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Civics Education Expert Comments on Sandra Day O'Connor's Legacy, Inspiration
O’Connor’s creation of iCivics ‘was the catalyst for much of my work in civics education,’ says Brooke Blevins This week, the nation heard from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, that she is officially stepping away from public life due to health reasons. In her letter to the nation, O’Connor shared about her commitment to civics education and, specifically, the creation of iCivics – free online interactive games and curriculum designed to teach the core principles of civics to middle and high school students. Brooke Blevins, Ph.D., serves as associate professor of social studies education and associate chair of the department of curriculum and instruction in Baylor’s School of Education. She and Karon LeCompte, Ph.D., associate professor of curriculum and instruction, conducted the first independent research study of iCivics effectiveness. Blevins and LeCompte also launched iEngage Summer Civics Institute. The researchers were honored by O’Connor for their research and commitment to iCivics and civics education. Dr. Blevins wrote the following when she learned of Justice O’Connor’s announcement: We are saddened to learn about the news that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is stepping away from public life due to her health. Justice O’Connor is undoubtedly one of the most profound figures in our country—a boundary-breaking woman who fought tirelessly to encourage collaboration, democratic discourse, and working toward the common good. Her legacy is one that has had a deep impact on my own life, my academic pursuits and the Baylor community as a whole. Justice O’Connor’s efforts to start iCivics, an online civics education platform that provides interactive games and curriculum designed to help students learn about the core principles of democracy in an engaging and relevant manner, was the catalyst for much of (the Baylor School of Education’s and) my own work in civics education. In 2012, my colleague, Dr. Karon LeCompte, and I had the privilege of conducting the first independent research study examining the effectiveness of iCivics on students’ civic knowledge, skills and dispositions. Working with more than 300 students in Waco ISD and Midway ISD, we implemented a six-week unit using iCivics games and curriculum. In April of that year, we had the honor of presenting our encouraging findings to Justice O’Connor in a community symposium in which she also honored Waco area students, teachers and district administrators. It was from the inspiring work of Justice O’Connor and iCivics that our work in civics education at Baylor University has continued, including the creation of the Baylor University iEngage Summer Civics Institute—a program designed to take the principles learned in iCivics and put them into action in the community. As Justice O’Connor has said time and time again, “It’s not enough to understand; you’ve got to do something.” Justice O’Connor’s efforts to reinvigorate civics education, re-engage young people in civic life and ensure the future of our democracy are enduring and inspiring for all of us. These efforts to reform and reinvigorate civics education are ongoing and in need of our support and resources. As she noted in her final letter, “It is my great hope that our nation will commit to educating our youth about civics, and to helping young people understand their crucial role as informed, active citizens in our nation.” This is why the Baylor University School of Education is committed to pioneering innovative approaches and research in civics education. We are grateful for the work of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and her light that shines bright throughout our world.
