Digital Commons Network^™

Bacillus Megaterium And Papiliotrema Laurentii: Competing Roles In Polymer Coating Degradation?, Anna M. Blumberg

Honors Theses

The design of coating formulations that have material properties that can hinder the biodegradation of a protective surface without aggressive or environmentally harmful additives will require a detailed understanding of knowledge gaps at the biotic-abiotic interface involving a variety of microorganisms. This project focused on two isolates extracted from a biofilm which was found to degrade Air Force cargo aircraft topcoats. These organisms, Bacillus megaterium (gram-negative bacterium, non-hydrolytic but alkane oxidizing) and the hydrolytic yeast Papiliotrema laurentii were initially observed as individual cultures and then as a co-culture. The combination of these two organisms (under similar growth conditions) provided a …

Effects Of Propionate On Macrophage Migration, Cian J. Callahan

Honors Theses

Macrophages are leukocytes that play an important role in the antibacterial responses by our body’s immune system. The activities and functions of macrophages are influenced by a variety of substances, such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) found in the gut. Currently, we know that SCFAs, such as propionate, induce directional recruitment of leukocytes. For intracellular bacterial pathogens, the movement of infected macrophages can contribute to the systemic dissemination of the pathogens. However, little is known whether SCFAs like propionate can modulate the movement of infected macrophages. To fill this knowledge gap, Listeria monocytogenes, a human pathogen capable of causing …

Cybersecurity Of The Cloud And Iot Devices, Caleb Cecil

Honors Theses

The next wave of computing is moving to the cloud. The cloud offers reliable, scalable, and cheap ways for companies to upgrade their business. It has revolutionized how we interact with each other today and is becoming an integral part of our everyday lives. However, when companies move to the cloud they need to set up their cloud architecture or data transmission securely. This leads to huge security risks in which sensitive data could be released. This project outlines the different threats and vulnerabilities that the cloud faces and the specifications needed for security. This research intends to evaluate the …

Determining The Role Of Propionate In Macrophage M1 And M2 Activation, Hannah M. Derespiris

Honors Theses

Macrophages are one of the many essential cells of the innate immune system that help to protect the body from dangerous pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. L. monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that can cause infections, especially in the elderly, immunocompromised, and pregnant women. The antimicrobial activities of macrophages that are utilized to respond to pathogens such as L. monocytogenes can include phagocytosis, inflammatory responses, and the production of antimicrobial compounds such as nitric oxide. These activities need to be regulated carefully to avoid causing unintentional damages. Typically, macrophages exist in a naive, unactivated state, or can be activated classically …

Understanding The Barrier To Integrating Empathy Education Into Pre-Medical Curriculum, Angela Galluzzo

Honors Theses

The overwhelming consensus in healthcare research over the past two decades supports that healthcare providers demonstrating empathy is an integral component of quality of care and health outcomes. The benefits of empathy in patient-provider relationships range from stronger immune responses from patients to a lowered burden on the healthcare system to fewer malpractice lawsuits against providers. Even with this research suggesting that providers should be empathetic throughout patient interactions, there are barriers to implementation. The barrier that my research will focus on is time–specifically how time constraints throughout professional schooling prevent a broad education that would teach providers how to …

Anaerobic Propionate Exposure And Its Effect On The Pathogenesis Of Listeria Monocytogenes, Allison Herceg

Honors Theses

Listeria monocytogenes is a prevalent food-borne pathogen, and a clear understanding of its pathogenesis can enhance our capability to treat infections. L. monocytogenes is ingested through contaminated foods, enters the intestinal lumen, and is able to spread throughout the rest of the body. The intracellular life cycle of L. monocytogenes requires the regulated expressions of a variety of virulence genes. We previously found that exposure to short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), fermentation byproducts present in the intestines, resulted in significant changes in L. monocytogenes pathogenesis. This research, divided into two major projects, aimed to understand the relationship between L. monocytogenes …

Mitigation Of Javascript-Based Fingerprinting Attacks Reliant On Client Data Generation, Nathan Joslin

Honors Theses

While fraud detection companies use fingerprinting methods as a secondary form of identification, attackers can exploit these fingerprinting methods due to the revealing nature of the software and hardware information collected. Attackers can use this sensitive information to target users with known vulnerabilities, monitor a user’s activity, and even reveal their identity without their knowledge or consent. Unfortunately, average users have limited options to opt out of or block fingerprinting attacks.

