Digital Commons Network^™

Contextual Fear Memory Modulates Psd95 Phosphorylation, Ampar Subunits, Pkmζ And Pi3k Differentially Between Adult And Juvenile Rats, Roseanna M. Zanca, Shirley Sanay, Jorge A. Avila, Edgar Rodriguez, Harry N. Shair, Peter A. Serrano

Publications and Research

It is well known that young organisms do not maintain memories as long as adults, but the mechanisms for this ontogenetic difference are undetermined. Previous work has revealed that the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4isoxazolepropionic acidreceptor (AMPAr)subunits aretraffickedinto the synaptic membranefollowing memory retrieval in adults. Additionally, phosphorylated PSD-95-pS295 promotes AMPAr stabilization at the synapse. We investigated these plasticity related proteins as potential mediators in the differential contextual stress memory retrieval capabilities observed between adult and juvenile rats. Rats were assigned to either pedestal stress (1h) or no stress control (home cage). Each animal was placed alone in an open field for 5minat the base …

Identification And Characterization Of Early Photoreceptor Cis-Regulatory Elements And Their Relation To Onecut1, Nathalie Jean-Charles, Diego F. Buenaventura, Mark M. Emerson

Publications and Research

Background: Cone and rod photoreceptors are two of the primary cell types affected in human retinal disease. Potential strategies to combat these diseases are the use of gene therapy to rescue compromised photoreceptors or to generate new functional photoreceptors to replace those lost in the diseased retina. Cis-regulatory elements specific to cones, rods, or both types of photoreceptors are critical components of successful implementation of these two strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize the cell type specificity and activity of cis-regulatory elements active in developing photoreceptors.

Methods: Cis-regulatory elements were introduced into the developing chicken …

Cryptic Diversity In The Mexican Highlands: Thousands Of Uce Loci Help Illuminate Phylogenetic Relationships, Species Limits And Divergence Times Of Montane Rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalus ), Christopher Blair, Robert W. Bryson Jr, Charles W. Linkem, David Lazcano, John Klicka, John E. Mccormack

Publications and Research

With the continued adoption of genome‐scale data in evolutionary biology comes the challenge of adequately harnessing the information to make accurate phylogenetic inferences. Coalescent‐based methods of species tree inference have become common, and concatenation has been shown in simulation to perform well, particularly when levels of incomplete lineage sorting are low. However, simulation conditions are often overly simplistic, leaving empiricists with uncertainty regarding analytical tools. We use a large ultraconserved element data set (>3,000 loci) from rattlesnakes of the Crotalus triseriatus group to delimit lineages and estimate species trees using concatenation and several coalescent‐based methods. Unpartitioned and partitioned maximum …

The Ticker, November 19, 2018

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

Surface Acting, Emotional Exhaustion, And Employee Sabotage To Customers: Moderating Roles Of Quality Of Social Exchanges, Hui Zhang, Zhiqing E. Zhou, Yan Zhan, Chengbin Liu, Li Zhang

Publications and Research

Using the conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory as our conceptual frameworks, the current study examined how employee surface acting relates to their sabotage to customers through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and explored the moderating roles of coworker exchange (CWX) and leader-member exchange (LMX). We collected two-wave time-lagged data from 540 clinical nurses and found that emotional exhaustion mediated the positive relationship between surface acting and employee sabotage to customers. In addition, we found that CWX buffered the positive effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion, while LMX buffered the positive effect of emotional exhaustion on …

The Anti-Fracking Movement And The Politics Of Rural Marginalization In Lithuania: Intersectionality In Environmental Justice, Diana Mincyte, Aiste Bartkiene

Publications and Research

While the environmental justice perspective focuses on the unequal distribution of environmental risks and benefits across different groups based on race, class, or gender, intersectionality approaches avoid the use of a priori categories to examine marginalization. We argue that intersectionality can broaden the scope of environmental justice studies by examining interactive, historically grounded processes through which categories of difference are produced. To support this argument, we present an illustrative case of the movement in Lithuania that challenged Chevron’s plans to prospect shale resources for potential fracking. We conduct a narrative analysis of public discourses surrounding the formation of the movement …

Pyronaridine Exerts Potent Cytotoxicity On Human Breast And Hematological Cancer Cells Through Induction Of Apoptosis, Paulina J. Villanueva, Alberto Martinez, Sarah T. Baca, Rebecca E. Dejesus, Manuel Larragoity, Lisett Contreras, Denisse A. Gutierrez, Armando Varela-Ramirez, Renato J. Aguilera

Publications and Research

The potent antimalarial drug pyronaridine (PND) was tested for its potential as an anticancer drug. After exposing cancerous (17) and non-cancerous (2) cells to PND for 72 hr, PND was found to exhibit consistent and potent cytotoxic activity at low micromolar (μM) concentrations that ranged from 1.6 μM to 9.4 μM. Moreover, PND exerted a significant selective cytotoxicity index (SCI) on five out of seven breast cancer cell lines tested, with favorable values of 2.5 to 4.4, as compared with the non-cancerous breast MCF-10A cell line. By using the same comparison, PND exhibited a significant SCI on three out of …

Microbial Diversity In Urban Environments: Concern For Antibiotic Resistance, Ality Aghedo, Mangala Tawde, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

We are almost oblivious to the presence of microorganisms in our daily lives, but they exist and come into contact with us all the time. While some bacteria are harmless, and even beneficial, other bacteria can cause infections. A common treatment to bacterial infections is antibiotics and the success of an antibiotic depends on the resistance of the bacteria to the antibiotic. We conducted experiments to identify the types of bacteria that can be found on surfaces or within soil environments that come into contact with a vast number of people on a daily basis and how this can affect …

The Ties That Bind: Cradling In Tajikistan, Lana B. Karasik, Catherine S. Tamis-Lemonda, Ori Ossmy, Karen E. Adolph

Publications and Research

A traditional childrearing practice—“gahvora” cradling—in Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia purportedly restricts movement of infants’ body and limbs. However, the practice has been documented only informally in anecdotal reports. Thus, this study had two research questions: (1) To what extent are infants’ movements restricted in the gahvora? (2) How is time in the gahvora distributed over a 24-hour day in infants from 1–24 months of age? To answer these questions, we video-recorded 146 mothers cradling their infants and interviewed them using 24-hour time diaries to determine the distribution of time infants spent in the gahvora within a day …

The Intentional De-Cohesion In Deportability, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

A critical exploration of loss or decohesion of political agency in deportability.

Dual Inhibition Of Bcl-2/Bcl-Xl And Xpo1 Is Synthetically Lethal In Glioblastoma Model Systems, Enyuan Shang, Yiru Zhang, Chang Shu, Chiaki Tsuge Ishida, Elena Bianchetti, Mike-Andrew Westhoff, Georg Karpel-Massler, Markus D. Siegelin

Publications and Research

XPO1 has recently emerged as a viable treatment target for solid malignancies, including glioblastoma (GBM), the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults. However, given that tumors become commonly resistant to single treatments, the identification of combination therapies is critical. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that inhibition of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members and XPO1 are synthetically lethal. To this purpose, two clinically validated drug compounds, the BH3-mimetic, ABT263, and the XPO1 inhibitor, Selinexor, were used in preclinical GBM model systems. Our results show that inhibition of XPO1 reduces cellular viability in glioblastoma cell cultures. Moreover, addition of ABT263 significantly …

Maternal Choline And Betaine Supplementation Modifies The Placental Response To Hyperglycemia In Mice And Human Trophoblasts, Khatia Nanobashvili, Chauntelle Jack-Roberts, Rachel Bretter, Naudia Jones, Kathleen Axen, Anjana Saxena, Kali Blain, Xinyin Jiang

Publications and Research

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is characterized by excessive placental fat and glucose transport, resulting in fetal overgrowth. Earlier we demonstrated that maternal choline supplementation normalizes fetal growth in GDM mice at mid-gestation. In this study, we further assess how choline and its oxidation product betaine influence determinants of placental nutrient transport in GDM mice and human trophoblasts. C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat (HF) diet 4 weeks prior to and during pregnancy to induce GDM or fed a control normal fat (NF) diet. The HF mice also received 25 mM choline, 85 mM betaine, or control drinking water. We observed …

Using Drosophila Behavioral Assays To Characterize Terebrid Venompeptide Bioactivity, Anders Eriksson, Prachi Anand, Juliette Gorson, Corina Grijuc, Elina Hadelia, James C. Stewart, Mandë Holford, Adam Claridge-Chang

Publications and Research

The number of newly discovered peptides from the transcriptomes and proteomes of animal venom arsenals is rapidly increasing, resulting in an abundance of uncharacterized peptides. There is a pressing need for a systematic, cost effective, and scalable approach to identify physiological effects of venom peptides. To address this discovery-to-function gap, we developed a sequence driven:activity-based hybrid approach for screening venom peptides that is amenable to large-venom peptide libraries with minimal amounts of peptide. Using this approach, we characterized the physiological and behavioral phenotypes of two peptides from the venom of predatory terebrid marine snails, teretoxins Tv1 from Terebra variegata and …

Johnson Practices, Teaches The Art Of Journalism, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“While studying abroad in Tanzania, I was fascinated by wildlife, but I realized that I don't really have the temperament to be a scientist. So I decided to come back to the U.S. and become a journalist.” That’s how Emily Johnson settled on what her profession would be.

Johnson is a native of Providence, Rhode Island. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and animal behavior from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and a master’s in arts and international reporting from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Today she is an assistant professor in the Department of …

Using Augmented Reality To Enhance Learning Experiences About Electrical Circuits, Juan Estrella

Publications and Research

The term Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the technologies that superimpose digital content generated by computers over the user’s view of the real world. AR technologies enhance the version of the physical environment with computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, or graphics overlaid on top of the real-world view. In recent years, AR has moved beyond expensive military applications and has now entered a wide variety of domains. In engineering education, AR technologies can serve as a learning aid as well as a basis for innovation. The technology provides 3-D visualizations that allow to: (i) observe flaws in designs …

Re-Thinking Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutic Targets Using Gene-Based Tests, Man Ki Kwok, Shi Lin Lin, C Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating condition with no known effective drug treatments. Existing drugs only alleviate symptoms. Given repeated expensive drug failures, we assessed systematically whether approved and investigational AD drugs are targeting products of genes strongly associated with AD and whether these genes are targeted by existing drugs for other indications which could be re-purposed.

Methods: We identified genes strongly associated with late-onset AD fromthe loci of genetic variants associated with AD at genome-wide-significance and from a gene-based test applied to the most extensively genotyped late-onset AD case (n=17,008)-control (n=37,154) study, the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project. …

Hyperphosphorylation Of Tau Associates With Changes In Its Function Beyond Microtubule Stability, Alejandra D. Alonso, Leah S. Cohen, Christopher Corbo, Viktoriya Morozova, Abdeslem Elldrissi, Greg R. Phillips, Frida E. Kleiman

Publications and Research

Tau is a neuronal microtubule associated protein whose main biological functions are to promote microtubule self-assembly by tubulin and to stabilize those already formed. Tau also plays an important role as an axonal microtubule protein. Tau is an amazing protein that plays a key role in cognitive processes, however, deposits of abnormal forms of tau are associated with several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease (AD), the most prevalent, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the most recently associated to abnormal tau. Tau post-translational modifications (PTMs) are responsible for its gain of toxic function. Alonso et al. …

Bone Protection By Inhibition Of Microrna-182, Eugenia G. Giannopoulou, Kazuki Inoue, Zhonghao Deng, Yufan Chen, Ren Xu, Shiaoching Gong, Matthew B. Greenblatt, Lingegowda S. Mangala, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, David G. Kirsch, Anil K. Sood, Liang Zhao, Baohong Zhao

Publications and Research

Targeting microRNAs recently shows significant therapeutic promise; however, such progress is underdeveloped in treatment of skeletal diseases with osteolysis, such as osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, we identified miR-182 as a key osteoclastogenic regulator in bone homeostasis and diseases. Myeloid-specific deletion of miR-182 protects mice against excessive osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption in disease models of ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis and inflammatory arthritis. Pharmacological treatment of these diseases with miR-182 inhibitors completely suppresses pathologic bone erosion. Mechanistically, we identify protein kinase double-stranded RNA-dependent (PKR) as a new and essential miR-182 target that is a novel inhibitor of osteoclastogenesis via regulation of the …

A Dexterous, Glove-Based Teleoperable Low-Power Soft Robotic Arm For Delicate Deep-Sea Biological Exploration, Brennan T. Phillips, Kaitlyn P. Becker, Shunichi Kurumaya, Kevin C. Galloway, Griffin Whittredge, Daniel M. Vogt, Clark B. Teeple, Michelle H. Rosen, Vincent A. Pieribone, David F. Gruber, Robert J. Wood

Publications and Research

Modern marine biologists seeking to study or interact with deep-sea organisms are confronted with few options beyond industrial robotic arms, claws, and suction samplers. This limits biological interactions to a subset of “rugged” and mostly immotile fauna. As the deep sea is one of the most biologically diverse and least studied ecosystems on the planet, there is much room for innovation in facilitating delicate interactions with a multitude of organisms. The biodiversity and physiology of shallow marine systems, such as coral reefs, are common study targets due to the easier nature of access; SCUBA diving allows for in situ delicate …

Developmental Transitions In Amygdala Pkc Isoforms And Ampa Receptor Expression Associated With Threat Memory In Infant Rats, Maya Opendak, Roseanna M. Zanca, Eben Anane, Peter Serrano, Regina M. Sullivan

Publications and Research

Although infants learn and remember, they rapidly forget, a phenomenon known as infantile amnesia. While myriad mechanisms impact this rapid forgetting, the molecular events supporting memory maintenance have yet to be explored. To explore memory mechanisms across development, we used amygdala-dependent odor-shock conditioning and focused on mechanisms important in adult memory, the AMPA receptor subunits GluA1/2 and upstream protein kinases important for trafficking AMPAR, protein kinase M zeta (PKMζ) and iota/lambda (PKCι/λ). We use odor-shock conditioning in infant rats because it is late-developing (postnatal day, PN10) and can be modulated by corticosterone during a sensitive period in early life. Our …

Puerto Rico: One Year After Hurricane Maria, Center For Puerto Rican Studies

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

September 20, 2018 marked a year since hurricane Maria wrought havoc on the island of Puerto Rico. Though the media has reported the crisis in a myriad of ways–for better or worse–our intention here is to provide a timeline of the major occurrences in the aftermath, a meta-analysis of the media’s coverage of the disaster, and an updated account of the exodus of people. The island continues to suffer from a tenuous electric grid, ruined infrastructure, and financial bankruptcy a year after the hurricane; the increase in migratory numbers reflects the limitations that many continue to face on the island. …

The Roles Of Academic Libraries In Shaping Music Publishing In The Digital Age, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Libraries are positioned at the nexus of creative production, music publishing, performance, and research. The academic library community has the potential to play an influential leadership role in shaping the music publishing life cycle, making scores more readily discoverable and accessible, and establishing itself as a force that empowers a wide range of creativity and scholarship. Yet the music publishing industry has been slow to capitalize on the digital market, and academic libraries have been slow to integrate electronic music scores into their collections. In this paper, I will discuss the historical, technical, and human factors that have contributed to …

The Evidence Of Things Unseen: Experimental Form As Black Feminist Praxis, Shelly J. Eversley

Publications and Research

This essay reads Carlene Hatcher Polite's little-known experimental novel Sister X and the Victims of Foul Play and situates it within Black Aesthetics and black feminist theory to argue that experimental forms is crucial to black feminist praxis. The form also exposes critical violences that not only diminish and obscure black feminist writing, but also black women writers.

Referencing Audre Lorde, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This chapter is close a reading and textual analysis of canonical texts, speeches, and archived audio recordings of Audre Lorde. It embraces Lorde’s many identities, including her identity as a librarian who chose to depart from the library as a means of survival. The author urges reference librarians to study Lorde’s example and learn from Lorde’s choice to act in a space where silence can be transformed into language and action. Acknowledgment of the limitations and opportunities that Lorde teaches us in reference service and institutional structures, may allow for librarians to move toward a realm of justice.

Wst 220 Introduction To Women’S Studies, Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum

Open Educational Resources

This course is an examination of the forces that shape women's lives from the perspective of various disciplines such as psychology, sociology, masculinity theory, and history. It also explores ways in which gender intersects with ethnicity, race, and socio-economic class to form social constructs. We will use theoretical, historical and cross-cultural frameworks to explore cultural representations of women, various aspects of women’s experiences, both with public institutions and personal relationships, as well as ways in which their lives have been shaped by structures of gender inequality. Special attention will be placed on feminism and women as agents of local and …

Impact, Office For The Advancement Of Research, Cuny John Jay College

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

[John Jay College’s research magazine.] Welcome to the inaugural issue of Impact, a celebration of the extraordinary work of the scholars and artists at John Jay College. John Jay has been on an incredible journey. Our grant portfolio has grown by more than 70 percent in just five years, and the scholarship produced by our faculty has increased by over 50 percent in this same period. In this issue, we share with you just a few of these incredible projects. Like the work of Christopher Herrmann, Eric Piza, Preeti Chauhan and Phil Goff on the practices and policies of policing. …

Classified Information: The Newsletter Of The Lloyd Sealy Library, Lloyd Sealy Library, Cuny John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

Classified Information was a publication that informed the College about Library services, personnel, upcoming events, new technologies, and available resources.

Biology Ii (Bio1201) Syllabus, Tatiana Voza

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Structure-Activity Profiling Of Alkaloid Natural Product Pharmacophores Against A Schistosoma Serotonin Receptor, Jonathan S. Marchant, Wayne W. Harding, John D. Chan

Publications and Research

Serotonin (5-HT) is an important regulator of numerous aspects of flatworm biology, ranging from neuromuscularfunctionto sexualmaturationandegglaying. Intheparasiticblood flukeSchistosomamansoni,5-HTtargets several G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), one of which has been demonstrated to couple to cAMP and regulate parasite movement. This receptor, Sm.5HTRL, has been successfully co-expressed in mammalian cells alongside a luminescent cAMP-biosensor, enabling pharmacological profiling for candidate anti-schistosomal drugs. Here, we have utilized this assay to perform structure-activity investigations of 143 compounds containing previously identified alkaloid natural product pharmacophores (tryptamines, aporphines and protoberberines) shown to regulate Sm.5HTRL. These experiments mapped regions of the tryptamine pharmacophore amenable and intolerant to substitution, highlighting …

Nanoparticles As Multimodal Photon Transducers Of Ionizing Radiation, Edwin C. Pratt, Travis M. Shaffer, Qize Zhang, Charles Michael Drain, Jan Grimm

Publications and Research

In biomedical imaging, nanoparticles combined with radionuclides that generate Cerenkov luminescence are used in diagnostic imaging, photon-induced therapies, and as activatable probes. In these applications, the nanoparticle is often viewed as a carrier inert to ionizing radiation from the radionuclide. However, certain phenomena such as enhanced nanoparticle luminescence and generation of reactive oxygen species cannot be explained by only Cerenkov luminescence interactions with nanoparticles. Herein, we report methods to examine the mechanisms of nanoparticle excitation by radionuclides, including interactions with Cerenkov luminescence, β particles, and γ radiation. We demonstrate that β scintillation contributes appreciably to excitation and reactivity in certain …