Stander Symposium Projects

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  Adsorption of Bisphenol S (BPS) By Clay Minerals

  Keerthi Samineni

  Bisphenol S (BPS), 4,4’- sulphonyl diphenol, is an analog of bisphenol A, and a serious endocrine disrupting chemical that impacts the hypothalamic development in humans and animal lymphocyte proliferation. BPS is being used as an alternative to BPA in daily applications, and BPS production is expected to rise to 8.4 million tons by 2018. BPS is extensively used as a monomer in the production of epoxy resins, cyclic carbonates, as an electroplating solvent, and in everyday products like thermal paper, canned foods, and baby bottles. BPS was detected in human urine samples from seven countries, with the U.S. samples having the highest level of 0.299 ng BPS/mL urine. Wastewater biosolids from wastewater treatment plants are bisphenol sources. The biosolids can be applied to land. Thus, this research investigates BPS adsorption onto important soil components- clay minerals. Conducted in organic-free water, batch sorption studies investigated the sorption of 10 ppm BPS onto sterilized kaolinite and montmorillonite clay minerals. The studies were conducted in acid-washed, amber glass vials, with no headspace with 24 hours mixing in a rotary mixer. The following clay mineral:BPS ratios (mass in g/volume in mL) were investigated: 1:4, 1:5, 1:10 and 1:12. Using high-performance liquid chromatography to quantify BPS concentrations, the maximum BPS removals for kaolinite and montmorillonite were 8.5% and 48%, respectively. These percent removals corresponded to a 1:5 kaolinite:BPS ratio and a 1:10 montmorillonite:BPS ratio, indicating that BPS sorbs to montmorillonite more readily. Kaolinite had minimal BPS sorption. Ongoing studies will investigate the impact of relevant environmental conditions on BPS sorption.

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  A Group Comparison Study of Undergraduate Student-Related Indicators of Satisfactory Academic Progress at an Ohio Community College

  Matthew R Moore

  Each year, thousands of students at Ohio community colleges lose eligibility for federal financial aid due to their academic performance and not meeting the required GPA or minimum Pace of Completion standards required in the federally regulated Satisfactory Academic Progress policy. At community colleges, a great majority of students are receiving some type of federal financial aid and would not be able to enroll without the benefit of that aid. The purpose of this quantitative, group comparison study is to examine the difference between student categories related to student loan and grant eligibility, age, gender, and race in terms of two Satisfactory Academic Progress standards, GPA and Pace of Completion, among undergraduate students at an Ohio community college. This research study identifies specific predictors that lead to a student losing eligibility for federal financial aid that ultimately impacts the success and completion of these students by disrupting their pursuit of an undergraduate credential.

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  Aiscrima e Checchi: Italian American Dialect and Development in the New Milennium

  Elizabeth L Pedrotti

  My project explores the language usage and perceptions of Italian Americans in the Dayton area. I focus particularly on their use of words or phrases considered part of an Italian-American variety of English and the roles the Italian language plays in family and community life. I situate my research in current and past scholarship, looking toward Hermann Haller's 1981 study of Italian American language patterns and the Italian American word list compiled by A. Menarini in 1947. By combining personal interviews with Italian Americans living in the Dayton area today with more widespread conceptions of Italian American language and culture, I present an in-depth study within a niche of a larger community.

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  Aiscrima e Checchi: Italian American Dialect and Development in the New Milennium

  Elizabeth L Pedrotti

  My project explores the language usage and perceptions of Italian Americans in the Dayton area. I focus particularly on their use of words or phrases considered part of an Italian-American variety of English and the roles the Italian language plays in family and community life. I situate my research in current and past scholarship, looking toward Hermann Haller's 1981 study of Italian American language patterns and the Italian American word list compiled by A. Menarini in 1947. By combining personal interviews with Italian Americans living in the Dayton area today with more widespread conceptions of Italian American language and culture, I present an in-depth study within a niche of a larger community.

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  Alternative Teaching Styles Designed to Reach All Students

  Gabrielle M Eviston, Mary E Schultz, Kristen Travers

  As alternatives to traditional teaching styles, we will identify educational models designed to reach high needs students. Specifically, we will focus on how to assist unmotivated students and those living with a disability reach their full potential.

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  Amateurism and The NCAA: The Controversy (A Legal Review)

  Mitchell W Pollard

  There is rising concern that the concept of “amateurism” is limiting to student athletes who are governed by the NCAA. Amateurism is a complex subject, and is becoming more so with recent litigation (e.g. O’Bannon v NCAA, Bloom v NCAA) and events. This research is a review of what both sides, the NCAA and student- athletes, have argued “amateurism” means and the effect this conflict has on intellectual property law.

