Stander Symposium Projects

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  Inflation Trends in Personal Consumption Expenditures, 2001-2015

  Courtney E. Cady

  The Federal Reserve, as a key element in its monetary policy, uses a 2% target inflation rate to determine if the federal funds rate needs to be increased. The purpose of this study is to evaluate long, intermediate, and short term trends in inflation to determine if the inflation policy objective has been reached. My inflation metric is Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) and the period of analysis is 2001-20015. I develop linear trend equations for both PCE and PCE less food and energy using the b coefficients from the regressions as a proxy for the PCE inflation rate. Out of sample forecasts are made for 2015 and the first couple of months in 2016.

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  “Instafamous” Women and the Question of Empowerment: A Feminist Reading of Popular Constructions of the Female Body on Instagram

  Sarah E Spech

  Instagram has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years, catapulting some of its users into a new type of fame--"Instafame." Female users who achieve "Instafame" do so in large measure by carefully constructing an identity that articulates a popular ideal of the female body. Many commentators see this presentation of self as a new means of empowerment. But others argue that these "Instafamous" women are pressured to objectify themselves in order to accumulate thousands of “likes” to create and sustain their celebrity status. In this presentation, I analyze the images on some popular fitness Instagram accounts using the feminist work of Kate Millet.

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  Intellectual Property and The NCAA

  Mitchell W. Pollard

  The research aim of this project is to examine the legal issues regarding intellectual property with student athletes who participate in sports under governance of the NCAA. Intellectual property rights are for creative works which are designated to specific people or businesses by law. This research thesis will examine the conflict the NCAA has with student athletes that argue they should be obtaining revenue from autographs, jersey sales, etc. The Ed O’Bannon case, which just concluded and is now in the settlement phase, will be a major focal point of this research project. Ed O’Bannon sued the NCAA for using student athlete images commercially. The NCAA holds that these “athletes” are amateurs, and should not profit from sales of their jersey or autographs. In essence, this research project will examine the documents and court cases dealing with intellectual property and the NCAA, and other cases outside of the NCAA that present the same issues.

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  Intention Based Upper-limb Exo-skeleton

  Manoj Kumar Sharma

  Exoskeletons, a wearable robot that intelligently augments the physical power of a human being. Lately these robots are finding their way towards the military and consumers as well. Our body has a skeleton that helps in maintaining the posture. Often times fatigue becomes an important issue, especially those who regularly carry heavy loads; one solution to this is to attach a structure that can cling to a human body that can bear the load on its own. One of the biggest challenge is to design a structure that can fits snugly and feels natural during operation. The approach proposed here, focuses on a simple 3DoF upper limb exoskeleton; to actuate the exoskeleton, pilot’s intention is read and parsed through a Dynamic Intention Filter (DIF) and then to a feedback loops that eventually controls the torque of the motors. As a result, the final design feels so natural that there is, almost, no learning curve to its operation.

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  International and Domestic Students Relationships: Impact of Interpersonal Relationships on the Development of Cultural Understanding

  Sandra Leigh Nickell

  Contributing to the campus diversity, the population of international students attending American higher education institutions continues to rise. Higher education institutions strive to develop a diverse campus community that will enrich students prospective of other cultures. It is through examining how relationships between international students and American college students will provide an understanding of how these relationships evolve and affect the campus community. Although, research has explored the topic of the cause for international students’ disengagement to form relationships, there is limited research focus on building interpersonal relationships with their American peer. This research examines the impact of interpersonal relationships between international students and American students contribute to the development of cultural understanding within a university community. Five international undergraduate students and five American undergraduate students participated in the study.

