University at Albany, State University of New York
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The Role of Familial Support and Gender in Asian American Students’ STEM Career Development: A Test of Social Cognitive Career Theory
Get PDFThis study, based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent et al., 1994, 2000), investigated the role of familial support in the STEM career development of Asian American college students. Participants included 446 first-year undergraduate students who identified as Asian or Asian American and had not declared an academic major. Due to multicollinearity, four initial familial support variables—instrumental assistance, career-related modeling, verbal encouragement, and emotional support—were regrouped into two: performance motivation (instrumental assistance and verbal encouragement) and career mentoring (career-related modeling and emotional support). Structural equation modeling showed acceptable fit for a modified model, and the results partially supported the hypothesized paths. Findings indicated that career mentoring, but not performance motivation, was directly and positively associated with STEM coping self-efficacy. No direct relation was found between the support variables and STEM outcome expectations, but career mentoring indirectly influenced outcome expectations through enhanced coping self-efficacy. Neither STEM coping self-efficacy nor outcome expectations had significant direct relations with STEM interest. Performance motivation, but not STEM interest, was directly related to STEM goals. Participants’ generation status was controlled for in all structural analyses. Gender could not be tested as a moderator due to anomalies in the gender analyses, which prevented a credible interpretation of findings related to gender differences. Due to the unique characteristics of the present sample recruited for this study, caution was implicated in interpreting the results and recommending future research. Despite the limitations, the results provided some suggestions about how mental health professionals and educators might develop more effective interventions to support Asian and Asian American students in their pursuit of STEM careers
The Importance of Ice Microphysics in Storm Electrification
Get PDFEvanescent but powerful, lightning is the vast scale release of storm energy from accumulation of minuscule cloud particle interactions. Although lightning occurrence seems random, thunderstorms “electrify” themselves in methodical ways and show structured patterns. This study explores the role of ice microphysics in thunderstorm charging and discharge through numerical simulation.
A squall line has been simulated ideally and realistically with generally consistent conclusions. Drastically different amount of lightning was produced when using three different microphysical models: Depending on the choice of charging scheme, the National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) two-moment model appropriately captures or overestimate the amount observed by the Lightning Mapping Array (LMA). The Morrison two-moment model (Hail version) and the Adaptive Habit Model (AHM, with shape aware ice and snow parameterization) produce overall underestimated lightning amounts.
Sets of sensitivity tests have been conducted in the AHM focusing on the relative dependence of electrification to 1) ice and snow “habit” or shape, 2) graupel fall speed, 3) graupel growth rate, and 4) choice of charging scheme. It has been found that lightning production is extremely sensitive to all four factors. Controlled boosting of the fall speed increases lightning generation by orders of magnitude. Boosting of graupel growth rate dampens lightning by uptaking vapor and liquid for smaller ice particle growth. Inclusion of ice habit increases ice diameter, boosting charging and subsequently lightning discharge. Shape-aware aggregation of snow shifts the charging and discharge center to the lower sector of the charging zone (0 to -38 °C) slightly above -15°C. Without continuous aggregation of snow, collision with graupel has been found to be ineffective due to the small size of snow. The main reason for the profound lightning production in NSSL is a combination of abundant graupel and supercooled liquid water, and their overlapping with abundant snow.
