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Touching Brains, Jason Tougaw

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Science And Charity: Rival Catholic Visions For Humanitarian Practice At The End Of French Rule In Cameroon, Charlotte Walker-Said

Publications and Research

This paper explores the conflict between local expressions of Christian charity and new theories of scientific humanitarianism in the final years of French rule in Africa. Compassionate phenomena inspired by Catholic social organizing had transformed everyday life throughout French Cameroon’s cities and villages in the interwar and postwar years, and yet, in 1950, poverty, crime, poor public health, and social tensions remained prevalent. Seeking a more deeply transformative approach to social rehabilitation, ecclesiastical leaders in the Catholic Church in Europe and French foreign missionary societies in Africa partnered with international medical and scientific organizations in order to invigorate charity with …

Impair-Then-Repair: A Brief History & Global-Scale Hypothesis Regarding Human-Water Interactions In The Anthropocene, Charles J. Vörösmarty, Michel Meybeck, Christopher L. Pastore

Advanced Science Research Center

Water is an essential building block of the Earth system and a nonsubstitutable resource upon which humankind must depend. But a growing body of evidence shows that freshwater faces a pandemic array of challenges. Today we can observe a globally significant but collectively unorganized approach to addressing them. Under modern water management schemes, impairment accumulates with increasing wealth but is then remedied by costly, after-the-fact technological investments. This strategy of treating symptoms rather than underlying causes is practiced widely across rich countries but leaves poor nations and many of the world's freshwater life-forms at risk. The seeds of this modern …

Cell Type Specificity Of Tissue Plasminogen Activator In The Mouse Barrel Cortex, Philip Chu, Eric Chen, Adesh Bajnath, Joshua C. Brumberg

Publications and Research

It has been suggested that tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease, plays a key role in regulating the extracellular matrix core proteins, thereby impacting the structural plasticity in the cerebral cortex. Much is known about its role in regulating plasticity in the visual cortex. However, its permissive role has not been demonstrated to generalize to other cerebral cortical areas. By utilizing a combination of immunofluorescent histochemistry and confocal microscopy, we demonstrate that endogenous tPA is indeed present in the somatosensory cortex, and its expression is experience-dependent. Chronic sensory deprivation induced by whisker trimming from birth for one month leads …

Core And Shell Song Systems Unique To The Parrot Brain, Mukta Chakraborty, Solveig Walloe, Signe Nedergaard, Emma E. Fridel, Torben Dabelsteen, Bente Pakkenberg, Mads F. Bertelsen, Gerry M. Dorrestein, Steven E. Brauth, Sarah E. Durand, Erich D. Jarvis

Publications and Research

The ability to imitate complex sounds is rare, and among birds has been found only in parrots, songbirds, and hummingbirds. Parrots exhibit the most advanced vocal mimicry among non-human animals. A few studies have noted differences in connectivity, brain position and shape in the vocal learning systems of parrots relative to songbirds and hummingbirds. However, only one parrot species, the budgerigar, has been examined and no differences in the presence of song system structures were found with other avian vocal learners. Motivated by questions of whether there are important differences in the vocal systems of parrots relative to other vocal …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Childhood Abuse, Anger And Violent Behavior Among A Sample Of Sex Offenders, Stephanie R. Ramirez, Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Cynthia Calkins

Publications and Research

Background: Increasing attention has focused on the emotional dysregulation that can result from adverse childhood experiences among those who commit sexually violent crimes. While studies confirm a relationship between child maltreatment and anger the research is limited and it is unclear how anger and child maltreatment effect the use of violence during the commission of the sex crime.

Methods: This study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment, anger and violent behavior by reviewing the records of 571 adult male offenders convicted of sexual assault or child molestation. The aims of the present study were to 1) examine differences in anger …

Non-Operative Management Of Hip Osteoarthritis, Ray Marks

Publications and Research

This paper reviews several non-operative and non-pharmacologic management strategies advocated for alleviating the pain and disability experienced by people with hip osteoarthritis. It analyzes whether painful debilitating hip osteoarthritis, which has no effective cure and is often progressive, may be affected positively by non-operative interventions designed to control osteoar- thritis pain. Finally, it provides an integrated plan of management for ameliorating hip osteoar- thritis pain and disability in light of this knowledge.

Assessing The Carcinogenic Potential Of Low-Dose Exposures To Chemical Mixtures In The Environment: The Challenge Ahead, William H. Goodson, Leroy Lowe, David O. Carpenter, Michael Gilbertson, Abdul Manaf Ali, Adela Lopez De Cerain Salsamendi, Ahmed Lasfar, Amancio Carnero, Amaya Azqueta, Amedeo Amedei, Amelia K. Charles, Andrew R. Collins, Andrew Ward, Anna C. Salzberg, Annamaria Colacci, Ann-Karin Olsen, Arthur Berg, Barry J. Barclay, Binhua P. Zhou, Carmen Blanco-Aparicio, Debasish Roy

Publications and Research

Summary Low-dose exposures to common environmental chemicals that are deemed safe individually may be combining to instigate carcinogenesis, thereby contributing to the incidence of cancer. This risk may be overlooked by current regulatory practices and needs to be vigorously investigated.

Mobilisation Of Public Support For Policy Actions To Prevent Obesity, Terry T-K Huang, John H. Cawley, Marice Ashe, Sergio Costa, Leah M. Frerichs, Lindsey Zwicker, Juan A. Rivera, David Levy, Ross A. Hammond, Estelle V. Lambert, Shiriki K. Kumanyika

Publications and Research

Public mobilisation is needed to enact obesity prevention policies and to mitigate backlash against their implementation. However, current approaches in public health focus primarily on dialogue between public health professionals and political leaders. Strategies to increase popular demand for obesity prevention policies include refining and streamlining public information, identifying effective frames for each population, enhancing media advocacy, building citizen protest and engagement, and developing a receptive political environment with change agents embedded across organisations and sectors. Long-term support and investment in collaboration among diverse stakeholders to create shared value is also important. Each actor in an expanded coalition for obesity …

Behavioral And Cognitive Changes After Early Postnatal Lesions Of The Rat Mediodorsal Thalamus, Zakaria Ouhaz, Saadua B-M'Hamed, Anna S. Mitchell, Abdeslem Elidrissi, Mohamed Bennis

Publications and Research

Early insults to the thalamus result in functional and/or structural abnormalities in the cerebral cortex. However, differences in behavioral and cognitive changes after early insult are not well characterized. The present study assessed whether early postnatal damage to mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (MD), reciprocally interconnected with the prefrontal cortex, causes behavioral and cognitive alterations in young adult rats. Rat pups at postnatal day 4 received bilateral electrolytic lesion of MD, or aMD Sham lesion or were anesthetized controls; on recovery they were returned to their mothers until weaning. Seven weeks later, all rats were tested with the following behavioral …

Destabilisation Of Dimeric 14-3-3 Proteins As A Novel Approach To Anti-Cancer Therapeutics, Joanna M. Woodcock, Carl Coolen, Katy L. Goodwin, Dong Jae Baek, Robert Bittman, Michael S. Samuel, Stuart M. Pitson, Angel F. Lopez

Publications and Research

14-3-3 proteins play a pivotal role in controlling cell proliferation and survival, two commonly dysregulated hallmarks of cancers. 14-3-3 protein expression is enhanced in many human cancers and correlates with more aggressive tumors and poor prognosis, suggesting a role for 14-3-3 proteins in tumorigenesis and/or progression. We showed previously that the dimeric state of 14-3-3 proteins is regulated by the lipid sphingosine, a physiological inducer of apoptosis. As the functions of 14-3-3 proteins are dependent on their dimeric state, this sphingosine-mediated 14-3-3 regulation provides a possible means to target dimeric 14-3-3 for therapeutic effect. However, sphingosine mimics are needed that …

Transcriptome Sequencing And Annotation Of The Polychaete Hermodice Carunculata (Annelida, Amphinomidae), Shaadi Mehr, Aida Verdes, Rob Desalle, John S. Sparks, Vincent A. Pieribone, David F. Gruber

Publications and Research

Background: The amphinomid polychaete Hermodice carunculata is a cosmopolitan and ecologically important omnivore in coral reef ecosystems, preying on a diverse suite of reef organisms and potentially acting as a vector for coral disease. While amphinomids are a key group for determining the root of the Annelida, their phylogenetic position has been difficult to resolve, and their publically available genomic data was scarce.

