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The Self Is A Moving Target: The Neuroscience Of Siri Hustvedt's Artists, Jason Tougaw

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Implementation And Evaluation Of A Pilot Training To Improve Transgender Competency Among Medical Staff In An Urban Clinic, Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, Paula Pollard-Thomas, William Pagano, Nathan Levitt, Evelyn I. Lopez, Sarit A. Golub, Asa E. Radix

Publications and Research

Purpose: Transgender individuals (TGI), who identify their gender as different from their sex assigned at birth, continue facing widespread discrimination and mistreatment within the healthcare system. Providers often lack expertise in adequate transgender (TG) care due to limited specialized training. In response to these inadequacies, and to increase evidence-based interventions effecting TG-affirmative healthcare, we implemented and evaluated a structural-level intervention in the form of a comprehensive Provider Training Program (PTP) in TG health within a New York City-based outpatient clinic serving primarily individuals of color and of low socioeconomic status. This pilot intervention aimed to increase medical staff knowledge of …

Within-Person Associations Between Daily Motivation And Self-Efficacy And Drinking Among Problem Drinkers In Treatment, Jon Morgenstern, Alexis Kuerbis, Jessica Houser, Frederick Muench, Sijing Shao, Hayley Treloar Padovano

Publications and Research

Gaining a better understanding of the change process holds promise to improve alcohol treatment. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) coupled with intensive longitudinal data (ILD) approaches have been proposed as promising methods that can advance change process research but have been used infrequently in AUD treatment research. The current study used these approaches to examine the within-person associations of motivation and self-efficacy and drinking among treatment seeking problem drinkers. Participants (N=96) received daily EMA surveys before, during, and after treatment for seven weeks spread over a nine month period. Multi-level modeling was used to test the within-person relationships between the change …

The Physical Activity And Redesigned Community Spaces (Parcs) Study: Protocol Of A Natural Experiment To Investigate The Impact Of Citywide Park Redesign And Renovation, Terry T. K. Huang, Katarzyna E. Wyka, Emily Ferris, Jennifer Gardner, Kelly R. Evenson, Devanshi Tripathi, Gabriel Martinez Soto, Matthew S. Cato, Jon Moon, Julia Wagner, Joan M. Dorn, Diane J. Catellier, Lorna E. Thorpe

Publications and Research

Background: The built environment plays a critical role in promoting physical activity and health. The association between parks, as a key attribute of the built environment, and physical activity, however, remains inconclusive. This project leverages a natural experiment opportunity to assess the impact of the Community Parks Initiative (CPI), a citywide park redesign and renovation effort in New York City, on physical activity, park usage, psychosocial and mental health, and community wellbeing.

Methods: The project will use a longitudinal design with matched controls. Thirty intervention park neighborhoods are socio-demographically matched to 20 control park neighborhoods. The study will investigate whether …

Laughing Or Learning With The Chief Executive? The Impact Of Exposure To Presidents’ Jokes On Message Elaboration, Amy B. Becker, Don Waisanen

Publications and Research

Using the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) and the State of the Union (SOTU) as stimuli, our experiment (N = 403) examines the differential effect of exposure to humorous vs. serious presidential speech on the likelihood of engaging in post-exposure message elaboration. The results suggest that viewers are more likely to engage in message elaboration when viewing serious presidential speech like the SOTU rather than the more humorous WHCD. Additionally, disposition toward the president fails to moderate the impact of varied speech exposure on message elaboration. Our results ultimately show that, while WHCD humor may be quickly discounted, it can …

Unworking Milton: Steps To A Georgics Of The Mind, Steven Swarbrick

Publications and Research

Traditionally read as a poem about laboring subjects who gain power through abstract and abstracting forms of bodily discipline, John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) more compellingly foregrounds the erotics of the Garden as a space where humans and nonhumans intra-act materially and sexually. Following Christopher Hill, who long ago pointed to not one but two revolutions in the history of seventeenth-century English radicalism—the first, ‘the one which succeeded[,] . . . the protestant ethic’; and the second, ‘the revolution which never happened,’ which sought ‘communal property, a far wider democracy[,] and rejected the protestant ethic’—I show how Milton’s Paradise …

Location Means A Lot For College Enrollments, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Profile In Courage In Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Oldowan Hominin Behavior And Ecology At Kanjera South, Kenya, Thomas W. Plummer, Laura C. Bishop

Publications and Research

The Early Stone Age archaeological record does not become persistent and widespread until approximately 2.0-1.7 million years ago, when Oldowan sites spread across Africa and ultimately into Eurasia. However, good records of hominin behavior from this important time interval are uncommon. Here we describe recent findings from the two million year old Oldowan site of Kanjera South, on the Homa Peninsula of southwestern Kenya. Kanjera South is the oldest Oldowan site with large assemblages of stone artifacts and well-preserved archaeological fauna. Our research indicates that hominin activities were situated in an open habitat within a grassland dominated ecosystem, the first …

Hot And Cold Executive Functions In Pure Opioid Users Undergoing Methadone Maintenance Treatment: Effects Of Methadone Dose, Treatment Duration, And Time Between Last Methadone Administration And Testing, Usha Barahmand, E. Tavakolian, A. Khazaee, K. Mohammadi

Publications and Research

Context: Methadone maintenance is a standard treatment for opiate‑dependent individuals. However, deficits in cognitive functioning have been associated with this treatment.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the dose and treatment duration‑related effects of methadone on executive functions.

Setting and Design: Pure male opioid users with no considerable history of other drug abuse, undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) were recruited from a major government‑run de‑addiction center.

Methods: Hot executive functions including decision‑making and emotion recognition were assessed using the Iowa gambling task and Ekman faces test, whereas cold executive functions including working memory (WM), cognitive flexibility, and response inhibition were …

Overlapping Signatures Of Chronic Pain In The Dna Methylation Landscape Of Prefrontal Cortex And Peripheral T Cells, Renaud Massart, Sergiy Dymov, Magali Millecamps, Matthew Suderman, Stephanie Gregoire, Kevin Koenigs, Sebastian Alvarado, Maral Tajerian, Laura S. Stone, Moshe Szyf

Publications and Research

We tested the hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms in the brain and the immune system are associated with chronic pain. Genome-wide DNA methylation assessed in 9 months post nerve-injury (SNI) and Sham rats, in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as well as in T cells revealed a vast difference in the DNA methylation landscape in the brain between the groups and a remarkable overlap (72%) between differentially methylated probes in T cells and prefrontal cortex. DNA methylation states in the PFC showed robust correlation with pain score of animals in several genes involved in pain. Finally, only 11 differentially methylated probes in …

Daoism And Disability, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

Ideas found in the early Daoist texts can inform current debates about disability, since the latter often involve assumptions about personhood and agency that Daoist texts do not share. The two canonical texts of classical Daoism, the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, do not explicitly discuss disability as an object of theory or offer a model of it. They do, however, provide conceptual resources that can enrich contemporary discussions of disability. Two particular ideas are discussed here. Classical Daoist thinking about the body undermines normative assumptions about it that attributions of ‘disabled’ often depend upon; and Daoism vividly problematises the …

Confucian Thought And Care Ethics: An Amicable Split?, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

Since Chenyang Li’s (1994) groundbreaking article there has been interest in reading early Confucian ethics through the lens of care ethics. In this paper, I examine the prospects for dialogue between the two in light of recent work in both fields.

I argue that, despite some similarities, early Confucian ethics is not best understood as a form of care ethics, of the kind articulated by Nel Noddings (1984, 2002) and others. Reasons include incongruence deriving from the absence in the Chinese texts of a developed account of need, and doubts about whether the parent-child relationship in Confucian thought is best …

Proceedings Of The 3rd Annual Cuny Games Festival, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Carlos Hernandez, Kathleen Offenholley, Maura A. Smale, Deborah Sturm, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 22-23, 2016, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Literacy and Story - Anything Can be Attempted: In-Person Simulations and Role-Plays in Educations - Game Design - STEM - Design Research - Literature and Story - Awareness: Gender and Sex - Transformative Games Initiative: Game Design as a Classroom Laboratory for Any Discipline - Narrative and Rhetoric - Design Challenges - Information Literacy and Language - Game Design for All: What’s Your Game Plan? Turn Any Idea into a Game! - Ghosts in the Machine - Game …

Burnout And Depression In Psychiatric Residents, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent, Pierre Vandel, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Kealy et al. (2016) found that 21% of psychiatric residents were suffering symptoms of burnout. A number of problems call that finding into question. First, the writers used a one-item measure to assess burnout. Second, mounting evidence suggests that burnout is a depressive syndrome. Third, unresolvable job stress is related to depression. Given burnout's overlap with depression and the diagnostic blur around burnout, research on the impact of job stress should connect with depression, which is nosologically well characterized and diagnosable using clinically validated instruments.

