tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60278090036556682652024-03-18T20:37:24.964-07:00Going Back to ScienceHealth narratives, every day science, and other babblings from an on again/off again science studentjulacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-15738080259654963652010-08-02T11:39:00.000-07:002010-08-02T11:42:14.827-07:00A Partial MoveFrom now on, this blog will focus on health narratives and other science-related topics for a general audience. Any topics dealing with specific issues regarding the IT field or higher education are moving to another location. If you want the new location, leave me a comment and let me know.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-74710881556214202962010-07-12T09:20:00.001-07:002010-07-19T09:26:48.708-07:00Second Opinion<p></p><p>I went to see a Nurse Practitioner for a second opinion about hypothyroidism (when your thyroid produces too little thyroid hormone). I believed she would have different conclusions, that perhaps my regular doctor was just overreacting or mistaken. I kept resisting taking this thyroid medication, mostly because I did not like the way it made me feel. When I first tried the generic version of Synthroid, about a year ago, I felt terrible. It's difficult to continue taking a medicine when it makes you feel worse, not better. The attitudes I got from doctors were all similar: <em>are you sure? most people have no problems taking synthroid. Is it possible you're just being emotional?</em></p><p>I did not appreciate this mentality of <em>just take this medicine because I say so</em>.</p><p>When I went to see a Nurse Practitioner recently, I was surprised and thrilled when she showed an interest in educating me about why I should take the thyroid hormone. Below is a picture she drew for me, showing how your pituitary gland acts like a thermostat, sending TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to your thyroid to tell it to make thyroid hormones (T3 and T4). </p><p>The effects of hypothyroidism, as shown below, include swelling, slow reflexes, hair loss, dry skin, high cholesterol (and therefore greater risk for heart attack and stroke), miscarriage, and more.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9SOFBiMHONF3rjcX_h-Z15Wp8zrYcdAC0_tzWul5FEFJev9UJh7THaI-l0D6QWexYUrjNKa7Q4PYDUzgcMqOfw18uR__wfBt9edZgFvctRHwGGoFXkeyeqoQWPA3R5BlO-A8Y7T5E-YV/s1600/thyroid3.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 292px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493055608369264210" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9SOFBiMHONF3rjcX_h-Z15Wp8zrYcdAC0_tzWul5FEFJev9UJh7THaI-l0D6QWexYUrjNKa7Q4PYDUzgcMqOfw18uR__wfBt9edZgFvctRHwGGoFXkeyeqoQWPA3R5BlO-A8Y7T5E-YV/s400/thyroid3.jpg" /></a><br /><br />When I was there, the Nurse Practitioner recommended I have a test I hadn't had before, to measure the level of antithyroid antibodies in my blood. She explained that if this was abnormal, it indicates an autoimmune issue: your body is attacking your thyroid and it is only a matter of time until the thyroid quits working.</p><p></p>Below are my test results:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWVr87i5p9sy769cCPCABwqPmL5GhDhAkdl7xsb4NVtb1iZhdi1kl8_FOVgu5bB6zjExf0Gol9gbmO0UV6D_I2M2At1CeW33AS_AZLi99tQoki-7u4ZAOM6o0tQ14GjOxE_NRUT2qyTOH/s1600/thyroid.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 324px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493055737583226882" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWVr87i5p9sy769cCPCABwqPmL5GhDhAkdl7xsb4NVtb1iZhdi1kl8_FOVgu5bB6zjExf0Gol9gbmO0UV6D_I2M2At1CeW33AS_AZLi99tQoki-7u4ZAOM6o0tQ14GjOxE_NRUT2qyTOH/s400/thyroid.jpg" /></a><br /><p>I was stunned. I really expected the antithyroid antibody test to come back normal. When I got these results, I had this feeling like I'd been sentenced and no matter what I do, I can't fix this issue. However, I have started seeing a certified ayurvedic practitioner whose response to this was "what goes largely unrecognized [in our culture] is that you can do alot with diet and exercise." This statement gave me alot of hope. I have been working with her to develop a new eating plan, consisting of little meat and lots of grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Also, I've incorporated some herbal treatments and after much thought, I took the Nurse Practitioner's advice and filled the prescription for Synthroid. I have been taking the lowest dosage (25 mcg) for about two weeks now and so far so good. </p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-86180113921100180142010-05-27T12:21:00.000-07:002010-05-27T12:27:34.862-07:00Sacrifices from PigsWould you be scared if you read this about a medication you were taking???<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>As with any medication, Armour Thyroid can also cause allergic reactions. In fact, it may have a higher risk for allergic reactions, since it contains ground-up pig thyroid glands. Seek medical attention immediately if you develop signs of an allergic reaction, including:<br /><br />•An unexplained rash<br />•Hives<br />•Itching<br />•Wheezing or difficulty breathing<br />•Unexplained swelling (especially of the lips, mouth, or throat).<br /></strong></span><br />It is the comment about the pig thyroids that REALLY freaks me out. Poor pigs. Wtf? I have been taking this medication for about two months and the last few days I have been feeling so itchy and my skin feels abnormally dry and tight. I looked up "Armour Thyroid" side effects on the web and saw the above statement. (Side note: I tried taking synthetic thyroid, Synthroid, last summer and had a bad reaction to it...)<br /><br />I have an appointment with a nurse practitioner next week, who was recommended to me as being open to holistic medicine, among other things, by an ayurvedic practitioner I recently saw. So I’m going to get someone elses opinion on this whole hypothyroidism thing. In the meantime, I will try and keep taking the medication since pigs were slaughtered and their thyroids were ground up for it. I’d hate to have had them die in vain. How horrifying.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-85679480393648918592010-05-25T11:18:00.000-07:002010-05-25T11:18:15.397-07:00Social Media Revolution<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="480" height="295" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-55989404071956105502010-05-04T06:49:00.001-07:002010-05-04T08:35:01.560-07:00Why You Shouldn't Let Students Sabotage Your LectureI am finishing up my second semester of Anatomy & Physiology and one of the most surprising things has been the lack of student engagement. The lecture hall holds about 70 students, stadium-style seating, and students talk through entire lecture periods. It is so loud, obvious, and distracting, that I've moved around the room numerous times to try and escape the chatter. I finally found the best option in the front row, although I can still plainly hear various conversations. Not once--until yesterday--has the instructor, a 25-year veteran faculty member, called the students on this behavior. She didn't acknowledge the behavior in class, but rather sent this email rant right after class:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">"I thought it was especially bad today. The GFR control mechanisms can be difficult to explain…what with afferents and efferents and glomerular pressure up and down and sideways with GFR going up and down. I know who was talking because I had time to be distracted and look…I would not be showing up on my doorstep being confused about this topic right before your lecture final exam since you gabbed all the way through lecture…much to the chagrin I am sure of your fellow students. I am beginning to feel like a stand up comic with a bunch of drunks heckling me…but I don’t get to take an exam and get a grade on my performance, do I? For you who tried to hear me above the din, thank you so much for being mature and listening…I don’t know what to do about the gabbers…it only gives them their 15 seconds in the spotlight if I yell at them in class…and they will just do it next time as well. How sad. "<br /></span><br />I wonder if she acknowledges that she plays a role in this lack of student engagement? Don't get me wrong--students should not be talking, Facebook-ing, texting, or gaming during her lecture, all of which happens on a regular basis. But if I learned anything in my little experience teaching it's that you have to call students on their behavior, immediately when it is happening, or they will keep doing it.<br /><br />Students would also leave all the time right in the middle of her lecture. She would be droning on about skeletal muscle contractions or the instrinsic conduction system of the heart, and several students would just leave, on a daily basis. One day after class she sent the following email:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">"Is there some reason why people are constantly leaving the classroom suddenly this semester? In my 25 years teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology, I have never had this happen so routinely or so abruptly. Anyway, it is starting to make my mouth draw into a tight little line, so that must mean that it is irritating and distracting me. Was wondering if there was a reason for it that was known…or if not, could you please sit nearer the front of the room? It’s like people just suddenly bolt from their seats for no reason. Will try to be more tolerant, but it’s starting to strike me as being rude…which is not a good thing for my attitude while lecturing. Sorry to complain, but what in the world is going on with this? Probably some perfectly normal explanation."</span><br /><br />I think this is really sad, that you get to a point where you are either opposed or unwilling to update your approaches in order to engage your audience. This class could be so interesting, with all the anatomy & physiology material available online that is interactive, all the ways that she could relate the topics to current health issues, and yet she lectures straight from the textbook, displays dense amounts of text under a document camera, and uses hand-drawn diagrams when she could be playing video clips or animation or any various multimedia available online. She even shows SCREEN CAPTURES of the obviously dated computer simulations that she assigns outside of class, rather than demonstrating the simulation in real-time on the computer.