Digital Commons Network^™

Locational Data And The Public Interest, William A. Herbert, Micahel Goodchild, Richard Appelbaum, Jeremy Crampton, Gary Langham, Krzysztof Janowicz, Mei-Po Kwan, Katina Michael, Lisa Schamess

Publications and Research

This article presents a paper developed by the AAG Organizing Committee on Locational Information and the Public Interest through a summit held in Santa Barbara, California in June 2022. The summit resulted in goals and ideas for addressing the issues that arise from the present environment for geodata, whereby public, private, and third-sector entities can tap into publicly available locational information with relatively little regulation on its access or use. The Committee articulates four goals: (1) develop a research agenda extending across disciplines, (2) outline educational resources and strategies to guide ethical practice, (3) devise a pathway to increase public …

Inclusive Space For Everyone Door Sign (Printable 8.5 X 11 Inch), Joan H. Robinson

Open Educational Resources

This is a printable 8.5 x 11 inch door sign for faculty, staff, and administrators to let people know it is an inclusive space for everyone. For improved visibility, print with a color printer and cut along the dotted line.

See also: 11 x 17 inch door sign.

Nursing Students’ Perceptions And Use Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In Nursing Education, Shinhi Han, Hee Sun Kang, Philip J. Gimber, Sunghyun Lim

Publications and Research

Background/Objectives: Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming nursing, with generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT offering opportunities to enhance education through personalized learning pathways. This study aimed to explore nursing students’ use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and their perceptions of its use in nursing education, including its advantages, disadvantages, and perceived support needs.

Methods: This study employed an online survey. The participants were 99 undergraduate nursing students in New York City. Data was collected online through self-report measures using semi-structured, open-ended questions. The data was analyzed using content analysis.

Results: Most participants (92%) used GenAI tools to access accurate …

Consequences Of Oxidative Dna Damage: Base-Pair Dissociation, Singlet Oxygenation And Dna-Protein Crosslinking, May Myat Moe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

8-Oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (OG) is a common DNA lesion resulting from oxidatively generated damage and pairs with complementary cytidine (C) in Watson Crick base-pairing within duplex DNA. The WC-OG·C lesion, if not recognized or repaired, not only leads to G⋅C→T⋅A transversion mutations (through Hoogsteen (HG) base pairing of OG⋅A), but also renders the base pair being more vlunerable to ionizing radiation and singlet oxygen (1O2) damage. Leveraging on our previous accomplishments on the study of gas-phase reactions of 1O2 with 2′-deoxyguanosine radical cations, my research thesis expanded to the investigation of reaction dynamics of 9-methyl-8-oxoguanine (9MOG) radical cations. The experiments of following …

The Role Of Secondary And Tertiary Structure In The Cap-Independent Translation Of Fgf-9 And Hif-1-Alpha, Amanda Michelle Whittaker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under normoxic conditions, eukaryotes initiate translation of RNA through eIF4E recognition of the 5’ cap. However, under cellular stress, eukaryotic translation must be initiated through a 4E-independent, or “cap-independent” mechanism, involving eukaryotic initiation factor 4G (eIF4G) binding directly to the 5’ untranslated regions (5’ UTR) of the RNA. eIF4G binding then recruits the ribosome to the transcript. While this mechanism is useful for translation of apoptotic transcripts and transcripts involved in cell survival, cap-independent translation is also utilized by oncogenic RNA for tumorigenesis. Previous work by our lab and others has categorized this recruitment and initiation mechanism as either internal-ribosome-entry-site …

When College Is Not Working Out: Obstacles To Community College Completion, Elisabeth Lackner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation investigates what contributes to low community college completion rates, what college interventions may be working to support students, what are the experiences of the students, and how did the COVID-19 pandemic impact these dynamics. I am guided by the assumption that multi-dimensional inequalities including low level of social capital constitute a cumulative disadvantage for many students to be able to persist and to graduate. The dissertation includes quantitative and qualitative data types measuring inequalities outside and inside of college with two large student record data sets from one minority-serving open-access public community college and data from a student …

Let’S Talk About Quality: How Equitable Funding And Program Structure Impact Academic And Social Outcomes In Supplemental Education Programs, Inayah Ansari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although many studies have highlighted how high–quality supplemental education programs (early childhood education and after-school programs) help children and adolescents reach developmental milestones faster, very few studies focus on how programs are structured to create the quality that produces positive outcomes. In this paper, I define quality as equitable funding and program structure and interrogate how this conception of quality determines cognitive and social-emotional benefits, particularly for programs in New York City. Using fiscal data and study reviews, I illuminated the impact of budget cuts on programs and the importance of funding. Using a thematic analysis of six interviews conducted …

