Digital Commons Network^™

A Decade Review Of Disease Surveillance Research Trends In The International Journal Of Health Geographics (2009 To 2018), Rose Jimenez, Paradorn Wongchanapai

Publications and Research

The field of health geographics is rapidly growing in its methods and epistemologies. This is a review of the open-source journal International Journal of Health Geographics, and the trends in disease surveillance over ten years (2009-2018). Drawing from research review methodologies, we wrote a Python script to quantify research trends within the field of geographic disease surveillance, finding many articles focusing on population health, techniques of GIS, qualitative techniques, and geospatial technology for health monitoring. This was foundational in conducting an in-depth qualitative lexical analysis of article content and epistemologies. Overall, we concluded that over the time period, the …

Quantifying Aboveground Biomass In A Tropical Forest Using A Lidar Waveform Weighted Allometric Model, Alejandro Rojas

Theses and Dissertations

Our knowledge of the distribution and amount of terrestrial above ground biomass (AGB) has increased using lidar technology. Recent advancements in satellite lidar has enabled global mapping of forest biomass and structure. However, there are large biases in satellite lidar estimates which impacts our understanding of carbon dynamics, particularly in tropical forests.

Ni-Meister et al. (2022) developed a lidar full waveform weighted height-based allometric model which produced very good results in temperate deciduous/conifer forest in the continental US. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this biomass model in an African tropical forest using the Land Vegetation and Ice …

Bildung And Flânerie: Aesthetics, Genre, And Modes Of Development In The Moviegoer, Sean P. Phillips

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis frames Walker Percy's The Moviegoer (1961) as a novel that pits the fading tradition of the Bildungsroman, aligned with what its protagonist calls the "vertical" throughout the text, against the supposed alternative of "the search", aligned with horizontal wandering. As the vast changes of modernity, namely technology and industrialization, transformed Western society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, many novelists began to see the Bildungsideal as incompatible with their new world. Walker Percy's novel begins with a similar conclusion, and I track how The Moviegoer engages with the Bildungsideal and its supposed failure to sustain itself into the …

The Role Of Nest Location On The Reproductive Success Of Piping Plovers Breeding At Rockaway Beach, New York, Clara I.D. Arndtsen

Theses and Dissertations

The study’s goal was to learn what aspects of the piping plover experience affect reproductive outcomes at Rockaway Beach Endangered Species Nesting Area. Nest location was found to help predict reproductive success. Nests further from American oystercatcher nests were likely to fledge more chicks. Reproductive success was low in 2021.

Estimating The Latino Population In New York City, 2020, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report compares the population growth of Latinos in New York City using four different sources and finds that the numbers differ dramatically from those published by the Census Bureau.

Methods:

This report uses four data sources: (i) the 2020 Census Redistricting Files; (ii) the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Experimental Data Release; (iii) the ACS 5-Year (2016–2020) Estimates; and (iv) the IPUMS-NHGIS 2016–2020 5-Year Summary File. The American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data used for all years was released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of …

Developing Standards For Cultural Competency Training For Health Care Providers To Care For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, And Asexual Persons: Consensus Recommendations From A National Panel, Mandi L. Pratt-Chapman, Kristen Eckstrand, Amorie Robinson, Lauren B. Beach, Charles Kamen, Alex S. Keuroghlian, Scott Cook, Asa Radix, Markus P. Bidell, Daniel Bruner, Liz Margolies

Publications and Research

Purpose: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and/or asexual and other sexual and gender diverse persons (LGBTQIA + or SGD persons) experience barriers to equitable health care. The purpose of this article is to describe a collaborative process that resulted in core cultural competency recommendations addressing training for those who provide health care and/or social services to LGBTQIA + patients.

Methods: In 2018 and 2019, Whitman-Walker Health, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center in Washing- ton, DC, and the National LGBT Cancer Network purposively selected leaders of community clinics and community-based organizations, cultural competency trainers, and clinicians and researchers with …

[Cldv 100] Diversity And Multicultural Studies, Oluremi "Remi" Alapo

Open Educational Resources

CLDV100 (Liberal Arts) Introduction to Multicultural Studies in the 21st Century: 3 hrs. 3 crs.

A study of what culture is; how it influences the choices we make; how to deal positively with conflicts that inevitably arise in working/living situations with people of diverse cultures. It is a course structured to raise multicultural awareness and fortify students' social skills in dealing with cultural differences. It includes an ethnographic study of cultural groups in the U.S.A. Through the study of cultural concepts, this course develops skills in critical thinking, writing, and scholarly documentation. Not open to students with credit in CLDV …

[Blst 103] Black Women In The Atlantic World, Oluremi "Remi" Alapo

Open Educational Resources

Course Description: This course examines the foundations, ideas, concerns, and implications of Black feminism within the context of the Black Atlantic. A major goal of this class is to foster dialogue and critical discussion about Black feminism as a site of theory and practice emphasizing social, political, and personal transformation.

Afn 122 Revised Syllabus Redesigned At The Anti - Racist Pedagogy Workshop At Bmcc, Remi Alapo

Open Educational Resources

In this advanced survey of African history, we will examine a vast place over a manageable span of time: all of Africa from the sixteenth century to the present. Because Africa is the cradle of humankind, it is diverse in language, culture, and history. There is greater human genetic and linguistic variation in Africa, for example than on any other continent. The same is true for cultural variation, though such diversity among Africa’s populations co-exists with a range of shared spiritual, ideational, and material perspectives. Over the past five centuries, the forces of international enslavement, commerce, colonialism, and its legacies, …

Course Design Worksheet Goals And Content, Remi Alapo

Open Educational Resources

In addition to the required texts, we will be reading and supplementing with other resources and videos in our class discussions. Some particularly important works include a novel on the life of a middle-class Senegalese woman during the colonial era (So Long a Letter) and about the work and moral dilemmas involving corruption in post-independent Africa (The Beautiful Ones are not yet Born), and Chinua Achebe’s (Things Fall Apart) Things Fall Apart is part tragedy and part documentary. It is the story of Okonkwo and his tragic death after the coming of the white man; …

Afn 122 Course Design Worksheet And Content: An Anti - Racist And Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy, Oluremi "Remi" Alapo

Open Educational Resources

Studying (and teaching) such a vast and diverse continent can be challenging. Because no introductory course can claim to be fully comprehensive, this one will explore several themes in the history of Africa and its peoples that the professor finds important and noteworthy. The readings, lectures, films, and activities will consider broad regions of the continent, and the goals of this course include both knowledge and enjoyment. You should come away from this class with a new appreciation for Africa and a general idea of its history from 1500 to the present.

Diversity And Multi-Cultural Education In The 21st Century: An Oer / Coil / Ztc Course Text, Oluremi "Remi" Alapo

Open Educational Resources

CLDV100 (Liberal Arts) Introduction to Multicultural Studies in the 21st Century: 3 hrs. 3 crs.

A study of what culture is; how it influences the choices we make; how to deal positively with conflicts that inevitably arise in working/living situations with people of diverse cultures. It is a course structured to raise multicultural awareness and fortify students' social skills in dealing with cultural differences. It includes an ethnographic study of cultural groups in the U.S.A. Through the study of cultural concepts, this course develops skills in critical thinking, writing, and scholarly documentation. Not open to students with credit in CLDV …

Technology In The Security Sector: Mexico, Vanessa J. Gutierrez, Melina Ponte, Angiee Rosario, Arleen Castillo, Henry Saldarriaga, Hector Tejeda, Stephanie Reich, Rosemary Barberet

Publications and Research

The use of technology in policing seeks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the daily duties police officers may encounter. However, there is mixed empirical data on the use of technology and if it is really contributing to the institutional goals of the security sector, or, if it is contributing to other factors. This report provides an exploratory approach to understanding what information technology is being used in Mexico at the state level, in order to compare where broader application of information technology could make impactful contributions to the security situation in the country.

With a focus on six …

Intersecting Mobilities: Beyond The Autonomy Of Movement And Power Of Place, Miriam Ticktin, Rafi Youatt

Publications and Research

It is widely understood that we live in a world where people, goods, species, and things of all sorts are on the move, and that the politics around mobility and its regulation and meaning are critical to contemporary political and social life. Human migration has been globally intensive for well over a century; industrial economic production, consumption, and trade move goods around the world; transportation infrastructure moves all sorts of cargo around, human and nonhuman; regular and irregular ecological processes and changes are creating new patterns of nonhuman movement; variants of viruses race around the world; even geological elements are …

Borders: A Story Of Political Imagination, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

This article traces three different political imaginaries about borders, suggesting that the dominant imaginary—the one of border walls, driven by a fear of invasion—is only one way to live in the world. The goal is to make space in our political imaginations to rethink how we live together, including thinking beyond nation-states as containers that keep people in or out. By first showing how the vision of invasion is built and maintained with intersecting transnational technologies and ideologies, I open the way to thinking otherwise. Second, I trace the counterpolitics of borders developed by artists and activists, resisting borders and …

Assessment Of Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Exposure To Ambient Fine Particulate Matter And Ozone In New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area, Subraham Singh

Dissertations and Theses

Background. Exposures to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5; particles with diameter less than 2.5 μm) and ozone (O₃) affect premature respiratory and cardiovascular mortality, morbidity and contribute to the development and progression of sub-clinical and clinical disease. Climate change affects air quality directly by modifying the thermodynamic properties of formation mechanisms and transport patterns, and indirectly, through increased emissions of PM_2.5 and O₃ precursors. The resultant changes in air quality influence human health outcomes through mechanisms of varying scale, timing, and complexity. PM_2.5 and O₃ levels have been declining due to the implementation …

Investigation Of The Association Of Exposures To Fire-Related Hazards With Pulmonary Function Of Firefighters, David G. Goldfarb

Dissertations and Theses

Background. Firefighters are habitually exposed to hazardous toxicants which place them at an elevated risk for numerous adverse health outcomes. An example of this is the associations observed in other works between inhalation of combustion byproducts from urban structural fires and both acute and chronic pulmonary dysfunction. To-date, the characterization of firefighters’ exposures to dangerous chemicals in smoke from non-wildfire incidents, both directly through personal monitoring and indirectly from work-related records is scarce. Prior works investigating the association between routine firefighting and pulmonary function have relied on crude metrics such as years of service and numbers of responses to …

Weakly-Supervised Tumor Purity Prediction From Frozen H&E Stained Slides, Matthew Brendel, Vanesa Getseva, Majd Al Assaad, Michael Sigouros, Alexandros Sigaras, Troy Kane, Pegah Khosravi, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Olivier Elemento, Iman Hajirasouliha

Publications and Research

Background

Estimating tumor purity is especially important in the age of precision medicine. Purity estimates have been shown to be critical for correction of tumor sequencing results, and higher purity samples allow for more accurate interpretations from next-generation sequencing results. Molecular-based purity estimates using computational approaches require sequencing of tumors, which is both time-consuming and expensive.

Methods

Here we propose an approach, weakly-supervised purity (wsPurity), which can accurately quantify tumor purity within a digitally captured hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained histological slide, using several types of cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) as a proof-of-concept.

Findings

Our model predicts …

Were Latinos Undercounted In The 2020 Census? An Assessment Of Latino Demographic Data From 2010 Through 2020, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report examines makes estimates about the Latino Population for 2020—in the United States, Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, and Houston—that differ dramatically from those published by the Census Bureau.

Methods:

This report uses population growth rates calculated from the raw data found in the American Community Survey (ACS) five-year files for each year between 2010 and 2019 and 2015 to 2019 to project ‘assumed’ population totals for 2020. It uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population …

Where Gunshots Turn Fatal: A Geographic Examination Of The Spatial Patterning Of Gun Violence, David Hatten

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation contributes fundamental work to the examination of gun violence through an investigation of prevalence, trends, and likely place-based dynamics that explain the spatial patterning of gun violence in Kansas City, MO over a 5-year period (2015-2019). Specifically, this dissertation assesses 1) the degree to which separate shooting typologies (fatal and non-fatal) concentrate in micro-places, 2) whether they co-locate at micro-places, and 3) the likely community characteristics and place-based dynamics that explain these observed patterns. Importantly, the role of place-based dynamics related to the post-incident operational response to gun violence is tested (e.g., a street segment’s proximity to trauma …

Genomic Insights Into Mechanisms Of Microbial Evolution And Evolution-Inspired Strategies To Combat Pathogen Diversity, Saymon Akther

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We live in an era of emerging infectious diseases that are increasingly common, rapidly spreading, and gravely devastating. Lyme disease, caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Borreliella, is rapidly rising in the Northern Hemisphere because of geographic range expansion of both the tick vectors and the pathogens. Evolutionary comparative analysis of Borreliella genomes is a key to understanding the phylogeographic history and mechanisms of their global diversification. Moreover, genomic variations in Borreliella associated with human pathogenicity, e.g., at loci encoding cell-surface antigens interacting with the vertebrate hosts, have not been fully identified. Similarly, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused …

Sunbelt Schooling: Publics And Politics Of Education Advocacy In Phoenix, Arizona, Matthew Chrisler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past forty years, public education in the United States has been the target of both neoliberal and conservative education reforms that have imposed austerity and privatization, set limits on racial, gendered, and sexual citizenship, increased school responsibility for social reproduction, and winnowed visions of public education as both a universal social entitlement and site of participatory democracy. These reforms emerged from, and remain powerfully anchored in, the United States Sunbelt, a crescent of metropolitan suburbs spanning southern California to Florida. This region propelled the conservative revolution in American politics but is also the site of progressive organizing that, …

Drift Net: The Social And Political Agency Of The Migratory Text, Chris Campanioni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a discursive model I call a “migratory text”—migrant-produced media that includes notebooks, correspondences, self-portraiture, diaristic video, auto-archival installation, and immersive performance—Drift Net gleans connections between world literature, literary translation, academic scholarship, and public policy. Alongside close readings of texts from the interwar period through today and intimate archival fieldwork with refugees and shelter staff across Europe, this study mobilizes queer theory and gender and sexuality studies as well as performance studies and media theory to critique migrant-assimilation techniques by state actors and NGOs. In centering the Cold War throughout its five chapters, Drift Net broaches the different political …

Nunc Pauperis Agri: Rural Fantasy And Economic Reality In The Elegies Of Tibullus, Victoria Elizabeth Jansson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that attention to economic anxieties in Tibullus’ elegies is crucial to understanding his corpus. Concerns about agricultural production, globalized trade, and institutional power recur throughout the elegies. An appreciation of economic desire may not only produce a fruitful reading of Tibullus’ poetry, but also help to answer some of the questions suggested by elegy’s socio-historical framework. This project relies methodologically on both economic analysis and a Lacanian psychoanalytic framework. Additionally, each chapter explores a different facet of religious experience in the elegies: the myth of the Golden Age, prayers to the goddess Ceres, and references to the …

Promoting Play-Based Learning Strategies In The Upper Elementary And Lower Middle School Classroom, Michelle L. Randall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This white paper is framed by an understanding of the proposed influence play has on the process of supporting children’s developmental needs while simultaneously strengthening their ability to receive and recall academic content. The white paper is driven by a self-motivated desire to reimagine the ways in which teachers deliver and review content at the upper elementary and lower middle school level. By upper elementary, I am referring to the 4^th and 5^th grade classroom. By lower middle school, I am referring to the 6^th grade classroom.

The past decade of research regarding play-based pedagogy and play-based …

Essays On Intergenerational Mobility In Education, Ercio A. Munoz Saavedra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that investigate intergenerational mobility in education in Chile, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Chapter 1: In this chapter, I estimate intergenerational mobility (IGM) in education using data from 91 censuses that span 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) over half a century. I measure upward mobility as the likelihood of obtaining at least a primary education for individuals whose parents did not finish primary school, whereas downward mobility as the likelihood of failing to complete primary education for individuals whose parents completed at least primary school. In addition, I …

Colonial Education: Puerto Ricans And The Carlisle Indian School, Progenitors Of The Mythic Identity, Melissa Swinea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

‘GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES’ reads a subheading of The Red Man –a historic periodical memorializing the tune of 19th century Americana with references to Godliness and its connection to Indianness and ostentatious capitalism in a canon of school newspapers. The Red Man was the staple periodical of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Institute published monthly and declared “in the interest of Indian education and civilization” for the annual price of 50 cents[1] The subject and recipients of The Red Man would also include 193 Puerto Rican students sent to Carlisle through the U.S.’s campaign to Americanize the Caribbean …

A Solitary Solidarity: Conditions For Attunement In The "Migration Crisis" In Greece, Katherine Sheese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I draw on ethnographic field work and qualitative interviews with activist volunteers in Greece in 2016 to explore the conditions for ethical and affective attunement in the face of crisis and complicity. I offer a thick description of the multiple injuries to one’s senses and sensemaking capacities and the contradictions, tensions, dilemmas that undermine the capacity for attunement, a term I use to refer to the overlapping abilities to feel, to be moved, and to locate oneself and to connect to others. I begin by developing a contextual analysis of the complex and contradictory machinery of …

Building The Revolution: Ideology, Affect And Gender In Bolivarian Caracas, Andreina I. Torres A.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Building the Revolution: Ideology, Affect and Gender in Bolivarian Caracas,” examines the Bolivarian Revolution (1998-present) as a heterogenous shifting political process, and terrain of struggle in which a multiplicity of actors disputed the meanings and direction of socialism in Venezuela. During three years of ethnographic and archival research in Caracas (between 2014 and 2017) I researched one of the many Campamentos de Pioneros (Pioneer Camps) that was part of the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras de Venezuela (Venezuela’s Settlers’ Movement). The pioneers sought to “rescue” and occupy centrally located land in the national capital in order to build housing for …

El Ritmo Del Westside: Exploring The Musical Landscape Of San Antonio’S Historic Westside, Valeria Alderete

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The westside of San Antonio, Texas fostered a uniquely diverse musical landscape throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, demonstrating the results of cross-cultural exchanges reflected in music. From Conjunto and Ranchera music, to R&B and Jazz, a wide range of music genres was celebrated in the historic westside, eventually shaping the birth of the area’s own Westside Sound, which remains a staple in many Chicano communities to date. Despite the cultural significance and rich history, the historic westside’s musical past remains widely unknown, often overshadowed by research and documentation surrounding the area’s violent history with gang networks and crime.

Committed to …