<br /><br />Most confounding to me is her lengthy discussions of her circa 1980 published research about horses, given that this is a teaching university, not a research university, and she clearly hasn't updated her teaching practices in about 20 years. Not to mention that this is a <strong>human</strong> anatomy & physiology course.<br /><br />Now, I've only had three college level science courses in the past year, but so far I have a bad impression. Science should be interactive, engaging, thought-provoking, and hands-on. So far all I know is that I will show up to a lecture and absolutely nothing will be expected of me other than to sit there passively and listen.<br /><br />"It's real lullaby material," one student said to me on the way out of class one day. "Puts me right to sleep."<br />"It's so sad," I replied.<br />"I'm used to it," she said. "I'm a science major."julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-33808489985068580422010-04-28T11:33:00.000-07:002010-04-28T11:51:48.012-07:00Thyroid Hormone, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, and More...I am particularly interested in the thyroid gland, since I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which means my body is not making enough thyroid hormone. In Anatomy & Physiology, we have identified the thyroid gland on various models in lab, and we have also learned about the physiology of the thyroid gland. I am surprised to find out that many people I talk to are either being treated for hypothyroidism, or think they have it, so I thought I would share what I know here.<br /><br />The first picture is a model of the larynx. The thyroid gland is the big yellow blob in the lower left corner of the picture. The second picture is the neck and chest of a torso model. The thyroid gland is the big yellow blob attached to the larynx!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufDI41cu1b1mVzka0SVGjQUfTYKg2Yb4s6_T9zygA0-2BIuZ2q1qDfmra25JKZQpp0qkbceK74YDpUas8zN2NF0T_HGZdCkTx2Drob77EAfPOIinE0jKehvvT7PdIxZOkyiIe8M09ow66/s1600/Picture+006.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465261392764450258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufDI41cu1b1mVzka0SVGjQUfTYKg2Yb4s6_T9zygA0-2BIuZ2q1qDfmra25JKZQpp0qkbceK74YDpUas8zN2NF0T_HGZdCkTx2Drob77EAfPOIinE0jKehvvT7PdIxZOkyiIe8M09ow66/s400/Picture+006.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ4kNqfmRnRXgNg-nTRkUUUCIxtZtKaRf9blzX2sOoCoIC-uWSlOL-jnydB9Z8zRyFe1cAG5-j9BaO8czqcjcVZmRg4klt-AqBrGHdi0hQMEG39W9n-raZC6pHFMfJ_DlEpzHwKiXMp0nk/s1600/Picture+046.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465261488440569906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ4kNqfmRnRXgNg-nTRkUUUCIxtZtKaRf9blzX2sOoCoIC-uWSlOL-jnydB9Z8zRyFe1cAG5-j9BaO8czqcjcVZmRg4klt-AqBrGHdi0hQMEG39W9n-raZC6pHFMfJ_DlEpzHwKiXMp0nk/s400/Picture+046.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Hormones made by the Thyroid Gland</strong><br />Calcitonin works with Parathyroid Hormone (which is made by the Parathyroid Glands) to regulate calcium in the bloodstream and calcium in the bones. Calcitonin stimulates osteoblasts (causing bone formation by increasing calcium in the bone matrix and removing calcium from the bloodstream). In other words, irregular levels of these hormones could lead to osteoporosis.<br /><br /><strong>What about other hormones made by the thyroid gland?<br /></strong>At the microscopic level, the thyroid gland has Thyroid Follicles surrounded by Follicular Cells. The Follicular Cells make Triiodothyronine (T3) and Tetraiodothyronine, also known as Thyroxine (T4). Together these 2 hormones are referred to as “Thyroid Hormone”.<br /><br />These thyroid hormones are mainly regulated by Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), which is produced at the Anterior Pituitary Gland. In my case, my TSH was recently at 6.69, which is considered elevated. According to <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003684.htm">Medline</a>, normal TSH values are .4 to 4.0. If your TSH is high, it means your thyroid hormones are low. Your doctor may prescribe a synthetic thyroid hormone known as <a href="http://www.drugs.com/synthroid.html">Synthroid</a>, which I had a bad reaction to, or a natural (but less used) thyroid hormone known as <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pdr/armour-thyroid.html">Armour Thyroid</a>.<br /><br /><p><strong>What do increases in “Thyroid Hormone” cause?<br /></strong>1. Nervous System – Increases activity and necessary also for proper fetal development of the nervous system (also necessary after birth for normal nervous system) </p><p>2. Skeletal System – Promotes normal bone growth while growing in height AND promotes remodeling of bone after a fracture or as a result of change in weight, etc. </p><p>3. Cardiovascular System - Increases Heart Rate, Force of contraction of cardiac muscle and blood pressure </p><p>4. Respiratory System – Increases respiratory rate and depth of respiration </p><p>5. Increases Metabolic Rate – Increases heat production AND Increases rate of catabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids </p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-64992057270990846332010-04-13T13:10:00.001-07:002010-04-13T14:28:11.046-07:00Patent Foramen Ovale & Fetal Circulation<p>When my mom was in the hospital for four months, after having an ischemic stroke that blocked blood flow to the right side of her brain, I kept hearing doctors say things about the reasons for my mom’s stroke—things like, “she has a PFO.” I had no idea what this term meant, but I later found out that PFO stands for “patent foramen ovale.” It’s a hole between the right and left atrium in the heart, which allows blood to bypass the lungs during fetal development. The foramen ovale is supposed to close on its own at birth, when the baby begins to breathe on her own, but in 20% of the population, the hole never closes, resulting in a patent foramen ovale, a hole between the atria of the heart. Since it can be hereditary, doctors recommended that my sisters and I be evaluated for a PFO. A transthoracic echocardiogram with a bubble study confirmed that I do have a PFO, and neither of my sisters do. There is no treatment and usually no symptoms, although doctors suspect that a PFO can allow blood to pool and form clots, and therefore increase the risk of stroke.</p>Our method of studying this in A&P involved text and a couple heart models in lab (our class is pretty much devoid of technology), but as I suspected, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fetal+circulation&aq=0s">a search of “fetal circulation” on YouTube</a> reveals many creative approaches to understanding fetal circulation and the changes that occur at birth. The foramen ovale is supposed to close at birth and be replaced by a flap of tissue called the fossa ovalis. And there are several other unique characteristics of fetal circulation similar to the foramen ovale, such as the ductus arteriosus, which allows blood to bypass the lungs by shunting blood from the pulmonary trunk to the aorta, and on to systemic circulation. When the ductus arteriosus closes at birth, it becomes the ligamentum arteriosum. These videos also discuss the umbilical vein, ductus venosus, and the umbilical arteries.<br /><br /><p>The following YouTube clips show fetal circulation in a creative and interesting way. I think it also says a lot for how audio and images can be paired with text to demonstrate a process or complex concepts in ways that are easy to understand. These are relatively simple projects that involve still images and audio, and no actual video footage. It’s exciting to see that some educators are taking advantage of technology-based assignments that students will enjoy much more than sitting idly in a lab and identifying numbers on plastic models. These projects would also help students learn about processes and how different parts of anatomy are related, rather than just focusing on identification and rote memorization. Do you think my A&P teacher would be offended if I sent her links to these YouTube videos?! Probably.</p><p></p><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xumyF3_UYWI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xumyF3_UYWI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T79sMqvN3BE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T79sMqvN3BE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-81041832377520598022010-03-30T06:31:00.000-07:002010-03-30T06:33:55.090-07:00Taxes<p>As I dropped my $1000 check in the mail today for taxes owed to the federal government, I had one lingering, selfish, menacing feeling: I should get tax credits for NOT having kids. </p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-13112016299941062712010-03-03T09:54:00.000-08:002010-03-03T10:01:21.878-08:00Power & PrivilegeI had a meeting yesterday with the powers that be to discuss “what we can do on campus” regarding LTE rights. I went into the meeting hopeful, yet they made it clear they did not want to talk about state-regulated things that are out of their control, you know, the <span style="font-style: italic;">small </span>things like inequitable wages, no vacation or sick time, and no representation. I suggested that, despite state regulations, UW-Madison has set an admirable model regarding LTE hiring and retention, yet that was quickly dismissed in favor of the next topic…<br /><br />Immediately, one of the powers that be stated that she <span style="font-weight: bold;">CANNOT</span> discourage LTE hiring on this campus because it is the <span style="font-weight: bold;">ONLY</span> option, given the FTE restrictions set by the state. I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even think of what I wanted to say, that I don’t truly believe hiring LTEs is our <span style="font-weight: bold;">ONLY</span> option. I know people have been hired under Project positions and other special contract positions, which gave them more benefits than LTE status. We should promote consideration of other hiring options before taking the LTE route, which gives the employee the least amount of equity and the lowest wages. I had hoped they would want to encourage a hiring model where “just hiring an LTE” is not our default protocol, but rather a last resort and truly for limited term positions.