Burnout And Depression: Label-Related Stigma, Help-Seeking, And Syndrome Overlap, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Romain Brisson, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

We investigated whether burnout and depression differed in terms of public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. Secondarily, we examined the overlap of burnout and depressive symptoms. A total of 1046 French schoolteachers responded to an Internet survey in November–December 2015. The survey included measures of public stigma, help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, burnout and depressive symptoms, self-rated health, neuroticism, extraversion, history of anxiety or depressive disorder, social desirability, and socio-demographic variables. The burnout label appeared to be less stigmatizing than the depression label. In either case, however, fewer than 1% of the participants exhibited …

The Potential Of Early Practice: A Case Study, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

The growing emphasis on teaching performance suggests that education students need consistent opportunities to practice teaching before they “student teach.” This case study examined how first-year candidates in one foundations course viewed their peer teaching experience as a tool to develop competency and skills. Results from their feedback demonstrate the potential of early practice as one straightforward way to augment their clinical experience, meet InTASC standards, and face performance-based assessments like Danielson’s Framework for Teaching and edTPA.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Videoconferencing Smoking Cessation Intervention For Korean American Women: Preliminary Findings, Sun S. Kim, Somporn Sitthisongkram, Kunsook Bernstein, Hua Fang, Won S. Choi, Douglas Ziedonis

Publications and Research

Introduction: Korean women are reluctant to pursue in-person smoking cessation treatment due to stigma attached to women smokers and prefer treatment such as telephone and online smoking cessation programs that they can access secretively at home. However, there is some evidence that face-to-face interaction is the most helpful intervention component for them to quit smoking.

Methods: This study is a pilot clinical trial that examined the acceptability and feasibility of a videoconferencing smoking cessation intervention for Korean American women and compared its preliminary efficacy with a telephone-based intervention. Women of Korean ethnicity were recruited nationwide in the United States and …

Teaching Human Rights: Confronting The Contradictions, John L. Hammond

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Conceptual Content Analysis Of 75 Years Of Diversity Research In Public Administration, Meghna Sabharwal, Helisse Levine, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

Diversity is an important facet of public administration, thus it is important to take stock and examine how the discipline has evolved in response to questions of representative democracy, social equity, and diversity. This article assesses the state-of-the-field by addressing the following question: How has research on diversity in the field of public administration progressed over time? Specifically, we seek to examine how the focus of diversity has transformed over time and the way the field has responded to half a century of legislation and policies aimed at both promoting equality and embracing difference. We utilize a conceptual content analysis …

Deaths Due To Use Of Lethal Force By Law Enforcement: Findings From The National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 U.S. States, 2009–2012, Sarah Degue, Katherine A. Fowler, Cynthia Calkins

Publications and Research

Introduction: Several high-profile cases in the U.S. have drawn public attention to the use of lethal force by law enforcement (LE), yet research on such fatalities is limited. Using data from a public health surveillance system, this study examined the characteristics and circumstances of these violent deaths to inform prevention.

Methods: All fatalities (N¼812) resulting from use of lethal force by on-duty LE from 2009 to 2012 in 17 U.S. states were examined using National Violent Death Reporting System data. Case narratives were coded for additional incident circumstances.

Results: Victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a …

Ethics Pertaining To The Legalities Of Male Routine Infant Circumcision And Surrogate Consent To Non-Therapeutic Surgery, Jason A. Domashevskiy, Artem V. Domashevskiy

Publications and Research

Circumcision is the most contentious surgery performed in the world today. Approximately 38% of the world male population has been circumcised, mostly during the neonatal and prepubescent periods. Circumcision in regularly practiced ubiquitously throughout the Islamic countries, Israel, and the United States; the US is only country who regularly circumcises its boys for a non-religious reason. No world health body advocates circumcision prior to adulthood. Routine Infant Circumcision (RIC) violates the United Nations Policy on Genital Integrity, the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors, and the rules for surrogate consent to surgery. Studies have shown no benefits to circumcision during the …

Improving Reference Service With Evidence, Bonnie R. Nelson

Publications and Research

As part of an assessment process, reference statistics in an academic library were examined over a twenty-year period and revealed steep declines in the numbers of reference questions asked. To attempt to halt or reverse this slide a number of interventions were attempted, including improved signage, outreach to patrons, and increased availability of chat reference. Increasing chat reference was clearly effective; the other interventions showed more modest success.

