Digital Commons Network^™

Using The Microsoft Kinect To Assess Human Bimanual Coordination, Joshua James Liddy

Open Access Theses

Optical marker-based systems are the gold-standard for capturing three-dimensional (3D) human kinematics. However, these systems have various drawbacks including time consuming marker placement, soft tissue movement artifact, and are prohibitively expensive and non-portable. The Microsoft Kinect is an inexpensive, portable, depth camera that can be used to capture 3D human movement kinematics. Numerous investigations have assessed the Kinect's ability to capture postural control and gait, but to date, no study has evaluated it's capabilities for measuring spatiotemporal coordination. In order to investigate human coordination and coordination stability with the Kinect, a well-studied bimanual coordination paradigm (Kelso, 1984, Kelso; Scholz, & …

Investigation Into The Control Of Melittin Secondary Structure And Antimicrobial Activity, Zachary B. Molinets

Open Access Theses

Antimicrobial resistance has been an exponentially growing problem since the discovery of antibiotics. Antibiotics have been misused for many years and this misuse has grown into a real problem for the medical community. While there are countless safeguards to prevent infection by a resistant strain of bacteria, there are still many plagued by it and must be treated with sometimes dangerous antibiotics. Melittin, along with many other peptides, contain potent antimicrobial properties, but are also toxic toward enthrocytes. The control of the secondary structure of peptides provides the key to adjusting their activity.

Key Residues Of Human Cytoplasmic Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase-A And -B For Substrate Binding And Specificity, Byunghyun Park

Open Access Theses

Reversible tyrosine phosphorylation plays an important role in signaling pathways that are essential for regulating cellular growth, differentiation and metabolism. Moreover, several human diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancers are associated with the deregulation of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs). Several studies provide evidence that PTPs not only contribute to cellular differentiation, but over-expression of these molecules also leads to transformation of non-transfomed cells as well. Based on these results, designing specific PTP inhibitors may ultimately function as potential therapeutic agents to treat various diseases including cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. EphA2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase which is hypo-phosphorylated …

Abcb11 Functions With B1 And B19 To Regulate Rootward Auxin Transport, Jesica Elyse Reemmer

Open Access Theses

Auxin transport is essential for the architecture and development of erect plants. In a network of transporters directing auxin flows, ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters are a ubiquitous family of proteins that actively transport important substrates, including auxins, across the plasma membrane. ABCB1 and ABCB19 have been shown to account for the majority of rootward auxin transport, but residual fluxes to the root tip in Arabidopsis b1b19 double mutants implies the involvement of at least one additional auxin transporter in this process. Of specific interest, the severe dwarfism seen in abcb1abcb19 is strikingly reminiscent of that seen in mutants defective in …

Efficacy Of Cleaning Method For Removal Of Exogenous Welding Fume Contamination From Nail Tissue Prior To Use As A Biomarker For Welding Fume Manganese Exposure, Jeffrey Corral Bainter

Open Access Theses

Nail tissue has been proposed as a biomarker for body burden of occupational exposure to manganese from welding fumes. Though recent studies have shown correlation between manganese exposure and both nail tissue concentration as well as concentrations in dopaminergic regions of the brain, concerns of the validity of nail tissue as a biomarker have arisen due to the potential for exogenous contamination of Mn to undermine the quantization of endogenous Mn in nail. Previous studies have used a cleaning method of 1% Triton X-100 surfactant plus sonication in order to attempt to remove exogenous welding fume contamination. Determination of the …

1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D Alters Lipid Metabolism And Epithelialto- Mesenchymal Transition In Metastatic Epithelial Breast Cancer Cells, Alle Nicole Barnard

Open Access Theses

Evidence suggests that high vitamin D status (marked by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25(OH)2 D) is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. It has been established that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH) 2 D) can alter glycolysis and the Krebs cycle of breast cancer cells (Jiang et al., 2010; Zheng et al., 2013) but little information is available on 1,25(OH) 2 D's alterations of lipid metabolism in breast cancer cells. Thus, the current research investigates if there was an effect of 1,25(OH) 2 D on proteins that regulate lipid metabolism in MCF10A, MCF10A-ras, MCF10CA1h, and MCF10CA1a epithelial breast cancer cells. While …

