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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Language as an Avenue for Representation in Theatre
Hannah Rose Kessler
In my project, I plan to research how language can be an avenue for representation in theatre. I will look at how language is an essential part of culture and works that use the languages of the cultures represented in that piece. I will introduce my topic with how the use of gibberish as Vietnamese in Miss Saigon fails to meet the most basic standard for representation. Then, I will use The Gods of Strangers and West Side Story, to show how the use of language can enhance representation. I will also compare The Gods of Strangers and West Side Story in their use and absence of subtitles and how it helps or hinders representation.
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Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide
Jamie Blodgett, Christopher Eustace, Zoey E. Harig, Tyler Lebegue
Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) was first legalized in 1994 in Oregon as apart of The Death With Dignity Act. Since then it has been legalized in nine additional states in the U.S. In accordance with Article 25 in the UDHR and Appendix C in The American Medical Association Principles of Medical Ethics (2001), we will be presenting for the legalization of PAS throughout the world using a website and verbal presentation. We will be addressing the Thomas Youk case and the Montana Supreme Court ruling in the case Baxter v. Montana. We will also be speaking on the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act in Vermont and the effect this had on the state in 2013 and beyond. We will also be speaking on Brittany Maynard, a terminal brain cancer patient, who experienced Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and present the argument of living with dignity viruses dying with dignity.As of May 2021, 20% of the world's population lives in a location where PAS is legal. In many states, the requirements for an individual to receive PAS are, “the patient must be terminally ill (expected to die within six months), identified as such by two independent physicians; must be adult, competent, and a resident of the state; must have made two oral requests at least 15 days apart, plus a written request; and must be able to self-administer the lethal agent.” We will be presenting the importance of these steps, and we will continue to connect the core of our presentation to UDHR Article 25 which states, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including…medical care and the right to security in the event of…sickness… in circumstances beyond his control.”
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Let’s move: Benefits of implementing more physical activity in classrooms
Sarah Katherine Demarco
It is crucial for young children to get the necessary amount of physical activity in their day to day lives. There are many benefits to increasing the amount of physical activity a child receives throughout the day which include motor development, social and communication skills, and cognitive skills. Throughout the school day children spend most of their time in sedentary behavior which can cause students to be less engaged and less interested in school. When the amount of physical activity is increased in classrooms, research has found that children are able to stay engaged in lessons for longer periods of time and can acquire different skills that might not be learned while sitting at a desk.
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Liquid Metal Ink as Stretchable Conductive Traces in Wearable Electronics Applications
Lindsay Hampo, Zachary Jon Kranz
As electronics become more integrated into every aspect of our daily lives, one limiting factor is the rigidity of electronics. However, recent developments of liquid metal inks have proven capable of creating flexible and stretchable electronic circuits. This work centers on a room temperature gallium-indium based metal ink which has been demonstrated to have high conductivity, negligible resistance change under strain and consistent performance over many strain cycles. These features are key for applications such as soft robotics and wearable electronics. We demonstrate the feasibility of liquid metal ink for conductive traces in wearable applications by blade coating the ink onto thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and utilizing a heat press to bond the TPU and traces directly onto fabric. Resistance measurements are performed under both static and strain conditions using uniaxial stretching methods. Further development allows for the interfacing of the conductive ink traces with rigid electronics such as microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators to create initial prototypes of wearable electronics.
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Living the Practice
Jessica Nicole Williams
Through various exhibitions, community events, and my pottery business known as "Muddstud", I've had the privilege of living my dream life as a maker. There have been many ups and downs in this journey, but I am learning and growing with each commission.
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Local Supplier Management System for Independent Grocery Stores
Brian J. Berry
Gem City Market is a cooperative grocery store that seeks to help ease food insecurity in the south side of Dayton, while stimulating the local economy. Gem city has a goal of providing 15-20% of their products from local sources. In order to help achieve this my project was focused on idealizing a local food system for Gem City to connect with and cooperate with local food producers. Having multiple smaller suppliers is more complex and therefore expensive to maintain than have a few larger suppliers. Creating a map of local producers and suppliers would be a useful tool for Gem City to connect and foster relationships, easing some of the challenges with supplying from local producers.
