The Brother Joseph W. Stander Symposium recognizes and celebrates academic excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. This annual event provides an opportunity for students from all disciplines to showcase their intellectual and artistic accomplishments. The Stander Symposium represents the Marianist tradition of education through community and is the principal campus-wide event in which faculty and students actualize our mission to be a "community of learners."
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Numerical Analysis of a Mathematical Model for the Formation of Alzheimer’s Disease
GROUP Summer E Jenkins, Christopher A Negri, Amelia I Pompilio
Mathematics can be applied meaningfully to a variety of disciplines and research areas, especially the spread of disease. The pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease remains largely ambiguous in current research because of the complex relationships between cell types due to aging. In this project, we computationally study a mathematical model that is a system of coupled differential equations to represent such relationships between cells. We use Runge-Kutta methods and Euler’s method to study the model.
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Numerical Integration
Jiaying Chen
The objective is to calculate the integral of a function f over an interval (i.e. area under the curve). However, in practice, f or its antiderivative is analytically unknown, forcing us to settle for a numerical approximation. We investigate different numerical methods such as Trapezoidal rule, Simpson's rule, Newton-Cotes rules and Gaussian quadrature rules to compute the area under f, and compare their accuracies and efficiencies.
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One Click to Meet the Physical Therapy World
GROUP Swetha Nanda Dugulam, Sindhura Nalluri
Physical therapy is a health care profession that makes use of mechanical movements and emphasizes on the rehabilitation of physical impairments without focused use of medicine or surgery. So, how can we enter the physiotherapy world by just one click? What’s the idea? So here is the collaboration between the world of physical therapy with an innovative open-source operating system called ‘android’. The proposed app provides an insight of how the different body parts carry out their functionalities, how to identify injuries/illness and what should be done to cure them. This helps the reader to have a quick view of the overall process. Based on the individual’s history and physical examination, an intervention plan is made to address the dysfunction. Each body part has different functionality and its management includes assistance with specific exercises, manual therapy and manipulation, mechanical devices such as traction, education, physical agents which includes heat, cold, electricity, sound waves, radiation, rays, prescription of assistive devices and other interventions. How to perform each of the above mentioned process is shown effectively in this app. This app can be used in all android devices and is developed using the Android Studio 2.1.2 with the help of images and videos. The android studio plays a vital role in giving the support environment, which has the inbuilt java libraries and can identify the styling languages as well. In the process of development, the developer can drag or drop the panels/layouts for the correct measures of the phone view or the tablet view. The overall application outcome is to let the physical therapy students understand the diagnostic process and how certain tests and measures relate to dysfunction and treatment in an interactive manner through one-click. Ever wondered how science is combined with technology? Our application is an excellent example for this scenario.
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On the Hall Effect Measurements
Gina M Lucia
The Hall Effect has long been the standard experimental technique to measure the free carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity in semiconductor materials. In this presentation, we will describe in details the functions of all the equipment of our Hall Effect setup in our laboratory on campus. Because the Hall system is fully automated and controlled by a computer, the emphasis will be focused on explaining how the measurements are made and how the calculated carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity are obtained as a function of temperature from these measurements.
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Optical characterization of Vanadium Dioxide smart materials under phase transition and its thin film effects
Pengfei Guo
Vanadium Dioxide (VO2) is a polycrystalline material that exhibits a reversible transition from a monoclinic semiconducting phase to a tetragonal metallic phase in the temperature range of 55 – 68 °C. The refractive index of VO2 also undergoes a dramatic change during this phase transition. In this project, the VO2 thin films were grown by ion-assisted deposition (IAD) using E-beam evaporation on sapphire substrates. A simulation model was developed to extract the optical constants from the measured reflectance and transmittance spectrum.
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Optical Propagation in Anisotropic Metamaterials
Rudra Gnawali
Optical propagation through metallo-dielectric stacks is analyzed using the Berreman matrix approach for electromagnetic propagation through anisotropic media. Effective medium theory is used to represent the metallo-dielectric stack as an anisotropic bulk medium. Transmission and reflection are investigated as functions of the incident angle and wavelength. Validity of the effective medium theory is investigated by varying the layer thickness and number of layers.
