Stander Symposium Projects

Follow

• 

  Active and Ultrasensitive Chemical and Biosensing through Optothermally Generated Microbubble

  Farzia Karim

  In this work a cost-effective, label free and ultra-sensitive chemical and biosensing method has been demonstrated for active sensing of analytes. Development of an affordable and ultrasensitive sensing methods is critical. The most challenge in this area is the efficient management of detection time and sensitivity of sensor. Most of the sensing systems reported in the literature usually apply a passive sensing method in which binding of analytes occurs after waiting for the analytes to freely diffuse towards the sensor. Due to this free diffusion, analytes usually take very longer times to diffuse on the sensor, and therefore becomes a diffusion-limited method. In order to overcome this diffusion limit, active sensing method can be used in which analytes are forced towards the sensor for active diffusion. In this work, a cost-effective and ultrasensitive chemical and biosensing platform has been developed under ambient condition to demonstrate an active sensing method. This method works based on an optothermally generated microbubble (OGMB); a micron-sized bubble which is generated on a liquid-solid interface through laser heating of metallic nanoparticles solution. Due to a strong convective flow induced by OGMB, nanoparticles are attracted towards OGMB and rapidly deposited on the surface of a substrate to fabricate a nanogap-rich structure. This structure forms many nanogaps which are ideal for surface enhance Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement due to the plasmonic resonance. Liquid solutions containing an analyte is attached on nanogap-rich structure to develop the chemical and biosensing platform. In addition, OGMB is used to locally concentrate anaylytes around nanogap-rich structure for active sensing. Active sensing can improve the detection limit of analytes by one order of magnitude compared to passive sensing. This active sensing method can overcome the diffusion limit of conventional sensing methods and paves a new way for advanced chemical and bio-sensing application.

• 

  A Cyte to See: An Exploratory Investigation of Hemocytes and Cellular Biomineralization in Crassostrea virginica

  Connor D. Holzer, Noah S. Leibold

  Biogenically constructed calcium carbonate is one of the most utilized raw materials in the modern world. Used in areas such as construction, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, electrochemistry, plastics manufacturing, and development of bioarmor. The usage of biological materials in a variety of industries is rapidly becoming commonplace especially with the societal movement towards sustainability and sustainable materials. One common biomaterial is that of the mollusc shell. Our research focuses on how the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, deposits shell. While the scientific literature is replete with reports on structure and composition of oyster shell, it is still uncertain where materials are synthesized within the oyster and more importantly how they are transported and assembled at the shell formation front. Elucidating the processes of synthesis, transport, and assembly are key aspects to understanding the mechanism of shell biomineralization. Expanding upon the previous research, the present study builds upon the potential role of oyster blood cells, specifically hemocytes, as participants in the complex process of shell formation.An exploratory notch-repair study was conducted to assess cellular hemocyte changes over a seven-day sampling period. All experimental oysters were notched on Day 1 and hemolymph samples were harvested every twenty-four hours for seven days; control (un-notched) hemolymph was also harvested at each timepoint. Hemocyte concentrations were determined using hemocytometry, and images of repair shell were taken at each time point. Our hypothesis is that total hemocyte counts will vary over the seven-day repair period as shell repair/deposition occurs.Our results show a significant decrease in hemocyte concentrations from days one through four and a robust overall fluctuation in cell numbers over all seven days following localized shell damage. These changes in hemocyte numbers suggest that cellular components of oyster blood may be participating in shell deposition/repair in damaged oysters. This research demonstrates a possible correlation between total hemocyte counts and the onset of visible shell repair in notched oysters. Additional research is warranted in order to more clearly understand the role of hemocytes in shell deposition.

• 

  Additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V lattice structures for use in orthopedic implants

  Dimitri Papazoglou

  The call for orthopedic implants is a growing concern with an ever-rising aging population. Current orthopedic implants provide good mechanical strength and stability, with some offering surface area bone growth. Lattice structures manufactured via laser powder bed fusion offer patient specific orthopedic implants with mechanical properties similar to bone, less weight and promotion of internal bone growth for better fixation. Two different lattice structures of cubic and diamond were printed in Ti-6Al-4V via an open architecture selective laser melting machine. These lattice structures have varied pore sizes of 400, 500, 600 and 900µm. Compression and tensile testing were performed to identify mechanical properties.. Properties needed to promote osseointegration are reviewed, such as pore size and geometry .

