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  Reading and Vocabulary Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities

  Claire Elizabeth Grabowski

  Literacy skills affect every other subject, making literacy skills crucial to success in school. Educators need to know what factors contribute to the success of reading and vocabulary strategy for students with learning disabilities. My analysis of the research literature found many effective strategies incorporate four common factors: regularly checking understanding, being easily individualized, asking clarifying questions, and providing the student with a study buddy or study group.

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  Real-time camera tracking and 3D scene reconstruction based on pose graph

  Ruixu Liu

  The 3D reconstructed maps can be used in many applications such as robot navigation, augmented reality and virtual reality. 3D maps for the environment has been developed using RGB-D sensor data that provides color and depth information. RGB-D camera noise, fast camera movement, and rotation introduce drift in the reconstructed 3D maps. If the scale of the 3D model increases, the drift error is also accumulated which can affect the final 3D model performance. A good way to reduce the drift is loop closure detection which is based on visual place recognition. It is an extremely challenging problem to solve in the general sense. First, a place recognition system must have an internal representation of a map of the environment to compare to the incoming visual data. Second, the place recognition system must report a brief about whether or not the current visual information is a place already included in the map, and if so, which one. If the loop closure detects successful, we could use the loop closure pose to correct current camera pose to enhance the camera tracking accuracy and 3D model performance.

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  Recommendations for Improving Eating Disorder Services at the University of Dayton

  Sarah Elizabeth Kane, Maria Pasqualina LaBello, Corteney K Miller, Austin Michael Mueller

  Eating disorders are most common among students 18-21 years of age and are becoming increasingly prevalent on college campuses. When no longer under the eye of family and close friends, a college student can develop an eating disorder without anyone noticing. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, 35% of all college student dieters progress to pathological dieting, and 20-25% of these students subsequently develop a full-blown eating disorder. While the University of Dayton offers health brochures and professional help through the Counseling Center, Health Center, and Campus Ministry, we believe their resources could be improved to better reach the intended population. The University of Dayton does not offer easily accessible information that specifically targets their students, nor extends their resources beyond having a student consult a professional such as a dietician, doctor, counselor, or a campus minister. While these opportunities can be effective, they should be supplemented with other resources; especially considering that many students consult help off campus to cope with eating disorders. More information should particularly be supplied on how roommates, resident advisors, friends, and other peers on campus can recognize the most common eating disorders including, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating/compulsive overeating. Therefore, the purpose of our research project is to examine the University of Dayton’s existing programs, and how other colleges have approached eating disorders on their campuses. As a result, we will use this information to develop a document that effectively addresses possible recommendations on the University of Dayton’s campus.

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  Redlining: Lasting Scars in the City of Dayton

  Jillian Marie Malone

  Redlining, a practice of systematic discrimination against African Americans in the distribution of home loans, left scars on the city of Dayton that can still be seen in housing patterns today. These patterns have a ripple effect not only on housing, but also on issues such as inequality in education and wealth. Utilizing narratives from the Facing Project, historical maps, and sociological literature, this poster seeks to shed light on the effects of redlining in Dayton by providing a historical context and theoretical framework. This poster will also explore current efforts in the city that aim to address and ameliorate the lingering effects of redlining.

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  Redlining: Lasting Scars in the City of Dayton

  Jillian Marie Malone

  Redlining, a practice of systematic discrimination against African Americans in the distribution of home loans, left scars on the city of Dayton that can still be seen in housing patterns today. These patterns have a ripple effect not only on housing, but also on issues such as inequality in education and wealth. Utilizing narratives from the Facing Project, historical maps, and sociological literature, this poster seeks to shed light on the effects of redlining in Dayton by providing a historical context and theoretical framework. This poster will also explore current efforts in the city that aim to address and ameliorate the lingering effects of redlining.

