Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Dependent Efficacy Of Taurine As A Treatment For Cocaine Drug Use: A Study Of Reward, Kevin Uribe

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Captain Beefheart, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Proceedings Of The 2nd Annual Cuny Games Festival, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Francesco Crocco, Carlos Hernandez, Kathleen Offenholley, Maura A. Smale, Deborah Sturm, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 16-17, 2015, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Health Games - Language and Composition - Design: Classroom Considerations - Games in the Physical Environment - Games and Behavioral Science - Play, Politics & Economics - Gaming Curricula, Disciplines & Programs - Gaming and History - Institutional Programming with Games - Philosophy and Roleplaying - Ed. Game Design: Strategy & Tactics - Repurposing Game Genres - Narrative, Storytelling & Games - Community & Social Justice - Extemporaneity - Personal & Social Transformation - Cognition, Design & Play …

Introductory Guide To Ancient Civilizations, Helmut G. Loeffler, Arturo H. Enamorado Iii

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Chemical Basis Of Traditional Medicines And New Potential Applications, Chunlin Long, Shi-Biao Wu, William C. S. Cho

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Secessionists Played Soccer, Natalie Fertig

Capstones

Revolution is as old as history itself. Scotland, Catalonia, Crimea... the human yearning for self-determination is one constant in the world. Many fight for independence, and some vote. But for regionalists in 2014, instead of revolution and referendum, the answer has come through soccer.

Hockey's Cutting-Edge Canvas – The Art Of The Goalie Mask, Jacob Becker

Capstones

My project is about the industry of hockey goalie mask artwork told through the perspective of primarily one artist, Ray Bishop, whom I visited at his Michigan workshop in October. "Hockey's Cutting-Edge Canvas" reports Ray's story, which includes details of his business, his background and struggles. The story also offers differing views from former goaltenders and current artists on the trend of goalie artwork across the NHL and lower-level leagues.

Well-Born: Black Women And The Infertility Crisis No One Is Talking About, Kaara Baptiste

Capstones

Black women are twice as likely to experience infertility than white women, but are less likely to seek treatment or to have successful fertility results once treated. Despite this alarming number, this topic is not often discussed, even among the black community. My narrative piece t tells the story of a black woman confronting her infertility diagnosis and the role her race played in her fertility treatment, while exploring the role racism and sexuality have had in keeping this issue in the shadows.

2-D Or Not 2-D?: How The Iris Closed On Hand-Drawn Feature Animation, Thad Komorowski

Capstones

Before the age of computer animation, hand-drawn animation flourished in American feature films. Yet the early successes of CGI in mid-'90s had a profound negative impact on the livelihood of this once Hollywood cornerstone. Through extensive research and eyewitness accounts, learn the story of why pencils were replaced with pixels at all the major feature animation studios. And more importantly, why that isn't likely to change. The audio element is an 8-minute recording of historian, professor and filmmaker John Canemaker discussing his personal feelings on hand-drawn and CGI animation. [Please note that the embedded videos work better in the HTML/URL …

Obscure Certificates Could Cut Down Recidivism, Frank Green

Capstones

When you’re convicted of a crime, your punishment doesn’t end with prison. Your life is harder until you die. New Yorkers with criminal histories can get these Certificates that make life a little less hard. They’re a kind of a diploma of rehabilitation. The standards for getting them aren’t that high. Most people who’ve been convicted of a crime are eligible, in theory. But hardly anybody gets them. This article is about the ignorance and legal contradictions that have made them so obscure.

Mapping A City's Invisible Residents, Kelly Dickerson

Capstones

A scientist is mapping the microbes of New York City in hopes of eventually creating a real-time map that could help prevent the spread of diseases.

A Western-Fed Diet Increases Plasma Hdl And Ldl-Cholesterol Levels In Apod–/– Mice, Kamilah Ali, Ehab M. Abo-Ali, M. D. Kabir, Bethany Riggins, Susanna Nguy, Lisa Li, Ujala Srivastava, Su Mya Mya Thinn

Publications and Research

Objective Plasma apolipoprotein (apo)D, a ubiquitously expressed protein that binds small hydrophobic ligands, is found mainly on HDL particles. According to studies of human genetics and lipid disorders, plasma apoD levels positively correlate with HDL-cholesterol and apoAI levels. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that apoD was a regulator of HDL metabolism. Methods & Results We compared the plasma lipid and lipoprotein profiles of wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice with apoD−/− mice on a C57BL/6 background after receiving a high fat-high cholesterol diet for 12 weeks. ApoD−/− mice had higher HDL-cholesterol levels (61±13-apoD−/− vs. 52±10-WT-males; 37±11-apoD−/− vs. 22±2 WT-female) than WT mice …

