Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Covid-19’S Effects On New York City’S Food System: Lessons For Public Health Responses, Nevin Cohen, Nicholas Freudenberg

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted food availability and affordability and changed the daily food practices of New Yorkers. Eleven surveys of samples of 1,000 New York City adults from March 13 through June 28 illustrate three effects on food access and food insecurity: (1) closing restaurants, schools, and other sources of prepared foods reduced access and changed shopping patterns, food expenditures, and diets; (2) economic disruption exacerbated food insecurity and increased demand for food assistance; and (3) altered food practices affected diets and health. These impacts were disproportionately borne by vulnerable populations. This paper reports survey responses illustrating the effects of …

Gathering And Lending Support: Relationships, Linda Miles, Susanne Markgren

Publications and Research

What roles can professional relationships play across a career? How do overlapping and networked relationships help an individual develop professionally, succeed, get ahead, and provide satisfaction and meaning? And what can a librarian do to foster these connections in their own practice? In this chapter, we consider the why, what, who, and how of networking and relationships.

Community College Librarians And The Acrl Framework: Findings From A National Study, Susan T. Wengler, Christine Wolff-Eisenberg

Publications and Research

This study explored community college librarians’ engagement with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. A national online survey with 1,201 community college librarian respondents reveals limited familiarity with and integration of the Framework into community college instruction to date. Findings indicate an openness to future adoption, as well as substantial interest in targeted professional development and a version of the Framework adapted for community college campuses. These results contribute benchmark instructional data on an understudied section of academic librarianship and add to the growing body of research on how librarians have updated teaching practices in response to …

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

Integrative And Contextual Learning In College Algebra: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration With Economics, Choon Shan Lai, Glenn Henshaw, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone

Publications and Research

Many students consider mathematics too abstract and useless for their academic and career goals. Meanwhile, instructors in quantitative disciplines such as economics find many students mathematically underprepared for their courses. The disconnect between students’ perceptions of the utility of mathematics and their life and career may have contributed to some of the under-performance in learning mathematics. Addressing this problem requires collaboration across disciplines to develop an understanding of each other’s needs, more specifically to develop an integrative platform that allows students to apply mathematical skills in interdisciplinary contexts (Ganter & Barker, 2004). We collaboratively designed and implemented an integrative platform …

Book Review: Routledge Handbook Of Ngos And International Relations, Edited By Thomas Davies, Maria Savva

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Lessons From New York City’S Struggle Against Amazon Hq2 In Long Island City, Steve Lang, Filip Stabrowski

Publications and Research

For three months between November 2018 and February 2019, the entire world, it seemed, was watching Long Island City, Queens. On November 12, 2018, nearly two years after Amazon announced that the company would be holding a contest for its second corporate headquarters (Amazon HQ2), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo jointly announced that Amazon had selected Long Island City as one of its two HQ2 locations. The project, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Amazon and New York City and State, would provide up to $3 billion in public …

The Hispanic Urban Child, Iris Ofelia Lopez Dr.

Open Educational Resources

This course examines the social, historical and cultural roots and life experiences of Latinx community in urban America. It focuses on Latinx families and youth in global cities. The course situates the Latinx diaspora in the United States within a colonial/transnational and global context.

Behavioral And Psychological Strategies Of Long‐Term Weight Loss Maintainers In A Widely Available Weight Management Program, Suzanne Phelan, Tate Halfman, Angela M. Pinto, Gary D. Foster

Publications and Research

Objective

The study’s purpose was to use validated questionnaires to identify novel behavioral and psychological strategies among weight loss maintainers (WLMs) in a commercial weight management program.

Methods

Participants were 4,786 WLMs in WW (formerly Weight Watchers, New York, New York) who had maintained weight loss  ≥ 9.1 kg (24.7 kg/23.8% weight loss on average) for 3.3 years and had a current mean BMI of 27.6 kg/m2. A control group of 528 weight‐stable individuals with obesity had a mean BMI of 38.9 kg/m2 and weight change  < 2.3 kg over the previous 5 years.

