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  Moral Injury

  John Batten, Jack Walsh, Grace O'Malley

  Moral injury has much in common with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but is a distinct kind of harm resulting from an experience that affronts core values and shatters one's sense of moral order. This poster will explain moral injury as a kind of trauma and identify ways the UD community can both support those who are healing from moral injury and work to prevent further injury from happening.

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  Multi functional robot

  Yamini Chandrashekar

  The main aim of the project is to detect the metal near by to the sensor. Whenever the metalis brought near the sensor (inductor) a buzzer is produced from the speaker and whenever themetal is removed the sound is switched off. As the magnetic flux passes through the someopaque objects such as plastics, cloth, etc., by which we can detect any metal hiding someobjects.This Work is based on Arduino, motor driver and Bluetooth module. Arduino is anopensource prototyping platform Based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino usesan ATmega328 microcontroller. Since robotics has become a major part in our daily life andalso in the engineering field and it plays a vital role in the development of new technology.This is a very simple and easy type form of remote control car, where the ordinary microcontroller has been replaced by Arduino and IR sensors has been replaced by a Bluetoothmodule. The remote can be any android or IOS cell phones. This project can be made in abigger scale for real time vehicles.

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  Multi-Robot Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion with Probabilistic Evader Models

  Mukilan Ashokraj Rajapriya

  This project presents an algorithm for a Multi-Robot Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion problem in a 2-Dimensional polygonal environment where a team of pursuers attempts to locate an unknown number of evaders given that the pursuers have access to a probabilistic model which describes how the evaders are likely to move in the environment. We present an algorithm to compute a joint plan for pursuers that considers two criterion; the expected time to capture the evaders, and the guaranteed (maximal) time to capture all of the evaders. The desired outcome of our algorithm is a plan for the pursuers that returns a relatively low expected time to capture without drastically increasing the guaranteed time to capture. Intuitively, this can be viewed as a “re-routing” of the pursuers in order to locate more evaders, sooner, than a naive uninformed search. The algorithm proceeds in two phases that we term an “exploitation” phase and an “exploration” phase. We beginthe exploitation phase by first drawing a collection of representative samples from the probabilistic model describing potential evader behavior. We then compute a joint plan for the pursuers that captures all of these sampled evader trajectories. We then proceed tothe exploration phase which provides a complete solution by appending additional pursuer motions to the plan computed during the exploit phase. The resulting strategy ensures that all evaders are located, regardless of whether they follow the probabilistic model or not. Weplan to evaluate our algorithm in simulation to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.

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  Musical Expression and Symbolic Forms

  Jacob Biesecker-Mast

  Frequently the idea of expression comes up when people talk about music’s value in human culture. However, expression is often ill-defined and can be found to be used many ways. Some argue music is not expressive at all, but instead is beautiful by virtue of its well-formed nature. This particular perspective, musical formalism, often looks at what is called “absolute music”, or music without any other kind of media like lyrics, and argues that the form of the music, with its interesting play between various melodies, counter melodies, and chord structure, is that which gives it value rather than any kind of expressive capabilities. Susanne Langer is a scholar who has written much on the philosophy of art and makes compelling arguments for the expressive nature of art, and thus departs from formalism distinctly. Many of her theories treat art as a sort of language that expresses through meaning-making symbols. However, there seem to be some weaknesses in her theory that can be fixed with some ideas from another philosopher of art, Nelson Goodman. Langer postulates that symbols in music, as distinct from discursive language, do not necessarily refer to an object to make meaning, but instead present concepts as they are through constructing analogous logical relationships. However, it seems that if the symbol does not refer to an object, then the symbol is all that is needed to comprehend the concept, thus it is not clear how the two are distinct. Goodman offers up the concept of exemplification, in which the symbol exemplifies the concept in question, in addition to presenting it. In this way, the value of music lies, at least in great part, in its capability to both express the emotional inner-life of human beings, and do important work in conceptualizing the world we live in.

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  Muted Daughters, Powerful Performance in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice

  Breann Webb

  The presentation will explore questions of agency, embodiment, silence and performance, and disability, in two of William Shakespeare’s plays Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice. I will examine the ways in which directors and producers of contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, specifically the stage adaptation of Titus Andronicus by Lucy Bailey (2015) and the film adaptation by Julie Taymor (1999) and the stage adaptation of The Merchant of Venice by Polly Findlay (2015) and the film adaptation by Michael Radford (2004), alter the meaning of scenes for a modern audience, and help us to better understand the play texts themselves. In addition, these stage and film adaptations bring into question the wills and responsibilities of daughters during the early modern period in Europe that complicate meanings of power and identity. In The Merchant of Venice the audience is confronted with a father–daughter relationship between Shylock and Jessica, that places Jessica’s will and religion in question when she wishes to marry a Christian instead of a Jew, which during this period, meant legally converting to Christianity. This play tackles concerns about violence, will, agency, and silence that audiences also see in the father-daughter relationship of Titus and Lavinia in Titus Andronicus. Adaptations allow for a shift in emphasis and create meaning through action, not just words. For early modern audiences, and for us today, performance is fluid, contingent, and adaptive which allows for variances in interpretation. It is also important to acknowledge that feminist and queer theory assists many scholars and readers of Shakespeare in recognizing the patriarchal, heteronormative, and engendered assumptions across histories. Furthermore, feminist theory has illuminated the patriarchal structures that have silenced women. Thus, my presentation will also engage with early modern feminist scholars such as Melissa E. Sanchez, Christina Luckyj, Kathryn Schwarz, and Valerie Traub.

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  Nano-platelet Bi2-Bi2Se3 Nucleation and Optical Properties

  Margaret M. Brown; other authors: Katherine M. Burzynski, Derek Winner, Krishnamurthy Mahalingam, Ryan P. Laing, Tobin C. Muratore, Jeff L. Brown, Kurt G. Eyink, Said Elhamri, J.P. Corbett, and Amber Reed.

  Topological insulators are an exciting classification of materials exhibiting protected surface states that allow for spin-orbit coupling on the conductive surface while maintaining an insulated bulk. A selenium-deficient growth of the well-known topological insulator, Bi2Se3,produces a natural heterostructure consisting of quintuple layers of Bi2Se3 and 2D layers of Bi2 . Previous work has shown that both terminating layers yield distinct topologically protected surface states. Growth studies of this material reveal dimension-dependent optical properties. Evidence of an increased optical bandgap with decreased nano-platelet volume suggests the presence of quantum confinement, a phenomena that results in an increased and quantized bandgap. Additionally, this investigation reports a pressure-dependent nucleation study of Bi2-Bi2Se3 grown via direct current magnetron sputtering. This nucleation study and results can be exploited to fine tune the optical bandgap of Bi2-Bi2Se3 nano-platelets over a range of 1.55 to 2.21 eV. Such tunability may be utilized for the development of prototypical optoelectronic devices.

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  Navigating the Sensory Experience in Higher Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

  Grace Imhoff

  A growing population on college campuses is students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with 90 percent of these students having unique sensory needs. Yet very few studies solely focus on and amplify the sensory experience of college students with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how college students with ASD navigate their sensory differences in and out of the classroom and fill in gaps in current sensory research. Grounded in the constructivist paradigm, data was collected through nine one-on-one interviews with University of Dayton undergraduate students with ASD. The findings highlight students’ sensory challenges on campus, strategies used to navigate these challenges, and recommendations to improve practice. The implications suggest a need for increased ASD education and awareness as well as best practices for accommodating students’ sensory needs in and out of the classroom.

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  Net-Zero School Design

  Elizabeth Riedel, Keely Dryden, Kiara DiLoreto, Abigail Ward, Joseph Urso, Abigail Hoeppner, Emma Allington, Jessie Stranen

  This project represents the semester-long efforts by a group of civil engineering students to design a Net-Zero elementary school that incorporates sustainable design elements. The design effort focused on minimizing the impact of the school on the environment.

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  NMR-Based Lipid Analysis Indicates Cellular Membrane Lipids in Liver, but Not Skeletal Muscle or Blood Cells, Are Cold-Adapted in the Freeze-Tolerant Treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis

  Elizabeth Yokum

  Cope’s gray treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis belongs to a select group of vertebrates that survives the winter by tolerating repeated freezing and thawing of body water. One of the ways that D. chrysoscelis survives these freeze-thaw cycles is by using a complex system of chemical cryoprotectants to prevent cells from freezing and to maintain homeostasis of body fluids. We hypothesized that an additional mechanism that enables freeze tolerance is the modification of cellular membrane lipid composition during cold acclimation, thereby optimizing cellular biophysical properties and function in preparation for freezing. To evaluate that hypothesis, cellular membranes were prepared from liver, skeletal muscle, and blood cells of wild-caught male treefrogs that were cold-acclimated to 5°C (cold) or maintained at 22°C as the (warm) control group. 1H-NMR analysis was used to quantify relative abundance of membrane cholesterol and to characterize phospholipid fatty acids. Principal components statistical analysis indicates that membrane lipid profiles are tissue-specific, but that membrane lipids were affected by cold acclimation in liver tissue only. In liver, both free and esterified membrane cholesterol was elevated in the cold by 2-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively (P < 0.05). Fatty acid characterization revealed that chain length did not vary between groups (P = 0.46), but total fatty acid unsaturation (i.e. number of double bonds) was nearly doubled in cold frogs compared to the warm control (P < 0.05). Both mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids are more abundant in the cold group and the ω-6 fatty acid linoleic acid was more than 2-fold greater in membranes from cold frogs (P < 0.05). These specific modifications in liver membrane lipid composition support our hypothesis and would likely enhance cellular freeze tolerance in the cold. Surprisingly, membrane lipids were not similarly adapted in blood cells or muscle, indicating that membrane adaptation may be tissue-specific or adapted during freezing conditions.

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  Novel role of miR-137 in the eye development of Drosophila

  Rad Radhika Padma

  microRNAs (miRNAs) are 18-22 nucleotide short, which constitute a significant fraction of noncoding repertoire of the genome. miRNA regulate the expression of their target gene(s) through post-transcriptional means. These miRNA interacts with 3′ or 5′ UTRs of mRNAs, thereby stopping the translation by degradation of their target mRNA. miRNAs are evolutionarily conserved across taxa and can regulate more than one target mRNAs. We employed a forward genetic screen to look for the miRNA that affects eye development using Drosophila melanogaster eye model. Drosophila compound eye has been extensively used for the genome wide screen as it is easy to score the phenotypes, the genetic machinery to form an eye is highly conserved and it is nonessential for survival. In this screen, we identified a miRNA-137, which affects the eye development. Our investigations showed that the gain-of-function miRNA-137 in the developing eye-antennal imaginal disc significantly reduces the eye size in the larval eye imaginal disc and the adult eye. We employed bioinformatic tools to identify the target(s)of miRNA-137 using targetscan and Diana software. We identified four putative targets for miRNA-137 in the developing eye. We are in process of characterizing the roles of these targets in eye development and to validate that these candidate gene(s) expression is affected by miRNA-137 using molecular genetic approaches. Here we present our characterization of novel role of miRNA-137 role in the developing eye.

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  Numerical Study of a Mathematical Model on the Influence of Counseling on Divorce Rate

  Elizabeth Goettke, Bridget Gerber

  In this project, a mathematical model for minimizing divorce through counseling is being evaluated using numerical methods, such as Euler’s method and the Runge Kutta methods. We will compare the accuracy of these methods in simulations and error analysis. Matlab's built-in functions (ode23 and ode45) for Runge-Kutta methods are used along with our code for Euler's method.

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  Nursing Care Plan for Substance Abuse

  Elizabeth Volz, Sarah Pham, Shea Borchers

  This project features a nursing care plan for substance abuse created and presented by University of Dayton nursing students, Shea Meyer, Elizabeth Volz, and Sarah Pham. As current licensed nurses, we seek to aid and help build our communities stronger for all no matter our differences. In order to do so, we assess and analyze many factors of a community that play into the health of the individuals there. Patient care is not just about treating patients’ symptoms and sending them home. It is about providing patients with the best resources and interventions in order to watch them and the rest of the community thrive. This project started with an initial windshield survey. This survey was an assessment giving a visual overview of a community that aids in analyzing the health of that specific defined community. The survey included the Greater Dayton area within a 2.5 mile radius in all directions of the University of Dayton. It appeared that Dayton was in dire need of education on resources and outlets for people suffering from substance abuse. Data shows that Dayton is an epicenter for drug and alcohol abuse. Driving through the streets, it was easy to see evidence of concern. There were bars and alcohol on every street corner, the smell of drugs, and there are overdoses in the local hospitals.

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  Ohio 180 Years Ago: How Did Presbyterians React to Slavery In Ohio

  Noah Jackson

  A study on the Presbyterian reaction to slavery in the 19th century. It will view the topic from different lens that Presbyterians were involved in. To name two, it will address their reactions in acadamia, and the pulpit. Beginning at the turn of the 18th century into the mid 1800s, in order to display a sense of change over time in their reactions.

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  Oktoberfest in Germany and Brazil

  Julia Strittmatter and Margaret Ruhlmann

  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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  Oktoberfest in Germany vs. The United States

  Jessie Morris, Ashley Walker, Maddie Hansen

  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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  Online Auto-Fill Forms From Images

  Charith Boddu

  This project could be useful in simplifying and streamlining the process of filling out online forms, by leveraging technology to automatically extract text from images and populate the corresponding form fields. This could save time, reduce errors, and provide a more convenient and accessible way for users to complete online forms.The Autofill Forms project is a software development project that aims to create a web-based application that allows users to quickly and easily fill out online forms by extracting text from a picture and automatically populating the form fields with the extracted information.The application would allow users to take a picture of a document, such as a driver's license or passport, and use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract the text from the image. The extracted text would then be used to automatically fill in the corresponding fields in the online form.The project would involve designing a user-friendly interface that allows users to upload or take a picture of their document and preview the extracted information before auto filling the form. The application would also need to be able to handle different types of forms and adapt to changes in the form layout.Overall, the Autofill Forms project would aim to provide a more efficient and convenient way for users to fill out online forms by leveraging OCR technology and reducing the need for manual data entry.

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  Othering the Brother: Toward a Sibling-Oriented Ethics of Care

  William Bryant

  This project will be an examination of issues of childcare, gendered responsibilities, and family identity informed by feminist and queer theory. As the second oldest in a family of eight, I have always understood myself primarily as a big brother. Rooted in this experience, this project will be an exploration of feminist care ethics as they pertain to existing family structures. I aim to review and build upon feminist conversations surrounding the family, especially concerning motherhood. Then, working with more recent queer and trans discourse, I want to explore how different familial care practices have been limited, reconfigured, or erased under dominant cis-heteronormative notions of care. This will complicate many of the mother-oriented feminist theories of care, while still accounting for the work that occurs within the family—however 'family' may be defined. Finally, I will look at Virginia Woolf’s "To the Lighthouse" to recover and rethink representations of sibling care, especially as an alternative to the reproduction of gendered roles which often occurs between parent and child. This project will sketch a theory of sibling care practices, articulating what they have meant to me and what they can mean for our current social demands. Ultimately, I seek to understand how sibling relationships can forge networks of care beyond the typical family hierarchies and how the public sibling subject stands as a new ethical position which may attend to specifically queer needs.