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Macrophage Migration and Phagocytosis in Breast Cancer Microenvironment
Elizabeth A. Avera, Sarah E. Lamb
Macrophages are a specialized type of immune cell that work via phagocytosis, a process in which they engulf and destroy foreign materials, and apoptosis, in which macrophages induce programmed cell death in infected or abnormal cells. Two major subtypes of macrophages include M1 macrophages, which are activated macrophages and induce inflammatory responses, and M2 macrophages, which are alternatively activated and induce anti-inflammatory responses (Abdulhadi, 2014). M1 macrophages have been studied in response to cancer environments for their ability to target cancer cells and trigger phagocytosis (Jaiswal et al., 2010). On the other hand, M2 macrophages are pro-tumorigenic, which can trigger angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels, and other growth and healing factors, thus promoting tumor invasion and metastasis (Forssell et al., 2007). In 2018, breast cancer was the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in women, making the mechanisms of breast cancer progression important to study (Seigal et al., 2021). This poster will showcase tumor surveillance behaviors of macrophages in response to tumor-associated factors such as chemoattractants, or chemical substances that attract motile cells, protein binding molecules, soluble components from the cancer culture medium, etc., on the migration behavior of the macrophages. With an increased understanding of the factors that impact macrophage migration, this poster will also investigate macrophage’s effects on stimulating cancer phagocytosis and/or apoptosis. In this presentation, we will discuss current studies performed on the immune effects of macrophages in breast cancer invasiveness and progression in order to better understand the role macrophages play.
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Mary Across Campus
Matthew Coath, Emma Harry, Kathryn Hehn, Grace Kennedy, Sam Schadek
The Symbolic Convergence Theory focuses on group identities that develop through shared fantasy elements. Through their deeper meaning, these statues rhetorically communicate and construct the Marianist identity at UD. Being frequent symbols on UD’s campus, they remind the community of the shared meanings, emotions, and values of the Marianist order.
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Masked Face Analysis
Vatsa Sanjay Patel
Face identification with wearables has been a difficult topic in computer vision since it includes detecting persons who are wearing a face mask. Masked face analysis for the purpose of identifying face masks has the potential to significantly increase performance in a wide variety of face analysis applications. The suggested concept is a single framework for determining the kind of face mask worn by a person. We begin by contributing the mask dataset, which includes a range of face masks. Then, we introduced a deep learning model that takes an input image of a human face wearing a mask and determines the kind of face mask worn by the human face. The presented dataset and methodology will aid in future research on face detection using the mask.
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Meaning-Making in Virtual Community Engagement Programming
Meaghan Crowley
Research shows that community engagement programming has a deep impact on students and community partners. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has deeply altered the ways in which community engagement is done. Programming was forced into a virtual space, and has yet to fully return to pre-pandemic models. This study explores how undergraduate students at the University of Dayton describe their participation in and the impact of virtual community engagement programming for partners. The research questions asked in this study are twofold; How do students at the University of Dayton who participated in virtual community engagement program articulate and describe their experience? And, how do students articulate what they learned from participating in virtual community engagement programming? Through interviews with students, this qualitative study aims to better understand the student experience and articulation of impact, as well as how students make meaning from virtual engagement. It is critical that practitioners understand how students are making sense of virtual programming in order to determine what will remain from this virtual world, what needs changing, and how we can better walk with students throughout the process.
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Media Portrayal of the Police Resulting in Fatal Citizen Interactions
Kyla Renay Whitehead
Technology has made news media a universal phenomenon in covering police-citizen interactions. Critics have pointed out biases in their reporting. However, this speculation has yet to be tested empirically. The current study aimed to address this gap by using content analysis to shed light on the media’s dialect when reporting fatal police-citizen interactions. Using content analysis and convenience sampling, the study identified the first 10 articles related to four high-profile cases (i.e., Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and Casey Goodsen Jr.) from three news sites that encompassed media value in relation to political bias and reliability in relation to the range of opinion and fact reporting. The procedures included categorizing the title of each article as using positive, negative, and neutral language. Preliminary findings show that 32.3% of news sources portrayed the police involved in fatal citizen interactions using positive language and 41.9% using neutral language. In contrast, only 25.8% of the news sources used negative language. Although claims of the demonization of the police in the media have been used in recent debates, the findings of this study do not support these arguments.
