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  Structure-function analysis of Defective proventriculus (Dve) in Drosophila melanogaster eye growth and development

  Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan

  Axial patterning is required to delineate Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), and Proximo-Distal (PD) axes in a sequential manner to transform a monolayer organ primordium to a three-dimensional organ. During eye development, DV axis is the first lineage restriction event and any deviation results in developmental birth defects. During this process, generation and establishment of morphogen gradient plays important roles such as negative regulator of eye development, growth and determination of eye versus head fate. Previously, we have identified defective proventriculus (dve, an ortholog of SATB1) as a novel dorsal patterning gene that regulates wingless (wg) transcription. Loss-of-function of dve results in dorsal eye enlargement and decrease in Wg, while gain-of-function of dve results in eye suppression and increased wg. In addition to eye versus head fate, SATB1, the human ortholog of dve is highly upregulated in cancers and is known to activate various signaling pathways to trigger growth. Here we present our structure-function analysis to determine the domains of Dve required for growth regulation and Wg mediated determination of eye versus head fate. Dve has a ULD domain for tetramerization, two HOX domains for DNA binding and a PPP4R2 domain for H2AFX dephosphorylation. We have developed several transgenic fly lines, which will allow us to ectopically induce expression of the specific Dve protein domain(s) alone or in combination and assay their effect in the eye. Our preliminary data suggests that HOX domain alone can induce wg expression and exhibit weak eye suppression phenotype, but it is not enough to fully exhibit Dve mediated eye suppression function during development. We will present data from our studies to dissect the growth versus eye fate function of Dve protein domain(s) using this structure-function analysis. Understanding this can increase our knowledge of which domains might be dispensable or pathogenic in human development or disease.

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  Students Developing a More Specific Emotional Vocabulary through Picture Books - A Work in Progress

  Mary Horvath

  This study will be happening over the course of the next year, but this is a preview of what is to come! Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is a relatively new set of standards in Ohio’s curriculum. SEL standards are essential for achievement not only in the classroom but in life. Because of its novelty, it is crucial to find the best practices for teaching SEL to meet the needs of all students. Research has shown that the standard videos, activities, and take-home worksheets referenced in the curriculum are not engaging the students (Pysarenko, 2021, p. 639). Instead, picture books have been found to help students through emotional turmoil (Roberts & Crawford, 2008, p. 13). Therefore, this study proposes to further the connection between children’s literature and emotional vocabulary, which is part of the Ohio Department of Education SEL standard, “Demonstrate an awareness of personal emotions” (ODE, p. 8, 2019). Helping students grow their emotional vocabulary will help them connect better to themselves, the people in their lives, and their experiences so they can live an overall better life.

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  Students Gain Real World Skills from working part-time in Campus Recreation

  Tyler Lebegue, Andrew Mason

  This presentation will inform students about the value of working in campus recreation. There is one position that is under most students’ radar that will provide the most benefits. It is becoming a referee. These students gain transferable skills that are rarely ever considered when looking for part time employment. We have examined deliverables gained through conducting research, interviewing officials, and completing a comprehensive literature review. Our goal is to promote officiating in Campus Recreation with specificrecommendations on how to grow an official pool of candidates to gain the deliverableskills needed in the workplace. We will portray the importance of working withstudents to build a culture that focuses on engaging in career development, teachingstudents how to express their skills and experiences to sell themselves in ajob interview.

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  Student Songwriter Concert Guitar Students of Jim McCutcheon

  Chris Yakopcic, Miles Lockrem, David Colao, Dont'e Stevenson, Grace Caffoe, Isaac Burkart

  Guitar students of Jim McCutcheon, Lecturer in Guitar in the UD Department of Music, will perform original songs. This concert has been a part of the Stander Symposium since its inception and is always an insightful presentation of our musical student creators.

