Digital Commons Network^™

Binding Moral Values Gain Importance In The Presence Of Close Others, Daniel A. Yudkin, Ana P. Gantman, Wilhelm Hofmann, Jordi Quoidbach

Publications and Research

A key function of morality is to regulate social behavior. Research suggests moral values may be divided into two types: binding values, which govern behavior in groups, and individualizing values, which promote personal rights and freedoms. Because people tend to mentally activate concepts in situations in which they may prove useful, the importance they afford moral values may vary according to whom they are with in the moment. In particular, because binding values help regulate communal behavior, people may afford these values more importance when in the presence of close (versus distant) others. Five studies test and support this hypothesis. …

A Review Of Sars-Cov-2, Responsible For Covid-19: History, Biology, Infection Mechanism, Antigenic Vaccines, Their Risks And How An Alternate Rbd Vaccine Is Safer?, Zmg Sarwar Jahangir, Arleta Helena Marnik

Publications and Research

The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)-CoV (Coronavirus)-2 S(spike)-protein mRNA/cDNA currently being used as vaccines are antigenic but not antigens against SARS-CoV-2, that causes COVID (Coronavirus Disease) -19. Furthermore, the mRNA and cDNA antigenic vaccines also have potentials for homologous as well as heterologous recombination, primarily into the somatic cell DNA of the vaccine recipients. On the contrary, a SARS-CoV-2 RBD-protein antigen, a part of the S-protein, will directly stimulate antibody production against SARS-CoV-2. Hence, a vaccine composed of SARS-CoV-2 RBD-protein as a safer, fast acting, and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and thus against COVID-19. This is also useful for some …

Assessment Challenges In Acquired Aphasia In Multilingual Individuals, Monica Norvik, Mira Goral

Publications and Research

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder resulting from damage to the brain, most typically a stroke in the left cerebral hemisphere. The degree and type of impairment vary depending on the site and size of the lesion, and the extent to which people with aphasia recover – with time and therapeutic intervention – their pre-stroke linguistic skills varies, depending on exogenous and endogenous variables. Multilingual speakers who acquire aphasia may exhibit comparable or different profiles of impairment in each of their languages. The present chapter explores the challenges associated with the assessment of all languages of multilingual and multicultural speakers …

Aphasia In Multilingual Patients, Mira Goral, Zahra Hejazi

Publications and Research

Purpose of Review

We summarize recent published work concerning assessment and treatment of aphasia in bilingual and multilingual people and review current related models of treatment outcomes. As well, we discuss studies that address the recently debated topic of cognitive processes in bilingual individuals with aphasia, with a focus on the effects of bilingualism on aphasia recovery and its potential protective effects.

Recent Findings

Providing assessment and treatment tools that best serve multilingual individuals with aphasia and unpacking the variables and mechanisms that underlie response to treatment have emerged as goals of several recent studies. Additionally, while findings are still …

All We Need Is One Mic: A Call For Anti-Racist Solidarity To Deconstruct Anti-Black Racism In Educational Leadership, Soribel Genao, Yaribel Mercedes

Publications and Research

In this article, we outline some of the vital measurements of racism and anti-blackness as a macro system in education. We contend that principal preparation programs have not explicitly prioritized anti-racist school leadership, while often resisting the possibilities of solidarity or one mic of knowledge to increase anti-racist dispositions. Considering the lexicon of whiteness as an assemblage, a racial discourse should be “supported by material practices and institutions,” that prepare educational leaders to examine anti-blackness curriculum that have been embedded as a standard method. We also posit that theoretical understanding of racism as global whiteness from a post-oppositional lens and …

Women’S Political Leadership And Adult Health: Evidence From Rural And Urban China, Hongwei Xu, Nancy Luke, Susan E. Short

Publications and Research

This study examined the role of women’s political leadership at the community level in China, a context that has experienced recent political and socioeconomic change and has a distinctive rural-urban divide. Drawing on longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (N = 40,918~52,406 person-year observations), we found that female community directors outnumbered male directors in urban China but were much less common in rural areas. Female community directors had higher levels of human capital regardless of rural or urban location. Residents living in female-directed communities reported better mental health, but not physical health or life satisfaction, compared to those …

Maternal Cannabis Use Is Associated With Suppression Of Immune Gene Networks In Placenta And Increased Anxiety Phenotypes In Offspring, Gregory Rompala, Yoko Nomura, Yasmin L. Hurd

Publications and Research

While cannabis is among the most used recreational drugs during pregnancy, the impact of maternal cannabis use (mCB) on fetal and child development remains unclear. Here, we assessed the effects of mCB on psychosocial and physiological measures in young children along with the potential relevance of the in-utero environment reflected in the placental transcriptome. Children (~3-6 years) were assessed for hair hormone levels, neurobehavioral traits on the behavioral assessment system for children (BASC-2) survey, and heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and during auditory startle. For a subset of children with behavioral assessments, placental specimens collected at birth were processed …

