Digital Commons Network^™

Griffithsin Carrageenan Fast Dissolving Inserts Prevent Shiv Hsv-2 And Hpv Infections In Vivo, Nina Derby, Manjari Lal, Meropi Aravatinou, Larisa Kizima, Patrick Barnable, Axia Rodriguez, Manshun Lai, Asa Wesenberg, Shweta Ugaonkar, Keith Levendosky, Olga Mizenina, Kyle Kleinbeck, Jeffrey D. Lifson, M. Melissa Peet, Zachary Lloyd, Michael Benson, Walid Heneine, Barry R. O'Keefe, Melissa Robbiani, Elena Martinelli, Brooke Grasperge, James Blanchard, Agegnehu Gettie, Natalia Teleshova, José Fernández-Romero, Thomas M. Zydowsky

Publications and Research

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) strategies with proven in vivo efficacy rely on antiretroviral drugs, creating the potential for drug resistance and complicated treatment options in individuals who become infected. Moreover, ondemand products are currently missing from the PrEP development portfolio. Griffithsin (GRFT) is a non-antiretroviral HIV entry inhibitor derived from red algae with an excellent safety profile and potent activity in vitro. When combined with carrageenan (CG), GRFT has strong activity against herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) and human papillomavirus (HPV) in vitro and in vivo. Here, we report that GRFT/CG in a freeze-dried fast dissolving insert (FDI) …

W.E.B. Dubois For The Twenty‐First Century: On Being A Scholar‐Activist In The Digital Era, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

W.E.B. Du Bois began his work as a scholar-activist at the dawn of the twentieth century, and this paper argues that his example has much to teach contemporary scholar-activists in the twenty-first century. In order to publish The Crisis, the magazine of the activist organization he co-founded, DuBois purchased a printing press. This meant he could own the means of his own knowledge production and foretold both the promise of what it means to be a scholar-activist in the twenty-first century and the limitations built into the current systems of knowledge production. Du Bois was also prophetic when he …

Prostaglandin D2/J2 Signaling Pathway In A Rat Model Of Neuroinflammation Displaying Progressive Parkinsonian-Like Pathology: Potential Novel Therapeutic Targets, Chuhyon Corwin, Anastasia Nikolopoulou, Allen L. Pan, Mariela Nunez-Santos, Shankar Vallabhajosula, Peter A. Serrano, John Babich, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira

Publications and Research

Background: Prostaglandins are products of the cyclooxygenase pathway, which is implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Limited knowledge is available on mechanisms by which prostaglandins contribute to PD neurodegeneration. To address this gap, we focused on the prostaglandin PGD2/J2 signaling pathway, because PGD2 is the most abundant prostaglandin in the brain, and the one that increases the most under pathological conditions. Moreover, PGJ2 is spontaneously derived from PGD2.

Methods: In this study, we determined in rats the impact of unilateral nigral PGJ2-microinfusions on COX-2, lipocalin-type PGD2 synthase (L-PGDS), PGD2/J2 receptor 2 (DP2), and 15 hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH). Nigral dopaminergic (DA) and …

The Ticker, September 17, 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.

Luciferin Production And Luciferase Transcription In The Bioluminescent Copepod Metridia Lucens, Michael Tessler, Jean P. Gaffney, Jason M. Crawford, Eric Trautman, Nehaben A. Gujarati, Philip Alatalo, Vincent A. Pierbone, David F. Gruber

Publications and Research

Bioluminescent copepods are often the most abundant marine zooplankton and play critical roles in oceanic food webs. Metridia copepods exhibit particularly bright bioluminescence, and the molecular basis of their light production has just recently begun to be explored. Here we add to this body of work by transcriptomically profiling Metridia lucens, a common species found in temperate, northern, and southern latitudes. In this previously molecularly-uncharacterized species, we find the typical luciferase paralog gene set found in Metridia. More surprisingly, we recover noteworthy putative luciferase sequences that had not been described from Metridia species, indicating that bioluminescence produced by these copepods …

Different Ommochrome Pigment Mixtures Enable Sexually Dimorphic Batesian Mimicry In Disjunct Populations Of The Common Palmfly Butterfly, Elymnias Hypermnestra, Silvio Panettieri, Erisa Gjinaj, George John, David J. Lohman

Publications and Research

With varied, brightly patterned wings, butterflies have been the focus of much work on the evolution and development of phenotypic novelty. However, the chemical structures of wing pigments from few butterfly species have been identified. We characterized the orange wing pigments of female Elymnias hypermnestra butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from two Southeast Asian populations. This species is a sexually dimorphic Batesian mimic of several model species. Females are polymorphic: in some populations, females are dark, resemble conspecific males, and mimic Euploea spp. In other populations, females differ from males and mimic orange Danaus spp. Using LC-MS/MS, we identified nine ommochrome …

Disequilibrium, Adaptation, And The Norse Settlement Of Greenland, Rowan Jackson, Jette Arneborg, Andrew Dugmore, Christian Madsen, Tom Mcgovern, Konrad Smiarowski, Richard Streeter

Publications and Research

There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and …

The Anarchist Classroom: A Test Of Libertarian Education And Human Nature At The Modern School In New York And New Jersey, 1911-1953, Eric G. Anderson

Student Theses

A study of anarchist education at the beginning of the twentieth century questions common perceptions of anarchists as solely bomb-throwing radicals and reveals that they cared deeply about children and the future of humankind. Inspired by the martyrdom of Francisco Ferrer, Spanish anarchist and founder of anarchist schools in Barcelona, anarchists worldwide applied their radical principles to the creation of “Modern Schools.” In these schools, anarchists attempted to blend Enlightenment ideals of freedom with politically revolutionary goals. The Modern School movement reached its zenith in the decade following Ferrer’s 1909 execution by the Spanish government for sedition, but declined by …

The Effects Of A Voice Treatment On Facial Emotional Expression In Parkinson's Disease: Expressivity, Experience, And Gender, Elizabeth M. Murray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) suffer from decreased ability to express emotion through facial expression, in what has been termed “masked facies” or hypomimia. Facial emotional expression is necessary for the accurate communication of needs, to obtain or maintain empathy from care-givers, and to be perceived by others in a way that matches the way that one feels. The current study provides a review of the deficits seen in Parkinson’s disease, an overview of the neurobehavioral disparity of spontaneous versus posed facial expression of emotion, and factors that influence the perception of emotion, such as gender and clinical variables. The …

Revulsion, Restlessness, And Rage Through The Body In Pain: Radical Affects And Political Consciousness In The Ariel Poems, Erin P. Beach

Theses and Dissertations

The affective path to radicalism unfolds in Plath's Ariel in three stages. Revulsion identifies a shared source of conflict with a clear patriarchal enemy. Restlessness mimics the context and pace of rebellion, including the acute crises that give way to a societal awakening. Rage connotes incipient action and a commitment to upheaval as an act of restorative justice. The associated “ugly feelings” that facilitate such affects are a reflection of how, historically, progress has come at the cost of suffering. Plath’s language and its capacity for commanding this perverse sense of the sublime – particularly its ability to control …

Threat-Related Attentional Bias In Relation To Anxiety And Depressive Symptoms In The General Population: The Potential Role Of Sex Effects, Beril Yaffe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heightened sensitivity to relevant environmental stimuli (attentional bias) has been observed in relation to clinical and non-clinical anxiety and depression symptoms. While depression symptoms are associated with sensitivity to disorder and self-relevant words, hypervigilance to threatening stimuli is observed in relation to anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, attentional bias has been shown to play an important role in the development and maintenance of depressive and anxiety disorders. Accordingly, a large body of literature has examined threat-related attentional bias in relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, several methodological inconsistencies exist across studies, including variability in definitions of threat, lack of consideration …

Disorderly Histories: An Anthropology Of Decolonization In Western Sahara, Mark Drury

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation situates the disputed geopolitical territory of Western Sahara in a broader, regional history of decolonization. Eschewing the conceptual framework of methodological nationalism, and pushing beyond the period of Moroccan-Sahrawi political conflict, it examines how decolonization has generated multiple, unresolved political projects in this region of the Sahara, dating back to the 1950s. These formations, encompassing southern Morocco, Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, and northern Mauritania, include a zone of militarized occupation, a movement for nation-state sovereignty based in refugee camps, and the borderlands in between. By considering the overlapping processes that emerge through these unresolved …

Oil Pollution On The High Seas: The Establishment Of An International Regime To Deal With Public International Law And Private Law Issues And The Role Of Non-State Actors In Their Resolution Prior To And At The 1969 International Legal Conference On Marine Pollution Damage (“Brussels Conference”), Milton Ottensoser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On March 18, 1967, the Torrey Canyon, an oil tanker flying the flag of Liberia and carrying thirty million gallons of crude oil, smashed onto rocks off the coast of the United Kingdom. The oil spill metastasized into an environmental catastrophe, and this event became the first major environmental disaster of the electronic media age. As a direct result of the Torrey Canyon catastrophe, two treaties were signed in November 1969, at a conference in Brussels sponsored by the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), a United Nations Specialized Agency. The first treaty (the public law treaty) dealt with the right …

Strategies Involving The Food-Derived Agent Curcumin To Eliminate Brain Cancer, Sumit Mukherjee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most deadly forms of cancer with a mean 5-year survival rate of ≤5%. We have used the non-invasive strategy of long-term intranasal (IN) delivery of a glioblastoma-directed adduct of curcumin (CC), CC-CD68Ab, into the brain of murine GBM cell line GL261-implanted mice to study the therapeutic effect of CC on GBM remission. The treatment caused GBM tumor remission in 50% of GL261-implanted GBM mice. A similar rescue rate (60%) was also achieved through long-term intraperitoneal (i.p) infusion of a highly bioavailable phosphotidylcholine (PC)-encapsulated formulation of CC, Curcumin Phytosome Meriva (CCP), into the GL261-implanted GBM …

El Negro Y El Haitiano En La Literatura Dominicana De La Diáspora, Juan Nicolás Tineo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the diverse representations of blackness and Haitian culture in the literary works of the Dominican diaspora. First, the texts of the Dominican diaspora that highlight Africa are analyzed in order to determine to what extent these works represent real historical and social phenomena accurately, and in what ways these texts question or present other realities that have not been studied by the critics. It may be said that the writers of the diaspora allude to their African heritage because it was in the United States that they discovered their true racial identities. It is because of this …

The Inter-Subject Correlation Of Eeg In Response To Naturalistic Stimuli, Samantha S. Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inter-subject correlation is a measure of the similarity of the brain activity of a group of people as they respond to the same naturalistic stimulus, typically a story or video, meant to simulate a real world experience. This thesis tests the hypothesis that the correlation of the brain responses of a group of people is indicative of stimulus engagement. The rationale is that the content of the stimulus drives brain activity in a consistent manner, while internal thoughts are divergent and result in uncorrelated activity. The inter-subject correlation (ISC) of neural responses have previously been assessed with fMRI, EEG, and …

"When We Demand Our Share Of This World”: Struggles For Space, New Possibilities Of Planning, And Municipalist Politics In Mumbai, Malav J. Kanuga

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation presents an urban history of Bombay/Mumbai from the perspective of a politics of plurality, arguing that while the city has emerged from governmental control and planning, its development has also been shaped by myriad popular productive forces of urban society. The dissertation traces the uneven development of the city through significant planning policies, popular movements, and lived experiences of various struggles against regimes of developmentalism—the governing ideologies of development, techniques, policies, and rules of law through which the city has been planned and governed. These ideologies and practices have shifted over time, but since the earliest days of …

The Politics Of Service: Affectivity, Social Relations, And The Power Of Tipping In The Restaurant Industry, Jacqueline A. Ross

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The #MeToo movement and the growing spotlight on sexual harassment and misconduct has increasingly brought industries and individuals into the public eye. The restaurant industry is one such industry to receive this spotlight. While most of the coverage has stemmed from celebrities, the misconduct of celebrity chefs has been paralleled by the stories of servers and their customers. The NY Times published several articles on harassment in the restaurant industry and some specifically focusing on the abuses that tipped workers face. Often these workers were women. When asked about experiences of harassment, responses were often that servers felt that they …

Dietary Curcumin Promotes Resilience To Chronic Social Defeat Stress In A Highly Susceptible Mouse Strain, Antonio V. Aubry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chronic exposure to stress is a risk factor for the development of major depression and post traumatic stress disorder in humans and induces depressive- and anxiety-like phenotypes in rodents. However, there are few pharmacological interventions available that effectively treat maladaptive responses to chronic stress in the clinical setting. One therapeutic agent that has recently shown promise in treating psychiatric disorders is curcumin, a yellow-pigmented polyphenol compound found in the turmeric plant. Curcumin has been shown to prevent the development of stressed-induced depressive-like behavior in rodents and reduce symptoms of depression in clinically diagnosed patients. In this dissertation, I investigated whether …

The Sound Patterns Of Kachok In The Context Of Bahnaric And North-Bahnaric Studies, Emily L. Olsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation presents a description of the sound patterns of Kachok, Austroasiatic language spoken in northeastern Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia. The language is spoken by approximately 3000 people and is considered endangered (Simons & Fennig, 2018). Kachok is undocumented, and this dissertation is the first attempt to describe the language and its sound patterns. The goals of this dissertation are twofold: to contribute to linguistics and the science of phonetics and phonological typology, as well as increase the body of work on Austro-Asiatic languages, and to create resources for the Kachok language, culture, and people that have the potential to outlive …

Wukongism: Monkey King, Kungfu/Jazz, And Asian/American Performance, Sissi Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Wukongism offers one of the first non-western epistemic frameworks to examine theatre and performance that traverse beyond the shifting taxonomies of national, cultural, racial boundaries, and in particular, Asian/American theatre and performance. Wukongism, or shapeshifter consciousness, is built on the narrative of Sun Wukong the Monkey King, a supernatural shapeshifting character from the 16^th century classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Juxtaposing physical shapeshifting (plastic surgery and performing of the racialized face) with institutional shapeshifting (reinventing and eliminating invisible and hypervisible boundaries), this dissertation project posits Wukongism as a means to examine the varying, fluid, and precarious …

Toward A Posthuman Ecology: Evolutionary Aesthetics In Transatlantic Romanticism, Kaitlin Mondello

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation traces the vibrant interchange between Romantic literature and science in the nineteenth century that necessitated new forms of aesthetics. I argue that Romantic writers and scientists co-created a new way of understanding nature that moved away from hierarchical anthropocentrism toward what I call “posthuman ecology.” This work explores shared scientific, literary, and philosophical sources for Erasmus and Charles Darwin, Mary and Percy Shelley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Emily Dickinson. I connect aesthetic innovation to ethics to ask more broadly how literature can provide an affective and effective space to represent and engage scientific discourse. I conclude that understanding …

The Upright Battle: Morphological Trends Of The Bipedal Pelvis, Nicole M. Webb

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The shift to bipedal locomotion is a distinguishing feature of the human lineage that required substantial remodeling of the postcranium in hominins. The pelvis, due to its important functional role as a stabilizing and weight-bearing structure, has undergone one of the most drastic transformations in the skeleton to accommodate obligate bipedalism, thus making it a valuable region for studying locomotor behavior within the fossil record. Although bipedalism occurs in several mammalian groups, it is rare within primates and the ability to utilize a striding gait with an erect, or orthograde, posture remains unique to hominins. Orthograde posture in this context …

