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  Graduate Students on Going Green

  Bethany R. Davies, Amber Johnson, Meg Maloney, Vaishnavi Shesham, Lauren Wolford

  The University of Dayton prides itself on sustainability and green practices. The 'going green' movement is one that has grown substantially in the past few decades. While most associate this movement with broad efforts, this panel's focus is to discuss how this movement has affected current science graduate students at an individual level. Discussion will focus on how the 'going green' movement has affected his or her research, course offerings, career pathways, and outlook on a scientist's responsibility to others and the world at the graduate level.

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  Graphic Design Summer Fellowship 2019

  Emily M Cordonnier, Megan Lewis

  Food and family bring people together. Megan Lewis and Emily Cordonnier’s research focused on the history and relationship between both. Lewis explored the origin of recipes and the processes of making them while experiencing the conversations and moments that were generated from the guests that enjoyed them. The recipes, imagery, and stories were compiled in the form of a cookbook. Cordonnier’s research focused on her ancestral origin and related it to a familial tradition of Euchre. The final form of her research was formed into a three-dimensional family tree that highlighted relatives stories, professions, and surname etymology.

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  HealthNotes - Designing to Impact Quality of Life for Patients with Discordant Chronic Comorbidities while Improving Provider Time Management

  Michael Graham, Ben Reutelshofer, Josh Schmellenkamp, Brandon Wong

  Discordant Chronic Comorbidities (DCCs) severely impact patients. DCCs are conditions which are present in the same patient and contain conflicting treatment plans. DCC conflicts include prescriptions, dietary modifications, and activity levels. Where a combination of medical instructions to treat “Condition A” directly conflicts with treatment of “Condition B” in a way that either nullifies treatment or worse, they work together resulting in a negative impact to the patient. Patients struggle to prioritize medications and medical instructions in effort to find some relief while not suffering adverse effects of discordant treatments. In our study we show that the healthcare providers also face difficulties in the form of time management. The biggest cause of time loss is due to research into their patients. Patients may bring a list of their providers and medications, but often do not provide accurate information on previous procedures and tests. More often than not, the information is incorrect leaving the provider to reconcile the provided information and find the missing pieces. To address these issues, we designed a mobile application (HealthNotes). The goals of HealthNotes app are to; i) educate patients on their DCCs, ii) provide alerts to potential problems resulting from additional treatment recommendation and/or prescriptions, iv) improve communication between both the patient and provider, as well as between the patient’s various providers. These four elements will help improve the quality of life of a HealthNotes user.While serving the patients, our projects seeks to improve and streamline the use of doctors’ time This is accomplished by the user bringing an accurate list of their providers with contact information, and providing a list of tests and procedures reducing the possibility of duplication. This significant improvement to the efficiency of research will improve both patient experience as well as the provider’s time allocation.

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  He Said She Said: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Mayors' Statements Following Mass Shootings

  Rachel Richardson

  The United States is one of six countries, roughly 10 percent of the global population, that make up half of all gun deaths that happen worldwide each year. Gun violence is a widespread issue in American life, especially as mass shootings seem to be happening more and more frequently. This study analyzes gender differences in public statements made by mayors following mass shootings in their towns. Using content analysis of 70 mass shootings from 2009 to 2019, I selected all 8 shootings with a female mayor, and 8 shootings with male mayors that most closely align with each. I collected three statements from each mayor about the shooting in their city, and coded them based on the frequency with which they referred to: the shooter, the victims, the community, law enforcement, policy failures/proposals for change, and any other recurring themes. I find that as the identities of the shooters and their victims are released, the issue of gender slowly moves to the front of the discourse- as it should. However, there have not been studies into the effect that gender has on the language used by politicians, more specifically mayors, in the wake of these horrific events. This study reveals patterns in mayoral statements, contributing data to the ever-raging debate concerning whether there are inherent differences between how men and women communicate.

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  Historical 4th Downs and Win Probability Models in the NFL

  Jacob Speller

  Due to the rise of analytics in the NFL, teams go for it on 4th down more often than in past history. Teams like the Baltimore Ravens have adapted the philosophy of being more aggressive on 4th down, other teams still are more resistance to this change. Coaches may defend the decisions, statistics like win probability and estimated points added disagree. Using statistical models, this study includes all NFL 4th downs from 2014-19 with games within 21 points at the time of the play. The research will demonstrate when it warrants more aggressive behavior dependent on the situation, such as down and distance, score, time, or location of game, to enhance their chances of winning games.

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  Holy Suffering: Priests on Radio Venceremos 1981-1982

  Therese Sweeney

  Radio Venceremos was an underground guerilla radio station in El Salvador during their 12-year civil war (1980-1992). Radio Venceremos served as a counter to government owned media, broadcasting not only news from the front, but also entertainment, and messages from local personalities- such as local parish priests. In this article, themes from speeches and interviews with priests during the first two years of Radio Venceremos. These themes are similar to those employed in other texts associated with Liberation Theology but have a special focus on suffering and sacrifice as a means to achieve salvation. These themes are especially relevant in the Salvadoran context, as it encourage persistence to both citizens and guerilleros during the Civil War.

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  How BALADI CAP Has Helped Civil Society in Lebanon

  Reina Jimenez, Gianna I. Pou

  Lebanon is currently fighting one of the worst economic crises in decades. Unemployment is rising, its currency (the Lebanese Pound) is depreciating in value. The Lebanese economy’s current debt-to-GDP ratio is one of 150%. This means it owes others way more than what it can produce and provide. The exchange rate between the Lebanese Pound (LBP) and the United States Dollar (USD) has remained fixed at 1,507.5 LBP per USD. The fact that almost half of the country’s debt is USD-denominated makes the repayment of this debt harder due to the LBP’s weakness against the USD and its continuing devaluation. This situation has triggered an uprising by Lebanese civilians as they attempt to condemn the government for years of corruption and mismanagement. The issue our paper addresses is aimed to answer the question of good governance and accountability in different CSOs and ISOs in Lebanon. We are going to use the new component of Civic Engagement Initiative (CEI) to see how it has affected good governance and accountability in these organizations in Lebanon. With this being a priority issue at hand in the Lebanese CSOs, we will be analyzing how the history of corruption in Lebanon has been a major issue in the context of development. By building alliances for local advancement, development, and investment, the BALADI CAP project will work on better responding to citizens’ needs and improve service delivery, provide capacity building assistance to improve the financial management and governance systems of CSOs and ISOs, and foster increased civic engagement in conduct of municipal affairs.

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  Human Rights and Sustainable Develoment in Dayton, Ohio

  Marigrace Sandi Moses

  There is often a disconnect between human rights issues and the protection of the environment. There is little talk about how the environment is key in the narrative of human rights in UDHR and other documents. The SDGs are a huge step towards seeing the big picture. I think it is crucial for people in both areas to see how they benefit one another. We know that lower income and minority groups are more affected by poor environmental conditions. It seems pointless for people to continue on their work without acknowledging that overlap. This project thus far had been a great way for me to apply my background in environmental biology to real life human rights issue. It is a missing link while we strive for equality.

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  Human Rights Center Graduate Fellows Panel

  Lauren Durnwald, Carly Hube, Miranda Melone, Emily Mosca

  Human rights Center Graduate Fellows will present their supported research and explore linkages to international human rights and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). 1. Miranda Melone, "Achieving the Common Good," A presentation of research evaluating the effectiveness of a University of Dayton immersion trip to Zambia through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals. 2. Lauren Durnwald, “Human rights and development in Malawi: Sustaining global partnerships,” The aim of this presentation is to use the framework of SDGs 4: Quality Education and 17: Partnerships for the Goals to reflect on the partnership between the University of Dayton and Determined to Develop NGO (D2D) through the lens of the Malawi Graduate Fellowship and Malawi Research Practicum. 3. Carly Hube & Emily Mosca, “Restraint and Seclusion in Ohio Schools,” This study examines two different aspects of restraint and seclusion in schools, the school psychologist’s perceptions and experiences with restraint and seclusion, and how Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) impact the number of restraints and seclusions that occur.

