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  Upward Mobility: Serving the Needs of Underrepresented Minority Students at a Predominantly White Institution, Perspectives of Administration and Staff

  Natalia Davila

  Higher educational institutions are challenged to improve graduation rates and are aggressively making degree completion a priority, thus, the issue of retaining underrepresented students becomes specifically acute and must be addressed. Examining the administration and staff’s perspective on supporting BIPOC students in a predominantly white institution (PWI) is essential to understanding, developing, and implementing effective strategies at universities and increasing graduation rates among minority students. Supportive practices are vital for providing these students with an opportunity to overcome academic struggles and eliminate challenges throughout the educational process. The purpose of this research is to determine the challenges preventing minority students from college graduation and identify the best approaches to support, prepare, and retain students from historically underrepresented groups within PWI’s. To retain and graduate these groups of students, the institution must ensure they are supported and prepared to succeed. This idea involves the university holistically evaluating the implications of race and culture from the effects of history, societal perceptions, and inadequate preparation on underrepresented students in the context of the university. The role of administration and staff was identified as critical to designing and executing plans to retain underrepresented students and support diversity along with associated benefits to the students' academic performance. The positive outcomes of diversity in the classroom are often highlighted by this research, which emphasizes the need for creating ethnically and culturally diverse educational environments. Hence, obtaining feedback and examining the supportive practices to foster minority student groups' retention from the perspective of faculty and administration can provide valuable insight and identify aspects for further, larger-scale research. Connection, engagement, and learning environment are deemed as critical factors of supporting minority students and increasing retention and graduation rates from the perspective of the faculty, administrative staff, and leadership of the PWI.

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  U.S. Catholic Church during the Mexican Revolution

  Caden P. Martin

  During the Mexican Revolution, specifically 1910-1937, the U.S. Catholic Church used various methods to try and help Mexican Catholics. One major way was attempting to influence U.S. Foreign policy through social pressure. The second method used was grass roots campaigns that raised money and organized protests. My research project will be studying the effects these actions had on the U.S. Government and in helping the Mexican Catholics.

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  Using Gene Expression Comparisons to Reveal the Role of Transcription Factors in the Development and Evolution of a Fruit Fly Trait

  Rachel A. Johnson

  The characteristics of animals develop by the use (expression) of hundreds or more genes. Each gene’s expression is reliant on its activation or repression at specific developmental stages and in particular cell types. For traits differing between males and females (dimorphic), some genes exhibit sex-specific expression. Proteins called transcription factors are responsible for patterned expression, as they can bind to specific DNA sequences nearby genes and from which activate or repress expression. My research studied male-specific pigmentation that evolved independently among fruit fly species from the Drosophila (D.) genus. The male-specific pigmentation of D. melanogaster is regulated by the female-specific expression of the Bab1 transcription factor. My research showed that Bab1 is expressed similarly in males and females from species that evolved dimorphic pigmentation independently from D. melanogaster. Hence, this similar dimorphic trait evolved regulation by unique transcription factors, showing how gene expression and trait evolution can have unique origins.

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  Virtual Me: Virtual Medication Evaluation Application

  Uday Aditya Kurapati

  There exist several health reminder applications in practice. In this project, we develop a smartphone application that interacts and reminds users of their routine via the avatar-based reminder system. In particular, the virtual avatar visualizes the user’s health condition. Our application reminds users to take medicine based on the scheduled time. The timely routine of the users in turn updates the virtual avatar. For the evaluation, we will test our system in the pool of actual users for their feedback.

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  Virtual Sears Recital Hall: Department of Music Showcase of Student Performance, Composition, and Research

  Bradley C. Cordonnier

  The Department of Music presents a variety of performances of solo, chamber music, and original compositions throughout the day on our department youtube channel: UD Department of Music. Please visit the page for a more detailed schedule of performances.

