Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Not Waiting For Washington: Climate Policy Adoption In California And New York, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

In the absence of strong U.S. national climate change policy, California and New York, among other states, adopted relatively comprehensive and ambitious policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions during the 2000s. They adopted these policies despite political-institutional and other structural barriers similar to those found nationally, which shows that political actors have significant scope for taking effective action even under structural constraints. This article explains the adoption of climate policies in these two leading states by using a windows of opportunity approach, which analyzes how the convergence of problem and political events produces policy windows and hence opportunities for advocacy …

Evolution Of The Modern Baboon (Papio Hamadryas): A Reassessment Of The African Plio-Pleistocene Record, Christopher C. Gilbert, Stephen R. Frost, Kelsey D. Pugh, Monya Anderson, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

Baboons ( Papio hamadryas) are among the most successful extant primates, with a minimum of six distinctive forms throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. However, their presence in the fossil record is unclear. Three early fossil taxa are generally recognized, all from South Africa: Papio izodi , Papio robinsoni and Papio angusticeps. Because of their derived appearance, P. angusticeps and P. robinsoni have sometimes been considered subspecies of P. hamadryas and have been used as biochronological markers for the Plio- Pleistocene hominin sites where they are found.

We reexamined fossil Papio forms from across Africa with an emphasis on their distinguishing features and …

Interrogating The Collective: #Critlib And The Problem Of Community, Nora Almeida

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Loaning Books By The Semester: A Case Study At A Community College Library, Jennifer Noe

Publications and Research

During the spring and fall semesters of 2016 and the spring semester of 2017, Kingsborough Community College, part of the City University of New York, launched an initiative to loan over 5,000 books for the entire semester to students in its Learning Communities and other special programs. This paper is a case study that describes the challenges of implementing the Textbook Learning Initiative by the Access Services department of the college's Robert J. Kibbee Library and its ongoing work as all of these specially purchased titles are now in the general collection for all students on a first come, first …

The Modulatory Effect Of Expectations On Memory Retrieval During Sentence Comprehension, Luca Campanelli, Julie A. Van Dyke, Klara Marton

Publications and Research

Memory retrieval and probabilistic expectations are recognized factors in sentence comprehension that capture two different critical aspects of processing difficulty: the cost of retrieving and integrating previously processed elements with the new input words and the cost of incorrect predictions about upcoming words or structures in a sentence. Although these two factors have independently received substantial support from the extant literature, how they interact remains poorly understood. The present study investigated memory retrieval and expectation in a single experiment, pitting these factors against each other. Results showed a significant interference effect in both response time to the comprehension questions and …

Interpretation Bias Toward Ambiguous Information In Burnout And Depression, Renzo Bianchi, Eric Laurent, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Jay Verkuilen, Chantal Berna

Publications and Research

Burnout has been defined as a job-related syndrome combining pervasive fatigue and loss of motivation. In recent years, evidence has mounted that burnout may reflect a depressive condition. In this study, we expanded on past investigations of burnout-depression overlap by focusing on interpretation biases toward ambiguous information among the two entities. We conducted a web-based study involving 1056 participants (83% female; mean age: 42.87). Burnout symptoms were assessed with the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure and depressive symptoms with the PHQ-9. The Ambiguous Scenarios Test (AST), a measure of interpretation bias validated among dysphoric individuals, was the outcome of interest. The AST …

The Politics Of Twilights: Notes On The Semiotics Of Horizon Photography, Michael W. Raphael

