Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Making Sense Of Making Parole In New York, Alexandra Mcglinchy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For many individuals incarcerated in New York, the initial step toward freedom begins with an interview with the Board of Parole. This process, however, is frequently a complex and challenging one, characterized by repeated denials and extended incarcerations. The disparity in outcomes – where one individual may receive over 20 denials and another is granted parole on their first attempt – highlights the ambiguity and inconsistency in the parole decision-making process. This project aims to clarify the factors that influence parole decisions by concentrating on measurable variables. These include age, race, duration of sentence served, proportion of sentence served, type …

Modeling Of Covid-19 Clinical Outcomes In Mexico: An Analysis Of Demographic, Clinical, And Chronic Disease Factors, Livia Clarete

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores COVID-19 clinical outcomes in Mexico, focusing on demographic, clinical, and chronic disease variables to develop predictive models. In the binary classification task, the Ada Boost Classifier distinguishes survivors from non-survivors, with age, sex, ethnicity, and chronic medical conditions influencing outcomes. In multiclass classification, the Gradient Boosting Classifier categorizes patients into outcome groups.

Demographic variables, especially age, are crucial for predicting COVID-19 outcomes for both the binary and multiclass classification tasks. Clinical information about previous conditions, including chronic diseases, also holds relevance, especially diabetes, immunocompromise, and cardiovascular diseases. These insights inform public health measures and healthcare strategies, emphasizing …

A Causal Inference Approach For Spike Train Interactions, Zach Saccomano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the 1960s, neuroscientists have worked on the problem of estimating synaptic properties, such as connectivity and strength, from simultaneously recorded spike trains. Recent years have seen renewed interest in the problem coinciding with rapid advances in experimental technologies, including an approximate exponential increase in the number of neurons that can be recorded in parallel and perturbation techniques such as optogenetics that can be used to calibrate and validate causal hypotheses about functional connectivity. This thesis presents a mathematical examination of synaptic inference from two perspectives: (1) using in vivo data and biophysical models, we ask in what cases the …

Applying Structural Equation Modeling To Better Understand The Relationship Between Stressors, Social Support And Wellbeing In The Lives Of Spouse Dementia Caregivers, Craig Holden

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Applying Structural Equation Modeling to Better Understand the Relationship Between Stressors, Social Support and Wellbeing in the Lives of Spouse Dementia Caregivers considers the utility of Pearlin et al.’s (1990) stress process model in understanding the needs of spouse caregivers. Data were drawn from eight biennial waves of the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The final study sample comprised 774 spouses, average age 73, who were categorized based on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) and non-ADRD caregiver status. Results showed that for the study sample as a whole, social support …

Construction And Performance Optimization Of Bioconjugated Nanosensors For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Pro-Inflammatory Diseases, Pooja Gaikwad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, nanosensors have emerged as a tool with strong potential in medical diagnostics. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based optical nanosensors have notably garnered interest due to the unique characteristics of their near-infrared fluorescence emission, including tissue transparency, photostability, and various chiralities with discrete absorption and fluorescence emission bands. Additionally, the optoelectronic properties of SWCNT are sensitive to the surrounding environment, which makes them suitable for in vitro and in vivo biosensing. Single-stranded (ss) DNA-wrapped SWCNTs have been reported as optical nanosensors for cancers and metabolic diseases. Breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of death …

Characterization Of Boreal-Arctic Vegetation Growth Phases And Active Soil Layer Dynamics In The High-Latitudes Of North America: A Study Combining Multi-Year In Situ And Satellite-Based Observations, Michael G. Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examined the seasonal freeze/thaw activity in boreal-Arctic soils and vegetation physiology in Alaska, USA and Alberta, Canada, using in situ environmental measurements and passive microwave satellite observations. The boreal-Arctic high-latitudes have been experiencing ecosystem changes more rapidly in comparison to the rest of Earth due to the presently warming climatic conditions having a magnified effect over Polar Regions. Currently, the boreal-Arctic is a carbon sink; however, recent studies indicate a shift over the next century to become a carbon source. High-latitude vegetation and cold soil dynamics are influenced by climatic shifts and are largely responsible for the regions …

