University at Albany, State University of New York
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First-Gen Latinx/Afro-Latinx and Complex: Keeping Resilient Responses on Shuffle
Full text linkThis qualitative study examined the racialized experiences of first-generation Latinx and Afro-Latinx students in higher education. Fourteen participants engaged in pláticas, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to reflect on how their identities, race, and institutional dynamics shaped their collegiate journeys. The study examined how these students navigated both personal and institutional settings, revealing the emergence of tensions around belonging, authenticity, and cultural responsibility in everyday interactions. Using Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) alongside Multidimensional Identity Negotiation Theory (MINT) and Co-Cultural Communication Theory (CCCT), this study developed an emergent framework—the Resilient Response Model—to better understand how students respond to complex identity pressures. The model introduces four core responses: Resilient Perseverance, Silent Endurance, Emotional Retreat, and Critical Refusal. Each captures how students manage the tension between thriving academically and surviving emotionally in environments that often marginalize or misunderstand them. Narrative and discourse analyses showed that participants experienced systemic neglect, class-based assumptions, racialized surveillance, and internalized pressure to succeed for their families. Students utilized strategic, emotional, and cultural responses to navigate harm and affirm their identities. Students used silence, code-switching, cultural funds of knowledge, and community as both shields and strategies. Findings highlight that traditional student success models often overlook the emotional labor carried by first-generation students of color. The Resilient Response Model provides a novel perspective on how students navigate and resist within institutions that are not designed with their full identities in mind. These findings have implications for academic and student affairs professionals seeking to create more culturally responsive and sustaining environments in higher education
Brief Drama: A Novel
No full textBrief Drama is the comic account of a “nontraditional college student slash musician slash aspiring writer slash odd-jobber” who begins pursuing sexual encounters with men, despite only being interested romantically in women. Set mostly in New York in the mid-2010s, the story is retrospectively “told” to the narrator’s girlfriend, the first partner he’s felt comfortable confiding in. The novel focuses on the myriad complications and shame that can accompany uncategorizable sexual behavior in a society obsessed with categories and expectations of masculinity. The “heteroromantic bisexual” male isn’t new to literature, but he’s someone whose story is told obliquely or in passing, never fully explored or examined. This protagonist’s experience may not be rare, but it’s one that’s rarely told. Themes and misadventures of the novel also include: what it’s like being an undergrad at 33; homoeroticism between close male friends; demeaning part-time jobs, including babysitting the six-year-old daughter of a prominent book editor; a dismal trip to India for the wedding of a friend; memories of being a child model in 90s’ Manhattan; Jewish guilt, ambivalence about procreation, and a run-in with Courtney Love. Brief Drama is a candid and playful portrayal of one man’s search for pleasure and the questions it raises about labels, identity, and freedom in our absurd country. Though its chapters are episodic and avoid cause-and-effect plot points, by the end the reader will have gone on a singular journey—that of a neurotic hedonist’s path to self-acceptance
The Maritime Archaic Occupation of the Stock Cove Site (CkAl-3), Newfoundland, Canada
Full text linkThe Stock Cove site (CkAL-3), located on the southeastern coast of Newfoundland, is an archaeologically rich multi-component site. The Maritime Archaic (ca. 8,000-3,200 BP) culture was the earliest people to inhabit the island of Newfoundland and the Stock Cove site, settling the island by at least 6,400 years ago. Their ability to maintain lithic traditions was key to their success. Finding new sources of lithic material would have been necessary and that process would have varied greatly across the island. In southeastern Newfoundland, far away from key lithic sources on the mainland, this would have been even more important as exchange networks were increasingly stretched.
This study examines the raw materials of debitage and tools, recovered from the only known Maritime Archaic domestic site in Newfoundland. Through an aggregate analysis, the raw material provided an insight into the landscape learning by its earliest inhabitants, site use patterns, lithic production strategies, and more broadly the peopling process and colonization of the region
Assessing Antiretroviral Therapy Prescribing Practices in New York State for Pregnant People Living with HIV
No full textABSTRACT
Objective: The Panel on Treatment of HIV During Pregnancy and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission advises patient counseling to facilitate informed decision-making when evaluating changes in antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy and for patients to stay on suppressive regimens regardless of drug class. The purpose of this study was to investigate racial and ethnic disparities in the prescription of ‘preferred’ HIV drug regimens for pregnant people living with diagnosed HIV in New York State (NYS). This research also assessed whether prescribing practices for pregnant people on ART were consistent with Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) guidelines.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study using NYS HIV Surveillance data from 2010 through 2019 was conducted to evaluate racial and ethnic disparities in prescribing practices of ART among pregnant people diagnosed with HIV. Data sources included 1) Maternal-Pediatric HIV Prevention and Care (MPPC) data, which contains abstracted prenatal, delivery, and newborn medical records, 2) Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System (eHARS), and 3) New York Electronic HIV Management System (NYEHMS). A descriptive analysis was conducted to assess the distribution, variability, and missingness in the data among pregnant people diagnosed with HIV who were prescribed ART. A bivariate analysis utilizing chi-square tests was performed to examine the association between the prescription of ‘preferred’ ART and independent variables of interest, including race and ethnicity. A backward stepwise Poisson regression method with generalized estimating equations (GEE) was applied to model the relationship between race and ethnicity and the prescription of ‘preferred’ ART drugs.
