john jay college tuesday, july 24 · adolfo coyotl queens b79 83 torrell daw guttman b15 55 . viii...

2018 Symposium

John Jay College

Tuesday, July 24

i

Welcome to the fourth annual CUNY Research Scholars symposium!

The CUNY Research Scholars Program funds research scholarships for associate degree students at all

of CUNY’s community colleges as well as the three comprehensive schools: College of Staten Island,

Medgar Evers College, and the New York City College of Technology. More than 800 students have

participated in the Research Scholars Program over the past four years. Many have graduated and

transferred to other CUNY schools and beyond, including Columbia University, Cornell, and MIT.

The New York City Mayor’s office funds the program and we are especially grateful to Mayor Bill de

Blasio for his generous support.

So why engage in research? Our assessment of the program has shown that the Research Scholars

Program benefits students and faculty alike. In conversations, focus groups and surveys, we have

learned that CRSP leads students to feel more connected to their college and their discipline. Much of

the credit for these benefits is due to the faculty mentors who work with the students throughout the

academic year and summer. It is the mentors who help students to develop scientific skills and

knowledge, self-confidence, oral presentation skills and persistence in the face of obstacles. Our

faculty mentors have told us that the program has enhanced the research culture at their schools and we

are very proud of that!

The success of the program relies on our college-based directors (listed on page iii). The directors

facilitate every aspect of the program. They recruit faculty and students. They organize high quality

bi-weekly programming including workshops on abstract writing, public speaking and poster

presenting.

This year’s symposium features a career development workshop in technology and urban sustainability

- fields that offer many jobs in the New York City area. Strengthening the connection between the

CRSP experience and success beyond college in the workforce is a goal of our program. Engaging in

research as an undergraduate provides many skills that are important for the workplace, including

critical thinking, teamwork and persistence. We hope that you find the new workforce development

seminars illuminating.

Finally, we love hearing from you. We will distribute surveys during the day. They are voluntary and

anonymous, so tell us what you really think!

Ron J. Nerio PhD

Avrom J. Caplan PhD

Co-Directors, CUNY Research Scholars Program

July 2018

iii

Program

All events are in Room L-63, except where noted:

9:00 – 9:30 A.M.

Registration, Breakfast

9:30 – 9:45 A.M. Vita Rabinowitz, Ph.D.

Interim Chancellor

Opening Remarks

9:45 – 10:30 A.M. Patrizia Casaccia, Ph.D.

Advanced Science Research Center

Keynote address: How

progenitors in the brain sense

the environment

10:30 -11:30 A.M.

Oral Presentations

BMCC, CSI, Medgar Evers, NYCCT, QCC

Session 1

11:30 - 12:30 P.M.

Poster Presentations (Hound’s Square)

BMCC, CSI, Medgar Evers, NYCCT, QCC

Session A

12:30 - 1:15 P.M.

Lunch (Student Dining Commons)

1:15 – 2:45 P.M. Career Development Workshop

Tria Case

Nikki Evans and Beth Spektor

Urban Sustainability and

Energy Management

Careers in Technology

2:45 – 3:45 P.M.

Oral Presentations

BCC, Guttman, Hostos, KBCC, LAGCC

Session 2

3:45 – 4:45 P.M.

Poster Presentations (Hound’s Square)

BCC, Guttman, Hostos, KBCC, LAGCC

Session B

4:45 – 5:00 P.M. Presentation of Awards

Please see page 86 for a selected list of 2017-2018 CRSP publications, scholarships and other recognitions

iv

LIST OF COLLEGE-BASED CRSP DIRECTORS

Borough of Manhattan Community

College (BMCC)

Alona Bach

Bronx Community College (BCC)

Katherine Acevedo-Coppa

College of Staten Island (CSI)

Alfred Levine and

Maria Ivanova

Guttman Community College

Chulsung Kim

Hostos Community College

Felix Cardona

Kingsborough Community College

(KBCC)

Deborah Berhanu

LaGuardia Community College

(LAGCC)

Allyson Sheffield

Medgar Evers College

Mohsin Patwary

New York City College of

Technology (NYCCT)

Hamid Norouzi

Queensborough Community College

(QCC)

Sharon Lall-Ramnarine

v

Student Oral Presentations

College Title Student Mentor

Session 1

BMCC Bioactivity of the Medicinal Plant

Lippia Multiflora Against Oxidative

Stress and Inflammation

Ilyasse

Benezha

Alexander

Gosslau

CSI

Synaptic Deficit in Alzheimer’s Disease:

Is Abnormal Tau the Culprit?

Izabella

Beniaminova

Alejandra

Alonso

Medgar Evers Quantification of Heavey Metals at

Medgar Evers College’s Campus

Potable Water System

Semika

Burnette

Christopher

Boxe

NYCCT Implementation of an Assistive

Technology Mobile Robot

Jannat Hoque,

Joycephinne Li

and Jannatul

Mahdi

Ohbong

Kwon and

Farrukh Zia

QCC Impact of Molecular Length on

Oligocarbazole Single Molecule Wires

Jiayi Xue Sujun Wei

Session 2

BCC

On Bidegree Sequences of Directed

Trees

William

Meyers

Nikolaos

Apostolakis

Guttman

A Virtual Information Assistant for the

CUNY Guttman Community College

Using Amazing Alexa

Miguel

Vignoni

Jinzhong Niu

Hostos

Concrete Inspection Using Deep

Learning

Miguel Febriel

and Melissa

Souffront

Biao Jiang

KBCC Shrimp Vaccination

Jessica Zhao

Sarwar

Jahangir

LAGCC The Effects of Environmental

Toxicant, Bisphenol A, on Cultural

Ovarian Cells from the Sea Star, Patria

Miniata

Lorraine

Haddad

Thomas

Onorato and

Ingred Veras

vi

Poster Abstracts

Session A

Borough of Manhattan Community College 1

College of Staten Island 12

Medgar Evers College 18

New York City College of Technology 23

Queensborough Community College 34

Session B

Bronx Community College 49

Guttman Community College 54

Hostos Community College 58

Kingsborough Community College 63

LaGuardia Community College 73

CRSP Transfer Program at Queens College 83

vii

STUDENT PRESENTERS

Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page

Saleha Abbasi BMCC A1 1

Afsana Abdul Rahim LAGCC B57 73

Aldrin Ador LAGCC B74 81

Ali Ahmed CSI A37 17

Haithm Alhashdi Hostos B23 58

Nikita Alim QCC A89 41

Elan Anderson Hostos B24, B29 58, 60

Kypros Andruanou QCC A74 34

Vimal Arora MEC A45 20

Aleksandra Artyfikiewicz BMCC A2 1

Jennifer Avila-Sanchez CSI A26 12

Cody Barshaba CSI A27 12

Chetan Basnet LAGCC B58 74

Hala Basyouni CSI A38 17

Eugenia Beache MEC A41 18

Ilyasse Benezha BMCC A3 1

Izabella Beniaminova CSI A28 13

Raziel Benreuben Hostos B25 58

Oscar Bermudes QCC A75 35

Elayne Blancas Hostos B25 58

Gabrielle Blevins Guttman B13 54

Aaron Blumenthal KBCC B36 63

Alejandro Bonilla LAGCC B59 74

Enmanuel Brito Guttman B14 54

Semika Burnette MEC A42 19

Alison Castillo Hostos B34 62

Estrella Cazares LAGCC B64 76

Clover Chambers MEC A43 20

Anns Charles NYCCT A50 23

Zhuoquan Chen BMCC A4 2

Biling Chen QCC A92 43

Yanyan Chen QCC A76 35

Lev Chesnov NYCCT A51 24

Jian Wen Choong LAGCC B60 75

Mobin Uddin Chowdhury CSI A29 13

Ashley Civil KBCC B37 63

Hector Colon Hostos B26 59

Adolfo Coyotl Queens B79 83

Torrell Daw Guttman B15 55

viii


Towana De Jesus Hostos B25 58

Joshua Delapenha KBCC B50 70

Eric Deokie QCC A77 36

Islande Derazin MEC A44 20

Lamanara Diallo BMCC A10 5

Thierno Diallo Hostos B27 59

Nicole Diaz BCC B1 49

Demba Diop NYCCT A51 24

Wenshu Dong QCC A78 36

Paulin Tiburce Dongomale BCC B1 49

Andrei Dragutan LAGCC B70 80

Fatumata Dukuray MEC A45 20

Crystal Dunkley KBCC B38 64

Shaina Durand QCC A79 37

Lynese Edwards NYCCT A52 24

Marawan Elzoeiry BMCC A5 3

Gariele Emeran QCC A80 37

Delfino Enriquez Torres LAGCC B61 75

Keneil Fearon Hostos B27 59

Miguel Febriel Hostos B28 60

Marla Feliciano LAGCC B62 76

Eddit Fernandez QCC A93 43

Miguel Fernandez QCC A75, A81 35, 37

Luis Filgueria LAGCC B68 79

Victoria Fischer CSI A30 14

Daniela Forrest BCC B2 49

Calvin Francis Hostos B24, B29 58, 60

Astrid Frank NYCCT A53 25

Tianren Fu QCC A103 47

Anjali Gaba QCC A82 38

Jay Gadsden BMCC A6 3

Mariel Galindo Guttman B16 55

Chethana Gallage Dona LAGCC B63 76

Harpreet Gaur NYCCT A54 25

Edna Georges KBCC B39, B48 64, 69

Marina Ghobrial CSI A31 14

Brian Gil BCC B3 50

Nirmela Govinda LAGCC B64 77

Nicole Guzman CSI A32 15

Willmar Guzman Ulloa BCC B4 50

Lorraine Haddad LAGCC B65 77

Cleavon Harris KBCC B40 65

ix


Natalia Harrow LAGCC B66 77

Tina He LAGCC B67 78

Thalia Herrera BMCC A7 4

Nicholas Herrera LAGCC B68 79

Monique Hinkson MEC A43 20

Yuliia Hlamazdenko KBCC B41 65

Jannat Hoque NYCCT A55 26

Kwok Ching Hui NYCCT A56 26

Danny Hurtado KBCC B42 66

Afolabi Ibitoye NYCCT A57 26

Arafate Idohou Hostos B30 60

Koyuki Inoue KBCC B43 66

MD Zahirul Islam CSI A33 15

Mohosina Islam Hostos B23 58

Jonelle Jackman MEC A46 21

Kareem Jackson NYCCT A58 27

Abdulai Jalloh BMCC A8 4

Shaiku Jalloh BMCC A3 1

Moiselena Jeanlouis KBCC B44, B56 67, 73

Wen Jie Long NYCCT A69 32

Latoya Jones MEC A47 21

Ralph Joseph CSI A38 17

Hamidou kabore Hostos B31 61

Oumarou Kafando Hostos B35 62

Faith Kakshak NYCCT A59 28

Inzamamdeen Kassim Hostos B31 61

Khushpreet Kaur QCC A83 38

Jaswinder Kaur Queens B80 84

Dinara Khashimova KBCC B45 67

Katherine Kim QCC A84 39

Gabriela Kimanyen BMCC A9 4

Bohdan Klotska BMCC A10 5

Swimi Kolancheril Hostos B24, B29 58, 60

Naida Koura Mola BCC B5 50

Genevieve Kwanimaa BCC B11 53

Brenda Lagares BMCC A9 4

Sanjib Lamichhane LAGCC B69 79

Qing Lan BMCC A11 5

Marino Laurent KBCC B46 68

Taeho Lee QCC A85 39

Rachel Li NYCCT A60 28

Joycephine Li NYCCT A55, A61, A63

26, 28, 29

x


Fei Li QCC A86, A87 40

Gaozhen Li QCC A75 35

Jiahua Liao BMCC A12 5

Yuqing Lin LAGCC B66 77

Richard Lin NYCCT A62 29

Francisco Lopez Hostos B33 61

Andrew Lugo KBCC B47 68

Shuai Ma QCC A92 43

Jannatul Mahdi NYCCT A55, A61, A63

26, 28, 29

Mohammad Mansour CSI A34 16

Varquita Marbury MEC A48 22

Alexis Martinez BMCC A13 6

Reynaldo Martinez Hostos B33 61

Andrea Martinez LAGCC B61 75

Elibeth Martinez Tejada Hostos B35 62

Diana Mata QCC A75 35

Ingrid Mathurin MEC A48 22

Patricia Matos Hostos B33 61

Amanda McKenzie BMCC A14 6

Jassiel Mena Hostos B34 62

Senayit Menasche BMCC A104 11

Hilary Menes QCC A88 41

William Meyers BCC B6 51

Moneema Miles Guttman B17 55

Nada Mohamed CSI A35 16

Waseem Mohammed NYCCT A64 30

Sabri Mohiuddin BCC B7 51

Ayman Moitatchiou Hostos B33 61

Maria Molliar KBCC B48 69

Saraf Nabiha QCC A89 41

Kizzy Nelson Guttman B18 56

Long Nguyen KBCC B49 69

Abdoul Aziz Niang Hostos B31 61

Wilson Nieves QCC A96 44

Edward Nouel QCC A90 42

Joangela Nouel QCC A90 42

Lottyizet Nunez BMCC A15 7

Anvarjon Nurakhunov CSI A36 17

George Nwankwo NYCCT A54 25

Winsome

O'Sullivan MEC A49 24

xi


Shou Oikawa LAGCC B70 80

Nick Okoye BCC B8 52

Tin Oo NYCCT A65 30

Frank Orefice KBCC B50 70

Baowend Ouedraogo Hostos B34 62

Nathalie Oulhen LAGCC B59 74

Richie Ovando Hostos B28 60

Jiweon Park QCC A91 42

Kristina Papacostas QCC A93 43

Brian Parra NYCCT A66 31

Royal Pathak LAGCC B71 80

Francesco Pecora CSI A37 17

Abel Pepin CSI A38 17

Marjan Perbibaj CSI A37 17

Eric Pereira BMCC A16 7

Nhi Phan LAGCC B72 80

Shaun Pollard NYCCT A67 31

Nikesh Prajapati LAGCC B73 81

Vanessa Pujols Hostos B28 60

Cheison Pulinario Hostos B28 60

Michelle Qu QCC A92 43

Hashir Qureshi NYCCT A54 25

Md Mushfiqur Rahaman BCC B9 52

Tasreen Rahman Guttman B19 56

Vennesa Rainford BCC B8 52

Jasodra Ramdihal Queens A86, A93, B82

40, 43, 85

Leslie Ramirez Medrano QCC A94 44

Lian Nicole Ramos QCC A95 44

Abigail Regalado Hostos B34 62

Syed Rehman NYCCT A54 25

Nate Richter LAGCC B64 77

Fatima Rizwan CSI A39 18

Brittny Roberts NYCCT A68 32

Jair Rocha Guttman B16, B20 55, 56

Sarah Rodriguez LAGCC B63 76

Farid Rodriguez NYCCT A69 32

Tonya Roe LAGCC B74 81

Eleni Romano LAGCC B75 82

Michael Rosado BMCC A17 7

Raul Rosario NYCCT A65 30

Alexander Rue BMCC A18 8

xii


Mateo Saenz QCC A96 44

Cole Sagan QCC A102 47

Mohamed Sajath Hostos B27 59

Yousef Salah QCC A82 38

Sarah Seron LAGCC B76 82

Francesca Serrano BCC B4 50

Arouje Shaikh CSI A39 18

Xin Shen QCC A97 45

Brandon Short BMCC A19 8

Yasmeen Shuaib LAGCC B77 82

Asif Siddique BCC B10 53

Keiann Simon QCC A98 45

Antonio Sinadinse Hostos B35 62

Navjot Singh NYCCT A70 33

Ashley Smith QCC A99 46

Shanelle Smith QCC A103 47

Sara Sobolewska KBCC B51 70

Adkhamjon Soliev BMCC A20 9

Jessenia Sorina Queens B81 85

Briana Soto CSI A39 18

Melissa Souffront Hostos B28 60

Gopal Subramaniam QCC A92 43

Giorby Suero Guttman B21 57

Rawlric Sumner Queens A86, B82 40, 85

Albert Tadros LAGCC B68 79

Rong Tan QCC A100 46

Luis Tapia Hostos B28 60

Carolina Tapia LAGCC B62 76

Luis Tejeda Hostos B31 61

Jeewan Thapa Magar LAGCC B66 77

Jean-Hus Theodore NYCCT A71 33

Cheryl Thomas NYCCT A72 33

Mohamed Tijani BMCC A21 9

Prasala Tuladhar Queens B80 84

Patrick Tuttle QCC A102 47

Michelle Paola Tuz LAGCC B78 83

Meliza Uraga BCC B11 53

Vali Valizade KBCC B52 71

Zazoe van Lieshout LAGCC B74 81

Brandon Vargas BCC B12 53

Isabela Velasquez Gutierrez QCC A101 46

Lisa Marie Vetere KBCC B53 71

xiii


Miguel Vignoni Guttman B22 57

Kailey Volpetti CSI A40 18

Rosanne Wallach KBCC B54 72

Gary Wessel LAGCC B59 74

Ronaldo Williams Hostos B33 61

Jinyu Wu BMCC A22 10

Alice Wu BMCC A23 10

Tiantian Xia BMCC A24 11

Jiayi Xue QCC A102, A103 47

Xiangliu Yang CSI A39 18

Yuanhe Ye BMCC A25 11

Brian Yellis NYCCT A73 34

Xiaofang Yu QCC A102, A103 47

Jessica Zhao KBCC B55 72

Kelly Zhao KBCC B50 70

Elena Zimareva NYCCT A57 26

Murodjon Zubaydov KBCC B44, B56 67, 73

xiv

PARTICIPATING FACULTY MENTORS


Viviana Acquaviva NYCCT A54 25

Amit Aggarwal LAGCC B78 83

Ijaz Ahmad Medgar Evers A46 21

Ian Alberts LAGCC B68 79

Jane Alexander CSI A26 12

Alejandra Alonso CSI A28, A31, A38 13, 14

Nicolas Anuku BCC B10 53

Nikos Apostolakis BCC B6 51

Alexander Aptekar NYCCT A57 26

Grace Axler-DiPerte KBCC B41 65

Kristina Baines Guttman B19 56

Homar Barcena KBCC B40, B51 65, 70

Deborah Berhanu KBCC B47, B51 68, 70

Jeffrey Bird Queens B79, B81 83, 85

Terrance Blackman Medgar Evers A41 18

Christopher Boxe Medgar Evers A42, A48 19, 22

Jacqueline Brashears LAGCC B57, B76 73, 82

Jessica Brodsky CSI A27 12

Dmitry Brogun KBCC B50 70

Patricia Brooks CSI A27 12

Henry Bulley BMCC A4, A11 2, 5

Sebastien Buttet Guttman B15 55

Corina Calinescu NYCCT A58 27

Naydu Carmona QCC A79, A96 37, 44

William Carr Medgar Evers A47, A49 21, 23

Moni Chauhan QCC A82 38

Florette Cohen CSI A40 18

Sunil Dehipawala QCC A83, A100 38, 46

Reginald Dorcely Hostos B34 62

Merlinda Drini QCC A77, A85 36, 39

Yana Durmysheva BMCC A7, A15 4, 7

Yasmine Edwards BCC B2 49

Abdesalam El-Idrissi CSI A33 15

Aida Euges NYCCT A71 33

Christine Farias BMCC A2, A13 1, 6

Azure Faucette KBCC B37 63

Francisco Fernandez Hostos B30 60

Adrienne Fitzer CSI A35 16

Gina Florio QCC A102 47

Allison Franzese Hostos B35 62

xv

Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page Daniel Gertner LAGCC B57, B67, B67,

B76 73, 78, 82

Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar NYCCT A56 26

Luis Gonzalez-Urbina BMCC A22 10

Alexander Gosslau BMCC A2 1

Richa Gupta LAGCC B63 76

Aleksandar Haber CSI A34, A36, A37 16, 17

Sunej Hans BCC B5 50

Tirandai Hemraj-Benny QCC A80, A86 37, 40

Dickens Hilaire BCC B10 53

Kieren Howard KBCC B46 68

Sarwar Jahangir KBCC B36, B55 63, 72

Biao Jiang Hostos B24, B28, B29 58, 60

Daeho Kang NYCCT A51 24

Sasan Karimi QCC A92 43

Praveenkumar Khethavath LAGCC B71 80

Jihyun Kim Guttman B18 56 Chulsung Kim Guttman B13, B16, B17,

B20 54, 55, 56

Moise Koffi Hostos B25 58

Adolfina Koroch BMCC A16 7

Obong Kwon NYCCT A55 26

Klara Lagrance BMCC A10 5

Sharon Lall-Ramnarine QCC A93, B82 43, 85

Mehdi Lejmi BCC B12 53

Anne Leonhardt NYCCT A59 28

Janet Liou-Mark NYCCT A60 28

Wenjian Liu QCC A76, A78 35, 36

Nancy Liu-Sullivan CSI A39 18

Patrick Lloyd KBCC B45 67

Damaris Lois-Lang Hostos B34 62

Eugene Mananga BCC B4 50

Lisa Manne CSI A32 15

Paul Marchese QCC A94 44 Malgorzata Marciniak LAGCC B61, B69, B70,

B73 75. 80, 81

Kevin Mark LAGCC B72 80

Christopher McCarthy BMCC A8, A104 4, 11

Marie McGovern KBCC B39, B48 64, 69

Cecilia McHugh Queens B80 84

David Michaelson KBCC B39, B48 64, 69

John Mikalopas KBCC B43 66

Glenn Miller BMCC A25 11

Shiraz Mujtaba Medgar Evers A45 20

Elizabeth Mulligan KBCC B38, B49 64, 69

Masato Nakamura NYCCT A72, A73 33, 34

xvi


Abel Navarro BMCC A20 9

Marina Nechayeva LAGCC B69, B70 79, 80

Andrew Nguyen QCC A75, A81 35, 37

Jinzhong Niu Guttman B22 57

Rafael Niyazov BMCC A17 7

Alam Nur-E-Kamal Medgar Evers A46 21

Thomas Onorato LAGCC B59, B62, B65 74, 76, 77

Onyema Osuagwu Medgar Evers A43 20

Marjan Persuh BMCC A1, 14, A18 1, 6 , 8

Joan Petersen QCC A89 41

Chanh Phan Hostos B32 61

Marcos Pinto NYCCT A52, A64, A67 24, 30, 31

Bertram Ploog CSI A35 16

Holly Porter-Morgan LAGCC B64, B74 77, 81

Anupam Pradhan KBCC B54 72

Diane Price-Banks BCC B8 52

Tanvir Prince Hostos B27, B31 59, 61

Vladimir Przhebelskiy LAGCC B69, B70 80

AKM Rahman NYCCT A65 30

Larbi Rddad KBCC B44, B56 66, 73

Kimberly Riegel QCC A74 34

Jose Fernandez Romero BMCC A9 4

Debasish Roy Hostos B23, B26 58, 59

David Sarno QCC A84, A99 39, 46

Jin Shin Medgar Evers A43 20

Jun Shin QCC A91, A98 42, 45

Sunaina Singh LAGCC B58 74

Sheldon Skaggs BCC B1, B3 49, 50

Chiyedza Small Medgar Evers A44 20

Laura Spinu KBCC B52 71

Deborah Sturm CSI A30 14

Regina Sullivan QCC A101 46

Rex Taibu QCC A87 40

Farshad Tamari KBCC B42, B53 66, 71

Hao Tang BMCC A12, A24 5, 11

Sushma Teegala QCC A88 41

Derek Tesser Guttman B14, B21 54, 57

Jane Tezapsidis BMCC A6 3

Soosairaj Therese BCC B7, B9 51, B9

Rujin Tian BCC B11 53

John Toland LAGCC B75 82

Daniel Torres BMCC A5 3

Monica Trujillo QCC A90, A95 42, 44

I-Hsien Tsai LAGCC B60 75

Shalva Tsiklauri BMCC A21 9

xvii


Muhammad Ummy NYCCT A62, A69 29, 32

Latha Venkataraman QCC A103 47

Ingrid Veras LAGCC B59, B62, B65 74, 76, 77

Xin-Zhou Wei NYCCT A53 25

Sujun Wei QCC A102, A103 47

Lauren Wolf Hostos B33 61

Lina Wu BMCC A23 10

Huixin Wu QCC A97 45

Angran Xiao NYCCT A68 32

Na Xu LAGCC B77 82

Ozlem Yasar NYCCT A50, A66, A70 23, 31, 33

Yun Ye LAGCC B66 77

Farrukh Zia NYCCT A55, A61, A63 26, 28, 29

1

MORNING POSTER SESSION

Borough of Manhattan

Community College

Poster A1

Richness of visual perception

Saleha Abbasi

Mentor: Professor Marjan Persuh

Borough of Manhattan Community College

Is our visual perception really as rich as our

everyday experience suggests? Or do we suffer from

the refrigerator light illusion? In other words,

believing that we experience rich and detailed

world only because it is readily available upon close

inspection. Partial report experiments

suggest that perception is rich. Change blindness

experiments suggest that it is sparse. One camp

argues for rich visual perception with many details,

whereas the other camp argues that details

are available only for few (~3-4) objects; the rest is

experienced as an ensemble or summary

statistics. To address this question in a qualitative

and eventually in quantitative terms, several

factors that influence our perception should be

considered. One important factor is distinction

between the central and peripheral vision. Another

important factor is distribution of sizes and

distances between objects, that contribute to the

phenomenon of crowding, which poses well

known limitations on visual perception. Lastly it is

important to consider the allocation of

attentional resources. Because all behavioral

measures of perception require some form of

memory, interference between items in memory

might drastically underestimate the richness of

visual perception. We sought to address this

methodological problem, by designing a visual

perception experiment in which all items are

selected from distinct categories. This novel design

will allow us to explore factors that moderate visual

perception and to estimate in quantitative

terms the richness of our perception.

Poster A2

Composting: A Cost or a Benefit?

Aleksandra Artyfikiewicz

Mentor: Professor Christine Farias


According to the Natural Resources Defense Council,

up to 40% of food in the US is wasted and growing,

processing, transporting, and disposing of that uneaten

food costs an estimated $218 billion annually. At the

same time, about 41 million people cannot provide

enough food for their households. In New York City,

20% of the waste stream is food waste, so diverting

this compostable material from the landfill represents

a huge opportunity to preserve the environment and

cut waste management costs. Is food waste

composting an opportunity for the Borough of

Manhattan Community College (BMCC)? To answer

this question, my poster presentation will attempt to

analyze the current BMCC waste management system

and compare it to one that implements composting.

My research also analyzes its potential impact on the

BMCC community, measures awareness of food waste

and composting through a survey and recommends a

circular economy model.

Poster A3

Bioactivity of the medicinal plant Lippia

multiflora against oxidative stress and

inflammation

Ilyasse Benezha, Shaiku Jalloh

Mentor: Professor Alexander Gosslau


Lippia multiflora is used as herbal tea by local cultures

in Africa, Central and South America for medical

2

purposes for many years. Lippia multiflora is

commonly used for treating skin and gastrointestinal

infections as well as respiratory disorders such asthma

and bronchitis all of them associated with chronic

inflammation. During chronic inflammation an

accumulation of free radicals is leading to oxidative

stress. The ABTS assay demonstrated that Lippia has

a strong antioxidant activity. Using the Folin-

Ciocalteu method, we observed a close correlation

between anti-oxidative capacity and phenolic content

in Lippia. The high R² value suggest polyphenolic

compounds as major bioactive against oxidative stress.

To analyze potential cytotoxicity we applied different

concentrations of Lippia multiflora to human

monocytes (U-937 cells) and analyzed cell viability

using the MTT assay. As a result, there were no

apparent toxic effects up to 100ug/ml. For analysis of

the anti-inflammatory potential of Lippia, we used the

inflammatory stimulant 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-

13-acetate (TPA) to induce the differentiation to

macrophages in which genes of the inflammatory

cascade are upregulated. In our cell-based model for

inflammation we were measuring the expression of

cyclooxygenase-2 which play a central role in the

inflammatory cascade. After normalization to the

house-keeping gene GAPDH results were expressed

as delta CT (ΔCt) values an indicator for the level of

gene expression. To analyze the anti-inflammatory

potential the ∆Ct values of TPA vs TPA treatment

with Lippia were compared and expressed as ∆∆Ct.

Our experiments demonstrated that Lippia

prominently down-regulated the expression of COX-2.

As a result, our research analysis demonstrated

evidence of bioactivity of Lippia against oxidative

stress and inflammation which explain its traditional

use against disorders related to chronic inflammation.

In future experiments, we will analyze other

inflammatory genes such as ICAM-1, TNF-a, IL-1ß.

Moreover, we are planning a chemical

characterization of Lippia multiflora by nuclear

magnetic (NMR) analysis to identify polyphenolic

bioactivities.

Poster A4

Assessing Water Quality of drinking

water fountains vs bottled water use in

NYC

Zhuoquan Chen

Mentor: Professor Henry Bulley


The use of bottled water in cities across the United

States, including New York City, have steadily

increased in the last two decades due to concerted

campaign by the Bottled Water companies. Part of this

have been due to success in convincing the people to

believe that the bottled water is safe and taste better

than tap water. Such perception seems to be pervasive

despite reports of water quality issues related to

bottled water. This study is part of a collaborative

project to examine the factors influencing NYC

residents’ choice of drinking water from tap/fountains

compared to bottled water sources. The specific

objective is to assess the water quality of drinking

water fountains vs typical bottled water that are used

use in NYC. In situ sampling was conducted for

drinking water fountains in three NYC (boroughs

Brooklyn, Bronx, and Manhattan) to measure selected

water quality parameters including nitrates (NO3),

nitrates (NO2), pH, Alkalinity and Hardness. For now,

the first part of water fountain sampling we collected

at stores, supermarket and building, etc. Later, we will

move on to public park. In the process of sampling, I

found some water fountains did not even work or be

discarded. Additionally, water quality test was

conducted for typical bottled water including

Aquafina, Fiji, and Poland Springs. The water quality

results will be overlaid on median income maps of

NYC borough. This poster presentation will highlight

the spatial distribution of sampled drinking water

fountains. The results will be discussed to with

reference to spatial differences in perceptions of

bottled water quality in different areas of NYC.

3

Poster A5

Adsorbate Induced-Segregation effects in

Mixed Oxides: a computer-based study

Marwan Elzoeiry

Mentor: Professor Daniel Torres


Catalysts are substances that increase the rate of

chemical reactions, without undergoing any

permanent chemical change. You can find a catalyst

inside your cars’ muffler in the form of platinum

particles that convert poisonous CO into harmful

CO2. Mixed oxide-based catalysts are low-cost

prototypes of industrial catalysts, which are made of

costly precious metals. Mixed oxides results from

the combination of oxygen and two different metals

in the form of a solid solution. Mixed oxides

catalysts have complicated structures and various

structural defects such as oxygen vacancies control

its chemical reactivity. The role of these vacancies

and the strength of its interaction with the two

metals in the mixture are unknown, which motivates

our project. In this computer-based project, we

carried Quantum mechanics simulations to study the

structure of mixed oxides in the form of a matrix

combined with metal impurity. We selected a wide

range of metallic impurities and used combinatoric

methods to study a large set of mixed oxides in the

presence of oxygen vacancies. We are extending our

previous research including two new oxide matrices,

CaO and SrO. Finally, we will carry a density of

states analysis in order to gain insight into the bond

established between oxygen vacancies and metal

impurities.

Poster A6

The Effects of Forskolin on Cultured SH-

SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells

Jay Gadsden

Mentor: Professor Jane Tezapsidis Borough of Manhattan Community College

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that starts in

nerve cells and is responsible for almost 700 new

cases of cancer per year. Our research investigates

the impact of Forskolin, a natural compound root

extract derived from Plectranthus barbatus, on

cellular viability and growth in neuroblastoma.

Previous studies conducted by Follin-Arbelet et al in

multiple myeloma U266 cells and mouse models

have shown Forskolin to boost Cyclic adenosine

monophosphate (cAMP), crucial for signal

transduction, to induce apoptosis and prohibit tumor

growth. Consequentially understanding these

pathways in neuroblastoma cells may be beneficial

to developing new anticancer therapies, as our team

prior investigations has shown SH-SY5Y cells

(derived from human neuroblastoma) and E18

embryonic neurons from Sprague-Dawley to

respond differently to Forskolin. We observed a

significant time dependent trend of declining cell

viability of up to 54% and 79% when SH-SY5Y

cells were treated with Forskolin after 3 or 5 days

respectively. However, Forskolin treatment

significantly increased survival of E18 neurons up to

11% compared to untreated controls. These results

suggest that forskolin has differential effects on

normal and tumor cells and further investigation is

warranted.

