Digital Commons Network^™

Extended Book Review: Mathematics In Popular Culture: Essays On Appearances In Film, Fiction, Games, Television And Other Media, Edited By Jessica K. Sklar And Elizabeth S. Sklar; Loving+Hating Mathematics: Challenging The Myths Of Mathematical Life, By Reuben Hersh And Vera John-Steiner; Mathematicians: An Outer View Of The Inner World, By Mariana Cook, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

I was delighted to have the opportunity to review three books on a topic near and dear to my heart. In recent years it has become a passion of mine to think of and speak about the place of mathematics in the real world, in the world of those who are not doing mathematics for a living. I care about the applications and the implications of mathematics, but more than that, I care about the feelings and the impressions attached to it. Often math anxiety or skepticism comes up; the latter may be due to how frequently others (mis)use statistics, …

The Impact Of Us Political Pressure On The Rmb Exchange Rate, Wenjie Zhang

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The US-China game of Renminbi (RMB)/US Dollar exchange rate has aroused increasing attention recently. From the US perspective, appreciation of RMB exchange rate could reduce the US-China trade deficit, boost the US economy and thus lower the unemployment rate (Cheng and Zhang, 2012). Therefore it is crucial for the US government to figure out whether there is an influence from US political pressure on RMB flexibility and the most effective way to accelerate the appreciation of RMB exchange rate. Aminian et al (2008) believed that US political pressure may be one of the causes for the appreciation of RMB exchange …

The Eternal Newcomer: Chinese Indonesian Identity From Indonesia To The United States, Gregory S. Urban

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The construction of identity among the ethnic Chinese populations in Indonesia has been a complicated and incomplete process. The temporal and spatial formulation of identity has allowed for continual change in which marginalization and discrimination have resulted. This paper utilizes Stuart Hall’s theory in which identity always multiplies and changes throughout history, determined by a “splitting between groups. From the colonization of Indonesia to modern times, the identity of ethnic Chinese has constantly been changing, while being kept apart from what Benedict Anderson calls the national imagined community. Indonesia’s national dictum, “Unity in Diversity,” has dismissed the small Chinese ethnicity …

Religious Iconography In "Twilight": Veneration And Fandom, Jacqueline E. Swaidan

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The mysterious and dark atmosphere, the overwhelming focus on the main characters, and the constant contrast of dark and light in Twilight (2009) recall traditional Christian religious imagery. But more that that, this paper will argue that Twilight, the first of the romantic fantasy films adapted from the successful book series by Stephenie Meyer, draws explicitly on traditional Catholic religious imagery and ceremony to engender religious devotion in its fans. Images from the first Twilight film suggest that the creators of Twilight used religious imagery to captivate their audience. Christian constructs such as Eden’s eternity, Edward’s Christ-like abstinence, and …

Susan Bauer's 2003 Theory Of Well-Educated Mind: Could The Classical Approach To Teaching History Work In Southern California History K12 Classrooms?, Tomasz B. Stanek

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The main purpose of this research evolved from the publication of S. W. Bauer Well-educated mind, a study of the significance of new methods of teaching history course. Bauer (2003) argues that the grammarian approach of simple recognition and memorization removes students from reading primary sources. This theory suggests a new methodology for the instructors and students through the three-stage process of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric preparation with aid of primary sources or “great books list”. This paper supports Bauer’s thesis and provides evidence through extensive interviews that indeed this concept of pedagogy is present in Southern California schools.

Mamluk Jerusalem: Architecturally Challenging Narratives, Andrew C. Smith

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Narratives abound concerning the religious and political positioning of Jerusalem in the past as well as the present and have been used in a variety of ways to serve various ideologies or political ends. One such narrative (which can be found even in some academic treatises of the history of Jerusalem) states that following the Muslim re-conquest of the city after the Crusades Muslim rulers neglected the city entirely, leading to its decline into obscurity and ruin. This narrative asserts that the city remained as such until Zionism, Jewish immigration, and, most especially, the establishment of the state of Israel …

Leaders And Heroes: Modern Day Archetypes, Sophon Shadraconis

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This paper explores the salience of archetypes through modern day idealization of leaders as heroes. The body of research in evolutionary psychology and ethology provide support for archetypal theory and the influence of archetypes (Hart & Brady, 2005; Maloney, 1999). Our idealized self is reflected in archetypes and it is possible that we draw on archetypal themes to compensate for a reduction in meaning in our modern day work life. Archetypal priming can touch a person's true self and result in increased meaning in life.