Results: Between January 2010 and December 2019, there were 4,183 live birth pregnancy events among people living with HIV. The final study population included 3,243 live birth pregnancy events from 2,520 pregnant people living with HIV. Over half of the pregnancy events (64.9%) included pregnant people prescribed ‘preferred’ ART regimens, while 35.1% included pregnant people prescribed ‘other’ ART regimens. In the bivariate analysis, Non-Hispanic Black [Risk Ratio (RR) 0.90; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.81-1.00], and Hispanic (RR 0.94; 95% CI 0.84-1.04) individuals were less likely than their Non-Hispanic White counterparts to be prescribed ‘preferred’ ART, but the difference was not statistically significant. In the multivariable analysis, receiving a ‘preferred’ ART regimen was associated with the year of delivery (adjusted Risk Ratio (adjRR) 0.97; 95% CI 0.96-0.98), prenatal care received in New York City (NYC) (adjRR 0.88; 95% CI 0.84-0.93), pregnancy events among pregnant individuals aged 40 years and older (adjRR 1.11; 95% CI 1.02-1.21), those on private insurance (adjRR 1.11; CI 1.01-1.24) or other forms of insurance (adjRR 1.22; 95% CI 1.08-1.37), those unsuppressed at their first viral load laboratory visit after conception (adjRR 1.22; 95% CI 1.16-1.29), and those diagnosed with HCB or HCV during pregnancy (adjRR 1.14; 95% CI 1.02-1.27). All these associations were statistically significant at an alpha level \u3c 0.05.
Conclusion: Approximately two-thirds (65%) of the study population were prescribed ‘preferred’ ART, indicating a high compliance with DHHS guidelines. In addition, no significant associations were identified between race and/or ethnicity and the prescription of a ‘preferred’ ART regimen. The APR is a primary source of information on current antiretroviral therapies for maternal use employed by the Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents that monitors prenatal exposures to all marketed antiretroviral drugs for potential birth defect risks (Gliklich et al., 2014). Greater opportunities to advance treatment of pregnant people living with HIV can be achieved with improved prenatal conception care and greater awareness and use of the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry
Musical Motivation: Investigating Musical Contingent Self-Worth and Its Interactions with Music Training and Perceived Musical Ability
Full text linkThis program of research centers on a novel measure of how much value one places on having and displaying their musical ability – musical contingent self-worth – and how that construct interacts with existing measures of music training and perceived musical ability to predict performance on both musical and general cognitive tasks. Two studies (Experiments 1 and 2) provide evidence for the validity and reliability of an MCSW scale and additionally show that it uniquely predicts both reactions to, and performance on, a musical skills task (Experiment 1). These initial studies also show that MCSW interacts with music training to predict performance on an auditory working memory task (indicating a stronger positive relationship between music training and auditory working memory among individuals with higher MCSW; Experiment 2). Following an expectancy-value theoretical framework of motivation, a third study (Experiment 3) investigated: 1) whether perceived musical ability and MCSW may interact to predict performance on the same auditory working memory task even while controlling for music training; and, 2) whether the positive effects of MCSW are truly limited only to tasks that are auditory and/or musical in nature. Implications of this research program are then discussed, with a focus on how MCSW may help elucidate other constructs both within, and beyond, music cognition
Deep Convection, Lightning, and Inertio-Gravity Waves: An Analysis of Precipitation and Wave Dynamics in the Congo Basin
Full text linkThe lack of an extensive in situ observation network throughout equatorial Africa makes it difficult to monitor the Congo climate system. Model and reanalysis products have been used to fill informational gaps but often produce disparate results. To improve model representation of deep convection over the Congo, it’s important to first understand the influence of various thermodynamic and dynamic forces that may be underrepresented. Although satellite based remote sensing retrievals and reanalysis have their own set of limitations, they can offer a great deal of insight into the climate of regions otherwise lacking in observational networks.
