New Global Certification for AIU

What do Google Alphabet, Coca Cola, Meta, Penn State University or Microsoft, have in common with Atlantic International University? We are very happy to inform you that AIU has signed a membership and accreditation agreement with DMI, Digital Marketing Institute, the world’s leading Global Certification & Professional Body for the digital marketing industry.

DMI is based in Ireland, and they have the same type of agreement with prestigious universities such as Oakland University, Auburn University, University of California Santa Barbara, Penn State University, Stony Brook University, Northern Illinois University, etc. DMI has helped transform the digital capabilities of some of the world’s leading brands. They’ve helped them understand digital opportunities.

75% of employers, globally, say that they are more likely to hire candidates with a DMI certification on their CV. Some of the companies accepting this certification are IBM, Meta, Coca-Cola, Vodafone, PWC, SAP, Oracle, Accenture, Microsoft, Ebay, SanDisk, Merck, Millipore Sigma, Straumann, Johnson & Johnson, or Google.

This agreement with Digital Marketing Institute will allow us:

1. To bridge the global digital skills gap in marketing industry, and help marketers reach their full potential.
2. To validate and update our curriculum to the highest standards.
3. To offer 23 different credentials at all levels from Associate to Masters.
4. To participate in the setting of the global standard in digital marketing education and certification.


Most Influential Youth of the Year

JUNE 17, 2024. We want to congratulate our AIU graduate for his most recent achievement.

NPP Youth Organizer Adjudged Youth Political Activist and AIU Graduate, Samuel Osei Sarkodie, as Most Influential Youth of the Year. The young, enterprising politician received the enviable awards at the fourth edition of the Golden Age Business and Creative Art Awards (GACA).

The award ceremony is usually held during Ghana Month or on Founder’s Day, to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to national development over the years. Speaking with the media shortly after the event, Samuel Osei Sarkodie expressed his heartfelt gratitude to his employers at Joy Industries Limited for their consistent support.

Samuel Osei Sarkodie completed a Doctorate program in Finance at Atlantic International University.


19 th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON Communication & Media Studies

Call for Papers This Conference will be held 24-25 October 2024 at Interamerican Open University, Buenos Aires, Argentina. + Online

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

2024 Special Focus:
“Images and Imaginaries of Artificial Intelligence”
Theme 1: Media Cultures
Theme 2: Media Theory
Theme 3: Media Technologies and Processes
Theme 4: Media Business
Theme 5: Media Literacies

Become a Presenter:
1. Submit a proposal
2. Review timeline
3. Register

Regular proposal deadline 24 July, 2024 Regular registration deadline 24 September, 2024
Visit the website

Graduated with Honors

JULY 2024. These graduate students completed the majority of the requirements to obtain honors, which included a 4.0 GPA, published works, recommendation from their respective advisors, patent a product, etc. Congratulations!

CUM LAUDE
Lidia Karen Carrasco Muñoz
Bachelor of Business Administration
Business Administration

CUM LAUDE
Anabel Ventura Lantigua de Campaña
Bachelor of Education
Education

CUM LAUDE
Danauris Mieses
Bachelor of Science
Computer Engineering

CUM LAUDE
Maritza Ramos Cerezo
Bachelor of Science
Psychology

Graduated with Distinction

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

DISTINCTION
Karen Ann D'Cruz
Doctor of Science
Telecommunications

DISTINCTION
Noé Hernández Guajardo
Post-Doctorate of Education
Education

DISTINCTION
Charles Tumaini Mbaga
Doctor of Philosophy
Business Management




Guaicaipuro José Jiménez Jiménez
Doctor of Science
Health Care Management
Aruba
Daniel Manuel Valdés Henríquez
Doctor of Science
Environmental Science
Chile
Erwin Bryan Utchanah
Doctor of Education
Education
China
Domingo Israel Fernández García
Master of Electrical Engineering
Renewable Energy
Dominican Republic
Seneida Antonia Paula Rodríguez
Doctor of Management
Project Management
Dominican Republic
Santa González Luciano
Doctor of Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Dominican Republic
           
Juan Galo Rivera Gonzalez
Bachelor of Science
Civil Engineering
Ecuador
Pablo H. Hernández Hernández
Bachelor of Education
Education
El Salvador
Malick Bojang
Bachelor of Science
Civil Engineering
Gambia
Elvira Anthea Adjei
Master of Nutrition
Nutrition Science
Ghana
George Mensah
Doctor of Business Administration
Business Administration
Ghana
Gyau Solomon Kwabena
Doctor of Education
Curriculum, Educational Policy and Mgmt.
Ghana
           
Julio Leonel Rosales Batres
Master of Science
Geographic Information Systems
Guatemala
America Ernestina Briones Hernandez
Bachelor of Science
Psychology
Guatemala
Ely Silvana González Gómez
Bachelor of Education
Education
Guatemala
Gerardo Josué Borjas Ferrera
Doctor of Science
Food Science
Honduras
Ali Conde
Associate of Legal Studies
Criminal Justice
Ivory Coa st
Simone Grant-Clarke
Doctor of Philosop hy
Business Administration
Jamaica
           
Mirla Yuriko Nakayo Tiznado
Master of Nutrition
Feeding and Dietetics
Japa n
Tracey Wangechi Kimathi
Post-Doctorate of Business Management
Management
Kenya
Melissa Antoine Bou Rached
Doctor of Science
Public Health
Leba non
Sophia Loreen Atieno Oduol
Doctor of Education
Leadership and Policy Analysis
Lesotho
Alfred Panji Kasimba Mwandira
Master of Science
Psychology
Malawi
Karen Ann D’Cruz
Doctor of Science
Telecommunications
Malaysia
           
Noé Hernández Guajardo
Post-Doctorate of Education
Education
Mexico
Adegoke Adeniran
Master of Science
Information Technology
Nigeria
Archibong, Bassey Essien
Doctor of Philosop hy
Food Security
Nigeria
Lidia Karen Carrasco Muñoz
Bachelor of Business Administration
Business Administration
Peru
Santos García Huamán
Bachelor of Education
Artistic Education
Peru
Glenda Marie Viera Rivera
Doctor of Philosop hy
Environmental Science
Puerto Rico
           
Carlos J. Almodóvar Rivera
Doctor of Business Administration
Accounting
Puerto Rico
David Clement Mahlalela
Doctor of Legal Studies
Legal Studies
South Africa
Dhieu Mathok Diing Wol
Post-Doctorate of Arts
Conflict Resolution and Peace Building
South Sudan
Fortuna Anthony
Doctor of Education
Education
St. Lucia
Rajhat Salim Ally
Bachelor of Business and Economics
Business Management
Tanza nia
Charles Tumaini Mbaga
Doctor of Philosop hy
Business Management
Tanza nia
           
Elisande Amian Mhanga
Doctor of Business Administration
Marketing
Tanza nia
Mayas Sankar
Doctor of Education
English Language Education
Türkiye
Moses Komakech
Bachelor of Science
Supply Chain Management
Uganda
Kenechukwu Kingsley Nwangwu
Doctor of Philosop hy
Mod. Energy and Renewable Energy Systems
United Kingdom
Jorge Alex Deutsch de Barros
Doctor of Philosop hy
Administration and Business Management
Uruguay
Anabel Ventura Lantigua de Campaña
Bachelor of Education
Education
USA
           
Danauris Mieses
Bachelor of Science
Computer Engineering
USA
Gloria Tatiana Solis Soler
Bachelor of Education
Education
USA
Mitike Bitewulign Desta
Doctor of Management
Tourism Management
USA
Maritza Ramos Cerezo
Bachelor of Science
Psychology
USA
Musi Bridget Barbara Khumalo
Doctor of Journalism
Journalism
Zimbabwe
 
           

Find More Graduates

Gallery: aiu.edu/Graduation/grids/currentgallery.html
Interviews: www.aiu.edu/Graduation/grids/interviews.html
This month we have graduates from: Aruba · Chile · China · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Gambia · Ghana · Guatemala · Honduras · Ivory Coast · Jamaica · Japan · Kenya · Lebanon · Lesotho · Malawi · Malaysia · Mexico · Nigeria · Peru · Puerto Rico · South Africa · South Sudan · St. Lucia · Tanzania · Türkiye · Uganda · United Kingdom · Uruguay · USA · Zimbabwe


Student Testimonials

Annie Bui
Doctor of Business Management
May 27, 2024
“My learning experience at Atlantic International University was a very enriching and rewarding one at the Doctorate level. ... My zoom meeting with my Academic Advisor allowed me to expand my horizons and engage and learn about innovative business initiatives from the PhD perspective. I was able to relate my work and volunteer experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors here in Canada, where I’d worked for the federal and provincial governments, such as at Canadian Heritage and the Canadian National Exhibition Casino. I’d also described my working experiece in the business environment of market research where I’d conducted surveys on topics like grocery, banking, and opinion polling at a market research firm. The skills and leadership involvement I’d gained throughout my career has been invaluable. I’d gotten credit for courses such as Financial Management, Planning, and Accountability; Financial Accounting; Strategy; and Human Resource Management. I hope to enhance the knowledge I’d ...
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Sophia Oduol
Doctor of Education
May 30, 2024
“I am writing to share my experiences and the profound impact that studying online at Atlantic International University (AIU) has had on my professional and personal development, particularly as an artist known for adaptability and flexibility. My journey with AIU began with a Master’s program at a time when online learning platforms were still gaining popularity. The decision to engage in an online educational format came with its challenges but was made significantly smoother thanks to the insightful and effective interactions with course advisors. The support and guidance I received were instrumental in navigating my initial reservations and adapting to the new learning environment. Following the successful completion of my Master’s degree, I was inspired to continue my education with AIU by enrolling in a Doctorate program in Education. This next phase of my academic journey was marked by an extensive engagement with practical research materials that were directly applicable to my role as an educator in the ...
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Theresa Akindeju
Doctor of Public Health
June 4, 2024
“As I reflect on my time at AIU, I’m filled with a multitude of experiences and lessons that have shaped me into the person I am today. From the highs of academic achievements to the challenging lows of setbacks, every moment has contributed to my growth and development. One of the most valuable experience is the opportunity to explore diverse subjects and ideas. Through engaging lectures, thought-provoking assignments, I’ve broadened my horizons and deepened my understanding of the world around me. The pursuit of knowledge has been both enlightening and enriching, pushing me to question assumptions and seek out new perspectives. Of course, getting a degree in AIU has not been without its obstacles. Balancing coursework, full-time jobs, family and personal commitments has often been a juggling act, requiring careful time management and resilience. Yet, overcoming these challenges has taught me the importance of perseverance and adaptability, skills that will serve me well in the future. ...
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Nnenna Ezeokafor
Doctor of Public Health
June 14, 2024
“I am writing this letter to share my experience and express my gratitude for the exceptional PhD program in Public Health (Global Health Track) at Atlantic International University. My time at this esteemed institution has been incredibly rewarding and transformative. One of the most significant aspects of the program was the flexible timing it offered. This flexibility allowed me to manage my study hours according to my personal and professional commitments, making it possible to balance rigorous academic work with other important aspects of my life. Additionally, the flexible payment methods provided by the university were immensely helpful. In fact, if not for the flexible payment structure —I won’t be here today to share this experience as it would have been impossible for me to start this journey in the first place. With a token of $100, I was able to start this journey. These options allowed me to manage tuition fees in a way that suited my financial situation, alleviating any undue stress and enabling me to focus ...
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FIND MORE TESTIMONIALS FROM AIU STUDENTS HERE:


Being happy in the society of misinformation and hate speech

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


When reading the title of this article it seems like a contradiction, two opposites: being happy in the society of misinformation and hate speech. Yes, we are in a society that every day, every minute is a lie and an attack. They are effectively two opposites. Let’s break down each concept to find a way to be happy. It seems impossible! What is the disinformation society? Disinformation is using all possible means to lie about what is happening, about anything. We are witnessing the way the media is used: misinformation is given in every possible way and by people you cannot imagine. Countries with high economic development are looking for the laws to control what is said with Artificial Intelligence. It reaches such an extreme that concepts that they have never said are put into the mouths of people and organizations. Another very important situation is the purpose for which it is said: harm and damage. There are many platforms with teams dedicated to lying to obtain the benefits that seem to their owners or those who hire them. The work in this matter is such that they change and change what they misinform at a speed that is unimaginable. To the war with weapons, we must add the war of misinformation.

In these days, two major Summits were held: that of the Group of 7 (G7) and one for peace in Ukraine where the main actor was the President of the same Volodymyr Zelensky. The G7 is an economic and political organization of the seven most industrialized countries that was created in 1973 and is made up of: the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. Until 1997, Russia was a member of the group, excluding it in 2014 when it seized Crimea, which is located in eastern Ukraine. Russia was not a full member. The 2024 Summit was held in Italy, in Apulia, from June 13 to 15. The central topics were the Wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the problem of the Chinese economy. The organizer of this Summit was the Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni. The representatives of each country were: USA President, Joe Biden; Canada Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau; Germany Chancellor Olaf Schulz; France President Emmanuel Macron; United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak; Italy Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni; Japan Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida. At this Summit, among the special guests were Pope Francis, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. At the Summits, the representatives of the seven countries bring common problems and solutions on which they agree; it means that it’s not a Summit to dissent.

The Ukraine Peace Summit was held in Switzerland on June 15-16. “Our unity here proves that the very idea of international law is still alive and effective, your presence here demonstrates that the UN Charter and the conventions are not a formality, but the real foundations of coexistence between peoples.” Zelensky. Ukraine Peace Summit. Swiss. June 2024. https://efe.com/mundo/2024-06-15/ cumbre-paz-guerra-ukrania-lucerna/ We mention these recent events so that we can see how misinformation is used. Take a tour of the media you want and see what you find. You wonder why what you saw is happening? What is the finality? The purpose is that everyone sells their truth to obtain a benefit no matter who it harms. Can you imagine the society that is created? Can you imagine what happens to people who study? Can you imagine what world people with little education live in who hear others mention the topics we have covered in the way it is done? The media, for the most part, take advantage of the way it should be worked: any document must mention the issue to be discussed, create interest by doing so and close with the answers to the topic in question. The media nowadays abuse and leave the interlocutor without the final part: they leave them questioning so that they can return for the remaining information in order to increase the demand for the media.

We also have people who work in the media and are only readers of information and feel like journalists and begin to add concepts that don’t correspond to the truth. The journalist is the one who analyzes the concepts they have there and reports. The scientist is the one who seeks the truth by verifying it with the method that the science in question has. With all the above, imagine what happens to people’s brains in today’s society. The tension in which today’s global society lives is very high at the expense of those who only want money. Let’s now deal with Hate Speech. We are in a society in which everything consists of attacking others with whatever words: you have to be as hurtful as possible. This form of communication is used by all types of people: it doesn’t refer to rich or poor, nor to people who are literate or not; it happens at all levels. The goal is to hurt the other as much as possible to deprive them of what they want to take away from them.

We are in a society in which they have to have whatever way they can. You would think that with everything that happened with the 2019 Covid pandemic and the many deaths that we would have a society that loved others. Now everyone wants to have and have at whatever price. How to live in a society where everything is misinformation, lies and attacking others no matter how much? Is it possible that time passes and we just wait to die? The sad thing about it all is that it’s a global situation and in any activity that is carried out. It’s also not a priority of a culture or a skin color. It’s the pandemic that has followed or came along with the 2019 coronavirus. We must find the solution to be able to live because life is to be happy. Being happy is being able to perform the skills we were born with and those we are acquiring. If you are doing a program at Atlantic International University (AIU) it’s so that you can do your work and achieve your degree. What do we have to do to make happiness possible? What you have to do with misinformation is to work, look for answers with reliable sources. And with hate speech, what should be done? Hate speech is offending, attacking others as much as possible to deprive them of their property or their value as a human being in their environment. It’s the way to achieve the goods or prestige of others without working for it. Hate speech can begin with someone shouting because something improper was done, which is most likely not true; it’s done to make the other person feel bad and lower their attention to what the facts are. Screaming is a way of hurting to oppress the other. Those are the so-called toxic people. What we have to do with this form of hate speech is to walk away from people when they start shouting. They can also start this type of speech with subtlety so that the other person doesn’t feel what they are saying. One form of hate speech is those who speak ill of others; the purpose is the theft of the other’s prestige.

Hate speech is also part of the media when facts are said that don’t correspond to a person or they are described with degrading adjectives or verbs. Everything, the same, the theft of his prestige to benefit from them. You have to stay away from the people we describe because everything is: having without making an effort for it. Disinformation and hate speech have the same purpose: to eliminate the other to take over what they are or have. What should be done in both cases? Stay away from those who use that strategy for not to work. Only this way can we be happy in the society of misinformation and hate speech. We would say that, with so much science and so much technology and also with Artificial Intelligence we would have a society in which we would be immensely happy. It’s not like this. Let’s defend ourselves from those who only want money no matter what happens to us. Long live peace and with it the love of each other!

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Mpoke Bigg, M. Qué es el grupo de los 7. New York Times- 13 Junio 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/es/2024/06/13/espanol/g7- que-es.html | Zelenski. V. Cumbre por la paz de Ucrania. Suiza. Junio 15 y 16. 2024. https://efe.com/mundo/2024-06-15/cumbre-paz-guerra-ucrania- lucerna/ | ONU - La Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos. https://www.un.org/es/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Tango therapy

Jael Virginia Noguera Perez | Doctorate in Psychology | With the colaboration of Jael Montilla N.


Expressive psychotherapy techniques have positioned themselves as an ally for health, either to improve some pathology or to provide quality of life to the patient. Based on this we conducted our qualitative study to demonstrate the benefits for physical, mental and emotional health. This study was conducted in four study groups in the city of Quito, Ecuador: the first group of patients with chronic and catastrophic diseases (Club Huella Esperanza), the second group of elderly patients, the third group of young university students (Tango Club of the Universidad de las Americas UDLA) and the fourth a mixed age group made up of life partners and people who just wanted to experience the connection through the embrace that tango offers.

Tango therapy (therapy through tango), belongs to these expressive therapies; it can be performed individually, in couples or in groups; this study I did with my collaborator and tango therapist (T.T.) Jael Rebeca Montilla Noguera; in it we work sessions and workshops adapting to each activity, physical and mental dynamics according to each requirement of the patient (age, physical condition, health and emotional). In our sessions we also include clinical psychology techniques, couples and family therapy, gestalt therapy, psycho- oncology, NLP techniques, music therapy, dance therapy, aromatherapy, minfulness and of course elements of tango, so that by containing a little of the above mentioned makes a multimodal therapy method, in which each dynamic plays an important role in each case or in each particular group. Nowadays more and more members of the health team of different specialties are joining to experiment and demonstrate the benefits of tango therapy that contributes in different pathologies to physical activity and improvements in the quality of life because it involves mental and emotional wellbeing; these scientific studies have been documented in research works for more than 25 years; to cite just a few, as an example; Year 1999. Tango therapy in Parkinson Patients, Patients with Cardiovascular Pathologies and Sedentary Patients. Dr. Roberto Peidró, director of the Life Center of the Favaloro Foundation – Argentina, is a pioneer in the investigation of the applications and therapeutic use of tango, he evidenced in the coordination of tango the benefit for patients with Parkinson and in patients with cardiovascular problems, since such therapy influences increasing the aerobic capacity in these patients and therefore diminishing the levels of the corticotropin releasing hormone, regulator of stress and hypertension and memory disorders.

Year 2007. Tango therapy in patients with Parkinson’s disease. University of Washington (United States), research that shows that the frequent use of tango therapy improves balance in Parkinson’s patients over other types of physical activity. The results appear in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy. Year 2016. Tango therapy for Patients with Peripheral Neuropathy. The Ohio State University, analyzes the benefits of tango in patients with peripheral neuropathy, which is one of the side effects of chemotherapy patients. Year 2021. Tango in aging when dance is prevention and therapy. Dr. Veronica Ferreira Perdigau, Luxembourg. She bases her Master thesis in Psychology on the benefits of tango therapy analyzing the psychological mechanisms that are enjoyed in tango and the benefits to treat and delay aging in older adults. I only wanted to cite four studies because there are many more; where the purpose is to investigate and corroborate the benefits of therapy through tango; which coincide with our studies in each group analyzed. And what are these benefits then? Based on three important elements that it contains; we were able to demonstrate the following benefits: A. The embrace: this element can improve balance, posture, coordination of our movements, aerobic capacity (by movement), the distribution of our body fat, muscular endurance, among others. It has also been confirmed that in a 20-second hug. We release hormones that help to control our emotions (imagine then how it is magnified in the 2 or 3 minutes of enjoyment of a piece of tango. B. The Connection: with the connection that we enjoy in tango we can improve and promote our socialization because tango allows a nonverbal conversation between two people; this connection adds to the awareness of our body image and self-esteem in addition to locate us in time and space in the here and now (gestalt therapy). C. Improvisation: this useful element stimulates our mind and memory as well as creativity, perception and therefore our learning.

With our patients we were able to demonstrate (corroborating previous scientific studies) how tango therapy helps to improve the health of patients with certain pathologies: Parkinson’s. Increases firmness, confidence and agility of movements, reinforcing their balance. Patients with other chronic and catastrophic diseases. When the patients express themselves with dance and interprets their emotions, they improve their quality of life, they place themselves in the here and now, reinforce their state of mind and the way they confront any situation of their daily life. Oncology patients. Tango therapy contributes to improve balance. Cardiac pathologies and hypertension. Patients improve their cardiovascular capacity, reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

Mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, Bipolarity and Alzheimer’s. It improves communication, the balance of emotions; and even the element of improvisation that stimulates creativity and mental stimulation, contributes to the prevention of Alzheimer’s and mental illnesses. Through our study we were also able to certify together our own method before the Academia Argentina de Tango Terapia. This method of work through workshops is called Cultura tango which is supported with expressive therapy techniques directed especially to patients with the pathologies described above and in turn to anyone who wishes to contribute to their physical and mental health; additionally our goal is also focused on training facilitators to serve as multipliers of tango therapy workshops whose purpose is to add to the physical, mental, emotional and quality of life of any person. Each time we are more convinced that this path taken through tango therapy and its tools continues to contribute to the health of our patients. With tango therapy each person, each patient, advance at their own pace without frustration or pressure, enjoying the process, erasing limitations or limiting beliefs that in most cases are only found in their min. Each patient assimilates our method of tango therapy (Tango culture); each dynamic, each activity is adapted to each patient to each therapy group, thus achieving the development of their capabilities, a therapy to improve their life... their health. 12 Image: Courtesy of the author Publications by Students: aiu.edu/StudentPublication.html During

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

Learning

Mental-health crisis

How students and academics are fighting it in science.

On the first day of her class, Annika Martin asks the assembled researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland to roll out their yoga mats and stand with their feet spread wide apart. They place their hands on their hips before swinging their torsos down towards the mat and back up again. ... Martin, a health psychologist, can sense that some students are sceptical. They are academics at heart, many of whom have never tried yoga, and registered for Martin’s course to learn how to deal with the stress associated with academic research. Over the course of a semester, she teaches her students about stress and its impact on the body before giving them the tools to help cope with it —from yoga, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation to journalling. It is one of many initiatives designed to combat the mental-health crisis that is gripping science and academia more broadly. The problems are particularly acute for students and early-career researchers, who are often paid meagre wages, have to uproot their lives every few years and have few long-term job prospects. But senior researchers face immense pressure as well. Many academics also experience harassment, discrimination, bullying and even sexual assault. The end result is that students and academics are much more likely to experience depression and anxiety than is the general population. But some universities and institutions are starting to fight back in creative ways. ... Read full text:

Hate incidents

Some ways the pandemic led to an increase.

When there is a crisis, some people feel defensive and blame other people and groups. When someone sees a group as a threat, it might lead them to act or speak hatefully to members of that group. They might show hate to defend the way things are and stop change from happening. Some ways the pandemic led to an increase in hate: Stress about money. Losing work or having trouble paying the bills may increase hate. People may think another group has an unfair advantage. Isolation and loneliness. When people feel disconnected and alone, they are more likely to be attracted to hate-based ideas and groups where they feel they can belong. Thinking hate is okay. Hearing hateful things in the news or online can make hate seem more normal. Anxiety and fear. Having someone to blame can help people feel they can explain and control a scary situation. Pushing back against progress on social issues. Reacting with hate to social movements such as Black Lives Matter protests. Public health measures. Lockdowns, masks and vaccines led people to feel anxious or distrustful. They found it easier to believe conspiracy theories and extreme views. Other ways of hate that increased during the Covid-19 pandemic are: Misinformation, disinformation and conspiracies • Far right and hate-based groups • Misogyny and hate-based movements • Radicalization ... Read full text:


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Autism

It could be diagnosed with stool sample, scientists say.

Scientists have raised hopes for a cheap and simple test for autism after discovering consistent differences between the microbes found in the guts of autistic people and those without the condition. The finding suggests that a routine stool sample test could help doctors identify autism early, meaning people would receive their diagnosis, and hopefully support, much faster than with the lengthy procedure used in clinics today. “Usually it takes three to four years to make a confirmed diagnosis for suspected autism, with most children diagnosed at six years old,” Prof Qi Su at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said. “Our microbiome biomarker panel has a high performance in children under the age of four, which may help facilitate an early diagnosis.” Rates of autism have soared in recent decades, largely because of greater awareness and a broadening of the criteria used to diagnose the condition. In the UK and many other western countries, about one in 100 people are now thought to be on the autism spectrum. Studies in twins suggest that 60-90% of autism is down to genetics, but other factors contribute, such as older parents, birth complications and exposure to air pollution or particular pesticides in pregnancy. Signs of autism range from children not ...
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Wearable ultrasound

Soon you could see how your body works in real time.

In the field of personal health-care technology, wearables such as Fitbit and Apple Watch have become household names. These devices —small powerhouses of sensors and smart technology— can track steps, monitor heart rates and even perform electrocardiograms. They present biometrics in neat, digestible metrics, nudging people towards healthier lifestyles. Wearable glucose monitors are also freeing people from the frequent pricks of a needle. Yet existing wearables generally collect data from only within millimetres below the skin’s surface. Other technologies can see far beyond this superficial layer —MRI, X-rays and ultrasound, for example. Of these, ultrasound is emerging as the front-runner in the race towards wearable adaptation. Ultrasound operates on the principle of sonar, sending high-frequency sound waves into the body, which bounce back from internal structures to produce real-time images of dynamic processes such as a heart beating or blood flowing. Conventional pointof- care ultrasound imaging devices require a trained sonographer to press a handheld ultrasound probe against a patient who is static, meaning these devices are usually confined to hospitals and clinics. However, ultrasound waves are relatively easy to produce, non-invasive and safe. These characteristics make ultrasound uniquely suited to a wearable form that is capable of continuous monitoring. ... Read full text


AIU makes a huge contribution to the world by giving new scient ifics the space for original investigations and research. Visit MyAIU Evolution



Reusables

Swedish dishcloths

Swedish dishcloths are the thin squares that —thanks to their ability to wash or dry dishes, absorb spills, and clean countertops— threaten to replace or at least take market share away from Big Sponge and Paper Towel. Swedish dishcloths are made from a combination of cotton and wood pulp, a.k.a cellulose, a fibrous material that’s derived from trees. (Most of the brands are 70% wood pulp and 30% cotton.) This combo allows them to be rigid when dry and pliable when wet. And because most Swedish dishcloths can go in the dishwasher or washing machine, or be boiled to clean and disinfect them, you can use the same ones for months. Plus, they’re way more durable and absorbent than regular paper towels. And even if the thought of being kind to the environment and using fewer natural resources doesn’t move you, they’re more cost-effective than buying roll upon roll of the single-use stuff. ... Read full text:

Song melodies

...have become simpler since 1950, study suggests.

The complexity of the melodies of the most popular songs each year in the US —according to the Billboard year-end singles charts— has decreased since 1950, a study published in Scientific Reports suggests. Madeline Hamilton and Marcus Pearce analyzed the most prominent melodies (usually the vocal melody) of songs that reached the top five positions of the US Billboard yearend singles music charts each year between 1950 and 2022. They found that the complexity of song rhythms and pitch arrangements decreased over this period as the average number of notes played per second increased. They also identified two significant decreases in melodic complexity that occurred in 1975 and 2000, along with a smaller decrease in 1996. The authors speculate that the melodic changes that occurred in 1975 could represent the rise of genres such as new wave, disco and stadium rock. Those occurring in 1996 and 2000 could represent the rise of hip-hop or the adoption of digital audio workstations, which enabled the repeated playing of audio loops, they add. The authors note that although the complexity of popular melodies appears to have decreased in recent decades, this does not suggest that the complexity of other musical components — such as the quality or combinations of sounds— has also decreased. ... Read full text

Spacesuits

NASA needs new ones

Almost exactly two years ago, as it prepared for the next generation of human spaceflight, NASA chose a pair of private companies to design and develop new spacesuits. These were to be new spacesuits that would allow astronauts to both perform spacewalks outside the International Space Station as well as walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Now, that plan appears to be in trouble, with one of the spacesuit providers —Collins Aerospace— expected to back out, Ars has learned. It’s a blow for NASA, because the space agency really needs modern spacesuits. NASA’s Apollo-era suits have long been retired. The current suits used for spacewalks in low-Earth orbit are four decades old. “These new capabilities will allow us to continue on the ISS and allows us to do the Artemis program and continue on to Mars,” said the director of Johnson Space Center, Vanessa Wyche ... Read full text

Get a better knowledge about our rights and the way we can use them on a daily basis to prevent any abuse or limitations of them. Visit MyAIU Human Rights.



Blood sugar levels

When is it best to exercise in order to maintain them healthy?

Having overweight or obesity can contribute to developing insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Once someone develops diabetes, they have to carefully monitor their blood sugar levels to make sure their levels are not too high or too low. Researchers from the University of Granada, in Spain recently studied the role of the timing of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on glucose metabolism. ... They found an association between being most active later in the day and having more stable blood sugar levels over a 24-hour period. The study appears in the journal Obesity. ... The researchers conducted a study using data from the EXTREME trial to see whether the timing of physical activity impacts blood sugar stability. They observed a group of 186 adults, evenly split between men and women, with an average age of 46.8 years. The average body mass index for the group was 32.9. The participants wore a device to track physical activity, and a continuous glucose-monitoring device to track glucose levels, for 14 days. The study participants undertook an average of 24 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. ... Those who completed most of their physical activity in the morning did not show statistically different glucose levels compared with the inactive participants. For the afternoon group, the participants experienced a reduction of 0.98 mg/ dL. ... Read full text

Mothers and fathers

There’s a difference between how they form attachment to their kids.

Attachment is a deep, psychological bond between two people. A mother’s attachment is based purely on nurture. The strength of that attachment will be based upon the sensitive and positive way she nurtures that child. For a father, nurture is important, but there’s an added element that comes from the cortical area of the brain. That’s the bit saying, “OK, I’m going to push your developmental boundaries. I’m going to make you more resilient. I’m going to push you into the world beyond the family.” What joins all fathers around the world is they have this role in scaffolding the child’s entry into the social world. That’s the underpinning of what they’re involved in developmentally. People can sometimes find that difficult because they’re like, “Well, those are just culturally gendered roles.” Yes, you can argue that, but it also has an evolutionary explanation, which is the fact that evolution doesn’t do redundancy. It doesn’t cause two individuals who have input into something to have the same role if that’s not required because that’s just a waste of energy. Bear in mind that human children take a huge amount of emotional, cognitive, and practical input to raise. So it’s important that the parents fit together well and give that developmental environment. ... [Excerpt from an interview with Anna Machin, author of the book “Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships”] Read full text ‘Love Is Biological Bribery’ Read full text:


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Fast fashion

It dominates China despite the recycling effort.

WENZHOU, China (AP) —At a factory in Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast, two mounds of discarded cotton clothing and bed linens, loosely separated into dark and light colors, pile up on a workroom floor. Jacket sleeves, collars and brand labels protrude from the stacks as workers feed the garments into shredding machines. It’s the first stage of a new life for the textiles, part of a recycling effort at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of the largest cotton recycling plants in China. Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide, according to fashion sustainability nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Even less —only 1%— are castoff clothes recycled into new garments; the majority is used for low-value items like insulation or mattress stuffing. Nowhere is the problem more pressing than in China, the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, where more than 26 million tons of clothes are thrown away each year, according to government statistics. Most of it ends up in landfills. And factories like this one are barely making a dent in a country whose clothing industry is dominated by “fast fashion” —cheap clothes made from unrecyclable synthetics, not cotton. Produced from petrochemicals that contribute to climate change, air and water pollution, synthetics account for 70% of domestic clothing sales in China. ... Read full text:

Plastic pollution

Baltimore sues major brands for alleged role in it.

The City of Baltimore, Maryland, has filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and other major companies to recoup costs associated with cleaning up plastic pollution. The lawsuit accuses the companies of making false claims, failing to warn, having design defects, using deceptive practices and violating state and local laws. “Baltimore is awash in plastic waste, and the city is seeking accountability from some of the biggest plastic polluters —including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Frito Lay— for contributing to what they have acknowledged as a crisis,” according to a press release from one of the law firms representing the city in court. “The defendants have only increased their plastic production while touting sustainability and externalizing cleanup costs to local governments like Baltimore, which has spent tens of millions of dollars cleaning up their plastic trash,” according to the lawsuit, filed June 20 in Baltimore Circuit Court. This is the second plastics-related lawsuit in less than a year against PepsiCo. In November 2023, the state of New York sued PepsiCo over river pollution, alleging the beverage company was “harming the public and the environment with its single-use plastic packaging.” The defendants, which include W.R. Grace and Company, Mercury Plastics, Adell Plastics and Polymershapes Baltimore, have not yet responded in court. ... Read full text:

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Sudan

The country is caught in a storm on many fronts.

Since the beginning of Sudan’s conflict in April last year, we’ve been highlighting the international community’s failure to address it. We’ve focused a lot on Darfur, in the west of the country, where wide-scale atrocities have forced more than half a million people to flee their homes, many across the western border to Chad. Today, we’re going to look at the conflict in areas that border Eritrea and Ethiopia. The fighting in Sudan between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is causing intense civilian suffering for Sudanese citizens in many parts of the country. And they’re not the only ones. Often overlooked is that more than one million refugees were living in Sudan when the conflict started, many of them in the east. These are people who fled severe repression in Eritrea or the atrocity-filled conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, hoping to find safety in Sudan. Now, their lives could be in danger again. Recent weeks have seen RSF attacks on towns in the area. If this spreads to other parts of the eastern border region, the fate of tens of thousands of refugees will be very much at risk. Refugees from Ethiopia in particular have been trying to draw attention to their precarious situation since the Sudanese conflict began. Some fear they will be targeted by the warring parties after being accused of assisting enemies. There are already reports some have been arrested or detained. There’s no clear protection or evacuation strategy for any of ... Read full text:

NASA

...is sued after piece of ISS smashes into a house.

A family in Florida has launched a lawsuit against NASA, seeking compensation after a piece of space junk fell from the sky and crashed through the roof of their house. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, although the family’s lawyer says the ramifications of this case go far beyond mere damage reparation and could set a precedent for how future claims of this sort are resolved. A significant increase in rocket launches and space operations in the last few years has seen a massive rise in debris floating around in Low Earth Orbit, heightening the risk of collisions in space and potentially posing a danger to those on the ground. And while most of this heavenly waste is likely to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the incident in question serves as an ominous reminder of what can happen when bits of refuse survive their descent. In this case, the offending object was identified by NASA as part of a stanchion that was used to load a bunch of spent batteries onto a cargo pallet onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Originally discarded from the ISS in 2021, the item was supposed to harmlessly degrade upon re-entry, but a fragment remained intact and eventually fell straight through the roof of the Otero family’s home in Naples, Florida, on March 8 of this year. “My clients are seeking adequate compensation to account for the stress and impact that this event had on their lives,” said the family’s lawyer Mica Nguyen Worthy in a ...
Read full text:

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Magic

It can help us understand animal minds.

To help pay for his undergraduate education, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin had an unusual summer job: cruise ship magician. “I was that guy who comes out at dinnertime and does random magic for you,” he says. But his latest magic gig is even more unusual: performing for Eurasian jays at Cambridge University’s Comparative Cognition Lab. Birds can be harder to fool than tourists. And to do magic for the jays, he had to learn to do sleight-of-hand tricks with a live, wriggling waxworm instead of the customary coin. But performing in an aviary does have at least one advantage: The birds aren’t expecting to be entertained. “You don’t have to worry about impressing anybody, or tell a joke,” Garcia-Pelegrin says. “So you just do the magic.” In just the last few years, researchers have become interested in what they can learn about animal minds by studying what does and doesn’t fool them. “Magic effects can reveal blind spots in seeing and roadblocks in thinking,” says Nicky Clayton, who heads the Cambridge lab and, with Garcia-Pelegrin and others, cowrote an overview of the science of magic in the Annual Review of Psychology. What we visually perceive about the world is a product of how our brains interpret what our eyes see. Humans and other animals have evolved to handle the immense amount of visual information we’re exposed to ...
Read full text:

Land Squeeze

4 Pillars for addressing it at a global level.

Rising population and demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel are increasing competition for land. For example, new WRI research projects that by 2050, an area of land nearly twice the size of India will be converted to agriculture, while an area the size of the continental United States will be needed to meet the world’s growing demand for wood. ... To manage society’s competing demands on the finite resource of land, the world simultaneously needs to: 1. Produce more food, feed and fiber on existing agricultural lands and some working forests. 2. Protect remaining natural and seminatural ecosystems (e.g., primary forests, secondary forests, wetlands, grasslands) from conversion and degradation. 3. Reduce projected growth in demand for land-intensive goods, particularly by high consumers. 4. Restore degraded ecosystems and marginal agricultural land (with limited improvement potential) back to nature. For each of these four pillars, WRI’s research suggests a goal, a suite of strategies and some observations: 1) Produce. Humanity needs to produce enough food, fiber and feed to meet the needs of nearly 10 billion people by 2050 on the same (and ideally less) working land area that now provides for roughly 8 billion. This requires boosting yields while minimizing unintended environmental impacts and increasing urban density. ...
Read full text:

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Campus

The next pandemic is already here

By Diana Bell

I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one —it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours. I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years. This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in southeast Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered the virus when it killed a mammal, an endangered Owston’s palm civet, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005. How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region. This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose. This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.

The first signs Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species. We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks. Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats. Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity. Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.

A roving sickness Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from the high Arctic to mainland Antarctica. In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. A recent paper found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started. Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears. The UK alone has lost over 75% of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also largely driven by the virus. Scientists haven’t managed to completely sequence the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans —one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.

At the crossroads Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which 461 (52%) were fatal. Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again. It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia.

Recent research found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 died in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5. Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been confirmed in skuas, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been killed by the virus in Chile. How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks. To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.



Read full text by Diana Bell at The Conversation:

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Privacy pop up bed tent.

A sleep sanctuary for people hypersensitive to sound and/or light. This tent give autistic kids a sense of security and containing when sleeping. Available for twin, full-size and queen size beds. It even works on most bunk beds. www.alvantor.com

Recycled newspaper pencil pot.

Old newspaper & magazine pieces have been rolled into this eco friendly pet pot. Random colour selection. 12 cm high. Made by Paper High. www.protecttheplanet.co.uk

The Publish or Perish Game™.

This is a humorous party game about academic publishing. Players race to publish manuscripts with useless nonsense while sabotaging each other’s research and delivering “very helpful” comments, Reviewer 2 style. get.thepublishorperishgame.com

Lilian Sjøberg.

“We have used millions of years to navigate wildlife, but now we’re just sitting. ... Stress is our symptom. It’s what pushes us into fight, flight, and freeze. The body cannot tell the difference if you are biking [flight], or boxing [fight]. So any intensive sport is going into your instincts. You’re still using up the adrenaline.”

Lilian Sjøberg. Certified therapist with a Master's in Biology. Creator of Hope shortcut (at substack.com).

Classic 250P Dobsonian.

Featuring large apertures and easy functionality, this is the ideal beginner telescope. An inexpensive solution for bright, detailed visual observing using a simple design. www.skywatcherusa.com

Say what?

what? “It’s OK if you don’t like me. Not everyone has good taste.”
Source: 100 Funny sayings that are definitely worth memorizing. www.rd.com


BACHELOR’S DEGREE in Culinary Arts

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND HUMAN STUDIES

The Bachelor program in Culinary Arts at AIU provides students with the research and analytical tools necessary to expand their culinary knowledge. This program analyzes a wide range of topics relevant to advanced positions in the industry, such as facilities and event management, financial management and cost control, marketing, research and writing, small business development, and organizational psychology. 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 purposedriven individual who wants to elevate their life and make a solid contribution to the world, then this Bachelor program is for you. AIU’s Bachelor degree in Culinary Arts goes one step further by allowing students to study and research multiple key areas of computer science to develop a unique foundation of practical knowledge and computer science theory. Your AIU Distance Learning Bachelor program in Culinary Arts will be a custom-made program, designed just for you by you and your advisor. This flexibility to meet your needs is seldom found in other distance learning programs. 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. Instead, our online Bachelor programs are designed just for you. They are individually designed to meet your needs and help you to reach your professional and personal goals.

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

Food IT
Food Safety
Financial management
Food and culture
Composition and Communication
Economics
Cost Control and Food Purchasing
Beverages and Customer Service
Business Planning
Cafeteria Operations
Chocolates and Confections
Classic Banquet Cuisine
Pastry techniques
Contemporary Cakes and Desserts
Cookies, tarts and mignardises
Cuisines of Asia
Cuisines of the Americas
Mediterranean cuisines
Kitchen biochemistry
Applied sommelier
Molecular kitchen

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

Pioneer Plaza /
900 Fort Street Mall 905
Honolulu, HI 96813
800-993-0066 (Toll Free in US)
808-924-9567 (Internationally)


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