Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Water Usage Patterns Tied To California State Water Project, Xiaoqing Wu

Publications and Research

California (USA) is the largest agricultural producer and one of the populous states in the United State. As the population and agriculture grows, water consumption patterns become crucial to keep track of especially surface water. In this research project, we studied possible changes in water consumption patterns in different counties and water rights holders who obtain surface water supply from the State Water Project (SWP) in California. We conducted a time series analysis on the California Monthly Diverted Surface Water dataset through two different time series forecasting models. Our analysis indicates that the total diverted surface water presents a periodic …

The Effects Of Late Spring Frost On Forest And Landscape Health And Recovery Of The Black Rock Forest, New York, Caroline Eco, Oliver Imhans, Aaron Davitt, Andrew B. Reinmann

Publications and Research

Projected changes in climate are expected to increase the frequency of late spring frost events in the Northeast US. Such events can be harmful to trees because freezing temperatures that occur after leaf-out can damage or kill young leaves. The resultant defoliation typically forces a second flush of leaves, but delays canopy development, which in turn delays the onset of canopy carbon uptake and alters canopy thermal properties. In this study, we analyzed a recent freeze event that occurred on 8-9 May 2020 (DOY 129-130) at Black Rock Forest (BRF), which is in the Hudson Highlands of southeastern New York …

The Violence Of Asylum: The Case Of Undocumented Chinese Migration To The Us, Amy Hsin, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

A sizable portion of the undocumented population in the US is Chinese, yet they are an understudied group. We integrate a multidisciplinary body of work on undocumented Chinese migration with the sociology of migration and analyze interviews with undocumented migrants, community organizers, social workers, and others working in the Chinese community in New York City, as well as participant observation of community events. We show that restrictive immigration policies exclude most Chinese migrants from legal entry into the US, force many to endure dangerous migration routes, incur extraordinary debt and bind Chinese migrants’ experience of illegality with asylum seeking. The …

The Tree Cover And Temperature Disparity In Us Urbanized Areas: Quantifying The Association With Income Across 5,723 Communities, Robert I. Mcdonald, Tanushree Biswas, Cedilla Sachar, Ian Housman, Timothy M. Boucher, Deborah Balk, David Nowak, Erica Spotswood, Charlotte K. Stanley, Stefan Leyk

Publications and Research

Urban tree cover provides benefits to human health and well-being, but previous studies suggest that tree cover is often inequitably distributed. Here, we use National Agriculture Imagery Program digital ortho photographs to survey the tree cover inequality for Census blocks in US large urbanized areas, home to 167 million people across 5,723 municipalities and other Census-designated places. We compared tree cover to summer land surface temperature, as measured using Landsat imagery. In 92% of the urbanized areas surveyed, low-income blocks have less tree cover than high-income blocks. On average, low-income blocks have 15.2% less tree cover and are 1.5˚C hotter …

Slowing The Spread Of Covid-19: Review Of “Social Distancing” Interventions Deployed By Public Transit In The United States And Canada, Camille Kamga, Penny Eickemeyer

Publications and Research

This paper presents a review of social distancing measures deployed by transit agencies in the United States and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses how specific operators across the two countries have implemented changes. Challenges and impacts on their operations are also provided.

Social distancing is one of the community mitigation measures traditionally implemented during influenza pandemics and the novel coronavirus pandemic. Research has shown that social distancing is effective in containing the spread of disease. This is applicable to the current situation with the novel coronavirus, given the lack of effective vaccines and treatments in the United States …

Bibliodiversity At The Centre: Decolonizing Open Access, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

The promise of open access for the global South has not been fully met. Publishing is dominated by Northern publishers who disadvantage Southern authors through platform capitalism and open access models requiring article processing charges to publish. The South can reclaim and decolonize open access, nurturing scholarly communities, by employing bibliodiversity, a sustainable, anticolonial ethos and practice developed in Latin America. Self-determination and locality are at the core of bibliodiversity which rejects the domination of international, English-language journal publishing. As articulated by the Jussieu Call, varied scholarly community-based, non-profit, and sustainable models for open access are integral to bibliodiversity as …

Diurnal Cycle Of Passive Microwave Brightness Temperatures Over Land At A Global Scale, Zahra Sharifnezhad, Hamid Norouzi, Satya Prakash, Reginald Blake, Reze Khanbilvard

Publications and Research

Satellite-borne passive microwave radiometers provide brightness temperature (TB) measurements in a large spectral range which includes a number of frequency channels and generally two polarizations: horizontal and vertical. These TBs are widely used to retrieve several atmospheric and surface variables and parameters such as precipitation, soil moisture, water vapor, air temperature profile, and land surface emissivity. Since TBs are measured at different microwave frequencies with various instruments and at various incidence angles, spatial resolutions, and radiometric characteristics, a mere direct integration of them from different microwave sensors would not necessarily provide consistency. However, when appropriately harmonized, they can provide a …

Making Sense Of Researcher Positionality In Foundational Literacy Studies Research, Amy J. Wan

Publications and Research

This article is an examination of researcher positionality in literacy studies research through a historiographical study of Brian Street.

