Stander Symposium Projects

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  Finding the probability of being selected an NBA All-Star

  Matthew Paul Forte

  Halfway through the National Basketball Association, there is an All-Star break where the 24 best players are selected to participate in an All-Star game. Being selected as an all-star has many implications for the player and his organization, including salary bonuses and legacy concerns. This project aims to identify the probability that players in the National Basketball Association will be selected as an all-star. The model uses a number of statistical indicators including points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game, efficiency ratings, and more.

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  Forecasting Rain Using Logistic Regression.

  Alsomali Ibrahim Y Alsomali

  Prediction and forecasting using logistic regression have exploded during recent years. Logistic regression modeling now used in almost all kind of knowledge. Rainfall is an important event in the climate system. Whether it rains or not has a big impact on several life areas such as nature, agriculture and animal life. Thus, we need to be able to predict rainfall. In this paper, we show how to use logistic regression for predicting rainfall. Ten years of daily rainfall data used to build the model. Two extra years of observed daily rainfall data used as a validation of the model. Our finding shows that logistic regression model can predict the rainfall very efficiently.

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  Forecasting U.S. Inflation

  John Martin Harmon

  The U.S. Federal Reserve relies on a target rate of inflation of 2% to determine monetary policy actions regarding raising or lowering the federal funds rate. If the actual rate of inflation is above 2%, a tightening of monetary policy usually occurs. Conversely, an inflation rate below 2% can lead to a policy of monetary easing. The purpose of this study is to develop a time trend forecasting model of inflation to determine if expected inflation rates are above or below the target rate. Using CPI and CPI less food and energy as the measures of inflation, forecasts are made on a monthly basis for both 2017&2018.The forecasts for 2017 will determine the forecast accuracy of the regression models and the forecasts for 2018 will provide comparisons to the benchmark 2% target rate. The Root Mean Square Error(RMSE) is used to measure forecast accuracy. The time trend regression models are fitted to the monthly CPI data for 2009-2016 and 2009-2017.

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  Generation of Octave Spanning Spectra directly from a Fiber Oscillator with Self-Similar Pulse Evolution

  Ankita Nayankumar Khanolkar

  The shortest light pulse that can be generated by a mode-locked laser will always be of fundamental interest to the field of ultrafast science. Mode-locked lasers that produce octave-spanning spectra and few-cycle pulses are very attractive for applications such as frequency comb, high-harmonic generation, and ultrafast spectroscopy. Ti: sapphire lasers still dominate the few cycle regimes with generation of 5 fs pulses and octave spanning spectra directly from laser cavity. Performance of the fiber lasers is improved over the years, but they still lag in terms of high energy and few cycle pulses compared to solid state lasers. We have simulated a mode-locked fiber laser design based on the double clad ytterbium doped fiber with the addition of a dispersive delay line (DDL) before photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and it produced octave spanning spectra extending from 750 nm to 1600 nm (660 nm at -20 dB level). It is scientifically important to realize and stabilize a mode-locked fiber laser with such an extreme perturbation even numerically. To our best knowledge, this is the first numerical evidence demonstrating generation of very broad spectra directly out of a mode-locked fiber laser. Further experimental investigation of this mode-locked fiber laser is currently underway.

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  GLOF Modeling of Hongu Glacier Lake in the Nepal Himalayas: A GIS-based Approach

  Katherine A Strattman

  The objective of this project is to model a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) of Hongu Glacier Lake, located in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, using a physically-based GIS model. Due to recent climate change many glaciers in the Himalayas have experienced rapid retreat, resulting in the development and growth of proglacial lakes. Often dammed by terminal moraines composed of unstable and unconsolidated material, trigger events such as excessive rainfall or avalanches can cause the dam to be breached, releasing massive amounts of water over a short period. Large volumes of water combined with the steep and complex terrain of the Himalayas causes serious threat to downstream populations and infrastructure. Assessing and monitoring proglacial lakes using remotely sensed images has become a widely established practice as many glaciers, including Hongu, are in unreachable, remote area. Additionally, GIS-based flood models allow for spatial analysis of risk assessment. Using digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from remotely sensed images, land cover data, and soil data as base maps, the freely available WetSpa model is applied to Hongu Glacier Lake for flood prediction. WetSpa, or Water and Energy Transfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere, is a physically based GIS model that simulates hydrologic processes continuously over time and space on the catchment scale. DEMs from 2015 imagery are obtained freely through NASA’s Earth Explorer program, and soil and land use data are obtained from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Outputs in the form of hydrographs from the WetSpa model are imported into ArcMap for analysis. Information on extent and intensity of the modeled GLOF can be used for risk assessment or future planning of infrastructure.