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  Studying Glioblastoma on a Microfluidic Model

  Laura Bender

  Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is among one of the most deadly, aggressive, and invasive types of cancer. Currently, there is no cure for patients diagnosed with GBM. Due to the cancer’s high rates of motility and invasion, even with treatment, patients are often given a survival time of 12-15 months after diagnosis. This makes GBM of particular interest to scientists who intend to improve the outcomes of GBM patients. In my study, I utilized the nonadherent method and microfluidic channels to generate a three-dimensional tumor model of GBM cell lines and the brain’s tumor microenvironment. In this model, we fabricated GBM spheroids to mimic the primary tumor. The spheroids were introduced to a PDMS device that has microfluidic channels and matrigel to simulate physical confinements and the extracellular matrix in the brain tissue, respectively. Using this model, I was able to successfully observe the migration and sprouting behavior of four different GBM cell lines, U-118 MG, U-87 MG, LN-229, and A-172. The success of this project will allow us to learn more about the invasion of GBM cancer so that better treatments can be developed to prevent the progression of GBM infiltration and recurrence.

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  Studying the Role of Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Dorso-Ventral Patterning

  Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan, Soumya Bajpai; other authors: Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

  During organogenesis, 3-dimentional organs arise from a monolayer of cells and this requires axial patterning to establish Dorsal-Ventral (DV), Anterior-Posterior (AP) and Proximal-Distal (PD) axes. Among them, the DV axis is the first to form during eye development. Morphogens have also been associated with a multitude of developmental processes, including organ patterning and the control of organ size. The Hedgehog (Hh) family of molecules play an important role in eye development as it regulates formation of the retina in Drosophila by orchestrating a differentiation wave that allows for the rapid and precise differentiation of the fly retina. We wanted to understand how Hh signaling interacts with a previously identified dorsal selector gene, defective proventriculus (dve). Dve is a K-50 homeodomain containing transcription factor, a Drosophila ortholog of human SATB1. We know that loss-of-function of dve results in dorsal eye enlargement while gain-of-function results in complete eye suppression. We wanted to understand how this transcription factor can regulate Hh signaling pathway that is crucial for patterning, growth and eye development. Here, we present our results from modulating Hh signaling pathway in dve expression domain and how it affects eye development.

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  Sugar Choline-Chloride-Based Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents: Effects of Water Content

  Elaina Ismert

  Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) are green solvents with a melting point far below both constituent pure molecules due to hydrogen bonding. These solvents have the potential to be applied to the industrial processing of food products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other extraction processes. In the present study, the characteristics of natural deep eutectic solvents composed of hydrogen bond acceptor choline chloride (ChCl: 2-hydroxyethyl-trimethylammonium chloride), and a hydrogen bond donor saccharide are cataloged. The specific saccharides studied include disaccharides sucrose and lactose, and the monosaccharides glucose and fructose. Four NADES were prepared with varying molar ratios of 1:1, 2:1, and 4:1 ChCl: saccharide solid mixtures, heated at 80°C and mixed under magnetic stirring at 500 RPM from 2 hours to 48 hours depending on the solvent. This work also analyzed the effects of water content on the selected ChCl: saccharides NADES preparation and physical properties. It has been shown that the addition of water decreases hydrogen bonding interactions, reduces viscosity, and increases conductivity. In this work, the four as-prepared ChCl: saccharides were evaluated at varying mass percentages of water, 0, 10, 20, and 30 wt.%. Physical properties were analyzed, including pH, which tended to be neutral, conductivity, and refractive index, which was about 1.5 nD for the ChCl: saccharide NADES prepared at different conditions. The as-prepared NADES conductivity and surface tension were also measured at room temperature, about 20°C. These results showed a dependence on the saccharide type and water content. The stability and flowability of the NADES were analyzed over time through visual inspection, and the rheology will be studied. From the different saccharides studied, this study concludes the ChCl: Fructose natural deep eutectic solvents showed the most promise for environmental-related applications in terms of stability, and ease of formation, with a relatively acidic pH. On the contrary, ChCl: lactose NADES were challenging to prepare and resulted in non-stable solvents.

