Stander Symposium Projects

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  Neuroprotective Function of Lunasin in Alzheimer's Disease Model

  Neil William Glenn, Ankita Sarkar

  The neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a complex system of neurodegenerative factors that contribute to the loss of brain function. One of the most studied factors is the aggregation of amyloid plaques within the brain. These plaques are formed from the improper cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) to form the hydrophobic peptide, Aβ42. These peptides congregate in plaques that surround neuronal cells and inhibit their function. As the these cells begin to degrade, microglial cells that act as the central nervous system’s immune defense attempt to remove these plaques. However these cells are not capable in fully removing these plaques and incite an inflammatory response through the release of several cytokines and chemokines from the microglial cell. These messengers can induce oxidative stress within the CNS and lead to further cell damage. Our disease model is based on the visual system of the Drosophila melanogaster. The Aβ42 protein is misexpressed during the development of the photoreceptor neurons which results in observable loss of eye formation in the adult fly. We propose by introducing a known anti-inflammatory protein, Lunasin, into our disease model we can further understand the role of inflammation in AD neuropathology. Here present the findings of our studies.

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  Objective Function Choice Influences Muscle Muscle Force Predictions During Human Walking

  Elijah C Kuska

  The knowledge of forces in muscles and joints inside the human body may help to improve rehabilitation for individual patients. However, the human body is complex and these forces are unmeasurable. Through the use of motion capture technology, 3D modeling, and computational methods in the field of biomechanics we are able to simulate motion by predicting these forces. One challenge to biomechanical simulation is that we do not understand the strategy humans use to coordinate their muscles to walk. The purpose of this study was to examine muscle coordination strategies used to simulate walking. Different muscle coordination strategies are attained in a simulation by altering a quantity called the objective function. Simulation output data can be compared between strategies and to experimental data to determine the strategy that best represents human muscle coordination. In the future this knowledge may be applied to rehabilitation techniques: changing them from generalized to patient-specific.

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  Object Tracking using Statistic-based Feature Fusion Technique

  Evan W Krieger, Sidike Paheding

  Object tracking in wide area motion imagery (WAMI) is challenging because of many factors including small target sizes, viewpoint changes, object rotation, occlusions, and shadows. One method to overcome these challenges is to fuse multiple features of different types to obtain a robust understanding of the object. For multi-feature fusion based tracking applications, the weighting of the features will highly affect the outcome. While obtaining a constant weighting scheme based on training sequences is possible, an adaptive method may better utilize the features. An adaptive weighting scheme should favor the most discerning features in the previous frames. A known way to determine a feature’s ability to discern the target from the background is based on statistics analysis. We propose to use the statistics-based fusion method to better utilize rotation invariant based features to track objects. The effectiveness of the fusion method will be compared to a constant weighting scheme on eight sequences in two WAMI datasets.

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  On-chip Training of Memristor based Deep Neural Networks

  Md Raqibul Hasan

  This research develops on-chip training circuits for memristor based deep neural networks utilizing unsupervised and supervised learning methods. As the training and recognition of deep networks are computationally intensive, specialized circuits capable of on-chip training of these networks could have significant advantages in speed and power consumption. Memristor crossbar circuits allow neural algorithms to be implemented very efficiently, but could be prone to device variations and faults. On chip training circuits would allow the training algorithm to account for device variability and faults in these circuits. We have utilized autoencoders for layer-wise pre-training of the deep networks and utilized the back-propagation algorithm for supervised fine tuning. Our design utilizes two memristors per synapse for higher precision of weights. Techniques to reduce the impact of sneak-paths in a large memristor crossbar and for high speed simulations of large crossbars were proposed. We performed detailed evaluation of the training circuits with some nonlinearly separable datasets which take crossbar wire resistance and sneak-paths into consideration. We also demonstrated successful training of memristor based deep networks for the MNIST digit classification and the KDD intrusion detection datasets. This work would enable the design of high throughput, energy efficient, and compact deep learning systems.

