Stander Symposium Projects

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  Exploring the knowledge and attitudes toward concussions among college football players

  Ian James Chennell, Megan Irene Grace, Marissa Ann Melaragno, Jamie Grace Squillante

  There have been increasing concerns on the issue of concussion in the world of football. The concussion effects are becoming more evident as the players get older and the more technology grows. Because of this, we wanted to look into the knowledge level and attitudes about concussions. Our study looks at multiple college football players and what their knowledge level and attitudes are about concussions. We will measure this by conducting interviews and administering surveys based on "Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey (RoCKAS)". We also took aspects of the Planned Behavior Theory and related them to our findings. The Planned Behavior Theory looks at an individual's drive and motivation to engage in a specific behavior. Specifically, we are interested in seeing if the knowledge level or attitudes about football among college football players would play a part in their athletic performance.

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  Exploring Undergraduate, International Student Retention at the University of Dayton

  Emily Mitolo Grasso

  The purpose of this qualitative, case study is to explore the challenges, responses and best practices of academic units in the retention of undergraduate, international students moving from their first to second year at the University of Dayton. The Deans’ offices were surveyed (n = 4) and interviewed (n = 4) electronically, revealing that there are not current retention initiatives for this student population within the academic units. The findings will be shared with the units as well as other support services across campus who may be able to take action to increase persistence of undergraduate, international students past their first year.

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  Extracellular biofilm polysaccharides-mediated antibiotic resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

  Celeste Claire Bergman

  High density surface-attached growth of bacteria are called biofilms. This bacterial community secrete extracellular matrix materials, of which the major components are polysaccharides. The polysaccharides serve as adhesion molecules as well as a protective barrier against antibiotics and other antimicrobial compounds. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen, and its propensity to grow biofilms in infected sites causes serious medical problems, often untreatable due to their antibiotic resistance properties. The two major biofilm polysaccharides of P. aeruginosa are the PEL and PSL polysaccharides. In this project, we show the relationships between antibiotic resistance and PEL/PSL polysaccharides of P. aeruginosa biofilms.

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  Factors that Affect Students in an Urban Educational Setting

  Jack M Dalton, Natalie Grace Kremer, Brittany K Mason, Grace C Takacs

  This presentation explores how factors such as grade retention, food insecurity, drug use, and the school-to-prison pipeline affect students in an urban educational setting.

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  Fault Lines: Geopolitical Rivalry in the East China Sea

  Nicholas Alexander Dalton

  The Senkaku Islands dispute in the East China Sea stands as a major territorial dispute between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Japan. This dispute has periodically reemerged in the interactions between these two states between 1895, when the Senkaku Islands were definitively administered by Japan, and the present day. The dispute has undergone significant changes in its emphasis by both the PRC and Japan, as well as what the dispute is about. At its early stages, the Senkaku Islands dispute was largely ignored by both China and Japan. Even between 1971 and 1978, when the Senkaku Islands dispute entered its modern form, the dispute was deemphasized to promote normalization of relations between the PRC and Japan. However, after the 1980s, with a rising PRC and somewhat economically and militarily weaker Japan, the dispute emerged with new intensity. In turning to the focus of the Senkaku Islands dispute, this has involved both economic interests, such as the resources in and around the adjacent seabed, as well as elements of popular nationalism. The Senkaku Islands dispute has created significant tensions and military development between Japan and the PRC. This paper examines how the Senkaku Islands dispute has driven militarization between the PRC and Japan.

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  Fear no weevil: insect communities as indicators of restoration in an urban prairie network

  Erin Butrica, Amanda N Finke

  Tallgrass prairies are one of North America’s most threatened ecosystems, having been depleted to 4% of its original range. Because of this, conservationists have been working to protect the remaining prairies, as well as restoring and constructing new ones. However, studies are showing that these restored and constructed prairies may not support the same biodiversity and ecosystem services as natural prairies. Most of the biodiversity within these prairies is composed of arthropods. We determined how insect communities from remnant prairies (n=5) compare to that of constructed prairies (n=5) and old fields (n=4). At each site, we collected 4 samples of arthropods by sweepnetting 25 times each, pooling samples, and identifying all individuals to order. We also sampled plant and soil community characteristics. We saw that habitat type affected the number of Coleoptera (beetles), with more beetles in remnant prairies than restored or constructed prairies. Individuals from this order were identified to family, and we saw higher numbers of Phalacridae (shining flower beetles) and Curculionidae (weevils) in the remnant prairie sites. Because few studies look at organisms other than plants to determine success of restoration efforts, we see these beetles as potential indicator species that may help land managers in determining the success of prairie restorations.

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  Feeding the City: Food Access and Grocery Stores

  Tiffany Erin Hendricks

  Several areas of Dayton are considered “food deserts,” meaning that fresh fruit and vegetables, along with other healthful whole foods, are largely unavailable in these areas. Drawing on Facing Project Narratives in Dayton as well as social science literature, the purpose of this research poster is to investigate food access in the City of Dayton. More specifically, thise poster will highlight the causes, conditions, and effects of food deserts and how the presence of a food desert can be representative of the inequalities present in Dayton citizens’ lives. Additionally, connection between poverty and food access is discussed as well as current and potential efforts to combat this issue such as the Urban Renewal Farm, government-subsidized grocery stores, food cooperatives, and increasing the size and resources available for urban growing.

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  Feeding the City: Food Access and Grocery Stores

  Tiffany Erin Hendricks

  Several areas of Dayton are considered “food deserts,” meaning that fresh fruit and vegetables, along with other healthful whole foods, are largely unavailable in these areas. Drawing on Facing Project Narratives in Dayton as well as social science literature, the purpose of this research poster is to investigate food access in the City of Dayton. More specifically, thise poster will highlight the causes, conditions, and effects of food deserts and how the presence of a food desert can be representative of the inequalities present in Dayton citizens’ lives. Additionally, connection between poverty and food access is discussed as well as current and po­tential efforts to combat this issue such as the Urban Renewal Farm, government-subsidized grocery stores, food cooperatives, and increasing the size and resources available for urban growing.

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  Final High School GPA, What's the Big Deal?

  Katelyn Brohman

  This quantitative survey-based study explores whether or not there is a statistically significant correlation between final-year high-school GPA and first-semester college GPA among undergraduate students at the University of Dayton. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not a final high school GPA is related to success in college. It is not rare for high school students to believe their GPA in high school directly relates to their ability to succeed in college; as a high school teacher, I believe this is incorrect. We put so much stress on high school GPA only for some students to be under-prepared when arriving at college. This study also explores the difference between students' first-semester college GPAs based on their self-identification as (a) not at all confident, (b) somewhat confident, (c) confident, or (d) very confident about being successful in college before they started as undergraduates at the University of Dayton.

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  Finding the probability of being selected an NBA All-Star

  Matthew Paul Forte

  Halfway through the National Basketball Association, there is an All-Star break where the 24 best players are selected to participate in an All-Star game. Being selected as an all-star has many implications for the player and his organization, including salary bonuses and legacy concerns. This project aims to identify the probability that players in the National Basketball Association will be selected as an all-star. The model uses a number of statistical indicators including points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game, efficiency ratings, and more.

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  Forecasting Rain Using Logistic Regression.

  Alsomali Ibrahim Y Alsomali

  Prediction and forecasting using logistic regression have exploded during recent years. Logistic regression modeling now used in almost all kind of knowledge. Rainfall is an important event in the climate system. Whether it rains or not has a big impact on several life areas such as nature, agriculture and animal life. Thus, we need to be able to predict rainfall. In this paper, we show how to use logistic regression for predicting rainfall. Ten years of daily rainfall data used to build the model. Two extra years of observed daily rainfall data used as a validation of the model. Our finding shows that logistic regression model can predict the rainfall very efficiently.

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  Forecasting U.S. Inflation

  John Martin Harmon

  The U.S. Federal Reserve relies on a target rate of inflation of 2% to determine monetary policy actions regarding raising or lowering the federal funds rate. If the actual rate of inflation is above 2%, a tightening of monetary policy usually occurs. Conversely, an inflation rate below 2% can lead to a policy of monetary easing. The purpose of this study is to develop a time trend forecasting model of inflation to determine if expected inflation rates are above or below the target rate. Using CPI and CPI less food and energy as the measures of inflation, forecasts are made on a monthly basis for both 2017&2018.The forecasts for 2017 will determine the forecast accuracy of the regression models and the forecasts for 2018 will provide comparisons to the benchmark 2% target rate. The Root Mean Square Error(RMSE) is used to measure forecast accuracy. The time trend regression models are fitted to the monthly CPI data for 2009-2016 and 2009-2017.