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  Regulation of dronc by the Hippo pathway

  Karishma Sanjay Gangwani, Kirti Snigdha

  The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that regulates organ size and tissue homeostasis in Drosophila and mammals. The pathway functions by regulating the nuclear availability of transcriptional cofactor Yorkie (Yki), mammalian YAP, which is regulated by the activity of a core kinase cascade comprising the serine threonine kinases Hippo (Hpo) and Warts (Wts) and their accessory proteins. Yki binds with transcription factors like Scalloped (Sd) or Homothorax (Hth) to regulate target genes involved in cell proliferation and survival. Downregulation of the Hpo pathway causes increased cell proliferation and overgrowth, whereas hyperactivation of this pathway leads to cell death due to activation of these caspases. Previous work in our lab identified the initiator caspase Dronc (mammalian Caspase 9) as a transcriptional target of Yki. Caspase proteins are cysteine aspartic proteases which play essential roles in cellular signaling, development and cell death via apoptosis or Programmed Cell Death (PCD). We found that loss of Hippo signaling leads to downregulation of dronc expression suggesting that Yki could act in co-repressor complexes to provide growth and survival cues to cells where Hippo pathway is downregulated. We hypothesize that Yki functions both as an activator and a repressor simultaneously in association with the TEAD family transcriptional factor Sd to control dronc expression. Here, we present our work on the regulation of dronc by the Hippo pathway, and its implications in organ size control, and in disease conditions like cancer.

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  Resolving the Molecular Mechanisms by Which DNA Mutations Alter the Function of a Genetic Switch

  Emily Elisabeth Wey

  Each human genome possesses around a million mutations that are genetic baggage from DNA replication mistakes or “mutations” that occurred in the past. Each mutation can have one of three outcomes on an individual, these are to improve, reduce, or have no effect on health. Moreover, the effects of such mutations can depend on the presence or absence of other mutations, so called epistatic interactions. A major goal of genomic medicine is to glean diagnostic or predictive health information from the genome sequences of individuals. However, this goal remains out of reach as the effects of mutations and epistatic interactions are difficult to predict without knowing the function of the DNA sequence they reside in. This difficulty is especially heightened for mutations occurring in cis-regulatory element sequences that act as switches to control gene transcription. The research I plan to perform for my Honors Thesis is to use a fruit fly model to test hypotheses about the molecular mechanisms by which mutations alter a genetic switch’s activity and whether these mutations are subjected to the tyranny of epistatic interactions. I will study the Drosophila melanogaster dimorphic element which is a transcription-regulating switch for the bric-à-brac genes. Three mutations in the dimorphic element were identified that individually alter the level of bric-à-brac transcription. The presence or absence of epistatic interactions will be determined by measuring the activity of dimorphic elements from related species that have been engineered to possess the Drosophila melanogaster mutations. I will also test the hypothesis that these mutations impart their effects by creating or destroying binding sites for proteins known as transcription factors. The results will provide a sorely needed example where an understanding of molecular mechanisms bridges the gap between a DNA sequence and its in vivo function.

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  Revealing when, how, and how often a pigmentation gene network evolved to be sexually dimorphic in a fruit fly subgenus

  Abbey Marie Groszkiewicz, Jesse Taylor Hughes

  Since the origin of the 36 recognized animal phyla, evolution can be largely summarized as the diversification of characteristics among these original body plans. As animal characteristics are the products of development, a key challenge for contemporary research is to reveal the ways in which development evolves through changes in the use of genes within a gene regulatory network. One ideal trait for deep mechanistic study is the coloration patterns observed on the abdominal tergites of fruit fly species from the Sophophora subgenus. Prior research has supported a scenario where elaborate melanic pigmentation limited to the male abdomen evolved once within this clade through the evolution of a sexually dimorphic pattern of expression for the bric-à- brac transcription factor genes. My research seeks to confirm or revise this scenario by bringing attention to the distribution of species with elaborate male pigmentation among the diverse Sophophora species groups and interrogating the patterns of bric-à- brac expression during the development and coloration of abdominal tergites.

