Digital Commons Network^™

A Computational Study Of Lithium Carbamate Synthetic Intermediate Structures And Aggregation, Lawrence M. Pratt

Publications and Research

Computational quantum chemistry was used to investigate the structures of lithium carbamates in the gas phase and in ethereal solvents. These compounds act as nucleophiles with either inversion or retention of configuration at the chiral center and knowledge of the aggregation state is the first step in understanding the reactivity. The sterically hindered lithium phenyl carbamate is calculated to exist largely as the ether or THF solvated monomer in solution. Higher aggregates are possible in the gas phase, which is often taken as an approximation for solutions in non-polar solvents.

Glass Polymorphism In Glycerol–Water Mixtures: I. A Computer Simulation Study, David A. Jahn, Jessina Wong, Johannes Bachler, Thomas Loerting, Nicolas Giovambattista

Publications and Research

We perform out-of-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of water–glycerol mixtures in the glass state. Specifically, we study the transformations between low-density (LDA) and high-density amorphous (HDA) forms of these mixtures induced by compression/decompression at constant temperature. Our MD simulations reproduce qualitatively the density changes observed in experiments. Specifically, the LDA–HDA transformation becomes (i) smoother and (ii) the hysteresis in a compression/ decompression cycle decreases as T and/or glycerol content increase. This is surprising given the fast compression/decompression rates (relative to experiments) accessible in MD simulations. We study mixtures with glycerol molar concentration wg = 0–13% and find that, for the …

Reference Mode Preferences Of Community College (Two-Year) And Four-Year College Students: A Comparison Study, John Carey, Ajatshatru Pathak

Publications and Research

Objective – The purpose of this study was to examine the reference service mode preferences of community college (two-year) and four-year college students. Methods – The researchers administered a paper-based, face-to-face questionnaire at two institutions within the City University of New York system: Hunter College, a senior college, and Queensborough Community College, a two-year institution. During the summer of 2015, the researchers surveyed 79 participants, asking them to identify their most and least preferred mediums for accessing library reference services. Results – Nearly 75% of respondents expressed a preference for face-to-face reference, while only about 18% preferred remote reference services …

Eeg In The Classroom: Synchronised Neural Recordings During Video Presentation, Andreas Trier Poulsen, Simon Kamronn, Jacek Dmochowski, Lucas C. Parra, Lars Kai Hansen

Publications and Research

We performed simultaneous recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) from multiple students in a classroom, and measured the inter-subject correlation (ISC) of activity evoked by a common video stimulus. The neural reliability, as quantified by ISC, has been linked to engagement and attentional modulation in earlier studies that used high-grade equipment in laboratory settings. Here we reproduce many of the results from these studies using portable low-cost equipment, focusing on the robustness of using ISC for subjects experiencing naturalistic stimuli. The present data shows that stimulusevoked neural responses, known to be modulated by attention, can be tracked for groups of students with …

What Is Philosophy?, Howard S. Ruttenberg

Publications and Research

The speaker relates philosophy to and distinguishes it from all the arts and sciences in terms of its breadth and depth. Philosophy thinks about things, and thoughts, and words and actions (“words and deeds”, in Cicero’s phrase). There are examples of philosophers who have reduced all three of them to one and of philosophers who have kept them distinct. There have been revolutions in philosophy, responsive to great changes in cultural life, in science and politics, and in reaction against established traditions within philosophy. In modern times, there has been a metaphysical revolution against the Aristotelian schoolmen, an epistemological revolution …

A Comparison Of Modis/Viirs Cloud Masks Over Ice-Bearing River: On Achieving Consistent Cloud Masking And Improved River Ice Mapping, Simon Kraatz, Reza Khanbilvardi, Peter Romanov

Publications and Research

The capability of frequently and accurately monitoring ice on rivers is important, since it may be possible to timely identify ice accumulations corresponding to ice jams. Ice jams are dam-like structures formed from arrested ice floes, and may cause rapid flooding. To inform on this potential hazard, the CREST River Ice Observing System (CRIOS) produces ice cover maps based on MODIS and VIIRS overpass data at several locations, including the Susquehanna River. CRIOS uses the respective platform’s automatically produced cloud masks to discriminate ice/snow covered grid cells from clouds. However, since cloud masks are produced using each instrument’s data, and …

Orbifold Reduction And 2d (0,2) Gauge Theories, Sebastian Franco, Sangmin Lee, Rak-Kyeong Seong

Publications and Research

We introduce Orbifold Reduction, a new method for generating 2d (0; 2) gauge theories associated to D1-branes probing singular toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds starting from 4d N = 1 gauge theories on D3-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. The new procedure generalizes dimensional reduction and orbifolding. In terms of T-dual configurations, it generates brane brick models starting from brane tilings. Orbifold reduction provides an agile approach for generating 2d (0; 2) theories with a brane realization. We present three practical applications of the new algorithm: the connection between 4d Seiberg duality and 2d triality, a combinatorial method for generating theories related by …