Validity, Reliability, And Measurement Error Of A Sit-To-Stand Power Test In Older Adults: A Pre-Registered Study, Anoop T. Balachandran

Publications and Research

Objectives: Lower body power declines with age and is associated with decreased physical function in older adults. However, the majority of the tools available to measure power are expensive and require considerable space and expertise to operate. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity, reliability, and measurement error of a sit-to-stand power test (STSp) to assess lower body power. Methods: 51 community-dwelling adults, 65 years or older, completed a power test using a pneumatic leg press (LP), the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) that includes a test of balance, usual walking speed, and chair stand tests; Timed …

Reflections On The Bgj Anti-Racism Seminar, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

In this Letter to the Editor, Billies (2021) responds to critical and supportive opinion pieces in the British Gestalt Journal (BGJ) following their plenary presentation at BGJ’s 2018 annual seminar (see Asherson Bartram, 2019; O’Malley, 2019). As author of the companion article "How/ Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation from Anti-Black Racism?” (Billies, 2021), Billies, who identifies as white, discusses the intent at the seminar to support white people to increase accountability and reduce harm in dialogue with people of color, while supporting the work and needs of people of color on their terms from a Gestalt perspective. Describing a fishbowl …

All Rise: Suiting Up When Showing Up For The Practice Of Law In The Covid-19 Virtual Legal Environment, Marissa Moran

Publications and Research

The age-old advice: “No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up for work and life!” may be worth remembering as more legal professionals participate in virtual environments due to the COVID-19 mandated court closures.

Virtual court hearings, mediations, and meetings are taking place. Attorneys and legal educators have adapted to changes in how we meet clients and students by utilizing Blackboard Collaborative, Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet/Hangouts, and Skype. Do such changes in our ways of meeting and communicating-within the virtual environment-bring with them a corresponding change in expectations of what is appropriate attire …

Private Struggles In Public Spaces: Documenting Covid-19 Material Culture And Landscapes, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted nearly every facet of our world, including some of the most fundamental forms of human behavior and our conception of the social. Everyday activities now pose a risk to individuals and to society as a whole. This radical shift in how we live has produced a wide array of material responses across the globe. This photo essay seeks to open up dialogue and ask questions about the numerous forms of COVID-19 materiality and altered landscapes that the authors have chronicled, witnessed, documented and cataloged in their communities, using archaeological and ethnographic methods. This materiality includes …

Motivation Profiles Of Urban Preservice Teachers: Relations To Antecedents, Outcomes, And Demographics, Bradley W. Bergey, John Ranellucci

Publications and Research

Given the perennial challenge of attracting and retaining high-quality teachers, especially in large cities, there is a need to understand why preservice teachers in urban districts choose a teaching career, their perceptions of the profession, and how these relate to their initial career commitments and aspirations. Using latent profile analysis, we examined patterns of motivational perceptions with variables from the Factors Influencing Teacher Choice model alongside perceived task effort cost, opportunity cost, and emotional cost of teaching within a diverse sample of 630 preservice teachers. We identified four distinct profiles that differentially related to theorized antecedents (prior teaching and learning …

The House Of Love And The Mental Hospital: Zones Of Care And Recovery In South India, Murphy Halliburton

Publications and Research

The Movement for Global Mental Health has defined the person suffering psychopathology in low-income countries as an abused and suffering subject in need of saving by biomedical psychiatry. Based on fieldwork in Kerala, South India, carried out at psychiatric clinics and a psychosocial rehabilitation centre, this paper examines patients’ experiences of illness, the degree and quality of family support, and attributions made to the role of ‘sneham’, or love, in recovery. The role of love and family involvement may help explain the provocative finding by WHO epidemiological studies that ‘developing’ countries – and India in particular – showed better rates …

How Communications That Portray Unhealthy Food Consumption Reduce Food Intake Among Dieters, Mia M. Birau, Diogo Hildebrand, Carolina O.C. Werle

Publications and Research

Both regulatory agencies and nonprofit organizations seek to understand how different tactics and appeals contained in food and public health advertisements might influence the food intake of an increasingly dieting-concerned population. This article addresses this important issue by examining how consumers who are concerned with their diets react to rich images of unhealthy food consumption. Results of two experiments show that exposure to food advertisements containing unhealthy food consumption imagery reduces food intake among consumers chronically concerned with dieting, whereas a third experiment shows a similar decrease in intended consumption when a public health advertisement portrays the consumption of unhealthy …

Against Whitewashing: The Recent History Of Anti-Racist Action In The British Archives Sector, Alicia Chilcott, Kirsty Fife, James Lowry, Jenny Moran, Arike Oke, Anna Sexton, Jass Thethi

