Digital Commons Network^™

Reducibility, Degree Spectra, And Lowness In Algebraic Structures, Rebecca M. Steiner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses questions in computable structure theory, which is a branch of mathematical logic hybridizing computability theory and the study of familiar mathematical structures. We focus on algebraic structures, which are standard topics of discussion among model theorists. The structures examined here are fields, graphs, trees under a predecessor function, and Boolean algebras.

For a computable field F, the splitting set S_F of F is the set of polynomials in F[X] which factor over F, and the root set R_F of F is the set of polynomials in F[X] which have a root in F …

Faunal Analysis Of The Early Modern Bishop's Farm At Skalholt, Arnessysla Iceland, George Hambrecht

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation presents the analysis of faunal material recovered from middens outside the main complex of the Bishop of Southern Iceland's Cathedral farm at Skáholt, Arnessysla, Iceland. Issues of diet, deposition patterns, as well as participation in larger trade and intellectual networks addressed. All of these issues are examined in order to investigate larger issues centered around the early modern Atlantic world. The Skáholt material is also compared with the larger body of existing early modern Icelandic archaeofaunal data in order to investigate issues of adaptation and resilience in the face of harsh climatic as well as social and economic …

The Impact Of Trial Consultants On Perceptions Of Procedural Justice And Juror Verdicts: An Empirical Investigation, Jennifer Burke Katz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the proliferation of the trial consulting industry in recent years, we know virtually nothing about the impact that the use of a trial consultant may have on a jury. This laboratory study seeks to fill some of the gaps in the trial consulting literature by using the principles of procedural justice to explore what, if any, impact the use of a trial consultant can have on the outcome of a criminal jury trial, as well as the possibility that perceptions of fairness mediate the relationship between the balance of trial consultants and juror verdicts in cases where the evidence …

Holomorphic Motions And Extremal Annuli, Zhe Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Holomorphic motions, soon after they were introduced, became an important subject in complex analysis. It is now an important tool in the study of complex dynamical systems and in the study of Teichmuller theory. This thesis serves on two purposes: an expository of the past developments and a discovery of new theories.

First, I give an expository account of Slodkowski's theorem based on the proof given by Chirka. Then I present a result about infinitesimal holomorphic motions. I prove the |ε log ε| modulus of continuity for any infinitesimal holomorphic motion. This proof is a very well application of Schwarz's …

Moral Mental States: Four Methods In Metaethics, Christopher Alen Sula

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Metaethics has traditionally focused on the meaning of moral statements, the referents of moral terms, and the justification of moral claims. This dissertation focuses on the thoughts in virtue of which our moral statements have their meaning and our moral claims have their content. These "moral mental states," as I call them, are best understood as having both intentional and volitional aspects and, corresponding to each aspect, as having satisfaction conditions involving both correctness and success in action. Put simply, our moral mental states are not only responsible for changing the world; they are responsible for changing the world in …

Myth4 And Ferm Have Overlapping And Distinct Roles In The Function Of Myo1, A Class Xiv Myosin In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Michael Gotesman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

MyTH4 and FERM are conserved tail domains in myosin classes VII, X, XII, XIV, XV and in MyoG. Myo1, a class XIV myosin in Tetrahymena thermophila, contains MyTH4 and FERM. Previous studies have shown that Myo1 localizes to phagosomes, the cytoskeleton, and the macronucleus, and that phagosome trafficking and division of the macronucleus are affected in a MYO1 knockout. To investigate the roles for MyTH4 and FERM in the function of Myo1, GFP-tagged MyTH4, FERM, and truncated FERM were separately overexpressed in Tetrahymena. Actin antibody coprecipitated tubulin, GFP-MyTH4, and GFP-FERM. GFP-MyTH4 and GFP-FERM cosedimented with either exogenous microtubules or exogenous …

Intergroup Dialogue: An Evaluation Of A Pedagogical Model For Teaching Cultural Competence Within A Framework Of Social Justice In Social Work Programs, Mayra Lopez-Humphreys

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent comparison group design with pre, post and follow-up survey data was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intergroup dialogue intervention on bachelor of social work (BSW) students' levels of cultural competence and social justice behaviors. The sample of convenience consisted of 115 who identified as social-work majors and participated in diversity courses, 76 were intergroup dialogue participants (Site IGD) and 39 were not (Site non-IGD). Five specific questions were explored in the study.

