Digital Commons Network^™

Chemistry In The City Module, Ji Kim

Open Educational Resources

This project integrates a historical environmental health report from the CUNY Digital History Archive into an online Introductory Chemistry course to connect core chemical concepts with real urban pollution issues. Students analyze perchloroethylene contamination in apartments above dry cleaners, apply concepts such as volatility, vapor pressure, and concentration units, and reflect on chemical principles underlying indoor air pollution.

Chemistry In The City Module, Ji Kim

Open Educational Resources

This project integrates a historical environmental health report from the CUNY Digital History Archive into an online Introductory Chemistry course to connect core chemical concepts with real urban pollution issues. Students analyze perchloroethylene contamination in apartments above dry cleaners, apply concepts such as volatility, vapor pressure, and concentration units, and reflect on chemical principles underlying indoor air pollution.

Intimate Partner Violence And Emotion Regulation Among Emerging Adults: Investigating The Roles Of Dispositional Mindfulness And Executive Function In The Context Of A Laboratory-Induced Stress Paradigm, Mikell Bursky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major public health concern that impacts an estimated 10 million men and women in the United States annually. IPV refers to a range of physical, sexual or psychological forms of aggression committed against a current or former romantic partner in the context of a relationship. The highest rates of IPV are observed in emerging adulthood, a developmental period between the ages of 18 to 25 that is significant for the transition from adolescence into adulthood, and the establishment of first meaningful intimate relationships. Although distal risk factors for IPV such as violence in the …

Social Media-Based Social Comparisons Among Socially Anxious Young Adults: The Role Of Cognitive Reappraisal, Jennifer L. De Rutte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social media is a central context for social interaction and self-evaluation among young adults. For those with elevated social anxiety, these environments may be especially salient because they provide frequent opportunities for social comparison. Although upward social comparison on social media has been linked to poorer emotional outcomes, less is known about its experimental effects among socially anxious young adults or whether upward and downward comparison have distinct effects that extend to later socially evaluative situations. The present study examined these questions in 84 socially anxious young adults randomly assigned to view simulated Instagram feeds eliciting upward comparison, downward comparison, …

Dancing In Circles: Bon Dance As Performance Of The Past, Travis Robb Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project traces the contours of the Japanese folk dance tradition of Bon Dance in Hawaiʻi through the nuances of public scholarship, diaspora, and racial capitalism by producing an original play which aims to perform the knowledge and praxis which the performance ritual puts forward. Treating Bon Dance as muse, the original play examines the necessity of turning to the past in order to disrupt a future made inevitable by oppressive systems; a fiction that comments on and critiques the predictive and generative technologies that have embedded themselves into society at large. Through intertwining conversations that explore prophecy and …

Optimizing Nanoparticle Quality And Function In Applied Research, Angela M. Fried

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Radiology tests are among the fastest-growing categories of diagnostic analysis, and the gold standard of radiology tests is MRI.  MRI can be more informative if a contrast agent is used, and the standard of care contrasting agents (CA) are gadolinium-based.  Gadolinium is a heavy metal, toxic, and contraindicated for renal-compromised patients and the critically ill.  We propose a nanogel (NG) vehicle for an alternative organic CA.  CNs like 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl (TEMPOL) and its derivatives have a variety of medical and industrial uses.  These cyclic CNs are stable, synthetic radicals with distinctive EPR/ESR signals and are helpful for various experimental applications, from …

Investigating The Role Of Striatal Cholinergic Interneuron D2 Receptors In Behavioral Flexibility, Janyn J. Alfred

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dopamine (DA) and acetylcholine (ACh) interact within the striatum to shape reward-based learning and choice behavior. DA D2 receptors on cholinergic interneurons (CIN D2Rs) were genetically knocked out to investigate their role in choice allocation using a two-lever matching paradigm. Behaviorally, both knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice learned the initial task equally well. When shifted to asymmetric matching schedules (VI-90 vs. VI-180), ideal matching predicts that mice should allocate exactly 67% of their total responses to the rich lever. Neither group matched as predicted by the matching law. Instead, the KO mice showed a pattern where the higher rate …

