Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Rapid Method For Pfas Detection And Quantitation In Human Hair, Justin M. Allen

Student Theses

In recent years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as a critical focus in environmental and public health research due to their persistent nature and widespread use in products ranging from non-stick cookware to firefighting foams. These "forever chemicals" resist degradation, posing significant ecological and human health risks. While extensive studies have explored PFAS in environmental matrices, research into their presence in human hair remains limited, with only a handful of studies addressing this biomarker's potential. This thesis aims to develop a robust analytical method for detecting PFAS in human hair, leveraging its unique properties to provide a long-term …

Reconstructing Cosmic Filaments Around Dwarf Galaxies With The Rubin Observatory, Sarah E. Draves, Charlotte Welker, Charlotte Olsen

Publications and Research

The cosmic web is the largest structure in the universe, consisting of streams of gas and dust that connect galaxies made of stars, dark matter, and more gas and dust. Denser areas of the cosmic web tend to have more massive and redder galaxies, which implies a strong connection between cosmic structure and galaxy evolution. The degree to which galaxies are influenced by the cosmic web outside of relatively dense areas, particularly in the case of small filaments near galaxies, is still an area of active study. Low mass galaxies, known as dwarf galaxies, are particularly sensitive to the environment …

Innovations In Full-Stack Web Development: Front-End To Back-End, Yassine Chahid, Patrick Slattery

Publications and Research

This research explores emerging technologies within full-stack web development and their potential impact on current front-end and back-end solutions. Both areas employ crucial technologies that determine how end-users access information and navigate web services. Front-end solutions include HTML, JavaScript, and CSS which shape user interaction on websites. Back-end solutions use technologies such as SQL and PHP for the foundation of data processing, retrieval, and storage. The research method involves examining official documentation for these technologies to better understand their key components and to understand how their use in cyberspace has changed. The research will observe several high-traffic websites and domains …

Leveraging Ai Tools In University Writing Instruction: Enhancing Student Success While Upholding Academic Integrity, Daisuke Akiba, Rebecca Garte

Publications and Research

The emergence of AI-powered Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, presents both opportunities and challenges for higher education, particularly regarding academic integrity in writing instruction. This exploratory study examines a novel pedagogical approach that integrates LLMs as required feedback tools in a university-level psychology writing assignment. The exclusive online approach emphasizes improvement through revision, requiring students to obtain AI-generated feedback on ungraded initial drafts based on an instructor-provided rubric, with final assessment focused on the quality of subsequent revisions. Analysis of survey data from 39 undergraduate students, incorporating both quantitative measures and qualitative responses, revealed several …

Filtered Reality: Artificial Intelligence In Social Media & The Mental Health Of Adolescents, Maria Savva

Open Educational Resources

This instructional module was developed for teacher candidates preparing to teach in New York secondary schools, which include middle (6-8) and high schools (9-12). A three-pronged approach has been used to ensure teacher candidates develop a comprehensive and contemporary understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it relates both to their respective disciplines and its impact on the adolescents they will be teaching. Using a three-pronged approach, teacher candidates will: consider the rapidly changing landscape of their own discipline and how it has been impacted by developments in AI; examine the effects of AI, including through social media platforms, on the …

Evidence For Subsidence Rate Variation In The Newark Basin And Its Influence On The Deposition Of Fluvial Sediments Of The Stockton Formation, Jane L. Alexander, Sean T. Thatcher, Jay Tobon, Victoria Rivelli

Publications and Research

The Stockton Formation of the Newark Basin represents an exciting time in Earth history during the early stages of rifting of the North Atlantic, with rapid subsidence and sediment deposition. Much of the previous work on this formation has been done using drill cores, with development limiting surface exposure. While this allows us to build a full stratigraphic sequence of deposition, it has the potential to miss smaller-scale variability and sedimentary structures. It is also difficult to understand the three-dimensional geometries, architecture and relationships between the depositional elements from drill core alone. An outcrop in North Bergen, NJ that was …

Cite White Paper: Interdisciplinary Journeys Of Teaching And Learning In Computational Literacies: Collaborative Autoethnography Of Seven Teacher Educators, Ting Yuan

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Preservice Teachers As Learners, Designers And Implementers Of Computational Thinking (Ldi-Ct), Line Saint-Hilaire, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Computational thinking (CT) has gained significant recognition in education in recent years. When considering young children learning CT concepts, it's essential to also assess teachers’ understanding of computational thinking. Therefore, educators in teacher preparation programs must equip candidates with these skills to meet the growing demand for developing students’ digital literacy. This project aimed to understand how to strategically incorporate CT instruction into a teacher education program in the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department. It focuses on assessing preservice teachers' (PSTs) understanding of computational thinking and their ability to design CT-integrated science lesson plans based on their experiences with …