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Poster A7

Student Attrition in e-Learning vs.

Tradition Sections of General Psychology

Course

Thalia Herrera

Mentor: Professor Yana Durmysheva


Past research on attrition rates in college courses

demonstrated a higher tendency for students to drop out

from e-Learning courses more compared to traditional

face-to-face courses. The purpose of the present research

was to observe the differences in attrition rates in

traditional face-to-face vs. fully online vs. partially

online sections of General Psychology course at Borough

of Manhattan Community College taught by the same

instructor over a period of several years. Results,

implications, and strategies for reducing attrition rates

will be discussed.

Poster A8

ODE Model and Design of Adsorption

Based Water Filter

Abdulai Jalloh

Mentor: Professor Chris McCarthy


The research focused on developing kinetic models of

adsorption and one-dimensional models of adsorption-

based filters. These mathematical models have been

developed in support of our college's interdisciplinary

lab group (chemistry, engineering, mathematics). Our

group conducts research into the bio-remediation of

heavy metal contaminated water via filtration. The

filters are constructed out of biomass, such as spent

tea leaves. The spent tea leaves are available in large

quantities as a result of the industrial production of tea

beverages. The models we are developing involve

differential equations (ODE's). We then use the

mathematical models to design practical filters.

Poster A9

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

for Biology Laboratory Practices

Gabriela Kimanyen, Brenda Lagares

Mentor: Professor Jose Fernandez Romero


Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are

versatile, simple and sensitive immunoassays that

exploit the specificity of antibody/antigen reaction.

ELISA are widely use in all fields of pure and

applied biology and are extremely important tool in

diagnostics. This is a technique that every student

interested in biological sciences should know.

We developed a cost-effective rapid ELISA that

could be performed in a 3 hours laboratory practice.

For this purpose, a direct sandwich ELISA was

selected as the preferred ELISA format in a 96-well

microplate solid phase. The assay consisted in 5

steps: i) coating the plate with a capture antibody, ii)

blocking, iii) adding standards/samples iv) adding

detection antibody conjugated to horseradish

peroxidase, v) and finally adding substrate followed

by the stop solution. The absorbance values were

determined in a Spectramax iD3 (Molecular

Devices, LLC) microplate reader at 450nm, with a

subtraction wavelength of 570nm. Softmax Pro 7

was used for data analysis.

The preliminary results show an acceptable standard

curve performance (system suitability), with

coefficients of variation below 20%. We obtained a

lower limit of quantification of 7.8 ng/mL. The

precision and accuracy are within the established

limits and key reagents (antibodies) are stable at -

70°C (with or without glycerol) for at least 3

months. The ELISA is cost-effective (less than

$16.00 per plate; 1 plate per bench should be used in

the laboratory practice). The assay will be

introduced as a new laboratory practice in BIO230

(Fundamentals of Microbiology) at BMCC.

5

Poster A10

Applications of Hyperspherical Functions

Method for the Neutron-rich Lithium

Isotopes

Bohdan Klotska, Lamarana Diallo

Mentor: Professor Klara LaGrance


Exotic nuclei close to neutron drip line are difficult

to describe microscopically. The small binding

energies and extended radial density distributions of

neutron-rich nuclei such as the Lithium isotopes, are

produced in radioactive beams and are not correctly

reproduced in shell-model calculations. For this

reason, simple Gaussian parametrization of the

density distributions have been used in order to

describe the large experimentally observed reaction

cross sections.

In a fully microscopic calculation of the lithium

isotopes has been performed in a basis of

hyperspherical functions with the symmetries

properly taken into account. Therefore, a better

description of the asymptotic part of the wave

function is possible. Mean squared radius of

Lithium isotopes has been obtained and compared to

experimental data.

Poster A11

Attitudes towards drinking water

fountains vs prevalence of bottled water

use in NYC

Qing Lan

Mentor: Professor Henry Bulley


Bottled water consumption in the United States

surpassed carbonated soft-drinks in 2016, after

decades of consistent media campaign to promote

bottled water as a safe alternative to tap water and

healthy alternative to bottled soda beverages. This

growth has often been fueled by dominant positive

perception of bottled water taste and quality,

compared to tap water and drinking water fountains.

However, it is not clear the factors that influence

these perceptions, especially in large metropolitan

areas like New York City. This study is part of a

collaborative project to examine the factors

influencing NYC residents’ choice of drinking water

from tap/fountains compared to bottled water

sources. The specific objective is to examine

consumers attitudes towards drinking water

fountains vs prevalence of bottled water use in

NYC. This study combines a survey of using online

questionnaire, of perceptions and prevalence of

bottled water use and safety in NYC area, with data

from in situ sampled drinking water fountains water

quality information that base on different boroughs

in NYC, including nitrates (NO3), nitrates (NO2),

pH, Alkalinity and hardness. These elements will

use to compare with the bottled water sample from

the close neighborhoods. By the end of this

research, a statistical analysis and GIS-based

visualization will be conducted. The results will

provide insights into the driving forces for growth in

bottled water use in the NYC boroughs.

Poster A12

Building 3D Model on an Embedded

Mobile Robot

Jiahua Liao

Mentors: Professors Hao Tang


It’s a continuous research project and we have

designed and implemented an embedded intelligent

mobile robot from parts. It is built up by a powerful

microprocessor (with hundreds graphical processing

units), a stereo camera and a programmable Robot,

to explore and understand indoor environments.

In this project, we first deployed and tested an

existing open source robotics simultaneous

localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm using

the stereo camera. Second, we design algorithms to

6

allow the robot to self-explore an unknown

environment and automatically and build a 3D

model of the environment. In addition, we will also

improve the user interface to make human users

easy access and communicate with the robot.

Poster A13

Termination of NAFTA: Snowballing

America’s Next Catastrophe?

Alexis Martinez

Mentor: Professor Christine Farias


The North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA) was created 20 years ago as one of the

largest free trade zones to help boost the Mexican,

Canadian and American economies. While many

jobs were lost in the creation of NAFTA the U.S.

economy has created approximately 200,000 new

export related jobs and saw an increase in average

wages by about 15-20% annually. Approximately 14

million U.S. jobs rely on trade between Canada and

Mexico and US GDP has increased by

approximately 80 billion dollars. In 1993 before

NAFTA regional trade was around $290 billion

dollars. In 2016 trade has increased to more than

$1.1 trillion dollars. While American consumers and

businesses were able to enjoy the benefits of

NAFTA, today we face a new challenge that will

ripple not only America – but the world. Will the

termination of NAFTA be the snowball that will

bring America into its next big crisis? To answer

this question, my poster presentation will attempt to

examine the pros and cons of NAFTA, discuss the

possible outcomes if it is terminated, and provide an

economic analysis on the U.S. and the global

economy. The analysis is based on statistical data

from Bloomberg, Pew Research Center, Council on

Foreign Relations, New York Times and the U.S.

Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Poster A14

How does attention affect the richness of

our visual experience?

Amanda McKenzie



Although we believe that we have a rich visual

experience, experiments on inattentional blindness

and change blindness suggest that our visual

experience is limited only to a few objects, reflecting

a limited capacity of attention and working memory.

The perception of the remainder of the world is

presumably gained by using the redundancy of our

surrounding world and our brain represents it as a

summary statistics. Our goal is to test the richness or

possible sparseness of the visual experience using

multiple object tracking and cued change detection

paradigms. We will use multiple object tracking to

manipulate the availability of attentional resources.

Observers will track objects moving at constant speed

and by manipulating the speed, we will directly affect

attentional resources available for the second task,

cued change detection. For the cued change

detection, eight rectangles will be presented around

the centrally presented multiple object tracking task.

Rectangles will then disappear and a cue indicating a

position for one of the rectangles will be presented.

Observers will be presented a new set of rectangles

and asked to notice a change between the two

rectangle displays at the position of a cued rectangle.

Our previous experiments indicate that observers

perform well in this task, suggesting that their

perceptual experience is rich and detailed. It is

however unknown how attention affects the richness

of experience. We have already demonstrated that we

can successfully manipulate attention in the multiple

object tracking task. In the next step we will combine

the two tasks to determine if attention is necessary for

the rich visual experience.

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Poster A15

General Psychology: Do students perform

better in traditional, face-to-face, online or

hybrid sections of the course?

Lottyizet Nunez

Mentor: Professor Yana Durmysheva


Technological innovations of the past several decades

have led to the development of various learning

modalities. In addition to traditional classroom

teaching and learning in higher education, online and

hybrid models are rapidly becoming more and more

popular. The purpose of the present research was to

determine whether the success rate of college students

depends on the teaching modality used to deliver the

course material. To do that, academic success

measured by final numeric grades in sections of the

General Psychology course taught by the same

instructor in traditional face-to-face, online and hybrid

formats over a period of several years is measured and

comparisons were drawn. Results, implications and

future directions of the research will be discussed.

Poster A16

Biological Activity of Taraxacum

officinale

Eric Pereira

Mentor: Professor Adolfina Koroch


The leaves and roots of dandelion (Taraxacum

officinale) are used in traditional Brazilian herbal

remedies to treat diseases of the liver, urinary and

digestive disorders as well as regulating cholesterol

and regulating blood pressure. Plants synthesize and

accumulate various chemical compounds that

provide an ecological advantage. One of these

chemicals are called polyphenols. Many of these

polyphenols have beneficial health effects for

humans through their antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-

inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties.

Cultures that practice traditional medicine often use

specific plants that contain many types of

polyphenols, such as flavonoids, phenolics, and

antioxidants. Dandelions are also rich in iron,

magnesium, potassium, zinc minerals as well as

vitamins A and C.

The objective of this research is to determine the

total biological activity of these polyphenols in

commercial samples of dandelion leaves and roots.

Dry samples of dandelion leaves and roots are

grinded and dissolved in DMSO and made into

extracts. These extracts are measured for total

phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity using

a spectrophotometer. Antioxidant activity is

measured through three different techniques using

ABTS. Determining the total biological activity for

this class of polyphenols will help understand the

use and effectiveness of dandelion in traditional

plant remedies.

Poster A17

Capturing Energy of a Moving Vehicle

Michael Rosado

Mentor: Professor Rafael Niyazov


With the repeated stopping vehicles succumb to with

everyday driving, the kinetic energy they have is lost

and fuel must be used in order to move again. This

is an inefficiency that can be resolved by creating a

system that saves this kinetic energy as potential

energy the users of said vehicles can utilize in order

to move forward. The work that my project revolves

around is the design of this system with efficiency

and practicality in mind. This system can be created

in many ways, but for my design I will convert the

rotational kinetic energy of the axle of a car into

potential energy by using a spring. This design was

chosen as the other options, such as using inertial

forces to compress a spring or using electric

8

potential with magnets to store the energy, were

deemed impractical when compared to the options I

have chosen. The reasons for this being that inertial

forces are most effective with sudden and drastic

changes in velocity, which doesn’t happen in

everyday driving, and that a spring stores energy in

a linear and practical fashion that is desirable. My

expected outcome is a model with a defined

relationship between the weight of the system and

the strength of the spring that will be able to move a

vehicle forward from rest.

Poster A18

The Role of Attention in Unconscious

Working Memory

Alexander Rue



Working memory, a capacity to store and

manipulate information in the service of the ongoing

task, is a fundamental concept in cognitive science.

Recently, it has been proposed that working

memory stores and operates on unconsciously

perceived information. We tested the hypothesis that

storage itself but not the working memory

information in the focus of attention is unconscious.

Observers were presented with different objects on

the computer monitor and instructed to memorize

these items. We then introduced a distraction task,

during which observers were presented with a set of

images and asked to detect image repetition. After

the distraction task, observers were asked to report

the memorized items. Unlike previous experiments,

we used a free recall to determine if some of the

items were not consciously accessible to observers.

Several observers were unable to report one or more

items, demonstrating that they were not conscious of

information that was encoded into working memory.

We then used colors as cues to determine if

observers can bring into attentional focus some the

items that they were unable to report during the free

recall. Indeed, several observers were able to

retrieve stored information, demonstrating that

information can be stored unconsciously into

working memory. In the second experiment we

sought to better characterize unconscious working

memory by testing how the availability of

attentional resources affects storage and recall.

Poster A19

Kinetic Recycling: Capturing the Kinetic

Energy of a Decelerating Vehicle for Future

use

Brandon Short

Mentor: Professor Rafael Niyazov Borough of Manhattan Community College

When vehicles slow down to a stop they lose all their

kinetic energy. The objective of this research is to

design a system that allows a user to capture and store

the decreased kinetic energy as potential energy. This

potential energy is then released by the user in a

manner conductive of moving the vehicle forward

again. My primary method of design has been trial and

error of design through drafting and editing. This is

followed by the physical construction and testing of a

model. Although systems involving electromagnetic

or hydraulic applications were considered, the scope

of this research was ultimately limited to systems

reliant upon springs and mechanical means. I

measured success by two outcomes. First, is the

system functional in capturing, storing, and releasing

energy, Second, is the functionality of the system

repeatable. If successful, this research may provide

significant changes to the approach of designing

vehicles.

9

Poster A20

REMOVAL OF SULFUR-CONTAINING

COMPOUNDS FROM MODEL FUELS

WITH MODIFIED CLAYS

Adkhamjon Soliev

Mentors: Abel E.Navarro


The presence of sulfur-containing compounds in the

fuels has been an important concern in the last

decade as an environmental risk because of the

increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and

accentuation of acid rain. This study evaluates

chemically modified clays as adsorbents for the

removal dibenzothiophene (BT) and 4,6-

dibenzothiophene (DBT). The adsorption on the

modified clay was investigated in a batch system

with synthetic fuels (gasoline and diesel) as a

function of type of chemical modification, adsorbent

dosage, initial concentration of the pollutants,

desorption, and isotherm modeling. Maximum

adsorption was observed with clays modified with

benzyltrimethylammonium salts (BM) due to its

similarity with the pollutants (aromatic compounds).

The maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) was

achieved by BT with a qmax of 11.3 mg/g in gasoline

and 31.3 mg/g in diesel. The formation of Van der

Waals interactions as well as aromatic forces are the

main mechanisms proposed based on the results. A

solution of 0.1N HCl recovered up to 40% of the

pollutant for their use in repetitive cycles. This

present work highlights the potential use of

modified clay in the elimination of sulfur-containing

compounds from model fuels as a low-cost and

environmentally friendly purification technique.

Poster A21

Solar Panels & Optical Systems

Mohmed Tijani

Mentor: Professor Shalva Tesklauri


In the present, making solar energy economical and

efficient is the most important challenge for engineers

and scientists. In fact, it is classified, by the National

Academy of Engineering (NAE), as one of 14 Grand

Challenges that should be a priority focus. There are

several reasons that outline the importance of

improving the technology of solar energy. First of all,

it is almost a necessity to escape the dependency on

fossil fuels and its negative impacts on the

environment. Nevertheless, the most important reason

is the excellent potential that solar energy portrays.

According to the National Academy of Engineering,

solar energy is capable of providing "10,000 times as

much as all the commercial energy that humans use on

the planet." In order to address the issue of the

efficiency of the currently existing photovoltaic (PV)

cells, we are introducing optical systems. This

technology helps adjust and control the intensity and

direction of sunlight rays that reach solar cells.

Manipulating the quantities of sunlight rays helps

increase the efficiency of the PV cells. My role

consists of conducting experiments to test the

performance of solar panels with and without optical

systems to compare energy output. Following the

research predictions, I was able to record an average

increase of 7% of energy output comparing to original

values for a system that does not use optical systems.

Furthermore, having an incident angle of 90° at which

sunlight reaches the PV cells is an important factor for

optimal light absorption, and thus energy output. As

most houses in the United States have inclined roofs,

the incident angle is at 90° only for a limited fraction

of time during a typical day. To tackle that issue we

are currently testing a demo that tracks sunlight by

rotating an optical system at an angular speed that is

compatible with Earth's motion around its axis. We

are utilizing an Arduino that controls a Servo motor

attached to a light-reflecting mirror.

10

Poster A22

BAlq embedded silica nanoparticles for

photonic crystals engineering

Jinyu Wu

Mentor: Professor Luis Gonzalez-Urbina


Photonic crystals are periodical lattices capable of

interacting with light due to their nanometer-size

structure. By interacting with the light we are able to

improve the efficiency of optical devices such as

organic photovoltaics. We aim to manipulate the

emission of a molecule used in such devices, Bis (8-

hydroxy-2-methylquinoline)-(4-phenylphenoxy)

(BAlq) and in order to do that we aim to embed BAlq

molecules in the silica nanoparticle.

We synthesized silica nanoparticle samples using

different amounts of BAlq and and playing with the

ammonia ratio. The purpose of synthesizing silica

nanoparticles in different conditions was to find out

the best recipe to get photonic crystals that have BAlq

molecules inside Silica nanoparticles. We will

characterize the samples in terms of amount of

molecule absorbed, the particle size and colloids

stability.

Spectrofluorometry will be used to detect the BAlq in

the nanoparticles because BAlq emits light at 480nm.

The photonic crystal optical characteristics will be

measured with spectrophotometry, allowing to

estimate the size of the nanoparticles. DLS will be

used to measure the colloids stability and SEM will be

necessary for a precise measurement of the particles

and their size-dispersity.

Ultimately, this project aims to engineer a sandwich-

like structure with BAlq containing nanoparticles

trapped in a photonic structure to study the influence

of the photonic crystal on the molecule emission.

Poster A23

Solving liouville-type problems in calculus

by extending q-energy from finite to

infinite

Alice Wu

Mentor: Professor Lina Wu


The study of Liouville-type problems in Differential

Geometry is to discover constancy properties for

maps between the domain and the target on

Riemannian manifolds. Existence of constancy

properties is determined by geometric structures on

manifolds and energy growth for maps. In this

project, we focus on solving Liouville-type

problems in Calculus where manifolds are

Euclidean spaces restricted with the real number

systems and maps become functions. The original

work in this project is to explore q-energy growth

for functions from finite to infinite by the p-

balanced technique. Calculus skills such as Holder

Inequality and Tests for Convergence Series has be

used to evaluate limits and integrations for

functions. Computational methods and energy

estimation techniques applied for functions in this

project have been successfully generalized as an

effective algorithm applied for maps. This

successful algorithm has an in-depth impact on the

research field of solving Liouville-type problems

related with q-energy approaching to infinity.

11

Poster A24

Improvement of Map Learning

Application

Tiantian Xia

Mentor: Professor Hao Tang


Visual impaired people is a group that often be

easily overlooked. Nowadays, they still have huge

inconvenience when they travel around. A map

learning application was built to help visual

impaired people to learn and make a mental map by

themselves.

Therefore, in this project we will improve the App

in different aspects. We are going to modify the

application by improving and designing several

methods so that visually impaired people can easily

access the application and understand all the map

information. First, to eliminate redundant

instructions, we will redefine the main route for the

player move through the map. Second, we will

increase the game play to make it more engaging.

We will set some challenging part in the game make

it not boring for users. Third, we also design a new

interface that a user can easily access. Finally, we

will conduct experiments. The aim of this project is

help visually impaired people travel more safely and

confidently.

Poster A25

Fractal Analysis of US Stock Prices

Yuanhe Ye

Mentor: Professor Glenn Miller


The purpose of this project is to apply the theory of

fractal analysis of time series data developed by

Benoit Mandelbrot to investigate the fractal dimension

of the prices of individual and portfolios of stocks

trading on the US exchanges. Typical portfolio theory

uses the standard deviation of the corresponding set of

data to measure risk, while Mandelbrot and Peters

posit that fractal dimension is a preferable way to

assess risk and thus build a better investment strategy.

We obtained data for a sample of 95 US listed

company stocks and computed their fractal

dimensions. We have undertaken the programming in

R to be able to construct portfolios of stocks (with re-

balancing) and then compute the fractal dimension of

that time series data for the portfolio's value over long

periods of time. Also, we have run the program from

3-stock portfolios to 24-stock portfolios, from the

results, making a conjecture about the effect of the

portfolio size on both the level and amount of

variation in the fractal dimension of the portfolios.

Then, we will analyze data from 95 individual stocks

and the portfolio fractal dimensions that run the

program composed of random combinations and try to

verify the empirical result mathematically.

Poster A104

ODE Model of Adsorption Based Water

Filters

Senayit Menasche

Mentor: Christopher McCarthy Borough of Manhattan Community College

The research focused on developing kinetic models of

adsorption and one-dimensional models of adsorption-

based filters. These mathematical models have been

developed in support of our college's interdisciplinary

lab group (chemistry, engineering, mathematics). Our

group conducts research into the bio-remediation of

heavy metal contaminated water via filtration. The

filters are constructed out of biomass, such as spent

tea leaves. The spent tea leaves are available in large

quantities as a result of the industrial production of tea

beverages. The heavy metals bond with the surfaces of

the tea leaves (adsorption). The models we are

developing involve differential equations, stochastic

methods, and recursive functions. The poster will

explain the models and compare the models'

12

predictions to data obtained from computer

simulations and experimentally by our lab group.

College of Staten Island

Poster A26

Creating a baseline of Staten Island Beach

Morphology

Jennifer Avila-Sanchez

Mentor: Professor Jane Alexander


Staten Island is a submergent coastline like the other 4

boroughs in New York City, meaning that relative sea

level is slowly rising over time. There are constant

changes in the shore line due longshore drift and more

rapid changes during storms, that can affect residents

near the coastline. Studying these changes is important

to help withstand future storms and reduce

devastation, as last seen caused by Hurricane Sandy.

In this project, the main objective is to see how the

coastline has changed since Hurricane Sandy by

analyzing the sediment buildup and to create a

detailed baseline of beach morphology for interpreting

future changes. Previous work has been done using a

geospatial approach to determine the sediment

movement, but in this experiment, beach profiles are

to be created for various areas along the eastern and

southern shore of Staten Island at low tide.

Additionally, 3 sediment samples are collected for

each beach profile to be later sieved by size and to

determine if there is a relationship between grain size

and beach location.

Keywords: beach profile, grain size, sieve, sediment

transportation

Poster A27

Comparing Media Literacy of Adolescents

and College Students

Cody Barshaba

Mentor: Professor Patricia Brooks, Jessica Brodsky


In today’s world, where concerns about fake news,

misinformation, psychographic research, and the

power of algorithms to disrupt democracy proliferate,

students need support in navigating the digital

environment. Recent research shows that students of

all ages lack skills in fact-checking and are unable to

judge the credibility of online information (Wineburg

et al., 2016). The current study examined media

literacy in adolescents and college students using an

online survey. We adapted a general media literacy

scale (Bier et al., 2011) and explored relationships

between media literacy and social media use, media

multitasking, and academic achievement. We

compared performance of middle-school students (N =

73; mean age 13 years, range 11-15 years) and

undergraduates (N = 76; mean age 19 years, range 18-

24 years); see also Powers et al. (2018). In both

groups media literacy scores correlated positively with

self-reported grades and with ability to recognize cues

to a trustworthy website. In adolescents, media

literacy correlated negatively with self-reported media

multitasking and social media use; self-reported

grades also correlated negatively with self-reported

media multitasking. In contrast, college students’

media literacy correlated positively with self-reported

media multitasking and social media use, and self-

reported grades correlated positively with self-

reported media multitasking. The group differences

have not been previously reported, and suggest that

early on multitasking takes time away from studying

whereas older students are more adept at using digital

tools. Overall, both groups performed with high levels

of accuracy on the media literacy scale. Future work

in progress aims to find out whether media literacy

knowledge translates into effective skills in fact-

checking and sourcing of media content.

13

Poster A28

Synaptic deficit in Alzheimer disease, is

abnormal tau the culprit?

Izabella Beniaminova

Mentor: Professor Alejandra Alonso


Alzheimer disease (AD) is a dementia characterized

by the presence of hyperphosphorylated tau. Tau is a

microtubule associated protein, which promotes

tubulin assembly into microtubules and therefore

facilitates normal neuronal transmission. In

pathological conditions, hyperphosphorylated tau is

present, and a decrease in the neural activity can be

seen. In AD, the microtubules are disrupted and an

earlier damage to the synapsis has been reported. In

our lab, we have developed an inducible mouse

model of neurodegeneration that expresses

Pathological Human tau (PH-Tau), with

modifications at Ser199, Ser262, Thr212, and

Thr231, along with frontotemporal mutation

R406W. PH-Tau can be expressed at two levels, 4%

of the endogenous tau (PH-Tau low) and upon

induction high levels, 14% of the endogenous tau

(PH-Tau high). Expression of PH-Tau at both levels

induced cognitive decline, in PH-Tau low because

of synaptic abnormalities observed by electron

microscopy and in PH-Tau high because of neuronal

loss.

In an effort to understand the synaptic abnormalities,

we studied the levels of synaptic protein, the

postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) along with

calbindin. Animals expressing PH-Tau and controls

were perfused and coronal slices of the brain were

stained with monoclonal antibodies to human tau to

trace the N-terminus of tau protein and with

antibodies for PSD95 and calbidin. The

hippocampal CA3 area, the cerebellum and the

cerebral cortex were the main areas of interest. The

biochemical characterization showed high levels of

the PSD-95 present in the control group and lower

levels of expression upon PH-Tau increment. This

observation was corroborated by

immunohistochemical data. Calbidin levels were

also altered by the presence of PH-Tau. These

results taken together suggest that low levels of PH-

Tau can modulate the levels of synaptic protein,

altering synaptic stability and therefore neuronal

function.

Poster A29

Design and Control of a Low-Cost 2D

Plotter

Mobin Uddin Chowdhury

Mentors: Professors Aleksandar Haber


The aim of this project is to develop a low-cost 2D

plotter capable of accurate reproduction of

trajectories defined by the user. The developed

plotter has a Cartesian configuration and consists of

two stepper motors controlling the X and Y axes

using the system of pulleys and belts. The pen of the

plotter is attached to one of the axes. The feedback

information about the pen position is provided by

two encoders. The control system consists of an

Arduino microcontroller and two stepper motor

drivers. Using the encoder feedback information, the

PID controller generates control voltages for the

stepper motor. The developed control system is able

to attenuate system vibrations and to reject external

disturbances. In this way, the system positioning

accuracy and trajectory tracking performance is

significantly improved. Our preliminary results

show that such a low-cost system is able to achieve

a 100 micrometer positioning accuracy. In our

future work, the developed system will be used to

test advanced machine learning algorithms for

improving its performance. Due to the fact that the

working principle and configuration of the

developed 2D plotter is similar to a large variety of

mechanical systems, such as for example, 3D

printers, CNC machines and laser cutters, the results

and insights obtained in this project can be useful

14

for improving the performance and accuracy of a

large-number of mechatronics systems.

Poster A30

Emot-iCan-Too: A Research Game to

Assess Emotion Recognition from

Acoustic-Prosodic and Visual Cues

Victoria Fischer

Mentor: Professor Deborah Strum


This research project is part of a larger effort is to

assess and possibly improve emotion recognition in

individuals on the autism spectrum. Previously, we

developed an iPad app to measure over-selectivity,

where individuals focus on specific aspects of a

situation or environment while ignoring others

(Sturm, Peppe & Ploog, 2016). In the iPad game,

emot-iCan, developed by Dr. Sturm (Computer

Science) and Dr. Ploog (Psychology), the player

matches a visual stimulus with comparison images,

each with a differently expressed mouth, eyes, or

both. In this project we assess emotion recognition

from prosodic cues as well a visual cues, where the

player hears a sound clip and matches the tone of the

voice to a face displaying one of Ekman’s basic

emotions. We are extending a Unity game that

presents and collects data based on the player’s

choices (Sturm & Levitan, 2018). This will

hopefully lead to a better understanding of whether

the player is focused on the tone or the content of

the audio stimulus. The study and development of

emote-iCanToo is on-going and preliminary results

will be presented.

Poster A31

Alzheimer’s and Diabetes: The Effect of

Abnormal Tau on Proteins Related to the

Glucose Metabolism

Marina Ghobrial

Mentors: Professors Alejandra Alonso


Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive condition

that destroys the neuronal connections in the brain,

eventually causing the neurons to die. The damage

in the brain ultimately causes problems with

memory, intelligence, judgment, language and

behavior. It has been found that Tau, a microtubule

associated protein (MAP) predominately localized

in neuronal axons, can become hyperphosphorylated

and lead to the neurodegeneration that we see in

AD.

Studies have shown that diabetic individuals are 50-

100% more at risk for AD and vise versa. Type II

diabetes is a metabolic disorder with a

pathophysiology of peripheral insulin resistance,

excessive hepatic glucose production by the liver,

and impaired beta-cell secretory function. To

understand the connection between Type II diabetes

and AD, we use a mouse model in order to

determine how the presence of human Tau affects

proteins related to the glucose metabolism using an

immunohistochemical approach. I will be presenting

preliminary results on the correlation of Insulin

receptors and Tau as well as Glucose transport and

Tau.

15

Poster A32

Predictors of geographic range size of

Western, Eastern and Spanning Birds

Species

Nicole Guzman

Mentor: Professor Lisa Manne


Range size is the spread of species in a geographical

area, it is important to study because these are the

areas in which species breed, migrate and feed in. If

the range size is affected in any way this also affects

the species. This shows that range sizes have an effect

on how species live and there are relationships that

species share with the areas that they live in. A study

is needed to better understand the relationships to have

healthier environments in which our species can thrive

in. Commonly, larger-bodied animals need larger

ranges in which to persist. Species that are able to

utilize a larger variety of resources (such as food

resources, or habitat) have lowered extinction risk,

and might also have larger range sizes. Species that

are more vagile might be more vulnerable to

extinction (due to the need to move seasonally

between resource-rich environments), or might have

lowered extinction risk, due to this ability to move

between habitats. Dr. Manne and I studied the life

cycle, habitat, migratory guild and body size of

Western American, Spanning and European species.

We test the relationship between these traits and the

birds' range sizes, while accounting for inter-

relatedness between predictors (e.g. habitat and

migratory guild). To do this, I will conduct path

analysis, which finds a path diagram to relate the traits

of these birds to range sizes. Another analysis of this

type, for European birds, found that rapid reproduction

rates, movement from birth site to breeding sites and

habitats have a positive effect on range size. While as

diet had a negative effect. I compare our results for

Western birds to the results for the European birds. As

well gather and combine the findings of the Spanning

and European species to analyze which traits affect

range size.

Poster A33

Brain Insulin Receptor Expression and the

Control of Neuronal Excitability

MD Zahirul Islam

Mentor: Professor Abdesalam El-Idrissi, Salvator

Rotando


Brain homeostasis relies on a number of factors that

regulate neuronal excitability. Surprisingly one of

these factors coincide with the insulin

neuroendocrine system. There is ample evidence

that insulin play an important role in neuronal

excitability. Previous studies have shown that

taurine-fed mice have increased insulin sensitivity in

the pancreas, when compared to controls during

glucose tolerance test. These results also showed an

increase in insulin and insulin receptors expression

in the pancreas. Our hypothesis is, since insulin is

secreted in to the bloodstream and does indeed pass

through the blood brain barrier, taurine

supplementation may increase the expression of

insulin and insulin receptors in the brain which

determines the levels of excitability in each brain

region. Thus we also believe that the increase in

taurine supplementation can modulate neuronal

excitability. It is important to note that neurons

highly express insulin receptors. Furthermore,

insulin crosses the blood-brain barrier through a

high affinity uptake system. Once insulin passes to

the brain, it binds to the insulin receptors and affect

neuronal excitability via signal transduction

pathway, with differential effects on brain

structures. In the cortex and hippocampus, insulin

receptor activation has been shown to increase

excitability, whereas in the hypothalamus the effects

of insulin are inhibitory.

We determined the expression of insulin/insulin

receptors in the brain/pancreas through

immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy in

4 different group of mice; the wild type controls,

fmr1 KO, taurine fed (for two-month period to

examination) wild type, and taurine fed KO. Our

16

results show that insulin and insulin receptors

expression and activation are highly regulated in

these treatment groups and indicate that insulin,

through activation of its cognate receptor, may

regulate neuronal excitability.

