Graduated with Distinction

SEPTEMBER 2024. These graduate students completed their program with a high cumulative grade point average, which reflects the quality of performance within their respective major. Congratulations!

DISTINCTION
Eric Ryan Cal
Doctor of Education
Educational Informatics

DISTINCTION
Liz Adianez Díaz Rodríguez
Post-Doctorate of Andragogy
Teaching Science

DISTINCTION
Mariano German Castro
Doctor of Philosophy
Digital Transformation

DISTINCTION
Natalia Paola Villar Cavieres
Doctor of Education
Child Psychology

DISTINCTION
Carlos Enrique Belisario Ardon
Master of Science
Renewable Energy Project Mgmt.






18 TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON Global Studies

Call for Papers This Conference will be held 2-4 July 2025 at University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain.

We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/ interactive sessions, posters/ exhibits, colloquia, focused discussions, innovation showcases, virtual posters, or virtual lightning talks.

2025 Special Focus: “Minds and Machines: Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Ethics, and Order in Global Society”

Theme 1: Networks of Economy and Trade
Theme 2: The Power of Institutions
Theme 3: Vectors of Society and Culture
Theme 4: Ecological Foundations
Become a Presenter:
1. Submit a proposal
2. Review timeline
3. Register
Advance proposal deadline 2 September, 2024
Advance registration deadline 2 October, 2024
Visit the website: https://onglobalization.com


EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE: Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola’s Impactful Journey in Virology

In the lush heartland of Panama, where the tropical rainforest meets the azure waters of the Pacific, a remarkable scientist, Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola embarked on a transformative journey that would not only redefine scientific boundaries in her homeland but also resonate globally. Driven by an insatiable curiosity and an unyielding passion for scientific exploration, she emerged as a beacon of inspiration, illuminating the path for future researchers and community leaders.

Academic Excellence and Research Impact Dr. Bourdett Stanziola’s academic odyssey commenced with a genuine thirst for knowledge. Enrolling in the esteemed Atlantic International University (AIU), she pursued a Doctor of Science degree with a major in Virology. AIU’s innovative and andragogical approach provided her with a unique educational experience, allowing her to seamlessly integrate her ongoing research projects in Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras into her academic pursuits. This symbiosis between her studies and community engagements laid the foundation for her impactful contributions to virology.

Unraveling G and P Genotypes in Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic In an innovative research endeavor, Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola, along with her esteemed colleagues Carlos Jiménez and Eduardo Ortega Barria, embarked on a comprehensive analysis of rotavirus genotypes in Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Their study, from December 2002 to July 2003, involved meticulously examining 2,089 fecal samples from patients afflicted with gastroenteritis in various hospitals across these countries. Through sophisticated techniques such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the team deciphered the intricate G and P genotypes of the rotaviruses present.

The results of this study were nothing short of revelatory. Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic exhibited a remarkable diversity in rotavirus strains, featuring combinations of G and P genotypes that were not only diverse but also highly unusual. This unexpected variety among rotavirus strains underscores the complexity of the virus in these regions. It emphasizes the urgency for extensive serologic and genetic surveys on a broader scale within Central America and the Caribbean. Dr. Bourdett Stanziola’s research sheds light on the pressing need for the next generation of rotavirus vaccines to offer robust protection against diseases caused by these atypical genotypes. Furthermore, this study represents a significant milestone, marking the second report of rotavirus genotypes in Costa Rica and the first documentation of rotavirus genotypes in Panama and the Dominican Republic. Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola’s pioneering efforts have deepened our understanding of rotavirus diversity, paving the way for more effective interventions and reinforcing her status as a trailblazer in virology.

Trailblazing Research on Rotavirus Diversity In a groundbreaking study led by the esteemed virologist Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola, significant strides were made in unraveling the complexities of rotavirus genotypes in Central America and the Caribbean. Dr. Bourdett Stanziola, in collaboration with her research team, meticulously examined 574 stool samples collected from children suffering from gastroenteritis in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic from 2005-2006. This comprehensive study delved deep into the genetic composition of rotaviruses, employing advanced techniques such as ELISA and RT-PCR-based methods to identify and categorize the strains.

The findings of this research were nothing short of revolutionary. Dr. Bourdett Stanziola and her team unearthed unusual rotavirus strains, including G1P6, G2P8, G3P6, G9P4, and mixed infections, challenging existing perceptions of rotaviral diversity. This discovery holds profound implications for developing effective vaccines, as these emerging global strains necessitate a reevaluation of vaccine formulations. The study underscored the urgency of designing the next generation of rotavirus vaccines capable of safeguarding against diseases caused not only by mixed infections but also by these atypical G/P combinations.

Dr. Lurys Bourdett Stanziola’s research has not only expanded our understanding of rotavirus genotypes in the region but has also paved the way for innovative approaches in vaccine development. Her dedication to exploring the ever-evolving landscape of infectious diseases continues to inspire, marking her as a true trailblazer in virology and a champion for global health. ... Read full text at: https://www.aiu.edu/ news/dr-lurys-bourdett-aiu-doctor-of-virologyimpactful- story/




Marcelo Fabian Warnes
Bachelor of Science
Agronomy
Argentina
Robin Raju
Doctor of Philosop hy
Finance
Australia
Eric Ryan Cal
Doctor of Education
Educational Informatics
Belize
Alvaro Ruben Ortiz Coca
Bachelor of Science
Telecommunications
Bolivia
Keletso Koosaletse Tladi
Doctor of Philosop hy
Business Psychology
Botswana
Mpho Gabatshwane
Master of Science
International Relations and Diplomacy
Botswana
           
Ranieri Alberton Marchioro
Doctor of Political Science
Political Science
Brazil
Mbuh Sunday Vincent
Post-Doctorate of Accounting
Accounting and Auditing
Cameroo n
Farah Kulmie Elmi
Master of Human Resources
Human Resources Management
Canada
Natalia Paola Villar Cavieres
Doctor of Education
Child Psychology
Chile
Jimmy Ebi Patrick
Master of Human Resources
Human Resources
China
Chancellain Mabongo Katembo
Master of Science
Business Management
Congo
           
Nyembo Salumu Guelord
Certificate of Business and Economics
Supply Chain and Logistics Management
Congo
Alex Otárola Fallas
Bachelor of Science
Engineering Electromechanics
Costa Rica
Batundi Hangi Vicar
Doctor of Philosop hy
Project Management
Dominican Republic
Robinson Esteban Segura Feliz
Doctor of Legal Studies
Taxation and Auditing
Dominican Republic
Alba Altagracia Rosa Lora
Doctor of Education
Universal History
Dominican Republic
Dionil Rodríguez Monegro
Bachelor of Music Theory
Music Production
Dominican Republic
           
Miranda Camarena Rocío Paulina
Bachelor of Science
Industrial Engineering
Ecuador
Renata Vásconez Olalla
Bachelor of Education
Early Childhood Education
Ecuador
Mario Osmin Urquilla Barrientos
Bachelor of Science
Architecture
El Salvador
Katherine Stephanie Diaz Rivera
Bachelor of International Relations
International Relations
El Salvador
Amancio Esono Fernández
Master of Legal Studies
Commercial Contractors
Equatorial Guinea
Mubarak Ishaque
Doctor of Science
Social Science and Human Studies
Ghana
           
Francisco Andre Alvarado Gordillo
Bachelor of Science
Architecture
Guatemala
Ligia María Vélez Salazar
Bachelor of Science
Psychology
Guatemala
María de los Angeles Roa Martínez
Bachelor of Business Administration
Business Administration
Guatemala
Joanna Noella Sealey
Master of Public Health
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Guyana
Etienne Jackson
Master of Business Administration
Accounting
Haiti
Marc-Coulange Joseph
Bachelor of Science
Information Systems
Haiti
           
Darwin Omar Andino Quintanilla
Bachelor of Business Administration
Business Administration
Honduras
Gracia Ivonne Bonilla Morán
Doctor of International Relations
Immigration
India
Gideon Babatunde Olatunji
Doctor of Science
Information Technology
Ireland
Sherniki Y. Smith
Bachelor of Science
Business Management
Jamaica
Camille Loye Hudson
Doctor of Science
Psychology
Jamaica
Kaume Adams Kubai
Bachelor of Arts
Legal Studies
Kenya
           