Statistical And Biological Analyses Of Acoustic Signals In Estrildid Finches, Moises Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Acoustic communication is a process that involves auditory perception and signal processing. Discrimination and recognition further require cognitive processes and supporting mechanisms in order to successfully identify and appropriately respond to signal senders. Although acoustic communication is common across birds, classical research has largely disregarded the perceptual abilities of perinatal altricial taxa. Chapter 1 reviews the literature of perinatal acoustic stimulation in birds, highlighting the disproportionate focus on precocial birds (e.g., chickens, ducks, quails). The long-held belief that altricial birds were incapable of acoustic perception in ovo was only recently overturned, as researchers began to find behavioral and physiological evidence …

Unlocking Potential: The School-To-Prison Pipeline For Students With Disabilities, Navena F. Chaitoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research uses quasi-experimental, matched sampling to examine the school-to-prison pipeline for students with disabilities using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This study presents novel insights into an at-risk group that has faced disproportionate rates of school discipline and incarceration. The study finds school suspension to be associated with future involvement in the criminal legal system and lower educational attainment. Disability was not found to mediate the relationship between suspension and future involvement in the criminal legal system or the relationship between suspension and academic outcomes. However, disability was found to be a statistically …

Analyzing Relationships With Machine Learning, Oscar Ko

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Procedurally, this project aims to take a dataset, analyze it, and offer insights to the audience in an easy-to-digest format. Conceptually, this project will seek to explore questions like: “Do couples that meet through online dating or dating apps have higher or lower quality relationships?”, “Can any features in this dataset help predict how a subject would rate their relationship quality?”, and “What other insights can I derive from using machine learning for exploratory analysis?” The intended audience for this project is anyone interested in romantic relationships or machine learning.

The dataset is from a Stanford University survey, “How Couples …

The Microscopical Evidence Traces Analysis Of Household Dust And Its Statistical Significance As A Definitive Identification Technique, Stephanie Polifroni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Evidence found at crime scenes is used to assist in creating a link the suspect, the victim, and the scene. As stated by the Locard’s Principle, every contact leaves a trace, that evidence can be used to link together an investigation. Traces are collected in hopes that they can be identified and associated to an individual or individuals to help solve that particular crime. However, the strongest conclusion for evidence traces is an association to a source, and unless a physical match of some kind is found, an individualization cannot be established even when known sample is available. However, having …

Abm Simulation Model Of A Pandemic For Optimizing Vaccination Strategy, Gibeom Park

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents a process-oriented hybrid model for individuals' immune responses and interactions involving vaccination to describe the trend of contagious disease and estimate the future societal cost. The model considers "recovery" as a non-absorbing state and incorporates various infection stage states including two symptomatic states. To model contagiousness to be consistent with the current pandemic and include that the spread of a disease depends on the mobility of people, we developed an Agent-Based Simulator that fitted to the particular model used in this study and can test various what-if scenarios. We improved the simulator considerably by appying data structures …

Why, New York City? Gauging The Quality Of Life Through The Thoughts Of Tweeters, Sheryl Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a resource for social data, Twitter’s platform has been used to measure the quality of life through sentiment analysis. This capstone project explores another methodological technique—querying Twitter data around specific keyword terms to determine dominant topics, word patterns, and sentiment leanings in a geographical area. Focusing on New York City and Los Angeles for comparative analysis, the keyword term “why” will be used to build a Python analysis around topic modeling and sentiment analysis. Using this approach, the analysis reveals social and cultural differences, the overall sentiment of tweets, and subjects of interest to tweeters.

GitHub Repository for all …

Liquidity Commonality With Factor Models, Ernesto Garcia Iii

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Market microstructure research has recently devoted attention to a phenomenon called commonality in liquidity. In this dissertation, I will analyze commonality in liquidity using a novel factor model approach and a generalized definition of commonality in liquidity. This analysis will show that commonality in liquidity is rarely a marketwide phenomenon and is mostly restricted to stocks with a large market capitalization. Additionally, commonality in liquidity is a very recent phenomenon whose appearance coincides with a rise in passive investing after the Dotcom Bubble burst and, more so, after the 2008 Financial Crisis. I will present evidence that suggests commonality in …

Slices Of The Big Apple: A Visual Explanation And Analysis Of The New York City Budget, Joanne Ramadani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a component of government, budgets are fundamental not only to improving the quality of a shared society, but also to understanding what our government officials consider to be their priorities. However, most budgets can be difficult to understand, using terms that are not familiar to people who have not studied finance or economics. To that end, Slices of the Big Apple is an interactive, centralized narrative website that uses visualizations at its core in order to: 1) facilitate a holistic understanding of the New York City government budget for NYC residents; and 2) conduct a five-year analysis of Community …