An Event-Related Potential Study Of Social Information Processing In Adolescents, Danielle Difilipo, Jillian Grose-Fifer

Publications and Research

Increased social awareness is a hallmark of adolescence. The primary aim of this eventrelated potential study was to investigate whether adolescents, in comparison to adults, would show relatively enhanced early neural processing of complex pictures containing socially-relevant information. A secondary aim was to investigate whether there are also gender and age differences in the ways adolescents and adults process social and nonsocial information. We recorded EEGs from 12–17 year-olds and 25–37 year-olds (N = 59) while they viewed pleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System. We found age-related amplitude differences in the N1 and the LPP, and gender-related differences …

The Influence Of Urban Development Dynamics On Community Resilience Practice In New York City After Superstorm Sandy: Experiences From The Lower East Side And The Rockaways, Leigh Graham, Wim Debucquoy, Isabelle Anguelovski

Publications and Research

While (urban) resilience has become an increasingly popular concept, especially in the areas of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), it is often still used as an abstract metaphor, with much debate centered on definitions, differences in approaches, and epistemological consider- ations. Empirical studies examining how community-based organizations (CBOs) “practice” resilience on the ground and what enables these CBOs to organize and mobilize around resilience are lacking. Moreover, in the growing context of competitive and entrepreneurial urbanism and conflicting priorities about urban (re)development, it is unclear how urban development dynamics influence community- based resilience actions. Through empirical …

Afroreggae And Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae: A Study Of The Early Years, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

The following study of AfroReggae and Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae (GCAR) calls attention to Brazilian presence and community organizing in the field of Hip Hop studies with a long memory framework: placing AfroReggae and GCAR in a long history of Africana resistance through music in Latin America. !990s GCAR group arises when reggae and Hip Hop music had become new global forms of solidarity among urban marginalized youths worldwide, making use of old and new strategies of social healing (Fernandes 2011). A close look at lyrics from the Hip Hop fusion band and the associated nonprofit organization shape the concepts …

Exploring The Effect Of Body Appreciation On The Relationship Between Social Networking Site Usage And Body Dissatisfaction, Jennifer Yurchisin, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Kim K.P. Johnson, Haesung Whang

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Who’S Afraid Of Response Bias?, Megan A. K. Peters, Tony Ro, Hakwan Lau

Publications and Research

Response bias (or criterion) contamination is insidious in studies of consciousness: that observers report they do not see a stimulus may not mean they have absolutely no subjective experience; they may be giving such reports in relative terms in the context of other stimuli. Bias-free signal detection theoretic measures provide an excellent method for avoiding response bias confounds, and many researchers correctly adopt this approach. However, here we discuss how a fixation on avoiding criterion effects can also be misleading and detrimental to fruitful inquiry. In a recent paper, Balsdon and Azzopardi (Absolute and relative blindsight. Consciousness and Cognition 2015; …

The “Burnout” Construct: An Inhibitor Of Public Health Action?, Bianchi Renzo, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

The prevention and treatment of the “burnout syndrome” within the critical care community is an important objective of the Moss et al. Burnout in the occupational area is based on the idea that burnout is especially common in individuals who care for critically ill patients. We think that the authors’ observations and recommendations are diminished by the fact that studies of burnout’s prevalence are methodologically problematic. The current definition and use of the burnout construct may in fact be detrimental to public health decision making.

Burnout And Depression: Two Entities Or One, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the overlap in burnout and depression. Method: The sample comprised 1,386 schoolteachers (mean age = 43; mean years taught = 15; 77% women) from 18 different U.S. states. We assessed burnout, using the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, and depression, using the depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire. Results: Treated dimensionally, burnout and depressive symptoms were strongly correlated (.77; disattenuated correlation, .84). Burnout and depressive symptoms were similarly correlated with each of 3 stress-related factors, stressful life events, job adversity, and workplace support. In categorical analyses, 86% of the teachers identified as …