• 

  Additive manufacturing through opto-thermomechanical printing of nanoparticles at the nanoscales

  Md. Shah Alam

  Additive manufacturing or 3D printing at macro- and micro scale is well developed and widely used in different areas such as aerospace, automotive, military, optics and medical industries. However, 3D printing at nanoscale is still very challenging and researchers are striving to improve the manufacturing speed, accuracy, resolution at the nanoscales. This work demonstrates a cost-effective and rapid nanomanufacturing technique through opto-thermomechanical printing of nanoparticles which is capable of 3D printing at nanoscales. In this technique, a droplet of colloidal metallic nanoparticles solution is dried on a PDMS coated glass donor substrate. Nanoparticles are attached to the surface of the substrate due to Van der Walls attraction force. The individual nanoparticles are sequentially exposed to a focused laser beam. The exposed nanoparticle absorbs laser light and heats donor substrate which creates a thermal expansion force on the nanoparticle. As a result, nanoparticle is rapidly transferred to the receiver substrate. This technique enables selectively pick different types and sizes of nanoparticles in sequence and print them on the receiver substrate in a 2D or 3D patterns. One of the major distinct features of this technique is that the unwanted printed nanoparticles on the receiver substrate can further be removed by again applying opto-thermomecanical force, which can be used as correction step. The flexibility and versatility of this technique can facilitate the manufacturing of 2-D and 3-D devices for nanophotonics, microelectronics and energy harvesting.

• 

  A Different World: Examining Burnout in Live-On Residence Life Professionals

  Lexi Adams

  Higher education is faced with financial struggles, causing institutions to cut staff. In turn, the remaining staff take on additional work and projects. This research applies more to entry level professionals. For student affairs staff who live on campus and work and housing and residence life, they are in a different world than their colleagues who do not live in or live on campus. With additional work and a lack of work-life balance, housing and residence life professionals speak up about how they feel “burnt out.” This increases turnover rates at institutions and decreases the number of professionals in the field. Burnout can have an impact on mental, emotional, and physical health leading folks to experience emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased feelings of personal accomplishment in their work. The purpose of this study is to examine reported levels of burnout in live on residence life professionals. More specifically, it aims to see if there is a difference between reported levels of burnout for different gender identities. For this research project, I took a quantitative approach distributing the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators Survey which included 22 questions. I also asked three demographic questions including gender identity, geographical region, and institution type. Results suggest these professionals, particularly those that identify as a woman, experience high levels of burnout.

• 

  A Fast Algorithm for Solving the Kinematics of Hyper Redundant Robots

  Tiangang Chen

  Hyper redundant robots consist of many equal length rigid links connected by a large number of revolute joints. This significant number of joints gives the robot many degrees of freedom enabling it to function in highly constrained environments. This work introduces a methodology to solve the kinematics of a hyper redundant robot. Addressing the kinematics includes two issues. The first issue is to approximate a desired curve that specifies the configuration or shape of the robot. The second issue is to accurately position the tool at the end of the robot. These two issues are addressed by analyzing the desired curve describing the hyper redundant robot as piecewise linear similar to the analysis for generating target profiles in shape-changing mechanism theory. There are two advantages to this approach. First, the error will be small. Second, the speed of the calculation is fast.

• 

  American Trim

  Abigail Elizabeth Kinzel, Brooke Miklos Krausmann, Hannah Christine Lucas

  Bumper line WIP Rack Loop Optimization

• 

  Analyzing the Correlation Between Financial Aid and Graduation Rates at a Small, Private, Liberal-Arts Institution

