Digital Commons Network^™

'At-Risk' Places: Inequaties In The Distribution Of Environmental Stressors And Prescription Rates Of Mental Health Medications In Glasgow, Scotland, Juliana A. Maantay, Andrew Maroko

Publications and Research

Using geospatial analytical methods, this study examines the association between one aspect of the built environment, namely, the concentration of vacant and derelict land (VDL), and the prevalence of mental health disorders (using the proxy variable of mental health medication prescription rates) in Glasgow, Scotland. This study builds on our previous research, which demonstrated the spatial correspondence between the locations of VDL in Glasgow and several physical health outcomes. Numerous studies of other locales have found similar correspondence between different elements of the built environment and various health outcomes. This is the first study of its kind to look at …

Factors Influencing The Choice Of A Safe Haven For Offloading Illegally Caught Fish: A Comparative Analysis Of Developed And Developing Economies, Nerea Marteache, Julie S. Viollaz, Gohar A. Petrossian

Publications and Research

Using data from 72 countries, this study focuses on factors that affect illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels’ choice of country to offload their catch, with a specific emphasis on the differences between developed and developing economies. The concept of choice-structuring properties is applied to analyze whether the following factors influence the selection of a country: concealability of vessels and illegally caught fish; convenience of the ports; strength of fisheries monitoring, control, and surveillance measures; effectiveness of country governance; and commitment to wildlife protection regulations. Results indicate that, rather than a country’s level of development, situational factors play a …

Situational Prevention And Public Transport Crime In El Salvador, Mangai Natarajan, Ronald Clarke, Carlos Carcach, Carlos Ponce, Margarita Beneke De Sanfeliú, Dolores Escobar Polanco, Mario Chávez, Mauricio Shi

Publications and Research

By any standard, there is a serious problem of crime on the public transport system in El Salvador. Guided by crime opportunity theory, this study undertook a rapid assessment of the problem consisting of a systematic observation of public transport in El Salvador and focus group discussions with passengers, bus operators, police and bus company owners/managers. The purposes were (1) to describe the main forms of crime and disorder afflicting the system, (2) to identify features of the system that contribute to the high levels of crime and disorder, and (3) to identify preventive measures, consistent with international experience. A …

Supporting Teachers’ Learning About Mathematical Modeling, June L. Gastón, Barbara A. Lawrence

Publications and Research

In the United States, one of the Standards for Mathematical Practice of the Common Core Curriculum (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010) is Model with mathematics. This standard requires that students be taught in a manner that will enable them to ―apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace‖ (p. 7). However many prospective and practicing teachers acquire a pedagogical style that does not support this standard. To promote higher levels of student thinking associated with mathematical modeling, teachers must thus be taught not only what mathematical modeling is, but how it …

Stargate Theatre Company: Engaging Justice-Involved Youth In Creativity And Growth, Jeffrey A. Butts, Martha Wade Steketee

Publications and Research

This report provides a possible starting point for an evaluation of The Stargate Theater company. The Stargate Theater Company, embedded in the resources, expertise, and artistry of the Manhattan Theatre Club Education Program, recruits its members, 10-15 males, from youth services agencies for a seven-week summer arts program. Members of the program write raw materials which become performable text and perform the work with the help of professional theater artists. The writer-performers work for pay and ultimately perform their own words about their life experiences. The program aims to be a paid job and a work readiness training program, a …

Learning From “Dirty Jobs:” Reflection On Work In The Classroom, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

This article will examine how the work environment presented through popular culture can enrich and extend ideas of work in a community college curriculum. The article presents the context and pedagogy of utilizing notions of “dirty jobs” in the classroom and highlights the discoveries made about theories of work in the process. Students documented these discoveries using three writing assignments. These scaffolded assignments created individual ethnographic responses to the key question: “What is Work”? By using meta-cognitive teaching practices and popular culture, students were able to use the guided writing activities to explore their individual notions of work, career, and …