All 115 participants completed Lum's (2007) Social Work Cultural Competencies Self-Assessment and the Confidence in Confronting Injustice Sub-Scale (Multi-University Intergroup Dialogue Research project …

In Favor Of Teleosemantics: A Millikanian Treatment Of The Intentional Content Of Mental Representation, Pierre Faye

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Theoretical attempts to naturalize mental contents, that is, to explain how wholly physical organisms manage to represent the external world to themselves, are mostly conducted in accordance with causal-informational and/or functionalist approaches based on nomic physical correlations. In 1984, Ruth Millikan and David Papineau simultaneously, though independently, injected new life into the naturalist program by introducing a divergent approach known today as "teleosemantics."

In first approximation, teleosemantics purports to naturalize mental content by substituting for the former concept of nomic correlations found in causal and/or functionalist models, the biological concept of etiological functions resulting from natural selection. Since its introduction, …

Essays On Foreign Direct Investment, Trade And Development, Jing Sun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Essay 1: Most of studies on developing countries have found evidence that international linkages, such as foreign ownership, exporting, or importing, affect productivity growth, but since these variables are correlated, it is hard to distinguish among their effects. This paper tackles this issue by explicitly investigating and comparing the productivity effects of all three international linkages at plant levels in case of Indonesian manufacturing plants during 1993-2001. Overall, the paper finds that foreign ownership, first, and importing, second, but exporting doubtfully, promoted productivity growth. Productivity jumps in the year when plants are acquired by foreigners or when plants first start …

The Effects Of Bilingual Instruction On The English Emergent Literacy Skills Of Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children, Zoila Tazi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Numerous studies have shown that early childhood education (ECE) contributes to educational attainment particularly for poor children. Nationally, ECE has gained considerable backing as a viable intervention to propel achievement. As ECE comes to the fore, census figures indicate that Latinos are the fastest growing minority in the United States. Latinos have persistently experienced greater rates of poverty and other risk factors that adversely affect educational attainment.

Multiple risk factors as well as a "cultural mismatch" with a school system poised to educate white, middle-class, English-speaking students, raise alarm for the educational trajectories of Latino children just entering schools. Racism …

Phosphorus Transport In The Bronx River: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis, Jingyu Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Phosphorus (P) is the primary limiting nutrient for algal growth in freshwater systems. Excessive P from external inputs and release from sediments could accelerate primary productivity leading to eutrophication in the water column, and consequently degrading water quality. The objectives of this study were to predict P bioavailability and estimate spatial and temporal variations in P transport in the Bronx River, New York, USA. The Bronx River originates from the Westchester Davis Brook and Kensico Dam, flowing south through Westchester County (WC) and Bronx to the estuary area where it joins the East River. The total length is about 20 …

Judicial Instructions And The Juror’S Ability To Disregard Inadmissible Evidence: Can Varying The Timing And Content Of Judicial Instructions Influence Juror Decision-Making?, Courtney Hougham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the course of a trial, a judge will instruct the jury on how they are to act and reach decisions. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of different judicial instructions on a juror's ability to evaluate testimony. The research looked at how instructions can interact with a juror's ability to disregard a piece of evidence ruled inadmissible for different reasons. The design was a 3x5 complete factorial design. The stimulus material was a murder trial summary with weak evidence against the defendant, with the key piece of testimony being a hair found on the victim …

When Women Migrate: Children And Caring Labor In Puebla, Mexico, Denise Geraci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This investigation concerns children and caregivers in Santa Ursula, a town in Puebla, Mexico from which many women have migrated to the United States in recent years. The expansion of female migration since the 1980s and children who remain behind in women's poorer nations of origin, where households, communities and governments assume their care, are salient features of global economic restructuring (Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001). This study analyzes how children's circumstances change when mothers migrate, and how family, community and state representatives understand and deal with these changes. Social reproduction in a community like Santa Ursula supports not only a source of …

A Systematic Review Of The Literature On The Effects Of School Bullying From The Framework Of Jurgen Habermas’S Theory Of Communicative Action, Gabriel Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is a systematic review of the US quantitative, empirical studies on the effects of school bullying for the purpose of determining the degree to which Jurgen Habermas’s social theory, the theory of communicative action, can be used to understand the constellation of measured effects. School bullying is defined as a systematic abuse of power: the empirical literature on school bullying, therefore, provides a large data set on the abuse of power. The review finds strong consistency between the theory and the results of selected studies suggesting that Habermas’s theory of communicative action can explain and predict the mechanisms …

Hořava Gravity: Symmetries And Generalized Particle Dynamics, Dario Capasso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the search for a theory of Quantum Gravity a new proposal was recently made by P. Hořava. The main feature of this new proposed theory is that it is power-counting renormalizable by construction, and could prove to be truly renormalizable, although more work is needed in this direction.

