The tone system of Acatepec Me\u27paa

The tone system of Me\u27phaa, an Otomanguean language (or group of languages) spoken in the eastern part of the state of Guerrero, Mexico, is quite complex, largely due to the complex agreement systems used with nouns and verbs. Aspects of the tone system have been described to some degree for the Malinaltepec and Azoyú varieties, but little has been documented about tone in other varieties. This thesis focuses on the tone system of a less-documented variety, Acatepec, with the goal of broadening the understanding of the tone systems of other Me\u27phaa varieties. The thesis follows the methodology set forth in Snider (2013) by presenting the underlying tone melodies found among different categories and classes of morphemes, focusing on nouns and verbs, and how those melodies are realized in different phonological and grammatical environments. All nine possible melodies consisting of sequences of up to two tones from the three-height system are found among disyllabic nouns. The /HL/ melody is realized differently on nouns having glottal stop or /h/ foot-medially than it is on other nouns. The melodies /MH/, /ML/, /LH/, and /LM/ are not found among monosyllabic nouns with long vowels. Comparison with some other varieties of Me\u27phaa suggests these may have been neutralized with the /L/ melody in these syllable profiles in Acatepec. Only the melodies /H/, /M/, and /L/ are found among monosyllabic nouns with short vowels. In most classes of verbs in the corpus, verbs having disyllabic stems have examples of all underlying melodies except /LH/. Only the melodies /H/, /M/, and /L/ are found among verbs that have monosyllabic stems. There is no difference in the realization of the /HL/ melody between verbs having glottal stop or /h/ foot-medially and those that do not. Comparing differences in the realizations of tone melodies of some nouns in the Acatepec variety with corresponding nouns in the Malinaltepec and Huehuetepec varieties has proven helpful

The Disparate Americans: A Qualitative Analysis of Appalachians, Character, and Character Education in Appalachia

This thesis evaluates and critiques a federal research grant on character education initiatives in Appalachia. In order to do so, 1) This thesis addresses the evolution of the term “character” from Classical times to contemporary applications, while building toward the definitions, validity and current practices in character education and how it relates to Appalachians, 2) This thesis presents the challenges and upsides of developing character education curricula in Appalachia and how outside perceptions and stereotypes impact the people within, and 3) This thesis examines and interacts with original qualitative and quantitative data from the research grant

Harassment Handbook

Harassment presents itself as a challenging annoyance, which most everyone will have to confront over a period of time. As defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, harassment is commonly transferred via some type of unwelcome communicated behavior, which includes discrimination (2007). There are several motives for which harassment can occur, including race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 are two federal discrimination laws that help protect residents of the United States from occurrences including both discrimination and harassment, that contribute to a hostile work and/or learning environment, causing limitation or interference with ones work performance or education. In order to help Student Affairs professionals “stay out of court” this handbook was designed as a source to educate readers on Laws and Statues related to Title VI, Title VII and Title IX, programs offered by universities in an attempt to confront harassment, guidelines and best practices for employees of higher education institutions, facts and figures on sexual harassment, and background historical information in addition to relevant law cases involving issues of racial and sexual harassment within a system of higher education, as well as a non educational work environment. Throughout the following handbook the reader will find important information that will hopefully aid in developing an understanding and awareness regarding the need for Student Affairs professionals to be knowledgeable in the area of harassment

A Possible Cepheid-Like Luminosity Estimator for the Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present a possible Cepheid-like luminosity estimator for the long gamma-ray bursts based on the variability of their light curves. To construct the luminosity estimator, we use CGRO/BATSE data for 13 bursts, Wind/KONUS data for 5 bursts, Ulysses/GRB data for 1 burst, and NEAR/XGRS data for 1 burst. Spectroscopic redshifts, peak fluxes, and high resolution light curves are available for 11 of these bursts; partial information is available for the remaining 9 bursts. We find that the isotropic-equivalent luminosities L of these bursts positively correlate with a rigorously-constructed measure V of the variability of their light curves. We fit a model to these data that accommodates both intrinsic scatter (statistical variance) and extrinsic scatter (sample variance). If one excludes GRB 980425 from the fit on the grounds that its association with SN 1998bw at a redshift of z = 0.0085 is not secure, the luminosity estimator spans approx. 2.5 orders of magnitude in L, and the slope of the correlation between L and V is positive with a probability of 1 - 1.4 x 10^-4 (3.8 sigma). Although GRB 980425 is excluded from this fit, its L and V values are consistent with the fitted model, which suggests that GRB 980425 may well be associated with SN 1998bw, and that GRB 980425 and the cosmological bursts may share a common physical origin. If one includes GRB 980425 in the fit, the luminosity estimator spans approx. 6.3 orders of magnitude in L, and the slope of the correlation is positive with a probability of 1 - 9.3 x 10^-7 (4.9 sigma). Independently of whether or not GRB 980425 should be included in the fit, its light curve is unique in that it is much less variable than the other approx. 17 light curves in our sample for which the signal-to-noise is reasonably good.Comment: Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 31 pages, 13 figures, LaTe

Gamma-Ray Burster Counterparts: HST Blue and Ultraviolet Data

The surest solution of the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) mystery is to find an unambiguous low-energy quiescent counterpart. However, to date no reasonable candidates have been identified in the x-ray, optical, infrared, or radio ranges. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has now allowed for the first deep ultraviolet searches for quiescent counterparts. This paper reports on multiepoch ultraviolet searches of five GRB positions with HST. We found no sources with significant ultraviolet excesses, variability, parallax, or proper motion in any of the burst error regions. In particular, we see no sources similar to that proposed as a counterpart to the GRB970228. While this negative result is disappointing, it still has good utility for its strict limits on the no-host-galaxy problem in cosmological models of GRBs. For most cosmological models (with peak luminosity 6X10^50 erg/s), the absolute B magnitude of any possible host galaxy must be fainter than -15.5 to -17.4. These smallest boxes for some of the brightest bursts provide the most critical test, and our limits are a severe problem for all published cosmological burst models.Comment: 15 pages, 2 ps figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa