Stander Symposium: College of Arts and Sciences

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Olympic Sport Evaluation with Machine Learning

Jacob G. Bish

The goal of the project was to take visual data from a series of Olympic dives and extract the features of them and inputting them into both a linear regression and another regression that best fits the model. The regression would then be tested against other dives and seeing if the regression could accurately guess the score of said dive. Through the implementation, the student learned how to debug large code libraries and how to properly gather and organize data for further research endeavors.
On the Role of SERCA-dependent Calcium Handling in the Mouse Stress Response

Summer Annalee Istenes, Daniel F. Jevnikar, Ben Klocke, Marc Nya, Hayden Nathaniel Ott, Morgan Elizabeth Roach

Calcium (Ca2+), a critical second messenger, has been implicated in various cellular processes including gene transcription, muscle contraction, cell-cell adhesion, and neurotransmitter release. Previous research has implicated abnormal calcium homeostasis as contributing to attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and other symptoms such as hyperactivity and impulsivity. A major regulator of cytosolic calcium concentration is the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 2 (SERCA2), a protein found in the heart and brain that sequesters Ca2+ into the endoplasmic reticulum. Using a mouse model, our lab has previously found that constitutive deletion of PLN, a protein inhibitor of SERCA2, results in an ADHD-like phenotype characterized by hyperactivity, anxiolytic behavior, and cognitive deficits. In this study, we sought to understand the role of PLN in regulating stress response by assessing the effects of chronic-restraint stress in conjunction with constitutive PLN deletion on mouse behavior. The results of this study help to further our understanding of the role of PLN, SERCA2, and Ca2+ in the regulation of the brain and behavior.
Optical band gap study of Bi2 Se3-In2 Se3 superlattices

Mark R. Gordon

Topological materials are some of the most promising quantum materials for future deviceapplications. In particular, topological superlattices comprised of Bi2 Se3 and In2 Se3 are of greatinterest because they show potential for creating Anisotropic Magneto-Resistive (AMR) sensorsthat can detect changes in the angle of a magnetic field. The creation of AMR sensors with theaforementioned topological materials would have many advantages over the traditional ones.These advantages include less susceptibility to stray field interactions, sensors having full vectorfield resolution, less power consumption, and no saturation up to 60 T. This is expected to havewidespread device applications in geological sensing, bio magnetic sensing, and navigation. Thiswork investigates the optical band gap as a function of the Bi2 Se3-In2 Se3 superlattice layerthickness, grown by Direct Current Coil Assisted Magnetron Sputtering, using UltravioletVisible light Spectroscopy and cross-sectional Scanning Electron Microscopy.
OptiVAE: A Unified Parallel Gumbel-Softmax VAE Framework with Performance-Based Tuning

Fangshi Zhou

Classic training algorithms for Gumbel Softmax Variational Autoencoders (GS-VAEs) often rely on an annealing scheme, which reduces the Softmax temperature according to a given function. We find that this leads to suboptimal performance. To improve the design, we propose a novel framework for GS-VAEs, which embraces dual latent layers and a parallel multi-model structure with diverse temperature strategies. By dynamically tuning the temperature in response to the loss difference between each sub-model and the best sub-model with the minimum loss at each training epoch, our model utilizes exploration and exploitation and significantly surpasses a standard GS-VAE in data reconstruction, detection of altered data, and model robustness. In particular, our model can reconstruct data of unfamiliar categories that are never observed during training. Moreover, in the presence of patch attack or white-box adversarial attack, our model greatly outperforms a standard GS-VAE and other existing models studied in this work.
Organizing for Sustainability in the Greater Dayton Area

