Stander Symposium Projects

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  Greek Life and Catholic Universities: Do the Values of Greek Life Match with Those of the Catholic Church?

  John A. Goebel

  Greek Life organizations face many negative stipulations across the United States due to several allegations of disrespectful actions. Due to these negative actions, there are Catholic institutions across the United States that do not allow Greek Life organizations on their respective campus. Such reasons Catholic institutions give is that Greek Life is not needed on campus for students to live out Catholic values. Instead, students have service, special interest and sports clubs to join to live out Catholic values. As a student apart of Greek Life on the University of Dayton’s campus feel that the values between Greek life and the Marianist match up. If Greek life can encourage members to live out their catholic values at Dayton, then why is their trouble on campuses such as the University of Notre Dame to accept Greek life? I used a data and statistical approach to understand the amount of Catholic institutions that accept Greek Life. I discovered there are many institutions that find Greek Life valuable to living out Catholic Values. In this presentation, I am comparing the schools that accept to those that don’t accept Greek Life. Secondly, I am explaining the reasons why and why not Greek Life is acceptable on Catholic campuses. Lastly, I am covering the survey answers from University of Dayton graduate and undergraduate students.

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  Honor's Thesis Proposal: Effects of Tactile versus Electronic Games on Attention, Distraction, and Understanding

  Samantha A. Malick

  The ability to attend to relevant information and resist attention to distractors is important for children’s cognitive development. Difficulties with attention can impede memory development and impact learning. Much has been written in the news about the impact of electronic media on children’s development of attention skills, but little research has been done explicitly comparing children’s attention to relevant information and resistance to distractions across activities that are presented in either tactile or electronic format. The goal of this study is to compare levels of attention and distraction among preschool-aged children while they engage in a common childhood activity, playing a board game, which is either presented in an electronic or tactile format. Also, comparing children’s basic understanding of the game across conditions will provide information on whether tactile or electronic games are more beneficial for children to get the most out of the task. Previous research is mixed on the potential benefits of electronic activities compared to tactile versions. One recent study suggested that the use of electronic media increases attention problems while decreasing executive function skills, but that it improves visual attention (Swing, 2013). Recent research also indicates that interactive websites appear to have many benefits for learning, but there is little empirical evidence to show media is more effective for learning as opposed to other types of instruction (Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008). Therefore, I hypothesize that while children’s visual attention to the game may be greater while playing the electronic game, the use of tactile pieces and the tactile game itself may serve as an interactive way to boost understanding. Therefore, I hypothesize that children will have a greater understanding of the game when it is a tactile board game. I will observe 10-20 families playing either the tactile or electronic version of Linear Numbers Board Game (Siegler & Ramani, 2009). Children’s attention, distraction, and understanding will be coded by the experimenter to determine how tactile and electronic games affect these skills.

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  Hours Worked and Earnings: A Closer Look At Demand Pull Effects on Inflation

  Luke A Bir, Evan J Schatz

  Federal Reserve Economists consider average hours worked and average hourly earnings as key factors in explaining inflation trends. In this study, we look at the trends in hours worked and average hourly earnings from 2006-2015. We also look at the period 2009-2015 to see if the hours worked and earnings trends have materially changed after the 2008 recession. Demand pull effects are evident in both hours worked and earnings if they exhibit upward trend patterns. Using linear trend equations, we hypothesize that if the b coefficients are >0 demand pull inflation forces are at work in the economy. A flat or downward sloping trend line i.e. (b=0 or b<0) would indicate that demand pull inflation effects, at the margin, do not exist.

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  (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction With my College Major: Impact of Motivation to Choose a College Major on First-Year Students’ Satisfaction and Sense of Belonging

  Andrew J Morrow

  Social norms, parental desires, peer influence, and money. Some students resort to these extrinsic motivations to choose their major, while ideally, students should be utilizing intrinsic motivations to inform their decisions. Choosing a major can be a difficult process for first-year students, as the complex and stressful decision influences a multitude of future implications. This study connects the motivations first-year students at the University of Dayton used to choose a major to their self-identified satisfaction and sense of belonging as they approach their sophomore year. Findings provide a glimpse into the procedures that first-year UD students prioritized and how their satisfaction and sense of belonging has been affected while at the institution due to choice of academic program. Satisfaction and sense of belonging are integral to understand further due to the retention and persistence consequences for student and institution. Attendees will walk away from this poster presentation with a framework for understanding the research and strategies for advising students who are embarking on, or inundated in, the multifaceted processes of choosing a major.

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  Identification of English Learners as Gifted Students

  Riley Catherine Weber

  The United States educational system has faced several challenges and reforms regarding assessment and identification in the past fifty years which continue to change as the nation develops new goals and needs (Giuliani & Pierangelo 2012). In recent years, schools have included a large population of immigrant students from families with native languages other than English (Carter 2005). The need for educating students in English as a second language has led to new policies and programs developed specifically for ELL or English Language Learners (Elizalde-Utnick 2008). Another current topic of educational policy concerns the emphasis on assessment and high-stakes testing. In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, provided legal rights and expectations for special education students which includes students with learning disabilities; however, English Language Learners are not covered under IDEA unless they are identified with a learning disability. IDEA also does not cover the rights of students who qualify for gifted and talented programs, even though students who qualify for these programs require a form of specialized education. Due to these recent educational initiatives, this research study will focus on how the assessment of English Language Learners impacts their identification and placement in gifted and talented programs. This is a current topic to research because most studies have focused on the overrepresentation of English Language Learners as learning disabled or the misidentification of students of color in learning disabled programs. However, some case studies and other forms of research have considered the underrepresentation of ELL in gifted and talented programs and whether or not students learning English as a second language can be successful in gifted and talented programs. For this Honors Thesis, the research questions include: What are the most appropriate and effective assessments to accurately identify gifted and talented English Language Learners? Are there appropriate accommodations for ELL that may assist in their identification and success as gifted and talented?