On average, you will spend about a third of your life sleeping or attempting to sleep. For many, this means more than 25 years of your life will be spent in bed. Given this startling proportion, wouldn’t you like to know more about what helps, hinders and happens while you are asleep? Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor University, spends the majority of his time researching and teaching about such topics. “One reason I am passionate about studying sleep is because you can't really introspect too much about it, as with nearly everything else in psychology,” Scullin said. “With sleep, you're unconscious at the time you are doing it. Sure, you can wake up and say ‘Oh, how did I sleep last night?’ but when you're actually engaging in the sleeping process, you can't do that. As a result, sleeping becomes an enigma. When you have the right equipment, you can begin to design experiments to figure out what exactly the brain is doing when we sleep and why is it important.” Below, Scullin addresses several common beliefs about sleep and the science that proves or disproves them. MYTH: If you die in a dream, then you die in real life. For a time, a rumor circled around that one’s brain cannot handle the mental strain of dying in a dream, and if you die in a dream, you will die. “That's just not substantiated because people report dying in their dreams, and they report it while they're still alive,” Scullin said. “Your brain can actually handle a lot, and there’s one theory that says nightmares are a functional adaptation to help us survive. It is potentially really functional for your brain to have those stressors in its offline state to help prepare you for situations. A lot of people think that nightmares are bad, and yes, they can be a clinical problem. But when they aren’t to that level, they can help us prepare for stressful situations.” FACT: Snoring is a sign of disease. Sleep apnea and snoring are linked, although not with a 1:1 ratio; some people snore without sleep apnea, but snoring is the biggest risk-factor of sleep apnea, Scullin said. Snoring is caused by an obstruction to one’s breathing pathways. In many cases, individuals who snore wake up gasping for air. That’s an observed sleep apnea, said Scullin. If someone is observing those things, he recommends visiting a clinical sleep physician. “What if you stopped breathing every few minutes while you were awake during the day?” asked Scullin. “Would you be okay with that? Not only are you not getting enough oxygen to regions of your body, but it puts a lot of stress on your heart. Untreated sleep apnea traumatically increases your risk for heart problems and heart disease. The great thing is, however, if you get treatment, those risk factors all drop down to normal.” FACT: If you cannot fall asleep in 20 minutes, you should get out of bed. Seems contradictory, right? In fact, research shows that getting out of bed can improve your ability to fall asleep. Why? “If you’re lying in bed and can’t fall asleep, you are forming a negative association between your bed and sleep,” Scullin said. “The solution is getting out of bed and going to do something boring without the lights on. Then when you feel sleepy, go back to bed. This way, you only associate your bed with the feeling of sleepiness.” MYTH: After a night of great “recovery sleep,” you fully restore damage from pulling an all-nighter. “A really interesting neuroimaging study has been able to show that that sleep deprivation significantly impairs the frontal lobes ability to function,” Scullin said. “Your frontal lobe is responsible for memory, decision-making, paying attention and more. The study took individuals who had pulled an all-nighter and then allowed them to get a full night of recovery sleep. When they put them back into the scanner, scientists found that the frontal lobe only partly recovered.” Most people skip on sleep during weekday nights and then oversleep on the weekend, but this throws off your circadian rhythms, your body’s natural sleeping patterns, said Scullin. This means that when Sunday night comes around, you may have “Sunday night insomnia” – trouble falling asleep because you've trained your body to go to bed later. MYTH: During a full moon, people have twice as many sleep problems. A few years ago, there was a big media ‘boom’ claiming that there were more sleep disturbances during a full moon. According to Scullin, the scientific community was skeptical, and labs across the world pooled their data to discover the truth. They found no association between full moons and sleep quality. Why, then, did this myth surface? “Those who claim they don’t sleep well during full moons probably don't sleep very well on other nights as well, but they only realize it or think about it happening when it is a full moon,” Scullin said. “There is something called the confirmation bias where an individual holds a hypothesis about how the world works, and then he or she will look for instances that confirm the hypothesis. Oftentimes they forget every other instance that contradicts their claim. We think that is what caused the moon-sleep phenomenon.” FACT: You can fall asleep while driving without realizing it. People swerve on the road for many reasons – texting, drinking, eating – but not many realize that some individuals swerve because of ‘micro-sleeps.’ According to Scullin, people often operate under the impression that this would never happen to them, but what they don’t realize is that this a frequent occurrence that one has no control over. “We have a similar biological need for sleep as we do hunger and thirst,” Scullin said. “For thirst, we have to have access to water; for hunger we have to have access to food. But for sleep our body can shut down whenever it needs to. If this happens, our brain will occasionally do this for 3 to 5 seconds if you're really tired – and especially if you're involved in some long monotonous task such as driving down a long highway.” FACT: Some people’s bodies are paralyzed for minutes whenever they wake up. Imagine waking up, seeing your biggest fear and being unable to move. Unfortunately, this is a reality for some individuals. Sleep paralysis occurs when brain functions get mixed-up, said Scullin. In rapid eye movement (REM) sleep the brain paralyzes the rest of the body so one doesn't act out his or her dreams, and this is very important. “The problem is that in some cases, your brain isn't fully coordinating with the other parts of it,” Scullin said. The part that controls consciousness wakes up, but the other part that controls your body paralysis is hitting the snooze button. So, while you can be fully awake, your body is paralyzed.” Some people experience this for a few seconds, others for a couple of minutes. Some people also hallucinate when the part of your brain that is dreaming “crosses over” into your consciousness. These hallucinations are triggered when one is so sleep deprived that the brain is trying to get deep sleep, but it cannot fully wake up immediately afterwards. According to Scullin, there does not seem to be any big clinical issue with sleep paralysis or hallucinations, and they seem to go away over time and in development. MYTH: Smartphone apps can reliably measure your sleep. Despite their popularity, sleep apps cannot effectively track sleep quality or quantity, Scullin said. The only way to reliably measure your sleep is to have electrodes attached to your scalp, measuring your brain waves in a sleep clinic. But sleep evaluations are expensive and usually only worth the cost for individuals with sleep apnea or other ongoing sleep problems. The good news? Baylor’s sleep lab pays volunteers to get their sleep analyzed, and scientists like Scullin are always looking for participants. FACT: The latest you should consume caffeine is six hours before bed. In a placebo-controlled study, scientists manipulated whether participants had caffeine one, two, four or six hours before bed, and for each of those conditions they had a placebo control. When the subject’s sleep was measured, they found that in every group, it was harder to fall asleep and sleep quality wasn’t as good as those without caffeine. “Even if you have caffeine six hours before bed, you not only have more difficulty falling asleep, but your sleep was also less deep,” Scullin said. “We actually don’t know if the results would extend to seven or eight hours before bed, but we know that six hours before bed is a ‘no-go.’ What I recommend is having your caffeine in the morning.” For those who think caffeine has no effect on the body, Scullin points out a bigger problem. “If you can sleep right after drinking a cappuccino, it probably means that you are so terribly sleep-deprived that even with drugs in your system that are intended to keep you awake, your brain is saying ‘I don’t care; I’m putting you to sleep.’” For more about Scullin and his research, visit the Baylor Psychology and Neuroscience website. by Brooke Battersby , student newswriter, (254) 710-6805 ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.
Managers should consider ethics and performance when rewarding employees, Baylor professor says Do you consider yourself more ethical than your coworker? Caution! Your feelings of ethical superiority can cause a chain reaction that is detrimental to you, your coworker and your organization, according to Baylor University management research. A new study published in the Journal of Business Ethics suggests that your feelings of ethical superiority can lead you to have negative emotions toward a “less ethical” coworker. Those negative emotions can be amplified if you also believe you do not perform as well as that coworker. And, furthermore, those negative emotions can lead to your mistreatment and/or ostracism (social exclusion) of that less ethical, higher-performing coworker. “One way to think of this is that it is – and should be – concerning to us to believe that we are more ethical than our coworkers, especially if we do not perform as well as they do,” said lead author Matthew Quade, Ph.D., assistant professor of management in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business and an expert on workplace ethics and ostracism. The research, Quade said, can help managers create better atmospheres and improve the bottom line. “The managerial implication is that we need to create environments where ethics and performance are both rewarded,” he said. A total of 741 people, among them 310 employees (“focal employees”) and an equal number of their coworkers (“comparison coworkers”), were surveyed for the study. Focal employees compared themselves with their coworkers based on two areas: perceived ethics and performance. Then they rated their levels of negative emotions (i.e., feelings of contempt, tension or disgust) toward those same comparison coworkers. Results show that employees who believe they are more ethical than similar coworkers (i.e., those that hold similar positions, have similar education background and similar tenure in the organization) feel negative emotions (i.e., contempt, disgust, stress, repulsion) when