SOURCE/Graduate Symposium 2024 (Program and Zoom Links)

BIO-290 allows students to explore environmental biotechnology at the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus in Guadalajara. There are multiple sources of xenobiotics within the food industry in Mexico, notably tequila vinasses and animal waste. Tequila vinasses are mixtures of organic compounds disposed of in the tequila distillation process, and often these high-nutrient compounds end up in local waterways. Similarly, animal waste on farms is produced at an extremely high rate and runs off into rivers and streams. This results in eutrophication which prevents oxygen from getting below the surface of the water, thus damaging the ecosystem. In collaboration with Dr. Gradilla Hernandez’s lab, we performed experiments to use vinasse as fertilizer for agave or as biofuel. We watered agave in Tequila, Jalisco with different volumes of water or vinasse to determine if there was a growth difference in the plants. We also used a flocculant to reduce the turbidity of wastewater in order to use it as a laboratory growth media. Utilizing the xenobiotics in this way will help create a circular economy and reduce waste in the waterways. Aside from the environmental biotechnology research, we participated in various cultural experiences to learn more about Mexico and the importance of our research there.

Myiasis is the larval infestation of living tissues by Dipteran larvae, including humans. In forensics, myiasis plays a role in cases of abuse or neglect. Accurate temperatures are crucial for age determination of the larvae. An experiment was conducted to determine the difference between ambient temperature and temperature larvae experience when on a wound. Larvae were placed in a foil cup containing chicken liver. The cups were then placed into a water bath heated to approximately to 37°C. The temperatures inside the cups as well as the ambient temperature were collected every 30 seconds for the duration of the trials through a data logger. After running an anova on the data, it was found that there was a significant difference in the ambient temperature and the temperature within the cups. The f-ratio value found was 841.78851. The p-value is < .00001. Tukey post hoc tests showed that the ambient temperature was significantly different than all of the liver cups. Learning more about the difference between ambient temperature and the temperature of larval infested conditions can assist in the creation of more accurate estimates in relation to the timeline of myiasis. This information can then be used to further improve the investigation of cases of injury or death related to myiasis.

Rising soil salinity levels are emerging as a significant challenge due to factors such as irrigation practices, climate change-induced sea level rise, soil degradation, and anthropogenic factors such as road salting. Investigating salt tolerance mechanisms in plants is crucial for agricultural sustainability, as high soil salinity inhibits crop growth and reduces yield, threatening global food security. We wondered if certain genes within the plant Arabidopsis thaliana could be linked to higher salt tolerance as understanding the genetic and physiological basis of salt tolerance in an extensively studied plant could guide the development of resilient crop varieties capable of thriving in saline environments and may have implications for drought resistance. Using two Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes, Columbia (Col) and Landsberg (Ler), we compared the effects of water without a stressor (control) and water with NaCl treatment (variable) as well as comparing the results of the ecotypes with each other. Our results showed the following statistical differences: Water retention in the Col control vs Ler control, with Col control retaining more water than Ler control (p=3.34 E-10); Water retention in Col control vs Col treatment, with Col control retaining more water than Col treatment (p=1.33 E-11); Water retention in Ler control vs Ler treatment, with Ler control retaining more water than Ler treatment (p=2.14 E-11); Water retention in Col treatment vs Ler treatment, with Col treatment retaining more water than Ler treatment (p=0.0053). The results indicate that there are genes present within Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes that could lead to water retention when in the presence of soil salinity stress. Following the parent ecotypes, recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were used to further study the correlation in genes to water retention. Fifteen RILs were studied, and an ANOVA was run. With the RIL dataset, a QTL map was generated. Future research involves a more in-depth look of these gene regions in both ecotypes.

Plastic accumulation has surged in the past decade due to its non-degradable nature, leading to the proliferation of microplastics, which pose risks to organisms as they mimic biological chemicals. Quantifying microplastic content in natural samples is crucial for assessing environmental load and intervention efficacy. We initiated our study by testing Nylon microplastics and developing quantification methods for soil samples. Utilizing a Chemidoc system, we aim to measure Nile-Red stained microplastics’ fluorescence in standards and spiked soil samples, enabling accurate quantification of environmental microplastics. Ultimately, our objective is to assess microbial degradation of microplastics, facilitated by these established methods, thereby gauging their effectiveness in experimental samples.

Bothrops atrox, a snake species endemic to South America, is often associated with traditional medicinal practices due to its therapeutic potential against various diseases. Recent studies have identified the presence of unique peptides, enzymes, and proteins in the venom of similar snake species, suggesting their roles in inhibiting the growth of specific bacteria and showing cytotoxic effects against certain mammalian cell lines. Therefore, this research project aims to explore the antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties specifically of B. atrox venom by screening aqueous venom extract against twelve distinct prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms (using a Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion assay), in addition to one colon cancer cell line (using the MTT cell viability assay). Thus far, the aqueous B. atrox venom extract (at 1 mg/disc) was found to inhibit growth of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with little activity against the fungal organisms tested, and cytotoxic studies are also underway using colon cancer cells. We are simultaneously in the process of using reverse-phase column chromatography to isolate the active compounds present. Such compounds would then be identified using analytical chemistry techniques (like mass spec and NMR). The underlying objective of this work is to eventually isolate and characterize the therapeutic compounds responsible for these specific activities. These data highlight the importance of natural remedies as an important pharmaceutical resource at a time when antimicrobial and anticancer drug discovery has plateaued.

Spring floods, summer droughts, and other unpredictable climate events are becoming increasingly common in the Midwestern United States with climate change. Rapid changes in precipitation create challenges to plant life in the region, with impacts on conservation and agriculture. We stimulated the effects of these extremes in precipitation on 100 Arabidposis thaliana recombinant inbred lines (RIL) to investigate gene-by-environment interactions on five growth and development phenotypes. We calculated the genetic variance, correlation, and heritability of the phenotypes. We also preformed a quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis to identify regions of the genome that have effects on the timing of growth in plants that were watered optimally and plants that were subject to early flood/late drought conditions. Through this QTL analysis, we were able to identify QTL for time-to-flower and two QTL for time-to-bolt. The long-term goal of the project is to identify genes with an effect on plant survival and fitness in the changing environment of the 21st century.

Rising levels of plastic pollution in the environment continue to impact aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including birds when they incorporate it into their nests. Whether the use of plastic as nesting material is entirely helpful or harmful is largely unknown. Potential detrimental effects of incorporating non-anthropogenic matter as nesting material include entanglement, ingestion, alteration of thermal properties, and increase in predation risk. The proportion of plastic used in robin (Turdus migratorius) nests was determined in 3 types of locations in Northwest Indiana. These sites included shopping area parking lots, Valparaiso University campus, and local parks. Post-breeding season robin nests (n=44, f=4.51, p<.025) were collected and dissected. Overall, 89% of the nests contained plastic. The nests with the most plastic originated from shopping areas. The effects plastic material had on nest predation rate were examined by placing artificial and natural nests around campus with model clay eggs. Half of the trials had white polyethylene plastic incorporated into their nests, and half contained no plastic. Time to nest disturbance or the presence of animal markings on the eggs were used to measure predation. In 2022, 74% of the nests were attacked with more predation from bird species than mammals. The time until predation was significantly longer for nests with plastic (n=11, t=2.3, p<.050). In 2023, the experiment was replicated, and results indicated that the time until predation was significantly longer for nests without plastic. Future research is required to understand the comprehensive impacts plastic has on bird nest quality and breeding success.

According to the W.H.O., infectious diseases account for three of the top ten global causes of death. Antimicrobial drug discovery surged in the mid-twentieth century but has sharply declined in recent years. At the same time, antimicrobial-resistant “superbug” infections are on the rise. Plants produce a robust supply of novel metabolic compounds, including many antimicrobial agents. However, with the advent of modern antibiotic drugs, natural plant-derived antibiotic sources have largely been left unexplored. Therefore, our work is focused on screening poorly explored medicinal plants in the hopes of discovering novel antimicrobial drugs. To do this, we have been testing extracts of plants found in the Valpo medicinal garden for their effects against twelve microorganisms of interest. To date, methanolic and hexane extracts of aerial, reproductive, and root portions of twelve plants have been screened, with five plants showing especially promising activities. Both raspberry leaf and yarrow flower methanol extracts were seen to inhibit growth of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with little activity against the fungal organisms tested. Chokeberry leaf methanol extracts had similar trends, but with less activity overall. Additionally, both lavender and raspberry root methanol extracts demonstrated broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, while yarrow, chokeberry, and calendula root methanol extracts showed similar trends, but with less overall activity. We have begun separating several promising extracts using column chromatography techniques to determine the specific antimicrobial compounds via analytical chemistry techniques. These data highlight the importance of plants as an invaluable pharmaceutical resource at a time when antimicrobial drug discovery has plateaued.

The creation of novel antimicrobial agents is currently at the forefront of modern healthcare due to a stark decrease in antimicrobial drug development in recent years and due to the increasing rise of “superbugs” that are resistant to more than one type of antimicrobial treatment, which are predicted by 2050 to cause 10 million deaths/year. Our research is focused on testing bacterial and fungal pathogens against methanolic and hexane extracts of various medicinal plants, such as Argemone mexicana. From previous work by our group, several antimicrobial compounds were isolated from the roots and leaves of A. mexicana, including berberine, chelerythrine and sanguinarine (work published in PLOS ONE in 2021). Since then, we have synthesized multiple rationally-designed variants of these original phytocompounds (fourteen berberine and four chelerythrine variants) and have tested these A. mexicana-inspired phytocompounds for altered antimicrobial activities. Interestingly, several of these variant compounds show increased antibacterial effects against gram-positive bacteria, yet reduced toxicity against the eukaryotic fungal cell lines tested. Moreover, based on an alkaline phosphatase (ALP) assay, it appears that the altered antimicrobial actions of some of these unique variants may be due changes in the permeability of the cell envelope, resulting in the leakage of intracellular proteins. This work was published in Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry in 2023. In the time since, we have tested A. mexicana extracts and several variants in a microgravity environment using a clinostat. We have also synthesized eight more berberine variants and tested them against various pathogens. Some of these new variants show even greater antimicrobial activity than the previous variants.

Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen, and to infect the human body, it must penetrate the intestinal mucosal barrier by changing its morphology from yeast to filamentous. The risk of candida infections increases during pregnancy and estrogen levels are high during pregnancy. Thus, we hypothesized that estrogen could act as a signal for C. albicans to become filamentous. In an ongoing study, we have looked at the effect of estrogen on filamentation, but our approach was qualitative rather than quantitative and could not clearly establish the effect of estrogen on filamentation. To get a better understanding of the effect of estrogen we have decided to use qPCR to quantify the gene expression of HWP1 involved in filamentation. In the literature, it is reported that extracting RNA from fungi is challenging because of the cell wall. In our experiments, we have compared 4 extraction methods a) snap freeze/Trizol, b) zirconium beads/Trizol, c) snap freeze/beads/Trizol, and d) hot Formamide-EDTA (FAE) extraction. Methods “a, b, and c” yield poor RNA extraction ~50ng/µl, measured with a nanodrop. Method “d” on the other hand resulted in 300 ng/µl RNA yield and a good RNA quality on agarose gel. Using the total RNA obtained from method “d”, we generated cDNA by RT-PCR and successfully PCR HWP1 in our samples. In conclusion, FAE total RNA extraction is an effective method to obtain good RNA from C. albicans and perform PCR.

We studied the effects of different gravity levels on Neurospora crassa and its morphology. This research was conducted by simulating low and high gravity effects in different operating procedures. For the low gravity simulation, the experiment was conducted by using a clinostat to constantly disorient the samples at a very slow rate. For the high gravity simulation, N. crassa was subjected to different amounts of g forces by placing the samples in a centrifuge and subjected the samples to increasing amounts of revolutions per minute. The results of these experiments conclude that in low-gravity situations, the N. crassa showed sparse growth and some cytoplasmic failure. In the high gravity situations, the samples showed that at around 1,000 to 2,000 RPMs, there were no changes in the morphology, but at higher RPMs like 3,000 or 4,000, there were some signs of cytoplasmic failure but no noticeable changes to morphology.

One effective way to measure exposure to heavy metals, microplastics, and other contaminants is by studying road sediment. This sediment can include particles that travel along the road, as well as particles from tires and the metals in cars. In this study, we examined the roadside sediment at seven sites in Valparaiso, Indiana. Each sample was analyzed for microplastics, metal content, and carbon content. In order to test for microplastics, the samples underwent a density separation in a ZnCl2 solution and vacuum filtration to isolate plastic particles. The filtered samples were treated with a hydrogen peroxide solution under UV light conditions to eliminate the organic material from the samples. The samples were analyzed through RAMAN spectroscopy. Traces of several plastics were found, including polyurethane, nylon, and polyamide. In connection to the road dust samples, a carbon analysis was performed by submitting samples of road dust in an oven at 100 °C, 500 °C and 1000 °C. Carbon percentage was collected at 500°C and carbonate at 1000°C. Results indicated high percentages of carbonate on Laport from the roundabout going to Valparaiso Marketplace. High carbon percentages were found at 7A Indiana Ave.

We present a proof of concept demonstration of solar thermochemical energy storage. The James Markiewicz Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF) at Valparaiso University uses concentrated sunlight to reduce hematite at 1500 ?, evolving oxygen and producing magnetite. Magnetite can then be dissolved in water at pH 5 using hydroxyethylidene diphosphonic acid (HEDP). Aqueous Fe²⁺ serves as the anode for the reduction of water to hydrogen, as demonstrated by a visual H₂ detection assay. Finally, alkaline solutions of Fe³⁺ + HEDP upon concentration produce a precipitate characterized as goethite ?-FeOOH by Raman spectroscopy, completing the cycle.