In this thesis, we propose a solution that enforces dynamic policies on web pages to prevent potential malicious device fingerprinting methods. We employed the Inline Reference Monitor (IRM) approach …

Cross-Cultural Educational Exchanges For Peace Through Common Humanity, Katelyn G. Jutras

Honors Theses

How do human connections from cross-cultural educational exchanges promote peace and understanding? Authentic personal connections can lead to deeper cultural understanding and awareness. This type of human connection can lead to peace. Many cross-cultural educational exchanges, such as Fulbright, were created to promote peace and understanding. Cross-cultural educational exchanges now take on more forms due to increases in the ability to share knowledge which supplies more opportunities for conflict and misunderstanding or peace and understanding. Due to this, it is important to have students participate in cross-cultural educational experiences to create personal connections to understand cultural differences better. This experience …

The Generic Flamboyance Of Muriel Spark, Tess Poe-Slade

Honors Theses

In her 1970 speech, “The Desegregation of Art” Scottish author Muriel Spark suggests that art has become overly sentimental and ultimately ineffective in its aims of social change. While scholars have used this speech to understand the importance of humor in Spark’s work, unexplored has been the use of genre as a means of social critique. In analyzing Spark’s novellas The Public Image and The Driver’s Seat, I argue that Spark uses archetypes to demonstrate the limited agency of women and the disturbing implications of all too familiar conventions.

Contesting Human Rights Coherence: Neoliberalism As An Epoch Of Brutality, David Quick Iii

Honors Theses

The end of the Cold War solidified modern human rights’ dependency on neoliberalism. Neoliberal capitalism fosters universal commodification, hyper-individualism, and a standard of excess. A consequence of these developments is that some persons of marginalized populations turn to crime as a means of achieving basic human rights. To particularize, the realization of the self as a rights-holding subject emerges from the brutalization and subsequent de-realization of the other. Furthermore, justifications of such actions may be coherent within the modern human rights discourse. This thesis is contextualized by the historical dynamics and present-day observations of El Salvador, which I take to …

Identifying The Effects Of Anaerobicity And Propionate On Listeria Monocytogenes Metabolism And Central Nervous System Infection, Rebecca Rudd

Honors Theses

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative foodborne pathogen that can enter the bloodstream and invades the central nervous system to cause meningitis. As an intracellular pathogen, L. monocytogenes replicates inside the host cell cytosol and avoids extracellular immune defenses as it disseminates throughout the body. L. monocytogenes can also reach and cross the blood brain barrier, resulting in severe or fatal symptoms in immunocompromised and elderly patients. The overarching goal of my research project is to better understand how different environmental factors, anaerobicity and propionate, in the intestinal lumen alter the ability of L. monocytogenes to cause infections. In the first …

Surveillance And Stewardship: Where Infection Prevention And Antimicrobial Stewardship Intersect, Fred C. Tenover, Debra A. Goff

Biology Faculty Publications

Colonization with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) is a risk factor for subsequent infection. Surveillance for MDROs, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales, and carbapenemase-producing organisms, is commonly conducted in hospitals to prevent spread of MDROs, in part to reduce the potential for additional infections. Although colonization is a risk factor for infection, data on colonization with various MDROs are often not considered when selecting anti-infective therapy. There are conflicting data on the strength of the positive and negative predictive values of the colonization test results to guide therapeutic strategies. Defining therapeutic strategies for patients with complicated or …

Ud In The News March 18-24, University Of Dayton

News Releases

The Conversation, Scripps News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighted UD faculty expertise. CBS Sports was among many media nationwide featuring the UD pep band playing for NCAA Tournament darling Fairleigh Dickinson.

Ud In The News March 10-17, University Of Dayton

News Releases

President Eric F. Spina participated in a Dayton Business Journal Q&A. Several media featured UD's role in the First Four. The Hill published an op-ed by rail industry expert Michael Gorman. Three legal education publications featured the law school.

College Faculty In The News: March 10, 2023, University Of Dayton

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

News agencies across the region, the nation and throughout the world often reach out to our faculty experts for their perspectives on today's issues.

Ud In The News March 3-10, University Of Dayton

News Releases

The Conversation, The National Desk, Politico and The Circuit News are among the national outlets seeking UD faculty expertise. Regional and local media highlighted several faculty and initiatives, including the NCAA First Four.

The Hub Powered By Pnc Marks Second Anniversary, University Of Dayton

News Releases

The Hub Powered by PNC marks its second anniversary in March with growing membership, record student engagement and plans to expand to a third floor early this summer.

