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  Hand gesture recognition system using sensor and Arduino

  Subrahmanyam Gangadharabhatla

  This project presents the design and implementation of a Hand gesture recognition system using a Hand gesture recognition sensor on an Arduino platform. The sensor can read the hand signs loaded into the system previously and recognize the gestures when placed in front of the sensor. Further, we can process the information to control a robot or machine to perform actions. This system can provide situations such as contactless controls and interactions. This system is dependable and straightforward to use. This project provides the system's design and execution too. Recommendations for the improvement of the system also are concluded in the report.

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  Hands In Harmony

  Kabelo Muhammad, Molly Obergefell, Olivia Redwine, Sydney Zupnick, Rosalie Doyle, Arianna Ranallo, Valeria Alvarado Berrios, Kayleah Shiland, Anna Delaney, Jaylee Sowders, Mattabesett Smith

  Led by director Heidi Reynolds and interpreter Mary Ann Fraley, the University of Dayton performing ensemble Hands in Harmony presents choreographed signs from American Sign Language (ASL) to popular songs. It allows the audience members to experience and appreciate both the auditory and visual aspects of the music. Seeing the signs gives a different perspective of the music. For more information about Hands in Harmony or details to become involved, please visit the University of Dayton Ensembles and Performance Opportunities page under "Choral Ensembles."

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  Hazard Alert Prototype for Road Construction

  Qingyu Ren

  Injuries caused by the operator's negligence or lack of attention by laborers to the surrounding environment during the road construction process are one of the main reasons for accidents in road construction sites. The use of sound cues in construction vehicles is a widely used method to alert people in the vicinity. However, in real-world applications, the voice alert of the vehicle may not be efficient in letting people notice it due to the noise of the construction site and people wearing sound insulation equipment to protect their hearing. Vibration might be a better way to apply in construction sites that are less affected by surrounding noise, and it can indicate the potential hazard direction to people. On the other hand, ultrasonic sensors are a well-developed technology used for distance and size measurement in homogeneous materials. With recent advancements in microprocessor ability, detection and distance estimation using ultrasonic sensors are possible. The aim of this project is to build an alert device that combines ultrasonic sensors with vibration sensors to notify people of the direction in which an object is approaching and to be aware of the potential hazard.

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  Here comes the sun: A study of insect ecology during Ohio’s solar power boom

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

  As the world’s population and demand for energy continues to increase, we are also experiencing a rapid increase in renewable energy, such as solar power. Ohio is in the midst of a large solar boom, in which many solar fields are converted to something called “solar prairies.” The native, flowering vegetation in a solar prairie is meant to attract pollinators to boost the ecological value of the land. As solar prairies continue to surface in Ohio, we are still facing a large knowledge gap regarding (1) the effects of solar arrays on insects and (2) the best management practices for solar prairie vegetation. To help bridge this first knowledge gap, we are surveying insect communities at newly proposed solar sites before and after solar installation. Many of these proposed sites will be seeded as solar prairies during or following the installation process. Thus far, we have collected preliminary data at three proposed solar sites: two city managed lawns (WT and SW) and one field of goldenrod (MEEC). We collected insects using pitfall traps (n= 4 per site at WT and SW; 9 at MEEC), pan traps (n= 1 per site at WT and SW; 9 at MEEC), and sweepnets (n= 4 per site at WT and SW; 10 at MEEC). Insects were sorted to order level identification (e.g., bees are of the order Hymenoptera) and we used analyses of variance (ANOVA) and generalized linear models (GLM) to test for differences in insect communities between and within sites. We found insect abundance and diversity to be highest at MEEC, as expected due to flowering goldenrod. We expect a decrease immediately following construction and solar installation at all sites, but a rebound over time as plant diversity increases.