Synthesis And Dna-Binding Studies With Two Stericallyfriendly Porphyrin Frameworks, Srijana Ghimire

Open Access Dissertations

Peripheral substituents on cationic porphyrins play a significant role during binding with DNA hosts. Possible applications of these systems in photodynamic therapy as well as in anti-bacterial and anti-cancer therapies motivate the binding studies. For characterizing DNA binding motifs different methods are useful including absorption, emission, and circular dichroism spectroscopies, as well as viscometry and X-ray crystallography. With the classic H₂ T₄ porphyrin, or 5,10,15,20-tetra(N-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin, the mode of binding varies with the base composition of the DNA host. The porphyrin binds adenine-thymine rich sequences externally whereas intercalation occurs in guanine-cytosine rich sequences. The McMillin group has made some …

Characterization Of Lipid-Anchored Inhibitor Rulers As A Measure Of Enzyme Topography In Coagulation Enzyme Factor Xa, Robin C. Conley

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

The blood coagulation cascade is activated under various circumstances such as an injury. This system involves a tightly regulated series of events. The enzymes involved assemble with their respective cofactors on lipid membranes to reach their full procoagulant complex potential. The coagulation cascade is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic portions, both of which converge into a common pathway with the activation of factor X (FX_a). FX_a is a very important part of the blood coagulation cascade because its activation is primarily responsible for thrombin generation. Activation of FX_a alone is, however, insufficient to produce a fully …

Density Functional Theory Modeling Of It-Stacking And Electrophilic Donor-Acceptor Interactions With Application To Therapeutic Targeting Of Zinc-Finger Proteins, Patricia Beall Lutz

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Several viruses, including viruses that cause cancer, contain conserved zinc finger (ZF) proteins that are essential for viral reproduction, making them attractive drug targets for cancer and viral treatment. ZFs are small protein domains that have Zn²⁺ tetrahedrally coordinated to at least 2 Cys and His. They form three classes of ZFs depending on the amino acid ligands, CCHH, CCCH, and CCCC. Zn²⁺ is stable towards redox reactions; however, the Cys thiolates are redox active. Oxidation of the Cys thiolates release Zn²⁺, and the ZF loses its tertiary structure and can no longer bind DNA or …

Gmos: Are They A Regulatory Or Food Safety Issue?, Richard E. Goodman

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Most of the genetic diversity that has improved agricultural production throughout the history of farming was developed through natural mutations and selective breeding. However, since the early 1900s plant scientists have used chemical and radiation mutagenesis to increase genetic diversity (18). We know that the majority of mutations are harmful, and plant breeders work hard to select only those that are beneficial. This process has helped feed a growing human population, which is estimated to have been 300 million 2,000 years ago and is now more than 7 billion. However, methods used in the past to improve agricultural production are …

Bioinformatic Solutions To Complex Problems In Mass Spectrometry Based Analysis Of Biomolecules, Ryan M. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Biological research has benefitted greatly from the advent of omic methods. For many biomolecules, mass spectrometry (MS) methods are most widely employed due to the sensitivity which allows low quantities of sample and the speed which allows analysis of complex samples. Improvements in instrument and sample preparation techniques create opportunities for large scale experimentation. The complexity and volume of data produced by modern MS-omic instrumentation challenges biological interpretation, while the complexity of the instrumentation, sample noise, and complexity of data analysis present difficulties in maintaining and ensuring data quality, validity, and relevance. We present a corpus of tools which improves …

Experimental And Computational Analysis Of The Synucleins, Agatha Munyanyi

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

The synuclein proteins α, β and γ which are located in the brain, have been a subject of intense research. Of particular interest is α-synuclein, which is found in misfolded forms in Lewy bodies that are associated with Parkinson's disease. Despite the efforts of researchers across the world, the physiological structure and function of the synucleins remains elusive. In recent years, highly controversial reports by some investigators indicate that in its natural form, α-synuclein exists as a tetramer instead of as an intrinsically unstructured monomer. This dissertation presents results of the experimental and computational analysis of the synucleins. First, we …