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  Surgical Reconstructive Techniques Within The Management Of Breast Cancer

  Jessica Garvin

  Did you know that breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the most common cancer diagnosed in the United States? There are currently nearly 4 million women in the United States alone that are diagnosed with breast cancer and as many as 50% of cancer patients who have undergone a mastectomy or lumpectomy elect to have breast reconstruction surgery. Restoring the anatomical wholeness of someone is just as important to a person mentally as it is physically. With the multitude of people that are victims of breast cancer, understanding the different approaches to how the removal of malignant breast tissue is done and how breast reconstruction takes place, has value to learn about. The purpose of this study is to share and explain some of the different approaches breast cancer patients may choose after a lumpectomy or mastectomy to restore anatomical correctness. Among several of the different options available, implant reconstruction is one of the most popular reconstruction techniques. This works by utilizing a breast implant to replace the breast tissue that was removed to restore the original shape and volume. A second widely-used surgical procedure used for reconstruction is autologous reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction is also commonly known as “flap” reconstruction, this works by using skin, fat and sometimes muscle from areas such as the abdomen or buttocks to better resemble breast tissue in look and feel. Fortunately, there are many options for patients that may decide to undergo reconstructive surgery and there are many innovative techniques constantly being discovered. This study is able to educate and also bring awareness to ways that breast cancer can be prevented and also serve as a resource to learn an in-depth understanding of options breast cancer patients have after cancer removal.

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  Sustainability Tourism

  Melissa Weidner

  Part of a course project on intercultural communication, which can be expressed and studied in myriad ways. The students of CMM 316.01 investigated various forms of cultural expression by comparing and contrasting the ways a particular form is used by multiple cultural groups. Specifically, each group researched and presented about the ways food, music, festivals, rituals, dance, clothing, and other artifacts communicate cultural identity in at least two different cultures.

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  Synthesis and characterization of BODIPY single molecule probe for protein conjugation

  Amy Hess, Erin Stuczynski

  A single molecule 4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) dye designed toconjugate to the peripheral amines of proteins have been synthesized. The syntheticroute taken toward this dye along with characterization by 1 H NMR will be described.This dye offers extraordinary absorption and emission properties within the visibleregion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Details of its spectroscopic properties alongwith first attempts to conjugate this dyes to proteins will be presented.

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  Synthesis and characterization of CuZn2InSe4 and CuZn2GaSe4 nanocrystals

  Fajer A. Almanea (Presenting author); other authors: Sohini Sengupta, Venkateswar Rao, Soubantika Palchoudhury (faculty advisor)

  A particular class of materials, multinary chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals, allow for tunable band gap and optical properties through composition, structure, and morphology flexibility. Among them, the copper-based compounds are attractive- in terms of sustainability since they frequently contain elements that are found in abundance on the earth’s crust and are promising to have made significant advancements for various device applications including photovoltaics and. CuZn2InSe4 and CuZn2GaSe4 nanocrystals have been synthesized using a novel hot injection approach to engineer these materials at the nanoscale. We added various cations, zinc, copper, group III elements like gallium or indium, oleylamine as the ligand, and diphenyl diselenide as our selenium source to form the multinary composition. A modified hot injection method was used where we injected the chalcogen at 150 °C and then heated the reaction to get the final product. The stoichiometry and group III cations were tuned in this multinary chalcogenide nanocrystal composition to achieve the desired bandgap of the materials in the visible range for application in thin film solar cells.

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  Synthesis Of a Single Stranded DNA Aptamer to Inhibit Multidrug Resistance Caused by Bacterial Efflux Pump Overexpression

  Lara Mitzka

  The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has become a major concern for public health, due in part to the high cost of treatment. One factor contributing to this resistance is the overexpression of bacterial efflux pumps which are proteins located in the cell membrane that can pump out antibiotics as they enter the cell. To address this issue, this research aims to develop a DNA-based inhibitor, called an aptamer, to target the TolC component of the bacterial efflux pump and inhibit its function. By blocking the TolC, it is expected that this will reverse the multidrug resistance phenotype and make bacteria sensitive to antibiotics that were previously ineffective. The aptamers will be selected from a single stranded DNA library using a systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) process, which involves selecting and amplifying DNA molecules that bind to TolC. The optimization of asymmetric and symmetric PCR techniques to ensure that single stranded DNA is amplified efficiently as well as several SELEX rounds was successfully completed. Currently, SELEX rounds are being analyzed to determine if any active aptamers were recovered. Once the TolC-binding aptamers have been identified, they will be synthesized and evaluated for their efficacy as agents to sensitize bacteria to antibiotics. The successful development of aptamers as inhibitors of the TolC component of the bacterial efflux pump has the potential to have a major impact on public health.