<br /><br />When discussing that LTEs make 20 percent less than the minimum starting wage for permanent employees in the same job classification, she looked up the lowest wage, subtracted 20 percent and arrived at roughly <span style="font-style: italic;">$9.00/hr</span>. She then stated that this is <span style="font-weight: bold;">“not a bad gig”</span> for a wage in this area. She then did concede that making this wage with no benefits is not so good. In her huge window-paneled office I wanted to scream, “Really, with your Juris Doctor and your life and position of privilege, you know what it would be like to live off of $9/hour with no sick time or vacation? To support a family on these wages? To take unpaid leave if your child got sick?????” The other side of this is that the LTE's maximum wage is the minimum starting wage for a permanent employee, so there is a very small window in which to increase the LTE's wages (e.g., $10.14-$12.67/hour for a University Services Associate 1).<br /><br />She then stated what initiatives she is willing to support and they include the following <span style="font-style: italic;">bold</span> initiatives. A weekly email from HR that details open positions and upcoming Civil Service examinations. A new LTE excellence award, to complement the awards that have existed for years for faculty, instructional and academic staff, and classified staff. And some related items, such as encouraging Directors that LTEs deserve regular performance reviews. When I emphasized that there are no standards of treatment for LTEs, that they can be let go at any time for any reason, and that LTEs worry about losing their jobs when asking to take any time off, she stated that a Director or Manager wouldn’t just go out and hire someone else because they would have to retrain the person. I should have told her that the office across the hall from me has gone through three LTEs in the past few months, hiring them and discarding them as they see fit…<br /><br />She also told me I had upset the people in the HR department. Oh well. I guess, at least they are willing to do some things, and change happens slowly, but I still left the meeting feeling like I have lost my faith in something I used to believe in.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-608697567100049732010-02-15T14:32:00.000-08:002010-02-15T14:35:20.786-08:00Playing the GameMy goals for the winter were to stay healthy, lose weight, write regularly…so far I have not managed to accomplish any of those goals, really. Thankfully I have managed to keep my rosacea in check this winter (but that’s another posting).<br /><br />Here’s what I really want to say right now. There are a lot of things that have been going on around here that I need to write about. But here is what is on my mind first and foremost. Over winter break, I was asked to take a freelance job in which I read a text book and wrote quizzes. The book was for business communicators, and included things like how to facilitate effective business meetings, how to write effective meeting minutes, how to stick to a meeting agenda when one person dominates the meeting….the list goes on. I found myself thinking, really? Is this really necessary? Isn’t this common sense? And then I remembered how lost and befuddled I felt when I started my first job after college, how the whole corporate culture (and later, higher education) was so foreign to me (especially since I had been a liberal arts English major).<br /><br />So then I started thinking…what would have prepared me for the culture of corporate America or higher education? And I had a sad thought, which was recently only further confirmed for me based on something that is happening to a friend. In school, you’re judged by your performance. You do the work, participate, follow the rules and requirements, and then receive graded feedback. But in the professional world, you’re judged not so much by your talent or your impact on the people you are serving as you are judged by your capacity to <em>play the game</em>. Your best chance of survival and advancement lies in your ability to form alliances with key people who are in the best position to get you what you want, to secure a prominent place in the valuable flow of information known as the grapevine, so that you are always poised to make your next power play, and to recognize and be alert for the power plays that are constantly going on around you so that you may use them to your advantage…..you must become intricately connected to the politics of the culture and play the game at all times. On a daily basis I watch this going on—it usually involves pitting people against each other—and I try not to get pulled in to it.<br /><br />The sad truth is…if you refuse to <em>play the game</em>, if you actually choose to be the bigger person and focus on your job, you will eventually be knocked out of the game.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-82739884167139508452010-02-08T14:10:00.000-08:002010-02-15T13:27:57.530-08:00Recent Events in Anatomy & Physiology<object height="300" width="400"><param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F47340559%40N04%2Fsets%2F72157623258161831%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F47340559%40N04%2Fsets%2F72157623258161831%2F&set_id=72157623258161831&jump_to="><param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><br /> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F47340559%40N04%2Fsets%2F72157623258161831%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F47340559%40N04%2Fsets%2F72157623258161831%2F&set_id=72157623258161831&jump_to=" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><p>What I am studying in Anatomy & Physiology....in pictures. I wrote detailed captions for each picture--if you'd like to see those then click on the picture and view the slideshow directly on flickr.</p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-37787249553294357452009-11-24T10:30:00.000-08:002009-11-24T10:45:30.174-08:00This post is for my friend H—here’s to healthy bones and calcium levels!I always thought of bones as dense and unchanging. As with many things I’ve been learning about in my Anatomy & Physiology course (and in Biochemistry), the human body is constantly changing and adapting…right down to specific tissues and types of cellular reactions, the body knows exactly what needs to be done in any given situation. As you’ll see in this post, hormones, calcium levels, diet, and other factors all come together to influence bone health.<br /><br /><em>What are bones made of?</em> Bone has organic and inorganic components:<br /><ul><li>The <strong>organic portion</strong> decays after death and constitutes 1/3 of the bone weight, consisting mostly of protein fibers that provide flexibility</li><li>The <strong>inorganic portion</strong> is 2/3 of the bone weight, composed of mineral salts, called the <strong>bone matrix</strong>. This inorganic portion is 85% hydroxyapatite (the primary way that calcium and phosphorus are stored in bone). This is the part of the bone that remains after death, and it provides strength and storage of minerals while you’re alive.</li></ul><p>The living cells of bone are osteogenic cells (osteo means “bone” and genic means “genesis,” which means to make or create). Perhaps now you can infer where the term “osteoporosis” comes from? Osteoblasts make bone matrix; osteoclasts break down bone matrix. </p><p><em>What function do bones have (besides the obvious)?</em><br />Bones provide attachment for muscles that produce movement, and provide protection for delicate structures (e.g., brain, lungs), but bones also do the following:</p><ul><li>Act as storage repositories for mineral salts such as calcium and phosphorus</li><li>Produce all formed elements in blood by red bone marrow (hemopoiesis)</li><li>Assist in acid/base balance by controlling release of minerals from storage </li><li>Detoxify: If you have been exposed to environmental toxins, the bones are one place to look for their storage. For example, your bones could store heavy metals until they can be slowly excreted by the kidneys</li></ul><p>Most importantly, your bones are a storage repository for minerals that are constantly being exchanged between bones, muscles, and blood, depending on the needs of your body. Calcium is stored in the bone until needed (constantly replaced and removed through the action of osteoblasts and osteoclasts). Calcium is needed for proper function of the following:</p><ul><li>Blood clotting</li><li>Nervous system function</li><li>Cardiac function</li><li>Skeletal muscle function</li><li>Smooth muscle function (found in your digestive tract, reproductive system—smooth muscle can contract, such as during digestion or labor)</li><li>Cofactor for many enzymes (enzymes facilitate numerous biochemical reactions in your cells)</li><li>Second messenger in many hormone systems (e.g., epinephrine). </li><li>Proper tendon and ligament health </li></ul><p><em>What types of stressors do bones respond to?</em><br />Some of the osteogenic cells can sense strain on bone, adding or subtracting bone matrix, thus changing bone density and remodeling bone. </p><ul><li>Gravitational stress: Weight gain/loss, pregnancy, fluid gain/loss, eating more/less, all influence bone density. Weightlessness in outer space caused osteoporosis in the early astronauts</li><li>Functional stress: Use of muscles (not to an extreme) causes increase in osteoblast activity. Increases bone mass as muscle mass and strength increase. Overtraining reduces bone mass</li><li>Research shows that as little as 15 minutes of exercise changes calcium levels in the blood of the lower leg </li></ul><p><em>What factors influence bone health? Diet affects bone health.