Stander Symposium Projects

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  The Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Student-Athletes' Mental Health

  Kevin P. Bickett, Conor Flaherty, Reilly Alexzandra Madsen, Sara Delaney McCloud, Marin Reis, Natalie Marie Thielen

  Because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, many student athletes' daily routines were interrupted and placed into isolation. This research studies the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of student-athletes at the University of Dayton. Through a survey sent out to student-athletes on campus, several effects of the pandemic will be identified and analyzed.

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  The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Intentional Exercise Routines of University of Dayton Students

  Anthony J. Aiello, Hailey H. Briggeman, Jake W. Hane, Bridget Delia McDermott, Hannah L. Michl

  The aim of this research is to survey college students about their exercise routines both before and during the pandemic. The comparison of frequency, duration, and intensity of the exercise both before and during the pandemic will serve to investigate whether or not and to what degree the pandemic has had an effect on college students exercising. Results may be an indicator of future health conditions amongst the population surveyed.

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  The effect of walking speed and ankle load on joint kinematics and arm swing in children with and without Down syndrome

  Kaylee Marie Larsen

  Challenging children with Down Syndrome (DS) to walk faster than preferred and with an ankle load has demonstrated improvements to their gait pattern. These improvements include increasing step length, decreasing step width, decreasing cadence, and general muscle activation. However, the joint kinematic and arm swing control strategies used to make these adaptations remain unknown. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of walking speed and ankle load on joint kinematics and arm swing in children with and without DS. We analyzed data from 12 children with DS (10M/2F, 8.80 (1.23) years) and 12 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children. Data was collected using a Vicon motion capture system as the subjects walked 10 meters at their preferred speed and a fast walking speed with either no ankle load or an ankle load of 2% of body mass. The peak flexion and extension joint angles of the ankle, knee, hip, and shoulder joints were evaluated. The anterior/posterior and mediolateral arm displacements were calculated as the differences between the wrist and shoulder markers. Children with DS had reduced peak ankle extension before toe-off. Adding ankle load reduced the peak ankle extension in both groups. When adjusting to speed, children with DS had less peak knee extension around mid-stance but greater peak knee and hip flexion during swing. Furthermore, the TD children displayed greater peak hip extension during stance at the faster speed and with ankle load. Similarities in arm swing displacements between both groups indicated a controlled upper body movement among the DS children. Overall, our results suggest that challenging children with DS to walk at a faster speed might lead to beneficial kinematic adjustments at the knee and hip joints. However, other interventions may be needed to target ankle extension before toe-off.

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  The Effects of Parental Educational Attainment on Student Loan Debt

  Megan J.F. Will

  While the student loan crisis has been reviewed and studied from multiple perspectives, one area lacking in research is the effect a parent’s level of education has on the type of, amount of, and involvement in their child’s student loans. In order to address this issue, this study asked the following two questions: (1) Is there a relationship between the level of education parents complete and their degree of participation in completing their children’s financial aid and student loan applications? (2) Will a student whose parent(s) has some level of post-secondary educational attainment be less likely to take on private loans than a student whose parent(s) has no post-secondary educational attainment? To answer this question, an online survey was sent to 4,660 undergraduate students at a private four-year institution located in the Midwest who had student loan indicators on their bursar accounts. Data from respondents (n = 353) indicated that as their parent(s)’s level of education increased, their involvement in the student loan process, particularly in completing the FAFSA and in deciding how much money their child should borrow, increased. Survey results also indicated parents with higher levels of education were more likely to encourage their children to take on federal loans over private loans. By utilizing these findings, recruiters and financial aid officers can improve educational practices to help first-generation students and their parents better understand the student loan process and the implications of borrowing to pay for higher education.

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  The Effects of Propionate on the Activation of Macrophages Against the Intracellular Pathogen Listeria monocytogenes

  Leah O'Malley Allen

  L. monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that can infect and cause death to immunocompromised, pregnant, or elderly individuals. The purpose of this research is to determine whether propionate, a common metabolite in our gut with known effects on our immune system, can signal our immune responses to prevent L. monocytogenes infections. Therefore, in this project, propionate was added to white blood cells where nitrite and reactive oxygen species were quantified to determine the effect of propionate on the activation of the immune system. Furthermore, RT-PCR was used to measure the effect of propionate on iNOS gene expression. Lastly, gentamicin protection assays were performed on naive and activated white blood cells to determine the effect of propionate on L. monocytogenes infection. Overall, these results will provide a greater understanding of the effects of propionate on immune cell activation and L. monocytogenes infections.