Results

WLMs versus Controls practiced more frequent healthy dietary choices (3.3 vs. 1.9;  = …

Surprises! Time-Tested & Easy-To-Follow Tips To Take The Mystery Out Of Success For Middle And High School Readers, Morose Leonard

Theses

Surprises! encapsulates my education at Lehman College. During my three years of studies, I have developed a greater appreciation for science (both natural and social), and I understand science's fundamental philosophy, which at its core denotes humanity’s effort to demystify the workings of the universe, of which we are a part. If we allow it, science can dispel our misconceptions and prejudices about ourselves and our place in the universe.

Through Surprises!, I have sought to apply that understanding to help promote our human aspirations without disrupting the delicate balance of life as we know it. For better or …

Play Captains On Play Streets: A Community-University Playful Learning And Teen Leadership Collaboration, Molly Schlesinger, Jeremy Sawyer, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Rebecca Fabiano

Publications and Research

Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) merges playful learning pedagogy with community spaces to create playful learning opportunities for children, families, and communities. Prior PLL projects have demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing social interaction between children and caregivers by creating opportunities for social interaction derived from the learning sciences literature. In the present case study, a university-based team of PLL researchers partnered with a local community-based organization (CBO) that provides educational, skill building, and job training opportunities for teens in low-income neighborhoods. PLL provided consultation and training to transform the CBO’s Play Captains program into a Playful Learning program where local teenagers led …

From Neoliberalism To Socialism: Reimagining Socialism In Africa, Kiiru Gichuru

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract. For many scholars, pundits, policy makers, and citizens alike, Africa’s persistent maldevelopment has continued to defy the usual International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and foreign aid prescriptions that are, at times, peddled as silver bullets to the African conundrum. Beginning in the late 1970s, loans from the IMF and World Bank required African governments to implement certain conditions that were supposed to address public sector mismanagement, illiberal trade policies, low foreign investment, and state development. These austerity measures were designed to usher in an era of financial growth that would enable Africa to join the ranks of developed …

Does Overweight/Obesity Moderate The Association Between Adhd And Internalizing Difficulties In Young Adults?, Breanna Badripersaud

Dissertations and Theses

This study’s objective was to investigate if ADHD symptoms and BMI are associated with internalizing impairments of depression, anxiety, stress and lower self-esteem in college students. It was predicted that higher ADHD symptoms would be associated with elevated depression, anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem, especially if BMI fell in the overweight/obese range. Undergraduate students [N= 580; Mean (SD) age= 20.7 (3.10)] from an urban campus completed an online survey comprising self-report measures of demographics, height/weight, attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity (Barkley Deficits Executive Functioning Scale ADHD- Executive Function Index), depression, anxiety, stress (all using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale) and self- …

The Battle For The Battle Of Adwa: Collective Identity And Nation-Building, Joseph A. Steward

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

On March 1^st, 1896, an Ethiopian army lead by Emperor Menelik II dealt a shocking defeat to the invading Italian forces in the Battle of Adwa. In victory, Menelik was able to exert his authority over a vast territory which included both the historical, ancient kingdoms of the northern and central parts of Ethiopia, and also the vast, resource-rich territories in the west and south which he had earlier conquered. The egalitarian nature of the victory united the various peoples of Ethiopia against a common enemy, giving Menelik the opportunity to create a new Ethiopian nation.

The …

Turkish Public Opinion And Cultural And Political Demands Of The "Kurdish Street", Ekrem Karakoc, H. Ege Ozen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Validating And Developing The User Engagement Scale In Web-Based Visual Information Searching, Qiong Xu

Publications and Research

Guided by the theoretical frameworks of interactive information searching and user engagement (UE), this study proposed sense discovery (SD) as a UE attribute and suggested a refined four-factor user engagement scale (UES) model for the measurement of users’ psychological involvement in web-based visual information searching. Using a mixed-methods approach based on a survey, this study confirmed the inter-item reliability of the original six-factor UES in three visual contexts—a general visual context, image searching on Google (ISG), and video searching on YouTube (VSY). Principal component analyses (PCA) partially confirmed the internal consistency of the original six UE subscales and suggested conceptual …

Anti-Lgbtq Hate: An Analysis Of Situational Variables, Jill Kehoe

Publications and Research

The current study aimed to augment the scant body of literature on anti-LGBTQ hate by providing an in-depth examination of anti-LGBTQ hate incident situational characteristics including offender substance use, number of offenders, crime location, and victim-offender relationship. Analysis of situational dynamic variables provided support for the notion that anti-LGBTQ hate is a distinct type of criminal incident. Significantly increased levels of offender substance use, crimes perpetrated by multiple offenders, crimes perpetrated by acquaintances, and crimes taking place in open spaces substantiates the theory that anti-LGBTQ hate is qualitatively unique, typified by different characteristics than other forms of crime. The data …

Determining Shelving Accuracy Via Sampling In A Community College Library, John P. Delooper, Devika Gonsalves

Publications and Research

During the Fall 2017 semester, staff at the Hudson County Community College (HCCC), Library began to notice that many books listed as available in the catalog were often not being found on the shelves when patrons attempted to retrieve them. This situation puzzled library leadership because HCCC had recently conducted an inventory and removed all missing items from its holdings. To determine the cause of this discrepancy, HCCC staff decided to sample the library’s collection to determine if books were available at the expected locations. From this, the library found that a high percentage of its books were not present …

Sociology Of Sexualities, Kyla Bender-Baird

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Biography And Sociology: Berger On Religion As Choice Rather Than Fate, Samuel Heilman

Publications and Research

Is there a connection between biography and sociology for Peter Berger? The short answer, as demonstrated by his own memoir, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist, is “yes.” But in his book, he traces this connection to his own arrival and training at the Graduate Faculty of the New School. I would like to suggest that the process begins earlier in his life. Known for his work on the sociology of knowledge, the examination of how “society influences thought,” I suggest an examination of how one’s biography influences thought, the environment in which Berger grew played a major role in his …

Hegemony Versus Pluralism: Ayurveda And The Movement For Global Mental Health, Murphy Halliburton

Publications and Research

Under the aegis of the World Health Organization, the Movement for Global Mental Health and an Indian Supreme Court ruling, biomedical psychiatric interventions have expanded in India augmenting biomedical hegemony in a place that is known for its variety of healing modalities. This is occurring despite the fact that studies by the WHO show a better outcome in India for people suffering schizophrenia and related diagnoses when compared to people in developed countries who have greater access to biomedical psychiatry. Practitioners of ayurvedic medicine in Kerala have been mounting a claim for a significant role in public mental health in …

Resource Ecologies, Political Economies And The Ethics Of Audio Technologies In The Anthropocene, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Understanding how recorded and amplified stage musics contribute towards producing the Anthropocene necessitates attending to complex transnational flows of material, capital and labor, and how they coalesce into technological objects. This is complicated by the wide array of sites, practices and knowledges involved during various stages of the production process, from initial resource extraction, to smelting, component manufacturing, technology assembly, and distribution. To develop a suitable technological ethics, and to understand what happens to environments and to human, animal and plant lifeworlds, requires one to resist abstraction and undertake a global accounting of resource ecologies with recourse to planetary-scale political …

Mindfulness As A Moderator Of The Relation Between Acculturative Stress And Body Dissatisfaction/Eating Disorder Symptoms In Latinx Students, Ariana J. Mackson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to test the theory that mindfulness is an effective coping strategy for reducing acculturative stress and body dissatisfaction/eating disorder symptoms. It was hypothesized that acculturative stress would be associated with more body dissatisfaction/eating disorder symptoms, but this relation was expected to be moderated by mindfulness. It was also predicted that mindfulness would be associated with less acculturative stress and less body dissatisfaction/eating disorder symptoms. Thirty-eight Latinx students were recruited from The City College of New York, CUNY, through the web-based survey participation pool SONA. Participants answered questions assessing their levels of acculturative stress, mindfulness, …

