An Evaluation of Georgia HOPE Scholarship Program: Effects of HOPE on Grade Inflation, Academic Performance and College Enrollment

Abstract pending

Athletic Leadership and Chronically Anxious America

We are fast becoming (or perhaps already have become) a society that to its detriment values security over risk and safety over adventure. As such, we consistently sacrifice opportunities to grow through challenge. Perhaps the most unfortunate consequence of this orientation toward safety is that our nation, now more than ever, lacks leaders of character. Consequently, America is faced with what I believe to be the defining problem of our time. We need a way to develop leaders who can forge ahead with self-control and moral clarity in the midst of growing uncertainty. Thankfully, while it may appear there are fewer and fewer places that are developing such leaders, I do not believe we are without hope. I believe one answer can be found in the carefully constructed, highly competitive athletic environment. Such environments represent one of the few remaining cultural strongholds for leadership and character development in twenty-first-century America. On the outset, one must understand I am talking about an environment that is completely antithetical to those that produce and encourage the shocking antics of the latest ESPN prima donna. Instead, this article will argue for the idea that the carefully constructed, highly competitive athletic environment, infused with intentional and relentless coaching focused on developing Christ-like people, will result in the production of well-differentiated leaders who can revive America. Products of such environments are not reactive, do not blame others for their failures, and are not afraid to take stands in the face of pressure. In addition, in order to “survive,” they must wholeheartedly embrace a belief that short-term pain is necessary for long-term gain and are willing to live out that belief. In short, such leaders have “nerve” enough to lead

An Evaluation of Georgia's Post-Secondary Options/Joint Enrollment Programs

Abstract pending

Physics of relativistic shocks

Relativistic shocks are usually thought to occur in violent astrophysical explosions. These collisionless shocks are mediated by a plasma kinetic streaming instability, often loosely referred to as the Weibel instability, which generates strong magnetic fields "from scratch" very efficiently. In this review paper we discuss the shock micro-physics and present a recent model of "pre-conditioning" of an initially unmagnetized upstream region via the cosmic-ray-driven Weibel-type instability.Comment: Subm. to proceedings of the Annual International Astrophysics Conference (AIAC-8), Hawaii, 200

Perceived benefits of a community college cooperative education program.

Cooperative education has been in existence for approximately eighty three years as a tool to supplement classroom instruction with practical work experience. Some reports suggest that the combination of classroom learning and on-the-job training provides substantial benefits to cooperative education students. Despite these findings, cooperative education has not achieved the recognition that it probably deserves. This may be due to a number of reasons including: (1) lack of adequate promotion, (2) lack of adequate funding, and (3) lack of understanding of the program itself. A major contributing factor to these three limitations, is the failure of cooperative educators to sufficiently document the benefit of cooperative education programs. In fact, the reports attended to above have recognized the need for greater documentation of program benefits. The present study was undertaken to provide some empirical data regarding the perceived benefits of a community college cooperative education program. In conducting the study the researcher hoped to contribute to the existing data base on the benefit of cooperative education by examining the professional development and personal growth effects of a cooperative education program. The study was an ex post facto retrospective survey conducted among 460 former cooperative education students from Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts. A survey instrument called the Cooperative Education Assessment Survey (CEAS) was developed specifically for the study. The results indicated that a majority of the participants assessed the professional development and personal growth benefits of the program positively. No gender differences were observed. However, significant race, age, employment status and enrollment status differences were found

A Review of Coronagraphic Observations of Shocks Driven by Coronal Mass Ejections

The existence of shocks driven by Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) has always been assumed based on the superalfvenic speeds for some of these events and on indirect evidence such as radio bursts and distant streamer deflections. However, the direct signature of the plasma enhancement at the shock front has escaped detection until recently. Since 2003, work on LASCO observations has shown that CME-driven shocks can be detected by white light coronagraph observations from a few solar radii to at least 20 Rsun. Shock properties, such as the density compression ratio and their direction can be extracted from the data. We review this work here and demonstrate how to recognize the various shock morphologies in the images.We also discuss how the two-viewpoint coronagraph observations from the STEREO mission allow the reconstruction of the 3D envelope of the shock revealing some interesting properties of the shocks (e.g., anisotropic expansion).Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Shocks Waves in Astrophysical Environments, Proceedings of the 8th Annual International Astrophysics Conference (referred), AIP Conf. Pro

Particle Acceleration at Relativistic Shocks in Extragalactic Systems

Diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) at relativistic shocks is expected to be an important acceleration mechanism in a variety of astrophysical objects including extragalactic jets in active galactic nuclei and gamma ray bursts. These sources remain strong and interesting candidate sites for the generation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. In this paper, key predictions of DSA at relativistic shocks that are salient to the issue of cosmic ray ion and electron production are outlined. Results from a Monte Carlo simulation of such diffusive acceleration in test-particle, relativistic, oblique, MHD shocks are presented. Simulation output is described for both large angle and small angle scattering scenarios, and a variety of shock obliquities including superluminal regimes when the de Hoffman-Teller frame does not exist. The distribution function power-law indices compare favorably with results from other techniques. They are found to depend sensitively on the mean magnetic field orientation in the shock, and the nature of MHD turbulence that propagates along fields in shock environs. An interesting regime of flat spectrum generation is addressed, providing evidence for its origin being due to shock drift acceleration. The impact of these theoretical results on gamma-ray burst and blazar science is outlined. Specifically, Fermi gamma-ray observations of these cosmic sources are already providing significant constraints on important environmental quantities for relativistic shocks, namely the frequency of scattering and the level of field turbulence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proc. of the 8th International Astrophysics Conference "Shock Waves in Space and Astrophysical Environments" (2010), eds. X. Ao, R. Burrows and G. P. Zank (AIP Conf. Proc., New York