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  Ambiguous Pleasure(ers): Negotiating the Bodies of Falstaff and Moll

  Lauren A Van Atta

  The British Early Modern period was a time of shifting social ideologies, where class as well as gender were mapped onto bodies and embedded in the very material conditions of life. But class and gender were not discreet categories with dichotomous definitions like 'male' and 'female' or 'nobility' and 'peasant'. They had many inbetweens, and the theater was perhaps the most glaring inbetween of all. The theater necessarily complicates definitions and ways of viewing bodies as no body is what they seem. And at the heart of these ambiguous identies lay the fat body. It is consumptive, it is transgressive, and it is sterile. It, much like the theater it is reproduced on, contributes nothing to society of cultural or economic value. It only produces pleasure.

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  Am I Part of the Community? Perceived “Fit” of Non-Drinkers at the University of Dayton

  Alex McSwain

  Alcohol consumption is a lifestyle choice embraced by the majority of students on most college campuses. According to the Princeton Review (2016), the University of Dayton (UD) is the number two institution in the nation based on the amount of beer consumed by students. If alcohol consumption is such a key aspect of the student experience, this begs the question on how students who abstain from alcohol consumption perceive their sense of belonging on campus. By sampling a specific portion of the population at UD (undergraduate, White, domestic, full-time, residential, male students), the experiences of seven students were collected and analyzed through personal interviews. Themes were identified, looking at factors that contributed or detracted from the students’ sense of belonging on campus. One of the greatest contributing factors to these students sense of community and belonging came from their experience and involvement with campus ministry. Overall, most students expressed a satisfactory experience at UD although abstaining from alcohol consumption, at times, did make them feel out of place among their floor or residential community.

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  Analysis of Joint Leakage in Variable Geometry Die

  Sean M Conway

  This project presents a computational analysis of multiple joint types used in variable geometry dies that enable the extrusion of polymer plastic parts with a varying cross sectional area. Polymer extrusions account for nearly half of all manufactured plastic parts due to it being a high production and low cost process. Traditional polymer extrusion is limited to fixed dies that produce plastic products of continuous cross-sectional area defined by the die exit profile. A variable geometry die allows the cross-sectional area of the extruded polymer part to vary while being extruded. To allow for a change in shape, multiple links move around various joints. Clearances in the joints are required for the joints to properly function and to be able to properly manufactured the joints. These clearances create leakage paths for the melted polymer to escape through and potentially damage the quality of the plastic part. Computational fluid dynamics models have been constructed and used to assess the effect of the various clearance sizes on the leakage through the joints. The goal of this analysis is to optimize the clearance require in the geometry of the joints.

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  Analysis of the spermtail axoneme following a substitution of Drosophila melanogaster beta 2-tubulin with Anopheles gambiae beta 2-tubulin: functional or not?

  Christian R Jensen

  How does a protein evolve while maintaining function? Nature is constantly flowing like a raging river; the consistent flow does not readily allow for a pause to chart a course through the dangerous waters. Much like navigating violent waters, nature must take a specific narrow path when making changes in the genetic code; one misstep can result in a loss of function. Our model focuses on the beta 2-tubulin found in Drosophila melanogaster; past research has demonstrated that beta 2-tubulin has a major role in the formation of a functional 9+2 spermtail axoneme. Through phylogenetic analysis it has been determined that the D. melanogaster beta 2-tubulin sequence has not been altered for at least 110 million years; this is highly unusual in the scope of nature. Although there have been no recent changes in the Melanogaster sequence, there are marked changes in the beta 2-tublin sequences among Melanogaster’s close relatives. Anopheles gambiae and Melanogaster shared a common ancestor around 220 million years ago, however there are 40 amino acid differences between the two beta 2-tubulin sequences. This proposal aims to create a transgenic organism; the Melanogaster beta-2 will be replaced with the Anopheles beta-2. If the resulting spermtail is functional, it will show that the 40 changes in the Anopheles sequence followed a specific, precise path that allows it to remain functional within the Melanogaster domain. However, it is possible that the substitution will result in the spermtail axoneme being compromised and a loss of spermtail function. This would show that there has been a significant evolutionary event since the divergence 220 million years ago; this event effectively prevents further adaptive changes from occurring in the Melanogaster beta-2 sequence.

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  An Analysis of Challenges and Solutions Facing Fraternity and Sorority Advising Programs

  Keri L Good

  Fraternity and sorority advising programs (FSAP) characterize the administrative staff employed at a college or university who provide support to Greek letter organizations. They serve as a liaison between the student and adviser leadership of the organizations, the national organization, and the institution. Four overarching challenges to professionals working in FSAP are facilitating a culture of diversity and multiculturalism, autonomy of chapters and national organizations, scrutiny from non-Greek constituents, and Greek members exhibiting unethical behavior (Whipple, 1998). Specific solutions for each of these challenges recommended to FSAP professionals are rooted in fostering self-authorship in members that is necessary to change campus culture.

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  An Analysis of International Adoption in Relation to Nationalist Sentiment

  Victoria S Szczechowski

  My thesis project seeks to answer the question: Does the level of nationalist sentiment expressed by citizens of a country affect the restrictiveness of the country’s international adoption policy and the number of children adopted out? Current literature has examined the influence of the level of nationalism expressed in a country on adoptive parents in choosing from which country to adopt; however, no study has examined the link between nationalism and country-specific intercountry adoption policy. The variable of nationalist sentiment warrants study, for the Hague Convention posits that intercountry adoption is a valid option only if “a suitable family cannot be found in his or her [the adoptable child’s] State of origin” in order to preserve the child’s nationality of birth (Varnis, 2001: 42). This statement implies that domestic adoption is considered to be in the better interest of the child versus intercountry adoption. In addition to the fact that “nationalists might subscribe to the view that children ‘belong’ to their countries of birth and are better off growing up there (Leblang et al, 2015),” countries may be reluctant to act as sending countries in intercountry adoption because adopting out their children indicates an inability of the country to care for its children and thus “injures its national pride (Varnis, 2001).” Although current literature somewhat addresses nationalist sentiment in terms of its affect on intercountry adoption, no study has empirically examined the potential link between nationalist sentiment and actual adoption policy restrictiveness; therefore, my project analyzes this potential link.

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  An Ecological Assessment of an Urban Stream Corridor and the Impact of Low Dam Removals.

  Amanda Elizabeth Angelucci, Caitlin Michele Buchheim, Catherine J Devitt, Claire T Kaminski

  This study was undertaken to understand the effects of low dam removal on the biodiversity in the Great Miami River. Samples of fish and macroinvertebrates were collected both above and below two different low dam sites, Monument Avenue and Tait Station. Fish samples were collected using boat-electroshocking and bank-electroshocking and an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) was calculated with the data. Samples of macroinvertebrates were obtained using artificial substrate samplers, kick nets, and sweep nets and used to calculate the Macroinvertebrate Aggregated Index for Streams (MAIS) at each sampling site. Physical characteristics of the stream channel, riparian zone and floodplain were quantified with a habitat evaluation index. Hand-held meters were used for measuring pH, conductivity, temperature, TDS, and dissolved oxygen and the float method was used to measure surface water velocity.

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  An Investigation of Supercapacitor Design with Specific Emphasis on Energy Density

  George E Padavick

  Imagine charging your phone in minutes rather than hours. With supercapacitor technology this could become a reality. Supercapacitors offer an alternative to batteries in that they store electrical energy but provide faster charging and discharging. However, commercial supercapacitors store less energy than batteries, resulting in the widespread prevalence of batteries over supercapacitors. Recent developments in advanced carbon materials have improved the energy density of supercapacitors suggesting that further improvements can be made. This work aims to build on materials developments to provide better energy storage systems specifically by increasing the energy density of supercapacitors. Applications include electric vehicles, smart grid technology, renewable energy, and your smartphone.

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  Application of a GUS reporter system to establish hly transcription in response to oxygen and propionate.

  Erica Rinehart

  Listeria monocytogenes (LM) is a foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis through production of the toxin listeriolysin O (LLO). In healthy individuals, the symptoms of listeriosis are minimal; however, severe illness can occur in pregnant women, immunocompromised patients, and the elderly. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has implicated LM to be responsible for 19% of the deaths related to foodborne pathogens. Every year 1,600 people become infected with LM and are hospitalized in the United States and 1in 5 patients do not survive. Due to these statistics, it is important to understand LM virulence and how it is regulated to ensure that the current food safety standards are effective against this pathogen. Previous work has shown that propionate, a common food preservative that also exists within the human gut, increases LLO production anaerobically with the inverse being true aerobically. Thus, if propionate affects LM pathogenesis, we expect the presence of propionate to affect the transcriptional regulation of the gene hly that encodes the protein LLO. This research verifies that a LM strain with a GUS reporter can be used to examine the effect of propionate on the transcriptional regulation of LLO production. Experiments were performed both aerobically and anaerobically in the presence of varying concentrations of propionate (0mM, 5mM, 15mM and 25mM). The results showed that anaerobically as the concentration of propionate increased the intensity of the fluorescence increased, meaning increasing hly transcription. Aerobically, however, the presence of propionate resulted in a decrease in hly transcription. These results highlight the impact propionate on hly transcription and the role of oxygen in LM response to propionate.

