The Relationship between Professional Learning Communities and School Culture on Student Achievement

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Shannon K. Gross on June 28, 2014

Train boy

This thesis tells the story of the author\u27s interactions with the hallucinatory figure of Train Boy

Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection

Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection is the third annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods course. The exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor and incredible opportunity for engaged learning, research, and curatorial experience. The five student curators are Molly Chason ’17, Leah Falk ’18, Shannon Gross ’17, Bailey Harper ’19 and Laura Waters ’19. The selection of artworks in this exhibition includes the depiction of landscape in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century French, American and East Asian cultural traditions in various art forms from traditional media of paintings and prints to utilitarian artifacts of porcelain and a paper folding fan. Landscape paintings in this exhibition are inspired by nature, specific locales and literature. Each object carries a distinctive characteristic, a mood, and an ambience. Collectively, they present a multifaceted view of the landscape in the heart and mind of the artists and intended viewers. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1020/thumbnail.jp

Loneliness in Middle Childhood: Social Connectedness and Genetic Relatedness

The evolutionary approach argues that genetic similarity contributes to greater social similarity due to their desire to protect their genes. The social perspective model argues that loneliness is impacted by social relationships. It is hypothesized that MZ twins will show support for the evolutionary perspective, having the closest levels of loneliness, and will have levels comparable to FFs (Segal, 2000). It is hypothesized that loneliness means will show the following pattern: MZ \u3c DZ = FS \u3c VT with MZ = FF. Additionally, it is hypothesized that there will be a gender difference in loneliness in that M \u3e F (Junttila & Vauras, 2009). Participants were 300 pairs of children (8-12 years), who took part in the TAPS Study. The hypothesis was examined using 54 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) twins, 86 dizygotic (DZ) twins, 69 full siblings (FS), 48 friend-friend (FF) pairs and 43 virtual twins (VT). Each child completed the Children’s Loneliness Scale, which assessed feelings of social dissatisfaction and loneliness (Asher et. al, 1984). In contrast to our hypothesis, MANOVAs showed that genetic relatedness and loneliness were not significantly correlated. T-tests revealed that there was a significant main effect for gender, which supports social perspective theories

Method and Meaning: Selections from the Gettysburg College Collection

What is art historical study and how it should be carried out are fundamental questions the exhibition Method and Meaning: Selections from the Gettysburg College Collection intends to answer. This student-curated exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor of seven students of art history majors and minors in the Art History Methods course. The seven student curators are Shannon Callahan, Ashlie Cantele, Maura D’Amico, Xiyang Duan, Devin Garnick, Allison Gross and Emily Zbehlik. As part of the class assignment, this exhibition allows the students to explore various art history methods on individual case studies. The selection of the works in the exhibition reflects a wide array of student research interests including an example of 18th century Chinese jade chime stone, jade and bronze replicas of ancient Chinese bronze vessels, a piece of early 20th century Chinese porcelain, oil paintings by Pennsylvania Impressionist painter Fern Coppedge, prints by Salvador Dalí and by German artist Käthe Kollwitz, and an early 20th century wood block print by Japanese artist Kawase Hasui. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1014/thumbnail.jp

Virial statistical description of non-extensive hierarchical systems

In a first part the scope of classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics is discussed in the broader context of formal dynamical systems, including computer programmes. In this context classical thermodynamics appears as a particular theory suited to a subset of all dynamical systems. A statistical mechanics similar to the one derived with the microcanonical ensemble emerges from dynamical systems provided it contains, 1) a finite non-integrable part of its phase space which is, 2) ergodic at a satisfactory degree after a finite time. The integrable part of phase space provides the constraints that shape the particular system macroscopical properties, and the chaotic part provides well behaved statistical properties over a relevant finite time. More generic semi-ergodic systems lead to intermittent behaviour, thus may be unsuited for a statistical description of steady states. Following these lines of thought, in a second part non-extensive hierarchical systems with statistical scale-invariance and power law interactions are explored. Only the virial constraint, consistent with their microdynamics, is included. No assumptions of classical thermodynamics are used, in particular extensivity and local homogeneity. In the limit of a large hierarchical range new constraints emerge in some conditions that depend on the interaction law range. In particular for the gravitational case, a velocity-site scaling relation is derived which is consistant with the ones empirically observed in the fractal interstellar medium.Comment: Based on the talk given at the Meeting on `Statistical Mechanics of Non-Extensive Systems', 24-25 Oct 05, Paris. To be published in a Special Issue of Les Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Sciences. 21 pages; 4 figure

Wideband Agile Digital Microwave Radiometer

The objectives of this work were to take the initial steps needed to develop a field programmable gate array (FPGA)- based wideband digital radiometer backend (>500 MHz bandwidth) that will enable passive microwave observations with minimal performance degradation in a radiofrequency-interference (RFI)-rich environment. As manmade RF emissions increase over time and fill more of the microwave spectrum, microwave radiometer science applications will be increasingly impacted in a negative way, and the current generation of spaceborne microwave radiometers that use broadband analog back ends will become severely compromised or unusable over an increasing fraction of time on orbit. There is a need to develop a digital radiometer back end that, for each observation period, uses digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms to identify the maximum amount of RFI-free spectrum across the radiometer band to preserve bandwidth to minimize radiometer noise (which is inversely related to the bandwidth). Ultimately, the objective is to incorporate all processing necessary in the back end to take contaminated input spectra and produce a single output value free of manmade signals to minimize data rates for spaceborne radiometer missions. But, to meet these objectives, several intermediate processing algorithms had to be developed, and their performance characterized relative to typical brightness temperature accuracy re quirements for current and future microwave radiometer missions, including those for measuring salinity, soil moisture, and snow pack

Social competence and parental differential treatment across sibling dyads

Parental differential treatment (PDT), which varies as a function of genetic relatedness between siblings, has been linked to children’s self-worth. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between mother’s reports of differential treatment in play and children’s self-reports of social competence across dyad types. Participants were 54 monozygotic (MZ) twins, 86 dizygotic (DZ) twins, 68 full siblings (FS), and 43 same-aged adoptees (VT) and their mothers. Analyses revealed a significant trend for PDT on children’s social competence, F (1, 234) = 2.93, p = .088, while siblings’ social competence means reflected genetic and age effects

Parental differential treatment: A twin-sibling-adoptee study

From a behavioral genetic perspective, similar experiences between siblings will vary by genetic relatedness. The purpose of the present study was to examine parental differential treatment across twins, siblings, and adoptees using a genetic model. Mothers of 54 monozygotic (MZ) twins, 86 dizygotic (DZ) twins, 68 full siblings (FS), and 43 same-aged adoptees (VT) reported their differential treatment of both siblings in three dimensions: school, play, and discipline. The results supported our genetic hypothesis, with a significant effect for dyad type, F (9, 581) = 2.47, p\u3c0.01

Statistical mechanics of typical set decoding

The performance of ``typical set (pairs) decoding'' for ensembles of Gallager's linear code is investigated using statistical physics. In this decoding, error happens when the information transmission is corrupted by an untypical noise or two or more typical sequences satisfy the parity check equation provided by the received codeword for which a typical noise is added. We show that the average error rate for the latter case over a given code ensemble can be tightly evaluated using the replica method, including the sensitivity to the message length. Our approach generally improves the existing analysis known in information theory community, which was reintroduced by MacKay (1999) and believed as most accurate to date.Comment: 7 page