Publications and Research

Visual sociology is crucial for exploring the indexical meanings that thick description cannot capture within a cultural setting. This paper explores how such meanings are created within a subset of the domain of photography. Using data gathered over several years, I constructed the semiotic code ‘horizon’ photographers use when ‘in the field’ for photographing periods of twilight. This code explains the relevance of subject matter to the photograph’s aesthetics. Specifically, I detail how ‘the horizon’ communicates the potential for the photographer to ‘capture’ the index of a symbol that later permits the photographer to culturally mark scenes with ‘light’. In …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 4.0: The Interactive Course, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Kathleen Offenholley, Maura A. Smale, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm, Anders A. Wallace, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 22-23, 2018, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Critical Play with History (Panel) - Composition & Storytelling - Health & Cognitive Sciences - Gaming Anthropology: Teaching Culture and Power Through Games and Design (Panel) - Twine & Writing Games - Easy Ideas II - STEM Games - Global Games for Change Catalog (Panel) - Comics & Active Learning - Fact Checking & Research - Computer Science & Game Design - SimGlobal: Building a Serious Roleplay Course for the Social Sciences (Panel) - Role Playing Games, Narrative, …

Burnout Research: Eyes Wide Shut, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

In a study published in a recent issue of Critical Care Medicine, Colville and Smith (2017) found modest overlap between burnout and depression and assumed that burnout and depression are distinct entities. For four reasons, we think that the study is seriously flawed. First, Colville and Smith assessed burnout symptoms with an abbreviated version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the psychometric properties of which are unclear. Second, they used clinically and theoretically arbitrary cutoff scores for categorizing burnout, a modus operandi that, unfortunately, has become commonplace in studies of medical professionals. Third, participants could be categorized as “burned out” …

Burnout-Depression Overlap: Nomological Network Examination And Factor-Analytic Approach, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Burnout has been defined as a condition in which individuals are left exhausted by a long-term confrontation with unmanageable job stressors. The question of whether burnout reflects anything other than depressive responses to unresolvable stress remains an object of debate. In this 911-participant study (83% female; mean age: 42.36), we further addressed the issue of burnout-depression overlap. Burnout was assessed with the exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and depression with the PHQ-8. The relationships of burnout and depression with three jobrelated variables – illegitimate work tasks, work-nonwork interference, and job satisfaction – and three “context-free” variables …

Beyond The Left: Documenting American Racism In Print Periodicals At The Wisconsin Historical Society, And Theorizing (Radical) Collections Today, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

This chapter merges what I experienced in developing collections at the Wisconsin Historical Society with new scholarship on anti-racism and interrogations of whiteness in library and information studies (LIS).

Is There “Hope For Every Addicted American”? The New U.S. War On Drugs, B Stone

Publications and Research

The U.S. has been waging a War on Drugs for the last forty years. But in the mid-2010s, a series of reforms have rejected this militant approach. How did these policies manage to break through a gridlocked Congress? What is the nature of these reforms, and what are their political implications? Using critical discourse analysis, I demonstrate that a new policy framework of “addiction recovery” defines the political crises of the opioid epidemic, the failure of the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration in terms of disease, attributing Drug War injustices to prejudice against “addiction,” rather than a constellation of …

Online Communication Settings And The Qualitative Research Process: Acclimating Students And Novice Researchers, Katherine Gregory

Publications and Research

In the last 20 years, qualitative research scholars have begun to interrogate methodological and analytic issues concerning online research settings as both data sources and instruments for digital methods. This article examines the adaptation of parts of a qualitative research curriculum for understanding online communication settings. I propose methodological best practices for researchers and educators that I developed while teaching research methods to undergraduate and graduate students across disciplinary departments and discuss obstacles faced during my own research while gathering data from online sources. This article confronts issues concerning the disembodied aspects of applying what in practice should be rooted …

Reseña De Escritura Académica: De La Teoría A La Práctica, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Gis Project Management, Jochen Albrecht

Publications and Research

There is a big gulf between GIScience as an academic endeavor and its application in the form of GIS project management in the real world. Project activities are complex because they rarely involve routine repetitive acts, but often require specific knowledge and skills to be used in their design, execution, and management. This article explains what project management is, its objectives, and the required ingredients from personnel to budgets, and the integration of the GIS project into the larger context of an organization’s and even societal culture.

