Brian Rapp, Keifer Clark

  Mate choice among animals in the wild is one of the strongest drivers of evolution due to the opportunity to make their offspring more fit for the environment. Individuals will often choose mates that physically reflect good health such as having a larger body size, vibrant coloration, and higher levels of activity. Researching the drivers of sexual selection is critical for understanding how certain physiological traits are carried on through generations. In sunburst platys (Xiphophorus maculatus), males will reflect specific mate-choice behavior when given two females that possess differences in these traits. Our research aims to investigate how body size in sunburst platys influences sexual selection and consequently gets naturally selected for over time. We hypothesized that male sunburst platys will consistently prefer females that express higher physical fitness in the form of larger body size. When looking at body size differences, we found that males do tend to display more overall mating behavior towards larger females over smaller females. When looking at each of the three individual behaviors separately, though, only the amount of darting behaviors were significant while the amount of following and biting behaviors by the male did not differ significantly between the large and small females.

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  Feminism in the 21st Century: Reflections on a Women's and Gender Studies Education

  Hannah Kessler, Katie Brinkley, Miles Gaier, Kinsleigh Jones, Eden Michelson

  The politicization of issues related to gender and sexuality has increased tremendously in recent years. Trans inclusion in education, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ rights -- to name just a few -- sit at the crosshairs of the so-called "culture wars." Many of these issues are weaponized by covert rightwing social movements, and the terms of public debates are often neither data-driven nor human-centered. Moreover, the fall-out from such hyper-visibility and regressive public policies disproportionately impacts people of color, disabled persons, undocumented migrants, and poor folks, among other marginalized groups. A feminist analysis offers some important theoretical tools with which to make sense of these contemporary dynamics. In this panel, upper-level students in the Women's and Gender Studies Program engage in dialogue about how they see the world and where they see fruitful feminist interventions moving forward. They also reflect on what their Women's and Gender Studies education has meant to them over their undergraduate career. As youth on the frontlines, they offer a unique perspective for how to do better in the coming decades. This panel will be dialogue-based and will engage with the audience.

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  Finding Home in the House of God

  Retaj H.A.H. Alashwak, Kathleen Crump, Quinton Smole, Daniel Mazza, Connor Dilworth

  This project is a literature review focusing on religions and the issue of homelessness and poverty. Our findings include the impact of religion and spirituality on people’s experiences with homelessness and poverty including both homeless and non-homeless individuals, the resources religious organizations can give and provide to those experiencing homelessness and poverty, and the understanding of common good through a diversity of religious beliefs.

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  Food and Festivals of Greece and Japan

  Christian Valenzano and Clayton Lovin

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Food Connections to Judaism and Islam

  Grace Kennedy, Caroline Sullivan, Ella Blair

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Forecasting Categorical Time Series Using Logistic Regression and ARIMA model

  Sharmina Yasmin

  In this research, we explore a categorical time series data that changes with time and other input variables using a combination of Logistic Regression, and ARIMA model. We use an Electroencephalogram (EEG) dataset with two states of the response variable (closed or open state of the eye). Using EEG sensor values as input, we use Logistic Regression to obtain the predictive probability to classify the eye state. Due to the autocorrelation among the residuals and to time dependence, the Logistic Regression model can be improved using ARIMA to produce better results. This will help making the residuals a white noise. This work is developed further using a Transfer Function model that produce an even more better result.

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  Foreign Detainee Operations Post 9/11: An Example of the United States’ Ethical Compromise

  Seth Longstreth

  After 9/11, the United States government issued a series of policies that allowed tortuous interrogations in order to extract actionable information, or least attempt to. After being a member of the Geneva Convention and the Convention Against Torture, the U.S. directly defied these international treaties purely because it suited their interests during the retaliation against al-Qaeda. This paper seeks to answer how government accountability plummets when directing officials overlook the law, how the subjectivity of torture laws was capitalize on, and what further implications this has on us as a nation. This research takes a multi-case study approach which allows for an in-depth analysis of interrogative techniques, living conditions, and how it was all made legal.Keywords: Detainee, Ethics, Torture, Interrogation

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  Frantz Fanon and the Search for True African Philosophy

  Emma Mason

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  From Inspiration to Creation: A Live Performance and Discussion of Original Music

  Cedric Mwizerwa, John Imhof

  Owen Imhof and Cedric Mwizerwa are passionate musicians who will present a unique and inspiring session on their journey of creating original pieces of music. In this presentation, they will take the audience through the process of writing their first original compositions and the challenges they faced along the way. The event's highlight will be the first-ever live performances of their newly created pieces, showcasing their musical talent and creativity. Attendees will learn about the creative process behind writing original music and gain insights into the challenges and triumphs of musicianship. This session is a must-attend for anyone interested in music composition, performance, and creativity.