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Medical Data Benchmarking for Recommender Systems
Rutuja Rajendra Nimbalkar
Patients with DCCs often experience multiple obstacles when prioritizing treatment plans and prescriptions. Discordant Chronic Comorbidities (DCCs) are health conditions in which patients have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses that may need to be addressed concurrently but may also be associated with conflicting treatment instructions. Various machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) algorithms can provide treatment recommendations and identify drug interactions for patients with DCCs. However, to the best of our knowledge, we have yet to see a good documentation of how conflicting recommendations and evolving patient’s needs could be addressed using machine learning techniques. Further, there are no recommendations for algorithms situations for addressing these complex needs that patients with DCCs experience. And yet, the effective support of DCCs requires decisions aids that capture patients' concerns and preferences upfront, before suggesting a prescription recommendation. In this research, we first collected a data set consisting of the patient with DCCs concerns and prescription preference for each of their medical conditions (e.g., type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and/or depression). We then reviewed studies, models, and algorithms and tested some of these algorithms using a set of criteria with our dataset. And to set benchmark outcomes that can reveal the suitable algorithms, parameters, and testing criteria. Specifically, our research investigates four algorithms for identifying effective and efficient predictions of DCCs prescriptions, while taking into account patients' concerns and drug interactions. Among state-of-the-art supervised ML algorithms, Support Vector Machine (SVM) achieves the best performance. The best algorithms then integrated and deployed in the mobile application interface for user engagement and further evaluations.
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Me in MEC? Why Students of Color at the University of Dayton Choose Whether or Not to to Utilize Targeted Resources on Campus.
Sebastian Michael Rawl
People of color in the United States have long been granted unequal access to educational opportunities which in turn has led to lower levels of achievement and higher drop-out rates when compared to their white peers. To combat this issue, many institutions of higher education, such as the University of Dayton, have created programs and offices which focus on improving outcomes for students of color as well as representing their cultures on the campus-level. The purpose of this research is to examine the reasons as to why or why not students of color on campus choose to utilize these types of resources and examine if these resources have benefited those students. In order to gain insight on these questions, students of color at the University of Dayton were asked to participate in individual interviews via online video-call to explore their experiences within the institution. This research provides a deeper understanding as to whether or not the university's efforts towards reaching and supporting students of color have been successful, as well as providing information which could influence future decisions.
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Mental Health Among Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Cadets
Abigail Nicole Herrmann
There is little research about the subgroup of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, especially none that focus on their mental health and the coping strategies they use to adjust to both the college atmosphere and military culture. Therefore, research will be conducted on Army ROTC cadets across the nation to better understand how the added pressure, commitments, and responsibilities affect cadets. The purpose of this project is to compare the mental health of Army ROTC cadets to national mental health trends among the general college student population to further explore some of the differences in this subgroup and learn how to help them better transition into these new environments. The participants in this study will be Army ROTC cadets across the nation. A survey will be distributed through social media outlets, especially through GroupMe chats and snowball sampling will be conducted to help expand the sample size and participation in this research study. The results from the survey will then be converted into percentages and compared to the data collected annually from the American College Health Association. Some of these findings may be categorized according to race, gender, age, and prior service to further evaluate groups who may be affected more while striving to integrate into both these cultures. These results will be used to help Army ROTC programs and college campuses across the nation better understand some of the difficulties this subgroup may be experiencing and use this information to develop more programs and resources to help ease the transition into both a college atmosphere and the military culture.
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Military Service and the Expression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
William C. Johnson, Madison Kate Petschke
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a neurodegenerative brain disease where the brain wrongly attacks its own motor neurons. Within 2-5 years of diagnosis, a patient with ALS will lose his/her ability to walk, speak, swallow, and even breathe on their own. This disease is very rare and there is currently no cure. This mysterious disease is caused 10% by inheritance, and 90% by other unknown causes. Some suggested causes based on instance of diagnosis might be age or sex, but the most interesting, suggested cause is history of military service. Is it because of chemical exposure, environmental factors, or the traumatic stress that soldiers endure? For our research project, we would like to further unravel the reasons behind ALS diagnosis, especially why the history of military service has a connection with the expression of ALS. We will also include an interview with Will’s roommate, whose father died from ALS in 2014.
