Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Of Aerosol Transmission Of Covid 19 In Indoor Environments, Adama Barro, Cathal O'Toole, Jacob S. Lopez, Matthew Quinones, Sherene Moore

Publications and Research

Our reason for discussing severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or 2019 novel corona virus (Covid-19), is to understand its aerosol transmission characteristics in indoor spaces and to mitigate further spread of this disease by designing a new HVAC system. The problem that we are tackling is the spread of covid-19 droplets through aerosol transmission by looking at potential engineering solutions to the existing HVAC systems. The purpose is to eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 by testing indoor spaces in an effort to understand the effectiveness of ventilation controls. We believe that scientists and engineers have not …

Protocol For A National Probability Survey Using Home Specimen Collection Methods To Assess Prevalence And Incidence Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Antibody Response, Aaron J. Siegler, Patrick S. Sullivan, Travis Sanchez, Ben Lopman, Mansour Fahimi, Charles Sailey, Martin Frankel, Richard Rothenberg, Colleen F. Kelley, Heather Bradley

Publications and Research

Purpose: The U.S. response to the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has been hampered by early and ongoing delays in testing for infection; without data on where infections were occurring and the magnitude of the epidemic, early public health responses were not data-driven. Understanding the prevalence of SARSCoV- 2 infections and immune response is critical to developing and implementing effective public health responses. Most serological surveys have been limited to localities that opted to conduct them and/or were based on convenience samples. Moreover, results of antibody testing might be subject to high false positive rates in the setting of low prevalence of immune …

Mapping Gadolinium Contrast In A Complex Ionic And Photosynthesis Environment Of Pineapple By Near-Infrared And X-Ray Imaging, Subhendra Sarkar, Zoya Vinokur, Chen Xu, Tetiana Soloviova, Amina Shahbaz, Aldona Gjoni

Publications and Research

This work explores the diffusivity of a lanthanide complex, Eovist (Gadolinium-Ethoxy Benzyl Diethylenetriamine pentaacetate) that is stable in neutral media but is not in acidic environment. In the current work an acidic fruit model like pineapple that is rich in transition metals was used and a possible transmetallation reaction among Eovist and transition metal complexes was tested using X-ray imaging. Another goal of this work was to perturb the usual and the unusual photosynthesis systems that pineapple has maintained for millions of years during the evolution of circadian genes for efficient water conservation by dark photosynthesis. To detect such photosynthesis …

Emerging Technologies In Healthcare: Analysis Of Unos Data Through Machine Learning, Reyhan Merekar

Student Theses and Dissertations

The healthcare industry is primed for a massive transformation in the coming decades due to emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. With a practical application to the UNOS (United Network of Organ Sharing) database, this Thesis seeks to investigate how Machine Learning and analytic methods may be used to predict one-year heart transplantation outcomes. This study also sought to improve on predictive performances from prior studies by analyzing both Donor and Recipient data. Models built with algorithms such as Stacking and Tree Boosting gave the highest performance, with AUC’s of 0.6810 and 0.6804, respectively. In this …

Presence Of Electron Donor/Acceptor Radiographic Contrast Media In Unusual Photosynthesis Environment Of Fresh Plant Cells: Near-Infrared And X-Ray Characterization, Tetiana Soloviova, Subhendra Sarkar, Amina Shahbaz, Aldona Gjoni

Publications and Research

Photosynthesis is a chemical process through which light energy is used to convert inorganic material (water and carbon dioxide) into organic molecules. Anaerobic photosynthesis, also known as anoxygenic photosynthesis, is the process by which certain bacteria use light energy to create organic compounds but do not adequately involve oxygen. In this experiment we are trying to influence photosynthesis (light and dark reactions: PS-I and PS-II by electron rich gadolinium/iodine complexes like Eovist and Isovue. We also performed X-ray and NIR reflection spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure Gd difusivity and PS-I/II infrared response. The results for X-ray (45kvp and 5 Mas ) …

Estimating Population Immunity Without Serological Testing, Andrew Lesniewski

Publications and Research

We propose an approximate methodology for estimating the overall level of immunity against COVID-19 in a population that has been affected by the recent epidemic. The methodology relies on the currently available mortality data and utilizes the properties of the SIR model. We illustrate the application of the method by estimating the recent levels of immunity in 10 US states with highest case numbers of COVID-19.