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  Generation of Octave Spanning Spectra directly from a Fiber Oscillator with Self-Similar Pulse Evolution

  Ankita Nayankumar Khanolkar

  The shortest light pulse that can be generated by a mode-locked laser will always be of fundamental interest to the field of ultrafast science. Mode-locked lasers that produce octave-spanning spectra and few-cycle pulses are very attractive for applications such as frequency comb, high-harmonic generation, and ultrafast spectroscopy. Ti: sapphire lasers still dominate the few cycle regimes with generation of 5 fs pulses and octave spanning spectra directly from laser cavity. Performance of the fiber lasers is improved over the years, but they still lag in terms of high energy and few cycle pulses compared to solid state lasers. We have simulated a mode-locked fiber laser design based on the double clad ytterbium doped fiber with the addition of a dispersive delay line (DDL) before photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and it produced octave spanning spectra extending from 750 nm to 1600 nm (660 nm at -20 dB level). It is scientifically important to realize and stabilize a mode-locked fiber laser with such an extreme perturbation even numerically. To our best knowledge, this is the first numerical evidence demonstrating generation of very broad spectra directly out of a mode-locked fiber laser. Further experimental investigation of this mode-locked fiber laser is currently underway.

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  GLOF Modeling of Hongu Glacier Lake in the Nepal Himalayas: A GIS-based Approach

  Katherine A Strattman

  The objective of this project is to model a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) of Hongu Glacier Lake, located in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, using a physically-based GIS model. Due to recent climate change many glaciers in the Himalayas have experienced rapid retreat, resulting in the development and growth of proglacial lakes. Often dammed by terminal moraines composed of unstable and unconsolidated material, trigger events such as excessive rainfall or avalanches can cause the dam to be breached, releasing massive amounts of water over a short period. Large volumes of water combined with the steep and complex terrain of the Himalayas causes serious threat to downstream populations and infrastructure. Assessing and monitoring proglacial lakes using remotely sensed images has become a widely established practice as many glaciers, including Hongu, are in unreachable, remote area. Additionally, GIS-based flood models allow for spatial analysis of risk assessment. Using digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from remotely sensed images, land cover data, and soil data as base maps, the freely available WetSpa model is applied to Hongu Glacier Lake for flood prediction. WetSpa, or Water and Energy Transfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere, is a physically based GIS model that simulates hydrologic processes continuously over time and space on the catchment scale. DEMs from 2015 imagery are obtained freely through NASA’s Earth Explorer program, and soil and land use data are obtained from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Outputs in the form of hydrographs from the WetSpa model are imported into ArcMap for analysis. Information on extent and intensity of the modeled GLOF can be used for risk assessment or future planning of infrastructure.

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  Got Sleep: An investigation of the sleep problem on Dayton's campus

  Nathaniel Dale Brown, Lucas William Edwards, Sara M Huber, Katie Rachel Knezevich

  Sleep deprivation has adverse effects on college students impacting their diet, memory, mood, focus, immune system, and overall health. The college lifestyle creates an environment that does not support adequate sleep. We talked with UD students to gauge their knowledge of the importance of sleep in a healthy lifestyle, and found most students are not aware of the effects that poor sleep creates in their lives. We believe the University of Dayton does not have adequate educational information regarding the importance of sleep. After evaluating the resources provided by other universities, we determined more can be done at UD to raise awareness of the pros and cons of sleep as well as other recommendations to get a better nights sleep. Our poster will describe our team’s recommendation for raising awareness of this issue. We also created a document to provide a way for students to self-assess how healthy their sleeping patterns are as well as information on health issues related to sleep deprivation.

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  Gross Domestic Income and Stock Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2009-2017

  Michael Anthony Capicotto, Evan J Willmann

  Most financial economists agree that macroeconomic factors, as exogenous variables, must be included in asset pricing models in order to explain the variation in expected returns. In this study, I test the hypothesis that Gross Domestic Income (GDI) explains stock market price movements over time. I use linear regression analysis to identify the covariation between GDI and the top ten stocks by market value in the following SPDR sectors; (1) Healthcare, (2) Consumer Discretionary, (3) Information Technology, and (4) Industrials. Based on the regression coefficients (B), I develop portfolio weights for the stocks within each sector, with higher weights given to stocks with higher B coefficients. Assuming a $1,000,000 investment in each sector portfolio, I calculate returns for the years 2009 - 2017. I also calculate out of sample returns for the first two months in 2018. The benchmark portfolio used to determine excess returns is the SPDR ETF SPY.

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  Group Songwriting as a Self-Care Practice Among College Students

  Victoria Clare Obermeier, Emily Rose Robinson

  The present study explores how group songwriting may positively contribute to self-care in the University of Dayton student community, as well as among the music therapy community. College is a time of intense stress and anxiety; thus, self-care is essential in order to maintain both physical and mental health, as well as overall functioning. Our research shows that university mental health services are highly underutilized. Some of the aims of this study are to increase visibility of self-care practices and to provide students with the additional self-care tool of songwriting, all in efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness.

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  Growth Regulatory Pathway collaborates with Axial Patterning Genes to regulate Patterning and Growth in Drosophila Eye

  Neha Gogia

  In all the multicellular organisms, organogenesis requires axial patterning to determine Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), Proximo-Distal (PD) axes. Any deviation in these axes during development leads to congenital birth defects. In our model system, Drosophila melanogaster (a.k.a fruit fly), Dorso-Ventral (DV) patterning marks first lineage restriction event. We have identified defective proventriculus (dve), an ortholog of SATB homeobox 1 (special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1), as a new member of DV patterning genes hierarchy. We have shown that dve acts downstream of pannier (pnr, a GATA-1 transcription factor), and upstream of wingless (wg) in dorsal gene hierarchy. Loss-of-function (LOF) of dve or pnr results in dramatic dorsal eye enlargements, whereas Gain-of-function (GOF) of dve, pnr suppresses eye specific fate. We have demonstrated that Wingless (Wg), (1) is downstream target of Hippo growth regulatory pathway (highly conserved) in eye, (2) acts downstream of dve, (3) exhibits similar eye enlargement and suppression phenotypes (upon LOF, GOF respectively), and has been shown to play a role in growth. Here, we present that, DV patterning genes interacts with Hippo signaling to regulate their common downstream target, Wg during developing Drosophila eye. Our data (using GOF, LOF) states that (1) These two unrelated pathways are related and interacts antagonistically, (2) Activating Hippo signaling suppresses dve, pnr expressing cells, downregulates Wg and changes head, antennae specific fate to an eye, (3) Blocking cell death activity of hpo (using UAS-p35, anti-apoptotic) doesn’t affects its ability to undergo differentiation, (4) Growth regulatory pathway regulates the expression of DV patterning genes (dve, pnr acts downstream of Hippo pathway), and that (5) GOF/LOF of dve, pnr does not affect the expression of Hippo downstream reporters diap1 and expanded in developing eye of Drosophila. These studies present new genetic interaction between two unrelated pathways to regulate growth and patterning of an organ.

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  Handling Homesickness: Helping Transitioning First-Year Students at the University of Dayton Recognize and Cope with Homesickness

  Kennedy Glynn Hale, Wyatt Andrew Kaiser, Ali M Wiethe

  According to Academia, “Up to 95% of first-year college students report some level of homesickness.” The transition to college can be the biggest change many first-year students have ever dealt with. Quickly, they may begin to long for home and become homesick. With this in mind, we researched the issue of homesickness and the resources on the University of Dayton’s campus and other college campuses. At the University of Dayton, the issue of homesickness is briefly mentioned on the counseling center’s website. There seems to be a lack of resources and attention on our campus to this topic, which affects almost all incoming freshman at one point in time. To investigate how homesickness affects first-year students, we interviewed current freshmen to evaluate their personal experience with these issues and how they overcame their discomfort. In addition, interviews were conducted with resident assistants on their training for these issues and how they help students become acclimated to college. Through researching other universities across the country and interviewing the community on our campus, we have created multiple suggestions for supporting freshmen during this time of change. Our goal is to provide resources dedicated to help first-year students experiencing homesickness by increasing their overall happiness on campus while also helping them become successful in their future endeavors.

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  HeadEx: ​Real-time Event Extraction and Interlinking from News Headline​s

  Matthew A Weiler

  In the world today, there is a lack of useful and quality approaches to structuring and semantically annotating data-sets from real-time news outlets. This research represents an essential pipeline and implementation to such a problem and includes background data modeling, event and entity annotation, and finally interlinking events from real-time sources such as twitter headline news sources.

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  Health Policy Responses and Infrastructure Re-Use in Host Cities of Mega-Sporting Events in Non-Traditional Host Countries

  Andrew M Kramer

  Many people and event organizers have lobbied for the allocation of Olympic sites to non-traditional sites by marketing them as a transformational event for the country’s economy and infrastructure. We study the efforts of three case studies: the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa. By inspecting health policy responses and urban infrastructure re-use projects, this thesis research contributes to the understanding of the impact of hosting mega-sporting events for communities in host cities. We specifically connect the impact of hosting a sporting event for the best athletes in the world—often models of health for audiences—has on the health of its community members.

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  High School Students + Vocation Education = Better Decisions?A Mixed Methods, Group Comparison Study of Students at a Midwestern, Suburban High School

  Julie M Huckaba

  Every year, students who have just graduated high school blithely begin their journeys through postsecondary education, some choosing two-year colleges, some embarking on degree paths at four-year institutions, and others choosing military service, apprenticeships, or work. The purpose of this mixed methods, group comparison study is two-fold: (a) to examine the difference between the pre and post Brief Calling Scale scores of high school seniors and juniors (n = 37) exposed to the Ikigai/Vocation discussion workshop, and (b) to evaluate the influence of the Ikigai/Vocation discussion workshop on the postsecondary decisions of these students. The findings of this study increase our understanding of how student development relates to postsecondary decisions after being exposed to a Vocation workshop utilizing the Japanese concept of Ikigai and the intersection of Character Strengths -- 24 traits that all individuals possess in varying degrees.

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  History of White Flight in Dayton

  Emma Nicole Bohaboy

  This presentation will examine the causes and consequences of white flight in Dayton during and following the Civil Rights Era. Drawing on Facing Project Narratives from residents of the Dayton area and social science literature, this poster will highlight the history of the white flight movement in Dayton, Ohio. The poster will help viewers understand the effects of white flight and other forms of discrimination and segregation on the city of Dayton at the time the events were taking place (throughout the 1900’s) and the issues that remain today. I will present information on the social impact of white flight and discriminatory practices on the Dayton community and will explain some of the ways that the city is attempting to address these problems.

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  How Academic and Extracurricular Workload affects Stress Levels, and Consequently Mental and Physical Health of College Students

  Aidan Paul Koch

  Academic workload and extracurricular involvement can be sources of stress for college students Academic workload is characterized as the student's major, course work and future graduate school and/or career path plans. Extracurricular involvement can pertain from anything to intramural sports to being the President of a student organization. The current research seeks to investigate changes in mental and physical health over a semester by examining physiological stress levels in college students, in conjunction with academic workload and extracurricular involvement. Previous research finds an association between stress and physical health (Peer, Hillman, Van Hoet 2015). Studies have shown sympathetic nervous system activation due to stressors in people’s lives (Conley & Lehman, 2012). Mental Health has also been shown to decrease when stress is overwhelming in the lives of college students (Murff, 2005). The goal of the present work is to examine academic workload, extracurricular involvement, physiological stress, and mental and physical health over the course of the semester to better understand how they are associated. Using a longitudinal design, participants will complete measures of mental and physical health, as well as academic workload and extracurricular involvement at the beginning and end of the fall semester. Physiological stress will be assessed at each time point by collecting a saliva sample from participants in order to measure the hormone cortisol.

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  How poverty affects the management of a water contamination crisis in the city of Dayton

  Alyssa Marie Miller

  The city of Dayton prides itself on the quality of its water. However, contamination at the Behr Plant, which is the former site of Chrysler and now a Superfund site, in Northern Dayton threatens the health of residents in that area. This presentation explores the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of those who live around the site and whether those characteristics help us to understand the level of power and privilege local residents had in the various stages of site contamination. To do this, I draw on sociological literature, Facing Project Narratives (a program from the University of Dayton), and local Dayton news articles. Additionally, I will compare past and present northeastern Dayton neighborhoods affected by the contamination and I will observe if any policies have been passed to avoid such catastrophes in the future.