thinking about those coworkers. These negative emotions about the coworker are amplified when the employees also believe they do not perform as well as those same coworkers. In turn, the comparison coworkers rated how often they experienced social undermining (i.e., insults, spreading of rumors, belittling of ideas) and ostracism (i.e., ignored, avoided, shut out of conversations) from the focal employee. Results also show that the negative emotions that the “more ethical, lower performing” employees experience may result in them behaving in unethical ways directed at their coworkers. Specifically, they become more likely to socially undermine and ostracize those “less ethical, higher performing” coworkers. All the study’s results exist regardless of gender and any positive emotion the employees may experience as a result of believing they are more ethical. Ultimately, such workplace scenarios pose a conundrum for managers, Quade said. On one hand, there is the ethical worker who doesn’t perform as well. On the other hand, there’s the less ethical worker who hits all the goals. Who gets rewarded? “If high performance is the result of questionable or unethical behavior, that combination should not be celebrated,” the researchers wrote. “Instead, organizations should be cautious when rewarding and promoting performance within organizations, ensuring that they also consider the way the job is done from an ethical standpoint.” The ideal situation, the study reveals, is when high ethics and high performance are the norm – and employees are rewarded. “Enhancing the ethical behavior of all employees should be an emphasis to attempt to remove some of the disparity that tends to exist between employees when it comes to their moral behavior at work,” the researchers wrote. ABOUT THE STUDY “’If Only My Coworker Was More Ethical’: When Ethical and Performance Comparisons Lead to Negative Emotions, Social Undermining, and Ostracism,” published in the Journal of Business Ethics, is authored by Matthew Quade, Ph.D., assistant professor of management, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University; Rebecca Greenbaum, Ph.D., associate professor of management, Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University; and Mary Mawritz, Ph.D., associate professor of management, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business provides a rigorous academic experience, consisting of classroom and hands-on learning, guided by Christian commitment and a global perspective. Recognized nationally for several programs, including Entrepreneurship and Accounting, the school offers 24 undergraduate and 13 graduate areas of study. Visit www.baylor.edu/businessand follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.
‘The surprise, and the up side, is that episodic memories from before the children’s treatment were spared,’ Baylor researcher says Children with certain types of brain tumors who undergo radiation treatment are less likely to recall the specifics of events they experienced after radiation than to remember pre-treatment happenings, according to a Baylor University study comparing them to children with healthy brains. The finding is significant because children after treatment had less volume in the hippocampus — a part of the brain that plays an important role in memory. But while such a decrease usually is associated Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, brain injury, epileptic amnesia, encephalitis and aging, with those conditions both remote and recent memories are impaired, said lead author Melanie Sekeres, Ph.D., director of Sekeres Memory Laboratory at Baylor University. “The surprise, and the up side, is that episodic memories from before the children’s treatment were spared,” Sekeres said. For the study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers focused on “autobiographical memory,” which is linked to unique personal events and involves the recollection of emotional and perceptual details that allow a person to mentally re-experience the event, said Sekeres, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are used to treat the most common malignant brain tumor in children — a medulloblastoma. The reduced volume of the hippocampus is likely associated with radiation’s impact on the development of new cells in the nervous system, including the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, or neurogenesis. “We know that these new cells play crucial roles in regulating memory and spatial learning, which is required to navigate. These treatments limit the brain’s ability to produce these new cells, which, in turn, limits the ability to form new memories,” Sekeres said. Research participants were 13 child survivors of brain tumors who had previously received radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment at least one year before the study. Twenty-eight healthy youths of similar ages (ranging from 7 to 18) also were recruited for the study, conducted with The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All the youths completed the Children’s Autobiographical Interview — a standardized memory test — and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. In individual interviews, children in both groups also were asked to recall memories from personal events that occurred at a specific time and place. Children were asked to recall a very old memory from an event before their radiation treatment (or an equally old memory for the healthy children) and a recent memory from within the past month. They