Presenters

Unassigned

Unassigned

Presenter Mentor Department Format HIPS ID
Art and Design Studio Artists Annemarie Coffey Art and Design Other AD-1
Denielle Campbell Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols Music Presentation MU-1
Kaila Pulley Kim Riegel Physics Presentation PH-1
Yuantong Luo Jillian Bellovary Physics Presentation UR PH-2
Jun ha Kim Raul Armendariz Physics Presentation PH-3
Matthew Fennell Jillian Bellovary Physics Presentation UR PH-4
Dennis Li Jillian Bellovary Physics Presentation UR PH-5
George Torok Corey Stalerman Physics Presentation UR PH-6
Jennifer Peyser
Kerry-Ann Nichol
Minah Lee
Ashana Roach-Antonio
Katlynn Riveros
Philip Nelan
Jessica Prepetit
Georgina Colalillo
Nursing Presentation UR NU-1
Harpreet Kaur
Derronica Collins
Breana Clarke
Avrille Hall
Marvell Morrison
Randelle Sasa Nursing Presentation UR NU-2
Melanie Jerez de Rodriguez
Daniel Walker
Jose Vasquez
Juan Rodriguez Restrepo
Mirna Lekic Music Creative Arts MU-2
Yohrdana Calle-Palma Celia Sporer
John Schriner
Social Sciences Presentation UR SS-1
Denielle Campbell
Koichi Hasegawa
Mirna Lekic Music Creative Arts MU-3
Ioannis Stathopoulos
Alicia Santiago
Mirna Lekic Music Creative Arts MU-4
Edelweiss Lavandier Mirna Lekic Music Other MU-5
Emily Lezama
Jadelyn Walker
Steven Dahlke Music Performance UR MU-6
Abraham Goren Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols Music Presentation MU-7
Shan He Carolyn King Mathematics and Computer Science Presentation UR MA-1
Samaragyee Dhungel Yusuf Danisman Mathematics and Computer Science Presentation MA-2
Fariya Chowdhury Andrew Bulawa Mathematics and Computer Science Presentation UR MA-3
Tsz Wa Ellen Chu Amy Traver Social Sciences Presentation UR SS-2
Melanie Jerez de Rodriguez Celia Sporer
Jody Resko
Social Sciences Presentation SS-3
Reetu Singh Yusuf Danisman Mathematics and Computer Science Presentation UR MA-4
Nicholas Florido Marisa Hollywood Kupferberg Holocaust Center Presentation UR *KHC-1
Shelli Ligonde
Nyale Mabry
Nicole McClam Health, Physical Education, and Dance Performance CIE PE-1
Katie Hur
Bilgis Bengu
Carmen Caceres
Rezan Akpinar Health, Physical Education, and Dance Presentation PE-2
Brook Lyn Gonzalez Aviva Geismar Health, Physical Education, and Dance Presentation UR PE-3
Andre Murph Aviva Geismar Health, Physical Education, and Dance Performance UR PE-4
Jade Medrano-Osorio Aviva Geismar Health, Physical Education, and Dance Performance UR PE-5
Phillip Pettiford Aviva Geismar Health, Physical Education, and Dance Performance UR PE-6
Elizabeth Hanson Marisa Hollywood Kupferberg Holocaust Center Presentation UR *KHC-2
Alexander Djogovic Marisa Hollywood Kupferberg Holocaust Center Presentation UR *KHC-3
Julia Sims Marisa Hollywood Kupferberg Holocaust Center Presentation UR *KHC-4
Cymone Grant Jody Resko Social Sciences Presentation UR SS-4
Paige Bouderau Marisa Hollywood Kupferberg Holocaust Center Presentation UR *KHC-5
Max Aurich Eileen White
Kahlil Garner
Communication, Theatre & Media Production Other CTMP-1
Erin Feeley Eileen White
Kahlil Garner
Communication, Theatre & Media Production Creative Arts CTMP-2
Usman Ali Chohan Kahlil Garner
Eileen White
Communication, Theatre & Media Production Creative Arts CTMP-3
George Waller Julian Jimenez
Jonathan Kilom
Communication, Theatre & Media Production Presentation UR CTMP-4
Kahlil Garner Eileen White Communication, Theatre & Media Production Other CTMP-5
Jasira McIntosh Heather Huggins Communication, Theatre & Media Production Presentation GDL,
UR
CTMP-6
Celeste Abramowitz C. Julian Jimenez
Heather Huggins
Communication, Theatre & Media Production Presentation UR CTMP-7
Derick Konan Heather Huggins Communication, Theatre & Media Production Creative Arts UR,
GDL
CTMP-8
Aureljo Pepa Yusuf Gurtas Mathematics and Computer Science Presentation UR MA-5
Vladislav Molchanov Emily Tai History Presentation UR,
WI
HI-1
Nicholas Florido Kat Griefen Art and Design Presentation AD-2
Victoria Bamwo Urszula Golebiewska Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation BG-1
Sarai Gamez Briceno
Abdul Rashid Baraki
Brittney Aragon
Bansari Patel
Victoria Bamwo
Sarbani Ghoshal Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-2
Bansari Patel Mangala Tawde Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-3
ShaniaKay Williams Mangala Tawde Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-4
Brittney Aragon Regina Sullivan
Sarbani Ghoshal
Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-5
Wai Cheung Tung Amos Orlofsky Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-6
Stephany Rampaul
Kennedy Wanyama
Mangala Tawde Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-7
Valerie Muse Rochelle Nelson Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-8
Mya Potter Rondi Davies Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-9
Jayson Rodriguez Andrew Nguyen Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-10
Raheem Popley-Carvey Sarbani Ghoshal Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-11
Brittney Aragon Sarbani Ghoshal Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-12
Anuradha Srivastava Anuradha Srivastava Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation BG-13
Bushra Khan Urszula Golebiewska Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-14
Nicholas Florido Kat Griefen Art and Design Presentation ASL AD-3
Alexander Djogovic Kat Griefen Art and Design Presentation ASL AD-4
Efeh Ibojie Kat Griefen Art and Design Presentation AD-5
Jack Cesarano Kat Griefen Art and Design Presentation ASL AD-6
Maxen Cheng Kathleen Wentrack Art and Design Presentation AD-7
Stephany Rampaul Sarbani Ghoshal Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation BG-15
General-Microbiology-class General-Microbiology-class Monica Trujillo Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation UR BG-16
Eliana Spector Linda Reesman English Other EN-1
Elijah Bernard Sharon Lall-Ramnarine
Sophia Suarez
Domenec Paterno
Chemistry Presentation CH-1
Roberto Bardales Dugwon Seo
Carlos Meriles
Richard Monge
Tom Delord
Engineering Technology Presentation UR ET-1
Zircarmel Dorcely Huixin Wu Engineering Technology Presentation GDL ET-2
Evan Lin Raymond Lam Engineering Technology Presentation WI ET-3
Han Chu Guozhen An Engineering Technology Presentation UR ET-4
Lijie Wan Jun Shin Chemistry Presentation UR CH-2
Kiana Korpacz Zhou Zhou Chemistry Presentation UR CH-3
Nickayla Spence Moni Chauhan Chemistry Presentation UR CH-4
Mehreen Mughal Sharon Lall-Ramnarine
Gopal Subramaniam
Edward Castner Jr.
James Wishart
Chemistry Presentation UR CH-5
Jonathan Lee Jun Shin Chemistry Presentation UR CH-6
Tea Plummer Rondi Davies Biological Sciences and Geology Presentation BG-17
Ho Martin Yuen Sharon Lall-Ramnarine Chemistry Presentation UR CH-7
Shameir Nembhard Sharon Lall-Ramnarine
Gopal Subramaniam
Edward Castner Jr.
Chemistry Presentation CH-8
Che Chang David Sarno Chemistry Presentation CH-9
Bethva Robert
Ho Martin Yuen
Tirandai Hemraj-Benny
Sharon Lall-Ramnarine
Chemistry Presentation UR CH-10
Zachary Amachee
Tyler Ramcharan
Nazmul Huda
Roumen Vragov Business Presentation ASL,
GDL,
WI
BU-1
Lamisa Poonam
Christina Chagias
Roumen Vragov Business Presentation ASL,
GDL
BU-2
Sandra Maitlall
Josephine Wong
Roumen Vragov Business Presentation ASL,
GDL
BU-3
Nickole Penaloza Roumen Vragov Business Presentation BU-4
Khadija Kamara Roumen Vragov Business Presentation UR BU-5
Sayeeda Anif
Tashi Lloyd
Cheyenne Murray
Carrie Stern Health, Physical Education, and Dance Other WI PE-7

Abstracts

Art and Design

Time: ; Location:
ID: AD-1
Faculty moderator:
AD-1

ANNUAL JURIED STUDENT EXHIBIT 2022. Art and Design Studio Artists and Annemarie Coffey. Art and Design Department.

The Annual Juried Student Exhibition 2022 comprises work produced in the 2021 academic year from 55 student artists, all active in the QCC Art & Design Program.  The individual works, submitted to a jury are selected based on artistic merit.  Each piece is demonstrative of a unique/special interpretation or vision, executed with awareness, knowing intent and superlative attention to craft; they represent the Art and Design Department's "Honors Show".  The collection includes work in 2D design, illustration, drawing, painting, photography, 3D design, sculpture, ceramics, digital animation and video and will be presented via a digital catalogue.  The catalogue is a companion to the in-person exhibit set to open 27 April 2022 and run through 6 May 2022 at the QCC Art Gallery.  Note: interviews with individual artists have been made but are property of the QCC Gallery, I would encourage you to contact the QCC Art Gallery Asst. Director, Lisa Scandaliato, for possible access/use.  

Time: ; Location:
ID: AD-2
Faculty moderator:
AD-2

CASE STUDY OF THE INTREPID SEA, AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM. Nicholas Florido and Kat Griefen. Art and Design Department.

For the Spring 2022 ARTH 252 Art Business course I have researched and will be presenting a case study on The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. The museum is housed on a real naval aircraft carrier that was originally on schedule to be scrapped due to obsolescence. In 1982 a few philanthropic individuals stepped in to advocate for the ship to instead be made into something people can learn from and enjoy. My presentation will consist of an in-depth analysis of this institution through various methods, including a SWOT report. In this report I will make conclusions on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats pertaining to this institution, making connections other relevant museums.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL
ID: AD-3
Faculty moderator:
AD-3

THE INTERPRETATION AND DISPLAY OF AFFIDAVITS FROM THE KUPFERBERG HOLOCAUST CENTER'S ARCHIVE. Nicholas Florido and Kat Griefen. Art and Design Department.

For the Spring 2022 term in ARTH 251: Art Curating, I am conducting research regarding a group of artifacts in the Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) archive which were previously exhibited in The Jacket from Dachau: One Survivor's Search for Justice, Identity, and Home at the KHC. The artifacts consist of a number of affidavits from the 1950's pertaining to a Holocaust survivor. I will be presenting my research in the form of an interpretive label that could accompany these materials in an exhibition, offering the visitor or viewer context for what they are they are seeing in front of them. I will be sharing the background for these artifacts as well as addressing how valuable historical documents can be effectively stored and exhibited.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL
ID: AD-4
Faculty moderator:
AD-4

THE INTERPRETATION AND DISPLAY OF A HOLOCAUST-ERA PASSPORT IN THE KUPFERBERG HOLOCAUST CENTER ARCHIVE. Alexander Djogovic and Kat Griefen. Art and Design Department.

For Art Curating class I am writing Interpretive text regarding a German Reich issued passport for Ricka "Sara" Lehmann that is in the archive of the Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC). My presentation will address context, historical background and materiality of the object as well as it's relevancy to KHC's mission. I will present my research about the period of history when the Holocaust occurred and when this passport was issued. I will also address to how to display and care for this object in a museum.

Time: ; Location:
ID: AD-5
Faculty moderator:
AD-5

CASE STUDY OF THE SOUTH STREET SEAPORT MUSEUM. Efeh Ibojie and Kat Griefen. Art and Design Department.

