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A Comparison Of Qualitative And Quantitative Data Collection Techniques To Assess Mapping Accuracy In The Florida Keys, Ian K. Rodericks Apr 2016

A Comparison Of Qualitative And Quantitative Data Collection Techniques To Assess Mapping Accuracy In The Florida Keys, Ian K. Rodericks

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Benthic habitat maps provide the spatial framework for many research science and management activities in coastal areas such as coral-reefs. Accuracy, the degree to which information on a map matches true or accepted values, of benthic habitat maps is important because often times the map will be used in decision-making processes about how we manage our marine resources. It is critical that some measure, such as the accuracy, of the map be known in order to give a sense of how the overall map portrays the seascape. This study compared the accuracy in the following map classes; major structure, major …

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15th Annual Undergraduate Student Symposium, Farquhar Honors College Apr 2016

15th Annual Undergraduate Student Symposium, Farquhar Honors College

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Undergraduate Student Symposium, sponsored by the Farquhar Honors College, presents student projects through presentations, papers, films, and poster displays. The event serves as a “showcase” demonstrating the outstanding scholarship of undergraduate students at NSU. The symposium is open to undergraduate students from all disciplines. Projects cover areas of student scholarship ranging from the experimental and the applied to the computational, theoretical, artistic, and literary. They are taken from class assignments and independent projects. Project presentations can represent any stage in a concept’s evolution, from proposal and literature review to fully completed and realized scholarly work. As in past symposia, …

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A Tale Of Two Theories: Using An Engineered Strain Of E. Coli To Bridge The Gap Between Quorum Sensing And Diffusion Sensing, Cortney E. Wilson Apr 2016

A Tale Of Two Theories: Using An Engineered Strain Of E. Coli To Bridge The Gap Between Quorum Sensing And Diffusion Sensing, Cortney E. Wilson

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Cooperation is a trait that is found at all levels of biological organization. Interestingly, cooperation appears to occur in bacteria that produce small, easily diffusible molecules called autoinducers. To understand why bacteria produce these autoinducers, the scientific community has focused on one predominant theory called quorum sensing. Under this theory, bacteria produce autoinducers so they can sense the density of the population. Once a sufficiently high population density is reached, autoinducers initiate the production of a costly gene product that serves to benefit the population. In contrast, a competing theory called diffusion sensing suggests that autoinducers are used by the …

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The Current Volume 26 : Issue 28, Nova Southeastern University Apr 2016

The Current Volume 26 : Issue 28, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

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Reef Fish Spatial Distribution And Benthic Habitat Associations On The Southeast Florida Reef Tract, Dana Fisco Apr 2016

Reef Fish Spatial Distribution And Benthic Habitat Associations On The Southeast Florida Reef Tract, Dana Fisco

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Reef Tract (FRT) extends from the tropical Caribbean up the southeast coast of Florida into a temperate environment where tropical reef assemblages diminish with increasing latitude. This study used data from a three-year comprehensive fishery-independent survey to quantify reef fish spatial distribution along the Southeast FRT and define where the assemblage shifts from tropical to temperate. A total of 1,676 reef fish visual census samples were conducted to assess the populations on a stratified-random selection of sites of marine hardbottom habitats between the Miami River and St. Lucie inlet. Multivariate analyses were used to investigate differences in assemblages …

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Genomic Variation Among Populations Of Threatened Coral: Acropora Cervicornis, C. Drury, K. E. Dale, J. M. Panlilio, S. V. Miller, D. Lirman, E. A. Larson, E. Bartels, D. L. Crawford, M. F. Oleksiak Apr 2016

Genomic Variation Among Populations Of Threatened Coral: Acropora Cervicornis, C. Drury, K. E. Dale, J. M. Panlilio, S. V. Miller, D. Lirman, E. A. Larson, E. Bartels, D. L. Crawford, M. F. Oleksiak

