Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Disciplinary Literacy In An Electronics Course, Ohbong Kwon, Juanita C. But, Sunghoon Jang

Publications and Research

Electronics (EMT1255) is a required course for the Associate Degree in Applied Science (AAS) in Electromechanical Engineering Technology (EMT) at New York City College of Technology. EMT1255 introduces semiconductor devices and their applications in electronic-circuits. Students are expected to understand the structures and principles of semiconductor devices and the configuration and principles of basic electronic circuits. They also learn to analyze and design electronic circuits. In the lab setting, they acquire troubleshooting knowledge and hands-on technical skills. In this reading intensive course, students need to read the lab manual and a textbook of over 700 pages. Therefore, reading and understanding …

Bow-Tie Signaling In C-Di-Gmp: Machine Learning In A Simple Biochemical Network, Jinyuan Yan, Maxime Deforet, Kerry E. Boyle, Rayees Rahman, Raymond Liang, Chinweike Okegbe, Lars E. P. Dietrich, Weigang Qiu, Joao B. Xavier

Publications and Research

Bacteria of many species rely on a simple molecule, the intracellular secondary messenger c-di-GMP (Bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate), to make a vital choice: whether to stay in one place and form a biofilm, or to leave it in search of better conditions. The c-di-GMP network has a bow-tie shaped architecture that integrates many signals from the outside worldÐthe input stimuliÐinto intracellular c-di-GMP levels that then regulate genes for biofilm formation or for swarming motilityÐthe output phenotypes. How does the `uninformed' process of evolution produce a network with the right input/output association and enable bacteria to make the right choice? Inspired …

On The Pursuit Of Relevance In Standards-Based Curriculum Development: The Ccny Approach, Angelo Lampousis

Publications and Research

The Society for Standards Professionals (SES) has a significant history of documenting the use of standards in research and academia. For instance, during the 62nd Annual SES Conference in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia, the author participated in such a session highlighting examples of relationships between academic institutions, government, and standards developing organizations. In this article, we attempt to capture the current advances made from similar relationships specific to our home institution, the City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY.) These advances have become possible through a grant issued under the Standards Services Curricula …

The Influence Of The Electrode Dimension On The Detection Sensitivity Of Electric Cell–Substrate Impedance Sensing (Ecis) And Its Mathematical Modeling, Xudong Zhang, William Wang, Anis Nurashikin Nordin, Fang Li, Sunghoon Jang, Ioana Voiculescu

Publications and Research

Detection sensitivity is a crucial criterion in the design and application of ECIS sensors. The influence of sensing electrode dimension on detection sensitivity is investigated in this paper. Eight types of ECIS sensors were fabricated, and their experimental results reveal that smaller-radius working electrodes generate more sensitive impedance shift to cell density change. Also, the smaller radius of working electrodes yield higher impedance values, which improves signal-to-noise ratio. In a range from 1.0 mm to 3.5 mm, the distance between the working and counter electrodes does not affect impedance measurements. However, the distance should be large enough to prevent the …

Content Analysis Of Data Science Graduate Programs In The U.S., Duo Li, Elizabeth Milonas, Qiping Zhang

Publications and Research

Data science is an emerging academic field (Paul & Aithal, 2018), which has its origins in “Big Data/Cloud Computing” and complexity science domains. Data Science is about managing large and complex data (Big Data management) and analytics technologies (Paul & Aithal, 2018). Data, technology, and people are the three pillars of data science. In addition, Data Science is composed of three key areas: analytics, infrastructure, and data curation (Tang & Sae-Lim, 2016). Stanton (2012) defined data science as “an emerging area of work concerned with the collection, preparation, analysis, visualization, management, and preservation of large collections of information (Song & …

An Action Research Study Of Barriers To Paraprofessional/Teaching Assistant Licensure In New York Community Colleges, Tonya L. Johnson