For the Spring of 2022, the students of ARTH 252 Art Institutions and the Business of Art were presented with the opportunity to research and create a case study of a museum of their choice. For this project I have chosen to base my research on the South Street Seaport Museum which is located in the historic Seaport District on Manhattan. The museum's mission is to preserve the history of New York City as a major world port. This presentation will discuss the history and development of the South Street Seaport Museum as well as its current state. The presentation will focus on a SWOT report, a deep examination of the museum's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth, as well as threats to the institutions.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL
ID: AD-6
Faculty moderator:
AD-6

THE INTERPRETATION AND DISPLAY OF THE JACKET OF DACHAU FROM THE KUPFERBERG HOLOCAUST CENTER COLLECTION. Jack Cesarano and Kat Griefen. Art and Design Department.

For Art Curating class I am researching and writing about the Jacket of Dachau from the Kupferberg Holocaust Center collection. My interpretive wall text will provide the basic information and context that is necessary to understand the artifact. I will also address the appropriate care and display of this historical object.

Time: ; Location:
ID: AD-7
Faculty moderator:
AD-7

SHEPARD FAIREY: A GRAPHIC DESIGNER WHO INSPIRED MILLIONS. Maxen Cheng and Kathleen Wentrack. Art and Design Department.

This research presentation will introduce Shepard Fairey, his story, methods, and his life as a graphic designer. It will highlight and emphasize revolutionary pieces of art that Fairey has completed in his life as well as the impacts that the designs had on millions of people around the world.

Biological Sciences and Geology

Time: ; Location:
ID: BG-1
Faculty moderator:
BG-1

GENOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MYCOBACTERIUM PHAGE HILLTOPFARM. Victoria Bamwo and Urszula Golebiewska. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

The discovery of phages has contributed to various industries and aspects of science, the food industry, bacterial diagnosis, biotechnology, antimicrobial drug discovery, and other forms of research. Their analysis, annotation, and study help provide important information on their genome structure and evolution. The objective of the research was to analyze and annotate Hilltopfarm, a phage isolated from Mycobacterium smegmatis. Hilltopfarm was discovered by Anthony Stewart in 2020 at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was adopted and analyzed by students at Queensborough Community College. The sample was collected from a cluster of filamentous organisms in wood chips at Hilltop Farm, the site where it was discovered, hence the name. It is of the class Siphoviridae with a double-stranded DNA genome, non-enveloped head, and non-contractile tail. Hilltopfarm has a genome length of 76834 base pairs with 129 genes. It is in the cluster 'Y', other phages in this cluster are Bipper, Cracklewink, and Typha. Bioinformatic programs such as Blast, Starterator, Pharmerator, HHpred, DNA Master, and others were used to determine the coding potential, best possible start for a gene, the ribosomal binding site, the function, the tRNAs in the genome, and more. Of the 129 genes in the phage, 43 had functions, two were tRNA and the rest had no functions, or their functions could not be determined at the time. The standard functions found in the genes were minor tail protein, tail assembly chaperone, tape measure protein, lysin A, lysin B, head to tail adaptor, head to tail stopper, capsid maturation protease, and membrane protein. Typha is the closest relative to Hilltopfarm with a majority of the genes matching. Hilltopfarm has the tRNAs, Methionine and Arginine, as does Typha. Cracklewink and Bipper share the tRNA for Methionine with Hilltopfarm.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-2
Faculty moderator:
BG-2

IP6K1 GENE DELETION PROTECTS FROM AGE-INDUCED METABOLIC DYSFUNCTIONS. Sarai Gamez Briceno, Abdul Rashid Baraki, Brittney Aragon, Bansari Patel, Victoria Bamwo, and Sarbani Ghoshal. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Inositol phosphates are widely distributed phosphate reserves in plants and animals. Inositol pyrophosphates, which are the most recently characterized members of the inositide family are formed from inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) by a group of enzymes called IP6Kinases. Out of the three IP6Kinase isoforms, our research involves IP6K1 and its role on metabolic diseases. Previous research has shown that IP6K1 gene deletion or pharmacologic inhibition of IP6K1 protects mice from diet induced obesity, type-2 diabetes and fatty liver conditions. Aging impacts functions of major metabolic tissues like fat, liver, muscles. Aged mice are known to develop metabolic dysfunctions despite being on a normal diet which contains limited amount of fat. The present research was conducted to see the effect of IP6K1 in aging induced metabolic dysfunctions from IP6K1 knock out (KO) and control wild type (WT) mice. Our research involved scanning histology slides from liver biopsies of such mice. We also reviewed data from glucose and insulin tolerance tests. In this presentation, we will present data of fatty liver conditions along with insulin resistance and obesity, when IP6K1 KO mice were allowed to age for almost two years. A two-year-old mouse mimics approximately the characteristics of a 55-60-year-old human being. Our data is valuable in indicating a role of IP6K1 in attenuating metabolic diseases with applicability in human aging studies.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-3
Faculty moderator:
BG-3

ANTIMICROBIAL PRODUCTION BY STREPTOMYCES- SCREENING, ISOLATION, AND IDENTIFICATION OF NEW STRAINS. Bansari Patel and Mangala Tawde. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Streptomyces bacteria, a group of Actinomycetes are widely known for producing a variety of antimicrobial and other bioactive compounds. They are complex filamentous, gram-positive bacteria, with high G + C content, and can survive in all types of environments. The morphological differentiation of streptomyces includes straight, curved, or pleomorphic and arranged in the chain or branching filamentous. The present study aims to screen and isolate new strains of Streptomyces from soil samples from diverse regions and investigate their potential for antimicrobial activity. New strains of streptomyces have been isolated from soil samples covering areas of New York City and Jamaica. We are using the perpendicular streaking and agar plugs method for primary screening of antimicrobial activity against various test bacteria. By this method, we will identify the Streptomyces strains with antimicrobial production ability as well as potential antimicrobial resistance. Future work plans include studying mechanisms of resistance and pathways of antimicrobial production.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-4
Faculty moderator:
BG-4

TO STUDY ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF MICROBES ISOLATED FROM DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR RESISTANCE TOWARDS COMMONLY USED ANTIBIOTICS.. ShaniaKay Williams and Mangala Tawde. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Antibiotic resistance is a grave concern in clinical practice since more and more pathogens are becoming resistant to commonly used antibiotics. A major mechanism of antibiotic resistance is acquisition of resistance elements by pathogens encoding antimicrobial metabolites. Environmental microbes, including the species producing antimicrobial agents, are important sources of resistance transfer amongst species. Antibiotic producing bacteria harbor resistance genes for self-protection that are often clustered with genes coding for antibiotics. The overuse and abuse of antibiotics has resulted in exposure of environmental bacteria to many more antibiotics. Soil and water could thus serve as under recognized reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance in clinically important bacterial pathogens. We have isolated and cultured new strains of Streptomyces from different soil samples in the country and overseas. Some of these samples were taken from Jamaica W.I, other samples were obtained from New York city region. We observed these isolates under microscope to study their morphologies.  We are co-culturing Streptomyces with other environmental bacteria to test their ability to produce antimicrobial substances. The environmental bacteria were sampled from areas such as doorknobs at popular food places, the park, gas station and in the clinical settings. While these bacteria can be modified or killed by most manufactured antibiotics, we are trying to analyze if the cultured streptomyces will transfer their resistant genes to the environmental bacteria or eliminate them.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-5
Faculty moderator:
BG-5

THE EFFECT OF SINGLE-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF CANCER CELL MIGRATION. Brittney Aragon, Regina Sullivan, and Sarbani Ghoshal. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Abstract: Cell migration is a complex process that plays a vital role in metastatic cancer. Metastasis is a deadly event in cancer. When migration occurs, the cancer cells from the primary tumor start to move to other tissues and establish secondary tumors. The cancer cell cytoskeleton receives aberrant signals resulting in the rearrangement of components, especially tubulin and actin. Thus, creating a highly migratory phenotype. Single-walled carbon nanotubes may be beneficial for cancer treatment given their nano-size, stability, and large surface area. Our previous research has shown that single-walled carbon nanotubes can be effective in reducing the rate of breast cancer cell migration. For our present research, we are treating A549 cells, a well-studied lung cancer cell line, with single-walled carbon nanotubes and measuring cell migration by conducting a scratch assay. We are also investigating cytotoxicity induced by such treatments. We plan to present data to show if carbon nanotube treatment can inhibit lung cancer cell migration, comparable to what was observed in the breast cancer line.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-6
Faculty moderator:
BG-6

REGULATION OF HOST AMINO ACID TRANSPORTERS BY AN INTRACELLULAR PARASITE. Wai Cheung Tung and Amos Orlofsky. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan, has infected around one-fourth of the total human population. Although benign infection is more common, severe cases in immunocompromised individuals and fetus could occur. We have found that T. gondii has shown to be host cell autophagy-dependent, suggesting that host nutrients can be limiting to parasite growth. It was found that T. gondii activates the host mTORC-1 pathway, which is known to be promoted by leucine. Our focus of the study is one of the primary amino acids (including leucine) transporters, which consists of LAT1 and CD98hc. In infected L6 cells, upregulation of two amino acid transporters, LAT1 and CD98hc, was observed. However, SNAT 2, which is usually upregulated when there is increase in expression in LAT1, has shown no increase in expression in infected sample. To study the specific pathway by which T. gondii manipulates the host, we examined the possible effects of HIF-2α and c-myc, transcription factors known to upregulate LAT1 expression. We hypothesized that the level of both transcription factors is elevated by T. gondii in host. We observed 4.5-fold elevation of host c-myc mRNA expression in infected L6 cells, consistent with the unknown capacity for c-myc to upregulate LAT1 expression. Further studies are needed to determine whether LAT1 expression is c-myc-dependent in infected cells. Examination of HIF-2α expression is ongoing. However, we observed that HIF-2α mechanism is not essential for parasite regulation of host amino acid transporter expression due to no effect on LAT1 with treatment of HIF-2α inhibitor. A second study is being conducted to examine the host manipulation mechanisms to acquire nutrients in a boarder view. It is found that cyst wall would incorporate macromolecules by recruiting vesicles. Cytoskeleton proteins such as tubulin, myosin and actin are involved in the process.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-7
Faculty moderator:
BG-7

INVESTIGATING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM FOOD AND MEDICAL FACILITIES. Stephany Rampaul, Kennedy Wanyama, and Mangala Tawde. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

As we continue to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, we must also contemplate how the pandemic has impacted our routine lives and medical facilities. The pandemic continues to create immense pressure on hospitals, who have to deal with an extremely high number of patients, a limited number of resources, and often ICUs at or near capacity. This has led to increased use of antibiotics despite only 8 percent being affected by bacterial infection. The increasing use of antibiotics in cases where they are not needed implies that more bacteria have been exposed to environments that are hostile to them, thereby increasing the chance of antibiotic resistant mutations that allow the bacteria to survive. Different levels of antibiotic usage, levels of sterilization techniques, and number of patients served in different types of medical facilities would influence the likelihood of developing increased antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacterial strains. Objective of our research project is to investigate antibiotic resistance in bacterial strains isolated from surfaces and medical equipment in doctor's offices, and hospitals. We are also examining antibiotic resistance in food bacteria in a related project.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-8
Faculty moderator:
BG-8

IMPOSTER PHENOMENON IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS STUDYING GENERAL BIOLOGY. Valerie Muse and Rochelle Nelson. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Imposter Phenomenon is a debilitating experience where individuals have extreme doubts about their accomplishments, skills, talents, and goals. The impostor phenomenon is not a mental disorder, and it appears widespread in community college undergraduate students studying general biology. Many biology students aim to maintain a 4.0 GPA while working multiple part-time jobs to support themselves and their families. Typically, these students are low-income, first-generation students born to immigrant parents and are the first of their immediate family to attend college. Upon achieving the goal of entering college, students fight an overwhelming belief that their success was due to luck and end up feeling like a fraud - like they do not belong in college. These feelings create a lack of self-confidence and self-esteem and increase self-doubt. The imposter phenomenon becomes a substantial problem for biology students because the imposter mindset leads to emotional exhaustion and burnout. The imposter phenomenon was first introduced in a research paper titled "The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women" in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes. Dr. Clance created the Clance IP Scale, which measures if an individual suffers from the imposter phenomenon. This study uses the Clance IP Scale to survey general biology students. According to the results, the imposter phenomenon significantly affects many general biology students. This study aims to understand how the impostor phenomenon impacts students' motivation and success rate at Queensborough Community College in General Biology and review the strategies for overcoming the imposter phenomenon.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-9
Faculty moderator:
BG-9

GLACIAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND, NY: MINERAL PROVENANCE. Mya Potter and Rondi Davies. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Long Island, New York, was formed by a process known as glaciation; the formation, movement, and recession of glaciers. During the Pleistocene Epoch, the large continental ice sheet known as Laurentide stretched across most of modern-day Canada and the northern United States. It's repeated advances and melting resulted in the birth of Long Island. There are uncertainties and large debate among scientists regarding the source of the glaciers that formed Long Island, as well as the travel direction and distance. The purpose of this study is to identify the source rocks and trace them to their origin. To carry out the experiment, sand was collected from five glacial deposits on the north side of eastern and western Long Island; Hither Hills, Huntington, Green Port, Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, and Kings Point. The sand was sieved in order to collect the size fraction between 125 and 250 micrometers and then it was weighed to determine the proportion of sizes. Magnetic separation was used to separate the magnetic particles in the sand, and density separation was used to separate the denser particles. We then picked common minerals found in the sand to analyze their compositions using energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). Finally, zircons were mounted for uranium-led dating in order to date the zircons in each sample.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-10
Faculty moderator:
BG-10

EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BETA-ESTRADIOL AND STAT3 INTRACELLULAR SIGNALING IN OSTEOCLASTS.. Jayson Rodriguez and Andrew Nguyen. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Heathy bone is maintained by three major cells: osteoblasts, osteocytes, and osteoclasts. Osteocytes are mature bone cells derived from osteoblasts, which are derived from the mesenchymal stem cells. Osteoclasts are mononuclear phagocytic cells and derived from the hematopoietic stem cells. Recent studies have suggested that Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 are involved in bone development. We have taken a systemic approach to knock out STAT3 in each of these cells. We have recently showed that female mice with osteoclasts depleted of STAT3 had weaker bones and a decrease in osteoclast number compared to wild type mice but no difference was observed in STAT3 deleted -osteoclasts male bones vs control suggesting that the function of STAT3 in osteoclasts may be influenced by sex hormones. Our hypothesis is that STAT3 and estradiol regulate genes important for osteoclast cellular function. We propose to examine the intracellular signaling pathway involved STAT3 regulating genes using the pre-osteoclastic RAW264.7 cell line. We have successful deleted stat3 gene using the CRISPR in these cells. The expression of some candidate genes stimulated with beta-estradiol in control and knock-out cells has been analyzed using real-time PCR. Analysis of these genes may help us to understand how female sex hormone and STAT3 may regulate osteoclast functions.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-11
Faculty moderator:
BG-11

REGULATION OF CANCER CELL PROLIFERATION BY NEK2 INHIBITION. Raheem Popley-Carvey and Sarbani Ghoshal. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Nek2 (NIMA-related kinase 2) plays a prominent role in the cell cycle, showing increased activity in the S and G2 phase, regulating centrosome separation and bipolar spindle formation in mitotic cells, and chromatin condensation in meiotic cells. Overexpression of this serine/threonine kinase leads to chromosome segregation error and aneuploidy, and activation of oncogenic signaling pathways, resulting in cell proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance. Several recently published studies have demonstrated that Nek2 is a key player in numerous cancers, including lung, breast, and ovarian cancers. In addition, several of these tumors also have elevated levels of EGFR, a known oncogene with a tyrosine kinase activity. Thus, successful dual inhibition of Nek2 and EGFR activities in cancer cells can potentially be a novel strategy to inhibit cancer cell proliferation. In our research, we are working with A549, a lung cancer cell line, and treating it with a selective Nek2 inhibitor, both alone and in combination with an EGFR inhibitor. First, we plan to investigate cancer cell migration by scratch assay, cell proliferation by MTT assay, and cytotoxicity with lactate dehydrogenase assays after inhibitory treatments. Subsequently, we will delineate gene expression pattern by real-time PCR and assess protein expressions by Western blotting. Our goal is to investigate if synergistic inhibition of both Nek2 and EGFR activities will lead to enhanced cytotoxicity of cancer cells. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Prof Sanjay K Pathak's lab, Queens College.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-12
Faculty moderator:
BG-12

DETECTION OF SICKLE CELL ANEMIA BY SOUTHERN BLOT. Brittney Aragon and Sarbani Ghoshal. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Sickle cell Anemia is a group of inherited blood cell disorders. It is estimated to affect about 1 in every 365 African Americans. People with the disease are born with two sickle cell genes, one from each parent. Those with sickle cell trait carry one allele of the sickle gene. The disease is characterized by the shape of the red blood cell changing to sticky sickle shape thereby compromising the oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin. It is caused by a single mutation in the hemoglobin gene, which in turn causes a structural change in the peptide and also a change in its electrophoretic mobility. Southern blotting is a laboratory technique used to detect specific DNA sequences. For detection of sickle cell gene, isolated DNA can be digested with the restriction enzyme MST II, the recognition sequence of which is found in the normal hemoglobin gene sequence but not the mutated one. In our experiment, we tried to identify the genotypes of a couple as regards to their sickle gene and the probability of their child being born with sickle cell disease or trait. Simulated patient samples were digested with MST II, gel electrophoresis was then used to separate the DNA by size. Subsequently, gel contents were  de-purinated and denatured in an acid-base treatment and then transferred to a nylon membrane by overnight capillary action. A non-radioactive detection was done by staining the membrane. Our data showed sickle cell genotype trait for the parents. Interestingly, we also found out that the genotype of their child was normal. We will present nylon membrane band pattern for parents and their child, and a punnette square analysis to prove that a normal child can indeed be born when both parents are heterozygous for the disease. 

Time: ; Location:
ID: BG-13
Faculty moderator:
BG-13

CREATION OF AN OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE (OER) LABORATORY LAB MANUAL FOR A PUBLIC HEALTH COURSE: FROM VISION TO IMPLEMENTATION. Anuradha Srivastava and Anuradha Srivastava. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

A PowerPoint presentation on the effort to create and implement a zero-cost lab manual for BI 520, Introduction to Public Health course will be shared. The OER Lab manual was published on CUNY Academic works in Spring 2021 and has been downloaded 644 times in the past year by readers all across the world. This course is a major requirement for A.S. Public Health and A.A.S. Medical Assistant Program, besides being a General Education pathway course (2E, Scientific World) of QCC. This foundations course in Public Health is unique in the sense that very rarely, a foundations course in the field has a lab component offered with the lecture. There were three objectives behind this undertaking; i) past lab manual did not reflect the current trends and progress that has been made in the field of public health. There was a desperate need for new labs and replacement of old information with the recent ii) past lab manual was being sold in the college bookstore for a certain dollar amount. With my effort to create a zero-cost lab manual I wanted to make our students free from this unnecessary financial burden, and finally, iii) by creating an OER, I hoped to inspire other academicians and public health professionals to introduce laboratory skills in the curriculum early on.  With new and updated laboratory exercises, I was able to equip students with necessary hands-on- lab skills that would place them at an advantage as they move on to engage with higher-level courses in the field and furthermore if they decide to transfer to a baccalaureate degree program. These lab training would also be valuable, once students are ready to join the workforce in the field. 

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-14
Faculty moderator:
BG-14

ANALYSIS OF THE GENOME OF THE STREPTOMYCES PHAGE ANGELA. Bushra Khan and Urszula Golebiewska. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Angela was isolated from Steptomyces griseus ATCC 10137 in University of Evansville, IN from an enriched soil sample by Angela Jones. Queensborough SEA Phages students were very grateful for the opportunity to adopt Angela. Angela belongs to the family Siphoveridae with a large head and long non-contractile tail and forms small circular plaques. The objective of this research was to annotate and analyze the genome of Angela. We used DNA master, Pharmerator, HHpred, BLAST, and other programs. Angela has a genome length of 133582 bp, 236 predicted protein coding ORFS, 44 tRNAs, and 1 tmRNA. This genome belongs to the cluster BE, and the sub-cluster BE1, and has a lytic cycle. The closest relatives to Angela are Mulchmansion and LilMartin. Sub-Cluster BE1 has relatively low GC content of 49.8%, average genomes of 133,088bp and includes large number of tRNAs - 44.3. Angela just like all the other sub-cluster members has a very large terminal repeat. The first 21 genes are repeated at the end of the genome. The tRNAs are scattered around the genome rather than being localized to a specific segment.

Time: ; Location:
ID: BG-15
Faculty moderator:
BG-15

PCR DETECTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS (GMO). Stephany Rampaul and Sarbani Ghoshal. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Societal impact of biotechnology may be associated with genetically modified organisms (GMO). No technology is without risk, but society is more concerned with, if the benefits outweigh the risks. Many food products today are derived from plants and animals that may have been genetically modified to obtain desirable traits through recombinant DNA technology. Despite many advantages, consumers often are concerned that manipulating the genomes of food plants and animals through recombinant DNA technology can lead to the production of foods that are unsafe for human consumption. Our present experimental hypothesis was to investigate few vegetables and fruits of everyday use for their genetic modification. In our experiment, we extracted DNA from bell paper, apple, almond, corn, corn chips, strawberry, radish. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using three sets of primers, namely for Chloroplast gene segment, CaMV 35S promoter and Bacillus thuringiensis (BT/cry1f) was performed to detect which food samples were genetically modified. Chloroplast gene is present in all plant products, CaMV 35S promoter is commonly used to introduce transgenes, while BT gene provides insecticidal properties. Our gel electrophoresis data detected band at 500bp for chloroplast gene for mostly all food items and indicated that DNA isolation and PCR run were successful for our experiment. Whereas bands for BT/cry1f and CaMV 35S, at 125bp and 200bp respectively, were observed in corn chips and corn kernels and indicated those food products were genetically modified. Our experiment, however, was limited with the set of primers used while identifying a food product as a GMO.​

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BG-16
Faculty moderator:
BG-16

TRANSFORMING WITH RAINBOW PLASMIDS. General-Microbiology-class General-Microbiology-class and Monica Trujillo. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the movement of genetic information between organisms, and it is an important force driving the evolution of prokaryotic organisms. An example of HGT is transformation, the process which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell. Transformation of bacteria with plasmids is important not only for its role in bacterial physiology and evolution but also because this mechanism has been essential for genetic engineering. Plasmids are small, often circular DNA molecules that replicate independently of the bacterial chromosome. They generally carry a small number of genes, including those that confer resistance to antibiotics. We will present here the result of a transformation experiment.We used the standard transformation protocol to transform E. coli competent cells with plasmids that code for gene that produce secondary metabolites of distinct colors. E. coli chemical competent cells were transformed with purified plasmids. The transformed cells were streaked on plates that contained Kanamycin (Kan). An aliquot of competent cells not transformed with the plasmid was plated on Kan-plates as negative control.The negative control plate showed no growth demonstrating that the only reason E. coli cells could now grow on Kan-plates was that they had acquired the plasmid. Only when the competent cells had been transformed with the plasmids, they were able to grow on the Kan-plates. Depending on the plasmid used to transform the cells different colors were seen on the plates.

Time: ; Location:
ID: BG-17
Faculty moderator:
BG-17

ZIRCON AGES OF GLACIAL SEDIMENTS ON LONG ISLAND. Tea Plummer and Rondi Davies. Biological Sciences and Geology Department.

