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  A Sibling Comparison Study Exploring Effects of Parenting on Self-Esteem in Adolescents

  Molly Griffin

  Prior research has suggested a link between self-esteem in children and adolescentsand the parenting styles and behaviors of their parents. Research has identified dimensions ofwarmth, control, autonomy support, trust, flexibility, and demandingness as potential variablesexplaining this relationship. Existing literature has been limited by confounding variables suchas genetic influences, home environment, race, culture, and socioeconomic status, as well as by alack of longitudinal data. The current study uses a sibling comparison design to control for theinfluence of these genetic and environmental variables and allow for a more accurate estimate ofthe link between parenting and self-esteem. It uses data from the Children of the NationalLongitudinal Survey of Youths (CNLSY) which includes 11,545 biological offspring of womenin the previously collected data set, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79).The data on parenting styles and behaviors was taken from three domains of the CNLSY: theshort form HOME survey, a report of engagement, and a survey of perceptions of autonomy,disharmony, and intimacy. Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Asignificant association was found between intimacy and self-esteem scores in the populationestimate; however, this association was not significant in the sibling-comparison model. Resultssuggest that links between self-esteem and parenting behaviors are confounded by backgroundvariables within families.

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  A Single Sector Portfolio Weighting Model with Firm Revenue Growth the Factor Weight: An Empirical Analysis of Portfolio Returns for Select Stocks in the Communications Sector, 2009-2022

  Michael Topp, Michael Kondritz

  Top line revenue growth is an important factor in determining stock price appreciation. Using a portfolio management approach, I developed a concentrated portfolio of 10 stocks from the communication sector and tests two hypotheses: (1) The revenue growth factor weighted portfolio will outperform an equal weight portfolio over the period from 2009-2022. (2) Firm revenue growth is a priced in risk factor i.e., the long run return from my portfolio weighting model exceeds the market return as measured by the S&P 500 index. Returns are based on two investment strategies: (1) Buy and Hold and (2) Adjustable Shares.

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  Assessing the Relationship between Treatment Programs and Prisoner Misconduct

  Savanna Buttelwerth, Hanna Pappas

  The criminal justice system has been utilizing prison systems to manage behaviors that are undesirable to society for centuries. More recently, the criminal justice system has implemented programs within prisons to assist in treating prisoners and their specific behavioral issues. In this project we look at rehabilitative prison programs that parallel to infraction rates among prisoners. Correctional programming, mental health programming and miscellaneous programs are all examined in the literature review to find the gap of how these programs effect inmate infractions. More specifically this research examines drug and alcohol treatment programs and it's relationship with drug and alcohol related write-ups.

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  Assistive Communication Device Technology: Ethics and Possibilities in Therapy with Non-Speaking Clients

  Amanda Bursch

  Music therapy is a healthcare field wherein music experiences and the myriad relationships formed between client(s), board-certified music therapist(s), and music activates health-oriented changes (Bruscia, 2014). Within this field there are multiple facets that directly impact the client’s experiences; these include: arrangement of the therapy environment, role and function of music experiences, therapeutic relationships, and communication in verbal and non-verbal forms. However, there is a gap in the education and training of music therapists concerning alternatives to verbal communication, and the use of these alternatives in therapy. Through interviews and analysis, this thesis presents findings regarding the experiences of one non-speaking music therapy participant, and three board certified music therapists with relevant expertise, to empower current and student music therapists to advance their engagement with non-speaking clients in music therapy.

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  Automated Water Management System

  Kiranreddy Angali

  The Automatic Water Management System (AWMS) is an Internet of Things-based project with the goal of regulating and monitoring building water usage. In order to track water usage in real-time, find plumbing problems, and instantly stop the water flow in the event of a leak, the system makes use of IoT sensors and gadgets. Based on occupancy patterns and other criteria, the data collected is analyzed to optimize water consumption. The AWMS is made to minimize expensive water damage brought on by leaks and to lower water expenses and usage. Users can utilize the technology to make educated decisions about water usage by receiving alerts about suspected leaks and real-time information on water consumption. The AWMS is extremely scalable and may be put in a variety of structures, from modest residential buildings to huge commercial buildings.The AWMS is a very efficient way to control water use and avoid water damage to structures. The system makes use of IoT technology to deliver real-time data and insights that help users optimize water use, cut costs, and safeguard their property from water damage. The AWMS is a useful addition to the infrastructure of any building since it can automate water management and avoid water waste.

