Digital Commons Network^™

Sorting Sheep And Goats In Medieval Iceland And Greenland Local Subsistence, Climate Change, Or World System Impacts?, Thomas Mcgovern, Ramona Harrison, Konrad Smiarowski

Publications and Research

Large archaeofaunal collections recovered from Viking Age and Medieval sites in Iceland and Greenland during intensive collaborative fieldwork over the past decade have demonstrated a diverging pattern in sheep and goat (caprine) management after ca. 1200 CE in the two Norse communities. Since Landnám (first settlement), flocks in both places contained a mixture of sheep and goats and survivorship profiles suggest a very mixed milk-meat-wool production strategy. By the late 13^th century Icelandic herds were nearly all sheep, and zooarchaeological evidence suggests an increasing focus on wool production. Greenlandic archaeofauna indicate that farmers maintained the old Viking Age pattern …

Realities Of Religio-Legalism: Religious Courts And Women's Rights In Canada, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Anissa Helie, Marie Ashe

Publications and Research

Religio-legalism – the enforcement of religious law by specifically-religious courts that are tolerated or endorsed by civil government – has long operated against women’s interests in liberty and equality. In the 21st century, religious tribunals – Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim – operate throughout the world. Almost all are male-dominated, patriarchal, and sex-discriminatory. Harms to women produced by Muslim or sharia courts have come into focus in recent years, but present realities of religio-legalism operating through Christian and Jewish – as well as Muslim – religious courts in Western nations have been under-examined.

This essay by Ashe and Helie documents …

The Psycho-Affective Echoes Of Colonialism In Fieldwork Relations, Robert Garot

Publications and Research

This article describes the varieties of relations with African immigrant interviewees in Tuscany as experienced by a white male interviewer from the United States. Franz FANON's discussion of the psycho-affective consequences of colonialism is vital for understanding how naïve and romantic notions of fieldwork relations are disingenuous, counter-productive and perhaps destructive in a neo-colonial landscape.

The Appeal Of Narrative In Research, Colette Daiute

Publications and Research

"I saw the bird flattened on the ground outside my door . One of the kindergarten child walked toward me slowly, crying. That's when I knew it was time to act."

The very brief narrative above occurs amid myriad spheres of social relations. These relations are not all apparent, but understanding narrative meaning requires understanding narrating as an interactive process. As researchers we enhance our Methods if we know how to read narratives as complex social processes. This openi11g narrative expresses a sequence of two past events.1 The narrative involves action ("walked," "act") and consciousness ("saw," "crying," "knew"). From the …

Ciclos De Acaparamiento De Tierras En Centroamérica: Un Argumento A Favor De Historizar Y Un Estudio De Caso Del Bajo Aguán, Honduras, Marc Edelman, Andrés León

Publications and Research

La falta de perspectiva histórica en la mayoría de los estudios sobre la nueva ola de acaparamiento de tierras lleva a los investigadores a subestimar hasta qué punto las relaciones sociales preexistentes producen los espacios rurales donde suceden las actuales transacciones de tierras. Así, la historización del acaparamiento de tierras es esencial para entender los antecedentes, definir bases para poder calcular los impactos y devolver la “agencia” a las distintas clases agrarias en disputa. En Centroamérica, cada uno de los ciclos de acaparamiento de tierras –reformas liberales, concesiones bananeras y contrarreformas agrarias– tuvo un fuerte impacto en el período que …

Buenos Aires, Fernando Degiovanni, Fernando Rosenberg

Publications and Research

One of the most important city ports of the Western Hemisphere, Buenos Aires has a history inextricably connected to the fluctuations of the Atlantic economy as well as to its strategic position as a gateway to vast and fertile flatlands that extend far beyond the city limits. Founded and re-founded in the 16th century as a secondary colonial outpost, Buenos Aires was dramatically transformed by the demands of the European markets at the turn of both the 18th and 19th centuries. In this context, two crucial developments are decisive for understanding the physical, social, and cultural fabric of the city: …

Overweight People Have Low Levels Of Implicit Weight Bias, But Overweight Nations Have High Levels Of Implicit Weight Bias, Maddalena Marini, Natarajan Sriram, Konrad Schnabel, Norbert Maliszewski, Thierry Devos, Bo Ekehammar, Reinout Wiers, Cai Huajian, Mónika Somogyi, Kimihiro Shiomura, Simone Schnall, Félix Neto, Yoav Bar-Anan, Michelangelo Vianello, Alfonso Ayala, Gabriel Dorantes, Jaihyun Park, Selin Kesebir, Antonio Pereira, Bogdan Tulbure

Publications and Research

Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report) and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral) measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context – particularly the national prevalence of obesity – predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit …

Effects Of Water Availability And Pest Pressures On Tea (Camellia Sinensis) Growth And Functional Quality, Selena Ahmed, Colin M. Orians, Timothy S. Griffin, Sarabeth Buckley, Uchenna Unachukwu, Anne Elise Stratton, John Richard Stepp, Albert Robbat Jr, Sean Cash, Edward J. Kennelly

Publications and Research

Extreme shifts in water availability linked to global climate change are impacting crops worldwide. The present study examines the direct and interactive effects of water availability and pest pressures on tea (Camellia sinensis; Theaceae) growth and functional quality. Manipulative greenhouse experiments were used to measure the effects of variable water availability and pest pressures simulated by jasmonic acid (JA) on tea leaf growth and secondary metabolites that determine tea quality. Water treatments were simulated to replicate ideal tea growing conditions and extreme precipitation events in tropical southwestern China, a major centre of tea production. Results show that higher water availability …

Trabecular Evidence For A Human-Like Gait In Australopithecus Africanus, Meir M. Barak, Daniel E. Lieberman, David Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Anna G. Warrener, Jean-Jacques Hublin

Publications and Research

Although the earliest known hominins were apparently upright bipeds, there has been mixed evidence whether particular species of hominins including those in the genus Australopithecus walked with relatively extended hips, knees and ankles like modern humans, or with more flexed lower limb joints like apes when bipedal. Here we demonstrate in chimpanzees and humans a highly predictable and sensitive relationship between the orientation of the ankle joint during loading and the principal orientation of trabecular bone struts in the distal tibia that function to withstand compressive forces within the joint. Analyses of the orientation of these struts using microCT scans …

A New Look At The Dynamic Similarity Hypothesis: The Importance Of Swing Phase, David A. Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Liza J. Shapiro

Publications and Research

Summary The Dynamic Similarity Hypothesis (DSH) suggests that when animals of different size walk at similar Froude numbers (equal ratios of inertial and gravitational forces) they will use similar size-corrected gaits. This application of similarity theory to animal biomechanics has contributed to fundamental insights in the mechanics and evolution of a diverse set of locomotor systems. However, despite its popularity, many mammals fail to walk with dynamically similar stride lengths, a key element of gait that determines spontaneous speed and energy costs. Here, we show that the applicability of the DSH is dependent on the inertial forces examined. In general, …

A Qualitative Study Of Community Home-Based Care And Antiretroviral Adherence In Swaziland, Robin Root, Alan Whiteside

Publications and Research

Introduction Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has rendered HIV and AIDS a chronic condition for individuals in many parts of the world. Adherence, however, is integral to achieving chronicity. Studies have shown both relatively high ART adherence rates in sub-Saharan Africa and the importance of community home-based care (CHBC) to facilitating this process. In light of diminished HIV and AIDS funding globally and increased reliance on CHBC throughout Africa, a better understanding of how CHBC may strengthen ART adherence is essential to improving patients’ quality of life, tending to the needs of care supporters and achieving healthier populations. Methods This article reports …

Dosage Considerations For Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation In Children: A Computational Modeling Study, Sudha Kilaru Kessler, Preet Minhas, Adam J. Woods, Alyssa Rosen, Casey Gorman, Marom Bikson

Publications and Research

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is being widely investigated in adults as a therapeutic modality for brain disorders involving abnormal cortical excitability or disordered network activity. Interest is also growing in studying tDCS in children. Limited empirical studies in children suggest that tDCS is well tolerated and may have a similar safety profile as in adults. However, in electrotherapy as in pharmacotherapy, dose selection in children requires special attention, and simple extrapolation from adult studies may be inadequate. Critical aspects of dose adjustment include 1) differences in neurophysiology and disease, and 2) variation in brain electric fields for a specified …

Fashion Vs. Function In Cultural Evolution: The Case Of Dog Breed Popularity, Stefano Ghirlanda, Alberto Acerbi, Harold Herzog, James A. Serpell

Publications and Research

We investigate the relationship between characteristics of dog breeds and their popularity between years 1926 and 2005. We consider breed health, longevity, and behavioral qualities such as aggressiveness, trainability, and fearfulness. We show that a breed's overall popularity, fluctuations in popularity, and rates of increase and decrease around popularity peaks show typically no correlation with these breed characteristics. One exception is the finding that more popular breeds tend to suffer from more inherited disorders. Our results support the hypothesis that dog breed popularity has been primarily determined by fashion rather than function.

30 Days In The Life: Daily Nutrient Balancing In A Wild Chacma Baboon, Caley A. Johnson, David Raubenheimer, Jessica M. Rothman, David Clarke, Larissa Swedell

Publications and Research

For most animals, the ability to regulate intake of specific nutrients is vital to fitness. Recent studies have demonstrated nutrient regulation in nonhuman primates over periods of one observation day, though studies of humans indicate that such regulation extends to longer time frames. Little is known about longer-term regulation in nonhuman primates, however, due to the challenges of multiple-day focal follows. Here we present the first detailed study of nutrient intake across multiple days in a wild nonhuman primate. We conducted 30 consecutive all day follows on one female chacma baboon (Papio hamadryas ursinus) in the Cape Peninsula of South …

Evolution And Allometry Of Calcaneal Elongation In Living And Extinct Primates, Doug M. Boyer, Erik R. Seiffert, Justin T. Gladman, Jonathan I. Bloch

Publications and Research

Specialized acrobatic leaping has been recognized as a key adaptive trait tied to the origin and subsequent radiation of euprimates based on its observed frequency in extant primates and inferred frequency in extinct early euprimates. Hypothesized skeletal correlates include elongated tarsal elements, which would be expected to aid leaping by allowing for increased rates and durations of propulsive acceleration at takeoff. Alternatively, authors of a recent study argued that pronounced distal calcaneal elongation of euprimates (compared to other mammalian taxa) was related primarily to specialized pedal grasping. Testing for correlations between calcaneal elongation and leaping versus grasping is complicated by …

The Intellectual And Curricular Spaces Of Knowledge Studies, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

The words “knowledge” and “information” are sometimes used interchangeably, but the connection between them is complex and problematic. Knowledge is a mental product gained from engaging with information. All educational subjects, scholarly disciplines, occupations, and activities produce knowledge as well as information. Because libraries encompass potentially all subjects, professional vision in librarianship would benefit from an examination of knowledge that transcends the methods and topical concerns of individual disciplines. An interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) framework in which to view knowledge was pioneered in the post-Sputnik age by Fritz Machlup and Michael Polanyi. Their insights have stimulated scholars to develop research, publications, …

The Era Of Open-Ended Dual Life, Hirosuke Hyodo

Publications and Research

Although missing in mainstream studies of American immigration in the post-1965 Act era, the volume of native Japanese living in the U.S. today (called the shin-issei) is three times that of the prewar Japanese-American community on the U.S. mainland. Their curious absence from the mainstream studies results from the traditionally entrenched frame, ‘immigrants’, that does not unfit their migrant patterns. This paper explores the shin-issei, portraying their characters in three parts: (1) akogare (‘longing or desire’) for the West grown in Japan in the late nineteenth century, (2) a statistical sketch of the shin-issei over the last several decades, and …