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Partnering with IEP Students to Improve the Readability of a Seasonal Flu Health Document
Maria E Anderson, Dominick R Massa, Cynthianna M Mastropietro, Lauren T Olson
Partnering with the Intensive English Program (IEP) students at the University of Dayton, we attempted to address the issue of health literacy, specifically in the form of reading health documents. Being health literate requires the ability to understand instructions, guidelines, and general health information that can lead to action. Current health documents often include medical jargon and complex English that makes interpreting the information difficult for native English speakers and especially for those whom English is their second language. We transformed an informational document from a government site that covered general information on the flu into something that was more easily understood by students in UD’s IEP. First, we visited an IEP class and asked what they knew or wanted to know about the flu and then tailored the editing of a document toward their needs. We edited the original flu document into a more concise and “readable” brochure and then returned to the IEP class for further suggestions. We received feedback that certain terms were harder to understand than others and that they had a difficult time interpreting charts. Based off of the feedback, we made final edits to our document in which we removed the chart and further simplified the language used. Using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, we determined that the original document was written at an 11th grade level. After editing the document into a brochure, we were able to reduce the reading level to 3rd grade, which is more understandable for these readers. Through this project we were able to gain a better understanding of the issue of low health literacy in a hands on approach.
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Personality and Smell: Investigating Associations between Personality Pathology and Odor Detection, Identification and Hedonic Response
Hannah B Gahimer, Rhiannon A Gibbs, Russell J Mach, Maia A Mclin, Lauren T Olson, Lisa E Stone, Julia K Wiedemann
Although personality has been shown to influence affective (Larsen & Kettelar, 1991) and sensory processing (Corlis, Splaver, & Wiseup, 1967; Wilson et al., 2000), very a few studies have investigated associations between olfaction and personality traits. Research findings do support a relation between neuroticism and increased odor detection sensitivity (Herbener et al, 1989; Pause et al., 1998) and more accurate odor identification (Larsson et al., 2000), although a more recent study found higher neuroticism in individuals with odor identification impairment compared to non-impaired healthy controls (Lehrner, Kirchebner, Auff, & Pusswald, 2015). To our knowledge, odor detection sensitivity, identification, and hedonic response have not been studied in relation to personality pathology. The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between select pathological personality traits and olfactory function. University students (N = 68) completed the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) and olfactory function was assessed using the Sniffin’ Sticks odor detection and identification tests. Hedonic response to each odor was assessed with unipolar rating scales for odor pleasantness and odor unpleasantness. Results indicated a trending, negative correlation between Depressivity and odor detection sensitivity (r= -.235, p=.052) and a positive correlation between Depressivity and total pleasantness ratings of negatively valanced odorants (rs =.303, p=.012). Anxiousness was also positively associated with pleasantness ratings of the negatively valenced odorants (rs =.264, p=.030). When Anhedonia, Depressivity, and Anxiousness were entered into a regression model, Anhedonia (Beta = -.371, t = -2.32, p = .026) and Depressivity (Beta = .414, t = 2.284, p = .026) uniquely accounted for variability in total pleasantness ratings of all odorants. Important sex differences also emerged. Anhedonia was negatively associated with unpleasantness ratings of unpleasant odorants in males (r= -.450, p=.010), but not in females (r = .271, p=.109). Gender discrepancies were also apparent for impulsivity and antagonism. The implications of these findings on personality assessment research will be discussed.
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Platinum Nanoparticles Induced Modifications to the Inflammatory and Signaling Responses in Liver Cancer Cells
Rebecca T Browning, Claudia J Labrador Rached
Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) are being explored as a potential therapeutic due to their ability to act as a catalyst and their high conductivity. However, in order to develop PtNPs for utilization in the medicinal field, their behavior and safety in a biological system must first be characterized. In addition to evaluating the traditional toxicological endpoints of cytotoxicity and stress response, this work sought to uncover if PtNPs induced an inflammatory response or modified critical signal transduction pathways in the human liver HepG2 model. While PtNP exposure resulted in negligible loss HepG2 viability, a dose dependent stress response was uncovered, as assessed via production of reactive oxygen species. As HepG2 cells are known to secrete key pro-inflammatory cytokines when stressed, we examined the production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α after a 24 hour incubation with PtNPs. Our results demonstrated a significant increase in production of these critical mediators, demonstrating that PtNPs were capable of inciting an inflammatory response. Lastly, this work uncovered that incubation with PtNPs modified the HepG2 response to insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), altering basic cellular functionality. Following IGF-1 stimulation, the PtNP-dosed HepG2s were associated with intensified Akt signaling activation. As the PI3-kinase/Akt signaling pathways is paramount in the regulation of a diverse number of cellular processes, including metabolism, proliferation, cell survival, growth, and angiogenesis, this results suggests that PtNP exposure could induce a plethora of long-term consequences. Taken together, the activation of stress, inflammatory, and signaling cellular responses indicate that a more in-depth analysis of PtNP-induced bioeffects is required prior to their utilization as a medicinal therapeutic.