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  Historical Nostalgia Scale

  Jacob Salzman, Jonah Farrar

  When thinking of the concept of nostalgia, people often find themselves thinking of what is called "personal nostalgia." This is a longing for a time in their own past, and wanting to experience these times again. Little do people know about the other, lesser researched form called "historical nostalgia."Historical nostalgia is when an individual has a longing for a time that they never got to experience. This has become a more prevalent area with the rise of social media platforms like TikTok where users are popularizing past technologies, clothes, and other technologies. All of this has led us to run pilot studies and preliminary studies based around a still image of an old mall with Africa by ToTo to gauge reactions and nostalgic feelings from viewers. We have also evaluated secondary sources, and we are currently working towards developing more studies, all with the goal of being able to contribute a more solidified scale of how to gauge how "historically nostalgic" an individual is. We hope to accomplish this for the sake of advertisers and managers as this area is under researched and under utilized in a world where it continues to become more relevant.

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  History Capstone Presentations

  Camryn Mcnutt, Brant Bolton, Sean Zegarski, Jack Willerton, Noah Jackson, John Perkins-Stafford

  Capstone presentations by History Department Seniors showcasing scholarly historical projects based on primary source analysis and historiographical context. Topics range from Perceptions of Economic Transition in Russia and Eastern Europe, to anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism in Extreme Movements in Ohio, Chinese Propaganda, and the Professionalization of Army Cadre in Nineteenth Century America.

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  Home security using Arduino

  Dharma Teja Rao Gandra

  The objective of this project is to create a security system that automatically takes photos when a door is opened using sonar sensors. The system is built using an Arduino kit and a sonar sensor, and it is designed to be simple, reliable, and easy to use.The project involves several steps. The first step is to choose a sonar sensor that is compatible with the Arduino board. Once the sonar sensor is selected, it is connected to the Arduino board and programmed to detect changes in distance when the door is opened. The sensor will send out a sound wave that will bounce off the door and return to the sensor. By measuring the time it takes for the sound wave to travel to the door and back, the distance between the sensor and the door can be calculated.When the door is opened and the distance measured by the sonar sensor changes, the Arduino board will trigger the camera module to take a photo. The camera module is connected to the Arduino board and programmed to take photos when activated.The system can be customized to include additional features such as an alarm or notifications when the door is opened. For example, a piezoelectric buzzer can be added to the circuit to create an audible alarm, or an Ethernet or Wi-Fi module can be used to send notifications to a phone or email.Overall, this project demonstrates the use of an Arduino kit and sonar sensor to create a simple and effective security system that can be used to monitor doors and windows. The system is designed to be expandable and customizable, allowing users to add additional features and functionality as needed.

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  How can Injury Prevention Programming Impact the Mental Health of College Students?

  John Distel, Remy Zandier, Dominic Solano, John Racik, Hope Anthony

  This study will be examining mental health in all college students at the University of Dayton who were affected by injuries during their time at school. Injuries can affect a students every day life and cause adverse mental health affects. The study will be looking to determine if regular intervention of injury prevention methods may have an affect on injury severity and how that in turn affects mental health. A survey will be sent out that prompts participants to answer questions regarding depression and anxiety symptoms during the time of their injury. PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are validated surveys and will be used to gauge mental health symptoms for participants. Following the survey, analysis of the results will allow us to determine what symptoms students most commonly experience following an injury. Measuring previous knowledge, mental health effects, and various types of injuries we will be able to create a holistic review of the effects of injuries on college students.

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  How Do Difficult Features Evolve? Test of a Sperm Tail Tubulin Synergism in the Fly D. melanogaster

