Digital Commons Network^™

“We Went To The Hills": Four Afghan Life Stories, James M. Weir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines four Afghan life stories for prevalent micro-historical perspectives on shared Afghan macro-historical experiences. The introduction explains my background, motivations and objectives for conducting life history research in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. The first chapter outlines an approach applied to examining life stories that addresses three interrelated questions: first, how the narrator's presentation is related to the memory of the actual events narrated (biographical chronology), second, how a narrative image/s of a person's past is established in relationships to individually significant audience/s (narrative self / audience), and third, how interrelationships between the individual …

The Influence Of Cross-Linguistic Input And L2 Proficiency On L2 Reading Comprehension Among Spanish-Speaking Adults Learning English As A Second Language, Astrid Sussette Rodríguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Developing literacy and language proficiency in English is essential to thrive in school and in the workforce in American society. Research on cross-linguistic influences on text-level skills is scant, especially studies investigating reading comprehension among language-minority adults. The present study investigated the effects of cross-linguistic input and second language proficiency on second language reading comprehension among Spanish-speaking adults enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at a community college in New York City. The main research question was whether language-minority adults would comprehend printed text better if they read it in Spanish (L1) followed by English (L2) than …

Forget Burial: Illness, Narrative, And The Reclamation Of Disease, Marty Melissa Fink

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a theoretical and archival analysis of HIV/AIDS literature, this dissertation argues that the AIDS crisis is not an isolated incident that is now "over," but a striking culmination of a long history of understanding illness through narratives of queer sexual decline and national outsiderhood. Literary representations of HIV/AIDS can be read as a means of resistance to the stigmatization of people of color, women, immigrants, and queers, debunking the narratives that vilify these subjects as threats to national security and health. In drawing connections between illness, history, and the African diaspora, my work adopts a queer theoretical approach to …

Moderator Effects Of Working Memory On Symptom Stability In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder By Dopamine D1 And D2 Receptor Polymorphisms During Development, Joey W. Trampush

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Developmental changes in dopaminergic pathways in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that are important for working memory have been hypothesized to play a central role in the trajectory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but not the initial onset of the disorder. This dissertation research examines whether dopamine receptor D1 (DRD1) and dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) gene polymorphisms moderate the association between improvements in working memory and declines in attention problems in ADHD from childhood to adolescence/young adulthood. Methods: Participants were 76 racially/ethnically diverse youth diagnosed with ADHD in childhood and followed prospectively for almost 10 years. Stability of ADHD symptomatology …

Mensura Incognita: Queer Kinship, Camp Aesthetics, And Juvenal's Ninth Satire, Michael Broder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation addresses four problematic aspects of scholarship on Juvenal 9. The first two are matters of reception history: first, the poem has been understudied; and second, most major extant studies of the poem have been grossly or subtly homophobic. The other two problems are matters of literary criticism: Juvenal's ninth satire has traditionally been read as an attack on homosexuality, when in fact it is neither an attack, nor is it about homosexuality. The current study addresses each of these problems, reassessing the ninth satire in the context of queer theory and camp aesthetics. Chapter One traces the homophobic …

Skin And Redemption: Theology In Silent Films, 1902 To 1927, Susan Craig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes theological concepts in silent moving pictures made for commercial distribution from 1902 to 1927, and examines how directors and scenarists sorted through competing belief systems to select what they anticipated would be palatable theological references for their films.