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Portfolio Weighting, Risk Aversion and Stock Returns in the S&P Materials Sector: An Empirical Analysis 2006-2016
Stuart W Allen
Over the last several years stocks in the materials sector (XLB) have experienced increased volatility. In this study, I develop a risk dampening portfolio weighting scheme in order to increase the potential for excess returns in the sector. Using portfolios of ten and twenty stocks, ranked by market cap, I calculate the standard deviation of the return on equity (ROE) for each stock over rolling 5 year periods and divide it into the standard deviation (weighted average) for all ten and twenty stocks. This scheme allows stocks with lower relative standard deviations to have higher portfolio weights. Both buy and hold and rebalancing strategies are used in the analysis. The performance benchmarks are the materials sector, XLB, and SPY, a proxy for the S&P 500 stock index.
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Prayer and Political Views
William J Gross
Does the amount of time spent in prayer affect one’s political views? This research looks at how often one prays during the week to see if it affects whether one is more likely to be conservative or liberal. This study builds on previous research on how religion affects political views. It seeks to concentrate on how the amount of time spent in prayer affects political views. In this way, it is not only religion that is being accounted for, but through prayer, how religious someone is and how it may or may not affect their political views. For this study, data will be taken from the General Social Survey. The hypothesis that will be tested is as follows: On average and all else equal, a person who prays more will be more likely to identify as conservative. To test the hypothesis, a logistic regression will be conducted to determine the probability of a person being liberal or conservative. The logistic regression will be a function of several variables – including the amount of time spent in prayer.
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Predicting Baseball Player’s Salaries Based on Past Performance and Other Factors
Courtney A Arand
The purpose of this project is to predict a baseball player’s salary in the 2016 season based on their performance and other factors in the 2015 season. The factors (regressors) used in this project that could possibly affect the salary (dependent variable) were age, seasons played, games played, wins above replacement (WAR), and batting average. The data was collected from sources such as the Major League Baseball (MLB) website and the USA TODAY website. We used the statistical software package SPSS to analyze the data and obtain a good prediction model.
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Predicting How Many Points a Famous NBA Player Will Score in a Game
Crystal D Brock
Stephen Curry is a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and he plays as a point guard for the Golden State Warriors. The overall purpose of this project is to predict, based on a number of factors (independent variables) from the 2015-2016 season, the amount of points Stephen Curry will score in any given game. The independent variables (regressors) chosen that could have an effect on the number of points scored are minutes played in a specific game, field goal percentage, three point percentage, free throw percentage, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, fouls, and turnovers. The data was obtained from the ESPN website. The statistical software package, SPSS, was used to analyze the data and obtain a good prediction model.
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Predicting Residential Heating Energy Consumption and Savings from Known Energy Characteristics and Historical Energy Consumption
GROUP Badr Al Tarhuni, Adel Ali Mohamed Naji
Cost effective retrofits of residential buildings could yield annual electricity savings in this sector of approximately 30 percent in the United States. Furthermore, investment in energy efficiency can create millions of direct and indirect jobs throughout the economy for manufacturers and service providers that supply the building industry. Unfortunately, the actual energy savings, compared to predictions based upon physical energy models, have been somewhat disappointing, leading to wariness on the part of those wishing to invest in efficiency projects. The objective of this study is to use an expanded set of building characteristic data to predict savings from the adoption of individual energy saving measures based upon actual building data and not only on energy models. Key to this study will be the use of a large number of buildings/residences for which all energy characteristics are known. The specific case considered here involves hundreds of university-owned student residences in the U.S. Midwest. A neural network approach is used to develop a single model that accurately predicts heating energy for all houses given the specified energy characteristics. The resulting neural net is used to predict savings associated with a small subset of houses in the study which have already been upgraded from a variety of measures. The estimated savings are compared to the actual savings realized. The results show that the predicted savings match the actual savings within 2.5 percent for most of the measures considered. These results show the potential for establishing larger public databases of building energy characteristics in order to strategically implement energy reduction strategies with the greatest energy savings per cost to implement
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Predicting Smoking Rates in the U.S. Using Multiple Regression
Marie K Bertolo
In this work, we will try to predict the smoking rates (dependent variable) based on several independent variables (regressors) such as graduation rate rate (measured by high school graduation rates), race, religious status, age, median household income, crime rates and cigarette tax per pack. We also test if the smoking rate is dependent on the state. In the model, smoking rates are shown as a percentage of a state’s population and all 50 states are included to give an accurate representation of the United States as a whole. The data used was obtained from several websites such as Americas Health Rankings, the US census, the Kaiser Family Foundation, Governing and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These variables are being tested to speculate the reasons behind the differences in smoking rates across U.S. states and to predict potential future rates.
