Digital Commons Network^™

Loneliness And The Urban American (Non-)Romantic, Sarah C. Cook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Loneliness, also known as ‘perceived social isolation,’ is an increasingly common feeling among Americans. It can be critically unhealthy when chronic, and recent revelations about its health effects have garnered a significant amount of media attention. Although statistical evidence tells us that marriage is the strongest defense against loneliness, over a third of Millennials and Gen-Zers say marriage is outdated; and census data shows that living alone is both one of the fastest-growing demographics in America, as well as a relatively stable housing arrangement. After examining existing research and media reports on loneliness itself in some depth, including factors that …

Retinoblastoma Malignance And Exosome Mechanisms Facilitating Optic Nerve Head Metastatic Niche Formation, Cui Shi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a rare pediatric ocular tumor that occurs before five years of age and it is the most common intraocular cancer of childhood with more than 300 children in the United States and 8000 diagnosed globally each year. RB arises from the proliferation of cone photoreceptor precursor cells in the retina as a result of mutations in the RB1 gene. The influence of RB secreted factors on cells in the retinal environment has not been fully elucidated. Cancer cell released exosomes have been shown to transform their microenvironment through transfer of metastasis promoting molecular cargo. Cancer cell extracellular …

Interplay Of Magnetic Impurities And Superconductivity In Topological Materials, Didier Ndengeyintwali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The interplay of superconductivity and magnetism has been a long-standing topic of interest since the discovery of superconductivity. In recent years it has been shown that topological superconductivity, which has promising applications such as in topological quantum computing, could result from such interplay. Motivated by the later results I study the effect of magnetic impurities in superconducting doped topological insulators, such as Iron based topological superconductors. I show that topological character of parent materials could lead to modifications in the structure of magnetic impurity induced in-gap states. Moreover, the superconductivity induced interaction between magnetic impurities in doped topological insulator would …

Dante’S Volgare And The Pastoral Presence: An Analysis Of The Concept Of Language In The Divina Commedia, Paola M. Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dante’s conception of the Italian vernacular, the “volgare illustre”, is a central concern of his work and one which catalyses and nurtures, both overtly and covertly, his creation of the Commedia. Although Dante positions himself in his writings as the continual defender and most prolific poet of the vernacular, isolating a specific linguistic use and structure, a coherent definition of what vernacular Dante privileges or what appropriate usage he adheres to, is a difficult and often confusing task. The existence of two eclogues, the only works by Dante to have been written after the majority of the Commedia had been …

Radical Co-Teaching: How Building Relationships Creates Radical Co-Teaching Partnerships, Meagan L. Serrano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study analyzes the development of co-teaching relationships in K-12 classrooms in New York City. More than half of all teachers in New York City will be placed in co-taught classrooms, but they are not directly instructed on how to co-teach–and the relational aspects of co-teaching are largely ignored. This study uses New York public school teacher insights and experiences to understand what really goes into building strong co-teaching partnerships. Using a grounded theory framework for analysis, the research project examines the aspects of successful co-teacher relationships from the co-teacher perspective. The goal of this project is to understand how …

Reviving Hysteria: The Nineteenth Century At The End Of The Twentieth, Christina Quintana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores popular and medical representations of female madness in two time periods: the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries. I argue that 1990s American culture produced an abundance of texts, images, and narratives that revitalized the iconography and medical discourses of late nineteenth-century hysteria. Analyzing popular texts, films, and cultural touchstones of the 1990s, I explore how Victorian ideas about women’s minds—such as the inherent feebleness of the female brain and nervous system; the fatalistic, life-altering effects of female puberty; the association between hysteria and deviant female sexuality; and the implicit racialization of hysteria and female madness more …

The Truth And Other Fictions: The Nuance Of Truth In Medieval Literature, Mark-Allan Donaldson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation, “The Truth and Other Fictions,” is an exploration of the functional relationship between fiction and truth. It discusses truth as a type of nuanced information which may exist in a variety of forms (i.e., objective truth, narrative truth, emotional truth, cultural truth, etc.) and explores how these truths may be created or communicated through the medium of literature. The dissertation also explores how fiction, either narrative or structural, assists in said creation and communication of truth and in some cases is the necessary component to these processes. The Middle Ages and its literature provide the ideal staging ground …