Publications and Research

The majority of New York State teachers remain disproportionately White, while their student populations grow increasingly diverse, and New York has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of diverse students, often referred to as students of color, including a large number of immigrant groups, in nearly all regions of the state. Recently published research has underscored that in order for multilingual, multiethnic, and multiracial teacher candidates to successfully enter the teaching profession, teacher preparation programs may need to alter some of their practices. In particular, the bulk of the research highlighted a need to expand recruiting for more diverse …

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

Publications and Research

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

Tumor Necrosis Factor Dynamically Regulates The Mrna Stabilome In Rheumatoid Arthritis Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes, Konstantinos Loupasakis, David Kuo, Upneet K. Sokhi, Christopher Sohn, Bethany Syracuse, Eugenia G. Giannopoulou, Sung Ho Park, Hyelim Kang, Gunnar Rätsch, Lionel B. Ivashkiv, George D. Kalliolias

Publications and Research

During rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) activates fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) inducing in a temporal order a constellation of genes, which perpetuate synovial inflammation. Although the molecular mechanisms regulating TNF-induced transcription are well characterized, little is known about the impact of mRNA stability on gene expression and the impact of TNF on decay rates of mRNA transcripts in FLS. To address these issues we performed RNA sequencing and genome-wide analysis of the mRNA stabilome in RA FLS. We found that TNF induces a biphasic gene expression program: initially, the inducible transcriptome consists primarily of unstable transcripts but progressively switches …

Distinct Properties Of The Triplet Pair State From Singlet Fission, M. Tuan Trinh, Andrew Pinkard, Andrew B. Pun, Samuel N. Sanders, Elango Kumarasamy, Matthew Y. Sfeir, Luis M. Campos, Xavier Roy, X.-Y. Zhu

Publications and Research

Singlet fission, the conversion of a singlet exciton (S₁) to two triplets (2 × T₁), may increase the solar energy conversion efficiency beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. This process is believed to involve the correlated triplet pair state ¹(TT). Despite extensive research, the nature of the ¹(TT) state and its spectroscopic signature remain actively debated. We use an end-connected pentacene dimer (BP0) as a model system and show evidence for a tightly bound ¹(TT) state. It is characterized in the near-infrared (IR) region (~1.0 eV) by a distinct excited-state absorption (ESA) spectral feature, which …

Holography For Field Theory Solitons, Sophia K. Domokos, Andrew B. Royston

Publications and Research

We extend a well-known D-brane construction of the AdS/dCFT correspondence to non-abelian defects. We focus on the bulk side of the correspondence and show that there exists a regime of parameters in which the low-energy description consists of two approximately decoupled sectors. The two sectors are gravity in the ambient spacetime, and a six-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The Yang-Mills theory is defined on a rigid AdS4 S2 background and admits sixteen supersymmetries. We also consider a one-parameter deformation that gives rise to a family of Yang-Mills theories on asymptotically AdS4 S2 spacetimes, which are invariant under eight supersymmetries. With future …

Burden Of Atopic Dermatitis In The United States: Analysis Of Healthcare Claims Data In The Commercial, Medicare, And Medi-Cal Databases, Sulena Shrestha, Raymond Miao, Li Wang, Jingdong Chao, Huseyin Yuce, Wenhui Wei

Publications and Research

Comparative data on the burden of atopic dermatitis (AD) in adults relative to the general population are limited. We performed a large-scale evaluation of the burden of disease among US adults with AD relative to matched non-AD controls, encompassing comorbidities, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and costs, using healthcare claims data. The impact of AD disease severity on these outcomes was also evaluated.