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  Human Rights Cities: Applying SDG 2 to Dayton, Ohio

  Michaela Catherine Linehan

  This semester, POL 334 has provided my classmates and I with the opportunity to make valuable connections to international human rights by applying them to the local level. We have been able to gather research that finds how the Sustainable Development Goals are relevant to local issues in Dayton. In hopes that Dayton will eventually become a Human Rights City, my research taught be about the interconnectedness between the 17 SDGs. While I am very passionate about food justice, my research extended far beyond and I was able to learn more about the issues that are relevant to Dayton. Some of my research focused on areas where Dayton falls short in upholding human rights, however I did come across great instances of resilience that make me proud to have lived in Dayton for the last eight years. In my work, I was able to continue to see the importance of hope in advocacy. I have ultimately come to learn how effective advocacy relies on certain techniques such as community engagement. I am hopeful the students of POL 334 have played an integral part of the first steps towards making Dayton a Human Rights City.

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  Human Rights Cities, Social Development Goals, and Dayton

  Landis Yuri Soto

  As a Human Rights Studies Major being able to conduct this research has not only allowed me to know more about the SDGs and Human Rights Cities, its has also been a good learning experience on how the local and international communities can work together effectively to achieve goals.

  I have also been able to learn more about the amazing work that is taking place throughout the Dayton Community, especially in regards to just and equitable methods used to assure that more and more underrepresented communities are being included.

  Finally, this research has given an idea on how hard it can be to start an advocacy campaign.

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  Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment on Bio-Fuel and Electric Powered Automobiles

  Andrew Kohls, Katie O'Rourke, Cade Pantano

  As alternatives to the classic gasoline and diesel powered vehicles become more popular for people looking to reduce their carbon footprint, it is important to take a holistic approach in determining what is truly the best option for the environment. An environmentally extended Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate two categories of alternative fuels, electric-powered and bio-fuels. Electric-powered engines are an increasing percentage of vehicles on the road, the U.S. market share of plug-in electric passenger cars now sits at 2.2% of cars that take the road. (Coren) Three different classes of electric engines were analyzed in this study: single, dual, and tri-motor. Biofuel research is rapidly expanding and being implemented, as 10% of U.S. vehicle fuel consumption (by volume) was ethanol and over 98% of U.S. gasoline contained ethanol in 2018. (University of Michigan) This study analyzed the three main biofuels of compressed natural gas, ethanol, and biodiesel. A hybrid method of LCA allows for specific process data to be used when available, with general industry data to fill in the gaps, in order to get the most complete picture possible. ReferencesCoren, Michael J. “Automakers May Have Completely Overestimated How Many People Want Electric Cars.” Quartz, Quartz, 6 Jan. 2020, qz.com/1533976/automakers-may-overproduce-14-million-electric-cars-by-2030/.Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan. 2019. "Biofuels Factsheet." Pub. No. CSS08-09.

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  Identifying Correlates of Social Connection & Disconnection Among Refugees and Host Communities

  Lizzie Henninger

  The purpose of this study is to identify social correlates of social connection and disconnection between refugees in host communities. This study bridges the gap between the scholarly work done regarding integration strategies and the success of such strategies by comparing social integration levels through education, employment and poverty. I analyze data from a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees survey of Syrian refugees who were relocated in host communities in Lebanon. This secondary dataset consists of quantitative data from a survey of 75 individual households conducted between 2015 and 2016. My analysis focuses on individual refugee households and analyzes how integration programs, social bridges, and access to education influence one another in order to effectively and successfully integrate refugees into their host communities. My analysis will measure the levels of social connection and disconnection among refugees in host communities. This work emphasizes the importance of combating severe levels of social isolation among refugee populations by connecting refugees with community resources and services to aid in the assimilation process.

