Development of local homeland security networks in the state of Florida: A social network analysis approach

How do local homeland security organizations respond to catastrophic events such as hurricanes and acts of terrorism? Among the most important aspects of this response are these organizations ability to adapt to the uncertain nature of these "focusing events" (Birkland 1997). They are often behind the curve, seeing response as a linear process, when in fact it is a complex, multifaceted process that requires understanding the interactions between the fiscal pressures facing local governments, the institutional pressures of working within a new regulatory framework and the political pressures of bringing together different levels of government with different perspectives and agendas. ^ This dissertation has focused on tracing the factors affecting the individuals and institutions planning, preparing, responding and recovering from natural and man-made disasters. Using social network analysis, my study analyzes the interactions between the individuals and institutions that respond to these "focusing events." In practice, it is the combination of budgetary, institutional, and political pressures or constraints interacting with each other which resembles a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). ^ To investigate this system, my study evaluates the evolution of two separate sets of organizations composed of first responders (Fire Chiefs, Emergency Management Coordinators) and community volunteers organized in the state of Florida over the last fifteen years. Using a social network analysis approach, my dissertation analyzes the interactions between Citizen Corps Councils (CCCs) and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in the state of Florida from 1996–2011. It is the pattern of interconnections that occur over time that are the focus of this study. ^ The social network analysis revealed an increase in the amount and density of connections between these organizations over the last fifteen years. The analysis also exposed the underlying patterns in these connections; that as the networks became more complex they also became more decentralized though not in any uniform manner. The present study brings to light a story of how communities have adapted to the ever changing circumstances that are sine qua non of natural and man-made disasters.^

The academic orientation of first and second generation Nicaraguan immigrant adolescents

The rise in diversity and numbers of U.S. immigrants since 1965 has spawned a number of studies about the education of these immigrants and their children. Most of this research finds that school-age immigrants arriving in the last 20 years have the highest drop-out rates, lowest test scores, and are less likely than their native born peers to go to college. This dissertation examines the experiences of Nicaraguan immigrant youth living in Miami and the factors that make some of these adolescents feel positive about education, while others have negative attitudes about education. The method for this study combined structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and data collected from a larger data set to understand the academic orientation of 25 Nicaraguan youths over a 4-year period. One of the independent variables is length of time in the United States. During the time of my initial contact with the subjects, 6 had been living in the United States for less than 3 years, 14 had been living in the United States between 6 and 12 years, and 6 had been living in the in the United States most or all of their lives (either they were born in the United States or had resided here for over 12 years). ^ Results are based on the students' particular experiences, which influence the dependent variable, academic orientation. Besides length of time, the independent variables also include ethnic self-identity, perceived discrimination, social capital in Miami, and peer influence. The study finds that those who are very recent arrivals have a “dual frame of reference,” that is, they directly compare their educational opportunities here in the United States, with their prior, often less favorable, situation in their homeland. Many of those who were born in Nicaragua, but have been residing in Miami most of their lives, have a less favorable view of education based on a higher degree of perceived discrimination. However, those who are second generation Nicaraguans deliberately take advantage of the strength inherent in their co-ethnic community unique to Miami. Recognition of this ethnic community prompts them to perceive education as worthwhile. ^

Mitigating inconsistencies by coupling data cleaning, filtering, and contextual data validation in wireless sensor networks

With the advent of peer to peer networks, and more importantly sensor networks, the desire to extract useful information from continuous and unbounded streams of data has become more prominent. For example, in tele-health applications, sensor based data streaming systems are used to continuously and accurately monitor Alzheimer's patients and their surrounding environment. Typically, the requirements of such applications necessitate the cleaning and filtering of continuous, corrupted and incomplete data streams gathered wirelessly in dynamically varying conditions. Yet, existing data stream cleaning and filtering schemes are incapable of capturing the dynamics of the environment while simultaneously suppressing the losses and corruption introduced by uncertain environmental, hardware, and network conditions. Consequently, existing data cleaning and filtering paradigms are being challenged. This dissertation develops novel schemes for cleaning data streams received from a wireless sensor network operating under non-linear and dynamically varying conditions. The study establishes a paradigm for validating spatio-temporal associations among data sources to enhance data cleaning. To simplify the complexity of the validation process, the developed solution maps the requirements of the application on a geometrical space and identifies the potential sensor nodes of interest. Additionally, this dissertation models a wireless sensor network data reduction system by ascertaining that segregating data adaptation and prediction processes will augment the data reduction rates. The schemes presented in this study are evaluated using simulation and information theory concepts. The results demonstrate that dynamic conditions of the environment are better managed when validation is used for data cleaning. They also show that when a fast convergent adaptation process is deployed, data reduction rates are significantly improved. Targeted applications of the developed methodology include machine health monitoring, tele-health, environment and habitat monitoring, intermodal transportation and homeland security.