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  Pathways to Desistance: The Steppingstone to Understanding Juveniles’ Perceptions of the Justice System

  Caleb Thomas

  Procedural justice is an important characteristic to both the public and legal authorities. The “Pathways to Desistance” study by Edward P. Mulvey, is a steppingstone to understanding the perception of juveniles and their outlook on procedural justice and the legal system in the United States. This research proposal will look at the many different perspectives of juveniles and the criminal justice system. The aim of this study is to identify any factors that impact the perceptions of the criminal justice system by juveniles. The current study will use the “Pathways to desistance, 2000-2010 dataset”. This study is a collaborative research project which used a longitudinal study to analyze 1,354 juvenile offenders who were found guilty of a serious offense. The method used to gather the data was the recruitment technique. These offenders had to be between the ages of 14 and 18 years old, at the time of committing their offense. The literature review was broken into three main categories: Studies on Procedural Justice, Studies on Courts, and Studies on Law Enforcement. The Studies on Procedural Justice included works by John Hagan, Anna Abate, Jose Pina-Sanchez and Brunton Smith. Jose Pina-Sanchez, Brunton Smith and Anna Abate all agreed in their articles that there is a correlation between juveniles and their perceptions of procedural justice. While John Hagan disagreed and stated that it was premature to apply procedural justice principles without more definitive casual studies. The Studies on Courts category uses an article written by Jeffrey J. Shook. Shook's findings revealed that there was a connection between the perceptions of the legal system and the youth's attorney. The last category, Studies on Law Enforcement, used an article written by Terrance J. Taylor. Taylors findings indicated that unlike research with adult samples, juveniles typically had an indifferent attitude towards police.

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  Perceptions of Sexual Assault: Differences in Gender

  Gabrielle Sparks, Connor Heck

  Sexual assault and rape are issues many college-aged students experience or see on American campuses. This study explores the perceptions and definitions of sexual assaults on college campuses and how they can differ between different factors. The independent variables in the study are gender, race, major, and age. The main independent variable being studied is gender, and how college students' perception of it change depending on this variable. The data being used in this study comes from a quantitative, online survey called the College Students Experiences Survey and it was collected using a convenience sampling technique. The final sample included 299 respondents from colleges all across the United States.

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  Personal and Political: The Many Spheres of Interfaith Peace Efforts

  Charles Radgowski, Jane Carney, Geoffrey Campman

  This project is a literature review focusing on the efficacy of interfaith peace and mutual understanding efforts in a variety of contexts. Our findings are that interpersonal connection, accurate and complete religious education, and cooperation between church and state actors support peaceful pluralism in society.

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  Phishing-Attack, Detection and Prevention

  Bharath Srinivasan, Karthi Balasundaram, Mukilan Ashokraj Rajapriya

  Social Engineering is the process of deceiving people to reveal confidential information about themselves. There are various categories of Social Engineering, among which Phishing is the most frequently used attack nowadays; a new phishing site is created on the internet every 20 seconds and more than seventy percent of phishing emails are opened by their targets. From fraudulent emails to deploying malicious softwares on people's computers, phishing has become one of the main concerns that bothers the common people. There are various types of phishing such as Vishing (voice phishing), Email phishing, Smishing (SMS phishing) and many more, out of which we are going to deal with the email phishing. Email phishing is the practice of getting emails with malicious intents. The initial effort involved simulating potential phishing attacks within a controlled setup leading to devising a solution on how to detect and prevent clicking on the malicious links by common netizens like us. The developed Machine Learning (ML) model was able to classify the vulnerable links with 97.88% training and 96.4% testing accuracies respectively. Overall, the work provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in ML based phishing email detection, and highlights the potential of ML techniques to enhance the security of individuals and organizations against phishing attacks. Keywords : Social Engineering, Natural Language Processing, Sentimental analysis, Email Scams, CyberSecurity Automation, Individuals, Organizations

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  Piperazine-Based Metallopolymers for Bioengineering Applications

  Jessica Schneider

  Engineering realistic and functional tissue models presents promising possibilities in drug discovery and other biomedical research. A novel polymer with potential applications in biomedical studies was developed. I report the first synthesis and characterization (with NMR, IR, GPC, UV–vis spectroscopy, and thermal analysis) of two thermoplastic poly(alkyl piperazine succinate) diols with either propyl or hexyl alkane chains bridging the piperazines. These polyester diols were chain extended with hexamethylene diisocyanate to create highly amorphous polyester urethane thermoplastic polymers. Ru(III) and Fe(III) was then successfully coordinated with these polymers, producing a total of four different metallopolymers. The crosslinking of these complexes introduces degradative properties to the polymer, which could be valuable in biomedical studies.

