Fulbright Program Research Articles

ASSOCIATON BETWEEN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS IN A MIDDLE-AGE, ELDERLY POPULATION. THE INCHIANTI STUDY.

Physical activity (PA) is a protective factor against coronary heart disease (CHD). Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. The beneficial effect of PA could be partially mediated through a lower inflammatory status. PURPOSE To determine the association between PA practice and inflammatory biomarkers (acute phase reactants and cytokines) in a middle-aged elderly population. METHODS A population based cross-sectional study performed in Italy (participation rate > 85%). Blood sample and self-reported PA was available in 1,103 participants older than 59 years. Three groups according to PA practice were defined: inactive, light PA practice, and moderate-high PA practice. The following inflammatory biomarkers were measured: white blood count (WBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), albumin, fibrinogen, C-Reactive protein (CRP), Interleukin 6 (IL6), Interleukin 6 receptor (IL6R), Interleukin 1 β (IL1β), Inteleukin 1 receptor (IL1R), Interleukin 10 (IL10), and Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNFα). Multiple linear and logistic regression were used for multivariate analysis. RESULTS In men, light and moderate-high PA were associated with ESR (−0.43, −0.38), fibrinogen (−47.5, −33.63 mg/dL), and albumin (11.65, 10.95 g/dL), respectively. Only moderate-high PA was associated with Log-IL6 and Log-TNFα (−0.33 pg/mL, −0.28 pg/mL). Light and moderate-high PA were also associated with a lower risk of CRP > 0.60pg/mL (OR = 0.37, OR = 0.32). In women, light and moderate-high PA were associated with WBC (−0.35, −0.39 K/(L) fibrinogen (−18.5, −15.01 mg/dL), and Log-IL6 (−0.18, −0.33 pg/mL), respectively. No other associations were observed. CONCLUSION light and moderate-high PA are associated with lower acute-phase reactants and with higher albumin levels. Moderate-high PA is associated with lower levels of IL6 and TNFα. Supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (ICS 110.1/RS97.71) and in part by the U.S. National Institute on Aging (263_MD_9164_13, 263_MD_821336). R. Elosua was sponsored by the Fulbright Program and Generalitat de Catalunya

The fulbright program

The fulbright program

Using Distance Education to Internationalize Library and Information Science Scholarship

Library and information science educators have long sought to internationalize scholarship to enrich the quality of educational programs and professional practice. But many obstacles restrict the size and growth of traditional international education efforts, particularly in developing countries. This article presents a case study that uses emerging distance education techniques to deliver a graduate course on knowledge management in The Peoples' Republic of China and the United States. Sponsored by the U. S. Fulbright program, this demonstration project blends learning technologies, using Web-based WebCT software, videoconferencing, personal contacts and readings to create an international, virtual learning space. The article describes how faculty and students achieved the three course goals: (1) learning to learn internationally, (2) bilateral communication and (3) knowledge management. Findings and recommendations support the following conclusions: using active learning pedagogies that engage the students in the learning process; applying multiple technologies that can be supported internationally; maximizing the use of two-way, asynchronous and synchronous communication to encourage individual and group learning; and focusing on broad, interdisciplinary content to facilitate participation in international learning environments.

On helping Latin American countries in education in acoustics

The science and applications of acoustics are just as important in Latin America as they are in North America and elsewhere. However, resources in academia are harder to come by in nearly all of the Central American and South American nations; and therefore it would behoove U.S. and European acousticians to help their Latin-American counterparts in achieving their goals of quality education in acoustics, particularly in architectural acoustics, noise control, biomedical usages of ultrasound, signal analyses, and measurement techniques. Among the means of helping are scholarly exchanges, more support by the U.S. government for such exchanges (particularly through Fulbright programs—it is unfortunate that the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program does not recognize acoustics as being one of the environmental sciences), collaboration on research projects, long-term equipment loans and/or outright donations, etc. Advice by experienced practitioners in establishing or improving acoustics laboratories can optimize equipment selection and development of the curriculum.