</em> Vitamins A, C, and D are essential for bone health. For instance, Vitamin A and D in milk and Vitamin C in fruit and fruit juices. Specifically, what does Vitamin D do?</p><ul><li>Increases absorption of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium from your small intestine into the bloodstream, controlling the availability of these for matrix formation</li><li>Controls whether calcium and phosphate are deposited in bone or released from bone </li><li>Causes less calcium to be lost from the body in the urine—so influences kidney function</li></ul><p><em>Hormones Affect Bone Health.</em> The following are a few of more than 20 hormones known to affect bone health.<br /><br /><em>Calcitonin Affects Bone Health.</em> Calcitonin is made by the thyroid gland. Calcitonin is released into the blood from the thyroid gland if calcium is too high in the blood. This causes a decrease in blood calcium, by causing calcium to be stored into the bone matrix. (Remember, osteoblasts generate bone matrix, while osteoclasts break down bone matrix). Calcitonin increases osteoblast activity and decreases osteoclast activity. Calcitonin is important in growing children and also in adults, in response to specific physical and/or mental stressors. For example, during pregnancy and lactation.<br /><br /><em>Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) Affects Bone Health:</em></p><em></em><ul><li>Made by the parathyroid glands, which are part of the thyroid gland</li><li>Released into the bloodstream if blood calcium is too low, causing blood calcium to increase (increases osteoclast activity, which breaks down matrix to release calcium into blood Decreases osteoblast activity, which prevents calcium from being removed from the blood in order to build matrix)</li><li>Inhibits calcium excretion in urine, to keep calcium in the body and not be lost in urine </li><li>Promotes phosphate excretion in urine, which inhibits matrix formation</li></ul><p>Hypersecretion (overproduction) of PTH weakens bones, similar to osteoporosis caused by menopause. In addition, this can cause metastatic calcification (e.g., kidney stones).</p><p><em>Growth Hormone Affects Bone Health.</em> Made by the anterior pituitary gland, growth hormone is not a steroid, but is often confused by the public with testosterone, which is a steroid. You may have heard of growth hormone used in cows—bovine growth hormone. Growth hormone levels usually fluctuate on a daily basis but can increase dramatically with physical or mental stress. At normal levels, with small daily fluctuations, growth hormone is important for the following:</p><ul><li>Important during childhood for proper growth in height, proper development of the skeleton</li><li>Stimulates cartilage proliferation in the epiphyseal plates (growth plates in bone)</li><li>Increases absorption from small intestine of nutrients important for bone health and growth</li><li>Stimulates osteoblasts (matrix formation in bone)</li><li>Even in adults, growth hormone is still important to bone health and metabolism…not just for growth in height</li></ul><p>People experiencing extraordinary physical and mental stressors may experience hypersecretion (overproduction) of growth hormone, also known as the General Adaptation Syndrome, or stress response. This has been seen among prisoners of war, such as Vietnam, or in the Nazi death camps of World War II. This stress response includes other hormonal changes, such as increased Cortisol, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, and Aldosterone. The result is a form of osteoporosis and derangements in metabolism.<br /><br />In general, hypersecretion of growth hormone in children or adults results in osteoporosis—brittle bones/fractures. This can be caused by stress (physical or mental), tumors, or other causes. (High levels of growth hormone have a paradoxical effect on the body—producing the opposite effect of what happens at normal levels of growth hormone).<br /> </p><p><em>Sex Hormones (Testosterone or Estrogen) Affect Bone Health.</em> Sex hormones produce a growth spurt at puberty. At menopause, estrogen levels decrease for women….osteoblasts become less active, so less bone matrix is made, so in some women there is not enough estrogen to maintain bone health. Treatments include calcium supplements, less caffeine and less alcohol, and possibly estrogen supplements. Men typically do not experience a drop in testosterone, and therefore would not experience osteoporosis as the result of changes in their levels of sex hormones.<br /><br /><em>Cortisol Affects Bone Health.</em> Cortisol is made by the adrenal cortex of the adrenal glands. It fluctuates throughout the day, but can become quite elevated under unusual physical and mental stressors. Normal cortisol levels are important to carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism, and bone health (increases osteoblast activity and decreases osteoclast activity). For post-menopausal osteoporosis, mild exercise and a happy situation would increase cortisol levels slightly, contributing to bone health. At vastly increased levels, cortisol has a paradoxical effect, negatively affecting bone health, similar to growth hormone. Cortisol levels can increase with too much athletic training, trauma, or surgery.<br /><br /><em>Thyroid Hormones and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Affect Bone Health. </em>Thyroid hormones (triiodothyronine T3 and tetraiodothyronine, also called thyroxine T4) are made by the follicular cells of the thyroid gland, both of which contain iodine. (This is the main reason for iodized salt, to supply iodine to the thyroid gland to manufacture the hormones). Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is made by the anterior pituitary gland. TSH travels to the thyroid gland, where it increases production of thyroid hormones. Without TSH, you can’t stimulate the thyroid to create thyroid hormones.<br /><br />Hypersecretion of these hormones causes a form of osteoporosis…too much calcium lost from the body in urine. You need proper levels of TSH to get normal levels of T3 and T4 and need proper levels of all three for normal bone growth and maintenance. </p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-80998294741586854432009-11-01T10:13:00.000-08:002009-11-01T10:33:06.690-08:00Finally, some justice for Rosalind Franklin?In an earlier post, I criticized my Biochemistry textbook for its failure to mention Rosalind <iframe style="WIDTH: 120px; HEIGHT: 240px" marginheight="0" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=shimylan-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0077276205&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" align="right"></iframe>Franklin as a key player in the discovery of the DNA double helix. My A&P textbook is <em>Anatomy & Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function</em>, by Saladin, Fifth edition, Copyright <strong>2010</strong>. Maybe it is a sign of the times. I am including their section on Franklin below, as it is the first time I’ve seen a science textbook give credit where credit is due:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Discovery of the Double Helix</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Credit for determining the double-helical structure of DNA has gone mainly to James Watson and Francis Crick. The events surrounding their discovery form one of the most dramatic stories of modern science—the subject of many books and at least one movie. When Watson and Crick came to share a laboratory at Cambridge University in 1951, both had barely begun their careers. Watson, age 23, had just completed his Ph.D. in the United States, and Crick, 11 years older, was a doctoral candidate in England. Yet the two were about to become the most famous molecular biologists of the twentieth century, and the discovery that won them such acclaim came without a single laboratory experiment of their own.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Others were fervently at work on DNA, including Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins at King’s College in London. Using a technique called X-ray diffraction, Franklin had determined that DNA had a repetitious helical structure with sugar and phosphate on the outside of the helix. Without her permission, Wilkins showed one of Franklin’s best X-ray photographs to Watson. Watson said, “The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race.” It provided a flash of insight that allowed the Watson and Crick team to beat Franklin to the goal. They were quickly able to piece together a scale model from cardboard and sheet metal that fully accounted for the known geometry of DNA. They rushed a paper into print in 1953 describing the double helix, barely mentioning the importance of Franklin’s 2 years of painstaking X-ray diffraction work in unlocking the mystery of life’s most important molecule. Franklin published her findings in a separate paper back to back with theirs.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">For this discovery, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Nobel Prizes are awarded only to the living, and in the final irony of her career, Rosalind Franklin had died in 1958, at the age of 37, of a cancer possibly induced by the X-rays that were her window on DNA architecture.</span><br /><br />Also included are pictures of Rosalind Franklin, one of her X-ray photographs, and Watson and Crick with their model of the double helix.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-19795684764973959792009-10-06T16:49:00.001-07:002009-10-06T16:54:41.892-07:00The Devil at 37,000 Feet by William LangewiescheI'm sharing this article about the Amazon air crash because it provides some extremely interesting ideas about the limits of high-end technology. Here is the abstract:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">There were so many opportunities for the accident not to happen—the collision between a Legacy 600 private jet and a Boeing 737 carrying 154 people. But on September 29, 2006, high above the Amazon, a long, thin thread of acts and omissions brought the two airplanes together. From the vantage point of the pilots, the Brazilian air-traffic controllers, and the Caiapó Indians, whose rain forest became a charnel house, the author reconstructs a fatal intersection between high-performance technology and human fallibility.