The renormalizability of the theory is a central issue. Indeed, General Relativity does not have this property, implying that to construct its quantum version we need to “complete” the theory in the UV. Hořava suggested a possible way to provide a UV completion of GR by giving up full spacetime reparametrization …

The Vocal Behaviors Of North American River Otters (Lontra Canadensis) Individual Differences And Shared Repertoires, Carla Almonte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current information on the vocal repertoire of the North American River Otter is very limited. To date there have been no direct studies conducted on their repertories. In this study, I examined the vocal behavior of 12 captive river otters. The discriminant function analysis suggests that river otters have 4 distinct call types with 7 sub-call types and one call the whistle is unique to one group of pups. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis comparing acoustical structures shows strong evidence for the presence of individuality with some individuals showing greater differences in comparison to the others. I also examined …

Getting Into Character: Cultivating Identities In A Teen-Theatre Peer-Education Program, Valerie A. Futch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated the role of community theatre participation on adolescent and young adult identity development. The theatre program, known as The SOURCE, focuses on sex-education through a peer-education model. The experiences of young adults, who are now aged 18-34, were examined through interviews (N=20), identity maps (N=9), and a survey (N=64) in order to understand how participation in this group influenced their development. While much of the literature documents the successes of such programs while youth participate, few document the longer-term impacts of such participation (Saldaña, McCammon, Omasta, & Hines, 2011). Data reveal how such involvement informed the youths' …

Genetic, Morphological And Ecological Relationships Among Populations Of The Clam Shrimp, Caenestheriella Gynecia, Jonelle Orridge

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Little is known about the ecology of the clam shrimp, Caenestheriella gynecia. Caenestheriella gynecia was first discovered in 1939 in a single pool in Oxford, Ohio. Schmidt and Kiviat (2007) reported four new localities of C. gynecia in New York and New Jersey, three within the Hudson Valley of New York and one in northeastern New Jersey. Caenestheriella gynecia may have originated from a very small founder population due possibly to unusual dispersal vectors from its natural range to the west, in Ohio. Egg samples and hatched individuals were obtained from all study sites and specimens were raised in …

The Relationship Of Race And Social Integration On The Health Status Of Older Adults In An Urban City, Thomas T. Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Durkheim argues that an individual is more vulnerable to self-destruction the more s/he is detached from the collective. This dissertation will explore the relative impact of social integration on older adults who have transitioned into their new roles in the social structure in relationship to their physical (obesity) and psychological (stress) health status. Additionally, the dissertation examines how social integration varies in its impact from one racial group to another, and how such variations influence the health status of the older adults who are members of these groups.

This dissertation employs data from the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and …

Demand For Cigarettes By Teenagers And Young Adults And Their Smoking Transitions, Ce Shang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of the effects of cigarette prices, cigarette excise taxes, smoke-free air laws, youth access laws, state spending on comprehensive tobacco control programs, socio-economic factors, and demographic characteristics on measures of demand for smoking, especially light and intermittent smoking by teenagers and young adults in a long panel. I employ the panel to estimate demand for cigarette smoking by young people and the determinants of transitions from light or intermittent smoking to heavy or regular smoking in the following years. Finally, I estimate transitions in the opposite direction: from regular or heavy smoking to …

Governance And Merger Activity In Banking, Thomas J. Piskula

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

One method of evaluating the success of management decisions regarding acquisitions is to examine equity price movements as the news of the merger is made public. The price movement of the acquiring firm's equity around the announcement of the acquisition indicates if shareholders believe management has acted in their interest. In the banking industry, researchers have found that on average equity values of the acquiring bank do not display abnormal positive returns upon announcement, and often display statistically significant negative returns. Another line of research has documented that CEOs are better compensated for managing larger organizations, particularly when involved in …

Stem Cell Replacement Therapy For The Mammalian Inner Ear: A Systematic Literature Review, Robin Warwick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to review current possible regeneration techniques for damaged hair cells of the inner ear in mammals. The avian has the ability to spontaneously regenerate damaged hair cells, and thus provides an animal model to simulate a similar response in the mammalian inner ear.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted using a PubMed database search to address the following question What are the current investigations pertaining to regenerating hair cells using stem cell-based research? The articles were analyzed and rated at Level Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, or III level of evidence. …

Education Policy And The Mathematics Curriculum In New York City Middle Schools, 1958 To 2002, Joseph Valley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates how mathematics education policy and curriculum in New York City changed over the period from 1958 through 2002. It looks at the events leading up to the 퉌new math era, the back to basics movement, and the Standards movement initiated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989. Since this period is bounded by two important pieces of legislation, the National Defense Education Act (NDEA),1958, and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) 2001 an assessment of the arguments for and against the federal intervention in education is essential.