Constructing A Parameterized Stimuli Space Suitable To Induce Controlled Changes In Human And Machine Perceptual Systems, Andrew Frankel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional computer vision applications focus on objective tasks, such as object detection, classification, or segmentation. Much of human experience is inherently subjective, such as our personal response to artwork. Individualized experiences are challenging to replicate in a controlled laboratory environment, as those experiences depend on the unique history and internal models of the observer. This work presents a technique to construct a 2-dimensional parameterized stimuli space suitable to induce controlled changes in the perceptual systems of both human and machine observers. Our contributions are threefold:

1. Using a balanced dataset of 8,800 fine art images spanning 11 art movements and 88 …

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A Prototype Online Platform For Exploring Post-Covid Academic Recovery In U.S. Public Schools: An Example From California Public Schools, Nicole Baz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project introduces a prototype online platform designed to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic achievement in public schools and districts across the United States. Leveraging data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the platform enables users to examine recovery rates as measured by standardized test scores. California serves as a proof-of-concept case study, demonstrating the platform's ability to explore recovery patterns in Reading Language Arts and Mathematics between 2019 and 2023. The platform provides interactive data visualizations and dashboards that facilitate analyses based on district size, resources, …

Studies On The Synthesis, Function, And Properties Of Troponoids, John-Charles A. Baucom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Troponoids are a unique class of non-benzenoid aromatic compounds with a wide range of demonstrated applications in pharmaceuticals and molecular sensing. The cycloheptatrienone scaffold possesses a noteworthy degree of tunability as a function of ring oxygenation. This manuscript describes our efforts toward a better understanding of the physical consequences of the scaffold to better utilize the motif. Chapter the first discusses our efforts at elucidating the mechanism of troponoid inhibition of the Hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase RNAse H enzymatic domain. Using homology modeling in conjunction with traditional in vitro assays we were able to establish the likely mechanism of …

Improving Low-Resource Translation With Finite State Grammars, Nicholas J. Uva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Scarcity of training data continues to pose a problem for the development of neural machine translation systems for low-resource languages. This study develops a method for the incorporation of linguistic information into the training of neural machine translation models for low-resource languages, using morphological grammars created using finite state transducers. This study explores the benefits, historical background, and effectiveness of this approach. This study incorporates morphological tags into a pre-trained multilingual neural machine translation model using a dual encoder structure. This study finds an improvement in performance in the Irish-English translation scenario. This method offers promising results with low computational …

Tracing The Sources Of Nitrogen In Submarine Groundwater Discharge And Primary Producers In The Great South Bay Estuary, Nia H. Rene

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary aim of this research was to elucidate the impact of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and septic effluent on coastal primary producers in the Great South Bay (GSB). The study focused on three main objectives: assessing the impact of precipitation patterns on SGD, tracing nitrogen sources into the GSB, and determining the impact of these nitrogen sources on coastal primary producers. The research revealed that current precipitation patterns significantly influence SGD across different seasons, highlighting the seasonal variability in groundwater discharge and its implications for nutrient loading in coastal waters. A suite of tracers was employed to identify and …

Taming Biological Complexity Through The Use Of Symmetries, Luis A. Álvarez-García

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of biological systems is, inherently, the study of very complex systems. This is essentially due to the fact that they are made up of numerous, often very complicated, interactions between an extensive number of components. Often necessitating an abundance of quantitative parameters and details for a precise description. The human brain for ex- ample, consisting of ∼ 80 billion neurons with ∼ 800 to 100 trillion connections between them, each of them depending on a large set of parameters. Even simpler examples such as bacterial organisms, such as E. coli and B. subtilis, which we focus on …

Development Of Soil Survey Methods For Urban Areas, Kohinoor Begum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Urban soils are the foundation of urban ecosystems and play a vital role in long-term urban sustainability and resiliency. Accurate soil surveys of urban areas should be done at higher resolution since extensive human activities often result in urban soil being highly disturbed and spatially variable. Besides heterogeneity, one of the unique and challenging aspects of urban soil is the nature and properties of its organic carbon with a significant percentage of black carbon (a particulate product of incomplete combustion), which is less biologically active. Thus, in order to determine the ability of a soil to support biological activity and …

Novel Alchemical Methodologies For Modeling Molecular Binding, Solmaz Azimi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Molecular recognition is fundamental to all biological and biochemical processes. Understanding the interactions between molecules is the foundation for drug discovery and development, for understanding biological processes, and for the design of biosensors and nanomaterials. There is tremendous interest in the development of computer models to predict molecular association equilibria. In structure-based drug discovery enterprises, predicting the strength and selectivity of a small molecule to a biological target can advance target identification, aid ligand design, and accelerate high-throughput screening of drug compounds. This work focuses on free energy models, a class of computational methodologies grounded on the fundamental physical and …

Visualizing The Rise Of American Women's Soccer, Hoi Wah Tang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The rise of American women’s soccer is a compelling narrative of determination, talent, and triumph on the global stage. From the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 to the ongoing dominance of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), this journey encapsulates not only athletic excellence but also the broader struggles for equality, representation, and respect in sports.

