Stander Symposium Projects

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  Future Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on Miami, Florida, USA.

  Hannah Reid Butler

  This project aims to analyze the impacts of sea-level rise on the coastal city of Miami, Florida. Rising temperature is causing the melting of land-based glaciers and the thermal expansion of the ocean. Both of these factors have led to sea-level rise. This will affect people living in coastal areas. Using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach, this project will first identify inundated areas based on future sea-level rise projections for the year 2100. The census blocks inundated by this rise will then be analyzed based on socioeconomic factors such as race, income, and age. This information will identify any demographics being affected by these issues of climate change. This project will give insight into the affects of future climate change and give those who will be affected a chance to prepare and build resilience to these changes.

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  Gas Chromatography Applications: Ethanol concentration and SCFA Detection in Listeria

  Paul Robert Maricocchi

  Gas Chromatography (GC) is a separation technique for volatile compounds that involves the vaporization of a sample through an injector. Then, the vaporized sample is carried by a gas moving through a stationary phase (column) packed with a gel or a solid until reaching a detector. Recently, the CME department acquired a GC system with exchangeable detectors and columns to promote teaching and research within the program. During the 2018 Spring semester, the gas chromatography equipment was mastered by learning its fundamental aspects and correct functioning. This summer, through the SURE program and to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration across Units and Departments within the University of Dayton, this work developed GC analytical methods for use both in the classroom and in research for the identification of various compounds. A method was developed for the Senior level CME Unit Operations course, on which ethanol and water samples from a distillation column are analyzed to determine the composition of the binary mixture. In terms of research, Dr. Vasquez’s NEMlab is also interested in determining the concentration of ethanol in water after liquid-liquid extraction using castor oil and magnetic nanoparticles coated with biopolymers from trees. Additionally, Dr. Sun’s microbiology lab works with a bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes as its model organism, and there is an interested in determining short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) as a new form of biomarkers whose concentrations can be linked to health. Specifically, the lab is interested in the amount of SCFAs that are produced by Listeria, and requested the development of a GC method for this purpose, which was successfully generated using a new column and a flame ionization detector. Both characterization methods were successfully created and saved on the GC instrument and will have a significant impact in the advancement of interdisciplinary research efforts at UD.

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  Generation of Silver Nanoparticle Pharmacokinetic Profiles in a Lung Model

  Rachel Marie Galaska, Stephanie A Miller

  Nanomaterial technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent in consumer and industrial applications, including drug delivery, energy harvesting, environmental applications, and medicine due to their unique physiochemical properties. As nanomaterial use increases, so too does human exposure. This has made it progressively more important to understand the toxicological effects of nanomaterials and their interactions with the human body. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most commonly used nanomaterials due to their antibacterial properties. As inhalation is one of the most common exposure routes, understanding the toxicity of these AgNPs on lung tissue was studied. Using A549 cells for a lung tissue model, AgNPs of two sizes, 10 nm and 50 nm, and two different coatings, citrate and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), were studied. Toxicity analysis was performed to determine the effects of dose on cell viability. Pharmacokinetic profiles in static conditions were developed using deposition analysis. Future work will include deposition analysis on dynamic conditions to replicate conditions within a body. This work is part of a larger project to develop an enhanced microcellular model (EMM) to bridge the in vitro - in vivo gap and characterize nanomaterials, evaluate biological responses, and develop pharmacokinetic profiles.

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  Geospatial Wetland Vulnerability Assessment in Greene County, Ohio

  Tessa Louise Farthing

  Wetlands are an important component of the natural environment. They improve water quality, provide an ecosystem for a great amount of biodiversity, and act as a form of natural flood mitigation. Groundwater eutrophication from various sources of pollution can cause changes in microbial, marine, and plant ecology and therefore require the necessary management practices of the areas. In this study, we analyzed a range of environmental factors to determine the vulnerability to contamination for the Greene County, Ohio wetlands. An index of susceptibility was calculated based on specific parameters of the EPA DRASTIC groundwater assessment method. The specific factors utilized in this study were depth to water, net recharge aquifer media, and topography. In addition, we incorporated land use and other potential sources of pollution to create a more inclusive set of parameters. A geostatistical analysis was conducted to determine the amount and location of wetland areas in Greene County that are subject to a high index of susceptibility. Defining the susceptibility of wetlands helps in decision making for sustainable urban planning as well as determining the wetland areas that are at the highest risk for pollution and may require the most time and funding for research and management practices.