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  Internship Experience Through the Wild Encounters Program of the Cincinnati Zoo

  Sarah Michelle Lesiecki

  In the summer of 2015, I participated in an internship in the Wild Encounters department at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. The internship required an extensive amount of training in proper animal handling, husbandry, and interpretation. This training allowed me the opportunity to work with a wide diversity of wildlife including several endangered species. The internship gave me access to a wide range of biodiversity including invertebrates such as the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, and smaller vertebrates, such as Sand Boas and Spiny Tailed Lizards. In addition, I spent time interacting and educating the public on larger species of wildlife, such as the Greater Flamingo, Maasi Giraffes and the endangered Sumatran Rhino. Throughout the summer, I attended lectures that covered zoo related topics on anything from sustainability to elephant foot care to animal behavior. At the end of the internship, I spent weeks researching and observing the behavior of the Andean Bear. I compiled my findings and personal observations of Cincinnati’s Andean Bear into a five-minute interpreter program that will be used by future interns in the Wild Encounters department.

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  Investigation of the Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Trigger for Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease

  Lydia C. Payton, Ankita Sarkar

  Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects cognitive function and memory of the patient. It results from plaques formed by the abnormal cleavage of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), which result in the formation of 42 amino acid polypeptide, also known as amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42). Accumulation of Aβ42 peptide triggers cell death in the neuronal cell population of central nervous system. However, the trigger for this abnormal cell death is unknown. I will investigate the role of mitochondrial dysfunction as the trigger for neurodegeneration. Since the mitochondria is the site for triggering neurodegeneration, its malfunction or loss could lead to loss of dendritic branches and alteration of dendritic spines. I will employ Drosophila melanogaster eye model of Alzheimer’s disease for my studies. The GAL4/UAS system will be utilized to misexpress the human Aβ42 polypeptide in the photoreceptor neurons of the fly retina. The mitochondrial genes pentatricopeptide repeat containing protein (ppr), pyruvate dehydrogenase, and citrate synthase will be investigated in the photoreceptor cells of the Drosophila. Loss-of-Function (LOF) and Gain-of- Function (GOF) techniques will be used to determine whether or not the death of photoreceptor and neurodegeneration can be rescued from flies expressing human Aβ42 polypeptide. My proposed studies will shed light on how these mitochondrial genes can affect the survival of Drosophila photoreceptor neurons where high levels of human Aβ42 polypeptide are expressed.

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  Is your computer sick? It might have a virus. See Dr. Math.

  Owen T Miller, Dylan P Niese

  Computers just like humans are susceptible to illness and spreadable viruses. Since computer viruses act in the same manner as human viruses, researchers developed models to study the propagation of worms/viruses. In this work, we consider a model for such a computer worm consisting of differential equations. We will use the numerical methods learnt in the differential equation class to solve this model numerically to understand the phenomena.

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  Media Issues: A Case of Distress from Blocked Public Access in Ferguson, and Pre-Trial Publicity and Fair Trial

  Enrique G Austria, Amanda Jean Dee, Annette M Taylor

  Can a defendant get a fair trial in the U.S. today? Can an unbiased juror be found when there has been widespread media coverage of an event? The press and courts have long struggled with finding a balance between free press rights in the First Amendment and rights of the accused in the Sixth Amendment. Enrique Austria explores pre-trial publicity, gag orders, prior restraint and how the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has handled such cases. Amanda Dee looks at Ferguson, when, on a summer day in 2014, Michael Brown became a symbol for thousands of lives lost. She analyzes in what ways journalists and citizens had access to information about the case, the application of local Sunshine Laws and FOIA, and how official maneuvers restricting access to information should be considered as unconstitutional instances of prior restraint.

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  Media Issues: Newsworthy Exception to Right of Publicity, and Libel Tourism in New Media Age

  Jacqueline M Berardi, Caroline E Mccormack, Annette M Taylor

  Jacki Berardi looks at one of the most important cases involving the right of publicity, Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., in which a newscast showed the entire act of a man shot from a cannon without the performer’s consent. The U.S. Supreme Court held that while the First Amendment protects newsworthy coverage, it does not protect the press when it drastically undermines a person’s ability to make a living, as happened in that case. This research paper examines 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cases dealing with the question of how much journalists can report and record before they encroach on the commercial aspect of a person’s performance or name. This research points allows us to better understand the balance between what is newsworthy and what is a violation of the right of publicity. Caroline McCormack looks at states’ efforts to make it easier for their allegedly defamed state residents to get their cases heard at home. In the days before online publishing, defamation plaintiffs and defendants tended to live in the same state. Now they are often in different states. To deal with the problem, many states have passed “long-arm” statutes to better reach out-of-state defendants. This research explores statutes of Ohio and Virginia and compare how state courts have handled jurisdictional challenges in libel cases.