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miR-277 targets hid to ameliorate Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration in Drosophila eye model of Alzheimer’s Disease
Anuradha Venkatakrishnan, Prajakta D. Deshpande
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder, exhibits reduced cognitive functions with no cure to date. One of the reasons for AD is the extracellular accumulation of Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) plaques. We misexpressed human Aβ42 in the developing retina of Drosophila, which exhibits AD-like neuropathology. Accumulation of Aβ42 plaque(s) triggers aberrant signaling resulting in neuronal cell death by unknown mechanism(s). We screened for microRNAs (miRNAs) which post-transcriptionally regulate expression of genes by degrading mRNA of the target genes. In a forward genetic screen with candidate miRNAs, we identified miR-277 as a genetic modifier of Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration. Gain-of-function of miR-277 rescues Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration whereas loss-of-function of miR-277 enhances Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration. Moreover, misexpression of higher levels of miR-277 in the GMR>Aβ42 background restores the retinal axonal targeting indicating functional rescue. Furthermore, we have identified head involution defective (hid) as one of the targets of miR-277 by Fly TargetScan and validated by luciferase assay and qPCR. The hid transcript levels are decreased by ̴2.3-fold when miR-277 is misexpressed in the GMR>Aβ42 background in comparison to the GMR>Aβ42 fly model. Hence, here we provide a mechanism of how miR-277 modulates Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration by regulating hid transcript levels and demonstrate its neuroprotective role in Aβ42-mediated neuropathology.
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Mock Trial Team Presentation
Lydia G. Artz, Nicholas Alexander Gregor, Katherine Jean Hoener, Arabella D. Loera, Madeleine Elizabeth Onderak, Jackson Fryer Prieto, Sydney R. Sparks
Come watch the award-winning University of Dayton Mock Trial Team present their case: State of Midlands vs. Dakota Sutcliffe! Dakota Sutcliffe has been accused of committing aggravated arson for the burning of Chuggie's Sports Bar and the death of a local firefighter. Dayton Mock Trial will present portions of this case and answer any questions you might have. This will be a trial you won't want to miss!
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Modeling Brownian Motion
Huseen KH. A. S. Alenezi, Abdulhadi A. H. J. Alqahtani, Abdullah M. H. J. Alqahtani
Brownian motion is the random motion of particles, atoms, or molecules that are because of random collisions of those particles. It is the motion of a particles such as a smoke or dust particle, in a gas, as it is buffeted by random collisions with gas molecules. Brownian motion can be observed physically as light shines through a window. Particles of dust or pollen can be seen in the light floating in the air and have random pattern of motion. The dust particles aren't moving on their own, but are colliding with molecules of the air keeping the dust in motion. Brownian motion is caused by the structure and physics of fluids i.e. liquids and gases. According to kinetic theory, all matter is in motion; atoms and molecules especially within liquids and gases are in constant vibrating motion. These particles will travel in straight lines until redirected by a collision. Particles within gases and liquids are constantly moving, colliding, and moving toward equilibrium. This kind of collision causes particles to have Brownian motion. In this project modeling of the Brownian motion is done through mathematical and programming tools.
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Montessori Beyond Sixth Grade
Mary Koonce
Montessori methods of education stretch beyond formal teaching strategies to incorporate age-appropriate attributes of students into the curriculum. Montessori philosophical methods of education include a hands-on, self-guided approach to learning. Montessori schools typically range from pre kindergarten to the sixth. However, many students make the transition to non-Montessori schools at the start of the sixth grade. Some Montessori schools extend to middle and high school. This paper examines the experience of a Montessori middle and high school education and the impact on older students.
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Multifactor Portfolio Weighting Models for the Consumer Discretionary Sector: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2021
Daniel Collins Montgomery, Paul Baraka Waweru
Discretionary Sector with consumer spending the "state " economic variable and revenue per shareand gross operating profit per share the principal factor loadings. We test the hypothesis that our portfolio weighting models outperform the market over the period 2009-2021.
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Multifactor Portfolio Weighting Models for the Health Care Sector: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2021
Patrick James Burns, Alec W. Gizzie, Julia Catharine Reinker
We construct portfolio weighting models for the S&P 500 Health Care sector with consumer spending the "state" economic variable and revenue per share and gross operating profits per share the principal loading factors. We test the hypothesis that our portfolio weighting models outperform the market over the period 2009-2021.