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  Revising the Geological Time Scale: A Multi-Clade CONOP9 Composite from the Middle Ordovician Rocks of Newfoundland

  Katherine Gayle Michel

  The Geological Time Scale is a fundamental tool for geoscientists that is revised and republished every eight years. It is a representation of the geologic record - a system composed of radioisotope dates interpolated into fossil successions that can be used to correlate rocks, used a standard to which local successions can be compared, and as a framework for the rate calculations needed in geologic and evolutionary studies. The current Geologic Time Scale for the Ordovician Period (GTS 2012) is composed of a sequence of species ranges from a group of fossils called graptolites with interpolated radiometric dates. Building a global geologic time scale requires correlating between different biofacies. These correlations are difficult because the fossil organisms used to demonstrate time equivalency may live in non-overlapping environments, as well as other biases inherent in the fossil record. In this thesis I will attempt to combine stratigraphic range data from different kinds of Ordovician fossils in order to improve the precision and usefulness of the Ordovician time scale. I will integrate the range data from graptolites (deep water biofacies), chitnozoans and conodonts (shallow water biofacies) in the Middle Ordovician rocks of Newfoundland. I will conduct field studies to make new, detailed fossil collections and use these in conjunction with already published literature. In particular I will look for unusual co-occurrences of both types of fossils on single bedding planes, which have been reported in the geologic literature from Newfoundland. I plan to use the computer-assisted graphic correlation program CONOP9 to create composite taxon ranges from many localities based on the first and last appearance data for each species and then construct a more precise correlation network between sections that represent disparate biofacies. This correlation network can be used in the revision of the Ordovician Time Scale for 2020.

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  Role of Calcium Signaling Pathway in Rescuing Aβ42 Neurodegeneration in Drosophila

  Neha Gogia, Chris Y Kang, Dena M Schaeffer

  Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, common in more than five million individuals in the United States (US) alone, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the US. While currently there are no cures for the disease, there are many ongoing studies, which are using the Drosophila melanogaster model, to find a way to prevent and slow down AD. We have used Drosophila as our model organism; Drosophila eye as our model organ (due to highly conserved genetic machinery between flies and humans). We have developed a transgenic fly model of AD where we misexpress high levels of human Aβ42 peptides using GAL4/UAS system approach, using this system, misexpression is targeted in the differentiating photoreceptor neurons in the Drosophila eye and can be explained to address questions pertaining to whether activating or deactivating certain pathways can rescue Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. We have found that members of calcium signaling pathway acts as the modifier of Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. In order to test our hypothesis, we misexpressed the loss-of-function form (using RNAi) of six components of calcium signaling pathway (which are stimRNAi, sercaRNAi, oraiRNAi, inx2RNAi, ip3rRNAi, and plc 21cRNAi) in Aβ42 background in the eye, and observed the effects in both eye-antennal imaginal discs and adult eyes. Our results showed 100% eye rescue with all 6 components of calcium signaling pathway at 29C, which clearly states that inactivation of calcium signaling pathway blocks Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration. Previous studies on calcium signaling pathway showed a role in deadly diseases like cancer and other fatal diseases. Our studies show a new role of calcium signaling in neurodegeneration disorder like AD.

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  Role of M1BP in eye development of Drosophila melanogaster

  Hannah Corinne Gordon, Abijeet Singh Mehta, Ankita Sarkar, Kaitlyn E Strickland

  Regulation of transcription in multi-cellular organisms is responsible for generating diversity in cell type and final patterning and growth of an organ. The regulation of gene expression can be present at multiple levels like assembling pre-initiation complex at promoters or regulation of gene expression by micro RNA. Recently, a novel transcription factor M1BP (TF; Motif 1 binding protein) has been identified which is required to regulate a large class of paused genes. However, the role of the Motif 1 binding protein is unknown in the eye development. We employed Drosophila melanogaster eye model to understand its role in patterning, growth and development. M1BP is highly conserved across the species and encodes a 55kDa protein containing five C2H2 zinc-fingers domains. A battery of highly conserved genes regulates Drosophila eye development. In our studies, we examine the effects of Motif 1 Binding Protein (M1BP), and its effects on the control of gene expression during eye development of the Drosophila melanogaster. Our preliminary data suggests that absence of M1BP function in dorsal and ventral eye margins results in the suppression of eye fate and the suppression of the gene from the entire eye gives us a head loss phenotype. We also hypothesize that the loss of function o f M1BP leads to the change of the fate of peripodial epithelium cells to disc proper in the eye imaginal disc. The above data will be presented in our poster.