<br /></span><br />Shared via <a href="http://addthis.com/">AddThis</a>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-85054437987129114272009-09-29T13:23:00.001-07:002009-09-29T13:33:06.333-07:00A Microscopic View of Life<div><div><div><div>Here is a glimpse from my biology class. There are four main types of tissue in the body: nervous, muscular, epithelial, and connective tissues. Each tissue is specifically adapted to fill specialized roles and functions within our bodies. The following are some of the microscope slides we looked at. I find the complexity and specialization to be intriguing, beautiful, and miraculous.<br /><br /><strong>Nervous tissue:</strong> The cell body of a neuron and its cell processes (axons, dendrites), responsible for transmitting electrical impulses throughout our bodies. </div><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfYyO4xO3xcc4RqqHg_R04zMiL9NpP9NOEKN2b35eC0PEKCMlZKiVeuCEolh5DSv2JMkdFS89s6ksCqt_6AFXew2mz0s10rK1uY7l9wvRg30vj1z_6iujRrOYN54owKKPNwLFnCv58T-J/s1600-h/CIMG2229.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386987986085668178" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfYyO4xO3xcc4RqqHg_R04zMiL9NpP9NOEKN2b35eC0PEKCMlZKiVeuCEolh5DSv2JMkdFS89s6ksCqt_6AFXew2mz0s10rK1uY7l9wvRg30vj1z_6iujRrOYN54owKKPNwLFnCv58T-J/s400/CIMG2229.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><div><strong>Muscular tissue, specifically skeletal muscle:</strong> Highly striated (striped) cells called muscle fibers (lower half of the slide), which are responsible for our voluntary movements. These cells are specialized to contract in response to various types of stimuli. </div><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxeY0J2TGns-Ini3fm6fAjh1a1Gnk_2_hAjlC01y3PfdfB5mEijuZyZYM_zgS5rvrqvRxRaoV0rkc8x_B_svkDCar7CusajUeMzsXi48uYZYqxBjpL45cc6yUHNm1UVNKJEvJro4-Ka4A3/s1600-h/CIMG2225.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386988142510790530" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxeY0J2TGns-Ini3fm6fAjh1a1Gnk_2_hAjlC01y3PfdfB5mEijuZyZYM_zgS5rvrqvRxRaoV0rkc8x_B_svkDCar7CusajUeMzsXi48uYZYqxBjpL45cc6yUHNm1UVNKJEvJro4-Ka4A3/s400/CIMG2225.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><div><strong>Muscular tissue, specifically cardiac muscle:</strong> This slide is specially stained to see the tiny vertical lines called intercalated discs, which are responsible for cell-to-cell communication in the heart. Note the faint striations in cardiocytes (cardiac cells) as compared to the skeletal muscle slide. </div><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSaDFVWN78kkY3UB4p1OTS2PhSqiRe9kPW7fL35v_Cx8RDlkQV-bGArZEv3re8aOwYeHUFdvqNLc-FUYk905YQUrV672a2drQNob_dsgRV4_a5wHd1nwBEdA3tJQphWbc1nbbs8xNaoMkd/s1600-h/CIMG2227.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386988330366326082" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSaDFVWN78kkY3UB4p1OTS2PhSqiRe9kPW7fL35v_Cx8RDlkQV-bGArZEv3re8aOwYeHUFdvqNLc-FUYk905YQUrV672a2drQNob_dsgRV4_a5wHd1nwBEdA3tJQphWbc1nbbs8xNaoMkd/s400/CIMG2227.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><div><strong>Epithelial tissue, specifically stratified squamous epithelium:</strong> Many layers of flat cells comprise the inner lining of the esophagus. Why? The food swallowed is quite abrasive and wears away at the epithelium. By having many layers of cells, there are always new cells developing in the deeper layers to replace the cells being worn away at the surface next to the food. In general, epithelial tissue covers body surfaces, lines body cavities, covers surfaces of organs and glands, and more. </div><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie20HLCObmICx3IhVxuwY_hn8sbEA1nEVp6aUmikVvwRtTbesDsRLyG4VXo6kXNzKL1srz8u35PGuKyHsO8IyKxjBBZu3N4WAInVT4KowQuJw-3bJQlaZYs8-3ciIt52T6DUl28-NP5XON/s1600-h/CIMG2223.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386988487480834994" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie20HLCObmICx3IhVxuwY_hn8sbEA1nEVp6aUmikVvwRtTbesDsRLyG4VXo6kXNzKL1srz8u35PGuKyHsO8IyKxjBBZu3N4WAInVT4KowQuJw-3bJQlaZYs8-3ciIt52T6DUl28-NP5XON/s400/CIMG2223.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><div><strong>Epithelial tissue, specifically pseudostratified columnar epithelium with cilia:</strong> The cilia move mucus up out of the trachea. The mucus captures inhaled particles. In this way, particles from the air don’t travel to the deeper areas of the respiratory tract. </div><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnlFhk33Ow5XWvu7g6NfaS6ShswNm92scDOLRdWbNIizBaxfu_QfutxOCmXfthH2w54moiU8tXHfP03F7cnvAr0X4HkLipQ04Xmmi_qigviielaOLfSUaH_jb0qbxDdzFuB16gM2eRUeY/s1600-h/CIMG2221.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386988648869042434" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnlFhk33Ow5XWvu7g6NfaS6ShswNm92scDOLRdWbNIizBaxfu_QfutxOCmXfthH2w54moiU8tXHfP03F7cnvAr0X4HkLipQ04Xmmi_qigviielaOLfSUaH_jb0qbxDdzFuB16gM2eRUeY/s400/CIMG2221.JPG" border="0" /></a></p></div></div></div>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-89632132302656681122009-09-19T07:51:00.001-07:002009-09-19T08:02:54.628-07:00Negativity or Reflection?I am a proponent of education. I have several degrees, with a possible third degree in progress. As a <em>student</em>, college was a transformational experience for me, which I would not trade for anything. My experience as a <em>teacher</em> and as a <em>tech support</em> person in higher education, has been, like any job, surprising, challenging, sometimes unpleasant, sometimes rewarding...sometimes in complete opposition to the values of a liberal education.<br /><br />It is my liberal education that taught me to always question, critique, and analyze the world around me. And so I do not accept this world I experience at face value. I will always be wondering <em>why</em> and <em>what if</em> and for some reason, I guess I will always see the irony in things.<br /><br />I hope that I can share my view of the world without being negative. I hope that I can critique and analyze without being negative. I have high standards and believe we can always be better, but we'll never get there without reflection and analysis. This is the core of what my education was all about.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-14470373914327310252009-09-16T18:04:00.000-07:002009-09-16T18:15:01.821-07:00An Impending Pandemic = Suddenly We Care About Technology?<p>For years we have offered technology workshops to students, faculty, and staff. We publicize these workshops on the web, via email, in brochures that are sent campus wide. Even during a significant upgrade, like switching from Office 2003 to Office 2007, we were lucky to get five people attending each session. There simply has never been any push from the administrative level, or from department heads, for staff or instructors to advance their technology skills.</p><p>Our new teaching & learning center, formed to encourage professional development, does not address technology. There are no plans to employ an instructional technologist, even though instructors are struggling to integrate technology into their curriculum. They see technology as the domain of the IT department. This means that our people who understand assignment design and pedagogy don’t understand technology, and our technology people don’t understand assignment design or pedagogy. People who train others on technology, and who are sometimes invited to classrooms to teach technology, get caught in this conundrum.</p><p>The attitude here is that curriculum is one thing and technology is another, separate thing, and if instructors want to assign students to create a website or make a video, they just order up the technology training and have someone else teach and support it, and patch it into their syllabus like a band aid. The problem with this is, for many disciplines, there is no division between technology and curriculum. Take journalism for example. The instructor is the only person who can provide a meaningful context for the technology. As an IT person, I can teach the technology, but I cannot teach how a journalist or a market analyst or someone in another discipline would use the technology. It is the instructor who has the potential to blend the mechanics of the technology with the best practices of their particular discipline.</p><p>And this is where the anti-technology sentiment is most troubling to me. Instructors ask me to come to their classrooms and teach beginner students who are not computer science or information systems majors to design and develop websites, after receiving one short training session. We just provided two full weeks of instruction for three sections of a three credit course because the instructor can’t support his own technology-based assignment, but he is also unwilling to modify his assignment. Because departments are at risk of losing their accreditation because they haven’t incorporated technology into their curriculum and they are looking to me to fill that gap, rather than learning the technology themselves, even though that technology has become a core component of their discipline. We’re asked to teach old technology, advanced technology that isn’t appropriate for beginners, and things that seem pointless.</p><p>Integrating technology into curriculum is a struggle, an after thought, no one’s responsibility but that of the IT department, which just received almost three quarters of a million dollars worth of budget cuts. </p><p>But suddenly, now that this institution is worried about an impending flu pandemic, about the possibility of having to GIVE BACK TUITION MONEY, now they are concerned about instructors’ ability to maintain communication with students, and continue sharing course content in a pandemic situation. Because guess what this means??? That you’ve learned how to put your course content online. That you’ve learned to use email. That you know how to access your files from home. That perhaps you have even experimented with new, online tools for communicating with students, such as instant messaging, and an abundance of free online tools for holding virtual meetings. Above, all, that you've TAKEN OWNERSHIP of your skills and your ability to teach and learn and communicate in the highly virtual twenty first century.