Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On The Neural Substrates Associated With Pleasure, Michael E. Silverman, Peter Muennig, Xun Liu, Zohn Rosen, Martin A. Goldstein

Publications and Research

Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality. Because tonic adversity relates to a diminished ability to experience pleasure, we hypothesized that subjects living in poverty would show diminished neural responsivity to positive stimuli in regions associated with positive experience and reward. Visual images were presented to twenty-two subjects in the context of a EPI-BOLD fMRI paradigm. Significant differences in neural responses between SES groups to poverty vs. neutral images were assessed, examining group, condition, and interaction effects. The data suggest that persons living in low-SES have neural experiences consistent with diminished interest in things generally …

Cloaked Websites: Propaganda, Cyber-Racism And Epistemology In The Digital Era, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

This article analyzes cloaked websites, which are sites published by individuals or groups who conceal authorship in order to disguise deliberately a hidden political agenda. Drawing on the insights of critical theory and the Frankfurt School, this article examines the way in which cloaked websites conceal a variety of political agendas from a range of perspectives. Of particular interest here are cloaked white supremacist sites that disguise cyber-racism. The use of cloaked websites to further political ends raises important questions about knowledge production and epistemology in the digital era. These cloaked sites emerge within a social and political context in …

Review Of "The Globalisation Of Addiction: A Study In Poverty Of The Spirit" By Bruce K. Alexander, Harry G. Levine

Publications and Research

Book review of "The Globalisation Of Addiction: A Study In Poverty Of The Spirit" by Bruce K. Alexander

The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy And Its Antithesis, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

The now taken-for-granted notion that data lead to information, which leads to knowledge, which in turnleads to wisdom was first specified in detail by R. L. Ackoff in 1988. The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy is based on filtration, reduction, and transformation. Besides being causal and hierarchical,the scheme is pyramidal, in that data are plentiful while wisdom is almost nonexistent. Ackoff’s formulalinking these terms together this way permits us to ask what the opposite of knowledge is and whether analogous principles of hierarchy, process, and pyramiding apply to it. The inversion of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy produces a series of opposing terms (including misinformation,error, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Widely Available 3-D Visualization Tools In Support Of Public Participation, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Jennifer L. Weeks, Tim Case

Publications and Research

There is a persistent need for improved tools and techniques to facilitate public involvement in transportation decision making. Despite continuous improvements in increasing public involvement at all phases of transportation decision making, transportation agencies are still seeking more affordable, accessible, and effective means of communicating with a wide range of stakeholders. The report documents a survey of a wide variety of transportation agencies on their use of interactive 3-D visualization for public involvement using an electronic survey. Supplemental qualitative data was generated through telephone interviews with selected survey participants. It concludes with three case studies illustrating applications of interactive 3-D …

Follower Is The New Leader, Or Leading From Anywhere, Jean Amaral

Publications and Research

This invited lecture calls on librarians and others to explore and embrace servant leadership and leading from anywhere in the organization as a model for contributing to the success of communities. "I am a follower, therefore I must lead. It’s up to all of us to make our libraries and communities better places, just places . . . ."

A Statewide Intervention Reduces Bmi In Adults: Shape Up Rhode Island Results, Rena R. Wing, Angela Marinilli Pinto, Melissa M. Crane, Rajiv Kumar, Brad Weinberg, Amy A. Gorin

Publications and Research

Given the epidemic of obesity, approaches to weight loss that can be applied on a community, state, or national level are needed. We report results from Shape Up Rhode Island 2007 (SURI), a state-wide Internet based program involving team-based competition to increase physical activity and achieve weight loss. A total of 4,717 adults (84% female; mean BMI = 29.6 kg/m2 ) enrolled in the 16 week weight loss competition of SURI and 3311 completed at least 12 weeks. Completers reported losing 3.2 ± 3.4 kg, and 30% achieved a clinically significant weight loss of 5% or more. Although modest, these …

Suicide Associated With Military Service, Margo R. Genderson, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Mark S. Kaplan, Michael J. Lyons