  Kati Bowsher

  How does a protein evolve while maintaining its function? Structure/function tests of the sperm tail protein β2-tubulin show that even small changes in the protein render it unable to generate a motile sperm tail, raising the question about how it evolved in the first place. It has not evolved in 60 million years in Drosophila melanogaster. Previously, we identified additive and synergistic amino acid specializations of the β2 protein. Synergism is of particular interest because it makes evolution path-dependent, potentially contributing to the 60-million-year stasis of the β2 protein. Two amino acids, Threonine 55 and Alanine 57, were identified as potentially participating in a β2-specific synergism. Their function depends on amino acid contacts that are only present in β2. Here we test the hypothesis that a third amino acid that is in contact with Thr55 and Ala57 in the folded protein and is also unique to β2, Cysteine 29, completes the synergism, by generating transgenic flies expressing a modified major β1 tubulin containing β2 identity Cys29, Thr55 and Ala57. Spermatogenesis and fertility were assessed in CTA/CTA β2null/β2null flies. CTA can support all post-mitotic tubulin function in the testis, except spermatogenesis. CTA flies generate short, immotile sperm and are sterile. No additional sperm-generating function was provided by Cysteine 29 compared to the β1-β2 construct containing only Thr55 and Ala57.No candidate for sperm generating function is clear in the 11 remaining differences between CTA and β2, indicating that sperm-generating function resides in small epistatic interactions throughout the protein. However, the lack of strong candidates for β2 function raises another possibility; the β1 backbone used in testing for β2 amino acid specializations contains 9+0 specializations that actively generate immotile axonemes. Candidates for such β1 specializations will be identified through bioinformatic comparisons among 9+2 and 9+0 axoneme-generating β-tubulins and tested in transgenic flies.

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  How does Peer Delinquency influence an Individuals Aspirations for Work, Family, and the Law?

  Haley Fisher

  Delinquency is the act of criminal behavior committed by individuals during their adolescence. Delinquency has led many individuals down the wrong path in life, but it has also sparked desire for people to better themselves. Because many individuals do unfortunately suffer from the poor decisions they have made in their adolescence, that previous studies aim to look further into the catalyst of those choices. Many factors are considered when examining catalysts, such as exposure to violence, substance abuse, gang involvement, peer delinquency, age, gender, and ethnicity. Research for my project has used the dataset Pathways to Desistance study. This data has been collected from November 2000 to January 2003, following around 1,354 individuals who were serious juvenile offenders from adolescence to young adults, ranging from fourteen to eighteen years of age. There have been multiple tests conducted to observe their psychological development, behavior, social relationships, mental health, and experiences in juvenile court or the criminal justice system. This study was designed to identify the social contexts and developmental differences in encouraging desistance and antisocial behaviors. My research project looks examine how different factors specifically peer delinquency, affects individuals aspirations for work, family, and the law. The dependent variable of the study is individuals’ aspirations for work, family, and the law. This falls under the measure of perceptions of chances for success. The independent variables I also looked at when determining what would effect these aspirations were these individuals exposure to violence, substance abuse, gang involvement, age, gender, and ethnicity. It is hoped that the evidence which I have uncovered from my research will be able to further the understanding and prevent of individuals who are led down a wrong path in their lives eventually deteriorating their aspirations for work, family, and the law.

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  How Does Screen Time Affect Sleep Duration in College Students?

  Sarah Yaroma, Elizabeth Niemiec, Olivia Fowler, Aubrey Wilcox, Megan Dickinson

  College students spend an exorbitant amount of their time doing homework on laptops, watching T.V., scrolling through social media, and more. As the amount of screen time continues to increase, the amount of time students spend sleeping each night decreases and becomes limited. Sleep is a crucial part of a person’s daily routine that has an effect on the proper functioning of every physiological process in the body. The purpose of this study was to identify a potential relationship between sleep duration and the total amount of time spent watching or using a technological device in college students. Previous research has implied that properties of technology have an impact on essential functions, such as psychological well-being and academic performance in college students. We used data from our survey and the “Screen Time” app on the iPhone / Apple products to analyze the relationship between screen time and sleep duration during the 2023 spring semester for students at the University of Dayton. Researchers predict that large amounts of screen time was shown to have an effect on sleep duration.

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  How Does Sleep Affect Symptoms of Anxiety in Undergraduate College Students?

