Student and Faculty Research Day 2016 Division for Student Success and Office of Sponsored Research

To the Pace Community, On behalf of the Office of Sponsored Research and the Division for Student Success, we are delighted to welcome you to our inaugural Student and Faculty Research Day. For the first time, we have merged the annual “Research Day” which has been organized by the Office of Sponsored Research with the annual “Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research Showcase” put on by the Division for Student Success. We think the combined Student and Faculty Research Day provides an excellent opportunity to bring together faculty and student research projects and highlight the exciting scholarship on both campuses. This is a wonderful day that recognizes and showcases the exceptional research achievements of faculty, staff, and students at Pace. Their hard work and dedication are inspiring, and we are looking forward to learning about their interesting projects today. We hope you will spend some time talking with the presenters; these interactions could not only lead to deeper engagement with the research, but could also lead to interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations, which could be featured at a future Research Day! Thank you for joining us to help celebrate the exciting research going on at Pace, and the scholars that make it happen! With best wishes,

Sally S. Dickerson, Ph.D. Associate Provost for Sponsored Research

Sue Maxam, Ed.D. Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Education

Table of Abstracts (Sorted alphabetically by first name of author and page number) Aaron Steiner Aditi Sridhar Ahmet Hatipoglu Alexa McKenna Alexis Javornik Alfred Ward Alfredo Dumalsen Amanda Elwart Ameet Kanguri Andrew Greenberg Andrew Marsala Andrew Wier Anesha Narain Angela M. Legg Anna Magnante Anna Shostya Anne McDaniel Anthony Bonifacio Anthony Kapiti Arturs Alsins Baptiste Barbot Brandon Tompkins Brian Davis Brian O’Leary Brixhilda Dedi Bryan Cernuda Carl S. Hoegler Catherine Dwyer Charlene F. Blando-Hoegler Chava Pollack Chelsea Green Chelsea Ritschel Chinmay Juneja Cho Chan Christelle Scharff Cindy Kanusher Daniel Hoernes Daniel Keidar Daniele Voll

34 73 23 62, 68 27 53 13 9 69 73 73 24, 25 7 56 41 36 74 62, 68 67 72 58 25 6 67 16, 44 50 20, 21 69 20, 21 6 33 40 69 16 73 76 73 52 6

Danielle Bard 6 Demos Athanasopoulos 18, 49, 50 Dhruv Gandhi 73 E.G. DuCasse 52 Elliana Gianacopoulos 37 Elmer-Rico E. Mojica 27, 28, 29 Emily Blakley 64 Emily Lopes 39 Enrique Paz 73 Erika Crispo 19 Fabian Patino 73 Faedra Dagirmanjian 74 73 Farzana Gandhi 47 Felipe Villalon 26 Francis M. Bodd 43 Gabrel Samantha 73 Gabriel Riberiro 73 Gabriella Lanaro 50 Gabrielle Suppa 67 George Samuels II 72 Giuseppe Dimeglio 69 Harpreet Singh Wasan 12, 33 Hasan T. Arslan 72 Iman Asadi 16 Jacklynn Egger 71 Jacob Rein 15 JaimeLee Rizzo 65 Jake Terranova 73 James Doody 64 James P. Lawler 58 Jamie Kalff 45 Jane Collins 62, 65, 67, 68, 71 Jean Coppola 64 Jenna R. Hager 22 Jhenelle Reid 70 Jia Liu 6 Jinah Kim 55 Joanna Dyrkacz 72 Joel Kuula

Jonathan O’Hadi Joseph C. Morreale Joshua J. Schwartz Joy O. Tugbiyele Juan Shan Kaitlyn Chhe Kaleb Tank Kamil Walczak Karl Rabago Kati Pihko Kazi Tabassum Kenya Velez Kevin Symczak Khushbu Kanani Kimberly Collica-Cox Kirstie Crespo Kristen di Gennaro L.V. Quintas Larisa Posada Laurice D. Nemetz Leora Trub Lin Drury Lixin Tao Louis Weiss Marcy Kelly Maren Westphal Maria Lane Maria Sette Mariana Bejarano Marie Morada Marilee Karagolian Mario Pichardo Marisa K. Isaacson Martha J. Greenberg Mary Ann Murphy Matthew Marcello May Reinert Megan Lucchese Melanie A. Greene Michael Gujraj Michael Prisikar Mikayla M Bonnett Mingyang Yu

35 32, 57 14 17 63 29 77 55 75 72 73 15 28 13 11 6 40 52 13 8 35 6 66 22, 48 30, 37 54 16 66 73 23, 48 13 67 26, 38, 42 7 41 31, 39 56 13 64 13 72 38 73

Mohini Devi Gobin Mrudhanee Sharma Mukesh Phanse Nancy Krucher Natalie J. Sobchak Nigel Yarlett Pamela D. Suman Paris Hanson Patricia Myers Patrick McCarron Paul Griffin Perri Colburn Peter Bayiokos Peter Frost Petteri Killinen Poonam Doshi Preston Rollins Raquel Plotka Rebecca Martin Richard L. Ottinger Richard Shadick Ridwan Hossain Rita K. Upmacis Robert G. Vambery Rohana Sosa Rostyslaw Robak Ryan Yancey Sangun Lee Saul Tzipor Sean D’Costa Sergey V. Kazakov Shannon North Sharon Wexler Shirlina Chiu Sidhant Sehrawat Solmaz Azimi Stefan Howansky Stephanie Ibrahim Stephanie Zhu Sukhjinder Kaur Susanne O’ Callaghan Suzanne Catroman Sybil Olmo

31 73 73 16, 44 76 22, 23, 43, 48 19 46 10 45 53 36 67 49 72 53 69, 72, 73 60, 61 47 75 74 14 17, 18, 49 59 71 53 30 48 48 73 13 10 6 42 9 18 65 70 9 51 69 9 6

