A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) seeks Level II funding to develop a bibliographic resource through which the journal can create, manage, export, and publish high-quality bibliographic data from DHQ articles and their citations, as well as from the broader digital humanities research domain. Drawing on data from this resource, we will develop visualizations through which readers can explore citation networks and find related articles. We will also publish the full bibliography as a public web-based service that reflects the profile of current digital humanities research. The bibliography will be maintained and expanded through incoming DHQ articles and citations, and through contributions from the DH community. DHQ is an open-access online journal published by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), hosted at Brown University and Indiana University, and serves as a crucial point of encounter between digital humanities research and the wider humanities community

ASSESSING BICYCLE HELMET USE IN COLLEGE-AGED INDIVIDUALS USING THE TRANSTHEORETICAL MODEL OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Traumatic brain injury is a serious public health problem in the United States, and cycling represents the largest category of sports-related head injuries. Helmets can significantly lower the risk of brain injury for cyclists of all ages. Yet, the incidence of traumatic brain injury as a result of a bicycle-related injury remains high. Due to consistently low base rates of helmet use in the college-aged population, this group is a prime target for research and interventions focused on bicycle helmet use behaviors. This research uses Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change to examine bicycle helmet use behaviors in college-aged individuals. This study builds upon previous research to address all four constructs of the TTM (Stages of Change, Decisional Balance [Pros and Cons], Self-Efficacy [Confidence and Temptation], and Processes of Change [Experiential and Behavioral]). Questionnaires were administered to undergraduate psychology students in Spring semester 2015 and Fall semester 2016 at two universities in the northwestern United States (N=547). Chi-square tests for independence were conducted to analyze the relationship between bicycle helmet use and demographic characteristics, bicycle-riding behaviors, and past experiences. Three ANOVAs (with Tukey’s post-hoc analyses) and 3 Welch ANOVAs (with Games-Howell post-hoc analyses) were used to analyze the application of the constructs of the TTM to helmet use, and to permit comparison to the theoretical relationships predicted by the TTM model. Overall, the relationships among the constructs of the TTM were similar to those found when the TTM is applied to other health-related behaviors. The largest portion of variance among the 5 stages was derived from Processes of Change construct, followed by the Self-Efficacy construct, and then the Decisional Balance construct. Behavioral and Experiential Processes accounted for the largest magnitude of difference between the Precontemplation and Contemplation stages; Confidence and Behavioral Processes accounted for the largest magnitude of difference between the Preparation and Actions stages. These findings support future application of the TTM to conceptualize bicycle helmet use in college-aged individuals and to inform the development of helmet promotion interventions. Specific examples about how to modify helmet-related interventions based on the TTM are provided. This research contributes to the limited body of knowledge focused on the application of health behavior theories to understand bicycle helmet use

Digital Humanities Data Curation

Digital Humanities Data Curation (DHDC) will engage scholars in sustained collaboration around issues of data curation in order to educate scholars on best practices and technologies for data curation and their relationship to scholarly methods. The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland will lead a collaboration partnering the Women Writers Project (WWP) at Brown University, and the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign that will foster innovation in digital humanities research by integrating recent advances in the research and practice of data curation to address the specific needs of humanities researchers. DHDC will serve as an opportunity for participants to receive guidance in understanding the role of data curation in enriching humanities research projects

Is Diverse Television Really Diverse?: An Examination of Shondaland

Have you ever been watching a television show and noticed that the majority of characters are white, cisgender, and heterosexual while there are only a few characters who represent multiple minority identities? This is often the case in television when a limited number of characters are assigned many different minoritized identities, becoming catchalls for diversity. We test this phenomenon through our media analysis of Shondaland, a production company that is widely regarded as more progressive and inclusive relative to its cohort. Its ten ensemble cast drama series—ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to How to Get Away with Murder to Bridgerton—provide ample media to investigate. In examining the distribution of diversity and other patterns in its programming, we answer the question: is Shondaland still susceptible to the pattern of identity piling and other factors that diminish diversity? We anticipate this study will demonstrate how Shondaland has exemplified diversity over time and how this has correlated with the production company\u27s success.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1075/thumbnail.jp

Controlling a mobile robot with a biological brain

The intelligent controlling mechanism of a typical mobile robot is usually a computer system. Some recent research is ongoing in which biological neurons are being cultured and trained to act as the brain of an interactive real world robot�thereby either completely replacing, or operating in a cooperative fashion with, a computer system. Studying such hybrid systems can provide distinct insights into the operation of biological neural structures, and therefore, such research has immediate medical implications as well as enormous potential in robotics. The main aim of the research is to assess the computational and learning capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks. A hybrid system incorporating closed-loop control of a mobile robot by a dissociated culture of neurons has been created. The system is flexible and allows for closed-loop operation, either with hardware robot or its software simulation. The paper provides an overview of the problem area, gives an idea of the breadth of present ongoing research, establises a new system architecture and, as an example, reports on the results of conducted experiments with real-life robots

Revealing ensemble state transition patterns in multi-electrode neuronal recordings using hidden Markov models

