Stander Symposium Projects

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  Thermal Engineering for Flexible, High-Power Electronics

  Katherine Morris Burzynski

  Consumers and military personnel are demanding faster data speeds only available through fifth generation (5G) wireless communication technology. Furthermore, as wearable sensors and other devices become more ubiquitous, devices demonstrating enhanced flexibility and conformality are necessary. The challenge is to enable electronic devices to withstand strain and continue to operate within an acceptable tolerance to ensure reliability. A fundamental challenge for flexible electronics is thermal management. Even on rigid substrates with 100 times higher thermal conductivity than polymeric and other flexible substrates, the full potential of semiconducting materials is often thermally limited. The flexible gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) employed in this work are grown on a two-dimensional boron nitride (BN) release layer that allows the conventionally processed devices on sapphire wafers to be transferred using a polymeric stamp and placed onto a variety of rigid and flexible substrates. Characterization of the GaN device behavior on the as-grown sapphire wafers (not transferred) provide a baseline for evaluation of the thermal performance. Transferring the GaN devices to flexible substrates enables application of strain during device operation; however, device performance typically suffers due to the low thermal conductivity of most polymeric substrates, requiring more advanced schemes to remove waste heat from device operation. In situ thermal imaging of devices in operation reveals that the current passing through a non-transferred GaN transistor on a sapphire wafer reaches the target operating temperature at twice the current of the same device transferred to a flexible substrate. Packaging environment simulations and consideration of device-substrate interfacial thermal effects allow for an understanding of how the flexible GaN devices operate after they are transferred to a substrate and show the path forward for substrate design to reduce thermal limitation of high-power flexible electronics.

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  The Roads That Divide: Examining the Effects of Road Systems in Dayton

  Nathaniel L. Quam

  The highway system of Dayton was meant to facilitate higher productivity and movement of people. The highway system of I-75, 35, I-70 and the other lesser major highways in the area did make for faster travel, but this had unintended consequences. They came in the form of the white flight movement and the creation of suburban areas around Dayton. Drawing on Facing Projects Narratives, I will use this presentation to highlight the demographic and socioeconomic shifts in Dayton neighborhoods that led to the mass exodus of capital and amenities in these areas. This poster explains why this change occurred, the consequences of those changes, as well as potential changes that could occur to desegregate the population from wealthy suburban and poorer urban populations.

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  The Roads that Divide: Examining the effects of road systems in Dayton

  Nathaniel L Quam

  The highway system of Dayton was meant to facilitate higher productivity and movement of people. The highway system of I-75, 35, I-70 and the other lesser major highways in the area did make for faster travel, but this had unintended consequences. They came in the form of the white flight movement and the creation of suburban areas around Dayton. Drawing on Facing Projects Narratives, I will use this presentation to highlight the demographic and socioeconomic shifts in Dayton neighborhoods that led to the mass exodus of capital and amenities in these areas. This poster explains why this change occurred, the consequences of those changes, as well as potential changes that could occur to desegregate the population from wealthy suburban and poorer urban populations.

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  The role and evolution of the Dopa decarboxylase gene in the origin of a derived dimorphic fruit fly pigmentation trait

  Sumant Grover, Becca Jo Kaiser

  Understanding the genetic and molecular underpinnings for trait diversity remains a central goal of evo-devo research. Traits arise by the orchestrated expression of numerous genes in a gene regulatory network. Remaining poorly understood is how these networks and their expression patterns are initially assembled and subsequently diversify. Gene expression is controlled by DNA sequences known as cis-regulatory elements (CREs) that possess binding sites for transcription factors whose binding drives a specific pattern of expression. It is anticipated that gene expression evolution often occurs through the formation, modification, and destruction of CREs, presumably by changes that create or destroy binding sites for transcription factors. However, the binding site level of CRE evolution has been worked out in few cases. The fruit fly species Drosophila melanogaster has a male-specific pattern of abdominal pigmentation for which the enzyme encoding genes and several of their expression-regulating transcription factors are known. However, the details of how these regulators interact with CREs remain largely uncharacterized, including the Dopa decaboxylase (Ddc) pigmentation enzyme gene. Here we share the results of our efforts to uncover the CRE-basis of this gene’s expression pattern, and how this regulation and pattern of expression evolved during the origin of this male-specific trait.

