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The Bloomberg Way: Development Politics, Urban Ideology, And Class Transformation In Contemporary New York City, Julian Brash

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the links between a development project, a particular urban ideology, and processes of class transformation in contemporary New York City. The city's postindustrial transformation, especially since the 1970s fiscal crisis, has created a newly dominant corporate elite consisting of executives and high-level professionals. This ruling class alliance has begun to supersede the city's older, real estate-centered traditional growth coalition, as emblematized by the political rise of billionaire ex-CEO Michael Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, along with other ex-corporate executives in his administration, implemented a private-sector inspired corporate, technocratic, and antipolitical approach to governance in general and urban and economic …

Henry James’S "The Ambassadors": Anatomy Of Silence, Marie Leone Meyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the use of silence in Henry James's novel The Ambassadors. James uses silence rich in meaning to portray the protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether's unfolding consciousness. James creates different types of silences that reflect a shift from the spoken or written word to alternate symbol systems. James's novel perches on the threshold of modernity, as his work reflects the ideas of a line of thinkers extending back from James and his brother, William, to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sampson Reed, and Emanuel Swedenborg. At the same time, the novel draws on the contemporary ideas of Charles Darwin, prefigures …

Infinitely Often Dense Bases And Geometric Structure Of Sumsets, Jaewoo Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We'll discuss two problems related to sumsets.

Nathanson constructed bases of integers with prescribed representation functions, then asked how dense bases for integers can be in such cases. Let A(-x, x) be the number of elements of A whose absolute value is less than or equal to x, then it's easy to see that A(-x, x) << x1/2 if its representation function is bounded, giving us a general upper bound. Chen constructed unique representation bases for integers with A(-x, x) ≥ x1/2-epsilon infinitely often. In the first chapter, we'll construct bases for integers with a prescribed representation function with A(-x, x) > x1/2/&phis;(x) infinitely often where &phis;(x) is any nonnegative real-valued function which tends to infinity.

In the second chapter, we'll see how sumsets appear geometrically. Assume A is a finite set of lattice points and h*D=h˙x:x∈conv A is a full dimensional polytope. Then we'll see …

Urban Fervor: Los Angeles Literature And Alternative Religion, Christine M. Daley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using alternative religion and other dynamics within the spiritual life of Los Angeles opens up the city's literary canon; employing religion as a critical lens illuminates the conjunction of history, literature, and urban growth that characterizes Los Angeles culture. This is especially relevant in a setting where, according to a 1941 guide to the city, "the multiplicity and diversity of faiths that flourish in the aptly named City of Angels probably cannot be duplicated in any other city on earth." It is apparent, however, that the specific social phenomena of abundant sects in this urban space can provide keys to …

Demographic Issues In Infant Health In The 1990’S And Measurement Issues In Costing Medicaid Expansions, Danielle H. Ferry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

National measures of infant health in the 1990s were flat, but rates of low birth weight and preterm birth among blacks, especially in center cities, improved. Health gains were especially marked in Washington, DC. Analysis at the metropolitan area level reveals that center city-suburban gaps in black infant health declined. The first two chapters of this dissertation use the 1990-2001 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Natality Files to examine improvements in infant health among African-Americans, first, in Washington, DC, and second, in 37 metropolitan areas with large black populations.

Although Washington, DC also experienced substantial, above-average reductions in its …

Larry Rivers And Frank O'Hara: Reframing Male Sexualities, Dong-Yeon Koh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1970, Sam Hunter complained that the distinctive persona of proto-Pop artist Larry Rivers had overshadowed his artistic achievement. "Too often he has been taken as an engaging public performer", wrote Hunter, claiming that some critics "make the mistake of confusing his irrepressible exhibitionism with an imagined artistic flaw of fitful or unsteady inspiration". 1 This dissertation presents an alternative proposition regarding the relationship between Rivers' artistic persona and art: that an examination of Rivers' numerous activities inside and outside the artistic arena, such as poetry, jazz, and media, is indeed useful for understanding his work. Particularly, Rivers' involvement with …

Maze Learning And Recall In Weakly Electric Fish, Mormyrus Rume Proboscirostris Boulenger 1898 (Teleostei, Mormyridae): Sensory Bases, Alice G. Walton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Animals use navigational strategies ranging from taxes, landmark and compass orientation, and path integration to cognitive maps. The debate concerning the use of mapping strategies, or less complex mechanisms such path integration, landmark orientation, or dead reckoning is far from settled. Nocturnal weakly electric fish (family Mormyridae) leave their daytime hiding places at night to forage for food and return at dawn. Thus, these fish provide an excellent model to explore their navigational strategies.

The present studies explore these strategies using a novel paradigm: after learning to swim through a maze (acquisition), the maze barriers are removed and the fish …

Relationship Between Parental Physical Discipline And Child Externalizing Problems In The Caribbean Subculture In New York City, Meltem Paker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated the relationship between parental physical discipline (PD) and child externalizing behaviors (EB) in the Caribbean subculture and examined whether acculturation to the European American and Caribbean cultures, generational status, normativity of PD, and warmth in the parent-child relationship moderated this relationship. Eighty-nine parents of Caribbean origin answered an anonymous survey consisting of various scales and demographic questions.

Descriptive analyses indicated that parents in this study used PD an average of 10 times during the past year. The majority (69%) reported using at least one PD act in the past year. All forms of more severe PD (e.g., …

"Feathered Glory": A Poet In Flight From Medieval Ireland To The Twentieth Century, Denell Marie Downum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Feathered Glory explores the relevance of the medieval Irish character Suibhne, usually anglicized as Sweeney, to twentieth-century writers. Suibhne is the protagonist of the twelfth-century text Buile Suibhne, in which he is depicted as a minor king who goes mad on the field of battle, abandons his kingdom and his role in society, and flies like a bird into the woods, where he becomes a poet of exceptional power and beauty. This tale languished in obscurity for many centuries, but following J. G. O'Keeffe's publication of a scholarly edition and English translation of Buile Suibhne in 1913, Suibhne has …

Countable Short Recursively Saturated Models Of Arithmetic, Erez Shochat

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Short recursively saturated models of arithmetic are exactly the elementary initial segments of recursively saturated models of arithmetic. Since any countable recursively saturated model of arithmetic has continuum many elementary initial segments which are already recursively saturated, we turn our attention to the (countably many) initial segments which are not recursively saturated. We first look at properties of countable short recursively saturated models of arithmetic and show that although these models cannot be cofinally resplendent (an expandability property slightly weaker than resplendency), these models have non-definable expansions which are still short recursively saturated.

Empire's Footprint: Expulsion And The United States Military Base On Diego Garcia, David Stiefel Vine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between 1956 and 1973, the U.S. Government orchestrated the forced removal of the people of the Indian Ocean's Chagos Archipelago to create a military base on the island Diego Garcia. This dissertation provides a historical ethnography of Diego Garcia detailing the creation of the base, the removal, and the effects of the removal on the people known as Chagossians to ask what Diego Garcia reveals about the United States as an empire and empire more broadly.

Contrary to arguments that the United States became an empire of economics in the 20th century, Diego Garcia represents a reactionary reliance on traditional …

Visible Effects: Narrative Spectacle And Affective Response In The Late Eighteenth-Century Novel, Tanya Radford

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Eighteenth-century visual culture and literature reflect a struggle between two models of vision and understanding: on one side, an Enlightenment vision dedicated to disembodied objectivity and technical precision; on the other, a sentimental or expressive vision that produces irrational or emotional insight. If the disembodied eye can be seen as an emblem of reason and the goal of the Enlightenment approach to scientific knowledge, the spectatorial and incarnate eye represents an alternative and equally significant emblem of the period's visuality. This dissertation focuses on novels from the late Eighteenth century in which the spectatorial and incarnate eye is the dominant …