In order to harness the computational capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks, it is necessary to understand neuronal dynamics and connectivity on a mesoscopic scale. To this end, this paper uncovers dynamic spatiotemporal patterns emerging from electrically stimulated neuronal cultures using hidden Markov models (HMMs) to characterize multi-channel spike trains as a progression of patterns of underlying states of neuronal activity. However, experimentation aimed at optimal choice of parameters for such models is essential and results are reported in detail. Results derived from ensemble neuronal data revealed highly repeatable patterns of state transitions in the order of milliseconds in response to probing stimuli

Characterization and comparison of recombinant full-length ursine and human sex hormone-binding globulin

Sex hormone‐binding globulin (SHBG) regulates the bioavailability of sex steroid hormones in the blood. Levels of SHBG increase markedly in brown bears (Ursus arctos) during hibernation, suggesting that a key regulatory role of this protein is to quench sex steroid bioavailability in hibernation physiology. To enable characterization of ursine SHBG and a cross species comparison, we established an insect cell‐based expression system for recombinant full‐length ursine and human SHBG. Compared with human SHBG, we observed markedly lower secretion levels of ursine SHBG, resulting in a 10‐fold difference in purified protein yield. Both human and ursine recombinant SHBG appeared as dimeric proteins in solution, with a single unfolding temperature of ~ 58 °C. The thermal stability of ursine and human SHBG increased 5.4 and 9.5 °C, respectively, in the presence of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), suggesting a difference in affinity. The dissociation constants for [(3)H]DHT were determined to 0.21 ± 0.04 nm for human and 1.32 ± 0.10 nm for ursine SHBG, confirming a lower affinity of ursine SHBG. A similarly reduced affinity, determined from competitive steroid binding, was observed for most steroids. Overall, we found that ursine SHBG had similar characteristics to human SHBG, specifically, being a homodimeric glycoprotein capable of binding steroids with high affinity. Therefore, ursine SHBG likely has similar biological functions to those known for human SHBG. The determined properties of ursine SHBG will contribute to elucidating its potential regulatory role in hibernation physiology

Spatio-temporal dependencies in functional connectivity in rodent cortical cultures

Models of functional connectivity in cortical cultures on multi-electrodes arrays may aid in understanding how cognitive pathways form and improve techniques that aim to interface with neuronal systems. To enable research on such models, this study uses both data- and model-driven approaches to determine what dependencies are present in and between functional connectivity networks derived from bursts of extracellularly recorded activity. Properties of excitation in bursts were analysed using correlative techniques to assess the degree of linear dependence and then two parallel techniques were used to assess functional connectivity. Three models presenting increasing levels of spatio-temporal dependency were used to capture the dynamics of individual functional connections and their consistencies were verified using surrogate data. By comparing network-wide properties between model generated networks and functional networks from data, complex interdependencies were revealed. This indicates the persistent co-activation of neuronal pathways in spontaneous bursts, as can be found in whole brain structures

Study protocol for a randomised, controlled platform trial estimating the effect of autobiographical Memory Flexibility training (MemFlex) on relapse of recurrent major depressive disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic condition. Although current treatment approaches are effective in reducing acute depressive symptoms, rates of relapse are high. Chronic and inflexible retrieval of autobiographical memories, and in particular a bias towards negative and overgeneral memories, is a reliable predictor of relapse. This randomised controlled single-blind trial will determine whether a therapist-guided self-help intervention to ameliorate autobiographical memory biases using Memory Flexibility training (MemFlex) will increase the experience of depression-free days, relative to a psychoeducation control condition, in the 12 months following intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Individuals (aged 18 and above) with a diagnosis of recurrent MDD will be recruited when remitted from a major depressive episode. Participants will be randomly allocated to complete 4 weeks of a workbook providing either MemFlex training, or psychoeducation on factors that increase risk of relapse. Assessment of diagnostic status, self-report depressive symptoms, depression-free days and cognitive risk factors for depression will be completed post-intervention, and at 6 and 12 months follow-up. The cognitive target of MemFlex will be change in memory flexibility on the Autobiographical Memory Test- Alternating Instructions. The primary clinical endpoints will be the number of depression-free days in the 12 months following workbook completion, and time to depressive relapse. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been granted by the NHS National Research Ethics Committee (East of England, 11/H0305/1). Results from this study will provide a point-estimate of the effect of MemFlex on depressive relapse, which will be used to inform a fully powered trial evaluating the potential of MemFlex as an effective, low-cost and low-intensity option for reducing relapse of MDD. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02614326.This work is supported by a grant to TD from the UK Medical Research Council, grant number MC_US_A060_0019

On the equivalence of the Einstein-Hilbert and the Einstein-Palatini formulations of general relativity for an arbitrary connection

In the framework of the Einstein-Palatini formalism, even though the projective transformation connecting the arbitrary connection with the Levi Civita connection has been floating in the literature for a long time and perhaps the result was implicitly known in the affine gravity community, yet as far as we know Julia and Silva were the first to realise its gauge character. We rederive this result by using the Rosenfeld-Dirac-Bergmann approach to constrained Hamiltonian systems and do a comprehensive self contained analysis establishing the equivalence of the Einstein-Palatini and the metric formulations without having to impose the gauge choice that the connection is symmetric. We also make contact with the the Einstein-Cartan theory when the matter Lagrangian has fermions.Comment: 18 pages. Slight change in the title and wording of some sections to emphasize the main results. References added. Matches published versio