Digital Commons Network^™

Extreme Events Reveal An Alimentary Limit On Sustained Maximal Human Energy Expenditure, Caitlin Thurber, Lara R. Dugas, Cara Ocobock, Bryce Carlson, John R. Speakman, Herman Pontzer

Publications and Research

The limits on maximum sustained energy expenditure are unclear but are of interest because they constrain reproduction, thermoregulation, and physical activity. Here, we show that sustained expenditure in humans, measured as maximum sustained metabolic scope (SusMS), is a function of event duration. We compiled measurements of total energy expenditure (TEE) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) from human endurance events and added new data from adults running ~250 km/week for 20 weeks in a transcontinental race. For events lasting 0.5 to 250+ days, SusMS decreases curvilinearly with event duration, plateauing below 3× BMR. This relationship differs from that of shorter events …

A Mendelian Randomization Study Of Coronary Artery Disease And Three Amino Acids: Alanine, Glycine, And Glutamine, Allan Uribe

Dissertations and Theses

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) accounts for the majority of those deaths. Observational studies have identified risk factors that have been helpful in lowering the death rate, including hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet. The effects of these risk factors on CAD remain unclear. To clarify the effect of three amino acids, alanine, glutamine, and glycine on CAD I applied a two sample Mendelian randomization analysis to extensively genotyped observational data. In a sample with up to 184,000 individuals and approximately 60,000 controls, SNPs that reached genome wide …

The Association Of Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels And Teachers’ Perceived Air Quality And Well Being In New York City Elementary Schools, Leon Levine

Dissertations and Theses

Introduction:

Several recent studies have investigated the direct effects of carbon dioxide (CO₂) at concentrations typically found in office buildings on occupant cognitive functioning. These studies have reported a significant association between (impaired) decision making ability and exposure to increased levels of CO₂ (600 ppm versus 1500 ppm). The findings have serious implications in a classroom setting since the objective of schools is to provide an optimal environment for learning. If CO₂ levels in schools are elevated, the teachers’ health and the students’ learning environment will be compromised. Higher CO₂ levels could impact teachers’ and …

Sometimes Merely As A Means: Why Kantian Philosophy Requires The Legalization Of Kidney Sales, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

Several commentators have tried to ground legal prohibitions of kidney sales in some form of Kant’s moral arguments against such sales. This paper reconsiders this approach to justifying laws and policies in light of Kant’s approach to law in his political philosophy. The author argues that Kant’s political philosophy requires that kidney sales be legally permitted, although contracts for such sales must remain unenforceable. The author further argues that Kant’s approach to laws, such as those governing kidney distribution, was formed in part by considering and rejecting an assumption frequently employed in the bioethics literature, namely, that legal duties can …

All The Small Things, Talia E. Levitt

Theses and Dissertations

My paintings engage with the history of the still life as a marginalized and antiacademic genre. Rather than fool viewers into believing that there are real objects in front of them, as is the historical intention of trompe l’oeil, I use realistic rendering to emphasize the painting and painter.

Multiple Bodies As One, Valerie Skakun

Theses and Dissertations

Influenced by traumatic bodily injuries, physical therapy, muscle growth, breathing patterns, mental health, ways of supporting a disabled body, navigating the health care system, and exhaustion, the work described in this paper is a double meaning of the word "organ" and investigates the body as machine. The vital parts of a pump organ, the bellows and pipes, are extracted and re-configured into structures built for the performer's entire body to physically engage with in order to produce wind-driven sounds. Two of the sound sculptures require that two performers engage in play together, allowing them to audibly communicate through moving their …

Together Apart: Influences And Barriers To Engagement Among Remote Workers, Stacey-Robin H. Johnson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Organizations recognize the importance of having employees who do more than 'show up' for work. Rather, the goal is to have employees who will adapt to, embody, and promote the values, agenda, and strategic purposes of the organization beyond their work life. In the efforts around engagement, there are key influences in the organizational lifespan of an employee that can inspire or discourage engagement attitudes and behaviors.

Remote workers (defined here as those who work outside of a central, collective work setting) present unique challenges, the most pressing being maintaining a sense of connection and inclusion among the group in …

Composite Biomaterial Repair Strategy To Restore Biomechanical Function And Reduce Herniation Risk In An Ex Vivo Large Animal Model Of Intervertebral Disc Herniation With Varying Injury Severity, Warren W. Hom, Melanie Tschopp, Huizi A. Lin, Philip Nasser, Damien M. Laudier, Andrew C. Hecht, Steven B. Nicoll, James C. Iatridis

Publications and Research

Back pain commonly arises from intervertebral disc (IVD) damage including annulus fibrosus (AF) defects and nucleus pulposus (NP) loss. Poor IVD healing motivates developing tissue engineering repair strategies. This study evaluated a composite injectable IVD biomaterial repair strategy using carboxymethylcellulose-methylcellulose (CMC-MC) and genipincrosslinked fibrin (FibGen) that mimic NP and AF properties, respectively. Bovine ex vivo caudal IVDs were evaluated in cyclic compression-tension, torsion, and compression-to-failure tests to determine IVD biomechanical properties, height loss, and herniation risk following experimentally-induced severe herniation injury and discectomy (4 mm biopsy defect with 20% NP removed). FibGen with and without CMC-MC had failure strength similar …

Sensory Perception, Adrian Rodriguez-Contreras

Open Educational Resources

Different types of sensory systems with their functional modalities will be presented. The biological bases for how these functions are generated and modified will then be described. As vision is the principal means of perception, we will focus in this course most on visual processing. Scientific data will be integrated into the lectures, such that students develop critical skills in analyzing data and proposing hypotheses.

Ghosts Of Derwyddon Research And Approach, Zoya Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the theoretical and aesthetic approach to a 35-minute hybrid documentary called Ghosts of Derwyddon about my family’s multi-generational relationship with a small forest on the outskirts of Washington DC. The film combines a variety of elements that form a collage of memory, dreams, and visions of the future.

Enclosures And Dichotomies: Coexistence Vs. Distance In The Poems Of John Clare, Jordan P. Finn

Theses and Dissertations

John Clare’s poetry emphasizes an affinity with environment by suspending the distinction between the inside (subject) and the outside (object). Clare’s identification with objects and perception rather than subjects and aesthetics renders his work as a prescient and radical example of ecological poetry in the Romantic period. Raymond Williams’ “green language” and Timothy Morton’s ambient poetics both cite Clare as an ideal figure for their above theories and evoke Clare as a writer who positions the environment as governing thought rather than thought governing the environment. This thesis especially relates Clare to Morton’s Ecology without Nature, a study of …

Green Infrastructure Design Influences Communities Of Urban Soil Bacteria, Jessica Lee Joyner, Jordan Kerwin, Maha Deeb, George Lozefski, Bharath Prithiviraj, Anna Paitseva, John Mclaughin, Peter M. Groffman, Zhongqi Cheng, Theodore R. Muth

Publications and Research

The importance of natural ecosystem processes is often overlooked in urban areas. Green Infrastructure (GI) features have been constructed in urban areas as elements to capture and treat excess urban runoff while providing a range of ancillary benefits, e.g., ecosystem processes mediated by microorganisms that improve air and water quality, in addition to the associations with plant and tree rhizospheres. The objective of this study was to characterize the bacterial community and diversity in engineered soils (Technosols) of five types of GI in New York City; vegetated swales, right of way bioswales (ROWB; including street-side infiltration systems and enhanced tree …

Monsters And Mayhem And Laughter, Staver Klitgaard

Theses and Dissertations

Being an image-maker was always going to be a part of my life. As a child, I had a speech impediment and in order to communicate with my parents, I would use drawings I created to let them know what I was feeling or trying to say. Image making saved me again when I grew older; I was not a star student. But, when I was in art class, I felt like I suddenly could breathe. The minute I realized there was something I could master and have a handle on—a place of creating, learning the history of other artists—I …

Perplexed Poetics: Romanticism And The Vortex Of Ideologies, Jaime Luque Lau

Student Theses and Dissertations

In three parts, this thesis explores the tension between the critical and emotional poetics in Romantic poetry, as well as the entanglement of individual will and politics. As a point of entrance, the first part focuses on the major and current trends of scholarly discourses about Romanticism. I will examine Jerome McGann’s influential book of criticism on Romanticism, Romantic Ideology, in juxtaposition with Marc Redfield’s The Politics of Aesthetics: Nationalism, Gender, Romanticism. In particular, the discussion of the two books suggest the problems of aesthetic-political and historical discourses; specifically, I argue that McGann’s critical examination of “Romantic ideology” …

Panmela Castro: Feminism In Brazilian Graffiti Art, Giulia Chu Ferri

Student Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an analysis on the graffiti artist Panmela Castro and her murals in Brazil and around the world. My thesis emphasizes the importance of feminist subject matter for graffiti art in Brazil, as well as its impact on the public sphere. The paper is separated into four sections: “Formative Years,” describing her biography and the development of her works; “Interaction with the City,” analyzing the interaction between graffiti and the urban environment, and using that discussion as a frame to contextualize Castro’s work; “Feminist Imagery and Ideology,” examining some of her concurrent themes and imageries; and finally “Transnational …

Through The Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, The Mafia And The Buddha, Craig G. Foisy

Theses and Dissertations

Through the Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, the Mafia & the Buddhais a short documentary film that recounts six chapters from the autobiography of Marie Antoinette. No, not that last Queen of France who got her head chopped off. This Marie Antoinette lives in Woodstock, NY (“but I do like cake!” says Marie from inside her shop). And yes, Marie Antoinette is her real name. She is 78 years old and she sells what she calls “wearable art” out of a ramshackle and overstuffed boutique in town. Marie is facing the possible closure of her shop: her 100-year-old …

In Search Of Wholeness: A Conversation About Transcending Language(S) And Art Forms, Natasha Lvovich, Olga Mezhibovskaya

Publications and Research

Natasha Lvovich interviews an interdisciplinary artist / designer, educator, and musician / musicologist, the multilingual Olga Mezhibovskaya, who discusses the complex relationship between languages (in this case, Russian and English) and artistic modalities, art forms, and genres. Mezhibovskaya's main scholarly focus (which she studied through music and in Russian) and now in art is wholeness, which could be understood as synthesis of all forms, interdisciplinarity and interconnectedness, what Roman Jakobson termed as "intersemiotic translation." References to Mezhibovskaya's numerous interdisciplinary projects, extremely rich with various intersemiotic connections, are both described and shown as visuals (URLs), videos and illustrations.

