Comparing Media Literacy of Adolescents and College Students College of Staten Island

2018 Symposium

John Jay College Tuesday, July 24

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

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. Opening Remarks Interim Chancellor

9:45 – 10:30 A.M. Patrizia Casaccia, Ph.D. Keynote address: How Advanced Science Research Center progenitors in the brain sense the environment

10:30 -11:30 A.M. Oral Presentations Session 1 BMCC, CSI, Medgar Evers, NYCCT, QCC

11:30 - 12:30 P.M. Poster Presentations (Hound’s Square) Session A BMCC, CSI, Medgar Evers, NYCCT, QCC

12:30 - 1:15 P.M. Lunch (Student Dining Commons)

1:15 – 2:45 P.M. Career Development Workshop Tria Case Urban Sustainability and Energy Management Nikki Evans and Beth Spektor Careers in Technology

2:45 – 3:45 P.M. Oral Presentations Session 2 BCC, Guttman, Hostos, KBCC, LAGCC

3:45 – 4:45 P.M. Poster Presentations (Hound’s Square) Session B BCC, Guttman, Hostos, KBCC, LAGCC

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

iii

LIST OF COLLEGE-BASED CRSP DIRECTORS

Borough of Manhattan Community Alona Bach College (BMCC)

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 Deborah Berhanu (KBCC)

LaGuardia Community College Allyson Sheffield (LAGCC)

Medgar Evers College Mohsin Patwary

New York City College of Hamid Norouzi Technology (NYCCT)

Queensborough Community College Sharon Lall-Ramnarine (QCC)

iv Student Oral Presentations

College Title Student Mentor Session 1

BMCC Bioactivity of the Medicinal Plant Ilyasse Alexander Lippia Multiflora Against Oxidative Benezha Gosslau Stress and Inflammation

CSI Synaptic Deficit in Alzheimer’s Disease: Izabella Alejandra Is Abnormal Tau the Culprit? Beniaminova Alonso Medgar Evers Quantification of Heavey Metals at Semika Christopher Medgar Evers College’s Campus Burnette Boxe Potable Water System

NYCCT Implementation of an Assistive Jannat Hoque, Ohbong Technology Mobile Robot Joycephinne Li Kwon and and Jannatul Farrukh Zia Mahdi

QCC Impact of Molecular Length on Jiayi Xue Sujun Wei Oligocarbazole Single Molecule Wires

Session 2

BCC On Bidegree Sequences of Directed William Nikolaos Trees Meyers Apostolakis

Guttman A Virtual Information Assistant for the Miguel Jinzhong Niu CUNY Guttman Community College Vignoni Using Amazing Alexa

Hostos Concrete Inspection Using Deep Miguel Febriel Biao Jiang Learning and Melissa Souffront

KBCC Shrimp Vaccination Jessica Zhao Sarwar Jahangir

LAGCC The Effects of Environmental Lorraine Thomas Toxicant, Bisphenol A, on Cultural Haddad Onorato and Ovarian Cells from the Sea Star, Patria Ingred Veras Miniata

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

vi 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

vii Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

viii Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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 A55, A61, Joycephine Li NYCCT 26, 28, 29 A63

ix Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page

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, 26, 28, 29 A63 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

x Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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 A86, A93, Jasodra Ramdihal Queens 40, 43, 85 B82 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 8 Alexander Rue BMCC A18

xi Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

xii Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

xiii

PARTICIPATING FACULTY MENTORS

Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

xiv Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page Daniel Gertner LAGCC B57, B67, B67, 73, 78, 82 B76 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, 54, 55, 56 B20 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, 75. 80, 81 B73 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

xv Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

xvi Name (First) Name (Last) College Poster Page 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

xvii

MORNING POSTER SESSION will allow us to explore factors that moderate visual perception and to estimate in quantitative terms the richness of our perception.

Borough of Manhattan Poster A2 Community College Composting: A Cost or a Benefit? Poster A1 Aleksandra Artyfikiewicz Richness of visual perception Mentor: Professor Christine Farias Saleha Abbasi Borough of Manhattan Community College

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Mentor: Professor Marjan Persuh up to 40% of food in the US is wasted and growing, Borough of Manhattan Community College processing, transporting, and disposing of that uneaten

food costs an estimated $218 billion annually. At the Is our visual perception really as rich as our same time, about 41 million people cannot provide everyday experience suggests? Or do we suffer from enough food for their households. In New York City, the refrigerator light illusion? In other words, 20% of the waste stream is food waste, so diverting believing that we experience rich and detailed this compostable material from the landfill represents world only because it is readily available upon close a huge opportunity to preserve the environment and inspection. Partial report experiments cut waste management costs. Is food waste suggest that perception is rich. Change blindness composting an opportunity for the Borough of experiments suggest that it is sparse. One camp Manhattan Community College (BMCC)? To answer argues for rich visual perception with many details, this question, my poster presentation will attempt to whereas the other camp argues that details analyze the current BMCC waste management system are available only for few (~3-4) objects; the rest is and compare it to one that implements composting. experienced as an ensemble or summary My research also analyzes its potential impact on the statistics. To address this question in a qualitative BMCC community, measures awareness of food waste and eventually in quantitative terms, several and composting through a survey and recommends a factors that influence our perception should be circular economy model. considered. One important factor is distinction between the central and peripheral vision. Another Poster A3 important factor is distribution of sizes and distances between objects, that contribute to the Bioactivity of the medicinal plant Lippia phenomenon of crowding, which poses well known limitations on visual perception. Lastly it is multiflora against oxidative stress and important to consider the allocation of inflammation attentional resources. Because all behavioral measures of perception require some form of Ilyasse Benezha, Shaiku Jalloh memory, interference between items in memory might drastically underestimate the richness of visual perception. We sought to address this Mentor: Professor Alexander Gosslau methodological problem, by designing a visual Borough of Manhattan Community College perception experiment in which all items are selected from distinct categories. This novel design Lippia multiflora is used as herbal tea by local cultures in Africa, Central and South America for medical

purposes for many years. Lippia multiflora is Poster A4 commonly used for treating skin and gastrointestinal infections as well as respiratory disorders such asthma Assessing Water Quality of drinking and bronchitis all of them associated with chronic water fountains vs bottled water use in inflammation. During chronic inflammation an accumulation of free radicals is leading to oxidative NYC stress. The ABTS assay demonstrated that Lippia has a strong antioxidant activity. Using the Folin- Zhuoquan Chen Ciocalteu method, we observed a close correlation between anti-oxidative capacity and phenolic content Mentor: Professor Henry Bulley in Lippia. The high R² value suggest polyphenolic Borough of Manhattan Community College compounds as major bioactive against oxidative stress. To analyze potential cytotoxicity we applied different The use of bottled water in cities across the United concentrations of Lippia multiflora to human States, including New York City, have steadily monocytes (U-937 cells) and analyzed cell viability increased in the last two decades due to concerted using the MTT assay. As a result, there were no campaign by the Bottled Water companies. Part of this apparent toxic effects up to 100ug/ml. For analysis of have been due to success in convincing the people to the anti-inflammatory potential of Lippia, we used the believe that the bottled water is safe and taste better inflammatory stimulant 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol- than tap water. Such perception seems to be pervasive 13-acetate (TPA) to induce the differentiation to despite reports of water quality issues related to macrophages in which genes of the inflammatory bottled water. This study is part of a collaborative cascade are upregulated. In our cell-based model for project to examine the factors influencing NYC inflammation we were measuring the expression of residents’ choice of drinking water from tap/fountains cyclooxygenase-2 which play a central role in the compared to bottled water sources. The specific inflammatory cascade. After normalization to the objective is to assess the water quality of drinking house-keeping gene GAPDH results were expressed water fountains vs typical bottled water that are used as delta CT (ΔCt) values an indicator for the level of use in NYC. In situ sampling was conducted for gene expression. To analyze the anti-inflammatory drinking water fountains in three NYC (boroughs potential the ∆Ct values of TPA vs TPA treatment Brooklyn, Bronx, and Manhattan) to measure selected with Lippia were compared and expressed as ∆∆Ct. water quality parameters including nitrates (NO3), Our experiments demonstrated that Lippia nitrates (NO2), pH, Alkalinity and Hardness. For now, prominently down-regulated the expression of COX-2. the first part of water fountain sampling we collected As a result, our research analysis demonstrated at stores, supermarket and building, etc. Later, we will evidence of bioactivity of Lippia against oxidative move on to public park. In the process of sampling, I stress and inflammation which explain its traditional found some water fountains did not even work or be use against disorders related to chronic inflammation. discarded. Additionally, water quality test was In future experiments, we will analyze other conducted for typical bottled water including inflammatory genes such as ICAM-1, TNF-a, IL-1ß. Aquafina, Fiji, and Poland Springs. The water quality Moreover, we are planning a chemical results will be overlaid on median income maps of characterization of Lippia multiflora by nuclear NYC borough. This poster presentation will highlight magnetic (NMR) analysis to identify polyphenolic the spatial distribution of sampled drinking water bioactivities. fountains. The results will be discussed to with reference to spatial differences in perceptions of bottled water quality in different areas of NYC.

Poster A5 Poster A6

Adsorbate Induced-Segregation effects in The Effects of Forskolin on Cultured SH- Mixed Oxides: a computer-based study SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells

Marwan Elzoeiry Jay Gadsden

Mentor: Professor Daniel Torres Mentor: Professor Jane Tezapsidis Borough of Manhattan Community College Borough of Manhattan Community College

Catalysts are substances that increase the rate of Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that starts in chemical reactions, without undergoing any nerve cells and is responsible for almost 700 new permanent chemical change. You can find a catalyst cases of cancer per year. Our research investigates inside your cars’ muffler in the form of platinum the impact of Forskolin, a natural compound root particles that convert poisonous CO into harmful extract derived from Plectranthus barbatus, on CO2. Mixed oxide-based catalysts are low-cost cellular viability and growth in neuroblastoma. prototypes of industrial catalysts, which are made of Previous studies conducted by Follin-Arbelet et al in costly precious metals. Mixed oxides results from multiple myeloma U266 cells and mouse models the combination of oxygen and two different metals have shown Forskolin to boost Cyclic adenosine in the form of a solid solution. Mixed oxides monophosphate (cAMP), crucial for signal catalysts have complicated structures and various transduction, to induce apoptosis and prohibit tumor structural defects such as oxygen vacancies control growth. Consequentially understanding these its chemical reactivity. The role of these vacancies pathways in neuroblastoma cells may be beneficial and the strength of its interaction with the two to developing new anticancer therapies, as our team metals in the mixture are unknown, which motivates prior investigations has shown SH-SY5Y cells our project. In this computer-based project, we (derived from human neuroblastoma) and E18 carried Quantum mechanics simulations to study the embryonic neurons from Sprague-Dawley to structure of mixed oxides in the form of a matrix respond differently to Forskolin. We observed a combined with metal impurity. We selected a wide significant time dependent trend of declining cell range of metallic impurities and used combinatoric viability of up to 54% and 79% when SH-SY5Y methods to study a large set of mixed oxides in the cells were treated with Forskolin after 3 or 5 days presence of oxygen vacancies. We are extending our respectively. However, Forskolin treatment previous research including two new oxide matrices, significantly increased survival of E18 neurons up to CaO and SrO. Finally, we will carry a density of 11% compared to untreated controls. These results states analysis in order to gain insight into the bond suggest that forskolin has differential effects on established between oxygen vacancies and metal normal and tumor cells and further investigation is impurities. warranted.

Poster A7 Poster A9

Student Attrition in e-Learning vs. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Tradition Sections of General Psychology for Biology Laboratory Practices Course Gabriela Kimanyen, Brenda Lagares Thalia Herrera Mentor: Professor Jose Fernandez Romero Mentor: Professor Yana Durmysheva Borough of Manhattan Community College Borough of Manhattan Community College Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are Past research on attrition rates in college courses versatile, simple and sensitive immunoassays that demonstrated a higher tendency for students to drop out exploit the specificity of antibody/antigen reaction. from e-Learning courses more compared to traditional ELISA are widely use in all fields of pure and face-to-face courses. The purpose of the present research applied biology and are extremely important tool in was to observe the differences in attrition rates in diagnostics. This is a technique that every student traditional face-to-face vs. fully online vs. partially interested in biological sciences should know. online sections of General Psychology course at Borough of Manhattan Community College taught by the same We developed a cost-effective rapid ELISA that instructor over a period of several years. Results, could be performed in a 3 hours laboratory practice. implications, and strategies for reducing attrition rates will be discussed. For this purpose, a direct sandwich ELISA was selected as the preferred ELISA format in a 96-well Poster A8 microplate solid phase. The assay consisted in 5 steps: i) coating the plate with a capture antibody, ii) ODE Model and Design of Adsorption blocking, iii) adding standards/samples iv) adding detection antibody conjugated to horseradish Based Water Filter peroxidase, v) and finally adding substrate followed by the stop solution. The absorbance values were Abdulai Jalloh determined in a Spectramax iD3 (Molecular Devices, LLC) microplate reader at 450nm, with a Mentor: Professor Chris McCarthy subtraction wavelength of 570nm. Softmax Pro 7 Borough of Manhattan Community College was used for data analysis.

The research focused on developing kinetic models of The preliminary results show an acceptable standard adsorption and one-dimensional models of adsorption- curve performance (system suitability), with based filters. These mathematical models have been coefficients of variation below 20%. We obtained a developed in support of our college's interdisciplinary lower limit of quantification of 7.8 ng/mL. The lab group (chemistry, engineering, mathematics). Our precision and accuracy are within the established group conducts research into the bio-remediation of limits and key reagents (antibodies) are stable at - heavy metal contaminated water via filtration. The 70°C (with or without glycerol) for at least 3 filters are constructed out of biomass, such as spent months. The ELISA is cost-effective (less than tea leaves. The spent tea leaves are available in large $16.00 per plate; 1 plate per bench should be used in quantities as a result of the industrial production of tea the laboratory practice). The assay will be beverages. The models we are developing involve introduced as a new laboratory practice in BIO230 differential equations (ODE's). We then use the (Fundamentals of Microbiology) at BMCC. mathematical models to design practical filters.

Poster A10 healthy alternative to bottled soda beverages. This growth has often been fueled by dominant positive Applications of Hyperspherical Functions perception of bottled water taste and quality, Method for the Neutron-rich Lithium compared to tap water and drinking water fountains. Isotopes 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 Bohdan Klotska, Lamarana Diallo collaborative project to examine the factors influencing NYC residents’ choice of drinking water Mentor: Professor Klara LaGrance from tap/fountains compared to bottled water Borough of Manhattan Community College sources. The specific objective is to examine consumers attitudes towards drinking water Exotic nuclei close to neutron drip line are difficult fountains vs prevalence of bottled water use in to describe microscopically. The small binding NYC. This study combines a survey of using online energies and extended radial density distributions of questionnaire, of perceptions and prevalence of neutron-rich nuclei such as the Lithium isotopes, are bottled water use and safety in NYC area, with data produced in radioactive beams and are not correctly from in situ sampled drinking water fountains water reproduced in shell-model calculations. For this quality information that base on different boroughs reason, simple Gaussian parametrization of the in NYC, including nitrates (NO3), nitrates (NO2), density distributions have been used in order to pH, Alkalinity and hardness. These elements will describe the large experimentally observed reaction use to compare with the bottled water sample from cross sections. the close neighborhoods. By the end of this research, a statistical analysis and GIS-based In a fully microscopic calculation of the lithium visualization will be conducted. The results will isotopes has been performed in a basis of provide insights into the driving forces for growth in hyperspherical functions with the symmetries bottled water use in the NYC boroughs. properly taken into account. Therefore, a better description of the asymptotic part of the wave Poster A12 function is possible. Mean squared radius of Lithium isotopes has been obtained and compared to Building 3D Model on an Embedded experimental data. Mobile Robot

Poster A11 Jiahua Liao Attitudes towards drinking water Mentors: Professors Hao Tang fountains vs prevalence of bottled water Borough of Manhattan Community College use in NYC It’s a continuous research project and we have Qing Lan designed and implemented an embedded intelligent mobile robot from parts. It is built up by a powerful Mentor: Professor Henry Bulley microprocessor (with hundreds graphical processing Borough of Manhattan Community College units), a stereo camera and a programmable Robot, to explore and understand indoor environments. Bottled water consumption in the United States In this project, we first deployed and tested an surpassed carbonated soft-drinks in 2016, after existing open source robotics simultaneous decades of consistent media campaign to promote localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm using bottled water as a safe alternative to tap water and the stereo camera. Second, we design algorithms to

allow the robot to self-explore an unknown Poster A14 environment and automatically and build a 3D model of the environment. In addition, we will also How does attention affect the richness of improve the user interface to make human users our visual experience? easy access and communicate with the robot.

Poster A13 Amanda McKenzie

Termination of NAFTA: Snowballing Mentor: Professor Marjan Persuh America’s Next Catastrophe? Borough of Manhattan Community College

Alexis Martinez Although we believe that we have a rich visual experience, experiments on inattentional blindness Mentor: Professor Christine Farias and change blindness suggest that our visual Borough of Manhattan Community College experience is limited only to a few objects, reflecting a limited capacity of attention and working memory. The North American Free Trade Agreement The perception of the remainder of the world is (NAFTA) was created 20 years ago as one of the presumably gained by using the redundancy of our largest free trade zones to help boost the Mexican, surrounding world and our brain represents it as a Canadian and American economies. While many summary statistics. Our goal is to test the richness or jobs were lost in the creation of NAFTA the U.S. possible sparseness of the visual experience using economy has created approximately 200,000 new multiple object tracking and cued change detection export related jobs and saw an increase in average paradigms. We will use multiple object tracking to wages by about 15-20% annually. Approximately 14 manipulate the availability of attentional resources. million U.S. jobs rely on trade between Canada and Observers will track objects moving at constant speed Mexico and US GDP has increased by and by manipulating the speed, we will directly affect approximately 80 billion dollars. In 1993 before attentional resources available for the second task, NAFTA regional trade was around $290 billion cued change detection. For the cued change dollars. In 2016 trade has increased to more than detection, eight rectangles will be presented around $1.1 trillion dollars. While American consumers and the centrally presented multiple object tracking task. businesses were able to enjoy the benefits of Rectangles will then disappear and a cue indicating a NAFTA, today we face a new challenge that will position for one of the rectangles will be presented. ripple not only America – but the world. Will the Observers will be presented a new set of rectangles termination of NAFTA be the snowball that will and asked to notice a change between the two bring America into its next big crisis? To answer rectangle displays at the position of a cued rectangle. this question, my poster presentation will attempt to Our previous experiments indicate that observers examine the pros and cons of NAFTA, discuss the perform well in this task, suggesting that their possible outcomes if it is terminated, and provide an perceptual experience is rich and detailed. It is economic analysis on the U.S. and the global however unknown how attention affects the richness economy. The analysis is based on statistical data of experience. We have already demonstrated that we from Bloomberg, Pew Research Center, Council on can successfully manipulate attention in the multiple Foreign Relations, New York Times and the U.S. object tracking task. In the next step we will combine Bureau of Economic Analysis. the two tasks to determine if attention is necessary for the rich visual experience.

Poster A15 humans through their antioxidant, antibacterial, anti- inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties. General Psychology: Do students perform Cultures that practice traditional medicine often use better in traditional, face-to-face, online or specific plants that contain many types of hybrid sections of the course? polyphenols, such as flavonoids, phenolics, and antioxidants. Dandelions are also rich in iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc minerals as well as Lottyizet Nunez vitamins A and C.

Mentor: Professor Yana Durmysheva The objective of this research is to determine the Borough of Manhattan Community College total biological activity of these polyphenols in commercial samples of dandelion leaves and roots. Technological innovations of the past several decades Dry samples of dandelion leaves and roots are have led to the development of various learning grinded and dissolved in DMSO and made into modalities. In addition to traditional classroom extracts. These extracts are measured for total teaching and learning in higher education, online and phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity using hybrid models are rapidly becoming more and more a spectrophotometer. Antioxidant activity is popular. The purpose of the present research was to measured through three different techniques using determine whether the success rate of college students ABTS. Determining the total biological activity for depends on the teaching modality used to deliver the this class of polyphenols will help understand the course material. To do that, academic success use and effectiveness of dandelion in traditional measured by final numeric grades in sections of the plant remedies. General Psychology course taught by the same instructor in traditional face-to-face, online and hybrid Poster A17 formats over a period of several years is measured and comparisons were drawn. Results, implications and Capturing Energy of a Moving Vehicle future directions of the research will be discussed.

Poster A16 Michael Rosado

Biological Activity of Taraxacum Mentor: Professor Rafael Niyazov officinale Borough of Manhattan Community College

Eric Pereira 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 Mentor: Professor Adolfina Koroch is an inefficiency that can be resolved by creating a Borough of Manhattan Community College system that saves this kinetic energy as potential

The leaves and roots of dandelion (Taraxacum energy the users of said vehicles can utilize in order officinale) are used in traditional Brazilian herbal to move forward. The work that my project revolves remedies to treat diseases of the liver, urinary and around is the design of this system with efficiency digestive disorders as well as regulating cholesterol and practicality in mind. This system can be created and regulating blood pressure. Plants synthesize and in many ways, but for my design I will convert the accumulate various chemical compounds that rotational kinetic energy of the axle of a car into provide an ecological advantage. One of these potential energy by using a spring. This design was chemicals are called polyphenols. Many of these chosen as the other options, such as using inertial polyphenols have beneficial health effects for forces to compress a spring or using electric

potential with magnets to store the energy, were recall. Indeed, several observers were able to deemed impractical when compared to the options I retrieve stored information, demonstrating that have chosen. The reasons for this being that inertial information can be stored unconsciously into forces are most effective with sudden and drastic working memory. In the second experiment we changes in velocity, which doesn’t happen in sought to better characterize unconscious working everyday driving, and that a spring stores energy in memory by testing how the availability of a linear and practical fashion that is desirable. My attentional resources affects storage and recall. expected outcome is a model with a defined relationship between the weight of the system and Poster A19 the strength of the spring that will be able to move a vehicle forward from rest. Kinetic Recycling: Capturing the Kinetic

Poster A18 Energy of a Decelerating Vehicle for Future use The Role of Attention in Unconscious Brandon Short Working Memory Mentor: Professor Rafael Niyazov Alexander Rue Borough of Manhattan Community College

When vehicles slow down to a stop they lose all their Mentor: Professor Marjan Persuh kinetic energy. The objective of this research is to Borough of Manhattan Community College design a system that allows a user to capture and store the decreased kinetic energy as potential energy. This Working memory, a capacity to store and potential energy is then released by the user in a manipulate information in the service of the ongoing manner conductive of moving the vehicle forward task, is a fundamental concept in cognitive science. again. My primary method of design has been trial and Recently, it has been proposed that working error of design through drafting and editing. This is memory stores and operates on unconsciously followed by the physical construction and testing of a perceived information. We tested the hypothesis that model. Although systems involving electromagnetic storage itself but not the working memory or hydraulic applications were considered, the scope information in the focus of attention is unconscious. of this research was ultimately limited to systems Observers were presented with different objects on reliant upon springs and mechanical means. I the computer monitor and instructed to memorize measured success by two outcomes. First, is the these items. We then introduced a distraction task, system functional in capturing, storing, and releasing during which observers were presented with a set of energy, Second, is the functionality of the system images and asked to detect image repetition. After repeatable. If successful, this research may provide the distraction task, observers were asked to report significant changes to the approach of designing the memorized items. Unlike previous experiments, vehicles. 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

Poster A20 Poster A21

REMOVAL OF SULFUR-CONTAINING Solar Panels & Optical Systems COMPOUNDS FROM MODEL FUELS WITH MODIFIED CLAYS Mohmed Tijani

Adkhamjon Soliev Mentor: Professor Shalva Tesklauri Borough of Manhattan Community College Mentors: Abel E.Navarro Borough of Manhattan Community College In the present, making solar energy economical and efficient is the most important challenge for engineers The presence of sulfur-containing compounds in the and scientists. In fact, it is classified, by the National fuels has been an important concern in the last Academy of Engineering (NAE), as one of 14 Grand decade as an environmental risk because of the Challenges that should be a priority focus. There are increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and several reasons that outline the importance of accentuation of acid rain. This study evaluates improving the technology of solar energy. First of all, chemically modified clays as adsorbents for the it is almost a necessity to escape the dependency on removal dibenzothiophene (BT) and 4,6- fossil fuels and its negative impacts on the dibenzothiophene (DBT). The adsorption on the environment. Nevertheless, the most important reason modified clay was investigated in a batch system is the excellent potential that solar energy portrays. with synthetic fuels (gasoline and diesel) as a According to the National Academy of Engineering, function of type of chemical modification, adsorbent solar energy is capable of providing "10,000 times as dosage, initial concentration of the pollutants, much as all the commercial energy that humans use on desorption, and isotherm modeling. Maximum the planet." In order to address the issue of the adsorption was observed with clays modified with efficiency of the currently existing photovoltaic (PV) benzyltrimethylammonium salts (BM) due to its cells, we are introducing optical systems. This similarity with the pollutants (aromatic compounds). technology helps adjust and control the intensity and The maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) was direction of sunlight rays that reach solar cells. achieved by BT with a qmax of 11.3 mg/g in gasoline Manipulating the quantities of sunlight rays helps and 31.3 mg/g in diesel. The formation of Van der increase the efficiency of the PV cells. My role Waals interactions as well as aromatic forces are the consists of conducting experiments to test the main mechanisms proposed based on the results. A performance of solar panels with and without optical solution of 0.1N HCl recovered up to 40% of the systems to compare energy output. Following the pollutant for their use in repetitive cycles. This research predictions, I was able to record an average present work highlights the potential use of increase of 7% of energy output comparing to original modified clay in the elimination of sulfur-containing values for a system that does not use optical systems. compounds from model fuels as a low-cost and Furthermore, having an incident angle of 90° at which environmentally friendly purification technique. 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.

