Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Climate Change Adaptation And Gentrification Through The Framework Of Uneven Coastal Development In Keansburg, New Jersey, Zachary Paganini

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the rapid acceleration of coastal development in the United States despite projections of climate change-induced sea level rise. Like no other developed country, the U.S. has transformed its fragile coastline into sites for leisure, consumption, and retirement. These spaces now face the prospect of more frequent and severe storms, as well as land loss and inundation, due to climate change. This dilemma has sparked debates around coastal resilience, adaptation, retreat, and climate gentrification.

While many studies seek to measure perceptions of climate change risk and vulnerability, this dissertation reverses the question by positioning risk perceptions as an …

Limit Theorems For L-Functions In Analytic Number Theory, Asher Roberts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We use the method of Radziwill and Soundararajan to prove Selberg’s central limit theorem for the real part of the logarithm of the Riemann zeta function on the critical line in the multivariate case. This gives an alternate proof of a result of Bourgade. An upshot of the method is to determine a rate of convergence in the sense of the Dudley distance. This is the same rate Selberg claims using the Kolmogorov distance. We also achieve the same rate of convergence in the case of Dirichlet L-functions. Assuming the Riemann hypothesis, we improve the rate of convergence by using …

Harnessing Neural Activity To Prevent Non-Apoptotic Spinal Neurons From Microglial Phagocytosis After Motor System Injury, Jasmine L. Pathan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Producing skilled, voluntary movements in humans and many animals requires the corticospinal tract, the direct motor pathway connecting the cerebral cortex with spinal cord interneurons and motor neurons in humans and many non-human primates. Spinal cord injury (SCI) typically results in corticospinal tract damage, leading to transneuronal degeneration of its interneuron targets. Complement protein C1q triggers this degenerative process and induces microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system, to phagocytose non-apoptotic interneurons. We examined two classes of premotor interneurons, cholinergic (ChAT) and glutamatergic (Chx10), essential to the spinal motor circuit as they receive direct corticospinal tract inputs …

The Effects Of Mood And Anxiety Sensitivity On Attentional Engagement And Disengagement In Sleep Disturbance, Kara L. Buda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Insomnia is a highly prevalent, chronic disorder that is associated with adverse psychological, physical, and psychosocial outcomes. Harvey’s (2002) cognitive model of insomnia and Espie’s (2006) attention-intention-effort pathway model highlight two critical processes believed to play a role in the onset and persistence of insomnia: (a) emotional distress and physiological arousal and (b) selective attention and monitoring. However, investigations examining attentional bias in sleep disturbance have produced mixed results and have exclusively used paradigms that are limited in their ability to differentially examine the two unique components of attentional bias (i.e., facilitated engagement, impaired disengagement). Discrepant findings in the attentional …

Guardians Of The Bacterial Genome: Mechanistic Insights Of The Ner Atpase Uvra With Damaged Dnas; Molecular Interactions Between The V.Cholerae Initiator Rctb With Cognate Oricii Dna, Devon Semoy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is one of the fundamental DNA repair pathways in all organisms. A unique facet of NER is the large set of DNA lesions the pathway is capable of repairing (Truglio, Croteau, et al. 2006). The NER proteins may thus be responding to global features of native DNA such as changes in thermodynamic stability, geometry and kinetic properties (Maillard et al. 2007). In this study we set out to investigate the first and primary responder to NER in bacteria, UvrA (Kraithong et al. 2021). UvrA is a homo-dimeric ABC ATPase; proteins that are known to transduce the …

Lgbtq+ Employees’ Disclosure And Selective Incivility Experiences: Implications For Their Health And Well-Being, Wiston A. Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Workplace incivility refers to low-intensity rude behaviors at work that have an ambiguous intent to harm and also violate workplace norms of mutual respect. Given the negative consequences associated with workplace incivility, researchers have been trying to understand potential antecedents to experienced workplace incivility such as target characteristics or group affiliation. Prior research suggests that uncivil behaviors may not be enacted at random and may manifest in the form of selective incivility (i.e., subtle discrimination). Specifically, selective incivility is a form of targeted mistreatment that is used to oppress and exclude minorities in the workplace and is a unique experience …

Essays On Macroeconomics And Banking, Christopher Naubert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1 - The Heterogeneous Effects of Interest Rate Liftoff in an Estimated New Keynesian Model In recent years, the question of how central banks should proceed with lifting interest rates from the zero lower bound has moved into focus. I study how alternative plans for interest rate liftoff affect households across the income and wealth distribution in an estimated New Keynesian model with fixed heterogeneity and aggregate shocks. I solve the model globally and develop a new methodology for estimating globally solved, non-linear models. In the estimated model, I find that all agents …