Publications and Research

Suicide rates among soldiers and veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) have been steadily growing since 2004, with sharp increases observed more recently. Suicides in the Army are a growing concern on Capitol Hill and in the media. Last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings on the growing incidence of suicides across the armed forces (Federal city digest, 2009, March 18). The Associated Press (AP) underlined the increasing suicide rates among Army personnel (Army reports sharp rise in suicides in January, 2009, Feb. 5). According to the AP, there were 64 suicides in 2004, and …

It's All Happening At The Zoo: Children's Environmental Learning After School, Jason A. Douglas, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Pairing dynamic out-of-school-time (OST) programs with zoos can encourage young people's relationships with and sense of responsibility for animals and the environment. The project presented in this article, Animal Rescuers, gave the authors the opportunity to examine how such a pairing can work. OST programs enable learning in settings that are generally unavailable during school time (Honig & McDonald, 2005). They provide space for collaboration among students, teachers, and others such as program visitors or outside educators. Taking advantage of the flexibility, location, and educational playfulness of an OST setting, the authors worked intensively with a small number of 10-12-year-old …

Information Literacy And Blind And Visually Impaired Students, Rebecca Schiff

Publications and Research

In the summer of 2007, as part of the City University of New York PeopleTech Summer Institute held at Baruch College, the author taught a class in information literacy to a group of blind and visually impaired students, using assistive technology to access the resources of the college library. Despite considerable preparation and experience, teaching the class presented unexpected difficulties, detailed in this paper. Rapid advances in information literacy technology present unusual challenges for the average student—challenges that are magnified when the intermediate assistive technology is itself not easy to master. The author explores the pertinent literature.

Testimony Of Jeremy Travis, President Of John Jay College Of Criminal Justice, Before The U.S. House Of Representatives Committee On Appropriations, Subcommittee On Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies, On “What Works” For Successful Prisoner Reentry, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Lip-Reading Aids Word Recognition Most In Moderate Noise: A Bayesian Explanation Using High-Dimensional Feature Space, Wei Ji Ma, Xiang Zhou, Lars A. Ross, John J. Foxe, Lucas C. Parra

Publications and Research

Watching a speaker's facial movements can dramatically enhance our ability to comprehend words, especially in noisy environments. From a general doctrine of combining information from different sensory modalities (the principle of inverse effectiveness), one would expect that the visual signals would be most effective at the highest levels of auditory noise. In contrast, we find, in accord with a recent paper, that visual information improves performance more at intermediate levels of auditory noise than at the highest levels, and we show that a novel visual stimulus containing only temporal information does the same. We present a Bayesian model of optimal …

To See Or Not To See: Prestimulus Α Phase Predicts Visual Awareness, Kyle E. Mathewson, Gabriele Gratton, Monica Fabiani, Diane M. Beck, Tony Ro

Publications and Research

We often fail to see something that at other times is readily detectable. Because the visual stimulus itself is unchanged, this variability in conscious awareness is likely related to changes in the brain. Here we show that the phase of EEG α rhythm measured over posterior brain regions can reliably predict both subsequent visual detection and stimulus-elicited cortical activation levels in a metacontrast masking paradigm. When a visual target presentation coincides with the trough of an α wave, cortical activation is suppressed as early as 100 ms after stimulus onset, and observers are less likely to detect the target. Thus, …

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Avoidance Among Pregnant African-American Nonsmokers, Susan M. Blake, Kennan D. Murray, M. Nabil El-Khorazaty, Marie G. Gantz, Michele Kiely, Dana Best, Jill G. Joseph, Ayman El-Mohandes

Publications and Research

Background—Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure during pregnancy contributes to adverse infant health outcomes. Limited previous research has focused on identifying correlates of ETS avoidance. This study sought to identify proximal and more distal correlates of ETS avoidance early in pregnancy among African-American women. Methods—From a sample of low-income, black women (n=1044) recruited in six urban, prenatal care clinics (July 2001–October 2003), cotinine-confirmed nonsmokers with partners, household/ family members, or friends who smoked (n=450) were identified and divided into two groups: any past-7-day ETS exposure and cotinine-confirmed ETS avoidance. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses identified factors associated with ETS …