Teresa Fotino Tiffany Lin Tim Bhagrattee Timothy Cassella Tracey Kramar Vakhtang Gogsadze Vesa Vahtila Xiao-Lei Wang Zafir Buraei Zuleen Chia Chang

34 24 73 21 10 32, 57 72 60, 61 46, 51, 60 50, 51

The Use of an Avatar Virtual Service Animal to Improve Outcomes in Hospitalized Older Principal Investigators: Dr. Sharon Wexler, Dr. Lin Drury Co-Investigators: Chava Pollack, Kirstie Crespo, Jinah Kim, Sybil Olmo, Daniele Voll, Brian Davis, Danielle Bard

Department: Undergraduate Nursing, Lienhard School of Nursing School: College of Health Professions Campus: NYC The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of an avatar virtual service animal on cognition, loneliness, depression, delirium, falls and restraint use in hospitalized older adults. The virtual pet speaks to the client, displays a full range of emotions and responds directly to client questions and touch. The study is being conducted in a metropolitan New York teaching hospital. Participants on the intervention unit receive the tablet based avatar virtual service animal for their entire hospital stay. Participants on the control unit receive a daily visit from a nursing student. Measures (Cognition, 3 Item UCLA loneliness scale, GDS, and CAM) are administered upon study enrollment and prior to discharge. A total of 200 older adults hospitalized on two medical surgical units will be enrolled, 100 who receive the intervention and 100 controls. All patients are over the age of 65 (mean 80, range 65-96), English speaking, and admitted for a medical diagnosis. Preliminary data suggest that there is no significant difference in cognition scores for participants on the intervention and control units at both study enrollment and study completion. On the intervention unit, there is a statistically significant difference in loneliness scores (p1 year, producing approximately 107 oocysts per mL per day. Funded by a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Nigel Yarlett).

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The Antimicrobial Activity of Metal-Complexed Drugs and Their Derivatives Principal Investigators: Peter Frost, Dr. Demos Athanasopoulos, Dr. Rita K. Upmacis

Department: Chemistry & Physical Sciences School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC Metronidazole (MET) is a drug that has excellent activity against a wide variety of infectious anaerobic microbes. MET was introduced in the 1950’s and its use since then has led to the development of MET-resistant strains that were first reported in 1962. Thus, the treatment of microbial infections (caused by e.g. amoebae, giardia and trichomonas) presents a challenging clinical problem. It is thought that the biological activity of MET (and derivatives of MET) is exerted via the reduction of the nitro group (-NO2), but definitive evidence for this is not available. The purpose of this study was to prepare transition metal-MET complexes in the laboratory and analyze the structures computationally. The computational aspects of this project utilized software packages, such as Gaussian08, in the study of the molecular orbitals of MET and its derivatives in the presence and absence of metal ions.

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Structural determinants of R-roscovitine -HERG K+ channel binding: electrophysiological and modeling studies. Principal Investigators: Dr. Zafir Buraei, Dr. Demos Athanasopoulos Co-Investigators: Bryan Cernuda, Zuleen Chia Chang, Gabrielle Suppa

Department: Biology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC The human ether-a-go-go-related gene (HERG) channel is a potassium channel critical for cardiac myocytes function. It controls the outward flow of rapidly-activating delayed K+ current (IKr) during cardiac action potential repolarization. Many drugs have adverse interactions with HERG’s unusually large central cavity. R-roscovitine, a purine derivative currently in clinical trials for cancer treatment, uniquely inhibits HERG without becoming trapped in the channel. The determinants of R-roscovitine-HERG interaction are unknown and we set out to uncover them. Using molecular simulations of an R-roscovitine-HERG complex, we identified nine possible binding configurations of R-roscovitine in HERG, all within the pore cavity. We used alanine-screening to disrupt the presumed binding sites by mutating the HERG pore residues T623, S624, Y652, and F656. Electrophysiological recordings in Xenopus oocytes will be used to compare changes in R-roscovitine inhibition of wild-type and mutant HERG channels, and to define the residues critical for R-roscovitine binding.

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Studies of a PQ-type Calcium Channel Truncation mutant associated with Epilepsy. Principal Investigator: Dr. Zafir Buraei Co-Investigators: Zuleen Chia Chang, Sukhjinder Kaur, Gabrielle Suppa

Department: Biology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC Voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC) control neuronal excitability, muscle contractions and regulate calcium-sensitive signaling pathways. The PQ-type of VGCC plays a dominant role in synaptic transmission at central nervous sites. Its mutations, have been implicated in various diseases such as familial hemiplegic migraine, episodic ataxia type 2 and spinocerebellar ataxia type 6, and epilepsy. However, it is unclear how these mutations alter PQ channel function. We performed site directed mutagenesis with the QuikChange II XL kit to introduce several mutations into wild-type human PQ channels, and tested the mutants functionally in Xenopus oocytes using Two-Electrode Voltage Clamp. We found that the truncation mutation (Q1397X) yielded channels with no currents. Furthermore, co-expression of Q1397X with WT PQ channels, which simulates a heterozygous genotype, yielded unexpectedly small currents. We hypothesize that Q1397X triggers the unfolded protein response, which lowers the expression of the co-expressed WT channel.

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Probability On A Digraph Whose Nodes Are The Positive Divisors Of A Given Integer Principal Investigators: Dr. E.G. DuCasse, Dr. L.V. Quintas Co-Investigator: Daniel Keidar

Department: Mathematics School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC A transition digraph is defined and studied with respect to its probabilistic properties. The diagraph has the graph Div(n) as its underlying graph. Given n a positive integer, the graph Div() is defined as follows. The vertices of Div() are all of the divisors of with two vertices and being adjacent if either divides with a prime or divides and with a prime. A characterization of the structure of Div () is derived and Hasse posets, lattices, algebras (Boolean, Post, and P), and digital networks are discussed. Comparisons and properties of their associated graphs are investigated.

