Category: SharkBytes

The Ambassador of Sweden to the US, Karin Olofsdotter, visited NSU on February 6, 2020. She met with President George Hanbury, Ph.D., and Interim Provost Ron Chenail, Ph.D. The Ambassador delivered a lecture on Sweden’s political system, economy, and society in Stephen Levitt’s LL.M., comparative government class of thirty students. Levitt is an associate professor in the Department of History and Political Science in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS).

According to Levitt, “The Ambassador’s visit was a highlight of the semester for the students.  In her lecture, she highlighted features of Swedish government and society.  The NSU students were able to compare and contrast Swedish government and society with what they have learned about government and society in the United Kingdom and Germany. The students enjoyed the lecture and asked many interesting questions.”

The Ambassador emphasized Sweden’s continued support for the European Union and the Swedish people’s warm relationship with the United States and its citizens. She was named Ambassador to the US on September 1, 2017. Previously she was the Director-General for Trade at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She also held the position of Deputy Director-General and Head of the Department for Promotion of Sweden, Trade, and CSR. Her career in the Foreign Service began in 1994 when she was posted to the Swedish Embassy in Moscow.

Ambassador Olofsdotter has affection for the US. She was a high school exchange student and later earned her B.A.in psychology, economics, and Russian from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. She speaks English, French, and Russian.

 

Writing and Communication Center (WCC) Faculty Coordinator, Janine Morris (CAHSS), and Administrative Coordinator, Nikki Chasten (CAHSS Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Master’s Student), presented at the third annual Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) conference on January 31, 2020.

GSOLE is an international organization for online educators to connect with those who teach digital literacies in the areas of reading, alphabetic writing, and multimodal composition. The annual conference focuses on online literacy education, and discusses topics such as constraints and support for online literacy educators, best online classroom practices, visual and multimodal literacy enhancement, course and program accessibility, digital composition, and much more.

Morris presented results of a study supported by a 2017 CCCC Research Initiative Grant, alongside Catrina Mitchum (Arizona State University) and Marcela Hebbard (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). Their presentation, “Removing Virtual Boundaries: Student Backgrounds as Sites for Literacy Education” argued for the importance of getting to know students’ backgrounds in online courses to improve retention and literacy instruction.

Chasteen’s presentation, “Creating Collaborative Communities in Online Composition” discussed how online writing instructors can foster a sense of community among students by using collaborative pedagogy. “I have a strong passion for online instruction and I have made it the focus of my research in the Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital media program. It was an honor to present my findings to leaders in the field of online instruction,” said Chasteen.

View the 2020 GSOLE Conference Program: https://www.glosole.org/2020-conference-program.html

To learn more about the M.A. in Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, visit: https://cahss.nova.edu/departments/wc/graduate/crdm/index.html

Researchers from NSU Cell Therapy Institute led by Dr. Vladimir Beljanski recently published a manuscript in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy in which they report novel therapeutic combinations with a goal to enhance therapeutic properties of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs). This enhancement has potential benefits for future application of stem cells in clinics. MSCs are adult stem cells most commonly isolated from bone marrow (BM) and are being increasingly tested in clinics in various therapeutic applications, including tissue regeneration. MSCs respond to excessive inflammation and secrete factors that have anti-inflammatory properties. However, the promise of therapies based on MSCs is somewhat hindered by their apparent modest clinical benefits, including the need to utilize a large number of cells in patients. Therefore, Dr. Beljanski’s team examined approaches that would make these cells more potent through therapies which would also reduce the number of cells needed in clinics. Specifically, his team examined how MSCs respond to stress by examining the stress-response mechanism called autophagy, which is activated when cells encounter a hostile environment.

His team targeted autophagy with drugs already used in clinics and then examined whether addition of drugs improved MSCs’ therapeutic efficacy. First, his team examined how MSCs respond to such drugs by looking at expression of genes known to be responsible for therapeutic benefits of MSCs. Then they performed experiments in which MSCs were “mixed” with activated immune cells isolated from healthy people to evaluate how the drugs affect the ability of MSCs to “deactivate” immune cells. Both in cases of gene expression and in experiments where cells were mixed, the team found favorable response when, in addition of MSCs, the drugs were also used. Furthermore, the research team found that application of drugs that target autophagy resulted in increase of several other molecules such as Programmed death-ligand 1, and secretion of an enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, both of which are known to potently decrease inflammation.

The findings of this scientific study indicated that autophagy can be targeted to enhance MSCs therapeutic properties and it has the potential to be applied in the development of other cell-based therapies. NSU would like to thank the National Institute of Health for funding this research and making it possible to expand the future of scientific research at our university.

 

About National Institute of Health (NIH): The NIH is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It serves as the nation’s premier federal medical research agency and is involved in conducting and funding medical research that improve the lives of people. The NIH consists of 27 different Institutes and Centers. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under Award Number R15GM128189.

