Digital Commons Network^™

The Desire Of Strict Souls: The Poetry, Criticism, And Letters Of Paul Valéry And Wallace Stevens, Michael Healy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation compares the poetic, critical, and epistolary oeuvres of Paul Valéry and Wallace Stevens and the influence of the former on the latter. Valéry famously advocated for the pursuit of “poésie pure” (“pure poetry”) and influenced Stevens especially in this way, though both of them concluded it was not achievable. I establish an approximation of a critical framework based on the work of the following critics and scholars: Wendy Lesser, Wendy Steiner, Anthony Cuda, Michael Clune, Paul Bové, and Liesl Olson. Harold Bloom’s passionate advocacy and deep, sustained engagement with Stevens and his work strongly influenced my choice to …

Bureaucracy, Bottlenecks, And Bots: Ai And Migrant Experiences At Germany’S Foreigners’ Authorities, Johanna Brusa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How can AI provide a meaningful tool in migration management for the German government? Seeking highly-skilled migrants and overburdened by mass migration, the German government is turning to AI to generate solutions to bureaucratic overload in the Ausländerbehörden (ABH, the Foreigners’ Authorities), the Federal Republic's administrative system for managing the processing of migration. AI promises to ease the bureaucratic burden on civil servants, but can it improve migrants' experiences in their interactions with the ABH? And, critically for the German state, could it help convince highly-skilled workers to make Germany their home? Analyzing 530 Google reviews of six different ABH …

School Just Wasn't For Me: Investigating The Intersections Of Education, Incarceration, And Improvisation, Kelly L. Brady

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

New York City is the largest city in the United States and home to the nation's largest school system.  NYC public schools are also the country's most segregated, according to a 2021 report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project.  This qualitative, Arts-Based Research study follows the development and performance of an applied theater piece created by formerly incarcerated and court-involved youth exploring their early educational experiences before encountering the juvenile justice system. Using Disability/Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) and Critical Performance Ethnography this project investigates how structural systems of education and incarceration intersect to construct youth as "others," including special education, …

Materializing The Interface: Personal Data Feeds Generative Art, Erin Livingston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Materializing the Interface: Personal Data Feeds Generative Art is a data-studio capstone project that reconstructs elements of desktop and mobile interfaces as handmade mixed-media artifacts, then digitizes them as an interactive website where generative text and images are fed by personal data flows. Twenty-one paper collage windows — built from cardstock, risograph-printed paper, and mixed media — were photographed, digitized, and activated using code to become the interactive surface of a desktop view driven by browser history. A corresponding mobile view renders a corpus of 500 Instagram advertisement screenshots through a risograph print aesthetic, fed by a hand-tagged emotion and …

Educational Content Creation For Non-Textbook Learning Resources, Dorina Tila

Open Educational Resources

These are materials that will be supporting faculty teaching and students enrolled in ECO 1200: Macroeconomics. Some items are also helpful in other economics, finance, and business classes. The set includes:

• Customized Summaries of Modules,
• Up-to-date Case Examples and Assignments
• Economic Experiments and Game Designs and Instructions,
• Instructions that Ethically and Effective Use Generative AI

Transportation Deserts And Structural Mobility Access In New York City, John Cruz

Student Theses

This study examines structural mobility access across New York City census tracts by constructing a tract-level Mobility Access Index (MAI) that integrates employment accessibility, hospital accessibility, and first-mile subway walking burden using MTA GTFS transit data, NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission trip records, and US Census American Community Survey demographic estimates. Three OLS regression models, supplemented by Lasso, Elastic Net, and Random Forest specifications, test whether structural access gaps are associated with short-distance connector trip intensity and per-worker connector cost burden. Results show that MAI varies substantially across tracts, with high access concentrated in Manhattan and along major subway corridors. …

Forecasting Interborough Express Ridership Using Network-Based Station Typologies And Direct Demand Models, Fomba Kassoh

Student Theses

Forecasting ridership for new transit infrastructure is difficult in the absence of observed outcomes, particularly under domain shift between an existing system and a proposed corridor. This study develops a station-level direct demand modeling (DDM) framework to forecast average weekday ridership for the proposed Interborough Express (IBX) in New York City — a 14-mile circumferential rapid transit corridor connecting Brooklyn and Queens. The approach pairs unsupervised learning with supervised estimation in a common feature space defined by transit service, accessibility, and built-environment characteristics. K-means clustering identifies latent station typologies (node–place regimes), and IBX stations are projected into this topology to …

Bridging The Justice Gap: A Comparative Study Of Legal Aid Marketing In Canada, Australia, And The United States, Farah O. Haq

Student Theses and Dissertations

Access to justice remains a central challenge across legal systems, particularly for immigrants and refugees, Indigenous communities, and survivors of domestic violence. While legal aid organizations play a critical role in bridging this gap, their effectiveness increasingly depends on how clearly and compassionately they communicate legal information online to their target audience. This thesis conducts a comparative content analysis of nine nonprofit legal aid organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia, three countries united by a common law tradition but divided by the communication barriers their communities face, examining 180 social media posts and nine websites through the lens …

The Effect Of The Chemical And Microbiological Structure Of Biofilms On The Growth Of Oyster Spats In The Hudson River, June L. Rahman

Student Theses and Dissertations

Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are sessile suspension feeding bivalves that improve water quality through filtration and reef formation, making them crucial to the health oftheir native ecosystems. Establishing oyster habitats is a priority in Hudson River restoration efforts following significant population declines due to over harvesting, habitat loss, and pollution. Oyster spat production and attachment are influenced by biofilms; however, it is not well known how biofilm properties, such as bacterial taxonomic composition and EPS content, affect oyster larval attachment in the Hudson River. We hypothesized that intertidal surfaces,which are more exposed sunlight, would develop photosynthetic biofilms that enhance oyster …

Ai-Infused Writing-Intensive Problems For Introduction To Programming In C++, Esma Yildirim

Open Educational Resources

This exercise book uses Writing-Intensive (WI) pedagogy in an introductory programming course setting, because I believe WI can help students engage in deeper analysis of programming problems while strengthening their critical and analytical thinking skills. In computer science, a single problem can often be solved using multiple algorithms, designs, and implementation strategies. Exploratory thinking and reflective writing can improve students’ ability not only to read and write computer programs, but also to evaluate the efficiency, readability, and maintainability of algorithms and code. Students must learn not only how to design solutions, but also how to compare alternatives and determine the …

Origin And Age Of Fluvioglacial Sediments On Staten Island Ny And Implications For Meltwater Flow, Jane L. Alexander, Victoria Rivelli, Sean T. Thatcher

Publications and Research

In the northeastern United States, sediments related to the expansion and contraction of the Laurentide ice sheet have been extensively mapped throughout New England, as well as in New Jersey and on Long Island. However, linking these deposits around New York City is challenging due to the extensive urbanization. Staten Island is less developed than the other boroughs of New York City, however outcrops of rock and surface sediment are limited, making interpretation of its geologic history challenging. When small areas of sediment are temporarily exposed, they can be used to improve our understanding of sediment erosion and deposition over …

Urban Sociology Oer Syllabus, Can Ersoy

Open Educational Resources

This is a zero cost textbook syllabus for undergraduate level urban Sociology course. It includes readings and visual materials for 6 learning modules, and instructions for a semester-long neighborhood study.

To Record, To Be Heard, Jiahao Li

Student Theses

Introduction

This capstone project is a pop rock album, including seven original songs written, performed, recorded, and mixed by myself. Four of the songs will be from an old project, for which I had made only demos at home about four years ago. The other three songs were written during the last three years. All songs were recorded in the recording studios at Feirstein. This paper will go through the creation process of this album and explore what songwriting, recording and producing mean to me. I will also talk about the evolution of my practice and my artisthood.

The Role Of Avram, In Indecent By Paula Vogel, Bryce Hargrove

Student Theses

In the Fall of 2026, the Brooklyn College Department of Theatre produced the play, Indecent by Paula Vogel. This play was directed by then MFA Directing candidate, Sam Plattus. In this production, I played the role of Avram, who serves to represent a handful of characters, including Sholem Asch, the author of the 1906 play God of Vengeance, the content and surrounding events of which Indecent is based on. This show ran from December 5-9 as a part of the 2025-2026 season. In this thesis, I will delve into the life of playwright Paula Vogel and discuss her prior works, …

The Role Of Halina In Indecent, Grace Olinksi

Student Theses

In December of 2025, I had the privilege of playing Halina in Paula Vogel’s theatrical love letter Indecent. It ran December 5th-9th in the New Workshop Theater at Brooklyn College, and was directed by MFA Directing candidate Sam Plattus. Indecent sprawls across time and place to tell the story of Sholem Asch’s controversial and groundbreaking play God of Vengeance. Halina, the female “Middle,” of Vogel’s archetypal acting troupe, takes on the roles of many mature and worldly women, including Manke, the prostitute and doomed lover of God of Vengeance, the actresses who portray Manke throughout the play’s history, hopeful immigrants, …

Examining Whether The Relationships Between Specific Psychiatric Diagnoses And Both Adolescent Suicide And Reoffending Are Moderated By Sex, Michael T. Baglivio, Katherine Jackowski, Brooke Neupaver, Grayson Black, Bailee Perry, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

The current study examines the relationships between specific psychiatric diagnoses and both adolescent suicide and reoffending, the implications of adverse childhood experiences on these outcomes, and assesses whether these relationships are moderated by sex. Using a multilayer multiyear statewide sample of 6,515 adolescents who completed juvenile justice residential placements, logistic regression and moderation models were used to examine these relationships. Findings demonstrate that the rate of suicidal ideation was 2.5 times higher for female youth, while the recidivism rate was 1.7 times higher for males. Psychiatric diagnoses prevalence ranged from 65.9% for conduct disorder to less than 1% for personality …

Beyond "Bad Apples": Political Identity, Moral Interpretation, And Institutional Response To Abuse, Laura Werner

Student Theses

This thesis examines how psychological explanatory frameworks and structural institutional response interact to shape how domestic violence and sexual abuse are understood and addressed. Drawing on behavioral design theory and John Dewey's transactional approach to experience, I argue that harm is interpreted through mental models that simultaneously shape both individual perception and institutional action. Using survey data from 736 participants, I demonstrate that endorsement of the "bad apples" explanatory framework, attributing abuse primarily to a small group of deviant individuals, is predicted by psychological essentialism, belief in a just world, social dominance orientation, and political conservatism. These findings suggest that …

Visualization And Marker-Less Tracking Of User-Defined Pre-Processed Mri Articulator Data Using Deep Learning, Michael De George

Student Theses

This thesis presents a comprehensive framework for the automated tracking and visualization of articulatory movements based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. A well-known data analysis tool for markerless pose estimation, known as DeepLabCut, is investigated for this purpose. The performance of this tool is enhanced through the design and implementation of a pre-processor. DeepLabCut is a markerless pose estimation toolbox based on deep learning, which overcomes the issue of making manual annotations frame-by-frame. Limitations from manually marking the MRI images are addressed by implementing transfer learning with convolutional neural networks to achieve accurate, user-defined articulator tracking without markers. Current …

Microtubules In Breast Cancer: Exploring The Α/Β-Tubulin Toggle Switch And Its Implications In Human Breast Cancer, Annemarie Ianos

Student Theses and Dissertations

Microtubules, composed of a/b-tubulin heterodimers, play a central role in breast cancer tumor growth by polymerizing, leading to metastasis and depolymerizing, contributing to proliferation. Human enzymes protein kinase Ca (PKC-a) and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk-1) mediate phosphorylation at sites a:Ser165 and b:Ser172, respectively, influencing the growth of microtubules. It is possible that alternating phosphorylation at these sites contribute to an a/b-tubulin “toggle switch” that mediates microtubule instability and tumor growth.

The project investigates the influence of the toggle switch model on microtubule stability by determining the impact of mutants (a:S165D, a:S165N, a:S165S_P, b:S172S_P and a:S165S_P/b:S172S …

Genomics And Bioinformatics Student Companion Workbook (First Edition), Na Xu, Tina Hu

Open Educational Resources

This Genomics and Bioinformatics Student Companion Workbook provides an integrated, hands-on introduction to the principles and applications of modern genomics and bioinformatics. Designed for undergraduate students, the workbook guides learners from foundational concepts of genome structure and sequencing technologies to advanced topics including variant analysis, comparative genomics, and multi-omics integration. Emphasizing the interplay between experimental biology and computational analysis, it introduces key analytical tools and biological databases that support genome interpretation and data-driven discovery.

Through a structured progression of chapters, students explore genome organization across diverse biological systems, from prokaryotes and viruses to complex eukaryotic genomes, and examine how genomic …

Scb252 Fundamentals Of Biotechniques Laboratory Manual, Na Xu, Hanqi Ye

Open Educational Resources

This laboratory manual for SCB252: Fundamentals of Biotechniques provides an integrated, hands-on introduction to core concepts and methods in modern biological research using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The manual emphasizes laboratory safety, research integrity, and responsible conduct of research, alongside foundational experimental skills. Students are guided through key biological techniques including fly husbandry, genetic crosses, mutant analysis, microscopy, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, sequencing technologies, and bioinformatics tools such as BLAST and genome databases. Advanced modules introduce gene structure annotation, RNA-seq data analysis, and primer design, while fluorescence microscopy and protein analysis techniques further expand …

What Is The Skeleton Of Cognition? A Structural Account Of World Reconstruction Through Processing Axes, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper describes how the placement of a single processing axis reorganizes human cognition and generates a reconstructed world.

Most existing psychological and social theories begin from emotion, desire, morality, or social behavior. In doing so, they have discussed what forms on top of the cognitive skeleton without first fixing the skeleton itself. When the skeleton is not fixed, entirely different explanations of the same phenomenon can coexist, and it becomes difficult to identify which constitutes a foundational account.

This paper fixes the skeleton first. That skeleton is the processing axis.

The question is: when a single processing axis organizes …

Proximal Stress And Gender Identity: The Role Of Internalized Transphobia In Future Expectations, Maribelle Almonacy

Student Theses and Dissertations

Transgender and non-conforming (TGNC) youth and young adults are more likely to experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress due to identity-specific abuse. Studies on the impact of trauma on negative expectations in high-risk youth show a high association between pessimism, nihilism, and instability. Internalized transphobia, similarly, is correlated with negative mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, and the internalization of social messages and discrimination. These studies are not specific to the experiences of gender minorities and do not explore the intersections of internalized stressors or trauma in young adults. To address this gap in literature, this study sought to …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

Enhanced And Confused: The High Price Of Partnership In American Theater, Brandan Walsh

Student Theses

Broadway’s contemporary development ecosystem relies on a complex and increasingly fragile relationship between nonprofit regional theaters, Equity workshop models in New York City, and a small number of fully commercial out-of-town tryouts. In recent decades, nonprofit regional theaters have become central to the commercial development process, hosting fully staged productions of Broadway-bound work under a banner of artistic partnership. These institutions provide infrastructure, audiences, labor, and institutional credibility, absorbing reputational risk in hopes of high rewards and financial gain from donors. In return, they receive limited financial participation in downstream commercial success and operate under strict ethical and legal constraints …

The Greater Good?: Tradeoffs Between Social Connection And Status In Decision-Making Scenarios, Jonah M. Dratfield

Student Theses

Strong social relationships have consistently emerged as predictors of well-being in the psychological literature. However, research has not distinguished between the intrinsic social value derived from these relationships and the status derived from them. We constructed the novel Relationship Orientation Scale to explore this gap, utilizing binary decision-making scenarios in which individuals were forced to pit these two goods against one another. Across two studies, we found that individuals displayed a significant, but by no means universal, preference for intrinsically rewarding social relationships. We found, also, that social media use and comparison orientation were negative predictors of relationship orientation, whereas …

Psy 1100 Writing Intensive Syllabus, Jos Khan

Open Educational Resources

This is an ZTC/OER syllabus for a PSY 1100 writing intensive course at Kingsborough Community College.

Deep Learning Compilers, Raffi Khatchadourian

Open Educational Resources

These lecture slides introduce deep learning compilers for a graduate compiler-construction course (CSc 81010). Building on the classical compiler pipeline, they show how modern machine-learning systems compile tensor programs: static tensor and type analysis (illustrated by a WALA/Ariadne-based refactoring of imperative TensorFlow code to graph mode), MLIR-based end-to-end compilation with IREE, and the PyTorch 2.x stack—TorchDynamo graph capture, AOTAutograd, PrimTorch operator decomposition, and TorchInductor lowering to Triton (GPU) and C++/OpenMP (CPU). The slides are a self-contained HTML (W3C Slidy) deck with editable Pandoc Markdown source. Part of a two-session unit on advanced compiler topics; see also "LLMs in Compiler Construction."

Llms In Compiler Construction, Raffi Khatchadourian

Open Educational Resources

These lecture slides survey the use of large language models (LLMs) in compiler construction for a graduate compiler course (CSc 81010). They situate LLMs across the compiler pipeline and examine representative work: foundation models trained on LLVM IR and assembly (Meta's LLM Compiler), LLM-driven code optimization, binary decompilation (LLM4Decompile), and LLM-assisted automated refactoring—alongside the challenges of applying probabilistic models to tasks that demand correctness. The slides are a self-contained HTML (W3C Slidy) deck with editable Pandoc Markdown source. Part of a two-session unit on advanced compiler topics; see also "Deep Learning Compilers."

Left Out And At Risk: Post-Pandemic Continuation Of Organizational Service Reduction In Metropolitan New York City Coincides With Rise In Opiate Use And Mental Health Problems For Latinos, Ruth Lin Campbell, Smita Ekka Dewan

Publications and Research

Increasing opiate use and mental health problems among younger and older Latinos in urban US contexts prompted this investigation into the organizational resources that facilitate help-seeking efforts of Latinos in New York State (NYS). Guided by a Vulnerability Model and a framework of organizational enabling resources, this study used complementary longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. The longitudinal component examined changes in levels of organizational facilitators for Latino substance use disorder (SUD) help-seeking in Downstate NYS across three time periods, while the cross-sectional component compared post-pandemic facilitator levels across service types and regions. A convenience sample of 241 SUD clinicians participated in …