</p><p>Emails were even sent out from administration about using new “social distance” tools to keep courses running if your class can’t meet face to face—things like instant messaging and virtual meeting tools. I found this announcement to be extremely out of touch with the technology skills of instructors. Do administrators seriously think that, when stricken down by the swine flu, instructors will finally be motivated to learn to use new technology tools? That after we have cultivated an anti-technology attitude, now, when faced with a pandemic, people will suddenly be interested in advancing their technology skills?</p><p>Now, they are concerned about this.</p><p>Maybe if technology had been a priority all along, most of our course material would already be available online right now, instead of a small fraction of it.</p><p>I can see the official press release already: “We had a comprehensive pandemic preparedness plan in place and took systemic measures to provide training and support for these procedures.” </p><p>I wish I had no opinions about things. It would make things a lot easier. I would just go to work, complete tasks, not think about them, and leave. But I think it’s really sad that this is what it takes for people to care about technology.</p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-44626352397511459422009-08-20T13:51:00.000-07:002009-08-20T14:39:04.194-07:00Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 4Part 4, with names changed...<br /><br />The chair of the Status of Women says, “The Commission has historically been concerned with issues of fairness and giving a voice to those who don’t have one.<span style=""> </span>I’m afraid that Limited Term Employees have no Norma Rae to rally them.”<span style=""> </span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">In 2006,<span style=""> </span>after scrutiny about its long term use of approximately 2,500 limited term employees, UW-Madison implemented an <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/12687">LTE reform plan</a>: use LTE employment only for seasonal or irregular functions, set wages for LTE appointments at or above the living wage defined by the City of Madison as 110 percent of federal poverty rate for a family of four, and begin a five-year plan to convert existing LTE positions that are not seasonal or irregular to permanent status.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">According to the Director of Classified Human Resources at UW-Madison, they currently have 1600 LTE appointments. According to the March 2009 report of the advisory committee, 288 of these positions are identified for conversion to permanent status (the rest are seasonal or irregular positions). Since the LTE reform plan was implemented in October of 2006, 50 LTE positions have been converted to permanent status, creating the equivalent of 36.4 new FTE positions. In addition, the committee reports that 89% of LTEs are now paid at or above the living wage of $10.92 per hour.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">When asked whether LTEs have any rights, our HR representative says it depends on what you mean by <i style="">rights</i>. “In terms of progression and transfer, LTEs have no rights,” she says. But she cites a sexual harassment situation as an example where LTEs have the same rights any employee has. She adds that LTEs are told about their limited rights when they are hired. “When an LTE starts they sign documents saying they don’t have the rights or benefits that regular, permanent employees have,” she says.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">For some, working as an LTE can be a stepping stone into permanent state employment, which guarantees higher wages, better benefits, and union representation. Karen is the advocacy model needed to promote “limited term” workers into permanent positions throughout the UW-System. Gaining equal rights for <b style="">W</b>isconsin <b style="">W</b>omen working in “limited term” positions in <b style="">H</b>igher <b style="">E</b>ducation is critical to women’s economic success in Wisconsin. We must be the ultimate model for our own liberal education learning goals –for students to “develop and use skills for promoting equity, diversity, and inclusivity in civic and professional contexts.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Karen—who made so many changes for her limited term employees—currently serves on the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee and contends that we can all inspire positive change. “I look at my circle of influence and say ‘what can I do?’” she says.<span style=""> </span>“When I became a manager—I could do something. That’s what we have to do with diversity. Look at ourselves as one person making a difference.”</p>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-50409117921499246752009-08-20T13:43:00.000-07:002009-08-20T14:39:04.195-07:00Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 3<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Part 3 with names changed...<br /><br />My colleagues and I worked many years as LTEs before we were able to apply and compete for our own permanent positions. If not for our manager, Karen, who crusaded to get equal rights for her LTEs, I am confident that we would all still be “limited term.” </span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In 1976, Karen took a job doing data entry for the Admissions office. “I spent eight hours a day typing in information off the application into a computer terminal,” she says. Less than four years later, she was promoted to the Registrar’s office. While working full-time, Karen earned a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and a Master’s of Business Administration. Today she is the Associate Director of the IT department.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Karen's department has successfully converted all of their long-term limited term employees to permanent state employees. Converting LTEs to full time equivalencies (FTEs), or permanent positions, is not impossible, but it does require challenging the status quo. Karen converted available FTEs, from retirements and position vacancies, into permanent positions that long term LTEs could interview and compete for. Karen found support from her department director. “He knows you have to treat people well, build up a staff that cares, to get good performance,” Karen says. Karen also gathered support from other department managers. “I just said we would make do with less people, or cut services. I had to convince the other managers that our group would take on more if we could have the FTE.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Karen says the problem occurs when there is money available to fund a position, but no FTE, which is set by the state. For example, Student Senate wanted my position and funded it, and so it remained a limited term position.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Our Human Resources representative says this model would be different for other position classifications. For example, for a University Services Associate position to be converted to a permanent position, it would first have to be posted for any permanent employee in the UW System to transfer into. If no one transfers into the position, the interview process begins. The interview candidates are selected based on their Civil Service exam scores. So it’s possible that the LTE wouldn’t be selected to interview and compete for the permanent position. Once hired as an LTE, it is very hard to become a permanent worker.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Our University Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI) fellow says that to date, EDI has been focused on UW System student-centered equity initiatives (e.g., the Equity Scorecard), but he hopes there is a lot we can do with LTE equity at the campus level. “This is a flawed system that we have routinely supported,” he says. “The system has created, in some cases, second class citizens within their own departments.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >He adds that we have only just begun to have the necessary conversations about LTE equity issues, but that staff equity relates to student success, which we are all responsible for.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >“With the way we do business now, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness should be engaged in the service of student success at every level…everyone is responsible for student success.”</span><br /></span>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-25912839623698908732009-08-19T14:20:00.000-07:002009-08-20T14:39:04.196-07:00Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 2Part 2 with names changed...<br /><br />According to a <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/12948">University of Wisconsin Press Release</a>, the definition of LTE appointments is for UW System campus units to carry out short term or seasonal work. One LTE position is limited to no more than 1,043 hours, or six months, of full-time work per year. However, an individual may hold one or two LTE positions, resulting in ongoing part-time or full-time work.<br /><div><br />Our University currently has 144 limited term employees, according to our Human Resources representative, who also says that about fifty percent of these LTEs have two positions, meaning the number of LTE positions is likely around 200. This constitutes about 27 percent of all University staff (classified staff and LTEs), or 13 percent of all University employees.<br /><br />Many in “limited term” positions are working long term without receiving the benefits that permanent state employees receive. In a May 2009 survey of xxxx’s LTEs, 24% reported working less than a year, 22% reported 1-2 years, 14% reported 3-4 years, 11% reported 5-6 years, and 29% reported six years or more. The average length of “limited term” employment was 11.6 years.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP15QGwsxgGEjiYIFFgOs_U2AusFlhNbh_E2AGhU1Gg-T0mYBAzNVYR-ULKzQ34erGMwnDMkXQld5sLV8Y0gbCISgbGAWCDGq2Bd81adBmfLAPPN3iJvep5XaCC9BY-qs7R6XLsyo-j23/s1600-h/pie.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 340px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP15QGwsxgGEjiYIFFgOs_U2AusFlhNbh_E2AGhU1Gg-T0mYBAzNVYR-ULKzQ34erGMwnDMkXQld5sLV8Y0gbCISgbGAWCDGq2Bd81adBmfLAPPN3iJvep5XaCC9BY-qs7R6XLsyo-j23/s400/pie.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372141618473779794" border="0" /></a><br /></div>Survey respondents represented a variety of positions, such as custodial, clerical, police, early childhood education, marketing, communications, event planning, and technology support. In addition, 84% were female (72% of all current LTEs at our University are female), 26% reported they are the sole provider for their families, and 59% had a baccalaureate degree or higher.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLGCS08C7Uf3PdnDT1zwHy3jHAy8NhDNp6kKK5efgDEv2iEj1yLWhoh5WAsuhnYb3rc4pQotD5DgNNyWk3cyFysiACxSFPsCXBIEWkNe-Gqsm7MSGFeLLD5ISAEP5k8Nt3hGeJlF476QZ/s1600-h/ed.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLGCS08C7Uf3PdnDT1zwHy3jHAy8NhDNp6kKK5efgDEv2iEj1yLWhoh5WAsuhnYb3rc4pQotD5DgNNyWk3cyFysiACxSFPsCXBIEWkNe-Gqsm7MSGFeLLD5ISAEP5k8Nt3hGeJlF476QZ/s400/ed.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372142080368144466" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />LTEs qualify for minimal benefits, depending on how many positions they have and the number of hours they work. LTEs qualify for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) when they are expected to work at least 600 hours within a 12-month period. Once eligible for WRS, LTEs become eligible for health insurance coverage, and have the option of paying the full premiums for a variety of other benefits, such as supplemental dental and income continuation insurance. Some of these benefits are explained below.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5xqz5hNMGjjl683JkPuYVtGHgV2Wt-A8yJHFfvjW-KyOXlpKgEhwj-EbuhT9qnUqn1iPtz784_lPGPJlx0QsiQidiCJcg3nl3rwYK8oaneSi0Cjnq4tL9Z2l9g1IeARofur4w7xs3eBK/s1600-h/grid.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 379px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5xqz5hNMGjjl683JkPuYVtGHgV2Wt-A8yJHFfvjW-KyOXlpKgEhwj-EbuhT9qnUqn1iPtz784_lPGPJlx0QsiQidiCJcg3nl3rwYK8oaneSi0Cjnq4tL9Z2l9g1IeARofur4w7xs3eBK/s400/grid.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372142534620328226" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />LTEs are paid a minimum of 20% less than permanent workers for doing the same work. According to the LTE Handbook, LTEs start at 20% less than the minimum rate for the Civil Service position classification, with wage increases up to the minimum rate for that Civil Service position classification. This minimum rate is the most an LTE can ever earn, while a permanent employee in the same position classification can earn up to the maximum rate plus receive wage increases as negotiated by union contracts.<br /><br />To become a permanent state employee, I had to interview and compete with others, including permanent state employees, for the position I had worked in for three years. My wages increased $5.51 per hour—over $200 more per week—for doing the same work, along with annual wage increases as negotiated by union contracts, vacation, sick leave, personal and legal holidays. However, in some ways, my LTE service doesn’t count. An employee’s seniority date is the original date of employment as a permanent employee. Although I’ve worked for the University for five years (3 years LTE and 2 years permanent), I earn vacation benefits at the rate of a two year employee—a difference that amounts to 32 hours/year of vacation time.<br /><br />Treatment of LTEs, in terms of wages and performance, varies widely. Thirty-seven percent of survey respondents indicated they receive annual performance evaluations from their managers, and 41 percent indicated they do not; 21 percent indicated they receive annual wage increases, and 45 percent indicated they do not. In my three years as an LTE, I was given annual performance reviews and received two fifty cent raises.<br /><br />In this difficult time of budget cuts, the workload only increases without any reward for limited term employees. One person wrote on the survey, “My boss has continued to give me more on my plate, and I have kept up with his demands. All the while staying at the same pay for 6 years.” Another wrote, “I've worked as an LTE for 9 years now. What does LTE stand for? Limited Term Employee. They are taking advantage of LTEs by not giving them vacation, sick days, paid holidays and personal days.”<br /><br />One LTE wrote, “I think it's hard for a university to state it's concerned about equity when they essentially create second-class citizens within its own workforce…being an LTE can make you feel worthless; no matter what you do, or how well you do your job, there are no promotions or rewards…Your heart breaks when you resent your child for being sick, because it's another day without pay.” </div>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-90118712369432851072009-08-17T09:32:00.000-07:002009-08-17T09:37:43.784-07:00Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 1I am going to post in segments my article about higher education's use of “limited term” positions that keep women in low paying jobs with few benefits. Names are changed...<br /><br /><br />“Across Wisconsin, I see talented and tenacious women poised to lead this state's economic growth -- if only we clear obstacles from their path.”<br />-Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton<br /><br />When Karen became the manager of a campus help desk and software training group, she quickly realized that her staff was comprised mostly of women who had worked five to ten years in “limited term” status with low wages, earning a minimum of 20% less than permanent workers in the same job classifications, with no vacation, sick time, personal or legal holidays, and in some cases, no health insurance.<br /><br />I experienced these inequitable conditions. In 2003, with four years of professional work experience and a Master’s degree in progress, I was hired as the coordinator for Karen’s software training program—a position that had existed in limited term classification since 1995 and remained “limited term” for twelve years, until 2007. Almost three years into my employment, my mom suffered a massive stroke. As a limited term employee (LTE), I had no vacation, sick leave, personal or legal holidays. Fortunately, my co-workers showed their support by taking up a collection, which helped pay my bills while I took unpaid time off to be with my mom during her four-month hospital stay.<br /><br />Karen became concerned about people she supervised working long term in “limited term” positions while studying the attributes of successful companies, as part of her MBA coursework. “Successful companies took care of their people, and then the people in turn worked hard,” Karen says.<br /><br />Despite Karen’s concern, the status quo at this institution is to maintain “limited term” positions for many years. “I know people who worked here in various offices as LTEs for more than 20 years,” Karen says, now the Associate IT Director. “I do think this is a significant problem here and I believe it may even be worse statewide.”<br /><br />While a common response among managers and administration is “this is the system we’re stuck with,” or “people have choices,” Karen challenged the status quo for her “limited term” employees...julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-16816244545246785392009-07-10T05:49:00.000-07:002009-07-10T07:22:55.705-07:00Renegade Immune SystemMy eyelids were red, stinging and burning. I was extremely sensitive to light. I had a dentist appointment one morning, and I almost cried with that light on my face. In the past my symptoms had been redness, acne, and flaking skin on my cheeks, nose, and forehead area. This eyelid situation is ocular rosacea, or blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids). I debated going to an ophthalmologist but I knew what he or she would do: prescribe antibiotics. I had just finished a six week round of antibiotics that completely screwed up my body and triggered rosacea symptoms that were worse than before I started the antibiotics.<br /><br />I began a twice daily regime of washing my eyelids with Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo, and also putting a warm washcloth on my eyelids at night (recommended in many things I read online). It helped, but the symptoms persisted for about two weeks. I stopped taking my multivitamin and lysine supplements, meaning levothyroxin (for hypothyroidism) was the only thing I was still taking. I noticed that my hair was falling out, and I had bursts of tingly electrical sensations in my fingers and toes. One morning I woke up and felt like my face was swollen…especially under my eyes. My eyes felt like they could pop out of my head at any moment. I had no appetite. My eyes felt gritty. Suddenly I realized, could it be the levothyroxin? I looked online, and I was horrified by the side effects: swelling of the face, hair loss, etc. When I received this medication, the pharmacist told me to take it on an empty stomach and “just start feeling better.” My TSH (the stuff that tells your thyroid to produce more thyroid stuff) had ranged from 4-6 for the past few years, which was too high, in my primary physician’s opinion (I have since read, and was told by a nurse, that some physicians consider TSH as high as 10 to be normal). How could doctors have recommended that I take a medication that can promote inflammation, when they know I have a condition where I am already susceptible to inflammation? I specifically asked my dermatologist if the levothyroxin would be a problem and she said no.