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  Investigating the Role of a p53 Mutation in Glioma Progression and Therapy Resistance in Drosophila

  Kaitlyn M. Alleman

  Gliomas are some of the most aggressive types of tumors and have devastating effects for those diagnosed with this cancer. These tumors arise from mutated glia cells in the brain. One of the reasons this type of cancer has a high mortality rate is because of lack of effective treatments. This project aims to study the effect of a p53 mutation on the tumor’s progression and whether this mutation contributes to therapy resistance. p53 mutations are known to occur in gliomas as well as other kinds of cancer. However, its role in gliomas is not well understood. By inducing a p53 mutation into a fruit fly model, the mutation’s possible contribution to the tumor’s progression and therapy resistance can be studied. Furthermore, this tumor present in the fruit fly can be treated with a slew of various chemotherapy drugs (Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors) to see how the tumor responds to various treatments. This mutation can also be added in with other mutations known to occur in gliomas to test how this combination affects the tumor. Data gathered from this project will give a better insight into the range of mutations present in gliomas. Gaining a better understanding of the many genetic defects found in gliomas can lead to better outcomes for patients.

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  Investigating the role of cellular membranes in the freeze tolerance of Cope’s gray treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis

  Elizabeth R. Evans

  The freeze tolerant Cope’s gray treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis can survive multiple winter freeze-thaw cycles in which up to 70% of extracellular fluids may be frozen solid without apparent detriment to the animal. Previous studies in our lab have shown that post-freeze cell viability in D. chrysoscelis is likely enhanced by biophysical and biochemical properties of cellular membranes, in addition to accumulation of cryoprotectants and upregulation of membrane aquaglyceroporin proteins. Largely composed of lipids, cellular membranes may varysignificantly in phospholipid composition and cholesterol content during thermal fluctuation tobest preserve membrane integrity and cellular function. The objective of this study is to assess the biochemical and biophysical differences in cellular membranes of treefrogs in discrete stages of the freeze-thaw process to better discern the adaptation of membranes to freezing temperatures. It is hypothesized that lipid biochemistry significantly affects membrane physical conditions, and in combination, the biochemical and biophysical membrane properties actively adapt to and compensate for changes in environmental temperature.

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  Isolated microbial life of soil samples

  Mackenzie T. Kincaid

  Category: Goal 3 - Good Health and Well Being Advisors: Yvonne Sun, Jessica GeyerName: Mackenzie Kincaid Title: Isolated Microbial Life of Soil Samples Abstract: In response to the overuse of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria have emerged and are no longer affected by standard treatments. In order to overcome these resistant microbes, there is a demand in research to find and develop new antimicrobials. Environmental bacteria use antimicrobial properties against other bacteria as a way to compete for resources, increase their fitness and ultimately reproduce successfully. These antimicrobials can be developed into an antibiotic, while other forms can be synthetically produced. As a component of the Small World Initiative, the goal of this project was to isolate different bacterial species from the soil and screen them for production of antimicrobial properties. Zones of inhibitions were utilized to detect antimicrobial activity and indicate if known clinically relevant pathogens are susceptible. The bacterial isolates that exhibited zones of inhibition underwent a series of biochemical tests to determine bacterial type. The antibiotic resistance crisis and development of new antibiotics will be aided with the contributions of this research and its relevance to the field of medicine.

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  Is There a Relationship between Breakfast Nutrient Quality and Academic Performance?

  Maura N. Hohl

  Breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day by health professionals. Americans are recommended to eat a nutritious breakfast in the morning to fuel them for their busy schedules ahead. Many studies have reported the benefits of eating a well-balanced breakfast including having a lower BMI, meeting micronutrient needs earlier in the day, being more physically active, and even improving academic performance (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2018). The American Dietary Guidelines recommend five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day to promote a healthy individual in meeting their nutrient needs. However, according to the American College Health Association, only 5% of both female and male college students are meeting the daily recommendation of five servings of fruits and vegetables a day (2018). This suggests that college students are not meeting their daily fruit and vegetable needs, possibly due to their lack of nutrient quality breakfast, which could hinder their academic performance. This research study will measure whether there is a relationship between the breakfast nutrient quality and academic performance of the University of Dayton (UD) students. UD students will be electronically surveyed on breakfast consumption, quality of breakfast (breakfast choices), college class-level, and cumulative Grade Point Average. Once data are collected, the data will be analyzed, and conclusions will be drawn. In the final report, the limitations of the study will also be discussed.