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  Funeral Rituals in Ghana and India

  Quinn Gilroy and Sarah Harper

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Gaps between Affection and Text Messaging in Relation to the Uses and Gratifications Theory: Examining Texting and The Need to Belong

  Daniel Peters, Shania Weigandt

  For our literature review, we have been identifying gaps between affection and text messaging in relation to the uses and gratifications theory. Our interest within this topic lies with our curiosity to discover why people feel a need to belong, and how those needs affect communication in relation to texting. With the help of our research, we will be able to compare how texting can possibly contribute to the fear of missing out as well as the drive to be a part of something. We will utilize the information about adolescence using text messaging to narrow down the uses and gratifications of younger generations who use texting. The scholarly literature that we have studied can be separated into four categories; the needing to belong, text messaging, correlation of texting and the needing to belong, and uses and gratification theory. These topics lead us to our research question which asks how the need for affection affects an individual's personal use of text messaging.

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  Garnering Stakeholder Perceptions of Urban Community Garden Features Through the Utilization of Photovoice Research

  Abigayle Smith

  The presentation discusses the study currently being conducted on stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards greenspaces. This is completed through the identification of different uses and features that could be included in the community garden to maximize use of the space and stakeholder engagement. To best understand community opinions, we utilized a creative qualitative research method combining photovoice and interviews/focus groups. The photovoice will be the primary discussion of the presentation as the interviews and focus groups are ongoing. Preliminary findings indicate the importance of designing a garden for multigenerational and diverse stakeholder uses, and highlight the memories, experiences, and expectations that attract stakeholders to community gardens. The findings also outline the importance of co-creating the design of a community garden to ensure long-term sustainability. Previous research shows that community gardens are a popular tool to address neighborhood revitalization, local food, and social cohesion; critical gaps exist in the body of literature. This long-term project aims to address three such gaps in research. First, very few studies have focused on community gardens in minority and lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. Our research is located in the Dayton View Triangle neighborhood, which is 67% African American with a median household income of 35k. Second, previous research largely explores stakeholder perceptions toward established community gardens rather than their perceptions during the planning and design of a community garden. Third, very few studies have examined community-based governance/organizational structures that can ensure long-term sustainability. The research currently being conducted is aimed to help to understand the desired features and necessary mechanisms that need to be established to build a sense of community, social cohesion, and attachment around a community garden.

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  Gender, Race, and Social Media

  Julia Bunch, Kaitlin Hall, Madeleine Carrane, Jenna Borrelli

  In the twenty-first century, social media is a key site where meanings about personal experiences and intergroup relations are navigated and reproduced. In this panel, presenters explore how gendered and racialized identities are constructed on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. The first paper investigates how women invoke medicalized discourse and authority through the issue of infant sleep to assert their status as good mothers. The second paper explores how masculinity is constructed on the University of Dayton Barstool Flyers account. The third paper reveals how young women narrate experiences of sexual assault in short video clips. Finally, the fourth paper discusses the topic of race-swapping in fictional film through a case study of "The Little Mermaid" and the recent casting of an African-American actress in the lead role. Each of these papers is based on original social science research undertaken by presenters for the sociology senior capstone. Taken together, the papers reveal the myriad ways that social media functions as a space to (re)produce gendered and racialized identities. This panel should be of interest to folks who are interested in thinking through the power, value, and pitfalls of social media in modern life.

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  Genome-wide screening of miRNA’s in dve cells identifies evolutionary conserved miR-190 regulates eye size by targeting Eyeless/PAX-6

  Mani Manivannan Subramanian; other author: Amit Singh

  Congenital aniridia is caused by mutation(s) in paired-box gene 6 (PAX-6), and is characterized by eye defects manifested in childhood leading to visual impairment. A highly conserved PAX-6 (Drosophila homolog, eyeless, ey), encodes a DNA-binding transcription factor, whose loss-of-function exhibits loss-of-entire-eye or part-of-eye. Surprisingly, molecular genetic basis of Aniridia remains poorly understood. The retinal loss may arise due to dysregulation of miRNAs which plays a pivotal role in regulating genes post transcriptionally. miRNAs are the short hairpin like structure with 20-25bp which modulates the gene expressions post-transcriptionally by binding to 3’UTR of mRNAs. Studies on miRNAs have shown that miRNAs are involved in fine tuning of genes which regulates cell differentiation and proliferation of retinal cells in vertebrates. miRNA serves a vital role in the retina throughout development and in eye diseases. In our study using Drosophila as a model system, importance of miRNAs involved in the development of eye was investigated and in our genome wide screening of miRNAs in dve cells, we have identified miR-190 as our novel candidate in modulating the eye phenotype. Further Eyeless, a target gene of miR-190, was identified by secondary screening through RNAi lines and analyzed for eye phenotypes. Eye fate markers involved in eye development were analyzed in flies expressing miR-190 target gene Eyeless-RNAi. Here, we provide a mechanism of how miR-190 modulates eye phenotype through Eyeless gene, and results from these studies will be discussed in the symposium.