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  Arsenic Removal from Groundwater Using Sustainable Biochar Filters

  George W Debs

  Globally, arsenic is a widespread contaminant that enters the environment from natural geochemical sources and anthropogenic sources. Trivalent arsenic is more toxicologically potent than pentavalent arsenic. Arsenic exposure can result in gastrointestinal illnesses, various types of cancers (skin, bladder, lung, kidney, liver) and death. Arsenic is also linked with skin lesions, cardiovascular disease, neurological effects and diabetes. Although inorganic arsenic is found in soil and water, according to the World Health Organization, arsenic exposure from groundwater presents the greatest hazard to human health. Despite these environmental and public health concerns, there is no sustainable solution for mitigating arsenic contamination of water sources in developing countries such as Chile, Mexico, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. This research study investigates the use of biochar, an inexpensive, renewable material, for the removal of arsenic from groundwater. Biochar has been shown to effectively adsorb heavy metals, oxyanions and organic compounds such as chromium, lead, phosphate, atrazine, phenantherine, naphthaline, and 1-naphtol. Since biochar is a material that can be inexpensively produced from various locally-available feedstock materials (agricultural waste, unused biomass, etc.), biochar could sustainably be used to treat waters in countries that do not have access to large scale treatment plants that require reliable, readily available energy and treatment chemicals. This research project seeks to determine the biochar production methods, biochar physicochemical characteristics, and water quality conditions suitable for efficient arsenic removal from groundwater using point-of-use water treatment systems.

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  Assessing Shape Repeatability in Variable Geometry, Polymer Extrusion Dies

  James L Vogel

  Die extrusion is a manufacturing process to create parts with a fixed cross-sectional profile by passing melted plastic through a die of the desired cross-section. The resulting plastic piece then hardens as it is pulled through a water trough and is then cut into pieces with the desired length. Extrusion has significant cost savings over other plastic processing methods. In current technology, the dies have a fixed geometry creating parts with a constant cross-section. The objective of this project is to create a die that can change shape by actuating a lever resulting in a part with variable cross sections. In order to determine the feasibility of variable geometry extrusion, dies have been designed and constructed. The process is tested by the use of a laser scanner that captures data points of the cross sections at multiple locations along the variable extruded part. The data is analyzed by a numerical process to determine the repeatability accuracy by comparing multiple profiles of the same extrusion.

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  Assessing the Effect of Propionate and Oxygen on the Antimicrobial Activity of Nisin

  Andrea M Vietti

  Listeria monocytogenes is one of many common foodborne pathogens that causes infections that are extremely dangerous to individuals, especially to those with compromised immune systems. From a societal standpoint, treatment can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per patient thus causing a significant strain on public health. The human body, specifically the gastrointestinal lumen, is equipped with an internal chemical barrier that serves to fight off dangerous pathogens such as Listeria. This chemical barrier is composed of antimicrobial peptides that target invading microbes. Alongside these antimicrobial peptides are fermentation acids such as propionate that are produced by endogenous microbes in the human body. Foodborne pathogens are contracted through contaminated food products and in order to reduce this, public health officials incorporate antimicrobial peptides such as nisin to consumer food products. Research geared towards combating foodborne pathogens typically focuses on aerobic conditions; however, Listeria is exposed to anaerobic conditions due to the anoxic environment in the human gastrointestinal tract. The purpose of this study is to understand Listeria’s susceptibility to the fermentation acid propionate and antimicrobial peptide nisin in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. By treating Listeria to incremental concentrations of both nisin and propionate and exposing the bacteria to both anaerobic and aerobic conditions, Listeria survival can be determined. This research possesses implications for the understanding of combating foodborne pathogens such as Listeria, and research can thus allow public health personnel to reduce the societal burdens of Listeria infection.

