Stander Symposium: All projects - 2024

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  Hilf Mit! The Role of the German Family and Society in Third Reich Children's Publications

  Siobhan R. Chawk

  This project began as an independent study with the unique opportunity to visit the Miami University Archives to analyze primary sources from Nazi Germany. The research began to develop as themes about the family and society were consistent topics of discussion in the Hilf mit! children’s magazines that were distributed by the National Socialist Teachers League. Each article selected for deeper analysis allowed for a comparison of the wording and messages being conveyed to the target audience of school children ages 10 and older. The poster presentation is a synopsis of the various steps taken in this research process to provide insight on a specific aspect of education in the Third Reich.

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  Hippo, Wnt, and JNK Pathway Interactions in a Drosophila Colorectal Cancer Model

  Michael K. Gruhot, Arushi Rai

  Colorectal cancer (CRC) will be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for people under the age of 50 by 2030. Due to increased efforts to spread awareness for regular screenings, the five-year relative survival rate for those diagnosed with colon cancer is 64.4% (www.fightcolorectalcancer.org). Treatment for CRC consists primarily of the excision of the tumor paired with regular doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These treatments cause systemic stress, damaging both cancerous and healthy cells alike. In order to create more efficient treatments, first, we must better understand the biology underlying changes in cells that lead to tumors in the colon. The proposed research aims to generate a better understanding of CRC using genetic models in Drosophila. We will specifically study the roles of the Hippo, Wnt, and JNK pathways on tumor formation and metastases in the colon. In order to do this, we have designed one- and three-hit models that disrupt each pathway singly and in combination with each other. These models represent the genetic heterogeneity in cancer patients, as well as represent the three most frequently found genetic lesions (p53, Ras, and APC.). The CRC models in flies will generate patches of cancerous cells in the fly gut (intestine). We will evaluate the CRC models (a) using antibody staining to check pathway activity (JNK, Wg, Hippo) and (b) using antibody staining to determine levels of proliferation and cell death. Overall, our studies will provide a platform for evaluating the effects of the three common genetic lesions in CRC and add to our knowledge about the altered communication between these oncogenes and pathways in CRC.

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  History 495 02 (History Internship class) The class will present 4 digital humanities projects that connect to a USAID funded Cultural Heritage Project in Iraq.

  Charlotte Kane Capuano, Maria Estefania Gomez, Yasmin Amal Nassar, Delos J. Penas-Johnson, Erin Pinto, Katherine Ann Shryock, Robert John Smart, Theodore Patton Vignocchi

  UD students played a vital role in safeguarding the cultural heritage of communities in Iraq through digitization and preservation efforts. They engaged with the urgent mission of securing heritage collections that hold the key to identity, history, and community resilience for religious and ethno-religious minority groups in the cradle of civilization.In this immersive program, they joined an ongoing, on-the-ground project initiated by the Antiquities Coalition (AC), dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of communities in Iraq through digitization. Partnering with four prominent organizations in Iraq—the Catholic Diocese of Mosul’s Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO), the Syriac Heritage Museum, Sinjar Academy, and Assyrian Aid Society—this project seeks to document, digitize, and make accessible the rich cultural treasures of Iraq to local, regional, and international audiences.

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  Homeschooling: Diverse Methods and Motivations

  Victoria Lee Desomma

  Homeschooling is an educational method where families choose to educate their children at home or in a place that is not a conventional school. People choose to homeschool their children for many different reasons including religion and politics. There are also many different types and styles of homeschooling which families choose to use including unit studies homeschooling, and eclectic homeschooling.

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  Homeschooling: It’s Rise and Appeal

  Alejandro Cazorla Granados

  In the context of its history and traditional perceptions, homeschooling has gone through major changes in the 21st century. This brief literature review highlights different dimensions of modern day homeschooling: the technological advancements, shifts in the socio political environment, and emerging educational philosophies. In this poster one will put together the pieces of the puzzle that is the new homeschooling paradigm.

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  Homeschooling within American Households Post-Pandemic

  Kyle Edward Wood

  Homeschooling as a form of education has undergone many transformations in recent years. The definition of homeschooling itself has become more nuanced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project focuses on how homeschooling has changed in form and in popularity due to the pandemic and new forms of technology and teaching.

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  House Price Prediction with Deep Learning

  Amira A. Yousif

  The real estate industry relies heavily on accurately predicting the price of a house based on numerous factors such as size, location, amenities, and season. In this study, we explore the use of machine learning techniques for predicting house prices by considering both visual cues and estate attributes. We collected a dataset (REPD-3000) of 3000 houses across 74 cities in the USA and annotated 14 estate attributes and five visual images for each house's exterior, interior-living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. We extracted features from the input images using convolutional neural network (CNN) and fed them along with the estate attributes into a multi-kernel deep learning regression model to predict the house price. Our model outperformed baseline models in extensive experiments, achieving the best result with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 16.60. We compared our model with a multi-kernel support vector regression and analyzed the impact of incorporating individual feature sets. In future, we plan to address class imbalance by having the same number of houses in each class and explore feature engineering for improving the model's performance.

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  Housing stock returns and rising interest rates. Is there an Inverse Correlation?

  Thomas F. Roebker

  The demand for housing is considered to be inversely related to rising interest rates, particularly mortgage rates. In this study, however, I make the assumption that the Federal fund rate is a predictor of a future decline in economic activity which should be reflected in stock returns for the housing sector. I look at four periods of rising Federal Fund Rates spanning the overall period 1999-2023. If the distribution of returns is skewed left, then my assumption holds. If skewed to the right, then it does not hold. I utilized the top 20 stock returns by market capitalization in the housing sector to carry out my analysis.

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  How Beneficial are College Readiness Programs within High Schools?

  Samuel Brooks Wilcox

  College readiness programs are common within high schools across the country. Many believe that they are key in preparing students for the challenges that they will face as they prepare for college. But how effective are they really? This literature review focuses on the impacts of college readiness programs within different high schools and how effective they truly are in preparing students.

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  How Childhood Factors Influence Frequency of Offending

  Shamari Sherre Devance-Dyer, Kenneth J. Smith

  When adolescents commit crimes, rarely is the full environment of the child viewed. The upbringing of children plays a big role in how they act within society as they get older. Some children come from poor parenting styles while other children may come from a stricter parenting style. The importance of parenting styles may reflect the behavior of adolescents. For example, a child may be considered a bully in their school and that can be due to that child possibly being surrounded by violence or abusive behavior in their household. Outside the home, children can experience challenges in the community as well. After school programs and sports have been extremely beneficial to development, and keeping adolescents out of gangs. These activities build life skills while having the ability to keep these developing individuals on the right track. In the social aspects, students need to be involved outside of where they are comfortable and receive a diverse amount of support to continue to prosper. Looking at childhood factors (Personal, Environmental, and Social) can be a true indicator of how often an individual will interact with the criminal justice system.

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  How did Gandhi’s Views on Health Coincide with his Political Nonviolent Policies and Swaraj

  Brendan Michael Wiehe

  What is nonviolence — a concept, a mode of protest, a practice for modern living? This poster explores the ways in which nonviolence has been historically interpreted as "ahimsa," "beloved community," and as a way for practical and ethical thinking in our modern lives. We highlight the role of nonviolence as method and practice in historical and contemporary global instances that range from the farm workers movement, anti-nuclear protests, environmental green politics, and Dalit and Black actions towards representation.

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  How did Petra Kelly’s leadership and the Green Party’s commitment to nonviolence influence the effectiveness of the environmental movement in Germany, and what lessons can be drawn from this for modern environmental activism?

  Jacob Allan Lann

  What is nonviolence — a concept, a mode of protest, a practice for modern living? This poster explores the ways in which nonviolence has been historically interpreted as "ahimsa," "beloved community," and as a way for practical and ethical thinking in our modern lives. We highlight the role of nonviolence as method and practice in historical and contemporary global instances that range from the farm workers movement, anti-nuclear protests, environmental green politics, and Dalit and Black actions towards representation.

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  How Do Different Types of Physical Activity Impact an Individual's Mental Well-Being?

  Nicole A. LoCascio

  Title on poster: How can exercising help improve our mental health?

  Research has shown that exercising can help to improve both physical and mental well-being. Engaging in physical activity helps to strengthen the brain and promotes a healthy mind and attitude. Furthermore, different types of exercise an individual performs can have a different impact on their brain. The purpose of this study is to analyze what types of exercise do most college students report having an improved sense of mental well-being.

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  How Does an Individual's Chronotype Impact the Effectiveness of Engagement in Physical Activity?

  Leah McCall

  Chronotype is what is known as our bodies natural inclination to sleep at a certain time. People are often classified as a morning person, evening/night person, or neither. Research shows that physical activity can be impacted by a number of variables including our sleepy cycle, our mental well-being, and nutrition. The goal of this research project is to obtain a better understand of the relationship between an individual's chronotype and its impact on the effectiveness in that individual's ability to perform physical activity at a certain time of day.

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  How Does Race and Parenting Styles Influence Adolescent Delinquency?

  Laynie Michael Gerhardt, Olivia Grace Gulesano

  Our study aims to fill the gap in the current literature regarding peer and adolescent delinquency. Prior research has emphasized the power of delinquent peers in determining whether or not an adolescent will engage in criminal behavior, whether that may be a first offense or an act of recidivism. However, past literature has not adequately explored the link between parental control, styles, and involvement in their children’s delinquent actions. Our study serves to highlight how parenting styles influence an adolescent’s delinquency by connecting distinctive styles and levels of parental support all while controlling for peer delinquency. In doing this, we used a negative binomial regression model, and were able to determine that parental knowledge, race, and an adolescent’s diversity of social support all had a negative association; that is, they were all significant in lowering the adolescent’s delinquency. This finding was important as studies have determined an association with deviant peers to be key. By incorporating the variable of race, we are serving to close that gap in the current literature as well. In analyzing these aspects, our study determines how race and parenting style influence an adolescent’s delinquency.

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  How Does The Freedom Tower Represent American Civil Religion?

  Ryan Rosfelder, Parker Lewis, Davis Menke

  Rhetoric drawing on religious stories, ideals, concepts, and experiences surround us in our daily lives. These posters represent a sampling of the rhetorical analyses conducted by students from CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric throughout the Spring 2024 semester. Groups presented several themed reports prior to Stander and picked one to showcase at the symposium.

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  How Do Information Technology Stocks, Return Wise, do when Fed Fund Rates are Rising? An Empirical Analysis 1999-2023

  Christopher Tristen Arkenau, Julia Catharine Reinker

  Information technology sector stocks are by-in-large, considered growth stocks and are also considered interest rate sensitive. In this study, I look at the returns to the top 20 stocks by market cap in the S&P 500 information technology sector to determine if they are inversely related to rising fed fund rates. I argue that if rising fed fund rate are due to strong economic growth and not monetary tightening, there is a positive relationship between IT stock returns and the fed fund rates. If the increase in fed fund rates is due to a policy of fed monetary tightening, then an inverse relationship will exist. I test my assumptions for four periods of rising fed fund rates within the overall period 1999-2023.

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  How do the effects of physical discipline and gentle parenting vary by child characteristics and/or parenting characteristics?

  Grace Stryker Appelbaum, Lindsey M. Beattie, Kari Lynn Powers, Grace Marie Schneider, Oluwayemisi Omobonike Tayo-Ayorinde

  The link between parents’ use of physical discipline and children’s social development is well established, with research indicating that more frequent physical discipline is associated with higher levels of aggression and delinquency (externalizing problems) and depression and anxiety (internalizing problems) in childhood and adolescence. However, the link between physical discipline and children’s social development based on their individual and family characteristics is not well understood, and findings from past research are mixed. The present study examined the link between physical discipline in childhood and outcomes in adolescence using a longitudinal survey design to understand their relationship over time better. Also, consistent with the goodness-of-fit framework, we tested whether the association between physical discipline and child and adolescent outcomes would vary according to children’s temperament and parental warmth.These links were tested using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (longitudinal study of mothers; NLSY79), and the children of the NLSY79, which included 11,000+ children from birth to age 17. Parental use of physical discipline and spanking were measured in childhood, and delinquency, risk-taking, self-efficacy, externalizing, and internalizing problems were measured when offspring were between the ages of 10 and 17. Analyses will be conducted using multiple regression, and child temperament and age, family SES and race/ethnicity, and parental warmth will be included as control variables, to reduce confounding of the relationship between different parenting behaviors and outcomes in adolescence. Findings will be discussed in terms of their relation to past research and their implications for the role of parents in shaping children’s social development.