  Audrey Cruz, Shelsy Martinez, Lucas McFee, Jillian Beer, Joseph Boateng

  There is a close relationship between mental health and sleep. Anxiety has been frequently connected to sleep problems which can hinder learning. Given the environment of college, a decrease in the quality of sleep can lead to implications of declining mental health in undergraduate students. The study aims to look at the associations between the amount of sleep undergraduate college students at the University of Dayton get and the symptoms of anxiety that these students may experience. A survey was used to collect the data and associations were analyzed. The researchers expected that those who get inadequate amounts of sleep experience more symptoms of anxiety.

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  How do Nutrition, Environmental Factors, and Sleep Patterns Impact the Frequency and Severity of Tics in Individuals with Tourette's and other Tic Disorders?

  Lauren Simons, Matthew Signa, Gaia Le Donne, Christian Dale, Timothy Lynch

  Tourette's disorder and other tic disorders are neurodevelopment conditions characterized by involuntary motor and vocal tics. While the etiology of these disorders is not fully understood, there is growing evidence to suggest that modifiable factors such as nutrition, environmental factors, and sleep patterns may influence the severity of tic symptoms. This study aims to investigate the relationships between these modifiable factors and tic severity in individuals with Tourette's disorder and other tic disorders.

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  How Management Impacts NERDS College Student Volunteers

  Tonkia Bridges

  This study focuses on the NERDS organization, which has experienced an increase in demand for its services and needs to develop selection, onboarding, and training processes to increase engagement for college student volunteers. Based on surveys and interviews with current and former volunteers, the study outlines an action plan with four objectives: 1) hiring a part-time volunteer manager, 2) establishing a partnership with a local university, 3) implementing a volunteer selection, onboarding, and training process, and 4) developing a volunteer mentor program. The study provides detailed timelines, goals, and outcomes for each objective, focusing on improving the recruitment and retention of college student volunteers. The study concludes that implementing this action plan will increase volunteer management efficiency, improve staff-volunteer relationships, increase positive organizational culture and climate, and provide college student volunteers with valuable skills and experiences.

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  How Much is your Desk Lamp Costing per Year?

  David Pohlod

  Growing electricity bills plague many of us who call Dayton home, but what exactly can we do to combat those rising prices. The most simple solution is to crack down on turning off lights when they are not in use. In this experiment I will explore the cost of a desk lamp that is used semi-frequently throughout the week and explore the amount of electrical energy it consumes on a daily basis. Basic cost of electricity will be set as the rate at which the electrical company, AES, charges my house per kilowatt hour. The data will be recorded via an Elegoo Uno R3 microcontroller with a photoresistor connected to measure when the light is turned on and how intense the light is. The data collected will then be used to draw conclusions about the cost to operate a single lamp per day, per month and per year.

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  Human Designed Equitable Warming Shirts

  Annie Wesner, Victoria Jacobs, Nicholas Stout

  Our project is to create a STEM based lesson plan that requires students to design a thermal shirt that is effective in keeping people warm by testing different insulators. Our problem given to students is the inequality of people facing homelessness often facing extreme temperatures in Ohio with little protection from the elements, especially in Winter. There is also inequality with the cost in buying hand warmers and warm clothing. Before students create and test their shirt designs they will learn about exothermic and endothermic reactions and learn mathematical concepts of modeling growth and decay over time. Students will test and design using the scientific method what insulators they will use to create this shirt based on their knowledge of chemical thermodynamics. They will measure the effectiveness of their design over time through sampling over the time interval chosen to test the theory that exothermic reaction rate flows are proportional to temperature. Students will then model using the data from the experiment to apply both chemistry and biology concepts to mathematics in a real-world example.

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  Humane Mouse Trap STEM Project for Social Justice

  Katherine Miller, Allison Tracy, Kara Ledbetter, Nicholas Stout

  To promote equality and to conceptualize a topic for students we will create a STEM for social justice project demonstrating how to present social justice and active learning in the classroom. Students will complete a project regarding humane mouse traps. This project will involve students working in science and mathematics. This promotes equity and social justice allowing for safety of the mice and the overall ecosystem. Dead mice are a safety risk to home and families, and using poison could danger drinking water or other aspects of the environment.

