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In January 2020, the United States implemented a federal bioengineered labeling standard for food products that contain genetically modified material set to go into effect in January 2022. This bioengineered label indicates which products contain detectable levels of genetic material that have been modified through lab techniques that cannot be achieved in nature. An already existing alternative to the bioengineered label is the Non-GMO Project verified label which has been on the market since 2007, and indicates products free of genetically modified material through lab techniques. As consumers are now confronted with multiple labels pertaining to information related to genetic engineering, it is important to understand how people interpret these labels as it can lead to a greater understanding of how they inform consumer choice. We conducted a survey with 153 biology and environmental studies undergraduate students at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, asking questions about participants' views on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and related terminology, corresponding food labels and how these labels influence their purchasing decisions. Results demonstrated a lack of awareness of the bioengineered label compared to the Non-GMO Project verified label. Additionally, individuals associated 'bioengineered' and 'genetically modified' with differing themes, where 'bioengineered' was more often associated with a scientific theme and 'genetically modified' was more often associated with an agricultural theme. There was also a discrepancy in how individuals said these labels influenced their purchases vs how the labels actually influenced purchasing decisions when participating in choice experiments. While the majority of participants reported that neither the Non-GMO Project verified label nor the bioengineered label influenced their purchasing decisions, in choice experiments, the majority of respondents chose products with the Non-GMO Project verified label. This study can give insight into overall perceptions of different terminologies associated with genetic engineering, in addition to how these labels are interpreted by consumers, and how they could affect purchasing decisions with the implementation of the new bioengineered label. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planners, community activists, and public archeologists, among others, recognize the importance of engaging residents and their knowledge in developing policies and programs. However, sustainability is typically treated as a top-down challenge. In this article, we demonstrate that sustainability policies might break down or backfire when officials fail to directly involve residents, particularly disenfranchised residents. This conclusion emerges from qualitative research through a neighborhood organizing project in Binghamton, New York. We use a citywide pay-as-you-throw trash policy and a public park design process to illustrate that sustainability was not achieved by widely touted best practices implemented on a municipalitywide basis. The lack of broad inclusivity and participation by disenfranchised residents at the neighborhood level meant that officials missed important knowledge and perspectives, which undercut the effectiveness of sustainability efforts. Sustainability citizenship requires that residents have the space and means to organize and participate—something that local governments should create. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium (BGS) celebrated its golden anniversary in 2019. Fifty years have passed since Donald R. Coates and Marie E. Morisawa organized a symposium to bring geomorphologists together in a single venue. As faculty members at The State University of New York, they foresaw that such an event was needed to enhance the science. From this small university and city in central New York (NY), a geomorphology event blossomed into an international event that influences geomorphic thought, theory, and has shaped the direction of the discipline. This introductory paper sets the stage for the volume from the 50th Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium by providing an historical perspective of the beginning, growth, and impact that this symposium has had and continues to have on the science of geomorphology. Given that a variety of topics have been covered over the years, the organizers of the 50th BGS elected to have presenters address the status of the profession and to provide their perspectives on future advancements. This introduction provides a brief synopsis of the presentations delivered at the 50th BGS symposium and concludes with a tribute to the two founders of the BGS: Donald R. Coates and Marie E. Morisawa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium (BGS) is an annual meeting held since 1970, usually in the U.S.A., on timely topics in the field of geomorphology. A special issue of this journal presents the papers from each meeting and provides an opportunity to disseminate to the international community research relevant to that year's theme written by key people in that field. In this paper, we review the history of the BGS, examine the academic disciplines of each year's organizers, compile a list of the researchers who have made multiple contributions to BGS, note the citation impact of papers published in the annual proceedings, map the spatial distribution of the meeting locations, and categorize the gender distribution of the contributors to the symposium. Contributions from female authors to the BGS have steadily increased since the 1970s; however, from 2003 to 2013, females still only accounted for 23.6% of the proceeding's papers, an increase of 16.4% from the 1970s. These numbers are not surprising when compared to the gender distribution of the top positions in specialty groups in the U.S. Between 1989 and 2010, over 7000 citations were from articles published in BGS special issues, indicating their contributions to the geomorphology field. When normalized by the number of years the articles have been available, papers from BGS whose themes combined geomorphology with other fields (i.e., natural hazards and geomorphology), rated higher numbers of citations. The dispersion of the location of BGS meetings illustrates how the series is maturing by moving away from its origin in the U.S. northeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1990s, Iraqi Kurds have been relocating to the greater Binghamton area in New York State. This study focuses on the growing diasporic Kurdish community in and around Binghamton and their quest to imagine the homeland they left behind as a result of social, economic, and political hardships. Existing literature heavily emphasizes Kurdish diaspora in Europe as the main impetus for the Kurdish refugees' social and political issues, neglecting to also recognize communities in the United States and North America. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing how the production of the diasporic space has emerged as an attempt to reconstruct Kurdish culture and collective identity in the absence of physical and territorially specific aspects of their homeland. Kurdish refugee narratives articulate how collective memory gives voice to a shared Kurdish past, how Kurdish refugees appropriated the space according to their traditional example and kinship structure, and how memories and narratives of the past shape the migrants' identities, kinship, and everyday practices. The production of diasporic space within the imaginations of these refugees is portrayed here to show their attempt to reconstruct Kurdish culture in the absence of the physical characteristics of their homeland. Their successfully reinvented images of homeland and reconstructed culture in diaspora are evidence of the resilience and fluidity of Kurdish culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization negatively impacts the diversity of aquatic insect assemblages in headwater streams and can lead to the homogenization of insect communities at the regional level. However, less is known about the impact of urbanization on insects in headwater streams within smaller cities that have significant upstream portions outside of urban land use. We collected insects monthly from April to September in 2014 and 2015 from five streams that flowed from rural upstream through urban downstream land use, plus two rural reference streams, in Greater Binghamton, New York, in the northeast USA. While urbanization was associated with lower insect taxonomic richness ( α ¯ ) and elevated stream water conductivity, the regional diversity (γ) was similar among urban and rural land use. This corresponded to higher dissimilarity among urban sites (β) than among rural sites. To our knowledge, this is the first report of higher urban stream insect community β-diversity. Our results suggest that urbanization in this medium-sized city negatively impacts stream insect richness, but the change of community assemblages is not homogenous across the urban landscape. Connectivity between upstream rural sites and downstream urban sites may provide some relief from the impacts of urbanization in smaller cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]