Fungal infections are a serious concern, as they impact many people and have high mortality rates for those who are immunocompromised. As a result of increased drug-resistant microbes, there is always a need for new drugs to combat these infections, without causing side effects in humans. Taking advantage of structural differences in the fungal form of the essential Methionine Synthase (MetSyn) enzyme, one can design compounds to selectively bind to the fungal enzyme, inhibiting fungal growth, while leaving the mammalian enzyme unaffected. We are designing, and optimizing the synthesis of, a variety of inhibitors using pterin and deazaguanine-based molecules as a scaffold to mimic folate, an essential substrate for MetSyn function. We have been testing these molecules’ activity in a microbial growth assay.

Pathogenic bacterial and fungal infections are some of the leading causes of death in the population at large. Antimicrobial-resistant “superbugs” have become a growing issue worldwide as well as on the International Space Station, and there is a great need to explore new and alternative pathways for fighting these diseases. Through a collaborative project, we explored extracts of the Argemone mexicana plant to isolate antimicrobial agents found within this plant. We already identified three key molecules, notably berberine, which give this plant antimicrobial properties. Guided by the structures of these plant-derived molecules, our work focused on designing and synthesizing new variants of these bioactive molecules in the hopes of discovering new, more potent, drugs. Several of our synthetic variants showed promising activity over the original phytochemicals isolated from the plant. Specifically, we identified improved bioactivity in the variants after reduction of the cationic iminium group. Our work has expanded to include enamine reactions and aldol-type condensations using the central nitrogen. These results may pave the way for the development of new antimicrobial drugs.

Materials chemistry looks at the characterization and application of materials with useful or interesting properties. Zeolites are an example of this, and are a porous host material that can contain other molecules and show unique properties. Zeolites can be used as energy transfer materials or as a microreactor due to their ability to organize other guest molecules. The focus of this research aims to clarify the understanding of how Linde Type L zeolite interacts with a guest molecule, specifically Brooker’s Merocyanine, which was chosen due to its zwitterionic character. These chemicals have been studied at length on their own, but together not a full fundamental understanding is well established. When combined, experimental spectroscopic results indicate that the dye is adsorbed to the zeolite. However, BET analysis, which is a gas measurement of internal surface area of the zeolite pores, indicates that the dye is not found within the pores of the host material. My research project modeled a zeolite L crystal with a Brooker’s Merocyanine molecule located at various locations through computational methods to determine the binding energy difference of the zeolite pore compared to the outer surface.

Since the mass production of plastic began, large amounts have ended up in the oceans and other bodies of water, disintegrating into highly mobile microplastics (less than 5 mm in size) that wash up onto the beach. Studies from several locations have shown that microplastics have been found on beaches throughout the world. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the presence of microplastics on two local Lake Michigan beaches and to observe if any of the plastics showed signs of weathering. Samples of sand were collected from two locations, Miller Beach and Porter Beach, on January 31st, 2024. Larger macro- and microplastic samples, ranging from 3-35mm in size, were taken from the surface, while microplastics were also taken from depths of down to 48 cm; both were taken from random locations across the beaches. The plastics were separated by sieves and density separation techniques, first using water and then with a 1.338 g/mL zinc chloride water solution. The plastic was analyzed using IR and Raman spectroscopy. The samples analyzed using the Raman spectroscopy suggested the presence of microplastics below surface level. The IR analysis concluded that the majority of plastics found in the sand were polypropylene and polyethylene plastics, some spectra showing possible signs of weathering by the presence of the C=O bond, or carbonyl index.

Regulations imposed on air quality have a direct impact to respiratory health. The relationship of particulate matter to respiratory health has been improving and the link to health problems has only grown stronger. The purpose of this investigation was to quantitatively study and monitor air quality trends of particulate matter using low cost air quality sensors in Northwest Indiana (NWI) and evaluating the PurpleAir sensors for use in the community. Multiple PurpleAir air quality index (AQI) sensors were placed across several cities in NWI. A years’ worth of data was accumulated and processed data consisted of particulate matter of 2.5µm and smaller (PM2.5), although the smallest size fraction of 0.3µm and smaller were the primary focus. PM2.5 concentrations were graphed on a monthly basis representing concentration, temperature, and pressure as well as a monthly and yearly log normal distribution of concentration. The distribution of PM2.5 concentration within different cities and counties represented little variation of particulate concentration. There exist many “non-distribution” like trends where month to month variations from the natural distribution of particulate concentration could be found. The manufactures of the sensors don’t report their conversion equation and so we have used one of our own to account for concentration and humidity. Characteristics of the PurpleAir air quality sensors are convenient for communities focused on environmental justice, however the air samplers are not accounting for all metrics of air quality. More work needs to be completed towards understanding the limitations and capabilities of the low cost air quality sensors.

The meat industry is one of our current leading contributors to environmental degradation through overuse of land, water, and methane production. Due to this, meat substitutes are often in the cultural spotlight as paths to healthier and more sustainable ways of life. They offer a variety of benefits, including contributions to environmental protection, consumer health, and production cost, all of which make plant or cell based meat substitutes worth looking into. While meat substitutes look promising, there are a few key obstacles that these substitutes face that slow their progression into society. The integration of meat substitutes into the public has received relatively negative feedback. This is related to the psychological attachment many people have to meat products, leaving them hesitant to try new things. Another reason is that people are scared of some of the methodology of lab grown meat and the technology used for obtaining the cell cultures for growth. Many people also claim to dislike the tastes and textures of many meat substitutes, feeling they are incomparable to meat. The nutritional value of some of the meat substitutes occasionally comes into question as well; some substitutes use unnecessary amounts of food coloring or salt in order to replicate meat, while others do not contain enough essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and proteins. While many people are aware of the environmental harms of overconsumption of meat, meat substitutes have several social and scientific obstacles to overcome before gaining widespread acceptance and leading us toward a promising sustainable future.

Throughout Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, an unnamed narrator partakes in a journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with the effect that race has on his identity and role in society. While some argue that the narrator’s invisibility refers to how white society perceives him, I argue that this invisibility is three-fold: black America is invisible to themselves, to each other, and to white society. Furthermore, this invisibility is not the cause but is a symptom of an “identity expression discrepancy.” While white Americans can choose who they are, what they do, and how they are perceived, black Americans’ identities are limited to the perceptions of their race, and these limitations are assumed within oneself, between members of the same race, and by white society. Ultimately, despite Ellison’s criticism of the polarization of race, he does not advocate for a colorblind society. For Ellison, the ideal society is one in which the identity expression discrepancy within black Americans is eliminated, meaning that black Americans would have the freedom to express themselves by their own individual identities, not by the color of their skin. In this way, black Americans could even choose to define themselves outside of the black historical experience. This balance is one that 21st century America has yet to perfect, but should continue to strive toward.

In the final poem of Four Quartets, Little Gidding, T.S. Eliot seeks to invite his readers into a pursuit of meaning analogous to his own. Little Gidding demonstrates a search undertaken partially through the writings of medieval Christian mystic Julian of Norwich. In T. S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life, Lyndall Gordon notes Eliot’s belief in poetic form as a conveyor of meaning (390) and suggests that Julian contributed the “transcendent calm”(391) present in Little Gidding. Eliot values poetic structure and Julian’s tone, but these in isolation do not fully capture the mystic’s influence on Little Gidding. In Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich presents the spiritual journey as one beginning with a divine Call from God. This call elicits trust and love, which expand as one prays and eventually experiences divine revelations. The journey concludes with perfected Love found in God. Writing prior to secular modernity, Julian’s audience already desires this perfect Love and writes to intensify that desire. T.S. Eliot, living in war-torn, post-Enlightenment England, writes to a society which values rationality and sees no perfect Love in the midst of violence and fragmentation. Eliot recognizes that without an intellectual entry, his readers will never be moved to greater desire, prayer, or perfect Love. Therefore, Julian’s text contributes more than tone; Eliot merges her description of the approach to God with a profound intellectual analysis of modern alienation. His poetry thus unites thought and feeling to provoke spiritual desire within a modern secular audience.

The human race–having discovered ways to alter their genes with CRISPr techniques, engineer artificial wombs, and deploy other means to alter the human genome–experiences exponential growth in its venture to change our ways of living. Humans continuously seek to replace nature, or God, by exercising their intellect, seldom reflecting on the implications and consequences of doing so. In Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World, babies are grown in batches, manufactured with a pre-determined purpose. Huxley’s science fiction serves the plot of A Brave New World, driving and flavoring its overarching technocracy of subduing a population through pleasure. With biotechnologies on the rise, Huxley’s fiction becomes increasingly plausible. The precursors of manufacturing humans are here today. CRISPr-CAS9, artificial wombs, and even media manipulation enable human ambitions to control nature itself, and act as the governance of life. Urgently, humans must consider the means and ethics of manufacturing humans. With improving technologies, the manufactured human could be nearly within humanity’s grasp, along with its downfall. A genetic “tragedy of the commons,” as outlined by Garret Hardin in 1968, awaits a human race where effective, safe, and widely available gene editing creates a massive human monoculture that is prone to being wiped out by a single cause.

The growing social concern in the United States about climate change, environmental action, social injustice, and economic inequality have led researchers, producers, politicians, and scientists alike to explore the intersection of technological practices and societal disparities. The Great Plains states occupy a common pool resource (CPR): groundwater. In this region, the Ogallala Aquifer provides groundwater access for most of the population for drinking, industry, and agricultural practices. However, with widespread mechanized agriculture and economically disadvantaged communities, this region currently is experiencing a tragedy of the commons, where the aquifer is depleted faster than it can be replenished. Even with the invention of the Environmental Protection Agency and implementation of various groundwater policies, questions arise about why this depletion still occurs. How does it impact various communities? What should be done to allow for agriculture and other industries to continue a prosperous endeavor? To best address these questions, we look at the historical and scientific mechanisms that contribute to groundwater depletion along with sociological interpretations of convenience and stratification in order to provide scientific, technological, and societal solutions to CPR management.

In Elkhart County, Indiana, the presence of horse and buggy vehicles on public roads poses unique challenges for transportation infrastructure and safety. This research investigates the potential right-of-way impacts due to horse and buggies traversing the road network and analyzes the implications for right-of-way impacts near intersections in light of the enhanced sight distances needed for horses and buggies. Through a comprehensive analysis of transportation data, including traffic patterns and infrastructure requirements, this study quantifies the direct and indirect costs associated with accommodating horses and buggies within the existing road corridor. Additionally, utilizing advanced modeling techniques, the research predicts the potential increase in right-of-way expenses resulting from the need to increase sight distances to accommodate these vehicles safely. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and transportation engineers in Elkhart County, offering a foundation for informed decision-making regarding infrastructure investments and road safety measures tailored to the unique needs of the region.

The object of this study is to compare the capabilities of a relatively low budget drone to the effectiveness of traditional topographic surveying methods when determining the as-built elevations of a detention basin. Topographic surveying is a well established process to determine horizontal distances, directions, angles, and elevations of a site utilizing either total stations or high-accuracy GPS systems. However, as new technology emerges, typical methods of land surveying are being revisited. For example, a drone can easily fly over a site and collect a number of stereo referenced images in a short amount of time. These images can be processed by advanced, commercial software (such as Correlator 3D) to create a 3D surface model of a site. This study aims to determine if a $1000-2000 commercial drone, such as a DJI Air 2S or DJI Air 3, can be used to map drainage basins to the same degree of accuracy as more traditional topographic surveying. If so, site surveying could be streamlined by simply flying a drone over the site for less than half an hour, rather than using traditional methods for multiple hours. In addition, the drone process offers a visual depiction of the site which can easily be shared with clients, cities, and other users.

The analysis of parking lot occupancy – the number of vehicles using a parking lot at a given time – is crucial for traffic management, and urban and campus planning. This study evaluates traditional methods of occupancy data acquisition versus the use of drones and computer image analysis procedures. The traditional method of rout-based data acquisition involves walking or driving through parking lots and manually counting the number of occupied parking spaces. This method leaves some room for error; cars may pull in and out as one walks, and the analyzer may miscount cars. Drone analysis of parking lot occupancy has the potential to improve this process. Drones are quicker and may be more accurate than the manual method. In this study, traditional and drone based occupancy data is acquired, analyzed and compared.

This research focuses on the potential redesign of cloverleaf interchanges to enhance safety and efficiency by the addition of auxiliary lanes connecting exit and entrance ramps throughout the limits of interchanges, replacing the existing, discontinuous, exit, weave and entrance areas. Leveraging VISSIM simulation software, this study evaluates the effectiveness of this design modification in mitigating the hazards associated with merging traffic, particularly at the central weave area of the cloverleaf – a recognized weakness of this type of interchange. By extending a new auxiliary lane on the right side of the through lanes in all directions, throughout the limits of the interchange, the redesign aims to provide a dedicated space for vehicles to transition smoothly into and out of the through lanes of the cloverleaf, particularly in the central weaving zone where the additional, continuous lane will allow exiting and entering vehicles a much greater distance in which to decelerate and exit or accelerate up to mainline speed and merge. Through a comparative analysis of traffic performance metrics, including merging delays, queue lengths, and other safety indicators, the study assesses the impact of the extended right turn lane on overall intersection operations.

This research project builds upon the concepts explored in a previous research project completed last year. This project focuses on pedestrian travel on the Valparaiso University campus, exploring the effect of different types of weather on pedestrian usage of sidewalks.

Pedestrian counters were places in two locations on campus. These locations are the sidewalk that runs along the sorority houses and the main academic sidewalk that runs between Gellerson, the Center of Science, Harre Union, and Urshel to name a few. The trackers were placed for a span of a week for each month in the same two locations listed above. The goal was to determine if there was any change in pedestrian activity on these paths depending on the weather that week.

The data was compiled by hour and day to allow for a better analysis of pedestrian travel behavior. Once the data was complied, the travel amounts were compared to weather to determine how the weather affected the travel in that area. From this data, inferences about the travel volume during the months observed was able to be surmised.

