Pilot Watershed Phosphorus Mitigation: Municipal Wastewater Lagoon Agricultural Water Reuse and Phosphorus Loading Distribution Study.

Phosphorus runoff contributes to harmful algal blooms in the Western Lake Erie Basin. This study investigates strategies to reduce phosphorus loads in Shallow Run, a tributary of the Blanchard River that drains into the Lake Erie watershed. Chapter one examines the feasibility of redirecting wastewater lagoon effluent from Shallow Run onto a neighboring farm for irrigation. The study assesses the risks and effects of reusing the wastewater by analyzing water quality, including heavy metals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and nutrient loads. The study found that the contaminant levels in the effluent are safe for irrigation, making the site suitable for land application based on current data. Chapter two evaluates phosphorus distribution across the watershed to identify high-loading areas. Water samples collected from targeted points across the watershed were analyzed in the OSU Ecohydrology Lab for nutrient concentrations. The data were further supplemented with water quality monitoring data from the National Center for Water Quality Research. These findings provide an opportunity to target areas of the watershed with the largest phosphorus loadings with mitigation strategies. A few areas were found to have higher phosphorus loads, but more data is necessary to confirm these findings.Pilot Watershed Project (NRCS)No embargoAcademic Major: Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineerin

Design and Implementation of a Motion Control Architecture for WormPicker 2.0 Robotic System

Genetic research relies on model organisms like C. elegans, microscopic nematodes valued for their genetic simplicity and short lifecycles. Researchers must physically transfer these worms between experimental conditions, a process traditionally performed manually with wire picks - creating significant bottlenecks in experimental throughput. Automation is critically needed for high-throughput studies. An integrated system combining a 6-axis robotic arm, motorized microscope, and AI-driven machine vision has been developed to address this challenge, known as WormPicker 2.0. This research presents the design and implementation of a comprehensive motion control architecture for WormPicker 2.0's Yaskawa GP4 robotic arm, enabling autonomous execution of complex protocols. The developed software architecture follows a layered design pattern that transforms high-level experimental commands into precise robotic movements. At its core, the system employs ROS2 and MoveIt2 frameworks for motion planning and execution. It features a modular structure that separates concerns across five layers: interface, command processing, task generation, motion planning, and execution. Key technical contributions include a command parser that processes multi-parameter instructions. The system also incorporates a task generation framework that dynamically creates motion sequences from workspace configurations. Additionally, it features a calibration system that maps between digital design models and physical workspace coordinates, along with multiple interfaces for remote network access and direct command-line control. This motion control system enables WormPicker 2.0 to achieve a transfer rate of 13 animals per minute (4 times improvement over previous implementations) while maintaining precise navigation across 250 plates in a compact footprint. By automating worm manipulation, this work significantly enhances research capabilities for genetic screens, aging assays, drug response studies, and behavioral analysis. The modular software architecture provides a foundation for future enhancements, moving closer to a general-purpose tool for C. elegans laboratories that dramatically increases experimental throughput and reproducibility.No embargoAcademic Major: Biomedical Engineerin

Implementation of an Evidence-Based LVAD Patient and Family Advisory Council

Introduction: A Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) program was not receiving sufficient patient feedback from satisfaction surveys to enable leaders to improve the quality of the program and to meet the regulatory standard set forth by The Joint Commission to utilize patient satisfaction data for performance improvement activities. Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement initiative was to implement an LVAD Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) in a large urban academic Midwestern medical center to obtain meaningful patient satisfaction feedback. Methods: LVAD patients and their support persons participated in one of three monthly PFAC sessions to share their experiences within the healthcare system, with a facilitated discussion soliciting feedback on potential areas for improvement. Audio recordings of the meetings were converted to written transcripts. Patient/family comments were separated into two categories, potentially actionable or not actionable, based on whether they contained information that could inform improvement initiatives. The potentially actionable comments were then categorized into themes. Outcomes: Three PFAC sessions hosted 42 percent of the LVAD population, with 25 patients and 17 support persons in attendance. There were 266 comments received pertaining to the LVAD program and care, and 78 were potentially actionable with four themes: education, support, healthcare system gaps, and communication. From these comment themes, four improvement initiatives were identified for the program. Conclusions: Implementing a PFAC for an LVAD patient population is one model to increase patient engagement. This inaugural LVAD PFAC was successful in soliciting meaningful feedback to make programmatic improvements.A five-year embargo was granted for this item

City of Bexley: Building Codes Reimagined

Course Code: SENR/AEDE 4567This report outlines a sustainability-focused collaboration between The City of Bexley and The Ohio State University students to improve residential building codes. Drawing from case studies and expert input, the report presents actionable recommendations in three key areas: energy efficiency, stormwater drainage, and construction waste reduction. Proposed measures include updates to insulation standards, requirements for electric vehicle (EV) readiness, support for home electrification, adoption of permeable pavement, and improved recycling of construction and demolition materials. These strategies aim to help Bexley advance its climate goals while maintaining its leadership in sustainable urban planning.Academic Major: Environment, Economy, Development, and SustainabilityAcademic Major: Sustainable Agricultur