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  GIS-Based Habitat Suitability Analysis for the Eastern Hellbender

  Emma C Yanosko

  The Eastern Hellbender is North America’s largest amphibian species and is in great danger of extinction. A good understanding of its spatial distribution is very important because the species is a biological indicator for good water conditions. Keeping this vital species off the endangered list is advantageous for preserving biodiversity in our streams. The aim for this project is to determine the most suitable habitat range for the Eastern Hellbender based on the factors that most affect its distribution. First, we will identify the most significant factors that are affecting the population of the hellbender. The six factors chosen are as follows: land cover, elevation, slope, water temperature, water pH, and proximity to dams. A suitability map will be created for each of the criteria. All of the six suitability maps will be overlaid to create a complete suitability map. This suitability map will then be compared to the actual current species range of the Eastern Hellbender so that its accuracy can be assessed. This information could provide insights into the species dynamics, as well as the design of protection plans and conservation strategies.

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  GlacierNet: A Deep Learning Architecture for Debris-Covered Glacier Mapping

  Zhiyuan Xie

  The global temperature has been continuously increasing over the past decades. The effect of temperature increase can directly affect the health, dynamics, and processes of alpine glaciers. In this research, the convolutional neural network (CNN), which is a deep learning, feed-forward neural network, is applied to the Landsat era satellite images for automated mapping of debris-covered glaciers. Our preliminary results indicate high accuracy in glacier mapping, a major step in developing a fully automated methodology for glacier mapping.

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  Global and Gene Specific Regulation in Response to Physiological State in Freeze Tolerant Anuran Dryophytes chrysoscelis

  Elizabeth Claire Sinnathamby

  Cope’s Gray Treefrog, Dryophytes chrysoscelis, seasonally tolerates freezing. During this process, it is subject to cellular stress from factors such as metabolic starvation, DNA damage, toxin accumulation (from cellular metabolism), and the risk of protein misfolding. Preliminary transcriptome data indicates that many mRNA transcripts vary in relative abundance within hepatocytes of D. chrysoscelis during discrete periods of warm acclimation, cold acclimation, freezing, and thawing . Physiological changes that occur in this frog are likely the result of epigenetic regulation—an alteration in gene expression that does not influence DNA sequence. This modification in gene expression can be observed by the subsequent change in relative abundance of mRNA transcripts. This thesis investigates the relative abundance of several mRNA transcripts for (1) methyltransferase genes that mediate some epigenetic regulation by transferring methyl groups (global regulation) and (2) genes that mediate stress responses contributing to freeze tolerance (local regulation). All of the genes selected are orthologous counterparts to those found in humans. We hypothesize that methyltransferases important to the freezing process will be differentially regulated (either up-regulated or down regulated) compared to the warm condition, whereas stress genes that enhance the survivability of the frogs during freezing will be up-regulated and those that are metabolically costly will be down-regulated. These results demonstrate trends in mRNA expression within four biological groups (warm acclimated, cold acclimated, frozen, and freshly thawed) that may be relevant to the freezing process. mRNA was isolated from livers of frogs within the four biological groups at the time they were sacrificed. cDNA was created and relative abundance was identified using RTqPCR techniques. Results were analyzed using ΔΔCt logarithm to calculate fold change. Deeper understanding of physiological processes that either contribute to or are metabolically costly to freeze tolerance may have future applications in human tissue banking and cryopreservation of organs for transplants.

