Digital Commons Network^™

Something Old, Something New: Historicizing Same-Sex Marriage Within Ongoing Struggles Over African Marriage In South Africa, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This article examines contemporary struggles over same-sex marriage in the daily lives of black lesbian- and gay-identified South Africans. Based primarily on 21 in-depth interviews with such South Africans drawn from a larger project on post-apartheid South African marriage, the author argues that their current struggles for relationship recognition share much in common with contemporaneous struggles of their heterosexual counterparts, and that these commonalities reflect ongoing tensions between more extended-family and more dyadic understandings of African marriage. The increasing influence of dyadic understandings of marriage, and of associated ideals of romantic love, has helped inspire same-sex marriage claims and, in …

What Do Urban College Students Really Think About Health Insurance? A Qualitative Study, P. Christopher Palmedo, Eleni K. Murphy, Katrina F. Mateo, Jennifer Gallo

Publications and Research

Objective: To determine barriers and opportunities to health insurance enrollment among an undergraduate students at a large urban university. Participants: Participants were 31 college students enrolled in 4-year and community colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY), and six health services and insurance enrollment specialists who facilitate and assist in the health insurance enrollment process for CUNY students. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with students and in-depth interviews with key informants in May 2017. Results: The research revealed important insights into how students perceive and value insurance and yielded recommendations for the university to improve enrollment of its …

Prostaglandin D2/J2 Signaling Pathway In A Rat Model Of Neuroinflammation Displaying Progressive Parkinsonian-Like Pathology: Potential Novel Therapeutic Targets, Chuhyon Corwin, Anastasia Nikolopoulou, Allen L. Pan, Mariela Nunez-Santos, Shankar Vallabhajosula, Peter A. Serrano, John Babich, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira

Publications and Research

Background: Prostaglandins are products of the cyclooxygenase pathway, which is implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Limited knowledge is available on mechanisms by which prostaglandins contribute to PD neurodegeneration. To address this gap, we focused on the prostaglandin PGD2/J2 signaling pathway, because PGD2 is the most abundant prostaglandin in the brain, and the one that increases the most under pathological conditions. Moreover, PGJ2 is spontaneously derived from PGD2.

Methods: In this study, we determined in rats the impact of unilateral nigral PGJ2-microinfusions on COX-2, lipocalin-type PGD2 synthase (L-PGDS), PGD2/J2 receptor 2 (DP2), and 15 hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH). Nigral dopaminergic (DA) and …

Oxytocin And Cancer: An Emerging Link, Ben Lerman, Trisheena Harricharran, Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

Publications and Research

The neuropeptide hormone oxytocin, which is released from the posterior pituitary gland, is involved in a number of physiological processes. Understanding of its effects is gradually increasing due to new research in this area. While mostly recognized as a reproductive system hormone, oxytocin also regulates other organ systems such as the brain and cardiovascular system. Recently, research has focused on unraveling its involvement in cancer, and emerging evidence suggests a potential role for oxytocin as a cancer biomarker. This review summarizes observations linking oxytocin and cancer, with a special emphasis on prostate cancer, where it may promote cell proliferation. Research …

Maternal Experiences Of Intimate Partner Violence And C-Reactive Protein Levels In Young Children In Tanzania, Natalie Slopen, Jing Zhang, Samuel S. Urlacher, Gretchen De Silva, Mona Mittal

Publications and Research

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health issue that impacts women and children across the globe.Prior studies have documented that maternal experiences of IPV are associated with adverse psychological and physical health outcomes in children; however, research on the underlying physiological pathways linking IPV to these conditions is limited. Drawing on data from the 2010 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, we examined the relationship between maternal report of IPV in the past 12 months and inflammation among children ages 6 months to 5 years. Our study included 503 children who were randomly selected to provide a blood sample …

The Impact Of Perineuronal Net Digestion Using Chondroitinase Abc On The Intrinsic Physiology Of Cortical Neurons, Philip Chu, Reena Abraham, Kumarie Budhu, Usma Khan, Natalie De Marco Garcia, Joshua C. Brumberg