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  Automatic car parking system

  Supriya Kayathi

  A smart parking solution that can autonomously park and retrieve cars without the need for human interaction is the automatic car parking system using Arduino and ultrasonic sensor. The device employs an ultrasonic sensor and an Arduino microcontroller board to detect the presence of an automobile and direct it to a predetermined parking location.The project requires basic understanding of electronics and programming, as well as components such as Arduino Uno or similar microcontroller board, ultrasonic sensors (HC-SR04), LCD screen, LED lights and arrows, motors and gears, power supply, breadboard and jumper wires.The system uses a series of ultrasonic sensors installed in the parking lot that are connected to the Arduino board. When a car enters the parking lot, the sensors detect its presence and guide it to an empty parking spot using LED lights and arrows displayed on an LCD screen. The system then parks the car automatically, using motors and gears to move the car to the designated spot.When the driver returns to retrieve the car, the system uses ultrasonic sensors and LCD screen to guide the driver to the parked car's location. The system then uses the same motors and gears to retrieve the car and move it to the exit, where the driver can take control of the vehicle.The code for the project requires a series of algorithms to detect the car's position, calculate the distance between the car and the sensors, and guide the car to the designated parking spot. The code must be optimized for efficiency and reliability to ensure that the system operates smoothly.

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  Automatic Car Parking with 7 Segment Display

  Charan Sai Ravilla

  The system is built to maximize energy efficiency and is very helpful if we want to count the number of cars in the parking lots. This is done by simply incrementing the counter. To accomplish this, the system pairs of ultrasonic sensors, which saves a significant amount of energy. Each pair consists of two sensor pairs that are spaced apart in the opposite direction by a specific amount. The receiver receives the input and feeds it to an 8051 microcontroller. The transmitter is used to send light directly to the receiver. When a car approaches the area where the system is installed, the Ultrasonic sensor module detects it and sends the information to the microcontroller. The microcontroller process this input received. The system is also counting the number of cars that are present at this time and incrementing a counter with each arrival; the count is shown on a 7-segment display. If parking garages are not available, then indicate this on an LED display along with whether or not the vacant space is available. Since the counter should be situated so that only one car can pass at a time, the system also uses Arduino to increase the Bluetooth gate's open position over time.

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  Baby Showers in Hindu and Bulgarian Cultures: Food and Festivities

  Casey Tirado and Jayilin Barksdale

  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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  Beaver Activity and Tree Preference at Glen Helen Nature Reserve

  Dustin Holmes

  Ecosystem engineers are vital for natural areas, having a large impact on species richness and ecosystem health. An example is the North American beaver (Castor canadensis). Beavers can radically alter their environment through the construction of dams, which creates new aquatic habitats, leads to greater water availability, and increases nutrient availability for plants and animals. Around two years ago a beaver family began to build a dam in Glen Helen Nature Reserve (Yellow Springs, OH), and since then have completed construction of a dam and a lodge. This has caused significant flooding of the stream that the dam was built on and an opening of the canopy due to the beavers removing many large trees within the area. Our aim was to study the effects that this new beaver colony has had on trees in the area and how the beavers are affected by the local fauna and human activity.For this objective, we set up three remote trail cameras to capture beaver presence and activity. Cameras were active for a month, from Nov 15 to Dec 15, 2022. We also monitored and documented the location of trees that showed any signs of beaver activity so that we could identify what tree species were preferred by the beavers. We collected the cameras and reviewed what was captured, following up with analysis of the data collected. We documented 141 photos and videos of beavers during our study. They were primarily active at dawn, and seemed to avoid other mammals and humans. It was also determined that the beavers mainly preferred medium sized sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and hackberry trees (Celtis occidentalis) over other slower growing tree species. This data will aid in the management of Glen Helen Nature Reserve and provide insight on what attracts beavers to locations for their dam.

