Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Terrorism – New York (State)'

In the United States, one out of every thirty-three infants is born with some sort of birth defect or congenital malformation. Certain risk factors such as age and substance use increase the likelihood of having a baby afflicted with a defect and public health nurses have worked tirelessly to educate the public about these factors. In addition, thanks to modern medicine, many defects are detected early in pregnancy, which allows for careful monitoring and planning for the delivery. In spite of these gains, birth defects continue to dominate the public health arena because they are a leading cause of death for infants and play a prominent role in long-term morbidity and disability.

Gastroschisis and omphalocele are abdominal wall defects that present with herniation of intestines and organs due to failure of abdominal wall closure during embryonic development. Of the two abdominal wall defects, gastroschisis has demonstrated a worldwide increase in prevalence over the last three to four decades. The common denominator in the literature is young maternal age. However, the relationship between maternal age and gastroschisis is unclear. This study utilized birth certificate data from New York State to examine the relationship between maternal characteristics and delivering an infant with gastroschisis.

In this study, the infants diagnosed with gastroschisis were mostly singleton births born at an earlier gestation (34-36 weeks) and a lower birth weight (1500-2499 gm) than infants without gastroschisis. From a demographic perspective, mothers of infants with gastroschisis were more likely to be younger (≤24), Hispanic or less educated. The findings also revealed that mothers of infants with gastroschisis were more likely to have inadequate prenatal care, use tobacco, illicit drugs or have a sexually transmitted disease. Mothers of infants with gastroschisis were also more likely to live in a non-metropolitan county or fall into a lower socioeconomic status. Further research is needed to continue examining the relationship between maternal characteristics and a diagnosis of gastroschisis in the newborn infant.

A Mexican State of Mind: New York City and the New Borderlands of Culture examines the cultural productions of Mexican migrants in New York City within the context of a system of racial capitalism that marginalizes Mexican migrants via an exploitative labor market, criminalizing immigration policy, and racialized systems of surveillance. I begin by juxtaposing three images: "Visible Border," from filmmaker Alex Rivera's The Borders Trilogy; the Brookes Ship, which still powerfully recalls the business of transatlantic slave trade and has been significant for visual artists working from the 1960s to the present; and "la Bestia" ("The Beast"), a freight train running the length of Mexico and frequently used by immigrants on their travels. Although Mexican migrants rarely cross the border in containers, shipping container consumerism is what has allowed for the re- commodification of brown bodies, post-slavery. As such it is not ironic that the original purpose of the Beast was to move standardized containers across the US-Mexico border, yet ended up as a tragic symbol of migrant desperation. Here, as in The Borders Trilogy, I find a through line to understanding the connection between traditional border crossing and historical Mexican settlement in the southwest and Chicago, and the development of Mexican migration to New York City in a post-NAFTA, post-9/11 world.

Inspired by a dialogue of the landmark works of Paul Gilroy and Gloria Anzaldüa, I develop an analytic framework which bridges Mexican diasporic experiences in New York City and the black diaspora, not as a comparison but in recognition that colonialism, interracial and interethnic contact through trade, migration, and slavery are connected via capitalist economies and technological developments that today manifest at least in part via the container. This spatial move is important, not just because Mexican migration is largely understudied in a New York--East Coast context, but because the Black Atlantic also emphasizes the long history and significance of New York as a capital of the slave trade. As the unearthing of the African burial ground in lower Manhattan in 1991 demonstrates, the financial center of New York is literally built on the bodies of black labor. Since the 1990s, it has been built on the backs of Mexican migrant labor.

As a result of these interventions, I find a rich and ever evolving movement toward creative responses to the containments of labor, illegality, and racial and anti-immigrant prejudice. In five chapters, I present a rich archive of both individual and collaborative expression including arts collectives, graffiti, muralism, hip hop crews, through which the majority young male Mexican population form social networks to cope with this modern-day form of "social death." The first chapter, "Mexican Manzana: The Next Great Migration" introduces the context of Mexican migration to New York City since the 1980s, focusing on the economic changes undergone by the city because of the adoption of the shipping container from an industrial economy to one focused on finance, real estate, and service. It also discusses NYC as an immigrant destination and outlines the characteristics of Mexican migrants and the conditions that greet them in their new destination. Particularly iconic to New York City is the restaurant industry for which the Mexican presence is both vital and largely invisible. Thus. Chapter two, "Solo Queremos el Respeto: Racialization of labor and hierarchal culture in the US Restaurant Industry," uses that industry as a case study of Mexican migrant containment, to explore active forms of resistance. Chapter three, "Hermandad, Arte y Rebeldia: Art Collectives and Entrepreneurship in Mexican New York" focuses on the development of arts entrepreneurship and successful collectively owned businesses such as tattoo parlors that double as arts spaces. The next chapter, "Yo Soy Hip Hop: Transnationaiisrn and Authenticity in Mexican New York," employs lyrical analysis of Mexican hip hop to explore alternative forms of identity making. The final chapter "Dejamos una huella: Claiming Space in a New Borderlands," describes the way Mexican migrants are claiming space and performing a politics of anti-deportation via the aggressive visibility of graffiti. Consequently, in loosening the bounds of border and mexicanidad, I find new identities that take surprising shapes. And following my subjects on the long journey to and within the Atlantic Borderlands, they teach me the significance of blackness in Mexican lives as well as black scholarship in Chicano/a and migration studies. Here, there is so much more than comparison – rather it is a rich flow of ideas that no border could ever impede.