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  Output per Hour and Unit Labor Cost; A Closer Look at Cost Push Inflation, 2005-2015

  Samuel R Russell

  Rising unit labor costs suggest that cost push inflation is at work in the economy provided that output per hour is not keeping pace with unit labor cost growth. In this study, I look at the long term trends in both metrics over the period 2005-2015. I also look at the output per hour and unit cost trends for the period 2009-2015 to see if the 2008 recession impacted these cost and output trends. If output per hour is rising faster than unit costs. Productivity at the margin is increasing and cost push inflation is declining. If the converse is true, cost push inflation is rising in the national economy. Both quarterly and yearly geometric growth rates in both cost and output metrics are calculated for the above time periods. The geometric growth rates are then used to determine the direction of cost push inflation.

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  Parameter Identification in Structured Discrete-Time Uncertainties without Persistency of Excitation

  Ouboti Djaneye-Boundjou

  Concurrent Learning has been previously used in continuous-time uncertainty estimation problems and adaptive control to solve the parameter identification problem without requiring persistently exciting inputs. Specifically selected past data are jointly combined with current data for adaptation. Here, we extend the parameter identification problem results of Concurrent Learning for structured uncertainties in the continuous-time domain to the discrete-time domain. Alike the continuous-time case, we show that, in discrete-time, a sufficient, testable on-line and less restrictive condition compared to persistency of excitation guarantees global exponential stability of the parameter error when using Concurrent Learning.

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  Portfolio Weighting Strategies for a concentrated portfolio of Consumer Discretionary stocks: An Empirical Analysis, 2010-2015

  Alexander Kubalski, Margaret E. Schutter

  Recent interest by investment managers in Portfolio Weighting Strategies other than market capitalization has led to a rapid increase in fundamental based indexing. In their study I use the price dynamics of firms relative to the market (S&P 500) to weight a 10 stock portfolio of Consumer Discretionary firms. The weighting model is based on the capture ratio of the price changes for each stock compared to the S&P 500. In particular, an upside/downside capture ratio is developed for each stock based on a years worth of daily price changes. The following hypotheses are tested: 1) Firms with higher upside/downside capture ratios have higher expected returns. 2) The Consumer Discretionary portfolio weighted by upside/downside capture ratios out performs the market and the Consumer Discretionary Sector. 3) The upside/downside capture ratio performs well against other portfolio weighting strategies.

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  Portfolio Weights and Capture Ratio Analysis: A Look at Performance in the Consumers Staples Sector 2010-2015

  Sam William Verrilli

  Since the recession in 2008, the stock market has experienced periods of extreme volatility, with market moves of 200-400 points on almost a daily basis. One sector that should do well when market volatility is high and rising is consumer staples. In this study I use a dynamic pricing model to determine the portfolio weights for the 10 largest value weighted stocks in the consumer staples sector. The model relies on the upside/downside Capture Ratios (U/D) for each stock to calculate the portfolio weights and dollar investment in each stock. I test the following hypotheses: (1) Stocks with higher U/D ratios generate higher excess returns relative to the market, (2) The U/D weighted portfolio of consumer staples stocks outperforms the consumer staples sector (XLS), (3) The U/D weighted portfolio performance wise, compares favorably to other portfolio weighting strategies.

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  Press Access Rights: Journalists Covering War and Seeking Information at Home

  Megan E Burton, Alison R Cozad, Annette M Taylor

  The Pentagon’s Law of War manual, updated in summer 2015, has indicated that journalists could be viewed as “unprivileged belligerents” by the U.S. military during wartime, which has raised concern by First Amendment proponents and journalists nationwide. Megan Burton explores analyzes journalists’ legal efforts to cover wars in the past, as well as previous agreements between the press and Department of Defense, in order to predict how courts might resolve future conflicts between the press and the DOD. Alison Cozad examines sunshine laws in Ohio and California to see how state governments approach and comply with requests for information. By looking at court challenges, rulings and sunshine laws, we can get an idea of how these two states compare with their approaches to freedom of information.

