Digital Commons Network^™

The Dynamic Consequences Of Cooperation And Competition In Small-World Networks, Iván Y. Fernández-Rosales, Larry S. Liebovitch, Lev Guzmán-Vargas

Publications and Research

We present a study of the social dynamics among cooperative and competitive actors interacting on a complex network that has a small-world topology. In this model, the state of each actor depends on its previous state in time, its inertia to change, and the influence of its neighboring actors. Using numerical simulations, we determine how the distribution of final states of the actors and measures of the distances between the values of the actors at local and global levels, depend on the number of cooperative to competitive actors and the connectivity of the actors in the network. We find that …

Structural Brain Correlates Associated With Professional Handball Playing, Jürgen Hänggi, Nicolas Langer, Kai Lutz, Karin Birrer, Susan Mérillat, Lutz Jäncke

Publications and Research

Background There is no doubt that good bimanual performance is very important for skilled handball playing. The control of the non-dominant hand is especially demanding since efficient catching and throwing needs both hands. Methodology/Hypotheses We investigated training-induced structural neuroplasticity in professional handball players using several structural neuroimaging techniques and analytic approaches and also provide a review of the literature about sport-induced structural neuroplastic alterations. Structural brain adaptations were expected in regions relevant for motor and somatosensory processing such as the grey matter (GM) of the primary/secondary motor (MI/supplementary motor area, SMA) and somatosensory cortex (SI/SII), basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum …

Comparisons Of 6-N-Propylthiouracil (Prop) Sensitivity, Food Liking And Food Intake Between Vegetarian And Non-Vegetarian Women, Sung-Eun Choi

Publications and Research

Background: Previous studies have suggested that vegetarians have a lower risk of overweight and obesity than do non-vegetarians. However, little is known about how meat consumption interacts with taste perception, thereby influencing food intake and body weight.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the relationship of meat consumption with 6-npropylthiouracil (PROP) sensitivity, food liking, food intake and body mass index in female long term vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Methods: A cross-sectional design with a total of 94 racially diverse female subjects (mean age 23 years, 42 vegetarians, 52 non-vegetarians) living in the New York City area was used …

Longitudinal Neurostimulation In Older Adults Improves Working Memory, Kevin T. Jones, Jaclyn A. Stephens, Mahtab Alam, Marom Bikson, Marian E. Berryhill

Publications and Research

An increasing concern affecting a growing aging population is working memory (WM) decline. Consequently, there is great interest in improving or stabilizing WM, which drives expanded use of brain training exercises. Such regimens generally result in temporary WM benefits to the trained tasks but minimal transfer of benefit to untrained tasks. Pairing training with neurostimulation may stabilize or improve WM performance by enhancing plasticity and strengthening WM-related cortical networks. We tested this possibility in healthy older adults. Participants received 10 sessions of sham (control) or active (anodal, 1.5 mA) tDCS to the right prefrontal, parietal, or prefrontal/parietal (alternating) cortices. After …

Accuracy Of Highly Sexually Active Gay And Bisexual Men’S Predictions Of Their Daily Likelihood Of Anal Sex And Its Relevance For Intermittent Event-Driven Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, Jeffrey T. Parsons, H. Jonathon Rendina, Christian Grov, Ana Ventuneac, Brian Mustanski

Publications and Research

Objective: We sought to examine highly sexually active gay and bisexual men’s accuracy in predicting their sexual behavior for the purposes of informing future research on intermittent, event-driven HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

Design: For 30 days, 92 HIV-negative men completed a daily survey about their sexual behavior (n = 1,688 days of data) and indicated their likelihood of having anal sex with a casual male partner the following day.

Method: We utilized multilevel modeling to analyze the association between self-reported likelihood of and subsequent engagement in anal sex.

Results: We found a linear association between men’s reported likelihood …

Integrating Library Services Between Two Urban Institutions, Joseph Hartnett

Publications and Research

In 2006, an intra-institutional partnership was formed between the William and Anita Newman Library at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS) for the provision of library services to the university’s first entirely online degree program in the fall of 2006, the CUNY Online BA in Communication and Culture.

Since 2006, SPS has grown exponentially. Currently, SPS offers 10 undergraduate degrees, including a BS in nursing and six masters’ degrees, including MS degrees in urban studies, data analytics, and an MA in applied theatre.

Integrating a new and growing school with …

Experimental Shifts In Intraclutch Egg Color Variation Do Not Affect Egg Rejection In A Host Of A Non-Egg-Mimetic Avian Brood Parasite, Rebecca Croston, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Avian brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, and impose the costs associated with rearing parasitic young onto these hosts. Many hosts of brood parasites defend against parasitism by removing foreign eggs from the nest. In systems where parasitic eggs mimic host eggs in coloration and patterning, extensive intraclutch variation in egg appearances may impair the host’s ability to recognize and reject parasitic eggs, but experimental investigation of this effect has produced conflicting results. The cognitive mechanism by which hosts recognize parasitic eggs may vary across brood parasite hosts, and this may explain variation in experimental …

“My Brain Database Doesn’T See Skin Color” Color-Blind Racism In The Technology Industry And In Theorizing The Web, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

In this article, I examine three interconnected notions about color-blind racism and the Internet. The first is the fantasy that the Internet as a technology is color-blind with regard to race; the second is the reality that color-blind racism operates in the tech industry. The third notion is the way color-blind racism shapes Internet studies of race and racism, in which race is contained as a “variable” or as an “identity” that inhere exclusively in people of color, but that leaves the way race is embedded in structures, industry, and the very idea of the Internet unexamined. To explore these …

How Do Musicians Evaluate Their Musical Performances? The Impact Of Positive And Negative Information From Normative, Ipsative, And Expectation Standards, Ellen-Ge Denton, William F. Chaplin

Publications and Research

The purpose of the research reported in this article was to test two hypotheses about how musicians evaluate their musical performances. The first hypothesis was that musicians’ self-evaluations would be more influenced by their expectations and their past performances than by comparisons to the performances of other musicians. The second hypothesis was that musicians would exhibit an ‘adaptive evaluational style’ by showing more sensitivity to positive feedback than to negative feedback. We used the Experimental Evaluational Styles Questionnaire (Goolsby & Chaplin, 1988) in a sample of 78 music performance students (43 men and 35 women) to test these hypotheses, and …

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation In Psychiatric Disorders, Gabriel Tortella, Roberta Casati, Luana V M Aparicio, Antonio Mantovani, Natasha Senço, Giordano D'Urso, Jerome Brunelin, Fabiana Guarienti, Priscila Mara Lorencini Selingardi, Débora Muszkat, Bernardo De Sampaio Pereira Junior, Leandro Valiengo, Adriano H. Moffa, Marcel Simis, Lucas Borrione, Andre R. Brunoni

Publications and Research

The interest in non-invasive brain stimulation techniques is increasing in recent years. Among these techniques, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been the subject of great interest among researchers because of its easiness to use, low cost, benign profile of side effects and encouraging results of research in the field. This interest has generated several studies and randomized clinical trials, particularly in psychiatry. In this review, we provide a summary of the development of the technique and its mechanism of action as well as a review of the methodological aspects of randomized clinical trials in psychiatry, including studies in affective …

Remotely-Supervised Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) For Clinical Trials: Guidelines For Technology And Protocols, Leigh E. Charvet, Margaret Kasschau, Abhishek Datta, Helena Knotkova, Michael C. Stevens, Angelo Alonzo, Colleen Loo, Kevin R. Krull, Marom Bikson

Publications and Research

The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is cumulative. Treatment protocols typically require multiple consecutive sessions spanning weeks or months. However, traveling to clinic for a tDCS session can present an obstacle to subjects and their caregivers. With modified devices and headgear, tDCS treatment can be administered remotely under clinical supervision, potentially enhancing recruitment, throughput, and convenience. Here we propose standards and protocols for clinical trials utilizing remotely-supervised tDCS with the goal of providing safe, reproducible and well-tolerated stimulation therapy outside of the clinic. The recommendations include: (1) training of staff in tDCS treatment and supervision; (2) assessment of …

Informal Child Care And Adolescent Psychological Well-Being: Hong Kong’S “Children Of 1997” Birth Cohort, Cherry Y. Leung, Gabriel M. Leung, Mary Schooling

Publications and Research

Background
Informal child care (child care by untrained family members, relatives or employees in the home) in Western populations is often associated with poorer psychological well-being, which may be confounded by socioeconomic position. We examined the association of informal child care, common in non-Western settings, with adolescent psychological wellbeing, using Hong Kong’s Chinese “Children of 1997” birth cohort.

Methods
Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the adjusted associations of informal child care (at 0.5, 3, 5 and 11 years) with parent-reported Rutter score for child behavior at 11 years, self-reported Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventories score at 11 years and selfreported …

Can The Red-Green Duochrome Test Be Used Prior To Correcting The Refractive Cylinder Component?, Liat Gantz, Shlomo Schrader, Ruthie Ruben, Ari Z. Zivotofsky

Publications and Research

Purpose A primary task of the eye care professional is determining the refraction, or optical correction, of a patient. The duochrome red-green test is a standard tool for verification of the final refraction. Traditionally, it is recommended for use both prior to and subsequent to determining the cylindrical or astigmatic component of the refraction. In order for it to be effective when used before correcting the cylinder it is necessary that the COLC (Circle of Least Confusion) be on the retina. This study examined whether it is necessarily true that the duochrome response in uncorrected astigmatism will be as trust-worthy …