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  Bedroom Temperature Sensor

  Oliver James Dunne

  I find that my bedroom often is a different temperature than the bottom floor, where the heating system is based. Sometimes the room is hotter than downstairs, sometimes it is cooler. The thermostat system works by being set to heating or cooling to a specific temperature. If that temperature is read, the heating or cooling is then turned off. For instance, if the temperature is set to cooling to 66 degrees, the cooling is on until a temperature of 66 degrees is reached. If the temperature drops below what is set when on cooling, the thermostat doesn’t react. For this project, I want to be able to see if I should set the thermostat to a higher or lower temperature before I go to bed, so I can have a desired temperature of 65 degrees when I go to bed. I will accomplish this by using a thermistor, as well as an LCD display and a RGB LED. The procedure will be to develop a schematic where the thermistor senses the temperature in the room, the LCD display shows the temperature and the RGB LED shows a different color depending on what action I should take. For a temperature 64 degrees and lower, the light will show red and that will tell me to set the thermostat to heating and a higher temperature. For a temperature 64-66 degrees, the light will show green, and I will know that no action is required. For a temperature above 66 degrees, the light will show blue, and I will know to set the temperature to cooling at a lower temperature. For the power source I will use some rechargeable batteries that I have. The necessary coding will be through Arduino, and I will connect my power source and schematic to my Arduino Uno.

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  Be There, Will Be Wild!: An Analysis of the Participation of Violent Militant Extremist Groups in the January 6 Attack on the Capitol Building

  Jacqueline Eckhart, Sarah Collins, Emma Blair

  In this presentation, we offer an analysis of the participation of violent extremist militia groups in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Understanding the activities of violent extremist militia groups is a critical need in today's society. In an October 2022 report, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI identified "domestic violent extremists" as "one of the most persistent threats to the United States today." Using tools for the analysis of propaganda, we examine not only the groups themselves, their role in the attack, and the ideologies motivating their actions, but also the societal context surrounding the event and the role that media played. The participation of these groups in the attack is examined as part of a larger system of propaganda, through which institution(s) acting as the source of propagandistic messages, with the assistance of other agents, utilize media to manipulate the cognitions, shape the perceptions, and direct the behavior of a target audience to advance their own partisan interests, regardless of whether their actions promote the common good.

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  Binary and ternary metal telluride nanocrystals for mid-IR applications

  Sarah Maglosky

  Transition-metal tellurides offer a unique platform for realizing new semiconductor and semi-metallic materials for biomedical devices and laser applications in the infrared ranges. They exhibit a high level of flexibility to achieve tunable band gaps through structural and compositional control. This project investigates the band gaps and photoluminescence of various new transition-metal tellurides through a materials characterization perspective and is conducted in close collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Materials characterization of novel transition-metal tellurides based on UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and photoluminescence spectroscopy are reported for the chalcogenide nanocrystals to understand their novel structure-property relations. Controlled band gap and emission peaks were achieved by experimentally changing the composition of the chalcogenide nanocrystals. These results will provide key experimental insights for achieving new materials for mid-IR range device applications.

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  Biomedical Electro-Optics: Looking at the Eyes

  Simon Didat

  This is a summary of research and experimentation on the optical response of the human eye, with testing being performed using a GazePoint eye tracking system. Pupil dilation, gaze position, and blink rate were recorded for human subjects in response to various visual stimuli on a computer screen, including different wavelengths and directions of light in the optical spectrum. The purpose of this work was to develop a baseline data set across multiple, diverse participant demographics, which can be used in the development of an assessment tool for various clinical applications in neuroscience and human performance such as the diagnosis of concussion. This work was performed in conjunction with a collaborative telehealth/telemetry project with Premier Health/Miami Valley Hospital.

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  Biometric Attendance System Using Arduino