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  Producer Prices, Cost-Push-Inflation and Stock Market Returns

  Anthony J. Bello

  Although the Fed looks at the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditure index (PCE) as the key measures of inflation, in this study I focus my attention on Producer Prices (PPI) as a leading indicator of inflation in final goods produced. I want to test three hypotheses. First there is a high pass through rate for prices in the 4 basic stages of production identified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Using regression analysis to measure the pass through rate, I expect the b coefficients to be greater than zero and close to one. This would indicate that a cost-push inflation process is working at the producer price level. I also want to test the hypothesis that out-of-sample forecasting models of cost-push inflation at the various stages of production are both efficient and stable with acceptable levels of forecast error. Finally, I want to test the hypothesis that stock market prices co vary with producer prices. An inverse relationship suggests that rising factor costs cause the aggregate supply curve to shift upwards and to the left, lowering or reducing the rate of GDP growth, which results in a decline in stock market prices. A direct relationship suggests that factor costs are rising because of demand pull inflationary forces in the economy, leading to rising stock market prices.

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  RE (CELL) LCD: A Feasibility Study on Recycling Cell Phone LCD

  Abdulaziz Alotaibi, Christopher C. Beaschler, Siddharth N. Rathod, Matt S. Shea

  Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) are used in a magnitude of devices and have now become the norm in products that require a screen, such as, cell phones, computers, televisions, tablets, and more. However, many of these technologies are becoming outdated leading towards the issue of exponential growth of waste with a lack of technology set in place for proper recycling. Most of research literatures on LCD recycling are of electronic products and e-waste in general rather than cell phones in particular. Few studies on recycling of cell phone LCD have been accomplished. Since everyday around 300,000 mobile phones are sent to trash in United States alone, the recycling of LCD of cell phones is still a challenge for recyclers. In this paper four main topics will be discussed: Establishing need of recycling of LCD due to its environmental impacts, increasing number of LCD usage with time, current EoL (End of Life) process and challenges associated with it in terms of environment, economy and social aspects. By our findings, we are aiming to examine the sustainable feasibility of recycling LCD of cell phones comparing with other LCD products. Our approach for obtaining data for LCD of cell phones is to simulate details from other LCD products (LCD Monitor, LCD PC, LCD TV) such as main elements, recovery of substances, energy required to produce, etc.Finally, we will conclude with the observations with important considerations for a holistic approach to make LCD recycling of cell phones feasible. The results aim to enable recyclers to add confidence in LCD recycling of cell phones and also for researchers to extend this work with innovative ways and cost-effective approach in future.

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  Renew Your Interest...So your best potential can come to Light! Examining the Effectiveness of Academic Renewal Course & Coaching (ARCC)

  Shanon C. Davis

  This research explores how the seven week academic intervention course, Academic Renewal Course and Coaching (ARCC) at the University of Dayton, affects student learning development and the parallel to decreasing attrition. The objective of this research was to extract the academic intervention practices and strategies that work best to increase academic performance amongst students who are academically and motivationally challenged. It also explains how and why student learning is affected when the appropriate conditions and resources aren’t identified and/or utilized by students. Academic intervention program assessment of ARCC is the all-encompassing purpose of this research. Through qualitative and quantitative data collection, the assessment revealed how effective ARCC is for students. Through personal interviews with former ARCC participants, the data showed how student’s sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and self-authorship are affected, along with transitional college adjustments. Students also shared that they gained additional knowledge about learning styles, learning environments, time management techniques, and note taking strategies. Post ARCC cumulative GPA reports revealed that students benefited from the course well into their collegiate career. This data, in combination with personal interviews revealed that students attributed their long term success to their ARCC involvement, as the course served as tool to get them back on track and fully acclimated. to college requirements.

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  Reporter's Privilege in the 21st Century

  Patrick R Mcadams, Ebony A Munday, Annette M Taylor

  Journalists have been subpoenaed and otherwise pressured to give up information and sources more times in recent years than any other period of time. Most states have shield laws for reporters, but efforts to pass a federal shield law have thus far failed. With this in mind, Patrick McAdams analyzes cases in the 2nd and 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since the turn of this century to establish the legal landscape of reporters’ privilege in these regions, and considers whether it is time for a federal shield law. Ebony Munday examines reporter’s shield laws in New Jersey and Ohio and compares how courts in each state handle challenges to journalists' efforts to protect sources.

