Many people have tried to learn a language using the most typical methods: studying grammar or rote memory. While these methods work for some people, many others struggle. The structure and content of Chinese for Everyone applies the methods of learning people use every day. The research of Carl Jung and Howard Gardner is leveraged in this book to help you learn the same way you perceive the world: through sensing and intuition. To help in your journey from beginner to intermediate Chinese, your preferred style of learning will be found in each of the 31 chapters and in the different activities. The different learning tools include illustrations, vocabulary, pronunciation, dialogues, grammar notes, exercises, puzzles, creative activities and culture lessons. The activities are designed to enable you to reach the beginner-to-upper-intermediate level.
Do you ever wonder what happens to the litter that washes down into storm drains?
Maybe it's the cigarette butt somebody drops to the curb and leaves there, or the plastic bags that fly away in the slightest breeze. When the rain runs courses down the streets, all these bits of debris float down through metal grates and into the sewers. And then what? Peter Hill of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative says, the water gushes through the sewers and “often runs straight into waterways, untreated.”
It's just one of the ways that trash gets into the world’s rivers and oceans, a global problem on a huge scale. In a single day in 2008, volunteers in 104 countries picked up nearly 7 million pounds of debris from beaches and waterways, including more than three million cigarettes, more than a million plastic bags, and nearly a million each of food wrappers and bottle caps.
“The thing to remember is that every single piece of trash has a face behind it,” says Seba Sheavly, an independent consultant who has worked on the problem of marine debris for more than 15 years. “I often try to get people to realize that a six-pack ring does not take itself off of a six-pack of beer, open the kitchen door, jump out into the yard, and find its way into a river.”
Just like many other pollution problems, Sheavly says people are behind marine debris. But she says, this one can be solved on a person-by-person scale—by making people aware of the consequences of their behavior, showing them how to do better, and making waste management tools readily available. More than just an eyesore Anyone who has shaken a slimy plastic bag off their leg during an ocean swim can tell you how they're affected by ocean litter.
But the problem has much larger consequences for aquatic wildlife, for marine navigation, and even for people, says David Osborn, who works with United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) marine and coastal ecosystem's branch.
For one thing, a huge amount of the debris littering the oceans and coasts comes from plastic. Plastics are a particular problem, Osborn says, because they don't biodegrade. Plastic just sits there, or else it breaks down into tinier and tinier pieces—eventually microscopic pieces—of plastic. These pieces create a number of problems, largely when they are ingested by wildlife or when wildlife become entangled in them. Plastic can carry invasive species, spreading another insidious environmental problem.
Osborn says plastics in the ocean have the potential to cause damage further up the food chain. “Plastics are pollutants,” he says. “They carry chemicals that can get caught in the tissue of the fish. We eat them, and we're ingesting those pollutants in their system.” Commercial fishing nets—big, bulky, and incredibly durable—are another big headache. Sometimes they get lost overboard, and sometimes there is no good way to dispose of them when they're no longer usable. When they're left in the water, all kinds of wildlife can get trapped and killed. Plus the nets can get tangled in delicate coral reefs or in the machinery of boats.
Beyond the individual impact of specific debris, the health of oceans affects everyone, says Tom McCann, who works for Ocean Conservancy. “When we're trashing our oceans,” he says, “we're really harming not only our economic well-being and our social well being, but ultimately the health of humans both here in America and abroad as well.”
Cleaning up the mess McCann's organization is one of the major players working to clean up the debris. Theirs is often a fairly low tech approach: mobilize squads of volunteers and hit the beach with trash bags. But although Ocean Conservancy expends a lot of energy on cleaning up, most experts, including McCann, say the problem cannot be solved that way.
Cleanup, it turns out, can be pretty complicated. The low-tech solution is inefficient and ineffective—and doesn't really even begin to address the problem of debris that is circling far away from land in the open ocean. UNEP's Osborn says even finding the debris in deep water can be challenging. The litter doesn't show up on satellite imagery or radar, and it moves around.
Even in the case of the “North Pacific Gyre”—aka the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a region of ocean northeast of Hawaii where currents converge to concentrate marine litter—it's not so easy to clean up. Osborn says depending on the season, the location of the patch moves. Sometimes the litter cycles down far beneath the surface, and often the debris is spread out over a large enough area that litter density becomes minimal and attempting a cleanup becomes a monumental task.
Moreover, Osborn says, the cleanup itself can have an ecological toll. Anything that catches litter runs the risk of catching marine life as well, and he notes that the by-catch of a clean up can be as damaging as the litter was to begin with.
That doesn't mean some people aren't trying to tackle the problem. George Orbelian, a lifelong surfer and oceans enthusiast, helped found Project Kaisei, an organization dedicated to studying deep sea debris and trying to clean it up. Right now, Project Kaisei is in the research phase, in partnership with, among others, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. But Project Kaisei has also partnered with large-scale recycling companies, which think all that debris out in the water has the potential to bring in some profit.
Orbelian says there are a number of recycling possibilities. “We're actually looking at four or five different technologies that turn waste plastic into fuel and other things that can be used,” he says. “So we'll see which technology is most appropriate.” In terms of collecting the plastic, he says one new possibility would be “to create a material that acts as a magnet that attracts the plastic or something that ends up connecting to the plastic bits.” Going to the source Osborn remains skeptical that an efficient solution can be found for collecting plastic. While he welcomes the effort—as well as the publicity and research—Project Kaisei is putting into the problem, he says finding a better solution for recapturing the waste “is extremely difficult and the primary reason why a market has not already appeared.” That's why he, like many other experts, says the real solution is prevention.
