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Using AI To Analyze Survey Data
No full textThis assignment in Methodology in Sociology/Criminology engages students in the full research process by guiding them through variable selection, data analysis, interpretation, and critical reflection on AI-assisted decision-making. Using a class-generated survey dataset (or an existing dataset), students develop a research question, identify independent and dependent variables, and formulate a hypothesis. They then compare their selections with those suggested by an AI tool, analyzing differences in reasoning and variable choice. Through SPSS, students generate frequency tables, charts, and scatterplots to examine relationships between variables, including potential intervening factors. The assignment culminates in a group presentation and reflective analysis on the implications of AI in research design. Emphasizing data literacy, analytical reasoning, visualization, and methodological reflexivity, this project strengthens students’ ability to evaluate both statistical relationships and the role of AI inquiry
Micromobility in NYC: 2025
No full textThis report offers a statistical snapshot of micromobility across the city over a three-week period in late 2025. Our team of trained researchers systematically observed over 1,700 micromobility vehicles at 155 separate intersections across the five boroughs of New York City. Our primary findings describe overall patterns in the demographics of micromobility and vehicle behavior at city intersections, and show how this behavior is shaped by variations in infrastructure as well as individual-level attributes
Monosaccharide Binding to Synthetic Carbohydrate Receptor Microarrays
No full textChapter 1: A glycan detection platform comprised of synthetic carbohydrate receptors (SCRs) immobilized onto polymer brushes was prepared. SCR043, an alkene-containing SCR, was incorporated into grafted-from polymer brushes using hypersurface photolithography, resulting in microarrays of SCR043-functionalized polymer brushes, where brush height (h) and SCR grafting density (Γ) is controlled precisely at each feature in the array. The influence of h and Γ on the binding to five fluorescently labelled monosaccharides – α-glucose (α-Gluc-FL), α-galactose (α-Gal-FL), α-mannose (α-Man-FL), β-glucose (β-Gluc-FL), and β-galactose (β-Gal-FL) – in aqueous buffer was investigated using fluorescence microscopy. These experiments provided 9,072 data points, each corresponding to an individual binding experiment that were used to assess the effects of polymer h, Γ, monosaccharide structure, and monosaccharide concentration on binding avidity (Kd). We demonstrate that SCR-based microarrays bind monosaccharides selectively as a result of cooperative, supramolecular interactions that occur within the multivalent polymer brushes. Kd, Hill coefficients, 50% inhibition concentrations, and inhibition constants (Ki) were calculated for the different monosaccharide-SCR043 binding pairs and were compared with the binding energies calculated using Density Functional Theory. The SCR-functionalized polymer brush microarrays could detect monosaccharides at micromolar concentrations in aqueous buffers with Ki as low as 5 μM for α-Man-FL. The strength of the monosaccharide-SCR interactions is attributed to the cluster-glycoside effects that can occur within the SCR-functionalized polymer brushes. This report represents the first demonstration that SCRs can function as effective glycan recognition elements in microarray formats
Pauline Milk and Bread: Human Industry and Divine Truth in the Jesuit Mission in Japan
No full textMy study examines the intellectual confluences in Father Alessandro Valignano’s policies and guidelines for the Jesuit mission in Japan in the sixteenth century, with a focus on the traditions of scholastic philosophy and rhetoric—two foundational disciplines in the training and worldview of every Jesuit—as he understood them. I examine how these traditions were articulated by Valignano in practices, respectively, of catechism and accommodation—the rhetorical principle of adapting one’s message to audience needs for the purpose of persuasion.
My study focuses on two dimensions of the Jesuit–Japanese encounter. First, the Western traditions of philosophy and rhetoric had long been associated in European thought with cultivation, freedom, and reason. This helps explain why rhetorical accommodation and scholastic theology rooted in Aristotelian philosophy were Valignano’s preferred modes of ministry in Japan, given his appraisal of the Japanese as uniquely free, cultured, and rational among the pagan peoples discovered.
Second, the opposition of philosophy and rhetoric has been an accepted premise in Western thinking since antiquity, yet philosophy and eloquence constituted for the Jesuits two aspects of a single metaphysics and epistemology. These two intellectual traditions together, as I will show, mediated the gap between Christian truth and human fallibility, contributing to a single and coherent cosmology
Chamber Music for Strings in Rational Intonation: Performance Practice and Analysis
No full textIn the early 21st century, the field of contemporary music has experienced an explosion of interest in rational intonation. This ratio-derived tuning system, often referred to as “just intonation,” has become established as a widespread movement that is still on the rise. It is of increasing importance for composers, performers, historians, and theorists who specialize in contemporary music to be knowledgeable about the growing body of repertoire in this area and its performance practice.