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  Identity and Leadership: The Conceptualization of Black Female Undergraduate Development

  Rheja Taylor

  As institutions continue to enroll and prepare Black female undergraduate students for professional success, intersectionality of identity is essential to understanding the foundation of leadership development and practice. This study explores the lived experiences of Black female Undergraduate students’ leadership development and identifies the impact intersectionality has on defining values, expectations and principles. This study aims to analyze major themes that arise from how Black female undergraduate students conceptualize their race and gender as it relates to defining their leadership philosophy with intent to inform mentors, advisors, and future theoretical practice on elevating and advocating spaces that are inclusive to intersectional difference. Using a qualitative approach, the common themes that arose from the research were evaluated and analyzed from an intensive one-hour interview exploring past leadership experiences, the impact of other leaders and personal challenges and anecdotes. The findings from this research answer two research questions (1) how students conceptualize the foundation of their leadership and (2) how intersectionality impacts leadership development. The results explore themes such as code switching, stereotypes and bias that have the power to both challenge and empower strength in Black female leadership.

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  Image Dehazing for Autonomous Driving in Inclement Weather Conditions

  Jaimin Nitesh Shah

  In recent years, research into autonomous vehicles has received substantial attention which has accelerated the development and adaptation of these vehicles in our day to day world. However, there are still major pitfalls that need to be solved before these vehicles are to become fully driver-less on public streets. These self-driving vehicles use image recognition algorithms that have been trained to detect objects such as streets, stop signs, and people. However, in bad weather conditions, these objects become increasingly difficult to detect. As such, all things inclement weather related with object detection and image segmentation are a major focus in research. Imagine if you are driving in an adverse weather with a lot of snow to lessen your visibility of the surroundings, how do you drive without knowing what’s ahead? Therefore, this proposed work aims to solve these problems to help drive in adverse weather conditions. Image dehazing also plays an important role in climatology, environmental perception wildlife monitoring and conservation, surveillance systems, object detection and recognition. The proposed work will provide more opportunities to explore different models in the field of image denoising.

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  Image Processing Techniques Used for Dermatology Research

  Brandon Phillips

  Over the last semester, Premier Health has Partnered with the University of Dayton in improving its TeleHealth Mobile Cart. Premier Health is interested in dermatology this semester. This semester’s project will focus on the dermatology aspects of light filtering and image processing of images to capture and determine better ways to help detect different degrees levels of burns and different skin anomalies. This semester I have focused on and tested different color light filters and different image processing techniques that I have learned about in ECE 563 class.

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  Image Synthesis Using Deep Learning

  Nikhil Suresh Wani

  There has been an increase in the popularity of artwork generated by computers. The goal of sketch-based image synthesis is to generate some image, photorealistic or non-photorealistic, given the constraint of a sketched object. This allows non-artist users to turn simple black and white drawings into more abstract, detailed art.

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  Impact of cDLP Process Parameters on the Tensile Properties of ELAST-BLK 10

  Asma Ul Hosna Meem, Kyle Rudolph

  Continuous digital light processing (cDLP) is an emerging vat-photopolymerization-based 3D-printing technology where full layers of photosensitive resin are irradiated and cured with projected UV light to create a three-dimensional part layer-by-layer. Recent breakthroughs in polymer chemistry have led to a growing number of UV-curable elastomeric photoresins developed exclusively for vat photopolymerization additive manufacturing (AM). Coupled with the practical manufacturing advantages of cDLP AM (e.g., industry-leading print speeds and sub-micron print resolution), these novel elastomeric photoresins are compelling candidates for emerging applications requiring extreme flexibility, stretchability, conformability, and mechanically-tunable stiffness (e.g., soft robotic actuators, stretchable electronics, cellular metamaterials, and anatomical models for surgical prep). To advance the role of cDLP AM in these novel and promising technological spaces, a fundamental understanding of the impact of cDLP manufacturing process parameters on mechanical properties is requisite. This talk highlights our recent efforts to explore the process-property relationship for ELAST-BLK 10, a new ultra-soft, cDLP-printed, UV-curable elastomer. A full factorial design of experiments was used to investigate the effect of build orientation and layer thickness on the quasi-static tensile properties (small-strain elastic modulus, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation at fracture) following ASTM D412. Statistical results, based on a general linear model via ANOVA methods, indicate that specimens with a flat build orientation exhibit the highest Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation at fracture, likely due to higher crosslink density. Several popular hyperelastic constitutive models (e.g., Yeoh, Gent, and Ogden) were calibrated to our quasi-static tensile data for implementation in commercial finite element software.