Poster A34

Insulin Receptor Expression and

Neuronal Excitability

Mohammad Mansour

Mentor: Professor Abdelsalam El-Idrissi


Brain homeostasis relies on a number of factors that

regulate neuronal excitability. Surprisingly one of

these factors coincide with the insulin

neuroendocrine system. There is ample evidence

that insulin play an important role in neuronal

excitability. We found that increase insulin and

insulin receptors expression in the pancreas and

brain of taurine-fed mice. Insulin crosses the blood-

brain barrier through a high affinity uptake system.

Once insulin passes to the brain, it binds to the

insulin receptors and affect neuronal excitability via

signal transduction pathway, with differential effects

on brain structures. We determined the expression

of insulin/insulin receptors in the brain/pancreas

through immunohistochemistry and confocal

microscopy under various treatment. Our results

show that insulin and insulin receptors expression

and activation are highly regulated in these

treatment groups and indicate that insulin, through

activation of its cognate receptor, may regulate

neuronal excitability.

Poster A35

Assessing Emotion Recognition in Children

with ASD

Nada Mohamed

Mentor: Professor Bertram Ploog, Adrienne Fitzer


The proposed experiment will use a behavior-

analytical approach to evaluate emotion recognition in

children with autism using an iPad as a mobile-game

device. Many studies have been conducted on emotion

recognition in autism but inconsistent findings have

been reported. Reasons for inconsistencies could be

differences in the type of stimuli, the intensity of the

stimuli used, the type of task used to assess emotion

recognition, varying sample sizes, different

functioning level of the participants as well as

different chronological ages, or the types of emotions

assessed. The purpose of the present study is to asses

any emotion recognition deficits in individuals with

autism when compared to typically developing

individuals, to identify reasons for previous

inconsistencies, and to provide remediation if such a

deficit will be found, which in turn will allow us to

test for converging evidence of behavior analytic and

eye-tracking approaches. The behavior-analytic

approach has at least one advantage over eye-tracking

approaches because it allows us to assess whether the

participant actually paid attention to the stimulus or

merely looked at it. Specifically, a matching-to-

sample paradigm will be used with a variety of

stimulus types such as photos of human expressions,

cartoon drawings, emoji faces, and geometric shapes.

17

Poster A36

Low-cost System for Surveillance, People

Recognition and Threat Detection

Anvarjon Nurakhunov

Mentor: Professor Aleksandar Haber


The problems of developing reliable and low-cost

systems for surveillance, people recognition and

threat detection are one of the most challenging

engineering and scientific problems. The solutions

to these problems will lead to improved safety of

our schools and neighborhoods, as well as to

improved performance of our public transportation

systems. Motivated by these problems, this project

aims at developing a low-cost surveillance and

people recognition system using a Raspberry Pi

microcontroller, web camera and Artificial

Intelligence (AI) algorithms. On the basis of a

video recorded using the web camera, the AI

algorithm will detect the number of person present

in a room. In addition, the AI algorithm will

recognize a person and estimate its threat level. For

example, the system should be able to recognize if

the person is carrying a weapon. This information

will be sent through a wireless connection and the

Internet to a cell phone application. The total

estimated cost of such a system is below $100,

which is a significantly lower cost than the cost of a

commercial system with similar capabilities.

Poster A37

Low-cost Vertical Positioning System

Francesco Pecora, Marjan Perbibaj, Ali

Ahmed



We have developed a low cost system for precise

vertical positioning of small-sized objects. The

system consists of a cart that slides on linear rails.

The movement of the cart in a vertical plane is

achieved by a stepper motor and a belt and pulley

system. The system support is built using aluminum

extrusions. The system is controlled using an

Arduino microcontroller and a micro-step motor

driver. The feedback information about the position

of the cart is obtained using a rotary encoder that is

attached to one of the pulleys. Mechanical limit

switches restrict the motion range of the cart.

Furthermore, once the limit switch is activated the

cart changes the movement direction.

Our experimental results show that such a low-cost

system is able to accurately position a 4-pound

weight. The maximal weight that the system can lift

is approximately 6 pounds. In our future work, we

will increase the lifting capacity by introducing a

gear reducer and a threaded rod.

Poster A38

Remotely Controlled Mechatronics

Systems

Abel Pepin, Ralph Joseph, Hala Basyouni



In this project, we develop and investigate the

performance of a low-cost system for remotely

controlling mechatronics components. Such a

system can be used for remote control of unmanned

aerial vehicles and robots. The system consists of

two Arduino microcontrollers (master and slave)

and two wireless transceiver/receiver modules. In

addition, the slave microcontroller is used to control

a stepper motor that moves a cart sliding on linear

rails. The purpose of the system is to control the

cart position using remotely located master

microcontroller. The master microcontroller

wirelessly sends control information to the slave

microcontroller. The slave microcontroller receives

the control information and translates it into control

voltages for the stepper motor. Once the control

actions are executed and the cart moves to the

desired position, the slave microcontroller sends the

18

confirmation message to the master controller. Our

preliminary results show that such a system can

reliably operate even when the distance between the

master and slave microcontrollers is 70 meters. In

our future work, we will use this system to develop

feedback control systems for autonomous driving

vehicles.

Poster A39

Identifying Synergizers with TGFb

Inhibition in Glioblastoma Using a Cell-

Based Model System and Oncomine-Based

Data Analysis

Arouje Shaikh, Briana Soto, Fatima Rizwan,

Xiangliu Yang

Mentor: Professor Liu-Sullivan


Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most

aggressive type of glioma of the central nervous

system (CNS) that can be found in the brain or the

spinal cord. GBM represents 14.9% of all primary

brain tumors, and 55.4% of all gliomas. Adults with

more aggressive glioblastoma have a median

survival of about 14.6 months and two-year survival

of 30%. GBM consists of a mixture of cell types and

many cytokines that promote its growth and

metastasis. A cytokine called Transforming Growth

Factor Beta (TGFb) has been found to play a crucial

role in GBM growth and metastasis. LY2157299 is

a small molecule inhibitor designed to block TGFb

signaling by inhibiting TGFb receptor I expressed

on the cell surface. Identifying synergistic

compounds, will enable us to modulate cytokine

signaling and examine the reduction rate of tumor

development. Reported studies have revealed that

the LY inhibitory effect in tumor cell growth is less

than 50%, suggesting the involvement of the

additional signaling pathways. We are working

toward identifying potential drug combination such

as IDH1, SMAD4, and p27; that would modulate

cytokine signaling and to enable stunted tumor

proliferation. Findings of this study has the potential

of identifying a treatment strategy for GBM.

Poster A40

The Relationship Between the Presidency

and Economic Beliefs

Kailey Volpetti

Mentors: Professors Florette Cohen


This study examined participants’ approval rating of

President Donald Trump and how they felt about

their economic situation this year. Participants,

using a 5-point Likert scale, rated how much they

approved or disapproved of President Trump, and

how much better or worse they believed their

economic situation would be this year. In 76

participants (42 female, 33 male), we found a

significant positive relationship (r=.48) between

support for the President and people’s economic

situation. Those who had a stronger approval rating

believed that their economic situation would be

better this year. Those that did not approve of

President Trump believed their economic situation

would become worse. As a result of this study, it

appears approval ratings of President Donald Trump

and feelings of economic situation have a significant

positive relationship.


Poster A41

The Beat Of The Drums

Eugenia Beache

Mentor: Professor Terrance Blackman


One of the most fundamental ways that music and

math are connected is in the understanding of sound

specifically, and wave phenomena in general.

Understanding sound as an instance of wave

phenomena provides a nice forum for the interaction

of ideas from music, physics, and mathematics. Tools

19

that have been developed to help us understand the

nature of sound, such as Fourier analysis, can be

generalized to shed light on many areas of

mathematics. in return, the mathematical

understanding of sound has helped foster the

development of new technologies that extend the

possibilities for musical exploration.

Poster A42

Quantification of Heavy Metals at Medgar

Evers College’s Campus Potable Water

System

Semika Burnette

Mentor: Professor Christopher Boxe


Potable/usable water is vital for optimal daily

functionality and health. Medgar Evers College

(MEC) of the City University of New York services

~7,000 students with ~1050 faculty and staff; which

all have access to its potable water. Within this

context New York City (NYC) is one of the cleanest

and best tasting water of any city in the world.

NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection

(DEP) collects more than 47,000 samples a year

(testing water 630,000 per year) from streams that

feed NYC’s reservoirs, tunnels that deliver water to

the City, and roughly 1,000 street-side sampling

stations in the five boroughs. NYC’s 2015 Water

Quality Report exemplified no Maximum

Contamination Level (MCL) violations for all

regulated and non-regulated microbial, physical, and

chemical parameters. Given that: 1)

students/faculty/staff spend 20-30% of their daily-

time at MEC; 2) matrices providing potable water

must abide by EPA’s maximum contamination

levels for heavy metals; and 3) the detrimental

impact on human health (e.g., increase in blood

pressure, staining, skeletal damage, anemia,

headaches, apathy, irritability, skin discoloration,

insomnia, and more chronic conductions, leading to

reduced growth and development, cancer,

organ/nervous system damage, autoimmunity, etc.)

that arise from violations to EPA’s water quality

mandates, we quantify the abundance of 27 heavy

metals (Be, Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe,

Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Ba, Hg,

Pb, Th, and U) at the campus (96 samples, N = 3) –

to provide an independent academic study of the

abundance of heavy metals in MEC’s potable water.

Water was collected from fountains, bathrooms, and

drinking water filling stations. Sample-matrix

preparation, sample collection and wet-chemical

analysis followed standard EPA water collection and

sampling protocols. To prevent sample

contamination, linear polyethylene containers and

caps were washed and rinsed with detergent, nitric

acid, tap and deionized water. Sample-matrices were

spiked with a small aliquot of 5% nitric acid and

stored in a refrigerator at 4 oC to preserve collected

samples. Heavy metal concentrations were

determined externally at New Jersey’s

Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute’s

Earth and Environmental Science Department by

Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer

(ICP-MS) (Agilent 7700X, Palo Alto, CA) in no gas

and He mode. 95% of sample concentration RSD

reveal 4 distinct regions: 1) where one mode is more

precise than the other {[Ti] ≈ [Cr] ≈ [As] ≈ 0.1 ppb,

sample data exhibit very good to excellent precision,

RSD ≤ 15%}; 2) despite being at low concentrations

{[Sb] ≈ [U] ≈ [Co] ≈ [Pb] ≈ [Mo] ≈ 10-2 to 10-1

ppb}, measurements exhibit good to excellent

precision, RSD ≤ 20%; 3) species concentrations ≥

0.1 ppb {[Al], [Na], [Mn], [Ca], [Mg], [Ba], [Cu],

[Ni], [Fe], [K], [Sr], and [Zn]} exhibit very good to

excellent precision, RSD ≤ 15%; and 4) species at

concentrations ≤ 10-3 ppb display fair to very poor

precision {Cd, Ag, Be, Se, Hg, and Th}, RSD ≥

30%. All heavy metals, except Fe, complied with

their respective EPA MCLs; compliances were, at

most, 3 orders of magnitude less than EPA

requirements. Only 11.50% of samples are below

EPA’s MCL (300 ppb) for Fe while remaining

samples were enhanced by up to about 30 times. Just

2 samples, [Pb] = 13.7 (No gas mode, RSD =

3.32%) and 14.8 ppb (He mode, RSD = 0.75%),

were close to EPA’s Pb MCL of 15 ppb.

20

Poster A43

Real Time Measurement of Three

Different Particle Mass (PM) in Urban

Residential Area, NY and NJ

Clover Chambers, Monique Hinkson

Mentor: Professor Jin Y Shin


Real-time measurements of PM enables to help

people better understanding of their local air quality.

For this study, we developed a simple and

inexpensive way to extend local data logging

options to the AirBeam2 to stretch our budget

further, conduct our research more efficiently, and

be more effective educators and scientists. The main

goal of this study is to evaluate whether

contributions from airport emissions can be

discerned from the contributions of other

background sources by measuring PM1, PM2.5 and

PM10 at four different locations in New York and

Central New Jersey in the period of May–July in

2018. The highest concentration of PMs, ~75µg/m3 ,

found in the Queens that is close to the airport, on

the other hand , the lowest concentration were found

in central NJ, East Brunswick, ~25µg/m3 during

preliminary sampling period.

Poster A44

Examining the role of dietary supplements

on melanotic tumors development in fruit

flies?

Islande Derazin

Mentor: Professor: Onyema Osuagwu, Chiyedza

Small


Many signal transduction pathways have been

implicated in the development of human diseases such

as cancer. One of these disease-related pathways is

Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of

transcription (STAT). Having only one JAK

(Hopscotch), drosophila is used to study the functional

requirements of the JAK-STAT pathway across

species. Drosophila Hopscotch tumorous-lethal

(hopTum-l) mutation acts as an activated oncogene

causing hematopoietic neoplasms called melanotic

tumors to form due to over proliferation of cells.

Dietary supplements such as Selenium, Folic Acid and

garlic play important roles in keeping the body healthy

and are used by millions of Americans every day.

Selenium is an essential mineral antioxidant with anti-

carcinogenic properties. Folic Acid helps the body

break down, use, and create new proteins. Garlic is

thought to have anti-cancer properties along with a

myriad of health benefits. Studies suggests that people

who consume lower amounts of selenium could have

an increased risk of developing cancers of the colon

and rectum, prostate, lung, skin, esophagus, and

stomach. Whether selenium supplements reduce

cancer risk is not clear. The role that Folic acid plays

in cancer prevention is also unclear. More research is

needed to understand the effects of selenium and other

dietary supplements on cancer risk. Our studies

investigate the effect of Selenium and Folic Acid and

garlic in food on the development of melanotic tumors

in Drosophila JAK-STAT mutants. Understanding the

role of these supplements in this mutant pathway-

specific context may shed light on their functions in

cell proliferation, differentiation and growth. Results

from these ongoing studies will be presented.

Poster A45

Epigenetic Dichotomy in Cellular Models

of Prostate Cancer

Fatumata Dukuray, Vimal Arora

Mentor: Professor Shiraz Mujtaba


Prostate Cancer (PCa) remains the second most

prevalent malignancy that accounts for a significant

number of deaths,which still to rise. Despite during

initial stages most PCa respond to androgen-ablative

therapy (5– 8), the majority relapse and progress to a

21

stage called castration-resistant PCa. In this poster

we present that two small molecules in two cellular

models of PCa have different cellular effects. The

NiCur that inhibit histone acetylation only induce

cell deaths in LNCaP cells, whereas, Azacytidene

that inhibits DNA methylase only restricts the

growth of DU145 cells. Our major goal is to dissect

the underlying epigenetic mechanisms that promote

the growth of PCa.

Poster A46

Effect of Tyrosine kinase Inhibitors on

proliferation of v-Ras Transformed NIH

3T3 cells

Jonelle Jackman

Mentor: Professor Ijaz Ahmed and Alam Nur-E-

Kamal


Background: The Ras GTPase family has been

found to regulate various functions of mammalian

cells. Oncogenic mutants of Ras GTPases have been

demonstrated to be associated with the development

of various types of cancer in human. We have

demonstrated that ACK is required for the survival

of v-Ras transformed NIH 3T3 cells, but not the

parental NIH 3T3 cells. In this report, we studied

the effect of some tyrosine kinase inhibitors (inhibits

ACK kinase) on growth of v-Ras-induced NIH 3T3

cells.

Method: We seeded v-Ras transformed NIH 3T3

cells into culture dishes and incubated overnight at

37oC in standard culture conditions. Then tyrosine

kinase inhibitors of STK series or PD168393 were

added. Cell growth was monitored by MTT assay

after 24 hours. We determined IC50 for each

inhibitor. We also assayed markers of apoptosis in

ACK inhibitor treated cells.

Results: It was found that some activated Cdc42-

associated Kinase (ACK) inhibitors induced Ras-

transformed cell death, while some others did not

show any inhibitory activity. We also demonstrated

that cell death was associated with induction of

apoptosis. The results obtained from this study will

be presented in this report.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that ACK

inhibitors induce preferential death of v-Ras

transformed cells. Development of ACK kinase

inhibitors might lead us to design new experiments

to study the potential of such inhibitors for the

treatment of Ras-induced cancer.

Poster A47

Optimization of cell-based assay to measure

cytokine responses by NK cells ex vivo

Latoya Jones

Mentor: Professor William Carr


Cytokines are substances that are secreted by cells

found in the innate immune system that aid in a cell

to cell communication. These cells signaling

molecule will directs cells to an area under attack

triggering a defense mechanism. TNF-a and INF-g

are cytokines are two of many found in the human

body. These cytokines are secreted by natural killer

cells found in the innate immune system during

antiviral and antiparasitic events. Some of these NK

cells includes macrophages, B lymphocytes, T

lymphocytes and mass cells. The K562 c9 is an NK

cell line, which can be used to measure the levels of

intracellular cytokine expression ex vivo. Measuring

intracellular cytokine levels is critical for

quantifying NK cell responses to pathogens during

HIV-1 infection, which can alter innate immune

responses. Interferon-gamma (INF-g) and tumor

necrosis factor-alfa (TNF-a) are typical pro-

inflammatory cytokines secreted by NK cells;

however, it is unknown which cytokine is a more

sensitive indicator of NK cell activation.

The aim of this protocol is to optimize intracellular

staining to measure NK-cell responses after in vitro

activation. We hypothesize that after stimulation

TNF-a and INF-g cytokine production will differ in

their magnitude of responses after stimulation.

For this experiment, K562 c9 cells were stimulated

and stained to measure the relative levels of

22

intracellular cytokine expression. To activate or

stimulate the NK cells, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)

was used as the stimulant. A working solution 200

pg./ml of LPS concentration was used for

stimulation. After a cell count was done, we

aliquoted the cells into treatment wells of a 24 well

plate at a concentration of 1x 106 cells/ml in RPMI

1640 medium with Golgi Stop added per

manufacturer’s instructions. The cells were

stimulated for 6 hours at 37 degrees Celsius and

stored overnight at 4 degrees Celsius. Anti-INF-g

PerCP-Cy5.5 and Anti-TNF-a PerCP-Cy5.5

monoclonal antibodies were used for intracellular

staining to measure cytokine responses by flow

cytometry with a Gallio’s 10-color flow cytometer

(Beckman Coulter). Unstained cells were included

as a negative control. We analyzed the data using

Kaluza software.

In analyzing the data, it was important to establish

the percent cytokine-positive cells after stimulation.

The gate for cytokine-expressing cells was set based

on unstimulated cells for a value of no greater than 1

to 2 percent. This gate was then used to determine

the number of positive cells found in the stimulated

samples. As expected, we found that after

stimulation for INF-g there was an increase of

22.54% positive cells whereas 0% of the unstained

cells were positive. In comparison, for TNF-a, after

stimulation there was only an increase of 1.8%.

Likewise, these results were consistent in comparing

the increase in geometric means between

unstimulated and stimulated cells in two separate

experiments. There was also an increase in the

geometric mean. The geometric mean fold increase

of INF-g was 1.83 with a standard deviation of

0.18 and the geometric mean fold increase of TNF-a

was 1.45 with a standard deviation of 0.40. In

comparing the means by T- test analysis the p value

was 0.35 which indicates that these differences were

not significant; however, the fold increase tended to

be lower for TNF-a.

In conclusion, the relative increase in cytokine

expression following stimulation tends to be greater

for INF-g compared to TNF-a; however additional

experiments are needed to establish statistical

significance. Thus, our results suggest that the

cytokine INF-g is a more sensitive measure of NK

cell activation than TNF-a in this in vitro assay

system.

Poster A48

Vocs in New York City Soil Environments

Ingrid Mathurin, Varquita Murbury

Mentor: Professor Christopher Boxe


1) We quantify a suite (find out this exact number)

of VOCs (think about grouping them in some way –

maybe it will help in regards to specificity) in NYC

soil environments via GC-MS; 2) articulate the

VOC-dependent grouping as a function of Boroughs

– think of a way to group them in addition to

location/borough (e.g., whether they aromatics,

long-chained, pahs, pcbs, etc.); 3) each of them has

a toxicity story, which pertains to both long- and

short-term exposure; 4) backward trajectory analysis

of air parcels as a function of altitude – to gain

insight into where air might have come from to

reach the surface; 5) maybe principal component

and regression analysis of data (consult with Shin);

6) how does this data not only compare in regard to

NYC boroughs but other locations in the US (and

internationally if possible); 7) implications for

human health and the detrimental effects they

causes; 8) the frequency and relative abundance of

compounds/ Concentration of specific compounds ;

9) retention times, relative amounts; 10). Season of

collection/ specific climate pattern; and 11)

regression, cluster, and principal component

analysis; 12) using ½(base * height) (for calculating

area under the peaks – actually, peak integration to

get % composition of each sample and relative

(peak response) values as a function of %

composition.

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Poster A49

IL-23 STANDARD CURVE

Winsome O'Sullivan

Mentor: Professor William Carr


Interleukin (IL)-23 plays a significant role in the

pathogenesis of infections, inflamation, cancer and

autoimmunity. It is a cytokine that is important for

cytokinesis and is produced by activated dendritic

cells and macrophages, in particular in HIV-1

pathogenesis and progression to AIDS. IL-23 has

gained attention and is of special interest. Analysis of

IL-23 offers the possibility of new insights in the

control of peripheral bacterial pathogens and

opportunistic infections during the course of HIV-1

disease. Our aim was to optimize the detection of IL-

23 using real time PCR, which is a technique used to

monitor and measure a relatively small amount of

amplified product (cDNA). Our goal was to establish

the efficacy of commercially available primers using

the following three parameters: (1) a linear standard

curve, (2) amplification efficiency, and (3) consistency

across replicate reactions.

To achieve this goal we assessed IL-23 qPCR primers

for SYBR Green PCR assays from BIO-RAD. We

performed serial dilutions of an IL-23 plasmid

template (BIO-RAD). Each serial dilutions was run in

triplicate in 10 microL PCR reactions. We included

PCR reactions without template as no template

controls (NTC) for our negative controls. In creating a

standard curve, the ct values of the different serial

dilutions were plotted against the logarithm of the

starting quality of template for each dilution. Both the

standard curve and PCR efficiency were generated by

the software associated with the CFX96 Real Time

PCR machine. The slope of a standard curve provides

an indication of the efficiency of the real-time PCR,

and efficiency can be calculated by using the

following formula:

In the first experiment amplification occurred in the

NTC wells, which suggested one or more reagents

contaminated. Also we observed a lack of consistency

among the serial dilutions. The amount of

amplification did not decrease as the amount of

template was diluted. The second experiment showed

amplification of two replicates in the dilution series.

Based on these samples we found an efficiency of X

and an R2 value of Y. In a third experiment,

amplification close to expected values and the NTC

wells shows no amplification. In this experiment we

found an efficiency of A and an R2 value of B.

In conclusion, these experiments showed some

contamination, dilution, and pipetting errors although

the latter experiment values were closer to the

expected range. My future plan of action is to improve

in my pipetting skills and techniques to further

optimize this assay.

New York City College of

Technology

Poster A50

Multi-material Scaffold Printing

Anns Charles

Mentor: Professor Ozlem Yasar

New York City College of Technology

In today’s technology, organ transplantation is

found very challenging as it is not easy to find the

right donor organ in a short period of time. In the

last several decades, tissue engineering was rapidly

developed to be used as an alternative approach to

the organ transplantation. Tissue engineering aims

to regenerate the tissues and also organs to help

patients who waits for the organ transplantation.

Recent research showed that in order to regenerate

the tissues, cells must be seeded onto the 3D

artificial laboratory fabricated matrices called

scaffolds. If cells show healthy growth within the

scaffolds, they can be implanted to the injured tissue

to do the regeneration. One of the biggest limitation

that reduces the success rate of tissue regeneration is

the fabrication of accurate thick 3D scaffolds. In this

research scaffolds were fabricated with micro-

molding and photolithography. Combination of

these two fabrication techniques allowed us to work

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with multiple different materials. Our preliminary

results show that, scaffolds can be fabricated with

different materials and this allows researchers to

control the mechanical properties of engineered

scaffolds.

Poster A51

Measurement of Airflows through Entrance

Doors

Lev Chesnov, Demba Diop

Mentor: Professor Daeho Kang


Climate change adversely affects our life, our health,

and food production. In a follow up to the Paris

Climate Agreement, New York City launched a

program called 80x50. The target of this program is to

reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by

2050. Buildings produce nearly 40% of carbon

dioxide emissions in the United States. Ensuring that

buildings in New York are efficient will help reach

this goal.

A building fenestrations, its doors and windows, are a

huge contributor to a building’s loss of energy. We

have worked for the last year and a half collecting and

analyzing data of energy losses through entrance doors

in two City Tech buildings. In 2018, we started to look

specifically at the Voorhees building located in

Downtown Brooklyn. We used different tools to

measure both the inside and outside environments. We

used an air velocity meter and a pressure differential

transducer to analyze the indoor environment in the

lobby along with measuring temperature, relative

humidity, and CO2 levels. Immediately outside, we

measured wind direction, wind gusts, temperature and

CO2 levels by pulling data from the OnSet HOBO

weather station. Simultaneously, occupancy data was

collected by occupancy loggers and linked to the air

flow measurements through the entry doors. This

aided in the understanding of how air flow behavior

depends on the various parameters listed above. Data

collected from monitoring and quantifying air

infiltration and exfiltration has the potential for

multiple uses. It can aid building designers in selecting

door types and designing the entryway; and facilities

management can also make improvements to building

maintenance in order to increase the energy efficiency

and air quality of the entire building system.

Poster A52

Internet of Things(IoT): VPNs

Lynese Edwards

Mentor: Professor Marcus Pinto


By the time you finish this abstract there will be an

estimated 4,000 new devices connected to the

internet. Researchers say 328 million devices

connect to the internet every month and by 2020

there will be roughly 50 billion devices connected to

the internet. At this rate that would mean by 2022,

500 devices per home would be connected to the

internet. Although this does sound absurd, when you

think of what IoT encompasses it is not farfetched.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to billions of

physical devices around the world that are now

connected to the internet, collecting and sharing

data. Thanks to cheap processors and wireless

networks, it's possible to turn anything, from a pen

to an plane, into an internet connected device. With

all this activity going on in the IoT world one might

question who is protecting the data. One of the most

popular options to protecting yourself online is

using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN

allows one to create a secure connection to another

network over the internet. It masks your network

activity from anyone who might be prying on the

network. What is actually happening behind the

scenes of a VPN? When using a VPN one has to

take into consideration the cost, new network speed

or maybe more importantly your data. This research

will discuss these topics. My hypothesis is that an

open source VPN would be safer because one would

know exactly what’s happening to the data.

Although we still want fast networks speeds also, so

this raises another question. Can we have both?

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Poster A53

A Public Data Visualization Scheme for

Smart Building

Astrid Frank

Mentor: Professor Xin-Zhou Wei


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network consisting of

devices which can collect and transmit data. Wireless

sensor networks play a very important role in the

infrastructure of the Internet of Things (IoT). An

XBee module is a radio module built according to

IEEE specifications. These modules work with

wireless sensors to collect data on light, temperature,

humidity, and carbon monoxide gas. Data transmitted

from wireless sensors to XBee modules is managed by

X-CTU software. This data can help detect hazards

and monitor and improve energy efficiency in public

buildings such as schools, museums, shopping malls,

and subway stations.

We have successfully built a smart building

monitoring system consisting of an XBee wireless

network with several Xbee routers along with an Xbee

coordinator. A local computer was used as a host to

monitor and display real time data collected by our

wireless sensors. Temperature data was collected from

several local buildings on the Long Island University

(LIU) campus and the Voorhees building at the New

York City College of Technology, CUNY, in

downtown Brooklyn. The data collected was displayed

visually allowing for the modification of the Xbee

device to improve its accuracy. Future plans include

expanding the scale of our smart building monitoring

system with more wireless nodes. .

Poster A54

C.H.E.S.S.- Computerized Homework

Exercise SyStem

Harpreet Gaur, Hashir Qureshi, George

Nwankwo, Syed Rehman

Mentor: Professor Viviana Acquaviva


Debt-ridden college students often find it prohibitive

to afford software for online homework that can cost

up to $150 per class. We at C.H.E.S.S.

(Computerized Homework Exercise SyStem) have

created an economical, secure and user-friendly

online homework system. This applications allows a

user to login and take homework assignments for

their class. It also displays useful information to the

user such as their grade, assignment description, and

assignment availability.

In Summer of 2017, we developed the initial web

application. In Summer of 2018, our goal was to

learn Javascript which would provide to be a

foundation for learning the React framework. The

reason for migrating our code to React, which is a

JavaScript framework for developing user interface,

is to build better interface, write code more simply,

and reuse components in our application. Using

React as the framework for front end development,

our goals were to revamp the design of the

application to accommodate the new features,

complete a teacher portal for the application, and

demonstrate and test a functioning live demo of

C.H.E.S.S. in a classroom by Fall 2018.

Our long-term goal for C.H.E.S.S. is to have a

flexible and secure platform that can be tailored to

the needs of professor teaching at the college or

high-school level. The vision of C.H.E.S.S. is to

create a fun, engaging, accessible, low-to-no cost

homework solution for teachers to use in classrooms

regardless of discipline.

26

Poster A55

Sensor Implementation of an Assistive


Jannat Hoque, Jannatul Mahdi, Joycephine

Li

Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia and Obong Kwon


HeathKit Educational Robot (HERO-1) is a robotic

educational tool that has been helping colleges and

universities across the country teach students about

Computer and Robotics Technology since the

1980s. The HERO-1 model at City Tech went into

hibernation after 15 years of service. Currently,

three students from the CUNY Scholars Research

Program, including myself, are reviving City Tech’s

HERO to provide new features by updating the

computer hardware and software technology, such

as mobile robot obstacle detection and navigation

and speech synthesis and recognition. The two most

common modern devices that are used for mobile

robot obstacle detection and navigation are

ultrasonic sensor using sound waves and infrared

sensor using light waves. The main difference

between the IR sensors and Ultrasound sensors is

that IR sensor detects electromagnetic radiation (it

allows HERO to detect distance using light waves)

and the Ultrasound sensors detect mechanical

energy (it allows HERO to detect distance using

sound waves). By learning and comparing the

advantages and disadvantages with testing and

technical specifications of the two devices, we

implemented them on a mobile robot to test their

effectiveness in real world situations. Both the IR

and Ultrasound sensors performed as expected. In

the future, a script of servo motor and ultrasonic

sensor will be tested and replace the old hardware

device in the HERO robot. This will allow HERO to

continue teaching students at City Tech. Another

interesting benefit of updating HERO’s technology

is that it will enhance the implementation of

Assistive Technology to enable her to help people

with disabilities. For example, we are planning to

work on connecting HERO to a Bluetooth voice

recognition device to replace the remote control

panel. This part of experiment was tested for people

who need help with vision by producing speech

output.

Poster A56

Mathematical Modeling of HIV

Transmission

Kwok Ching Hui

Mentor: Professor Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar


Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus

that causes HIV infection and over time Acquired

Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV infects

vital cells in the human immune system such as

CD4+ cells (a type of the helper T cells),

Macrophages and dendritic cells. HIV and AIDS

research will open avenues for new and effective

treatments and prevention in the future. In this

project, we use mathematical models to focus on

HIV transmission during the initial stages of

infection. We incorporate differential equations to

model HIV immunology, creating graphs to truly

understand HIV immune dynamics. We also create a

modified SIR (Susceptible Infected Recovered)

model to simulate the spread of HIV which can be

adapted and used by future researchers.

Poster A57

(Urban Oasis) Solar and Rain Catching

Canopy

Afolabi Ibitoye, Elena Zimareva

Mentor: Professor Alexander Aptekar


Accumulation of water runoff during rain storms

affects New York City’s combination water system,

forcing water treatment plants to release untreated

excess water. Rather than allow this grey water to

27

overfill the sewer system, pocket parks and gardens

can be used to absorb rainfall. By harnessing nature’s

resources through today’s technology we can also

create solar and rain catching canopies to beautify,

educate, and bring growth and social awareness to

local businesses.

In order to design the canopies to collect the

maximum amount of rainwater and maximize solar

collection, we analyzed expected rainfall and optimal

solar angles. The canopies will provide shade for

benches near existing flower beds, collect rainwater

for irrigation, and collect solar energy. Rainwater that

falls on the canopy will slope into PVC pipes and be

distributed to clay pots which will efficiently

distribute water, while solar panels will provide

energy for public electrical outlets.

The inclusion of a solar panel created the need for an

energy storage component, especially in the absence

of sunlight, which quantitatively measures the

harnessed energy, and a solar charge controller for

energy regulation to limit the rate at which electric

current will be added or drawn from the battery and

distribution.

Upon completion of the first prototype using mostly

wooden and plywood materials, the density of the

canopy shade proved to be top heavy thereby making

the overall structure singly unstable posing safety

concern, this necessitated a proposed material change

into aluminum and canvas with lighter weight as a

possible standalone and/or adaptive structure to the

existing pocket parks. Once refined, these canopies

can provide shade, public electrical outlets, and help

to mitigate New York City’s storm water runoff

problem.

Poster A58

Combinatorial Aspects of Numbers

Kareem Jackson

Mentor: Professor Corina Calinescu


Any positive integer n can be written as a sum of

integers, such that these integers are arranged in a

non-increasing order. This is called a partition of n.

The first discoveries on partitions of numbers were

made in the eighteenth century by the

mathematician Euler, who proved beautiful and

significant results in this field. In the past twenty

years, the theory of partitions became very popular

among mathematicians.

Surprisingly, such a simple concept requires deep

mathematics for its study. The problem of finding

the partition of n for an arbitrary large n is still

unsolved. In this project, we use two methods in

order to study partitions. One method is

computational and based on generating functions,

which are infinite sums. The other method uses

geometric structures, and these are called Ferrer

diagrams.

The main goal of my research project is to

understand how these two methods can be used to

develop efficient algorithms for computing the

partition of n. Partitions of numbers play an

important role in many areas of mathematics such as

combinatorics, number theory, Lie theory and

representation theory.

28

Poster A59

Further Optimization in Design and

Fabrication of the Borromean Rings (with

Seifert Surface) using Grasshopper

Faith Chabari Kakshak

Mentor: Professor Anne Leonhardt


The Borromean Rings are formed from ellipses, and

form compatible near circular forms. Having

established a fundamental form to be 3d printed, and

added on a Seifert Surface in my research of the

form, I will be moving on to more advanced

manipulations of the form, to see what more

complex iterations could be gained from this

mathematical form. In this stage, I will be applying

commands on grasshopper to get each ring and

surface to be individualized pieces of their own.

After this adaptation, I will transform it to more

architectural design iterations, showing the entirety

of my process in my final work showcase.

Poster A60

The Impacts of an Undergraduate Research

Program in the Geosciences for Minority

STEM Students

Rachel Li

Mentor: Professor Janet Liou-Mark


The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsors

undergraduate research opportunities in their Research

Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. With

the need to increase minority representation in the

geosciences, NSF has awarded grants to the New York

City College of Technology to support Satellite and

Ground-Based Remote Sensing at the Cooperative

Remote Sensing Science and Technology (CREST)

Center for the City University of New York (CUNY)

students. This study examines the impact of the year-

long program on underrepresented minority

undergraduate students. Data from four student

cohorts was collected via pre- and post-surveys. To

evaluate the effectiveness of the program, participants

were asked to measure their expectations, perceptions

about research, self-efficacy in research skills and

processes, and their desire to pursue graduate school

and research careers. The 49 students surveyed,

participated in the program over a four-year period.

Descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-tests were

used to analyze the responses. Our results showed that

by the end of the summer, students reported

significant learning gains on their research confidence,

experience, and overall exposure.

Poster A61

Hardware Implementation of an Assistive


Joycephine Li, Jannat Hoque, Jannatul

Mahdi

Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia


This is a two-part research project in which Heathkit

Education Robot (HERO) hardware circuits and

features will be upgraded by using modern hardware

devices and sensors. The second part of the project

will be to use the modern hardware to implement

assistive technologies to help people with

disabilities. Previous studies from this project

included a brief background of the old hardware

devices of HERO robot and comparison with the

new hardware devices. In addition, the ultrasonic

sensor was successfully tested to control an LED.

The sensors and devices that have been tested and

implemented so far will enable the robot to detect

obstacles by using ultrasonic distance sensor and use

speech to warn people with visual disability about

the obstacles. Currently, robot's main drive DC

motor that was used in the original model of HERO,

is determined to be working properly after testing

with a 12 Volts battery. The next step is to replace

the old DC motor control circuit with a modern H-

Bridge control circuit and test it. In the future, a

29

script of servo motor and ultrasonic sensor will be

tested to replace the old distance sensor in the

HERO robot. Also, we are planning to work on

connecting the robot to a Bluetooth device to

replace remote control panel of the old HERO robot.

Another future goal is to use voice commands to

make the robot pick up and bring an object to a

person with walking disability. One exciting aspect

of this project is that we are recycling and reusing

many components of the old robot instead of

discarding them.

Poster A62

Terahertz Generation Using Embedded

Lithium Niobate Crystals

Richard Lin

Mentor: Professor Muhammad Ummy


X-rays have long been used as a standard diagnostic

tool in the medical field. However, their use has many

drawbacks, primarily its harmful nature to the human

tissue which can cause cancer. There is a potentially

feasible alternative which can replace X-Rays; many

fields have begun using machines which employ

waves from the Terahertz spectrum. In Spring 2018,

we developed a novel optical system which generates

and detects frequencies at the Terahertz level. The

system used an InGaAs photo mixer to generate THz

waves external to the tunable wavelength fiber laser

source. We aim to improve this existing system by

embedding lithium niobate crystals within the optical

fibers themselves by which we can minimize free

space losses, decrease the system’s footprint and

remove the need for external photo mixing devices.

We are currently investigating potential suppliers to

facilitate for us the acquisition of such fibers as they

must be fabricated off site through a very delicate and

highly sensitive process. Lastly, the tunable fiber laser

can function as a Variable Optical Coupler (VOC) and

a Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) by simply using

passive optical components at the laser output such as

a circulator and a polarization controller within a

Sagnac Loop Mirror. This set of components enables

the system to function with both single and dual

output operation for VOA and VOC modes

respectively.

Poster A63

Implementation of an Assistive Technology

Mobile Robot

Jannatul Mahdi, Joycephine Li

Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia


This is a two-part research project in which Heath

kit Education Robot (HERO) software code and

features will be upgraded. Modern embedded

system programming techniques and sensors will be

added to implement assistive technologies that will

help people with disabilities. An historical

background of old software programs will be

explained along with the use of new coding methods

to control the robot. The old robot featured light,

sound and motion detectors and a sonar ranging

sensor. Right now for this project, the distance

sensor is tested using Arduino programming. The

sensor worked properly indicating obstacles to its

nearest distance. This can help people who have

problem with vision to alert them if there is any

obstacle. For alerting the user of the robot, there is a

speaker installed. We used Raspberry Pi

programming to convert text to speech. This

program can be used in future to do more variety of

speech functions in different languages. This time,

the script with the ultrasonic sensor and the LED

was tested using raspberry pi without any errors.

Currently the code for servo motor, an electric

motor that consists of rotary actuator, was tested

successfully. In the future, a script of servo motor

and ultrasonic sensor will be tested and replace the

old hardware device in the HERO robot. This part of

experiment was tested for people who need help

with vision by producing speech output.

30

Poster A64

A Mobile Chatbot for Learning

Waseem Mohammed

Mentor: Professor Marcos Pinto


A mobile application that uses artificial intelligence

and helps students to learn. The knowledge domain is

initially in computer systems programming, more

specifically, an introduction to an object-oriented

programming language such as Java. The application

employs a rule-based reasoning meaning it uses a way

to store and manipulate knowledge to interpret

information in a useful way to teach students how to

program in Java by maintaining a “conversation” with

the student who can type in questions about

programming in Java and the system will answer with

an explanation that might contains snippets of Java

coding. The application presents the user with an

initial list of learning subjects: data types, classes, and

methods, and the student can ask questions on these

subjects. The objective is to extend the app to cover

more subjects on Java programming so the student

will have a complete learning experience using this

mobile application. This app uses xml code to design

the layouts and it runs on JavaScript. This app is

specially designed for students who needs help with

programming in Java. The app will/might help

students learn to program more easily or efficiently.

Poster A65

Advanced Composites for Structural and

Biomedical Applications

Tin Oo, Raul Idris Rosario

Mentor: Professor Akm Samsur Rahman


A global interest has grown immensely on the need

for environment friendly materials and eco-efficient

processing for materials for construction and

structural applications. Simultaneously there is

significant demand for innovative materials for

biomedical applications. The current project is

focused on the development of an earth-friendly

cementitious binder for the composite that is

process-able in low temperature but is applicable to

high temperature environments, resulting in a lower

energy costing material. In addition, the material of

the interest is capable in revealing an ordered porous

structure, which is suitable for targeted drug

delivery and regenerative bone applications.

This research is expected to develop a Geopolymer

binder. The primary objective of this study was to

understand the role of the material components used

and varying mole ratios in the inherent strengthening

mechanism of this blinder, and its use as the matrix

of the fiber reinforced composite to create a

compatible interface between the fiber and

Geopolymer. The formulation of this binder is to be

developed using fly ash in an alkali silicate medium.

In addition to custom creating laboratory equipment

we assigned common testing procedures for

materials; Porosity, Compression, Thermal

Resistance, Microscopy, and Flexural testing.

Geopolymer samples were repeatedly made and

studied carefully under different temperatures, water

content and using different methods to remove

entrapped air inside the Geopolymer and, to improve

compressive and flexure strength, then use in fiber

reinforced composite. The ultimate goal is to utilize

this fiber-reinforced Geopolymer composite into the

replacement of ordinary cement based structural

composite. Another goal is to develop controlled

porosity in order to apply in the bone regeneration

where the pore networks play important roles in

nutrient and drug delivery.

31

Poster A66

Scaffold Fabrication for Cell Viability

Analysis

Brian Parra

Mentors: Professors Ozlem Yasar


There are approximately 114,000 men, women, and

children awaiting organ transplantation in the

United States. Organ donation rates cannot keep up

with demand. Tissue engineering presents an

opportunity to repair or regenerate damaged tissue

or entire organs without an organ donor. One

method of tissue engineering is to insert a

biocompatible scaffold into a body to support and

encourage cell growth into three dimensional

shapes, such as skin.

One of the principle challenges in tissue

engineering, especially with the production of large

tissue constructs, is the cell survivability within the

scaffolds. Cells can show healthy growth within the

scaffolds if biocompatible materials are used to

generate the scaffolds, given the right conditions.

In this project, collaborative work is done between

the SET Research Laboratory at the department of

Mechanical Engineering Technology at City Tech

and department of Mechanical Engineering at

California State University, Chico. Scaffolds are

often fabricated with a biomaterial called PDMS.

However, PDMS is toxic, and the purpose of our

work is to evaluate whether another biomaterial,

PEGDA, could be used to build better scaffolds. The

purpose of the project is to evaluate whether

PEGDA is strong enough to support cell generation,

whether it is porous enough for oxygen to circulate,

and whether or not it retains moisture.

Thus far, our preliminary results show that cells can

survive within the PEGDA based scaffolds if 20%

of PEGDA is used to fabricate scaffolds. As our

research develops, we will know more about the

possibility of creating scaffolds with more PEGDA

and less PDMS. This work could help make tissue

engineering a viable option for organ

transplantation.

Poster A67

Predicting Diabetes using Machine

Learning

Shaun Pollard

Mentors: Professors Marcos Pinto


Diabetes is a chronic illness that if left untreated can

lead to serious complications. According to the CDC

“in the US, 84.1 million adults, more than 1 in 3, have

pre-diabetes, and 90% of them don’t know they have

it.” In this project we use the Python programming

language to create a machine learning algorithm which

is artificially intelligent (AI) to predict diabetes. We

use a data set consisting of information on 768

patients provided by the University of California at

Irvine’s (UCI’s) Machine Learning Repository to train

our system. 75% of the data set was used to train the

system and the remaining 25% was used to test the

system’s accuracy in predicting diabetes. The results

were that our system predicted accurately 75% of the

time. We plan to train the system on a much larger

data set in order to improve its accuracy and its ability

to distinguish between Type I and Type II diabetes.

Our system has the potential to predict the chances of

developing other diseases as well opening the door to

wellness intervention opportunities.

32

Poster A68

Design and Manufacturing a 4 Degree of

Freedom Robot Arm

Brittny Roberts

Mentor: Professor Angran Xiao


Robot arms with 4 degree of freedom are the most

widely used robot arms in product assembly lines. In

this project we use inventor to design a 3D model, a

3D printer to create the model and Arduino to

program the arm, we’ll be able to successfully create

a robotic arm with 4 degrees of freedom. In previous

projects, similar robot arms always collapse on

themselves when being turned off, because the

electrical motors at the joints of the arm lose their

torque without power. If a robot arm can’t hold its

position we won’t be able to continue where we left

off if there is loss of power, or when we simply turn

the arm off at the end of a day. In this project, we

decided to create a whole new design for the robotic

arm by adding a worm/gear mechanisms at the

important joints. [Add a sentence quickly describing

some of the work you’ve done] Due to the self-

locking characteristics of the worm/gear

mechanism, we expect the above mentioned

problem can be solved. The project will cover the

entire product development process from concept

design, CAD [let the reader know what this is],

detailed design, to manufacturing and assembling of

a working prototype. [Add something bragging

about the different arenas this arm can be used in]

Poster A69

Developing Lab Exercises Using a Super

Mechatronics Trainer

Farid Rodriguez, Wen Jie Long

Mentor: Professor Muhammad Ummy


Mechatronics courses can be considered a

combination of electrical and mechanical engineering,

and provide the basis for many functions in industries

such as automotive, space, and general manufacturing,

etc. Students are often taught the theoretical

underpinnings of the field, but lack practical

experience in applying these theories in practice. This

research looks at the operation of the Super

Mechatronics Trainer, a standard workstation that has

a variety of different technologies useful for teaching

and learning about industrial control systems. For

instance, the workstation has different sensors,

assembly, sorting, and storing functions. The goal of

our work is to develop a useful curriculum tool for

implementing Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

code using the Super Mechatronics Trainer in a

classroom environment. We plan to create a readily-

understandable lab manual, including a practice task

that requires the application of multiple aspects of the

programming language. In order to complete the task,

both the hardware and software must be well

understood by the student. Then, it is to be applied in

LabVIEW, a graphical programming language that is

already taught in the mechatronics class. Its ease of

hardware implementation is optimal for classroom

learning.

Ultimately, the manual produced will cover all of the

functions of the machine and emulate an automated

system seen in the industry. Teaching mechatronics

through the use of the manual developed can help to

practically prepare students for careers in an array of

industries.

33

Poster A70

Mechanical Characterizations of Nano-

Particles Doped PDMS

Navjot Singh

Mentor: Professor Ozlem Yasar


Tissue Engineering has been studied to develop tissues

as an alternative approach to the organ regeneration.

Successful artificial tissue growth in regenerative

medicine depends on the precise scaffold fabrication

as well as the cell-cell and cell-scaffold interaction.

Scaffolds are extracellular matrices that guide cells to

grow in 3D to regenerate the tissues. Cell-seeded

scaffolds must be implanted to the damaged tissues to

do the tissue regeneration. Scaffolds’ mechanical

properties and porosities are the two main scaffold

fabrication parameters as the scaffolds must be able to

hold the pressure due to the surrounding tissues after

the implantation process. In this research, scaffolds

were fabricated by using micro-molding. During the

fabrication process, first PDMS was mixed with nano-

materials and then it was baked in the oven for 2

hours. This preliminary research showcases that

mechanical characterization of PDMS based scaffolds

can be altered with nano-material concentration.

Poster A71

Water, Race, and Class

Jean-Hus Theodore

Mentor: Professor Aida Euges


During the last and present century, evidence suggests

a correlation between the health of Americans and the

suggestive progression of racial equity in America

with regard to water, race, and class. Various theorists

and research have proposed models for thinking about

and evaluating these issues.

This project consisted of a comprehensive search of

contemporary scientific, social, and medical databases

to reveal the correlation. As well, this project includes

an examination of health models, such as that of the

US Office of Disease Prevention and Health

Promotion’s Healthy People 2020/2030, and David

Satcher’s Ethnicity and Disease. Utilizing this

literature review, the project provides conclusions and

recommendations to propose potential recourse for

health disparities for the future health of America’s

water safety, such as STEM educational programs that

prioritize grants for community-based research, or

more equitable public health programs.

Considering the amount of literature on racial equity

with regard to water, race, and class, this project aims

to synthesize the views on offer and extract the most

useful models and approaches for addressing these

issues.

Poster A72

Environmental Justice: Impact of Rising

Sea Levels on Vulnerable Communities

Cheryl Thomas

Mentors: Professors Masato Nakamura


Environmental justice emerged as a viable and

necessary discipline in the late 20th Century with a

number of acts meant to protect citizens in general

but poorer communities in particular. Many of these

acts were tied to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The

Civil Rights Act was followed, in 1969 by the

Environmental Policy Act. In 1970 the Clean Air

Act was instituted when it became clear that

significantly increase incidents of asthma was tied to

the quality of air in the community. The Clean

Water Act came into being in 1972; the

Comprehensive Environmental Response

Compensation and Liability Act IN 1980 was geared

towards the cleanup of sites contaminated by

hazardous chemicals.

An emerging environmental threat to disadvantage

communities is now facing communities previously

damaged by environmental contaminants. It is

34

Rising Sea Level that is threatening low income

communities with inundation. In the last five years

more frequent devastating storms have impacted

these communities that received less assistance with

storm recovery and at a later date. This research

seeks to connect the history with the present and

with the future of disadvantaged communities. It is a

comprehensive interdisciplinary work.

Poster A73

Physical Modeling of a Forward Acting

Grate Combustion Chamber

Brian Yellis

Mentor: Professor Masato Nakamura


Trash build up is an issue facing large urban areas.

One way to fix this problem is a waste-to-energy

(WTE) plant. An early step in the (WTE) process in

the WTE plant involves municipal solid waste (MSW)

to be mixed in a combustion chamber. Various

materials of different properties will be mixed in the

chamber and because of their various properties the

proper mixing degree is required to keep the

combustion process efficient. Various types of moving

grates exist to provide various types of motions, some

grates could be more efficient depending on the MSW

put in. Our project focuses on a forward acting grate

where bars reciprocate back and forth in a horizontal

direction. We started this research using coal as a

testing material because of its generally uniform

properties such as size, shape, density, and heating

value. We are in the process of creating a forward

acting grate and preparing it for data recording.

Tracers will be mixed in with the coal particles as well

as to provide us with a “target” to keep track of during

the mixing process. Our traces were made with

approximately the same volume and density as coal

particles. From the data we gathered we will calibrate

a stochastic model. A stochastic model allows us to

make predictions where the out come has a degree of

randomness. When we can make predictions of

movement for materials based on their size we can

determine how efficient the method of mixing trash is

with a forward acting grate in regard to certain

materials.

Queensborough Community

College

Poster A74

Creating a Virtual Practice Room

Kypros Andrianou

Mentor: Professor Kimberly Riegel


Most amateur musicians suffer from anxiety before

and during their performance on stage. One possible

contribution to that anxiety, is the fact that the sound

they generate in the performance space sounds

different than the sound generated in their practice

rooms. The aim of this study is to create an

augmented reality practice room for amateur

musicians, which will make a practice room sound

the same as a performance space. To simulate the

sound environment in a performance space, this

study uses a ray tracing technique implemented with

Python. This method will be simulated and then

tested with a simple geometry room. For future

work, a more complicated performance space will

be simulated the same way as the simple geometry

room and get feedback from musicians on the

accuracy of the simulation.

35

Poster A75

Examining environmental isolates of

Staphylococcus aureus using loop

mediated (LAMP) amplification

Oscar Bermudes, Diana Mata, Gaozhen Li,

Miguel Fernandez

Mentor: Professor Andrew Nguyen


Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming a major

health concern for treatment in hospitals. Detection

of pathogens that cause infections and food

poisoning using traditional methods for

amplification are time consuming and require

expensive machines. We seek to develop a cheaper

and a less expensive method for detection of

Staphylococcus aureus and/or methicillin resistant

Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Recent studies

have shown that loop mediated isothermal

amplification can be used to amplify DNA using a

single water bath and a specialized enzyme without

the need for the expensive PCR machine. We have

employed this strategy to target the amplification of

three specific genes of Staphylococcus aureus, 16S

rRNA (for the genus of Staphylococcus), femA (for

the species of Staphylococcus aureus) and mecA (for

methicillin resistance). This method requires six

primers specific for each gene which form loops per

cycle and the Bst DNA polymerase that can add

nucleotides and at the same time displace the newly

made strands. As a proof of concept, we have tested

the method to amplify Streptococcus faecalis and

Staphylococcus aureus and showed that the method

is specific for Staphylococcus aureus. We are in the

process of analyzing its specificity using several

different microorganisms and testing its specificity.

Poster A76

The Tightness of Kesten-Stigum

Reconstruction Bound of the Asymmetric

Channel

Yanyan Chen

Mentor: Professor Wenjian Liu


It is well known that reconstruction problems, as a

cross-disciplinary subject, have been studied in

numerous contexts including statistical physics,

information theory and computational biology. We

will show that the reconstruction bound determines

the efficiency of the Glauber dynamics on trees and

random graphs. The reconstruction threshold is

believed to play an important role in a variety of

other contexts, such as the efficiency of

reconstructing phylogenetic ancestors in

evolutionary biology, communication theory in the

study of noisy computation, etc. This project will

focus on the tightness of Kesten-Stigum

reconstruction bound of the asymmetric Ising model

on regular d-ary trees. Establish the distributional

recursion and moment recursion by analyzing the

recursive relation between nth and (n+1)th

generation's structure of the tree. And display the

high degree discussion by applying the Central

Limit Theorem and Gaussian approximation to

approximate the moment recursion obtained from

the first stage if the model degree d is large enough.

Finally apply numerical analysis and MAPLE (math

software) to compute rigorously a combination of

basic arithmetic operations and exponentials up to

arbitrarily high precision. With the achievement of

previous steps, using the dynamical discussion, we

can figure out the critical asymmetry threshold to

keep the tightness of Kesten-Stigum reconstruction

bound. Therefore, we can conclude that

reconstruction problem is solvable for some certain

threshold value.

36

Poster A77

Deployment of IPv6 using the 6to4

Tunneling Method and Dual-Stack

Technology to curb Address Exhaustion

Eric Deokie

Mentor: Professor Merlinda Drini


IPv4 has suffered from address exhaustion due to

the exponential rise in the number of network-

connected devices. The 6to4 Tunneling method is

predicted to be an efficient way of enabling

communication between networks that have

dissimilar versions of the Internet Protocol deployed

using existing infrastructure. This study examines

the use of the tunneling method as a means of

transitioning from an IPv4 to an IPv6 network

infrastructure and measures its efficiency with

various types of network traffic and loads. IPv6

makes use of a 128-bit addressing scheme along

with extensions for increased data security and

integrity and can accommodate well over a trillion

devices. Scenarios were simulated in Riverbed

Modeler Academic Edition in which point to point

tunnels were created to allow data transmission

between networks. Additionally, simulations were

executed to investigate other communication

methods between incompatible nodes in Multi-tiered

applications. Baseline simulations and their

corresponding results were recorded and used as a

central point of comparison prior to scenario

modification. Parameters such as delay, distribution

type, and application network load were modified,

and the results were compared to the baseline

simulations to observe changes. In both scenarios,

there was minimal packet loss on devices capable of

running in dual-stack mode (IPv4 and IPv6) and the

network responded well to various loads and types

of network traffic. The results produced by the

simulations strongly indicated that the 6to4

Tunneling method is an efficient and reliable

method of facilitating communication between IPv4

and IPv6 networks and further solidify the need for

full-scale IPv6 deployment and implementation.

Poster A78

Valuing call option on private equity

Wenshu Dong

Mentors: Professors Wenjian Liu


The relationship between risk and return is a central

issue of modern finance. Option prices are widely

assumed to convey the degree of risk, however,

when it is concerned predicting the average return,

the conventional view believes that option prices

have little effect instead. Steve Ross has applied the

Perron-Frobenius Theorem to show that recovery is

possible, in the setting of discrete Markov chains

that is option prices forecast not only the average

return but also the entire return distribution. Ross

recovery is our fundamental theorem. The first

result of the project is we determine the structure of

the stochastic discount factor, to the continuous-time

model of multiple driving state variable. The second

result is we solve the problem of valuing a call

option written on private equity when some key data

are missing. We will instead specify a risk-neutral

stochastic process for future dividend yields. Hence,

we will always express future cash flows as a

proportion of the unknown contemporaneous value

of the asset generating the cash flow. The third

result is we develop an algorithm to stimulate price

option on private equity based on the preceding

theory. We proved we do have the ability to solve

the problem while the key data are missing by

applying the Perron-Frobenius theorem and other

related series of theorems.

37

Poster A79

Complementation of S. coelicolor

SCO3855 Knock out with the SCO3855

gene

Shaina Durand

Mentors: Professors Naydu Carmona


Intramembrane proteases (IMPs) are membrane

proteins that have their active sites buried within the

lipid bilayer of cellular membranes. They are found

in all kingdoms of life, and have biological activities

related to cell signaling. Streptomycetes are gram

positive bacteria from the soil. They are prolific

producers of secondary metabolites such as

antibiotics, immune-suppressants and anticancer

compounds. These bacteria are unicellular organisms

that exhibit a multicellular developmental cycle.

Hypothesis: rhomboid proteases play a role in cell to

cell communication in Streptomyces. Objective:

characterize a highly conserved rhomboid protease,

SCO3855, from the model organism Streptomyces

coelicolor. Our group has constructed a SCO3855

knock out (KO) strain and the mutant strain has been

characterized. In this project we report: 1-

Complementation of the mutant strain with

SCO3855. 2- Preliminary results showing that the re-

introduction of the SCO3855 gene rescues the wild

type phenotype.

Poster A80

Ruthenium Nanoparticle-Carbon Nanotube

Catalytic Degradation of Congo red Dye

Gariele Emeran

Mentor: Professor Tirandai Hemraj-Benny


Azo dyes, such as Congo red dye, are well-known

pollutants commonly found in textile waste-waters.

They are extremely toxic and highly resistant to

destruction. The efficient catalytic degradation of

Congo red dye in the environment is critical. Studies

have shown that nanoparticles are an effective catalyst

in many chemical reactions. Moreover, carbon

nanotube-supported metal catalysts have demonstrated

superior catalytic activity and selectivity. In this study,

the efficiency of using synthesized ruthenium

nanoparticles supported on single-walled carbon

nanotubes (SWNT-Ru np) in the degradation of

Congo red dye was investigated. The SWNT-Ru np

catalyst was successfully synthesized in the presence

of anhydrous ethanol. The catalytic activities of the

SWNT-Ru np in the degradation of Congo red dye at

varying pH values were studied by UV-Visible

Spectroscopy. It was determined that the degradation

time of the Congo red dye decreased significantly

from hours to seconds in the presence of the SWNT-

Ru np catalyst.

Poster A81

Osteoclastic Signal transduction and

activator of transcription-3 Enhances the

Migration of Osteoblastic cell line MC3T3

Miguel Fernandez

Mentor: Professor Andrew Nguyen


Osteoblasts are known to regulate osteoclasts but

how osteoclasts regulate osteoblasts is not clearly

defined. Signal transduction and activator of

transcription-3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor that

is expressed in bone and joint cells which includes

osteoclast and osteoblast cells. STAT3 is activated

in a number of cytokines and growth factors and

was shown to be important in osteoclast maturation.

Osteoclast differentiation requires two specific

cytokines: colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) to

stimulate hematopoietic stem cells to become

mononuclear phagocytic cell lineage and receptor

activator of NF-kB ligand (RANKL) to become

mature osteoclasts. It has been shown that

osteoblasts can regulate osteoclast differentiation by

secreting RANKL. Recent evidence suggests that

osteoclasts can regulate osteoblast recruitment by

38

secretion of sphingosine-1 phosphate. The goal of

our project was to analyze the role of STAT3 in

osteoclasts regulation of osteoblast chemotaxis and

to characterize the association between STAT3 and

S1P pathway. We examined the progressive

movement of osteoblast cell line, MC3T3, treated

with osteoclast conditioned media and STAT3

overexpression and STAT3 knock down. Scratches

from the cells treated with the osteoclast conditioned

media showed a faster overall healing. The data

suggest that conditioned media from osteoclast

culture increases MC3T3 migration.

Poster A82

Green synthesis of polyrhodanine

conducting polymer

Anjali Gaba, Yousef Saleh

Mentor: Professor Moni Chauhan


Conducting polymers (polypyrrole, polyaniline,

polythiophene and polyrhodanine) and inorganic

particles are promising materials for micro sensors,

high environmental stability, catalysis and special

redox behavior, attributed to the pi-electron

delocalization.

Rhodanine and its derivatives have immense

antibacterial, antiviral, antihistaminic and

anticorrosion properties. High quality

polyrhodanine (pRh) films were prepared

electrochemically and silver/pRh nanotubes and

nanofibers composite materials synthesized via

chemical oxidative polymerization exhibits immense

antimicrobial efficacy against Gram-negative,

Gram-positive bacteria and yeast. A green approach

to cellulose nanocrystal –Fe (III) complex coated

pRh in aqueous medium and silica coated

pRh/Silver nanocomposite exhibit sustainable

antimicrobial properties for applications in food

packaging, antimicrobial coatings and additives.

Hollow polymeric particles have stimulated increasing

interest in the area of material science due to their

large surface area, tunable particle diameter and shell

thickness, low permeability and density. We have

successfully synthesized polyrhodanine nanospheres

without any template in green solvents water and

ethanol. Since polyrhodanine has coordination sites N,

O and S with lone pair of electrons, it is known to

complex with heavy metals and remove them from

aqueous solutions. The IR spectroscopy data suggests

that the Polyrhodanine nanospheres have positive

charge localized over its backbone, hence nanospheres

were studied for the removal of anionic dye (Methyl

Orange) from the wastewater. In this presentation,

microwave synthesis of metal catalyzed pRh nano

spheres, its characterization and adsorption properties

will be presented.

Poster A83

Structural Study of Iron/nickel Mixed

oxides in Thin Film Magnets

Khushpreet Kaur

Mentors: Professors Sunil Dehipawala


Small-scale magnets are in high demand due to

applications in miniature electronic devices and

small-scale magnetic storage devices. The industry

is always demanding sub-micron or even Nano-

meter scale magnets. Magnetic thin films often

contain several layers of coating of magnetic

material. During this study, we prepared thin film

magnets by spin coating a precursor containing iron

into a glass substrate. The thickness of the films was

controlled by the spin rate. Precursor films on the

substrate were then annealed to 3500 ℃ for 3 hours

in the air. The microstructure of iron particles in the

films was investigated using Synchrotron X-ray

Absorption Spectroscopy. All the samples exhibit

pre-edge feature before the main absorption edge.

The presence of pre-edge indicates the existence of

some iron bound to Oxygen. The main absorption

edge peak position and pre-edge energy position

were identical in all of the samples. This indicates

that there was no change in the charge state of the

iron regardless of the number of layers. However,

the intensity of the pre-edge feature decreases with

39

an increase in the number of layers. This indicates a

decrease of iron-oxygen compounds or presence of

iron in other forms.

Poster A84

Microwave synthesis of ruthenium

nanoparticles in the presence of

polyaniline nanofibers

Katherine Kim

Mentor: Professor David M. Sarno


We are developing a method to prepare hybrid

materials from ruthenium nanoparticles (Ru-NPs)

and polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-NFs). The rapid

microwave synthesis of Ru-NPs with an appropriate

reducing agent has been reported in the literature.

We hope to prevent NP aggregation by dispersing

them in a high surface area nanofiber scaffold. We

are investigating the effects of different reducing

agents on the formation of these composites via UV-

VIS, FTIR, SEM, and EDS. Preliminary results

indicate that NaBH4 successfully reduces Ru+3 to

Ru, but also induces significant morphological and

spectral changes in PANI. The polymer appears to

be unchanged, however, when glucose is used as the

reducing agent, suggesting it may be a better choice.

Our goal is to optimize the preparation of these

materials so that we may test their catalytic activity

toward the degradation of congo red, a toxic azo dye

that is representative of a variety of industrial

pollutants.