Publications and Research

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are a form of aggregate Extracellular Matrix (ECM) in the brain. Recent evidence suggests that the postnatal deposition of PNNs may play an active role in regulating neuroplasticity and, potentially, neurological disorders. Observations of high levels of PNNs expression around somas, proximal dendrites, and axon initial segments of a subtype of neurons have also led to proposals that PNNs may modulate the intrinsic properties of the neurons they ensheathe. While high levels of PNNs are postnatally expressed throughout the neocortex, it is still unclear how they impact the neuronal physiology of the many classes and subtypes of …

Perspectives On Natural Philosophy, Stanley N. Salthe

Publications and Research

This paper presents a viewpoint on natural philosophy focusing on the organization of substance, as well as its changes as invited by the Second Law of thermodynamics. Modes of change are pointed to as definitive of levels of organization; these include physical, chemical, and biological modes of change. Conceptual uses of the subsumptive hierarchy format are employed throughout this paper. Developmental change in dissipative structures is examined in some detail, generating an argument for the use of final causality in studies of natural systems. Considerations of ‘internalism’ in science are presented along the way.

Empowering With Prep (E-Prep), A Peer-Led Social Media–Based Intervention To Facilitate Hiv Preexposure Prophylaxis Adoption Among Young Black And Latinx Gay And Bisexual Men: Protocol For A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, Viraj V. Patel, Zoë Ginsburg, Sarit A. Golub, Keith J. Horvath, Nataly Rios, Kenneth H. Mayer, Ryunh S. Kim, Julia H. Arnsten

Publications and Research

Background: Young black and Latinx, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YBLGBM, aged 18-29 years) have among the highest rates of new HIV infections in the United States and are not consistently reached by existing prevention interventions. Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), an oral antiretroviral regimen taken daily by HIV-uninfected individuals to prevent HIV acquisition, is highly efficacious in reducing HIV acquisition and could help stop the HIV epidemic in YBLGBM. Use of social media (eg, Facebook, Twitter, online dating sites) is ubiquitous among young people, providing an efficient avenue to engage YBLGBM to facilitate PrEP adoption.

Objective: …

“My Sexuality…It Creates A Stress”: Hiv-Related Communication Among Bisexual Black And Latino Men, New York City, Kirk D. Henny, Kathryn Drumhiller, Madeline Y. Sutton, Jose Nanín

Publications and Research

Men who have sex with men and women (including bisexual men) comprise 35% of all men who have sex with men (MSM) in the U.S. It is estimated that 121,800 men who have been bisexually active within the past year are living with HIV in the U.S. Communication about HIV may result in risk-reduction behaviors. However, little is known about the nature or context for HIV prevention communication among bisexual men, particularly for blacks and Hispanic/Latinos who are disproportionately at greater HIV risk. Therefore, we explored patterns and contexts of HIV-related communications occurring within personal social networks among bisexual black …

The Price Of A Vote: Diseconomy In Proportional Elections, Hygor Piaget M. Melo, Saulo D. S. Reis, Andre ́ A. Moreira, Hernan Makse, Jose ́ S. Andrade Jr.

Publications and Research

The increasing cost of electoral campaigns raises the need for effective campaign planning and a precise understanding of the return of such investment. Interestingly, despite the strong impact of elections on our daily lives, how this investment is translated into votes is still unknown. By performing data analysis and modeling, we show that top candidates spend more money per vote than the less successful and poorer candidates, a relation that discloses a diseconomy of scale. We demonstrate that such electoral diseconomy arises from the competition between candidates due to inefficient campaign expenditure. Our approach succeeds in two important tests. First, …

Tributyltin Inhibits Neural Induction Of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, Shigeru Yamada, Yusuke Kubo, Daiju Yamazaki, Yuko Sekino, Yoko Nomura, Sachiko Yoshida, Yusunari Kanda

Publications and Research

Tributyltin (TBT), one of the organotin compounds, is a well-known environmental pollutant. In our recent study, we reported that TBT induces mitochondrial dysfunction, in human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) through the degradation of mitofusin1 (Mfn1), which is a mitochondrial fusion factor. However, the effect of TBT toxicity on the developmental process of iPSCs was not clear. The present study examined the effect of TBT on the differentiation of iPSCs into the ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal germ layers. We found that exposure to nanomolar concentration of TBT (50 nM) selectively inhibited the induction of iPSCs into the ectoderm, which is the …

Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, And The Remaking Of Race, Van C. Tran, Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian, Jess Lee

Publications and Research

Recent immigrants to the United States are diverse with regard to selectivity. Hyper-selectivity refers to a dual positive selectivity in which immigrants are more likely to have graduated from college than nonmigrants in sending countries and the host population in the United States. This article addresses two questions. First, how does hyper-selectivity affect second-generation educational outcomes? Second, how does second-generation mobility change the cognitive construction of racial categories? It shows how hyper-selectivity among Chinese immigrants results in positive second-generation educational outcomes and racial mobility for Asian Americans. It also raises the question of whether hyper-selectivity operates similarly for non-Asian groups. …

The Black Legend Of Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The concept of “fake news” is not new by any stretch of the imagination. Over centuries people have invented stories of all types and dimensions. From dragons to the “fake” moon landing, from the Masons behind every political conspiracy to the Jews trying to control the world, there have been complex stories that try to indict entire peoples or nations with all kinds of atrocities. One of the most famous is the “black legend” (or leyenda negra), according to which Spain has been the culprit for everything bad that happened in the western hemisphere for centuries.

As Alfredo Alvar …

Exploring The Characteristics And Context That Allow Master Adaptive Learners To Thrive, William B. Cutrer, Holly G. Atkinson, Erica Friedman, Nicole Deiorio, Larry D. Gruppen, Michael Dekhtyar, Martin Pusic

Publications and Research

Because change is ubiquitous in healthcare, clinicians must constantly make adaptations to their practice to provide the highest quality care to patients. In a previous article, Cutrer et al. described a metacognitive approach to learning based on self-regulation, which facilitates the development of the Master Adaptive Learner (MAL). The MAL process helps individuals to cultivate and demonstrate adaptive expertise, allowing them to investigate new concepts (learn) and create new solu- tions (innovate). An individual’s ability to learn in this manner is driven by several internal characteristics and is also impacted by numerous aspects of their context. In this article, the …

To Switch Or Not To Switch: Intentions To Switch To Injectable Prep Among Gay And Bisexual Men With At Least Twelve Months Oral Prep Experience, Kathrine Meyers, Yumeng Wu, Atrina Brill, Theodorus Sandfort, Sarit A. Golub

Publications and Research

Background: Phase III trials of long-acting injectable (LAI) PrEP, currently underway, have great potential for expanding the menu of HIV prevention options. Imagining a future in which multiple PrEP modalities are available to potential users of biomedical HIV prevention, we investigated which factors might help direct a patient-physician shared-decision making process to optimize the choice of biomedical HIV prevention method.

Methods: Participants (n = 105; ages 19–63; 46.7% men of color) were former participants in a PrEP demonstration project and had taken daily oral PrEP for 12 months. Participants were given information about LAI PrEP and asked whether they would …

Depression, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And A History Of Pervasive Gender-Based Violence Among Women Asylum Seekers Who Have Undergone Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Retrospective Case Review, Hazel Lever, Deborah Ottenheimer, Jimmitti Teysir, Elizabeth Singer, Holly G. Atkinson

Publications and Research

We sought to evaluate the frequency of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and any experiences of violence in women who had undergone Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and were seeking asylum in the United States. We undertook a retrospective qualitative descriptive study of FGM/C cases seen in an asylum clinic over a 2-year period. Standardized questionnaires provided quantitative scores for anxiety, depression and PTSD. Clients’ personal and physician medical affidavits were analyzed for experiences of violence. Of the 13 cases, anxiety and depression were exhibited by 92 and 100% of women, while all seven women screened for PTSD had symptoms. Qualitative analysis revealed …

Should Patients With Diabetes Be Encouraged To Integrate Social Media Into Their Care Plan?, Arun R. Nelakurthi, Angela Marinilli Pinto, Curtiss B. Cook, Lynne Jones, Mary Boyle, Jieping Ye, Theodoros Lappas, Jingrui He

Publications and Research

AIM: To evaluate the use of social media of individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM).

MATERIALS & METHODS: Both web-based and in-clinic surveys were collected from individuals with DM. Descriptive and correlation analyses were employed to evaluate respondents' diabetes-specific social networking site behaviors.