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  Impact of Space Travel

  Patrick Neil Ruhala, Ryan C. Simkins, Drew Christopher Whalen

  We are looking at the environmental impact and sustainability of interplanetary space travel. Based on the past and current cost of launching objects into space we are attempting to determine the current and future cost to the planet and whether an LCA can accurately capture all the costs and benefits. We are also interested in understanding not only the environmental cost, but the societal impact as well, with many of the major space programs being funded by governments.

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  Impact of β-Gallium Oxide Growth Conditions on Surface Roughness

  Carlos Ruben DeLeon

  β-Gallium Oxide (Ga 2 O 3 ), the most stable phase of Ga 2 O 3 , is a semiconductor with an ultra-wide bandgap and has applications in high power electronic devices. In this study, we investigated the impact of Gallium beam flux on the surface roughness in order to maximize the growth rate of Ga 2 O 3 . The Ga 2 O 3 films were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Five samples were grown and measured. The beam flux for these samples were: 1.6 × 10 -7 , 8.0 × 10 -8 , 4.0 × 10 -8 , 3.0 × 10 -8 ,and 2.0 × 10 -8 Torr. With the exception of the first sample, our results convey a decrease of surface roughness with the decreasing Gallium beam flux.

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  Industry 4.0 in the Retail Sector: Sustainability of Food Retail with a Focus on Food Insecurity in Dayton, Ohio

  Katrina A. Coleman

  With the advent of Industry 4.0, the fourth wave of the industrial revolution, the food retail industry has been revolutionizing at an unprecedented rate. Stores have become stocked with a large variety and quantity of goods, leading to an increase in waste accumulation. Although there have been advancements in large scale agriculture, not as many advancements have been made in efficiently distributing produce and minimizing waste. While performing field work in Dayton, Ohio, I began to realize that food was not as accessible in lower-income areas and Dayton is a food apartheid. This led me to look deeper into the issue of food insecurity and ways to create a more sustainable environment using methods of Industry 4.0, while also giving access to those without.

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  Influence of prairie restoration on Hemiptera diversity and functional traits

  Stephanie Gunter

  The Hemiptera (the true bugs) are an abundant and varied order of insects including leafhoppers, aphids, cicadas, stink bugs, and more. They play an important role in grassland ecosystems, feeding on plant sap and acting as prey for many predators. In order to expand the field of prairie restoration, I seek to investigate the Hemiptera as their abundance, functional roles, and response to disturbance makes them ideal as study organisms. It is also important to understand functional traits such as dispersal abilities to understand what types of taxa are colonizing a habitat, and Hemiptera such as leafhoppers can be used as a model for this. Previous research has found that leafhoppers follow a predictable pattern in habitat succession: generalists with greater dispersal abilities colonize early successional sites, and specialists with inferior dispersal abilities follow. This research aims to answer three questions regarding prairie restoration: 1- Do more recently restored prairies host a different composition of Hemiptera than older restored and remnant prairies? 2- Do more recently restored prairies host a higher proportion of leafhoppers with superior dispersal abilities than older restored and remnant prairies? And 3- Do more recently restored prairies host a higher proportion of generalist leafhoppers than older restored and remnant prairies? Insect samples were taken via sweep net from 13 local prairies (7 restored and 6 remnant) in summers 2017, 2018, and 2019, and sorted to order. I am currently organizing Hemiptera into morphospecies. I will then identify specialist and generalist leafhoppers, and record dispersal abilities based on wing size and known literature. The questions answered in this research will benefit the field of restoration and help us to more accurately evaluate the success of local restoration projects.