Elliptic Genera Of 2d (0,2) Gauge Theories From Brane Brick Models, Sebastian Franco, Dongwook Ghim, Sangmin Lee, Rak-Kyeong Seong

Publications and Research

We compute the elliptic genus of abelian 2d (0, 2) gauge theories corresponding to brane brick models. These theories are worldvolume theories on a single D1-brane probing a toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold singularity. We identify a match with the elliptic genus of the non-linear sigma model on the same Calabi-Yau background, which is computed using a new localization formula. The matching implies that the quantum effects do not drastically alter the correspondence between the geometry and the 2d (0, 2) gauge theory. In theories whose matter sector suffers from abelian gauge anomaly, we propose an ansatz for an anomaly …

Quadrality For Supersymmetric Matrix Models, Sebastian Franco, Sangmin Lee, Rak-Kyeong Seong, Cumrun Vafa

Publications and Research

We introduce a new duality for N = 1 supersymmetric gauged matrix models. This 0d duality is an order 4 symmetry, namely an equivalence between four different theories, hence we call it Quadrality. Our proposal is motivated by mirror symmetry, but is not restricted to theories with a D-brane realization and holds for general N = 1 matrix models. We present various checks of the proposal, including the matching of: global symmetries, anomalies, deformations and the chiral ring. We also consider quivers and the corresponding quadrality networks. Finally, we initiate the study of matrix models that arise on the worldvolume …

Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling And Oxidativeamination Reactions Of Ethers And Alcohols With Aromatics And Heteroaromatics, Mahesh K. Lakshman, Prasanna K. Vuram

Publications and Research

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) is a process in which, typically, a C–C bond is formed at the expense of two C–H bonds, either catalyzed by metals or other organic compounds, or via uncatalyzed processes. In this perspective, we present various modes of C–H bond-activation at sp3 centers adjacent to ether oxygen atoms, followed by C–C bond formation with aromatic systems as well as with heteroaromatic systems. C–N bond-formation with NH-containing heteroaromatics, leading to hemiaminal ethers, is also an event that can occur analogously to C–C bond formation, but at the expense of C–H and N–H bonds. A large variety of hemiaminal …

Contextualizing Developmental Math Content Into Introduction To Sociology In Community Colleges, Stuart Parker, Amy E. Traver, Jonathan Cornick

Publications and Research

Across community colleges in the United States, most students place into a developmental math course that they never pass. This can leave them without the math skills necessary to make informed decisions in major areas of social life and the college credential required for participation in growing sectors of our economy. One strategy for improving community college students’ pass rate in developmental math courses is the contextualization of developmental math content into the fabric of other courses. This article reviews an effort to contextualize developmental math content (i.e., elementary algebra) into Introduction to Sociology at Kingsborough Community College and Queensborough …

Study Of Pblh And Its Correlation With Particulate Matter From One-Year Observation Over Nanjing, Southeast China, Yawei Qu, Yong Han, Yonghua Wu, Peng Gao, Tijian Wang

Publications and Research

The Planetary Boundary Layer Height (PBLH) plays an important role in the formation and development of air pollution events. Particulate Matter is one of major pollutants in China. Here, we present the characteristics of PBLH through three-methods of Lidar data inversion and show the correlation between the PBLH and the PM2.5 (PM2.5 with the diameter 75 μg/m3 and the PM2.5 < 35 μg/m3 in daytime, respectively. The low PBLH often occurs with condition of the low wind speed and high relative humidity, which will lead to high PM2.5 concentration and the low visibility. On the other hand, the stability of PBL is enhanced by high PM concentration and low visibility.

College Presidents Mostly White And Aging, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Despite the fact that the leadership of colleges and universities in this country is in dire need of fresh ideas, a report released last week by the American Council on Education (ACE) shows that the people in these positions continue to be largely white, male – and getting older. And while women represent the majority of undergraduate and graduate students in this country and that the number of minorities attending colleges and universities keeps growing and will continue to grow in the years to come, by 2016 less than a third of college presidents were women and less than a …

Solving Liouville-Type Problems On Manifolds With Poincar´E-Sobolev Inequality By Broadening Q-Energy From Finite To Infinite, Lina Wu

Publications and Research

The aim of this article is to investigate Liouville-type problems on complete non-compact Riemannian manifolds with Poincar´e-Sobolev Inequality. Two significant technical breakthroughs are demonstrated in research findings. The first breakthrough is an extension from non-flat manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvatures to curved manifolds with Ricci curvatures varying among negative values, zero, and positive values. Poincar´e-Sobolev Inequality has been applied to overcome difficulties of an extension on manifolds. Poincar´e-Sobolev Inequality has offered a special structure on curved manifolds with a mix of Ricci curvature signs. The second breakthrough is a generalization of q-energy from finite to infinite. At this point, a …

Understanding Young Students' Problem Solving Pathways: Building A Design Process Model Based On Sequential Analysis, Euisuk Sung, Todd Kelley

Publications and Research

Many STEM-related K-12 education standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards, Standards for Technological Literacy, and Common Core Mathematics Standards, place great emphasis on designing as a way of delivering their core concepts. However, the classroom delivery of core design concepts has been the focus of very few studies. Particularly, most design-based lessons use a design process model, which poses a challenge for many engineering and technology educators. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the actual process of engineering design using the sequential pattern analysis method. The researchers collected ten Concurrent Think-Aloud (CTA) protocols from fourth …

Best Practices For Recruiting And Retaining Diverse Faculty For Institutions Of Higher Education., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Research has shown that increasing diversity in organizations and the workplace is not only a matter of social justice. It suggests that including diverse voices and experiences makes groups more knowledgeable, sensitive, efficient, creative, and successful. Examples cited claim that increased diversity (in its broadest sense, i.e., gender, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, religious and socioeconomic background) affords groups rich opportunities to respond more effectively to the challenges of society that require multiple perspectives and broad approaches to complex problem-solving. Unfortunately, among the faculty represented in higher education, diversity remains an issue. And, the proportion of diverse individuals …

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

Publications and Research

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

‘Speaking Truth’ Protects Underrepresented Minorities’ Intellectual Performance And Safety In Stem, Avi Ben-Zeev, Yula Paluy, Katlyn L. Milless, Emily J. Goldstein, Lyndsey Wallace, Leticia Márquez-Magaña, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Mica Estrada

Publications and Research

We offer and test a brief psychosocial intervention, Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP), designed to protect underrepresented minorities’ (URMs) intellectual performance and safety in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). STEP takes a ‘knowledge as power’ approach by: (a) providing a tutorial on stereotype threat (i.e., a social contextual phenomenon, implicated in underperformance and early exit) and (b) encouraging URMs to use lived experiences for generating be-prepared coping strategies. Participants were 670 STEM undergraduates [URMs (Black/African American and Latina/o) and non-URMs (White/European American and Asian/Asian American)]. STEP protected URMs’ abstract reasoning and class grades (adjusted for grade point average [GPA]) …

Memory For Stimulus Sequences: A Divide Between Humans And Other Animals?, Ghirlanda Stefano, Johan Lind, Magnus Enquist

Publications and Research

Humans stand out among animals for their unique capacities in domains such as language, culture and imitation, yet it has been difficult to identify cognitive elements that are specifically human. Most research has focused on how information is processed after it is acquired, e.g. in problem solving or ‘insight’ tasks, but we may also look for species differences in the initial acquisition and coding of information. Here, we show that non-human species have only a limited capacity to discriminate ordered sequences of stimuli. Collating data from 108 experiments on stimulus sequence discrimination (1540 data points from 14 bird and mammal …

Influence Of The Interaction Of Calcium Carbonate Particles With Surfactants On The Degree Of Water Pollution In Small Rivers, Petry Spataru, Francisco Fernandez, Joseph W. Sista, Tudor Spataru, Oxana Spinu, Igor Povar

Publications and Research

Introduction: The influence of the interaction of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and surface-active substances (SAS; surfactants) with different chain lengths and cationic and anionic hydrophilic centers has been analyzed.

