Stander Symposium Projects

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  Semester of Service at Adventure Central

  Caroline Marie Shepherd

  Adventure Central is an after school program that encourages environmental education and appreciation. Through the Semester of Service program at UD, two group leaders were hired to work full time at Adventure Central. Semester of Service participants are acquiring experience in lesson planning and educating elementary aged school children. Adventure Central is located in West Dayton and caters to Dayton City School students. There is no where else in the country that rivals Adventure Central's success in after school programming. Adventure Central is possible through partnerships with Five Rivers Metroparks, The Ohio State University and 4-H . Semester of Service participants have their own classroom to maintain and plan for. Students at Adventure Central range from six to 18 years old. Adventure Central promotes positive youth development in the West Dayton community.

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  Semester of Service at Aullwood Audubon: Ewe, Me, and Energy

  Thomas Brewster Tappel

  This semester, my last semester, I worked full-time at Aullwood Audubon as their (in way over my head) energy engineer. During my time at Aullwood, I coordinated projects aimed at reducing the amount energy used at the Nature Center as well as developing plans for renewable energy generation and energy education. I also participated in some of Aullwood's programs and events exploring the trails throughout the 200-acre nature sanctuary, experiencing how to make maple syrup, and learning more than I could ever imagine about birds.

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  Semester of Service at Daybreak

  Emma O'Neill Bertrand

  I have dedicated this semester to service for the Dayton community. Specifically, I am working with Daybreak youth homeless shelter. As a communication major, I have a gift for telling stories both written and visually. I will use these skills throughout the course of the semester to tell the stories of the people at Daybreak and to bring about awareness of the agency and all of the good that it does.

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  Semester of Service at Homefull

  Krishna Sai Phaneendar Mullapudi

  Homefull, formerly The Other Place, was founded in1988 in Dayton, Ohio and has grown to meet the challenging needs of the community in service to homeless persons. Through UD’s Semester of Service Program, this semester I have volunteered to work for Homefull as an IT intern. During my time at Homefull, I have assisted the employees with their every day tech needs and troubleshooting their issues with computers. As a Computer Science major, I have dedicated my time here shadowing different employees and made suggestions to make their work easier. I am also working on building an interface to quickly and efficiently search through different organizations such as food Pantries that will help our clients. I have had a chance to travel across different sites that Homefull serves and learn more about American society by meeting different people. It has been only one year for me in the USA and I am thankful to SOS that I was able to learn many things through this program, that my four walls classroom would have never taught me.

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  Semester of Service at Homefull: Housing First and Homelessness in Dayton

  Alexandra M Altomare

  Homefull is a non-profit agency that provides case management services to the homeless population in Dayton to help individuals escape homelessness hopefully into a stable and long-lasting independent living situation. With a housing first philosophy, Homefull case management is focused on getting clients out of shelter as a top priority, with all other services to follow. As a case manager this semester, I assist clients in getting linked with services to manage their mental health conditions, stabilize alcohol and drug abuse, and find income to prepare clients for the housing opportunities Homefull is able to assist them with. The role of the case manager ranges from advocate to potential landlords, sympathetic ear to a hard day, or stern motivator to encourage clients to seek help for themselves. But no matter the task that day, the end goal is always to find a reconciliation between the poverty and lack of affordable housing in Dayton to break the cycle of neglect towards this vulnerable population.

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  Semester of Service at the Brunner Literacy Center

  Fiona Marie Madden

  Through UD's Semester of Service program, I worked at the Brunner Literacy Center. The center began serving illiterate and low-literate adults in the Dayton area in 2006, and has since expanded its services to include GED prep and English as a Second Language (ESL) tutoring. I worked to further the BLC's mission of providing a safe, welcoming place for adults to learn by acting as a program assistant and tutoring students from Dayton, Sudan, and the Dominican Republic.

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  Semester of Service - Volunteers of America Residential Re-Entry

  Nathan Joseph Roman

  Through UD's Semester of Service program, I spent my last semester working full-time at the Volunteers of (VOA) America Residential Re-Entry facility in Dayton. This facility houses 130 clients who are transitioning from the criminal justice system back into society, and offers a number of programs to make this transition easier. At VOA, I assisted with employment readiness services (creating resumes and preparing for interviews), structured activities (life skills and recreational time), and also helped to connect clients to appropriate resources in the community.