Publications and Research

This article is an account of recent activity in the U.K. archives sector against white supremacy which is written by a number of people active in the work. Through our work, we are aware of previous initiatives in this area, but written sources about the history of this work are patchy at best. This account offers a description of recent activity so that it is "on record". We recognise that a historical account of previous efforts would be valuable, but that is not our objective here. This article offers a statement of the problem of white supremacy in the U.K.’s …

Authentic Stem Research, Practices Of Science, And Interest Development In An Informal Science Education Program, Bobby Habig, Preeti Gupta

Publications and Research

Background: Two critical challenges in science education are how to engage students in the practices of science and how to develop and sustain interest. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which high school youth, the majority of whom are members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM, learn the skills and practices of science and in turn develop interest in conducting scientific research as part of their career pursuits. To accomplish this goal, we applied Hidi and Renninger’s well-tested theoretical framework for studying interest development in the context of a museum-based, informal science …

Translanguaging To Understand Language, Marcela Ossa Parra, Patrick Proctor

Publications and Research

Translanguaging pedagogy is gaining widespread recognition as an approach that recognizes and builds on multilingual students’ linguistic resources. Research on translanguaging pedagogy has predominantly focused on classroom language practices, while studies on the design and enactment of translanguaged instruction are limited. This pilot study contributes to the knowledge base on translanguaged instruction through the design, implementation, and examination of students’ engagement with the content taught in a set of translanguaged lessons. These lessons were based on a language-based English reading curriculum for Spanish-English bilingual upper elementary students. Our approach to translanguaging pedagogy was characterized by: a) use of bilingual texts; …

The Rise Of Prepping In New York City: Community Resilience And Covid-19, Anna Bounds

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Monolingual And Bilingual Reading Processes In Russian: An Exploratory Scanpath Analysis, Olga Parshina, Irina A. Sekerina, Anastasiya Lopukhina, Titus Von Der Malsburg

Publications and Research

In the present study, we used a scanpath approach to investigate reading processes and factors that can shape them in monolingual Russian-speaking adults, 8-year- old children, and bilingual Russian-speaking readers. We found that monolingual adults’ eye movement patterns exhibited a fluent scanpath reading process, representing effortless processing of the written material: They read straight from left to right at a fast pace, skipped words, and regressed rarely. Both high-proficiency heritage-language speakers’ and second graders’ eye movement patterns exhibited an intermediate scanpath reading process, characterized by a slower pace, longer fixations, an absence of word skipping, and short regressive saccades. Second-language …

Flipping The Classroom To Optimize Clinical Decision-Making In The Didactic Setting, Karen Marie Arca-Contreras

Publications and Research

Background: Deliberate inclusion of clinical decision-making nursing skills in the didactic setting will assist students in potentially making better patient care decisions. This can be optimized through use of the flipped learning andragogy. Flipped learning promotes an interactive classroom environment. It fosters teamwork and collaboration. Direct content instruction is the responsibility of students.

Objective: This cohort pilot study investigated how the flipped and nonflipped approach to teaching impacted clinical decision-making and student participation.

Methods: The Clinical Decision-Making in Nursing Scale (CDMNS) was administered to the students in the flipped classroom and the nonflipped classroom on week 1 and …

Influence Of Covid-19 On Changes In Dressing Behaviours Of U.S. Adults., Diana Saiki, Jay Kandiah, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, James A. Jones

Publications and Research

The objective of this research was to assess the impact of the currently lived COVID-19 pandemic on dressing behaviours of a cross-section of the U.S. adult population. Participants (N = 844) completed a survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk which evaluated frequency of wearing of eight dressing categories—accessories, informal dress, formal dress, protective dress, hair practices, scent products, appearance enhancement, and make-up (females) prior to and during the pandemic. Physical, emotional and psychological self-care and demographics were also collected. Overall, during the pandemic participants engaged in less dressing behaviours, dressed informal clothing (e.g., jeans, t-shirts) and incorporated protective dress. These findings …

Lives In Musicology: My Life In Writings, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Responding to an invitation from the editors of Acta Musicologica to tell the story of his life in musicology, Kofi Agawu describes his upbringing and early education in Ghana and his university studies in the UK and the US. In a career focused on teaching, research, and writing, he outlines a number of intellectual projects involving the analysis of African and European music. He ends by acknowledging renewed discussions of race and identity in the musical academy today, and hints at his own growing interest in African art music.