Lindsay K. Adams, Patrice Claire Bilodeau, Nicholas Chandiles, Sophia M. Divagno, Amanda N. Film, Renee R. Fortin, Isabel Angelica Garcia Torres, Jessica Lee Garland, Eileen M. Globokar, Anyssa S. Jones, Mara Elizabeth Mackinnon, Owen P. Malloy, Matthew Kevin McGuire, Emma Rae Meyer, Tyler R. Mordarski, Michael Nolan Mosher, Kayla Nicole Nickel, Ja'Niyah Raeann Norman, Cassandra A. Novak, Matthew C. Rego, Claire M. Robinson, Madelyn Elizabeth Day Russell, Isabella Santamarina, Olivia L. Slavin, Alyssa Marie Sparto, Cole Eugene Thomas, Kennedy A. Torggler, Margaret Hope Whitman, Christierra Cici Williams, Charles A. Zahir

Sustainability is integral to managing organizations in the 2020s. As Ray Anderson, the late chair and founder of the carpet manufacturing company Interface, explains, sustainability in its broadest sense is about organizational survival. Organizations must develop their capacity to identify events that pose risk to them, assess those risks, and respond in ways that allow them to meet those tests -- and even thrive in doing so. As the students of CMM 425 Professional Seminar in Communication Management in Organizations look towards their first professional experiences after graduation, they have been learning about processes and practices conducive to sustainable organization and carrying out projects in which they work with a client organization to identify and respond to a specific threat to their sustainability. In this group presentation, each team of students will recount its story in working with a client, share what it has learned in working that client, and offer insights about sustainable organization overall.
Our Lady of the Fields and the American Missionary Calling

Anh Nguyen

Using historical research and oral interviews with Glenmarians, this presentation will present highlights from the history of the Blessed Virgin Mary's title as Our Lady of the Fields, a title that has impacted Catholics in North America for many years. The devotion was brought from France to North America by Jesuit missionaries. Although this Marian image was brought in from Europe, her story resonated with many Native Americans and became a symbol for the common working folks of America. Our Lady of the Fields has also inspired a home-grown missionary community, the Glenmary Home Missioners, dedicated to bringing the gospel to the rural Americas. The title of Our Lady of the fields though ancient continues to inspire many missioners to bring the gospel to the poorest of the poor. Our Lady of the Fields penetrates into the American experience.
Past and present human rights issues represented in contemporary Latin American Literature: the case of Nona Fernandez's “La dimensión desconocida”

Nicholas William Ness, Aaliyah S. Rios, Rachel Lynn Zagorski

This bilingual project discusses the impact of injustice and impunity related to past dictatorships on Latin American culture by focusing on the novel “La dimensión desconocida” by Nona Fernandez (2016). This novel offers a reflection on how historical and personal memory is impacted during and after political turmoil and oppression in Chile. Through a combination of fiction and reality, Fernández explores the impact of political violence and oppression on her society, including grey zones between victims and perpetrators. We will examine how Fernandez portrays the impact of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) on Chileans, exploring themes such as human rights, violence, trauma, and the search for truth in relation to memorialization.
Photographing Wildlife: Analysis of Species Richness and Activity in and around Solar Prairies

Kara Beth Gregory, Noah E. Jones-Beyene, Evelyn Rose Thomson, Claire Elizabeth Van Meter

Solar energy is one of the most promising forms of clean renewable energy, but there are still issues with land management around solar arrays. The introduction of prairies under solar arrays can significantly increase biodiversity in what would otherwise be a monocrop field of grass. Most solar arrays are surrounded by a fence, which can hinder animal movement. We sought to understand how animals interact with these solar prairies in arrays with and without fences. We investigated animal behavior using wildlife cameras at two different solar arrays in Dayton, OH, one at the Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC), and one at Curran Place on the University of Dayton Campus. We placed 10 camera traps at each site, 5 inside the array and 5 around the border. The cameras were baited twice with deer pheromone gel and either cat food (week 1) or wildlife pellets (week 2). Cameras were set to take 3 photos every 15 seconds of detected movement, and were running for two weeks. We found that the presence of a fence decreased species richness, as it hindered the ability of larger animals to enter the array. At MEEC, which has a fence, 3 species were found inside the array, and 7 were found outside. At Curran Place, which does not have a fence, 4 species were found inside and 7 outside. However, the difference in species diversity could be due to the lack of establishment of the prairie under MEEC, which was only recently established. We recommend that future solar arrays should avoid fencing when possible, and if there must be a fence, it should be raised above the ground to allow small animals to enter and exit as needed.
Physiological and Subjective Responses to a Novel Version of the Trier Social Stress Test