A Study Of Cholera Transmission, Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar

Open Educational Resources

A recent cholera outbreak in Haiti brought public attention to this disease. Cholera, a diarrheal disease, is caused by an intestinal bacterium, and if not addressed in a timely manner may become fatal. During the project described here, the students will learn how to solve and address a practical problem such as cholera transmission using various mathematical tools. Students will learn to develop a differential equation model based on practical scenarios, analyze the model using mathematics as well as numerical simulation, and finally describe the results in words that are understandable by the people who are not specialists in this …

Impact Of Meteorological Factors On The Covid-19 Transmission: A Multicity Study In China, Jiangtao Liu, Ji Zhou, Jinxi Yao, Xiuxia Zhang, Lanyu Li, Xiaocheng Xu, Xiaotao He, Bo Wang, Shihua Fu, Tingting Niu, Jun Yan, Yanjun Shi, Xiaowei Ren, Jingping Niu, Weihao Zhu, Sheng Li, Bin Luo, Kai Zhang

Publications and Research

The purpose of the present study is to explore the associations between novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) case counts and meteorological factors in 30 provincial capital cities of China. We compiled a daily dataset including confirmed case counts, ambient temperature (AT), diurnal temperature range (DTR), absolute humidity (AH) and migration scale index (MSI) for each city during the period of January 20th to March 2nd, 2020. First, we explored the associations between COVID-19 confirmed case counts, meteorological factors, and MSI using non-linear regression. Then, we conducted a two-stage analysis for 17 cities with more than 50 confirmed cases. In …

Artificial Intelligence: A New Paradigm In Obstetrics And Gynecology Research And Clinical Practice, Pulwasha Iftikhar, Marcela V. Kuijpers, Azadeh Khayyat, Aqsa Iftikhar, Maribel Degouvia De Sa

Publications and Research

Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing exponentially in various fields, including medicine. This paper reviews the pertinent aspects of AI in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) and how these can be applied to improve patient outcomes and reduce the healthcare costs and workload for clinicians.

Herein, we will address current AI uses in OB/GYN, and the use of AI as a tool to interpret fetal heart rate (FHR) and cardiotocography (CTG) to aid in the detection of preterm labor, pregnancy complications, and review discrepancies in its interpretation between clinicians to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. AI systems can be used …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 6.0, Robert O. Duncan, Joseph Bisz, Christina Boyle, Kathleen Offenholley, Maura A. Smale, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. These proceedings summarize the CUNY Games Conference 6.0, where scholars shared research findings at a three-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogy in higher education. Presenters could share findings in oral presentations, posters, demos, or play testing sessions. The conference also included workshops on how to modify existing …

Polymers For Extrusion‐Based 3d Printing Of Pharmaceuticals: A Holistic Materials–Process Perspective, Mohammad A. Azad, Deborah Olawuni, Georgia Kimbell, Abu Zayed Badruddoza, Md. Shahadat Hossain, Tasnim Sultana

Publications and Research

Three dimensional (3D) printing as an advanced manufacturing technology is progressing to be established in the pharmaceutical industry to overcome the traditional manufacturing regime of ʹone size fits for allʹ. Using 3D printing, it is possible to design and develop complex dosage forms that can be suitable for tuning drug release. Polymers are the key materials that are necessary for 3D printing. Among all 3D printing processes, extrusion‐based (both fused deposition modeling (FDM) and pressure‐assisted microsyringe (PAM)) 3D printing is well researched for pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is important to understand which polymers are suitable for extrusion‐based 3D printing of pharmaceuticals …

Research Paper Development Assignment: Guidelines, Cerr Worksheets, Global Learning Worksheet, And Powerpoint Presentation Prompts And Rubric, Angela Padilla

Open Educational Resources

❏ This Research Paper Assignment is designed for NSF & LMF courses (STEM majors). The assignment is to have students research a global scientific issue. Possible topics that work well for this assignment contain solar panel use, the increase in health issues (like respiratory or mental health conditions) due to global warming/climate change, animal (and other living organism) extinction (or increase) due to global warming, sea level rise, coastal flooding, how the increase in ocean plastics affects the ocean and its species (which affect the environment/climate), etc. However, any global scientific topic will do.

❏ The assignment’s main objectives are …

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

From The Human To The Planetary: Speculative Futures Of Care, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

This is largely a theoretical, speculative essay that takes on the question of what ‘care’ looks like at a moment when climate change is increasingly taking center stage in public and political discussions. Starting with two new practices, namely, humanitarian care for nonhumans and One Health collaborations, I seek to determine what forms of political care can incorporate the well-being of future generations and future iterations of the earth. After an exploration of One Health as an approach to planetary care, I ask what its parts enable us to think, despite its limitations; I focus on the new human-nonhuman assemblages …

Inference Of Language Functional Network In Healthy, Cancerous And Bilingual Brains By Fmri And Network Modeling, Qiongge Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We study the underlying mechanism by which language processing occurs in the human brain using inference methods on functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The data analyzed stems from several cohorts of subjects; a monolingual group, a bilingual group, a healthy control group and one diseased case. We applied a complex statistical inference pipeline to determine the network structure of brain components involved with language. This healthy network reveals a fully connected triangular relationship between the pre-Supplementary Motor Area (pre-SMA), the Broca's Area (BA), and the ventral Pre-Motor Area (PreMA) in the left hemisphere. This "triangle'' shows consistently in all the …

Writing For Sciences, Michael Coppola

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Screening Method For Drugs Of Abuse By Direct Analysis Of Dried Urine Spots Coupled To Mass Spectrometry, Melanie Goldstein

Student Theses

Fast and easy screening procedures are essential in any forensic toxicology laboratory to differentiate negative samples from presumptive positive cases. Immunoassay techniques, such as enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT), are routinely employed as screening procedures. However, these techniques lack specificity (only differentiate group of drugs and not individual compounds) and it is difficult to add new compounds to the panel. Direct analysis of dried urine spots (DUS) by mass spectrometry (MS) offers a novel strategy to overcome these issues. DUS offer an improved storage alternative for biological samples, reducing costs and space requirements. In this work, an original method to …

Sickle Cell Disease Complications: Prevalence And Resource Utilization, Nirmish Shah, Menaka Bhor, Lin Xi, Jincy Paulose, Huseyin Yuce

Publications and Research

Objectives: This study evaluated the prevalence rate of vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) episodes, rates of uncomplicated and complicated VOC episodes, and the primary reasons for emergency room (ER) visits and inpatient admissions for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients.

Methods: The Medicaid Analytic extracts database was used to identify adult SCD patients using claims from 01JUL2009-31DEC2012. The date of the first observed SCD claim was designated as the index date. Patients were required to have continuous medical and pharmacy benefits for .6 months baseline and .12 months follow-up period. Patient demographics, baseline clinical characteristics, the rate of uncomplicated and complicated VOC (VOC …

Determination Of Anxiolytic And Antidepressant Medicines In New York City Wastewater Samples, Jasmine J. Gayle

Student Theses

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) provides information about a population’s exposure to certain chemical agents, such as drugs of abuse and medicines, by the analysis of human biomarkers, also known as excretion products, in wastewater samples. Although this is a growing field worldwide, mainly in Europe, Oceania, and Asia, limited data from the US are currently available. We developed and validated an analytical method to quantitatively and qualitatively determine the presence of commonly prescribed drugs to treat anxiety (alprazolam, buspirone, clonazepam, lorazepam, and propranolol) and depression (bupropion, citalopram, clomipramine, duloxetine, fluoxetine, imipramine, paroxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine) in wastewater using liquid chromatography tandem …

A Pretargeted Spect Imaging Strategy Employing Technetium-99m Based On Bioorthogonal Diels-Alder Click Chemistry, Justin H. Walsh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A series of related N₃S ^99mTc-peptide complexes were synthesized and tested for use in pretargeting SPECT imaging that utilizes the bioorthogonal Diels-Alder click reaction between tetrazine (Tz) and transcyclooctene (TCO). The objective was to optimize the excretory pathways of the ^99mTc-peptide complexes for maximum tumor targeting with the in vivo “click” and minimum non-target uptake. The ^99mTc–tetrazine constructs were prepared by reaction of ^99mTc-peptide complexes (^99mTc-FKC, ^99mTc-FKCR, ^99mTc-DKC, and ^99mTc-SKC) with Tz-NHS or Tz-PEG₅-NHS to form ^99mTc FK(Tz)C, ^99mTc-FK(PEG₅-Tz)CR, ^99mTc-DK(PEG₅-Tz)C, …

Comparative Clinical Outcomes Between Direct Oral Anticoagulants And Warfarin Among Elderly Patients With Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation In The Cms Medicare Population, Alpesh Amin, Oluwaseyi Dina, Allison Keshishian, Amol Dhamane, Anagha Nadkarni, Eric Carda, Cristina Russ, Lisa Rosenblatt, Jack Mardekian, Huseyin Yuce, Christine L. Baker

Publications and Research

Atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence increases with age; > 80% of US adults with AF are aged ≥ 65 years. Compare the risk of stroke/systemic embolism (SE), major bleeding (MB), net clinical outcome (NCO), and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) among elderly non-valvular AF (NVAF) Medicare patients prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) vs warfarin. NVAF patients aged ≥ 65 years who initiated DOACs (apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban) or warfarin were selected from 01JAN2013-31DEC2015 in CMS Medicare data. Propensity score matching was used to balance DOAC and warfarin cohorts. Cox proportional hazards models estimated the risk of stroke/SE, MB, NCO, and MACE. 37,525 …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 5.0, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Kathleen Offenholley, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm, Anders A. Wallace

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. The CUNY Games Conference distills its best cutting-edge interactive presentations into a two-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogies in higher education, focusing particularly on non-digital learning activities that faculty can use in the classroom every day. The conference will include workshops lead by CUNY Games Organizers on …

Allergen Sensitization And Asthma Outcomes Among World Trade Center Rescue And Recovery Workers, Belen Rojano, Erin West, Emily Federmann, Steven Markowitz, Denise Harrison, Laura Crowley, Paula Busse, Alex D. Federman, Juan P. Wisnivesky

Publications and Research

A large number of World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers are affected by asthma. While physical and mental health comorbidities have been associated with poor asthma control in this population, the potential role of allergen sensitization is unknown. This study examined the association of indoor sensitization and exposure as a risk factor for increased asthma morbidity in WTC workers. We used data from a prospective cohort of 331 WTC workers with asthma. Sensitization to indoor allergens was assessed by measurement of antigen-specific serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. We used validated tools to evaluate the exposure to indoor allergens. …

Deep Learning Based Medical Image Analysis With Limited Data, Jiaxing Tan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Deep Learning Methods have shown its great effort in the area of Computer Vision. However, when solving the problems of medical imaging, deep learning’s power is confined by limited data available. We present a series of novel methodologies for solving medical imaging analysis problems with limited Computed tomography (CT) scans available. Our method, based on deep learning, with different strategies, including using Generative Adversar- ial Networks, two-stage training, infusing the expert knowledge, voting based or converting to other space, solves the data set limitation issue for the cur- rent medical imaging problems, specifically cancer detection and diagnosis, and shows very …

Using Fundamental Properties Of Light To Investigate Photonic Effects In Condensed Matter And Biological Tissues, Laura A. Sordillo