Parking assessments are frequently performed to analyze parking lot usage patterns, including peak utilization periods and overall lot distribution throughout the day. Usually these studies rely on tedious manual labor, requiring researchers to physically go through each parking lot and individually count cars in parking spaces multiple times a day. This puts a limit on how much data can be collected and how many lots can be studied. However, recent advancements in technology, particularly the availability of camera-equipped drones and progress in computer vision and deep learning techniques, have facilitated a transition towards high accuracy, cost-effective, automated approaches. Our study introduces a comprehensive computer vision-based solution developed and evaluated for parking utilization studies on the Valparaiso University campus. Our approach involves programming a drone to follow a designated flight path over campus, capturing photos of each parking lot throughout the day. These images are then input into our system which automatically processes them and counts the number of vehicles in each parking lot designation (staff, commuter, resident, etc). To accomplish this, a Python script pre-processes the image before running a pre-trained deep learning model to find the locations of vehicles in each image. Then, the Python script uses these locations to filter vehicle counting based on parking designation. It then generates reports detailing the occupancy of different sections within each parking lot across various timeframes. The results show that the system was able to successfully report the number of vehicles with a 100% accuracy rate.

The introduction of the camera in the 1830s was the device that allowed one to capture a photograph of objects in space that was on the other side of a lens. We often take it for granted today the interesting history behind the discovery of how light rays interact with each other to form viewable images that paved the way for the handheld camera. The discoveries of light rays as we know today were done through an experiment that was known as “camera obscura.” The experiment allows one to transform a standard room into a camera lens that can display an inverted image onto a screen by allowing light rays from outside of the room to enter through a precise hole. This project hopes to highlight the fascinating history of the camera obscura experiment, the discoveries of the physics behind how light rays interact with each other and objects in space, as well as the significance of these discoveries in inventing the modern camera we know today. For this project, the computer lab and seminar room in Schnabel Hall will be used. In order to conduct this project, we will be covering up the windows with lightproof Visqueen to ensure no other light illuminates, and making a precise hole in the Visqueen at a location that is approximately center with the projector screen across the room. We will then record our findings using a modern-day digital camera to capture what is seen on the projector screen at least 3 times every week for a period of two weeks.

In Plain Sight: A Curated Art Walk

This presentation will describe a curated art walk on the Valparaiso University campus which features the work of four senior art majors (Maiah Deogracias, Emily Graves, Zion Gifford, and Ashley Vernon). The exhibition is available to the public April 13 – May 11, 2024, and spans five campus locations including Loke Hall, Mueller Hall, the Christopher Center Library, Harre Union, and the Brauer Museum of Art. The art walk was created to highlight the importance of art, particularly student art, on a university’s campus. Despite unhindered access, many public artworks remain “hidden in plain sight”. Casual visitors might not appreciate the significance of specific pieces or recognize the role they play in conveying a given message. Thus, the narrative of the walk serves to reveal and celebrate the integral role that artwork plays in shaping the visitor’s experience. As their steps are guided by a recorded narrative, visitors will discover the implicit messages, both personal and universal, underlying individual pieces. The grand finale, located in the Brauer Museum of Art, invites visitors to view the artists’ final undergraduate creations. Thus, at the end of the walk, each displayed piece represents the culmination of the student artists’ personal journey.

Marie de France’s 12th century poem Bisclavret tells the story of a werewolf trapped in lupine form, maliciously kept from the one thing that can turn him human again. Drawing upon academic analysis of the poem’s queer desire, the historical artform of illuminated manuscript, and the artist’s experiences as a transgender man, WOLF-SICK is a prose adaptation of Bisclavret (as translated by Glyn S. Burgess & Keith Busby [1999] and David R. Slavitt [2019]) accompanied by original illustrations. WOLF-SICK is presented in metallic silver ink on dyed black plastic vellum. Utilizing the bespoke nature of calligraphy and handsewn bookbinding with the mass-productive potential of block-printed illustration, WOLF-SICK combines the natural with the synthetic and the antiquated with the modern to reclaim a historical queer narrative and retell Marie de France’s story for a new audience.

“Infinitely Liminal Spaces” is a sculptural art installation of three dioramas containing 3D-printed sculptures and LED lighting within cubes constructed of acrylic and two-way mirrors simulating an other-worldly space of optical illusions. It is a manifestation of what can be created when applying creative approaches to technological machinery housed within the Sirko Makerspace, including the 3D Dremel Digilab printer and Glowforge laser cutter. Liminal spaces are unpopulated, transitory environments, and therefore associated with feelings of unsettledness. Infinity spaces carry connotations of possibility, imagination, and beyondness. While these two terms seem to contradict each other, these concepts go hand in hand when one is facing a period of transition in life. Not knowing exactly what lies beyond is unnerving, but thrilling knowing the possibilities ahead are seemingly endless. The titles of each diorama are “The Apartment,” “The Staircase,” and “The City.” Each of the three cubes is titled in accordance with the different themes it encompasses, each representing a different form of transitory space. Another additional feature that adds to the unsettling quality of these works, is the extreme variations in scale. Each piece has a drastically different perspective. This three-dimensional series allows spectators to glimpse into a portal-like space that they can view from all sides because of the cubes’ transparent, acrylic walls. The dioramas’ appearances are ever-evolving as viewers move closer and further from and walk around them. Different angles of observation offer new ways of seeing these reflections and illusions.

Garage Sale Today is a series of sculptural oil paintings made with found objects. Every spring, tables filled with children’s books and old holiday decorations begin to line home driveways. New beginnings mean letting go of past pieces of ourselves. My paintings are inspired by trompe l’oeil, literally “fools the eye,” an optical illusion that tricks viewers into being unable to perceive painting from reality. By breaking down the distinction between real and not, my work puts the viewer in the position of a buyer trying to find meaning and value in what I’ve left behind.

Valparaiso University is a place of diversity, of differing perspectives on the world at large. Every student approaches Valparaiso with a unique lens with which they view the world. We students in the Communications department know that more than anyone, with all of our colleagues having very different approaches to photographing the world. The sensibilities that we possess in photography are influenced by the physical camera lenses, which separate our approaches to how images are taken. For this project, we wish to eliminate the differences in our art that come as a result of the physical lens by removing it entirely. By replacing our lenses with pinholes, we help to equalize our various cameras to help to illustrate that unique lens that is our own photographic sensibilities.

For this project, we have six photographers who all have very different styles, but who will all take pictures with their pinhole lenses. Everyone will choose an area around Valparaiso campus to capture, and extensively document it in their photos. We will deliberate and choose the best photos of each photographer to include in our SOURCE presentation, with everyone contributing at least one.

This winter, Sarah Jantzi’s Colors class was approached with a project. The Office of Multicultural Programs (OMP) commissioned a mural for the entrance of Loke Hall to represent the diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Valpo community. A survey was sent to the Loke Community asking about what values, ideas, elements, artist inspirations, etc. they wanted to see incorporated into the mural design. Over the course of the semester, students have worked to bring those ideas to life through mood boards, color studies, sketches, and designs. Presentations of final designs were presented to representatives from OMP, and they decided to combine three of the designs into one design for the wall. The design features a large tree with a heart at the center representing life and interconnectedness. The tree is surrounded by colorful birds and butterflies with designs representing the different groups that compose the Loke Community. The Colors class has spent time working on the mural during class by mixing paints and painting the main components. It will then be completed with individualized mosaics designed by over 60 members of the Valpo Community.

Grief is a feeling that is often associated with humans and animals. According to the American Psychological Association, grief is “the anguish experienced after significant loss, usually the death of a beloved person.” But grief may also take the form of the inanimate; When we look at a dead tree, we think of its fallen leaves. Or a crumbling family owned restaurant–we recall its glory days of two-dollar burgers. Loss can be felt, not only inside us, but in the world around us. By photographing various landscapes of Northwest Indiana, our project aims to capture grief in nature as well as the man-made.

On April 8, 2024 a total solar eclipse passed through a large swath of land in the United States, blanketing millions of people in darkness in the middle of the day. Valparaiso experienced a partial eclipse with 96% of the sun being covered by the moon during the celestial event. My fascination with the event led me to buy the necessary solar filter which would allow me to safely photograph the eclipse as it happened. The filter was used in conjunction with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens which was paired with a 2x range extender before being mounted onto a Canon R6 Mark II camera body. This setup was then mounted onto a standard video tripod which allowed me to regularly adjust the angle which allowed me to keep the sun at the center of the frame. A photo was then taken every 30 seconds which would allow me enough time between shots to adjust the angle of the tripod as well as give me enough shots to compile a compelling timelapse. The hardest work came during post production work where — due to the nature of the tripod setup — it was necessary to stabilize the frames for position and rotation to keep the final timelapse from being overly jittery. The result is a 20 second long timelapse showing the full progression of the partial solar eclipse.

Engineering students are expected to submit their assignments in a specific paper format. Methods that attempt to address this (such as Camscanner and similar applications) are known to produce issues with quality and legibility. This project aims to create a system that streamlines the document submission process for students. The new tool will allow students to scan their documents and have them sent directly to their email accounts by providing their University ID cards for identification.

The project involved an iterative, agile software/system development method, and specialized software selections including Python and Xsane running on Raspberry Pi hardware. The program XSane interprets image inputs from a commercial document scanner to produce legible and portable PDF documents. A Python script receives the data from XSane to automate the process of delivering the document to the student via account lookup based on their University identification card. Producing a reliable system that can withstand heavy usage was of utmost importance throughout development. This initial prototype serves as a proof of concept for a system that can be replicated and deployed throughout the College of Engineering.

This research attempts to create poetic texts in the Shakespearean style. Many available technologies can create artworks based on styles of well-known artists. However, it is difficult for the generative models to create texts within the style of a particular author. This study aims to produce sentences in a style of Shakespeare that contain metaphorical meanings without quoting his works. We have trained statistical n-gram models on the complete works of Shakespeare and then used the model to create Shakespearean text. We noticed that, in some cases, the n-gram models will construct sentences that are copied from Shakespeare’s works. We then trained a neural-AI Word2Vec model word embedding to “paraphrase” words with others that have similar semantics (and thus preventing plagiarism). The initial results include some adequate sentences and some with semantic errors. There are also many ungrammatical utterances. We are focusing on substituting words with correct part-of-speech and screening out ungrammatical results. We also incorporated the Glove embedding model, which is trained on a large corpus of modern texts, to add modern words and themes into the Shakespeare-styled generated results. This research will give insights on how the models can generate texts that are more artistic.

Reducing CO2 emissions is currently one of the most pressing challenges in the effort to prevent climate change. In the United States, transportation accounts for 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions, meaning that decreasing CO2 emissions from automobiles should be a priority. In this analysis, I examine the factors that influence traffic CO2 emissions using a traffic model built in NetLogo, an agent-based modeling language. Although other studies have sought to understand the factors that influence traffic emissions, most have done so using observational methods. Although there are certain benefits to these observational studies, my traffic model is advantageous because it allows for direct manipulation of variables of interest. My analysis finds that the most important contributor to traffic CO2 emissions is the speed limit. According to my model, CO2 emissions could be reduced by 16.7% by decreasing the speed limit from 120 to 80 kph. Obviously, there are plenty of situations where this is not feasible, but my analysis shows that even slight decreases in high speed limits can lead to significant decreases in emissions. Additionally, my model finds that increasing the number of lanes from one to two decreases CO2 emissions by 2.8% on average. When traffic density was high, adding a second lane reduced CO2 emissions by 6.5%. These takeaways are corroborated by other research, meaning that this model stands as an effective tool to better understand traffic patterns and their effects on CO2 emissions.

The Harre Union at Valparaiso University currently has a vintage photo booth that is run by a Windows Desktop and AutoIt. This has led to issues with reliability and maintainability. To remedy this, the university’s engineering department has requested an overhaul of the toolchain. For this overhaul, the team chose to implement a Raspberry Pi 5 programmed via Python. The Raspberry Pi 5 was chosen because it offers great performance and a simple way to program and assemble an embedded system with complex functionality – all on a 3×2 inch board. Python was used due to its integration with the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO. Within the photo booth’s software, many libraries are utilized. OpenCV is used to get input from the camera and display it on the screen along with other GUI elements such as text. Everything that is shown to the user is generated using the powerful tools in the OpenCV library. The pictures stored are tied to a key that the user can enter into a form along with their email to receive their pictures. The minimization of the system has decreased the points of failure and vastly improved the performance, reliability, and maintainability relative to the previous system.

In collaboration with a local church, this project hopes to streamline the process of presenting lyrics during church services by developing an automated system that synchronizes with Renewed Vision’s Propresenter live production software suite. Traditional methods of advancing lyric slides often rely on manual cues or predetermined timing, resulting in occasional delays or mismatches with live performances and a dedicated operator. To address this challenge, our system takes microphone input from singers, employing a speech-to-text program to accurately interpret vocal cues. This feature is particularly crucial as the song order may be changed during the service, preventing smooth loading and necessitating a system that can adapt dynamically. Through real-time processing, the system automatically advances lyric slides on Propresenter, ensuring seamless synchronization with the musicians. Our system hosts the lyric slides and the script to allow ease of the synchronization and full control of what is being displayed. By leveraging technology to streamline this aspect of church services, our project contributes to the modernization and efficiency of worship practices, ultimately fostering a more engaging and harmonious worship experience for both online and in-person congregants.

This project created a digital version of a table-top RPG module, “Can’t Hornswoggle an Old Salt,” developed by the Valparaiso University course English 280, that provides a single player, virtual environment in a two-dimensional grid. The project was developed in Unity to leverage a rich and robust user community, well documented reusable libraries, and a development environment that allows for easy expansion. An agile development style was used for the development effort, allowing more rapid collection of feedback and ensuring closer customer interaction. This higher level of interaction than usual led to the choice of a two week sprint period, enabling faster customer validation of technical choices. The implemented ecosystem, which includes a wide array of user collected virtual items, influences user outcomes and possible narrative flow via varied situation handling. This complexity, which enriches the experience, created several points of complexity that had to be overcome. Other challenges included the significant knowledge gap created by the need to master the highly sophisticated Unity toolchain, which tracked with the experiences of similar projects. While an expansive array of packages for the project was available, asset acquisition as an institutional purchaser also proved complex.