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The Effect of Confidentiality in Group Counselor Training Principal Investigators: Dr. Rostyslaw Robak, Poonam Doshi Co-Investigators: Dr. Alfred Ward, Dr. Paul Griffin

Department: Psychology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: PLV This study examined the effects of confidentiality in group counselor training. After participating in a group counseling course, trainees (n = 52) who adhered to confidentiality reported greater changes in counselor self-efficacy over time. Levels of self-disclosure, which correlated with confidentiality, also predicted perceived benefits from the group experience.

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Psychological, Environmental and Cultural Factors Affecting Adherence to Lifestyle Changes After Bariatric Surgery in Ethnic Minorities Principal Investigator: Emily Blakley Co-Investigator: Dr. Maren Westphal

Department: Psychology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: PLV Bariatric surgery is one of the most effective ways to achieve weight loss in morbidly obese patients, however, some studies have found that members of certain ethnic minorities, specifically African Americans and Hispanics, may have a more difficult time maintaining weight loss after surgery than their Caucasian counterparts. This is a problem worth investigating given higher rates of morbid obesity among Hispanics and African Americans compared to Caucasians. By reviewing past literature, this paper examines potential reasons for why ethnic minorities tend to experience greater difficulties adhering to required lifestyle changes after bariatric surgery compared to their Caucasian counterparts. We discuss the role of cultural factors impacting pre-surgery psychological evaluations, environmental factors, and cultural attitudes relevant to post-surgery weight loss maintenance.

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Inelastic Heat Transfer in Molecular Quantum Dots Principal Investigators: Dr. Kamil Walczak, Joanna Dyrkacz

Department: Chemistry & Physical Sciences School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC We examine electronic heat conduction via molecular complexes in the presence of local electron-phonon coupling effects. This particular problem is important in bioelectronics, because heat transfer in nanoscale devices is experimentally measured at finite temperatures, while molecules are excited to vibrations or phonons are present. If the time spent by tunneling electron onto molecular quantum dot is comparable to vibrational period of time, the electron has enough time to locally interact with phonons. In offresonance transport regime, even weak electron-phonon interactions lead to phononmediated changes of transport characteristics. In the nearly resonance conditions, the strong electron-phonon coupling reduces the height of the main conductance peak, generating additional satellites (phonon sidebands) in transport characteristics and shifting molecular energy spectrum via reorganization (polaron) energy. In the past, it was shown that inclusion of electron-phonon coupling effects into computational scheme reduces discrepancy between theoretical results and experimental data. The aim of this project is to study electron-phonon coupling effects on electronic heat transfer at molecular level. For that purpose, we use non-perturbative computational scheme based on inelastic version of Landauer formula, where the Green’s functions technique combined with polaron transformation was used to calculate multi-channel transmission probability function, while accessibility of individual conduction channels is governed by Boltzmann statistics. Our analysis is based on the hypothesis that the dynamics created by electron-phonon interaction onto the molecular quantum dot asymmetrically connected to two thermal reservoirs will lead to thermal rectification effect. Our results will be discussed in a few aspects: electron-phonon coupling strength, phonon dispersion relationship, and heat fluxes generated by temperature difference as well as bias voltage.

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Demographic, Personality, and Situational Variables Predict Genetic Testing Intentions Principal Investigator: Dr. Angela M. Legg Co-Investigator: May Reinert

Department: Psychology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: PLV Gaining access to personal genetic profiles can arm people with important information about their health risks. A growing literature sheds light on the variables that increase or decrease people’s intentions to pursue genetic testing. A limitation of many studies, however, is that some only examine a small number of possible predictors. To develop a broader understanding of genetic testing intentions, the participants in the current study (N = 423) completed an online survey that measured demographic, personality, and situational variables. Only gender emerged as a significant demographic predictor in that men reported more intentions to undergo genetic testing. Of the personality variables, information avoidance and external loci of control negatively predicted intentions. Intolerance of uncertainty, maximization, and extraversion positively predicted intentions. Of the situational variables, the method for obtaining genetic testing (through a doctor’s office vs. direct-to-consumer testing) did not influence intentions. However, positively-framed information paragraphs did predict intentions. Perceived benefits but not perceived barriers mediated the relationship between information valence and testing intentions. Finally, anticipated regret over missing the chance to test (but not anticipated regret over testing) mediated the relationship between information valence and testing intentions. We discuss implications of these findings for health decision-making research.

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Balancing Environmental Policy and Economic Growth and Development: An Analysis of the People’s Republic of China Principal Investigators: Vakhtang Gogsadze, Dr. Joseph C. Morreale

Department: Economics School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC Rapid economic growth and development, increasing energy consumption, high population and urbanization has caused massive environmental problems in People’s Republic of China. Today China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, which makes China extremely vulnerable against climate change. The paper analyzes policies that have been developed by the Chinese government to balance the twin goals of reducing environmental pollution and at the same time, maintaining economic growth and economic development. Furthermore, the paper tests the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis linking rising GDP/capita with environmental pollution, in order to determine whether the theory of inverted U curve applies to China. Results from a time series data on CO2 emissions and enacted government policies from 1981 through 2009 suggest that environmental policies of the Chinese government have had little effect on reducing pollution in China. Furthermore, the results reveal that there is no Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship since environmental pollution keeps rising with GDP/capita in China. The research paper argues that in order to increase the effectiveness of environmental policies in China, enforcement and monitoring of laws should be increased by the central government and local governments should get more economic incentives to enforce state environmental laws. The paper concludes by giving policy recommendations for future Chinese government policy.

