Digital Commons Network^™

Lesula: A New Species Of Cercopithecus Monkey Endemic To The Democratic Republic Of Congo And Implications For Conservation Of Congo’S Central Basin, John A. Hart, Kate M. Detwiler, Christopher C. Gilbert, Andrew S. Burrell, James L. Fuller, Maurice Emetshu, Terese B. Hart, Ashley Vosper, Eric J. Sargis, Anthony J. Tosi

Publications and Research

In June 2007, a previously undescribed monkey known locally as “lesula” was found in the forests of the middle Lomami Basin in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We describe this new species as Cercopithecus lomamiensis sp. nov., and provide data on its distribution, morphology, genetics, ecology and behavior. C. lomamiensis is restricted to the lowland rain forests of central DRC between the middle Lomami and the upper Tshuapa Rivers. Morphological and molecular data confirm that C. lomamiensis is distinct from its nearest congener, C. hamlyni, from which it is separated geographically by both the Congo (Lualaba) and the Lomami …

Hunter-Gatherer Energetics And Human Obesity, Herman Pontzer, David A. Raichlen, Brian M. Wood, Audax Z. P. Mabulla, Susan B. Racette, Frank W. Marlowe

Publications and Research

Western lifestyles differ markedly from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and these differences in diet and activity level are often implicated in the global obesity pandemic. However, few physiological data for hunter-gatherer populations are available to test these models of obesity. In this study, we used the doubly-labeled water method to measure total daily energy expenditure (kCal/day) in Hadza hunter-gatherers to test whether foragers expend more energy each day than their Western counterparts. As expected, physical activity level, PAL, was greater among Hadza foragers than among Westerners. Nonetheless, average daily energy expenditure of traditional Hadza foragers was no different than …

A New Body Shape Index Predicts Mortality Hazard Independently Of Body Mass Index, Nir Y. Krakauer, Jesse C. Krakauer

Publications and Research

Background Obesity, typically quantified in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeding threshold values, is considered a leading cause of premature death worldwide. For given body size (BMI), it is recognized that risk is also affected by body shape, particularly as a marker of abdominal fat deposits. Waist circumference (WC) is used as a risk indicator supplementary to BMI, but the high correlation of WC with BMI makes it hard to isolate the added value of WC. Methods and Findings We considered a USA population sample of 14,105 non-pregnant adults () from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) …

The Greek Crisis As Racketeering And Organized Crime, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Gene Expression In The Human Cerebral Cortex Distinguishes Children From Adults, Kirstin N. Sterner, Amy Weckle, Harry T. Chugani, Adi L. Tarca, Chet C. Sherwood, Patrick R. Hof, Christopher W. Kuzawa, Amy M. Boddy, Asad Abbas, Ryan L. Raaum, Lucie Grégoire, Leonard Lipovich, Lawrence I. Grossman, Monica Uddin, Morris Goodman, Derek E. Wildman

Publications and Research

In comparison with other primate species, humans have an extended juvenile period during which the brain is more plastic. In the current study we sought to examine gene expression in the cerebral cortex during development in the context of this adaptive plasticity. We introduce an approach designed to discriminate genes with variable as opposed to uniform patterns of gene expression and found that greater inter-individual variance is observed among children than among adults. For the 337 transcripts that show this pattern, we found a significant overrepresentation of genes annotated to the immune system process (pFDR>0). Moreover, genes known to …

The Association Between Marital Transitions, Body Mass Index, And Weight: A Review Of The Literature, Lauren Dinour, May May Leung, Gina Tripicchio, Sahar Khan, Ming-Chin Yeh

Publications and Research

Objective: To examine the association between different marital transitions and changes in body mass index (BMI) and body weight.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted for peer-reviewed articles published between January 1990 and December 2011. Longitudinal studies were included if they compared dependent variables, such as BMI or weight, before and after a change in marital status.

Results: Twenty articles were included: 4 articles described only transitions into marriage and/or cohabitation, 2 articles described only transitions out of marriage and/or cohabitation, and 14 articles described both. Overall, transitions into marriage were associated with weight gain, whereas transitions out of …

Pre-Whaling Genetic Diversity And Population Ecology In Eastern Pacific Gray Whales: Insights From Ancient Dna And Stable Isotopes, S Elizabeth Alter, Seth D. Newsome, Stephen R. Palumbi

Publications and Research

Commercial whaling decimated many whale populations, including the eastern Pacific gray whale, but little is known about how population dynamics or ecology differed prior to these removals. Of particular interest is the possibility of a large population decline prior to whaling, as such a decline could explain the ,5-fold difference between genetic estimates of prior abundance and estimates based on historical records. We analyzed genetic (mitochondrial control region) and isotopic information from modern and prehistoric gray whales using serial coalescent simulations and Bayesian skyline analyses to test for a pre-whaling decline and to examine prehistoric genetic diversity, population dynamics and …

Transforming Student Engagement Through Documentary And Critical Media Literacy, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

Young people entering college today have grown up in a multimedia environment, yet the classroom they most often encounter reflects nineteenth-century pedagogy. This paper explores the paradigm shift that is making documentaries more widely accessible for use in the classroom; describes a pedagogical strategy for connecting a critical media literacy ‘reading’ of documentaries with more traditional reading of written texts; investigates the effectiveness of this method to engage students through critical media literacy in ways that encourage transformation. Effectiveness was measured in a voluntary, self-reported questionnaire, emailed to students after the semester they took Introductory Sociology. Students in the sample …

Delegated Performance: Outsourcing Authenticity, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

An essay is presented on delegated performance in which nonprofessionals are hired to perform at a particular time on behalf of the artist on his or her instructions. The author stated that this social turn started since 1990s in contemporary art against the tradition of 1960s and 1970s where artists like Chris Burden, Vito Acconci and Gina Pane performed themselves. The author referred to the trend of live installation started in Europe in 1990s in which guards for exhibition were hired. The Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan assembled a soccer club of foreigners to play local matches in 1991.

Fellow Travellers: A Concordance Of Colonization Patterns Between Mice And Men In The North Atlantic Region, E P. Jones, K Skirnisson, T H. Mcgovern, Mtp Gilbert, E Willerslev, J B. Searle

Publications and Research

Background House mice (Mus musculus) are commensals of humans and therefore their phylogeography can reflect human colonization and settlement patterns. Previous studies have linked the distribution of house mouse mitochondrial (mt) DNA clades to areas formerly occupied by the Norwegian Vikings in Norway and the British Isles. Norwegian Viking activity also extended further westwards in the North Atlantic with the settlement of Iceland, short-lived colonies in Greenland and a fleeting colony in Newfoundland in 1000 AD. Here we investigate whether house mouse mtDNA sequences reflect human history in these other regions as well. Results House mice samples from Iceland, whether …

The Logic Of Fashion Cycles, Alberto Acerbi, Stefano Ghirlanda, Magnus Enquist

Publications and Research

Many cultural traits exhibit volatile dynamics, commonly dubbed fashions or fads. Here we show that realistic fashion-like dynamics emerge spontaneously if individuals can copy others' preferences for cultural traits as well as traits themselves. We demonstrate this dynamics in simple mathematical models of the diffusion, and subsequent abandonment, of a single cultural trait which individuals may or may not prefer. We then simulate the coevolution between many cultural traits and the associated preferences, reproducing power-law frequency distributions of cultural traits (most traits are adopted by few individuals for a short time, and very few by many for a long time), …

Genetic Signatures Of A Demographic Collapse In A Large-Bodied Forest Dwelling Primate (Mandrillus Leucophaeus), Nelson Ting, Christos Astaras, Gail Hearn, Shaya Honarvar, Joel Corush, Andrew S. Burrell, Naomi Phillips, Bethan J. Morgan, Elizabeth L. Gadsby, Ryan L. Raaum, Christian Roos

Publications and Research

It is difficult to predict how current climate change will affect wildlife species adapted to a tropical rainforest environment. Understanding how population dynamics fluctuated in such species throughout periods of past climatic change can provide insight into this issue. The drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) is a large-bodied rainforest adapted mammal found in West Central Africa. In the middle of this endangered monkey’s geographic range is Lake Barombi Mbo, which has a well-documented palynological record of environmental change that dates to the Late Pleistocene. We used a Bayesian coalescent-based framework to analyze 2,076 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA across wild drill populations …

Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism, And Affect, Gordon Alley-Young

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Genealogical Review Of The Worldview Concept And Framework In Africana Studies-Related Theory And Research, Karanja Keita Carroll

Publications and Research

Daudi Ajani Ya Azibo's "Articulating the Distinction between Black Studies and the Study of Blacks: The Fundamental Role of Culture and the African-Centered Worldview" originally published in the Afrocentric Scholar and republished in both editions of Nathaniel Norment Jr.'s African American Studies Reader, provides much needed clarity on the philosophical foundations of Black Studies. However, Azibo's work is connected to an earlier project, Syed M. Khatib's (aka Cedric X. Clark) "Black Studies or the Study of Black People: Reflections on the Distinctive Characteristics of Black Psychology." Both Azibo and Khatib ask an important question related to the philosophical foundations of …

Good Men Grow Corn: Embodied Ecological Heritage In A Belizean Mopan Community, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

Recent developments in land rights and land use in the Toledo district, Belize has generated anthropological and activist interest surrounding traditional ecological knowledge and practice, and the role of heritage in communities. This study explores the connection between ecological knowledge and practices, and the concurrent construction of heritage, and community health and wellness, broadly defined. Developing and using the concept of “embodied ecological heritage,” this dissertation takes a phenomenological approach to understanding the convergence of ecological heritage and health in multiple realms of everyday life, arguing that lived experience of participating in “traditional”practices is fundamentally connected to wellness in the …

Beefmoves: Dissemination, Diversity, And Dynamics Of English Borrowings In A German Hip Hop Forum, Matt Garley, Julia Hockenmaier

Publications and Research

We investigate how novel English-derived words (anglicisms) are used in a German-language Internet hip hop forum, and what factors contribute to their uptake.

Justice In Context: Assessing Contextualism As An Approach To Justice, Michael Buckley

Publications and Research

Moral and political philosophers are increasingly using empirical data to inform their normative theories. This has sparked renewed interest into questions concerning the relationship between facts and principles. A recent attempt to frame these questions within a broader approach to normative theory comes from David Miller, who has on several occasions defended ‘contextualism’ as the best approach to justice. Miller argues that the context of distribution itself brings one or another political principle into play. This paper examines this claim. It considers several plausible strategies for carrying out Miller’s general project and argues that each strategy fails. Nevertheless, the author …

How Milk Does The World Good: Vernacular Sustainability And Alternative Food Systems In Post-Socialist Europe, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

Scholarly debates on sustainable consumption have generally overlooked alternative agro-food networks in the economies outside of Western Europe and North America. Building on practice-based theories, this article focuses on informal raw milk markets in post-socialist Lithuania to examine how such alternative systems emerge and operate in the changing political, social, and economic contexts. It makes two contributions to the scholarship on sustainable consumption. In considering semi-subsistence practices and poverty-driven consumption, this article argues for a richer, more critical, and inclusive theory of sustainability that takes into consideration vernacular forms of exchange and approaches poor consumers as subjects of global history. …

Rehg Studies Monkeys To Better Understand Humans, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Linguist Lafond Organizes Space Meeting, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Policing Gender, Sexuality And ‘Muslimness’, Anissa Helie

Publications and Research

In her Introduction to the book Sexuality in Muslim Contexts: Restrictions and Resistance (ZED Book, UK), Anissa Helie discusses the notion of "Muslimness" and how such a homogenizing notion, if unchallenged, may serve to justify the policing of sexuality in various Muslim countries and communities.

The book itself looks at emerging trends that affect women’s sexuality, with a particular focus on Asia and the Middle East, and documents both the curtailing of sexual rights occurring in diverse Muslim societies and the strategies designed to counter these developments.

Yet this focus in no way suggests that the policing of gender and …

Citizen Bunker: Archie Bunker As Working-Class Icon., Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Archie Bunker, the central character and patriarch of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” (1971-1979) has been referred to as an “everyman” and an “angry-man prototype” with “hard had prejudice.” The name Archie Bunker itself has become synonymous with a blue-collar, racially chauvinistic mentality. The title of the show’s pilot and theme song, “Those Were the Days,” emphasized Archie’s dream of a simpler (though idealized) time, a world that he could understand and upon which he could exert some control. In 1970s America, Archie seemed to feel that the world was against him – economically, socially, politically and culturally – …

Global Is National: The Cultural Politics Of The Mass Rapid Transit Systems In Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Digital Video: Engaging Students In Critical Media Literacy And Community Activism, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

This article presents a strategy for teaching health communication that fosters critical media literacy through the strategic combination of digital video, documentary film, video worksheets, and peer-reviewed journal articles. Given the media-saturated environment in which notions of health are shaped, critical media literacy skills are crucial to students in health-related fields. Cases of key concepts illustrated through documentary films and the peer-reviewed literature are presented. The article then explores how one class took the lead in designing a community event that critically engaged both a YouTube video and a documentary film about police brutality as a public health issue.

The Social Life Of Musical Instruments, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Accordion Crimes, a novel by E. Annie Proulx, traces the life of and routes travelled by a green diatonic button accordion: its birth in Sicily in the workshop of “The Accordion Maker,” its numerous changes of ownership in the Americas during encounters between various immigrant communities, and its death when it finally falls into disrepair in the town of Old Glory, Minnesota. There are other accordions in the book, and many temporary human owners, but it is one particular green accordion that is the book’s protagonist. We meet and experience other characters largely through their interactions with the green accordion, …

Sexuality, Rights And Personhood: Tensions In A Transnational World, Dina M. Siddiqi

Publications and Research

Background This article discusses what happens when normative ‘global’ discourses of rights and individuated sexual identity confront the messiness of ‘local’ realities. It considers the tensions that emerge when the relationship between sexual and social identities is not obvious and the implications of such tensions for public health and sexual rights activism. These questions are addressed through debates over the naming of male-to-male sexualities and desires in the context of globalization and the growth of a large NGO (non-governmental organization) sector in urban Bangladesh. Methods The material in the paper draws on a research project undertaken in 2008-9 in Dhaka, …

“I Could Study Anywhere, As Long As I Could Sit I’Ll Study:” Student Spaces And Pathways At The City University Of New York, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

Undergraduate students at the City University of New York navigate multiply occupied places as they attend college on the urban campuses of this commuter institution. CUNY students often negotiate competing diversions from their scholarly experiences, including family obligations and job responsibilities, that constrain them both temporally and financially. Additionally, space considerations at home, school, and the commute influence and shape student activities and opportunities. In this paper we examine how college students interact with school spaces, from where they store their books to where they study and write their papers, and to what degree they succeed at constituting these areas …

Sexual And Injection-Related Risks In Puerto Rican-Born Injection Drug Users Living In New York City: A Mixed-Methods Analysis, Camila Gelpí-Acosta, Holly Hagan, Samuel M. Jenness, Travis Wendel, Alan Neaigus

Publications and Research

Background These data were collected as part of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) study. NHBS is a cross-sectional study to investigate HIV behavioral risks among core risk groups in 21 U.S. cities with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence. This analysis examines data from the NHBS data collection cycle with IDU conducted in New York City in 2009. We explored how the recency of migration from Puerto Rico (PR) to New York City (NYC) impacts both syringe sharing and unprotected sex among injection drug users (IDU) currently living in NYC. Methods We used a mixed-methods approach to examine differences in risk …

Shamanic Knowledge: The Challenge To Information Science, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Shamanism, a form of healing involving soul travel and trance found in many traditional societies the world over, has been studied by anthropologists and scholars of religious studies. Shamanic traditions are characterized by specialized, restricted, and esoteric knowledge domains that are encoded and communicated through condensed and mystified symbols and reproduced in ceremonies. Shamanic knowledge is acquired through direct experience of the numinous, usually in the process of overcoming personal affliction. Information science so far has been silent on shamanic knowledge. This is understandable given the latter discipline's focus on formal documentary information systems and advanced information technologies. But in …

Cultures In The Making: An Examination Of The Ethical And Methodological Implications Of Collaborative Research, Chrstina Siry, Carolyne Ali-Khan, Mark Zuss

Publications and Research

This paper explores ethical and methodological implications of collaborative research, and we discuss our examination of ways to work towards participatory, ethical relationships in research. Our core concerns pertain to the experiential, lived and qualitative relations within emergent research communities. Questions that have guided us include: What does "we" mean in research practice? How do we become a community of researchers? What forms of relations are shaped in the continuous process of inquiry? Whose interests are served? How can a community of researchers and their participants, formed and sustained by reciprocal, ethical relations, of trust, shared knowledges, curiosity and friendship, …