Fine-Grained, Spatiotemporal Datasets Measuring 200 Years Of Land Development In The United States, Johannes H. Uhl, Stefan Leyk, Caitlin M. Mcshane, Anna E. Braswell, Dylan S. Connor, Deborah Balk

Publications and Research

The collection, processing, and analysis of remote sensing data since the early 1970s has rapidly improved our understanding of change on the Earth’s surface. While satellite-based Earth observation has proven to be of vast scientific value, these data are typically confined to recent decades of observation and often lack important thematic detail. Here, we advance in this arena by constructing new spatially explicit settlement data for the United States that extend back to the early 19th century and are consistently enumerated at fine spatial and temporal granularity (i.e. 250m spatial and 5-year temporal resolution). We create these time series using …

Impacts Of Hurricane Maria On Land And Convection Modification Over Puerto Rico, Nathan Hosannah, Prathap Ramamurthy, J. Marti, Jonathan Munoz, Jorge E. González

Publications and Research

Hurricane Maria drastically altered the landscape across the island of Puerto Rico. This article investigates modifications to surface-atmospheric interactions due to Hurricane Maria induced land damage and the associated impacts on local convective dynamics. Herein, we employed LANDSAT-8 image mosaics to quantify the hurricane induced land modification. Results of the analysis indicate that the island suffered significant forest damage—much of which registered as a 28.35% increase in barren land and a 10.85% increase in pasture. Smaller changes included a decrease in cultivated agricultural land cover by 0.76%, along with wetland and water increases of 0.62% and 0.25%, respectively. Pre and …

A New Vine Snake (Reptilia, Colubridae, Oxybelis) From Peru And Redescription Of O. Acuminatus, Robert C. Jadin, Michael J. Jowers, Sarah A. Orlofske, William E. Duellman, Christopher Blair, John C. Murphy

Publications and Research

The Brown Vine Snake, Oxybelis aeneus, was until recently considered a single species, distributed from southern Arizona through the Neotropics into southeastern Brazil. However, newly conducted research restructured the species with a substantial taxonomic revision, recognizing five additional taxa (i.e. O. koehleri, O. microphthalmus, O. potosiensis, O. rutherfordi, O. vittatus) in this species complex. This revision focused on populations in North America, Central America, and northern South America while neglecting the southern portion of its distribution. Here, we examine the taxonomic history of the complex and use it along with specimen data to resurrect O. acuminatus from southeastern Brazil. Finally, …

Restorative Relationships And 'Radical Help': Reimagining Welfare-To-Work Beyond The Market-Family Divide, Lynn D. Lu

Publications and Research

The unprecedented global lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the extreme vulnerability of “essential” yet underpaid workers, the vast inequality between the wealthy and the less fortunate, and the bottomless pit facing those without a social safety net. While the crisis has laid bare the near-universality of human susceptibility to disease and unemployment in a world in which few can safely work, it has also highlighted the disproportionate precarity experienced by low-wage and contingent workers, people of color, and non-citizens. Well before the pandemic, rampant socioeconomic and racial inequality, high underemployment and concentration of wealth, and technological advances …

Misremembering Risk In The Age Of Hurricanes: The Rhode Island Coast In The 1930s-1950s, Kara M. Schlichting

Publications and Research

This paper explores the lost history of New England hurricanes and how the “return” of hurricanes challenged understandings of the environmental vulnerabilities of coastal communities and weather. A series of severe New England hurricanes from 1938-1954 forced Rhode Islanders to reassess coastal vulnerabilities and protection strategies. Before the hurricane of ’38, Rhode Islanders lived with the vulnerability of seasonal erosion and winter storms, but believed their state was, and would remain, safe from hurricanes. In a new era of the shore-at-risk, the Army Corps of Engineers re-wrote the forgotten history of coastal dangers. Dense development along Narragansett Bay and the …

The World Would Be Better If They Hadn't Died: Alexandra Juhasz With Don’T Rhine, Alexandra Juhasz, Dont Rhine

Publications and Research

In Final Transmission: Performance Art and AIDS in LA, eds. Brian Getnick and Tanya Rubbak. When we chatted for an hour before to prepare, the first thing I asked you was how old you are. I’m 52, and you’re 54. But we realized that we didn’t know a lot about our shared history because we met in an activist part of the AIDS scene in Los Angeles. I picked up pieces about your history, and we’ve even collaborated, but I actually don’t know that much about you personally. Checking in before this public conversation, one of the things we realized …