  Adam Lohrey

  This research investigates the connections between risk factors for persistence at a small, private, midwestern institution (Wilmington College). The primary objective was to identify students with a high financial risk of withdrawal based on known risk factors at the time of enrollment while tracking rates of graduation from each risk-identified cohort. While this study establishes one performance-based control group with regard to academic readiness, additional controls can be applied including behavioral characteristics to better understand the attitudinal impact on persistence as identified by unique institutional identity. Understanding all existing risk factors to attrition is a necessary reality for those charged with improving student retention at a college or university. The existence of a tool to specifically measure one primary risk factor can only help isolate specific risks prior to a student’s withdrawal from the institution. Financial need as indicated by the student’s EFC can significantly impact retention and graduation rates for students in similar incoming first-time full-time freshmen academic cohorts at a small, private, 4-year liberal arts college. The desired outcome of this study is to inform future enrollment and retention actions at similar peer institutions based on the known correlation between ability to afford and rate of graduation.

• 

  An Assessment of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Diversity Following Tait Station Low Dam Removal

  Samantha Jean Berkley, Karrington Saige Ecker, Emma Claire Hiltner, Madison Spooner Johnson

  The goal of this project is to analyze how river habitat quality in the Great Miami River has changed after the Tait Station low dam removal that occurred in 2018 and how that has affected biodiversity of macroinvertebrates. Dr. Kavanaugh’s river researchers took kick and sweep net samples in the Fall of 2019, one year after low dam removal, in the exact location where the dam had stood. These samples will be sorted, identified, and used to generate a number of indices of biodiversity such as; number of taxa, species richness, numbers of EPT taxa, and the MAIS composite index. This data will be compared directly to the Miami Conservancy District report (Kavanaugh, 2016) which describes community conditions before the dam was removed. In this early report, the quality of the area surrounding the dam was rated “good” by the MAIS. We predict that biodiversity may have been reduced in 2019 due to disturbances to the river channel during low dam removal in 2018. However, a factor that may play an important role and could mitigate negative impacts was the extensive stream channel restoration that was part of dam removal. It's possible the constructed riffles and other stream bed restoration methods may have mitigated much of the predicted negative impacts. The implications of this study are valuable because low dam removal is a common river restoration tactic, but more research is needed on how this practice affects macroinvertebrate communities and habitat quality in the long run.

• 

  An Efficient Iterative Approach for Determining the Post-Necking True Stress-Strain Response of Aerospace Metals

  Luke Hoover

  To numerically simulate the plastic deformation of aerospace metals during extreme events (e.g., turbine engine blade-out/rotor-burst events and automotive crashworthiness assessment), accurate experimental knowledge of the metal’s hardening behavior at large strains is requisite. Tensile tests on thin (plane stress) specimens are frequently used for this purpose, with the metal’s large-strain plasticity ultimately captured by an equivalent true stress vs. equivalent true plastic strain curve. It is now well known that if axial strain is measured using an extensometer (either physical or virtual), the equivalent true stress-strain curve is valid only up to the onset of diffuse necking, when the strain field heterogeneously localizes in the specimen gage. A number of approaches have been proposed to correct the post-necking strain hardening response. Perhaps the most widely used technique involves inputting a suite of candidate post-necking true stress-strain curves into finite-element software; a tensile test simulation is run for each candidate curve, and the curve that produces the best agreement between simulation and experiment is ultimately adopted. In this talk, a novel variation of this iterative approach is presented that addresses some of its key deficiencies. Notably, we use local/pointwise in-plane Hencky (true) strain data from digital image correlation to generate an upper bound for the iterative simulation process, resulting in an efficient and computationally inexpensive post-necking correction procedure. Our approach is successfully demonstrated using experimental data for both wrought and additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.

• 

  An Evaluation of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Diversity Following Construction at RiverScape Metropark

  Madison Spooner Johnson, Meaghan Lees Lightfoot, Gretchen M Lozowski, Amanda R. Ratliff

  The goal of this project is to analyze how the macroinvertebrate community has changed over a period of two years following the construction of a kayak chute at RiverScape MetroPark. Dr. Kavanaugh’s river research laboratory took kick net, sweep net, and Hester-Dendy samples in the Great Miami River in the fall of 2017. These samples were collected both on and directly downstream from the kayak chute that was constructed a few months prior in the spring of 2017. The 2017 samples indicated that the macroinvertebrate community rated “poor” according to the composite Macroinvertebrate Aggregated Index for Streams (MAIS) diversity index. In order to determine if the macroinvertebrate community has improved since the kayak chute was constructed, a team of river researchers collected kick net, sweep net, and Hester-Dendy samples in the fall of 2019 in the same locations. The organisms from these samples were sorted and identified, then characterized based on total number of taxa, abundance of individuals in each taxon. We predicted that the community would exhibit significantly improved biodiversity according to the composite of metrics used in the MAIS and other biodiversity indices due to the length of time that has passed allowing macroinvertebrate populations to recolonize the areas following the initial disturbance. The outcome of this project will be significant because it will provide insight into how benthic macroinvertebrates were affected by the construction of a major in-stream structure, and their ability to recover from the disturbance.

• 

  An Evaluation of Mental Health Resources and Student Perceptions at the University of Dayton

  Anika Desloge

  The aim of this study is to examine perceptions of mental health resources at the University of Dayton. Previous scholarly research emphasizes that college students are at a high risk for experiencing mental health issues while not seeking or utilizing mental health resources on college campuses. Due to the rising prevalence of college students experiencing mental health problems, it is important to address the barriers students face when accessing mental health resources on campus. I begin by evaluating campus mental health resources through interviews with faculty and students who are connected with mental health resources in the public eye. After gathering information about these mental health resources, I constructed a resource map providing location and contact information for all available resources. In proceeding with my research I conducted surveys with undergraduate students (n=86). Findings from this mixed-methods evaluation study will provide information about how undergraduate students perceive mental health resources at the University of Dayton. These results can inform the University of Dayton of student knowledge/access and inform recommendations for improvements for campus mental health programs. Lastly, these findings also tell us about broader issues related to college and mental health such as stress levels, how students think about resources, and stigma attached to mental health.

• 

  Angry Tweets and Interest Groups

  Sean Newhouse

  Twitter is where much of the communication concerning politics happens. But little research has been done into which tweets are most successful at getting likes, retweets, and replies. Through a content analysis of more than 2,000 tweets from two pairs of diametrically opposed interest groups, this research aims to answer if tweets that include argumentative, or disagreeable, language receive more likes, retweets, and replies than tweets without argumentative language. The tweets were collected over a two-month period leading up to the 2018 Midterm elections, which includes the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The statistically significant data suggest that tweets with argumentative language do receive more public feedback than tweets without it.

• 

  A Novel Approach to Design Planar Four-Bar Linkages for Approximation Motion Synthesis

  Yizhen Cai

  A planar four-bar linkage can be synthesized to achieve at most five positions. Most useful design problems involve many more positions than this with the expectation that the four-bar mechanism will not accomplish the task exactly but will be close. Several methodologies have been proposed in the literature for solving this approximate motion synthesis challenge. Each of these methodologies has a metric central to it. This metric measures how well the mechanism performs at reaching the positions. As each methodology has its own metric, each produces a different optimal design. This research proposes a way to design a four-bar linkage for approximate motion synthesis that does not rely on a position metric. Not only does this produce a unique best solution, but it also provides a method for evaluating other approaches to solve the problem.

• 

  Antimicrobial Activity of Soil Isolates

  Madyson Jean Myers

  Antibiotics are used around the world to treat a variety of bacterial infections and diseases. Due to this wide usage, bacteria have built up antibiotic resistance that has caused many antibiotics to be an ineffective form of treatment. As more bacteria become resistant to common antibiotics, there is a rising demand for research in this field, and a need for the production of new and effective antibiotics. Antibiotics can be produced synthetically, but they may also be isolated from bacteria colonies displaying antimicrobial activities. When placed in an environment that has limited resources or where a pathogen is present, bacteria will produce antimicrobials in order to combat infection or fight off competition. In correlation with the Small World Initiative, the goal of this research is to observe bacteria isolates from soil samples and determine if any isolates display antimicrobial activities and if those antimicrobials can be extracted from the bacteria. Bacteria will be isolated from soil on UD property and reduced to pure cultures. Antimicrobial activities will be indicated through zones of inhibition produced in the presence of clinically relevant pathogens such as Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus epidermis. Bacteria that exhibit antimicrobial activity will be identified through further examination using a series of biochemical tests including gram staining, and catalase testing etc.. Identifying bacteria exhibiting antimicrobial activity is necessary to combat rising antibiotic resistance and in developing new antibiotics.