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  Role of Relish/NFkB Apoptosis Pathway in Amyloid-beta 42 mediated neurodegeneration inAlzheimer’s disease.

  Steven Gerard Borchers, Neil William Glenn, Neha Gogia

  Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, which affects the mental functions of the patients. This disorder progresses with age and does not have a cure to-date. One of the reasons for the manifestation of AD is the accumulation of amyloid-beta- 42 (Aβ42) proteins. In our study, we have used Drosophila as our model organism (as 75% of the genetic machinery is conserved between flies and humans), and have developed a model where when human Aβ42 is misexpressed in the differentiating eye, triggers cell death in the retinal neurons. We have also identified a soy-based anti- inflammatory protein, Lunasin, which can block Aβ42 mediated cell death by downregulating the NFkB pathway (which lead to translation of apoptotic proteins of Jun-N Terminal Kinase (JNK) pathway). In order to discern the exact mechanism by which Lunasin prevents neuronal cell death (caused by the accumulation of Aβ42 proteins), we have developed transgenic flies, which can produce human Aβ42 and Aβ42+Lunasin in the Drosophila eye. Our hypothesis states that manipulating the Relish protein complex of the Imd-NFKB pathway could lead to activity variation in JNK pathway in Aβ42+Lunasin flies. To test our hypothesis, we used GAL4/UAS system genetic technique and misexpressed relish and relish RNAi in human Aβ42, Aβ42+Lunasin background, and checked for the resultant phenotypes in (1) the larval eye imaginal discs and in (2) the adult eyes. Our data showed that downregulating Relish rescues neurodegenerative phenotypes seen in Alzheimer’s flies. It suggests that the Imd-NFKB pathway plays a positive role in Lunasin’s ability to mitigate the neuronal cell death cause by the accumulation of Aβ42 plaques. These studies have significant bearing on the use of NFKB members as biomarkers or druggable targets and generate new insights into the mechanism by which Aβ42 mediated neurodegeneration cell death can be blocked in the future.

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  Runge-Kutta Methods to Explore Numerical Solutions of Reactor Point Kinetic Equations

  Elizabeth N Boeke

  This work is the study of Reactor Point Kinetic equations. This is a system of seven coupled ordinary differential equations, one for neutron density and six for delayed neutron precursors. The application of Runge-Kutta methods is used to study the system numerically. Solutions were then compared for different values of reactivity using MATLAB built-in functions ode23 and ode45. There are graphs and tables presented to compare these methods; theoretically ode45 is of higher-order than ode23.

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  Semester of Service - Adventure Central

  Ellie Marie Ryan

  Adventure Central is an after-school program that focuses on positive youth development, health and wellness, and interaction with science and nature. Adventure Central assists students with any homework or school assistance needed as well as provides structured activities for after school hours. Adventure Central is a partnership between The Ohio State University, 4-H Youth Development, and 5 Rivers Metroparks of Dayton. It is located in the West Dayton community and continues to improve the lives of the students and the families it serves. This semester, as part of the Semester of Service Program, I am working at Adventure Central as a Group Leader. I am working on lesson and activity planning for a small group of students. By working in the West Dayton area, I am allowed the opportunity to immerse myself in the community.

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  Semester of Service at Adventure Central

  Caroline Marie Shepherd

  Adventure Central is an after school program that encourages environmental education and appreciation. Through the Semester of Service program at UD, two group leaders were hired to work full time at Adventure Central. Semester of Service participants are acquiring experience in lesson planning and educating elementary aged school children. Adventure Central is located in West Dayton and caters to Dayton City School students. There is no where else in the country that rivals Adventure Central's success in after school programming. Adventure Central is possible through partnerships with Five Rivers Metroparks, The Ohio State University and 4-H . Semester of Service participants have their own classroom to maintain and plan for. Students at Adventure Central range from six to 18 years old. Adventure Central promotes positive youth development in the West Dayton community.

