Digital Commons Network^™

Futures On Dry Ground: Anthropology And Coastal Planning, Theodore Hilton, Sheehan Moore

Publications and Research

Around the world, governments, industry, and other actors are creating plans to save coasts from environmental crisis. Louisiana is one prominent example: levees and other measures protect oil and gas infrastructure from inundation as the wetlands buffer rapidly erodes—in large part due to that same industry. The state’s primary answer to land loss is a $50 billion Coastal Master Plan. To illuminate such responses in Louisiana and globally, this article reviews emerging literature and frames an anthropology of coastal planning around three themes: (1) novel orientations toward time and space, (2) the reproduction of power and capital in the name …

Art, Propaganda, And Truth, Melissa Dinsman

Publications and Research

This essay explores how British and American writers and theorists in the first half of the twentieth century thought about art, propaganda, and truth. Focusing largely on literature written during the First and the Second World Wars, this essay shows that very few authors defined their art as propaganda or truth and instead used words like “political,” “resistance,” “information,” and “anti-fascist” to describe their wartime writing. However, while authors might have eschewed the term propaganda, that does not mean that they avoided producing it. As this essay illustrates, what many authors wrote would now be considered “propaganda.” Moreover, even if …

Improving A Library Faq: Assessment And Reflection Of The First Year’S Use, Vanessa Arce, Michelle Ehrenpreis

Publications and Research

In 2020, the Leonard Lief Library created a searchable online knowledge base (FAQs) as a complement to virtual reference during the library’s pandemic-related closure. One year of search query data was used to assess the online knowledge base. This paper discusses the assessment’s findings and planned improvements to the FAQs.

A content analysis of user queries revealed what users are seeking in the knowledge base. The study examined the actions taken by users after conducting a search to determine the knowledge base’s success rate.

The knowledge base was successful in answering user questions almost half of the time. The top …

The Impact Of The Cuny Algebra For All Program On Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices About Teaching And Learning Mathematics, Celia C. Cruz, Rabab Abi-Hanna

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Cross-Language Generalization In Language Treatment Of Multilingual Aphasia: A Meta-Analysis, Mira Goral, Monica I. Norvik, Jan Antfolk, Ioulia Agrotou, Minna Lehtonen

Publications and Research

Studies on the efficacy of language treatment for multilingual people with post-stroke aphasia and its generalization to untreated languages have produced mixed results. We conducted a systematic review and a meta- analysis to examine within- and cross-language treatment effects and the variables that affect them. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Google Scholar (February 2020; January 2023), identifying 40 studies reporting on 1573 effect sizes from 85 individuals. We synthesized effect sizes for treatment outcomes using a multi-level model to correct for multiple observations from the same individuals. The results showed significant treatment effects, with robust within-language treatment effects and …

Toward A New Approach To Job-Related Distress: A Three-Sample Study Of The Occupational Depression Inventory, Renzo Bianchi, James Sowden, Jay Verkuilen, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. One purpose of the ODI is to respond to limitations of current assessments of job-related distress, most notably, assessments relying on the burnout construct. In this study, we conducted a thorough examination of the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI using exploratory structural equation modelling bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis. The study involved three samples of employed individuals, recruited in France (N = 3454), Switzerland (N = 1971), and Australia (N = 1485). Results were consistent across the three …

Taking Advantage Of Opportunities For Informal Leadership, Linda Miles, Susanne Markgren

Publications and Research

We contend that informal leadership (IL)—the type that does not come from an official title or decree—not only helps our organizations function, it can be vital in helping mid-career academic librarians grow and succeed, and such pursuits should be encouraged and supported no matter where they emerge within an organizational structure. We aim to define and explore IL and provide strategies for mid-career librarians who may want to identify, seek out, and step into IL opportunities. We begin our discussion by considering concepts emerging from the literature on leaders and leadership in general and what it means to lead when …

Beyond Demographic Identifiers And Classification: A Search For Alternative Approaches To Quantitatively Evaluating Educational Equity, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

In April 2022, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released its first ever Equity Action Plan to advance equity across their policies, programs, and partner base. This action plan entails five priority areas, the fifth of which is to: “…incorporate racial and ethnic equity and diversity into policy, planning, and learning” (USAID, 2022, para. 3). This essay addresses the question of how USAID, along with other international development agencies and practitioners, can institutionalize equity, particularly in its evaluation and data collection processes. I argue that as interest in addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)1 increases in the U.S. and …

Bruja Theory: Latinidad Without Latinos In Popular Narratives Of Brujería, William Orchard

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Jogakpo Window (7 Feet X 4 Feet), Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

Materials: glass, sunlight, post-it notes. Image description: Photographs show a large window covered with a 조각보 patchwork of colorful post-it notes. Sunlight illuminates the paper.

Characteristics Of Effective Postsecondary Advising: How Often To Meet And What To Focus On, Grace Pai, Melissa De Feo

Publications and Research

Using data from a senior exit survey administered at public high schools in New York City, this study explores the relationship between quantity and quality of postsecondary advisement, parental/guardian involvement in postsecondary planning, and students’ likelihood of exiting high school with a full-time college plan. Results show receiving help in completing college applications, along with talking to a counselor and parents/guardians at least 3 times in their senior year, to be salient predictors of college-going.

Gender Differences In High School Students’ Perceived Values And Costs Of Learning Chemistry, Xiaoyang Gong, Bradley W. Bergey, Ying Jin, Kexin Mao, Yan Cheng

Publications and Research

Students’ perceived values and costs of learning chemistry influence their performance and intentions of choosing chemistry-related majors or careers. Based on Situated Expectancy-Value Theory, this study adopted a mixed method approach to examine the conceptualization of values and costs among Chinese high school students and identify their relations with chemistry test performance across gender. Qualitative content analyses revealed that students’ perceived values for chemistry could be categorized into five broad categories: utility value, epistemic value, intrinsic value, aesthetic value, and social value. Chi-square tests and multidimensional scaling revealed that boys and girls perceived values and costs in different ways: relational …

How A Community Engagement Model Of Near-Peer Counseling Impacts Student Mentors’ College Outcomes, Leigh Mccallen, Neshat Yazdani, Grace Pai, Janice Bloom, Lori Chajet, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

This study examines how a community engagement model of near-peer counseling impacts counselors’ own college success as underrepresented students in higher education, here defined as one-year persistence in college. Near-peer mentors participated in a program provided by College Access: Research and Action (CARA), which trains young people to support peers in their home communities at New York City public high schools and City University of New York (CUNY) 2-year colleges through critical college application, enrollment, and retention milestones. Aggregated across 4 years of data, our results indicate CARA near-peer counselors are nearly twice as likely to persist in college (p < .001) as peers with similar demographic and academic characteristics not participating in CARA. Findings are replicated for students of color (2.09 times higher, p < .001) and economically disadvantaged students (1.78 times higher, p = .003). Implications for peer mentor program development through public university–community partnerships are discussed.

How A Community Engagement Model Of Near-Peer Counseling Impacts Student Mentors’ College Outcomes, Leigh Mccallen, Neshat Yazdani, Grace Pai, Janice Bloom, Lori Chajet, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

This study examines how a community engagement model of near-peer counseling impacts counselors’ own college success as underrepresented students in higher education, here defined as one-year persistence in college. Near-peer mentors participated in a program provided by College Access: Research and Action (CARA), which trains young people to support peers in their home communities at New York City public high schools and City University of New York (CUNY) 2-year colleges through critical college application, enrollment, and retention milestones. Aggregated across 4 years of data, our results indicate CARA near-peer counselors are nearly twice as likely to persist in college ( …

Social Workers And Case Managers Coping With Supports To Mitigate Workplace Stress, Franzeska Sampson-Bacchus

Publications and Research

The homelessness crisis has mandated increased social service employees to work with this population. Working in a homeless shelter entails consistent exposure to stress due to the frequency of serving a population with various traumatic pasts. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how social workers and case managers cope with internal and external supports to mitigate workplace stress in NYC family homeless shelters. This qualitative descriptive study utilized Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. This study's purpose was to answer the following questions RQ1: How do social workers and case managers cope with …

Soft X-Ray And Susceptibility Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging To Map Iron Distribution In Apples: Initial Results To Model Iron Storage In Water-Deficient Or Dehydrated Biological Tissue, Subhendra N. Sarkar, Eric Lobel, Evans Lespinasse, Zoya Vinokur, Analia Basilicata, Sonia Orellana, Maria Orellana, Aaliyah Salmon, Joanna Syska, Aravis Mcbroom, Jian Wang, Anam Riaz, Jodi-Ann Douglas

Publications and Research

Radiology departments have contributed significantly to greenhouse gases including release of toxic imaging contrast media to environment. We feel Radiology also has several spectroscopy and imaging tools that may apply to monitor and support cleaner environmental goals. The current manuscript is one of the firsts to prompt Radiology to move in that direction by non invasive imaging of bio metals that are less abundant in biological tissues but play key roles as co-factors in tissue structure and function. Conventional analytical tools are mostly invasive and cannot characterize the native oxidation states of bio metals. We chose carbohydrate matrix of metal-rich …

When We're Coming From What Would An Hiv Doula Do? On Pandemic Time(S), Alexandra Juhasz, Theodore Kerr, Jennifer Brier, Olivia Polk, Alex Fiahlo, Pato Hebert, Salonee Bhaman

Publications and Research

“When We’re Coming From” is a conversation across time and place among a group of writers and artists who are members of the What Would an HIV Doula Do? Collective. Seven of us have come together to have an asynchronous conversation about how our decades-long work to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic shapes our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we share six individual assessments of pandemic time to suggest ways that pandemics(s) shape our sense of time(s). What follows are our meditations on how and when we see ourselves, and the transitions of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: “AIDS out of …

Collecting And Curating Covid-19 Heritage: Challenges Of Conservation And Management, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about curation, collecting, and the ethics of documenting a traumatic event as it occurs in real time. Such concerns became clear as the co-authors embarked on a multi-sited study of the pandemic’s impact on four communities in

two different countries. Defining an ‘artefact’ or what is archaeologi- cal, for instance, became a complicated exercise; do chalk artworks

on the sidewalk, painted rocks lining a neighbourhood trail, posters stapled on community billboards, and stuffed animals in someone’s window count as archaeological artefacts? Determining the temporal boundaries of the pandemic is also difficult; while it is fairly …

What’S Art Got To Do With Politics? Show Me The Evidence, Nandi Prince

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Standard Deviations Of Mr Signal Intensities Show A Consistent Trend During Imaging Follow-Ups For Glioblastoma Patients When Corrected For Non-Biological Heterogeneity Due To Hardware And Software Variation, Subhendra N. Sarkar, Rafael Rojas, Evans Lespinasse, Xiangfu Zhang, Ruth Zeron

Publications and Research

Introduction

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has a poor prognosis in spite of advanced MRI guided treatments today. Routine MRI using conventional T₁ or advanced permeability based MRI of GBM often does not adequately represent changing tumor phases or overall survival. In this work, region of interest (ROI) based tissue MR standard deviation (SD) is demonstrated as an important MRI variable that could be a potential biomarker of GBM heterogeneity and radioresistance.

Materials and methods

MRI characterization is often qualitative and lacks reproducibility. Using standardized MRI phantoms we have normalized retrospective records of 12 radioresistant GBM patients that underwent radiation therapy …

From Surplus To Scarcity: Restaurant Labor Along The Brooklyn Waterfront, 2020-2023, Emily Holloway

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Routes Of Introspection, Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

In “What forms could introspective systems take? A research programme”, François Kammerer and Keith Frankish aim to map the space of “possible forms of introspection” while lending themselves to questions about how different kinds of minds represent themselves. This paper aligns with Kammerer and Frankish’s research programme in embracing other possible forms of introspection; it provides an outline of how, in representing its mental states, an introspective system could take a selective, cumulative, and/or predictive route while underscoring the importance of considering routes of introspection. Although this work only explores human minds, it contributes to Kammerer and Frankish’s research programme …

Distinctions Between Choroidal Neovascularization And Age Macular Degeneration In Ocular Disease Predictions Via Multi-Size Kernels Ξcho-Weighted Median Patterns, Alex Liew, Sos Agaian, Samir Benbelkacem

Publications and Research

Age-related macular degeneration is a visual disorder caused by abnormalities in a part of the eye’s retina and is a leading source of blindness. The correct detection, precise location, classification, and diagnosis of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) may be challenging if the lesion is small or if Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images are degraded by projection and motion. This paper aims to develop an automated quantification and classification system for CNV in neovascular age-related macular degeneration using OCT angiography images. OCT angiography is a non-invasive imaging tool that visualizes retinal and choroidal physiological and pathological vascularization. The presented system is based …

Ubiquitination Of The Protocadherin-Γa3 Variable Cytoplasmic Domain Modulates Cell-Cell Interaction, Albert Ptashnik, Nicole Lamassa, Aliya Mambetalieva, Emily Schnall, Mike Bucaro, Greg R. Phillips

