Digital Commons Network^™

Newborn Infants Learn During Sleep, William P. Fifer, Dana L. Byrd, Michelle Kaku, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Joseph R. Isler, Jillian Grose-Fifer, Amanda R. Tarullo, Peter D. Balsam

Publications and Research

Newborn infants must rapidly adjust their physiology and behavior to the specific demands of the novel postnatal environment. This adaptation depends, at least in part, on the infant’s ability to learn from experiences. We report here that infants exhibit learning even while asleep. Bioelectrical activity from face and scalp electrodes was recorded from neonates during an eye movement conditioning procedure in which a tone was followed by a puff of air to the eye. Sleeping newborns rapidly learned the predictive relationship between the tone and the puff. Additionally, in the latter part of training, these infants exhibited a frontally maximum …

Interactive Kinds, Muhammad Ali Khalidi

Publications and Research

This paper examines the phenomenon of 'interactive kinds' first identified by Ian Hacking. An interactive kind is one that is created or significantly modified once a concept of it has been formulated and acted upon in certain ways. Interactive kinds may also 'loop back' to influence our concepts and classifications. According to Hacking, interactive kinds are found exclusively in the human domain. After providing a general account of interactive kinds and outlining their philosophical significance, I argue that they are not confined to the human realm, but that they can also occur elsewhere. Hence, I conclude by arguing that interactive …

Measuring Social Capital As An Outcome Of Service Learning, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

Service-learning has been put forth as one of the proposed solutions to increasing social capital. However, service-learning research has not significantly addressed the impact of service learning on social capital. Unlike most previous studies, this research used quantitative analysis to measure the effect of university service-learning programs on social capital by examining the question: What impact do service-learning programs have on social capital post-graduation? This study showed that service learning addresses the civic engagement problem by providing evidence suggesting that service learning predicts social capital post-graduation.

Positive Youth Justice: Framing Justice Interventions Using The Concepts Of Positive Youth Development, Jeffrey A. Butts, Gordon Bazemore, Aundra Saa Meroe

Publications and Research

Positive youth development could be an effective framework for designing general interventions for young offenders. Such a framework would encourage youth justice systems to focus on protective factors and risk factors, strengths, problems, and broader efforts to facilitate successful transitions to adulthood for justice-involved youth. The positive youth development approach supports youth in successfully transitioning from adolescence to early adulthood by encouraging young people to develop useful skills and competencies and build stronger connections with pro-social peers, families, and communities (Butts, Mayer, & Ruth, & Ruth, 2005). Young people engaged with trustworthy adults and peers to pursue meaningful activities and …

Yeast Cell Adhesion Molecules Have Functional Amyloid-Forming Sequences, Caleen B. Ramsook, Cho Tan, Melissa C. Garcia, Raymond Fung, Gregory Soybelman, Ryan Henry, Anna Litewka, Shanique O’Meally, Henry N. Otoo, Roy A. Khalaf, Anne M. Dranginis, Nand K. Gaur, Stephen A. Klotz, Jason M. Rauceo, Chong K. Jue, Peter N. Lipke

Publications and Research

The occurrence of highly conserved amyloid-forming sequences in Candida albicans Als proteins (H. N. Otoo et al., Eukaryot. Cell 7:776–782, 2008) led us to search for similar sequences in other adhesins from C. albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The beta-aggregation predictor TANGO found highly beta-aggregation-prone sequences in almost all yeast adhesins. These sequences had an unusual amino acid composition: 77% of their residues were beta-aggregation aliphatic amino acids Ile, Thr, and Val, which is more than 4-fold greater than their prevalence in the S. cerevisiae proteome. High beta-aggregation potential peptides from S. cerevisiae Flo1p and C. albicans Eap1p rapidly formed insoluble …

Structure And Function Of Glycosylated Tandem Repeats From Candida Albicans Als Adhesins, Aaron T. Frank, Caleen B. Ramsook, Henry N. Otoo, Cho Tan, Gregory Soybelman, Jason M. Rauceo, Nand K. Gaur, Stephen A. Klotz, Peter N. Lipke

Publications and Research

Tandem repeat (TR) regions are common in yeast adhesins, but their structures are unknown, and their activities are poorly understood. TR regions in Candida albicans Als proteins are conserved glycosylated 36-residue sequences with cell-cell aggregation activity (J. M. Rauceo, R. De Armond, H. Otoo, P. C. Kahn, S. A. Klotz, N. K. Gaur, and P. N. Lipke, Eukaryot. Cell 5:1664–1673, 2006). Ab initio modeling with either Rosetta or LINUS generated consistent structures of three-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet domains, whereas randomly shuffled sequences with the same composition generated various structures with consistently higher energies. O- and N-glycosylation patterns showed that each TR …

"Can't Anyone Be A Teacher Anyway?": Student Perceptions Of Academic Librarians As Teachers, Mark Aaron Polger, Karen Okamoto

Publications and Research

The study explores student perceptions of the academic librarian as teachers. A questionnaire was distributed to 500 students at two City University of New York colleges. Convenience and snowball sampling were employed to reach as many respondents as possible. Questionnaires were administered following a library instruction class and in the campus cafeteria. Contrary to results from previous studies, many respondents consider librarians to be teachers.

