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  The Puzzle of Hope: Cultivating a Sense, Experience, and Reality of Hope

  Emillie Anna Boyd, Josie K. Forsthoff, Abby Danae Hentz, Avery Lyn Lewis, Emma K. Merryman, Kevin O'Gorman, Jillian K. Tore

  As the junior cohort of Chaminade Scholars completes its capstone course, Vocation and the Arts, one of the main goals is to portray the meaning of “Fraternity and Social Friendships” and awaken a sense of interconnectivity for wholeness and holiness in the world. The idea of “hope” has been extremely prevalent in today’s world and conversation. This project aims to show the interrelation of an individual’s interpretation of hope, faith, and social fraternity with others and themselves. Involving personal reflection from members within the UD community as well as from the junior Chaminade Scholars cohort, the puzzle of hope is a visual display of this deep and intentional reflection of how faith can shape art and vice versa. It is ultimately a culmination and celebration of the hope, faith, and community we are cultivating here at UD and beyond.

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  The Rejection of Rejecting Sex: Needed Representation of Asexuality in Media

  Isabella Clark

  There is a distinct lack of asexual representation in all forms of media. It’s something that is just not talked about enough, or even understood. There is still the misconception that if you don’t feel sexual attraction, you’re either lying to yourself, or there's something wrong with you. There needs to be more representation of asexuality in media, whether through ensemble characters, or the main cast. My poster will recount my personal experience, where I've heard “I'm sure you’ll change your mind once you’re 18” and “You just haven’t met the right person, at least try it." My poster will discuss asexuality stereotypes, such as we cannot love or are broken. Sources will include characters who are asexual; Saiki K and Futaba Kiryu from Dousei Sensei Wa Renai Ga Wakaranai, Todd from Bojack Horseman, Loveless by Alice Oseman, House M.D.

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  Thermal Conductivity Determination of Organic Nanofluids by MDSC

  Jonathan R. Stevens

  Vegetable oil phase change materials (PCMs) have great potential in refrigeration applications in developing countries due to their availability and low toxicity. In this report, jojoba oil (melting point: 11.72°C; latent heat of fusion: 105.5 J/g) was investigated for its viability as a cold storage PCM. Thermal conductivity of the pure jojoba oil was enhanced by doping it with three different carbon nanoparticles: graphene, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and activated carbon. The thermal conductivity of the pure oil and nanofluids in the solid phase were found using modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). Adding carbon nanoparticles could increase the thermal conductivity of solid jojoba oil from 0.200 W/(m∙K) to as much as 0.647 W/(m∙K), however overall data trends do not agree with the literature consensus. Possible sources of error include uncertainty in the MDSC process and a poor stability of the nanoparticles in solution. Future work should focus on more precise methods of thermal conductivity at lower temperatures and the use of shape stabilized PCMs.

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  The Role of Transfer Partnership Programs: Supporting the Social Integration of Transfer Students

  Julia D. Thompson

  Despite an increase in institutional partnerships among two-year and four-year institutions, few studies have focused on the role four-year institutions play through formal partnership programs in supporting transfer student success. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to understand how a transfer partnership program, like the UD Sinclair Academy, positively shapes the social integration of students who have transitioned from a two-year to a four-year institution. Data was collected through interviews with nine students who had participated in the Academy and were either still enrolled at the University of Dayton or had graduated. Findings revealed themes in how students experienced the benefits of the Academy and faced challenges in fully engaging as a student through this program. These findings can be used to create a more inclusive experience for students enrolled in community college partnership programs to ensure they are supported, prepared, and engaged.

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  The Sleep Habits of UD Students

  Kristina-Lerin Kealoha Linares, Jason Andrew Tornes

  Adequate sleep is important for good health. College students who are involved in extracurricular activities and working jobs have commitments that impact their ability to get adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, young adults ages 18-25 years old need between 7-9 hours of sleep every night (Singh et al., 2021). A study on college students identified an average sleep time of 6.99 hours after interviewing 7,626 college students (Becker et al., 2018). “Short-term consequences of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity; somatic problems; reduced quality of life (QoL); emotional distress; mood disorders and other mental health problems; cognition, memory, and performance deficits; and behavior problems in otherwise healthy individuals,” (Medic et al 2017). Our research focuses on the sleep habits of students at the University of Dayton. We surveyed students to gather information including their year of study, the typical hours of sleep they receive, and if they currently take any sleep aids (i.e. melatonin, Benadryl, etc.). The information collected was then statistically analyzed using the ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) statistical test to determine if there is a significant correlation between the sleep habits of UD students and their year of study. The purpose of this poster is to assess the sleep habits of UD students and bring awareness to the importance of getting adequate sleep for overall well-being. Practical tips for improving sleep habits will also be included in our presentation.

