Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Heating Fire Incidents In New York City, Merissa K. Lissade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

If you have ever had the Citizen app downloaded on your smart phone, then you know how many alerts you receive in a day living in New York City (NYC). Citizen is a mobile app that sends real-time safety alerts based on the location of its user. In my experience having the app, I have seen many notifications of fires caused by heaters during the winter. On the morning of January 9^th, 2022, I received a notification of an accidental blaze that took the lives of 17 people from the choking smoke of a 19-story residential building in …

Brave New Wombs: Hysterectomy, Gender, And Stratified Reproduction, Andréa Becker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hysterectomy is the most common gynecological surgery worldwide and approximately one third of people assigned female at birth in the U.S. will have their uterus removed by the age of 65. Despite the high prevalence, sociologists have neglected to examine this procedure amid broader systems of gender, health, and race inequality. Over 90% of hysterectomies are deemed “elective,” including for chronic reproductive illness or as gender affirming care for trans and nonbinary individuals. Given the various reasons for a hysterectomy, and the incidence of this procedure across gender identities, an analysis of hysterectomy experiences allows for a rich investigation into …

Stereotypes, Dehumanization, And Disciplining Disability: Psychological Mechanisms That Fuel The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Alexandra Ponce De Leon-Lebec

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The overrepresentation of students with educational disabilities in the school-to-prison pipeline is a crisis of civil rights and social justice in need of a comprehensive explanatory theoretical model. Research has convincingly demonstrated the greater likelihood of students with disabilities to be disciplined and the link from these exclusionary school discipline practices to eventual justice system involvement. Yet, why students with disabilities should receive these punishments at greater rates than non-labeled peers, when procedural safeguards and tenets of reduced culpability would predict otherwise, has never been investigated. The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) and the related Behaviors from Interpersonal Affect (BIAS) Map …

Democratic Processing Of Waste: European Federalism And Decentralized Waste Management In Navarra And Basque Country, Michael Stinavage

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Every country, regardless of regime-type, produces garbage. Waste is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, and its management requires the participation of society at large. The competency for waste management falls on the most decentralized forms of governance. The local government, however, faces a tremendous difficulty in that it may not be able to realign economic and political incentives to make the sustainable management of post-consumer material a viable option. Using waste policy as a lens to assess climate crisis readiness and federal governance, this study considers Navarra and Basque Country, two of Spain’s most decentralized regions, and creates …

Time And Power: The Will To Temporalize In Digital Culture, Talha Issevenler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I analyze the new forms of temporalization of social media in relationship to arrangements of power through nonhuman agency of the algorithm. The new social media industry refers to the entities that make up its circulatory movement, simply as ‘content’. This suggests that scientific or empirical study of social media should deal with content and analyze this as the data of research through sampling (Manovich, 2020, p. 93-94). Yet the forms and the temporality in which the content is presented not only are open to empirical research but should be central to our understanding of the organization …

Navigating Their Way In: Non-Hispanic West Indians’ Class Of Admission And Neighborhood Settlement, Kenisha J.A. White

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

West Indians in New York City are as segregated today as they were 30 years ago. Not only are they segregated from the city’s Anglo population, but they are also moderately segregated from each other. As of 2019, West Indians were still concentrated in neighborhoods across the North Bronx, Central Brooklyn and South Queens. These were neighborhoods that were regarded as West Indian enclaves back in the 1980s and 1990s. As this project reviews, the experiences of non-Hispanic West Indians in the United States, specifically their neighborhood settlement patterns and the role of race in influencing their integration outcomes, have …

Pushing Understanding: Curriculum Resources For Digital Pedagogues, M. Rubin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Whether one wishes to admit it or not, the classroom is a distinct and separate space from the rest of the world with its own rules, expectations, and environment. Even when a class takes place outside of a classroom, the space takes on the role of a classroom, if not outright becoming a classroom in every form aside from shape. This is not unlike, for instance, a tabletop game: even if not played on a literal tabletop, a tabletop game remains identifiable as such, and its rules and expectations remain the same, as does even its environment. A course may …

No Excuses Yet No Solutions: The Inherent Anti-Blackness Of The No-Excuses Charter School Model, Tshala A. Pajibo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The No Excuses model of education has routinely been labeled abusive and harmful to students. The No Excuses model has garnered significant pushback from students, families, and stakeholders because of procedures and policies that have caused physical, mental, and bodily harm to young students. While many education stakeholders have examined how No Excuses charters and their policies have harmed Black children, not many have examined why. This paper argues that the No Excuses charter model is completely at odds with Black cultural and educational values. This paper suggests deeper studies of the educational mindsets and opinions of No Excuses …

In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Daily Diary Investigation Of Appraisals Of Illegitimate Tasks, Danielle Robyn Wald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional research on illegitimate tasks has focused on two dimensions, unreasonable tasks and unnecessary tasks, and has assumed that threat appraisal is the underlying mechanism explaining their effects. This study introduced a revised three-dimensional framework of illegitimate tasks that consists of promoting unreasonable tasks, demoting unreasonable tasks, and unnecessary tasks. Further, it explored the differential relationships of each dimension of illegitimate tasks with three outcomes: emotional exhaustion, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and psychological empowerment. Furthermore, it proposed that among the three appraisals, challenge appraisal is the strongest mediator between promoting unreasonable tasks and outcomes, threat appraisal is the strongest mediator between …

“The Act Of The Paper”: Literacy, Racial Capitalism, And Student Protest In The 1990s, Anna Zeemont

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A transdisciplinary archival project, this dissertation uses counter-institutional student literacies emanating out of the City University of New York (CUNY) in the 1990s—placing them within much bigger political, educational, and geographic contexts—to think through the dynamics of ground-up resistance in the face of profound, institutionally sanctioned raced-classed dispossession. In this decade, New York and the US were marked by increased racial-economic inequality, notably via intensified policing and incarceration in Black/brown neighborhoods alongside cuts to public resources like schooling. As the city’s only public college option, serving mostly multilingual, low-income students of color, CUNY was especially targeted by such budget cuts. …

Elements Of Social Disorganization And Environmental Criminology: A Spatial Analysis Of Homicides In Villa Nueva, Guatemala, David J. Topel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study seeks to integrate the main spatial theories of crime, social disorganization, and routine activities theories while investigating the spatial dimension of homicides in Villa Nueva, Guatemala. Empirical relationships at a small unit of analysis, the natural cadaster blocks as defined by the municipality offer a more appropriate unit of analysis for the context of the city. While there is a robust body of work in developed nations synthetizing social disorganization and routine activities theories, the exploration of criminological theory integration and the use of the smallest unit of analysis still needs the addition of empirical research in Latin …

Nyc Vs. Covid-19: The Human And Financial Resources Deployed To Fight The Most Expensive Health Emergency In History In Nyc During The Year 2020, Elmer A. Maldonado Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The City of New York launched one of its largest and most expensive operations in history. The objective was to stop or at least slow down the spread of the Coronavirus disease first identified in Wuhan, China in 2019. A vast number of initiatives were implemented by the city government involving every city agency. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was at the forefront of this response. This document will study the Human Resources deployed by said agency during the year 2020 to reveal how many assignments were given, dates and hours worked, number of …

Navigating College While Homeless: A Phenomenological Inquiry Of The Young Adult Experience, Bertha Fountain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: The study aimed to understand the perspectives of students in college who were homeless. The research question guiding this inquiry was: How do young adults describe their experience of being homeless while in college?

Method: Qualitative research using a phenomenological approach guided this descriptive inquiry. Interviews were held with 10 students from three CUNY Community Colleges and the data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Resilience theory helped to understand the barriers along with the strengths and adaptive responses of the students.

Results: Students experienced unstable and inadequate sleeping arrangements and food insecurity along with their academic responsibilities. Homelessness …

The Feminine Harp As Feminist Tool: Early Professional Footing For Women In Mid-Twentieth-Century America, Chelsea Lane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1930s North America, women—for the first time—were accorded permanent principal positions in significant American orchestras. Edna Phillips, Alice Chalifoux, and Sylvia Meyer, all students of the legendary harp pedagogue Carlos Salzedo, have been celebrated as pioneers for the prestigious employment they obtained in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, respectively, between 1930 and 1933. Despite the impressiveness of these accomplishments, however, the narrative of their “firstness” is not wholly accurate. In actuality, female harpists have occupied orchestral posts as acting principals, substitutes, and second harpists since the very inception of orchestras. The cause for their early …

Symmetry-Inspired Analysis Of Biological Networks, Ian Leifer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The description of a complex system like gene regulation of a cell or a brain of an animal in terms of the dynamics of each individual element is an insurmountable task due to the complexity of interactions and the scores of associated parameters. Recent decades brought about the description of these systems that employs network models. In such models the entire system is represented by a graph encapsulating a set of independently functioning objects and their interactions. This creates a level of abstraction that makes the analysis of such large scale system possible. Common practice is to draw conclusions about …

Empirical Essays On Contingent Convertible Capital Securities, Andrea Golfari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of five chapters on contingent convertible capital securities, their macroprudential role within the regulatory capital stack of financial institutions, and the effects of the regulatory environments surrounding them on their design.

Chapter 1 This chapter briefly introduces this dissertation, including its motivation and structure.

Chapter 2 The first part of this chapter describes every design feature of contingent convertible capital instruments (CoCos) and provides a review of the literature on their role as macroprudential tools and on optimal CoCo design. The second part of the chapter offers a complete discussion of the role assigned to CoCos in …

Collaborative Learning With A Geometry Video Game: The Role Of Elaboration And Game Design In Motivation And Learning, Ethlyn Saltzman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study examined the effects of a new game mechanic on collaborative learning and mathematical discourse when playing a digital geometry puzzle game. For this study, two new versions of the game “Noobs vs. Leets” were developed. Both versions of the game teach the concepts of complementary and supplementary angles and the angle sum theorem of triangles. It was hypothesized that the version of the game that included a game mechanic that allow players to manipulate the angles, thus creating a more open-ended task, would be more intrinsically motivating, promote elaboration of the geometric concepts, and lead to greater learning …

Approach To Dual Base And Sugar Modification Of Adenosine, Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling Reactions Of Quinazolinones, And A Novel Entry To Carbazolones And Indolones, Dellamol Sebastian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analogues of purine nucleosides are of interest due to their antiviral, antibacterial, and anticancer properties. Although there are large number of reports on C6-modification of 6-chloropurine nucleosides with alkyl amines via the S_NAr reaction pathway, there are fewer reports on comparable reactions with aryl amines. Notably, S_NAr reactions of 6-chloropurine nucleosides with electron-deficient aryl amines is a relatively understudied area. A simple method has been developed for the S_NAr reactions of 6-chloropurine ribonucleosides with electron-deficient-, electron-rich-, and electronically neutral aryl amines. Under the developed conditions, S_NAr reactions of 2’,3’,5’-O-(tert …

Why, New York City? Gauging The Quality Of Life Through The Thoughts Of Tweeters, Sheryl Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a resource for social data, Twitter’s platform has been used to measure the quality of life through sentiment analysis. This capstone project explores another methodological technique—querying Twitter data around specific keyword terms to determine dominant topics, word patterns, and sentiment leanings in a geographical area. Focusing on New York City and Los Angeles for comparative analysis, the keyword term “why” will be used to build a Python analysis around topic modeling and sentiment analysis. Using this approach, the analysis reveals social and cultural differences, the overall sentiment of tweets, and subjects of interest to tweeters.

GitHub Repository for all …

Happiness And Policy Implications: A Sociological View, Sarah M. Kahl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The World Happiness Report is released every year, ranking each country by who is “happier” and explaining the variables and data they have used. This project attempts to build from that base and create a machine learning algorithm that can predict if a country will be in a “happy” or “could be happier” category. Findings show that taking a broader scope of variables can better help predict happiness. Policy implications are discussed in using both big data and considering social indicators to make better and lasting policies.

Biomimetic And Medical Applications Of Hollow Nanoscale Structures, Justin Fang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Materials whose structure incorporates nanoscale void spaces have multiple possible uses, whether in a bulk form or as individual particles, due to the combination of high surface area ratios and nanoscale material properties. This thesis will explore a few of these possibilities, concentrating on potential biomimetic and biomedical applications, for two materials: metal- organic frameworks and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocages.