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  The Role of FNR/CRP Regulators in Listeria Aerobic and Anaerobic Production of Listeriolyin O

  Lexi Diane Brezovec

  Listeria is a dangerous human pathogen transmitted through consumption of contaminated food products. During infections, Listeria is exposed to the anaerobic intestinal lumen. However, the mechanisms modulating how Listeria responds to the anaerobic environment are not fully understood. I completed experiments to help understand the role of the FNR/CRP family of transcription factors in Listeria and their response to anaerobic conditions. I did this by comparing wildtype Listeria and mutants deficient in FNR/CRP transcription factors in their ability to produce the toxin, listeriolysin O. If a specific transcription factor is involved, the mutant deficient in that factor would exhibit a different phenotype from the wildtype bacteria. After testing 3 out of the 13 mutants, I found that each mutant, similarly to the WT, produced more listeriolysin O under anaerobic conditions than aerobic conditions. My preliminary results confirm that Listeria can regulate listeriolysin O production in response to anaerobic conditions. I will continue my investigations in the future on the remaining 10 mutants, testing the different responses in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

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  The Role of High-Quality Preschool Experiences in School Readiness Skills Gains

  Maddy Leigh Weimer

  Recent research suggests that young children from low-income homes benefit most from participating in high-quality early childhood environments (Geoffroy et al., 2010). It has been further suggested that a high-quality preschool experience can mitigate the link between poverty and difficulties with school readiness (Ladd, 2017). In order to investigate this further, we will test the effects of interactions between classroom quality and maternal education levels and family income on children’s school readiness skills in a comprehensive battery of assessments, including assessments of self-regulation skills, academic skills in math and literacy, and social and emotional skills. We predict that children living in homes with parents with lower educational levels and lower income will benefit the most in their school readiness skills gains across the preschool year if they attend preschool at a high-quality early childhood classroom.

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  The role of oxygen in antibiotic resistance in Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus

  Emilee Kay Zoog

  Antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens has been a growing concern in recent years as infections that were once easily treated are becoming bigger threats. In agriculture and healthcare, the importance of antibiotic stewardship has been emphasized in an effort to decrease the overuse of antibiotics. Development of novel antibiotics and improvement in current antibiotic testing protocols are two additional avenues being pursued to solve the issue. In this study, I tested the effects of hypoxia on the antibiotic susceptibility in two human pathogens, Listeria monocytogenes and five different strains of Staphylococcus aureus (USA 300, Romero, COL, Newman, and SH1000), using a standard disc diffusion assay. However, in addition to the standard aerobic incubation, anaerobic incubation was also performed to understand whether hypoxia affects antibiotic susceptibility in these pathogens. My results showed that susceptibility to rifampin, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline increased in an anaerobic environment while susceptibility to erythromycin and bacitracin decreased in an anaerobic environment. Listeria was resistant to streptomycin and penicillin in both environments. Similarly, all five strains of S. aureus exhibited changes in antibiotic susceptibility during hypoxia. For example, the methicillin-resistant S. aureus strain USA300 became more susceptible to rifampin, ciprofloxacin, and penicillin in an anaerobic environment. These results suggest that oxygen levels play a key role in bacteria susceptibility to antibiotics. Therefore, we need to consider the effectiveness of antibiotics under relevant environmental conditions to help antibiotic usage become more efficient.

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  The Role of Pyocyanin in the Protection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Singlet Oxygen

  Celeste Claire Bergman, Edward T Eshoo, Grace Kathryn Goulet, Stacey Marie Lapurga

  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes both acute and chronic infections in immunocompromised individuals. P. aeruginosa is resistant to many antibiotics, and there is a critical need for novel antimicrobial strategies that are viable for clinical use. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently undergoing clinical trials. PDT involves chemicals called photosensitizers that when exposed to light, produce a highly reactive oxygen species 1O2. Singlet oxygen can non-specifically cause damage to all cellular structures of rapidly metabolizing organisms such as bacteria, while slower metabolizing host tissues are less affected. Furthermore, light can be restricted to only afflicted areas, thus limiting the damage to healthy tissues. 1O2 is naturally produced during photosynthesis, and photosynthetic organisms produce pigmented compounds such as Beta- carotene that can absorb 1O2 before damaging the cells. P. aeruginosa produces a blue pigmented compound pyocyanin when they grow in high density. In previous study, pyocyanin was discovered to be capable of binding 1O2. In this project, we hypothesize that P. aeruginosa pyocyanin can have a protective role against singlet oxygen. The data from this project can provide an important insight to possible resistant mechanisms against a novel antimicrobial therapy still in development. Understanding the resistance against PDT prior to clinical use can have a significant impact towards shaping how PDT is administered in clinical environments, so that resistant strains do not eliminate PDT as an option the way antibiotics have been eliminated by resistant strains.

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  The Search for Support: Pregnancy on Campus

  Sara Kathryn Brothers, Maddie Kay Gerdes, Elizabeth Anne Goetz, Chase Alan Sawyer, Diandra A Walker

  At the University of Dayton, pregnancy is not a prevalent topic of discussion among undergraduate students. Recent research indicates that single mothers are less likely to receive a college degree when compared to women who are single without children or married. In addition, the number of single mothers who are undergraduate students has more than doubled since 2000. Our group investigated how prevalent pregnancy is on college campuses, and found more about the resources provided by UD. Although there are some on-campus resources, like the Women’s Center and the Hand in Hand Program, there is a lack of awareness about what types of services these organizations provide. We concluded that the University should make resources more accessible for students who are pregnant or already parents.The goal of this poster is to raise awareness about what resources are available and make recommendations for improving accessibility to information on those resources. Our group will also provide a brochure, which will incorporate relevant and updated information, specifically for UD students. Our hope is that students will become more aware of what is available and feel more comfortable reaching out to utilize these services.

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  The Self-healing of Distorted Bessel Beams

  Marie Solange Tumusange

  An optical beam is said to be self-healing when, distorted by an obstacle, the beam corrects itself upon propagation. A Bessel beam is known for its self-healing property. A Bessel beam is a non-diffracting light beam whose amplitude is described by a Bessel function. To demonstrate the self-healing of the Bessel beam, the beam is distorted and beam profiles are measured as the distorted beam propagates.

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  The Stigma of Homelessness as an Identity - Homelessness as a Gendered Condition

  Jamie Anne Vieson

  The main goal of my thesis is to articulate the problem of homelessness. In order to do this, I examine philosopher Eva Kittay’s work on disability and equality. Throughout her work, Kittay uses the terms human interconnectedness, oppression and citizenship. These three terms serve as the major concepts I explore. Human interconnectedness highlights the links that humans share with one another as interdependent beings. Sharing these connections provides grounding for why care needs to be available for individuals and groups. Oppression is the term used to describe how certain individuals or groups in society are treated unequally or are rejected from society. I argue that individuals experiencing homelessness should be classified as a group because they do experience structural oppression in the form of marginalization. Finally, exploration of citizenship shows the importance of identities in society and how they allow or prevent equality. Rethinking citizenship combats oppression of the homeless. More emphasis needs to be put on these terms to articulate the problem of homelessness. Within each of these terms, I look more closely at notions of dependency, vulnerability, connection-based equality, self-perceptions, and moral responsibilities. These considerations use gender as a lens for an inclusive examination of homelessness. This lens reveals how women experiencing homelessness are particularly disadvantaged by stigmas.

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  The Survival Rate of Listeria in Dairy Products Compared to Pathogenic E. coli

  Megan Ashley Marasco

  Listeria monocytogenes is a deadly human pathogen frequently found in dairy products. Its ability to grow and survive in the cold contributes to frequent contaminations despite the presence of food preservatives, such as propionate In my research, I first studied how effective propionate is against Listeria in dairy products, including three types of milk, 2%, fat free, and chocolate, all with and without propionate. Then I compared the survival of Listeria to survival of pathogenic E. coli in propionate-supplemented milk by monitoring the number of surviving bacteria 1, 2, and 3 days after storage in the refrigerator. I found that propionate is effective against Listeria only in 2% milk and is effective against E. coli only in fat free milk. Therefore, the efficacy of propionate depends on the types of dairy products as well as the types of foodborne pathogens. When one is developing food preservation methods, it is important to consider the different types of food and foodborne pathogens.

