Stander Symposium Projects

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  Autonomous Self-Driving RC Car

  Kenneth Bester, Garrett M O'Grady

  With the age of automation coming to machines, self driving cars will turn from a fantasy to a reality in the next decade. These machines will utilize neural networks to learn from pilot drives to ultimately be able to drive completely autonomously on any road they are put on. This project demonstrates a small fraction of the technology that goes behind a self driving car with an implementation on a 1/16th scale RC car. Using the open source software ‘Donkey Car’ we were able to turn an RC car into a self driving car that get more intelligent every time it drives. Mounted above the car is a 3D printed roll cage which houses a fisheye lense camera (for image recognition) raspberry PI 3 Model B (for the neural networks) and a Servo Controller(to control the throttle and steering). As a demonstration during the presentation, the car will drive simultaneously around a track avoiding obstacles, following street laws and remaining between the lines of the road.

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  Bargain Brand Justice: Ohio's Indigent Defense Funding Model Makes Justice Inaccessible and Undermines the Sixth Amendment

  Ebony D Davenport

  In 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel shall not be denied to anyone due to their ability to pay in Gideon v. Wainright. The right to adequate legal representation is a noble one that sets this nation apart from other areas of the world. However, without the proper infrastructure, this right becomes less revolutionary and more decorative. When public defender offices are not properly funded, the most vulnerable among us are denied a fundamental right; justice becomes an experience exclusive to the elite; and the adversarial system is won not by the best advocate, but by the depth of her resources. The county-by-county funding model employed by the state of Ohio has the potential for causing disparities among counties because public defender offices are funded based on property tax revenue. This approach to funding creates a piecemeal system in which one’s access to justice depends largely on which county he is arrested. When the burden is shifted to the counties, they struggle to provide for public service like waste management, libraries, and schools. This strain on funding creates a Hunger Games-like situation wherein various public services compete for extra crumbs. Because Ohio’s current funding model for indigent defense prevents residents from equal access to justice, thus depriving them of a fundamental right to counsel, a new funding source that is independent from the general fund will allow for (1) counties to be fully staffed, (2) proper expert witnesses that can potentially strengthen a client’s defense, (3) reduce excessive caseloads which undermine quality representation, and (4) ensure that Gideon’s promise is upheld.

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  Beyond the Macro: exploring micronutrients in insect communities

  Kaitlin Marie Gawkins, Meg Elizabeth Gramza

  Macronutrients are widely considered to be an important limiting factor for insect herbivore populations in grassland ecosystems. However, a potential co-limitation by micronutrients has long been overlooked. We are studying the effect of soil micronutrients on herbivore community composition in coastal tallgrass prairies of Texas with a large-scale multi-nutrient, fertilization experiment manipulating Ca, K, and Na in concert with N and P. Initial results indicated that orthoptera abundance and diversity are co-limited by macronutrients and sodium. To determine if these effects arose through the herbivores feeding more heavily on plants with NP and Na added, we used in-lab choice trials with seven species of orthoptera from three feeding guilds with leaves from four plant species (2 grasses and 2 forbs) that were grown in treatments with either ambient soil nutrients or Na, NP, or Na plus NP added. We then determined how much each individual ate of each treatment leaf at the end of the 48 hour trial. With no preference and a choice of 4 leaves, each leaf should make up on average 25% of each individual’s total consumption. We compared each individuals feeding to these expected amounts and used pairwise t-tests to determine whether preferences existed. Pooling across all individuals, orthopterans chose the NP+Na leaves significantly more than any other leaf type. This finding suggests that orthopterans respond directly to leaf chemistry changes arising from our treatments and have important implications for management practices: orthopterans are considered major pests to agricultural systems and are controlled with billions of dollars of pesticides annually. However, because NP and Na in soils are both enhanced with current agricultural practices, our findings suggest that humans could actually be causing these insect herbivores to thrive and become abundant in agricultural systems by adding these limiting nutrients.

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  Beyond the Picture: Elaboration more than Description Enhances Memory and Appreciation for Paintings

  Jacob Severino Avendano, Abigail T Flower, Tessa Nicole Jatczak, Brad Charles Wolfred, Yu Zhao

  Aesthetic preferences involve many factors that determine how people respond to art. For example, the context surrounding photographic art (e.g., titles) influence its aesthetic appeal (Millis, 2001). The present study examines the effect of titles on aesthetic preferences for paintings. We hypothesize that (a) participants will show greater preference for paintings with elaborative titles compared to descriptive titles, and (b) participants will have better memory for paintings with elaborative titles compared to descriptive titles. Participants evaluated images of lesser-known Van Gogh paintings. Prior to the experiment, a sample of students was presented with these paintings along with elaborative and descriptive titles to verify that the titles were valid. In the experiment, all participants were exposed first to paintings without titles. Next, participants were exposed to the same paintings in a randomized order with titles. Titles were either elaborative (evoking a deeper thought process, such as “Water Sustains Life” for a painting of a bridge over a stream) or descriptive (naming objects in the painting, such as “Bridge over Water” for the same painting). Participants were asked questions assessing preferences: if they liked the painting, if they would buy the painting, and if they would hang the painting in their home. A control group also assessed the paintings twice, but without the titles present either time. All participants then completed tasks unrelated to the experiment to distract them from reviewing the paintings. Finally, participants viewed the original paintings intermingled with new Van Gogh paintings to test their memory for the original paintings. Preliminary results show that participants prefer and recall more of the paintings with elaborative titles compared to descriptive or no titles. These results support our hypotheses, suggesting that elaboration enhances one’s experience when viewing paintings, and elaboration also make the paintings more memorable.

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  Brain Machine Interface Software Application for Data Collection, Thought Analysis, and Robotic Arm Control

  Jason Demeter, Alexander Robert Jereb, Clayton T Kern, Brad Richard Sorg, Jamie Stanton

  The overall purpose of the ongoing Brain Machine Interface (BMI) project is to develop an electroencephalography (EEG) interface and a robotics control application which will further enable people with disabilities to achieve autonomy. The project consists of developing, building, and testing an end-to-end system to translate raw EEG data into actionable information. This can be used to control a robotic arm and for other research purposes. A BMI is a system that collects the brain’s electromagnetic signals by utilizing sensors, extracts meaningful signals from the data, classifies thoughts, and ultimately uses thoughts as an input to a computer system. The computer system then has the ability to control hardware and software, which for this project is a robotic arm. The team improved the robotic arm user interface, developed a graphical user interface (GUI) for thought recognition, and explored future research paths by partnering with local experts. To improve the usability of the robotic arm user interface, the team developed software that allows easier performance of useful activities, such as using a pen to play tic-tac-toe, playing piano, and picking up objects. The Insight headset by Emotiv was used by the team for data collection. The headset can stream real time EEG data and control signals, however the Emotiv software solution for data collection is closed and proprietary. To use the Vision Lab’s noise reduction and muscle signal removal algorithms, the team created a GUI to train the thought classification system and collect and process the data. EEG phoneme detection is a future research path that allows for thought to speech translation. The team investigated EEG phoneme detection by implementing algorithms which can identify phoneme sounds from audio recordings. Using these working algorithms, further research will implement phoneme detection using only EEG signals with no audio.

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  Business that Changed the World and Media Moguls

  Maryam Sulaiman Said SULAIMAN Al Ofi, Hassan Ali A Al Zainaddin, Fahad Y F A A Alduaij, Mahdi M E A H Alsaffar, Muhammad H H H M Alsarraf, Saleh Mohammed

  The presenters are students from the Intensive English Program. The posters they have created are representative of an end of term project for the level 3 Oral Communication and Listening/Note-taking course; an intermediate class for English language learning students at the intermediate proficiency level. The goal of this assignment is to give students an introduction to research and an opportunity to improve their speaking and presentation skills.

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  Caffeine Rush! Examining the Effects of Caffeine on Spatial Working Memory.

  Alexander N Lawriw

  Caffeine is well-known for its ability to make a person feel more attentive, more alert, and less fatigued, but could this popular stimulant also help improve a person’s memory, as well? Prior research suggests that caffeine might be a cognitive enhancer with participants showing improved performance on short-term memory tasks such as the recall of word lists (Arnold et al., 1987; Barraclough & Foreman, 1994; Rogers & Dernoncourt, 1998; Ryan et al., 2002; Schmitt, 2001a, b). However, conflicting results using similar tasks have called these findings into question. On top of this, the overall body of research concerning caffeine and memory has tended to focus solely on relatively simple assessments of newly established episodic memory, leaving a glaring gap in the literature when it comes to other types of memory (e.g., semantic memory). The present research aims to fill this gap by studying caffeine’s potential effects on spatial working memory, the temporary storage, maintenance, and manipulation of spatial information. In the experiment, participants were asked to complete levels of varying difficulty within a computerized version of the popular puzzle game, Rush Hour, after consuming either a 200 mg caffeine pill or a placebo. Rush Hour requires the player to move a designated red ‘target’ car to the exit of a 6 x 6 grid. Blocking the exit are other cars that can only be moved horizontally or vertically depending on the direction they are facing. Participants must use the spatial information of the grid layout in order to complete the levels as efficiently as possible. We hypothesize that those participants given caffeine will complete these levels quicker and with fewer errors than those given a placebo. However, this increase in performance may be limited on more difficult levels due to increased workload and ensuing stress.

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  Challenging the American Dream in Dayton, OH

  Abby Anne Pech

  The ideology of the American Dream has a negative impact on those who are low income by creating a false perception of what it takes for residents to reach their full potential. The American Dream emphasizes that everyone has the freedom and ability to suc­ceed, economically and socially, through hard work and dedication, but fails to address the underlying barriers that stand in the way of this achievement. Drawing on narratives from the Facing Project in Dayton and social science literature, it is clear that non-merit factors such as social capital, cultural capital, and inheritance hinder the poor from achieving the American Dream. The goal of this poster is to highlight the historical impact of the American Dream on people in the Dayton area and emphasize how the upper class has an unfair advantage over the lower class. It will delve into the functional and conflict explanations of poverty and examine the is­sues surrounding the four ingredients needed to obtain the American Dream, which include talent, the right attitude, hard work, and moral character. In order to level the playing field in the Dayton area, I recommend a number of measures that could begin to foster equal opportunity to the American Dream.

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  Challenging the American Dream in Dayton, OH

  Abby Anne Pech

  The ideology of the American Dream has a negative impact on those who are low income by creating a false perception of what it takes for residents to reach their full potential. The American Dream emphasizes that everyone has the freedom and ability to succeed, economically and socially, through hard work and dedication, but fails to address the underlying barriers that stand in the way of this achievement. Drawing on narratives from the Facing Project in Dayton and social science literature, it is clear that non-merit factors such as social capital, cultural capital, and inheritance hinder the poor from achieving the American Dream. The goal of this poster is to highlight the historical impact of the American Dream on people in the Dayton area and emphasize how the upper class has an unfair advantage over the lower class. It will delve into the functional and conflict explanations of poverty and examine the issues surrounding the four ingredients needed to obtain the American Dream, which include talent, the right attitude, hard work, and moral character. In order to level the playing field in the Dayton area, I recommend a number of measures that could begin to foster equal opportunity to the American Dream.

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  Changes in a western Ohio old-growth forest community before and after invasion by emerald ash borer

  Julia I Chapman, Mitchell John Kukla, Corey Michael Kuminecz

  The emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis fairmaire) is an invasive insect species in North America that has devastated Fraxinus (ash) populations in the Great Lakes region and northeastern U.S.. Many forests are losing a significant number of Fraxinus trees and the implications of this widespread disturbance is not yet clear. The aim of this study is to understand how EAB-related tree mortality is impacting compositional change in a west central Ohio old-growth forest. A set of 32 nested plots were established in Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in 2011 and used to sample the overstory layer (314 m2; stems ≥ 2.5 cm diameter at breast height), sapling layer (10 m2; stems < 2.5 cm dbh and > 50 cm in height), and seedling layer (1 m2; stems < 50 cm in height). These plots were resampled in 2017 to investigate the composition of tree species over seven years during which the majority of Fraxinus trees died from EAB infestation. In the overstory, basal area of live Fraxinus decreased from 151.4 m2 ha-1 in 2011 to 1.68 m2 ha-1 in 2017. The basal area of dead Fraxinus increased from 33.5 m2 ha-1 in 2011 and to 132.3 m2 ha-1 in 2017. Further analysis will investigate how the relative abundance and stem density of tree species other than Fraxinus have changed during this time period. These findings can provide insight into the future successional trajectory of forests that have been infested with emerald ash borer.

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  Changes in Herbaceous Plant Diversity in an Old-Growth Ohio Forest Before and After Emerald Ash Borer Invasion

  Taylor Melissa Buskey

  The herbaceous layer of eastern North American deciduous forests is an important contributor to biodiversity in this region. One of the greatest threats to herbaceous plant diversity is the introduction of invasive species, which can suppress native species and alter local environmental conditions. Agrilus planipennis (emerald ash borer) is a non-native insect pest that has caused a mass death of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) in North America since its introduction to the United States. The resultant changes in canopy structure may affect local conditions and thus have indirect impacts on herbaceous layer composition. Drew Woods State Nature Preserve is a 6-ha old-growth forest fragment in Darke County, Ohio that has recently experienced EAB-related ash mortality. Our goal was to understand how herbaceous layer diversity has been changing through time in response to this sitewide canopy disturbance. Annual surveys of herbaceous biodiversity were conducted across 32 1-m2 sampling plots from 2012 to 2017. Species richness, total cover, Shannon Diversity, and species evenness were calculated for each plot by year, and beta diversity (Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity) was used to assess community turnover through time. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to test for significant changes over this period, and regression analyses were used to understand relationships between diversity and environmental variables (canopy cover, soil moisture, and distance to forest edge). Species richness and herbaceous cover tended to be higher in more recent sampling years. There was a temporally consistent north-south gradient where diversity tended to be greater toward the southern edge of the stand. These results suggest that EAB-induced ash mortality is increasing light availability via canopy gap formation, which is a driving factor of herbaceous diversity. The full impact of EAB is not yet clear, but will likely extend beyond ash mortality and have important indirect effects on other parts of forest ecosystems.

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  Characterization of the Glycosylation of Aquaglyceroporin HC-3 in Erythrocytes from the Freeze Tolerant Anuran, Dryophytes chrysoscelis

  Dante Laurenti Pezzutti

  Cope’s gray treefrog, Dryophytes chrysoscelis, is a freeze-tolerant anuran that uses glycerol as a cryoprotectant. In erythrocytes of D. chrysoscelis, transmembrane glycerol flux is likely facilitated through the aquaglyceroporin, HC-3. Previous research demonstrated that erythrocytes from cold-acclimated treefrogs up-regulate HC-3 protein expression, membrane localization, and glycosylation. Thus, we hypothesize that anticipatory glycerol accumulation observed in cold-acclimated treefrogs contributes to enhanced post-translational modification of HC-3 via N-linked and O-linked glycosylation, and that HC-3 glycosylation is important in subcellular trafficking of HC-3 to the membrane. Densitometric analyses of immunoblots specific for HC-3 showed a 3.5-fold and 1.9-fold average increase in glycosylated HC-3 from RBCs cultured with the addition of glycerol (CCCM+G) as compared to Freshly Isolated RBCs (FI) and RBCs cultured in CCCM alone, respectively. Western blots of RBC proteins treated with PNGase F resulted in a 1.3-fold average decrease in glycosylated HC-3 compared to control proteins. However, protein treatment with O-Glycosidase and Neuraminidase did not change the abundance of glycosylated HC-3. Additional results were collected using scanning laser confocal microscopy and HC-3 localization was measured in mean fluorescent intensity (arbitrary units) using ImageJ software (N=4-6 cells per experiment). For RBCs cultured in CCCM+G, immunofluorescence intensity of HC-3 in the plasma membrane was 21.7 times greater than HC-3 immunofluorescence in the cytosol (P<0.05). In contrast, immunofluorescence intensity of HC-3 in the cytosol was 3.2 times greater than HC-3 immunofluorescence in the membrane for FI RBCs (P<0.01). Through the use of an in vitro cell culture system, we have recapitulated cold-acclimated in vivo HC-3 expression patterns through the addition of a glycerol-induced hyperosmotic environment to warm-acclimated erythrocyte cell cultures of D. chrysoscelis. Thus, in addition to its osmoregulatory role, glycerol may also influence the N-linked glycosylation and membrane trafficking of HC-3.

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  Characterization of Zinc-Histidine Interactions in Nvjp-1

  Brittanie M Rooths

  The mandible of Nereis virens, a marine sandworm, is mostly organic with stiffness and hardness comparable to that of human dentin. Nvjp-1 is the primary protein in the Nereis jaw and is inherently Histidine rich. Histidine contributes to the stability of the protein structure and superior mechanical properties through metal-coordinate bonds. Crosslinking of purified recombinant Nvjp-1 creates a water stable hydrogel that is capable of expanding and contracting upon exposure to various ions. Nvjp-1 hydrogels exhibit sclerotization through metal-coordination with divalent cations. Over ninety percent of the amino acid sequence of the carboxy-terminal of Nvjp-1 is comprised of only four amino acids. In order to determine the genetic/protein motifs directly responsible for the mechanical response, a carboxy-terminal truncation mutant of Nvjp-1 was recombinately expressed and crosslinked to form hydrogels. Dynamic mechanical analysis was performed on the carboxy-terminal truncation mutant to compare its mechanical properties to that of the full-length protein. De Novo structure prediction was performed using Molecular Dynamics simulations as a technique for determining native protein structures. The role of Zn-Histidine interactions in Nvjp-1 and their effect on protein structure was also investigated.

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  Chronic administration of probiotic L. rhamnosus increases anxiety-like behavior in group-housed male Long Evans rats

  Parker Maddison Griff

  Early life stress is a risk factor for later development of alcohol use disorders and anxiety disorders in humans. Using rodent experimental models, we know that rats experiencing social isolation as early-life stress exhibit greater anxiety-like behavior and alcohol consumption than rats housed in groups. Examining potential preventive strategies, we investigated the effects of probiotics, which have previously been shown to decrease rodent anxiety-like behavior, on the relationship between early-life stress and anxiety-like behavior in rats. We hypothesized that probiotics consumption would decrease anxiety-like behavior in socially isolated rats, as well as in rats housed in groups. To our surprise, we found that the probiotics had no significant effect on anxiety-like behavior for socially isolated rats but significantly increased anxiety-like behavior in rats housed in groups. Our results suggest probiotics do not have a positive benefit to alleviate consequences of early life stress and raise caution for their therapeutic use.

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  Climatic controls on the stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Ethiopia

  Colin McTighe

  This project aims to determine what major climatic factors control the variation of the stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Ethiopia. In the past, the variations of stable isotopes of precipitation have been linked to the North-South migration of the Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). However, recent studies suggested that the link between the ITCZ and the arrival of rainy seasons in Ethiopia do not provide enough explanation for the precipitation isotope values. In this study we examine the stable isotope values of precipitation for four stations throughout Ethiopia from August 2012 – August 2013, and determine how they are affected by a variety of climate factors including: local temperature and precipitation amount, sources of moisture (established through HYSPLIT modeling), convective intensity of moisture source region (estimated by the Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR)), wind circulation patterns, and moisture flux and transport. Our results will provide more insight to the control of precipitation isotopes in the tropical region, which is important for accurate interpretation of climate proxy data.

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  Cluster Computing with the Raspberry PI

  Ali Hussain Alwahimed

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  Combating Antibiotic Resistance in Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Cells using Plant Derived Inhibitory Compounds

  Emily Marie Jones

  Bacteria have steadily developed defenses against antibiotics since the world’s first fleet of antibacterial drugs was introduced. One strategy that bacteria can use to become multi-drug resistant involves the use of large, membrane-embedded efflux pumps, such as the AcrAB-TolC pump found in Escherichia coli (E. coli) and other Gram-negative bacteria cells. The most antibiotic-resistant cells are those which over-express the genes that code for this large efflux pump, and this gives the bacterium the capability of transporting a wide variety of compounds out of the cell, including antibiotics that we use to combat bacterial infections. The overexpression of these bacterial efflux pumps renders our antibiotics ineffective. To combat this antibiotic-resistance strategy, I will be analyzing plant extracts to identify new compounds that can block the activity of bacterial efflux pumps and restore the effectiveness of existing antibiotics. Fourteen roots, shoots, fruits, seeds, and leaves will be tested using a fluorescence-based efflux assay and any extracts that show inhibitory activity will be analyzed so that the active compound can be identified. This research could open up a new avenue in the treatment of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

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  Combinatorial Effects of Silver Nanoparticles and Hypoxia on Lung Cells

  Cameron Mark-Allan Crasto

  Silver nanoparticles are used in a variety of both consumer and medical applications. They possess antimicrobial properties that can stress mammalian cells through the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This experiment looked at A549 human lung alveolar cells with exposure to 10nm silver citrate nanoparticles (AgNPs) in both a normal oxygen environment and hypoxic environment. Cell viability, formation of ROS, as well as the phosphorylation of both HSP27 and NFκB. In both environments, concentrations of 5µg/ml saw significant reduction in cell viability. There was a slight loss in cell viability in the hypoxic environment. The hypoxic environment saw significant increases in ROS at concentrations as low as 0.1µg/ml. In addition, when exposed to 5µg/ml of AgNPs, it was shown to increase phosphorylation of the HSP27, but reduce the phosphorylation of NFκB proteins, which play a crucial role in the stress level of a cell. (We are going to execute another experiment this week, which would combine exposure to AgNPs and low O2 - 10% CO2 on the A549 cell line. Once we get this data, we will update the abstract and be ready for the presentation.)

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  Community Shift Towards Individualism

  Hannah Katherine Donovan

  Public Social Capital is the network of relationships of people that a person knows and the resources they provide for them; as defined by McNamee (2014), “the social capital grapevine is only available in and through relationships and the groups which these relationships occur,” (79). The resource base for higher socioeconomic groups is far wider and deeper than that of those lower socioeconomic origins which creates a gap in information and influence between economic groups. Drawing on social inequality literature and the Facing Project Narratives related to public social capital, this poster will discuss the impact of changing neighborhoods and public social capital in the Dayton area. Understanding how social capital functions to either aid or limit in number of opportunities, resources, and connections in society. Currently and looking into the future, I hope to examine the resources available to connect people and grow in their associational life.

