Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sustainable Molecular Gelators: Beta-D-Glucoside Derived Structuring Agents And Their Material Application, Julian R. Silverman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Though molecular gelators may by synthesized and formulated into gels following a variety of methods, it should serve that the most valued methods may utilize renewable and waste resources and follow sustainable procedures. Molecular gelators are systems capable of structuring liquids into solid-like materials and they represent a class of surfactant and amphiphilic materials which posses the capability to be not only useful in their ability to form gels, but multifunctional in the ability to respond smartly to a variety of stimuli. Thus there is an interest in the development of sustainable molecular gelators capable of being applied to applications, …

I. Synthesis Of Diverse Structures From Quinone Monoketal And Quinone Imine Ketal With Efficiency And Control Ii. Synthetic Study Of Phalarine, Zhiwei Yin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Quinonoids are quinone derivatives that have carbonyl or carbonyl equivalent and even number of double bonds embedded in six member rings. As a result of the intrinsic α,β-unsaturated ketone or imine structures, quinonoids, such as quinone monoketals, quinols, quinol ethers and quinone imine ketals, can accommodate a wide range of reactions including 1,2-additon, 1,4-addtion, SN2’ reaction (allylic substitution) to the α-carbon of the carbonyl or imine and cycloaddition reactions (e.g. Diels-Alder reaction). Quinonoids are effective building blocks for synthesizing heterocycles, which are ubiquitous in pharmaceutically useful agents. Developing new quinonoid based methodologies is essential to expanding the boundary of synthetic …

The Fourth Movement Of György Ligeti's Piano Concerto: Investigating The Musical-Mathematical Connection, Cynthia L. Wong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This interdisciplinary study explores musical-mathematical analogies in the fourth movement of Ligeti’s Piano Concerto. Its aim is to connect musical analysis with the piece’s mathematical inspiration. For this purpose, the dissertation is divided into two sections. Part I (Chapters 1-2) provides musical and mathematical context, including an explanation of ideas related to Ligeti’s mathematical inspiration. Part II (Chapters 3-5) delves into an analysis of the rhythm, form, melody / motive, and harmony. Appendix A is a reduced score of the entire movement, labeled according to my analysis.

Vector Beams For Fundamental Physics And Applications, Giovanni Milione

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lights salient degrees of freedom are the independent parameters that completely de- scribe an electromagnetic wave (in the paraxial approximation) and include polarization, wavelength, and time. Most recently, lights space degree of freedom has received sig- nificant attention via the sub-discipline of optics that can be referred to as complex light or structured light. The study of complex light is a veritable renaissance of optics; us- ing lights space degree of freedom many classical optics phenomena have been revisited with novel results. In this thesis, a novel form of structured light referred to as vector beams will be investigated. It …

Theoretical Analysis Of Single Molecule Spectroscopy Lineshapes Of Conjugated Polymers, Murali Devi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Conjugated Polymers(CPs) exhibit a wide range of highly tunable optical properties. Quantitative and detailed understanding of the nature of excitons responsible for such a rich optical behavior has significant implications for better utilization of CPs for more efficient plastic solar cells and other novel optoelectronic devices. In general, samples of CPs are plagued with substantial inhomogeneous broadening due to various sources of disorder. Single molecule emission spectroscopy (SMES) offers a unique opportunity to investigate the energetics and dynamics of excitons and their interactions with phonon modes. The major subject of the present thesis is to analyze and understand room temperature …

Suppression Of High Transverse Momentum Charged Hadrons In Au+Au Collisions At 200 Gev Nucleon-Nucleon Center Of Mass Energy, Jason B. Bryslawskyj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dynamical properties of quark gluon plasma are studied in heavy ion collisions. Gold ions are accelerated with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and collided at energies up to 200 GeV per nucleon. Collision products and their properties are detected and measured with the PHENIX detector. At these energies the colliding ions may form a thermalized distribution of quarks and gluons called the Quark-Gluon Plasma. The suppression of single hadrons still provides one of the strongest constraints on energy loss mechanisms in the Quark-Gluon Plasma. Presently, neutral pions provide the best measurement at RHIC of …

Photooxidation Chemistry And Photodynamic Therapy: Pointsource Delivery Of Singlet Oxygen, Sensitizer And Nitrosamine Drugs, Ashwini Anil Ghogare

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Eradication of residual tumor cells that are directly adjacent to vital tissue is a daunting challenge to surgeons. Because the field needs advances in intraoperative settings and a means for high-precision delivery of singlet oxygen for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancers, this dissertation outlines the development and application of a “pointsource” fiber optic device. The device offers highly localized and simultaneous delivery of sensitizer drug, light, and oxygen (components necessary for PDT) for cancer cell eradication in-vitro and in-vivo. The following chapters describe (a) the photokilling activity and precision of pointsource PDT in monolayer ovarian and brain cancer cells …

Classical Transport In Disordered Systems, Antonios Papaioannou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis reports on the manifestation of structural disorder on molecular transport and it consists of two parts. Part I discusses the relations between classical transport and the underlying structural complexity of the system. Both types of molecular diffusion, namely Gaussian and non-Gaussian are presented and the relevant time regimes are discussed. In addition the concept of structural universality is introduced and connected with the diffusion metrics. One of the most robust techniques for measuring molecular mean square displacements is magnetic resonance. This method requires encoding and subsequently reading out after an experimentally controlled time, a phase ϕ to the …

Interaction Of Spliceosomal U2 Snrnp Protein P14 With Its Branch Site Rna Target, William Perea Vargas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Newly transcribed precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) molecules contain coding sequences (exons) interspersed with non-coding intervening sequences (introns). These introns must be removed in order to generate a continuous coding sequence prior to translation of the message into protein. The mechanism through which these introns are removed is known as pre-mRNA splicing, a two-step reaction catalyzed be a large macromolecular machine, the spliceosome, located in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. The spliceosome is a protein-directed ribozyme composed of small nuclear RNAs (snRNA) and hundreds of proteins that assemble in a very dynamic process. One of these snRNAs, the U2 snRNA, is …

Cayley Graphs Of Semigroups And Applications To Hashing, Bianca Sosnovski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1994, Tillich and Zemor proposed a scheme for a family of hash functions that uses products of matrices in groups of the form $SL_2(F_{2^n})$. In 2009, Grassl et al. developed an attack to obtain collisions for palindromic bit strings by exploring a connection between the Tillich-Zemor functions and maximal length chains in the Euclidean algorithm for polynomials over $F_2$.

In this work, we present a new proposal for hash functions based on Cayley graphs of semigroups. In our proposed hash function, the noncommutative semigroup of linear functions under composition is considered as platform for the scheme. We will also …

New Classical Solutions In Supergravity, Zhibai Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this Ph.D. thesis we construct three classes of new solutions to supergravity theories in various dimensions and study their properties. The first class is reduction ansatz of 10D and 11D supergravity on Ricci-flat and noncompact manifolds. These reductions are from a scaling limit of the famous spherical reductions, and can be solely supported by warp factors. The second class contains a large number of String/M theory solutions that have Lifshitz or Schrodinger scaling symmetry, obtained from marginally deforming the geometry of internal dimensions of previous solutions. We propose that these new solutions are dual to marginal deformations of certain …

Cohomology Of Certain Polyhedral Product Spaces, Elizabeth A. Vidaurre

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of torus actions led to the discovery of moment-angle complexes and their generalization, polyhedral product spaces. Polyhedral products are constructed from a simplicial complex. This thesis focuses on computing the cohomology of polyhedral products given by two different classes of simplicial complexes: polyhedral joins (composed simplicial complexes) and $n$-gons. A homological decomposition of a polyhedral product developed by Bahri, Bendersky, Cohen and Gitler is used to derive a formula for the case of polyhedral joins. Moreover, methods from and results by Cai will be used to give a full description of the non-trivial cup products in a real …

Stochastic Processes And Their Applications To Change Point Detection Problems, Heng Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses the change point detection problem when either the post-change distribution has uncertainty or the post-change distribution is time inhomogeneous. In the case of post-change distribution uncertainty, attention is drawn to the construction of a family of composite stopping times. It is shown that the proposed composite stopping time has third order optimality in the detection problem with Wiener observations and also provides information to distinguish the different values of post-change drift. In the case of post-change distribution uncertainty, a computationally efficient decision rule with low-complexity based on Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) algorithm is also introduced. In the time …

P-Adic L-Functions And The Geometry Of Hida Families, Joseph Kramer-Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A major theme in the theory of $p$-adic deformations of automorphic forms is how $p$-adic $L$-functions over eigenvarieties relate to the geometry of these eigenvarieties. In this talk we explain results in this vein for the ordinary part of the eigencurve (i.e. Hida families). We address how Taylor expansions of one variable $p$-adic $L$-functions varying over families can detect geometric phenomena: crossing components of a certain intersection multiplicity and ramification over the weight space. Our methods involve proving a converse to a result of Vatsal relating congruences between eigenforms to their algebraic special $L$-values and then $p$-adically interpolating congruences using …