In summary, lightning production has been found to be sensitive to ice and snow particle size and mixing ratio, their relative fall speed to graupel, and the riming rate in the charging zone, with a “sweet spot” for charging created only when all these ingredients meet
A Review of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly struck the world in 2020 and had long-lasting effects. Many people had lost their jobs, the economy faltered, and people were stuck at home with no way of seeing friends or non-immediate family. The pandemic also had a profound impact on students. Schools were forced to transition into online learning, which was something that many school districts and universities were not prepared for (Russell, Head, Wolfe-Enslow, Holland, & Zimmerman, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on people\u27s needs. According to Abraham Maslow (1943), people’s needs are arranged into a hierarchy where basic level needs must be met before higher level needs can be. This includes meeting basic needs like food, water, shelter, and physical health before meeting needs that allow us to feel self-esteem or become creative (Maslow, 1943). This paper examines the scarce amount of literature that discusses Maslow\u27s hierarchy of needs, student needs and outcomes, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on these aforementioned concepts
Evaluating and Enhancing the New York State Mesonet (NYSM) Snow Accumulation Estimation
Get PDFThis research project aims to examine and enhance the performance of the New York State Mesonet (NYSM) Snow Accumulation Estimation. The NYSM is a state-of-the-art network of 126 standard weather stations located across the state of New York, collecting high-quality meteorological data to improve forecast accuracy, reduce uncertainty, and mitigate harm. All NYSM standard stations measure snow depth with Campbell Scientific’s SR50A ultrasonic distance sensor. This acoustic sensor measures the distance from the sensor to a rigid snowboard if there is no snow on the ground or the top of snow layer. A reference distance and a temperature correction are applied to determine the snow depth. While snow depth measurements can be made relatively straight forward with the use of this sensor, recording total snow accumulation is more difficult. During heavy snowfall events, compaction acts to reduce total snow depth during the course of a long-duration event. Then after a snowfall event, drifting of snow may act to reduce or increase snow depth depending on the water content of the snow and the wind speed. Due to these factors, there is often a difference between estimated snowfalls and the actual snow accumulation. As such, snow accumulation is calculated using an algorithm developed by the NYSM using snow depth, rain gauge precipitation, temperature and other data. This project aims to examine the performance of this algorithm in providing accurate snow accumulation data, and to find possible enhancements to improve this algorithm. To complete this evaluation, data has been synthesized from throughout the winter of 2022-2023, including NYSM daily snowfall data, as well as National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) daily snowfall data, to draw comparisons between the data sets. Data from winter 2022-2023 and previous winter seasons have shown NYSM snowfall data systematically lower than NCEI data for most locations across NYS. This project will examine the reasons for these differences, and examine individual cases during winter 2022-2023 to determine how the snow accumulation algorithm behaved on both a seasonal and daily basis. The findings of this project will contribute to a better understanding of the methods used to produce accurate snow accumulation measurements, and improve those measurements overall particularly for the New York State Mesonet
Improving Ethics Surrounding Collegiate-Level Hacking Education: Comprehensive Implementation Plan and Affiliation with Peer-Led Initiatives
No full textThe purpose of this research study is to analyze the ethical ramifications of hacking education on the collegiate level in relation to cybersecurity majors and minors. Educators and university officials must take action to prevent the misuse of the information, skills, and knowledge gained from being a student in a cyber-related course. As the dependence on technology rises, it is crucial that future technology professionals are effectively trained and taught the ins and outs of the field to better protect users from becoming a victim of a cyberattack. The outcome of this study is to compile a comprehensive list of recommendations to make hacking education safer in terms of legality and ethics. The provided framework and techniques will aid universities in better navigating the hacking education that cyber students receive throughout their studies
Assessing Associations Between Emergency Room Visits for Respiratory and Cardiovascular Diseases and Criteria Air Pollutants Exposure in New York State
Get PDFAbstract
Air pollution is a major environmental health hazard for the general population. Approximately 90% of the global population is at risk of both indoor and outdoor air pollution, and it accounts for an estimated 7 million premature deaths every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Multiple studies including epidemiological and molecular analyses have confirmed the negative effects of air pollutants on human health even at levels within the WHO guidelines. This study examines the health impacts of releases of criteria air pollution from point sources in New York State (NYS). There is evidence from population studies that have shown that increases in levels of the criteria air pollutants (CAPs) are associated with increases in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The criteria pollutants include particulates (PM10 and PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrous oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and lead (Pb), as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). While emissions from point sources such as fixed industries and power plants are only one relatively minor component of total air pollution, because they are localized can allow one to examine the effects of these releases on the local population. In this ecologic study I have determined the association between emergency room (ER) visits that did not result in hospitalization for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in NYS among individuals living in zip codes containing point sources of CAPs. Of particular interest is the examination of the release effects of particulates relative to the gaseous pollutants that have been studied less because they are more difficult to measure.
The specific aims of this dissertation project are to assess the associations, if any, between ER visits for asthma, chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic heart disease (IHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) and zip code level exposure to the CAPs, NOx, SO2, CO, and particulates (PM2.5 and PM10) among patients who live in zip codes that have point source emissions of the CAPs in NYS from 2010 to 2018 after control for other sources of air pollution and rates of smoking and level of poverty, and to determine the individual contribution of each criteria pollutant. Unfortunately, the exposure source I will use does not include information on O3 and there are minimal releases of Pb, so it will not be studied.
This was achieved by using publicly available data sets, the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) by the USEPA for exposure data, the United States Decennial Census (USDC) for population data, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for smoking data, the United States Census Bureau (USCB) for poverty, and the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) for ER visits data. In the first aim, a generalized linear model with Quasi-Poisson regression is used, while the linear mixed effects regression model with a random county level effect is used in the second and third aims to analyze the rates of ER visits for all the diseases in the study and their associations with the CAPs. A p-value of
The results of this dissertation show positive associations between all of the CAPs and all of the diseases in the study except MI for which most patients are recorded as hospital admissions (HAs). A major unexpected observation is that the gaseous pollutants (CO, NOx, SO2) showed much stronger associations with asthma, COPD and IHD than the particulates (PM2.5 and PM10), although this may in part be because the gaseous air pollutants are greater from point sources. In addition, for COPD there was a greater risk from PM10 than PM2.5, indicating that while larger particulates do not penetrate deep into the alveoli, they still can increase risk of respiratory disease. These results demonstrate that CAPs point source pollution results in a small but significant contribution to the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in relation to ER visits that did not result in hospitalization. There are limitations to this study as it uses an ecologic study design that has the potential for misclassification of the exposure, and has analyzed only data from ER visits, not hospitalization. There is also a potential for residual confounding. Future research using more sophisticated study designs could better assess the research questions of interest
Musical Memory and Chile’s Late 20th Century
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the significance of musical experiences for understanding the evolution of leftist culture across the late 20th century and contemporary era in Chile. An analysis of the musical experiences of leftist prisoners during the Pinochet era and contemporary protests finds that traditional politico-economic narratives are insufficient for explaining the cultural evolution of the Chilean left. Daily musical experiences across these eras suggests that there may be a long-term cultural habit within the Chilean left that utilizes music for expressing dissent and sustaining solidarity. Political prisoners of the Pinochet era were found to clandestinely use songs to preserve their culture. It is also suggested that musical experiences are culturally important for both political prisoners and modern protestors due to a shared cultural common ancestor. Furthermore, this thesis challenges the existing historiography\u27s emphasis on the nueva canción genre of protest music, as other forms of quotidian musical experiences are important for understanding the social history of Chile’s late 20th century. This analysis supports a call for a \u27decentering\u27 of Chilean history, incorporating the wider experiences of ordinary Chileans
Using Airborne Measurements to Evaluate Forecasts of Freezing Drizzle Aloft Results from the Wintre-Mix Field Campaign
Get PDFIcing associated with the accretion of supercooled large droplets (SLD) serves as a significant hazard to aviation activities. Forecasting SLD events is complex due in part to the limitations of numerical weather prediction models. The Winter Precipitation Type Research Multiscale Experiment (WINTRE-MIX) aimed to comprehend such limitations within numerical forecasts of precipitation type (p-type) through the use of extensive observations during events with multiple p-types. To investigate precipitation processes aloft in winter storms with near-freezing surface conditions, research flights were orchestrated with the National Research Council of Canada Convair-580 aircraft. This study examines a WINTRE-MIX intensive observing period that took place on 07–08 March 2022 and coincided with a warm frontal passage through northern New York and into southern Quebec. As the Convair ascended in altitude, widespread freezing drizzle (FZDZ) connected with SLD icing was observed with abnormally cool cloud-top temperatures as low as -15°C.