Prompted by frequent media reports of school fraud and a lack of relevant K-12 literature, this research study was designed to investigate current fraud prevention practices in public school districts in New York State. Using a "fraud triangle" model, an analysis of existing legislation and professional practice guidelines reveals that an integral element is being overlooked in current fraud prevention efforts, namely employee attitudes (more formally rationalization).

In an effort to fill this gap, management and accounting literature is used to identify ten specific practices associated with a decreased likelihood of fraud rationalization in the business setting. Primary research is then used to ascertain the extent to which these business practices have been implemented in New York State public schools. HLM is used to examine the nature of the relationship between the presence of these practices within a school district and employee attitudes about rationalization, as a proxy measure of fraud risk.

Data concerning both district practices and employee attitudes about fraud were collected using an online survey of 938 employees from 56 randomly selected K-12 school districts in New York State. Findings reveal low or non-existent levels of district implementation for eight of the ten suggested fraud prevention strategies. However, where strategies have been implemented, employees are less likely to report rationalization about fraud. (As the number of strategies increases, rationalization tends to decrease.) The effect of individual strategies is examined. Several district and employee demographic factors are also found to have mitigating effects.

Based on the results of this research and analysis, specific recommendations are presented in an attempt to improve school district fraud prevention efforts. The analysis also suggests areas where follow-up research studies are warranted in light of this new base-line data.

This study explored the current state of secondary social studies in Western New York (WNY) through the lens of social studies orientations, specifically the traditional, disciplinary, and progressive strands (Fallace, 2010), and their alignment with the K-12 Social Studies Framework , approved by NYS’s Department of Education in 2014, with new NYS Regents assessments to begin in 2019. It was, therefore, important to collect baseline data on secondary social studies teachers’ social studies purpose, practices, and knowledge of NYS reforms.

A mixed-method study began in the spring of 2017, which collected data from the WNY S4 survey and two focus groups. Survey participants totaled n = 136, representing six counties in WNY; focus group members totaled n = 9. The WNY S4 replicated survey items from a nationwide instrument, Survey on the Status of Social Studies–S4 (Fitchett & VanFossen, 2013) and analyzed data with descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher developed a semi-structured interview guide to collect focus group data, which were analyzed by the long-table approach (Krueger & Casey, 2009).

Major survey findings were: (1) 99% reported an unawareness of their state/district standards; (2) 100% reported developing critical-thinking skills, while 64% reported content knowledge as primary goals; and (3) top-ranked instructional practices were 87% teach political history; 83% teach social history; and 82% examine sources. Analyses of t-tests indicate gender and grade level-band indicators are influential to instructional practices. For example, female and high school teachers seem to engage students more often in non-history content emphases, such as diversity of religious views, economics, and historiography while also de-emphasizing the lecture; hence aligning more with the disciplinary strand and less with the traditional strand.

Focus group results pinpoint a struggle between participants’ intentions versus actual practice which may impact alignment to NYS social studies reforms. Misalignment attributed to teacher’s purpose being overshadowed by their own instructional choices or outside factors, such as assessments, time, and other school district issues. Five out of nine focus group participants associated with the hybrid disciplinary-progressive approach, suggesting that secondary social studies teachers do not situate themselves to a single social studies orientation; and also consistent with past studies (Long, 2017; Vinson, 1998).

Overall, WNY S4 data suggests when purpose and practices are more closely aligned to the disciplinary and progressive approaches, secondary social studies instruction may find greater success with NYS social studies education reforms. In addition, gender and identified grade level-band (middle school and high school) differences provide insights for developing and tailoring professional development for different groups of teachers.

Two recommendations for policy and practice include: (1) refine the social studies orientation model into a continuum, and (2) apply the Social Studies Purpose Compass developed by the researcher to guide instructional alignment with NYS social studies reforms.