Long Island was created when sediments were pushed and compiled during the last Ice Age's glacial movements. Researchers have debated about the number of glaciers that moved over Long Island during the past 100,000 years, their direction of motion, and the provenance of glacial deposits. The goal of this study is to determine the travel direction, travel distance, and source of the glaciers that formed Long Island by dating zircons deposited in the glacial deposits. Our methods include sample collection from the North shores of eastern and western Long Island, sieving and collecting sand of 250 microns diameter, and separating magnetic and dense minerals from the sand. U-Pb age dating of mounted zircon minerals that were separated from the sand will analyzed to help us identify the origin of the rocks and whether they are predominantly derived from ~1000 Ma Grenville basement to the northwest, ~500 Ma Taconic basement to the north, ~350 Ma Acadian basement to the north northeast, or ~280 Ma basement to the northeast.

Business

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL, GDL, WI
ID: BU-1
Faculty moderator:
BU-1

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF AN AI BOT IN SERVICE OF THE US E-SPORT ASSOCIATION. Zachary Amachee, Tyler Ramcharan, Nazmul Huda, and Roumen Vragov. Business Department.

Our team is working alongside the US E-sports association to analyze, forecast, and develop an AI bot. We are using the Excel skills we learned from our CIS206 course that we are currently taking to collect preliminary data associated with the first few tests of the bot. We plan to analyze and visualize the data and use it to provide recommendations for improvement in the AI bot design. As we are working in a team environment we are learning how to address multiple points of view with regards to the most efficient way to develop the spreadsheet.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL, GDL
ID: BU-2
Faculty moderator:
BU-2

MANAGING EMPLOYMENT RECORDS FOR UNITY FOR EQUALITY. Lamisa Poonam, Christina Chagias, and Roumen Vragov. Business Department.

Unity for Equality is a global community organization based in New York City that aims to help the community by tackling poverty. They mainly help the students, elderly, immigrants, minorities who are compromised due to financial instability, health issues, lack of employment or education. We will be using different data dependent visualization and analysis features and implement those in the spreadsheet to make it easier for them to access and track their employment records.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: ASL, GDL
ID: BU-3
Faculty moderator:
BU-3

PROCESSING GOODWILL NY/NJ FINANCIAL DATA. Sandra Maitlall, Josephine Wong, and Roumen Vragov. Business Department.

Goodwill NY/NJ is a non-profit organization that helps veterans, homeless people, people with disabilities like autism, cerebral palsy, with educational training, technological training, job training to help them find long-term employment and improve their lives. In our project we are using the skills we acquired in the CIS206 class to analyze and visualize the information contained in their financial statements to help them make better decisions. We will share our experience in working with a large and very diverse non-profit organization.

Time: ; Location:
ID: BU-4
Faculty moderator:
BU-4

APPS, DATA, AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS. Nickole Penaloza and Roumen Vragov. Business Department.

We are currently experiencing a timeline where consumers look towards businesses to provide apps and all the benefits that come with it. I will be interviewing and surveying app developers about the benefits of apps, as well as surveying consumers about their feelings towards them. These perspectives will be critical for future business owners. 

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: BU-5
Faculty moderator:
BU-5

A MOBILE BEAUTY, HEALTH, AND WELLNESS BAR. Khadija Kamara and Roumen Vragov. Business Department.

My research is a feasibility study for a mobile beauty and health and wellness bar called Royal Class. This will be an app that allows customers to chose whether they want full beauty bar experience in the comfort of their home or the beauty bus. They get full access and first dibs to natural beauty products discounts and so much more. This app seeks to revolutionize and take home service styling to the next level for customers. I plan to conduct the research by interviewing both stylists and possible customers and also searching previous publications and articles on the topic to further examine how to make this business idea a reality without it being too expensive.

Chemistry

Time: ; Location:
ID: CH-1
Faculty moderator:
CH-1

DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTROSPUN IONIC LIQUID-POLYMER MEMBRANES. 1Elijah Bernard, 1Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, 2Sophia Suarez, and 2Domenec Paterno. 1Chemistry Department, 2Physics Department.

Ionic liquid (IL)-polymer mixtures are emerging as a class of smart materials, which can be tuned to exhibit both the attractive properties of ILs such as low flammability, low volatility and inherent conductivity and the solid support of polymers. In many devices, liquid electrolytes are problematic and solid electrolytes are more advantageous due to higher thermal stability and lower predisposition to leakage. Electrospinning of IL-polymer mixtures has been reported as an advantageous technique to produce fibers and membranes with advantages over traditional smart nanocomposite materials. In this work, we explore the preparation of IL-polymer mixtures optimized for producing highly conductive electrospun membranes, by variation of the type of IL and polymer used and the ratios in which they are combined. We report here on the preparation of imidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ionic liquids mixed in varying concentrations with polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The polymers were dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) and mixed with the ILs dissolved in DMF. Thus far, the challenge in preparing these IL-polymer mixtures, is finding the optimum ratio of IL:polymer that can be electrospun without issue. Preliminary results show that using 4:1 or 2:1 weight percent mixtures of BMIM NTf2 : PVC in DMF created a solid and a gel respectively both of which could not be electrospun. Ongoing and future work will focus on varying the ratios of the IL-Polymer mixtures as well as the type of IL and the type of polymer. We anticipate that highly conducting electrospun IL-Polymer membranes will make important contributions when implemented into energy conversion devices such as Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-2
Faculty moderator:
CH-2

THERMODYNAMIC STUDY OF ESTERIFICATION OF PROPIONIC ACID USING A MICROWAVE REACTOR: DETERMINATION OF ENTHALPY, ENTROPY AND FREE ENERGY CHANGE.. Lijie Wan and Jun Shin. Chemistry Department.

Microwave reactor is a new technology and has become an invaluable tool adopted in many areas of science laboratories due to the convenience including temperature, pressure, and power controls. The application of a microwave reactor was further extended to the thermodynamic study of esterification reaction with the merit of convenient temperature control of a microwave reactor. The equilibrium constants of the esterification reaction between propionic acid and isopropyl alcohol at the temperatures of 40 - 90°C were determined from the initial and equilibrium concentrations of propionic acid through the acid-base titration using a 0.5 M NaOH solution. Thereafter, the thermodynamic data (H and S) of the reaction were calculated from the linear relationship between the equilibrium constants obtained (link) and the equilibrium temperatures (1/T) using a microwave reactor. The obtained data were compared to the data calculated from the acetic acid/isopropyl alcohol reaction to determine the effect of alkyl chain length in acid. This result will extend the usage of microwave reactor to a tool of the thermodynamic study which can be easily added to an undergraduate laboratory curriculum. The application of a microwave reactor will make the thermodynamic study easy, simple and faster due to the convenience of the temperature control of the instrument and its safety feature.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-3
Faculty moderator:
CH-3

SYNTHESIS OF DOUBLE REACTIVE CYANINE DYE BUILDING BLOCKS. Kiana Korpacz and Zhou Zhou. Chemistry Department.

Fluorescent imaging has brought unprecedented insights into both molecular and cellular activities. Cyanine dyes are one of the most widely studied organic fluorophores owing to their photophysical properties and structural variety. The carboxylic acid group in cyanine dyes is chemically activated and covalently bonded to the target biomolecules, but the variety of this approach is limited to carbonyl chemistry. Based on the retro-synthetic analysis, a synthetic route was designed to construct cyanine dyes with both amino and carboxylic acid groups. With two reactive groups, these new dyes could offer more choices in site-specific fluorescent labeling and significantly broaden its applications. A total synthesis was designed for three target compounds. They have 550 nm, 650 nm and 750 nm emission respectively. All of them can be synthesized from several similar building blocks. In this semester, we synthesized these building blocks. First, the potassium 2,3,3-trimethyl-3H-indole-5-sulfonate salt was synthesized using 4-hydrazineylbenzenesulfonic acid and 3-methylbutan-2-one via the classic Fisher indole synthesis protocol. Then the t-butyl aziridine-1-carboxylate was synthesized by treating BOC protected 2-bromoethan-1-amine with potassium t-butoxide. The indole piece was then coupled with 6-bromohexanoic acid. The product of this reaction is building block A. Another indole piece was also coupled with t-butyl aziridine-1-carboxylate to form building block B. With both building blocks in hand, our future goal is to combine them with different middle pieces that are commercially available.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-4
Faculty moderator:
CH-4

POLYRHODANINE METAL NANOPARTICLES SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS. Nickayla Spence and Moni Chauhan. Chemistry Department.

Nanoparticles are extensively researched for new medical diagnostics and targeted treatments for cancer. Core-shell nanoparticles and nanotubes are highly functional materials, and their properties can be modified by either changing the constituting materials or the core to shell ratio. Different applications are performed by coating the core particles, such as surface modification, the ability to increase the stability, functionality, controlled release of the core, dispersibility, and enhancing photoluminescence. In our research, we are investigating core-shell and nanotubular synthesis of polyrhodanine Copper nanoparticles in a single-step oxidation-reduction reaction. In the first step of the reaction, the rhodamine monomer forms a one-dimensional complex with copper ions due to coordinative interaction. In the second step, oxidative, reductive polymerization of rhodamine occurs with the reduction of copper ions. The process is carried out in the microwave at 80 oC in ethanol. The morphology of the materials was analyzed in situ via infrared (IR) spectroscopy, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) analysis. Rhodanine derivatives have been found to control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C (HCV), and Dengue virus proteins. Detailed background research on these applications and the future treatment of these materials for anti-viral, anticancer, and antimicrobial activity and their efficacy as an adsorbent of heavy metals and dyes will be presented

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-5
Faculty moderator:
CH-5

IMIDAZOLIUM AND PYRROLIDINIUM THIOETHER FUNCTIONALIZED IONIC LIQUIDS. Mehreen Mughal, Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, Gopal Subramaniam, Edward Castner Jr., and James Wishart. Chemistry Department.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are promising as safer, alternative electrolytes in electrochemical devices, including rechargeable lithium cells, solar cells, and supercapacitors. However, most ILs have significantly higher viscosities than electrolytes based on conventional solvents, resulting in slower charge transport. Recent reports have shown that replacing IL alkyl side chains with short thioether side chains lowers IL viscosity significantly in imidazolium ILs, but not in pyrrolidinium and phosphonium ILs. We hypothesize that imidazolium NTf2 ILs with thioether side chains will exhibit lower viscosities in comparison to those with alkyl and ether side chains. Research reveals that data is largely missing from the literature on the synthesis and characterization of thioether-substituted ILs of varying structural types, particularly those with poly-thioether side chains covalently linked to the N atom of imidazolium and pyrrolidinium cation rings. We report here on the synthesis of imidazolium and pyrrolidinium thioether-functionalized ILs. Six ILs, bearing 3-4 atom long thioether side chains, were prepared by reacting methylimidazole and methylpyrrolidine with selected thioether chlorides followed by metathesis with lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide to produce the desired ILs. The structures of the ILs were confirmed using H-1 and C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This work is a part of a larger collaborative project where we seek to examine the atomistic origin of viscosity by comparing ILs with ether and thioether side chains. Results are expected to make important contributions to the design of ILs optimized for larger-scale use in energy storage devices such as batteries.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-6
Faculty moderator:
CH-6

DETERMINATION OF THE REFRACTIVE INDEX OF SODIUM ACETATE BY THE EXTENSION METHOD. Jonathan Lee and Jun Shin. Chemistry Department.

The extension method, which was developed based on the observation of a good linear relationship between the percent mass of solution (solid solute and liquid solvent mixture) and its refractive index, has been used to determine the refractive index of solid compounds such as fatty acids and ionic compounds. In the system, a plot of refractive index vs percent mass was obtained in low concentration ranges (0 - 24%), and the line of the linear plot was extrapolated to 100% mass (i.e. pure solid) where the refractive index of the solid was calculated. The extension method has been further applied to measure the refractive index of sodium acetate because it showed good solubility in water and some alcohols such as methanol and ethylene glycol. In the experiment, a linear plot was obtained between the refractive index and % mass of sodium acetate in a solvent, and a first order linear equation was calculated based on the plot. By applying 100 to the % mass variable (100% mass means pure solute, the solid sodium acetate) in the linear equation, the refractive index of sodium acetate was indirectly determined in the solvent. Based on the data measured in aqueous solution of sodium acetate, a linear equation (e.g. y=0.001369x + 1.331166) was obtained, then a value of 100% was applied to get the refractive index of sodium acetate, which was 1.468. After two more trials, 1.469(1) was determined as the refractive index of sodium acetate in water (Lit. Value: 1.464).