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  VR-Based Egocentric Vision Jenga Game Using Oculus Headset

  Shubham Shailesh Bojewar, Mohit Dilip Kumavat

  This research demonstrates the development of the game "JengaVR" using an Egocentric View (First-person vision). The paper's main idea was to promote VR technology in an innovative concept of creating a game in 3d Virtual Space and provide an immersive experience with human interaction. To Implement this game, we are using Unity3D, C#, and Oculus VR headset. Recently, virtual reality technology has advanced to the point that it has applications in entertainment, healthcare, education, civil engineering. Also, Mix reality is an amalgamation of Augmented reality and Virtual Reality. Furthermore, Virtual Reality is still emerging, and it has unaccountable possibilities.Keywords- Egocentric View; Virtual Reality; Unity3d; Oculus VR; Game Development

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  Watersheds in The Region of Columbus, Ohio Located Between Cowan Lake/Creek and East/Todd Fork

  Isaiah Matthew Beaver

  The purpose of this study is to analyze watershed locations in a region of Columbus, Ohio that is located between Cowan Creek and Todd Fork. Cowan Creek is an extension of Cowan Lake, and Todd Fork is an extension of East Fork. All four of these will be used in this study, as they share the same waterbeds, just with different names. This area will be analyzed using several hydrological analysis tools in ArcMaps. This analysis will give results that display each unique watershed area. The USDA describes a watershed area as “the perimeter of drainage areas formed by the terrain and other landscape characteristics” (USDA). Watershed areas drainage locations will be noted as locations that should be considered for detention ponds and/or green infrastructure (Stormwater Solutions).

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  Were the Protests in Vain? - A Quantitative Data Analysis of the Relationship Between Black and White Populations in the United States

  Anna Mumma

  Death by the hands of police and their use of lethal force has been a consistent headline in news across the country. With the Black Lives Matter movement and the cry for justice being heard both online and through protests, this exploratory research study seeks to find a relationship between race and the criminal justice system in the states where the largest Black Lives Matter (BLM) names arose during the summer of 2020. These states include Minnesota, Kentucky, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This research asks, “Are there racial disparities in incarceration rates and conviction rates in the states where the victims of police force—whose names were later echoed in Black Lives Matter protests—were killed?” Utilizing a dataset from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, state-level incarcerated information, and Census data, this quantitative analysis is conducted through a series of independent samples t-tests and chi-square analysis. Based on the p-value, this research seeks to discover if there is a significant relationship between race and incarceration rates. With a highly significant relationship found in each state (a p-value of less than 0.001), my research concludes that there is a 99.9% chance that the relationship between race and incarceration is not due to chance. Therefore, this study suggests there are external factors for high incarceration rates for Black people. While this research cannot determine exact causes, existing literature suggests that possible explanations could be related to implicit bias, militarization of police, and/or overuse of lethal force.

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  Where Do I Belong? Dyslexia and High Achievement in school

  Hannah Y. Riesenberg

  This presentation will explore the unique trials and successes of students that are twice exceptional or “2e” especially in regards to dyslexia. 2e students are children who have both a learning disability and are identified as gifted. I will draw from accounts of 2e students, their teachers and their parents to showcase a larger picture of what traditional education is like for 2e learners. I will explore the process of diagnosing a student as 2e and the resources that are available to help them succeed in a traditional school setting.

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  Women Participation in Development Across Bangladesh

  Anna J. De Cecco, Sophia E. Giles, Rhyan Pearson

  Based on the work and data gathered by Counterpart International, a development agency funded by USAID, this presentation examines how women’s participation in development projects in Bangladesh impact gender equality. This is part of a larger program Counterpart International has implemented since 2018, titled, ‘Promoting Advocacy and Rights’ (PAR) in collaboration with local NGOs. Anchored the in Gender/Women in Development (GID/WID) approach, PAR aims to deepen democratic values within civil society to improve public governance. We are specifically interested in understanding if the NGO is taking the necessary steps to include women participants in their meetings and seminars. One of the main goals of Counterpart’s project, through seminars and training events, is to close the gender gap in Bangladeshi communities to create a more inclusive and progressive society. Like many other patriarchal systems, men in Bangladesh are the powerholders in families, and women have to seek and receive permission from the men in the family in order to travel or take part in activities in Bangladesh. Given this context, Counterpart is working to help develop their society in order for women to have a more independent lifestyle. However, their research shows that women have rigorous domestic work schedules as they are in charge of all of the housework. It has been difficult for Counterpart to find inclusive times and locations as well as childcare for women to be involved. Our group aims to determine the methods Counterpart has used to reach out to women in their 6 cities of study and reduce the gender gap to ensure equal participation in their events. This is significant as these events are meant to empower women in order to create positive and lasting impacts.

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  “Women’s Suffrage for Whom?: How the 19th Amendment Failed to Secure the Right to Vote for Black Women and the Continued Efforts of Black Suffragists During the Roaring Twenties.”

