Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

Halmos M.S. Biological Sciences Students Visit Cadaver Lab

Students in the M.S. Biological Sciences program and in the Health Studies Concentration in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic research Center (HCAS) visited the NSU MD cadaver lab along with their faculty, Reza Razeghifard, Ph.D.

Students in the program aspire to various fields in health care ranging from optometry to medicine. Being able to tour the lab was a meaningful experience for them as they near completion of their program. Members of the graduating class will be attending a variety of professional school programs including NSU’s College of Dental Medicine.

One of the alumni of the program, Adrian Monteagudo, is currently an adjunct faculty member for NSU and works in the Lab. This program is one of three concentrations offered by the Masters in Biological Sciences.

Posted 05/08/23

NSU Team Presents at Seattle Molecular Biology Conference

A team of 13 NSU delegates representing the  Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS) Chemistry, and Marine Biology majors, and the College of Psychology Neuroscience Major traveled together to present their research as part of the NSU Chapter of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) https://www.asbmb.org/ at the Discover Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2023 Conference. They joined thousands of presenters from around the world https://discoverbmb.asbmb.org/in Seattle, Washington from March 24-28, 2023. Six posters describing protein modeling research projects and innovations in course based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) were presented at a variety of poster sessions. HCAS Biology Major, Pujita Julakanti received the ASBMB Society Travel Award. Eight members of the team received the PANSGA Professional Development Grant and 3 received the Biology Student Award. Projects were funded by the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative through the Connecting Researchers Students and Teachers (CREST) Program. The team also presented the Master of Science in Biological Sciences Health Studies, Research, and Bioinformatics Concentrations at graduate program fairs held by the ASBMB https://hcas.nova.edu/degrees/masters/biological-sciences.html

The projects presented by the team were the following:

  • Akhil Godbole, Pranav Neravetla, Nikhila Paleati, Emily Schmitt Lavin and Arthur Sikora: Comparing Effectiveness of Two Antibodies (Aducanumab and Gantenerumab) on Reducing Amyloid-Beta Plaques.
  • Pranav Madadi, Juhi Dalal, Shreya Averineni, Arthur K. Sikora, and Emily F. Schmitt Lavin: Modeling binding of the BACE1 inhibitor aminoquinoline (68K) for the possible treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
  • Serena Sha, Sophie Welch, Ashley Guillen-Tapia, Emily Schmitt Lavin, and Arthur Sikora: Modeling the binding of ω-conotoxin to an N-type voltage-gated calcium channel.
  • Bhavya Soni, Pritika Vemulapalli, Emily Schmitt Lavin and Arthur Sikora: Exploring structural differences between antagonistic peptides for the development of orally bioavailable PCSK9 inhibitors.
  • Lyla Abbas, Jordan Nichole Carreras, Pujita Julakanti, Sanjana Likki, Ryan Luib, Isadora Rocha De Abreu, Emily Schmitt Lavin and Arthur Sikora: Facilitating the collaborative scientific process through an interdisciplinary undergraduate protein modeling course.
  • Arthur K. Sikora: Quantification of Learning Advances in a Science CURE: Providing Leaning Objective to Corroborate and Validate the Advantages of Experiential Education.

Posted 05/08/23

Student Studies Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Okeechobee

Paisley Samuel

Lake Okeechobee (or Lake O) can be considered “Florida’s Inland Sea,”, as it is  the largest lake in the southeastern United States and is located at the center of Florida’s Everglades ecosystem. Before heavy development in the 19th century, Lake O provided freshwater to the Everglades ecosystem to its south. Now the lake has been permanently altered by a series of major drainage projects which allow canals to drain the water to sustain large South Florida urban communities and agriculture.

Unfortunately, because of the increasing development, nutrient pollution and degrading water quality, cyanobacterial based harmful algal blooms (or cyanoHABs) have now become a common occurrence in Lake Okeechobee. In recent decades, these bloom events have increased in both abundance and prevalence.  However, unequivocal causes for the blooms have not yet been identified.

Four years ago, the molecular microbiology and genomics (MMG) laboratory at the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center (GHOC) and the Department of Biological Sciences (DoBS) in Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS)  was commissioned to investigate the microbial community structure of HABs through a grant from the Army Corp of Engineers, Aquatic Nuisance Species Research Program (ANSRP). Working with the colleagues at the Florida Gulf Coast and the US Geological Society, the MMG has now generated millions of DNA sequence reads of the freshwater bacterial communities from 19 sites around Lake O.

“The samples were taken during active blooms and also more quiescent periods for comparison over the last three years,” says Paisley Samuel, a marine science master’s student.