Abdullah A. Mohammed Hassan
Bachelor of Science
Public Health
Kuwait
Marco Antonio Gordillo Cervantes
Doctor of Education
Education
Mexico
Mai Leine Htung
Doctor of Education
Education
Myanmar
Emmanuel Owurre
Master of Science
Electrical Engineering
Nigeria
Bilqiz Olaide Alayaki
Doctor of Philosop hy
Information Systems
Nigeria
Christian Idoga
Bachelor of Business Administration
Accounting
Nigeria
           
Emeruwa Victor
Bachelor of Science
Mass Media and Communication
Nigeria
Kurginama Mathew Joktan
Master of Business Management
Finance and Business Management
Nigeria
Mariano German Castro
Doctor of Philosop hy
Digital Transformation
Panama
Artemio Alarcon Leon
Doctor of Finance
International Finance
Peru
Larissa Alexandra Siveroni Urrutia
Bachelor of Business Administration
International Business
Peru
Federico Holgado Abarca
Post-Doctorate of Accounting
Accounting
Peru
           
Cary Hermo Beatisula
Doctor of Science
Structural Engineering
Philipp ines
Liz Adianez Díaz Rodríguez
Post-Doctorate of Andragogy
Teaching Science
Puerto Rico
Alison Miguel Joseph
Doctor of Science
Psychology
Saint Lucia
Luciana Telemaque
Doctor of Philosop hy
Project Management
Seychelles
Cintia Karina de Sousa Pedreira
Bachelor of Education
Education
South Africa
David Opedun
Doctor of Nutrition
Nutrition Science
South Africa
           
Martha Aguer Ajung Aguer
Bachelor of Science
Political Science
South Sudan
Vuonze Patrick
Associate of Science
Psychology
South Sudan
Christiana Anyorkor Sowah
Bachelor of Education
English Education
Tanzania
Jackson Chacha Francis
Doctor of Education
Educational Leadership
Tanzania
Omer Alkilani
Bachelor of Music
Music
Türkiye
Roza Mbakumira Lwanga
Bachelor of Communications
Mass Communications
Uganda
           
Joy Obunezi Akinola
Master of Foo d Science Technology
Safety and Quality Management
US A
Adenike Olanrewaju Okoro
Doctor of Education
Educational Administration and Management
US A
Jorge Washington Almeida Romero
Bachelor of Business Administration
International Business
US A
Carlos Enrique Belisario Ardon
Master of Science
Renewable Energy Project Management
US A
Maritza Ramos Cerezo
Doctor of Psychotherap y
Psychotherapy
US A
Cecilia Antoine-Jean Charles
Doctor of Science
Counseling Psychology
US A
           
Narda Oneida Mendoza de Guzmán
Master of Science
Psychology Learning and Family Counseling
Virgin Islands
Robert Shakikupe Kilembo
Bachelor of Theology
Theology
Zambia
Thomas Munyaradzi Chikadaya
Doctor of Philosop hy
Statistics
Zimbab we
     

Find More Graduates

Gallery: aiu.edu/Graduation/grids/currentgallery.html
Interviews: www.aiu.edu/Graduation/grids/interviews.html
This month we have graduates from: Argentina · Australia · Belize · Bolivia · Botswana · Brazil · Cameroon · Canada · Chile · China · Congo · Costa Rica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Equatorial Guinea · Ghana · Guatemala · Guyana · Haiti · Honduras · India · Ireland · Jamaica · Kenya · Kuwait · Mexico · Myanmar · Nigeria · Panama · Peru · Philippines · Puerto Rico · Saint Lucia · Seychelles · South Africa · South Sudan · Tanzania · Türkiye · Uganda · USA · Virgin Islands · Zambia · Zimbabwe


Student Testimonials

Augustine Ogaji Anthony
Bachelor of Project Management
July 19, 2024
“I want to use this medium to write about my experience while studying at Atlantic International University. AIU provides the plane level platform for me in the pursuit of my Bachelor’s Degree. The opportunity given to me to design the curriculum of my own to suit area of my interest can be referred to as “operation serve yourself”, and it is the avenue that makes the studies more easier and very interesting to me as a student. The studying materials are well detailed, easy for studies and comprehension. I feel like going over those materials again and again because of its simplicity and well structured. They are very informative and educative. The Tutors and Academic Advisors are patient with the students, friendly, accommodative and being professionals in the course of relationship. They are up to the task and stand as a source of motivation for the teeming students of this great institution of higher learning. The system of acquiring higher education has gone beyond reporting to classrooms ...
READ FULL TEXT:
David Clement Mahlalela
Doctor of Legal studies
July 23, 2024
“During my studies with Atlantic International University (AIU), I have learnt a lot of things. I just want to appreciate the management m tutor Ms. Mirriam James, my supervisor Dr Edward Lambert, Dr Freddy Frejus and the other staff members who have guided me to this journey. Achievement and the summary of my academic achievements. The following are the things that I have achieved during my studies. I have acquired a lot of knowledge in terms of Legal Studies because it has been my passion. I have developed a lot of skills in terms of research, and know the types of research like quantitative and qualitative. I now have vast knowledge in terms of computer literacy. Although it has not been easy it took a lot of night and hours, but I am so grateful to the Lord that I have finally made it this far. Study time at AIU. AIU recommend that you have a regular time for study. Of course, you may take advantage of spare moments to study when you have them, but no substitute for a regular study time. ...
READ FULL TEXT:
Gertrude Kafui Boamah
Doctor of Ethnomusicology
July 26, 2024
“My experience began when I decided to do my PhD in Ethnomusicology with Atlantic International University online after successfully graduating with my Masters in Music. I was immediately contacted and was granted a scholarship and was admitted for the program. My journey began. Immediately, I was asked to design my own courses which I did picking very interesting topics. My research into these topics were very exciting. The experience has been amazing. I learned and experienced so many new things in such a short period of time. I have no doubt developed my skills in composing, orchestrating, performing, analysing, conducting, studio works, administration and musicology, and teaching. I have also developed my creative skills. Even though I already have a satisfying career, pursuing this advanced degree has supplemented my existing skills, and enhanced my current talents and experience. I have started a Music School. The support I received from my tutor, advisor, and staff were incredible. ...
READ FULL TEXT:
Joyce Sibeko
Doctor of Entrepreneurship
July 30, 2024
“I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to share my personal experience with online learning at Atlantic International University as an adult in South Africa and to explain my motivation for seeking further education from an international perspective. After completing three qualifications from different universities in South Africa, I felt it was necessary to explore the education system from a perspective outside of my own country. The idea of attending an international university, where I could engage with diverse cultures, religions, and students from around the world, presented a rare opportunity for me to expand my understanding of the global landscape. It became clear to me that knowing only about my own country was no longer sufficient, as the interconnectedness of the world means that the actions of other countries significantly impact our well-being. My previous projects involved assisting welfare organizations, which then led to working with various student organizations. Eventually, I had ...
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FIND MORE TESTIMONIALS FROM AIU STUDENTS HERE:


Opinion nowadays and the science’s development

By Dr. Rosa Hilda Lora M. Advisor at AIU | rosa@aiu.edu


We are living in a world of big media, of big platforms, that every day invest more money in their resources so that what they broadcast reaches a greater number of inhabitants of our planet Earth. The great moment is that every day there are more events and more to say. There are political events, what they say and who those politicians follow; changes in governments everywhere, wars of great interests, the expansion of trade, the necessary changes in education: we see that there is much to say. We are witnesses of the information that is provided: people from science are interviewed who expose scientific themes but who present their points of view. They offer what scientists say in their favor, but they don’t say what other scientists offer. In addition, their conclusions don’t come from the aspects with which science is done. They interview anyone anywhere and present it as if it were a majority. They present one who says this and another who opposes it and they draw conclusions as if it were an element that must be considered as truth.

We have platforms with communicators openly dedicated to spreading fallacies where they handle images and manipulative dialogue in an extraordinary way. Before we said that those with fewer resources and less education did so because the States or governments hadn’t given them the opportunity to grow, today we see a different panorama. These people lend themselves to being used by certain groups that want power at any cost. They want power to erase all rights so that democracies, the right for everyone to have the same opportunities, are conspicuous by their absence so they can do whatever they want for their own benefit.

The groups of human beings that we mention now are happy with the benefits that are granted to them and do what is plain to see: they give their vote to convenient politicians. What is the benefit of those who were previously marginalized? They give —they sell their vote— for what they are given because they have found the benefit of not having the commitment to study, which means: schedules and effort, not having a schedule to develop a task or job and living without any responsibility. The governments that use them offer them small scholarships for their children’s studies, small amounts of food, very poor health services and housing with the minimum of services.

