Digital Commons Network^™

Socially Racialized And Statistically Invisible: U.S. Census Recognition Of The Middle Eastern And North African Diaspora, Aliana J. Jabbary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis delves into the recent decision by the U.S. Executive’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to revise the statistical categorization of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) individuals within federal statistical collection, particularly focusing on the U.S. Decennial Census’ racial and ethnic classifications as outlined in the OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive no. 15. Historically classified solely as racially White, the MENA diaspora’s statistical invisibility within federal data has significant impacts on policy eligibility and access to legal protections, contributing to their social erasure from the national identity. Through a comprehensive analysis of racialization and Orientalism scholarship, alongside an …

Explicit Composition Identities For Higher Composition Laws In The Quadratic Case, Ajith A. Nair

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The theory of Gauss composition of integer binary quadratic forms provides a very useful way to compute the structure of ideal class groups in quadratic number fields. In addition to that, Gauss composition is also important in the problem of representations of integers by binary quadratic forms. In 2001, Bhargava discovered a new approach to Gauss composition which uses 2x2x2 integer cubes, and he proved a composition law for such cubes. Furthermore, from the higher composition law on cubes, he derived four new higher composition laws on the following spaces - 1) binary cubic forms, 2) pairs of binary quadratic …

Altruistic Imperialism: The Co-Optation Of Mutual Aid By The Nonprofit Industrial Complex, Kelly T. Waltz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis assesses the role of the nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) in neoliberalism’s material destruction of global community development and its exploitation of human benevolence. An examination of the institutionalization of high-profile social movements such as BLM and #MeToo demonstrates that the nonprofit industrial complex is built upon a misappropriation of feminist and liberation ideologies and practices, an insidious weaponization of our collectivist tendencies, and the systematic subjugation of mutual aid networks originally created and operated independent of systems of capital. The systemic and conceptual limitations of mainstream methods and the criteria by which nonprofit organizations’ effectiveness is evaluated are …

Performing Ero Guro: Erotic-Grotesque Bodies And Normativity In Post-Wwii Japanese And Korean Theatre, Dohyun Shin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates how portrayals of erotic and grotesque bodies in post-WWII Japanese and Korean theatre responded to each nation’s image of the ideal body. Those ideal bodily images were the product of haunting modernity as well as of the following historical circumstances after Japan’s loss in WWII—the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the U.S. and Japan and the attendant protests (Japan) as well as the aftermath of Japanese colonial rule, the Korean war, and Korea’s military dictatorships. Instead of uncovering the historical legacy of the early 20^th-century cultural trend Ero Guro Nansensu (Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense) …

Aspects Of Parity Breaking In Classical And Quantum Fluids, Dylan J. Reynolds

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parity-breaking is ubiquitous across many scales of physics, from the rotation of galaxies at the largest of scales, to the cyclotron orbits of electrons at the microscopic scale. In describing the collective dynamics of many particle systems, parity breaking effects typically originate from some form of chirality, such as angular momentum, at the level of the constituent particles. External forces can also induce chiral motion, with the primary examples being the Lorentz and Coriolis forces.

The effects of parity breaking are perhaps most strikingly seen in active matter, systems of complex particles that tend to convert energy into some directed …

Black Food Geographies And The Politics Of Resistance In The Brick City. An Intersectional Analysis Of Black Food Provisioning Practices, Food Access, And Racial Food Inequities In Newark, New Jersey From 1666 – 2020, Angelika Winner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work studied Black food geographies in Newark, NJ, which represent alternative food provisioning practices and strategies working within but also parallel to traditional food geographies and exist within and despite of foodscapes of domination. Black food geographies not only include the spatial agency of Black residents but also entail the structural intersectionality and organized abandonment that Black residents currently experience as well as their historical production. Thus, food access of Newark’s Black resident was analyzed with a three-pronged mixed methods research design, a supply-centered analysis from a Positivistic perspective, a political economy-centered historical analysis from a Marxist perspective, and …

A Comparison Of Temporary Threshold Shifts In Dentists, Hygienists, And Dental Assistants, Sabina E. Ciaccio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare the temporary threshold shifts (TTS) in dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants. The specific aim of this study is to compare the differences in temporary shifts caused by the different dental equipment and the proximity to the equipment. The current literature does not compare the change in hearing thresholds of dental personnel.

Methods: Dentists, dental assistants, and hygienists from Hermann Dental Associates will be given a case history form to determine inclusion status for this study. Exclusion criteria will include known hearing loss and significant noise exposure the day prior. …

Reconciling Macro- And Micro-Levels In The First Movement Of Brahms’S Piano Concerto In D Minor, Op. 15: A Schenkerian Reading, Alexandra Joan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the first movement of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 15, through a Schenkerian lens. Concertos are relatively unexplored in Heinrich Schenker’s theoretical work. Surprisingly, although Schenker put Brahms on a pedestal throughout his life, he left only a few published analyses of the composer’s music.

Chapter 1 explores the kinship between Schenker and Brahms. Both conceived of the musical work as an organic entity. They also shared an approach to the tonal language based on an eighteenth-century tradition of figured bass and counterpoint. Op. 15 also exhibits an approach to musical form grounded in the …

Social Workers Working With Intimate Partner Violence Survivors: The Influence Of Trauma Work On The Social Worker’S Intimate Relationships, Claire T. Mccue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working therapeutically with trauma survivors, such as survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) carries a risk of vicarious traumatization (VT) for social workers, as well as the potential for vicarious post-traumatic growth (VPTG). This phenomenological study sought to explore and understand how vicarious exposure to trauma affects social workers who treat survivors of IPV and their intimate relationships positively and negatively. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 social workers working directly with survivors of IPV in New York while being involved in their intimate relationships.

Utilizing the constructivist self-development perspective, the study found social workers experienced physical, emotional, …

Three Essays Applying Dynamic Models In Economics, Finance, And Machine Learning, Lucas C. Dowiak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a composition in three parts. Collectively, these essays investigate dynamic methods and their application in the fields of Economics, Finance, and Machine Learning. It pulls liberally from all three. In particular, this dissertation makes repeated use of multi-state modeling frameworks popular in Economics to bring a faceted view to the underlying data and detect its hidden heterogeneity. The challenge of modeling financial assets and estimating their dependence is another focus. For stimulus, concepts in the Machine Learning field are brought in to aid or compete with established econometric techniques.

Econometric Applications of the Hierarchical Mixture-of-Experts

In this …

Quantics Tensor Trains: The Study Of A Continuous Lattice Model And Beyond, Aleix Bou Comas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This four-chapter dissertation studies the efficient discretization of continuous variable functions with tensor train representation. The first chapter describes all the methodology used to discretize functions and store them efficiently. In this section, the algorithm tensor renormalization group is explained for self-containment purposes. The second chapter centers around the XY model. Quantics tensor trains are used to describe the transfer matrix of the model and compute one and two-dimensional quantities. The one dimensional magnitudes are compared to analytical results with an agreement close to machine precision. As for two dimensions, the analytical results cannot be computed. However, the critical temperature …

Online Communities And Offline Criminal Justice: The Digital Fallout Of Major Criminal Incidents, Jacqueline M. Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

User-generated online data has, in recent years, become an important basis for sociological research, and the ubiquity of social media presages the importance of an increased understanding of its inner workings in the spheres of criminology and sociology. This dissertation examines the dynamics of user-generated information on social media and social news in the wake of 53 criminal incidents which generated higher-than-average interest online. Using multiple platforms and analytical techniques, I investigate the dynamics of within- and between-platform information uptake, examine potential avenues and drawbacks of the actionable information available online during a crisis, and describe patterns and focal topics …

Housing Displacement In Corlears Hook: From Naghtongh To One Manhattan Square, Don Macleod

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The displacement of residents from their homes in New York City began with the European settlement of New Amsterdam and continues to this day. This paper focuses on displacement in Corlears Hook, part of Manhattan’s Lower East Side from the violent extirpation of a Lenape settlement in 1643 New Amsterdam to the gentrification of a traditional working-class neighborhood along the East River propelled by the influx of luxury housing development. Throughout Corlears Hook’s long history, displacement has been caused by violence, well-meaning efforts to improve slum conditions, ham-fisted “urban renewal” projects that favored the wealthy and civic improvements that used …

Audiological Evaluation Of Persons With Dementia: A Systematic Review, Yehudis Hoch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Dementia and hearing loss are both prevalent, age-related conditions and recent research has established a correlation between the two. Audiological evaluations of persons with dementia are important due to a likely comorbidity of dementia and hearing loss, the detrimental effect that hearing loss has on cognition and cognitive tests, and because the similar presentation of the two conditions can cause hearing loss to be overlooked. Hearing loss intervention is critical for this population due to the positive effects that amplification has on cognition, social engagement, and listening effort. Despite the importance of hearing assessment and intervention, audiological evaluation of …

Not Sanitized For Your Protection: Aids And The Politics Of Trash, Emma Banks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Metaphors of waste are particularly potent when enlisted to describe and justify the segregation and subjugation of marginalized communities. For, as discard studies scholars have shown, waste is not merely about trash; it is about power (Liboiron and Lepawsky). Maintaining power necessitates hierarchical categorization, whereby the needs and desires of some people are prioritized over those of others, to frequently catastrophic effect.

