Beauty Pageants, FIU, and "Worlds Ahead": An Open Letter to FIU President Mark Rosenberg

In response to FIU's decision to rent space to Donald Trump's Miss Universe Beauty pageant, it is argued that FIU has a responsibility toward its female and male students to work for a less sexist world. As the leadership of the university does not seem to be aware of the dangers of exaggerated beauty standards and female objectification, the letter draws on feminist insights to add non-sexist substance to FIU's vision of being "worlds ahead".

Marl Prairie/Slough Gradients; Patterns and Trends in Shark Slough and Adjacent Marl Prairies (CERP monitoring activity 3.1.3.5), First Annual Report (2005)

The work on CERP monitoring item 3.1.3.5 (Marl prairie/slough gradients) is being conducted by Florida International University (Dr Michael Ross, Project Leader), with Everglades National Park (Dr. Craig Smith) providing administrative support and technical consultation. As of January 2006 the funds transferred by ACOE to ENP, and subsequently to FIU, have been entirely expended or encumbered in salaries or wages. The project work for 2005 started rather late in the fiscal year, but ultimately accomplished the Year 1 goals of securing a permit to conduct the research in Everglades National Park, finalizing a detailed scope of work, and sampling marsh sites which are most easily accessed during the wet season. 46 plots were sampled in detail, and a preliminary vegetation classification distinguished three groups among these sites (Sawgrass marsh, sawgrass and other, and slough) which may be arranged roughly along a hydrologic gradient from least to most persistently inundated . We also made coarser observations of vegetation type at 5-m intervals along 2 transects totaling ~ 5 km. When these data were compared with similar observations made in 1998-99, it appeared that vegetation in the western portion of Northeast Shark Slough (immediately east of the L-67 extension) had shifted toward a more hydric type during the last 6 years, while vegetation further east was unchanged in this respect. Because this classification and trend analysis is based on a small fraction of the data set that will be available after the first cycle of sampling (3 years from now), the results should not be interpreted too expansively. However, they do demonstrate the potential for gaining a more comprehensive view of marsh vegetation structure and dynamics in the Everglades, and will provide a sound basis for adaptive management.

The Argentine Dilemma: “Vulture Funds” and the Risks Posed to Developing Economies

Post-crisis Argentina is a case study of crisis management through debt restructuring. This article examines how Argentina negotiated the external debt in the wake of the sovereign default in December 2001 and now confronts challenges posed by holdout creditors—the so called “vulture funds”. It argues that debt restructuring has put a straitjacket on the national economy, making it virtually impossible for healthy growth short of a break with the international economic order. While Argentina has successfully restructured a $95 billion debt with an unprecedented “hair cut” (around 70% reduction in “net value of debt”), a sustainable growth appears out of reach as long as reliance on the government debt market prevails. In this cycle, the transmission belt of financial crisis to developing countries is characterized by the entry of highly speculative players such as hedge funds, conflicts of interests embedded in “sovereign debt restructuring” (SDR) and vulnerabilities associated with “emerging market debt”.

Supporting Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Higher Education through Mentoring

Federal legislation is now making it possible for students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) to enroll in university programs through inclusive transition models. The need for more knowledge in the workplace, in addition to newly acquired opportunities, draws students with ID to college campuses. With this increase of student in postsecondary education settings, it is necessary to examine the types of supports needed to ensure their success. Peer mentorship has been identified as a crucial aspect of support for academic and social development. This paper identifies the skills mentors use during their sessions and outlines challenges with mentoring partnerships in postsecondary transition programs. Data analysis revealed major themes related to inclusion, self-determination, and adaptive behavior skills.

Using sonic enhancement to augment non-visual tabular navigation

More information is now readily available to computer users than at any time in human history; however, much of this information is often inaccessible to people with blindness or low-vision, for whom information must be presented non-visually. Currently, screen readers are able to verbalize on-screen text using text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis; however, much of this vocalization is inadequate for browsing the Internet. An auditory interface that incorporates auditory-spatial orientation was created and tested. For information that can be structured as a two-dimensional table, links can be semantically grouped as cells in a row within an auditory table, which provides a consistent structure for auditory navigation. An auditory display prototype was tested.^ Sixteen legally blind subjects participated in this research study. Results demonstrated that stereo panning was an effective technique for audio-spatially orienting non-visual navigation in a five-row, six-column HTML table as compared to a centered, stationary synthesized voice. These results were based on measuring the time- to-target (TTT), or the amount of time elapsed from the first prompting to the selection of each tabular link. Preliminary analysis of the TTT values recorded during the experiment showed that the populations did not conform to the ANOVA requirements of normality and equality of variances. Therefore, the data were transformed using the natural logarithm. The repeated-measures two-factor ANOVA results show that the logarithmically-transformed TTTs were significantly affected by the tonal variation method, F(1,15) = 6.194, p= 0.025. Similarly, the results show that the logarithmically transformed TTTs were marginally affected by the stereo spatialization method, F(1,15) = 4.240, p=0.057. The results show that the logarithmically transformed TTTs were not significantly affected by the interaction of both methods, F(1,15) = 1.381, p=0.258. These results suggest that some confusion may be caused in the subject when employing both of these methods simultaneously. The significant effect of tonal variation indicates that the effect is actually increasing the average TTT. In other words, the presence of preceding tones increases task completion time on average. The marginally-significant effect of stereo spatialization decreases the average log(TTT) from 2.405 to 2.264.^

Vocabulary learning through use of the picture-word inductive model for young English learners in China: A mixed methods examination using Cognitive Load Theory

English has been taught as a core and compulsory subject in China for decades. Recently, the demand for English in China has increased dramatically. China now has the world's largest English-learning population. The traditional English-teaching method cannot continue to be the only approach because it merely focuses on reading, grammar and translation, which cannot meet English learners and users' needs (i.e., communicative competence and skills in speaking and writing). ^ This study was conducted to investigate if the Picture-Word Inductive Model (PWIM), a new pedagogical method using pictures and inductive thinking, would benefit English learners in China in terms of potential higher output in speaking and writing. With the gauge of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), specifically, its redundancy effect, I investigated whether processing words and a picture concurrently would present a cognitive overload for English learners in China. ^ I conducted a mixed methods research study. A quasi-experiment (pretest, intervention for seven weeks, and posttest) was conducted using 234 students in four groups in Lianyungang, China (58 fourth graders and 57 seventh graders as an experimental group with PWIM and 59 fourth graders and 60 seventh graders as a control group with the traditional method). No significant difference in the effects of PWIM was found on vocabulary acquisition based on grade levels. Observations, questionnaires with open-ended questions, and interviews were deployed to answer the three remaining research questions. A few students felt cognitively overloaded when they encountered too many writing samples, too many new words at one time, repeated words, mismatches between words and pictures, and so on. Many students listed and exemplified numerous strengths of PWIM, but a few mentioned weaknesses of PWIM. The students expressed the idea that PWIM had a positive effect on their English teaching. ^ As integrated inferences, qualitative findings were used to explain the quantitative results that there were no significant differences of the effects of the PWIM between the experimental and control groups in both grade levels, from four contextual aspects: time constraints on PWIM implementation, teachers' resistance, how to use PWIM and PWIM implemented in a classroom over 55 students.^

MIUS News: Maps and Imagery User Services @ FIU Green Library: Volume 6, Issue 1 Spring 2015

Florida International University's Spring 2015 Maps and User Imagery Services Newsletter

Japan in Crisis- an FIU Teach-In

Panel discussion on the subject of the March 2011 earthquake disaster in Japan featuring the following speakers: Steven Heine, Associate Director, SIPA; Director, Asian Studies Institute Dean Whitman, Associate Professor, Department fo Earth and Environment Richard Olson, Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations Joerg Reinhold, Associate Professor, Department of Physics Paul Kowert, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations Matthew Marr, Assistant Professor, Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies Pallab Mozumder, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environment and Department of Economics Discussion was held at the Graham Center Ballroom of the Modesto A. Maidique Campus

FIU Budget Town Hall Meeting September 2010

Town Hall Meeting held at the Graham Center, Maidique Campus, on the topic of the University Budget and Strategic Plan. Speakers include President Mark B. Rosenberg and Provost and Executive Vice President Douglas Wartzok.

FIU in 2020

Computer-generated video that presents a vision for Florida International University's appearance in the year 2020.

FIU Little Caesars Pizza Bowl Celebration

Function held at Graham Center Ballrooms to celebrate the victory of FIU's Golden Panther Football Team in the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl. Event held on January 28,2011 and sponsored by the Student Government Association.

FIU White Coat Ceremony 2012

FIU White Ceremony marks the beginning of 120 students' transitions into physicians. Ceremony held at Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center on August 10, 2012.

FIU White Coat Ceremony 2010

College of Medicine White Coat Ceremony marks the beginning of 43 students' transformation into physicians. Ceremony was held on August 6, 2010 at the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center at the Maidique Campus, Florida International University.

FIU White Coat Ceremony 2011

FIU White Ceremony marks the beginning of 82 students' transitions into physicians. Ceremony held at Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center on August 5, 2011.

FIU White Coat Ceremony 2013

FIU White Ceremony marks the beginning of 122 students' transitions into physicians. Ceremony held at Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center on August 9, 2013.