A fundamental assumption of this study is that, the artistic and aesthetic pretensions of many silent-era filmmakers notwithstanding, directors generally made decisions in the conception, production and marketing of films primarily to maximize profits in a ruthlessly competitive environment. As such, directors needed to walk a fine line between alienating the lucrative working class and immigrant audiences that were …

The Effect Of Teaching Attending To A Face On Joint Attention Skills In Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Tina Rovito Gomez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized in terms of behavioral deficits in areas of social behavior and language development. A failure to attend to the faces of others is the single best discriminator between 1-year-old children later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with typical development. Attending to the face of another provides the opportunity for episodes of attention sharing and is important to the development of communication, joint attention, and social behavior. A more advanced form of attending to a face is joint attention which has been defined as the ability to coordinate attention between an object …

Semi-Supervised Learning For Connectionist Networks, Rebecca Robare

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the computational level, language is often assumed to require both supervised and unsupervised learning. Although we have a certain understanding of these computational processes both biologically and behaviorally, our understanding of the environmental conditions under which language learning takes place falls short. I examine the semi-supervised learning paradigm as the most accurate computational description of the environmental conditions of lexical acquisition during language development. This paradigm is assessed for task learning and generalization and I argue that its real ecological validity and occasional improvements in performance over supervised learning make it an ideal candidate for modeling of language acquisition …

Children's Tolerance Of Word-Form Variation, Paul Reeves Breuning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study compared children's (N=96, mean age 4;1, range 2;8-5;3) and adults' (N=96, mean age 21 years) tolerance of word-onset modifications (e.g., wabbit and warabbit) and pseudo affixes (e.g., kocat and catko) in a label extension task. Trials comprised an introductory phase where children saw a picture of an animal and were told its name, and a test phase where they were shown the same picture along with one of a different animal. For `similar-name' trials, participants heard a word-form modification of the previously introduced name (e.g., introduced to a dib, they were asked, `which animal is a wib?'). For …

Negusie V. Holder: The End Of The Strict Liability Persecutor Bar?, Karl Goodman

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Real Time Imaging Of Biomarkers In The Parkinson's Brain Using Mini-Implantable Biosensors. Ii. Pharmaceutical Therapy With Bromocriptine, Patricia A. Broderick, Edwin H. Kolodny

Publications and Research

We used Neuromolecular Imaging (NMI) and trademarked BRODERICK PROBE® mini-implantable biosensors, to selectively and separately detect neuro-transmitters in vivo, on line, within seconds in the dorsal striatal brain of the Parkinson’s Disease (PD) animal model. We directly compared our results derived from PD to the normal striatal brain of the non-Parkinson’s Disease (non-PD) animal. This advanced biotechnology enabled the imaging of dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), homovanillic acid (HVA) a metabolite of DA, L-tryptophan (L-TP) a precursor to 5-HT and peptides, dynorphin A 1-17 (Dyn A) and somatostatin (somatostatin releasing inhibitory factor) (SRIF). Each neurotransmitter and neurochemical was imaged at a …

Release From Cross-Orientation Suppression Facilitates 3d Shape Perception, Andrea Li, Qasim Zaidi

Publications and Research

Cross-orientation suppression (COS) in striate cortex has been implicated in the efficient encoding of visual stimuli. We show that release from COS facilitates the decoding of 3-D shape. In planar surfaces overlaid with textures, slanting the surface can increase the visibility of the component parallel to the slant. Since this component provides the orientation flows that signify 3-D shape, the enhancement of visibility facilitates 3-D slant perception. Contrast thresholds reveal that this enhancement results from a decrease in COS when 3-D slant creates a frequency mismatch between texture components. We show that coupling compressive nonlinearities in LGN neurons with expansive …

John Jay Sentinel Volume 2, No 2, John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Nonknowledge: The Bibliographical Organization Of Ignorance, Stupidity, Error, And Unreason: Part Two, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Starting with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom paradigm in information science it is possible to derive a model of the opposite of knowledge having hierarchical qualities. A range of counterpoints to concepts in the knowledge hierarchy can be identified and ascribed the overall term “nonknowledge.” This model creates a conceptual framework for understanding the connections between topics such as error, ignorance, stupidity, folly, popular misconceptions, and unreason by locating them as levels or phases of nonknowledge. The concept of nonknowledge links heretofore disconnected discourses on these individual topics by philosophers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, satirists, and others. Subject headings provide access to the categories …

