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N Y State Dent J June 2026

The New York State Dental Journal

In the June/July 2026 issue, the reader will find the following feature articles:

• HIV Screenings in Dental Settings: Feasibility, Challenges and Opportunities
• Oral Myeloid Sarcoma
• Generational Differences in Dentistry and Dental Practice

This issue includes regular columns with regional news impacting the New York membership including editorial and perspectives columns, legal, association activities, component news, continuing education opportunities, and classifieds.

Mad Or Uncontrollable? Reading Female Madness In Three Gothic Texts, Amy Marie Bueno

Dissertations and Theses

My thesis employs comparative close reading framed by disability studies to analyze representations of female madness in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, and Isabel Allende’s “If You Touched My Heart.” Drawing on theories of socially constructed disability, it argues that Bertha, Antoinette, and Hortensia are framed as “mad women” not through inherent pathology, but through patriarchal violence, colonial domination, and institutional power. By integrating the social model of disability with feminist theory, this thesis examines how women are rendered disabled within societies influenced by Social Darwinism and eugenic ideologies.

This thesis further incorporates Gothic theory and …

Financing Global Health Governance: The World Health Organization, The Who Foundation, And The Shifting Landscape Of Development Financing, Johanny O. Reyes

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis analyzes the structural financing challenges facing the World Health Organization (WHO) and their implications for global health governance. It argues that WHO’s financial fragility is not merely a technical problem but the result of long-standing political and institutional choices that have shifted the Organization away from predictable public financing toward donor-driven, earmarked voluntary contributions. Drawing on WHO constitutional provisions, programme budget data, governance documents, and academic literature, the study traces the evolution of WHO’s financing model and examines how this transformation has constrained the Organization’s priority-setting authority, operational flexibility, and normative leadership.

The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a …

Shared Burden, Potential Space: A Qualitative Study Of How Psychodynamic Therapists Work With Intergenerational Transmission Of Historical Trauma, Shaun J. Halper

Dissertations and Theses

The intergenerational transmission of trauma (ITT) has been investigated since the 1960s, beginning with research on the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Few qualitative studies, however, have taken up how psychodynamic therapists experience their treatments with adult patients with ITT. This study uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (APA) to analyze adult ITT treatments from the perspective of psychodynamic psychotherapists. Ten licensed clinicians in the NYC tri-state area participated in semi-structured interviews, which were organized around three research aims: how clinicians conceptualized and identified ITT, what effective clinical interventions they used, and how they understood the impact of therapist-patient sameness or difference (regarding …

Examining The Spatial Variability Of Summer Heat In New York City Using Landsat Land Surface Temperature, Ryan Kabir

Dissertations and Theses

Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States, and in New York City (NYC) approximately 370 heat-related deaths occur annually on average. The spatial distribution of surface heat exposure across NYC is highly uneven, low-income neighborhoods and communities of color consistently face higher temperatures, yet the intraurban spatial structure of land surface temperature (LST) during heatwave events has not been systematically characterized at high resolution. The New York City Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment (NPCC4) identifies this as an explicit research gap, noting that its own projections, based on global climate models downscaled to …

Civil War Memory In New York City, 1861-1902, Kevin J. Sugrue

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines how New York City experienced, understood, and later remembered the American Civil War, from the outbreak of war (1861) through the dedication of major monuments at the turn of the twentieth century (1902). Although New York was the Union’s largest city and its most significant source of troops, casualties, industrial output, financial capital, and press coverage, the city’s wartime experience was deeply conflicted. As a Democratic stronghold and home to large populations of recent immigrants and working-class laborers, New York’s support for the Union was broad but conditional, fractured by class, ethnicity, race, and political allegiance. These …

Dna Barcoding Complements Citizen Science Identifications In An Arthropod Survey At Governors Island, New York, Malky Gestetner

Dissertations and Theses

Arthropods are declining worldwide, threatened by habitat loss, climate change, and growing urbanization. Efforts to monitor arthropod biodiversity are crucial for conservation policies and for maintaining the ecosystem services provided by these animals in urban environments. Surveys of arthropods have been attempted in many New York neighborhoods, but no formal assessment has been conducted on Governors Island, which harbors 72-acres of parkland within a short boat ride away from Manhattan. This is a deficiency which this study helps to address. Following student-led collection efforts within four Governors Island sites, DNA barcoding was employed to complement specimen identification based on morphology …

Risk And Releasability: Rethinking “Suitable” Support Networks For Former Foster Youth In Ontario Bail Courts, Marsha Rampersaud

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Contemporary societal trends indicate many young adults rely on their families for financial and other support for longer than in the past, often well into their 20s. Youth leaving the child welfare system, however, do not have similar supports to rely on when they reach the age of majority (eighteen in Ontario). In bail court, the experiences of those who have familial support differ markedly from those who do not. Qualitative interviews with youth, lawyers, and social workers illuminate the experiences of young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-four) who have exited the child welfare system and come into conflict with …