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  How College Students are Bringing Solar to Their Cities

  Sam Powell Dasco, Theresa Isemann, Colin Joern, Melissa M Padera

  RE-volv is a national non-profit whose mission is to empower communities to learn about and afford renewable energy. Empowerment has become a buzzword in today's society; what does empowerment look like on a practical level? This poster will explore the methodology in which college students were empowered to organize one of the inaugural chapters of RE-volv and successfully raise over $32,000 for a Dayton non-profit to offset 100% of their electricity use. Students did this while educating over 400 campus and community members about solar energy. Successes and failures, motivations of internal and external partners, and the overall crowdfunding process will be explained in order to define what empowerment looked like for these students.

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  How Representation During a College Visit can Influence a Student of Color’s Decision to Attend a Predominately White Institution

  Deidre Danielle Luckett

  Students attend campus visits hoping to gain an understanding of what universities can offer them as students. Universities have shifted their focus to creating visitation experiences where students feel a sense of belonging before they even apply. Due to the growing understanding of the positive influence of representation, many schools are beginning to showcase campus diversity through various multicultural visitation experiences and making stronger efforts to include diverse groups of students (Boyington, 2017). The purpose of this quantitative research study is to examine how students’ decision of college choice is influenced by the racial/ethnic representation present during their college visit at a predominately white institution. A survey was distributed to current undergraduate students of color at the University of Dayton to reflect upon their experiences during their college visit and how the presence of other students of color, faculty, and staff contributed to their decision to attend the University of Dayton and their overall sense of belonging. This study combines the frameworks of college choice with the students’ needs of positive representation and an environment where they feel they belong.

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  Human-eyewear device interaction

  Vamsi Charan Adari

  The purpose of this project is to address the problem of interaction between the user and eye-wear devices. In particular, our framework recognizes audio instructions, hand gestures, and human gazes and translate them into commands. First, the audio input from the user is recognized and converted to text by using speech to text recognition system. Second, hand gestures are recognized based on the movements of finger tips in multiple frames. Third, the human gaze is computed as the average of the two distances captured from both eyes. To demonstrate these commands, we developed two applications to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new way of interaction. The first application projects a 3D model explorer that can be manipulated through the commands that we programmed to expand, rotate, or reset. The second application projects a solar system that demonstrates the ability for these commands to interact with multiple virtual objects. This advancement in eye-wear device interaction will facilitate the usability of eye-wear devices with virtual objects moving forward.

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  Hurricane Harvey hits the prairie: how are grassland insect communities affected by a hurricane?

  Bridget Marie Caffrey, Emily Elizabeth Jones, Ryan William Reihart

  Although hurricanes are pervasive disturbances along the Gulf Coast, we know little about how they affect the organisms living in rare coastal tallgrass prairie ecosystems. We especially know little about how they affect organisms other than plants, especially insect communities that are crucial to prairie functioning. Hurricanes cause flooding and deposit lots of marine-derived nutrients; both of these effects could greatly affect insect composition. We predicted that insect communities would have greater effects on litter insects than aboveground insect communities, and that overall insect abundance would be lower after a hurricane. We sampled insects in the litter by pitfall traps and aboveground vegetation by sweep-netting both before (litter=1 year pre-hurricane and aboveground vegetation=2 years pre-hurricane) and after Hurricane Harvey that hit our field site in 2017. We found that insect abundance was lower in the litter and aboveground after the hurricane, and that the composition of insects in the litter and aboveground was very different after the hurricane hit. We hope to test in the future whether effects on insects are driven by flooding versus the deposition of marine-derived nutrients. As hurricanes are predicted to grow in intensity and frequency, the results of this experiment are very important in managing insect communities in these rare ecosystems.

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  Identifying Antibiotic Producing Microbes

