Stander Symposium Projects

The Brother Joseph W. Stander Symposium recognizes and celebrates academic excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. This annual event provides an opportunity for students from all disciplines to showcase their intellectual and artistic accomplishments. The Stander Symposium represents the Marianist tradition of education through community and is the principal campus-wide event in which faculty and students actualize our mission to be a "community of learners."

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The Program': Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping

Hayden Parsons, Laila Griffin, Cate O’Brien

Rhetoric drawing on religious stories, ideals, concepts, and experiences surround us in our daily lives. These posters represent a sampling of the rhetorical analyses conducted by students from CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric throughout the Spring 2024 semester. Groups presented several themed reports prior to Stander and picked one to showcase at the symposium.
The Pussification of Man: Evangelical Pastor Mark Driscoll and The Construction of an Ideal Masculinity

Phillip E. Cicero

Scandals involving evangelical church leaders seem to appear daily. One might imagine that people would flee the churches where these leaders have served or continue to serve. But, in general, they do not. A good question to ask is why. Why do people continue to worship God in a church led by someone who has been proven through their words and deeds that they are aggressive, sexist, and violent? This project focuses on the rhetoric of Mark Driscoll that appeared in a series of blog posts published on the Mars Hill Church website in late 2001 to early 2002. In these posts, Driscoll exhibits an aggressive and misogynist rhetoric that goes against conventional neo-evangelical arguments for complementarianism to an intensely misogynistic and homophobic rhetoric. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Barbara Biesecker – that, in turn, draw on the theoretical insights of Judith Butler and Slavoj Zizek’—this paper argues that Driscoll’s rhetoric constructs a masculine Christian identity that appeals to a group of straight, white men who have felt marginalized by the dominant discourses of American culture for the past 100 years. More specifically, this paper argues that Driscoll gives these men an opportunity to reclaim the power and belonging that they feel they have lost. The paper also makes use of Stuart Hall’s concept of the floating signifier to explain how Driscoll’s rhetoric shapes a certain kind of toxic masculinity with his definition of “pussification”, which is, in simple terms, about the threat to men of a discourse that feminizes men. Driscoll seeks to draw these men into his vision of what it means to be a real man by presenting them with two simple options: adopt Driscoll’s’ brand of homophobia and misogyny and be a real man or admit that they have been “pussified” – that is, completely emasculated.
The regulation of the Drosophila melanogaster pale gene and its evolution during the origin of a dimorphic pigmentation trait

Devon Matthew Seibert, Ashley Violet Williams

The coordinated expressions of trait building, realizator, genes in the appropriate cell types and developmental stages are two impressive outcomes of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of morphological evolution. For each realizator gene, its pattern of expression is anticipated to result from the interaction of a combination of transcription factors to binding sites within one or more cis-regulatory element (CRE). A question that remains murky is to what extent these similar patterns of realizator expression require their CREs to be bound by similar combinations of transcription factors. One model trait that may shed light on this question is the sexually dimorphic pattern abdomen pigmentation that evolved in the lineage of Drosophila (D.) melanogaster fruit flies. This male-specific pattern of melanic pigmentation on the posterior abdomen results from the spatial-, temporal-, and sex-specific deployment of a pathway of metabolic genes. While the CREs for several of these pathway genes have been well-studied, the biochemically first acting gene, known as pale, has received little attention. Here, we will share insights from studies on the regulation of the D. melanogaster pale gene and how this regulation and pale expression evolved during the origin and diversification of this pigmentation trait.
The Relationship Between Duration of Physical Activity and Students' Productivity in the Classroom

Hanna M. Stanifer

Research has shown that engaging in regular physical activity can significantly reduce the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as reduces stress which could potentially result in an improvement in one's overall mood. Lowering stress levels, especially to those in higher stress situations, such as completing an undergraduate degree, may be able to impact their ability to focus on completing class work. The goal of this research project is to investigate the impact that exercise can have on students' class work productivity by finding associations between the duration of exercise with the ability to complete schoolwork efficiently.
The Relationship between Physical Activity Levels and Academic Performance in Young Adults

