Category: Academics

KPCOM’s B.S. in Human Nutrition Program Welcomes Accreditation Site Visit

The Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (KPCOM) Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition program hosted site visitors from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) on November 18 and 19.  The program is seeking accreditation for a unique concentration that will offer students a professional outcome as registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs).

Following the completion of a robust self-study by the KPCOM’s Department of Nutrition in August 2019, ACEND reviewers came to NSU to validate the findings. The visit included personal meetings with faculty members, administration, and senior leaders. Members of the program’s advisory board and representatives from areas of academic support at NSU also contributed.

While the official ACEND report is forthcoming, the program expects to begin this new specialization in the fall of 2020. Along with the Future Education Model Graduate program for RDNs, this second successful accreditation effort in two years builds a strong foundation for future practice and highlights the KPCOM’s Department of Nutrition as a unique provider of quality education in this field.

For more information, please contact Ioana Scripa, Ph.D., RDN, LDN, program director, at iscripa@nova.edu.

Two NSU Colleges Partner for Society for NeuroSports Conference

Faculty from two NSU colleges created a conference that attracted researchers from around the world in the fields of neuroscience and exercise/sport science.

The Society for NeuroSports was founded by Professor Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., of the College of Psychology and Associate Professors Jose Antonio and Corey Peacock, both Ph.D., of the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences. The society and the conference grew out of multiple research projects that Tartar, Antonio, and Peacock have collaborated on in recent years. The society’s goal is to provide an outlet for research in the increasingly integrated fields of neuroscience and exercise/sport science.

The conference, which took place November 15-16 in Deerfield Beach, attracted over 140 visitors, which was about double what was initially expected, Tartar said. Attendees came from across the country, but also Canada, England and Belgium.

“People liked talking to other people outside of their area who are doing similar research,” Tartar said about the conference’s multidisciplinary nature.

That sentiment was echoed by Antonio. “The most interesting part of the conference was the fact that you had two completely different fields merging as one.”

The conference included presentations on topics like “Sleep Science and Swoleness,” a keynote on “Cognitive Contributions to Motor Learning,” poster presentations and a data blitz, where participants had exactly one minute to present findings on their research.

Following the inaugural conference, the society will debut a journal in January, with the debut issue featuring the abstracts from the conference. The Journal of the Society for NeuroSports will be edited by Assistant Professor William Kochen, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

“I’m a brain injury and stress researcher, so it fits perfectly with neurosports,” Kochen said. “It’s marrying the concepts and putting them together.”

The second annual conference will take place November 13-14, 2020.

“We were proud to bring 150 participants together with leading scholars across the country to advance science and practice as it relates to sports,” said College of Psychology Dean Karen Grosby, Ed.D. “Such a venture set a unique stage for future research and practice  collaborations.”

For more information, visit https://www.neurosports.net/.

NSU’s Mailman Segal Center for Human Development Shares Expertise with Fellow South Florida Educators

Research has demonstrated that children clearly benefit from top-quality, early childhood programs, providing better outcomes both socially and academically. However, state-funded prekindergarten programs in Florida rank in the bottom 30% nationally for quality by the National Institute of Early Education Research. The A.D. Henderson Foundation and Nova Southeastern University’s Mailman Segal Center for Human Development (MSC) are working together to change that.

Under a two-year grant from the Foundation, MSC launched the Innovative Instructional Institute (i3) community outreach initiative to help address this educational disparity. “It is well documented that children who start kindergarten behind their peers academically and socially experience compounding challenges that prevent them from catching up,” said Lorraine Breffni, Ed.D., executive director, Early Learning Programs, MSC.

Over the initial year of the i3 project, MSC ‘s lead teaching staff provided in-depth training to Jack & Jill Children’s Center lead instructors on how to create meaningful learning experiences using open-ended natural and found resources.

In addition, monthly training was held at MSC’s i3 – a specially-designed training environment. A key element covered how to implement the Constructivist Approach in early childhood classrooms. Mentors at MSC were paired with mentees at Jack & Jill to implement these techniques. They also focused on the following:

  • How to ask questions to encourage children’s learning,
  • How to add “invitations” in the classroom that ignite children’s curiosity, and
  • How to create a community of learners where teachers wonder and learn alongside children.

