Digital Commons Network^™

Demonstration Of Ultra-High Recyclable Energy Densities In Domain-Engineered Ferroelectric Films, Hongbo Cheng, Jun Ouyang, Yun-Xiang Zhang, David J. Ascienzo, Yao Li, Yu-Yao Zhao, Yuhang Ren

Publications and Research

Dielectric capacitors have the highest charge/discharge speed among all electrical energy devices, but lag behind in energy density. Here we report dielectric ultracapacitors based on ferroelectric films of Ba(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 which display high-energy densities (up to 166 J cm–3) and efficiencies (up to 96%). Different from a typical ferroelectric whose electric polarization is easily saturated, these Ba(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 films display a much delayed saturation of the electric polarization, which increases continuously from nearly zero at remnant in a multipolar state, to a large value under the maximum electric field, leading to drastically improved recyclable energy densities. This is achieved by the creation …

The Factor Structure And Construct Validity Of The Inventory Of Callous-Unemotional Traits In Chinese Undergraduate Students, Meng-Cheng Wang, Yu Gao, Jiaxin Deng, Hongyu Lai, Qiaowen Deng, Cherie Armour

Publications and Research

The current study assesses the factor structure and construct validity of the self-reported Inventory of Callous±Unemotional Traits (ICU) in 637 Chinese community adults (mean age = 25.98, SD = 5.79). A series of theoretical models proposed in previous studies were tested through confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that a shortened form that consists of 11 items (ICU-11) to assess callousness and uncaring factors has excellent overall fit. Additionally, correlations with a wide range of external variables demonstrated that this shortened form has similar construct validity compared to the original ICU. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the ICU-11 may be …

Insights Into The Molecular Roles Of Zika Virus In Human Reproductive Complications And Congenital Neuropathologies, Rajendra Ghardbaran, Latchman Somenarain

Publications and Research

The recent upsurge in the association of congenital neurological disorders and infection by the Zika virus (ZIKV) has resulted in increased research focus on the biology of this flavivirus. Studies in animal models indicate that ZIKV can breach the placental barrier and selectively infect and deplete neuroprogenitor cells (NPCs) of the developing fetus, resulting in changes of brain structures, reminiscent of human microcephaly. In vitro and ex vivo studies using human cells and tissues showed that human NPCs and placental cells are targeted by ZIKV. Also of concern is the impact of ZIKV on human reproductive structures, with the potential …

Protocol For Project Impact (Improving Millions Hearts For Provider And Community Transformation): A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation Of An Integrated Electronic Health Record And Community Health Worker Intervention Study To Improve Hypertension Management Among South Asian Patients, Priscilla M. Lopez, Jennifer Zanowiak, Keith Godfeld, Katarzyna Wyka, Ahmad Masoud, Susan Beane, Rashi Kumar, Phoebe Laughlin, Chau Trinh-Shevrin, Lorna Thorpe, Nadia Islam

Publications and Research

Background: The Million Hearts® initiative aims to prevent heart disease and stroke in the United States by mobilizing public and private sectors around a core set of objectives, with particular attention on improving blood pressure control. South Asians in particular have disproportionately high rates of hypertension and face numerous cultural, linguistic, and social barriers to accessing healthcare. Interventions utilizing Health information technology (HIT) and community health worker (CHW)-led patient coaching have each been demonstrated to be effective at advancing Million Hearts® goals, yet few studies have investigated the potential impact of integrating these strategies into a clinical-community linkage initiative. Building …

Boozer Shows How Archaeologists Do Their Work, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

From the time of the Indiana Jones movies, archaeology as a profession has had a mythical aura, but we recently had the chance to interview an excellent archaeologist who puts a human face on the profession. Her name is Anna Lucille Boozer, and she was raised in Williamsburg, Virginia. She has a bachelor’s in arts, in philosophy, and in the history of math and science from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, as well as two masters’ degrees in anthropology and a doctorate in that subject from Columbia University. Today she is an associate professor of history in the Weissman …