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  Inspecting the Role for the Trans-Regulatory Landscape to the Origin, Diversification, and Loss of a Sexually Dimorphic Fruit Fly Pigmentation Trait

  Jesse Taylor Hughes

  A major goal for evolutionary-developmental biology research is to identify the genetic changes underlying the origins, diversification, and loss of morphological traits. Such traits are built by the spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression, and thus the evolution of gene expression is often involved in their evolutionary histories. Gene expression is under the control of a network of transcription factors (trans-landscape) that ultimately impinge on the cis-regulatory elements (CREs) of differentiation genes whose encoded proteins produce particular traits. Transcription factor genes are often highly pleiotropic, as they can regulate the expression of multiple genes for multiple traits. Thus, it seems reasonable to expect that evolutionary changes in gene expression more frequently occurred by mutations altering the CREs for differentiation genes than changes to the trans-landscape. Our research aims to test whether this expectation for a conserved trans-landscape applies to the origin, diversification, and loss of a well-studied fruit fly pigmentation trait in the Sophophora subgenus. The origin of a male-specific pattern of abdominal tergite pigmentation involved the gain of CREs controlling the expressions of pigmentation enzyme genes responsive to the prevailing trans-landscape of body plan patterning and sexual dimorphism transcription factors. Here, we share our results from tests of these CREs in transgenic hosts that represent the ancestral sexually monomorphic trait, diverse forms of the derived dimorphic trait, and a secondary loss of the dimorphic trait. The outcomes from these tests will reveal the extent to which this particular trans-landscape has remained conserved while the pigmentation phenotype has widely evolved.

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  Interrelationship of Alcohol Use and Masculinity Development for Nontraditionally Masculine College Students

  Justin Lyons

  This study sought nuanced, developed voices to demonstrate how individual experience of developing masculinity through a nondominant identity was interrelated with their alcohol use. Participants represent marginalized voices in the conversation of masculinity, specifically gay and bisexual, transman, trans femme, and non-binary participants. Participants grappled with masculinity from a nondominant lens, representing unique experiences not wholly captured by existing literature. Participants’ growth and change in gender identity largely correlated with changes in alcohol use. I found that alcohol served multiple purposes in guiding participants toward an individual sense of masculinity. Participants used alcohol as a means of suppressing emotions, conforming with masculine norms, and lowering inhibitions to break from masculine norms. Participants also made connections between traditionally masculine drinking spaces as contrasted with drinking spaces that decenter that experience, such as queer and women’s drinking spaces. While participants largely do not conform to traditional norms of masculinity, as college students, their experiences, at least externally, fit into the dominant experience. As practitioners, we must create space for students to move between identity groups and approach men from both a collective and individualistic perspective.

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  Investigating the Effects of Chronic Pharmacological SERCA Modulation on Mouse Behavior

  Aikaterini Britzolaki, Claire C. Cronin, Patrick Robert Flaherty, Riely Legiralde Rufo

  Neuronal cell survival and development are heavily dependent on intracellular calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis. Ca2+ ions not only regulate the electrophysiological properties of neurons, they also serve as pivotal second messengers in a cascade of intrinsic molecular pathways. Notably, intracellular Ca2+ dyshomeostasis has been shown to have detrimental consequences on synaptic activity, neuronal growth and may even lead to neuronal cell death, all common hallmarks of brain pathophysiology. Thus, nerve cells have developed intricate pathways to maintain intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, with ER playing an important role serving as the intraneuronal Ca2+ reservoir. The major regulator of Ca2+ influx into the ER is the sarco-/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA), a P-type ATPase that pumps two ions of Ca2+ into the ER in the expense of one ATP molecule. Importantly, SERCA’s pivotal role in brain physiology and pathophysiology has been supported by several studies associating SERCA dysregulation with debilitating brain disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Hence, in the present study we sought to assess the effects of chronic SERCA modulation on mouse behavior by implementing widely used behavioral mouse paradigms. In the context of this presentation, we are demonstrating overwhelming behavioral data, highlighting a role for SERCA in regulating mouse behavior.