The Interrelationship Of Brca1 185delag, Interleukin-1Β, And Ovarian Oncogenesis, Kamisha Woolery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the etiology of ovarian cancer (OC) is not completely understood, evidence suggests that chronic inflammation may promote malignant transformation. However, familial history remains the strongest risk factor for developing OC and is associated with germline BRCA1 mutations, such as the 185delAG mutation. Normal human ovarian surface epithelial cells expressing the 185delAG mutant, BRAT, exhibit molecular and pathological changes that may contribute to OC oncogenesis. In the current study, I sought to determine whether BRAT could promote an inflammatory phenotype by investigating BRAT's impact on the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine, Interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Using a culture model system of normal …

Rna Detection Technology For Applications In Marine Science: Microbes To Fish, Robert Michael Ulrich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The accurate identification of taxa from mixed assemblages using genetic analysis remains an important field of molecular biology research. The common principle behind the development of numerous documented genetic detection technologies is to exploit specific nucleotide sequences inherent to each taxon. This body of work focuses on practical applications of real-time nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (RT-NASBA) in marine science, and is presented in four case studies. Each study represents novel work in the genetic identification of respective taxa of interest using RT-NASBA. Two case studies documented the development of an assay targeting mitochondrial 16S rRNA to discern legally salable grouper …

Laser-Induced Fluorescence Imaging Of Calcium And Barium Ion Beams In The Second Vacuum Stage Of A Commercial Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Alisa Jane Edmund

Theses and Dissertations

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometers (ICP-MS) have become the workhorses of many analytical labs over the past few decades. Despite the instruments' high sensitivities and low detection limits there is still a demand for improvements in several aspects of their performance. One area of improvement is in the understanding of "space charge effects" Space charge effects are classified as problems associated with the ion beam. Problems are created when the mutual repulsions of the ions make consistent focusing of the ion beam difficult. This is particularly problematic with samples containing a low concentration analyte contained within a high salt solution matrix, …

Synthesis, Characterization And Mechanistic Studies Of Biomolecules@Mesomofs, Yao Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Encapsulation of biomolecules is of great interest to research advances related to biology, physiology, immunology, and biochemistry, as well as industrial and biomedical applications such as drug delivery, biocatalysis, biofuel, food and cosmetics. Encapsulation provides functional characteristics that are not fulfilled by free biomolecules and stabilizes the fragile biomolecules. In terms of biocatalysis, solid support can often enhance the stability of enzymes, as well as facilitate separation and recovery for reuse while maintaining activity and selectivity. Various kinds of materials have been used for encapsulation of biomolecules, among which, porous materials are an important group. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted …

Identification Of Cd24 As A Cancer Stem Cell Marker In Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Chun-Hung Yang, Hui-Ling Wang, Yi-Sheng Lin, K. P. Shravan Kumar, Hung-Chi Lin, Chih-Jung Chang, Chia-Chen Lu, Tsung-Teng Huang, Jan Martel, David M. Ojcius, Yu-Sun Chang, John Ding-E. Young, Hsin-Chih Lai

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a unique sub-population of tumor cells with the ability to initiate tumor growth and sustain self-renewal. Although CSC biomarkers have been described for various tumors, only a few markers have been identified for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this study, we show that CD24⁺ cells isolated from human NPC cell lines express stem cell genes (Sox2, Oct4, Nanog, Bmi-1, and Rex-1), and show activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. CD24⁺ cells possess typical CSC characteristics that include enhanced cell proliferation, increased colony and sphere formation, maintenance of cell differentiation potential in prolonged …

Anthropogenic Litter In Urban Freshwater Ecosystems: Distribution And Microbial Interactions, Timothy Hoellein, Miguel Rojas, Adam Pink, Joseph Gasior, John J. Kelly

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Accumulation of anthropogenic litter (i.e. garbage; AL) and its ecosystem effects in marine environments are well documented. Rivers receive AL from terrestrial habitats and represent a major source of AL to marine environments, but AL is rarely studied within freshwater ecosystems. Our objectives were to 1) quantify AL density in urban freshwaters, 2) compare AL abundance among freshwater, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems, and 3) characterize the activity and composition of AL biofilms in freshwater habitats. We quantified AL from the Chicago River and Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline, and found that AL abundance in Chicago freshwater ecosystems was comparable to previously …

Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry Reveals That Ceriporiopsis Subvermispora Bicupin Oxalate Oxidase Is Inhibited By Nitric Oxide, Ellen W. Moomaw, Richard Uberto, Tu Chingkuang