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  Identification of Potential AcrAB-TolC Efflux Pump Inhibitors in Escherichia coli using an Ethidium Bromide Method.

  Tyler Thomas Mack

  Many bacteria are known to exhibit antibiotic resistance through overexpression of efflux pumps. In this experiment, inhibition of a bacterial efflux pump through the physical binding of small molecule inhibitor compounds was explored as a way to combat substrate expulsion. The TolC protomer of the AcrAB-TolC efflux pump in Escherichia coli was targeted in a virtual screen for novel small molecule inhibitor compounds. PyRx AutoDock Vina was used to virtually dock the various small molecules to the TolC protein and rank the compounds based on favorable binding energies. Five lead-compounds from the virtual screen were ultimately selected for in vivo efflux testing with and without prolonged incubation of the bacterial cells with the test compounds. Efflux activity was monitored using an ethidium bromide substrate to determine the relative extent of inhibition. Results showed little to no effect on efflux activity unless the bacterial cells were cultured with the test compound for an overnight incubation. Bacteria with prolonged compound incubation displayed significantly decreased efflux activity for several small molecule compounds that were tested. These findings suggest that efflux pump inhibition should be focused mainly on halting underlying synthesis and assembly mechanisms rather than hindering the functionality of the pump.

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  Image Interpolation Using Fourier Phase Features

  Evan W Krieger, Sidike Paheding

  Image interpolation has been widely used for enhancing spatial resolution of the input images. Generally, the spatial resolution enhancement techniques are categorized into single frame and multiple frame super resolution. Multi-frame super resolution techniques use a set of low resolution frames, while single image super resolution only requires one single input to reconstruct a high resolution image. In real life applications, single image super resolution is preferred when lacking of multiple frames in the data. In this work, we present a single image interpolation approach for reproducing high frequency missing components of the input low resolution images. The high frequency feature is first extracted in Fourier domain, and then the system is trained to regenerate better pixel values, which contribute to better resolution. We evaluate the method visually and quantitatively using several test images.

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  Imagery Solutions Geospatial Information System (GIS System)

  Jana M. Sztuk, Eric Albert Taglieri, Colin Elliot Wilson

  Imagery Solutions is a small start-up company that specializes in imagery gathering technology using aerial methods for customers who need precise imaging data, such as those in precision agriculture and energy distributing industries. The purpose behind this image gathering functionality is to provide decision oriented information derived from image data. The mission for the company is to have this information come to the customer in a timely, accurate, and relevant way. Open GIS is the established open source application for this process. The task presented to our team is to create a business process for the organization from the point of sale to final delivery of a finished product where the users access this information and recommend an appropriate software package to support this.

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  Increasing Retention in Male Students of Color Through Student Leadership Experiences

  Nakita M. Saxon

  This study explores the implications of leadership experiences on undergraduate male students of color and its impact on their sense of belonging at a private, religious, Predominantly White Institution. Enrollment statistics depict a low retention rate among minority students, especially male students of color identifying as Black, Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islander. A sense of belonging is a vital component to the academic success of all students, and essential to the experience of multicultural students on Predominately White Institutions. According to researchers, a student’s sense of belonging comes as a result of many different factors. For many students, their leadership experiences cultivate a sense of belonging and stronger connection to the institution. The exploration of involvement and leadership experiences, sense of belonging, and campus climate assist in visualizing the complexities of this problem for male students of color. Through in-depth one-on-one interviews on the lived experiences of male students of color, this research examines the impact of student leadership roles on their collegiate careers. Findings included insight on the interrelated concepts of retention, campus climate, sense of belonging, and servant leadership for the participants of this study. As expected, students are impacted by the university's faculty and staff but are also heavily influenced by their peers and the leadership opportunities as they engage in student organizations on campus. Recommendations will allow both faculty and staff to identify the benefits of cultivating environments where male students of color are encouraged to seek out and actively participate in student leadership roles on campus where they feel their differences are welcomed, valued and supported.

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  Inflation Trends in Personal Consumption Expenditures, 2001-2015

  Courtney E. Cady

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

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

  Sarah E Spech

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

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  Intellectual Property and The NCAA

  Mitchell W. Pollard

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

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  Intention Based Upper-limb Exo-skeleton

  Manoj Kumar Sharma

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

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

  Sandra Leigh Nickell

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

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  Internship Experience Through the Wild Encounters Program of the Cincinnati Zoo

  Sarah Michelle Lesiecki

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

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

  Lydia C. Payton, Ankita Sarkar

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

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

  Owen T Miller, Dylan P Niese

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

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

  Enrique G Austria, Amanda Jean Dee, Annette M Taylor

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

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

  Jacqueline M Berardi, Caroline E Mccormack, Annette M Taylor

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

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  Metal films tapered fibers to enhance environmental sensing capabilities

  Diego F Garcia Mina

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

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  Model Behavior: An Assessment of Role Model Attachment

  Patrick Charles Doyle

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

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  Modeling and Operationalizing Flexible Human-Computer Dialogs

  Joshua W Buck

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

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

  John C. Scheuble

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

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

  Xingsheng Xu

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

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  Mutant PriA C-Tev ML346 and its Unwinding DNA Capabilities

  Sydney E. Kirk

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