Digital Commons Network^™

Visual Synthesis Of Planar Parallel Manipulators Using Constraint Manifold Geometry, Sagar Sanjay Anantwar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this thesis, a visual approach for the dimensional synthesis of planar parallel manipulators is discussed. The presented approach transforms the kinematic constraint problem to a geometric constraint manifold manipulation problem. For planar mechanisms, the kinematic constraint equations represent the limits for the motion of the links in the Cartesian space. The use of Quaternions is made in designing of this motion. The problem of motion of planar mechanisms is translated into a problem of designing of a smooth rational curve in the Quaternion space (Image space). An intuitive graphical design tool has been developed. The design tool facilitates the …

Synoptic Flow Patterns That Influence Wind-Induced Mixing And The Temporal Evolution Of Hypoxia Over Western Long Island Sound, Sean Dennis Bratton

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Bottom dissolved oxygen (DOb) concentrations in wLIS have exhibited both a long-term decline as well as marked inter-annual variability over the last several decades (1950-2009). This behavior continues despite New York City having reduced the quantity of nitrogen in upper East River Water pollution Control Plants (WPCPs) over the last two decades (Wilson t al. 2008). Processes controlling the inter-annual variability, intensity, spatial extend, and duration of hypoxia is still not fully understood. A number of studies have focused on anthropogenic factors, but air-sea interactions have also been documented to be important. The objective of this study is to identify …

Impacts On Spartina Alterniflora: Factors Affecting Salt Marsh Edge Loss., James Paul Browne

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Spartina marshes are found on shores along the Atlantic coast of North America. A number of natural and anthropogenic impacts are thought to affect the rate of salt marsh loss. However, few long term assessments of changes in salt marshes are available. This dissertation project characterized and ranked factors that influence the recession of the edge of Spartina alterniflora salt marshes, focusing on Hempstead Bay, the westernmost bay of Long Island's South Shore Estuary reserve. I used 12 sets of aerial photographs of these marshes taken from 1926 to 2007 Using a randomization process, I chose 500 points along the …

Black, White And Green: High School Student Civil Rights And Environmental Activism In New York City And On Long Island, 1968-1975, Neil Philip Buffett

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation highlights the contributions of high school student activists in both the Civil Rights and Environmental Movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through an in-depth analysis of various New York City and Long Island community case studies, the project sheds light on the importance of place as a theoretical concept in the evolution of student-led social and political activism. The project illustrates how student involvement in both the Civil Rights and Environmental Movements did or did not manifest in two contrasting suburban and urban settings. Moreover, it highlights how place as a construct in and of itself …

Clustering And Network Analysis With Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (Snp), Hongyan Chen

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The goal of the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is to investigate the relationships between disease phenotypes and genotypes, which are usually determined by a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Currently GWAS are often underpowered to identify SNPs with small to moderate effect sizes. In order to overcome this difficulty, two major approaches, (1) meta-analysis by increasing sample size and (2) SNP pre-selection by dimension reduction, are often adopted. Dimension reduction for SNP data has been arduous due to the categorical nature of SNP that renders most association measures such as the Pearson correlation or the Euclidean distance inappropriate. …

External Urethral Sphincter Activity During Micturition In The Adult Female Rat Before And After Spinal Cord Injury, Stephen D'Amico

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The process of micturition is fundamental to life and one of the major ways by which organisms excrete toxic byproducts of metabolism. To function efficiently, micturition requires reciprocal bladder contraction and urethral relaxation that is coordinated by the brainstem. Spinal cord injury (SCI) above the level of the lumbosacral spinal cord results in dysfunction of the lower urinary tract (LUT). One of the most common forms of LUT derangement is detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia (DSD), which is characterized by simultaneous contraction of the bladder and the external urethral sphincter (EUS) muscle due to the impairment of reflex and voluntary sphincter control. SCI …

Integrated Biobehavioral Analysis Of Sex Differences In A Rat Model Of Schizophrenia, Igor Feinstein

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Schizophrenia is a mental illness affecting roughly 1% of the population that is characterized by both positive/affective and negative/cognitive symptoms and is associated with abnormalities in multiple neurotransmitter systems and brain areas. Recently, reduced function of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) has emerged as an etiologic hypothesis with explanatory power for this spectrum of disturbances. However, it is unknown how NMDAR hypofunction relates to the striking sex differences that are also seen in the incidence and severity of schizophrenia's positive (female > male) vs. negative (male > female) signs, in its associated neurochemical imbalances and in the efficacies of drugs commonly used to …