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  Metal films tapered fibers to enhance environmental sensing capabilities

  Diego F Garcia Mina

  Using a tunable laser we analyze the optical signal transmission through a bi-tapered fiber sensor. The device sensitivity can be increased by depositing a gold metal film a few nanometers in thickness on the surface. By attaching selected molecules to the surface we can determine the presence of specific biomolecules. Keywords: Refractive index, taper fiber, optical fiber sensor, biomolecule detection.

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  Model Behavior: An Assessment of Role Model Attachment

  Patrick Charles Doyle

  Despite the term existing since the early part of the 20th century, little is known about role models and relationships that individuals develop with them. Using attachment theory, a cornerstone of interpersonal theory, relationships between individuals and their role models are compared to relationships between those individuals and their parents in the present study. While data did not support the hypothesis, that those with anxious attachment to their parents will experience more secure attachment to their role model, promising opportunities for future research were suggested by the qualitative data that was collected. For example, the experience of many participants revealed a potentially complex relationship between role model expectations and gender.

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  Modeling and Operationalizing Flexible Human-Computer Dialogs

  Joshua W Buck

  We demonstrate a tool for rapidly prototyping dialog-based systems for interactive use. The tool enables a dialog designer to evaluate a variety of dialogs without having to program each individual dialog, and provides a proof-of-concept for our approach to mixed-initiative dialog modeling and implementation. Applications of our Our tool can be applied to human-computer dialogs common in automated teller machines (ATMs), kiosks, personal assistants, and online forms including course scheduling.

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  Monetary Policy and Unemployment Rates: Is there a relationship? An Empirical Analysis: 2001-2015

  John C. Scheuble

  The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate to carry out Policy objectives that bring about full employment in the economy with price stability. On the full employment side, monthly job growth along with unemployment rates are two key metrics that indicate how well the fed is doing in achieving the mandate. In this study, I focus on unemployment rate trends over the period 2001-2015.In 2001, the U.S. economy was dealing with a mild recession and in 2008 a severe recession. I look at the trend in the unemployment rate for the periods 2001-2007 and 2009-2015 to obtain a better understanding of how the unemployment rates differed over each time period. Finally, I look at the relationship between the unemployment rates,inflation and the money supply in the 2009-2015 period to determine if these factors are inversely correlated.

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  Multi-Input Multi-Output Adaptive Control of 9-DOF Hyper-Redundant Robotic Arm

  Xingsheng Xu

  In this paper, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) direct adaptive torque controller is presented that uses conventional fuzzy system to provide asymptotic end-effector tracking of a reference path for a 9-DOF hyper redundant manipulator dynamic model. As a result, MIMO adaptive controller, which inputs torque of each joint to control end-effector dynamic variables, can highly improve the robotic performance considering both its kinetics and dynamics while executing motion control or tracking a reference in work space. Also, it increases the robustness with respect to disturbance, sensor noise and poorly understood dynamic model. The efficacy of our control algorithm affects the accuracy , stability and robustness of both motion control and path tracking.

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  Mutant PriA C-Tev ML346 and its Unwinding DNA Capabilities

  Sydney E. Kirk

  DNA damage can cause the process of DNA replication to stall and this can lead to dissociation of the DNA replication enzymes from the DNA. In bacteria, a protein called PriA recognizes this, unwinds a portion of duplex DNA at the site where replication stalled, and reloads the replication enzymes to restart DNA replication. PriA has multiple structural domains that are closely associated with one another to give rise to a compact globular protein. The winged helix domain, however, is connected to the remainder of the protein by a long, flexible portion of polypeptide, akin to a tether. I examined the significance of the winged helix domain’s long, flexible tether by lengthening it at its C-terminal end even further. I hypothesized that this would alter its DNA unwinding capability. Through a helicase assay I observed that lengthening the C-terminal tether did not change its capability to unwind duplex DNA.