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Preparation, Analysis and Derivatization of Benzo[1,2-d:3,4-d’:5,6-d”]tris(thiazole)-2,5,8-triamine
Jonathan P Alessi
Multiple fields are areas of active research where organic materials hold considerable promise, such as thermoelectrics or photovoltaics. In an effort to design and prepare a new system which would exhibit a set of promising features such as high thermal stability, high degree of planarity, rigid skeleton and strong electron accepting properties, we have undertaken the preparation and characterization of benzotrithiazole and its derivatives. Our work has led to a reproducible and scalable protocol for the generation of one particular structure: benzo[1,2-d:3,4-d':5,6-d"]tris(thiazole)-2,5,8-triamine. We have also conducted further attempts to functionalize this structure, leading to other derivatives of the target compound.
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Preparing Preservice Teachers to Collaborate with Families
Fatimah A Rubayyi
ABSTRACT During a time when the impact of education has come into question, family engagement is one factor that has been shown to have a positive effect on student learning. Many in the field focus on families to improve their engagement. The research is clear. There is a set of practices that when teachers use them, parents are more engaged. The purpose of this study was to determine whether teachers with different levels of education learned about these strategies. In this qualitative study, teachers at three different degree levels were interviewed to determine their perspectives about and knowledge of best practices in family engagement. The interview transcripts were analyzed and implications for teacher preparation what identified.
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Principle Component Analysis
Conor J McCormick
Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful tool used in the field of statistics. In a given or collected sample of data, statisticians normally like to see correlations, or relationships, between variables in the sample. By examining the correlations between these variables, statisticians are able to create a linear representation to help make estimations for currently unknown values. Getting to this linear representation can be easy if there are only a few variables and/or the sample size is small. However, this is not always the case and this is where PCA comes into play. When the amount of variables taken is large it could lead to an even larger amount of correlation plots that must be looked at and could potentially be hard to interpret, but with PCA the number of plots can greatly be reduced and make it easier to see to correlation between variables. In my presentation, I plan to explain this technique.
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Projecting Future Groundwater Recharge with CMIP5 Climate Models
Amber N Johnson, Colin J Mctighe
Abstract This project aims to predict the future precipitation characteristics for the Dayton region using climate model scenarios. This is part of an on-going research project on assessing the future sustainability of the Great Miami Valley Buried Aquifer under the changing climate. Dayton is home to one of the most productive aquifer systems in the country, and assessing the effects of climate change on the sustainability of this resource provides important information for future utilization and planning. In this region, precipitation contributes to 35% - 66% of the groundwater recharge with seasonal variations. Therefore, it is important to project future precipitation patterns in order to assess the sustainability of the groundwater. This research is performed in 4 major steps: (1) Collect historical station data for Dayton from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN), and historical simulations of precipitation and temperature from 10-15 CMIP5 Climate models; (2) Compare the GHCN station data with the historical model simulations to evaluate model bias; (3) Collect future simulations of precipitation and temperature from the same CMIP5 models for future climate scenarios, and correct the bias; (4) use future precipitation information to predict future groundwater recharge in the Dayton region. This information will be useful for regional planning committees and local government for decision making and planning processes for the future.
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Promoting Interdisciplinary Scientific Investigations in the Secondary Biology Classroom
Jessica L Grilliot
This project integrates interdisciplinary biosensor research conducted in the Biology Department of the University of Dayton into the curriculum of a ninth grade biology course. The curriculum of such a course in the state of Ohio must include opportunities for students to practice inquiry and application skills. The learning experience developed for this project challenges students to investigate the purpose and applications of college level research. Learning module content includes interdisciplinary connections with biology, chemistry, and physics, such as molecular structure, chemical bonds, sensory response, signal transduction, and sound waves/resonance frequency. Inquiry and application skills are incorporated through directed reading, group discussion of the project concept, and hands-on construction and testing of a model sensor device. Assessment metrics include a pre- and post-activity survey, peer evaluation of constructed devices, and working group written and oral reflection on learning module content.