The only thing they have an obligation to do is to attend the events held by those parties that become governments thanks to them and protest when asked to do so in order to annul their opponents. The big question is: what is happening in this society? This society doesn’t know where to go. In the face of this world, there are countries that want to limit the power of the Platforms and there are others that see the benefit they can gain from the disinformation that is spread. We ask ourselves: how has the creation of the world we are living in been possible in the face of the great development of science? We have to see how science is done and contrast it with what the Platforms, the informants and many governments do. We know that science has a procedure, it has methods to carry out its work: these methods indicate the process that must be followed to build it. Science has:

1. Principles. These are the obvious, universal and necessary starting points. They don’t need demonstration. Each science has its principles or axioms; these serve to provide a basis for other propositions or judgments. The principles of Geometry and Algebra are famous. Principle of Euclidean Geometry. Only one parallel line can be drawn through a point outside a straight line. Algebraic axiom of associative addition (a+b)+c = a+(b+c) 2. Laws. A law in science is a proposition, judgment or statement that expresses a constant relationship. In Physics we have Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, a German researcher born in Kiel in 1858 and died in Göttingen in 1947. Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Creator of Quantum Mechanics. He worked with Einstein, and they were friends. Creator of the law identified with his surname, Planck’s law, which says: the energy emitted by a black body is a function of temperature and wavelength.

3. Theories. Theories are explanations that contain axioms and laws, for example Einstein’s theory of relativity. (1879, Germany – 1955, USA). Nobel Prize in Physics 1921. Special theory of relativity: The speed of light is always constant while the movement is relative to the observer. Famous formula E=mc2

4. Methods or procedures. The methods or procedures are the ways in which work is done to say that a study is scientific. We have methods whose objects of study are measurable and methods for sciences whose objects can’t be transferred to a laboratory. There is the so-called quantitative research and qualitative research.

5. Discourse follows logic to reach the truth. Following Logic, science must be based on Logical Principles. a) Principle of Identity b) Principle of non-contradiction c) Principle of excluded middle and d) Principle of sufficient reason Also to be science it must demonstrate (theoretical foundations) which is the part corresponding to the rules for reasoning and prove (experiment) which refers to the experiment for sciences of objects taken to the laboratory. The qualitative ones remain in the demonstration or prove with statistics where the number of elements to work is obtained. Now we talk about quantitative sciences and qualitative sciences.

6. The truth established by a science must be congruent with the truth demonstrated by others. No research can contradict the heritage of other sciences. In science, it’s always necessary to demonstrate (logical process) and verify (experiment or apply statistics). Analyzing what truth means, we have to question what communication media do today; the objective that the Platforms have: to sell and sell no matter what is said. We are witnesses and victims of a society in which people are easily manipulated. We can infer that more science is needed. Universities need to carry out their functions, which are: a) Teaching science b) Research c) Spreading culture More science teaching is needed; otherwise, we wouldn’t be in the society we live in. When a student finishes his or her studies, the economic costs are high, imposed by governments, because he or her has to pay this and the other fee to receive his or her degree. Governments charge the same to private universities that must register all documents. After finishing their studies, students don’t find work because everywhere they are told that they don’t have experience.

There are the internships they do in the middle of their studies or at the end; it’s not the same as the responsibility of those who are employees of an organization. Finishing a career that means extending scientific knowledge becomes an odyssey. Governments should give scholarships at the end of their studies so that graduates can begin to organize themselves. They should give certain benefits to companies that hire recent graduates. When they finish their studies, it seems that they are punished for having learned science. It’s in the interest of nations to have more people with a scientific education; what we see now wouldn’t happen: disinformation and misinformation that is simply opinion or false information for certain purposes. Also, citizens with less culture, less knowledge of science wouldn’t become the popular masses because they would have knowledge of what they are useful for and what their countries become. Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize winner in Economics 2015, makes a study in his work The Great Escape where he shows what happens with governments that are helped to support the poor: the rulers take the money for themselves. There are countries that do give an elite the opportunity to study, but they keep them subject and pay them what they want and send them to help other countries that are similar to them in their system of government where rights are conspicuous by their absence.

You are doing a program at Atlantic International University (AIU); you are lucky in life. Study, give all the interest possible to learn. Learning is the great treasure of life: few will be able to use you. You would contribute to creating a society different from the one we are living in. You would have a life in which you could explain all the events in this world. If there was more teaching of science —teaching— we wouldn’t have the world of populist governments and so much opinion and misinformation. It wouldn’t be necessary to be behind the platforms and informers skilled in manipulating.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Aristóteles. (2019) El Organon. México, Porrúa. | Cohen, N. y Gabriela Gómez Rojas. (2019). Metodología de la investigación ¿Para qué? Argentina. Teseo. https://biblioteca.clacso.edu. ar/clacso/se/20190823024606/Metodologia_para_que.pdf | Deaton, A. (2015) El Gran Escape. Salud, riqueza y los orígenes de la desigualdad. México, FCE. | Gutiérrez Sáenz, R. (2011) Introducción a la Lógica. México, Esfinge. | Hernández Sampieri, R. (2023) Metodología de la Investigación. México, Mc Graw Hill.

Supporting autistic children with verbal apraxia through optimised for all mobile platforms (Android, IOS, Windows Mobile) autism friendly educational application.

Anna Maria Lozowska Maroufi | Doctor of Music Therapy and Counseling Psychology | [with Oskar Narkowicz]


The role of play pedagogy One of the most outstanding educators and psychologists, Lew S. Vygotski, in his reflections on play and its meaning believes that when talking about play, one should focus on two aspects, namely: it is necessary to consider the genesis and what role plays in development. Vygotski therefore believes that an answer should be found to the question: “Is play the most important activity of a child in this period of development, or is it simply a dominant activity?” He believes that from the point of view of development in the preschool period, play is not the dominant form of activity, but it is its most important path. By defining the framework for the meaning of play, Vygotsky negates the definition of play using the pleasure quality it gives to the child. He believes that this understanding of “fun” is inappropriate for two reasons: the first is the fact that we encounter many child-bearing activities definitely more fun than having fun. The child is satisfied through playing with one’s needs, without noticing the motives or the uniqueness of motives activities, we will not be able to understand play. Preschool not directly realized desires arise in the child, which is the reason, in other words, the main reason for the emergence of various games, but you can observed in children in the early period of childhood a certain tendency to quick release and fulfil your desires. Vygotsky is of the opinion that by observing the emotional side of the child, it can be concluded that it is unsatisfied children’s desires release “ways of vicarious gratification.” In a child over the age of three, a certain contradiction appears, namely there are many needs that are not met immediately during this period, or desires that do not pass, and on the other hand tend to their immediate satisfaction. We are dealing here with gaining new experiences that form the basis for further development.

Guidelines WHO and American Paediatrician Association about using electronics by children The guidelines of the American Academy of Paediatrics are that children under the age of two should not have contact with television, computer games, computers, tablets or smartphones, while for children aged 2–6 years, the time spent in front of the screen should not exceed a maximum of 20 minutes a day. WHO has published new recommendations for the healthy upbringing of children up to 5 years of age. WHO, like the American Academy of Paediatrics, is of the opinion that until the age of 2 children should not look at the screen, while after the age of 2 this time cannot exceed one hour a day. Why this discrepancy? Well, I think from the observation of children, how they like to use screens.

Autism and Verbal Apraxia Childs’ apraxia of speech is an uncommon disorder in which the child has considerable difficulty initiating and making the precise movements needed for articulation, even though he or she has no physical contraindications for speaking. The toddler does not have any muscle damage, abnormalities in muscle tone or the lack of strength of these muscles, which determine a very sophisticated and specific cycle of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate, necessary to create intelligible speech. Speech apraxia is sometimes called verbal apraxia or developmental apraxia of speech. Regardless of the name, the most important concept is the word “praxia”, in other words movement planning. This inability to plan deliberate movements of the articulation apparatus prevents the child from speaking. A child with speech apraxia wants and tries to speak, but does not know how to do it. Some specialists believe that the cause lies in brain disorders, some say that studies do not confirm it. When the brains of the children with apraxic speech were scanned, they looked quite normal. Another theory points to disruptions in communication between the brain and muscles, hence difficulties in directing or coordinating movements. Some occupational therapists suggest that children who, from birth, were inactive and not mobile enough in childhood, for various reasons, did not develop the necessary plans for movement. This also applies to specific and precise articulation movements Speech apraxia often accompanies other childhood disorders, such as autism, Down’s syndrome, and cerebral palsy. In addition, it can be the result of a stroke, infection, or traumatic brain injury; appear as a symptom of a genetic disease, metabolic syndrome or constitute an independent deficit. I have heard that speech apraxia is genetically, autosomal dominant.

