Mini Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M Tech: Business Administration in the FACULTY of BUSINESS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2009 / The tourism industry is subject to the perception of the tourist whether the chosen destination is perceived as a safe destination. No tourist wants their planned vacation interrupted by acts of violence, placing his and his family’s lives in danger. The attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001, has changed the way we travelled for ever. The tourism industry realized that no destination, no mater how far removed from the so called “hot spots” (areas of conflict), could be seen as a safe destination. Acts of violence can occur at any destination at any time. This attack also had a significant impact on the way tourist travel and how they plan their vacations. Added security at all international airports were upgraded to ensure passenger safety, but with that came delays and longer check in times. All of these have a negative impact on the airlines. Tourist also opted for the more safer destinations, those that are removed form potential conflict areas. In the months following directly after the attacks, most popular destination experienced a significant decline in tourist numbers. Major airline across the globe also lost out on revenue, with some of them being forced to close their operations. This had an impact on employment figures in the tourism industry. The attacks however had a positive side to it as well. Some destinations benefited in tourism numbers, due to the fact that these destinations were seen a safe areas to spend one’s vacation at. South Africa, and in particular the Western Cape, is one of these areas that benefited with increasing tourism numbers, due to its status as a safe destination.

Mexican migrants living in New York City have not uprooted themselves from their homeland as did migrants from previous generations. These contemporary migrants have engaged themselves in the phenomenon of transnationalism, which is characterized by the building and maintenance of simultaneous linkages in both the migrants' country of settlement and their country of origin. New York City is the destination of a large number of Mexican migrants from different regions of the state of Puebla. Leaders of this Mexican state are increasingly engaging in new practices so that the Poblano (people from Puebla) population abroad remains socially, politically, culturally and economically part of the state from which it originated. This thesis is an ethnography of Casa Puebla, an organization in New York created conjointly by the Poblano migrants and their state government. It explores and describes the practices and activities employed by the leadership of this organization for involving migrants in a transnational experience. It also explores the role of this organization as a venue for the construction of a deterritorialized state of Puebla in New York and an "imagined" Poblano community. By strengthening the migrants' identification with their state of origin, the state can make new claims for their loyalty and sustain political, social and economic relationships between the Poblano migrants and their state of origin despite their living in another country. The creation of transnational organizations sponsored by the state of origin reflects the growing institutionalization of migration orchestrated by the sending regional states and highlights the role of the middle entity--the regional state— in the construction of the transnational experience. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Simulation is a powerful technique to study complex problems and systems. This thesis explores two different problems. Part 1 (Chapters 2 and 3) focuses on the theory and practice of the problem of simulating graphs with a prescribed degree sequence. Part 2 (Chapter 4) focuses on how simulation can be useful to assess policy changes in emergency medical services (EMS) systems. In particular, and partially motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we build a simulation model based on New York City’s EMS system and use it to assess a change in its hospital transport policy. In Chapter 2, we study the problem of sampling uniformly from discrete or continuous product sets subject to linear constraints. This family of problems includes sampling weighted bipartite, directed, and undirected graphs with given degree sequences. We analyze two candidate distributions for sampling from the target set. The first one maximizes entropy subject to satisfying the constraints in expectation. The second one is the distribution from an exponential family that maximizes the minimum probability over the target set. Our main result gives a condition under which the maximum entropy and the max-min distributions coincide. For the discrete case, we also develop a sequential procedure that updates the maximum entropy distribution after some components have been sampled. This procedure sacrifices the uniformity of the samples in exchange for always sampling a valid point in the target set. We show that all points in the target set are sampled with positive probability, and we find a lower bound for that probability. To address the loss of uniformity, we use importance sampling weights. The quality of these weights is affected by the order in which the components are simulated. We propose an adaptive rule for this order to reduce the skewness of the weights of the sequential algorithm. We also present a monotonicity property of the max-min probability. In Chapter 3, we leverage the general results obtained in the previous chapter and apply them to the particular case of simulating bipartite or directed graphs with given degree sequences. This problem is also equivalent to the one of sampling 0–1 matrices with fixed row and column sums. In particular, the structure of the graph problem allows for a simple iterative algorithm to find the maximum entropy distribution. The sequential algorithm described previously also simplifies in this setting, and we use it in an example of an inter-bank network. In additional numerical examples, we confirm that the adaptive rule, proposed in the previous chapter, does improve the importance sampling weights of the sequential algorithm. Finally, in Chapter 4, we build and test an emergency medical services (EMS) simulation model, tailored for New York City’s EMS system. In most EMS systems, patients are transported by ambulance to the closest most appropriate hospital. However, in extreme cases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this policy may lead to hospital overloading, which can have detrimental effects on patients. To address this concern, we propose an optimization-based, data-driven hospital load balancing approach. The approach finds a trade-off between short transport times for patients that are not high acuity while avoiding hospital overloading. To test the new rule, we run the simulation model and use historical EMS incident data from the worst weeks of the pandemic as a model input. Our simulation indicates that 911 patient load balancing is beneficial to hospital occupancy rates and is a reasonable rule for non-critical 911 patient transports. The load balancing rule has been recently implemented in New York City’s EMS system. This work is part of a broader collaboration between Columbia University and New York City’s Fire Department.