Does Fulbright Make a Difference? The Turkish Perspective

This article reports on the findings of a research project carried out by a team of faculties at the Middle East Technical University and the Fulbright Education Committee in Turkey. The project aimed to investigate the Fulbright program's professional, personal, and social impacts and its effectiveness from the perspectives of Turkish scholars. Data were collected by mail from 277 Fulbright scholars living in various regions of Turkey. All of the scholars agreed that their Fulbright experience in the United States had had positive effects on their professional, social, and personal lives. Scholars were especially satisfied with the effect on their personal lives. For example, the Fulbright experience broadened their world viewpoint in a flexible and international setting. These results suggest that Fulbright scholars contribute to the development of the country, because many of them hold high-ranking positions that allow them to develop and implement policies in different sectors. For the development of the Fulbright program, it is recommended that continuous follow-up studies be conducted to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

The Fulbright Program, or the Surplus Value of Officially Organized Academic Exchange

This paper will argue that the Fulbright Program can only add something substantial to what academic exchange normally does when it explicitly goes political. The surplus or added value of official American Studies depends on the way it is organized and programmed, as a command economy or as a negotiation economy and political rather than cultural. The first part of the paper provides some information about the context, history, and method of the Fulbright Program. It states that the program is primarily oriented towards Europe in order to strengthen the Atlantic Alliance and to culturally legitimize America s leading role in the alliance. Proportionally, the Netherlands was one of the most important nations of the program, not just because of its high-standing technical and natural sciences in militarily-strategically significant areas such as nuclear physics, but also because of its mediating role in the world of foreign diplomacy and scholarship. The second part of the paper deals with the transformation of the Fulbright Program in the Netherlands between 1947-1997. It shows that the first period of this time fully emphasized the science of education, whereas the second period focused on political science and political history. From 1985 onwards, a culturalised and depoliticised American Studies discipline has been dominating the scene. Re-politicisation of the Fulbright program in co-ordinated projects is pleaded for

The Ideological and Political Impact of U.S. Fulbrighters on Chinese Students: 1979–1989

I n the late 1970s Chinese leaders realized that to attain its Four Modernizations in science and technology, i dustry, agriculture, and efense, China had to open its educational system to developments in the outside world. The year 1979 saw China opening its doors to foreigners, especially teachers from the West. Universities and colleges all over China were inviting American, Canadian, British, French, German, and other European teachers into their classrooms, mostly to teach basic foreign language courses. In fall 1979 the government of the People's Republic of China formally requested American assistance in the recruitment and support of between twenty and thirty specialists in English language teaching over a three-year period. The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), a private agency cooperating with the U.S. government in the administration of Fulbright Scholar grants for advanced research and university teaching, selected four Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) specialists and assigned them to Beijing University in March 1980. For the first time since 1949 American scholars selected solely on the basis of their academic qualifications taught regularly enrolled Chinese university students. After 1980, the number of American Fulbrighters teaching in China increased substantially, and by 1989 the China Fulbright program was one of the largest in the world, with twenty-four American professors teaching on Chinese campuses and a like number of Chinese graduate students and scholars studying at U.S. universities. Did American Fulbrighters have a noticeable impact

Internationalize Higher Education

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsPhilip G. AltbachPhilip G. Altbach is J. Donald Monan, S. J., professor of higher education and director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. Patti McGill Peterson is executive director of the Council on International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright Program) and vice president of the Institute of International Education. She has served as president of Wells College and of St. Lawrence University.

