Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

Halmos College Research Explores Mind-Altering Parasite

Research has shown how hyena cubs infected with the toxoplasma parasite become bolder in the face of lions, resulting in higher death rates. Commonly found in house cats, Toxoplasma gondii is the parasite that sometimes spreads to humans who handle domestic cat feces and can cause a disease called toxoplasmosis.

Cats aren’t the only animal to harbor the parasite. It’s also found in wild species, including the hyenas inhabiting a remote region of Kenya. These animals are now helping researchers answer longstanding questions about T. gondii’s impacts on wild hosts. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from a variety of fields joined forces to look if the parasite impacts the animals’ behavior and survival.

Eben Gering, Ph.D., the co-lead author of the study and Halmos College of Arts and Sciences biology faculty said, “Hyenas turned out to be an excellent model for asking questions about the links between infection and behavior.” Research showed that in hyena cubs, the parasite impacted survival rates. The team found that hyena cubs up to a year old were more likely to be killed by lions if they were infected with the parasite. In fact, all the infected cubs that died were killed by lions. Only 17% of the uninfected cubs died from lion attacks before turning a year old.

Superthin Galaxies Contain Large Amounts of Dark Matter

Examples of blue (EON 32.766 6.667, top) and red (EON 149.150 20.646, bottom) superthin galaxies. The horizontal bar in each panel demonstrates the scale in arcseconds and kpc at the distance of the galaxies.

The thinnest disk galaxies have been studied a long time because of their unusual appearance. Why are they so thin? It is unclear what preserves the disks in this state. These rare galaxies are a mystery.

An international group of astrophysicists, including Halmos College physics faculty Stefan Kautsch, Ph.D., recently published an article on the spectral observations of 138 superthin galaxies (STGs). Using the Dual Imaging Spectrograph on the 3.5m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory located in the Sacramento Mountains in Sunspot, New Mexico, the research group focused on spectroscopic observations of STGs and how those may help explain the resistance of STGs against morphological transformations and disk thickening.

“We discovered that the thinnest spiral galaxies, the so called superthins, contain very big amounts of Dark Matter. It is like this unknown material squeezes the stellar galactic disks in those galaxies into their superthin state,” Kautsch said.

The researchers found that most of the STGs reviewed were dark matter dominated. Their rotational velocity and dark halo mass correlates with galactic color. The blue STGs also have less compact dark halos than the red STGs, whereas the galaxies in both color groups have their halo-to-disk scales ratios under two.

Their results are published in The Astrophysical Journal, published by the American Astronomical Society.

Research Uses Ecology Diversity Analyses in Food Desert Study

“Food Deserts” are usually defined as geographic areas without local access to fresh food. Using community ecology statistics, Halmos Environmental Science alumna Annie Goyanes, ’21 and her faculty adviser J. Matthew Hoch, Ph.D., looked at supermarkets to quantify the availability of healthy food. They tested whether produce diversity is correlated with neighborhood income or demographics. Abundance and diversity of fresh produce was quantified in supermarkets in Broward County.

J. Matthew Hoch, Ph.D.

Their research, conducted while Goyanes was an undergraduate, was recently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Their research determined that food deserts should not only be defined by geographic measures, but other influential factors such as diversity and quality of food available. Previous food desert studies often involve lengthy interviews, and/or food index surveys, focus group discussions, administered consumer surveys, and an inventory of food. These methods represent a new application of statistics that have been traditionally used in ecology. This is a quick and easy way to identify gaps in food availability in potentially marginalized communities, which opens an easier path to solving those problems.

This research was supported by a President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant from Nova Southeastern University.

Alumna’s Coral Research Published in Leading Journal

For decades, coral reef ecosystems have been in decline due to a variety of environmental stressors. Considering this decline, coral restoration efforts in the Caribbean have been implemented to promote reef recovery.

In partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line and the Perry Institute of Marine Science, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences marine science alumna Cassie VanWynen ’20 recently published her thesis research. It compares the growth and survival among the acroporid taxa A. cervicornis, A. palmata, and their hybrid, A. prolifera, in three in-situ coral tree nurseries established around Great Stirrup Cay, The Bahamas.

VanWynen is now a research associate in Halmos College’s Coral Reef Ecology with an emphasis on Restoration, Assessment, and Monitoring (CRRAM) housed in the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center. The research in this lab includes investigating the ecology, restoration, and conservation of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) populations. The lab has a strong resource management focus and works closely with local, state, and federal agency resource managers.

For the full journal article at Frontiers in Marine Science.

Halmos Faculty Examines Latin Music at Virtual Event Oct. 2

Jessica Muñiz-Collado, M.F.A., faculty in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, in the Halmos College of Art and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), will be the featured virtual presenter on Saturday, October 2, 2021, from 2 to 3 p.m. for the Broward County Library. Muñiz-Collado’ s presentation, “Same Yet Different,” will explore the similarities and differences in Latin Music.

Jessica Muñiz-Collado

Muñiz-Collado has performed and recorded with numerous musicians and artists including Grammy-nominated saxophonist Steve Elson, jazz vibraphonist Arthur Lipner, Cookie “Conga” Lopez, Anders Astrand, Jean Geoffroy, Ney Rosauro, and trumpet all-star John Walsh. She has also performed throughout North and South America, toured with the FROST Percussion Sextet in Japan, and was a guest lecturer and performer at the international music conference LeRock & L’Amour held at the Universite Paul-Valery in Montpellier, France.

At NSU, she has taught courses in composition, music production, and percussion. In addition, she directed the Mako Band, NSU Pep Band, and managed NSU Mako Records.

NSU Network Chat on Collaboration, October 22

Dean Holly Baumgartner

NSU Network Chats will present “Forming Interdisciplinary Collaborations at NSU,” featuring Holly Baumgartner, dean of the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. The event, sponsored by Translational Research and Economic Development, will be held Friday, October 22, from noon to 12:45 p.m. via Zoom.

Center for the Humanities Honors Hispanic Heritage Month

The Center for the Humanities presents Barrios of America, a series celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and the immigrant stories that impact the landscape of South Florida’s diverse communities.

Here’s the lineup:

Foodways & the Immigrant Journey, with Chef Douglas Rodriguez

September 23, 7 p.m.

An evening with globally acclaimed chef and restaurateur Douglas Rodriguez. The Top Chef Master and “Godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine” will share food, stories, and insights about food experiences in social and cultural contexts.

Testimonio: Creative Writing Workshop

September 30 5 p.m.

NSU’s Dr. Yvette Fuentes and Professor Emeritus Kate Waites lead a creative writing workshop focusing on authentic memoirs based on immigrant and migrant stories, informed by the Latin American narrative tradition of witnessing.

The Post-Pandemic Futures of Latin Nations

October 7, 7 p.m.

An open forum, led by NSU faculty Drs. G. Nelson Bass and Ransford Edwards, along with Drs. Sallie Hughes and Calla Hummel, researchers with the University of Miami’s COVID Observatorio Project, in constructive dialogue on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latin American politics and economies.

All events are free and open to the public.  Sponsored by Florida Humanities and the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences.

Register here.

Mock-Injury Workshop Connects Theatre, Healthcare

During the Winter 2021 semester, B.A. in Theatre Technical Director and Adjunct Faculty Member Alexandra “Calypso” Hernandez taught an interdisciplinary workshop for students in THEA 2500: Healthcare Theatre, offered through the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, that brought together elements of medicine, theatre and humanity. The workshop offered students the opportunity to learn the art of moulage – the use of makeup to create mock injuries such as bruises, scars, and other skin abrasions for use in the training of healthcare professionals.

“The moulage workshop is not only fun and interactive but it integrates arts and sciences helping the college accomplish its mission,” said Bill Adams, professor and program director for the music and theatre programs.

Moulage provides a realistic instructional environment for students studying to become standardized patients (SP) in healthcare simulations. Students in the workshop learned how to provide essential feedback to the healthcare student rather than needing to imagine the pathology being examined in the simulation. This innovative approach using applied theatre is foundational in current healthcare training methodologies. Student standardized patients develop empathy for the patients they portray, and healthcare students benefit from the analytical focus on critical thinking skills observable in simulations.

For more information about THEA 2500: Healthcare Theatre and other courses offered through the B.A. in Theatre program, click here.

Halmos Faculty Present Juneteenth-inspired Panel Discussion

In June, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences writing, arts and politics faculty members joined together to present an interdisciplinary Juneteenth-inspired panel discussion for the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale titled “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Freedom, Afrofuturism and Reflections on Juneteenth.” The free virtual event took place on Saturday, June 19, and featured three Halmos College faculty members: Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., assistant professor of politics for the Department of Humanities and Politics; Kandy Lopez-Moreno, associate professor of art + design for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts; and Rachel Panton, Ph.D., assistant professor of writing for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.

The event launched “Community Voices,” NSU Art Museum’s new initiative supported by the Community Foundation of Broward that focuses on exploring social and racial inequalities and challenging social structures, including representation in museums. “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Freedom, Afrofuturism and Reflections on Juneteenth” kicked off the series and examined the historical context of emancipation, as well as the ongoing tension between the rhetoric of recovery and an imagined and unenslaveable Black future in art, literature, and pop culture.

Learn more about the panel discussion and future “Community Voices” events for the NSU Art Museum by viewing WLRN’s news story here.

Wild Connection Interviews Halmos Environmental Faculty

Hoch researches barnacles in the lab.

This September, Halmos College environmental faculty member J. Matthew Hoch, Ph.D. was interviewed by Jennifer Verdolin’s “Wild Connection” Podcast. This podcast focuses on relationships and family dynamics of the animal kingdom and how that can apply to people.

Hoch spoke about his research on his current research: genital evolution and reproduction in fish and barnacles.

Verdolin is the author of two popular nonfiction science books, “Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tell Us About Human Relationships” and “Raised by Animals: The Surprising New Science of Animal Family Dynamics.” She draws on animal behavior to reveal how much we can learn from other species to improve our relationships, families, and lives. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, Slate Magazine, The Washington Post, and National Geographic.

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