Rhetorics of Refusal: Medical Dissent and the US-Somali Diaspora

Welcome to health class : community sickness as rhetorical refusals fertile ground -- Outbreak : vaccine dissent as embodied rhetorical refusal -- Writing to the state : mistakes and silences as rhetorical refusal -- The persuasive microbiome : rhetorical refusal through care.Item embargoed for three year

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 infection on the choroid plexus and frontal lobe at the single-nucleus level

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset in 2020, patients and healthcare systems worldwide continue to experience lingering impacts. One such impact is the detrimental effect of COVID-19 infection on neurological functioning. Recent research has suggested that although SARS-CoV-2 does not demonstrate neurotropism, peripheral SARS-CoV-2 infection may cause widespread neuroinflammation that drives neurological complications, such as ischemic stroke and chronic brain fog. It is unknown, however, which inflammatory signaling pathways are responsible for these outcomes, and specific CNS cell types impacted by peripheral SARS-CoV-2 infection have not yet been identified. Here, we integrate snRNA-Seq data from the choroid plexus and frontal lobe regions of post-mortem brain tissue from 12 severe COVID-19 patients and 18 control patients. By examining cell types in the CNS that are perturbed in COVID-19 patients, we provide evidence demonstrating that brain barrier cells, such as endothelial, epithelial, and ependymal cells, become inflamed in response to peripheral SARS-CoV-2 infection. Specifically, we use UCell scoring to identify significant TGF-β, IL6-JAK-STAT3, and IFN-γ inflammatory signatures in these cell populations in COVID-19 patients. Additionally, we use CellChat intercellular communication network analysis to infer significant intercellular interactions in COVID-19 infection, such as the propagation of IL16 and PTN inflammatory signals from brain barrier cells to neurons, glial cells, and immune-related populations in the brain parenchyma. We also utilize differential gene expression analysis to determine that glial cells in severe COVID-19 patients are characterized by pro-inflammatory gene expression profiles, and we identify differentially expressed genes, such as FTH1 in astrocytes, that may serve as potential therapeutic targets or as diagnostic biomarkers for COVID-19-related neurological complications. Finally, we use CellOracle GRN inference and network analysis to identify differences in GRN structures between cell clusters in COVID-19 patients and control individuals, and we observe decreased eigenvector centrality scores in COVID-19 GRNs for transcription factors NFE2, EGR1, and KLF2, which are crucial for inhibiting viral replication and maintaining the blood-brain barrier. Together, our results suggest that regulation of these genes and signaling pathways may constitute new therapeutic opportunities for COVID-19-related neurological complications and other neurological conditions that are characterized by increased neuroinflammation.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Images of Martyrs in Early Christian Literature: The Figure of the Roman Magistrate in the Discourse of Martyrdom

Early Christian martyrdom accounts participate in a discourse of self-definition. Rather than serving communities as records of the events, the genre of martyrdom accounts contributed to “memory history,” in which the actual martyrdoms are reshaped into the collective experience of Christian identity. The study of trial scenes thus provides insight more on the development of sectarian division and innovation within the early Church than on the practices of Roman provincial administration. A better reading of these texts, my study argues, focuses on the figure of the Roman magistrate with a methodology of intertextual analysis to reconstruct the ideologies of the groups that created them. Acknowledging that the primary sources have been fictionalized, my project maintains that these stories advance the tenets and beliefs of the communities that authored them. My project argues that the figure of the Roman magistrate functioned as a weapon in the rhetoric of contrast and exclusion through imitatio traditions in order to define and portray “true Christians” as superior over against both Jews and rival Christians. This trajectory originates in biblical trial scenes, which include such tenets and beliefs as Christian apologetics and assertions of Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus. Increasingly, we find that martyrdom accounts adopt a doctrinal function to patrol the unacceptable in Christian ritual and community life. The implications of this study thus question the modern use of these sources to reconstruct the history of Roman criminal law.ASC Undergraduate Research ScholarshipUniversity Libraries' Arts & Humanities Undergraduate FellowshipNo embargoAcademic Major: HistoryAcademic Major: Political Scienc

Investigation of Quinone Methide Precursors as Potential Therapeutics for Organophosphorus-exposed Acetylcholinesterase and Butyrylcholinesterase