Potential Of Satellite-Based Land Emissivity Estimates For The Detection Of High-Latitude Freeze And Thaw States, Satya Prakash, Hamid Norouzi, Marzi Azarderakhsh, Reginald Blake, Reza Khanbilvardi

Publications and Research

Reliable detection of freeze and thaw (FT) states is crucial for the terrestrial water cycle, biogeochemical transitions, carbon and methane feedback to the atmosphere, and for the surface energy budget and its associated impacts on the global climate system. This paper is novel in that for the first time a unique approach to examine the potential of passive microwave remotely sensed land emissivity and its added-values of being free from the atmospheric effects and being sensitive to surface characteristics is being applied to the detection of FT states for latitudes north of 35°N. Since accurate characterizations of the soil state …

Reframing Readiness: Through The Cracked Looking Glass: The Framework For Success In Postsecondary Writing As Assessment Model, David Hyman

Publications and Research

The Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, and National Writing Project) describes experiences and habits of mind that will equip students for success in college writing. This column highlights examples of the values espoused by the Framework and aims to increase understanding of this statement, advocating for its rich conception of writing.

An Analysis Of The Economic And Environmental Impact Of The U.S. Epa's Brownfields Program In New York And New Jersey From 2009 To 2014 Using Gis, Schenine Mitchell, Cindy Wang, Karmin Chong, Angelo Lampousis

Publications and Research

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as part of its mission to protect human health and the environment has developed a Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative designed to empower States, communities and other stakeholders in economic development to work collaboratively to in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields. In order to effectively carry out the mission of the Brownfields Program, all ten regions share in the same goal of redeveloping brownfields. In this project we explore correlations between median household income and Brownfields funding (i.e., Phase I/Phase II assessments and clean-up grants). …

What It Means To Be Special: Two Sisters Discuss Their Experiences, Gene Fellner, Mark Comesanas, Laritza Duperoy, Yaritza Duperoy

Publications and Research

In this article, two adolescent sisters discuss and reflect upon the impact that the special education classification of one of them has had on their lives. The sisters, co-authors of this text, participated in designing the study and analyzing the data we produced; their voices are the core of this article. Issues about inclusion, the harms and benefits of special education classification, stigma, the multi-edged meanings of what it means to be “special,” and the often complicit roles of educators in perpetuating exclusionary policies all arise in the sisters’ discussions with each other, with their co-authors, and with pre-service teachers.

Tuning The Polarity Of Charge Carriers Using Electron Deficient Thiophenes, Jonathan Z. Low, Brian Capozzi, Jing Cui, Sujun Wei, Latha Venkataraman, Luis M. Campos

Publications and Research

Thiophene-1,1-dioxide (TDO) oligomers have fascinating electronic properties. We previously used thermopower measurements to show that a change in charge carrier from hole to electron occurs with increasing length of TDO oligomers when single-molecule junctions are formed between gold electrodes. In this article, we show for the first time that the dominant conducting orbitals for thiophene/ TDO oligomers of fixed length can be tuned by altering the strength of the electron acceptors incorporated into the backbone. We use the scanning tunneling microscope break-junction (STM-BJ) technique and apply a recently developed method to determine the dominant transport channel in single-molecule junctions formed …

Gender Bias In Academe: An Annotated Bibliography Of Important Recent Studies, Danica Savonick, Cathy Davidson

Publications and Research

An annotated bibliography of studies examining the role of gender bias in hiring, promotion and tenure in higher education.

Conserved Patterns Of Integrated Developmental Plasticity In A Group Of Polyphenic Tropical Butterflies, Erik Van Bergen, Dave Osbaldeston, Ullasa Kondandaramaiah, Oskar Brattström, Kwaku Aduse-Poku, Paul M. Brakefield

Publications and Research

Background: Developmental plasticity is thought to have profound macro-evolutionary effects, for example, by increasing the probability of establishment in new environments and subsequent divergence into independently evolving lineages. In contrast to plasticity optimized for individual traits, phenotypic integration, which enables a concerted response of plastic traits to environmental variability, may affect the rate of local adaptation by constraining independent responses of traits to selection. Using a comparative framework, this study explores the evolution of reaction norms for a variety of life history and morphological traits across five related species of mycalesine butterflies from the Old World tropics.