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  How the Stigma of Body Image Negatively Affects the Mental Health of Adolescents

  Ella Lucia Dileo

  This project will examine the societal influence of popular culture, specifically though figures like the Kardashians and Barbies, in perpetuating harmful body image stereotypes. It emphasizes the role of social media in promoting these unrealistic beauty standards for girls and discusses the negative impact it has on mental health. Various issues contribute to these ideals, but social media is a significant and under-discussed platform in this regard. In a study done within SPSS of an analysis of mental health data from 4022 individuals, significant findings emerged. Individuals identifying as non-white exhibit a decreased likelihood of experiencing mental illness, contrasting with non-heterosexual individuals who report higher levels of mental health issues. Age is also a factor, with older individuals demonstrating a greater tendency for mental health issues. Shockingly, the level of peer closeness at school correlates positively with mental health issues, as well as the positive association between increased screentime use which shows an increase in mental health problems. Additionally, weight correlated with poorer mental health outcomes. These findings highlight the various interactions of demographic and behavior factors in shaping mental health outcomes. As well as emphasizing the urgency to further examine the negative impact of social media within adolescent mental health.

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  How We Free Ourselves: Freedom and Motherhood in Political Philosophy

  Aila Alene Carr-Chellman

  This project will further seek to understand the connections between feminism and other sociophilisophical traditions that explore liberation, such as colonialism, neoliberalism, patriarchy, and misogynoir. De Beauvoir in The Second Sex provides that the existential situation of women is different than that of men. I would add that the material situation of women can contribute to forming the fabric of freedom. Either by nurture or nature, we have a social situation wherein the oppression of people – the control and domination over people of many identities - is necessary for the world to function properly. What alternative story of history, or society, could be told when the structure of our world is no longer patriarchal? Competitive? Dominating? Or rigidly individualistic? The traditions of Marxism, radical feminism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and care ethic may hold a few of the answers to this question. My project seeks to draw upon the liberatory traditions of Marxism, anarchism, and feminism to reconsider our contemporary class context through the eyes of women. This project is to understand more deeply how a traditionally masculine project of control and domination perpetuates systemic disconnection, exploitation, and eventually the backwards movement of civilization. In doing so, I seek out the difference between men and women in how we free ourselves, and the pieces of freedom that man’s existential and ethical story has overlooked.

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  How were the Physical Activity Habits of College Aged Students Impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic?

  Celia Rose Ann Spieles

  The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared on March 11th, 2020. Current research shows that physical activity (PA) levels had declined during this time. According to Gilic B et al (2021.), “PA significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching an insufficient level in 48% of adolescents (versus 24% in the pre-pandemic period)". The purpose of this research study is to analyze how physical activity levels in college aged students were impacted.

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  Humans Shifting Connection to Nature Through Art

  Julia Ann Rice

  In this work, I will show the continually changing roles that nature has played in art. In various periods the value of nature as an ideal of beauty has shifted dramatically in relation to the cultural conditions. Prehistoric cave paintings introduce utility in art and the utility of nature in art. Greek art demonstrates the human-created notion of beauty as it stands in nature. European Impressionists shifted from the natural beauty of the world and focused on man-made industrialization and urbanization, while Americans created visual expressions of nature as part of manifest destiny. Post World War One humanity is faced with the desolation and destruction of nature and contemporary artists face climate change and the effects of our neglectful relationship with nature. While all these factors are inherently inseparable from their perspective contextual connection, they can create a path through Western histories toward contemporary environmental stewardship.