The research methodology used for …

Phytosociology, History And Diversity In Farmer-Managed Landscapes On The Tonle Sap Floodplain, Cambodia, Andrew S. Roberts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Driven by the annual flood pulse of the Tonle Sap Lake, the Tonle Sap floodplain in central Cambodia is a landscape characterized by dynamism, both ecological and social. Annual floods and rainfall vary in timing, duration and intensity from year to year. Patterns of burning, grazing, and agricultural expansion and contraction all leave their imprint on the landscape. While in the social domain, the region is likewise as complex. The genocidal, Maoist regime of Pol Pot darkened the 1970s. However, this was both preceded by, and followed by, years of civil war and social unrest. In recent years, Cambodia has …

Franz Joseph Rosinack (1748-1823): A Bohemian Oboist And Music Arranger At The Fürstenberg Hofkapelle, Jan Oliver Homann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The oboist Franz Joseph Rosinack worked at the Fürstenberg princely court in Donaueschingen from 1777 to 1823. He had a range of duties, including performing with the Hof-orchester, Harmonie, and other ensembles, as well as supplying music for court occasions. Chapter I presents a survey of the court's musical activities and principal musicians under Princes Joseph Wenzel (r. 1762-83), Joseph Maria Benedict (r. 1783-96), Karl Joachim (1796-1804), and Karl Egon II (r. 1817-54). Fürstenberg ties to the major cultural centers of eighteenth-century Europe supplied repertoire allowing the court orchestra to perform some of the best contemporary operas often within …

A R&D Based Real Business Cycle Model, Ka Wai Terence Fung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The New Keynesian Real Business Cycle model with staggered price adjustment is augmented with a R&D producing sector. Two sources of economic shocks are separately considered, namely random participation (perturbances to value of alternative investment opportunities in another sector) and financial intermediation (shocks to the cost of raising capital in the financial intermediation market). We find that, when comparing to the baseline model, both random participation and financial intermediation models can explain pro-cyclical R&D spending. Additionally the investment oversensitivity problem is corrected. However, only the financial intermediation model is consistent with the observed finding that the volatility of R&D is …

The Art Songs Of Tom Cipullo, Elizabeth Bell Kling

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the role Tom Cipullo plays in the development of American Art Song 1992-2008. Born in 1956, composer Tom Cipullo has written well over 100 songs. His music is complex and challenging yet firmly rooted in the 20th-century continuation of Romanticism. Cipullo's choice of poetry is almost always contemporary American, embracing a full range of themes. His songs have won top awards in their field, and are well received by audiences and performers.

Following a biography, a discussion of the development of the "neo-Romantic" movement in the field of Art Song, and Cipullo's role in this progression is …

Becoming Normal: The Social Construction Of Buprenorphine And New Attempts To Medicalize Addiction, Julie C. Netherland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing on theories about the social construction of knowledge and the sociology of the body, this dissertation analyzes the social construction of buprenorphine, a medication being used to treat addiction to opioids, to better understand the processes of medicalization. Buprenorphine was central the passage of the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, a law which overturned an almost one hundred year prohibition preventing physicians from prescribing narcotics for the treatment of addiction in an office-based setting. Buprenorphine is seen by many as central to moving addiction treatment into the medical mainstream. Using documents from government regulators, industry, and addiction researchers, …

Tiebout Sorting And Jurisdictional Homogeneity: Empirical Validity And Ethical Implications, Lee Hachadoorian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a seminal paper, Tiebout (1956) argues that a large number of small local governments will function as a market in local services, leading to efficient allocation of local public goods. This result only obtains if households actually move in response to local fiscal differences. Spatial dependence of socioeconomic variables confounds attempts to infer Tiebout-motivated residential choice from observed socioeconomic homogeneity. I correct for this by focusing on socioeconomic difference across local government borders. In an investigation of socioeconomic sorting in Queens and Nassau Counties, NY, I find strong evidence of income sorting at the level of small suburban municipalities …

The Interpersonal Foundations Of Anti-Atheist Prejudice, Michael W. Magee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anti-atheist prejudice in the U.S. is socially accepted and rife—and not just because most Americans are religious. This research suggests that hostility toward atheists is related in part to protecting parental relationships. To the extent that they are established within parental relationships, shared reality theory implies that religious beliefs and associated attitudes will be psychologically defended to the extent that the parental relationships engaged are strong, healthy, and vital (Magee & Hardin, 2010; see also Hardin & Higgins, 1996). Three experiments examined the regulation of anti-atheist prejudice in the defense and protection of religious shared realities with parents, as implied …