• 

  A Portable Impedimetric Biosensor for Determination of Bisphenol A in Drinking Water

  Birhanu Desta Alemayehu

  Bisphenol A (BPA) is an important chemical used predominantly as a monomer in the production of polycarbonate plastics, epoxy resins and food packaging. BPA can migrate out of polycarbonate (packaging) and contaminate food and drinks. Intake of BPA is potentially toxic to human health, even at low concentrations. Hence, a device that can detect BPA at trace levels is needed. However, current analytical methods for BPA detection require sample pre-treatment steps, time consuming, expensive and cannot be performed on-site. We present the development of a portable, rapid, cost-effective and ultra-sensitive impedimetric biosensor to determine the concentration of BPA in drinking/ tap water at trace levels. 2D materials or Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are used as conductive elements to fabricate electrodes/ films. Pulsed laser deposition is selected as thin film deposition technique due to the low temperatures involved and uniformity of the film, thus allowing deposition on any substrates. To enhance the sensitive and selectivity of the biosensor, the surface of the interdigitated electrode would be functionalized with enzyme. The ultimate goal of this work is to determine BPA at trace levels by analyzing the impedance spectrum of water diluted with different concentration of BPA over a range of frequencies and then publish the impedance data to a cloud computing interface where the data is logged and processed.

• 

  Application of International Human Rights & the Sustainable Development Goals to Dayton, OH

  Emily Rose Shanahan

  To become a Human Rights City, Dayton must align its laws and policies with human rights principles. The Sustainable Development Goals provides a thorough and concise outline of these principles. We have researched local issues, aligned them to each SDG and target, and connected them to the appropriate international human rights documents. Through this process, we have learned to localize international human rights documents and articles, become more connected through our community through a unique and meaningful lens, and gained a greater understanding of the utility of the SDGs. Hopefully, this research has laid the groundwork to mobilize Dayton to become a Human Rights City.

• 

  Application of Sustainable Development Goals to Dayton: Sustainable Cities and Communities

  Jasmine H. Riechmann

  Greater awareness of local issues: I am from Cincinnati, and we see many of the same issues, however I feel like the Dayton community is working more towards becoming a Human Rights City.

  Global connections: Many cities have the same problems as Dayton, and we can learn from their mistakes and what has worked for them.

  Application of international human rights: Human Rights do not just have to do with law, they also have involve a good quality life, which includes a safe, healthy, and adequate living situation and environment.

• 

  a safe haven online: Reddit [and its] framing [of] single fatherhood

  Kenosha Robinson-Washington

  This study investigates the framing of single fatherhood on online message boards. Current research illustrates a disproportion in parenting for single fathers, in comparison to the research done on single mothers. Due to the disproportion, there are various conversations that surround how single-father relationships are being talked about. I use content analysis to research how single-fathers use online message boards such as Reddit as support while raising their daughters. Narrowing to eleven online threads allowed me to appropriately record trends in the comments that were in regard to single fatherhood. My findings reveal that single fathers use Reddit as a source of support while raising their daughters, they ask challenging questions and receive a variety of responses and opinions. My findings also demonstrate that the dominant discourses on this platform are that there are in fact expectations of single fathers, discussion on how they navigate the daughter’s transition into puberty, and the general stereotypes of single fathers.

• 

  A Sex-Dependent Neurochemical Endophenotype Underlies Behavioral Alterations Induced by High-Fat Diet in Mice

  John Richard Coffey, Patrick Robert Flaherty, Ben Klocke, Sean Anthony Koeller, Madison C. Schulze, Connor F. Thelen