RESULTS: Forty-five patients with DM completed the web-based survey and 167, the clinic-based survey, of whom only 40 visited diabetes-specific social networking sites. Analysis of online survey data indicated that self-reported adherence to lifestyle recommendations was significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with visiting the sites. Clinic-based survey data found that patients who reported using DM-specific web sites monitored home glucose values more often and had better compliance with insulin administration (both p < 0.05) compared with nonusers.

CONCLUSION: This study provides insight into why individuals visit DM-specific social networking sites. Certain self-management behaviors may improve as …

Black Box, White Cube, Gray Zone: Dance Exhibitions And Audience Attention, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

Relocated from the “black box” of experimental theatre to the “white cube” of the gallery, dance in the museum brings about new forms of performance — the dance exhibition — and new protocols of audience behavior that permit, even encourage, smartphone photography. This is the “gray zone” of recent performance, which is both a symptom of, and compensation for, the virtualization of contemporary perception.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Cardiovascular Diseases: A Cohort Study Of Men And Women Involved In Cleaning The Debris Of The World Trade Center Complex, Molly Remsch, Zoey Laskaris, Janine D. Flory, Consuelo Mora-Mclaughlin, Alfredo Morabia

Publications and Research

BACKGROUND: To determine whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a risk factor for myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke, beyond the expected effects from recognized cardiovascular risk factors and depression.

METHODS AND RESULTS: World Trade Center-Heart is an observational prospective cohort study of 6481 blue-collar first responders nested within the World Trade Center Health Program in New York City. Baseline measures in 2012 and 2013 included blood pressure, weight and height, and blood lipids. PTSD, depression, smoking, and dust exposure during the 2001 cleanup were self-reported. During the 4-year follow-up, outcomes were assessed through (1) interview-based incident, nonfatal MI, and stroke, …

Higher Education And Immigration, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the latest scandal-du-jour of the Trump administration, the policy of separating children from their parents at the border with Mexico has brought widespread condemnation not only across the political spectrum but also across society. Religious, business, and civic leaders have also raised their voices and the Trump Administration backed down from this policy, although it is not clear what it is going to happen to the children who have already been separated from their families and dispersed across the country. But how has higher education responded to this crisis? In many interesting ways.

In unusual responses, leaders of both …

Methods Matter: The Relationship Between Strength And Hypertrophy Depends On Methods Of Measurement And Analysis, Andrew D. Vigotsky, Brad J. Schoenfeld, Christian Than, J. Mark Brown

Publications and Research

Purpose: The relationship between changes in muscle size and strength may be affected by both measurement and statistical approaches, but their effects have not been fully considered or quantified. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to explore how different methods of measurement and analysis can affect inferences surrounding the relationship between hypertrophy and strength gain.

Methods: Data from a previous study—in which participants performed eight weeks of elbow flexor training, followed by an eight-week period of detraining—were reanalyzed using different statistical models, including standard between-subject correlations, analysis of covariance, and hierarchical linear modeling.

Results: The associative relationship between strength …

The Social Provision Of Healthcare To Migrants In The Us And In China, Van C. Tran, Katharine M. Donato

Publications and Research

This article develops a comparative analysis of healthcare provision to migrants in the US and in China. It proceeds in three parts. First, we begin by describing the growth of the unauthorized population and trace the evolution of social provision of healthcare to immigrants, highlighting the restrictive nature of federal social provisions and greater autonomy of state and local governments in redefining eligibility criteria in the US. Second, we examine the impact of legal status on healthcare access and utilization among Mexicans, using original data from the 2007 Hispanic Healthcare Survey and the Mexican Migration Project. We find that unauthorized …

Chinese Garden Of Friendship And Sydney’S Chinatown : Friendship And Something Beyond At Darling Harbor, Wendy W. Tan

Publications and Research

Chinese Garden of Friendship was a gift from China; Sydney’ Chinatown is a Chinese Australian community, and they are adjacent to each other at Darling Harbor of Sydney, Australia. The author made visits there to witness their beauties. Besides, she also explored other connections—friendship; Feng Shui; and cultural diversity within these two famous tour sites.

Direct Current Stimulation Of Endothelial Monolayers Induces A Transient And Reversible Increase In Transport Due To The Electroosmotic Effect, Limary M. Cancel, Katherin Arias, Marom Bikson, John M. Tarbell

Publications and Research

We investigated the effects of direct current stimulation (DCS) on fluid and solute transport across endothelial cell (EC) monolayers in vitro. Our motivation was transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) that has been investigated for treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, to enhance neurorehabilitation, and to change cognition in healthy subjects. The mechanisms underlying this diversity of applications remain under investigation. To address the possible role of blood-brain barrier (BBB) changes during tDCS, we applied direct current to cultured EC monolayers in a specially designed chamber that generated spatially uniform direct current. DCS induced fluid and solute movement across EC layers that persisted …

Russian Sentence Corpus: Benchmark Measures Of Eye Movements In Reading In Russian, Anna K. Laurinavichyute, Irina A. Sekerina, Svetlana Alexeeva, Kristina Bagdasaryan, Reinhold Kliegl

Publications and Research

This article introduces a new corpus of eye movements in silent reading—the Russian Sentence Corpus (RSC). Russian uses the Cyrillic script, which has not yet been investigated in cross-linguistic eye movement research. As in every language studied so far, we confirmed the expected effects of low-level parameters, such as word length, frequency, and predictability, on the eye movements of skilled Russian readers. These findings allow us to add Slavic languages using Cyrillic script (exemplified by Russian) to the growing number of languages with different orthographies, ranging from the Roman-based European languages to logographic Asian ones, whose basic eye movement benchmarks …

In Memoriam: Herbert L. Needleman (1927-2017), Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

On July 18, 2017, Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, a pediatrician and a child psychiatrist who greatly contributed to improve environmental health worldwide by demonstrating in the late 1970s that children exposed to even small amounts of lead could suffer intellectual and behavioral disorders, passed away. He was living at Weinberg Village, an assisted living home in Glen Hazel, neighbor in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he had spent the last two years while suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Needleman's work prompted regulations that limited or banned the metal in a range of common products, like gasoline and paint, …

Dynamic Responses Of Tree-Ring Growth To Multiple Dimensions Of Drought, Wei Fang, Shan Gao, Ruishun Liu, Tao Zhou, Chuixiang Yi, Ruijie Liu, Xiang Zhao, Hui Luo

Publications and Research

Droughts, which are characterized by multiple dimensions including frequency, duration, severity and onset timing, can impact tree growth profoundly. Different dimensions of drought influence tree growth independently or jointly, which makes the development of accurate predictions a formidable challenge. Measurement-based tree-ring data have obvious advantages for studying the drought responses of trees. Here, we explored the use of abundant tree-ring records for quantifying regional response patterns to key dimensions of drought. Specifically, we designed a series of regional-scaled “natural experiments”, based on 357 tree-ring chronologies from Southwest USA and location-matched monthly water balance anomalies, to reveal how tree-ring growth responds …

Stranger-Making As Difference: Childhood Memories Of Belonging And Exclusion By Undergraduates Of Color, Debbie Sonu, Marissa Bellino

Publications and Research

In this article, we draw from the notion of stranger-making to focus on how undergraduates of color at one large university in New York City recount their subjective experiences with inclusion and exclusion at the borderlands of educational spaces. We use narratives to evoke the unfolding of life events and to destabilize categories of difference that are all too often based on a politics of perception rather than an ethical gesture to know. This paper presents four selected vignettes that demonstrate the instability of being a racialized human and draws attention to how belong- ing, or socially felt memberships, is …

The Hidden Curriculum In Financial Literacy: Economics, Standards, And The Teaching Of Young Children, Debbie Sonu, Anand R. Marri

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Self-Care Of Women Enrolled In Doctoral Psychology Programs: A Concept Mapping Approach, Amanda L. Almond

Publications and Research

As increasing numbers of women pursue degrees in health service psychology, it is important to understand what they do to promote their wellness in light of the psychosocial stressors associated with doctoral studies. The purpose of this investigation was to identify and conceptualize a diverse range of health promotion behaviors through the application of a mixed methods concept mapping design. Twelve participants sorted qualitative responses from 390 women in health service psychology pertaining to their personal self-care behaviors, resulting in a list of 112 'moderately' to 'extremely' important self-care behaviors. Six clusters of self-care activities emerged: physical wellness, relaxation and …