Through the prisms of gender and power: Agency in international courtship between Colombian women and American men

Since 1999 Colombia has experienced dramatic increases in emigration, particularly the emigration of women towards the U.S. as fiancées of U.S. citizens or residents. Parallel to this trend is the increased number of websites facilitating these Colombian-American matches. This dissertation investigates the agency of Colombian women and American men who pursue romantic courtship through the services of International Marriage Brokers (IMBs) from the “Gendered Geographies of Power” (GGP) framework of analysis. It examines how both groups’ social locations, their positioning in multiple axes of differentiation including gender, nationality and social class, affects how and why they exert their agency across and within different geographic scales. Most importantly, it investigates the role the imagination plays (imagination work) in both men and women’s agency, an aspect of the GGP framework that has been under-researched and theorized to date. The research also finds that this imagination work is promoted and cultivated in deeply gendered ways by IMBs seeking to profit off this transnational courtship. ^ Employing data collected via interviews and content analysis of IMBs’ websites, the dissertation analyzes comparatively the expectations each group (women, men and IMBs) bring to their imagination work and experiences of the courtship marketplace. A central question posed and answered in the dissertation is “What do women and men courting each other in cyberspace seek and do they find it?” The dissertation finds that the men seek “traditional” women and the women seek “liberated” less “macho” men. Ironically, the men find Colombian women who are among the most “liberated” women in their homeland but who downplay this aspect of themselves in order to strategically find a more modern man and migrate abroad where they expect to find greater personal and professional opportunities.^

Automated detection of hematological abnormalities through classification of flow cytometric data patterns

Flow Cytometry analyzers have become trusted companions due to their ability to perform fast and accurate analyses of human blood. The aim of these analyses is to determine the possible existence of abnormalities in the blood that have been correlated with serious disease states, such as infectious mononucleosis, leukemia, and various cancers. Though these analyzers provide important feedback, it is always desired to improve the accuracy of the results. This is evidenced by the occurrences of misclassifications reported by some users of these devices. It is advantageous to provide a pattern interpretation framework that is able to provide better classification ability than is currently available. Toward this end, the purpose of this dissertation was to establish a feature extraction and pattern classification framework capable of providing improved accuracy for detecting specific hematological abnormalities in flow cytometric blood data. ^ This involved extracting a unique and powerful set of shift-invariant statistical features from the multi-dimensional flow cytometry data and then using these features as inputs to a pattern classification engine composed of an artificial neural network (ANN). The contribution of this method consisted of developing a descriptor matrix that can be used to reliably assess if a donor’s blood pattern exhibits a clinically abnormal level of variant lymphocytes, which are blood cells that are potentially indicative of disorders such as leukemia and infectious mononucleosis. ^ This study showed that the set of shift-and-rotation-invariant statistical features extracted from the eigensystem of the flow cytometric data pattern performs better than other commonly-used features in this type of disease detection, exhibiting an accuracy of 80.7%, a sensitivity of 72.3%, and a specificity of 89.2%. This performance represents a major improvement for this type of hematological classifier, which has historically been plagued by poor performance, with accuracies as low as 60% in some cases. This research ultimately shows that an improved feature space was developed that can deliver improved performance for the detection of variant lymphocytes in human blood, thus providing significant utility in the realm of suspect flagging algorithms for the detection of blood-related diseases.^

Boy exile turned saint: Elián Gonzalez as a contested religio-ideological symbol among cuban-american catholics

This Master's thesis explores the hypothesis that Elian Gonzalez functions as a religious and ideological symbol for Cuban-Americans similarly to La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Both La Caridad and Eliin are contested symbols among most Cuban and Cuban-American individuals, meaning both groups appropriate them toward their religious and ideological ends. The Virgin aids in the formulation of a collective identity for members of the Cuban exile community. Her shrine in Miami bridges the spatial and temporal gap between the exile community and the homeland of Cuba and represents the exile's hope for a return to a free Cuba. Elian functions as a metaphor of the Cuban exile experience, and thus a multi-leveled, transnational, religious and ideological symbol. In order to assess this, theoretical and journalistic materials are used, along with personal interviews and participant observation. This methodology is used to determine the function Elian serves for this community.