Opening Up The Dialogue Across Disciplines: Making Room For Inquiry And Creativity From Pre-Kindergarten Through University, Amanda Nicole Gulla, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

Professional development with teachers, whether they are in pre-K-12 schools or in higher education, creates opportunities for discussions among teachers and teacher educators about how to find spaces for creativity and the imagination within the struc- ture of the Common Core State Standards, a set of national standards adopted on a state- by-state basis in the U.S. Two education faculty members and an education librarian from a large city university held workshops, bringing together university faculty in arts and humanities, science, mathematics and education, and pre-K-12 teachers to explore the potential for inquiry and creativity in the Common Core State …

Hollywood’S Image Of The Second World War - David Ayer’S Fury (2014) And The Depiction Of Violence In War, Frank Jacob

Publications and Research

The article describes the way in which violence is depicted in David Ayer’s World War II movie Fury (2014). It also deals with the general question how violence is visualized in current Hollywood movies.

Improving Antenatal Care In Prisons, Molly Skerker, Nathaniel Dickey, Dana Schonberg, Ross Macdonald, Homer Venters

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Humanitarianism's History Of The Singular, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

In “The New Universalism” Daniel Bertrand Monk and Andrew Herscher bring together global history and global humanitarianism to argue the emergence of a new (perverse) universal singular—a monadological refugee and form of refuge that threaten to efface both. By putting shelter and displacement side by side, they insightfully point us to different global patterns, such as the turn to the principle of the particular. Monk and Herscher read these patterns against the grain, offering us—almost in passing—a new history of humanitarianism.

Linking Emotional Distress To Unhealthy Sleep Duration: Analysis Of The 2009 National Health Interview Survey, Azizi A. Seixas, Joao V. Nunes, Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, Natasha J. Williams, Seithikurippu Ratnas Pandi-Perumal, Caryl C. James, Girardin Jean-Louis

Publications and Research

Objective The objective of the study was to examine the independent association of emotional distress with unhealthy sleep duration (defined as <7 or >8 hours). Methods Data from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a cross-sectional household survey, were analyzed to investigate the associations of emotional distress with unhealthy sleep durations, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, health risks, and chronic diseases through hierarchical multiple logistic regression analysis. Participants A total of 27,731 participants (age range 18–85 years) from the NHIS 2009 dataset were interviewed. Measures Unhealthy sleep duration is defined as sleep duration <7 or >8 hours, whereas healthy sleep is defined as sleep …

Making Sense Of Naturalization: What Citizenship Means To Naturalizing Immigrants In Canada And The Usa, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Immigrant naturalization is both a barometer of inclusiveness and immigrant incorporation and a mechanism of social reproduction of the nation. This article reports on an interview-based study in suburban Toronto and New Jersey that investigated how immigrants explain their decisions to acquire citizenship. It analyzes respondents’ under- standings of naturalization in light of different theories of citizenship and different dimensions of the concept. The study contributes to the literature by showing how many American immigrants interviewed while going through the naturalization process resisted framing naturalization as identity-changing, situating it instead as a common-sense move following permanent settlement and belonging. In …

The Last Denton Conference, Barbara R. Walters

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Finding Influential Spreaders From Human Activity Beyond Network Location, Byungjoon Min, Fredrik Liljeros, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

Most centralities proposed for identifying influential spreaders on social networks to either spread a message or to stop an epidemic require the full topological information of the network on which spreading occurs. In practice, however, collecting all connections between agents in social networks can be hardly achieved. As a result, such metrics could be difficult to apply to real social networks. Consequently, a new approach for identifying influential people without the explicit network information is demanded in order to provide an efficient immunization or spreading strategy, in a practical sense. In this study, we seek a possible way for finding …

Situational Crime Prevention And Worldwide Piracy: A Cross‑Continent Analysis, Jon M. Shane, Eric Piza, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

