Digital Commons Network^™

Rank Reduction Of String C-Group Representations, Peter A. Brooksbank, Dimitri Leemans

Faculty Journal Articles

We show that a rank reduction technique for string C-group representations first used in [Adv. Math. 228 (2018), pp. 3207–3222] for the symmetric groups generalizes to arbitrary settings. The technique permits us, among other things, to prove that orthogonal groups defined on d-dimensional modules over fields of even order greater than 2 possess string C-group representations of all ranks. The broad applicability of the rank reduction technique provides fresh impetus to construct, for suitable families of groups, string C-groups of highest possible rank. It also suggests that the alternating group Alt(11)—the only known group having “rank gaps”—is perhaps more unusual …

Testing Isomorphism Of Graded Algebras, Peter A. Brooksbank, James B. Wilson, Eamonn A. O'Brien

Faculty Journal Articles

We present a new algorithm to decide isomorphism between finite graded algebras. For a broad class of nilpotent Lie algebras, we demonstrate that it runs in time polynomial in the order of the input algebras. We introduce heuristics that often dramatically improve the performance of the algorithm and report on an implementation in Magma.

Language Maintenance And Multilingual Education: The Case Of The Circassian Language In Abstract Israel, Martin Isleem

Faculty Journal Articles

The goal of this study is to examine the maintenance of the Circassian

language and its significance to Circassians in Israel. The study will also assess how this case supports theoretical notions related to the role of the school system, home and community in this process. Particularly, the study aims to challenge the theoretical notion that intergenerational transmission is the core player in the process of language maintenance. Other areas of examination include the manner in which the school system assists in maintaining the Circassian language, and under what conditions the Circassian schools would be able to reverse the process …

Why The Crackling Deformations Of Single Crystals, Metallic Glasses, Rock, Granular Materials, And The Earth’S Crust Are So Surprisingly Similar, Karin A. Dahmen, Jonathan T. Uhl, Wendelin J. Wright

Faculty Journal Articles

Recent experiments show that the deformation properties of a wide range of solid materials are surprisingly similar. When slowly pushed, they deform via intermittent slips, similar to earthquakes. The statistics of these slips agree across vastly different structures and scales. A simple analytical model explains why this is the case. The model also predicts which statistical quantities are independent of the microscopic details (i.e., they are "universal"), and which ones are not. The model provides physical intuition for the deformation mechanism and new ways to organize experimental data. It also shows how to transfer results from one scale to another. …

From Critical Behavior To Catastrophic Runaways: Comparing Sheared Granular Materials With Bulk Metallic Glasses, Alan A. Long, Dmitry Denisov, Peter Schall, Todd C. Hufnagel, Xiaojun Gu, Wendelin J. Wright, Karin A. Dahmen

Faculty Journal Articles

The flow of granular materials and metallic glasses is governed by strongly correlated, avalanche-like deformation. Recent comparisons focused on the scaling regimes of the small avalanches, where strong similarities were found in the two systems. Here, we investigate the regime of large avalanches by computing the temporal profile or “shape” of each one, i.e., the time derivative of the stress-time series during each avalanche. We then compare the experimental statistics and dynamics of these shapes in granular media and bulk metallic glasses. We complement the experiments with a mean-field model that predicts a critical size beyond which avalanches turn into …

Textual Comparison Of Role Model And Mentor Profiles Developed To Increase Participation Of Underrepresented Minorities In Stem, Kyle F. Trenshaw, Elif Miskioglu, Philip Asare, Nir Aish

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Making Evangelicals Great Again? American Evangelicals In The Age Of Trump, Brantley W. Gasaway

Faculty Journal Articles

This article analyzes the ways in which American evangelical Christians have responded to the presidential campaign and presidential administration of Donald Trump, with a particular focus on the faction of politically progressive evangelicals. While over 80% of white evangelicals voted for Trump and over 70% continue to support his presidency, progressive evangelicals have vociferously opposed him. This article summarizes the proposals, protests, and petitions of progressive evangelicals with respect to four broad issues: racial justice, immigration, healthcare, and economic policies. Though some conservative and moderate evangelicals have also criticized Trump’s personal behavior and politics, numerous factors hinder their potential partnerships …

Force Oscillations Distort Avalanche Shapes, Louis W. Mcfaul, Wendelin J. Wright, Jordan Sickle, Karin A. Dahmen

Faculty Journal Articles

Contradictory scaling behavior in experiments testing the principle of universality may be due to external oscillations. Thus, the effect of damped oscillatory external forces on slip avalanches in slowly deformed solids is simulated using a mean-field model. Akin to a resonance effect, oscillatory driving forces change the dynamics of avalanches with durations close to the oscillation period. This problem can be avoided by tuning mechanical resonance frequencies away from the range of the inverse avalanche durations. The results provide critical guidance for experimental tests for universality and a quantitative understanding of avalanche dynamics under a wide range of driving conditions.

Technical Report 2019-01: Pupil Labs Eye Tracking User Guide, Joan D. Gannon, Augustine Ubah, Chris Dancy

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Digital Collection Assessment And Use, Tammy Troup

Bucknell Open Educational Resources

The Digital Collection Assessment and Use learning module introduces the use of the Digital Public Library of America (dp.la) API to assess descriptive metadata practices from the perspective of subject specialists. Subject experts are encouraged to use this toolkit to consider how their expertise can be used to support access to knowledge.

The learning module is published in the #DLFteach Toolkit: Lesson Plans for Digital Library Instruction. The openly available, peer-reviewed collection of lesson plans and concrete instructional strategies is the result of a project led by the professional development and resource sharing subgroup. This publication emerged from …

Thwarting Repair: Gutter, Stutter, Are You My Mother?, Chase Gregory

Faculty Journal Articles

Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama (2012) presents an interesting challenge to literary critics: as an object that extensively theorizes itself, it leaves little room for interpretation beyond its surface-level claims. This article reads against the grain of Are You My Mother? ’s own analysis in order to make room for readings that resist taking the text at its word. Although Are You My Mother? proclaims loyalty to the psychoanalytic theories of Donald Winnicott, Bechdel employs the metaphor of the mirror and the formal qualities of comics to complicate the reductive assertions of her avatar’s …

Integrated Pest Management In The Academic Small Greenhouse Setting: A Case Study Using Solanum Spp. (Solanaceae)., Daniel S. Hayes, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Jason T. Cantley, Angela J. Mcdonnell, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Premise

Botanical faculty and staff at academic institutions are often tasked with establishing and/or caring for plant collections held in small greenhouse facilities. Once plants are in place, an especially acute challenge is managing plant pest/pathogen populations. Integrated pest management (IPM) approaches are an excellent option, but few examples exist in the literature of successful programs that have been developed in academic small greenhouse settings.

Methods and Results

Over several years, we developed an IPM program for two small research greenhouses on the campus of a primarily undergraduate institution where hundreds of plants have been grown for studies in the …

Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance Of Cold-Sprayed Al 6061 Deposits Using A Newly Developed Test Fixture, Mala M. Sharma, Jeremy Schreiber, Timothy Eden, Victor Champagne

Faculty Journal Articles

The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) response of Al 6061 bulk deposits produced by high-pressure cold spray (HPCS) was investigated and compared to commercial wrought Al 6061-T6 material. Representative tensile coupons were stressed to 25%, 65% and 85% of their respective yield strength and exposed to ASTM B117 salt fog for 90 days. After exposure, the samples were mechanically tested to failure, and subsequently investigated for stress corrosion cracking via optical and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results were compared to the wrought Al 6061-T6 properties and correlated with the observed microstructures. Wrought samples showed the initiation …

Substituted Anthraquinones Represent A Potential Scaffold For Dna Methyltransferase 1-Specific Inhibitors, Rebecca L. Switzer, Jessica Medrano, David A. Reedel, Jill Weiss

Faculty Journal Articles

In humans, the most common epigenetic DNA modification is methylation of the 5-carbon of cytosines, predominantly in CpG dinucleotides. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark associated with gene repression. Disruption of the normal DNA methylation pattern is known to play a role in the initiation and progression of many cancers. DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), the most abundant DNA methyltransferase in humans, is primarily responsible for maintenance of the DNA methylation pattern and is considered an important cancer drug target. Recently, laccaic acid A (LCA), a highly substituted anthraquinone natural product, was identified as a direct, DNA-competitive inhibitor of DNMT1. …

Review: Jürgen Osterhammel, Unfabling The East: The Enlightenment’S Encounter With Asia, James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Vladimir Mayakovsky’S Agit-Semitism, Ludmila Lavine

Faculty Journal Articles

Images of Jewishness as ethnic, cultural, and biblical categories in Vladimir Mayakovsky’s works are both plentiful and understudied. The present article attempts to bridge this gap while exploring the mechanisms that guide the poet’s responses to anti-Semitism. I begin by focusing on the function of the Exodus story in Stikhi ob Amerike(Verses about America), and then move to Mayakovsky’s “agitational” works: his collaboration on the film Evrei na zemle(Jews on the Land, 1927), and his poems ““Evrei (Tovarishcham iz OZETa)” (“Jew [To Comrades from OZET],” 1926) and “‘Zhid’” (“‘Yid’,” 1928). I argue that, while Mayakovsky continues the established …

Solanum Plastisexum, An Enigmatic New Bush Tomato From The Australian Monsoon Tropics Exhibiting Breeding System Fluidity., Angela J. Mcdonnell, Heather B. Wetreich, Jason T. Cantley, Peter Jobson, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

A bush tomato that has evaded classification by solanologists for decades has been identified and is described as a new species belonging to the Australian “Solanum dioicum group” of the Ord Victoria Plain biogeographic region in the monsoon tropics of the Northern Territory. Although now recognised to be andromonoecious, S. plastisexum Martine & McDonnell, sp. nov. exhibits multiple reproductive phenotypes, with solitary perfect flowers, a few staminate flowers or with cymes composed of a basal hermaphrodite and an extended rachis of several to many staminate flowers. When in fruit, the distal rachis may abcise and drop. A member of …

City Of Shamokin Public Steps Study And Analysis, Catherine Apostol, Elijah Farrell, Cleo Greenwood, Wilson Hunt, Andrew Muo, Peter Vogel, Tori Warren, Peter Zuraw, Shaunna Barnhart

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Migrant Career Success: A Study Of Recent Skilled Migrants In Australia, Eddy Ng, Diana Rajendran, Greg J. Sears, Nailah Ayub

Faculty Journal Articles

Australia has been aggressively pursuing skilled migrants to sustain its population and foster economic growth. However, many skilled migrants experience a downward career move upon migration to Australia. Based on a survey of recent skilled migrants, this study investigates how individual (age, years of settlement, qualifications), national/societal (citizenship and settlement), and organization‐level (climate of inclusion) factors influence their career success. Overall, we found that: (1) age at migration matters more than length of settlement in predicting skilled migrant career success; (2) citizenship uptake and living in a neighbourhood with a greater number of families from the same country of origin …

Teacher Education And Refugee Students, Ramona Fruja, Kevin Roxas

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Measurement And Prediction Of Discharge Coefficients In Highly Compressible Pulsating Flows To Improve Egr Flow Estimation And Modeling Of Engine Flows, Indranil Brahma

Faculty Journal Articles

An assumption of constant discharge coefficient (Cd) is often made when modeling highly compressible pulsating engine flows through valves or other restrictions. Similarly, orifices and flow-nozzles used for real-time EGR flow estimation are often calibrated at a few steady-state points with one single constant Cd that minimizes the error over the selected points. This quasi-steady assumption is based on asymptotically constant Cd observed at high Reynolds number for steady (non-pulsating) flow. It has been shown in this work that this assumption is not accurate for pulsating flow, particularly at large amplitudes and low flow rates. …

Economic Revitalization In The Lower Anthracite Coal Region, Shaunna Barnhart

Sponsored Events -- Materials

Conference materials distributed at the Economic Revitalization in the Lower Anthracite Coal Region convening event organized in collaboration with Bucknell University, Bloomsburg University, Susquehanna University, Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce, Anthracite Region for Progress, Mother Maria Kaupas Center, Shamokin Area Businesses for Economic Revitalization, and the City of Shamokin. The convening focused on collaborative opportunities across the communities of Shamokin, Coal Township, Mount Carmel, and Kulpmon. Event materials include an eight page booklet with speaker biographies, descriptions of event partners, and descriptions of sponsors. Supplementary materials include a welcome letter and the electronic version of a printable flier.

Convening …

Data-Informed Recommendations For Fixed-Route Public Transit In The Greater Susquehanna Valley, Elise Covert, Zachary Feit, Megan Fournier, Alexandra Koumas

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way (GSVUW) aims to propose a fixed-route bus system across a mostly rural five-county region (Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties) in Central Pennsylvania to be operated by River Valley Transit (RVT). Regional needs assessments demonstrate a critical lack of public transit, the implementation of which can increase access to medical care and facilitate workforce development. With input from GSVUW and other stakeholders, this paper aims to provide data-informed recommendations for a bus route, bus stops, and time tables that optimize potential ridership and accessibility. Data from the American Community Survey, a United States Census …

Mount Carmel Community Garden: Developing Community Involvement, Andy Bayliss, Ainslie Eck, Kiran Grewal

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

This report describes efforts to increase volunteer activity with the Mount Carmel Community garden. The 36 page report highlights needs and assets, benefits of community gardens, strategies for developing community involvement, and results from a community focus group and survey on increasing participation with the garden. The research and outreach was conducted in partnership with local stakeholders, a Master Gardener, as well as an Americorps VISTA hosted by the Place Studies program of the Bucknell Center for Sustainability and the Environment.

Students produced this report as part of Environmental Studies 411 (ENST 411), a senior capstone course taught by Prof. …

How Three Millennials Revolutionized A Global Industry, Sabrina Congel, Kelly Clark, Mélody Cizeau

Global Manager Abroad

This study will examine the ways in which Airbnb has disrupted both the hospitality and travel industries. Through an analysis of their business expansions into new markets and business lines, this study will reveal the importance of their acquisitions and technological innovations for future growth. The founders of Airbnb have continued to challenge the status quo in order to build a revolutionary business that will forever transform the global travel industry.

Phylogeny Of The Australian Solanum Dioicum Group Using Seven Nuclear Genes: Testing Symon’S Fruit And Seed Dispersal Hypotheses., Christopher T. Martine, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Angela J. Mcdonnell, Jason T. Cantley, Daniel S. Hayes, Morgan D. Roche, Emma S. Frawley, Ian S. Gilman, David C. Tank

Faculty Journal Articles

The dioecious and andromonoecious Solanum taxa (the “S. dioicum group”) of the Australian Monsoon Tropics have been the subject of phylogenetic and taxonomic study for decades, yet much of their basic biology is still unknown. This is especially true for plant-animal interactions, including the influence of fruit form and calyx morphology on seed dispersal. We combine field/greenhouse observations and specimen-based study with phylogenetic analysis of seven nuclear regions obtained via a microfluidic PCR-based enrichment strategy and high-throughput sequencing, and present the first species-tree hypothesis for the S. dioicum group. Our results suggest that epizoochorous trample burr seed …

Strategic Planning And Democracy, Jennifer Thomson

Bucknell: Occupied

Jennifer Thomson, assistant professor of History at Bucknell University, interviews Ellen Herman, associate professor of Geology at Bucknell, and two anonymous guests about the strategic planning process underway at Bucknell, 2018-2019. The group discusses the lack of transparency in the identification of priorities and the top-down approach to governance. Guests also identify labor issues and the feeling of being strategically beleaguered by meetings and electronic communication. They express concern over references to sustainability concepts, which are specific only to economic sustainability, and they analyzed the way the strategic plan addresses problems with the Greek system and its impact on student …

Mother Maria Kaupas Center - Strategic Plan For University Engagement, Sierra Meggitt, Sydney Napp, Abigail Rosenberg, Ricky Wang

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

This 72 page report provides a history of the relationship between Bucknell University and the Mount Carmel area through both curricular and co-curricular collaborations with the Mother Maria Kaupas Center as well as through the Deppen Scholars program. The report provides suggestions for the Mother Maria Kaupas Center to manage collaborative projects with universities and to collect community input on potential collaborative projects. This entry includes two documents, the 72 page final report and a pdf of an accompanying Powerpoint slide deck found under "Additional Files" below.

This report was developed by a group of Bucknell University Managing for Sustainability …

Mount Carmel Area Public Library Sustainability Plan, Halie Mariano, Paulina Johansson, Margot Tucker, Ashley Peña

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

This 71 page report provides an analysis of potential strategies for the Mount Carmel Area Public Library in Mount Carmel, PA, to improve their operations. This includes analysis of a community survey on potential services, possible changes to operation strategies, and an overview of funding model options. This entry includes two documents, the 71 page final report and a pdf of an accompanying Powerpoint slide deck found under "Additional Files" below.

This report was developed by a group of Bucknell University Managing for Sustainability student researchers in a senior capstone course MSUS 400 taught by Prof. Eric Martin.

Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way And Library Partners, Amanda Stefura, Lukas Yeshitla, Rebecca Richardson

Coal Region Field Station Student Projects

This 35 page report presents an analysis of, and suggestions for strengthening, collective impact for libraries that fall within the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way's service counties of Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties in Pennsylvania.

This report was developed by a group of Bucknell University Managing for Sustainability student researchers in a senior capstone course MSUS 400 taught by Prof. Eric Martin.