Digital Commons Network^™

Does Treatment Setting In Ati Matter? An Examination Of Completion Rates And The Role Of Violent Charges Among Individuals With Co-Occurring Disorders, George J. Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the proliferation of alternatives to incarceration (ATI) for individuals with co-occurring disorders in recent decades, little is known about comparative styles of treatment used in this context. The following study uses data from a case management service in a large urban city (n=273) where several types of treatment are utilized in the ATI landscape. Specifically, this study compares ATI completion rates and time to completion or failure for several styles of treatment: clinic-based outpatient, residential, assertive community treatment (ACT) and personalized recovery-oriented services (PROS) programs. Results of a logistic regression indicate that individuals initially referred to residential treatment had …

Back To The Margins: The Re-Marginalization Of Feedback Research In Composition And Rhetoric, Robert A. Greco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation applies content analysis, both quantitative and thematic, to publications exploring feedback on student writing by analyzing two corpora of texts published from 2000 to 2019: a systematic sample of 114 articles from 5 journals and excerpts from 5 guides for new instructors. For the journals’ corpus, the most significant emergent themes included error; affect, both instructors’ and students’; and technology. In the guides’ corpus, this study focused on guides’ assumptions about their audiences and discussed the “cycle of correction”—a pattern where guides have focused on cultivating and reinforcing core field values about feedback established between the mid-1980s and …

An Erp Study Of Attentional Blink And Inhibition Of Return, Caesar Ekya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attention can be allocated over time and space and it has long been speculated whether these are a part of the same or different attentional mechanisms. Attentional Blink (AB) and Inhibition of Return (IOR) are cognitive phenomena that are used in experimental settings to study temporal attention (AB) and spatial attention (IOR) respectively. Though known for being representative of different types of attention, they nevertheless display similar characteristics, making them intriguing choices to study the interplay between temporal and spatial attention. For this study we chose a dual-stream rsvp paradigm that would elicit both AB and IOR within the same …

Modernity And The Promise Of Democracy: A Democratic Reading Of Machiavelli And Hobbes, Gabriel Garber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A review of the democratic scholarship on Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes reveals a tension between institutional and anti-institutional democratic interpretations. This reflects a knot in democracy itself. Miguel Vatter’s labels this knot ‘form and event’ in his democratic interpretation of Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s theory of form and event comes through an exploration of the tensions between structure, agency, rhetoric, and radical openness in the political realm. For Hobbes, the radically egalitarian state of nature produces one first and final event (the social contract) towards a world of strict form. The democratic interpreters have best noticed the tension between form and …

Cueing Motions In A String Quartet, An Exploratory Study Of Motion Trajectories, Maren Rothfritz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A string quartet performance involves an array of different body movements which serve many functions, including sound production, expression, and communication. This dissertation examines the ways string quartet players execute specific communicative body motions called cues, which are anticipatory gestures meant to communicate tempo and timing as well as the musical intentions such as dynamics, articulation, and character to the co-performers. Some scholarly research exists on cueing, but a formalized description of the cueing motions involved has not yet been developed. This dissertation serves as an exploratory study examining the motion trajectories of cueing motions employed by the Argus Quartet, …

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This: Evaluating The Impact Of Llms With A Case Study In Grading Cuny Language Immersion Program Student Essays, Benjamin Inbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study evaluates the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs), specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, in grading essays from students in the City University of New York’s Language Immersion Program. The program serves English language learners with diverse linguistic and demographic backgrounds, offering intensive language instruction to prepare students for academic success in college. Using a dataset of 30 pre- and post-program essays scored by program instructors and ChatGPT-4o under three paradigms, this research explores the alignment between human and AI-generated scores across five rubric-based competency areas. Findings reveal that ChatGPT-4o aligns moderately with human grading, with the strongest agreement …

Beyond The Sum: A Network Analysis Of Adverse Childhood Experiences And Behavioral Outcomes In Justice-Involved Youth, Jennifer Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines gender-specific patterns of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among justice-involved youth using network analysis. Despite experiencing higher rates of childhood adversity, female youth show lower recidivism rates than males, presenting an empirical paradox. Using a sample of 19,454 justice-involved youth (75% male), this study applies novel network methods to understand how ACEs and behavioral outcomes are organized across gender. Findings reveal distinct network architectures: female youth maintain more integrated but vulnerable networks, while males show more compartmentalized but stable structures. Female recidivists demonstrate systematic network destabilization when compared to non-recidivists, characterized by a 39% reduction in network density, …

The Power Of Music To Empower Health And Wellbeing: In Support Of A Music Therapy Discipline At Lehman College, City University Of New York, Felicity A. Howlett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project seeks to encourage the development of a music therapy curriculum at the City University of New York (CUNY) and specifically at Lehman College. The following paper presents the case and highlights the contents of three data collections that support this goal: 1) The Zotero Digital Music Therapy Reference Collection is a custom-designed index of over 1600 items containing references to published material highlighting significant aspects of the profession. Zotero, a free, open-source reference management software for organizing research, houses the collection and functions as a living library; 2) Music Therapy Degree Programs in New England and the Mid-Atlantic …

Quantified Lives: Data, Bias, And The Cost Of Categorization, Colin F. Geraghty

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project critically examines how statistical methods and data visualization have historically been used to categorize, rank, and control human populations. By exploring the works of key figures like Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, and R.A. Fisher, it traces the evolution of categorization frameworks from their eugenic roots to modern applications in artificial intelligence and global metrics like the World Happiness Report. Through interactive visualizations and historical analysis, the project invites users to question the legitimacy of these frameworks and reflect on their impact on society. At its core, this work emphasizes the need to move beyond rigid classification systems, challenging …

Decades Of Division: Analyzing Hate Crimes In The Usa (1991–2022), Sangeeth Sajan Baby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project comprehensively analyses hate crime data in the United States, leveraging advanced data analysis and visualization techniques to unmask patterns and insights. By utilizing datasets of criminal offenses reported by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, this study explores the dynamics of hate crimes across racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation groups. The analysis reveals key findings, including the disproportionate targeting of African Americans and LGBTQ+ individuals, the prevalence of hate crimes in specific locations like residences and educational institutions, and the consistent patterns of attack types and locations across different racial groups. Analysis of crime data over …

Quantifying Educational Impacts Under The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Era, Matthew T. Stanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the educational and economic impacts of the New York Police Department's "Stop, Question, and Frisk" (SQF) program, implemented predominantly under "Operation Impact" from 2003 to 2022. Using data from the NYPD and the American Community Survey, the study explores correlations between high rates of stop-and-frisk encounters and reduced educational attainment among targeted demographics, primarily Black and Hispanic young men. It contextualizes the socioeconomic consequences of SQF policies, including their effect on lifetime earnings and community trust. The project highlights the limitations of data correlation, advocates for further longitudinal and qualitative studies, and suggests frameworks for mitigating inequities …

The Role Of Acculturative Stress, Discrimination In Healthcare Settings, And Migration-Related Trauma On Hiv Prevention And Mental Health Among Immigrant Hispanic Sexual Minority Men: An Integrated Model Of Acculturation And Minority Stress, Jonathan Lopez Matos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation expands Minority Stress Theory (MST) by integrating the Fourfold Acculturation Model (FAM) to examine the impact of psycho-sociocultural stressors on health outcomes among immigrant Hispanic sexual minority men (HSMM) in the U.S. The study explored how language proficiency, acculturative stress, discrimination in healthcare, migration-related trauma, and stress-related growth influence HIV prevention behaviors and mental health. Survey data from 194 Spanish-speaking immigrant HSMM revealed that monolingual Spanish speakers experienced significantly higher acculturative stress than bilinguals. Acculturative stress significantly mediated the association between stressors and health outcomes, such as HIV testing and mental health symptoms. Discrimination and trauma were directly …

My Wings Are Not Broken: Black Males, Carcerality, And Education, Crystal M. Welch-Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Historically, educational spaces have been sites of racialized inequality for Black youth, creating disparate educational outcomes. The disproportionate divide between young Black and White men continues throughout the life of their academic journey, and this research seeks to examine its impact on dropping out of school. The experience of Black young men being “othered” – compared to their White counterparts – coupled with the myriad ways Black youth must navigate normalcy creates additional challenges they must carry. This dissertation employs critical race theory and ecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks. It utilizes hierarchical regression modeling of the High School Longitudinal …

The Double Victimization Of Black Women At The Crossroads Of Oppression, Carmerina Carrero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research study is to amplify the voices of Black women and shed light on the invisibility of Black women’s struggle with police violence and the criminal justice system. The study seeks to expose the different forms of systemic oppressive mechanisms that target Black women, such as mass incarceration and police violence. Through the lenses of intersectionality and critical race theory, the study will explore how racism and sexism contribute to the victimization of Black women via our criminal justice systems and law enforcement. Highlighting the unique experiences of Black women navigating through the criminal justice system, …

Category Learning Reorganizes Internal Representations Of Visual Artworks, Aishwarya Gurung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How are categories of art internally represented, and how can we capture those representations systematically? Investigating category learning in the context of complex, multidimensional stimuli like visual artworks presents unique challenges due to their inherent variability and perceptual complexity. Artworks engage multiple cognitive processes and are shaped by both sensory-driven mechanisms and top-down influences like prior knowledge, making them uniquely suited for studying how structured categorical knowledge interacts with perceptual and aesthetic judgments. The present study addresses these questions by utilizing machine-learning tools to construct and implement a two-dimensional similarity space of 400 existing artworks painted by two artists from …