Emily A. Molloy

According to Godwin et al. (2016), academic performance in the United States is on a decline. Researchers have conducted numerous studies analyzing how increased physical activity can be used as a potential intervention for the improvement of academic success. While there is abundant research on this topic among the middle school and high school student populations, research on this topic is lacking among the college student population. The goal of this research project is to analyze how physical activity levels affect academic success in college students.
The Relationship between Social Media Usage and College Athletic Performance

Haley C. Brucker

Engaging in competitive sporting events affects all areas of well-being. Playing sports, at any level, is as much a mental game as it is physical. The purpose of this study was to better understand how physical and mental well-being are affected by social media usage of college athletes.
The Relationship of College-aged Students and Physical Activity: Barriers and Motivators

Sarah Marie Nie

College-aged individuals are a unique population that are in the prime years of developing life-long habits that can affect their physical and mental health. It is understood that adults in the US are more likely to meet the adult recommendations if they are given free access to recreation centers and have experience and knowledge of ways to exercise. The purpose of this research study is to learn about the effects that free on-campus recreational centers and access to education on physical activity have on students’ physical health and well-being.
The Rise of the Ultra- and Far-Right Movements in France

Julie Marie Pugh

The paper delves into the rise of right-wing nationalist and populist groups in France, examining recent trends like social media usage and political legitimization that fuel their growth. It clarifies the distinction between "far-right" and "ultra-right" groups, highlighting their ideological foundations and operational methods. Common themes of authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and nationalism are explored, alongside the diverse landscape of far-right factions in France. The study underscores youth radicalization and the adept utilization of digital platforms by far-right leaders. It also analyzes the relationship between far-right movements and mainstream politics, citing figures like Marine Le Pen and the emergence of new parties like Reconquête. Critiquing the government's reactive stance, the paper calls for proactive measures including enhanced social media surveillance, targeted prevention programs, and political interventions to combat the normalization and expansion of far-right ideologies. In conclusion, it stresses the urgency of proactive measures to protect democracy and social cohesion against the escalating threat of far-right movements in France.
Thermal 3D Point Cloud Generation and Model Reconstruction for Energy Auditing

Qingyu Ren

Maintaining efficient energy usage in buildings or infrastructure is vital to the sustainable development program. The infrared (IR) thermography technique is widely used in thermoelastic behavior analysis and contactless temperature detection. However, the current thermal information is restricted in 2D space (i.e., image), depth and geometric information of the construction is missing. Geometric information and thermodynamics in the 3D space of building or infrastructure are essential for building energy auditing and infrastructure defect inspection. Though LiDAR is a possible solution, its costs, portability, and difficulty in merging additional data may bring more challenges to users. The aim of this project is to generate 3D RGB-IR point cloud models through monitoring over time, then the model can be used for simulation and energy consumption analysis and further applied in emergency response or city thermal behavior analysis. In recent years with advancements in computer vision, and the improvement of computation, structure from motion became an active method in 3D optical imaging. On the other hand, thermal cameras have low resolution compared with RGB cameras, we propose to map thermal information onto 3D reconstructed model. Efficiently and effectively merging 3D point clouds constructed from RGB images collected by ordinary cameras and corresponding infrared images from a co-calibrated thermal imager. This effort is cutting-edge and crucial as low-cost, accurate, and portable 3D thermal reconstruction solutions have significant potential in building energy auditing and infrastructure inspection/maintenance.
Thermal Tolerance of Ground-Nesting Ants in Solar Panel Microhabitats