El Concepto De Audiencia Y La Colaboración Entre Iguales En La Revisión De Textos Escritos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Egg Eviction Imposes A Recoverable Cost Of Virulence In Chicks Of A Brood Parasite, Michael G. Anderson, Csaba Moskát, Miklós Bán, Tomáš Grim, Phillip Cassey, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Background Chicks of virulent brood parasitic birds eliminate their nestmates and avoid costly competition for foster parental care. Yet, efforts to evict nest contents by the blind and naked common cuckoo Cuculus canorus hatchling are counterintuitive as both adult parasites and large older cuckoo chicks appear to be better suited to tossing the eggs and young of the foster parents. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we show experimentally that egg tossing imposed a recoverable growth cost of mass gain in common cuckoo chicks during the nestling period in nests of great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus hosts. Growth rates of skeletal traits and …

Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations In Brooklyn Community District 4: Bushwick, 1990 - 2007, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2007 in the NYC Community District 4 of the borough of Brooklyn, which comprise the neighborhood of Bushwick.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino subgroup in Brooklyn’s Community District 4, accounting for over 22% of the total population and 32% …

State Of The College 2009: Toward John Jay @ 50, Jeremy Travis

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

No abstract provided.

Oldest Evidence Of Toolmaking Hominins In A Grassland-Dominated Ecosystem, Thomas W. Plummer, Peter W. Ditchfield, Laura C. Bishop, John D. Kingston, Joseph V. Ferraro, David R. Braun, Fritz Hertel, Richard Potts

Publications and Research

Background Major biological and cultural innovations in late Pliocene hominin evolution are frequently linked to the spread or fluctuating presence of C4 grass in African ecosystems. Whereas the deep sea record of global climatic change provides indirect evidence for an increase in C4 vegetation with a shift towards a cooler, drier and more variable global climatic regime beginning approximately 3 million years ago (Ma), evidence for grassland-dominated ecosystems in continental Africa and hominin activities within such ecosystems have been lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings We report stable isotopic analyses of pedogenic carbonates and ungulate enamel, as well as faunal data from ∼2.0 …

The Ticker, October 19, 2009

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.

The Communicator, October 9, 2009, Bronx Community College

The Communicator

The Communicator newspaper published on October 9, 2009.

The Ticker, October 5, 2009

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.

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.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Ron’S Right Arm: Tactility, Visualization, And The Synesthesia Of Audio Engineering, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Most scholarship on audio engineering analyzes practices and practitioners in terms of musical and technical knowledges. The few references to sensory perception typically center on critical listening practices (“golden ears” engineers), audiophilia, and technologies of audition. However, particularly in light of computer-based workflows, the practice of audio engineering features carefully developed synesthesias of critical listening, visualization of digital audio, and tactile manipulations of interfaces, which can’t adequately be explained as cognitive processes or as conscious knowledge.

I draw on literature in the emerging field of sensory scholarship, in particular Brian Massumi’s theorization of synesthesia and affect and Charles Hirschkind’s analyses …

Identifying Publication Outlets In Occupational Health Psychology: An Opinion Survey, Maria Karanika-Murray, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Leigh Schmitt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Communicator, September 18, 2009, Bronx Community College

The Communicator

The Communicator newspaper published on September 18, 2009.

Catalog 2009-2010, Kingsborough Community College

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On The Neural Substrates Associated With Pleasure, Michael E. Silverman, Peter Muennig, Xun Liu, Zohn Rosen, Martin A. Goldstein

Publications and Research

Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality. Because tonic adversity relates to a diminished ability to experience pleasure, we hypothesized that subjects living in poverty would show diminished neural responsivity to positive stimuli in regions associated with positive experience and reward. Visual images were presented to twenty-two subjects in the context of a EPI-BOLD fMRI paradigm. Significant differences in neural responses between SES groups to poverty vs. neutral images were assessed, examining group, condition, and interaction effects. The data suggest that persons living in low-SES have neural experiences consistent with diminished interest in things generally …

Front Matter

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.