Engineering Commons^™

Breadcrumbs: Privacy As A Privilege, Prachi Bhardwaj

Capstones

Breadcrumbs: Privacy as a Privilege Abstract

By: Prachi Bhardwaj

In 2017, the world saw more data breaches than in any year prior. The count was more than the all-time high record in 2016, which was 40 percent more than the year before that.

That’s because consumer data is incredibly valuable today. In the last three decades, data storage has gone from being stored physically to being stored almost entirely digitally, which means consumer data is more accessible and applicable to business strategies. As a result, companies are gathering data in ways previously unknown to the average consumer, and hackers are …

Assessment Of Differences Between Near-Surface Air And Soil Temperatures For Reliable Detection Of High-Latitude Freeze And Thaw States, Farjana Shati, Satya Prakash, Hamid Norouzi, Reginald Blake

Publications and Research

Near-surface air temperature and the underlying soil temperature are among the key components of the Earth’s surface energy budget, and they are important variables for the comprehensive assessment of global climate change. Better understanding of the difference in magnitude between these two variables over high-latitude regions is also crucial for accurate detections of freeze and thaw (FT) states. However, these differences are not usually considered and included in current remote sensing-based FT detection algorithms. In this study, the difference between near-surface air temperature at the 2-meter height and soil temperature at the 5-centimeter depth is assessed using ground-based observations that …

Learning About Women In Stem For First-Year Students [Liberal Arts: Math And Science], Reem Jaafar, Ian Alberts

Open Educational Resources

This assignment was designed for students in the first year seminar and aligns with the Inquiry and Problem Solving core competency, with a focus on “framing the issues” (identifies and/or addresses questions problems and/or hypothesis informed by knowledge of context) and “evidence gathering” (assembles, reviews and synthesizes evidence from diverse sources of relevant knowledge). Both assignments rely on writing and one may include an oral component. In writing, the focus is on “Content Development and Organization,” as well as “Control of Language, Syntax, and Mechanics.”

LaGuardia’s Core Competencies and Communication Abilities

Main Course Learning Objectives:

• The LMF course for Liberal …

Nonlinear Optical Studies Of Defects And Domain Structures In Perovskite-Type Dielectric Ceramics, David J. Ascienzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to improve future generations of dielectric capacitors a deeper understanding of voltage-induced dielectric breakdown and electrical energy storage limitations is required. This dissertation presents the use of far-field optical second harmonic generation (SHG) polarimetry for probing structural defects and polar domains in linear and nonlinear perovskite dielectric ceramics. We investigated the formation of electric field-induced structural distortions at pristine Fe-doped SrTiO₃ (Fe:STO) electrode interfaces, structural defect and strain formation due to oxygen vacancy migration in electrodegraded Fe:STO single crystals, and mixed tetragonal and rhombohedral phase domains in ferroelectric Zr-doped BaTiO₃ (BZT) films exhibiting excellent …

Chelator-Free Radiolabeling Of Serrs Nanoparticles For Whole-Body Pet And Intraoperative Raman Imaging, Matthew A. Wall, Travis Shaffer, Stefan Harmsen, Darjus-Felix Tschaharganeh, Chun-Hao Huang, Scott W. Lowe, Charles Michael Drain, Moritz F. Kircher

Publications and Research

A single contrast agent that offers whole-body non-invasive imaging along with the superior sensitivity and spatial resolution of surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) imaging would allow both pre-operative mapping and intraoperative imaging and thus be highly desirable. We hypothesized that labeling our recently reported ultrabright SERRS nanoparticles with a suitable radiotracer would enable pre-operative identification of regions of interest with whole body imaging that can be rapidly corroborated with a Raman imaging device or handheld Raman scanner in order to provide high precision guidance during surgical procedures. Here we present a straightforward new method that produces radiolabeled SERRS nanoparticles for …

Insights Into The Binding Mode Of Mek Type-Iii Inhibitors. A Step Towards Discovering And Designing Allosteric Kinase Inhibitors Across The Human Kinome, Zheng Zhao, Lei Xie, Philip E. Bourne

Publications and Research

Protein kinases are critical drug targets for treating a large variety of human diseases. Type- III kinase inhibitors have attracted increasing attention as highly selective therapeutics. Thus, understanding the binding mechanism of existing type-III kinase inhibitors provides useful insights into designing new type-III kinase inhibitors. In this work, we have systematically studied the binding mode of MEK-targeted type-III inhibitors using structural systems pharmacology and molecular dynamics simulation. Our studies provide detailed sequence, structure, interaction-fingerprint, pharmacophore and binding-site information on the binding characteristics of MEK type-III kinase inhibitors. We hypothesize that the helix-folding activation loop is a hallmark allosteric binding site …

Development Of Geospatial And Temporal Characteristics For Hispaniola’S Lake Azuei And Enriquillo Using Landsat Imagery, Mahrokh Moknatian, Michael Piasecki, Jorge Gonzalez

