All Roads Lead to Online Teaching Excellence: An Alternative Route to Faculty Certification for Online Teaching

New faculty who arrive at the University of Central Florida are very likely to be asked to teach at least one online (“W”) or mixed-mode (“M”) course. Realizing that effective teaching in these digital formats requires additional skills and knowledge that go beyond the traditional face-to-face classroom, UCF requires faculty to be certified in online teaching. Faculty at UCF have two avenues to obtain certification to develop and teach online or mixed-mode courses: our online teaching certification course IDL6543 or our alternative track for experienced faculty new to UCF called Online Faculty Readiness Assessment (OFRA). This assessment recognizes a faculty member’s prior online teaching experience and ensures the incoming faculty has the skills and knowledge they need to be successful teaching online at UCF. This alternative approach directly contributes to UCF’s strategic plan (“UCF Strategic Plan,” 2017) by fast-tracking new faculty as certified online instructors (Strengthening Faculty) and increasing the number of online courses available to students (Increasing Student Access)

The welfare of wildlife: an interdisciplinary analysis of harm in the legal and illegal wildlife trades and possible ways forward

Wildlife trade—both legal and illegal—is an activity that is currently the focus of global attention. Concerns over the loss of biodiversity, partly stemming from overexploitation, and the corona virus pandemic, likely originating from wildlife trade, are urgent matters. These concerns though centre on people. Only sometimes does the discussion focus on the wildlife traded and their welfare. In this article, we make the case as to why welfare is an important component of any discussion or policy about wildlife trade, not only for the interests of the wildlife, but also for the sake of humans. We detail the harm in the trade as well as the current welfare provisions, particularly in relation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which guide global transport and trade. There are a number of ways that the current approach to wildlife welfare could be improved, and we propose ways forward in this regard

Agricultural research for nutrition outcomes – rethinking the agenda

Agriculture and food are assumed to be critical determinants of stunting and micronutrient deficiency. However, agriculture research for development has not translated as expected into better nutrition outcomes. We argue that to do so, agriculture research needs to be fundamentally changed, from the current emphasis on supply-side production and productivity goals to understanding consumption and addressing factors that can improve diet quality. Some of the research will be to improve the efficiency of supply for more nutritious foods. Other research will need to focus on factors that promote diet quality rather than focus on food security goals through stocks of staple cereals. Because of its importance in low-income, high-burden countries, agriculture can also contribute more effectively to multisectoral nutrition-sensitive development strategies and programs. Critical roles for agricultural research in multisectoral actions will be better metrics, indicators and research studies for diet quality and better evaluation methods – both randomized trials for specific interventions and contribution analysis through theories of change for more complex multisectoral system interventions to prevent stunting and micronutrient deficiencies. To achieve improvements in nutrition outcomes at scale, researchers must engage in new partnerships. In food systems, these partnerships must include more disciplines from agriculture and food science through economics and social science to business and delivery science. Food system researchers will also need to engage more with value chain actors and policy makers. Current efforts to improve nutrition outcomes at scale are severely hampered by data and evidence gaps that prevent better decisions and faster learning

Human rabies postexposure prophylaxis during a raccoon rabies epizootic in New York, 1993 and 1994.

We describe the epidemiology of human rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) in four upstate New York counties during the 1st and 2nd year of a raccoon rabies epizootic. We obtained data from records of 1,173 persons whose rabies PEP was reported to local health departments in 1993 and 1994. Mean annual PEP incidence rates were highest in rural counties, in summer, and in patients 10 to 14 and 35 to 44 years of age. PEP given after bites was primarily associated with unvaccinated dogs and cats, but most (70%) was not attributable to bites. Although pet vaccination and stray animal control, which target direct exposure, remain the cornerstones of human rabies prevention, the risk for rabies by the nonbite route (e. g., raccoon saliva on pet dogs' and cats' fur) should also be considered

Putting hornets on the genomic map

Hornets are the largest of the social wasps, and are important regulators of insect populations in their native ranges. Hornets are also very successful as invasive species, with often devastating economic, ecological and societal effects. Understanding why these wasps are such successful invaders is critical to managing future introductions and minimising impact on native biodiversity. Critical to the management toolkit is a comprehensive genomic resource for these insects. Here we provide the annotated genomes for two hornets, Vespa crabro and Vespa velutina. We compare their genomes with those of other social Hymenoptera, including the northern giant hornet Vespa mandarinia. The three hornet genomes show evidence of selection pressure on genes associated with reproduction, which might facilitate the transition into invasive ranges. Vespa crabro has experienced positive selection on the highest number of genes, including those putatively associated with molecular binding and olfactory systems. Caste-specific brain transcriptomic analysis also revealed 133 differentially expressed genes, some of which are associated with olfactory functions. This report provides a spring-board for advancing our understanding of the evolution and ecology of hornets, and opens up opportunities for using molecular methods in the future management of both native and invasive populations of these over-looked insects

Emerging Infectious Diseases: a 10-Year Perspective from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Advances in infectious disease research over the past 10 years have allowed breakthroughs in th