Public-Private Partnerships In Fema: Strengthening Communities Nationwide, Rachael A. Zerr

Publications and Research

This paper explores the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in strengthening communities through collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It defines FEMA’s mission and outlines the concept of PPPs, emphasizing their importance in enhancing disaster response and recovery efforts. The paper provides framework for establishing a PPP with FEMA, including key steps and practices for successful collaboration. Additionally, it highlights several examples of effective PPPs, including a longstanding partnership with Verizon Wireless. Drawing from FEMA reports and private sector publications, the paper demonstrates how these partnerships contribute to resilience and preparedness, illustrating their potential to improve the efficiency …

Mathematics In Contemporary Society, Patrick J. Wallach

Open Educational Resources

Mathematics in Contemporary Society is the textbook that corresponds to MA-321, the course of the same name. The course is designed to provide students with mathematical ideas and methods found in the social sciences, the arts, and in business. Topics will include fundamentals of statistics, scatterplots, graphics in the media, problem solving strategies, dimensional analysis, mathematics in music and art, and mathematical modeling. EXCEL is used to explore real world applications.

Cisc 3310 Principles Of Computer Architecture, Miriam Briskman

Open Educational Resources

Introduction to digital logic. Basic digital circuits. Boolean algebra and combinational logic, data representation and transfer, digital arithmetic. Instruction sets. Introduction to assembly languages ALU and memory reference instructions, flow control, subroutine linkage, arrays and structures. Memory. I/O systems. Performance. Relationship between software and architecture.

Cisc 3130 Data Structures, Moshe Lach

Open Educational Resources

Container classes: their design, implementations, and applications. Sequences: vectors, linked lists, stacks, queues, deques, lists. Associative structures: sets, maps and their hash and tree underlying representations. Sorting and searching techniques. Collection frameworks and hierarchies.

The Importance Of Humanities In A Career-Focused Educational Environment, Geoff Zylstra, Jill Belli, Candido Cabo, Sean Macdonald, Robin Michals, Ann Marie Sowder, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

The humanities have the potential to enhance STEM curriculum in career-oriented professional degree programs. As part of a larger college-wide initiative to develop interdisciplinary curricula, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a grant to New York City College of Technology to explore the relationship between the humanities and career-focused degree programs in STEM departments. This article describes the design and implementation of coursework that bridges the curricular divides between humanities disciplines and technical or career-focused disciplines by bringing the humanities to bear on science and technology-oriented courses. Specifically, the humanities served to improve technical skills for students in …

Architecting Standards: Leveraging Ia To Drive Emerging Technology Standards​, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

In this talk for the annual meeting of the W3C Information Architecture Community Group, I discuss how standards bodies can learn from the Information Architecture field to improve accessibility and usability. By adopting user-centered design principles and engaging in iterative feedback loops, standards organizations can create more relevant and practical standards that align with real-world applications. Emphasizing collaboration with industry experts and end-users will help ensure that standards evolve along with technological advancements.

In the meantime, key standards are examined, such as ISO 9241, which provides guidelines for usability and user-centered design, and the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), …

Understanding Family Experiences Of Iep Meetings And Building Skills To Empower Families At The Iep Meeting, Elizabeth J. Golini

Theses and Dissertations

Since the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting is so important both to a student’s progress and educational growth as well as the school’s legal obligations, it is imperative that researchers work to understand parent perceptions of Individualized Education Program meetings (Fish, 2006). Family participation and advocacy are also important at the IEP meeting (Boshoff et al., 2016; Cavendish & Connor, 2018; Duquette et al., 2011; Fish, 2006). This study examined the family’s perceptions of the IEP process and meeting for their child through semi-structured interviews. In order to support the family at the IEP meeting, families participated in coaching sessions …

Sweating The Small Stuff: Exploring Consequence Assignments And Academic Outcomes In A No-Excuses Charter Network, John G. Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Schools utilize a range of consequences to maintain order and safety. Some employ zero-tolerance policies accompanied by exclusionary tactics like suspension (Martinez, 2009; Muschert et al., 2014). Suspensions are criticized for their disproportionate assignment to students who are Black, male, assigned an IEP, and receiving lunch assistance (Cholewa et al., 2018; Skiba et al., 2002), as well as their deleterious associations with academic achievement (Chu & Ready, 2018; Morris & Perry, 2014; Noltemeyer et al., 2015). Charter schools espousing a no-excuses philosophy often adopt a “Sweat-the-Small-Stuff” (STSS) approach focused on correcting minor (mis)behaviors to prevent more egregious ones (Whitman, 2008). …

To Belong Or Not To Belong: Bipoc First-Generation Community College Students’ Experiences, Christine Orbeta

Theses and Dissertations

Using narrative interviews, this study explored the experiences of belonging among eight first-generation college students (FGCS) who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). By applying Strayhorn's Belonging and Crenshaw's Intersectionality Framework, this study sheds light on the challenges and benefits BIPOC FGCS encounter as they strive for academic success at two-year institutions within the City University of New York (CUNY) where approximately 44% of CUNY's student body comprises FGCS (CUNY, 2019). According to participants, families and institutions played significant roles in shaping students' sense of belonging. It also highlights the intricate negotiations BIPOC FGCS undergo as they …

Intuitionism, Justification Logic, And Doxastic Reasoning, Vincent A. Peluce

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this Dissertation, we examine a handful of related themes in the philosophy of logic and mathematics. We take as a starting point the deeply philosophical, and—as we argue, deeply Kantian—views of L.E.J. Brouwer, the founder of intuitionism. We examine his famous first act of intuitionism. Therein, he put forth both a critical and a constructive idea. This critical idea involved digging a philosophical rift between what he thought of himself as doing and what he thought of his contemporaries, specifically Hilbert, as doing. He sought to completely separate mathematics from mathematical language, and thereby logic. In chapter 3, we …

A Machine Learning Approach To Discovering Physical Models Of Galaxy Formation, Festa Bucinca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Galaxies are the breathtakingly beautiful starry islands of the Universe. The process of galaxy formation involves the transformation from simple initial conditions in the early Universe to the complex galaxy structures we observe today. Spanning an immense spatial range and tremendous time scales - from the vastness of the Universe to the scale of individual stars - the physics of galaxy formation is both complex and crucial for understanding the Universe we live in. However, despite significant advancements, our theoretical understanding of galaxy formation remains incomplete.

In the era of big data available from hydrodynamical simulations and observations, Machine Learning …

The Beautiful And The Bullshit: Speaker And Listener Mental Representations Influence Bullshit Receptivity, Ryan Tracy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bullshit is a topic that has enjoyed an explosion of attention in both cognitive and social psychological research domains. While the picture painted thus far suggests that receptivity to such statements (i.e., perceiving meaning where none exists) hinges upon an individual’s ability to engage in reflective (vs. reflexive) cognitive processing, little attention has been paid to how purveyors of bullshit influence one’s willingness to engage with the message. This is critical to explore, given the status of misinformation in today’s media climate. A critical step involved in determining characteristics of speakers that predict bullshit receptivity is to understand how people …

The Epigenetic Impact Of Dietary Choline On Growth Outcomes Of Children Exposed To Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, Ismail Kadam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Maternal insulin resistance and hyperglycemia lead to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) which can cause fetal hyperinsulinemia, ultimately leading to excessive fetal growth associated with macrosomia and increased adiposity at birth. Increased placental macronutrient transport and epigenetic changes in growth and metabolic genes affected by GDM contribute to fetal overgrowth and can result in complications such as overweight/obesity, insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk factors, as well as cognitive impairment later in life. Choline, an essential nutrient, participates in lipid and energy metabolism by providing methyl groups for DNA methylation and thus may overcome the hypomethylation of growth and metabolic …

Electromagnetic Theory And Applications, 2nd Edition, Nicholas Madamopoulos, George Kliros

Open Educational Resources

This book intends to provide both the fundamentals of Electromagnetics but also some practical applications of the concepts covered. Having taught electromagnetics for several years, the authors feel that many times the field of electromagnetics comes as “old” and often times students do not appreciate the concepts and their importance in everyday applications. The authors intend to accompany the EM concepts with life applications. Hence, students may see the direct impact of the knowledge they acquire through the study of the field of electromagnetics and better appreciate the field.

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment For Combat Systems In Role-Playing Genre Video Games, Cheuk Man Chan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Static difficulty adjustment has been applied to video games since their inception. However, dynamic difficulty adjustment did not become a topic of interest in either the academic fields or the industry until the turn of the century with sufficient advancement in processing power of computers and console systems. Amongst the work done in this area, most of the focus has either been placed on the action/adventure or the strategy game genre. However, there are only a limited number of studies regarding the role playing game genre which, by the nature of such games, generates a massive amount of data regarding …

The Effect Of Working Memory Performance Under Stress On The Relationship Between Trauma History, Ptsd Symptoms, And Intimate Partner Violence, Gabriella Robinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Over 12 million people annually experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in the United States. Emerging adulthood has the highest rates of IPV across the lifespan. While many theories attempt to explain why IPV rates are markedly increased during this age period, researchers call for more empirical studies to understand processes occurring during this period that result in increased IPV perpetration. Of the studies that assess IPV perpetration, samples generally consisted of male batterers that perpetrated severe IPV. Trauma history and PTSD symptoms have been seen as risk factors for IPV perpetration. Cognitive risk factors for IPV perpetration, such as …

Design And Characterization Of De Novo Photoactivated Charge Separating Proteins, Paul M. Molinaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Light activate charge separation can provide high energy electrons for a variety of chemical processes. Reaction center proteins serve as a scaffold for small molecules that serve as “hopping” sites for electrons. Previous reaction center designs are four helix bundles that bind at minimum two metalloporphyrin’s: a zinc porphyrin serves as a light activated electron donor, mimicking chlorophyl, and a heme molecule serving as the acceptor. The efficiency of these designs is hampered by the enhanced relaxation of the singlet excited state of zinc porphyrin molecules due to spin-orbit coupling with the paramagnetic heme acceptor. The optimal design would contain …

On Deformation Rings Of Residual Galois Representations With Three Jordan–Hölder Factors, Xiaoyu Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this paper, we study Fontaine-Laffaille, self-dual deformations of a mod p non-semisimple Galois representation of dimension n with its Jordan–Hölder factors being three mutually non-isomorphic absolutely irreducible representations. We show that under some conditions regarding the orders of certain Selmer groups, the universal deformation ring is a discrete valuation ring. Given enough information on the Hecke algebra, we also prove an R = T theorem in the general context. We then apply our results to abelian surfaces with cyclic rational isogenies and certain 6-dimensional representations arising from automorphic forms congruent to Ikeda lifts. Assuming the Bloch-Kato conjecture, our result …

Pulsey: Stellar Pulsation Models In Python, Andrew Ayala

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The era of the Kepler/K2 and TESS space-telescope missions has inundated the astrophysics community with photometric data for millions of stars with continuous observation and very high cadence. This data confirms that nearly every observed stellar source exhibits an oscillating luminosity, with stellar pulsation being the driving mechanism behind a large fraction of the cause. The result has been an explosion in the field of asteroseismology, where the recorded luminosity variations, or "light curves", of pulsating stars to probe their interior structures. By modeling observed light curves, we can constrain values of the physical stellar parameters producing them. The brightness …

Some New Properties Of Random Groups In The Density And Few-Relator Models, Anastasiia Chorna

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, we delve into the subjects that lie in the intersection of random group theory and first-order theory, or as traditionally referred to in the field, the first-order theory of free groups (Sela (2006) and Kharlampovich and Myasnikov (2006), among others). In particular, we establish the following two findings. First, we demonstrate that for fixed k > 2, among finitely generated groups, those without finite index subgroups of index k are prevalent in the density model (as discussed in Chapter 3). Second, we show that a first-order universal sentence in the language of groups is almost surely true in …

Structural, Electronic And Magnetic Properties Of Vanadium Doped Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (Tmds), Qudsia Ashraf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Magnetic semiconductors are a prerequisite for spintronic devices but their ferromagnetism disappears at room-temperature hindering application in room temperature electronic devices. Enormous research has been conducted on the room-temperature ferromagnetic order in monolayer form of bulk van der Waals materials but the few layer system has not been extensively explored.

Doping is an effective approach to modulate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional (2D) Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and expand their application. The effect of vanadium dopant on structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Tungsten Diselenide (WSe₂) was studied by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Atomic Force …

Interplay Of Magnetic Impurities And Superconductivity In Topological Materials, Didier Ndengeyintwali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The interplay of superconductivity and magnetism has been a long-standing topic of interest since the discovery of superconductivity. In recent years it has been shown that topological superconductivity, which has promising applications such as in topological quantum computing, could result from such interplay. Motivated by the later results I study the effect of magnetic impurities in superconducting doped topological insulators, such as Iron based topological superconductors. I show that topological character of parent materials could lead to modifications in the structure of magnetic impurity induced in-gap states. Moreover, the superconductivity induced interaction between magnetic impurities in doped topological insulator would …