Publications and Research

In this paper, we used Landsat imagery for water body identification to create a novel 36-year surface area extent time series for lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic) aimed at illuminating the dramatic temporal changes of these two lakes not just at yearly but at monthly or even sub-monthly scales. We used the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to extract water features and we also used spatial differentiation and thresholding techniques to remove clouds and associated shadows from the scene that were then passed through gap filling algorithms to complete and extract the lake extent polygons. We also explored …

Toward Measuring Network Aesthetics Based On Symmetry, Zengqiang Chen, Matthias Dehmer, Frank Emmert-Streib, Abbe Mowshowitz, Yongtang Shi

Publications and Research

In this exploratory paper, we discuss quantitative graph-theoretical measures of network aesthetics. Related work in this area has typically focused on geometrical features (e.g., line crossings or edge bendiness) of drawings or visual representations of graphs which purportedly affect an observer’s perception. Here we take a very different approach, abandoning reliance on geometrical properties, and apply information-theoretic measures to abstract graphs and networks directly (rather than to their visual representaions) as a means of capturing classical appreciation of structural symmetry. Examples are used solely to motivate the approach to measurement, and to elucidate our symmetry-based mathematical theory of network aesthetics.

Proof Of Concept: Development Of Snow Liquid Water Content Profiler Using Cs650 Reflectometers At Caribou, Me, Usa, Carlos L. Pérez Díaz, Jonathan Muñoz, Tarendra Lakhankar, Reza Khanbilvardi, Peter Romanov

Publications and Research

The quantity of liquid water in the snowpack defines its wetness. The temporal evolution of snow wetness’s plays a significant role in wet-snow avalanche prediction, meltwater release, and water availability estimations and assessments within a river basin. However, it remains a difficult task and a demanding issue to measure the snowpack’s liquid water content (LWC) and its temporal evolution with conventional in situ techniques. We propose an approach based on the use of time-domain reflectometry (TDR) and CS650 soil water content reflectometers to measure the snowpack’s LWC and temperature profiles. For this purpose, we created an easily-applicable, low-cost, automated, and …

A Comparison Of Modis/Viirs Cloud Masks Over Ice-Bearing River: On Achieving Consistent Cloud Masking And Improved River Ice Mapping, Simon Kraatz, Reza Khanbilvardi, Peter Romanov

Publications and Research

The capability of frequently and accurately monitoring ice on rivers is important, since it may be possible to timely identify ice accumulations corresponding to ice jams. Ice jams are dam-like structures formed from arrested ice floes, and may cause rapid flooding. To inform on this potential hazard, the CREST River Ice Observing System (CRIOS) produces ice cover maps based on MODIS and VIIRS overpass data at several locations, including the Susquehanna River. CRIOS uses the respective platform’s automatically produced cloud masks to discriminate ice/snow covered grid cells from clouds. However, since cloud masks are produced using each instrument’s data, and …

Removal Of Organic Micro-Pollutants From Water Using Sewage Sludge Based Composite Adsorbents, Rui Ding

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Millions of tons of sewage sludge, waste oil sludge and fish waste are produced annually, and improper treatment/disposal of these wastes have resulted in numerous environmental issues. On the other hand, these wastes are rich in organic materials, metals, and inorganic minerals and could be sustainable resources if utilized properly. The main purpose of this dissertation study was, therefore, to convert these wastes into composite adsorbents, and then use these adsorbents to remove various types of organic pollutants, emerging organic contaminants in particular, from wastewater and drinking water sources.

It is hypothesized that a hydrophobic carbon phase in the composite …

Enzymatically Active Microspheres For Self-Propelled Colloidal Engines, Jungeun Park

Dissertations and Theses

Micro- and nano-motors have attracted numerous attentions from various scientific areas due to their potential applications. Most studies on self-propelled colloidal engines have exploited catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to drive the motor. Since the hydrogen peroxide is caustic, it is not suitable to use in biological applications, encouraging people to develop “greener” fuels. The aim of this research is to study a new transduction mechanism for self-propulsion not tied to hydrogen peroxide, and which can in particular be used with biological molecules as fuels. In this study, we focus on making particles with enzymatic activity which can effectively decompose …

2d Vector Map And Database Design For Indoor Assisted Navigation, Luciano Caraciolo Albuquerque

Dissertations and Theses

In this paper we implemented a 2D Vector Map, map editor and Database design intended to provide an efficient way to convert cad files from indoor environments to a set of vectors representing hallways, doors, exits, elevators, and other entities embedded in a floor plan, and save them in a database for use by other applications, such as assisted navigation for blind people.

A graphical application as developed in C++ to allow the user to input a CAD DXF file, process the file to automatically obtain nodes and edges, and save the nodes and edges to a database for posterior …