Black Horror Film And The Role Of Mood In Race Perception, Nicholas P. Whittaker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contemporary discussions of black or antiracist art are often haunted by an air of pessimism. This pessimism rests on the intuition that art cannot change the political realities of antiblackness and/or our relationships with blackness. In this dissertation, I resist this hegemonic view by arguing that black horror films generate a particular, politically-valuable aesthetic experience. Specifically, they allow us to experience blackness and black people as unintelligible. This, I argue, runs counter to everyday experience of blackness; when blackness appears unintelligible, we lose the sense of satisfied comprehension that characterizes our everyday experiences of it. I argue that these films …

Controlling Emotional Text To Speech Using Complex Adverbial Phrases, Zainab T. Akande

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates the usage of adverbial modifiers from audiobook data as a resource for training speech synthesizers with a greater range of speech descriptions. The Tacotron2 text-to-speech (TTS) model was used for the purposes of this study. Utilizing the LibriTTS dataset, the Tacotron2 model is trained under two experimental conditions: one incorporating adverbial modifiers into the input text and the other without. The dataset preprocessing involves embedding descriptions using word embeddings and encoding speaker IDs with machine learning techniques. Additionally, the model architecture includes a prosody encoder inspired by prior research. Evaluation of the trained models involves subjective assessments …

Advancing Affective Computing: Emotion Recognition And Tracking Across Diverse Contexts (Varied Environments), Shao Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Affective Computing (AC) is an interdisciplinary field that recognizes, interprets, and processes human emotions. Emotions are complex, involving consciousness, physical sensations, and behavioral expressions, and are significant in various domains like mental health, human-computer interaction, and social security. Real-world applications of AC include monitoring drivers’ emotional states to improve road safety and understanding the emotions expressed by artists in visual arts. Traditional methods relying on facial expressions often fall short due to the nuanced nature of emotions, which vary across individuals, cultures, and contexts. Accurate AC systems require sophisticated, multimodal models to handle these variations and external factors like noise …

Digital Environments Of Reception And Governance: A Landscape Analysis Of Immigration-Related Webpages On U.S. State Websites, Orunima Chakraborti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American state governments occupy unique political roles when it comes to critical public-facing policy areas like education, health, transportation, and commerce, and therefore they administer many public services and benefits that affect immigrants and their communities. This study expands the existing knowledge of the ways in which U.S. state governments digitally engage with their immigrant populations, doing so through a landscape analysis that maps the information and resources provided for and about immigrant communities on 413 immigration-related webpages across all 50 U.S. state governments’ official websites. Data was collected in four categories for each webpage: its bureaucratic orientation, the government …

Race, Rebellion, And Counterinsurgency: California's Supermax Prisons, Stephen Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation project concerns the geographies of counterinsurgency in California’s super-maximum-security prisons. I argue that these facilities – the first of which opened in the mid-1980s, and which were more repressive and isolating than any of California’s existing prisons – were explicitly developed in response to powerful organizing by people in prison. As early as 1973, corrections administrators and prison officers argued that dangerous prison gangs, organized along racial and geographical lines, were behind prisoner militancy, and advocated for expansive security measures including indefinite confinement in supermax prisons. I demonstrate, however, that officers and administrators deliberately promoted conflict, attempting to …

Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy Course: Exploring Ai’S History, Mechanics, Influence, Pamela Jean Stemberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy course is designed to equip students and educators with the tools to engage with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies critically. Initially conceived as a syllabus for the course Critical Approaches to Education Technology in the Digital Humanities Department of the Graduate Center, the project evolved into a comprehensive, modular program addressing the historical, technical, ethical, and societal dimensions of AI.

This course encourages a multidisciplinary approach by integrating perspectives from various fields, such as history, philosophy, ethics, technology, law, and social sciences. The design process draws from foundational courses like Digital Pedagogy and Methods, Theory, Design, …

The State Of The Unions 2024: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

This report released by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, State of the Unions 2024: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, is a part of an annual publication series, documents recent trends in unionization patterns. The CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies’ latest annual report on unionization patterns shows that private-sector union organizing efforts continued to increase across the country over the last year. The report documents that growth in union election petitions since 2020 has reversed a decade of decline, reaching a level not seen since …

Hpi 101 Introduction To Health Care Professions, Cherryle Brown

Open Educational Resources

The document is a syllabus for the "HPI 101: Introduction to Healthcare Professions" course offered in Fall 2024 by Lehman College, City University of New York. The course is designed as a hybrid, synchronous learning experience with in-person sessions. It aims to provide students with an introductory understanding of the U.S. healthcare system, diverse healthcare careers, and the foundational skills necessary for success in the healthcare industry.

Key topics include the structure of the U.S. healthcare system, the roles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals, safety protocols, interpersonal communication, and basic medical terminology. The syllabus outlines various learning objectives, such as …

Psychology Of Racism And Prejudice, Tamara J. Smalling

Open Educational Resources

This course explores the psychological underpinnings of prejudice in an applied context. Specifically, the course will explore the prejudice associated with social and cultural difference within society. The following broad topics will be covered in this course; Basic processes and causes of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, Expression of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination, Social impact of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination, and Combating prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.

Generative A.I.-Assisted Organic Chemistry Tutoring, Ji Kim

Open Educational Resources

By utilizing tools like ChatGPT, the project aims to provide detailed explanations, answer student questions, and assist with problem-solving, thereby creating a more interactive and personalized learning experience. This approach will help students grasp complex topics more effectively and improve their overall performance in chemistry.

Phe 302 Social And Environmental Determinants Of Health, Tailisha Gonzalez

Open Educational Resources

This course is an introduction to the social, behavioral, and commercial factors that influence health. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of these determinants will be discussed from a social ecological perspective. Social determinants cover five domains: economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. Behavioral determinants include such factors as smoking, physical activity, and alcohol use. Commercial determinants include economic and political domains with examples such as cigarette marketing and the placement of toxic waste sites in low-income communities.

Arth1 Syllabus (Queens College), Jennifer Jones

Open Educational Resources

This is an OER zero-textbook cost syllabus for an Introduction to Art course.

Life Span Development, Psy 3200, Syllabus, Maria Bartolomeo-Maida Dr.

Open Educational Resources

This Zero-Textbook Cost Syllabus was funded by the CUNY OER Initiative at Kingsborough Community College. It covers al topics pertaining to developmental psychology for the Lifespan Development course, PSY 3200. Introduction to Psychology is a prerequisite for this course, and this course is also needed for students going into the nursing and health professions.

Corporate Social Advocacy: A Study Of Brand And Consumer Activism In The Era Of Social Media, Christa L. Taylor

Student Theses and Dissertations

As corporations recognize the importance of balancing profitability with social responsibility, the adoption of corporate social advocacy has become a critical approach for addressing pressing social issues, fostering trust, and enhancing brand reputation. Growing public pressure has forced corporations to take a more vocal stance on social and political issues. Considering that corporate social advocacy is an emerging trend and is viewed as a practice outside of a corporation’s standard business practices, organizations have been presented with a new challenge of achieving legitimacy in their advocacy and taking on an expanded role as corporate citizens. This study explores the ways …

Past And Present Of The Cvs: Empirical Research And Evidence-Based Policy, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

In this keynote address, I emphasized the critical role of accurate crime measurement in developing evidence-based policies. I discussed the "dark figure of crime," highlighting how many crimes go unreported, and stressed the importance of victimization surveys in uncovering these hidden crimes to provide a more complete picture of criminal activity.

I also explored how technological advancements, particularly AI, are transforming how we collect and analyze crime data. While AI offers significant benefits in predictive policing and resource allocation, I cautioned about the risks of bias and privacy issues that must be managed carefully.

