Digital Commons Network^™

Risk Terrain Modeling For Spatial Risk Assessment., Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy, Jeremy D. Barnum, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Spatial factors can influence the seriousness and longevity of crime problems. Risk terrain modeling (RTM) identifies the spatial risks that come from features of a landscape and models how they colocate to create unique behavior settings for crime. The RTM process begins by testing a variety of factors thought to be geographically related to crime incidents. Valid factors are selected and then weighted to produce a final model that basically paints a picture of places where crime is statistically most likely to occur. This article addresses crime as the outcome event, but RTM can be applied to a variety of …

Female Ghost Or Worker Heroine? – Gender, Space, And Feminist Intervention In Contemporary Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

The twenty-five Ladies’ Tomb was the collective burial site of female workers who were drowned during a ferry accident on their way to work at export processing zones in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1973. This essay focuses on the renovation of the tomb in the 2000s, and examines the politics of the feminist movement and the politics of memory as they are expressed through the different meanings bestowed on the deceased women. People involved in the renovation process included the Kaohsiung Association for the Promotion of Women’s Rights (KAPWR), the families of the deceased, and the Kaohsiung City government, all of …

Place-Making, Mobility, And Identity: The Politics And Poetics Of Urban Mass Rapid Systems In Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

O Espaço Como Palavra-Chave / Space As A Keyword, David Harvey

Publications and Research

Neste artigo, David Harvey discute teoricamente “espaço” como uma palavra-chave, associando a visão tripartite espaço absoluto-relativo-relacional com a leitura lefebvreana dos espaços percebido, concebido e vivido (também denominados espaços material ou experimentado, conceitualizado e da representação).

David Harvey in this article discuss theoretically “space”as a keyword, by associating the tripartite approach absolute-relative-relational space with Lefebvre’s view of perceived, conceived andlived spaces (also called material or experienced space, conceptua-lized space and spaces of representation

Ways Of Seeing Language In Nineteenth-Century Galicia, Spain, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

This article discusses a language-ideological debate surrounding Galician between two Spanish intellectuals – one Andalusian, Juan Valera, and one Galician, Manuel Murguía – who clashed on the desirability of the literary cultivation of the language. This encounter is framed as a language ideological debate and interpreted in the context of Spain’s late nineteenth-century politics of regional and national identity.

Ain't No Love In New York City, Jason Bisnoff

Capstones

My story is about the defunct relationship between hip-hop and the city where it was born, New York. While cities like Nashville and New Orleans tout their love for the musical forms that were born in their cities from top to bottom, the people of New York love the music and culture that calls the city home but the powers that be on a gubernatorial and municipal level keep it at an arms length. In this piece I explore why and how this disconnect exists through street sign legislation, a battleground area where petitions to co-name streets after rappers have …

Mcdonald's Or Mesquite: Struggles On The Salt River Pima Reservation, Stefani Kim

Capstones

The Salt River Pima Indians, prior to colonization, had a strong tradition of harvesting and food sovereignity. As the tribe adapted to a more Westernized diet which consisted mainly of processed food rations, the rate of diabetes began to skyrocket on the reservation and, at one point, the tribe had one of the highest per capita diabetes rates in the world. This year, the tribe's cultural resources department will resurrect a 16-year-old community garden program originally funded by a USDA/Habitat for Humanity grant as a way to help combat health problems related to a poor diet such as diabetes and …

Roll Back "Prison Nation", Donna Coke

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

College Senate Minutes December 11, 2014, Bronx Community College Senate

BCC Governance Archives

No abstract provided.

Voys Lessons: Whirling Words In Chaucer’S “House Of Rumour", Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

“Voys Lessons: Whirling Words in Chaucer’s ‘House of Rumour’” examines the lability of sound and its use in the dissemination, transposition, and authorship of stories within The House of Fame, a text exemplifying the mobility and flexibility of misused or unhinged words, as expressed through sound as opposed to text. By engaging the use and interpretation of sound in contrast to words, this new reading concentrates on the idea of narrative as material artifact with limited stasis. Geffrey’s pseudo-authorship, through his voyeuristic stance, engages the textuality of sounds and shows the related subtlety, elasticity, and democratic sociohistorical aspect of …

Race Matters: Analyzing The Relationship Between Colorectal Cancer Mortality Rates And Various Factors Within Respective Racial Groups, Emma Veach, Ismael Xique, Jada Johnson, Jessica Lyle, Israel Almodovar, Kimberly F. Sellers, Calandra T. Moore, Monica C. Jackson

Publications and Research

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of mortality due to cancer (with over 50,000 deaths annually), representing 9% of all cancer deaths in the United States (1). In particular, the African-American CRC mortality rate is among the highest reported for any race/ethnic group. Meanwhile, the CRC mortality rate for Hispanics is 15–19% lower than that for non-Hispanic Caucasians (2). While factors such as obesity, age, and socio-economic status are known to associate with CRC mortality, do these and other potential factors correlate with CRC death in the same way across races? This research linked CRC mortality data obtained …

Have Dominicans Surpassed Puerto Ricans To Become New York City’S Largest Latino Nationality? An Analysis Of Latino Population Data From The 2013 American Community Survey For New York City And The Metropolitan Area, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines three data sets from the recently released American Community Survey (ACS) of 2013 to estimate the population sizes of the largest Latino national sub groups in New York City and in the City’s surrounding counties.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The data released by IPUMS in November 2014 from American Community Survey for 2013, and analyzed here, …

Raw Milk, Raw Power: States Of (Mis)Trust, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

In recent years, raw milk has emerged as one of the most contentious food commodities, considered a serious health risk by public health officials and a source of healing and nourishment by raw milk proponents. The purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which consumers construct and experience trust in food that is often procured in informal markets. Because the image of an overreaching, exploitative government features prominently in popular narratives surrounding raw milk consumption, this article is explicitly concerned with the role of the state in public food debates. Drawing on two complementary empirical cases of …

Design And Development Of A Linked Open Data-Based Health Information Representation And Visualization System: Potentials And Preliminary Evaluation, Binyam Tilahun, Tomi Kauppinen, Carsten Keßler, Fleur Fritz

Publications and Research

Background: Healthcare organizations around the world are challenged by pressures to reduce cost, improve coordination and outcome, and provide more with less. This requires effective planning and evidence-based practice by generating important information from available data. Thus, flexible and user-friendly ways to represent, query, and visualize health data becomes increasingly important. International organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) regularly publish vital data on priority health topics that can be utilized for public health policy and health service development. However, the data in most portals is displayed in either Excel or PDF formats, which makes information discovery and reuse …

Revisiting The Vanishing Refuge Model Of Diversification, Robert Damasceno, Maria L. Strangas, Ana C. Carnaval, Miguel T. Rodrigues, Craig Moritz

Publications and Research

Much of the debate around speciation and historical biogeography has focused on the role of stabilizing selection on the physiological (abiotic) niche, emphasizing how isolation and vicariance, when associated with niche conservatism, may drive tropical speciation. Yet, recent re-emphasis on the ecological dimensions of speciation points to a more prominent role of divergent selection in driving genetic, phenotypic, and niche divergence. The vanishing refuge model (VRM), first described by Vanzolini and Williams (1981), describes a process of diversification through climate-driven habitat fragmentation and exposure to new environments, integrating both vicariance and divergent selection. This model suggests that dynamic climates and …

Detroit Works Long-Term Planning Project: Engagement Strategies For Blending Community And Technical Expertise, Toni L. Griffin, Dan Cramer, Megan Powers

Publications and Research

In January 2013, civic leaders, community stakeholders, and residents came together to release Detroit Future City: 2012 Detroit Strategic Framework Plan, a guiding blueprint for transforming Detroit from its current state of population loss and excessive vacancy into a model for the reinvention of post-industrial American cities. Three years prior, the U.S. Census had reported that the city had lost 24% of its population over the last decade and had experienced a 20% increase in vacant and abandoned property, bringing total vacancy to roughly the size of Manhattan. In addition to physical and economic challenges, Detroiters had also acknowledged significant …

Effects Of Extreme Climate Events On Tea (Camellia Sinensis) Functional Quality Validate Indigenous Farmer Knowledge And Sensory Preferences In Tropical China, Selena Ahmed, John Richard Stepp, Colin M. Orians, Timothy S. Griffin, Corene Matyas, Albert Robbat, Sean Cash, Dayuan Xue, Chunlin Long, Uchenna Unachukwu, Sarabeth Buckley, Edward J. Kennelly

Publications and Research

Climate change is impacting agro-ecosystems, crops, and farmer livelihoods in communities worldwide. While it is well understood that more frequent and intense climate events in many areas are resulting in a decline in crop yields, the impact on crop quality is less acknowledged, yet it is critical for food systems that benefit both farmers and consumers through high-quality products. This study examines tea (Camellia sinensis; Theaceae), the world’s most widely consumed beverage after water, as a study system to measure effects of seasonal precipitation variability on crop functional quality and associated farmer knowledge, preferences, and livelihoods. Sampling was conducted in …

China's Search For "Peaceful Internationalism" Vis-À-Vis A Liberal World Order: Interests, National Identity And Foreign Policy, Bo Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I employ the concept of national identity to explain China's foreign policy behavior during the history of the People's Republic of China. Specifically, I propose the concept of "peaceful internationalism" to characterize the behavioral orientation of China in the post-Mao era. Peaceful internationalism as both an idea and a policy, aims at a cross-national framework for cooperation and co-existence through non-conflictual, non-hegemonic and non-unilateral mechanisms of dispute resolution. This study argues that China pursues peaceful internationalism in a liberal international order, which is consistent with its contemporary national identity, which I term the "phoenix rising" identity. This …

Water Conservation To Reduce Wet Weather Pollution Loads To The Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, Ny, Suzanne Carol Stempel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public participation plays an important role in wet weather pollution management. However, the effects of participation programs on local water quality are often difficult to quantify. This project aims to quantify the potential effects of a community based, non-structural, BMP aimed at controlling inputs to combined sewage systems by encouraging residents to reduce their water use during rain events. A household could participate by reducing the amount of water they use for flushing toilets, washing dishes, taking showers, etc. during rain events; thereby reducing stress on the system during the time of highest demand. The Gowanus Canal sewershed in Brooklyn, …

The Amphibious Public: A Historical Geography Of Municipal Swimming And Bathing New York City, 1870 - 2013, Naomi Miriam Adiv

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since 1870, the city of New York has engaged in a project of building and maintaining enclosed sites for municipal bathing, including building floating `river baths' (1870 - 1942), indoor municipal baths (1901 - 1975), eleven enormous outdoor pools built with WPA funds (1936 - present), and outdoor pools of various sizes built under the Lindsay administration (1968 - present). This dissertation explores the changing rationale, over almost 150 years, for the municipal construction of public bathing places in New York City, and the ways in which the physical structures have taken on new social goals, meanings and ideals, both …

The Status Of Neonatal Hearing Screening In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review, David Engelman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Late identification of hearing loss can lead to speech and language delays, as well as social and academic difficulties. Neonatal hearing screening has reduced the age of identification of hearing loss in many developed countries. However, the practice is limited or non-existent in much of the developing world, such as sub-Saharan Africa. This systematic review used currently available literature to determine the status of neonatal hearing screening programs in sub-Saharan Africa and to develop a model program for the region. Results suggested a lack of neonatal hearing screening services in sub-Saharan Africa, stressing the need for more pilot hearing screening …

Mapping Forest Canopy Structure With On-Demand Fusion Of Remotely Sensed Data, Gordon M. Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Current methods of mapping forest canopy structure often result in data products that are limited in resolution, coverage, or ease of access. On-demand processing introduces several new ways in which existing data products can be combined and re-purposed, mitigating some of these limitations. In this research, we investigate several methods of extending the spatial and temporal resolution, coverage, and accessibility of existing forest canopy datasets by processing them on demand. These methods include downscaling coarse-resolution canopy height data dynamically to estimate height at 30 m and 1 m resolution for any location within the contiguous United States. A related method …

Public Space--Urban Spaces Of Multiple And Diverse Publics, Antti Moelsae

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Shopping centers, hotel lobbies and - as was recently reported - McDonald's restaurants have been appropriated as social and political spaces by the public, but then encounter resistance by the owners of those spaces. Shopping centers, which have come to replace urban public space around the world, are notorious for limiting the modes of use and actively prohibiting forms of political expression. The legal status of commercial spaces that substitute for traditional public spaces is still unclear. Much of the critique of privatization of public space has been directed towards these enclosed spaces, the ownership of which is unambiguously private. …

The Effect Of Income On Health After Hurricane Katrina, Jang Wook Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a large literature that documents a positive correlation between income and a variety of measures of good health. This correlation may reflect causality in both directions and may also reflect omitted "third variables" that are positively related to income and health. In my dissertation, I employ an exogenous negative shock to income due to a natural disaster to estimate the true causal impact of income on health. The shock I will use is Hurricane Katrina, which severely damaged counties in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in August 2005. I use these treatment counties and a variety of alternative sets …

Standard Deviations: Genre, Gender, And The Cartographical Imagination In Popular British Literature, 1830-1880, Taylor R. Kennamer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While cartography is understood to undergird the spatial interventions integral to Victorian reform in areas such as sewerage and housing, little critical attention has been paid to the influence of cartographical discourse in itself, rather than through its concrete products, as a force that fundamentally altered nineteenth-century conceptions of self, other, and environment. Standard Deviations fills that gap, studying the changing parameters of spatial epistemology by monitoring expanding and contracting definitions of bodily deviance across four generic modes historically associated with the nineteenth century: detective, sensation, and domestic fiction, and the household management guide. Altered perceptions of spatial reality and …

Utopias Misplaced: The Cost Of Outsourcing Dystopian Poetics To North Korea, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

This is a slightly revised version of the text of a talk that I (Seo-Young Chu) gave as part of the Fall 2014 Franke Lectures in the Humanities at Yale University. I'm sharing the text here to make the lecture more accessible. Topics include: North Korea/the DPRK, the "uncanny body politic," the uncanny valley, "dystopian poetics," what it means to outsource dystopian poetics, the intersection of aesthetics and politics. Authors/artists mentioned include: Thomas Hobbes, Mary Shelley, David Mitchell, Marjane Satrapi, Song Byeok, Sun Mu, Masahiro Mori, Andy Warhol. The talk also discusses the James Bond film Die Another Day.

The Computational Complexity Of Some Games And Puzzles With Theoretical Applications, Vasiliki Despoina Mitsou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The subject of this thesis is the algorithmic properties of one- and two-player

games people enjoy playing, such as Sudoku or Chess. Questions asked about puzzles

and games in this context are of the following type: can we design efficient computer

programs that play optimally given any opponent (for a two-player game), or solve

any instance of the puzzle in question?

We examine four games and puzzles and show algorithmic as well as intractability

results. First, we study the wolf-goat-cabbage puzzle, where a man wants to transport

a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across a river by using a …

The Struggle For Recognition: Muslim American Spokesmanship In The Age Of Islamophobia, Nazia Kazi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The events of 9/11/2001 intensified the hypervisibility of U.S. Muslims, making them the subject of academic, artistic, and cultural curiosity. Alongside this public hypervisibility came a campaign of institutionalized Islamophobia, manifest in such measures as the anti-Muslim legislation of the USA PATRIOT Act. The result for Islamic Representative Organizations (or IRO's) was that combatting Islamophobia became a central concern. In this dissertation, I consider the multifaceted and complicated politics of representation used by IRO's in the aftermath of 9/11. I consider both the negative, or Islamophobic, and the so-called positive, or Islamophilic, representations of U.S. Muslims in the discourse of …

Claiming The Right To The City: Towards The Production Of Space From Below, Mehmet Baris Kuymulu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the theoretical and political contradictions surrounding the notion of the right to the city. The right to the city concept has lately attracted a great deal of attention, both from academics who have long engaged with urban theory and politics, and from grassroots activists around the globe who have been fighting on the ground for an alternative just urbanism. In addition to urbanists and grassroots urban justice activists, the right to the city concept has also drawn considerable attention from the United Nations (UN) agencies such as UN-HABITAT and UNESCO, which have organized meetings and outlined policies …

Confucius, Yamaha, Or Mozart? Cultural Capital And Upward Mobility Among Children Of Chinese Immigrants, Wei-Ting Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the determinants of upward mobility among children of Chinese immigrants. While most studies emphasize ethnic cultural capital as a primary determinant of Chinese upward mobility, this study proposes three new concepts to illuminate understudied processes promoting mobility. Specifically, this study argues that Chinese immigrants' interactions with classical music schools in the Chinese community help generate globalized cultural capital (resources from immigrants' participation in transnational networks), navigational capital (the ability to connect social networks together to facilitate community navigation through higher-status educational institutions) and aspirational capital (the ability of parents to acknowledge the barriers to upward mobility). These …