Supporting autistic children with verbal apraxia through optimised mobile platforms I work as a music therapist and therapist with autistic children. It often happens that a parent comes with a child who does not say anything, begins to open up after therapy and utters the first words. I conducted therapies for the boy and both his parents and doctors —mom and dad— were delighted with the effects of the therapy. My therapy is based on a broad understanding of the family as a whole and focusing on the child with the problem of verbal apraxia. A huge phenomenon for me was that virtually all of my autistic clients loved electronics and it was difficult for them to tear themselves away from tablets or smartphones that they kept somewhere in their sleeves and sometimes searched on my table. Hence, in my head the idea was born that children with autism should easily and efficiently use electronics, it could create something that would be a bridge in communication between them and their environment even in childhood, I do not mean communicating with the use of electronics, but extracting speech from children, as I can do as a music therapist through music and songs, but here the child will operate the device under parental control at home? Because if they already use tablets, let it have a deeper meaning than calming the child, but let it work based on the pedagogy of play, and I would even say: on the basis of a special pedagogy of play, meeting the needs of contemporary reality.

As a result, the program will be adapted to the preferences of each child, different graphics may be for girls and boys etc. One child may love dinosaurs and the other may be fascinated by Sponge Bob, for example, each child has very different preferences, it can be anything he loves and treats as a reward. So it would be a double gratification to the little one. The first step will be to click the icons and connect the sound of the words, but then the child will have to repeat the words and the software will treat it like a passport to the next level. From simple to more complicated words. I know from experience that children with autism begin to speak, the process of speech development is slower, but it takes place with appropriate therapy. The software is not intended to replace therapy, but to use electronics wisely, supporting the speech outcomes possible for an autistic child with verbal apraxia. I give the voice to Mr. Oskar Narkowicz, who will describe the technical parameters of the program. The system in question will be based on set of applications. Each application targeting specific age group and/or level of childs’ advancement.

Initially the application will be optimised for all mobile platforms: Android, IOS, Windows Mobile, and will be available through all major mobile software providers: Play store, Apple store, etc. Will also be available for all current screen sizes, ranging from tablets and smartphones to smart IOS or Android TV sets. The main idea behind each application will be implementation of incentives or motivation systems which, in conjunction with the core speech recognition functionality will provide the child with the age targeted, feature based set of words or sentences for the child to verbally repeat after the prompt from the application.

Each correct repetition will result in immediate gratification in the form of in-application currency which a child can spend to advance or buy additional features. In the event of mispronunciation the child will be still provided with incentive for simply trying. Such a system will ensure that children will be properly motivated through the course designed specifically for them. Application will be reasonably customisable for each child. Customisation should be done by a parent/guardian or appointed psychologist and speech and language therapist working with the child to ensure sufficient level of commitment and to stay within outlined WHO guidelines.

Publications by students: https://www.aiu.edu/student-publications/

Learning

No screens

For children under the age of 2 in Sweden.

Sweden says children under the age of 2 should not be exposed to any digital screens. The recommendations, issued by the public health agency earlier this month, are the latest in a worldwide effort to limit screen time for young children. The coronavirus lockdowns exacerbated the problem as schools turned to Zoom for distancelearning and parents relied on TV shows and movies to keep their children occupied while they worked from home. Sweden suggests that toddlers should not have any exposure to digital screens, including TV. The recommendations ease slightly as the children age: From 2 to 5 years old, a maximum of one hour a day in front of a screen, for youngsters aged 6 to 12, two hours. Teenagers should have no more than three hours of screen time a day. Sweden’s suggestions came after research found that children reported negative effects like poorer sleep, depression and limited physical activity with high use of digital devices. Similar recommendations have come out of other countries as well, including the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and France. France has the strictest suggestions so far, saying children under 3 should not have any time in front of screens. The recommendation comes from a report published in April that was commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron. Ireland and the U.S. say babies and toddlers can engage in video calls with family and friends — though Canada, Australia and Sweden do not make such distinctions. ... Read full text:

Selfies

We think we know what we look like, but we’ll never know.

Before mirrors became commonplace, most people would not be well acquainted with what their own faces would look like. The internal self-image of many of our ancestors would have been based only on how others reacted to them, not on what they actually looked like. ... Whoever and wherever you are, there will always be a gap between how you imagine you look, and what you actually look like —none of us will ever get to experience ourselves outside of our own bodies. And I’m afraid we might be a bit too generous in how we imagine ourselves to be. Some psychologists have suggested that how we exist in our heads is generally quite an overly flattering picture. In one experiment, Nicholas Epley and Erin Whitchurch asked a group of people to sit at a computer and spot themselves in a lineup of faces as quickly as possible. Then the scientists started doctoring some of the images to make the participants look more or less conventionally attractive. The results were fascinating —people were quicker at spotting the fake, better looking version of themselves than they were at finding the real un-doctored pictures. Epley and Whitchurch concluded that people “evaluate their own traits more favourably than is objectively warranted”. Maybe this is why we like selfies so much. When you have some control over the lighting, the angles, the framing, you can create a more flattering image that aligns to how ... Read full text:


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Bubbles of gas

...75 times larger than our sun spotted on another star.

Giant bubbles of hot gas more than 75 times the size of our sun have been observed on the surface of a nearby star, which researchers say may lead to better solar computer simulations. Wouter Vlemmings and his colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, hoped to observe R Doradus, which is 178 light years from Earth and 350 times larger than the sun, to better understand how matter is ejected from ageing stars. Vlemmings says they booked time with the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile, where only one in seven applications make it, to collect a single snapshot observation. The first two attempts were hindered by Earth weather conditions, so only the third met the strict quality criteria set out in the researchers’ application for observatory time. But this meant they accumulated multiple images, which Vlemmings says were actually all usable, allowing the team to plot movement over time. Not only was this the first time such bubbles have been observed in detail outside our solar system, but the images also formed a sort of flipbook, allowing the researchers to gauge speed as well as size. “That was a bonus,” says Vlemmings. “We didn’t plan for it, and certainly we ...
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Frontier

The world’s fastest supercomputer.

The fastest supercomputer in the world is a machine known as Frontier, but even this speedster with nearly 50,000 processors has its limits. On a sunny Monday in April, its power consumption is spiking as it tries to keep up with the amount of work requested by scientific groups around the world. The electricity demand peaks at around 27 megawatts, enough to power roughly 10,000 houses, says Bronson Messer, director of science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where Frontier is located. ... Frontier churns through data at record speed, outpacing 100,000 laptops working simultaneously. When it debuted in 2022, it was the first to break through supercomputing’s exascale speed barrier —the capability of executing an exaflop, or 1018 floating point operations per second. The Oak Ridge behemoth is the latest chart-topper in a decades-long global trend of pushing towards larger supercomputers (although it is possible that faster computers exist in military labs or otherwise secret facilities). But speed and size are secondary to Frontier’s main purpose —to push the bounds of human knowledge. Frontier excels at creating simulations that capture large-scale patterns with smallscale details, such as how tiny cloud droplets can affect the pace at which Earth’s climate warms. Researchers are using the supercomputer to create cutting-edge models of everything from subatomic particles to galaxies. ... Read full text


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Dashi Namdakov

Ancient spirituality

Dashi Namdakov is a Russian sculptor, graphic artist and jeweller whose works draw on the ancient culture and artistic styles of the Eurasian steppes and on Buddhist and shamanic mythology. His mysterious figures of warriors, princesses, bulls and imaginary creatures create a world of imagery that is powerful yet intricately detailed, conveying an ancient spirituality. ‘My concept of beauty took shape during my now distant childhood when, as children, we used to sit around the bonfire in the steppes and look at the bottomless black skies with shimmering stars above our heads ... it's the harmony, the single law of universe,’ says the artist. ... Read full text:

Students making for students

At the Adaptive Design Association

Years ago, the founding directors of Adaptive Design Association, Inc. had a vision to build adaptive equipment and teach others how to do so in a least restrictive way. They took a risk by advocating that a person, no matter their ability, can participate in the making of Adaptive Design. Students from Adaptive Design’s local school partner, P138 Park West High School, have been busy working on their pre-vocational and technical skills through our adaptive design school workshop program called Made to Learn. This past semester, our student’s experience was captured through the lens of a documentary filmmaker. In this film, you will see the work of 6 students and their support staff at school, in Adaptive design, and in the community. The high school students were challenged this year to come up with a design for supportive floor seating for Paulina and her friends in their elementary classroom. Adam and Eric, the design team at Adaptive Design met with Paulina’s teachers and took on the challenge to create equipment that was inexpensive, portable, and comfortable. Eric and Adam got help building the chairs from students in the Made to Learn program. “We share our workshop with students from a public school nearby. The students have their own personal disabilities but have a desire to build equipment to help others.” Said Eric. The first two chairs were completed, and the design team went to Paulina’s classroom. One of her teachers gently placed her in the bright blue chair. “Paulina lit up with a huge smile.” Said Eric. She was able to feel the floor with her feet and hands and experience her surroundings in a whole new way. ” ... Read full text

Hostile architecture

Stuart Semple’s words

Hostile architecture is the practice of designing things to create environments that discourage people from being there or using the space in specific ways. An example would be installing spikes in a doorway so homeless people couldn’t sleep there. Or using a high-pitched sound in a city center that young people can hear yet older people can’t, which is used to discourage skateboarding. It could be a metal bar on a bench so nobody could sleep on it. I believe our towns, cities, high streets, and civic centers are really important. They are social spaces that we all use, and they are becoming increasingly hostile. As an artist and a designer I’ve always tried my very best to use what little talent I have to make things better for people and solve problems. Hostile design is the opposite of that; it’s using creativity to cause harm. ... Read full text

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Weekend snooze

It could do a lot for your heart health.

When it comes to maintaining a regular sleep schedule, sometimes a busy week can throw everything out of whack even when you have the best of intentions. Naturally, catching up on sleep over the weekend is often the solution. New research suggests doing so may even benefit your heart health, amounting to a 19% lower risk of developing heart disease, according to a research abstract. The abstract hasn’t been published in a journal but was presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress on September 1. “The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays,” said research coauthor Yanjun Song of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease of the National Center for Cardiovascular Disease at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, in a news release. The authors used data from 90,903 participants in the UK Biobank study, which has followed the health outcomes of more than 500,000 people generally between the ages 40 and 69 in the United Kingdom. ... After a follow-up period of nearly 14 years on average, the group with the most weekend compensatory sleep was 19% less likely to develop cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke, compared with the group compensating for sleep the least on weekends. ... Read full text

Depression

A brain-wiring pattern linked to it has been found.

The symptoms of depression might come and go, but new evidence suggests that the pattern of brain wiring behind it remains the same for life. The largest imaging study of its kind has found that a certain brain network involved in directing attention to stimuli is nearly twice as big in people with depression as it is in the rest of the population —and that it remains that way when a person no longer feels depressed. The results are a step towards a biological marker for depression, which is at present diagnosed mainly using questionnaires. But the authors say their finding should be validated in more populations before it is used clinically. The study was published September 4 in Nature. ... So the team turned to existing data sets containing fMRI images of people who had been repeatedly scanned over time: 135 people with major depressive disorder, which causes severe and long-lasting symptoms; and 37 healthy participants. In almost every person with depression, they found, a brain circuit known as the salience network was almost twice as large as it was in controls. The salience network is itself a connector between other brain circuits. It is involved in switching the brain between internal awareness and working memory, and it helps the brain to decide which environmental stimuli and internal emotions it should pay attention to. ... Read full text:


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World’s fisheries

They are in more trouble than we think.

As the world’s capacity for plundering the ocean for food grows, our ability to know what level of fishing is sustainable isn’t keeping pace. Officials in charge of preventing overfishing are often relying on excessively rosy forecasts of the health of a particular fish population, increasing the danger that permitted fishing levels are too high, scientists reported last week in the journal Science. “It’s vital to bring these issues to the public’s attention,” said Nils Krueck, a fisheries scientist at University of Tasmania (UTAS) who was involved in the new research. “This will hopefully lead to improvements.” Estimating the size of fish populations is a crucial but tricky task for fisheries managers. The overall number of fish from a sought-after species in a particular area is key to establishing how many fish can be caught without overwhelming the ability for reproduction to keep up. Fish counts from year to year can also indicate whether a population is growing or shrinking. But coming up with these population estimates is about as easy as, well, knowing how many fish there are in the sea. The number of fish pulled up in nets, either by fishers or research vessels, is just a small sample from a very big and largely invisible world. Fisheries experts rely on complex models to fill in the blanks. These can include more than 40 variables, everything from how quickly a fish ... Read full text:

Dark oxygen

It could be a critical factor in the deep sea ecosystem.

Scientists have found a source of ‘dark oxygen’ 4,000 meters below the surface of the Pacific in the target zone for deep sea mining. The discovery could have far-reaching implications for science and the wannabe deep sea mining industry. ... What scientists mean by ‘dark oxygen’ is that in the total darkness of the very deep ocean, around 4,000 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, oxygen is being produced in the dark. It’s previously been thought that oxygen on Earth is produced on land and at the surface of the ocean, where sunlight makes plant photosynthesis possible. ... The dark oxygen discovery is being hailed as a groundbreaking scientific discovery, but it also has other implications. ... ... This dark oxygen is being produced by potato-shaped metallic lumps found on the deep sea floor. It turns out that these ‘polymetallic nodules’ give off almost as much electricity as AA batteries. By reacting with salt water, their electrical charge is producing oxygen way down there on the seabed of the deep ocean through a process known ‘seawater electrolysis’ which splits seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. ... The discovery of this metallic nodules could be the final straw in the case against deep sea mining. It could stop the industry before they begin. ... These oxygen-producing nodules could be supporting a whole range of known and unknown deep sea lifeforms. Dark oxygen could be a critical factor in the deep sea ecosystem! Read full text:

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Modern slavery

It persists in tech supply chains, report finds.

The tech industry is a substantial contributor to the estimated $468 billion worth of imported goods that are at risk of being produced by forced labor, a new report found. International human rights group Walk Free’s fifth Global Slavery Index, released in May, revealed that there were 49.6 million people globally in “modern slavery on any given day in 2021,” which the group defines as “situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuses of power.” That definition includes forms of forced labor, human trafficking, and child labor. Electronics from China and Malaysia account for the highest-value at-risk imports in G20 countries, totaling $243.6 billion. Of those, the majority come from Malaysia —where the industry relies on laborers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and Indonesia, and where cases of forced labor and debt bondage have been reported in the electronics industry— and China, where electronics factories reportedly rely on state-forced laborers belonging to the Uyghur ethnic group. Elsewhere in the tech industry, solar panels are the No. 4 at-risk product in terms of value, with $14.8 billion in imports to the G20 economic bloc, which includes 19 countries plus the European Union. According to the report, nearly twothirds of forced labor globally is linked to supply chains, with the majority of cases occurring in raw materials extraction and production. ... Read full text:

Deaths at sea

UK summit on small boat crossing fails to address them.

Last week, the United Kingdom home secretary convened a summit with ministers, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement bodies to discuss small boat crossings, focused on stopping “smuggling gangs.” This followed the deaths of at least 12 people, including a pregnant woman and six children, attempting to reach the UK by boat, in what is believed to be one of the deadliest incidents in the English Channel this decade. Around 70 people were reportedly on board the flimsy and overcrowded dinghy, which capsized near the French coast. French authorities said that many who died appeared to be from Eritrea, whose nationals, including schoolchildren, continue to flee serious human rights violations and widespread repression at home. The UK government called it a “horrifying and deeply tragic incident,” but then doubled down on dismantling “smuggling gangs” and bolstering border security and said there are no plans to expand safe pathways to the UK. France responded, as Human Rights Watch has documented in the past, by deploying riot police and machines to clear the encampment near Calais, where the people who died at sea were said to have been staying, and forcing some of those remaining in the camps onto buses to the north-east of France. The new UK government’s focus on law enforcement and border security will not prevent deaths at sea. There is little evidence that restrictive and harmful deterrence ...
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Badgers

Brian May is trying to save them.