Results: We performed deep transcriptome sequencing (Illumina HiSeq) and profiling on Hermodice carunculata collected in the Western Atlantic Ocean. We focused this study on 58,454 predicted Open Reading Frames (ORFs) of genes longer than 200 amino acids …

New Insights Into The Evolution Of The Human Diet From Faecal Biomarker Analysis In Wild Chimpanzee And Gorilla Faeces, Ainara Sistiaga, Richard Wrangham, Jessica M. Rothman, Roger E. Summons

Publications and Research

Our understanding of early human diets is based on reconstructed biomechanics of hominin jaws, bone and teeth isotopic data, tooth wear patterns, lithic, taphonomic and zooarchaeological data, which do not provide information about the relative amounts of different types of foods that contributed most to early human diets. Faecal biomarkers are proving to be a valuable tool in identifying relative proportions of plant and animal tissues in Palaeolithic diets. A limiting factor in the application of the faecal biomarker approach is the striking absence of data related to the occurrence of faecal biomarkers in non-human primate faeces. In this study …

The Energetic Value Of Land-Based Foods In Western Hudson Bayand Their Potential To Alleviate Energy Deficits Of Starving Adult Male Polar Bears, Linda J. Gormezano, Robert F. Rockwell

Publications and Research

Climate change is predicted to expand the ice-free season in western Hudson Bay and when it grows to 180 days, 28–48% of adult male polar bears are projected to starve unless nutritional deficits can be offset by foods consumed on land. We updated a dynamic energy budget model developed by Molnar et al. to allow influx of additional energy from novel terrestrial foods (lesser snow geese, eggs, caribou) that polar bears currently consume as part of a mixed diet while on land. We calculated the units of each prey, alone and in combination, needed to alleviate these lethal energy deficits …

The Nutritional Geometry Of Resource Scarcity: Effects Of Lean Seasons And Habitat Disturbance On Nutrient Intakes And Balancing In Wild Sifakas, Mitchell T. Irwin, Jean-Luc Raharison, David R. Raubenheimer, Colin A. Chapman, Jessica M. Rothman

Publications and Research

Animals experience spatial and temporal variation in food and nutrient supply, which may cause deviations from optimal nutrient intakes in both absolute amounts (meeting nutrient requirements) and proportions (nutrient balancing). Recent research has used the geometric framework for nutrition to obtain an improved understanding of how animals respond to these nutritional constraints, among them free-ranging primates including spider monkeys and gorillas. We used this framework to examine macronutrient intakes and nutrient balancing in sifakas (Propithecus diadema) at Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar, in order to quantify how these vary across seasons and across habitats with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. Groups in intact …

Mitochondrial Ion Channels In Cancer Transformation, Stephen M. Madamba, Kevin N. Damri, Laurent M. Dejean, Pablo M. Peixoto

Publications and Research

Cancer transformation involves reprograming of mitochondrial function to avert cell death mechanisms, monopolize energy metabolism, accelerate mitotic proliferation, and promote metastasis. Mitochondrial ion channels have emerged as promising therapeutic targets because of their connection to metabolic and apoptotic functions. This mini review discusses how mitochondrial channels may be associated with cancer transformation and expands on the possible involvement of mitochondrial protein import complexes in pathophysiological process.

Evaluation Of Alos Palsar Data For High-Resolution Mapping Of Vegetated Wetlands In Alaska, Daniel Clewley, Jane Whitcomb, Mahta Moghaddam, Kyle Macdonald, Bruce Chapman, Peter Bunting

Publications and Research

As the largest natural source of methane, wetlands play an important role in the carbon cycle. High-resolution maps of wetland type and extent are required to quantify wetland responses to climate change. Mapping northern wetlands is particularly important because of a disproportionate increase in temperatures at higher latitudes. Synthetic aperture radar data from a spaceborne platform can be used to map wetland types and dynamics over large areas. Following from earlier work by Whitcomb et al. (2009) using Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) data, we applied the “random forests” classification algorithm to variables from L-band ALOS PALSAR data for 2007, …

Adipokine Levels During The First Or Early Second Trimester Of Pregnancy And Subsequent Risk Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review, Wei Bao, Aileen Baecker, Yiqing Song, Michele Kiely, Simin Liu, Cuilin Zhang

Publications and Research

Objective—We aimed to systematically review available literature linking adipokines to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) for a comprehensive understanding of the roles of adipokines in the development of GDM.

Methods—We searched PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE databases for published studies on adipokines and GDM through October 21, 2014. We included articles if they had a prospective study design (i.e., blood samples for adipokines measurement were collected before GDM diagnosis). Random-effects models were used to pool the weighted mean differences comparing levels of adipokines between GDM cases and non-GDM controls.

Results—Of 1,523 potentially relevant articles, we included 25 prospective studies relating …

Selective Impairment Of Spatial Cognition Caused By Autoantibodies To The N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor, Eric H. Chang, Bruce T. Volpe, Meggan Mackay, Cynthia Aranow, Philip Watson, Czeslawa Kowal, Justin Storbeck, Paul Mattis, Roseann Berlin, Huiyi Chen, Simone Mader, Tomás S. Huerta, Patricio T. Huerta, Betty Diamond

Publications and Research

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) experience cognitive abnormalities in multiple domains including processing speed, executive function, and memory. Here we show that SLE patients carrying antibodies that bind DNA and the GluN2A and GluN2B subunits of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), termed DNRAbs, displayed a selective impairment in spatial recall. Neural recordings in a mouse model of SLE, in which circulating DNRAbs penetrate the hippocampus, revealed that CA1 place cells exhibited a significant expansion in place field size. Structural analysis showed that hippocampal pyramidal cells had substantial reductions in their dendritic processes and spines. Strikingly, these abnormalities became evident at …

Molecular Diversity And Gene Evolution Of The Venom Arsenal Of Terebridae Predatory Marine Snails, Juliette Gorson, Girish Ramrattan, Aida Verdes, Elizabeth M. Wright, Yuri Kantor, Ramakrishnan Rajaram Srinivasan, Raj Musunuri, Daniel Packer, Gabriel Albano, Wei-Gang Qiu, Mandë Holford

Publications and Research

Venom peptides from predatory organisms are a resource for investigating evolutionary processes such as adaptive radiation or diversification, and exemplify promising targets for biomedical drug development. Terebridae are an understudied lineage of conoidean snails,which also includes cone snails and turrids. Characterization of cone snail venompeptides, conotoxins, has revealed a cocktail of bioactive compounds used to investigate physiological cellular function, predator-prey interactions, and to develop novel therapeutics. However, venom diversity of other conoidean snails remains poorly understood. The present research applies a venomics approach to characterize novel terebrid venom peptides, teretoxins, from the venom gland transcriptomes of Triplostephanus anilis and Terebra …

Emerging Roles Of Health Care Providers To Mitigate Climate Change Impacts: A Perspective From East Harlem, New York, Perry E. Sheffield, Kathleen T. Durante, Elena Rahona, Christina Zarcadoolas

Publications and Research

Professional associations of health care workers are issuing policy statements on climate change and health with greater frequency, calling on their members to act in their duty to protect and fulfill the right to health. These health care providers’ perceptions of their roles in the intersection of climate and health, however, have not been well-studied. This article presents results from a qualitative study using focus groups conducted with health care providers serving the low-income, ethnic minority population in East Harlem, New York. The focus groups sought to identify and explore providers’ perceived health threats of climate change, as well as …

Affecting Neoliberal Public Health Care: Interdependent Relationality Between Disabled Care Recipients And Their Care Providers, Akemi Nishida

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the neoliberal turn of a public health-care program, Medicaid, and its effects on those who are involved in it: disabled care recipients and their care providers. Also examined is the emergence of an affective relationality between these individuals through their daily practices of care. In 1993, Medicaid went through a neoliberal turn that accelerated its privatization. I investigate the ways in which this turn--in company with the neoliberal transition of other welfare programs and the rise of a transnational care industry--further deployed a gendered, raced, classed, and immigration-based division of care labor that commodified and …

Attenuation Of Methamphetamine And Nmda-Induced Toxicity By Leptin In Murine Striatum, Nawshin Hoque Kutub

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Methamphetamine (METH) is an addictive illicit psychostimulant that is neurotoxic and causes permanent brain injury. METH-induced neurological damage affects areas of the brain that mediates emotions, motivation, cognition and critical thinking. In the striatum METH neurotoxicity intertwines several factors such as dopamine (DA) overflow, glutamate signaling, and free radicals formation causing oxidative stress. In addition, excessive dopaminergic innervation leads to severe reduction in DA terminals, DA transporters (DAT), and vesicular monoamine transporters (VMAT)-2. METH use causes permanent damage which cannot be recovered even after three years of abstinence. Understanding the mechanism of METH-induced neurodegeneration will provide an avenue towards identifying …

Low-Rank Based Algorithms For Rectification, Repetition Detection And De-Noising In Urban Images, Juan Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, we aim to solve the problem of automatic image rectification and repeated patterns detection on 2D urban images, using novel low-rank based techniques. Repeated patterns (such as windows, tiles, balconies and doors) are prominent and significant features in urban scenes.