Train Derailments Get Headlines, But Truck Crashes Needing Hazmat Cleanup Are More Deadly, Michael Gorman

Materials from the University of Dayton Magazine Website

Train derailments get headlines, but truck crashes needing hazmat cleanup are more deadly

The Marianists’ History Of The Evolution Of Ud’S Center For Christian Renewal, The Institute For Pastoral Initiatives And Contribution To The Mission Of The Catholic Church (1972-2023), Angela Ann Zukowski

Documents and Publications of the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives

In 1972, the Marianists established the Marianist Institute for Christian Renewal, later called the Center for Christian Renewal (CCR), under the auspices of the University of Dayton. The goal of the Center was to be a bridge between the University and the Catholic Church in dialogue and pastoral service. During the next fifty years to the present, the centers and institutes established under the initial CCR connected the University with the Catholic Church in the spirit and charism of the Marianist tradition. The areas of connection include support for social justice issues in Africa and West Dayton; Catholic elementary …

Teachers’ Contexts, Their Instruction And Math Achievement: Evidence From The 2018 Talis-Pisa Link Data, Meredith L. Wronowski, Xiaoyuan Chen

Thomas C. Hunt Building a Research Community Day

This study uses secondary data analysis of the 2018 TALIS-PISA link data combined with content analysis of policy and media artifacts to describe the relationship between teacher professionalization and working climate, self-efficacy, instruction, and mathematics achievement. In preliminary SEM models we identify three types of classroom instruction, Instruction Focused, Management Focused, and Comprehensive, based on a latent profile analysis of frequency of teacher behaviors. We also find that professionalization and working climate significantly predict teacher self-efficacy and instruction, but that instruction does not predict achievement when including school covariates. We also describe key differences in professionalization, climate, and math achievement …

Messaging In Mongolian, Mary Kate Newman

Materials from the University of Dayton Magazine Website

The University of Dayton men’s basketball social media team has been taken over by Mongolian fandom.

Preparing Graduate Students For A Dei-Framed Basic Course: A Graduate Student Perspective, Adam E. Tristan

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Creating Equitable And Inclusive Basic Course Classrooms: A Response Essay, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post

Basic Communication Course Annual

In 1992, Jo Sprague challenged communication educators to think more critically about how we teach and what we include in our communication curriculum. In the decades since Sprague’s powerful call for instructional communication researchers and instructors to ask ourselves, “What is knowledge and how is curriculum established?” (p. 11), we find ourselves needing to engage with ongoing contemporary conversations about what counts as knowledge in a basic communication course and which knowledge is viewed as important enough to include in the curriculum. A meta-synthesis of basic communication course surveys showed little change in the basic communication course content over the …

Reflections About Future Directions For The Basic Communication Course And Basic Course Scholarship, Sherwyn P. Morreale, Scott A. Myers

Basic Communication Course Annual

The importance of the basic communication course is underscored by a somewhat overused but decidedly meaningful phrase—it’s our discipline’s front porch! While serving as the president of the National Communication Association, Beebe (2013) coined that phrase in reference to the basic course serving as the critical point-of-entry to the communication discipline, introducing students to communication studies for the first time. More recently, others (Bertelsen & Goodboy, 2009; Morreale et al., 2022; Myers et al., 2021) have pointed to the increasing presence of the basic course in general education and the fact that it is one of most frequently taught courses …

College Faculty In The News: Feb. 10, 2023, University Of Dayton

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

News agencies across the region, the nation and throughout the world often reach out to our faculty experts for their perspectives on today's issues.

Ud In The News Jan. 28-Feb. 3, University Of Dayton

News Releases

The Conversation, The Hill and Spectrum News 1 Ohio featured faculty expertise while local media highlighted UD's Flyer Pitch Competition.

2023-02-03 Minutes Of The Executive Committee Of The Academic Senate, University Of Dayton. Academic Senate. Executive Committee

ECAS Minutes

Approved minutes of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate of the University of Dayton.

Report: 2022 Ala-Core National Binding Survey, Beth Doyle, Richenda Lea Brim, Joyce Chapman, Mark Coulbourne, Tanya Cathlene Ellenburg-Kimmet, Jenny Levine

Roesch Library Staff Publications

The American Library Association (ALA) Core Preservation Administration Interest Group (PAIG) held a Symposium on the Future of Library Binding in 2022. Following the symposium, the ALA Core Library Binding Practices Survey Team (hereafter, “Team”) was convened to explore issues that arose during the symposium. The Team members volunteered to create a survey on current library binding practices to gain a better understanding of who is using library binding as a preservation and access method, how they are using such services, and the challenges that face the community.

Making The English Major And Minor More Inclusive, Tori Miller

Brother Frank Ruhlman, S.M., Award of Excellence for Literary Achievement

The English department aims to keep the "human" in humanities through diversity, equity and inclusion. To better help understand the concerns of students while strengthening the bond between faculty and students alike, the department created their first ever Student Advisory Board (SAB) to help bridge the gap. On Jan. 19 the English Student Advisory Board held their first town hall-style meeting in Sears Recital Hall, inviting majors and minors to use their voices. SAB members include undergraduate students Marissa Mark, Eden Michelson, Skylar Sharkey, Phillip Cicero and Ethan Imes. The group's mission is simple: they want to provide the best …

Hot For Hot Chocolate, Jase Graves

Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Blog

I’ve never been a huge fan of hot chocolate. For some reason, I don’t enjoy cauterizing the inside of my mouth after being duped by the deceptively-tepid whipped cream or marshmallow topping.