“[One step] many cities invest in is gross pollutant traps,” says Osborn. “Waste that goes into storm-water channels gets caught in effectively a big net, which stops it from going into the marine environment.”
Another technological advance that could help is to improve the composition of plastic so that it biodegrades in the marine environment. “There are a number of different variations of plastic bags,” Osborn says, such as “bags made out of corn starch or bags that biodegrade when they get wet.”
These may not be ideal from a consumer standpoint, Osborn points out—imagine walking home with your groceries in the rain—but could lead to a long-term solution that minimizes the number of bags floating around.
A less technologically advanced solution might be to use fewer plastic bags to start with. Osborn says “the UN has been calling for some time for governments to phase out those flimsy film bags, and move towards recyclable, reusable materials,” like cloth. But given that we can't eliminate plastic 100%, some marine litter programs aim to make better use of plastic waste so it won't get discarded in the first place—for example, what to do with those bulky, durable fishing nets.
In many port areas, marine litter expert Sheavly says, there is no good mechanism in place to help fishermen dispose of the nets that don't work anymore, “so sometimes fishermen have no recourse other than to let it go.” Instead, some places have turned the nets into a resource. Hawaii has developed a program where derelict nets are collected, brought back to Honolulu, processed, and, in a special waste-to-energy plant, turned into electricity.
“Putting a fishing net into landfills is kind of worthless,” Sheavly says. “Being able to convert those nets into electricity, they now have a monetary worth to them, so that it makes it worthwhile to collect the nets and then process them.” And it provides an opportunity to convert the energy that was used to make that net into something else.
What you can do Keith Criddle, a fisheries and marine conservation professor at the University of Alaska and the lead author on a congressionally mandated study on marine debris, points out, “All of the man-made debris in the oceans and on the coasts was put there by people, willfully or by accident.”
“It is important,” he says, “to acknowledge that the marine debris problem and its solution can be boiled down to simple individual and social choices about the disposal of waste materials.”
Sheavly says better education can play a big role in helping individuals make better choices. For instance, “most people have been told the caps on a soda bottle aren't recyclable,” she says, and so they toss them. But recycling technology is now capable of sorting the bottles, which are made from one kind of plastic, and the caps, which are made from another, and capturing and reusing both.
Any real solution, she says, will attack the problem from a number of different angles, but the personal angle should always be included.
“In some pollution issues people don't see how they could affect it.” Sheavly says. “This is one where you can.”
Walden University is proud to have more than 20 state teachers of the year—including Deborah Fogg, education doctoral student—currently working toward advanced degrees at its Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership. Five days a week, Deborah Fogg, a seventh grade Language Arts teacher at the Lancaster School in Lancaster, New Hampshire, takes a long lunch.
Normally, teachers at her school eat in the first five minutes of the 25-minute lunch period so they can take care of other things during the remaining time. For the last eight years, however, Fogg has devoted the entirety of lunch period to her students. Her pupils, both past and present, flock each day to a sign up to be one of the four kids to eat with her.
“It lets me feel the pulse of what's going on with the kids,” says Fogg. “It's been a great way to build relationships with them. We talk about whatever they want to talk about—basketball, school, home life. Middle school kids are like that. They will pour their hearts out if you just give them the opportunity.”
In all aspects of her teaching, Fogg strives to take advantage of the unabashed enthusiasm that can start to disappear as kids slip into adolescence. “They're not too cool yet. They'll get up and act, and they'll write reams of stuff. They're little enough so they'll still be goofy for you,” she says. She also recognizes that her students are at a malleable age where a little patience and kindness can go a long way—especially at a moment when many kids and parents leave school and work only to go home and stare at a computer some more.
“It's not just Language Arts they're getting. I'm trying to teach them about being a good citizen and being a role model. And it's about building relationships,” she says. “As [kids], we sat at the dining room table and ate together, all of us. Nowadays, kids are isolated. They go into their bedrooms and don't interact. I think they're missing out. So I try to make my classroom like a living room. I want them to come in and feel like they're coming into their home. Once I build those relationships and establish that sense of community, my kids will do anything for me.”
Fogg, who is studying curriculum education at Walden University, always dreamed of teaching. Both her parents were teachers, and she grew up listening to her mother's “Three F” teaching mantra: Be Firm, Fair, and Friendly. Her father taught science and often came home with stories about the classes he had taught that day. “Dinner conversation was always about education and lessons plans,” she said.
In the 1970s, Fogg put that dream on hold, leaving college to help put her husband through law school. Over the next many years, she stayed home to raise their two children. Then, at age 42, and after testing the waters as a substitute teacher for a few years, Fogg returned to get her bachelor’s in education.
But school wasn’t where Fogg got the charisma that keeps students coming to her lunch table every day. That, she says, comes from years of watching her father teach.
“When I would walk down the hall with him, [his students] would run up to him and say, ‘Guess what I just did?' In his classroom, he was always smiling and laughing and joking,” Fogg recalls. “He had this demeanor in the classroom that made me feel like, 'When I grow up, I wanna be a teacher just like that.'”
Fogg's daughter must have had a similar feeling watching her mother: She, too, became a seventh grade Language Arts teacher recently. “She and I are always calling each other talking about an idea or something she tried or something I tried. I'm sure we drive everyone around us nuts.”
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Graduate students, alumni and faculty from Walden’s College of Health Sciences are among those presenting their research, best practices and public health experience at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Philadelphia this week. The APHA’s annual event is the oldest and largest gathering of public health professionals in the world, attracting more than 13,000 national and international physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, researchers, epidemiologists and related health specialists.
The poster and oral presentations will be part of APHA’s meeting program and will address current and emerging health science, policy and practice issues in an effort to prevent disease and promote health. Contributors will include:
Nina Bell, student in Ph.D. in Public Health program, “Adolescent Alcoholism: A Literature Review of Parental/Familial Modeling and Intervention Implications”
Tammy Chavis '09, Ph.D. in Public Health, “A Mixed-Method Study Pertaining to the Level of Knowledge about Alzheimer's Disease Among African-American Caregivers”
Dr. Talmage Holmes, School of Health Sciences faculty, “Epidemiology Instruction in the Virtual World—Opportunities and Challenges With Online Classroom Instruction”
Kirk Morehead, student in Ph.D. in Public Health program, “Primary Care Resource Gaps and Healthcare Reform” and "Using Epidemiologic Models to Quantify and Respond to Physician Resource Need”
Dr. Amany Refaat, School of Health Sciences faculty, “Effects of Education on Gender-Based Violence in Egypt”
Sarel van der Walt, student in Ph.D. in Public Health program, “Ethical Implications of Complexity Theory and Public Health Research Ethics in the 21st Century
Many Americans have questions about the quality of education in the United States and whether it will get worse before it gets better. Many newspapers report the dire circumstances of education and the struggles that schools are facing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. Understanding the child’s world is the place we must begin. Society can play the blame game by saying it’s their (parents’, teachers’, schools’) fault, or businesses and communities can support learning and teaching. Teachers desire to provide the best support to learners. The foundation for a solid society in the future will require more time for professional development, better community support, financial resources and innovative teaching.
Teach a Child to Read with Children’s Books, 4th Edition Mark Thogmartin and Mary Gallagher '07, M.S. in Education New Learning Concepts, 2009
Timing
is the key to success with emerging child readers of all ages. Teach a
Child to Read with Children’s Books skillfully presents and guides the
reader through a process of recognition and reinforcement that
customizes reading instruction to the specific child. Foundational
reading skills are introduced as the child’s natural desire to learn
develops. When the skill being introduced is relevant to a child’s
desire to learn, both teaching and learning become exciting, even
joyful experiences! Teach a Child to Read with Children’s Books
approaches reading instruction from a particular perspective: nurturing
lifelong learners. Written specifically for parents, tutors and
teachers who work one-on-one with children learning to read, Teach a
Child to Read with Children’s Books provides a comprehensive approach
that provides tools to identify and implement research-based
instruction strategies without dampening a child’s enthusiasm for
reading and learning.
How can an adventure book empower children and make them safer? “A spoonful of adventure makes the psychology go down,” according to author Dr. Molly Barrow, a practicing psychotherapist. Barrow uses exciting adventure books to embed subtle positive messages about building self-esteem. “High self-esteem is psychological armor for children.” Dr. Barrow's new fiction book for children, Malia and Teacup: Awesome African Adventure, illustrates complicated problem-solving and demonstrates how to “stay safe by staying strong.” The Malia and Teacup series encourages high self-esteem, positive thinking and healthy self-image.
When
Matthew’s father tells him a chimerical tale of a legendary money tree,
Matthew decides to venture out into the woods in search of the money
tree and the adventure begins. Join Matthew on his entertaining quest
in which, above all, he learns the true meaning of happiness.
Walden University is now offering a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision. The degree counseling professionals with the skills and experience they need to assume leadership positions in clinical, community, nonprofit, academic or research settings.
Aligned with national standards for counselor education and reflecting Walden’s mission of social change, the program helps mental health professionals:
Advance their career in clinical, community, academic, or research settings.
Conduct effective counseling-related program evaluations.
Gain clinical and related experience to enhance their professional development by participating in both a doctoral practicum and internship.
Develop counseling expertise in a relevant area, including forensic mental health counseling and crisis counseling.
Design, implement, and analyze individual research related to the counseling profession.
“Whether counseling professionals want to advance their clinical counseling supervision skills or pursue a career in academia or research, Walden’s Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision can provide them with the skills and knowledge they need to implement change in their communities and organizations,” says Dr. Carl J. Sheperis, program director for Walden’s Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision. “As the demand for doctorate-level counseling professionals increases in the coming years, this program can help students expand their career opportunities and become true leaders in the profession.”
Students can choose from the General Program or five specializations to develop expertise in a focused, highly relevant area. The General Program allows students to choose two elective courses in their area of interest with the option of applying those electives to complete a specialization:
For some students, science education begins and ends in high school. For others, however, it's a course of study that knows no beginning or end.
For 2008 West Virginia Teacher of the Year Eric Kincaid, science was something that was part of his earliest days, even if he didn't use that word for it. “I was always collecting specimens in middle school,” says Kincaid, a biology teacher at Morgantown High School in Morgantown, West Virginia. “'Specimens' is what my mother called them. I'd come home with little bugs and rocks and stuff like that in my pocket.”
Early on, this helped him see that education was something larger than just what happened at school. Learning could clearly take place anywhere, at anytime—something Kincaid says he learned from his grandfather who, although he had to drop out of school at age 13 to work, continued to educate himself. “He read everything he could and learned everything he could,” says Kincaid, noting his admiration. “His knowledge really blows me away even though he only has an eighth grade education.”
In his classes, Kincaid tries to help students see that education isn't always about a scholastic context. He works to show them that scientists are doing research outside of the classroom walls all the time. What's more, they're often doing research that looks a lot like the genetic work he does with his AP kids—analyzing DNA, trying to diagnose genetic disorders, and even manipulating the genome.
“I like finding new articles or videos, because the kids really like getting those news stories. I like showing the kids what the potential is. A couple of times I've found things that were published the day I showed it to them, so they can see it's not just coming from their text books—this is information that is coming up all the time,” he says. “I also want to try to get kids to get the information on their own—to teach them how to use the tools that we have that will allow them to get information, and remember it, and use it, and apply it. If I can do that, then I'm pretty happy, because the amount of information we're getting now is amazing. There is no way you can actually remember it all. If we can give them the tools to get information on their own, then they have a better chance of being successful.”
Of course, there's also the learning that goes on for students after they leave his class—that's the kind of learning that may end up taking students much deeper into science than their teacher will ever go. For Kincaid, a student who can outdo him is a dream come true.
One of his favorite memories of teaching involves a very reserved pupil who had just lost her father and didn't seem engaged in class. “It was amazing what her academic ability was, but she was very quiet—never said a whole lot,” he says. “That was just as I was starting to try to teach genes and different genome studies, and she ended up taking what I taught her and going into that research on her own.”
Today, that shy, reserved student is working on a combined M.D./Ph.D. at Harvard University. “She is doing cancer research—she wanted to fight the cancer that killed her dad,” says Kincaid. And now, she's the one offering words of encouragement: “She writes, 'Keep up those genomic studies, keep looking at those techniques and all that, because that's what enabled me to get ahead,'” he says. “That's why I'm here now.”
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Dr. Reza Hamzaee, a faculty member in the School of Management, co-published “Critical Thinking: A Foundation for a Better Learning and an Effective Teaching: A Systemic Approach” (Global Business & Economics Anthology, Vol. 1, 2009) and published “An Assessment of Global Economic Recession With a Focus on Iranian Economy” (Journal of Accountancy, Vol. 12, 2009).
Molly Hillig, a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) student, will be serving as a nurse at the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia. She will educate Americans coming to Bolivia about health concerns and provide education and medical care to Americans living in and near the embassy.
Joseph L. Ricca, a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) student, is now superintendent of East Hanover schools, East Hanover, N.J. He formerly served as the principal of East Hanover Middle School.
Kenneth R. Williams, a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences student, was awarded fourth place in the 2009 General William E. DePuy Writing Competition, sponsored by the United States Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for his article “The Noncommissioned Officer as Moral Exemplar.” His article will appear in the September/October issue of Military Review. Williams has served as an active duty Army chaplain for 15 years and is currently assigned as the brigade chaplain, 14th Military Police Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He was recently selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel.
Please join us for the latest session of Walden University’s online Career Lecture Series on Thursday, November 19, at 2 p.m. Eastern. The topic, “Building Blocks of Starting a Nonprofit Organization,” is presented by Dr. Gary Kelsey, a faculty member in Walden’s School of Public Policy and Administration.
Reservations are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and space is limited, so register today. This event is brought to you by the Office of Alumni Relations andCareer Services Center.
About the Speaker Dr. Gary Kelsey has 32 years of experience in the nonprofit, government, and education sectors. As an organizational development consultant, Dr. Kelsey has provided nonprofit board development, program development, strategic planning, fundraising, collaboration, team-building, qualitative research, and other organizational development assistance and training to more than 250 nonprofit, philanthropic, education, and government organizations. Dr. Kelsey is a faculty member at Walden University, the University of St. Thomas, and Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. He holds a B.A. in social work from St. Cloud State University, an M.A. in human and health services administration from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, and a Doctorate of Education in leadership from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Today’s regulatory environment is enough to make a data manager’s head spin. From legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to credit card processing security standards, data managers now face a dizzying array of regulations regarding what types of data must be stored and for how long.
But that’s not all. Thanks to a December 2006 amendment to the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to encompass digital information, U.S. courts are now empowered to order companies to produce the right data in record time. Because e-discovery allows everything from e-mail to PowerPoint presentations to be called into evidence, companies must be prepared to preserve and sift through mounds of electronic data at breakneck speed or face possible legal penalties.
In response to such challenges, many data managers are upping the ante by purchasing vast amounts of data storage hardware. Research firm IDC reports the total amount of disk storage shipped in 2008 grew 40.5% over the previous year. According to research firm Forrester Research, 40% of enterprises said they plan to spend more on storage hardware in the coming year, with another 46% saying their spending on storage will be level. What’s more, Forrester estimates storage capacity requirements are growing at a rate of between 15% and 25% per year.
In addition to scrambling for the necessary hardware, many companies are adopting solutions that promise to help them better analyze, archive, manage, protect, and purge their data to meet long-term management goals.
Taking inventory Take, for example, Vivisimo and its Velocity Search Platform. This data analysis software provides companies with easy access to information and content without having to rethink the way in which content is produced and stored. Using proprietary conceptual search technology, Velocity helps companies easily determine what information currently resides on a databases, how employees use and access this information, and how best to store this data on a long-term basis.
Setting data aside Once companies have taken proper inventory of their data, the next step is deploying a data archiving tool. Data archiving works by removing and archiving master data from a database and storing it on a variety of storage mediums for future access.
After all, says Brian Babineau, a senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Massachusetts, “If data is being transacted upon on a regular basis, trying to figure out how you’re going to store that data, where you’re going to keep it, and how long you’re going to keep it is nearly impossible.”
Fortunately, by systematically extracting data from a primary environment, data archiving technology lets data managers store only the information needed to meet regulatory requirements while improving the performance and availability of critical systems.
Managing resources Another approach data managers are taking to sorting out their data is through the use of storage resource management (SRM) technology. Tool suites such as the IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center help companies better manage their storage system capacity by centralizing, simplifying, and automating storage tasks. What’s more, not only can SRM tools better provision storage to optimize the use of existing storage resources, but they can also forecast future storage needs to prevent outages. For example, an SRM tool can automatically notify a data manager that storage capacity has reached its maximum threshold and that it’s time to acquire more capacity before disaster strikes.
