Recent publications and presentations

Publications
Rebecca Toothaker, assistant professor in Nursing, recently had a paper entitled, "Development and Validation of the Just Culture Assessment Tool for Nursing Education" published in Nurse Educator.  This work was a collaboration with individuals from Texas Christian University, The College of New Jersey, Oakland Community College, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Kate Beishline, assistant professor of BAHS, recently had a paper entitled, "Elevated telomere dysfunction in cells containing the African-centric Pro47Ser cancer-risk variant of TP53" published in Oncotarget. This work was a collaboration with individuals from The Wistar Institute and the Childrens Hospital of Phildelphia.

Shaheen Awan, professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, recently had a paper entitled, "Spectral/Cepstral Analyses of Phonatio in Parkinson's Disease before and after Voice Treatment: A Preliminary Study" published in Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica.  This work was a collaboration with individuals from  the University of Jeddah, the University of Louisiana, and the University of Memphis.

Sean Hartzell, adjunct faculty of BAHS, recently had three papers published;  "Observation of a Cambarus bartonii bartonii (Common Crayfish) Overwintering in a Terrestrial Winter Microhabitat" published in Northeastern Naturalist; "Sexual Dichromatism of Dorsal Stripes in "Red-back" Morph Individuals in a Population of Eastern Red-vacked Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)" published in Herpetological Review; and "Observation of a Cambarus bartonii bartonii (Common Crayfish) Overwintering in a Terrestrial Winter Microhabitat" in Northeastern Naturalist.

Kevin Ferland, professor of mathematical and digital sciences, published a paper, "Maximal Crossword Grids", in the Journal of Computational Mathematics and Computational Computing.  This was joint work with Robert Pratt of the SAS Institute.  It determines the maximum number of clues possible in a square crossword puzzle grid of any size.

Debra Stayer and Elizabeth Culver, assistant professors of nursing, published a paper, "Case Report of Nursing Care for a Pregnant Woman with Cystic Fibrosis", in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing.  This work was a collaboration with Geisinger Medical Center.

Abby Hare-Harris, assistant professor of BAHS, published a paper, "Within-task variability on standardized language tests predicts autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study of the Response Dispersion index" in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.  This was a collaboration with Geisinger Medical Center, Bucknell University, and Rutgers University.

Reza Noubary, professor of MADS, published a book, Reflections on Contemporary Life, An Outsiders Perspective.  The book recounts the life of a boy who through hardships, learns a great deal about the dynamic aspects of life and the changes that take place accordingly.

Chris Lynd, associate professor of MADS, published a paper entitled,  "Sequences Generated by Powers of the k^th-order Fibonacci Recurrence Relation", in The American Mathematical Monthly.  BU undergraduate James Sharpe was also an author on this publication.

Barry Minemyer, assistant professor of MADS, published a paper entitled, "Filling triangulated surfaces" in Geometriae Dedicata. This work was in collaboration with the Ohio State University. 

Rebecca Toothaker and Pamela Cook, assistant professors in Nursing, recently had a paper entitled, "Measuring Nursing Students' Perception of Just Culture within Nursing Programs: A Multisite Study", accepted for future publication in the January 2020 edition of Nurse Educator.  This work was a collaboration  across 18 schools nationwide with 20 nurse educators from the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Academic Taskforce.

Presentations

Peggy Shipley, assistant professor of nursing, presented a poster entitled, "Compassionate Love: A Concept Analysis" at the Beta Sigma Research Day at the Pennsylvania State University.

Julie Ambrose, instructor of BAS-TL, participated in a panel discussion "Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn" at the 2nd Annual Pennsylvania Leadership Studies Conference.
   
James Rommens, instructor of BAS-TL gave a talk entitled,"How a Lean Six Sigma Mindset can Help Project Managment", at the Project Management Institute Keystone Chapter Professional Speaker and Networking Event Series.

Chris Lynd, associate professor of MADS, presented a talk entitled, "The class of sequences of nested radicals" at the American Mathematical Society (AMS) regional conference at the University of Connecticut. The talk included published research from two BU undergraduates, James Sharpe and Devin Lesher.

Barry Minemyer, assistant professor of MADS, gave a Colloquium talk at Juniata College entitled "The geometry of n-dimensional triangles via edge lengths". He also gave a talk, entitled, "Warped product metrics on complex hyperbolic manifolds" at the 53rd Annual Spring Topology and Dynamical Systems Conference at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Conference Scholarship
Daniel McCurry, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, received a Research Corporation for Science Advancement scholarship to attend the American Chemical Society (ACS) New Faculty Workshop in Savannah Georgia.

 

Welcome New COST Faculty

Dr. Bourgault, Dr. Bower, and Dr. Darwich.  Dr. Gishlick is not pictured

COST is excited to welcome our new faculty hires for the fall 2019 semester.

Dr. Rebecca Bourgault – Environmental, Geographical, and Geological Sciences Department
Dr. Bourgault earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland College Park and her PhD in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Vermont. At BU, Dr. Borgault will be focusing on soil and environmental science. She was previously employed as an assistant professor at Delaware Valley University and is currently a soil consultant at Bourgault Environmental Consulting Services LLC.

Dr. Jessica L. Bower - Nursing department
Dr. Bower earned her BSN from Lycoming College, her MSN from Bloomsburg University (’04), and her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Wilkes University. At Bu, Dr. Bower will be focusing on psychiatric nursing. She was previously employed as the Simulation Lab Coordinator at the Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Dr. Mahmoud Darwich – Mathematical and Digital Sciences Department
Dr. Darwich earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering from Jami’at Bayrut Al-Arabiya and his master’s and doctorate degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. At BU, Dr. Darwich, will be focusing on computer science. He was previously employed as an assistant professor of Information Technology at Navajo Technical University in New Mexico.

Dr. Alan Gishlick – Environmental, Geographical, and Geological Sciences Department
Dr. Gishlick earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL and his PhD in geology and geophysics from Yale University. At Bu, Dr. Gishlick will focus on paleontology and the evolution of fossil ecosystems. He has been an EGGS instructor at Bloomsburg University since 2014 and is a curatorial affiliate for the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

URSCA Project- Kayla Sompel

The inspiration of becoming a pediatric oncologist and hematologist led Kayla Sompel to spend her summer conducting research as a part of URSCA (Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, Creative Activity) - a program at Bloomsburg University.

“I am studying the effects of clinical inhibitors used to treat aggressive, metastatic melanoma,” says Kayla Sompel, a biology major with a chemistry minor at BU. “Cancer is very complex, and I wanted as much exposure to the mechanisms of cancer as early as possible. This research will give me the background to continue ground-breaking cancer research as I move forward throughout my career.”
Sompel’s research is designed to do one very important thing and that is help save lives.

“According to the American Cancer Society, close to 10,000 people die each year from aggressive melanoma (stage 3 or 4),” says Sompel. “Once diagnosed with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, the survival rate decreases from 95% when it is caught early, to 15-20%. Much of this decrease is due to developed resistance to the drugs used in our study. By determining whether dual therapy can prevent this drug resistance from occurring, we can save many lives each year.”

This project will require Sompel to work with actual cancer cells to conduct her research and to have a strong knowledge of how cancer works.“First, I will be treating human melanoma cell lines with three clinical inhibitors. I will then collect the samples following treatment and isolate the proteins. I then analyze the proteins by western blots,” says Sompel. “By analyzing the concentrations of proteins, I will be able to pinpoint the signaling pathway target area of each clinical inhibitor. This information can be used to investigate further whether dual drug therapy is more effective than individual drug therapy.” She adds, “Cancer is made of normal tissues; that means cancer uses pathways that are normally available to our cells but are not regularly controlled as they are in normal cells. By studying the effects of these inhibitors, we can analyze how these cell signaling pathways are controlled in cancer and how to control them to control malignant tumors.”

Cancer is something that hits close to home for Sompel and she knows that her research may one day be able to help not only those around her but the global community as well. “Overall, my research focuses on the global community, but I believe this research can also be considered local,” says Sompel. “I have two close friends that have previously been diagnosed with melanoma, so not only will my research help those close to me, but it will also help people around the world that suffer from melanoma.”

This URSCA project is a major stepping stone for helping her join the fight against cancer and kick-start her career. “By getting laboratory experience, especially in a cancer-related field, it will give me the skills, respect, and knowledge to excel further into my medical career,” says Sompel. “By observing different ways to analyze and interpret results, I am preparing myself to become a developed and skilled scientific investigator and I can hopefully continue to improve the world with science.”
~https://bloomsburgu.tumblr.com

URSCA Project- Michael Facella and Sierra Smith

Sierra Smith

Michael Facella

 A growing problem of plastics pollution that has been making headlines is the focus of Bloomsburg University students Michael Facella and Sierra Smith’s summer research project. For their URSCA (Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity) project the pair is investigating microplastics, which are microscopic plastic particles that have been polluting waterways, and ending up in different species of shellfish. “The subject of our URSCA project is about microplastics in the stomach and gills of different species and determining if a location will change the amount of microplastics found inside them,” says Facella. “We are looking at common grass shrimp, Allegheny crayfish, rusty crayfish, Asiatic clam, and sea cucumbers.We will compare the amounts of microplastics between the species to measure if there is a difference in the amount of microplastics by location.” Both Facella and Smith are environmental biology majors and have a strong sense of environmentalism that gives inspiration to their research. “My inspiration for this subject to be researched is my love for the environment,” says Facella. “I have substitutes for many plastic products because I know plastic in America does not get disposed of properly, and most of the plastics we use, will end up in the oceans and rivers. I figured that must have an environmental impact, and I was curious to do this research to figure out this answer.” “The huge trash pile in the ocean is a concern because of the possible biomagnification of microplastics to every organism that is consuming it. This includes humans because there are microplastics in our water systems and the seafood that we consume. This raises concern for potential health issues,” adds Facella. The duo plan to visit different locations to collect research specimens that they will be able to take back to a lab to dissect and study the levels of microplastics in them. The sites that they will use to collect samples are ones around Bloomsburg and Chincoteague Bay, Delmarva Peninsula. “The impact our research can have will change how we regulate our trash in the United States,” says Facella. “Stricter plastics regulations will have to be implemented because of the negative consequences microplastics can have on the animal body because plastics affect hormone regulations. Plastic doesn’t break down, it only gets smaller. That means that every plastic item ever made, is somewhere on Earth.” “There is not much research done on microplastics, so I am hoping once other scientists see our data, that it will spark more scientists to explore microplastics to bring more awareness on the topic,” says Facella.
~from https://bloomsburgu.tumblr.com/