You know how Brian May is now an animal activist —specialising in badgers and the necessity or otherwise of culling them— as well as an astrophysicist and the guitarist with Queen? May has never been convinced by the government’s insistence that the creatures are responsible for the spread of bovine TB, which requires the slaughter of any infected cattle —about 20,000 a year— with all the ramifications for the farmers that losing animals they care for involves. The culling of the badgers themselves, of course, has been going on for about 20 years. And never without controversy, because there have always been those advocating for vaccinating rather than killing the badgers (officially a protected species), but always with the backing of those most directly affected: the farmers. About 200,000 badgers have been killed in the last decade and tackling the disease as a whole costs the taxpayer around £100m a year. May believes that badgers cannot be the main source of transmission for bovine TB and sets out to prove it with the help of Anne Brummer, his cofounder of the animal welfare charity the Save Me Trust, and large-animal vet Dave Sibley. ... The film (Brian May: The Badgers, the Farmers and Me, aired on BBC Two and now on iPlayer) undoubtedly introduces doubt about ...
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Great apes

A third of them in Africa are at risk from mining of transition metals.

Scientists have warned that mining of the metals needed for the global clean energy transition could threaten Africa’s already beleaguered great apes unless strong conservation measures are implemented. Nearly 180,000 gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos —more than a third of the entire great ape population in Africa— could be threatened by mining now and in the near future, according to a recent study in the journal Science Advances. “The minerals used to help us reduce climate change come from areas covered with habitat that could be important to great apes,” study lead author Jessica Junker, a researcher at wildlife conservation NGO Re:wild and former postdoctoral researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, told Mongabay in a video interview. “Taking these minerals out of the Earth can have quite a severe impact and cause these habitats to disappear.” Junker and an international team from Germany, Australia and several African countries looked at the current and future potential effects of mining on great apes in Africa, choosing this group of species to illustrate the implications of mining operations in Africa and worldwide. While Africa is home to 30% of the world’s mineral resources —including 19% of reserves of so-called critical metals like bauxite, cobalt and aluminum— the continent currently accounts for less than 5% of global mining activity, researchers say. ...
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Campus

The melting brain

Climate anxiety has a theoretically identifiable neural correlate.

By Clayton Page Aldern

In February 1884, the English art critic and polymath John Ruskin took the lectern at the London Institution for a pair of lectures on the weather. ‘The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century’ was his invective against a particular ‘wind of darkness’ and ‘plague-cloud’ that, in his estimate, had begun to envelope Victorian cities only in recent years. He had been taking careful meteorological measurements, he told a sceptical audience. He railed against the ‘bitterness and malice’ of the new weather in question; and, perhaps more importantly, about how it mirrored a certain societal ‘moral gloom’. You could read in us what you could read in the weather, he suggested. ... Ruskin believed that the relentless pace of industrialisation, with its cacophony of tools and sprawling factories and environmental destruction, undermined psychological wellbeing: that the mind, much like the body, required a healthy social and physical environment to thrive. This was actually a somewhat new idea. (Isaac Ray, a founder of the American Psychiatric Association, wouldn’t define the idea of ‘mental hygiene’, the precursor to mental health, until 1893.) Instability in the environment, for Ruskin, begot instability in the mind. One reflected the other.

More than a century later, as we grapple with a new suite of breakneck environmental changes, the plague-clouds are again darkly literal. Global average surface temperatures have risen by about 1.1°C (2°F) since the pre-industrial era, with most of this warming occurring in the past 40 years. Ice is melting; seas are steadily rising; storms are – well, you know this story. And yet, most frequently, it is still a story of the world out there: the world outside of us. The narrative of climate change is one of meteorological extremes, economic upheaval and biodiversity losses. But perhaps it is worth taking a maybe-mad Ruskin seriously. What of our internal clouds? As the climate crisis warps weather and acidifies oceans and shatters temperature records with frightening regularity, one is tempted to ask if our minds are changing in kind.

Here are some of the most concerning answers in the affirmative. Immigration judges are less likely to rule in favour of asylum seekers on hotter days. On such days, students behave as if they’ve lost a quarter-year of education, relative to temperate days. Warmer school years correspond to lower rates of learning. Temperature predicts the incidence of online hate speech. Domestic violence spikes with warmer weather.

Suicide, too. But you already know what this feels like. Perhaps you’re more ornery in the heat. Maybe you feel a little slow in the head. It’s harder to focus and easier to act impulsively. Tomes of cognitive neuroscience and behavioural economics research back you up, and it’s not all as dire as domestic violence. Drivers honk their horns more frequently (and lean on them longer) at higher temperatures. Heat predicts more aggressive penalties in sport. In baseball, pitchers are more likely to hit batters with their pitches on hot days — and the outdoor temperature is an even stronger predictor of their tendency to retaliate in this manner if they’ve witnessed an opposing pitcher do the same thing. In other words: it would appear the plague-clouds are within us, too. They illustrate the interconnectedness of our inner and outer worlds. They betray a certain flimsiness of human agency, painting our decision-making in strokes of environmental influence far bolder than our intuition suggests. And they throw the climate crisis into fresh, stark relief: because, yes, as the climate changes, so do we.

The London Institution closed in 1912. These days, when you want to inveigh against adverse environmental-mind interactions, you publish a paper in The Lancet. And so that is what 24 mostly British, mostly clinical neurologists did in May 2024, arguing that the ‘incidence, prevalence, and severity of many nervous system conditions’ can be affected by global warming. For these researchers, led by Sanjay Sisodiya, professor of neurology at University College London in the UK, the climate story is indeed one of internal clouds.

In their survey of 332 scientific studies, Sisodiya and his colleagues show that climatic influence extends far beyond behaviour and deep into cortical fissures. Aspects of migraine, stroke, seizure and multiple sclerosis all appear to be temperature dependent. In Taiwan, report the authors, the risk of schizophrenia hospitalisation increases with widening daytime temperature ranges. In California, too, ‘hospital visits for any mental health disorder, self-harm, intentional injury of another person, or homicide’ rise with broader daily temperature swings. In Switzerland, hospitalisations for psychiatric disorders increase with temperature, with the risk particularly pronounced for those with developmental disorders and schizophrenia. Outside the hospital, climate change is extending the habitable range of disease vectors like ticks, mosquitoes and bats, causing scientists to forecast an increased incidence of vector-borne and zoonotic brain maladies like yellow fever, Zika and cerebral malaria. Outside the healthcare system writ large, a changing environment bears on sensory systems and perception, degrading both sensory information and the biological tools we use to process it. Outside the realm of the even remotely reasonable, warming freshwater brings with it an increased frequency of cyanobacterial blooms, the likes of which release neurotoxins that increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Indeed, recent studies suggest that climate change may be exacerbating the already substantial burden of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In countries with warmer-thanaverage climates, more intense warming has been linked to a greater increase in Parkinson’s cases and, as Sisodiya et al note, the highest forecasted rates of increase in dementia prevalence are ‘expected to be in countries experiencing the largest effects of climate change’. Similarly, short-term exposure to high temperatures appears to drive up emergency department visits for Alzheimer’s patients. The air we breathe likely plays a complementary role: in Mexico City, for example, where residents are exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter and ozone from a young age, autopsies have revealed progressive Alzheimer’s pathology in 99 per cent of those under the age of 30.

The risks aren’t limited to those alive today. In 2022, for example, an epidemiological study revealed that heat exposure during early pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased risk of children developing schizophrenia, anorexia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. High temperatures during gestation have long been known to delay neurodevelopment in rats. Other scientists have shown that experiencing natural disasters in utero greatly increases children’s risk of anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders later in life. Such effects cast the intergenerational responsibilities of the Anthropocene in harsh new light —not least because, as Sisodiya and colleagues write, there is a tremendous ‘global disparity between regions most affected by climate change (both now and in the future) and regions in which the majority of studies are undertaken.’ We don’t know what we don’t know. What we do know is that the brain is emerging, in study after study, as one of climate change’s most vulnerable landscapes.

It is a useful reorientation. Return to the horn-honking and the baseball pitchers for a moment. A focus on the brain sheds some potential mechanistic light on the case studies and allows us to avoid phrases like ‘wind of darkness’. Higher temperatures, for example, appear to shift functional brain networks —the coordinated behaviour of various regions— toward randomised activity. In extreme heat, scientists have taken note of an overworked dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the evolutionarily new brain region that the neuroendocrinologist Robert M Sapolsky at Stanford University in the US calls ‘the definitive rational decider in the frontal cortex’. The dlPFC limits the degree to which people make impulsive decisions; disrupted dlPFC activity tends to imply a relatively heightened influence of limbic structures (like the emotionally attuned amygdala) on behaviour. More heat, less rational decision-making. ...