Organophosphorus (OP) compounds covalently inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an essential enzyme responsible for the hydrolysis of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (ACh). Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a non-essential enzyme that is also inhibited by OP compounds, making it a suitable bioscavenger to protect AChE. When exposed, OP compounds significantly inhibit both AChE and BChE by phosphylating the catalytic serine residue of each respective enzyme, leading to cholinergic crisis and eventually death if not treated. The current treatment for OP exposure consists of an oxime capable of reactivating OP-inhibited AChE. However, current oximes have limited blood-brain permeability, thus limiting their efficacy to treat AChE found predominantly in the central nervous system. Furthermore, the OP-inhibited structure of AChE and BChE can undergo spontaneous O-dealkylation, leading to what is referred to as the aged forms which, for both AChE and BChE, are recalcitrant to oxime recovery. This two-part study seeks to enhance the broad-spectrum recovery of AChE while optimizing the scavenging efficiency of BChE by using quinone methide precursors (QMPs). Previous efforts have identified QMPs as a valuable class of compounds capable of reactivating OP-inhibited AChE and BChE as well as recovering OP-aged AChE in a process termed “resurrection.” Two QMP libraries—benzamide derivatives of 4-amidophenol for AChE and 6-methylpyridin-3-ol for BChE—were evaluated using Ellman’s assays to determine their reactivation and resurrection efficacy. Reactivation kinetics experiments were also conducted to gain further insight on the interaction between the QMP and the OP-inhibited enzymes. Top-performing compounds in the 4-amidophenol library display major design improvements, resulting in noteworthy resurrection capabilities and expanded reactivation efficacy across several OP compounds, including historically difficult pesticide compounds. Moreover, leading compounds from the 6- methylpyridin-3-ol library demonstrate effective reactivation for a wide range of OP-inhibited BChE structures. This library demonstrates superior reactivation efficacy over both oxime controls and across all tested OP-inhibited BChE structures, making significant progress toward achieving pseudo-catalytic protection by BChE.Joint Science and Technology Office (CB10791 MCDC1905-006)A one-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Biochemistr

Letters, Words, Characters: Documenting and Analyzing Literacy Learning in Marion, Ohio

Marion, Ohio is filled with the possibility of growth, strengthened by a longstanding commitment to literacy development among its citizens. This current research serves as a follow-up to “Reading Together in Marion: Connecting Legacies of Language & Literacy,” an interdisciplinary undergraduate summer research project. This project led students to explore the past, present, and future of community sponsorship for literacy support in Marion. The students navigating this project had provided the leeway for me to branch beyond the history of Marion to provide reflections of literacy within the county. The Marion community has two primary rhetorical sites of literacy that promote development, the Marion Public Library and The Ohio State University at Marion. To gain a deeper understanding of the residents and community invested in the progression, I chose these sites as they are accessible and have pre-established connections to literacy. In my project, I am conducting ethnographic research to document these connections by recording video narratives to create an archival data set for analysis. Using the grounded theory method, I identify notable keywords, patterns, and unique narrative moments to explore literacy development within this collection of narratives. I am developing my own themes of formation in literacy by using these narratives as insights into the Marion, Ohio community. Based on a preliminary study, “Growing Marion Legacies: Understanding Literacy through Narratives of Individuals Pursuing Pedagogy,” I had recognized two continuing patterns in the collected narratives: first, the prevalence of story as a thematic concept, and second, the importance of mentor figures as literacy sponsors. The latter factor in particular is prevalent as it serves as the crossroads of individual and community literacy. Analysis of these narratives uncovered several common themes of literacy identity, spaces, and community growth. The connections of Marion, Ohio go beyond the developments made by STEM and the sciences to provide a more rounded culture around the themes of literacy. The literate culture of Marion is one of reciprocal growth and learning through the experiences of developing reading and writing skills within these primary spaces. Another aspect I wish to point out is the mislabeling of literacy. Literacies as a term can be narrowly assigned to the practices associated with writing and reading proficiency, which is highly restrictive to our understanding of the complex nature of human learning. Addressing this misconception is essential to identifying preconceived biases found in popular conceptions of literacy. This method of data collection therefore serves as a primary source of understanding the complexities of foundational literacy development.A five-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Englis

Pronoun Peril: Undergraduate Evaluations of Nonbinary Instructors

2nd Place: Denman Undergraduate Research Forum (Business, Society, and International Relations)2nd Place: DEI Mini Conference Trainee Presentation Competition (Psychology Grad DEI Comittee)Despite the diverse range of identities under the transgender label, research into transgender prejudice primarily focuses on transgender men and women (Burke et al., 2023). The present study expands on the limited research into nonbinary prejudice by examining potential differences in undergraduate evaluations of nonbinary instructors. This study tests the hypotheses that (1) Instructors perceived as nonbinary receive more negative evaluations than instructors perceived as male or female, and (2) Increasing the accessibility of the gender binary results in more negative evaluations of nonbinary instructors. A 3 (perceived instructor gender: male vs female vs nonbinary) x 2 (prime: binary gender vs eye color) between-participants experimental design was used. 158 undergraduates (age 18-25; 75.9% female; 54.3% White) from an introductory psychology course answered questions about personality and attitudes toward nonbinary individuals, viewed a course syllabus and lecture video, and then rated the instructor on teaching quality (Ohio State University, 2024), perceived warmth and competence of the instructor (Fiske et al., 2002), likelihood to enroll in a course with the instructor, and warmth toward the instructor. Instructor evaluation measures were analyzed using a 3 (instructor gender) x 2 (prime) between-subjects ANOVA (α = .05). Unfortunately, the perceived instructor gender manipulation failed: roughly half of the participants were unable to correctly recall the instructor’s gender. Analyses were null for main effects and interactions, but data from the pre-manipulation measures provide insight for future directions. Overall, there was insufficient evidence to support the research hypotheses. Further research is needed to understand nonbinary prejudice in academia.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog