Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Empowering You: Environment, Water, Rivers And You, League Of Women Voters Of The Greater Dayton Area, David Bodary

Rivers Institute Publications

Host David Bodary talks about "Environment, Water, Rivers and You" with guest Leslie King, director of the Rivers Institute at the University of Dayton Fitz Center for Leadership in Community and University of Dayton junior Tessa O'Halloran, a River Steward.

Into The River Activity: Magnetic Fishing Game, University Of Dayton. Rivers Institute

Rivers Institute Publications

Do-it-yourself game using paper, paper clips, string, magnets and craft sticks.

Into The River Activity: Outdoor Observation Tool, University Of Dayton. Rivers Institute

Rivers Institute Publications

Tool for becoming observant of items in the physical and natural environment.

Into The River Activity: Beaver Craft, University Of Dayton. Rivers Institute

Rivers Institute Publications

Elementary-age craft using cardboard tube and construction paper.

Into The River Activity: Word Search, University Of Dayton. Rivers Institute

Rivers Institute Publications

Word search with river-related terms.

Into The River Activity: Eagle Craft, University Of Dayton. Rivers Institute

Rivers Institute Publications

Elementary-age craft using cardboard tube and construction paper.

Into The River, University Of Dayton. River Stewards

Rivers Institute Publications

This picture book, written by the 2020 cohort of River Stewards for the third-grade reading level, takes readers on a colorful adventure through the Great Miami River.

The writing process began in the fall of 2019 with events with area watershed leaders, educators and children. After children wrote and drew their favorite memories from the river, the River Stewards employed the children’s words and pictures to help articulate the landmarks, lessons and literary elements in the book.

In the spring of 2020, the River Stewards wrote, illustrated and designed the book — a story that incorporates local landmarks, fundamental watershed …

River Stewards Informational Brochure, University Of Dayton. Fitz Center For Leadership In Community

Rivers Institute Publications

The River Stewards Program is a threeyear, interdisciplinary program designed to engage undergraduate students in experiential and community-engaged learning centered around the Great Miami River Watershed. Each student gains practical experience and leadership skills while working closely with faculty, staff, and community partners to help protect, promote, and preserve the region's rivers and water resources. The River Stewards Program consists of three cohorts totaling around 50 undergraduate students. Together, they represent over 25 different majors from all academic units at the University of Dayton.

First-year students can apply to become River Stewards during their second semester. Applications for the next …

Data Evaluation And Control Of Pollutants In The Air

Stander Symposium Projects

This project is about the data evaluation of the pollutants in the open atmosphere such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, etc. The main aim of this project is to evaluate the data for the pollutants mentioned above as well as to generate different curves with the help of data obtained for past couple of decades and to develop some curve-fit equations to predict the approximate emission values of the pollutants for upcoming future years. As environmental pollution is one of the biggest challenges we are facing now-a-days in the current technology-based world,this work also shows the …

Research Exercise: Tired Of Rubber Landfills: From Environmental Hazard To Sustainable Use Potential Of Discarded Tire Materials

Stander Symposium Projects

How do you dispose of your used car tires? Although answering this on an individual level doesn’t seem to be hard, the sheer amounts of old tires disposed of as a byproduct of a growing car market in the United States have grown to make a significant impact on the environment. Each year, over 350 million tires are consumed and only about 70% of the accruing waste is properly recycled at their end of life. The storage of tires in landfills, or improper methods of disposal, such as burning and waterbody displacement causes hazardous emissions and health problems. For instance, …

Portfolio Weighting Strategies For A Concentrated Portfolio Of Consumer Discretionary Stocks: An Empirical Analysis, 2010-2015

Stander Symposium Projects

Recent interest by investment managers in Portfolio Weighting Strategies other than market capitalization has led to a rapid increase in fundamental based indexing. In their study I use the price dynamics of firms relative to the market (S&P 500) to weight a 10 stock portfolio of Consumer Discretionary firms. The weighting model is based on the capture ratio of the price changes for each stock compared to the S&P 500. In particular, an upside/downside capture ratio is developed for each stock based on a years worth of daily price changes. The following hypotheses are tested: 1) Firms with higher upside/downside …