Elizabeth A. Chevalier, Sophia Elle Hollins, Stella Odelle Monnig

Cortisol is the primary hormone involved in the stress response in humans, and it increases in response to psychological stressors (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004). One laboratory procedure commonly used to increase subjective distress and trigger a cortisol response is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), which incorporates cognitively demanding and social evaluative components (Kirschbaum et al., 1993). In our current study, a variation of the TSST was used to test its ability to acutely increase stress, as evidenced by participant’s subjective and physiological responses. These responses were measured by questionnaires and saliva analyses, respectively. Our variation included a non-stress group, modeled after the control condition utilized by Espin et al. (2013), which some versions of the TSST don’t use. Our lab is using the TSST for the first time to investigate our broader interests: stress, negative affect, and alcohol use. Participants were randomly assigned to the stress or non-stress condition. They completed questionnaires about their stress and affect pre- and post-TSST, as well as questionnaires about their alcohol use and cravings post-TSST. Participants provided three saliva samples throughout the procedure: Time 1 was pre-TSST, Time 2 was 30 minutes later, and Time 3 was 25 minutes after Time 2. Hypotheses included: 1. participants in the stress condition would have increased cortisol levels at Time 2 relative to Time 1 and the non-stress group; 2. participants in the non-stress condition would not show increased cortisol levels; and, 3. participants in the stress condition would have changes in mood, and higher ratings of alcohol craving. Analysis of salivary cortisol levels is ongoing, but analysis of subjective responses shows a significant increase in negative affect in the stress group relative to Time 1 and the non-stress group. To-date, these data suggest that our version of the TSST was successful for inducing a mood change.
Pilot Performance Analysis in Virtual Environment

Diya Liz Babu

Predicting the performance of pilots in the aviation industry is essential for improving safety, efficiency, and overall operational effectiveness. Accurate evaluations of a pilot’s abilities can provide valuable insights for training programs, facilitate the development of customized training interventions, and contribute to the design of human-machine interfaces that align with individual skill sets. Moreover, understanding and predicting pilot performance can assist in identifying potential safety hazards and mitigating human factors that may contribute to errors in complex flight scenarios.This research primarily focuses on predicting and validating models for pilot performance during simulated flight operations, i.e. performing altitude or heading changes. This predictive scope involves essential metrics, the highest pilot entry stage input value (greatest yoke angle), aircraft heading error, aircraft heading change rate (yaw rate) during the pilot's initial recovery stage input, and compensatory corrections during the recovery period.Additionally, the research explores the temporal aspect of predictive accuracy, analyzing how early in the timeline we can effectively forecast pilot performance. Our proposed solution involves the utilization of Machine Learning Regression methods, assessing both Single Output and Multi Output models. Interestingly, the study reveals that Single Output models perform just as effectively as Multi Output models, suggesting a lack of correlation between the target variables for the Multi Output to outperform. Among the algorithms considered, Random Forest emerges as the most proficient in predicting pilot performance.
Police Behavior Survey

Owen Christopher Lawless, Alejandro Jose Morales

The current study looks to explore the connection between police traffic stops and if the individual who was stopped thought that the police officer behaved. Through many different variables we are able to see if our dependent variable, did the police behave, correlates. Our variables which we will be looking into are the race, age, sex of the individual, if the individual was given a reason for the stop, if the stop was legitimate, if the individual received a ticket, the time of day of the stop, the income of the person being stopped, and the amount of time of the stop. These variables will allow us to determine how the police behave from stop to stop and how the different features of the individuals affect the policies behavior. For the most part our variables are coded as (1) yes (2) no except for age which is categorized by age groups. For our variables we will be using linear regression to find our results. Our models showed that non-white people are more likely to say that the police did not behave more often. In the second model it also showed that non-white people said that police did not behave more often when in the same model as age and sex, but when with all of the variables we found that race was not significant. Our results also showed us that in model three that the reason for the stop, if the stop was legitimate, if you received a ticket, the income of the person, and the amount of time spent at the stop were all significant variables in our model.
Police Legitimacy in Low-Income Communities