Dissertations and Theses

Light possesses characteristics such as polarization, wavelength and coherence. The interaction of light and matter, whether in a semiconductor or in a biological sample, can reveal important information about the internal properties of a system. My thesis focuses on two areas: photocarriers in gallium arsenide and biomedical optics. Varying the excitation wavelength can be used to study both biological tissue and condensed matter. I altered the excitation wavelengths to be in the longer near-infrared (NIR) optical windows, in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range, a wavelength region previously thought to be unusable for medical imaging. With this method, I acquired high …

Microbial Diversity In Urban Environments: Concern For Antibiotic Resistance, Ality Aghedo, Mangala Tawde, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

We are almost oblivious to the presence of microorganisms in our daily lives, but they exist and come into contact with us all the time. While some bacteria are harmless, and even beneficial, other bacteria can cause infections. A common treatment to bacterial infections is antibiotics and the success of an antibiotic depends on the resistance of the bacteria to the antibiotic. We conducted experiments to identify the types of bacteria that can be found on surfaces or within soil environments that come into contact with a vast number of people on a daily basis and how this can affect …

Brownsfields To Greenfields: Environmental Justice Versus Environmental Gentrification, Juliana A. Maantay, Andrew Maroko

Publications and Research

Gentrification is a growing concern in many urban areas, due to the potential for displacement of lower-income and other vulnerable populations. This process can be accelerated when neighborhood “greening” projects are undertaken via governmental or private investor efforts, resulting in a phenomenon termed environmental or “green” gentrification. Vacant land in lower-income areas is often improved by the existing community through the creation of community gardens, but this contributes to these greening efforts and paradoxically may spur gentrification and subsequent displacement of the gardens’ stewards and neighbors. “Is proximity to community gardens in less affluent neighborhoods associated with an increased likelihood …

Career/Interview Project, Kevin Mark

Open Educational Resources

Two of the core competencies designated for The First Year Seminar Liberal Arts Math and Science (LMF 101) course are Integrative Learning and Global Learning along with oral communication. These abilities are exercised by students in the Career/Interview Presentation project. The main goal of the assignment is to promote student networking within the scientific community through interviews with an expert in the field. Also the FYS students will conduct background research about their career choices and use their findings to determine if they can be realized when interviewing a professional. The assignment is scaffolded whereby students will learn to use …

Introduction To Data Analysis Using Excel And Lab Report Writing Using Lagcc Institution Data, Kevin Mark

Open Educational Resources

Objectives

Part 1: An Introduction to Data Analysis Using Excel

1. To interpret, summarize and present numerical data using the digital tool Microsoft program Excel.
2. To plot numerical data as a graph and determine an equation of a line. In addition, using the appropriate formatting functions to label your graph and creating a best fit line.

Part 2: Lab Report Writing Using LaGCC Institutional Data

1. To communicate your interpretations of research data. This is done writing discussions and conclusions (using scientific language) and is often accompanied by data tables and graphs.
2. To use your Microsoft Excel graphing skills to interpret, inquire …

Tmsotf Assisted Synthesis Of 2’-Deoxy-2’-[18f] Fluoro-Β-D-Arabinofuranosylcytosine ([18f] Fac), Kishore K. Gangangari, John L. Humm, Steven M. Larson, Naga Vara Kishore Pillarsetty

Publications and Research

[¹⁸F]FAC (2’-deoxy-2’-[¹⁸F]fluoro-β-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine, 1) is a versatile probe for imaging deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) expression levels in vivo. dCK is responsible for phosphorylation of deoxycytidine (dC, 2) and other nucleoside analogs, plays a key role in immune activation and has demonstrated to be one of the key enzymes in activating nucleoside based drugs including gemcitabine. Reported synthesis of [¹⁸F]FAC is high yielding but is quite challenging requiring bromination using HBr and careful drying of excess HBr which is critical for successful synthesis. Here in we report a simplified trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate (TMSOTf) assisted synthesis …