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  Research exercise: Amplifying Signals via Riboswitch Biosensors

  Annastacia C. Bennett

  The Air Force is always in search of new and efficient ways to protect the lives of their Airman and equipment. Biosensors are self-sufficient, natural systems that can report a signal based on the presence of a specific molecule. However, biosensors are limited by a low signal output. Here we describe how a biological amplification circuit, loosely based on concepts similar to electrical circuitry, will be used to produce and amplify a signal. The biosensor consists of sensing cells and reporter cells that are ‘wired’ together via quorum-sensing signal molecules. The sensing cells contain a riboswitch that activates the reporter cells only when in the presence of a ligand specific to the riboswitch. When compared to a riboswitch with direct control of expression, the amplification circuit was able to increase the amount of fluorescence generated. The amplification circuit also increased the sensitivity of the riboswitch, resulting in fluorescent signal production at much lower ligand concentrations. Lastly, the amplification circuit reduced the time required for the reporter cells to produce a fluorescent signal output.

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  Research exercise: Best Model for Forecasting Future Sales of Company X

  Amal I Alsomali, Rabab O Alzahrani

  In this project we try to forecast the future sales of some American Company depending on the data provided on their website. We will use the techniques learned in our time series class (MTH 544) to try to come up with the best model on this real life data.

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  Research exercise: The Development of a First Year Chemistry Laboratory

  Leslie M. Porter

  The purpose for this project was to redesign a past General Chemistry Laboratory experiment with emphasis on student learning objectives in support of lecture material. The experiment was first introduced into the second semester CHM124L course in 1997 as “Preparation and Investigation of Salt Solutions”. For the Fall 2016 curriculum, the modified experiment will be conducted in the first semester General Chemistry course CHM123L as “Equilibrium of Salt Solutions”. This experiment was chosen for modification because the concept of equilibrium, especially when applied to pH of salt solutions, is one that many students find difficult to understand. Experiencing the concept in lab is one way for the students to increase their understanding. Our approach with the modification of the experiment was to step back and view the procedure from a first year student’s point of view. To take into account their laboratory skill set as a first semester student and to consider background material they would be exposed to by the time the experiment was conducted. The goal was to create an experiment that lead students through a thought provoking qualitative and quantitative analysis of the subject.

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  Research exercise: Tired of rubber landfills: From environmental hazard to sustainable use potential of discarded tire materials

  Keith Brian Abankwah, Abdulelah Bajbair Bajbair, Feras A. Melibari, Bjoern Oliver Winter

  How do you dispose of your used car tires? Although answering this on an individual level doesn’t seem to be hard, the sheer amounts of old tires disposed of as a byproduct of a growing car market in the United States have grown to make a significant impact on the environment. Each year, over 350 million tires are consumed and only about 70% of the accruing waste is properly recycled at their end of life. The storage of tires in landfills, or improper methods of disposal, such as burning and waterbody displacement causes hazardous emissions and health problems. For instance, the improper storage of tire stockpiles can lead to potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents as stockpiled tires are often holding water for long periods of time. Burning tires can negatively affect air, water and soil and produce toxic chemicals, such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Tire stockpiles set on fire, whether by chance or on purpose, produce enormous amounts of heat and are so hard to extinguish that some fires have been continuing to burn for extended periods. A prominent example was a fire in Rhinhart, Winchester, Virginia that continued to burn for nine months on end. Against this background, an assessment of the magnitude of tire disposal related impacts in the near future is performed within different scenarios while providing insight into current practices of tire disposal. In contrast to this, alternative processes that process tires into fuel and activated carbon are looked upon. In a subsequent life-cycle analysis, the production of fuel and carbon from tires is compared to the fabrication of the same products from natural resources in order to show environmental advantages of recycling tires in these processes.

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  Research exercise: VectorWorks for Light Design

  Mary F Lamperis

  VectorWorks is a 3-dimensional modeling program like Autodesk or SolidWorks, yet unlike these, it excels when dealing with light design. Integration of Autodesk files into VectorWorks is currently possible, yet not adaptable when working with the further light design tools that VectorWorks has to offer. Being adept in this program while working in theatrical lighting design will be a tremendous advantage. One of these main tools lets you output a data chart necessary when implementing the lighting layout in the theatre itself. Normally transferring the data from an Autodesk file to a usable chart takes several hours and includes multiple human errors. With these advantages in mind, I created a layout of Boll Theatre that not only gives me experience, but also provides a updated model to aid future light designers.

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  Research exercise: Vocation and Arts

  Elizabeth A. Abrams, Randy T. Brackman, Renee Katharine Brown, Ian N. Cali, Kieran L. Campbell, Jessica L. De Groot, Blaise T. Eby, Alexandra M. Hallagan, Claire Elizabeth Sanfilippo, Virginia Abigail Saurine, Thomas Brewster Tappel, Marsha Turner, Mary Elizabeth Turner, Sarah Frances Wood

  The Chaminade Scholars 'Vocation and Arts' class have been preparing all semester for an in-depth pilgrimage to Italy in May. The interactive Stander Symposium experience introduces participants to the Art, Culture and Spirituality of Assisi and Rome. Included is an exhibit of students' photography and "Awakening to Beauty publication.

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  Research Experience for Teacher (RET) program: Inspire the Next Generation in Advanced Manufacturing and Materials

  Caroline Margaret Boeckman, Emma A Cipriani

  This research was conducted at the University of Dayton through a research program for teachers. The goal of this program was to have pre-service and experienced teachers gain more knowledge about engineering concepts so that they could incorporate them into their classroom. The objective of this research was to perform tensile testing of Fused Deposition Modeling materials to determine variability due to orientation and print machine. The Ultem samples tested were produced on six different printers. Within these samples, there were three different orientations tested; ZXY, YZX, and YXZ. We tested the tensile strength using an Intron 4486. Each member of the group was involved in the testing process, which included sample testing, recording data, placing extensometer, analyzing data, and running the Bluehill program. During the analysis of our data, we calculated the Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), Stress at Failure, Strain at Failure, and Elastic Modulus. After testing multiple samples of each orientation and the different printers, we found that YZX has the highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and strain of all orientations tested. ZXY had the weakest UTS and strain. Statistically, each orientation from the various printers has similar tensile properties.

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  Robust Nonlinear Adaptive Control for Longitudinal Dynamics of Hypersonic Aircraft Vehicle Model

  Turki Mohammed Alsuwian

  A hypersonic aircraft vehicle is a highly complex nonlinear system, which includes uncertainties in the dynamics. This paper presents the design of robust nonlinear adaptive control for a hypersonic aircraft vehicle model. The complexity of the dynamic system is considered into the design structure of the control in order to address robustness issues. Design of a robust control system should decouple the longitudinal and lateral dynamics to handle the flight of hypersonic vehicle under certain specific conditions. In this paper, we only consider longitudinal dynamics, which are divided into aircraft speed subsystem and flight-path angle subsystem. A robust control design is implemented to provide asymptotic tracking regulation of aircraft speed and flight-path angle. In addition, it is employed in this study because the algorithm of control design exhibits better robustness properties. Based on the stability analysis, the adaptive control is derived for a Lyapunov function candidate of feedback closed-loop system. Simulation results of control design illustrate robustness and effectiveness.