  Obesity is one of the most prevalent diseases, with a prevalence of over 42% according to the CDC. It is also known that obesity is associated with an increased risk for depression, however the precise mechanisms linking these disorders remain elusive. Further, depression is known to manifest itself differently in the two sexes. Unfortunately, preclinical research on the neurobiology of depression is conducted primarily in male rodents. Thus, understanding the sex-dependent mechanisms of obesity-induced depression is a critical understudied area of research. In the context of the current project, we investigated the sex-dependent response of mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce obesity. Our results show that male and female mice fed a HFD exhibit distinct depressive-like behavioral profiles. Moreover, sex-dependent neuromolecular mechanisms possibly underlie this response, as assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and western blotting. Interestingly, we found that the glutamatergic and serotonergic systems are differentially altered in key brain regions known to be affected in major depression. These data suggest a sex-dependent depressive-like behavioral phenotype is established in obese mice, and that this response is due to sex-differentiated neurochemical endophenotypes. Overall, these data are critically important in understanding the sex-dependent mechanisms of obesity-induced depression in males and females.

• 

  A Sibling Comparison Study of the Effects of Parenting Behaviors on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Problems

  John Paul Leibold

  Previous research has suggested that Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable disorder, however, recent evidence suggests that there may be complex gene and environment (GxE) interactions contributing to the onset of ADHD. A large number of studies have found that various social-environmental factors may influence the onset of ADHD. Specifically, parental factors such as parental harshness, parental responsiveness, and parental learning stimulation have been implicated in previous ADHD research. The analytical models of previous studies on parents’ and children’s behavior have been unable to control for genetic factors, leading to an inability to infer causal links between variables. Thus any previous evidence suggesting a link between parenting factors and child outcomes may be due to underlying genetic variables or co-occurring environmental risk factors. This study used a sibling comparison model to control for gene and environment confounds while looking at the relationship between parenting behaviors and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Problems (ADHP). The project investigated various parenting factors and children’s behaviors using a sample from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79). Parenting behaviors from the NLSY79 were evaluated through a short form HOME Inventory, while child behavior was evaluated through Behavior Problems Index (BPI) filled out by the mother. An association between learning stimulation and ADHP was found even after controlling for measured and unmeasured family background characteristics and previous ADHP. These results make it harder to rule out a causal link between parental learning stimulation and ADHP. Results from this study suggest future research on parenting and ADHD could help create a better understanding of how parenting affects children’s behavior.

• 

  A Spectroscopic Study of Photoswitching and Non-Photoswitching Azobenzene Derivatives in the Formation of Dynamic Aggregates

  Aaron Michael Day

  Molecular photo-switches find use in many different applications including the design of molecular machines, controlling liquid crystal orientation and photo-pharmacology to control the activity of drugs. Azobenzene is a well-known molecular photo-switch and its derivatives have been shown to aggregate into structures that are able to maintain their dynamic photoswitching capabilities. The capability of forming dynamic aggregates can be applied to many derivatives of azobenzene, however, few have been investigated. In this work, spectroscopic methods have been implemented to categorize, analyze and describe the behavior of the many aggregates that these derivatives can form alone or with each other. Through the application of these methods, Azobenzene-4,4’-dicarboxylic acid (ADA) and 4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-4’-carboxylic acid (M0423) were examined spectroscopically and found to undergo the onset of both homo- and hetero-aggregation at a pH of 5. UV-Vis spectroscopy confirmed that these molecular photo-switches formed H-aggregates with the highest order at a ratio of 2:1 M0423 to ADA. An additional photo-switch, Azobenzene-3,3’-dicarboxylic acid (A1598), was evaluated similarly and, when paired with M0423, also showed the formation of aggregates at a pH of 5 at a ratio of 2:1 M0423 to A1598. Aggregation was analyzed with CD spectroscopy, which showed high signals indicating a higher level of chirality and thus ordered aggregation. A blue shift was observed for this pairing, showing a tendency for H-aggregate geometry.

