Vassar College
  • Poughkeepsie, United States
Recent publications
Vaccines which can transmit from vaccinated to unvaccinated animals may be especially useful for increasing immunity in hard to reach populations or in populations where achieving high coverage is logistically infeasible. However, gauging the public health utility for future use of such transmissible vaccines and assessing their risk-benefit tradeoff, given their potential for unintended evolution, hinges on accurate estimates of their indirect protective effect. Here, we establish the conditions under which a two-stage randomized field trial can characterize the protective effects of a transmissible vaccine relative to a traditional vaccine. We contrast the sample sizes required to adequately power these trials when the vaccine is weakly and strongly transmissible. We also identify how required sample sizes change based on the characteristics of host ecology such as the overdispersion of the contact structure of the population, as well as the efficacy of the vaccine and timing of vaccination. Our results indicate the range of scenarios where two-stage randomized field trial designs are feasible and appropriate to capture the protective effects of transmissible vaccines. Our estimates identify the protective benefit of using transmissible vaccines compared to traditional vaccines, and thus can be used to weigh against evolutionary risks.
Rose's connection of the City Digital Twin and its visual logics and ideologies to the disaster film is an illuminating one, but is articulated through the intensive usage of CGI, formal and stylistic strategies, and narrative and thematic content closely affiliated with the disaster film and other subtypes of the action film genre. If we move beyond the confines of a generic exploration and instead approach the CDT through an ontological model of cinema and cinematic-descended screen media in general, other facets of not only the CDT, but also the city's relationship with image and representation, emerge.
Seismic tomographic models based only on wave velocities have limited ability to distinguish between a thermal or compositional origin for Earth’s 3D structure¹. Complementing wave velocities with attenuation observations can make that distinction, which is fundamental for understanding mantle convection evolution. However, global 3D attenuation models are only available for the upper mantle at present2, 3, 4–5. Here we present a 3D global model of attenuation for the whole mantle made using whole-Earth oscillations, constraining even spherical harmonics up to degree four. In the upper mantle, we find that high attenuation correlates with low velocity, indicating a thermal origin, in agreement with previous studies6,7. In the lower mantle, we find the opposite and observe the highest attenuation in the ‘ring around the Pacific’, which is seismically fast, and the lowest attenuation in the large low-seismic-velocity provinces (LLSVPs). Comparing our model with wave speeds and attenuation predicted by a laboratory-based viscoelastic model⁸ suggests that the circum-Pacific is a colder and small-grain-size region⁹, surrounding the warmer and large-grain-size LLSVPs. Viscosities calculated for the inferred variations in grain size and temperature confirm LLSVPs as long-lived, stable features¹⁰.
Despite the benefits of a 4-year degree colleges graduate an average of only 51% of their students within 6 years of matriculation. Previous studies have identified individual-level and institutional-level factors that influence college completion but have not adequately examined institutional actions regarding student mental health that improve completion rates. Using the positive deviance method, we conducted site visits at five institutions and interviewed 172 participants including administrators (44%), faculty (23%), and students (32%) regarding each college's practices. Four recurrent themes emerged: these colleges: (a) recognized the breadth and depth of mental health needs, (b) used proactive approaches with early alert and outreach programming, (c) offered diverse services with a quality improvement approach, and (d) embedded mental health services in the larger social system. Many of these innovations can be accomplished without extensive new resources and may help colleges improve graduation rates, particularly for students with mental health needs.
User trust is pivotal for the adoption of digital health systems interventions (DHI). In response, numerous trust-building guidelines have recently emerged targeting DHIs such as artificial intelligence. The common aim of these guidelines aimed at private sector actors and government policy makers is to build trustworthy DHI. While these guidelines provide some indication of what trustworthiness is, the guidelines typically only define trust and trustworthiness in broad terms, they rarely offer guidance about economic considerations that would allow implementers to measure and balance trade-offs between costs and benefits. These considerations are important when deciding how best to allocate scarce resources (eg, financial capital, workforce, or time). The missing focus on economics undermines the potential usefulness of such guidelines. We propose the development of actionable trust-performance-indicators (including but not limited to surveys) to gather evidence on the cost-effectiveness of trust-building principles as a crucial step for successful implementation. Furthermore, we offer guidance on navigating the conceptual complexity surrounding trust and on how to sharpen the trust discourse. Successful implementation of economic considerations is critical to successfully build user trust in DHI.