The Technical Fix Or The Systemic Solution For Urban Water Quality? A Case Study Of Grassroots Activism On Behalf Of New York City's Drinking Water, Mirele B. Goldsmith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This case study examines the activities of the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition from 1996 until 2004. The Coalition opposed construction of a filtration plant for the Croton water supply. The study traces the Coalition’s campaign against filtration, which took place in the context of the widely heralded New York City Watershed Memorandum of Agreement (1997). Although the Agreement permitted New York City to avoid filtration for its Catskill and Delaware water supplies, plans were laid for filtration of the Croton supply.

My study is informed by political ecology which provides a framework for understanding politics, practices and contradictions involved …

I. Comparison Of Translesion Bypass Of Guanine–N2 Monoadducts Of Mitomycin C And Guanine-N7 Monoadducts Of 2,7-Diaminomitosene By T7 Exo-, Klenow Exo-, Eta And Klenow Exo+ Dna Polymerases. Ii. Structure-Based Design, Synthesis, Structure-Conformation And Structure-Activity Relationships Studies Of D-Phe-Pro-D-Arg-P1’-Conh2 Tetrapeptides With Inhibitory Activity For Thrombin., Cristina C. Clement

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The guanine (G)-N² DNA monoadduct of mitomycin C (MC), a cytotoxic anticancer drug, inhibits translesion bypass by DNA polymerases. 2,7-Diaminomitosene (2,7-DAM) is the major metabolite of MC in tumor cells, generated by the reduction of MC. 2,7-DAM alkylates DNA in the cell in situ, forming an adduct at the N7 position of 2'-deoxyguanosine (2,7-DAM-dG) and is noncytotoxic. In part I of this study we tested a potential correlation between the lack of cytotoxicity of 2,7-DAM and the relative ease of bypass of this adduct as compared with the MC adduct. 24-mer and 27-mer templates, adducted at a single …

The Paradoxes Of Diversity: Race, Class, And Gender Relations In A Federal Bureaucracy, Linda B. Benbow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study analyzes the perspective of urban postal workers regarding their experiences in a diverse workplace. It will describe the social relations of workers and shows how race, gender, and class are implicated in those relationships. The research design involves in-depth interviews, participant-observation, and analysis of postal and postal union literature. The theoretical framework undergirding this research is multidimensional; theories of diversity in the workplace will be incorporated with race, class, and gender theories. The premise of this research is that diversity problems are rooted in the organizational structure. Power differences are inherent in hierarchically arranged bureaucratic settings and …

An Opera In Aid Of The Reading Of History, B. Mcevoy Campbell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis consists of six chapters and a frontispiece/CD recording of a song cycle, Blue Orpheus: Hymns and Lullabies, written and performed by the author. This arrangement responds to currents within queer theory, which view questions concerning its historical and philosophical origins as diversions from its ability to determine present conditions, by reframing these "presentist" (and its close relative, "performative") orientations in terms of "place" and the corresponding laws and freedoms that originate from its cultivation—in politics, the art of memory, and systems theory and design. Generally speaking, to each concept of place I devote two chapters.

Chapter one …

The Intersection Of Race, Gender, And Class In Social Transitions: Caribbean Immigrant Women Negotiating United States Higher Education, Tracy A. Mcfarlane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The experiences of immigrant women of color within US higher education provide a unique opportunity to understand the complex influences of intersecting identities within changing social contexts. This study was designed to determine how the social categories of gender, class, race, and nationality operate in Caribbean immigrant women's experience of being college students. Focus groups and life story interviews were conducted with 27 English-speaking Caribbean-born women attending CUNY undergraduate colleges. The data yielded four main findings: First, Caribbean gender roles and traditions are not homogenous; hence, there is variation in the ways in which these affect women's experiences in the …