Mitigating Inconsistencies by Coupling Data Cleaning, Filtering, and Contextual Data Validation in Wireless Sensor Networks

With the advent of peer to peer networks, and more importantly sensor networks, the desire to extract useful information from continuous and unbounded streams of data has become more prominent. For example, in tele-health applications, sensor based data streaming systems are used to continuously and accurately monitor Alzheimer's patients and their surrounding environment. Typically, the requirements of such applications necessitate the cleaning and filtering of continuous, corrupted and incomplete data streams gathered wirelessly in dynamically varying conditions. Yet, existing data stream cleaning and filtering schemes are incapable of capturing the dynamics of the environment while simultaneously suppressing the losses and corruption introduced by uncertain environmental, hardware, and network conditions. Consequently, existing data cleaning and filtering paradigms are being challenged. This dissertation develops novel schemes for cleaning data streams received from a wireless sensor network operating under non-linear and dynamically varying conditions. The study establishes a paradigm for validating spatio-temporal associations among data sources to enhance data cleaning. To simplify the complexity of the validation process, the developed solution maps the requirements of the application on a geometrical space and identifies the potential sensor nodes of interest. Additionally, this dissertation models a wireless sensor network data reduction system by ascertaining that segregating data adaptation and prediction processes will augment the data reduction rates. The schemes presented in this study are evaluated using simulation and information theory concepts. The results demonstrate that dynamic conditions of the environment are better managed when validation is used for data cleaning. They also show that when a fast convergent adaptation process is deployed, data reduction rates are significantly improved. Targeted applications of the developed methodology include machine health monitoring, tele-health, environment and habitat monitoring, intermodal transportation and homeland security.

Through the Prisms of Gender and Power: Agency in International Courtship between Colombian Women and American Men

Since 1999 Colombia has experienced dramatic increases in emigration, particularly the emigration of women towards the U.S. as fiancées of U.S. citizens or residents. Parallel to this trend is the increased number of websites facilitating these Colombian-American matches. This dissertation investigates the agency of Colombian women and American men who pursue romantic courtship through the services of International Marriage Brokers (IMBs) from the “Gendered Geographies of Power” (GGP) framework of analysis. It examines how both groups’ social locations, their positioning in multiple axes of differentiation including gender, nationality and social class, affects how and why they exert their agency across and within different geographic scales. Most importantly, it investigates the role the imagination plays (imagination work) in both men and women’s agency, an aspect of the GGP framework that has been under-researched and theorized to date. The research also finds that this imagination work is promoted and cultivated in deeply gendered ways by IMBs seeking to profit off this transnational courtship. Employing data collected via interviews and content analysis of IMBs’ websites, the dissertation analyzes comparatively the expectations each group (women, men and IMBs) bring to their imagination work and experiences of the courtship marketplace. A central question posed and answered in the dissertation is “What do women and men courting each other in cyberspace seek and do they find it?” The dissertation finds that the men seek “traditional” women and the women seek “liberated” less “macho” men. Ironically, the men find Colombian women who are among the most “liberated” women in their homeland but who downplay this aspect of themselves in order to strategically find a more modern man and migrate abroad where they expect to find greater personal and professional opportunities.

City of a hundred fires

These poems capture the "coming of age" experiences encountered by a Cuban-American narrator in the United States and in Cuba. The poems in the book appear chronologically, that is to say, not in the order they were written, but according to the age of the poet-speaker, ranging from early adolescence to young adulthood. The poems in Part I reveal the fragmented traditions and heritage inherited by a first generation Cuban-American, while questioning the complex merging of the two cultures encountered by the poet-speaker. In Part II, the majority of the poems are set in Cuba, as the poet-speaker travels through the living history of his "homeland" to explore the cultural roots discovered in its landscapes, traditions, relatives and towns, like Cienfuegos-"the city of a hundred fires". The style and language of the poetry become unique to the poet-speaker's own cultural vision, the Cuban-American experience transformed to lyric poetry.