Autoworkers suffer from a higher mortality rate of cancer and heart diseases compared to the public due to long-term exposure to workplace hazards and mental stress. A comparative literature review was conducted to show the influence of health-risk factors among autoworkers; a qualitative study of nine in-person interviews with autoworkers in Michigan was designed for better comprehension of their decisions regarding health risks at work. This study revealed that financial stress and mistrust towards corporations and the government play significant roles in workers acceptance of working in hazardous environments; together, these factors contribute to peoples reluctance towards using proper personal protective equipment and other means of safety practices. The author believes that a public financial aid program for autoworkers and training programs for corporate management on communication and empathy will reinvigorate the auto-manufacturing industry with a healthier and more productive labor force.
This phenomenological study explores how 27 first-generation college students attending an elite small liberal arts college experienced the transition to emergency remote learning during the spring 2020 semester. Data from open-ended, semi-structured interviews and spring 2020 student transcripts suggest that students’ subjective experiences of emergency remote learning did not align with their objective outcomes as reflected in their spring 2020 GPAs. Partly due to institutional policies and practices, 75% of students received a higher GPA in spring 2020 than in the previous semester. Results highlight the importance of student-centered, success-oriented responses that made it possible for students with diverse cultural, material and emotional needs to do more than survive the shift to emergency remote learning. Of equal importance is the way institutional responses empowered students to make choices that enabled them to meet academic expectations and family obligations and turn a semester of potential derailment into one of subjective dissatisfaction with objective success.
The Arolsen Archives, the world’s largest archive on the victims and survivors of the Nazi regime, contains millions of stories of death and traumatic suffering. Less well known, but just as important, it also includes stories of survival. By looking at the Displaced Persons (DPs) who came to the Arolsen Archives (then the International Tracing Service) after the war to find work, we discover remarkable accounts of people helping to build and organise a unique tracing service and archive that helped thousands of people find loved ones and receive some form of restitution. Analysing the less researched DP personnel files of the Arolsen Archives as well as oral interviews with former DP employees, their co-workers and their children, I use affect theory to bring trauma studies and disability studies into conversation. Focusing on the extraordinary postwar stories of the DPs, I use a political/relational disability studies model to show how the specific historical and social conditions co-constructed trauma and disability for the DPs. This disability studies approach allows for a new social-relational dimension to the understanding of trauma on the one hand and the agency of the DPs on the other. Moving past the old stereotypes of disability-as-personal-tragedy, the concept of agency, which has informed the social justice efforts of many disability activists, is useful for appreciating the extraordinary contributions of the DPs to the Arolsen Archives.
There is a gap in the literature concerning how recency biases develop in younger cohorts, and their impact on mathematical reasoning. The gambler’s fallacy is a negative recency bias that is defined as the false belief that for independent events, a streak of one outcome means that outcome is less likely to occur on a subsequent trial. In order to explore the developmental trajectory of this phenomenon, two groups of young children (4-5 years vs 7-8 years) participated in three tasks. All children first participated in a Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test. The results of this test served to provide a measure of executive functioning for each participant. Next the children participated in two outcome prediction tasks. In one, each child observed a “friend” hiding behind one of two bushes over a sequence of trials, and then predicted their hiding location on a critical choice trial. In the other prediction task, participants observed an animation of a leaf falling from a tree and landing in one of two locations. In a critical choice trial, the participants predicted the landing spot of the leaf for the subsequent trial. Our data show 1) age differences in executive functioning scores, 2) an increase in negative recency bias as a function of executive functioning, and 3) the influence of framing effects on recency bias.
