A history of the city of Somerville for the first four grades

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The Importance of an Appropriate Social Media Policy for K-12 Education

The purpose of the study is to explore creating appropriate social media policies to ensure these tools are used properly for positive uses and control the negative impacts of social media in the school environment. Although social media can be used as a great tool for modern classrooms, there are a variety of problems. The literature used for the study addresses legal issues and bullying, enhancing 21st century skills and improving communication. Statistics from the Pew Organization and qualitative information from other academic studies were also used. The literature had more concerns about inappropriate behavior than suggestions practicing professionals. The day-to-day issues caused by social media were less than the literature suggested. They all agreed schools need to adapt and effectively use this media to stay relevant. The research indicated that it is still common to just block social media sites, more educators are seeing a real need to implement and use them as tools. The negative aspects are less damaging than the potential is for improving student’s engagement. The research is qualitative in design, using interview protocols. The purposive sample included administrators from district, secondary and primary school level. Results indicated that school leaders are aware of the need to adapt to modern ways to communicate, but remain concerned about difficulties that arise

The finite temperature QCD using 2+1 flavors of domain wall fermions at N_t = 8

We study the region of the QCD phase transition using 2+1 flavors of domain wall fermions (DWF) and a $16^3 \times 8$ lattice volume with a fifth dimension of $L_s = 32$. The disconnected light quark chiral susceptibility, quark number susceptibility and the Polyakov loop suggest a chiral and deconfining crossover transition lying between 155 and 185 MeV for our choice of quark mass and lattice spacing. In this region the lattice scale deduced from the Sommer parameter $r_0$ is $a^{-1} \approx 1.3$ GeV, the pion mass is $\approx 300$ MeV and the kaon mass is approximately physical. The peak in the chiral susceptibility implies a pseudo critical temperature $T_c = 171(10)(17)$ MeV where the first error is associated with determining the peak location and the second with our unphysical light quark mass and non-zero lattice spacing. The effects of residual chiral symmetry breaking on the chiral condensate and disconnected chiral susceptibility are studied using several values of the valence $L_s$.Comment: 41 pages, 10 tables, 13 figure

Status of the QCDSP project

We describe the completed 8,192-node, 0.4Tflops machine at Columbia as well as the 12,288-node, 0.6Tflops machine assembled at the RIKEN Brookhaven Research Center. Present performance as well as our experience in commissioning these large machines is presented. We outline our on-going physics program and explain how the configuration of the machine is varied to support a wide range of lattice QCD problems, requiring a variety of machine sizes. Finally a brief discussion is given of future prospects for large-scale lattice QCD machines.Comment: LATTICE98(machines), 3 pages, 1 picture, 1 figur

Testing Algorithms for Finite Temperature Lattice QCD

We discuss recent algorithmic improvements in simulating finite temperature QCD on a lattice. In particular, the Rational Hybrid Monte Carlo(RHMC) algorithm is employed to generate lattice configurations for 2+1 flavor QCD. Unlike the Hybrid R Algorithm, RHMC is reversible, admitting a Metropolis accept/reject step that eliminates the $\mathcal{O}(\delta t^2)$ errors inherent in the R Algorithm. We also employ several algorithmic speed-ups, including multiple time scales, the use of a more efficient numerical integrator, and Hasenbusch pre-conditioning of the fermion force.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, poster presented at International Conference on Strong and Electroweak Matter 2006 (SEWM2006), BNL, May 10-13, 200

The IS Undergraduate Curriculum: Predicting Student Outcomes In An Upper Division Programming Course

Academic performance of students is a primary factor in student attrition.  Being able to reliably predict academic success would facilitate improved advising for academic program and course selection.  This study examines several predictor variables and assesses their value in predicting course performance in an upper division computer programming course in an undergraduate business-based Information Systems (IS) degree program

Scaling of Pseudo-Critical Couplings in Two-Flavour QCD

We study the scaling behaviour of the pseudo-critical couplings for the chiral phase transition in two-flavour QCD. We show that all existing results from lattice simulations on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau = 4$, 6 and 8 can be mapped onto a universal scaling curve. The relevant combination of critical exponents, $\beta\delta$, is consistent with the scaling behaviour expected for a second order phase transition with $O(4)$ exponents. At present, scaling according to the $O(2)$ symmetry group can, however, not be ruled out.Comment: 8 pages, NSF-ITP 93-12