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  Sex Differences in Concussion-Related Attitudes Among College Students

  Pat William Dwyer

  Every year there are 300,000 – 3.8 million concussions sustained in the United States. Due to the prevalence of this injury and an increased understanding of it that has developed over the past decade, concussions have become a topic of much concern and conversation. Previous research has shown that factors such as having children, socioeconomic status, a person’s own concussion history, and amount of time available for education, among many others can influence attitudes and knowledge about concussion. The current study sought out to understand the influence of the sex an individual and college education on multiple concussion-related attitudes. We developed a survey to assess the attitudes of college students on a range of topics surrounding concussions. 200 students at the University of Dayton were surveyed, and from our pre-test data we found significant differences in attitudes on a few questions between sexes. Males were more likely to report a higher opinion of the way professional sports leagues have handled the concussions in general. Also, males were more likely to report that they felt the monetary benefits to playing sports outweighed the risks associated with sustaining a concussion. Finally, females felt more strongly that there should be laws created and enforced in relation to concussion management for youth sports. Our results indicate that sex differences emerge in various areas of concussion-related attitudes.

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  Sex differences in the antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in an inflammatory mouse model of depression

  Nick Richard Halloy, Benjamin Klocke, Connor F Thelen

  A major discovery in the treatment of major depression was the finding that a single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine induces both acute and sustained antidepressant effects in patients. Although women report major depression at twice the rate of men, the vast majority of research on ketamine’s antidepressant effects has been focused on the male sex. By inducing neuroinflammation in rodents using the pro-inflammatory agent lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a sickness syndrome is manifested with many behavioral and physiological manifestations that overlap with the clinical symptoms of major depression. The majority of studies investigating the neurobiological effects of LPS have been conducted in the male sex. The antidepressant-like effects of ketamine have only been documented in male LPS-exposed mice. Of note, female responsiveness to ketamine in this neuroinflammatory model of depression remains elusive. In this study, we are investigating the sex differentiated antidepressant effects of both acute and chronic treatment of ketamine on the LPS-induced neuroinflammatory model of depression. Preliminary data from acute ketamine treatment points to a differentiation in behavior in male and female mice. In addition to this preliminary data, we are currently conducting the chronic ketamine administration phase of the study. Data collected by our lab is promising in the search for novel mechanisms for female ketamine response under the neuroinflammatory model of depression.

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  Size, Value, and Profitability in the Cross Section of Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2008 - 2017.

  William Binnie

  In this study I extend the analysis of Fama and French and Novy-Marx on the effect of firm size, value and profitability on a portfolio's excess returns. The period analysis is 2008 -2017. For this analysis I use the same metrics for size (market value) and value (price to book) as Fama and French but differ in my measure of profitability. I use return on invested capital (ROIC) instead of return on equity or gross operating profits as a percent of assets because ROIC is considered a better measure of measure of the efficient allocation of capital as well as the firm's ability to generate economic value added. I test the following hypothesis. 1.) High ROIC large cap stocks outperform low ROIC large cap stocks 2.) High ROIC small cap stocks outperform low ROIC small cap stocks 3.) High ROIC value stocks outperform low ROIC value stocks 4.) High ROIC growth stocks outperform low ROIC growth stocks

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  Sleeping on it: Examining the Effects of Sleep Consolidation when Encoding is Interrupted.

  Taylor Nicole Chambers, Alexander N Lawriw, Gabriella Louise Silone

  Research indicates that memories are strengthened by consolidation, defined as their incorporation during sleep into a previously established memory network (Rasch & Born, 2008; Rasch & Born, 2013). Data indicate that memories are initially unstable after encoding and that sleep consolidation increases resistance to interference (Robertson, 2011). On the first day of a two-day experiment designed to examined whether interrupting the encoding of a memory would affect later memory consolidation, participants in the present research memorized pictures of common objects (e.g., owl, motorcycle) presented in a slideshow. At the midpoint of the slideshow, there was a simulated computer crash. While the experimenter pretended to amend the fake situation, participants completed an unrelated task to prevent rehearsal of the pictures. Shortly after, the slideshow resumed, presenting the remaining pictures. Participants were assigned to either complete an immediate recognition test of the pictures, return to lab the following day to complete a delayed recognition test, or complete both an immediate and a delayed recognition test. We tested three hypotheses; first, pictures that appeared near the beginning and the end of encoding, and those that appeared after the resumption of the interrupted slideshow would be better remembered than those pictures that appeared just before the interruption, due to primacy and recency memory effects. Second, pictures tested for memory only on the second day would be remembered better, due to sleep consolidation, than when tested for memory only on the first day. Third, participants tested on the first and second day would be more confident in their memory of the pictures, and, due to sleep consolidation and repetition, would recognize more pictures on the second than on the first day of testing.

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  Smart Beta Modelling : The Case for Cyclically Adjusted Price/Earnings Ratios

  Nicholas Christopher Jacobs, Dan Edward Wollenberg

  Schiller’s Cyclically Adjusted Price/Earnings Ratio (CAPE) has been used by financial economists to determine the direction of the stock market, up or down. In this study, we develop portfolio weighting models with CAPE as the weighting factor. We use two weighting decision rules: 1.) Higher weights are given to stocks with higher CAPE ratios and, 2.) Higher weights are given to stocks with lower CAPE ratios. The top ten stocks within the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Industrials, Healthcare, and Information Technology sectors are used to test the alpha generating capability of the CAPE weighting factor. The returns for CAPE weighted portfolios are calculated for the years 2010-2016. The benchmark portfolio is the S&P 500 ETF SPY.

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  Smelling How to Feel: Does Ambient Odor Affect How We Evaluate and Recall Emotional Stimuli?

  Michael Alexander Lee

  Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is a ubiquitous element of the human experience. Odors are all around us and can arouse a wide range of feelings or even stir vivid memories. While studies have found that odor can influence people’s evaluation of various types of stimuli, no study has shown how odor can influence how people rate the emotional content of visual stimuli, nor has it been shown how it might affect our ability to recall such stimuli. Odor’s ability to affect how we evaluate and recall emotionally-charged stimuli could carry deep implications for how olfaction impacts our daily lives. This study seeks to examine how odors that carry different hedonic values affect how participants rate and recall emotionally-charged visual stimuli. Prior to the study, participants will complete an online survey where they rate the emotional valence of a collection of images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which will be evenly divided between positive, negative, and neutral valence. The initial portion of experimental session will take place in a room in which either a pleasant odor, an unpleasant odor, or no odor will be present. Participants will be presented with a subset of images from the survey and asked to rate them again for valence and arousal. Immediately afterwards, participants will complete a recognition task where they will be presented with a larger collection of images and asked if they recall seeing each image earlier in the session. Finally, participants will be moved to another room without odor, complete roughly 30 minutes of distraction tasks, then complete a delayed recognition task. This task will follow the same procedure as the earlier recognition task, with the additional component of rating each image for arousal and valence. This project is expected to be completed in spring of next year.

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  Soaring to New Heights: A Case Study of the AVIATE Program at the University of Dayton

  Keri Lynn Good

  The curricular approach to developing education in residence is becoming more common amongst Housing and Residence Life departments at colleges and universities because the approach is driven by research and assessment is unique to each institution, is intentional, and ultimately centered on learning (Brown, 2017). The University of Dayton implemented a residential education model in 2014 that tied learning in residence and learning from campus partners to the housing assignments process – a triad program called AVIATE, or A Vision for Integrated, Applied and Transformative Education. The University of Dayton’s curricular approach to residential education tied with the housing assignments process is unique, and thus the aim of this study was to highlight this initiative. This institutional case study analyzed the development and implementation of AVIATE through interviews with a sample of the professional staff members at the University of Dayton who helped to establish the program. Additionally, university documents, historical information and external contexts were analyzed in relation to AVIATE. Findings illustrate the chronological series of processes by which AVIATE was developed as well as conclusions on how the professional staff members’ views on their role in student affairs has evolved as a result of working with a residential curriculum. Implications for future research include analyzing the student perspective and learning through participation in the AVIATE program.

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  Social Change in Dayton

  Sarah A Critchfield

  Volunteer programs that help people residing in low-income communities get involved with the rehabilitation of their neighborhoods can be a valuable tool in facilitating social change. The Mission of Mary Farms co-op demonstrates how social change can occur through community engagement and open discussion. Mission of Mary Farms provides experiential learning, fresh produce, and volunteering opportunities. This presentation will explore how communal involvement and conversations about the future can lead to the restoration of Dayton. I will examine how Mission of Mary navigates the line between rebuilding a community and gentrifying it. I will also investigate how this co-op has affected its community and if it can expand to reach more of the Dayton area.

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  Social Inequality is not Healthy

  Heather Christine Essman

  Social inequality has led to poor health in people experiencing poverty. People facing social marginalization and isolation lack access to the same health care as those who are wealthier. Drawing on Facing Project narratives and social science literature, this poster will provide an analysis of the impact of social inequality on health. It will discuss the history, causes, and elements of social change that the future may hold. Finally, social insurance and public assistance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will be discussed as well as their relevance to addressing such health disparities.

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  Social Inequality is not Healthy

  Heather Christine Essman

  Social inequality has led to poor health in people experiencing poverty. People facing social marginalization and isolation lack access to the same health care as those who are wealthier. Drawing on Facing Project narratives and social science literature, this poster will provide an analysis of the impact of social inequality on health. It will discuss the history, causes, and elements of social change that the future may hold. Finally, social insurance and public assistance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will be discussed as well as their relevance to addressing such health disparities.

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  Spatial Morphometric Analysis Using Shape-Changing Rigid-Body Chains

  Yucheng Li

  Morphometry is the quantitative comparison of shapes, primarily curves. As an alternate to classical methods of spatial morphometry, this work investigates a kinematic synthesis methodology for designing a spatial chain of rigid-bodies to match arbitrary spatial curves. The goal is to find a single set of spatial bodies that can be moved to approximately align with any given set of spatial curves. Previous rigid-body shape-change morphometry work focused on mechanisms composed of rigid planar links connected by prismatic and revolute joints to approximate planar curves. Open space curves are the current focus of the research. The primary advantage of this method is its capacity to describe the difference in space curves with a limited number of parameters.

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  Steady-State Modeling of Condensing Units with an Economizer Loop

  Haithem Murgham

  This work presents an engineering model that simulates the steady-state operation of air-cooled condensing units. Packaged, air-cooled, condensing units includes a compressor, condensing coil, tubing, and fans, fastened to a base or installed within an enclosure. To increase capacity, modern condensing units are being equipped with a brazed-plate heat exchanger for an economizer loop, configured in either upstream or downstream extraction schemes.

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  Stimulating anaerobic respiration primes anaerobically grown Listeria monocytogenes for intracellular growth

  Nathan C Wallace

  Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) is a Gram positive facultative organism whose lifestyle ranges from a saprophyte to an enteric intracellular pathogen. Listeria is generally ingested from contaminated food products, and as it transmits through the gastrointestinal tract its environment becomes increasingly anoxic. Currently it is not clear how Listeria adaptations to the fluctuating oxygen levels contribute to its pathogenesis. Therefore, we set out to understand what role anaerobic respiration plays in Listeria pathogenesis. Previous work in our lab has shown that anaerobically cultured Listeria has decreased intracellular growth in a tissue culture infection model using RAW264.7 macrophages. We hypothesized that this may be due to anaerobically cultured Listeria taking longer to switch from fermentation to aerobic respiration. This hypothesis was supported by the observation that, compared to an aerobic inoculum, an anaerobic inoculum exhibited an extended lag phase during aerobic growth in vitro. Using a tetrazolium reduction assay, we confirmed that anaerobically cultured Listeria have decreased reducing power, indicating decreased electron transport chain (ETC) activity. To determine whether the reduced ETC activity under anaerobic conditions is an important factor in Listeria pathogenesis, we supplemented the cultures with fumarate as an alternative electron acceptor to stimulate ETC activity and measured listeriolysin O (LLO) production as well as intracellular growth. When we supplied exogenous fumarate to Listeria, we noticed an increase in the reducing power as well as LLO production in anaerobically grown Listeria, compared to no fumarate controls. Moreover, fumarate supplementation restored the intracellular growth of anaerobically grown Listeria to the same level of aerobically grown Listeria inside macrophages. These findings point to the crucial role of anaerobic respiration in Listeria anaerobic virulence regulation.