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  JAK/STAT signaling regulates defective proventriculus (dve) to determine dorso-ventral patterning in Drosophila eye

  Neha Gogia, Akanksha Raj

  Long range signaling plays an important role in patterning and growth. During organogenesis, axial patterning is involved in delineation of Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV) and Proximo-Distal (PD) axes. We employ Drosophila eye model to study the mechanisms behind DV patterning, which marks the first lineage restriction event. We have identified a new dorsal eye selector gene, defective proventriculus (dve, a Homeobox gene), an ortholog of SATB homeobox 1 (special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1), which controls expression of wingless (wg), a negative regulator of the eye development, to determine the head fate. Loss-of-function of dve results in dorsal eye enlargement by downregulating Wg, which is similar to the gain-of-function of JAK STAT signaling in the eye. Here we present that Unpaired (Upd), a long-range secreted ligand for JAK STAT pathway, plays an important role in DV patterning by regulating Dve expression in the dorsal eye. Gain-of-function of JAK STAT pathway in the eye disc exhibits dorsal eye enlargement by downregulating dve and its downstream wg. Conversely, inactivation of JAK STAT pathway causes dorsalization of the entire developing eye field due to ectopic induction of Dve and Wg in the ventral eye domain resulting in no-eye phenotype. Our data strongly imply that JAK STAT signaling plays a central role in DV axis determination by limiting the functional domain of the dorsal fate selector and thereby determine the boundary of eye versus the head field in the developing eye.

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  Just Like You, Invasive Ants Diet Too: How Do Micronutrients Affect Colony Fitness in Tawny Crazy Ants?

  Ryan Reihart

  Human activities have altered nearly every major nutrient cycle across the globe with little understanding of the ecological consequences. These changes in nutrient availability have consequences that cascade through food webs and ultimately affect the abundance and richness of higher trophic levels. The tawny crazy ant (Nylanderia fulva), for example, is an invasive ant whose abundance is limited by calcium and stressed by sodium. Little is known, though, how the availability of micronutrients, which are less abundant in living tissue, can affect the fitness of consumers, especially invasive arthropods. To determine how changes in micronutrients affect the fitness of N. fulva, we collected 208 colonies of N. fulva and conducted feeding trials that manipulated the ratio of Ca:Na in food (by 10%, 25%, and 50%) in 2018 and 2019. Each colony contained 3 queens, 100 workers, and no brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) at the beginning of the experiment. Colonies were maintained for 50 days, and at the end of the experiment, we counted the number of queens, workers, and brood and measured fresh colony biomass. After 50 days, we found that the Ca:Na ratio had little effect on the number of queens and workers, as they were similar across all treatments; however, colony biomass increased with increasing amount of Ca in the diet, while biomass decreased with increasing amounts of Na in the diet. These results indicate that these changes in colony biomass may be due to a change in the number of brood or worker size, and that Ca is an important factor regulating the success of N. fulva. Our results support growing evidence that micronutrients may be important for structuring arthropod communities, and that Ca may help to facilitate the spread of an invasive ant.

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  Kennedy Union Stairwell Refresh Project

  Aqilah Alshehab, Ashley Cooper, Erica Rose Davis, Matthew Detweiler, Jack Hadley, Paul Kramer, Maddie Kurlandski, Aubrey Makar, Tara Masthay, Olivia Pettigrew, Nora Riley, Natalie Stanziano, Elizabeth Weiler

  The Kennedy Union (KU) Stairwell Refresh Committee had a strong interest in students playing a key role and reached out to the Department of Art and Design to initiate a student co-curricular experience. The task: “Re-imagine the KU stairwells so that they reflect the myriad of activities students engage in inside and outside the classroom, and around the world." While asked to consider art, design, photography, and other visual expressions of the lifeblood of the University, students enrolled in the senior level Graphic Design III course began by looking at key words and phrases used to promote, market, and define the University. Small collaborative groups of 4–5 students then designed multiple floors for one of three KU stairwells. Through the creation of large-scale environmental graphics, each group’s design intends to visually communicate UD’s story in places and spaces across campus and beyond. Throughout the semester, students met regularly with representatives from the "stairwell refresh" committee to present their concepts and design development. The work being presented highlights each group’s final design proposal intended for production and implementation.

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  Let's Be Real: aBANDonment

  Allison Burns

  aBANDonment documents my experience of leaving behind marching band as graduation approaches. The images reflect concepts such as isolation, reflection, and introspection.

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: Beautiful and Endangered

  Kaitlyn Leach

  Beautiful and Endangered consists of a short film and still images that document the Cincinnati Zoo’s polar bear project. The work is inspired by my passion for wildlife conservation and photography.

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: Faux

  Justine Liptak

  Faux loosely addresses topics including fashion, the body and animal cruelty through a series of images depicting figures in a range of real and fake fur garments.

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: In Passing Time

  Maia George

  In Passing Time shares imagery that addresses loss, grief and mourning through poetic documentary, found and constructed photographs.