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  The Evolving Relationship Between Religion and Civil Rights in America

  Shea Maureen Donovan, Emma K. Mason, Henry Joseph Perry, Nickolas S. Shroyer

  This study looks at the various roles different religious groups play in the ongoing civil rights movement in America. The purpose of this study was to explore whether religious groups in the United States have been supporting the civil rights movement or have instead further sustained racial discrimination in America. In particular, this study examines discrimination against Muslims after 9/11, antisemitism, and the ways in which political leaders have used religion in a good or a bad way for their title. A literature review of relevant articles in psychology, sociology, and anthropology was conducted to examine the relationship between religion and civil rights in America.

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  The Great Irish Famine: Memory and Nationalism in Ireland and the Diaspora

  Marie E. Poinsatte

  The Great Irish Famine of 1845 – 1852 is among the most infamous moments in Irish history. In addition to changes to the physical landscape, the political, social, and cultural makeup of the Emerald Isle was forever altered. Such an event could not fail to leave an indelible mark upon the history and memory of Irish people. Throughout the twentieth century, first from the North American Diaspora and then within Ireland itself, when it became necessary to assert Irish identity, for revolution or peace, nationalist forces leaned of the Great Famine as a shared cultural moment. In newspapers, folklore, memorials, and children’s stories a narrative of Irish resistance against foreign oppression and perseverance in most desperate times is reinforced by Irish and Irish descended historians, journalists, curators, and state authorities.

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  The Impact of COVID-19 on Fan Engagement in Sport

  Olivia Grace Carpenter, Shane Thomas Ferrick, Nathan Passarelli, Hannah Marie Paxton, Mason Andrew Smith, Timothy K. Tieman, Aaron Bennett Weiss

  For our research topic, the main question that we want to answer is how has COVID-19 changed the way of fan engagement on social media. Ever since COVID-19 started, we have seen tournament cancellations, fan attendance becoming nonexistent, and overall less fan participation in sporting events. From our research we hope to find how professional teams are staying in touch with their fans via social media and other content consumption. We are especially looking to see how each sport differed in their own ways to involve fans more.

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  The Impact of COVID on Domestic Violence Impact and Services in Dayton and Beyond

  Lauren Marie Higgins

  This presentation will focus on how people experiencing domestic violence and the services that serve those people are impacted by COVID-19. I will be explaining the results of my project which were reached through the analysis of reports and articles, interviews with local service providers, and a literature review on the problems that already exist for people experiencing domestic violence. I will give background of domestic violence as an issue, and then provide insight into how COVID could be exasperating these issues. I will discuss how social distancing may be contributing to an increase in domestic violence, and how COVID may be impacting services as well as creating additional barriers to accessing services and impacting services financially. I will also discuss how COVID and racial injustice could be impacting people experiencing domestic violence by preventing them from reporting to police. Throughout the presentation I will be highlight the experiences of people experiencing domestic violence in Dayton and also how services in Dayton are responding to COVID-19. Finally, I will discuss my own conclusions and limitations, and make recommendations for how institutions can protect those experiencing domestic violence during the pandemic.

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  The Impact of Mental Health Spending on Recidivism and Prison Violence Within Ohio

  Sarah Presley, Emily I. Rau

  Since deinstitutionalization, the number of individuals incarcerated that have mental health challenges has dramatically increased. The correctional system has sought to reduce recidivism in multiple ways for individuals who have mental illnesses through court programs, diversion, and other community programs. The literature that focuses on a mental health services while incarcerated however, is not as extensive. There are services available to an individual once they are released from prison, however providing these services within the prison environment has not been evaluated as a potential solution for reducing recidivism for mentally ill individuals. Additionally, violence in prisons, specifically focused on those with mental illnesses is of concern. This research seeks to determine the relationship between mental health spending in prisons and its effect on recidivism rates, specifically within the state of Ohio. The research also aims to determine the relationship between violence within prison and mental health spending. This study will be conducted through expenditure analysis of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. With a large percentage of individuals currently incarcerated in the state of Ohio diagnosed with a mental illness, there is a need to know if increasing mental health services within prisons would have an impact on recidivism rates as well as prison violence.