Objective: Although most community college students intend to transfer to a 4-year college, few ultimately do. We sought to assess how student experiences of the Exploring Transfer (ET) program influenced transfer rates. The ET program was offered by a private, 4-year liberal arts college. Methods: We used data from a cross-sectional survey of students who completed the ET program between 2008 and 2021 and could be reached by email (87% or N = 318 had valid email addresses). We collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, educational outcomes, and perceptions of the value of ET, as well as an open-ended item asking respondents how ET influenced their subsequent educational, employment, and life trajectory. We employed logistic regression to explore factors associated with 4-year completion rates. We used the constant comparative method to identify recurrent themes from the open-ended responses. Results: About 70% of the respondents ( N = 146, response rate of 46%) had completed their baccalaureate degree, and an additional 15% were either currently enrolled or accepted and planning to enroll in 4-year college. We found most graduates strongly valued their experience, and students of color were more likely to have completed their 4-year degree. Emergent themes pertained to instrumental and logistical support, critical thinking and writing skills, and psychosocial factors that enabled subsequent 4-year degree completion. Conclusion: Four-year degree completion rates were substantial among ET graduates. Scaling up the use of ET-like programs in additional institutions—perhaps as part of a national strategy to increase community college student transfer rates—could help students realize the benefits of a 4-year degree.
Bacteroides are often the most abundant, commensal species in the gut microbiome of industrialized human populations. One of the most commonly detected species is Bacteroides ovatus. It has been linked to benefits like the suppression of intestinal inflammation but is also correlated with some autoimmune disorders, for example irritable bowel disorder (IBD). Bacterial cell surface carbohydrates, like capsular polysaccharides (CPS), may play a role in modulating these varied host interactions. Recent studies have begun to explore the diversity of CPS loci in Bacteroides; however, there is still much unknown. Here, we present structural and functional characterization of a putative polysaccharide deacetylase from Bacteroides ovatus (BoPDA) encoded in a CPS biosynthetic locus. We solved four high resolution crystal structures (1.36–1.56 Å) of the enzyme bound to divalent cations Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, or Zn²⁺ and performed carbohydrate binding and deacetylase activity assays. Structural analysis of BoPDA revealed an atypical domain architecture that is unique to this enzyme, with a carbohydrate esterase 4 (CE4) superfamily catalytic domain inserted into a carbohydrate binding module (CBM). Additionally, BoPDA lacks the canonical CE4 His-His-Asp metal binding motif and our structures show it utilizes a noncanonical His-Asp dyad to bind metal ions. BoPDA is the first protein involved in CPS biosynthesis from B. ovatus to be characterized, furthering our understanding of significant biosynthetic processes in this medically relevant gut microbe.
Translation initiation is a highly regulated process which broadly affects eukaryotic gene expression. Eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) is a central player in canonical and alternative pathways for ribosome recruitment. Here we have investigated how direct binding of eIF3 contributes to the large and regulated differences in protein output conferred by different 5′-untranslated regions (5′-UTRs) of cellular mRNAs. Using an unbiased high-throughput approach to determine the affinity of budding yeast eIF3 for native 5′-UTRs from 4,252 genes, we demonstrate that eIF3 binds specifically to a subset of 5′-UTRs that contain a short unstructured binding motif, AMAYAA. eIF3 binding mRNAs have higher ribosome density in growing cells and are preferentially translated under certain stress conditions, supporting the functional relevance of this interaction. Our results reveal a new class of translational enhancer and suggest a mechanism by which changes in core initiation factor activity enact mRNA-specific translation
When we use language to communicate, we must choose what to say, what not to say, and how to say it. That is, we must decide how to frame the message. These linguistic choices matter: Framing a discussion one way or another can influence how people think, feel, and act in many important domains, including politics, health, business, journalism, law, and even conversations with loved ones. The ubiquity of framing effects raises several important questions relevant to the public interest: What makes certain messages so potent and others so ineffectual? Do framing effects pose a threat to our autonomy, or are they a rational response to variation in linguistic content? Can we learn to use language more effectively to promote policy reforms or other causes we believe in, or is this an overly idealistic goal? In this article, we address these questions by providing an integrative review of the psychology of framing. We begin with a brief history of the concept of framing and a survey of common framing effects. We then outline the cognitive, social-pragmatic, and emotional mechanisms underlying such effects. This discussion centers on the view that framing is a natural—and unavoidable—feature of human communication. From this perspective, framing effects reflect a sensible response to messages that communicate different information. In the second half of the article, we provide a taxonomy of linguistic framing techniques, describing various ways that the structure or content of a message can be altered to shape people’s mental models of what is being described. Some framing manipulations are subtle, involving a slight shift in grammar or wording. Others are more overt, involving wholesale changes to a message. Finally, we consider factors that moderate the impact of framing, gaps in the current empirical literature, and opportunities for future research. We conclude by offering general recommendations for effective framing and reflecting on the place of framing in society. Linguistic framing is powerful, but its effects are not inevitable—we can always reframe an issue to ourselves or other people.