  Megan Grace Brock

  With 2020 marking the 100 year centennial anniversary of Women's Suffrage in the United States, we are forced to ask ourselves, "What is it that we are truly celebrating?" The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 has been revered for the past century as the year of American Women's Suffrage, but the harsh realities of racism and historic disenfranchisement meant that the freedoms guaranteed by the 19th Amendment were not equally extended to all women. Black Women’s struggle for the vote did not end with the passage of the 19th amendment, rather, the 1920s was a decade of both continued struggle and immense organization for Black Suffragists who were still fighting for the equal right to vote across the United States. Black Women's contributions in nearly all dominant historical movements and narratives have been historically overshadowed, misrepresented, minimized, and even omitted entirely. In an attempt to somewhat rectify this injustice, and rather than centering the focus on the factors that continued to restrict the equal access of Black Women to the ballot, this research will focus on the voices, demands, writings, and perspectives of Black Suffragists who lived, worked and dedicated themselves to the continued fight for Black Women's Suffrage during the 1920s. Focusing specifically on what Black Suffragists had to say, how they felt, their demands for change and progress, and the various ways Black Women organized for a cause that was for the first time inherently on behalf of the voting rights of Black Women is imperative to producing more holistic and accurate histories.

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  3D Building Reconstruction Using Cubodial Fitting and Geospacial Information

  Karthik Balaji Ashok Kumar

  3D reconstruction from a set of 2D images has been widely used in building modelling. However, there exist some intrinsic information of building that can be exploited for modelling. In this proposal, we propose a novel method for building modelling. We first fit cuboids into the 2D images. From the cuboid fitting, we initialize the building shape. The building’s texture is later updated via image panorama. Finally, the building model is refined with the geospatial information. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

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  A Critical Analysis of Youth Empowerment in Afghan Civil Society by Counterpart International

  Emma Adams, Morgan Day, Justin This

  The professed goal of the development paradigm is to bring the “underdeveloped” nations up to the level of the “developed” nations through increased autonomy of their society’s poor and marginalized groups. By the end of the first decade of development in the late 1950s, however, experts had to come to terms with development’s failure to achieve the growth desired in the underdeveloped nations. In light of these shortcomings, many in the field of development concluded the cause was excluding the very people who were supposed to most benefit from development: the poor and marginalized. In an effort to right these wrongs, the development field turned to a new set of methods: grassroots participation, and as a corollary to that, a push for local leadership. Inherent in this push for grassroots involvement is the need to develop leaders within the target population to strengthen the country’s development through its own civil society organizations (CSOs). One such organization that is now pursuing this new goal of local leadership is Counterpart International. Through its Emerging Civil Society Leaders (ECSL) program, Counterpart has been working in Afghanistan to develop local leaders who can help the country address the myriad of problems it currently faces. This presentation aims to provide an analysis of Counterpart’s ECSL program. By comparing Counterpart’s efforts to those of other organizations with similar goals and with literature critical of the development paradigm, the aim is to provide a thorough analysis of the impact of Counterpart’s ECSL program in Afghanistan.

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  Activation of JNK Signaling in Aβ42-expressing Neurons Triggers Cell Death in Wild-Type Neurons in a Drosophila Eye Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

  Catherine Yeates, Ankita Sarkar, Prajakta Deshpande

  Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that currently has no cure and few effective treatments. One process that underlies the pathology of AD is the accumulation of amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42) plaques, which leads to aberrant activation of cell signaling pathways and neurodegeneration. Many transgenic models use the expression of human Aβ42 throughout the entire central nervous system or developing eye. Here we use a Drosophila eye model of AD to investigate interactions between wild-type and Aβ42-expressing neurons. We have developed a two-clone system using the FLP/FRT and Gal80/Gal4/UAS approaches to generate animals with GFP-negative wild-type (WT) clones of cells adjacent to GFP-positive Aβ42-expressing clones. Surprisingly, we found that WT clones, which do not express Aβ42, are eliminated by cell death, leading to a significant decrease in clone size compared to Aβ42-expressing clones. Furthermore, the evolutionarily conserved c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway is induced in Aβ42-expressing cells. However, it is the WT sister clones that are preferentially affected by the increase in JNK activity from Aβ42-expressing cells. Downregulating JNK signaling in the Aβ42-expressing cells restores the size of the wild-type clones. This suggests that complex crosstalk between Aβ42-expressing cells and adjacent WT cells leads to JNK-mediated neurodegeneration of WT tissue.