This creative nonfiction dissertation is a book of essays that explore the author's life and relationship to Upstate New York. The project also connects this experience to gender and trauma. Though the topics range from local history to cosmetic surgical procedures, the essays are collected by how they illuminate cultural tensions and universal truths. These essays are preceded by a critical preface that examines the differences between essays collections, books of essays, and argues for the recognition of narrative nonfiction as an artistic choice.

Objective. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the COVID-19-related waivers and the number of Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) meals served, accessibility of SFSP sites, and implementation of the SFSP sponsored by the Office of Food and Nutrition Service (OFNS) of the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE). Methods. This study is a convergent parallel mixed methods study. In the quantitative component, there are two research questions (“research question 1” and “research question 2”); the design is a non-experimental, one-group, completely within-subjects design; and the unit of analysis is NYC DOE geographic districts (n = 32). Research question 1 is “Among NYC DOE geographic districts, was there a significant difference in the number of SFSP meals served during the summers when the COVID-19-related waivers were used compared to the summers without the waivers?” Research question 2 is “Among NYC DOE geographic districts, was there a significant difference in the accessibility of SFSP sites during the summers when the COVID-19-related waivers were used compared to the summers without the waivers?” Both research questions 1 and 2 compare the first summer of the waivers (2020) to the six summers prior to the waivers (2014-2019) and the second summer of the waivers (2021) to the six summers prior to the waivers (2014-2019). In the qualitative component, there is one research question (“research question 3”); the methods consist of a document analysis of the policy memos for the waivers (n = 8) using the READ approach for document analysis of health policies. Research question 3 is “What were the intended relationships between the COVID-19-related waivers and SFSP participation, site accessibility, and implementation according to the policy memos for the waivers?” Data Analysis. For research question 1, the statistical tests are the repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) omnibus test and post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni adjustment. The primary outcome is the total number of SFSP meals served per student. For research question 2, the statistical tests are the repeated-measures ANOVA omnibus test and post-hoc analysis with the Bonferroni adjustment when the full sample is analyzed (n = 32), and the Friedman test and sign test with the Bonferroni adjustment when high poverty districts (n = 16), high non-White districts (n = 16), and high enrollment districts (n = 16) are analyzed. The primary outcome is the number of SFSP sites per 1,000 students. For research question 3, the analysis consists of deductive coding, inductive coding, and identification of themes. Results. For research question 1, the results show a significant increase in the number of SFSP meals served per student during the first summer of the waivers compared to summers 2016-2019 (p ≤ 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in the number of SFSP meals served per student during the second summer of the waivers compared to summers 2014-2019. Among the secondary outcomes, there was a significant increase in the number of breakfast meals served in August per student during both the first and second summer of the waivers compared to summers 2014-2019 (p < 0.05). For research question 2, the results show a significant decrease in the number of SFSP sites per 1,000 students during the first summer of the waivers compared to summers 2014-2019 (p < 0.01). Similarly, there was a significant decrease during the second summer of the waivers compared to summers 2015-2019 (p < 0.01). For research question 3, the results show that the Meal Service Time Flexibility Waiver may address pre-pandemic barriers in the SFSP, but the Parent/Guardian Meal Pickup Waiver may cause implementation issues. Conclusions. Among NYC DOE geographic districts, the waivers may increase the reach of breakfast meals served in August while decreasing the number of SFSP sites and making SFSP implementation easier. There is a need for a pilot study or more controlled study to establish causal relationships. Policymakers should consider making the Meal Service Time Flexibility Waiver and the Non-Congregate Feeding Waiver permanent flexibilities for summer meal programs.

