A solar year — the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun — lasts around 365 days, while a lunar year, or 12 full cycles of the moon, is roughly 354 days. A lunar calendar marks important holidays and celebrations for many religions and cultures.

“Essentially we are talking about time keeping, which is a very important function in any culture or society because time must be standardized if it is to be of any use,” says 麻豆原创 Associate Professor of Philosophy Lanlan Kuang, whose research specializes in Asian arts, humanities, heritage and tradition. “The British Library has a Chinese star chart (the Dunhuang Star Atlas) that is dated to 700 AD, and what’s interesting is, you can see zodiac names in Chinese characters on this chart. Part of what that tells us people from around the globe have been applying astronomical observations and mathematical analysis as means for time keeping for a very long time.”

Bringing us to Lunar New Year, which begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon of the lunar calendar, two weeks later. Because it is based on the cycles of the moon, the dates vary annually.

The origins of the Lunar New Year festival?are thousands of years old. Kuang along with Associated Professor of History Hong Zhang, who specializes in modern Chinese culture, explain more about the holiday’s traditions and modern celebrations.

House Cleaning, Bright Clothes and Money

There are many traditions to celebrate and taboos to avoid during the 15-day Lunar New Year celebration.

“It’s a celebration of the start of things new and you hope that by doing the proper celebrations and practices you’re going to set yourself up for a year of good fortune,” Zhang says.

Before the New Year, individuals are supposed to clean their houses. Zhang says the idea is that you sweep out the old and then bring in the new. But cleaning during the first 15 days of the new year is avoided because you’d sweep away your good fortune. Debts should also be paid off before the new year.

Houses are decorated with scrolls featuring auspicious words written on them, such as “fú (福)” ?(which means good fortune). This character is often posted upside down because “upside-down” is pronounced “dao” in Chinese, and sounds like the word “arrival” — implying the arrival of good fortune to your house. Red and gold are used most often, Kuang explains, because red invokes energy — from the primitive days of humans’ need of fire for survival — and gold symbolizes wealth.

Once the new year celebration has started, be mindful of what you say — no swearing, or ominous words like “death,” that could bring about misfortune. The color scheme in one’s wardrobe is also important.

“When I was in China as a kid, I think what I loved about the festival the most was new clothes,” Zhang says. “You are supposed to wear good, bright-colored clothes on the first day of the new year.”

Another tradition that is a favorite among children is the receiving of red envelopes filled with money from their elders.

“Stemming from Confucianism, which originated in China, respects are to be paid to anyone who is more senior than you,” Kuang says. “On the other hand, as a senior, you are supposed to take care of the younger generations. On New Year’s, children pay their respects to their grandparents or the senior members of their family, and in return, they are given a little gift.”

AKA Spring Festival

The Lunar New Year is also commonly referred to as the Spring Festival, or “Chūn Jié (春节)”.

“It became more popular in the 20^th century after the Chinese communist government took over,” says Zhang. “There was a time when the government wanted to get rid of things that represented traditional China. They encouraged the use of the term spring festival. It also was adopted to help avoid confusion with the New Year of the solar calendar, which the new Republican government in China adopted in 1912.?In a way, the celebration of a new year is a celebration of the coming spring.”

The 15-day celebration is recognized in China, Vietnam, South Korea, Mongolia, Singapore and other Asian countries. And many other cultures and religions use a lunar-based calendar, such as Judaism and Islam.

Common well-wishes in Chinese for the New Year are:

“骋耻ò 狈颈á苍 Hǎo”: A Good Start/Crossing into the New Year!

“Xīn 狈颈á苍 Kuài Lè”: Happy New Year!

Food and Drink

Food and drinks are a special part of the celebration and are specific to each region in China and other countries.

Zhang says in North China where flour is abundant, such as in her hometown of Tianjin, dumplings are a must eat. They are shaped in a way that resemble silver ingots, symbolizing good fortune for the coming year.

Kuang grew up in South China where tangerines are popular because the fruit is pronounced “jú (桔)”, which is similar to the word for luck, “‘ji (吉)”. In addition to being served, tangerine trees are also brought home to be decorated, similar to Christmas trees, for the festival.

Rice cakes are also a must and are referred to as “nián (年) gāo (糕)”. “狈颈á苍?(年)” means year and “gāo (糕)” means cake or pastry. The word “gāo (糕)” has a homonym “gāo (高)”, which translates to mean either “higher” or “taller.”

Fish is also desirable, Kuang says, because it’s pronounced “yú (鱼)”, which means extra.

“It’s meant to symbolize abundance in the next year,” she says. “You will save more and earn more with extra harvests and luck.”

2026: Year of the Horse

Because the zodiac signs have been used for millennia, it’s hard to pinpoint their origin. According to legend, the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac were selected through a race that the Jade Emperor held in honor of his birthday. The first 12 to reach the finish line enjoyed a celebratory feast and were adopted as the zodiac signs.

The order of the lunar calendar follows the outcome of the race, where the rat is the first animal to start the sequence, and the pig is the last. After the pig, the sequence starts over again.

This year is all about the horse, which came in seventh. The horse represents hard work, bravery and resilience. Those who belong to this sign are typically said to be free-spirited, warm-hearted, independent and adventurous.

Zhang says for many years, zodiac signs were taken into account for couples before marriage.

“In the past, a family would use a matchmaker to arrange a marriage, and the matchmaker would ask the potential couple’s zodiac years to see if they were compatible,” says Zhang, born in a year of tiger. “There were a lot of superstitions. Those ideas have been fading away as time has progressed, but some people still believe in them.”

Time of Migration

The journey to home for the Spring Festival is called “chun yun (春运)” in Chinese, which literally means “spring movement.” Last year, nearly 760 million people traveled in the first 10 days of the Spring Festival travel rush, according to the China Ministry of Transport — roughly 14 times more than the amount of Thanksgiving travelers in the United States annually.

“The expectation is that it no matter where you are in China, you’re supposed to go back home for the festival and new year celebration,” Zhang says. “That sometimes causes friction between married couples, especially if their parents are from different regions. Very often you have to do some negotiating with each other and with your respective parents.”

Virtual visits are becoming more popular in the modern era, Zhang says.

Lantern Festival

The final day of China’s New Year celebrations is the Lantern Festival, which falls on the first full moon of the lunar new year. It has been celebrated since the days of the Han Dynasty?around 2,000 years ago, which culminated with the spread of Buddhism across China.

“According to legend, Emperor Hangmindi, who ruled around the beginning of the first century, saw that Buddhist monks would light lanterns on the 15th day of the Chinese year to show respect to the Buddha, and ordered that the tradition be repeated in the Imperial Palace,” Kuang says. “Now the lanterns often symbolize letting go of their owners’ past selves and symbolize good luck, and the Lantern Festival has become one of the most important events on the Chinese calendar.”

Carrillo comes to 麻豆原创 after having spent 30 years in the insurance industry and building a mulitfaceted portfolio in property and casualty insurance, with experience spanning into underwriting, actuarial work, research, product development and product management. Before joining 麻豆原创, he served as the executive director of the Risk Management and Insurance Center at Florida State University (FSU).

“Gabriel’s appointment is a strategic step forward for the Center,” 麻豆原创 College of Business Dean Paul Jarley says. “His experience will help us deepen our engagement with industry leaders and better prepare students to meet the growing talent needs of the risk management and insurance sector.”

The 麻豆原创 Center for Risk Management and Insurance Education, co-located on 麻豆原创’s main campus in Orlando and at the 麻豆原创 Connect Daytona Beach Center, will equip students and professionals for the evolving insurance industry by offering a range of academic programs supported by expert faculty and industry leaders from various specialties.

These programs stand to highlight the importance of 麻豆原创’s industry partners and boost prospective job growth in Central Florida and beyond, potentially attracting more attention to students who may be interested in risk management and insurance — or in 麻豆原创’s campus.

“We have the ambition to create a nationally recognized program in risk management and insurance education,” says Ron Piccolo, associate dean for strategic initiatives, “Given his industry experience, academic credentials and leadership of FSU’s great RMI Center, Gabriel is the perfect leader to create exciting opportunities for our students and industry partners.”

Before coming to 麻豆原创, Carrillo worked for notable companies like COUNTRY Financial, Allstate, Travelers and The Hartford. Carrillo has contributed to the field through academic and industry service, including board roles with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University. He currently serves on the advisory board for Purdue’s Actuarial Science Program.

“I am excited to join a passionate team of academics and industry executives in launching a new, world-class RMI program at 麻豆原创,” Carrillo says, “Our goal is to build a much-needed talent pipeline to serve the risk management and insurance industry, with an eye on creating a program that offers a unique value proposition for our students and industry partners.”

Carrillo has a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science from Purdue University with a minor in business management. He is expected to earn a doctoral degree in risk management and insurance from FSU in Fall 2025.

“I’ve been blessed with an amazing primary career spanning 30 years; a priceless series of amazing experiences and opportunities,” Carrillo says. “As a perpetual student of the industry, I enjoy building on that every day. What I am passionate about is sharing what I’ve learned to help others succeed.”

For more information on the latest program offerings, visit .

Definitely not, says Professor of Biology Patrick Bohlen.

麻豆原创 is home to thousands of bats, who for years have taken up residence in a storm drain near the 麻豆原创 Arboretum’s green house.

“A lot of the habitats these bats would reside in are being greatly reduced, and they like to roost over water and to be in caves, so that’s why they are attracted to this open pipe,” Bohlen says. “We like to celebrate them, especially around Halloween. It’s a way of just supporting some of the native species that would exist in this area in our urban infrastructure.”

As a tribute to our friend the bat, Bohlen shares some interesting facts and dispels some myths about these furry, flying creatures.

Bats are primarily insect eaters in this part of the world. Some of those insects are pests, so people have calculated there’s a value to that in terms of the insects they eat. We don’t normally think of other animals eating bats, but actually during the breeding season, barred owls, which are night predators, feed a lot on bats. So bats can actually serve a rope higher up in the food chain as well.

I think bats get a bad rap just because they’re associated with horror films. They come out at night so they’re nocturnal. They’re a little creepy because they’re the only mammal that flies. They have funny little faces. I think they just kind of have a scariness about them for a lot of people that stems from lack of knowledge. They’re really not very scary animals. There are three species of bats in South America that feed on blood, so I think that creates a Count Dracula association. But I think they have a bad reputation mostly because they’re associated with the darkness and they’re just kind of very unusual creatures that look funny.

Some bats, including some of the bats we have in Florida, have adapted so that they can survive extremely high ammonia levels. There are some caves that have bats in them where the ammonia level would knock a person out. But the bats have a way of dealing with ammonia by regulating the CO2 in their blood to neutralizes the excess ammonia. They can tolerate that high ammonia that’s produced from their waste, the guano that falls to the floor of the roost.

It’s not really fully understood why. They are social animals for the most part, so that plays a factor. It could also be in cold climates they benefit from thermoregulation to stay warmer.

In Florida we have 13 species of bat. I think we have possibly two or three species in the storm drain on campus, but I think the main one is called the Southeastern myotis, known by its scientific name as Myotis austroriparius. The fact that that species name has “riparius” in it means they are water-loving bats. They tend to roost in wet areas. Historically, they would have roosted in trees and bottomland, forests, swamps. So the storm water pipes are perfect for them because they like high humidity.

I had a student once who lowered a GoPro camera into the manhole we knew they lived in and took all of these photos. We then laid the photos out flat on a big single two-dimensional map and counted the bats. And there were 5,000 in that one manhole. There could be more, but there were 5,000 in that one roost.

People don’t need to be afraid of bats. They’re relatively harmless. If you see a bat on the ground in the daytime, I would stay away from it. They can carry rabies, so I certainly wouldn’t want to handle a bat that was in a situation like that. There are bat conservancy groups you could call if you find a bat on the ground. But for the most part bats are out at night, flying around and eating insects.

I think the best single place to go to learn about bats in Florida would be the Florida Bat Conservancy. Their website is floridabats.org.

The 麻豆原创 (GSC) now offers affordable poster printing, making participation in such events more accessible for graduate students and faculty. Located on the second floor of Trevor Colbourn Hall, suite 213, the GSC is home to a variety of resources available to graduate students at little to no cost. In addition to complimentary events and workshops throughout the year, students are welcome to reserve the conference room, access computers, seek advice from our graduate ambassadors and simply hang out with friends. The center is open every weekday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with extended hours on select days. It’s a central location for all things graduate.

The large-scale poster printer is available to graduate students and faculty at just $25. The powerful printer can produce vibrant, large-scale color posters, helping students and faculty create official presentations and share their work. The goal is to make preparing professional-level materials easier and more accessible to support graduate students in their academic endeavors.

“As a valuable resource, it provides a practical boost for anyone aiming to enhance the visual appeal of their academic presentations, offering support for a more impactful and engaging presentation experience,” says Tyler Campbell, assistant director for graduate student life.

Guidelines and requirements for utilizing the poster printing service are outlined on the to ensure a smooth and timely printing process. Posters must be intended for academic or educational purposes, feature current 麻豆原创 logos, and be submitted as a PDF or JPEG. After submission, your poster will be reviewed within 48 hours and ready for pickup within five business days.

Payments are processed using Knights Cash through your 麻豆原创 ID card and completed in person during poster pick-up. To begin, fill out the through the GSC website.

The poster printer will be a valuable tool for students in preparing for exhibition-style events. One exciting upcoming opportunity for graduate students to showcase their work is during 麻豆原创’s annual , which is March 25-29 this year. This event attracts hundreds of students showcasing their research in poster format at the Student Scholar Symposium.

Helping students present their groundbreaking research could not only make event preparation easier but also increase their chances of receiving funding and scholarships. Armed with their posters, students can get the word out about their work and receive recognition. The College of Graduate Studies offers various funding opportunities to provide students with financial support, including the esteemed . This fellowship is a great opportunity for enrolled master’s, specialist, and doctoral students to share their research or comparable creative activity at a professional meeting or conference. Applications for the Spring 2024 Presentation Fellowships are open until April 15.

“Amidst the challenges of graduate school, our commitment at the College of Graduate Studies is to offer the assistance and resources needed to ensure the thriving success of our graduate students,” Elizabeth Klonoff, vice provost and dean for the College of Graduate Studies says. “With an array of opportunities, we strive to provide something for everyone. Moving forward, we are determined to fine-tune and amplify our resources, offering targeted and unwavering support for the unique paths of our graduate students.”

For more information on Student Research Week, fellowship opportunities, and upcoming events, visit the .

Keeping 麻豆原创 a safe place to learn, live, work and play is a team effort that requires each of us to look out for ourselves and one another. Visit ’ website to learn about signs of distress.

If you are experiencing mental health crisis and need immediate help, always call 911. The National Suicide Hotline is also available 24/7/365 by dialing 988.

For Students

provides crisis-intervention services and comprehensive psychological services for students by appointment, walk-in or 24/7 hotline. CAPS can be reached by calling 407-823-2811. For after-hours services, call 407-823-2811 and press 5 to be connected to a licensed therapist.

麻豆原创 Student Care Services is the umbrella for student-related care resources and a great place to start if you are not sure where to go for help. Visit for resources and support with academics, finances or personal wellbeing. Free services and information are available for academic distress, homelessness, mental health concerns, financial challenges and more. E-mail ucfcares@ucf.edu or call 407-823-5607.

For Faculty and Staff

The , provided by Health Advocate, is a university-funded benefit that offers the support and resources you need to address any personal challenges and/or concerns that may affect your personal well-being and/or work performance. It is confidential and free to all faculty and staff (excluding OPS student employees) as well as their eligible family members, including spouses, dependent children, parents and parents-in-law. Health Advocate can be reached by calling their toll-free number at 877-240-6863 or by visiting their website at .

For Everyone

offers free, confidential advocacy and support to any student or employee who has been impacted by crime, violence or abuse. Specialists will explain options, make connections to appropriate campus and community resources, and provide other assistance. Reach a victim specialist 24/7 by calling 407-823-1200 or texting 407-823-6868 to discuss what you are experiencing.

The team led by Psychology Assistant Professor Nichole Lighthall is working on exploitation susceptibility tool kits that could screen seniors’ cognitive abilities. These abilities influence their ability to think critically, a necessary skill for avoiding scams and falling victim to fraud.

The FBI estimates fraud complaints cost adults over 60 more than a $1 billion in 2020, an increase of $300 million over 2019. Common schemes like non-delivery of services, phony tech support and identity theft are especially a problem in Florida, with 20% of the population over the age of 65.

The research project will focus on identifying the factors that make victims most vulnerable, including pre-clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The research is funded by a four-year $742,833 grant from the Florida Department of Health.

“It’s important that we focus on older adults with mild cognitive impairments because they’re typically operating on their own,” Lighthall says. “They’re living independently but may have trouble remembering things, which increases their vulnerability to deception and exploitation.”

The research team includes Bonnie Levin, professor of Neurology at the University of Miami, and Natalie Ebner, professor of Psychology at the University of Florida.

The goal is to produce a tool kit similar to the cognitive assessments tools doctors use during office visits with senior patients. These screening tools help determine the level of cognition – the ability to remember and connect acquired knowledge to present day questions.

The team says their tool will help healthcare professionals screen for markers like an inability to read social and facial cues that betray someone’s true intentions. Other tools in the kit may include surveys and cognitive tests. Home nurses and social workers could potentially use the kit for assessments in non-clinical settings.

“The best scammers never get caught and the most vulnerable scam victims never detect their exploitation,” Lighthall says. “This is why our project is so important — because often times the deception is caught when it’s already too late.”

The idea is that if the risk factor is identified early, the elderly or their family members and friends can be alerted and take preventative measures.

The tool kit will be developed in part by following older adults over a handful of years who are already showing mild cognitive impairments and tracking their progress. Research also focuses on the exploitation risk between different racial and ethnic groups.

The researchers are working with LIFE at 麻豆原创, the Legacy Pointe at 麻豆原创 senior living community, professionals in media and technology, as well as experts in elder law to optimize the tool kit for use with vulnerable older adults.

“Relationships of undue influence and identity theft scams that drain financial resources are issues that legal experts face and they want to find a better way to help prevent older adults from becoming destitute in the most vulnerable times of their life,” Lighthall says. “It’s important that we provide resources to prevent further deception and exploitation.”

Lighthall has a Ph.D. in gerontology from the University of Southern California. She joined 麻豆原创 in 2015 and her research focuses on decision making across adulthood. Levin has a Ph.D. in psychology and specializes in normative aging and early neurodegenerative disease. Ebner has a Ph.D in psychology and specializes in social-cognitive neuroscience in aging.

“It’s really hard,” I said as I unsuccessfully fought back tears.

Everyone tells you parenting is hard, but no one tells you just how hard. You hear about the “baby blues” but not that you might endure weeks before finally experiencing a day without any tears — yours, not the baby’s.

She gave me a look of understanding and then told me she didn’t feel like herself until six months after the birth of her own children.

OK, I thought. Six months. March 2020.

Ha.

Come March 2020 on top of my anxiety, depression and self-confidence issues, I was dealing with something that no one had experience with and could give me advice on: parenting an infant during a global pandemic.

Add into the mix that my husband — who I love with my entire being — and I were trying to figure out how to be around each other constantly. That presented its own set of challenges.

My professional life, which was now being done from home, included writing thousands of words daily about the impacts of COVID to the university’s students, employees and operations, publishing a magazine issue, and a university presidential search.

And I expected to navigate all of this with the perfectionist standards I’ve had my entire life.

The “shoulds” took over, as they often do.

I should be able to write award-worthy stories.

I should be able to whip up a variety of homemade solid foods for my son so his nutritional needs are met and he doesn’t become a picky eater.

I should be waking up at 5 a.m. every day to run at least a 5K.

I should be able to do all of this and more because, in my mind, parents always have — and many during more dire circumstances with far fewer resources than I have.

But I just couldn’t do all of it and none of my go-to coping mechanisms — exercise, adequate sleep, limiting caffeine — were working.

“I was tired of measuring the success of each day by if I merely survived it. I didn’t want to just survive my life. I wanted to appreciate it and live it.”

By July 2020, I decided I couldn’t live like this anymore. I was tired of measuring the success of each day by if I merely survived it. I didn’t want to just survive my life. I wanted to appreciate it and live it.

I think that feeling coupled with my devotion to the only podcast I listen to religiously, Armchair Expert — which advocates the benefits of therapy nearly every episode — motivated me to finally take some action. The hosts Dax and Monica made me feel seen and like I wasn’t alone in needing help; that seeking counseling isn’t a sign of weakness — a philosophy of which I think our society has a long way to go.

I had heard about 麻豆原创’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which offers six sessions of free therapy per topic, but in the past I had always shooed away the idea. I shouldn’t need that. I have no major trauma in my life to cope with. I just need to suck it up and get through this.

But one day I vowed, today is the day I call. In less than 30 minutes, I was matched with a counselor. I had never done counseling, so I had no clue what to expect.

In my first online session, I explained my anxieties — that even though rationally I knew I was a good mom, a good wife, a good coworker, it didn’t keep me from feeling like nothing I did professionally or at home was good enough. That I was so overwhelmed at times, I was missing out on the joy of my son and my husband. That I wanted to be me again.

My counselor asked me an important question that has continued to help me shape the way I reason with myself when I start to spiral:

If a friend was telling you these same things about herself, what would you say to her?

I realized I couldn’t extend myself the same compassion that I would give anyone who was in such distress. And I mourned that I subjected myself to such negative self-talk when I would never let a friend talk about herself that way. Why couldn’t I want that for myself? How many days of my life have I ruined doing this?

So that’s what I’ve been working on. I’ve since done 11 video sessions with my counselor. We message from week to week in between sessions, and it has been so helpful to just talk to someone.

There are days I am better at giving myself grace than others. I’ve learned the end goal isn’t to be happy. Life isn’t happy all the time, and all of your emotions, even the tough ones, are meant to be experienced. That means you’re living.

My husband and I have even done a couple of counseling sessions together since EAP covers family members too. We both love each other, and we both are confident in the strength of our relationship, but again it’s free; what do we have to lose? One of the strategies we’ve adopted from counseling is to set aside time during the week to check in with each other; to hash out anything that might be lingering, address needs that aren’t being met, or tell each other about the moments we truly appreciated one another during the week.

I plan to continue counseling. I know now that practicing self-compassion and self-care need to be included among what we demand of ourselves.

I resent that our society doesn’t normalize, prioritize or validate mental health like it does physical health. Maybe if it did, I would have sought counseling sooner.

Nevertheless, I am here now and I am thankful that 麻豆原创 offers the resources that serve as a reminder that, as Albus Dumbledore said, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Resources available to 麻豆原创 students and employees

麻豆原创 offers its to all non-student employees. This program provides resources to help employees and their eligible family members — including spouses, dependent children, parents and parents-in-law — to address any personal challenges and/or concerns that may affect personal well-being and/or work performance. The EAP, administered by Health Advocate, provides confidential, short-term counseling at no cost to the employee.

Health Advocate toll-free number: 877-240-6863

Health Advocate website:?

If you are a student looking for help, (CAPS) is 麻豆原创’s mental health resource for students. You can visit CAPS’ website for?.?Students can also schedule phone or virtual consultation with CAPS by?calling 407-823-2811 or visiting?.

Student Care Services?continues to work remotely with anyone who needs additional academic or personal support during this time.

Jenna Marina Lee is a features writer for the 麻豆原创 Marketing and Communications department. She has also worked for the university’s alumni and athletics departments.

Meet the microbiology world’s Sherlock Holmes – 麻豆原创 Assistant Professor of Medicine Salvador Almagro-Moreno. His work in the field over the past 20 years and his ability to connect dots has resulted in pioneering work that’s helping map out the steps and triggers that lead to the emergence of potentially lethal pathogens.

His reputation resulted in the premier journal in microbiology, , ?inviting him to write a perspective article about the emergence of pathogens, which published this spring.

Almagro-Moreno and his team carefully constructed a map of the various complicated connections and steps including a bacteria’s genetic connection to their environments that predispose certain ones to go rogue. He’s used Vibrio vulnificus, also known as flesh eating bacteria, and Vibrio cholerae, the agent of the diarrheal disease cholera, as his model systems. Not only is the 麻豆原创 professor an excellent scientist, .

That’s why also asked him to write a piece explaining the connections and why understanding how pathogens evolve is important. The magazine is well respected among scientists, and they are the ones who write the articles, but they are geared for a general audience. The article is the cover piece of the magazine’s May/June edition available on newsstands now.