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  The University of Dayton’s Current Amnesty Policy and its Ramifications for Students

  Samantha Marie Achauer, Samantha Kaye Isidro, Maddie Ann Sauer

  Although universities work to provide the best environment for student health and safety, ultimately it falls on the student to be responsible for alcohol consumption. Some universities have included an amnesty policy in an effort to prioritize the health of the students over the consequences of drinking. An amnesty policy typically states that students who seek medical assistance for themselves or for others will not be subjected to University disciplinary action for violation of alcohol policies. By removing the fear of punishment, students will be more likely to report alcohol-related incidents for themselves or other students. The University of Dayton (UD) has recently changed their amnesty policy to foster a more open dialogue between students and administration regarding alcohol. However, many UD students are unaware of these changes. After interviewing several UD students, it has been established that students knowledge of UD’s policies and practices surrounding alcohol and substance abuse are relatively unknown. UD’s website, resources, and transparency were compared with other universities, and we cross-compared this with rates of alcohol writes ups at the different universities. This project hopes to establish a better protocol to make students aware of the resources UD has available, as well as the main mechanism of action surrounding alcohol write-ups. In an effort to educate the campus further, we have created a document highlighting and simplifying the University's amnesty policy and the associated disciplinary and educational process for alcohol-related infractions.

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  They Succeed: Exploring the Academic Success of Undergraduate Black Males at the University of Dayton

  Breana Lynn Smith

  The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to understand the experience of African American male identity and its relation to the academic success of African American male junior and senior students at the University of Dayton. Following the African American identity development models of Cross (1971) and Robinson and Howard-Hamilton (1994) as theoretical frameworks, I explore factors related to African American male students’ identities and how these subsequently influenced their academic achievement. The historical research about African American male students in higher education focuses on the deficits this population faces and ultimately feeds into the stereotypes that plague this group (Harper, 2009, as cited in Kim & Hargrove, 2013). Emerging research on the topic of African American male success within higher education has evolved within the last decade and has started to frame an achievement-based representation of Black male collegians. Data was collected utilizing individual, in-person interviews (n = 9) between the researcher and participants. Among my several findings, familial support, campus resources and support, and the desire to do better were top influences in these participants’ achievement of academic success. Common among my findings was extracurricular involvement; this trend appeared as a high influence for many of the participants. The influence of African American male identity on the ability and desire of these students to succeed academically emphasizes the need for support and resources for this population within higher education and prior.

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  Trends In Private Fixed Investment:And the 2008 Recession

  Bennett Alexander Zynn

  In recent years a number of financial economists have been concerned about the lack of growth in capital investments by business firms. In this study I look at the intermediate and long term trends in private fixed investment (PFI) to determine if the severe recession in 2008 has altered business investment growth. Since PFI is divided into structures, equipment and intellectual property (e.g. computer software), it is important to evaluate these sub category trends as well. My research design is as follows; 1) I develop linear trend equations for the periods between time periods 1999-2007 and 2009-2017 to determine if the regression coefficients are significantly different. I test the hypothesis that the b coefficients for the 1999-2007 period are greater than the b coefficients for the 2009-2017 period, 2) I run linear regressions for the complete period of 1999-2017 and include a dummy variable Di and set it equal to one for the 4 quarters in 2008 to determine if there is a downward shift in the regression line due to the 2008 recession, 3) Finally, in the 2009-2017 period there is evidence of a pick-up in both gross domestic product and gross domestic income over the latter half of this period. To see if there is a structural shift upwards in the regression line, I add a second dummy variable, D2 and set it equal to one for the 12 quarters in 2015, 2016, and 2017. I test the hypothesis that an extremely low unemployment rate, steady employment growth and low interest rates have combined to cause an upward shift in private fixed investment in recent years.