Poster A85

Impact of QoS (Quality of Service)

parameter change on multimedia data

transfer

Taeho Lee

Mentor: Professor Merlinda Drini


Multimedia nowadays may have hundreds of

megabytes in size, which can cause massive

lag(inconvenience) to the users, especially when

there is more than one data being accessed in that

network. The purpose of the experiment was to

examine the impact which change in QoS

parameters can have on multimedia data

transmission and find out which QoS setting would

be the best for QCC campus. By having properly

configured QoS setting, it would be possible to

enhance the transfer speed and quality of

multimedia data. Using a software named “Riverbed

Modeler”, we simulated QCC campus to test out

different types of QoS configurations. Using the

software, we prepared three different QoS settings,

and for each QoS environment, network parameters

such as number of queues, queue priority, and size

of data were adjusted and tested. For multimedia

data flowing through big networking environment

such as Queensborough Community College

campus, the configuration we figured out had

approximately 45% enhancement compared to

Baseline (no QoS). From the results, we could

conclude that correctly configured QoS can boost

user’s quality of experience significantly especially

with presentation of multimedia data. And because

of that, it is very important to use QoS for better

network resources management. In the case of QCC

campus, WFQ with multimedia as highest queue

produced the best result.

40

Poster A86

Synthesis of functionalized ionic liquids

Fei Li, Rawlric Sumner, Jasodra Ramdihal

Mentor: Professors Tirandai Hemraj-Benny and

Sharon Lall-Ramnarine


Due to their advantageous physical and chemical

properties over traditional solvents, ionic liquids

(ILs) are environmentally friendlier alternative

solvents that can be tailored to exhibit desired

properties. ILs are salts that melt below 100 °C, and

many exist as pure non-volatile liquids below or

close to room temperature. ILs containing

imidazolium cations paired with

bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide anions are among

the most common ILs studied. However, relatively

high viscosity and resulting lowered conductivity

makes their large scale adoption problematic. In this

work imidazolium cations are functionalized with

alkyl, allyl and ether side chains and coupled with

bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or bis

(fluorosulfonyl) amide anions. These side chains

and ion combinations are expected to result in a

variation of physical properties that reveal the IL

with the lowest viscosity and highest conductivity.

The ILs were prepared by reacting 1

methylimidazole with the desired alkyl，allyl or

alkoxy halide to produce the imidazolium halide salt

followed by reaction with lithium

bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or potassium

bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide in water to yield the

imidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or

imidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide ILs. H-1 and

C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

spectroscopy was used for structure confirmation of

the purified ILs. A Karl Fischer Titrator was used to

measure the water content of the ILs before

characterization for conductivity and viscosity.

Preliminary results reveal that ILs with

bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide anions exhibit lower

viscosities and higher conductivities. The ILs will

be used to prepare mixtures with carbon nanotubes

that are optimized for applications as electrolytes in

solar energy storage devices.

Poster A87

Content analysis of Newton’s second law

labs: Development of a new lab

categorization scheme

Fei Li

Mentor: Professor Rex Taibu


Physics labs are crafted differently by different

educators based on pedagogical preferences among

other reasons. The science education community

provides various ways to categorize labs, mostly,

based on different levels of student independence.

These categorization schemes are oftentimes prone

to several ambiguities when applied to a set of labs,

probably due to variations of scientific inquiry.

Using the present ideas for lab categorization,

together with content analysis methods, we analyzed

a random sample of Newton’s Second law labs to

explore the levels of student independence in these

labs and to discern the applicability of the present

lab categorizations. Initial results indicated that most

of the available lab categorization schemes are not

only ambiguous, but also do not do justice to the

fact that scientific reasoning may proceed

inductively or deductively. Our lab analysis led us to

propose a new lab categorization scheme, having

three major categories: verification, inductive

inquiry, and deductive inquiry. Each one may have

its own levels of students’ independence. Using the

new categorization scheme, we found that a large

percentage of Newton’s Second Law labs (74%)

were found to be verification labs, followed by

inductive labs (21%) and then deductive labs (5%).

We also gauged levels of student independence

within each category and we found that most labs

(within each category) provided a lot of guidance to

students. Our categorization was found to be less

ambiguous as opposed to present categorization

scheme and led us to propose that student levels of

independence may suitably be compared among and

41

within labs belonging to the same category

(verification, inductive, or deductive). Our

categorization scheme sheds more light into the role

of deductive inquiry, as a new theory-driven

instruction that is often an overlooked characteristic

of both science and engineering practices.

Poster A88

Phylogenetic Analysis of the sleep gene,

dec2 across species

Hilary Menes

Mentor: Professor Sushma Teegala


Sleep deprivation can not only take a toll on the

human body but have metabolic consequences.

Sleep can be defined as an essential physiological

state of reduced activity and alertness in all

mammals as well as other species. In mammals,

sleep can be identified by its sleeping cycles NREM

and REM. Sleeplike behaviors can be observed for

other species as well. What we know is that sleep is

a detrimental part of human life.

One of the genes responsible for the duration of

sleep is the Dec2 gene which is known for its role in

the circadian molecular clock. This gene encodes a

basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor repressor

in both humans and mice (He, Y., et Al 2009). A

point mutation was discovered in a small family,

with two affected individuals. They self-reported

their sleep hours being 6< with no negative

consequences (He, Y., et Al 2009).

Using bioinformatics tools, we were able to explore

the relationship between the dec2 genes among

species. Being able to look at the gene across

different kinds of organisms can help us better

understand this mutation and finding the location

where dec2-P385R occurred we were able to come

up with a future animal model experiment using

danio rerio to further explore this mutation.

Poster A89

Isolation of Acetinomycetes from Plumb

Beach Marine Sediments

Saraf Nabiha, Nikita Alim

Mentor: Professor Joan Petersen


Actinomycetes are prokaryotes which are known for

their useful secondary metabolites that may have

antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antitumor

properties. Although most actinomycetes have been

isolated from soils, a few recent studies have focused

on culturing actinomycetes from marine sediments.

The purpose of our research is to isolate

actinomycetes from sediment samples collected at

Plumb Beach, NY and to determine whether or not

these isolates are adapted to saltwater environments.

We diluted marine sediment samples onto

actinomycete isolation agar prepared with saltwater

and freshwater. The number of unique colonies that

grew on each type of media was quantified. Colonies

were then transferred and grown in pure culture.

Freshwater isolates were tested for their ability to

grow in saltwater agar and vice versa. To date, we

have isolated a total of 43 unique actinomycetes-32 of

these were isolated on freshwater agar and 11 were

isolated from saltwater agar. From these 43 isolates,

36 grew on both saltwater and freshwater media. Out

of these 36 isolates, 7 of them have different

phenotypes. Of the 7 isolates, 3 of the isolates only

grew on freshwater media while 4 of the isolates only

grew on saltwater media. We also inoculated plates

with plugs from the unique phenotypic isolates and

tested them for their ability to inhibit the growth of

Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Six

isolates created biochemical compounds that inhibit

the growth of Staphylococcus aureus: two of these six

isolates also inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli.

We will continue testing the two actinomycete isolates

that inhibited both types of bacteria against additional

bacterial species, and further characterize them using

metabolic tests and 16s rDNA sequencing.

42

Poster A90

Microbiomes Associated to Plant Roots in

New York City Soil

Edward Nouel, Joangela Nouel

Mentor: Professor Monica Trujillo


The presence of microbes in the soil has important

influences on both the environment and on human

health. Some microbes can be beneficial while others

could be detrimental for human health, individuals are

exposed to soil, and therefore they are also exposed to

microbes. We are interested in characterizing the

structure of the microbial community of the soil

associated with roots of plants from three contrasting

sites in New York City. To determine the diversity

and composition of the soil community in these sites,

we have extracted and amplified bacterial community

DNA using primers specific to the 16S rRNA gene.

The amplicons have been sequenced and analyzed. As

a preliminary assessment of the possible implications

for human health, we have characterized each

microbiome by analyzing the distribution of antibiotic

resistance genes. We are also interested in studying

the distribution of metal resistance genes using PCR.

We have used degenerated primers for the czcA gene

to identify the bacterial communities that carry these

genes. In order to identify the bacterial species coding

for this gene we have cloned the PCR fragments and

will sequence them. To correlate the presence/absence

of metal resistance genes with the metals present in

the soil samples we will chemically determine the

concentration of certain metals in the soil. This project

has already shed light into the influence of human

activity in the distribution of both antibiotic and heavy

metal resistance genes. Additionally, the

determination of the metal concentration in soil and

the identification of the bacteria species that carry the

corresponding resistance gene will identify the

bacterial species present in soil that can tolerate the

metal concentration associated to urban sites.

Poster A91

Determination of the refractive index of

calcium nitrate measured by the extension

method

Jiweon Park

Mentor: Professor Jun H. Shin


The extension method which was developed based

on the observation of a good linear relationship

between the percent mass of solution (solid solute

and liquid solvent mixture) and its refractive index

has been used to determine the refractive index of

solid compounds such as fatty acids, organic

compounds, and ionic compounds. In the system, a

plot of refractive index vs percent mass was

obtained in low concentration ranges (typically 0 -

24%), and the line of the linear plot was then

extrapolated to 100% mass (i.e. pure solid) where

the refractive index of the solid was calculated. The

extension method has been further applied to

measure the refractive index of calcium nitrate

because it showed good solubility in various organic

solvents such as methanol, DMSO, acetone, and

THF. In the experiment, a linear relationship was

observed between the refractive index and % mass

of calcium nitrate in a solvent, and a first order

linear equation was calculated based on the plot. By

applying 100 to the % mass variable (100% mass

means pure solute, the solid compound) in the linear

equation, the refractive index of calcium nitrate was

indirectly determined for the solvent. Based on the

data measured in methanol solution of calcium

nitrate, a linear equation (e.g. y=0.001210x +

1.327941) was obtained, then a value of 100% was

applied to get the refractive index of calcium nitrate,

which was 1.449. After two more trials, 1.449(1)

was determined as the refractive index of calcium

nitrate in methanol.

43

Poster A92

Synthesis of Polysubstituted Pyrroles

Michelle Qu, Biling Chen, Shuai Ma and

Gopal Subramaniam

Mentor: Professor Sasan Karimi


We have recently reported syntheses of a number of

pyrroles based on an approach developed by Cadogan

and Sundberg towards synthesis of indole and

carbazoles. Triethylphosphite was the agent Cadogan

and Sandberg discovered was responsible for the use of

carbon monoxide with a Palladium catalyst (e.g.

PD(OAc)2). This method of indole synthesis is similar

to that of the Leimgruber-Batcho approach except there

is no need to prepare dinitrostyrene before reduction,

thus avoiding an extra step. We have shown that

pyrroles can be synthesized, for the first time, from

nitrio-dienes. Our work involves the use of a Mo

catalyst which considerably improves the yield of the

cyclization reaction. The aim of this research project is

to investigate if our methodology can be used to make

other important polysubstituted pyrroles of medicinal

importance.

Poster A93

How does Variation in the length and

Fluorination of Anion side chains affect

Ionic Liquid Properties?

Jasodra Ramdihal, Kristina Papacostas,

Eddie Fernandez, Edward Castner, James

Wishart

Mentor: Professor Sharon Lall-Ramnarine

Queensborough Community College, Queens

College, Rutgers University, Brookhaven National

Laboratory

Ionic Liquids (ILs) containing

bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide (NTf2-) anions

have been shown to exhibit many favorable

properties including reduced viscosities. The

development of ILs with reduced viscosities and

increased conductivities would be advantageous for

many practical applications including as non-

flammable electrolytes in energy storage devices

like batteries. In this work we explore the effect of

varying the lengths and fluorination of side chains

of anions of pyrrolidinium and imidazolium ILs on

their physical properties. The effect of cation side-

chain length is also assessed. The ILs were prepared

by first synthesizing the halide salt precursor, where

1-methylimidazole or 1-methylpyrrolidine was

reacted with an alkylhalide of the desired chain

length. The halide salts were then converted to ionic

liquids via metathesis in water with lithium or

potassium salts of the fluorous anions: NTf2,

bis(pentafluoroethylsulfonyl)amide (BETI),

(fluorosulfonyl)(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide

(FSA),(nonafluorobutyl)sulfonyl(trifluoromethyl)sul

fonyl amide (IM14) and (fluorosulfonyl)

(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl amide (IM10). The

structures of the ILs were confirmed using 1H, 13C,

and 19F Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

spectroscopy. The ILs were characterized for their

physical properties including conductivity, viscosity

and thermal profile. Preliminary results reveal that

bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (FSA) ILs have the most

favorable properties, while

(nonafluorobutylsulfonyl)(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)a

mide (IM1,4) ILs have the least favorable properties.

For NTf2 and bis(pentafluoroethylsulfonyl)amide

(BETI) ILs, as the length of the cation alkyl side

chain decreases from 8 to 4 carbons, viscosity

decreases and conductivity increases.

44

Poster A94

Nitrogen concentration trends in Long

Island Sound

Leslie Ramirez Medrano

Mentor: Professor Paul Marchese


Hypoxia has been an environmental problem to

aquatic life in Long Island Sound. The term hypoxia is

defined as the low concentration of dissolved oxygen

(DO). This occurs when the bottom water of dissolved

oxygen concentration is less than 3 mg/L and it’s the

result of excess nutrients being introduced into the

water system. Nutrients (mostly nitrogen and

phosphorus) from sources such as sewage treatment

plants, agricultural fertilizers, and septic tanks are

introduced into the water which produces excess algae

growth. When the algae sink and decompose there is

an increase in the demands for oxygen. This condition

is worse during the summer when surface heating and

increased fresh summer melt result in lower water

density at the surface which prevents the mixing of

surface water with the bottom. The purpose of this

project is to study the trends in the nitrogen

concentration of Long Island Sound, and its effect on

hypoxia. The Connecticut Department of Energy and

Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) has been taking

water samples in Long Island Sound since the 1960s at

17 stations from October to May; from mid-June to

September the data is collected bi-weekly at 48

additional stations. Data includes nutrient

concentration, salinity, temperature, and dissolved

oxygen. In the eastern end of the Sound, nitrogen

concentrations have decreased at a rate of 0.0022

mg/L/yr, while at the western boundary (station A2)

nitrogen concentrations have remained constant. The

data shows that overall nitrogen levels have been

decreasing.

Poster A95

Developing in vitro Assays for a

Rhomboid Protease

Lian Nicole Ramos

Mentor: Professor Monica Trujillo, Naydu Carmona


Rhomboids are intramembrane proteases that are

highly conserved across all kingdoms. Our group

has shown that the active S. coelicolor rhomboid

protease encoded by SCO3855 is needed for a

functional twin arginine translocon system (Tat).

The Tat system transports folded proteins across the

membrane, and in S. coelicolor is composed of

multiple copies of the membrane proteins TatA,

TatB and TatC. Modeling and in vivo approaches

suggest that the TatA component is likely the

rhomboid protease substrate. To develop enzymatic

in vitro experiments, we have cloned and expressed

a codon optimized SCO3855 (SCO3855*) in E.coli.

To this end, the objectives of this project are:

1. Construct an inactive SCO3855* by removing the

catalytic serine residue through site-directed

mutagenesis to use as control for enzymatic in vitro

studies.

2. Construct a fluorescent transmembrane protein

substrate—FRET- scoTatA

Poster A96

Phenotypic Analysis of an Overexpressing

Rhomboid Protease Streptomyces coelicolor

Mutant

Mateo Saenz, Wilson Nieves

Mentor: Professor Naydu Carmona


Rhomboids are intramembrane proteases found in all

domains of life. Rhomboids exhibit a diversity of

functions that may include cell signaling.

45

Streptomycetes are gram positive soil bacteria with a

complex multicellular life cycle that are prolific

producers of secondary metabolites with important

biological functions. The expression of these natural

products is coordinated with the cell cycle through

signaling pathways that integrate environmental,

physiological and stress inputs, but these mechanisms

are yet to be fully understood. We propose that

rhomboid proteases play a role in these signaling

mechanisms. We have identified SCO3855, a

functional rhomboid protease in Streptomyces

coelicolor and have constructed a mutant that

overexpresses SCO3855. The current project details

the phenotypical characterization of the mutant,

specifically the differences in the production of

secondary metabolites, compared to the control strain.

Poster A97

A low cost of 3-D Printing of Simulation

Prosthetic Hand

Xin Shen

Mentor: Professor Huixin Wu


This study verified the possibility to lower cost and

easy maintenance of the 3D printing of simulation

prosthetic hand, meanwhile, this hand is still able to

do the same basic functions that others provide. We

were taking into account the cost of material and the

quality of the product, we run several test to the

prototype and compared the characteristics of each

electrical component and material that would give the

best fit and support in our prosthetic hand. We

predicted the cost of this particular mode should be

affordable to the main population (excluding the 3D

printer). To carry out the design of the hand, we

created a position control system that was using the

myoelectric muscle sensor, the Arduino Uno board,

and the servo motors to determine the finger

movements. Moreover, we chose to use the

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene as our prosthetic hand

material due to its flexibility and strength. In fact, this

prosthetic hand was capable to do some simple hand

movements such as okay gesture, L gesture, squeezing

hands, and holding an object during our testing.

Essential, the whole prosthetic hand only cost less

than $100 and it was easy to repair and replace the

component because of its design. However, our

prosthetic hand had its own limitations like the narrow

capacity of the instructions storage, the few amounts

of the gestures or hand movements to present, the

short lifetime of the strength wire, the long time to

respond input signal and the limited weight to grab.

Poster A98

Thermodynamic study of esterification of

acetic acid and amyl alcohols using a

microwave reactor

Keiann Simon

Mentor: Professor Jun H. Shin


Microwave reactor is a new technology and has

become an invaluable tool adopted in many areas of

science laboratories due to the convenience including

temperature, pressure and power controls. Application

of a microwave reactor was further extended to the

thermodynamic study of esterification reaction with

the merit of a convenient temperature control of a

microwave reactor. The equilibrium constants of the

esterification reaction between acetic acid and iso-

amyl alcohol at the temperatures of 50-80°C were

determined from the initial and equilibrium

concentrations of acetic acid through the acid-base

titration using a 0.5M NaOH solution. Thereafter, the

thermodynamic data ( H and S) of the reaction

were calculated from the linear relationship between

the equilibrium constants obtained (lnK) and the

equilibrium temperatures (1/T). The obtained data

were compared to the data calculated from the

esterification of ethanol, two propanols and four

butanols with acetic acid. This result will extend the

usage of microwave reactor to a tool of the

thermodynamic study which can be easily added to an

undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Application a

microwave reactor will make the thermodynamic

study easy, simple and faster due to the convenience

of the temperature control of the instrument and its

safety feature.

46

Poster A99

Metal-organic hybrids composed of

porous poly(o-toluidine) microspheres

and gold nanoparticles

Ashley Smith

Mentor: Professor David M. Sarno


We have recently developed a method to prepare

highly porous microspheres of the conducting

polymer poly(o-toluidine) by a single surfactant

water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion method. We

now demonstrate the incorporation of gold-

nanoparticles (Au-NPs) into the polymer spheres to

obtain a metal-organic hybrid material. Preformed

granular polymer purified by centrifugation in HCl

is mixed with o-toluidine and anion-capped Au-NPs.

Excess ammonium hydroxide then initiates porous

sphere formation. Scanning electron microscopy

reveals the morphological effects of Au-NP size and

ammonium hydroxide concentration. Discrete

spheres were obtained at all concentrations in the

presence and absence of Au-NPs. Interestingly,

smaller Au-NPs (20 nm) appear to be encapsulated

within the microspheres, whereas larger Au-NPs (40

nm, 90 nm) are typically confined to the outer

surface. In addition, if the NPs are added after

sphere formation, they do not appear to penetrate the

surface. These results suggest potential applications

for payload encapsulation and delivery.

Poster A100

Study of structural properties of plants

using X ray absorption

Rong Tan

Mentor: Professor Sunil Dehipawala


X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) including

Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS)

and X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy

(XANES) was used to investigate the structure

of iron in plants selected from variety of soil

conditions. Role of iron in heavy metal absorption

can be studied by careful investigation of XANES at

the vicinity of the iron K edge. XAS experiments

were conducted at the National Synchrotron Light

Source (NSLS) of Brookhaven National Laboratory

(BNL). The main edge height of the absorption

spectrum was used to determine the amount of iron

present in the plants. The main edge position was

used to determine the charge state and variation.

Poster A101

Effect of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

on Breast Cancer Cell Migration

Isabela Velasquez Gutierrez

Mentor: Professor Regina Sullivan


Biomedical applications of singled wall carbon

nanotubes (SWCNT) have the potential to expand

treatment options for cancer patients. Carbon

nanotubes have a high surface area to volume ratio

which allows surface functionalization. The size of

these nanotubes facilitates use as a drug delivery

system as well. Recent studies have shown that

unfunctionalized nanotubes have enter cells via

endocytosis. Also, the nanotubes may enter cells

through cellular gap junctions and ion channels. In

previous studies, we have shown that nanotubes are

47

not cytotoxic in low concentrations Currently we are

testing the hypothesis that unfunctionalized single-

walled carbon nanotubes incorporate into the actin

cytoskeleton and decrease migration of triple negative

breast cancer cells. However, our studies have been

limited by aggregation of the nanotubes in aqueous

solutions which decreases cellular uptake and

increases cytotoxicity in vitro studies. Coating single-

walled carbon nanotubes with collagen have been

shown to facilitate cellular uptake thus allowing for

intracellular associations to be investigated. This

method has limitations due to the acidic pH of the

collagen solution. In this study, we compared the

effect of collagen coated single-walled carbon

nanotubes with debundled single-walled carbon

nanotubes on breast cancer cell migration. Migration

assays were performed and revealed that breast cancer

cells treated with collagen-coated SWCNT as well as

the debundled SWCNT have a reduced rate of

migration. These results suggest that the SWCNT may

be incorporating into the cytoskeletal disrupting

rearrangements that are required for the metastatic

process. In future studies, we plan to measure Young’s

modulus which is an indicator of the degree of

flexibility which in turn can be correlated with

changes in the actin cytoskeleton. The study will be

expanded to include other types of cancer cells as well

as noncancerous cells and may reveal potentially

novel cancer treatments.

Poster A102

Impact of Molecular Length on

Oligocarbazole Single Molecule Wires

Jiayi Xue, Patrick Tuttle, Cole Sagan,

Xiaofang Yu

Mentor: Professor Sujun Wei and Gina Florio


Current organic materials that used into electronic

device have low efficiency in electron transport.

Encouraged by the great performance of

polycarbazole material in electronic devices, we

plan to synthesize three carbazole oligomers---

monomer, dimer and trimer. In order to study

polycarbazole electron transport in molecular level,

STM-BJ method is applied into this project.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy based Breaking

Junction method (STM-BJ) developed in 2003

provides reliable, reproducible generation and

measurement of electronic properties of molecular

circuits. In polycarbazole project, each molecule is

terminated with two methyl sulfides as the gold

atom linkers, with an eight carbon chain on nitrogen

atoms. We will first investigate the impact of

molecular length on electron transport through their

backbones via STM-BJ technology. An exponential

decay of conductance from monomer to trimer as

the molecular length extends is expected. As a

result, 5 grams of key intermediate 2,7-dibromo-9-

octyl-9H-carbazole has been synthesized from

commercially available 2,7-dibromo-9H-carbazole

by a SN2 reaction in high yield. The monomer and

dimer are successfully synthesized, and trimer’s

synthesis is still on the way.

Poster A103

Imidazole as a Novel and Robust Gold

Binding Group at STM-BJ Method

Xiaofang Yu, Shanelle Smith, Tianren Fu,

Jiayi Xue

Mentor: Professor Latha Venkataraman and Sujun

Wei1


Recent technological advances allow for the

fabrication of single molecule electronic circuits. In

particular, the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

based Breaking Junction method (STM-BJ)

developed in 2003 provides reliable, reproducible

generation and measurement of electronic properties

of molecular circuits. In order to complete the

circuit with gold electrodes, special gold atom

binding groups are installed at the both terminals of

organic compound of interest. Typical gold binding

groups include amino, thiol, methyl sulfide,

thiochroman and pyridine. To expand this toolbox,

we investigated the imidazole as a potential

candidate for the first time. We have quickly

synthesized a series of di(imidazolyl) alkanes (Im-n-

48

Im, n=3, 4, 5 & 6) by one-pot SN2 reaction. Their

conductance results by STM-BJ shows exponential

decay as the molecules expands longer. These initial

promising results confirms our original hypothesis –

imidazole can be utilized as gold atom binding

group in STM-BJ. Further explorations into the

detail of bind-release mechanism as well as general

application of imidazole in conjugated systems are

under way.

49

AFTERNOON POSTERS

Bronx Community College

Poster B1

Photogrammetry Modeling of Ancient

Maya Artifacts

Nicole Diaz, Paulin Josepha Dongomale

Mentor: Professor Sheldon Skaggs


Photogrammetry 3D Modeling of Ancient Maya: The

purpose of this research is to study the ancient Maya

artifacts from Pacbitun, Belize, specifically from 800

BC to 900 AD. In addition to learning about the

fundamentals of these cultural items, our focus is to

convert these prehistoric relics into a 3D model and

construct a physical replica of it. For instance, one of

the ancient objects that we are currently working on is

part of an atlatl. This device was used for hunting

purposes and for war. My mentor, Dr. Sheldon

Skaggs, and fellow BCC students excavated this item

from a Maya burial in the site core of Pacbitun. While

in Belize, Dr. Skaggs took a series of photos of this

relic to reconstruct it into physical form using our 3D

photography studio. We were successful in creating a

3D representation of this artifact, and it will help us to

study it in the future. For practice of the photography

and modeling, we visited the Department of

Archeology at the American Museum of Natural

History in New York City. We were given permission

to practice with our portable 3D photography studio

on some of their historical objects. Given the

opportunity to practice with these artifacts, we

improved the use of our 3D studio to take high quality

photos for our next excavation in Pacbitun, Belize.

With such skills, our objective is to find other ancient

Maya artifacts and bring them to life at BCC.

Poster B2

The Genetic Analysis of the PTC Gene and

its Correlation with Artificial Sweeteners

Daniela Forrest

Mentor: Professor Yasmine Edwards


Overtime, numerous animals, and humans diversely

developed an aptitude to taste bitter-tasting

compounds in order to protect themselves against

consuming potentially toxic and fatal substances.

This ability to taste bitterness was brought about by

many years of evolution, and thus led to an eventual

food preference. The human population displays

high variation in taste perception and the individual

differences in taste sensitivity is believed to may

also impact individual choices in nutrient intake,

appetite and overall health. A well-characterized

example of the variable perception of bitter

compounds is phenylthiocarbamide, more

commonly known as PTC, which can be accounted

for at the molecular level by polymorphic variants in

the specific type 2 taste receptor (TAS2R38).

Although the PTC polymorphism has been regarded

as a single locus trait, most investigators have

pointed out its complex features, and have proposed

that certain subject characteristics and

environmental factors may alter the phenotype.

(Sun-Wei Guo and Danielle R. Reed, 2001).

Heterozygotes are also believed to have a selective

advantage over homozygotes. Here, we proposed

that there is a correlation between PTC tasting and

avoidance for artificial sweeteners which may then

consequently lead to adverse effects in patients who

suffer from diabetes. So far, five volunteers were

exposed to the PTC bitter compound and the

individual taste intensity ratings were evaluated

using a Likert scale. After isolation of DNA from

human cheek cells and amplification of the

mitochondrial regions, only three of the five

volunteers were able to show viable results for

further data analysis. We plan to expand the sample

size of volunteers to increase our research and data

analysis findings. Using sugar as a control, our hope

50

is to also compare the chemical structures between

various artificial sweeteners such as Stevia,

NectaSweet, NutraSweet etc. amongst each other to

determine why some sugar substitutes are more

palatable to tasters than the other which could then

help manufacturers to create a more suitable

artificial sweetener that tasters or supertasters would

not want to avoid.

Poster B3

The potential of Hydrology Tools in

ArcGIS

Brian Gil

Mentor: Professor Sheldon Skaggs


The purpose of this project is to use Esri’s ArcGIS

hydrology tools to create a stream model on the

moderately sized Mayan community of Pacbitun.

This is done by exploiting DEMs (Digital Elevation

Models). By using the various sophisticated

instruments in this program we can fine tune a

framework that will attempt to answer the mystery

of why the Mayans built Pacbitun where it is today.

A civilization of its size needs a steady supply of

water and by predicting where water flow is coming

from we can possibly extract new information or the

location of more sites based on this.

Poster B4

Theory and Simulation of Solid State

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Spectroscopy and its Application

Willmar Guzman Ulloa, Francesca Serrano

Mentor: Professor Eugene Mananga


One of the method that allows the understanding of

molecular structure and organization it’s the Solid-

State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

By applying an intense external electromagnetic

field (𝐵0) to a not-silent NMR nucleus (with spin

quantum number Ι ≠ 0) an alignment is resulting

between proton’s spin magnetic momentum and the

external magnetic field, against and in favor of it. In

consequence, it’s appreciated a low energy “alfa

spin” (𝛼) state and the high energy “beta spin” ( 𝛽)

state that are now separated by an energy gap (∆𝐸).

Eventually, the energy gap is equivalent to the

electromagnetic radiation needed for the 𝛼spin state

to reach the 𝛽spin state which it’s known as

resonate ∆𝐸 = 𝛾ℎ

2𝜋 𝐵0. The electromagnetic

radiation needed to be absorbed by the low energy 𝛼

spin state it’s provided by a radio-frequency that the

spectroscopies generates in a various range (each

model of apparatus has their own frequency) and up

to +900Mhz for the modern and more powerful

apparatus. To have the best and clearer image

possible, it’s needed a high frequency that require a

magnetic field strong enough to generate the

necessary energy gap between 𝛼 spin state and 𝛽

spin state. When the relation ∆𝐸 = 𝛾ℎ

2𝜋 𝐵0 = ℎ𝑣

where (hv) is the 𝛽 energy state, then the proton spin

in the 𝛼 low energy state will resonate and jump or

promote to the 𝛽 high energy state. The resonation

event is captured by the spectrometer generating the

signal that will be interpreted later on.

Poster B5

Purification and Quantification of 2,5-

diphenyloxazole for Organic Scintillator

Naida Koura Mola

Mentor: Professor Sunej Hans


Neutrinos are tiny, subatomic particles that rarely

interact with matter. They originate from nuclear

reaction such as the sun and from nuclear power

plants. The liquid scintillator detector is one of the

medium to measure neutrinos which consist of many

51

chemical reagents and all the reagents needed to be

in optimum purity. Our project focuses on the

purification and quantification of 2,5-

diphenyloxazole (PPO). The PPO is purified

through recrystallization process. One of the first

major task was to find the suitable solvent for the

recrystallization. After series of trials, methanol is

chosen to be the appropriate solvent as it dissolves

the PPO but not soluble with Linear Alkyl Benzene

(LAB). After PPO purification, crystals are

dissolved in the LAB without weighing the solid

therefore, the quantification is necessary to know

the quantity of PPO left after purification. For the

quantification purposes, it was important to build a

calibration curve using Beer’s law and selecting the

right solvent for the mixture PPO-LAB.

Cyclohexane was selected among others solvents

(ethanol, dodecane, methanol) to dissolve the

mixture as it doesn’t overlap the absorption range of

PPO under the UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The

calibration curve is built and has little percent error

as cyclohexane evaporates readily at room

temperature. For more accuracy and precision,

different material and controlled method will be

used in the future for measurement.

Poster B6

Assessment of Effects of Calcium on

Cadmium Toxicity in Rice (Oryza sativa):

Implications on Phytoremediation

Potential

William Meyers

Mentor: Professor Nikolaos Apostolakis


A directed tree (or ditree for short) is a directed

graph whose underlying graph is a tree. We consider

labeled ditrees, that is ditrees with a vertex set [n] =

{1, ..., n}. The bidegree sequence of such a labeled

ditree is the sequence of (lᵢ, wᵢ), where lᵢ (resp. wᵢ) is

the in (resp. out) degree of the vertex i. There are

known necessary and sufficient conditions for a

sequence of pairs of non-negative integers that are

realized as bidegree sequences of ditrees, but the

natural question of how many different ditrees

realize a given realizable bidegree sequence is wide

open. This is in sharp contrast with the case of

degree sequences of (undirected) trees where the

elegant answer is well known. We will give a

complete answer to the question in the case of

dipaths, that is ditrees whose underlying tree is a

path, and we will present tentative answers for other

classes of trees.