Detection of the periodic structures is useful in many applications such as photorealistic 3D reconstruction, 2D-to-3D alignment, facade parsing, city modeling, classification, navigation, visualization in 3D map environments, shape completion, cinematography and 3D games. However both of the image rectification and repeated patterns detection problems are challenging due to scene occlusions, varying illumination, pose variation and sensor …

Three Faces Of Human Exceptionalism: Genius, Saint, Monster, Mary Clare Feldmann Mckinley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An exposition of the artistic genius invokes the perennial challenge to determine intersections between ethics (or morality) and aesthetics. As the human figure of the aesthetic realm, the genius meets its match in two counterparts of the ethical realm: the saint and the monster. Indeed, the genius shares traits with both figures, drawing closer to the saint in its communicative capacity while also revealing a prodigious nature more akin to the monster. This dissertation poses the following question: between the saint and the monster, does the genius resonate more with one than with the other? As one strategy to find …

Nepantla And Ubuntu Ethics Para Nosotros: Beyond Scrupulous Adherence Toward Threshold Perspectives Of Participatory/Collaborative Research Ethics, Monique Antoinette Guishard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Participatory Action Research (PAR) refers less to a method and more to a continuum of approaches to collaborative inquiry. Within PAR, ideally, some phenomenon has been identified as a mutual area of concern to researchers and community members; working together they design, conduct, analyze, and disseminate the findings of a shared piece of research and coordinate action(s) aimed at using research to redress injustice. If PAR is embraced holistically boundaries inevitably blur as research team members become enmeshed in each other's lives. This blurring while momentous can give rise to ethical quandaries that IRB centered research ethics are inadequate to …

Employee Environmentally Friendly Behaviors In And Out Of Organizations And Across Cultures, Lilia Hayrapetyan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A rising number of organizations are making changes to minimize their impact on the environment. In order to successfully implement such changes for the long term it is important for organizations to not only address operational, structural and process factors, but also their employees' environmentally significant behaviors (e.g., Siero et al., 1996). Unfortunately, there remains a general lack of understanding of factors affecting employees' environmentally friendly behaviors. In an effort to reduce this gap, the present study employed the Values Beliefs Norms theory (Stern et al., 1999, Stern, 2000) to gain a comprehensive understanding of individuals' environmentally friendly behaviors in …

Investigating The Effects Of Combining Treadmill Training With Trans-Spinal Direct Current Stimulation On Motor Skill Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury, Jennifer Blake, Rebecca Bullen, Jeremy Pahl, Samantha Scicchigno

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study assessed the effect of treadmill training with or without trans-spinal direct current stimulation on motor recovery following a T13/L1 spinal cord hemi section in CD-1 mice. Mice all received the same spinal cord injury, which resulted in left hind limb paralysis, and were assigned to one of three groups. Control animals received no treatment. Treadmill only mice were treated with 5 sessions of treadmill training. Treadmill + stimulation animals were treated with concurrent treadmill training and trans-spinal direct current stimulation. Progress was assessed by analyzing each subject’s steps on a horizontal ladder test, which the animals performed both …

Use Of The Bioness L300® Functional Electrical Stimulator In Acute Stroke Rehabilitation, Christine Flanigan, Colleen M. Martinez, Beth N. Terranova, Nicholas Wildi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose. Over 150,000 people in the U.S. every year experience foot drop following a stroke, slowing their ambulation and increasing their falls risk. We explore whether the use of functional electrical stimulation (FES) to the common fibular nerve during acute rehabilitation can maximize ambulation gains. Methods. Five in-patients admitted at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital experiencing foot drop participated. While receiving conventional physical therapy, four subjects wore the Bioness L300® device, and one subject used an elastic figure-8 wrapped elastic bandage. Gait parameters were evaluated at initial evaluation, an intermittent evaluation, and discharge. Results. During their stay, subjects significantly improved in gait …

Interactions Between Descending And Somatosensory Inputs In Humans, Lisa Krivis, Ann Mackey, Maureen Mcdonough, Denise Uttaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, we assessed the corticospinal integration in healthy people while seated. Corticospinal integration was assessed by establishing the latency and amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) evoked following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary motor cortex area representing the leg muscles, and the latency and amplitude of spinally-mediated reflex responses. Further, the modulation pattern of the spinally-mediated reflex responses were determined following subthreshold and suprathreshold TMS. All compound muscle action potentials, descending motor or spinally-mediated reflexes were recorded from the leg muscles through surface electromyography. Both subthreshold and suprathreshold TMS induced a similar modulation pattern on the …