The Role Of The Physical And Social Environment In Observed And Self-Reported Park Use In Low-Income Neighborhoods In New York City, Javier E. Otero Peña, Hanish Kodali, Emily Ferris, Katarzyna Wyka, Setha Low, Kelly R. Evenson, Joan M. Dorn, Lorna E. Thorpe, Terry T. K. Huang

Publications and Research

Physical and social environments of parks and neighborhoods influence park use, but the extent of their relative influence remains unclear. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between the physical and social environment of parks and both observed and self-reported park use in low-income neighborhoods in New York City. We conducted community- (n = 54 parks) and individual-level (n = 904 residents) analyses. At the community level, observed park use was measured using a validated park audit tool and regressed on the number of facilities and programmed activities in parks, violent crime, stop-and-frisk incidents, and traffic accidents. At the …

Public Library-Based Social Work Field Placements: Guidance For Public Libraries Planning To Become A Social Work Practicum Site, Elizabeth A. Wahler, Jacob D. Ressler, Sarah C. Johnson, Colleen Rortvedt, Tasha Saecker, John Helling, Michael A. Williams, Danielle Hoover

Publications and Research

Public libraries are increasingly faced with patron psychosocial needs, including mental health problems, substance use, homelessness, or poverty-related needs. Since library staff are often not trained to address these needs, many are choosing to host on-site social work practicum students to provide information and referrals for patrons presenting with psychosocial needs. However, little existing guidance is available about initiating a social work practicum placement, which can leave libraries unprepared and often “reinventing the wheel”. This manuscript provides guidance on the steps that should be considered by libraries intending to host their first social work practicum student.

How/Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation From Anti-Black Racism?, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, …

Transgender And Gender Non-Binary Healthcare Coverage In State Medicaid Programs: Recommendations For More Equitable Approaches, Robin Kempf, Nicole M. Elias, Alonso J. Rubin-Desimone

Publications and Research

Transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) individuals face discrimination in healthcare settings and barriers to healthcare access, resulting in health disparities. These inequities are compounded by the intersection of lower socioeconomic status and geography. To understand the differences in how states provide healthcare to TGNB individuals in poverty, we ask: What are state Medicaid programs offering TGNB residents, and how can coverage be more equitable across jurisdictions? To answer these questions, we examine medical services covered by 15 diverse Medicaid programs and compare them to the services recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Unsurprisingly, the analysis reveals …

Gender In Emergency Services: Foundations For Greater Equity In Professional Codes Of Ethics, Sebawit Bishu, Sean Mccandless, Nicole M. Elias

Publications and Research

The lack of gender equity in the public sector is a critical issue, especially for emergency services. We explore the gendered nature of firefighting and policing at both professional and organizational levels. We assess gender equity by asking the following questions: (1) How have understandings of gender in emergency services evolved over time? (2) What are the normative implications of emergency services' lack of gender equity? We draw from feminist literature to critique the lack of progress and examine firefighting and policing histories along with the professional ethics codes of the U.S. Fire Administration and the International Association of Chiefs …

Shifting Religious Influences On Attitudes Towards Same-Sex Behavior And Civil Liberties: A Multilevel Across-Time Analysis, Laura M. Moore, Amy Adamczyk, J. Michael Ryan, Seth Ovadia

Publications and Research

Americans’ acceptance of same-sex sexual relations and their willingness to restrict the civil liberties of sexual minorities vary substantially across both time and place even as overall trends have been towards more liberalizing stances. Yet few quantitative studies have explored both the individual and contextual religious factors shaping Americans’ views and none have applied such an analysis to examining attitudes over time. Using hierarchical ordered logistic modeling and time-year interactions with 1973–2016 General Social Survey data, we examine whether the religious characteristics of residents and the contexts in which they reside moderated Americans’ liberalizing attitudes over time. We find that …

The Uncanny Swipe Drive: The Return Of A Racist Mode Of Algorithmic Thought On Dating Apps, Gregory Narr

Publications and Research

As algorithmic media amplify longstanding social oppression, they also seek to colonize every last bit of sociality where that oppression could be resisted. Swipe apps constitute prototypical examples of this dynamic. By employing protocols that foster absent-minded engagement, they allow unconscious racial preferences to be expressed without troubling users’ perceptions of themselves as non-racist. These preferences are then measured by recommender systems that treat “attractiveness” as a zero-sum game, allocate affective flows according to the winners and losers of those games, and ultimately amplify the salience of race as a factor of success for finding intimacy. In thus priming users …

Occupational Depression, Cognitive Performance, And Task Appreciation: A Study Based On Raven’S Advanced Progressive Matrices, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. Research on the criterion validity of the instrument is still in its infancy. In this study, we examined whether the ODI predicted performance on, and appreciation of, a cognitively challenging test. In light of the link established between clinical depression and neuropsychological impairment, and considering that individuals with depressive symptoms are more likely to feel helpless under challenging circumstances, we hypothesized that occupational depression would be associated with poorer cognitive performance and a darkened appreciation of the task undertaken. We relied …