Now You See It, Now You Don’T: Flushing Hosts Prior To Experimentation Can Predict Their Responses To Brood Parasitism, Daniel Hanley, Peter Samas, Josef Heryán, Mark E. Hauber, Tomáš Grim

Publications and Research

Brood parasitic birds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, leaving hosts to raise their offspring. To understand parasite-host coevolutionary arms races, many studies have examined host responses to experimentally introduced eggs. However, attending parents often need to be flushed from their nests to add experimental eggs. If these birds witness parasitism events, they may recognize and reject foreign eggs more readily than parents who did not. We found that, after being flushed, female blackbirds, Turdus merula, remained close to their nests. Flushed females were more likely to eject foreign eggs and did so more quickly than females that …

Academic Service Learning Benefits Diverse, Urban Community College Students, Sharon S. Ellerton, Cristina Di Meo, Josephine Pantaleo, Arlene Kemmerer, Mary Bandziukas, Michael Bradley

Publications and Research

Urban community college students are a vulnerable population, often carrying one or more risk factors that predict they will not graduate or transfer to a four-year institution. This article presents evidence that academic service learning can provide support for urban community college students, increasing retention and providing multiple positive benefits. After participating in service learning, urban community college students report increased confidence in their ability to learn and apply course content knowledge, general education knowledge, and workplace skills as well as an interest in civic engagement.

In Her Own Words: Make A (Mission) Statement, Diana V. Macri

Publications and Research

Creating a personal mission statement will allow faculty to remain focused on what their core purpose is. Remaining focused on this purpose will facilitate career growth and personal happiness.

Pulp Poets And Superhero Prophets: A Case For Popular Culture In Academic Library Collection Development, William Blick

Publications and Research

For decades, popular culture was neglected and frowned upon by academics. In recent years, cultural critics, including librarians, have found popular culture materials to be didactic tools, and vital to the study of society and the zeitgeist that has prevailed at the time of their production. As a result, many academic librarians have found it useful to develop collections in their libraries that reflect a range of sociological change as demonstrated in these resources. With diligence and research, academic collection development managers may choose materials that will enhance the role of popular culture in their libraries

Iarc Monographs: 40 Years Of Evaluating Carcinogenic Hazards To Humans, Neil Pearce, Aaron Blair, Paolo Vineis, Wolfgang Ahrens, Aage Andersen, Josep M. Anto, Bruce K. Armstrong, Andrea A. Baccarelli, Frederick A. Beland, Amy Berrington, Pier Alberto Bertazzi, Linda S. Birnbaum, Ross C. Brownson, John R. Bucher, Kenneth P. Cantor, Elisabeth Cardis, John W. Cherrie, David C. Christiani, Pierluigi Cocco, David Coggon, Franklin E. Mirer

Publications and Research

Background: Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Programme for the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans has been criticized for several of its evaluations, and also for the approach used to perform these evaluations. Some critics have claimed that failures of IARC Working Groups to recognize study weaknesses and biases of Working Group members have led to inappropriate classification of a number of agents as carcinogenic to humans. Objectives: The authors of this Commentary are scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens. We examined criticisms of the IARC classification process …

Supramodal Executive Control Of Attention, Alfredo Spagna, Melissa-Ann Mackie, Jin Fan

Publications and Research

The human attentional system can be subdivided into three functional networks of alerting, orienting, and executive control. Although these networks have been extensively studied in the visuospatial modality, whether the same mechanisms are deployed across different sensory modalities remains unclear. In this study we used the attention network test for the visuospatial modality, in addition to two auditory variants with spatial and frequency manipulations to examine cross-modal correlations between network functions. Results showed that among the visual and auditory tasks, the effects of executive control, but not effects of alerting and orienting, were significantly correlated. These findings suggest that while …

Memory Distortion For Traumatic Events: The Role Of Mental Imagery, Deryn Strange, Melanie K. T. Takarangi

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Nas Report: What Are The Prospects For Reducing The Us Prison Population?, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

“Entrenched Practices And Other Biases”: Unpacking The Historical, Economic, Professional, And Social Resistance To De-Implementation, Theresa Montini, Ian D. Graham

Publications and Research

Background In their article on “Evidence-based de-implementation for contradicted, unproven, and aspiring healthcare practices,” Prasad and Ioannidis (IS 9:1, 2014) referred to extra-scientific “entrenched practices and other biases” that hinder evidence-based de-implementation. Discussion Using the case example of the de-implementation of radical mastectomy, we disaggregated “entrenched practices and other biases” and analyzed the historical, economic, professional, and social forces that presented resistance to de-implementation. We found that these extra-scientific factors operated to sustain a commitment to radical mastectomy, even after the evidence slated the procedure for de-implementation, because the factors holding radical mastectomy in place were beyond the control of …

Saludableomaha: Improving Readiness To Address Obesity Through Healthy Lifestyle In A Midwestern Latino Community, 2011–2013, Leah Frerichs, Jeri Brittin, Regina Robbins, Sharalyn Steenson, Catherine Stewart, Christopher Fisher, Terry T-K Huang

Publications and Research

Background A community’s readiness for change is a precursor to the effective application of evidence-based practices for health promotion. Research is lacking regarding potential strategies to improve readiness to address obesity-related health issues in underserved communities.

