Continuous Gravitational Waves from Isolated Galactic Neutron Stars in the Advanced Detector Era

We consider a simulated population of isolated Galactic neutron stars. The rotational frequency of each neutron star evolves through a combination of electromagnetic and gravitational wave emission. The magnetic field strength dictates the dipolar emission, and the ellipticity (a measure of a neutron star's deformation) dictates the gravitational wave emission. Through both analytic and numerical means, we assess the detectability of the Galactic neutron star population and bound the magnetic field strength and ellipticity parameter space of Galactic neutron stars with or without a direct gravitational wave detection. While our simulated population is primitive, this work establishes a framework by which future efforts can be conducted.Comment: Accepted for publication by Physical Review D, 8 pages, 5 figure

Helping the Me Generation Decenter: Service Learning with Refugees

Recent research has empirically demonstrated that young adults today are different from prior generations in their decreased empathy, increased narcissism, and decreased civic engagement. The formative years of young adulthood are a critical period for the development of civic values and civil ideologies, a time when college-age adults need to acquire the experiences and skills to decenter and develop into civic-minded stewards of their communities. Engagement in service learning with individuals unlike themselves, i.e., outgroup members, is the approach we have taken at the University of North Florida to encourage this decentering through service learning engagement with refugees embedded in an honors colloquium during students’ first term in college. We took a three-pronged approach to the assessment of the impact of this service learning engagement. In the first approach, evaluations of student responses to open-ended questions provided evidence of a reduction in their self-centeredness and increases in social empathy and multicultural competence. The second approach confirmed these changes in decentering by showing that honors students who were engaged in more interactive service projects with refugees scored higher on two measures of empathy—i.e., the Basic Empathy Scale Basic Empathy Scale ( Jolliffe & Farrington) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng et al.)—than did students engaged in less interactive service projects with refugees. In the final approach, evaluations of artifacts from the course suggested that levels of decentering, empathy, and civic action differed for students who had intensive versus superficial interactions with refugees

Book Review: Excellence vs. Equality: Can Society Achieve Both Goals?

Exhausted from the 2015-2016 election season, one may want to escape its overheated rhetoric and nasty partisanship. But the societal conditions that led Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to assert loudly, “The system is rigged!” hangs in the air. Ordinary folks feel left behind and wronged. They believe that they are working harder than ever and getting nowhere, perhaps even falling backwards, experiencing few chances for mobility or success. From millennials to retired Boomers, countless American voters are frustrated and angry. Their concerns are real, and we ignore their issues at our peril. In his new book, Excellence vs. Equality, Allan C. Ornstein, professor of education at St. Johns University, asks how we as a nation address the question: “Can our society achieve both excellence and equality?” Using reinforcing references and data points, Ornstein deconstructs the issues of opportunity, excellence, equality, meritocracy, and inherited wealth and describes their impact on economic mobility and achieving the American dream. How we answer his question will shape our society and “the kind of people we are—or think we are” (see Ornstein, 2014)

“Let’s Get a Coffee!”: A Transformative International Honors Partnership

Advocates of study abroad have emphasized that semester- and year-long programs offer greater opportunities than short-term programs for students to enhance their personal, academic, and professional development (Dwyer). But can carefully constructed short-term study abroad experiences, which are increasingly popular choices for undergraduates, have similar effects? One study suggests they can achieve important outcomes, such as encouraging tolerance for ambiguity, appreciation for diversity, and openness to experience (Shadowen et al.). Another study shows that even shortterm exposure to other cultures can enhance creativity (Leung et al.), and a third demonstrates that creative problem solving was improved by cultural study in a process independent of the experience of living abroad, suggesting that studying a culture in addition to visiting it can have a similar effect (Cho and Morris). One mechanism that seems to cause this change is the ability to notice cultural collisions and examine the logic of multiple cultures simultaneously (Leung et al.). Honors programs and colleges, which traditionally have featured interdisciplinary teaching and reflective pedagogies, are particularly well-positioned to offer programs that utilize these insights. In this chapter we describe the evolution of a partnership between the honors programs at the University of North Florida (UNF) and Deree—The American College of Greece (Deree)—that employs this research in its design. What began as a small summer study abroad program for American students in Greece has become a thriving cross-cultural experience that has positively impacted both student populations and both campuses

Helping the Me Generation Decenter: Service Learning with Refugees

Recent research has empirically demonstrated that young adults today are different from prior generations in their decreased empathy, increased narcissism, and decreased civic engagement. The formative years of young adulthood are a critical period for the development of civic values and civil ideologies, a time when college-age adults need to acquire the experiences and skills to decenter and develop into civic-minded stewards of their communities. Engagement in service learning with individuals unlike themselves, i.e., outgroup members, is the approach we have taken at the University of North Florida to encourage this decentering through service learning engagement with refugees embedded in an honors colloquium during students’ first term in college. We took a three-pronged approach to the assessment of the impact of this service learning engagement. In the first approach, evaluations of student responses to open-ended questions provided evidence of a reduction in their self-centeredness and increases in social empathy and multicultural competence. The second approach confirmed these changes in decentering by showing that honors students who were engaged in more interactive service projects with refugees scored higher on two measures of empathy—i.e., the Basic Empathy Scale Basic Empathy Scale ( Jolliffe & Farrington) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng et al.)—than did students engaged in less interactive service projects with refugees. In the final approach, evaluations of artifacts from the course suggested that levels of decentering, empathy, and civic action differed for students who had intensive versus superficial interactions with refugees

Education as an Investment in Turkey\u27s Human Capital: A Work in Progress

As a nation, Turkey sees education as an essential component in building its economy to world class levels. Yet school equity and teacher quality issues are preventing Turkey from fully developing its human capital. Authors discuss the concept of education as an investment in human capital, Turkey’s human capital challenges, equity practices which undermine the widespread development of Turkey’s human capital, how improving teacher quality could help remedy the situation, and recommendations to strengthen Turkey’s education as an investment in human capital

The Long-Term Impact of Educational and Health Spending on Unemployment Rates

This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education as defined by per-pupil spending and health services could play a significant role in reducing unemployment rates

The Long-Term Impact of Educational and Health Spending on Unemployment Rates

This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education as defined by per-pupil spending and health services could play a significant role in reducing unemployment rates