Parallel and distributed computing (PDC) and high performance computing (HPC) tools and techniques are becoming increasingly common and even necessary in many disciplines, particularly as large data sets and high computational loads become commonly encountered challenges. Experimentation in this space is somewhat constrained by the cost and availability of the assets that handle even small and midsize tasks in this space; initial tests and bench-marking may be the only chance to put systems through their paces. Therefore, it has become important to provide information on optimizing these smaller but still impactful systems. This requires experiments focused on delivering more capability with commodity options and configurations.

A series of HPC tools were identified for testing against commonly used benchmarks that use parallelization techniques such as MPI and OpenMP. For the selection of each benchmark, networking speed was considered above CPU power as this may be a road to increased performance at minimal additional cost. The configuration used for this experiment consists of a computing cluster with three AMD Ryzen 9 5950 CPUs and one AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, all readily available. Variations in performance were investigated using the selected benchmarks: specific tests were done with both homogeneous and heterogeneous CPU configurations, as well bonded and unique-IP configurations for 10GbE network adapters.

Precision timekeeping is critical in both the sciences and in the operation of large complex computer installations, impacting tasks ranging from distributed database synchronization to cryptography. It also impacts domains like satellite communication and high-volume financial transactions. The accuracy of time is measured not only in the units of time the clock is capable of but also in how far the clock will drift, relative to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) over a period of time. Most commodity modern computers have clocks that drift a few milliseconds each day, which creates issues across a variety of time-sensitive applications. This project aims to create and deploy a stratum-1 clock capable of providing highly accurate time data over the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). A core component of a stratum-1 device is a connection to a reliable source of UTC via a stratum-0 device, which is most readily obtained via GPS satellites. The team utilized an L1/L2 GPS receiver to acquire an accurate time source, used to synchronize with a local digitally controlled oven-controlled crystal oscillator (DCOXCO) which provides a high precision tick based on a hyper accurate quartz vibration. This near-atomic-clock grade device with locally developed custom housing, once deployed and verified, will provide the opportunity to pursue a variety of advanced questions in multiple disciplines.

The IT Service Desk is a simulation model of agent and customer interaction for resolving Information Technology related problems. This model is designed for the purpose of predicting the future service requests for a certain number of years by using historic data of it and optimizing the resolution time to resolve each ‘problem’ or ‘request’.

This system is an agent-based modeling. It contains the entities of representatives, customers, and patch (like an office’s service desk). It has global variables and can be accessed anywhere in the system. The breeds of this system are agents and users. Each breed and other entities have their own variables that can be accessed with the breed or entity’s plural input-value anywhere in the system. It has two buttons that one is to set up the system like initializing variables and creating turtles and the other is to run the system to execute the functions. The objective of the system is achieved by performing various functions in a certain order of execution. The results of required metrics are plotted in the form of graph, so it is easy to understand and observe the required outputs and unexpected outcomes. The results are stored into an excel sheet file and collected data can be used for predicting future service request dynamics and various other dynamics of system for optimization of it. This system can be further expanded to automated operations like chat bots for optimization.

Finally, this system is evaluated with various input variables in different scenarios or methods to observe the dynamics of different future service request volumes, average resolution times, and total resolution times. This system can be interesting when working with different variables values on the interface like playing a video game.

This project is the development of a proof of concept virtual turn-based experience based upon the written narrative and gameplay features of the game developed in Valparaiso University’s ENGL 280: Writing RPGs (Role Playing Games) course. The original game featured teams of players making their way through the narrative and world with a combination of dice-rolling and their own intuition. The goal was to convert an existing table-top experience into a digital format. Unity was used to create the product as its engine was readily available, well documented, and provided an extensive library of reusable assets that made development more efficient. This allowed the adoption of the agile style of development as that provided greater flexibility to the team and the customer. Challenges included an atypical visual environment and the interaction systems. The turn-based aspects proved to be quite complex to design and the decision to use almost 2.5 dimensional art style also increased complexity. The unfamiliarity with Unity despite its extensive documentation added another factor to development and its tools were able to create a solid development structure that allowed us to create new assets, enemies and gameplay rather quickly which was instrumental in meeting customer demands in our agile development environment. Though this prototype for evaluation does not represent the full complexities of the given narrative, it is playable and immerses users in the world of Apocalyptic Aversion.

This project is the adaptation of a tabletop role-playing experience into an interactive computer program, with an emphasis on effective storytelling, world-building, combat, and player choice. The story provided by the customer, “The Bane of the Ancients”, was initially designed within the Dungeon Crawl Classics framework. Translation of this design into a digital format required many creative and technical additions to the original concept, including sound and art design, music composition, world building and structuring, and development of interaction mechanics and physics. The digital experience was built on top of the Godot engine for its ease of adoption in regards with the chosen style. The software utilizes a top-down art style to convey storytelling and interactive elements. The development of the software followed an agile development cycle with two-week sprints to allow for flexibility and efficiency while working closely with the customer. The scope of our prototype was limited to the first act of the written story so that sufficient time and resources can be devoted to implementing all requested features.

As the world becomes a more nomadic place, immigration to new economies is becoming more and more common. This project uses a household survey of Ukrainian refugees throughout Europe to identify the important components of economic integration. The main variable of interest was language and how well the household knew the language of their host country. To test the impact of this on economic integration, salary is used as the dependent variable along with a variety of other common indicators as the independent variables. The higher the salary, the better the economic integration. This will help to indicate how important language learning and language resources are to immigrants as they arrive in new areas so that available resources can be effectively allocated.

For this symposium project, my job was to research how to create a culturally inclusive text set for an elementary classroom. There are many different elements that a teacher should look for when selecting literature. These include having a diverse set of characters, authors, and an meaningful message behind the text. For my data analysis, I am making sure to select texts that hit these main elements as well as meet state standards. This is an important topic, because as educators we want to foster a welcoming classroom environment where all students can thrive. Before choosing texts, the teacher needs to develop a good understanding of the dynamics and background of the classroom. From there, the teacher can create a text set that is representative of their students. My findings after doing research, is that there are many children’s literature books that allow children to have a new perspective of the world around them. As a future educator, it is my job that my students develop important life skills of self-awareness and empathy. This can be achieved through the literature selected for class.

I conducted research in a first grade classroom at Lake Hills Elementary School in Michigan City, Indiana. The purpose of my research was to answer the question of how social-emotional learning (SEL) impacts the wellbeing and behavior of students in regards to being implemented in the classroom. I found this to be particularly significant to Lake Hills Elementary School based on the backgrounds of my students; most of which stemmed from low-income and/or low support households. I hypothesized that by implementing a stronger SEL presence in the first grade classroom that I have been completing my student teaching in, there would be a smaller frequency of poor behaviors and choices being made throughout the school day. According to research that I completed prior to implementing this hypothesis into my classroom, I found information regarding the impact of SEL instruction on students who are identified as a minority race or low socioeconomic status. Additionally, I conducted research on how SEL instruction assists with developing character among students. The results that I documented were all positive, which gave me hope with my own research. I collected data from mid-February through March in order to see the effect of the SEL instruction that I included in the classroom. Most data was monitored based on student behavior. I took this data directly from the behavior-tracking methods that my students could use to monitor themselves through charts. The results from my research yielded an overall positive impact of SEL on my students.

Often educational value is placed on test scoring and students’ assessment results, rather, students should be exploring the community and establishing a purpose. The benefit of the students is the prime object of education. Community involvement has made a significant impact on students in several studies. Darmawan et al. argue specifically after Covid, that students had a gap in the development of student behavior. In this review, it will be discussed how community groups are benefiting schools and teachers to enhance the learning experience for students. Students who receive education from community organizations and groups gain a greater perspective on their education and learning experience.

The objective of this project is to provide beginner-friendly radio astronomy equipment to the Valparaiso University Physics and Astronomy Department. This equipment can be used to teach students and the community about the field of radio astronomy through lab activities such as hydrogen line observations. The Milky Way Galaxy is made primarily of hydrogen. The hydrogen line is the frequency of electromagnetic energy that hydrogen emits when its electrons change state. A horn antenna that is designed for this frequency can detect the strength of the hydrogen line in any direction it is pointed. The shape of the horn antenna also showcases properties such as wavelength, electromagnetic resonance, waveguides, and impedance matching in an approachable way to beginners. In addition, it can be constructed using lightweight, easily obtainable materials that students could replicate. Along with the horn and probe itself, a program called GNU-radio was chosen as the receiver because of the ability to process the data using graphical blocks. These blocks are helpful for explaining the functions of the receiver to novice users. After construction, the antenna was tuned to the hydrogen line frequency of 1420 MHz. Using this set-up, documentation and lab manuals were created as student resources. These activities and information are readily available to the Valparaiso University community.

This student-led project aims to construct a prototype PocketQube satellite. These satellites are designed to be very small, in units of five cubic centimeters. The team will use the QUBIK PocketQube design by Libre Space Foundation to gain experience working with small spacecraft, mission planning, and payload consideration.

Gabrielle Zevin says her novel Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, published in 2022, is about art, love, video games and time. The games that the main characters Sam and Sadie create reflect outstanding artistry, but they also capture their loving relationship, as it evolves, changes, bruises, and at times, scars. In spite of the challenges in their relationship, intertextual literary motifs and imagery from the epic novel The Odyssey and the Blaschka glass models housed in The Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, illuminate their love. The Blaschka exhibit is also the gateway to Sam and Sadie’s journey as game designers, whose artful creations epitomize their evolving love; the artistry of the glass models and their uncanny resemblance to real flowers and fruit, however, are also a tribute to the art and beauty of imperfection. Scars become a symbol of identity for Odysseus at the end of The Odyssey, since they persist despite the bruising from his lived experiences and like these scars, Sam and Sadie’s artful games also persist as reflections of their evolving relationship. In spite of the novel’s immediate success and literary richness, its recent publication date means that there is little published scholarship on Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. My essay Tomorrow’s Odyssey: Love, Scars, and Change published on the multimodal interface Scalar, contributes to this scholarship and will also serve as the basis for this presentation.

Plastics are synthetic polymers currently present in nearly every aspect of life. From bottles, foam packaging, and food containers to clothes, electronics, medical equipment, and more, plastic usage has become commonplace. Plastics are widespread, lasting pollutants in all ecosystems. Nanoplastics, defined as plastic pieces less than a micrometer in diameter, are readily formed from the fragmentation of larger plastic pieces. Nanoplastics formed or present in water were studied to determine sources, sizes and quantities as well as interactions with other substances. Polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microplastics were mixed with pure water and a liquid organic compound to create nanoplastics. Mixtures were shaken, subjected to further ultrasound mixing, and the suspensions were extracted with diisopropyl ether to remove the liquid organic. Quantification of extraction efficiency was attempted with GC-MS, massing after evaporation, and fluorescent dye and fluorescent detection. In addition, nanoplastics mixtures were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and microscopy before and after extractions. We determined that pure laboratory water contains nanoplastic particles, that mixing of PE microplastics in water creates nanoplastics, and that a variety of liquid organic compounds function as solubilizers, significantly accelerating nanoplastics formation. We also found that nanoplastic particles exhibit different Raman spectra under certain conditions, suggesting interactions between nanoplastics and solubilizer molecules.

Managing stress is a common problem for college students. This study aimed to examine if there was any correlation between college students’ workout times and stress levels. Location and type of exercise was also examined. Full-time Valparaiso University students were sent a questionnaire, which included the Cohen stress test and questions about their physical activity habits. These included minutes per week they were in a gym working out, if the gym was on or off campus, and if the exercise was cardio or strength based. Each student was only given one attempt, so no repeat submissions were collected. Data collection is in progress as of March 28, 2024, and the cutoff date is April 9, 2024. Stress scores will be calculated by the researcher and correlation tests will be run. At the symposium, data will be presented primarily in graph form for easy viewing.

This study investigates the effects of different arm swing methods on running efficiency among female participants aged 19-22. Conducted at the Valparaiso University indoor track facility in late March, the study involved six volunteers who underwent a series of trials: bilateral swing, unilateral arm swing, and zero-arm swing. Minimal instrumentation, including elastic bandages, stopwatches, a blood pressure cuff, and a recording device, was utilized for data collection. Participants engaged in a 10-minute warm-up session before participation in the 3 research trials. There was a 15-minute rest period between each trial. Each trial involved a 30-meter sprint with varied arm swing techniques, with time recordings, step count, and digital recordings saved for analysis. Post-data collection, gait cycle analysis focusing on step length and lateral balance was conducted. The results of this research are pending further analysis.

Caffeine is a common supplement used by athletes to aid and enhance their competition performance in a number of different ways. Improved physical performance, perceived exertion, information processing, and increased muscle fiber contractility are just a few of the ways that caffeine can give athletes an edge over their competition. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that caffeine has on college-aged anaerobic track and field athletes’ performance on a wingate test as well as changes in blood lactate. The study included 8 participants, split evenly with men and women. One female participant was unable to complete the testing due to an unrelated injury, leaving 4 male and 3 female participants remaining. Among these 7 participants, 4 of them did not consume caffeine on a regular basis, and 3 of them considered themselves habitual caffeine users. There were two testing days, and participants were randomly assigned a caffeine supplement or a placebo, dosed 3 mg per 1 kg of body mass. After 30 minutes had passed from the time of ingestion, they completed a wingate test, and multiple lactate values were also recorded. Lactate values were taken prior to the start of the wingate test, 30 seconds post-completion, and then again 3 minutes after. Results have not yet been analyzed and conclusions have not yet been drawn.

