e-Veritas Archive | January, 2017

Students Honor MLK with a Day of Service

MLK Day of Service

UM students plant vegetables in the Miami Children’s Initiative’s community garden.

Adding further truth to Martin Luther King Jr.’s socially conscious statement that “everybody can be great, because anybody can serve,” more than 100 University of Miami students volunteered their time and efforts for two worthwhile causes on January 21 as part of the MLK Day of Service.

Assisted by community residents, about 40 of the students removed weeds, spread soil, and planted herbs and vegetables at the Miami Children’s Initiative’s community garden located near Charles R. Drew Elementary School in Liberty City.

Twenty miles north in Pembroke Park, a group of about 60 students packaged more than 20,000 meals at Feeding South Florida, a food bank that serves Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.

United Black Students, Multicultural Student Affairs, and the Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development sponsored the service day.

Posted in Freeze Frame, NewsComments Off

UM’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Sees Rapid Growth

OLLI offers more than 50 classes to seniors who want to remain active in mind and body.

By Bárbara Gutiérrez
UM News

 Leslie Gross gives fellow Osher classmate Jenny Zanzurri some tips on using her iPhone.

Leslie Gross gives fellow Osher classmate Jenny Zanzuri some tips on using her iPhone.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (January 26, 2017)—Jenny Zanzuri is a living example that one can master new technology at any age. The 97-year-old is the oldest student at the University of Miami Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), but her spirit and determination are forever young.

The retired United Nations staffer, who worked for the assistant secretary of economics and social affairs, Ubers every Wednesday to join 20 students taking the iPhone and iPad Basics Class.

“I am stupid when it comes to these devices,” she said, tapping her iPhone. “But this class will help me.” Zanzuri wants to use her new knowledge to keep in touch with her daughter and friends.

The class, offered at Founders Hall on the Coral Gables campus, is one of more than 50 classes offered per week at the institute for anyone over the age of 50 who has an active mind and the willingness to be a student again. Many of the students are doctors, lawyers, professors, and others whose lives and personal experiences enrich the everyday curriculum. At the center, students enjoy a variety of programs, from tai chi and yoga to watercolor and classes on investments and current events.

Keeping active and feeling a sense of purpose is what attracts many OLLI members, who pay $40 to join the institute. These days the numbers of students are increasing in great part thanks to an explosion of baby boomers who are retiring, said Julia Cayuso, OLLI director. OLLI has seen close to a 140 percent rise in enrollment numbers in the past four years.

“It has been truly remarkable,” said Cayuso. “Our numbers are going through the roof.”

Fortunately, OLLI recently received a second $1 million endowment grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation, which will support the center’s operations so it can continue providing classes and activities for seniors. About 10 percent of the faculty are UM professors, said Cayuso.

Marco-Polo

For his class Triumph and Tragedy: the Lives of Great Men, historian Richard Dawson dresses as his subjects, in this case Marco Polo, would have dressed.

There seems to be a class for every interest. But among the most popular is Robert Dawson’s class Triumph and Tragedy: the Lives of Great Men. At the inaugural class this year, Dawson, a historian, wore a turban and red frock and proudly introduced himself: “My name is Marco Polo.”

Each week he dons another costume and identity. He believes teaching in costumes makes the lessons more memorable.

That resonates with 70-year-old history buff Tom Brown, a retired Miami-Dade County Fire Department battalion chief, who has been a member of OLLI for four years and has taken all of Dawson’s classes.

“I like coming here because I find that I learn a lot and it keeps me active,” said Brown, who also volunteers as a tour guide at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and teaches Sunday school at his church.

Another popular offering is Global Viewpoints, taught by Mitra Raheb, a former St. Thomas University professor whose candid style kept her nearly 100 students in awe as she taught the politics of the Middle East.

“What I most enjoy is the students,” said Raheb, who also teaches at FIU’s OLLI. “Their diverse educational, cultural, and political background keeps the class lively and informative.”

For Chris Weinberg, 67, who has been taking classes at OLLI for two and half years, that energy is what keeps her coming and volunteering for several committees.

“It’s a very special place,” said Weinberg, who worked in advertising for many years. “It draws the intellectually curious, and we feel that we are part of a family.”