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  Compartmentalization and Temporal Distribution of L-DOPA-Containing Proteins Involved in Oyster Shell Formation

  Benjamin Nicholas Schmeusser

  Marine molluscs, such as Crassostrea virginica (eastern oyster), produce structural proteins that are essential in adhesive strategies and shell biomineralization. The unique properties of these proteins derive from the amino acid composition. L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa), which is a unique key amino acid in the cross-linking of these proteins, can be considered a biomarker for identification and localization of shell formation proteins. The focus of this research was to determine the compartmentalization of L-dopa-containing proteins involved in the process of biomineralization in C. virginica at different time points during a shell repair event. Three organismal compartments were identified as possible locations of L-dopa precursor proteins: hemocytes, cell-free hemolymph, and mantle tissue. Hemolymph was harvested from the adductor muscle of notched oysters and hemocytes were subsequently collected via hemolymph centrifugation. Mantle tissue was collected from specific locations. The product of repair, nascent shell deposited in the notch, was collected at discrete time points post-notching. Amino acid composition related to time since notching was determined via anion exchange HPLC with pulsed amperometric detection. Additionally, the Arnow Assay (specific for catechols) was used to stain for L-dopa in the samples. Preliminary data reveal increased L-dopa concentrations in hemocytes and hemolymph at 24-48 hours and 96 hours post notching, respectively, indicating a mobilization of resources for shell repair. These data support the hypothesis that L-dopa-containing proteins are involved in oyster shell formation and that they are distributed at discrete locations within the organism.

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  Complications of Housing Arrangements in Dayton

  Dylan Anthony Penna-Powell

  American homeowners accumulate material wealth as they gain equity on their homes. A sociological look at how people are distributed around the city of Dayton according to their socioeconomic backgrounds reveals more than geographical details of social and economic inequality. This presentation explores the effects that disparities in housing arrangements have on closely related areas of interest such as education, access to affordable and nutritious foods, and individuals' likelihood of economic mobility. In addition, opportunities for reform through public education funding via local property tax dollars will be discussed. Reformation of a system in which the value of one's home is tightly linked to the quality of nearby public schools would provide greater opportunity for social and economic mobility to those in low-income communities.

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  Contrasting Patterns of Small and Large Glacial Lake Evolution in the Nepal Himalayas

  Katherine A Strattman

  The objective of this research is to assess annual ice velocities of three Himalayan glaciers in the Mount Everest region of Nepal. Glaciers worldwide are important indicators of climate change due to their tendencies of attaining equilibrium under changing climatic conditions. Imja, Lower Barun, and Hongu glaciers and their respective proglacial lakes have responded by retreat and growth, but at varying rates. Imja and Lower Barun Lakes have grown rapidly, but Hongu Glacier Lake has shown relatively slower growth. Despite the little accelerating growth of Hongu Glacier Lake, the moraine is composed of unconsolidated and unstable material, and poses the threat of an outburst flood due to less freeboard area. Therefore, it is important to monitor the development of all three lakes, as well as consider fluctuations of surface velocity. Using Landsat satellite imagery, I assessed the annual changes in surface ice velocity from 1992 to 2017. The yearly images were used as inputs to COSI-Corr, a co-registration and sub-pixel correlation software, to track changes on the glaciers surface. My results indicate short-term variations, despite all three glaciers’ location within the Mount Everest region, as well as similar long-term trends. Specifically, Imja, Lower Barun, and Hongu glaciers have shown long term trends of deceasing surface velocity, with varying rates of flow within each yearly pair. The three proglacial lakes have all grown at different rates as well, with Imja showing very rapid growth since the 1960s, Lower Barun showing deaccelerating growth, and Hongu showing very little growth. Understanding the dynamic nature of surface velocity can provide insight on overall glacier health, and may reveal how glaciers respond under rapid lake growth.