• 

  Assessing the Effect of Neuronal Calcium Dyshomeostasis on Sleep Using a Transgenic Mouse Model

  Aikaterini Britzolaki

  Sleep is an important of our daily routine; in fact, humans spend 1/3 of their day sleeping. Indeed, sleep is pivotal for neuronal survival and function, including learning and memory, by mediating the conversion of newly acquired information during wakefulness into long-term memory. In mammals, there are two states of sleep; the dream-occurring rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep, and the deep-sleep state, namely non-rapid eye-movement (NREM) sleep. These two states cyclically alternate during sleep, creating a distinct pattern. Notably, it is thought that the interaction of neuronal calcium (Ca2+) and potassium (K+) currents in the thalamus gives rise to the oscillations that generate the sleep spindles that promote NREM sleep. Considering that a constellation of intricate molecular pathways is involved in sleep regulation, disruption in any of these processes could elicit sleep deficits, which are typically observed in different neuropsychiatric disorders, including ADHD, schizophrenia, and autistic spectrum disorders. Despite the vast investigation on sleep architecture and its components, the neurobiology of sleep is not completely defined yet, and it remains a hot topic for debate among neuroscientists. Our group has identified a novel Ca2+-regulating protein expressed in the brain and we are demonstrating for the first time its implication in regulating sleep, using a gentically modified mouse strain. In the context of this presentation we will demonstrate overwhelming data derived from state-of-the-art electroencephalography (EEG)-based polysomnography, to support the pivotal role of this novel protein in the neurobiology of sleep.

• 

  Assessing the Effects of Acute Pharmacological Modulation of SERCA on Mouse Behavior

  Aikaterini Britzolaki, Claire C. Cronin, Nikolas A. Destephano, Patrick Robert Flaherty, Lesli Elizabeth Freetage, Charles Edward Hauff, Ben Klocke, Riely Legiralde Rufo

  Calcium (Ca2+) ions are potent regulators of cell fate, as they carry essential information for survival and function. Neuronal cells are no exception to this; Ca2+ is critical for neuronal cell function and survival and intrinsic Ca2+-cycling aberrations have a detrimental effect on cell fate, long-term potentiation (LTP), learning and memory. Subsequently, Ca2+-signaling dysregulation is associated with a wide range of debilitating neurological disorders, of which the underlying mechanisms are yet unclear. It is well established that Ca2+-distribution in the cell is regulated by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and that the major regulator of Ca2+ influx into the ER is the sarco-/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA). Indeed, comprehensive studies have associated SERCA dysregulation with severe brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and cerebral ischemia. Interestingly, SERCA activation has recently been proposed as potential therapeutic target to treat some of these debilitating disorders. Hence, in the current preliminary study, conducted in the context of the "Neurobiology Laboratory" course (BIO415L; Fall 2019), we assessed the acute pharmacological effects of a SERCA-modulating agent on mouse behavior by using well-established mouse paradigms.

• 

  Assessing the Efficacy of Seedling Planting as a Forest Restoration Technique in Temperate Hardwood Forests Impacted by Invasive Species

  Michaela Jean Woods

  The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire; EAB) is an invasive insect that causes mortality of trees in the genus Fraxinus, creating canopy gaps that may facilitate invasion by exotic plants. Planting native tree seedlings under EAB-infested Fraxinus may accelerate succession and preclude invasive plant expansion; however, the effectiveness of this approach has not been experimentally tested. We assessed understory seedling planting of Quercus rubra, Carya laciniosa, and Juglans cinerea in EAB-infested forests, where the invasive shrub Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle) was removed. We tested whether the use of plastic tree shelters (“tree tubes”) or planting season (fall versus spring) contributed to the success of the reforestation plan by measuring growth rates (cm/yr) and survivorship two and seven years after planting. After seven years, seedling survivorship was < 25% for all species and planting techniques. Quercus rubra exhibited poor survivorship with one seedling surviving to the conclusion of the experiment. Juglans cinerea and C. laciniosa had higher survivability and growth rates than did Q. rubra after two and seven years. Effects of tree tubes were weak and temporary. After 2 years, Q. rubra seedling survivorship was higher in tree tubes; however, by the end of the experiment 29 of the 30 Q. rubra seedlings in tree tubes had died.Juglans cinerea seedlings grew faster when planted in the fall compared to the spring, but overall survivorship of these seedlings was unaffected by planting season. Neither the use of tree shelters nor the planting season contributed to the growth or survival of C. laciniosa seedlings. In summary, our results indicate that seedling planting of Carya and Juglans may be a useful way to increase biodiversity in regenerating forests; however, the resource-expensive processes of over-wintering seedlings and using tree shelters may not increase the success of reforestation efforts.