Digital Commons Network^™

Occupy Mindfulness, David Forbes

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Professor Sheidlower's New Book, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

The book Humor and Information Literacy was co-authored by Scott Sheidlower and Joshua Vossler.

Review Of The Database Fold3 History And Genealogy Archives Plus, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the database Fold3 history and genealogy archives plus.

The Socialist Design: Urban Dilemmas In Postwar Europe And The Soviet Union, Elidor Mehilli

Publications and Research

Taking a cue from two books—Stephen Bittner’s account of the “many lives” of the Soviet Thaw and Greg Castillo’s study of the Cold War as a series of battles in design and the domestic sphere—as well as a recent explosion of interest among historians in the Khrushchev era, “spatial history,” material culture, and East–West exchanges, this article addresses the paradoxes of the Thaw as exemplified in urban form. It argues for the interconnected nature of domestic, international, and Eastern bloc- level dynamics by viewing processes of the Thaw simultaneously from the angles of neighborhood, city, and empire. These angles capture …

Optimal Control Of Katabatic Flows Within Canopies, Hongbin Chen, Chuixiang Yi

Publications and Research

What slope angle favours the development of katabatic flow is still an open question. Some studies have clarified that katabatic winds are stronger on steep slopes, while others have demonstrated that katabatic winds are stronger on gentle slopes. Here, we explore the control mechanisms of katabatic flow using a simplified theoretical model in an attempt to clarify the causes of the paradoxical findings. Our results indicate that optimal conditions for katabatic flows within canopies are synergistically controlled by terrain angle, canopy structure and thermal condition through a simple equation:

L_cV_T^-2 sin³ α = b,

where …

Racial Microaggressions And The Filipino American Experience: Recommendations For Counseling And Development, Kevin L. Nadal, Kara M. Vigilia Escobar, Gail T. Prado, Ejr David, Kristal Haynes

Publications and Research

Racial microaggressions are subtle forms of verbal and behavioral discrimination toward people of color. The current qualitative study explores the experiences of Filipino American participants (N = 12), who described 13 categories of microaggressions, including being treated as an alien in one’s own land or as a 2nd-class citizen, being presumed to have inferior status or intellect, being assumed to uphold Filipino stereotypes, or being mistaken for another identity. Recommendations for counseling and development are discussed.

Exploring The Role Of The Police In Prisoner Reentry, Jeremy Travis, Ronald Davis, Sarah Lawrence

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Negrocity: An Interview With Greg Tate, Camille Goodison

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pioneers Of Youth Justice Reform: Achieving System Change Using Resolution, Reinvestment, And Realignment Strategies, Douglas N. Evans

Publications and Research

In the past three decades, state and local governments implemented various reform strategies to reduce the youth justice system’s reliance on confinement facilities and serve as many youths as possible in their own homes or at least in their own communities when removal from the home is warranted. The various reform strategies may be conceptualized as relying on three distinct but interrelated mechanisms: resolution, reinvestment, and realignment (Butts and Evans 2011). Resolution refers to the use of managerial authority and administrative directives to influence system change; reinvestment entails using financial incentives to encourage system change, and realignment employs organizational and …

Genome Plasticity And Systems Evolution In Streptomyces, Zhan Zhou, Jianying Gu, Yong-Quan Li, Yufeng Wang

Publications and Research

Background Streptomycetes are filamentous soil-dwelling bacteria. They are best known as the producers of a great variety of natural products such as antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasitics, and anticancer agents and the decomposers of organic substances for carbon recycling. They are also model organisms for the studies of gene regulatory networks, morphological differentiation, and stress response. The availability of sets of genomes from closely related Streptomyces strains makes it possible to assess the mechanisms underlying genome plasticity and systems adaptation. Results We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the genomes of five Streptomyces species with distinct phenotypes. These streptomycetes have …

Awareness And Interest In Intrauterine Contraceptive Device Use Among Hiv-Positive Women In Cape Town, South Africa, Catherine S. Todd, Heidi E. Jones, Tracy C. Garber, Hoviyeh Afnan-Holmes, Helen Woolgar, Linda-Gail Bekker, Landon Myer

Publications and Research

Objective. To assess awareness of and interest in intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) use among HIV-positive women in Cape Town, South Africa. Design. Cross-sectional survey. Methods. HIV-positive women aged 18 through 45 years presenting for care at a primary health care clinic in Cape Town, South Africa participated in this study. Consented participants completed a staff-administered questionnaire in a private setting. Descriptive statistics were generated. Comparisons between demographic and reproductive health-related variables and IUCD awareness and interest were performed with multiple logistic regression. Analyses for IUCD interest excluded women with prior surgical sterilization. Results. Of 277 HIV-positive women, 37% were aware …

Production Of Mycobacterial Cell Wall Glycopeptidolipids Requires A Member Of The Mbth-Like Protein Family, Elizabeth Tatham, Sivagami Sundaram Chavadi, Poornima Mohandas, Uthamaphani R. Edupuganti, Shiva K. Angala, Delphi Chatterjee, Luis E N Quadri

Publications and Research

Background Glycopeptidolipids (GPLs) are among the major free glycolipid components of the outer membrane of several saprophytic and clinically-relevant Mycobacterium species. The architecture of GPLs is based on a constant tripeptide-amino alcohol core of nonribosomal peptide synthetase origin that is N-acylated with a 3-hydroxy/methoxy acyl chain synthesized by a polyketide synthase and further decorated with variable glycosylation patterns built from methylated and acetylated sugars. GPLs have been implicated in many aspects of mycobacterial biology, thus highlighting the significance of gaining an understanding of their biosynthesis. Our bioinformatics analysis revealed that every GPL biosynthetic gene cluster known to date contains a …

Cannabis-Dependence Risk Relates To Synergism Between Neuroticism And Proenkephalin Snps Associated With Amygdala Gene Expression: Case-Control Study, Didier Jutras-Aswad, Michelle M. Jacobs, Georgia Yiannoulos, Panos Roussos, Panos Bitsios, Yoko Nomura, Xun Liu, Yasmin L. Hurd

Publications and Research

Background Many young people experiment with cannabis, yet only a subgroup progress to dependence suggesting individual differences that could relate to factors such as genetics and behavioral traits. Dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) and proenkephalin (PENK) genes have been implicated in animal studies with cannabis exposure. Whether polymorphisms of these genes are associated with cannabis dependence and related behavioral traits is unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings Healthy young adults (18–27 years) with cannabis dependence and without a dependence diagnosis were studied (N = 50/group) in relation to a priori-determined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the DRD2 and PENK genes. Negative affect, Impulsive Risk …

Coordination Between Proteasome Impairment And Caspase Activation Leading To Tau Pathology: Neuroprotection By Camp, M. J. Metcalfe, Q. Huang, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira

Publications and Research

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The main component of NFTs is TAU, a highly soluble microtubule-associated protein. However, when TAU is cleaved at Asp421 by caspases it becomes prone to aggregation leading to NFTs. What triggers caspase activation resulting in TAU cleavage remains unclear. We investigated in rat cortical neurons a potential coordination between proteasome impairment and caspase activation. We demonstrate that upon proteasome inhibition, the early accumulation of detergent-soluble ubiquitinated (SUb) proteins paves the way to caspase activation and TAU pathology. This occurs with two drugs that inhibit the proteasome by different means: the product …

"This Is Exactly What This Study Is All About And It Is Happening Right In Front Of Me!" Using Participatory Action Research To Awaken A Sense Of Injustice Within A Privileged Institution, Brett G. Stoudt

Publications and Research

Rockport is an elite, all boys, day school in the northeast United States. It educates mostly white, wealthy, young men. Student researchers, faculty researchers and I collaborated to study bullying at Rockport using an approach to research known as participatory action research (PAR). In the process we also gained a better understanding of how privilege, especially gendered privilege, was socialized and (re)produced. The participatory research spaces that emerged in our project - grounded in the experiences of students, teachers, and administrators - facilitated critical awareness of self and context that Deutsch (2006) referred to as "awaking the sense of injustice." …

Taking Responsibility: The Multiple And Shifting Positions Of Social Justice Educators, Debbie Sonu, Rachel Oppenheim, Shira Epstein, Ruchi Agarwal

Publications and Research

In this article, we present a qualitative multi-case study of three beginning elementary teachers working in New York City and describe the distinct ways in which each articulates her responsibility to teach a social justice-oriented education. We employ positioning theory to examine how teachers narrate their relationship to the concept of social justice and how this relates to the ways in which they identify themselves and others as capable and qualified to engage in such work. We find that responsibility to teach for social justice is often delegated based on a perception of experiences with injustice and wonder how this …

The Greek Crisis As Racketeering And Organized Crime, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Composition Of The Adult Digestive Tract Bacterial Microbiome Based On Seven Mouth Surfaces, Tonsils, Throat And Stool Samples, Nicola Segata, Susan Kinder Haake, Peter Mannon, Katherine P. Lemon, Levi Waldron, Dirk Gevers, Curtis Huttenhower, Jacques Izard

Publications and Research

Background: To understand the relationship between our bacterial microbiome and health, it is essential to define the microbiome in the absence of disease. The digestive tract includes diverse habitats and hosts the human body’s greatest bacterial density. We describe the bacterial community composition of ten digestive tract sites from more than 200 normal adults enrolled in the Human Microbiome Project, and metagenomically determined metabolic potentials of four representative sites.

Results: The microbiota of these diverse habitats formed four groups based on similar community compositions: buccal mucosa, keratinized gingiva, hard palate; saliva, tongue, tonsils, throat; sub- and supra-gingival plaques; and stool. …

Curriculum-Integrated Information Literacy (Ciil) In A Nursing School: A Practical Model, Carlos Arguelles

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Trends In Mortality From Septicaemia And Pneumonia With Economic Development: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis, Irene O.L. Wong, Benjamin J. Cowling, Gabriel M. Leung, Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

Background
Hong Kong population has experienced drastic changes in its economic development in the 1940s. Taking advantage of Hong Kong’s unique demographic and socioeconomic history, characterized by massive, punctuated migration waves from Southern China, and recent, rapid transition from a pre-industrialized society to the first ethnic Chinese community reaching ‘‘first world’’ status over the last 60 years (i.e., in two or three generations), we examined the longitudinal trends in infection related mortality including septicemia compared to trends in non-bacterial pneumonia to generate hypotheses for further testing in other recently transitioned economies and to provide generalized aetiological insights on how economic …

Collective Behavior In The Spatial Spreading Of Obesity, Lazaros K. Gallos, Pablo Barttfeld, Shlomo Havlin, Mariano Sigman, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

Obesity prevalence is increasing in many countries at alarming levels. A difficulty in the conception of policies to reverse these trends is the identification of the drivers behind the obesity epidemics. Here, we implement a spatial spreading analysis to investigate whether obesity shows spatial correlations, revealing the effect of collective and global factors acting above individual choices. We find a regularity in the spatial fluctuations of their prevalence revealed by a pattern of scale-free long-range correlations. The fluctuations are anomalous, deviating in a fundamental way from the weaker correlations found in the underlying population distribution indicating the presence of collective …

Meta-Radicalism: The Alternative Press By And For Activist Librarians, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Is The Punishment More Certain? An Analysis Of Cctv Detections And Enforcement, Eric L. Piza, Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy

Publications and Research

The primary preventive mechanism of CCTV is considered to be deterrence. However, the relationship between CCTV and deterrence has been left impli- cit. Empirical research has yet to directly test whether CCTV increases the certainty of punishment, a key component of the deterrence doctrine. This study analyzes CCTV’s relation to punishment certainty in Newark, NJ. Across eight crime categories, CCTV and 9-1-1 calls-for-service case processing times and enforcement rates are compared through Mann-Whitney U and Fisher’s Exact tests, respectively, with a Holm-Bonferroni procedure correcting for multiple comparisons. ANOVA and negative binomial regression models further analyze the frequency of CCTV activity …

Utilizing Project-Based Multidisciplinary Design Activities To Enhance Stem Education, Andy S. Zhang, Farrukh Zia, Iem Heng, Sidi Berri

Publications and Research

This paper discusses the use of project-based interdisciplinary design activities to enhance the STEM education in City Tech’s School of Technology and Design. STEM education has been a key in producing qualified individuals to work in today’s fast paced, highly competitive companies. Unfortunately, the supply of qualified workforce has been reduced due to the steady drop of enrollment of college and high school students in STEM related fields for the past twenty years. To tackle the dwindling enrollment of STEM students and low quality of STEM graduates, in a report submitted to Congress in 2007, the National Science Board suggested …

A Novel Approach In Teaching Stem Subjects Through Cross-Departmental Collaboration In Capstone Courses, Iem Heng, Andy S. Zhang, Farrukh Zia

Publications and Research

In today’s higher education, use of state of the art technology in the classroom and laboratory plays a vital role in hands-on cross-disciplinary activities and demonstration for students to learn the interconnection of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) concepts. To implement these activities, the capstone courses present an ideal opportunity for cross-departmental collaboration. The hands-on robotic design project is introduced in the capstone courses to teach interconnected STEM concepts. This type of project, which has proven very effective in engaging students, is used in many areas of technical courses as hands-on activities and demonstration and, in addition, lab work. …

Mechanisms For Sweetness123, John D. Fernstrom, Steven D. Munger, Anthony Sclafani, Ivan E. De Araujo, Ashley Roberts, Samuel Molinary

Publications and Research

A remarkable amount of information has emerged in the past decade regarding sweet taste physiology. This article reviews these data, with a particular focus on the elucidation of the sweet taste receptor, its location and actions in taste transduction in the mouth, its nontaste functions in the gastrointestinal tract (e.g., in enteroendocrine cells), and the brain circuitry involved in the sensory processing of sweet taste. Complications in the use of rodents to model human sweet taste perception and responses are also considered. In addition, information relating to low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) is discussed in the context of these issues. Particular consideration …

Association Of Adherence Support And Outreach Services With Total Attrition, Loss To Follow-Up, And Death Among Art Patients In Sub-Saharan Africa, Matthew R. Lamb, Wafaa M. El-Sadr, Elvin Geng, Denis Nash

Publications and Research

Background Loss to follow-up (LTF) after antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is common in HIV clinics. We examined the effect of availability of adherence support and active patient outreach services on patient attrition following ART initiation. Methods and Findings This ecologic study examined clinic attrition rates (total attrition, LTF, and death) among 232,389 patients initiating ART at 349 clinics during 2004–2008 in 10 sub-Saharan African countries, and cohort attrition (proportion retained at 6 and 12 months after ART initiation) among a subset of patients with follow-up information (n = 83,389). Log-linear regression compared mean rates of attrition, LTF, and death between …

A Conative Educational Model For An Intervention Program In Obese Youth, Jérémy Vanhelst, Laurent Béghin, Paul Stephen Fardy, Gilles Bui-Xuan, Jacques Mikulovic

Publications and Research

Background Obesity in children has increased in recent years throughout the world and is associated with adverse health consequences. Early interventions, including appropriate pedagogy strategies, are important for a successful intervention program. The aim of this study was to assess changes in body mass index, the ability to perform sport activities, behavior in the classroom and academic performance following one year of a health-wellness intervention program in obese youth. Methods The CEMHaVi program included 37 obese children (19 girls and 18 boys). Participants received an intervention program consisting of physical activity and health education. Assessment included body mass index, academic …

Multi-Locus Phylogeographic And Population Genetic Analysis Of Anolis Carolinensis: Historical Demography Of A Genomic Model Species, Marc Tollis, Gavriel Ausubel, Dhruba Ghimire, Stéphane Boissinot

Publications and Research

The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) has been widely used as an animal model in physiology and neurobiology but has recently emerged as an important genomic model. The recent sequencing of its genome has shed new light on the evolution of vertebrate genomes and on the process that govern species diversification. Surprisingly, the patterns of genetic diversity within natural populations of this widespread and abundant North American lizard remain relatively unknown. In the present study, we use 10 novel nuclear DNA sequence loci (N = 62 to 152) and one mitochondrial locus (N = 226) to delimit green anole populations and …

The French Prison System: Comparative Insights For Policy And Practice In New York And The United States, Lila Kazemian, Catrin Andersson

Publications and Research

Despite many differences between French and American correctional practices, the two countries have common challenges as well. This report offers a brief overview of the French prison system and describes how the elements of that system compare with the policies and practices of corrections agencies in New York and the United States.