Culture As Context: Effects Of Cultural Polarization On Chinese International Student Adjustment

Stander Symposium Projects

Due to the fact that Chinese international students are such a significant population within American universities across the country, it is worth investigating how this population typically adjusts to living in the United States and what stresses or issues are unique to them. However, it is also important to investigate whether or not Chinese international students experience positive transformations within themselves as a result of the adjustment challenges that they are faced with. This qualitative inquiry examines these vital questions surrounding Chinese international student adjustment, in order to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the complex experiences of Chinese …

State Initiatives, Ballot Language, And The Media: Do They Overlap?

Stander Symposium Projects

State Initiatives are seen throughout every state, some more than others, but every election brings them. However, not every election is equal when it comes to turnout, depending on if it is a presidential or midterm year. Some are given more media attention, some are given minimal attention, if at all. The fundamental question is what role doe’s media play in turnout during elections and does any amount of roll-off occurs during presidential or governor’s elections? Does this poll-off or turnout have to do with media (or lack of) attention, or is there something more going on? Besides looking at …

Examining Factors Associated With High Leadership Self-Efficacy Among International Women College Students In The U.S.

Stander Symposium Projects

Leadership self-efficacy is an area of self-efficacy related to the level of confidence one has in his or her knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead others (Bandura, 1997). When leadership self- efficacy is placed within the context of student development, it has the ability to contribute to or negate from a student’s motivation to persist and succeed in leadership associated tasks (Bandura, 1993; Stage, 1996). The goal of this research is to explore how international female undergraduate students perceive their leadership abilities in relation to their personally constructed definition of leadership. Through qualitative interviews with six international female undergraduate students, …

Do High Roe Stocks Outperform The Market With Persistence: An Empirical Analysis, 2009 - 2014

Stander Symposium Projects

Academic studies by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French as well as Robert Novy Marx identify profitability as one of the factors determining the variation in excess returns in the cross section of stock returns. Using return on equity (ROE) as my measure of profitability and the S&P 500 as my universe of stocks, I examine the impact of ROE on S&P 500 stock performance for the period 2009 - 2014. I test the following hypotheses with respect to ROE: (1) Portfolios of firms with high ROE's (40% or higher) outperform the market with persistence i.e. over long periods of time, …

Dissecting The Sex-Dependent Neurochemical Effects Of The Rapid-Acting Antidepressant Drug Ketamine With In Vivo Brain Microdialysis In Mice

Stander Symposium Projects

Major depression is a devastating mental disorder that affects nearly 20% of the world’s population. Notably, women experience major depression at roughly twice the rate of men and respond differently to different types of antidepressant drugs. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this sex-differentiated responsiveness remain a largely neglected area of experimentation with current treatments based almost exclusively on research conducted in males. Most importantly, currently marketed antidepressant drugs take anywhere from weeks to months in order to elicit their therapeutic effects, thus leading to increased drop-out rates. Ketamine is a unique, rapid-acting antidepressant drug that alleviates depressive symptomatology in both …

Supplementation Of Propionate Inhibits The Anaerobic Growth Of The Foodborne Pathogen Listeria Monocytogenes

Stander Symposium Projects

Listeria monocytogenes is an infectious bacterium that is known to cause severe diseases in people who are pregnant, elderly, or generally immunocompromised through consumption of contaminated food products. To help develop preventative strategies to protect these high-risk individuals, our lab focuses on the approach of enhancing the chemical barrier naturally existing in the intestinal tract to block L. monocytogenes from interacting with the human intestinal epithelium and causing fatal infections. The chemical environment inside the human intestinal lumen is rich with fermentation acids produced by the endogenous microbes. In my research project, I tested the efficacy of propionic acid, one …

The Use Of A Molecular Probe To Investigate The Details Of Pria Helicase Function