Analyzing Genre In Post-Millennial Popular Music, Thomas Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation approaches the broad concept of musical classification by asking a simple if ill-defined question: “what is genre in post-millennial popular music?” Alternatively covert or conspicuous, the issue of genre infects music, writings, and discussions of many stripes, and has become especially relevant with the rise of ubiquitous access to a huge range of musics since the fin du millénaire. The dissertation explores not just popular music made after 2000, but popular music as experienced and structured in the new millennium, including aspects from a wide chronological span of styles within popular music. Specifically, with the increase of …

Distinct Neuropsychological Profile And Associated Neurochemical Changes In Individuals With Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis, And Stroke-Like Episodes (Melas), Emily B. Leaffer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like Episodes (MELAS) is a maternally inherited progressive multisystemic disorder. Occurrence of seizure and/or stroke-like episode, as well as classic biomarkers (i.e., cerebral lactic acidosis, depleted N-acetylaspartate (NAA)), have been linked to neuropsychological deficit and trigger the developmental cascade of neurodegeneration affecting posterior prior to anterior brain regions. While a pattern of global deterioration has been reported, systematic examination in a large MELAS cohort has not been conducted.

Objective: First, we examined verbal and visual memory function and its relationship to brain metabolites (lactate, NAA) in individuals with MELAS. Second, we hypothesized that MELAS …

Characterizing Venom Gene Expression, Function And Species Diversity In Predatory Marine Snails Of The Terebridae, Juliette Gorson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Terebridae is a group of predatory marine snails that use their venom to feed on marine annelids. Similar to other venomous organisms, the Terebridae have evolved over millions of years, diverging from their closest relative in the Paleocene era. This thesis investigates what is driving terebrid evolution and species diversification by applying a multidimensional approach.

Parents Frame Childhood For The World To See In Digital Media Postings, Aysenur Benevento

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the wellbeing of children being at the center of contemporary media discourse (Livingstone & Bovill, 2013), developmental studies are ever more challenged to understand both children’s and adults’ behavior in online spaces. Parents and children are involved in the human development process in complementary ways (Johansson, 2010; Uprichards, 2008) while using media platforms. As the development and use of innovative media technology are accelerating at a fast pace, theory and methods for analyzing uses of digital media for human development have lagged behind. This study examines adults’ postings of photos of their children on social media and offers a …

A Network Theoretical Approach To Real-World Problems: Application Of The K-Core Algorithm To Various Systems, Kate Burleson-Lesser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of complex networks is, at its core, an exploration of the mechanisms that control the world in which we live at every scale, from particles no bigger than a grain of sand and amino acids that comprise proteins, to social networks, ecosystems, and even countries. Indeed, we find that, regardless of the physical size of the network's components, we may apply principles of complex network theory, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics to not only better understand these specific networks, but to formulate theories which may be applied to problems on a more general level. This thesis explores several networks …

Infodynamics: A Naturalistic Psychosemantics, Daniel E. Weissglass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When we think, we typically think ‘about’ something, a peculiar property of mental states often called ‘intentionality’. My dissertation is a collection of papers addressing key questions about the nature of intentionality. These questions demand answers because intentionality is poorly understood, yet fundamental to the way we talk and think about the mind in both folk and scientific contexts. The role of intentionality in the theory of mind is, in fact, so pronounced that it is regularly proposed as a candidate positive criterion of mentality, a so-called ‘mark of the mental’. While it is unclear whether intentionality does in fact …

Compact Gene Regulatory Cassettes Support Hallmark Features Of T-Cell Receptor (Tcr)-Alpha Gene Locus Control Region (Lcr) Activity, Jordana Lovett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the promise of emerging stem cell transplant gene therapy strategies, there remains a gap in the ability to predictably generate robust, temporally controlled long-lasting, therapeutic gene expression in specific target cell lineages following stem cell differentiation. There exists a locus control region (LCR) in the mouse T-cell receptor (TCR)-α locus that confers an ab TCR-like spatiotemporal expression pattern upon a linked transgene, regardless of its site of integration in the genome. These properties are well suited to direction of high-level, physiological expression of therapeutic antigen receptor genes to the T cell progeny of vector-transduced stem cells. The endogenous LCR …