Embracing Language Diversity: An Exploration Of Elementary Teachers' Perception Of African American English, Manijeh Hart

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Students of African descent often speak in a dialect that differs from the Dominant American English (DAE) dialect, known as African American English (AAE). Since this dialect is not considered mainstream, students who speak and write in this dialect may be at a disadvantage when being assessed on literacy skills and responding to literacy instruction. However, it is possible to address this issue by preparing and supporting teachers in recognizing AAE use in literacy activities and providing them with instructional strategies to support students who use AAE. The goal of this research was to investigate the perceptions that elementary school …

The Elephant (And Donkey) In The Room: The Effects Of Political Ideology On Diversity Training Effectiveness, Luke P. Kayga

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, the prevalence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) trainings in organizations has grown significantly (Wang et al., 2024). DEI trainings are typically designed with the purpose of educating organizational members on DEI-related content and promoting feelings of inclusion in the workplace (Devine & Ash, 2022). Much like many other types of organizational training efforts, the effectiveness of DEI trainings is contingent on a variety of input factors. One such factor that has been extensively covered in the broader training literature but relatively understudied in DEI training research is trainee characteristics. Since DEI trainings are values-based, ethically prescriptive …

Tracing Reverberations: Vietnamese Refugee Mothers' Adaptations To Complex Structural Forces And Intergenerational Engagements, Kim Khanh Nguyen-Nalpas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The main purpose of this study is to learn how refugee mothers adapt to hierarchical systems of oppression with agency and resistance. Global refugee forums and decades of past research on refugees have identified the importance of increasing agency to best support refugees as they resettle. Previous research by the author has demonstrated that refugee mothers model resistance to oppressive systems which has implications for children who witness this resistance. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 Vietnamese refugee mothers to explore their mothering practices, how they adapted given the socio-political forces shaping their lives, and how these adaptations reverberated through …

Proximity In Pixels: The Moderating Roles Of Structural And Psychological Distance On Behavioral Leadership Effectiveness, Ethan J. Ray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With a sharp increase in virtual working arrangements in recent years, there is a distinct need to reevaluate what constitutes effective leadership at a distance. Although research on virtual leadership exists, it has often lacked a focus on specific leader behaviors and the psychological intricacies unique to virtual work settings. The present study examines followers' perceived effectiveness of two enduring leadership behavior categories: task-oriented and relationship-oriented. Utilizing dyadic distance theory, the study tested whether perceived effectiveness of these behaviors is contingent not only on the tangible effects of virtual work, referred to as structural distance, but also on the intangible …

Constructing A Parameterized Stimuli Space Suitable To Induce Controlled Changes In Human And Machine Perceptual Systems, Andrew Frankel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional computer vision applications focus on objective tasks, such as object detection, classification, or segmentation. Much of human experience is inherently subjective, such as our personal response to artwork. Individualized experiences are challenging to replicate in a controlled laboratory environment, as those experiences depend on the unique history and internal models of the observer. This work presents a technique to construct a 2-dimensional parameterized stimuli space suitable to induce controlled changes in the perceptual systems of both human and machine observers. Our contributions are threefold:

1. Using a balanced dataset of 8,800 fine art images spanning 11 art movements and 88 …

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Making Waves: Comfort Women Justice Movements Across Generations, Julia A. Jacobellis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between 1932 and 1945 an estimated 200,000 women across the globe were coerced into becoming comfort women for the Japanese military. As comfort women they were forced to prostitute themselves to soldiers, and endured physical, psychological and emotional torture. While comfort stations were liberated in 1945 with the end of World War II, the Japanese government has yet to formally apologize for their treatment of comfort women, and has failed to meet the demands of survivors and their families who seek reconciliation and justice. The global leaders of these movements for reconciliation are institutions and organizations in South Korea, China, …

Synchronizing Work And Teaching Practices With The Spatial Dna Of Distributed Work And Learning, Manju Aishwarya Adikesavan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Phygitality, the seamless and synergistic integration of physical and digital realms, is an indispensable and irrevocable part of contemporary office-based work. Phygitality facilitates spatially and temporally distributed or multi-local working where employees work from diverse locations such as their home, office, and third places at any time of day or night. It also makes nonterritorial working at temporary workspaces accessed on a session-by-session basis possible.

