Developing a More Affordable Way to Measure Air Quality

Presenting at the symposium’s Earth Day panel was Santiago Plaza, a senior who works as a research assistant for Project FRESH Air, an initiative where Fordham students and faculty visit middle and high schools in the Bronx and New York and install air quality monitors to teach the children about how pollution affects their environment. Unfortunately, those monitors aren’t cheap. The price of the Project FRESH Air monitors ranges from $179 to $259. 

Plaza’s goal was to create sensors that perform similarly, if not better, than the sensors currently on the market—and for a much lower price. He developed a successful prototype that cost about $70 to make (though he stressed that it will require more testing in the future). 

“Being able to have lower-cost monitors will allow us to work with more schools. It’s also really important to have a low-cost means to measure air quality so that people who don’t have as much financial support can take their health and care for their environment into their own hands,” said Plaza, an integrative neuroscience major who plans on applying to graduate or medical school. 

The Role of ‘Magic’ in Early Modern Russian and Ukrainian Societies

Grace Powers, a senior who double majors in sociology and history and minors in Russian, presented her research on the role of “magic” in Russian and Ukrainian societies during the early modern period. Powers defined magic as anything unexplainable. 

“It was a way of understanding the world and to claim agency or knowledge during a time when many people didn’t have any,” she said.  

Notions of magic permeated many parts of life, including healing practices, politics, and warfare.

Some events perceived as “magical” were so powerful that they could lead to riots and the murder of neighbors, said Powers. In 1547, the city of Moscow experienced a devastating fire that killed about 1,700 people. The citizens blamed the fire on the tsar’s grandmother and uncles, claiming that they had caused the destruction by sprinkling blood from a stolen heart over the city. As a result, the people rioted and demanded the execution of the royal family. 

In her research presentation, Powers, who studied primary documents and scholarly articles, argued that magic was a powerful tool and resource during that time period—and has implications for today’s world.  

“This is really important for understanding the culture at that time, which is the basis of culture for many Eastern and Slavic European countries now. Understanding their mindsets better is also important for us in the United States, since we have diplomatic ties with them,” said Powers, who was recently awarded a Fulbright to teach English in Estonia for a year. 

Several members of the Fordham community were also celebrated at the symposium’s awards ceremony. The Faculty Mentor of the Year award was given to Molly Zimmerman, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, and Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis, associate professor of music. The inaugural Anne L. Geiger Award, awarded to a student whose contributions and research bring together diverse people and perspectives, was given to senior Sophia Maier. The Fordham College Alumni Association Award was given to senior Miguel Sutedjo. 

“I’ve seen a lot of people go blind, including my grandmother, and there are a lot of direct and indirect costs that patients suffer from,” said Serpa, a data science student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “I want to make sure that people can see as long as possible.” 

The idea for the project originally came from Amin, an assistant professor of computer and information sciences, and Alauddin Bhuiyan, Ph.D., the founder of iHealthScreen and an associate professor at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine. While searching for thesis ideas, Serpa reached out to Amin, who then introduced her to his research with Bhuiyan. 

“Many middle-aged people have diabetes, including myself,” said Amin. “They often develop eye problems, especially age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases spread slowly until they reach a stage where it’s difficult to recover, but if you diagnose them early, they’re easier to manage.” 

Together, the three researchers are trying to build an app that uses artificial intelligence to detect these eye diseases at an early stage. 

Training Software to Recognize Disease Symptoms

Serpa began her thesis last fall with initial research and interviews with neurologists and ophthalmologists, who shared what they thought was needed in their field. Then she visited health care facilities in the Bronx, where she recorded images of patients’ retinas with professional equipment, focusing on patients at least 55 years old and/or diabetic. The images were then uploaded to AI software that is being trained to identify signs of AMD or diabetic retinopathy and also sent to an ophthalmologist for diagnosis. Later, Serpa compared the results from the software and the ophthalmologist to see if they both agreed on a diagnosis. 

“The software uses machine-learning and deep learning to scan images, pixel by pixel, and search for specific spots that indicate a person is at risk and should be seen by a professional for further referral,” said Serpa. “Basically, we’re training the software to know what to look for in the data and to accurately diagnose patients.”

So far, Serpa has recorded and uploaded about 100 images. Her goal is to collect more than 500 images by the end of the study, but she says that most of the time, the ophthalmologist and the software agree on a diagnosis. And the more images processed by the software, the smarter it becomes. 

“It’s like if you were to study for an exam and take 10 practice exams. If someone else takes 20, then that person might do better because they’ve practiced more,” said Serpa.  

Finally, Serpa’s team will incorporate the software into a smartphone application in which anyone can take a photo of their eye and screen themselves for eye diseases at little to no cost. 

“In the past, most researchers have used a separate camera or a removable smartphone lens instead of an actual iPhone camera, but those can cost a lot of money. We’re trying to see how accurate we can get with an iPhone camera,” said Serpa. “If people can’t afford to visit a doctor, this could be a good way to first let them know that they should see a doctor and get real imaging done because we see something that may be dangerous.” 

A Cost-Effective Form of Diagnosis

After graduating from Fordham next spring, Serpa said she hopes to work full time in the medical technology field. 

“A lot of people find databases boring, but I think it’s fascinating to find patterns in the data that can be important to a business or health care system,” said Serpa, who is originally from Monroe, New York. 

She said she not only enjoys working with data, but also interacting with patients, many of whom she can personally relate to. 

“As someone who has had a lot of chronic illnesses since I was young, I feel like I understand where they’re coming from,” said Serpa, who has asthma and has suffered from migraines and fibromyalgia since childhood.

Although her thesis will be completed by May 2023, she said she plans to continue her research post-graduation. 

“In the long run, our goal is to create a cost-effective and accurate way to know that a patient is going to lose their sight, but also help them to retain some of it,” Serpa said. “Nothing’s going to reverse the damage; we can only slow down the process. But hopefully we can find a better way to detect these diseases earlier.”  

A new study out of Fordham offers some of the first reliable data on human trafficking in New York City and provides new tools for identifying trafficking victims so they can be helped.

Among its many findings, the study highlights the role of homelessness in forcing young people into “survival sex,” or the trading of sex acts—such as prostitution or stripping—for basic needs such as food or shelter.

“Over and over again we heard, ‘If I had a place to stay, this would have never happened to me,’” said Jayne Bigelsen, director of anti-human trafficking initiatives at Covenant House, the social service agency in Manhattan where the study was conducted.

Bigelsen was one of two principal investigators on the study, along with Stefanie Vuotto, a doctoral candidate in the Applied Developmental Psychology program at Fordham. Out of 174 homeless youth between 18 and 23 years old who were surveyed, nearly one-quarter—or 23 percent—had been trafficked or had engaged in survival sex.

Of those who had performed paid sex acts, 48 percent did so because they lacked a safe place to stay.

“We want people to understand the connection between trafficking and runaway and homeless youth,” said Bigelsen, pointing to the need for more government support for shelters. “We are turning away several hundred [young people]a month and all the other youth shelters in the city are as well, and yet funding keeps getting cut. If you want to stop trafficking, we need to have more services.”

The study was an attempt to measure a problem that is notoriously hard to track, in part because victims are reluctant to discuss it.

Vuotto took the lead in developing and validating the study’s questionnaire, which is couched in explanatory, sensitive, nonjudgmental language designed to elicit truthful answers about a touchy topic and help bring the human trafficking problem out of the shadows.

“There are no reliable statistics in terms of the prevalence of human trafficking, or what it looks like in New York City, probably because it’s very covert in its nature,” Vuotto said.
The questionnaire contains detailed instructions about what to listen for and how to follow up on answers that may indicate trafficking. While other groups have methods for screening trafficking victims, Vuotto’s is the first to be this deeply researched and to be scientifically validated for use in the homeless youth population, said Vuotto’s practicum instructor at Fordham, Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro, Ph.D.

“Developing a reliable instrument that can identify victims so they may be helped is critically important, because human trafficking is such a huge and mostly hidden problem,” she said. Bigelsen, meanwhile, hopes the study will show people that “trafficking does happen here in the U.S.” She also had advice for those who would do something about trafficking: provide help and support to young people in need so they don’t come under the sway of those who would coerce and exploit them.

“If you’re mentoring a homeless kid or an at-risk youth or doing anything like that, you’re helping prevent trafficking,” she said.

A panel of distinguished speakers from around the world discussed the importance of the R software and graphics system for use by researchers, practitioners, educators and students.

The conference, organized by Hrishikesh D. Vinod, Ph.D., professor of economics, and Frank Hsu, Ph.D., professor of computer and information sciences, highlighted the value R holds for educators in particular, due to fact that it is free, open source, and widely available. R also features some 2,000 specialized packages and is becoming the “lingua franca” for quantitative social science researchers across a wide array of disciplines.

The conference, inaugurated by Robert Himmelberg, Ph.D., dean of the arts and sciences faculty (pictured), concluded with a wine and cheese reception, hosted by the Society of Indian Academics in America (SIAA) and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). More details on the conference are available here.

“Altering the Cycle: Teaching Tolerance” will be held on Friday, April 18 at the Fordham’s Marymount campus in Tarrytown, N.Y. (details below). It is intended for educators, child welfare and mental health professionals, psychologists, social workers, education and social work students, clergy and parents.

The goal of the daylong event is to encourage discourse and provoke ideas about how to stop prejudice and intolerance related to race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation from passing from one generation to the next. Discussions and workshops will raise awareness about the transmission of biases learned within families and steps that can be taken to alter the cycle.

The keynote speaker is Rev. David Billings, the Pauline S. Falk Chair on Race, Community and Mental Health at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City. Billings is the core trainer and lead organizer for the New York office of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Altering the Cycle: Teaching Tolerance
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, April 18
Pepsico Auditorium, Rita Hall
Marymount Campus, Fordham University
100 Marymount Ave., Tarrytown, N.Y.

For more information about the conference, call Children FIRST at (914) 332-6020.

The Children FIRST Scholars program, part of the Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training at Fordham, provides financial aid and leadership development training to advanced master of social work students who have achieved academic excellence.

Ecologists Guy Robinson, Ph.D., Lida Pigott Burney and David Burney, Ph.D., found evidence in the soil records of the bogs and ponds of southern New York State that indicates a dramatic decrease in the number of large animals approximately 1,000 years before a millennium-long cold period at the end of the last ice age. A period of climate change is commonly believed to have been responsible for their demise.

The Fordham team’s research indicates that the extinction of the large animals in North America occurred at the same time that humans emerged on the continent. According to Fordham researchers, humans overhunted the large animals, leading to their population collapse.

“Each lake and bog deposit that we examined told a similar story of a habitat absent the existence of any threatening factors, except for the introduction of humans to the ecosystem,” said Robinson. “Humans appear to be the fatal factor that brought about this prehistoric disaster.”

The researchers pinpointed the time of the large animals’ disappearance by monitoring the soil record for a spore that thrived on animals’ excrement. Soil records also show an increased frequency of widespread fires that were fueled by the excess foliage and vegetation no longer being eaten by the diminishing number of large animals. The increased frequency of landscape fires is a widely accepted scientific marker of the arrival of humans.

Researchers were able to mark dramatic shifts in environmental or climatic conditions of a region by searching for changes in the number of microscopic fossils, such as pollen, spores or other particles that are preserved in the soil record. The Fordham research team published similar research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 that connected the arrival of humans on the island of Madagascar with the extinction of flightless birds, giant lemurs and other large animals on the African island.