Poster A22 Poster A23

BAlq embedded silica nanoparticles for Solving liouville-type problems in calculus photonic crystals engineering by extending q-energy from finite to infinite Jinyu Wu Alice Wu Mentor: Professor Luis Gonzalez-Urbina Borough of Manhattan Community College Mentor: Professor Lina Wu Borough of Manhattan Community College Photonic crystals are periodical lattices capable of interacting with light due to their nanometer-size The study of Liouville-type problems in Differential structure. By interacting with the light we are able to Geometry is to discover constancy properties for improve the efficiency of optical devices such as maps between the domain and the target on organic photovoltaics. We aim to manipulate the Riemannian manifolds. Existence of constancy emission of a molecule used in such devices, Bis (8- properties is determined by geometric structures on hydroxy-2-methylquinoline)-(4-phenylphenoxy) manifolds and energy growth for maps. In this (BAlq) and in order to do that we aim to embed BAlq project, we focus on solving Liouville-type molecules in the silica nanoparticle. problems in Calculus where manifolds are We synthesized silica nanoparticle samples using Euclidean spaces restricted with the real number different amounts of BAlq and and playing with the systems and maps become functions. The original ammonia ratio. The purpose of synthesizing silica work in this project is to explore q-energy growth nanoparticles in different conditions was to find out for functions from finite to infinite by the p- the best recipe to get photonic crystals that have BAlq balanced technique. Calculus skills such as Holder molecules inside Silica nanoparticles. We will Inequality and Tests for Convergence Series has be characterize the samples in terms of amount of used to evaluate limits and integrations for molecule absorbed, the particle size and colloids functions. Computational methods and energy stability. estimation techniques applied for functions in this

project have been successfully generalized as an Spectrofluorometry will be used to detect the BAlq in effective algorithm applied for maps. This the nanoparticles because BAlq emits light at 480nm. successful algorithm has an in-depth impact on the The photonic crystal optical characteristics will be research field of solving Liouville-type problems measured with spectrophotometry, allowing to related with q-energy approaching to infinity. 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 A24 trading on the US exchanges. Typical portfolio theory uses the standard deviation of the corresponding set of Improvement of Map Learning data to measure risk, while Mandelbrot and Peters Application posit that fractal dimension is a preferable way to assess risk and thus build a better investment strategy.

Tiantian Xia We obtained data for a sample of 95 US listed company stocks and computed their fractal Mentor: Professor Hao Tang dimensions. We have undertaken the programming in Borough of Manhattan Community College R to be able to construct portfolios of stocks (with re- balancing) and then compute the fractal dimension of Visual impaired people is a group that often be that time series data for the portfolio's value over long easily overlooked. Nowadays, they still have huge periods of time. Also, we have run the program from inconvenience when they travel around. A map 3-stock portfolios to 24-stock portfolios, from the learning application was built to help visual results, making a conjecture about the effect of the impaired people to learn and make a mental map by portfolio size on both the level and amount of themselves. variation in the fractal dimension of the portfolios. Then, we will analyze data from 95 individual stocks Therefore, in this project we will improve the App and the portfolio fractal dimensions that run the in different aspects. We are going to modify the program composed of random combinations and try to application by improving and designing several verify the empirical result mathematically. methods so that visually impaired people can easily access the application and understand all the map Poster A104 information. First, to eliminate redundant instructions, we will redefine the main route for the ODE Model of Adsorption Based Water player move through the map. Second, we will Filters 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 Senayit Menasche interface that a user can easily access. Finally, we will conduct experiments. The aim of this project is Mentor: Christopher McCarthy help visually impaired people travel more safely and Borough of Manhattan Community College confidently.

Poster A25 The research focused on developing kinetic models of adsorption and one-dimensional models of adsorption- based filters. These mathematical models have been Fractal Analysis of US Stock Prices developed in support of our college's interdisciplinary lab group (chemistry, engineering, mathematics). Our Yuanhe Ye group conducts research into the bio-remediation of heavy metal contaminated water via filtration. The Mentor: Professor Glenn Miller filters are constructed out of biomass, such as spent Borough of Manhattan Community College tea leaves. The spent tea leaves are available in large quantities as a result of the industrial production of tea The purpose of this project is to apply the theory of beverages. The heavy metals bond with the surfaces of fractal analysis of time series data developed by the tea leaves (adsorption). The models we are Benoit Mandelbrot to investigate the fractal dimension developing involve differential equations, stochastic of the prices of individual and portfolios of stocks methods, and recursive functions. The poster will explain the models and compare the models'

predictions to data obtained from computer Poster A27 simulations and experimentally by our lab group. Comparing Media Literacy of Adolescents and College Students College of Staten Island

Poster A26 Cody Barshaba

Creating a baseline of Staten Island Beach Mentor: Professor Patricia Brooks, Jessica Brodsky Morphology College of Staten Island

In today’s world, where concerns about fake news, Jennifer Avila-Sanchez misinformation, psychographic research, and the power of algorithms to disrupt democracy proliferate, Mentor: Professor Jane Alexander students need support in navigating the digital College of Staten Island environment. Recent research shows that students of all ages lack skills in fact-checking and are unable to Staten Island is a submergent coastline like the other 4 judge the credibility of online information (Wineburg boroughs in New York City, meaning that relative sea et al., 2016). The current study examined media level is slowly rising over time. There are constant literacy in adolescents and college students using an changes in the shore line due longshore drift and more online survey. We adapted a general media literacy rapid changes during storms, that can affect residents scale (Bier et al., 2011) and explored relationships near the coastline. Studying these changes is important between media literacy and social media use, media to help withstand future storms and reduce multitasking, and academic achievement. We devastation, as last seen caused by Hurricane Sandy. compared performance of middle-school students (N = In this project, the main objective is to see how the 73; mean age 13 years, range 11-15 years) and coastline has changed since Hurricane Sandy by undergraduates (N = 76; mean age 19 years, range 18- analyzing the sediment buildup and to create a 24 years); see also Powers et al. (2018). In both detailed baseline of beach morphology for interpreting groups media literacy scores correlated positively with future changes. Previous work has been done using a self-reported grades and with ability to recognize cues geospatial approach to determine the sediment to a trustworthy website. In adolescents, media movement, but in this experiment, beach profiles are literacy correlated negatively with self-reported media to be created for various areas along the eastern and multitasking and social media use; self-reported southern shore of Staten Island at low tide. grades also correlated negatively with self-reported Additionally, 3 sediment samples are collected for media multitasking. In contrast, college students’ each beach profile to be later sieved by size and to media literacy correlated positively with self-reported determine if there is a relationship between grain size media multitasking and social media use, and self- and beach location. reported grades correlated positively with self- Keywords: beach profile, grain size, sieve, sediment reported media multitasking. The group differences transportation 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.

Poster A28 observation was corroborated by immunohistochemical data. Calbidin levels were Synaptic deficit in Alzheimer disease, is also altered by the presence of PH-Tau. These abnormal tau the culprit? results taken together suggest that low levels of PH- Tau can modulate the levels of synaptic protein, Izabella Beniaminova altering synaptic stability and therefore neuronal function.

Mentor: Professor Alejandra Alonso College of Staten Island Poster A29

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a dementia characterized Design and Control of a Low-Cost 2D by the presence of hyperphosphorylated tau. Tau is a Plotter microtubule associated protein, which promotes tubulin assembly into microtubules and therefore Mobin Uddin Chowdhury facilitates normal neuronal transmission. In pathological conditions, hyperphosphorylated tau is Mentors: Professors Aleksandar Haber present, and a decrease in the neural activity can be College of Staten Island seen. In AD, the microtubules are disrupted and an earlier damage to the synapsis has been reported. In The aim of this project is to develop a low-cost 2D our lab, we have developed an inducible mouse plotter capable of accurate reproduction of model of neurodegeneration that expresses trajectories defined by the user. The developed Pathological Human tau (PH-Tau), with plotter has a Cartesian configuration and consists of modifications at Ser199, Ser262, Thr212, and two stepper motors controlling the X and Y axes Thr231, along with frontotemporal mutation using the system of pulleys and belts. The pen of the R406W. PH-Tau can be expressed at two levels, 4% plotter is attached to one of the axes. The feedback of the endogenous tau (PH-Tau low) and upon information about the pen position is provided by induction high levels, 14% of the endogenous tau two encoders. The control system consists of an (PH-Tau high). Expression of PH-Tau at both levels Arduino microcontroller and two stepper motor induced cognitive decline, in PH-Tau low because drivers. Using the encoder feedback information, the of synaptic abnormalities observed by electron PID controller generates control voltages for the microscopy and in PH-Tau high because of neuronal stepper motor. The developed control system is able loss. to attenuate system vibrations and to reject external In an effort to understand the synaptic abnormalities, disturbances. In this way, the system positioning we studied the levels of synaptic protein, the accuracy and trajectory tracking performance is postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) along with significantly improved. Our preliminary results calbindin. Animals expressing PH-Tau and controls show that such a low-cost system is able to achieve were perfused and coronal slices of the brain were a 100 micrometer positioning accuracy. In our stained with monoclonal antibodies to human tau to future work, the developed system will be used to trace the N-terminus of tau protein and with test advanced machine learning algorithms for antibodies for PSD95 and calbidin. The improving its performance. Due to the fact that the hippocampal CA3 area, the cerebellum and the working principle and configuration of the cerebral cortex were the main areas of interest. The developed 2D plotter is similar to a large variety of biochemical characterization showed high levels of mechanical systems, such as for example, 3D the PSD-95 present in the control group and lower printers, CNC machines and laser cutters, the results levels of expression upon PH-Tau increment. This and insights obtained in this project can be useful

for improving the performance and accuracy of a large-number of mechatronics systems. Poster A31

Poster A30 Alzheimer’s and Diabetes: The Effect of Abnormal Tau on Proteins Related to the Emot-iCan-Too: A Research Game to Glucose Metabolism Assess Emotion Recognition from Acoustic-Prosodic and Visual Cues Marina Ghobrial

Victoria Fischer Mentors: Professors Alejandra Alonso College of Staten Island Mentor: Professor Deborah Strum College of Staten Island Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive condition that destroys the neuronal connections in the brain, This research project is part of a larger effort is to eventually causing the neurons to die. The damage assess and possibly improve emotion recognition in in the brain ultimately causes problems with individuals on the autism spectrum. Previously, we memory, intelligence, judgment, language and developed an iPad app to measure over-selectivity, behavior. It has been found that Tau, a microtubule where individuals focus on specific aspects of a associated protein (MAP) predominately localized situation or environment while ignoring others in neuronal axons, can become hyperphosphorylated (Sturm, Peppe & Ploog, 2016). In the iPad game, and lead to the neurodegeneration that we see in emot-iCan, developed by Dr. Sturm (Computer AD. Science) and Dr. Ploog (Psychology), the player matches a visual stimulus with comparison images, Studies have shown that diabetic individuals are 50- each with a differently expressed mouth, eyes, or 100% more at risk for AD and vise versa. Type II both. In this project we assess emotion recognition diabetes is a metabolic disorder with a from prosodic cues as well a visual cues, where the pathophysiology of peripheral insulin resistance, player hears a sound clip and matches the tone of the excessive hepatic glucose production by the liver, voice to a face displaying one of Ekman’s basic and impaired beta-cell secretory function. To emotions. We are extending a Unity game that understand the connection between Type II diabetes presents and collects data based on the player’s and AD, we use a mouse model in order to choices (Sturm & Levitan, 2018). This will determine how the presence of human Tau affects hopefully lead to a better understanding of whether proteins related to the glucose metabolism using an the player is focused on the tone or the content of immunohistochemical approach. I will be presenting the audio stimulus. The study and development of preliminary results on the correlation of Insulin emote-iCanToo is on-going and preliminary results receptors and Tau as well as Glucose transport and will be presented. Tau.

Poster A32 Poster A33

Predictors of geographic range size of Brain Insulin Receptor Expression and the Western, Eastern and Spanning Birds Control of Neuronal Excitability Species MD Zahirul Islam Nicole Guzman Mentor: Professor Abdesalam El-Idrissi, Salvator Mentor: Professor Lisa Manne Rotando College of Staten Island College of Staten Island

Range size is the spread of species in a geographical Brain homeostasis relies on a number of factors that area, it is important to study because these are the regulate neuronal excitability. Surprisingly one of areas in which species breed, migrate and feed in. If these factors coincide with the insulin the range size is affected in any way this also affects neuroendocrine system. There is ample evidence the species. This shows that range sizes have an effect that insulin play an important role in neuronal on how species live and there are relationships that excitability. Previous studies have shown that species share with the areas that they live in. A study taurine-fed mice have increased insulin sensitivity in is needed to better understand the relationships to have the pancreas, when compared to controls during healthier environments in which our species can thrive glucose tolerance test. These results also showed an in. Commonly, larger-bodied animals need larger increase in insulin and insulin receptors expression ranges in which to persist. Species that are able to in the pancreas. Our hypothesis is, since insulin is utilize a larger variety of resources (such as food secreted in to the bloodstream and does indeed pass resources, or habitat) have lowered extinction risk, through the blood brain barrier, taurine and might also have larger range sizes. Species that supplementation may increase the expression of are more vagile might be more vulnerable to insulin and insulin receptors in the brain which extinction (due to the need to move seasonally determines the levels of excitability in each brain between resource-rich environments), or might have region. Thus we also believe that the increase in lowered extinction risk, due to this ability to move taurine supplementation can modulate neuronal between habitats. Dr. Manne and I studied the life excitability. It is important to note that neurons cycle, habitat, migratory guild and body size of highly express insulin receptors. Furthermore, Western American, Spanning and European species. insulin crosses the blood-brain barrier through a We test the relationship between these traits and the high affinity uptake system. Once insulin passes to birds' range sizes, while accounting for inter- the brain, it binds to the insulin receptors and affect relatedness between predictors (e.g. habitat and neuronal excitability via signal transduction migratory guild). To do this, I will conduct path pathway, with differential effects on brain analysis, which finds a path diagram to relate the traits structures. In the cortex and hippocampus, insulin of these birds to range sizes. Another analysis of this receptor activation has been shown to increase type, for European birds, found that rapid reproduction excitability, whereas in the hypothalamus the effects rates, movement from birth site to breeding sites and of insulin are inhibitory. habitats have a positive effect on range size. While as diet had a negative effect. I compare our results for We determined the expression of insulin/insulin Western birds to the results for the European birds. As receptors in the brain/pancreas through well gather and combine the findings of the Spanning immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy in and European species to analyze which traits affect 4 different group of mice; the wild type controls, range size. fmr1 KO, taurine fed (for two-month period to examination) wild type, and taurine fed KO. Our

results show that insulin and insulin receptors Poster A35 expression and activation are highly regulated in these treatment groups and indicate that insulin, Assessing Emotion Recognition in Children through activation of its cognate receptor, may with ASD regulate neuronal excitability.

Poster A34 Nada Mohamed

Mentor: Professor Bertram Ploog, Adrienne Fitzer Insulin Receptor Expression and College of Staten Island Neuronal Excitability The proposed experiment will use a behavior- Mohammad Mansour 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 Mentor: Professor Abdelsalam El-Idrissi recognition in autism but inconsistent findings have College of Staten Island been reported. Reasons for inconsistencies could be differences in the type of stimuli, the intensity of the Brain homeostasis relies on a number of factors that stimuli used, the type of task used to assess emotion regulate neuronal excitability. Surprisingly one of recognition, varying sample sizes, different these factors coincide with the insulin functioning level of the participants as well as neuroendocrine system. There is ample evidence different chronological ages, or the types of emotions that insulin play an important role in neuronal assessed. The purpose of the present study is to asses excitability. We found that increase insulin and any emotion recognition deficits in individuals with insulin receptors expression in the pancreas and autism when compared to typically developing brain of taurine-fed mice. Insulin crosses the blood- individuals, to identify reasons for previous brain barrier through a high affinity uptake system. inconsistencies, and to provide remediation if such a Once insulin passes to the brain, it binds to the deficit will be found, which in turn will allow us to insulin receptors and affect neuronal excitability via test for converging evidence of behavior analytic and signal transduction pathway, with differential effects eye-tracking approaches. The behavior-analytic on brain structures. We determined the expression approach has at least one advantage over eye-tracking of insulin/insulin receptors in the brain/pancreas approaches because it allows us to assess whether the through immunohistochemistry and confocal participant actually paid attention to the stimulus or microscopy under various treatment. Our results merely looked at it. Specifically, a matching-to- show that insulin and insulin receptors expression sample paradigm will be used with a variety of and activation are highly regulated in these stimulus types such as photos of human expressions, treatment groups and indicate that insulin, through cartoon drawings, emoji faces, and geometric shapes. activation of its cognate receptor, may regulate neuronal excitability.

Poster A36 system consists of a cart that slides on linear rails. The movement of the cart in a vertical plane is Low-cost System for Surveillance, People achieved by a stepper motor and a belt and pulley Recognition and Threat Detection system. The system support is built using aluminum extrusions. The system is controlled using an Arduino microcontroller and a micro-step motor Anvarjon Nurakhunov driver. The feedback information about the position of the cart is obtained using a rotary encoder that is Mentor: Professor Aleksandar Haber attached to one of the pulleys. Mechanical limit College of Staten Island switches restrict the motion range of the cart. Furthermore, once the limit switch is activated the The problems of developing reliable and low-cost cart changes the movement direction. systems for surveillance, people recognition and Our experimental results show that such a low-cost threat detection are one of the most challenging system is able to accurately position a 4-pound engineering and scientific problems. The solutions weight. The maximal weight that the system can lift to these problems will lead to improved safety of is approximately 6 pounds. In our future work, we our schools and neighborhoods, as well as to will increase the lifting capacity by introducing a improved performance of our public transportation gear reducer and a threaded rod. systems. Motivated by these problems, this project aims at developing a low-cost surveillance and Poster A38 people recognition system using a Raspberry Pi microcontroller, web camera and Artificial Remotely Controlled Mechatronics Intelligence (AI) algorithms. On the basis of a Systems 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 Abel Pepin, Ralph Joseph, Hala Basyouni recognize a person and estimate its threat level. For example, the system should be able to recognize if Mentor: Professor Aleksandar Haber the person is carrying a weapon. This information College of Staten Island will be sent through a wireless connection and the Internet to a cell phone application. The total In this project, we develop and investigate the estimated cost of such a system is below $100, performance of a low-cost system for remotely which is a significantly lower cost than the cost of a controlling mechatronics components. Such a commercial system with similar capabilities. system can be used for remote control of unmanned aerial vehicles and robots. The system consists of Poster A37 two Arduino microcontrollers (master and slave) and two wireless transceiver/receiver modules. In Low-cost Vertical Positioning System 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 Francesco Pecora, Marjan Perbibaj, Ali cart position using remotely located master Ahmed microcontroller. The master microcontroller wirelessly sends control information to the slave Mentor: Professor Aleksandar Haber microcontroller. The slave microcontroller receives College of Staten Island the control information and translates it into control voltages for the stepper motor. Once the control We have developed a low cost system for precise actions are executed and the cart moves to the vertical positioning of small-sized objects. The desired position, the slave microcontroller sends the

confirmation message to the master controller. Our Poster A40 preliminary results show that such a system can reliably operate even when the distance between the The Relationship Between the Presidency master and slave microcontrollers is 70 meters. In and Economic Beliefs our future work, we will use this system to develop feedback control systems for autonomous driving vehicles. Kailey Volpetti

Poster A39 Mentors: Professors Florette Cohen College of Staten Island Identifying Synergizers with TGFb Inhibition in Glioblastoma Using a Cell- This study examined participants’ approval rating of President Donald Trump and how they felt about Based Model System and Oncomine-Based their economic situation this year. Participants, Data Analysis using a 5-point Likert scale, rated how much they approved or disapproved of President Trump, and Arouje Shaikh, Briana Soto, Fatima Rizwan, how much better or worse they believed their Xiangliu Yang economic situation would be this year. In 76 participants (42 female, 33 male), we found a Mentor: Professor Liu-Sullivan significant positive relationship (r=.48) between College of Staten Island support for the President and people’s economic situation. Those who had a stronger approval rating Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most believed that their economic situation would be aggressive type of glioma of the central nervous better this year. Those that did not approve of system (CNS) that can be found in the brain or the President Trump believed their economic situation spinal cord. GBM represents 14.9% of all primary would become worse. As a result of this study, it brain tumors, and 55.4% of all gliomas. Adults with appears approval ratings of President Donald Trump and feelings of economic situation have a significant more aggressive glioblastoma have a median survival of about 14.6 months and two-year survival positive relationship. of 30%. GBM consists of a mixture of cell types and many cytokines that promote its growth and Medgar Evers College metastasis. A cytokine called Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGFb) has been found to play a crucial Poster A41 role in GBM growth and metastasis. LY2157299 is a small molecule inhibitor designed to block TGFb The Beat Of The Drums signaling by inhibiting TGFb receptor I expressed on the cell surface. Identifying synergistic compounds, will enable us to modulate cytokine Eugenia Beache signaling and examine the reduction rate of tumor development. Reported studies have revealed that Mentor: Professor Terrance Blackman the LY inhibitory effect in tumor cell growth is less Medgar Evers College than 50%, suggesting the involvement of the additional signaling pathways. We are working One of the most fundamental ways that music and toward identifying potential drug combination such math are connected is in the understanding of sound as IDH1, SMAD4, and p27; that would modulate specifically, and wave phenomena in general. cytokine signaling and to enable stunted tumor Understanding sound as an instance of wave proliferation. Findings of this study has the potential phenomena provides a nice forum for the interaction of identifying a treatment strategy for GBM. of ideas from music, physics, and mathematics. Tools

that have been developed to help us understand the that arise from violations to EPA’s water quality nature of sound, such as Fourier analysis, can be mandates, we quantify the abundance of 27 heavy generalized to shed light on many areas of metals (Be, Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, mathematics. in return, the mathematical Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Ba, Hg, understanding of sound has helped foster the Pb, Th, and U) at the campus (96 samples, N = 3) – development of new technologies that extend the to provide an independent academic study of the possibilities for musical exploration. abundance of heavy metals in MEC’s potable water. Water was collected from fountains, bathrooms, and Poster A42 drinking water filling stations. Sample-matrix

preparation, sample collection and wet-chemical Quantification of Heavy Metals at Medgar analysis followed standard EPA water collection and Evers College’s Campus Potable Water sampling protocols. To prevent sample System contamination, linear polyethylene containers and caps were washed and rinsed with detergent, nitric Semika Burnette acid, tap and deionized water. Sample-matrices were spiked with a small aliquot of 5% nitric acid and Mentor: Professor Christopher Boxe stored in a refrigerator at 4 oC to preserve collected Medgar Evers College samples. Heavy metal concentrations were determined externally at New Jersey’s Potable/usable water is vital for optimal daily Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute’s functionality and health. Medgar Evers College Earth and Environmental Science Department by (MEC) of the City University of New York services Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer ~7,000 students with ~1050 faculty and staff; which (ICP-MS) (Agilent 7700X, Palo Alto, CA) in no gas all have access to its potable water. Within this and He mode. 95% of sample concentration RSD context New York City (NYC) is one of the cleanest reveal 4 distinct regions: 1) where one mode is more and best tasting water of any city in the world. precise than the other {[Ti] ≈ [Cr] ≈ [As] ≈ 0.1 ppb, NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection sample data exhibit very good to excellent precision, (DEP) collects more than 47,000 samples a year RSD ≤ 15%}; 2) despite being at low concentrations (testing water 630,000 per year) from streams that {[Sb] ≈ [U] ≈ [Co] ≈ [Pb] ≈ [Mo] ≈ 10-2 to 10-1 feed NYC’s reservoirs, tunnels that deliver water to ppb}, measurements exhibit good to excellent the City, and roughly 1,000 street-side sampling precision, RSD ≤ 20%; 3) species concentrations ≥ stations in the five boroughs. NYC’s 2015 Water 0.1 ppb {[Al], [Na], [Mn], [Ca], [Mg], [Ba], [Cu], Quality Report exemplified no Maximum [Ni], [Fe], [K], [Sr], and [Zn]} exhibit very good to Contamination Level (MCL) violations for all excellent precision, RSD ≤ 15%; and 4) species at regulated and non-regulated microbial, physical, and concentrations ≤ 10-3 ppb display fair to very poor chemical parameters. Given that: 1) precision {Cd, Ag, Be, Se, Hg, and Th}, RSD ≥ students/faculty/staff spend 20-30% of their daily- 30%. All heavy metals, except Fe, complied with time at MEC; 2) matrices providing potable water their respective EPA MCLs; compliances were, at must abide by EPA’s maximum contamination most, 3 orders of magnitude less than EPA levels for heavy metals; and 3) the detrimental requirements. Only 11.50% of samples are below impact on human health (e.g., increase in blood EPA’s MCL (300 ppb) for Fe while remaining pressure, staining, skeletal damage, anemia, samples were enhanced by up to about 30 times. Just headaches, apathy, irritability, skin discoloration, 2 samples, [Pb] = 13.7 (No gas mode, RSD = insomnia, and more chronic conductions, leading to 3.32%) and 14.8 ppb (He mode, RSD = 0.75%), reduced growth and development, cancer, were close to EPA’s Pb MCL of 15 ppb. organ/nervous system damage, autoimmunity, etc.)

Poster A43 Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT). Having only one JAK Real Time Measurement of Three (Hopscotch), drosophila is used to study the functional Different Particle Mass (PM) in Urban requirements of the JAK-STAT pathway across Residential Area, NY and NJ species. Drosophila Hopscotch tumorous-lethal (hopTum-l) mutation acts as an activated oncogene causing hematopoietic neoplasms called melanotic Clover Chambers, Monique Hinkson tumors to form due to over proliferation of cells. Dietary supplements such as Selenium, Folic Acid and Mentor: Professor Jin Y Shin garlic play important roles in keeping the body healthy Medgar Evers College and are used by millions of Americans every day. Selenium is an essential mineral antioxidant with anti- Real-time measurements of PM enables to help carcinogenic properties. Folic Acid helps the body people better understanding of their local air quality. break down, use, and create new proteins. Garlic is For this study, we developed a simple and thought to have anti-cancer properties along with a inexpensive way to extend local data logging myriad of health benefits. Studies suggests that people options to the AirBeam2 to stretch our budget who consume lower amounts of selenium could have an increased risk of developing cancers of the colon further, conduct our research more efficiently, and and rectum, prostate, lung, skin, esophagus, and be more effective educators and scientists. The main stomach. Whether selenium supplements reduce goal of this study is to evaluate whether cancer risk is not clear. The role that Folic acid plays contributions from airport emissions can be in cancer prevention is also unclear. More research is discerned from the contributions of other needed to understand the effects of selenium and other background sources by measuring PM1, PM2.5 and dietary supplements on cancer risk. Our studies PM10 at four different locations in New York and investigate the effect of Selenium and Folic Acid and Central New Jersey in the period of May–July in garlic in food on the development of melanotic tumors 2018. The highest concentration of PMs, ~75µg/m3 , in Drosophila JAK-STAT mutants. Understanding the found in the Queens that is close to the airport, on role of these supplements in this mutant pathway- the other hand , the lowest concentration were found specific context may shed light on their functions in in central NJ, East Brunswick, ~25µg/m3 during cell proliferation, differentiation and growth. Results preliminary sampling period. from these ongoing studies will be presented.