Now, in the second year under the grant, the impact is expanding. The lead Jack & Jill and MSC teachers have teamed up as peer mentors in at least 16 community-based, early childhood programs in Broward County.

Breffni added, “Sharing our expertise as a team will surely benefit a large number of South Florida preschoolers. We are so thankful to the A.D. Henderson Foundation for supporting this outreach effort.”

“We support programs to improve early childhood education in Broward County,” said Monica Menahem,  program director, A.D. Henderson Foundation. “One of the best ways we can do that is by funding high-quality teacher training through grants like this one with MSC.”

Please contact Nathalie Sloane, director of development, Nova Southeastern University, to further contribute to programs like these. Sloane can be reached at nsloane@nova.edu or 954-262-7123.

CAHSS Faculty Publishes book, Working JuJu Representations of the Caribbean Fantastic

Andrea Shaw Nevins, Ph.D.

Andrea Shaw Nevins, Ph.D., Professor, Interim Chair, and Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), has authored the book, Working JuJu Representations of the Caribbean Fantastic, by University of Georgia Press, November 2019. Working Juju examines how fantastical and unreal modes are deployed in portrayals of the Caribbean in popular and literary culture as well as in the visual arts.

Nevins teaches courses in international studies, literature, writing, and film, with a focus on the Caribbean and African Diaspora. She is also the author of The Embodiment of Disobedience: Fat Black Women’s Unruly Political Bodies (Lexington Press). For more information about Working JuJu, please go to https://ugapress.org/book/9780820356099/working-juju/

Andrea Shaw Nevins, Ph.D.

Chemistry Club has Banner Term

This fall has been a very active semester for the Chemistry Club, housed at Halmos College. In November, they celebrated National Chemistry Week with Chemistry Club members as well as Halmos College faculty and staff.

During that week, the students traveled to the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, where they made slime with the kids. On Tuesday, the American Chemical Society presented how chemistry is applied to everyday life with the Chemistry in a Box activity. This was followed by the most well-known day in chemistry: Mole Day!

Mole day, October 23, commemorates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic quantity used in chemistry. Mole Day was created to foster interest in chemistry. Colleges and schools around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles. The Chemistry Club, in collaboration with Tri Beta (the Biology Honor Society), entertained all who walked by with fun activities, snacks and prizes.

The week wrapped up with a speaker event. The Chemistry Club was proud to present Halmos faculty member, Dimitrios Giarikos, Ph.D. to present his research in biometals. The title of the presentation was “Using Biomass Modified Algae for a Solution to Heavy Metal Pollution; an Example in the Alaskan Marine Environment”. This fit with this year’s National Chemistry Week theme of “Marvelous Metals”.  Students interested in joining Chemistry Club can contact Halmos faculty member Jessica Brown, Ph.D. at jbrown3@nova.edu.

Halmos College Chemistry faculty Jessica Brown, Ph.D. and Beatrix Aukszi, Ph.D. are the Chemistry club advisors.

 

 

NSU University School Students – Lending a Hand

Lending a hand has taken on an entirely new meaning in Alicia Anania and Micaile Smith’s science classes. The teachers have joined forces to teach their students about the human body. Their goal was to make it more relatable. The dynamic duo is now taking their lessons several steps farther.

Instead of just teaching anatomy from a book, they’ve incorporated 3-D printing at the NSU University School Media Center to show students how to produce prosthetic human hands. Students are learning about the movement and functionality of the hand while, at the same time, gaining a greater understanding and empathy for those who need prosthetics.

The USchool students will soon meet with military veterans who have faced a hand amputation following combat. Students are also working with e-NABLE to establish a donation pathway. They are determined to give back, providing prosthetic hands to veterans and children in underdeveloped countries around the world.

“Through this project, we’ve seen amazing growth in our students’ understanding of how locomotion happens,” said Smith. “We’re now starting to study legs and movement in animals like sea turtles.”

Anania pointed out, “They take great pride in knowing that someone’s life will change with these prosthetic hands. They’re looking at ways to cushion them to make them more comfortable, too.”

This is more than a lesson in anatomy. Smith explains that mastery in coding and other STEM-related skills is essential to creating hands that move on command. Both teachers and the NSU University School community are looking ahead to the development of limitless teaching opportunities at the school’s Center for Innovation now under development. For more information about the Center for Innovation kindly contact Dr. Susanne Marshall at 954-262-3014 or msusanne@nova.edu.