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Self-Concept Clarity in Adolescents: A French Self-Concept Clarity Scale Principal Investigator: Dr. Baptiste Barbot Co-Investigator: Jamie Kalff

Department: Psychology School: Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Campus: NYC Self-Concept Clarity (SCC) is defined as “the extent to which the contents of an individual’s self-concept (e.g., perceived personal attributes) are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable” (Campbell et al., 1996, p. 141). Research on self-concept clarity, in addition to applications to various cultures and age groups, is constantly expanding. The Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS; Campbell et al., 1996) has been widely validated and continues to be applied in cross-cultural settings for populations worldwide. The purpose of this study was primarily to evaluate the psychometric properties of a French-translated version of the SCCS (SCCS-FR) for use in French speaking adolescent populations. In study 1, the Campbell’s SCCS was translated into French using the translation-back translation method followed by a pilot data collection involving 388 French adolescents (52.8% boys, 37.3% girls), ranging in age from 15 to 19.8 (M = 17.4, SD= 1.106), to examine item characteristics and preliminary psychometric properties. This study yielded 8 items that were deemed acceptable for further development of the SCCS-FR. In Study 2, we validated the 8-item self-report SCCS-FR with a larger sample of 3,288 French adolescents (52.8% females; 46.3% males) ranging in age from 12.9 to 21.9 (M = 15.96, SD = 1.26) who were administered the short SCCS-FR, a Big 5 Personality measure, a self-esteem measure and a measure of social desirability. The results indicated that the SCCS-FR is a valid instrument that reliably measures self-concept clarity among French-speaking adolescents and represents a promising advance for the assessment and study of self-concept clarity in adolescence in cross-cultural settings. In sum, this study will help to expand future research on SCC to an adolescent populations and French culture.

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War, Diplomacy and International Business: the Intersection of Belligerence and Friendship in US- China Relations Principal Investigator: Dr. Robert G. Vambery

Department: Marketing School: Lubin School of Business Campus: NYC There is a far reaching consensus that in the short run and the near term future the most important international relationship among nations is and will remain to be the bilateral relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Because both sides realized the potential of threats but also the potential of great economic gains through trade, investments, and technology transfers, the leaders of the two nations have agreed with this proposition for a number of years and in recognition have created the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue which held its sixth annual meeting in China on July 7th and 8th, 2014. The seeking of mutual understanding and insights is and perhaps should be the main function of the strategic dialogues in the course of which President Xi Jinping called for a new model for the overall relationship between the two nations. Secretary of State John Kerry then emphasized that a new model “must be defined by actions, not words”.

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Lending a Helping Hand for English-Chinese Bilingual Children’s Idiom Comprehension and Retention Principal Investigator: Dr. Xiao-Lei Wang Co-Investigator: Dr. Raquel Plotka

Department: School of Education School: School of Education Campus: NYC Idiom comprehension and production reflect an individual’s language competence. Idiom acquisition is challenging for all children, and it is more so for bilingual children. This study examines whether adult verbal scaffolding, in conjunction with the deliberate use of iconic gestures, can facilitate bilingual children’s comprehension and retention of idiomatic expressions in their ambient languages. Twenty-three 5-year-old EnglishChinese bilingual children learned novel idioms across two experimental conditions. In Experiment 1, a native Chinese-speaking adult and a native English-speaking adult respectively taught children a set of Chinese and English idioms via speech only. In Experiment 2, the same adults respectively taught a different set of Chinese and English idioms via speech-gesture combinations. The results suggest that children could comprehend more idioms in both languages after being taught via the speech-gesture modality than the speech-only modality. They could also remember more idioms taught in the speech-gesture modality rather than in the speech-only modality in both languages two weeks later. Moreover, those children who scored high in their idiom comprehension and retention also scored high both in their recast of the gestures used by the adults and in their rate of speech-gesture mismatches. Implications of the study are discussed.

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Children Conversations with Parents and Grandparents in Latino Families Principal Investigator: Dr. Raquel Plotka Co-Investigator: Dr. Xiao-Lei Wang

Department: School of Education School: School of Education Campus: NYC Children’s narratives about past events predict academic and social skills, and extensive research has focused on understanding the ways adults engage children in such conversations (e.g., Fibush & Haden, 2003). Adults from different cultural backgrounds use different strategies when engaging children in narratives and these strategies are strongly linked to their cultural values. For example, North-American caregivers typically use elaborative strategies, which consist of eliciting a detailed narrative by structuring the conversation through questions and requests for information (Reese et al., 2010). In contrast, Latino caregivers tend to use participatory strategies, which consist of encouraging the child to take ownership of the narrative through non-directive comments, by emphasizing the social and interpersonal component of storytelling, and sharing the role of storytelling (Melzi et al., 2010). Within a particular culture there are often generational differences in the way adults interact with children. The present study attempted to assess whether Latino grandparents and Latino parents differ in their strategies when engaging children in conversations about past events, and whether these differences have an effect on the quality of children narratives. Four mothers, two grandmothers, two fathers, and six children of Latino background participated in the study (mean age of the children was 7.16, S.D. = 2.48). Sixty naturalistic conversations (50 parent-child and 10 grandparent-child conversations) about past events were videorecorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using a scheme developed by Plotka and Wang (2015). Conversations were used as unit of analysis as it is typical in narrative research (e.g., Wang et al., 2006). The results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed a significant multivariate difference among grandparents and parent conversations in adultchild narratives (Wilk’s Lambda = .75 , F(5, 54) = 3.56, p = 0.007). Grandparent conversations were likely to include more participatory strategies to engage children than parent conversations (F(1, 60) = 7.22, p = 0.00). In addition, as a result, children engaged in more complex narratives, including conversations with more children turns (F(1, 60) = 3.82, p = 0.05), more independent ideas units (F(1, 60) = 4.35, p = 0.04), and trend of more children initiations of topics (F(1, 60) = 3.41, p = 0.07), with grandparents than with parents. Although this was an exploratory study with a small sample, the results inform the way cultures differ across generations in their interaction with children and can help inform future studies at a larger scale.

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Touch MS Principal Investigator: Dr. Jean Coppola Co-Investigators: Alexa McKenna, Anthony Bonifacio

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV The app we made is an android app which is used to track the injection position for people who gets Multiple Sclerosis.

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A Deep Learning Method for Microaneurysm Detection in Fundus Images Principal Investigator: Dr. Juan Shan

Department: Computer Science School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: NYC Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in the working-age population. Microaneurysms (MAs), due to leakage from retina blood vessels, are the early signs of DR. However, automated MA detection is complicated because of the small size of MA lesions and the low contrast between the lesion and its retinal background. Recently deep learning (DL) strategies have been used for automatic feature extraction and classification problems, especially for image analysis. In this paper, a Stacked Sparse Autoencoder (SSAE), an instance of a DL strategy, is presented for MA detection in fundus images. Small image patches are generated from the original fundus images. The SSAE learns high-level features from pixel intensities alone in order to identify distinguishing features of MA. The high-level features learned by SSAE are fed into a classifier to categorize each image patch as MA or non-MA. The public benchmark DIARETDB is utilized to provide the training/testing data and ground truth. Among the 89 images, totally 2182 image patches with MA lesions, serve as positive data, and another 6230 image patches without MA lesions are generated by a randomly sliding window operation, to serve as negative data. Without any blood vessel removal or complicated preprocessing operations, SSAE learned directly from the raw image patches, and automatically extracted the distinguishing features to classify the patches using Softmax Classifier. By employing the fine-tuning operation, an improved Fmeasure 91.3% and an average area under the ROC curve (AUC) 96.2% were achieved using 10-fold cross-validation.

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A Case Study on the Feasibility of Assistive Technology in Helping People with Disabilities in Daily Life Principal Investigator: Dr. James P. Lawler Co-Investigators: Melanie A. Greene, Jenna R. Hager

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: NYC Advance technologies are changing continually the daily habits of people with disabilities to be increasingly independent in society. The authors are exploring current innovations in assistive technology for people with disabilities at a leading metropolitan non-profit organization. In a case study of Amazon Echo assistive technology, the authors are finding helpful interventions of the technology in the daily living of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities at the organization. The study is indicating opportunities from the assistive technology in the performance of daily living tasks of the people with disabilities. The findings of this study are offering practical productivity results not only to people with disabilities but also to the non-profit organizations servicing them.

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Developing Mobile Applications for the Cognitively Impaired Principal Investigator: Dr. Jean Coppola Co-Investigators: Jake Terranova, Stefan Howansky

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV This study will focus on creating and testing the applicability of mobile applications to aid in the cognitive stability of those who suffer from disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer's Disease. Based on previous studies that focused mainly on music therapy, it is believed that mobile applications can be used to aid elderly generations with not only daily tasks, but maintaining a cognitive stability throughout the aging process. The use of various features offered by today's technology can allow for the creation and testing of an application to provide comfort and stability to older adults with cognitive impairment, and record improvements or declines in their cognitive abilities. The hypothesis is that the use of this application can aid in the field of cognitive disabilities, and also pave the road for future applications focusing on various stages of cognitive decline.

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A Semantic Approach to Intelligent and Adaptive Personal Tutoring System Principal Investigator: Dr. Maria Sette Co-Investigator: Dr. Lixin Tao

Department: Computer Science School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV Tutoring systems are computer-based learning systems that should present human-like tutoring capabilities in order to be intelligent. Tutoring systems are expected to be able to adjust the content and delivery to students’ characteristics and needs by analyzing and anticipating their effective responses and behaviors. However, contemporary tutoring systems lack of the ability in dynamically offering instructions according to learners’ needs. The main challenge of this issue is that relations between knowledge objects cannot be effectively cognized by computers, such that the course design is usually formed. This research focuses on this issue and proposes a novel solution that uses semantic approach to linking these learning objects. The linked learning objects can create the customized tutoring plans for learners. Our approach uses knowledge graph for knowledge representation in order to build up the intelligent tutoring generations. Web Ontology Language (OWL) is applied in our proposed system. We evaluated our method by developing a number of use cases.

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Need2Feed Principal Investigator: Dr. Jean Coppola Co-Investigators: George Samuels II, Peter Bayiokos, Anthony Kapiti, Mario Pichardo, Brian O’Leary

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV Need2Feed is meant to allow food distributing organizations around the world to track and unite their volunteers and donors. This is done through what I call the “Social Push”. Users will be able to login to Facebook, Twitter, or with a cell phone number. With these social application implemented in our app it allows a wide range of users to be connected inside our app as well as outside. If a user signs up for an event through our app, not only will the organization know exactly who signed up and what event that user will be attending, but the users twitter friends/ Facebook friends can know as well. This allows the organization to thoroughly track who will be joining each event with ease, while simultaneously allowing the user to help grow the organization via social media. Each organization will also be able to communicate to all users through the app, with push notifications to all devices. The user will be notified if there are any special events or changes through this feature. Maps will also be a feature of this app. Finding the respected organization will be simple through in app GPS. Need2Feed is an app that doesn’t just help fill empty stomachs, it helps fill a NEED.

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Virtual Reality Therapy App Principal Investigator: Dr. Jean Coppola Co-Investigators: Alexa McKenna, Anthony Bonifacio

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV This Virtual Reality (VR) app is being designed to help post stroke patients with vision impairment resulting in Ocular Lateropulsion. Post-stroke Ocular Lateropulsion, also known as Pusher Behavior, is a medical disability in which patients tilt their body to correct a vertical vision abnormality. Around 10-15% of stroke patients exhibit a vision abnormality which tilts the world through their eyes vertically. When a patient’s perception of the world is angled rather than parallel, said patient attempts to correct their vision by changing their posture. This results in what is known in the medical world as Lateropulsion and can be a very serious debilitation for post-stoke victims. Current methods to treat this post-stroke disability require large apparatuses and are cost prohibitive. By creating a VR Therapy app, it not only cuts down on costs, but also makes the therapy more portable and less invasive for the patient. This therapy can even happen in the patient’s own home, so they do not need to travel to a therapy facility. Quantifying the severity of Ocular Lateropulsion has proved challenging for doctor’s and rehabilitation specialists. Scales, such as Burke’s Lateropulsion Scale, exist, but setup time and accuracy could be debated. The app was designed to both allow a doctor to quickly quantify how angled a post stroke patient’s vision is from vertical, and to aid in the rehabilitation of the patient’s Ocular Lateropulsion through the use of virtual reality. Through the use of virtual reality, this app can rehabilitate and train a patient to once again view the world at a parallel angle. With the Samsung Gear VR, the app transports the patient to a fully rendered polygonal room. The patient is free to look around. A separate desktop app controls the tilt and also displays the degrees of tilt the patient is viewing through the VR headset. Through this method, doctors will be able to easily quantify how many degrees off from horizontal a patient’s perception is. This app can also be used as a utility to help reform the patient’s vision. Long term exposure to close, but varying degrees of tilt can train the brain to bring back a patient’s visual vertical, thus correcting the disorder.

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Gone in 200 Milliseconds : The Challenge Of Blocking Malvertising Principal Investigators: Dr. Catherine Dwyer, Dr. Susanne O’ Callaghan Co-Investigators: Chinmay Juneja, Ameet Kanguri, Preston Rollins, Harpreet Singh Wasan

Department: Information Technology, Accounting School: Seidenberg School of CSIS/Lubin School of Business Campus: NYC Online advertising, a multi-billion dollar global industry, lets advertisers serve ads to web visitors. Using real time bidding (RTB), as web visitors land on site, advertising networks are alerted of space available and the visitor’s profile information. These networks then auction this combination of space and profile, and the winning ad is served to the web visitor. The entire process from a visitor landing to ads behind served takes 200 milliseconds, the time needed to snap your finger. This choreographed interaction is a technical marvel, but one with risks. This just in time collaboration gives an opening to malicious actors, who purchase space, and use ad networks to deliver malware rather than the ads. Delivering malware as an ad is termed malvertising, and in the past two years it has increased at an alarming rate. This research looks at ways to protect against malvertising by designing an empirical study that examines whether ad-blocking software protects us against infections by malvertising.

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Talkitt Principal Investigator: Stephanie Ibrahim Co-Investigator: Jia Liu

Department: Information Technology School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: NYC/PLV Let’s talk about Talkitt; Talkitt mobile application is a voice recognition and translation app that aims to help people with speech disabilities use their voice to communicate! The app is being designed and developed STAT (Senior Talk Assistive Technology) by a team of tech savvy students. Talkitt mobile app is different than all other voice recognition mobile apps of its kind. Talkitt mobile app will give newfound hope to those who suffer from speech impediments and speech disabilities. Far too many people who have speech disabilities are being excluded from society's digital revolution into the Age of Context. The Age of Context is a new and exciting time for most, but nevertheless a large part of society is being left behind. The mission of the Talkitt mobile app is to provide the digital equivalent of search and rescue services for those drowning in the Age of Context. Talkitt Developers care about saving lives and improving lives which is why we are working so diligently to make this innovative mobile app concept come to life! People who have speech impediments are unable to participate in societal trends due to the fact they remain unaccommodating to the disabled community. Talkitt aims to change that! The target market of the Talkitt app will be aimed at senior citizens who have developed a disease which resulted in a speech disability. Danny Weissberg, the CEO of Voiceitt has stated the ideal candidates as “Adults who suffered a stroke or have a degenerative disease such as ALS, Parkinson's, or throat cancer." The mobile app is currently being designed developed on both iOS and android platforms. Talkitt’s unique functionality will serve as light to seniors who are currently living without being understood and in the dark. Talkitt will provide a bridge to equal opportunities for people with disabilities, who are excluded, left behind, and restricted from technology and society’s main form of communication due to their disability. Talkitt will open new doors for people with speech disabilities and will directly supplement the mission of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Talkitt mobile app will not only improve the quality of life for people with speech disabilities, it will give them equal opportunities in the aspects of employment and social life.

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FoodFinder Principal Investigators: Rohana Sosa, Jacob Rein Co-Investigator: Dr. Jean Coppola

Department: Information Technology/Computer Science School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: PLV Food Finder is an Android App designed to keep track of the user’s current, out-of-stock, and all food inventory in their fridge, freezer, and pantry. Our target market includes the elderly and universal audience. Food Finder’s notable features include, but are not limited to the barcode scanner, sharing data via email, and being language neutral. Food Finder was designed to be simple and straightforward in terms of navigation. A one-time and step-by-step tutorial starts after downloading Food Finder. After the user selects the fridge, freezer, pantry, or everything button, they will see how their inventory is organized. The user will see three tabs for their current, out of, and their entire inventory as well as a reminder of what to pick up at the grocery store. They are able to switch between their fridge, freezer, pantry, and everything with the three-dotted icon at the top right corner. Next to the three-dotted icon the user will see the share feature to send what they are out-of-stock in their inventory to their relatives and friends via email. There are two options to add items: the barcode scanner or the plus sign icon. Press the camera icon to activate the barcode scanner, let the screen adjust to capture the barcode, and tap anywhere to add the item. When items are manually added, the user is brought to a window to type the food’s name and quantity as well as the date by choosing a day from the calendar image shown. Food Finder uses the phone’s keyboard language settings to save food in the person’s native language. Most food goes to waste quickly and people should be aware of their food stock to avoid overspending at the grocery store. People also constantly forget what food they have and do not have at home. As a result, we coded Food Finder using Android studio to enable people to have access to their food stock at any time. Food Finder will create the opportunity for people to efficiently manage their food stock in the shortest amount of time hopefully increasing the user’s productivity in their daily life.