Cultivating Belonging: Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives At The Leonard Lief Library, Lehman College--Cuny, Joan Jocson-Singh, Alison Lehner-Quam, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

For the library profession, diversity and inclusion have increasingly become part and parcel of upholding the fundamental values that librarianship promotes. As the ACRL Diversity Standards state:

"Diversity is an essential component of any civil soci- ety. It is more than a moral imperative; it is a global necessity. Everyone can benefit from diversity, and diverse populations need to be supported so they can reach their full potential for themselves and their communities."*

For librarians at the Leonard Lief Library, Lehman College, a new Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) was created in early 2018 to foster and cultivate an …

Book Review: Hatians, The People That Will Not Go Away, François Pierre-Louis Jr.

Publications and Research

Reviews three books:

• Matthew J. Smith. Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica after Emancipation. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

• Toni Pressley-Sanon. Istwa across the Water: Haitian History, Memory, and the Cultural Imagination. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017.

• Victor Figueroa. Prophetic Visions of the Past: Pan-Caribbean Representations of the Haitian Revolution. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015.

Prevalence Of Left-Handedness In China 2011: Small-Area Estimates, Hongwei Xu

Publications and Research

Nationally representative survey data and small-area estimation techniques are used to assess the geographic prevalence of left-handedness in China 2011. Measures of individuals’ handedness are their self-reported dominant hand and their hand grip strength, which yield four estimates of left-handed prevalence, and these statistics are recorded at the provincial level. These estimates concord with one another. There are several geographic clusters of high-prevalence rates of left-handers located in ethnic minority-designated autonomous areas or historically revolutionary base areas, which may reflect a deep-rooted sense of defiance to authorities and promote such cultural values as individual autonomy and equality among local people.

Is Lying Contagious? Spatial Diffusion Of High-Yield “Satellites” During China’S Great Leap Forward, Hongwei Xu, Geng Tian

Publications and Research

Situated in China’s Great Leap Forward (GLF) campaign in 1958, this study examines the spatial diffusion of “launching high-yield satellites”— exaggerating grain yields, which contributed to the 1959–61 GLF famine that claimed millions of human lives. The authors conceptualize exaggerating grain yields as a political innovation adopted by local cadres to endorse the GLF and signal political loyalty to their superiors. Using geocoded county-level event history data from historical newspaper archives, the authors found that the diffusion of exaggerating grain yields across the country was primarily driven by the interaction between geographic proximity and political proximity.

Zoning – Neighborhood Character And Historic Overlays In Lexington, Ky, Taylor S. Price

Dissertations and Theses

Zoning has a significant impact on our built environment. Overlay zoning, an additional form of restrictive zoning, is a tool that municipalities utilize to control development and changes to neighborhoods. This study analyzes the impact that historic district (H-1) and neighborhood character (ND-1) overlays have on home sale prices in Lexington, KY. Results suggests that overlays have a significant positive impact on home values. Results also suggest that that overlays exhibit spatial impacts that extend further than the homes included in the overlay.

Household Costs And Resistance To Germany's Energy Transition, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Germany is an exemplary case of an energy transition from nuclear energy and fossil fuels toward renewables in the electricity sector, but it also demonstrates repeated, increasingly successful counter-mobilization by energy incumbents and their allies. The course for Germany's energy transition was largely set with the adoption of a feed-in tariff law in 1990, but since then the energy transition has been altered by a series of policy-making episodes, each of which was shaped by the outcomes of the previous episodes; there has been a combination of reinforcing and reactive sequences. This article uses policy windows and advocacy coalition theory, …

The Political Viability Of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design And Framing In British Columbia And California, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap-and-trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this paper tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation-finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position taking. The paper finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, …