<br /><br />I called my primary physician and talked to the nurse, to let them know that I was stopping the levothyroxin. When I explained this, the nurse said, “You should be assessed by a physician before stopping your medication.” She insisted I go to the walk-in clinic that day. She made a comment about inflammation moving into my throat, which made me panic. I was already extremely emotional about this situation.<br /><br />Reluctantly, I went to the clinic and explained all the problems I’d been having to the nurse, who then said, “Are you usually this emotional—this labile?” She then asked if pregnancy was a possibility. I resented this, as I am familiar with the term labile, a clinical term that was frequently applied to my mother by medical professionals during her four month hospital stay and stroke rehabilitation. I believe it is a convenient way for medical professionals to discredit you, and therefore not have to look at you as a whole person.<br /><br />Then the doctor came in, and I told her all the same things. She said she didn’t think my face was swollen, and she said, “You’re really upset about this, aren’t you?” She told me my TSH was down to 3.62 (I’d had my blood drawn that morning). I asked her what normal range is and she said it is very wide, like .5 to 6. She said most people feel best when their TSH goes down to 2.0-2.5. She looked up the levothyroxin side effects on her computer, read off hair loss and facial swelling, but then said that these things can also be caused by stress.<br /><br />When I explained to her my concerns about long term use of antibiotics, especially the side effects, she told me to eat a cup of yogurt every day.<br /><br />Then she told me that if I think it’s the levothyroxin, then I should quit taking it for at least two weeks and see if the symptoms go away.<br /><br />Well that was a huge waste of time!<br /><br />My symptoms improved dramatically after I stopped taking the levothyroxin. I have no doubt it was aggravating my rosacea. What if my TSH level is my body’s natural way of trying to reduce the inflammation I’ve been experiencing for so long? Obviously I experienced more inflammation at a higher metabolic rate.<br /><br />I felt so good after I stopped the levothyroxin, and my nephew was visiting and we were doing all sorts of stuff that I slacked off on trying eliminate glutens and eat mainly fresh fruits and veggies. I ended up at a lot of fast food restaurants. Then, one day this week I ate a tuna salad with honey mustard from Subway for lunch, and immediately after, I felt terrible. My eyelids began to swell, and I was extremely bloated…I’ve since read that canned tuna can trigger rosacea flare-ups; it’s one of several foods that can induce a histamine release. I also read about protein digestion and sugars…protein is the most difficult food for your body to digest…eating sugars along with protein can interfere with the protein digestion, meaning that the food will linger in your stomach for way longer than usual, creating a perfect environment for toxic yeasts, fungi, and bacteria, creating an unhealthy intestinal environment. Also, your skin is a major way through which your body eliminates toxins…at this point, let me remind you, that my dermatologist told me that nothing causes rosacea.<br /><br />I am reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rosacea-Self-Help-Guide-Arlen-Brownstein/dp/1572242248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247234073&sr=1-1">Rosacea: Your Self-Help Guide</a> by <a href="http://www.rosaceaworld.com/">Arlen Brownstein</a>, a naturopathic doctor, and Donna Shoemaker, a nutritionist. It is the most helpful and thorough resource I’ve found on rosacea, including various medical approaches to managing rosacea, as well as in depth information on nutrition and your digestive tract. I am convinced that long term use of antibiotics has completely upset the natural balances of my body, especially my digestive tract. I also believe that I may have a problem with glutens and with some meats. This is an opportunity to improve the overall health of my body. I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and the organic local foods store, and bought many fruits and vegetables I have never even tried before.<br /><br />I have begun talking with a naturopathic doctor, and I am very hopeful that this will be a positive experience. “This sounds like a renegade immune system issue,” the naturopathic doctor said when she replied to my email. “Make sure you know what your triggers are.” Somehow I sense that this isn’t going to be a ten minute doctor visit in which I’m written off as labile and sent away with a prescription in hand.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-19091202772921962002009-07-06T10:41:00.000-07:002009-07-06T10:43:21.789-07:00The Big Old MachineI just got off the phone with the director of Human Resources. She feels that my article about higher education’s use of limited term employees (LTEs) in long term positions, for low wages and few benefits, is extremely negative and would have a detrimental effect on LTEs. In fact, she said she “panicked” when she read it. The final article is much different than my earlier post, and has not yet been published anywhere. At this point I don’t know if it will be…<br /><br />In reflecting on my past ten years of work experience, I now view corporate software development as an animal, like a sleek, fast leopard, or a fox—small, yet cunning, sly, and powerful. In the end, looking out ultimately for itself. This is why I left. I thought higher education would be different. I thought I would be happier. And as long as I was ignorant about the inner workings, I was. After five years, I now see higher education as a big, old, archaic machine, professing to teach the values of liberal education and to promote equity and diversity, yet clinging to ancient philosophies about employment, which result in keeping those who have the fewest rights silent and in their places. Perhaps I will be proven wrong. My article has the support of several committees and is being circulated to the higher ups…<br /><br />Hopefully I will not get laid off tomorrow…<br /><br />I do not intend for this article to harm anyone; however, I do feel that this is a serious social equity issue that needs to be better understood in our academic community, and perhaps even by a general audience.<br /><br />Here are some things the HR director said, and which reflect a common attitude among management: people take these jobs knowing what they’re getting in to, this is the system we’re stuck with, these people sign statements of their limited rights when they start working here…ok, all of which might be fine, if you were truly using LTEs to do short term work, like seasonal or special projects. But when you’re using them to do the same work that permanent state employees do, work that is not limited term, denying them equal wages and benefits IS A PROBLEM.<br /><br />The whole experience of writing this article—the fear and reluctance of many schools to even talk about this issue—is destroying any remaining belief I have in this institution actually practicing and promoting the liberal education values it professes to teach.<br /><br />A few hours after my conversation with the HR director I realized why I was so surprised. I wasn’t expecting a positive reaction. But I was expecting corrections. Like you got this number wrong or this fact is not actually true. But there were no corrections. Just her vague, high level statements attempting to instill fear.<br /><br />I was educated by this institution…two degrees and many thousands of dollars. More and more, the words of a wise friend come to mind: “You cannot educate people to be free thinkers and then penalize them when they question the system.”julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-49231402675050368132009-07-03T13:27:00.000-07:002009-07-03T13:34:28.677-07:00<a style="FONT-SIZE: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" href="http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/natural-remedies-for-rosacea/" target="_blank" name="1">NYTimes says no natural remedies for rosacea</a><br /><br />The New York Times article <a href="http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/natural-remedies-for-rosacea/" target="_blank">Natural Remedies for Rosacea?</a> poses a question that many rosacea sufferers ask – are there any effective treatments for rosacea that don’t include the use of antibiotics or other prescriptions? This article also presents understandable definitions of different types of rosacea.<br /><br />It is great to see articles on rosacea in a publication like the New York Times. However, it is discouraging to find an unsatisfying answer to such an important question. Surely there are good natural treatments out there somewhere???<br /><br />This article says, "Self-care and dietary measures may also aid in the management of roscacea, but there are different forms of the disease, and each may require different treatments." According to what I've been reading by rosacea sufferers, diet may play a huge role in this skin condition. I am trying to find out, by reading books and changing my diet, and I'll let you know.julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6027809003655668265.post-13291847526592163712009-06-24T11:53:00.001-07:002009-06-24T14:22:52.577-07:00Rosacea May Be Caused by Immune Response, Not BacteriaThis is part of my exciting research about rosacea. I'm also practicing a new skill I learned today in regards to social media. I'm posting this to my blog directly from the Medline site, just by clicking the SHARE feature and then selecting Blogger!<br /><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Dermatology/GeneralDermatology/6348">Rosacea May Be Caused by Immune Response, Not Bacteria</a><br /><br />Shared via <a href="http://addthis.com/">AddThis</a>julacathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01678585225436463214noreply@blogger.com0