The first section of this dissertation explored potential methods for improving satellite derived precipitation measurements through the examination of lighting-precipitation relationships in the Congo. Utilizing retrievals from high-resolution Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) during its 1998 – 2013 lifespan, lightning and precipitation measurements associated with observed echoes were isolated and assigned to one of four categories of intense convective- stratiform echo types. Results show that only 2.7% of observed echoes were classified as intense convective-stratiform, yet they produced 36.6% of observed lightning flashes and 27.4% of estimated rain totals. Significant spatial correlations were also found between total rainfall and intense convective-stratiform rain (coefficient r = 0.56). Linear relationships between lightning and echo rain rates are shown to depend heavily on the convective category. As a result, a simple linear regression cannot be made for all intense convective echoes. However, lightning can be used to retrieve a lower-bound approximation with respect to convective rain rates.
Next, a study was conducted into the origins of intense convective events analyzed in the previous section. The role of quasi-two-day westward propagating inertio-gravity (WIG) waves were proposed as a major mechanism of deep convective development and precipitation variability in the Congo Basin. A space-time Fourier transform was applied to Cloud Archive User Services (CLAUS) derived brightness temperatures (Tb) and filtered for WIG waves. Comparisons between wave phase and TRMM-PR echo retrievals were used to perform a statistical analysis on the preferred “temporal zones” of formation relative to wave passage associated with intense convective-stratiform echo types. A regression analysis between WIG filtered Tb and ERA5 variables was then conducted to investigate the strength and nature of the environmental response. This analysis was conducted for both the Congo and a region of the Indian Ocean to gain a deeper perspective on differences in wave behavior between tropical continental and maritime regions. Lastly, the modulation of precipitation by WIG waves in both regions was assessed via Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) retrievals. Results showed a strong connection between the most intense convective events and WIG waves, with between 60 – 80%, depending on the stage of convective development, occurring withing a 24-hour period around peak wave intensity. In addition to differences in environmental response to wave passage, significant proportions of estimated rain totals were found to occur in the vicinity of these events with 40% falling in a vast section of the Congo.
The final section utilized a supervised machine learning model - eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) - to explore differences in key atmospheric indicators of WIG wave intensity between the Congo and Indian Ocean. A suite of ERA5 atmospheric variables were used to train the model against variations in WIG filtered Tb, after which SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) tools were used to rank feature importance based on their global attribution scores. The model was run and averaged over specific time windows prior to the timing of peak WIG intensity to assess which atmospheric variables are most strongly influenced by WIG wave formation. By comparing results between domain regions, key indicators of wave build-up and subsequent deep convective activity were identified. The model showed impressive ability in distinguishing between land and oceanic WIG wave-related atmospheric processes by learning the unique thermodynamic and dynamic signatures of their impending formation. Despite a strong dynamical influence of WIG waves regardless of region, the model ranked thermodynamic and convective instability parameters, such as temperature and CIN, as the most important features determining wave strength in the Congo, while dynamic fields such as divergence and large-scale circulations dominated over the Indian Ocean
Calibration of a Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Package Integrated into the New York State Mesonet
No full textThe University at Albany designed and manufactured 59 low-cost air quality sensor packages to continuously measure PM₂.₅, CO, O₃, NO₂, and NO at 38 New York State Mesonet (NYSM) sites located in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Prior to use for monitoring, low-cost sensors require calibration to correct for environmental sensitivities. Calibration models can be developed using data collected from co-location periods in which low-cost sensors are installed at sites with Federal Reference Methods and/or Federal Equivalent Methods instruments. In this study, packages were periodically co-located (calibrated) for 18 to 162 days at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Queens College site. Two types of calibration models, a multiple linear regression (MLR) and a Random Forest-MLR hybrid model, were initially developed using the “traditional” calibration approach in which individual models are trained for each sensor and package (i.e., 59 CO models). Both models produced accurate concentrations during short-term evaluation (\u3c 2 months), with the hybrid model improving accuracy at low concentrations for O₃, PM₂.₅, NO₂, and NO. Extending evaluation over a 1-year period to reflect realistic network operations revealed drift reducing data quality for NO₂ and O₃, with O₃ developing a negative bias only 3 months after calibration. Periodically recalibrating packages was expensive and ineffective at improving model performance, with most packages failing to be recalibrated prior to the onset of NO₂ and O₃ drift. To supplement the need for recalibration, the Network Calibration Algorithm was developed by training a single MLR ( CO) or hybrid model (O₃, PM₂.₅, NO₂, NO) per pollutant using 16 months of continuous co-located data from two packages permanently deployed at the calibration site. The algorithm successfully increased long-term accuracy and stability, enabling long-term deployments of low-cost sensors without the need for recalibration
Integration of Theoretical Frameworks for Problematic Exercise: Toward a Comprehensive Model of Maladaptive and Adaptive Exercise
Full text linkExercise can promote health and well-being, and yet a proportion of individuals who exercise develop a maladaptive relationship with physical activity. Problematic exercise is often associated with significant impairment and psychological distress, yet a consensus has not been reached regarding how problematic exercise should be conceptualized. The literature distinguishes between primary exercise dependence, or excessive exercise driven by its intrinsic reinforcement, and secondary exercise dependence, or excessive exercise driven by compensatory motivations related to weight and shape concerns. However, to date, little is known about the prevalence and nature of exercise dependence in the absence of eating pathology. This incongruity precludes the development of accurate assessment, intervention, and prevention methods for this harmful behavior. Two of the prevailing theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing problematic exercise are (1) exercise dependence derived from research on behavioral addictions and (2) the cognitive-behavioral model of compulsive exercise. Ostensibly, these models are incongruous and often emphasize different features of problematic exercise in their conceptualizations. To address these issues in the literature, the current study sought to integrate and evaluate existing theories of problematic exercise and identify factors associated with adaptive exercise. Participants (N = 608) were women who regularly engaged in physical activity, recruited through the University at Albany Sona research pool and the online platform Prolific. They completed self-report measures and a behavioral task to comprehensively evaluate components of the theoretical models of problematic exercise. Estimated prevalence rates of primary and secondary exercise dependence in the current sample were 4.1% and 5.4% respectively. Contrary to hypotheses, we found few results reflecting meaningful differences between primary and secondary exercise dependence, and a consistent main effect of disordered eating symptoms on the outcomes of interest. These findings highlight the need for future research on problematic exercise to evaluate both primary and secondary exercise dependence in order to determine to what degree the factors are explained by or related to the presence of comorbid eating pathology
Self-Preservation: Autobiography as a Form of Archivization as Seen through the Life and Poetic Works of John Clare
Full text linkThis paper will look at how the processing efforts of an archivist mirror that of an autobiographer through the shared motivation of adding to the cultural memory or textual canon of a society. For archival purposes, the typical steps of ingesting, preparing, and presenting a collection are creation, capture, arrangement/description, and pluralization. To create an autobiography, writers take the memories that have been created and experienced due to events in their lives and capture those memories via recording in the literary form known as autobiography. These autobiographers then arrange and describe their memories in a way that shows vast similarities to those utilized in archival work and then share the contained body with the world through publication, their own form of pluralization of their records. Through Jacques Derrida’s understanding of the archive, a postmodernist whose Archive Fever was revolutionary to contemporary understanding of the archive and the vast possibilities of what can constitute as a record, the shared limitations of both autobiography and archivization, which perhaps join the two more than any common formation efforts, will be explored. This theory of archivization as a form of autobiography will be tested against the life and creative efforts of “Peasant Poet” John Clare, who spent his life attempting to contain his memories , of the nature that he knew in his childhood, the nature of Helpston, via the aforementioned process of archivization, albeit unknowingly, in an attempt to save it from the forgetfulness of Derrida’s oblivion
Further Results on Learning Quantum Measurement Classes: Quantum PAC Model for POVM Hypothesis Classes
No full textThis thesis investigates the problem of learning from quantum systems, where each example consists of a quantum state paired with a classical outcome. The task centers on choosing an effective measurement rule from a fixed set to enable accurate prediction of the classical outcome from the quantum state. A central focus lies in understanding whether joint measurement strategies that cannot be separated into local operations offer a real benefit in terms of the number of examples needed for successful learning. We examine conditions under which a non-separable measurement within a given hypothesis class achieves strictly better sample complexity bounds compared to other candidate measurements.
We analyze this problem in two key settings: quantum hypothesis testing and PAC learning. In hypothesis testing, non-separable measurements can provide exponential improvements in sample efficiency when distinguishing sufficiently distinct states. However, within the PAC framework, such exponential gains do not persist; instead in our observation, non-separable measurements yield at most polynomial advantages over separable strategies.
We also show that the learnability of quantum measurement classes depends on the trace-norm geometry of quantum states. When states are close under trace distance, no hypothesis class can achieve large fat-shattering. Further, we observe that the fat-shattering dimension is bounded by the trace-norm packing number. These results limit learning efficiency with quantum measurements over mixed states and clarify when quantum strategies offer true advantages.
We also discuss the limitations of our PAC model and conclude the thesis with future research directions