Reproducing The French-Canadian Settler Collective In Ontario Through French Language Rights, Monique Woolnough

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Much of settler colonial theory and studies in Canada has focused on the dominant British settler colonial power, with an emerging spotlight on Quebec. Little attention has been paid to French-Canadian settler colonialism in French-Canadian minority provinces such as Ontario. This research aims to make visible this gap in attention and begin to fill in its contours by understanding how the French-Canadian settler colonial project operates in Ontario through law. Through the application of Indigenous, settler colonial, socio-legal and critical feminist and race theories to a review of narrative themes in the jurisprudence of courts and tribunals interpreting Ontario’s French …

The Closed Door At 301 Wellington Street, Tom Nichini, Kim Brooks

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Although women and racialized lawyers comprise significant proportions of the Canadian bar, they and other equity-deserving lawyers remain markedly underrepresented among counsel making oral submissions before the Supreme Court of Canada. This article presents findings from a five-year empirical study (2017–2021) examining who appears before the Court through an observational analysis of 273 cases and a survey of 279 counsel. The research reveals that presenting counsel are predominantly white, cis-male, and have extensive experience at the bar: e.g., women account for only 26.9% of appearing counsel, while racialized lawyers comprise 12.8%. After evaluating whether this gap can be attributed to …

Who Bears The Cost? A Module For Researching The Intersection Of Technology, The Individual, And Climate Change, Jonathan Auyer

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

Who Bears the Cost? A Module for Researching the Intersection of Technology, the Individual, and Climate Change is a multi-day writing and research module designed for first-year composition courses. Using the ongoing controversy surrounding the Science, Technology & Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) in Genesee County, New York as a central case study, students investigate the ethical, environmental, and social dimensions of artificial intelligence and climate change. The module guides students from initial inquiry, exploring the philosophical question of whether technology is value-neutral or value-laden, through source research, collaborative discussion, and persuasive writing. Drawing on the rhetorical framework of They Say …

Implementation Of Digital Interventions To Address Alcohol Use In Primary Care: A Scoping Review, Sean Becker

Public Health Theses

The development and implementation of digital interventions in the identification andmanagement of unhealthy alcohol use (i.e., the spectrum of consumption including at-risk alcohol use and alcohol use disorder) in the primary care setting has seen numerous advancements in recent years. Such rapid change makes it difficult to understand and assess the current state of the literature as it relates to these implementation topics. To better understand the broader research landscape, we (SB, Advised by EJE and BK and with collaboration from AG) conducted a scoping review to: 1) characterize the focus, components, and mode of digital interventions for targeting alcohol …

Stigma, Coping & Resilience Among Hiv+ Pwid In St. Petersburg, Rf, Gabrielle Bogut

Public Health Theses

Russia and the other countries that comprised the Soviet Union constitute the one region in which the HIV epidemic continues to expand. Unlike most other regions, more than a quarter of HIV cases in Russia resulted from unsafe injection among people who inject drugs (PWID), and St. Petersburg is among the cities with the highest rates and case counts of HIV. Our study sought to identify actionable psychosocial characteristics influencing receipt of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in PWID. This study assessed survey results from 225 HIV-positive individuals recruited from a Russian NGO that provides PWID with harm reduction services. Individuals were …

Role Of Functional Social Support In Adherence To Hypertension Therapy: A Community-Based Study In Nepal, Shirish Gurung

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Despite evidence that adherence to hypertension therapy is associated with improved blood pressure control and health outcomes, adherence rates remain suboptimal. This study aims to examine the association between perceived functional social support and adherence to hypertension therapy in Nepal.

Methods: This study utilized cross-sectional baseline data collected from an ongoing community health worker-led hypertension prevention and control trial in Sindhupalchok District, Nepal. Adherence to hypertension therapy was measured using the Hill-Bone High Blood Pressure Therapy Compliance Scale, and perceived functional social support was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey. Modified Poisson regression with robust standard …

Triangulating Clinical Guideline Recommendations To Map The Standard Of Care For Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy During Pregnancy And Postpartum, Caralie Price

Public Health Theses

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. HDP represent a severe health equity issue and present concerns for the health of mother and child, highlighting the importance of early detection and management. This paper systematically documented current clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) for preventing, identifying, and treating HDP during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. ACOG provides recommendations for HDP across different types of clinical guidance documents. Overall, 60 recommendations were extracted across …

Characterization Of Tick Exoproteins Interacting With Anaplasma Phagocytophilum, Yilei Qin