“Voices Of Tomorrow”: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study Of A Middle School Advisory In An Urban Public Charter School, Seth Hull

Theses and Dissertations

Urban middle schools often grapple with how to create spaces that affirm students’ identities and foster authentic engagement within a broader landscape shaped by standardized testing and accountability pressures. This dissertation examines Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and advisory as two relationally grounded practices that can address these challenges. Grounded in critical hope (Zembylas, 2013), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), and community responsive education (Duncan-Andrade, 2022), the study explores the experiences of 12 middle school students who spent seven months investigating their school’s advisory program as student-researchers, as well as the findings that emerged about advisory. Data sources …

Catalytic Synthesis Of Protoberberine Alkaloids And Their Evaluation As Selective Dopamine Receptor Ligands, Ashok Reddy Gudipally

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dopamine regulates motor control, cognition, reward, motivation, and neuroendocrine signaling. Disruption of dopaminergic neurotransmission is closely linked to central nervous system disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, addiction, and related neuropsychiatric conditions. Because these functions are mediated by multiple dopamine receptor subtypes with distinct roles in physiology and disease, the discovery of subtype-selective ligands remains an important goal in neuropharmacology. Within this context, protoberberine alkaloids, particularly tetrahydroprotoberberines (THPBs), are attractive molecular frameworks because they combine structural complexity with broad biological relevance, including measurable activity in CNS-related diseases. Prior work from our laboratory and others established (–)-stepholidine (1.60) as an important lead …

The Effects Of Chronic Nicotine Exposure On Dopamine-Mediated Reinforcement Learning And Striatal Neurotransmission, Srishti Bose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Tobacco is one of the most widely used substances across the United States; tobacco consumption is linked with several diseases and is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the country. Nicotine is the active substrate found in tobacco products, acting as a stimulant, which reinforces continued use. The introduction of tobacco-free options such as e-cigarettes and oral pouches has driven an increase in nicotine exposure across the population, especially in young adults. Acute nicotine use induces neuroadaptations in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, which mediates reinforcement learning and addiction, that potentiates reward-related neurotransmission. Furthermore, there are clinical studies …

Waltzing Into Silence: Time, Space, And The Afterword In Ravel’S Valses Nobles Et Sentimentales In Comparison With Schumann’S Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, Nora I. Bartosik

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation undertakes an analysis of Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales for piano against the backdrop of Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, a work with significant parallels in structure, character, and narrative. The Davidsbündlertänze are examined as a model for the Valses nobles et sentimentales, with an emphasis on the two works’ use of the waltz form, their structure as a series of miniature dances composed as a single cohesive work, and their inclusion of an afterword, or epilogue. The analysis draws from the extensive literature on Schumann’s piano cycles in order to apply similar techniques to …

Cognitive-Affective And Somatic Depressive Symptom Domains Related To Psychological Mechanisms And Sociodemographic Factors, Danielle B. Hazeltine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Major depressive disorder is prevalent, chronic, and heterogeneous, including cognitive- affective (e.g., maladaptive beliefs or thinking patterns and sad mood) and somatic (e.g., fatigue, appetite, or sleep changes) symptom domains. While depression domains have been long theorized, research examining psychological mechanisms underlying this distinction is limited. Preliminary research suggests cognitive-affective symptoms relate more strongly to cognitive mechanisms (cognitive bias, perseverative thought), somatic symptoms relate more strongly to behavioral mechanisms (behavioral inhibition/activation), and gender, race, and ethnicity moderate these relationships. This study examined whether cognitive-affective and somatic symptom domains differentially relate to cognitive and behavioral mechanisms, and whether these relationships are …

The Role Of External Factors In Shaping Carbohydrate Conformational Landscapes, Murat Yaman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Carbohydrates (glycans) are among the most structurally diverse biomolecules and participate in a wide range of biological processes, including molecular recognition, cell adhesion, immune response, host-pathogen interactions, and cellular signaling. Their biological functions are governed by a complex interplay between sequence, stereochemistry, conformational flexibility, and environmental factors. However, the structural heterogeneity and dynamic nature of glycans present significant challenges for both experimental characterization and theoretical modeling. In particular, the relationships between glycan structure, conformational dynamics, and the resulting potential energy surfaces remain incomplete.