This project aims to bring this story to life by presenting a rich tapestry of data visualizations, timelines, and multimedia elements that showcase key moments, players, and milestones. Through engaging graphics and interactive features, users will explore how the sport evolved, the …

Quantified Lives: Data, Bias, And The Cost Of Categorization, Colin F. Geraghty

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project critically examines how statistical methods and data visualization have historically been used to categorize, rank, and control human populations. By exploring the works of key figures like Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, and R.A. Fisher, it traces the evolution of categorization frameworks from their eugenic roots to modern applications in artificial intelligence and global metrics like the World Happiness Report. Through interactive visualizations and historical analysis, the project invites users to question the legitimacy of these frameworks and reflect on their impact on society. At its core, this work emphasizes the need to move beyond rigid classification systems, challenging …

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This: Evaluating The Impact Of Llms With A Case Study In Grading Cuny Language Immersion Program Student Essays, Benjamin Inbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study evaluates the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs), specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, in grading essays from students in the City University of New York’s Language Immersion Program. The program serves English language learners with diverse linguistic and demographic backgrounds, offering intensive language instruction to prepare students for academic success in college. Using a dataset of 30 pre- and post-program essays scored by program instructors and ChatGPT-4o under three paradigms, this research explores the alignment between human and AI-generated scores across five rubric-based competency areas. Findings reveal that ChatGPT-4o aligns moderately with human grading, with the strongest agreement …

The Power Of Music To Empower Health And Wellbeing: In Support Of A Music Therapy Discipline At Lehman College, City University Of New York, Felicity A. Howlett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project seeks to encourage the development of a music therapy curriculum at the City University of New York (CUNY) and specifically at Lehman College. The following paper presents the case and highlights the contents of three data collections that support this goal: 1) The Zotero Digital Music Therapy Reference Collection is a custom-designed index of over 1600 items containing references to published material highlighting significant aspects of the profession. Zotero, a free, open-source reference management software for organizing research, houses the collection and functions as a living library; 2) Music Therapy Degree Programs in New England and the Mid-Atlantic …

Silver-Alloyed Cigs Thin-Film Solar Cells On Flexible Stainless-Steel Substrate, Zhi Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our dissertation demonstrates the optimization of ACIGS (Ag-Cu-In-Ga-Se) thin-film solar cells, achieving an efficiency of 20.4% through the combined effects of silver incorporation and alkali metal post-deposition treatment (PDT). The incorporation of 2.8% Ag into the CIGS lattice enhanced crystal quality, reduced disorder, and widened the bandgap by 0.103 eV, as evidenced by a significant reduction in Urbach energy. These improvements resulted in stronger light absorption, increased carrier generation, and enhanced photovoltaic parameters, including a short-circuit current density Jsc of 35.31 mA/cm², an open-circuit voltage Voc of 0.74 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 75.8%. PDT using rubidium fluoride …

Project Title: Maximizing The Volume Of A Cardboard Box To Save Trees– An Application Of Polynomial Functions To Address Global Issues [Mathematics], Lucie Mingla

Open Educational Resources

MAT 115 College Algebra & Trigonometry/Precalculus

Project Title: Maximizing the Volume of a Cardboard Box to Save Trees– An Application of Polynomial Functions to Address Global Issues

Reflective Narrative:

This project was inspired by my participation in the "Designing and Implementation of STEM Co-Curricular Activities" CTL seminar in Spring 2023. I am grateful to Drs. Bukurie Gjoci, Daniel Gertner, Ingrid Veras, and Midas Tsai, along with fellow participants, for their invaluable feedback that helped shape its development. The project was implemented in two College Algebra and Trigonometry courses. I participated in two seminars to further develop this project. The Community …

Testing Toxicity: Two Approaches To Toxicity Detection, Nelson E. Jarrin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current online environment is increasingly being polluted by polarization, echo chambers, and a lack of constructive dialogue between individuals with differing viewpoints. Social media algorithms, while intended to personalize user experiences and marketing areas, have been heavily criticized for inadvertently amplifying extremist content and contributing to the spread of toxic commentary. The current state of the internet hinders productive conversations, fuels misinformation, entices disinformation and contributes to online and offline societal division. This is fueled by algorithms that can create echo chambers and by the anonymity given by online platforms. While tools like the Perspective API exist to identify …