Like Weinberg, many members donate their time and energy to the member institute. That is the motor that keeps OLLI running, said Cayuso.

A caring committee keeps tabs on members who may be hospitalized or have suffered a loss. A recently organized choral group provides another outlet for those with musical talents.

“It is truly a volunteer-driven place,” Cayuso said. “Many of the members serve on committees that determine the curriculum, plan the social events, and focus on growth and retention of membership.”

For more information, visit the OLLI website or the class catalogue.

 

Posted in Features, NewsComments Off

Get Moving with the Herbert Wellness Center’s Outdoor Activities

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (January 25, 2017)—Are U ready to move? Join the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center’s U Move program each Wednesday through the months of February, March, and April. The U Move program was created to engage the University of Miami community in fun and free outdoor activities every week and is open to members and non-members of the Herbert Wellness Center. Each Wednesday of the month brings a different outdoor physical activity appealing to a wide range of participants and fitness levels.

“We designed the U Move program to offer a dedicated set of activities taking place outside of the Herbert Wellness Center,” says Christina WooChing, assistant director of wellness. “Whether you work on campus or live in the area, we want you to get moving and take advantage of this free program open to everyone.”

On the first Wednesday of the month, the elite Herbert Wellness Center personal training team will lead a boot camp featuring bodyweight exercises and an introduction to the outdoor fitness equipment. If you are ready to challenge yourself, head to the intramural fields at noon. Relax and de-stress on the second Wednesday of the month with yoga on the Foote Green at noon.

Get your blood pumping with a high-energy Zumba class on the third Wednesday of the month. Grab a group of friends and dance through your midday slump at the Lakeview Stage at noon.

Whether you are a seasoned runner or simply looking to start, multiple opportunities are available throughout the fourth Wednesday of the month to get in a run around the beautiful UM campus. Join the Run Club behind the Herbert Wellness Center at the IM field house at 7 a.m., noon, or 7 p.m. to accommodate your busy schedule.

Boot Camp Schedule:
Wednesday, February 1
Wednesday, March 1
Wednesday, April 5

Yoga Schedule:
Wednesday, February 8
Wednesday, March 8
Wednesday, April 12

Zumba Schedule:
Wednesday, February 15
Wednesday, March 22*
Wednesday, April 19

Run Club Schedule:
Wednesday, February 22
Wednesday, March 29**
Wednesday, April 26

* Fourth Wednesday of the month

** Fifth Wednesday of the month

Posted in For Your Benefit, InsideUMComments Off

Study Offers New Information on Crash of Malaysia Airliner

Researchers use data from ocean drifters to aid analysis

FltMH370StudyMIAMI—A group of oceanographers offers a new analysis of the potential crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The researchers, who included scientists from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, used data from buoys that monitor ocean conditions.

In their analysis, team members considered the trajectories of drifting buoys, called drifters, from NOAA’s Global Drifter Database and of an ocean numerical model. The researchers included only data from drifters that were unanchored, or undrogued, to better simulate the buoyancy conditions of airplane debris. The team then produced a simulation model of drifter motion using known oceanographic conditions near the potential crash site.

The analysis showed that it would take six months to one year for the drifters to reach western Australia and one-and-a half to two years to reach eastern Africa. Interestingly, two drifters traveled from the search region to the area of Reunion Island during the period between the crash of flight MH370 and when the missing airplane’s flaperon was found.

These results are consistent with the time and location of the aircraft debris that was found off Reunion Island, almost 17 months after the plane disappeared, and with the recently confirmed finding in Mozambique almost two years later.

The trajectories of the undrogued drifters and synthetic drifters revealed several areas of high probability in the southern Indian Ocean where debris from the missing flight could have passed, including vast areas of the south Indian Ocean, some of them in the relative neighborhood of the search area.

This study “highlights the importance of sustained observations to monitor ocean conditions that may serve a suite of applications and studies,” the authors said.

The methods developed by the researchers for the study could also help scientists track oil spills and other types of marine debris and pollutants in the ocean.

The study, titled “Analysis of flight MH370 potential debris trajectories using ocean observations and numerical model results,” was recently published online in the Journal of Operational Oceanography. The coauthors include: M. Josefina Olascoaga from the Rosenstiel School; Joaquin A. Trinanes and Gustavo J. Goni from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami; Nikolai A. Maximenko and Jan Hafner from the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology; and David A. Griffin from CSIRO in Australia.

 

 

Posted in NewsComments Off

Against the Tide: A Fish Adapts Quickly to Lethal Levels of Pollution

What’s their secret and can humans learn from them?

The Atlantic killifish’s natural habitats include pristine salt-marsh estuaries and polluted salt marshes high in PCB, PAH, or metals.

The Atlantic killifish’s natural habitats include pristine salt-marsh estuaries and those high in PCB, PAH, or metals.

MIAMI, Fla. (December 12, 2016)—Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a new study researchers from the University of California, Davis and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science published December 9 in the journal Science.

While environmental change is outpacing the rate of evolution for many other species, Atlantic killifish living in four polluted East Coast estuaries turn out to be remarkably resilient. These fish have adapted to levels of highly toxic industrial pollutants that would normally kill them.

The killifish is up to 8,000 times more resistant to this level of pollution than other fish, the study found. While the fish is not commercially valuable, it is an important food for other species and an environmental indicator.

What makes Atlantic killifish so special is their extremely high levels of genetic variation, higher than any other vertebrate—humans included—measured so far. The more genetic diversity, the faster evolution can act. That’s one reason insects and weeds can quickly adapt and evolve to resist pesticides, and why pathogens can evolve quickly to resist drugs created to destroy them. Not all species are so lucky, however.

The whole genome sequencing of the Atlantic killifish revealed innovative insights into how animals quickly evolve and may adapt to climate change because of its biology and ecology. Two co-authors from the Rosenstiel School, Douglas Crawford and Marjorie Oleksiak, initiated genomic research in the Atlantic killifish by isolating more than 69,000 genes sequences and discovered large genetic variation. “Killifish have large populations that make natural selection more effective and live in a diversity of environments which enhances the genetic diversity,” Crawford said. “This genetic diversity is the basis for evolutionary adaptation that was revealed by taking the ambitious goal to sequencing the whole genome of 394 individuals.”

“Some people will see this as a positive and think, ‘Hey, species can evolve in response to what we’re doing to the environment!’” said lead author Andrew Whitehead, associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology and lead author of the study. “Unfortunately, most species we care about preserving probably can’t adapt to these rapid changes because they don’t have the high levels of genetic variation that allow them to evolve quickly.”

The scientists sequenced complete genomes of nearly 400 Atlantic killifish from polluted and non-polluted sites at New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts; Newark Bay, New Jersey; Connecticut’s Bridgeport area; and Virginia’s Elizabeth River. The sites have been polluted since the 1950s and 1960s by a complex mixture of industrial pollutants including dioxin, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other chemicals.

The team’s genetic analysis suggests that the Atlantic killifish’s genetic diversity make them unusually well positioned to adapt to survive in radically altered habitats. At the genetic level, the tolerant populations evolved in highly similar ways. This suggests that these fish already carried the genetic variation that allowed them to adapt before the sites were polluted, and that there may be only a few evolutionary solutions to pollution.

The study lays the groundwork for future research that could explore which genes confer tolerance of specific chemicals. Such work could help better explain how genetic differences among humans and other species may contribute to differences in sensitivity to environmental chemicals.

“If we know the kinds of genes that can confer sensitivity in another vertebrate animal like us, perhaps we can understand how different humans, with their own mutations in these important genes, might react to these chemicals,” Whitehead said.

“This study shows that different populations of Atlantic killifish exposed to toxic pollution evolve tolerance to that pollution through changes in one molecular pathway,” said George Gilchrist, program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the study along with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “This pathway may play a similar role in many animals exposed to pollutants, with slightly different adaptations in response to different toxins.”

Posted in NewsComments Off

  • Features
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • Subscribe
  • Subscribe to the Veritas RSS Feed
    Get updates to all of the latest Veritas posts by clicking the logo at the right.

    You can also subscribe to specific categories by browsing to a particular section on our site and clicking the RSS icon below each section's header.

UM Facebook

UM Twitter