Relying on situational crime prevention perspective, this study compares successful and unsuccessful pirate attacks reported to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) from the year 2000 through 2013 (n = 4,902). The study builds upon the recent work of Shane and Magnuson in Justice Quarterly, pp 1–26 (2014), which found various SCP techniques effectively prevented piracy attacks on a global level. The current study builds upon these findings by testing whether the global effect of SCP is consistent across individual continents. A series of mixed-effects logistic regression models and follow-up likelihood ratio tests were incorporated to explore the research question. In …

Birth Outcomes Of Latin Americans In Two Countries With Contrasting Immigration Admission Policies: Canada And Spain, Marcelo L. Urquia, Zoua M. Vang, Francisco Bolumar

Publications and Research

Background We delved into the selective migration hypothesis on health by comparing birth outcomes of Latin American immigrants giving birth in two receiving countries with dissimilar immigration admission policies: Canada and Spain. We hypothesized that a stronger immigrant selection in Canada will reflect more favourable outcomes among Latin Americans giving birth in Canada than among their counterparts giving birth in Spain. Materials and Methods We conducted a cross-sectional bi-national comparative study. We analyzed birth data of singleton infants born in Canada (2000–2005) (N = 31,767) and Spain (1998–2007) (N = 150,405) to mothers born in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. We …

Straight Lives: The Balance Between Human Dignity, Public Safety, And Desistance From Crime, Lila Kazemian

Publications and Research

This report looks at how the academic and practitioner worlds must collaborate to develop an effective, desistance-promoting approach to criminal justice. Interventions need to be desistance-focused and tailored to individual circumstances rather than standardized programming. Interventions should shift away from an emphasis on risk and criminogenic needs and help individuals overcome obstacles to desistance.

Perceptions Of Violence In Morrisania (The Bronx), Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Laila Alsabahi

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the Morrisania area of The Bronx.

Perceptions Of Violence In Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Laila Alsabahi

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) area of Brooklyn.

Respondent-Driven Sampling: Evaluating The Effects Of The Cure Violence Model With Neighborhood Surveys, Kwan Lamar Blount-Hill, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This report gives insight into how researchers at the John Jay Research and Evaluation Center used Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) to measures changes in violence-related attitudes and values of young men (age 18-30) in at-risk neighborhoods and compares areas with and without Cure Violence programs. The RDS method allows researchers to reach difficult-to-recruit populations and helps to increase the credibility of the study.

Effects Of Divorce Risk On Women's Labor Supply And Human Capital Investment, Kristin Mammen

Publications and Research

This paper examines the effects of the divorce law liberalization of the early 1970s on the increase in divorce rates during the same time period. A review of the evidence suggests that the law changes were not a major driver of the divorce rates; but the policy changes appear to have affected behavior even for those who did not divorce. The results here suggest that as they saw the laws changing, young women in the divorce reform states redirected some of their investments from marriage to their own human capital. The perceived increase in the probability of divorce motivated women …

Social Media Use And Hiv Transmission Risk Behavior Among Ethnically Diverse Hiv-Positive Gay Men: Results Of An Online Study In Three U.S. States, Sabina Hirshfield, Christian Grov, Jeffrey T. Parsons, Ian Anderson, Mary Ann Chiasson

Publications and Research

Though Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men (MSM) are at an increased risk for HIV, few HIV risk reduction interventions that target HIV-positive MSM, and even fewer that use technology, have been designed to target these groups. Despite similar rates of social media and technology use across racial/ethnic groups, online engagement of minority MSM for HIV prevention efforts is low. Since minority MSM tend to have less representation in online HIV prevention studies, the goals of this online anonymous study of HIV-positive gay-identified men were to test the feasibility of conducting targeted recruitment by race/ethnicity and sexual …

Transdisciplinarity: A Review Of Its Origins, Development, And Current Issues, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Transdisciplinarity originated in a critique of the standard configuration of knowledge in disciplines in the curriculum, including moral and ethical concerns. Pronouncements about it were first voiced between the climax of government-supported science and higher education and the long retrenchment that began in the 1970s. Early work focused on questions of epistemology and the planning of future universities and educational programs. After a lull, transdisciplinarity re-emerged in the 1990s as an urgent issue relating to the solution of new, highly complex, global concerns, beginning with climate change and sustainability and extending into many areas concerning science, technology, social problems and …

Touching Brains, Jason Tougaw

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Science And Charity: Rival Catholic Visions For Humanitarian Practice At The End Of French Rule In Cameroon, Charlotte Walker-Said

Publications and Research

This paper explores the conflict between local expressions of Christian charity and new theories of scientific humanitarianism in the final years of French rule in Africa. Compassionate phenomena inspired by Catholic social organizing had transformed everyday life throughout French Cameroon’s cities and villages in the interwar and postwar years, and yet, in 1950, poverty, crime, poor public health, and social tensions remained prevalent. Seeking a more deeply transformative approach to social rehabilitation, ecclesiastical leaders in the Catholic Church in Europe and French foreign missionary societies in Africa partnered with international medical and scientific organizations in order to invigorate charity with …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Childhood Abuse, Anger And Violent Behavior Among A Sample Of Sex Offenders, Stephanie R. Ramirez, Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Cynthia Calkins

Publications and Research

Background: Increasing attention has focused on the emotional dysregulation that can result from adverse childhood experiences among those who commit sexually violent crimes. While studies confirm a relationship between child maltreatment and anger the research is limited and it is unclear how anger and child maltreatment effect the use of violence during the commission of the sex crime.

Methods: This study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment, anger and violent behavior by reviewing the records of 571 adult male offenders convicted of sexual assault or child molestation. The aims of the present study were to 1) examine differences in anger …

Homophily, Close Friendship, And Life Satisfaction Among Gay, Lesbian, Heterosexual, And Bisexual Men And Women, Brian Joseph Gillespie, David Frederick, Lexi Harari, Christian Grov

Publications and Research

Friends play important roles throughout our lives by providing expressive, instrumental, and companionate support. We examined sexual orientation, gender, and age differences in the number of friends people can rely on for expressive, instrumental, and companionate support. Additionally, we examined the extent to which people relied on same-gender versus cross-gender friends for these types of support. Participants (N = 25,185) completed a survey via a popular news website. Sexual orientation differences in number of same-gender and cross-gender friends were generally small or non-existent, and satisfaction with friends was equally important to overall life satisfaction for all groups. However, the extent …

Mobilisation Of Public Support For Policy Actions To Prevent Obesity, Terry T-K Huang, John H. Cawley, Marice Ashe, Sergio Costa, Leah M. Frerichs, Lindsey Zwicker, Juan A. Rivera, David Levy, Ross A. Hammond, Estelle V. Lambert, Shiriki K. Kumanyika

Publications and Research

Public mobilisation is needed to enact obesity prevention policies and to mitigate backlash against their implementation. However, current approaches in public health focus primarily on dialogue between public health professionals and political leaders. Strategies to increase popular demand for obesity prevention policies include refining and streamlining public information, identifying effective frames for each population, enhancing media advocacy, building citizen protest and engagement, and developing a receptive political environment with change agents embedded across organisations and sectors. Long-term support and investment in collaboration among diverse stakeholders to create shared value is also important. Each actor in an expanded coalition for obesity …

The Mission As A Master Signifier: Documentary Film, Social Change And Discourse Analysis, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

This field note explores the ways in which the documentary MIND ZONE: Therapists Behind the Front Lines (2014), directed by Dr. Jan Haaken, moves viewers into innovative and critical stances towards the U.S. military mental health program. Using a discourse analysis of the film and transcripts of interviews conducted by Haaken, I trace the deployment of the term “the mission” to show how the film teases apart problematic military discursive practices. Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses is used to analyze how MIND ZONE’s content challenges audiences to produce their own critically informed opinions.

Perceptions Of Violence In The South Bronx, Jeffrey A. Butts, Sheyla A. Delgado, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the South Bronx.