This dissertation examines how phygital, multi-local, and nonterritorial working reshape individual and group work behaviors, organizational spatial practices, work-centric settings, non-work-centric settings, neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The Spatial DNA of Distributed Work encapsulates a conceptual …

The Perspectives Of Play Advocates On Children’S Unstructured Play In Turkey, Bengi Sullu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has established children’s rights to non- discrimination, development, participation and the observance of their best interests. With this recognition, there has been a growing global interest in acknowledging play as a right. Yet unstructured play, in which children can choose when, where and how to play, with control over their play, has not received the same attention, support and investment as organized, structured play (UNCRC General Comment 17, 2013). The way adults perceive and support play shapes the play opportunities that are available to children (Bianquin, 2018; Göl-Güven, 2017). Additionally, institutions and …

A Meta-Analysis Of Intimate Partner Violence Treatment Programs: The Role Of Risk-Need-Responsivity In Treatment Effectiveness, Irina Fanarraga

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nationally, it is estimated that over 17 million people experience victimization by an intimate partner every year. Additionally, individuals who perpetuate intimate partner violence (IPV) often have high rates of re-offending, potentially as high as 60%. IPV Treatment Programs (ITPs) are interventions designed to reduce recidivism among intimate partner violent individuals by changing their thinking and behaviors, ultimately leading to increased victim safety. Although there is significant evidence to suggest that correctional treatment programs can reduce re-offending, the literature on ITPs is less clear about their effectiveness in reducing recidivism among participants. Furthermore, while other correctional interventions have taken more …

Vertex-Based Analysis Of Cerebral Blood Flow And Fractional Amplitude Of Low-Frequency Fluctuations (Cbf-Falff) Coupling In Moderate-To-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury During The First Year Post-Injury, Vaidehi Hemkumar Patel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is known to involve damage in the neurovascular unit. TBI may disrupt the brain’s neurovascular coupling–the relationship between cerebral blood flow and neural activity–that can lead to cognitive and functional impairments. This study attempted to non-invasively investigate neurovascular coupling in patients with moderate to severe TBI (msTBI) during the first year post-injury using a combined metric of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), a proxy for spontaneous neural activity. Using arterial spin labeling (ASL) and functional MRI sequences, CBF and fALFF were measured in 29 msTBI patients 3-, 6- and 12-months …

Myth, Mayhem, And Pseudo-Democracy: The Role Of Political Myths In Mobilizing Nationalist Populist Movements And Political Extremists, Stephon J. Boatwright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This body of research analyzes the enduring impact of political myth in nationalist populism and extremist movements. The rise of Western nationalist parties and acts of terror in the early 21st century gave life to this project. The manuscript advances two theories regarding political myths and their relationship to far right radicalism. First, nationalist myths—sprawling political worldviews whose dogmatic tenets are resistant to empirical critique and rational refutation—function as ideological constructs. They fictionalize the causes of events and serve to recruit adherents to authoritarian causes. Myths are continually reworked to address factual inaccuracies, failed predictions, and evolving social developments, while …

A Benjaminian Rumination Of Grasses And Tomatoes In Contemporary Anatolian Film, Ceren Izci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis interprets the intersection of history, ecology, and politics through two contemporary Anatolian films: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses and Murat Fıratoğlu’s One of These Days When Hemme Dies. We focus on the films’ portrayal of social relations and relationships to other living beings through interpreting the temporal layers and historical tensions present in the plots of the films. We introduce the paper by pondering over the question of whether these films are political. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concepts of “first nature” and “second nature”, the first chapter introduces the philosophical framework for understanding the connection between …

A Prototype Online Platform For Exploring Post-Covid Academic Recovery In U.S. Public Schools: An Example From California Public Schools, Nicole Baz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project introduces a prototype online platform designed to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic achievement in public schools and districts across the United States. Leveraging data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the platform enables users to examine recovery rates as measured by standardized test scores. California serves as a proof-of-concept case study, demonstrating the platform's ability to explore recovery patterns in Reading Language Arts and Mathematics between 2019 and 2023. The platform provides interactive data visualizations and dashboards that facilitate analyses based on district size, resources, …

Differential Mechanisms Of Access In Working Memory: Comparing Global And Selective Retrieval, Jade M. Turbides

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working memory (WM) is essential for numerous cognitive tasks, yet the mechanisms underlying selective access to specific subsets of its contents vs. global, nonselective access remain incompletely understood. Context-specific selection of individual items from WM has been found to be more time-consuming and error-prone than globally accessing all memory contents. This study investigates whether the performance costs of selective WM access arise primarily from demands on item-context binding memory. Previous research has suggested that only selective access relies on memory for item-context bindings whereas global access can solely rely on item memory. Across two experiments, we employed task paradigms that …

The Effects Of Irrelevant Parameters In Language Acquisition, Yukun Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper investigates the effects of sententially irrelevant syntactic information on language acquisition models and introduces a new variant of the variational learner (VL) called the early decision variational learner (EDVL). EDVL accelerates convergence by locking in parameter values once they reach a threshold, in contrast to VL’s continued adjustments until all parameter values reach threshold. Both learners are grounded in the generative approach to language acquisition. We examine both learners' responses when they only update their parameter values when the input contain the relevant information to determin the parameter value such as prepositions, wh-words, and auxiliary verbs. Chapter 1 …