Stander Symposium Projects

During DNA replication in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, the replication machinery (replisome) invariably encounters structural DNA damage, an event that can result in disbanding of the replisome and the creation of a collapsed replication fork. In order for DNA replication to continue, the replisome must be reloaded onto the DNA strand, a process that often begins with unwinding of double-stranded (duplex) DNA by the primosome protein PriA. Little is known about the mechanism through which PriA unwinds DNA and begins replisome recruitment. We seek to shed new light on this mechanism through the use of a PriA inhibitor, compound …

Role Of Axial Patterning Genes In Growth Regulation During Eye Development

Stander Symposium Projects

An important question in developmental biology is that how axial patterning genes work with growth and patterning to form any three-dimensional organ. In any multicellular organism, Organogenesis, requires axial patterning i.e. formation of Antero-Posterior (AP), Dorso-Ventral (DV), Proximo-Distal (PD) axes. Any deviation in these axes during development leads to genetic birth defects. We use Drosophila melanogaster (a.k.a fruit fly), eye as our model. As the genetic machinery between flies and human is conserved, any insights generated in flies can be extrapolated into humans. In Drosophila, DV patterning marks first lineage restriction event where expression of dorsal, ventral fate selectors forms …

Mutant Pria C-Tev Ml346 And Its Unwinding Dna Capabilities

Stander Symposium Projects

DNA damage can cause the process of DNA replication to stall and this can lead to dissociation of the DNA replication enzymes from the DNA. In bacteria, a protein called PriA recognizes this, unwinds a portion of duplex DNA at the site where replication stalled, and reloads the replication enzymes to restart DNA replication. PriA has multiple structural domains that are closely associated with one another to give rise to a compact globular protein. The winged helix domain, however, is connected to the remainder of the protein by a long, flexible portion of polypeptide, akin to a tether. I examined …

Robust Nonlinear Adaptive Control For Longitudinal Dynamics Of Hypersonic Aircraft Vehicle Model

Stander Symposium Projects

A hypersonic aircraft vehicle is a highly complex nonlinear system, which includes uncertainties in the dynamics. This paper presents the design of robust nonlinear adaptive control for a hypersonic aircraft vehicle model. The complexity of the dynamic system is considered into the design structure of the control in order to address robustness issues. Design of a robust control system should decouple the longitudinal and lateral dynamics to handle the flight of hypersonic vehicle under certain specific conditions. In this paper, we only consider longitudinal dynamics, which are divided into aircraft speed subsystem and flight-path angle subsystem. A robust control design …

Monetary Policy And Unemployment Rates: Is There A Relationship? An Empirical Analysis: 2001-2015

Stander Symposium Projects

The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate to carry out Policy objectives that bring about full employment in the economy with price stability. On the full employment side, monthly job growth along with unemployment rates are two key metrics that indicate how well the fed is doing in achieving the mandate. In this study, I focus on unemployment rate trends over the period 2001-2015.In 2001, the U.S. economy was dealing with a mild recession and in 2008 a severe recession. I look at the trend in the unemployment rate for the periods 2001-2007 and 2009-2015 to obtain a better understanding …

Evaluation Of Mammalian Stress And Inflammatory Response To A Novel Porphyrin

Stander Symposium Projects

Porphyrins are a specific class of aromatic, heterocyclic compounds that are either naturally occurring or artificially synthesized. Porphyrins have demonstrated robust antibacterial properties, which arise from the generation of singlet oxygen. However, most porphyrins are photodynamic, meaning they require activation by light at an optimal wavelength. A novel porphyrin, developed by Dr. Shawn Swavey (UD Chemistry Department) has shown exceptional antibacterial efficiency against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, even without photoactivation. As P. aeruginosa infections are often the root cause behind lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, identifying a way to safely control bacterial presence is a major concern. The ability of this …

Greek Life And Catholic Universities: Do The Values Of Greek Life Match With Those Of The Catholic Church?