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  Role of axial patterning genes in growth regulation during eye development

  Neha Gogia

  An important question in developmental biology is that how axial patterning genes work with growth and patterning to form any three-dimensional organ. In any multicellular organism, Organogenesis, requires axial patterning i.e. formation of Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), Proximo-Distal (PD) axes. Any deviation in these axes during development leads to genetic birth defects. We use Drosophila melanogaster (a.k.a fruit fly), eye as our model. As the genetic machinery between flies and human is conserved, any insights generated in flies can be extrapolated into humans. In Drosophila, DV patterning marks first lineage restriction event where expression of dorsal, ventral fate selectors forms dorsal & ventral compartments in eye respectively. We have identified defective proventriculus (dve), an ortholog of SATB homeobox 1 (in humans), as a new member of DV patterning gene hierarchy. Our previous data establishes dorsal gene hierarchy & states that dve acts downstream of pannier (pnr, GATA-1 transcription factor), and upstream of Wingless (wg), Loss-of-function of both dve or pnr results in dramatic dorsal eye enlargements. Furthermore, Wingless, also exhibits similar eye enlargement phenotypes and has also been shown to play a role in growth. Our data also suggests that Wg is downstream target of Hippo pathway (highly conserved) and that the pathway promotes cell differentiation by downregulating wingless. Hereby, I propose to investigate the role of dve and pnr in growth and patterning during Drosophila eye development. I will test whether these two fundamental processes works independently or in coordination with each other to form an eye. The proposed study will help in elucidating how cell fate specification, pattern formation and growth are involved in organ formation. Our study will have significant bearing on developmental mechanisms, patterning events, growth regulation during organogenesis, and helps us in understanding the etiology of growth related birth defects in eye.

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  Role of Wingless (Wg) signaling pathway in Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease

  Ankita Sarkar

  Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a common form of dementia and an age related progressive neurodegenerative disorder affects 21 million people globally. AD manifests as memory loss and reduced cognitive ability. One of the hallmarks of AD is formation of the Amyloid-beta (Aβ42) plaques, which initiates oxidative stress due to impaired signaling and finally leads to the death of neurons by unknown mechanism. It is known that loss of neurons in AD is not an outcome of a single gene mutation rather it is an impairment of several signaling pathways involved in growth and survival. The short life cycle of 12-15 days, a plethora of genetic tools, and about 70% similar genetic makeup to that of the humans, makes Drosophila an ideal model to study human disease. We have developed a highly versatile Drosophila melanogaster model to understand the role of these highly conserved signaling pathways in AD. We misexpressed high levels of human Aβ42 protein in the developing fly retina which mimics AD like neuropathology. Our aim is to use this model to discern the role of signaling pathways involved in neurodegeneration. We performed a forward genetic screen and identified members of highly conserved Wingless (Wg) pathway as modifiers of the Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. We have demonstrated that blocking Wg signaling pathway, can suppress the Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. My future goal is to investigate if we can use chemical inhibitors to block Wg signaling in neurons expressing high levels of Aβ42 and thereby prevent neurodegeneration in the Drosophila eye. We will test antagonists and agonists of Wg signaling to determine if they can work as chemical inhibitor of Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. I will be testing in these studies whether Wg can be a good therapeutic target in our in vivo animal system.

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  Size, Value and Momentum in Stock Returns: an Empirical Analysis, 2010-2014

  Matthew Peter Fazio, Erik Jameson Kurcz

  Based on the landmark studies of Eugene Fama and Kenneth French in the 1990's, most financial economists consider a firm's market capitalization (size) and price to book as two of the most important factors affecting the cross section of stock market returns. In recent years, other factors including stock price momentum have been accepted as predictors of stock returns in the cross section. In this study, I develop a three factor analysis of S&P 500 stock returns for the period 2010-2014. This period was chosen because it is not included in more recent studies. It also reflects a period of high volatility in the market with a strongly accommodating monetary policy. Using the factors firm size, price to book and stock price momentum, I test the following hypotheses: (1) Small cap stocks outperform large cap stocks, (2) growth stocks outperform value stocks, (3) growth stocks have longer periods of market out-performance (momentum) when compared to value stocks.

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  Social Support Influences in Graduate International Student Engagement

  Chin Yi Chen

  Changes that graduate international students face in acculturating to U.S. educational environments can often impact the ways they engage on campus, and their subsequent personal and career success. This poses the question of “What are the key themes that institutions can build upon to better support and encourage their growth?” In conducting a mixed-methods study on the lived experiences of graduate students from India, main findings suggested that mentoring relationships, social ties, and factors of perception were crucial to influencing students’ academic and social engagement.