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  Automated Particle Swarm Optimization Based PID Tuning for Control of Robotic Arm

  Ouboti Djaneye-Boundjou, Xingsheng Xu

  We revisit the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller design for torque control of robotic manipulators, for which, appropriate tuning of the said controller could prove very burdensome, especially with increasing degrees-of-freedom (DOF) and/or when designing a Multi- Input Multi-Output (MIMO) PID controller. That is, when generating and tuning matrix P-I-D gains as opposed to single values, in order to take in account possible coupling effects between involved joints. We tackle both joint space and workspace PID control tuning problems for reference tracking from an optimization standpoint. Using a previously developed stable Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimizer, we are able to automatically and systematically tune P-I-D gains, be it as single gain values or gain matrices, while optimizing a cost or fitness function. The aforesaid cost function can be arranged to feature various aggregated performance measures, ‘normalized’ so as to overcome differences in scale if any. Taking in account some practical limitations, a 2-DOF arm is used here as a case study. Numerical simulations are provided to substantiate the adequacy of our method.

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  Automatic Intrusion Detection on Oil/Gas Pipeline Right-of-Ways

  Ming Gong

  Pipeline right-of-ways (ROWs) monitoring and safety pre-warning is a vital way to guarantee safe operation of the oil/gas transportation. Any construction equipment or heavy vehicle intrusion is a potential safety hazard to pipeline infrastructure. Since millions of miles of pipes buried along the length and breadth of the United States, monitoring is required to know if pipeline ROW is under threat or not. Taken into account of less population of the vast amount of area, high cost of labor and rapid advancements in sensor technology and automated techniques for image analysis, aerial monitoring is found to be the most viable option. The images captured by aerial data acquisition system, such as fixed-wing air-crafts or unmanned air vehicles are affected by a lot of factors including varying illumination conditions, environmental conditions, camera characteristics, etc. To deal with the above mentioned problems, an automatic intrusion detection system, which is capable of dealing with the constraints of the aerial imagery caused by low resolution, lower frame rate, large variations in illumination, motion blurs, etc., is being developed to assist the threat detection as part of the ROW automated monitoring program. The automated pipeline monitoring system is designed to be in three phases: background elimination, part-based object detection and risk assessment. In the first phase, a region of interest (ROI) detector is developed to extract potential regions that may contain objects by utilizing monogenic phase features into a cascade of pre-trained classifiers. In the second phase, a part-based object detection model is built for searching specific targets, which are considered as threat objects. In the third phase, a safe pre-warning system is built to access the severity of the threats to pipelines by computing the geolocation and temperature information of the threat objects. In addition, in order to assign more precise warning, the impacts caused by different types of vehicles will be taken into account by developing new feature extraction and classification algorithms.

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  Autonomous Surveillance in Real World Environments

  Gayatri Mayukha Behara

  The widespread emergence of human interactive gaming and entertainment systems based on using body gestures for control has led to the development of portable 3D depth perception cameras. Many standalone systems capable of 3D depth perception are now commercially available. Examples of such systems include Kinect motion sensing input device developed by Microsoft for Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles, Creative Labs Senz3D, and ZED camera from Stereolabs which has combined a 3D Camera for depth sensing with motion tracking. In the current work, we aim to expand the functionality of such systems by combining autonomous object recognition along with depth perception which would provide the ability to both identify the object and its distance from the camera. Such capability would prove invaluable to autonomous surveillance applications, where persons carrying any forbidden and dangerous objects are detected in real-time and appropriate warnings are signaled. We have selected Microsoft Kinect V2 which includes built-in hardware algorithms to identify humans in a complex real-world setting. In addition, the system can simultaneously track 6 people at any time and provide their skeletal joint diagrams. The current work deals with using the skeletal joint diagrams and depth maps and create a focus area around the hand area of the peoples. The next phase of our developed algorithm deals with object detection after the segmentation of hands. We use machine learning techniques with establishment of training datasets that includes the library of objects we aim to detect. Finally, we believe his system could have uses in autonomous navigation of robots, vehicles and drones.