Chukwuzimife James Raymond Nwokeji, Christopher A. Peguero

This research explores a measure of police legitimacy within low-income communities, seeking to uncover the dynamics that shape the intersection of law enforcement practices and community resilience. By examining the association between community trust, procedural justice, and the socioeconomic context, the study seeks to highlight the mechanisms through which police legitimacy may influence the cycle of criminal behavior among disadvantaged youth. Additionally, the research explores potential moderating factors that may amplify or mitigate the relationship between police legitimacy and recidivism, such as race, gender, gang involvement, and other socioeconomic variables.
Police Use of Force Towards Suspects

Riley A. Bendery, Annalisa Benziger

In 1994, the Phoenix Police Department, in collaboration with Rutgers University and Arizona State University, conducted a study on the use of force by and against Phoenix police officers. The study aimed to evaluate the extent of force employed in various arrest situations and to identify factors that could predict the amount of force used, including the involvement of the officer, the suspect, the nature of the offense, and the circumstances surrounding the arrest. The study generated a set of variables designed to accurately capture the diverse spectrum of forces commonly encountered in typical arrest scenarios. The study's design involved collecting data on all adult arrests made during a two-week period that commenced on June 13, 1994, in Phoenix, Arizona. The researchers obtained survey data from 1,585 adults who were booked by Phoenix police officers at Maricopa County Jail. Simultaneously, the Phoenix Police Department's automated information system recorded 1,826 arrests involving adult suspects being booked. In the second week of this two-week data collection period, the researchers randomly selected 20 out of 56 three-hour periods for conducting screening interviews with both officers and suspects. To understand the results, a statistical analysis using an ordinal regression model was conducted. Contrary to our hypothesis, this study found that race did not play a significant role in police victimization when accounting for other variables. What did play a significant role in understanding when an officer will use force is a suspect's sex, a suspect's age, officer's sex, the suspect's attitude during the encounter, and the suspect's resistance levels.
Political Representation, Democracy, and the Electoral College: An Applied Theoretical Analysis

Jordan A. Marsh

Though a key institution in the United States presidential election, the Electoral College has often been overlooked for close theoretical analysis and even less frequently dissected for a deeper understanding of its consistency with theories of representative democracy. As such, this presentation summarizes a study of the Electoral College through a theoretical lens to ultimately investigate the degree to which it is democratically representative. The first section analyzes the Electoral College through both a historical and a modern contextual lens. The second section of this paper explores various theories of representation, including the works of Pitkin, Rehfeld, Manin, and Mansbridge, among others. The third section scrutinizes the Electoral College’s representative nature through the frameworks of these theorists. Finally, the fourth section brings the representative nature of the Electoral College in conversation with the ideals of representative democracy, making the case that the Electoral College, in its current form, lacks critical aspects of democratic representation.
Positive Psychology Interventions With Vulnerable Populations

Anna Ružena Kopsick

This poster will review research on the use of positive psychology interventions in the community, with a focus on the utilization of such interventions for vulnerable populations. Then, the poster will summarize success this semester in developing and utilizing such interventions with a homeless shelter population.
Power and Ideology Analysis: Escaping Twin Flames

Hope Clegg, Tristan Fountain, Grace McMonagle

Rhetoric drawing on religious stories, ideals, concepts, and experiences surround us in our daily lives. These posters represent a sampling of the rhetorical analyses conducted by students from CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric throughout the Spring 2024 semester. Groups presented several themed reports prior to Stander and picked one to showcase at the symposium.
Pre-health Interview Workshop