Essential Methods For Planning Practitioners: Skills And Techniques For Data Analysis, Visualization, And Communication, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Jochen Albrecht

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

More Than Taking A Chair: The Perceived Group Social Dynamics Of Alcoholics Anonymous Related To Changes In Spiritual Practices, Alexis Kuerbis, J. Scott Tonigan

Publications and Research

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting attendance and spiritual practices are established predictors of abstinence. This study utilized longitudinal data from two studies of AA to investigate 1) how perceived within meeting social dynamics in AA meetings affect later AA attendance, and thus exposure to the emphasis of spiritual practices and 2) influence the extent that spiritual gains are mobilized, beyond AA attendance. Findings revealed that greater group cohesion was associated with lower AA attrition, and that expressiveness, or openness, of the group predicted reported practice of spiritual behaviors. Findings reveal distinct group dynamics may foster distinct mechanism of change of AA …

Exploration Of Treatment Matching To Problem Drinker Characteristics With Motivational Interviewing And Non-Directive Client-Centered Psychotherapy For Problem Drinkers, Alexis Kuerbis, Jessica Houser, Svetlana Levak, Sijing Shao, Jon Morgenstern

Publications and Research

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a known effective intervention for alcohol use disorder (AUD). MI's mechanisms of action remain inconsistently substantiated, and research in this area has been reliant on identifying relationships through strength of association rather than experimental manipulation of active ingredients. In two previous studies, a pilot and a larger replication study, we disaggregated MI into its hypothesized active ingredients by creating three conditions: MI, Spirit Only MI (SOMI, in which evocation of change talk was proscribed), and a non-therapy condition (NTC). Results from both studies yielded equivalent findings across all three conditions. In the current analyses, data from …

Investigating The Status Of A Rare Cross-Linguistic Contrast: The Case Of Romanian Palatalized Postalveolars, Laura Spinu

Publications and Research

This study examines a rare cross-linguistic contrast, that between plain and secondarily palatalized postalveolar fricatives, through (i) an acoustic analysis of the production of 31 Romanian speakers, and (ii) a perception experiment with a different group of 31 native speakers. Evidence of acoustic separation between plain and palatalized forms was found for 27 of the subjects, suggesting that the contrast is produced by the majority. This is consistent with previous reports of native speakers collected in 1961. These findings were supported by the results of the perceptual experiment, which showed that native speakers exhibit moderate sensitivity to this contrast. An …

Πολιτισμός, Κοινωνία Των Πολιτών Και Το Ιδεολόγημα Των Μκο, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Opening The Conversation: An Introduction To Open Educational Resources, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

This column explores the concept of, and issues surrounding, Open Educational Resources (OER) for librarians.

Decisional Bias As Implicit Moral Judgment, Toni Spring, Herbert D. Saltzstein

Publications and Research

Decisional bias (false alarm rate) when judging the guilt/innocence of a suspect is offered as an implicit measure of moral judgment. Combining two data sets, 215 participants, ages 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 watched the visually identical film involving a person setting a fire, framed either as (a) intentional but not resulting in a fire (BI-NF), (b) unintentional but resulting in a major fire (NI-F), or (c) intentional and resulting in a major fire (BI-F). After watching the film, participants identified seriatim who of six individuals was the perpetrator and how certain they were. The data were subjected to a signal …

What's Mine Is Yourls, Kimberly R. Abrams, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

Hyperlink management is critical to website functionality because a site with dead links is not fully operable for the end user. In libraries, links used for marketing, course materials, electronic resources, social media, and other uses are laborious to maintain. Often, these links are long, unreadable, and unmemorable. In order to streamline link maintenance, improve link usability, and promote resources, an open source, short link manager called Your Own URL Shortener (YOURLS), was implemented at an academic library. This primer describes this process. Not only does YOURLS shorten links, it also acts as a database link manager. Long URLs are …

The Law Code Of Hammurabi: Transliterated And Literally Translated From Its Early Classical Arabic Language, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book, which includes new translations of the old Babylonian laws of Hammurabi, is the second book by the author examining, from a historical Arabic linguistic perspective, a major Akkadian document. The first book offered new translations of three tablets from a literary work, the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in a late Babylonian language. The pioneering methodology used by the author to decipher the ancient Mesopotamian texts in both documents involves the primary utilization of old etymological Arabic manuscripts written by hundreds of accomplished scholars more than a thousand years ago. Using this methodology does not only provide more accurate, …

Transcription Activator Like Effector Nucleases (Talens): A New, Important, And Versatile Gene Editing Technique With A Growing Literature, Philip Barnett

Publications and Research

Transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENs) is a new and powerful technique in genetic engineering that can delete deleterious genes or add beneficial genes to organisms. It is being widely studied to improve crops and livestock, and is also being investigated clinically. Comparing the details of how both TALENs and its competitor, CRISPR-Cas9, function, reveals the potential advantages of TALENs. The growing literature, besides covering the scientific and technical aspects of TALENs, also includes pertinent information on regulatory aspects and the public’s perception and acceptance of TALENs.

Progress For Whom, Toward What? Progressive Politics And New York City’S Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, Samuel Stein

Publications and Research

In both its historical Progressive Era roots and its contemporary manifestations, U.S. urban progressivism has evinced a contradictory tendency toward promoting the interests of capital and property while ostensibly protecting labor and tenants, thus producing policies that undermine its central claims. This article interrogates past and present appeals to urban progressive politics, particularly around housing and planning, and offers an in-depth case study of one of the most highly touted examples of the new urban progressivism: New York City’s recently adopted Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. This case serves to identify the ways in which progressive rhetoric can disguise neoliberal policies. …

Watts Teaches About Social Responsibility And Leadership, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“When I was an undergraduate, I kept ip- opping back and forth between being a business major and being a psychology major. Then I took a class on giving people psychological assessments to help them identify what their strengths are and what careers they might be a good fit for. It was in that class that I first heard of industrial/organizational psychology.” This is how Dr. Logan Watts explains how he chose to become a psychologist.

A native of Georgetown, Texas, he obtained his doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and today he is an assistant professor …

Effectiveness Of Social Work Reentry Programs At Preventing Recidivism, Daniel C. Grijalva

Publications and Research

Each year in the United States, thousands of individuals are released from prisons and must reintegrate into society. Ensuring these individuals obtain adequate employment upon release is key to keeping them from returning to the penal system. This paper examines different social work programs that attempt to secure employment for ex-offenders. This paper reviews the obstacles these programs face and considers how social workers can improve the effectiveness of these programs at preventing recidivism. This paper acknowledges that some of these programs have achieved moderate success in preventing recidivism but recognizes the need to research current programs’ methodologies so that …

Super-Diversity As A Methodological Approach: Re-Centering Power And Inequality, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Super-diversity as a methodological lens calls for a study of dynamics of new and diversified social groups that moves away from more traditional approaches focused on ethnicity. In examining the potential of super-diversity as a methodological lens, I identify a risk of downplaying the effect of “old” categories of difference that are likely to continue to shape social structures as well as space. I propose a re-centering of power and inequality in the study of super-diversity by situating its study within an urban culturalist approach, with sociological tools borrowed from ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism. This proposal is illustrated through the …

The Factor Structure And Construct Validity Of The Inventory Of Callous-Unemotional Traits In Chinese Undergraduate Students, Meng-Cheng Wang, Yu Gao, Jiaxin Deng, Hongyu Lai, Qiaowen Deng, Cherie Armour

Publications and Research

The current study assesses the factor structure and construct validity of the self-reported Inventory of Callous±Unemotional Traits (ICU) in 637 Chinese community adults (mean age = 25.98, SD = 5.79). A series of theoretical models proposed in previous studies were tested through confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that a shortened form that consists of 11 items (ICU-11) to assess callousness and uncaring factors has excellent overall fit. Additionally, correlations with a wide range of external variables demonstrated that this shortened form has similar construct validity compared to the original ICU. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the ICU-11 may be …