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  Active and Ultrasensitive Chemical and Biosensing through Optothermally Generated Microbubble

  Farzia Karim

  In this work a cost-effective, label free and ultra-sensitive chemical and biosensing method has been demonstrated for active sensing of analytes. Development of an affordable and ultrasensitive sensing methods is critical. The most challenge in this area is the efficient management of detection time and sensitivity of sensor. Most of the sensing systems reported in the literature usually apply a passive sensing method in which binding of analytes occurs after waiting for the analytes to freely diffuse towards the sensor. Due to this free diffusion, analytes usually take very longer times to diffuse on the sensor, and therefore becomes a diffusion-limited method. In order to overcome this diffusion limit, active sensing method can be used in which analytes are forced towards the sensor for active diffusion. In this work, a cost-effective and ultrasensitive chemical and biosensing platform has been developed under ambient condition to demonstrate an active sensing method. This method works based on an optothermally generated microbubble (OGMB); a micron-sized bubble which is generated on a liquid-solid interface through laser heating of metallic nanoparticles solution. Due to a strong convective flow induced by OGMB, nanoparticles are attracted towards OGMB and rapidly deposited on the surface of a substrate to fabricate a nanogap-rich structure. This structure forms many nanogaps which are ideal for surface enhance Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement due to the plasmonic resonance. Liquid solutions containing an analyte is attached on nanogap-rich structure to develop the chemical and biosensing platform. In addition, OGMB is used to locally concentrate anaylytes around nanogap-rich structure for active sensing. Active sensing can improve the detection limit of analytes by one order of magnitude compared to passive sensing. This active sensing method can overcome the diffusion limit of conventional sensing methods and paves a new way for advanced chemical and bio-sensing application.

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  A Cyte to See: An Exploratory Investigation of Hemocytes and Cellular Biomineralization in Crassostrea virginica

  Connor D. Holzer, Noah S. Leibold

  Biogenically constructed calcium carbonate is one of the most utilized raw materials in the modern world. Used in areas such as construction, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, electrochemistry, plastics manufacturing, and development of bioarmor. The usage of biological materials in a variety of industries is rapidly becoming commonplace especially with the societal movement towards sustainability and sustainable materials. One common biomaterial is that of the mollusc shell. Our research focuses on how the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, deposits shell. While the scientific literature is replete with reports on structure and composition of oyster shell, it is still uncertain where materials are synthesized within the oyster and more importantly how they are transported and assembled at the shell formation front. Elucidating the processes of synthesis, transport, and assembly are key aspects to understanding the mechanism of shell biomineralization. Expanding upon the previous research, the present study builds upon the potential role of oyster blood cells, specifically hemocytes, as participants in the complex process of shell formation.An exploratory notch-repair study was conducted to assess cellular hemocyte changes over a seven-day sampling period. All experimental oysters were notched on Day 1 and hemolymph samples were harvested every twenty-four hours for seven days; control (un-notched) hemolymph was also harvested at each timepoint. Hemocyte concentrations were determined using hemocytometry, and images of repair shell were taken at each time point. Our hypothesis is that total hemocyte counts will vary over the seven-day repair period as shell repair/deposition occurs.Our results show a significant decrease in hemocyte concentrations from days one through four and a robust overall fluctuation in cell numbers over all seven days following localized shell damage. These changes in hemocyte numbers suggest that cellular components of oyster blood may be participating in shell deposition/repair in damaged oysters. This research demonstrates a possible correlation between total hemocyte counts and the onset of visible shell repair in notched oysters. Additional research is warranted in order to more clearly understand the role of hemocytes in shell deposition.

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  Additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V lattice structures for use in orthopedic implants

  Dimitri Papazoglou

  The call for orthopedic implants is a growing concern with an ever-rising aging population. Current orthopedic implants provide good mechanical strength and stability, with some offering surface area bone growth. Lattice structures manufactured via laser powder bed fusion offer patient specific orthopedic implants with mechanical properties similar to bone, less weight and promotion of internal bone growth for better fixation. Two different lattice structures of cubic and diamond were printed in Ti-6Al-4V via an open architecture selective laser melting machine. These lattice structures have varied pore sizes of 400, 500, 600 and 900µm. Compression and tensile testing were performed to identify mechanical properties.. Properties needed to promote osseointegration are reviewed, such as pore size and geometry .