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  The Stitt Scholars Program: Experiential Learning as a Tool for Deep Collaboration Between Business and Engineering Majors

  Hong Anh Chu, Samuel L. Diller, Tanner Justin Hamilton, Loring L. Leitzel, Gwendolyn Marie Meiring, Dominic D'Epiro Ruffolo, Patrick Schulteis, Grace Renee Silverberg, Douglas P. Villhard

  Collaboration in higher education has seen many improvements in recent years. Programs that used to operate in silos incorporate some form of collaboration in their curriculum. However, there is still the need to expand interdisciplinary collaborations through experiential learning. The Stitt Scholars Program provides students from the School of Engineering (SoE) and the School of Business Administration (SBA) the opportunity to collaborate with startup companies at the HUB (powered by the PNC Bank). Each student in the program puts in ten hours of work (paid) each week and participate in lecture series about innovation and entrepreneurship. In Fall 2021, the students (referred to as Stitt Scholars) worked on ten projects. The deliverables from one of the projects was used to secure $15,000 from the PNC Bank to support black-owned businesses in the greater west Dayton area. In this session, the students will share their experiences as Stitt Scholars, and the impact they have made. Lessons learned will also be presented. Generally, the experience has been positive and impactful for the students, the donor, and the startup companies. The successful execution of the program in fall 2021 led to an additional donation of $100,000 to further grow the program.

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  The Three O'Clock Prayer

  James Treat Huff, Daniel P. Hughes, Collin Timothy Schmid, Luke Collin Meissner

  Research question: How does the Three O'Clock Prayer sculpture communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  The tiny things that restore the prairie: the impacts of selective planting and soil amendments on microbial activity during the restoration of a degraded agriculture field in the American Midwest

  Ellie Adriana Wasilewski

  Many forests and prairies have been cleared for agricultural purposes, resulting in ecological degradation and altered biological communities. In recent years, agricultural land has been left fallow and is ripe for restoration back to native ecosystems. Abandoned agriculture results in a deficiency of nitrogen and carbon, changing the microbial activity in the soil. Restoring microbial community function can improve nutrient cycling and enhance plant species establishment during restoration. Restoration efforts, including soil amendments and selective planting are used to increase the nutrient content of the soil, and can improve microbial function. It has been suggested that these efforts may accelerate ecological succession. We assessed plant cover and enzyme activities of peroxidase, phenol oxidase, and beta glucosidases one year following the addition of leaf compost, whole soil transplant, and selective seeding on a 20 acre post-agricultural field. Here, we report the response of soil microorganism function, via enzyme activity, to planted seeds and soil amendments one year after restoration implementation. Phenol oxidase, peroxidase, and beta glucosidase have lower activity where there are more grass species. When there is a high presence of grass species, more niche space is taken up and more nitrogen and carbon is being used by the grasses leaving less available for microorganisms. Beta glucosidase is shown to be higher with whole soil treatment. Whole soil amendments could have introduced new nutrients that were previously absent and microbes that could uptake nutrients more readily than the microbes present in the degraded field. Peroxidase activity is higher where there was low diversity and high legume concentration and lowest in low richness low legume and high richness high legume concentrations. Understanding how microorganism activities can be altered using soil amendments and selective planting can help restorationists support healthy ecological succession.

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  The Virtues of Mama Mary

  Mary Connor

  Visual Arts majors in the Department of Art and Design will present research and analysis of their individual journey culminating in creative self-directed artistic projects. Each student project is unique and reflects their selected vocations in the visual arts determined by a review of professional practices, standards and activities across related disciplines.

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  TikTok & the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People Movement

  Meghan Elizabeth Leinhauser

  The purpose of this study is to analyze the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited People (MMIWG2S) social movement via content analysis and interviews. The study includes analyzing videos posted to the social media platform, TikTok, and interviews with a collection of users who post videos about MMIWG2S. TikTok uses a unique algorithm to tailor users’ feeds based on the types of videos with which they watch and interact. This allows for the creation of an online community that shares common interests with one another, especially in a time where communication methods have changed significantly. Analyzing videos related to the movement allows for emergent themes and trends to be found within the posts. Doing so aids in understanding what these individuals want the general public to know about a movement that means so much to them. The subsequent interviews allow for a deeper comprehension of the role social media, specifically TikTok, plays in responding to the MMIWG2S social movement.