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  Identifying Connectivity Deficits Between the Cerebellum and the Thalamus in Down Syndrome

  Christopher J. Fleisher

  Down Syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder marked by behavioral abnormalities impacting diverse brain regions, notably the cerebellum. The cerebellum, a key brain region governing motor coordination, gait, and adaptive learning, exhibits altered developmental trajectories in individuals with DS. This vital region forms an intricate network of connections, known as the 'cerebellar connectome,' during development. Deficits in these connections may lead to dysfunction in not only the cerebellum but other brain regions, such as the thalamus. Our goal- to determine how the connectivity is potentially disrupted between the cerebellum and one of its major targets - the thalamus across postnatal development in a mouse model of DS. To accomplish this, we are using a precise and efficient tracing strategy using viruses to label connections between the cerebellum and the thalamus. Injected viruses in both the source cerebellar nuclei region (Fastigial Nucleus- FN) and the target thalamic nuclei (Ventromedial Nucleus- VM) will enable us to specifically target and visualize the cells in the cerebellar nuclei neuron that project to the Thalamus. These viruses use a genetic recombination system and label only the neurons connecting the two regions with reporter Green Fluorescent Protein. So far, we have successfully labeled Purkinje cells through injections into the cerebellar cortex. Our injections into the simplex lobule of the cerebellar cortex of the Euploid Ts65Dn mice have yielded an 82.5% co-localization of 5.4 ± 0.3 Purkinje cells/(100µm)2 labeled with the Cre-dependent GFP expressing AAV out of the 6.6 ± 0.6 Purkinje cells/(100µm)2 immuno-positive for Calbindin (n=2). Our initial injections show good labeling and high colocalization of the Purkinje cells labeled with GFP in the cerebellar cortex. We are currently working on more injections into the cerebellar cortex and have begun injections into the cerebellar and thalamic nuclei.

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  Identifying the effects of environmental conditions on L. monocytogenes fitness and pathogenesis modified by transcription factor CodY

  Elizabeth K. Herr

  L. monocytogenes is a pathogen with the capability of causing severe illness in individuals who consume contaminated foods. Many foods have been found to harbor the bacterium, but dairy products, produce, and other prepackaged foods are particularly susceptible to contamination. Contaminated foods are exposed to a variety of environmental conditions during packaging, processing, consumption, and digestion, all of which play an essential role in modulating the survival and pathogenesis of L. monocytogenes. Conditions of particular interest include cold storage, presence of food additives, and activity of antimicrobial enzymes such as lysozyme. My honors thesis research has focused on elucidating how L. monocytogenes fitness is regulated by these and other conditions and how the transcription factor CodY is involved in these processes. Most notably, our results suggest that CodY is involved in L. monocytogenes susceptibility to lysozyme. Our findings contribute to our understanding of how this dangerous pathogen responds to conditions relevant during transmission and infection.

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  Impact of anaerobic propionate exposure on early intracellular infections by Listeria monocytogenes

  Sydney Krystine Herzog

  Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular pathogen that can cause enteric infections with high mortality rates. During intestinal transit, L. monocytogenes is exposed to anaerobic conditions enriched with fermentation acids such as propionate. Through previous research in the lab, we have seen that anaerobic exposure of propionate enhances Listeriolysin O (LLO) production in wildtype L. monocytogenes but not the delta codY mutant. How L. monocytogenes responds to anaerobic propionate exposure is not yet fully understood. Since we see this enhancement of LLO production due to anaerobic propionate exposure, we wanted to determine if anaerobic propionate exposure could enhance intracellular infections, particularly phagosomal escape. We performed 2-hour cell culture infections with RAW 264.7 macrophage cells as well as wildtype and delta hly mutant L. monocytogenes strains to determine the initial entry and survival. We found that propionate pretreatment enhanced initial entry and survival of wildtype L. monocytogenes but not the delta hly mutant. This led us to our next approach where we performed 4-hour cell culture infections with wildtype and delta codY mutant L. monocytogenes strains to determine its ability to perform actin co-localization. We found that propionate rescued the delta codY mutant defect in actin-colocalization. These results indicate that anaerobic propionate exposure has effects on L. monocytogenes pathogenesis, but more research is needed to determine how this occurs.