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Item Open Access “100 Dollars and Other Valuable Considerations”(2022-04-20) Reneau, OliviaLand and homeownership are topics of much debate, concern, and intervention in modern Black political thought. Discussion of Black land loss, while longitudinal in scope, often places the origins of Black land ownership in the early 1900s. In this paper, I challenge this notion, first placing the origin of Black land ownership in the antebellum period and examining Black land ownership for the following century. To do so, I constructed the narratives of six Black-owned parcels from their acquisition to their status in 1950. My first chapter offers a brief exploration of the history of Black ownership between 1850 and 1950. In my second chapter, I examine the circumstances of the deprivation of that land, inclusive of the political, economic, and white-supremacist tools used to do so. In my third chapter, I consider conceptions of Black land from prominent Black authors like W.E.B. DuBois to the presence of land in abolitionist politics. Then, I offer the complete histories of six formerly Black-owned parcels of land from 1850 to 1950 and the presence of tools of preservation and deprivation of Black ownership in these parcels. I conclude with a brief analysis of the five parcels, an acknowledgment of the limitations of this work, and a discussion of the significance of this work on Black vital records research. By the end of the period, only two parcels were possessed by Black individuals, and only one of those was a direct connection through shared lineage. The chains of title created during this research indicate that wills and end-of-life legal planning best-ensured property were successfully passed from one Black owner to the next, a mechanism that heavily favored families in wealthy, free, Black communities.Item Open Access 911, Is There an Emergency? The Effects of Gentrification on 911 Calls in Durham, NC(2021-02) Vila, AudreyIn recent years, urbanization in the United States has led to the displacement of low-income, minority communities for middle and high-income individuals, a process termed gentrification. Scholars debate the benefits and consequences of these changes for the existing populations. One possible effect is the changing of expectations and norms in city neighborhoods as the population shifts. Similarly, it raises questions about the interactions between new populations and existing residents. The following analysis uses urban block groups and Calls to Service data in Durham County between 2006 and 2018. According to established indicators of gentrification, Durham block groups are gentrifying within this time period with increased population, decreased Black populations, increased rent, increased education levels, and increased income. Importantly, the majority of Durham’s urban block groups are experiencing an influx of Hispanic residents, which is different from previous gentrification trends. Next, the paper assesses implications from previous literature that with population mixing, conflict from changing norms and perceptions would lead to increased conflict and result in greater use of the police for minor incidents. The paper uses simple linear regression with all indicators on a dependent variable that measures per capita call frequency. For 911 noise complaints, disturbances, alcohol and drug incidents, and suspicion calls, the regression results demonstrate that gentrification’s common indicators did not correlate with increased calls. The same result is found when focusing on block groups generally susceptible to the effects of gentrification. Therefore, the paper concludes that the city of Durham did not experience an increase in disturbance calls with gentrification as predicted by the literature, providing important information as the city continues to grow.Item Open Access A "Right for Every American:" Understanding the Concept of a "Human Right to Health" in the Context of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(2012-12) Wilmarth, VictoriaThis project examines the role that the concept of a “human right to health” played in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It analyzes this topic through the study of speeches made by President Obama and a study of the media through a selection of newspaper op-ed pieces and radio news stories. Key speeches made by candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign were also considered to provide greater context for the health care reform debate. The concept of a “human right to health” played a minimal role in the media during the health care reform debate. Instead, the media discussion emphasized the financial needs and potential implications of reform. Media coverage also chronicled political components of the debate, in addition to a variety of divisive sub-issues. Yet, an “American right” to health played an important role in the rhetorical arc President Obama employed in order to secure the passage of the PPACA. President Obama utilized two key frameworks to discuss health care reform: namely, an American values and responsibilities framework and a financial framework. He adjusted his rhetoric and policy framing strategies according to his audience: the American Public or Congress. Ultimately both frameworks were necessary in order to pass the PPACA. This research has implications for the President’s continued health care work as he and other leaders work to implement the PPACA. It is also relevant to future health care reform efforts and human rights activism at both national and state levels.Item Open Access A Bargaining Theory of the “Edwards’ Effect” in the 