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  Additive manufacturing through opto-thermomechanical printing of nanoparticles at the nanoscales

  Md. Shah Alam

  Additive manufacturing or 3D printing at macro- and micro scale is well developed and widely used in different areas such as aerospace, automotive, military, optics and medical industries. However, 3D printing at nanoscale is still very challenging and researchers are striving to improve the manufacturing speed, accuracy, resolution at the nanoscales. This work demonstrates a cost-effective and rapid nanomanufacturing technique through opto-thermomechanical printing of nanoparticles which is capable of 3D printing at nanoscales. In this technique, a droplet of colloidal metallic nanoparticles solution is dried on a PDMS coated glass donor substrate. Nanoparticles are attached to the surface of the substrate due to Van der Walls attraction force. The individual nanoparticles are sequentially exposed to a focused laser beam. The exposed nanoparticle absorbs laser light and heats donor substrate which creates a thermal expansion force on the nanoparticle. As a result, nanoparticle is rapidly transferred to the receiver substrate. This technique enables selectively pick different types and sizes of nanoparticles in sequence and print them on the receiver substrate in a 2D or 3D patterns. One of the major distinct features of this technique is that the unwanted printed nanoparticles on the receiver substrate can further be removed by again applying opto-thermomecanical force, which can be used as correction step. The flexibility and versatility of this technique can facilitate the manufacturing of 2-D and 3-D devices for nanophotonics, microelectronics and energy harvesting.

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  A Different World: Examining Burnout in Live-On Residence Life Professionals

  Lexi Adams

  Higher education is faced with financial struggles, causing institutions to cut staff. In turn, the remaining staff take on additional work and projects. This research applies more to entry level professionals. For student affairs staff who live on campus and work and housing and residence life, they are in a different world than their colleagues who do not live in or live on campus. With additional work and a lack of work-life balance, housing and residence life professionals speak up about how they feel “burnt out.” This increases turnover rates at institutions and decreases the number of professionals in the field. Burnout can have an impact on mental, emotional, and physical health leading folks to experience emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased feelings of personal accomplishment in their work. The purpose of this study is to examine reported levels of burnout in live on residence life professionals. More specifically, it aims to see if there is a difference between reported levels of burnout for different gender identities. For this research project, I took a quantitative approach distributing the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators Survey which included 22 questions. I also asked three demographic questions including gender identity, geographical region, and institution type. Results suggest these professionals, particularly those that identify as a woman, experience high levels of burnout.

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  A Fast Algorithm for Solving the Kinematics of Hyper Redundant Robots

  Tiangang Chen

  Hyper redundant robots consist of many equal length rigid links connected by a large number of revolute joints. This significant number of joints gives the robot many degrees of freedom enabling it to function in highly constrained environments. This work introduces a methodology to solve the kinematics of a hyper redundant robot. Addressing the kinematics includes two issues. The first issue is to approximate a desired curve that specifies the configuration or shape of the robot. The second issue is to accurately position the tool at the end of the robot. These two issues are addressed by analyzing the desired curve describing the hyper redundant robot as piecewise linear similar to the analysis for generating target profiles in shape-changing mechanism theory. There are two advantages to this approach. First, the error will be small. Second, the speed of the calculation is fast.

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  American Trim

  Abigail Elizabeth Kinzel, Brooke Miklos Krausmann, Hannah Christine Lucas

  Bumper line WIP Rack Loop Optimization

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  Analyzing the Correlation Between Financial Aid and Graduation Rates at a Small, Private, Liberal-Arts Institution

  Adam Lohrey

  This research investigates the connections between risk factors for persistence at a small, private, midwestern institution (Wilmington College). The primary objective was to identify students with a high financial risk of withdrawal based on known risk factors at the time of enrollment while tracking rates of graduation from each risk-identified cohort. While this study establishes one performance-based control group with regard to academic readiness, additional controls can be applied including behavioral characteristics to better understand the attitudinal impact on persistence as identified by unique institutional identity. Understanding all existing risk factors to attrition is a necessary reality for those charged with improving student retention at a college or university. The existence of a tool to specifically measure one primary risk factor can only help isolate specific risks prior to a student’s withdrawal from the institution. Financial need as indicated by the student’s EFC can significantly impact retention and graduation rates for students in similar incoming first-time full-time freshmen academic cohorts at a small, private, 4-year liberal arts college. The desired outcome of this study is to inform future enrollment and retention actions at similar peer institutions based on the known correlation between ability to afford and rate of graduation.