Publications and Research

The family of ∼60 clustered protocadherins (Pcdhs) are cell adhesion molecules encoded by a genomic locus that regulates expression of distinct combinations of isoforms in individual neurons resulting in what is thought to be a neural surface “barcode” which mediates same-cell interactions of dendrites, as well as interactions with other cells in the environment. Pcdh mediated same-cell dendrite interactions were shown to result in avoidance while interactions between different cells through Pcdhs, such as between neurons and astrocytes, appear to be stable. The cell biological mechanism of the consequences of Pcdh based adhesion is not well understood although various signaling …

Lead Induced Differences In Bone Properties In Osteocalcin +/+ And −/− Female Mice, G. Yildirim, W. C. Budell, O. Berezovska, S. Yagerman, S. S. Maliath, P. Mastrokostas, S. Tommasini, T. L. Dowd

Publications and Research

Lead (Pb) toxicity is a major health problem and bone is the major reservoir. Lead is detrimental to bone, affects bone remodelingand is associated with elderly fractures. Osteocalcin (OC) affects bone remodeling, improves fracture resistance and decreases with age and in some diseases. The effect of lead in osteocalcin depleted bone is unknown and of interest. We compared bone mineral properties of control and Pb exposed (from 2 to 6 months) femora from female adult C57BL6 OC+/+ and OC−/− mice using Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging (FTIRI), Micro-computed tomography (uCT), bone biomechanical measurements and serum turnover markers (P1NP, CTX). Lead significantly …

The Livornese Slaves In Algiers: The Jewish Question And Political Theatre In Late Eighteenth-Century Tuscany, Francesca Bregoli, Andrea Addobbati

Publications and Research

This essay analyzes a recently discovered French play, Les esclaves livournais à Alger, authored by François Gariel in Livorno in 1786. The protagonist of the piece, which is full of allusions to contemporary Tuscan and European events and subtle references to classics of French Enlightenment literature, is a virtuous, Algiers-based Jewish merchant who preaches toleration for all peoples and religions and greatly admires the grand duke of Tuscany. Important context for understanding Gariel’s play and the Jewish question in Livorno is provided by the relocation in the 1780s of prominent Algerian Jewish families who had built their fortunes on the …

Writing The History Of Spanish Studies At Hunter College: A Case Study Of Original Archival Research By Undergraduate Students, Jennifer Newman, María Hernández-Ojeda

Publications and Research

This essay, a collaboration between an English and humanities librarian (Newman) and a professor of Spanish language and literature (Hernández-Ojeda), describes original archival research performed in an undergraduate course on early-twentieth-century Spanish literature in the fall of 2019. In this course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), students engaged in both the reading and writing of institutional history at Hunter College-CUNY, using material from Hunter’s Archives along with other primary and secondary sources. Collaborating in research teams, the undergraduate scholars investigated topics related to Spanish studies at the college during the period covered by the course.

Amplifying Civil Rights Collections With Oral Histories: A Collaboration With Alumni At Queens College, City University Of New York, Annie E. Tummino, Victoria Fernandez

Publications and Research

Representing a shift in archival methods, oral history is increasingly used alongside more traditional methods of documentation to capture institutional and community histories. In this article, the authors demonstrate how the Student Help Lived Experience Project at the Queens College Library’s Special Collections and Archives (SCA) provided a vital supplement to more traditional methods of archival documentation. SCA was able to leverage resources provided by a partnering organization and a newly established graduate fellowship to bolster its relationship with other entities on campus and to engage alumni in a participatory, collaborative effort that centered their knowledge and interests. This article …

Introduction, Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Turkish-German Heritage Speakers’ Predictive Use Of Case: Webcam-Based Vs. In-Lab Eye-Tracking, Onur Özsoy, Büsra Çiçek, Zeynep Özal, Natalia Gagarina, Irina A. Sekerina

Publications and Research

Recently, Özge et al. have argued that Turkish and German monolingual 4-year- old children can interpret case-marking predictively disregarding word order. Heritage speakers (HSs) acquire a heritage language at home and a majority societal language which usually becomes dominant after school enrollment. Our study directly compares two elicitation modes: in-lab and (remote) webcam- based eye-tracking data collection. We test the extent to which in-lab e��ects can be replicated in webcam-based eye-tracking using the exact same design. Previous research indicates that Turkish HSs vary more in the comprehension and production of case-marking compared to monolinguals. Data from 49 participants–22 Turkishmonolinguals and …