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  Strengthening Resources about Sexual Violence at UD

  Luke Alan Bressler, Elizabeth Ann Edurese, Shalom Shekinah-Arpita Reuben, Leah Ann Schneider

  Sexual violence is prevalent on college campuses across the nation. The University of Dayton has made attempts to combat this issue. The university offers resources such as counseling services, online modules, Green Dot, and advice for dealing with sexual violence on their website. Although UD seems to have an abundance of resources, an issue arises in the school’s ability to spread awareness of these resources to the students. This is realized through interviews we conducted with fellow students who were largely unaware of all that the school has to offer. In response to this lack of awareness, we will provide recommendations for future ways to support victims of sexual violence as well as to reduce the number of cases each year. This past year there were 16 reported cases of sexual violence, and for the small size of our campus, this is a concerning frequency. We believe that by providing access to the school’s sexual violence resources in high-traffic areas, students will become more aware of the problem and be able to easily access the information when needed. In addition to making recommendations for information more accessible, we created a document with updated information that is more specific to UD’s students.

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  Struggles in Single Parent Households

  James Gerald Hattrup

  Single parent households in the Dayton area face greater hardships than families that consist of two parents. Research suggests that single parent families are presented with bigger problems, such asfinancial constraints and lower educational achievement among their children. Drawing on Facing Project Narratives and social science literature, this poster will highlight how single parent families face more challenges providing for their children and themselves. The subequent challenges children of these families face will also be discussed. Finally, I will identify current programs designed to assist single parents as well as how other programs might also be effective.

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  Study of Electrolyte/Electrodes Interface Engineering in Solid State Lithium-Ion Batteries

  Ashish Gogia

  There is a growing need for high energy, high power and safe lithium batteries for myriads of applications in powering microelectronic devices (such as smart cards, implantable medical devices, wearable electronics) to large power applications such as electric vehicles, aerospace and space equipments. One key requirement for such batteries is packing high energy in low form factor (i.e. thin-film form) to increase both the gravimetric and volumetric energy densities. Lithium superionic conducting solid ceramic electrolytes are the most prominent candidates amongst liquid, gel, polymer and solid ceramic electrolytes that can enable safety and optimum performance in a high energy density battery with thin-film cell components. For example, lithium aluminum germanium phosphate (LAGP) has been proven to be a promising solid-electrolyte due to its high ionic conductivity (~ 5 mS/cm at 23 °C), high electrochemical stability window (> 5V), and single Li+ ion conduction (high transference number, no dendrite formation, no crossover of electrode materials), thus enabling high energy battery chemistries and mitigating safety and packaging issues of conventional lithium batteries. However, application of solid-electrolyte (LAGP and others) in Li batteries is being hindered by lack of understanding of thin-film fabrication techniques/parameters, mechanical stability, and poor stability between solid ceramic electrolyte and electrodes, especially with Li metal anode. Low chemical stability between solid electrolyte and Li electrodes forms resistive interface (lower conductivity) which is detrimental for high power and cell longevity. We present materials and methods for electrolyte/electrode interface engineering that have shown promise but need further investigation. One such promising stable interface material is lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON), when introduced as thin-film in between LAGP and Li reduces interface resistance (increase conductivity) considerably. Details on material’s thin-film fabrication techniques such as sputtering, physical vapor depositions, etc. and their resultant effects on solid-state battery performance will be presented.

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  Study of Lithium Intercalation towards the Development of an Electrochemical Kinetic Model for Lithium/Copper Phthalocyanine Cell

  Clayton Jerrel Cashion

  The development of high capacity batteries is necessary to increase the viability of renewable energy sources by providing efficient storage of excess energy. Therefore, currently the lithium ion batteries, with high charge storage capacity, are being further developed. In a lithium ion battery a reversible lithiated graphite is used rather than solid lithium as an anode. Research into high charge-storage capacity cells focuses on the cathode. Experimental investigations into high charge-storage capacity cathode active materials have indicated that copper phthalocyanine is one such material. Previous work involving copper phthalocyanine or other metal phthalocyanines has indicated that solid phase mass transport has a limiting effect on the lithium intercalation process, which is key to the operation of lithium ion batteries. Some models have been developed to describe the observed cell behavior, but the system is not yet fully understood. To ensure that the model formulation will best describe observable data, a literature search into lithium intercalation was conducted. A summary of the available understanding of this process and how we can apply this knowledge to the development of a lithium-ion battery with copper phthalocyanine as cathode active material is presented.

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  Support and Opposition to the Integration of Technology in the Classroom

  Nicholas Mark Bennett, Madison L Borchers, Greta E Drager, Samuel J Enderby

  As technology continues to become more prevalent in our everyday lives, it is also growing increasingly popular in the world of education. This presentation will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating technology into classrooms, with a special emphasis on its role in student engagement.