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  Human Impacts on Wildlife Activity in Glen Helen Nature Reserve

  Elizabeth Divish; other author: Dustin Holmes

  Recreational Locations such as Glen Helen Nature Reserve (Yellow Springs, OH), are welcoming and open to many human activities that involve being outdoors. These nature locations are also home to many different wildlife species that interact with each other and the humans that visit the park. These species have natural behaviors and interactions that are necessary for survival and reproduction. Living in an outdoor recreational area can at times make it difficult for them to follow their natural behaviors, because human activities such as hiking and dog walking can influence how the animals act, what times they look for food, or look for mates. In collaboration with the Glen Helen Nature Reserve, we implemented a wildlife monitoring project through the use of remote trail cameras in their park. We set up five trail cameras, with three of them having bait in the form of bird seed. Cameras were active for a month, from Nov 15 to Dec 15 2022. We documented eight mammal species: North American beaver (Castor canadensis), White tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), Raccoon (Procyon lotor), Coyote (Canis latrans), Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans), Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), and small rodents, such as field mice (Mus musculus). Using the footage from the camera traps, we found observable data to support that wild mammals inhabiting this location are affected by human behavior visiting the park. The majority of wild animals had nocturnal behavior, in contrast to human activity that occurs entirely during the day. By analyzing at the time of day of the activity for both, the different activities that are taking place and the relationship between them support the idea that wildlife are shifting their behavior to avoid human activity. The research has shown the effects that an outdoor area allowing humans to explore nature and their surroundings can have on the different fauna that call that location home, and these results will help inform Glen Helen Nature Reserve and their management plans for this protected area.

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  Identification and Comparison of Hydrolases Secreted from Naganishia albida to Papiliotrema laurentii and their activity toward natural and synthetic polyesters

  Clarissa Ove

  Esters and amides are the most versatile functional groups in nature and in plastics today. Understanding the key temporal events in the biodegradation and susceptibility of polymers and plastics (e.g. polyester and polyester polyurethanes) to hydrolytic enzymes is important to the sustainable development of our modern society. We will present the isolation, identification, and classification of an environmental strain of Naganishia albida found on polymer coatings inside of aircraft. To better understand the capability of hydrolytic enzymes to degrade plastics we isolated, identified, and classified an environmental strain of Naganishia albida found on polymer coatings inside an aircraft. We utilized cultivation conditions that induced the secretion of several hydrolytic proteins (between 30 kDa and 140 kDa) from N. albida that were identified via LC-MS. We also isolated the hydrolytic proteins from cellular supernatants using size exclusion chromatography, and performed soluble colorimetric esterase assays and polyester polyurethane coating degradation experiments. Finally we showed comparisons between the hydrolytic proteins produced by N. albida and another polymer degrading yeast, Papiliotrema laurentii.

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  Identification and Design of Neuromorphic Controller Inspired by Mammalian Neural Control Mechanisms Applying Concurrent Learning Algorithm

  Ranjani Kripashankar

  Human brains can do amazing things. The motor cortex can induce huge transient responses to perform very gentle and precise movements with the regulation of neuromodulators. The sensory and motor cortices in a human body are shaped by experience. These regulatory mechanisms of the brain enable humans with flexible and robust abilities in adapting to dynamic environments and greatly improve accuracy and fault tolerance which is the bottleneck in the control of complex real-time systems. The ability to identify and replicate these biological control systems could help provide a better understanding to reproduce functional behaviours of humans (like walking running etc.) to yield better results i.e., replace the bits and clocks of digital computation with the spikes and rhythm of human communication.Inspired by the control mechanisms of motor cortex, the study presents evidence on a small scale by focusing on developing a software infrastructure that allows for data collection from a human teacher performing control of a class of non-linear systems (Inverted Pendulum on Cart and Ball and Beam) with uncertain dynamics and external perturbations and ability to learn from the collected data using the Concurrent Learning algorithm to identify the control law of unknown form acquired by a human through direct experience with the system. Owing to high demands of real-time performance, the discrete-time dynamics of the systems are considered . Specifically, numerical results focusing on whether the human subject was able to stabilize the system for a sufficiently longer time or not addressing the efficacy of the data-set is presented . To validate the approach, the identified neuromorphic controller is used to stabilize the non-linear systems in hand.