  Shivani Katanguri

  In industrial and domestic applications attendance registering is important at each and every moment. Many face a lot of problems due to lack of proper attendance monitoring system. In this project we use Fingerprint Sensor (R307) which senses the Fingerprint of a particular person; a buzzer and Led gets activated whenever a person places his finger on the sensor. Then the fingerprint is stored in cloud with id no. Many people can store their fingerprints. Then next time any person puts their finger on the sensor it checks there are any matching fingerprints or not. If his fingerprint matches with any of the stored fingerprints then the LCD display shows which person it is and the time & date of checking.In this model, all the fingerprints are stored each and every time someone places his finger. User can connect the system wirelessly with the cloud and monitor the process. When the app is running on the computer, data sent by R307 fingerprint module is received and stored on the cloud and displayed in serial monitor and 16*2 LCD display module. This study has mainly focused to develop IOT based biometric attendance system, that is able to keep record of attendance and count the data for daily purpose. In this project we are going to design Fingerprint Sensor Based Biometric Attendance System using Arduino. Simply we will be interfacing fingerprint sensor with Arduino, LCD Display & RTC Module to design the desired project. In this project, we are using fingerprint Module and Arduino to take and keep attendance data and records. Attendance systems are commonly used systems to mark the presence in offices and schools. From manually marking the attendance in attendance registers to using high-tech applications and biometric systems, these systems have improved significantly. By using the fingerprint sensor, the system will become more secure for the users. Biometric student attendance system increases the efficiency of the process of taking student attendance. This presents a simple and portable approach to student attendance in the form of an Internet of Things (IOT) based system that records the attendance using fingerprint based biometric scanner and stores them securely over cloud. This system aims to automate the cumbersome process of manually taking and storing student attendance records. It will also prevent proxy attendance, thus increasing the reliability of attendance records. The records are securely stored and can be reliably retrieved whenever required by the teacher. Proper attendance recording and management has become important in today’s world as attendance and achievement go hand in hand. Attendance is one of the work ethics valued by employers. Most of the educational institutions and government organizations in developing countries still use paper based attendance method for maintaining the attendance records. There is a need to replace these traditional methods of attendance recording with biometric attendance system. The unique nature of fingerprint makes it ideal for use in attendance management systems. Besides being secure, Fingerprint based attendance system will also be environment friendly. Fingerprint matching is widely used in forensics for a long time. It can also be used in applications such as identity management and access control. This review incorporates the problems of attendance systems presently in use, working of a typical fingerprint based attendance system, study of different systems, their advantages, disadvantages and comparison based upon important parameters.

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  Bottom-up Approach to Rebuild Synergy in Biofilms to Stimulate the Degradation of Recalcitrant Polymer Coatings

  Anna Blumberg

  The movement toward more environmentally friendly approaches to thwarting biofilm formation on marine and aerospace equipment has led to a more comprehensive approach to deconstructing and identifying the complex interactions with biofilms on polymer coated surfaces. We will present results from the biodegradation of defined thermoplastic polyester polyurethane and polyether polyurethane coatings using single environmental strains of Bacillus megaterium, Papiliotrema laurentii, and defined mixtures of these two organisms as both liquid cultures and as biofilms on polymer coated surfaces. We will show the changes in population dynamics using a quantitative PCR approach and selective agar plate based assays using antifungal or antimicrobial agents. We will present how under nutrient limited conditions these two organisms appear to control their activity and population density to survive on the carbon sources released from the successful hydrolysis of the synthetic coating. These data show how a prokaryote and eukaryote originally isolated from the same environmental consortium inside of an aircraft interact to affect the degradation of a coated surface over time.

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  Branched Chain Amino Acids in the Regulation of Listeria monocytogenes Toxin Production

  Luke Camden

  Listeria monocytogenes is a human pathogen with many virulence genes that contribute to infections. The expression of these genes is highly coordinated in response to different environmental signals. For example, the transcription factor CodY plays an important regulatory role in virulence gene expression in response to branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), including leucine, isoleucine, and valine. In addition to BCAAs, propionate is also a key environmental signal that can influence L. monocytogenes virulence gene expression. In fact, anaerobic exposure to propionate resulted in an increase in the production of the toxin listeriolysin O (LLO). We hypothesized that CodY was involved in mediating the upregulation of LLO production in response to anaerobic propionate exposure. To test this hypothesis, hemolytic assays were performed to measure and compare LLO activities in wildtype L. monocytogenes and a CodY-deficient mutant (ΔcodY) grown under various conditions. After testing different media types and using different data analysis methods, our results showed that CodY was not required for the upregulation of LLO production by anaerobic propionate exposure. However, CodY may be involved in the upregulation of LLO production by anaerobic exposure to propionate and isoleucine. In conclusion, the role of CodY in L. monocytogenes response to propionate might be more complicated than anticipated. There are likely other mechanisms that are involved in association with the CodY/BCAA regulatory pathway in mediating the regulation of virulence genes in L. monocytogenes.

