Stander Symposium Projects

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  Coastal craziness: factors that regulate an invasive ant in a coastal tallgrass prairie

  John T Gruber, Ryan W Reihart

  Coastal tallgrass prairies are an endangered ecosystem, which is currently threatened by the invasion of rasberry crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva), especially near Houston, Texas. Since the invasion of N. fulva in 2002, this species has been able to reach extremely high densities, reduce native arthropod abundance, and has completely displaced the red imported fire (Solenopsis invicta), its invasive predecessor. Despite knowing the negative effects that N. fulva has on ecosystems, the biotic and abiotic factors that are responsible for its invasion success remain unknown. To determine the abiotic and biotic factors that contribute to N. fulva’s abundance, we utilized a fully factorial blocked experimental design, which manipulates macro- and micronutrients (N&P, Ca, K, and Na; all possible treatments = 16 combinations x 8 replicates = 128 plots) in large 32 m x 32 m plots at the University of Houston Coastal Center in a coastal tallgrass prairie near Houston, Texas. Arthropods were collected by sweep netting in May 2016, along with measurements of plant biomass, plant composition, and soil characteristics to determine which factors are most important for the invasion success of N. fulva. Arthropods were sorted and identified to species. Initial results show that biotic and abiotic factors both contribute to N. fulva abundance. N. fulva was the most abundance arthropod species in all treatments. Our preliminary data shows evidence that N. fulva is limited by calcium, and co-limited by macronutrients (N and P) and sodium. In addition, N. fulva had an overall negative effect on arthropod abundance, particularly Hemipterans (true bugs) and other Hymenopterans (ants, bees, and wasps). These results indicate that biotic and abiotic factors both contribute to the invasion success of N. fulva, and without intervention, N. fulva could devastate what is left of coastal tallgrass prairies.

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  Code-E rescue drone

  Gonzalo Perez

  There are many situations around the world in which emergency response cannot reach certain zones during disasters such as floods and earthquakes. Code-E is a drone that transports emergency supplies to victims during disasters. It also provides a two way communication between the drone operator and the victims. It will provide faster transportation of supplies, while providing a communication service to the victims

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  College Men's Perceptions of Campus Acquaintance Rape

  Mollie C McDaniel

  Sexual Violence is an epidemic on college campuses today. One in ve women are affected by sexual violence at some point during their college career. Female college students ages 18-25 are three times more likely than women of other ages to experience sexual violence. A survey of 1,882 male students found that 6.4% of men self-reported perpetrating sexual violence on college campuses. In a more recent study done on Navy recruits, 13-15% self-reported committing acts of sexual violence before joining the military. The debate in the community now focuses not only on the percentages of men who perpetrate, but also on who these perpetrators are. Diverging interpretations have implications for the role of individual differences in identifying those at risk of offending. This project seeks to uncover the thoughts, evaluations, characteristics and individual differences of college men and the type of college man who might commit sexual violence by measuring participants’ endorsement of male gender norms, their acceptance of rape myths, their self-reported coercive sexual behavior history, and their evaluations of a hypothetical acquaintance rape scenario.

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  Combining Blocked and Interleaved Presentation during Passive Study and its Effect on Inductive Learning

  Emily G Wright

  Researchers and educators alike are interested in improving inductive learning, as instructional methods are greatly influenced by knowledge of how to present examples of category membership for later classification. Past research has shown that interleaved presentation, which involves the presentation of a member of one category followed by a member of another category, produces better recall when compared to blocked presentation, which involves the sequential presentation of all members of a single category before presenting all members of another category. The benefits of interleaved and blocked presentation are influenced by a number of factors, including whether study items are learned actively or passively, and whether items are repeated during study. Previous research found that repeating study items resulted in a benefit of blocked over interleaved presentation when items were studied actively. However, the effect of repetition during passive study, as well as the combination of both blocked and interleaved presentation during repeated study, remains unknown. This investigation used a repeated study paradigm to evaluate a new approach to category learning: a combined method which involves the presentation of study items in blocks followed by the repeated presentation of the same study items in interleaved order. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of interleaved versus blocked presentation when participants study items passively. The hypotheses were that completing combined presentation would result in higher test performance than interleaved or blocked presentation alone, and that interleaved presentation would result in higher performance than blocked presentation. Results indicated that those who studied using the combined or interleaved presentation methods outperformed those who studied using the blocked presentation; however, there was no significant difference in test performance when comparing those who studied using combined presentation and those who studied using interleaved presentation.

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  Committing to Community after Graduation: A Qualitative, Phenomenological Study of Young Alumni Engagement at the University of Dayton

  Anne F Frissora

  “Community” is the buzzword at the University of Dayton (UD) and many undergraduate students feel connected to the UD community for the four-to-five years that they are on campus. However, what happens to that sense of “community” after walking across the stage and receiving a diploma? As tuition costs rise across the nation, donations from alumni are becoming increasingly necessary to keep higher education institutions in good financial health. However, the literature indicates that young alumni donate less money to their alma mater than older alumni (Drezner, 2011; Gaier, 2005; McDearmon & Shirley, 2009; Stephenson & Bell, 2014). This qualitative, phenomenological study investigates the responses of eight UD young alumni who are involved in Day10, UD’s Young Alumni Group, regarding topics such as undergraduate experience, donations, and involvement – all of which define young alumni engagement. The findings of this study shed light on what UD Alumni Relations and Day10 could focus on in order to achieve engagement from their young alumni constituents.

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  Community Awareness of Sustainable Water Use: River Fest and Rain Catchment

  Sarah Jane Berger, Peter G Evans, Brandi Marie Gerschutz, Jacob R Glaser, Kathryn E Hoeper, Wallace J Huggett, Abigail E Kuhn, Raymond Alfred Mahar, Elise Anna Moeller, George L Moresea, Alvin Boyd Newman-Caro, Nicholas W Racchi, Sarah M Renfrow, Kendal G Schaetzle, Elinor Louise Schuck, Charlotte Anne Shade

  Every cohort of the Rivers Institute dedicates over a year developing relationships with community partners to ground themselves in the Fitz Center Pillars for Leadership and Community. The 2017 cohort community partner chosen is Mission of Mary Cooperative located in the Twin Towers neighborhood. They have spent the past two years collaborating with the Marianist-rooted urban farm. The goal of this project was to raise community awareness of sustainable water usage. In order to reach all parts of the community, the cohort worked with a variety of partners including East End Community Services and the Hanley Sustainability Institute among other Rivers Institute community partners. Through volunteer work with the farm, the cohort discovered the assets and needs of the farm and community and decided on building a rain water catchment system for one of the farm's hoop houses on their new property. The cohort also designed educational signage to accompany the system as a tool for the community. In April, this will be exhibited to the community through an event called River Fest. The community event will be centered around education and celebration of sustainable water usage. The education component will largely impact the next generation for the years to come through this event and through the signage at the site to care for and protect the environment in which they live.

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  Comparison of citric acid vs. ascorbic acid functionalized magnetic nanoparticles

  Kaitlyn Jo Kotlarz

  Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have attracted broad attention due to their potential biomedical applications, such as drug delivery and bio-imaging, as well as other applications involving materials separations and harvesting energy. Citric acid is a widely accepted coating material for MNPs; however, very few studies have focused on ascorbic acid coated MNPs. Here, citric acid and ascorbic acid coated iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized to study the size distribution and stability. The nanoparticles were characterized by multiple techniques including dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was found that citric acid coated MNPs were more stable than ascorbic acid, but ascorbic acid could be a possible alternative coating material.

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  Comparison of Submaximal Aerobic Performance on a Bicycle Ergometer in Students Enrolled in the Health and Sport Science Department versus Students Not Enrolled in the Health and Sport Science Department at the University of Dayton.

  Michaela K Davis, Devyn Shea Hickman, Astrid Margarita Jetter, Nathaniel A Wourms

  As graduating Health and Sport Science (HSS) students, we felt compelled to examine the benefits of our exposure to our particular coursework to those students not enrolled in the same major of study. Intrigued by the idea that our educational focus may or may not influence our own ideas on health and exercise, the primary motivation for our study was to evaluate if this exists in in a practical field setting. Much of our coursework is centered around the physiological systems of the body, the body’s responses to exercise, and the psychology behind exercise, therefore, the motivation behind this study was to compare our HSS-colleagues’ exercise-based performance versus other University counterparts. Thus, the purpose of this effort was to examine submaximal aerobic capacity between students enrolled in the Health and Sport Science Department versus students not enrolled in the HSS Department at the University of Dayton. This effort examined 40 participants, 20 non-HSS majors and 20 HSS majors. Within each category there is a one-to-one ratio of males to females in order to minimize skewing of the data based on physiological differences between males and females. Anthropometrics were measured prior to testing to characterize the samples. The participants were tested on a bicycle ergometer using the YMCA Submaximal Bicycle Ergometer Protocol. Participant’s heart rate, blood pressure, and rating of perceived exertion were monitored and recorded throughout the test session, and used to determine submaximal aerobic capacity. All participants signed an Invitation to Participate document acknowledging their willingness to volunteer, and each exercise session was conducted with all four researchers present.

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  Comparison of the bandgaps of Ga-containing and Ga-free type II superlattices via photoluminescence measurements

  Logan E Cordonnier

  A 532 nm laser was used to obtain the photoluminescence spectra of GaSb/InAs and InAs/InAsSb type II superlattices at 5 K using a variety of power settings (10mW-2W). The main goal of these measurements was to obtain the bandgap of each investigated sample. The data was fit with a Gaussian/Voigt function. The maximum of the fitted curve corresponded to the bandgap of the sample. The bandgap energies of thee Ga-containing and Ga-free superlattices were then compared. Preliminary data suggests that while bandgap ranges were broader for Ga-free samples, indicating more defects, Ga-free materials are viable alternatives to Ga-containing materials for optical applications based on the intensity and consistency of their photo-response.

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  Compliant Actuators in Exoskeleton Design

  Manoj Kumar Sharma

  Exoskeletons are a special type of collaborative robot that can be thought of as a humanoid robot clung to a human body (or a pilot). This particular robot has joints similar to the joints found inside a human body, and as a result the motion feels more natural. For actuating the bones human body uses muscles, these muscles mimic the behavior of a spring (unlike a rigid member) and this allowed us to be more agile. Adopting the same approach of compliant actuators (over the stiff ones) has several advantages, all leading to a more life like Exoskeleton's motion.

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  Comprehension of Comparisons Between Viruses and Bacteria

  Oscar A Barnes, Janelle M Debaldo, Phoebe Mularoni, Emily N Panella

  Health literacy can be defined as a person’s ability to both obtain and process health information in order to make decisions regarding their individual health. The purpose of the project was to revise a health document of viruses and bacteria for University of Dayton Intensive English Program (IEP) students. In this research project, our team chose a health document from “Science with Ms. Barton,” which compared bacterial and viral entities. In order to determine the document’s readability level, a SMOG assessment was used, which determined the readability to be 14th grade level for the original document. The team’s goal for the project was to lower that reading level to around 4 in order to make it more accessible to low-literacy students. We met with the IEP students twice in order to receive feedback on the progress of the document’s revision and reformatting. A total of two sessions were held in collaboration with the IEP group. In the first session, we gathered information on the interests of the IEP group pertaining to the topic of “viruses vs. bacteria” and what specific questions they had about it. Next, we revised our draft, reformatted it and wrote a final revised document. On the second visit, we shared the draft with the IEP group to get feedback on its readability. The readability level for the final document was respectively brought down to a 9th grade reading level based on the SMOG assessment and a 4.8 Microsoft Fleschkincaid grade level. In the end, the final revision was made in order to satisfy the group’s literary needs and meet the research team’s goal.

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  Computational Lithography for Electromagnetic Wave Propogation in Photoresist

  David J Lombardo

  The details of how photo resist is exposed during lithography processes are extremely important to optimizing fabrication. Features such as sloped sidewalls, undercut, scalloping can be caused by the diffraction, absorption and reflection of light as it passed through the layers of mask, resist and substrate. A current method of simulating this process is with a full Finite Difference Time Domain process, which is computationally intensive and time consuming. In this project I propose and demonstrate a forward/backward spatial propagation simulation without time steps, which will capture the full electromagnetic solution including diffraction and reflections. By combining this with physical Dill Parameters of the resist a complete picture of the exposing process can be efficiently created.

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  Concentrated Portfolios, Portfolio Weighting Models and the Consumer Discretionary Sector. An Empirical Analysis 2006-2016

  Dimitra A Spandonidis

  In this study I developed two concentrated portfolios of consumer discretionary stocks, one with 10 stocks and the other with 20 stocks. The stocks were selected on the basis of market size, with the largest market cap stocks chosen for inclusion in the portfolios. Return on equity (ROE) is used as the weighting factor. In order to account for risk, the standard deviation of each stocks ROE on a rolling 5 year basis is used to contrast the weights. I test the hypothesis that (1) the ROE weighted portfolios will out perform the consumer discretionary sector XLY and (2) the ROE weighted portfolios will outperform the S&P 500 Index (SPX).

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  Condition monitoring of Compressors for refrigeration

  Salah Dauga

  This poster deals with stator, bearing, and rotor fault detection of compressors for refrigeration. Mathematical modeling of compressors for refrigeration for healthy and stator , bearing, and rotor fault condition are explained. In this poster Artificial Neural Network technique is applied for stator, bearing, and rotor fault detection in compressors for refrigeration. By collecting the simulation data from the mathematical model developed in MATLAB simulink, based on: 1. Frequency. 2. Temperature. 3. vibration. The neural network can precisely detect the faults before any major problem occurs.

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  Continuity Of Care Practice In A University Lab School: What Are The Benefits And Drawbacks?

  Doha Almusharraf

  The purpose of my study was to explore the benefit of Continuity of Care (COC) and how COC impacts children’s academic, emotional and social skills. Also, I explored what is making the COC unsuccessful in some child centers. So, the present study used to answer the following questions: How COC will promote the relationship and attachment for young children? How is COC impacting in children development in an academically, socially and emotionally? What makes COC unsuccessful in some child centers? I used qualitative data that I collected through observation of the children ages two to three years old and who are enrolled in the COC program and the children who do not enroll in the COC. Also, I interviewed the teacher who has worked in COC since the beginning of the program, and I used a set of interview questions. The results were found that the COC impacts children positively in their academic, social and emotional skills. The practice of COC with long relationships will support the attachment for the children with their peers and teacher. However, the teacher’s ability and parent’s acceptance and their support can make COC unsuccessful to implement. The study concludes that COC benefits the children’s learning. Also, COC benefits on the teacher by letting her/him have the experience to deal with infants and toddlers. Key Words: continuity of care, looping, continuity of educational, caregiver, primary caregiver.

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  Creating an Appropriate Health Document for Intensive English Program Students

  Elizabeth A Edurese, Shannon Marie Hayes, Carina Kelly, Alan E Valadez

  Low health literacy is an extremely prevalent issue in the United States, not only for native English speakers, but especially for those who are learning English as a second language. Many of the health literature materials provided to patients today are written at too high of a reading level for many of these patients to comprehend.The purpose of this project was to revise an existing text on alcohol for readers in University of Dayton’s Intensive English Program (IEP). We then looked at a document published online by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse, which was written at a reading level appropriate for a freshman in college as determined by the SMOG test, then condensed and simplified it into a brochure form in order for it to be easily understood by the IEP students, who read English at a third to fourth grade level. Cultural literacy became especially important in this process, as all the students we were writing for do not drink alcohol as part of a cultural and religious norm in their society. Overall, our revised end product was a brochure with a reading level of about third grade. The IEP students we presented the brochure to during a field testing experiment reported only a few words that they still struggled with, and these were edited in our final draft. We realized that becoming aware of health literacy issues in the United States, as well as the many different demographics, is essential for understanding and improving patient health.

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  Creating an Effective Learning Environment and Engaging Classroom Experience

  Terese M Dattilo, Makenna M Kaniewski, Danielle R Villhard

  There are a myriad of different factors in the classroom that impact a student’s learning experience. We will explore these factors as they relate to the physical classroom environment, instructional methods, and school uniforms.

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  CRISPR CREam for Fruit Flies: Developing a Genome-Editing Approach to Study the Cis-regulatory Elements that Control the Activities of Genes

  Alexandra M Hallagan

  Animal genomes possess over ten thousand genes and the number of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) controlling their utilization is perhaps ten times as numerous. Moreover, animal diversity has been prominently shaped by changes in these CREs. Thus, understanding the function of CREs and their evolutionary modification is necessary to grasp how animals develop and evolve. An ideal genetic approach to study CREs is to remove and then replace them with a variant CRE to see how development changes. However, a feasible method does not exist to study the numerous CREs and their variant forms. My thesis sought to develop an approach to delete CREs from a fruit fly genome and subsequently replace them with variant forms by combining the CRISPR/Cas9 system with recombination mediated cassette exchange. Success here should provide a powerful genetic capability for future research in various species and perhaps inspire ways to treatment human genetic disorders.

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  Crystalline Quality and Surface Roughness Optimization of Hetero-Epitaxial Titanium Nitride on Sapphire

  Hadley Anna Smith

  In this project we optimized the growth of hetero-epitaxial titanium nitride (TiN) on sapphire using controllably unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering. TiN is a mechanically-robust, high-temperature stable metallic material; these properties make TiN a material of interest for robust electrodes and resilient plasmonics. We adjusted deposition parameters such as external coil current, temperature, nitrogen/argon ratio, growth time and magnetron power to optimize the crystalline quality and surface morphology of TiN. Post-growth, we measured crystallinity using X-ray diffraction, and surface morphology using atomic force microscopy. X-ray diffraction showed a single TiN peak with pendellösung fringes; from these fringes we obtained a film thickness of ~50 nm. Atomic force microscopy showed a surface roughness of ~168 pm. Based on this characterization, we determined that the deposition parameters outlined in this presentation yielded (111)-oriented epitaxial TiN with minimal surface roughness. This optimization is a crucial first step in maximizing TiN’s usefulness in the above mentioned applications.

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  Cutting through “concrete”: the fatclaw crayfish as an ecosystem engineer of prairies.

  Shania E Hurst, Zachary T Osborne, Ryan W Reihart

  Texas fatclaw crayfish dig from the groundwater up to the surface creating chimneys that the crayfish use for shelter and feeding aboveground. Little is known, however, about how these chimneys affect coastal tallgrass prairie ecosystems. We are trying to determine what determines the abundance of crayfish chimneys, and if these crayfish are ecosystem engineers that change the ways in which these ecosystems function by changing soil characteristics. How they affect the soil could determine what plants will be able to grow in the prairie. We used an existing experiment that is manipulating nutrients to determine the factors that affect the abundance of chimneys in a prairie. To estimate the amount and characteristics of the soil the crayfish were moving, we collected the chimneys themselves (n=8). Additionally, we took soil core samples from the base of the chimney, 25 cm from the chimney, and 75 cm from the chimney. Plant root simulating probes were used to measure soil plant-available nutrients. Chimneys are abundant on the prairie (1.75 per m2), and macro- and micronutrients were detrimental to chimney abundance. The soil that these crayfish are bringing up is very high in clay content that hardens to a cement of sorts. This clay is incredibly absorbent. The soil is high in sulfur, which is usually only found in places low in oxygen and could affect the surrounding plant life. Because these crayfish have a large effect in soil properties, we believe they are an ecosystem engineer in the prairies. These results highlight a need to consider crayfish presence when trying to restore a prairie.

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  Data-Based Approach for Most Cost Effective Residential Energy Reduction

  Badr Al Tarhuni, Adel Ali Mohamed Naji

  Many U.S. utilities incentivize residential energy reduction through rebates, often in response to state mandates relative to energy reduction or from a desire to reduce demand in order to mitigate the need to grow generating assets or simply from a desire to provide service to customers. The assumption built into incentive programs is that the least efficient of residences will more likely take advantage of the rebates. This isn’t however always the case. The objective of this study is to show the potential for prioritized incentivization, e.g., incentivization that delivers the greatest energy savings per investment. The key question addressed in this research is “How can energy reduction measures be prioritized among all possible measures for all residences in an entire customer base to yield the greatest savings per investment?” A data based approach leveraging knowable or potentially knowable building characteristics (wall, ceiling, and window R-values, heating and water heating system efficiencies, floor area, window area) and energy characteristics (annual weather normalized heating and water heating energy consumption) is used to estimate natural gas savings from the most important measures for all houses within a utility district. This approach relies upon the establishment of a single data-based model to accurately predict energy consumption of the collective grouping of houses. Using this model energy savings and costs from all possible measures can be predicted. This approach enables the possibility of sequential adoption of the most cost effective energy measures. The specific case considered addresses hundreds of student residences owned a university in the U.S. Midwest. The results show that an energy (carbon) reduction of 36% can be achieved with this methodology at a levelized cost of less than $14/mmBTU.

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  Dayton Athletic Department: Creative Services Project

  Kathryn A Hanrahan

  During my role as the Athletic Department’s Creative Services Intern, I worked along side the Assistant Creative Director. I helped the Assistant Creative Director specifically with Graphic Design for Dayton’s Winter and Spring sports teams. I assisted with the creation of print and digital collateral utilizing InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. I helped creating marketing fliers, game programs, and game day video board graphics. I also helped design for social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This work exhibits what I accomplished the past several months.

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  Deep Learning for Big Data Analytics in High-Performance Computing Environments

  Md. Zahangir Alom

  Deep Learning (DL) has been showing huge success for analysis the big data problem. However, this large scale implementation of deep learning algorithms for Big Data analytics requires huge computing resources, leading to a high power requirement and communication overhead. Recently, IBM has developed a new non von Neumann architecture called TrueNorth Cognitive System which allows for a new direction of research of in the neuromorphic computing. We have implemented deep learning approach with different optimizer on the IBM’s TrueNorth system using Caffe, Tea and Corelet Programming Environment (CPE-2.1) which is experimented on MNIST dataset. The experimental results are analyzed for different optimization functions. In addition, we also implemented Intrusion detection for cyber security which being considered another big data problem. The experimental results show promising recognition accuracy for anomaly detection and classification.

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  Design and Protocol for the Utilization and Setup of a Low-Cost Slip Trainer for Fall Prevention

  Stephen T Mcfadden

  Recently, the idea of a “fall vaccine” has been studied as a way to proactively rehabilitate and possibly prevent falls for older adults. Previous work has shown that the effects created by a slip trainer, which is a device designed to recreate a falling situation safely in order to train a patient’s reflexes, carried over for more than a year, leading to a reduction in falls. However, the facilities to perform this kind of training are only accessible in certain labs and the equipment therein is also extremely expensive, so not many doctor’s offices or local therapy centers could afford to purchase such devices. There is therefore a need to design a reduced cost and more accessible slip trainer which functions analogously to the current lab setups. Mass Rehab Inc. has already developed a prototype of a manual slip trainer. Considering the manual nature of this prototype, the consistency and assessment capabilities of that slip trainer are limited. In addition, an effective slip trainer needs to have the capability to provide a consistent and repeatable slip depending on the heights, weights, and abilities of the patient. The objective of this study is to modify this existing slip trainer into a low tech, mechanically controlled device which allows for repeatable slips and reliable assessment of a patient’s abilities. Other aspects of our research are to gain an understanding of the relationship between the magnitude of the slip and the weight on the board to maximize the effectiveness of the slip trainer, to define an acceleration threshold for a reactive step, and to study the recovery strategies we might observe patients utilizing in reaction to a sudden slip.

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  Design and Prototyping of a Shape-changing Rigid-body Human Foot in Gait

  Tanner Nicholas Rolfe

  This project focuses on the design and prototyping of a practical, multi-segment rigid body foot mechanism capable of matching the dynamic change in profile of a human foot throughout multiple stages of gait. Dynamic models of the human foot often replicate the physiological change in shape of the foot during gait using compliant mechanisms. While rigid body foot models exist, these models are often simplified as single-segment bodies incapable of accurately representing the geometry and kinematics of the human foot. Multi-segment rigid body systems offer certain advantages over compliant systems which may be desirable in the design of ankle-foot devices, including the ability to withstand greater loading, the ability to achieve more drastic shape change, and the ability to be synthesized from the kinematics, allowing for realistic functionality without consideration of the complex internal kinetics of the human foot.