Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Microvesicle Genesis, Morphology And Pluripotent Content, Jing Zhou, Shima Ghoroghi, Alberto Benito-Martin, Hao Wu, Uchenna John Unachukwu, Linda Saxe Einbond, Sara Guariglia, Hector Peinado, Stephen Redenti

Publications and Research

Microvesicles (MVs) are lipid bilayer-covered cell fragments that range in diameter from 30 nm–1uM and are released from all cell types. An increasing number of studies reveal that MVs contain microRNA, mRNA and protein that can be detected in the extracellular space. In this study, we characterized induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) MV genesis, content and fusion to retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) in vitro. Nanoparticle tracking revealed that iPSCs released approximately 2200 MVs cell/hour in the first 12 hrs with an average diameter of 122 nm. Electron and light microscopic analysis of iPSCs showed MV release via lipid bilayer budding. …

1 Platform, 31 Libraries: Pedagogy And Digital Identity In The Wake Of A Cuny Discovery Layer, Nora Almeida, Helen Georgas, Alexandra Hamlett

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Emerging Justice Technologies And The Need For Evaluation, Jason Tashea

Publications and Research

This report from John Jay College’s Research and Evaluation Center examines the role of emerging technologies in criminal justice reform, emphasizing the need for thorough evaluation to assess effectiveness and avoid unintended consequences. It suggests that technology should support, not replace, human judgment in justice processes.

Adjunctive Phosphodiesterase-4 Inhibitor Therapy Improves Antibiotic Response To Pulmonary Tuberculosis In A Rabbit Model, Selvakumar Subbian, Liana Tsenova, Jennifer Holloway, Blas Peixoto, Paul O'Brien, Veronique Dartois, Vikram Khetani, Jerome B. Zeldis, Gilla Kaplan

Publications and Research

Objectives: Adjunctive host-directed therapy is emerging as a new potential approach to improve the outcome of conventional antimicrobial treatment for tuberculosis (TB).We tested the ability of a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor (PDE4i) CC-11050, co-administered with the first-line anti-TB drug isoniazid (INH), to accelerate bacillary killing and reduce chronic inflammation in the lungs of rabbits with experimental Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection.

Methods: A rabbit model of pulmonary TB that recapitulates the pathologic manifestations seen in humans was used. Rabbits were infected with virulent Mtb by aerosol exposure and treated for eight weeks with INH with orwithout CC-11050, starting at fourweeks post infection. The …

Reorienting Adolescent Sexual And Reproductive Health Research: Reflections From An International Conference, Kristien Michielsen, Sara De Meyer, Olena Ivanova, Ragnar Anderson, Peter Decat, Céline Herbiet, Caroline W. Kabiru, Evert Ketting, James Lees, Caroline Moreau, Deborah L. Tolman, Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Bernardo Vega, Elizabeth Verhetsel, Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli

Publications and Research

On December 4th 2014, the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) at Ghent University organized an international conference on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) and well-being. This viewpoint highlights two key messages of the conference - 1) ASRH promotion is broadening on different levels and 2) this broadening has important implications for research and interventions – that can guide this research field into the next decade. Adolescent sexuality has long been equated with risk and danger. However, throughout the presentations, it became clear that ASRH and related promotion efforts are broadening on different levels: from risk to well-being, from …

A Decision Model For Recommending Which Building Occupants Should Move Where During Fire Emergencies, Norman E. Groner

Publications and Research

This paper describes a decision model for managing the movement of building occupants during fire emergencies. Currently available guidance from standard practice, egress modeling, codes and the re-search literature, is too general to provide much help to persons charged with the responsibility of where groups of occupants should be located given a fire scenario. The occupant movement decision model described in the paper uses three basic yes–no questions to divide building occupants into groups during a fire emergency. For any particular group, the decision model recommends one of two basic actions:(1) people remain where they are already located; or, (2) …

The Human Disease-Associated Ab Amyloid Core Sequence Forms Functional Amyloids In A Fungal Adhesin, Rachele D. Rameau, Desmond N. Jackson, Audrey Beaussary, Yves F. Dufrêne, Peter N. Lipke

Publications and Research

There is increasing evidence that many amyloids in living cells have physiological functions. On the surfaces of fungal cells, amyloid core sequences in adhesins can aggregate into 100- to 1,000-nm-wide patches to form high-avidity adhesion nanodomains on the cell surface. The nanodomains form through interactions that have amyloid-like properties: binding of amyloid dyes, perturbation by antiamyloid agents, and interaction with homologous sequences. To test whether these functional interactions are mediated by typical amyloid interactions, we substituted an amyloid core sequence, LVFFA, from human A protein for the native sequence IVIVA in the 1,419-residue Candida albicans adhesin Als5p. The chimeric protein …

Targeted Curing Of All Lysogenic Bacteriophage From Streptococcus Pyogenes Using A Novel Counter-Selection Technique, Chad W. Euler, Barbara Juncosa, Patricia A. Ryan, Douglas R. Deutsch, W. Michael Mcshan, Vincent A. Fischetti

Publications and Research

Streptococcus pyogenes is a human commensal and a bacterial pathogen responsible for a wide variety of human diseases differing in symptoms, severity, and tissue tropism. The completed genome sequences of >37 strains of S. pyogenes, representing diverse disease- causing serotypes, have been published. The greatest genetic variation among these strains is attributed to numerous integrated prophage and prophage-like elements, encoding several virulence factors. A comparison of isogenic strains, differing in prophage content, would reveal the effects of these elements on streptococcal pathogenesis. However, curing strains of prophage is often difficult and sometimes unattainable. We have applied a novel counter-selection approach …

The Problematic Pleasures Of Productivity And Efficiency In Goa And Navegador, Nancy M. Foasberg

Publications and Research

Eurogames are a specific subset of modern board games known for mathematical beauty, low conflict and light themes. However, despite their apparent nonviolence, they often use colonial themes. This article argues that the uncritical embrace of these themes and "abstracting away" of troubling historical content results in a narrative that supports colonialism. Two examples of the genre, Goa and Navegador are analyzed in detail.

Site-Specifically Labeled Immunoconjugates For Molecular Imaging—Part 1: Cysteine Residues And Glycans, Pierre Adumeau, Sai Kiran Sharma, Colleen Brent, Brian M. Zeglis

Publications and Research

Due to their remarkable selectivity and specificity for cancer biomarkers, immunoconjugates have emerged as extremely promising vectors for the delivery of diagnostic radioisotopes and fluorophores to malignant tissues. Paradoxically, however, these tools for precision medicine are synthesized in a remarkably imprecise way. Indeed, the vast majority of immunoconjugates are created via the random conjugation of bifunctional probes (e.g., DOTA-NCS) to amino acids within the antibody (e.g., lysines). Yet antibodies have multiple copies of these residues throughout their macromolecular structure, making control over the location of the conjugation reaction impossible. This lack of site specificity can lead to the formation of …

The Fragility Of Ecological Pedagogy: Elementary Social Studies Standards And Possibilities Of New Materialism, Debbie Sonu, Nathan Snaza

Publications and Research

The greatest challenge facing the field of environmentalism includes ontological questions over the human subject and its desensitization from landscapes of experience. In this article the authors draw from field experiences in New York City elementary schools (such as observations of teachers, NYS Scope and Sequence Standards for Social Studies, and the Common Core State Standards) to demonstrate how curricular engagements with nature and the environment are persistently caught within humanist traditions that place agency and action as sovereign to humanness. It uses new materialist ontologies to suggest how hybrid relations among humans, nonhumans, and matter can be read by …

Characterization Of Fluorescent Proteins For Three- And Four-Color Live-Cell Imaging In S. Cerevisiae, Ryo Higuchi-Sanabria, Enrique J. Garcia, Delia Tomoiaga, Emilia L. Munteanu, Paul Feinstein, Liza A. Pon

Publications and Research

Saccharomyces cerevisiae are widely used for imaging fluorescently tagged protein fusions. Fluorescent proteins can easily be inserted into yeast genes at their chromosomal locus, by homologous recombination, for expression of tagged proteins at endogenous levels. This is especially useful for incorporation of multiple fluorescent protein fusions into a single strain, which can be challenging in organisms where genetic manipulation is more complex. However, the availability of optimal fluorescent protein combinations for 3-color imaging is limited. Here, we have characterized a combination of fluorescent proteins, mTFP1/mCitrine/ mCherry for multicolor live cell imaging in S. cerevisiae. This combination can be used with …

Review Of Daniel J. Sargent. A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking Of American Foreign Relations In The 1970s., Itai Sneh

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Donald Trump: Live From New Yawk, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is an article about why Donald Trump speaks like "The Real Housewives of New York" reality stars.

College Students Deserve Good Role Models, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Fake Universities Are Not Necessarily A Rarity, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Academia Is Now Facing A Lot Of Gray Rhinos, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Outsider Within: Béla Tarr And Hungarian National Cinema, Lilla Tőke

Publications and Research

Béla Tarr is probably the most paradoxical figure in contemporary Hungarian cinema. His artistic trajectory shows a movement from documentary style realism (Family Nest, 1979) towards more modernist cinematic practices (Satan’s Tango, 1994, Werckmeister Harmonies, 2000, and The Man from London, 2007). A major celebrity in the global film culture that prides itself in being transnational, international, and in crossing linguistic and ethnic boundaries, Tarr has consistently found himself on the fringes of the Hungarian cultural and political establishment. In this study Tőke considers Tarr’s films and public persona as catalysts in the debates about what constitutes “Hungarian cinema” in …

Self-Assembly Of Gold Supraparticles With Crystallographically Aligned And Strongly Coupled Nanoparticle Building Blocks For Sers And Photothermal Therapy, S. Paterson, S. A. Thompson, J. Gracie, A. W. Wark, R. De La Rica

Publications and Research

A new method is introduced for self-assembling citrate-capped gold nanoparticles into supraparticles with crystallographically aligned building blocks. It consists in confining gld nanoparticles inside a cellulose acetate membrane. The constituent nanoparticles are in close contact in the superstructure, and therefore generate hot spots leading to intense Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) signals. They also generate more plasmonic heat than the nanoparticle building blocks. The supraparticles are internalized by cells and show low cytotoxicity, but can kill cancer cells when irradiated with a laser. This, along with the improved plasmonic properties arising from their assembly, makes the gold supraparticles promising materials for …

Affirmative Action In American Government Introductory Textbooks, Sherri L. Wallace, Marcus D. Allen

Publications and Research

The history of affirmative action policy consists of a broad collection of executive orders, bureaucratic decisions, course cases, and state legislation designed to eliminate unlawful discrimination of applicants to educational programs or professional employment, to remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and to prevent discrimination in the future. Although targeted legislation has expanded protections beyond underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in education and employment to include women, people of a certain age, people with disabilities and veterans, the actual policy intent of affirmative action remains a source of confusion for students, particularly when college textbooks define the topics within …

Universalizing Primary Education In Sierra Leone: Promises And Pitfalls On The Path To Equity, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

What barriers remain in the progress towards achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE), and how does the UPE agenda affect out-of-school children? Through a mixture of historical, quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, this study examines these questions using the developing context of Sierra Leone as a case study.

Findings from over 100 interviews show that first of all, the most salient barrier that prevents children from participating in primary school is the fact that school is not free de facto in spite of the national abolishment of primary school fees in 2004. Rather than commonly cited constraints such as a …

Teaching Evolution: Blog As A Liminal Space, Shylaja Akkaraju, Alexander Wolf

Publications and Research

A threshold concept is a challenging concept that acts as a doorway leading to deeper understanding and a dramatic shift in perception. A learner that is in- volved in grasping a threshold concept is said to be undergoing a threshold expe- rience within a liminal space or learning environment. We used the blog as a lim- inal space for our students to engage with the theory of evolution, which is a threshold concept. In order to teach evolution effectively it is necessary to address both understanding and acceptance of evolutionary theory. To explore the latter in an introductory biology course, …

Acogiendo A Comunidades Diversas: Las Bibliotecas De City College En Nueva York, Daisy Dominguez, Sarah Aponte

Publications and Research

Daisy Domínguez y Sarah Aponte, desde su experiencia en el City College of New York y el Instituto de Estudios Dominicanos, ofrecen un panorama de la diversidad de los estudiantes y las diferentes actividades que, desde la biblioteca, han realizado para integrarlos.

Disconnect To Connect: Emotional Responses To Loss Of Technology During Hurricane Sandy, Joni Schwartz

Publications and Research

This chapter examines loss of technology by community college students during Hurricane Sandy and their resulting communication and behaviors without technology. It is a qualitative research study.

The Invisible Hand Of The Lyric: Emily Dickinson’S Hypermediated Manuscripts And The Debate Over Genre, Dominique Zino

Publications and Research

Between the mid-1990s and the present, a poetics of digitization emerged around Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts, performed primarily by the members of the Emily Dickinson Editorial Collective. Translating Dickinson’s work across archival sources, scanned images, typographic transcripts, and coding languages has offered Dickinson’s editors an escape from the determinism that accompanied the age of print and an opportunity to highlight the continuum along which the poet composed her body of work. Through multimodal, interactive exhibits, electronic editors of the Dickinson corpus often seek to demonstrate that no one medium is sufficient to represent the range of meaning implied in Dickinson’s body …

Conscientization & Third Space: A Case Study Of A Tunisian Activist, Habiba Boumlik, Joni Schwartz

Publications and Research

This article examines the role of a female cyber and social activist, Amira Yahyaoui, in the aftermaths of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia through the lens of adult education. In this case study, the theoretical frameworks of conscientization and third space are utilized to describe Yahyaoui’s development of the watchdog political organization, al-bawsala, for the purpose of transformative learning and knowledge transmission in regard to political practices toward democracy in Tunisia. The focus will be on platforms used by this non-governmental organization (NGO), Al-Bawsala, to educate and raise political consciousness; these participatory platforms are: marsad (parliamentary observatory), debates or town …

Trails: Tool For Real-Time Assessment Of Information Literacy Skills, Christina Miller

Publications and Research

TRAILS: Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills, a product of Kent State University Libraries, free and online, aims to evaluate information literacy skills of elementary and high school students. Launched in 2006, the tool was initially funded by the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE), an initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the U.S. Department of Education. The multiple-choice, standards-based, knowledge assessment measures competencies in five information categories—topic development, identification of sources, development of search strategies, evaluation of information, and ethical uses of information—at the third-, sixth-, ninth-, and twelfth-grade benchmark …

Response To A Standard Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention By Age Of Onset Of Obesity, Kristie Rupp, S. E. Taverno Ross, W. Lang, J. M. Jakicic

Publications and Research

Background The purpose of this study was to examine weight loss, physical activity, fitness and diet changes in response to a standard behavioral weight loss intervention in adults with self-reported juvenile onset (n = 61) or adult onset (n = 116) obesity.

Methods Participants (n = 177; 43.0 ± 8.6 years; body mass index [BMI] = 33.0 ± 3.4 kgm2) engaged in an 18-month standard behavioral weight loss intervention. Participants were randomized into three different intervention groups as part of the larger parent trial. BMI, physical activity, fitness and diet were assessed at baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months. Separate …

Post-9/11 New York On Screen: Mourning, Surveillance And The Arab Other In Tom Mccarthy’S 'The Visitor', Elizabeth Toohey

Publications and Research

New York, as a capital of finance and culture, has been one of Hollywood’s favorite settings, often functioning as a glamorous character itself. Yet in the wake of 9/11, escalating government surveillance prompted filmmakers to call this image into question. Tom McCarthy’s 2007 film "The Visitor" marks a turning point. Set in the aftermath of the towers’ collapse, support-the-troops signs and flags haunt the city, saturating it with reminders of 9/11’s political repercussions. In this article, I explore McCarthy’s portrayal of New York and its Muslim immigrants, who overturn stereotypes of (male) terrorists or (female) victims. Their displacement instead creates …

Application Of Cognitive Apprenticeship Model (Ca) To Library Instruction, Elizabeth K. Tompkins

Publications and Research

The cognitive apprenticeship model, which links apprenticeship-learning techniques and classroom practices, offers a flexible framework for planning and implementing library sessions. Originally developed by educators Collins, Brown, and Newman, cognitive apprenticeship illuminates the thought process of teachers and other experts while they deliver instruction in problem solving, close reading, critical thinking, or other higher order reasoning. This paper discusses how librarians can employ the cognitive apprenticeship model to collapse the thought process associated with library research into components that are comprehensible to all levels of students.