Halmos College Faculty Publishes Review on Plants and Animals ‘Gone Wild’

This fall, Halmos College Biology faculty member Eben Gering, Ph.D. was the lead author for the paper, “Getting Back to Nature: Feralization in Animals and Plants” in the highly respected and widely read journal, Trends in Ecology & Evolution. The article brings together experts in animal behavior, plant genetics, and evolutionary theory to examine how feral organisms evolve after escaping into the wild.

From weedy rice to feral hogs – formerly domesticated crops, pets, and livestock are now ubiquitous worldwide. Nonetheless, their evolution is poorly studied. The new article addresses this gap by synthesizing information from disparate species, and by outlining future research avenues. This work can ultimately illuminate adaptive evolution, while enhancing our understanding of domestic organisms we rely on for food, labor, and companionship. Included in the paper is a video showing the evolutionary forces that shape feral gene pools and traits, and featuring illustrations provided by teen artists at REACH, a community art center in Lansing, Michigan.

CAHSS Hosts Second Fall Au Café

The Department of Literature and Modern Languages in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) was delighted to host the second Au Café of the semester on November 4, 2019 at the UC lounge, 2nd floor. This Coffee and Conversation Hour provided a relaxed setting for French students and speakers to practice their language skills. Our French instructors, Maud Cassagnol and Shirley Santry, were present to help facilitate conversations. Speakers of all levels are welcome to Au Cafe! Coffee and pastries were provided.

Halmos College Hosts Tiger Talk

On Friday, November 22, 2019, Halmos College hosted the talk, “Tigers of the World: Genomics and Conservation” by visiting scholar Shu Jin Luo, Ph.D. from Peking University, China. Of all the big cats, or perhaps of all the endangered wildlife, the tiger may be both the most charismatic and most well-recognized flagship species in the world. Using first-handed data from the speaker’s own research over the past 20 years, an overview will be given on how applications of molecular genomic tools have advanced our understanding of the tiger’s ancestral roots, natural history, morphological diversity, and provides a scientific foundation for conservation strategic planning and management actions for this charismatic megafauna both in situ and ex situ.

Dr. Luo’s research field is in genomic diversity and evolution. She has been based at Peking University since 2009, after receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and completing a postdoc fellowship at the NIH-National Cancer Institute in Maryland. Dr. Luo is broadly interested in applying molecular genomics methods to problems about mammalian evolution, adaptation and systematic relationship, with a particular focus in the family Felidae. Her genomic study in the tiger offered the strongest-ever evidence for subspecies differentiation and local adaptation. Applying whole genome sequencing and computational tools, we illuminated the genetic causes of the white tiger, and elucidated the demographic and evolutionary histories of multiple Asian felids such as the leopard cat and the Chinese mountain cat.  She is a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group since 2005 and an expert member of the IUCN Cat Classification Task Force (CCTF). She is also an associate editor for the Journal of Heredity since 2016 and an editorial board member for Integrative Zoology since 2015.

Halmos College Presented Last Math Symposium for Fall 2019

Edgar Pereia, Ph.D.

On Friday, November 15, at 12pm, Edgar Pereia, Ph.D. presented his lecture entitled, “Minimal Rank Completions of Partial Matrices?”. Pereia is a professor at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.

His lecture discussed Completion problems for partial matrices are defined and partial matrices are associated to bipartite graphs. Minimal ranks for scalar and block partial matrices with simple structures are presented. Calculating the minimal rank is classified as an NP-hard problem, what means that in general it is very difficult to calculate the minimal rank of an unstructured block (scalar) partial matrix. A conjecture states that the minimal rank of a partial matrix has an exact formula if and only if the associated bipartite graph is chordal. We present some upper estimates for the case that the associated bipartite graph is a single cycle, the most simple non-chordal case. The symmetric cyclic case is also treated.

Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography department of mathematics hosts the mathematics colloquium series in Parker Building, Room 338. For more information about the math colloquium series, please contact mathematics faculty member Jing Chen, Ph.D. jchen1@nova.edu or Evan Haskell haskell@nova.edu.

 

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