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  Bring Back Manly Men: An Examination of How Extreme Male Gender Stereotypes Are Portrayed in the Media

  Alayna Yates

  In the December 2020 issue of Vogue US, Harry Styles was the first male cover model in the famous fashion magazines' long history, and he defied traditional male gender fashion norms by wearing a lacy, baby blue dress. Conservatives took to Twitter in outrage with Styles' breaking of traditional gender norms. Members of the LGBTQ+ community asked why an affluent, heterosexual, white, cisgender man had suddenly become the poster child for something drag queens and cross-dressers have been doing for decades. The argument quickly gained two sides, both in disapproval for the pivotal cover photo. Beyond this specific case, it's important to go back in history and examine what does a "manly man" look like? What do they act like? And why? What teaches and reinforces such toxic masculinity? Compared to violent movies and video games, fashion magazines are a vastly different medium that opens up the discussion of what men's fashion looks like today and how times are changing. Playful engagement with clothes and textiles has opened up the arena in which Styles was able to operate for the Vogue US cover shoot, but is this his story to tell? Should a cisgender, heterosexual man be the example when members of the LGBTQ+ community have similarly experimented with fashion? The portrayal of gender stereotypes in the media is complex and makes for an important discussion about how these stereotypes may evolve or change throughout time.

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  Bringing New Methods and Model Organisms into the Pursuit of the Genetic, Developmental, and Evolutionary Basis of a Morphological Trait

  Jada Brown, Logan Brubaker, Allison Pavlus, Victoria Fowler

  The development of animal form is directed by the operation of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) that utilize transcription factor genes to control the spatial, temporal, and even sex-specific patterns of trait-building realizator genes. These patterns of gene expression result from the encoded GRN transcription factor proteins interacting with binding sites in the cis-regulatory elements (CREs) of their directly-regulated target genes. Since many transcription factors and realizator genes are older than the traits they govern, trait evolution arises from genetic changes that altered the uses of these more ancient genes. A major goal for the field of evolutionary-developmental (or evo-devo) biology is to understand how traits originate, diversify, and become lost by changes to key regulatory genes and their connections made with CREs for the ultimate realizator genes of GRNs. We are investigating the evolution of a GRN for a rapidly evolving fruit fly pigmentation trait present in an experimentally convenient model species, and we propose to bring genetic investigations into closely-related emerging model species. Our studies will focus on how the male-specific pattern of abdominal pigmentation emerged in the fruit fly lineage of D. melanogaster and how this trait was modified and lost in related species. In order to reach our goals, experiments and methods will have to confront several challenges. These include identifying the critical CREs with massive genomes, reconciling how gene expression patterns can evolve when regulated by multiple redundant CREs, characterizing gene function in multiple species, and testing the necessity and sufficiency for cases of gene function and CRE evolution in species possessing the ancestral, derived, modified, and lost pigmentation trait. While these goals seem daunting, success will undoubtably push the field of evo-devo much closer to one of its most ambitious goals.

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  Buggin' Out about Solar Prairies

  Raef Khamis Ali Saif Al Hamedi, Grace Litavsky, Abbey Raison, Sarah Metz, Rianna Soltis

  The City of Dayton is interested in implementing two new solar fields similar to University of Dayton’s established solar prairie at Curran Place. The proposed sites were both managed lawns, one of which was in the city’s water treatment plant (referred to as Water Treatment) and the other is a brown field where a paint factory burned down in 1987 (referred to as Sherwin Williams). Insects are an important part of ecosystems because they are important to food webs and aid in pollination of plants. The question we wanted to answer was if the established solar prairie at Curran Place is a beneficial ecosystem that supports high insect biodiversity and if the proposed sites should be treated in the same way. Our hypothesis was that the solar prairie would be more biodiverse than the managed lawns/proposed solar sites. We set up four transects at each city managed lawn and six transects at Curran place (four under the solar panels and two in the prairie vegetation surrounding panels), and at each transect we placed pitfall traps, pan traps, and sweepnetted along the transect. After sorting the captured insects by order in the lab, we found that the established solar prairie at Curran Place had the lowest total number of insects, but the highest insect biodiversity out of all three sites. This study shows that the diversity of flowering plants is beneficial for insect populations as it promotes biodiversity. If the City of Dayton moves forward with implementing solar prairies on these lawns, planting a similar seed mix and applying similar treatments to these two sites as the Curran Place would create a diverse ecosystem for native insect populations.

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  Building a Weather Station IoT Project

  Maneesh Pabolu

  In this project, we'll create a weather station that can detect temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure using an Arduino board and a variety of sensors. The sensors are connected to the Arduino board as part of the project, and the board is programmed to read the sensors' data and display it on an LCD screen. Real-time weather data will be available from the weather station, which may also be upgraded to include more sensors or connected to the internet for remote monitoring. Making a useful tool while learning about electronics, programming, and weather monitoring is possible with this project.

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  Calling Out, Calling In, Calling On: A Model for Challenging Injustice

  Emma Sawchuk, Nicholas Bridgett, Jarrett Dixon

  Dr. Loretta Ross of Smith College developed a course on "Calling In" as an alternative to calling people out for their roles in perpetuating injustice, and she argues that it is to the human rights movement was nonviolence was to the civil rights movement. This poster will explain what she means by "calling in" and "calling on" and will explain the significance of these approaches for UD's culture.

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  Can College Dining Halls meet Students Nutritional Needs Compared to Student Housing Cooking?

  Amelia Sivore, Allison Muntz, Molly Klimo, Jacqueline Roberts, Brett Heininger, Madeline Reyes

  Nutrition for college students is an extremely important topic and this particular population is notoriously known for their poor diet and high stress. During this time, many college students will develop poor eating habits as a result of poor time management and continue to utilize these poor habits throughout all of college and even after. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutritional level of students living on the University of Dayton campus. Researchers worked to see whether or not participants nutritional intake while eating food provided on campus or made in their home on campus met their nutritional needs. Using a cross-sectional research model, students from the University of Dayton were recruited via text and email. The participants were provided a survey to better understand their undergraduate grade level, what they ate the past 2 days, and how they got their food (home cooked, dining hall, eating out, etc.).

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  Capital Embodiment: White Beauty and Bodies in Sally Rooney’s Debut Novel

  Josie Forsthoff

  Beauty standards that have long been understood by feminist theorists as sexist also have a history of being rooted in racism. By reproducing the white, slender representations of beauty uncritically, authors potentially perpetuate the racist, classist, and sexist hierarchies in which our cultural norms are rooted. Popular, contemporary author Sally Rooney consciously writes about the privileges of wealth but fails to write in the same way about the capital of beauty and slender bodies. My literary analysis focuses on the political power and implications of the white beauty and embodiment of Frances in her debut novel from 2017. Rooney’s representation of white women is detrimental, I argue, only insofar as the power of whiteness and thinness that is written into their bodies is unclaimed and uncriticized. The thin beauty ideals which oppress and empower women within what bell hooks calls ‘capitalist white supremacist patriarchy’ make embodiment political especially for women at the top like Rooney and her characters. Frances experiences white beauty and embodiment as inhumane perfection and punishment that prevents connection despite exciting desire.

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  Career Prediction via Historical Information

  Abhijeet Gupta, Shruti Ajay Singh, Aditya Shrivastava

  The career dataset introduces the question of how we can predict an individual’s career path in the future. And this can have a variety of application in the industry including enhancing human resources, career guidance, keeping track of future trends, et al. In this paper we propose a method to predict an individual’s career collected using LinkedIn, into two class labels named, Position and Domain. Here, Position has 8 labels defining the position names and Domain has 6 labels defining the industry domain. To predict our findings, the career dataset is tested on six different multiclass multiouput classifiers, and among those the best classifier is finalized for our dataset that predicts out defined class labels upto an accuracy score of 90% approximately.

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  Cell-Membrane Hydrophobicity of L. monocytogenes is Modulated by Propionate and Oxygen Levels

  Angela Murrin, Matthew Austin

  Bacterial hydrophobicity is a key envelope property relevant to pathogenesis and adhesion to surfaces in various food processing and healthcare settings. How hydrophobicity is modulated by environmental conditions is often unclear. In this project, we investigated how two relevant environmental signals, propionate and oxygen, influence bacterial hydrophobicity. Our model organism is Listeria monocytogenes, a Gram-positive foodborne pathogen capable of causing infections with high mortality rates. Despite stringent sanitation procedures, L. monocytogenes persists in the food processing environment and often causes costly food recalls as well as outbreaks. It is unclear whether the cell-surface hydrophobicity of L. monocytogenes contributes to the persistence and how the hydrophobicity may be modulated by environmental signals. Therefore, using various non-polar, organic reagents and a modified procedure from Salas-Tovar et al., the cell-surface hydrophobicity of L. monocytogenes strain 10403s under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions was analyzed. Preliminary results suggest that the types of non-polar reagents used in the study can influence the hydrophobicity estimates. Furthermore, bacteria grown in aerobic conditions exhibited a higher level of hydrophobicity than those grown in anaerobic conditions. Bacterial cultures grown in the presence of a 25 mM concentration of propionate also exhibited a higher level of hydrophobicity than those grown without propionate. These results suggest that hydrophobicity of L. monocytogenes can be modulated by oxygen levels as well as propionate.