She will soon graduate from Halmos and the MMG laboratory, as well present a portion of her thesis research in a talk titled  “Effects of Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms on the Microbial Community within Lake Okeechobee, FL” to a professional audience at this year’s Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER) meeting in Coral Springs (https://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/geer/).  Her attendance at the meeting was generously sponsored by the South Florida and Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (SFC CESU) which “was established in 2000 under the leadership of the Department of the Interior and has led to the partnership of nine federal agencies and 21 academic institutions and non-government organizations.”

“Ms. Samuel has done a masterful job at generating the data in the laboratory and then carefully learning various computational methods to analyze the large volumes of digital sequence data. This has now produced a coherent and interesting story about microbial community dynamics that could affect cyanoHABs on the lake”, says Dr. Jose (Joe) Lopez, a professor and director the MMG Laboratory.

Posted 04/23/23

Lab Finds Differences between Port and Reef Sediments

Port Everglades

Marine ports can be very busy places. From the vantage point of NSU’s Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (GHOC), one can easily observe and be part of the boat traffic going in and out of Port Everglades Inlet (PEI). This includes small and large recreational vehicles, Coast Guard patrols, sleek and modern looking yachts, huge tankers, and cargo vessels, loaded with oil or other commodities, and of course cruise ships ferrying passengers to good times in the Caribbean.

All this activity contributes to PEI being one of the busiest ports in the SE United States, which started almost a century ago in 1928.  The human activities also set the port physically apart from nearby natural habitats, which our laboratory has corroborated by profiling the marine sediments from both port and nearby coral reef sites. Molecular microbiology analyses provide some stark contrasts.   “Although most of the sites are within a few kilometers from each other, and are connected by daily tidal flows, the port and reef microbial communities showed distinct characteristics which were statistically significant.”, says Jose (Joe) Lopez, Ph.D., a professor with a laboratory at the GHOC and the Department of Biological Sciences in Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS).

The study was analyzed and co-written by Lopez and affiliate NSU faculty, Lauren Krausfeldt, Ph.D., and published in the open access online journal PeerJ.  With the help of dedicated NSU students, like Catherine Bilodeau and Hyo Lee, and project initiation by former FL Dept of Environmental Protection manager, Shelby Casali, molecular microbiological methods, now routine in the field, were applied to uncover the details of which microbes live in nearshore or port sediments.  The universal gene used to identify bacteria, is called 16S rRNA, which has been previously used to characterize other samples ranging widely from shark and human teeth, octopus skin, sponge and anglerfish tissue in the GHOC molecular microbiology laboratory run by Lopez.

In the Port Everglades study, NSU researchers found that some photosynthetic cyanobacterial group abundances decreased in the reef sediments in 2021, which could indicate changing irradiance reaching sensitive corals and other symbiotic hosts that depend on sunlight.

The new PeerJ study on marine sediments has potential ramifications on local coral reef health, because routine dredging and other human activities can stir up port sediments that ultimately disperse and settle on nearby coral reef habitats.  This data, along with previous microbial research in the Lopez laboratory describing water quality provides useful baselines that can be used by local environmental managers.

Posted 04/23/23

Halmos Faculty Member Co-authors Book Chapter

Bill J. Adams, DMA

Bill J. Adams, DMA, in NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts and Chris Morris, MFA, from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, published their co-authored  Voice and Speech Trainers Association article, “Acting and Singing with Archetypes,” as a book chapter in Vocal Traditions: Training in the Performing Arts. This 2023 Routledge edited collection explores the 18 most influential voice training techniques and methodologies of the past 100 years. It is an extensive international collection that highlights historically important voice teachers, contemporary leaders in the field, and rising schools of thought.

About the book, Professor Adams said, “I am honored to be a part of this important pedagogical resource for voice teachers.”

Posted 04/23/23

Halmos Faculty Presents at History Conference

Katy Doll, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Politics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, presented at the 2023 Organization of American Historians Conference in Los Angeles, Calif.

Katy Doll, Ph.D.

Doll presented “‘The only way outside of a bullet to probe the innards of a skull: Military and Media Practices in Psychological Warfare during the Korean War” as part of a panel titled “Realities and Opponents of the American Way of War.”

The Organization of American Historians Conference is one of the largest gatherings of professional historians annually in the United States. In addition to panels of scholarship in progress, the conference also featured workshops on teaching, digital humanities, and displays of the latest scholarly publications in the field.

Professor Doll specializes in U.S. history with a focus on culture, war, and society. She studies United States overt psychological warfare from the Korean War to the Vietnam War. Her presentation at the conference explored the connections between advertising and journalism methods and military propaganda campaigns.

Posted 04/23/23

Professor Rachel Panton Publishes Essay in Edited Collection

Rachel Panton, Ph.D.

According to Rachel Panton, Ph.D., in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped our lives, and especially, the ways we approach writing education with care. Panton’s recently published essay for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) titled “You Good, Fam’?: Mindful Journaling and Africana Digital Dialogic Compassionate Rhetorical Response Pedagogy during a Pandemic,” brings together her background in Africana womanism with practices of journaling and self-reflection to document the importance of mindfulness in facilitating writing instruction in uncertain times. The essay details Panton’s experiences connecting with her students in new ways during the pandemic by focusing even more on their wellbeing and writing process rather than on the products of their writing alone.

“This article brings to mind all of the emotions that were present during the initial journaling experience, as well as thoughts of how times have changed and yet remain the same. I still get misty-eyed when I think about my Spring semester 2020 students. I still think of them often and fondly, and I wonder if they pulled through mentally, physically, and spiritually whole. What we experienced together changed me personally and professionally, and the opportunity to reflect on that journey as a Documentarian for 4Cs allowed me to deepen my Africana womanist pedagogical practices for future students. For this, I am forever grateful,” said Panton.

Read Panton’s essay in the edited collection, Recollections from an Uncommon Time, to learn more about teaching writing with compassionate instruction practices.

Posted 04/23/23

Halmos Mathematician Publishes Research Monograph

Halmos College of Arts and Sciences mathematician Edmond W. H. Lee, Ph.D., D.Sc., has recently published his research monograph “Advances in the Theory of Varieties of Semigroups” in the book series Frontiers in Mathematics by Birkhäuser (Springer).

The monograph explores the development of the theory of varieties of semigroups, a topic that lies in the intersection of universal algebra and semigroup theory. New results with detailed proofs are presented that solve previously open fundamental problems. Featuring a comprehensive overview of the relevant literature in addition to highlighting Lee’s own discoveries, the monograph is suitable for specialist researchers in the area.

Lee is a professor in the Department of Mathematics with over 20 years of experience in the research of varieties of semigroups and of other related algebraic structures. He is the world’s leading expert on equational theories of small semigroups and has co-supervised two Ph.D. students from external institutions. Lee currently serves on the editorial boards of Algebra Universalis and Semigroup Forum, two eminent specialist journals in his research area, and has to date published more than 40 single-authored peer-reviewed articles.

Posted 04/23/23

Writing & Communication Center Celebrates 50,000 Consultations

The NSU Writing & Communication Center (WCC) celebrated its 50,000th consultation on March 14, 2023. WCC undergraduate consultants, Melissa G. and Melissa A. both worked with undergraduate students Olivia Blaszczynski and Rosa Amador who were finalizing BIOL 1500 Lab Reports.

WCC consultants are embedded into Biology 1500 to assist students with their lab reports each semester. Michael McCall, an HCAS graduate student in Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media and WCC graduate assistant coordinator, said, “Our 50,000th consultation is a testament to the WCC’s commitment to student collaborative learning. Our commitment is made possible by our consultants of past, present, and future!”

Kevin Dvorak, executive director of the Writing and Communication Center, stated, “This is an exciting moment for the WCC and the university. I think it shows how hard everyone here has worked to support our students and faculty for the last five years. We are truly grateful for the support we receive from university leadership, too. I look forward to the next 50,000 consultations.”

NSU’s Writing and Communication Center offers one-on-one consultations to all NSU undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across all NSU campuses and disciplines. Students meet with consultants in person on the 4th floor of Alvin Sherman library and online via Zoom. NSU undergraduate, graduate, and professional students can make one-on-one consultations by visiting https://nova.mywconline.com/.

To learn more about the WCC, visit https://www.nova.edu/wcc/ or follow the WCC on Instagram (@nsuwcc) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/nsuwcc).

Posted 04/09/23

Writing Center Faculty Coordinator Appointed Journal Editor

Eric Mason, Ph.D.

Eric Mason, Ph.D., NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC) Faculty Coordinator, was appointed co-editor of Southern Discourse in the Center: A Journal of Multiliteracy and Innovation, February 2023. Mason is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts (DCMA) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. Mason’s co-editor is Devon Rolston, Ph.D. (associate professor & Writing Center Director, Winthrop University).

Southern Discourse in the Center: A Journal of Multiliteracy and Innovation (SDC) sponsored by the Southeastern Writing Center Association (SWCA), is a journal for writing center practitioners, students, and faculty looking interested in innovative approaches to writing center practices.

Of his new position, Mason stated “Based on my past experience working as an editor of other academic journals, there are several things I hope to change about how SDC is run, including involving graduate students as editorial assistants so they get to experience the academic publication process firsthand. Overall, I’m excited to take over as co-editor of SDC, and eager to help the journal become an even better resource for those working in writing centers around the world.”

Click here to read current and past issues of Southern Discourse in the Center.

To learn more about the WCC, visit nova.edu/wcc

Posted 04/09/23

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