At the turn of the 21st century, AIDS patients and allies needed no such explanation of what it meant to be relegated to the fringes and designated as waste. Thrown to the proverbial curb of society, PWAs (people …

Toolkit For Users Of Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids, Sabrina Malasarte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Untreated hearing loss oftentimes has significant adverse effects on the quality of life of older adults. The associations include, but are not limited to loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and a decrease in cognitive function. Hearing aids significantly improve audibility, social interactions, and decrease feelings of loneliness or isolation. However, despite technological advances, and evidence of positive outcomes associated with hearing aid use, uptake and continued use of hearing aids remain low. Accessibility and affordability are considered barriers to uptake. Purchasing a prescription hearing aid from an audiologist is the traditional approach to receiving an amplification device, but the advent of over …

What The Debate About Spanish Gender-Inclusive Forms Reveals Regarding Ideological Beliefs About Language And Authority, Jalitza Gutierrez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The “masculine generic” is a feature of Spanish that dictates that the masculine ending, (-o), is generally used as the default when referring to a mixed-sex group or when the sex of a person or group is unknown. Critics have claimed that this linguistic feature is sexist and contributes to the invisibility of women and gender-nonconforming people within the language (Eisenberg, 1985). In order to combat these issues, critics have campaigned for the revision of Spanish to include gender-inclusive language, which has continued to be a source of debate, both from the bottom-up and from institutions such as the Real …

Modeling And Dynamics Of Capillary Bridges, Moyosore Odunsi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Capillary bridges are ubiquitous in nature and have important implications in processes like inkjet printing. They are an important area of study not only because of their industrial applications but because many of the questions in capillary bridge research are applicable to other systems. For example, they exhibit pinning and unpinning patterns that are similar to those in sliding droplets. The rules underlying this pinning are essential to predicting liquid shapes and understanding how contact lines move across surfaces. Many previous studies have focused on axisymmetric capillary bridges and neglected to model the tangential forces that arise due to asymmetry. …

Parabolic And Non-Parabolic Surfaces With Small Or Large End Spaces Via Fenchel-Nielsen Parameters, Michael Antony Pandazis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We consider conditions on the Fenchel-Nielsen parameters of a Riemann surface X that determine whether or not a surface X is parabolic. Fix a geodesic pants decomposition of a surface and call the boundary geodesics in the decomposition cuffs. For a zero or half-twist flute surface, we prove that parabolicity is equivalent to the surface having a covering group of the first kind. Using that result, we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the Fenchel-Nielsen parameters of a half-twist flute surface X with increasing cuff lengths such that X is parabolic. As an application, we determine whether or not each …

Metric Schemas And Projections In Three Colombian Folk Genres, Lina S. Tabak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores how stylistic expertise can affect metric perception, through the analysis of three Colombian folk genres—cantos de boga and currulaos from the Pacific region and joropos from the Eastern plains bordering Venezuela. Specifically, it considers the tension between metric perceptions which arise from bottom-up mechanisms for entrainment (such as projections), and those which are based on top-down mechanisms (such as schemata). This tension is at play when more and less musically enculturated listeners perceive entirely different metric structures when listening to identical music.

Taking bottom-up and top-down metric perception as a thread, this dissertation isolates three additional metric …

Best Practices For Healthcare Providers When Communicating With Individuals With Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review, Ashley Mccaig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the literature to gather information about strategies to use when communicating with people with hearing loss, specifically in healthcare settings or environments where face masks are frequently used. The compiled literature was used to establish the best practices for healthcare providers to use when communicating with their patients with hearing loss, especially when utilizing face masks.

Methods: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using the Google Scholar, PubMed, and MEDLINE Complete databases. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was used to …

Framing The Fight: Revolutionary Feelings In Virtual Communities, James Reilly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study considers how social media impacts emotional processing, and ultimately social movement development. Through a multidisciplinary lens, I explore how social media fits within larger media ecologies, particularly during times of social upheaval and collective action. Grounded in an examination of organizational efforts in advance of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, I look at how communication patterns create common emotional cues that help form the movement. Considering framing, emotional habitus, and subjective agency within digital spaces, I demonstrate how social media has emerged as an articulating space for social movements to develop and plan before drawing wider, offline populations to …

Examining The Factors That Contribute To The Survival And Resilience Of The Al-Shabaab Terrorist Organization, Kevisha R. Kellar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the enduring threat posed by Al-Shabaab in Somalia, examining three primary factors contributing to its resilience: the mismanagement of international intervention, inadequate government oversight and resources, and Al-Shabaab’s ability to adapt to Somalia’s socio-political environment. These factors help Al-Shabaab foster direct and indirect relationships that allow the organization to survive. Through an analysis of Al-Shabaab’s organizational structure and strategies, this study sheds light on the exploitation of political, economic, and religious dynamics, and the complexity of combatting Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab’s manipulation of an Islamic identity is a political tool, that fosters business networks, aids in arms acquisitions, evades …