This dissertation investigates how external factors modulate the potential energy surfaces of carbohydrates through a combination of …

The Role Of Temperament In Criminal Trajectories: Development, Stability, And Predictive Power Across The Life Course, Joshua A. Lang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Temperament, an individual's largely innate tendency to experience and regulate responses to their environment, has long been studied but was only recently introduced as a primary predictor of criminal behavior (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014). While prior criminological theories have incorporated temperament-related constructs, such as negative affect (Agnew, 1992; Moffitt, 1993) and self-control (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990), no other theory has explicitly positioned temperament as the central factor in offending. DeLisi and Vaughn’s temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior posits that individuals with low effortful control and high negative emotionality—features of a difficult temperament—are more likely to engage in criminal behavior. Despite …

‘A Sense Of The Sea’: Grassroots Culture, Care, And Endurance In Swansea, Cymru, Katy Clark

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis argues that under present conditions, everyday political-aesthetic life is not only about resistance or reproduction but about holding: the work of keeping people, practices, and attachment present and oriented as conditions change. Holding takes the form of care and maintenance; as practices of making, assembling, and imagining; and as the work that keeps open the possibility of renewed attachment to public things and to each other. In the field, this was named as ‘a sense of the sea’, an affective register characterized by wariness, attunement, attentiveness, orientation, and endurance. I am calling this a fragile infrastructure of …

Towards Identifying Fear And Safety Network States Across Sex, Rhonda Kolaric

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma- and stressor-related disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 5-6% in men, and 10-12% in women (National Center for PTSD). Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent anxiety- and depression-related psychiatric disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 1-2% in men, and 3-4% in women (National Institutes of Health). Both of these disorders disproportionately affect women. A hallmark feature of both disorders is the maladaptive generalization of fear, in which defensive responses extend beyond the original traumatic or threatening stimulus to neutral or unrelated cues. This overgeneralization can become debilitating, disrupting cognitive, emotional, and …

Symphonies That "Sing": Reevaluating Voices And Vocality In Mahler's Early Symphonies, Erin M. Johnston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation considers the role of vocal music in Gustav Mahler’s early symphonies through the lens of the composer’s practice of self-borrowing. Mahler was known to use his own pre-existing songs as the basis for large-scale movements in his early symphonies. While scholars have long recognized the close relationship between Mahler’s songs and symphonies, existing studies have emphasized questions of biography, intertextuality, musical meaning, and quotation rather than sustained analytical investigations of vocal influence in Mahler’s large-scale symphonic forms. The present study places this vocality at the forefront of its analyses, arguing that Mahler’s reworking of his own Lieder is …

Introduction To Film, Teresa A. Fisher

Open Educational Resources

An introduction to the filmmaking process including film history, narrative, mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography, sound, and acting. Includes a chapter on documentary film, experimental film, and animation.

Seventeenth Century Poetry And Music: A Syllabus (English 721), Carrie Hintz

Open Educational Resources

A syllabus for my fall English 721 class (Seventeenth Century Literature: Poetry and Music).

Enabling Asl Digital Communication Under Poor Internet Access, Swann Thantsin

Student Theses

Video conferencing degrades asymmetrically. When bandwidth falls, a hearing caller loses picture quality and keeps the conversation; a deaf and hard of hearing signer, whose language is carried entirely in the visual modality, loses the conversation. This thesis asks whether signed video reduced to the rates at which commercial platforms fail can be reconstructed at the receiver well enough to keep signing legible. A twostage reduction pipeline crops to the signer and transmits the face and hands at higher fidelity than their surroundings, achieving a reduction of approximately 99%; reconstruction uses a recurrent bottleneck mixer architecture, trained both conventionally and …

Behavioral Indicators Of Stress In Wild Savanna-Dwelling Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) In Fongoli, Senegal, Leah T. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Stress influences health, reproduction, social relationships, and survival in primates. I identified behavioral indicators of stress in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and determined whether coping strategies varied between behavioral contexts. Coping behavior differed significantly across contexts and behaviors, indicating that coping behaviors are strategically utilized in different contexts and provide insight into the emotional regulation of chimpanzees.