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  Semester of Service at Aullwood Audubon: Ewe, Me, and Energy

  Thomas Brewster Tappel

  This semester, my last semester, I worked full-time at Aullwood Audubon as their (in way over my head) energy engineer. During my time at Aullwood, I coordinated projects aimed at reducing the amount energy used at the Nature Center as well as developing plans for renewable energy generation and energy education. I also participated in some of Aullwood's programs and events exploring the trails throughout the 200-acre nature sanctuary, experiencing how to make maple syrup, and learning more than I could ever imagine about birds.

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  Semester of Service at Daybreak

  Emma O'Neill Bertrand

  I have dedicated this semester to service for the Dayton community. Specifically, I am working with Daybreak youth homeless shelter. As a communication major, I have a gift for telling stories both written and visually. I will use these skills throughout the course of the semester to tell the stories of the people at Daybreak and to bring about awareness of the agency and all of the good that it does.

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  Semester of Service at Homefull

  Krishna Sai Phaneendar Mullapudi

  Homefull, formerly The Other Place, was founded in1988 in Dayton, Ohio and has grown to meet the challenging needs of the community in service to homeless persons. Through UD’s Semester of Service Program, this semester I have volunteered to work for Homefull as an IT intern. During my time at Homefull, I have assisted the employees with their every day tech needs and troubleshooting their issues with computers. As a Computer Science major, I have dedicated my time here shadowing different employees and made suggestions to make their work easier. I am also working on building an interface to quickly and efficiently search through different organizations such as food Pantries that will help our clients. I have had a chance to travel across different sites that Homefull serves and learn more about American society by meeting different people. It has been only one year for me in the USA and I am thankful to SOS that I was able to learn many things through this program, that my four walls classroom would have never taught me.

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  Semester of Service at Homefull: Housing First and Homelessness in Dayton

  Alexandra M Altomare

  Homefull is a non-profit agency that provides case management services to the homeless population in Dayton to help individuals escape homelessness hopefully into a stable and long-lasting independent living situation. With a housing first philosophy, Homefull case management is focused on getting clients out of shelter as a top priority, with all other services to follow. As a case manager this semester, I assist clients in getting linked with services to manage their mental health conditions, stabilize alcohol and drug abuse, and find income to prepare clients for the housing opportunities Homefull is able to assist them with. The role of the case manager ranges from advocate to potential landlords, sympathetic ear to a hard day, or stern motivator to encourage clients to seek help for themselves. But no matter the task that day, the end goal is always to find a reconciliation between the poverty and lack of affordable housing in Dayton to break the cycle of neglect towards this vulnerable population.

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  Semester of Service at the Brunner Literacy Center

  Fiona Marie Madden

  Through UD's Semester of Service program, I worked at the Brunner Literacy Center. The center began serving illiterate and low-literate adults in the Dayton area in 2006, and has since expanded its services to include GED prep and English as a Second Language (ESL) tutoring. I worked to further the BLC's mission of providing a safe, welcoming place for adults to learn by acting as a program assistant and tutoring students from Dayton, Sudan, and the Dominican Republic.

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  Semester of Service - Volunteers of America Residential Re-Entry

  Nathan Joseph Roman

  Through UD's Semester of Service program, I spent my last semester working full-time at the Volunteers of (VOA) America Residential Re-Entry facility in Dayton. This facility houses 130 clients who are transitioning from the criminal justice system back into society, and offers a number of programs to make this transition easier. At VOA, I assisted with employment readiness services (creating resumes and preparing for interviews), structured activities (life skills and recreational time), and also helped to connect clients to appropriate resources in the community.

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  Sex Differences in Concussion-Related Attitudes Among College Students

  Pat William Dwyer

  Every year there are 300,000 – 3.8 million concussions sustained in the United States. Due to the prevalence of this injury and an increased understanding of it that has developed over the past decade, concussions have become a topic of much concern and conversation. Previous research has shown that factors such as having children, socioeconomic status, a person’s own concussion history, and amount of time available for education, among many others can influence attitudes and knowledge about concussion. The current study sought out to understand the influence of the sex an individual and college education on multiple concussion-related attitudes. We developed a survey to assess the attitudes of college students on a range of topics surrounding concussions. 200 students at the University of Dayton were surveyed, and from our pre-test data we found significant differences in attitudes on a few questions between sexes. Males were more likely to report a higher opinion of the way professional sports leagues have handled the concussions in general. Also, males were more likely to report that they felt the monetary benefits to playing sports outweighed the risks associated with sustaining a concussion. Finally, females felt more strongly that there should be laws created and enforced in relation to concussion management for youth sports. Our results indicate that sex differences emerge in various areas of concussion-related attitudes.