  Veronica K West

  Antibiotics were first discovered accidentally in 1928 and then purposefully synthesized to help combat bacterial infections. In the relatively short time since their discovery, many bacterial species have developed resistance mechanisms to these antibiotics. Due to the ability of pathogens to rapidly proliferate, beneficial mutations to increase their fitness in their environment have helped pathogens respond to antibiotics relatively quickly. The importance of discovering novel antibiotics to combat resistant strains is increasingly important. The Small World Initiative utilizes student researchers across the world to isolate new antibiotics to combat the intensifying antibiotic resistance dilemma. The goal of this research is to use bacteria isolated from soil to test their antibiotic producing abilities against a variety of previously known antibiotic resistant pathogens, termed ESKAPE pathogens. The gram-positive pathogen, Enterococcus faecium, specifically demonstrates antibiotic susceptibility to a few of the soil isolates. The susceptibility is confirmed by zones of inhibition which indicate that the isolate is producing antibiotics to which E. faecium is not yet resistant. The isolates that exhibit antimicrobial activity against the pathogens will be identified through a process of Gram staining, catalase testing, and other biochemical tests. The purpose of these tests is to identify new antibiotics that can be used to help combat antibiotic resistant pathogens.

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  Identifying Natural Inhibitors of Bacterial Efflux Pumps

  Marrisa Ann Therriault

  Antibiotic resistance is a constantly progressing epidemic. Many strains of bacteria have developed a resistance to antibiotics, resulting in prolonged sickness and death. Resistance can be to a specific drug (single drug resistance) or to multiple drugs (multi-drug resistance). This resistance can be caused by a tripartite protein pump called an efflux pump that extends through the inner and outer membranes of the bacterium to pump antibiotics from the inside of the cell to the extracellular environment. In E. coli, the efflux pump is called AcrAB-TolC. In an effort to combat the problem of multidrug resistance, I sought to identify inhibitors of the AcrAB-TolC pump by screening extracts made from edible plants. I identified one plant extract that appears to block efflux pump activity in live E. coli cells and can sensitize the cells to the antibiotic, carbenicillin.

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  If we build it, will they come? Insect communities as indicators of restoration in an urban prairie network

  Amanda N Finke, Beth Margaret Fuchs

  The increasing negative effects of human impact on Earth has led to the urgent need for large-scale ecological restoration. One ecosystem of particular interest is tallgrass prairie, which is one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems. However, restored and constructed prairies often do not support the same biodiversity and ecosystem services as remnant prairies. Most restoration projects only focus on reinstating vegetation, assuming other trophic levels will colonize on their own. One of these taxonomic groups are arthropods, which make up a majority of the biodiversity in prairies. We sought to determine if there is a difference in the arthropod communities of constructed and remnant prairies. It was hypothesized that arthropod communities would be different, and older constructions would more closely resemble remnants. Indicator species could be identified, which possess certain functional traits (morphological or life history) that allow them to colonize these sites. Sweepnet samples (100 sweeps per site) were taken at 5 constructed prairies and 5 remnant prairies in 2017, and 7 constructed prairies and 6 remnant prairies in 2018. All arthropods were sorted to order, and some orders to morphospecies. We saw that in 2017, Coleoptera (beetle) abundances were higher in remnants compared to constructions (p=0.04). In particular, Phalacridae (shining flower beetles) could be possible indicator species for restoration in prairies. Preliminary data from 2018 shows that the number of Phalacridae increases with the age of the constructed site (R²=0.47). These results suggest that insect communities are different in the two prairie types and certain species of arthropods are not being restored in one or two years, but rather over long periods of time as late-successional species are able to colonize. These results could have large implications on how tallgrass prairies are restored and managed, and how these ecosystems should be assessed for restoration.

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  Immigrant and Refugee Struggles in Education

  Charlotte A Mahoney, Elena Jean Niese

  The student population of the educational system in America is being flooded with a multitude of culturally diverse needs, language being one of these important factors that impact a student’s success. One of the populations that is becoming increasingly affected is that of refugees. Being the recipient of two-thirds of the resettled refugee populations, the United States has found a furthering need to accommodate the inclusivity and academic success of these students in the classroom. This is present in communities across the world, and a common theme in the United States and other countries is the interactions of minority populations with the dominant culture. As bicultural and bilingual students enter education systems, teachers are adjusting their methods in order to accommodate this population of students. This includes respecting the student’s first languages (L1) while integrating their acquisition of the second language (L2). Schools, in addition to a student’s home life and other communities, serve an integral role in encouraging healthy development of students’ languages. By recognizing the importance of students’ backgrounds and cultures, schools can help their students strengthen their identity and what they value.

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  Impact of a Catholic and Marianist University Experience on Career and Education

  Anna Kathleen Wilhelm

  A number of students choose to attend religious universities based on their personal beliefs, or faith practices that they hope to further develop while in college. However, the particular values or skills established during college may or may not continue to manifest themselves as individuals advance in their careers or education. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of a Catholic and Marianist university experience on one’s career and/or further education. More specifically, we aim to learn more about how alumni of Marianist universities in the United States feel that their Catholic and Marianist education has influenced their career journey and/or experience in earning additional degrees. This qualitative study includes interviews with alumni of Catholic and Marianist universities in the United States and seeks to determine the impact of their Catholic and Marianist college education on their careers and further education. Insights from this study can be used to inform practice specifically at Catholic and Marianist universities, as students prepare for their careers and/or further education.

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  Impact of Classroom Quality and Preschool Experiences on Executive Functioning

  Shelbie Nicole Weightman

  From a young age, executive functioning begins to develop in children. Executive functions are a group of cognitive processes that are important for processing speed, working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. These skills typically begin to develop drastically around the time children are entering the preschool years. However, research has shown that poverty can negatively impact the development of executive functioning due to the lack of resources available. There is evidence that chronic exposure to poverty and chronic exposure to certain psychological stressors related to poverty can predict children’s executive functioning at four years-old (Raver, Blair, & Willoughby, 2013). On average, children who are poor have much lower starting points and cognitive growth slopes later on throughout childhood (Raffington, Prindle, & Shing, 2018). I am interested in strategies that can combat this issue and reduce the gap in executive functioning skills between children from different family incomes. A high-quality, teacher-child interaction involving classroom organization and emotional support has been shown to have a great impact (Choi, Castle, Williamson, Young,Worley, Long, & Horm, 2016). Along with this, incorporating mindfulness-based prosocial skills curriculum into the early ages of education has also shown to help close the gap in executive functioning, as well as social-emotional development (Flook, Goldberg, Pinger, & Davidson, 2014). In both of these strategies, the children from low-income backgrounds had the largest gains. We will investigate the correlations between higher quality elements of the classroom environment and preschoolers’ growth in executive functioning skills. Data will come from a large-scale longitudinal study of preschool school readiness skills development.

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  Impact of Parental Involvement in the use of Adaptive eBook Technology on Preschoolers' Math Skills

  Patrick Caleb Ehrman

  By the time students in the United States reach the fourth grade, the majority do not perform at or above the level of proficiency in mathematics (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2017). A child’s education in mathematics begins at a very young age. One method by which children are introduced to the basic concepts of math is number books. Traditional number books have been found to be successful in promoting mathematical knowledge, but are stagnant in their difficulty, leaving parents to discern ambiguously when their child is ready to move onto more difficult problem-solving (Elia, Heuvel-Panhuizen & Georgiou, 2010). The present study seeks to discern the effectiveness of new eBook technology, as well as the impact parents have on their children's ability to learn. Specifically, does a discrepancy in the magnitude of the pictures in counting books lead to better learning and does the eBook facilitate learning that overcomes a parent’s anxieties in math. Two different eBooks will be read to thirty randomly selected parent-child pairs at the Dayton Metro Library during their summer Family Story Time sessions. Children will be ages 3-5. A survey will be used post reading to measure the parents’ predisposition towards liking or disliking math, as well as their current methods of math instruction in the home. The results of this study will be assessed using a paired samples t-test. This study predicts that the eBook containing discrepancies in image magnitude will facilitate higher quantity and quality of math-based discourse between parent and child. Additionally, the eBook formatting will help combat the impact a parent’s math anxiety has on their child.

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  Implementing Energy Saving Behaviors in Low-Income Communities

  Jenn Margaret Hoody

  The necessity to combat climate change is on the rise as more and more studies are revealing the catastrophic outcomes if the current trends of energy consumption do not change. Residential programs to promote energy savings and reduce consumption are being enacted to decrease the greenhouse emissions due to home energy usage. However, thus far, little to no measures have been taken to extend the reach of such programs to low-income communities. Reducing household energy consumption would be extremely beneficial as it would lower utility bills for low-income households who spend a substantially greater portion of their income on energy bills compared to other households. While installation of energy efficient appliances is a dominant component in energy reduction, adopting energy behavior has the potential for significant savings. Research is being conducted to determine the most effective techniques necessary to successfully promote and enact energy reduction behaviors in low-income communities based upon peer-to-peer methods. Through a program that will track and analyze thermostat and consumption (energy and water) data in a low-income neighborhood in Dayton, behavioral models will be designed and implemented to deduce what education and intervention methods produce optimal energy behavior results, how demographics impact energy behaviors, and what factors most strongly correlate to an increase or decrease in energy consumption.

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  Importance of Data Compilation in Regards to Understanding Fuel Property Effects on Gas Turbine Combustor Ignition

  Travis C Meyer

  Since the late 19th century, Earth’s average temperature has risen approximately 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit. This is in part due to an overall increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere. If the level of emissions continues to rise at the current rate, we will continue to see the detrimental effects including rising sea levels, an increase in forest fires, and ocean acidification impacting ecosystems and human civilization. As an attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change, the aviation industry is looking towards alternative jet fuels (non-petroleum derived fuels) as a solution. Programs such as the National Jet Fuel Combustion Program (NJFCP) and JET Program are working to improve the commercialization of these alternative jet fuels. Fuel property research would aid NJFCP and JET in accomplishing their missions by increasing their understanding of figures of merit (FOM) in fuel performance, namely lean blowout, high-altitude relight, and cold start ignition due to the fuel properties. Data mining fuel properties such as viscosity and surface tension within a specific temperature range allows these programs to better understand the FOM of the fuel. Ideally, this work would reduce carbon-foot print, support surrogate development, and improve commercialization of alternative jet fuels.

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  Importance of high resolution precipitation isotope datasets for climate change studies

  Alyssa Nicole Forristell

  Climate change has an unprecedented effect on the hydrologic cycle and could impact water resources. However, the link between climate patterns, atmospherics processes and water availability is poorly known. This is largely the case in a drought sensitive region of the world where direct observations of climate are limited. As conservative dual tracer, stable isotopes of oxygen (18O) and deuterium (2H) in precipitation can provide an integrated view of the hydroclimate. In Ethiopia, there is one long-term (1961-2016) monthly precipitation isotope monitoring station in Addis Ababa. However, the data from this station deviates from expectations given its inland location and high altitude, making the generalized framework usually used to interpret isotopic data in hydrology and paleoclimate studies difficult. Moreover, the reasons for these anomalously high values are poorly understood. To understand what drives these anomalously high isotope values in Addis Ababa, we analyzed 50 daily precipitation samples collected in the main rainy season (June-September 2018). Our result shows that the daily amount weighted monthly averages from this study are similar to the long-term data in Addis Ababa. The two data sets also show a similar trend throughout the rainy season with the lowest isotopic values in August. Despite theses similarities, the daily isotope measurements exhibit larger range that the long-term monthly data in Addis Ababa. Our high-resolution daily isotope dataset could provide new insights into the climatic controls on the isotopic composition of rainfall in Ethiopia and understand hydroclimate variability today and in the past.

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  Improvement in Jet Aircraft Operation with the Use of High-Performance Drop-in Fuels

  Shane Kosir

  The implementation of high performance drop-in jet fuels (HPFs) from alternative feedstocks can provide economic benefits to airlines, while contributing to emissions reduction. HPFs offer several operational and economic advantages compared to conventional jet fuel, including improved specific fuel consumption and lower sooting. HPFs that exhibit high specific energy [MJ/kg] and energy density [MJ/L] can increase mission range, payload, and seat capacity. As commercial airlines in the US spend close to 135 billion USD per year on jet fuel, it follows that small increases in the specific energy and energy density of jet fuel can save airlines millions of dollars annually in fuel cost. Three approaches were taken in conjunction to bound HPF economic benefits: identification and calculation of properties for bio-derived molecules via quantum chemistry methods, utilization of ant colony optimization to determine blends of conventional and “specialty” molecules that meet HPF specifications, and simulation of flights to correlate HPF performance increases to economic benefits for airlines. Optimization indicates that alkylated cyclohexanes have significant performance benefits when used in HPFs while helping achieve drop-in operability properties. The creation of HPFs with high concentrations of mono and dicycloalkanes can potentially allow for the removal of aromatics from the fuel, which are widely accepted as being major contributors to soot formation during combustion.