Queer Postsecular Conocimiento: Anzaldúan Readings Of Time, Spirituality, And Transformation In Nugent, Vuong, And Herrera, Joshua A. Swem

Theses and Dissertations

An overreliance on secularism within the field of queer theory and a denial of spiritual epistemologies prevent deep, alternative, and transformative strategies of analyzing literature. It can regurgitate oppressive ideology in academia. In this work, I synthesize Gloria Anzaldúa’s theoretical concepts of mestiza consciousness, nepantla, la facultad, and el cenote with José Esteban Muñoz’s queer temporality and futurity as a framework to engage with literary texts in queer, postsecular ways, freeing up fresh insights and polysemic perspectives. I argue that in  "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" by Richard Bruce Nugent, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri …

The Introduction Of High-Speed Rail And Its Impact On Mode Choice The Case Of Morocco’S Al Boraq, Michael Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Morocco's Al Boraq, Africa's first high-speed rail line, reshaped mode choice along the Casablanca-Tangier corridor. Drawing on ONCF ridership data, 234 rider surveys, and nine months of fieldwork, this ex-post assessment finds accelerated passenger growth, substantial induced demand, and mode shift from automobiles, informing Global South HSR development.

Effect Of Food Resource, Preservation Method, And Preservation Duration On Larval Size Of Forensically Important Fly Species (Order: Diptera), John Zukowski

Student Theses

Forensic entomology is a vital discipline that can aid in the proceedings of criminal cases. Larval age and development are important aspects to consider when utilizing blow flies (Family: Calliphoridae) for estimates pertaining to the initial time of colonization (TOC), which contributes to postmortem interval (PMI) estimations. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that influence larval size and development, since larval size is commonly used as a proxy for age. Larvae of three species of flies, Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Calliphora vicina (Robineau-Desvoidy), and Phormia regina (Meigen), were reared on five different food resources. Specimens of L. sericata and …

Antiviral Activity Of The Polyene Macrolide Roseofungin Against Influenza A Virus: In Vitro, In Ovo, And Preliminary In Vivo Evaluation, Ahdrey P. Bogoyavlenskiy, Vladimir Berezin, Pavel Alexyuk, Madina Alexyuk, Irina Zaitseva, Aidar Mukhametkaliyev, Yergali Moldakhanov, Elmira I. Anarkulova, Timur Kerimov, Vyacheslav Dushenkov

Publications and Research

Roseofungin, a polyene macrolide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces roseoflavus, was evaluated for antiviral activity against Influenza A virus using complementary in vitro, in ovo, and preliminary in vivo toxicity models, supported by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations. The compound exhibited antiviral activity against multiple influenza A virus subtypes, including an oseltamivir-resistant H1N1 strain, with EC₅₀ values ranging from 2.0 to 2.5 μg/mL and selectivity indices of 20–25. Functional assays demonstrated that roseofungin interfered with early stages of the viral life cycle by reducing viral adsorption and partially inhibiting neuraminidase activity. In virucidal assays, treatment with roseofungin resulted …

Enhanced Transdermal Immunization Via Solid-In-Oil Nanodispersions Incorporating Dendritic Cell-Targeting Peptide, Md Samiul Islam, Md. Shahin Ekka Sarker, Yoshirou Kawaguchi, Rie Wakabayashi, Noriho Kamiya, Muhammad Moniruzzaman, Masahiro Goto

Publications and Research

Transdermal immunization represents a promising needle-free alternative to conventional vaccination. However, efficient antigen delivery and robust immune activation remain major challenges. In this study, a solid-in-oil (S/O) nanodispersion system comprising a dendritic cell-targeting peptide (HR8), ovalbumin (OVA), and an adjuvant was developed for transdermal immunization. The HR8 peptide along with OVA was successfully incorporated into an S/O nanodispersion with an optimal hydrodynamic diameter of particles (< 200 nm) and exhibited stable physical properties for up to 90 days. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated enhanced antigen delivery with insignificant skin irritation in C57BL/6N mice. Moreover, in vivo transdermal immunization studies demonstrated that the addition of the HR8 peptide enhanced OVA-specific IgG responses (~1.5-fold). Notably, the HR8 peptide also promoted an approximately 2.5-fold increase in IgG2c levels, suggesting a shift toward a more T helper type 1-biased immune response, as reflected by an increased IgG2c/IgG1 ratio. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the incorporation of HR8 peptide into an S/O nanodispersion enables efficient transdermal antigen delivery and improved immunogenicity, highlighting its potential as a simple, non-invasive, and patient-friendly immunization strategy.

Vestirse Con Un Cuadro”: El Mantón De Manila En La Encrucijada Entre Tradición Y Modernidad En Fortunata Y Jacinta De Benito Pérez Galdós, Ines Corujo Martin

Publications and Research

Este artículo analiza la relevancia sociocultural que adquirió el mantón de Manila en la España de finales del siglo XIX, tomandocomo punto de partida las diversas representaciones de esta prenda en la novela Fortunata y Jacinta(1887) de Benito Pérez Galdós. Como se propone, el mantón, prenda de origen asiático cuyo surgimiento está ligado a la ruta comercial colonial de los Galeones de Manila, constituye en el texto galdosiano un objeto clave para explorar algunos de los debates centrales del imaginario cultural finisecular en torno a la identidad nacional, forjada entre el tradicionalismo y la modernidad. El llamativo accesorio, ligado a …

Trustworthiness As Inferential Accountability In Qualitative Research, Aamir Rashid, Rizwana Rasheed

Publications and Research

Trustworthiness is a cornerstone of qualitative research rigor, yet it is frequently operationalized as a procedural checklist rather than as a coherent logic for justifying qualitative knowledge claims. As a result, qualitative studies often demonstrate methodological diligence without fully explicating how empirical materials warrant the interpretations advanced or how the scope of those interpretations should be bounded. The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize trustworthiness as inferential accountability, understood as a governing evaluative principle for qualitative inquiry that provides a coherent and contemporary framework for the justification, evaluation, and delimitation of qualitative claims. The paper adopts a conceptual and …

Signal And Substance: Why Methodological Sophistication Fails To Guarantee Inference, Aamir Rashid, Rizwana Rasheed

Publications and Research

Despite increasing analytical sophistication, empirical research in organization studies continues to suffer from fragile inference, uneven theoretical accumulation, and contested credibility. This paper seeks to explain why these problems persist by shifting attention from authors’ methodological choices to the evaluative dynamics of peer review. Adopting a conceptual and theory-analytic approach, the paper theorizes peer review as an inferential gatekeeping system. Drawing on research design, theory evaluation, and philosophy-of-science literatures, this study develops an analytical framework to examine how evaluative routines shape what constitutes empirical rigor during the review process. The analysis identifies five recurring reviewer blind spots: inferential scope inflation, …

The Double Attraction Paradox, Rem Jaen D. Krafft

Publications and Research

The Double Attraction Paradox is a podcast series that teaches adolescents how to navigate attraction through body language, limerence, and mirroring while understanding the psychology behind emotional connection. It is a manuscript that combines personal experience, observations, and research, inspired by Rem Jaen D. Krafft's high school crush. Not only does it provide a guide for teenagers and young adults, but it also encourages readers to better understand attraction, communication, and emotional development. The final chapter examines how peer pressure, traditional high school cliques, fear of rejection, and fear of intimacy may influence societal norms, emotional contagion, and relationship formation …