Digital Commons Network^™

Bioinformatic, Genetic, And Biochemical Investigations Of The Bacterial Ole Ribonucleoprotein Complex, Chrishan Malinda Fernando

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Bacteria are under significant evolutionary pressures to maintain compact genomes.Therefore, they typically have high coding density compared to eukaryotes. As a result, large and highly structured noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are extremely rare in bacteria. However, the few classes of known large ncRNAs have unique and fundamental biological roles and are often catalytic. Furthermore, these ncRNAs reveal what may have been possible under a hypothetical ancient RNA world in which all major biological functions in existing organisms were performed by RNA, rather than DNA and protein. Further study of large ncRNAs is likely to reveal new insights into RNA catalysis and …

Analysis Of The Papillomavirus L2 Capsid Protein Structure And Protrusion, Patrick Michael Buckley

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Approximately 5% of human cancer worldwide is caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Although there are highly effective prophylactic vaccines, HPV remains a serious public health challenge due to low vaccine uptake and the inability of the vaccine to treat anyone already infected. Understanding how HPV enters and infects cells is important, as this work may lead to the development of new antivirals or therapeutics and may also reveal new aspects of cell and protein biology. HPVs are non-enveloped viruses, containing an ~8000 base pair double-stranded DNA genome encapsidated by 360 copies of L1 major capsid protein and up to 72 …

Essays In Development Economics, Timothy Hersey

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Over the last half century, global religious affiliation to new Pentecostal denominations has grown rapidly, with this growth concentrated in low income countries. This thesis investigates one economic factor influencing this growth - rural-urban migration. Religious institutions attract members by serving as hosts for economic and social networks, a service which interacts strongly with the migration process. I present new evidence from Ghana to test the link between migration and religious affiliation, using data from the ISSER Northwestern-Yale Panel Survey (GSPS) and a survey of Pentecostal churches in Accra.In the first chapter, I consider the effect of migration on the …

Machine Learning In Finance: Applications To Understanding Investor Behavior And Asset Prices, Kangying Zhou

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays on machine learning in finance, focusing on its applications to understanding investor behavior and asset prices. The first essay is titled "Professional Investors and Media Narratives." I investigate the impact of media narratives on the portfolio strategies of active equity mutual funds. Using 1.5 million Wall Street Journal articles from 1984 to 2023, I use ChatGPT to distill media narratives into 59 distinct topics, and quantify each topic's time-varying share of news attention and sentiment. I then define a fund as having exposure to a topic if it overweights stocks expected to perform well …

Understanding The Mechanisms Regulating Neuronal Metabolic States In Vivo, Milind Singh

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Glycolysis, a glucose-consuming pathway required for cellular energy production, iswell conserved across species and has been extensively characterized biochemically. Less is understood regarding how it is subcellularly organized, or coordinated across tissues in vivo. Previous work from our lab found that during transient hypoxia or neuronal stimulation, the rate-limiting glycolytic enzyme phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK-1.1) dynamically re-localizes from the cytoplasm to condensates near synapses in C. elegans neurons. My research examined mechanisms by which PFK-1.1 localization is regulated in neurons, and resulted in two main findings: 1) PFK-1.1 condensate formation in neurons is regulated by a non-cell-autonomous signal derived from hypodermal (epidermal) …

Quantum Control Of An Oscillator With A Kerr-Cat Qubit, Andy Zhenghao Ding

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Noise presents a major obstacle to scaling up quantum computers, causing logical errors and preventing the reliable execution of quantum algorithms. Quantum error correction provides a path toward fault-tolerance, but this typically comes at the cost of significant resource overhead. Bosonic codes offer a hardware-efficient strategy for quantum error correction by redundantly encoding quantum information in the large Hilbert space of a harmonic oscillator. These codes have been employed to achieve landmark experimental demonstrations. However, these demonstrations are limited by transmon ancilla errors propagating to the encoded logical qubit during syndrome measurements. The Kerr-cat qubit has been proposed as a …

The Linc Complex Component Kms1 And Cenp-B Protein Cbp1 Cooperate To Enforce Faithful Homology-Directed Dna Repair At The Nuclear Periphery, Alyssa Laffitte

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) represent a danger to genome stability. Cells repair DSBs mainly through one of two pathways: canonical non-homologous end-joining (cNHEJ), which requires the direct ligation of the two DSB ends, or homologous recombination (HR), which involves the use of a homologous template to create a faithful repair product. While HR is often considered to be an error-free mechanism, the ultimate fidelity of this pathway depends on the ability of the cell to identify and engage with the correct homologous template. This is particularly challenging during repair of repetitive regions of the genome for which non-allelic sequences can …

Advances In Synthetic Data Generation And Causal Inference, Shinpei Nakamura Sakai

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Synthetic data generation has become essential for addressing data scarcity, privacy concerns, and generalization problems when applying machine learning in various domains. Hence, data is the main ingredient of any machine learning model. If synthetic data is too similar to real data, the risk of privacy breaches is significantly higher; if it is too different, its practical applicability is undermined. This dissertation proposes two approaches to enhance synthetic data generation. Chapter 2 develops SC-GOAT, a framework that integrates a supervised component tailored to the specific downstream task and employs a meta-learning approach to learn the optimal mixture distribution of existing …

Elucidating Cell Intrinsic Regulators Of Cd8 T Cell Differentiation: Klf2 Maintains Effector Cd8 Lineage Fidelity, Eric Quinn Fagerberg

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

CD8 T cells are an integral part of the immune system, principally responsible for the cytolytic clearance of virally infected and cancerous cells. They adapt to the nature of the immune response they are partaking in by adopting distinct cell fates through a process of highly coordinated differentiation. These fates are characterized by the activation and suppression of functional programs under the control of transcription factors and epigenetic machinery, which integrate cell extrinsic signals to drive differentiation. Here we elucidate the function of a group of transcription factors in dictating CD8 T cell differentiation in infection. We go on to …

Examining Political Knowledge And Trust In The U.S Federal Government, Sheila Alvarez

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

The United States is a representative democracy and as such requires participation from its citizens to function; in order to participate, citizens need to have information. Trust in social institutions is often contingent on our knowledge about those institutions. For instance, increased trust in scientists, science, or both, can be affected by educational achievement and scientific knowledge (Yen & Zampelli, 2022). The relationship between trust and knowledge highlights how an understanding of concepts leads to higher receptivity (Yen & Zampelli, 2022). Research has also suggested political knowledge is a driving force of political participation and tolerance (Delli Carpini & Keeter, …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Past Three Fifa World Cups: Nations’ Regulations, Policies, And Global Impact, Arturo Flores

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

The current study investigates the relationship between alcohol and sports marketing. Throughout this research paper, the primary focus is to look at the three previous World Cups and their hosting Countries: Brazil, Russia, and Qatar. To do this, the methods that are used to analyze the three countries will consist of a collection of digital archives consisting of YouTube ads, alcohol policies of the countries hosting the World Cup, and the effects of the World Cup on the hosts overall. In addition, the study goes into how the alcohol policies of each country have shifted before, during, and after being …

Graduate Bulletin 2025-2026, Cuny John Jay College

College Bulletins

Covers academic years 2025-2026

Undergraduate Bulletin 2025-2026, Cuny John Jay College

College Bulletins

Covers academic year 2025-2026

Mekdelawit Zergaw Honors Portfolio, Mekdelawit Zergaw

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Mekdelawit Zergaw's honors portfolio captured in May 2025.

Jack Raverty Honors Portfolio, Jack Raverty

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Jack Raverty's honors portfolio captured in May 2025.

Anne-Lyse Nono Honors Portfolio, Anne-Lyse Nono

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Anne-Lyse Nono's honors capstone portfolio captured in May 2025.

Design And Implementation Of A Low-Cost Raspberry Pi And Ai-Based Intrusion Detection System For Surveillance, Metrine Nyaboke Osiemo

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

As security concerns continue to rise, there is a growing demand for affordable and intelligent surveillance solutions to ensure safety in homes, businesses, and other environments. Many individuals are embracing AI-driven technologies such as Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), smart doorbells, and automated security systems to protect their properties. This project presents a design and implementation of a cost-effective AI-powered intrusion detection system utilizing Raspberry Pi 5 for home surveillance, with adaptability for broader applications. The system integrates a camera module and an LCD screen running on a Linux-based platform, with Python, and OpenCV as key software components. It employs dlib’s deep …

Exploring Physiotherapist’S Ability To Identify Cauda Equina Syndrome Early, Khalid F. Althobaiti, Joshua R. Zadro, Fahad A. Alzhrani, Hosam A. Alzahrani

Neurosciences

ABSTRACT Objectives: To explore the ability of physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia to identify cauda equina syndrome (CES) in a timely manner, and to identify the methods used by physiotherapists to manage patients with suspected CES. Methods: This study utilized a cross-sectional research design and was conducted in the period May-October 2023. It included licensed physiotherapists working in Saudi Arabia. The data was collected using a survey that aimed to assess physiotherapists’ ability to identify CES early, using 12 statements. Based on the participants response to these statements, all responders were categorized into the following groups based on their ability to …

Does Sleep Apnea Treatment Influence Patients’ Risk Of Getting Into Car Accidents?

Neurosciences

No abstract provided.

Are Patients Undergoing Surgery For Early-Stage Cancer At Risk Of Persistent Opioid Use?

Neurosciences

No abstract provided.

