Stander Symposium Projects

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  Understanding the development of antibiotic resistance in Listeria monocytogenes

  Andrea Marie Vietti

  Bacterial antibiotic resistance is on an alarming rise worldwide, thus posing an urgent threat to human health. The rise in antibiotic resistance can be attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in both the healthcare and agricultural industries. In order to address this concern, this research is aimed to identify environmental conditions that may lead to the development of antibiotic resistance in Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria is a foodborne pathogen capable of causing the disease listeriosis especially in immunocompromised populations. Although infected individuals are treated with antibiotics, an alarmingly high mortality rate of 20 percent still persists; thus, it is important to further understand the impact various environmental conditions may have on the development of antibiotic resistance. Various genetic mutants of Listeria were exposed to antibiotics commonly used to treat Listeria infections, and the susceptibility to these antibiotics was observed under environments with and without oxygen.

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  Understanding the Link between Sugar Diet and Alzheimer’s Disease using Drosophila Eye Model

  Jordan Clay Dubbs, Neha Gogia, Akanksha Raj, Ian Joseph Tobal

  Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States (US), with no cure to date. It is caused by abnormal cleavage of amyloid precursor proteins (APP), generating amyloid-beta-42 (Aβ42) plaques that trigger neuronal cell death by unknown mechanism(s). Neuroinflammation (body’s response to repair, damage and defend against foreign agents) is another characteristic feature of this disease. According to US Department of Agriculture (2017), an average American consumes 94 g of sugar per day which is equivalent to amount of sugar in 2.4 cans of coke. The impact of this high amount of blood sugar can be very significant as breakdown of glucose in high-sugar diet damages the enzymes that regulate inflammation (in immune responses), resulting in misregulated neuroinflammation, strokes, and chemical imbalances, and thus may contribute towards AD. In our study, we want to elucidate the effect of both high and low sugar diet on Alzheimer’s. To test our hypothesis, we have used Drosophila melanogaster (a.k.a. fruit fly), (as genetic machinery is conserved from flies to humans) and developed a fly model of AD, where human Aβ42 peptides can be misexpressed in Drosophila eye using GAL4/UAS system. We placed flies expressing human Aβ42 in eyes as well as the central nervous system on regular, low, and high sugar diet. We examined the phenotypes in eye imaginal discs, adult flies and collected final death count. We also performed a series of behavioral assays to understand the impact of these different diets. Our study shows that a high-sugar diet displays a more aggressive progression of AD as compared to a normal diet or a low-sugar diet. This research has significant bearings in understanding the potential link between AD and diabetes, as both are very prominent diseases in today’s world.

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  Universidad de Deusto, San Sebastián, Spain

  Brandi Alexis Letsche

  Exploring the geographical, historical, and cultural aspects of the Basque Country, that it, San Sebastián, Spain. Presented are experiences taken out of a five month study abroad experience where the student attended the Universidad de Deusto and was taken on the journey of discovering a new cultural lifestyle.

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  U.S. Industry Wage Trends Pre and Post 2008 Recession

  Casey (Patrick) Casey Marsh

  Since the 2008 recession, wage growth within the U.S. economy has been considered muted at best. In this study I use time-trend regression equations to determine rates of wage growth both pre and post 2008 recession. I test the hypothesis that the slope coefficients for the pre-2008 trend regressions were higher than the slope coefficients for the post-2008 regressions. I also forecast wage growth for 2018 using the univariate regression models adjusted for root mean square forecasting error (RMSE).

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  U.S. Inflation Trends after the 2008 Recession; An Empirical Analysis of CPI - All

  Kathryn R Schulz

  A key variable in determining U.S. Federal Reserve Policy concerning Fed Funds Rates is the inflation rate in the U.S. economy. In this study, I developed time trend models for each month of the year using 2009 - 2017 as my modeling period. I then used the twelve time trend regression equations to forecast inflation levels for each month in 2018. Adjusting the forecast using the root mean square forecasting error procedure, I test for forecasting accuracy based on an error tolerance of 2%.