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  The Impact of Metaperception on College Men's Students Development

  Justin Wilhite

  Chickering and Reisser (1993) developed seven vectors to student development to explain a student’s progression from their first year in college to their final year. Studies show that women often enter college already having developed through all seven vectors of student development: developing competence, managing emotions, moving from autonomy toward interdependence, establishing mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose and establishing integrity. Meanwhile men frequently do not develop through the first vector of student development in their final year of college. This study seeks to investigate why this problem with men exists in higher education by examining how much metaperception influences their development across the seven vectors. Metaperception is a person’s view of other people’s view of them. To investigate this phenomenon, five male undergraduate students from the University of Dayton were interviewed. The results pointed to common themes between the five men: they cannot open up to and/or be themselves around other men outside of their immediate circle, feel inadequate for not meeting the ideal masculine standards, and receive insults from others for not “correctly” performing masculinity. The participants also cited that familial influences contributed to the ways in which they perform masculinity. Results can give student affairs practitioners insight into how to mitigate the negative effects of metaperception on men.

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  The Impact of Nitric Oxide on the Growth and Proliferation of Listeria monocytogenes

  Mackenzie Taylor Martin

  Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is a foodborne, pathogenic bacterium that causes the illness listeriosis. The pathogenesis of L. monocytogenes can be impacted through the alteration of many different substances, pathways, and conditions. Varying nitric oxide levels have a well-documented impact on the spread of L. monocytogenes. Nitric oxide molecules are present in many cells and participate in diverse cellular functions, notably playing a significant role in the body’s immune response. Through the support of the Dean’s Summer Fellowship, students in Dr. Sun’s research lab investigated, summarized, and discussed current scientific literature related to the pathogenesis of L. monocytogenes. This presentation will detail the discussions related to the impact of nitric oxide on L. monocytogenes pathogenesis. Upon review of the literature, it is evident that the presence of nitric oxide results in enhanced L. monocytogenes infection. Nitric oxide production has been shown to be associated with enhanced bacterial infection of macrophages, protection against bactericidal mechanisms, and increased bacterial escape of L. monocytogenes. Furthermore, studies suggest that activation of the Nf-kB pathway, which is closely related to nitric oxide production, also enhances L. monocytogenes infection. An understanding of the impact of nitric oxide on L. monocytogenes infection has important clinical implications in developing therapies to mitigate infection as well as relevant research significance in the understanding of other complex pathways, such as the Nf-kB pathway.

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  The International and Intercultural Leadership Certificate: Becoming a Global Leader

  Julia Ann Ziemelis

  There are many articles, networks, summits and even foundations all based around the concept of becoming a global leader, but what does this mean? How does one become a global leader? Upon my first year at the University of Dayton, I knew I hoped to add an aspect to my degree to show my passion, care and appreciation for other cultures. I wanted to understand injustices occurring in our world today and broaden my ways of thought. I strived to learn more about what it means to be an intercultural leader. In this presentation, I will discuss the experiences that made adding the International and Intercultural Leadership Certificate to my degree so impactful and help shape me into a global leader.

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  The Laplace Operator on a Plane

  Meredith Ann McFarland

  The goal of this presentation is to show some properties of functions, defined on open domains of the Euclidean plane, that are solutions to particular partial differential equations which involve the Laplace operator. One important example is harmonic functions, which are solutions of the Laplace equation. The behavior of these functions, on bounded domains, encompass some interesting properties that are instrumental in several applications in physics and engineering.