In the realm of exercise, isometric and dynamic resistance training are some of the most commonly used methods of developing strength and muscular hypertrophy. This study aimed to determine which training method resulted in greater improvements in grip strength. Participants’ initial dominant hand grip strength was recorded on a hand grip dynamometer. Participants then completed four weeks of training, half participating in the isometric group, and the others in the dynamic group. Each exercise (3 each) was carried out three times a week for three sets of ten repetitions. At the end of the four weeks, participants’ dominant hand grip strength was evaluated again through a hand grip dynamometer. The results were then run through a repeated measures ANOVA to evaluate the mean difference between the two groups pre- and post-data values. These values were then compared to determine a conclusion on which method of exercise–isometric or dynamic–resulted in the greatest improvements in grip strength.

This project analyzed soil parameters from multiple locations owned by the Shirley Heinze Land Trust in Porter County, Indiana, some of which are being ecologically restored or have been restored in the past. The samples were collected from prairie, forested wetland, riverine wetland/floodplain ecological areas, and current agricultural areas to be restored to each of those same environmental types. To measure the effectiveness of the rehabilitation mentioned above, this project compared bulk density, soil chemistry, organic matter, aggregate stability, and particle size analysis from the agricultural area to those from restored and natural settings. This allowed the estimation of targets and a baseline to assess the effectiveness of future rehabilitation projects. The results helped us to learn more about restoration projects on plots of land that have been used for agriculture for an extended period of time and can help other environmental projects find effective ways of rehabilitating formerly cultivated land.

The Civil War was the first time that we saw canned food being used on a large scale. Canned food was used to preserve the soldiers’ food and cut off problems of starvation that were faced in the American Revolutionary War. The process of canning food involved first hermetically sealing the food and then applying heat to kill off any microorganisms. The seal prevented anything from entering and contaminating the food. While soldiers had access to food during the Civil War so that they would not die from starvation, it did not solve another problem. The soldiers were able to meet their caloric intake that they needed to march and fight, but they were dealing with vitamin deficiencies of Vitamin B and Vitamin C. Vitamin C deficiencies caused the soldiers to deal with diarrhea or scurvy. Vitamin B deficiencies can cause anemia, beriberi, and pellagra. Of the deaths during the Civil War, around sixty percent died from disease. Pneumonia, Malaria, diarrhea, and typhoid fever were among the major causes. Soldiers were not dying from starvation, but canned food may have also played a role in the death of many soldiers.

This proposed study aims to explore the impact of diversity on organizational leadership, with a particular focus on gendered experiences. Despite the global acknowledgment that diversity enhances organizational performance, leadership paradigms have historically been shaped by attributes predominantly exhibited by men. This research seeks to examine how different strengths, as identified by the StrengthsFinder assessment, influence leadership experiences and perceptions among male and female students in leadership roles. Specifically, the study will explore (1) the impact of StrengthsFinder results on students’ leadership practices, (2) the perceived barriers and facilitators to leadership roles and how these may differ by gender, and (3) the relationship between StrengthsFinder results and the recognition of leadership effectiveness from peers’ perspectives.

Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, this study will collect qualitative data from students with leadership positions and their peers. This data will provide insights into how individual strengths influence leadership practices and the perception of leadership effectiveness. Through thematic analysis, the research aims to uncover patterns and themes that illustrate ways in which gender and identified strengths contribute to leadership experiences. This study not only seeks to contribute to the understanding of how gender and strengths impact leadership but also to inform practices that foster more inclusive and effective leadership in organizations.

Crash injuries are estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death globally for all age groups and the leading cause of death for children and young people 5–29 years of age. More people now die in crashes than from HIV/AIDS. For my research Project I analyzed Car Accidents in Chicago from 2018 to 2024.

This research project delves into the forecasting of car accidents within the Chicago metropolitan area, spanning from 2018 to 2024. The study’s overarching objective is twofold: firstly, to evaluate various forecasting techniques to predict the incidence of car accidents accurately, thereby enabling preemptive safety measures. Secondly, the project aims to conduct a survival analysis on the incidents recorded, assessing the determinants of severity and outcomes post-crash.

One important question in sports is whether it is possible to predict a player’s professional performance based on their collegiate or amateur success. This question has relevance for coaches, fans, and the players themselves. Many studies have examined the relationship between amateur and professional performance in sports such as football and basketball, but no such studies have been conducted in golf. In this study, we combine data from three prominent amateur, collegiate, and professional golf ranking websites in order to predict golfers’ professional success based on their performance as an amateur and collegiate player. The data for the analysis was collected using web scraping, including the Selenium package in Python. Once the data was collected, regression analysis was used to predict players’ professional rankings at various time increments after turning professional based on their amateur and collegiate rankings. Additionally, logistic regression was used to predict whether or not a player reaches certain ranking milestones. The results of this study will be valuable for golf fans and aspiring professionals, as well as the academic community. Many golfers are curious about their chances of success if they were to turn professional, and fans are interested in this as well. Additionally, this analysis adds onto existing literature that compares professional and amateur success by exploring a sport that has not been examined before.

Since it began in February 2022, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has dragged on for almost two years without a clear conclusion. We see a lesser probability of any party winning over the other by war. Finding a resolution to the Ukrainian-Russian war is an international problem. Emissaries from numerous nations and organizations have discussed various resolutions with each of the two countries and a major international peace conference was hosted by Saudi Arabia in 2023. In this paper, we use the Nash Arbitration Method (Nash 1950) to model what an imposed (arbitrated) settlement might look like.

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a neglected tropical mosquito-borne disease caused by the transmission of parasitic nematodes that nest in the lymphatic system. This causes severe symptoms like lymphedema, and can have socioeconomic effects for the individuals and geographical areas affected. Because of limited drug access to adult worms residing within lymphatic vessels, treatment options for LF are currently limited. Liposomal drug delivery systems show great potential in this field because of their biocompatibility, payload flexibility, and targeting ability. The goal of this research is thus to synthesize a panel of liposomes over a broad size range which will be used to investigate the impact of liposome properties on lymphatic uptake of orally administered LF drugs. Liposomes were composed of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol and were synthesized using the thin-film hydration method. Liposome diameter was characterized using a Horiba LA960 particle size analyzer. Control of product size was tested by varying synthesis conditions like the molar ratio of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol and resuspension concentration. The impact of processing methods like bath sonication and filtering with 1 micron and 0.22 micron hydrophilic filters were also assessed. This project improves our understanding of how synthesis conditions impact liposome characteristics, enabling future testing of the impact of these characteristics on drug access to the lymphatic system.

Iterative design involves developing a solution, analyzing that solution, and then repeating the process until a final design is achieved. This process can become tedious, hindering innovation. One of the main tools used by engineers is computer aided design (CAD), creation of three-dimensional models, and finite element analysis (FEA), a methodology to perform various engineering analyses on three-dimensional models. Most CAD and FEA software allow for part generation and analyses to be developed programmatically, allowing the iterative design process to be streamlined. However, there is little documentation on how to accomplish this, and the tools to make engineer’s lives easier can be difficulty to use. This work aims to develop a methodology to easily create code to automate the CAD and FEA tasks within the SolidWorks environment. To accomplish this the SolidWorks Application Programming Interface is used. The user can enable macro recording and perform the CAD and execute the FEA procedures for an initial design. From here, our methodology highlights how to modify the recorded macro to allow for easy iterative design. This will reduce the time spent on manual remodeling and reanalysis. In the future, we plan on developing tutorials and workflows for all engineers to be able to use this methodology with engineering design optimization tools to be able to improve their workflow.

Decarbonizing process heat in the industrial and building sectors is the next frontier in the energy transition. With over 50% of industrial processes requiring process heat at temperatures below 300?, parabolic trough concentrating solar collectors and other moderately concentrating solar systems hold out promise as technology to usher in a transition away from fossil-based heat sources. Prior studies consider two plant designs, one with a fixed size of the solar field without thermal energy storage and one with a larger solar field size with thermal energy storage fixed in size. In the present work, we demonstrate how to extend prior techno-economic modeling of solar industrial process heat to incorporate optimization of the plant design for the competing objectives of minimum levelized cost of heat and the number of hours in a year the plant is able to provide the process heat demain considering several design parameters, including the size of the solar field and the size of the thermal energy storage system. A multi-objective Bayesian optimization (MOBO) algorithm is employed in conjunction with the System Advisor Model (SAM) parabolic trough collector plant model to guide the selection of design parameters towards those that lead to Pareto solutions, solutions for which the annual operational hours cannot be increase by changing the design parameters without also increasing the levelized cost of the process heat.

Additive manufacturing (AM) can be a highly effective process in various industries. It is a process for creating highly specialized, light-weight parts. AM parts created using fused deposition modeling (FDM) are generally not created as solid parts. Instead, the insides of the parts are filled using a sparse printing pattern to generate what is called infill. There are various standard infills that are available to FDM, with each one yielding varying mechanical properties with a wide variety of non-extrusion jumps. Each of these non-extrusion jumps adds in additional printing time, slowing down the entire process. We are looking to develop a differential growth algorithm to create infills for any type of part that optimizes material properties with zero non-extrusion jumps. The algorithm starts with a specified number of nodes on a line that then enact forces on each other, causing that line to grow and fill a non-uniform space. The forces are modeled after the Lennard-Jones energy equation for atoms, and the points slowly fill the space using Newton’s second law. Using this, the toolpath is of one, continuous line for the extruder to follow. With this algorithm, the variation of just the forces can adjust the percentage infill. It also means that different nodes could experience different amounts of force, and we would have the ability to create an adaptive infill to prioritize critical areas of our part. The proposed differential growth toolpath could decrease print time and allow for greater control of mechanical properties in AM.

Lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic infection prevalent in many tropical countries, poses a significant challenge to treat due to parasite residence within the lymphatic system. Many lymphatic filariasis drugs are small molecules, and inadvertently target the bloodstream rather than the lymphatic system where the parasite lives. Liposomes have emerged as a promising avenue for drug transportation, offering the potential for improved lymphatic uptake and multidrug loading. This requires orally administered liposomes to be stable throughout the digestive system until they reach the small intestine, where they will be absorbed by lacteals and access the lymphatic system. Successful delivery to the small intestine requires the structural integrity of the liposomes to prevent early drug release into the digestive system. The objective of this project was to create a realistic in vitro model of the gastric and intestinal digestive systems to test the size and stability of the phosphatidylcholine liposomes in each environment. This information can then be applied to modify the contents of the liposomal bilayer to alter the rigidity and stability of the liposome. Findings will guide improvements to the liposome structure for better stability, aiding targeted drug delivery to the lymphatic system.

Multi-objective optimization is a type of decision-making algorithm that recommends the ideal input parameters to optimize multiple output objectives congruently. These algorithms input existing parameter samples and their corresponding objective solutions to predict possible unknown combinations of parameter values that lie on the Pareto front, a non-dominated front of optimal solutions. Optimization is valuable to many disciplines, but particularly impacts engineering design considerations. However, current multi-objective optimization algorithms require intimate knowledge of programming and of the algorithm itself in order to use. This hinders the ability of engineers from all disciplines to use multi-objective optimization in their design process. To make this tool more accessible, a graphical user interface (GUI) was created that allows engineers to input their existing samples and solutions, and select an optimization function to recommend new parameter values that are most likely to be optimal. The GUI is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, allowing people with a wide variety of expertise to use this program. It also allows users to customize the parameter boundaries, output batch size, objective minimization and maximization, and allows for different ways to import and enter data. This interface is a convenient powerful tool enabling many more engineers to take advantage of the power of multi-objective optimization.

Heat pipes were evaluated as an approach to distribute concentrated solar process heat in a solar receiver application. The ability of a plain 304 stainless steel (304SS) plate to absorb and distribute concentrated solar thermal irradiation was compared to a thermally enhanced board, outfitted with constant conductance sodium heat pies (CCHP TEB). Temperatures on the 304SS and CCHP TEB were measured using thermocouples and corroborated using an infrared camera. The 304SS plate was found to have a temperature range from 423? from minimum to peak, compared to a temperature range of 185? for the CCHP TEB. The result confirmed the enhanced capacity of the board enhanced by sodium heat pipes to convey heat across the entire plate relative to the plain plate, which had drastic hot and cold spots. Further, the power input of the solar furnace was calculated using a calorimeter and measured heat fluxes. The required solar power to reach a maximum temperature of 719? was 0.93 kW for the 304SS, while 1.57 kW was required for the CCHP TEB to reach a comparable maximum temperature. The broader impacts of this technology are two-fold. First, it can enable higher thermal efficiency in solar-electric power plants by facilitating higher solar receiver temperatures. Second, improved efficiency reduces both the land area and cost required to support the U.S. and greater global electricity demand.

Acoustic guitars are constructed using distinctive bracings, the purpose of which is to preserve the structural integrity of the guitar, as well as enhance the quality of the sound. This project investigates the effect of guitar bracings on sound quality and its characteristics. The present study experimentally investigated the oscillations of guitar soundboards and its effect on human perception of sound quality. An impact hammer was used on the bridge of the guitar to produce the oscillations, and the data were collected using a capacitive probe to measure the displacement of the soundboard. Three guitars were used in this study- two of which being the same model with an X bracing pattern and the other a different model with a fan bracing pattern. By comparing the frequencies at which these guitars oscillate, we were able to gain an understanding of how the structure of the soundboard, including its interior bracings, affects the sound and its quality. To analyze the effect of the sound on human perception, a pilot test was performed, during which subjects were asked to describe the sound they were hearing using a questionnaire. Performing a pilot test gives more information on how sound varies for guitars with different bracings.