This dissertation examines current and recent trends in rational intonation through the lens of chamber music for strings. It includes perspectives on performance practice gleaned from interviews with contemporary practitioners and composers, an overview of common notations, a historical overview that covers prominent movements in microtonalism over the last century, and analysis of representative works that centers performance elements, culminating in a case study of Catherine Lamb’s 2019 string quartet Divisio Spiralis.” The method of this dissertation’s analysis focuses on the phenomenological and psychoacoustic perspectives of the performer and the practice of translating real time experience and sensation into technique, in conjunction with a robust understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of rational intonation. Topics of inquiry include performance techniques and specific areas of performer awareness, skill building across repertoire, physical and cognitive processes at play, the interaction of these elements with Western classical training, and the broader impact of this practice in the context of the communities in which it is performed
Diverse Sensory Mechanisms in Bacterial PAS-Containing One-Component Systems
No full textAll living organisms must constantly sense and respond to environmental changes to survive. Bacteria possess a vast repertoire of molecular signaling systems that enable rapid adaptation to fluctuations in temperature, light, redox state, and nutrient availability. Among these, one-component systems (OCSs)—proteins that couple stimulus detection and response within a single protein—represent a compact and versatile mode of regulation. Within this class, Per-ARNT-Sim (PAS) domain-containing OCSs are especially widespread and diverse, yet many remain uncharacterized with respect to their activating ligands and signaling mechanisms. Understanding how PAS domains detect stimuli and transmit conformational signals to their respective output domains not only provides fundamental insight into bacterial physiology but also offers opportunities to engineer tunable molecular switches for biotechnology. In this dissertation, I combined bioinformatics, structural biology, and biophysical methods to identify and characterize new OCS transcription factors and enzymes with distinct sensory modalities. From a genome-wide search, I discovered three novel systems: 1) FG219, a heme-binding transcription factor, which undergoes large-scale conformational transitions upon changes in redox state. Structural analyses using NMR, HDX–MS, and X-ray crystallography revealed redox sensitive structural rearrangements and led to proof-of-concept experiments for development ofin vivo biosensor for oxidative stress. 2) BO253, an OCS protein which harbors an unusually large ligand-binding pocket, where crystallographic detection of a PEG molecule within the cavity provided clues to the chemical nature of potential physiological ligands. 3) CU228, a constitutively dimeric OCS, which served as a model for developing a pipeline to identify small-molecule stabilizers of orphan receptors, integrating both protein- and ligand-based detection strategies. In a separate, collaborative project, I studied TdcA, a temperature-sensitive PAS containing OCS diguanylate cyclase from a clinical isolate of a pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which mediates temperature sensitive biofilm formation, related to the temperature increase of host invasion. Through temperature-resolved HDX–MS and infrared spectroscopy, I identified thermolabile regions responsible for temperature sensing, which were functionally validated in vivo by collaborators. Together, these studies expand our understanding of the diversity and conservation of the structure and mechanism of PAS-mediated signaling and demonstrate how insights from basic bacterial biology can guide synthetic and biomedical applications. By elucidating new modes of ligand and redox sensing, establishing generalizable screening frameworks, and identifying potential antibiotic targets, this work advances both the fundamental principles and practical utility of one-component signal transduction systems
The Behavior and Complexation of Technetium Under Conditions Relevant for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing
No full textSpent nuclear fuel is reprocessed by utilizing several large-scale solvent extraction processes. One of the most prevalent of these processes is the plutonium uranium reduction extraction (PUREX) process. This process involves an organic phase composed of tributyl phosphate (TBP) in kerosene and an aqueous phase comprised of concentrated nitric acid. Both uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu) are extracted into the organic phase by nitrate and TBP complexation while the various fission products remain in the initial aqueous phase. Pu is then chemically reduced to its trivalent state and back-extracted into a second aqueous phase, thereby separating the two fissile materials. However, it is known that several other elements present in the spent nuclear fuel complicate this process by following U and Pu into the initial organic phase.
This thesis focuses on the high-yield U-235 fission product technetium (Tc), particularly Tc-99, which has a half-life of 211,000 years. Tc exhibits a wide range of achievable oxidation states (-1 to +7) which results in complicated redox chemistry that is induced by the radiolysis of the high radiation fields of spent nuclear fuel. This redox behavior is sensitive to the reductants and oxidants used to modify the oxidation states and extraction behavior of U and Pu. These factors, as well as the presence of dibutyl phosphate (HDBP), the radiolysis-induced degradation product of TBP, result in Tc being extracted into the organic phase in Tc-TBP and Tc-HDBP complexes that are not yet well-determined. Changes in the nitric acid concentration of the aqueous phase and the presence of other high-yield fission products, such as Zr, additionally influence the Tc-phosphate complexation. These investigations focus on cataloging the Tc-phosphate and Tc-metal-phosphate complexes for Tc in its most common oxidation states, +7 and +4. This research aims to build new knowledge in fundamental Tc chemistry that is critical for understanding the various aspects of the nuclear waste stream, especially fuel reprocessing and remediation of nuclear waste sites such as Hanfor
Fostering Ecological Consciousness in An Era of Collapse: Reimagining the Purpose of Environmental Education through Collaborative Curriculum Development with Radical Environmental Educators and Activists in the Hudson Valley of New York
No full textThis study explores how different approaches to fostering ecological consciousness can impact community engagement, social cohesion, and commitment to social and environmental care through a series of in-depth interviews and focus group sessions with environmental educators and activists in The Hudson Valley of New York.