This dissertation evaluates freshwater wetland impact avoidance and mitigation resulting from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) permitting program within Central New York. Concurrent with this, is an effort to ascertain wetland functionality through a rapid assessment approach to wetland evaluation. Three primary techniques were employed: First, NYSDEC permit decisions were compared to the NYSDEC Freshwater Wetland Regulation Guidelines on Compensatory Mitigation (NYSDEC 1993), to determine whether or not the Guidance was adhered to. Second, NYSDEC permit requirements were compared to the actual mitigation efforts conducted by a permittee in the field to determine whether or not the permittee complied with imposed requirements. And third, a rapid assessment approach comparing functions and values at wetland mitigation sites to the corresponding natural wetland that was impacted by NYSDEC permit issuance was used to determine whether or not the functions and values provided by the mitigation adequately replaced those lost at the original impacted wetland site. The results of this review indicate that the majority of wetland mitigation guidelines are not followed the majority of time. For example, less than one third of the time was mitigation based on plans providing short or long term goals or measurable performance criteria. Often permittees do not comply with imposed freshwater wetland permit requirements related to mitigation. More specifically, thirty five percent of the time, permit requirements for mitigation were not met for those files sampled. As for the functions and values being replaced, that is not happening with six out of nine measured functions: open space and aesthetic resources; erosion control; pollution treatment; protection of subsurface water resources; wildlife habitat; and flood control. The three functions found to be replaced by mitigation include recreation; sources of nutrients in freshwater food cycles and nursery grounds / sanctuaries for freshwater fish; and education and scientific research.

This dissertation examines how neoliberalism and immigration enforcement between 1980 and 2010 changed the nature of ‘sweated’ work in the U.S. This dissertation focuses on the particular case of Latino undocumented workers in New York State and the organizations fighting to win them protections. In order to answer my research questions, I conducted 30 semi-structured interviews over the course of 2 years (2013–2015), examined immigration enforcement data, and analyzed U.S. immigration and welfare policies between 1980 and the present. Research interviews made clear that both the lack of social and legal protections alongside the threat of immigration enforcement have a definitive impact on working conditions in low-wage sectors. Staff and volunteers from worker justice centers and immigration rights organizations also emphasized the fact that some of the old protections that were hard fought and won by prior generations of labor activists are ill-suited to address the needs of low-wage, non-citizen workers who face a number of new challenges. By focusing on undocumented Latino workers and worker centers in New York State this dissertation shifts the conceptual lens from a particular ‘worksite’ to the forces—historical, legal, and social—which make sweating possible once an individual enters a workplace. This dissertation contends that the specters of wagelessness and deportation collaborate to ensure the flexibility of undocumented labor and that these are the distinctive features of the contemporary U.S. sweatshop.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the momentum for the idea of a more practical education better suited to life in a modern, technological world brought the first educational reform movements in the nation. Concurrent reform efforts at the state and national levels influenced both the historical development of Earth science education and the status of the Earth sciences in New York State’s secondary schools. Three themes received increasing attention: 1) the nature and college acceptance of the subjects in the secondary courses of study, 2) the time allocation for the subjects, and 3) the emergence and expectation of the incorporation of laboratory and fieldwork. These themes were also prevalent in discussions within the national committees that were meeting at the time.

The historical richness of educational reform efforts during the late 1800s and the early 1900s establishes an important foundation upon which the Earth sciences are grounded. To understand the influences that shaped the Earth science syllabus into its present form, and to establish a framework upon which recommendations for future curricular development can be made, an analysis of the origin and evolution of secondary Earth science is warranted. The research presented in this thesis explores the historical framework of the individual core Earth science topics (physical geography, geology, astronomy, and meteorology), beginning in 1865 with the introduction of the intermediate level physical geography Regents examination and ending in 1910 with the loss of astronomy and geology as accepted high school graduation courses. The chronological structure of this study is intended to establish a set of specific historical events that contributed to the present curricular structure of New York State’s Earth science course.

The position of the Superintendent of Schools is multifaceted and complex. The superintendent is responsible for instruction, personnel, general business operations, budget, finance, law and politics. Do existing superintendent preparation programs adequately prepare individuals for the duties and responsibilities that they will face on a day to day basis? Research on this topic is becoming more prevalent but, because of individual state licensing and certification requirements, the research is often either generalized or it is state specific. There are few identifiable studies on superintendent preparation in New York State.

Current research indicates that superintendents felt that their administrative preparation programs were lacking in specific areas such as finance, budgeting and law and that the programs needed improvement. Therefore, research in this area is important because improving the quality and content of superintendent preparation programs will have a positive impact on the individual’s readiness to assume the position.

The study is a qualitative study that will utilize a series of semi-structured interviews with individuals that are currently working as a Superintendent of Schools in New York State. The interviews focused on their perceptions of their administrative preparation programs, their internships, and the relevance of their coursework to the performance of their day to day duties. The interviews were structured to elicit comments and discussion regarding the personal experiences of those interviewed with regards to those aspects of their preparation program that was most beneficial to their role’s as superintendent and those aspects that were least beneficial. Interviewees were also asked to make recommendations regarding ways to improve administrative preparation programs.