When Sorrows Come: Death In The Contemporary American Drama, Becky Leigh Goldberg

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This paper is a study of Contemporary American Family Drama of the past ten years. In looking at Proof by David Auburn, Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, and Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey (music by Tom Kitt), and holding them in reference to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, this paper explores the death that occurs before the action in each play, and how the women of the plays cope with the loss. This paper argues that the contemporary women, unlike their literary ancestor Mary Tyrone, have the means to handle their …

Two Aspects Of Sasakian Geometry, Weixin Guo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Sasakian structures are the counterparts of Kahler structures in odd dimensions. A Sasakian manifold is a strictly pseudo-convex CR manifold with a Reeb vector field that generates CR automorphisms. We first study Type I deformations of Sasakian structures, which amount to different choices of Reeb vector field on a fixed CR manifold. Here we show that the CR automorphism group of a Sasakian manifold is severely constrained by mild curvature assumptions. We then study products of pairs of compact Sasakian manifolds. Such products are shown to always yield compact complex manifolds that do not admit Kahler metrics, generalizing a remarkable …

Verification Of Security Policy Administration And Enforcement In Enterprise Systems, Puneet Gupta

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The scale and complexity of security policies in enterprise systems makes it difficult to ensure that they achieve higher-level security goals. This dissertation explores two important ways in which policy analysis can help: reachability analysis for administrative policies, and analysis of policy enforcement in enterprise systems. An administrative policy specifies how each user in an enterprise may change the policy. Fully understanding the consequences of an administrative policy can be difficult, because sequences of changes by different users may interact in unexpected ways. Administrative policy analysis helps by answering questions such as user-permission reachability, which asks whether specified users can …

Variations Of Thermally Sprayed Materials By Means Of Coupled Property Response, Christopher Jon Jensen

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Emerging applications in electrical systems and components require the development of new and novel characterization methods for thermal spray coatings. Thermal spray is a complex process in which there are several multivariable dependencies. The relationship between processing and coating properties are often not fully understood. Traditional mechanical properties are not sufficiently sensitive to characterize and classify the electrical response of a material and therefore new methods must be developed to fill the gaps in characterization methods related to electrical properties. It is necessary to develop new test methods which dynamically allow the determination of coating properties. In the past, single …

Characterizing Minor African American Women's Everyday Singing In African American Literature, Patrina Carynne Jones

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

A tradition in fiction that echoes throughout the African American literary canon is the commonplace `minor' characterization of female singers who translate the conditions of their everyday lived realities through a uniquely womanist practice of vocal performance. The vocal form of this aesthetic of singing is also represented as a culture of rendered voice and as a sustained motif for personal and group identity. This dissertation argues for the narrative centrality of "minor" African American female singers and also for value to a reading practice that augments secondary characterization on the basis that the literary phenomenon of female singing reformulates …

Chastising Female Chastity: Social Criticisms Of Female Virtue In Cyril Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, Thomas Middleton's The Second Maiden's Tragedy, And Francis Beaumont And John Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy, Samantha Karasik

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The objective of this analysis is to chronicle the idealization and subsequent deprecation of the chaste Renaissance woman in three seventeenth century revenge tragedies. This paper first explores Renaissance society's expectations for female chastity and examines how these rigidly defined rules for maidens and wives were once strictly enforced by men. Cyril Tourneur's "&Idquo The Revenger's Tragedy &rdquo" illustrates this obsession with protecting female virtue in a world where women were beginning to break free from the constraints of strict gender and sexual codes of behavior. Next, this paper segues into a discussion of how societal corruption threatens the existence …

Fluorescence-Based Approaches For Studying Nucleotide Excision Repair, Andy Khoo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a versatile DNA repair pathway known for its wide substrate specificity. NER is able to recognize and remove a variety of helix distorting DNA lesions including those induced by ultraviolet (UV) light, various environmental mutagens and chemotherapeutic agents. The importance of NER is underscored by the inherited human disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), which is caused by the deficiency of genes that are involved in NER. The characteristics of XP patients include an extreme sensitivity to UV light and a more than 2000-fold increased incidence of skin cancer. NER works through a "cut and patch" mechanism …

Breast Cancer Survivors' Perception Of Yoga Practice For Different Spans Of Time, Karyn Kirschbaum