Poster B7

Greenhouse Gas Monitoring at Bronx

Community College using a Piccaro

Machine

Sabri Mohiuddin

Mentor: Professor Soosairaj Therese


The evidence for the warming of the earth’s

atmosphere is irrefutable. The current warming

trend is of particular significance because most of it

is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a

rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.

Recent evidence has shown that climate change can

occur in as little as 10 years, much shorter than the

length of time many had previously envisioned.

From the Piccaro machine, the data was collected

for the Carbon dioxide, Methane, and water vapor.

This gas concentration collected in PPM unit during

2017 summer. Also using weather station solar

radiation, humidity and wind speed were collected.

Python software was used to combine the

relationship between Piccaro data and the weather

station data to determine weather change.

52

Poster B8

Investigating and Determining the Impact

of Learned Helplessness in First Year

College Students Using Surveys and the

Clinical Analysis of Salivary Cortisol

Nick Okoye, Vennesa Rainford

Mentor: Professor Diane Price-Banks


The purpose of this study is to determine if first year

Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

(STEM) majors at Bronx community colleges

exhibit characteristics of learned helplessness which

may result in STEM attrition. The study seeks to

help struggling students gain academic success

before changing their major to a non-STEM field.

Classic signs expressed with learned helplessness

include: lack of motivation, depression, poor social

skills, absence of control and loneliness. 27.4% of

high school students in New York City felt so sad or

hopeless almost every day for 2 or more weeks in a

row that they stopped doing some usual activity

(Frieden et al., 2013). This could be reflective of the

attitudes of freshman STEM majors having

difficulties passing quizzes and exam in their

introductory STEM courses. This attitude or

stressful event could be measured using salivary

cortisol. The National Center for Education

Statistics (NCES) indicated that 20% of incoming

college freshman major in STEM fields yet by the

end of their freshman year 7 out of 10 of these

students either switch their major or drop out of

college completely (Chen, 2013). At Bronx

Community College 40% of freshman STEM

major's graduate with a non-STEM degree. The

reasons students dropped out or switch their majors

as indicated by the students themselves, were a

compilation of pushed out or fall out circumstances,

which, included: was not doing well in my studies; I

failed or was failing in my studies, or lack of ability,

(Doll et al., 2013). Using a reflective survey to

determine student attitudes towards their STEM

introductory courses and clinical laboratory testing

of salivary cortisol collected from study participants,

this study will look to understand the mechanism to

clinically identify characteristics of helplessness in

STEM education before they give up and fall out of

the STEM profession.

Poster B9

Establishing the fundamental Mechanism

in the Electro chemical Reaction in

Lithium Ion Battery

Md Mushfiqur Rahaman

Mentor: Professor Soosairaj Therese


It has been established that both in acid delithiation

and chemical delithiation (NO2BF4) of the spinels

LiMn2O4 and LiMn2-xMxO4 (M=Cr,Fe,Co, and Ni)

led to the extraction of lithium by the

disproportionation of Mn¬3+ ion to Mn2+ and Mn4+.1 .

Studies have been conducted to make magnesium ion

batteries such as LiMn2O4and MgMnAlO4. The acid

treatment fully extracted Mg from LiMn2O4, but acid

treatment did not extract any Mg from MgMnAlO4

compound. It is because Al3+ disrupt the Mn-Mn

interaction and block the electron transfer.2 Chemical

treatment of LiMn2O4 did not extract Mg unlike in

the analogous Li2MnO4 spinel. This could be because

the Mg2+ with higher charge was unable to diffuse

from octahedral to tetrahedral sites.

The research is focusing on making spinels such as

LiMn2O4 and Li1-xMgxMn2O4. These spinels will be

synthesized and subjected to both acid treatment

using dil. H2SO4 and chemical treatment using

NO2BF4 and the products will be studied to see

whether lithium is extracted or magnesium is

extracted and also which is extracted more. Products

will be analyzed using redox titrations, XRD, and

ICP.

53

Poster B10

Green Chemistry & Nanotechnology

Approaches to Valorization of Waste Into

High Value Added Product

Asif Siddique

Mentor: Professor Dickens Hilaire, Nicolas Anuku


The 21st century offers exciting scientific

opportunities at the social, economic and

environmental stages. Nanotechnology and green

chemistry are emerging sciences that have the

potential to produce noble chemical compounds.

Resource recovery has become a major issue as the

demand for certain materials has grown over years.

In addition to the recovery of raw materials, there is

also considerable interest in using wastes as a source

of other chemicals with consequent savings in costs,

materials, and energy. This paper presents a review

of prior and ongoing work for the valorization of

waste materials into green value-added products.

The implication of these materials is also discussed

for the mitigation of environmental risks, and the

future development of new products for sustainable

housing, water purification, health and energy and

other fields.

Poster B11

Isolation of human DNA and PCR

amplification of an Alu Insertion site for

DNA fingerprinting

Meliza Uraga, Genevieve Kwanimaa

Mentor: Professor Rujin Tian


In this hands-on project we isolated our own DNA

from a simple saline mouthwash. Then we applied

the PCR technique to amplify a nucleotide sequence

from Chromosome 8 to look for an insertion of a

short DNA sequence called Alu within tissue

plasminogen activator (TPA) gene. In some copies

of TPA gene there is an insertion of a 300 bp Alu

sequence. Since we each have two copies of

chromosome 8 (Ch8, one maternal allele and one

paternal allele), the possible versions of Alu

insertions in Ch8 are Alu (+/+ ) (both alleles have

the insertion), Alu (+/-) (one allele has the

insertion), or Alu (-/-) (both alleles lack the

insertion). We determined whether we carry this Alu

sequence on one, both, or none of our Chromosome

8 to know our genotype. This was accomplished by

electrophoresing our PCR product on an agarose gel

and observing the size of the bands that have been

created.

Poster B12

How to rotate objects in 3-D, an

introduction to quaternions

Brandon Vargas

Mentors: Professors Mehdi Lejmi


Quaternions are now a common part of mathematics and physics culture. Dot products, cross products and the whole of vector analysis have their origin in the development of physical applications of quaternions. Although due to lack of material available on the subject students rarely are taught the origins of some key components of topics such as multivariable calculus, Electromagnetism and Maxwell’s equations, Pauli matrices and spin in quantum mechanics. There are numerous applications of quaternions from aviation to computer animation, in fact they are an integral part of modern theoretical physics research. The objective of this research endeavor is simple, to gain insight into academic subjects the student has already experienced or will experience. We began by reviewing complex numbers and 2-D

54

rotation matrices, from there we applied these principles to learn properties of quaternions. We then explored other methods of rotating an object in 3-D including Euler angles and the Rodrigues Formula. Reviewing the history behind mathematics can lead to deeper understanding of various topics as such we applied this principle as the project proceeded.


Poster B13

Antioxidant Capacity of Green Tea

Gabrielle Blevins

Mentor: Professor Chulsung Kim


Green Tea is a well-known high antioxidant drink.

According to taste preference, teas are prepared at

different temperatures between 4oC (refrigerated)

and 100oC (boiled). This research studied the

effects of brewing temperature on the amount of

available total antioxidants in the green tea. Teas

were prepared using commercially available dried

green tea. One gram of the green tea was introduced

to 100 mL of distilled water and brewed for four

minutes at different temperatures. In the second test,

tea was brewed at 4oC for 5 hours with

measurements at every 30 minutes and for 24 hours.

The prepared tea samples from both tests are diluted

until the total antioxidant amount is in the detectable

range for the Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant

Capacity (TEAC) method. The developed color was

determined at 735 nm with the Aquamate 8000 UV-

Vis Spectrophotometer. Experimental results

confirmed that the available total antioxidant

capacity in the green tea is directly proportional to

the brewing temperature. The available antioxidant

amount in the green tea prepared via cold brewing

technique increased as a function of brewing time.

However, the amount of extracted antioxidants

through cold brewing within 24 hours was

significantly less than that prepared with the boiling

water.

Poster B14

Vegetation Monitoring

and Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Integrated with Robot Operation System

Enmanuel Brito

Mentor: Professor Derek Tesser


Precision agriculture monitoring requires data

acquisition at high spatial resolution. Information

about vegetation moisture and structure is important

to determine vegetation health in agriculture.

The development of satellite and drone technology

has allowed for an advancement in agriculture and

environmental field[DT1]. The aims of this research

are to determine vegetation structure and health

using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the goal

of complementing satellite and in site data. We have

developed software utilizing python and Robot

Operating System (ROS) to obtain information

about drone-acquired imagery position in time. We

created .bag files to contain drone geospatial and

temporal information collected by areal imagery.

We have applied this data using applications to

create flight path maps and 3D structure from

motion. The benefit of this applications is the

geolocation of the drone to help improve the

structural modeling of vegetation. Future research

goals include upgrading the on-board computer and

camera system to collect multispectral information

to provide information about vegetation health in

real time.

55

Poster B15

Is the next recession coming? - Lessons

from the yield curve when interest rates are

low

Torrell Daw

Mentor: Professor Sebastien Buttet


We investigate the reliability of the term spread as a

predictor of recessions when short-term interest rates

are low and the yield curve might not invert as much

as it should. We show that adding two additional

forward-looking variables (before-tax corporate

profits and stock market returns) greatly improve

statistical models' predictive power. We use our model

to predict the probability of a recession in the next

twelve months.

Poster B16

Antioxidant in Beverages

Mariel Galindo, Jair Rocha



The antioxidant is a substance that inhibits oxidation

of other molecules. With many positive health

effects of the antioxidants, studies have been

performed to investigate the available antioxidant in

diverse food items. In this study, twenty five (25)

juices were collected from a local market to

determine the total amount of available antioxidant.

Solid particles were removed from the juices via

centrifugation followed by filtration. The filtrate

was diluted at different ratios before

experiments. The TEAC method was used to

determine the antioxidant amount with the Orion

AquaMate 8000 spectrophotometer. The

experimental results showed that among the juices,

pomegranate showed the highest TEAC values of

27.5 umol-trolox/ml-juice. Blueberry and prune

juices are the next highest TEAC values of 4.90 and

4. 45 umol-trolox over ml-juice, respectively.

Poster B17

Antioxidant Levels in Tangerine Peels

Moneema Miles



Antioxidants are nutrients that prevent or slow down

oxidation damage throughout the body. Because of its

positive health effect, various food items were studied

focusing on the available antioxidant capacity. In this

research, studies have been performed to determine the

amount of total antioxidant capacity in the peel of the

tangerines which are well known for their rich of

vitamin c and antioxidant in the flesh, Tangerine peels

were collected and air dried for at least 20 days

followed by grinding using a commercial grinder. After

additional several days of air dry period, the ground

peels were sieved to separate particle size. For each

sample size, the solution prepared at the mass to

volume ratio of 16.7 g/L. The solution was mixed at the

rotating shaker for 30 minutes followed by filtration.

The TEAC (Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity)

method was adopted to determine the total amount of

antioxidant in the filtrate. According to the

experimental observation, the TEAC value for the

tangerine peel was 1687 ±52 mol of Trolox/gram of

the sample. It is confirmed that the tangerine peels

show a high capacity of antioxidant levels.

56

Poster B18

The Effect of Molecular Sieves in

Biodiesel Production

Kizzy Nelson

Mentor: Professor Jihyun Kim


Molecular Sieves (MS 3A, 4A or 5A) have been

applied as green catalysts in organic synthesis, and the

literature studies report that these zeolites have both

acidic and basic properties. In our research, we

employed MS 3A in Biodiesel production from Waste

cooking oil (WCO) and Ethanol (pre-dried over MS

3A for 30 mins prior to using.) The results showed

that the combination of MS 3A (1 % wt of the WCO)

and NaOH (0.5 % wt of the WCO) at 50 0C for 10

mins provides 95-98% of biodiesel. The reaction was

monitored by Thin Layer Chromatography, after 10

mins heating at 50 0C, no starting material was

detected. Comparable yields were also obtained with

a mixture of NaOH (about 5% wt of the WCO) and

WCO and ethanol, refluxing for over 40 mins. This

results showed that the mixture of 3A MS and NaOH

as catalyst in biodiesel production increases the

reactivity. We will continue to re-evaluate MS acidic

and basic properties, find the application of MS 3A in

organic synthesis in the presence of other solid

heterogeneous catalyst.

Poster B19

Happiness Defined

Tasreen Rahman

Mentor: Professor Kristina Baines


Happiness is a topic of great interest and discussion,

but it difficult to define and measure. This research

investigated how happiness is defined across varied

communities. Using data collected from semi-

formal interviews (n=15) and a participatory action

workshop (n=21) conducted in a small village in

southern Belize and semi-formal interviews

conducted in New York City (n=8), happiness was

found, across both locations, to be linked most

frequently to relationships with family. The data

also demonstrate that beyond the frequency of

family, individuals define happiness in different

ways depending on their cultural practices and

lifestyles. While preliminary, these findings, and

continued interest in happiness as it relates to

lifestyle differences, warrants further data collection

in different parts of the world to investigate how

people outside of rural Belize and New York City

perceive and define happiness.

Poster B20

Detoxification of the hexavalent

chromium contaminated water using an

environmentally friendly reducing agent

(tangerine peel)

Jair Rocha

Mentors: Chulsung Kim


The Hexavalent chromium has been a concerned

pollutant easily found in the environment. There are

many technologies available to detoxify hexavalent

chromium-contaminated resources, the reduction to

trivalent chromium is one of the common

technologies adopted in the remediation. Since it

was confirmed that tangerine peel has high

antioxidant capacity, a study was conducted to apply

tangerine peel as a reducing agent. A hexavalent

chromium stock solution was prepared using

potassium dichromate at the target of 50 mg/L.

Tangerine peel were air dried and ground using a

commercial grinder. The ground peel was added to

the hexavalent chromium stock solution in the

concentration of 17 g/L. The prepared solution was

placed in a 50 mL centrifuge tube which was fixed

to the rotation shaker up to nine (9) days. The

concentration of hexavalent chromium in the

57

solution was determined as a function of time using

the diphenyl carbadize method. The experimental

results show that the significant amount of

hexavalent chromium was removed, and certainly

tangerine peel is a potential electron donor to

remediate the hexavalent chromium-contaminated

water.

Poster B21

Choco Rainforest Mapping research

Project

Giorby Suero

Mentor: Professor Derek Tesser


The Choco Rainforest is a region of coastal

rainforest on the pacific coast of South America that

stretches from the southern tip of Panama to the

northern tip of Peru. This region of the world is

understudied and is not accurately mapped, because

of this, much remains unknown about deforestation

patterns, climate change and biodiversity. In order to

map the area with precision, prior knowledge of the

area is required. The Esmeraldas region of Ecuador

is a part of the Choco Rainforest and it is a

significant area of focus because it is an area where

deforestation is prevalent. Many hectares of forested

land are being cut down for the cultivation of palm

oil. To the untrained eye African Palm trees and

forested areas can look identical. With the help of a

computer program called QGIS, mapping of the area

can be easier. QGIS gives access to up to date

images of the Earth from satellites and lets its users

categorize certain patches of the region with layers

by creating shapefiles of different regional classes.

The QGIS user doing the mappings of the

Esmeraldas needs a local understanding of the

landscape, this is called supervised classification.

Once a sufficient amount of patches are categorized,

users can now train the program to seek out the

patches that look similar to the layers that are

assigned. This allows for very accurate mapping.

The different categories that will be used for the

shapefile layers are urban, bare, African Palm,

agricultural and forested areas. The next step of this

work will include regional classification based on

our training sites.

Poster B22

A Virtual Information Assistant for the

CUNY Guttman Community College

Using Amazon Alexa

Miguel Vignoni

Mentor: Professor Jinzhong Niu


In this work, we present a virtual information

assistant that we build using Amazon Alexa for our

college, Guttman Community College of CUNY.

This information assistant is an Amazon Alexa skill

that can be enabled on a physical Amazon Echo

device, or on a mobile device with the Alexa app.

Amazon Alexa is a leading service in the emerging

field called home automation. With Amazon Alexa,

consumers can use their voices to control smart

appliances, retrieve information, interact with online

information services, etc. Physical devices like

Amazon Echo are dedicated devices to provide

Alexa support.

Our Amazon Alexa skill can interact with users and

answer questions or respond to requests like the

following: 1) Is the college open today? 2) When is

the community day this semester? 3) What is GLO

(Guttman Learning Outcomes)? 4) Where is the

Business Office? 5) Give me an update on financial

aid. In this work, we describe in detail how we

retrieve, parse, store, and deliver information via the

Amazon Alexa Voice Service framework to support

the capabilities of the Alexa skill.

Although Amazon Alexa was originally designed to

be used in a home environment, it has a huge

potential in enterprise environments like our college

as well. As far as we are aware of, our work is one

of the first to utilize Amazon Alexa in such an

environment. We hope that our work helps to shed

light on building similar applications and to provide

58

a more user-friendly interface for retrieving needed

information.

very pronounced aberration in locomotor activity

that we think typifies ataxia in these mice.

HOSTOS COMMUNITY

COLLEGE

Poster B23

Organic Compounds Characterization of

Parsley and Cilantro Aeroponically

Haithm Alhashdi, Mohosina Islam

Mentor: Professor Debasish Roy


Aeroponics is the process of growing plants without

soil or geoponics but using air and misty

environments. Since the plants are not placed within

soil they receive their nutrients in another source

being in a mist form. A liquid filled with nutrient

solution is sprayed onto the plants in a mist form

which helps the plants grow. This method has

become popular in that it does not need as much

money and increases air exposure. Parsley and

cilantro are two plants that are commonly used in

cooking; therefore their production is abundant and

finding cheaper ways of production is highly

beneficiary. Though the organic compound

characterization of aeroponic grown parsley and

cilantro and organic store bought parsley and

cilantro might differ. Hence the purpose of this

experiment is to compare the concentration of

polyphenols in parsley and cilantro grown

aeroponically and organic store bought parsley and

cilantro. These comparisons will be done by

conducting infrared spectroscopy, thin layer

chromatography, and total phenolic determination

and analyzing the results. The pH level and protein

estimation will also be measured and compared.

With these findings the conclusion of whether

aeroponically grown parsley, cilantro and bok choy

is a better alternative.

Poster B24

Senior People Tracking System for

Metropolitan Area

Elan Anderson, Swimi Kolancheril, Calvin

Francis

Mentor: Professor Biao Jiang


As the elderly population continues to grow,

caregivers will find it increasingly difficult to ensure

their patients do not go missing. This is especially

important for patients who suffer from medical

and/or mental disorders. We propose the use of

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices such as

Estimote beacons and Raspberry Pi3 (RPI3)

scanners to track the whereabouts of elderly

patients. These BLE beacons will store a patient’s

information. A database will store personal and

medical information such as age, address, medical

records, health conditions, and contact information.

Ultimately, a system using these beacons was

established, and a website is currently in progress to

display this data.

Poster B25

Analysis of the Elephant’s Metabolic Heat

regulation Using Infrared Thermography

Elayne Blancas, Raziel Benreuben, Towana

De Jesus

Mentor: Professor Moise Koffi


Elephants are the largest walking animals on Earth.

Due to poachers and socio economic reasons, many

elephants are kept in captivity for conservation

59

purposes. However, conservationists must ensure that

they are employing proper management procedures

for these animals away from their natural habitats.

Because of their large size, studies indicate that

elephants produce a huge amount of metabolic heat,

which is proportional to their body mass. However,

the mechanism they use to dissipate their excess heat

has been discussed profusely. It has been hypothesized

that the flapping of the elephants’ pinnae plays an

important role in heat dissipation. A study was

conducted using an infrared camera to scan the body

and the pinnae of elephants at the San Diego zoo. The

experiment was repeated on a model of an elephant’s

pinna constructed in the Aero-thermal lab at The City

College of New York for the study of heat dissipation

in elephants. Experimental results indicate lower

temperature values recorded from the flapping pinna

of the elephant compared to the body portion. This is

explained by the presence of generated vortices by the

moving pinna, which lead to convective heat transfer

enhancement at these locations. Although their pinnae

play a vital role in heat dissipation, behavioral

observations of elephants at the zoo indicate that

these animals utilize other methods such as blood

perfusion, vasodilation, bathing, or staying in a shade

to regulate their core body temperature.

Poster B26

Comparative Study of pH and Protien

Content of Aeroponically grown and Store

bought Geoponically own Basil and Lettuce

Hector M. Colon

Mentor: Professor Debashish Roy


The purpose of study was to attain an understanding

of solvent based extraction, attain accurate

measurements of pH and absorbance of said

extractions, as well as make comparisons between

the growing processes of aeroponics and geoponics.

The methods of analysis used were pH indicator

analysis, Bradford protein assay estimation, and

Inferred and Visible Spectroscopy. Based on the

results attained it was concluded aeroponics is a

viable growing process because of pH levels

remaining consistent in the buffer solution used, on

the basis of protein content it is shown that

aeroponically grown plants have higher protein

content.

Poster B27

Analysis of Images Through the

Techniques of Images Morphing

Thierno Diallo, Keneil Feron, Mohamed

Sajath

Mentor: Professor Tanvir Prince


Image morphing is an application of linear algebra

which consists of transforming one point to another

in a plane. Images of objects are analyzed using the

image morphing techniques to predict the changes

that had happened through time. The purpose of this

research is to observe the changes in different

NASA satellite images, describe their observation,

and hypothesize the possible causes of the

phenomena observed in the morph. Image morphing

technique is performed using two satellite images

taken at two different time intervals, morph them

and observe the gradual changes of the

corresponding objects. Since additional

documentation about selected pictures are not

available for comparison, morph was used to

analyze their transition images. The accuracy of the

transformation is analyzed by taking pictures of a

blooming flower and document all the phases

between the bloom. Then, the morphing technique is

implemented towards the first and last pictures in

order to compare the changes previously observed in

the morph using Morph Age and Fanta Morph, a

morphing software to morph the pictures. As a

result, a morph was created to predict the

appearances of Mars’ transitions within ages, to

describe the changes in Jupiter over time and the

significant change in the sunspot numbers between

the initial start of the year in 2008 and the end of the

cycle in 2014. The morph provides an accurate

60

approximation to the actual changes of the objects

and a very useful tool to use when it is impossible to

take consecutive pictures of a constantly changing

place or object.

Poster B28

Concrete Inspection Using Deep Learning

Miguel Febriel, Melissa Souffront, Cheison

Pulinario, Luis Tapia, Richie Ovando,

Vanessa Pujols



Concrete infrastructures are commonly used around

the world. Over time, they begin to weaken as a

result of cracks in the concrete. These cracks can

remain unnoticed for a prolonged period of time. A

new proposal has emerged to apply the deep

learning technique to recognize, inspect, and detect

cracks on time. A database is created by extracting

the cracks on a generous number of cracking

pictures, which are used to train the proposed

machine learning algorithm. The trained algorithm

has been designed and tested successfully for the

analysis of the unprocessed graphs and to detect

cracks and spalls. The results obtained from the

detection of cracks by the algorithm will help

structural engineers to notice cracks and spalls more

efficiently in a concrete infrastructure.

Poster B29

Senior People Tracking System for

Metropolitan Areas

Calvin Francis, Elan Anderson

Swimi Kolancheril



As the elderly population continues to increase in

the United States, caretakers in facilities such as

nursing homes and hospitals, as well as private

residences, will find it increasingly difficult to keep

track of and care for their patients. This issue is

especially important for those elderly patients who

suffer from mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s

disease. To combat this issue, a low-cost, low-

energy tracking system has been developed. This

system utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

beacon technology and Raspberry Pi

Microcomputers to track elderly patients and was

specifically tailored for use in a metropolitan setting.

Preliminary results show that the system is effective

in indoor settings with a few minor caveats. Future

works and improvements are also discussed.

Poster B30

Determination of the enthalpy of a solid

fuel using a bomb calorimeter

Arafate Idohou

Mentor: Professor Francisco Fernandez


The goal of this project was to determinate the heat

of combustion of a solid fuel using a bomb

calorimeter (1108). The bomb calorimeter is used to

completely burn substances in an excess of oxygen at

a pressure of 30 atm. The heat of combustion released

is absorbed by the calorimeter vessel in which the

bomb is immersed, and the result is a temperature

increase read on the digital thermometer (6775). The

heat capacity of the system is first determined by

adding and determined by adding a defined amount

of heat from the combustion of benzoic acid. The

combustion of the solid fuel is then subsequently

performed under the same conditions.

An examination of the thermodynamics of the

conditions existing in bomb calorimetry shows that

the heat of combustion per unit mass of substance

burned is a function of the mass of sample used, of

the initial oxygen pressure, of the amount of water

placed in the bomb, and of the volume of the bomb.

61

The heat of combustion of the unknown solid fuel

was -3225 ±4 Kj/mol.

Poster B31

A New Model of Harvesting Fish

Population

Hamidou Kabore, Abdoul Aziz Niang, Luis

Tejeda

Mentor: Professor Tanvir Prince


In this paper we propose a new model of harvesting

fish population. This model is particularly applicable

to those types of fish population which reproduce at a

particular time of the year and this cycles continue

throughout the life of the fish population. Many of the

species including many types of fish follow such

cyclic behavior of reproduction. The model assumes

the minimum and the maximum fraction of harvesting

and guarantee the survival of the species and at the

same time optimal harvesting. The model is analyzed

both graphically and algebraically.

Poster B32

Melanin Extraction Protocol

Inzamamdeen Kassim

Mentor: Professor Chanh Phan


Cryptococcal Meningitis is a deadly disease that

claims the lives of over 600,000 people yearly. This

disease is caused by the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus

neoformans. However, there is still limited resources

available on combating Cryptococcal Meningitis.

Melanin has been found to be deposited within the cell

wall, which contributes towards the virulence of this

fungus. The role melanin plays in the cell wall is not

completely known, but there is evidence that has

suggested melanin is essential for the cell to maintain

its integrity and protection from external stresses.

Understanding how melanin is deposited in the cell

wall is essential in understanding the role it plays in

protecting the cell. Melanin is an amorphous

substance, which makes traditional methods of

analyzing the structure, such as X-ray diffraction

ineffective. Solution-State Nuclear Magnetic

Resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry would

result in the loss of structural integrity of the melanin

during the breakdown process. Solid-state NMR

(ssNMR) is a more effective method of analyzing the

structure of melanin in its native state since it does not

involve breaking down the melanin into solution state.

Our research is aimed at testing the reproducibility of

the melanin extraction protocol. Which is the protocol

followed in preparing samples for ssNMR. It was

found that the extraction protocol is reproducible and

consistent among concurrent samples.

Poster B33

The Crippling effect of the jones act on

Puerto Rico

Francisco Lopez, Reynaldo Martinez,

Ronaldo William, Patricia Matos, Ayman

Moitatchiou

Mentor: Professor Lauren Wolf


This research study would contribute to the growing

literature on the deleterious/negative impacts the

Jones Act has on Puerto Rico's economy. It is our

belief that there is a correlation between the

restrictions imposed by the Jones Act of 1917 and

its impact on the Puerto Rican economy. Following

the introduction, we examine using the GDP and

Stochastic processes to model the effects of the

Jones Act on the economy. Further anticipated

analysis is required but we intend to show that there

is a strong connection between the Jones act and the

current economic crisis in Puerto Rico. Our study

will demonstrate that the Jones Act has negatively

62

affected the Puerto Rican economy, and the

shipping industry in general. This quantitative

analysis will provide a nuanced perspective that

would support advocacy for this necessary

legislative change.

Poster B34

The Impact of Learning Modes on

Content Understanding and Retention of

Information

Abigail Regalado, Jassiel Mena, Alison

Castillo, Baowend Ouedraogo

Mentor: Professor Damara Lois-Lang, Reginald

Dorcely, Edme Soho


There has been substantial research in how the

human brain is able to learn and process information

in order to retain and use the information when

deemed necessary. Research has been able to

convey the many methods and strategies that are

involved in the learning system in order to ensure

the student’s academic success. The purpose of this

research was to determine if there is a difference in

learning modes and how that affects students scores

by comparing the scores of those students who were

told there was a test before reading the material, to

the students who were told about a test before

listening to the material. It is hypothesized that the

student reading the content will have a better

understanding of the material and therefore be able

to perform well in the test provided right after. In

order to test the hypothesis, a random selection of

students in community colleges and senior colleges

were gathered to undergo this hypothesis. These

individuals were divided into three groups, group A,

group B and a control group. Group A students

were given a passage an were given the opportunity

to read the material until they are confident they

comprehend the content to the best of their

understanding and soon after take a quiz related to

the passage that they read. Group B listened to the

passage and in the same fashion as group A, group

B will listen until reaching comprehension and take

a quiz immediately after. The control group took

the quiz based on their background knowledge

without reading and listening to the material. The

results showed that reading and listening to the

material improves the chances of scoring higher and

proves that the hypothesis made is correct.

Poster B35

Towards a 5-Million-Years History of

Ocean Circulation South of Africa

Antonio Sinadinse, Oumarou Kafando,

Elibeth Martinez Tejada

Mentor: Professor Allison M. Franzese


The Agulhas current is the strongest western

boundary current in the Southern Hemisphere,

transporting warm saline surface water from the

Indian Ocean along the East African margin to the

tip of Africa. Agulhas leakage is the retroflection of

the Agulhas current producing warm and salty

Indian Ocean water that drifts into the Atlantic

Ocean. The goal of this project is to reconstruct

changes in the amount of Indian Ocean water

“leaking” around the tip of South Africa and into the

Atlantic Ocean over the past five million years. We

observe how this change in climate relates to global

warming. The reconstruction and results from IODP

Expedition 361 is used to understand the dynamics

of the surface ocean circulation around southern

Africa, and evaluate its relationship with the deep

ocean circulation under contrasting climatic

regimes. In order to learn how the Agulhas leakage

varies, we measure the sediments collected from the

Site U1479 where the Agulhas current in the

Southern Hemisphere transports the warm saline

surface water from the tropical Indian Ocean along

the tip of the East African margin. In addition, we

measured the concentrations of major and trace

elements, as well as, Argon (Ar), Strontium (Sr),

Neodymium (Nd), Lead (Pb) isotope ratios in the <2

micron terrigenous clays using clay sediments,

carbonate-free, and oxide free. The results will

63

determine the origin of the sediment, which we

expect to have a very old continental provenance.

Any change in the composition of the current will

tell us to expect less leakage.

Kingsborough Community

College

Poster B36

Determining differences in the 16S

mitochondrial DNA differences among

samples of American eel, Anguilla

rostrate, obtained from southern, central

and northern Atlantic coast of the United

States of America for population

identification

Aaron Blumenthal

Mentor: Professor Sarwar Jahangir


Our goal is to determine if American eel (Anguilla

rostrata) represents multiple populations in the

Atlantic coast USA or are they just a random group

of eels that are randomly distributed throughout the

coastline. We obtained a sample of American eel

from a supplier who gets them from the poachers in

New York area and used 16S mitochondrial rDNA

(mtrDNA) primers to develop their genetic identity.

We will use this as a base line and compare the 16S

rDNA identity of other American eels collected

from distant locations, Florida to Maine. This will

help us determine if the American eel represents

only one or multiple populations. We collected a

muscle sample from an American eel, collected

from the NY-NJ region, extracted the mitochondrial

DNA using cell-homogenizing buffer, amplified 16S

mtrDNA using Qiagen REPLI-g Mitochondrial

DNA kit and sent out the sample for sequencing to

GenScript, NJ. Our preliminary results were

presented as a Poster at the CRSP Spring

Symposium held on May 18, 2018, at KCC-CUNY

and will be presented up-to-date again at the coming

CUNY-CRSP Summer Symposium to be held on

July 24, 2018, at John Jay College, CUNY.

Poster B37

Protein supplementation during pregnancy

affects uterine gene expression in cattle

offspring

Ashley Civil

Mentor: Professor Azure Faucette, Jennifer Thorson,

Ligia Prezotto

Kingsborough Community College and Montana State

University

Protein supplementation is a common practice in

both beef and dairy cattle industry especially during

winter breeding season. This is due to limited

availability and poor nutritive quality of forages [1].

A common source of protein supplementation in

ruminants is non-protein nitrogen (NPN) or urea.