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-7
Faculty moderator:
CH-7

TAILORING THE PROPERTIES OF IMIDAZOLIUM-THIOETHER IONIC LIQUIDS THROUGH STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION. Ho Martin Yuen and Sharon Lall-Ramnarine. Chemistry Department.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are attractive as specialty liquids that can be tailored for a wide range of applications as alternatives to traditional solvents. Particularly, in energy storage devices that depend on their ability to transport charge as electrolytic fluids. However, their large-scale adoption is hampered by their relatively high viscosity, which arises from interactions between the ions. Although many researchers focus on reducing viscosity by structural modification of IL ions much remains unclear about the intra- and intermolecular interactions between the side chains on the ions that influence IL properties. We report here on the synthesis and purification of imidazolium ILs where the hydrogen at the C-2 position of the ring was replaced with a methyl group aimed at blocking H-bonding between the side chain, the ring and neighboring ions. The imidazolium cations were synthesized to bear thioether functionalized side chains recently shown to lower IL viscosity. The ILs were prepared by reacting 1,2-dimethylimidazole with selected (alkylthio)alkyl chlorides followed by metathesis with lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide. The structures of the ILs were confirmed by 1H and 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This work is part of a larger collaborative project with the Johnson group at Yale University, using spectroscopic studies to assess the role of hydrogen bonding in ether and thioether functionalized ILs as a tool to control ionic liquid viscosities.

Time: ; Location:
ID: CH-8
Faculty moderator:
CH-8

IONIC LIQUID-POLYMER GELS FOR GAS SEPARATIONS. Shameir Nembhard, Sharon Lall-Ramnarine, Gopal Subramaniam, and Edward Castner Jr.. Chemistry Department.

Ionic liquids (ILs), with their characteristic low vapor pressures and tunable properties, are potentially suitable for membrane-based separation of gases under vacuum conditions, but their viscosities are too low. Ion gels prepared from ionic liquid-polymer mixtures have shown promise as solid supports that facilitate the separation of gases while retaining IL properties. However, key attributes of ion gels are still poorly understood, and both the structure of the IL and the IL/polymer ratio need to be optimized to achieve good separation of gaseous mixtures. This project aims to develop improved and energy-efficient separation mechanisms that will reduce hazardous gas releases into our environment. We report on the preparation of selected ion gels. Ionic liquids based on tetraalkyl-phosphonium and ammonium cations and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide anions were synthesized and purified in our labs. The alkyl groups on the IL cations were selected by design to form a significant non-polar region, and thus optimized for use as gas separation membranes. The polymeric material used in the ion gels is a common battery development diblock copolymer, PDVF-co-HFP. H-1 and C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to confirm the structure of the ILs, and they were combined with five weight percent of the di-block co-polymer to produce ion gels. Preliminary results reveal soft, gel-like materials rather than thin membranes. The IL/polymer ratio will be varied to produce membranes optimized for gas separations and the ion gels will be characterized using differential scanning calorimetry, high-energy X-ray scattering and Pulse-Gradient Spin Echo NMR spectroscopy. 

Time: ; Location:
ID: CH-9
Faculty moderator:
CH-9

DEGRADATION OF POLY(O-TOLUIDINE) POROUS MICROSPHERES FOR PAYLOAD DELIVERY APPLICATIONS. Che Chang and David Sarno. Chemistry Department.

Porous polymer capsules are of interest for cargo loading and delivery and have biomedical and anticorrosion applications. We have previously developed a single surfactant water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion method that produces porous microspheres of poly(o-toluidine), POT, and related polymers. We are now exploring simple methods by which they may be degraded in order to release a potential cargo. SEM images indicate that porous POT spheres are indefinitely stable if left undisturbed in water, but are significantly damaged by stirring, which reveals their interior. The capsules become increasingly fragmented over time and are completely destroyed after one week of stirring. Very similar results are observed in 25% and 50% aqueous acetone; however, exposing them to 25% and 50% aqueous NMP produces mostly irregular aggregates within one hour. Our early results suggest that porous POT spheres could slowly release a payload over time simply by stirring, or more rapidly in the appropriate solvent. In addition to time and solvent, we intend to examine the effects of temperature and pH on capsule degradation.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CH-10
Faculty moderator:
CH-10

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SINGLE-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES AND IMIDAZOLIUM AND PYRROLIDINIUM IONIC LIQUIDS. Bethva Robert, Ho Martin Yuen, Tirandai Hemraj-Benny, and Sharon Lall-Ramnarine. Chemistry Department.

Supercapacitors have great potential to serve as efficient energy storage devices. However, to facilitate more widespread usage in practical applications, developing more efficient electrodes and electrolytes is necessary. Carbon nanotubes can serve as effective electrodes due to their high surface area. Additionally, ionic liquids can act as excellent electrolytes due to their expansive electrochemical windows. It is necessary to investigate the specific interactions between single-walled carbon nanotubes and various ionic liquids to contribute to the development of optimal electrodes and electrolytes for energy storage devices. In this comparative study, mixtures containing single-walled carbon nanotubes and ionic liquids containing imidazolium and pyrrolidinium cations coupled with bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide (NTf2-) anion were investigated by Mid-IR spectroscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy.

Communication, Theatre & Media Production

Time: ; Location:
ID: CTMP-1
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-1

THE ATTIC: A SHORT FILM. Max Aurich, Eileen White, and Kahlil Garner. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Film and Media Production students learn the creation and aesthetics of video production in FMP 141 - Introduction to Digital Media Production. Max Aurich's chilling short film The Attic deftly evokes primal fear as it asks the central question behind many great horror films: "What's in the attic?"

Time: ; Location:
ID: CTMP-2
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-2

RED CHRISTMAS: A SHORT FILM. Erin Feeley, Eileen White, and Kahlil Garner. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Film and Media Production students learn the creation and aesthetics of video production in FMP 141 - Introduction to Digital Media Production. In Erin Feeley's short film Red Christmas, a young couple spends the holidays together with good music and good food; the Christmas lights and romance hide a sinister truth in this reverse "Romeo & Juliet."

Time: ; Location:
ID: CTMP-3
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-3

PHOTOGS: 911, NY AT NIGHT. Usman Ali Chohan, Kahlil Garner, and Eileen White. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Film and Media Production students learn the creation and aesthetics of video production in FMP 141 - Introduction to Digital Media Production. Usman Ali Chohan's riveting portrait documentary takes viewers behind the wheel and into the mind of New York City news stringer Daniel Valls. Chohan's film explores freelance news videography, a little known but particularly important aspect of journalism. News professionals like Daniel capture the accidents, crime, and chaos of New York City at night, so that we can read the news during the day. Come along for the ride!

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CTMP-4
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-4

STAGE MANAGEMENT - PREPARING FOR THE PROFESSIONAL PROCESS. George Waller, Julian Jimenez, and Jonathan Kilom. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Theatre produces live performances on campus every semester. Each production is a collaboration between students, faculty, and staff, including curricular and co-curricular activities. Technical Theatre students learn the skill set of all sides of the Theatre, including that of the electricians, carpenters, designers, and managers. This semester, George Waller served as the Stage Manager for the spring production, collaborating with professors, professionals, the director, and an alumni mentor. The lifecycle of a production has many stages; throughout this process, Waller's role as Stage Manager adapted and changed in order to fully realize the show. Waller learned how to facilitate communication between his peers of student performers and technicians, along with the faculty, staff, and industry designers who served on the production team. Throughout the show's lifecycle, Waller first tracked the development of the new script's dialogue and the creation and changes to blocking; during the technical development of the show, Waller collaborated with the production team in order to fully integrate the design elements, recording the lighting and sound cues; and finally, during the public performances, Waller oversaw the company, called the cues, and ran the show.

Time: ; Location:
ID: CTMP-5
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-5

PHOTOGS: 911, NY AT NIGHT. Kahlil Garner and Eileen White. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

FMP 141 - Photogs: 911, NY at Night by Usman Ali Chohan, Usman Ali Chohan's riveting portrait documentary takes viewers behind the wheel and into the mind of Daniel Valls a New York City stringer. The film captures a little known but very important aspect of journalism. News professionals like Daniel capture the violence, accidents, and chaos of New York City at night so that we can read the news during the day. Come along for the ride!

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: GDL, UR
ID: CTMP-6
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-6

EMBODYING INDIVIDUALITY IN ART: LIKKLE BUT TALLAWAH (SMALL BUT POWERFUL). Jasira McIntosh and Heather Huggins. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Theatre majors participate in Theatre 153: Voice and Speech for the Actor, which engages the high-impact practices of Undergraduate Research (UR) and Global and Diversity Learning (GDL). In the course, students document their development in self-use and self-expression as they rehearse and perform a series of projects. Jasira McIntosh (acting concentration) will share how her unfolding journey with language and creativity complements her identity as a versatile, young woman. She will demonstrate how she utilizes the skills and strategies taught in this course, supplemented with her individuality, to produce meaningful art. Her art is heavily influenced by her experiences as a Jamaican (born and raised), person of color, living in the United States.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: CTMP-7
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-7

DIVING INTO THE DEEP END: A JOURNEY THROUGH QCC THEATRE. Celeste Abramowitz, C. Julian Jimenez, and Heather Huggins. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Theatre produces live performances on campus every semester. Each production is a collaboration between students, faculty, and staff, including curricular and co-curricular activities. In this co-curricular capstone presentation, Celeste Abramowitz (theatre major, acting concentration) reflects on her experiential learning journey across diverse performance opportunities at QCC.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR, GDL
ID: CTMP-8
Faculty moderator:
CTMP-8

A SMALL KID IN A BIG WORLD - EXPLORING WHO I AM. Derick Konan and Heather Huggins. Communication, Theatre & Media Production.

Queensborough Theatre majors participate in Theatre 153: Voice and Speech for the Actor, which engages the high-impact practices of undergraduate research (UR) and global and diversity learning (GDL). In the course, students document their development in self-use and self-expression as they rehearse and perform a series of projects. Derick Konan (performance concentration) will share performance excerpts, while reflecting on his journey to cultivate authenticity and confidence in communication.

Engineering Technology

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: ET-1
Faculty moderator:
ET-1

UTILIZING MATLAB CODE FOR NANODIAMOND FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS. 1Roberto Bardales, 1Dugwon Seo, 2Carlos Meriles, 2Richard Monge, and 2Tom Delord. 1Engineering Technology Department, 2Physics Department.

The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamonds, which is made up of a nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy in the carbon lattice, has been recently used as a nanoscale sensor because its fluorescence intensity is coupled to its spin state. This stable nanoscale sensor allows us to quantitatively determine temperature, magnetic fields, or electric fields through its optically detected magnetic resonance spectra. Much interest has emerged in studying superconductivity in low temperature systems using specially fabricated NV-based scanning probes. As an alternative, nanodiamonds (ND) can also be used to study these systems. Mutually, the superconductor (SC) can also shed some light into the reason why NDs' possess relatively poor spin properties compared to bulk NV's. Here, we deposited ND's on top of a SC to study both the fluorescence effects of the NV's as a function of temperature and study superconductivity of a high temperature superconductor, Thallium barium calcium copper oxide (TBCCO). We developed and implemented a MATLAB code to automatically analyze the fluorescence intensities of each ND particle in a confocal microscopy image. Preliminary data shows that compared to bare ND's, the ND's on the SC maintain their fluorescence intensities at low temperatures. Ultimately, this paves the way to engineer nanodiamonds with better spin properties.​

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: GDL
ID: ET-2
Faculty moderator:
ET-2

PREVENT CATASTROPHIC FLOODING DURING HURRICANE SEASON BY IMPROVING THE ARCHITECTURE OF HOMES. Zircarmel Dorcely and Huixin Wu. Engineering Technology Department.

