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  Animal Crossing: The Intersection of Roads and Wildlife

  Samantha Soucie, Elizabeth Vear, Matthew Carroll, Megan Tierney

  While animal activity vastly differs across trophic levels, many animals share the same consequences of altering their behaviors and habitats due to human activity. Man-made constructs can dramatically alter natural animal movements, where some animals may use them to their own benefit. One example of this is that some species of birds have found that they can perch along power lines providing them safety from the threat of ground predators. We tested the hypothesis that larger animals will travel along the old roads in a reclaimed urban park more often than smaller animals who will tend to stay in the more wooded areas of the park. To test this hypothesis, we set out 10 trail cameras within the Environmental Research Area at Old River Park with 5 along old roads and 5 set up within the wooded areas of the park. We will monitor animal activity by going through the pictures taken by the cameras to see which types of animals are found more on the paved paths compared to the wooded areas. We expect that our hypothesis will be supported that larger animals will be using the paved paths more frequently than the smaller animals who will prefer to stay in the wooded areas. This finding can indicate that animals are adapting their activity to use the human created environment around them for their own benefit. These larger animals don't necessarily depend on the paved paths to be able to move around, but it may make it easier to travel around as invasive species like honeysuckle are quickly taking up all of the free space within the forest floor.

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  An Investigation of the Mechanics of an Ultra-Stretchable, Self-Healing, DLP 3D-Printed Hydrogel for Damage-Resistant Soft Robots

  Joshua Michonski (presenter); other authors: Joseph Beckett, Carl Thrasher, Braeden Windham, Allyson Cox, Timothy Osborn, Anesia Auguste, Robert Lowe, and Christopher Crouse

  Inspired by nature, soft robots composed of compliant (“soft”) materials are well-suited for uncertain, dynamic tasks requiring safe interaction between a robot and its environment. Vat photopolymerization (VP) additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as digital light processing (DLP) have disrupted traditional manufacturing of soft devices, enabling the fabrication of soft robotic components with unprecedented speed, resolution, and complexity. Concurrently, the rapid development of novel self-healing photo-curable soft materials for VP-based AM has paved the way for soft robots with embedded healing of damage (e.g., perforations, tears) induced, for instance, by an unintended interaction with a sharp object in their operating environment. At present, however, the mechanical behavior (deformation and fracture) of self-healing photo-curable soft materials (elastomers and hydrogels) used for next-generation soft robots is not well understood. To address this compelling research opportunity, this work focuses on the design and execution of a mechanical testing program to characterize BeckOHflex, a novel self-healing photo-curable hydrogel synthesized using off-the-shelf chemicals. The large-strain elasticity of BeckOHflex is investigated through quasi-static uniaxial tension testing. Both virgin and self-healed mechanical properties are shown to be commensurate or superior to the best-performing self-healing hydrogels in the literature. Further, a suite of demonstration prints produced on a commercial VP 3D printer highlight the material’s scalability and the ability to yield prints with complex form factors.

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  An IOT-based Temperature Monitoring of cold substances

  Usha Sankalamaddi

  In this project I will build an IOT-based temperature monitoring of cold substances. It is achieved using the Adafruit circuit playground express and circuitpython. I am trying to monitor the temperatures of the cold substances in celsius and fahrenheit as well. I have chosen this project to explore more about the working of sensors and implementing them in real time.

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  A Novel Approach for User-Centric Privacy Protection on the Web