Rachel Victoria Bull, Katarina Lucyna Lagodzinski, Kayla Deanne Ogburn

This workshop is for Pre-Health students, or any other students who are interested in seeing what the Pre-Health interview process is like. The live mock interview session will allow students to hear feedback and commentary from the interviewer. In addition, there will be a Q&A session at the end for students. This will be a session helpful to under-classmen and juniors who have questions about the interview process. We hope this presentation will give students tips and insight into the interview process they will encounter in the future.
PREPARATION AND STUDIES OF NEW DIFUNCTIONAL SPIROBICYCLIC EPOXY MONOMERS

Andrew Michael Kelly

We are presenting results on the investigation of a novel, spirocyclic, P-containing bifunctional epoxy compound, envisioned as a potential reactive flame retardant. We will report results from our synthesis efforts, the use of the target in epoxy formulations, and flammability studies of the resultant epoxy resins.
Preparing subunit vaccine for Influenza A virus and measuring its immune response in rats

Kelechi Richie Okere

Influenza A virus (IAV) is an enveloped, negative-sense, single-stranded, segmented RNA virus.It is one of the highly infectious viruses that resulted in at least 14 or more viral pandemics inhistory, including influenza virus pandemics in 1918, 1957, 1968, 1977, 2009, and 2013.Inactivated whole virus and live attenuated virus vaccines effectively control seasonal influenzavirus infections. Subunit vaccines are considered safer than inactivated or live attenuated virusvaccines, especially among elderly people. The current experiment in the Immunology lab (BIO496L) was designed to prepare a subunit vaccine for IAV using its nucleoprotein (NP) andanalyze for vaccine response in rats against the virus. IAV A-NP, strain A/PR/8/35 was mixedwith Freund's complete adjuvant and injected into the rats (Sprague Dawley) subcutaneouslyaccording to the University of Dayton IACUC protocol. A booster dose was given after oneweek of primary vaccination and blood was collected after two weeks of booster vaccination.The serum was separated and analyzed for IAV A nucleoprotein (NP) specific antibodies using aprecipitation test, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), and hemagglutination (HA)/hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays. Results showed IAV A nucleoprotein (NP) specificantibodies in the precipitation test, while ELISA showed a 10.74±0.71 increase in antigen-specific antibodies in the rat serum vaccinated with the subunit vaccine, whereas HA/HI assayshowed 80 HI units for influenza virus A neutralizing antibodies. Overall, the current experimentshowed that the subunit vaccine prepared in the lab induced a protective immune responseagainst the influenza A virus.
Probing for the developmental mechanisms underlying repeated tooth loss in frogs

Jacob A. Szafranski

Teeth have been lost several times during the evolution of vertebrates, resulting in toothlessness, but is most widespread in frogs with over 20 independent losses. Investigations in toothless fishes, reptiles, and mammals have found that the tooth development program is not completely lost. These species maintain early molecular signaling and can develop transient tooth bud rudiments prior to the termination of the tooth development program that is disrupted via multiple pathways (loss of expression for different genes). We investigated convergent tooth loss in frogs by examining a developmental series of several toothed and toothless species using histological sectioning, microanatomical investigation, and gene expression analyses. We hypothesized that several different mechanisms arrest tooth development in the upper jaw across toothless frog species that have independently lost teeth. Unexpectedly, we have found little anatomical or molecular evidence that the tooth development program initiates in the upper jaws of any toothless frog species investigated. These results suggest that frogs are capable of losing teeth without a trace, driven by an underlying mechanism that is distinct from the patterns identified in all other toothless vertebrates.
Quantifying the impacts of precipitation seasonality and intensity on groundwater availability in Hosanna, Ethiopia.