Sex-Specific And Regional Analysis Of Heart Disease Prediction Using Machine Learning Algorithms: Insights From The Uc Irvine Public Heart Disease Datasets (Cleveland And Long Beach), Jonathan Asanjarani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For this capstone project, I investigated how well machine learning models can predict heart disease, while also studying how the patient’s gender affects these predictions, as well as determining how well the same model performs across different regions. This project utilizes two clinical datasets from the publicly accessible UCI Machine Learning Repository under the collection "Heart Disease." This repository is composed of data from patients across four distinct locations, capturing varying levels of heart disease severity. These datasets are part of a collection of databases, open to the public, and can be used by anyone looking to conduct empirical analysis. …

My Wings Are Not Broken: Black Males, Carcerality, And Education, Crystal M. Welch-Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Historically, educational spaces have been sites of racialized inequality for Black youth, creating disparate educational outcomes. The disproportionate divide between young Black and White men continues throughout the life of their academic journey, and this research seeks to examine its impact on dropping out of school. The experience of Black young men being “othered” – compared to their White counterparts – coupled with the myriad ways Black youth must navigate normalcy creates additional challenges they must carry. This dissertation employs critical race theory and ecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks. It utilizes hierarchical regression modeling of the High School Longitudinal …

Investigating Dna Damage Caused By Reactive Oxygen And Nitrogen Species Via Guided-Ion-Beam Scattering And Computational Techniques, Jonathan Benny

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Among DNA nucleobases, guanine (G) is the primary target for one-electron ionization and oxidation, generating G●+ through various processes, including photooxidation, electrocatalytic oxidation, DNA-binding transition metals, ionizing radiation, and photolysis. This is due to the low adiabatic ionization potential and oxidation potential of guanine. Electron holes from other nucleobases can move to guanine, proving that G●+ production traps oxidative DNA damage. G●+ formation can exacerbate DNA damages and cause secondary reactions from reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) during pathological processes. The following three projects were conducted using a customized electrospray ionization (ESI) guided-ion-beam tandem mass spectrometer, …

A Benjaminian Rumination Of Grasses And Tomatoes In Contemporary Anatolian Film, Ceren Izci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis interprets the intersection of history, ecology, and politics through two contemporary Anatolian films: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses and Murat Fıratoğlu’s One of These Days When Hemme Dies. We focus on the films’ portrayal of social relations and relationships to other living beings through interpreting the temporal layers and historical tensions present in the plots of the films. We introduce the paper by pondering over the question of whether these films are political. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concepts of “first nature” and “second nature”, the first chapter introduces the philosophical framework for understanding the connection between …

Underlying Mechanisms Of Quantum Emission In Hexagonal Boron Nitride, Enrique Alejandro Mejia Iv

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have emerged as promising candidates for advancing numerous quantum technologies. Visible-spectrum quantum emitters, in particular, have gained significant attention due to their exceptional properties, including high brightness, observable spin structure, and highly tunable emission wavelengths. However, several challenges hold back the practical implementation of hBN-based quantum emitters in technological applications—namely, the unknown physical structure of the emitters, susceptibility to spectral wandering and blinking, and limited understanding of how to control their broad spectral distribution.

In this dissertation, we investigate the collective properties of highly defective hBN. To address the key challenges, we develop …

Solvation Thermodynamic Mapping Approaches For Computer-Aided Drug Discovery, Vjay Molino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The drug discovery process is inherently long and costly, prompting the development and integration of computational tools to mitigate these challenges. One of area explored in computer-aided drug discovery is to understand the role of solvation in protein-drug binding and to develop computational tools and methods that can be integrated in the drug discovery process. Grid Inhomogeneous Solvation Theory (GIST) is a tool that provides a framework for mapping solvation thermodynamiproperties of water molecules on the protein surface.This thesis explores the use of GIST in generating pharmacophore models and elucidates the role of solvation in protein structural fluctuations.

One of …

Quantifying Educational Impacts Under The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Era, Matthew T. Stanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the educational and economic impacts of the New York Police Department's "Stop, Question, and Frisk" (SQF) program, implemented predominantly under "Operation Impact" from 2003 to 2022. Using data from the NYPD and the American Community Survey, the study explores correlations between high rates of stop-and-frisk encounters and reduced educational attainment among targeted demographics, primarily Black and Hispanic young men. It contextualizes the socioeconomic consequences of SQF policies, including their effect on lifetime earnings and community trust. The project highlights the limitations of data correlation, advocates for further longitudinal and qualitative studies, and suggests frameworks for mitigating inequities …

3bb: Loss And Remembrance In The Anthropocene, Amanda J. Woolsey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Undisputedly, we are living in a time of tremendous and unprecedented ecological loss. Various forms of life on earth are disappearing at a rate unheard of in human history, with a growing amount of evidence suggesting that we are in a period of mass biodiversity loss and extinction. This extinction event is marked by a series of environmental catastrophes that vary in acceleration, intensity, and impact, such as climate-change driven weather events wiping out an endemic island species, to habitat loss and fragmentation leading to the slow death of a once-common species. One such piece of supporting evidence is Rosenberg …