2007-8 Democratic Presidential Primary(2009) Li, Alex S.2008’s Democratic Presidential Primary will go down as one of the most competitive races in recent history. Two candidates, Senators Barack Obama (Illinois) and Hillary Clinton (New York), fought a see-saw battle to obtain enough delegates/vote-shares for the Democratic nomination. Although the race eventually dwelled down to these two players, for a while it was a dynamic three-player-race with Senator John Edwards (North Carolina) in the fold. During that time, many people were puzzled by Edwards’ insisting on staying in the race even when he had no foreseeable chance of becoming the party’s eventual nominee. In this honors thesis, I construct a theoretical model to explain Edwards’ reason for staying in the race. My model found that if Edwards attains a certain amount of vote-shares, depending on the external circumstances, he could have pushed the election into a backroom negotiation phase. In this phase, he would have become the most pivotal player as his relatively low amount of vote-shares would ironically turn him into the player with the greatest negotiating power. This could have allowed him to come out of the backroom negotiation with a final prize value that would have exceeded the efforts he inputted. My paper coins this as “The Edwards Effect” and explores the ramifications and conditions for its existence.Item Open Access A Bayesian Approach to Understanding Music Popularity(2015-05-08) Shapiro, HeatherThe Billboard Hot 100 has been the main record chart for popular music in the American music industry since its first official release in 1958. Today, this rank- ing is based upon the frequency of which a song is played on the radio, streamed online, and its sales. Over time, however, the limitations of the chart have become more pronounced and record labels have tried different strategies to maximize a song’s potential on the chart in order to increase sales and success. This paper intends to analyze metadata and audio analysis features from a random sample of one million popular tracks, dating back to 1922, and assess their potential on the Billboard Hot 100 list. We compare the results of Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) to other decision tree methods for predictive accuracy. Through the use of such trees, we can determine the interaction and importance of differ- ent variables over time and their effects on a single’s success on the Billboard chart. With such knowledge, we can assess and identify past music trends, and provide producers with the steps to create the ‘perfect’ commercially successful song, ultimately removing the creative artistry from music making.Item Open Access A Black-Scholes-integrated Gaussian Process Model for American Option Pricing(2020-04-15) Kim, ChiwanAcknowledging the lack of option pricing models that simultaneously have high prediction power, high computational efficiency, and interpretations that abide by financial principles, we suggest a Black-Scholes-integrated Gaussian process (BSGP) learning model that is capable of making accurate predictions backed with fundamental financial principles. Most data-driven models boast strong computational power at the expense of inferential results that can be explained with financial principles. Vice versa, most closed-form stochastic models (principle-driven) exhibit inferential results at the cost of computational efficiency. By integrating the Black-Scholes computed price for an equivalent European option into the mean function of the Gaussian process, we can design a learning model that emphasizes the strengths of both data- driven and principle-driven approaches. Using American (SPY) call and put option price data from 2019 May to June, we condition the Black-Scholes mean Gaussian Process prior with observed data to derive the posterior distribution that is used to predict American option prices. Not only does the proposed BSGP model provide accurate predictions, high computational efficiency, and interpretable results, but it also captures the discrepancy between a theoretical option price approximation derived by the Black-Scholes and predicted price from the BSGP model.Item Open Access A Brief Review and Analysis of Spectrum Auctions in Canada(2017-05-08) MartinezCid, Ricardo; Jiao, WenfeiWe begin by explaining the importance of efficient spectrum allocation and reviewing Canada’s recent spectrum allocation history. We then use a dataset covering more than 1,200 licenses auctioned from 2001 to 2015 that seeks to account for each auction’s particular rules. Our results confirm that measures of demand such as population covered, income levels, frequency levels, bandwidth, etc. indeed drive license valuation. We also quantify the negative impact on price of setting aside particular license auctions for new entrants, suggesting that the set-aside provision constitutes an implicit subsidy for those firms.Item Open Access A Closer Look at ADC Multivariate GARCH(2009-05-04T17:49:11Z) Haftel, JaredIn the past thirty years, academia and the marketplace have devoted signi cant e ort and resources toward gaining a better understanding of how volatility changes over time in the nancial markets and how changes in one market a ect changes in another. All of these attempts involve modeling the covariance matrix of two or more asset returns using the period-earlier covariance matrix. In this paper, we outline the volatility modeling process for an Antisymmetric Dynamic Covariance (ADC) multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedacity (GARCH) model, explain the math involved, and attempt to estimate the parameters of the model using the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) optimization algorithm. We nd several barriers to estimating parameters using BFGS and suggest using alternative algorithms to estimate the ADC multivariate GARCH in the future.Item Open Access A Comparative Sociological Investigation of the Conceptions and Perceptions of Mental Health and Illness in Arica, Chile and Rome, Italy(2013-05-08) Kontchou, Nelly-AngeThis comparative study aimed to discover the principal factors that influence the perceptions of citizens in Arica, Chile and Rome, Italy toward mental illness. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate how these perceptions affect the societal acceptance of mentally ill individuals and to identify potential sources of stigma. In both cities, mental health services exist for free use by citizens, but stigma makes the use of these services and the acceptance of those who use them somewhat taboo. Past studies on the topic of mental health stigma have investigated the barriers to accessing mental health services (Acuña & Bolis 2005), the inception and effects of Basaglia’s Law (Tarabochia 2011), strategies to combat stigma (López et al. 2008) and images of mental illness in the media (Stout, Villeagas & Jennings 2004). To discover Aricans’ opinions on mental health and illness, personal interviews were administered to five mental health professionals, and a 20-question survey was administered to 131 members of the general population. In Rome, 27 subjects answered an 18-question survey as well as an interview, and 12 professionals participated in narrative interviews. From these interviews and surveys, the lack of economic, structural and human resources to effectively manage mental health programs was gleaned. Moreover, many participants identified how stigma infringed upon the human rights of those with mental illnesses and opined that they were barely accepted in society. Conclusions drawn were that stigma stems from multiple concurrent sources, and strategies to reduce it must align with each society’s unique needs. Stigma prevents people from caring for their mental health and from integrating those with mental illness.Item Open Access A Comparative Sociological Investigation of the Conceptions and Perceptions of Mental Health and Illness in Arica, Chile and Rome, Italy(2013-11-12) Kontchou, Nelly-AngeThis comparative study aimed to discover the principal factors that influence the perceptions of citizens in Arica, Chile and Rome, Italy toward mental illness. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate how these perceptions affect the societal acceptance of mentally ill individuals and to identify potential sources of stigma. In both cities, mental health services exist for free use by citizens, but stigma makes the use of these services and the acceptance of those who use them somewhat taboo. Past studies on the topic of mental health stigma have investigated the barriers to accessing mental health services (Acuña & Bolis 2005), the inception and effects of Basaglia’s Law (Tarabochia 2011), strategies to combat stigma (López et al. 2008) and images of mental illness in the media (Stout, Villeagas & Jennings 2004). To discover Aricans’ opinions on mental health and illness, personal interviews were administered to five mental health professionals, and a 20-question survey was administered to 131 members of the general population. In Rome, 27 subjects answered an 18-question survey as well as an interview, and 12 professionals participated in narrative interviews. From these interviews and surveys, the lack of economic, structural and human resources to effectively manage mental health programs was gleaned. Moreover, many participants identified how stigma infringed upon the human rights of those with mental illnesses and opined that they were barely accepted in society. Conclusions drawn were that stigma stems from multiple concurrent sources, and strategies to reduce it must align with each society’s unique needs. Stigma prevents people from caring for their mental health and from integrating those with mental illness.Item Open Access A Constitutional Crisis: The Kentucky Court of Appeals Schism, 1824-1826(2010-04-23) Nudelman, SarahThis thesis examines Kentucky’s tumultuous political history from 1824 to 1826. Prompted by power struggles between the legislature and judiciary, a court schism ensued. Dueling judicial bodies, the “Old Court” versus the “New Court,” each claimed to be the rightful Court of Appeals. In answering why a schism occurred and how it was resolved, I identify and analyze the underlying critical yet subtle constitutional issues. When Kentucky’s debtor relief laws were ruled unconstitutional in 1823, the legislative majority and its constituents were outraged. Although statesmen initially appeared politically-motivated, the debate mushroomed into a critique of their democratic form of government and what powers the state constitution sanctioned to each branch. Words led to action. In 1824, the legislature enacted a law to disband and replace the original court. However, the “former” judges refused to resign causing two tribunals to exist concurrently. A new constitutional question emerged: Did the legislature have the authority to dissolve the highest state court? Two political parties formed espousing opposite viewpoints and supporting the corresponding “legitimate” court. Over the next two years, the parties addressed “the people,” the true ruler of the republic, about this issue. Both parties utilized the constitution as an authoritative force, but presented arguments based on competing notions about republicanism, popular sovereignty, the written constitution, separation of powers, and judicial review. The thesis distills these positions to discern the political ideologies fueling the controversy. Ultimately, the factions, legislature, and contending courts entrusted “the people”—provided with facts and an awareness of democratic ideals—to resolve the controversy. Kentuckians utilized the annual state elections to voice popular will. In 1826, the legislature reflected the citizens’ wishes by repealing the law that disbanded the original Court of Appeals. This ended the schism and clarified the scope of judicial jurisdiction. Kentuckians reconciled discrepancies within the text and interpretations of the state constitution, the written will of “the people.” In the process, conceptions of popular sovereignty shifted. This scholarship provides a unique case study of popular constitutionalism, in which all three branches of government simultaneously appealed to the voters’ constitutional powers.Item Open Access A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Timely Otitis Media Treatment through a Community Health Worker Delivered School Screening Program(2023-04-19) Johri, MohiniIn certain settings, otitis-media related hearing loss forms a large proportion of total hearing loss cases. Delays to timely otitis media diagnosis and appropriate treatment leads to more serious otitis media cases, sometimes chronic suppurative otitis media, which may lead to a permanent hearing loss. A primary driver in the delay to diagnosis and treatment is a lack of easily accessed, trained healthcare workers in the identification and treatment of otitis media. We used an exemplar setting, Zambia, to understand the costs and potential effects of community health worker-delivered screening program for school-age children. The goal of this analysis was to highlight otitis media as a driver of hearing loss and understand the cost-effectiveness of timely diagnosis/treatment to prevent downstream hearing loss. The treatment pathway for otitis media treatment was identified using a cascade of care framework, as well as the effects of increased otitis media treatment access though stakeholder engagement metrics. The treatment for otitis media in this analysis was conservative treatment, aural toileting and topical antibiotics. Additionally, the costs of otitis media and chronic suppurative otitis media and the proportion of both metrics treated in Nigeria were found. Training costs of a program were included in the treatment pathway to adequately model the scale-up strategy. Simulated persons experience yearly age- and sex- specific probabilities of acquiring hearing loss, the prevalence of which is 3.6% in Nigeria. The population of interest was six-year-old children in Nigeria suffering from otitis media across their lifetime. Strategies for comparison to increase appropriate treatment of otitis media included current care and the implementation of a community health worker-delivered screening program. Main measures included lifetime undiscounted and discounted (3%/year) costs and QALYs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) by Nigerian standard (<3x $2,097.09 was considered cost-effective). Current detection (CD) resulted in 19.22 discounted average person-years of otitis media treatment compared to 19.23 discounted average person-years with implementation of a CHW delivered screening program. Lifetime total per-person undiscounted costs were $64.26 USD for CD and $62.26 USD with the screening program intervention, indicating that the screen is both less costly and more effective than not screening. Results were most sensitive to variations in cost of screen, cost of CSOM, rAOM, pOME resolution from screening, and CI device cost. Limitations included input uncertainty given limited data sources for similar settings. Additionally, we had to use a utility decrement for moderate hearing loss since there is not one in the model that we identified specifically for CSOM. We project that a community health worker delivered screening program is cost-effective by US standards. Further research is needed to determine whether screening at younger ages or different treatments for otitis media is cost-effective.Item Open Access A Diplomatic Sequel to the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870): United States President Rutherford B. Hayes' 1878 Arbitration for Paraguay and Argentina(2022-04-20) Connors, Austin W.Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), the 19th United States (U.S) President, served as arbiter in 1878 for Paraguay and Argentina when the countries’ governments disputed a portion of the South American Grand Chaco after the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870). To present their claims to Hayes, Paraguayan and Argentine diplomats submitted thousands of pages of argumentative evidence. For Paraguay’s leaders, a successful arbitration was a desirable victory for the nation-state, which was devastated from the war. For Argentina’s leaders, the arbitration was a chance to aggrandize its physical size with territory also claimed by Paraguay but was only justified after Brazil, its wartime ally but post-war competitor, had successfully annexed land from Paraguay in 1872. As the first to use internal U.S State Department sources, the thesis lays out the origin and mechanics of the Hayes Arbitration while advancing an explanation as why the award favored Paraguay. In doing so, it explains why Hayes is a national hero in Paraguay, despite his perceived mediocrity in the U.S, as his award was pivotal for the recovery of the morale of the weak nation-state in the aftermath of the devastating war.Item Open Access Item Open Access A Green Chemistry Analysis of Metal Complexes by MALDI-TOF(2017-05-05) Jernigan, ChristopherMatrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) is a type of ionization that is commonly used for the analysis of high molecular weight biological compounds, but has also been used for metal complex analysis. By combining the work presented in previously published literature on low molecular weight techniques and metal complexes, an analysis of different methods was evaluated. Spectra of transition metals chelated by three different ligands using different chelating atoms were acquired. To analyze the complexes, four different matrices were used with three different plating methods. In the evaluation of the different methods, the amount of solvent used was recorded and compared to a similar ionization technique, electrospray ionization (ESI). The experiment demonstrated that MALDI had the capability to ionize more complexes while using less solvent than ESI.Item Open Access A Home of Our Own: Social Reproduction of a Precarious, Migrant Class(2019-04-29) Aguilar, ErickMany of the recent migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have experienced the rise of drug-related gang violence and declining economic conditions in their home countries brought on by transnational agreements. With the ongoing collapse of their communities and homes via these conditions, many of these migrants move to the United States and join precarious jobs, such as agricultural labor. This thesis explores the ways in which family connections, inside and outside the home, affects the decision-making processes that leads migrant parents to join these precarious labor regimes. Through participant-observation and semi-structured interviews with migrant mothers and fathers from Honduras and Mexico living in rural towns in Eastern North Carolina, I investigate the social reproductive forces of the family that help fuel mass migration into rural North Carolina. Furthermore, I use my own experience as the son of an agricultural worker to complement my findings within the fields. My findings show that migrant mothers choose to migrate to North Carolina to raise their sons in proximity to their fathers, which they believe will allow their sons to learn how to become successful laborers in the future. Additionally, migrant parents believe that the home can be a place where the trauma of displacement can be undone. These findings show a glimmer of how lives can be structured and shaped outside of wage labor.Item Open Access A Life of One's Own: Women's Education and Economic Empowerment in Kenya(2011-05-04) Cannon, AislynnItem Open Access A maximum entropy-based approach for the description of the conformational ensemble of calmodulin from paramagnetic NMR(2016-05-04) Thelot, FrancoisCharacterizing protein dynamics is an essential step towards a better understanding of protein function. Experimentally, we can access information about protein dynamics from paramagnetic NMR data such as pseudocontact shifts, which integrate ensemble-averaged information about the motion of proteins. In this report, we recognize that the relative position of the two domains of calmodulin can be represented as the evolution of one of the domains in the space of Euclidean motions. From this perspective, we suggest a maximum entropy-based approach for finding a probability distribution on SE(3) satisfying experimental NMR measurements. While sampling of SE(3) is performed with the ensemble generator EOM, the proposed framework can be extended to uniform sampling of the space of Euclidean motions. At the end of this study, we find that the most represented protein conformations for calmodulin corresponds to conformations in which both protein domains are in close contact, despite being largely different from each other. Such a representation agrees with the random coil linker model, and sharply differs with the extended crystal structure of calmodulin.Item Open Access A Model of Speculative Attacks and Devaluations in Korea and Indonesia(2009) Lin, Austin YiSince the beginning of the Bretton Woods era, currency crises and speculative attacks have affected the world economy. This paper presents a model, originally derived by Blanco and Garber, that predicts one-period ahead probabilities of a currency devaluation and the expected exchange rate conditional on a devaluation. The analysis is then applied to Korea and Indonesia during the periods of 1960-1980 and 1969-1989, respectively. Despite numerous devaluations during both periods, all of the calculated probabilities of devaluation in the next period are close to zero for both Korea and Indonesia. However, it is promising that rises in predicted probabilities of devaluation are observed before actual devaluations for Indonesia.Item Open Access A Model of the Foot and Ankle in Running(2011-05-11) Waggoner, BoWe present several variations on a model and simulation of the foot and ankle during the course of one running stride. We summarize the motivation behind the model and similar work in the field, then describe the model and the results obtained. In the model, the shin and foot are each represented by thin rods, while two major muscle groups are modeled as exponential springs. The ground is modeled as a network of points connected by damped linear springs. Results on ground impact forces and physiological parameters are presented. In particular, we find that heel striking tends to produce higher peak impact forces than forefoot striking, we search for foot parameters producing the most effective foot strike, we compare force-time data obtained to experimental results, and we compare the effects of different ground and shoe properties on foot strike.