Poster A44 Poster A45

Examining the role of dietary supplements Epigenetic Dichotomy in Cellular Models on melanotic tumors development in fruit of Prostate Cancer flies? Fatumata Dukuray, Vimal Arora Islande Derazin Mentor: Professor Shiraz Mujtaba Medgar Evers College Mentor: Professor: Onyema Osuagwu, Chiyedza Small Prostate Cancer (PCa) remains the second most Medgar Evers College prevalent malignancy that accounts for a significant

number of deaths,which still to rise. Despite during Many signal transduction pathways have been initial stages most PCa respond to androgen-ablative implicated in the development of human diseases such as cancer. One of these disease-related pathways is therapy (5– 8), the majority relapse and progress to a

stage called castration-resistant PCa. In this poster apoptosis. The results obtained from this study will we present that two small molecules in two cellular be presented in this report. models of PCa have different cellular effects. The Conclusion: Our results indicate that ACK NiCur that inhibit histone acetylation only induce inhibitors induce preferential death of v-Ras cell deaths in LNCaP cells, whereas, Azacytidene transformed cells. Development of ACK kinase that inhibits DNA methylase only restricts the inhibitors might lead us to design new experiments growth of DU145 cells. Our major goal is to dissect to study the potential of such inhibitors for the the underlying epigenetic mechanisms that promote treatment of Ras-induced cancer. the growth of PCa. Poster A47 Poster A46 Optimization of cell-based assay to measure Effect of Tyrosine kinase Inhibitors on cytokine responses by NK cells ex vivo proliferation of v-Ras Transformed NIH 3T3 cells Latoya Jones

Jonelle Jackman Mentor: Professor William Carr Medgar Evers College

Mentor: Professor Ijaz Ahmed and Alam Nur-E- Kamal Cytokines are substances that are secreted by cells Medgar Evers College found in the innate immune system that aid in a cell to cell communication. These cells signaling Background: The Ras GTPase family has been molecule will directs cells to an area under attack found to regulate various functions of mammalian triggering a defense mechanism. TNF-a and INF-g cells. Oncogenic mutants of Ras GTPases have been are cytokines are two of many found in the human demonstrated to be associated with the development body. These cytokines are secreted by natural killer of various types of cancer in human. We have cells found in the innate immune system during demonstrated that ACK is required for the survival antiviral and antiparasitic events. Some of these NK of v-Ras transformed NIH 3T3 cells, but not the cells includes macrophages, B lymphocytes, T parental NIH 3T3 cells. In this report, we studied lymphocytes and mass cells. The K562 c9 is an NK the effect of some tyrosine kinase inhibitors (inhibits cell line, which can be used to measure the levels of ACK kinase) on growth of v-Ras-induced NIH 3T3 intracellular cytokine expression ex vivo. Measuring cells. intracellular cytokine levels is critical for Method: We seeded v-Ras transformed NIH 3T3 quantifying NK cell responses to pathogens during cells into culture dishes and incubated overnight at HIV-1 infection, which can alter innate immune 37oC in standard culture conditions. Then tyrosine responses. Interferon-gamma (INF-g) and tumor kinase inhibitors of STK series or PD168393 were necrosis factor-alfa (TNF-a) are typical pro- added. Cell growth was monitored by MTT assay inflammatory cytokines secreted by NK cells; however, it is unknown which cytokine is a more after 24 hours. We determined IC50 for each inhibitor. We also assayed markers of apoptosis in sensitive indicator of NK cell activation. ACK inhibitor treated cells. The aim of this protocol is to optimize intracellular Results: It was found that some activated Cdc42- staining to measure NK-cell responses after in vitro associated Kinase (ACK) inhibitors induced Ras- activation. We hypothesize that after stimulation transformed cell death, while some others did not TNF-a and INF-g cytokine production will differ in show any inhibitory activity. We also demonstrated their magnitude of responses after stimulation. that cell death was associated with induction of For this experiment, K562 c9 cells were stimulated and stained to measure the relative levels of

intracellular cytokine expression. To activate or cytokine INF-g is a more sensitive measure of NK stimulate the NK cells, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) cell activation than TNF-a in this in vitro assay was used as the stimulant. A working solution 200 system. pg./ml of LPS concentration was used for stimulation. After a cell count was done, we Poster A48 aliquoted the cells into treatment wells of a 24 well plate at a concentration of 1x 106 cells/ml in RPMI Vocs in New York City Soil Environments 1640 medium with Golgi Stop added per manufacturer’s instructions. The cells were Ingrid Mathurin, Varquita Murbury stimulated for 6 hours at 37 degrees Celsius and stored overnight at 4 degrees Celsius. Anti-INF-g Mentor: Professor Christopher Boxe PerCP-Cy5.5 and Anti-TNF-a PerCP-Cy5.5 Medgar Evers College monoclonal antibodies were used for intracellular staining to measure cytokine responses by flow 1) We quantify a suite (find out this exact number) cytometry with a Gallio’s 10-color flow cytometer of VOCs (think about grouping them in some way – (Beckman Coulter). Unstained cells were included maybe it will help in regards to specificity) in NYC as a negative control. We analyzed the data using soil environments via GC-MS; 2) articulate the Kaluza software. VOC-dependent grouping as a function of Boroughs

– think of a way to group them in addition to In analyzing the data, it was important to establish location/borough (e.g., whether they aromatics, the percent cytokine-positive cells after stimulation. long-chained, pahs, pcbs, etc.); 3) each of them has The gate for cytokine-expressing cells was set based a toxicity story, which pertains to both long- and on unstimulated cells for a value of no greater than 1 short-term exposure; 4) backward trajectory analysis to 2 percent. This gate was then used to determine of air parcels as a function of altitude – to gain the number of positive cells found in the stimulated insight into where air might have come from to samples. As expected, we found that after reach the surface; 5) maybe principal component stimulation for INF-g there was an increase of and regression analysis of data (consult with Shin); 22.54% positive cells whereas 0% of the unstained 6) how does this data not only compare in regard to cells were positive. In comparison, for TNF-a, after NYC boroughs but other locations in the US (and stimulation there was only an increase of 1.8%. internationally if possible); 7) implications for Likewise, these results were consistent in comparing human health and the detrimental effects they the increase in geometric means between causes; 8) the frequency and relative abundance of unstimulated and stimulated cells in two separate compounds/ Concentration of specific compounds ; experiments. There was also an increase in the 9) retention times, relative amounts; 10). Season of geometric mean. The geometric mean fold increase collection/ specific climate pattern; and 11) of INF-g was 1.83 with a standard deviation of regression, cluster, and principal component 0.18 and the geometric mean fold increase of TNF-a analysis; 12) using ½(base * height) (for calculating was 1.45 with a standard deviation of 0.40. In area under the peaks – actually, peak integration to comparing the means by T- test analysis the p value get % composition of each sample and relative was 0.35 which indicates that these differences were (peak response) values as a function of % not significant; however, the fold increase tended to composition. 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

Poster A49 amplification did not decrease as the amount of template was diluted. The second experiment showed IL-23 STANDARD CURVE amplification of two replicates in the dilution series. Based on these samples we found an efficiency of X Winsome O'Sullivan 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 Mentor: Professor William Carr found an efficiency of A and an R2 value of B. Medgar Evers College In conclusion, these experiments showed some contamination, dilution, and pipetting errors although Interleukin (IL)-23 plays a significant role in the the latter experiment values were closer to the pathogenesis of infections, inflamation, cancer and expected range. My future plan of action is to improve autoimmunity. It is a cytokine that is important for in my pipetting skills and techniques to further cytokinesis and is produced by activated dendritic optimize this assay. 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 New York City College of IL-23 offers the possibility of new insights in the Technology control of peripheral bacterial pathogens and opportunistic infections during the course of HIV-1 Poster A50 disease. Our aim was to optimize the detection of IL- 23 using real time PCR, which is a technique used to Multi-material Scaffold Printing monitor and measure a relatively small amount of amplified product (cDNA). Our goal was to establish the efficacy of commercially available primers using Anns Charles the following three parameters: (1) a linear standard curve, (2) amplification efficiency, and (3) consistency Mentor: Professor Ozlem Yasar across replicate reactions. New York City College of Technology To achieve this goal we assessed IL-23 qPCR primers for SYBR Green PCR assays from BIO-RAD. We In today’s technology, organ transplantation is performed serial dilutions of an IL-23 plasmid found very challenging as it is not easy to find the template (BIO-RAD). Each serial dilutions was run in right donor organ in a short period of time. In the triplicate in 10 microL PCR reactions. We included last several decades, tissue engineering was rapidly PCR reactions without template as no template developed to be used as an alternative approach to controls (NTC) for our negative controls. In creating a the organ transplantation. Tissue engineering aims standard curve, the ct values of the different serial to regenerate the tissues and also organs to help dilutions were plotted against the logarithm of the patients who waits for the organ transplantation. starting quality of template for each dilution. Both the Recent research showed that in order to regenerate standard curve and PCR efficiency were generated by the tissues, cells must be seeded onto the 3D the software associated with the CFX96 Real Time artificial laboratory fabricated matrices called PCR machine. The slope of a standard curve provides scaffolds. If cells show healthy growth within the an indication of the efficiency of the real-time PCR, scaffolds, they can be implanted to the injured tissue and efficiency can be calculated by using the to do the regeneration. One of the biggest limitation following formula: that reduces the success rate of tissue regeneration is In the first experiment amplification occurred in the the fabrication of accurate thick 3D scaffolds. In this NTC wells, which suggested one or more reagents research scaffolds were fabricated with micro- contaminated. Also we observed a lack of consistency molding and photolithography. Combination of among the serial dilutions. The amount of these two fabrication techniques allowed us to work

with multiple different materials. Our preliminary multiple uses. It can aid building designers in selecting results show that, scaffolds can be fabricated with door types and designing the entryway; and facilities different materials and this allows researchers to management can also make improvements to building control the mechanical properties of engineered maintenance in order to increase the energy efficiency scaffolds. and air quality of the entire building system.

Poster A51 Poster A52 Measurement of Airflows through Entrance Doors Internet of Things(IoT): VPNs

Lev Chesnov, Demba Diop Lynese Edwards

Mentor: Professor Daeho Kang Mentor: Professor Marcus Pinto New York City College of Technology New York City College of Technology

Climate change adversely affects our life, our health, By the time you finish this abstract there will be an and food production. In a follow up to the Paris estimated 4,000 new devices connected to the Climate Agreement, New York City launched a internet. Researchers say 328 million devices program called 80x50. The target of this program is to connect to the internet every month and by 2020 reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by there will be roughly 50 billion devices connected to 2050. Buildings produce nearly 40% of carbon the internet. At this rate that would mean by 2022, dioxide emissions in the United States. Ensuring that 500 devices per home would be connected to the buildings in New York are efficient will help reach internet. Although this does sound absurd, when you this goal. think of what IoT encompasses it is not farfetched. The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to billions of A building fenestrations, its doors and windows, are a physical devices around the world that are now huge contributor to a building’s loss of energy. We connected to the internet, collecting and sharing have worked for the last year and a half collecting and data. Thanks to cheap processors and wireless analyzing data of energy losses through entrance doors networks, it's possible to turn anything, from a pen in two City Tech buildings. In 2018, we started to look to an plane, into an internet connected device. With specifically at the Voorhees building located in all this activity going on in the IoT world one might Downtown Brooklyn. We used different tools to question who is protecting the data. One of the most measure both the inside and outside environments. We popular options to protecting yourself online is used an air velocity meter and a pressure differential using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN transducer to analyze the indoor environment in the allows one to create a secure connection to another lobby along with measuring temperature, relative network over the internet. It masks your network humidity, and CO2 levels. Immediately outside, we activity from anyone who might be prying on the measured wind direction, wind gusts, temperature and network. What is actually happening behind the CO2 levels by pulling data from the OnSet HOBO scenes of a VPN? When using a VPN one has to weather station. Simultaneously, occupancy data was take into consideration the cost, new network speed collected by occupancy loggers and linked to the air or maybe more importantly your data. This research flow measurements through the entry doors. This will discuss these topics. My hypothesis is that an aided in the understanding of how air flow behavior open source VPN would be safer because one would depends on the various parameters listed above. Data know exactly what’s happening to the data. collected from monitoring and quantifying air Although we still want fast networks speeds also, so infiltration and exfiltration has the potential for this raises another question. Can we have both?

Poster A53 Poster A54

A Public Data Visualization Scheme for C.H.E.S.S.- Computerized Homework Smart Building Exercise SyStem

Astrid Frank Harpreet Gaur, Hashir Qureshi, George Nwankwo, Syed Rehman Mentor: Professor Xin-Zhou Wei New York City College of Technology Mentor: Professor Viviana Acquaviva The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network consisting of New York City College of Technology devices which can collect and transmit data. Wireless Debt-ridden college students often find it prohibitive sensor networks play a very important role in the to afford software for online homework that can cost infrastructure of the Internet of Things (IoT). An up to $150 per class. We at C.H.E.S.S. XBee module is a radio module built according to (Computerized Homework Exercise SyStem) have IEEE specifications. These modules work with created an economical, secure and user-friendly wireless sensors to collect data on light, temperature, online homework system. This applications allows a humidity, and carbon monoxide gas. Data transmitted user to login and take homework assignments for from wireless sensors to XBee modules is managed by their class. It also displays useful information to the X-CTU software. This data can help detect hazards user such as their grade, assignment description, and and monitor and improve energy efficiency in public assignment availability. buildings such as schools, museums, shopping malls, and subway stations. In Summer of 2017, we developed the initial web application. In Summer of 2018, our goal was to We have successfully built a smart building learn Javascript which would provide to be a monitoring system consisting of an XBee wireless foundation for learning the React framework. The network with several Xbee routers along with an Xbee reason for migrating our code to React, which is a coordinator. A local computer was used as a host to JavaScript framework for developing user interface, monitor and display real time data collected by our is to build better interface, write code more simply, wireless sensors. Temperature data was collected from and reuse components in our application. Using several local buildings on the Long Island University React as the framework for front end development, (LIU) campus and the Voorhees building at the New our goals were to revamp the design of the York City College of Technology, CUNY, in application to accommodate the new features, downtown Brooklyn. The data collected was displayed complete a teacher portal for the application, and visually allowing for the modification of the Xbee demonstrate and test a functioning live demo of device to improve its accuracy. Future plans include C.H.E.S.S. in a classroom by Fall 2018. expanding the scale of our smart building monitoring system with more wireless nodes. 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.

Poster A55 recognition device to replace the remote control panel. This part of experiment was tested for people Sensor Implementation of an Assistive who need help with vision by producing speech Technology Mobile Robot output.

Poster A56 Jannat Hoque, Jannatul Mahdi, Joycephine Li Mathematical Modeling of HIV

Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia and Obong Kwon Transmission New York City College of Technology Kwok Ching Hui HeathKit Educational Robot (HERO-1) is a robotic educational tool that has been helping colleges and Mentor: Professor Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar universities across the country teach students about New York City College of Technology Computer and Robotics Technology since the 1980s. The HERO-1 model at City Tech went into Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus hibernation after 15 years of service. Currently, that causes HIV infection and over time Acquired three students from the CUNY Scholars Research Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV infects Program, including myself, are reviving City Tech’s vital cells in the human immune system such as HERO to provide new features by updating the CD4+ cells (a type of the helper T cells), computer hardware and software technology, such Macrophages and dendritic cells. HIV and AIDS as mobile robot obstacle detection and navigation research will open avenues for new and effective and speech synthesis and recognition. The two most treatments and prevention in the future. In this common modern devices that are used for mobile project, we use mathematical models to focus on robot obstacle detection and navigation are HIV transmission during the initial stages of ultrasonic sensor using sound waves and infrared infection. We incorporate differential equations to sensor using light waves. The main difference model HIV immunology, creating graphs to truly between the IR sensors and Ultrasound sensors is understand HIV immune dynamics. We also create a that IR sensor detects electromagnetic radiation (it modified SIR (Susceptible Infected Recovered) allows HERO to detect distance using light waves) model to simulate the spread of HIV which can be and the Ultrasound sensors detect mechanical adapted and used by future researchers. energy (it allows HERO to detect distance using sound waves). By learning and comparing the Poster A57 advantages and disadvantages with testing and technical specifications of the two devices, we (Urban Oasis) Solar and Rain Catching implemented them on a mobile robot to test their Canopy effectiveness in real world situations. Both the IR and Ultrasound sensors performed as expected. In the future, a script of servo motor and ultrasonic Afolabi Ibitoye, Elena Zimareva sensor will be tested and replace the old hardware device in the HERO robot. This will allow HERO to Mentor: Professor Alexander Aptekar continue teaching students at City Tech. Another New York City College of Technology interesting benefit of updating HERO’s technology is that it will enhance the implementation of Accumulation of water runoff during rain storms Assistive Technology to enable her to help people affects New York City’s combination water system, with disabilities. For example, we are planning to forcing water treatment plants to release untreated work on connecting HERO to a Bluetooth voice excess water. Rather than allow this grey water to

overfill the sewer system, pocket parks and gardens Poster A58 can be used to absorb rainfall. By harnessing nature’s resources through today’s technology we can also Combinatorial Aspects of Numbers create solar and rain catching canopies to beautify, educate, and bring growth and social awareness to local businesses. Kareem Jackson

In order to design the canopies to collect the Mentor: Professor Corina Calinescu maximum amount of rainwater and maximize solar New York City College of Technology collection, we analyzed expected rainfall and optimal solar angles. The canopies will provide shade for Any positive integer n can be written as a sum of benches near existing flower beds, collect rainwater integers, such that these integers are arranged in a for irrigation, and collect solar energy. Rainwater that non-increasing order. This is called a partition of n. falls on the canopy will slope into PVC pipes and be The first discoveries on partitions of numbers were distributed to clay pots which will efficiently made in the eighteenth century by the distribute water, while solar panels will provide mathematician Euler, who proved beautiful and energy for public electrical outlets. significant results in this field. In the past twenty years, the theory of partitions became very popular The inclusion of a solar panel created the need for an among mathematicians. energy storage component, especially in the absence of sunlight, which quantitatively measures the Surprisingly, such a simple concept requires deep harnessed energy, and a solar charge controller for mathematics for its study. The problem of finding energy regulation to limit the rate at which electric the partition of n for an arbitrary large n is still current will be added or drawn from the battery and unsolved. In this project, we use two methods in distribution. order to study partitions. One method is computational and based on generating functions, Upon completion of the first prototype using mostly which are infinite sums. The other method uses wooden and plywood materials, the density of the geometric structures, and these are called Ferrer canopy shade proved to be top heavy thereby making diagrams. the overall structure singly unstable posing safety concern, this necessitated a proposed material change The main goal of my research project is to into aluminum and canvas with lighter weight as a understand how these two methods can be used to possible standalone and/or adaptive structure to the develop efficient algorithms for computing the existing pocket parks. Once refined, these canopies partition of n. Partitions of numbers play an can provide shade, public electrical outlets, and help important role in many areas of mathematics such as to mitigate New York City’s storm water runoff combinatorics, number theory, Lie theory and problem. representation theory.

Poster A59 long program on underrepresented minority undergraduate students. Data from four student Further Optimization in Design and cohorts was collected via pre- and post-surveys. To Fabrication of the Borromean Rings (with evaluate the effectiveness of the program, participants Seifert Surface) using Grasshopper were asked to measure their expectations, perceptions about research, self-efficacy in research skills and processes, and their desire to pursue graduate school Faith Chabari Kakshak and research careers. The 49 students surveyed, participated in the program over a four-year period. Mentor: Professor Anne Leonhardt Descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-tests were New York City College of Technology used to analyze the responses. Our results showed that by the end of the summer, students reported The Borromean Rings are formed from ellipses, and significant learning gains on their research confidence, form compatible near circular forms. Having experience, and overall exposure. established a fundamental form to be 3d printed, and added on a Seifert Surface in my research of the Poster A61 form, I will be moving on to more advanced manipulations of the form, to see what more Hardware Implementation of an Assistive complex iterations could be gained from this Technology Mobile Robot mathematical form. In this stage, I will be applying commands on grasshopper to get each ring and Joycephine Li, Jannat Hoque, Jannatul surface to be individualized pieces of their own. Mahdi After this adaptation, I will transform it to more architectural design iterations, showing the entirety Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia of my process in my final work showcase. New York City College of Technology

Poster A60 This is a two-part research project in which Heathkit Education Robot (HERO) hardware circuits and The Impacts of an Undergraduate Research features will be upgraded by using modern hardware Program in the Geosciences for Minority devices and sensors. The second part of the project STEM Students will be to use the modern hardware to implement assistive technologies to help people with disabilities. Previous studies from this project Rachel Li included a brief background of the old hardware devices of HERO robot and comparison with the Mentor: Professor Janet Liou-Mark new hardware devices. In addition, the ultrasonic New York City College of Technology sensor was successfully tested to control an LED. The sensors and devices that have been tested and The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsors implemented so far will enable the robot to detect undergraduate research opportunities in their Research obstacles by using ultrasonic distance sensor and use Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. With speech to warn people with visual disability about the need to increase minority representation in the the obstacles. Currently, robot's main drive DC geosciences, NSF has awarded grants to the New York motor that was used in the original model of HERO, City College of Technology to support Satellite and is determined to be working properly after testing Ground-Based Remote Sensing at the Cooperative with a 12 Volts battery. The next step is to replace Remote Sensing Science and Technology (CREST) the old DC motor control circuit with a modern H- Center for the City University of New York (CUNY) Bridge control circuit and test it. In the future, a students. This study examines the impact of the year-

script of servo motor and ultrasonic sensor will be output operation for VOA and VOC modes tested to replace the old distance sensor in the respectively. HERO robot. Also, we are planning to work on connecting the robot to a Bluetooth device to Poster A63 replace remote control panel of the old HERO robot. Another future goal is to use voice commands to Implementation of an Assistive Technology make the robot pick up and bring an object to a Mobile Robot person with walking disability. One exciting aspect of this project is that we are recycling and reusing Jannatul Mahdi, Joycephine Li many components of the old robot instead of discarding them. Mentor: Professor Farrukh Zia

New York City College of Technology Poster A62

Terahertz Generation Using Embedded This is a two-part research project in which Heath Lithium Niobate Crystals kit Education Robot (HERO) software code and features will be upgraded. Modern embedded system programming techniques and sensors will be Richard Lin added to implement assistive technologies that will help people with disabilities. An historical Mentor: Professor Muhammad Ummy background of old software programs will be New York City College of Technology explained along with the use of new coding methods to control the robot. The old robot featured light, X-rays have long been used as a standard diagnostic sound and motion detectors and a sonar ranging tool in the medical field. However, their use has many sensor. Right now for this project, the distance drawbacks, primarily its harmful nature to the human sensor is tested using Arduino programming. The tissue which can cause cancer. There is a potentially sensor worked properly indicating obstacles to its feasible alternative which can replace X-Rays; many nearest distance. This can help people who have fields have begun using machines which employ problem with vision to alert them if there is any waves from the Terahertz spectrum. In Spring 2018, obstacle. For alerting the user of the robot, there is a we developed a novel optical system which generates speaker installed. We used Raspberry Pi and detects frequencies at the Terahertz level. The programming to convert text to speech. This system used an InGaAs photo mixer to generate THz program can be used in future to do more variety of waves external to the tunable wavelength fiber laser speech functions in different languages. This time, source. We aim to improve this existing system by the script with the ultrasonic sensor and the LED embedding lithium niobate crystals within the optical was tested using raspberry pi without any errors. fibers themselves by which we can minimize free Currently the code for servo motor, an electric space losses, decrease the system’s footprint and motor that consists of rotary actuator, was tested remove the need for external photo mixing devices. successfully. In the future, a script of servo motor We are currently investigating potential suppliers to and ultrasonic sensor will be tested and replace the facilitate for us the acquisition of such fibers as they old hardware device in the HERO robot. This part of must be fabricated off site through a very delicate and experiment was tested for people who need help highly sensitive process. Lastly, the tunable fiber laser with vision by producing speech output. 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

Poster A64 significant demand for innovative materials for biomedical applications. The current project is A Mobile Chatbot for Learning focused on the development of an earth-friendly cementitious binder for the composite that is Waseem Mohammed process-able in low temperature but is applicable to high temperature environments, resulting in a lower energy costing material. In addition, the material of Mentor: Professor Marcos Pinto the interest is capable in revealing an ordered porous New York City College of Technology structure, which is suitable for targeted drug delivery and regenerative bone applications. A mobile application that uses artificial intelligence This research is expected to develop a Geopolymer and helps students to learn. The knowledge domain is binder. The primary objective of this study was to initially in computer systems programming, more understand the role of the material components used specifically, an introduction to an object-oriented and varying mole ratios in the inherent strengthening programming language such as Java. The application mechanism of this blinder, and its use as the matrix employs a rule-based reasoning meaning it uses a way of the fiber reinforced composite to create a to store and manipulate knowledge to interpret compatible interface between the fiber and information in a useful way to teach students how to Geopolymer. The formulation of this binder is to be program in Java by maintaining a “conversation” with developed using fly ash in an alkali silicate medium. the student who can type in questions about In addition to custom creating laboratory equipment programming in Java and the system will answer with we assigned common testing procedures for an explanation that might contains snippets of Java materials; Porosity, Compression, Thermal coding. The application presents the user with an Resistance, Microscopy, and Flexural testing. initial list of learning subjects: data types, classes, and Geopolymer samples were repeatedly made and methods, and the student can ask questions on these studied carefully under different temperatures, water subjects. The objective is to extend the app to cover content and using different methods to remove more subjects on Java programming so the student entrapped air inside the Geopolymer and, to improve will have a complete learning experience using this compressive and flexure strength, then use in fiber mobile application. This app uses xml code to design reinforced composite. The ultimate goal is to utilize the layouts and it runs on JavaScript. This app is this fiber-reinforced Geopolymer composite into the specially designed for students who needs help with replacement of ordinary cement based structural programming in Java. The app will/might help composite. Another goal is to develop controlled students learn to program more easily or efficiently. porosity in order to apply in the bone regeneration where the pore networks play important roles in Poster A65 nutrient and drug delivery.