Taking on the World: U.S. Women Fulbrighters

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Fulbright Scholar Program in 1996 and to help set the agenda for the next half century, five former Fulbright professors, all of them women from the United States, recount the life-altering experiences they had while teaching and doing research under the program's auspices in Germany, Mexico, Chile, Romania, and Finland during the 1980s and 1990s. In separate but related essays, the five authors, all of whom are feminists, describe the various challenges and opportunities they encountered in their host countries. Among the issues discussed are the underrepresentation of women in the Fulbright program; the problems the authors faced as researchers, teachers, partners, and parents living and working abroad; the rewards they reaped from sharing their feminist perspective and pedagogy with students in other countries; and the global understanding of Women's Studies and women's concerns they gained from their experience as Fulbright fellows. The authors' goals are to encourage readers to support the program and to inspire women scholars who have not yet considered doing so to apply for Fulbright grants. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.149 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 06:15:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 58 ANNA SHANNON ELFENBEIN, ET AL. In 1996 the Fulbright Scholar Program, the largest and most comprehensive academic-exchange program in the world, celebrated its 50th anniversary. There was much to celebrate, of course. But around the same time, the U.S. government reduced its funding of Fulbright fellowships by approximately 14%. This sharp cut in vital financial support disrupted arrangements the program's administrators had made with 26 partner countries and placed its entire future in jeopardy.' The five women authors of this essay are former Fulbrighters who believe that the program needs and deserves stronger support, both from the government and from women scholars in the United States. Our fellowships made it possible for us to serve as feminist scholars and teachers in five different countries. For all of us (Anna Shannon Elfenbein, Germany, 1992-93; Linda E. Lucas, Mexico, 1980-81; Barbara C. Ewell, Chile, 1992-93; Kathryn Cirksena, Romania, 1991-92; and Margaret McFadden, Finland, 1991-92), the Fulbright experience was an unforgettable adventure. Moreover, it has had an enormously positive effect on our lives and careers. After comparing notes on the experience during a conference, we decided to share our stories with a wider audience.2 We wrote the following accounts with three main goals in mind. The first was to break the silence that has long enveloped the participation of women in the Fulbright program.3 The second was to encourage women to give the program greater support and to ask Congress to restore its funding commitment to its previous level. And the third was to do what we could to increase the representation of women among Fulbright grantees. During the years 1992 through 1996, the most recent period for which data are available, the percentage of Fulbright awards that went to women ranged from a low of 29% to a high of 34%.4 These discouraging numbers might be thought to reflect a discriminatory selection process, but in fact women applicants had a slightly higher chance of being selected during this period than men applicants did.5 For women the problem has been that they are still underrepresented among Ph.D.'s; hence, the pool of women eligible to apply for Fulbrights has been smaller than the pool of eligible men.6 Every year the number of men with doctorates and the number of women with doctorates move closer to equality.7 As long as the numbers remain unequal, however, women have only one means of increasing their representation in the Fulbright program, and that is to apply at a higher rate than in the past and at a higher rate than men relative to the pool of eligible scholars. By recounting our own experiences as Fulbrighters, we hope to encourage women who have not yet done so to apply for fellowships. We believe that prospective applicants, whether eligible professionals, unaffiliated scholars, part-time college teachers, or full-time academics, can learn from our narratives what kinds of challenge and opportunity are likely to await them if they should be fortunate enough to receive Fulbright This content downloaded from 207.46.13.149 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 06:15:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms TAKING ON THE WORLD 59 awards.8 For us the challenges and opportunities were uniquely rewarding. We invite interested women scholars to experience the rewards for

Russian Space Program

Richard Stone's article “Russia's last shot at space” (News & Comment, [20 June, p. 1780][1]) has resulted in numerous anxious inquiries from our colleagues at many institutions and organizations all over the world who participate in the implementation of the Russian Space Science Program. In view of this, we asked Yuri Ossipov, chairman of the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to clarify matters. The Space Council is the main body that defines fundamental research carried out by the Russian Space Program, subject to approval by the government. His statement is as follows.The Space Science Program, which was approved by the Russian government, is at this moment considering the launch of three “Spektr” astronomical observatories as its highest priority: “Spektr RG” for research in x-ray and gamma-ray bands; “Radioastron,” a space-to-ground radiointerferometer; and “Spektr UV,” an optical telescope 1.7 meters in diameter for observation of ultraviolet and optical bands. All three observatories involve wide international cooperation and will be launched in the next several years. A major part of all funds available for the Space Science Program is allocated to these projects. Some delay with these launches is, of course, possible because of funding limitations. Apart from this, a launch of small satellites is planned for solar research and for research on solar terrestrial physics (“Koronas-F” and “Koronas-Photon”), and the launch of the “BION-12” satellite for biological research is also being planned. A study of spacecraft for planetary exploration, including Mars, is also being carried out. Some funding is directed to the support of operations of existing satellites (“Interbol-1,” “Interbol-2,” “Granat,” “APEX,” and “KORONAS-1”). New experiments on the manned scientific complexes “Mir” and “Alfa” are also being prepared. In spite of the known economic difficulties, we hope that fundamental space research will be successfully continued. # {#article-title-2} Funding practices, not only in Russia but also in the United States and other Western countries, have created the paradoxical situation that the number of specialists working in the military research sector in Russia has shrunk only 20%, while in the civilian research sector the number has shrunk around 50%. Further, the focus of the programs on institutes and big science projects enables scientific administrators whose careers date to the Soviet era to control the research agenda. Many are good scientists, but they appear to have no intention of allowing the perquisites of rule, and the control of resources in particular, to leave their hands through such processes as peer review. Russian and Western funding programs thereby perpetuate the vast bureaucratic gulf that exists between the Russian Academy of Sciences and universities, that is, between research and education. At the same time, funds from the U.S. Information Agency, the Fulbright Program, and the newly established Civilian Research Development Foundation (CRDF) sent to Russia have totaled around $35 million. These funds have the greatest potential to change the profile of scientific research in Russia and encourage the spread of democratic institutions in science. The programs are geared to individual researchers and small research teams doing cutting-edge basic research, and the funds do not flow to them through the hands of institute directors or outdated programs. If the goal of the $1.3 billion distributed in Russia through so-called Nunn-Lugar funding has been to prevent the brain drain, then it should also provide a domestic, civilian-sector alternative for the employment of weapons specialists to accelerate a conversion of Russian military and space research. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.276.5320.1780

The Fulbright Program in the Global Knowledge Economy: The Nation's Neglected Comparative Advantage

The end of the Cold War has led to considerable retrenchment in aspects of American foreign affairs—virtually across the board. The assumption was that because the U.S. did not have some of these programs and activities before the Cold War surely it would need less of them after the Cold War. No threat, no need! Of course, the Cold War was not the conceptual framework for the Fulbright Program, but rather mutual understanding between the United States and other nations globally. The Cold War provided a competition of ideas. Its existence increased appropriations for the Fulbright Program.

Book Reviews

Abstract Global Ecology: Environmental Change and Social Flexibility. Vaclav Smil. Reviewed by Brent Yarnal, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Himalayan Environment: Pressure, Problems, Processes–12 Years of Research. Bruno Messerli, Thomas Hofer, Susanne Wymann, eds. Reviewed by Nigel J. R. Allan. Department of Environmental Design, University of California-Davis, Davis, California. Culture, Conflict, and Communication in the Wildland-Urban Interface. Alan W. Ewert, Deborah J. Chavez, Arthur W. Magill, eds. Reviewed by Laura Pulido and Jennifer Wolch, Department of Geography, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Farms, Mines and Main Streets. Uneven Development in a Dakota County. Caroline S. Tauxe. Reviewed by D. Aidan McQuillan, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Imagining Niagara: The Meaning and Making of Niagara Falls. Patrick V. McGreevy. Reviewed by Kurt Fuellhart, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. The American Landscape: Literary Sources and Documents, 3 Volumes. Graham Clarke, ed. Reviewed by William Wyckoff, Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. Invisible Gardens: The Search for Modernism in the American Landscape. Peter Walker and Melanie Simo. Reviewed by George Henderson, Department of Geography and Regional Development, and Program in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. New World Regionalism: Literature in the Americas. Literature in the Americas. David M. Jordan. Reviewed by Jonathan M. Smith, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Essays on the Changing Images of the Southwest. Richard Francaviglia and David Narrett, eds. Reviewed by Eric P. Perramond, Department of Geography, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. Naming Canada: Stories about Place Names from Canadian Geographic. Alan Rayburn. Reviewed by Victor Konrad, Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program and Department of Geography, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario. The Geography of Change in South Africa. Anthony Lemon, ed. Reviewed by Darrell P. Kruger, Department of Geosciences, Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, Louisiana. The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller. Reviewed by Adrian J. Bailey, Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Tourism: The State of the Art. A. V. Seaton, ed. Reviewed by Keith G. Debbage, Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greens-boro, North Carolina. City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn. William J. Mitchell Reviewed by Paul C. Adams, 322 SW. Fillmore, Topeka, Kansas. Servicing the Middle Classes: Class, Gender, and Waged Domestic Work in Contemporary Britain. Nicky Gregson and Michelle Lowe. Reviewed by Doreen J. Mattingly, Departments of Geography and Women's Studies, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. Ground Truth. The Social Implications of Geographic Information Systems. John Pickles, ed. Reviewed by Neil Smith, Department of Geography, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge. Gillian Rose. Reviewed by Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska. Historical Geography: Through the Gates of Space and Time. Robin A. Butlin. Reviewed by William Norton, Department of Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Bastal Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas. George A. Collier with Elizabeth Lowery Quaratiello. Translated by Frank Bardacke, Leslie Lopez, and the Watsonville Shadows of Tender Fury: The Letters and Communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Subcomandante Marcos; Introduction by John Ross, Afterword by Frank Bardacke. The Quest for the Other: Ethnic Tourism in San Cristóbal, Mexico. Pierre L. van den Berghe. Reviewed by Jill Brody, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Key Words: environmental policyglobal environmental changehuman dimensions of global environmental changedeforestationenvironmental degradationgeoecologyHimalayamountain geographyNepalcommunicationculturemanagementoutdoorsrecreationwildlandscommunity transformationenergy boomMidwestpolitical cultureimaginationlandscape interpretationNiagara FallsaestheticsAmerican landscapecultureenvironmental perceptiongeography and literaturenaturelandscapelandscape architectureplanningliteratureplaceregionalismAmerican SouthwesticonographyimageryregionalismCanadacommemorativeoriginsplace namespopular geographytoponymyapartheidnationalismpolitical geographySouth Africacommunityethnic diversityinternational migrationmulticulturalismracismtourismtourism geographycomputer networkscultural geographypopular culturetelematicsvirtual placedomesticsgenderGreat Britainnanniessex rolecritical social theoryGISmappingfeminismgeographic thoughthistory of geographydatahistorical geographypast geographiesChiapasMayansMéxicorebelliontourismZapatistas