Quaternion Algebras And Hyperbolic 3-Manifolds, Joseph Quinn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I use a classical idea of Macfarlane to obtain a complex quaternion model for hyperbolic 3-space and its group of orientation-preserving isometries, analogous to Hamilton’s famous result on Euclidean rotations. I generalize this to quaternion models over number fields for the action of Kleinian groups on hyperbolic 3-space, using arithmetic invariants of the corresponding hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The class of manifolds to which this technique applies includes all cusped arithmetic manifolds and infinitely many commensurability classes of cusped non-arithmetic, compact arithmetic, and compact non-arithmetic manifolds. I obtain analogous results for actions of Fuchsian groups on the hyperbolic plane. I develop new …

An Averaging Method For Advection-Diffusion Equations, Nicholas Spizzirri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many models for physical systems have dynamics that happen over various different time scales. For example, contrast the everyday waves in the ocean with the larger, slowly moving global currents. The method of multiple scales is an approach for approximating the solutions of differential equations by separating out the dynamics at slower and faster time scales. In this work, we apply the method of multiple scales to generic advection-diffusion equations (both linear and non-linear, and in arbitrary spatial dimensions) and develop a method for 'averaging out' the faster scale phenomena, giving us an 'effective' solution for the slower scale dynamics. …

The Remedy That's Killing: Cuny, Laguardia, And The Fight For Better Math Policy, Rachel A. Oppenheimer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nationwide, there is a crisis in math learning and math achievement at all levels of education. Upwards of 80% of students who enter the City University of New York’s community colleges from New York City’s Department of Education high schools fail to meet college level math proficiencies and as a result, are funneled into the system’s remedial math system. Once placed into pre-college remedial arithmetic, pre-algebra, and elementary algebra courses, students fail at alarming rates and research indicates that students’ failure in remedial math has negative ripple effects on their persistence and degree completion. CUNY is not alone in facing …

Data-Driven Synthesis And Evaluation Of Syntactic Facial Expressions In American Sign Language Animation, Hernisa Kacorri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Technology to automatically synthesize linguistically accurate and natural-looking animations of American Sign Language (ASL) would make it easier to add ASL content to websites and media, thereby increasing information accessibility for many people who are deaf and have low English literacy skills. State-of-art sign language animation tools focus mostly on accuracy of manual signs rather than on the facial expressions. We are investigating the synthesis of syntactic ASL facial expressions, which are grammatically required and essential to the meaning of sentences. In this thesis, we propose to: (1) explore the methodological aspects of evaluating sign language animations with facial expressions, …

Variation In Restaurant Sanitary Scores In New York City, Kyle Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located.

Exploring Data Mining Techniques For Tree Species Classification Using Co-Registered Lidar And Hyperspectral Data, Julia K. Marrs

Theses and Dissertations

NASA Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal imager provides co-registered remote sensing data on experimental forests. Data mining methods were used to achieve a final tree species classification accuracy of 68% using a combined LiDAR and hyperspectral dataset, and show promise for addressing deforestation and carbon sequestration on a species-specific level.

Quantifying Transit Access In New York City: Formulating An Accessibility Index For Analyzing Spatial And Social Patterns Of Public Transportation, Maxwell S. Siegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to analyze accessibility within New York City’s transportation system through creating unique accessibility indices. Indices are detailed and implemented using GIS, analyzing the distribution of transit need and access. Regression analyses are performed highlighting relationships between demographics and accessibility and recommendations for transit expansion are presented.

Properties Of Type-Ii Znte/Znse Submonolayer Quantum Dots Studied Via Excitonic Aharonov-Bohm Effect And Polarized Optical Spectroscopy, Haojie Ji

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis I develop understanding of the fundamental physical and material properties of type-II ZnTe/ZnSe submonolayer quantum dots (QDs), grown via combination of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and migration enhanced epitaxy (MEE). I use magneto-photoluminescence, including excitonic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect and polarized optical spectroscopy as the primary tools in this work.

I present previous studies as well as the background of optical and magneto-optical processes in semiconductor nanostructures and introduce the experimental methods in Chapters 1 - 3.

In Chapter 4 I focus on the excitonic AB effect in the type-II QDs. I develop a lateral tightly-bound exciton model …

Multilevel Analysis Of Individual, Neighborhood, And Health Care Facility Characteristics Associated With Achievement And Maintenance Of Hiv Viral Suppression Among Persons Newly Diagnosed With Hiv In New York City, Ellen W. Wiewel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective

To investigate the effect of individual, health care facility, and neighborhood characteristics on achievement and maintenance of HIV viral suppression, among New York City residents aged 13 years and older diagnosed with HIV between 2006 and 2012.

Methods

I used individual-level data from the New York City HIV surveillance registry and Case Surveillance-Based Sampling, facility-level data from the surveillance registry, and neighborhood-level data from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey. The outcomes of interest were first viral suppression after diagnosis (Aims 1 and 3; ≤400 copies/mL) and virologic failure after first suppression among persons who achieved suppression (Aim …

Design Rules For The Nucleation, Growth, And Encapsulation Of Gold Nanoparticles With Applications To Cancer Imaging, Matthew A. Wall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles are exciting candidates for high-precision cancer imaging due to their highly specific spectral signature (Raman “fingerprint”) and propensity for passive targeting of cancerous tissues. However, the signal intensity of currently available SERS nanoparticles is insufficient for cancer imaging via passive targeting in most solid tumors. The overarching aim of this body of work is to develop a new generation of SERS nanoparticles with sufficiently low limits of detection to enable robust detection of various solid tumors in vivo.

The complexity of SERS nanoparticles requires significant advances to the theoretical and experimental understanding of metal …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Segmented Fluorescent Conjugated Polymers Via Acyclic Diene Metathesis (Admet), Gagandeep Singh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This doctoral thesis is focused on the novel and facile synthesis and characterization of segmented conjugated polymers featuring various electro-optically active segments, with or without heteroatom linkages. The polymers were synthesized, via acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) using ruthenium-based Grubbs-type catalysts. All products are soluble, and have a well-defined all-trans microstructure without defects. Some of the polymers were also synthesized via Suzuki polycondensation for comparison purposes. All monomers utilized were designed and synthesized in the laboratory.

Segmented conjugated polymers have received a great deal of attention in organic electronics, such as organic light emitting-diodes, organic field-effect transistors and organic solar …

Exploring Sewage Sludge/Fish Waste-Based Materials As Adsorbents Of Pharmaceuticals From Water Phase, Lilja Nielsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In an effort to enable wastewater treatment that is more economical and environmentally friendly, alternative adsorbents composed of sewage sludge and fish waste were tested for the removal of pharmaceuticals from aqueous phase. Sewage sludge, fish waste and their homogenized mixtures (90:10, 75:25, 50:50) were carbonized at two temperatures (650 and 950 °C). The obtained materials were extensively characterized in terms of their chemistry and porosity. Adsorption isotherms were used to determine adsorption capacity for 3 model pharmaceuticals: carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim. To simulate the complex environment in the wastewater treatment plant, the adsorption capacity for a multi-component solution, containing …

Epistemic Considerations On Extensive-Form Games, Cagil Tasdemir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, we study several topics in extensive-form games. First, we consider perfect information games with belief revision with players who are tolerant of each other’s hypothetical errors. We bound the number of hypothetical non-rational moves of a player that will be tolerated by other players without revising the belief on that player’s rationality on future moves, and investigate which games yield the backward induction solution.

Second, we consider players who have no way of assigning probabilities to various possible outcomes, and define players as conservative, moderate and aggressive depending on the way they choose, and show that all …

Ultrafast Spectroscopy And Energy Transfer In An Organic/Inorganic Composite Of Zinc Oxide And Graphite Oxide, Jeff A. Secor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The energy transfers and nature of defect levels of an organic/inorganic composite of Zinc Oxide and Graphite are studied with multidimensional spectroscopy. The edge and surface states of each composite are uncovered using excitation emission experiments showing which defect states are mediating the energy transfer from the metal oxide to the graphite oxide. Multidimensional time resolved spectroscopy further describes the effect of the carbon phase on the energy transfer pathways in the material.

Synthesis Of Novel Aporphine-Inspired Neuroreceptor Ligands, Nirav R. Kapadia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Aporphines are a group of tetracyclic alkaloids that belong to the ubiquitous tetrahydroisoquinoline family. The aporphine template is known to be associated with a range of biological activities. Aporphines have been explored as antioxidants, anti-tuberculosis, antimicrobial and anticancer agents. Within the Central Nervous Systems (CNS), aporphine alkaloids are known to possess high affinity for several clinically valuable targets including dopamine receptors (predominantly D₁ and D₂), serotonin receptors (5-HT_1A and 5-HT₇) and α adrenergic receptors. Aporphines are also inhibitors of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme – a clinical target for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Considering the …

Novel Electrolytes For Use In New And Improved Batteries: An Nmr Study, Marc B. Berman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in order to study materials for use as electrolytes in batteries. The details of four projects are described in this thesis as well as a brief theoretical background of NMR. Structural and dynamics properties were determined using several NMR techniques such as static, MAS, PFG diffusion, and relaxation to understand microscopic and macroscopic properties of the materials described within. Nuclei investigate were 1H, 2H, 7Li, 13C, 19F, 23Na, and 27Al. The first project focuses on an exciting new material to be used as a solid electrolyte membrane. T. …