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  Got Sleep: An investigation of the sleep problem on Dayton's campus

  Nathaniel Dale Brown, Lucas William Edwards, Sara M Huber, Katie Rachel Knezevich

  Sleep deprivation has adverse effects on college students impacting their diet, memory, mood, focus, immune system, and overall health. The college lifestyle creates an environment that does not support adequate sleep. We talked with UD students to gauge their knowledge of the importance of sleep in a healthy lifestyle, and found most students are not aware of the effects that poor sleep creates in their lives. We believe the University of Dayton does not have adequate educational information regarding the importance of sleep. After evaluating the resources provided by other universities, we determined more can be done at UD to raise awareness of the pros and cons of sleep as well as other recommendations to get a better nights sleep. Our poster will describe our team’s recommendation for raising awareness of this issue. We also created a document to provide a way for students to self-assess how healthy their sleeping patterns are as well as information on health issues related to sleep deprivation.

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  Gross Domestic Income and Stock Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2009-2017

  Michael Anthony Capicotto, Evan J Willmann

  Most financial economists agree that macroeconomic factors, as exogenous variables, must be included in asset pricing models in order to explain the variation in expected returns. In this study, I test the hypothesis that Gross Domestic Income (GDI) explains stock market price movements over time. I use linear regression analysis to identify the covariation between GDI and the top ten stocks by market value in the following SPDR sectors; (1) Healthcare, (2) Consumer Discretionary, (3) Information Technology, and (4) Industrials. Based on the regression coefficients (B), I develop portfolio weights for the stocks within each sector, with higher weights given to stocks with higher B coefficients. Assuming a $1,000,000 investment in each sector portfolio, I calculate returns for the years 2009 - 2017. I also calculate out of sample returns for the first two months in 2018. The benchmark portfolio used to determine excess returns is the SPDR ETF SPY.

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  Group Songwriting as a Self-Care Practice Among College Students

  Victoria Clare Obermeier, Emily Rose Robinson

  The present study explores how group songwriting may positively contribute to self-care in the University of Dayton student community, as well as among the music therapy community. College is a time of intense stress and anxiety; thus, self-care is essential in order to maintain both physical and mental health, as well as overall functioning. Our research shows that university mental health services are highly underutilized. Some of the aims of this study are to increase visibility of self-care practices and to provide students with the additional self-care tool of songwriting, all in efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness.

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  Growth Regulatory Pathway collaborates with Axial Patterning Genes to regulate Patterning and Growth in Drosophila Eye

  Neha Gogia

  In all the multicellular organisms, organogenesis requires axial patterning to determine Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), Proximo-Distal (PD) axes. Any deviation in these axes during development leads to congenital birth defects. In our model system, Drosophila melanogaster (a.k.a fruit fly), Dorso-Ventral (DV) patterning marks first lineage restriction event. We have identified defective proventriculus (dve), an ortholog of SATB homeobox 1 (special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1), as a new member of DV patterning genes hierarchy. We have shown that dve acts downstream of pannier (pnr, a GATA-1 transcription factor), and upstream of wingless (wg) in dorsal gene hierarchy. Loss-of-function (LOF) of dve or pnr results in dramatic dorsal eye enlargements, whereas Gain-of-function (GOF) of dve, pnr suppresses eye specific fate. We have demonstrated that Wingless (Wg), (1) is downstream target of Hippo growth regulatory pathway (highly conserved) in eye, (2) acts downstream of dve, (3) exhibits similar eye enlargement and suppression phenotypes (upon LOF, GOF respectively), and has been shown to play a role in growth. Here, we present that, DV patterning genes interacts with Hippo signaling to regulate their common downstream target, Wg during developing Drosophila eye. Our data (using GOF, LOF) states that (1) These two unrelated pathways are related and interacts antagonistically, (2) Activating Hippo signaling suppresses dve, pnr expressing cells, downregulates Wg and changes head, antennae specific fate to an eye, (3) Blocking cell death activity of hpo (using UAS-p35, anti-apoptotic) doesn’t affects its ability to undergo differentiation, (4) Growth regulatory pathway regulates the expression of DV patterning genes (dve, pnr acts downstream of Hippo pathway), and that (5) GOF/LOF of dve, pnr does not affect the expression of Hippo downstream reporters diap1 and expanded in developing eye of Drosophila. These studies present new genetic interaction between two unrelated pathways to regulate growth and patterning of an organ.