Nonknowledge: The Bibliographical Organization Of Ignorance, Stupidity, Error, And Unreason: Part One, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Starting with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom paradigm in information science it is possible to derive a model of the opposite of knowledge having hierarchical qualities. A range of counterpoints to concepts in the knowledge hierarchy can be identified and ascribed the overall term “nonknowledge.” This model creates a conceptual framework for understanding the connections between topics such as error, ignorance, stupidity, folly, popular misconceptions, and unreason by locating them as levels or phases of nonknowledge. The concept of nonknowledge links heretofore disconnected discourses on these individual topics by philosophers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, satirists, and others. Subject headings provide access to the categories …

Right Hemispheric Contributions To Fine Auditory Temporal Discriminations: High-Density Electrical Mapping Of The Duration Mismatch Negativity (Mmn), Pierfilippo De Sanctis, Sophie Molholm, Marina Shpaner, Walter Ritter, John J. Foxe

Publications and Research

That language processing is primarily a function of the left hemisphere has led to the supposition that auditory temporal discrimination is particularly well-tuned in the left hemisphere, since speech discrimination is thought to rely heavily on the registration of temporal transitions. However, physiological data have not consistently supported this view. Rather, functional imaging studies often show equally strong, if not stronger, contributions from the right hemisphere during temporal processing tasks, suggesting a more complex underlying neural substrate. The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the human auditory evoked-potential provides a sensitive metric of duration processing in human auditory cortex and lateralization …

Using The Lure Of Gang Life To Teach Interpersonal And Group Attraction, Gordon Alley-Young

Publications and Research

Course: Small Group Communication

Objective: Students will apply group and interpersonal attraction theories to discover the factors impacting a young man's small group membership choices in The Lure of Gang Life; this short story illustrates the forces that attract individuals to different small groups across their lives.

Writing Across The Curriculum: Professional Communication And The Writing That Supports It, Andrea Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Judicial Deference To Legislative Fact-Finding, Caitlin Borgmann

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of Life: Belief And Reason In The Abortion Debate, Caitlin Borgmann

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Domestic Violence Services And Advocacy, Julie Goldscheid

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Therapeutic Reproduction And Human Dignity, Richard Storrow

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Problem Method: No Simple Solution, Shirley Lung

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Broken Lives From Broken Windows: The Hidden Costs Of Aggressive Order-Maintenance Policing, K. Babe Howell

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Trust, Rebecca Bratspies

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

School-Based Screening To Identify At-Risk Students Not Already Known To School Professionals: The Columbia Suicide Screen, Michelle A. Scott, Holly C. Wilcox, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Mark Davies, Roger C. Hicks, J. Blake Turner, David Shaffer

Publications and Research

Objectives.Wesought todeterminethedegreeofoverlapbetweenstudents identified through school-based suicide screening and those thought to be at risk by school administrative and clinical professionals. Methods. Students from7 high schools in theNewYorkmetropolitan area completed the Columbia Suicide Screen; 489 of the 1729 students screened had positive results. The clinical status of 641 students (73% of those who had screened positive and 23%of thosewho had screened negative) was assessedwithmodules from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children. School professionals nominated by their principal and unaware of students’ screening and diagnostic status were asked to indicate whether they were concerned about the emotional well-being of each participating student. …

Attitudes Of Gifted Children, Christy Folsom

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Reflective Teaching Journal: An Instructional Improvement Tool For Academic Librarians, Elizabeth K. Tompkins

Publications and Research

This paper explores the practice of keeping a reflective teaching journal to improve classroom instruction. Reflective practice and journaling have a rich tradition in the teacher education field. Accordingly, the teacher education literature provides the starting point for this case study of keeping a reflective teaching journal for library sessions given to first semester freshmen enrolled in a learning community. The journaling process proved useful by helping to improve instruction while also providing a mechanism to link theory with practice.

Using Blackboard To Create Library Research Skills Assessment, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

Like other college and university departments, academic libraries are increasingly expected to assess their services and facilities. This article describes an initial step in the development of a comprehensive assessment program for library instruction in the Brooklyn College Library. A pre- and post-quiz were developed based on the curriculum for a required library session in an introductory English composition course. The quizzes were designed to establish a baseline for student knowledge of information literacy as well as measure the effect of library instruction on student learning. We also sought to evaluate the suitability of the Blackboard learning management system for …

"Model Mamas": The Domestic Partnership Of Home Economics Pioneers Flora Rose And Martha Van Rensselaer, Megan J. Elias

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.