Faculty Articles

Membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS) uses a semipermeable membrane as an inlet to a mass spectrometer for the measurement of the concentration of small uncharged molecules in solution. We report the use of MIMS to characterize the catalytic properties of oxalate oxidase (E.C. 1.2.3.4) from Ceriporiopsis subvermispora (CsOxOx). Oxalate oxidase is a manganese dependent enzyme that catalyzes the oxygen-dependent oxidation of oxalate to carbon dioxide in a reaction that is coupled with the formation of hydrogen peroxide. CsOxOx is the first bicupin enzyme identified that catalyzes this reaction. The MIMS method of measuring OxOx activity involves continuous, real-time direct detection …

Novel Cell Cycle Proteins In Apicomplexan Parasites, Carrie Butler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Apicomplexans are responsible for major human diseases such as toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) and the deadliest form of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). The genomes of these pathogens are now sequenced ushering in a new era of drug development. A major hurdle to exploiting this genome resource is that a large number of the encoded genes are "hypotheticals" and have yet to be characterized. Hypothetical proteins comprise roughly half of the predicted gene complement of T. gondii and P. falciparum and represent the largest class of uniquely functioning proteins in these parasites.

Following the idea …

Developing Crosslinking Constructs Of Protein Kinase R, Prisma E. Lopez

Honors Scholar Theses

Protein Kinase R (PKR) is a key component of the innate immune antiviral response. PKR is activated upon binding to dsRNA. However, recent studies have shown that PKR can also bind to and become activated by duplex RNAs containing complex secondary structure. The mechanism of PKR binding and activation by these RNAs is currently not known. The approach taken here to determine the mechanism of PKR binding by these RNAs is through the development of PKR constructs that are capable of covalently binding to RNAs. Constructs were created by site-specific incorporation of an unnatural, photoactivatable amino acid within PKR. These …

Hive-Hexagon: High-Performance, Parallelized Sequence Alignment For Next-Generation Sequencing Data Analysis, Luis Santana-Quintero, Hayley Dingerdissen, Jean Thierry-Mieg, Raja Mazumder, Vahan Simonyan

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Due to the size of Next-Generation Sequencing data, the computational challenge of sequence alignment has been vast. Inexact alignments can take up to 90% of total CPU time in bioinformatics pipelines. High-performance Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE), a cloud-based environment optimized for storage and analysis of extra-large data, presents an algorithmic solution: the HIVE-hexagon DNA sequence aligner. HIVE-hexagon implements novel approaches to exploit both characteristics of sequence space and CPU, RAM and Input/Output (I/O) architecture to quickly compute accurate alignments. Key components of HIVE-hexagon include non-redundification and sorting of sequences; floating diagonals of linearized dynamic programming matrices; and consideration of cross-similarity …

Trnas As Regulators Of Biological Processes, Medha Raina, Michael Ibba

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Transfer RNAs (tRNA) are best known for their role as adaptors during translation of the genetic code. Beyond their canonical role during protein biosynthesis, tRNAs also perform additional functions in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes for example in regulating gene expression. Aminoacylated tRNAs have also been implicated as substrates for non-ribosomal peptide bond formation, post-translational protein labeling, modification of phospholipids in the cell membrane, and antibiotic biosyntheses. Most recently tRNA fragments, or tRFs, have also been recognized to play regulatory roles. Here, we examine in more detail some of the new functions emerging for tRNA in a variety of cellular processes …

Characterizing The Response Of Multidrug-Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae Species To The Application Of A Phage Cocktail, Steven Liu

Symposium

Project Summary: The application of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections is known as phage therapy, which takes advantage of bacteriophage’s natural ability to infect and lyse bacterial hosts. Phages have been shaped by billions of years of evolution to be highly specialized deliverers of bactericidal agents to the cytoplasm of their target bacteria. Ever since discovery of bacteriophages in 1915, phage therapy was recognized as a potentially powerful tool for eliminating bacterial infections. The effectiveness of phage therapy can be increased by creating a mixture of multiple phages to target a wider variety of bacterial strains. Furthermore, phage therapy has …

Effects Of Lead And Cadmium On Brain Endothelial Cell Survival, Monolayer Permeability, And Crucial Oxidative Stress Markers In An In Vitro Model Of The Blood-Brain Barrier, Shakila Tobwala, Hsiu Jen Wang, Joshua Warren Carey, William A. Banks, Nuran Ercal

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Oxidative stress, which is the loss of balance between antioxidant defense and oxidant production in the cells, is implicated in the molecular mechanism of heavy metal-induced neurotoxicity. Given the key role of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in inducing oxidative stress, we investigated their role in disrupting the integrity and function of immortalized human brain microvascular endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3). To study this, hCMEC/D3 cells were exposed to control media or to media containing different concentrations of Pb or Cd. Those exposed to Pb or Cd showed significantly higher oxidative stress than the untreated group, as indicated by cell viability, reactive …

Deriving High-Resolution Protein Backbone Structure Propensities From All Crystal Data Using The Information Maximization Device, Armando D. Solis

Publications and Research

The most informative probability distribution functions (PDFs) describing the Ramachandran phi-psi dihedral angle pair, a fundamental descriptor of backbone conformation of protein molecules, are derived from high-resolution X-ray crystal structures using an information-theoretic approach. The Information Maximization Device (IMD) is established, based on fundamental information-theoretic concepts, and then applied specifically to derive highly resolved phi-psi maps for all 20 single amino acid and all 8000 triplet sequences at an optimal resolution determined by the volume of current data. The paper shows that utilizing the latent information contained in all viable high-resolution crystal structures found in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), …

A Framework For Application Of Metabolic Modeling In Yeast To Predict The Effects Of Nssnv In Human Orthologs, Hayley Dingerdissen, Daniel S. Weaver, Peter D. Karp, Yang Pan, Vahan Simonyan, Raja Mazumder

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Background

We have previously suggested a method for proteome wide analysis of variation at functional residues wherein we identified the set of all human genes with nonsynonymous single nucleotide variation (nsSNV) in the active site residue of the corresponding proteins. 34 of these proteins were shown to have a 1:1:1 enzyme:pathway:reaction relationship, making these proteins ideal candidates for laboratory validation through creation and observation of specific yeast active site knock-outs and downstream targeted metabolomics experiments. Here we present the next step in the workflow toward using yeast metabolic modeling to predict human metabolic behavior resulting from nsSNV.

Results

For the …

Interactions Of Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factors And 3' Untranslated Region Of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus Mrna During Protein Synthesis: A Study Of Equilibrium Binding, Kinetics And Thermodynamics, Bidisha Banerjee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4F binding to mRNA is the first committed step in cap-dependent protein synthesis. Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) employs a cap-independent mechanism of translation initiation which is mediated by a structural element BTE (BYDV translation element) located in the 3’ UTR of its mRNA. eIF4F bound the BTE and a translational inactive mutant with high affinity; thus questioning the role of eIF4F in translation of BYDV. To examine the effects of eIF4F in BYDV translation initiation, BTE mutants with widely different in vitro translation efficiencies ranging from 5-164% compared to WT were studied. Using fluorescence anisotropy …

Mechanisms Of Regulation Of Mrna 3' Processing By P53 Pathway, Emral Cakmak Devany

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although the p53 network has been intensively studied, genetic analyses long hinted at the existence of components that remained elusive. This dissertation focuses on the study of the regulation of mRNA 3' processing during DNA damage response (DDR) by the p53 pathway and the regulation of p53 expression by the mRNA 3' processing machinery. The results in this dissertation revealed new roles of tumor suppressor p53 in mRNA 3' processing. In Chapter II, I showed that p53 inhibits the cleavage step of polyadenylation reaction and that cells with different levels of p53 expression have different mRNA processing profiles. As part …

Structure And Function In Bacteriophage Phi6, James Carpino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study of bacteriophage Phi6 has been preceded by a great number of exploratory studies of its structure and function, and these studies have formed a basis for Phi6's development into a model organism. In this study, two aspects of the model organism have been examined. 1. There are several uncharacterized and presumed untranslated regions (UTRs) in Phi6's 13.3 kilobase-pair dsRNA genome. I examined the impact of specific modification to the 3' UTR of the small segment of bacteriophage Phi6. I determined that modification to the purported UTR of the small segment resulted in severe fitness costs, supporting a …