  Satish Kumar Oad

  Every day, we see the number of web-based applications rapidly increase. These programs are run within the web browser, where they interact with a variety of user-provided data. The use of web scripts, particularly JavaScript, which accesses this information through a set of APIs offered by the browser, is what gives web applications their dynamism. A sizable number of web-based attacks that violate users' security and privacy have been discovered over the past ten years. Attackers can steal your personal information by using some scripting language or other web attacks like cross-site scripting, SQL injections etc. Nowadays many websites are using the third-party API’s without checking the code and scanning vulnerabilities, that API’s can take advantage of security vulnerabilities and steal the user information without knowing the user like user cookies, session and if got any secret cookie or session id of user then they can harm the user data. There are many extensions which can block all the things but these are not able to ask the user what content the user wants to see in the browser before starting the web application. We have created a number of policy categories, put in place a policy engine to enforce these regulations, and given users a graphical interface to modify these policies in accordance with their needs. Our test findings showed that the framework enables end-users to alter the rules and regulate how device resources are used. Our policy enforcement engine firmly prohibits the simulated attack scenarios, preventing the misuse of device resources and user privacy

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  A Novel, Efficient Approach for Determining the Post-Necking True Stress-Strain Response of Aerospace Metals

  Yatik Rashmin Shah

  To numerically simulate and predict the plastic deformation of aerospace metals and alloys during extreme impact events (e.g., turbine engine blade-out and rotor-burst events, bird strikes, and foreign object damage), accurate knowledge of the metal’s hardening behavior at large strains is requisite. Tensile tests on round cylindrical specimens are frequently used for this purpose, with the metal’s large-strain plasticity ultimately captured by a true stress vs. true plastic strain curve. During tensile testing, the strain field in the specimen gage section evolves from a nearly homogeneous profile prior to necking to a heterogeneous profile after the onset of necking. Concomitantly, the customary analytical relationships used to convert between engineering stress-strain and true stress-strain break down after necking, since the state of stress is no longer homogeneous or uniaxial after necking. Thus, a number of approaches have been proposed and employed to correct the post-necking hardening response. Although effective, these approaches are generally complex and/or computationally expensive, which can be particularly problematic for large experimental programs. In this talk, a novel and efficient post-necking correction method is proposed and benchmarked. Using the equivalent true strain history obtained from a digital image correlation virtual strain gage placed at the fracture location, an approximate first-order analytical approach is used to calculate the corresponding equivalent true stress. This true stress calculation is used to generate a simple post-necking hardening law, using linear interpolation between known true stress-strain states at necking and fracture. This approach is successfully benchmarked using experimental data from a suite of metals with different crystal structures and hardening behavior: Inconel 625, Inconel 718, 17-4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel, and Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.

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  Anti-predator Behavior in Response to Conspecific Visual, Olfactory, and Damage Cues in the Three-spined Stickleback

  Claire Van Meter

  Predation is a major source of mortality for prey, which creates a selective pressure forbeing able to avoid predators whenever possible. By using alarm cues produced by conspecifics,organisms can be alerted of nearby predators without coming in direct contact with them.However, we do not know whether individuals can distinguish between different kinds ofconspecific cues and if some types of cues may indicate a more severe predation threat comparedto others. Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are used as a model for behavioralstudies because their defense responses have been well studied and identified, and they areknown to respond to both predatory and conspecific visual and olfactory cues. I studied theability of the three-spined stickleback to distinguish between environmental cues by exposingconspecifics to four different types of conspecific alarm cues: cues of predator-naïveconspecifics (control water with unexposed demonstrator), visual cues of predator-exposed conspecifics (control water with predator-exposed demonstrator), visual and conspecificolfactory cues (stress cues and predator-exposed demonstrator), and visual, conspecific olfactory,and conspecific damage cues (stress cues, damage cues, and predator-exposed demonstrator). For 5 minutes before and after exposure to the cues, I watched for four key defensive behaviors:hiding in plants, hiding in the gravel at the bottom of the tank, swimming into the walls of thetank, and shoaling. I assayed 40 conspecifics over 8 weeks, for a total of 160 trials. Directly after each assay, I placed the focal subject in 200ml of RO water in a 600ml beaker for 1 hour to collect waterborne cortisol. I will run this water through ELISA assays to measure the cortisol concentration in the sample. I hypothesize that the conspecifics will be able to distinguish between the severity of the cues, causing an increase in anti-predator behavior response in exposure to all the combined cues in comparison to a few, or none of the cues. I anticipate that through this research, we will gain a better understanding of the influence of conspecific communication, specifically regarding how conspecifics interpret olfactory and visual conspecific cues. Anti-predator behavior is often costly, so being able to determine when such behavior is necessary based on conspecific communication could be a key factor in the survival and success of species.