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Vaishnavi Sundar (1986 – ).

“The men in the office talked of male brains and female brains, women’s role in the society/kitchen, and how all this is ‘scientific.’ Any opposing views were shot down. The thought of getting on the conveyor belt of this corporate rat race drove me up the wall, I made up my mind to choose conscience over capital.”

Vaishnavi Sundar (1986 – ). Indian independent filmmaker and activist. Founder of Lime Soda Films and Women Making Films.

Say what?

“When people tell me ‘You’re going to regret that in the morning,’ I sleep until noon because I’m a problem solver.”
Source: 100 Funny sayings that are definitely worth memorizing. www.rd.com


BACHELOR’S DEGREE in Behavior Analysis in Special Education

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND HUMAN STUDIES

The Bachelor’s degree program in Behavior Analysis in Special Education aims to meet the demand that prevails in the region to have trainers in Special Education specializing in the intellectual area. At AIU we seek to train professionals who are distinguished by their ethics, innovation, broad and deep knowledge of children with special educational needs with or without disabilities, and at the same time favor in them the development of a comprehensive education based on educational inclusion. Additionally, our students will develop critical capacity from a pedagogicaldidactic perspective, to understand the problem of disability from the paradigm of inclusion. Our program does not require every student to study the same subjects and use the same books and other learning materials as every other student. If you are a purpose-driven individual who wants to elevate their life and make a solid contribution to the world, then this program is for you.

Important:

Below is an example of the topics or areas you may develop and work on during your studies. By no means is it a complete or required list as AIU programs do not follow a standardized curriculum. It is meant solely as a reference point and example. Want to learn more about the curriculum design at AIU? Go ahead and visit our website, especially the Course and Curriculum section: https://www.aiu.edu/ academic-freedom-and-open-curriculum/

Orientation Courses:

Communication & Investigation (Comprehensive Resume)
Organization Theory (Portfolio)
Experiential Learning (Autobiography)
Academic Evaluation (Questionnaire)
Fundament of Knowledge (Integration Chart)
Fundamental Principles I (Philosophy of Education)
Professional Evaluation (Self Evaluation Matrix)
Development of Graduate Study (Guarantee of an Academic Degree)

Core Courses and Topics

History of Education
Sociology
Strategies for Intellectual Work
Psychology
Pedagogy
Study of Social Reality
Introduction to Special Education
Special Pedagogy
Neurophysiology and Psychophysiology
Genetic Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Sociology of Education
Educational Psychology
Intervention Strategies for people with Special Needs
Structure and Pathology of Language
Mental Deficiency Seminar
Institutional Planning
Psychomotricity
Psychopathology (Special)
Social Psychology
Psychometric Exploration
Epistemology of Social Sciences
Research Methodology in the Social Sciences
Research Seminar in the Area of Special Education
Demography and Epidemiology of Subjects with Special Needs

Research Project

Bachelor Thesis Project
MBM300 Thesis Proposal
MBM302 Bachelor Thesis (5,000 words)

Publication

Each graduate is encouraged to publish their research papers either online in the public domain or through professional journals and periodicals worldwide.

Contact us to get started

Submit your Online Application, paste your resume and any additional comments/ questions in the area provided.

aiu.edu/apply-online.html

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About Us

Accreditation

Atlantic International University offers distance learning degree programs for adult learners at bachelors, masters, and doctoral level. With self paced program taken online, AIU lifts the obstacles that keep professional adults from completing their educational goals. Programs are available throughout a wide range of majors and areas of study. All of this with a philosophically holistic approach towards education fitting within the balance of your life and acknowledging the key role each individual can play in their community, country, and the world. Atlantic International University is accredited by the Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities (ASIC). ASIC Accreditation is an internationally renowned quality standard for colleges and universities. Visit ASIC’s Directory of Accredited Colleges and Universities. ASIC is a member of CHEA International Quality Group (CIQG) in the USA, an approved accreditation body by the Ministerial Department of the Home Office in the UK, and is listed in the International Directory of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The University is based in the United States and was established by corporate charter in 1998.

Our founding principles are based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; per article 26, AIU believes that Higher Education is a Human Right. The University has implemented a paradigm shifting educational model for its academic programs that have allowed it to move closer to this goal through the self-empowerment of its students, decentralization of the learning process, personalized open curriculum design, a sustainable learning model, developing 11 core elements of the Human Condition within MYAIU, and utilizing the quasi-infinite knowledge through the use of information technology combined with our own capacity to find solutions to all types of global issues, dynamic problems, and those of individuals and multidisciplinary teams. Due to these differentiations and the university’s mission, only a reputable accrediting agency with the vision and plasticity to integrate and adapt its processes around AIU’s proven and successful innovative programs could be selected. Unfortunately, the vast majority of accrediting agencies adhere to and follow obsolete processes and requirements that have outlived their usefulness and are in direct conflict with the university’s mission of offering a unique, dynamic, affordable, quality higher education to the nontraditional student (one who must work, study what he really needs for professional advancement, attend family issues, etc.). We believe that adopting outdated requirements and processes would impose increased financial burdens on students while severely limiting their opportunities to earn their degree and advance in all aspects. Thus, in selecting the ASIC as its accrediting agency, AIU ensured that its unique programs would not be transformed into a copy or clone of those offered by the 10,000+ colleges and universities around the world. Since ASIC is an international accrediting agency based outside the United States, we are required by statute HRS446E to place the following disclaimer: ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY IS NOT ACCREDITED BY AN ACCREDITING AGENCY RECOGNIZED BY THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF EDUCATION. Note: In the United States and abroad, many licensing authorities require accredited degrees as the basis for eligibility for licensing.

In some cases, accredited colleges may not accept for transfer courses and degrees completed at unaccredited colleges, and some employers may require an accredited degree as a basis for eligibility for employment. Potential students should consider how the above may affect their interests, AIU respects the unique rules and regulations of each country and does not seek to influence the respective authorities. In the event that a prospective student wishes to carry out any government review or process in regards to his university degree, we recommend that the requirements of such are explored in detail with the relevant authorities by the prospective student as the university does not intervene in such processes. AIU students can be found in over 180 countries, they actively participate and volunteer in their communities as part of their academic program and have allocated thousands of service hours to diverse causes and initiatives. AIU programs follow the standards commonly used by colleges and universities in the United States with regards to the following: academic program structure, degree issued, transcript, and other graduation documents. AIU graduation documents can include an apostille and authentication from the US Department of State to facilitate their use internationally.

The AIU Difference

It is acknowledged that the act of learning is endogenous, (from within), rather than exogenous.

This fact is the underlying rationale for “Distance Learning”, in all of the programs offered by AIU. The combination of the underlying principles of student “self instruction”, (with guidance), collaborative development of curriculum unique to each student, and flexibility of time and place of study, provides the ideal learning environment to satisfy individual needs.

AIU is an institution of experiential learning and nontraditional education at a distance. There are no classrooms and attendance is not required.

Mission & Vision

MISSION:

To be a higher learning institution concerned about generating cultural development alternatives likely to be sustained in order to lead to a more efficient administration of the world village and its environment; exerting human and community rights through diversity with the ultimate goal of the satisfaction and evolution of the world.

VISION:

The empowerment of the individual towards the convergence of the world through a sustainable educational design based on andragogy and omniology.