On the Threshold of Paradise and Present: Memory in Contemporary Cuban – American Literature

The exile leaving his or her homeland for new and unknown territory travels with much more than just luggage and the clothes on his or her back. He or she carries a weighty collection of memories. Available for the exile in times when the harmony of the past is far removed from the difficult circumstances present during the process of cultural assimilation, these memories present an opportunity for the exile to fashion for him or herself an identity that mimics the realities of life in the home left behind. In this creative endeavor, I seek to examine the powerful potential of memory as it is exercised by a collection of Cubans and Cuban-Americans in different corners of the United States. Analyzing Achy Obejas’ Memory Mambo, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Ana Menéndez’s In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, and Elías Miguel Muñoz’s Brand New Memory, I aim to trace the suggestive potential of memory as it is used by each of the characters in these works in an effort to reconcile their Cuban identities with the ones that are in the process of creation in the U.S. I will borrow from a collection of literature dealing with identity and exile, relevant graduate-level theses on Cuban-American literature, as well as theoretical perspectives on memory formation and nostalgia in order to trace the various ways in which memory is relied on in the process of cultural assimilation and emotional coping. Being presented in Miami, which hosts the largest concentration of Cuban immigrants, this thesis aims to present itself as a reflective tool for Cubans and Cuban-Americans who may find value in seeing their personal sentiments portrayed in literature, thus allowing for a potential reevaluation of identity. If the existing literature on my topic of analysis reveals anything, it is that the scope of my project is one that has not been inspected previously, thus making my analytical contribution a new one that will add a new interpretive set of lens through which readers of contemporary Cuban-American literature can examine the works.

On the Threshold of Paradise and Present: Memory in Contemporary Cuban‐American Literature

The exile leaving his or her homeland for new and unknown territory travels with much more than just luggage and the clothes on his or her back. He or she carries a weighty collection of memories. Available for the exile in times when the harmony of the past is far removed from the difficult circumstances present during the process of cultural assimilation, these memories present an opportunity for the exile to fashion for him or herself an identity that mimics the realities of life in the home left behind. In this creative endeavor, I seek to examine the powerful potential of memory as it is exercised by a collection of Cubans and Cuban-Americans in different corners of the United States. Analyzing Achy Obejas’ Memory Mambo, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Ana Menéndez’s In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, and Elías Miguel Muñoz’s Brand New Memory, I aim to trace the suggestive potential of memory as it is used by each of the characters in these works in an effort to reconcile their Cuban identities with the ones that are in the process of creation in the U.S. I will borrow from a collection of literature dealing with identity and exile, relevant graduate-level theses on Cuban-American literature, as well as theoretical perspectives on memory formation and nostalgia in order to trace the various ways in which memory is relied on in the process of cultural assimilation and emotional coping. Being presented in Miami, which hosts the largest concentration of Cuban immigrants, this thesis aims to present itself as a reflective tool for Cubans and Cuban-Americans who may find value in seeing their personal sentiments portrayed in literature, thus allowing for a potential reevaluation of identity. If the existing literature on my topic of analysis reveals anything, it is that the scope of my project is one that has not been inspected previously, thus making my analytical contribution a new one that will add a new interpretive set of lens through which readers of contemporary Cuban-American literature can examine the works.

Of Taffeta and Soil

OF TAFFETA AND SOIL is a collection of poetry unified through images of Argentinean and Floridian soil, flora, and fauna, and by themes of geographic and emotional dislocation, memory, and the quest for home. These images are brought forth in lyrical poems that question the growth and settling of a romantic partnership, domestic turmoil and resolution, and the constant tension between self and community. Mostly written in free verse, the collection also utilizes forms such as prose poem, haiku, and sonnet, for more formal unity. Section one chronicles and explores a romantic relationship through attraction, passion, disappointment, and self-awareness. Section two is a long poem that centers on the speaker’s continuous struggle to come to terms with her present adult life while still remembering and idealizing a homeland. Finally, the collection ends with two sections that work toward self-acceptance, forgiveness, and evolution via community, family, travel and nature.