Structurally Cosmic Apostasy: The Atheist Occult World Of H.P. Lovecraft, Brian J. Reis

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The conflict between materialism and spiritualism has a long and sordid philosophical history. Both schools of thought attempted to address the problems of the unknown through varying methods. There are two figures, who i their own ways, one subtle ad the other not so subtle rejected both means. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky sought to counter Spiritualist claims by venturing into her own occult philosophy—Theosophy—seeking to uncover spiritual truths, debunking religious traditions as well as seeking to undermine scientific materialism that had begun to sweep the intellectual life of the 19^th century. To do so, she claimed to have translated an …

Smartphones In The Workplace: Changing Organizational Behavior, Transforming The Future, Thiraput Pitichat

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

In the past decade, Smartphones have been developed and increasingly integrated with people’s lives not only for social use, but professional use as well. Many researchers claim that Smartphones can have negative consequences in the workplace such as lowering productivity, separating people from their realities, bringing stress from personal issues to work, and creating bad manners. Companies, however, have a difficult time mandating a policy in regards to prohibiting the use of Smartphones. Therefore, CEOs and corporate leaders should encourage their employees to use their Smartphones as tools for increasing their company’s efficiency. This research aims to examine the results …

Charm Offensive Or 'Axis Of Evil'? An Analysis Of The Iranian Nuclear Program And American Responses, Kailas Menon

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This paper assesses the likelihood that Iran’s nuclear program poses a threat to American foreign-policy interests and the extent to which the American response has succeeded in reducing this threat. The researcher conducted this assessment using publicly available data from governmental or intergovernmental agencies such as the IAEA and the CIA, think tanks such as the Brookings Institute, and contemporary press reports. The findings indicate that Iran’s nuclear program has some military aspects, which might pose a threat to American security interests either by emboldening the Iranian leadership to engage in brinksmanship or by increasing the Israeli perception of Iran …

Between Literature And Science: Inscribing Zora Neale Hurston’S Mules And Men In The Post-Human Condition, Jung-Hsien Lin

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Intrigued by the influence of technology on or in literature as well as the ways of which the posthuman body subverts the existing social constructs of race, gender, and culture, this paper appropriates the Foucauldian concept of “technologies of the self” to investigate the narrating “I/eye” in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men. I flesh out how Hurston’s new “cyborg” identity, along with the idea of performativity—particularly in relation to her manipulation of the genre of autoethnography—resists the dominant constructs of race, gender and culture. Through a re-examination of these major moments of transformations of knowledge/power in Hurston’s Mules …

An Awareness Of What Is Missing: Four Views On The Consequences Of Secularism, Rachel E. Hunt Steenblik, Heidi Zameni, Debbie Ostorga, Nathan Greeley

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

While the issues regarding widespread secularization in contemporary Western culture are difficult to properly assess, it can be argued that certain prerequisites are necessary for the well-being of any society and, furthermore, that certain of these necessary conditions are only provided by a given civilization's major religious tradition. All societies need to perpetually engage in collective action and decision making, and as any given community faces the challenges of the future, its governing religious worldview is an indispensable source of guidance and time-honored wisdom. With this in mind, it will be argued that Western civilization is dependent upon a Judeo-Christian …

Perspectives In An Age Of Modernization & Globalization: A Comparative Study Of The United States & Botswana, Tawnie G. Fotter

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Upon beginning this paper I wished to compare the dominant individualistic attitude in the United States with the still present kinship-oriented attitude of Botswana. However, upon further reflection what was most striking was not our differences, but the ways in which are becoming more and more similar as time passes. While our two countries may seem worlds apart, both the United States and Botswana are venturing toward a very similar and not wholly comforting future. While our paths have been entirely different in many respects, both the United States and Botswana are facing an age of decreasing community and increasing …

A Piece Of Nigromante In Boyle Heights, Javier Espinoza Barajas

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

My project conveys the role that individuals' faith in their cultural healing practices plays on their knowledge of the illness and on the actual healing process. More specifically, on how indigenous immigrant communities from Mexico are prone to utilize medical pluralism practices and experience culture-bound syndromes. When individuals migrate they take with them their understanding of disease, their ways to express it, and their ways of finding treatment according to their cultural medical practices. Based on this, I developed a project to explore the medical healing practices of twenty-three year old Claudia Velmontes during her pregnancy. Ms. Velmontes migrated to …

Creativity For Learning Biology In Higher Education, Diki Diki

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Learning biology is considered difficult, especially in some areas like cell division, genetics, and hormones (Cimer, 2012). On the other hand, there is a connection between student success in learning science with creativity (Son, 2009). As creativity can be defined as the formation of new and useful ways to solve a problem (Sternberg & Kaufmann, 2010), it can be used to help students to learn biology. Meanwhile, according to Guilford (1950), creativity includes divergent and convergent thinking. Research on creativity in learning biology helps to integrate different research findings, formulating ideas, and analogies (Dunbarr, 1997). Analogy is a process to …

Degeneration, Gender, And American Identity In The Early Fiction Of Edgar Rice Burroughs, James Biggs

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Edgar Rice Burroughs rendered a particular construction of womanhood as a remedy for national degeneration and neurasthenia. Progressive-era Americans like Burroughs wondered whether the developmental forces that shaped industrial society might also threaten the character and institutions upon which they believed American society and civilization functioned. Middle-class American observers worried that the character traits responsible for the rise of American greatness were undermined by that very success. In particular, they thought the demands of urban life resulted in neurasthenia, the loss of “nervous energy.” Burroughs employed the powerfully symbolic Pocahontas narrative to construct a vision of womanhood that offered the …

Differences In Temperature Responses Of Achene Types In Centaurea Melitensis, Kandee L. Bain

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Southern California has a Mediterranean climate with wet winters and hot dry summers. This type of environment is associated with irregular temperature patterns and rainfall, which can be unpredictable. Unpredictable environments, can threaten the germination and survival of plants like Centaurea melitensis. To ensure germination and survival under unpredictable environmental conditions, some plants may develop characteristic structures like cleistogamous flower heads, and in some cases they will develop heteromorphic achenes. Morphological differences between peripheral and center achenes may indicate variable responses to temperature. Additionally, unpredictable environmental conditions may lead to differences in the number of peripheral to center achenes …

Quotients Of Gaussian Primes, Stephan Ramon Garcia

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

It has been observed many times, both in the Monthly and elsewhere, that the set of all quotients of prime numbers is dense in the positive real numbers. In this short note we answer the related question: "Is the set of all quotients of Gaussian primes dense in the complex plane?"

Skillshare #18: Oa: Oh!?... Awesome!, Allegra Swift, Natalie Tagge

Open Access Week @ The Claremont Colleges

Open access is making research results and scholarship freely available to anyone with an internet connection rather than keeping those results hidden behind a subscription pay wall or any other financial, organizational, legal or technical barriers. Some examples of OA resources include scholarly journals, electronic theses and dissertations, textbooks, source code, images, educational resources, video, audio, and many other educational and research resources. Who knew, right?!

Come and share a story of when Open Access information saved the day or times when you couldn’t access proprietary information you or the students and faculty we serve needed. Come pick up pointers, …

The Cognitive Processes Underlying Affective Decision-Making Predicting Adolescent Smoking Behaviors In A Longitudinal Study, C. Anderson Johnson, Lin Xiao, Gilly Koritzky, Antoine Bechara

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This study investigates the relationship between three different cognitive processes underlying the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and adolescent smoking behaviors in a longitudinal study. We conducted a longitudinal study of 181 Chinese adolescents in Chengdu City, China. The participants were followed from 10th to 11th grade. When they were in the 10th grade (Time 1), we tested these adolescents’ decision-making using the IGT and working memory capacity using the Self-ordered Pointing Test (SOPT). Self-report questionnaires were used to assess school academic performance and smoking behaviors. The same questionnaires were completed again at the 1-year follow-up (Time 2). The Expectancy-Valence (EV) …

Kaczmarz Algorithm With Soft Constraints For User Interface Layout, Noreen Jamil, Deanna Needell, Johannes Muller, Christof Lutteroth, Gerald Weber

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The Kaczmarz method is an iterative method for solving large systems of equations that projects iterates orthogonally onto the solution space of each equation. In contrast to direct methods such as Gaussian elimination or QR-factorization, this algorithm is efficient for problems with sparse matrices, as they appear in constraint-based user interface (UI) layout specifications. However, the Kaczmarz method as described in the literature has its limitations: it considers only equality constraints and does not support soft constraints, which makes it inapplicable to the UI layout problem.

In this paper we extend the Kaczmarz method for solving specifications containing soft constraints, …

Two-Part Reconstruction In Compressed Sensing, Yanting Ma, Dror Baron, Deanna Needell

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Two-part reconstruction is a framework for signal recovery in compressed sensing (CS), in which the advantages of two different algorithms are combined. Our framework allow s to accelerate the reconstruction procedure without compromising the reconstruction quality. To illustrate the efficacy of ou r two-part approach, we extend the author’s previous Sudocodes algorithm and make it robust to measurement noise. In a 1- bit CS setting, promising numerical results indicate that our algorithm offers both a reduction in run-time and improvement in reconstruction quality

Review: Unitary Equivalence To Truncated Toeplitz Operators, Stephan Ramon Garcia

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Better Inferred Types For Javascript, John Sarracino

Interface Compendium of Student Work

This poster describes a paper for static analysis of JavaScript, which has proven useful for a variety of tools, including optimization, error checking, security auditing, program refactoring, and more. We propose a technique called type refinement that can improve the precision of such static analyses for JavaScript without any discernible performance impact. The essential idea behind refinement is to use the conditions in branch guards to refine the analysis information propagated along each branch path. The key insight of the paper is to recognize that JavaScript semantics include many implicit conditional checks on types, and that performing type refinement on …

Finding Information Leaks In Javascript, Thomas Ashmore

Interface Compendium of Student Work

Secure information flow (SIF) analysis can determine if web browser add-ons
may leak sensitive information to third parties. However, many reported
leaks are false positives, or only reveal a few bits of information. We
present a JavaScript SIF analysis tool with a web-based interface to
visualize its results. The analysis is a client of JSAI, a provably sound
JavaScript abstract interpreter. The web interface displays how information
flows between program statements. By classifying different types of
information flow, the tool helps users determine whether reported leaks are
serious, trivial, or spurious. This allows browser communities to review
add-ons more efficiently …

Developing Capacity For International Developmental Evaluation, Stewart I. Donaldson, Marco Segone

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

At the IDEAS Global Assembly this past May in the beautiful island of Barbados we engaged in discussions about improving international development evaluation capacity. With colleagues Tarek Azzam, Matthew Galen and John LaVelle, we discussed multiple initiatives ranging for the use of webinars, knowledge management systems, e-learning applications, massive open online courses, opportunities to use social media to enhance national and international conferences, and a range of university-based capacity development efforts. In this brief article we describe some of those initiatives.

Book Review: Encyclopedia Of Mathematics And Society, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Society is an impressive achievement of collective effort and serious thought, an amazing collection of delightful, unexpected essays, a sourcebook for students and teachers alike. The experience of reading the EMS was, for this encyclopedia enthusiast, enlightening and enjoyable.

If any librarians out there are still wondering, let me be clear: I strongly recommend this encyclopedia. For individuals, the expense might well be an initial turn-off; keeping in mind that the hard copy books come with online access to the same content might alleviate some of the pain.

As for me? I expect to enjoy …

The Optical Properties And Chemical Composition Of Po Valley Fog Water, Lydia Jahl

Interface Compendium of Student Work

This poster, entitled "The Optical Properties and Chemical Composition of Po Valley Fog Water," was used for the summer research poster session at Harvey Mudd College in September, 2013. It details the work completed through the HMC chemistry department at a research facility in Bologna, Italy.

The Dynamo-Rhythm Of Etienne Decroux And His Successors, Leela Alaniz

Mime Journal

The origin of the expression dynamo-rhythm in the Corporeal Mime technique of Etienne Decroux, its place in his working methods and artistic work, as well as in the contemporary practice of Decroux's successors.

Cartel Bombings In Mexico, Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Contemporary Mexican cartel use of car bombs began in mid-July 2010 and has since escalated. Given the proximity to the United States, some literally within miles of the border, the car bombings, with about 20 incidents identified over the last 2 1/2 years, should be of interest to local, state, and federal U.S. law enforcement, the U.S. Army, and other governmental institutions which are providing increasing support to Mexican federal agencies. An historical overview and analysis of cartel car bomb use in Mexico provides context, insights, and lessons learned stemming from the Medellin and Cali cartel car bombing campaigns. In …