Within the academic field of Sustainability Science, educational curricula often promote technocratic solutions, individual achievement, and industrial-capital worldviews that tend to normalize alienated social and environmental relationships. In response, outside of scientific and academic institutions, countercultural educators engaged with Radical Ecology movements work towards promoting an ethic of interdependence with community, nature, and place by integrating social, environmental, and health sciences within Ecological Design training programs focused on fostering ecologically sustainable subsistence cultures.
Through the process of (1) mapping and tracking natural resources and ecological systems in the local environment, (2) imagining and planning alternative economies, landscapes, and cultural practices in alignment with local ecologies, and (3) engaging in practical hands-on work building structures, gardening, restoring local ecologies, and organizing community labor, environmental educators and activists associated with countercultural movements like Permaculture Design and Bioregionalism focus on promoting a deeper sense of relatedness to community, nature, and place as a means of fostering an ethic of social and environmental care. However, in recent years, deep shifts in social cohesion within these movements due to increased online learning, political polarization, and economic precarity increasingly threaten these efforts.
Through the process of collaboratively developing an environmental education curriculum based on insights gathered from a series of interviews and focus groups sessions this study explores the worldviews and practices that motivate radical countercultural environmental educators and activists alongside the challenges they commonly encounter in the process of communicating their perspectives and eliciting community support. This study is specifically concerned with how environmental educators and activists are navigating efforts to promote an ethic of social and environmental care within a cultural context of hopelessness and existential concern stemming from the perceived collapse of ecologies, economies, communities, and cultures.
Exploratory field research for this project, beginning in 2019, focused on the social and psychological significance of regional Permaculture community gatherings alongside the social, political, and economic tensions within communities that were increasingly disrupting efforts to organize gatherings, however these research efforts were derailed by COVID-19 when all large social gatherings ––like the one I had been collaborating in planning–– were impossible for several years. Formal research for this project involving interviews and focus groups sessions exploring the general decline in social cohesion within the Permaculture movement began in 2025.
First, through a series of in-depth interviews with educators involved in Permaculture Design and Bioregional development initiatives, research for this project began by exploring the desires that initiate and sustain engagement in sustainable culture, how different environmental education interventions are contributing to change in people’s environmental worldviews, the challenges commonly encountered when communicating and enacting lifestyles inspired by radical environmental worldviews, and the educational interventions and institutional support structures that might benefit emerging subsistence cultures.
After engaging in a series of interviews with established environmental educators throughout the Hudson Valley of New York, a series of focus groups including interviewees alongside a group of local environmental educators and activists was assembled for the purpose of developing a curriculum for the emerging Bioregional movement within the Catskill-Hudson Valley region of New York.
In an effort to safeguard against being coopted by larger government and corporate forces, Bioregional education efforts tend to focus on developing place-based initiatives concerned with specific local issues rather than developing a formalized curricula articulating its rich political, economic, and environmental perspectives that tend to challenge conventional institutional cultures and ideologies, directly, through anarchist philosophy. Currently, a standardized Bioregional curriculum does not seem to exist, despite growing cross-cultural interest in the subject.
Through the process of developing a Bioregional education curriculum, collaboratively, this study focuses on better understanding what Radical Ecologists feel may be necessary to bring together disparate environmental initiatives to form more cohesive networks of Bioregional educators and practitioners for the purpose of effecting greater social and environmental change in society
A sample teaching portfolio for technical services librarians
No full textThis teaching portfolio only includes the author’s perspectives and practices on one-shot library classes, workshops, and LibGuides. The goal is to offer technical services librarians some insights
Public Health and the Abandonment of Primary Prevention: Investigating Gentrification’s Impact on Lead Poisoning and Youth Violence in New York City
No full textUsing mixed-methods (GIS analysis, spatial regression models, walking ethnographies, semistructured open-ended interviews), my dissertation explores gentrification’s distribution across New York City. Specifically, I consider the relationship between childhood lead poisoning and youth violence rates across neighborhoods in the city, and what explains variations (if any) in these rates across different gentrified and un-gentrified neighborhoods. My findings challenge the claims of so-called “pragmatic” public health researchers and municipal policymakers that gentrification may facilitate the reduction or elimination of lead poisoning and street crime. In fact, my quantitative analysis revealed no correlation between gentrification and youth violence, and also identified an outlier neighborhood (i.e., Greenpoint) that challenged the predictions of the existing gentrification-health literature by demonstrating high rates of both gentrification and lead poisoning. My qualitative research here revealed that, rather than reduce or eliminate lead poisoning, gentrification obscures it through developer-state relations that hide the true extent of lead toxins in the soil