Metal-organic frameworks consist of metal ions such as Cu2+ which have highly porous lattice structures allowing them to absorb and release guest molecules such as peptides like diphenylalanine; this stored chemical energy can be turned into kinetic energy and used …

A Case For Comprehensive Work-Based Learning And Career Education For New York City’S Public High School Students, Jacqueline De La Cruz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As children progress through grades K-12 they are often asked what they would like to be when they grow up, but there are few opportunities for exposure to real world work experiences while they are in school. While many radical scholars have critiqued the primacy of the economic goals of schooling, in this paper I embrace the connection between education and employability to advocate for career education and work-based learning programs to bolster students’ postsecondary plans. Work-based learning does not substitute traditional forms of education and schooling, but when aligned with tenets of learning and career theories, it has the …

Development Of Optical Nanomaterial For Enhanced Cerenkov Imaging, Qize Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cancer is a significant public health problem worldwide and is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Imaging has increasingly been used over the last two decades to improve the diagnosis and guidance of tumor tissue removal surgery. Among the most widely used techniques for in vivo imaging are planar and tomographic fluorescence imaging and bioluminescence imaging. Despite their utility, these techniques are primarily restricted to preclinical use. Factors that have prevented translation from the bench to the bedside include depth-penetration considerations, regulatory issues, and toxicity. A recent development in nuclear imaging has been the ability to …

The Silent Holocaust And Other Myths: The Jewish Body And Intermarriage In The Fiction Of Saul Bellow And Philip Roth, Samuel Gold

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation concerns the legacy within the Jewish American imagination of two related ideas: the pseudoscientific belief in the Jewish body’s inherent physical difference, and the conviction, shared by rabbis, sociologists, and Jewish advocacy organizations in the second half of the 20th century, that Jewish-gentile intermarriage threatened Jewish survival in America. The Jew’s association with illness and debility is central to the Nazi race theories that undergird the Holocaust; the postwar American anxiety over intermarriage responds to that destruction. Fearing that intermarriage may yield a second, “silent” Holocaust through assimilation, American Jewish leaders metaphorically equate exogamy (out-marriage) with genocide.

I …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Multiple-Exemplar Training For Visual Analysis Of Ab-Design Graphs, Verena S. Bethke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In behavior analysis, data are usually analyzed using visual analysis of the graphed data. There are a wide range of methods used to visually analyze data, from a basic ‘textbook’ style approach to the use of visual aids, decision-rubrics, and computer-based approaches. In the literature, there have been some comparisons of the efficacy of different approaches. Visual analysis as a behavior can be taught using a variety of methods, independent of how the skill itself is to be performed. Teaching methods include lecture, online instruction, and equivalence-based instruction. There is not much research on the teaching of visual analysis specifically, …

Protecting Peace? Analyzing The Relationship Between The Protection Of Civilians And Peace In Un Peacekeeping Settings, Jenna Russo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since 1999, the protection of civilians (POC) has become central to UN peacekeeping, included in the mandates of most multidimensional missions. In 2009, the Security Council designated POC as a priority among mandated tasks, in part because of the assertion that protecting civilians creates conditions that are conducive to peace. Yet, to this point, there has not been a thorough examination of the relationship between the protection of civilians in conflict settings and the broader peace process. The purpose of this research project is to investigate whether protecting civilians from violence serves to shorten conflict duration and/or create more durable …

Tablets As A Vehicle For Imprisoned People’S Digital Connection With Loved Ones, Andrea Mufarreh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The intersection between criminal justice and technology is fairly understudied, despite increasing technological advancements in the world and within the criminal justice system. A rather recent addition to the technological landscape of prison is the adoption of tablets used by imprisoned people for communication and connection with loved ones and other activities, which is particularly important given the context of COVID-19, a virus which caused a global pandemic from 2020-2022. While the use of tablets by imprisoned people appears to be a new trend, the use of tablets in prison both prior to and during the pandemic has remained an …

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 …

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 …