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Objective Lens: Insect antimicrobial peptides as a promising source for antibiotic “substitutes”
Full text linkCurrently, at least 2.8 million infections and over 700,000 deaths are reported from AMR bacterial infections globally (1,2). If no new antibiotics are isolated and made available by 2050, the CDC estimates that 10 million annual deaths will occur globally as a result of this inaction (5,8). Yet, surprisingly few have even heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or understand the implications for global health. In fact, no new classes of antibiotics have been developed to treat microbial infections in well over 30 years, as pharmaceutical companies have instead pursued research and development of more lucrative drugs for non-infectious diseases. Since this trend is likely to continue into the foreseeable future, this crisis must be addressed using alternative creative approaches. Unfortunately, this problem is exacerbated poor antibiotic stewardship practices by healthcare providers and consumers for decades. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial and fungal pathogens to be one of the principal threats to global public health (5,7-9)
Supporting Preservice Special Education Teachers: Fostering Community in Online Learning Environments
Full text linkThe increase in online courses in preservice special education has reshaped the landscape of teacher preparation, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Research underscores the importance of creating a culture of belonging in both face-to-face and online spaces, as it has been shown to enhance student engagement, motivation, and academic achievement. However, challenges related to physical distance, limited synchronous interactions, and feelings of isolation can hinder students’ sense of connection and community in online learning environments. Instructors play a pivotal role in cultivating learning and a sense of belonging in online spaces by intentionally designing online courses that actively foster inclusion and interpersonal connections. This article explores the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework as a tool for intentionally supporting learning and creating a culture of belonging in online preservice special education programs. We provide practical strategies for four critical instructional areas: collaborative small group activities, asynchronous discussion boards, required readings, and online lectures. For each area, we offer evidence-based approaches and illustrative examples for enhancing the cognitive, social, and teaching presence dimensions of the CoI framework. By implementing these targeted approaches, instructors can mitigate barriers in online courses and create more supportive and connected learning experiences for preservice special education teachers
The ChatGPT Exam: Critiquing Generative AI to Assess Learning
Full text linkAs university instructors grapple with the many challenges that generative AI poses for education, we must face the reality that AI-literacy will increasingly be an essential skill for students entering the workforce. This article examines the author’s experience in having students critique and revise ChatGPT-generated essays as a form of assessment. Used in place of traditional exams, this assignment is designed to assess learning, promote engagement with course materials, and educate students about the limitations and responsible use of AI. The results so far have been promising, with students demonstrating critical thinking, mastery of course content, and improved AI-literacy. Most significantly, the ChatGPT Exam shows significant potential for building confidence among first generation and minoritized students. (This abstract was written with assistance from ChatGPT)
Finding the Cheapest Way to Build a Graph
Full text linkThe Concept Reinforcement Problem is a graph optimization problem introduced by Novikoff. One seeks to build a graph G vertex by vertex in the cheapest way possible for that graph. The cost function for each vertex is a positive, decreasing, convex function where the input is determined by the number of neighbors already built. We solve this problem for a variety of different graphs such as simple connected small-sized graphs, trees, cycles, wheels, grid graphs, ladder graphs, and complete bipartite graphs
A New Triangle Generation of Some Generalized Genocchi Numbers
Full text linkThe two-dimensional rook theory can be generalized to three and higher dimensions by assuming that rooks attack along hyperplanes. Using this generalization, Alayont and Krzywonos defined two separate families of boards in three and higher dimensions generalizing the two-dimensional triangular boards whose rook numbers correspond to generalizations of Stirling numbers of the second kind and Genocchi numbers. This combinatorial interpretation of the Genocchi numbers was shown to provide a new triangle generation of the Genocchi numbers. In this paper, we prove similar triangle generations for the third and fourth generalized Genocchi numbers using rook numbers of boards in four and five dimensions
“My Vision Isn’t The Only One”: Visioning Abolition in School Counseling Through Arts-Based Exploration
Full text linkSchool counseling is built on the American School Counselor Association National Model (2019, 2025), which includes heavy emphasis on individualist-focused student standards and isolationist practice (Drake et al., 2024b). While the field has undergone some revision, we continue to lack methods for visioning and visions for abolition in our praxis. Without liberatory visions for abolition, our traditional approaches and models of school counseling will only prefigure more racial capitalism, more white supremacy, and more state violence in schools. As part of a larger, year-long Critical Participatory Action Research project, this article focuses on the abolitionist visioning generated by a community of practice, including school counselors, community organizers, and a school counselor educator, using arts-based exploration. Our findings center the collective analysis and meaning-making of our community of practice, elevating the visions of on-the-ground school counselors and organizers and honoring local wisdom to guide practice rather than relying on Westernized, meritocratic school counseling models
Teaching the History of Zionism in an Arab context: Empirical and Ethical Imperatives
Full text linkEgyptian and Arab attitudes toward Israel remain negative, and anti-Semitic myth-making would seem to preclude a nuanced historical engagement with Zionism and Israeli society. Yet a popular history course taught at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is titled “Zionism and Modern Judaism.” A poll of students who took the course suggests some prior skepticism toward portrayal of Jews in Arab media, and desire for a knowledge of Jewish history that transcends stereotypes. In this context, an ethical imperative is empirical: circumventing prejudices by confronting students with Jewish voices, by using primary sources in discussion and research. Comparison is made between the experience of teaching the course in Egypt and the U.S., highlighting an enormous disparity in ethnoconfessional backgrounds and assumptions made about the existential position of Jews/Israelis, but also a striking commonality in the engagement of students’ families with the curriculum
Review of Emilie Amt's Black Antietam - African Americans and the Civil War in Sharpsburg
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The Rending of the Veil: Tarrying with the Technological Sublime
Full text linkThe potentially philosophically problematic aspects of modern technology have been the subject of much discourse in recent times. The new kinds of incorporeal online spaces that are available to engage with have untold consequences on the formation of subjectivity. When phenomenological arguments about the nature of being are considered, the way that we display ourselves online becomes in need of exploration. This paper hypothesizes an exploration of what new relations toward the world have arisen through our relation to the sublime in technology. To this end, we must examine how deeply the feeling of the sublime in technology has affected subjectivity and intelligence.