Digital Commons Network^™

Density Matrix Equation For A Bathed Small System And Its Application To Molecular Magnets, Dmitry A. Garanin

Publications and Research

The technique of density matrix equation (DME) for a small system interacting with a bath is explained in detail. Special attention is given to the nonsecular DME that is needed in the vicinity of overdamped tunnelling resonances in molecular magnets (MM). The relaxation terms of the DME for MM are represented in the universal form that does not employ any unknown spin-lattice coupling constants and absorbs the information about the spin Hamiltonian in the exact basis states and transition frequencies. This makes adding new types of anisotropy easy and error-free. The Mathematica code is available from the author.

What To Eat Now? Shifts In Polar Bear Diet During The Ice-Free Season In Western Hudson Bay, Linda J. Gormezano, Robert F. Rockwell

Publications and Research

Under current climate trends, spring ice breakup in Hudson Bay is advancing rapidly, leaving polar bears (Ursus maritimus) less time to hunt seals during the spring when they accumulate the majority of their annual fat reserves. For this reason, foods that polar bears consume during the ice-free season may become increasingly important in alleviating nutritional stress from lost seal hunting opportunities. Defining how the terrestrial diet might have changed since the onset of rapid climate change is an important step in understanding how polar bears may be reacting to climate change. We characterized the current terrestrial diet of polar bears …

Social Class And Learning Disabilities: Intersectional Effects On College Students In New York City, Ashleigh B. Thompson

Publications and Research

Purpose - Previous quantitative research documents that college students with disabilities do not attain higher education at rates equal to their nondisabled peers. This qualitative study posits that socioeconomic status (SES) is a determinant of this discrepancy, and explores how SES and disability shape the college experience of New York City (NYC) students with learning disabilities (LDs), specifically.

Methodology - Research findings from semi-structured interviews with students with LDs (n = 10) at a low-SES and a high-SES colleges are presented against the backdrop of administrative data from NYC baccalaureate-granting colleges (n = 44), disability staff surveys (n = 21), …

Creating Room For A Singularity Of Our Own: Reading Sue Lange's "We, Robots", Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

The accessibility of Lange’s text might mitigate against recognizing its importance. Lange’s simple sentence structure and direct communicative mode convey a presently overlooked logical moral assertion: the impending Singularity is not a male-dominated patriarchal domain. The Singularity, in other words, should not be construed in a manner which excludes women and feminism. This assertion is patently obvious. But, nonetheless, it is often ignored. Before I read Lange’s novella as a description of the Singularity which feminists can embrace, I include the following background information: 1) a discussion about why the discourse relating to the Singularity needs to be expanded and …

Here We Come To Save Tomorrow: A Conversation With Dr. Marleen S. Barr, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is an interview with Marleen S. Barr conducted by The Octavia E. Butler Society.

Technology Innovations In Publishing: New Directions In Academic And Cultural Communication., Elisabeth Tappeiner, Kate Lyons

Publications and Research

Over time, publishing technologies have not only influenced how people read, but also how knowledge is evaluated and authority is established. Social and mobile technologies represent relatively recent developments that have transformed the trade publishing world, but the extent to which they have affected academic publishing remains an open question. This article examines the rapid and disruptive transformations in the trade and digital publishing world, discusses how these developments have already intersected with the work of academics and considers how these changes might continue to transform the dissemination of academic research in the future.

Peripheral Nerve Injury Is Associated With Chronic, Reversible Changes In Global Dna Methylation In The Mouse Prefrontal Cortex, Maral Tajerian, Sebastian Alvarado, Magali Millecamps, Pascal Vachon, Cecilia Crosby, M. Catherine Bushnell, Moshe Szyf, Laura S. Stone

Publications and Research

Changes in brain structure and cortical function are associated with many chronic pain conditions including low back pain and fibromyalgia. The magnitude of these changes correlates with the duration and/or the intensity of chronic pain. Most studies report changes in common areas involved in pain modulation, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and pain-related pathological changes in the PFC can be reversed with effective treatment. While the mechanisms underlying these changes are unknown, they must be dynamically regulated. Epigenetic modulation of gene expression in response to experience and environment is reversible and dynamic. Epigenetic modulation by DNA methylation is associated with …

The Officialization Of Spanish In Mid-Nineteenth-Century Spain: The Academy’S Authority, Laura Villa

Publications and Research

This chapter addresses the role played by language and schools in the history of Spain’s nineteenth-century liberal nation-building project. Both the Spanish language and the public school system were strategic sites where national consensus could be built and, consequently, the achievement of linguistic homogeneity through education became a central goal for the state. In particular, I examine the conditions that favored the linguistic norms developed by the Royal Spanish Academy and the debates that surrounded their officialization and imposition in the emerging national school system. While the historiography of Spanish has traditionally described the selection and implementation of the RAE’s …

Can't Escape From The Memory: Social Media And Public Sector Labor Law, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

The Web 2.0 communicative revolution is impacting many fields of law, including labor and employment law. This article focuses upon the application and impact of statutory and constitutional doctrines on the use of social media in public employment in the United States. As part of that analysis, it will compare and contrast developments under the National Labor Relations Act, state collective bargaining and tenure laws and the First Amendment concerning social media. Through this comparative analysis, the article will highlight the distinctions and similarities of public sector labor law and their implications for the future.

Nous And Aisthēsis: Two Cognitive Faculties In Aristotle, Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

In disagreement with Claudia Baracchi's controversial thesis that there is a 'simultaneity and indissolubility' if not an 'identity' of intelligence (nous) and perception (aisthēsis) at the core of Aristotle's philosophy, I will argue that Aristotle maintains a fundamental distinction between these cognitive faculties. My goal in this paper is to examine specific parts of two central and complex passages, VI.8, 1142al2-30 and VI. 11, 1143a33-bl5, from the Nicomachean Ethics to show that Baracchi's view is unpersuasive. I will show that Aristotle considers nous to be a different capacity than mere perception and one through which particulars …

Inscriptional Evidence Of Pre-Islamic Classical Arabic: Selected Readings In The Nabataean, Musnad, And Akkadian Inscriptions, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book investigates the ancient roots of Classical Arabic through detailed tracings and readings of selected, Pre-Islamic, ancient inscriptions from the Northern and Southern Arabian Peninsula. It provides detailed readings of important Akkadian, Nabataean, and old Arabic Musnad inscriptions, including Namarah and the Epic of Gilgamesh inscriptions. The book provides clear inscriptional evidence indicating that Classical Arabic was predominantly utilized in the major population centers of the greater Arabian Peninsula, including Mesopotamia and the Levant regions, many, many centuries before Islam. In his book, the author presents several important new readings. Among them, a new reading of two important Classical …

Cuny Librarians And Reassignment Leave: What Is It? How Do I Get It?, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Although librarians in CUNY had achieved Faculty Status by 1946 and Faculty Rank in 1965, they were still never put on the Faculty Calendar with the Summer (or its equivalent) off. Professional Reassignment leave for library faculty was added to the contract in 1978 as a two-week research leave, and it has since expanded to a maximum of six weeks. However, as Professional Reassignment leave increased, the amount of annual leave for new librarians decreased.

The Isospin Asymmetry In Anomalous Fluid Dynamics, V. Parameswaran Nair, Dario Capasso, Juraj Tekel

Publications and Research

The dynamics of fluids in which the constituent particles carry nonabelian charges can be described succinctly in terms of group-valued variables via a generalization of the co-adjoint orbit action for particles. This formalism, which is particularly suitable for incorporating anomalies, has previously been used for the chiral magnetic and chiral vorticity effects. Here we consider the similar effect for the isospin which corresponds to an angular asymmetry for neutral pions.

Strengths And Limitations Of Qualitative Approaches To Research In Occupational Health Psychology, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Joseph J. Mazzola

Publications and Research

Like all research methods, qualitative methods have strengths and limitations. This chapter describes seven strengths and five limitations. With an understanding of their strengths and limitations and how to minimize and/or balance them, occupational health psychology (OHP) researchers can benefit from qualitative methods. It is important to understand that qualitative findings do not establish generalizable cause-effect relations. However, qualitative methods can help an OHP researcher develop a theory of causality and derive hypotheses related to the theory and, thus, motivate quantitatively organized research designed to test the hypotheses. The challenge for the OHP researcher is to be mindful of what …

Queering The Catalog: Queer Theory And The Politics Of Correction, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing knowledge organization systems from a queer perspective, however, challenges the idea that classification and subject language can ever be finally corrected. Engaging queer theory and library classification and cataloging together requires new ways of thinking about how to be ethically and politically engaged on behalf of marginal knowledge formations and identities who …

International Organizations, Free Trade And Environmental Citizenship: Mexico And Chile In Comparative Perspective, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

This paper focuses on the potential of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and specific International Organizations (IOs) to promote democratic and effective environmental governance. FTAs are often cited in the political science literature for their negative impacts; yet, they are central to the present stage of economic globalization. Given that U.S. FTAs have environmental requirements as do accession agreements to developed country IOs (e.g. OECD), they remain under-explored institutions providing space for activists to expand environmental citizenship. The specific research question explored here is how might activists use these institutions to promote procedural environmental rights to information, participation, and justice, collectively …

Conjuring The Close From Afar A Border-Crossing Tale Of Vieques’ Activism And Obama-Empire, Víctor M. Torres-Vélez, Sarah Molinari, Katharine Lawrence

Publications and Research

After more than 60 years of military occupation, 30 of these under violent military practices, a social movement forced the U.S. Navy from the island of Vieques. This victory would not have been possible without the highly effective organization of civil disobedience carried out on the island. But the sum total of the actions that eventually forced out the U.S. Navy, neither happened exclusively within the boundaries of Vieques, nor was carried out by Viequense residents alone. In this article we want to suggest that this amazing victory—a testament of people’s will in the face of globalization—is also a border- …

Survey On Humanities Graduate Education And Alternative Academic Careers (Employer Survey), Katina Rogers

Publications and Research

As humanities scholars increasingly recognize the value of public engagement, and as the proportion of tenure-track faculty positions available to new graduates continues to decline, many humanities programs are focusing renewed attention on equipping graduate students for careers as scholars both within and beyond academe. To support those efforts, the Scholarly Communication Institute has carried out a study investigating perceptions about career preparation provided by humanities graduate programs. The survey results help to create a more solid foundation on which to base curricular reform and new initiatives by moving the conversation about varied career paths from anecdote to data. The …

Homonationalism, State Rationalities, And Sex Contradictions, Paisley Currah

Publications and Research

Celebrating the re-election of Barack Obama as a win for GLB equality or denouncing the focus on marriage rights as heteronormative misses the point. Both approaches obscure what actually happens in local sites where authority is exercised. Looking into the cracks and crevices of regulatory apparatuses generates a more complex picture. In examining contradictory rules on sex classification, for example, it becomes clear those contradictions often reflect different state projects, such as security, distribution, reproduction. Construing the election as a victory for gay rights or for homonormativity elevates grand concepts—marriage, the state—over the quotidian actions that regulate life.

Tarrying With The "Private Parts", Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

Two-thirds of the way through Object Lessons (2012), Robyn Wiegman's provocative study of the institutional and ideological development of what she names identity-based modes of inquiry in US colleges and universities, the author recounts a 2003 trip she took to Leiden to attend the inaugural meeting of the International American Studies Association. There, she was regularly met with the claim that American studies, at least as it is practiced by citizens and long-term residents of the United States, was deeply provincial and too caught up with rehearsals of the humdrum difficulties of American social and cultural life, particularly our always …

On Kripke's Puzzle About Time And Thought, Rohit J. Parikh

Publications and Research

We discuss a variant of a puzzle introduced by Saul Kripke.

Effects Of Hypertension And Diabetes On Sentence Comprehension In Aging, Dalia Cahana-Amitay, Martin Albert, Emmanuel Ojo, Jesse Sayers, Mira Goral, Loraine Obler, Avron Spiro Iii

Publications and Research

Objectives. To assess the impact of hypertension and diabetes mellitus on sentence comprehension in older adults.

Method. Two hundred and ninety-five adults aged 55 to 84 (52% men) participated in this study. Self-report mail survey combined with medical evaluations were used to determine eligibility. Multiple sources were used to determine whether hypertension and diabetes were present or absent and controlled or uncontrolled. Sentence comprehension was evaluated with two tasks: embedded sentences (ES) and sentences with multiple negatives (MN). Outcome measures were percent accuracy and mean reaction time of correct responses on each task.

Results. Regression models adjusted for age, gender, …

Hemispheric Processing Of Vocal Emblem Sounds, Yael Neumann-Werth, Erika Levy, Loraine Obler

Publications and Research

Vocal emblems, such as shh and brr, are speech sounds that have linguistic and nonlinguistic features; thus, it is unclear how they are processed in the brain. Five adult dextral individuals with left-brain damage and moderate– severe Wernicke’s aphasia, five adult dextral individuals with right-brain damage, and five Controls participated in two tasks: (1) matching vocal emblems to photographs (‘picture task’) and (2) matching vocal emblems to verbal translations (‘phrase task’). Cross-group statistical analyses on items on which the Controls performed at ceiling revealed lower accuracy by the group with left-brain damage (than by Controls) on both tasks, and …

Linguistic Emancipation And The Academies Of The Spanish Language In The Twentieth Century: The 1951 Turning Point, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

In this article, the author focuses on the conference of academies of the Spanish language that took place in Mexico in 1951 and analyzes the discourses on language as well as the views on the linguistic institutions that emerged in the course of the conference. The reasons for the Real Academia Española´s absence are addressed and so is the initiative by Mexico´s president Miguel Alemán.

Comment On "Density And Physical Current Density Functional Theory", Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

In this letter to the editor, the authors comment on an earlier article they had published, "Density and Physical Current Density Functional Theory" (Pan, X.-Y. and Sahni, V. (2010), Density and physical current density functional theory. Int. J. Quantum Chem., 110: 2833–2843. doi: 10.1002/qua.22862).

Infant Mortality In American Indians And Alaska Natives 1995–1999 And 2000–2004, Patrik Johansson, Weston Williams, Ayman El-Mohandes

Publications and Research

Objectives. (1) To determine the infant mortality rate (IMR) in American Indians/ Alaska Natives (AI/AN) and Whites between 1995–1999 and 2000–2004. (2) To compare the leading causes of infant mortality in AI/AN and Whites. (3) To examine differences in neonatal vs. postneonatal causes of death in Whites and AI/AN.

Methods. Using the 1995–99 and 2000–04 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics national linked birth/infant death data, we examined neonatal and postneonatal IMR among AI/AN and Whites.

Results. AI/AN experienced significantly greater overall IMR in 1995–1999 and 2000–2004 than Whites. While the reduction in …

The Geography Of Global Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Exploratory Analysis, Jochen Albrecht, Peter Marcotullio, Amdrea Sarzynski, Niels Schulz, Jake Garcia

Publications and Research

The purpose of this paper is to describe global urban greenhouse gas emissions by region and sector, examine the distribution of emissions through the urban-to-rural gradient, and identify covariates of emission levels for our baseline year, 2000.We usemultiple existing spatial databases to identify urban extent, greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O, CH4 and SF6) and covariates of emissions in a “top-down” analysis. The results indicate that urban activities are significant sources of total greenhouse gas emissions (36.8 and 48.6 % of total). The urban energy sector accounts for between 41.5 and 66.3 % of total energy emissions. Significant differences exist in …

La Traducción Del Anacreón Castellano De Quevedo En Su Tiempo, Adrian Izquierdo

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Beholding Nietzsche: Ecce Homo, Fate, And Freedom, Christa Davis Acampora

Publications and Research

That Ecce Homo, with its subtitle "How One Becomes What One is;' is Nietzsche's self-presentation of sorts seems rather easy to conclude. But why does Nietzsche do this? What is evident? What do we really learn from the work? Is it primarily a behind-the-scenes peek at Nietzsche's thought, the ideas that truly or actually motivated him? How complete is it as an autobiography, given that it seems devoted largely to his writings? To what extent can we put much stock in the account at all given that Nietzsche would slip into madness not long after the first draft was …

The Cult Of Individualism: A History Of An Enduring American Myth, Introduction, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Why do we have the Red State/Blue State divide in the United States today? This book traces the background of contemporary political strife to immigration from Ulster Plantation and the Scottish lowlands of the 18th century.