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  Police-Citizen Encounters: The Influence of Behavioral and Locational Factors on the Outcome

  Amelia Saucier, Lillia Allen

  Police use of force is subject to many influential factors that affect the likelihood of occurrence. Many studies have been conducted with the aim to determine what factors affect police use of force. Prior studies have attempted to outline why there has been a recent increase in use of force incidents with a particular focus on race (Miller, 2015). The current study aims to determine what overall factors present in police-citizen encounters increase or decrease the likelihood that a use of force incident will occur prior to an arrest, using the data collected in the 1994 Phoenix Use of Force Project. The dependent variable of how police respond to a suspect, will be compared to twelve independent variables to determine which is most influential to the outcome of an encounter. The results concluded that the independent variables of Suspect Resistance, Suspect Sex, and Suspect Impairment were statistically significant in determining when a use of force incident will occur.

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  Portable Optical Fiber Bio-Sensing Device for the Detection of Biomolecules in Bodily Fluids

  Chaminda Ajith Kumara Ranathunga Ranathunga Mudiyanselage Ihala Gane Gedara

  Bio-sensing plays an important role in the determination of bio-target molecules in medical applications. In this regard, Tapered Optical Fibers Sensor (TOFS) is emerging due to its higher sensitivity, real-time specimen, and practical measuring capabilities. The sensitivity of a typical TOFS is 0.0001 RIU (Refractive Index Units) meaning the device is capable of detecting a 0.0001 change in refractive indices. This allows TOFS to be sensitive in molecular-level interactions. A tapered region or the sensitive area of a TOFS is obtained by stretching single-mode fiber cables to desired dimensions. Typical dimensions of a tapered region are 20-25 mm. A wavelength-swept laser beam is launched at one end of the fiber, passes through the tapered region, and then is collected at the other end. The modes excited at the tapered region have evanescent components in the surrounding medium and are sensitive to the concentration of bimolecular antigen-antibody pairs. This evanescent electromagnetic (EM) field enables the detection of minute changes in the refractive index close to the surface of the fiber. For the detection of biomolecules, an aqueous solution that contains the target biomolecules is introduced where they can be captured by a functionalized fiber (carrying antibodies for the analyte).The developed TOFS system was experimentally tested for practical use and yielded repeatable results with high resolution. It had been tested using various liquids, such as PBS, water, and saliva. The system utilized for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) through IL-8 virus in saliva and the Covid variant HCoV-OC43. Both experiments showed success with resolutions of 10 pg/ml for IL-8 and 50 viruses/ ml for HCoV-OC43 , exceeding practical requirements in real applications.

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  Powering the Future with Sodium Ion Batteries: “A Sustainable and Cost-Effective Energy Storage Solution"

  Subathra Rajendran

  Energy storage is an essential component of the transition to renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, which are intermittent and dependent on weather conditions. Energy storage systems can help balance the supply and demand of energy and provide backup power during peak demand.However, traditional energy storage technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries, face several challenges, including limited availability of raw materials, high cost, and safety concerns. Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries, with several potential advantages.One major challenge with lithium-ion batteries is the limited availability of raw materials, such as cobalt and lithium, which are concentrated in a few countries. In contrast, sodium is abundant and widely available, making sodium-ion batteries a more sustainable and scalable option.Another advantage of sodium-ion batteries is their lower cost. Sodium-ion batteries use lower-cost materials than lithium-ion batteries, and the manufacturing process is simpler, which could lead to lower production costs.Sodium-ion batteries have a lower risk of fire or explosion than lithium-ion batteries. This is because sodium-ion batteries use a solid electrolyte instead of a flammable liquid electrolyte, which can reduce the risk of thermal runaway and improve safety.