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  Sex differences in the antidepressant-like effects of ketamine in an inflammatory mouse model of depression

  Nick Richard Halloy, Benjamin Klocke, Connor F Thelen

  A major discovery in the treatment of major depression was the finding that a single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine induces both acute and sustained antidepressant effects in patients. Although women report major depression at twice the rate of men, the vast majority of research on ketamine’s antidepressant effects has been focused on the male sex. By inducing neuroinflammation in rodents using the pro-inflammatory agent lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a sickness syndrome is manifested with many behavioral and physiological manifestations that overlap with the clinical symptoms of major depression. The majority of studies investigating the neurobiological effects of LPS have been conducted in the male sex. The antidepressant-like effects of ketamine have only been documented in male LPS-exposed mice. Of note, female responsiveness to ketamine in this neuroinflammatory model of depression remains elusive. In this study, we are investigating the sex differentiated antidepressant effects of both acute and chronic treatment of ketamine on the LPS-induced neuroinflammatory model of depression. Preliminary data from acute ketamine treatment points to a differentiation in behavior in male and female mice. In addition to this preliminary data, we are currently conducting the chronic ketamine administration phase of the study. Data collected by our lab is promising in the search for novel mechanisms for female ketamine response under the neuroinflammatory model of depression.

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  Size, Value, and Profitability in the Cross Section of Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2008 - 2017.

  William Binnie

  In this study I extend the analysis of Fama and French and Novy-Marx on the effect of firm size, value and profitability on a portfolio's excess returns. The period analysis is 2008 -2017. For this analysis I use the same metrics for size (market value) and value (price to book) as Fama and French but differ in my measure of profitability. I use return on invested capital (ROIC) instead of return on equity or gross operating profits as a percent of assets because ROIC is considered a better measure of measure of the efficient allocation of capital as well as the firm's ability to generate economic value added. I test the following hypothesis. 1.) High ROIC large cap stocks outperform low ROIC large cap stocks 2.) High ROIC small cap stocks outperform low ROIC small cap stocks 3.) High ROIC value stocks outperform low ROIC value stocks 4.) High ROIC growth stocks outperform low ROIC growth stocks

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  Sleeping on it: Examining the Effects of Sleep Consolidation when Encoding is Interrupted.

  Taylor Nicole Chambers, Alexander N Lawriw, Gabriella Louise Silone

  Research indicates that memories are strengthened by consolidation, defined as their incorporation during sleep into a previously established memory network (Rasch & Born, 2008; Rasch & Born, 2013). Data indicate that memories are initially unstable after encoding and that sleep consolidation increases resistance to interference (Robertson, 2011). On the first day of a two-day experiment designed to examined whether interrupting the encoding of a memory would affect later memory consolidation, participants in the present research memorized pictures of common objects (e.g., owl, motorcycle) presented in a slideshow. At the midpoint of the slideshow, there was a simulated computer crash. While the experimenter pretended to amend the fake situation, participants completed an unrelated task to prevent rehearsal of the pictures. Shortly after, the slideshow resumed, presenting the remaining pictures. Participants were assigned to either complete an immediate recognition test of the pictures, return to lab the following day to complete a delayed recognition test, or complete both an immediate and a delayed recognition test. We tested three hypotheses; first, pictures that appeared near the beginning and the end of encoding, and those that appeared after the resumption of the interrupted slideshow would be better remembered than those pictures that appeared just before the interruption, due to primacy and recency memory effects. Second, pictures tested for memory only on the second day would be remembered better, due to sleep consolidation, than when tested for memory only on the first day. Third, participants tested on the first and second day would be more confident in their memory of the pictures, and, due to sleep consolidation and repetition, would recognize more pictures on the second than on the first day of testing.