Digital Commons Network^™

Scarcity Or Economic Insecurity? Two Yardsticks For Measuring Capitalism’S Performance, Costas Panayotakis

Publications and Research

This article argues that capitalism’s relationship to economic insecurity is as important for the evaluation of that system as its relationship to scarcity. Critically analyzing the neoclassical and Marxist focus on capitalism’s relationship to scarcity, the article describes how capitalism’s relationship to economic insecurity offers a more cogent elaboration of these traditions’ shared belief that the economic system should serve people. In particular, while critical of the neoclassical portrayal of capitalism as a system using scarce resources efficiently, this paper also argues, against Marxism, that an alternative to capitalism might be preferable even if scarcity is not abolished.

Relationships Between Dress And Gender Identity: Lgbtqia+, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Diana Saiki, Kim K. P. Johnson, Rafi Sahanoor, Arsha Attique

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

College Majors And Unemployment Rates, Anna M. Gellerman, Harshita Ahuja

Publications and Research

College undergraduates often face the question of whether their major and related job force have high unemployment rates. The perceived high unemployment rates of certain majors due to circulating misinformation presents a need for comprehensive research on college majors and their associated unemployment rate. This paper dives into a ten year trend of unemployment rates by college major, and state to state variabilities of majors and their rates.

From Burnout To Occupational Depression: Recent Developments In Research On Job-Related Distress And Occupational Health, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Job-related distress has been a focal concern in occupational health science. Job-related distress has a well-documented health-damaging and life-threatening character, not to mention its economic cost. In this article, we review recent developments in research on job-related distress and examine ongoing changes in how job-related distress is conceptualized and assessed. By adopting an approach that is theoretically, empirically, and clinically informed, we demonstrate how the construct of burnout and its measures, long favored in research on job-related distress, have proved to be problematic. We underline a new recommendation for addressing job-related distress within the long-established framework of depression research. In …

Linguistically Responsive Instruction In Corequisite Courses At Community Colleges, Heather B. Finn, Sharon Avni

Publications and Research

English Learners (ELs) attend community colleges at a greater rate than four-year schools, making community colleges primary sites of ESL education in American higher education. These institutions’ recent embrace of the corequisite structure – a pairing of a non-credit developmental course with a credit-bearing disciplinary content course in order to accelerate students’ progress in their coursework – has direct implications for ELs. As corequisites are enacted in a wide range of content areas, professors will need to attend to students’ language development in a wide range of disciplinary courses. This qualitative study applies Linguistically Responsive Instruction as a framework to …

Will My Imbalance End?, Wendy W. Tan

Publications and Research

The epidemics of violence, fatal robbery, repetitive burglaries, inflation, shortage of labor, and a variety of abnormal phenomena during the Pandemic have pressured many Americans (the author inclusive) to walk in the dark alley of fear, and consequently lost the balance of visions to the future. In this reflective article, the author describes her own frustration and how she works on ending her imbalance

Caregiver Decision-Making Concerning Involuntary Treatment In Dementia Care At Home, Vincent Ra Moermans, Angela Mhj Mengelers, Michel Hc Bleijlevens, Hilde Verbeek, Bernadette Dierckx De Casterle, Koen Milisen, Elizabeth Capezuti, Jan Ph Hamers

Publications and Research

Background: Dementia care at home often involves decisions in which the caregiver must weigh safety concerns with respect for autonomy. These dilemmas can lead to situations where caregivers provide care against the will of persons living with dementia, referred to as involuntary treatment. To prevent this, insight is needed into how family caregivers of persons living with dementia deal with care situations that can lead to involuntary treatment.

Objective: To identify and describe family caregivers’ experiences regarding care decisions for situations that can lead to involuntary treatment use in persons living with dementia at home.

Research design: A qualitative …

Systematic Review Of Pathways To Care In The U.S. For Black Individuals With Early Psychosis, Oladunni Oluwoye, Beshaun Davis, Franchesca S. Kuhney, Deidre M. Anglin

Publications and Research

The pathway to receiving specialty care for first episode psychosis (FEP) among Black youth in the US has received little attention despite documented challenges that negatively impact engagement in care and clinical outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of US-based research, reporting findings related to the pathway experiences of Black individuals with FEP and their family members. A systematic search of PubMed, PsycInfo, and Embase/Medline was performed with no date restrictions up to April 2021. Included studies had samples with at least 75% Black individuals and/or their family members or explicitly examined racial differences. Of the 80 abstracts screened, 28 …

Lookism: An Examination Of Inequality In Appearance Within Diversity Practices, Hynndie Ozirus, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis

Publications and Research

During the formation of the United States, much of unification has centered on power and the privileged. This history is often painful to speak on in the communities with people of color. Rhodes (2010) discussed cultural injustices of being unattractive in a society appearance- obsessed with potential for “looks” to influence hiring practices, such as better career options and higher pay. The purpose of this was to investigate the issue of how lookism is defined and studied in the media especially in regards to people of color. The review of literature examines the relationship between income, education, as well as …

Factors Influencing Academic Self-Efficacy Among Nursing Students During Covid-19: A Path Analysis, Shinhi Han, Koun Eum, Hee Sun Kang, Kathleen Karsten

Publications and Research

Introduction: The shift to online learning owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is posing an additional challenge to academic success, particularly for students who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). This study aimed to examine the factors that contribute to academic self-efficacy among ESL nursing students.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study using path analysis with 113 undergraduate ESL nursing students in New York City. Data were collected online using self-report measures of the study variables: academic self-efficacy, perfectionistic concerns, acculturative stress, and e-learning stress. A hypothetical path model was tested using AMOS 26.0.

Results: …

Introduction: From Solidão, To Isolation, To Solidão-Rity, Luciane Ramos Silva, Tanya Saunders, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Solidão is a concept from Black Brazilian Gender Studies that does not have a US Black feminist or queer of color equivalent, nor does it translate into a single word in the English language. It describes shared isolation as an affective relational phenomenon with meanings as multiple as there are Black women. Solidão is inherent to the experiences of Black women considering the historical, social, and racial vectors that traverse individual experiences.

But how do you frame intersectional theory with Afro-Atlantic and African knowledge production outside of the United States? This is an introduction to the 2021 special issue of …

Intra-Participant And Inter-Analyst Cacophony: Working The Hyphen Between Modalities Using Provocative Reflexivity, David A. Caicedo, Andrea Nikté Juarez Mendoza, Miguel Pinedo

Publications and Research

Multimodal psychological research highlights the benefit of using complementary approaches to the phenomenological study of lived experience. Rather than focus on any individual method, this study attempts to concentrate on the transition, or hyphen, between them, as a place for reflexivity, ethics, and theory. Participants were 14 adults, recruited from ‘New York Community College’ and ‘New Jersey Community College’ in the U.S., who engaged in focus groups where they completed two activities: drawing a map of their personal journey to the college or of their self-identity, and their definitions for the immigration-related terms illegal and undocumented. Results demonstrated that …

The Aesthetic Legacy Of Evolution: The History Of The Arts As A Window Into Human Nature, Aaron Kozbelt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Full-Factorial Randomized Controlled Trial Of Adjunct Couples Hiv Testing And Counseling Components Addressing Drug Use And Communication Skills Among Sexual Minority Male Couples, Tyrel J. Starks, Kory D. Kyre, Christine B. Cowles, Juan Castiblanco, Catherine Washington, Jayelin N. Parker, Erin M. Kahle, Rob Stephenson

Publications and Research

Background: The past decade has seen increasing attention directed to the development of HIV prevention interventions for male couples, driven by epidemiological data indicating that main or primary – rather than causal – partnerships account for a substantial number of HIV infections in this population. Couples HIV testing and counseling (CHTC) has emerged as a standard of care in the US. This protocol describes a study that aims to evaluate the efficacy of two adjunct components to CHTC – communication training (CT) videos and a substance use module (SUM) – to reduce drug use and sexual HIV transmission risk …

Peer-Led Team Learning In Mathematics: An Effort To Address Diversity And Inclusion Through Learning And Leadership, Janet Liou-Mark, Melanie L. Villatoro, Ariane Masuda, Malika Ikramova, Farjana Shati, Julia Rivera, Victor Lee

Publications and Research

The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model has shown to be an effective instructional method to support females, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The collaborative problem-solving setting, led by a peer leader, fosters learning that engages all the students. There are six critical components that are vital to the PLTL model: 1) The PLTL Workshop is integral to the course; 2) Faculty is actively involved; 3) Peer Leaders are well trained; 4) The PLTL Workshop modules are challenging; 5) PLTL workshops are allocated time and space; and 6) There is institutional support. City Tech …

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

How Can I Get Covid?: Understanding Diferences In American Heterosexual And Sexual Minority Men’S Risk Perception, Devon M. Price, Amanda N. Gesselman, Rachel A. Fikslin, Alison J. Goldberg, Omaima Pervez, Mora A. Reinka, Elissia Franklin

Publications and Research

Men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections compared to women, but their risk perceptions around COVID-19 are persis - tently lower. Further, men often engage in less health promotion behavior because self-care in this capacity is seen as weak or less masculine. This combination has consequences for mortality; thus, a better understanding of men’s COVID-19 cognitions and individual diference factors is critical. In a web-based survey conducted during the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S., we collected risk perceptions of various sexual and non-sexual behaviors from heterosexual ( n = 137) and gay/bisexual men ( n = 108). …

