Digital Commons Network^™

Sometimes Merely As A Means: Why Kantian Philosophy Requires The Legalization Of Kidney Sales, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

Several commentators have tried to ground legal prohibitions of kidney sales in some form of Kant’s moral arguments against such sales. This paper reconsiders this approach to justifying laws and policies in light of Kant’s approach to law in his political philosophy. The author argues that Kant’s political philosophy requires that kidney sales be legally permitted, although contracts for such sales must remain unenforceable. The author further argues that Kant’s approach to laws, such as those governing kidney distribution, was formed in part by considering and rejecting an assumption frequently employed in the bioethics literature, namely, that legal duties can …

Oral Rapid Hiv Testing In The Dental Setting: Experiences From Three Dental Hygiene Clinics, Anthony J. Santella, Petal Leuwaisee, Susan H. Davide, Hanna Horowitz, Bhuma Krishnamachari

Publications and Research

Background: Oral rapid HIV testing (ORHT) is implemented in the dental setting to make individuals aware of their possibly undiagnosed HIV infection. The testing process and characteristics of clients willing to receive ORHT has yet, however, to be systematically collected. Case description: Three dental hygiene clinics located in academic institutions implemented ORHT from March 2016 to April 2017. Results: 231 persons received ORHT; all had non-reactive results. Most had seen a primary care provider in the past year (n = 130), had had a previous ORHT (n = 111), and described themselves as extremely likely or likely to accept a …

Just Culture: It's More Than Policy, Linda Ann Paradiso, Nancy Sweeney

Publications and Research

Any healthcare organization’s top priority is effective and safe care. Despite this, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the US. Hospitals are imperfect systems where nurses have competing demands and are forced to improvise and develop workarounds. Errors rarely occur in a vacuum, rather they’re a sequence of events with multiple opportunities for correction. Clinical nurses can have a significant impact on reducing errors due to their proximity to patients. When errors are identified, the events and impact on safe care need to be shared. Just culture is a safe haven that supports reporting. In a just …

A Qualitative Analysis To Identify The Elements That Support Department Level Change In The Life Sciences: The Pulse Vision & Change Recognition Program, Mary Peteroy-Kelly, Loretta Brancaccio-Taras, Judy Awong-Taylor, Teresa Balser, Thomas Jack, Sara Lindsay, Kate Marley, Sandra Romano, J. Akif Uzman, Pamela Pape-Lindstrom

Publications and Research

The 2011 report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action, provided the impetus to mobilize the undergraduate life sciences education community to affect change in order to enhance the educational experiences of life sciences majors. The work of the appointed Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) Vision and Change (V&C) Leadership Fellows has focused on the development of programs and resources to support departmental change. In this report, we present a qualitative assessment of several documents generated from the PULSE V&C Leadership Fellow Recognition Team. The Recognition Team developed two initiatives to provide …

Highly Effective Geni Alloy Contact Diffusion Barrier For Bisbte Long-Term Thermal Exposure, Erdong Song, Brian S. Swartzentruber, Chowdary R. Koripella, Julio A. Martinez

Publications and Research

A GeNi alloy diffusion barrier for contacts on bismuth antimony telluride is proposed. Multiple gold contact diffusion barriers were tested at different thermal aging conditions in air and reducing atmospheres. Among all diffusion barriers, the GeNi alloy barrier shows the best performance for bulk samples with no substantial degradation of the contact resistance, no contact color change, and no change of thermoelectric properties. We observed DAu−GeNi = (9.8 ± 2.7) × 10−20 m2/s within the GeNi alloy barrier, which is 4 times smaller than DAu−BiSbTe. The presence of the initial Ge layer also proves to be effective in reducing nickel …

Composite Biomaterial Repair Strategy To Restore Biomechanical Function And Reduce Herniation Risk In An Ex Vivo Large Animal Model Of Intervertebral Disc Herniation With Varying Injury Severity, Warren W. Hom, Melanie Tschopp, Huizi A. Lin, Philip Nasser, Damien M. Laudier, Andrew C. Hecht, Steven B. Nicoll, James C. Iatridis

Publications and Research

Back pain commonly arises from intervertebral disc (IVD) damage including annulus fibrosus (AF) defects and nucleus pulposus (NP) loss. Poor IVD healing motivates developing tissue engineering repair strategies. This study evaluated a composite injectable IVD biomaterial repair strategy using carboxymethylcellulose-methylcellulose (CMC-MC) and genipincrosslinked fibrin (FibGen) that mimic NP and AF properties, respectively. Bovine ex vivo caudal IVDs were evaluated in cyclic compression-tension, torsion, and compression-to-failure tests to determine IVD biomechanical properties, height loss, and herniation risk following experimentally-induced severe herniation injury and discectomy (4 mm biopsy defect with 20% NP removed). FibGen with and without CMC-MC had failure strength similar …

Readability Of Online-Patient Based Information On Bariatric Surgery, Zoë Meleo-Erwin, Corey Basch, Joseph Fera, Danna Ethan, Philip Garcia

Publications and Research

Background: Web-based patient education literature has been shown to be written at reading levels far above what is recommended. Little is known about the overall readability of current internet-based bariatric surgery information. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability of current bariatric material on the internet.

Methods: The term “weight loss surgery” was searched using the Chrome browser on the first 15 pages of URLs that appeared with content written in English. Using five readability measures, scores were generated using Readable.io for written content on a sample of 96 websites. Scores were sorted into the readability categories …

Safe Automated Refactoring For Intelligent Parallelization Of Java 8 Streams, Raffi Khatchadourian, Yiming Tang, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Syed Ahmed

Publications and Research

Streaming APIs are becoming more pervasive in mainstream Object-Oriented programming languages. For example, the Stream API introduced in Java 8 allows for functional-like, MapReduce-style operations in processing both finite and infinite data structures. However, using this API efficiently involves subtle considerations like determining when it is best for stream operations to run in parallel, when running operations in parallel can be less efficient, and when it is safe to run in parallel due to possible lambda expression side-effects. In this paper, we present an automated refactoring approach that assists developers in writing efficient stream code in a semantics-preserving fashion. The …

Mechanisms Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression, Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi, Trisheena Harricharaan, Jeannette Huaman, Anna Galuza, Oluwatoyin Odumuwagun, Yin Tan, Grace X. Ma, Minhhuyen T. Nguyen

Publications and Research

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the liver. It is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with a very poor prognosis. In the United States, there has been only minimal improvement in the prognosis for HCC patients over the past 15 years. Details of the molecular mechanisms and other mechanisms of HCC progression remain unclear. Consequently, there is an urgent need for better understanding of these mechanisms. HCC is often diagnosed at advanced stages, and most patients will therefore need systemic therapy, with sorafenib being the most common at the present time. However, sorafenib …

The Impact Of Legal Technology In The Modern Law Office, Marisol Correa

Publications and Research

The purpose of my research is to explore some of the new developments in legal technology as they apply to the modem law practice. As a Legal Assistant Studies major, I am embarking on this project because I am interested in learning more about the software and technologies that are currently being employed in law offices. My goal is to apprise other aspiring legal assistants of these current trends and hopefully aid them in better understanding what kinds of technical challenges await them when they enter the workforce.

Researching At The Community-University Borderlands: Using Public Science To Study Policing In The South Bronx, Brett G. Stoudt, María Elena Torre, Paul Bartley, Evan Bissel, Fawn Bracy, Hillary Caldwell, Lauren Dewey, Anthony Downs, Cory Greene, Jan Haldipur, Scott Lizama, Prakriti Hassan, Einat Manoff, Nadine Sheppard, Jacqueline Yates

Publications and Research

This article is a case study of the Morris Justice Project (MJP), a participatory action research (PAR) study in a South Bronx neighborhood of New York City (NYC) designed to understand residents' experiences with and attitudes towards the New York Police Department (NYPD). An illustration of public science, the research was conducted in solidarity with an emerging police reform movement and in response to an ongoing and particularly aggressive set of policing policies that most heavily impacts poor communities and communities of color. The case study describes a set of ongoing participatory, research-action, "sidewalk science" strategies, developed in 42 square …

Collaborative Research For Justice And Multi-Issue Movement Building: Challenging Discriminatory Policing, School Closures, And Youth Unemployment, Ronald David Glass, Brett G. Stoudt

Publications and Research

This special issue engages ethical, epistemic, political, and institutional issues in projects of collaborative research for justice that were designed with movements contesting policing, school closures, and youth disinvestment and unemployment. Three of the articles were collaboratively written by activists and scholars who drew from movements that deployed research for community-driven progressive change. The movements and the research are thus situated at the intersection of struggles against a resurgent anti-immigrant white supremacy, gentrification, a punitive carceral state, low pay and lack of meaningful employment opportunities, and the privatization of the public sector. These articles build upon and are in conversation …

Green Infrastructure Design Influences Communities Of Urban Soil Bacteria, Jessica Lee Joyner, Jordan Kerwin, Maha Deeb, George Lozefski, Bharath Prithiviraj, Anna Paitseva, John Mclaughin, Peter M. Groffman, Zhongqi Cheng, Theodore R. Muth

Publications and Research

The importance of natural ecosystem processes is often overlooked in urban areas. Green Infrastructure (GI) features have been constructed in urban areas as elements to capture and treat excess urban runoff while providing a range of ancillary benefits, e.g., ecosystem processes mediated by microorganisms that improve air and water quality, in addition to the associations with plant and tree rhizospheres. The objective of this study was to characterize the bacterial community and diversity in engineered soils (Technosols) of five types of GI in New York City; vegetated swales, right of way bioswales (ROWB; including street-side infiltration systems and enhanced tree …

How To Be Ssb-Free: Assessing The Attitudes And Readiness For A Sugar Sweetened Beverage-Free Healthcare Center In The Bronx, Ny, P. Christopher Palmedo, Lauren M. Gordon

Publications and Research

In recent years, communities and institutions have sought new interventions intended to reduce sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption among children. Among these interventions are “SSB-free zones,” where such beverages are not permitted to be consumed on the premises. Insufficient knowledge still exists, however, about the readiness for such restrictive SSB policies within health care institutions. Understanding attitudes toward SSB consumption among adults is necessary to guide an institution-wide policy, where staff and patients serve as role models for parents and their children. We conducted focus groups with health center patients and staff to determine perceptions surrounding health and SSB consumption …

Lessons Of A Failed Study: Lone Research, Media Analysis, And The Limitations Of Bracketing, Katherine Gregory

Publications and Research

Failed research can function as the underbelly of all qualitative research projects that come to fruition. These shadow projects offer invaluable insights to future research and researchers alike. In this article, I trace a failed life history of sex offenders project from its conceptualization to its abandonment, after conducting a series of searches on the online National Sex Offender Registry database. Through the use of preliminary field notes and an analysis of media representations, I examine the role of bracketing of the topic, as a by-product of the phenomenological tradition, and other methodological issues such as physical and emotional vulnerability …

In Search Of Wholeness: A Conversation About Transcending Language(S) And Art Forms, Natasha Lvovich, Olga Mezhibovskaya

Publications and Research

Natasha Lvovich interviews an interdisciplinary artist / designer, educator, and musician / musicologist, the multilingual Olga Mezhibovskaya, who discusses the complex relationship between languages (in this case, Russian and English) and artistic modalities, art forms, and genres. Mezhibovskaya's main scholarly focus (which she studied through music and in Russian) and now in art is wholeness, which could be understood as synthesis of all forms, interdisciplinarity and interconnectedness, what Roman Jakobson termed as "intersemiotic translation." References to Mezhibovskaya's numerous interdisciplinary projects, extremely rich with various intersemiotic connections, are both described and shown as visuals (URLs), videos and illustrations.

Introduction To The Special Issue: Multilingualism, Creativity, And The Arts, Natasha Lvovich, Steven G. Kellman

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Sketching Instruction On Elementary Students’ Design Cognition: A Study Of Three Sketching Approaches, Euisuk Sung, Todd R. Kelly, Jung Han

Publications and Research

When teaching engineering design, sketching is a key element of design thinking that facilitates connection of hands and minds. As engineers use various graphical illustrations to conceptualise, communicate, and record design ideas, students make sketches to develop their design ideas. However, sketching instructions in engineering education often highly focus on technical drawing rather than strategic sketching. The study made three observations of sketching instructions from fourth-grade elementary science classrooms with two different sketching strategies and one control. The first group was instructed with effective uses of schematic symbols, the second group was introduced to a 2D template that showed the …

Microdamage As A Bone Quality Component: Practical Guidelines For The Two‐Dimensional Analysis Of Linear Microcracks In Human Cortical Bone, Victoria M. Dominguez, Amanda M. Agnew

Publications and Research

Microdamage is a component of bone quality believed to play an integral role in bone health. However, comparability between existing studies is fraught with issues due to highly variable methods of sample preparation and poorly defined quantification criteria. To address these issues, this article has two aims. First, detailed methods for preparation and analysis of linear microcracks in human ribs, specifically addressing troubleshooting issues cited in previous studies, are laid out. Second, new, partially validated criteria are proposed in an effort to reduce subjective differences in microcrack counts and measures, ensuring more comparable results between studies. Revised definitions based on …

On Properties Of Distance-Based Entropies On Fullerene Graphs, Modjtaba Ghorbani, Matthias Dehmer, Mina Rajabi-Parsa, Abbe Mowshowitz, Frank Emmert-Streib

Publications and Research

In this paper, we study several distance-based entropy measures on fullerene graphs. These include the topological information content of a graph I_a(G), a degree-based entropy measure, the eccentric-entropy If_s(G), the Hosoya entropy H(G) and, finally, the radial centric information entropy H_ecc. We compare these measures on two infinite classes of fullerene graphs denoted by A_12n+4 and B_12n+6. We have chosen these measures as they are easily computable and capture meaningful graph properties. To demonstrate the utility of these measures, we investigate the Pearson correlation between them on the fullerene graphs.

Epigenetic Modifications In Alzheimer’S Neuropathology And Therapeutics, Michelle Esposito, Goldie Libby Sherr

Publications and Research

Transcriptional activation is a highly synchronized process in eukaryotes that requires a series of cis- and trans-acting elements at promoter regions. Epigenetic modifications, such as chromatin remodeling, histone acetylation/deacetylation, and methylation, have frequently been studied with regard to transcriptional regulation/dysregulation. Recently however, it has been determined that implications in epigenetic modification seem to expand into various neurodegenerative disease mechanisms. Impaired learning and memory deterioration are cognitive dysfunctions often associated with a plethora of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Through better understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms underlying these dysfunctions, new epigenomic therapeutic targets, such as histone deacetylases, are being explored. Here …

Public Safety Trends In Map Communities And Matched Comparison Areas. Map Evaluation Update Number 3., Sheyla A. Delgado, Richard A. Espinobarros, Gina Moreno, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This is the third of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice collaborated with survey specialists from NORC at the University of Chicago to track key outcomes in MAP developments and matched comparison sites. Using the NYC Open Data portal and data from NYPD and SPARCS, the research team looked to see if the presence of MAP showed initial impacts in crime and victimization …

Promoting Discipline Specific Literacy For Law & Paralegal Studies Students: Libguides As Transitional & Professional Tools, Marissa Moran, Kimberly Abrams

Publications and Research

Developing LibGuides for Law and Paralegal Studies students at New York City College of Technology arose from the following question: how do we change the way legal studies students think of the Library as a resource to better assist them in their transition to college level-research and a future career as a paralegal. At the heart of this question is the importance of discipline-specific information literacy at the college and professional levels. Many students have difficulty with locating relevant information to complete course assignments partly because library resources are both fragmented and cohesive. Thus, while part of the transition to …

Flexi Discs: The Audio Format That Time Forgot And Remembered Again, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

Flexi discs, also known as phonosheets and Soundsheets, are “flexible” plastic sheets that can be played on turntables. This audio format was used for a wide variety of purposes including promotional materials, giveaways, and inserts into magazines, stemming from their origins in playable chocolate discs in the early 1900s (Parks, 2018). At one point in time it was a $9 million dollar business, with the U.S. government as one of the top users of the technology (Penchansky, 1979). Their disposable nature, weight, ability to print directly on material, and affordable manufacturing made the flexi disc an alternative to vinyl pressings. …

Accelerating Systemic Change Network (Ascn): Demonstrating Impact, David Bressoud, Pamela Brown, Archie Holmes, Kate White

Publications and Research

The goals of this presentation for participants was:

•Learn about the Accelerating Systemic Change Network (ASCN), why it is important, what it can do for you, and how you can get involved. •Learn about work done by ASCN on demonstrating impact and how measurement and communication can be used to promote change. •Learn about areas where educational research is needed and you can contribute.

Finding Connections: Making An Existing Biology Course Interdisciplinary And Using The Experience For The Traditional Course And Oers, Tatiana Voza

Publications and Research

Adapting an existing introductory biology course to make it interdisciplinary and successful is an interesting experience and process. With imperatives such as lecture and lab components, a dense curriculum, preexisting learning outcomes and students with different levels of interest, adding material to provide relevant context show how both scientific and social knowledge relate to broader aspects of the human experience, can be challenging. However, once achieved such a course provides epistemological value, real-world context and a rewarding and enriching experience for both students and faculty. In this presentation, the steps involved in designing and implementing an interdisciplinary biology course (Biology …

"Our Stories" Developing A Virtual Community Of First-Year Voices, Sandra Cheng, Jennifer Sears, Karen Goodlad, Ashwin Satyanarayana, Mery Diaz, Philip Kreniske

Publications and Research

First Year Learning Communities (FYLC) at City Tech is structured to provide first-year students in linked courses an interdisciplinary learning experience. This approach creates opportunities for students to form bonds within the college community. A shared belief among faculty leaders in the potential for writing to transform the student experience led to the development of the “Our Stories” digital writing project. “Our Stories” offers FYLC students the opportunity to express their experiences in classes, seminars, lectures, study groups, and labs on the OpenLab, a digital platform for teaching, learning, and sharing. Through this project, students shared their stories and revealed …

The Effect Of Heterobifunctional Crosslinkers On Hema Hydrogel Modulus And Toughness, Elizabeth M. Boazak, Vaughn K. Greene Jr., Debra T. Auguste

Publications and Research

The use of hydrogels in load bearing applications is often limited by insufficient toughness. 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) based hydrogels are appealing for translational work, as they are affordable and the use of HEMA is FDA approved. Furthermore, HEMA is photopolymerizable, providing spatiotemporal control over mechanical properties. We evaluated the ability of vinyl methacrylate (VM), allyl methacrylate (AM), and 3-(Acryloyloxy)-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (AHPM) to tune hydrogel toughness and Young’s modulus. The crosslinkers were selected due to their heterobifunctionality (vinyl and methacrylate) and similar size and structure to EGDMA, which was shown previously to increase toughness as compared to longer crosslinkers. Vinyl methacrylate …

Development Of Digital Bathymetry Maps For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo Using Sonar And Remote Sensing Techniques, Michael Piasecki, Mahrokh Moknatian, Fred Moshary, Jorge Gonzalez

Publications and Research

This article presents an improved algorithm for optimization and development of a digital bathymetric model (DBM) for Lake Azuei (LA) (Haiti) and Lake Enriquillo (LE) (Dominican Republic) using the ANUDEM method. Both sonar data and contour lines of the lakes’ layout extracted using Landsat imagery were compiled for bathymetry development. We show that the performance of the ANUDEM method was strongly dependent on the density and irregularity of the spatial distribution of the data. Changing the resolution of the output grids and deriving auxiliary topographically corrected contours improved the ANUDEM performance and minimized the systematic errors of the method. Statistical …

Awareness Of Emotions Leads To Self-Efficacy Among College Students, Amy Lee, Emily M. Delacruz

Publications and Research

Self-efficacy is one’s belief in their own ability to succeed in a particular situation or accomplish a task (Bandura, 1977). Previous research has shown that the effort one puts into achieving goals, coping abilities, and behavior in the face of opposition are all heavily influenced by efficacy beliefs. Self reflection and knowledge of inner feelings, areas in which one excel, areas in which one do poorly, and areas in which one need to improve aid in the establishment of goals (Bandura, 1977 & Cervone, 2004). Inner feelings are bound to occur when one make sense of what one can and …