Rose H. Weisgerber

Understanding the link between precipitation and groundwater is vital for ensuring water resources' availability, reliability, and sustainability, particularly in arid regions such as Ethiopia that are vulnerable to climate change. To understand the main controls of groundwater recharge and estimate the seasonal contribution of precipitation, we conducted a comprehensive water isotope study in Hosanna, southern Ethiopia. Due to the complex interconnection of climate, rainfall, and groundwater recharge in this region, we used multiple approaches. Using stable isotopes of Hydrogen (δD) and Oxygen (δ18O) as a conservative tracer, we developed a local meteoric water line (LMWL) and employed isotope mass balance. These analyses provide a quantitative estimate of groundwater recharged and recharge mechanisms.Additionally, Hybrid Single Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) modeling, correlation analysis of climate data, and intensity threshold analysis shed further light on the source of moisture, atmospheric, and climatic controls. Our findings indicate that precipitation in Hosanna mainly originates from recycled moisture sources, evidenced by d-excess, with the oceanic advected moisture seasonally alternating between the North and South Indian Oceans. The wet season provides most of the annual precipitation, with groundwater recharge biased (~65.5%) towards the wet season. However, the intensity threshold analysis suggests extreme rainfall events had the most significant impact on groundwater recharge. The amount-weighted δ18O values of five extreme precipitation events occur during the wet season and have a similar isotopic composition (0.86‰ difference) with the groundwater δ18O values. While wet season and high-intensity precipitation account for most groundwater recharge, slow diffuse recharge, focused recharge from rivers, and dry season precipitation account for the rest of groundwater recharge. This study establishes the source and main contributors of regional groundwater recharge in Hosanna. It provides invaluable information for surface water contaminant transport, water resource management, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation strategies.
Quantization of Thermal Radiation in Blackbody Radiation

Thomas Silvio De Santis, Matthew Joseph Sandor, Nathan Charles Sowder

A black body is an ideal object that when heated emits thermal radiation but absorbs all radiation shined on it. In the early 1900’s physicists were interested in describing radiation emission of such objects, but to no avail. Classical physics was simply unequipped to describe black bodies. One theory, Rayleigh-Jeans equations, is one such failed attempt. One of the problems of using classical physics known at the time to describe blackbodies was the so called "ultraviolet catastrophe." The ultraviolet catastrophe comes about because classical physics assumes that energy is continuous and as such the calculated total energy emitted by a blackbody becomes infinite, which is physically unrealistic. Max Plank, a theoretical physicist, hypothesized that energy absorbed or emitted by molecules is quantized, thereby leading to what is known Planck's equation that solved the ultraviolet catastrophe and gave birth to a new field of physics called quantum mechanics. The theoretical treatment of black bodies has resulted in many applications. It is now used in medical and thermal imaging, understanding the temperature and composition of stars, just to mention a few.
Quantum Entanglement

Claire Olivia Hogshead, Madeline L. O'Mahoney, Ian Jacob Sundeen

Did you know that two particles could interact instantaneously across vast distances? This ispossible through quantum entanglement. One way to do this is to correlate two particles in anentangled state. These particles can have two different spins, where the chance of a particlehaving either spin up or down is completely random. However, when the two particles areentangled and the spin of one particle is measured, the other entangled particle will always havethe opposite spin. Strangely, this can happen regardless of the distance between them, exhibitingnon-local interdependence! This “quantum spookiness” has been experimentally demonstratedwith photons and electrons. Quantum entanglement has potential applications in many fields,particularly quantum computing and cryptography.
Quantum Field Theory : An Overview

Joseph Michael Kopp

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is considered to be one of the most successful scientific theories of all time. It explains 3 of the 4 fundamental forces nearly perfectly, with the fourth being described by general relativity. In this poster, I will talk about what exactly a field theory is, the 3 fundamental types of fields, their equations, and their interactions, as well as give a few applications of QFT in physics.
Queer Joy on Our Screens

Reagan Marie Lloyd

This THR/VAR 250 Diversity in the Creative and Performing Arts poster presentation project requires each student to research and present on a topic relevant to the interdisciplinary fields of visual and performing arts through a critical multicultural and social justice lens that foregrounds the appreciation of diversity and enables the expansion of personal cultural competencies.