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  Title: Drawing Attention to Mental Health in the Hospital Setting

  Matthew Thomas Coyne, Christina J. Schroedle

  According to a study conducted in 2017, about 792 million people in the world have a diagnosed mental health issue, and specifically approximately 284 million people are diagnosed with anxiety. Anxiety can create barriers in people’s life that can have major effects on someone’s day to day activities. One specific form of anxiety is related to health, and this type of anxiety is seen to increase in the hospital setting. There have been many studies done about how anxiety levels in nurses and physicians impact the care that is given to the patients and the results from these high anxiety levels (Chen et al. 2022). We want to dive into the other end of the issue; how a patient's anxiety level impacts their own care. This study will give us qualitative data and there will be a wide variety of participants. Meaning that we will be speaking to patients on all different floors of the hospital, such as oncology, pulmonary, burn units about different factors within a hospital setting that impact their anxiety levels. The goal of this study is to see how the patient’s mental health is being treated in the hospital.We believe that mental and physical health are extremely connected, and we will be trying to find strong correlation between the two factors throughout the study.

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  Title: Identification of novel genes responsible for a rapidly evolving fruit fly trait by gain and loss of function approaches

  Jada H. Brown, Gavin M. Christy

  Two long-standing goals of geneticist are to understand how genes are usedduring an organism’s development to make morphological traits, and how genes changeto facilitate the origins, modifications, and losses of these traits. Two powerfulapproaches to identify the critical genes are through gain and loss of functionexperiments. The former experiments look at the effects when the expression of genes isinduced in new cellular places, at new times in life, and/or at elevated levels ofexpression. The latter experiments cause the absence of expression for genes from theirnormal places, times, and/or levels of expression. While many methods have beendevised to accomplish such experiments, these methods are generally too cumbersome toapply to tens, hundreds, or even thousands of genes. In recent years, scientists have foundways to use RNA-interference and CRISPER/Cas9 gene editing to cause both gain andloss of function mutations for specific genes. These methods are being combined withresources for the fruit fly species Drosophila (D.) melanogaster to target a steadilyincreasing number of this species’ genes. Our research project applies these approachesand genetic tools to cause gain and loss of function mutations in genes suspected to play arole in the development and evolution of the male-specific pigmentation of the D.melanogaster abdomen. Any gene whose altered function distorts this pigmentationfeature will become a target of future studies to tease out the mechanisms of genefunction and evolution.

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  Topology Optimization Results Spaceframe Interpreter (TORSI)

  Camden Lee Ives

  Fundamental criteria for the design of aircraft are low weight, high rigidity and high strength structures. As such, topology optimization (TO) is an attractive technique for the design of efficient structures. TO refines a designated design space subjected to a series of loads and restraints, numerically producing a structurally optimized solid part. Commonly the optimization objective is to minimize the strain energy of the structure given a specified mass. Yet, a serious challenge to the widespread adoption of TO is related to interpretation of the optimal topology and its manufacturing feasibility. The TO process often results in an organic looking structure with complex geometry that cannot be manufactured with contemporary methods. The goal of this research is to develop a Topology Optimization Results Spaceframe Interpreter (TORSI) to post process TO results into producible welded-tube spaceframes. The methodology of the TORSI consists of four steps: 1) Cubic Mesher – Converts commercial TO results into a binary cubic mesh, 2) Frame Extractor – Identifies a series of nodal junctions and the connecting members utilizing image processing techniques 3) Section Sizer – Identifies the cross-sectional dimensions of individual members within the spaceframe, 4) Part Modeler– Automatically creates a rendering of the spaceframe within a three dimensional CAD environment.

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  Tracing Nitrate Sources in the Saginaw Bay watershed, MI: Implication for Harmful Algal Blooms