Effect Of Magnetic Draping On Satellite Galaxies In Clusters, Vanessa Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Galaxy evolution has been observed to be influenced by environment. Satellite galaxies orbiting within clusters can experience changes in morphology and composition through various mechanisms such as ram-pressure stripping (RPS), which removes a galaxy’s interstellar medium as it passes through the cluster via direct interaction with the hot intracluster medium gas. An open question is whether intracluster magnetic fields affect galaxy evolution, for example by forming a magnetic layer around infalling galaxies (called magnetic draping) and mitigating gas removal by RPS. Using the code GADGET-3, we compare global properties and mass distributions within identical cluster simulations run with and without …

Looking For A Better Chair: The L Word And Learning How To Sit, Beans Fernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the 20 years since the initial airing of Showtime’s The L Word, the series has garnered a massive following among the sapphic and queer community and has cemented itself as a staple of queer media canon. Beyond the basic queer plotlines, though, The L Word captures lesbian and queer identity, politics, and livelihoods while using a seemingly superficial medium to portray queer bodies in a way that brings it to mainstream and cisheteronormative culture. Further, queer media like The L Word is able to guide members of the LGBTQ community into a queer consciousness and existence.

Examining Visual Processing Of Hierarchical Figures Through Behavioral Measures And Pupillometry In Relation To Autistic Traits In Adults, Chloe Brittenham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autistic traits in the general population are associated with differences in sensory processing, particularly within the visual domain. Previous studies examining global (i.e., overall gist) and local (i.e., detail) visual processing in relation to ASD have sometimes yielded contradictory findings yet converge on a common theme: slowed global processing and increased local bias associated with ASD. Despite this consensus, the mechanism underlying these differences remains unclear, whether it be differences in visual attention, higher or lower visual perception, and/or cognitive style. The use of traditional tasks and stimuli may further complicate the understanding of contributing …

Heteronormativity And Fair Housing: Comparing Housing Opportunities Among Cisgender And Transgender Women, Joseph E. Lara

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the American housing market, gender norms regulate access to safe and stable dwellings. When looking for a home, transgender communities, plagued by multiple vulnerabilities and politicized by conservative politicians, endure vastly different experiences than their cisgender counterparts. Despite an ongoing housing crisis, civil rights laws have widened homeownership opportunities for cisgender women, but transgender women face multiple obstacles to owning a home. How have gender norms influenced the housing market, and how have socially embedded heterosexism and cisgenderism benefited cisgender women over transgender women? This manuscript explores the cultural norms regulating the creation and access to housing, the history …

Alianzas Antimodernas: Estudios Del Cine Español Del Proceso 15m, Pedro Cabello Del Moral

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anti-Modern Alliances: Studies of Spanish Cinema of the 15M Process mobilizes decolonial theory to shed new light upon the politics of the 15M (or Indignados) movement and its visual culture. It tackles anti-modern critiques as embodied in film characters who have been traditionally relegated to the margins of modernity’s grand narratives. The research corpus encompasses a diverse body of works –documentaries, fiction films, activist video essays and their paratexts, which I critically interrogate in dialogue with contemporary feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, anti-neoliberal and anti-ableist debates. Thus, the dissertation examines the methods by which audiovisual works from the past ten years have …

What Exactly Does Identity Have To Do With Teaching? Exploring The Connection Between A Teacher's Racialized Identity And Their Teacher Identity, Lizette Aguilar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the relationship between race and teacher identity, specifically understanding how the two concepts intersect and (re)present themselves within the classroom environment. This study analyzes six teachers’ narratives of identity, race, and teaching to explore themes of race and identity as they traverse from their earliest experiences with race into their experiences as teachers. Findings conclude that, first, teachers’ narrative identities are a composite of key narratives—important moments of deep impact in the process of identity building—that accumulate over time to form what Dan McAdams (1993) calls personal myths. Since key narratives are continually shaping one’s personal myth, …

Using Gaussian Processes To Measure M-Dwarf Rotation Periods From Ground-Based Light Curves, Ryan J. Lebron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Stellar rotation is a readily observable characteristic that plays a crucial role in the generation and activity of magnetic fields through a process known as a magnetic dynamo. For low mass main sequence stars, they exhibit fully convective interiors, giving rise to a distinct dynamo mechanism compared to solar-type stars. Examining the rotational speeds of these stars can offer valuable insights into the workings of these mechanisms. To measure these rotation periods, we developed a pipeline to analyze 192 archival light curves of low mass stars observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) by utilizing a combination of Lomb-Scargle and …