were offered a list of events such as a birthday party, family trip, graduation and getting a pet but were told that they could choose another happening. The interview allowed children to freely recall without prompting before being asked general and specific questions about the event. “They have a hard time forming new, detailed memories,” Sekeres said. For example, when talking about a recent birthday party for a friend, they might tell how they met the friend and what that individual likes to do, but few specifics such as what they wore, the type of cake, what friends were there and what activities they did at the party, she said. “Such specific details might seem trivial, but these are precisely the kinds of details that allow us to vividly replay important events in our lives,” Sekeres said. “For most events, though, even healthy people forget a lot of specific details over time because we typically don’t need to retain all that incidental information. Some forgetting is normal and adaptive, and what we remember is the gist of an older event.” The patients were just as capable as healthy children of recalling these older memories, she said. But for children with brain tumors who have undergone radiation, the study suggested “deficits in their ability to either encode and/or retrieve highly detailed memories for personal events,” Sekeres said. “And those are the kind of memories that allow us to understand who we are and give us rich personal lives. “The study identifies an area of cognition that is inadvertently impacted by standard treatment, which has real consequences for the quality of life of the survivors. The physicians’ ultimate goal is to allow their patients to survive and to live as well as possible,” Sekeres said. “Although these treatments are often crucial in the effective management of the cancer, if the physicians and the family know there are these unintended side effects, that may be an additional factor to consider when exploring the treatment options.” ABOUT THE STUDY The study — “Impaired recent, but preserved remote, autobiographical memory in pediatric brain tumor patients” — was conducted with the Brain Tumor Program and the Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Funding was provided through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit College of Arts & Sciences.
The next threat to election meddling? Brain Hacking
Almost 15 percent of Americans have reported changing their opinion on political or social issues because of a social media post, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. “What if, immediately before spreading polarizing social media posts, our adversaries flashed subliminal images known to induce a type of anxiety called state anxiety? Evidence suggests people would perceive those posts in a more emotional way. Those images could, in turn, influence their voting behavior,” said Dr. Jay Heslen, an expert in intelligence and cybersecurity policy and assistant professor of political science with a joint appointment in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. “Successfully manipulating the cognition of a few thousand people in order to influence their perception of events could be enough to change the result of an election.” Heslen’s current research project focuses on whether exposure to certain visuals or sounds, including subliminal prompts, can induce a negative emotional arousal on people. He’s interested in learning whether that emotional state, called state anxiety, can then influence behavior in a specific, predefined way – a concept he calls neurocognitive hacking. Although research using subliminal prompts is not new and has had mixed results, Heslen’s approach is novel. He uses a specific kind of visuals previously shown to trigger people’s unconscious discriminatory behaviors toward outsiders. “Neurocognitive hacking could potentially be used as a weapon in cyberwarfare,” said Heslen, who worked as an intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the United States Air Force for more than 20 years, specializing in combatting terrorism, counterintelligence and strategic cyber intelligence. “We need to study these capabilities not only for our own understanding but to create sound policies and countermeasures to defend ourselves against others who may use them on us.” With 68 percent of Americans on Facebook and 73 percent on YouTube, according to another Pew Research Center survey, neurocognitive hacking could be a national security problem, Heslen said. “As we advance our understanding of the brain and its processes, including how to manipulate it, we will need to provide neurocognitive cybersecurity to people who use information and communication technologies,” Heslen said. “This will be especially true as we spend more time in virtual worlds.” Heslen is available to discuss: · How neurocognitive hacking can influence people’s behavior · Why neurocognitive hacking is a powerful weapon of cyberwar · What kinds of policies should the government create to protect itself and its citizens from neurocognitive hacking Heslen is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve and has served in military operations on four continents to include humanitarian relief operations in Mozambique and South Africa as well as an operational tour in Afghanistan. In his capacity as a reservist, he is currently assigned to the National Intelligence University pursuing an advanced degree in strategic intelligence. Contact us to schedule an interview with Dr. Heslen or learn more about his expertise.
Using light therapy for Alzheimer's
Vielight Technology featured on CityTV Segment CityTV reporter, Stella Aquisto speaks to Breakfast Television host Dina Pugliese about the benefits of light therapy and how it can be used to target Alzheimer's. This television segment aired on March 24, 2017 Media Contact Edward D'Mello M: 647-865-2803 E: edward@vielight.com
Guinness World Record Holder Jon Bruney To Speak at Biohacker Summit in Toronto
(Toronto) Renowned Strongman and Fitness Expert to speak at Spark Biohacker Summit at Metro Toronto Convention Center on October 15th, 2018 Jon Bruney, creator of the “Pressing the Limits” motivational strength program, will appear in Toronto at the Spark Biohacker Conference. A devoted researcher in the pursuit of finding the edge in performance, Jon will speak about his experience using transcranial and intranasal light therapy. Jon, one of a number of elite athletes, has been working with Technology developed by Dr. Lew Lim, NMD, MBA and Founder & CEO of Vielight in Toronto. Dr. Lim will be on hand to answer questions about the broad base of international research behind photobiomodulation and what we know so far about it's mechanism. "With photobiomodulation, you can tap into the secrets of the nervous system, helping your body to push farther, to push harder, to push longer than you ever believed you could." Jon Bruney using Vielight photobiomodulation device at his Performance Training Center in Indiana Jon Bruney and Dr. Lew Lim, Founder and CEO of Vielight, will be available for questions at the Vielight exhibition booth held alongside the Biohackers Summit. For one-to-one interviews, please contact Edward D'Mello on 647-865-2803. Session Details Monday Oct. 15, 2018 1230PM - 130PM Metro Toronto Convention Centre South Building (Hall G) 222 Bremner Boulevard Toronto, Ontario M5V 3L9 About John Bruney John's work with competitive athletes includes Olympians and NFL players. He has been featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not, The Guinness Book of World Records, shown nationwide on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, The Today Show, ABC’s To Tell the Truth, and TruTv’s Guinness World Records unleashed. A true renaissance man in the realm of strength-development, Jon Bruney is a best-selling author, world-class trainer, coach and motivational speaker. He is the author of the best-seller Neuro-Mass: The Ultimate System for Spectacular Strength and The Neuro-Grip Challenge: A Radical Program For Building Strength and Power in Your Upper Body. He also writes a training series called “Foundations”, featured in MILO, widely considered the world’s most prestigious strength training journal. Jon has been responsible for the design of numerous pieces of cutting-edge training equipment now in use around the world. Jon is a veteran of multiple trainer certification courses and was the first to achieve the grueling Battling Ropes Level 2 Certified status. He is also the co-owner of Submit Strength equipment. About the The Biohacker Summit The Biohacker Summit is the largest biohacking event in the world that connects well-being companies with medical professionals, technology experts, investors, entrepreneurs, health and nutrition enthusiasts, and other pioneers. Biohacking - better living through science, technology and nature - is a fast growing international trend. The aim of the conference is to make the world healthier and happier place, prevent disease, and extend human capabilities and lifespan. Media Contact Edward D'Mello M: 647-865-2803 E: edward@vielight.com #photobiomodulation #light #therapy #Toronto #Canada #Ontario #wellness #health #mentalhealth #quantifiedself #biohack #biohacker #mental #brain #body #sport #performance
Ethics Quandary? Women in PR More Apt to Seek Allies Before Giving Execs Advice
Women in public relations are more likely than men to seek allies and form coalitions before they give ethics counsel to senior leaders, while men are more likely to rely on presenting research, according to a Baylor University study. The study also showed that while senior public relations executives in the study overall tend to use “rational approaches,” such as research, case studies and appeals about what is right and lawful, success depends on building relationships with colleagues in other departments so that they have backup when ethical issues arise. “A PR person can be the conscience, but are they listened to? Are they respected? Are they at the table?” one woman said. “You can be doing everything right, but if nobody is listening to you, it really doesn’t matter a whole lot. Except that you can sleep at night.” The study — “The Use of Influence Tactics by Senior Public Relations Executives to Provide Ethics Counsel” — is published in the Journal of Media Ethics. The article highlights the need for younger PR practitioners to seek out senior PR executives as mentors before and during confrontation of ethics issues, said lead author Marlene Neill, Ph.D., assistant professor of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences and author of the book “Public Relations Ethics: PR Pros Tell Us How to Speak Up and Keep Your Job.” “What inspired us to conduct this