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  Trends in Retail Sales Pre and Post 2008 Recession

  Luke Anthony Bir

  One of the key indicators of the robustness of consumption spending in the U.S. economy is retail sales. In this study, I look at long term trends in retail sales, both pre and post the 2008 recession to determine if the sales trends have been materially altered after the 2008 recession. Using regression analysis, I develop time-trend regressions for two time periods 1999-2007 and 2009-2017. I test the hypothesis that the regression B-coefficient for the 1999-2007 period is larger than the B-coefficient for the 2009-2017 period, with the difference a proxy for the recession effect on retail spending. I also look at the e-commerce component of retail sales and carry out the following analysis: (1) I develop trend regressions for e-commerce sales pre and post 2008 recession and (2) I develop trend regressions for the ratio of the e-commerce sales to total retail sales pre and post 2008 recession. I expect the e-commerce B-coefficients to be larger after the 2008 recession.

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  Two clone system to determine complex signaling between wild-type and Aβ42 expressing neurons in Alzheimer’s Disease.

  Sean T Connelly, Garrett Michael Grissim, Sean Andrew Kelly, Ankita Sarkar

  Alzheimer’s Disease (hereafter AD) is an irreversible neurodegenerative disease causing death of millions of elderly people every year. One of the reasons for AD is abnormal cleavage of the Amyloid precursor protein (APP), which forms a 42 amino acid long hydrophobic polypeptide (hereafter Aβ42) which form aggregates leading to amyloid plaques. This Aβ42 forms plaque that leads to neuronal cell death. We are trying to understand the genetic underpinnings behind the onset of this deadly disease using Drosophila melanogaster eye as our model system. We have generated and optimized a two-clone system in our lab to understand the crosstalk between the plaque forming neurons and the adjacent wild type neurons. The onset of AD initiates with a few neurons which start producing amyloid plaques, which then triggers cell death. One of the questions is: Which neuronal population is affected? Our system utilizes the FLP/FRT mediated recombination to produce two types of neuronal cell population where strong GFP reporter marks the Aβ42 misexpressing neurons, and the neighboring wild-type neurons are marked by the absence of GFP. Our preliminary data suggests that the Aβ42 misexpressing neurons survive at the expense of the neighboring wild type cells. Thus, we believe that there are certain signals, which emanates from these Aβ42 plaque producing neurons towards the wild type neurons, which causes them to die. We have identified evolutionarily conserved Jun-N-Terminal Kinase (JNK) Signaling pathway as one of the genetic modifiers of Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration, which induces neuronal death. With the help of our two-clone system, we want to understand which neuronal cells (Aβ42 misexpressed vs wild type cells) and how, the JNK signaling triggers cell death. We will test reporters and antibodies against the members of JNK signaling pathway to address our hypothesis. Furthermore, identifying the genetic biomarkers of the Alzheimer’s disease with the help of our genetic tool can be utilized in finding therapeutic targets in the future.

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  Understanding how the loss of Dronc function affects apoptosis

  Karishma Sanjay Gangwani, Hannah Marie Scharf, Kirti Snigdha

  Cancer is caused by mutations in cells that disrupt signals for growth and division. Apoptosis, a system of programmed cell death, is controlled by genes and impacts cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. Dysregulation of apoptosis is a significant cause of cancer, as mutated tumor cells show uncontrolled growth and elude cell death. Because of this, it is crucial to study how the genes involved in cell growth and death pathways become dysregulated in a way that causes tumor creation, so that cancer biology can be better understood and possible therapeutic measures can be pursued. One pathway commonly dysregulated in human tumors, the Hippo pathway, was identified in Drosophila melanogaster and is conserved evolutionarily in humans. Former research in our lab has shown that the Hippo pathway interacts with initiator caspase Dronc, which is the first target gene to be negatively regulated by this pathway, in the regulation of apoptosis. We hypothesize that loss of Dronc function would enable unchecked cell proliferation. To assess this, we are using RNAi to interfere with Dronc expression. We will also use markers like cyclin A, B, and E to evaluate cell proliferation through immunostaining and confocal microscopy. Here we present our findings on the how the loss of Dronc affects cell proliferation.