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  A Numerical Solution of Coupled Drinfeld-Sokolov-Wilson System Using Meshless Method of Lines

  Ibrahim Guediri

  For this project, we reproduce the meshless method of lines numerical solution of coupled Drinfeld-Sokolov-Wilson system. This method uses radial basis functions (RBFs) for spatial collocation. Time integration of the resulting system of ODEs will be solved using fourth order of Runge-Kutta method. Accuracy will be compared with the results from other methods available in the literature.

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  A Part of Me: The Value Division I Student-Athletes Place on Their Student-Athlete Identities and its Implications for Transition Out of Sport

  Alyson McAdams

  Division I collegiate student-athletes often struggle with transitioning out of sport due to the value and salience placed on their student-athlete identities. This study was approached using a constructivist worldview and narrative methodology in which the data relied on the student-athlete participants sharing their views and experiences. Four male and four female Division I collegiate student-athletes within their final year of athletic participation at the University of Dayton partook in a qualitative focus group about their student-athlete identities. The findings reflect that anticipating the end of a collegiate athletic career allows student-athletes to begin to understand who they are outside of their sport despite their current priorities and responsibilities revolving around their sport. While the thought of transitioning out of sport is overall very sad, scary, and uncertain, the findings reflected that the transferable skills and lessons gained from a Division I collegiate student-athlete experience will benefit their future careers and ability to positively impact others. Implications for practice involves intentionally encouraging student-athletes to discover their interests and sense of self outside of their sport in order to make the transition out of being a student-athlete easier and more manageable.

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  A Physical Manifestation of Community

  Emma Blair, Casey Tirado, Rachel K. Young

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?

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  A Portfolio Weighting Model for the Consumer Discretionary sector with Revenue Growth as the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2022

  Nicholas Mulvihill and Hector Gutierrez

  In this study my research objective is to answer two questions: (1) Does a revenue growth factor weighted portfolio of consumer discretionary stocks outperform an equal weight portfolio over the period 2009-2022. (2) Can the revenue growth factor weighted portfolio generate excess returns over the broad equity market measured by the S&P 500 index. In short, is revenue growth a priced-in risk factor. I use two investments strategies in my empirical analysis: (1) Buy and Hold and (2) Adjustable Shares.

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  A Portfolio Weighting Model for the Industrials Sector with Revenue Growth the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2022

  Thomas Letke, Kevin Cullen

  In this study I test two hypotheses. 1: The revenue growth factor weighted portfolio model outperforms an equal weight portfolio model. 2: Firm revenue growth is a priced-in risk factor in the equity market. For the first portfolio, I compare the long-term cumulative returns for the revenue growth factor-based portfolio weighting model to the returns for the equal weight portfolio model, 2009-2022. For the second hypothesis, I determine the excess returns for my portfolio weighting model over the S&P 500 index, 2009-2022.

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  A Portfolio Weighting Model for the Information Technology Sector with Firm Revenue Growth the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2022

  Hayden Gray, Andrew Kohnen

  In this study I run two types of portfolio return tests: (1) Determine if the returns for my revenue growth factor weighted portfolio are greater than an equal weight portfolio, 2009-2022. (2) Determine if the revenue growth factor weighted portfolio generates long term excess returns over the broad market index S&P 500 i.e. revenue growth is a priced-in risk factor. I use a buy and hold and an adjustable shares investment strategy to develop portfolio returns for the period 2009-2022.