50th anniversary of the fulbright program

50th anniversary of the fulbright program

Fulbright Program Summer Training Initiative

Anyone who has been associated with American higher education in the past decade knows all too well about fiscal cuts and program reductions and eliminations. In New York state, both the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) sustained rather dramatic budget reductions in the early 1990s. Former SUNY chancellor, D. Bruce Johnstone, in 1992 remarked to a legislative hearing:

University Teaching in Finland: Parting Observations of a Fulbrighter

The possibility of spending a semester or a year abroad via the Fulbright program, without interrupting one's career development (indeed often enhancing it), is unquestionably one of the great potential perks of an academic life. The sheer range of Fulbright positions is astounding. Some are for research, some for lecturing, and some are combined positions; some have closely specified needs, while others are open competitions for all fields; and every country in the world has positions. My own country choice, Finland, was dictated by various factors ranging from prior intellectual and research interest to personal fascination with this small, peripheral European country, even though, unlike most Americans with an interest in Fin-

The Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program

The culture of freedom: the small world of Fulbright scholars

A Fulbright Scholarship is known world-wide as an honor and a boon to international relations. For 46 years, more than 180,000 Americans and nationals of 130 countries have studied, taught, and researched in one another's lands. How and why was this path-breaking program created? What is the future for this educational and cross-cultural exchange? In answer to these questions, Leonard Sussman provokes a discussion of the benefits and detriments of the Fulbright program as he seeks to use its method and philosophy to influence national, international, and cultural policy.

Civil Engineering Education in Ecuador

The writers visited Ecuador under the auspices of the Fulbright Program, administered by the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, to lecture and advise several public and private universities on procedures to modernize curricula in civil engineering. Five visits were made over a 10 year period for time intervals ranging between one and six months. Based on interviews with a number of individuals and general observations, a number of recommendations were made. These recommendations ranged from improving the quality of students entering the university to improving library and laboratory facilities to improving faculty quality. The prime driving force toward implementing these recommendations will be the availability of adequate economic resources.

Overlapping Species "Choice" by Italian Upper Pleistocene Predators

Overlapping Species "Choice" by Italian Upper Pleistocene Predators

Professional and Personal Effects of the American Fulbright Experience in Africa

The Fulbright Program, initiated in 1945, is one of the oldest U.S. overseas exchange programs. The overall goal of the program, since its inception, has been to increase mutual understanding among peoples through the living and working experiences of the scholars and students involved. In Africa the most important subsidiary goal is to strengthen African universities through provision of training and research opportunities for Africans and through the American Fulbright professors who work at those universities (Huff, 1986). Of all the components of the program, the American Fulbright Senior Scholar, the key element in the program, has been an unstudied aspect. A mystique has surrounded the scholars selected for the program. It has been assumed that with purposeful selection of scholars and careful matching of overseas sites, program goals will be accomplished abroad and in the United States and that the appropriate motivational elements are in place to accomplish and sustain the changes made. Occasionally, the consequences abroad have been documented and evaluated, but little is known of the professional and personal effects of the Fulbright experience on the returned American Fulbrighter. As an individual, the American Fulbrighter participates in an intensive experience, lengthy enough to produce potentially fundamental changes in the participant. Teaching and being involved in other academic duties overseas has generally been assumed to be a very positive experience. However, what evidence demonstrates the extent the goals of the program were accomplished with regard to the U.S. participant? What personal and professional changes resulted from this type of experience? What motivational indicators were related to the direction and amount of change found in Fulbrighters? The present study investigated these questions in relation to the American Fulbrighters' experience in Africa over a fifteen-year period. The study documented professional and personal effects on