Stander Symposium Projects

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  Development of a Sublimation-Inhibitive Coating for TAGS-85 Thermoelectric Material

  Brian L. Berger

  Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) ' in use by NASA since the 1960s ' convert the heat of decaying nuclear fuel to electricity. RTGs are an ideal power source for space technology due to their reliability and long lifespan. TAGS-85, a material critical to the operation of these generators, has been found to degrade over long periods of time at high temperatures. This degradation leads to a decrease in the power being produced by the RTG, diminishing its reliability as a power source. This thesis seeks to create a coating to inhibit sublimation which can be applied to TAGS-85 before it is installed in the RTG. Several types of ceramic coatings were applied to samples, which were then subjugated to elevated temperatures for extended periods of time. Several analytic techniques were employed to gauge the effectiveness of the coatings at preventing TAGS-85 degradation.

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  Differential Expression of Genes Between Dorsal and Ventral Iris Undergoing Lens Regeneration in Notophthalmus viridescens Revealed by Next Generation RNA Sequencing

  Konstantinos Sousounis

  Notophthalmus viridescens, the red-spotted newt, shows great regenerate capabilities. They can regenerate their limbs, heart, tail and eye parts. Noteworthy, the eye lens can be regenerated after complete removal (lentectomy) from the dorsal iris. Thus, lens regeneration involves the change of iris cells to lens cells, a process called transdifferentiation. Ventral iris does not participate in the process and can serve as natural negative control. In order to study what genes are expressed during this remarkable process, we utilized high-throughput RNA-sequencing, a method that gives mRNA sequence information and corresponding expression in the tested samples. We used dorsal and ventral iris 4 and 8 days post-lentectomy, two major time points for cell cycle re-entry and dedifferentiation, respectively. Differential expression of more than 38,000 annotated genes was studied between dorsal and ventral iris at both these time points. Highly differentially expressed genes in the dorsal or ventral iris were validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Those genes were TBX5, UNC5B and FGF10 in the dorsal iris and VAX2, NTN1 and NR2F5 in the ventral iris. Genes up-regulated in dorsal or ventral iris were grouped based on gene ontology terms (GO) and fisher's exact test was used to determine over-represented GO in the dorsal or ventral iris. We found that GO related to gene regulation, cytoskeleton, cell cycle and immune response were enriched in the dorsal iris, whereas GO related to transposons were enriched in the ventral iris. This study showed differences between dorsal and ventral iris which account for dorsal iris' ability to regenerate the lens. In addition, we found markers that specify dorsal or ventral iris. Based on this valuable resource, functional future studies can elucidate the mechanism of lens regeneration which can shed light to potential therapeutic applications to higher vertebrates and eventually to humans.

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  Do Measures of Ocular Gaze Correlate with Subjective Ratings in Assessing Aesthetic Preferences for Faces?

  Adam Barnas, Daniel A. Hurlburt, Hannah L. Lieber, Paulina E. Rosequist, Margaret A. Wedell

  In evaluating an image, the medium in which it is presented (e.g., photography, painting, digital art), among other factors, impacts preference (Lacey et al., 2011). To this end, we set out to determine preference for faces in paintings compared to photographic renderings of paintings. A photographic rendering depicts the same content and arrangement of features that the painting includes. Paintings and photographs were chosen out of a larger stimulus pool in which participants viewed each image separately and provided scale ratings of beauty and aesthetic pleasingness. Mean ratings for these attributes were compared to mean ratings of similarity for the same paintings and photographs that had been matched and presented together. Consequently, stimuli rated high in similarity, beauty, and aesthetic pleasingness were selected for a subsequent study. For this study, participants will evaluate faces in paintings and photographic renderings of paintings, as well. However, they will provide subjective ratings of aesthetic pleasingness, similarity and perceived value of the stimuli while head-mounted cameras record measures of ocular gaze (i.e., visual scan paths, fixation times, and pupil dilations). We predict that faces in paintings will be rated higher in aesthetic pleasingness as compared to the photographic renderings because of the perceived artistic value of the paintings. Furthermore, we expect subjective ratings to correlate with measures of ocular gaze directed toward features that determine aesthetic value and preferences for faces in paintings versus faces in photographs. Results from this study have implications in marketing and product development, as well as improving our understanding of what is considered art and how it adds to perceived value. Furthermore, the use of physiological measures, such as those of ocular gaze, along with the ubiquitous subjective ratings stands to illuminate better the intimate relationship between body and mind.

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  Eating Disorder Diagnoses and Treatments: The Impact of an Educational Symposium

  Hannah J. Lowe, Meredith N. Schlabig

  The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of "Eating Disorder Diagnoses and Treatments: An Educational Symposium," a one-day event that was held at the University of Dayton on November 3, 2012. The goals of this symposium were to increase the attendees' knowledge about eating disorders and to improve their attitudes toward individuals with these disorders. The symposium was composed of presentations by health and mental healthcare professionals who shared research, statistics, case studies, and anecdotes and artifacts from their clinical experience. Speakers included a Psychologist, a Board-Certified Music Therapist, a Licensed Registered Dietitian, and a Registered and Board-Certified Art Therapist. In addition, a UD Music Therapy major shared personal testimony related to her own experiences of battling an eating disorder. Symposium attendees were invited to voluntarily and anonymously complete a 5-question survey that assessed knowledge and attitudes related to eating disorders and their treatments. Participants completed the survey both prior to and after attending symposium sessions. Five 5-point Likert scales captured attendees' 1) knowledge about diagnoses, 2) knowledge about treatment, and the degree to which they were 3) judgmental, 4) concerned, and 5) sympathetic toward individuals with eating disorders. Survey results indicate an encouraging trend: In general, respondents--even those who attended only a portion of the symposium--reported increases in knowledge about eating disorders and positive changes in attitudes toward those affected by these disorders. Specific results will be presented, along with plausible interpretations of findings, study limitations, and suggestions for future research pertaining to eating disorders.

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  Education in Dayton; A Social Justice Service Club Project

  Stephanie F. Bartol, Mary M. Cook, Pamela R. Malone, Kelsey L. Radabaugh

  As members of the Social Justice Service Club, we are committed to the ideal of improving literacy in the surrounding Miami Valley Community. This project represents the culmination our service learning project for 2012-2013. For the past two semester we have tutored children in lower socioeconomic situations. We believe that a retrospective look at our service will not only feature the benefit of tutoring children who are struggling with basic literacy, but will promote an educational awareness of the seriousness of the issue that is in our own neighborhoods in the Miami Valley. Literacy is first and foremost a social justice issue. Our research is significant because it will demonstrate that by engaging these children at an early age and promoting literacy on a one-on-one basis we can be agents of change and models of the Marianist ideals of lead, learn and serve.

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  EEG Action Encoding

  Theus H. Aspiras, Kelly Cashion, Carly A. Gross

  The Electroencephalograms (EEGs) Action Encoding is focused on translating the EEG signals into actions such as lift, turn, grab, drop, pull, push, and so on. This research has many possible applications, but more research must be done in order to turn these ideas into a reality. It could help the handicapped use robots to complete various tasks. It could also be used to communicate with coma patients. The robots could be controlled by thoughts to accomplish tasks too dangerous for humans. In order to translate the thoughts into actions, a program will be trained to recognize patterns in the EEG that are associated with one of these actions. Multiple challenges include variations in thought patterns between people and differences in thought patterns between thinking about and actually performing an action. An appropriate plan to collect and translate the data has been formulated. The patient will be fitted with the Data Acquisition Device and their brainwaves will be collected while they perform various tasks. This data will be filtered to remove noise and eye blinks, and then used to train the program.

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  Effect of Compliant Flooring on Postural Stability in an Older Adult Population

  Renee L. Beach

  Balance, or the ability to stand upright unassisted without falling, is affected by the brain's ability to process sensory information from an individual's vision, muscles, and joints. Researchers have studied how elderly patients often have problems in these systems and therefore struggle with balance putting them at higher risk of falling. Since older individuals with postural instability are up to 5 times more likely to fall, environmental changes to decrease amount of falls and fall related injuries is vital. Compliant flooring is a novel approach shown to reduce the amount of injuries from falls by absorbing up to 50% of the impact from a fall. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether these newer floorings had the tradeoff of negatively affecting balance and functional movement due to their compliance. 20 healthy older adults underwent static balance testing as well as functional balance testing. Participants were instructed to stand on three different types of flooring, performing the tasks of sitting to standing, turning in a circle, putting on a sweater, picking up an object, standing still with eyes open, standing still with eyes closed, and leaning at the ankle forward, backward and side-to-side. A force platform and inertial measurement units (IMUs) were used to record center of pressure (COP) and trunk kinematics. Medial/Lateral (M/L) and Anterior/Posterior (A/P) COP sway range and Time to Stabilization (TtS) were among the variables calculated. Initial results show significantly increased A/P postural sway (p<0.05) on the compliant flooring, with eyes open and eyes closed. No statistically significant differences were found in sway ranges during the Limits of Stability task. This work will help living communities with individuals at high fall risk, such as nursing homes, be better informed of options for preventing injuries due to falls.

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  Effects of Sustained Attention on Auditory Displays, Mental Workload, and Stress

  Adam Barnas, Nnimnoabasi E. Essien, Graham Lang, Giuseppe G. Miranda, Christian L. Sutphin

  Vigilance can be defined as the sustained attention required in detecting transient and infrequent signals over an extended period of time (Warm, 2003). The current research defines these infrequent signals as critical signals in order to demonstrate that their appearance marks some kind of unfavorable event. Typically, these experiments focus on the display of either or both auditory and visual stimuli. However, in the study described here, two experiments study only auditory stimuli. The first experiment manipulates the duration of an auditory tone using two tones of equal loudness that last for different lengths of time. In this instance, the critical signal is the tone with the shorter duration. The second experiment manipulates the spatial location of auditory tones, using the same type of tone. Although, the tones are of equal duration, they are spatially presented at different locations in auditory space around the head of a perceiver. In this instance, the critical signal will be the tone that is off-center in relation to the head and heard mainly in one ear. The relevance of this research is that many professions (e.g., air traffic control) require sustained monitoring to detect changes in signals, including auditory tones. There is a potential for catastrophic events, such as the fatal crash of an airplane, if a critical auditory signal is missed by an air traffic controller. Therefore, studies of the factors affecting the monitoring of auditory signals will continue to focus on the ability of people to accurately perform sustained attention tasks.

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  Enhancement of Images Captured in Complex Lighting Environments for Visual Quality Improvement

  Sai Babu Arigela

  The effectiveness of an image enhancement technique based on a sine nonlinear transformation function to improve the visual quality of images captured with low dynamic range devices in extreme lighting conditions is presented. The enhancement technique consists of four processes: histogram adjustment, dynamic range compression, contrast enhancement and nonlinear color restoration. Histogram adjustment on each spectral band is performed to minimize the effect of illumination. Dynamic range compression is accomplished by a sine nonlinear function with an image dependent parameter to tune the intensity of each pixel in the luminance image. A nonlinear color restoration process based on the chromatic information and luminance of the original image is employed. The effectiveness of this technique is evaluated on various natural images and aerial images, and compared with other state-of the art techniques. A quantitative evaluation is performed by estimating the number of Harris corners and Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) on wide area motion imagery data. The application of the proposed algorithm on face detection is also demonstrated. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed method holds significant benefits for surveillance and security applications and also as a preprocessing technique for object detection and tracking applications.

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  Evaluation of Multiaxial Fatigue Models for Ti-6Al-4V

  Christopher A. Buck

  The fatigue life of an engineering component is often an important design consideration, but the understanding of this property is somewhat limited. Engineering components often experience stresses due to cyclic multiaxial loads, which eventually cause fatigue failure. The majority of research into fatigue failure, however, has been devoted to modeling and predicting the fatigue life of components subjected to uniaxial loading. Uniaxial loading is easier to test and understand than multiaxial loading, but it is not as likely to occur in applications as multiaxial loading. Several approaches to modeling multiaxial fatigue life have been developed, including the Sines Model and the Findley Model. In order to test the validity of each model, reliable multiaxial fatigue test equipment is required to generate accurate data. Past efforts have attempted to validate multiaxial fatigue life models, but were performed without the benefit of reliable test data. Recently, the Air Force Research Laboratory obtained a MTS 809 Axial/Torsional Test System that is capable of generating accurate multiaxial fatigue data. Throughout this project, the MTS tension-torsion machine was used to generate reliable torsional and multiaxial fatigue data for Ti-6Al-4V test specimens. The data generated by the torsional fatigue tests was used in conjunction with previously generated axial fatigue data to model and predict the fatigue life of Ti-6Al-4V test specimens subjected to multiaxial loading. The MTS tension-torsion machine was the used to test Ti-6Al-4V test specimens under multiaxial loading. The fatigue life of the test specimens subjected to multiaxial loading was then compared to the fatigue life predicted by the models to evaluate how effectively each model predicted the fatigue life of Ti-6Al-4V.

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  Extracting Context Information from Aerial Imagery for Aiding Threat Detection

  Varun Santhaseelan

  Advances in computer vision have led to development of algorithms that are able to extract semantic information from images/video in order to make high level inferences from data. One of the major steps toward extracting semantic information is to identify useful contextual information present in the scene. In this research, we present a novel technique to extract context information from aerial imagery using concatenated vectors of low level features. The objective of this research is to aid in the identification of threats along the right of way of energy pipelines. The key observation of this research is that aerial imagery consists of various image segments like roads, buildings and trees along with lots of plain ground. All aforementioned segments of the image have definitive properties in terms of low level features. The information content present in plain ground is minimal when compared to other regions in the image. This characteristic was exploited to have a simple thresholding procedure designed on the basis of relative variance and entropy for fast background elimination. Trees are rich in textural content, buildings have higher contrast information and roads have discriminative color features. In this research we have extracted local phase information and local contrast information using the monogenic signal model. These features are used to train a support vector machine (SVM) which is then used for classification. In order to refine the segmentation process, we apply morphological operations on the result of the classifier. We present the results obtained by using the proposed method on various data sets captured using different camera sensors.

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  Fabrication of Low-Cost Flow Cell and Tapered Optical Fibers for Aqueous Biosensing

  Marika S. Edwards, Dillon T. Grandinette, Branden J. King, Jonathan B. Melendez

  This study focuses on the engineering and design of a biconic, tapered optical fiber platform for biosensing applications. The sensor platform consists of a machined polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon, PTFE) flow cell which is chemically inert, easily machined, and available at low-cost. The flow cell was designed to withstand temperatures of 0 to 60 degrees Celsius, to protect the fragile, tapered fiber, and connected to a syringe pump to allow for the introduction of aqueous solutions for surface chemistry functionalization and analyte exposures. The flow system was used to characterize individual single-mode or polarization-maintaining fibers that were tapered to a waist diameter of approximately 10 microns. Signal was measured as the amount of light transmission through the tapered fibers. Preliminary results obtained for antibody-antigen interactions indicate that molecular interaction of the antigen with the surface-tethered antibody results in a change in the quantity and phase of light passing through the tapered fiber.

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  Four-bar Linkage Synthesis for A Combination of Motion and Path-point Generation

  Yuxuan Tong

  The goal of this project is the development of techniques that helps address the design of pick-and-place machines. Pick-and-place, common in assembly and manufacturing tasks, refers to the action of retrieving a part at one location and transporting (and reorienting) it to a second location. Pick-and-place tasks have rigid end-of-motion requirements needing exact positions and orientations. Between these end configurations, the motion restrictions are less rigorous. This challenge is addressed via GCP and the development of new design theory. Geometric Constraint Programming (GCP), adept in addressing kinematic synthesis challenges, is the set of tools available in any CAD package that allows for the specification of relationships between line segments, while allowing the lengths of those line segments to be variable. New design theory has identified the equations that effectively describe pick-and-place problems and resulted in new solution methodologies.

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  Fundamental Mathematical Model for Direct Write Additive Manufacturing

  Robert J. Strong

  Direct write additive manufacturing processes are seeing a growing number of applications. This work specifically focuses on one of the most versatile direct write technologies, a continuous bead extrusion process. A syringe type mechanism is used to deposit a bead of a liquid ink on a surface. Two and three dimensional structures can be fabricated through the x-y motion of the print head and the z motion of the build surface. A mathematical model describing the spreading of a printed bead of ink or other liquid has been developed. The model accounted for surface tension forces acting on the bead and neglected gravitational effects. Any changes in density or viscosity of the bead during the print process were also neglected in this first generation model. The model provides a useful tool for direct write process design as well as for the development of new ink formulations.

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  Generalized Multi-latin Squares

  Lydia R. Kindelin

  The research explores properties of generalized multi-latin squares and proposes ways to construct them. Much like a Sudoku puzzle, generalized multi-latin squares have parameters restricting the symbols in an array. A (n, t, m, p, q)-generalized multi-latin square is an array consisting of n rows and n columns, where each cell is filled with m symbols from a collection consisting of t different symbols, any symbol appears in each row and in each column p times, and any pair of different symbols occur together q times. Understanding trivial examples, the properties, and the math behind the problem reveals multiple examples and a systematic way to build generalized multi-latin squares.

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  Graduate Community Fellowship at Daybreak

  Haylee Deluca

  The Fitz Center for Leadership in Community maintains partnerships with urban neighborhoods and supports students as they engage in service learning opportunities. Among the Fitz Center's many community leadership programs, graduate community fellows work with nonprofit organizations in the Dayton community. I have been working with Daybreak, an emergency youth shelter and transitional living program, while pursuing my master's degree in psychology. At Daybreak, one of my educational activities is to work directly with youth by managing the token economy. We use "Daybreak Dollars," which are designed to encourage productive activity, such as employment search and school attendance, through positive reinforcement. I have also collected data for the outcomes team that evaluates Daybreak's programming. The ongoing data analysis is investigating changes in income, education status, depression, and anxiety of youth throughout the course of their involvement with Daybreak. Further, I have case-managed youth in the program to develop skills on budgeting, time management, and other life skills. The experience with the Fitz Center and Daybreak has not only given me a unique opportunity to work with at-risk youth, but has informed my own research interests and graduate study.

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  Graphs With Small Intersection Dimension

  Patrick M. Lillis

  Graph Theory is a field concerned with abstract representations of data and data interactions. We study several classes of graphs and prove ways of representing such graphs as geometric shapes, namely k-dimensional axis-parallel boxes. This type of representation (called boxicity) is a notion that finds uses in social networks, ecology and operations research.

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  Health Belief Model and Risk-Seeking Behavior as Indicators of Chosen Listening Levels of Youth

  Frances D. Albanese

  Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the second most common form of hearing loss, affecting millions of Americans. Although there are required noise level regulations set for adults in the workplace, there are no such guidelines set for children, who are also subject to hearing loss, and potentially listening to iPods and MP3 players at harmful volumes. The Health Belief Model (HBM), which helps researchers understand the reasons for harmful behaviors, has been used to predict listening behavior in adults and children. Eighty-four participants aged 9-12 years old from Incarnation Elementary listened to a song on an iPod and answered questions regarding their desire and tendency to take risks and their listening habits. They also completed a Listening Habits Questionnaire that related the five subscales of the HBM to their beliefs about NIHL. Actual Chosen Listening Levels (CLLs) were determined from the iPod using a sound-level meter and compared with the Global Risk Taking Assessment and HBM scores. Although the Global Risk Taking Assessment is not a significant indicator of CLLs, the Health Belief Model does significantly predict CLLs. This research helps us understand the potential harm caused by listening at high volumes, as well as possible underlying reasons for this behavior.

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  Identification of a compound that disrupts the primosome function in Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA replication restart

  Michael A. Jones

  Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of gonorrhea, is a gram negative pathogen. Due to its highly adapted genome, this pathogen elicits resistance to the oxidative damaging agents released by neutrophils of an infected host. During DNA replication, DNA damage contributes to genome instability that hinders the progression of the replisome. Furthermore, the bacterial genome happens to be one of the important targets of these damaging agents. However, studies indicate that DNA replication restart pathways provide bacterial cells with a mechanism to reactivate replisomes that have been disrupted in this way. In N. gonorrhoeae, DNA replication restart is a process carried out by the primosome proteins PriA and PriB. The first part of my research contributed to understanding the features of this pathway. Evidence that PriA plays an essential role in resisting the toxic effects of oxidative damaging agents enhances the importance of DNA replication restart pathway for the survival of this infectious bacterium. Developing antibacterial agents that affect this pathway could be an essential discovery in the field of medicine. In this process, an enzyme based assay was developed to use in high-throughput screening to identify potential compounds that inhibit the DNA replication restart pathway in N. gonorrhoeae. An initial screening of over several thousand compounds has produced several lead compounds that may potentially block this pathway. I worked with two of the lead compounds, penicillin G potassium salt and paroxetine hydrochloride hemihydrate, and here I report the mechanism by which paroxetine disrupts the DNA replication restart pathway.

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  Identifying the DNA Sequence Requirements for a Synergistic Interaction Between Two Cis-Regulatory Elements

  Kaitlyn R. Francis

  My thesis research studies the genetic material that is the blue print to make animal life. In animals, a key type of genetic material is sequences collectively referred to as cis-regulatory elements (CREs). These sequences control the expression of genes; more specifically they instruct when to turn "ON" or "OFF" the production of a gene's functional product. My research investigates the interaction between the two CREs, the Anterior Element and Dimorphic Element, of the fruit fly species Drosophila melanogaster. These two CREs act synergistically to produce a pattern of expression for the bab1 and bab2 genes that differs between male and female flies. As synergistic CRE interactions have seldom been reported, my research has sought to identify the necessary sequences for this interaction. Learning more about CRE functions in fruit flies will facilitate a better understanding as to how CREs function in our own genetic material.

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  Improving the Techniques for Center of Mass Estimation Using Statically Equivalent Serial Chain Modeling

  Bingjue Li

  Any articulated system of rigid bodies defines a statically equivalent serial chain (SESC). The SESC is a virtual chain that terminates at the center of mass (CoM) of the articulated system. Moreover, this chain moves as the joints in the system move thereby keeping its terminus at the CoM. A SESC may be generated knowing only the types of joints in a system and the manner in which they are connected. The parameters in the SESC may then be determined from joint readings and the corresponding (projection of the) CoM location. The number of data points needed to determine the SESC parameters is linear in the number of joints in the articulated system. Three developments toward recognizing the SESC as a practical modeling technique are presented. First, a SESC is developed via experimentation for a spatial system. Second, a prediction for the number of readings to determine the SESC parameters in the presence of errors in joint readings and CoM locations is developed. Finally, a method for generating the parameters of the SESC in light of one body in the chain being fixed to ground is presented so long as the fixed body is the same as or the mirror image of a second body in the chain. This final development is useful in the study of humans or humanoids where one foot is typically left on the ground during balancing.

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  Independent Feeding Device

  Hariharan Ananthanarayanan

  The purpose of the Independent Feeding Device (IFD) is to increase the independence, dignity, and quality of life for the severely disabled by enabling them to autonomously feed themselves with appropriate supervision by a caretaker. The IFD transports a selected food item from the table to the mouth in an enjoyable, intuitive, and ergonomic fashion. For those physically incapacitated individual who possess the mental faculties, the IFD will provide a highly desirable solution that is affordable, attractive, and practical. In institutional settings, the IFD will substantially reduce the cost of labor associated with feeding incapacitated patients or residents while significantly increasing the quality of life for that same patient or resident.

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  Integrating Heart Rate and Eye Movement Measures as a Possible Robust Indicator of Workload in an Aviation Simulation Task

  Kylie M. Bushroe

  Flight missions and remotely piloted aircraft operations can be taxing on pilots and operators and sustained workload may lead to performance decrements. One possibility to prevent this decline is to monitor cognitive workload to provide information that can be used to proactively enable real-time assistance to pilots and/or operators before performance is degraded. Heart rate and eye measures are two psychophysiological measurements that have been demonstrated as sensitive indicators of an operator's functional state, specifically cognitive workload, during tasks of varying levels of difficulty. These metrics are typically studied separately, but may be more robust indicators if integrated. The current study examined the relationship between heart rate and eye movements in response to varying levels of task difficulty and automation reliability to determine if integrating these metrics added any value to discerning workload. The study simultaneously collected electrocardiogram (ECG) and eye-tracking data from ten participants as they performed an aviation simulation task. Difficulty levels of three subtasks were manipulated in addition to the automation reliability of a fourth subtask. Performance data were analyzed for changes based on task difficulty and automation reliability; performance changes were statistically significant as workload increased and automation reliability varied. Heart rate and specific eye measures (e.g., fixation duration, pupil size, and blink rate) will be analyzed for changes reflecting the workload and automation.

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  Investigation and Testing of Corrosion Inhibiting Polyphenolic Proteins

  William F. Nelson

  Flash rusting is a corrosion process in which steel rapidly oxidizes upon contact with air at a high relative humidity. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a bio-inspired corrosion inhibitor that is both water-soluble and environmentally friendly and will inhibit flash rust on high strength steel (HY80) as well as corrosion on the aluminum alloy AA 5083. Several proteins involved in the formation of the adhesive byssal threads by the blue mussel Mytilus edulis L have been identified for their potential as corrosion inhibitors. The most important feature of these biomolecules for corrosion prevention applications is the presence of a post-translationally modified amino acid L-3, 4 dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-dopa). L-dopa has a well characterized ability to form strong bonds with metal ions, thus stabilizing the metal surface and inhibiting corrosion. In addition, when enzymatically treated, L-dopa containing proteins and polypeptides can participate in crosslinking reactions, which have been shown to lead to a thicker and more durable protein layer when applied to surfaces. In this study, HY80 steel coupons were treated with varying amounts of MAP-1, the largest and most well-characterized of the five mussel proteins, in varying buffer and enzyme content and exposed in an accelerated atmospheric corrosion chamber maintained at 40'C and 100% relative humidity. For comparison, identical HY80 samples were treated with a commercially available flash rust corrosion inhibitor under identical exposure conditions. The results show that enzymatically crosslinked MAP-1 can last for as long as 272 hours, 200 hours longer than the average control sample. Electrochemical measurements including cyclic polarization scans and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data were collected for HY80 samples treated with MAP-1 immersed in seawater. The results of these measurements and exposure tests will be presented and discussed.

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  Is Chivalry Really Dead? It Depends on When You Ask: Women's Reception of Benevolent Sexism Changes Across the Menstrual Cycle

  Erin A. Brady, Christina A. Indriolo, Caitlin M. Lenze, Bridget K. O'Mera, Carrie R. Underwood

  This current research explores whether benevolent sexism can serve as an evolutionarily advantageous strategy for females to attract mates. Benevolent sexism refers to a type of sexism (i.e. gender-based discrimination) that is considered to be positive in nature due to its focus on protecting and placing women 'on a pedestal.' However, benevolent sexism is damaging to women on a societal level because it reiterates masculine dominance. Research shows that men endorse benevolent sexism because it confirms existing social hierarchies. While women do not support hostile or aggressive forms of sexism that are overtly disparaging, women do endorse benevolent sexism because they believe it provides interpersonal benefits, although it is indeed marginalizing. The present study seeks to examine whether women endorse benevolent sexism during times of peak ovulation as a way to attract a potential mate. Past research has shown that when women are ovulating, they alter their behavior to conform and appeal to men's expectations. Research has also shown that, when ovulating, women spend more time altering their appearance to ostensibly attract a potential mate. In the present study, ovulation and endorsement of benevolent sexism will be measured to determine if benevolent sexism is a behavioral modification women adopt to attract a mate. The amount of time spent on appearance will be measured to determine if appearance mediates the relation between ovulation and benevolent sexism. The anticipated results predict that, in an effort to attract a mate, women will spend more time altering their appearance to look more pleasing to a mate when they are most fertile, and this will lead to an increase in endorsement of benevolent sexism.