Results: Our data …

Equivalence Between A Harmonic Form And A Closed Co-Closed Form In Both Lq And Non-Lq Spaces, Lina Wu

Publications and Research

For a differential k-form ω on a complete non-compact manifold, we establish an equivalent relation between a harmonic form and a closed co-closed form. We extend this equivalence from ω in L^2 spaces to ω with 2-balanced growth including L^2 spaces and non-L^2 spaces. Especially for a simple differential k-form ¯ω on a complete non-compact manifold, we generalize this equivalence from ¯ω in L^q spaces to ¯ω with 2-balanced growth including L^q spaces and non-L^q spaces for 2 ≤ q < 3. Our research findings recapture the work of Andreotti and Vesentini. Our ideas and calculation methods in this paper could provide a new way of broadening L^q spaces to non-L^q spaces in a variety of energy for differential forms.

Nnll Resummation For The Associated Production Of A Top Pair And A Higgs Boson At The Lhc, Alessandro Broggio, Andrea Ferroglia, Ben D. Pecjak, Li Lin Yang

Publications and Research

We study the resummation of soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. Starting from a soft-gluon resummation formula derived in previous work, we develop a bespoke parton-level Monte Carlo program which can be used to calculate the total cross section along with differential distributions. We use this tool to study the phenomenological impact of the resummation to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, finding that these corrections increase the total cross section and the differential distributions with respect to NLO calculations of the same observables.

Brane Brick Models In The Mirror, Sebastian Franco, Sangmin Lee, Rak-Kyeong Seong, Cumrun Vafa

Publications and Research

Brane brick models are Type IIA brane configurations that encode the 2d N = (0; 2) gauge theories on the worldvolume of D1-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds. We use mirror symmetry to improve our understanding of this correspondence and to provide a systematic approach for constructing brane brick models starting from geometry. The mirror configuration consists of D5-branes wrapping 4-spheres and the gauge theory is determined by how they intersect. We also explain how 2d (0; 2) triality is realized in terms of geometric transitions in the mirror geometry. Mirror symmetry leads to a geometric unification of dualities in different …

Diversity More Than Race, Gender In Higher Ed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Most people when talking about diversity think

of matters revolving around race and gender, and

while those are obvious and important topics, the

fact of the matter is that the definition of diversity

is much larger.

Today diversity is seen in two dimensions.

The first one is what is called inherent diversity,

the diversity that is beyond people’s control.

Obviously, these issues include race and gender,

but also include national origin, age, sexual orientation,

disability, religious affiliation and socioeconomic

status. Certainly, you can change your

religious affiliation or socioeconomic status over

time, but being raised in a particular religion or …

Climate Change Across Seasons Experiment (Ccase): A New Method For Simulating Future Climate In Seasonally Snow-Covered Ecosystems, Pamela H. Templer, Andrew B. Reinmann, Rebecca Sanders-Demott, Patrick O. Sorensen, Stephanie M. Juice, Francis Bowles, Laura E. Sofen, Jamie L. Harrison, Ian Halm, Lindsey Rustad, Mary E. Martin, Nicholas Grant

Publications and Research

Climate models project an increase in mean annual air temperatures and a reduction in the depth and duration of winter snowpack for many mid and high latitude and high elevation seasonally snow-covered ecosystems over the next century. The combined effects of these changes in climate will lead to warmer soils in the growing season and increased frequency of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) in winter due to the loss of a continuous, insulating snowpack. Previous experiments have warmed soils or removed snow via shoveling or with shelters to mimic projected declines in the winter snowpack. To our knowledge, no experiment has …

Mechanisms And Effects Of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, James Giordano, Marom Bikson, Emily S. Kappenman, Vincent P. Clark, H. Branch Coslett, Michael R. Hamblin, Roy Hamilton, Ryan Jankord, Walter J. Kozumbo, R. Andrew Mckinley, Michael A. Nitsche, J. Patrick Reilly, Jessica Richardson, Rachel Wurzman, Edward Calabrese

Publications and Research

The US Air Force Office of Scientific Research convened a meeting of researchers in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, engineering, and medicine to discuss most pressing issues facing ongoing research in the field of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and related techniques. In this study, we present opinions prepared by participants of the meeting, focusing on the most promising areas of research, immediate and future goals for the field, and the potential for hormesis theory to inform tDCS research. Scientific, medical, and ethical considerations support the ongoing testing of tDCS in healthy and clinical populations, provided best protocols are used …

There Is Proof Diversity Makes Colleges Better., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Since the time of the Civil Rights movement the

issue of diversity has been widely discussed in academia.

First it was considered that institutions of

higher education should increase the participation of

minorities of both faculty and students as a matter of

social justice.

Then came the legal aspect of increasing diversity

when the concept of affirmative action was introduced

in the early 1960s. After President John F. Kennedy

issued an executive order in 1961 that required not to

“discriminate against any employee or applicant for

employment because of race, creed, color, or national

origin" and "take affirmative action to …

Health Care Resource Utilization And Costs Of California Medicaid Patients With Schizophrenia Treated With Paliperidone Palmitate Once Monthly Or Atypical Oral Antipsychotic Treatment, Jacqueline A. Pesa,, Dilesh Doshi, Li Wang, Huseyin Yuce, Onur Baser

Publications and Research

Objective: To compare all-cause health care utilization and costs between patients with schizophrenia treated with once monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP1M; Invega Sustenna1) and atypical oral antipsychotic therapy (OAT).

