From the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and GHORC…
February 2025 Research Highlights reported by the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (GHORC).
Student Highlight
A former NSU OC student, Dr. Naoko P. Kurata (now a Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA), has recently published an animation on SciTube and YouTube about her MS Degree project at NSU’s Physical Oceanography Laboratory. Naoko developed a new approach, which synergized Satellite Oceanography, Physical Oceanography, and DNA methods to study the sea surface microlayer.
This innovative work underscored the importance of microbial activities in shaping our natural environment and highlighted the potential for practical applications in environmental monitoring and protection.
https://scitube.io/dr-naoko-kurata-beyond-the-surface-how-marine-bacteria-influence-sea-slicks/
A related paper was published in Scientific Reports/Nature.com.
Naoko’s thesis committee included Drs. Alexander Soloviev, Silvia Matt, Aurelien Tartar, and Mahmood Shivji.
From the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts:
Bill Withem, DMA, Assistant Professor
Project: Composer and NSU professor Bill Withem recently composed a three-and-a-half-minute fanfare for brass ensemble and timpani. The piece was written for the inauguration of Dr. Harry K. Moon, and features a repeating musical motif based on the letters in his name. The fanfare begins with quiet, solo statements in the timpani, horn, and trumpet, then introduces the remaining instruments, while repeating and building towards a grand, thrilling conclusion.
From the Department of Chemistry and Physics:
Diego Castano, PhD, Professor
Project: Explore the matter of Newton’s Bucket. To simplify and extend the analysis, we replace the bucket with an infinite cylindrical shell. We show that Newton’s mechanical conclusions are equally valid electromagnetically.
Publication: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6404/ad9a25
Louis Nemzar, PhD, Professor
Project: As Big Data continues to transform our healthcare system, we can expect AI to play an increasing role in generating novel insights. In this study, we extended our previous sentiment analysis of online patient reviews to see how the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced preferences for receiving empathy from physicians, particularly in the context of concierge medicine. Future research may include using text from anonymized digitized medical records to uncover previously unrecognized patterns, further enhancing our understanding of patient needs, refining diagnostic methods, and improving healthcare delivery.
Publication: Nemzer, Louis R., and Florence Neymotin. “Concierge care and patient reviews: a post-pandemic update.” Applied Economics Letters (2024): 1-5. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504851.2024.2302890
From the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences:
Karen Neely, PhD, Research Scientist II
Project: The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record for Florida Keys corals. Regular monitoring of over 5000 brain and boulder corals before, during, and after the event allowed the Neely lab to assess spatial and species-specific differences in mortality from the event. The results may help managers predict how future marine heatwaves may impact their reefs as well as which species are likely to be “winners” in warming seas.
Publication: The paper can be found at https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2024.1489273/full