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  Globalization of Music

  Ethan Schum, Dorian Mays, Kevin Doldehide

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Globalization of Music: Fan Culture — K-pop vs. British Pop

  Emma Bueti and Kaitlin Hall

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Half a Pocketful of Sunshine: Partially Shaded Sites Provide a Sanctuary for Species Diversity

  Palmer Lambert, David Speth, Abigail Carter

  In order for an aquatic ecosystem to function properly, primary production must occur through the growth of algae, which can modify the abundance of macroinvertebrates found in the substrate, thus altering the overall productivity of the ecosystem. The amount of algal growth can indicate the comprehensive health of aquatic ecosystems due to their high variability with nutrient levels. An excess in nutrients can cause algal blooms (unrestricted algal growth) which block light from passing through the photic (light permeable) layer of the water, while lack of nutrients can prevent algal growth altogether. Other aquatic life can be greatly affected by algal production levels, as algal blooms can deplete the water of oxygen and cause decreased survival rates for macroinvertebrates, but a lack of algal growth can also cause macroinvertebrate death due to a lack of food sources and habitat. We will begin by creating leaf litter bags using CPOM (Coarse Particulate Organic Matter) collected from a specific location at Old River Park. These leaf litter bags along with ceramic tiles will be placed in five separate locations in the oxbow lake at Old River Park. Locations varied in the amount of sunlight they received. After 14 and 21 days submerged in the water, we will remove the leaf litter bags and taxonomically identify the captured macroinvertebrates to the genus level; the ceramic tiles will be retrieved and any algae growth will be collected, dried, and weighed in aluminum pans. We found that algal biomass and macroinvertebrate abundance both had a positive relationship with the amount of light they were receiving, suggesting that optimal lighting conditions for both algae and macroinvertebrate habitat coincided with our full sun test sites. The overall diversity of macroinvertebrates, on the genus level, was also found to be significantly higher at our treatment sites with more sunlight. This suggests that environments that receive more sunlight have greater capabilities to support a larger variety of macroinvertebrate species, which could be correlated to high sun environments typically being able to produce a more abundant algae community. The correlation between algal biomass, macroinvertebrates and sunlight suggest that it should be of relative importance to maintain and protect areas that receive high levels of sunlight in aquatic ecosystems.

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  Hands In Harmony

  Kabelo Muhammad, Molly Obergefell, Olivia Redwine, Sydney Zupnick, Rosalie Doyle, Arianna Ranallo, Valeria Alvarado Berrios, Kayleah Shiland, Anna Delaney, Jaylee Sowders, Mattabesett Smith

  Led by director Heidi Reynolds and interpreter Mary Ann Fraley, the University of Dayton performing ensemble Hands in Harmony presents choreographed signs from American Sign Language (ASL) to popular songs. It allows the audience members to experience and appreciate both the auditory and visual aspects of the music. Seeing the signs gives a different perspective of the music. For more information about Hands in Harmony or details to become involved, please visit the University of Dayton Ensembles and Performance Opportunities page under "Choral Ensembles."

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  Here comes the sun: A study of insect ecology during Ohio’s solar power boom

  Raef Khamis Ali Saif Al Hamedi, Grace Litavsky, Abbey Raison, Sarah Metz, Rianna Soltis, Stephanie Murray

  As the world’s population and demand for energy continues to increase, we are also experiencing a rapid increase in renewable energy, such as solar power. Ohio is in the midst of a large solar boom, in which many solar fields are converted to something called “solar prairies.” The native, flowering vegetation in a solar prairie is meant to attract pollinators to boost the ecological value of the land. As solar prairies continue to surface in Ohio, we are still facing a large knowledge gap regarding (1) the effects of solar arrays on insects and (2) the best management practices for solar prairie vegetation. To help bridge this first knowledge gap, we are surveying insect communities at newly proposed solar sites before and after solar installation. Many of these proposed sites will be seeded as solar prairies during or following the installation process. Thus far, we have collected preliminary data at three proposed solar sites: two city managed lawns (WT and SW) and one field of goldenrod (MEEC). We collected insects using pitfall traps (n= 4 per site at WT and SW; 9 at MEEC), pan traps (n= 1 per site at WT and SW; 9 at MEEC), and sweepnets (n= 4 per site at WT and SW; 10 at MEEC). Insects were sorted to order level identification (e.g., bees are of the order Hymenoptera) and we used analyses of variance (ANOVA) and generalized linear models (GLM) to test for differences in insect communities between and within sites. We found insect abundance and diversity to be highest at MEEC, as expected due to flowering goldenrod. We expect a decrease immediately following construction and solar installation at all sites, but a rebound over time as plant diversity increases.