Imagining An Asian American Superhero Of North Korean Origin: A Design Fiction, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

My talk, a thought-experimental blend of literary criticism and speculative "design fiction," will introduce you to an Asian American superhero of North Korean origin. In this science-fictional superhero, whom I have tentatively named "구름"/"☁️"/"Ku-reum," Korea's elusive realities coalesce into legible form. More specifically, they become available for narrative experience and relatable to us as an anthropomorphic character, a person with whom we might identify, come face-to-face, sympathize, interact dynamically, and have a conversation. Ku-reum is designed to reflect Korea's complex past and hopes for the future. Existing beyond division systems, Ku-reum uses the non-binary pronouns "one"/"they." Neither "South" nor "North," …

The Rise Of Prepping In New York City: Community Resilience And Covid-19, Anna Bounds

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Geoprivacy, Convenience, And The Pursuit Of Anonymity In Digital Cities, Jerome Dobson, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

Cities demand spatial efficiencies that can be achieved only through sharing of information. Current technologies support collection, processing, and dissemination of unprecedented quantities of personal, public, and corporate information. Inherent in this milieu is an inevitable contest among societal efficiency, corporate profits, consumer convenience, personal privacy, and even freedom. The authors examine current trends in technology, data collection, legislation, and public acceptance. They find that without broad specific regulations limiting location data collection and use—including a universal protected right for individuals to pursue anonymity—governments, commercial enterprises, employers, and individuals increasingly will exploit tracking technologies at the expense of geoprivacy.

Feminist Abolitionist Nursing, Martha Paynter, Keisha Jefferies, Leah Carrier, Lorie Goshin

Publications and Research

The converging crises of COVID-19 and racist state violence in 2020 shifted public discourse about marginalization, public health, and racism in unprecedented ways. Nursing responded to the pandemic with heroic commitment and new politicization. But public engagement with systemic racism is forcing a reckoning in nursing. The profession has its own history of racism and of alliance with systems of state control with which to contend. In this article, we argue nursing must adopt an ethics of abolitionism to realize its goals for health and justice. Abolitionism theorizes that policing and prison systems, originating from systems of enslavement and colonial …

How/Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation From Anti-Black Racism?, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, …

Civility And Its Discontents: Subway Etiquette, Civic Values, And Political Subjectivity In Global Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Transgender And Gender Non-Binary Healthcare Coverage In State Medicaid Programs: Recommendations For More Equitable Approaches, Robin Kempf, Nicole M. Elias, Alonso J. Rubin-Desimone

Publications and Research

Transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) individuals face discrimination in healthcare settings and barriers to healthcare access, resulting in health disparities. These inequities are compounded by the intersection of lower socioeconomic status and geography. To understand the differences in how states provide healthcare to TGNB individuals in poverty, we ask: What are state Medicaid programs offering TGNB residents, and how can coverage be more equitable across jurisdictions? To answer these questions, we examine medical services covered by 15 diverse Medicaid programs and compare them to the services recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Unsurprisingly, the analysis reveals …

O Espaço E O Tempo Do Valor, David Harvey, Artur Renzo

Publications and Research

O artigo discute a lei do valor em Karl Marx como valor em movimento, que se faz valer no espaço e no tempo. Entende-se que o movimento não pode ocorrer no vácuo, sendo necessário abandonar a visão do valor que se move sem estar ancorado em nenhum lugar e passar a enxergá-lo criando geografias de cidades e redes de transportes; formando paisagens agrícolas para a produção de alimentos e matérias-primas; englobando fluxos de pessoas, bens e informações; determinando configurações territoriais de valores fundiários e habilidades de trabalho; organizando espaços de trabalho, estruturas de governo e administração. Conclui-se que há três …

Jlsc Board Editorial 2021, Anne Gilliland, Rebekah Kati, Jennifer Solomon, Dave S. Ghamandi, Jill Cirasella, David Lewis, Dede Dawson

Publications and Research

It hardly needs to be said that 2020 was a difficult year for the world. COVID-19 has infected over 120 million people and killed over 2 million as of March 2021 (Johns Hopkins). At the same time, police violence against people of color continues, even as communities engage in long-overdue reckoning initiatives. Across the globe, researchers, governments, and communities needed quick, open, up-to-date information on testing for, treating, and preventing COVID-19. Our increased dependence on technology during lockdowns provided some with safety and continuity, while others experienced the widening of the digital divide. There is no greater urgency than the …

The ‘Global South’ In The Study Of World Politics: Examining A Meta Category, Sebastian Haug, Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner, Günther Maihold