The content in this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

Monique I. Scoggin, M.Ed., graduate student in the Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media (CRDM) Master’s program (CAHSS) and NSU Writing & Communication Center (WCC) graduate consultant presented at the Penn State Writing Education Across Borders (WEAB) conference in State College, Pennsylvania, Sept. 27-28, 2019.

From its start in 2011, the WEAB conference brings together applied linguistics, education, rhetoric, and writing studies scholars to discuss research in topics such as  writing, ESL studies, and multi- and trans- lingualism. The 2019 theme was  “Writing Education and the Resurgence of Nationalism.” Scoggin presented “Reinventing the Student Experience,” which focused on the importance of including immigrant student perspectives in the classroom. In her presentation, Scoggin demonstrates how the perspectives offered by immigrant students in composition classes benefit all individuals, as students develop and recognize their identities through the voice(s) in which they write. Scoggin presented in a panel along with Christiane Donahue of Dartmouth College and Université de Lille and Layli Maria Miron of Pennsylvania State University.

After her presentation, Scoggin reflected, “What resonates with me after attending any conference outside of South Florida is something that I was told in my Intro to Education course (a very long time ago): that as a student of the public school system of Miami-Dade County, I was exposed to more diversity than most people and that these experiences were unique and valuable in the field of Education. I recognize that it is through my many multilingual and multicultural experiences that my passion for promoting education and literacy continuously re-ignites.”

To see the full WEAD conference program click here.  To learn more about the Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Master’s Program, visit https://cahss.nova.edu/departments/wc/grad-programs.html.

In January 2020, Halmos College was accepted into the HHMI Science Education Alliance (SEA). SEA is a growing community of educators and institutions that collaborate to implement high-impact science education practices at scale and in partnership with Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). By working as an alliance, the hope is that higher education will have a better chance of driving systemic and long-lasting change in science education to best position all students for success. This acceptance places the Halmos College undergraduate biology program among leaders for student success in the sciences.

Halmos College faculty members Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D. and Katie Crump, Ph.D. spearheaded the creation of the SEA-PHAGES program at NSU.  PHAGES, or Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science, is a program where students collect soil samples in hopes to find new viruses, called phage, that attack bacteria.  These newly identified phages could potentially be used in the future to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.  The 3-credit courses [BIOL 1000 and BIOL 1001 Research to Biological Research Lab (I and II)] will be open to freshman and sophomore students beginning in Fall 2020.

Dorcas Matowe, Ph.D. doctoral graduate from the Department of Family Therapy in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) has been awarded a Clinical Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Family Institute at Northwestern University.

In addition to her doctoral degree from NSU, Matowe received an M. S. in Human Services from Capella University and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Bennet College. She was a SAMHSA/AAMFT Minority Fellowship Award recipient in 2016 and 2018.

In early January, students from NSU’s Fischler Academy and members of NSU women’s basketball team provided dinner and entertainment for 18 families at the Jackson Memorial Medical Center Ronald McDonald House in Miami.

Fischler Academy students, Eloise Nieto, Tianna Harris, and Grace Keilbach organized the menu along with fun activities for the families. Maria Bardeeva, Sarah Kelly, Jordan Tully, and Makenna Drabik, members of NSU’s women’s basketball team, helped prepare dinner and played with the children at the center, bringing them lots of smiles in a fun-filled evening that included a sock signing, contests and prizes.A Ronald McDonald House provides a place for families to call home so they can stay close by their hospitalized child at little to no cost.  The House was built on the simple idea that nothing else should matter when a family is focused on the health of their child – not where they can afford to stay, where they will get their next meal or where they will lay their head a to rest at night.

On Thursday, Jan. 16th, the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business hosted the Broward County DECA High School District Competition. More than 350 DECA Club members from 18 different schools attended the one-day competition, which included events related to entrepreneurship, marketing and sales. As part of the competition, students presented their business plans, and gave marketing and sales presentations. The event’s judges included students and faculty members from NSU, as well as local business owners and professionals.

The following week on Wednesday, Jan. 22^nd, an award ceremony was held during which the winners of the district competition were announced. The Broward DECA Annual Awards Ceremony was held in the Rick Case Arena on NSU’s main campus and was sponsored jointly by the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy and the College of Business. Over 700 students and their families were in attendance. Dean of the Huizenga College,  Andrew Rosman, Ph.D., was recognized at the event where the DECA organization presented him with a plaque and formally offered their appreciation for the school’s continued support and partnership.

This was the 11^th consecutive year that the Huizenga Business College hosted the annual awards ceremony in partnership with Broward County Schools. DECA is a national, student-run organization for high school students enrolled in marketing education classes.