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  Identification of a SARS-CoV2 viral protein that triggers neurodegeneration and accelerates Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration

  Aditi Singh, Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan

  The SARS-CoV2 virus is responsible for the recent COVID-19 Pandemic that caused a range of symptoms including an acute respiratory tract infection up to fatal severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that is fatal. The virus is highly contagious, rapidly mutating, and has resulted in massive morbidity and mortality around the globe including within the United States and worldwide. While COVID-19’s acute symptoms are known, the long-term sequelae and impacts like Post COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS) are lesser known and remain understudied. To date, it is understood that SARS-CoV2 results in an increased inflammatory response, cognitive dysfunction like brain fog, several long-term cardiovascular and autoimmune changes. Therefore, we hypothesized that SARS-CoV2 may impact conditions with pre-existing neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and cognitive dysfunction like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). To study these impacts, we used the Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit fly model, to understand how specific SARS-CoV2 proteins affect neurodegenerative pathology. Our model first misexpressed specific SARS-CoV3 CoV2 proteins in wildtype flies via Gal4-UAS system. Interestingly, misexpression of SARS-CoV2 NSP3, nonstructural protein 3 (NSP3), generated a rough eye phenotype with necrotic spots indicating cell death. These findings suggested that COVID-19 alone may promote cell death. We also confirmed these results in the mammalian neuronal cell known as Neuro-2a cells. Transient expression of SARS-CoV2 NSP3 significantly reduced the metabolic activity of these cells and enhanced cell death (p < 0.05). We were interested in observing how COVID-19 may potentiate cell death in a neurodegenerative background that has high pre-existing levels of neuroinflammation and cell death. Therefore, we misexpressed SARS-CoV2 NSP3 in an AD transgenic fly using the Gal4-UAS system (GMR>Aβ42). Here, we observed a worsening of the rough eye phenotype and increased cell death. Changes in cell morphology and increases in cell death may be indicative of COVID-19-mediated changes to AD pathophysiology. These findings suggested that a cell death mechanism may be involved in COVID-19 mediated worsening in AD pathology. Here, we present our studies in assessing various cell death mechanisms including autophagy, apoptosis, and necrosis, and their potential involvement in SARS-CoV2’s impacts on AD pathology.

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  Identification Of miRNA in Growth And Survival

  Prajakta Deshpande, Esther Labya; other author: Amit Singh

  Cell size is essential in a cell's cellular processes and function. Hence cell size andgrowth need to be appropriately maintained. Gene regulation plays a vital role inregulating gene expression of different cellular processes like apoptosis, cell growth,etc. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small single-stranded RNAs, regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by binding to the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) of their target messengerRNAs (mRNAs), degrade their target mRNA, and hence silence their gene expression.In a forward genetic screen, our lab has identified a micro-RNA that inhibits apoptosisin the Drosophila eye model. Previous study shows that in the hippo (hpo) mutantsexhibit overgrowth, whereas gain-of-function of hippo triggers cell death in thedeveloping eye. Our preliminary data suggest that the gain-of-function of miR-277 in theGMR>hpo background rescues Hpo-mediated cell death. In addition, the gain-of-function of miRNA-277 restores the impaired axonal targeting observed in GMR>hpoeye disc. Hence, our working model suggests that miRNA regulates cell growth bymodulating the hippo pathway.