Stander Symposium Projects

Greek Life organizations face many negative stipulations across the United States due to several allegations of disrespectful actions. Due to these negative actions, there are Catholic institutions across the United States that do not allow Greek Life organizations on their respective campus. Such reasons Catholic institutions give is that Greek Life is not needed on campus for students to live out Catholic values. Instead, students have service, special interest and sports clubs to join to live out Catholic values. As a student apart of Greek Life on the University of Dayton’s campus feel that the values between Greek life and …

Renew Your Interest...So Your Best Potential Can Come To Light! Examining The Effectiveness Of Academic Renewal Course & Coaching (Arcc)

Stander Symposium Projects

This research explores how the seven week academic intervention course, Academic Renewal Course and Coaching (ARCC) at the University of Dayton, affects student learning development and the parallel to decreasing attrition. The objective of this research was to extract the academic intervention practices and strategies that work best to increase academic performance amongst students who are academically and motivationally challenged. It also explains how and why student learning is affected when the appropriate conditions and resources aren’t identified and/or utilized by students. Academic intervention program assessment of ARCC is the all-encompassing purpose of this research. Through qualitative and quantitative data …

Effects Of Body Weight Loading On Arch Height

Stander Symposium Projects

Foot functionality is integral to normal human locomotion. The most commonly assessed area of the human body studied during locomotion is the medial longitudinal arch and its deformation. The Arch Height Index Measurement System (AHIMS) is the most reliable tool to measure this arch. This system typically measures arch deformation in two baseline conditions, sitting and standing. The sitting condition is considered unweighted and approximately 10% of a person’s body weight. The standing condition is considered a loaded condition and represents 50% of body weight. The first aim of this study was to see if the baseline measurements traditionally taken …

Portfolio Weights And Capture Ratio Analysis: A Look At Performance In The Consumers Staples Sector 2010-2015

Stander Symposium Projects

Since the recession in 2008, the stock market has experienced periods of extreme volatility, with market moves of 200-400 points on almost a daily basis. One sector that should do well when market volatility is high and rising is consumer staples. In this study I use a dynamic pricing model to determine the portfolio weights for the 10 largest value weighted stocks in the consumer staples sector. The model relies on the upside/downside Capture Ratios (U/D) for each stock to calculate the portfolio weights and dollar investment in each stock. I test the following hypotheses: (1) Stocks with higher U/D …

Fall Risk Assessment Of Older Adults With Dementia Attending Goodwill Easter Seals Adult Day Services Programs

Stander Symposium Projects

Older adults with dementia are at an increased risk for falls. However, little is known about what specific factors increase fall risk in this population. The purpose of this study was to assess performance based fall risk factors among older adults with dementia who attend day service programs in the Miami Valley so that more specific interventions can be designed to reduce future falls. To be included in this study, participants had to attend Goodwill Easter Seals Adult Day Service and have a diagnosis of dementia. There were 19 participants in this study (8 male) with an average age of …

Size, Value And Momentum In Stock Returns: An Empirical Analysis, 2010-2014

Stander Symposium Projects

Based on the landmark studies of Eugene Fama and Kenneth French in the 1990's, most financial economists consider a firm's market capitalization (size) and price to book as two of the most important factors affecting the cross section of stock market returns. In recent years, other factors including stock price momentum have been accepted as predictors of stock returns in the cross section. In this study, I develop a three factor analysis of S&P 500 stock returns for the period 2010-2014. This period was chosen because it is not included in more recent studies. It also reflects a period of …

Social Support Influences In Graduate International Student Engagement

Stander Symposium Projects

Changes that graduate international students face in acculturating to U.S. educational environments can often impact the ways they engage on campus, and their subsequent personal and career success. This poses the question of “What are the key themes that institutions can build upon to better support and encourage their growth?” In conducting a mixed-methods study on the lived experiences of graduate students from India, main findings suggested that mentoring relationships, social ties, and factors of perception were crucial to influencing students’ academic and social engagement.