This study evaluates the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model forecasts of FZDZ against Convair-580 observations. The HRRR is favored within the aviation meteorology community for its 3-km grid spacing, its frequent hourly data assimilation, and its use of complex microphysics schemes with the ability to diagnose multiple hydrometeor categories. Icing conditions are examined using in-situ aircraft observations by analyzing ice detector frequency, liquid water content, cloud number concentration, and rain number concentration, and diagnosed hydrometeor types which are compared to their model-simulated equivalent. Additionally, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations explore sources of inconsistencies between observations and model runs. Airborne W-band radar profiles collected by the Convair-580 are compared to simulated radar reflectivity.
HRRR and control (CTRL) WRF predominately simulate snow and ice hydrometeors at flight level which contrasts observations of FZDZ and SLD icing. The presence of snow hydrometeors throughout the vertical column suggests that seeding from the upper-level cloud inhibits collision-coalescence. Frozen hydrometeors will serve as ice nuclei or lead to the evaporation of liquid through the Bergeron-Wegener-Findeisen process. This leads to the removal of available liquid in the atmosphere. Two sensitivity experiments are performed by removing moisture above an average altitude of 5092 m and between average altitudes of 4076 m and 5836 m to explore the influence of seeding from the upper-layer cloud. The reduction of snow mixing ratios and improvements to rain mixing ratios at locations of observed icing demonstrate the biases introduced by the seeding mechanisms
A 3D Co-culture Model of Senescent Cell Burden and Salivary Gland Fibrosis
Get PDFPatients with head and neck cancer often suffer collateral radiation damage to the salivary glands, leading to fibrosis. Histological examinations indicate that radiation encourages fibrosis by promoting cellular changes leading to both senescent and myofibroblast phenotypes, coupled with a significant loss of regenerative and acinar cells. Chronic hypofunction remains a primary concern, even with modified radiation approaches to sparing salivary glands. Current treatments primarily offer symptomatic relief without rectifying irreversible glandular tissue damage. This limitation arises, in part, from a deficiency in predictive preclinical models to study this multifaceted problem.
We introduce a 3D in vitro microtissue model to address this limitation, employing a scaffold-free co-culture of stromal cells, such as NIH-3T3 fibroblasts and salivary epithelial cells, such as SCA-9 cells. Our methods prioritize generating salivary gland spheroids less than 200 µm in diameter, ensuring optimal nutrient diffusion and preventing necrotic core development. The formation process involves precise controls on parameters such as initial cell count, cell solution volume, culture duration, and spheroid formation technique (e.g., hanging drops, non-adhesive microwells). We have also devised assays tailored for 3D spheroids, encompassing various staining techniques for cell viability, apoptosis, senescence, fibrosis, and immunocytochemistry analysis of specific markers.
When exposed to clinically relevant X-ray radiation doses, these microtissues showed cell death and apoptosis, especially on the spheroid\u27s surface, and manifested changes in collagen type I fibers and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) within a sixteen-day frame.
Further, we sought to examine the effects of a preexisting senescent cell burden on our 3D microtissue model by exposing it to senescence-conditioned media before radiation exposure. This experiment incorporated additional assays, including 3D assays of cell viability, apoptosis, DNA damage, and senescence and additional assays such as immunocytochemistry analysis of fibrosis markers and picrosirius red staining of collagen fibrils to evaluate fibrosis-related ECM changes.
In conclusion, we have made considerable progress in creating a 3D in vitro model to study radiation-induced salivary gland fibrosis and the role that senescent cell burden plays in its development. This novel tool promises to enhance our comprehension of salivary gland fibrosis mechanisms and pave the way for more effective therapeutic interventions, drug evaluations, and exploration of new treatment approaches