Physiological metrics like blood pressure, heart rate, and blood nitric oxide (NO) concentration are known to change in response to exercise. While blood pressure and heart rate can be easily measured in an educational lab setting, blood NO is infeasible to monitor. The objective of this work is therefore to develop a protocol to measure NO concentration in saliva, which is less invasive and more accessible in a lab setting, and to investigate how salivary NO levels change during exercise. Saliva samples were collected from subjects before, immediately after, and an hour after exercising while they performed either anaerobic exercises, aerobic exercises, or rest. Anaerobic exercises included lifting weights such as bench press, back squat, etc.; aerobic exercise was a form of cardio, such as the stair master, running, biking, etc.; and rest included breathing exercises or meditation. NO concentration in the collected samples can be measured using the Griess assay, in which nitrite, an NO precursor, reacts with a reagent to form a product with an absorbance peak at 548 nm. This absorbance is measured using a spectrophotometer and compared to a nitrite standard curve, which allows the calculation of the concentration of nitrite in each sample based on its absorbance. Salivary NO concentration will be monitored across many individuals performing different exercises to evaluate trends during and after exercise, as well as the impact of different types of exercise.

Gold nanoparticles are useful for a variety of biomedical purposes and are particularly interesting due to their unique optical properties. Gold nanoparticles have strong absorbance bands between about 500 and 600 nm, and an absorbance peak that varies based on nanoparticle size. The objective of this research is to develop an accessible, cost-effective protocol for gold nanoparticle synthesis and evaluate how changing synthesis parameters impact nanoparticle size and optical properties. The goal is for the protocol to be implemented into an undergraduate lab course, allowing students to explore nanoparticle synthesis and characterization methods. Gold nanoparticles were first synthesized by mixing hydrogen tetrachloroaurate and citrate for 30-60 minutes at boiling. Synthesis parameters like citrate concentration, reaction time, and temperature were varied, and the optical properties of the resulting nanoparticles were monitored using a SpectroVis spectrophotometer. The impact of particle aggregation on optical properties was also investigated. Particle size can also be measured using a Horiba LA960 particle size analyzer, allowing further comparison of measured size to absorbance trends.

Adaptive and assistive technology is an important and ever growing field that allows for technological devices to greatly affect individual’s daily lives for the better. The GoBabyGo program allows for children to use modified ride-on cars to better interact with their environment in an independent and therapeutic way. The goal of this project is to work closely with occupational therapists to modify cars for children with conditions such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida for their individual needs. In order to further our understanding, we researched common modifications that have been made to ride-on toys in the past, including electrical modifications, physical support modifications, and the integration of different existing assistive devices. We also have met with the individual kids who applied for these modified devices, and worked closely with the occupational therapists to evaluate and assess each child’s individual needs in order for their car to have the greatest impact. We will use this information to then modify cars for each child specifically, and present the cars to them on a GoBabyGo build day, where they can test out the cars and we can make any modifications if necessary. This project integrates both bioengineering and occupational therapy in order to bring assistive technology into the lives of those who need it the most.

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) remains a significant global health burden, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Current treatment methods have many limitations such as variable efficacy and adverse effects, underscoring the need for new and innovative approaches. The utilization of liposomes as drug delivery vehicles is a promising strategy for the treatment of LF, as they offer unique advantages including lymphatic targeting, biocompatibility, controlled drug release, and the ability to encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs simultaneously. This study aims to characterize drug loading efficiency in and release rates from liposomes composed of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol by using dye molecules as proxies for common LF therapeutics like doxycycline, albendazole, and diethylcarbamazine citrate. Hydrophobic Oil Red O (ORO) dye was first assessed. The dye absorbance was characterized using a spectrophotometer, and a standard curve was developed to determine the linear range of this dye. ORO was encapsulated by mixing with a solution of liposomes in water, and naturally partitioned into the hydrophobic particles. The release of dye from liposomes was characterized over the course of hours by dialyzing a solution of ORO-loaded liposomes against deionized water, monitoring sample absorbance changes over time as dye was released. This study will improve our understanding of how drug and liposome characteristics impact drug release profiles.

Sampling practices in Hip-Hop have undergone a transformative journey from the 1990s-2000s to the late 2010s-2020s. Delving into whether this transformation has positively or negatively impacted the quality and crux of what Hip-Hop music constitutes is rather ambiguous. Critiquing the artistic interpretation of a producer’s sample-based song is rather subjective, however, analyzing the practical elements such as sampling techniques, production processes, and critical reception, allows for an enhanced academic perspective. While researchers have heavily discussed ethical, legal, and economic considerations of samples through qualitative analyses and quantitative studies, this study provides a hybrid framework, to critique the practical applications of the effectiveness of sample utilization and uncover the strain, coherence, and integrity of the composition itself. This study also reveals the influences and techniques that have crafted the contemporary rules of sample-based production in Hip-Hop. This exploration not only unveils the technological advancements from analog to digital, but also explores the importance of contemporary artistic freedoms, modern legality restrictions, and cultural changes that interweave to birth new standards and shift the dynamics in the art of sampling. Through a comprehensive analysis and critique of key producers, Madlib (1990s) and Metro Boomin (2010s-2020s), my research contributes to a deeper conversation of how sampling techniques of the 1990s have influenced and cultivated the creative process and key narratives in the 2010s-2020s Hip-Hop landscape.

In the 19th century, composer Richard Wagner popularized the leitmotif in his operas and music. Defined as a recurring musical melody or theme that is associated with a character, place, idea, theme, or situation, the leitmotif has become a crucial aspect of scoring music for entertainment mediums such as movies, television shows, and more recently, video games. Due to the unique aspect of audience and storytelling in the medium of video games, the leitmotif is transformed for different purposes both musically and narratively, such as providing gameplay cues for the player and expanding on the musical ideas based on atmosphere and story. Scholars such as Jibril Ibrahim, Karen Collins, and Ashley Hallett have studied the leitmotif as an aid to the player and the relationship between sound cues, while other scholars like Neil Lerner, Tim Summers, and Jamie Sexton have focused on the leitmotif’s role in aiding the story of the video game. This paper explores the unique function of the leitmotifs in games such as The Legend of Zelda series, Hollow Knight, Resident Evil, and Undertale. Games from the The Legend of Zelda series and Resident Evil demonstrate the way that leitmotifs can be used to provide information and feedback to the player in a specifically non-diegetic way. Hollow Knight and Undertale highlight the ways that leitmotifs are composed in video games to support the narrative; they way they would be traditionally used in other mediums. By understanding how leitmotifs can be utilized as a player assisting mechanic as well as developing the story, scholars can continue to analyze and appreciate the unique ways that video games help to further the development of the leitmotif.

The enigmatic figure of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges(1745-99), has been a subject of romance and adventure since the early 19th century. Joseph Bologne was a composer, conductor, and violinist who made many contributions to the sinfonia concertante, a popular orchestral work that emerged in Paris around 1770.It captured the imagination of the public by offering two or more soloists “competing: with each other as well as with the orchestra, in a sort of contest. Bologne played an important role in the musical life of pre-revolutionary France. He also produced violin concertos and some of the earliest keyboard-violin sonatas, wrote operas, and was among the very first French composers to write string quartets. Bologne was the son of a plantation owner and his African mistress. As a young man, he studied with Gossec, a principal composer of 18th-century France, whose symphonies and chamber works helped shape the orchestral forms of the Classical period. Researcher Barry Brook’s (1962) work contributed enormously to our modern reevaluation of Bologne. The framework that this paper will be geared toward will be from a historical and music analytic perspective. It will be unearthing parts of Bologne’s life that were lost due to the unfortunate past of history due to prejudice towards musicians of color. Composers such as Hadyn and Mozart drew inspiration from Bologne, more than what history has revealed. Not only has Joseph Bologne impacted famous composers and contributed to the sinfonia concertante, he is still impacting music today.

The poet Heinrich Heine and the composer Franz Schubert had faced persecution in their social and cultural contexts for aspects of their identity. Heine grew up during the Napoleonic Wars in Germany, a very turbulent time and environment for Jewish people. This led to conflicting feelings about his own faith, providing the inspiration to write the poem Der Doppelgänger. Heine wrote this poem which incorporated many Jewish undertones, because it was purposely written from a Jewish perspective. Later on, Schubert would use Heine’s Der Doppelgänger as part of his song cycle titled Schwanengesang. Schubert utilizes unique musical elements to illustrate Heine’s themes, such as the consistent use of the note F# and a double articulation. Notable musicologists David Bretherton and David Løberg Code are key figures in analyzing the connections built through these musical elements. Though Schubert composed compositions including Hebrew and texts from the Jewish tradition, there is speculation that he did not compose Der Doppelgänger with Heine’s original intentions in mind. Schubert manifested his own life in two different avenues by being a successful composer and a homosexual, which was highly frowned upon in Vienna in the 19th century. This paper will utilize a musical, literary, and historical framework to analyze the events in Schubert and Heine’s life, as well as conditions of life in Germany and Vienna during their lifetimes, to evaluate what meanings each artist intended in their individual settings of Der Doppelgänger.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan” initially faced criticism from both critics

and the composer himself. The work premiered in Budapest in 1889, when Mahler was filling in for the ill music director of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Taking into consideration the audience’s reaction and his own experiences, Mahler revised the symphony, reflecting a combination of external criticism and internal artistic conflict. This research paper examines the context of the symphony’s composition, analyzing reviews by esteemed critics such as Eduard Hanslick, and statements from Mahler, Alma Mahler, and their contemporaries. Through this analysis, recurring themes in the critiques and insights into Mahler’s personal life shed light on the origination of Symphony No. 1 and Mahler’s compositional process. Scholars such as Jens Malte Fischer and Thomas Peattie have contributed to the knowledge of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony from both the theoretical and biographical standpoint. While there has been extensive research around the background of “Titan” and its impact on music history, there is currently a void this paper intends to fill in the area that directly relates Mahler’s revisions to the work to its reception. The revisions made to “Titan” exemplify Mahler’s responsiveness to feedback and his ongoing battle for progress in music history. By examining his mixture of artistic vision, audience reaction, and personal background, this paper brings out the complexities of Mahler’s creative process and his impact on the symphonic tradition.

During the shift from Romanticism to Modernism, scientific theories of emotion became more prevalent and widespread. Emerging theories based on understanding emotional responses and human behavior, such as the James-Lange theory, Freudian theory, and behaviorist theory led to changing cultural attitudes toward the nature of emotion and expression. This paper describes how the principal emotional theories of the late 19th and early 20th century affected European composers’ compositional techniques during the Modernist era compared to the earlier Romantic era. Through correlational study and a comparative analysis of Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor and Arnold Schoenberg’s Suite for piano, Op. 25, this paper describes and contrasts the varied characteristics of emotional expression, including of harmony, rhythmic variation, tempo, dynamic contrast, and form in each piece. In addition, this paper briefly introduces the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, a composer who changed his compositional techniques during his career as new emotion theories were discovered and cultural attitudes toward emotional expression shifted. While several scholars have described emotional expression in different periods of music history (Taylor, 2009; Dahlhaus, 1980) and others have explained the emergence of emotion theories during the 20th century (Reisenzein, 2020; Dixon, 2003), few have explained that these theories contributed to this shift in musical styles in the 20th century. The introduction of new emotion theories and the change in cultural attitudes toward emotion during the late 19th century led to a shift from the emotionally driven romantic music of the 19th century to more experimental modernist music.

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragic love story originating in ancient Greece long before the common era. Its themes of devotion, perseverance, and betrayal have sparked the interest of composers for centuries. Continuous fascination with the myth has produced countless musical adaptations, including some of the earliest operas. Despite their common source material, each version contains dramatically different plot progressions and messages due to distinct modifications. By comparing interpretations, I seek to observe how this classic myth has been adapted over time and determine how the variations reflect the values a composer aims to illustrate to their audiences. Scholars such as Jeffrey L. Buller have analyzed and contrasted classic adaptations based on Orpheus and Eurydice such as Euridice by Jacopo Peri and Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck. In addition to these two adaptations, I include an analysis of the musical Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell. Investigation of the cultural values, philosophical perspectives, and artistic trends influencing each of these composers alongside analysis of the messages and themes communicated by each adaptation provides insight into the progression of artistic choices across time. Simple changes such as substituting the traditional tragic end of the story with a happier conclusion, focusing on different themes, or modifying key story elements completely shift the tone of the story. One myth can become a bittersweet pastoral wedding performance, a heroic celebration of reckless devotion, or even a commentary on the state of a broken world depending on how the tale is spun.

Music Therapy, guided by a board-certified music therapist, utilizes musical elements, techniques, and clinical strategies to facilitate interventions tailored to individual client needs, concentrating on achieving therapeutic objectives that address cognitive, communicative, emotional, physiological, psychosocial, and spiritual domains. Within this framework, cultural sensitivity and competence are crucial for a music therapist, as it is one of the first steps in fostering a positive developmental journey for a client. Specifically, for children coping with trauma, music therapy can cultivate a more structured environment of treatment and regimen. Magnifying the scope of trauma through the lens of racial, environmental, and interpersonal influences allows music therapists to examine the severity of these experiences further to ensure proper treatment and development of the child. For that purpose, culturally tailored music therapy interventions can yield a greater positive impact on childhood trauma compared to non-cultural interventions. Through a comprehensive literature review and analysis, this study evaluates interventions utilized in trauma-informed music therapy sessions and contemplates the limitations of non-cultural interventions in addressing traumatic experiences that are rooted within a child’s cultural community. Existing research shows that adapting standard music therapy interventions to align with cultural values, traditions, and music results in openness and safe vulnerability expressed by the child. Implications for further research developments include expanding comparative and longitudinal studies, more individualized case studies, and creating effective standardized models. Therefore, this study strongly advocates the importance of purposeful exploration and integration of more substantial culturally tailored music therapy interventions to utilize for child trauma treatment.

Elevated blood pressure (BP) at a young age leads to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Zhang et al., 2019). College students are often unaware of hypertension and its risk factors which could increase the development of these conditions. Our study served to educate, assess BP rates, and identify risk factors to promote health. To frame our research, two theoretical models were utilized: Neuman Systems Model and The Fogg Behavioral Model (TFBM).

Through convenience sampling, BP assessments were performed on participants attending a private midwestern university. At each screening, participants filled out a Google Form, measuring hypertension knowledge, habits, stress, medications, history, and other factors. BP, heart rate, body fat, body water, and BMI were measured. BP was measured twice and averaged. Recent caffeine, food, and alcohol intake were recorded. Education was provided about stress, stress reduction, and CVD.