This study interrogates the theoretical and empirical validities of two dominant theories about Chinese state in the post-Mao period. The authors argue that the meritocratic view has under-theorized the innate contradiction between officials' personal competence and political loyalty. In order to survive political struggles, political leaders need to rely on patronage networks to recruit followers and solidify trust, often at the expense of official competence. The popular view also misrepresents China's cadre assessment system in several important ways. The authors supplement this theoretical and anecdotal evidence with a systematic study of provincial level officials between 1978 and 2020. Contrary to the meritocratic view, leaders' economic performance does not increase their promotion chances. Work ties with central leaders, on the other hand, have provided provincial officials with advantage in promotion. This study contributes to general theories of autocratic state and inform the debate about autocratic growth in the political economy literature.
In this article, we transition from the theoretical and experimental groundwork of manipulating and measuring Sense of Embodiment (SoE) to addressing a fundamental question: What is the purpose of optimizing the SoE in a teleoperation system? This exploration centers on investigating the potential positive effects of SoE on motor adaptation, the acceleration of motor learning, and the potential enhancement of task performance. The article delves into this investigation by focusing on two critical research questions: (1) what is the effect of SoE on task performance in a perceptual-motor task? (2) What is the effect of SoE on the asymptote of the learning curve in a perceptual-motor task? Drawing insights from the existing literature, the hypothesis emerges that enhancing SoE yields positive effects not only on task performance (H1) but also on the overall embodiment experience (H2). An additional layer of exploration is introduced through an exploratory research question: Are these results consistent across diverse scenarios and tasks? The study design encompasses two distinct user studies, each set in different applications and featuring various avatars, yet all anchored in similar tasks, specifically a modified peg-in-hole task: (1) in the first experiment, participants operated a robotic arm with a human-like hand as end-effector, and they were required to perform a classic peg-in-hole task; (2) in user study 2, the task is transformed into a variation that we called “peg-on-button,” wherein participants use a robotic arm with a gripper as the end-effector to press a lit button. In both studies, a consistent pattern emerges: a setup that fosters embodiment has a positive impact on motor learning and adaptation, resulting in improved task performance. A supportive setup also reduces the perception of the surrogate as a mere mediator between the operator and the remote environment, especially when contrasted with a setup that suppresses embodiment. The positive effects on motor learning and task performance advocate for the incorporation of embodiment-supportive designs in teleoperational setups. However, the nuanced relationship between SoE and long-term task performance prompts a call for further exploration and consideration of various factors influencing teleoperation outcomes across diverse scenarios and tasks.
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1,666 members
Hadley Creighton Bergstrom
  • Neuroscience and Behavior Program
Alison Keimowitz
  • Department of Chemistry
Allan D. Clifton
  • Department of Psychological Science
Debra M. Elmegreen
  • Department of Physics and Astronomy
Peter G. Stillman
  • Department of Political Science
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Poughkeepsie, United States
Head of institution
Jonathan L. Chenette