Community Context This case study describes SaludABLEOmaha, an initiative to increase readiness of residents in a Midwestern Latino community to address obesity and adopt healthy lifestyles.

Methods SaludABLEOmaha emphasized 2 core approaches, youth activism and collaboration among public and private institutions, which we applied to planning and implementing tactics in support of 3 interconnected strategies: 1) social marketing and social media, 2) service learning …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Relationship Between An Online Homework System And Student Achievement In Pre-Calculus, Parisa Babaali, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

Supporting student success in entry-level mathematics courses at the undergraduate level has and continues to be a challenge. Recently we have seen an increased reliance on technological supports including software to supplement more traditional in-class instruction. In this paper, we explore the effects on student performance of the use of a computer software program to supplement instruction in an entry-level mathematics course at the undergraduate level, specifically, a pre-calculus course. Relying on data from multiple sections of the course over various semesters, we compare student performance in those classes utilizing the software against those in which it was not used. …

Effectiveness Of The Cure Violence Model In New York City, Jeffrey A. Butts, Kevin T. Wolff, Evan Misshula, Sheyla A. Delgado

Publications and Research

New research from the John Jay College Research & Evaluation Center (JohnJayREC) suggests that the Cure Violence strategy may effectively reduce the incidence of homicide. Researchers at John Jay worked with analysts at the New York Police Department (NYPD) to assemble information about violence in New York City neighborhoods and compared areas with and without Cure Violence programs. The analysis focused on programs in three areas: two in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan. All three areas were operating Cure Violence programs as of 2010, and homicides were tracked through 2013. When the study compared homicide rates in those areas with …

Neuroinflammation And J2 Prostaglandins: Linking Impairment Of The Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway And Mitochondria To Neurodegeneration, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira, Patricia Rockwell, Thomas Schmidt-Glenewinkel, Peter Serrano

Publications and Research

The immune response of the CNS is a defense mechanism activated upon injury to initiate repair mechanisms while chronic over-activation of the CNS immune system (termed neuroinflammation) may exacerbate injury. The latter is implicated in a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, HIV dementia, and prion diseases. Cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2), which are key enzymes in the conversion of arachidonic acid into bioactive prostanoids, play a central role in the inflammatory cascade. J2 prostaglandins are endogenous toxic products of cyclooxygenases, and because their levels are significantly …

Urban Rural Comparisons Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Burden Among Adolescent Girls In A Hospital Setting In India, Swetha Balaji, Chioma Amadi, Satish Prasad, Jyoti Bala Kasav, Vandana Upadhyay, Awnish K. Singh, Krishna Mohan Surapaneni, Ashish Joshi

Publications and Research

Background. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a multifaceted disorder characterized by varying clinical presentations. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine urban and rural differences in the burden of polycystic ovarian syndrome among Indian adolescent females aged 12 to 19 years. Methods. A pilot cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of one month (August-September 2013) at Balaji Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. The final sample included 126 study participants located in various urban (50%, n = 63) and rural (50%, n = 63) settings. Information was gathered on sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics, clinical history, occurrence of acne …

A Moral Developmental Perspective On Children's Eyewitness Identification: Does Intent Matter?, Toni Spring, Herbert D. Saltzstein, Bianca Vidal

Publications and Research

Plain English Abstract These studies are based on the assumption that when adults, adolescents or children identify someone as the "guilty" one, i.e., the person who committed the act, they are not only making an identification based on memory and thinking, but also a moral decision. This is because, by the act of identifying or not identifying someone, the eyewitness runs the risk of either convicting an innocent person , i.e., making false positive error or letting a guilty person go free, i.e., a false negative error. Our interest is less in the overall accuracy of their identifications and more …

Removing The Malice From Federal "Malicious Prosecution": What Cognitive Science Can Teach Lawyers About Reform, Sofia Yakren

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Replication Of Failure, Not A Failure To Replicate, Gary Holden, Kathleen Barker, Sofie Kuppens, Gary Rosenberg, Jonathan`

Publications and Research

Purpose: The increasing role of systematic reviews in knowledge production demands greater rigor in the literature search process. The performance of the Social Work Abstracts (SWA) database has been examined multiple times over the past three decades. The current study is a replication within this line of research.

Method: Issue level coverage was examined for the same 33 SWA core journals and the same time period as our 2009 study.

Results: The mean percentage of issues missing in the current study was 20%. The mean percentage of issues missing in the current study was significantly greater than …