NPN is used by the bacteria in the rumen of cattle to

produce proteins that are similar to proteins

available in their diet [2]. There are many studies

that look at changes in uterine gene expression when

diets were supplements with protein. However, there

is limited information that examine the effects of

maternal supplementation on gene expression in

their offspring. Based on preliminary data from

Dr’s. Thorson and Prezotto, they noticed both gross

and histological changes in female calves born to

dams supplemented with NPN. We propose that

there will be gene modifications that will effect

reproduction and metabolism in offspring born to

mothers on NPN diets. The method used to test the

hypothesis is to compare genes expression in the

uterus of offspring of cows fed NPN diet versus a

normal diet. There are several genes that we are

looking at for this project such as Squalene

epoxidase (SQLE), Forkhead box A2 (FOXA2),

Fibroblast Growth Receptor 1 (FGFR1), Fibroblast

Growth Receptor 2 (FGFR2), Phospholipid

phosphatase 2 (PPAP2) and Solute carrier family 10

64

member 1 (SLC10A1). Currently, we are in the

process of extracting RNA from the uterine samples

from Montana. Once the RNA has been reverse

transcribed, we will run qPCR to quanitfy the

trascripts. We expect that PPAP2c, FOXA2, FGFR2

and FGFR1 will be down regulated in the tissue;

while SLC10A1 and SQLE will be up regulated.

Poster B38

Mutations of PAD1 and FDC1 in strains

of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Crystal Dunkley

Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Mulligan


Yeasts are single-celled microorganisms

biologically classified as fungi. Saccharomyces

cerevisiae is a species of yeast used in baking bread,

and making wine and beer. In beer production yeast

is used to ferment sugars producing ethanol, and

carbon dioxide. Additionally yeast produce other

flavor compounds detectable in beer.

Phenyl-acrylic decarboxylase (PAD1) and Ferulic

acid decarboxylase (FDC1) are involved in the

production of 4-vinyl guiacol (4-VG), a flavor

compound described as spicy, smoky, or clove-like.

This flavor is most often found in styles known as

wit, wiezen, or wheat beers in which 4-VG is found

in comparatively high levels. We looked at

commercially available strains of S. cerevisiae for

nonsense mutations of PAD1 and FDC1. Our

hypothesis is that strains of S.cerevisiae used to

make wheat beers will not have nonsense mutations

in PAD1 and FDC1 while other strains that are not

used to make wheat beers will have nonsense

mutations. We used the sequences of PAD1 and

FDC1 to design PCR primers to amplify these

genes, compared seven strains, three wheat beer

strain and four non-wheat beer strains, by PCR

amplifying PAD1 and FDC1 followed by

sequencing and comparison to published sequence

looking for nonsense mutations. We were unable to

get clean sequencing results and were unable to do

the comparisons to the published strains.

Poster B39

Identifying the Species of Nematodes to

Predict Floral Health

Edna Georges

Mentor: Professor Marie McGovern, David

Michaelson


Nematodes are a diverse group of worms that play

an active role in cycling nutrients as part of the soil

food web. Some worms also play major beneficial

roles in soil health such as feeding on bacteria,

fungi, and insects which are harmful to plants. The

Brooklyn Botanical Garden, provided us with many

soil and compost samples so we could identify the

relative abundance and diversity of worm species in

their samples. Two of the soil samples were

collected from beds in their Perennial Border area

surrounding two persimmon trees. These persimmon

trees were in dramatically different health. We could

thus test the hypothesis that the health of the trees

would correlate with the presence/absence of

specific nematode or annelid species. We identified

no worms in the soil of the unhealthy tree but did

identify two species of annelids in the soil of the

healthy tree, in agreement with our hypothesis.

In the lab, 15 g of soil was weighed, broken up in

a beaker and diluted by water. The soil was then

poured through three stacked of sieves of mesh size

20, 60, 325 then placed in a petri dish. This allows

us to separate the worms by size and to remove

individual worms from the soil, isolate their

genomic DNA, carry out a PCR reaction to amplify

the 18S rRNA gene, send the samples for

sequencing and compare the sequences to the

Genebank database. This allows us to determine

the genus and species of the isolated worms. By

doing so we can observe the amount, diversity and

type of worms present in each persimmon tree bed.

We observed that the unhealthy persimmon tree

sample didn’t contain any worms, but in the healthy

persimmon tree 2 annelids were found, one of the

65

suborder Lumbricina and one of the Fridericia

genus.

Poster B40

Up-cycling Ibuprofen

Cleavon Harris

Mentor: Professor Homar Barcena


Through an anthropogenic introduction of

pharmaceuticals in the environment many over the

counter drugs, like ibuprofen, have polluted water

sources and disrupted aquatic life. This experiment

purposes to raise awareness and ultimately slow

down the rate of drug pollution. Our experiment will

determine a new pathway to teach students how to

synthesize amides using expired drugs. The up-

cycling of expired Ibuprofen utilizes the active

ingredient of over-the-counter tablets to teach

students the principles of extraction and organic

synthesis, in this case the transformation of

carboxylic acids into amides. Methods of

recrystallization and characterization will also be

tested.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra was

used to characterize the starting material and the

product of the reaction by looking at the number and

position of the carbons and hydrogens. This

information aids in confirming the structure of the

product. The NMR also shows if any impurities are

present in the sample. Fourier-transfor Infrared

Spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to confirm the

presence of the amide in the product. The melting

point of the product was investigated using a Fisher-

Johns apparatus, and a recrystallization procedure is

being developed to purify the product.

Poster B41

Identification and Genetic

Characterization of Vancomycin

Resistant Bacteria in a Community

Setting

Yuliia Hlamazdenko

Mentor: Professor Grace Axler-DiPerte


Enterococcus faecalis can cause serious infectious

diseases in the community, and complications in

hospital settings. Infections with vancomycin

resistant Enterococci (VRE) have been reported

since 1990. Vancomycin is an antibiotic used for

severe blood and skin infections, endocarditis, and

meningitis caused by Gram-positive bacteria. There

are six reported genotypes causing vancomycin

resistance, determined by both plasmid-borne

transposons (vanA, vanB and associated regulators)

and chromosomal genes (vanC, vanD, vanE, vanG).

Both vanA and vanB may pose a serious problem

since these genes are located on a plasmid, and may

be transferred among bacteria. VanB VRE were

chosen for this research due to lower minimum

inhibitory concentration, and their increased

prevalence in some United States hospitals.

Although community acquired infections with

vanB VRE have not yet been reported,

asymptomatic carriage may lead to culturable

VRE on surfaces outside of healthcare settings,

and thus pose a risk of spread within the

community. Twenty frequently touched sites on

Kingsborough Community College campus were

swabbed and inoculated onto both Tryptic Soy

Agar (TSA) and Bile Esculin Azide (BEA) agar.

BEA agar is selective for Group D Streptococci,

including Enterococci. Six colonies have shown

vancomycin resistance (16 µg/ml) out of 97 colonies

identified on BEA. vanB was not identified in

66

neither of 6 vancomycin resistant colonies.

Although, vancomycin resistant colonies do not

identify as E. faecalis due to the absence of esculin

hydrolysis, morphological analysis suggests that the

microorganisms are either Staphylococci or an

esculin negative strain of Enterococci. Additional

metabolic and molecular testing will be

performed to identify the genus of resistant

bacteria.

Poster B42

Quantification of Total Proteins from

Primula vulgaris Tissues: A Comparison

of Short- vs Long-Styled Plants

Danny J. Hurtado

Mentors: Professors Farshad Tamari


The molecular aspects of the reproductive biology

of Primula vulgaris (Primulaceae) are relatively

unknown. P. vulgaris occurs as short- and long-

styled plants. Both morphologies are self-

incompatible and only crosses between the two

morphs will lead to seed production. We

hypothesize that there are protein concentration

differences between the two morphs, which may

reflect differences in proteins that may play a role in

self-incompatibility. We investigated and quantified

protein concentration differences between the two

morphs. Primula plants were purchased from local

nurseries. Anther and leaf tissues from each flower

were homogenized in a 1.5 mL centrifuge tube, and

the total protein content from each tissue was

quantified using a standard Bradford assay. All

samples were completed in triplicates for five plants

of each morph. All data analyses and graphical

presentation used either SigmaPlot 12 (Systat) or

SPSS (V. 24, IBM). An analysis of the data

indicates that while there are protein concentration

differences between the morphs, the differences are

not large enough to cause a statistical significance.

Alternative methods such as SDS-PAGE should be

employed to look for protein profile differences

between the morphs in the future.

Poster B43

Ascending Mars

Koyuki Inoue

Mentor: Professor John Mikalopas


In the movie The Martian a marooned astronaut

attempts an ascent of Mars. He decides to reduce the

mass of the ascent vehicle by removing the nose cone

in favor of a canvas tarp. He hypothesizes that the

streamlining of the vehicle is not important because

the Martian atmosphere is so thin. This is a perilous

decision. Though mass is of major importance in all

orbital trajectory considerations, the fluid resistance

force (drag) has a major effect on the motion of an

object traveling through a fluid. The drag depends

upon the shape, speed, and cross-sectional area of the

object and the density of fluid. We solve the ordinary

differential equations associated with the ascent

orbital trajectory of a vehicle lifting-off from the

surface of Mars in terms of time, mass, displacement,

velocity, gravitational force, thrust, drag and

atmospheric density. We calculate the orbital

efficiency of decreasing the mass of a vehicle and

increasing the drag coefficient of a vehicle for an

ascent from Mars.

67

Poster B44

Can barite ore be a possible source of

Boron that contaminates the groundwater

in the Newark basin?

Moiselena Jeanlouis, Murodjon Zubaydov

Mentors: Professors Larbi Rddad


The Newark basin was formed during the Triassic-

Jurassic rifting of Pangea and was subsequently filled

with up to 8 km of Triassic-Jurassic lacustrine

formations. The groundwater in the Newark basin is

contaminated with Boron, exceeding the limit (600

μg/L) set by the health standard for safe drinking

water. Hence, this research project aims at identifying

the source of Boron and associated trace elements by

analyzing barite ore as well as the Lacustrine

formations (Stockton, Lockatong, and Passaic

formations) in the Newark basin.

The trace elements analyses including Boron (n=3)

reveal that the lacustrine rocks have a low

concentration of Boron (Sandstone of Stockton =

23.9 ppm, black shale of Lockatong = 36 ppm,

sandstone/siltstone of Passaic = 101 ppm). Moreover,

the Hopewell ore barite shows also very low

concentration of Boron (n=2) (<0.5 to 9.8 ppm). The

ascending Ba-rich hydrothermal fluids flowed

through these Boron-depleted lacustrine rocks, which

caused these fluids to be also depleted. Hence, barite

that precipitated from these fluids have also very low

concentration of Boron. It can be concluded that

barite as well as the Lacustrine formations are not the

source of Boron contaminating the groundwater

because the amount of boron in barite and rocks in

the Newark basin is significantly low.

Poster B45

Spectrophotometric analysis of nitrate

and phosphate concentration in

agricultural soil samples

Dinara Khashimova

Mentor: Professor Patrick Lloyd

Kingsborough Community college

Nitrogen and phosphorus are the main components

of soil fertilizer. Nitrogen is the main nutrient

required by plants for photosynthesis. Soils rich in

nitrogen are good for growing nitrogen-demanding

crops such as soy and corn. Phosphorus controls

flowering in plants and is important to plant

production involving flowering or fruiting plants.

In our research we use spectrophotometry method in

order to isolate each nutrient from the soil into a

solution that can be analyzed using color to

determine the concentration of nutrients present in

the soil sample. Knowing present concentration of

nutrients helps is beneficial in agriculture, because it

helps to determine a nutrient deficiency or a surplus

in soils used to support crop production.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are extracted with a

chemical universal extracting solvent that will bind

the nutrient of interest. Once extracted from soil,

each nutrient can be combined with a reagent that

will cause the solution to change color in a linear

relationship, to a darker color indicating increased

concentration of the nutrient.

In a nitrogen extraction, nitrate ions will react with

salicylic acid in concentrated sulfuric acid. When

coupled with 2M NaOH (strong base), the pH of a

solution raises above 12 and a yellow-colored

solution is formed. Color intensity of this compound

is directly proportional to the nitrate concentration

of the sample and can be quantified by using the

spectrophotometry method. In a phosphorus

extraction, sodium molybdate reacts with the soluble

reactive phosphates to form a phospho-molybdenum

blue complex. This complex is then reduced by

68

ascorbic acid to form a blue complex. The

concentration of a complex is directly proportional

to the amount of phosphate present in soil.

Currently we are working on developing a portable

method of measuring the concentration of soil

nutrients, which could be performed in a field site

using a portable spectrophotometer. This method

will allow for basic nutrient testing in the classroom

lab without requiring expensive pieces of equipment

that may not be available.

Poster B46

Toward a database of spectra and

mineralogy for Carbonaceous Chondrites

Marino Laurent

Mentor: Professor Kieren Howard


Introduction: Carbonaceous Chondrites (CCs) are

meteorites taking their name from their dominant

components, chondrules: sub-millimeter sized, nearly

spherical grains, composed mostly of silicate minerals

[1]. Carbonaceous chondrites (CCs) are a sub-class of

chondrites that contain the earliest formed minerals [2],

in addition to volatiles like organic compounds,

including amino acids and OH [3]. Like frozen

evidence from the protoplanetary disk ~4.5 billion

years ago [2], they are studied to understand formation

of asteroids, planets and the origin of life.

Background to the problem: Much effort is devoted

to identifying the parent body asteroids of meteorite

samples. The accomplish this, recognition different

types of asteroids remotely using telescopes.

Astronomers typically use reflectance spectroscopy to

study the composition of asteroid surfaces. [4]. Lab

based studies of reflectance spectra for meteorite

powders, with known mineralogy, aid interpretations of

asteroid spectra [4]. Direct comparisons of spectra for

meteorite samples and asteroids act like spectral

fingerprinting for matching different classes of

meteorites with parent bodies [4]. Ultimately,

astronomers seek to map the asteroid distributions for

future space mission that will target specific types of

asteroids

Goal of this study: Mineral abundance data for

powdered samples of more than 50 different CCs

have been collected by X-ray diffraction [5].

Reflectance spectra have also been collected for the

same powders. The study aims create an integrated

database of reflectance spectra and mineralogy that

is universally accessible.. Microsoft Excel™ is

being used to produce the database because it is

widely used. Current data technology, will

effortlessly integrate this database with others if

needed. The database provides an overview of all of

the samples, indexed to allow navigation to detailed

views of data for each sample. Difficulty organizing

data reveals that an interface to help adding new

data would help adoption of the database by users

and contributors.

Poster B47

Understanding the properties of

Dichromatic glass

Andrew Lugo

Mentor: Professor Deborah Berhanu


In The British Museum (London, United Kingdom)

there is a exhibit called the Lycurgus Cup. This cup

is made of a unique dichromatic glass that was

created fourth century A.D. . The glass appears

green when light is shown from the front, but a red

color when light is shown from the back and

transmitted through the glass, as to how the cup

shifted colors this remained a mystery ,the first

study began in 1950 and not finding conclusive

results till 1962. After investigating this further

researchers found that this was due to the properties

of the gold and silver nanoparticles embedded

within the glass. A nanoparticle is a particle that

measures between 1-100 nm. These particles exhibit

different physical and chemical properties compared

to their larger counterparts. The nanoparticles

embedded in the Lycurgus glass are responsible of

69

its dichronicity. Indeed gold nanoparticles are red,

unlike the shiny yellow color of bulk gold.

Today, glass and bioplastics are important research

substrates for various future applications, including

in biomedicine and food packaging. This project’s

final goal is to replicate the Lycurgus glass

properties to various substrates, glass, sugar glass,

and bioplastics.

Poster B48

Identifying Nematode Species to Predict

Floral Health

Maria Molliar, Edna George

Mentor: Professor Marie McGovern, David

Michaelson


Nematodes are cylindrical worms that are found in

every environment on earth, and belong to the

phylum Nematoda. Various nematode species

are successful as free-living organisms or

as parasites, and are often used to maintain health of

organic gardens. In collaboration with the Brooklyn

Botanical Garden, we will be conducting several

experiments in order to determine the exact nematode

species in their compost and soil. By identifying the

exact species of nematode present throughout various

samples, will allow us to determine diversity of the

species, as well as predict the quality of compost

or soil. I will be focusing on the extraction of

nematodes from various indoor and

outdoor collections.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden provides us with

bagged and labeled samples of soil or compost from

various indoor and outdoor plant beds or from various

compost methods. In the lab, we then weight out eight

grams of soil, which is then broken up and diluted in

water. The mixture is then poured through a stack of

three mesh sieves, sized 20, 60, 325 microns (μ), in

order to separate worms by size and help isolate them

from the soil. Filtered samples are placed on a

petri dish and viewed under a dissecting microscope,

in order to isolate and collect worms. Worms

are lysed and subjected to PCR reaction to isolate a

fragment of the 18S rRNA gene. These fragments are

visualized on an agarose gel and then sent out to a

company to be sequenced. Sequences are then

compared to sequences

in the GenBank database to identify the species of

worm isolated.

Poster B49

Sweet Corn Beer; Possible MXR1

mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

compared to Saccharomyces

Long Nguyen

Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Mulligan


Yeast has been used for thousands of years for

baking bread, and brewing beer. Beer is a beverage

that at its simplest can be made from barley, hops,

water, and yeast, but is known for the variety of

different flavors that can be produced from these

few ingredients. A variety of these flavors come

from compounds that are produced by the yeast and

can be important to the overall taste of the product.

Lagers are beers are produced with the bottom-

fermenting strains of Saccharomyces pastorianus

and require fermentation temperatures of 7° – 13° C

compared to ales which use the top fermenting

strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and

fermentation temperatures of 20° – 22° C. This

difference in yeast and temperature results in lager

beers having different flavors compared to ale. One

of these flavors is described as “cooked sweet corn”

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is responsible for this

flavor and it is perceptible at concentration above

100 µg per liter [4]. This flavor is common in lager

beers but is considered undesirable in ales.

The enzyme Methionine-S-sulfoxide reductase

(Met-SO reductase) converts Dimethyl sulfoxide

(DMSO) to DMS and the gene that codes for this

70

enzyme is MXR1. Our hypothesis is MXR1 may be

mutated in ale yeast strains. We compared the

sequences of the MXR1 gene of seven commercially

available yeast strains, three ale yeasts and four

lager yeasts to see whether there is a mutation in the

yeasts. We compared our sequences to the published

MXR1 sequence to design and looked for

differences between the two. We were unable to

determine if there were any differences in the lager

compared to the ale strains because we were not

able to get quality ale sequences of the MRX1 gene.

Poster B50

Metagenomic Analysis of Multi-Drug-

Resistant Genes in Staphylococcus aureus

Frank Orefice, Joshua Delapenha, Zhijing

(Kelly) Zhao

Mentor: Professor Dmitry Y. Brogun


Staphylococci are gram-positive aerobic

microorganisms. Most strains are persistent and

highly diverse bacteria that inhabit the mucous

membranes of those who are infected. About 30% of

people are unaware that they carriers of the

bacterium, as it can inhabit a person’s body without

any showing symptoms. However, the bacterium is

capable of proliferating through cuts in the skin or

the weakening of the infected individual’s immune

system. When given ground, the infection can cause

symptoms, such as the growth of pimples and boils

to large abscesses and the destruction of skin tissue.

The diversity of the bacterium comes from its

adaptability and resistance towards certain

antibiotics, such as methicillin and vancomycin.

Due to the adaptable nature of the infection,

hospitals are unable to sufficiently treat their

patients unless adequate information about the strain

is known. However, with metagenomic analysis, the

direct genetic analysis of genomes contained with an

environmental sample, more data on the strains can

be collected. Through this technique, an adequate

selection of antibiotics can be efficiently made to

treat the patients. Still, the Multidrug-resistance

Genes in Staph species, which are a strain of the

infection that has become resistant to the use of

multiple antibiotics, are a cause for concern. Owing

to the diversity of the bacterium, it is difficult to

gather information on the various strains due to their

distinct resistances to antibiotics. Using results from

the Blast analysis of genes from the staph strain,

USA300, a strain of community-associated

methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

(MRSA), compared across 161 other genomes,

we’re able to properly annotate these genes.

Through manual annotation and our BLAST-Off

software that we produced

(https://github.com/CRSPKCC), we’re able to give

them informative names and offer proper

information about the genes.

Poster B51

An NMR Study of Gold Nanoparticles’

Interactions with Natural Organic Matter

Sara Sobolewska

Mentor: Professor Deborah Berhanu, Homar Barcena


Nanoparticles are ultrafine particles with different

physical and chemical properties compared to their

bulk materials. Those particles are entities which

measure between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm) in at

least one dimension. The ability to work at the

nanoscale is allowing scientists to develop new

fields, from building materials to cosmetology, and

modern-day drugs such as antibiotics, and cancer

therapies.

This study focuses on gold nanoparticles. Gold

nanoparticles are red and have a high ratio of

surface atoms, which makes them much more

reactive compared to their bulk yellow counterpart.

Specifically, this project focuses on gold

nanoparticles (Au NPs) and their interactions with

organic matter. Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

(NMR) spectrophotometer, we are investigating Au

71

NPs’ interactions with organic molecules that are

present in the environment.

To proceed with the NMR work, we are working on

precipitating-out the Au NPs from the aqueous

suspension they are synthesized in to re-dissolve

them into heavy water (D2O). After our attempts

with an evaporator failed, successfully centrifuged

the suspension and carefully remove the water. The

wet precipitate is then dried in a desiccator under

vacuum. We are currently performing more

experiments to understand the NMR shifts observed

for sucrose and sarcosine.

Poster B52

Consonant Production in Bilinguals: The

Relationship between Native Language

Background, Degree of Bilingualism, and

VOT

Vali Valizade

Mentor: Professor Laura Spinu


Voice Onset Time (VOT) is an acoustic measure

used to describe stop consonants such as [p, t, k, b,

d, g], and it varies across languages [3]. For

example, a native Spanish or French speaker

typically pronounces stop sounds differently from

an English speaker, which (among others) results in

a foreign accent [4]. Bilingualism further

complicates the picture in that even though balanced

bilinguals may appear to have equal proficiency in

both languages, studies show that subtle differences

from monolinguals do exist [1], and it is not until 20

months that they are able to acquire similar

sounding sounds, later than monolinguals [5].

In this study, we test two hypotheses, specifically

that (1) different native language backgrounds affect

English VOT in different ways, and (2) early

bilinguals produce more native-like VOT in English.

We recorded 30 native speakers of Russian,

Spanish, and Chinese who were either early,

balanced bilinguals (they reported there was no

difference between their first language and English

proficiency) or late, unbalanced bilinguals (they

rated their knowledge of English below that of their

first language) reading a passage in English

containing the sounds [p, t, k, b, d, g]. We also

recorded a control group of 10 monolingual native

English speakers from Brooklyn, NY. All students

were enrolled in courses at KBCC and were

recorded on campus.

Following data collection, VOT values were

measured manually using the Praat software for

acoustic analysis [2]. Specifically, we recorded the

amount of time elapsed between the onset of

laryngeal vibration and the release of the consonant

using waveform and spectrographic information,

following [6]. Preliminary results based on 12

speakers support both Hypothesis 1 (Figure 1) and

Hypothesis 2 (Figure 2). Our study thus replicates

earlier results with new languages and adds to the

body of work on bilingual cognition.

Poster B53

Extraction of DNA from Short- and Long-

Styled Plants of Primula vulgaris

Lisa Marie Vetere

Mentors: Professors Farshad Tamari


Primula vulgaris is a common species of the plant

family Primulaceae. The common name is primrose.

It is a genus of 500 angiosperm species. The leaves

are 5-25 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. They are

wrinkled quite often and have a short stem. P.

vulgaris exhibits distyly as a breeding system where

two distinct morphologies are found within the same

species. P. vulgaris is self-incompatible- and thus

self-pollinations or pollinations using pollen from

the same morph will not result in seed production.

The genetics of distyly and self-incompatibility in P.

vulgaris is well known, however, the molecular

aspects of distyly and self-incompatibility have not

been investigated. In other distylous species, two

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genes have been implicated in distyly and self-

incompatibility- α-dioxygenase and

polygalacturonase. We hypothesize that there exists

morph-specific DNA sequence differences for both

genes in P. vulgaris. The purpose of this

investigation is to isolate DNA from 10 short- and

10 long-styled plants. The Edward’s method of

DNA extract was used for this purpose. The

presence of DNA was verified using agarose gel

electrophoresis. Staining was achieved using

ethidium bromide. The DNA will be used in the

future to PCR amplify polygalacturonase to

determine whether there exists morph-specific

differences.

Poster B54

The use of cord blood cells to Identify

epigenetic changes of the human fetal

brain exposed to tobacco smoke

Rosanne Wallach

Mentor: Professor Anupam Pradhan


Despite several studies linking prenatal smoking to

fetal brain damage and subsequent brain disorders in

the offspring later in life, the genetic and epigenetic

mechanisms involved remain poorly understood.

Our preliminary gene specific studies of cord blood

cells from pregnant mothers collected at delivery

indicates prenatal smoking has positive association

between shortened fetal telomere lengths in infants

born to smoking mothers. Some of the critical brain

regulatory genes like brain-derived neurotrophic

factor (BDNF), proteolipidic protein, (PLP), myelin

basic protein (MBP) and reelin (RLN) was found

downregulated among smokers than passive or non-

smokers. In this study we propose to test our

hypotheses that prenatal smoking results in changes

in epigenetic signatures in DNA which alter gene

expression, subsequently increasing the risk of

adverse pregnancy outcomes. The hypotheses will

be tested by comparing DNA methylation profiles in

selected brain regulatory genes that are critical for

(1) brain growth (BDNF), (2) myelination (PLP and

MBP) (3) neuronal migration and cell-cell

interactions during fetal brain development (RLN)

of infants of smokers to those of non-smokers. The

study samples (DNA) was obtained from the parent

study conducted at University of South Florida,

Tampa. The study will help enhance our

understanding of the biological mechanism

underlying sub-optimal pregnancy outcomes. Early

intervention of those at risk would enable lowering

adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Poster B55

Shrimp Vaccine

Jessica Zhao

Mentor: Professor Sarwar Jahangir

Kingsborough Community College White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a lethal disease

that affects shrimp and has been found to be

transmittable between shrimps (Sánchez-Paz, 2010).

WSSV has been especially damaging in industrial

shrimp farming where shrimps breed and feed in close

proximity. In this study, we will attempt to replicate

previous studies in designing an oral vaccine for

Litopenaeus vannamei (white leg shrimp) (Valdez, A

2014). This study will attempt to electroporate

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (single-celled green alga)

with a pDawn plasmid (Ohlendorf et al., 2012). Gene

expression of a viral protein on the Chlamydomonas

reinhardtii cell wall will be induced by light with the

green fluorescent protein acting as the reporter gene.

This study simulates the level of expected expression

within Chlamydomonas reinhardtii using ordinary

differential equations and stochastic processes to help

inform future studies in designing a biological system

using the pDawn plasmid. Further studies will be done

to examine whether the immune system of

Litopenaeus vannamei can effectively recognize the

viral protein present on the transformed

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cell wall. This will be

highly useful for developing a model Litopenaeus

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vannamei population immune to WSSV following

exposure to transgenic Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Poster B56

Is Sphalerite a Possible Source of Boron

Contaminating the Groundwater in the

Newark Basin?

Murodjon Zubaydov, Moiselena Jeanlouis

Mentor: Professor Larbi Rddad


The Triassic-Jurassic rifting of Pangea led to the

formation of the Newark basin that was filled with 8

km of the Triassic-Jurassic lacustrine rocks

(Stockton, Lockatong, and Passaic formations)

intruded with igneous rocks. More than 30% of the

private and public wells in the Newark basin show

groundwater with Boron concentration exceeding

the standard drinking-water level of 600 μg/L. This

research project investigates sphalerite of New

Galena ore deposit as a possible source of Boron

contaminating the groundwater in Newark basin. To

that end, sphalerite (n=1) and the lacustrine

formations (n=2) were analyzed for Boron and other

trace elements. Sphalerite ore is hosted in the black

shale of the Lockatong Formation and was formed

as a result of mixing between sulfur-rich fluid and

an ascending Zn-Pb-rich hydrothermal fluid. The

analyses show low concentration of Boron in the

lacustrine formations (Black shales of Lockatong

Formation = 36 ppm, Sandstone of the Stockton

Formation= 23.9 ppm) and in sphalerite ore (10.1

ppm). Given the low concentration of Boron in the

Stockton and the Lockatong formations, the

ascending hydrothermal fluid flowing through these

formations are depleted in Boron and other trace

elements. As a result, sphalerite that precipitated

from these fluids is also depleted in Boron and trace

elements. Therefore, sphalerite ore is not a source of

Boron contaminating the groundwater.


Poster B57

Modelling male-male aggression in

Drosophila Melanogaster

Afsana Abdul Rahim

Mentor: Professors Jacqueline Brashears, Daniel

Gertner


Aggression is an innate behavior that evolved in the

framework of defending or obtaining resources. This

complex social behavior is influenced by genetic,

hormonal, and environmental factors. We developed

a computer agent-based model using the R software

to see how male aggression in fruit flies was

affected by starting population size, mean female

egg count, and the standard deviation of egg count.

These female parameters were based partially on the

results of two laboratory experiments: one

examining the effect of temperature on fertility, and

another examining the effect of photoperiod on

fertility. While the most aggressive flies consistently

outperformed less aggressive flies, some results

were counter-intuitive, suggesting that the

relationship between male aggression and these

population parameters is not a simple one.

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Poster B58

Synthesis and Studies of Porphyrin Based

Bifunctional Theranostic Agents for

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and

Photodynamic Therapy

Chetan Basnet

Mentor: Professor Sunaina Singh


Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has become a

prominent imaging technique in medicine. MRI

contrast agents are used to increase the sensitivity of

this technique. 19F MRI is emerging as a new

imaging technique because of its potential for direct

and precise cell quantification. High 19F content,

relatively short longitudinal (T1) nuclear spin

relaxation time and high magnetic fields are

essential for successful in vivo 19F MRI. Recently, a

new method for cancer treatment with a less side

effect called photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been

introduced. Hence, diagnosis-treat union of MRI

and PDT will be significantly promoted if a new

family of bi-functional agents is found, which would

combine the effects of a contrast agent in MRI and

of a photosensitizer in PDT. It will bring great

improvement to the cancer diagnosis and treatment.

This work briefly describes the synthesis of

porphyrin substituted with three thioglucose units

and one 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorodecanethiol which

can act as bi-functional agent for MRI-PDT. This

compound contains 33 F atoms which can play a

significant role in modulating signal intensity and

enhancing tissue contrast.

Poster B59

The Effects of Bisphenol-A on

Embryogenesis on the sea urchin,

Lytechinus Variegatus

Alejandro Bonilla, Nathalie Oulhen, Gary

Wessel

Mentor: Professor Ingrid Veras, Thomas Onorato

LaGuardia Community College, Brown University

Climate change affects the oceans’ temperature, pH

and salinity. Changes in these physical factors can

increase the leaching of pollutants such as bisphenol

A into the ocean and the environment, exposing

marine organisms to toxicity. Bisphenol A (BPA) is

a major component commonly used to manufacture

plastic polymers and epoxy resins. BPA leaches out

of plastic wastes dumped into marine environments,

accumulates and contaminates the surrounding

water and ocean floor. Aquatic organisms are then

exposed to BPA though their diet and respiratory

tissues. Numerous studies have shown that BPA has

adverse effects on fertility in both marine

vertebrates and invertebrates. More specifically,

BPA has also been shown to disrupt tubulin spindle

formation in the embryonic and somatic cells of

various classes of echinoderms, resulting in

decreased fertility, varied sperm counts, and

neuroendocrine disruption. This can greatly induce

abnormal hormonal changes that include but are not

limited to: increased estrogenic effects (males and

females), androgen receptor antagonization, and

improper thyroid hormone regulation. The effects

of BPA vary greatly across marine vertebrates and

invertebrates, especially those that thrive in shallow

and benthic waters where the highest BPA

concentrations have been recorded. Little is known

about the mechanism through which BPA affects

early embryonic development on both the genetic

and cellular levels. Therefore, the objective of this

study is to determine the effects of bisphenol A on

embryogenesis in the sea urchin species, Lytechinus

variegatus. Examples of endpoint analyses include

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altered cell viability, morphology and regulation of

protein synthesis.