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  Neuroprotective Function of Lunasin in Alzheimer's Disease Model

  Neil William Glenn, Ankita Sarkar

  The neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a complex system of neurodegenerative factors that contribute to the loss of brain function. One of the most studied factors is the aggregation of amyloid plaques within the brain. These plaques are formed from the improper cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) to form the hydrophobic peptide, Aβ42. These peptides congregate in plaques that surround neuronal cells and inhibit their function. As the these cells begin to degrade, microglial cells that act as the central nervous system’s immune defense attempt to remove these plaques. However these cells are not capable in fully removing these plaques and incite an inflammatory response through the release of several cytokines and chemokines from the microglial cell. These messengers can induce oxidative stress within the CNS and lead to further cell damage. Our disease model is based on the visual system of the Drosophila melanogaster. The Aβ42 protein is misexpressed during the development of the photoreceptor neurons which results in observable loss of eye formation in the adult fly. We propose by introducing a known anti-inflammatory protein, Lunasin, into our disease model we can further understand the role of inflammation in AD neuropathology. Here present the findings of our studies.

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  Objective Function Choice Influences Muscle Muscle Force Predictions During Human Walking

  Elijah C Kuska

  The knowledge of forces in muscles and joints inside the human body may help to improve rehabilitation for individual patients. However, the human body is complex and these forces are unmeasurable. Through the use of motion capture technology, 3D modeling, and computational methods in the field of biomechanics we are able to simulate motion by predicting these forces. One challenge to biomechanical simulation is that we do not understand the strategy humans use to coordinate their muscles to walk. The purpose of this study was to examine muscle coordination strategies used to simulate walking. Different muscle coordination strategies are attained in a simulation by altering a quantity called the objective function. Simulation output data can be compared between strategies and to experimental data to determine the strategy that best represents human muscle coordination. In the future this knowledge may be applied to rehabilitation techniques: changing them from generalized to patient-specific.

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  Object Tracking using Statistic-based Feature Fusion Technique

  Evan W Krieger, Sidike Paheding

  Object tracking in wide area motion imagery (WAMI) is challenging because of many factors including small target sizes, viewpoint changes, object rotation, occlusions, and shadows. One method to overcome these challenges is to fuse multiple features of different types to obtain a robust understanding of the object. For multi-feature fusion based tracking applications, the weighting of the features will highly affect the outcome. While obtaining a constant weighting scheme based on training sequences is possible, an adaptive method may better utilize the features. An adaptive weighting scheme should favor the most discerning features in the previous frames. A known way to determine a feature’s ability to discern the target from the background is based on statistics analysis. We propose to use the statistics-based fusion method to better utilize rotation invariant based features to track objects. The effectiveness of the fusion method will be compared to a constant weighting scheme on eight sequences in two WAMI datasets.

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  On-chip Training of Memristor based Deep Neural Networks

  Md Raqibul Hasan

  This research develops on-chip training circuits for memristor based deep neural networks utilizing unsupervised and supervised learning methods. As the training and recognition of deep networks are computationally intensive, specialized circuits capable of on-chip training of these networks could have significant advantages in speed and power consumption. Memristor crossbar circuits allow neural algorithms to be implemented very efficiently, but could be prone to device variations and faults. On chip training circuits would allow the training algorithm to account for device variability and faults in these circuits. We have utilized autoencoders for layer-wise pre-training of the deep networks and utilized the back-propagation algorithm for supervised fine tuning. Our design utilizes two memristors per synapse for higher precision of weights. Techniques to reduce the impact of sneak-paths in a large memristor crossbar and for high speed simulations of large crossbars were proposed. We performed detailed evaluation of the training circuits with some nonlinearly separable datasets which take crossbar wire resistance and sneak-paths into consideration. We also demonstrated successful training of memristor based deep networks for the MNIST digit classification and the KDD intrusion detection datasets. This work would enable the design of high throughput, energy efficient, and compact deep learning systems.

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  Output per Hour and Unit Labor Cost; A Closer Look at Cost Push Inflation, 2005-2015

  Samuel R Russell

  Rising unit labor costs suggest that cost push inflation is at work in the economy provided that output per hour is not keeping pace with unit labor cost growth. In this study, I look at the long term trends in both metrics over the period 2005-2015. I also look at the output per hour and unit cost trends for the period 2009-2015 to see if the 2008 recession impacted these cost and output trends. If output per hour is rising faster than unit costs. Productivity at the margin is increasing and cost push inflation is declining. If the converse is true, cost push inflation is rising in the national economy. Both quarterly and yearly geometric growth rates in both cost and output metrics are calculated for the above time periods. The geometric growth rates are then used to determine the direction of cost push inflation.

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  Parameter Identification in Structured Discrete-Time Uncertainties without Persistency of Excitation

  Ouboti Djaneye-Boundjou

  Concurrent Learning has been previously used in continuous-time uncertainty estimation problems and adaptive control to solve the parameter identification problem without requiring persistently exciting inputs. Specifically selected past data are jointly combined with current data for adaptation. Here, we extend the parameter identification problem results of Concurrent Learning for structured uncertainties in the continuous-time domain to the discrete-time domain. Alike the continuous-time case, we show that, in discrete-time, a sufficient, testable on-line and less restrictive condition compared to persistency of excitation guarantees global exponential stability of the parameter error when using Concurrent Learning.

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  Portfolio Weighting Strategies for a concentrated portfolio of Consumer Discretionary stocks: An Empirical Analysis, 2010-2015

  Alexander Kubalski, Margaret E. Schutter

  Recent interest by investment managers in Portfolio Weighting Strategies other than market capitalization has led to a rapid increase in fundamental based indexing. In their study I use the price dynamics of firms relative to the market (S&P 500) to weight a 10 stock portfolio of Consumer Discretionary firms. The weighting model is based on the capture ratio of the price changes for each stock compared to the S&P 500. In particular, an upside/downside capture ratio is developed for each stock based on a years worth of daily price changes. The following hypotheses are tested: 1) Firms with higher upside/downside capture ratios have higher expected returns. 2) The Consumer Discretionary portfolio weighted by upside/downside capture ratios out performs the market and the Consumer Discretionary Sector. 3) The upside/downside capture ratio performs well against other portfolio weighting strategies.

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  Portfolio Weights and Capture Ratio Analysis: A Look at Performance in the Consumers Staples Sector 2010-2015

  Sam William Verrilli

  Since the recession in 2008, the stock market has experienced periods of extreme volatility, with market moves of 200-400 points on almost a daily basis. One sector that should do well when market volatility is high and rising is consumer staples. In this study I use a dynamic pricing model to determine the portfolio weights for the 10 largest value weighted stocks in the consumer staples sector. The model relies on the upside/downside Capture Ratios (U/D) for each stock to calculate the portfolio weights and dollar investment in each stock. I test the following hypotheses: (1) Stocks with higher U/D ratios generate higher excess returns relative to the market, (2) The U/D weighted portfolio of consumer staples stocks outperforms the consumer staples sector (XLS), (3) The U/D weighted portfolio performance wise, compares favorably to other portfolio weighting strategies.

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  Press Access Rights: Journalists Covering War and Seeking Information at Home

  Megan E Burton, Alison R Cozad, Annette M Taylor

  The Pentagon’s Law of War manual, updated in summer 2015, has indicated that journalists could be viewed as “unprivileged belligerents” by the U.S. military during wartime, which has raised concern by First Amendment proponents and journalists nationwide. Megan Burton explores analyzes journalists’ legal efforts to cover wars in the past, as well as previous agreements between the press and Department of Defense, in order to predict how courts might resolve future conflicts between the press and the DOD. Alison Cozad examines sunshine laws in Ohio and California to see how state governments approach and comply with requests for information. By looking at court challenges, rulings and sunshine laws, we can get an idea of how these two states compare with their approaches to freedom of information.