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: Oakwood Project

  Grace Elliott

  Oakwood Project uses signifiers and influences from many iconic horror movies set in suburbia to address the intersection of domesticity, suburbia and horror.

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: senior capstone photography projects

  Allison Burns, Zac Collopy, Grace Elliott, Maia George, Kaitlyn Leach, Justine Liptak

  From faux fur jackets, horror films and marching band to polar bear conservation, familial loss and our common search for meaning in the techno-digital landscape, “Let's Be Real” presents six very different photo-based art projects. However, through unique processes, styles, themes and voices, the collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Be Real: Staring into the Sun

  Zac Collopy

  Staring into the Sun asks the question, “Can photography help us reignite our spiritual connection with nature by reimagining the relationships among digital technology, the body and its environment?

  “Let's Be Real” presents six senior capstone photography projects. The collective works all grapple with notions of authenticity, belonging, and expression within the context of contemporary art and existence.

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  Let's Talk about Sexual Violence Prevention in ROTC Programs

  Madeline Kondritz

  The purpose of this study is to analyze how ROTC programs across the United States are teaching their sexual violence prevention program, SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention). As both individuals in the military and college students are both vulnearble poplulations to sexual violence, it is importnat to have strong teaching for this program that displays the overlap of the two areas. For this study, college students who are also cadets at their school’s ROTC program were asked to answer a series of questions regarding how their ROTC program specifically focuses on sexual violence prevention, if they think it is effective, and if they think their program would be open to introducing a new SHARP program into their ciriculum. I As SHARP is a program that is seen at least once a year by all Soldiers, it is vital that as future Army officer that cadets are not only familiar with, but are knowledgeable about SHARP and other forms of sexual violence prevention. A goal of this project was to find the benefits and restrictions in which ROTC programs are teaching SHARP in order to inform these future Army officers of the most efficient ways to learn and eventually teach about sexual violence prevention in their future careers in the Army and in their current civilian careers.

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  Life Cycle Analysis of Beef vs. Soy Production

  Nathan Mansour, Clare Volpenhein, Katie Weitzel

  Using a Hybrid Life Cycle Analysis, we compared the production of beef and soy to see the difference between water consumption, greenhouse gases, energy needs, and other environmental impacts. With many people deciding to choose a meatless diet to reduce their environmental impact, we sought to determine if this diet change is more environmentally friendly. This project addresses the US Sustainable Development goal 12, Responsible Production and Consumption.

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  Life Cycle Assessment of Coal and Nuclear Energy Generation

  Will Page Blaufuss, Jaime Elaine Howard, Nicholas Alexander Pannunzio

  Using an environmentally extended Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), we will compare nuclear energy to conventional carbon-based energy sources, taking into account and analyzing all stages of the energy generation life cycle. We plan to include land usage and degradation, mining, pollution, waste disposal, decommissioning costs, and storage of nuclear waste into our analysis. The comparison will then determine if nuclear energy is a truly green alternative to currently-used coal and gas plants.

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  Living Simply and Sustainably in an Interconnected World

  Meg Maloney

  Meg Maloney discusses the interconnectedness between her faith and living a sustainable lifestyle. She explains how her sustainable lifestyle is not just a choice, but also a calling through her faith that has been influenced by UD's Catholic and Marianist values. Meg discusses a first hand experience in India of how she saw the detriment of climate change impacting communities, and encourages others to live a sustainable lifestyle.

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  Making a Change is a Choice: Practical Steps for Promoting Human Rights and Sustainability

  Jared Marsh

  The concepts of sustainability and human rights are often lauded for the work they pursue but are hard to translate into personal action. Traditionally, the intersection of the two has often been overlooked. In this video Jared exposes the intersection of sustainability and human rights, and relates personal choices with a call to action that is applicable to any individual that wishes to uphold both concepts.

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  Making the Modern Music Therapist Culture-Centered: Resources for Working with Latinx Immigrants

  Michaela Miller

  Due to an increasing need for culture-centered thinking in music therapy and the current political context, it is imperative for music therapists to have resources to work with Latinx immigrants. I will offer ways to redefine music therapy for Latinx immigrants and their communities by outlining various models and approaches that can respond to their areas of need.During this presentation, I will discuss the meaning of the term “Latinx,” compare different definitions of music therapy and talk about how these can be adapted for Latinx immigrants, examine the stigma of therapy within Latinx communities, explore models of music therapy that may be appropriate for some Latinx immigrants (such as Community Music Therapy and Culture-Centered Music Therapy), and review considerations for working with these areas of need. I will also provide examples of music experiences that can be utilized within Latinx communities.

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  Male-Identified Students and Campus Mental Health Services

  Sean McCarthy

  Previous studies have examined mental health on college campuses (American College Health Association, 2019; Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2015). While there is an increased awareness of mental health concerns among male-identified students, there is a lack of research on male-identified students’ usage rates of campus mental health services as well as what services male-identified students deem as the most effective for their needs. To better understand male-identified students’ usage of campus mental health services and resources and what services and resources are most effective for their needs, male-identified students at the University of Dayton were surveyed. The survey concluded that male-identified students use campus mental health services and resources at a mixed rate and would like to see reduced waiting times and increased staffing at the University of Dayton Counseling Center. Based on the research conclusions, strategies for encouraging male-identified students to use mental health services and resources when they have a mental health concern and recommendations for what services and resources are most effective are provided.

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  Many of my friends are feminist, but I am not: Perspectives and Presence of Feminism at the University of Dayton

  Claire McHugh

  Feminism is an often polarizing topic of discussion for people. While some consider it to be a large and important part of their identity, others are turned off by the very mention of the word. Younger generations have been found to be more accepting of feminism according to previous research. In this study, I analyze results from a survey of undergraduate students (n=88) at the University of Dayton. Survey respondents were asked about their perspectives on feminism as well as the presence and influences of feminism found on their campus. This study is very important because people who are in the typical college age range are the next generation who will be running the country in the coming years. Findings from this research will provide information on this generation's attitudes regarding feminism. At the University of Dayton a majority of students surveyed had a very positive view of feminism. However, few considered themselves feminists privately and even fewer reported openly identifying as a feminist on University of Dayton’s campus

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  Mapping both accumulation and ablation zone of the glacier using deep-learning

  Zhiyuan Xie

  The increased temperature over the past decades has affected the health, dynamics, and processes of the alpine-type glaciers. To understand these glacier changes, we used Landsat satellite images, digital elevation model (DEM), DEM-derived land-surface and drainage basin parameters to develop a deep-learning algorithm to map glaciers. The alpine glacier includes the debris-covered glacier (DCG) in the accumulation zone and snow-covered glacier (SCG) in the ablation zone. For this work, we take advantage of the deep-learning algorithm, GlacierNet, which we have already developed to map debris cover ablation zone. The architecture of GlacierNet is based on the commonly used feed-forward neural network – convolutional neural network (CNN). The GlacierNet exploits the spatial pattern present in the debris cover ablation zone; however, the SCG has less distinguishable features when compared with the snow present inside and outside the glacier accumulation zone. Therefore, we consider each glacier as a drainage basin and utilize the drainage basin algorithm to accurately classify the snow and SCG by using the GlacierNet generated DCG as the reference region. Our innovative approach has been successfully applied to selected glaciers in Karakoram and Nepal Himalaya, and the preliminary results indicate high accuracy. This is a major step in developing a fully automated and worldwide applicable methodology for glacier mapping.

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  Medical Image Annotation in Virtual Environment

  Vivek Rohom

  The research in medical domain has always been interesting due to its complexity, the risk associated with human’s life and the limited availability of the data. Assisting physicians with a 3-dimensional model, will definitely help to diagnose the patient in a timely and accurate manner. There is the need for medical image annotation systems that are accurate as manual annotation is impractical, time-consuming and prone to errors. The objective of this research is to generate and visualize a 3- dimensional model in a virtual environment from good annotated Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) dataset. This is a part of my master’s thesis advised by Dr. Tam Nguyen.Visualization in virtual environment is not only beneficial for physicians to treat patients but also to avoid complications during surgery and plan out how to approach a tumor and avoid critical areas like the motor cortex or the sensory areas. Many computational models to support human life will be proposed from the strong annotated dataset.

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  Mental health in Seventeen Magazine: a comparison across three generations (1977-2019)

  Kathryn Smith

  The stigmatization of the mentally ill has a long history of negative views from older generations and society. It was not socially acceptable or as common to talk about any type of mental illnesses in the past due to the stigma they had and how they were viewed. I analyzed mental health and how it has been portrayed and changed within three generations with the process of content analysis. I did this through the culture of Seventeen Magazine, a resource for teens to seek advice, gossip, beauty tips, and more, which has been around for 75 years. I measured this by finding direct mentions of mental health in the text/ pictures, or things that could indirectly relate to mental health, like race, negative talk about self image, etc. I used a random sample to select two issues per year from year to year. After scanning and gathering all the data, I then analyzed the 84 magazines to find where mental health was discussed, both directly and indirectly. I find that mental health has always been present and represented in the magazine, but the way in which the topic is presented across generations has definitely evolved and changed throughout the years. Mental Health has become more relevant and represented in today’s culture and society, and also more acceptable to talk about/ be diagnosed with. Mental health has always had a stigma, but with the three generations I’ve analyzed, I have found that it is progressively getting better and more talked about, which is beneficial to our society as a whole.