Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Long-Term Outcomes After Elective Sterilization Procedures — A Comparative Retrospective Cohort Study Of Medicaid Patients, Rachel Steward, Patricia Carney, Amy Law, Lin Xie, Yuexi Wang, Huseyin Yuce

Publications and Research

Objectives: The objectives were to compare the long-termoutcomes, including hysterectomy, chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), in women post hysteroscopic sterilization (HS) and laparoscopic tubal ligation (TL) in the Medicaid population.

Study design: This was a retrospective observational cohort analysis using data from the US Medicaid Analytic Extracts Encounters database.Women aged 18 to 49 years with at least one claimfor HS (n=3929) or TL (n=10,875) between July 1, 2009, through December 31, 2010, were included. Main outcome measures were hysterectomy, CPP or AUB in the 24 months poststerilization. Propensity score matching was used to control for patient …

Unseen Science: Modern Discoveries Too Far Away Or Tiny For Human Eyes, Lucy Huang

Capstones

As science has progressed, scientists have realized that evidence goes beyond the realms of physical sight. Whether it is too small or difficult to find, scientists have developed different ways to get around this problem. We see this in cancer genomics and in extrasolar planetary research. Scientists use what they know and what they measure to validate their work.

https://lucy-huang-9tge.squarespace.com/

Of Rats And Men, Thomas S. Walsh

Capstones

This capstone is a data-driven investigation into New York City's rat problem. By using publicly available government data to map rat activity in NYC, I identified several socio-economic variables that correlate with rat populations at the community district, borough, and city-scale. I used these findings (mainly that rat problems are linked to lower incomes) as the basis of an investigation, which includes interviews with residents, experts, and city officials. Prof. Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist and formerly with the NYC Department of Health criticizes the city's efforts for the first time on the record.

https://thomasseiyawalsh.wixsite.com/ratstone

A Little Known Trade Deal Could Soon Derail America's Booming Solar Industry, Sam Donnenberg

Capstones

A trade deal has been winding its way through hearings at the International Trade Commission for months that could have major consequences for America's solar energy industry. Two solar energy companies are requesting that tariffs be applied to Chinese solar product imports. But industry analysts say this will cause the price of solar to rise and harm the industry during a period of unprecedented growth. The petition has only one stop left on its way to approval: The desk of President Trump.

https://www.alanapipe.com/sam-donnenberg/sam-donnenberg-index.html

Username: sam-donnenberg

Password: capstone

Hazmat Storage Near Nyc Waterways Endangers Communities, Brett E. Dahlberg, Nicole Acevedo

Capstones

New York City has 520 miles of shoreline--that’s more than Miami and Los Angeles combined. These waterfronts are home to some of the city’s most polluted sites because major part of it is zoned for industrial use. Dozens of industrial plants in this area store toxic chemicals in flood zones: substances that are hazardous to our health, like Benzene, which is used in rocket fuel, toluene, a paint thinner, and lead a neurotoxin. In a flood, these chemicals can easily get caught up in moving waters and pollute entire neighborhoods.

That’s exactly what happened when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. …

Probing Consciousness, Samia Bouzid

Capstones

For centuries, the study of consciousness remained the purview of philosophers, spiritualists and religious leaders. But in the 1980s, the co-discoverer of the double-helix, James Crick, initiated a quest for a scientific explanation for consciousness — in a secret club. In the decades that followed, consciousness gained ground as a respectable area of scientific study, in fields such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence and physics. Yet, the more scientists learn about consciousness, the more it calls into question our fundamental assumptions about the way the world works. https://samiabouzid.atavist.com/probing-consciousness

Breadcrumbs: Privacy As A Privilege, Prachi Bhardwaj

Capstones

Breadcrumbs: Privacy as a Privilege Abstract

By: Prachi Bhardwaj

In 2017, the world saw more data breaches than in any year prior. The count was more than the all-time high record in 2016, which was 40 percent more than the year before that.

That’s because consumer data is incredibly valuable today. In the last three decades, data storage has gone from being stored physically to being stored almost entirely digitally, which means consumer data is more accessible and applicable to business strategies. As a result, companies are gathering data in ways previously unknown to the average consumer, and hackers are …

Real-Time Indoor Assistive Localization With Mobile Omnidirectional Vision And Cloud Gpu Acceleration, Feng Hu, Zhigang Zhu, Jeury Mejia, Hao Tang

Publications and Research

In this paper we propose a real-time assistive localization approach to help blind and visually impaired people in navigating an indoor environment. The system consists of a mobile vision front end with a portable panoramic lens mounted on a smart phone, and a remote image feature-based database of the scene on a GPU-enabled server. Compact and elective omnidirectional image features are extracted and represented in the smart phone front end, and then transmitted to the server in the cloud. These features of a short video clip are used to search the database of the indoor environment via image-based indexing to …

Ocean Convergence And The Dispersion Of Flotsam, Eric A. D'Asaro, Andrey Y. Scherbina, Jody M. Klymak, Jeroen Molemaker, Guillaume Novelli, Cedric M. Guigand, Angelique C. Haza, Brian K. Haus, Edward H. Ryan, Gregg A. Jacobs, Helga S. Huntley, Nathan J. M. Laxague, Shuyi Chen, Falko Judt, James C. Mcwilliams, Roy Barkan, A. D. Kirwan Jr., Andrew C. Poje, Tamay M. Özgökmen

Publications and Research

Floating oil, plastics, and marine organisms are continually redistributed by ocean surface currents. Prediction of their resulting distribution on the surface is a fundamental, long-standing, and practically important problem. The dominant paradigm is dispersion within the dynamical context of a nondivergent flow: objects initially close together will on average spread apart but the area of surface patches of material does not change. Although this paradigm is likely valid at mesoscales, larger than 100 km in horizontal scale, recent theoretical studies of submesoscales (less than ∼10 km) predict strong surface convergences and downwelling associated with horizontal density fronts and cyclonic vortices. …

The Sedimentary Imprint Of Pleistocene Glacio-Eustasy: Implications For Global Correlations Of Seismic Sequences, Cecilia M. Mchugh, Craig S. Fulthorpe, Koichi Hoyanagi, Peter Blum, Gregory S. Mountain, Kenneth G. Miller

Publications and Research

We evaluate lithofacies, chronology, and seismic sequences from the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand passive continental slope (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program [IODP] Expedition 317 Site U1352 and environs) and compare this with slope sequences from the New Jersey passive margin. Our goal is to understand continental slope sedimentation in response to glacio-eustasy and test the concepts of sequence stratigraphy. High-resolution geochemical elemental and lithostratigraphic analyses were calibrated to a chronology constructed from benthic foramininferal oxygen isotopes for the past ~1.8 m.y. We identify lithofacies successions by their unique geochemical and lithologic signature and correlate them with marine isotope stages (MIS) at …

Demonstration Of Ultra-High Recyclable Energy Densities In Domain-Engineered Ferroelectric Films, Hongbo Cheng, Jun Ouyang, Yun-Xiang Zhang, David J. Ascienzo, Yao Li, Yu-Yao Zhao, Yuhang Ren

Publications and Research

Dielectric capacitors have the highest charge/discharge speed among all electrical energy devices, but lag behind in energy density. Here we report dielectric ultracapacitors based on ferroelectric films of Ba(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 which display high-energy densities (up to 166 J cm–3) and efficiencies (up to 96%). Different from a typical ferroelectric whose electric polarization is easily saturated, these Ba(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 films display a much delayed saturation of the electric polarization, which increases continuously from nearly zero at remnant in a multipolar state, to a large value under the maximum electric field, leading to drastically improved recyclable energy densities. This is achieved by the creation …

Synthesis Of A Model Of The Bc Ring System Of Oxygenated Angucyclines, Xiaolan Wu, Abdullah Allaoa, Tony E. Nicolas

Publications and Research

Angucycline is a subclass of natural antibiotics, containing a characteristic tetracyclic ring structure, and featuring a wide range of biological functions, including antitumor, antiviral and antifungal properties. This extraordinarily therapeutic character has interested many chemists to develop efficient methodologies for synthesizing the tetracyclic ring system of angucycline. Construction of the BC ring configuration appears as a synthetic challenge. Successful installation of hydroxyl groups at the AB junction would pave the way for efficient syntheses. As a continuation of the previous work done on this system, our synthetic methodology focuses on the coupling of a suitably substituted Phthalide and an activated …

Pretargeting Of Internalizing Trastuzumab And Cetuximab With A 18f-Tetrazine Tracer In Xenograft Models, Outi Keinänen, Kimberly Fung, Jacob Pourat, Vilma Jallinoja, Delphine Vivier, Nagavara Kishore Pillarsetty, Anu J. Airaksinen, Jason S. Lewis, Brian M. Zeglis, Mirkka Sarparanta

Publications and Research

Background: Pretargeting-based approaches are being investigated for radioimmunoimaging and therapy applications to reduce the effective radiation burden to the patient. To date, only a few studies have used short-lived radioisotopes for pretargeting of antibodies, and such examples with internalizing antibodies are even rarer. Herein, we have investigated pretargeting methodology using inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) for tracing two clinically relevant, internalizing monoclonal antibodies, cetuximab and trastuzumab.

Results: Bioorthogonal reaction between tetrazine and trans-cyclooctene (TCO) was used for tracing cetuximab and trastuzumab in vivo with a fluorine-18 (t½ = 109.8 min) labelled tracer. TCO-cetuximab or TCO-trastuzumab was administered 24, 48, or 72 …

Ethics And Bias In Machine Learning: A Technical Study Of What Makes Us “Good”, Ashley Nicole Shadowen

Student Theses

The topic of machine ethics is growing in recognition and energy, but bias in machine learning algorithms outpaces it to date. Bias is a complicated term with good and bad connotations in the field of algorithmic prediction making. Especially in circumstances with legal and ethical consequences, we must study the results of these machines to ensure fairness. This paper attempts to address ethics at the algorithmic level of autonomous machines. There is no one solution to solving machine bias, it depends on the context of the given system and the most reasonable way to avoid biased decisions while maintaining the …

Study Of Self-Similarity In Brain Data, Jennifer Holst

Student Theses

In the area of computer science, past research has found that the concept of self-similarity is present in local and Internet-based network traffic. This study considers the possibility that data traveling through the neuronal network in the human brain is also self-similar. By analyzing publicly available raw EEG data and estimating its Hurst parameter, we find indications that brain data traffic may in fact be self-similar.

On Improvised Music, Computational Creativity And Human-Becoming, Arto Artinian, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

Music improvisation is an act of human-becoming: of self-expression—an articulation of histories and memories that have molded its participants—and of exploration—a search for unimagined structures that break with the stale norms of majoritarian culture. Given that the former objective may inhibit the latter, we propose an integration of human musical improvisers and deliberately flawed creative software agents that are designed to catalyze the development of human-ratified minoritarian musical structures.

The Role Of Carbon On Copper–Carbon Composites For The Electrooxidation Of Alcohols In An Alkaline Medium, Leticia García-Cruz, Conchi O. Ania, Ana Paula Carvalho, Teresa Bandosz, Vicente Montiel, Jesús Iniesta

Publications and Research

Copper–carbon composites were prepared following various different synthetic routes and using various carbon precursors (i.e., lignocellulose and graphite oxide), andwere used as electrocatalysts for the oxidation of propargyl alcohol (PGA) in an alkaline medium. The electrochemical response of the copper-based catalysts was analyzed in terms of the influence of the metallic species, the carbon matrix incorporated in the composites, and the chemical structure of the ionomers—Nafion and poly (4-vinylpyridine) cross-linked methyl chloride quaternary salt resin (4VP)—used in the fabrication of the electrodes. Data has shown that the incorporation of reduced graphene oxide sheets between the copper metallic particles increased the …

Efficient Air Desulfurization Catalysts Derived From Pig Manure Liquefaction Char, Rajiv Wallace, Sundaramurthy Suresh, Elham H. Fini, Teresa Bandosz

Publications and Research

Biochar from the liquefaction of pig manure was used as a precursor of H2S desulfurization adsorbents. In its inorganic matter, it contains marked quantities of calcium, magnesium and iron, which are known as hydrogen sulfide oxidation catalysts. The char was used either as-received or mixed with 10% nanographite. The latter was added to increase both the content of the carbon phase and conductivity. ZnCl2 in two different ratios of char to an activation agent (1:1 and 1:2) was used to create the porosity in the carbon phase. The content of the later was between 18–45%. The activated samples adsorbed 144 …

River-Bed Armouring As A Granular Segregation Phenomenon, Behrooz Ferdowsi, Carlos P. Ortiz, Morgane Houssais, Douglas J. Jerolmack

Publications and Research

River bed-load transport is a kind of dense granular flow, and such flows are known to segregate grains. While gravel-river beds typically have an “armoured” layer of coarse grains on the surface, which acts to protect finer particles underneath from erosion, the contribution of granular physics to river-bed armouring has not yet been investigated. Here we examine these connections in a laboratory river with bimodal sediment size, by tracking the motion of particles from the surface to deep inside the bed, and find that armour develops by two distinct mechanisms. Bed-load transport in the near-surface layer drives rapid, shear ratedependent …

Dynamic Self-Assembly And Self-Organized Transport Of Magnetic Micro-Swimmers, Gašper Kokot, German Kolmakov V, Igor S. Aranson, Alexey Snezhko

Publications and Research

We demonstrate experimentally and in computer simulations that magnetic microfloaters can self-organize into various functional structures while energized by an external alternating (ac) magnetic field. The structures exhibit self-propelled motion and an ability to carry a cargo along a pre-defined path. The morphology of the self-assembled swimmers is controlled by the frequency and amplitude of the magnetic field.