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This qualitative study uses an exploratory research design that incorporates both grounded theory and phenomenological approaches in order to gain insight into the meaning of yoga in relation to coping with breast cancer. The study focuses on the individual, lived experience and relies on in-depth interview strategies to capture the subjects' sensations and perceptions of the practice and utility of yoga over the duration of time. By interviewing women who practice yoga for different spans of time, several aspects are explored: if the length of time affects any observed changes; if transitional stages in yoga progression can be identified, and …

Wordsworth's Philosophy Of Wonder: Epistemology, Psychoanalysis, Phenomenology, Matthew Robert Lorenz

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Though scholars in the field of British Romanticism have made much of the opposition between the Enlightenment system genre and the Romantic fragment genre, they have granted comparatively little attention to the epistemological counterpoint to system: the detotalizing attitude of a philosophical wonder. By highlighting the integral yet much neglected role that wonder has played in Romantic epistemology and in Wordsworth's prose and Prelude in particular, this study rectifies the misguided assumptions that have informed modern accounts of Wordsworth's epic aspirations and philosophical practices. While Arnold famously alleged that the British Romantics "did not know enough, this dissertation demonstrates that …

The Uncertainty Of Certainty: Exploring A Dialectic, Leon Becker Marcelo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The fostering of a dialectic between Certainty and Uncertainty and the perspectives of reality and "truth" that each engenders is necessary for writing and the teaching of writing. This necessity arises from the fact that a privileging of either extreme, at the expense of the other, is antithetical to work for the progress of not simply the teaching of writing but of the greater society and culture to which it would serve. Whether the pursuit of Certainty that culminated in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America in the birth of "Current-Traditional Rhetoric" or, conversely, the pursuit of Uncertainty that spread throughout academia …

Renormalization Of Three Dimensional Henon Map, Young Woo Nam

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The three dimensional Henon-like map is defined on the cubic box domain. The geometric properties of Cantor attractor of F are studied. The Jacobian determinant of nth renormalized map is expressed asymptotically using the universal map. The set of the model maps, M is invariant class under renormalization. If there exist C^r invariant surfaces under model maps, then the geometric properties of Cantor attractor of F in M is involved with the same properties for the two dimensional Henon-like map. In particular, the non rigidity and the typical unbounded geometry of Cantor attractor are proved. Another invariant class under renormalization, …

Synthesis Of Components For Amphiphilic Tri-Arm Star Copolymer For Gene Delivery, Chai Kit Ngai

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Amphiphilic block copolymers are polymers that consist of hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks. These polymers have been of interest because of their potential use in medical applications such as gene delivery. The gene delivery vector that our group is currently synthesizing is an amphiphilic tri-arm star copolymer. The tri-arm star copolymer consists of a hydrophillic polyethylene glycol (PEG), a hydrophobic poly (lactic acid) (PLA) block, and a short cleavable oligolysine chain that will complex with DNA. In this document, model studies of lactic acid (LA) polymerization from 3-hydroxy-N-(2-methoxyethyl)-2-[(phenylmethoxy)carbonyl] propanamide (compound 1), and the synthesis of the components of the third arm; …

The Upper Pennsylvanian Hushpuckney Core Black Shale Member From The Swope Formation In Kansas: Rhenium - Osmium Isotope Systematics, And The Highly Siderophile Elements., Lynnette La'mar Pitcher

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis presents Rhenium - Osmium (Re-Os) systematics and Highly Siderophile Element (HSE) data from the (otherwise) geochemically and stratigraphically well studied Hushpuckney black shale from the Swope Formation in Kansas. Rhenium concentrations and the Re/Os ratios have a large spread that surpasses all published work on Re-Os. While the Re-Os data show significant scatter, the slope gives the expected age of 306 Ma. I use HSE's and Mo to consider geological processes that might have influenced the Re-Os systematics. The chondrite normalized HSE patterns are remarkably similar to that of seawater and supports the interpretation that the Midcontinent Seaway …

Theoretical Characterization Of Water-Surfaces Interactions, Adrien Poissier

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Much effort is being devoted to the understanding of water-substrate interactions at metallic or semiconducting surfaces with catalytic properties. Confined water represents a great interest for physicists and chemists interested in state-of-the-art technologies such as, fuel cells where the rates of proton have to be controlled, nano-sensors, heterogeneous catalysis, or nano-fluids. Creation of hydrogen gas from water dissociation, also remains an important challenge in order to complete the cycle of CO2 free green energies production. Photocatalytic processes, with semiconducting substrates such as GaN 1010 seem to represent strong candidates towards this achievement. This work focuses on the investigation of water-substrate …

Outcomes In St Elevation Myocardial Infarction; A Comparison Of A Tertiary Care Center In Pakistan With European Centers, Sadia Arshad, Sajid Dhakam, Safia Awan

Section of Cardiology

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and in hospital outcome data of patients presenting to the Aga Khan University Hospital with ST elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and its comparison with data from patients enrolled in the European Heart registry for the same duration.METHODS: Data on 296 patients with STEMI was prospectively collected from 1st January 2010, till 31st December 2010 from the cardiology section at the Aga Khan University Hospital. European data was collected on 7485 patients retrieved from the Eurobservational Research programme Acute Coronary Syndrome Registry 2010 for the same duration.RESULTS: A total of 296 patients were enrolled from …

Benthic Habitat Characterization For The South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (Sfomf), David S. Gilliam, Brian K. Walker

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

This report summarizes the distribution and relative abundance of two stony coral species (Acropora cervicornis and Acropora palmata) currently listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) (Federal Register/Vol. 71, No. 129/Thursday, July 6, 2006 / Rules and Regulations, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2006-07-06/pdf/06-6017.pdf) and seven additional stony coral species which have been petitioned for listing as endangered or threatened under the ESA (Agaricia lamarcki, Dendrogyra cylindrus, Dichocoenia stokesii, Montastraea annularis, Montastraea faveolata, Montastraea franksi, and Mycetophyllia ferox) (Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 27/Wednesday, February 10, 2010/Proposed Rules, http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/fr/fr75-6616.pdf). This report also summarizes the abundance and distribution …

Dural Sinus Thrombosis A Local Experience At Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan, Maimoona Siddiqui, Nadia Mehboob, Ismail A. Khatri

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Contact Lens-Related Visual Loss: A Case Series From Karachi, Tanveer Anjum Chaudhry, Sarah Sarfraz, Qazi Assad Khan, Khabir Ahmad

Section of Ophthalmology

All cases of corneal ulcers, presenting at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi between January 2006 and December 2010 were reviewed. Information was obtained regarding socio-demography, the cause of ulcer, prior treatment and visual acuity. Afterwards, contact-lens specific information such as the type of lens and purpose and duration of lens usage was obtained from the participants by phone interviews.
There were 59 persons with unilateral ulcers and 4 had bilateral presentation. The mean age of the study participants was 27.79 +/- 14.51 years while the median age as 24 years. Of these, 87 %had a visual acuity less than …

Cancer Center To Showcase Progress & Promise, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Early Hearing Detection And Intervention: Diagnostic Hearing Assessment Practices, Karen F. Muñoz, Lauri H. Nelson, N. Goldgewicht, D. Odell

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Faculty Publications

Purpose

To gain an understanding of practice patterns for infant diagnostic hearing services at pediatric audiology facilities.

Method

The authors used a cross-sectional survey design. From August to November of 2009, surveys were mailed to 1,091 facilities in 28 states and the District of Columbia. One survey was completed per facility, and responses were anonymous.

Results

The return rate was 33% (356 surveys). The results revealed that the comprehensiveness of the test batteries used varied among facilities. Over half of the respondents, 146 (55%), reported using a limited test battery, 94 facilities reported using a comprehensive test battery but lacked …

Constructive Developmental Theory: An Alternative Approach To Leadership, Anne Marie B. Hunter, Nancy M. Lewis, Paula K. Ritter-Gooder

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

As early as 1954, the critical value of leadership in dietetics was described by Rourke, who wrote, “When the day comes that your executive abilities equal your scientific knowledge, your profession (dietetics) will be secure. Until that day, you will be faced with a constant and unwelcome challenge” (1). Career and leadership skills development have been identified as an area for further attention by American Dietetic Association (ADA) practitioners and student members (2). Creation of the ADA Leadership Institute in 2003 represented an awareness of the need to invest in developing dietetic leaders (3). Proficient leaders are critical in keeping …

How To Catch A Fish: The Weir Fishermen’S Control Of The Sardine Herring, 1876-1903, Brian Payne

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Older Immigrants In The United States: The New Old Face Of Immigration, Jing Tan

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.