Seroprevalence Of Epstein-Barr Virus Infection In U.S. Children Ages 6-19, 2003-2010, Jennifer Beam Dowd, Tia Palermo, Jennifer Brite, Thomas W. Mcdade, Allison Aiello

Publications and Research

Background Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a common herpesvirus linked to infectious mononucleosis and multiple cancers. There are no national estimates of EBV seroprevalence in the United States. Our objective was to estimate the overall prevalence and sociodemographic predictors of EBV among U.S. children and adolescents aged 6–19. Methods We calculated prevalence estimates and prevalence ratios for EBV seroprevalence using data from the 2003–2010 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for children aged 6–19 (n = 8417). Poisson regression was used to calculate multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratios across subgroup categories (sex, race/ethnicity, parental education, household income, household size, foreign-born, BMI, …

Dating Human Cultural Capacity Using Phylogenetic Principles, J. Lind, P. Lindenfors, S. Ghirlanda, K. Lidén, M. Enquist

Publications and Research

Humans have genetically based unique abilities making complex culture possible; an assemblage of traits which we term “cultural capacity”. The age of this capacity has for long been subject to controversy. We apply phylogenetic principles to date this capacity, integrating evidence from archaeology, genetics, paleoanthropology, and linguistics. We show that cultural capacity is older than the first split in the modern human lineage, and at least 170,000 years old, based on data on hyoid bone morphology, FOXP2 alleles, agreement between genetic and language trees, fire use, burials, and the early appearance of tools comparable to those of modern hunter-gatherers. We …

Flying Off The Shelf: E-Books Go Mobile, Madeline Cohen, Stefanie Havelka, Jennifer Poggiali, Kate Lyons, Elisabeth Tappeiner

Publications and Research

On May 3, 2013, the two Hostos librarians teamed up with two librarians of Lehman College’s Leonard Lief Library at the Bronx EdTech Showcase to address the challenges and joys of e-books. Their hour-long presentation, focused on trends in ebooks, technical issues such as DRM and formats, CUNY’s eBook collections, and the challenges of informing students and faculty about e-books.

Earliest Archaeological Evidence Of Persistent Hominin Carnivory, Joseph V. Ferraro, Thomas W. Plummer, Briana L. Pobiner, James S. Oliver, Laura C. Bishop, David R. Braun, Peter W. Ditchfield, John W. Seaman, Katie M. Binetti, John W. Seaman, Fritz Hertel, Richard Potts

Publications and Research

The emergence of lithic technology by ∼2.6 million years ago (Ma) is often interpreted as a correlate of increasingly recurrent hominin acquisition and consumption of animal remains. Associated faunal evidence, however, is poorly preserved prior to ∼1.8 Ma, limiting our understanding of early archaeological (Oldowan) hominin carnivory. Here, we detail three large well-preserved zooarchaeological assemblages from Kanjera South, Kenya. The assemblages date to ∼2.0 Ma, pre-dating all previously published archaeofaunas of appreciable size. At Kanjera, there is clear evidence that Oldowan hominins acquired and processed numerous, relatively complete, small ungulate carcasses. Moreover, they had at least occasional access to the …

Global Futures And Government Towns: Phosphates And The Production Of Western Sahara As A Space Of Contention, Mark Drury

Publications and Research

The study of natural resources lends itself to theorizing the politics of nature and the politics of time. The space of Western Sahara, where both remain highly contested, provides an opportunity to consider the ramifications of resources in political conflict at different historical moments. Drawing from environmental histories of North Africa and the Sahara, as well as the anthropology of time, the author focuses on two historical moments. The first, from 1945 to 1972, concerns the discovery of phosphate deposits during the Spanish colonial period and the implications of this discovery for political authority in the Sahara more broadly. The …