Trans and queer children are experiencing discrimination starting in the earliest years of schooling. In a paradoxical era of increased support for transgender and queer children on the one hand, and persistent gender violence on the other, this study examines how the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) gender policy is taken up in Early Childhood Education practice. In particular, I ask: (a) What are early childhood teachers’ understanding of NYCDOE’s policy? (b) How do the larger social and material contexts, shape teachers’ enactments of the policy? (c) What do teachers’ understandings and enactments of NYC gender policy look like in their everyday classroom practices? I use a critical policy-as-practice conceptual framework that does not take policy for granted but understands that embedded in all the policy processes, there is always a great deal of negotiation of power, where some stakeholders are empowered and other perspectives are silenced. Through semi-structured interviews with district policymakers, school administrators, and early childhood teachers, this study unveils how different actors took up NYCDOE’s gender policy in their practice, in accordance with their own ideas, motivations, and broader social and material contexts. Findings indicate that the policy formation processes excluded the knowledge and perspectives of school communities and grassroots trans activist movements. Principals and teachers had little knowledge of the Guidelines on Gender and resources available, while several policy content and procedures reproduced gender and racial violence. Moreover, the sediment construct of childhood innocence shaped early childhood teachers’ gender-justice practices. Shifting understandings of gender, without revising understandings of childhood, this study concludes, hinders the possibility of transformative change.

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The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role and influence imagination plays on a building for the arts. The American Film Institute is considered to be a building for the production and study as well as the presentation of film. Because imagination is the most important tool the film maker possesses and is that which the general audience becomes a part of, this thesis strives to produce a building which enhances this tool. Steel and glass have been chosen as two of the three primary materials in the film institute for their reflective properties as well as their specific properties to distort reflections. Concrete was chosen as the third primary material not only for its compressive strength, but for its many possible finishes and its compatibility (being non-reflective) with the other two primary materials. The institute will be created in such a way that even in their permanence they will provide for a changing space which will make for a re-occurring newness each time it is visited, thus sparking the imagination. To the user of the institute, the space will each time be new. It takes on this characteristic as its users encounter their own reflection as well as the reflections - sometimes distorted - of others. This is enhanced as movement occurs not always in a straight line nor only at one level. Shade and shadow from stationary light, as further enhance the imagination. “The spatial area, whatever it may be—room, stage, garden, street—is the screen; the moving objects and people are the picture-in-solution reconstituted as a transient entity in time and space.”³ / Master of Architecture

Tableau d'honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2011-2012 / Les grandes métropoles sont des lieux entendus d'instabilités et de démesure. La théorie sociale et architecturale sur les 'grandes villes' trouve un déséquilibre équivalent dans la condition psychologique métropolitaine. Le corps humain, naturellement éveillé aux moindres sons ou mouvements, se retrouve forcé, dans la cohue et la congestion urbaine, à une attitude inconsciemment blasée. Cette résistance contre la sur-stimulation devient un acte de distanciation intellectuelle, un décalage mental entre l'individu et la foule, l'individu et la ville, et entre l'individu et sa propre subjectivité. Au-delà du blasé se trouve la vie aliénée décrite par Georg Simmel : la vie sous la structure hautement organisée de la ville d'argent et d'échanges. Cette recherche regarde ensuite les produits de modernisation de trois grandes capitales de la modernité, soit Paris, Berlin et New York, y montrant l'évolution de la rationalité moderne avec les grands boulevards, les foules, les monuments, les expositions, la neurasthénie, l'électricité, les gratte-ciels ou les amusements. Un vertige métropolitain devient une situation de transgression urbaine, un asynchronisme entre la subjectivité et la métropole rationnelle de la modernité.

Three historic communities with varying levels of social, economic and historic preservation issues are studied in the following chapters to determine motivations for negotiating community benefits agreements (CBAs), and to determine motivations for the specific benefits outlined within each community’s respective CBA. The case study research examines the historic preservation language within each CBA as well as how the development itself and the other benefits prescribed in the CBAs will positively or negatively impact each community. The case study communities demonstrate that CBAs can be used as historic preservation planning and implementation tools. By including thoughtful and transparent community benefits language, a community will be able to use the tools – i.e. financing, technical assistance, advice and guidance, etc. – provided to them within the CBA to successfully carry out the benefits promised within the CBA. / Department of Architecture