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  Understanding Surface and Ground Water Interaction, and Water Quality using Stable Isotopes and Major Ions

  Caroline Johnstone

  Stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen are conservative dual tracers and provide key information about movement of water in the hydrologic cycle. Surface and groundwater are important components in the water cycle that variably interact depending on geology, topography and rainfall seasonality. Understanding the degree of this interaction is critical to determine both the quality and quantity of water. Here, we use stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen, and geochemical analysis of water to quantify the degree of interaction between surface and groundwater. This approach solely depends on the water chemistry and unique isotopic composition of seasonal rainfall, surface and groundwater. Water isotope data in the region is very limited to monthly precipitation isotope data in Coshocton, OH monitored by the Global Networks of Isotopes in Precipitation. To fully use this powerful tracing technique in hydrology, water resources and climate studies, establishing the seasonal variability of water isotopes in the surface and groundwater is a critical first step. Here we present a weekly water isotope data collected at four locations, Still Water River, Mad River and two locations at the Great Miami River. River and groundwater sample collection for isotopic and geochemical data analysis will continue the rest of the year to obtain seasonal isotope end members. However, our preliminary data collected for fall 2018 shows that the average isotopic composition of the rivers is 6.82‰ for δ 18 O and 43.24‰ for δD, and groundwater average 7.08‰ for δ 18 O and 44.46‰ for δD. Using this data, we employed an isotope mass balance to determine the degree of surface and groundwater interaction. Preliminary results suggest that the Miami River could contribute up to 90% recharge to the buried aquifer. The overall outcome of this research will help to quantify seasonal groundwater recharge and determine the fate of contaminants to the local aquifer.

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  Understanding the effects of double activated carbon, desorption temperature and time, and possible ethanol decomposition during desorption on Solar Thermal Adsorption Refrigeration (STAR) system

  Bipin Karki

  The off-grid location and unreliable electricity supply to medical clinics in remote parts of India make it difficult to safely store vaccines and other medications using traditional refrigeration systems. The Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-learning (ETHOS) program at the University of Dayton, in collaboration with Solar Alternative and Associated Programmes (SAAP) of Patna India, are developing a novel refrigeration system which works on the principle of solar thermal adsorption. This refrigeration system does not require electricity for operation and uses safe, environmentally benign and locally available adsorption pair of ethanol-activated carbon. A bench-scale prototype was developed at the University of Dayton using ethanol-activated carbon as working pair which can generate evaporative temperatures between 2oC and 8oC. The existing horizontally oriented system can achieve targeted refrigeration temperatures (2-8oC) during the adsorption cycle and ethanol can be desorbed from the activated carbon during desorption. However, the horizontal geometry inhibited the return of liquid ethanol to the evaporation chamber. A new vertical oriented bench scale system was built to addresses the limitation of the original prototype. The effects of double activated carbon on evaporative cooling, heating temperature and time during desorption, and possible decomposition of ethanol during desorption was analyzed. The evaporator temperature -12.7oC achieved during the experiments indicates better adsorptive cooling with double activation technique of activated carbon. Experimental results suggested better desorption happens at elevated temperature (105 - 115oC) and most of the desorption happens in the first 2 hours of heating the activated carbon chamber. The pressure drops on ethanol side pressure gauge reading during desorption and analysis of mass spectroscopy of desorbed ethanol obtained from the chemist showed possible decomposition of ethanol preventing multiple cycle operation of the system.

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  Understanding the Impact of Fuel Volatility and Viscosity on Gas Turbine Engine Ignition

  Katherine Claire Opacich

  In the current alternative jet fuel certification process, approximately $3-4 million and 20,000-100,000 gallons of fuel are used over a three to five year period to evaluate the behavior of new blends of fuel within engines. This extended process is not only costly but also carbon intensive. The National Jet Fuels Combustion Program’s (NJFCP) mission is to streamline the certification process of alternative jet fuels, which is controlled by a fuel’s operability limits for select ignition and lean blowout conditions. For ignition, the propensity of a fuel to ignite is limited by its ability to form a flammable mixture with air near a spark kernel. The fuel properties of viscosity and volatility largely govern this reaction because of their influence on the mean droplet size and vaporization rate, respectively. This research aims to achieve a thorough droplet modeling analysis and surrogate generation that imparts key information about whether viscosity or volatility is the fundamental factor in ignition performance. The proposed work will also supplement the NJFCP’s goal of assessing the behavior of alternative fuels within combustors with minimal engine testing. Success of this research will assist the NJFCP in their efforts to accelerate the alternative fuel certification process, promote the de-carbonization of aviation jet fuels, and produce next generation high performance fuels.