Assault On Peer Review A New Threat, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 17, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced to the Senate U.S. Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs a bill titled “BASIC Research Act.” This apparent innocent title covers the real intention of this legislation – an attempt to defund basic research and make it subject to partisan politics. This legislation would change the way grant proposals are evaluated by all federal agencies, from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). These and other federal agencies are the main funders of scholarly work in higher education …

In Silico Study Of Newly Synthesized Opioid Analgesics Bound To Three Opioid Receptors, Abdullah Allaoa, Mai Zahran

Publications and Research

Opioids are the most widely used drugs for the treatment of moderate to severe, chronic pain. They achieve antinociception by activation of mu (MOR-1), kappa (KOR-1), and delta (DOR-1) opioid receptors. Natural products found in kratom plant, Mitragyna speciosa, represent diverse chemical groups with opioid activity, providing opportunities to better understand opioid pharmacology. Pharmacology studies show that Mitragynine pseudoindoxyl is a mu agonist/delta antagonist opioid with a signaling bias for G-protein-mediated signaling pathways in vitro and which produced potent antinociception in vivo. Respiratory depression assays along with other behavioral testing also showed that some of the major problems …

Synthesis Of A Model Of The Bc Ring System Of Oxygenated Angucyclines, Xiaolan Wu, Abdullah Allaoa, Tony E. Nicolas

Publications and Research

Angucycline is a subclass of natural antibiotics, containing a characteristic tetracyclic ring structure, and featuring a wide range of biological functions, including antitumor, antiviral and antifungal properties. This extraordinarily therapeutic character has interested many chemists to develop efficient methodologies for synthesizing the tetracyclic ring system of angucycline. Construction of the BC ring configuration appears as a synthetic challenge. Successful installation of hydroxyl groups at the AB junction would pave the way for efficient syntheses. As a continuation of the previous work done on this system, our synthetic methodology focuses on the coupling of a suitably substituted Phthalide and an activated …

Connectivity Motifs Of Inhibitory Neurons In The Mouse Auditory Cortex, Hysell V. Oviedo

Publications and Research

Connectivity determines the function of neural circuits and it is the gateway to behavioral output. The emergent properties of the Auditory Cortex (ACx) have been difficult to unravel partly due to our assumption that it is organized similarly to other sensory areas. But detailed investigations of its functional connectivity have begun to reveal significant differences from other cortical areas that perform different functions. Using Laser Scanning Photostimulation we previously discovered unique circuit features in the ACx. Specifically, we found that the functional asymmetry of the ACx (tonotopy and isofrequency axes) is reflected in the local circuitry of excitatory inputs to …

Urban Microclimate Analysis, Gabriela Martinez, Yuying Xian

Publications and Research

This project is an exploration on building environmental performance. On it we will use different advanced simulation tools like DesignBuilder and Climate Consultant to analyze a recommended building. We are focusing on the Mamakating Visitor Center in Sullivan County, New York as our case study. Our first studies included analyzing the site conditions and elements such as wind, sun, climate, and weather. We studied the environment surrounding the building and its climate using the two software mentioned above. We found that during the winter, we should block the wind and get more sun in. However, in the summer, we should …

Doula Services Within A Healthy Start Program: Increasing Access For An Underserved Population, Mary-Powel Thomas, Gabriela Ammann, Ellen Brazier, Philip Noyes, Aletha Maybank

Publications and Research

Purpose: Women of color in the United States, particularly in high-poverty neighborhoods, experience high rates of poor birth outcomes, including cesarean section, preterm birth, low birthweight, and infant mortality. Doula care has been linked to improvements in many perinatal outcomes, but women of color and low-income women often face barriers in accessing doula support.

Description: To address this issue, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Healthy Start Brooklyn introduced the By My Side Birth Support Program in 2010. The goal was to complement other maternal home-visiting programs by providing doula support during labor and birth, along …

When Institutions Of Higher Ed Fail, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Some may think that the only sign of a college or university failing is when it closes. And that has certainly happened to some small, private colleges that have gone bankrupt in the last few years. Yet, failure has many faces and comes in many degrees.

We can say that colleges and universities fail when the quality of education they offer is not rigorous, regard- less of what some regulatory agencies might say. Or when they promise to prepare students for jobs that no longer exist. Luring new students based on rankings, amenities, and other forms of non-academic qualities is …

Pretargeting Of Internalizing Trastuzumab And Cetuximab With A 18f-Tetrazine Tracer In Xenograft Models, Outi Keinänen, Kimberly Fung, Jacob Pourat, Vilma Jallinoja, Delphine Vivier, Nagavara Kishore Pillarsetty, Anu J. Airaksinen, Jason S. Lewis, Brian M. Zeglis, Mirkka Sarparanta

Publications and Research

Background: Pretargeting-based approaches are being investigated for radioimmunoimaging and therapy applications to reduce the effective radiation burden to the patient. To date, only a few studies have used short-lived radioisotopes for pretargeting of antibodies, and such examples with internalizing antibodies are even rarer. Herein, we have investigated pretargeting methodology using inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) for tracing two clinically relevant, internalizing monoclonal antibodies, cetuximab and trastuzumab.

Results: Bioorthogonal reaction between tetrazine and trans-cyclooctene (TCO) was used for tracing cetuximab and trastuzumab in vivo with a fluorine-18 (t½ = 109.8 min) labelled tracer. TCO-cetuximab or TCO-trastuzumab was administered 24, 48, or 72 …

Libraries And College Readiness: The Bronx Community College Library High School Collaborative, Carl R. Andrews, Dickens Saint Hilaire

Publications and Research

In today’s information-rich global economy, City University of New York (CUNY) graduates need strong critical thinking skills. Over three quarters of the students who enroll across CUNY’s 24 campuses are drawn from schools in the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) (Strang, 2014). The NYCDOE, the largest public school system in the United States, serving over 1 million students (Strang, 2014). Unfortunately, many of the students who matriculate to CUNY’s college and universities are underprepared for college-level work. This is especially the case with students who attend high schools throughout the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs. …

A Novel Three-Way Interaction Among A Fish, Algae, And A Parasitic Copepod, John Waldman

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The History Books Tell It? Collective Bargaining In Higher Education In The 1940s, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article presents a history of collective bargaining in higher education during and just after World War II, decades before the establishment of applicable statutory frameworks for labor representation. It examines the collective bargaining program adopted by the University of Illinois in 1945, along with contracts negotiated at other institutions. The article also examines the role of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) and its predecessor unions in organizing and negotiating on behalf of faculty, teachers, and instructors. The first known collective agreements applicable to faculty, teachers and instructors, were negotiated by those unions before UPWA was destroyed during the …

Regulating Rumination By Anger: Evidence For The Mutual Promotion And Counteraction (Mpmc) Theory Of Emotionality, Jun Zhan, Fan Tang, Mei He, Jin Fan, Jing Xiao, Chang Liu, Jing Luo

Publications and Research

Unlike the strategy of cognitive regulation that relies heavily on the top-down control function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which was recently found may be critically impaired in stressful situations, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views different types of emotionality as having mutual promotion and counteraction (MPMC) relationships, implying a novel approach that requires less cognition to emotional regulation. Actually, our previous studies have indicated that anger responses could be successfully regulated via the induction of sadness, and this efficiency could not be influenced by stress, thus providing evidences for the hypothesis of “sadness counteracts anger” (SCA) proposed by the …

A Global Comparison Of Women In The Workforce: Moving Toward Innovative Solutions, Helisse Levine, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

Women's participation in the labor force in most countries around the world has increased over recent decades. However, despite their increasing presence in the workplace, women continue to hit glass ceilings and glass walls that prevent their equal participation in decision-making positions in the private sector and in public administration. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a global comparison of women in the labor force, with a specific focus on the public sector workforce, and to identify innovative solutions to address the continuing gender gap. The chapter begins with an overview of the issue. The next two sections …

Translanguaging, Sara Vogel, Ofelia García

Publications and Research

Translanguaging is a theoretical lens that offers a different view of bilingualism and multilingualism. The theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems, as has been traditionally thought, bilinguals, multilinguals, and indeed, all users of language, select and deploy particular features from a unitary linguistic repertoire to make meaning and to negotiate particular communicative contexts. Translanguaging also represents an approach to language pedagogy that affirms and leverages students’ diverse and dynamic language practices in teaching and learning.

Women And Carriages In 17th-Century Aragonese Burlesque Poetry, Almudena Vidorreta

Publications and Research

During the 17th century, literature turned the growing number of carriages into a burlesque topic. There were countless poems written about traffic jams, accidents, or the proper way to ask a friend for a carriage, often considered a symbol of status. Literary references to carriages can tell us many things about the men and women who used them, as well as about gender stereotypes. Women and carriages were understood as interconnected elements in Early Modern Spain; carriages appear as a means to conquer feminine muses as well as a recurrent satirical topic even for women poets. This article analyzes some …

Aproximación Teórica A La Evolución Disciplinaria Y Temática En La Historia Del Análisis Del Discurso, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

Resumen

En este artículo explicativo se llevará a cabo una revisión de las diferentes contribuciones que desde diversas líneas disciplinares han venido completando la transformación de la disciplina del análisis del discurso a lo largo de su historia. Estas aportaciones han permitido modificar el concepto que sobre el mismo se tenía en diversas etapas de su desarrollo con el fin de ampliarlo, teniendo en cuenta en cada una de ellas distintos aspectos de la organización discursiva y retórica de los elementos lingüísticos que conforman los textos orales y escritos, así como las implicaciones cognitivas y pragmáticas del lenguaje en la …

Accessibility In The Time Of Limited Resources, Robin Camille Davis, Mark Eaton, Stephen Klein, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

In the spirit of this year’s theme of “opening access,” our panel highlights how library faculty are making technology more accessible for the CUNY community. Despite the rising costs of journal prices and the stagnation of library budgets, librarians have employed low-cost and free techniques to improve access to library services. The panelists’ projects provide helpful examples of CUNY librarians’ work to increase access for our communities through technology.

Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving Libguides With Student Usability Data, Nora Almeida, Junior Tidal

Publications and Research

Objective – This article describes a mixed methods usability study of research guides created using the LibGuides 2.0 platform conducted in 2016 at an urban, public university library. The goal of the study was to translate user design and learning modality preferences into executable design principles, and ultimately to improve the design and usage of LibGuides at the New York City College of Technology Library.

Methods – User-centred design demands that stakeholders participate in each stage of an application’s development and that assumptions about user design preferences are validated through testing. Methods used for this usability study include: a task …

Patients’ Willingness To Participate In Rapid Hiv Testing: A Pilot Study In Three New York City Dental Hygiene Clinics, Susan H. Davide, Anthony J. Santella, Winnie Furnari, Petal Leuwaisee, Marilyn Cortell, Bhuma Krishnamachari

Publications and Research

Purpose: One in eight people living with an HIV infection in the United States is unaware of their status. Rapid HIV testing (RHT) is an easily used and accepted screening tool that has been introduced in a limited number of clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to investigate patient acceptability, certainty of their decision, and willingness to pay for screening if RHT was offered in university-based dental hygiene clinics.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 426 patients at three dental hygiene clinics in New York City over a period of four months. The survey questionnaire was based …

On Improvised Music, Computational Creativity And Human-Becoming, Arto Artinian, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

Music improvisation is an act of human-becoming: of self-expression—an articulation of histories and memories that have molded its participants—and of exploration—a search for unimagined structures that break with the stale norms of majoritarian culture. Given that the former objective may inhibit the latter, we propose an integration of human musical improvisers and deliberately flawed creative software agents that are designed to catalyze the development of human-ratified minoritarian musical structures.

Amplifying Cuny Voices With Cuny Academic Works, Jill Cirasella, Adriana Palmer, Roxanne Shirazi

Publications and Research

While most conversations about open access literature center on journal articles and books, research takes many other forms. CUNY Academic Works provides a platform for, and public access to, a wide range of CUNY-created scholarship. In this presentation, we discuss the importance of including Women's Studies Newsletter (the predecessor of Women's Studies Quarterly), Latino Data Project Reports, and theses and dissertations in Academic Works, and report on a recent census of journals published by the CUNY community.

Relative Contribution Of Neutral And Deterministic Processes In Shaping Fruit-Feeding Butterfly Assemblages In Afrotropical Forests, Kwaku Aduse-Poku, Freerk Molleman, William Oduro, Samuel K. Oppong, David J. Lohman, Rampal S. Etienne

Publications and Research

The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography has gained the status of a quantitative null model for explaining patterns in ecological (meta)communities. The theory assumes that individuals of trophically similar species are functionally equivalent. We empirically evaluate the relative contribution of neutral and deterministic processes in shaping fruit-feeding butterfly assemblages in three tropical forests in Africa, using both direct (confronting the neutral model with species abundance data) and indirect approaches (testing the predictions of neutral theory using data other than species abundance distributions). Abundance data were obtained by sampling butterflies using banana baited traps set at the forest canopy …

Mrna Processing Factor Cstf-50 And Ubiquitin Escort Factor P97 Are Brca1/Bard1 Cofactors Involved In Chromatin Remodeling During The Dna Damage Response, Danae Fonseca, Jorge Baquero, Michael R. Murphy, Gamage Aruggoda, Sophia Varriano, Carmen Saplenza, Oksana Mashadova, Shadaqur Rahman, Frida E. Kleiman

Publications and Research

The cellular response to DNA damage is an intricate mechanism that involves the interplay among several pathways. In this study, we provide evidence of the roles of the polyadenylation factor cleavage stimulation factor 50 (CstF-50) and the ubiquitin (Ub) escort factor p97 as cofactors of BRCA1/BARD1 E3 Ub ligase, facilitating chromatin remodeling during the DNA damage response (DDR). CstF-50 and p97 formed complexes with BRCA1/BARD1, Ub, and some BRCA1/BARD1 substrates, such as RNA polymerase (RNAP) II and histones. Furthermore, CstF-50 and p97 had an additive effect on the activation of the ubiquitination of these BRCA1/BARD1 substrates during DDR. Importantly, as …

Barriers To And Facilitators Of Help-Seeking Behavior Among Men Who Experience Sexual Violence, Martina Delle Donne, Joseph Deluca, Pavel Pleskach, Christopher Bromson, Marcus P. Mosley, Edward T. Perez, Shibin G. Matthews, Rob Stephenson, Victoria Frye

Publications and Research

Research on sexual violence and related support services access has mainly focused on female victims; there is still a remarkable lack of research on men who experience sexual violence. Research demonstrates that people who both self-identify as men and are members of sexual-orientation minority populations are at higher risk of sexual violence. They are also less likely to either report or seek support services related to such experiences. The present study is an exploratory one aimed at filling the gap in the literature and better understanding how men, both straight and gay as well as cisgender and transgender, conceptualize, understand, …

A Glimpse Into Quiroga’S Musical Roots, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“At the music conservatory, I was told that popular music is not music, and that’s one of the things that connected me with your dad, Aldemaro Romero. He could do classical, Bolero, so I felt connected because I felt ‘there’s someone who had the same problem that I did.’ I felt like classical music is, of course, beautiful, but I needed something else.”

That is how Selene Quiroga, an artist recently invited to Baruch College, explains why she crosses the borders between classical and popular music, as she did in a concert titled “Aldemaro Romero: Venezuelan Fiesta” where she performed …