Public Health Theses

Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Ap) is an Ixodes-transmitted obligate intracellular bacterium thatinfects neutrophils and causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis. Ap alternates between an infectious dense-cored (DC) form and a replicative reticulate cell (RC) form, and successful transmission depends on coordinated interactions at the vector–pathogen interface. Tick extracellular and secreted proteins (the tick exoproteome) likely contribute to Ap survival and transmission, yet many proposed tick factors remain computationally annotated with limited experimental validation. In this thesis, I prioritize candidate tick exoproteins, identified from yeast- display screens using whole Ap organisms, and evaluate them using a two-step validation strategy. First, I quantify tissue-specific expression of …

Invasive Pneumococcal Disease: Outcomes And Vaccine Effectiveness By Risk Profiles Among A Pediatric Cohort From 2002 – 2025, Keyner Rojas

Public Health Theses

AbstractBackground: Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among children globally, despite the widespread use of protein conjugate vaccines (PCVs). While the introduction and implementation of these vaccines have drastically reduced the incidence of vaccine-type invasive disease, shifts in circulating serotypes raise concerns of serotype replacement. Methods: This study is a retrospective observational study of pediatric IPD cases in Massachusetts from 2002 – 2025. Over the course of these 23 years, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has operated an enhanced population-based, statewide surveillance system for IPD. Isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from normally sterile sites …

Compromised Glutathione And Ascorbate Capacities Under Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, And Its Implications For Vulnerable Subpopulations, Reagan Strand

Public Health Theses

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) remains the leading preventable cause of lifelong neurodevelopmental impairment, yet the biological mechanisms underlying differential susceptibility remain poorly understood. The populations most vulnerable to PAE overlap substantially with those bearing the greatest burden of antioxidant insufficiency, including individuals experiencing food insecurity, environmental pollutant exposures, and alcohol use disorder, yet this convergence and its developmental consequences remain poorly characterized. This thesis investigates how dual antioxidant deficiency in both the dam and offspring modulates vulnerability to PAE using a compound heterozygous mouse model (GclmHET/GuloHET) that recapitulates reductions in antioxidants glutathione (GSH) and ascorbic acid (AA, or Vitamin C) …

Restrictions On Party Status In Interpretations Of An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit And Métis Children, Youth And Families, Jamesy Patrick, Alana Cattapan, Brenda Yuen

Journal of Law and Social Policy

An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families came into force in January 2020 with the stated objectives of affirming Indigenous jurisdiction over child and family services, reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in state care, and advancing Canada’s commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Central to achieving these objectives are the Act’s National Standards, which are intended to ensure Indigenous communities are meaningfully included in decision-making processes. While these standards were upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2024 as constitutional, emerging jurisprudence reveals significant shortcomings in the …

Element Of Accountability: Strengthening Enforcement Of California’S Housing Element Law, Jonathan D. Bremen

Chapman Law Review

California’s housing crisis, marked by a severe shortage of affordable housing, soaring costs, and rising homelessness, has reached alarming proportions. Despite decades of efforts, the state continues to grapple with a housing market that significantly underserves low- and middle-income residents, forcing many to devote high portions of their income to housing. On paper, California’s Housing Element Law appears to be a valuable tool to address the crisis by requiring cities and counties to plan for housing needs across all economic segments. Widespread noncompliance with the law, however, has prompted both the state Attorney General and private parties to seek judicial …

Through A Glass Darkly: Targeting Cyber And Space Infrastructure In The Law Of War, Michael D. Minerva

Chapman Law Review

As modern militaries become more capable in the cyber and space domains, much of the legal debate has focused on how to legally conduct cyber and space operations. While important, that discussion has largely overlooked the legal implications for the rapidly growing cyber and space infrastructure that exists in the physical domain—commercial satellites like Starlink filling the night skies and data centers like those popping up all over northern Virginia. Most of this infrastructure is commercially developed and privately owned—presumptively civilian in nature—and yet used by militaries all over the world.

The same way bridges form critical ground lines of …

Escaping The Labyrinth: Cutting Through The Maze Of Federal Sector Employment Laws To Streamline Appeals, Allow Faster And More Consistent Decisions, And Level The Playing Field Between Agencies And Employees, Christopher Ligatti

Chapman Law Review

Federal employees and their job protections have gained increased media attention due to the current presidential administration. Criticism has long been aimed primarily at the property interest and accompanying due process protections that federal employees have in their employment. However, this Article argues that while the federal sector employment law system is badly in need of reform, the issue is not the constitutionally required due process protections afforded to employees, but rather the additional statutory and regulatory protections Congress has granted employees. Currently, federal employees have multiple overlapping forums in which they can bring employment actions, may cross-appeal negative decisions …

The Military Discharge Review Boards’ Irregular Presumption Of Regularity, Jessica Lynn Wherry

Chapman Law Review

“There is a presumption of regularity in the conduct of governmental affairs.” With these twelve words in the Department of Defense’s Code of Federal Regulations, the military discharge review boards (DRBs) have denied relief to thousands of veteran-applicants seeking a discharge upgrade. While seemingly innocuous, this administrative principle has become a nearly insurmountable barrier to relief for veterans with a less-than-honorable discharge. Veterans with a less-than-honorable discharge are generally ineligible for a range of veterans benefits, including health care and education benefits, and they have higher suicide rates compared to honorably discharged veterans.

For most veteran-applicants, the administrative path to …

Muted By The Machine: Expanding Ftc Authority To Address Algorithmic Review Suppression, Aubrey Adams

Chapman Law Review

As digital platforms increasingly shape consumer decision-making, the integrity of online reviews has become central to fair market competition. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule prohibiting deceptive practices involving consumer reviews, including traditional forms of review suppression. Yet the rule fails to address a more subtle threat: algorithmic review suppression.

This Note argues that algorithmic review suppression, where platforms use automated systems to downrank or obscure negative reviews, creates a misleading impression of product quality while evading existing regulation. Unlike traditional suppression, these practices operate invisibly under the guise of content curation, distorting consumer perception …

Tilting The Playing Field: Executive Attacks On Big Law Firms As A Mechanism Of American Competitive Authoritarianism, Sajah Ali

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how President Donald Trump’s executive campaign against elite law firms, collectively known as “Big Law,” serves as a concrete case study of competitive authoritarianism in action. Drawing on Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s framework in their work The Path to American Authoritarianism, this thesis applies their four pillars of competitive authoritarianism to the administration’s executive orders targeting major law firms and maps those pillars onto three distinct firm responses: fighting back, capitulation, and quiet retreat. Situating this case study within the broader political context of Trump’s second term, this thesis finds that while the United States has …

Regulating Space-Based Solar Power: Challenges Under Both Space Law And Energy Law, Anne-Sophie Martin, Steven Freeland

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

Space-based solar power (SBSP) is emerging as a potential catalyst for global decarbonisation, driven by advances in wireless power transmission, in-orbit assembly, and photovoltaic technologies. Programmes such as the European Space Agency’s SOLARIS initiative, China’s planned megawatt-scale demonstrator, and private projects including Constant Aperture Solid State Integrated Orbital Phased Array and Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project illustrate the shift from theoretical models to operationalisation. SBSP offers continuous, weather-independent renewable energy capable of complementing terrestrial solar, wind, and hydro generation, enhancing grid stability, energy security, and progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It also supports future space activities by providing …

Systemic Legal Scholarship For Systemic Ai, Kevin Frazier

Chapman Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is triggering societal transformation at an unprecedented pace, yet our legal system struggles to keep up, often relying on incremental tweaks to outdated rules. This Article argues that such conventional legal thinking is not just inadequate but also a source of inconsequential scholarship. By failing to anticipate AI’s trajectory and address foundational issues, incrementalism allows “legal tech debt” to mount, increasing risks of policy failure, societal disruption, and erosion of the rule of law. We must leapfrog this dangerous inertia. This Article proposes and defines a necessary alternative: systemic legal scholarship. This forward-looking paradigm requires legal experts …

The Budget Was Late, But The Victories Were Significant, Lance Plunkett Jd, Llm

The New York State Dental Journal

NYSDA efforts on behalf of dental practices, its dental foundation and Medicaid providers were rewarded.

Effects Of Flooding-Induced Migration On The Food Security Status Of Farming Households In Rivers State, Nigeria, Jacinta Nmutaka Umechukwu, Daniel Bruce Sarpong, Ama Ahene-Codjoe, Taeyoon Kim

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

The agricultural landscape in Rivers State, Nigeria, is increasingly threatened by the dual challenges of escalating flooding events and return migration. Historically, flooding in the region has shifted from isolated incidents to a persistent and widespread hazard, significantly disrupting agricultural livelihoods and rural stability. This study assessed the effects of flooding-induced migration on the food security status of farming households in Nigeria. Data were collected on the episodes that occurred between 2011–2022 to estimate the coping strategies of the farmers. The farm revenue specifically from 2022 production activities was also computed. This was used in estimating the effect of flooding-induced …

Implementing Climate Remedies, Camila Bustos

Vanderbilt Law Review

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing the climate crisis, particularly in the face of executive and legislative inaction. Across jurisdictions, courts have issued landmark decisions mandating stronger mitigation targets and recognizing rights-based claims against governments and corporations. While recent scholarship has examined the trends, legal theories, and broader effects of this relatively new phenomenon, it has primarily focused on bringing and winning legal challenges. Less attention has been paid to a crucial phase: the implementation and enforcement of judicial rulings. A deeper understanding of how climate remedies are implemented can provide valuable insights for climate …