Treatment Selection Using Prototyping In Latent-Space With Application To Depression Treatment, Akiva Kleinerman, Ariel Rosenfeld, David Benrimoh, Robert Fratila, Caitrin Armstrong, Joseph Mehltretter, Eliyahu Shneider, Amit Yaniv-Rosenfeld, Jordan Karp, Charles F. Reynolds, Gustavo Turecki, Adam Kapelner

Publications and Research

Machine-assisted treatment selection commonly follows one of two paradigms: a fully personalized paradigm which ignores any possible clustering of patients; or a sub-grouping paradigm which ignores personal differences within the identified groups. While both paradigms have shown promising results, each of them suffers from important limitations. In this article, we propose a novel deep learning-based treatment selection approach that is shown to strike a balance between the two paradigms using latent-space prototyping. Our approach is specifically tailored for domains in which effective prototypes and sub-groups of patients are assumed to exist, but groupings relevant to the training objective are not …

Changes In Utilization Of Birth Control And Prep During Covid‑19 In The Usa: A Mixed‑Method Analysis, Rachel A. Fikslin, Alison J. Goldberg, Amanda N. Gesselman, Mora A. Reinka, Omaima Pervez, Elissia T. Franklin, Olivia Ahn, Devon M. Price

Publications and Research

In the USA, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges beyond the direct consequences of the infection. Because of shifting resources in response to need, many domains within the healthcare sector unrelated to COVID-19 have had inter - rupted abilities to provide care. In the current study, we focus on preventative sexual health care during the pandemic. In a sample of 511 (mean age = 27.7) people, we examined quantitative data regarding continuation and discontinuation of birth control and PrEP during the pandemic, along with qualitative data illustrating the underlying reasons for participants’ (dis) continuation. Results showed that most (92.5%) of …

The Effect Of Body Mass Index On Brain Volume And Cognitive Function In Relapsing – Remitting Multiple Sclerosis: A Combirx Secondary Analysis, Aliza Bitton Ben-Zacharia, Malvin N. Janal, Abraham A. Brody, Jerry Wolinsky, Fred Lublin, Gary Cutter

Publications and Research

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease leading to physical, emotional and cognitive disability. High body mass index (BMI) may impact cognitive function and brain volume in MS. Yet, there is paucity of evidence addressing the impact of BMI on cognitive function and brain volume in MS.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of BMI on normal appearing brain volume and cognitive function in patients with relapsing – remitting MS.

METHODS: A secondary data analysis of the NIH CombiRx study was conducted. Multivariate regression and mixed model analyses were executed to analyze …

Impact Of Forensic Medical Evaluations On Immigration Relief Grant Rates And Correlates Of Outcomes In The United States., Holly G. Atkinson, Katarzyna Wyka, Kathryn Hampton, Christian Seno, Elizabeth Yim, Deborah Ottenheimer, Nermeen Arastu

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of forensic medical evaluations on grant rates for applicants seeking immigration relief in the United States (U.S.) and to identify significant correlates of grant success. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 2584 cases initiated by Physicians for Human Rights between 2008-2018 that included forensic medical evaluations, and found that 81.6% of applicants for various forms of immigration relief were granted relief, as compared to the national asylum grant rate of 42.4%. Among the study’s cohort, the majority (73.7%) of positive outcomes were grants of asylum. A multivariable regression analysis revealed …

An Examination Of Coping Strategies And Intent To Leave Child Welfare During The Covid 19 Pandemic, Francie J. Julien‑Chinn, Colleen C. Katz, Eden Wall

Publications and Research

Child welfare work is inherently difficult, and child welfare agencies are known to experience high rates of turnover. We sought to expand the existing literature on intention to leave one’s child welfare agency and commitment to child welfare work through examining the coping mechanisms of frontline workers. Having and utilizing healthy coping mechanisms has proved beneficial to child welfare workers in previous research. In this paper, we examine specific coping mechanisms identifed in the Comprehensive Organizational Health Assessment and how they were associated with child welfare workers’ intent to leave their agency and their commitment to remain in the field …

Connection Failure: War, Spiritualism And Communications Media In Violet Hunt's "Love's Last Leave.", Melissa Dinsman, Heather M. Robinson

Publications and Research

An overlooked figure of modernist circles, Violent Hunt was a suffragette, novelist, and author of ghost stories. In her second collection of haunted narratives, More Tales of The Uneasy (1925), Hunt explores the ghostliness of the Great War, both for those on the front and at home. In this essay, we focus on the third story in this volume, “Love’s Last Leave,” and argue that Hunt includes both ghost story tropes and communications media to articulate the real deadliness of the Great War. Communications technology and spiritualism share a similar historical evolution, and in “Love’s Last Leave” both types …

We Are Each Other’S Breath: Tracing Interdependency Through Critical Poetic Inquiry, Karen Zaino, Jordan Bell

Publications and Research

In this paper, we utilize poetic methods that seek to surface, but not overdetermine, the unanticipated relational excess produced through literacy practices. Karen, a queer white woman, and Jordan, a cis-gendered heterosexual Black man, wrote a series of letters to one another throughout the Spring 2020 semester. We turned to critical poetic inquiry to analyze the letters, interested in poetry’s capacity to highlight literacy’s critical power and its emergent potential. We found ourselves implicated in each other’s lives in new ways; we found our relationship both strengthened and tested. Such relational indeterminacy creates methodological challenges in literacy research. We found …

Health Inequality Analysis In Europe: Exploring The Potential Of The Eq-5d As Outcome, Inge Spronk, Juanita A. Haagsma, Erica I. Lubetkin, Suzanne Polinder, M F. Janssen, G J. Bonsel

Publications and Research

Objective: This study explored the additive value of the multi-item EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) as an outcome measure in health inequality analyses, relative to the single-item EuroQol visual analog scale (EQ VAS).

Methods: A sample comprising the general population from Italy, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom (UK) completed the EQ-5D-5L and the EQ VAS. The level of education was selected as a proxy for socio-economic status (SES). EQ-5D-5L level sum scores (LSS) were compared against EQ VAS scores. Stratified and multivariable analyses were used to study the associations between SES and the LSS/EQ VAS relative to the presence of chronic …

Psychosocial Factors Associated With Mask-Wearing Behavior During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cliff (Yung-Chi) Chen, Mengjia Lei

Publications and Research

Although increasing evidence has supported the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), inconsistent and noncompliant mask-wearing behavior has been observed among members of the society. Because mask-wearing is often considered a social contract, it is important to understand the psychosocial factors that influence people’s mask-wearing behavior in order to implement the necessary steps to respond to the pandemic. Based on the protection motivation theory (PMT), this study examined the cognitive factors (threat and coping appraisals) that contribute to mask-wearing behavior and the intention to engage in health protective behavior until the end of the pandemic. …

Dataset Of Concurrent Eeg, Ecg, And Behavior With Multiple Doses Of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation, Nigel Gebodh, Zeinab Esmaeilpour, Abhishek Datta, Marom Bikson

Publications and Research

We present a dataset combining human-participant high-density electroencephalography (EEG) with physiological and continuous behavioral metrics during transcranial electrical stimulation (tES). Data include within participant application of nine High-Definition tES (HD-tES) types, targeting three cortical regions (frontal, motor, parietal) with three stimulation waveforms (DC, 5 Hz, 30 Hz); more than 783 total stimulation trials over 62 sessions with EEG, physiological (ECG, EOG), and continuous behavioral vigilance/alertness metrics. Experiment 1 and 2 consisted of participants performing a continuous vigilance/alertness task over three 70-minute and two 70.5-minute sessions, respectively. Demographic data were collected, as well as self-reported wellness questionnaires before and after each …

Racial And Ethnic Data Reported For Peanut Allergy Epidemiology Do Little To Advance Its Cause, Treatment, Or Prevention, Nigel Mark Thomas

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Identity Selection And The Social Construction Of Birthdays, Brett W. Pelham, Tracy Dehart, Mitsuru Shimizu, Curtis D. Hardin, H. Anna Han, William Von Hippel

Publications and Research

We argue that rather than being a wholly random event, birthdays are sometimes selected by parents. We further argue that such effects have changed over time and are the result of important psychological processes. Long ago, U.S. American parents greatly overclaimed holidays as their children’s birthdays. These effects were larger for more important holidays, and they grew smaller as births moved to hospitals and became officially documented. These effects were exaggerated for ethnic groups that deeply valued specific holidays. Parents also overclaimed well-liked calendar days and avoided disliked calendar days as their children’s birthdays. However, after birthday selection effects virtually …

Partisanship And The Politics Of Covid Vaccine Hesitancy, David Jones, Monika L. Mcdermott

Publications and Research

Has partisan polarization reached the stage that it now affects Americans’ decisions whether or not to get vaccinated against a pervasive and deadly virus such as COVID-19? To date, the evidence has largely been hypothetical—collected before the vaccine was widely available—superficial, or contradictory. Using two original surveys conducted at two different time periods after vaccines became available, this study represents one of the first efforts to systematically analyze the role of party affiliation in predicting vaccine hesitancy. We find that even after controlling for a host of demographic and attitudinal variables, Republicans are significantly less likely—and Democrats more likely—to be …