Advanced Composites for Structural and Biomedical Applications

Tin Oo, Raul Idris Rosario

Mentor: Professor Akm Samsur Rahman

New York City College of Technology

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

Poster A66 engineering a viable option for organ transplantation. Scaffold Fabrication for Cell Viability Analysis Poster A67

Brian Parra Predicting Diabetes using Machine Learning Mentors: Professors Ozlem Yasar New York City College of Technology Shaun Pollard

There are approximately 114,000 men, women, and Mentors: Professors Marcos Pinto children awaiting organ transplantation in the New York City College of Technology United States. Organ donation rates cannot keep up with demand. Tissue engineering presents an Diabetes is a chronic illness that if left untreated can opportunity to repair or regenerate damaged tissue lead to serious complications. According to the CDC or entire organs without an organ donor. One “in the US, 84.1 million adults, more than 1 in 3, have method of tissue engineering is to insert a pre-diabetes, and 90% of them don’t know they have biocompatible scaffold into a body to support and it.” In this project we use the Python programming encourage cell growth into three dimensional language to create a machine learning algorithm which shapes, such as skin. is artificially intelligent (AI) to predict diabetes. We One of the principle challenges in tissue use a data set consisting of information on 768 engineering, especially with the production of large patients provided by the University of California at tissue constructs, is the cell survivability within the Irvine’s (UCI’s) Machine Learning Repository to train scaffolds. Cells can show healthy growth within the our system. 75% of the data set was used to train the scaffolds if biocompatible materials are used to system and the remaining 25% was used to test the generate the scaffolds, given the right conditions. system’s accuracy in predicting diabetes. The results In this project, collaborative work is done between were that our system predicted accurately 75% of the the SET Research Laboratory at the department of time. We plan to train the system on a much larger data set in order to improve its accuracy and its ability Mechanical Engineering Technology at City Tech to distinguish between Type I and Type II diabetes. and department of Mechanical Engineering at Our system has the potential to predict the chances of California State University, Chico. Scaffolds are developing other diseases as well opening the door to often fabricated with a biomaterial called PDMS. wellness intervention opportunities. 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

Poster A68 Poster A69

Design and Manufacturing a 4 Degree of Developing Lab Exercises Using a Super Freedom Robot Arm Mechatronics Trainer

Farid Rodriguez, Wen Jie Long Brittny Roberts

Mentor: Professor Muhammad Ummy Mentor: Professor Angran Xiao New York City College of Technology New York City College of Technology Mechatronics courses can be considered a Robot arms with 4 degree of freedom are the most combination of electrical and mechanical engineering, widely used robot arms in product assembly lines. In and provide the basis for many functions in industries this project we use inventor to design a 3D model, a such as automotive, space, and general manufacturing, 3D printer to create the model and Arduino to etc. Students are often taught the theoretical program the arm, we’ll be able to successfully create underpinnings of the field, but lack practical a robotic arm with 4 degrees of freedom. In previous experience in applying these theories in practice. This projects, similar robot arms always collapse on research looks at the operation of the Super themselves when being turned off, because the Mechatronics Trainer, a standard workstation that has electrical motors at the joints of the arm lose their a variety of different technologies useful for teaching torque without power. If a robot arm can’t hold its and learning about industrial control systems. For position we won’t be able to continue where we left instance, the workstation has different sensors, off if there is loss of power, or when we simply turn assembly, sorting, and storing functions. The goal of the arm off at the end of a day. In this project, we our work is to develop a useful curriculum tool for decided to create a whole new design for the robotic implementing Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) arm by adding a worm/gear mechanisms at the code using the Super Mechatronics Trainer in a important joints. [Add a sentence quickly describing classroom environment. We plan to create a readily- some of the work you’ve done] Due to the self- understandable lab manual, including a practice task locking characteristics of the worm/gear that requires the application of multiple aspects of the mechanism, we expect the above mentioned programming language. In order to complete the task, problem can be solved. The project will cover the both the hardware and software must be well entire product development process from concept understood by the student. Then, it is to be applied in design, CAD [let the reader know what this is], LabVIEW, a graphical programming language that is detailed design, to manufacturing and assembling of already taught in the mechatronics class. Its ease of a working prototype. [Add something bragging hardware implementation is optimal for classroom about the different arenas this arm can be used in] 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.

Poster A70 to reveal the correlation. As well, this project includes an examination of health models, such as that of the Mechanical Characterizations of Nano- US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Particles Doped PDMS Promotion’s Healthy People 2020/2030, and David Satcher’s Ethnicity and Disease. Utilizing this literature review, the project provides conclusions and Navjot Singh recommendations to propose potential recourse for health disparities for the future health of America’s Mentor: Professor Ozlem Yasar water safety, such as STEM educational programs that New York City College of Technology prioritize grants for community-based research, or more equitable public health programs. Tissue Engineering has been studied to develop tissues Considering the amount of literature on racial equity as an alternative approach to the organ regeneration. with regard to water, race, and class, this project aims Successful artificial tissue growth in regenerative to synthesize the views on offer and extract the most medicine depends on the precise scaffold fabrication useful models and approaches for addressing these as well as the cell-cell and cell-scaffold interaction. issues. Scaffolds are extracellular matrices that guide cells to grow in 3D to regenerate the tissues. Cell-seeded Poster A72 scaffolds must be implanted to the damaged tissues to do the tissue regeneration. Scaffolds’ mechanical Environmental Justice: Impact of Rising properties and porosities are the two main scaffold fabrication parameters as the scaffolds must be able to Sea Levels on Vulnerable Communities hold the pressure due to the surrounding tissues after the implantation process. In this research, scaffolds Cheryl Thomas were fabricated by using micro-molding. During the fabrication process, first PDMS was mixed with nano- Mentors: Professors Masato Nakamura materials and then it was baked in the oven for 2 New York City College of Technology hours. This preliminary research showcases that mechanical characterization of PDMS based scaffolds Environmental justice emerged as a viable and can be altered with nano-material concentration. necessary discipline in the late 20th Century with a number of acts meant to protect citizens in general Poster A71 but poorer communities in particular. Many of these

acts were tied to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Water, Race, and Class Civil Rights Act was followed, in 1969 by the Environmental Policy Act. In 1970 the Clean Air Jean-Hus Theodore Act was instituted when it became clear that significantly increase incidents of asthma was tied to Mentor: Professor Aida Euges the quality of air in the community. The Clean New York City College of Technology Water Act came into being in 1972; the Comprehensive Environmental Response During the last and present century, evidence suggests Compensation and Liability Act IN 1980 was geared a correlation between the health of Americans and the towards the cleanup of sites contaminated by suggestive progression of racial equity in America hazardous chemicals. with regard to water, race, and class. Various theorists and research have proposed models for thinking about and evaluating these issues. An emerging environmental threat to disadvantage This project consisted of a comprehensive search of communities is now facing communities previously contemporary scientific, social, and medical databases damaged by environmental contaminants. It is

Rising Sea Level that is threatening low income with a forward acting grate in regard to certain communities with inundation. In the last five years materials. more frequent devastating storms have impacted these communities that received less assistance with Queensborough Community storm recovery and at a later date. This research seeks to connect the history with the present and College with the future of disadvantaged communities. It is a comprehensive interdisciplinary work. Poster A74

Poster A73 Creating a Virtual Practice Room

Physical Modeling of a Forward Acting Grate Combustion Chamber Kypros Andrianou

Mentor: Professor Kimberly Riegel Brian Yellis Queensborough Community College

Mentor: Professor Masato Nakamura Most amateur musicians suffer from anxiety before New York City College of Technology and during their performance on stage. One possible contribution to that anxiety, is the fact that the sound Trash build up is an issue facing large urban areas. they generate in the performance space sounds One way to fix this problem is a waste-to-energy different than the sound generated in their practice (WTE) plant. An early step in the (WTE) process in rooms. The aim of this study is to create an the WTE plant involves municipal solid waste (MSW) augmented reality practice room for amateur to be mixed in a combustion chamber. Various musicians, which will make a practice room sound materials of different properties will be mixed in the the same as a performance space. To simulate the chamber and because of their various properties the sound environment in a performance space, this proper mixing degree is required to keep the study uses a ray tracing technique implemented with combustion process efficient. Various types of moving Python. This method will be simulated and then grates exist to provide various types of motions, some tested with a simple geometry room. For future grates could be more efficient depending on the MSW work, a more complicated performance space will put in. Our project focuses on a forward acting grate be simulated the same way as the simple geometry where bars reciprocate back and forth in a horizontal room and get feedback from musicians on the direction. We started this research using coal as a accuracy of the simulation. 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

Poster A75 Poster A76

Examining environmental isolates of The Tightness of Kesten-Stigum Staphylococcus aureus using loop Reconstruction Bound of the Asymmetric mediated (LAMP) amplification Channel

Oscar Bermudes, Diana Mata, Gaozhen Li, Yanyan Chen Miguel Fernandez Mentor: Professor Wenjian Liu Mentor: Professor Andrew Nguyen Queensborough Community College Queensborough Community College It is well known that reconstruction problems, as a Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming a major cross-disciplinary subject, have been studied in numerous contexts including statistical physics, health concern for treatment in hospitals. Detection information theory and computational biology. We of pathogens that cause infections and food will show that the reconstruction bound determines poisoning using traditional methods for the efficiency of the Glauber dynamics on trees and amplification are time consuming and require random graphs. The reconstruction threshold is expensive machines. We seek to develop a cheaper believed to play an important role in a variety of and a less expensive method for detection of other contexts, such as the efficiency of Staphylococcus aureus and/or methicillin resistant reconstructing phylogenetic ancestors in Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Recent studies evolutionary biology, communication theory in the have shown that loop mediated isothermal study of noisy computation, etc. This project will amplification can be used to amplify DNA using a focus on the tightness of Kesten-Stigum single water bath and a specialized enzyme without reconstruction bound of the asymmetric Ising model the need for the expensive PCR machine. We have on regular d-ary trees. Establish the distributional employed this strategy to target the amplification of recursion and moment recursion by analyzing the three specific genes of Staphylococcus aureus, 16S recursive relation between nth and (n+1)th rRNA (for the genus of Staphylococcus), femA (for generation's structure of the tree. And display the the species of Staphylococcus aureus) and mecA (for high degree discussion by applying the Central methicillin resistance). This method requires six Limit Theorem and Gaussian approximation to primers specific for each gene which form loops per approximate the moment recursion obtained from the first stage if the model degree d is large enough. cycle and the Bst DNA polymerase that can add Finally apply numerical analysis and MAPLE (math nucleotides and at the same time displace the newly software) to compute rigorously a combination of made strands. As a proof of concept, we have tested basic arithmetic operations and exponentials up to the method to amplify Streptococcus faecalis and arbitrarily high precision. With the achievement of Staphylococcus aureus and showed that the method previous steps, using the dynamical discussion, we is specific for Staphylococcus aureus. We are in the can figure out the critical asymmetry threshold to process of analyzing its specificity using several keep the tightness of Kesten-Stigum reconstruction different microorganisms and testing its specificity. bound. Therefore, we can conclude that reconstruction problem is solvable for some certain threshold value.

Poster A77 Poster A78

Deployment of IPv6 using the 6to4 Valuing call option on private equity Tunneling Method and Dual-Stack Technology to curb Address Exhaustion Wenshu Dong

Eric Deokie Mentors: Professors Wenjian Liu Queensborough Community College

Mentor: Professor Merlinda Drini The relationship between risk and return is a central Queensborough Community College issue of modern finance. Option prices are widely assumed to convey the degree of risk, however, IPv4 has suffered from address exhaustion due to when it is concerned predicting the average return, the exponential rise in the number of network- the conventional view believes that option prices connected devices. The 6to4 Tunneling method is have little effect instead. Steve Ross has applied the predicted to be an efficient way of enabling Perron-Frobenius Theorem to show that recovery is communication between networks that have possible, in the setting of discrete Markov chains dissimilar versions of the Internet Protocol deployed that is option prices forecast not only the average using existing infrastructure. This study examines return but also the entire return distribution. Ross the use of the tunneling method as a means of recovery is our fundamental theorem. The first transitioning from an IPv4 to an IPv6 network result of the project is we determine the structure of infrastructure and measures its efficiency with the stochastic discount factor, to the continuous-time various types of network traffic and loads. IPv6 model of multiple driving state variable. The second makes use of a 128-bit addressing scheme along result is we solve the problem of valuing a call with extensions for increased data security and option written on private equity when some key data integrity and can accommodate well over a trillion are missing. We will instead specify a risk-neutral devices. Scenarios were simulated in Riverbed stochastic process for future dividend yields. Hence, Modeler Academic Edition in which point to point we will always express future cash flows as a tunnels were created to allow data transmission proportion of the unknown contemporaneous value between networks. Additionally, simulations were of the asset generating the cash flow. The third executed to investigate other communication result is we develop an algorithm to stimulate price methods between incompatible nodes in Multi-tiered option on private equity based on the preceding applications. Baseline simulations and their theory. We proved we do have the ability to solve corresponding results were recorded and used as a the problem while the key data are missing by central point of comparison prior to scenario applying the Perron-Frobenius theorem and other modification. Parameters such as delay, distribution related series of theorems. 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 A79 destruction. The efficient catalytic degradation of Congo red dye in the environment is critical. Studies Complementation of S. coelicolor have shown that nanoparticles are an effective catalyst SCO3855 Knock out with the SCO3855 in many chemical reactions. Moreover, carbon nanotube-supported metal catalysts have demonstrated gene superior catalytic activity and selectivity. In this study, the efficiency of using synthesized ruthenium Shaina Durand nanoparticles supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT-Ru np) in the degradation of Mentors: Professors Naydu Carmona Congo red dye was investigated. The SWNT-Ru np Queensborough Community College catalyst was successfully synthesized in the presence

of anhydrous ethanol. The catalytic activities of the Intramembrane proteases (IMPs) are membrane SWNT-Ru np in the degradation of Congo red dye at proteins that have their active sites buried within the varying pH values were studied by UV-Visible lipid bilayer of cellular membranes. They are found Spectroscopy. It was determined that the degradation in all kingdoms of life, and have biological activities time of the Congo red dye decreased significantly related to cell signaling. Streptomycetes are gram from hours to seconds in the presence of the SWNT- positive bacteria from the soil. They are prolific Ru np catalyst. producers of secondary metabolites such as antibiotics, immune-suppressants and anticancer Poster A81 compounds. These bacteria are unicellular organisms that exhibit a multicellular developmental cycle. Hypothesis: rhomboid proteases play a role in cell to Osteoclastic Signal transduction and cell communication in Streptomyces. Objective: activator of transcription-3 Enhances the characterize a highly conserved rhomboid protease, Migration of Osteoblastic cell line MC3T3 SCO3855, from the model organism Streptomyces coelicolor. Our group has constructed a SCO3855 Miguel Fernandez knock out (KO) strain and the mutant strain has been characterized. In this project we report: 1- Mentor: Professor Andrew Nguyen Complementation of the mutant strain with Queensborough Community College SCO3855. 2- Preliminary results showing that the re- introduction of the SCO3855 gene rescues the wild Osteoblasts are known to regulate osteoclasts but type phenotype. how osteoclasts regulate osteoblasts is not clearly defined. Signal transduction and activator of Poster A80 transcription-3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor that is expressed in bone and joint cells which includes Ruthenium Nanoparticle-Carbon Nanotube osteoclast and osteoblast cells. STAT3 is activated Catalytic Degradation of Congo red Dye in a number of cytokines and growth factors and was shown to be important in osteoclast maturation. Osteoclast differentiation requires two specific Gariele Emeran cytokines: colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) to stimulate hematopoietic stem cells to become Mentor: Professor Tirandai Hemraj-Benny mononuclear phagocytic cell lineage and receptor Queensborough Community College activator of NF-kB ligand (RANKL) to become mature osteoclasts. It has been shown that Azo dyes, such as Congo red dye, are well-known osteoblasts can regulate osteoclast differentiation by pollutants commonly found in textile waste-waters. secreting RANKL. Recent evidence suggests that They are extremely toxic and highly resistant to osteoclasts can regulate osteoblast recruitment by

secretion of sphingosine-1 phosphate. The goal of thickness, low permeability and density. We have our project was to analyze the role of STAT3 in successfully synthesized polyrhodanine nanospheres osteoclasts regulation of osteoblast chemotaxis and without any template in green solvents water and to characterize the association between STAT3 and ethanol. Since polyrhodanine has coordination sites N, S1P pathway. We examined the progressive O and S with lone pair of electrons, it is known to movement of osteoblast cell line, MC3T3, treated complex with heavy metals and remove them from with osteoclast conditioned media and STAT3 aqueous solutions. The IR spectroscopy data suggests overexpression and STAT3 knock down. Scratches that the Polyrhodanine nanospheres have positive from the cells treated with the osteoclast conditioned charge localized over its backbone, hence nanospheres media showed a faster overall healing. The data were studied for the removal of anionic dye (Methyl suggest that conditioned media from osteoclast Orange) from the wastewater. In this presentation, culture increases MC3T3 migration. microwave synthesis of metal catalyzed pRh nano spheres, its characterization and adsorption properties Poster A82 will be presented.

Green synthesis of polyrhodanine Poster A83 conducting polymer Structural Study of Iron/nickel Mixed Anjali Gaba, Yousef Saleh oxides in Thin Film Magnets

Mentor: Professor Moni Chauhan Khushpreet Kaur Queensborough Community College Mentors: Professors Sunil Dehipawala Conducting polymers (polypyrrole, polyaniline, Queensborough Community College polythiophene and polyrhodanine) and inorganic particles are promising materials for micro sensors, Small-scale magnets are in high demand due to high environmental stability, catalysis and special applications in miniature electronic devices and redox behavior, attributed to the pi-electron small-scale magnetic storage devices. The industry delocalization. is always demanding sub-micron or even Nano- meter scale magnets. Magnetic thin films often Rhodanine and its derivatives have immense contain several layers of coating of magnetic antibacterial, antiviral, antihistaminic and material. During this study, we prepared thin film anticorrosion properties. High quality magnets by spin coating a precursor containing iron polyrhodanine (pRh) films were prepared into a glass substrate. The thickness of the films was electrochemically and silver/pRh nanotubes and controlled by the spin rate. Precursor films on the nanofibers composite materials synthesized via substrate were then annealed to 3500 ℃ for 3 hours chemical oxidative polymerization exhibits immense in the air. The microstructure of iron particles in the antimicrobial efficacy against Gram-negative, films was investigated using Synchrotron X-ray Gram-positive bacteria and yeast. A green approach Absorption Spectroscopy. All the samples exhibit to cellulose nanocrystal –Fe (III) complex coated pre-edge feature before the main absorption edge. pRh in aqueous medium and silica coated The presence of pre-edge indicates the existence of pRh/Silver nanocomposite exhibit sustainable some iron bound to Oxygen. The main absorption antimicrobial properties for applications in food edge peak position and pre-edge energy position packaging, antimicrobial coatings and additives. were identical in all of the samples. This indicates Hollow polymeric particles have stimulated increasing that there was no change in the charge state of the interest in the area of material science due to their iron regardless of the number of layers. However, large surface area, tunable particle diameter and shell the intensity of the pre-edge feature decreases with

an increase in the number of layers. This indicates a Poster A85 decrease of iron-oxygen compounds or presence of iron in other forms. Impact of QoS (Quality of Service) parameter change on multimedia data

Poster A84 transfer

Microwave synthesis of ruthenium Taeho Lee nanoparticles in the presence of polyaniline nanofibers Mentor: Professor Merlinda Drini Queensborough Community College Katherine Kim Multimedia nowadays may have hundreds of

megabytes in size, which can cause massive Mentor: Professor David M. Sarno lag(inconvenience) to the users, especially when Queensborough Community College there is more than one data being accessed in that

network. The purpose of the experiment was to We are developing a method to prepare hybrid examine the impact which change in QoS materials from ruthenium nanoparticles (Ru-NPs) parameters can have on multimedia data and polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-NFs). The rapid transmission and find out which QoS setting would microwave synthesis of Ru-NPs with an appropriate be the best for QCC campus. By having properly reducing agent has been reported in the literature. configured QoS setting, it would be possible to We hope to prevent NP aggregation by dispersing enhance the transfer speed and quality of them in a high surface area nanofiber scaffold. We multimedia data. Using a software named “Riverbed are investigating the effects of different reducing Modeler”, we simulated QCC campus to test out agents on the formation of these composites via UV- different types of QoS configurations. Using the VIS, FTIR, SEM, and EDS. Preliminary results software, we prepared three different QoS settings, indicate that NaBH successfully reduces Ru+3 to 4 and for each QoS environment, network parameters Ru, but also induces significant morphological and such as number of queues, queue priority, and size spectral changes in PANI. The polymer appears to of data were adjusted and tested. For multimedia be unchanged, however, when glucose is used as the data flowing through big networking environment reducing agent, suggesting it may be a better choice. such as Queensborough Community College Our goal is to optimize the preparation of these campus, the configuration we figured out had materials so that we may test their catalytic activity approximately 45% enhancement compared to toward the degradation of congo red, a toxic azo dye Baseline (no QoS). From the results, we could that is representative of a variety of industrial conclude that correctly configured QoS can boost pollutants. 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.

Poster A86 that are optimized for applications as electrolytes in solar energy storage devices. Synthesis of functionalized ionic liquids Poster A87

Fei Li, Rawlric Sumner, Jasodra Ramdihal Content analysis of Newton’s second law labs: Development of a new lab Mentor: Professors Tirandai Hemraj-Benny and categorization scheme Sharon Lall-Ramnarine

Queensborough Community College Fei Li Due to their advantageous physical and chemical properties over traditional solvents, ionic liquids Mentor: Professor Rex Taibu (ILs) are environmentally friendlier alternative Queensborough Community College solvents that can be tailored to exhibit desired properties. ILs are salts that melt below 100 °C, and Physics labs are crafted differently by different many exist as pure non-volatile liquids below or educators based on pedagogical preferences among close to room temperature. ILs containing other reasons. The science education community imidazolium cations paired with provides various ways to categorize labs, mostly, bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide anions are among based on different levels of student independence. the most common ILs studied. However, relatively These categorization schemes are oftentimes prone high viscosity and resulting lowered conductivity to several ambiguities when applied to a set of labs, makes their large scale adoption problematic. In this probably due to variations of scientific inquiry. work imidazolium cations are functionalized with Using the present ideas for lab categorization, alkyl, allyl and ether side chains and coupled with together with content analysis methods, we analyzed bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or bis a random sample of Newton’s Second law labs to (fluorosulfonyl) amide anions. These side chains explore the levels of student independence in these and ion combinations are expected to result in a labs and to discern the applicability of the present variation of physical properties that reveal the IL lab categorizations. Initial results indicated that most with the lowest viscosity and highest conductivity. of the available lab categorization schemes are not The ILs were prepared by reacting 1 only ambiguous, but also do not do justice to the methylimidazole with the desired alkyl，allyl or fact that scientific reasoning may proceed alkoxy halide to produce the imidazolium halide salt inductively or deductively. Our lab analysis led us to followed by reaction with lithium propose a new lab categorization scheme, having bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or potassium three major categories: verification, inductive bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide in water to yield the inquiry, and deductive inquiry. Each one may have imidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide or its own levels of students’ independence. Using the imidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide ILs. H-1 and new categorization scheme, we found that a large C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) percentage of Newton’s Second Law labs (74%) spectroscopy was used for structure confirmation of were found to be verification labs, followed by the purified ILs. A Karl Fischer Titrator was used to inductive labs (21%) and then deductive labs (5%). measure the water content of the ILs before We also gauged levels of student independence characterization for conductivity and viscosity. within each category and we found that most labs Preliminary results reveal that ILs with (within each category) provided a lot of guidance to bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide anions exhibit lower students. Our categorization was found to be less viscosities and higher conductivities. The ILs will ambiguous as opposed to present categorization be used to prepare mixtures with carbon nanotubes scheme and led us to propose that student levels of independence may suitably be compared among and

within labs belonging to the same category Poster A89 (verification, inductive, or deductive). Our categorization scheme sheds more light into the role Isolation of Acetinomycetes from Plumb of deductive inquiry, as a new theory-driven Beach Marine Sediments instruction that is often an overlooked characteristic of both science and engineering practices. Saraf Nabiha, Nikita Alim Poster A88 Mentor: Professor Joan Petersen Phylogenetic Analysis of the sleep gene, Queensborough Community College dec2 across species Actinomycetes are prokaryotes which are known for their useful secondary metabolites that may have Hilary Menes antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antitumor properties. Although most actinomycetes have been Mentor: Professor Sushma Teegala isolated from soils, a few recent studies have focused Queensborough Community College on culturing actinomycetes from marine sediments. The purpose of our research is to isolate Sleep deprivation can not only take a toll on the actinomycetes from sediment samples collected at human body but have metabolic consequences. Plumb Beach, NY and to determine whether or not Sleep can be defined as an essential physiological these isolates are adapted to saltwater environments. state of reduced activity and alertness in all We diluted marine sediment samples onto mammals as well as other species. In mammals, actinomycete isolation agar prepared with saltwater sleep can be identified by its sleeping cycles NREM and freshwater. The number of unique colonies that and REM. Sleeplike behaviors can be observed for grew on each type of media was quantified. Colonies other species as well. What we know is that sleep is were then transferred and grown in pure culture. a detrimental part of human life. Freshwater isolates w ere tested for their ability to One of the genes responsible for the duration of grow in saltwater agar and vice versa. To date, we sleep is the Dec2 gene which is known for its role in have isolated a total of 43 unique actinomycetes-32 of the circadian molecular clock. This gene encodes a these were isolated on freshwater agar and 11 were basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor repressor isolated from saltwater agar. From these 43 isolates, in both humans and mice (He, Y., et Al 2009). A 36 grew on both saltwater and freshwater media. Out point mutation was discovered in a small family, of these 36 isolates, 7 of them have different with two affected individuals. They self-reported phenotypes. Of the 7 isolates, 3 of the isolates only their sleep hours being 6< with no negative grew on freshwater media while 4 of the isolates only consequences (He, Y., et Al 2009). grew on saltwater media. We also inoculated plates Using bioinformatics tools, we were able to explore with plugs from the unique phenotypic isolates and the relationship between the dec2 genes among tested them for their ability to inhibit the growth of species. Being able to look at the gene across Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Six different kinds of organisms can help us better isolates created biochemical compounds that inhibit understand this mutation and finding the location the growth of Staphylococcus aureus: two of these six where dec2-P385R occurred we were able to come isolates also inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli. up with a future animal model experiment using We will continue testing the two actinomycete isolates danio rerio to further explore this mutation. that inhibited both types of bacteria against additional bacterial species, and further characterize them using metabolic tests and 16s rDNA sequencing.