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  Synthesis of novel nanoparticle embedded biohybrid hydrogels for self-healing bandages

  Venkateswar Rao (presenting author); other authors: Sohini Sengupta, Fajer A. Almanea, Soubantika Palchoudhury (faculty advisor)

  Hydrogels offer a unique material platform for realizing new therapeutic wound healingsubstances such as bandages. They are hydrophilic and consist of three dimensional polymericnetwork that can retain water within their pores while maintaining the structural integrity. A newpolyhydroxymethacrylate (pHEMA) hydrogel modified with various therapeutic metal oxidenanoparticles is reported in this project. The nanoparticles including polymer coated iron oxideand zinc oxides are synthesized via a modified polyol approach. A detailed materialcharacterization of the biohybrid pHEMA hydrogels is conducted via a combination of x-raydiffraction, dynamic light scattering, and scanning electron microscopy to investigate thestructure-property relation of the hydrogels for application in wound dressing.

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  Task Allocation and Dead-Lock-Free Trajectory Planning for Collaborative Multi-Robot System

  Mohammad Zainullah Khan

  With advances in technology, robots have become an integral part of industries across the board. They are being employed in all sorts of applications from simple pick and place operations to the more complex operations involving AI with computer vision. In the manufacturing sector, robots are mostly used to perform tasks in isolation. There lies a big opportunity for efficiency improvement by having robots collaborate on tasks. This brings along with it challenges of obstacle avoidance, task allocation, and deadlocks. These challenges are easier to tackle for non-varying tasks such as a multi-robot system (MRS) used for spray painting a specific part. But when the same MRS has to be used for a number of tasks such as spray-painting a wide variety of parts, each with its own requirements, the challenges become harder to solve. The goal of this research is to advance task allocation and trajectory planning for multiple robot agents working collaboratively to perform manufacturing tasks. These industrial robots can vary from simple gantry robots to industrial robot arms mounted on mobile bases. Their applications will involve low-volume, high-mix manufacturing tasks such as spray painting, pressure washing, 3D printing, media blasting, and sanding. Apart from dealing with the generation of an offline collision-free path, manufacturing constraints must be considered as well. These involve achieving a constant speed of end-effector throughout a trajectory to avoid any undesirable effects. This research focuses on developing a technique for several robots with 3 or more revolute and/or prismatic joints with partially shared workspaces that enables them to allocate and perform manufacturing tasks in a time-effective and computationally efficient manner.

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  Technological Literacy, Underserved Families, and School Choice: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

  Amber Reeves

  This session will present a completed case study of one school’s struggles to address limited access using digital outreach to families. This qualitative, action research, case study is designed to explore and understand barriers to inclusion, offering research findings help to address that problem of practice. Findings in this study highlight the implications of antiquated organizational structures and policies interfacing with new social realities, resulting in unintentionally exclusionary practices. In the interest of fulfilling adult education’s social justice goals, Critical Race Theory provides a lens to interpret these findings for greater inclusivity. The lessons learned from this study can assist educators in helping organizations improve access to their services, while examining intersections of power and privilege through structural practices. Adult educators and family literacy practitioners confront similar challenges as digital communication and education are a gateway to access social capital leverage and will benefit from this investigation and subsequent work for greater inclusivity.

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  Temperature and Humidity Monitoring with Email Alerts

  Sandeep Perugu

  Biomedical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries make up the majority of the country's economy. All of these industries place a significant emphasis on the monitoring of temperature and humidity. Any sort of unbalancing in the natural circumstances or disconnectedboundaries can make monetary misfortune in the efficiency of drug and agribusiness businesses. Patients who pose a threat also require environment-controlled conditions in the healthcare industry. In this project, we will use the Arduino tool and DHT11 to measure temperature and humidity, which will help to balance the environment and boost productivity. I will be using email alerts if the temperature meets a condition on maximum celsius or minimum celsius. We can control any electronic device in homes or businesses using the Internet of Things. In addition, we are able to visually analyze data from any sensor from any location in the world. The microcontroller Arduino UNO retrieves temperature and humidity data from the DHT 11 sensor. These kinds of things are making microcontroller-based systems possible, which are taking the place of older, more complicated electronic circuits. It reads the output of the DHT sensor module, converts the temperature and humidity values into a suitable percentage and Celsius scale number, and then displays the humidity and temperature readings using the DHT11 sensor.This project aims to develop a hardware- and software-based system that can accurately measure temperature and humidity. Additionally, this system will enable time monitoring. In this, we measure the temperature and humidity using an Arduino board that connects to a sensor that is placed in the local environment. The following objectives are the main focus of the project, achieving a hardware and software system that works and lets you measure temperature, humidity, and the time, utilizing a development board for sensor communication.

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  Temperature control

  Varsha Tejaswi Kilaparthi

  We hear about temperature control issues a lot these days. The temperatures in the rooms will alter according to the seasons. Temperatures inside, outdoors, and those of food, heating equipment, and the atmosphere can all be measured. In order to regulate the temperature, you can either heat or chill the space as needed. If you live in the cold north, you might be able to create something that will sound an alarm, turn on the heat, or start moving water when your pipes are about to freeze. So, using the ESP8266, which allows us to perform tasks wirelessly, we will examine how to resolve this temperature-related problem.The main aim of this project is to control the temperature. By using constant temperature in a room, reading can be set up-to a certain value. If the value reached its maximum, the alarm will indicate the system that it is exceeding its limit. On an hourly basis the data readings can be noted in the web service. .

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  Temperature Control Fan Usingn a Thermistor

  Praneeth Panjugulla

  TEMPERATURE CONTROL FAN USING A THERMISTORThis project presents the design and implementation of a temperature control fan using a thermistor, Arduino, and IoT technology. The system monitors the temperature in the room using the thermistor and controls the speed of the fan accordingly. The Arduino microcontroller is used to read the temperature values from the thermistor and adjust the speed of the fan using a PWM signal. The system consists of a thermistor, an Arduino microcontroller, a motor driver, and a fan. The thermistor is used to measure the temperature in the room, and the Arduino converts the temperature values into a PWM signal that controls the speed of the fan. The motor driver is used to provide the necessary voltage and current to the fan.Overall, the temperature control fan using a thermistor, Arduino, and IoT technology presents an innovative and practical solution for temperature control in a room, allowing for efficient and convenient management of fan speed through IoT-enabled remote control.

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  The Assumption of Mary across Select Christian Literature in Light of Modern Catholic Church Teaching: 4th to 12th centuries

  Vincent LoBiondo

  This presentation analyzes the Assumption in literature across history with a focus on early Christianity and Medieval Christianity. Using Catholic Church teaching, the presentation will assess the various literature in terms of how well they match to modern day Church doctrine. The presentation will use the modern sources of Munificentissimus Deus, Lumen Gentium, Redemptoris Mater, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the early Christian work Panarion by Saint Epiphanius of Salamis as Church teaching and doctrine. Many texts in the beginning of Christianity were often heterodox in nature and are opposed to Church teaching today. Early assumption literature still led rise to the pious acceptance by Catholics during the medieval ages. The texts analyzed in this paper include The Six Books Apocryphon, English Sermon literature, Norse Homiletic books, and various Anti-Jewish Christian literature.

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  The Benefits and Modalities of Successfully Implementing Co-Teaching in Elementary Classrooms

  Megan Nock

  Co-teaching is a style of classroom teaching that emphasizes shared responsibility between teachers for learning. When implemented correctly and with strong administrative support, it provides many benefits, including support for all students’ best interests.

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  The Correlation Between the Nutritional Value of a College-Aged Student's Diet and Their Mental Health

  Jenna Schwabe, Kylee Shroat, Elizabeth Huber, Miles Miller, Ella Weaver

  The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between a college student's diet and their mental health. An anonymous survey was sent out to University of Dayton students asking them to answer questions regarding demographics, housing, meal plan status, and the nutritional value of their diet. Participants were also asked questions about their mental health such as presence of anxiety, depression, if they are or have sought out professional help, have received a diagnosis, or are currently taking medications.

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  The 'Cultish' Rhetoric of Mark Driscoll

  Phillip Cicero

  This project focuses on the rhetoric utilized by Mark Driscoll in a series of blog posts that appeared on the Mars Hill Church website in late 2001 to early 2002. Using Amanda Montell’s theorization of the rhetorical characteristics of a discourse she calls “Cultish” in her book, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, this project identifies the various ways Driscoll’s rhetoric fits within her theorization of “Cultish.” The core of this project is a rhetorical analysis of Driscoll’s blog posts that seeks to demonstrate that his rhetoric mobilizes key characteristics of “Cultish.” Then, using Stuart Hall’s theorization of desire, identification, and investment in popular culture texts along with Judith Butler’s notion of subjectivation (the process by which we are always being constructed as subjects by the rhetoric within which we are immersed), this project will aim to explain how Driscoll’s “Cultish” rhetoric attracts and retains audiences one might expect would reject Driscoll. More specifically, this project will argue that Driscoll’s “Cultish” rhetoric has attracted white men who have felt emasculated and disempowered by neoliberal (and other dominant discourses) during late 20th and early 21st-century American culture by constructing a “Cultish” form of “Christian” identity that aims to give these men a sense of masculine identity, power, and belonging. Driscoll’s rhetoric does this by constructing a homophobic and misogynistic form of “Christian” masculinity that he aggressively advances as the only form of “Christian” masculinity that is “good.” Thus, his rhetoric gives his reader two options: be actively and explicitly homophobic and misogynistic or admit that you have been “pussified” – that is, completely emasculated.

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  The Effects of Mental Illness on Reoffending Among Juvenile Offenders

  Patrick Westendorf, Kevin Cook

  A current issue in our criminal justice system today is determining what factors are linked to criminal behavior and reoffending. One factor that can be taken into consideration is mental illness. It is important to examine research among juvenile offenders to see what factors are linked to reoffending. Past research has shown that juvenile offenders with mental health issues are more likely to reoffend than those without mental health issues. The current study will use the Pathways to Desistance dataset, a longitudinal study with a quantitative approach that examines adolescent offenders as they make their transition to early adulthood. 1,354 individuals from Maricopa County, Arizona or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania while being between the ages of fourteen and eighteen at the time of committing their offense. The participants involved in the study completed a baseline interview, follow-up interviews throughout the course of many months, and release interviews within 30 days of release when held in a residential facility. The sampling technique for Pathways to Desistance is a prospective design where the researchers follow and observe a group of participants over time to track information for their data and to see what outcomes will occur based on the information collected. Factors taken into consideration were age, family structure, ethnicity, and gender to determine whether there was a relationship between mental illness and reoffending. Certain variables were re-coded to make them dichotomous variables.

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  The Effects of Physical Activity on Mental Health in Undergraduate College Students

  Anna Schwettman, Kathryn Reifel, Meredith Johnson, Jessica Phillabaum, Maya Krieger

  Research has shown how physical activity can improve physical health, or how lack there of can increase risk for decreased health status. The goal of this research study was to determine what kind of effect physical activity can have on one's mental health within the undergraduate college student population.

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  The effects of Values on the case of Henrietta Lacks

  Mykaella Romain

  Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman born in the late 1920s who was diagnosed with cervical cancer. While she was being treated at John Hopkins University hospital in Baltimore her cells were stored and studied without her knowledge leading to one of the biggest medical breakthroughs in history. The HeLa cell line is still used in medicine today since it reproduces indefinitely under the correct circumstances. My class Science, Values and Society looks at scientific research and how select values whether it be from scientists or the public influence how and what we study. For my project I would like to research how values played a role in Lacks treatment and the change of the medical field.