Caroline Elizabeth Bowers, Leen Sawas

This research investigates the thermal tolerance of ground-nesting ant colonies inhabiting solar panel microhabitats. With increasing popularity of solar panels as a renewable energy source, understanding their impact on local ecosystems and small organisms inhabiting them becomes essential. At our study site, Curran Place, solar panels create three distinct microhabitats with different temperatures. Microhabitats are differently shaded due to the positioning of the panels and the types of vegetation present: (1) directly under the panels is almost entirely shaded (2) aisles between panels are partly shaded during the day; (3) the buffer zone surrounding the panels, which is planted with tall prairie plants, gets direct sunlight. To understand how these microhabitats impact small organisms, such as ground-nesting ants, we collected live ants from each one and tested their ability to tolerate increasing temperatures. We hypothesized that ants living directly under panels would exhibit the lowest tolerance to increasing temperatures. After locating colonies of five different ant morphospecies throughout all three microhabitats, we collected live worker ants and brought them back to the lab for thermal tolerance testing. Ants were subjected to gradually increasing temperatures until their mobility ceased. This temperature was deemed the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), or the highest temperature that the ants could withstand. Utilizing ANOVA and Tukey HSD pairwise comparisons, we observed significant differences in average colony CTmax among ant morphospecies. We found no significant differences in average colony CTmax based on microhabitats that colonies were found in, however, the observed trends aligned with our initial hypothesis. Our research contributes valuable insights into how ground-nesting ants adapt to temperature fluctuations associated with solar panels and provides essential information for understanding and managing the impacts of renewable energy development on local ecosystems.
The role of CodY in regulating Listeria monocytogenes lactate dehydrogenase activity in response to propionate

Angelina Rose Giannetto, Lauren E. Piper

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial foodborne pathogen that can cause severe enteric infections with high mortality rates. During transmission, L. monocytogenes is exposed to propionate both as a common additive in food matrices and as a metabolic byproduct of our intestinal microbiota. However, how L. monocytogenes adapts to propionate exposure is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated how propionate exposure regulates the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). LDH activity is critical for bacteria to maintain redox homeostasis and therefore can be a good indicator for bacterial fitness. Therefore, bacteria grown under different conditions with or without propionate were harvested and lysed. LDH activities were quantified in the resulting lysates using Pierce LDH Cytotoxicity Assay Kit. Moreover, to explore the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of LDH activity, I compared the results between wildtype L. monocytogenes and a mutant strain lacking the transcription factor CodY. We found that while propionate didn't significantly change LDH activities, the lack of CodY resulted in a significantly lower LDH activity. These results highlight the potential role of CodY in activating LDH production.
The Role of Nutrition in an Individual's Physical Activity Levels and Sleep Patterns.

Megan Marie Perri

Maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet provides our bodies with essential nutrients that promotes good overall health and well being. Nutrition has the vital rule in all different systems of the body as well as providing fuel for additional exertion throughout the day. Research has shown that diet patterns can change when students go off to college and students may attempt to try different diet plans. The goal of this research project is to better understand the role nutrition can play in physical activity levels and sleep habits in college students.
The Role Violent Victimizations Play in Gang Involvement

Kimberly Alyson Cleveland, Kaliana M. Keyes

Many individuals have looked into how gang involvement can affect the rates of violent victimization experienced. Knowing why people join gangs is essential to understanding why there are so many victimizations. There is no one defining reason why people join gangs. Instead, many reasons can lead an individual to join these gangs. Many of the reasons people give for joining a gang include giving them an identity within society, a sense of belonging, independence from parents, protection, and loyalty. Gangs offer many opportunities for prospective gang members and then provide them for members when they join the gang. Individuals go to gangs because they provide so much that they do not feel they are getting anywhere else, which increases the likelihood that individuals will join a gang. When we ran a binary logistical regression, we found that violent victimizations are a predictor in an individual's gang involvement.
The Semiotics of the Holy Lance

Austin Lloyd, Connor Roy, Lenny Zaleski

Rhetoric drawing on religious stories, ideals, concepts, and experiences surround us in our daily lives. These posters represent a sampling of the rhetorical analyses conducted by students from CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric throughout the Spring 2024 semester. Groups presented several themed reports prior to Stander and picked one to showcase at the symposium.
The Underdog Story: Women in Sports Films

Samuel Michael Good

This THR/VAR 250 Diversity in the Creative and Performing Arts poster presentation project requires each student to research and present on a topic relevant to the interdisciplinary fields of visual and performing arts through a critical multicultural and social justice lens that foregrounds the appreciation of diversity and enables the expansion of personal cultural competencies.
THR/VAR 250 Diversity in the Creative and Performing Arts Poster Presentations

Nadine Olivia Ayers, Emily J. Bryan, Caroline Anne Cochran, Ellana Rose Davis, Jillian R. Fahey, Ava Paige Forrest, Vaegus Mykul Gallimore, Samuel Michael Good, Haleigh Melina Gross, Jacob Russell Hausler, Achille Kpeya, Reagan Marie Lloyd, Katherine J. Moreira, Kailey Patricia Peppard, Guadalupe Sanchez-Salvador, Sarah Katherine Theewis, Katharine G. Tucker, Ella Tamara Widau

This THR/VAR 250 Diversity in the Creative and Performing Arts poster presentation project requires each student to research and present on a topic relevant to the interdisciplinary fields of visual and performing arts through a critical multicultural and social justice lens that foregrounds the appreciation of diversity and enables the expansion of personal cultural competencies.
Too Many Men: Investigating online harassment toward women-identifying hockey fans in a male-dominated space

Yana Crossland, Zoe Kalen Hill

The world of sports is traditionally a masculine space, and professional hockey perpetuates these gender boundaries because of its aggressive nature. Despite this, women-identifying hockey fans exist, and make space for themselves as a fandom on social media platforms. This research explores the online harassment received by women-identifying hockey fans in a male-dominated space. Through a content analysis of social media posts from both Facebook and X (Twitter), we take a quantitative approach, with the quantity of instances of verbal abuse (operationally defined as the use of written language directed towards another person with the intent to degrade, invalidate, or otherwise disrespect them) being measured and compared between different social media platforms. This study aims to provide evidence to the prevalence of online harassment toward women-identifying hockey fans and its impact on the sports space in the context of the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League season.
Topology on Infinite Dimensional Spaces

Gabriel Paul Gray, William Thomas Hach, Joseph Michael Kopp

We will be discussing our research into topology, looking at infinite dimensional spaces, and exploring the problems it generates when working from an analytical or algebraic perspective.
Tracing Groundwater Recharge in the Great Miami River Watershed through Isotopic Analysis

James Joshua Lambert

Understanding groundwater recharge and the degree of surface and groundwater interaction is essential to maintaining aquifer health and sustainable use of freshwater resources. As such, establishing water movement in the hydrologic system helps constrain water fluxes, estimate groundwater recharge rates, monitor pollutant migration, and allocate water resources in watershed management. This study used environmental isotopes as a tracer to understand the source of seasonal groundwater recharge in the Great Miami River Watershed. The use of water isotope as a tracer is based on the unique isotopic endmember composition of different reservoirs due to spatial and temporal variation of precipitation isotope and atmospheric and hydrologic processes. A year-long precipitation, surface water, and groundwater samples were used for this study. Precipitation samples were collected daily and weekly, surface water was collected throughout the watershed, and groundwater well samples were acquired from the Miami Conservancy District monitoring wells twice a year (Fall and Spring). The samples were then analyzed for hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in the Department of Geology Environmental Isotope lab at the University of Dayton. Our result shows that Dayton’s precipitation and river water isotope exhibit seasonal variation, depleted in the winter and enriched in the summer. On the other hand, groundwater shows a small seasonal variation but shows higher spatial variation and proximity to rivers. The outcome of the spatial and temporal isotope analysis in the watershed suggests the importance of groundwater recharge from both directly from precipitation as diffused recharge and localized focused recharge from rivers. While groundwater recharge is biased towards the wet season due to melting snow, the Great Miami River also provides groundwater recharge downstream of Dayton.
Transit Equity: Analyzing, Innovating, and Designing for Social Justice

Keely Nicole Hopp, Makenna R. Korzan, Regan Maureen Smith, Camilla L. Sullenger

Education students are designing a STEM lesson that incorporates social justice. Students will be analyzing data of two public transit systems, comparing cost benefits, resources used, and routes taken. They will use this information to change one of the routes or design their own that would benefit the city the most. Finally they will design the route, taking into account the route, resources, and stops needed, and compare to the other groups in the class.
Two-Dimensional Temperature Map of a Melt Zone

William Thomas Hach

A Grey-Body is an imperfect Black-Body that does not perfectly emit all absorbed energy as radiation,but still behaves similarly. In this presentation, we will discuss three things: (a) a method of using twocameras and wavelength filters to create a two-dimensional temperature map of a heated Gray-Body, (b)the equations we are using to calculate temperature from the strength of emitted wavelengths, and (c)potential applications of the temperature mapping system.
UD COMICON 2024: Ideologies and Conventions of the Superhero Film Genre