Many homeowners are financially and emotionally impacted when natural catastrophes such as hurricanes strike their houses. Flooding is among the effects of a storm and hurricane. This project originated after Hurricane Ida flooded numerous residences in New York, inflicting economic damage and even lives. The purpose of the project is to develop various changes to existing houses in order to reduce the impact of floods. It entails creating a model of a house and determining the height that the water from a flood may reach the house based on the various prototypes of barriers surrounding it.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: WI
ID: ET-3
Faculty moderator:
ET-3

CELLULAR PHONE HOLDER THREE-DIMENSIONAL DESIGN. Evan Lin and Raymond Lam. Engineering Technology Department.

The goal of this project is to design a hands-free device for holding a cellular phone of any model and write three low-stakes reports and a high-stakes technical report for the Writing Intensive Course of MT-293. The device holds a cellular phone that displays global position system (GPS) information to a driver while he/she is driving an automobile. The device provides a platform for holding the phone, so the driver can steer the car safely with two hands on the wheel. The device is an assembly of three components of a base, an arm, and a case. One low-stakes report is required from each of the three components. The high-stakes report is needed for the assembly of the three components. Audience of the report is a novice in SolidWorks software. Writer of the report is a mechanical engineering designer and an expert in SolidWorks software. A three-dimensional design of cellular phone holder using SolidWorks computer-aided design software is presented at the symposium.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: ET-4
Faculty moderator:
ET-4

AUTOMATIC PERSONALITY RECOGNITION USING TEXT. Han Chu and Guozhen An. Engineering Technology Department.

Automatic personality recognition is useful for many computational applications, including recommendation systems, dating websites, and adaptive dialogue systems. There have been numerous successful approaches to classify the "Big Five" personality traits from a speaker's utterance, but these have largely relied on judgments of personality obtained from external raters listening to the utterances in isolation. This work classifies personality traits based on lexical features.

English

Time: ; Location:
ID: EN-1
Faculty moderator:
EN-1

WUTHERING HEIGHTS: GOTHIC AND DOMESTIC ELEMENTS. Eliana Spector and Linda Reesman. English Department.

The student presenter will illustrate her research project using a power-point presentation. Her topic of investigation is to show how a novel such as Wuthering Heights overlapped both literary elements of the gothic and the domestic. How is that these two elements work in harmony? Closer analysis of the events and characters will be used to explain this dilemma.

Health, Physical Education, and Dance

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: CIE
ID: PE-1
Faculty moderator:
PE-1

THE FINE PRINT. Shelli Ligonde, Nyale Mabry, and Nicole McClam. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

"The Fine Print," which will premiere on May 4, 2022, is one of the pieces the dance majors at QCC will perform in their upcoming production of Dance Workshop. It is also participating in The Common Read. Claudia Rankine's "Citizen: An American Lyric" inspired much of the choreography of this piece. We begin the process defining the word "citizen" and reading the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. We then read several sections of Citizen and used them as jumping-off points for discussion and the creation of choreography. Every rehearsal began with a check-in and ended with a check-out to gauge the dancers' feelings, determine their knowledge of a topic, or determine the next steps of the process. This container created with the check-in/-outs allowed the rehearsal to be a "brave" space where the students could openly speak without fear of judgment and build empathy and community amongst the dancers. The 21st-century dancer needs to be a thinking dancer. Beyond technical proficiency, dancers need to engage in research, respond critically verbally and physically, and be active agents in the choreographic process. Participating in The Common Read allows the students to explore a research-based choreographic process that is in conversation with another artist's work so that they critically think about the performance while it is in process. In addition to creating a meaningful work that will invite the audience to reflect on citizenship and belonging, this process intends to empower the dancers/students, build empathy, and expand their ideas about dance making.

Time: ; Location:
ID: PE-2
Faculty moderator:
PE-2

CASE STUDIES FROM MASSAGE THERAPY CLASS. Katie Hur, Bilgis Bengu, Carmen Caceres, and Rezan Akpinar. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

  As an evidence-based practice massage therapy is one of the essential components of the complementary medicine. Our students after finishing the program go through a licensing exam and can work in a private practice as well as in medical settings such as hospitals, health care facilities. In these clinical settings they are expected to integrate research into their practice.   Case studies or reports are research methodology that are integrated into the clinical field that are used as a guide by other healthcare practitioners, insurance companies and patients. Students in Eastern III class integrate knowledge from Eastern I and II classes to assess, create a treatment plan and protocol, execute treatment, and evaluate outcomes of their treatment. Students are expected to do literature review on their cases, find out viable treatment protocols from western and eastern aspect, use learned theories to assess and treat their patients. They report their findings in a case report format.   The following students will be presenting their experiences. Bilgis Bengu, Marina Bobshtayn, Carmen Caceres, Damon Dolabalite, Katie Hur, Li Lin, Catherine Masankay. 

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PE-3
Faculty moderator:
PE-3

"WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME?". Brook Lyn Gonzalez and Aviva Geismar. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

"Why Can't You See Me?" was Brook Lyn Gonzalez's final project in Choreography 1 class. The two and a half minute dance video is a portrait of family dysfunction. A central figure struggles to be truly seen by her guardians. Using partnering, strong gestural motifs, and video editing techniques, the danced trio tells a personal yet universal story.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PE-4
Faculty moderator:
PE-4

"MEMORIES". Andre Murph and Aviva Geismar. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

"Memories" was André's final project for Choreography 1 class. Recorded as a site-specific dance on QCC's great lawn, the piece uses pop icon Adele's hit recording, "Easy on Me" as a foundation to portray an individual transcending past trauma. Videoed at different times of the day and in multiple light conditions, the piece creates a sense of time passing. Incorporating dancing that is at once technically virtuosic and deeply personal along with elegant video editing, it portrays a solo figure struggling to come to terms with his past.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PE-5
Faculty moderator:
PE-5

"I'M THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Jade Medrano-Osorio and Aviva Geismar. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

My dance project is based on how mentally, emotionally and spiritually tired a person could be and somehow still push through and overcome. We are always told, "There's a light at the end of the tunnel," but what if we, ourselves, are that light? We are our own hope. We are the ones who believe in ourselves. We are the ones who fight our own battles. We are the only ones who fight our battles. We are the only ones who have the power to make change and take control. At the end of the day, all we have is ourselves. This is a dance exploring the profound fatigue of always having to fight our own battles.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PE-6
Faculty moderator:
PE-6

"ACHE". Phillip Pettiford and Aviva Geismar. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

Phillip Pettiford's solo work, "Ache," was created as a midterm project in Choreography I class. The piece explores acute physical and emotional pain through the use of physical restriction and unusual movement qualities. Starting on the floor in a confined space, the solo figure seems to struggle to rise, grappling with internal paroxysms that fold him in on himself or crash him violently onto his back. He lies on his side, his limbs racing as if running but getting nowhere. Later he comes to his feet, but the tension, awkwardness and confinement remain. When the camera zooms past him at the end of the piece, we sense he is still stuck in this ongoing battle.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: WI
ID: PE-7
Faculty moderator:
PE-7

EKPHRASTIC POETRY AND THE BALLET SWAN LAKE. Sayeeda Anif, Tashi Lloyd, Cheyenne Murray, and Carrie Stern. Health, Physical Education, and Dance Department.

Ekphrasis means "description" in Greek. An Ekphrastic Poem is inspired by, or a description of, art. Writing about dance, translating movement into words is difficult. Poetry allowed for creative expression of what was seen and led to a different portrait of dance by eliminating ordinary and stereotyped descriptions of dancing and the stage. Ekphrastic poems required us to use vivid language to describe movement and movement qualities creating a verbal picture of dancing. Our poems also needed to share a little of the story of the ballet and our experience watching the ballet. The Ekphrastic Poetry Project began with watching 2 versions of the ballet Swan Lake-the ending of the classical version for reference and a modern version. These included a hip-hop version, one that blended African dance and ballet, an almost all male version, and one performed in a large pool of water. Several also changed the usual gender roles of ballet. We 1st wrote a draft. Then we provided our group with Reader Responses to each other's poems using constructive critique practices, followed by our final drafts. For this Presentation we will briefly introduce the ballet that inspired our Ekphrastic Poem followed by a poetry reading. The variety of poems shows how poetry can both be itself and express another art form.

History

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR, WI
ID: HI-1
Faculty moderator:
HI-1

WOMEN OF RUSSIA FROM ELITE TO SERVANTS: HOW DIFFERENT THEY ARE?. Vladislav Molchanov and Emily Tai. History Department.

To do the research on my final project paper for History 152: Women in the World History, I chose as a primary source a translation of the sixteenth-century book "The Domostroi: Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible" which is edited by Carolyn Johnston Pouncy. The overall idea of my work focuses on the position of sixteenth-century women in Russia, and I will have a discussion on the power play between gender roles and how it differs on the social ladder from my perspective. I will discuss the difference between the authority held by elite representatives of the female population in their household and their servants. A further examination and understanding of my primary and secondary sources on the gender differences of that time will help me investigate the interclass differences of the female population. I will focus on the evidence in this work, digging into the contrast of the higher- and lower-class female positions in the households and how those differences affected the life experience of women in Russia in contemporary and historical times. I chose this source because, as a student born and raised in Russia, I wanted to investigate the influence that the practices described in this text might have on cultural practices in the country's modern era. My knowledge of Russian will also enable me to critique certain aspects of the translation of this work into English. With the practical knowledge that I have from being born and raised there, I will discuss observed tendencies of modern female life that were affected by the country's cultural past. However, my rhetorical observation on this point will be purely theoretical because, as a male, I am just an observer, not a participant.

Kupferberg Holocaust Center

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: *KHC-1
Faculty moderator:
*KHC-1

KHC EXHIBITION RESEARCH-ARTIFACTS ON DISPLAY IN "THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS" EXHIBIT. Nicholas Florido and Marisa Hollywood. Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

In this presentation, KHC Student Intern Nicholas Florido discusses his research on a small collection of artifacts currently on display in the KHC exhibition, "The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide." Florido examined currency and stamps from the KHC's collection that were produced at the Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto. He conducted research on the history of Theresienstadt and produced an annotated bibliography of his resources. He then found similar or related artifacts, images, and testimony from other Holocaust institutions to provide more context for these materials. As a student in the Museum and Gallery Studies program at QCC, Florido then wrote expanded object label text for each artifact.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: *KHC-2
Faculty moderator:
*KHC-2

KHC EXHIBITION RESEARCH-UNWELCOMED WORDS: NAZI ANTI-JEWISH STREET SIGNS. Elizabeth Hanson and Marisa Hollywood. Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

In this presentation, KHC Student Intern Elizabeth Hanson discusses her research that focused on the KHC exhibition, "Unwelcomed Words: Nazi Anti-Jewish Street Signs." First Hanson examined the exhibition catalog to familiarize herself with the public signage that were used to dehumanize Jewish leading up to and during WWII. She then created a summary and keyword list and conducted research on the topic with an annotated bibliography of her references. She found relevant materials donated to the other Holocaust organizations that pertain to this topic and chose five artifacts/images for further study. Then she wrote summaries of each artifact/image that include her research and put the material in the context of the war experience as a supplemental resource to accompany the catalog.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: *KHC-3
Faculty moderator:
*KHC-3

KHC EXHIBITION RESEARCH-GENOCIDE AMONG THE FLOWERS: SEYMOUR KAFTAN'S PONARY PAINTINGS. Alexander Djogovic and Marisa Hollywood. Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

In this presentation, KHC Student Intern Alexander Djogovic discusses his research on the work of Seymour Kaftan - an artist and Holocaust survivor whose paintings tell the story of Vilnius' Jews beginning with the invasion of the Nazis. The KHC hosted an exhibition in 2010 highlighting 26 Kaftan paintings, but aside from the exhibition catalog, there are few resources to accompany the past exhibition. Djogovic studied the catalog and created a summary and keyword list, he then conducted research on the artist and the history of the Vilna Ghetto and created an annotated bibliography of references. As a student in the Art and Design Department at QCC, Djovogic also chose two paintings from the catalog in which he further analyzed and provided an in-depth description of the artwork.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: *KHC-4
Faculty moderator:
*KHC-4

KHC EXHIBITION RESEARCH- FROM THE STAR OF SHAME TO THE STAR OF COURAGE: THE STORY OF THE YELLOW STAR. Julia Sims and Marisa Hollywood. Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

In this presentation, KHC Student Intern Julia discusses her research on the KHC exhibition, "From the Star of Shame to the Star of Courage: The Story of the Yellow Star." First Sims studied the exhibition catalog to familiarize herself with the history of these small yellow pieces of fabric that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis to identify them in public. She then created a summary and keyword list and conducted research on this topic with an annotated bibliography of her references. She found similar or relevant materials donated to the other Holocaust organizations related to the yellows stars and chose five artifacts/images for further study. Then she wrote summaries of each artifact/image that include her research and put the material in the context of the Holocaust, antisemitism, and dehumanization as a supplemental resource to accompany the catalog.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: *KHC-5
Faculty moderator:
*KHC-5

KHC EXHIBITION RESEARCH- CRUEL CORRESPONDENCE: ANTISEMITIC POSTCARDS 1895-1930. Paige Bouderau and Marisa Hollywood. Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

In this presentation, KHC Student Intern Paige Bouderau discusses her research that focused on the KHC exhibition, "Cruel Correspondence: Antisemitic Postcards 1895-1930." First Bouderau examined the exhibition catalog to familiarize herself with the topic of how picture postcards were being produced in the early 20thcentury that depicted hateful and stereotypical imagery towards Jews. She then created a summary and keyword list and conducted research on the topic with an annotated bibliography of her references. She found relevant materials donated to the other Holocaust organizations that pertain to this topic and chose five artifacts/images for further study. Then she wrote summaries of each artifact/image that include her research and put the material in the context of the Holocaust, antisemitism, and racism as a supplemental resource to accompany the catalog.

Mathematics and Computer Science

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: MA-1
Faculty moderator:
MA-1

WHY PI IS IRRATIONAL: EXPLORING NUMBER THEORY AND IVAN NIVEN'S PROOF. Shan He and Carolyn King. Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

The history of pi can be traced back as early as 2000BC. Throughout the ages, countless mathematicians worldwide have devoted themselves to understanding the properties and lengthening the digits of this magic number. "A Simple Proof that π is Irrational," done by Canadian-American number theorist Ivan Niven in 1946, is the shortest and simplest proof of why π is irrational. Although it only involves high-school-level calculus, it requires its readers' additional work and a thorough understanding of how to use entry-level calculus in order to fully interpret the implied meaning behind each line of the original proof. The proof uses "proof by contradiction" and can be divided into 4 steps: First, we assume pi is rational and thus can be expressed as π=a/b. Then, we define three functions and conclude that if π=a/b, the last function we defined will always have an integer value as its answer. In the third step, we further evaluate the last function in Step 2 and conclude that: as the variable x is approaching infinity, this function is approaching 0. At last, we address that the conclusions from Step 2 and Step 3 contradict each other. For example, if x is getting arbitrarily small to a point, the function will have a fraction (less than 1) as its answer. This conflicts with our conclusion in Step 2 that the function we defined always has an integer answer. This presentation will explore each step and the theorems behind it.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MA-2
Faculty moderator:
MA-2

PREDICTING THE DIRECTION OF STOCK MARKET PRICES USING DYNAMIC THRESHOLDS. Samaragyee Dhungel and Yusuf Danisman. Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Machine learning algorithms are used in a wide range of disciplines, including stock market forecasting. These can be accomplished by either using a classification task to predict the direction of stock prices or using a regression task to predict return values. This research attempts to create cutting-edge machine learning algorithms that can better anticipate stock market direction. This is a classification problem, and depending on the price movement, fixed or dynamic thresholds can be utilized to categorize the days as positive, negative, or flat. The success of machine learning algorithms depends heavily on determining proper thresholds. The goal of this research is to optimize thresholds for various machine learning algorithms and to conduct explanatory data analysis, develop machine learning algorithms, evaluate models, visualize data using Python codes. In this talk, I will discuss some new results that have been obtained by comparing various thresholds, machine learning algorithms and time intervals.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: MA-3
Faculty moderator:
MA-3

INTEGER VALUES OF GENERATING FUNCTIONS FOR FIBONACCI-LIKE SEQUENCES. Fariya Chowdhury and Andrew Bulawa. Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Associated with any infinite sequence of numbers is an infinite polynomial whose coefficients are the terms of the sequence. This polynomial is called the generating function for the sequence. In this project we study the generating function f(x) corresponding to the well-known Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, .... It can be shown that f(n) is an integer whenever n is a ratio of subsequent terms of the Fibonacci sequence. Recent research has shown the more surprising result that such ratios are the only rational numbers n for which f(n) is an integer. The goal of our project is to extend this result to sequences more general than the Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci sequence arises naturally as integer solutions to the equation 5y^2-x^2 = 4. The sequences under consideration arise as integer solutions to the so-called generalized Pell equations my^2-x^2 = d^2 given by arbitrary integers m and d.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: MA-4
Faculty moderator:
MA-4

FEATURE SELECTION FOR MACHINE LEARNING BASED STOCK MARKET RETURN PREDICTION. Reetu Singh and Yusuf Danisman. Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Short- and long-term prediction tasks for stock market data is an active research area in the field of financial machine learning. These tasks can be done either by predicting the direction (increase/decrease) or return (change) of a stock (closing) price. This project aims to develop innovative machine learning models to achieve better stock market return predictions. This is a regression task since the return values of stocks are the target values. Existence of extensive number of technical and non-technical indicators (features) that might affect the stock price and volatility in the stock market are the most challenging parts of this regression task. Therefore, feature selection should be done very meticulously. In this project, feature selection will be done to improve success rates of machine learning algorithms on stock market data. In this talk, I will discuss selection of small set of features to predict SP 500 stock prices more accurately.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: MA-5
Faculty moderator:
MA-5

FINDING THE SMALLEST PRIMITIVE ELEMENT FOR CERTAIN PRIMES. Aureljo Pepa and Yusuf Gurtas. Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Public and private key encryptions are widely used to keep information exchanged over the internet secure, such as cryptocurrency transactions. Public keys are used for encryption and private keys are used for decryption. As the names suggest, public keys are made public for anyone to see, but private keys are meant to be kept secret. Private keys are needed for secure file transfers over the internet between two parties. Since both parties must have the same private key for secret communication, they need to exchange it securely in "broad daylight". Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol (published in 1976) enables users to exchange their secret key safely over nonsecure channels without compromise. It relies on primitive elements modulo a prime number p. The primitive element used in the process is typically chosen to be small to facilitate computation, and the current method of choosing a small primitive element is simply by trial and error. In this project we provide a definitive method to tell when a given small number is a primitive element for a prime number p that is of the form p=2qr+1 where q and r are themselves odd prime numbers.

Music

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-1
Faculty moderator:
MU-1

WHEN YOU STAR UPON A WISH. Denielle Campbell and Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols. Music Department.

When you Star Upon a Wish is a creative project that I worked on in my MP-102 Digital Music Sequencing class. I scored an abstract animation called Waves by Sergiu Iancau with a version of the song When You Wish Upon a Star by Leigh Harline. My vision was to reinvent the Disney classic in a playful, lighthearted manner emulating a night full of stars as seen through the eyes of a joyful child. I referenced a handout about different functions of music in film provided by professor to examine what role my music has in supporting the movement of visual elements and the narrative of the animation. I utilized various post-production techniques like multi-track MIDI and audio editing, continuous MIDI controller and plug-in automation, equalization, reverberation and audio compression to create a world in which the listener can hopefully feel a part of the animation as if they were already completely familiar with the experience and organically connected to it.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-2
Faculty moderator:
MU-2

DANCE IN MUSIC FOR PIANO ENSEMBLE: WALTZ. Melanie Jerez de Rodriguez, Daniel Walker, Jose Vasquez, Juan Rodriguez Restrepo, and Mirna Lekic. Music Department.

Much of the four-hand piano repertoire is inspired by dance. In this presentation we will focus on the waltz by providing a short history of this genre, describing its musical characteristics, and concluding with performances of Dance Class by Melody Bober and Tea for Three by Elena Cobb.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-3
Faculty moderator:
MU-3

DANCE IN MUSIC FOR PIANO ENSEMBLE: AN INTRODUCTION TO TANGO. Denielle Campbell, Koichi Hasegawa, and Mirna Lekic. Music Department.

Much of the four-hand piano repertoire is inspired by dance. In this presentation we will focus on tango by providing a short history of this genre, describing its musical characteristics, and concluding with a performance of Tango by Barbara Arens.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-4
Faculty moderator:
MU-4

DANCE IN MUSIC FOR PIANO ENSEMBLE: AN INTRODUCTION TO BOSSA NOVA. Ioannis Stathopoulos, Alicia Santiago, and Mirna Lekic. Music Department.

Much of the four-hand piano repertoire is inspired by dance. In this presentation we will focus on bossa nova by providing a short history of this genre, describing its musical characteristics, and concluding with a performance of The Girl On The Beach by Christopher Norton.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-5
Faculty moderator:
MU-5

WHAT IS A FUGUE? A CASE STUDY OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH'S FUGUE IN D MINOR BWV 851. Edelweiss Lavandier and Mirna Lekic. Music Department.

This presentation illustrates the compositional process for writing a fugue. It introduces the different sections of a fugue, as well as its multiple melodies drawn from a single musical idea. The presentation concludes with my performance of Fugue in D Minor from the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed by the great master of polyphonic writing, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: MU-6
Faculty moderator:
MU-6

SUNG EXPRESSION, MUSICAL THEATRE, AND WELL BEING. Emily Lezama, Jadelyn Walker, and Steven Dahlke. Music Department.

Students of varying ages increasingly report feeling a lack of emotional health and a disconnect with their peers. The act of singing, alone and especially in groups has been shown to impart to singers a heightened sense of emotional and physiological well being. The presenters will present their findings from a literature review on the subject, and will demonstrate aspects of well being as they sing a duet from the musical SIDE SHOW. The song "Who Will Love Me as I Am?" highlights the relationship struggles of Daisy and Violet Hilton, real-life conjoined twins, who were exploited from early childhood for commercial purposes. The presentation will explore the notion of healthful vocal expression in musical theatre as a possible avenue to acceptance of self and others.

Time: ; Location:
ID: MU-7
Faculty moderator:
MU-7

FROM BACH TO COELHO. 1Abraham Goren and 2Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols. 1Music Department, 2Art and Design Department.

I'll be presenting two of my recent audio works created in MP-101: Introduction to the Recording Studio course. Our first assignment was to rearrange a MIDI data file of a J.H.Bach prelude. We were supposed to tell a coherent arrangement story preserving the polyphonic nature of the piece. We had to cut it up into four sections and use different instruments for each. I decided to work with tension, release and contrast. The beginning starts off slowly; it is melodic and methodical and eventually gives way to an even spacier and dreamier second section. For the third section, I decided to evoke one of my favorite genres, metal, by switching one of the channels to drums so it would create a sound akin to a blast beat. The final movement is more similar to dance music, especially trance music. In one of the drum channels I switched one of the pedals to an arpeggiated synth, a staple of electronic dance music.For our second assignment, we were given spoken voice files recorded by a previous class from a book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The text covers a boy following birds, to see if they could tell him about love without ownership. The recordings vary greatly in tone, style and even language. I picked three voices in English, one male and one female, and one in Haitian Kreyol. I added reverb, equalization and audio compression to all voices. The first two voices start at the same time, creating a somewhat uncomfortable-sounding layered effect. The third voice, which comes in later, I pitched down to give it an otherworldly and surreal sound. I added a ghost-like synthesizer to the whole track, inspired by one of my favorite genres, Dungeon Synth, which can best be described as melodic medieval ambience.