Investigating The Impact Of Affect In Suicide-Specific Attentional Biases, Beverlin Rosario-Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Biased processing of suicide-related information has been implicated in risk of future suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Although previous studies have classified this biased processing, the tasks used to examine these biases cannot definitely specify which attentional processes are related to risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, via two independent studies, this dissertation sought to distinguish suicide-specific attentional engagement and disengagement biases from other forms of cognitive processing, such as accessibility of suicide-related stimuli and threat bias toward and away from socially threatening stimuli. Additionally, this dissertation investigated under which affective conditions suicide-specific engagement and disengagement biases emerged. …

Intuitionism, Justification Logic, And Doxastic Reasoning, Vincent A. Peluce

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this Dissertation, we examine a handful of related themes in the philosophy of logic and mathematics. We take as a starting point the deeply philosophical, and—as we argue, deeply Kantian—views of L.E.J. Brouwer, the founder of intuitionism. We examine his famous first act of intuitionism. Therein, he put forth both a critical and a constructive idea. This critical idea involved digging a philosophical rift between what he thought of himself as doing and what he thought of his contemporaries, specifically Hilbert, as doing. He sought to completely separate mathematics from mathematical language, and thereby logic. In chapter 3, we …

Defining Resilience In Young People With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Theory Informed Approach, Barbara Storch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal illness for which there is no existing cure. There is significant literature documenting the increased likelihood of adverse biopsychosocial outcomes in young people with IBD (e.g., Greenley et al., 2010); however, many individuals with IBD respond by either maintaining or increasing outcomes categorized as positive. These trajectories can be thought of as characterized by a resilient response. The study of resilience in young people with IBD is nascent. Given the unique disease-specific and developmental contexts young people with IBD experience, the first step in understanding the process of resilience in young people …

The Influence Of Environmental Change On Genetic Diversity Across Spatial And Taxonomic Scales, Connor M. French

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The spatial distribution of genetic diversity is of interest to biodiversity scientists and conservationists and is a fundamental metric of biodiversity. Genetic diversity patterns across spatial and taxonomic scales contain information about population and assemblage dynamics that can convey their resilience to environmental change. Ectotherms are especially linked to their environments and may be especially sensitive to fluctuations in the environment over time. Herein, I investigate global and regional patterns of genetic diversity in two groups of ectotherms, insects and lizards, to understand the relationship between environmental change and genetic diversity, from populations to assemblages. Overall, my research aims to …

Claiming The Right To Belong: Diversity And The Politics Of Inclusion In Queens, New York, Susan J. Tanenbaum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines social integration in a diverse civic and political mainstream. The social science research on intergroup contact in U.S. cities undergoing significant demographic change tends to focus on encounters between members of majority “in-groups” and minority “out-groups” in the context of workplaces, neighborhoods, and families. I contend that civic politics is another compelling strategic site for observing intergroup contact between emerging and established players. My study presents three cases of claims-making activity during the post-9/11 period in New York City’s borough of Queens, where close to 50% of the population is foreign-born and no single racial group predominates. …

Computerized Cognitive Training In The Treatment Of Depression: Individual Differences And Perceptions Of Cct, Sophie Schiff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Major Depressive Disorder is a serious mental health disorder that affects 8% of adults in the United States. Adults aged 18-29 are at an elevated risk with a prevalence of 12%. Depression is most often characterized by mood symptoms, however, individuals with depression often also present with cognitive weaknesses on objective neuropsychological measures across several domains. These deficits are not only associated with mood symptoms, but significantly interfere with treatment and have been found to persist even with successful treatment of affective symptoms. Research into interventions directly targeting cognition has increased in recent years. While traditional first-line treatments for depression, …

Careful Compositions And Careless Constructions, Timothy Dalton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses digital methods to analyze a digitized archive of life writing by disabled Civil War veterans through lenses of care ethics and rhetorical genre theory. Autobiographical letters by more than 370 disabled men respond to a contest prompt open to Union veterans injured in their right arms who had to relearn penmanship. This dissertation introduces the hybrid genre of “specimens of left-hand penmanship” through several critical lenses. It critiques the rhetoric of vocational rehabilitation and examines this archive as a site for early examples of concepts from contemporary disability studies. Finally, it turns explicitly to care ethics, and …

The Intellectual Roots Of Hindutva: Influences From Early German Romantics And Mahatma Gandhi, Johannes Scheuer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The economic and political ascent under the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi has not only increased interest in Indian politics but also highlighted the dominance of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) as a political ideology in contemporary India. Many scholars and journalists have drawn parallels between European fascist movements of the past and reactionary movements in today's political landscape to understand the rise and dominance of Hindutva. However, this paper takes a different approach by tracing the intellectual roots of Hindutva through the political philosophy of the Early German Romantics, particularly Johann Gottfried Herder, and the philosophy …

Association Of Autistic Traits And Psychiatric Symptoms In Children With A Fragile X Premutation Allele: The Neurodevelopmental Profile, Ariel Zucker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Throughout the lifespan, approximately 14% of males and 5% of females with a fragile X premutation (PM) (defined as 55-200 CGG repeats on the X-linked FMR1 gene) are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For individuals that do not meet diagnostic criteria for ASD, autistic traits (ATs) are often present in this population and have been shown to have a subtle and sub-clinical presentation of social communication and interaction deficits. While less is known about the phenotype of children with a PM, studies have found increased rates of ASD and ATs in adults with a PM allele compared to controls. …

Autophagy And Meiotic Fidelity In C. Elegans, Kaitlin E. Kosinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved multi-step recycling process in which cellular material is enclosed in the double membrane-bound autophagosome, which fuses with the lysosome to degrade its contents. Autophagy is essential for development and cellular adaptation to environmental or intracellular stress and is an important regulator of germline stem cell homeostasis in the model nematode C. elegans. We sought to determine if autophagy is important for genome stability during meiosis and found that the core adult C. elegans autophagy genes bec-1, atg-7, unc-51, and atg-18 were all required for proper meiotic development of oocytes. Loss of these …

Late-Life Depression: The Interplay Between Cerebrovascular Risk, Cortical And Subcortical Atrophy, And Treatment Response, Dakota Egglefield

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Late-life depression (LLD) is associated with poor response to antidepressant medication treatment, cognitive impairment, cerebrovascular disease, and brain changes both in white and gray matter. Of particular interest is the vascular subtype of LLD, vascular depression (VD). Although LLD and VD have received considerable research attention, there are still areas that must be further clarified to adequately characterize aspects of LLD and VD that provide valuable information for possible interventions. Such areas include a stronger understanding of the moderating role of brain atrophy and changes in cognition in treatment response in LLD. This dissertation consists of three separate studies aimed …

Mind Your Business Or Be Your Brother's Keeper? Managing Vulnerability In The New York City Subway, Maria Barrera-Vilert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study investigates the management of safety and vulnerability in the New York City subway by analyzing public communication campaigns focused on counterterrorism, COVID-19, and deviance awareness. It explores how New Yorkers navigate the tension between adhering to a dominant New York cultural imperative to mind one’s business and being called upon to be their “brother’s keepers” and intervene when something risky happens.

The study is structured around three central elements that align with the three primary processes of public communication campaigns: representation, interpretation, and reaction. This study analyzes visual images associated with public communication campaigns and 43 …

Design, Fabrication, And Spectroscopy Of Photocatalytic Materials In Visible Spectrum, Yamuna Paudel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heterogeneous photocatalysis has attracted research interest in sustainable energy technologies. However, achieving high photocatalytic efficiency from visible light-absorbing semiconductors is challenging due to their weak absorption, transport losses, and low activity. While multilayer approaches have been developed to enhance the surface reactivity and stability independent of electronic factors, a comprehensive framework for optimizing light-matter interactions has not yet been established. Here, we introduce a photonic strategy using semiconductor metasurfaces, which is highly effective in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of GaAs, a high-performance semiconductor with a near-infrared bandgap. Our engineered pillar arrays with heights of ~150 nm exhibit Mie resonances near …

Helpful Intentions? Impact Of Intentionality On Children's Memory For Forensically-Relevant Information, Ella P. Merriwether

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rationale: When a child is a witness or victim of a crime, they are often asked a barrage of questions regarding when the crime took place, how many times it occurred, and how the abuse unfolded (Cross & Whitcomb, 2017; Sullivan et al., 2022). These questions can be problematic because they rely on concepts for which children may lack memory or linguistic ability to answer (Fenson et al., 2000; Friedman, 1993). One fundamental element missing from the copious research (e.g., Brubacher et al., 2012; Stolzenberg et al., 2017a; Wylie et al., 2021) on children’s ability to recount forensically-relevant information is …

Bodies For Catastrophe: A Montage Study Of Palestinian Digital Labor, Francisco Ramos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates Palestinian digital labor through the method of montage. Digital labor, understood as bodily activity transfigured by digital machines into exploitable information, is examined within the context of Israeli surveillance technologies used against Palestinians. The study critically explores the dual political functions of these technologies: as tools of settler-colonial domination aiming to dispossess Palestinians, and as neoliberal mechanisms seeking to profit from the surveillance of Palestinian bodies. The second half of the thesis turns to the ways Palestinians engage with such technologies and unsettle the economic and colonial logics embedded in them.

The research is structured nonlinearly using …

Exploring The Correlation Between Google Trends And Crime Statistics: A Focus On Motor Vehicle Theft In The United States, Yu-Hsuan Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the linear relationships between motor vehicle theft (MVT) estimates from Google Trends--a form of digital trace data--and official crime statistics, including the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and 911 calls for service (CFS 911). It offers a comprehensive analysis of the limitations inherent in current crime statistics, discusses measurement errors, and explores statistical models to mitigate the impact of measurement error, applying these methods to validate Google Trends MVT data and other official MVT statistics. Furthermore, this study incorporates social disorganization theory and …

Building Networks, Producing Spaces For Play: Local Geographies And National Organizing In The History Of Adventure Playgrounds In The United States, 1949-1999, Reilly B. Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides an historical analysis of repurposed material adventure playgrounds in the United States between 1949 and 1999. Three microhistories of adventure playgrounds (The Yard, in Minneapolis, M.N., and several playgrounds in New York City, N.Y., and Houston, T.X.) are framed against the wider socio-economic changes that shaped more than thirty-five adventure playgrounds in the United States over the period of study. By focusing on the relationships mobilized by adventure playground advocates at different scales and across different points of view, and how these networks shaped the local production of spaces for play, this dissertation's method underlines the importance …

Measuring Intersectional Strength And Stigma Among Racially Minoritized Gender Diverse Young Adults, Joseph Carter

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Racially minoritized transgender and gender expansive young adults (RMTGEYA; aged 18-26) experience mental health inequities due to intersectional, multilevel stigma. RMTGEYA communities embody intersectional strength and resilience that can mitigate the impact of stigma. Understanding and capturing strength and stigma factors to address these inequities has significant implications for clinical science research and practice. There is, however, a complete absence of instruments that are validated to do so. Objective: The goal of this study is to conduct a three-phase, mixed methods study that centers intersectional and community engaged methods of psychometric development for a measure that captures daily experiences …

Mechanism Of Host Recognition By The Bacteriophage Cystoviridae, Charles F. Robinson Iv

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Cystoviridae is a unique family of double stranded RNA bacteriophage that fuses its outer viral membrane with the lipopolysaccharide membrane of its Gram-negative host. In a series of studies, we determined the specifics of Cystoviridae host binding and the requirements of host fusion. The outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) secreted by the host inhibit Cystoviridae infection. We studied the interaction between OMVs and Cystoviridae to observe the host requirements for binding Cystoviridae. We determined that Cystoviridae strains Phi 8 and Phi 12 recognize the core polysaccharide and lipid A of the host lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for binding. The P6 protein …

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 …

Preschoolers’ Generation Of Quantity Implicatures, André Eliatamby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses the developing child as a window into the mechanisms and representations that allow us to understand the meaning of utterances in their contexts. I present three studies investigating 4- and 5-year-olds’ ability to generate two types of “quantity implicatures,” classic scalar implicatures with some that imply not all, and free choice inferences that arise with sentences like “Larry is allowed to have cake or ice-cream.” Together, the studies suggest a close relationship between pragmatic development and word learning, something not appreciated in existing literature. In the first study investigating some, I show that preschoolers interpret …

Enhancing The Accuracy Of The Mild Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis In Community-Based, Racially/Ethnically Diverse Older Adults, Katherine H. Chang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is thought to represent an intermediate stage of cognitive impairment that is often, but not always, a transitional phase between normal aging and dementia. Diagnostic criteria for “MCI” and international consensus criteria have been developed and refined over decades beginning in the 1990s, but the definition is still debated. Moreover, the operationalization and measurement of one of the criteria for MCI (i.e., subjective cognitive concerns, SCC), which is included in most classification approaches, is highly variable and there is great inconsistency across the literature. Some research efforts even support the removal of this criterion on the …

The Effects Of Environmental Changes On The Biodiversity And Macroecological Patterns Of Bird Assemblages In The United States, Marlen Acosta Alamo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current restructuring of species assemblages and global loss of biodiversity result from species-specific responses to anthropogenic changes in climate and land cover. I investigated the effect of these two drivers on the seasonal distribution and biodiversity of birds in the United States and how human-induced habitat loss impacts macroecological patterns such as the species-area and the abundance-occupancy relationships. In Chapter 1, I examined the existence of a correlation between breeding and wintering geographic distributions of birds with different migratory strategies and the effect of changes in climate and the proportion of crop-pasture and urban land cover on this correlation. …