  William Creviston

  Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have become more prevalent in recent decades due to increased anthropogenic nutrient input and warmer water temperatures associated with climate change. Nutrient (nitrogen) inputs include loading from the expansion of urban centers (wastewater discharge) and agricultural intensification (inorganic fertilizers and animal waste). In this study, water samples from Saginaw Bay and its watershed were analyzed using a combination of water chemistry, stable water isotopes (δD and δ18O), and nitrate stable isotopes (δ15N and δ18O). The purpose of this study was to evaluate sources, processes, and spatial patterns of nitrate in Saginaw Bay and its watershed causing HABs. We collected water samples from 23 streams and rivers across the watershed and 9 sites from the Bay. The result shows that: 1) the mean nitrate concentration tends to be higher (1.79 mg/l, nitrate-N) in streams that drain from areas with high agricultural land use and concentrated animal feeding operations, 2) the mean nitrate concentration in the Saginaw Bay is relatively low (0.41 mg/l, nitrate-N) and uniformly distributed throughout the water column, 3) the average δ15N value for river samples was 10.69‰ and the average δ18O value was 3.48‰. The dual-isotope analysis result suggests that manure and septic waste are the main sources of contaminants in the watershed. The relative nitrate contribution from manure and septic waste ranged from 35% to 86%. The second-largest nitrate source was typically inorganic fertilizer and its contribution ranged from 3% to 49%. In addition, nitrification sources contribute 7% to 15% of nitrate contamination in the watershed. Ultimately, the outcome of the study provides vital information for effective nutrient management in the Saginaw Bay watershed to prevent future expansion of HABs and further deterioration of water quality in the Great Lakes Region.

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  Trashy! A multi-season study of anthropogenic and organic litter in riparian areas along the Great Miami River.

  Allyson A. Allen, Emily Marie Berkshire, Charles M. Brockman, Herbert K. Burroughs, Pepper Julia Cantwell, Olivia P. Fenner, Grace A. Janszen, Catherine G. Landry, Morgan E. Mieland, Miles Ellison Muratore, Emerson R. Phares, Megan Ann Poole, Kendall E. Ridgley, Michaela M. Rogers, Rianna Soltis, Adelaide Lorraine Starks, Amanda N. Thieneman, Valerie Nicole Thurston, Cheryl Vargas, Juliana Marie Vollmer

  Rivers act as conduits of both anthropogenic and organic litter that eventually reach oceans. Few studies have investigated how anthropogenic litter and organic litter vary along gradients from the river’s edge into riparian ecosystems, if anthropogenic and organic litter are spatially coupled with one another, and how anthropogenic litter composition varies across riparian areas. The ecosystem ecology lab (BIO 459L) has been studying riparian litter for the last couple of years along the Great Miami River. We set up transects to look at anthropogenic and organic litter from the river’s edge, and every two meters inland up to 10m. We found evidence that anthropogenic litter and organic litter are spatially coupled, and that the composition of anthropogenic litter changes along a gradient from the river’s edge to inside riparian areas. This type of information can help land managers understand how to manage litter in riparian areas of the Miami Valley.

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  Trust in Government and Science during the COVID-19 Pandemic and 2020 Presidential Election

  Benjamin Joseph Crawford, Gillian R. Leone

  This panel includes two presentations and a moderated discussion:Paper 1 - “Political Passion, Engagement, and Trust—and Trump” by Ben CrawfordPaper 2 - “’My Body, My Choice’: Abortion Rights, Public Health, and Trust during the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Gillian LeoneThe period since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has been unique in terms of trust (or mistrust) in government, science, and public health experts. The pandemic arrived during a particularly contentious time in our history, with a tumultuous and contested presidential election occurring in its midst. These two papers use 2020 American National Election Study data to explore topics related to trust in government and science, including the determinants of political trust, passion, and engagement; voting behavior; and attitudes on abortion rights, public health mandates, and vaccines. Ben’s paper began as an undergraduate Capstone project and continued as a graduate independent study, while Gillian’s paper began as a collective in-class project during POL 300 Religion and Politics in Fall 2021. Ultimately, the papers reinforce the democratic values of public trust, engagement, and respectful dialogue in society to weather political and medical crises (and crises of conscience).

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  UD Bookstore, Bookstore JIT Order - Delivery System

  Shannon Elizabeth Hirko, Sean Richard Mcgrail, Sophie E. Petras, Patrick F. Sandler, Daniel Franklin Sauder

  Research into opportunities to improved bookstore inventory management. Opportunities to reduce inventory costs and improve availability of text books and improved customer service.

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  UD Campus Sustainability: Report from the Fall 2021 Campus Survey on Beliefs, Knowledge, and Actions.

  Cassie Marie Austin, Darius Beckham, Benjamin Joseph Crawford, Nathaniel Steven Duran, Mason E. Gordon, Patricia L. Thomas, Dimitrios Anthony Toliopoulos

  Students conducted a campus-wide survey during Fall 2021 as part of UD's submission for The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) report. We examine the beliefs, knowledge, and actions of the UD campus community around issues of sustainability.