Light Dulls And Darkens Bird Eggs, Johanna Y. Navarro, David C. Lahti

Publications and Research

Although egg color is generally consistent within individual birds and robust to environmental variation, recent evidence suggests a degree of susceptibility to environmental perturbation or modulation of egg color. Most of this variation manifests via the physiology of the laying female, but some direct impacts of the environment on laid eggs have also been discovered. Here we test whether light changes bird egg color and we quantify its effect, by subjecting variable blue-green eggs of Rüppell's weaver (Ploceus galbula) to a broad-spectrum light source under laboratory conditions, and measuring egg reflectance every few hours. Eggshells gradually decreased in reflectance across …

High Intralocus Variability And Interlocus Recombination Promote Immunological Diversity In A Minimal Major Histocompatibility System, Anthony B. Wilson, Camilla M. Whittington, Angela Bahr

Publications and Research

Background: The genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC/MH) have attracted considerable scientific interest due to their exceptional levels of variability and important function as part of the adaptive immune system. Despite a large number of studies on MH class II diversity of both model and non-model organisms, most research has focused on patterns of genetic variability at individual loci, failing to capture the functional diversity of the biologically active dimeric molecule. Here, we take a systematic approach to the study of MH variation, analyzing patterns of genetic variation at MH class IIα and IIβ loci of the seahorse, which …

Methamphetamine-Induced Short-Term Increase And Long-Term Decrease In Spatial Working Memory Affects Protein Kinase M Zeta (Pkmζ), Dopamine, And Glutamate Receptors, Stephen H. Braren, Damian Drapala, Ingrid K. Tulloch, Peter A. Serrano

Publications and Research

Methamphetamine (MA) is a toxic, addictive drug shown to modulate learning and memory, yet the neural mechanisms are not fully understood. We investigated the effects of 2 weekly injections of MA (30 mg/kg) on working memory using the radial 8-arm maze (RAM) across 5 weeks in adolescent-age mice. MA-treated mice show a significant improvement in working memory performance 1 week following the first MA injection compared to saline-injected controls. Following 5 weeks of MA abstinence mice were re-trained on a reference and working memory version of the RAM to assess cognitive flexibility. MA-treated mice show significantly more working memory errors …

Green Tea Polyphenol Treatment Is Chondroprotective, Anti-Inflammatory And Palliative In A Mouse Posttraumatic Osteoarthritis Model, Daniel J. Leong, Marwa Choudhury, Regina Hanstein, David M. Hirsh, Sun Jin Kim, Robert Majeska, Mitchell B. Schaffler, John A. Hardin, David C. Spray, Mary B. Goldring, Neil J. Cobelli, Hui B. Sun

Publications and Research

Introduction Epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), a polyphenol present in green tea, was shown to exert chondroprotective effects in vitro. In this study, we used a posttraumatic osteoarthritis (OA) mouse model to test whether EGCG could slow the progression of OA and relieve OA-associated pain. Methods C57BL/6 mice were subjected to surgical destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) or sham surgery. EGCG (25 mg/kg) or vehicle control was administered daily for 4 or 8 weeks by intraperitoneal injection starting on the day of surgery. OA severity was evaluated using Safranin O staining and Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) scores, as well as …

Transceptors At The Boundary Of Nutrient Transporters And Receptors: A New Role For Arabidopsis Sultr1;2 In Sulfur Sensing, Zheng Zhiliang, Bo Zheng, Thomsa Leustek

Publications and Research

Plants have evolved a sophisticated mechanism to sense the extracellular sulfur (S) status so that sulfate transport and S assimilation/metabolism can be coordinated. Genetic, biochemical, and molecular studies in Arabidopsis over the past 10 years have started to shed some light on the regulatory mechanism of the S response. Key advances in transcriptional regulation (SLIM1, MYB, and miR395), involvement of hormones (auxin, cytokinin, and abscisic acid) and identification of putative sensors (OASTL and SULTR1;2) are highlighted here. Although our current view of S nutrient sensing and signaling remains fragmented, it is anticipated that through further studies a sensing and signaling …

Vawa @ 20: Art, Violence, And Women, Yxta Maya Murray

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sensory Abnormalities In Focal Hand Dystonia And Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Angelo Quartarone, Vincenzo Rizzo, Carmen Terranova, Demetrio Milardi, Daniele Bruschetta, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Paolo Girlanda

Publications and Research

It has been proposed that synchronous and convergent afferent input arising from repetitive motor tasks may play an important role in driving the maladaptive cortical plasticity seen in focal hand dystonia (FHD).This hypothesis receives support from several sources. First, it has been reported that in subjects with FHD, paired associative stimulation produces an abnormal increase in corticospinal excitability, which was not confined to stimulated muscles. These findings provide support for the role of excessive plasticity in FHD. Second, the genetic contribution to the dystonias is increasingly recognized indicating that repetitive, stereotyped afferent inputs may lead to late-onset dystonia, such as …