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NRGIA: Energy Awareness Solution Principal Investigators: Giuseppe Dimeglio, Preston Rollins Co-Investigators: Aalto University Design Factory, Finland: Kati Pihko, Arturs Alsins, Joel Kuula, Michael Prisikar, Vesa Vahtila, Iman Asadi, Petteri Killinen

Department: Computer Science, Engineering School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: NYC NRGIA project is focusing on changing how users interact with energy in their everyday lives including electricity and heating. Our aim is to raise energy usage awareness using technology to visualize energy consumption. Instead of hoping that individuals will reduce their energy usage because it is simply the right thing to do, we are developing a product prototype that will engage and educate our users. Our solution will help the end user to see how their actions and devices impact the amount of energy consumed so they can make informed decisions on their energy usage. It will also provide individuals and property managers with a much more refined level of energy usage information. To solve this problem, we employed Design Thinking Methodologies to build an interactive touchscreen user-interface and a smart room concept. Using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies we are able to store the data in an online cloud solution that can be accessed by in-room displays as well as by central monitoring terminals for an individual building or an entire campus. These technologies allow us to monitor power consumption for a building and room down to individual outlets. Users will be able to navigate through the platform and view live reports for the room’s energy consumption, temperature, and CO2 levels. There are also sensors to alert users when interior heating is negatively affected by open windows. We are testing this concept at Aalto University Design Factory in Finland with the goal to inspire Green Buildings industry and users all over the world.

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AppDock: A Physical and Digital Space for Mobile App Literacy for Developing Markets Principal Investigators: Dr. Christelle Scharff, Dhruv Gandhi, Preston Rollins, Enrique Paz, Andrew Greenberg, Fabian Patino, Gabriel Riberiro, Mukesh Phanse Co-Investigators: Farzana Gandhi (New York Institute of Technology), Daniel Hoernes, Mariana Bejarano, Sean D’Costa, Tim Bhagrattee, James Doody, Gabriella Lanaro, Andrew Marsala, Aditi Sridhar, Kazi Tabassum, Mrudhanee Sharma, Mingyang Yu

Department: Computer Science School: Seidenberg School of CSIS Campus: NYC In this interdisciplinary work that involves computer science and architecture researchers, we propose a new outreach model with physical and digital components that addresses key issues that impede mobile app adoption in developing markets. Reasons for low app adoption include unfamiliarity with the notion of app and app store, low literacy rate, low digital literacy, misalignment between apps and users’ needs, and inadequate access and support infrastructure. Apps and mobile services have a role to play in developing markets in critical services such as health, education and agriculture. We propose AppDock, an eco-friendly and community-based physical space, no larger than a bus stop, where local developers and end users can connect and learn. When visiting AppDock, the public can sample and be exposed to locally developed apps, watch video tutorials, provide feedback to developers via secured devices, and participate in workshops. It has access to charging stations and hotspots. Developers can promote their apps and interview end users about app ideas and needs via interactive surveys. This reciprocity of interaction between developers and users democratizes app development. It also permits local developers to tune into specific user needs, which can be as simple as overcoming cultural or linguistic barriers. Initially designed with a fixed basis, AppDock is also a set of receiving stalls for remote outreach bike-driven carts that are used to bring app and smart device literacy to remote areas. The “Digital Drum” project in Uganda and the “Hole in the Wall” project in India are two precedents involving public space-kiosks with integrated computers for digital literacy that have inspired the AppDock concept. The project has a long-term goal of AppDock construction and evaluation at a site in Africa. A physical and digital prototype of AppDock was created as part of courses on Mobile Innovations for Global Challenges (Pace University, Computer Science) and Social Design Impact (Architecture, NYIT). The project involved collaboration between researchers and students from disciplines that do not always use the same terminology and practices. The collaboration was important to ensure proper infrastructural integration as well as a singular, cohesive design vision, both physical and digital. Engaging students in these types of globally relevant and socially conscious projects brings them far beyond typical classroom learning and prepares them for the design and construction challenges posed by contemporary society.

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College Students’ Nonmedical Use of Prescription Drugs: The Relationship Between Sexual Orientation and Reasons for Use Principal Investigator: Dr. Faedra Dagirmanjian Co-Investigators: Dr. Richard Shadick, Dr. Anne McDaniel

Department: Counseling Center School: Student Affairs Campus: NYC Nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) is a dangerous and well-documented phenomenon, with the highest rates reported among young adults (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014) and college students in particular (Rozenbroek & Rothstein, 2011, SAMHSA, 2010). Multiple studies have linked sexual orientation to rates of NMUPD in college student samples (Kerr, Ding, & Chaya, 2014; McCabe, 2005a). Specifically, sexual minority orientation (lesbian, gay, or bisexual) has been associated with elevated NMUPD (Duryea, Calleja, & MacDonald, 2015; Shadick, Dagirmanjian, Trub, & Dawson, 2016). Understanding students’ reasons for NMUPD may shed light on why particular groups of students (e.g., sexual minorities) report higher nonmedical use than others. The present study seeks to examine college students’ reasons for nonmedical use of stimulants, anxiolytics, and painkillers. Specifically, the goals are: (1) to replicate previous results that LGB students report higher NMUPD than heterosexual students, moving from a campus-specific to a multi-campus sample, (2) to quantify students’ selfreported reasons for using each group of prescription drugs nonmedically, and (3) to test for an association between sexual minority status and reasons for NMUPD. The sample included 3,389 respondents from universities across the United States who completed an anonymous online survey about their NMUPD, where they obtained the drugs, reasons for misuse, and consequences of misuse as well as demographic information. LGB respondents were significantly more likely to misuse any prescription drug (OR=1.64) compared to heterosexual students, even after controlling for gender and race/ethnicity. The odds of misuse for LGB students are 64% higher than the odds for heterosexual students. Findings also suggested that by and large, LGB and heterosexual students misuse prescription medications for similar reasons, with the exception of pain medications. LGB students are more likely to state they misuse pain medications to relive anxiety, enhance social situations and to feel better.