Poster A90 Poster A91

Microbiomes Associated to Plant Roots in Determination of the refractive index of New York City Soil calcium nitrate measured by the extension method Edward Nouel, Joangela Nouel

Mentor: Professor Monica Trujillo Jiweon Park Queensborough Community College Mentor: Professor Jun H. Shin The presence of microbes in the soil has important Queensborough Community College influences on both the environment and on human health. Some microbes can be beneficial while others The extension method which was developed based could be detrimental for human health, individuals are on the observation of a good linear relationship exposed to soil, and therefore they are also exposed to between the percent mass of solution (solid solute microbes. We are interested in characterizing the and liquid solvent mixture) and its refractive index structure of the microbial community of the soil has been used to determine the refractive index of associated with roots of plants from three contrasting solid compounds such as fatty acids, organic sites in New York City. To determine the diversity compounds, and ionic compounds. In the system, a and composition of the soil community in these sites, plot of refractive index vs percent mass was we have extracted and amplified bacterial community obtained in low concentration ranges (typically 0 - DNA using primers specific to the 16S rRNA gene. 24%), and the line of the linear plot was then The amplicons have been sequenced and analyzed. As extrapolated to 100% mass (i.e. pure solid) where a preliminary assessment of the possible implications the refractive index of the solid was calculated. The for human health, we have characterized each extension method has been further applied to microbiome by analyzing the distribution of antibiotic measure the refractive index of calcium nitrate resistance genes. We are also interested in studying because it showed good solubility in various organic the distribution of metal resistance genes using PCR. solvents such as methanol, DMSO, acetone, and We have used degenerated primers for the czcA gene THF. In the experiment, a linear relationship was to identify the bacterial communities that carry these observed between the refractive index and % mass genes. In order to identify the bacterial species coding of calcium nitrate in a solvent, and a first order for this gene we have cloned the PCR fragments and linear equation was calculated based on the plot. By will sequence them. To correlate the presence/absence applying 100 to the % mass variable (100% mass of metal resistance genes with the metals present in means pure solute, the solid compound) in the linear the soil samples we will chemically determine the equation, the refractive index of calcium nitrate was concentration of certain metals in the soil. This project indirectly determined for the solvent. Based on the has already shed light into the influence of human data measured in methanol solution of calcium activity in the distribution of both antibiotic and heavy nitrate, a linear equation (e.g. y=0.001210x + metal resistance genes. Additionally, the 1.327941) was obtained, then a value of 100% was determination of the metal concentration in soil and applied to get the refractive index of calcium nitrate, the identification of the bacteria species that carry the which was 1.449. After two more trials, 1.449(1) corresponding resistance gene will identify the was determined as the refractive index of calcium bacterial species present in soil that can tolerate the nitrate in methanol. metal concentration associated to urban sites.

Poster A92 properties including reduced viscosities. The development of ILs with reduced viscosities and Synthesis of Polysubstituted Pyrroles increased conductivities would be advantageous for many practical applications including as non- Michelle Qu, Biling Chen, Shuai Ma and flammable electrolytes in energy storage devices Gopal Subramaniam 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 Mentor: Professor Sasan Karimi Queensborough Community College their physical properties. The effect of cation side- chain length is also assessed. The ILs were prepared We have recently reported syntheses of a number of by first synthesizing the halide salt precursor, where pyrroles based on an approach developed by Cadogan 1-methylimidazole or 1-methylpyrrolidine was and Sundberg towards synthesis of indole and reacted with an alkylhalide of the desired chain carbazoles. Triethylphosphite was the agent Cadogan length. The halide salts were then converted to ionic and Sandberg discovered was responsible for the use of liquids via metathesis in water with lithium or carbon monoxide with a Palladium catalyst (e.g. potassium salts of the fluorous anions: NTf2, PD(OAc)2). This method of indole synthesis is similar bis(pentafluoroethylsulfonyl)amide (BETI), to that of the Leimgruber-Batcho approach except there (fluorosulfonyl)(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide is no need to prepare dinitrostyrene before reduction, (FSA),(nonafluorobutyl)sulfonyl(trifluoromethyl)sul thus avoiding an extra step. We have shown that fonyl amide (IM14) and (fluorosulfonyl) pyrroles can be synthesized, for the first time, from (trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl amide (IM10). The nitrio-dienes. Our work involves the use of a Mo structures of the ILs were confirmed using 1H, 13C, catalyst which considerably improves the yield of the and 19F Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) cyclization reaction. The aim of this research project is spectroscopy. The ILs were characterized for their to investigate if our methodology can be used to make physical properties including conductivity, viscosity other important polysubstituted pyrroles of medicinal and thermal profile. Preliminary results reveal that importance. bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (FSA) ILs have the most Poster A93 favorable properties, while (nonafluorobutylsulfonyl)(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)a How does Variation in the length and mide (IM1,4) ILs have the least favorable properties. For NTf and bis(pentafluoroethylsulfonyl)amide Fluorination of Anion side chains affect 2 (BETI) ILs, as the length of the cation alkyl side Ionic Liquid Properties? chain decreases from 8 to 4 carbons, viscosity decreases and conductivity increases. 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

Poster A94 Poster A95

Nitrogen concentration trends in Long Developing in vitro Assays for a Island Sound Rhomboid Protease

Leslie Ramirez Medrano Lian Nicole Ramos

Mentor: Professor Monica Trujillo, Naydu Carmona Mentor: Professor Paul Marchese Queensborough Community College Queensborough Community College

Rhomboids are intramembrane proteases that are Hypoxia has been an environmental problem to highly conserved across all kingdoms. Our group aquatic life in Long Island Sound. The term hypoxia is has shown that the active S. coelicolor rhomboid defined as the low concentration of dissolved oxygen protease encoded by SCO3855 is needed for a (DO). This occurs when the bottom water of dissolved functional twin arginine translocon system (Tat). oxygen concentration is less than 3 mg/L and it’s the The Tat system transports folded proteins across the result of excess nutrients being introduced into the membrane, and in S. coelicolor is composed of water system. Nutrients (mostly nitrogen and multiple copies of the membrane proteins TatA, phosphorus) from sources such as sewage treatment TatB and TatC. Modeling and in vivo approaches plants, agricultural fertilizers, and septic tanks are suggest that the TatA component is likely the introduced into the water which produces excess algae rhomboid protease substrate. To develop enzymatic growth. When the algae sink and decompose there is in vitro experiments, we have cloned and expressed an increase in the demands for oxygen. This condition a codon optimized SCO3855 (SCO3855*) in E.coli. is worse during the summer when surface heating and To this end, the objectives of this project are: increased fresh summer melt result in lower water density at the surface which prevents the mixing of 1. Construct an inactive SCO3855* by removing the surface water with the bottom. The purpose of this catalytic serine residue through site-directed project is to study the trends in the nitrogen mutagenesis to use as control for enzymatic in vitro concentration of Long Island Sound, and its effect on studies. hypoxia. The Connecticut Department of Energy and 2. Construct a fluorescent transmembrane protein Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) has been taking substrate—FRET- scoTatA 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 Poster A96 additional stations. Data includes nutrient concentration, salinity, temperature, and dissolved Phenotypic Analysis of an Overexpressing oxygen. In the eastern end of the Sound, nitrogen Rhomboid Protease Streptomyces coelicolor concentrations have decreased at a rate of 0.0022 Mutant mg/L/yr, while at the western boundary (station A2) nitrogen concentrations have remained constant. The data shows that overall nitrogen levels have been Mateo Saenz, Wilson Nieves decreasing. Mentor: Professor Naydu Carmona Queensborough Community College

Rhomboids are intramembrane proteases found in all domains of life. Rhomboids exhibit a diversity of functions that may include cell signaling.

Streptomycetes are gram positive soil bacteria with a Essential, the whole prosthetic hand only cost less complex multicellular life cycle that are prolific than $100 and it was easy to repair and replace the producers of secondary metabolites with important component because of its design. However, our biological functions. The expression of these natural prosthetic hand had its own limitations like the narrow products is coordinated with the cell cycle through capacity of the instructions storage, the few amounts signaling pathways that integrate environmental, of the gestures or hand movements to present, the physiological and stress inputs, but these mechanisms short lifetime of the strength wire, the long time to are yet to be fully understood. We propose that respond input signal and the limited weight to grab. rhomboid proteases play a role in these signaling mechanisms. We have identified SCO3855, a Poster A98 functional rhomboid protease in Streptomyces coelicolor and have constructed a mutant that Thermodynamic study of esterification of overexpresses SCO3855. The current project details acetic acid and amyl alcohols using a the phenotypical characterization of the mutant, microwave reactor specifically the differences in the production of secondary metabolites, compared to the control strain. Keiann Simon Poster A97 Mentor: Professor Jun H. Shin A low cost of 3-D Printing of Simulation Queensborough Community College Prosthetic Hand Microwave reactor is a new technology and has become an invaluable tool adopted in many areas of Xin Shen science laboratories due to the convenience including temperature, pressure and power controls. Application Mentor: Professor Huixin Wu of a microwave reactor was further extended to the Queensborough Community College thermodynamic study of esterification reaction with the merit of a convenient temperature control of a This study verified the possibility to lower cost and microwave reactor. The equilibrium constants of the easy maintenance of the 3D printing of simulation esterification reaction between acetic acid and iso- prosthetic hand, meanwhile, this hand is still able to amyl alcohol at the temperatures of 50-80°C were do the same basic functions that others provide. We determined from the initial and equilibrium were taking into account the cost of material and the concentrations of acetic acid through the acid-base quality of the product, we run several test to the titration using a 0.5M NaOH solution. Thereafter, the prototype and compared the characteristics of each thermodynamic data ( H and S) of the reaction electrical component and material that would give the were calculated from the linear relationship between best fit and support in our prosthetic hand. We the equilibrium constants obtained (lnK) and the predicted the cost of this particular mode should be equilibrium temperatures (1/T). The obtained data affordable to the main population (excluding the 3D were compared to the data calculated from the printer). To carry out the design of the hand, we esterification of ethanol, two propanols and four created a position control system that was using the butanols with acetic acid. This result will extend the myoelectric muscle sensor, the Arduino Uno board, usage of microwave reactor to a tool of the and the servo motors to determine the finger thermodynamic study which can be easily added to an movements. Moreover, we chose to use the undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Application a Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene as our prosthetic hand microwave reactor will make the thermodynamic material due to its flexibility and strength. In fact, this study easy, simple and faster due to the convenience prosthetic hand was capable to do some simple hand of the temperature control of the instrument and its movements such as okay gesture, L gesture, squeezing safety feature. hands, and holding an object during our testing.

Poster A99 Poster A100

Metal-organic hybrids composed of Study of structural properties of plants porous poly(o-toluidine) microspheres using X ray absorption and gold nanoparticles

Rong Tan Ashley Smith

Mentor: Professor David M. Sarno Mentor: Professor Sunil Dehipawala Queensborough Community College Queensborough Community College

We have recently developed a method to prepare X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) including highly porous microspheres of the conducting Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) polymer poly(o-toluidine) by a single surfactant and X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion method. We (XANES) was used to investigate the structure now demonstrate the incorporation of gold- of iron in plants selected from variety of soil nanoparticles (Au-NPs) into the polymer spheres to conditions. Role of iron in heavy metal absorption obtain a metal-organic hybrid material. Preformed can be studied by careful investigation of XANES at granular polymer purified by centrifugation in HCl the vicinity of the iron K edge. XAS experiments is mixed with o-toluidine and anion-capped Au-NPs. were conducted at the National Synchrotron Light Excess ammonium hydroxide then initiates porous Source (NSLS) of Brookhaven National Laboratory sphere formation. Scanning electron microscopy (BNL). The main edge height of the absorption reveals the morphological effects of Au-NP size and spectrum was used to determine the amount of iron ammonium hydroxide concentration. Discrete present in the plants. The main edge position was spheres were obtained at all concentrations in the used to determine the charge state and variation. presence and absence of Au-NPs. Interestingly, smaller Au-NPs (20 nm) appear to be encapsulated within the microspheres, whereas larger Au-NPs (40 Poster A101 nm, 90 nm) are typically confined to the outer surface. In addition, if the NPs are added after Effect of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes sphere formation, they do not appear to penetrate the on Breast Cancer Cell Migration surface. These results suggest potential applications for payload encapsulation and delivery. Isabela Velasquez Gutierrez

Mentor: Professor Regina Sullivan Queensborough Community College

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

not cytotoxic in low concentrations Currently we are polycarbazole electron transport in molecular level, testing the hypothesis that unfunctionalized single- STM-BJ method is applied into this project. walled carbon nanotubes incorporate into the actin Scanning Tunneling Microscopy based Breaking cytoskeleton and decrease migration of triple negative Junction method (STM-BJ) developed in 2003 breast cancer cells. However, our studies have been provides reliable, reproducible generation and limited by aggregation of the nanotubes in aqueous measurement of electronic properties of molecular solutions which decreases cellular uptake and circuits. In polycarbazole project, each molecule is increases cytotoxicity in vitro studies. Coating single- terminated with two methyl sulfides as the gold walled carbon nanotubes with collagen have been atom linkers, with an eight carbon chain on nitrogen shown to facilitate cellular uptake thus allowing for atoms. We will first investigate the impact of intracellular associations to be investigated. This molecular length on electron transport through their method has limitations due to the acidic pH of the backbones via STM-BJ technology. An exponential collagen solution. In this study, we compared the decay of conductance from monomer to trimer as effect of collagen coated single-walled carbon the molecular length extends is expected. As a nanotubes with debundled single-walled carbon result, 5 grams of key intermediate 2,7-dibromo-9- nanotubes on breast cancer cell migration. Migration octyl-9H-carbazole has been synthesized from assays were performed and revealed that breast cancer commercially available 2,7-dibromo-9H-carbazole cells treated with collagen-coated SWCNT as well as by a SN2 reaction in high yield. The monomer and the debundled SWCNT have a reduced rate of dimer are successfully synthesized, and trimer’s migration. These results suggest that the SWCNT may synthesis is still on the way. be incorporating into the cytoskeletal disrupting rearrangements that are required for the metastatic Poster A103 process. In future studies, we plan to measure Young’s modulus which is an indicator of the degree of Imidazole as a Novel and Robust Gold flexibility which in turn can be correlated with Binding Group at STM-BJ Method changes in the actin cytoskeleton. The study will be expanded to include other types of cancer cells as well Xiaofang Yu, Shanelle Smith, Tianren Fu, as noncancerous cells and may reveal potentially Jiayi Xue novel cancer treatments. Mentor: Professor Latha Venkataraman and Sujun Poster A102 Wei1 Queensborough Community College Impact of Molecular Length on Oligocarbazole Single Molecule Wires Recent technological advances allow for the fabrication of single molecule electronic circuits. In particular, the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Jiayi Xue, Patrick Tuttle, Cole Sagan, based Breaking Junction method (STM-BJ) Xiaofang Yu developed in 2003 provides reliable, reproducible generation and measurement of electronic properties of molecular circuits. In order to complete the Mentor: Professor Sujun Wei and Gina Florio circuit with gold electrodes, special gold atom Queensborough Community College binding groups are installed at the both terminals of organic compound of interest. Typical gold binding Current organic materials that used into electronic groups include amino, thiol, methyl sulfide, device have low efficiency in electron transport. thiochroman and pyridine. To expand this toolbox, Encouraged by the great performance of we investigated the imidazole as a potential polycarbazole material in electronic devices, we candidate for the first time. We have quickly plan to synthesize three carbazole oligomers--- synthesized a series of di(imidazolyl) alkanes (Im-n- monomer, dimer and trimer. In order to study

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.

 

AFTERNOON POSTERS Poster B2 The Genetic Analysis of the PTC Gene and Bronx Community College its Correlation with Artificial Sweeteners

Poster B1 Daniela Forrest

Photogrammetry Modeling of Ancient Mentor: Professor Yasmine Edwards Maya Artifacts Bronx Community College

Nicole Diaz, Paulin Josepha Dongomale Overtime, numerous animals, and humans diversely developed an aptitude to taste bitter-tasting

compounds in order to protect themselves against Mentor: Professor Sheldon Skaggs consuming potentially toxic and fatal substances. Bronx Community College This ability to taste bitterness was brought about by many years of evolution, and thus led to an eventual Photogrammetry 3D Modeling of Ancient Maya: The food preference. The human population displays purpose of this research is to study the ancient Maya high variation in taste perception and the individual artifacts from Pacbitun, Belize, specifically from 800 differences in taste sensitivity is believed to may BC to 900 AD. In addition to learning about the also impact individual choices in nutrient intake, fundamentals of these cultural items, our focus is to appetite and overall health. A well-characterized convert these prehistoric relics into a 3D model and example of the variable perception of bitter construct a physical replica of it. For instance, one of compounds is phenylthiocarbamide, more the ancient objects that we are currently working on is commonly known as PTC, which can be accounted part of an atlatl. This device was used for hunting for at the molecular level by polymorphic variants in purposes and for war. My mentor, Dr. Sheldon the specific type 2 taste receptor (TAS2R38). Skaggs, and fellow BCC students excavated this item Although the PTC polymorphism has been regarded from a Maya burial in the site core of Pacbitun. While as a single locus trait, most investigators have in Belize, Dr. Skaggs took a series of photos of this pointed out its complex features, and have proposed relic to reconstruct it into physical form using our 3D that certain subject characteristics and photography studio. We were successful in creating a environmental factors may alter the phenotype. 3D representation of this artifact, and it will help us to (Sun-Wei Guo and Danielle R. Reed, 2001). study it in the future. For practice of the photography Heterozygotes are also believed to have a selective and modeling, we visited the Department of advantage over homozygotes. Here, we proposed Archeology at the American Museum of Natural that there is a correlation between PTC tasting and History in New York City. We were given permission avoidance for artificial sweeteners which may then to practice with our portable 3D photography studio consequently lead to adverse effects in patients who on some of their historical objects. Given the suffer from diabetes. So far, five volunteers were opportunity to practice with these artifacts, we exposed to the PTC bitter compound and the improved the use of our 3D studio to take high quality individual taste intensity ratings were evaluated photos for our next excavation in Pacbitun, Belize. using a Likert scale. After isolation of DNA from With such skills, our objective is to find other ancient human cheek cells and amplification of the Maya artifacts and bring them to life at BCC. 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

is to also compare the chemical structures between State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. various artificial sweeteners such as Stevia, By applying an intense external electromagnetic NectaSweet, NutraSweet etc. amongst each other to field (퐵0) to a not-silent NMR nucleus (with spin determine why some sugar substitutes are more quantum number Ι ≠ 0) an alignment is resulting palatable to tasters than the other which could then between proton’s spin magnetic momentum and the help manufacturers to create a more suitable external magnetic field, against and in favor of it. In artificial sweetener that tasters or supertasters would consequence, it’s appreciated a low energy “alfa not want to avoid. spin” (훼) state and the high energy “beta spin” ( 훽) state that are now separated by an energy gap (∆퐸). Poster B3 Eventually, the energy gap is equivalent to the The potential of Hydrology Tools in electromagnetic radiation needed for the 훼spin state to reach the 훽spin state which it’s known as ArcGIS ℎ resonate ∆퐸 = 훾 퐵 . The electromagnetic 2휋 0 Brian Gil radiation needed to be absorbed by the low energy 훼 spin state it’s provided by a radio-frequency that the

spectroscopies generates in a various range (each Mentor: Professor Sheldon Skaggs model of apparatus has their own frequency) and up Bronx Community College to +900Mhz for the modern and more powerful apparatus. To have the best and clearer image The purpose of this project is to use Esri’s ArcGIS possible, it’s needed a high frequency that require a hydrology tools to create a stream model on the magnetic field strong enough to generate the moderately sized Mayan community of Pacbitun. necessary energy gap between 훼 spin state and 훽 This is done by exploiting DEMs (Digital Elevation ℎ spin state. When the relation ∆퐸 = 훾 퐵 = ℎ푣 Models). By using the various sophisticated 2휋 0 instruments in this program we can fine tune a where (hv) is the 훽 energy state, then the proton spin framework that will attempt to answer the mystery in the 훼 low energy state will resonate and jump or of why the Mayans built Pacbitun where it is today. promote to the 훽 high energy state. The resonation A civilization of its size needs a steady supply of event is captured by the spectrometer generating the water and by predicting where water flow is coming signal that will be interpreted later on. from we can possibly extract new information or the location of more sites based on this. Poster B5

Poster B4 Purification and Quantification of 2,5- diphenyloxazole for Organic Scintillator Theory and Simulation of Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Naida Koura Mola Spectroscopy and its Application Mentor: Professor Sunej Hans Willmar Guzman Ulloa, Francesca Serrano Bronx Community College

Neutrinos are tiny, subatomic particles that rarely Mentor: Professor Eugene Mananga interact with matter. They originate from nuclear Bronx Community College reaction such as the sun and from nuclear power

plants. The liquid scintillator detector is one of the One of the method that allows the understanding of medium to measure neutrinos which consist of many molecular structure and organization it’s the Solid-

chemical reagents and all the reagents needed to be sequence of pairs of non-negative integers that are in optimum purity. Our project focuses on the realized as bidegree sequences of ditrees, but the purification and quantification of 2,5- natural question of how many different ditrees diphenyloxazole (PPO). The PPO is purified realize a given realizable bidegree sequence is wide through recrystallization process. One of the first open. This is in sharp contrast with the case of major task was to find the suitable solvent for the degree sequences of (undirected) trees where the recrystallization. After series of trials, methanol is elegant answer is well known. We will give a chosen to be the appropriate solvent as it dissolves complete answer to the question in the case of the PPO but not soluble with Linear Alkyl Benzene dipaths, that is ditrees whose underlying tree is a (LAB). After PPO purification, crystals are path, and we will present tentative answers for other dissolved in the LAB without weighing the solid classes of trees. therefore, the quantification is necessary to know the quantity of PPO left after purification. For the Poster B7 quantification purposes, it was important to build a calibration curve using Beer’s law and selecting the Greenhouse Gas Monitoring at Bronx right solvent for the mixture PPO-LAB. Community College using a Piccaro Cyclohexane was selected among others solvents Machine (ethanol, dodecane, methanol) to dissolve the mixture as it doesn’t overlap the absorption range of PPO under the UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The Sabri Mohiuddin calibration curve is built and has little percent error as cyclohexane evaporates readily at room Mentor: Professor Soosairaj Therese temperature. For more accuracy and precision, Bronx Community College different material and controlled method will be used in the future for measurement. The evidence for the warming of the earth’s atmosphere is irrefutable. The current warming Poster B6 trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a Assessment of Effects of Calcium on rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years. Cadmium Toxicity in Rice (Oryza sativa): Recent evidence has shown that climate change can Implications on Phytoremediation occur in as little as 10 years, much shorter than the length of time many had previously envisioned. Potential From the Piccaro machine, the data was collected for the Carbon dioxide, Methane, and water vapor. William Meyers This gas concentration collected in PPM unit during 2017 summer. Also using weather station solar Mentor: Professor Nikolaos Apostolakis radiation, humidity and wind speed were collected. Bronx Community College Python software was used to combine the relationship between Piccaro data and the weather A directed tree (or ditree for short) is a directed station data to determine weather change. 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

Poster B8 introductory courses and clinical laboratory testing of salivary cortisol collected from study participants, Investigating and Determining the Impact this study will look to understand the mechanism to of Learned Helplessness in First Year clinically identify characteristics of helplessness in College Students Using Surveys and the STEM education before they give up and fall out of the STEM profession. Clinical Analysis of Salivary Cortisol Poster B9 Nick Okoye, Vennesa Rainford Establishing the fundamental Mechanism Mentor: Professor Diane Price-Banks in the Electro chemical Reaction in Bronx Community College Lithium Ion Battery

The purpose of this study is to determine if first year Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Md Mushfiqur Rahaman (STEM) majors at Bronx community colleges exhibit characteristics of learned helplessness which Mentor: Professor Soosairaj Therese may result in STEM attrition. The study seeks to Bronx Community College help struggling students gain academic success before changing their major to a non-STEM field. It has been established that both in acid delithiation Classic signs expressed with learned helplessness and chemical delithiation (NO2BF4) of the spinels include: lack of motivation, depression, poor social LiMn2O4 and LiMn2-xMxO4 (M=Cr,Fe,Co, and Ni) skills, absence of control and loneliness. 27.4% of led to the extraction of lithium by the 3+ 2+ 4+ 1 . high school students in New York City felt so sad or disproportionation of Mn¬ ion to Mn and Mn . hopeless almost every day for 2 or more weeks in a Studies have been conducted to make magnesium ion row that they stopped doing some usual activity batteries such as LiMn2O4and MgMnAlO4. The acid (Frieden et al., 2013). This could be reflective of the treatment fully extracted Mg from LiMn2O4, but acid attitudes of freshman STEM majors having treatment did not extract any Mg from MgMnAlO4 3+ difficulties passing quizzes and exam in their compound. It is because Al disrupt the Mn-Mn 2 introductory STEM courses. This attitude or interaction and block the electron transfer. Chemical stressful event could be measured using salivary treatment of LiMn2O4 did not extract Mg unlike in cortisol. The National Center for Education the analogous Li2MnO4 spinel. This could be because 2+ Statistics (NCES) indicated that 20% of incoming the Mg with higher charge was unable to diffuse college freshman major in STEM fields yet by the from octahedral to tetrahedral sites. end of their freshman year 7 out of 10 of these The research is focusing on making spinels such as students either switch their major or drop out of LiMn2O4 and Li1-xMgxMn2O4. These spinels will be college completely (Chen, 2013). At Bronx synthesized and subjected to both acid treatment Community College 40% of freshman STEM using dil. H2SO4 and chemical treatment using major's graduate with a non-STEM degree. The NO2BF4 and the products will be studied to see reasons students dropped out or switch their majors whether lithium is extracted or magnesium is as indicated by the students themselves, were a extracted and also which is extracted more. Products compilation of pushed out or fall out circumstances, will be analyzed using redox titrations, XRD, and which, included: was not doing well in my studies; I ICP. 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

Poster B10 from Chromosome 8 to look for an insertion of a short DNA sequence called Alu within tissue Green Chemistry & Nanotechnology plasminogen activator (TPA) gene. In some copies Approaches to Valorization of Waste Into of TPA gene there is an insertion of a 300 bp Alu High Value Added Product sequence. Since we each have two copies of chromosome 8 (Ch8, one maternal allele and one

paternal allele), the possible versions of Alu

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

the insertion), Alu (+/-) (one allele has the Mentor: Professor Dickens Hilaire, Nicolas Anuku insertion), or Alu (-/-) (both alleles lack the Bronx Community College insertion). We determined whether we carry this Alu

The 21st century offers exciting scientific sequence on one, both, or none of our Chromosome opportunities at the social, economic and 8 to know our genotype. This was accomplished by environmental stages. Nanotechnology and green electrophoresing our PCR product on an agarose gel chemistry are emerging sciences that have the and observing the size of the bands that have been potential to produce noble chemical compounds. created. Resource recovery has become a major issue as the Poster B12 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 How to rotate objects in 3-D, an of other chemicals with consequent savings in costs, introduction to quaternions materials, and energy. This paper presents a review of prior and ongoing work for the valorization of Brandon Vargas waste materials into green value-added products. The implication of these materials is also discussed Mentors: Professors Mehdi Lejmi for the mitigation of environmental risks, and the Bronx Community College future development of new products for sustainable housing, water purification, health and energy and Quaternions are now a common part of other fields. mathematics and physics culture. Dot products, cross products and the whole of vector analysis Poster B11 have their origin in the development of physical applications of quaternions. Although due to lack Isolation of human DNA and PCR of material available on the subject students amplification of an Alu Insertion site for rarely are taught the origins of some key DNA fingerprinting components of topics such as multivariable calculus, Electromagnetism and Maxwell’s Meliza Uraga, Genevieve Kwanimaa equations, Pauli matrices and spin in quantum mechanics. There are numerous applications of quaternions from aviation to computer Mentor: Professor Rujin Tian animation, in fact they are an integral part of Bronx Community College modern theoretical physics research.