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  UD COMICON 2022: Ideologies and Conventions of the Superhero Film Genre

  Noah R. Bischoff, Kaila Colacarro, Brendan P. Connaughton, James D. Cook, Matthew Ward Cramsie, Carolyn M. Duvic, Kobe Curtis Elvis, Grace K. Fuller, Claire Eliza McLaughlin, Nicholas J. Miozzi, James Gillis Moag, Sofia Grace Perez, Catherine Drew Ridenour, Samuel Bernard Seltzer, Anthony Joseph Semerano, Andrew Joseph Siciliano, Aaron James Spieles, Jacob Nicholas Ward, Zachary Allen Zienka

  Superhero movies are currently the dominant film form in U.S. cinema, as demonstrated by two decades of box office top tens populated by characters from the pages of Marvel and DC Comics, and other studios and movie franchises scrambling to replicate their success any way they can. How did we get here, and what is the effect of these superhero films on American film culture and global popular culture? The presentations for this panel will explore the superhero genre, considering how their films adhere to or defy genre conventions, challenge predominant American ideologies, and function as works of political economy.

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  UD Dining Services Automation of Reusable Container Tracking System

  Kevin Padraic Cavanaugh, Jack Philip Chevalier, Patrick A. Downey, Michelle Hwang

  In partnership with the University of Dayton’s dining services team, we are developing aninventory tracking solution that will solve the issues within the current reusable containerprogram. During the pilot run of this program, which occurred last year (2020) in MarycrestDining Hall, the university ran into a huge problem with students failing to return the reusablecontainers; causing the university to lose over 70% of their inventory. Our solution will be a fulltracking system, with a central database, in which each container can be tracked from the pointof service to a proper return area. Successful completion and implementation of this system willallow the university to identify which student has a reusable container, where the container wasgiven out, and when/if the container has been properly returned. In doing so, we will not only behelping dining services save money but also helping to reduce waste on our campus and withinour community’s landfills. This system will also serve as a foundation in which dining servicescould utilize for any future advancements, such as being able to offer faculty, staff, and gueststhe ability to participate in the program.There are, however, several challenges that we anticipate facing regarding thedevelopment and success of our solution. Moving forward, the technicalities and logisticallimitations are one of the biggest challenges that we are preparing to overcome. We expect to runinto the most issues when it comes to the strict limits on the PCI environment and the types ofscanners we are able to utilize on the containers. We also have to take into account the potentialburdens that our system would be placing on the student and cashier along with a concernregarding the training and additional equipment expenses.Reviewed and approved by Joan Bauman (Executive Director of Dining Service) on 22 September 2021

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  UD Students Engaging the Laudato Si Action Platform: An Opportunity for Collaborative Impact

  Andrew William Bartsch, Eric Hayes Litterer, Kahra Gikanga Loding, Elizabeth E. Miles-Flynn, Leonard Patrick O'Connor, Lizbeth Marie Ramos-Ortiz, Samantha S. Trajcevski

  Aligned with the University of Dayton (UD)’s vision for the common good and the Characteristics of Marianist Universities (https://marianistuniversities.org), UD pledged commitment to the Laudato si Action Platform (LSAP), (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org) journey in October 2021. The LSAP integrates the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), and Catholic social teaching as outlined in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’. Universities are one of the seven major LSAP sectors (https://laudatosiuniversities.com), giving students a unique opportunity to impact change both locally and globally. UD has many student-led organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability, human rights, Marianist community, social justice, advocacy, and more. While many groups engage in outreach, advocacy and activism, the collective impact could be furthered by greater sharing of resources, ideas, and skills around common goals. This interactive session gathers UD student leaders and attendees to share perspectives on how UD can best engage the LSAP goals (caring for the earth, aiding the marginalized, ecological education, economics and spirituality; sustainable living, and community empowerment.) Brief background presentations on the LSAP and the new Marianist Family Encounter Project will be followed by organization leaders sharing how their group’s missions are already achieving aspects of the LSAP goals. In breakout groups, all participants will explore the various ways they can contribute to accomplishing these goals, as well as building upon campus initiatives. They will also share experiences of successful collaboration and envision how student, faculty, and staff collaboration around LSAP goals could create greater collective impact in all aspects of university life and in UD’s relationship with the greater Dayton community. Students will be called to action to create a unifying body to promote coordination between students, faculty, and staff in pursuit of the LSAP goals to amplify UD’s impact on our campus, in our Marianist family, church, and world.

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  Undergraduate Campus Involvement and Perceptions of On-Campus Safety: Applying Durkheim’s Theory of Social Integration to the University Environment

  Rachel M. Veneman

  The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the social involvement of University of Dayton undergraduate students and their perceptions of safety on campus. The study hypothesizes that students more involved on campus will have higher perceptions of safety and a lower fear of crime on campus. Previous research shows that social involvement in groups aids in the social integration of an individual into a community. Perceptions of safety and the level of social integration are linked by studies of various communities, but research has overlooked how this plays out in the setting of a college campus with unique involvement opportunities and experiences of crime. Variables such as gender and race are expected to reflect in perceptions of safety, as previous literature shows women and racial minorities tend to have lower perceptions of safety and higher fear of victimization of crime due to various factors besides social involvement. This study employs a survey sent to undergraduate on-campus residents living in university-owned housing that asks about their demographics, on-campus involvement, and perceptions of safety in various ways. The survey was conducted via Qualtrics and retrieved responses anonymously. Responses were analyzed using quantitative data analysis through SPSS. The results identify trends of student safety perceptions based on involvement as well as various demographic factors.

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  Understanding a University’s Consent Education Among First-Year Students: A Case Study

  Sierra Johnson

  One in five women and one in sixteen men experience sexual assault during college. Sexual assault rates increase for first-year students transitioning into a new environment. Institutions address this issue by implementing consent education. However, empirical assessments on college students’ behavior and attitudes are scarce. To address this gap, the current study used a exploratory case study analysis to examine in-depth the impact of one consent education program on first-year college students’ beliefs, attitudes, and experiences at a Midwestern University. The case study employed document reviews, 20 pre-and post-surveys, and two semi-structured interviews. The analyses included direct interpretation of document reviews, paired sample t-test of pre- and post-surveys, and theme analysis of the interviews. Preliminary findings show that the program defines consent as mutual and verbal agreement between all parties and the role alcohol plays in complicating consent, students’ apprehension to practicing consent, and the impact of social settings on one’s sense of belonging. Policy implications for the University’s approach to sexual consent education will be addressed.

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  Understanding the role of miRNA-277 in the growth and survival

  Prajakta D. Deshpande, Esther Lu Lu Seng Labya

  Cell size plays an important role in the cellular processes and function of a cell. Hence cell size and growth need to be maintained properly. Gene regulation plays an important role in regulating gene expression of different cellular processes like apoptosis, cell growth, etc. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small single-stranded RNAs, regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by binding to the 3’untranslated region of their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs), degrading their target and hence silencing their gene expression. Our lab has identified that miRNA-277 (miR-277) inhibits apoptosis in the Drosophila eye model. We employed the Gal4-UAS system in Drosophila melanogaster to misexpress head involution defective (hid), a pro-apoptotic factor, within the developing fly retina, exhibits reduced eye phenotype. Hid expression is regulated during embryogenesis, larval development, and metamorphosis. Hid is known to be regulated by the Hippo pathway, miRNAs, etc. Our lab found that gain-of-function of miR-277 in the background of GMR>hid rescues the reduced eye phenotype. Furthermore, hid plays a role in programmed cell death (PCD) during pupal development by removing extra-interommatidial cells. The previous study shows that in the hippo (hpo) mutants, hid transcript levels were reduced in interommatidial cells and failed to undergo PCD. The question remains unanswered how hpo modulates hid expression during pupal development. We hypothesize that miR-277 can provide a link since miR-277 inhibits hid mRNA expression. Furthermore, our preliminary data suggest that the gain-of-function of miR-277 in the GMR>hpo background rescues Hpo-mediated cell death. Our working model suggests that miR-277 regulates cell growth by modulating Hippo pathway.

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  U.S. Government Debt, Safe Rates and Stock Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2009-2019 Abstract

  Fouad O. Saleh

  In this study, using a two step regression model, I develop the functional relationship between (1) U.S. govt. debt and safe interest rates (T20 govt. bond) and safe interest rates and 6 sector etf' price indexes. The regression models are run over the period 2009-2019 with quarterly data. I test two key hypotheses: (1) U.S. government debt growth is inversely related to safe interest rates and (2) safe interest rates are inversely related to sector returns.Using the slope coefficients from the safe rate regressions on S&P 500 sector price indexes, I also develop a 6 sector portfolio weighting model and test the hypothesis that safe rates are a priced in risk factor in the equity market i.e., the 6 sector portfolio weighting model outperforms the broad equity market over the long term period,2009-2019.