research were findings from a study I conducted in 2016 with Millennials working in public relations,” Neill said. “Survey results indicated that Millennials did not feel prepared to provide ethics counsel, were unlikely to speak up and did not even expect to face ethical dilemmas. We decided to conduct this study to instruct them how to do this effectively based on the experiences of senior executives working in our industry.” Researchers conducted through in-depth interviews with an elite selection of 55 public relations executives, many of them with Fortune 500 companies. They included members of the *Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows and The Arthur W. Page Society, with the combined sample averaging 33 years in PR. They represented 19 states and industries including government, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services and energy. Interviewees discussed ways to exert influence, ethics training and whether they are of value as an ethics counselor. “Some see it as being of little use; some recommend the PR practitioner take a modest role in encouraging consideration of ethics among multiple leaders,” Neill said. But others felt strongly that they should be an “organizational conscience” when they think company actions might pose an ethical dilemma with troubling consequences. One reason to do so is that without “boat-rocking” with straightforward tactics an organization, some may turn outside the company by whistleblowing or leaking information to stakeholders, media or government officials. “Our study found that building relationships was critical for practitioners to ensure that other executives would listen to and respect their counsel,” Neill said. “That doesn’t mean they always won the debate, but relationship building has to do with building respect and trust.” While the interviewees’ most common approach to influencing was rational, followed by coalition-building, “some said they relied on persistence and assertiveness if they felt an issue was so objectionable they could not stay silent,” Neill said. “A few people turn to ingratiation, such as flattery.” When it comes to differences in how genders approach the role of ethics counselor, one reason women may recruit allies is that they tend to be outnumbered by men in the boardroom, Neill said. One woman said that “Going in force can help your case. But sometimes it can backfire . . . you know, if somebody wants to kill the messenger. But if several people come to you with the same messaging, I think you take notice.” Another woman said that she was “reprimanded for being so forthright. So, I didn’t do it that way anymore.” Some women were wary of using emotional appeals. Because of stereotypes about women being emotional in the workplace, “I probably erred in the other direction,” one woman said. Men, meanwhile, were more likely to prefer informational sources of power such as research and case studies, Neill said. But both genders said they ask questions, discuss, listen, share alternatives or solutions and recommend. A few men and women used more confrontational descriptions, such as saying, “We absolutely put our foot down” and “Tell them it’s wrong.” But in the case of women, “some of these more confrontational accounts were used in connection with allies or coalitions,” Neill said. In a few cases, men and women gave examples of resigning accounts or refusing to accept new clients if they decided the client’s business was not worth the ethical cost. Many interviewees said they had received ethics training through PRSA. A few said they had received training through their employer, college courses, personal study and mentors. A few pointed to their religious upbringing. Some of the more common ethics issues centered around communication, such as open disclosure of information, inaccurate information or sending fake letters to an editor. But others were business challenges, such as abusive behavior toward subordinates, misuse of public funds, smear campaigns and conflicts of interest. Neill said that because the study was limited to 55 individuals, a larger study and surveys of senior PR executives in other nations would be valuable. She and a colleague next plan to study to women’s leadership experiences. *PRSA College of Fellows is an exclusive group of approximately 350 senior professionals, each with a minimum of 20 years of experience in PR, Accreditation in Public Relations and recognition for distinguished careers. The Arthur W. Page Society is open by invitation to chief communications officers of Fortune 500 corporations and leading nonprofit organizations, chief executive officers of PR agencies and senior professors from business and communications schools. The study was funded by The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication and supported by the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards and PRSA College of Fellows. Co-author is Amy Barnes, associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and co-author of “Public Relations Ethics: PR Pros Tell Us How to Speak Up and Keep Your Job.” ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, with 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines.