In this hands-on project we isolated our own DNA The objective of this research endeavor is simple, from a simple saline mouthwash. Then we applied to gain insight into academic subjects the student the PCR technique to amplify a nucleotide sequence has already experienced or will experience. We began by reviewing complex numbers and 2-D

rotation matrices, from there we applied these significantly less than that prepared with the boiling principles to learn properties of quaternions. We water. then explored other methods of rotating an object in 3-D including Euler angles and the Rodrigues Formula. Reviewing the history Poster B14 behind mathematics can lead to deeper understanding of various topics as such we Vegetation Monitoring applied this principle as the project proceeded. and Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Integrated with Robot Operation System Guttman Community College Enmanuel Brito

Poster B13 Mentor: Professor Derek Tesser

Antioxidant Capacity of Green Tea Guttman Community College

Precision agriculture monitoring requires data Gabrielle Blevins acquisition at high spatial resolution. Information about vegetation moisture and structure is important Mentor: Professor Chulsung Kim to determine vegetation health in agriculture. Guttman Community College The development of satellite and drone technology has allowed for an advancement in agriculture and Green Tea is a well-known high antioxidant drink. environmental field[DT1]. The aims of this research According to taste preference, teas are prepared at are to determine vegetation structure and health different temperatures between 4oC (refrigerated) using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the goal and 100oC (boiled). This research studied the of complementing satellite and in site data. We have effects of brewing temperature on the amount of developed software utilizing python and Robot available total antioxidants in the green tea. Teas Operating System (ROS) to obtain information were prepared using commercially available dried about drone-acquired imagery position in time. We green tea. One gram of the green tea was introduced created .bag files to contain drone geospatial and to 100 mL of distilled water and brewed for four temporal information collected by areal imagery. minutes at different temperatures. In the second test, We have applied this data using applications to create flight path maps and 3D structure from tea was brewed at 4oC for 5 hours with motion. The benefit of this applications is the measurements at every 30 minutes and for 24 hours. geolocation of the drone to help improve the The prepared tea samples from both tests are diluted structural modeling of vegetation. Future research until the total antioxidant amount is in the detectable goals include upgrading the on-board computer and range for the Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant camera system to collect multispectral information Capacity (TEAC) method. The developed color was to provide information about vegetation health in determined at 735 nm with the Aquamate 8000 UV- real time. 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

Poster B15 juices are the next highest TEAC values of 4.90 and 4. 45 umol-trolox over ml-juice, respectively. Is the next recession coming? - Lessons from the yield curve when interest rates are Poster B17 low Antioxidant Levels in Tangerine Peels Torrell Daw Moneema Miles Mentor: Professor Sebastien Buttet Guttman Community College Mentor: Professor Chulsung Kim Guttman Community College We investigate the reliability of the term spread as a predictor of recessions when short-term interest rates Antioxidants are nutrients that prevent or slow down are low and the yield curve might not invert as much oxidation damage throughout the body. Because of its as it should. We show that adding two additional positive health effect, various food items were studied forward-looking variables (before-tax corporate focusing on the available antioxidant capacity. In this profits and stock market returns) greatly improve research, studies have been performed to determine the statistical models' predictive power. We use our model amount of total antioxidant capacity in the peel of the to predict the probability of a recession in the next tangerines which are well known for their rich of twelve months. vitamin c and antioxidant in the flesh, Tangerine peels were collected and air dried for at least 20 days Poster B16 followed by grinding using a commercial grinder. After additional several days of air dry period, the ground Antioxidant in Beverages 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 Mariel Galindo, Jair Rocha rotating shaker for 30 minutes followed by filtration. The TEAC (Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity) Mentor: Professor Chulsung Kim method was adopted to determine the total amount of Guttman Community College antioxidant in the filtrate. According to the experimental observation, the TEAC value for the The antioxidant is a substance that inhibits oxidation tangerine peel was 1687 ±52 mol of Trolox/gram of of other molecules. With many positive health the sample. It is confirmed that the tangerine peels effects of the antioxidants, studies have been show a high capacity of antioxidant levels. 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

Poster B18 workshop (n=21) conducted in a small village in southern Belize and semi-formal interviews The Effect of Molecular Sieves in conducted in New York City (n=8), happiness was Biodiesel Production found, across both locations, to be linked most frequently to relationships with family. The data also demonstrate that beyond the frequency of Kizzy Nelson family, individuals define happiness in different ways depending on their cultural practices and Mentor: Professor Jihyun Kim lifestyles. While preliminary, these findings, and Guttman Community College continued interest in happiness as it relates to lifestyle differences, warrants further data collection Molecular Sieves (MS 3A, 4A or 5A) have been in different parts of the world to investigate how applied as green catalysts in organic synthesis, and the people outside of rural Belize and New York City literature studies report that these zeolites have both perceive and define happiness. acidic and basic properties. In our research, we employed MS 3A in Biodiesel production from Waste Poster B20 cooking oil (WCO) and Ethanol (pre-dried over MS 3A for 30 mins prior to using.) The results showed Detoxification of the hexavalent that the combination of MS 3A (1 % wt of the WCO) chromium contaminated water using an and NaOH (0.5 % wt of the WCO) at 50 0C for 10 mins provides 95-98% of biodiesel. The reaction was environmentally friendly reducing agent monitored by Thin Layer Chromatography, after 10 (tangerine peel) mins heating at 50 0C, no starting material was detected. Comparable yields were also obtained with Jair Rocha 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 Mentors: Chulsung Kim as catalyst in biodiesel production increases the Guttman Community College reactivity. We will continue to re-evaluate MS acidic and basic properties, find the application of MS 3A in The Hexavalent chromium has been a concerned organic synthesis in the presence of other solid pollutant easily found in the environment. There are heterogeneous catalyst. many technologies available to detoxify hexavalent chromium-contaminated resources, the reduction to Poster B19 trivalent chromium is one of the common technologies adopted in the remediation. Since it was confirmed that tangerine peel has high Happiness Defined antioxidant capacity, a study was conducted to apply tangerine peel as a reducing agent. A hexavalent Tasreen Rahman chromium stock solution was prepared using potassium dichromate at the target of 50 mg/L. Mentor: Professor Kristina Baines Tangerine peel were air dried and ground using a Guttman Community College commercial grinder. The ground peel was added to the hexavalent chromium stock solution in the Happiness is a topic of great interest and discussion, concentration of 17 g/L. The prepared solution was but it difficult to define and measure. This research placed in a 50 mL centrifuge tube which was fixed investigated how happiness is defined across varied to the rotation shaker up to nine (9) days. The communities. Using data collected from semi- concentration of hexavalent chromium in the formal interviews (n=15) and a participatory action

solution was determined as a function of time using agricultural and forested areas. The next step of this the diphenyl carbadize method. The experimental work will include regional classification based on results show that the significant amount of our training sites. hexavalent chromium was removed, and certainly tangerine peel is a potential electron donor to Poster B22 remediate the hexavalent chromium-contaminated water. A Virtual Information Assistant for the CUNY Guttman Community College Poster B21 Using Amazon Alexa

Choco Rainforest Mapping research Miguel Vignoni Project Mentor: Professor Jinzhong Niu Giorby Suero Guttman Community College

Mentor: Professor Derek Tesser In this work, we present a virtual information Guttman Community College assistant that we build using Amazon Alexa for our college, Guttman Community College of CUNY.

This information assistant is an Amazon Alexa skill The Choco Rainforest is a region of coastal that can be enabled on a physical Amazon Echo rainforest on the pacific coast of South America that device, or on a mobile device with the Alexa app. stretches from the southern tip of Panama to the Amazon Alexa is a leading service in the emerging northern tip of Peru. This region of the world is field called home automation. With Amazon Alexa, understudied and is not accurately mapped, because consumers can use their voices to control smart of this, much remains unknown about deforestation appliances, retrieve information, interact with online patterns, climate change and biodiversity. In order to information services, etc. Physical devices like map the area with precision, prior knowledge of the Amazon Echo are dedicated devices to provide area is required. The Esmeraldas region of Ecuador Alexa support. is a part of the Choco Rainforest and it is a significant area of focus because it is an area where Our Amazon Alexa skill can interact with users and deforestation is prevalent. Many hectares of forested answer questions or respond to requests like the land are being cut down for the cultivation of palm following: 1) Is the college open today? 2) When is oil. To the untrained eye African Palm trees and the community day this semester? 3) What is GLO forested areas can look identical. With the help of a (Guttman Learning Outcomes)? 4) Where is the computer program called QGIS, mapping of the area Business Office? 5) Give me an update on financial can be easier. QGIS gives access to up to date aid. In this work, we describe in detail how we images of the Earth from satellites and lets its users retrieve, parse, store, and deliver information via the categorize certain patches of the region with layers Amazon Alexa Voice Service framework to support by creating shapefiles of different regional classes. the capabilities of the Alexa skill. The QGIS user doing the mappings of the

Esmeraldas needs a local understanding of the Although Amazon Alexa was originally designed to landscape, this is called supervised classification. be used in a home environment, it has a huge Once a sufficient amount of patches are categorized, potential in enterprise environments like our college users can now train the program to seek out the as well. As far as we are aware of, our work is one patches that look similar to the layers that are of the first to utilize Amazon Alexa in such an assigned. This allows for very accurate mapping. environment. We hope that our work helps to shed The different categories that will be used for the light on building similar applications and to provide shapefile layers are urban, bare, African Palm,

a more user-friendly interface for retrieving needed aeroponically grown parsley, cilantro and bok choy information. is a better alternative. very pronounced aberration in locomotor activity that we think typifies ataxia in these mice. Poster B24

Senior People Tracking System for HOSTOS COMMUNITY Metropolitan Area

COLLEGE Elan Anderson, Swimi Kolancheril, Calvin Francis Poster B23

Mentor: Professor Biao Jiang Organic Compounds Characterization of Hostos Community College Parsley and Cilantro Aeroponically As the elderly population continues to grow, Haithm Alhashdi, Mohosina Islam caregivers will find it increasingly difficult to ensure their patients do not go missing. This is especially

Mentor: Professor Debasish Roy important for patients who suffer from medical Hostos Community College and/or mental disorders. We propose the use of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices such as Aeroponics is the process of growing plants without Estimote beacons and Raspberry Pi3 (RPI3) soil or geoponics but using air and misty scanners to track the whereabouts of elderly environments. Since the plants are not placed within patients. These BLE beacons will store a patient’s soil they receive their nutrients in another source information. A database will store personal and being in a mist form. A liquid filled with nutrient medical information such as age, address, medical solution is sprayed onto the plants in a mist form records, health conditions, and contact information. which helps the plants grow. This method has Ultimately, a system using these beacons was become popular in that it does not need as much established, and a website is currently in progress to money and increases air exposure. Parsley and display this data. cilantro are two plants that are commonly used in cooking; therefore their production is abundant and Poster B25 finding cheaper ways of production is highly beneficiary. Though the organic compound Analysis of the Elephant’s Metabolic Heat characterization of aeroponic grown parsley and cilantro and organic store bought parsley and regulation Using Infrared Thermography cilantro might differ. Hence the purpose of this experiment is to compare the concentration of Elayne Blancas, Raziel Benreuben, Towana polyphenols in parsley and cilantro grown De Jesus aeroponically and organic store bought parsley and cilantro. These comparisons will be done by Mentor: Professor Moise Koffi conducting infrared spectroscopy, thin layer Hostos Community College chromatography, and total phenolic determination and analyzing the results. The pH level and protein estimation will also be measured and compared. Elephants are the largest walking animals on Earth. With these findings the conclusion of whether Due to poachers and socio economic reasons, many elephants are kept in captivity for conservation

purposes. However, conservationists must ensure that viable growing process because of pH levels they are employing proper management procedures remaining consistent in the buffer solution used, on for these animals away from their natural habitats. the basis of protein content it is shown that Because of their large size, studies indicate that aeroponically grown plants have higher protein elephants produce a huge amount of metabolic heat, content. which is proportional to their body mass. However, the mechanism they use to dissipate their excess heat Poster B27 has been discussed profusely. It has been hypothesized that the flapping of the elephants’ pinnae plays an Analysis of Images Through the important role in heat dissipation. A study was conducted using an infrared camera to scan the body Techniques of Images Morphing and the pinnae of elephants at the San Diego zoo. The experiment was repeated on a model of an elephant’s Thierno Diallo, Keneil Feron, Mohamed pinna constructed in the Aero-thermal lab at The City Sajath College of New York for the study of heat dissipation in elephants. Experimental results indicate lower Mentor: Professor Tanvir Prince temperature values recorded from the flapping pinna Hostos Community College 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 Image morphing is an application of linear algebra enhancement at these locations. Although their pinnae which consists of transforming one point to another play a vital role in heat dissipation, behavioral in a plane. Images of objects are analyzed using the observations of elephants at the zoo indicate that image morphing techniques to predict the changes these animals utilize other methods such as blood that had happened through time. The purpose of this perfusion, vasodilation, bathing, or staying in a shade research is to observe the changes in different to regulate their core body temperature. NASA satellite images, describe their observation,

and hypothesize the possible causes of the Poster B26 phenomena observed in the morph. Image morphing technique is performed using two satellite images Comparative Study of pH and Protien taken at two different time intervals, morph them Content of Aeroponically grown and Store and observe the gradual changes of the bought Geoponically own Basil and Lettuce corresponding objects. Since additional documentation about selected pictures are not available for comparison, morph was used to Hector M. Colon analyze their transition images. The accuracy of the transformation is analyzed by taking pictures of a Mentor: Professor Debashish Roy blooming flower and document all the phases Hostos Community College between the bloom. Then, the morphing technique is implemented towards the first and last pictures in The purpose of study was to attain an understanding order to compare the changes previously observed in of solvent based extraction, attain accurate the morph using Morph Age and Fanta Morph, a measurements of pH and absorbance of said morphing software to morph the pictures. As a extractions, as well as make comparisons between result, a morph was created to predict the the growing processes of aeroponics and geoponics. appearances of Mars’ transitions within ages, to The methods of analysis used were pH indicator describe the changes in Jupiter over time and the analysis, Bradford protein assay estimation, and significant change in the sunspot numbers between Inferred and Visible Spectroscopy. Based on the the initial start of the year in 2008 and the end of the results attained it was concluded aeroponics is a cycle in 2014. The morph provides an accurate

approximation to the actual changes of the objects nursing homes and hospitals, as well as private and a very useful tool to use when it is impossible to residences, will find it increasingly difficult to keep take consecutive pictures of a constantly changing track of and care for their patients. This issue is place or object. especially important for those elderly patients who suffer from mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s Poster B28 disease. To combat this issue, a low-cost, low- energy tracking system has been developed. This Concrete Inspection Using Deep Learning system utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon technology and Raspberry Pi Miguel Febriel, Melissa Souffront, Cheison Microcomputers to track elderly patients and was Pulinario, Luis Tapia, Richie Ovando, specifically tailored for use in a metropolitan setting. Vanessa Pujols Preliminary results show that the system is effective in indoor settings with a few minor caveats. Future Mentor: Professor Biao Jiang works and improvements are also discussed. Hostos Community College Poster B30 Concrete infrastructures are commonly used around the world. Over time, they begin to weaken as a Determination of the enthalpy of a solid result of cracks in the concrete. These cracks can fuel using a bomb calorimeter remain unnoticed for a prolonged period of time. A new proposal has emerged to apply the deep learning technique to recognize, inspect, and detect Arafate Idohou cracks on time. A database is created by extracting the cracks on a generous number of cracking Mentor: Professor Francisco Fernandez pictures, which are used to train the proposed Hostos Community College machine learning algorithm. The trained algorithm has been designed and tested successfully for the analysis of the unprocessed graphs and to detect The goal of this project was to determinate the heat cracks and spalls. The results obtained from the of combustion of a solid fuel using a bomb detection of cracks by the algorithm will help calorimeter (1108). The bomb calorimeter is used to structural engineers to notice cracks and spalls more completely burn substances in an excess of oxygen at efficiently in a concrete infrastructure. a pressure of 30 atm. The heat of combustion released is absorbed by the calorimeter vessel in which the Poster B29 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 Senior People Tracking System for adding and determined by adding a defined amount Metropolitan Areas of heat from the combustion of benzoic acid. The combustion of the solid fuel is then subsequently Calvin Francis, Elan Anderson performed under the same conditions.

Swimi Kolancheril An examination of the thermodynamics of the conditions existing in bomb calorimetry shows that Mentor: Professor Biao Jiang the heat of combustion per unit mass of substance Hostos Community College burned is a function of the mass of sample used, of the initial oxygen pressure, of the amount of water As the elderly population continues to increase in placed in the bomb, and of the volume of the bomb. the United States, caretakers in facilities such as

The heat of combustion of the unknown solid fuel suggested melanin is essential for the cell to maintain was -3225 ±4 Kj/mol. its integrity and protection from external stresses. Understanding how melanin is deposited in the cell Poster B31 wall is essential in understanding the role it plays in protecting the cell. Melanin is an amorphous A New Model of Harvesting Fish substance, which makes traditional methods of analyzing the structure, such as X-ray diffraction Population ineffective. Solution-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry would result in the loss of structural integrity of the melanin Hamidou Kabore, Abdoul Aziz Niang, Luis during the breakdown process. Solid-state NMR Tejeda (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. Mentor: Professor Tanvir Prince Our research is aimed at testing the reproducibility of Hostos Community College the melanin extraction protocol. Which is the protocol followed in preparing samples for ssNMR. It was In this paper we propose a new model of harvesting found that the extraction protocol is reproducible and fish population. This model is particularly applicable consistent among concurrent samples. to those types of fish population which reproduce at a particular time of the year and this cycles continue Poster B33 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 Crippling effect of the jones act on the minimum and the maximum fraction of harvesting Puerto Rico and guarantee the survival of the species and at the same time optimal harvesting. The model is analyzed Francisco Lopez, Reynaldo Martinez, both graphically and algebraically. Ronaldo William, Patricia Matos, Ayman Moitatchiou Poster B32 Mentor: Professor Lauren Wolf Melanin Extraction Protocol Hostos Community College

Inzamamdeen Kassim This research study would contribute to the growing literature on the deleterious/negative impacts the Mentor: Professor Chanh Phan Jones Act has on Puerto Rico's economy. It is our Hostos Community College belief that there is a correlation between the restrictions imposed by the Jones Act of 1917 and Cryptococcal Meningitis is a deadly disease that its impact on the Puerto Rican economy. Following claims the lives of over 600,000 people yearly. This the introduction, we examine using the GDP and disease is caused by the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus Stochastic processes to model the effects of the neoformans. However, there is still limited resources Jones Act on the economy. Further anticipated available on combating Cryptococcal Meningitis. analysis is required but we intend to show that there Melanin has been found to be deposited within the cell is a strong connection between the Jones act and the wall, which contributes towards the virulence of this current economic crisis in Puerto Rico. Our study fungus. The role melanin plays in the cell wall is not will demonstrate that the Jones Act has negatively completely known, but there is evidence that has

affected the Puerto Rican economy, and the B will listen until reaching comprehension and take shipping industry in general. This quantitative a quiz immediately after. The control group took analysis will provide a nuanced perspective that the quiz based on their background knowledge would support advocacy for this necessary without reading and listening to the material. The legislative change. results showed that reading and listening to the material improves the chances of scoring higher and Poster B34 proves that the hypothesis made is correct.

Poster B35 The Impact of Learning Modes on Content Understanding and Retention of Towards a 5-Million-Years History of Information Ocean Circulation South of Africa

Abigail Regalado, Jassiel Mena, Alison Antonio Sinadinse, Oumarou Kafando, Castillo, Baowend Ouedraogo Elibeth Martinez Tejada

Mentor: Professor Damara Lois-Lang, Reginald Mentor: Professor Allison M. Franzese Dorcely, Edme Soho Hostos Community College Hostos Community College The Agulhas current is the strongest western There has been substantial research in how the boundary current in the Southern Hemisphere, human brain is able to learn and process information transporting warm saline surface water from the in order to retain and use the information when Indian Ocean along the East African margin to the deemed necessary. Research has been able to tip of Africa. Agulhas leakage is the retroflection of convey the many methods and strategies that are the Agulhas current producing warm and salty involved in the learning system in order to ensure Indian Ocean water that drifts into the Atlantic the student’s academic success. The purpose of this Ocean. The goal of this project is to reconstruct research was to determine if there is a difference in changes in the amount of Indian Ocean water learning modes and how that affects students scores “leaking” around the tip of South Africa and into the by comparing the scores of those students who were Atlantic Ocean over the past five million years. We told there was a test before reading the material, to observe how this change in climate relates to global the students who were told about a test before warming. The reconstruction and results from IODP listening to the material. It is hypothesized that the Expedition 361 is used to understand the dynamics student reading the content will have a better of the surface ocean circulation around southern understanding of the material and therefore be able Africa, and evaluate its relationship with the deep to perform well in the test provided right after. In ocean circulation under contrasting climatic order to test the hypothesis, a random selection of regimes. In order to learn how the Agulhas leakage students in community colleges and senior colleges varies, we measure the sediments collected from the were gathered to undergo this hypothesis. These Site U1479 where the Agulhas current in the individuals were divided into three groups, group A, Southern Hemisphere transports the warm saline group B and a control group. Group A students surface water from the tropical Indian Ocean along were given a passage an were given the opportunity the tip of the East African margin. In addition, we to read the material until they are confident they measured the concentrations of major and trace comprehend the content to the best of their elements, as well as, Argon (Ar), Strontium (Sr), understanding and soon after take a quiz related to Neodymium (Nd), Lead (Pb) isotope ratios in the <2 the passage that they read. Group B listened to the micron terrigenous clays using clay sediments, passage and in the same fashion as group A, group carbonate-free, and oxide free. The results will

determine the origin of the sediment, which we and will be presented up-to-date again at the coming expect to have a very old continental provenance. CUNY-CRSP Summer Symposium to be held on Any change in the composition of the current will July 24, 2018, at John Jay College, CUNY. tell us to expect less leakage.

Kingsborough Community Poster B37

College Protein supplementation during pregnancy affects uterine gene expression in cattle Poster B36 offspring

Determining differences in the 16S Ashley Civil mitochondrial DNA differences among samples of American eel, Anguilla Mentor: Professor Azure Faucette, Jennifer Thorson, rostrate, obtained from southern, central Ligia Prezotto and northern Atlantic coast of the United Kingsborough Community College and Montana State States of America for population University identification Protein supplementation is a common practice in both beef and dairy cattle industry especially during Aaron Blumenthal winter breeding season. This is due to limited availability and poor nutritive quality of forages [1]. Mentor: Professor Sarwar Jahangir A common source of protein supplementation in Kingsborough Community College 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 Our goal is to determine if American eel (Anguilla available in their diet [2]. There are many studies rostrata) represents multiple populations in the that look at changes in uterine gene expression when Atlantic coast USA or are they just a random group diets were supplements with protein. However, there of eels that are randomly distributed throughout the is limited information that examine the effects of coastline. We obtained a sample of American eel maternal supplementation on gene expression in from a supplier who gets them from the poachers in their offspring. Based on preliminary data from New York area and used 16S mitochondrial rDNA Dr’s. Thorson and Prezotto, they noticed both gross (mtrDNA) primers to develop their genetic identity. and histological changes in female calves born to We will use this as a base line and compare the 16S dams supplemented with NPN. We propose that rDNA identity of other American eels collected there will be gene modifications that will effect from distant locations, Florida to Maine. This will reproduction and metabolism in offspring born to help us determine if the American eel represents mothers on NPN diets. The method used to test the only one or multiple populations. We collected a hypothesis is to compare genes expression in the muscle sample from an American eel, collected uterus of offspring of cows fed NPN diet versus a from the NY-NJ region, extracted the mitochondrial normal diet. There are several genes that we are DNA using cell-homogenizing buffer, amplified 16S looking at for this project such as Squalene mtrDNA using Qiagen REPLI-g Mitochondrial epoxidase (SQLE), Forkhead box A2 (FOXA2), DNA kit and sent out the sample for sequencing to Fibroblast Growth Receptor 1 (FGFR1), Fibroblast GenScript, NJ. Our preliminary results were Growth Receptor 2 (FGFR2), Phospholipid presented as a Poster at the CRSP Spring phosphatase 2 (PPAP2) and Solute carrier family 10 Symposium held on May 18, 2018, at KCC-CUNY

member 1 (SLC10A1). Currently, we are in the process of extracting RNA from the uterine samples Poster B39 from Montana. Once the RNA has been reverse transcribed, we will run qPCR to quanitfy the Identifying the Species of Nematodes to trascripts. We expect that PPAP2c, FOXA2, FGFR2 Predict Floral Health and FGFR1 will be down regulated in the tissue; while SLC10A1 and SQLE will be up regulated. Edna Georges Poster B38 Mentor: Professor Marie McGovern, David Mutations of PAD1 and FDC1 in strains Michaelson Kingsborough Community College of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Nematodes are a diverse group of worms that play Crystal Dunkley an active role in cycling nutrients as part of the soil food web. Some worms also play major beneficial Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Mulligan roles in soil health such as feeding on bacteria, Kingsborough Community College fungi, and insects which are harmful to plants. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, provided us with many Yeasts are single-celled microorganisms soil and compost samples so we could identify the biologically classified as fungi. Saccharomyces relative abundance and diversity of worm species in cerevisiae is a species of yeast used in baking bread, their samples. Two of the soil samples were and making wine and beer. In beer production yeast collected from beds in their Perennial Border area is used to ferment sugars producing ethanol, and surrounding two persimmon trees. These persimmon carbon dioxide. Additionally yeast produce other trees were in dramatically different health. We could flavor compounds detectable in beer. thus test the hypothesis that the health of the trees Phenyl-acrylic decarboxylase (PAD1) and Ferulic would correlate with the presence/absence of acid decarboxylase (FDC1) are involved in the specific nematode or annelid species. We identified production of 4-vinyl guiacol (4-VG), a flavor no worms in the soil of the unhealthy tree but did compound described as spicy, smoky, or clove-like. identify two species of annelids in the soil of the This flavor is most often found in styles known as healthy tree, in agreement with our hypothesis. wit, wiezen, or wheat beers in which 4-VG is found In the lab, 15 g of soil was weighed, broken up in in comparatively high levels. We looked at a beaker and diluted by water. The soil was then commercially available strains of S. cerevisiae for poured through three stacked of sieves of mesh size nonsense mutations of PAD1 and FDC1. Our 20, 60, 325 then placed in a petri dish. This allows hypothesis is that strains of S.cerevisiae used to us to separate the worms by size and to remove make wheat beers will not have nonsense mutations individual worms from the soil, isolate their in PAD1 and FDC1 while other strains that are not genomic DNA, carry out a PCR reaction to amplify used to make wheat beers will have nonsense the 18S rRNA gene, send the samples for mutations. We used the sequences of PAD1 and sequencing and compare the sequences to the FDC1 to design PCR primers to amplify these Genebank database. This allows us to determine genes, compared seven strains, three wheat beer the genus and species of the isolated worms. By strain and four non-wheat beer strains, by PCR doing so we can observe the amount, diversity and amplifying PAD1 and FDC1 followed by type of worms present in each persimmon tree bed. sequencing and comparison to published sequence We observed that the unhealthy persimmon tree looking for nonsense mutations. We were unable to sample didn’t contain any worms, but in the healthy get clean sequencing results and were unable to do persimmon tree 2 annelids were found, one of the the comparisons to the published strains.

suborder Lumbricina and one of the Fridericia genus.

Poster B40 Poster B41

Identification and Genetic Up-cycling Ibuprofen Characterization of Vancomycin Resistant Bacteria in a Community Cleavon Harris Setting

Mentor: Professor Homar Barcena Yuliia Hlamazdenko Kingsborough Community College

Mentor: Professor Grace Axler-DiPerte Through an anthropogenic introduction of Kingsborough Community College pharmaceuticals in the environment many over the counter drugs, like ibuprofen, have polluted water Enterococcus faecalis can cause serious infectious sources and disrupted aquatic life. This experiment diseases in the community, and complications in purposes to raise awareness and ultimately slow hospital settings. Infections with vancomycin down the rate of drug pollution. Our experiment will resistant Enterococci (VRE) have been reported determine a new pathway to teach students how to since 1990. Vancomycin is an antibiotic used for synthesize amides using expired drugs. The up- cycling of expired Ibuprofen utilizes the active severe blood and skin infections, endocarditis, and ingredient of over-the-counter tablets to teach meningitis caused by Gram-positive bacteria. There students the principles of extraction and organic are six reported genotypes causing vancomycin synthesis, in this case the transformation of resistance, determined by both plasmid-borne carboxylic acids into amides. Methods of transposons (vanA, vanB and associated regulators) recrystallization and characterization will also be and chromosomal genes (vanC, vanD, vanE, vanG). tested. Both vanA and vanB may pose a serious problem since these genes are located on a plasmid, and may Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra was be transferred among bacteria. VanB VRE were used to characterize the starting material and the chosen for this research due to lower minimum product of the reaction by looking at the number and inhibitory concentration, and their increased position of the carbons and hydrogens. This prevalence in some United States hospitals. information aids in confirming the structure of the Although community acquired infections with product. The NMR also shows if any impurities are vanB VRE have not yet been reported, present in the sample. Fourier-transfor Infrared asymptomatic carriage may lead to culturable Spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to confirm the VRE on surfaces outside of healthcare settings, presence of the amide in the product. The melting and thus pose a risk of spread within the point of the product was investigated using a Fisher- Johns apparatus, and a recrystallization procedure is community. Twenty frequently touched sites on being developed to purify the product. 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

neither of 6 vancomycin resistant colonies. employed to look for protein profile differences Although, vancomycin resistant colonies do not between the morphs in the future. identify as E. faecalis due to the absence of esculin hydrolysis, morphological analysis suggests that the Poster B43 microorganisms are either Staphylococci or an esculin negative strain of Enterococci. Additional Ascending Mars metabolic and molecular testing will be performed to identify the genus of resistant Koyuki Inoue bacteria.

Mentor: Professor John Mikalopas Poster B42 Kingsborough Community College

Quantification of Total Proteins from In the movie The Martian a marooned astronaut Primula vulgaris Tissues: A Comparison attempts an ascent of Mars. He decides to reduce the of Short- vs Long-Styled Plants 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 Danny J. Hurtado the Martian atmosphere is so thin. This is a perilous decision. Though mass is of major importance in all Mentors: Professors Farshad Tamari orbital trajectory considerations, the fluid resistance Kingsborough Community College force (drag) has a major effect on the motion of an object traveling through a fluid. The drag depends The molecular aspects of the reproductive biology upon the shape, speed, and cross-sectional area of the of Primula vulgaris (Primulaceae) are relatively object and the density of fluid. We solve the ordinary unknown. P. vulgaris occurs as short- and long- differential equations associated with the ascent styled plants. Both morphologies are self- orbital trajectory of a vehicle lifting-off from the incompatible and only crosses between the two surface of Mars in terms of time, mass, displacement, morphs will lead to seed production. We velocity, gravitational force, thrust, drag and hypothesize that there are protein concentration atmospheric density. We calculate the orbital differences between the two morphs, which may efficiency of decreasing the mass of a vehicle and increasing the drag coefficient of a vehicle for an reflect differences in proteins that may play a role in ascent from Mars. 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

Poster B44 Poster B45

Can barite ore be a possible source of Spectrophotometric analysis of nitrate Boron that contaminates the groundwater and phosphate concentration in in the Newark basin? agricultural soil samples

Moiselena Jeanlouis, Murodjon Zubaydov Dinara Khashimova

Mentors: Professors Larbi Rddad Mentor: Professor Patrick Lloyd Kingsborough Community College Kingsborough Community college

The Newark basin was formed during the Triassic- Nitrogen and phosphorus are the main components Jurassic rifting of Pangea and was subsequently filled of soil fertilizer. Nitrogen is the main nutrient with up to 8 km of Triassic-Jurassic lacustrine required by plants for photosynthesis. Soils rich in formations. The groundwater in the Newark basin is nitrogen are good for growing nitrogen-demanding contaminated with Boron, exceeding the limit (600 crops such as soy and corn. Phosphorus controls μg/L) set by the health standard for safe drinking flowering in plants and is important to plant water. Hence, this research project aims at identifying production involving flowering or fruiting plants. the source of Boron and associated trace elements by In our research we use spectrophotometry method in analyzing barite ore as well as the Lacustrine order to isolate each nutrient from the soil into a formations (Stockton, Lockatong, and Passaic solution that can be analyzed using color to formations) in the Newark basin. determine the concentration of nutrients present in

the soil sample. Knowing present concentration of The trace elements analyses including Boron (n=3) nutrients helps is beneficial in agriculture, because it reveal that the lacustrine rocks have a low concentration of Boron (Sandstone of Stockton = helps to determine a nutrient deficiency or a surplus 23.9 ppm, black shale of Lockatong = 36 ppm, in soils used to support crop production. sandstone/siltstone of Passaic = 101 ppm). Moreover, Nitrogen and phosphorus are extracted with a the Hopewell ore barite shows also very low chemical universal extracting solvent that will bind concentration of Boron (n=2) (<0.5 to 9.8 ppm). The the nutrient of interest. Once extracted from soil, ascending Ba-rich hydrothermal fluids flowed each nutrient can be combined with a reagent that through these Boron-depleted lacustrine rocks, which will cause the solution to change color in a linear caused these fluids to be also depleted. Hence, barite relationship, to a darker color indicating increased that precipitated from these fluids have also very low concentration of the nutrient. concentration of Boron. It can be concluded that barite as well as the Lacustrine formations are not the In a nitrogen extraction, nitrate ions will react with source of Boron contaminating the groundwater salicylic acid in concentrated sulfuric acid. When because the amount of boron in barite and rocks in coupled with 2M NaOH (strong base), the pH of a the Newark basin is significantly low. 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

ascorbic acid to form a blue complex. The future space mission that will target specific types of concentration of a complex is directly proportional asteroids to the amount of phosphate present in soil. Goal of this study: Mineral abundance data for Currently we are working on developing a portable powdered samples of more than 50 different CCs method of measuring the concentration of soil have been collected by X-ray diffraction [5]. nutrients, which could be performed in a field site Reflectance spectra have also been collected for the using a portable spectrophotometer. This method same powders. The study aims create an integrated will allow for basic nutrient testing in the classroom database of reflectance spectra and mineralogy that lab without requiring expensive pieces of equipment is universally accessible.. Microsoft Excel™ is that may not be available. being used to produce the database because it is widely used. Current data technology, will Poster B46 effortlessly integrate this database with others if needed. The database provides an overview of all of Toward a database of spectra and the samples, indexed to allow navigation to detailed mineralogy for Carbonaceous Chondrites 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 Marino Laurent and contributors.

Mentor: Professor Kieren Howard Poster B47 Kingsborough Community College

Introduction: Carbonaceous Chondrites (CCs) are Understanding the properties of meteorites taking their name from their dominant Dichromatic glass components, chondrules: sub-millimeter sized, nearly spherical grains, composed mostly of silicate minerals Andrew Lugo [1]. Carbonaceous chondrites (CCs) are a sub-class of chondrites that contain the earliest formed minerals [2], in addition to volatiles like organic compounds, Mentor: Professor Deborah Berhanu including amino acids and OH [3]. Like frozen Kingsborough Community College evidence from the protoplanetary disk ~4.5 billion years ago [2], they are studied to understand formation In The British Museum (London, United Kingdom) of asteroids, planets and the origin of life. there is a exhibit called the Lycurgus Cup. This cup is made of a unique dichromatic glass that was Background to the problem: Much effort is devoted created fourth century A.D. . The glass appears to identifying the parent body asteroids of meteorite green when light is shown from the front, but a red samples. The accomplish this, recognition different color when light is shown from the back and types of asteroids remotely using telescopes. transmitted through the glass, as to how the cup Astronomers typically use reflectance spectroscopy to shifted colors this remained a mystery ,the first study the composition of asteroid surfaces. [4]. Lab study began in 1950 and not finding conclusive based studies of reflectance spectra for meteorite results till 1962. After investigating this further powders, with known mineralogy, aid interpretations of researchers found that this was due to the properties asteroid spectra [4]. Direct comparisons of spectra for of the gold and silver nanoparticles embedded meteorite samples and asteroids act like spectral within the glass. A nanoparticle is a particle that fingerprinting for matching different classes of measures between 1-100 nm. These particles exhibit meteorites with parent bodies [4]. Ultimately, different physical and chemical properties compared astronomers seek to map the asteroid distributions for to their larger counterparts. The nanoparticles embedded in the Lycurgus glass are responsible of

its dichronicity. Indeed gold nanoparticles are red, in order to isolate and collect worms. Worms unlike the shiny yellow color of bulk gold. are lysed and subjected to PCR reaction to isolate a fragment of the 18S rRNA gene. These fragments are Today, glass and bioplastics are important research visualized on an agarose gel and then sent out to a substrates for various future applications, including company to be sequenced. Sequences are then in biomedicine and food packaging. This project’s compared to sequences final goal is to replicate the Lycurgus glass in the GenBank database to identify the species of properties to various substrates, glass, sugar glass, worm isolated. and bioplastics.

Poster B48 Poster B49 Identifying Nematode Species to Predict Floral Health Sweet Corn Beer; Possible MXR1 mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Maria Molliar, Edna George compared to Saccharomyces

Mentor: Professor Marie McGovern, David Long Nguyen Michaelson Kingsborough Community College Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Mulligan Kingsborough Community College Nematodes are cylindrical worms that are found in every environment on earth, and belong to the Yeast has been used for thousands of years for phylum Nematoda. Various nematode species baking bread, and brewing beer. Beer is a beverage are successful as free-living organisms or that at its simplest can be made from barley, hops, as parasites, and are often used to maintain health of water, and yeast, but is known for the variety of organic gardens. In collaboration with the Brooklyn different flavors that can be produced from these Botanical Garden, we will be conducting several few ingredients. A variety of these flavors come experiments in order to determine the exact nematode from compounds that are produced by the yeast and species in their compost and soil. By identifying the can be important to the overall taste of the product. exact species of nematode present throughout various Lagers are beers are produced with the bottom- samples, will allow us to determine diversity of the fermenting strains of Saccharomyces pastorianus species, as well as predict the quality of compost and require fermentation temperatures of 7° – 13° C or soil. I will be focusing on the extraction of compared to ales which use the top fermenting nematodes from various indoor and strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and outdoor collections. fermentation temperatures of 20° – 22° C. This difference in yeast and temperature results in lager The Brooklyn Botanical Garden provides us with beers having different flavors compared to ale. One bagged and labeled samples of soil or compost from of these flavors is described as “cooked sweet corn” various indoor and outdoor plant beds or from various Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is responsible for this compost methods. In the lab, we then weight out eight flavor and it is perceptible at concentration above grams of soil, which is then broken up and diluted in 100 µg per liter [4]. This flavor is common in lager water. The mixture is then poured through a stack of beers but is considered undesirable in ales. three mesh sieves, sized 20, 60, 325 microns (μ), in order to separate worms by size and help isolate them The enzyme Methionine-S-sulfoxide reductase from the soil. Filtered samples are placed on a (Met-SO reductase) converts Dimethyl sulfoxide petri dish and viewed under a dissecting microscope, (DMSO) to DMS and the gene that codes for this

enzyme is MXR1. Our hypothesis is MXR1 may be selection of antibiotics can be efficiently made to mutated in ale yeast strains. We compared the treat the patients. Still, the Multidrug-resistance sequences of the MXR1 gene of seven commercially Genes in Staph species, which are a strain of the available yeast strains, three ale yeasts and four infection that has become resistant to the use of lager yeasts to see whether there is a mutation in the multiple antibiotics, are a cause for concern. Owing yeasts. We compared our sequences to the published to the diversity of the bacterium, it is difficult to MXR1 sequence to design and looked for gather information on the various strains due to their differences between the two. We were unable to distinct resistances to antibiotics. Using results from determine if there were any differences in the lager the Blast analysis of genes from the staph strain, compared to the ale strains because we were not USA300, a strain of community-associated able to get quality ale sequences of the MRX1 gene. methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Poster B50 (MRSA), compared across 161 other genomes, we’re able to properly annotate these genes. Metagenomic Analysis of Multi-Drug- Through manual annotation and our BLAST-Off software that we produced Resistant Genes in Staphylococcus aureus (https://github.com/CRSPKCC), we’re able to give them informative names and offer proper Frank Orefice, Joshua Delapenha, Zhijing information about the genes. (Kelly) Zhao Poster B51

Mentor: Professor Dmitry Y. Brogun Kingsborough Community College An NMR Study of Gold Nanoparticles’ Interactions with Natural Organic Matter Staphylococci are gram-positive aerobic microorganisms. Most strains are persistent and Sara Sobolewska highly diverse bacteria that inhabit the mucous membranes of those who are infected. About 30% of Mentor: Professor Deborah Berhanu, Homar Barcena people are unaware that they carriers of the Kingsborough Community College bacterium, as it can inhabit a person’s body without any showing symptoms. However, the bacterium is Nanoparticles are ultrafine particles with different capable of proliferating through cuts in the skin or physical and chemical properties compared to their the weakening of the infected individual’s immune bulk materials. Those particles are entities which system. When given ground, the infection can cause measure between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm) in at symptoms, such as the growth of pimples and boils least one dimension. The ability to work at the to large abscesses and the destruction of skin tissue. nanoscale is allowing scientists to develop new The diversity of the bacterium comes from its fields, from building materials to cosmetology, and adaptability and resistance towards certain modern-day drugs such as antibiotics, and cancer antibiotics, such as methicillin and vancomycin. therapies. Due to the adaptable nature of the infection, This study focuses on gold nanoparticles. Gold hospitals are unable to sufficiently treat their nanoparticles are red and have a high ratio of surface atoms, which makes them much more patients unless adequate information about the strain reactive compared to their bulk yellow counterpart. is known. However, with metagenomic analysis, the Specifically, this project focuses on gold direct genetic analysis of genomes contained with an nanoparticles (Au NPs) and their interactions with environmental sample, more data on the strains can organic matter. Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance be collected. Through this technique, an adequate (NMR) spectrophotometer, we are investigating Au

NPs’ interactions with organic molecules that are proficiency) or late, unbalanced bilinguals (they present in the environment. rated their knowledge of English below that of their To proceed with the NMR work, we are working on first language) reading a passage in English precipitating-out the Au NPs from the aqueous containing the sounds [p, t, k, b, d, g]. We also suspension they are synthesized in to re-dissolve recorded a control group of 10 monolingual native them into heavy water (D2O). After our attempts English speakers from Brooklyn, NY. All students with an evaporator failed, successfully centrifuged were enrolled in courses at KBCC and were the suspension and carefully remove the water. The recorded on campus. wet precipitate is then dried in a desiccator under Following data collection, VOT values were vacuum. We are currently performing more measured manually using the Praat software for experiments to understand the NMR shifts observed acoustic analysis [2]. Specifically, we recorded the for sucrose and sarcosine. amount of time elapsed between the onset of Poster B52 laryngeal vibration and the release of the consonant using waveform and spectrographic information, Consonant Production in Bilinguals: The following [6]. Preliminary results based on 12 speakers support both Hypothesis 1 (Figure 1) and Relationship between Native Language Hypothesis 2 (Figure 2). Our study thus replicates Background, Degree of Bilingualism, and earlier results with new languages and adds to the VOT body of work on bilingual cognition.

Vali Valizade Poster B53 Mentor: Professor Laura Spinu Kingsborough Community College Extraction of DNA from Short- and Long- Styled Plants of Primula vulgaris Voice Onset Time (VOT) is an acoustic measure used to describe stop consonants such as [p, t, k, b, Lisa Marie Vetere d, g], and it varies across languages [3]. For example, a native Spanish or French speaker Mentors: Professors Farshad Tamari typically pronounces stop sounds differently from Kingsborough Community College an English speaker, which (among others) results in a foreign accent [4]. Bilingualism further Primula vulgaris is a common species of the plant complicates the picture in that even though balanced family Primulaceae. The common name is primrose. bilinguals may appear to have equal proficiency in It is a genus of 500 angiosperm species. The leaves both languages, studies show that subtle differences are 5-25 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. They are from monolinguals do exist [1], and it is not until 20 wrinkled quite often and have a short stem. P. months that they are able to acquire similar vulgaris exhibits distyly as a breeding system where sounding sounds, later than monolinguals [5]. two distinct morphologies are found within the same In this study, we test two hypotheses, specifically species. P. vulgaris is self-incompatible- and thus that (1) different native language backgrounds affect self-pollinations or pollinations using pollen from English VOT in different ways, and (2) early the same morph will not result in seed production. bilinguals produce more native-like VOT in English. The genetics of distyly and self-incompatibility in P. We recorded 30 native speakers of Russian, vulgaris is well known, however, the molecular Spanish, and Chinese who were either early, aspects of distyly and self-incompatibility have not balanced bilinguals (they reported there was no been investigated. In other distylous species, two difference between their first language and English

genes have been implicated in distyly and self- selected brain regulatory genes that are critical for incompatibility- α-dioxygenase and (1) brain growth (BDNF), (2) myelination (PLP and polygalacturonase. We hypothesize that there exists MBP) (3) neuronal migration and cell-cell morph-specific DNA sequence differences for both interactions during fetal brain development (RLN) genes in P. vulgaris. The purpose of this of infants of smokers to those of non-smokers. The investigation is to isolate DNA from 10 short- and study samples (DNA) was obtained from the parent 10 long-styled plants. The Edward’s method of study conducted at University of South Florida, DNA extract was used for this purpose. The Tampa. The study will help enhance our presence of DNA was verified using agarose gel understanding of the biological mechanism electrophoresis. Staining was achieved using underlying sub-optimal pregnancy outcomes. Early ethidium bromide. The DNA will be used in the intervention of those at risk would enable lowering future to PCR amplify polygalacturonase to adverse pregnancy outcomes. determine whether there exists morph-specific differences. Poster B55

Poster B54 Shrimp Vaccine

The use of cord blood cells to Identify Jessica Zhao epigenetic changes of the human fetal brain exposed to tobacco smoke Mentor: Professor Sarwar Jahangir Kingsborough Community College Rosanne Wallach White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a lethal disease Mentor: Professor Anupam Pradhan that affects shrimp and has been found to be Kingsborough Community College transmittable between shrimps (Sánchez-Paz, 2010). WSSV has been especially damaging in industrial Despite several studies linking prenatal smoking to shrimp farming where shrimps breed and feed in close fetal brain damage and subsequent brain disorders in proximity. In this study, we will attempt to replicate the offspring later in life, the genetic and epigenetic previous studies in designing an oral vaccine for mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. Litopenaeus vannamei (white leg shrimp) (Valdez, A 2014). This study will attempt to electroporate Our preliminary gene specific studies of cord blood Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (single-celled green alga) cells from pregnant mothers collected at delivery with a pDawn plasmid (Ohlendorf et al., 2012). Gene indicates prenatal smoking has positive association expression of a viral protein on the Chlamydomonas between shortened fetal telomere lengths in infants reinhardtii cell wall will be induced by light with the born to smoking mothers. Some of the critical brain green fluorescent protein acting as the reporter gene. regulatory genes like brain-derived neurotrophic This study simulates the level of expected expression factor (BDNF), proteolipidic protein, (PLP), myelin within Chlamydomonas reinhardtii using ordinary basic protein (MBP) and reelin (RLN) was found differential equations and stochastic processes to help downregulated among smokers than passive or non- inform future studies in designing a biological system smokers. In this study we propose to test our using the pDawn plasmid. Further studies will be done hypotheses that prenatal smoking results in changes to examine whether the immune system of in epigenetic signatures in DNA which alter gene Litopenaeus vannamei can effectively recognize the expression, subsequently increasing the risk of viral protein present on the transformed adverse pregnancy outcomes. The hypotheses will Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cell wall. This will be be tested by comparing DNA methylation profiles in highly useful for developing a model Litopenaeus

vannamei population immune to WSSV following LaGuardia Community College exposure to transgenic Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Poster B56 Poster B57

Is Sphalerite a Possible Source of Boron Contaminating the Groundwater in the Modelling male-male aggression in Newark Basin? Drosophila Melanogaster

Murodjon Zubaydov, Moiselena Jeanlouis Afsana Abdul Rahim

Mentor: Professor Larbi Rddad Mentor: Professors Jacqueline Brashears, Daniel Kingsborough Community College Gertner LaGuardia Community College The Triassic-Jurassic rifting of Pangea led to the formation of the Newark basin that was filled with 8 Aggression is an innate behavior that evolved in the km of the Triassic-Jurassic lacustrine rocks framework of defending or obtaining resources. This (Stockton, Lockatong, and Passaic formations) complex social behavior is influenced by genetic, intruded with igneous rocks. More than 30% of the hormonal, and environmental factors. We developed private and public wells in the Newark basin show a computer agent-based model using the R software groundwater with Boron concentration exceeding to see how male aggression in fruit flies was the standard drinking-water level of 600 μg/L. This affected by starting population size, mean female research project investigates sphalerite of New egg count, and the standard deviation of egg count. Galena ore deposit as a possible source of Boron These female parameters were based partially on the contaminating the groundwater in Newark basin. To results of two laboratory experiments: one that end, sphalerite (n=1) and the lacustrine examining the effect of temperature on fertility, and formations (n=2) were analyzed for Boron and other another examining the effect of photoperiod on trace elements. Sphalerite ore is hosted in the black fertility. While the most aggressive flies consistently shale of the Lockatong Formation and was formed outperformed less aggressive flies, some results as a result of mixing between sulfur-rich fluid and were counter-intuitive, suggesting that the an ascending Zn-Pb-rich hydrothermal fluid. The relationship between male aggression and these analyses show low concentration of Boron in the population parameters is not a simple one. 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 B58 Poster B59

Synthesis and Studies of Porphyrin Based The Effects of Bisphenol-A on Bifunctional Theranostic Agents for Embryogenesis on the sea urchin, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Lytechinus Variegatus Photodynamic Therapy Alejandro Bonilla, Nathalie Oulhen, Gary Chetan Basnet Wessel

Mentor: Professor Sunaina Singh Mentor: Professor Ingrid Veras, Thomas Onorato LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College, Brown University

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has become a Climate change affects the oceans’ temperature, pH prominent imaging technique in medicine. MRI and salinity. Changes in these physical factors can contrast agents are used to increase the sensitivity of increase the leaching of pollutants such as bisphenol this technique. 19F MRI is emerging as a new A into the ocean and the environment, exposing imaging technique because of its potential for direct marine organisms to toxicity. Bisphenol A (BPA) is and precise cell quantification. High 19F content, a major component commonly used to manufacture relatively short longitudinal (T1) nuclear spin plastic polymers and epoxy resins. BPA leaches out relaxation time and high magnetic fields are of plastic wastes dumped into marine environments, essential for successful in vivo 19F MRI. Recently, a accumulates and contaminates the surrounding new method for cancer treatment with a less side water and ocean floor. Aquatic organisms are then effect called photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been exposed to BPA though their diet and respiratory introduced. Hence, diagnosis-treat union of MRI tissues. Numerous studies have shown that BPA has and PDT will be significantly promoted if a new adverse effects on fertility in both marine family of bi-functional agents is found, which would vertebrates and invertebrates. More specifically, combine the effects of a contrast agent in MRI and BPA has also been shown to disrupt tubulin spindle of a photosensitizer in PDT. It will bring great formation in the embryonic and somatic cells of improvement to the cancer diagnosis and treatment. various classes of echinoderms, resulting in This work briefly describes the synthesis of decreased fertility, varied sperm counts, and porphyrin substituted with three thioglucose units neuroendocrine disruption. This can greatly induce and one 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorodecanethiol which abnormal hormonal changes that include but are not can act as bi-functional agent for MRI-PDT. This limited to: increased estrogenic effects (males and compound contains 33 F atoms which can play a females), androgen receptor antagonization, and significant role in modulating signal intensity and improper thyroid hormone regulation. The effects enhancing tissue contrast. 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

altered cell viability, morphology and regulation of Poster B61 protein synthesis.

Influence of temperature on the Poster B60 performance of solar panels

Theoretical Exploration of the Oxidation Delfino Enriquez-Torres and Andrea and Transformation of Guanine Martinez

Jian Wen Choong Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak LaGuardia Community College Mentor: Professor I-Hsien Tsai LaGuardia Community College The motivation behind our research is in a lack of regular investigations of shaped panels. Alternative This research is expected to provide a better sun-tracking-panels often need repair due to the understanding about the reaction between guanine and moving parts. The purpose of this research is to singlet oxygen by discussing the transition states, analyze and test various methods of shaping and enthalpies and activation energies. Guanine is one of shading that would affect solar panels. Specifically, the main nucleobases in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) we are working with monocrystalline panels and which can be damaged by reactive oxidation species investigate how their voltage would be affected by such as singlet oxygen due to its lowest oxidation weather conditions. Our acquiring of a thermal potential. Theoretical method of Density Functional camera and equipment meant that not only did we Theory (DFT-B3LYP) has been used for optimization test but also learned how to use such equipment Guanine and singlet oxygen by different orientations proficiently. Using the thermal camera at a fixed 3 using Gaussian 09 suit programs. The result shows meters away from the panels surface enabled us to that relative enthalpies for singlet oxygen is more test panels where shade was provided on different likely to attack carbon C8 of guanine to form regions of the panel, and by testing methods and endoperoxide at 298K. Those optimized geometries imagery with the thermal camera we were able to are then used for computing the relative transition identify “hot spots” on the surface were solar rays states. Current result shows that the transition state for were the most perpendicular. Similarly, shaded singlet oxygen reacting with carbon C8 in guanine has regions expected to have lower temperatures than lower enthalpy compared to other transition states. those exposed to the sun, but how exactly this This indicates that it has lower activation energy and impacts voltage is yet to be determined. Using is a more stable complex structure. Diagram and graph Vernier equipment and software we are expected to will be constructed to provide a bigger picture about analyze and record data of the panels. Testing at the reaction between guanine and singlet oxygen. 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

and familiarizing ourselves with equipment that Poster B63 otherwise we wouldn’t have access to.

Poster B62 Role of RecO in the DNA Break Repair Mechanisms of Mycobacteria

Embryonic Cell Dissociation of the Sea Chethana P. Gallage Dona, Sarah Rodriguez Star, Patiria miniata

Mentor: Professor Richa Gupta Marla Feliciano and Carolina Tapia LaGuardia Community College

Mentor: Professor Ingrid Veras, Thomas Onorato Mycobacterium includes both pathogenic and non- LaGuardia Community College 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- Echinoderms have long-demonstrated their capability strand break (DSB)”, is particularly lethal if not to regenerate as part of their adaptation to a hostile repaired to maintain the integrity of chromosomal marine environment. The desire to understand the DNA. Recent studies have indicated that underlying mechanisms of the regenerative process mycobacteria employ three DSB repair pathways to had led them to be models of study, particularly ensure survival: (i) Homologous recombination during embryogenesis. Interestingly, it was also found (HR), (ii) Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), and that these creatures can reassemble themselves into an (iii) Single-strand annealing (SSA). Several intact larva from dissociated embryonic cells. The distinctive features of HR repair are evident in uniqueness of this model organism allows crucial mycobacteria compared to other model bacteria, with stages of embryo development to be captured in a a multitude of proteins involved. Of special note is week time frame, all in vivo. Although research on the RecO protein, which plays a dual role in echinoderms has progressed in recent years, much is mycobacterial DSB repair by participating in both still left to be discovered and understood. Using the HR and SSA mechanisms but its exact molecular embryonic dissociation model, along with the classical function is yet unclear. We propose to investigate model of surgical bisection, we plan to further genetically which activities of this key player are investigate the key molecular and cellular mechanisms pertinent to its role in vivo. By sequence alignment, functioning during regeneration of sea star larvae, we have identified amino acid residues in the RecO Patiria miniata. These models will allow us to protein which when mutated are predicted to disrupt transform cultured embryonic cells, alter gene specific domains critical for its activity. We are in the expression and observe changes during reconstruction. process of making chromosomal mutants of recO to We will also analyze the changes in metabolism of investigate their effects on the DSB repair archenteron cells, before, during and after mechanisms and will be presenting our results. The regeneration. And finally, we plan to investigate the findings of this project can also help in identification impact of environmental stresses such as bisphenol A of a new drug-target against mycobacteria. 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 B64 Poster B65

The Role of Combined Sewage Overflow The Effects of Environmental Toxicant, in Eutrophication at Newtown Creek, NY Bisphenol A (BPA), on the Ovarian Cells of the Sea Stars, Patiria miniata Nirmela Govinda, Estrella Cazares, Nate Richter Lorraine Haddad

Mentor: Professor Holly Porter-Morgan Mentor: Professor Ingrid Veras, Thomas Onorato LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College

Although decline in heavy industry and Bisphenol A (BPA) is a man-made synthetic establishment of the Clean Water Act have reduced environmental toxin found in all bodies of water, the inflow of pollutants, combined sewer overflow sediments, and soil. This carbon-based molecule is pipes continue to deliver sewage and street runoff to known to disrupt the endocrine system and the our local waterways during periods of high reproductive system, due to its estrogen-like precipitation in New York City. This research behavior. BPA is used to produce plastic and marine examines the relationship between eutrophication, animals are commonly exposed to it, therefore the which is characterized by nutrient over-enrichment sea star (Patiria miniata) is utilized to investigate and subsequent algal growth, and combined sewage BPA’s negative effects. In this experiment the overflow discharge events. The research is being ovarian cells exposed to a low concentration of BPA conducted at Newtown Creek, a 6.0 km tidal caused a loss in cytoplasmic extensions. When the waterway with Superfund status that flows between ovarian cells were exposed to high concentrations of Queens and Brooklyn. Weekly water samples are BPA, cell death occurred within 20 hours of being collected at surface level from key locations exposure. across the Creek throughout the recreational boating season. In addition to visible algae blooms, the Poster B66 following parameters are being measured: nitrate, phosphate, Enterococcus (an indicator of sewage overflow), and dissolved oxygen. Results from this Directional Signal Transmission in research will be presented to the community in Fall Energy Efficient Wireless Data 2018 and will be important in determining best Communications management practices for this waterway.

Natalia Harrow, Yuqing Lin, Jeewan Thapa Magar

Mentor: Professor Yun Ye LaGuardia Community College

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

a tiny portion of the radio waves arrive at the Poster B67 receiver, resulting in poor energy efficiency. To improve the performance of the wireless communication system, we investigate the wireless The Effects of Photoperiod on Drosophila channel estimation in precoding and study the effect melanogaster of different receiver movements on the accuracy of AOA estimation. We use Universal Software Radio Tina He Peripheral (USRP) E310s and GNU Radio applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Capon Mentor: Professor Daniel Gertner, Jacqueline Spectrum Beamforming methods in a light of sight Brashears (LOS) environment. To demonstrate the LaGuardia Community College effectiveness of our method, we use a motion sensor to record the actual movement of the transmitter and To maximize fitness, animals that live in temperate compare with the angle resulting from the AOA regions must time their behaviors according to the method. seasonal environment. Animals use photoperiod as a cue for seasonal changes and are thus highly To collect data, we conduct three experiments. We sensitive to changes in day length. In our first analyze the angle between the receiver and experiments, we examined the effects of short days transmitter when they both are in static positions. on fruit fly egg counts and on the survivability of We then move the transmitter on a pre-set path and larvae. Using artificial light, we reared Drosophila compare the estimated AOA with the actual angle melanogaster under two different photoperiods (12 collected from the sensor, in order to evaluate the hours of light/12 hours of dark and 0 hours of accuracy of our method. Finally, we move the light/24 hours of dark) at a constant temperature of transmitter on an air track at an approximately 25°C. We collected virgin females from each constant speed. An error of about 20° is observed, treatment. Then, we paired and mated each female depending on the distance of the devices and their with a male from the same treatment group and we moving speeds, as longer distance and faster speed recorded the number of eggs that the females laid cause more signal distortion while in transmission. within 48 hours as well as the number of survivors Overall, by experimenting on directional signal and body weights of the survivors. Our results show communication we hope to achieve our purpose of that circadian rhythms can affect components of energy saving and implement further investigations. fitness in wild type fruit flies.

Poster 68 Poster B69

Computer-Aided Drug Design to Discover Data Analysis of Wind Speed at Effective Therapeutics to Treat Addiction LaGuardia Airport for Optimization of Wind Turbine Design Nicholas Herrera, Albert Tadros, Luis Filgueira Sanjib Lamichhane

Mentor: Professor Ian Alberts Mentor: Professor Marina Nechayeva, Malgorzata LaGuardia Community College Marciniak, Vladimir Przhebelskiy LaGuardia Community College Dopamine and its receptors are critical for many functions of the brain and body including emotion, Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, learning, reward-motivated behavior, and motor transforming, and modeling data with a goal of control. Dysfunctions of the dopamine system have discovering useful information, suggesting been linked to neuropsychiatric disorders such as conclusions, and supporting decision-making. We addiction and schizophrenia. Treatments for some of performed data analysis of wind speed recorded by these disorders involve the use of dopamine receptor National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration inhibitors, also known as antagonists. Our goal is to for 17 years at LaGuardia airport, which is 6.1 design drug lead candidates with high selectivity towards specific dopamine receptors. Stepholidine is miles to LaGuardia Community College(LaGCC) a known dopamine receptor antagonist that binds where we aim to design and install our wind turbine. well to members of the dopamine receptor family The purpose of this study was to discover if there and shows few unwanted side-effects. In this work, exists significant trends in wind speed around it serves as a valuable structure starting point for LaGCC that would affect modeling of the wind designing more active potential drug lead turbine design. Using R Programming, we candidates. However, to avoid unwanted side- calculated shape and scale parameters of Weibull effects, such as pseudoparkinsonism, we require the Probability Density Function. The results showed designed ligands to have high affinity to the D1 and that the R-squared values for shape and scale D3 dopamine receptors, but not to D2. This is being parameters were to be 0.3836 and 0.1349. The done via computational drug design and docking Rcritical values being greater than R-squared values, simulation software. The stepholidine analogues the trends were not significant within the period of designed so far have shown selectivity towards D1 time. The result would be used to model a wind and D3 dopamine receptors over D2, which is a key turbine that would optimize the Coefficient of requirement for reducing unwanted side effects. Performance. 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 B70 (Longitude, latitude) to group resources on the distributed cloud. In this k means Clustering, we have ‘n’ data elements in a 'd' dimensional space. Optimization of a Wind Turbine Design Our goal is to model a hierarchical distributed cloud Using Genetic Algorithm and make use of the clustering algorithm to define the hierarchies in the cloud. we implemented the Shou Oikawa, Andrei Dragutan clustering algorithm to find the number of clusters and respective centroids. First, We find the k Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak, Marina number of centroids from the file of data, (location Nechayeva, Vladimir Przhebelskiy of individual resource, coordinates) and group the LaGuardia Community College data into k different clusters. Furthermore, we intend to apply the concept of Hybrid P2P networks to Genetic Algorithm (GA) mimics the natural model our hierarchical distributed cloud. selection that occurs in nature to solve optimization problems. Our goal is to optimize a wind turbine Poster B72 blade with optimal geometry using GA. To do so, a MATLAB program was created which randomizes Using MALDI-LTQ to Identify P24 pitch angles and chord lengths within a given Protein Phosphorylation Sites 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 Nhi Phan decreasingly monotonic for the pitch angles and Mentor: Professor Kevin J Mark chord lengths accordingly prior to calculating the LaGuardia Community College Cp. The initial phase of the program is promising, resulting in an average Cp value of 0.4847 after 500 Protein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous post- generations. Upon obtaining desirable results, the translational modification involved in signal parameters of the wind turbine rotor are imported transduction, energy metabolism, and other key and designed in AutoCAD which was subsequently biochemical pathways. Phosphorylation regulates 3-D printed. The wind turbine design will need to be HIV processes and is a promising therapeutic target. tested in a wind tunnel to determine if the program The hijacking of host cell kinases by viruses did in fact generated an efficient design. represents a powerful means to reduce the complexity of viral genomes, eliminating the need for virus-encoded kinases and allowing individual Poster B71 viral polypeptides to exist in diverse functional K-Means Clustering for Hierarchical states. This initiative is based on the hypothesis that Distributed Cloud host cell phosphorylation of HIV is critical to viral propagation, and that an abundance of such phosphorylation sites in HIV remain Royal Pathak uncharacterized. In response to the need for a comprehensive determination for HIV Mentor: Professor Praveenkumar Khethavath phosphorylation by host kinase, this study will LaGuardia Community College create a definitive database of host-cell kinase/HIV phosphorylation substrate interaction. In this work, Cloud computing has revolutionized the way data were extracted and searched against customized computing is done in industry. Our work focuses on database with p24 sequence using Proteome using k-means clustering using the location Discoverer 1.4 (Thermo Scientific) and Mascot 2.4

(Matrix Science). Based on bioinformatics Pole to verify our findings assuming that the sun’s prediction, the various potential phosphorylation site path is similar to the horizontal circle. Since the containing peptides were incubated in presence of trajectory of the sun varies from place to place predicted kinases. Samples were aliquoted at because of the change in latitude at different different time points and analyzed using Matrix locations of the celestial sphere, we encountered Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Linear Trap more complex calculation while shifting our Quadrupole (MALDI-LTQ). The goal of this study direction to New York. is to identify potential phosphorylation sites of p24 on peptide level and to compare the results with As we considered a three-dimensional shape like both the bioinformatics and p24 whole protein catenoid, we were bound to face some challenges phosphorylation data. like trimming some parts of it where sun rays were not exposed. Regardless of it, the good news is we Poster B73 were able to find out the numbers which would give us some information about the efficiency of the The Geometry of Solar Panels Based catenoid shaped panel. Moreover, we also came across the idea of using 5X5’’ solar cells rather than on its Efficiency: Numerical using the whole surface, to trim inefficient parts of a Simulation catenoid through our visit to Pvilion Headquarters on Brooklyn.

Nikesh Prajapati Poster B74

Mentor: Professor Malgorzata Marciniak LaGuardia Community College The Impact of Sewage Infrastructure Updates on Water Quality Indicators at The main purpose of this research is to use a Newtown Creek, NY mathematical model based on flux across a surface to examine the efficiency of various shapes of a Tonya Roe, Zazoe van Lieshout, and Aldrin solar panel. The calculations were performed through the use of high-level language in a Ador computer called ‘python’. Mentor: Professor Holly Porter-Morgan While building such model, unlike traditional flat LaGuardia Community College panels, it is important to thoroughly understand the trajectory of sun during specific time and place to Newtown Creek, a 6.0 km tidal waterway between know the direction of sun rays that would illuminate Queens and Brooklyn, was designated a Superfund the solar panel. In our case, we chose ‘New York’ site in 2010. Not only does the Creek contain with 40.7 degrees latitude as a designated sediments packed with chemical contaminants, but it is severely impacted by combined sewer overflow destination to incorporate a solar panel shaped in a events. The Creek receives more than 2 billion form of a catenoid. gallons of untreated sewage and storm water yearly from 21 combined sewer outfall pipes. The New The efficiency is similar to the flux density, where York City Department of Environmental Protection we need the mathematical flux and the surface area has addressed this problem by upgrading the four of catenoid. For simplicity, we are just working on sewage outfalls that contribute the highest to find out the efficiency at lower-half part of the proportion of discharges to the Creek, work that was catenoid. At first, we tested the model at the North completed in November, 2017. This research

assesses the impact of these infrastructure upgrades principles to ensure that it is mathematically and by collecting weekly surface water samples at key physically sound. locations along the Creek during the recreational boating season and testing them for levels of Poster B76 dissolved oxygen and Enterococcus (fecal indicator bacteria). Results from the 2018 season (post- upgrades) are compared to results from the 2017 The Effects of Temperature on Drosophila season (pre-upgrades). This research will be melanogaster important in determining the efficacy of the completed combined sewage outfall upgrades. Sarah Seron Poster B75 Mentor: Professor Jacqueline Brashears, Daniel Gertner Inertial Sensitivity of an Array of Atom LaGuardia Community College Ring Interferometers My research investigated the effect of temperature Eleni Romano on the fitness parameters of adult female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). We raised parental flies Mentor: Professor John Toland in incubators at three different temperatures (21°C, LaGuardia Community College low; 25°C, middle; 29°C, high). Virgin females were collected and mated with males for 48 hours, Atom interferometers are sensitive tools utilized for after which so that we counted to number of eggs, inertial measurements as their rotational sensitivity the number of eggs surviving to adulthood, and the is 1010 greater than that of an optical interferometer brain to body mass of the adults. Our results of equivalent size. This project theoretically demonstrate an effect of temperature on fitness analyzes the ability to detect inertial rotation in a metrics. coherent chain of mesoscopic quantum rings by utilizing the sagnac effect. We show that modulating Poster B77 the inter-ring distance d, parametrized as kd (where k is the wave number) from 0 to π/2 affects the Identify Genes Functioning with Linker rotational sensitivity. Using the Sagnac effect phase Histone H1 in Regulating Blood Tumor Formation Caused by Hyperactive shift Θ푠 we specified a phase shift domain in which the matter wave transmission T curve sharply peaks JAK/STAT Signaling and has a large slope to find the maximum rotational sensitivity. The transmission peaks were inversely proportionate to rotational sensitivity so that when Yasmeen Shuaib the highest smooth peak was obtained, the lowest, or most sensitive rotation rate was also found. Our Mentor: Professor Na Xu investigation also determined that convergence LaGuardia Community College occurs as the slope of the transmission function We have shown previously that the interaction approaches Θ푠 → π/2. With this information, our current goal is to examine the exact location where between STAT and H1 suppresses blood tumor kd converges as it approaches π/2 and to fully formation induced by hyperactive JAK/STAT rederive our transmission function from first signaling. Although 61 gene products were identified which interact with H1 in vivo, the manner in which these 61 genes affect H1-mediated

tumor suppression and heterochromatin formation chemistry to synthesized a series of iron (III) was not determined. Our present research aims to porphyrinoids appended with thioalkyl groups at the single out and identify novel genes which function para position of meso phenyl group using with H1 in vivo in mediating heterochromatin commercially available 5,10,15,20- formation and suppressing blood tumor formation tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) iron (III) porphyrin, caused by hyperactive JAK/STAT signaling. The Fe(III)TPPF20. Our hypothesis is that the presence of method we will use to identify these novel genes is alkyl chains at para positions of the meso phenyl by conducting a second mis-expression genetic groups attached to the metalloporphyrinoids may folds screen, using the previously identified 41 enhancers around the porphyrin face and block the access to the central metal atom from self-decomposition, where the and 20 suppressors of H1 depletion-mediated oxygen is activated during their catalytic activity. We lethality phenotype. We expect our research will have prepared their self-organized colloidal reveal a network of signaling pathways and proteins nanoparticles by mixing host-guest solvent method that may function together with the linker Hiltons and tested for their stability using a variety of H1 in regulating multiple biological events. In surfactants. The catalytic activities of these self- addition, our research findings will provide a organized nanoparticles of prepared foundation for future studies in understanding metalloporphyrinoids are under investigations. mechanisms of the blood tumor formation caused by hyperactive JAK/STAT signaling. CRSP TRANSFER PROGRAM Poster B78 AT QUEENS COLLEGE Preparation of Self-Organized Organic

Nanoparticles of alkyl substituted Iron Poster B79 (III) porphyrinoids to study their Catalytic Activity for Oxidative Using Stable Isotopes (13C and 15N) to Degradation of Envioremental Pollutants Determine the Residence Time of Pyrogenic Organic Matter in a Northern Temperate Michelle Paola Tuz Forest Soil

Mentor: Professor Amit Aggarwal Adolfo Coyotl LaGuardia Community College Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Bird Preparation of supramolecular systems of Porphyrins Queens College and their metallo complexes, that serves as a building blocks to prepare their advanced materials are inspired Global climate change is increasing the frequency and by natural photosynthetic systems which rely almost intensity of forest fires in mid- and high-latitude exclusively on non-covalent interactions. . ecosystems. This is of particular importance because Supramolecular systems of metalloporphyrins forest fires add a large amount of black carbon (or reported to show enhanced catalytic activity for pyrogenic organic matter - PyOM) to soils, surface olefinic oxidation to yield allylic oxidation products waters and the atmosphere. While PyOM is a large using molecular oxygen as oxidizer under ambient pool of soil C, it has been considered to decay very conditions, in contrast to their completely solvated slowly - on the scale of millennia. However, recent analogue in organic solvents that yields addition research has shown that PyOM instead decays on the product. However, their self-decomposition limits centennial scale. To assess the residence time of their use for catalytic applications. We have used click PyOM in a fire-prone forest, a long-term field study

(20-year) was initiated in 2012 using stable isotope acting like a liquid during an earthquake. The January labeled PyOM (13C/15N) added to a forest soil 3, 2017, M5.7, 32 km deep (USGS) Ambassa located in Pellston, MI, USA. This study attempts to (Tripura, India) earthquake rupture was strike slip. link the wood source and pyrolysis temperature to the This is typical or current seismicity east of the GBD. fate of PyOM that is deposited to soil after a forest The earthquake was associated with surprisingly fire. A critical measurement in this research is the intense damage and many liquefaction sites in the amount of PyOM-derived C and N remaining in the alluvial northern portion of the Dolai valley in soil over time. This was accomplished by measuring Bangladesh, ~36 km NNW of the epicenter. The Dolai the C and N contents and the isotope ratios of is a low-relief synclinal valley draining northward into 13C/15N from soil sampled from field mesocosms 1, the Sylhet Basin where it meets the NE portion of the 3, 5, 10 and 20 years after PyOM or wood application. GBD. This presentation will describe these methods and show how these data can determine the fate of C and For our research, three trenches were dug near N from PyOM added to soils. The results to date show liquefaction sites and 10, 50m deep wells were drilled that wood source and temperature affect in situ C and across the 5 km wide Dolai alluvial valley. The well N mineralization rates of PyOM accumulating in soils sediments from top to bottom are composed of 15 m for two co-occurring gymnosperm (Pinus banksiana; of fluvial channel sands, and a 5 cm thick layer of red, JP) and angiosperm (Acer rubrum; RM)¬ species indurated oxidized clay with up to 1m thick bed of common in North American boreal-temperate gravel above. There are 15 m of medium to coarse ecotones. Higher pyrolysis temperatures increased the sand on top of the gravel. The sequence is capped by recovery of PyOM C and N in soil during the first 3 10 m thick fluvial channel sands alternating with years. In addition, gymnosperm wood-derived PyOM overbank silty clay which suggest that there are decayed more slowly than angiosperm wood-derived frequent changes in the river course. The whole PyOM produced at 450 ºC. sequence was deposited during the late Pleistocene sea level lowering and the early to late Holocene Poster B80 postglacial aggradation.

Sand-Venting by a M5.7 and Prior The ~1.5 m deep trenches revealed fractures and Earthquake in the Ganges-Brahmaputra clastic dykes <15 mm wide that fed the 2017 sand vents. Also, we found that there were similar but Delta: Implications for Liquefaction and wider paleo- sand dykes and a lenticular apron of Earthquake Hazards vented sand which was buried 1.1 m below the surface. The stacking of lithologies recovered sand- Jaswinder Kaur and Prasala Tuludhar mud sand as found in the Dolai valley could raise pore pressure and liquefaction potential. The trenches Mentor: Cecilia McHugh show evidence of this in the 2017 and prior Queens College liquefaction event. Therefore, this constitutes a serious geohazard for the heavily populated country of The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD) is a river Bangladesh. 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

Poster B81 Poster B82

The influence of urban centers on soil pH Probing the properties of ionic liquid and bacterial diversity mixtures with single-walled carbon nanotubes Jessenia Soriano Rawlric Sumner and Jasodra Ramdihal Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Bird Queens College Mentor: Professors Sharon Lall-Ramnarine and Tirandai Hemraj-Benny Soils contains thousands of different types of Bacteria, Queens College Fungi, Archaea and viruses, which together make up the microbial community. While the specific functions The use of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to of individual members of these communities remain replace silicon-based solar cells is attracting increased largely unknown, their collective roles are known to attention. However, it is necessary for more efficient be essential for maintaining ecosystem productivity, electrolytes to be developed in order to facilitate their resilience and critical ecosystem services. The increased commercialization. It has been reported that composition of microbial communities is influenced ionic liquids (ILs) with intrinsic high conductivities by several edaphic and climatic factors, including soil are ideal media for dispersing single-walled carbon pH, the concentrations of heavy metals and the nanotubes (SWNTs) and improving their ion diffusion amount of organic matter. Urbanization and its dense properties. In this study, the transport properties of human population can significantly alter edaphic mixtures containing SWNTs in 1-(alkyl or ether)-3- properties of soils such as pH, via deposition (i.e., Pb) methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide and the development of soils on anthropogenic waste ILs were determined to assess their potential as materials (e.g., construction debris). This project electrolytes in DSSCs. The ionic liquids were intends to examine the effects of urbanization on prepared by reaction of 1-methylimidazole with the edaphic variables and the impact on microbial alkyl halide or alkoxyalkyl halide to yield community diversity. Surface soil samples were imidazolium halide salts. The halide salts were then collected from locations along an urbanization converted to bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide (NTf2) gradient that spanned from Flushing, NY to Montauk, ILs. H-1 and C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance NY during 2014-2015. This presentation summarizes (NMR) spectroscopy was used to confirm the the data on soil pH and the bacterial. To assess structures of the ILs. SWNT-IL mixtures were bacterial diversity, operational taxonomic units prepared by grinding using a mortar and pestle (OUTs) were analyzed and their richness was followed by sonication. The temperature dependent quantified. The results suggest that urbanization conductivity, viscosity and the thermal profile of the increases bacterial diversity and creates a wide range pure ILs and SWNT-IL mixtures were measured and of soil pH values, which have significant effects on compared. Preliminarily, conductivity values greater specific bacterial groups including Acidobacteria. 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.

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

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)