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  The Living Wage and Human Rights Studies

  Faith Mary Gill, Melissa F. Moore, Emily Grace Puebla

  For this assignment, our team project will be taking on the topic of living wages. We will be taking on the goals from the UN that cover Decent Work and Economic Growth, as getting paid a living wage comes with what would be qualified as "decent work". A living wage would also help support economic growth. We would also aim to address Goal 10: Reduced inequalities, Everyone getting paid a living wage will help support the separation of inequality among social classes. One of the main questions we will hope to address is, “Does everyone at UD have a living wage / how many hours would a student have to work to pay for tuition." Our team's research focus will be on the University of Dayton. We will do research on different types of faculty and if they earn a living wage. Research is important because it gives us the information we need to come to a conclusion. Without research we would not know the answers to our questions and therefore could not advance our knowledge on the issues at hand. Research is a tool to achieve the set forward UN goals. We also will try and develop a better understanding of how much a student would have to work at given wages to pay off their tuition. We will utilize the university archives, online information, and our interview to gather information for our project. We will summarize this information in a podcast.

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  The Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse: theory, applications, and a generalization

  Benjamin C. Wilson

  The Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse is the more widely known generalization of the inverse of a matrix, and has applications in many areas including least squares. We present its definition, some of its properties and its connection with left and right inverses. We also discuss two different methods for computing the pseudo-inverse. Finally, we show its applications to the standard least-squares problems and propose a generalization of the pseudo-inverse using a general dot product on ℝ^n.

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  The Multi-Sensory Design of a Synesthete's Everyday Experience

  Madeline Murphy Spicer

  Perception, which can be defined as becoming aware of occurrences in the world through the senses, is different for every person (Merriam-Webster). My thesis deals with perception in the form of a condition called synesthesia and the communication of this condition using graphic design. Synesthesia is a condition that involves the involuntary crossing of the senses, resulting in multi-sensory experiences every time a synesthete absorbs the world and visible language. Utilizing the field of graphic design, I created several projects to communicate my three goals of conducting research on synesthesia, sharing what I experience every day, and educating others about synesthesia. I used the inspiration of many important sources about synesthesia to create a graphic design-centered action plan that included: a book I created, entitled Storybook of Synesthetic Discovery; research posters; and a visual song that utilize my visual perception of the world as a synesthete.

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  The Perception of Being Stalked and its Emotional Impact

  Samantha L. Lonsinger

  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, each year an estimated 14 in every 1,000 persons age 18 or older fell victim to stalking (Stalking). The impact that stalking can have on an individual has the potential to lead to a variety of mental health issues (Kilpatrick & Acierno, 2003). Victims of crimes such as stalking can experience extreme trauma which is one of the causes of depression. The mental health of victims needs to be studied so that effective counseling programs can be implemented across the globe. This project looks into the question, how does one’s perception of being a stalking victim impact their emotions? The hypothesis is that those who perceive the actions of others to be stalking will have a negative emotional response. The secondary data analyzed was pulled from the National Crime Victimization Survey: Stalking Victimization Supplement, 2006. The sample was a stratified multistage cluster sample that included 78,741participants. The correlation tests showed that whites are more emotionally impacted by the perception of stalking than non-whites and women were more emotionally impacted when they perceived that they had been stalked than men. More research is needed to develop a better understanding of the relationship between stalking and emotions.

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  The Potential Benefits of Sustainable Aviation Fuels with High Thermal Stability

  Lily Carolyn Behnke

  Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF’s) have proven to be a near term solution to minimizing net anthropogenic gas emissions produced by the aviation sector. While SAFs have the potential to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, their adoption is currently limited in part by the approval process (ASTM D4054) of developing fuels. Total energy content and thermal stability metrics of a potential SAF can add value and performance benefits. The metric of thermal-oxidative stability within the approval process measures the ability of a fuel to absorb heat without producing undesirable deposits. These coke deposits cause increased spread in exhaust gas temperature around the circumference of the combustor which in turn causes increased combustor emissions that negatively impacts turbine efficiency, and drives up CO2 emissions and fuel cost. Therefore, understanding the thermal stability metrics for SAF candidates is essential to reducing coking related airline maintenance costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and illuminating the full benefit of SAFs.

