Teaching Students to Fish: Creating a Sustainable Student Peer Research Program

A Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program was developed at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College to augment traditional reference services and expand library outreach. Goals included enhancing these students’ information literacy skills helping them become better researchers, as well as sharing that knowledge with peers. This poster will highlight the initial and on-going training, their involvement at the reference desk, and outreach projects to date

Assessing the Performance of the Diffusion Monte Carlo Method as Applied to the Water Monomer, Dimer, and Hexamer

The Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method is applied to the water monomer, dimer, and hexamer, using q-TIP4P/F, one of the most simple, empirical water models with flexible monomers. The bias in the time step ($\Delta\tau$) and population size ($N_w$) is investigated. For the binding energies, the bias in $\Delta\tau$ cancels nearly completely, while a noticeable bias in $N_w$ still remains. However, for the isotope shift, (e.g, in the dimer binding energies between (H$_2$O)$_2$ and (D$_2$O)$_2$) the systematic errors in $N_w$ do cancel. Consequently, very accurate results for the latter (within $\sim 0.01$ kcal/mol) are obtained with relatively moderate numerical effort ($N_w\sim 10^3$). For the water hexamer and its (D$_2$O)$_6$ isotopomer the DMC results as a function of $N_w$ are examined for the cage and prism isomers. For a given isomer, the issue of the walker population leaking out of the corresponding basin of attraction is addressed by using appropriate geometric constraints. The population size bias for the hexamer is more severe, and in order to maintain accuracy similar to that of the dimer, the population size $N_w$ must be increased by about two orders of magnitude. Fortunately, when the energy difference between cage and prism is taken, the biases cancel, thereby reducing the systematic errors to within $\sim 0.01$ kcal/mol when using a population of $N_w=4.8\times 10^5$ walkers. Consequently, a very accurate result for the isotope shift is also obtained. Notably, both the quantum and the isotope effects for the prism-cage energy difference are small.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 36 references. Submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistr

Casting Students in the Leading Role: Peer Learning in Academic Libraries

Peer learning services are an emerging trend in academic libraries of various sizes. These models allow students to engage and support the research needs of other students. These interactions may build off their classroom experiences and library training, while further developing their own research skills. This handout provides the context and questions for the roundtable discussion, “Casting Students in the Leading Role: Peer Learning in Academic Libraries,” at the ACRL 2019 conference. There are also resources for additional reading on the topic

La pollution est non convexe

La question de savoir si la pollution de l’environnement produit des non-convexités significatives dans l’économie a provoqué un débat depuis que Baumol a introduit le problème en 1964. Ce problème est de grande importance en termes de l’existence et de l’unicité de l’équilibre et de la recherche de l’optimum économique. Prenant un exemple de l’expérience québécoise dans la disposition des déchets toxiques, il est démontré que ces non-convexités sont rencontrées dans le monde réel. Deux solutions au problème sont discutées.Whether environmental pollution is likely to cause significant non-convexities in the economy has sparked much debate since Baumol introduced the problem in 1964. This problem is of considerable importance in terms of the existence and unicity of equilibria and the search for the economic optimum. Using an example based on Quebec's experience with toxic waste handling, it is demonstrated that such non-convexities are likely to be encountered in the real world. Two solutions to the problem are discussed

La pollution est non convexe

Whether environmental pollution is likely to cause significant non-convexities in the economy has sparked much debate since Baumol introduced the problem in 1964. This problem is of considerable importance in terms of the existence and unicity of equilibria and the search for the economic optimum. Using an example based on Quebec's experience with toxic waste handling, it is demonstrated that such non-convexities are likely to be encountered in the real world. Two solutions to the problem are discussed. La question de savoir si la pollution de l’environnement produit des non-convexités significatives dans l’économie a provoqué un débat depuis que Baumol a introduit le problème en 1964. Ce problème est de grande importance en termes de l’existence et de l’unicité de l’équilibre et de la recherche de l’optimum économique. Prenant un exemple de l’expérience québécoise dans la disposition des déchets toxiques, il est démontré que ces non-convexités sont rencontrées dans le monde réel. Deux solutions au problème sont discutées.

The ALMaQUEST survey – III. Scatter in the resolved star-forming main sequence is primarily due to variations in star formation efficiency

Using a sample of 11,478 spaxels in 34 galaxies with molecular gas, star formation and stellar maps taken from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the parameters that correlate with variations in star formation rates on kpc scales. We use a combination of correlation statistics and an artificial neural network to quantify the parameters that drive both the absolute star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR), as well as its scatter around the resolved star forming main sequence (Delta Sigma_SFR). We find that Sigma_SFR is primarily regulated by molecular gas surface density (Sigma_H2) with a secondary dependence on stellar mass surface density (Sigma_*), as expected from an `extended Kennicutt-Schmidt relation'. However, Delta Sigma_SFR is driven primarily by changes in star formation efficiency (SFE), with variations in gas fraction playing a secondary role. Taken together, our results demonstrate that whilst the absolute rate of star formation is primarily set by the amount of molecular gas, the variation of star formation rate above and below the resolved star forming main sequence (on kpc scales) is primarily due to changes in SFE