The results indicated most participants were unaware of their risk factors regarding hypertension. The majority of participants self-reported normal BP; however, 52% of participants had an elevated systolic BP, and 30.4% of participants had an elevated diastolic BP. Caffeine and alcohol use were not shown to be related to hypertension. Participants reported high stress related to college life.

To prevent future complications of hypertension in participants, it is crucial to implement interventions that address these outcomes (Choi et al., 2020). We disseminated our results and invited students to perform a knowledge check on another Google Form, of which 96% of students were able to accurately identify their risks.

BACKGROUND. Social isolation in older adults can lead to multiple negative health implications, including a higher chance of developing dementia, increased rates of depression and anxiety, and premature death from all causes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). The rate of older adults experiencing social isolation has grown since the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic (National Council on Aging, 2021).

OBJECTIVE. This systematic review aimed to review and analyze interventions and strategies that occupational therapy practitioners can utilize to decrease social isolation in community-dwelling older adults.

DATA SOURCES. A systematic review of the literature from 2013-2023 was conducted utilizing the Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, and Medline databases.

STUDY SELECTION AND DATA COLLECTION. Studies addressing occupational therapy interventions to decrease social isolation among individuals aged 65 and older living in the community were included. Articles were assessed through a literature review, examination of inclusion and exclusion criteria, quality, relevance, and risk of bias, all of which were reviewed by the authors.

RESULTS. Fourteen articles were selected for inclusion. The systematic review yielded fair evidence for outcomes and effectiveness of organizational and interprofessional services, perspectives on time alone, loneliness and isolation, and community programming relating to interventions to decrease social isolation in community-dwelling older adults.

CONCLUSION. Results from this review demonstrate that occupational therapy can have a role in decreasing or eliminating social isolation in community-dwelling older adults through the components of community programming, observing perspectives regarding time alone, occupational identification, and interprofessional services. Limitations will be discussed.

Some of the most beautiful objects in our universe are known as planetary nebulae. These occur as a result of dying stars ejecting their outer layers with their remaining hot core ionizing the newly ejected mass causing it to glow. At the center of these planetary nebulae may lie a binary system in which a companion star orbits the remaining hot core, or central star. This configuration is often attributed as the cause of bipolar or quadrupole morphologies of planetary nebulae, in which the shape resembles that of an hourglass. Recently, a study of planetary nebulae in the galactic bulge, or the innermost region of the galaxy, has found that a statistically significant proportion of binary central stars are orbiting each other perpendicular to the rotation of the galaxy. There is currently no known reason for this alignment. One of the causes for these unexpected orbit orientations may be due to gravitational interactions that take place before the planetary nebulae form, while they are still stars like our Sun. To test the validity of this theory, I have created a simulation in which a third star passes a binary system, inducing a gravitational interaction, and recording how the orientation in the orbit of the binary systems is affected. The results of these simulations will be presented.

Pulsars are rotating neutron stars with periodic bursts of radio emission. These enigmatic objects allow us to peer into matter and electromagnetic fields at their most extreme. In this project, we seek to study the evolution of a pulsar’s magnetosphere. We use PLUTO, an astrophysical fluid dynamics code, to perform magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations. As a first step, we reproduce the works of other authors simulating a stable hydrodynamical disk. We then aim to study the evolution of various types of accretion disks around neutron stars with the introduction of magnetic fields. Our work focuses on accretion characteristics, such as quasi-periodic oscillations, which are not yet well-understood, but thought to be a result of unstable equatorial flows known as “tongues.”

There are several peaks in the infrared (IR) spectrum of planetary nebulae (PNe) like NGC 7027 whose origins are unknown. This has been a long-standing puzzle in the study of PNe. This project explores heteroatom substitution in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as a possible origin for these unidentified infrared emission (UIE) peaks. The heteroatom elements explored in this study are nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur. Previous work has demonstrated that 3- and 4- ring PAHs emit a spectrum close to current spectrum data for UIE and a previous group tested nitrogen substitution in similar structures with varied results. I used the Gaussian 09 program to model these PAHs substituting carbon with these heteroatom elements and a Python program adapted from GaussSum to analyze the resulting spectra of these molecules. I, first, analyzed the stability of the substituted PAHs by calculating their formation energy. Phosphorus had the lowest formation energy of all the heteroatoms with an energy of -0.1968 eV for the most stable substitution. Overall, I found that the heteroatom substituted PAHs were fairly stable and could possibly be found within the circumstellar environment of PNe. Calculated IR spectra will be compared with IR spectra from planetary nebulae.

Experimental physics is a branch of physics that conducts experiments and is concerned with data acquisition in order to study interesting phenomena. One of these observable phenomena is the Stefan–Boltzmann law, which describes how radiation from a blackbody is dependent on temperature to the fourth power, and is equal to power. An object is called a blackbody when it absorbs all electromagnetic energy that interacts with that object. Blackbody radiation is radiation that is emitted by an object when it is in thermal equilibrium and emits radiation along the continuous spectrum of wavelengths. With the Stefan–Boltzmann law in mind, a multimeter can be used to calculate the power, and plotting power against temperature to the fourth should produce a linear relationship, with the slope being the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. This relationship was found to be consistent at high temperatures, but seemed to not hold much influence at lower temperatures.

Many fascinating and important processes in space occur in binary systems consisting of a white dwarf and a companion star in a very close orbit. Because of this, understanding this type of system is important to our overall understanding of our universe. These binary systems are born within planetary nebulae. However, only 26 such systems within planetary nebulae have been fully modeled, which isn’t a large enough number to result in meaningful statistical data. In order to work towards increasing this number, I used the PHOEBE modeling software to obtain ranges for the secondary temperature, primary and secondary radii, secondary albedo, and system inclination for the close binary system in the planetary nebula Hf2-2. I constrained the primary temperature to a 20 kK range based on a previously published spectrum analysis, while both of the masses were held constant due to not having radial velocities available. I present here the resulting ranges for the parameters.

White dwarfs are the final stage of stellar evolution for most stars–those less than about eight times the mass of the Sun. In these cases the star has ejected its outer layers, leaving a superheated core behind to cool. White dwarfs that are part of a binary system, or have a companion star, lead to many interesting astrophysical situations, and so are important objects to understand. In this study, we look specifically at binary white dwarf systems where the second object is a main sequence star. After the discovery of a binary system, it is necessary to create a working model to better understand the physical characteristics of the system. This is accomplished using data about the changing brightness of the system and measures of the speed of the stars toward and away from us as they orbit one another. We built preliminary models for two white dwarf binary systems–WD1136+667 and Gaia-DR2-3150–which we describe in this presentation. Both of these systems are part of a larger Hubble Space Telescope program studying very hot white dwarfs.

Complete surveys of the central stars of planetary nebulae are essential for understanding the fraction of these objects that exist as close binary systems, allowing better understanding of stellar evolution. Planetary nebulae are regions of ionized gas expelled from a dying star that has just left the asymptotic giant branch and is evolving into a white dwarf. In this research, we utilized an existing catalog of all planetary nebulae within 2 kpc from us, with a total of 235 targets. We used photometric data from ZTF (Zwicky Transient Facility), SARA (Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy) telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, and other private telescopes to study the central stars of these planetary nebulae. We visually examined the brightness of the nebulosity and determined which planetary nebulae have bright nebulosity that would cause uncertainty in the photometry of the central stars. Then recorded average brightness and average variation ranges for each central star for which quality data was available. We reviewed the brightness data to determine if each central star varied in brightness in a way indicative of a close companion. If such variability was present we identified that central star as a candidate binary system. We discuss the results of our search in the context of the overall fraction of planetary nebula central stars that exist as close binary systems.

This study explores how citizens’ faith in government officials in socialist-run South American nations is affected by corruption scandals. It investigates whether individuals’ views of government integrity and political involvement are impacted by the easier access to information about corruption brought about by technology. This research aims to understand the relationship between the level of confidence in government entities and their vulnerability to corruption scandals using survey information from sources like the World Bank and the AmericasBarometer, in addition to free press ratings and verified cases of corruption. The study also looks at how the free press influences public opinion and trust by acting as a stand-in for other variables. The findings seek to provide insights into how corruption affects the political landscape in South American nations and citizens’ trust in their leaders.

Refugee policy in the United States is decentralized, providing individual states with the power to implement different policies. Previous research analyzing state policy has often focused on one policy and providing suggestions for improvement. Until recently, most studies from the United States had used the words assimilation and integration interchangeably, which is something newer studies have struggled to contextualize given the different meanings and arguments for each process. This paper places three different refugee policies — State-Administered Programs, Public-Private Partnerships, and the Replacement Designee Model — that are used across a variety of states into conversation in an attempt to discover which policy provides better outcomes for refugees. In this study, these outcomes will be measured by labor force participation, English language proficiency and attainment, and access to support services. Keeping in mind repatriation efforts and legal processes, this paper hopes to provide a nuanced understanding of integration, while being aware that assimilation sometimes occurs because of societal pressures and circumstances.

Previous literature suggests that a jury is more likely to convict black defendants and uphold harsher sentences in comparison to their white counterparts. This study aims to test whether or not that is true when the racial makeup of the defendant-victim relationship is considered in a non-violent crime. It is hypothesized that the defendant is more likely to receive not only a guilty verdict, but a harsher sentence when the race of the defendant differs- specifically when the defendant is black and the victim is white. Participants were split into two different groups and shown AI generated images of the defendant and victim and filled out a survey in which they were given supplied sentencing guidelines for this type of crime, and asked to recommend a sentence.

In the US, Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy when compared to their White counterparts. Black Maternal Mortality is not only a vast issue nationwide but a challenging one to solve. Previous research has identified structural racism as a primary factor in the Black Maternal Mortality Rate. This form of racism in the preconception, prenatal, and postpartum periods can turn into deadly symptoms that are problematic to the mother’s health. Most existing research has developed from this root cause and turned to national-level policies as key to rectifying this problem. However, there has been little focus on how state-level policies can fight against structural racism and lower the Black Maternal Mortality Rate. This gap in research presents an issue because states can strengthen or weaken their individual policies based on national standards thus affecting the level of help given to Black mothers. Through this paper, I will work to close that gap by examining the effectiveness of state-level policies and determining if measures presented in them lower the Black Maternal Mortality Rate. First, I will examine previous literature on the causes of Black Maternal Mortality to show the importance of a state-wide policy analysis. Second, by running a multiple linear regression I will examine whether current state-wide policies are effectively lowering the Black Maternal Mortality Rate. I believe that states which have expanded Medicaid coverage, including doula and midwife services, and have implemented implicit bias training for healthcare professionals will have the lowest Black Maternal Mortality Rates.

Keywords: Structural Racism, Black Maternal Mortality Rate, Policymaking, Maternal Mortality, Maternal Morbidity, Pregnancy-related death

Research on immigration detention centers demonstrates that countries with strict migration policies lead to higher rates of human rights violations of physical and mental health of immigrants/migrants. These human beings’ human rights are being violated due to rigid policies like the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy or a migration deterrence policy implemented where they are being sent to detention centers or conflicting areas and are treated horribly while also living in terrible conditions. By looking at people’s real-life experiences through varies personal cases and analyzing various state’s immigration detention centers conditions impacting physical and mental health of migrants. This article contributes to the literature of immigration detention centers impacting human beings who were just looking for an opportunity to get a better life, but resulted in a worse livelihood.

This study began with the question of how women impact the creation of foreign policy, yet in an attempt to find a smaller scale model, the question became how did women’s involvement impact the passing of the Paris Climate Accords. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on November 4, 2016. By looking at which countries passed the accords and how long it took to ratify and comparing it to how many women were in each country’s politics, I look to see how women impact the creation of foreign policies based upon a small scale.

The negotiation phase of hydroelectric dam development is vital to ensuring a satisfying outcome for most people, but those who will be affected are often left out of this process, resulting in human rights violations and wasted resources. Organizations that attempt to moderate these negotiations and make them more equitable often fail to insulate themselves from the influence of private industries and governments, which results in policy outcomes that are highly unpopular. Given the increasing demand for hydroelectric power, it is clear that a more just and independent negotiation process is necessary to avoid human rights violations and improve efficiency. By looking at recent examples, this project will analyze how increased inclusion and transparency in dam negotiations leads to more satisfying outcomes for afflicted interest groups.

The political environment of the United States has been studied from many different perspectives. One of the most frequent ways it has been studied is through the lens of race. Much of the existing literature suggests that partisanship and race are heavily linked. Previous studies have shown how race can be a predictor of one’s political beliefs or the strength of their beliefs. Aspects such as racial resentment have been used to draw these connections. However, what they lack is a direct connection between racial resentment and political polarization. Using information gathered from these previous studies, a survey was created and distributed among a demographic that most would assume are at least moderately politically aware; college students. The aim of this study was to establish a stronger understanding of the connection between racial resentment and political polarization instead of relying on the loosely inferred connection seen in previous studies.

The study investigates the in depth relationship between the rise in voter polarization and its influence on senators and their political ideologies. It dives into various factors that contribute to this dynamic, including representation and accountability, party dynamics, media influence, institutional factors, and personal beliefs and values. The research posits that increased electorate polarization can lead senators to align more closely with extreme party positions, influenced by the need to secure nominations in primary elections dominated by ideologically extreme voters and the desire to gain attention and support through media exposure. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the interconnection between these elements to grasp the complexities of the political landscape and the shifting ideologies of senators.

In the modern world of technological advancements, the internet and its platforms can be used as a tool for activists to raise awareness and mobilize behind movements. However, in authoritarian regimes, internet access presents itself as a double-edged sword for the regime’s survival. That is, the internet serves both as a place for dissidents to mobilize and express speech against the regime but also as a repressive surveillance tool that allows the regime to monitor counter-regime activity. This research paper explores this trade-off by drawing from existing literature while bringing a narrower focus on the relationship between digital surveillance and mobilization efforts against the regime. In a comparative analysis, I study authoritarian states in the Middle East and look at how surveillance tools employed by the regime may have an impact on counter-regime protest activity. By analyzing this relationship, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of collective action and the behavior of authoritarian regimes in an increasingly digitalized world.