Data Analysis And Visualization To Dismantle Gender Discrimination In The Field Of Technology, Quinn Bolewicki

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, a significant population is facing an uphill battle trying to thrive in an industry that has seen exponential growth in recent years. Women, who account for approximately 50.8% of the U.S. population are statistically underpaid and underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Despite women-led technology teams establishing a 21% greater return on investment than teams who don’t, and young women largely outperforming men in math according to a 2015 study, there are only three fortune 500 companies led by women, and they comprise only 10% of internet entrepreneurs. Research generates hundreds of articles, infographics, …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Role Of Influence In Complex Networks, Nur Dean

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Game theory is a wide ranging research area; that has attracted researchers from various fields. Scientists have been using game theory to understand the evolution of cooperation in complex networks. However, there is limited research that considers the structure and connectivity patterns in networks, which create heterogeneity among nodes. For example, due to the complex ways most networks are formed, it is common to have some highly “social” nodes, while others are highly isolated. This heterogeneity is measured through metrics referred to as “centrality” of nodes. Thus, the more “social” nodes tend to also have higher centrality.

In this thesis, …

Machine Learning Applications For Drug Repurposing, Hansaim Lim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The cost of bringing a drug to market is astounding and the failure rate is intimidating. Drug discovery has been of limited success under the conventional reductionist model of one-drug-one-gene-one-disease paradigm, where a single disease-associated gene is identified and a molecular binder to the specific target is subsequently designed. Under the simplistic paradigm of drug discovery, a drug molecule is assumed to interact only with the intended on-target. However, small molecular drugs often interact with multiple targets, and those off-target interactions are not considered under the conventional paradigm. As a result, drug-induced side effects and adverse reactions are often neglected …

Snow-Albedo Feedback In Northern Alaska: How Vegetation Influences Snowmelt, Lucas C. Reckhaus

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates how the snow-albedo feedback mechanism of the arctic is changing in response to rising climate temperatures. Specifically, the interplay of vegetation and snowmelt, and how these two variables can be correlated. This has the potential to refine climate modelling of the spring transition season. Research was conducted at the ecoregion scale in northern Alaska from 2000 to 2020. Each ecoregion is defined by distinct topographic and ecological conditions, allowing for meaningful contrast between the patterns of spring albedo transition across surface conditions and vegetation types. The five most northerly ecoregions of Alaska are chosen as they encompass …

At The Interface Of Algebra And Statistics, Tai-Danae Bradley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis takes inspiration from quantum physics to investigate mathematical structure that lies at the interface of algebra and statistics. The starting point is a passage from classical probability theory to quantum probability theory. The quantum version of a probability distribution is a density operator, the quantum version of marginalizing is an operation called the partial trace, and the quantum version of a marginal probability distribution is a reduced density operator. Every joint probability distribution on a finite set can be modeled as a rank one density operator. By applying the partial trace, we obtain reduced density operators whose diagonals …

A Study Of Cusum Statistics On Bitcoin Transactions, Ivan Perez

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, our objective is to study the relationship between transaction price and volume in the BTC/USD Coinbase exchange. In the second chapter, we develop a consecutive CUSUM algorithm to detect instantaneous changes in the arrival rate of market orders. We begin by estimating a baseline rate using the assumption of a local time-homogeneous Poisson process. Our observations lead us to reject the plausibility of a time-homogeneous Poisson model on a more global scale by using a chi squared test. We thus proceed to use CUSUM-based alarms to detect consecutive upward and downward changes in the arrival rate of …

Tropical Cyclone Hazards In Relation To Propagation Speed, Jiehao Huang

Dissertations and Theses

As the population and infrastructure along the US East Coast increase, it becomes increasingly important to study the characteristics of tropical cyclones that can impact the coast. A recent study shows that the propagation speed of tropical cyclones has slowed over the past 60 years, which can lead to greater accumulation of precipitation and greater storm surge impacts. The study presented herein is meant to examine and analyze the relationships that exist between the propagation speed of tropical cyclones, their surface wind strength, displacement angles, and cyclone averaged winds. This analysis is focused on tropical cyclones spanning from 1950-2015 in …

V-Slam And Sensor Fusion For Ground Robots, Ejup Hoxha

Dissertations and Theses

In underground, underwater and indoor environments, a robot has to rely solely on its on-board sensors to sense and understand its surroundings. This is the main reason why SLAM gained the popularity it has today. In recent years, we have seen excellent improvement on accuracy of localization using cameras and combinations of different sensors, especially camera-IMU (VIO) fusion. Incorporating more sensors leads to improvement of accuracy,but also robustness of SLAM. However, while testing SLAM in our ground robots, we have seen a decrease in performance quality when using the same algorithms on flying vehicles.We have an additional sensor for ground …

Semi-Supervised Regression With Generative Adversarial Networks Using Minimal Labeled Data, Greg Olmschenk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work studies the generalization of semi-supervised generative adversarial networks (GANs) to regression tasks. A novel feature layer contrasting optimization function, in conjunction with a feature matching optimization, allows the adversarial network to learn from unannotated data and thereby reduce the number of labels required to train a predictive network. An analysis of simulated training conditions is performed to explore the capabilities and limitations of the method. In concert with the semi-supervised regression GANs, an improved label topology and upsampling technique for multi-target regression tasks are shown to reduce data requirements. Improvements are demonstrated on a wide variety of vision …

Garch Modeling Of Value At Risk And Expected Shortfall Using Bayesian Model Averaging, Ismail Kheir

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) estimation using GARCH modeling and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA). BMA considers multiple models weighted by some information criterion. Through BMA, this thesis finds that VaR and ES estimates can be improved through enhanced modeling of the data generation process.

Raman And Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy For Forensic Analysis: Case Studies On The Identification Of Illicit Substances And Artist Pigments, Abed Haddad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Raman spectroscopy is an effective tool for detecting trace amounts of material by fingerprint-like vibrational spectra. At times, the weak intensity of Raman scattering can make it difficult to distinguish trace materials. This shortcoming is addressed by surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which produces strong signal enhancements when target compounds are near metal nanoparticles. For the first part of this thesis, the identification of fentanyl and carfentanil, main culprits in the opioid epidemic, was done using normal Raman and the SERS spectroscopy. As an aid in the assignment of the spectral lines, a computational model was built using Density Functional Theory …

One-Dimensional Excited Random Walk With Unboundedly Many Excitations Per Site, Omar Chakhtoun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We study a discrete time excited random walk on the integers lattice requiring a tail decay estimate on the number of excitations per site and extend the existing framework, methods, and results to a wider class of excited random walks.

We give criteria for recurrence versus transience, ballisticity versus zero linear speed, completely classify limit laws in the transient regime, and establish a functional limit laws in the recurrence regime.

An Overview And Evaluation Of Synthetc: A Statistical Model For Extra-Tropical Cyclones, Rafael Uryayev

Dissertations and Theses

Extratropical cyclones (ETCs) are the most common weather phenomena affecting the United States, Canada, and Europe. They can pose serious hazards over large swaths of area. In this thesis, a statistical model of ETCs, called SynthETC, is discussed. The model accounts for the for genesis, track path, termination, and intensity of statistically generated ETCs. Genesis is modeled as a Poisson process, whose mean is determined by climate and historical information. Tracks are modeled as a regression-mean determined by climate and historical information plus a stochastic component. Lysis is modeled using logistic regression, with climate states as covariates. Intensity is modeled …

Hydroclimate Drivers And Atmospheric Dynamics Of Floods, Nasser Najibi

Dissertations and Theses

Our preliminary survey showed that most of the recent flood-related studies did not formally explain the physical mechanisms of long-duration and large-peak flood events that can evoke substantial damages to properties and infrastructure systems. These studies also fell short of fully assessing the interactions of coupled ocean-atmosphere and land dynamics which are capable of forcing substantial changes to the flood attributes by governing the exceeding surface flow regimes and moisture source-sink relationships at the spatiotemporal scales important for risk management. This dissertation advances the understanding of the variability in flood duration, peak, volume, and timing at the regional to the …

A 3d Characteristics Database Of Land Engraved Areas With Known Subclass, Entni Lin

Student Theses

Subclass characteristics on bullets may mislead firearm examiners when they rely on traditional 2D images. In order to provide indelible examples for training and help avoid identification errors, 3D topography surface maps and statistical methods of pattern recognition are applied to toolmarks on bullets containing known subclass characteristics. This research was conducted by collecting 3D topography surface map data from land engraved areas of bullets fired through known barrels. This data was processed and used to train the statistical algorithms to predict their origin. The results from the algorithm are compared with the “right answers” (i.e. correct IDs) of the …