“This is very exciting,” he says. “It is complicated, but we are putting the puzzle pieces together. By using a holistic approach where we mixed ecology, computational biology, and molecular genetics we are figuring it out and I’m excited because now predicting emergence events is a possibility and that’s critical with the emergence of global pandemics like cholera and COVID-19. We need these tools to help manage disease outbreaks and address public health.”

His most recent scholarly paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but his piece in American Scientist is much more accessible to the general public and explains the history of pathogens from the Black Plague to COVID-19 and why the recipe for triggering pathogens has been so elusive. It’s not just mainstream publications that ask for his help. He provides expert opinion to the Food and Drug Administration on flesh-eating bacteria and has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation Career Award grant.

“The process is really complicated,” he says with a smile. “It’s a culmination of a lot of different expertise. My lab has students and post-docs with a variety of skills. Together we are making progress. I’m super excited because now we have a clearer picture of how it all works.”

Bacteria can make leaps in evolution because of some unique traits that allow it to pick up and reproduce DNA material that may be floating in their environment. As that material changes, so does the bacteria. His field work in India and the United States, including work done in Brevard and Indian River counties in Florida indicate that there are ecological drivers that lead to the selection of pathogenic traits and virulent strains.

In the American Scientist, he explains.

“Clearly, a plethora of mechanisms and vehicles exist that allow bacteria to acquire new traits from the environment, helping them achieve the quantum leap that can lead to their emergence as pathogens. But evolution does not follow an intentional course, so the quantum leap can also take bacteria in the wrong direction: Acquiring foreign genetic fragments can cause substantial wreckage and disrupt an organism’s well-ingrained physiology. Identifying the environments and conditions that favor microbial risk-taking is an active area of research.”

Many of the clues fell into place when the professor and his team were doing work in the Indian River Lagoon in East Central Florida, and they discovered a new species of bacteria. On the surface it looked like the bacteria they have been studying for several years – V. vulnificus. But when they looked at it on the genetic level, they discovered it was not. The new species is Vibrio floridiensis. It is the closest known relative to the infamous flesh-eating bacterium, but it is not harmful.

“This new species is so close we almost missed it,” he says. “Once we took a close look some of the pieces fell into place.”

There’s still plenty to figure out, he says. But at least now the team has a map with landmarks for figuring out the process. Like Sherlock Holmes, he’s up for the challenge.

“It’s critical we keep moving forward putting the pieces together and making sure they fit,” he says. “We’re still pioneering. As the world changes, it is important to figure out the drivers because COVID is just the latest pathogen to get global attention because of the big impact it had on us. There is more to come, and we need the tools to help us get through it.”

Almagro-Moreno joined 麻豆原创 in 2017 and established??He holds multiple degrees from universities in Spain and Ireland and completed his postdoctoral studies as the Ernest Everett Just Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College. He has published dozens of journal articles and his lab has received more than $1.2 million in grant funding. He was named a?U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award?recipient. He also received the “Ramon y Cajal” award, the most prestigious award given by the Government of Spain to an early career scientist. He is a member of the??and the?Genomics and Bioinformatics cluster at 麻豆原创.

Chisholm works in 麻豆原创’s School of Global Health Management and Informatics in the College of Community Innovation and Education. Her research focuses on quality of care, disparities, and the implementation and dissemination of innovations. This includes racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities that occur in long-term care settings, such as nursing homes.

The Gainesville, Florida, native says her family and colleagues who are just as passionate about making a difference in the world are a strong source of inspiration.

“There’s a reason why I’m here working on research and attempting to improve the healthcare system,” Chisholm says. “We need to ensure that all individuals receive and have access to high quality of care, and not just few.”

Currently much of her work focuses on improving a person’s experience in nursing homes, especially since this is a growing industry. There is the potential to improve resident experience by adopting innovative approaches, which is one area she is studying.

Chisholm holds a doctoral degree in health services research, management and policy from the University of Florida. She also has a master’s degree of social work (clinical track social work) and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, both from the University of South Florida. It was during an internship at the Tampa U.S. Veterans Affairs Hospital while she was a graduate student completing her social work program that Chisholm became inspired to investigate fields of health services and their impact on quality of care.

Chisholm has more than 20 publications in scholarly journals and several ongoing research projects. She has presented at Moffitt Cancer Center and various national meetings as she works to make a difference.

This is why Erica Fissel’s goal is to illuminate the interpersonal victimization that occurs in cyberspace in hopes that her work will be used to help inform policy and help these victims.

Fissel, an assistant professor in the , doesn’t consider herself a particularly technology-savvy person but was fascinated with the way people behave online versus offline. From there, she began to look at what use or abuse of technology looks like in an intimate partner relationship. A member of 麻豆原创’s Violence Against Women faculty cluster, she focuses on the impact it has on women.

Although she didn’t intentionally seek to make women the focus of her research, Fissel says she quickly discovered that women are the most likely to experience such forms of interpersonal victimization. She also works with the Cybercrime Support Network to help serve those affected by the growing impacts of cybercrime.

“This area is so interesting to me because it’s so underdeveloped, and there are so many ways that people can use technology to abuse their partners that I would have never thought of,” she says.

Such technology can include smart-home systems like video doorbells, which can be used to track or monitor an intimate partner. Even reading a partner’s text messages without their permission can fall into the category of technology-based abuse under certain circumstances.

She adds that it’s important to realize that intimate partner cyber abuse is not illegal. There may be laws applicable to cyberstalking or cyber harassment, but intimate partner cyber abuse extends beyond those behaviors.

“Because of that, people don’t know what they’re experiencing is abusive or problematic,” Fissel says. “They don’t know that they should be able to get help for it. I want my work to be able to inform policies and laws. I want to help individuals experiencing these behaviors access helpful resources, realize that they’re experiencing problematic behavior and get out of those situations.”

In her Women and Crime course, Fissel often finds herself teaching survivors and others who have experienced intimate partner cyber abuse. She’s even had students realize through the class that they are either currently being victimized or have been in the past.

“It’s very heavy material for students, but what I try to do is have a very open dialogue and safe space within the class where people are able to share their ideas,” she says. “We can talk about these types of behaviors and experiences because they’re important to understand.”

Defining the Cyber Abuse Spectrum

Although , Fissel says she is seeing more parity between men and women engaging in cyber-based abuse.

One of the projects Fissel has been working on examines the normalization or societal acceptance of behaviors that could be considered cyber abuse. She and a team of researchers from other universities collaborated on the study, which was funded by a faculty enrichment grant from the University of Cincinnati’s Criminal Justice Research Center. They collected data from 1,500 adults currently in an intimate partner relationship and asked about their experiences with intimate partner cyber abuse, perpetration and victimization within the past six months.

“We did a pilot test, and 100% of people experienced intimate partner cyber abuse as we defined it in the past six months,” Fissel says. “We thought, ‘This is a much bigger problem than we thought or we’re measuring it wrong.’ We talked to people about it, and some of the behaviors that we were defining as abusive aren’t abusive in all contexts.”

For example, tracking a partner via GPS would be considered abusive if it was being done without consent. However, Fissel says, many participants later indicated they tracked each other’s locations for safety reasons.

“That’s one of the tricky things with intimate partner cyber abuse, because it’s totally relationship specific and dependent on whether the boundaries developed with your partner were agreed upon without coercion,” she says.

In addition to looking at intimate partner cyber abuse on the victimization side, Fissel also is working on it from the perpetration side. That entails trying to understand why people engage in such behaviors, which is vital to being able to prevent them from happening.

Fissel also is working on another study with Jackie Woerner, an assistant professor in 麻豆原创’s departments of sociology and psychology, that focuses on the perpetration side. The two surveyed 544 people and followed up with nearly 300 of them a month later to examine their intimate partner cyber abuse behaviors over time. Part of this research involved asking participants about the factors that motivate their behavior. Fissel says many cited personal insecurities such as lack of trust.

“There’s almost a range within intimate partner cyber abuse,” she says. “There are things like checking someone’s text messages without their permission, which I would say is probably on the lower end of the spectrum. Then you also have people who are opening bank accounts in your name and ruining your credit, or people who are sending you threatening text messages. We’re also trying to figure out where the line that society draws is, because that’s going to help with trying to determine laws, too.”

Fissel received her doctorate in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. Her primary research interests focus on various types of interpersonal victimization that take place online, including cyberstalking, intimate partner cyber abuse and cyberbullying. She joined 麻豆原创’s , part of the , in 2019.