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Reaction of Phosphonium Phosphate Ionic Liquids with Iron Substrates
Joseph Martin Hancock
The reactions of several oil soluble phosphonium phosphate ionic liquids with iron substrates were investigated to determine their suitability as lubricant additives. The ionic liquids, dissolved in ester based lubricant base stocks were found to react with metal surfaces to form a phosphorus containing film. Scanning electron microscopy showed the deposition of a layer on the surface and x-ray fluorescence showed that the layer contained phosphorus. Infrared analysis of the film demonstrated the formation of poly phosphate chains on the material. Decomposition products from the ionic liquid were identified by GC-MS.
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Rear Eye Vision for Enhanced Safety in Autonomous Navigation
Arjun Udayakumar Sherly
Rear end traffic crashes are rising alarmingly but these crashes can be avoided effectively with the help of an efficient rear end camera system that could predict the direction of the oncoming vehicle and change the navigation of parent vehicle appropriately. The proposed approach tackles the problem by providing a camera system at the rear end of the vehicle that notifies the vehicle about the acceleration and direction of the approaching object and notifies the action to be taken so as to avoid the threat or collision by employing the principle of optic flow. The optic flow of the object of interest is calculated and tracked for extracting the key features. The three prominent features that are evaluated closely are acceleration, size and the direction of the object of interest. Acceleration determines how fast the object is moving towards the rear station. Direction attribute determines whether the object is moving towards or away from the rear station. Modified Kanade Lucas Tomasi Algorithm (KLT) calculates the optical flow of object of interest. The stationary objects such as trees, street lights and buildings are ignored as the background. The modified KLT uses a Pyramidal approach to evaluate the severity of threats. Pyramidal approach at different levels takes care of objects moving at high speed that might disappear from the frame. The testing and evaluation is done in Husky robot from Clear Path Robotics and using Robot Mobility Platform 220 by Segway. In the era of exponentially growing trend in autonomy, Rear Eye Vision stands as the epitome of research in the field of autonomous navigation.
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Reconfigurable Antenna based on Tungsten-Doped Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films
Kuan-Chang Pan
The main objective for this research is to study tungsten-doped vanadium dioxide (WVO2) phase change thin films. The (0.8% ratio of W) tungsten doped vanadium dioxide (WVO2) thin films were fabricated and tested. The tungsten doping shifted the transition temperature closer to room temperature, compared to 68C in undoped VO2. For this research, a coplanar waveguide (CPW) bowtie patch antenna was integrated with WVO2 thin films and the resonant frequency of the antenna can be shifted from 6.953 GHz at low temperature (20°C) to 6.538 GHz in mid temperature range (35°C) and then made inactive in high temperature range (50°C). The overall size of the CPW bowtie patch antenna is 6.45mm×6mm and the substrate of the antenna is sapphire.
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Remote Sensing: Natural Gas Detection with Infrared (IR) Spectrum
Benjamin E Natarian
Currently detecting a natural gas leak requires a boots on ground approach with handheld and vehicle mounted chemical sensors. The goal of this research is to create an automatic detection system using manned or unmanned aircraft to survey a large area in a short time and narrow the leak location to a minimal search area for boots on ground isolation. The proposed system will utilize an IR sensor for data acquisition, and a custom computer vision based algorithm to detect gas leaks in the massive data stream with minimal human interaction. Specifically, the algorithm takes a combination of preprocessing, motion estimation, and machine learning to differentiate between gas leaks and normal background.
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Resolving the Gene Expression bases for the Convergent Evolution of a Pigmentation Trait
Sumant Grover, Victoria Rene Spradling
The genetic basis by which organisms adapt to an ever changing world remains a topic of great interest to the fields of evolution, development, and conservation biology. It is understood that animal genomes contain over ten thousand genes and distantly related species possess many of the same genes due to common ancestry. What is less well understood is how new traits evolve using these shared genes and whether the genetic basis for evolution favors certain genes over others. At the heart of trait development are genes that encode proteins that regulate the expression of other genes, notably transcription factors and chromatin modifying proteins. Traits can evolve through changes in the expression patterns for these genes or through changes in which target genes they regulate. However, case studies connecting gene expression changes to trait evolution remain few in number. Additionally, it is unclear whether gene expression evolution favors alterations in certain genes over others. In order to understand how a novel trait evolves and to determine whether evolution can prefer certain gene targets for modification, we are studying the convergent evolution of fruit fly pigmentation in the lineages of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila funebris. These two species can be considered biological replicates for the evolution of male-specific pigmentation on the A5 and A6 abdominal segments. To understand the genes involved in the formation and evolution of these similar pigmentation patterns, we are utilizing candidate gene and comparative transcriptomic approaches. Completion of this work will provide novel insights on the genetic changes responsible for a trait’s origin, and whether development constrains evolutionary paths to certain genes.