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Multi-Robot Path Planning with Collision Avoidance
Mohammad Zainullah Khan
Integrating robotics into manufacturing tasks is now a decades-old practice with ongoing advances making robotics faster, cheaper, and more accurate on an almost daily basis. Individually, robots have become highly effective at performing tasks in isolation. The goal of this research is to advance automatic path planning for multiple robot agents to intelligently and cooperatively accomplish manufacturing tasks in close proximity. These robots can range from simple robot architectures to several 6-DOF articulated arms on mobile bases to be used for spray coating, pressure washing, media blasting, and sanding. These applications are low-volume, high-mix manufacturing environments where task variability renders human programming impractical. While addressing the possibility of collisions for multi-agents, practical manufacturing constraints also need to be considered. In additive manufacturing, for example, it is important that each raster be completed by a single agent to prevent undesirable tool retracts that will affect print quality. The methodology for addressing this research includes the development of optimization models that simultaneously incorporate both manufacturing process constraints and the manipulator's kinematics and collision constraints. This project proposes to develop coordination planning techniques for N overlapping robot architectures composed of 3 or more revolute and/or prismatic joints.
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Navigating Burnout in Student Affairs Graduate Students
Meg L. Austin
As graduate students begin to enter the higher education and student affairs field, they are socialized to navigate their work successfully, which often includes over-involvement and over-commitment (Allen et al., 2020). Previous studies on student affairs burnout found that intense workloads, low salaries, conflicts between work and personal life, lack of advancement, and lack of continued passion contributed to burnout (Marshall et al., 2016; Mullen et al., 2018; Naifeh, 2019). Although there is a plethora of research on burnout and stress in student affairs professionals, research around student affairs graduate students is mostly absent. The purpose of this study is to discover how current full-time student affairs graduate students who hold assistantships navigate burnout, what factors cause burnout for graduate students, as well as the impacts of burnout before they obtain a full-time student affairs job. Data has been collected through qualitative research, interviewing 11 current full-time student affairs graduate students with graduate assistantships. Data shows that graduate students experience burnout due to lack of personal-professional boundaries, low-pay, and lack of support or recognition. These results can help the student affairs field positively impact retention rates, transform the culture of the profession, and better support graduate students.
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Novel Phosphorus-Based Flame Retardant for High-Performance Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites
Mustafa Mukhtar
This study aims to determine the initial performance of a novel phosphorus-containing epoxy monomer that could be incorporated into conventional epoxy (DGEBA) formulations to produce high-performance carbon fiber epoxy composites with little or no compromise in processing, treatment, and mechanical characteristics. This poster outlines the results of an experimental study on a novel phosphorus-based flame retardant (Phosphorus-Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol A) (P-DGEBA), which was synthesized at U.D. and then blended into a traditional epoxy-amine resin formulation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to evaluate the curing behavior of P-DGEBA with epoxy resin. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was also used to investigate the thermal stability and thermal degradation behaviors of the P-DGEBA/DGEBA blends. The micro-combustion calorimeter (MCC) test results confirmed that 50% P-DGEBA was the optimal percentage for balancing the performance (low heat release, high char yield) and minimizing the use of the available material, which was in scarce supply. Next, a composite fabrication technique was developed to incorporate the P-DGEBA into woven carbon fiber laminates with minimal waste of the synthesized monomer. The panel fabrication approach successfully produced panels using the autoclave technique that meets aerospace quality specifications with a Vf of around 0.5, which is an acceptable result for a panel manufactured to form a woven carbon fabric. The findings of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) on composite coupons showed that the Tg of the baseline panel was 72 °C, while the Tg of P-DGEBA-containing panels was about 78 °C. According to Cone calorimeter results, P-DGEBA produced less heat while increasing smoke generation and lowering the effective heat of combustion. Interestingly, the inclusion of P-DGEBA in DGEBA resin composites reduced their flammability by up to 28% without degrading their mechanical qualities by raising the mixture's glass transition temperature.
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ODW Logistics Truckload Cost Modeling
Warith Ali Nasser Mohammed Al Wardi, Andrew Rowland Brucken, Mary L. Burrows, Marc Craine Daly
This project researches the opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with product logistics