Network Firewall Dynamics And The Subsaturation Stabilization Of Hiv, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski, Mohamed Saad, Katherine Mclean, Samuel Friedman

Publications and Research

In 2001, Friedman et al. conjectured the existence of a “firewall effect” in which individuals who are infected with HIV, but remain in a state of low infectiousness, serve to prevent the virus from spreading. To evaluate this historical conjecture, we develop a new graph-theoreticmeasure that quantifies the extent towhich Friedman’s firewall hypothesis (FH) holds in a risk network.We compute this new measure across simulated trajectories of a stochastic discrete dynamical system that models a social network of 25,000 individuals engaging in risk acts over a period of 15 years. The model’s parameters are based on analyses of data collected …

The Impact Of Gut Passage By Binturongs (Arctictus Binturong) On Seed Germination, Christina P. Colon, Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz

Publications and Research

Binturongs (Arctictis binturong) are the largest of Asian civets and, due to their highly frugivorous diet, are expected to play an important role in seed dispersal processes. To study the effect of binturong gut passage on seed viability, we fed 10 captive binturongs with fruits of longan (Dimocarpus longan), papaya (Carica papaya) and chiku (Manilkara zapota), collected the seeds they defaecated, and planted these to determine seed germination rate and time. Of the defaecated seeds, 90.4% passed through binturong gut intact in under nine hours, and 99.4% passed in under 33 hours. Chiku seeds had the highest germination rate (35.7% …

Good Men Grow Corn: Embodied Ecological Heritage And Health In A Mopan Maya Community, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Juan Luis Guerra And The Merengue: Toward A New Dominican National Identity, Raymond Torres-Santos, Cuny Dominican Studies Institute

Publications and Research

This research monograph offers a historical account about the development of merengue in the Dominican Republic from the late 1800’s to the present.

Sharing And Sustaining Maya Environmental Heritage In Southern Belize, Rebecca K. Zarger, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

This paper documents an approach to sharing and sustaining Maya environmental and cultural heritage through the development of a primary school curriculum and associated activities in order to bring cultural knowledge and practices to formal school settings. Methods include long-term ethnographic research on environmental knowledge and practices in two Maya communities in Toledo; participatory workshops with educators; iterative consultations with district educators, community leaders, and families; and community for a focus on discussions of how and whether such information could be integrated into formal schooling. Curricula and content for workbooks, radio shows, and field guides are comprised of both generalized …

Particularizing Universal Education In Postcolonial Sierra Leone, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

This paper presents a vertical case study of the history of universalizing education in postcolonial Sierra Leone from the early 1950s to 1990 to highlight how there has never been a universal conception of universal education. In order to unite a nation behind a universal ideal of schooling, education needed to be adapted to different subpopulations, as the Bunumbu Project did for rural Sierra Leoneans in the 1970s to 1980s. While the idea of “localizing” education was sound, early program success was undermined by a lack of clarity behind terms like “rural” or “community.” This was exacerbated by a change …

Google Vs. The Library: Student Preferences And Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google And A Federated Search Tool, Helen Georgas

Publications and Research

Federated searching was once touted as the library world’s answer to Google, but ten years since federated searching technology’s inception, how does it actually compare? This study focuses on undergraduate student preferences and perceptions when doing research using both Google and a federated search tool. Students were asked about their preferences using each search tool and the perceived relevance of the sources they found using each search tool. Students were also asked to self-assess their online searching skills. The findings show that students believe they possess strong searching skills, are able to find relevant sources using both search tools, but …

Planning A Reading And Discussion Series In An Academic Library, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

Planning a reading series for an academic library takes an initial investment of time, energy and attention to detail. When you consider all the elements involved with planning and executing a reading, the initial investment of time and effort to devise a smoothly run event series is well worth the results. It can be as creative a venture as you have time for. Do what is comfortable for you