Natalie Grace Bowers, Lauren Christine Clayton, Rose Gwendolyn Combs, Reanna N. Croasmun, Timothy J. Duvic, Kellyn Marie Hall, Alayah Danyelle Harris, Mary Horrigan, Isabella Jayden Jeck, Lucas Peter Johnson, Anna Lousie Kijovsky, Nathan Alexander Klanderman, Clara Elizabeth Kolaczkowski, Caedon Michael Kollin, James Stephen Larger, Erin Ann Lavelle, Christopher Thomas Reali, Evan Thomas Shannon, Harrison Joseph Smith, Michael J. Tomes

For over two decades, superhero movies were the dominant film form in U.S. cinema, with only recent years seeing this phenomenon abate. How did we get here, and what is the continuing effect of these superhero films on American film culture and global popular culture? The presentations for this panel will explore the superhero genre, considering how their films adhere to or defy genre conventions, challenge predominant American ideologies, and function as works of political economy.
ULeaD Emerging Leaders Program: Cohort Final Projects

Olivia Sue Anthony, Sha'maria M. V. Barton, Nathan Paul Bender, Connor Patrick Carr, John Patrick Currin, Lillian Elise Dartt, Shannon Lynn Dennemann, Abigail Violet Dent, Treazure Jazlynn Edwards, Avery Carson Everidge, Eleanor Rae Forrest, Emma Rose Gaglione, Michelle Gianna Hickey, Matthew Robert Himes, Jackson Arron Karban, Abigail Grace Lambert, Sophia Nicolette Lambros, Karlie J. Lucas, Camryn Ellie McKenzie, Ethan William Moeller, Claire Therese Monahan, Kathleen Therese Moore, Zachary William O'Connor, Rachel Catherine Panko, Erin Elizabeth Reed, Chancelon J. Rice, Morgan Elizabeth Schulze, Cara Donna Thiemann, Drayton Elizabeth Willey

The ULeaD Emerging Leaders Program, sponsored by the Student Leadership Programs Office, is a cohort-based initiative for first-year students that brings participants together for monthly sessions to develop a range of leadership skills and abilities such as effectively leading change, inclusive leadership, building meaningful relationships, inspiring others to act, and building resilience. For the first time, this cohort of first-year students will be presenting their final projects for the program at the Stander Symposium. Students' final project posters will include their leadership philosophy, how they have grown as leaders, what they have learned from the ULeaD program, and how they hope to impact the UD community.
Understanding Autism and Beneficial Strategies

Kathryn Madison Hall

My project focuses on Autism spectrum disorder and supports that have been highly beneficial for children. Strategies commonly used in an academic settings with primarily elementary-level students in subjects from mathematics to social skills are explored.
Understanding Calcium Signaling in Invasive GBM Cells in a Microfluidic Model

Jenna Abdelhamed

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is one of the most common, aggressive, and deadly types of brain cancer. Its high malignancy is attributed to its surrounding environment, consisting of a great amount of blood vessels, neurons, and astrocyte processes, allowing tumors to reproduce and evade quickly. Upon diagnosis, GBM patients have a median survival time of 12-15 months, even with available treatment modalities such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. To explore new treatment modalities, it is important to understand the oncogenesis, invasion mechanisms, and cellular characteristics unique to GBM. The tumor’s microenvironment can promote migration as GBM interacts with components in the brain's extracellular matrix, triggering intracellular cascades such as the calcium signaling pathway, which has caught the attention of numerous researchers. Calcium signaling pathways are a key step in signal transduction, linking external stimuli into cellular response, and are implicated in GBM proliferation and metastatic-related processes. This work displays the invasion of GBM cells through our established 3D tumor models, which consist of GBM spheroids placed into a Polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidic device to mimic the tumor microenvironment of GBM. With these 3D tumor models, two phenotypes of the cancer can be established, an invasive and noninvasive phenotype, which allow for the comparison of intracellular calcium concentrations, and of migration patterns and lengths. This research provides data regarding the relationship between the two phenotypes and calcium signaling activity. This is important because it will allow further research on mediators of the Ca2+ pathway such as Ca2+channels and their roles in mediating invasion, potentially laying groundwork for new therapies that limit GBM migration.