Cities value cybersecurity but budget prevents investment
Although city governments increasingly rely on software programs to provide services such as 911 calls, service delivery and online bill payment, they may not have the proper cybersecurity policies in place to protect their systems, according to a recent nationwide survey of cities by Augusta University researchers. “We’re concerned first with the human factor of all issues,” said Dr. William Hatcher, director of Augusta University’s Master of Public Administration program and one of the survey’s authors. “Having trained employees is necessary to stop attacks or even make sure organizations are not tricked through phishing type schemes.” Almost 30 percent of surveyed cities have no formal cybersecurity policy, which would include rules on password creation, guidelines for employee training on computer security and procedures for reviewing the list of employees with access to sensitive systems, according to the survey. Of the cities that have a formal policy, the survey found that: - 17 percent don’t require in-depth background checks when employees are granted access to sensitive systems. - 18 percent don’t teach employees to recognize breaches. - 37 percent don’t provide ongoing training to employees on new computer security procedures. - 47 percent don’t review the list of employees who have security access on a regular basis. - 54 percent don’t work with an outside auditor to review their policies on an annual basis. The survey looked into cities nationwide with more than 10,000 people and received responses from 193 local governments. Based on the results of the survey, Hatcher says most cities understand the importance of cybersecurity but are not investing in vulnerable areas due to financial constraints. “Providing effective cybersecurity protection is expensive, and many municipalities have financial issues paying for the service,” Hatcher said. Hatcher ‘s research focuses on the connection between public administration and the development of local communities. Through his research, he tries to understand why public administration scholars and practitioners often have different views about the efficacy of certain administrative practices. His research has appeared in journals such as American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Public Administration Quarterly and The Review of Regional Studies. Contact us to schedule an interview with Dr. Hatcher or learn more about his expertise. Source:
Bigly: the effect of Trump's rhetoric on national security
Going against the findings of his own intelligence community, President Donald Trump has called Russian meddling into the 2016 U.S. presidential election a “hoax.” In a recent turn of events, though, the president accused China of interfering with the midterm elections. Has President Trump’s rhetoric on the intelligence community and hesitancy to hold Russia accountable influenced countries, such as China, to also try meddling in U.S. elections? “If people and foreign officials start believing President Trump’s rhetoric, there is a possibility, that we will face issues of doubt and trust concerning U.S. policy and commitments,” said Craig Albert, an expert in U.S.-Russian security affairs, director of the master of arts in intelligence and security studies and associate professor of political science at Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Augusta University. “Also, President Trump’s rhetoric helps prop up Vladimir Putin as being equal in stature to the leader of the free world and gives Kremlin and Putin greater credibility with Russian citizens and the near abroad.” Midterm elections are on the horizon, and Putin will continue election meddling regardless of Trump’s actions or rhetoric, Albert said. “Russia, under Putin’s leadership, will continue to increase its cyber activity against all sectors of the U.S., including and especially into the cognitive hacking of our electoral process,” he said. Cognitive hacking is when fake sources are used to spread fake news on social media. The success of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election is emboldening other actors, like China. “Non-state actors like ISIS and Al Qaeda feel empowered to engage in both cognitive and source hacking in order to shift American public opinion,” Albert said. “We already believe China and Iran have engaged in similar operations. It won’t be long before ISIS utilizes the same type of intelligence operations because they are low risk, extremely high reward operations. Albert is available to discuss: • How President Trump’s rhetoric affects the U.S. intelligence community • How Trump’s apparent support for Russia empowers Putin and the Kremlin to continue meddling into U.S. elections • How Russia’s actions are emboldening other non-state actors • Why Trump’s denial of Russian meddling into U.S. elections can further damage U.S. relations with its allies Contact us to schedule an interview with Albert or to learn more about his expertise. Source:
