Digital Commons Network^™

Accumulation And Rapid Decay Of Non-Ltr Retrotransposons In The Genome Of The Three-Spine Stickleback, Eryn Blass, Michael Bell, Stéphane Boissinot

Publications and Research

The diversity and abundance of non–long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons (nLTR-RT) differ drastically among vertebrate genomes. At one extreme, the genome of placental mammals is littered with hundreds of thousands of copies resulting from the activity of a single clade of nLTR-RT, the L1 clade. In contrast, fish genomes contain a much more diverse repertoire of nLTR-RT, represented by numerous active clades and families. Yet, the number of nLTR-RT copies in teleostean fish is two orders of magnitude smaller than in mammals. The vast majority of insertions appear to be very recent, suggesting that nLTR-RT do not accumulate in fish …

Montserrat Drum, Edgar Nkosi White

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Buddhist Hard Determinism: No Self, No Free Will, No Responsibility, Rick Repetti

Publications and Research

This is the third article in a four-article series that examines Buddhist responses to the Western philosophical problem of whether free will is compatible with “determinism,” the doctrine of universal causation. The first article (“Earlier”) focused on the first publications on this issue in the 1970s, the “early period.” The second (“Paleo-compatibilism”) and the present articles examine key responses published in the last part of the Twentieth and the first part of the Twenty-first centuries, the “middle period.” The fourth article (“Recent”) examines responses published in the last few years, the “recent period.” Whereas early-period scholars endorsed a compatibilism between …

Polyglutamine Toxicity Is Controlled By Prion Composition And Gene Dosage In Yeast, He Gong, Nina V. Romanova, Kim D. Allen, Pavithra Chandramowlishwaran, Kavita Gokhale, Gary P. Newnam, Piotr Miceczkowski, Michael Y. Sherman, Yury O. Chernoff

Publications and Research

Polyglutamine expansion causes diseases in humans and other mammals. One example is Huntington’s disease. Fragments of human huntingtin protein having an expanded polyglutamine stretch form aggregates and cause cytotoxicity in yeast cells bearing endogenous QN-rich proteins in the aggregated (prion) form. Attachment of the proline(P)-rich region targets polyglutamines to the large perinuclear deposit (aggresome). Aggresome formation ameliorates polyglutamine cytotoxicity in cells containing only the prion form of Rnq1 protein. Here we show that expanded polyglutamines both with (poly-QP) or without (poly-Q) a P-rich stretch remain toxic in the presence of the prion form of translation termination (release) factor Sup35 (eRF3). …

Less Serious Offenses Account For 90 Percent Of The Growth In Juvenile Placements, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

The largest increases in juvenile placements were seen in cases involving obstruction of justice, simple assault, drug law violations, vandalism, and disorderly conduct. This databit looks at the percentage and change in placement cases for juveniles from 1985 to 2008.

Mental Health And Drug Disorders Less Common At Early Stages Of Juvenile Justice, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Youth in the juvenile justice system are at a higher risk for mental health disorders and substance abuse problems, but these differences in risk are often misunderstood. This databit looks at the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse and makes recommendations for early intervention and prevention programs.

Violent Crime Rates Continue To Fall Among Juveniles And Young Adults, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Violent crime (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault based on the FBI Violent Crime Index) declined per capita for ages 10 – 17 after 2004. This databit looks at the arrest rates for these four offenses between 1994 and 2004.

Faculty As Undergraduate Research Mentors For Students Of Color: Taking Into Account The Costs, Joni Schwartz

Publications and Research

This article is based on the findings of a 2-year study that examined the nature of effective faculty/student undergraduate research (UR) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) relationships. The study site was a large urban public college where three fourths of all incoming freshmen receive need-based aid; and although not a historically Black college or university (HBCU), 85% are students of color. The college offers 2- and 4-year STEM degree programs. Utilizing cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as both a theoretical and methodological framework, this phenomenological study employed semistructured interviews, written surveys, and member checking to understand four paired faculty/student …

Buddhist Reductionism And Free Will: Paleo-Compatibilism, Rick Repetti

Publications and Research

This is the second article in a four-article series that examines Buddhist responses to the Western philosophical problem of whether free will is compatible with “determinism,” the doctrine of universal causation. The first article focused on the first publications on this issue in the 1970s, the “early period”; the present article and the next examine key responses published in the last part of the Twentieth century and first part of the Twenty-first, the “middle period”; and the fourth article will examine responses published in the last few years. Whereas early-period scholars endorsed compatibilism, in the middle period the pendulum moved …

A Macroepigenetic Approach To Identify Factors Responsible For The Autism Epidemic In The United States, Renee Dufault, Walter J. Lukiw, Raquel Crider, Roseanne Schnoll, David Wallinga, Richard Deth

Publications and Research

The number of children ages 6 to 21 in the United States receiving special education services under the autism disability category increased 91% between 2005 to 2010 while the number of children receiving special education services overall declined by 5%. The demand for special education services continues to rise in disability categories associated with pervasive developmental disorders. Neurodevelopment can be adversely impacted when gene expression is altered by dietary transcription factors, such as zinc insufficiency or deficiency, or by exposure to toxic substances found in our environment, such as mercury or organophosphate pesticides. Gene expression patterns differ geographically between populations …

Life-Course Origins Of Social Inequalities In Adult Immune Cell Markers Of Inflammation In Developing Southern Chinese Population: The Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study, Douglas A. West, Gabriel M. Leung, Chao Q. Jiang, Timothy M. Elwell-Sutton, Wei S. Zhang, Tai H. Lam, Kar K. Cheng, Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

Background
Socioeconomic position (SEP) throughout life is associated with cardiovascular disease, though the mechanisms linking these two are unclear. It is also unclear whether there are critical periods in the life course when exposure to better socioeconomic conditions confers advantages or whether SEP exposures accumulate across the whole life course. Inflammation may be a mechanism linking socioeconomic position (SEP) with cardiovascular disease. In a large sample of older residents of Guangzhou, in southern China, we examined the association of life course SEP with inflammation.

Methods
In baseline data on 9,981 adults (≥ 50 years old) from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort …

The Search For Pan: Difference And Morality In D. H. Lawrence’S St. Mawr And The Woman Who Rode Away, Ria Banerjee

Publications and Research

Both St. Mawr (1925) and The Woman Who Rode Away (1928) were written at the height of Lawrence’s fascination with New Mexico and demonstrate a continuum of thought about the position of the European and the Indian, but what is most interesting about these stories when read in conjunction is their attitude towards difference. Lou Carrington, the protagonist of St. Mawr, holds herself separate from other women of her class, from other men, from her mother and her Indian groom, finally finding a temporary peace in seeking affinity in a landscape; the woman who rides away from home and …

The Mathematics Portfolio: An Alternative Tool To Evaluate Students’ Progress, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

This article describes the need for more thorough and varied forms of assessment to evaluate students’ level of understanding in mathematics. Portfolios are one type of assessment tool that, when added to a teacher’s repertoire can improve students’ comprehension and retention and enable students to monitor their own progress and to take more responsibility for their own learning. Portfolio assignments can also help students and teachers to detect and remedy weaknesses and misunderstandings and can increase students’ self-confidence in mathematics. This article discusses what a portfolio is, gives an example of a unit portfolio used in an undergraduate Finite Mathematics …

Responding To Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Pilot Study Of Torture Treatment Programs In The United States, Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Eva Keatley, Andrew Rasmussen

Publications and Research

Providers who care for torture survivors may be at risk for secondary traumatic stress, yet there has been little documentation of the effects of repeated exposure to traumatic issues on their emotional health or exploration of the support systems and resources available to address their emotional needs. This study assessed the secondary stress experiences of service providers (N = 43) within the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs in the United States and examined the supports offered by their organizations. The study found a significant correlation between rates of anxiety and depression among providers, r(34) = .49, p = .003. …

Empirical Mapping Of Suitability To Dengue Fever In Mexico Using Species Distribution Modeling, Elia Machado

Publications and Research

Dengue is considered the most important vector borne virus disease worldwide placing some 2.5 billion people at risk globally. Despite the public health concern about dengue fever, spatially explicit suitability assessments for this disease are limited due to data restrictions and the challenges posed by the complexity of the interactions among its risk factors, which involve social, economic and ecological processes.

This paper demonstrates an empirical approach to identify suitable areas for dengue fever using species distribution modeling, and evaluates the relative contribution of climatic and socio-economic factors as dengue fever suitability determinants. Several models showing the potential distribution of …

Dismantling The Monolith: Post-Media Art And The Culture Of Instability, Nora Almeida

Publications and Research

Art that falls under the “new media” paradigm is problematic, or rather, it renders many traditional assumptions about art as problematic. In a practical sense, new media art raises fundamental questions about the nature of curation and preservation and the role of cultural heritage institutions as stewards of digital assets. Curation and preservation challenges, while significant, are fundamentally a symptom of a more catastrophic failure of concepts and language to adequately address changing relationships between art, materiality, and audiences. This article explores how burgeoning concepts in information and media theory may help shape curation contexts and redefine approaches to preservation. …

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 …

Where From Here? Ideological Perspectives On The Future Of The Civil Rights Movement, 1964-1966, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

Many civil rights movement activist-intellectuals declared that the movement was in a state of "crisis" by the mid-1960s. This article discusses how four black intellectuals--Kenneth Clark, Bayard Rustin, George Schuyler, and Malcolm X--from different ideological perspectives responded to the perception that the movement was in crisis and examines how their ideological underpinnings affected their policy proposals for achieving black equality in the United States. These leaders also wanted to ensure the continued relevance of the movement for racial equality in the United States.

Estimation Of Phosphorus Bioavailability In The Water Column Of The Bronx River, New York, Jingyu Wang, Hari K. Pant

Publications and Research

Phosphorus (P) is a primary limiting nutrient in rivers and streams, and excessive P results in eutrophication of freshwater systems, in turn, excessive algal growth/toxic algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and water quality degradation. This study analyzed P pool, and hydrolysis of organic P (OP) by native phosphatases (NPase) in the water samples collected in the Bronx River. The soluble reactive P (SRP) of most of the sites’ water collected in 2006 and 2007 were higher (average 67 µg·L–1 and 68 µg·L–1, respectively) than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standard of 15 µg·L–1. The SRP% (SRP/TP%) average was 27% in …

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.

1112+3548_Nir_Spex, J. Patience

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

From Art On The Wall To Something For All: How An Academic Library Turned Its Art Collection Into A Campus Attraction, Miriam B. Deutch, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

An important feature of the Brooklyn College Library is its art collection, the college’s only permanent art collection. In this article, we explain how the library came to have an art collection; how we supplemented the collection with museum-style wall labels, an online catalog, and an audio tour; and how we promoted the collection and sparked student creativity with an annual art contest. We pay particular attention to the decisions and details that might help other libraries working on similar projects.

Brain Memoirs, Neuroscience, And The Self: A Review Article, Jason Tougaw

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Chill Of A Wintry Light? Borough Of Duryea V. Guarnieri And The Right Of Petition In Public Employment, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision in Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, which held that in order for a petition, grievance or litigation by a public employee to be protected against retaliation under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution it must satisfy the public concern test applicable in retaliation cases alleging a violation of the Speech Clause. The decision was issued in the midst of a renewed contemporary debate over public sector collective bargaining and other statutory rights in public employment. The article analyzes the decision in the context of American public sector …

Introducing Aerospace Engineering To High And Middle Schools, Sean Pratt, Yapah Berry, Olivia Reed, Gaffar Gailani

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

From Art On The Wall To Something For All: How An Academic Library Turned Its Art Collection Into A Campus Attraction, Jill Cirasella, Miriam Deutch

Publications and Research

An important feature of the Brooklyn College Library is its art collection, the college’s only permanent art collection. In this article, we explain how the library came to have an art collection; how we supplemented the collection with museum-style wall labels, an online catalog, and an audio tour; and how we promoted the collection and sparked student creativity with an annual art contest. We pay particular attention to the decisions and details that might help other libraries working on similar projects.

Isolation And Biophysical Study Of Fruit Cuticles, Subhasish Chatterjee, Sayantani Sarkar, Julia Oktawiec, Zhantong Mao, Olivia Niitsoo, Ruth E. Stark

Publications and Research

The cuticle, a hydrophobic protective layer on the aerial parts of terrestrial plants, functions as a versatile defensive barrier to various biotic and abiotic stresses and also regulates water flow from the external environment.1 A biopolyester (cutin) and long-chain fatty acids (waxes) form the principal structural framework of the cuticle; the functional integrity of the cuticular layer depends on the outer 'epicuticular' layer as well as the blend consisting of the cutin biopolymer and 'intracuticular' waxes.2 Herein, we describe a comprehensive protocol to extract waxes exhaustively from commercial tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit cuticles or to remove epicuticular and intracuticular waxes …

Correlated Components Of Ongoing Eeg Point To Emotionally Laden Attention – A Possible Marker Of Engagement?, Jacek P. Dmochowski, Paul Sajda, Joao Dias, Lucas C. Parra

Publications and Research

Recent evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging suggests that cortical hemodynamic responses coincide in different subjects experiencing a common naturalistic stimulus. Here we utilize neural responses in the electroencephalogram (EEG) evoked by multiple presentations of short film clips to index brain states marked by high levels of correlation within and across subjects. We formulate a novel signal decomposition method which extracts maximally correlated signal components from multiple EEG records. The resulting components capture correlations down to a one-second time resolution, thus revealing that peak correlations of neural activity across viewings can occur in remarkable correspondence with arousing moments of the …

Nongenomic Mechanisms Of Pten Regulation, Jimmie E. Fata, Shawon Debnath, Edmund C. Jenkins, Marcia V. Fournier

Publications and Research

A large amount of data supports the view that PTEN is a bona fide tumor suppressor gene. However, recent evidence suggests that derailment of cellular localization and expression levels of functional nonmutated PTEN is a determining force in inducing abnormal cellular and tissue outcomes. As the cellular mechanisms that regulate normal PTEN enzymatic activity resolve, it is evident that deregulation of these mechanisms can alter cellular processes and tissue architecture and ultimately lead to oncogenic transformation. Here we discuss PTEN ubiquitination, PTEN complex formation with components of the adherens junction, PTEN nuclear localization, and microRNA regulation of PTEN as essential …

Using Avhrr-Based Vegetation Health Indices For Estimation Of Potato Yield In Bangladesh, Rahman A., Kaiser Khan, Nir Y. Krakauer, Leonid Roytman, Kogan F.

Publications and Research

We developed a model correlating Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)-based Temperature Condition Index (TCI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) with potato yield in Bangladesh. Weekly TCI and VCI Indices for 1993–2005 along with official potato yield statistics were used for model development. We found a strong correlation between inter annual variation in potato yield and TCI and VCI during the critical period of potato growth (vegetative phase and tuber initiation), mid-December to mid-January. Principal component regression (PCR) was used to construct a model to predict potato yield as function of TCI and VCI. The model explained about 75% of …