Digital Commons Network^™

Animal Performance In Big-Time Vaudeville, Catherine M. Young

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Animal vaudevillians have been neglected by academic accounts of vaudeville. Drawing on the rapidly proliferating and highly interdisciplinary field of animal studies, this dissertation combines archival research and cultural theory to fill an important gap in our understanding of how animal bodies and images circulated during the vaudeville era. Taking up Nicole Shukin’s notion of animal capital as both animal “signs and substances” circulating in cultures of capital, I argue that vaudeville animal acts theatricalized animal capital for US citizen-consumers and often circulated animalized capital via racist ideologies and performance modes.

Theatre bookers balanced their reliance on animal acts …

Climate, Ecology, And Human Evolution During The Plio-Pleistocene, Scott Adam Blumenthal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A major goal of paleoanthropology is to identify the selective pressures associated with hominin biological and behavioral evolution, yet establishing cause-effect relationships between climate, ecology, and human evolution remains problematic. This dissertation seeks to investigate hominin paleoecology in eastern Africa by reconstructing aspects of climate and ecology using stable isotope analysis.

The first part of this dissertation is focused on the ecology of primates and hominins. Modern tropical African ecosystems provide a useful model for understanding the ecological correlates of isotopic variation in the fossil record, and living primates provide a useful model for understanding the ecological significance of isotopic …

An Exploration Of Early Romanization: A Comparative And Semiotic Approach, Mikel Wein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Romanization became a popular academic topic after its initial proposal in 1915 by Francis Haverfield. Even today, it is maintained as a popular theory to explain how Rome came to dominate everything from the Italian peninsula to Roman Britain. Traditionally, Romanization has been framed using a theoretical framework of dominance through cultural diffusion. Several authors have challenged this dynamic, but have not framed this discussion within contexts of pre-Republican Roman expansion. This paper challenges the traditional framework and suggests utilizing a comparative and semiotic approach to evaluate early Roman expansion and Romanization. The paper also challenges the traditional definition of …

Are We Overestimating The Niche? Removing Marginal Localities Helps Ecological Niche Models Detect Environmental Barriers, Mariano Soley-Guardia, Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, Darla M. Thomas, José Ochoa-G, Marisol Aguilera, Robert P. Anderson

Publications and Research

Correlative ecological niche models (ENMs) estimate species niches using occurrence records and environmental data. These tools are valuable to the field of biogeography, where they are commonly used to infer potential connectivity among populations. However, a recent study showed that when locally relevant environmental data are not available, records from patches of suitable habitat protruding into otherwise unsuitable regions (e.g., gallery forests within dry areas) can lead to overestimations of species niches and their potential distributions. Here, we test whether this issue obfuscates detection of an obvious environmental barrier existing in northern Venezuela – that of the hot and xeric …

The Ubiquitin-Proteasome System: Potential Therapeutic Targets For Alzheimer’S Disease And Spinal Cord Injury, Bing Gong, Miroslav Radulovic, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira, Christopher Cardozo

Publications and Research

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a crucial protein degradation system in eukaryotes. Herein, we will review advances in the understanding of the role of several proteins of the UPS in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI). The UPS consists of many factors that include E3 ubiquitin ligases, ubiquitin hydrolases, ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like molecules, and the proteasome itself. An extensive body of work links UPS dysfunction with AD pathogenesis and progression. More recently, the UPS has been shown to have vital roles in recovery of function after SCI. The ubiquitin hydrolase (Uch-L1) has been proposed to …

Transitors, Sarah B. Crofts

Theses and Dissertations

As an expression of integrated languages and an extension of my art practice, Transitors operates at the intersection of data, photography and language to explore the fragmentation and disintegration of the human psyche and bodily awareness through the effects of digital technology and contemporary social dissociation. Elements of the text simultaneously function as formulas, facts, and data interspersed with expository and narrative writing, all relating mimetically to various registers of this dissociation. The text moves amongst these levels, shifting from the personal to hints of a technological sublime to exemplify the predicament of the individual in relation to systems of …

Adjunctive Phosphodiesterase-4 Inhibitor Therapy Improves Antibiotic Response To Pulmonary Tuberculosis In A Rabbit Model, Selvakumar Subbian, Liana Tsenova, Jennifer Holloway, Blas Peixoto, Paul O'Brien, Veronique Dartois, Vikram Khetani, Jerome B. Zeldis, Gilla Kaplan

Publications and Research

Objectives: Adjunctive host-directed therapy is emerging as a new potential approach to improve the outcome of conventional antimicrobial treatment for tuberculosis (TB).We tested the ability of a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor (PDE4i) CC-11050, co-administered with the first-line anti-TB drug isoniazid (INH), to accelerate bacillary killing and reduce chronic inflammation in the lungs of rabbits with experimental Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection.

Methods: A rabbit model of pulmonary TB that recapitulates the pathologic manifestations seen in humans was used. Rabbits were infected with virulent Mtb by aerosol exposure and treated for eight weeks with INH with orwithout CC-11050, starting at fourweeks post infection. The …

The Problematic Pleasures Of Productivity And Efficiency In Goa And Navegador, Nancy M. Foasberg

Publications and Research

Eurogames are a specific subset of modern board games known for mathematical beauty, low conflict and light themes. However, despite their apparent nonviolence, they often use colonial themes. This article argues that the uncritical embrace of these themes and "abstracting away" of troubling historical content results in a narrative that supports colonialism. Two examples of the genre, Goa and Navegador are analyzed in detail.

Site-Specifically Labeled Immunoconjugates For Molecular Imaging—Part 1: Cysteine Residues And Glycans, Pierre Adumeau, Sai Kiran Sharma, Colleen Brent, Brian M. Zeglis

Publications and Research

Due to their remarkable selectivity and specificity for cancer biomarkers, immunoconjugates have emerged as extremely promising vectors for the delivery of diagnostic radioisotopes and fluorophores to malignant tissues. Paradoxically, however, these tools for precision medicine are synthesized in a remarkably imprecise way. Indeed, the vast majority of immunoconjugates are created via the random conjugation of bifunctional probes (e.g., DOTA-NCS) to amino acids within the antibody (e.g., lysines). Yet antibodies have multiple copies of these residues throughout their macromolecular structure, making control over the location of the conjugation reaction impossible. This lack of site specificity can lead to the formation of …

South African Marriage In Policy And Practice: A Dynamic Story, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

Law forms one of the major structural contexts within which family lives play out, yet the precise dynamics connecting these two foundational institutions are still poorly understood. This article attempts to help bridge this gap by applying sociolegal concepts to empirical findings about state law's role in family, and especially in marriage, drawn from across several decades and disciplines of South Africanist scholarly research. I sketch the broad outlines of a nuanced theoretical approach for analysing the law-family relationship, which insists that the relationship entails a contingent and dynamic interplay between relatively powerful regulating institutions and relatively powerless regulated populations. …

The Fragility Of Ecological Pedagogy: Elementary Social Studies Standards And Possibilities Of New Materialism, Debbie Sonu, Nathan Snaza

Publications and Research

The greatest challenge facing the field of environmentalism includes ontological questions over the human subject and its desensitization from landscapes of experience. In this article the authors draw from field experiences in New York City elementary schools (such as observations of teachers, NYS Scope and Sequence Standards for Social Studies, and the Common Core State Standards) to demonstrate how curricular engagements with nature and the environment are persistently caught within humanist traditions that place agency and action as sovereign to humanness. It uses new materialist ontologies to suggest how hybrid relations among humans, nonhumans, and matter can be read by …

Nothing Behind The Sun, Sebastian Fierro Castro

Theses and Dissertations

painting as a containment exercise, and as such, a tool that allows us to interiorize the world

Trauma And Human Objecthood, Leslie Kelman

Theses and Dissertations

I am processing recent traumatic personal content in multiple media. This investigation dovetails with the work I was conducting previously, that of contemplating humans as objects continuous with their environment. This represents a reduced position in the biological hierarchy for humans, or a rejection of the hierarchy itself.

Repetitive Motor Movement, Social Responsiveness, And Global Development In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jenny Waltzer

Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed whether specific repetitive motor movements (involving body), are associated with social abilities and global development. Additionally, we evaluated whether our observational measures of specific repetitive behaviors corresponded to standard diagnostic measures. Sixty-nine children, aged 32 to 82 months, with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or autism were enrolled.

Function Of Male Sexual Signaling In The Brief Squid (Lolliguncula Brevis), Lauren A. Piperno

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores male signaling in the brief squid. Females spend more time close to males during male signal production, but did not change their orientation to enable mating. Females reduced their own signaling during male signals. Male sexual signaling is directed at females, yet the precise function remains elusive.

A Portrait Of The Artist As Sisyphus, Jared N. Crane

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis statement, contemporary artist Jared Nathan Crane uses the French philosopher Albert Camus’ essay The Myth of Sisyphus as a framework for discussing meaningfulness in art and life, and reflects on how his own experimental creative process evolved during his graduate studies.

Double Blind, Megan E. Pahmier

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the context surrounding my sculptural practice. In it, I explore sculpture’s inherent engagement with bodies in space as fertile ground for addressing contemporary experiences of embodiment related to our engagement with various materialities. I ask: How do we attend to or conceive of the spaces we inhabit? What is our understanding of connectivity today? How do objects “speak” in ways images cannot?

The Objects Of A Catastrophe, Roman Cochet

Theses and Dissertations

Roman Cochet painting art

Impact Of Irrigation Method On Water Use Efficiency And Productivity Of Fodder Crops In Nepal, Ajay K. Jha, Razan Malla, Mohan Sharma, Jeeban Panthi, Tarendra Lakhankar, Nir Y. Krakauer, Soni M. Pradhanang, Piyush Dahal, Madan Lall Shrestha

Publications and Research

Improved irrigation use efficiency is an important tool for intensifying and diversifying agriculture in Nepal, resulting in higher economic yield from irrigated farmlands with a minimum input of water. Research was conducted to evaluate the effect of irrigation method (furrow vs. drip) on the productivity of nutritious fodder species during off-monsoon dry periods in different elevation zones of central Nepal. A split-block factorial design was used. The factors considered were treatment location, fodder crop, and irrigation method. Commonly used local agronomical practices were followed in all respects except irrigation method. Results revealed that location effect was significant (p < 0.01) with highest fodder productivity seen for the middle elevation site, Syangja. Species effects were also significant, with teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana) having higher yield than cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Irrigation method impacted green biomass yield (higher with furrow irrigation) but both methods yielded similar dry biomass, while water use was 73% less under drip irrigation. Our findings indicated that the controlled application of water through drip irrigation is able to produce acceptable yields of nutritionally dense fodder species during dry seasons, leading to more effective utilization and resource conservation of available land, fertilizer and water. Higher productivity of these nutritional fodders resulted in higher milk productivity for livestock smallholders. The ability to grow fodder crops year-round in lowland and hill regions of Nepal with limited water storages using low-cost, water-efficient drip irrigation may greatly increase livestock productivity and, hence, the economic security of smallholder farmers.

Husband Hunting In Africa, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a short story.

The Brooklyn College Farm Labor Project Collection, Brooklyn College

Finding Aids

The Brooklyn College Farm Labor Project was designed as a way for young men and women to become more involved in the war effort throughout the early 1940s in order to help alleviate the labor and production shortages. The concept of farm labor aid was prevalent during World War I and by World War II; the societal movement of “Victory Gardens” was rapidly on the rise once again, but in a new way. President Gideonse saw this concept as a way to not only provide his students with the opportunity to fulfill their patriotic duties, but also as a way …

The Papers Of Ruth B. Scult, Brooklyn College

Finding Aids

This small collection contains primarily the poetry written by Ruth Bermant Scult. The two volumes here are titled Count Me Still Among You, the Complete Poetry of Ruth Bermant Scult. In addition, there are papers (dated from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s) that Ms. Scult wrote professionally for conferences that cover various topics, such as techniques for supervisors, patience and basic skills, dealing with learning disabilities, fear, gestalt, kinesis, and more.

The Papers Of Roberta Kalechofsky, Brooklyn College

Finding Aids

This small collection is comprised mainly of Roberta Kalechofsky’s writings. There are 3 boxes containing 40 file folders of Ms. Kalechofsky’s notes on the various short stories she has written, numerous scripts (handwritten or typed), as well as proofs of her book Bodmin: 1349, and a book penned in 1974 published the Writers’ Cooperative titled Justice, My Brother. In addition, there are also a number of CD’s and floppy discs with Ms. Kalechofsky’s writings.

Loving The Unlovable Body In Lois Ann Yamanaka’S Saturday Night At The Pahala Theatre, Christa Baiada

Publications and Research

Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s award-winning yet remarkably neglected Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre (1993) explores female adolescence and coming of age in a rich, polyphonic collection of verse novellas. “Loving the Unlovable Body” focuses on Yamanaka’s treatment of this transition as a fully embodied, fraught, and often painful experience by explicating the uses of several tropes used to express girls’ experiences of their bodies: eating, voice, eyes, fragmentation, and marking/naming. These metaphors contribute to the development of a complex range of possibilities from devastating to hopeful, presented in juxtaposition and interplay, for girls’ relationships to their culturally denigrated bodies and the …

Drilling For Common Ground: How Public Opinion Tracks Experts In The Debate Over Federal Regulation Of Shale Oil & Gas Extraction, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

Public interest in environmental and health impacts from shale oil and gas extraction (what the public calls “fracking”) is growing. Industry claims the public outcry against the new technology is not grounded in science. In February 2013, Resources for the Future (“RFF”) published a list of high priority “risk pathways” that experts from NGOs, academia, government, and industry all agreed were real concerns about fracking. This article used the risk matrix to evaluate whether public comments in dockets of federal agencies that proposed regulation concerning hydraulic fracturing tracked expert concern. The article found that the public tracked many of the …

Winfield V. City Of New York: Testing The Limits Of Disparate-Impact Liability After Texas Department Of Housing And Community Affairs V. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., Andrea Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Swansong For Trump, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a short story about how Trump encounters fire breathing trumpeter swans.

Donald Trump: Live From New Yawk, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is an article about why Donald Trump speaks like "The Real Housewives of New York" reality stars.

Catalog 2016-2017, Kingsborough Community College

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Fake Universities Are Not Necessarily A Rarity, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.