Introduction To The Special Issue: Multilingualism, Creativity, And The Arts, Natasha Lvovich, Steven G. Kellman

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Without A Scratch, Samantha Farinella

Theses and Dissertations

Without a Scratch is a short form personal essay film that explores the themes of fear, loss, love, hope and renewal as it relates to my brain tumor diagnosis spanning from the initial symptoms through my recovery.

Module: Robot Senses, Mohammad Azhar

Open Educational Resources

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the basics of Sensors

• Learn how to program the LEGO Robot to make decision using touch sensors

718-554-3854, James S. Chrzan

Theses and Dissertations

718-554-3854 is a poem that originally appeared in various printed, spoken, and recorded iterations throughout part one of the Spring 2019 Hunter College MFA Thesis exhibition. Accompanying the text are extensive notes that elaborate on the ideas, influences, and intentions that informed the poem and the exhibition.

Collective Subjectivity And Utopian Desire, Stewart A. Stout

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the conceptualization of the body as a collective. Displacing the individual subject position as the primary avenue through which we might see ourselves, the collective is offered as an alternative capable of opening up new avenues for a desire that is utopian, queer and communist.

The Dream Of Being Totally Open, Frederick Greis

Theses and Dissertations

This essay details four major themes in the paintings of Frederick Greis: spiritual experience, nature, pleasure, and humor. These themes are described within the context of the artist's main goal, which is to create an experience of profound unburdening.

Changemaker, Evgenia Kovda

Theses and Dissertations

Changemaker is a 20-minute narrative short film about a film student (played by me) who sets out to make a documentary about the process of making a documentary feature film.

Dietary Polyphenols, Resveratrol And Pterostilbene Exhibit Antitumor Activity On An Hpv E6-Positive Cervical Cancer Model: An In Vitro And In Vivo Analysis, Kaushiki Chatterjee, Sumit Mukherjee, Jonathan Vanmanen, Probal Banerjee, Jimmie E. Fata

Publications and Research

Human papilloma virus (HPV)-induced cervical cancer is one of themost frequent cancers in women residing in underdeveloped countries. Natural compounds like polyphenols continue to be of scientific interest as non-toxic effective alternative treatments. Our previous work showed the efficacy of two polyphenols, resveratrol, and pterostilbene on human HeLa cells. Here we explored the in vitro anti-cancer activity and in vivo anti-tumor potential of these two structurally similar compounds on HPV oncogene E6 and E7 positive murine TC1 cells. In vitro analysis confirmed the cytotoxic potential of both resveratrol and pterostilbene compounds with each having a low IC50 value and each …

In Present Past: Sun Tunnels And The Historic Reconstruction Of Vision, Patrice M. Capobianchi

Theses and Dissertations

The following study investigates how Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels makes effective use of time and land to reprogram the modern viewer’s eye. By utilizing sculpture that is reminiscent of pre-historic observatories as an observational framing device against the landscape topography, the artwork succeeds in presenting a historic reconstruction of vision.

Illuminations, Emerson Sudbury

Theses and Dissertations

Illuminations is a vocal piece for mezzo-soprano and electronics. It incorporates elements of ambient and noise music. Relying on texts by Arthur Rimbaud and drawing inspiration from composers such as Debussy and Arvo Pärt, it is an attempt to blend tradition with contemporary practices and aesthetics.

The Manuscript Copy Of Sfera In The Morgan Library, Dana Hart

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the literary origins of the fifteenth century text Sfera, a rhyming Italian treatise by Gregorio Dati, and considers the patronage, creation, and function of the manuscript copy in the Morgan Library and Museum, focusing on the illustrated maps and cities.

Landscape Of Portraiture: The Process Of Assimilation And Reconciliation In Search Of Identity Of Eighteenth Century England, Aram Park

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the use of landscape paintings embedded within English conversation pieces of the eighteenth century with an emphasis on the art works of Arthur Devis and Johan Zoffany, exploring the way they influenced the development of an English school of painting during this century.

Disruption And Recovery In The Work Of Botticelli And Piero Di Cosimo, Ellen G. Birger

Theses and Dissertations

Florence underwent major destabilization during the 1490s, creating an extremely stressful time for its citizens. Chief amongst these events were the death of Lorenzo dei Medici and the ascendance, then demise, of the charismatic preacher Girolamo Savonarola. The impact on the work of Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo is evaluated.