Jonelle Beatrice, associate executive director of Student Life and director of the Center for Student Progress, and Becky Varian, coordinator of the Center for Student Progress Intervention Services, made presentations at the annual Ohio College Access and Success conference in Columbus Aug. 11 through 13. Beatrice gave a presentation titled "Creating an Environment for Student Success,Ó and Varian presented a session titled "Academic Interventions for At–Risk Students."

Sue Davis, director, Undergraduate Admissions, and Monica Mastran–Czopor, associate director, presented at the 24^th Annual Enrollment Planners Conference in Chicago in July. Their presentation, titled ÒCan You Hear Me Now?Ó focused on utilizing effective telephone counseling techniques in student recruitment.

Jim Andrews, professor, Physics and Astronomy, presented the talk "Is the Third Time the Charm? Teaching by Cycling" at the 2009 summer meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Ann Arbor, Mich. Andrews also co–authored a paper, titled "Layered Polymeric Optical Systems Using Continuous Co extrusion," which was the subject of the keynote address by co–author Ken Singer of Case Western Reserve University. The paper was presented at the 2009 SPIE Optics & Photonics Conference on Nanophotonics and Macrophotonics for Space Environments in San Diego, Calif.

G. Andy Chang, professor, G. Jay Kerns, associate professor, and Gary L. Stanek, professor, all of Mathematics and Statistics, co–authored a paper entitled ÒCalibration Experiments for a Computer Vision Oyster Volume Estimation SystemÓ that was published in the Journal of Statistics Education. D. J. Lee, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University, was also a co–author.

Zbigniew Piotrowski and Eric Wingler, professors, Mathematics and Statistics, published an article, titled "On Separately Open Topology," in the Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications. R.W. Vallin of Slippery Rock University was a co–author. Piotrowski also gave a presentation, titled "M. Kopernik, Madame M. Sklodowska–Curie, S. Banach and Other Luminaries of Polish Science," at a Polish Day celebration in Youngstown.

Eleanor Congdon, assistant professor, History, attended the Mellon Foundation Summer Institute on Italian Vernacular Paleography this summer at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. The three–week residential course offered intensive training in the accurate reading and transcription of handwritten Italian vernacular texts from the late medieval through the early modern periods.

Paul R. Carr, assistant professor, Educational Foundations, Research, TechnologyInternational Journal of Critical Pedagogy; "Computers, the Media and Multicultural Education: Seeking Engagement and Political Literacy" was published in the Journal of Intercultural Studies; and "The Critical Pedagogy of Understanding How Educators Relate to Democracy" was published in Learning Democracy by Doing: Alternative Practices in Citizenship Learning and Participatory Democracy, edited by D. Schugerensky, K. Daly and K. Lopes. 

Fred Viehe, professor, History, will have his article, "Atavistic Culture: The Bete Noire of Social Change," published in Forum on Public Policy. Viehe has also been named assistant editor of the International Journal of the Humanities.

Karin A. Petruska, assistant professor, Accounting and Finance, presented two papers, titled ÒConservative Accounting Disclosure, Litigation Risk and Cost of EquityÓ and ÒWhy Do Firms Hold Excess Cash?Ó at the American Accounting Association Ohio Regional Meeting Conference in Geneva–on–the–Lake, Ohio. She also presented a paper in August titled ÒAccounting Conservatism and Fraudulent Financial ReportingÓ at the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting Conference in New York.

Kin P. Moy, assistant professor, Electrical Engineering Technology, and principal investigator for the research project titled ÒEMC Assurance of Automotive Signal/Data Transmission System for Vehicle Transportation SystemsÓ in YSUÕs Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering, received a donation of communication laboratory equipment from Delphi Corp. in Warren. The equipment will be used to train students as part of the centerÕs work force development initiative. Moy also conducted a technical seminar in May for the Automotive Research and Testing CenterÕs Electromagnetic Compatibility laboratory in Lugang, Taiwan, and has been awarded a $10,000 research grant from ARTC to develop an electromagnetic compatibility test strategy and methodology for electric vehicle and automotive data transmission systems.

Steve Brown, professor, English, published a new edition of his four–volume English as a Second Language textbook series, with co–authors Marc Helgesen and John Wiltshier of Miyagi Women''s College in Sendai, Japan. The books were published by Pearson/Longman.

Deborah Mower, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, presented a paper titled ÒA Double–Barreled Defense of Confucian Rituals: Revise and RestoreÓ at the American Philosophical Association. She also presented an invited paper titled ÒTeaching Ethics Via SympathyÓ as part of the Hale Ethics Series at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.