Nursing

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: NU-1
Faculty moderator:
NU-1

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON NURSES. Jennifer Peyser, Kerry-Ann Nichol, Minah Lee, Ashana Roach-Antonio, Katlynn Riveros, Philip Nelan, Jessica Prepetit, and Georgina Colalillo. Nursing Department.

Issue: Nurses, who were herald as heroes during the peak of COVID-19, are increasingly feeling the impact of the pandemic on all levels physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. Nurses experienced unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and low job and personal life satisfaction. The psychological burden has resulted in high rates of burnout in an already stressful environment and contributed to uncertainty of what the future would hold for the profession. Nurses cited lack of social support from managers and colleagues, increased workload and being under prepared in their role as factors leading to burnout. A literature review was conducted to examine the effectiveness of strategies to address the psychological and mental health of nurses, improve job satisfaction thereby increasing quality of patient care. Description: The literature search was conducted using CINAHL, ProQuest, and Medline databases to examine peer-reviewed articles published between 2017-2022. The articles addressed the psychological and mental health of nurses during the pandemic and strategies to intervene with the devastating events that nurses experienced. Conclusions and Recommendations: As healthcare workers are recovering from the impact of Covid-19, the overall psychological impact of Covid-19 on nurses remains unknown. What is known is that the pandemic caused many nurses to consider leaving the profession, mental health issues including thoughts of suicide. The internal and external resources and strategies that assisted nurses to cope during the pandemic will be presented. Programs include mindfulness classes, peer support groups and training to identify psychological stress in oneself and others. Other modalities that helped nurses deal with psychological issues include yoga, meditation, and exercise. Also, nurses used spirituality to cope. The implication of these findings on quality of life and job satisfaction will be discussed.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: NU-2
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NU-2

NONINVASIVE VENTILATION AND ENTERAL NUTRITION IN CRITICALLY ILL ADULTS: A LIMITED LITERATURE REVIEW. Harpreet Kaur, Derronica Collins, Breana Clarke, Avrille Hall, Marvell Morrison, and Randelle Sasa. Nursing Department.

Management of patients receiving noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and enteral nutrition remains a challenge in acute care settings This problem has become widespread problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, where delayed intubation protocols meant that patients are kept on NIV for an extended period. Breathing and eating are basic life processes. While airway and breathing are top on the list of clinical priorities, the evidence suggests that malnourished patients have poorer outcomes and lengthier hospital stays. Alternatively, use of feeding tubes may compromise the effectiveness of NIV. Gastric distension may also limit chest expansion and cause aspiration. The foregoing led the investigators to ask: How safe is it to give patients oral/ enteral nutrition while on noninvasive ventilation? A literature review was conducted to answer this question. Articles were limited to peer-reviewed studies written in English from 2014 to 2022 and selected based on relevance. There is concordance in the literature that critically ill adult patients receiving NIV are largely underfed if not nil per os (NPO) during the first 24-48 hours of hospitalization. There is evidence to support that enteral nutrition is associated with higher mortality, risk of intubation, and airway complications. Patients fed using nasoenteric tubes while on NIV have reportedly higher complication rates than their counterparts who are fed per orem. In spite of the risks, several authors maintained that use of NIV should not preclude patients from being fed. Moreover, a multidisciplinary team is needed to assess the patient's overall health condition, and to ascertain a suitable nutritional modality.

Physics

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ID: PH-1
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PH-1

URBAN NOISE AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Kaila Pulley and Kim Riegel. Physics Department.

Noise is a pervasive urban issue that effects cities all over the globe. Exposure to noise has been linked to both psychological and health effects including sleep disturbance, increase in cortisol levels, and psychological impacts. Determining the effects of noise on large communities can be challenging because getting accurate noise levels that directly correspond to physical and psychological feedback is difficult. This study developed a mobile device application that allows a participant to take a sound level measurement and provide some feedback about the perception of the noise as well as provide some basic health information. This crowd sources the collection of data so that the sound levels that are taken are also directly related to the psychological feedback given. Preliminary data and user feedback from the initial deployment of the application will be presented.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PH-2
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PH-2

ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES AND SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES. Yuantong Luo and Jillian Bellovary. Physics Department.

Galaxies vary in shapes and sizes but the oldest and largest of them all are elliptical galaxies. Elliptical galaxies are blob-shaped galaxies that can range from being as small as globular clusters to the largest galaxies in our universe, the largest of them housing supermassive black holes. Since they are the oldest type of galaxies, all the materials to make stars have been used up so they very rarely form new stars. With supermassive black holes being some of the oldest and largest black holes in our universe, we plan to use cosmological simulations of black holes in the early universe to learn how elliptical galaxies are formed and how the supermassive black holes grow and evolve.

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ID: PH-3
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PH-3

COSMIC RAY DATA ACQUISITION PROGRAM. Jun ha Kim and Raul Armendariz. Physics Department.

Within the Physics Department cosmic ray group, we are programming in the C language an Arduino Mega microprocessor board to work with a data acquisition circuit that we are designing. This involves several analog and digital components including an Arduino microprocessor, Raspberry PI single board computer, and GPS receiver electronics.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PH-4
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PH-4

ANCIENT BLACK HOLE SEEDS. Matthew Fennell and Jillian Bellovary. Physics Department.

Quasi-stars are "envelope" like formations around black holes that form in hydrogen and helium clouds in the very early universe. These black holes begin to pull in this immense amount of gas, but the radiative pressure from all that gas is enough to counteract the gravitational acceleration from the black hole. This creates a star-like envelope for the black hole. Quasi-stars that maintain this envelope formation end up growing rapidly, due to the black hole having an active growth rate equal to that of the gas cloud. This leads to an already large black hole accreting even more mass from close to the beginning of the universe onward. These resultant black holes are believed to be the seeds of today's supermassive black holes. In my research, I will use computer simulations to test quasi-stars in cosmological models.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: PH-5
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PH-5

SPINNING BLACK HOLES. Dennis Li and Jillian Bellovary. Physics Department.

Celestial objects collapse into spheres due to the properties of gravity, and many of them rotate about an axis due to their own inertia. The same concept can be applied to black holes. All black holes, to a degree, are rotating the same way Earth rotates about its own axis. To define this phenomenon, astronomers have coined it the "spin" of a black hole. A black hole's spin can cause many types of space phenomena, such as the formation of accretion discs and gravitational waves rippling throughout spacetime. We can apply these studies in our research to explore the origin of black holes. For example, studying the magnitude of a black hole's spin allows us to predict the process of the black hole's growth. Massive objects such as spinning black holes causing gravitational waves also allow us to study their origins in location and time.

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ID: PH-6
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PH-6

COSMIC RAY TROUBLESHOOTING. George Torok and Corey Stalerman. Physics Department.

In the Physics department's cosmic ray group we are designing and troubleshooting a GPS antenna and receiver system used to time-stamp cosmic ray events. This involves measuring attenuation along 100 foot cable runs for RG58 and LMR400, using pulse and frequency generators, a spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope. We measured the signal loss and selected cables suitable for GPS pulse per second (PPS) and NMEA data communication.

Social Sciences

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ID: SS-1
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SS-1

SELECTION OF A CRIMINAL JUSTICE MAJOR AND ATTITUDE. 1Yohrdana Calle-Palma, 1Celia Sporer, and 2John Schriner. 1Social Sciences Department, 2Library Department.

Although there's been a handful of research on the increased popularity of the criminal justice major, the research never goes deep enough to deliver more than just broad conceptual answers, failing to address the changing social and political environment in which students are selecting their major. With the recent events of the BLM movement, the death of George Floyd, and other highly charged publicized events, there is little doubt that larger portions of the population is becoming more involved with the Criminal Justice system. How and why these individuals are becoming involved is also likely changing. Many have turned to social media to advocate for equal treatment and police reformation and a greater number have gained the confidence to share their stories about their own experiences with law enforcement. Formally engaging and participation in the criminal justice system is also a component of this evolution. This study's primary research question focuses on how personal experiences and exposure to recent current events impacted students' decisions to major in Criminal Justice and how they plan to use that major in their long term career goals in order to start to understand emerging trends in criminal justice education and occupations. A preliminary study was distributed at the beginning of the Spring 2022 semester to 2 sections of CRIM101 via SurveyMonkey. Out of the 57 potential participants, 31 completed the survey of which 51.61% were female. About 52% stated they strongly support BLM, but only 23% were very knowledgeable on the topic. More than 90% felt like current events had no influence in their choice of major. Almost all of the participants agreed that officers need to make a greater effort to understand the people they serve. Gender was the only factor correlated with career choice.

Time: ; Location: ; HIPS: UR
ID: SS-2
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SS-2

CHILDREN ON THE MOVE AND IN THE NEWS: REPORTS OF CHILD EMIGRES IN NEW YORK STATE MEDIA, 1853-1929. Tsz Wa Ellen Chu and Amy Traver. Social Sciences Department.

From 1853-1929, the Children's Aid Society (CAS), a protestant child-saving organization, emigrated thousands of New York City dependent children to family farms across the United States. Notably, many of these children were placed with Upstate New York farm families. This study engages data from a qualitative content analysis of 79 years of New York State newspaper articles, published in all 62 New York counties, on the CAS' state-based child placement work. Thus far, we have collected and analyzed data from more than a third of New York's counties; themes from that analysis will ground the presentation and add to historical-sociological literatures at the intersection of childhood, social welfare, mobility, place-based, and urban/rural studies.

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ID: SS-3
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SS-3

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN BURNOUT LEVEL IN EMS PROVIDERS POST COVID-19. Melanie Jerez de Rodriguez, Celia Sporer, and Jody Resko. Social Sciences Department.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an exceedingly stressful time for first responders worldwide. Emergency Medical Services Personnel have worked tirelessly during the pandemic and have been shown to be at increased risk of developing physical and mental health problems related to the stress of the pandemic. A recent study by Leszczyński et al (2019) found that 15.7% of Polish EMS providers were at high risk of occupational burnout while Baier et al. (2018) found that German EMS workers showed higher burnout rates ranging between 20 and 40%. The literature is mixed regarding the relationship between gender and burnout. The purpose of this study is to investigate gender differences in burnout and coping among New York City EMS providers. It is hypothesized that Female EMS workers will report higher levels of burnout. It is also hypothesized that female participants will score higher on use of coping mechanisms to deal with burnout. EMS personnel will be recruited to complete a multiscale survey that includes items on burnout and coping mechanisms. The findings and implications for New York City EMS workers will be discussed. Keywords: COVID-19, mental health, burnout, coping mechanisms, gender, EMS

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ID: SS-4
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SS-4

THE EFFECTS OF REMOTE LEARNING ON ACADEMIC RESILIENCY. Cymone Grant and Jody Resko. Social Sciences Department.

When it comes to COVID-19, the pandemic has created uncommon challenges to higher education. While this has been the most tumultuous year for the majority of people, it is no surprise that the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for college students worldwide. By the spring semester of 2020, colleges were forced to adjust their operations from learning in person to learning entirely online. This shift to online learning has impacted students academically, mentally, and financially. It was reported that students encountered a lot of financial difficulties that jeopardized their education. During this time students not only faced adversity in regard to not having the basic necessities needed to access higher education, but they also faced the stress of having to adapt to this new way of learning. Academically, many students were simply burned out and overwhelmed. According to a survey conducted online, as a result of the pandemic students reported feeling stressed, depressed, lonely, unmotivated, difficulty concentrating on schoolwork and difficulties coping. The purpose of this study is to: 1) identify the effect of remote learning on academic resiliency in a community college sample; and 2) determine the relationship between academic resiliency, remote learning and demographic variables. In Spring 2022, QCC students will be recruited through their Blackboard courses. Faculty who are willing to share the online survey with their classes will be provided an email script and a link to a Google form. Students will complete a brief demographic survey, questions about their remote learning experience and a 16 item academic resiliency measure. Data will be analyzed using SPSS. It is anticipated that negative remote learning experiences will be associated with lower scores on the resiliency scale. It is also expected that age, gender and number of semesters learning remotely will be associated with academic resiliency.