Onshore Wind Speed Modulates Microbial Aerosols Along An Urban Waterfront, M. Elias Drucker, Gregory D. O'Mullan, Joaquín Martínez Martínez, Andrew R. Juhl, Kathleen C. Weathers

Publications and Research

Wind blowing over aquatic and terrestrial surfaces produces aerosols, which include microbial aerosols. We studied the effect of onshore wind speeds on aerosol concentrations as well as total and culturable microbial aerosols (bacterial and viral) at an urban waterfront (New York, NY, USA). We used two distinct methods to characterize microbial aerosol responses to wind speed: A culture-based exposure-plate method measuring viable bacterial deposition near-shore (CFU accumulation rate); and a culture-independent aerosol sampler-based method measuring total bacterial and viral aerosols (cells m−3 air). While ambient coarse (>2 µm) and fine (0.3–2 µm) aerosol particle number concentrations (regulated indicators of …

Defaultification Refactoring: A Tool For Automatically Converting Java Methods To Default, Raffi T. Khatchadourian, Hidehiko Masuhara

Publications and Research

Enabling interfaces to declare (instance) method implementations, Java 8 default methods can be used as a substitute for the ubiquitous skeletal implementation software design pattern. Performing this transformation on legacy software manually, though, may be non-trivial. The refactoring requires analyzing complex type hierarchies, resolving multiple implementation inheritance issues, reconciling differences between class and interface methods, and analyzing tie-breakers (dispatch precedence) with overriding class methods. All of this is necessary to preserve type-correctness and confirm semantics preservation. We demonstrate an automated refactoring tool called Migrate Skeletal Implementation to Interface for transforming legacy Java code to use the new default construct. The …

Synthesis, Crystal Structure, And Photoluminescent Properties Of 3,3′,4,4′-Tetraethyl-5,5′-Divinyl-2,2′-Bipyrrole Derivatives, Toru Okawara, Reo Kawano, Hiroya Morita, Alan Finkelstein, Renjiro Toyofuku, Kanako Matsumoto, Kenji Takehara, Toshihiko Nagamura, Seiji Iwasa, Sanjai Kumar

Publications and Research

Photoluminescent divinylbipyrroles were synthesized from 3,3′,4,4′-tetraetyl-2,2′-bipyrrole-5,5′-dicarboxaldehyde and activated methylene compounds via aldol condensation.For mechanistic clarity, molecular structures of Meldrum’s acid- and 1,3-dimethylbarbituricacid-derived divinylbipyrroles were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Photoluminescentproperties of the synthesized divinylbipyrroles in dichloromethane were found to be dependent onthe presence of electron withdrawing groups at the vinylic terminal. The divinylbipyrroles derivedfrom malononitrile, Meldrum’s acid, and 1,3-dimethylbarbituric acid showed fluorescent peaks at553, 576, and 602 nm respectively. Computational studies indicated that the alkyl substituents on thebipyrrole 3 and 3′positions increased energy level of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)compared to the unsubstituted derivatives and provided rationale for the …

Ecosystem Drought Response Timescales From Thermal Emission Versus Shortwave Remote Sensing, Erika Andujar, Nir Krakauer, Chuixiang Yi, Felix Kogan

Publications and Research

Remote sensing is used for monitoring the impacts of meteorological drought on ecosystems, but few large-scale comparisons of the response timescale to drought of different vegetation remote sensing products are available. We correlated vegetation health products derived frompolar-orbiting radiometer observations with a meteorological drought indicator available at different aggregation timescales, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), to evaluate responses averaged globally and over latitude and biome.The remote sensing products are Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), which uses normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to identify plant stress, Temperature Condition Index (TCI), based on thermal emission as a measure of surface temperature, and …

Experiential Learning Opportunity (Elo) And Utilization Of Field-And-Data- Based Information Obtained Through The Infusion Of Technology: Highlights On Nasa Stem And Earth Science Curricula, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Matthew Khargie, Shuayb Siddiqu, Sol De Leon, Katina Singh, Newrence Wills, Krishna Mahibar

Publications and Research

There is a greater emphasis on hands-on involvement and critical thinking skills in the geosciences and other STEM fields to inspire and engage K- 16 students to value scientific content and enable them to discover the well-documented nature of the fundamental scientific principles needed to explain various earth science and other STEM-related core phenomena. NASA MAA curricula are ideal for engaging K1-16 students in this context, since grade-specific lesson plans open-up a plethora of pedagogically sound and relevant earth science activities. These include earth’s materials and properties, meteorites, robotics, hot air balloon, flight simulation, star gazing, material science, crystal growth, …

Further Study Of Garnet Xenocrysts In New York City Migmatites, Stanley Schleifer, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

The authors have previously published an article at the 2004 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Petrogenetic Significance of Garnets in the Bedrock of New York City, in which they suggested that the garnet xenocrysts observed in the quartzofeldspathic zones of the migmatites, so frequently seen both at the surface, and below the surface pursuant to the construction of the Manhattan portion of New york City Water Tunnel #3, were a refractory residue of the anatectic melting of the immediately surrounding schistose bedrock. Although the relatively high melting point temperature of garnet compared to other minerals in the surrounding …

Raritan Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Long Island, New York: Sedimentological And Geochemical Assessment, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Arif Sikder, Stanley Schleifer, Xin-Chen Liu, Carlos E. Castano Londano, Joseph B. Mcgee Turner

Publications and Research

The lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Raritan Formation (RF) consists of two members: an upper clay member (Raritan clay) and a lower unit, the Lloyd Sand Member. RF is unconformably overlain by upper Pleistocene glacial deposits. The RF consists of stratified white, light- to dark-gray, and red beds and lenses of clay, silt, and sand; lignite and pyrite are common. Variegated, thin to thickly-bedded Lloyd sandstone (LS) is considered to be one of the extensive regional aquifers in Long Island and interpreted to be nearshore, fluvio-deltaic deposit. Proximity to fluvial axes and active deltaic lobes plays an important role in …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Biodiversity In Nepal: Current Knowledge, Lacunae, And Opportunities, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee, Jose D. Anadon, David L. Lohnman, Tenzing Doleck, Tarendra Lakhankar, Bharat Babu Shrestha, Praseed Thapa, Durga Devkota, Sundar Tiwari, Ajay Jha, Mohan Siwakoti, Naba R. Devkota, Pramod K. Jha, Nir Y. Krakauer

Publications and Research

Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60–8850m with heterogeneous topography and distinct climatic zones. The country is considered a biodiversity hotspot, with nearly a quarter of the land area located in protected areas. Nepal and the surrounding Himalayan region are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their abrupt ecological and climatic transitions. Tens of millions of people rely on the region’s ecosystem services, and observed and modeled warming trends predict increased climate extremes in the Himalayas. To study the ecological impacts of climate change in Nepal and inform adaptation planning, we review the literature on past, present, and …

Assessment Of Differences Between Near-Surface Air And Soil Temperatures For Reliable Detection Of High-Latitude Freeze And Thaw States, Farjana Shati, Satya Prakash, Hamid Norouzi, Reginald Blake

Publications and Research

Near-surface air temperature and the underlying soil temperature are among the key components of the Earth’s surface energy budget, and they are important variables for the comprehensive assessment of global climate change. Better understanding of the difference in magnitude between these two variables over high-latitude regions is also crucial for accurate detections of freeze and thaw (FT) states. However, these differences are not usually considered and included in current remote sensing-based FT detection algorithms. In this study, the difference between near-surface air temperature at the 2-meter height and soil temperature at the 5-centimeter depth is assessed using ground-based observations that …

Escape Burrowing Of Modern Freshwater Bivalves As A Paradigm For Escape Behavior In The Devonian Bivalve Archanodon Catskillensis, Katja Knoll, Rebecca B. Chamberlain, John A. Chamberlain

Publications and Research

Many freshwater bivalves restore themselves to the sediment water interface after burial by upward escape burrowing. We studied the escape burrowing capacity of two modern unionoids, Elliptio complanata and Pyganodon cataracta and the invasive freshwater venerid Corbicula fluminea, in a controlled laboratory setting varying sediment grain size and burial depth. We found that the relatively streamlined E. complanata is a better escape burrower than the more obese P. cataracta. E. complanata is more likely to escape burial in both fine and coarse sand, and at faster rates than P. cataracta. However, successful escape from 10 cm burial, especially in fine …