Preventing leakages Similarly, data-leak prevention products are helping companies keep better tabs on their data. Firewalls and encryption may keep hackers at bay, but a data-leak protection solution from vendors such as RSA, the security division of EMC, can serve as an early warning system that notifies data managers when employees are about to send out sensitive or classified corporate data. It’s a policy-based approach to data protection that, according to Greg Schulz, founder of StorageIO Group, a storage consultancy, helps data managers “monitor their networks, systems, and applications for vulnerabilities that will automatically set off an alarm when critical data is about to be leaked.”
New trends Getting a better handle on data storage is also leading many companies to hot trends such as cloud computing and virtualization. Virtualization, for instance, pools storage from multiple devices into a single storage mechanism that can be managed centrally, enabling one computer to do the work of several machines. “The more tools that a company has to move data between physical devices, the better off they are,” says Babineau, highlighting the flexibility provided by virtualization.
The downside, warns Schulz, is that virtualization can introduce more issues. “With virtualization and cloud computing, all you’re doing is moving data around. That data still has to be stored and protected somewhere. You can protect it in the cloud, but guess what, you’ve just introduced another point of vulnerability.” Internal checks and balances Hot technologies aside, if data managers plan to cope with the regulatory requirements governing data storage today, then they must take a long, hard look at their internal policies and procedures. “Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your data and information are secure as long as they’re in your company,” says Schulz. “The headline news is always about a [storage] tape containing a million names getting released. But how about the 12,000 laptops that are lost or forgotten every month at Los Angeles airport—and the data on those [computers].”
For this reason, Schulz recommends that data managers establish and enforce stringent policies related to company-issued USB thumb drives, laptops, iPhones—any portable device that can transport confidential information and risk exposing a company to security breaches and legal liabilities.
“Policies are essential,” says Schulz. “Too often, we try to throw technology at the problem rather than create a policy or approach.”
Babineau agrees. He says that many companies make the mistake of leveraging technology to store too much data. For example, the Radicati Group estimates that the average corporate email user sends and receives a total of 84 messages per day and that the average size of a message without an attachment is about 22 KB. That can add up to a ton of non-mission critical data—and ever-expanding storage capacity needs. However, with the right data retention polices in place, a company can regularly purge its data while still sticking to the letter of the law.
“The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow you to expire content,” says Babineau. “You just can’t do it on a one-off basis. You actually have to have some consistent rules and policies to do it.”
Today’s data managers are facing stringent storage requirements at a time when companies are being deluged with everything from Word documents and email to business-processing applications and data-devouring digital content. In the end, overcoming these long-term data management challenges comes down to striking just the right balance between cutting-edge technology and internal policies.
To support research that leads to real-world solutions, Walden
University awarded four faculty members and six faculty teams the 2009 Faculty Research Initiative Grant,
totaling $139,500. With the goal of supporting excellence in scholarly
work, the grant program helps fund select faculty research projects
that are deemed exceptional in merit. The grants provide seed money for
the development of faculty research agendas.
Walden University congratulates the following individuals and research teams for their standout projects:
Assessing a Predictive Modeling Technique for Proactive Patient Management of Diabetes
Principal Investigator: Dr. Howard B. Schechtner, School of Management Co-Principal Investigator: Mr. Nithyanandam Mathiyazhagan, School of Management Grant Amount: $15,000 Project Abstract: Diabetes affects nearly 25 million Americans and is estimated to cost approximately $125 billion annually. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. The human cost can be measured in terms of hospitalizations, drug costs, amputations, blindness, nerve damage, pain management and other health problems. The societal cost is in the trillions of dollars and is stressing a health care system whose costs are soaring. This study will create and assess predictive models for patients to proactively treat their blood sugar levels. It is difficult for patients to predict blood sugar as current technology gives them only a momentary reading without indicating whether levels are rising or falling. If insulin boluses are injected when sugars are high but actually falling, a serious hypoglycemic event requiring hospitalization could transpire. The model will take into account a number of variables such as insulin dose, blood sugar level, food intake (grams of carbohydrates), calories consumed, food timing, physical activity, type of activity, duration of activity, time of day, day of week and historical blood sugar readings. These explicit and tacit knowledge variables will guide the creation of the predictive model. The goal of the research is to tighten the control of blood sugar range which typically means reducing the running average of blood sugar level readings and reducing high and low readings. The theoretical basis for the study rests with Nonaka and Takeuchi’s Spiral Process Theory of Knowledge which will guide the creation of the model. This knowledge-based, technology-leveraged approach has the goal of greater adherence to self-controlled diabetes management through tacit and explicit knowledge conversion and internalization.
Formative Research to Identify Barriers to Completing Prenatal Care Services in HIV-Positive Communities in Rural South India
Principal Investigator: Dr. Vishnu-Priya Sneller, College of Health Sciences Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Raghu Korripati, School of Management Grant Amount: $20,000 Project Abstract: The study proposes to use qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the prenatal services available to women in rural India. In collaboration with a local non-government agency that provides HIV prevention services in three different settings in Andhra-Pradesh. Participants will be residents from communities where HIV is known to be present. Participating communities will be identified by locating HIV-positive women who were lost to follow-up during the third trimester of pregnancy and missed an opportunity to prevent perinatal transmission of HIV. The project proposes to use qualitative and quantitative methods to identify barriers to prenatal care and health status of HIV-positive women who were lost to follow-up. Qualitative methods will use focus groups and non-structured interviews. The quantitative method will use structured interviews. Focus groups composed of women 16 years and older and couples from these communities will inform the development of communication messages and print material promoting prenatal care. Focus groups will also be used to develop the questionnaire, which will be used for individual interviews. Women 16 years and older from these communities will participate voluntarily in the structured individual interviews. Univariate and logistic regression models will be used to describe the barriers to prenatal care and risk for HIV infections in these communities.
About the Faculty Research Initiative Grant The Faculty Research Initiative Grant program is open to all faculty who have been employed by Walden for a minimum of six months. Grant funds can be used to support pilot research projects and small-scale research studies, and to supplement new areas of investigation that are spin-off studies or sub-studies of larger ongoing research projects.
This novel, Janet Cunningham’s first, describes the lives of three
women who face life challenges and move through them to greater
happiness. Everyone has events in life that jolt their emotions and
well-being. How we handle these occurrences determines whether we
“spiral upward,” growing through the experience into greater joy and
fulfillment, or “spiral downward” into sadness, anger or hopelessness.
This book is filled with valuable information and insight into
relationships, weight management and feminine intuitive nature.
Both teachers and students can benefit from mentors, but the challenge lies in how to find or become one, because the very nature of mentors is rooted in an organic process.
When seeking a mentor, having a specific project or idea you need guidance with can be helpful. Scott Key, a lawyer and an instructor at Mercer University, says mentors have been very important for his professional development. “In school, mentors were key professors whose counsel I sought for writing suggestions, vocational discernment and practical advice,” he said.
By the time Ethel Jameson walked into Meredith Gardner’s life, Jameson had already retired from the teaching profession. But that did not mean she was done educating.
Jameson, who was Gardner’s nanny and later French tutor, eventually became Gardner’s mentor. “She personified so many values that I learned at a young age. She got bumped up from a tutor to a mentor. Little did I know that she would be setting the stage for me to learn what it was like to have a mentor and the consequences of such a privilege.”
Gardner, decades after Jameson became her mentor, found herself using the experience in her professional life. She started the Future Manager’s Program at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City. When it comes to mentors, the key distinction is between formality and informality, says Gardner.
“From the mentor point of view, I recommend that the mentors choose to participate,” adds Gardner. “Even if there are fewer than you hope for or expect, the people who show up want to be there, making their impact even stronger and memorable.”
Gardner learned that lesson the hard way with the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s program, in which they assigned mentors to mentees. “We ended up assigning people through having a formal program. The learning was that most people were too busy to give quality time.”
During the process, Gardner also has learned there are important qualities that mentors should posses. Whether looking for a mentor or trying to become one, it is important to be honest. “There is an openness and vulnerability that develops on both sides. When the relationship is developed with skill, the unfolding is miraculous,” she says. “There is no blame or retaliation.”
Persistence is another key. “Being a mentor means being the demonstration of the ability to break through frustrations to convert reality into dreams. It’s a ‘stick-to-it-ivness’ that just won’t go away.”
Other actions Gardner stresses are listening with undivided attention, giving judgment-free respect and honoring the responsibilities of the mentor role, such as showing up at scheduled meetings.
And, of course, there is always the function of inspiration. Gardner says when the mentor inspires someone, there is an energy surge in the mentee. “A new unimagined life course is set in motion, smashing preconceived notions,” she says. “This allows for a movement forward and might not happen without the encouragement of the mentor.”
Perhaps the best thing about the mentor system is it can start a chain reaction: The mentees often become mentors. Decades after Jameson entered her life, Gardner is a mentor to two younger women.
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“It was something I always wanted to do...I decided that it would be easier to make a difference teaching kids like me [with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder and other learning challenges]...I like this even better because I can help even more kids.” —Greg Johnson, a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) student, discussing his motivation for getting involved in special education in an Aug. 1, 2009, article in the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, Lockport, N.Y.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with the men and women of the 106th Rescue Wing and their families during this time of war for our nation and state. Their service and sacrifice went far beyond what was expected, and I will always remember what they did so ‘that others may live.’” —Michael Canders, a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences graduate, on leaving command of the 106th Rescue Wing to assume command of an overseas Air Expeditionary Group, in a press release from the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
“I realized that my success was up to me...There is a chance of minimizing the effects of drug addiction in Baltimore, but it will take a strong community effort that involves law enforcement, educators, medical professionals, legislators and community residents.” —Michael Murrell, a Ph.D. in Public Health student, in an article on Examiner.com.
“...[W]e can learn so much from the younger set. We have to stop dictating and start listening...The most important message is to avoid stereotyping and to embrace the gifts each generation has to offer.” —Geneva Craig, a 2004 Ph.D. in Health Services graduate, in an article on generational differences in nursing published in Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Dome.
“There [are] a lot of great things happening in education, and there’s a lot that still could get better...I was having to teach kids to read faster and put words into blanks, but that is teaching kids to take tests, not learn.” —Malinda Daniel, a Ph.D. in Education graduate, discussing her new book, Fallacy or Truth: The State of American Education Today (Highway, 2009), in an Aug. 31 article in The Lawrence Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan.
When Tania Harman was a child, education was not a priority—for her parents. But that didn’t stop her from gravitating toward everything having to do with learning. “I loved school. From the time I was in kindergarten, I told everyone I was going to grow up and be a teacher,” she says. “School was a place where I felt safe and at ease. It was something I was good at.”
Her parents just didn’t get it. Neither one had graduated high school and discouraged her from going to college, even refusing to fill out financial aid forms. Says Harman: “They thought it was a waste of time and money—they thought I thought I was better than everyone else.”
Today, as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Warren Primary Center in South Bend, Indiana, Harman works tirelessly to make sure that her students feel encouraged to excel—both by their teachers and by their parents. Support, she believes is something that ESL students need more than most kids. “These are kids who suddenly were taken out of everything they knew and loved and brought to a whole new country,” she says. “They have vastly different needs.”