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United Nations Environmental Program Guide Principal Investigator: Richard L. Ottinger, Esq. Co-Investigator: Karl Rabago, Esq.

Department: Pace Energy & Climate Change Center School: Pace Law School Campus: PLV This Guide, to be published by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), is a stand-alone updated sequel to the UNEP Handbook for Legal Draftsmen on Environmentally Sound Management of Energy Efficiency and renewable Energy Resources, has been, since its publication in 2007, the only resource where energy efficiency and renewable energy developers could find comprehensive information on the laws enabling successful programs. The Guide is intended to advise government energy officials and project developers, implementers and funders, of the laws adopted throughout the world to facilitate initiation of sound and sustainable energy efficiency projects. The timing of this sequel is important because a lot has happened in the energy for development field since the Handbook publication, recognizing the enormous worldwide demand for efficiency and renewable energy resulting from adoption by the UN General Assembly of Sustainable Energy Goals including a goal to provide clean, affordable and sustainable energy to all the peoples of the world, and the Paris Climate Change agreement, the response to both of which involves heavy reliance on efficiency and renewables. It is vital that the resulting initiatives be successfully implemented, requiring knowledge of the enabling laws which this Guide presents. The Guide contains information on laws of general application and those pertaining specifically to the principal categories of efficiency and renewables, including: laws pertaining to financing of projects, financing projects, and those relating to efficiency in industry, appliances, buildings and transportation; and renewable energy; in the renewable energy area it analyzes the laws pertaining to hydroelectric, solar, wind, biomass and geothermal resources. A final chapter deals with energy provision to rural areas. The Guide is written by 28 world energy law experts and includes case studies of the relevant laws in six developing countries: Colombia, the Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa, Ghana and Korea, all by native experts -- analizing their strength and weaknesses. The Guide organization is hosted by the Pace Energy & Climate Change Center. The Editor-in Chief is Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger; co-editors are Professor Karl Rabago, Center Executive Director, and three internationally recognized energy experts, from UNEP, Sri Lanka, and Australia.

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Tom & Agnes Carvel Foundation: Court Accompaniment, Respect and Empowerment Program Principal Investigator: Cindy Kanusher, Esq. Co-Investigator: Natalie J. Sobchak, Esq.

Department: Women’s Justice Center School: Pace Law School Campus: PLV The Thomas & Agnes Carvel Foundation awarded the Pace Women’s Justice Center grant funding to start a new program to provide emotional support for PWJC clients who are survivors of domestic violence and are scheduled to appear in court. Going to court, especially for a protective order, can be a difficult and frightening process for victims of domestic violence. The courthouse itself is physically intimidating, and most clients have little familiarity with the complicated judicial system. Many of our clients are immigrants with limited English proficiency, who may have deep-seated fears of the courts and police. Moreover, the experience usually involves many hours of waiting, which is anxiety-provoking in itself, particularly when the victim must sit in the public waiting room mere feet away from the one person in the world of whom she is most afraid. Facing an abuser in the courtroom or in the waiting room under these circumstances may re-traumatize a victim and weaken her already fragile resolve to proceed. With seed money from the Carvel Foundation, PWJC established the Court Accompaniment, Respect and Empowerment (CARE) Program which is staffed by a team of volunteers who accompany our clients on court dates so that they do not have to face their abusers alone. Currently, PWJC staff attorneys appear in Family and Supreme Court matters with our clients throughout the day, but much of the time is spent waiting for cases to be called before the judge, awaiting the issuance of temporary orders of protection, physically walking with the clients to other services, and waiting to appear in other judicial proceedings in different parts of the courthouse. The CARE Program is designed to provide an additional level of services to our clients, in the form of a compassionate support person (well-trained in the dynamics of domestic violence), to minimize the pain and emotional trauma of the courtroom experience for victims and survivors of abuse. In addition, the CARE Program increases our efficiency and capacity to help more clients: Although a client may wait for many hours for their case to be called, the actual time period for which a lawyer is required inside the courtroom may be relatively short. Moreover, by using volunteers to staff the CARE program, we are maximizing productivity by leveraging our resources. In other words, it is more efficient for non-attorney volunteers to spend the hours of waiting time with a client, thereby freeing up our attorneys to do more casework, and assist additional clients. PWJC has been looking for meaningful ways to engage interested volunteers who are not attorneys. The CARE Program is a way for us increase awareness about domestic violence (through recruitment and training of volunteers), and to create additional community participation and meaningful engagement with our organization. 76

A staged reading of “Stuck Rubber Baby” (Adapted by Kaleb Tank from the original graphic novel by Howard Cruse) Principal Investigator: Kaleb Tank

Department: Directing School: Pace School of Performing Arts Campus: NYC “Stuck Rubber Baby” is an original play adapted by Kaleb Tank from Howard Cruse’s influential graphic novel by the same name. The play follows Toland Polk, a young, white, closeted gay man during the late 1960’s who slowly comes to terms with himself and discovers that the black community is more accepting of diversity than his own white community. The original graphic novel served as early inspiration for Alison Bechdel and the original edition had a forward written by Tony Kushner. One of the things that inspired me about the source material was that it was a story all about race and sexuality, but it was not agitprop. The focus was on the characters and their own arcs, not on making a change in society. So, as I was writing my focus was always on the relationships between the characters. The play itself deals with issues of race, sexuality, and the effects loneliness has on a person. In light of recent current events like police brutality and attacks/advances on LGBT rights, I have felt a need to write and present my opinions. However, being a white man I had a very limited scope and needed to find my way in. Last summer, in my Critical Writing class, I was required to read “Stuck Rubber Baby” and was inspired by the theatricality of the novel. I also found a lot of myself in the protagonist, Toland Polk, a red-headed, gay, white man. I had discovered a story that inspired me, and my way in to issues I was passionate about. I began writing. Now, almost a year later, I have a solid 120 page rough draft of the piece, and I just need to continue researching and developing ways to present it to a larger audience.

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