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  Understanding the Intricacies of Obesity

  Maddy Rae Dutton, Joseph Cole Emery, Dana Lynn Pflugradt, Collin Robert Rook

  Health literacy refers to one’s understanding of healthcare information and the ability to make informed decisions when it comes to health benefits and risks. Obesity is a major health epidemic, so we analyzed and revised a health document from the Obesity Action Coalition website to enhance the understanding and readability of the document for the University of Dayton’s level two Intensive English Program (IEP) students. The original document required a college-age reading level. The IEP students read at a 3rd or 4th grade level, so this document was not appropriate for this audience. We visited with the IEP students to gather information about what they already knew about obesity, what they wanted to know more about, and if they had any questions pertaining to obesity. We were then able to create a new brochure for them, making sure to address the information that was of interest. During our field test with the IEP students, we presented our draft in order to receive comments and questions. After the field testing and running SMOG and Flesch-Kincaid readability tests on the original and drafted documents, the final brochure was created and the IEP students reading level was attained. The document our group created allowed the IEP students to better understand important information about obesity, which was lost in the original document. This revision process shows how important it is to assess the readability of health documents and to make them appropriate for a specific audience.

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

  Jordan Clay Dubbs, Neha Gogia, Ankita Sarkar, Ian Joseph Tobal

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

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  Understanding the Repopulation of Glioblastoma in Drosophila Model System

  Leah Dawn Bullock

  Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most common form of malignant brain tumors, accounting for about 52% of primary brain tumors. Patients diagnosed with GBM typically die within a few months after diagnosis. Standard treatment consists of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. GBM has an unfavorable diagnosis due to the high rates of tumor recurrence. The cause of the repopulation of the tumor after treatment is currently unknown; therefore, there is a need to study the repopulation of GBM in more detail. We have created a simple glioma model in Drosophila melanogaster to study the effects of treatment on tumor size and repopulation of the tumor. We have created the glioma model by suppressing Pten while overexpressing oncogene Ras in glial cells in order to induce a tumor. Flies with genotype UASPten RNAi;UASRasV12; Repo Gal4 UASGFP developed aggressive brain tumors and failed to survive to the adult stage. 1st instar larvae of this genotype were exposed to different dosages of X-ray radiation to study the radiation sensitivity of glioma larvae. We utilized 3.5 Gy of radiation to carry out further experiments. We found there is a significant reduction in tumor size in the larvae exposed to X-ray compared to the unexposed samples; however, there is still repopulation of the tumor after X-ray exposure. Through the use of immunohistochemistry, we found that there is significant reduction in Glial cells, neuroblasts, and neurons after X-ray exposure. We plan to further our study by looking into the effects of radiation on the ganglion mother cells and dying cells of the brain. Since the pathways in this study are conserved from flies to mammals, these findings can be utilized in other model systems and in humans. These findings have the potential to lead to possible treatments for glioblastoma tumors in humans.

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  Understanding the Transition from Rural High School Student to Urban College Student

  Hannah Danielle Zimmerman

  The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to understand the transition from high school to college among first year, undergraduate students from rural communities at The Ohio State University. Through the conduct of interviews with 13 participants, I have been able to gauge how rural community high school graduates describe their transition into an urban university setting in one of Ohio’s largest cities. Research has shown that students in rural communities are in the lowest of proportions on college campuses, and often it is because they are not exposed to the resources available to prepare for post-secondary education. In this study, students from rural communities have expressed feeling unprepared for college upon graduating high school, and lack of preparedness has been demonstrated through minimal challenging class offerings, unmotivated high school teachers, and not being a part of a college conversation prior to enrolling at the university. My interpretation of the data suggests that some of our rural students may not be exposed to and prepared for post-secondary education, indicating missed opportunities towards maximizing leadership potential and growth within our agricultural communities.