Harman began her career in the late 1980s as a general education teacher at the elementary level, but when her district went through a restructuring in 2003, two-thirds of the area’s teachers had to change jobs. During the transition period, she applied to teach first grade and ended up being handed an ESL slot. “I immediately loved it,” she says. She amped up her skills by returning to school to add an ESL endorsement to her license, and then started studying Spanish in order to facilitate easier conversation with parents. All of these steps are in line with her belief that constant self-improvement and continuing education are musts for teachers. “You cannot stay in your classroom and isolate yourself from your colleagues,” she says.
Harman’s career at Walden is just another way in which she feels she can work to ensure that she’s giving all she can to her students—and to their families. She’s constantly impressed with the devotion of ESL students’ families to their children’s education and how their interest impacts students’ performances. “Their families are so appreciative of everything I do, and overall very supportive,” she says. “I actually get to spend my day teaching, not disciplining, because these are families that have placed different expectations on their children.”
For Harman, a good education means teaching kids’ families as well: In her role as an ESL teacher, she has worked with some parents to help them become citizens. Her own parents were never encouraged to see the value of schooling—Harman wants to make sure her students have families that are better aware of the fact that a good education is invaluable, especially when injecting a child into a new culture. “A teacher can’t do it alone. There has to be a partnership with the family. You have to make connections in the community to support what you’re doing in the classroom. We all need to work together to support student learning,” she says. Her approach is working: Last year, almost every one of her students graduated from bilingual classes into general education classes. Says Harman: “I’m kind of working myself out of a job!
Erikson Daniel Conkling, a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration student, has begun a faculty professor of social and behavioral sciences position at the Logansport, Ind., campus of Ivy Tech Community College.
Todd Daniel, a Ph.D. in Psychology student, was awarded the 2009 Best Student Poster Presentation for his poster, "On Thin Ice: Listening to Methamphetamine Users in the Ozarks," at the Walden University summer residency held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Dr. Bernice Kennedy, a faculty member in the College of Health Sciences, published “Psychosocial Model: Racism as a Predictor of Adherence and Compliance to Treatment and Health Outcomes Among African Americans” (Journal of Theory Construction & Testing, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2009).
Dr. Jason Seacat, a faculty member in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, co-published two articles: “Dental Students Treating Patients Living With HIV/AIDS: The Influence of Attitudes and HIV Knowledge” (Journal of Dental Education, Vol. 73, Issue 4, 2009) and “Stereotype Threat and the Exercise/Dietary Health Intentions of Overweight Women” (Journal of Health Psychology, May 2009).
Dr. Jeff Snodgrass, a faculty member in the College of Health Sciences, co-published “Faculty Perceptions of Occupational Therapy Program Directors' Leadership Styles and Outcomes of Leadership” in the Journal of Allied Health (Vol. 37, 2008).
Many Americans think of parks and rainforest when they think of Costa Rica—an exotic vacation destination with scuba diving and hiking. But not too long ago, the only creatures hiking through a large swath of northwest Costa Rica were farmers and cows.
Originally wooded with dry forest, cloud forest, and rain forest, by the 1960s and ‘70s, most of the land had become dry savanna. But from one couple's initiative and a many private donations, 500 miles of savanna has been restored into national parkland.
Restoration minimalism Dan Janzen, the field biologist, who, along with his wife, fellow field biologist, Winnie Hallwachs, pioneered the effort to restore the land, said the most important thing they needed to do to restore the land was to buy it.
“We don't plant any trees,” Janzen says, “wind and animals bring the seeds. We don't plant anything. What you have to do is stop anybody or anything from stopping animals.”
Of course, the reality is somewhat more complex. The Area de Conservacion Guanacaste has a staff of 150 people and an operating budget of about $1.5 million. Among other projects, the staff fights fires, researches wildlife, educates students in the surrounding areas about biology, and yes, in some areas, even plants some trees.
But Janzen says all that is practically beside the point. “Biologically, restoration is a breeze,” he says. “If you're willing to let a large area restore itself, that will happen.
“The real world is that every square foot out there is owned by someone,” Janzen says, and they're using it for something. If you want to use it for something else, for instance, if you want to let the forest grow back, you just buy the land.
William Allen documented the restoration process in his book Green Phoenix: Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. “The restoration effort was incredibly successful,” says Allen. “There’s been nothing like it anywhere, as far as I’ve been able to learn by talking with a wide range of leading and lesser tropical ecologists who know this world.”
Janzen says in another 100 years, the average observer would never know there had been anything but forest on the land. (He says it'll take about 500 years for the true balance to be restored.)
He raised most of the money to buy the land through private donations—although he worked with the Costa Rican government, and the park continues to be run in cooperation with the government. But he says whether you raise money through tax dollars or private investment or winning the lottery is irrelevant.
A wider look A more important question might be whether this model—large-scale buy back of degraded landscapes for the purpose of restoration—can be repeated successfully elsewhere.
One of the elements that made Janzen's plan for restoration possible was that undisturbed parts of the forest remained. Janzen says almost all the old species still existed in pockets on the land. Perhaps equally crucial, Janzen was able to buy a large enough amount of land to allow the natural process of succession to restart.
Allen says Janzen was helped by the fact that “in the 1980s the farm economy, especially for cattle production, was experiencing a major economic downturn, and many folks were glad to sell off and get out. For many of them, the restoration project’s interest in buying their land was a godsend. The restoration project was fortunate to have such an economic scenario make the land relatively available.”
But in other places, agriculture is still profitable, or the land has been used for other reasons, like building people's homes. Those owners might not be so interested in selling—or the price might be too high no matter how many people click on the donation button.
This, says Rob French, is largely the case in the Florida Everglades. What was once a “river of grass”—a wetland that covered much of south Florida—now contains cities, roads, sugar plantations, and farms.
In order to make the swampy land ready for development, the army corps of engineers built canals, dykes and levees, and engineered the water to flow where they wanted, when they wanted. French, an environmental engineer who has spent much of his 30-plus-year career in Florida, says he “thinks it is virtually an impossible task now to go back and restore the Everglades.” He says the best shot is to try to fix some of the damage. For instance, the water quality in Everglades estuaries has been deteriorating, because of the way the water flow has been controlled. During the rainy season, water is stored in Lake Okeechobee until it reaches a certain level, at which point water is released toward the ocean. But the stored water is freshwater, and when a large amount blasts through the brackish estuaries (a mix of salt and freshwater), it changes the salt content of the estuaries. It essentially kills everything in there, says French.
A solution along the lines of the Guanacaste restoration project would be for someone to buy up all the land and destroy all the levees, dykes, and canals to restore water flow to its natural state.
Restoration buy-back in Florida In some places, this is exactly what the Everglades restoration project, funded through a joint agreement with the federal government and the state of Florida, is doing.
Randy Smith, media relations specialist for the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), gives an example: Picuyune Strand, in southwest Florida, a 55,000 acre tract bought by developers in the 1950s and ‘60s that was going to be a city. The owners went bankrupt, Smith says, but before they did, they put in roads and dug canals. Smith says, “the state of Florida bought that and we have been very successful in filing in one of the canals, and removing roads and the handful of houses that were there. And in the areas where we've gone in and filled up the canal, the sheet flow of water has gone back to a normal state.”
Engineering restoration But Fred Sklar, the director of the SFWMD's Everglades division says, “we often find that it's very hard to just let nature take its course.” For instance, he says, thanks to invasive species like the Brazilian pepper, the ecology is changing. Invasive plants and animals crowd out the ones that lived there naturally—and that can have consequences all the way up the food chain, when animals can no longer find as much of what they’re used to eating. “Right now nature is having a hard time, and it's on a trajectory that often it means we have to go in and do something actively.”
So to improve water quality in the estuaries, the SFWMD is engineering a new system of storage and release that would vent the water in a more natural cycle, rather than in bursts. Their approach has its critics. Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University says that, with the billions of tax dollars being spent—current estimates hover around $10–12 billion—they could absolutely do more.
Pimm says real restoration requires restoring the natural flow, not building ever more complex systems to manage the water in new ways. He calls the restoration at Guanacaste “spectacular” but says, “what's happening in Everglades is really a very, very different kind of event.”
Ultimately, SFWMD's Sklar says, “I think the idea that we are just engineering restoration rather than allowing nature to take its course is something that we struggle with everyday. We always are trying to create an environment where we can let nature take its course.”
Once associated only with cavities and simple weight gain, sugar is now linked to a host of devastating health conditions including cancer, epilepsy, dementia, hypoglycemia and obesity. In Suicide by Sugar, sugar addiction expert Dr. Nancy Appleton and health writer G. N. Jacobs not only expose the exorbitant levels of sugar we ingest but also document the connection between our current health crisis and our collective sweet tooth. Suicide by Sugar begins with the story of Dr. Appleton’s battle with her own sugar addiction. Next, the authors examine all the frightening (and unknown) things that can go wrong when people consume too much sugar, from increased susceptibility to disease to imbalanced body chemistry. They go on to discuss the various ways scientists measure sugar’s impact on blood glucose and explain why these statistics cannot be solely relied on when choosing foods. The authors provide shocking information about the amount of sugar found in many popular foods and beverages and an in-depth discussion of the ailments now associated with excessive sugar consumption. Finally, Dr. Appleton’s easy-to-follow, effective lifestyle plan—complete with recipes—guides you in eliminating sugar from your life.
Gregory Parker '09, who earned a Master of Public Administration degree and is a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration, was re-elected to the Comal County Commissioners Court (Texas) in November 2008. In September 2008, he was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications, where he leads the state's initiative for Next Generation 9-1-1.
Susan Sonnier '07, who earned an M.S. degree in Nursing, published a chapter in the textbook Disaster Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009), titled “Communicating in a Disaster." She also wrote two appendices for the textbook. Sonnier also was recently voted Nurse of the Year at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas.
Dr. Ellen Stoltz '01, who earned a Ph.D. in Education, recently completed two consecutive three-year terms as a commissioner for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Dr. Stoltz is the director of Special Education Instructional Support Services for Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut.
Gloria Brown Brooks '04, who earned an M.S. in Education and is now a student in the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) program, was named a Teacher of the Year for 2008 by the San Benito County (Calif.) Office of Education. She is also the Thinkfinity presenter for the county’s Office of Education.
Vicky Panasuk '03, who earned an M.S. in Education, has been named principal at Jefferson Elementary School in Glendive, Mont.
Dr. Mario O. Barrett III '07, who earned a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, wrote Leading from the Inside Out: Using the Barrett Leadership Model to Achieve Sustainable Happiness by Creating and Pursuing the Fulfillment of Your Life. (Dog Ear Publishing, 2008). The book has appeared regularly in the Top 10 of Buy.com's bestsellers for personal happiness books.
Dr. Dennis E. Morrow '92, who earned a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, was recently named chair of the Business Department at Herzing University's Atlanta campus.
Dr. Ntiedo J. Umoren '00, who earned a Ph.D. in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, has been appointed the director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Development at the University of Uyo in Nigeria, where he is a faculty member.
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