Organizational Structure

Dr. Franklin Valcin
Presi den t/Academic Dean
Dr. José Mercado
Chief Executive Officer
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Ricardo González, PhD
Provost
     
Dr. Ricardo Gonzalez
Chief Operation Officer
and MKT Director
Linda Collazo
Logistics Coordinator

AIU Tutors Coordinators:

Deborah Rodriguez
Amiakhor Ejaeta
Amanda Gutierrez
William Mora
Miriam James



Admissions Coordinators:
Amalia Aldrett
Sandra Garcia
Junko Shimizu
Veronica Amuz
Alba Ochoa
Jenis Garcia
Judith Brown
Chris Soto
René Cordón
Dr. Anderas Rissler



Academic Coordinators:
Dr. Adesida Oluwafemi
Dr. Emmanuel Gbagu
Dr. Lucia Gorea
Dr. Edgar Colon
Dr. Mario Rios
Freddy Frejus
Dr. Nilani Ljunggren
De Silva
Dr. Scott Wilson
Dr. Mohammad Shaidul Islam
   
Dr. Miriam Garibaldi
Vice provost for Research
Carolina Valdes
Human Resource Coordinator
   
Dr. Ofelia Miller
Director of AIU
Carlos Aponte
Teleco mmunications Coordinator
   
Clara Margalef
Director of Special Projects
of AIU
David Jung
Corporate/Legal Counsel
   
Juan Pablo Moreno
Director of Operations
Bruce Kim
Advisor/Consultant
   
Paula Viera
Director of Intelligence Systems
Thomas Kim
Corporate/
Accounting Counsel
   
Felipe Gomez
Design Director / IT Supervisor
Maricela Esparza
Administrative Coordinator
   
Kevin Moll
Web Designer
Chris Benjamin
IT and Hosting Support
   
Daritza Ysla
IT Coordinator
Maria Pastrana
Accounting Coordinator
   
Daritza Ysla
IT Coordinator
Roberto Aldrett
Communications Coordinator
   
Nadeem Awan
Chief Programming Officer
Giovanni Castillo
IT Support
   
Dr. Edward Lambert
Academic Director
Antonella Fonseca
Quality Control & Data Analysis
   
Dr. Ariadna Romero
Advisor Coordinator
Adrián Varela
Graphic Design
   
Jhanzaib Awan
Senior Programmer
Vanesa D’Angelo
Content Writer
   
Leonardo Salas
Human Resource Manager
Jaime Rotlewicz
Dean of Admissions
   
Benjamin Joseph
IT and Technology Support
Michael Phillips
Registrar’s Office
   
Rosie Perez
Finance Coordinator
 
     

FACULTY AND STAFF PAGE: www.aiu.edu/FacultyStaff.html


School of Business and Economics

The School of Business and Economics allows aspiring and practicing professionals, managers, and entrepreneurs in the private and public sectors to complete a self paced distance learning degree program of the highest academic standard. The ultimate goal is to empower learners and help them take advantage of the enormous array of resources from the world environment in order to eliminate the current continuum of poverty and limitations. Degree programs are designed for those students whose professional experience has been in business, marketing, administration, economics, finance and management.

Areas of Study:

Accounting, Advertising, Banking, Business Administration, Communications, Ecommerce, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Home Economics, Human Resources, International Business, International Finance, Investing, Globalization, Marketing, Management, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Public Administrations, Sustainable Development, Public Relations, Telecommunications, Tourism, Trade.

School of Social and Human Studies

The School of Social and Human Studies is focused on to the development of studies which instill a core commitment to building a society based on social and economic justice and enhancing opportunities for human well being. The founding principles lie on the basic right of education as outlined in the Declaration of Human Rights. We instill in our students a sense of confidence and self reliance in their ability to access the vast opportunities available through information channels, the world wide web, private, public, nonprofit, and nongovernmental organizations in an ever expanding global community. Degree programs are aimed towards those whose professional life has been related to social and human behavior, with the arts, or with cultural studies.

Areas of Study:

Psychology, International Affairs, Sociology, Political Sciences, Architecture, Legal Studies, Public Administration, Literature and languages, Art History, Ministry, African Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies, European Studies, Islamic Studies, Religious Studies.

School of Science and Engineering

The School of Science and Engineering seeks to provide dynamic, integrated, and challenging degree programs designed for those whose experience is in industrial research, scientific production, engineering and the general sciences. Our system for research and education will keep us apace with the twenty-first century reach scientific advance in an environmentally and ecologically responsible manner to allow for the sustainability of the human population. We will foster among our students a demand for ethical behavior, an appreciation for diversity, an understanding of scientific investigation, knowledge of design innovation, a critical appreciation for the importance of technology and technological change for the advancement of humanity.

Areas of Study:

Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Communications, Petroleum Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Nutrition Science, Agricultural Science, Computer Science, Sports Science, Renewable Energy, Geology, Urban Planning.

Online Library Resources

With access to a global catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 participating institutions, AIU students have secured excellent research tools for their study programs.

The AIU online library contains over 2 billion records and over 300 million bibliographic records that are increasing day by day. The sources spanning thousands of years and virtually all forms of human expression. There are files of all kinds, from antique inscribed stones to e-books, form wax engravings to MP3s, DVDs and websites. In addition to the archives, the library AIU Online offers electronic access to more than 149,000 e-books, dozens of databases and more than 13 million full-text articles with pictures included. Being able to access 60 databases and 2393 periodicals with more than 18 million items, guarantees the information required to perform the assigned research project. Users will find that many files are enriched with artistic creations on the covers, indexes, reviews, summaries and other information.

The records usually have information attached from important libraries. The user can quickly assess the relevance of the information and decide if it is the right source.

Education on the 21st century

AIU is striving to regain the significance of the concept of education, which is rooted into the Latin “educare”, meaning “to pull out”, breaking loose from the paradigm of most 21st century universities with their focus on “digging and placing information” into students’ heads rather than teaching them to think. For AIU, the generation of “clones” that some traditional universities are spreading throughout the real world is one of the most salient reasons for today’s ills. In fact, students trained at those educational institutions never feel a desire to “change the world” or the current status quo; instead, they adjust to the environment, believe everything is fine, and are proud of it all.

IN A WORLD where knowledge and mostly information expire just like milk, we must reinvent university as a whole in which each student, as the key player, is UNIQUE within an intertwined environment. This century’s university must generate new knowledge bits although this may entail its separation from both the administrative bureaucracy and the faculty that evolve there as well. AIU thinks that a university should be increasingly integrated into the “real world”, society, the economy, and the holistic human being. As such, it should concentrate on its ultimate goal, which is the student, and get him/her deeply immersed into a daily praxis of paradigm shifts, along with the Internet and research, all these being presently accessible only to a small minority of the world community. AIU students must accomplish their self-learning mission while conceptualizing it as the core of daily life values through the type of experiences that lead to a human being’s progress when information is converted into education. The entire AIU family must think of the university as a setting that values diversity and talent in a way that trains mankind not only for the present but above all for a future that calls everyday for professionals who empower themselves in academic and professional areas highly in demand in our modern society. We shall not forget that, at AIU, students are responsible for discovering their own talents and potential, which they must auto-develop in such a way that the whole finish product opens up as a flower that blossoms every year more openly.

THE AIU STANCE is against the idea of the campus as a getaway from day-to-day pressure since we believe reality is the best potential-enhancer ever; one truly learns through thinking, brainstorming ideas, which leads to new solutions, and ultimately the rebirth of a human being fully integrated in a sustainable world environment. Self-learning is actualized more from within than a top-down vantage point, that is to say, to influence instead of requesting, ideas more than power. We need to create a society where solidarity, culture, life, not political or economic rationalism and more than techno structures, are prioritized. In short, the characteristics of AIU students and alumni remain independence, creativity, self-confidence, and ability to take risk towards new endeavors. This is about people’s worth based not on what they know but on what they do with what they know.

Read more at: www.aiu.edu

AIU Service

AIU offers educational opportunities in the USA to adults from around the world so that they can use their own potential to manage their personal, global cultural development. The foundational axis of our philosophy lies upon self-actualized knowledge and information, with no room for obsoleteness, which is embedded into a DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEM based on ANDRAGOGY and OMNIOLOGY. The ultimate goal of this paradigm is to empower learners and help them take advantage of the enormous array of resources from the world environment in order to eliminate the current continuum of poverty and limitations.

This will become a crude reality with respect for, and practice of, human and community rights through experiences, investigations, practicum work, and/ or examinations. Everything takes place in a setting that fosters diversity; with advisors and consultants with doctorate degrees and specializations in Human Development monitor learning processes, in addition to a worldwide web of colleagues and associations, so that they can reach the satisfaction and the progress of humanity with peace and harmony.

Contact us to get started

Now, it’s possible to earn your degree in the comfort of your own home. For additional information or to see if you qualify for admissions please contact us.

Pioneer Plaza / 900 Fort Street Mall 410 Honolulu, HI 96813
800-993-0066 (Toll Free in US) info@aiu.edu
808-924-9567 (Internationally) www.aiu.edu

Online application:

https://www.aiu.edu/apply3_phone.aspx