Poster B60

Theoretical Exploration of the Oxidation

and Transformation of Guanine

Jian Wen Choong

Mentor: Professor I-Hsien Tsai


This research is expected to provide a better

understanding about the reaction between guanine and

singlet oxygen by discussing the transition states,

enthalpies and activation energies. Guanine is one of

the main nucleobases in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

which can be damaged by reactive oxidation species

such as singlet oxygen due to its lowest oxidation

potential. Theoretical method of Density Functional

Theory (DFT-B3LYP) has been used for optimization

Guanine and singlet oxygen by different orientations

using Gaussian 09 suit programs. The result shows

that relative enthalpies for singlet oxygen is more

likely to attack carbon C8 of guanine to form

endoperoxide at 298K. Those optimized geometries

are then used for computing the relative transition

states. Current result shows that the transition state for

singlet oxygen reacting with carbon C8 in guanine has

lower enthalpy compared to other transition states.

This indicates that it has lower activation energy and

is a more stable complex structure. Diagram and graph

will be constructed to provide a bigger picture about

the reaction between guanine and singlet oxygen.

Poster B61

Influence of temperature on the

performance of solar panels

Delfino Enriquez-Torres and Andrea

Martinez

Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak


The motivation behind our research is in a lack of

regular investigations of shaped panels. Alternative

sun-tracking-panels often need repair due to the

moving parts. The purpose of this research is to

analyze and test various methods of shaping and

shading that would affect solar panels. Specifically,

we are working with monocrystalline panels and

investigate how their voltage would be affected by

weather conditions. Our acquiring of a thermal

camera and equipment meant that not only did we

test but also learned how to use such equipment

proficiently. Using the thermal camera at a fixed 3

meters away from the panels surface enabled us to

test panels where shade was provided on different

regions of the panel, and by testing methods and

imagery with the thermal camera we were able to

identify “hot spots” on the surface were solar rays

were the most perpendicular. Similarly, shaded

regions expected to have lower temperatures than

those exposed to the sun, but how exactly this

impacts voltage is yet to be determined. Using

Vernier equipment and software we are expected to

analyze and record data of the panels. Testing at

different sites seems to show that mounted surface

of the panel impacts surface heating. By

experimentation, we expect to find how a solar

panel might have to be placed and or designed,

meaning that cell connection structure would have

to be altered, otherwise, a second method would

have to involve not altering the connection but the

placing of cells on an otherwise altered surface.

Throughout the project our team acquired

knowledge on the equipment that enabled us to

infuse knowledge that we have gathered in classes

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and familiarizing ourselves with equipment that

otherwise we wouldn’t have access to.

Poster B62

Embryonic Cell Dissociation of the Sea

Star, Patiria miniata

Marla Feliciano and Carolina Tapia



Echinoderms have long-demonstrated their capability

to regenerate as part of their adaptation to a hostile

marine environment. The desire to understand the

underlying mechanisms of the regenerative process

had led them to be models of study, particularly

during embryogenesis. Interestingly, it was also found

that these creatures can reassemble themselves into an

intact larva from dissociated embryonic cells. The

uniqueness of this model organism allows crucial

stages of embryo development to be captured in a

week time frame, all in vivo. Although research on

echinoderms has progressed in recent years, much is

still left to be discovered and understood. Using the

embryonic dissociation model, along with the classical

model of surgical bisection, we plan to further

investigate the key molecular and cellular mechanisms

functioning during regeneration of sea star larvae,

Patiria miniata. These models will allow us to

transform cultured embryonic cells, alter gene

expression and observe changes during reconstruction.

We will also analyze the changes in metabolism of

archenteron cells, before, during and after

regeneration. And finally, we plan to investigate the

impact of environmental stresses such as bisphenol A

on the molecular mechanism and cellular dynamics of

regeneration. Each model has its unique approach and

is highly distinct from the another, so similar results

from these experiments will strengthen our findings.

The predicted outcomes of these future works will

have the potential to further advance both molecular

and cellular biology research on echinoderms.

Poster B63

Role of RecO in the DNA Break Repair

Mechanisms of Mycobacteria

Chethana P. Gallage Dona, Sarah Rodriguez

Mentor: Professor Richa Gupta


Mycobacterium includes both pathogenic and non-

pathogenic bacteria, and DNA repair genes are highly

homologous across the species of this genus. A break

in both strands of the DNA, termed as the “double-

strand break (DSB)”, is particularly lethal if not

repaired to maintain the integrity of chromosomal

DNA. Recent studies have indicated that

mycobacteria employ three DSB repair pathways to

ensure survival: (i) Homologous recombination

(HR), (ii) Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), and

(iii) Single-strand annealing (SSA). Several

distinctive features of HR repair are evident in

mycobacteria compared to other model bacteria, with

a multitude of proteins involved. Of special note is

the RecO protein, which plays a dual role in

mycobacterial DSB repair by participating in both

HR and SSA mechanisms but its exact molecular

function is yet unclear. We propose to investigate

genetically which activities of this key player are

pertinent to its role in vivo. By sequence alignment,

we have identified amino acid residues in the RecO

protein which when mutated are predicted to disrupt

specific domains critical for its activity. We are in the

process of making chromosomal mutants of recO to

investigate their effects on the DSB repair

mechanisms and will be presenting our results. The

findings of this project can also help in identification

of a new drug-target against mycobacteria.

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Poster B64

The Role of Combined Sewage Overflow

in Eutrophication at Newtown Creek, NY

Nirmela Govinda, Estrella Cazares, Nate

Richter

Mentor: Professor Holly Porter-Morgan


Although decline in heavy industry and

establishment of the Clean Water Act have reduced

the inflow of pollutants, combined sewer overflow

pipes continue to deliver sewage and street runoff to

our local waterways during periods of high

precipitation in New York City. This research

examines the relationship between eutrophication,

which is characterized by nutrient over-enrichment

and subsequent algal growth, and combined sewage

overflow discharge events. The research is being

conducted at Newtown Creek, a 6.0 km tidal

waterway with Superfund status that flows between

Queens and Brooklyn. Weekly water samples are

being collected at surface level from key locations

across the Creek throughout the recreational boating

season. In addition to visible algae blooms, the

following parameters are being measured: nitrate,

phosphate, Enterococcus (an indicator of sewage

overflow), and dissolved oxygen. Results from this

research will be presented to the community in Fall

2018 and will be important in determining best

management practices for this waterway.

Poster B65

The Effects of Environmental Toxicant,

Bisphenol A (BPA), on the Ovarian Cells

of the Sea Stars, Patiria miniata

Lorraine Haddad



Bisphenol A (BPA) is a man-made synthetic

environmental toxin found in all bodies of water,

sediments, and soil. This carbon-based molecule is

known to disrupt the endocrine system and the

reproductive system, due to its estrogen-like

behavior. BPA is used to produce plastic and marine

animals are commonly exposed to it, therefore the

sea star (Patiria miniata) is utilized to investigate

BPA’s negative effects. In this experiment the

ovarian cells exposed to a low concentration of BPA

caused a loss in cytoplasmic extensions. When the

ovarian cells were exposed to high concentrations of

BPA, cell death occurred within 20 hours of

exposure.

Poster B66

Directional Signal Transmission in

Energy Efficient Wireless Data

Communications

Natalia Harrow, Yuqing Lin, Jeewan Thapa

Magar

Mentor: Professor Yun Ye


Our project aims to apply directional signal

transmission by detecting the angle of arrival (AOA)

of the transmitter using multiple antennas.

Traditionally, in wireless data communication

electromagnetic radio waves are emitted by the

transmitter from omni-directional antennas and only

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a tiny portion of the radio waves arrive at the

receiver, resulting in poor energy efficiency. To

improve the performance of the wireless

communication system, we investigate the wireless

channel estimation in precoding and study the effect

of different receiver movements on the accuracy of

AOA estimation. We use Universal Software Radio

Peripheral (USRP) E310s and GNU Radio applying

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Capon

Spectrum Beamforming methods in a light of sight

(LOS) environment. To demonstrate the

effectiveness of our method, we use a motion sensor

to record the actual movement of the transmitter and

compare with the angle resulting from the AOA

method.

To collect data, we conduct three experiments. We

first analyze the angle between the receiver and

transmitter when they both are in static positions.

We then move the transmitter on a pre-set path and

compare the estimated AOA with the actual angle

collected from the sensor, in order to evaluate the

accuracy of our method. Finally, we move the

transmitter on an air track at an approximately

constant speed. An error of about 20° is observed,

depending on the distance of the devices and their

moving speeds, as longer distance and faster speed

cause more signal distortion while in transmission.

Overall, by experimenting on directional signal

communication we hope to achieve our purpose of

energy saving and implement further investigations.

Poster B67

The Effects of Photoperiod on Drosophila

melanogaster

Tina He

Mentor: Professor Daniel Gertner, Jacqueline

Brashears


To maximize fitness, animals that live in temperate

regions must time their behaviors according to the

seasonal environment. Animals use photoperiod as a

cue for seasonal changes and are thus highly

sensitive to changes in day length. In our

experiments, we examined the effects of short days

on fruit fly egg counts and on the survivability of

larvae. Using artificial light, we reared Drosophila

melanogaster under two different photoperiods (12

hours of light/12 hours of dark and 0 hours of

light/24 hours of dark) at a constant temperature of

25°C. We collected virgin females from each

treatment. Then, we paired and mated each female

with a male from the same treatment group and we

recorded the number of eggs that the females laid

within 48 hours as well as the number of survivors

and body weights of the survivors. Our results show

that circadian rhythms can affect components of

fitness in wild type fruit flies.

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Poster 68

Computer-Aided Drug Design to Discover

Effective Therapeutics to Treat Addiction

Nicholas Herrera, Albert Tadros, Luis

Filgueira

Mentor: Professor Ian Alberts


Dopamine and its receptors are critical for many

functions of the brain and body including emotion,

learning, reward-motivated behavior, and motor

control. Dysfunctions of the dopamine system have

been linked to neuropsychiatric disorders such as

addiction and schizophrenia. Treatments for some of

these disorders involve the use of dopamine receptor

inhibitors, also known as antagonists. Our goal is to

design drug lead candidates with high selectivity

towards specific dopamine receptors. Stepholidine is

a known dopamine receptor antagonist that binds

well to members of the dopamine receptor family

and shows few unwanted side-effects. In this work,

it serves as a valuable structure starting point for

designing more active potential drug lead

candidates. However, to avoid unwanted side-

effects, such as pseudoparkinsonism, we require the

designed ligands to have high affinity to the D1 and

D3 dopamine receptors, but not to D2. This is being

done via computational drug design and docking

simulation software. The stepholidine analogues

designed so far have shown selectivity towards D1

and D3 dopamine receptors over D2, which is a key

requirement for reducing unwanted side effects.

Future studies will involve observing the molecular

basis for ligand specificity and designing new active

ligands with even more favorable selectivity for the

aforementioned dopamine receptors.

Poster B69

Data Analysis of Wind Speed at

LaGuardia Airport for Optimization of

Wind Turbine Design

Sanjib Lamichhane

Mentor: Professor Marina Nechayeva, Malgorzata

Marciniak, Vladimir Przhebelskiy


Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing,

transforming, and modeling data with a goal of

discovering useful information, suggesting

conclusions, and supporting decision-making. We

performed data analysis of wind speed recorded by

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

for 17 years at LaGuardia airport, which is 6.1

miles to LaGuardia Community College(LaGCC)

where we aim to design and install our wind turbine.

The purpose of this study was to discover if there

exists significant trends in wind speed around

LaGCC that would affect modeling of the wind

turbine design. Using R Programming, we

calculated shape and scale parameters of Weibull

Probability Density Function. The results showed

that the R-squared values for shape and scale

parameters were to be 0.3836 and 0.1349. The

Rcritical values being greater than R-squared values,

the trends were not significant within the period of

time. The result would be used to model a wind

turbine that would optimize the Coefficient of

Performance.

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Poster B70

Optimization of a Wind Turbine Design

Using Genetic Algorithm

Shou Oikawa, Andrei Dragutan

Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak, Marina

Nechayeva, Vladimir Przhebelskiy


Genetic Algorithm (GA) mimics the natural

selection that occurs in nature to solve optimization

problems. Our goal is to optimize a wind turbine

blade with optimal geometry using GA. To do so, a

MATLAB program was created which randomizes

pitch angles and chord lengths within a given

parameter and optimize the said design based on the

Coefficient of Power (Cp) for each iteration. To

improve convergence, the design was sorted to be

decreasingly monotonic for the pitch angles and

chord lengths accordingly prior to calculating the

Cp. The initial phase of the program is promising,

resulting in an average Cp value of 0.4847 after 500

generations. Upon obtaining desirable results, the

parameters of the wind turbine rotor are imported

and designed in AutoCAD which was subsequently

3-D printed. The wind turbine design will need to be

tested in a wind tunnel to determine if the program

did in fact generated an efficient design.

Poster B71

K-Means Clustering for Hierarchical

Distributed Cloud

Royal Pathak

Mentor: Professor Praveenkumar Khethavath


Cloud computing has revolutionized the way

computing is done in industry. Our work focuses on

using k-means clustering using the location

(Longitude, latitude) to group resources on the

distributed cloud. In this k means Clustering, we

have ‘n’ data elements in a 'd' dimensional space.

Our goal is to model a hierarchical distributed cloud

and make use of the clustering algorithm to define

the hierarchies in the cloud. we implemented the

clustering algorithm to find the number of clusters

and respective centroids. First, We find the k

number of centroids from the file of data, (location

of individual resource, coordinates) and group the

data into k different clusters. Furthermore, we intend

to apply the concept of Hybrid P2P networks to

model our hierarchical distributed cloud.

Poster B72

Using MALDI-LTQ to Identify P24

Protein Phosphorylation Sites

Nhi Phan

Mentor: Professor Kevin J Mark


Protein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous post-

translational modification involved in signal

transduction, energy metabolism, and other key

biochemical pathways. Phosphorylation regulates

HIV processes and is a promising therapeutic target.

The hijacking of host cell kinases by viruses

represents a powerful means to reduce the

complexity of viral genomes, eliminating the need

for virus-encoded kinases and allowing individual

viral polypeptides to exist in diverse functional

states. This initiative is based on the hypothesis that

host cell phosphorylation of HIV is critical to viral

propagation, and that an abundance of such

phosphorylation sites in HIV remain

uncharacterized. In response to the need for a

comprehensive determination for HIV

phosphorylation by host kinase, this study will

create a definitive database of host-cell kinase/HIV

phosphorylation substrate interaction. In this work,

data were extracted and searched against customized

database with p24 sequence using Proteome

Discoverer 1.4 (Thermo Scientific) and Mascot 2.4

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(Matrix Science). Based on bioinformatics

prediction, the various potential phosphorylation site

containing peptides were incubated in presence of

predicted kinases. Samples were aliquoted at

different time points and analyzed using Matrix

Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Linear Trap

Quadrupole (MALDI-LTQ). The goal of this study

is to identify potential phosphorylation sites of p24

on peptide level and to compare the results with

both the bioinformatics and p24 whole protein

phosphorylation data.

Poster B73

The Geometry of Solar Panels Based

on its Efficiency: Numerical

Simulation

Nikesh Prajapati

Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak


The main purpose of this research is to use a

mathematical model based on flux across a surface

to examine the efficiency of various shapes of a

solar panel. The calculations were performed

through the use of high-level language in a

computer called ‘python’.

While building such model, unlike traditional flat

panels, it is important to thoroughly understand the

trajectory of sun during specific time and place to

know the direction of sun rays that would illuminate

the solar panel. In our case, we chose ‘New York’

with 40.7 degrees latitude as a designated

destination to incorporate a solar panel shaped in a

form of a catenoid.

The efficiency is similar to the flux density, where

we need the mathematical flux and the surface area

of catenoid. For simplicity, we are just working on

to find out the efficiency at lower-half part of the

catenoid. At first, we tested the model at the North

Pole to verify our findings assuming that the sun’s

path is similar to the horizontal circle. Since the

trajectory of the sun varies from place to place

because of the change in latitude at different

locations of the celestial sphere, we encountered

more complex calculation while shifting our

direction to New York.

As we considered a three-dimensional shape like

catenoid, we were bound to face some challenges

like trimming some parts of it where sun rays were

not exposed. Regardless of it, the good news is we

were able to find out the numbers which would give

us some information about the efficiency of the

catenoid shaped panel. Moreover, we also came

across the idea of using 5X5’’ solar cells rather than

using the whole surface, to trim inefficient parts of a

catenoid through our visit to Pvilion Headquarters

on Brooklyn.

Poster B74

The Impact of Sewage Infrastructure

Updates on Water Quality Indicators at

Newtown Creek, NY

Tonya Roe, Zazoe van Lieshout, and Aldrin

Ador

Mentor: Professor Holly Porter-Morgan


Newtown Creek, a 6.0 km tidal waterway between

Queens and Brooklyn, was designated a Superfund

site in 2010. Not only does the Creek contain

sediments packed with chemical contaminants, but it

is severely impacted by combined sewer overflow

events. The Creek receives more than 2 billion

gallons of untreated sewage and storm water yearly

from 21 combined sewer outfall pipes. The New

York City Department of Environmental Protection

has addressed this problem by upgrading the four

sewage outfalls that contribute the highest

proportion of discharges to the Creek, work that was

completed in November, 2017. This research

82

assesses the impact of these infrastructure upgrades

by collecting weekly surface water samples at key

locations along the Creek during the recreational

boating season and testing them for levels of

dissolved oxygen and Enterococcus (fecal indicator

bacteria). Results from the 2018 season (post-

upgrades) are compared to results from the 2017

season (pre-upgrades). This research will be

important in determining the efficacy of the

completed combined sewage outfall upgrades.

Poster B75

Inertial Sensitivity of an Array of Atom

Ring Interferometers

Eleni Romano

Mentor: Professor John Toland


Atom interferometers are sensitive tools utilized for

inertial measurements as their rotational sensitivity

is 1010 greater than that of an optical interferometer

of equivalent size. This project theoretically

analyzes the ability to detect inertial rotation in a

coherent chain of mesoscopic quantum rings by

utilizing the sagnac effect. We show that modulating

the inter-ring distance d, parametrized as kd (where

k is the wave number) from 0 to π/2 affects the

rotational sensitivity. Using the Sagnac effect phase

shift Θ𝑠 we specified a phase shift domain in which

the matter wave transmission T curve sharply peaks

and has a large slope to find the maximum rotational

sensitivity. The transmission peaks were inversely

proportionate to rotational sensitivity so that when

the highest smooth peak was obtained, the lowest, or

most sensitive rotation rate was also found. Our

investigation also determined that convergence

occurs as the slope of the transmission function

approaches Θ𝑠 → π/2. With this information, our

current goal is to examine the exact location where

kd converges as it approaches π/2 and to fully

rederive our transmission function from first

principles to ensure that it is mathematically and

physically sound.

Poster B76

The Effects of Temperature on Drosophila

melanogaster

Sarah Seron

Mentor: Professor Jacqueline Brashears, Daniel

Gertner


My research investigated the effect of temperature

on the fitness parameters of adult female fruit flies

(Drosophila melanogaster). We raised parental flies

in incubators at three different temperatures (21°C,

low; 25°C, middle; 29°C, high). Virgin females

were collected and mated with males for 48 hours,

after which so that we counted to number of eggs,

the number of eggs surviving to adulthood, and the

brain to body mass of the adults. Our results

demonstrate an effect of temperature on fitness

metrics.

Poster B77

Identify Genes Functioning with Linker

Histone H1 in Regulating Blood Tumor

Formation Caused by Hyperactive

JAK/STAT Signaling

Yasmeen Shuaib

Mentor: Professor Na Xu


We have shown previously that the interaction

between STAT and H1 suppresses blood tumor

formation induced by hyperactive JAK/STAT

signaling. Although 61 gene products were

identified which interact with H1 in vivo, the

manner in which these 61 genes affect H1-mediated

83

tumor suppression and heterochromatin formation

was not determined. Our present research aims to

single out and identify novel genes which function

with H1 in vivo in mediating heterochromatin

formation and suppressing blood tumor formation

caused by hyperactive JAK/STAT signaling. The

method we will use to identify these novel genes is

by conducting a second mis-expression genetic

screen, using the previously identified 41 enhancers

and 20 suppressors of H1 depletion-mediated

lethality phenotype. We expect our research will

reveal a network of signaling pathways and proteins

that may function together with the linker Hiltons

H1 in regulating multiple biological events. In

addition, our research findings will provide a

foundation for future studies in understanding

mechanisms of the blood tumor formation caused by

hyperactive JAK/STAT signaling.

Poster B78

Preparation of Self-Organized Organic

Nanoparticles of alkyl substituted Iron

(III) porphyrinoids to study their

Catalytic Activity for Oxidative

Degradation of Envioremental Pollutants

Michelle Paola Tuz

Mentor: Professor Amit Aggarwal


Preparation of supramolecular systems of Porphyrins

and their metallo complexes, that serves as a building

blocks to prepare their advanced materials are inspired

by natural photosynthetic systems which rely almost

exclusively on non-covalent interactions. .

Supramolecular systems of metalloporphyrins

reported to show enhanced catalytic activity for

olefinic oxidation to yield allylic oxidation products

using molecular oxygen as oxidizer under ambient

conditions, in contrast to their completely solvated

analogue in organic solvents that yields addition

product. However, their self-decomposition limits

their use for catalytic applications. We have used click

chemistry to synthesized a series of iron (III)

porphyrinoids appended with thioalkyl groups at the

para position of meso phenyl group using

commercially available 5,10,15,20-

tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) iron (III) porphyrin,

Fe(III)TPPF20. Our hypothesis is that the presence of

alkyl chains at para positions of the meso phenyl

groups attached to the metalloporphyrinoids may folds

around the porphyrin face and block the access to the

central metal atom from self-decomposition, where the

oxygen is activated during their catalytic activity. We

have prepared their self-organized colloidal

nanoparticles by mixing host-guest solvent method

and tested for their stability using a variety of

surfactants. The catalytic activities of these self-

organized nanoparticles of prepared

metalloporphyrinoids are under investigations.

CRSP TRANSFER PROGRAM

AT QUEENS COLLEGE

Poster B79

Using Stable Isotopes (13C and 15N) to

Determine the Residence Time of Pyrogenic

Organic Matter in a Northern Temperate

Forest Soil

Adolfo Coyotl

Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Bird

Queens College

Global climate change is increasing the frequency and

intensity of forest fires in mid- and high-latitude

ecosystems. This is of particular importance because

forest fires add a large amount of black carbon (or

pyrogenic organic matter - PyOM) to soils, surface

waters and the atmosphere. While PyOM is a large

pool of soil C, it has been considered to decay very

slowly - on the scale of millennia. However, recent

research has shown that PyOM instead decays on the

centennial scale. To assess the residence time of

PyOM in a fire-prone forest, a long-term field study

84

(20-year) was initiated in 2012 using stable isotope

labeled PyOM (13C/15N) added to a forest soil

located in Pellston, MI, USA. This study attempts to

link the wood source and pyrolysis temperature to the

fate of PyOM that is deposited to soil after a forest

fire. A critical measurement in this research is the

amount of PyOM-derived C and N remaining in the

soil over time. This was accomplished by measuring

the C and N contents and the isotope ratios of

13C/15N from soil sampled from field mesocosms 1,

3, 5, 10 and 20 years after PyOM or wood application.

This presentation will describe these methods and

show how these data can determine the fate of C and

N from PyOM added to soils. The results to date show

that wood source and temperature affect in situ C and

N mineralization rates of PyOM accumulating in soils

for two co-occurring gymnosperm (Pinus banksiana;

JP) and angiosperm (Acer rubrum; RM)¬ species

common in North American boreal-temperate

ecotones. Higher pyrolysis temperatures increased the

recovery of PyOM C and N in soil during the first 3

years. In addition, gymnosperm wood-derived PyOM

decayed more slowly than angiosperm wood-derived

PyOM produced at 450 ºC.

Poster B80

Sand-Venting by a M5.7 and Prior

Earthquake in the Ganges-Brahmaputra

Delta: Implications for Liquefaction and

Earthquake Hazards

Jaswinder Kaur and Prasala Tuludhar

Mentor: Cecilia McHugh

Queens College

The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD) is a river

located in South Asia and is near the Sunda

subduction and Himalayan collision zones.

Throughout the land, there is an abundant amount of

water and fertile sediment which supports a population

of approximately 163 million people. However,

throughout the years massive earthquakes have

occurred along these convergent boundaries and have

repeatedly caused widespread liquefaction and

destruction. Liquefaction is the process of loose soil

acting like a liquid during an earthquake. The January

3, 2017, M5.7, 32 km deep (USGS) Ambassa

(Tripura, India) earthquake rupture was strike slip.

This is typical or current seismicity east of the GBD.

The earthquake was associated with surprisingly

intense damage and many liquefaction sites in the

alluvial northern portion of the Dolai valley in

Bangladesh, ~36 km NNW of the epicenter. The Dolai

is a low-relief synclinal valley draining northward into

the Sylhet Basin where it meets the NE portion of the

GBD.

For our research, three trenches were dug near

liquefaction sites and 10, 50m deep wells were drilled

across the 5 km wide Dolai alluvial valley. The well

sediments from top to bottom are composed of 15 m

of fluvial channel sands, and a 5 cm thick layer of red,

indurated oxidized clay with up to 1m thick bed of

gravel above. There are 15 m of medium to coarse

sand on top of the gravel. The sequence is capped by

10 m thick fluvial channel sands alternating with

overbank silty clay which suggest that there are

frequent changes in the river course. The whole

sequence was deposited during the late Pleistocene sea

level lowering and the early to late Holocene

postglacial aggradation.

The ~1.5 m deep trenches revealed fractures and

clastic dykes <15 mm wide that fed the 2017 sand

vents. Also, we found that there were similar but

wider paleo- sand dykes and a lenticular apron of

vented sand which was buried 1.1 m below the

surface. The stacking of lithologies recovered sand-

mud sand as found in the Dolai valley could raise pore

pressure and liquefaction potential. The trenches

show evidence of this in the 2017 and prior

liquefaction event. Therefore, this constitutes a serious

geohazard for the heavily populated country of

Bangladesh.

85

Poster B81

The influence of urban centers on soil pH

and bacterial diversity

Jessenia Soriano

Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Bird

Queens College

Soils contains thousands of different types of Bacteria,

Fungi, Archaea and viruses, which together make up

the microbial community. While the specific functions

of individual members of these communities remain

largely unknown, their collective roles are known to

be essential for maintaining ecosystem productivity,

resilience and critical ecosystem services. The

composition of microbial communities is influenced

by several edaphic and climatic factors, including soil

pH, the concentrations of heavy metals and the

amount of organic matter. Urbanization and its dense

human population can significantly alter edaphic

properties of soils such as pH, via deposition (i.e., Pb)

and the development of soils on anthropogenic waste

materials (e.g., construction debris). This project

intends to examine the effects of urbanization on

edaphic variables and the impact on microbial

community diversity. Surface soil samples were

collected from locations along an urbanization

gradient that spanned from Flushing, NY to Montauk,

NY during 2014-2015. This presentation summarizes

the data on soil pH and the bacterial. To assess

bacterial diversity, operational taxonomic units

(OUTs) were analyzed and their richness was

quantified. The results suggest that urbanization

increases bacterial diversity and creates a wide range

of soil pH values, which have significant effects on

specific bacterial groups including Acidobacteria.

Poster B82

Probing the properties of ionic liquid

mixtures with single-walled carbon

nanotubes

Rawlric Sumner and Jasodra Ramdihal

Mentor: Professors Sharon Lall-Ramnarine and

Tirandai Hemraj-Benny

Queens College

The use of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to

replace silicon-based solar cells is attracting increased

attention. However, it is necessary for more efficient

electrolytes to be developed in order to facilitate their

increased commercialization. It has been reported that

ionic liquids (ILs) with intrinsic high conductivities

are ideal media for dispersing single-walled carbon

nanotubes (SWNTs) and improving their ion diffusion

properties. In this study, the transport properties of

mixtures containing SWNTs in 1-(alkyl or ether)-3-

methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide

ILs were determined to assess their potential as

electrolytes in DSSCs. The ionic liquids were

prepared by reaction of 1-methylimidazole with the

alkyl halide or alkoxyalkyl halide to yield

imidazolium halide salts. The halide salts were then

converted to bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide (NTf2)

ILs. H-1 and C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

(NMR) spectroscopy was used to confirm the

structures of the ILs. SWNT-IL mixtures were

prepared by grinding using a mortar and pestle

followed by sonication. The temperature dependent

conductivity, viscosity and the thermal profile of the

pure ILs and SWNT-IL mixtures were measured and

compared. Preliminarily, conductivity values greater

than 5.0 mS/cm at 25 °C were obtained for SWNT-IL

mixtures, showing that SWNTs have the ability to

raise conductivity, therefore, making them promising

electrolytes for use in electrochemical devices. This

work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of

Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of

Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences

under contract DE-SC0012704.

86

CRSP 2017 - 2018:

Selected List of Publications, Scholarships and Other Recognitions

2017

1. Tesfemichael Demeke, from Hostos, was awarded a Columbia University Transfer Scholarship in

in 2017 (Mentor: Biao Jiang)

2. Gadsden, Jay, of BMCC, published a paper with his mentor, Jane Johnston: The effects of

forskolin on cultured SHSY-5Y neuroblastoma cells. Inquiry. 2017. 21, 85.

3. Molly Caperna and Jay Gadsden, of BMCC, published a paper with their mentors, Jane Johnston and Nikolaos Tezapsidis: Heat shock proteins: Still hot in neurodegenerative disease. EC Neurology. 2017. 13; 8(3):85

4. Jie Lan, from BMCC, was awarded a $50,000 (renewable) scholarship to attend the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Mentor: Chris McCarthy)

5. Jiyeng Li, from BMCC, was awarded a $50,000 (renewable) scholarship to attend the University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Mentor: Chris McCarthy)

6. Margaret de los Santos, from Queensborough, was selected for a one-year internship at the Food and Drug Administration (Mentor: Paris Svoronos)

7. Xiaofang Yu, from Queensborough, was selected to participate in an NSF-REU at the University of Pennsylvania (Mentor: Dr. Sujun Wei)

2018

8. Yoanna Boleaga, from BMCC, was accepted to the Lunar and Planetary Institute Summer Intern

Program in 2018 in Houston, Texas (Mentor: Larbi Rddad)

9. Margaret de los Santos, from Queensborough, was awarded a full scholarship to attend Binghamton University in 2017 (Mentor: Biao Jiang)

10. Natalia Harrow, from LaGuardia, was awarded the Google Women Techmakers Scholarship in 2018 (Mentor: Yun Ye)

11. Khushpreet Kaur, from Queensborough, was selected for a year-long internship at the Food and

Drug Administration in Jamaica, NY in 2018 (Mentor: Sunil Dehipawala)

12. Swimi Kolancheril, Calvin Francis, and Elan Anderson, from Hostos, won first place for their oral

presentation, “Senior People Tracking System for Metropolitan Area,” at the 2018 Annual CSTEP Statewide Student Conference in Lake George, NY (Mentor: Biao Jiang)

13. Jieying Li and Jie Lan, of BMCC, published a paper with their mentor, Chris McCarthy: Particles in a box with one sticky wall. ODE to PDE. PRIMUS, June 2018

87

14. Senayit Menache and Abdulai Jalloh, of BMCC, were each awarded a $500 Mathematical

Association of America travel award to present at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meeting in San

Diego, CA (Mentor: Chris McCarthy)

15. Edison Mera, from Queensborough, was selected to participate in an NSF-REU program at the University of Binghampton in 2018 (Mentor: Paris Svoronos)

16. Claythia Nicholas, from Medgar Evers, was awarded an eight-week summer research position in

the Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine, sponsored by the National Institute

of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Diseases in 2018 (Mentor: William Carr)

17. Joangela Nouel, from Guttman, participated in the Summer Undergraduate Internship Program

(SUIP) at UPenn University during the Summer 2017 working at the Virology Lab. She was

accepted into the Cellular and Molecular Biology PhD program at UPenn and will join the

program during fall 2018

18. Eleni Romano, from LaGuardia, was awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Transfer

Scholarship in 2018 (Mentor: John Tolland)

19. Alice Wu, from BMCC, was awarded a travel grant from the Mathematical Association of

America to present at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Diego, CA (Mentor: Lina Wu)

john jay college tuesday, july 24 · adolfo coyotl queens b79 83 torrell daw guttman b15 55 . viii...

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