Regional collaboration, standardization, and inclusivity are …

Strategies For Addressing Substance Abuse And Gambling Among Youth, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

This keynote address opens with a description of recent trends in substance use and gambling among youth, sharing insights from relevant research. I highlight that while some global trends indicate a decline in adolescent substance use, other areas, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have seen increases. I emphasize the importance of comprehensive prevention strategies, such as school-based, community-based, and family-based programs, and effective treatment approaches like behavioral interventions and integrated mental health services.

On the topic of youth gambling, I highlight the rising normalization and accessibility of gambling, particularly through the internet. I describe specific challenges in regions like South …

Spending The Peace Dividend: Nato And The Failures Of American Diplomacy, Caleb Batman

Theses and Dissertations

Recent years have seen a massive increase in available resources pertaining to US-Russian diplomacy in the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Using these newly available resources including diplomatic cables, declassified transcripts, and personal correspondence between President Clinton of the United States and President Yeltsin of the Russian Federation the author attempts to illustrate how the White House missed a chance for reconciliation with Russia during the first Clinton term. Additionally, this paper illustrates how it was not merely bad diplomacy that led to a resumption of Cold War hostilities, but willful policy in Washington that sought …

Assessment Of Tripeptides Self-Assembly & Er Stress On Cell Viability And Exosome Secretion In Mda-Mb231, Azmat Parveen

Theses and Dissertations

This study delves into the effects of tripeptides KYpF and WYpK(NBD) on MDA-MB-231 cells, uncovering KYpF's ability to reduce cell proliferation and exosome secretion in peptide treated cells. Conversely, WYpK(NBD) demonstrated significant toxicity at 10 μM. These insights pave the way for optimizing peptide-based cellular treatments for exosome secretion purposes.

Maternal And Other Social Influences On Signature Whistle Structure Of A Captive Group Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Riley Synan

Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are social animals that use acoustics as a major method of communicating across a marine environment. They also live in fission-fusion groups and thus interact with many conspecifics over a lifetime. Individual dolphins have a signature whistle that functions as an identity call and serves to maintain group cohesion in murky waters or during reconciliation. Dolphins exhibit vocal learning and the signature whistle of a calf may be modeled after the whistle of their mother or another individual in the pod as they develop. Mother-calf pairs or other related animals sometimes have similar whistle types. Some …

Assessing Comprehension And Competence In Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) On The Concept: Do Something Different, Charlotte M. Mulligan

Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have been conducted using a training paradigm based on the research of Pryor et al. (1969) wherein the participants are trained on the abstract concept: do something different. This paradigm challenges working memory and requires the participants to respond with a behavior, either previously trained or novel, which has not yet been offered within the session. The work of Braslau-Schneck (1994) expanded this concept and demonstrated the ability of dolphins to successfully complete this task in synchronized pairs, though the method of accomplishing this task remained unclear. The present research was conducted as part of a broader …

Enhancing The Visual Environment Of Indoor Housed Laboratory Cynomolgus Macaques (Macaca Fascicularis) To Reduce Stress And Maladaptive Behavior, Jeannine C. Rodgers

Theses and Dissertations

Nonhuman primates housed in indoor laboratory environments are generally exposed to nondescript background visual stimuli. This environment is not ideal for species whose primary sensory modality is visual. To provide a more naturalistic visual environment that would potentially improve their welfare, this study assessed the efficacy of a passive natural visual stimulus in the reduction of stress and stereotypy and agonistic behaviors in a cohort of four (2 male, 2 female) Cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) housed in an indoor laboratory facility in New York City. The macaques were exposed to four different videos depicting scenes of natural landscapes that were …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Mental Health- A Comparison Between Gender & Race, Taliyah Quinn

Theses and Dissertations

My study will focus on the rise of mental health toward the African American, Latinx and Asian Americans communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The spread of the virus, the high percentage rate of infections among minorities, isolation, quarantining and socio economic disadvantages played a major role in the increase of mental disparities.

Optimizing The Protein Yield Of The Collagen Mimetic Peptide: Col108, Fahmida Akter

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The fibril-forming collagen mimetic peptide Col108, produced in E. Coli, has shown potential for innovative biomaterial applications. However, further research is constrained by its limited yield. My study aims to enhance the experimental parameters and has successfully pinpointed rifampicin as an efficient method to boost the production of Col108.