Testing 24 micron and Infrared Luminosity as Star Formation Tracers for
  Galactic Star Forming Regions
  We have tested some relations for star formation rates used in extra-galactic
studies for regions within the Galaxy. In nearby molecular clouds, where the
IMF is not fully-sampled, the dust emission at 24 micron greatly underestimates
star formation rates (by a factor of 100 on average) when compared to star
formation rates determined from counting YSOs. The total infrared emission does
no better. In contrast, the total far-infrared method agrees within a factor of
2 on average with star formation rates based on radio continuum emission for
massive, dense clumps that are forming enough massive stars to have the total
infrared luminosity exceed 10^4.5 Lsun. The total infrared and 24 micron also
agree well with each other for both nearby, low-mass star forming regions and
the massive, dense clumps regions.