Voys Lessons: Whirling Words In Chaucer’S “House Of Rumour", Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

“Voys Lessons: Whirling Words in Chaucer’s ‘House of Rumour’” examines the lability of sound and its use in the dissemination, transposition, and authorship of stories within The House of Fame, a text exemplifying the mobility and flexibility of misused or unhinged words, as expressed through sound as opposed to text. By engaging the use and interpretation of sound in contrast to words, this new reading concentrates on the idea of narrative as material artifact with limited stasis. Geffrey’s pseudo-authorship, through his voyeuristic stance, engages the textuality of sounds and shows the related subtlety, elasticity, and democratic sociohistorical aspect of …

Inhibition Of Osteoclastogenesis And Inflammatory Bone Resorption By Targeting Bet Proteins And Epigenetic Regulation, Kyung-Hyun Park-Min, Elisha Lim, Min Joon Lee, Sung Ho Park, Eugenia Giannopoulos, Anna Yarilina, Marjolein Van Der Meulen, Baohong Zhao, Nicholas Smithers, Jason Witherington, Kevin Lee, Paul P. Tak, Rab K. Prinjha, Lionel B. Ivashkiv

Publications and Research

Emerging evidence suggests that RANKL-induced changes in chromatin state are important for osteoclastogenesis, but these epigenetic mechanisms are not well understood and have not been therapeutically targeted. In this study we find that the small molecule I-BET151 that targets bromo and extra-terminal (BET) proteins that “read” chromatin states by binding to acetylated histones strongly suppresses osteoclastogenesis. I-BET151 suppresses pathologic bone loss in TNF-induced inflammatory osteolysis, inflammatory arthritis, and post-ovariectomy models. Transcriptome analysis identifies a MYC-NFAT axis important for osteoclastogenesis. Mechanistically, I-BET151 inhibits expression of the master osteoclast regulator NFATC1 by suppressing expression and recruitment of its newly identified upstream regulator …

The Insulin/Igf Signaling Regulators Cytohesin/Grp-1 And Pip5k/Ppk-1 Modulate Susceptibility To Excitotoxicity In C. Elegans, Nazila Tehrani, John Del Rosario, Moises Dominguez, Robert Kalb, Itzhak Mano

Publications and Research

During ischemic stroke, malfunction of excitatory amino acid transporters and reduced synaptic clearance causes accumulation of Glutamate (Glu) and excessive stimulation of postsynaptic neurons, which can lead to their degeneration by excitotoxicity. The balance between cell death-promoting (neurotoxic) and survival-promoting (neuroprotective) signaling cascades determines the fate of neurons exposed to the excitotoxic insult. The evolutionary conserved Insulin/IGF Signaling (IIS) cascade can participate in this balance, as it controls cell stress resistance in nematodes and mammals. Blocking the IIS cascade allows the transcription factor FoxO3/DAF-16 to accumulate in the nucleus and activate a transcriptional program that protects cells from a range …

“Fu Hao”, “Fu Hao”, “Fuhao” Or “Fu Hao”? A Cataloger’S Navigation Of An Ancient Chinese Woman’S Name, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

Chinese language catalogers’ work is not only challenged by the revolution in cataloging standards and principles, but also by ancient Chinese names that emerged in archaeological discoveries and Chinese classic texts, which create a significant impact on records description and retrieval in terms of consistency and accuracy. This article takes an example of an ancient Chinese lady’s name that is inconsistently romanized and described in OCLC and attempts to explore the appropriate form in an authority record through the consulting both Western and Eastern scholarly practices. This article has a further investigation of the evolving history of pre-Qin Chinese names …

Activity-Based Therapies For Repair Of The Corticospinal System Injured During Development, Kathleen M. Friel, Preston T. J. A. Williams, Najet Serradj, Samit Chakrabarty, John H. Martin

Publications and Research

This review presents the mechanistic underpinnings of corticospinal tract (CST) development, derived from animal models, and applies what has been learned to inform neural activity-based strategies for CST repair.We first discuss that, in normal development, early bilateral CST projections are later refined into a dense crossed CST projection, with maintenance of sparse ipsilateral projections. Using a novel mouse genetic model, we show that promoting the ipsilateral CST projection produces mirror movements, common in hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP), suggesting that ipsilateral CST projections become maladaptive when they become abnormally dense and strong.We next discuss howanimal studies support a developmental “competition rule” …

The Oestrogen Receptor Alpha-Regulated Lncrna Neat1 Is A Critical Modulator Of Prostate Cancer, Dimple Chakravarty, Andrea Sboner, Sujit S. Nair, Eugenia Giannopoulou, Ruohan Li, Sven Hennig, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Jonathan Pauwels, Kyung Park, Myriam Kossai, Theresa Y. Macdonald, Jacqueline Fontugne, Nicholas Erho, Ismael A. Vergara, Mercedeh Ghadessi, Elai Davicioni, Robert B. Jenkins, Nallasivam Palanisamy, Zhengming Chen, Shinichi Nakagawa, Tetsuro Hirose, Neil H. Bander, Himisha Beltran, Archa H. Fox, Olivier Elemento, Mark A. Rubin

Publications and Research

The androgen receptor (AR) plays a central role in establishing an oncogenic cascade that drives prostate cancer progression. Some prostate cancers escape androgen dependence and are often associated with an aggressive phenotype. The oestrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is expressed in prostate cancers, independent of AR status. However, the role of ERα remains elusive. Using a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and RNA-sequencing data, we identified an ERα-specific non-coding transcriptome signature. Among putatively ERα-regulated intergenic long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), we identified nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) as the most significantly overexpressed lncRNA in prostate cancer. Analysis of two large clinical …

Body Composition Changes Associated With Fasted Versus Non-Fasted Aerobic Exercise, Brad Jon Schoenfeld, Alan Albert Aragon, Colin D. Wilborn, James W. Krieger, Gul T. Sonmez

Publications and Research

It has been hypothesized that performing aerobic exercise after an overnight fast accelerates the loss of body fat. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in fat mass and fat-free mass following four weeks of volume-equated fasted versus fed aerobic exercise in young women adhering to a hypocaloric diet. Twenty healthy young female volunteers were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 experimental groups: a fasted training (FASTED) group that performed exercise after an overnight fast (n = 10) or a post-prandial training (FED) group that consumed a meal prior to exercise (n = 10). Training consisted of 1 …

The Effects Of Sleep Loss On Capacity And Effort, Mindy Engle-Friedman

Publications and Research

Sleep loss appears to affect the capacity for performance and access to energetic resources. This paper reviews research examining the physical substrates referred to as resource capacity, the role of sleep in protecting that capacity and the reaction of the system as it attempts to respond with effort to overcome the limitations on capacity caused by sleep loss. Effort is the extent to which an organism will exert itself beyond basic levels of functioning or attempt alternative strategies to maintain performance. The purpose of this review is to bring together research across sleep disciplines to clarify the substrates that constitute …

Long-Distance Retinoid Signaling In The Zebra Finch Brain, Tina C. Roeske, Constance Scharff, Christopher R. Olson, Arpik Nshdejan, Claudio V. Mello

Publications and Research

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), the main active metabolite of vitamin A, is a powerful signaling molecule that regulates large-scale morphogenetic processes during vertebrate embryonic development, but is also involved post-natally in regulating neural plasticity and cognition. In songbirds, it plays an important role in the maturation of learned song. The distribution of the ATRA-synthesizing enzyme, zRalDH, and of ATRA receptors (RARs) have been described, but information on the distribution of other components of the retinoid signaling pathway is still lacking. To address this gap, we have determined the expression patterns of two obligatory RAR co-receptors, the retinoid X receptors (RXR) …

Tcr Triggering By Pmhc Ligands Tethered On Surfaces Via Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Depends On Polymer Length, Zhengyu Ma, David N. Lebard, Sharon M. Loverde, Kim A. Sharp, Michael L. Klein, Dennis E. Discher, Terri H. Finkel

Publications and Research

Antigen recognition by T cells relies on the interaction between T cell receptor (TCR) and peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) at the interface between the T cell and the antigen presenting cell (APC). The pMHC-TCR interaction is two-dimensional (2D), in that both the ligand and receptor are membrane-anchored and their movement is limited to 2D diffusion. The 2D nature of the interaction is critical for the ability of pMHC ligands to trigger TCR. The exact properties of the 2D pMHC-TCR interaction that enable TCR triggering, however, are not fully understood. Here, we altered the 2D pMHC-TCR interaction by tethering pMHC ligands …

Minerals In The Foods Eaten By Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla Beringei), Emma C. Cancelliere, Nicole Deangelis, John Bosco Nkurunungi, David R. Raubenheimer, Jessica M. Rothman

Publications and Research

Minerals are critical to an individual’s health and fitness, and yet little is known about mineral nutrition and requirements in free-ranging primates. We estimated the mineral content of foods consumed by mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Mountain gorillas acquire the majority of their minerals from herbaceous leaves, which constitute the bulk of their diet. However, less commonly eaten foods were sometimes found to be higher in specific minerals, suggesting their potential importance. A principal component analysis demonstrated little correlation among minerals in food items, which further suggests that mountain gorillas might increase dietary …