Methods: This was a retrospective claims-based analysis among adult California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) patients with schizophrenia having 2 claims for PP1M or OAT from 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2013 and continuous health plan enrollment for 1 year pre- and post-index date (PP1M or OAT initiation date). Baseline characteristics were reported descriptively. Propensity score matching with a 1:1 greedy match method was used to create two matched cohorts. Treatment patterns, all-cause health …

Evolution Of Complex Target Selex To Identify Aptamers Against Mammalian Cell-Surface Antigens, Prabodhika R. Mallikaratchy

Publications and Research

The demand has increased for sophisticated molecular tools with improved detection limits. Such molecules should be simple in structure, yet stable enough for clinical applications. Nucleic acid aptamers (NAAs) represent a class of molecules able to meet this demand. In particular, aptamers, a class of small nucleic acid ligands that are composed of single-stranded modified/unmodified RNA/DNA molecules, can be evolved from a complex library using Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) against almost any molecule. Since its introduction in 1990, in stages, SELEX technology has itself undergone several modifications, improving selection and broadening the repertoire of targets. This …

Analysis Of The Relative Merits Of College Readiness Reading Programs In Addressing The Achievement Gap, Tonya L. Johnson

Publications and Research

College readiness among high school students—particularly those who are from low-income families or have other at-risk factors—is declining. Research indicates that students entering college today are no more equipped to handle the rigors and demands of a successful college course load than students in the 1970s. As a result, many programs have been developed to reach certain benchmarks of student readiness in reading and reading comprehension. The Common Core Standards, while most pervasive, are not the sole measure of student college readiness. Other states and institutions have developed their own pilot programs to assess the effects of various methods of …

Discovering Liouville-Type Problems For P-Energy Minimizing Maps In Closed Half-Ellipsoids By Calculus Variation Method, Lina Wu

Publications and Research

The goal of this project is to investigate constant properties (called the Liouville-type Problem) for a p-stable map as a local or global minimum of a p-energy functional where the domain is a Euclidean space and the target space is a closed half-ellipsoid. The First and Second Variation Formulas for a p-energy functional has been applied in the Calculus Variation Method as computation techniques. Stokes’ Theorem, Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality, Hardy-Sobolev type Inequalities, and the Bochner Formula as estimation techniques have been used to estimate the lower bound and the upper bound of the derived p-Harmonic Stability Inequality. One challenging point in …

Teaching And Learning Mathematics In The Ar/Vr Environment, Alexander Vaninsky

Publications and Research

This presentation discusses teaching and learning mathematics in augmented (AR) or virtual (VR) reality created by a combination of goggles and earphones. It claims that interactive learning in such an environment is more attractive and efficient. It increases motivation and interest in the subject matter. The approach is underlain by the findings of educational neuroscience considering the learning process as the formation of domains in the brain forming mathematics knowledge centers. The teaching process provides sensory excitation and establishes connections among these and other domains. Hardware and software are available in the market. The suggested approach allows for practical implementation …

Space, Land, Territory, And The Study Of The Bible, Stephen C. Russell

Publications and Research

In this brief volume, written for professional biblical scholars and graduate students being trained in biblical studies, Stephen C. Russell introduces the reader to the interdisciplinary study of space and its related concepts, including land, territory, border, frontier, nature, scale, spatial flows, and rhythm. He offers a synopsis of eight approaches to the study of space that have been influential in the humanities and social sciences in recent decades—sacred, legal, political, economic, ecological, visual, social, and urban approaches. He pays special attention to Henri Lefebvre’s treatment of social space as a social product. The volume also briefly notes some of …

Supergroups In Critical Dimensions And Division Algebras, Čestmir Burdik, Sultan Catto, Yasemin Gürcan, Amish Khalfan, Levent Kurt, V. Kato La

Publications and Research

We establish a link between classical heterotic strings and the groups of the magic square associated with Jordan algebras, allowing for a uniform treatment of the bosonic and superstring sectors of the heterotic string.

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …

Everything Passes, Everything Changes: Unionization And Collective Bargaining In Higher Education, William A. Herbert, Jacob Apkarian

Publications and Research

This article begins with a brief history of unionization and collective bargaining in higher education. It then presents data concerning the recent growth in newly certified collective bargaining representatives at private and public-sector institutions of higher education, particularly among non-tenure track faculty. The data is analyzed in the context of legal decisions concerning employee status and unit composition under applicable federal and state laws. Lastly, the article presents data concerning strike activities on campuses between January 2013 and May 31, 2017.