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  Convolutional Neural Network Based Multi-view Object Classification

  Zhiyuan Xie

  In recent years, neural networks have become more and more popular because of their outstanding performance in the object classification area. The convolutional neural network (CNN) is a deep learning, feed-forward neural network that has excellent performance in visual imagery analysis area. The idea of the connectivity pattern between neurons of the CNN came from the organization of the animal visual cortex. For human vision, different observational directions of objects can get different views. Human can easily recognize objects in different observational directions, but machines cannot achieve this easily. Therefore, multi-view object classification has been researched for many years. To solve this problem, we design an efficient CNN architecture to perform classification of the multi-view images of objects by appropriately choosing the number of layers, the sequence of layers cascading, and size of the filters. Then, we improve the classification performance by adding image enhancement techniques before CNN as a preprocessing stage. CNN extracts various significant features of the image. It is expected that an enhanced image helps to extract stronger features. The training and testing input images of the CNN are original images or enhanced images. The image enhancement is performed by nonlinear enhancement techniques such as multilevel windowed inverse sigmoid (MWIS) function based technique or a locally tuned sine nonlinearity (LTSN) technique. It is observed that the preprocessing by image enhancement provides improved performance in the cases of the smaller training set. Research work is in progress to modify the CNN architecture to see the impact of recognition performance for multi-view object classification. Advanced non-linear enhancement technologies might also be investigated to see the effectiveness in classification.

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  Cracking the Shell: An Investigation of Shell Repair in the Oyster, Crassostrea virginica

  Alyssa Ashley Outhwaite

  Mollusc shell formation has been an intriguing phenomenon for decades and current research efforts represent a paradigm shift in how oyster shell formation occurs. The older model of shell formation suggests a lack of cellular components as transport vectors for organic and mineral components. However, current research focuses on the potential role of oyster blood cells, hemocytes, in moving organic and mineral components to the shell formation front. A protein biomarker, the amino acid L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), is unique to the proteins involved in insoluble organic matrix formation. Tracking the location and temporal occurrence of L-DOPA-containing proteins reveals the potential role of cells in shell repair. Three notch-repair experiments were conducted: a short term 36-hour notch-repair study, a mid-term 7-day notch-repair study, and a long term 8-week notch-repair study. At discrete time intervals, selected oyster compartments of hemocytes, mantle tissues, hemolymph, and nascent shell were sampled to determine the spatial and temporal distributions of the DOPA biomarker. Preliminary results show an increase in DOPA concentration in hemolymph from 0 to 48 hours. Conversely, hemocytes show a decrease in DOPA over time, with the greatest amount of DOPA present at 0 hours and a subsequent decrease over the course of repair. Additionally, nascent shell was analyzed during the 8-week study through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Analysis of the shell surface showed haphazard crystal formation under normal mineral deposition with crystals irregular in size, shape, and general placement. Newly formed shell from a notched specimen at 48 and 96 hours after notching; however, is characterized by directional and more uniformly shaped crystals. Together these results suggest that hemocytes are selectively shuttling and releasing protein resources to areas of shell repair and provide additional support for the cellular mediated shell formation model, where hemocytes play an active role in materials transport.

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  Creating a More Effective Explanation of Concussions for Intensive English Program Students

  Taylor Morgan Balk, Mark D Bugada, Caroline A Lynch, Olivia Marie Stanforth

  Low health literacy is a huge obstacle in communicating medical conditions and information to patients. An additional obstacle is created when physicians are communicating with international patients whose primary language is not English. The purpose of this project was to present written information on concussions to international students in the Level 2 Intensive English Program (IEP) at the University of Dayton in a format that they could read comfortably. For our methods, we went into the IEP classroom to assess the students’ knowledge of concussions. We then used the information the students provided along with an original fact sheet produced by the Center for Disease Control to create a brochure that would help the IEP students better understand concussions. We altered the original document’s wording, format, and content in order to display the information to the students so that they could better understand the material. Our document focused specifically on what a concussion is, its symptoms, and recovery tips. This final brochure corresponded with the IEP students’ reading level and allowed them to comprehend the information more clearly.