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  Handling Homesickness: Helping Transitioning First-Year Students at the University of Dayton Recognize and Cope with Homesickness

  Kennedy Glynn Hale, Wyatt Andrew Kaiser, Ali M Wiethe

  According to Academia, “Up to 95% of first-year college students report some level of homesickness.” The transition to college can be the biggest change many first-year students have ever dealt with. Quickly, they may begin to long for home and become homesick. With this in mind, we researched the issue of homesickness and the resources on the University of Dayton’s campus and other college campuses. At the University of Dayton, the issue of homesickness is briefly mentioned on the counseling center’s website. There seems to be a lack of resources and attention on our campus to this topic, which affects almost all incoming freshman at one point in time. To investigate how homesickness affects first-year students, we interviewed current freshmen to evaluate their personal experience with these issues and how they overcame their discomfort. In addition, interviews were conducted with resident assistants on their training for these issues and how they help students become acclimated to college. Through researching other universities across the country and interviewing the community on our campus, we have created multiple suggestions for supporting freshmen during this time of change. Our goal is to provide resources dedicated to help first-year students experiencing homesickness by increasing their overall happiness on campus while also helping them become successful in their future endeavors.

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  HeadEx: ​Real-time Event Extraction and Interlinking from News Headline​s

  Matthew A Weiler

  In the world today, there is a lack of useful and quality approaches to structuring and semantically annotating data-sets from real-time news outlets. This research represents an essential pipeline and implementation to such a problem and includes background data modeling, event and entity annotation, and finally interlinking events from real-time sources such as twitter headline news sources.

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  Health Policy Responses and Infrastructure Re-Use in Host Cities of Mega-Sporting Events in Non-Traditional Host Countries

  Andrew M Kramer

  Many people and event organizers have lobbied for the allocation of Olympic sites to non-traditional sites by marketing them as a transformational event for the country’s economy and infrastructure. We study the efforts of three case studies: the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa. By inspecting health policy responses and urban infrastructure re-use projects, this thesis research contributes to the understanding of the impact of hosting mega-sporting events for communities in host cities. We specifically connect the impact of hosting a sporting event for the best athletes in the world—often models of health for audiences—has on the health of its community members.

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  High School Students + Vocation Education = Better Decisions?A Mixed Methods, Group Comparison Study of Students at a Midwestern, Suburban High School

  Julie M Huckaba

  Every year, students who have just graduated high school blithely begin their journeys through postsecondary education, some choosing two-year colleges, some embarking on degree paths at four-year institutions, and others choosing military service, apprenticeships, or work. The purpose of this mixed methods, group comparison study is two-fold: (a) to examine the difference between the pre and post Brief Calling Scale scores of high school seniors and juniors (n = 37) exposed to the Ikigai/Vocation discussion workshop, and (b) to evaluate the influence of the Ikigai/Vocation discussion workshop on the postsecondary decisions of these students. The findings of this study increase our understanding of how student development relates to postsecondary decisions after being exposed to a Vocation workshop utilizing the Japanese concept of Ikigai and the intersection of Character Strengths -- 24 traits that all individuals possess in varying degrees.

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  History of White Flight in Dayton

  Emma Nicole Bohaboy

  This presentation will examine the causes and consequences of white flight in Dayton during and following the Civil Rights Era. Drawing on Facing Project Narratives from residents of the Dayton area and social science literature, this poster will highlight the history of the white flight movement in Dayton, Ohio. The poster will help viewers understand the effects of white flight and other forms of discrimination and segregation on the city of Dayton at the time the events were taking place (throughout the 1900’s) and the issues that remain today. I will present information on the social impact of white flight and discriminatory practices on the Dayton community and will explain some of the ways that the city is attempting to address these problems.