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  A Portfolio Weighting Model for the Real Estate S&P500 Sector with Firm Revenue Growth the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns, 2009-2022

  Paul Waweru, Kathleen Hattrup

  In this study we run two empirical tests: (1) The revenue growth factor weighted portfolio model has higher returns than an equal weight portfolio model. (2) Firm revenue growth is a priced-in risk factor in the equity market.For the first empirical test, we compare the long-run cumulative returns for the revenue growth factor-based portfolio weighting model to the cumulative returns for the equal weight portfolio, 2009-2022. For the second empirical test, we compare the cumulative excess returns for my portfolio weighting model over the S&P500 Index, 2009-2022.We use two investment strategies to generate my returns: (1) Buy & Hold, (2) Adjustable Shares.

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  A Portfolio Weighting Model for the S&P 500 Consumer Staples Sector with Firm Revenue Growth the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns from 2009 to 2022

  Isabella Abreu

  In this study I pose two questions: (1) Can a revenue growth factor weighted portfolio of consumer staples stocks outperform an equal weight portfolio over the period of 2009 - 2022; (2) Firm revenue growth is a paired-in-risk factor. To answer the first question I can pair the long run cumulative returns for the revenue growth factor based portfolio weighing model to the returns for the equal weight portfolio weighing model, 2009 - 2022. For the second question, I can compare the returns for my portfolio weighing model to the returns for the S&P 500 ETF SPY to see if it generates excess returns over the long run period 2009 - 2022.

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  App for the Multi Ethnic Education and Engagement Center

  Amanda Bolden

  The University of Dayton has a diverse student body comprising students from different ethnic backgrounds. To cater to the needs of these students, we have developed an application that brings together all the Multi-Ethnic Education and Engagement (MEC) resources within one platform. The app allows students to access information and participate in MEC events and activities through a variety of features, including a general post section, calendar, and poll.Before implementing the application, we conducted extensive research and design studies to identify the key requirements of the students and the challenges they face in accessing MEC resources. We also analyzed the existing MEC programs and services and evaluated their effectiveness. Based on our findings, we developed a user-friendly app that streamlines the process of accessing MEC resources.The general post section of the app allows users to create and view posts related to MEC events, news, and announcements. This feature enables students to stay updated on the latest developments within the MEC community and share their opinions and feedback.The calendar feature provides users with a comprehensive view of upcoming MEC events and activities. This feature helps students plan their schedules and ensures they do not miss out on any important MEC events.Finally, the poll feature allows users to participate in surveys and polls related to MEC topics. This feature provides a platform for students to express their opinions and provides valuable insights to MEC program coordinators.In summary, the app we have developed offers a comprehensive solution to the challenges faced by students in accessing MEC resources. By providing a single platform to access information, engage in discussions, and participate in events and activities, we hope to foster a more inclusive and engaged MEC community on the University of Dayton campus.

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  Application of Digital Twins into Photography Lighting

  Kanishka Samrat Kolakaluri

  In this presentation, we discuss the use of digital twin technology in cinematic lighting design. Digital twin technology allows lighting designers to create virtual replicas of physical sets, which can be used to test and refine lighting designs before they are implemented in the real world. This technology not only saves time and resources but also allows for more creative freedom and flexibility. Overall, digital twin technology has the potential to revolutionize cinematic lighting design and is an exciting development to keep an eye on in the future.

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  Application of Pressure Sensitive Paint at the University of Dayton: Small Rotorcraft Applications

  Jacob Kulig

  Traditional measurement of pressure on wind tunnel models requires individual pressure transducers or other discreet sensors. When considering a large area or complex geometry, placing an adequate number of sensors can be cost prohibitive and physically challenging. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides an alternate approach to such experiments, but often needs experimental verification. Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) is a distinctive, appealing technique for providing pressure measurements in these cases. By measuring the intensity of a specialized paint’s luminescence, the pressure at almost all visible points on a test object can be found. In some unsteady aerodynamic cases, the paint mixture is altered to provide faster response times, thus allowing rapidly changing phenomena to be analyzed. This technique has been utilized for several decades; however, it is heretofore unused at the University of Dayton. This research provides the groundwork for the use of PSP in various applications at this university. The technique is then applied to analyze the ground effects of small rotorcraft blades. This will assist in revealing the underlying characteristics of the unsteady flow that occurs between a small propeller and the ground, as may occur in unmanned aerial vehicles.

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  Applications of Calculus of Variations: Finding Optimal Solutions to Boundary Value Problems in Navigation, Mechanics, and Nature

  Ethan Shade

  Calculus of variations is a branch of mathematics that deals with the optimization of functionals, which are functions that assign a scalar value to an input function. A functional could be a measurement of quantities such as time, cost, or energy, while also under boundary value constraints such as physical limitations. To find optimal functions of the functional, one uses the Euler-Lagrange equation to derive a solution function and verifies it satisfies the Legendre condition to prove the solution is the optimal one. To illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the technique, this project investigates multiple boundary value problems, such as the quickest path to cross a moving river, the maximum deflection of materials under stress, and deriving (naturally occurring) optimal curves. These examples demonstrate how calculus of variations can be used to both solve for optimal solutions and derive the equations that are already represented in physical systems.

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  Approximate Motion Synthesis of Four-Bar Linkages Using Poles: A Bi-Invariant Approach

  Tianze Xu

  This research presents a novel approach to the synthesis of planar four-bar mechanisms for rigid-body guidance by optimizing the location of the displacement poles. Traditional methods often rely on incompatible measures, leading to suboptimal solutions. In contrast, the proposed technique focuses solely on the displacement poles, which can be described by their location and can be used to define a bi-invariant metric, resulting in a robust optimization process. Moreover, the method reduces the optimization size by utilizing a technique that does not require the entire set of displacement poles. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated through several examples and compared to established methods. The proposed method has the potential to reformulate and simplify approximate motion synthesis problems for low DOF machines, such as metamachines, by using the planar four-bar as an approximate solution.

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  A Preclinical Model to Study the Relationship Between Alcohol Intake and Voluntary Exercise in Females

  Corey Deel; other authors: Samuel Fisher (co-first author) and Tracy R. Griggs

  Alcohol-use disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent in females, highlighting a need to better understand the relationship between alcohol (ethanol) and other reinforcers, such as voluntary exercise. Preclinical research utilizing male rodents to explore ethanol use and behavior has been the standard, despite documented differences between males and females. Studies have indicated that females run and drink more than males when given access to voluntary wheel running and ethanol. Previous studies in our lab have used male rats to explore the concept of hedonic substitution, which is the replacement of one reinforcer with another, by giving access to voluntary exercise for some time before removing and replacing it with access to ethanol solution (Lynch et al., 2019). However, for this study, we expanded our experimental design to study the relationship between ethanol and voluntary exercise (running) in females. Our current experiment consisted of one group of runners (n=10) with concurrent access to voluntary wheel running and ethanol compared to a group of non-runners (n=10) with access to ethanol. We measured ethanol consumption and preference at 30min and 24hrs, running distance (m) and time spent (min) running. The experiment is ongoing, and to-date we have not observed differences in ethanol measures between our runners and non-runners. We will perform measures of anxiety-like behavior at the experiment’s conclusion.

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  Arduino-based laser light security system with alarm

  Venkata Sai Neeraj Viswa Konathala

  This project shows an Arduino-powered laser light security system with an alarm. The device uses the laser beams to identify any trespassing into a certain area. The alarm system is managed by the Arduino microcontroller. Two laser modules, two photoresistors, a buzzer, and an Arduino board make up the system. The two opposing edges of the space that needs to be secured are where the laser modules are situated. Between the laser modules, the photoresistors are positioned, and they are used to detect any breaks in the laser beam. The photoresistor notices an interruption in the laser beam and alerts the Arduino board when it happens. To notify the user of the incursion, the Arduino board in turn turns on the buzzer. An effective and secure way to identify intrusions is provided by the system. It is affordable and simple to setup and utilize the system.

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  Arduino Based Radar System

  Srikar Janga

  Radio waves are used by RADAR, an object-detection system, to calculate an object's range, altitude, direction, and speed. There are many various sizes and performance requirements for radar systems. Airports utilize a variety of radar systems for air traffic management, long-range monitoring, and early warning systems. The brains of a missile guidance system are radar systems. There are small portable radar systems that a single person can maintain and run as well as systems that take up many sizable rooms.Several governments developed radar in secret both before and during World War II. The United States Navy came up with the name RADAR, not the actual technology, in 1940 to stand for Radio Detection and Ranging. Since becoming a common noun in English and other languages, radar has lost all capitalization.The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including:•Air traffic control•Radar astronomy•Air-defense systemsDigital signal processing is used in high-tech radar systems, which can extract meaningful information from extremely loud noise.The Air Force, Navy, and Army all use this technology. Such technology is currently being used in Google's future Prius and Lexus autonomous cars as well as the self-parking car systems introduced by Audi, Ford, and others. The project we created can be used by the customer in whatever systems they choose, such those in a car, a bicycle, or anything else. The project's use of Arduino gives the module's usage even more freedom to be used as needed.

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  Arduino-Based Smart Weather Station

  Satya Seshu Sivaprasad Yerramsetty

  This project aims to design and implement a weather station using Arduino. The system will be capable of measuring various weather parameters, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, and rainfall. The collected data will be displayed on an LCD screen, and also transmitted wirelessly to a remote server for further analysis and visualization. The system will consist of multiple sensors, including a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, a BMP280 barometric pressure sensor, and a raindrop sensor. These sensors will be connected to an Arduino microcontroller, which will be responsible for reading the sensor data, processing it, and sending it to the LCD screen and the remote server.The LCD screen will display the current weather conditions, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, and rainfall. It will also display the time and date, and any alerts or warnings regarding extreme weather conditions. The remote server will receive the weather data wirelessly via a Wi-Fi module connected to the Arduino. The server will store the data in a database and provide real-time visualization of the data through a web interface. Users will be able to view current and historical weather data, and also set up custom alerts based on certain weather conditions.Overall, this weather station project will provide an affordable and efficient solution for monitoring weather conditions in a particular location. It can be used in various applications such as agriculture, aviation, and transportation, where accurate and up-to-date weather data is crucial for decision-making.

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  A Review of the Detection of Gravitational Waves by Laser Interferometers

  Liam Horst

  The theory of general relativity published by Albert Einstein in 1915 predicts that accelerating massesemit gravitational waves. The effects of these passing gravitational waves are exceedingly weak and verydifficult to detect. The first detection of gravitational waves was made in 2015 by the LaserInterferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The first detected gravitational waves, emittedfrom the merger of two black holes, changed the length of the arms of the interferometer by much lessthan the diameter of a proton. Gravitational waves provide a very different window into the universethan do electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves, unlike gravitational waves, are emitted only bycharged objects, are trapped by black holes, and may be distorted or blocked as they travel to the earth.Gravitational-wave detection provides unique information about the most energetic events in theuniverse such as colliding black holes and exploding stars. This information could significantly deepenunderstanding of the large-scale structure of the universe. This project reviews the theory behind thepropagation of gravitational waves and their detection by ultra-sensitive laser interferometers. Newinsights into the nature of the cosmos that might be provided by detection of gravitational waves will be summarized.

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  A Rhetorical Analysis of Miriam Hall

  Casey Fuller, Brendan Kadel, Ethan Schum

  Students in the CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric course were given the choice to choose a statue, building, space/place on campus that is marked as a religious text/artifact or propose a new object of visual rhetoric in order to analyze using the rhetorical theories from class. Thier analyses employ a variety of rhetorical theories and concepts discussed in class during the semester. Each group collaborated to answer the question: how does this artifact/text rhetorically communicate and construct religious identity at UD?