Digital Commons Network^™

Retinal Tissue Engineering Using Mouse Retinal Progenitor Cells And A Novel Biodegradable, Thin-Film Poly(E-Caprolactone) Nanowire Scaffold, Stephen Redenti, Sarah Tao, Jing Yang, Ping Gu, Henry Klassen, Sunita Saigal, Tejal Desai, Michael J. Young

Publications and Research

Retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) can be combined with nanostructured polymer scaffolds to generate compos- ite grafts in culture. One strategy for repair of diseased retinal tissue involves implantation of composite grafts of this type in the subretinal space. In the present study, mouse retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) were cultured on laminin- coated novel nanowire poly(e-caprolactone)(PCL) scaf- folds, and the survival, differentiation, and migration of these cells into the retina of C57bl/6 and rhodospsin −/−mouse retinal explants and transplant recipients were analyzed. RPCs were cultured on smooth PCL and both short (2.5μm) and long (27μ m) nanowire PCL scaffolds. Scaffolds with …

Visual Aid: Teaching H.D.'S Imagist Poetry With The Assistance Of Henri Matisse, Christa Baiada

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Im Cometh: The Future Of Chat Reference, Stephen Francoeur

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Persuasive Design Of Destination Websites: An Analysis Of First Impression, Heejun Kim, Daniel R. Fesenmaier

Publications and Research

This research examines the persuasiveness of destination websites through an investigation of users’ first impression. To achieve this goal, it builds on research by Fogg (2003) and by Kim and Fesenmaier (2007) to assess the effect of the design factors of destination websites on first impression formation. The results of this study indicate that the subjects were able to make quick judgments on tourism websites, and that inspiration and usability were the primary drivers evoking a favorable first impression. This research concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and possible directions for future study.

The Greatest Cowboy Star You've Never Heard Of, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Selection Criteria For Academic Video Game Collections, Elisabeth Tappeiner, Kate Lyons

Publications and Research

As higher education begins to take games and gaming seriously, academic libraries will begin to build video game collections to support research and learning on campus. This article discusses their relevance in academia and proposes useful criteria for building video game collections in academic libraries.

The authors outline selection considerations for developing video game collections and propose the following criteria for selecting games: physical characteristics, teaching and learning principles present in the games, subject matter and content, and the cultural and historical value of a game.

The Electronic Workplace: To Live Outside The Law You Must Be Honest, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This 2008 law review article examines the state of the constitutional and statutory law at that time concerning protections for employee when they use employer owned workplace computers.

New Strategy For The Search Of Natural Biologically Active Substances., Vyacheslav Dushenkov, Ilya Raskin

Publications and Research

The modern pharmaceutics actively screens an immense diversity of substances occurring in plants and other natural resources in the search for new effective medicinal agents. The Global Institute for Bioexploration (GIBEX) established by joint efforts of Rutgers University and the University of Illinois (United States) represents the organizational core of international scientific community whose activity is directed towards the search and development of new medicinal preparations from natural raw materials. The basis of GIBEX activity is the transfer of modern screening technologies to countries and geographical regions characterized by remarkable biodiversity. The GIBEX goals are to encourage the search for …

Geographic Information Science And Public Participation, Laxmi Ramasubramanian

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Religious Contextual Norms, Structural Constraints, And Personal Religiosity For Abortion Decisions, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

Researchers have established that individual religiosity influences abortion attitudes, and that abortion attitudes, in turn, shape abortion restrictions and access. Less clear is whether religion and abortion structural constraints influence abortion decisions. This study examines the several individual, contextual, and structural factors that could shape the abortion decisions of women who conceive before marriage. Special attention is given to the importance of academic aspirations and structural constraints, in contrast to religious beliefs and county religious context, for making an abortion decision. Hierarchical modeling techniques and two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) are …

¡Oye!: Língua E Negócio Entre O Brasil E A Espanha, Laura Villa, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

Neste estudo sobre a promoção internacional do espanhol, centramos a análise no acordo ¡Oye! Espanhol para professores, assinado em setembro de 2006 entre o Banco Santander espanhol e a Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo, cuja finalidade era a formação de 45.000 professores de espanhol para atuarem no ensino médio brasileiro. O acordo, que envolveu também o Instituto Cervantes espanhol, recebeu uma forte oposição por parte da comunidade educacional, que se mobilizou para sustar sua implementação. Neste trabalho, apresentamos e analisamos diferentes ações e discursos face ao acordo por parte dos agentes envolvidos no debate, ao mesmo …

Review Of The Draughtsman's Contract, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Review of Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract: http://www.media-party.com/discland/2008/07/the-draughtsmans-contract.html

Review Of Pierrot Le Fou, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Review of Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou: http://www.media-party.com/discland/2008/07/pierrot-le-fou.html

Race, Civil Rights, And Hate Speech In The Digital Era, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

The emergence of the digital era has had unintended consequences for race, civil rights, and hate speech.This chapter looks at the prevalence of both overtly racist sites, such as Stormfront, and at "cloaked" sites, that purport to advocate civil rights but disguise a racist agenda.

A Transnational Conversation On French Colonialism, Immigration, Violence And Sovereignty, Miriam Ticktin, Ruth Marshall, Paolo Bacchetta

Publications and Research

This conversation was transcribed from a panel discussion that took place at The Scholar & Feminist Conference XXXII, “Fashioning Citizenship: Gender and Immigration,” held on March 24, 2007 at Barnard College.

Public Health Campaigns To Change Industry Practices That Damage Health: An Analysis Of 12 Case Studies, Nicholas Freudenberg, Sarah Picard Bradley, Monica Serrano

Publications and Research

Industry practices such as advertising, production of unsafe products, and efforts to defeat health legislation play a major role in current patterns of U.S. ill health. Changing these practices may be a promising strategy to promote health. The authors analyze 12 campaigns designed to modify the health-related practices of U.S. corporations in the alcohol, automobile, food and beverage, firearms, pharmaceutical, and tobacco industries. The objectives are to examine the interactions between advocacy campaigns and industry opponents; explore the roles of government, researchers, and media; and identify characteristics of campaigns that are effective in changing health-damaging practices. The authors compared campaigns …

A Quantitative Synthesis Of The Medicinal Ethnobotany Of The Malinké Of Mali And The Asháninka Of Peru, With A New Theoretical Framework, Nathaniel Bletter

Publications and Research

Background: Although ethnomedically and taxonomically guided searches for new medicinal plants can improve the percentage of plants found containing active compounds when compared to random sampling, ethnobotany has fulfilled little of its promise in the last few decades to deliver a bounty of new, laboratory-proven medicinal plants and compounds. It is quite difficult to test, isolate, and elucidate the structure and mechanism of compounds from the plethora of new medicinal plant uses described each year with limited laboratory time and resources and the high cost of clinical trials of new drug candidates.

Methods: A new quantitative theoretical framework of mathematical …

Permanently Failing Organizations? Small Business Recovery After September 11, 2001, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

Small businesses in Lower Manhattan after September 11, 2001, paint a telling portrait of vulnerability after disasters. This qualitative analysis of recovery for small retail and service firms with 50 or fewer employees is based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and documentary research from September 2001 through 2005. A postdisaster emphasis on place-based assistance to firms conflicted with macro-level redevelopment plans for Lower Manhattan. Small business recovery was impeded as aid programs responded to a new sense of urgency, attachment to place, and prestorm conceptions of the neighborhood at the expense of addressing community-wide economic changes accelerated by the disaster. Ingredients …

María Antonia González Valerio, El Arte Develado. Consideraciones Estéticas Sobre La Hermenéutica De Gadamer [Reseña Del Libro], Adriana Renero

Publications and Research

El tema central que nos ofrece María Antonia González Valerio es el estrecho vínculo que existe entre la estética y la hermenéutica de Hans-Georg Gadamer. Mediante una comparación de la estética gadameriana con otras teorías y reflexiones estéticas que la anteceden, tales como la Crítica del juicio de Kant, la Estética de Hegel, El origen de la obra de arte y Hölderlin y la esencia de la poesía de Heidegger, la autora se propone mostrar que Gadamer ofrece nuevas reflexiones sobre el arte y sobre la experiencia del arte.

Adverse Effects Of Accounting, Uniformity On Practice, Education And Research, Shyam Sunder

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Novel In Silico Method For Teaching Cytoarchitecture, Cellular Diversity, And Gene Expression In The Mammalian Brain, Raddy L. Ramos, Phoebe T. Smith, Joshua C. Brumberg

Publications and Research

Neuroanatomy can be a challenging topic for undergraduates, making the development of new methods of instruction an important goal of neuroscience educators. In the present report we describe the utility and versatility of the Allen Brain Atlas as a novel tool for instruction of several important anatomical principles of the mammalian central nervous system. Using this digital database, we detail how instructors of laboratory or lecture-based courses can demonstrate cytoarchitecture, cellular diversity, and gene expression profiles of the brain.

Cracking Silent Codes: Critical Race Theory And Education Organizing, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Critical race theory (CRT) has moved beyond legal scholarship to critique the ways in which “colorblind” laws and policies perpetuate existing racial inequalities in education policy. While criticisms of CRT have focused on the pessimism and lack of remedies presented, CRT scholars have begun to address issues of praxis. Specifically, communities of color must challenge the dominant narratives of mainstream institutions with alternative visions of pedagogy and school reform, and community organizing plays an important role in helping communities of color to articulate these alternative counter-narratives. Yet, many in education organizing disagree with CRT's critique of colorblindness. Drawing on five …

Nothing New: A Small Enterprise Development Project In West Africa, Aaron Barlow, Bronwyn Hughes

Publications and Research

"This article presents a specific strategy for the aid worker wishing to encourage income-generating enterprises followed by an analysis of the initiation of a construction-supplies business in the north of Togo, West Africa in the late 1980s. This article also stresses project assessment as insurance against failure for the aid organization. Together, these can lead to self-sustaining projects and the furthering of real development."

Nectin-Like Proteins Mediate Axon–Schwann Cell Interactions Along The Internode And Are Essential For Myelination, Patrice Maurel, Steven Einheber, Jolanta Galinska, Pratik Thaker, Isabel Lam, Marina B. Rubin, Steven S. Scherer, Yoshinuri Murakami, David H. Gutmann, James L. Salzer

Publications and Research

Axon–glial interactions are critical for the induction of myelination and the domain organization of myelinated fibers. Although molecular complexes that mediate these interactions in the nodal region are known, their counterparts along the internode are poorly defined. We report that neurons and Schwann cells express distinct sets of nectin-like (Necl) proteins: axons highly express Necl-1 and -2, whereas Schwann cells express Necl-4 and lower amounts of Necl-2. These proteins are strikingly localized to the internode, where Necl-1 and -2 on the axon are directly apposed by Necl-4 on the Schwann cell; all three proteins are also enriched at Schmidt-Lanterman incisures. …

From Lifestyle To Social Determinants: New Directions For Community Health Promotion Research And Practice, Nicholas Freudenberg

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Utility And Versatility Of Extracellular Recordings From The Cockroach For Neurophysiological Instruction And Demonstration, Raddy L. Ramos, Andrew Moiseff, Joshua C. Brumberg

Publications and Research

The principles of neurophysiology continue to be challenging topics to teach in the context of undergraduate neuroscience education. Laboratory classes containing neurophysiological demonstrations and exercises are, therefore, an important and necessary complement for covering those subjects taught in lecture-based courses. We developed a number of simple yet very instructive exercises, described below, which make use of extracellular recordings from different sensory systems of the cockroach (Periplanta americana). The compendium we developed provides students with hands-on demonstrations of several commonly taught topics of neurophysiology including sensory coding by neural activity.

Genetic Randomization Reveals Functional Relationships Among Morphologic And Tissue-Quality Traits That Contribute To Bone Strength And Fragility, Karl J. Jepsen, Bin Hu, Steven M. Tommasini, Hayden-William Courtland, Christopher Price, Carl J. Terranova, Joseph H. Nadeau

Publications and Research

We examined femora from adult AXB/BXA recombinant inbred (RI) mouse strains to identify skeletal traits that are functionally related and to determine how functional interactions among these traits contribute to genetic variability in whole-bone stiffness, strength, and toughness. Randomization of A/J and C57BL/6J genomic regions resulted in each adult male and female RI strain building mechanically functional femora by assembling unique sets of morphologic and tissue-quality traits. A correlation analysis was conducted using the mean trait values for each RI strain. A third of the 66 correlations examined were significant, indicating that many bone traits covaried or were functionally related. …

Research Authority In The Age Of Google: Equilibrium Sought, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

The article examines the major shift in the relationship of students, instructors and librarians to information. It is argued that this shift is due to some fundamental changes to authority in the relationship in terms of Web publication, access to content and technical know-how. In addition, it also discusses the impact of the introduction of the Google search engine.

"Whether Beast Or Human": The Cultural Legacies Of Dread, Locks, And Dystopia., Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

Analyzing the ongoing problem of Caribbean racial exploitation, particularly fear signified through one of the most potent Caribbean symbols, dreadlocks, Kevin Frank offers a paradigm shift in arguing that Medusa's alterity is altered by Rastafarians' snake-like hair, but the transformative power of Rasta dreadlocks is contested through certain cinematic depictions of dread.

New York Placenames In Film Titles, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

From 1914 to 2006, 396 feature films with titles containing New York place names were released. This pattern emerged during the silent era, peaked from the late 1920s to the early 1940s, and then dropped off steadily before rebounding in the 1970s. This article discusses the cinematic representation of cities and urban life in the movies and the special place of New York as an “imagined city” and a cultural icon. New York’s associations in the popular imagination help explain the frequent occurrence of themes of negativity, violence, nightlife, and grandiosity (royalty or divinity) in these titles. The use of …