Developing a Theater Skills-Based Workshop to Facilitate Exploration of Self-Identity for Young People

This synthesis will explore the premise of a working outreach platform comprised of experiential methodology, and practical tools and strategies to serve the intended audience. The paper presents an in-depth example of a workshop curriculum created for middle-school aged youth, (12-14 years old), who may struggle with self-esteem, understanding their self-worth, and making responsible decisions. The work explores two intersecting ideas that 1) poor self-concepts and misperceived thinking can lead youth to behave negatively and make detrimental decisions, and 2) theater involvement can produce a theater-based skillset capable of combating those poor self-concepts and misperceived thoughts and changing the trajectory of youths’ lives. Lastly, research findings of other comparable youth programming, theories, and self-improvement workshops with commonalities and shared objectives are presented to explore tensions between various theories, ideas, and workshop activities. The three guiding questions used as a focal point and to drive the direction of the paper are 1) How does or how can theater skills apply to real life? 2) How can theater performing arts teach youth or help youth develop? 3) How does theater performing arts help youth become more productive or successful. I employ personal reflections as a case-study for this project, drawing upon my various life-stage roles from adolescence through professional middle school educator to dedicated reflective practitioner utilizing those experiences, along with outside sources, to support the perspectives and rationale laid forth throughout this paper

GMRT and VLA observations at 49cm and 20cm of the HII region near l=24.4d, b=0.1d

We report multifrequency radio continuum and hydrogen radio recombination line observations of HII regions near l=24.8d b=0.1d using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 1.28 GHz (n=172), 0.61 GHz (n=220) and the Very Large Array (VLA) at 1.42 GHz (n=166). The region consists of a large number of resolved HII regions and a few compact HII regions as seen in our continuum maps, many of which have associated infrared (IR) point sources. The largest HII region at l=24.83d and b=0.1d is a few arcmins in size and has a shell-type morphology. It is a massive HII region enclosing ~ 550 solar mass with a linear size of 7 pc and an rms electron density of ~ 110 cm^-3 at a kinematic distance of 6 kpc. The required ionization can be provided by a single star of spectral type O5.5. We also report detection of hydrogen recombination lines from the HII region at l=24.83d and b=0.1d at all observed frequencies near Vlsr=100 km/s. We model the observed integrated line flux density as arising in the diffuse HII region and find that the best fitting model has an electron density comparable to that derived from the continuum. We also report detection of hydrogen recombination lines from two other HII regions in the field.Comment: 14 pages, 8 Figures. Uses JAA style file. Accepted for publication in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy. High resolution figures (fig 1a, fig 1b and fig 2b) can be downloaded from http://www.ncra.tifr.res.in/~ngk/G2

VLA Detection of the Ionized Stellar Winds Arising from Massive Stars in the Galactic Center Arches Cluster

The Galactic center Arches stellar cluster, detected and studied until now only in the near-infrared, is comprised of at least one hundred massive (M>20 Msun) stars. Here we report the detection at centimeter wavelengths of radio continuum emission from eight radio sources associated with the cluster. Seven of these radio sources have rising spectral indices between 4.9 and 8.5 GHz and coincide spatially with the brightest stars in the cluster, as determine from JHK photometry and Brackett alpha and Brackett Gamma spectroscopy. Our results confirm the presence of powerful ionized winds in these stars. The eighth radio source has a nonthermal spectrum and its nature is yet unclear, but it could be associated with a lower mass young star in the cluster.Comment: 6 pages, 2 embedded figures, accepted to ApJLetter

Use of NOAA-N satellites for land/water discrimination and flood monitoring

A tool for monitoring the extent of major floods was developed using data collected by the NOAA-6 advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR). A basic understanding of the spectral returns in AVHRR channels 1 and 2 for water, soil, and vegetation was reached using a large number of NOAA-6 scenes from different seasons and geographic locations. A look-up table classifier was developed based on analysis of the reflective channel relationships for each surface feature. The classifier automatically separated land from water and produced classification maps which were registered for a number of acquisitions, including coverage of a major flood on the Parana River of Argentina

Proper Motions of PSRs B1757-24 and B1951+32: Implications for Ages and Associations

Over the last decade, considerable effort has been made to measure the proper motions of the pulsars B1757-24 and B1951+32 in order to establish or refute associations with nearby supernova remnants and to understand better the complicated geometries of their surrounding nebulae. We present proper motion measurements of both pulsars with the Very Large Array, increasing the time baselines of the measurements from 3.9 yr to 6.5 yr and from 12.0 yr to 14.5 yr, respectively, compared to previous observations. We confirm the non-detection of proper motion of PSR B1757-24, and our measurement of (mu_a, mu_d) = (-11 +/- 9, -1 +/- 15) mas yr^{-1} confirms that the association of PSR B1757-24 with SNR G5.4-1.2 is unlikely for the pulsar characteristic age of 15.5 kyr, although an association can not be excluded for a significantly larger age. For PSR B1951+32, we measure a proper motion of (mu_a, mu_d) = (-28.8 +/- 0.9, -14.7 +/- 0.9) mas yr^{-1}, reducing the uncertainty in the proper motion by a factor of two compared to previous results. After correcting to the local standard of rest, the proper motion indicates a kinetic age of ~51 kyr for the pulsar, assuming it was born near the geometric center of the supernova remnant. The radio-bright arc of emission along the pulsar proper motion vector shows time-variable structure, but moves with the pulsar at an approximately constant separation ~2.5", lending weight to its interpretation as a shock structure driven by the pulsar.Comment: LaTeX file uses emulateapj.cls; 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published ApJ February 10, 2008, v674 p271-278. Revision reflects journal formatting; there are no substantial revision