The Career Progression Of Women In State Government Agencies, Maria J. D'Agostino, Helisse Levine

Publications and Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of the utilization of organizational practices on the career progression of women to executive positions in state-level government organizations in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach – The design included an online survey instrument sent to a purposive sample of 600 female administrative agency executives in 50 states. A standard multilinear regression model tests the predictive power of three composite explanatory utilization variables on the dependent variable, career progression of women to upper level management. The composite predictor variables are: utilization of work/family practices; utilization of diversity practices; and utilization …

Identification And Quantitation Of 3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-Methylamphetamine (Mdma, Ecstasy) In Human Urine By 1h Nmr Spectroscopy. Application To Five Cases Of Intoxication, Jonathan Liu, John Decatur, Gloria Proni, Elise Champeil

Publications and Research

Identification of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) in five cases of intoxication using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of human urine is reported. A new water suppression technique PURGE (Presaturation Utilizing Relaxation Gradients and Echoes) was used. A calibration curve was obtained using spiked samples. The method gave a linear response (correlation coefficient of 0.992) over the range 0.01–1 mg/mL. Subsequently, quantitation of the amount of MDMA present in the samples was performed. The benefit and reliability of NMR investigations of human urine for cases of intoxication with MDMA are discussed.

The Undiscovered Country: Execution Competency & Comprehending Death, Jeffrey Kirchmeier

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Vigilante Justice: Prosecutor Misconduct In Capital Cases, Jeffrey Kirchmeier

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Diminishing The Legal Impact Of Negative Social Attitudes Toward Acquaintance Rape Victims, Michelle J. Anderson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Diminishing The Legal Impact Of Negative Social Attitudes Toward Acquaintance And Intimate Rape Victims, Michelle Anderson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Critical Review Of The Chronicle Of Higher Education “Fix Nonprofit Higher Ed First” Article, Mark Rivera

Publications and Research

A critical review of Marc Bousquet's editorial column in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Fix Nonprofit Higher Ed First”.

Dancecult Bibliography: Books, Articles, Theses, Lectures, And Films About Electronic Dance Music Cultures, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Dancecult is a forum for the electronic dance music culture (EDMC) research network, whose doors opened in April, 2005. Presently, Dancecult manifests as a mailing list and rich informational website. With around 180 members (and growing) worldwide, Dancecult-l is an interdisciplinary mailing list for graduate students, scholars, and other parties interested in the study and documentation of EDMCs from proto-disco through post-rave formations. As a critical information exchange hub, Dancecult-l enables resource sharing and collaboration between international researchers of club cultures, raves, techno, electronica, doof, digital arts and other manifestations of EDMC. Members come from various different disciplines, operating in …

Holocaust-Denial Literature: A Sixth Bibliography, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

This bibliography is a supplement to five earlier ones that were published in the Bulletin of Bibliography. Holocaust denial is a body of literature that seeks to prove that the Jewish Holocaust did not happen. This bibliography includes both works about Holocaust denial and works of Holocaust denial.

Policing: A Sociologist’S Response To An Anthropological Account, Peter Moskos

Publications and Research

Social science writing should not ape quantitative science in format, structure, or style. If we can’t explain ourselves to others in a style both illuminating and interesting, we won’t and don’t deserve to be taken seriously. Too many in the Ivory Tower cling to the belief that research and academic writing must conform to a “scientific” format. Quality writing is more art than science. To be relevant, writing need not be – indeed should not be – rooted in a limited model of “hypothesis, replicable experiment, findings, discussion.” The more jargon and sociobabble we anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers spew out, …

Thumri, Ghazal, And Modernity In Hindustani Music Culture, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

If historians of Indian classical music have been obliged to rely primarily upon a finite and often enigmatic set of treatises and iconographic sources, historical studies of semi-classical genres like thumri and ghazal confront even more formidable challenges. Such styles and their predecessors were largely ignored by Sanskrit theoreticians, who tended to be more interested in hoary modal and metrical systems than in contemporary vernacular or regional-language genres sung by courtesans. It is thus inevitable that attempts to reconstruct the development of such genres involve considerable amounts of conjecture, and in some senses raise more questions than they answer. Nevertheless, …

Addressing And Overcoming Barriers To Youth Civic Engagement, Maria J. D'Agostino, Anne Visser

Publications and Research

Youth civic engagement—and particularly youth participation in properly designed youth programs—has indisputably favorable outcomes for the young people involved (Saito, 2006; Pancer et al., 2002; Flanagan et al., 2002). This research reviews the wide-ranging literature available on youth civic engagement in urban communities. Using content analysis, we identify organizations involved in youth engagement as well as barriers faced by organizations engaged in this policy arena. Our research also identifies 15 broad types of barriers that organizations seeking to encourage youth civic engagement encounter in building and delivering successful youth engagement programs. In addition, we discuss the emergent social and political …

Internalized Stigma As A Barrier To Improvement In Vocational Functioning Among People With Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders, Philip T. Yanos, Paul Lysaker, David Roe

Publications and Research

We examined the relationship between internalized stigma and changes in vocational function. Persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n=78) were assessed at baseline and 5 months after vocational rehabilitation. Internalized stigma and cognitive–behavioral treatment predicted change in vocational functioning, supporting the view that internalized stigma compromises vocational outcomes.

Labor And The Bank: Investigating The Politics Of The World Bank's Employing Workers' Index, Suzan Kang

Publications and Research

For many years, trade unions have pressured international financial organizations such as the World Bank to better incorporate protections for workers. A recent development in this contestation was the World Bank’s 2009 announcement regarding its controversial “Employing Workers Index” in its widely circulated Doing Business report. Trade unions had argued that the index, which promoted flexible labor market policies, did not respect the international norm of worker protections, and urged the World Bank to change the index. As a result, the Doing Business Group pledged to reform the Employing Workers Index and to create a new index on protecting workers. …

Se7en: Medieval Justice, Modern Justice, Valerie Allen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Increasing Student-Teacher Interactions At An Urban Commuter Campus Through Instant Messaging And Online Office Hours, Nathan H. Lents, Oscar E. Cifuentes

Publications and Research

Encouraging first year undergraduate students in large lecture-hall classes to seek out and actively engage their professors is a perennial problem in science education. This problem is especially acute for commuter and minority populations. Thus, because personal relationships between students and professors are well known to promote student learning and academic success, fostering new ways to connect students and faculty is essential for reducing attrition at inner-city colleges. In the current study, we demonstrate that the use of instant messaging (IM) is highly effective in fostering student-teacher interactions in the lecture-hall setting of an introductory major-level biology course at John …

The Pencil, The Pin, The Table, The Bowl And The Wheel, Valerie Allen

Publications and Research

The commodity created under global capitalism originates from everywhere and seems to have been made by everyone. Endlessly fungible, it is also endlessly divisible. Analysis of the commodity reveals the indissoluble link between commodification and technologization. Although the medieval commodity is a very different kind of object, not issuing from an economy dedicated to commodity production, and being produced more regionally, the link between production and technology applies to the Middle Ages as much as it does to now. Medieval technology, in particular road-building, is commonly regarded as a regression in comparison to Roman engineering skills. I argue, however, for …

Nearest Neighbor Search With Strong Location Privacy, Stavros Papadopoulos, Spiridon Bakiras, Dimitris Papadias

Publications and Research

The tremendous growth of the Internet has significantly reduced the cost of obtaining and sharing information about individuals, raising many concerns about user privacy. Spatial queries pose an additional threat to privacy because the location of a query may be sufficient to reveal sensitive information about the querier. In this paper we focus on k nearest neighbor (kNN) queries and define the notion of strong location privacy, which renders a query indistinguishable from any location in the data space. We argue that previous work fails to support this property for arbitrary kNN search. Towards this end, we introduce methods that …

Photograph: Poet On Dust Jacket, Richmond, Virginia 1996, Alexander Long

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

How Subways And High Speed Railways Have Changed Taiwan: Transportation Technology, Urban Culture, And Social Life, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Process Of Molecular Phylogeny And Systematics: A Multi-Part Inquiry-Based Exercise, Nathan H. Lents, Oscar E. Cifuentes, Anthony Carpi

Publications and Research

Three approaches to molecular phylogenetics are demonstrated to biology students as they explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates. By analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps, students are repeatedly challenged to develop hypotheses regarding the ancestry of the five species. Although these exercises were designed to supplement and enhance classroom instruction on phylogeny, cladistics, and systematics in the context of a postsecondary majors-level introductory biology course, the activities themselves require very little prior student exposure to these topics. Thus, they are well suited for students in a wide range of educational levels, including a biology …

Survivalism And Public Opinion On Criminality: A Cross-National Analysis Of Prostitution, Steven Stack, Amy Adamczyk, Liqun Cao

Publications and Research

Explanations of variability in public opinion on crime have drawn disproportionately from the literature on specific symbolic orientations including religious fundamentalism and racial prejudice. In contrast, this article hypothesizes that public opinion is linked to the strength of a general cultural axis of nations: survivalism vs. self-expressionism. Data are from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey. Hierarchical modeling techniques are used to sort out the bi-level effects of survivalist culture on the approval of prostitution. Controlling for all other predictors, the personal survivalism index was the most powerful predictor of prostitution acceptability, followed by the country-level survivalism index. …

High-Cost Religion, Religious Switching, And Health, Christopher P. Scheitle, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

Previous research has devoted significant attention to understanding the link between health and personal religious beliefs and practices, typically finding that more religious people tend to have better health. However, almost no attention has been given to how switching religious groups or leaving religion altogether is related to self-reported health. Due to selection and causation mechanisms, switching from high-cost groups that are theologically and culturally exclusive could be associated with poor health more than switching from other religious groups. Using data from the 1972 through 2006 General Social Surveys, we examine the relationship between health and religious switching as moderated …