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  The Reduction of Stress in College Students Through Interactions with Pets

  Hanna Dwyer Stier

  This study focused on reduction of stress through different interactions between students and pets. Participants consisted of 31 females and 3 males from an Introduction to Psychology course. The amount of time participants interacted with the pet (5, 10, or 15 minutes) through activities such as feeding, talking, and playing served as predictors of stress reduction as measured with SVAS. The SVAS has participants indicate their current stress level before and after interacting with the pet by adjusting a marker between 0 (Not stressed at all) and 100 (The most stress imaginable). Post-intervention stress was subtracted from pre-intervention stress as an indicator of stress reduction. The results do not support the prediction that interacting with the pet through feeding reduces stress than interacting with the pet through talking which should reduce stress less than interacting with the pet through playing. Low statistical power due to a low sample size occurred as a limitation, leaving only a one in four chance for finding statistically significant results. For future research, the study can be conducted with a larger sample size. Keywords: interaction, stress

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  The Resident Assistant Role and Future Employability

  Carrie Arnold

  Undergraduate students experience learning in a number of ways both in and outside of the classroom, but research has failed to explore the specific employability skills gained by resident assistants through their role and the impact that these skills have on future employment. In response, this project sought to address the following questions: (1) What are the transferrable skills gained from being a resident assistant that are used in the workplace, (2) How have these transferrable skills aided in the advancement of previous RA’s careers? The researcher conducted interviews with five former resident assistants who have been graduated for at least five years. Results demonstrate several common employability skills gained through the resident assistant experience as well as specific instances where these skills are used to both gain and sustain employment. This study has implications for helping resident assistants understand how to best leverage their experience in order to secure gainful employment in the future.

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  The Rise of Online Protesting Following The Killing of George Floyd: A Content Analysis of Tweets Relating to George Floyd and Police Brutality

  Caroline Rose Nevius

  The overall purpose of this study is to explore the emergence of online protesting relating to police brutality and the themes that develop through it. I am concentrating on the death of George Floyd and how that event of police brutality has affected social media users. The research is designed to analyze the content of various tweets taken from Twitter with the hashtag #GeorgeFloyd and examine different issues and trends that appear in these tweets. Tweets were gathered from the month of June 2020, a month after the killing of Floyd, and more tweets were gathered in the month of October 2020. Systematic sampling was used to collect the tweets and inductive coding was used to determine the themes that emerged. Results indicate that social media is an important platform for sharing news, online protesting, and using social media to pay tribute to victims of police violence. The study gives evidence on how influential hashtags can be for protesting as well as forming collective identities.

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  Thermal Energy Production and Heat Exchange between an Electrochemical Cell and Its Surroundings

  Shane Kosir

  Thermal energy production in an electrochemical cell must be controlled to avoid its excessive heating and rupture due to the cell internal pressure rise; especially if the cell electrolyte is a solution of a salt in a liquid solvent. The scheme, used to develop the theoretical formulation presented in this work to predict cell temperature during its discharge, incorporates both the reversible production of thermal energy due to changes in enthalpy of the reactive system and the irreversible production of thermal energy due to cell voltage losses associated with the species transport in the cell electrolyte, electrode components, current collectors, and the electrochemical reactions involving charge transfer at the electrolyte-electrode interfaces. The developed theoretical formulation predicts the cell temperature as a function of time during the cell discharge period under adiabatic and nonadiabatic conditions for a given cell discharge current and its initial temperature. The computed cell temperature versus time data for an ideal (i.e., model) button cell are presented in the form of plots for some discharge currents and are discussed in the light of cell component thermal stability and its safe discharge operation.

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  The Role of Micronutrients in Parkinson’s Disease

  Madalynn J. Eads, Rachael Harmon, Hannah G. Waters

  Parkinson’s Disease is defined as the progressive neurodegenerative disorder that primarily affects dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Micronutrients, such as Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, and Zinc, have been found to help delay the onset of Parkinson’s-related symptoms. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to explore the relationship between various micronutrients and the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease. A concept map technique will be utilized to demonstrate the specific mechanism of action for each micronutrient and the interaction across micronutrients in Parkinson’s Disease.

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  The Thermo-Optic Coefficient of Photo-thermo-refractive Glass for Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

  Zayne Mitchell Parsons

  Photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass is used to fabricate volume Bragg gratings. The gratings are formed by exposing PTR glass to UV light interference patterns and then annealing the glass. This produces a grating by locally modulating the refractive index. The diffraction efficiency of these gratings is dependent on the refractive index modulation amplitude. We report the refractive indices of unprocessed and processed PTR glass at wavelengths from 0.4 to 4.6 microns and discuss their uses in specifying VBGs for laser beam combining.