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  Improving Object Detection with Dual Mask R-CNN

  Yunheng Liu, Jinnan Yan

  Object detection is crucial for real-world applications like the self-driving vehicle, search and rescue missions, and surveillance systems. Therefore, it is essential to accurately detect all objects in the field of view. While cutting-edge technologies like Mask R-CNN work in specific regions in images, therefore, some image regions are usually ignored one object is covered partially by the other. In our project, we improve the performance of object detection through a dual mechanism. In particular, our proposed framework removes the already-detected objects in the original image, then perform the detection process once again to force the attention to the ignorable regions. The final results are obtained by merging the two sets of detection results. We conduct experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

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  In Addition to Improving Memory for Paintings, Self-generation of Elaborative Titles Increases Aesthetic Preferences

  Terah Lee Blakemore, Chloe Michelle Clark, Abigail T Flower, Tessa Nicole Jatczak, Hannah M Propes, Rachel Marie Yeager, Yu Zhao

  Aesthetic preferences are influenced by factors such as context surrounding art (e.g., titled photographs; Millis, 2001). In addition, self-generation of context information influences the strength of memory, in general. The present study examined the influence of titles that are participant-generated on aesthetic preferences and memory for paintings. For each painting, there were two types of titles generated: elaborative (evoking a deeper thought process, such as “Water Sustains Life” for a painting of a bridge over a stream) or descriptive (naming objects in the painting, such as “Bridge over Water.” All participants were first exposed to paintings without titles. Participants were then exposed to the same paintings in a different order and generated their own titles consistent with either elaborative or descriptive titling instructions and were asked questions assessing preferences: if they liked the painting, if they would buy the painting, and if they would hang the painting in their home. Control participants also rated the paintings, without the titles and without generating titles. After the ratings, all participants completed a task to distract from rehearsing memory for the paintings, and then viewed the original paintings intermingled with paintings not seen earlier to test their memory for the original paintings. We hypothesized that participants would exhibit greater preferences and better memory for paintings with self-generated elaborative titles than for those with self-generated descriptive or no titles. Our earlier research found that preference and memory were stronger for the paintings with elaborative and descriptive titles than for those with no titles. However, memory and confidence in the accuracy of memory was stronger for paintings with descriptive than for those with elaborative or no titles. The results of the present experiment suggest that the deeper cognitive processing of self-generated elaboration enhances an aesthetic experience when viewing paintings and makes the paintings more memorable.

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  Inclusion in Schools for Students with Disabilities

  Elizabeth Downey Hanold, Aine Rosaleen Harless, Christina M Zaso

  Schools around the world struggle to include students with disabilities in the classroom environment. Through the combination of individual research, the information provided shows that the inclusion of students with disabilities in the classroom lets all students make greater strides in their academic successes through the diverse learning levels. This diversity decreases the stereotypes that surround those with disabilities when their neurotypical peers see all their shared characteristics. Inclusion fosters strong relationship formation between students with disabilities and students in general education. Inclusion with peer support arrangements create a classroom that is full of success.The connection peers get to make with the students with disabilities helps the overall well being of students by allowing peers and students with disabilities to both thrive inside the classroom and receive benefits from this learning experience. When educators teach students with disabilities strategies that improve their learning, students are better able to articulate and express their ideas. This allows students with disabilities to more confidently engage in the classroom, but also with the attention and help they need from the teacher because of their disabilities, these students will begin to see and take pride in their academic success. Inclusion of students with intellectual and learning disabilities creates a more diverse learning environment where everyone can succeed.