Results: Laboratory simulations indicate reduced negative influences on cationic SAS nitrification/self-purification processes in the presence of anionic species. This suggests the role of complex ionic formation [anionic SAS * cationic SAS] as a cause of this effect. UV-Vis spectra of lauryl sulfate (LS) and of cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA), as well as of their mixtures in ratios of 2:1 and 1:1, treated by fine particles of CaCO3, display decreased amounts of SAS in analyzed …

Species Identification Of Necrophagous Insect Eggs Based On Amino Acid Profile Differences Revealed By Direct Analysis In Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Justine E. Giffen, Jennifer Y. Rosati, Cameron M. Longo, Rabi A. Musah

Publications and Research

The colonization of decomposing remains by necrophagous insects such as blow flies is of forensic importance because the progression through the various stages of insect development can be correlated to time of death. The ability to infer this information hinges on accurate determination of the fly species that are associated with the entomological evidence collected. This evidence can include eggs, larvae, pupae, and puparial casings. Determination of the egg’s identity is particularly challenging because the eggs of multiple species are morphologically very similar. We report here that the species identity of fly eggs can be determined from their chemical fingerprint …

For Social Justice, We Need To Look In The Mirror., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the most contentious issues in politics in general – and in higher education in particular – is political correctness.

Usually defined as the avoidance of language or actions that are seen as excluding, marginalizing, or insulting groups of people that have been dis- criminated against because of their gender, race, or other identifying factors.

The term is now oftentimes used in a pejorative sense, particularly in conservative circles.

Sobel, Dava. The Glass Universe: How The Ladies Of The Harvard Observatory Took The Measure Of The Stars. New York: Viking, 2016. 324 Pp. $30.00 Hardcover (Isbn 9780670016952)., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Women in science have been and are still facing numerous obstacles. According

to the American Association of University Professors, despite the fact that 60

percent of all doctoral students (the main pipeline for academia) in this country

are women, only 46 percent of assistant professors, 38 percent of associate

professors, and 23 percent of full professors are female. On top of that, women

faculty in colleges and universities in the United States earn on average 10 percent

less than their male counterparts.1 A number of studies have shown that women

in academia suffer from lower expectations for intelligence, so when …

What Impacts Do Oer Have On Students? Students Share Their Experiences With A Health Psychology Oer At New York City College Of Technology, Cailean Cooney

Publications and Research

This article reports findings from a study conducted with students in three sections of a Health Psychology course that replaced a traditional textbook with open educational resources (OER) as the primary course material. The purpose of the study was to learn how OER impacted students. Data were collected in Fall 2015 with students from New York City College of Technology (City Tech), of the City University of New York (CUNY), a comprehensive college located in Brooklyn. Students were assigned the OER by their course instructor, who developed it as part of a library funded OER pilot initiative. Two research instruments …

Light-Induced Electrohydrodynamic Instability In Plasmonically Absorbing Gold Nanofluids, Sujan Shrestha, Luat T. Vuong, Jorge Luis Dominguez-Juarez

Publications and Research

Plasmonically absorbing nanofluids exhibit light-induced electrokinetics. We measure an electrical response to the light-induced Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni convective instabilities in gold-polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanoparticles (NPs) suspended in isopropanol and water. Microampere current oscillations are measured and attributed to the presence of the Au-PVP NPs with negative zeta potential, in correspondence with the accompanying thermal lens oscillations and a nanofluid thermoelectric effect. The measured electrical oscillations represent an electrohydrodynamic stability driven by light, one among many that should be observed with plasmonic nanoparticles in liquids.

Recirculation Over Complex Terrain, Eric Kutter, Chuixiang Yi, George Hendrey, Heping Liu, Timothy Eaton, Wenge Ni-Meister

Publications and Research

This study generated eddy covariance data to investigate atmospheric dynamics leeward of a small, forested hillside in upstate New York. The causes and effects of recirculation eddies were examined to support the larger goal of improving measurement of the exchange of energy, moisture, and trace gases between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere over complex terrain. Sensors operated at five different altitudes on two separate towers—one at the top of the hill and one down the slope to the east—for approximately 8 weeks in the spring of 2013. During the experiment, the vertical potential temperature gradient was found to be …