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  Identification of Novel Genes Responsible for a Rapidly Evolving Fruit Fly Trait by Gain and Loss of Gene Function Experiments

  Devon Seibert, Gavin Christy, Rachel Stanojev

  Two long-standing goals in biology are to understand how genes are used during an organism’s development to make morphological traits, and how genes change to facilitate the origins, modifications, and losses of these traits. Two powerful approaches to identify the critical genes are through gain and loss of function experiments. The former experiments look at the effects when the expression of genes is induced in new cellular places, at new times in life, and/or at elevated levels of expression. The latter experiments cause the absence of expression for genes from their normal places, times, and/or levels of expression. While many methods have been devised to accomplish such experiments, these methods are generally too cumbersome to apply to tens, hundreds, or even thousands of genes. In recent years, scientists have found ways to use RNA-interference and CRISPER/Cas9 gene editing to cause both gain and loss of function mutations for specific genes. These methods are being combined with resources for the fruit fly species Drosophila (D.) melanogaster to target a steadily increasing number of this species’ genes. Our research project applied these approaches and genetic tools to cause gain and loss of function for genes suspected to play a role in the development and evolution of the male-specific pigmentation of the D. melanogaster abdomen. The greater than 30 genes whose altered function distorts this pigmentation feature will be the focus of future studies to reveal the mechanisms of gene function and their evolution.

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  Identifying the effects of anaerobicity and propionate on Listeria monocytogenes metabolism and central nervous system infection

  Rebecca Rudd

  Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative foodborne pathogen that can enter the bloodstream and invade the central nervous system to cause meningitis. As an intracellular pathogen, L. monocytogenes replicates inside the host cell cytosol and avoids extracellular immune defenses as it disseminates throughout the body. L. monocytogenes can also reach and cross the blood brain barrier, resulting in severe or fatal symptoms in immunocompromised and elderly patients. The overarching goal of my research project is to better understand how different environmental factors, anaerobicity and propionate, in the intestinal lumen alter the ability of L. monocytogenes to cause infections. In the first aim of my thesis research, I investigated how anaerobicity and propionate affected L. monocytogenes central metabolism by measuring acetoin production, which is a proxy for pyruvate metabolism, and culture pH, which is a proxy for lactic acid production. I also compared these measurements between different strains to identify the potential genetic regulations underlying L. monocytogenes responses to anaerobicity and propionate. In the second aim, I examined the effect of anaerobicity and propionate on L. monocytogenes infection and intracellular growth in a model host cell line for neuronal cells, the Neuro-2A cells. Additionally, I investigated the intracellular growth differences between different strains to identify strain-dependent variations. Through this project, further findings were discovered about how anaerobicity and propionate exposure influence L. monocytogenes metabolism and infections, allowing for better understanding of how this pathogen might behave during and after intestinal transit.

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  Image Caption Generation Using AI/ML With User Feedback

  Nidhi Sinha

  The objective of this project is to create a machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) system that can produce accurate and meaningful captions for images. When a picture is an input, the system will give a caption that precisely describes what is shown in the image. This will be achieved by using a sizable collection of photos and their related captions to train a neural network. The system will use a recurrent neural network (RNN) to produce the caption and a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract features from the image. The image will be transformed by the CNN into a feature vector, which will then be sent as input to the RNN. The caption will then be created by the RNN using a series of words. To train the model, a large dataset and their respective caption are required. Initially, will pre-process the dataset to ensure that it will be useful for neural networks. It includes resizing of images to a particular size, normalizing pixel values & converting the caption to their respective numerical vectors. Once training is completed, it will be tested on a different set of images to check its accuracy and relevance. User feedback will be collected for further improvement. This feedback will be used to fine-tune the model in order to achieve an accurate result. Users will be able to upload an image and instantly get a caption using a web application. Users will be able to rate the automatically generated captions and offer additional input through the web application's feedback feature, which will be included. This technique has a wide range of possible uses, such as increasing the accessibility of photos for those who are visually impaired, improving the searchability of image databases, and giving automated image descriptions for use in advertising and social media. In conclusion, the goal of this project is to create a system that can produce precise and pertinent captions for photographs utilizing AI/ML methods. The technology will be put into use as a web application for real-time use and assessed using user feedback.