Research Notes
Self-injury Among Adolescents
Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
Dr. Moya Alfonso and doctoral student Ravneet Kaur examined self-injury among early adolescents. Self-injury has been described as a silent school crisis. The study indicated that engaging adolescents in prevention programs at an early stage can reduce the chances of suicidal behavior as well as physical injury.
Antennas and Wireless Propagation
Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Information Technology
Professor Sungkyun Lim of the Department of Electrical Engineering is conducting two research projects with the Southern Company. In one project, Lim and his student researchers are researching wireless energy harvesting in order to power wireless sensors, with a goal of extending battery life or eliminating batteries altogether. In a second project, they are working to secure wireless sensors by controlling the propagation of RF signals.
In a third research project with AGCO, an agriculture company, Lim said “we will analyze performance of GNSS antenna characteristics for use in agricultural vehicles like tractors and combines.”
Research Grants Awarded
College of Science and Mathematics
Ten faculty members in the College of Science and Mathematics are this year’s recipients of interdisciplinary research pilot grants. The Computational Science interdisciplinary team of mathematical sciences professors Xiezhang Li, Jiehua Zhu and chemistry professor Xiaojun Wang received the grant for their project, “A practical interactive method for image reconstruction in CT.” The Coastal Plain Science team recipients included biology professor Subhrajit Saha, chemistry professor David Kreller and mathematical sciences professor Arpita Chatterjee for “Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Production Potentials for Switchgrass-Pine Agroforestry Systems in Southeastern Coastal Plain.”
The Materials Science team was composed of Rafael Lopes Quirino from the chemistry department and Mujibur Khan from mechanical engineering (funding supported by CEIT) for “SiC-composites for Thermo-electrical Application.” The Cancer Research team included Vinoth Sittaramane from biology, Rafael Lopes Quirino from chemistry and Karin Scarpinato from biology for their project titled “Cancer Therapy Using Microwave Hyperthermia of Carbon Nanotubes.
Greene Studies Cherokee Life
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Anthropology professor Lance Greene is finishing a research project examining aspects of Cherokee archaeology and history. He is focusing on Cherokee families who lived in the western North Carolina mountains in the 1830s and ‘40s in order to compare their lives before and after the Cherokee Removal, or Trail of Tears, in 1838.
Greene has compared the remains of animal bones from four Cherokee house sites — two date to just before Removal, and two from the decade following Removal. Greene hopes his research will identify changes in the lives of Cherokees who stayed in North Carolina, as opposed to the vast majority of the tribe, who were forced west in 1838.
CDC Re-accredited
College of Health and Human Sciences
The Georgia Southern Child Development Center (CDC), originally accredited in 1993 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), has been re-accredited for another five years. NAEYC-accredited programs have low child-teacher ratios, developmentally appropriate curricula, environments rich in play and opportunities for parent interactions and participation. The CDC was noted for its curriculum, teacher-student training, maintaining high licensure standards and delivering high quality care to infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children.
Visit the Child Development Center (CDC) site.
Teacher Quality Grants Awarded
Five Teacher Quality Grants recently awarded to College of Education faculty will help them assist K-12 teachers in incorporating real life examples of scientific methodology, inquiry and technology in regular classroom teaching. The grants, totaling more than $200,000, were awarded to professors Missy Bennett, Karen Chassereau, Christine Draper, Marti Schriver, Sally Brown and Robert Mayes.
Bennett will lead a workshop at Sapelo Island for middle and high school science teachers studying ecology. Schriver and Chassereau will take classroom teachers to Jekyll Island and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to study endangered sea turtles and diamondback terrapins. Brown is collaborating with professor Kathy Albertson to help K-5 educators in Coffee County deepen their knowledge in the area of literacy. Mayes, director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education, will work with Georgia Southern’s Center for Sustainability and teachers in Richmond County on research involving the Savannah River Basin.
Draper’s grant partners with the Garden of the Coastal Plain and the Department of History in a “Places to People” program promoting teacher training in social studies education using Southeast Georgia’s rich history and regional resources as case studies.
Supply Chain Research
College of Business Administration
An article by College of Business Administration faculty and student researchers was published in the Journal of Supply Chain Management, a premier journal for scholars in the discipline. The research by Stephanie Thomas, Rod Thomas, Karl Manrodt and Stephen Rutner examined common strategies used in negotiations, which are an essential element of buyer-supplier relationships that form the foundation of modern supply chains.