Existing literature on education referenda indicate that the most important factors for passage are race, age, and voter turnout. Indiana has not been extensively studied on this topic, and its status as an uncompetitive state with low voter turnout makes it a unique state to study. I’m testing if these factors apply in Indiana under distinctive situations, specifically in Northwest Indiana. Therefore, I look at predictors of voter turnout, median household income, election timing, age, race, and the percentage of families living below the poverty line in each school district that has voted on an education referendum. By doing so, this paper contributes to existing literature that looks at specific states’ voter characteristics and attitudes toward public school funding.

Books are a key aspect of children’s world. The American Academy of Pediatrics (2021) recommends that children should be read to every day beginning at birth. While books are important, we know fairly little about the content of books, especially the language presented in them. We know that books are one area where children are exposed to different concepts and ideas and they transfer the information they learn from books into real-world contexts (Strouse et al., 2018). In many languages, like English, there is often the male as-norm perspective where many generic forms of words are masculine in nature. Due to this, there is an increase in gender stereotypes, inequalities, and misattributions (Vainapel et al., 2015). Therefore we predict that males will be represented more in the language of the books than females.

The top 100 picture books from two Indiana counties (N=200), based on circulation data from the county libraries, will be assessed. We have already received the data on the top children’s books from both counties and have been transcribing the books. We will use the program LIWC to analyze the transcripts for male and female references. LIWC is a widely used text analysis tool.

We hypothesize there will be significantly more male references compared to female references in children’s picture books. We will use paired samples t-tests to see if this hypothesis is supported. Frequency and descriptive statistics will be used to understand the amount of male and female references in the picture books.

Word learning studies require the use of novel stimuli to effectively test participants. Previous research has found that novelty of objects can affect the learning of these objects (Horst & Hout, 2015). Children who have been exposed to a novel object for a short time are less likely to associate novel names to these objects than still-novel objects (Horst et al., 2011). Having an extensive list of novel objects, as well as the novelty of these objects is important. Certain studies require objects to be easily distinguishable (Twomey et al., 2014), while others find it more useful for objects to look similar (Homa et al., 2011). Thus, we have created a set of unique items that include both easily distinguishable items and items that are highly similar that differ in surface level features, such as color. These objects were a combination of hand-crafted and store bought items that were unique and did not have easily identifiable names. These objects were tested by the public to ascertain their effectiveness as novel objects. Through a survey format, we introduced participants to these novel objects and asked a series of questions to discover how novel these objects were. This project will provide another database of novel objects for use in other researchers’ studies. This study also allows our lab to have a collection of objects that can be used in person or through digital form in any future studies that we conduct and will provide other researchers with additional stimuli options.

Parents are encouraged to read to their children, but little is known about the content in children’s books aimed towards children age 5 and below. Children have an easier time generalizing the images in books to the real world when the pictures are highly iconic (Ganea et al., 2008). In the current study, we investigate the degree of iconicity in the most checked out books in one rural and one urban county in Indiana.

Based on 2023 circulation data from Starke, Porter, and St. Joseph county libraries, the top 100 picture books from each library were analyzed. Books were coded as simple lines, basic drawings, detailed drawings, photographs, or mixed, based on Wagner (2017).

We found that the majority of books in the sample included basic drawings , followed by detailed drawings), with few books having simple lines, mixed use of images, and photographs . Thus, children are not being exposed to many picture books with the highest levels of iconicity, but are exposed to some books that make use of some iconicity with detailed drawings. We know that iconicity is an important factor in helping children generalize from books to the real world, therefore childrens books should utilize highly iconic images more than they currently are.

This study investigates the number of trials needed for accurate introspection on memory accuracy in adults. Prior research suggests preschoolers benefit from introspection tasks (Hembacher & Ghetti, 2014). Preschoolers encoded items presented once or twice, then completed a forced-choice retrieval test with confidence judgments. Research has also found that memory performance on a paired associates tasks in children is related to their word learning (Vlach & DeBrock, 2017). However, the optimal number of trials in a picture based paired associates task for adults remains unknown. A pilot test indicated 10 trials, commonly used with preschoolers, is insufficient for adults. Our experiment will investigate the appropriate number of trials needed for reliable introspection in adults, with an initial estimate of 40-55 trials based on existing literature.

In the Orthodox Christian religion, icons are essential to the Orthodox faith and devotion. Icons are found in churches, homes, and prayer rooms. Many believe icons are just ordinary works of art depicting Christ and other Saints, yet icons are items of devotion and prayer to God. Icons invite viewers into relation with the Creator and are windows to the spiritual realm. The icons are painted by believers of God and are devoted to God with paint colors, depictions of Holy figures, and where light is exemplified. Instead of ordinary works of art, icons are textual art that tell a spiritual story through aspects of divine light. This poster investigates interaction of prayer and light in icons. Two icons in particular, “The Transfiguration” and “The Virgin of the Vladimir” invite viewers into prayer and use immaculate aspects of light to represent divinity. Both icons exhibit colors of gold and white pigments that depict the divine nature and unnatural light of Christ and the Virgin Mary. These aspects of light are intentionally honoring God and His divine power. They invite viewers into a spiritual fellowship with the Creator and they are a call to prayer. Icons ultimately provide divine communication to the spiritual realm by leading viewers to prayer and repentance.

Language develops prenatally and throughout childhood and can significantly impact children’s abilities to produce and understand language throughout their life. The goal of this study is to find accessible ways to equip caregivers with resources to set their child up for future success in the comprehension and production of language. Parent’s understanding of childhood development is related to their child’s efficiency in moving through developmental stages, specifically in relation to the acquisition of language (Booth, 2018). Thus, we are creating a remote video-training process to teach parents about language development. Existing literature has shown the power of video-training such that parents who received training over video could implement new activities with their children, leading to an increased development of language-related skills (Blom-Hoffman, 2008). Current research about video formats, with college students, has found that participants learn best from combined audio and visual aspects that included social cues from footage of the instructor speaking (Brünken, 2002; Kizilcec, 2015). These features are able to be present in both live-action and animated formats. Therefore, this study focuses on finding out what video format is most beneficial to teach caregivers facts and activities related to children’s language development. We compare learning outcomes from videos of a real person presenting information compared to those with an animated character. Findings from this research will give insight to what could be a more efficient way of equipping parents to support their child in the process of being able to understand and produce language.

Adults’ vocabulary and language acquisition are key areas that tell us information about the linguistic abilities of all ages. One mechanism that we believe is crucial for language development throughout the lifespan is statistical learning (SL). SL is considered a domain-general mechanism in which one can track and learn cooccurrences in the environment (Kirkham et al. 2002). Language is full of these cooccurrences. While SL is important for language acquisition, we still do not fully understand all the underpinnings that support it. One underpinning may be handedness, which is related to language abilities in adults (Knecht et al., 2000).

Undergraduate student participants (N=30) complete the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire (Brown et al., 2006), which assesses handed preference for different tasks. Additionally, they complete the PPVT-5 as a vocabulary measure. Adults’ SL will be tested using the SL language and procedure from Gomez (2002) testing non-adjacent dependencies. Adult’s SL abilities are calculated using the number of correct strings they identify during the test.

We predict that the stronger the adult’s hand preference, the better they will score on the SL task, after controlling for general vocabulary ability. Multiple regression will be used, with handedness and vocabulary ability as predictors and SL as the outcome. This study will extend previous research and help elucidate some of the mechanisms that may play a role in language development.

The prevalence of digital goods have increased as technological advances continue to interact with consumerism. Despite this, physical goods are still preferred, as demonstrated by the preference for physical books over e-books (Pew Research Center, 2016). Factors concerning identity and legacy often make physical objects more desirable and valuable than digital ones (Giles et al., 2007). Individuals tend to have higher levels of psychological ownership of physical goods than digital (Atasoy et al., 2018). Thus, this study investigates the levels of psychological ownership and joy individuals experience with digital and physical goods.

Participants were asked on a survey how much they would pay for these goods, how much psychological ownership they would feel towards each item, and how much joy each object brings. We expect participants to have greater psychological ownership ratings, joy ratings, and be willing to pay more for physical rather than digital goods. The data will be analyzed by running paired samples t-tests with the product type (digital or physical) as the grouping variable and the amount of money participants are willing to pay, their perceived levels of ownership, and joy as our dependent variables. This project allows us to gain insight into how people feel about objects that come in the form of physical and digital goods. As digital goods become more plentiful, how we view and value our goods is bound to change and this sets a foundation on which to build an understanding.

Many Babies 3 is a replication study done by labs across the world. This study looks to find empirical evidence while examining an infant’s ability to recognize and create patterns. These patterns are learned through familiarization and follow general algebraic rules. The procedure is done through a single-screen or Head Turn Procedure setup. The data can be collected and programmed using a variety of programs. Our lab specifically chose to use Habit since a majority of its set-up instructions were laid out by the Many Babies Community. The procedure included testing either 16 or 32 infants between 5 and 12 months of age. Each child would have an assigned familiarization set and 4 random test sets of stimuli. There was a programmed attention-getter and a set period of time for looking away as well. It is also recommended to be done as a double-blind study. Unfortunately, after some hiccups, our lab was unable to collect data by the given deadline. However, we can see the continuing relevance of what we are researching from the data other labs are collecting, and Many Babies creating future replications to continue being done.

Reading is a vital part of children’s learning and development. While picture books are extremely popular, there is little research done on the effectiveness of learning from them, especially when they have tactile components such as flaps. The current research suggests that flaps could be detrimental to young children as they make the book seem like a toy and not something to learn from (Shinskey, 2021). While this may be true, it also could be that the additional cognitive load aspects and requirements to coordinate motor movements makes flaps detrimental to word learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of book flaps on children’s ability to learn, utilizing customized and controlled picture books with images of novel objects. Considerations in the making of flap books include size, color, texture, durability and important differences between conditions. As well as providing new experimental stimuli, this project will provide a broader understanding of children’s books as both educational and entertaining and could impact the way we utilize and recommend books for different settings.

Graduate school includes many direct and indirect opportunity costs. In this presentation, we will explore multiple facets involved in choosing a counseling career; specifically, program cost and duration, economic conditions, clinical preparation, personal financial circumstances, and professional aspirations. Central to our exploration is the hypothesis that these variables significantly impact students’ wellbeing, particularly in terms of perceived stress levels, coping mechanisms, resource allocation, and support systems.

Broadly, economic stability fluctuates, and since the pandemic, individual consumers have been more sensitive to those changes (Egan, 2024). The economy impacts inflation, employment, and post-undergraduate enrollment rates. Previous research has only explored the impact of financial stress and student wellbeing on undergraduate and doctoral populations (Borgogna et al., 2020 & Moore et al., 2021), leaving a dearth of research concerning master’s level students. We were thus motivated to understand the impact of the current volatile economic environment on counselors-in-training.

To address program and individual differences, we began with an anecdotal survey of students in Valparaiso University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. The survey measured students’ financial stability and its interactions with their perceived stress and coping ability. This preliminary study will not only facilitate awareness of counseling students’ struggles within the VU community, but also serve as the foundation for an expanded study. The results of the subsequent survey will inform the broader counseling profession about the influencing economic factors in the lives of counseling graduate students. We hope that this information will affect positive change in equitable access to careers in counseling.

Recent research has shown that musical pleasure is due to the combination of uncertainty and surprise a musical piece elicits. Additionally, research has demonstrated that music influences arousal and mood and that both affect learning. However, current research has not adequately tested whether pleasurable music indirectly improves learning by influencing mood/arousal. This study attempts to do so. Twenty-seven participants completed a survey that included the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire. Eighteen participants, whose scores demonstrated that they feel emotion-evoking and/or mood-regulatory pleasure from listening to music, came in for further testing. These participants experienced a music condition, in which they listened to an arrangement of Western classical music clippings, and a no-music condition, in which they heard only the test prompts. Two standard memory tests, the CVLT-3 and the RAVLT, were used to measure a participant’s learning ability in each condition. Changes in physiological arousal were measured via electrodermal activity (EDA). Each tested participant also completed two standard measures of executive functioning; their executive functioning scores were used for analysis of covariance. Repeated measures general linear model analyses were run to analyze conditional differences in baseline EDA, testing EDA, and memory performance. I expected participants to exhibit a more medium and therefore more ideal, level of arousal during the music condition compared to the no-music condition. I also expected participants to perform better in the music condition than in the no-music condition, after analysis of covariance. Trends were observed and the characteristics of notable participants were examined.

The Japanese American incarceration during World War II under Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt remains a poignant chapter in American history. Unknown and not appropriately understood for so long, this research paper delves into the psychological repercussions of this dark period, exploring the mental health treatment within the camps and the enduring legacy on subsequent generations. Drawing from primary archival records, medical documents, oral histories, statistical analyses, and personal accounts, this research hopes to shed light on the emotional distress, institutionalizations, suicides, and the silent yet profound psychological scars left by this traumatic experience in order to better understand how mental illness was categorized and treated under the premise of incarceration as a way to encourage healing and ensure this never happens again.

Processes of utilizing methods of creative expression and individuals’ documentations has been studied as a way to promote individual voice and identity, particularly in the contexts of educational and healthcare settings, as well as online spaces. However, studies on interventions of crafting one’s story and understanding the experiences of others have implied that these settings have often failed those that they serve by presenting limited ideas on what expression can look like. Through a series of ten qualitative interviews and a collection of personal journal entries from Valparaiso University students, this project furthers the notion that having the tools to express oneself allow us to better recognize one’s individual voices, and to understand how we relate to others. This project furthers the discussion on the importance of professionals promoting self construction tools of well being.