Sacred Sisterhoods: A Celebration of Black Women's Friendships on Television and in Film

Item embargoed for three year

Ultrasonic Pore Formation in Harmful Algal Blooms

A presentation about this thesis was awarded third place in the One Water Fresh Ideas Conference, One Water Ohio, August 2025.Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are an emerging problem in drinking water treatment, recreation, and marine ecosystem health. One proposed control method for HABs is the use of low power ultrasound. However, we do not yet understand whether this treatment method works, or by what mechanism. A potential mechanism is temporary pore formation in algae due to ultrasound exposure, or sonoporation. Sonoporation could facilitate algae treatment by allowing chemical algaecides or stressors to enter cells. The objective of this project was to determine whether sonoporation occurs in algal cells and could reasonably occur under low power ultrasound. To test this, we exposed nontoxic Anabaena and Microcystis sp. to ultrasound at four different frequencies and several power levels. Sonoporation was observed in Microcystis sp. at a frequency corresponding to medical literature above the cavitation threshold. No sonoporation was observed below the cavitation threshold or in filamentous Anabaena sp. Sonoporation can occur in algae, but is not a feasible mechanism for controlling algae with low power ultrasound.The US Army Corps of EngineersDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research FellowshipA three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Environmental Engineerin

Queer as in Queer Theology

More than half of LGBTQ+ persons in the United States identify as religious and as a group they are just over 5% more likely to identify as ‘highly religious’ when compared to their straight counterparts. Making light of this in the Christian theological context, “queer theology,” then, has become an ever-encompassing catch-all term for a wildly different series of scholastic, theological, exegetical, and hermeneutical traditions- constantly in tension with one another- serving as an umbrella term for this wide demographic that coalesces a group of pieces that seemingly share nothing in common beyond their often shared authorship from persons of queer or non-normative gender and sexual identities. Given this, doing any categorical analysis of ‘queer theology’ in religious studies has become increasingly difficult and will definitionally exclude certain groups whose work might not be ontologically or metaphysically dissimilar beyond a certain abstract metric established by a given author at hand. Despite this, I will explore in this thesis what can be said definitionally about the discipline of queer theology. As aforementioned, many view the discipline as simply the tradition of theology done by people of queer identities; however, I ask here if this is all that can be said of the composition which defines this discipline of ‘queer theology-’ that it is merely a theology done by queer persons- and continue to articulate what can be said definitively about this discipline external to this given circular definition. Is there any way to categorically define queer theology? Is there any way to structurally analyze the tradition? Might we say in any meaningful manner that there exists a developed queer theological praxis? It is in light of these questions and questions just like these that I have approached this project. In this thesis, I argue there exists in the literature four prominent views of which I have dubbed: (1) the identifying hypothesis, which argues queer theology is simply theology done by queer persons; (2) the theory hypothesis, which argues queer theology is theology that is the result of applied queer theory; (3) the affirming hypothesis, which argues queer theology is theology that affirms the identities and behaviors of the gender and sexual minorities; and (4) the considering hypothesis, which argues that queer theology is theology which considers members of the gender and sexual minority somewhat in their theological or dogmatic prescriptions- all of which I argue ultimately fall short at describing aptly the positive force ‘queer’ describes in the discipline of ‘queer theology.’ To resolve this, I ultimately offer my own hypothesis I call the ‘the processal hypothesis’ which argues [T → X ∴ N (=^T)] in that ‘queer theology’ (X) might be understood as the process of using theological claims (T) in good faith to come to non-normative conclusions (N) about gender or sexuality. My approach in the presenting the first four theses is descriptive, in that instead of asserting some sort of advantage of any of these hypotheses I am simply attempting to describe their presence in the literature, although I do ultimately turn in my own hypothesis to make some prescriptive claim in my last chapter wherein I present the processal hypothesis.No embargoAcademic Major: PhilosophyAcademic Major: French and Francophone StudiesAcademic Major: Religious Studie

Utilizing Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to Improve Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis Efficiency and Runtime

Third Place at Denman Undergraduate Research Conference in Engineering and TechnologyComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) enables engineers to simulate and analyze fluid flow behavior in complex systems, playing a crucial role in the design, research, and development of aerospace vehicles. However, high-fidelity simulations often require extensive computational resources, with runtimes spanning several days. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing has demonstrated significant speed improvements over traditional Central Processing Unit (CPU)-based methods, but transitioning CFD codes to GPU architectures requires complex adaptation and optimization for parallel execution. This study evaluates methods for converting CPU-based CFD codes to GPU execution by analyzing result accuracy, runtime performance, and power consumption. Various code transition methodologies—including code regeneration translators, compiler-based acceleration, and AI-assisted code conversion—were applied to a simple, stationary Fortran code. The various adapted versions were executed on a GPU-accelerated system and compared against the original Fortran implementation running on a CPU. Power consumption, runtime, and solution accuracy were assessed using energy metrics, pointwise error analysis, and global error norms. Preliminary results indicate that compiler-based acceleration achieves the highest code efficiency but requires the longest translation time. AI-assisted conversion speeds up the process but demands human oversight to ensure accuracy and performance. Code regeneration translators offer the fastest conversion but often produce suboptimal GPU code. Ongoing analysis will further refine these comparisons to identify the most effective approach. Final results will provide practical guidance and valuable insights for CFD engineers, supporting the efficient and reliable adaptation of legacy CPU-based code to GPU computing for faster, more cost-effective simulations.Collaborative Center for Aeronautical Sciences (CCAS)The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC)The Undergraduate Honors Committee (UHC)No embargoAcademic Major: Aerospace Engineerin