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  Using a cutting-edge in vivo brain microdialysis technique to assess the effects of ketamine administration in hippocampal glutamate release in male and female mice

  Claire C Cronin, Emily Margaret Flaherty, Patrick Robert Flaherty, Pothitos Pitychoutis, Joey Edward Saurine, Connor F Thelen

  Major depressive disorder affects more than 350 million individuals and is being ineffectively managed by current treatment options. A single dose of the novel antidepressant drug ketamine has been shown to rapidly induce antidepressant-like effects in both depressed patients and in preclinical rodent models of depression. It is theorized that ketamine’s therapeutic effects are mediated by a burst of glutamate, an excitatory amino acid, in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) inducing synaptogenesis or the formation of synapses in the PFC and the hippocampus (HIPP). Recently our group found that ketamine induced sex-specific synaptogenic effects in both the mPFC and HIPP and that these effects were more pronounced in the female HIPP. In order to further understand ketamine’s antidepressant effects in female mice, we implemented a cutting-edge in vivo brain microdialysis technique to assess putative sex differences in ketamine-induced glutamate release in the HIPP of male and female mice.

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  Using Food Products to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

  Madie O'Brien Clements

  Antibiotic resistance is a rising epidemic in modern-day healthcare. Numerous strains of bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics, resulting in thousands of deaths worldwide. There are two types of resistance: specific drug resistance and multidrug resistance. Multidrug resistance can be caused by a tripartite protein complex known as an efflux pump that penetrates the inner and outer membranes of the bacterial cell and allows the cell to eliminate waste to the cell’s extracellular environment. In E. coli, one of the major efflux pumps is known as AcrAB-TolC. The goal of this research project is to inactivate the AcrAB-TolC pump via organic compounds extracted from plants. I hypothesize that these natural, organic compounds will block the activity of this pump and prevent antibiotic resistance. To test this hypothesis, I extracted organic compounds from food products and tested them for efflux pump inhibitory activity using a fluorescence-based efflux assay. The results of these experiments demonstrate that an extract of the herb, dill, inhibits the efflux function of the AcrAB-TolC pump in E. coli.

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  Using Soil Isolates to Test for Antibiotic Production

  Sean Andrew Kelly

  Antibiotic Resistance is a global phenomenon that has developed rapidly over the past few decades due to healthcare providers and regular people misusing these medications. Bacterial communities have the ability to become resistant to antibiotics through a number of mechanisms, such as horizontal gene transfer, which can provide members of the community genes that generate proteins to employ a defense mechanism against antibiotics. When antibiotics are introduced into a bacterial community they kill the members of the population that do not have antibiotic resistant genes and select for the ones which do. This creates a population of antibiotic resistant bacteria which are capable of becoming resistant to multiple antibiotics. Many of the known antibiotics were isolated from soil samples, where diverse bacterial communities compete with each other for nutrients and survival. The purpose of this research project is to isolate individual bacterial communities to search for antibiotic producing properties that could be beneficial to the medical and healthcare fields. Soil isolates underwent several biochemical analysis tests, which tested for identification, production of antibiotic properties, and extraction of the compound responsible for production of that compound. The isolates were tested against safe relatives of known pathogens to determine their ability to survive using antibiotics. With the rising wave of antibiotic resistance, there are many reasons why testing for antibiotic producing species is beneficial to the communities of people that are affected by this global crisis.

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  Using University of Dayton Soil to Isolate Antibiotic Producing Bacteria

  Ali Nicole Wiggins

  The overuse of antibiotics has created pathogens that have become resistant to the antibiotics effects. This is becoming a large issue because if the pathogens are resistant to the antibiotics then the antibiotics will no longer be able to cure certain illnesses. The Tiny Earth Network and Small World Initiative have created are partnering with undergraduate students in order to try to discover new antibiotics to combat this issue, using different soil samples from around the world. The goal of this research is to test University of Dayton soil for bacteria that produce antibiotics to help support the Tiny Earth Network and Small World Initiative. The soil sample was diluted down in order to isolate bacterium and then the bacteria colonies were plated on TSA and TH plates. Ten bacteria colonies were selected from each plate and tested against the known ESKAPE pathogens, Enterococcus faecium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using their safe relatives Enterococcus raffinosus and Pseudomonas putida. Two of the isolated bacteria showed zones of inhibition on both of the safe relative plates. The two bacteria colonies that had zones of inhibition were tested further using gram staining, catalase testing, hemolysis, triple sugar iron test, mannitol salt agar testing, MacConkey agar, citrate, gelatinase, motility identification. Then the bacteria was classified and then tested against Eukaryotic cells in order to find a safe antibiotic. This research helps contribute to the mission of the Tiny Earth Network and the Small World Initiative, in hopes of resolving the antibiotic crisis.

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  Veterans: Civilian Adjustment

  Nick Steven Lafrance

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  Wall Street Journal Reporter's Possible Conflict of Interest with Neighborhood Mosque

  Rachael Kay Haselhuhn

  Paul Overberg, reporter for the Wall Street Journal and president of his community association in Fairfax County, is involved in a perceived or real conflict of interest regarding his complaints about a local mosque, the McLean Islamic Center. Through his role in the community association, Overberg made complaints about the mosque’s recent expansion, which simply allowed the morning prayer service to include more than ten people. He complained on the grounds that this expansion would cause more noise in early morning hours, and as a result, the McLean Islamic Center has had to spend thousands of dollars on traffic and noise-mitigation studies and lawyer’s fees. Many news organizations highly discourage their employees from getting involved in public or political issues because it could come into conflict with the journalistic norms of objectivity and neutrality. Although Overberg is not in direct opposition to the Journal’s rules, many respected journalists think he would be smart to step back from this issue, as it could be perceived as Islamophobic. Edward Wasserman, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, said “The Wall Street Journal should be worried that his involvement, even in a neighborhood squabble, will be viewed as religious intolerance”. This conflict of interest, or perceived conflict of interest, is in contention with many common values in the field of journalism, such as independence and loyalty. Should Overberg be free to participate in controversial projects, or should he remain loyal to a journalist’s obligation of objectivity in the public eye? This question and topic of research will be presented in a poster at the Stander Symposium and in a two to four page case study.

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  Water quality and captivity both affect the birth rate of the stingray Rhinoptera bonasus

  Rachel Elizabeth Brewer

  Little research has been done on stingrays in captivity and in the wild, which is an important topic that I felt needed further investigation. Stingrays are marine and freshwater Chondrichthyan fishes that are commonly displayed in aquariums and zoos worldwide. While there is significant scientific knowledge of rays there is much remaining to know about these fascinating organisms. My internship at the St. Louis Zoo, allowed me to dive into the world of stingrays. Zoo’s all over the world create their exhibits to mimic what habitats would be like for the animals in the wild. At the St. Louis Zoo, Caribbean Cove is home to Cownose and Southern stingrays. These gentle creatures have a flat body, long pointed, fins, and a long whip-like tail. The Cownose and Southern stingrays breed during summer to early fall in shallow waters out in nature. In captivity, these rays breed throughout the year. The goal of this project was to understand how captivity may influence stingray births by observing water quality and environmental control. This study evaluated the differences in the St Louis Zoo’s pool temperature in relation to the number of births of Cownose stingrays. By evaluating the time of year that the ray pups were born in comparison to water temperature, I found that in captivity more stingrays were born in the month of May. I then compared this to other published research to see if there was a correlation between the breeding period in captivity versus the wild. More importantly, I will include all the contributing factors that may influence the Cownose and Southern stingrays breeding patterns.

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  What's Better, Primary or Secondary Batteries?

  Courtney N Catchpole, Daniel W Pearson, Ashley Marie Siefker

  This project compares the manufacturing processes of primary and secondary batteries. Primary batteries are typical household batteries. Secondary batteries are rechargeable batteries and most commonly used for storage of electricity that is generated from renewable sources. This project explores the energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental impacts that result from the production of each type of battery.

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  Wine Bottle Problems

  Daniel J Illg

  This is a project for MTH 466, Graph Theory and Combinatorics. A graph is a mathematical object that consists of two sets, a set of vertices and a set of edges. An edge joins two vertices and depicts a relationship between those vertices. Using vertices to represent states and directed edges to represent a transition between states, we can construct digraphs to model the Wine Bottle Problems. These problems ask how few pourings are needed to distribute specific amounts of wine amongst a set of unmarked bottles knowing only the capacity of each bottle and the total amount of wine. We will model problems such as finding the minimum number of pours required to distribute 8 liters of wine evenly into 2 bottles using only three bottles that have capacities of 3, 5, and 8 liters of wine. We will also explore properties of these digraphs.

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  Wing Performance Changes Due to Wing Surface Contours

  Faith Alison Loughnane, Rachael Marie Supina

  Most leading-edge tubercles studies (inspired from the humpback whale) involve serrated-type leading edges where the airfoil cross-section is destroyed. In this research, the effect of the tubercles is investigated where the airfoil cross-section is preserved along the span of the wing. By maintaining the same airfoil section throughout, reducing the chord reduces the thickness of the wing, creating uneven wing surface contours. These contours are hypothesized to affect the spanwise flow thereby affecting the induced drag, roll-up of the wingtip vortex, and the parasite drag of the wing. Sensitivity study was done on the number of contours along the span (6, 9 and 12) and contour location (leading edge, trailing edge, both leading and trailing edge) by performing force-based experiments at the University of Dayton Low Speed Wind Tunnel (UD-LSWT). The aerodynamic coefficients were compared among the wing with and without contours. The aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients along with variations in aerodynamic efficiency will be presented for wings with and without contours.

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  Work vs Play in classrooms

  Hailee M Cain, Katelyn Marie Gillotti

  We will be exploring the benefits of play in early childhood classrooms and beyond. Research shows that there are significant benefits to play, but recently school systems have begun to phase out the importance of play in their curriculums. Instead increasing academic rigor has taken over the life of the everyday classroom. While academic skills are vital, social skills are equally as important for student's proper development. Teachers and educators of all grade levels must find methods to incorporate both cognitive and social emotional development into their classrooms. With the implementation of several required standardized tests, school districts have been forced to focus only on academic scores in order to receive good grades on these large-scale assessments. The consequence of these tests is that students have been given less time to work on and cultivate creative activities and ideas in the classroom, including time for free play. Methods such as intentional teaching have emerged to help teachers combine both academics and play or exploration into the same lesson plans. The goal of our research will be to explore both the benefits and drawbacks of prioritizing play in the everyday classroom.

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  Xsens Distance and Displacement Accuracy in Human Motion

  Julie A Buynacek

  The Xsens MVN Awinda tracks human movement with 18 wireless sensors placed in specific places on the body as well as a prop. The system allows for real-time 3D visualization of motion and measures the distance and displacement of tracked motion. It is hypothesized that Xsens data would be most reliable when walking, less reliable when jogging due to greater disturbed motion, and least reliable when using crutches. Disturbed motion is greater movement that could contribute to displacement of the sensor from its original position.

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  Youth Sport Concussion Management

  Cordell James Stover

  As knowledge about concussions increases and more is being discovered regarding the lasting effects of concussions, youth sport coaches need to be better informed and educated on the signs and symptoms of concussions and the management of concussions and return-to-play procedures. This research examines what coaches of youth athletes (5-12 years of age) know about concussions and concussion management. Semi-structured interviews with coaches were conducted and will be analyzed in order to develop recommendations for effective training tools to help coaches identify and properly manage youth sport concussions.

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  21st Century Policing in Dayton

  Max Hunter Boorsma

  In light of the 2015 Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Policing (Task Force), police departments across the country have been adapting with the ever-changing culture of the United States. The Task Force highlights six pillars essential to effective modern policing that are discussed throughout this research, with an emphasis on pillar one, Building Trust and Legitimacy and pillar four, Community Policing and Crime Reduction. This research attempts to answer the questions of how the Dayton Police Department (DPD) is engaging with the findings of the Task Force and how the public perceives the Dayton Police Department. Exploring the first research question, this research analyzes DPD programs in relation to the Task Force pillars. Discussion of the DECA Taft Seminar highlights the focus on Problem Oriented Policing (POP) and Community Oriented Policing (COP) in relation to pillars one and four. A content analysis of twitter is used to explore the public perception of the DPD. This is an analysis of all 2017 public tweets from twitter users in the Dayton area, which include the key word ‘police’. Discussion of DPD programs in relation to the Task Force pillars allows for analysis and recommendations based on relevant literature. The objective of this paper is to highlight connections between the DPD and the Task Force and to gauge the success of DPD programs based on public perception.

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  A Business Application of Markov Chains

  Emily Lynn Seals

  The purpose of this project is to look at the economic applications of Markov Chains and stochastic matrices in a real-world problem. For this project, I studied a specific case for a rental car company which has a fleet of vehicles for rent in a number of locations. It is very important for the company to know the number of vehicles that will be available on a typical day at each location. This project will show that, on a typical day, the number of available vehicles at the various locations can be known by calculating what is called the steady-state vector of the stochastic matrix associated with the problem. This will help the company to better manage the customer demands. It can then be used to meet any increased demand at a particular location which can occur due to various reasons.

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  ACL Reconstruction Graft Types and the Effects on Recovery Time in Young Adults

  Megan Marie Gusky, Chrissy Hannigan Marie Hannigan, Daniel Vincent Passafiume, Michael Louis Valenti

  This study focuses on ACL Reconstruction Graft Types and The Effects on Recovery Time of Young Adults. There has been a large increase in ACL tears amongst both males and females recently and there are multiple different graft types that can be chosen from for repair. These options include autografts and allografts. Autografts consist of using a tendon from the patient's own body, which could include: a patellar tendon graft, a hamstring graft or a quadriceps graft. An allograft involves using a tendon that is taken from a source outside of the patient’s own body. A cadaver is a common source for an allograft. The different graft types can result in different recovery times. Quantitative data is used to see the correlation between the graft the subjects chose and the overall recovery time. Therefore, students currently attending the University of Dayton will be informed about this study and asked to volunteer if they have previously torn their ACL and have had surgery to repair it. The goal of this research is to figure out which graft type used in ACL reconstruction surgery leads to the quickest recovery for both males and females. This study assesses why the subjects chose the particular graft that they did, what their experiences were during the rehabilitation process, how long it took them to recover from surgery and if they still have any problems with their knee currently.

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  Adapting an existing health document to increase awareness about dietary supplements for the Intensive English Program

  Ibrahim Khaleel Alsulaimani, Maris O'Malley Ebeling, Emily Margaret Flaherty, Catherine Victoria Matheny

  Health literacy can be defined as an individual’s ability to understand health information and integrate the information to make informed decisions in order to reduce health risks and enhance overall quality of life. We partnered with the Intensive English Program (IEP) to revise an existing health document about dietary supplements for students in this program. First, we met with level two IEP students to assess their initial knowledge of dietary supplements and to determine how the document should be tailored to meet their health literacy needs. The initial document had a readability level of 12.0 according to the Microsoft Flesch-Kincaid readability tool and the Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) tool had a reading level of 13.5. Our goal was to adapt the existing health document to a 3.0 to 4.0 reading level for IEP students. This was accomplished by reducing sentence structure complexity and eliminating complex terminology. This project brought to light the need for developing and adapting existing healthcare documents for marginalized audiences with low health literacy.

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  Advance cooling feedback system

  OMAR Mohammed Alokali

  it is an advanced cooling feedback control system, attached with a motor control..

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  A Fundamentals Based Portfolio Weighting Model for the Information Technology Sector:An Empirical Analysis: 2009-2017

  Sallie Rebecca DeYoung

  A central proposition in finance theory is that investors are risk averse and attempt to minimize the risk relative to expected returns regardless of the particular asset class being considered as an investment. In this study, I combine a fundamentals-based approach to portfolio weighting with a measure of return relative to risk to generate portfolio performance for the Top 20 Stocks by market value in the SPDR Information Technology Sector. I use a three-year moving average of each stock’s earnings per share to calculate the inverse of the coefficient of variation (1/cov), a return-risk ratio. Higher portfolio weights are given to stocks with higher 1/cov ratios. Stock weights are recalculated each year so that the portfolio is rebalanced annually. The initial investment is $1,000,000. Portfolio returns are generated for the years 2009-2017 and the performance benchmark is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

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  Agents of Change: Influence of Service Learning and Volunteerism on Career Choice among Military Personnel

  Marcia Mills Nehring

  Since 9/11, more is known in the field of College Student Affairs about how to support military students who transition into college. Engaging these nontraditional students in service learning and volunteerism has shown to influence career choice, increase completion rates, and strengthen community partnerships (Sims, 1989; Travor & Kates, 2014). With higher numbers of unemployment rates for this population, the purpose of this qualitative narrative research study is to explore the perspectives of military students and staff at a Community College in mid-western Ohio, whose career choices were influenced by volunteerism and service learning. The primary investigator used a confidential interview protocol. The findings could inform future studies and encourage community buy-in to engage military personnel in nonprofit activities that may influence their future career choices. Waddell (2011) says, “The significance of entire concept of community service or service learning is directly linked to their military core value of mission first and service before self” (p.18). This study adds to that conversation.