Confronting Synchrotron Shock and Inverse Comptonization Models with GRB Spectral Evolution

The time-resolved spectra of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remain in conflict with many proposed models for these events. After proving that most of the bursts in our sample show evidence for spectral "shape-shifting", we discuss what restrictions that BATSE time-resolved burst spectra place on current models. We find that the synchrotron shock model does not allow for the steep low-energy spectral slope observed in many bursts, including GRB 970111. We also determine that saturated Comptonization with only Thomson thinning fails to explain the observed rise and fall of the low-energy spectral slope seen in GRB 970111 and other bursts. This implies that saturated Comptonization models must include some mechanism which can cause the Thomson depth to increase intially in pulses.Comment: (5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of the Fourth Huntsville Symposium on Gamma-Ray Bursts

Testing the Invariance of Cooling Rate in Gamma-Ray Burst Pulses

Recent studies have found that the spectral evolution of pulses within gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with simple radiative cooling. Perhaps more interesting was a report that some bursts may have a single cooling rate for the multiple pulses that occur within it. We determine the probability that the observed "cooling rate invariance" is purely coincidental by sampling values from the observed distribution of cooling rates. We find a 0.1-26% probability that we would randomly observe a similar degree of invariance based on a variety of pulse selection methods and pulse comparison statistics. This probability is sufficiently high to warrant skepticism of any intrinsic invariance in the cooling rate.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Proceedings of the Fourth Huntsville Symposium on Gamma-Ray Burst

Character Education: A Relationship with Building Health

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between the use of character education programming and school health. Measuring and improving school health is a process that supports social, emotional, ethical and civic education. Hoy, Tarter, and Kottkamp define this concept as a healthy school is one in which the institutional, administrative, and teacher levels are in harmony; and the school meets functional needs as it successfully copes with disruptive external forces and directs its energies toward its mission (Hoy, Tarter & Kottkamp, 1991). School climate, school culture, and school health are used synonymously in the research. They refer to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of school life experiences and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching, learning and leadership practices, and organizational structures. It recognizes the two essential processes that research and best practices from a number of traditions (character education, school reform, social emotional learning, community schooling, pro-social education, risk prevention and health/mental health promotion) have indicated that there are two core processes that educators, parents/guardians, students and community leaders need to focus on to support students developing the skills, knowledge and dispositions that provide the foundation for school success and the ability to love, work and become an engaged and effective citizen (Cohen & Sandy, 2007). A character education program entitled CHARACTER COUNTS! has been implemented in a rural elementary school located in south central Pennsylvania. Implementation included initial as well as ongoing faculty training, district financial support, administrative support and parent education. Another rural elementary building similar in size and demographics located in the same region of the state reportedly has not implemented a formal character education program. This study will investigate the level of character education and school health in each of these buildings to investigate a possible correlation between character education programming and school health

“Happiest Delineation:” Literature, Reading Habits, and Characterization in Austen’s Northanger Abbey

In response to the strictly gendered society of Regency England, Jane Austen’s 1817 Gothic parody novel Northanger Abbey offers insight to the nuances of gender disparities. As such, the use of a gendered and historical critical approach throughout the project allows for a more comprehensive view of the societal expectations and taboos of 18th-century reading

Convocation Address Rome Campus Spring 2000

Speech given by Dr. Scott Cider

Spring 2012 Convocation Speech

Spring 2012 Convocation speech given by Dr. Scott Crider

Improving Homeless Student Identification in an Urban High School

Homelessness has a profound effect on the education of many students; a majority of whom do not seek support services that could be of benefit to them. The exacerbation of emotional pressures on homeless students, those already overburdened by external stressors, impacts the educational environment. This study theorized that schools perpetuate homeless stereotypes and racial disparity, increasing homeless students\u27 discomfort in school. An intersectional relationship of these pressures decreased a student\u27s willingness to self-disclose their homeless status. This study conducted interviews with 15 students experiencing homelessness to document why students would avoid seeking school-based support. This research aimed to increase awareness of educational limitations for the proper identification of student homelessness. The research uncovered the stereotype and racial restrictions with identifying students eligible for homeless support. This study identified the need for improved teacher understanding of student discomfort with homelessness, and made recommendations on how a public school system could improve the identification of homeless students; thus increasing the number of eligible students that received support services

The Sunglasses of Ideology: Augmented Reality as Posthuman Cognitive Prosthesis

This project argues a methodological approach for examining augmented reality (AR) that blends new media studies with that of the digital humanities to develop a hybrid methodology that accounts for AR as a digital medium and, in turn, a critical framework for digital humanities (DH) cultural criticism. As Steven Jones argues in The Emergence of the Digital Humanities, the digital has always been physical, and the network has become the water in which we swim (20). Our networked tech has begun to reflect this by showing closer interaction between physical and digital artifacts, the most notable example being AR, where digital information responds directly to physical space. This project takes a multidisciplinary approach to explore the rhetorical and ideological implications of AR as both a technology and a medium. By exploring AR as it relates to current digital humanities scholarship, comparative new media studies, and critical theory, as well as a hands-on approach that involved the development of an AR smartphone application, this project aims to show that augmented reality is uniquely useful as a vessel for future research into digital materiality, while eventually arguing that this tech literalizes imaginative and cognitive processes, ultimately revealing a posthuman ontology where thinking and technology are indistinguishable from one another