Publications and Research

This introductory contribution examines the ‘Global South’ as a meta category in the study of world politics. Against the backdrop of a steep rise in references to the ‘Global South’ across academic publications, we ask whether and how the North–South binary in general, and the ‘(Global) South’ in particular, can be put to use analytically. Building on meta categories as tools for the classification of global space, we discuss the increasing prominence of the ‘Global South’ and then outline different understandings attached to it, notably socio-economic marginality, multilateral alliance-building and resistance against global hegemonic power. Following an overview of individual …

Super-Diversity Inside And Outside Of Congregations In Elmhurst, Queens, Richard Cimino, Hans Tokke

Publications and Research

This chapter looks at the role congregations play in a “superdiverse” neighborhood, characterized by recent immigration and strong ethic and religious pluralism. We are particularly interested in how diversity shapes a neighborhood’s religious ecology and how congregations and other groups relate to their neighborhood; how do they respond to this diversity in their ministries to their own congregants and to those outside their walls, and how do they interact with other faith communities? Further, to what degree do individuals follow the ideal of pluralism as they live their lives within their own enclave? We find that bonding rather than bridging …

Expanding The Boundaries Of Food Policy: The Turn To Equity In New York City, Nevin Cohen, Rositsa Ilieva

Publications and Research

Policymakers acknowledge that the food system is multidimensional and that social determinants affect diet-related health outcomes, yet cities have emphasized programs and policies narrowly connected to food access and nutritional health. Over the past fifteen years, the boundaries of food governance have expanded to include a wider range of issues and domains not previously considered within the purview of food policy, like labor, housing, and education policies. This paper illustrates the processes by which this shift occurs by presenting the case of New York City, which has broadened its food governance to a larger set of issues, requiring cross-sectoral initiatives …

Applying The Food-Energy-Water Nexus Approach To Urban Agriculture: From Few To Fewp (Food-Energy- Water-People), Silvio Caputo, Victoria Schoen, Kathrin Spect, Baptiste Grard, Chris Blythe, Nevin Cohen, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Jason Hawes, Joshua Newell, Lidia Poniży

Publications and Research

Many studies examine the correlation between the use of resources such as water, energy and land, and the production of food. These nexus studies focus predominantly on large scale systems, often considering the social dimensions only in terms of access to resources and participation in the decision- making process, rather than individual attitudes and behaviours with respect to resource use. Such a concept of the nexus is relevant to urban agriculture (UA), but it requires customisation to the particular characteristics of growing food in cities, which is practiced mainly at a small scale and produces not only food but also …

No Longer, Not Yet: Retrofuture Hauntings On The Jetsons, Stefano Morello

Publications and Research

From Back to the Future to The Wonder Years, from Peggy Sue Got Married to The Stray Cats’ records – 1980s youth culture abounds with what Michael D. Dwyer has called “pop nostalgia,” a set of critical affective responses to representations of previous eras used to remake the present or to imagine corrective alternatives to it. Longings for the Fifties, Dwyer observes, were especially key to America’s self-fashioning during the Reagan era (2015).

Moving from these premises, I turn to anachronisms, aesthetic resonances, and intertextual references that point to, as Mark Fisher would have it, both a lost past …

Invisible Inequalities: Persistent Health Threats In The Urban Built Environment, Kara M. Schlichting, Melanie A. Kiechle

Publications and Research

A city’s materiality creates health and illness. We both write about air – its movement and its temperature – as it affects human bodies. We offer two topics as case studies, heat and ventilation, and how they exacerbate the effects of each other, to illustrate the long history of seemingly new challenges posed by the novel coronavirus. The environmental inequalities of heat exposure and access to fresh air underscore that cities can only be considered ‘low impact’ on the environment from a top-down, large-scale approach. In writing about air and heat, we direct attention to the feel and the bodily …

Open Data, Collaborative Working Platforms, And Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Building An Early Career Scientist Community Of Practice To Leverage Ocean Observatories Initiative Data To Address Critical Questions In Marine Science, Robert M. Levine, Kristen E. Fogaren, Johna E. Rudzin, Christopher J. Russoniello, Dax C. Soule, Justine M. Whitaker

Publications and Research

Ocean observing systems are well-recognized as platforms for long-term monitoring of near-shore and remote locations in the global ocean. High-quality observatory data is freely available and accessible to all members of the global oceanographic community—a democratization of data that is particularly useful for early career scientists (ECS), enabling ECS to conduct research independent of traditional funding models or access to laboratory and field equipment. The concurrent collection of distinct data types with relevance for oceanographic disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, and geology yields a unique incubator for cutting-edge, timely, interdisciplinary research. These data are both an opportunity and an incentive …