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  How Academic and Extracurricular Workload affects Stress Levels, and Consequently Mental and Physical Health of College Students

  Aidan Paul Koch

  Academic workload and extracurricular involvement can be sources of stress for college students Academic workload is characterized as the student's major, course work and future graduate school and/or career path plans. Extracurricular involvement can pertain from anything to intramural sports to being the President of a student organization. The current research seeks to investigate changes in mental and physical health over a semester by examining physiological stress levels in college students, in conjunction with academic workload and extracurricular involvement. Previous research finds an association between stress and physical health (Peer, Hillman, Van Hoet 2015). Studies have shown sympathetic nervous system activation due to stressors in people’s lives (Conley & Lehman, 2012). Mental Health has also been shown to decrease when stress is overwhelming in the lives of college students (Murff, 2005). The goal of the present work is to examine academic workload, extracurricular involvement, physiological stress, and mental and physical health over the course of the semester to better understand how they are associated. Using a longitudinal design, participants will complete measures of mental and physical health, as well as academic workload and extracurricular involvement at the beginning and end of the fall semester. Physiological stress will be assessed at each time point by collecting a saliva sample from participants in order to measure the hormone cortisol.

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  How Poverty Affects the Management of a Water Contamination Crisis in the City of Dayton

  Alyssa Marie Miller

  The city of Dayton prides itself on the quality of its water. However, contamination at the Behr Plant, which is the former site of Chrysler and now a Superfund site, in Northern Dayton threatens the health of residents in that area. This presentation explores the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of those who live around the site and whether those characteristics help us to un­derstand the level of power and privilege local residents had in the various stages of site contamination. To do this, I draw on socio­logical literature, Facing Project Narratives (a program from the University of Dayton), and local Dayton news articles. Additionally, I will compare past and present northeastern Dayton neighborhoods affected by the contamination and I will observe if any policies have been passed to avoid such catastrophes in the future.

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  How poverty affects the management of a water contamination crisis in the city of Dayton

  Alyssa Marie Miller

  The city of Dayton prides itself on the quality of its water. However, contamination at the Behr Plant, which is the former site of Chrysler and now a Superfund site, in Northern Dayton threatens the health of residents in that area. This presentation explores the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of those who live around the site and whether those characteristics help us to understand the level of power and privilege local residents had in the various stages of site contamination. To do this, I draw on sociological literature, Facing Project Narratives (a program from the University of Dayton), and local Dayton news articles. Additionally, I will compare past and present northeastern Dayton neighborhoods affected by the contamination and I will observe if any policies have been passed to avoid such catastrophes in the future.

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  Human detection on omnidirectional camera imagery by multi-feature fusion based on gradients, color and local phase information

  Hussin Khalifa A Ragb

  Field of view of the traditional camera is limited such that usually more than three cameras are needed to cover the entire surveillance area. The use of multiple cameras usually require more efforts regarding camera control and set up as well as they need additional algorithms to find the relationships among the images of different cameras. In this research work, we present a multi-feature algorithm that employs only one omnidirectional camera instead of using multiple cameras to cover the entire surveillance region. Here we use the image gradients, the local phase information based on phase congruency, the phase congruency magnitude, and the color features. These features are fused together to build one descriptor named as “Fused Phase, Gradients and Color features (FPGC). The image gradients, and local phase information based on phase congruency concept are used to extract the human body shape features. Either LUV or grayscale channel features are used according to the kind of camera used. The phase congruency magnitude and orientation of each pixel in the input image is computed with respect to its neighborhood. The resultant images are divided into local regions and the histogram of oriented phase, and the histogram of oriented gradients are determined for each local region and combined. A large pool of the candidate features is randomly generated for one channel of the phase congruency magnitude and three LUV color channels. All these features are fed to a decision tree Adaboost classifier for training and classification between the classes. The proposed approach is evaluated on a challenging omnidirectional dataset and observed promising performance.

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  Identifying and Responding to Mental Health in Schools and the Effects on Student Achievement

  Jordan K Bailes, Allison N Karrenbauer, Meghan Mae McDonald

  With an increasing awareness of mental health issue in students, identification of the effects on student achievement and social life are important to success. Schools are beginning to question their role in identifying and helping students reach their full potential. Furthermore, research shows that stress and test anxiety affect all aspects of schools and it is the school's responsibility to address these issues.

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  Identifying Stigma Cues in Network Television Content: Implications for Stigma Reduction Strategies

  Livvie Mae Roberson, Julia D Wenderski, Nicolette Ann Westberg

  The present investigation is exploring the presentation of stigmatized health conditions (such as mental illness, HIV/AIDs, etc.) in network television content. The study employs a stratified representative sample of news, entertainment, and commercial programming from four major television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. More specifically, we are exploring information and depictions of predictors/causes, health consequences, social consequences, markers of illness, treatment, and prevention for the health conditions. Our work contributes to the literature in two key ways as past research has: 1) often limited discussions of stigma to a single, specific context, and 2) been limited to a single type of programming. Exploring patterns and consistencies in stigma representation across health issues and across message types can provide guidance for stigma reducing message strategies for an array of health contexts and future contexts that arise.

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  Implementation of Passive Solar Energy and Reclaimed Heat from Manure Decomposition for Livestock Water-heating Applications

  Naomi Elizabeth Schalle

  Manure is an abundant and renewable resource for livestock farmers that often goes unused. As manure breaks down, heat is released into the environment. When looking at this heat dissipation through the lens of sustainability, there is an opportunity to save energy by capturing the heat in manure decomposition and using it where it is needed. This research capitalizes on that opportunity to develop a way to heat water for livestock in the winter. Using a combination of passive solar energy and the natural heat produced through the decomposition of manure, a system has been designed and implemented to offer a low-cost, sustainable solution that combines mechanical engineering with an agricultural application. Further research and development will be completed for partial- to full-automation of the system.

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  Implicit Bias

  Samantha Amanda Mack

  This poster presentation works to define implicit bias, provide strategies of dismantling these assumptions in the classroom setting, and connecting it to the experience of English Language Learners (ELLs) and ELLs with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). There is a personal connection as I identified my own implicit bias towards disabilities, and these statistics were used to help explain the way in which we can create change for the future generation, our students. Many techniques relate to personal awareness, curriculum contexts, and the importance of understanding and identifying implicit bias in ourselves. Though becoming educated on implicit biases is the first step in creating a change in our behaviors, motivation is also a significant factor. Once motivated, the strategies incorporated into this literature review work as tools to promote an open-minded and culturally aware classroom.

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  Improvement on Healthy Views of Body Image at UD

  Daniel Joseph Link, Jessie Leigh McLaughlin, Christopher James Turley, Emily Elisabeth Wey

  The National Eating Disorders Collaboration describes body image as “the perception that a person has of his/her physical self... [and] the thoughts and feelings the person experiences as a result of that perception.” Body image can be a lifelong stress and one that is especially heightened in the college years and environment. Unhealthy misperceptions of body image can lead to many dangerous consequences such as eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. Focusing on pressures such as social media and preparing for Dayton to Daytona, we sought to develop resources for UD to support individuals who struggle with an unhealthy body image. We analyzed publications produced by the Health and Counseling Centers and found that there are few resources available to students struggling with poor body images and eating disorders. Furthermore, we have found that many of the available resources are outdated, nonspecific, and poorly advertised. Pamphlets and counselors are the most noticeable resources available to these students. Resources from other Universities were explored to brainstorm ideas in which UD might improve the resources provided to students. Our goal is to improve several aspects of body image at UD, specifically creating awareness and giving resources to students who have issues with body image on campus. We want to uphold UD’s values of being an inclusive community for all by creating materials for the university that promote the acceptance of all body types.

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  Improving Access to Test Anxiety Information at the University of Dayton

  Molly Kathleen Bush, Maddi Elizabeth Conway, Joseph Cole Emery, Kaylin Ann Kultgen

  Test anxiety is a major health problem on college campuses, affecting nearly 22% of all students, according to the College Student Health Association. The resources that the University of Dayton offers to students about test anxiety were reviewed for the effectiveness of their advertising methods. From these resources, we found that there is room for improvement in access and advertisement of information. Students from freshman through senior as well as adults and professors were interviewed for their opinions and experience with test anxiety. Resources for test anxiety at other universities were compiled and used as inspiration for ideas to improve resources for test anxiety at UD. An improved brochure was created which includes symptoms of test anxiety and tips to overcome it as well as to inform students about resources at Counseling Center and the Office of Learning Resources for students.

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  Improving Cook-Stove Bricks with Organic Material

  Tyler Antonio Dinardo, Brandon Payne, Antonio Keith Thomas

  Ceramic bricks are used all over the world to help build stoves but can prove to be inefficient because of their inability to hold heat, individuals are required to use more fuel that can create harmful fumes. In order to address this a team comprised of teachers and engineers, designed and tested an experiment that used multiple different organic materials that were added to bricks to increase insinuative properties by producing more pores in the bricks. These organic bricks were then heat treated then were tested through three-point bend, compression, and porosity tests to determine if adding organic material would create more pores to increase insinuative properties without jeopardizing the overall strength of the brick.