13. Mentorship Matters: Documenting The Unseen Impact Of Instructor-Student Relationships, Jeff Spears, Amanda Deliman, Hannah Mae Lewis, Jim Lamuth, Kim Hales

Documenting Teaching Excellence

This chapter explores the critical yet often unrecognized role of documenting instructor mentorship as a core component of teaching excellence in higher education. Mentorship encompasses a range of instructor-to-student interactions, including academic guidance, psychosocial support, research support (graduate and undergraduate), and career exploration for students (DeAngelo, Mason, & Winters, 2016; Thiry & Laursen, 2011). Despite its importance, mentorship is rarely documented comprehensively in teaching documentation portfolios (Ocobock et al., 2022). By systematically capturing the multifaceted impacts of mentorship, instructors enhance their teaching portfolio and contribute to the broader discourse on teaching excellence. This chapter aims to empower instructors to demonstrate …

15. Documenting Teaching Excellence: Applying Universal Design For Learning (Udl) In Communication Courses, Shihua Brazill

Documenting Teaching Excellence

As a professor in communications, I know firsthand the challenges and rewards of teaching diverse students in courses such as Presenting Technical Information, Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, and Intercultural Communication. These courses demand not only mastery of content but also the ability of students at varying levels of comfort and expertise to communicate effectively using a variety of media. My approach to teaching has been heavily influenced by the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which I have found to be an invaluable tool for creating inclusive, engaging, and dynamic learning environments. UDL has become essential to my pedagogy because …

16. Confronting "I Just Don't Have Time": An Argument For Seeking And Documenting Professional Learning, Sharon Lyman, Karin Dejonge-Kannan

Documenting Teaching Excellence

We confess our teaching is not always exemplary and our students often struggle to learn. We argue that intentionally pursuing professional learning is the only way to improve our teaching, and that documenting this learning is imperative when we make the case for teaching excellence. This chapter will examine the common lament of “I just don’t have time” for professional learning, followed by a discussion of how to exchange this self-sabotaging notion for a self-sustaining alternative, and a description of the benefits of documenting professional growth. The aim of this chapter is three-fold: to argue that “I just don’t have …

17. Our Teaching Excellence: Effective Teaching As An Inherently Collective Endeavor To Enhance Student Learning, Melissa E. Ko

Documenting Teaching Excellence

Higher education has long pursued excellence in its core pillars: research, service, and teaching. Yet, public trust in higher education is at an all-time low. In 2024, nearly 1 in 3 Americans reported little to no confidence in higher education (Nietzel, 2024). Another survey revealed that 1 in 2 Americans think a college degree is less important now for getting a well-paying job compared to 20 years ago (Pew Research Center, 2024). Individual faculty continue to secure tenure through demonstrated teaching excellence, yet higher education struggles to convince the American public of its effectiveness. Why does this discrepancy exist?

Impact Of Digital Courseware Use On Online Student Sense Of Belonging And Potential For Building An Online Community Of Inquiry, Kat Klement

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Though interest in online education is rising, online programs have a lower retention rate than do in-person programs and a correspondingly higher dropout rate. One factor that drives online student retention is the degree to which students feel a sense of belonging in their online courses. As more interest in online education leads to larger course sizes and more online sections, instructors may turn to digital courseware offered by publishing companies to increase student engagement and provide formative assessment. Yet research shows little consistency in the impact of digital courseware use on course grades. The studies in this thesis explored …

Targeted Deletion Of Cxcl1 In Mscs Regulates Osteogenesis And Suppresses Bone-Metastatic Prostate Cancer, Catherine S. Johnson, Diane L. Costanzo-Garvey, Julio C. Valencia, Sanjana Rajgopal, Theodore Reed, Emma R. Brannon, Jeremy S. Frieling, Deanna Mosley, Todd A. Wyatt, Elijah F. Edmondson, Kabhilan Mohan, Grinu Mathew, Leah M. Cook

Journal Articles: Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health

Bone metastasis continues to be the greatest challenge in treating patients with prostate cancer despite ongoing research. In bone, prostate cancer tumors hijack normal bone remodeling processes to drive cancer progression. However, it is unclear how these interactions drive bone-metastatic prostate cancer growth in the bone environment. To understand the mechanisms associated with bone-metastatic prostate cancer regulation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), we previously identified that bone-metastatic prostate cancer induces MSC expression of the pro-inflammatory chemokine CXCL8 and its mouse functional homologue Cxcl1. To date, there has been little to no information about the role of CXCL1/8 in MSC biology …

Research News, Publications, 2025, Volume 2, Soumyajit Majumdar

Publications (2015-)

Publications that appeared during the period of April 1 - June 30, 2025.

The Impact Of Nurse-Led Environmental Controls On Insomnia In Elderly Acute Care Inpatients, Tyler G. Van Note, Lindsay V. Garay, Ava R. Eisenhart

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The Impact of Nurse-Led Environmental Controls on Insomnia in Elderly Acute Care Inpatients

Research Question: Does teaching nurses to control the patient environment (I) in acute care in-patients aged 65+ (P) reduce insomnia compared to current practice (Q1H rounding) (C) from 67.4% to less than 30% as measured by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) (O)?

Background and Significance: 67.4% of hospitalized patients report experiencing insomnia from sleep disturbances, which can significantly impact their recovery and overall health outcomes. Nurses can address these disruptions by monitoring noise, light exposure, and staff interruptions.

Sample methods: The literature review search keywords were sleep …

Research News, Grants, 2025, Volume 1, Joshua Sharp

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during January - March 2025

Research News, Grants, 2025, Volume 3, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during July - September 2025.