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  Behind the Stigma: An Examination of the Impact of Gender and College Adjustment on Attitudes Towards Mental Health Disorders

  Maggie L Inman

  The topic of stigmatization of mental health disorders and use of psychological services has been widely researched. Gender differences have been found in attitudes regarding acceptability and treatment of mental health disorders, with adherence to gender roles influencing these attitudes. Past research has confined gender to a binary model of self-report and has not explored the concept of nontraditional gender roles; nor has it examined the influence of social factors, namely college adjustment, on perceptions of mental health. With many studies utilizing undergraduate students, it is important to understand how college adjustment may affect attitudes toward mental health. This study tested three hypotheses: that men and women with more feminine gender roles will display more accepting attitudes toward individuals with mental health disorders, that men and women with poorer college adjustment will also display more accepting attitudes toward these individuals, and that the relationship between college adjustment and attitudes towards mental disorders will be moderated by gender role traits. Participants were PSY 101 students and received research credit for their participation. Correlations and regression analyses were used to compare responses between groups based on gender role traits and college adjustment. Results indicated no significant relationship between gender roles and attitudes towards mental disorders, but a significant relationship was found between college adjustment and these attitudes, with poorer college adjustment predicting more negative attitudes towards mental disorders. The study also found that gender role traits strengthen this relationship between college adjustment and attitudes towards mental disorders. Results of this study could help reduce mental disorder stigma by identifying which factors contribute to the stigmatization. The results could also help university counseling centers to normalize mental disorders and psychological services by using advertising to target the least accepting demographic.

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  Beyond the Macro: Determining the role of micronutrients in orthopteran communities

  Lucy E Bratton, Kaitlin M Gawkins

  Insect herbivores, such as grasshoppers, are important components of grassland ecosystems, but presently we cannot accurately predict their abundance and diversity. Macronutrients (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) have long been considered to be important in limiting herbivore populations, but only nitrogen and phosphorus have been examined, thus overlooking a potential role for micronutrients. We are conducting a large-scale fertilization experiment manipulating micronutrients (Ca, K, and Na) and macronutrients (N and P) to determine how micronutrients affect orthopteran communities in coastal tallgrass prairies of Texas with a large, and whether the effect of micronutrients depends on the abundance of macronutrients. We found that, contrary to previous thinking, orthopterans were not limited by macronutrients, but were limited by individual micronutrients. A species of grasshopper (Melanoplus bispinosus) and multiple species of katydid (Orchelimum concinnum and Orchelimum vulgare) were particularly responsive. This summer, we will be conducting different types of feeding trials with these species to determine whether their responses are due to direct effects (i.e. via physiological mechanisms) or indirect effects (via changes in plant communities). These results would not only help to explain the mechanisms underlying of this large-scale experiment, but also, would give more insight into the relationship between direct and indirect influences of changing micronutrient concentration, thus setting a framework for further study in the future. These results have important implications for the management of rangeland ecosystems where orthopterans are highly managed pest species.

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  Bicycle Safety Project

  Theus H Aspiras, Brandon M Hampshire

  The objective of the Bicycle Safety Project is to provide joggers and cyclist a sensor that can alert them of approaching dangers behind them. The dangers could be a mugger, a speeding cyclist, or approaching vehicle. The project initially approached the objective by using a camera to perform 2D image analysis such as optical flow and distance estimation. Optical flow was used for object detection and speed estimation. In addition to optical flow, the use of a 3D stereo cameras is used for object detection, distance calculation, and speed estimation. In order to detect an object approaching the camera, the 3D stereo camera initially creates a point cloud to use as a distance reference. Then the point cloud collected afterwards is subtracted from the reference point cloud and then changes the reference to the new point cloud. The difference between the point clouds creates an impression that can illustrate moving objects similar to a pinscreen. The image is used to identify objects by using image segmentation. Image segmentation creates a binary filter that allows us to find the average distance and instantaneous velocity of the identified objects. From there, above desired speeds and their objects can be red flagged as dangers. The algorithm is able to calculate and identify objects in under a second when there is a single approaching object.

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  Biomass Production of Basic Garden Plants Growing in Simulated Martian Soil

  Amber R Delvento, Tessa L Farthing, Shelby Krumpelman, Ana D Ritz, Sophie F Yurczyk

  Future manned missions to Mars will require that astronauts grow at least some of the food that they will eat. This project was initiated by an interest in a recent film, The Martian, in which a marooned astronaut grows potatoes in Martian soil to supplement his diet. Robotic spacecraft have been sent to Mars and have analyzed the Martian soil. Comparable soils similar to Martian soils have been found on Earth. We obtained a Martian Regolith Simulant from Orbit Tech, Inc., a subcontractor for NASA. Martian soil contains all micro and macronutrients essential to sustain plant life. Using a climate controlled environment chamber, seeds of radishes, peas, and lettuce were grown in Earth garden soil or simulant Martian soil. Eight seedlings of each species, four of which were planted in earth topsoil, and four of which were planted in Martian soil. A balanced liquid fertilizer was applied to half of the plants. At the end of eight weeks, the biomass of targeted edible biomass was measured. The results will be useful in determining the possibility of growing food on Mars.