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  An Assessment of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Diversity Following Tait Station Low Dam Removal

  Samantha Jean Berkley, Karrington Saige Ecker, Emma Claire Hiltner, Madison Spooner Johnson

  The goal of this project is to analyze how river habitat quality in the Great Miami River has changed after the Tait Station low dam removal that occurred in 2018 and how that has affected biodiversity of macroinvertebrates. Dr. Kavanaugh’s river researchers took kick and sweep net samples in the Fall of 2019, one year after low dam removal, in the exact location where the dam had stood. These samples will be sorted, identified, and used to generate a number of indices of biodiversity such as; number of taxa, species richness, numbers of EPT taxa, and the MAIS composite index. This data will be compared directly to the Miami Conservancy District report (Kavanaugh, 2016) which describes community conditions before the dam was removed. In this early report, the quality of the area surrounding the dam was rated “good” by the MAIS. We predict that biodiversity may have been reduced in 2019 due to disturbances to the river channel during low dam removal in 2018. However, a factor that may play an important role and could mitigate negative impacts was the extensive stream channel restoration that was part of dam removal. It's possible the constructed riffles and other stream bed restoration methods may have mitigated much of the predicted negative impacts. The implications of this study are valuable because low dam removal is a common river restoration tactic, but more research is needed on how this practice affects macroinvertebrate communities and habitat quality in the long run.

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  An Efficient Iterative Approach for Determining the Post-Necking True Stress-Strain Response of Aerospace Metals

  Luke Hoover

  To numerically simulate the plastic deformation of aerospace metals during extreme events (e.g., turbine engine blade-out/rotor-burst events and automotive crashworthiness assessment), accurate experimental knowledge of the metal’s hardening behavior at large strains is requisite. Tensile tests on thin (plane stress) specimens are frequently used for this purpose, with the metal’s large-strain plasticity ultimately captured by an equivalent true stress vs. equivalent true plastic strain curve. It is now well known that if axial strain is measured using an extensometer (either physical or virtual), the equivalent true stress-strain curve is valid only up to the onset of diffuse necking, when the strain field heterogeneously localizes in the specimen gage. A number of approaches have been proposed to correct the post-necking strain hardening response. Perhaps the most widely used technique involves inputting a suite of candidate post-necking true stress-strain curves into finite-element software; a tensile test simulation is run for each candidate curve, and the curve that produces the best agreement between simulation and experiment is ultimately adopted. In this talk, a novel variation of this iterative approach is presented that addresses some of its key deficiencies. Notably, we use local/pointwise in-plane Hencky (true) strain data from digital image correlation to generate an upper bound for the iterative simulation process, resulting in an efficient and computationally inexpensive post-necking correction procedure. Our approach is successfully demonstrated using experimental data for both wrought and additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.

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  An Evaluation of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Diversity Following Construction at RiverScape Metropark

  Madison Spooner Johnson, Meaghan Lees Lightfoot, Gretchen M Lozowski, Amanda R. Ratliff

  The goal of this project is to analyze how the macroinvertebrate community has changed over a period of two years following the construction of a kayak chute at RiverScape MetroPark. Dr. Kavanaugh’s river research laboratory took kick net, sweep net, and Hester-Dendy samples in the Great Miami River in the fall of 2017. These samples were collected both on and directly downstream from the kayak chute that was constructed a few months prior in the spring of 2017. The 2017 samples indicated that the macroinvertebrate community rated “poor” according to the composite Macroinvertebrate Aggregated Index for Streams (MAIS) diversity index. In order to determine if the macroinvertebrate community has improved since the kayak chute was constructed, a team of river researchers collected kick net, sweep net, and Hester-Dendy samples in the fall of 2019 in the same locations. The organisms from these samples were sorted and identified, then characterized based on total number of taxa, abundance of individuals in each taxon. We predicted that the community would exhibit significantly improved biodiversity according to the composite of metrics used in the MAIS and other biodiversity indices due to the length of time that has passed allowing macroinvertebrate populations to recolonize the areas following the initial disturbance. The outcome of this project will be significant because it will provide insight into how benthic macroinvertebrates were affected by the construction of a major in-stream structure, and their ability to recover from the disturbance.