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Background:  Acropora cervicornis, a threatened, keystone reef-building coral has undergone severe declines (>90 %) throughout the Caribbean. These declines could reduce genetic variation and thus hamper the species’ ability to adapt. Active restoration strategies are a common conservation approach to mitigate species' declines and require genetic data on surviving populations to efficiently respond to declines while maintaining the genetic diversity needed to adapt to changing conditions. To evaluate active restoration strategies for the staghorn coral, the genetic diversity of A. cervicornis within and among populations was assessed in 77 individuals collected from 68 locations along the Florida Reef …

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Population Fluctuation Of The Nodular Coral Psammocora Stellata In The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: An Indicator Of Community Resilience And Implications For Future Management, Kathryn Brown Apr 2016

Population Fluctuation Of The Nodular Coral Psammocora Stellata In The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: An Indicator Of Community Resilience And Implications For Future Management, Kathryn Brown

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Corals are experiencing a worldwide decline in abundance and diversity. Reasons for this include anthropogenic impacts and associated changes to environmental conditions, including global climate change. Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels lead to a coordinated increase in sea surface temperatures and decrease in oceanic pH. Warming events associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplify the impacts of steadily increasing temperatures. For example, coral communities in the Galápagos Islands experienced mortality rates of up to 95-99% during severe ENSO warming in 1982-1983. Persisting through such extreme conditions imposes additional challenges to survival in already marginal environments for coral growth and development …

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Geometric Flows, Ming-Liang Cai Apr 2016

Geometric Flows, Ming-Liang Cai

Mathematics Colloquium Series

A geometric flow is a process which is defined by a differential equation and is used to evolve a geometric object from a general shape to a one with more symmetries. For example, the curve-shortening flow deforms a simple closed curve to a round one ; the Ricci flow deforms a simply connected surface (say, a football shaped one) to a round sphere. In this talk, we will give an overview of some of these geometric flows, in particular, some discussions on singularities that these flows often run into.

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A Novel Method To Screen Drugs That Target Bacterial Type Iii Secretion Systems, Poorandai Shivbaran Apr 2016

A Novel Method To Screen Drugs That Target Bacterial Type Iii Secretion Systems, Poorandai Shivbaran

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria pose a global health threat. Several pathogenic bacteria utilize a type III secretion system (T3SS) to infect their host. T3SSs are needle-like appendages on the bacteria, used to inject the host cell with toxins, which disrupts the cell’s defense. Hence, the T3SS would be a good target for new antibiotic drugs. The goal of this study was to develop a novel method to screen for compounds that inhibit bacterial T3SSs. Yersinia pestis uses a T3SS to cause the bubonic plague and was utilized as the test organism. A disk diffusion assay on Magnesium Oxalate Agar …

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Organizational Diversity Audit Of Teachers And Staff In Broward School Board, Ashley Allahand Apr 2016

Organizational Diversity Audit Of Teachers And Staff In Broward School Board, Ashley Allahand

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Today’s teachers and students in Broward County and other regions in and outside of Florida are growing to become more diverse than ever before. As such, organizations and managers must be prepared to make changes to accompany diversity within the workplace and understand the needs, wants, and changing values of teachers and students throughout. This paper discusses the diversity within Broward County and administers an audit of the cultural, ethnic, and background differences of teachers in the area. Methodology and findings are recorded and the diversity auditing literature is thoroughly discussed. Finally, relevant implementation and recommendations are provided for the …

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R&R, Nathalie Moreau Apr 2016

R&R, Nathalie Moreau

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“R&R” is a music video that has been entered in the Undergraduate Film Festival. The video brings up the topic of this generation’s current views on relationships, using one dancer as the main character. The video focuses on the new norm of non-commitment-based relationships, but also shows the other side – i.e., monogamous relationships. Using music and commentary, we tell the story of what it means to be in a relationship in the year 2016. The video is directed by Nathalie Moreau. Other crew members and actors include Alonzo Williams and Grisel Vazquez.

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The Effect Of Financial Hardships On Mental Health, Nekoro Reid Apr 2016

The Effect Of Financial Hardships On Mental Health, Nekoro Reid

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This paper will explore the role of financial resources, or lack thereof, on mental health. Specifically, it will examine the relationship between family structure (single parent and two parent homes) and financial resources on parental mental health. The results of this paper will provide a better understanding of the impact of financial strain and hardship on single parents, especially single mothers. It will also assist in informing the relevant national agencies that strategies for debt resolution need to be implemented on a national level in order to provide single parents with the resources that they need to thrive financially. This …

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A Novel Approach To Gait Retraining In Competitive Runners, Kourtney Kostzer, Brittany Calaluca Apr 2016

A Novel Approach To Gait Retraining In Competitive Runners, Kourtney Kostzer, Brittany Calaluca

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Running is a popular fitness activity with health benefits. However, running related injuries are common and reoccurring. These injuries are linked to faulty biomechanics such as excessive hip adduction (HADD), hip internal rotation (HIR), knee valgus (KVAL), and contralateral pelvis drop (CPD). Therapists attempt to retrain gait using biofeedback and muscle strengthening with mixed results. Functional movement pattern (FMP) training is a novel intervention that corrects underlying FMPs (stepping, squatting). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week FMP corrective program to retrain running gait. We used paired t-tests to evaluate changes in peak motion …

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Above The Skyline, Ricardo Lugo Apr 2016

Above The Skyline, Ricardo Lugo

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Above the Skyline” is a short down-and-dirty rock-and-roll documentary about an independent rock band. The film details the band’s struggles to get through the music industry, from dealing with crooked film producers and music producers to the fight for gigs. The film is directed by Ricardo Lugo. Other crew members include Lauren McGarrett, Jordan McGarrett, and Steven McGarrett.

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Adenosine Deaminase Associates With Self-Reported State Anxiety And Evening Melatonin Levels, Franklin Hiffernan Apr 2016

Adenosine Deaminase Associates With Self-Reported State Anxiety And Evening Melatonin Levels, Franklin Hiffernan

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Increased adenosine levels throughout the day promote sleepiness; this chemical is broken down by the enzyme adenosine deaminase (ADA). A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the ADA gene (rs73598374) has been shown to affect sleep regulation. This ADA SNP substitutes a G allele with an A allele, thus reducing ADA enzymatic activity and resulting in higher adenosine levels. Consistent with the idea that adenosine promotes sleepiness, carriers of the A allele show elevated sleep pressure and increased EEG measures of deep (delta) sleep. Aside from these findings, the extent to which lower ADA enzymatic activity is associated with the homeostatic …

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Assessing Migration Ability And Behavior Of Small Fish In The Everglades, Chelsea Jeffers, Emily Harrington, Michele Lamartina, Dominique Olesen, Deoraj Ramsaran, Rachel Tonia Apr 2016

Assessing Migration Ability And Behavior Of Small Fish In The Everglades, Chelsea Jeffers, Emily Harrington, Michele Lamartina, Dominique Olesen, Deoraj Ramsaran, Rachel Tonia

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Small fish are important to the Everglades as a food source for wading birds. Fish migrate to and from wetlands that dry annually, where predation is greatest. It is unclear what factors induce this migration. Our goals are to understand what influences migration, including the fishes’ personality and parasite infection. Our hypotheses test whether personality and parasite load differ among species, by region, or between the dry and wet seasons. We sampled the fish communities at sites that dry annually and sites that do not to identify relative abundances. The most abundant fishes were brought to the lab. We filmed …

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Blood Flow Modeling In The Human Carotid Artery Bifurcation, Ly Nguyen Apr 2016

Blood Flow Modeling In The Human Carotid Artery Bifurcation, Ly Nguyen

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This study focuses on the behavior of the blood flow in the human carotid artery bifurcation, such as blood velocity and pressure. This provides a deeper insight into how blood flow impacts the development of the common arterial disease, atherosclerosis. The blood flow is modeled by the continuity and Navier-Stokes equations. With the assumption that blood is Newtonian fluid, the Carreau model is applied. The commercial computational fluid dynamic code called FLUENT performs the simulations in this study. The arterial bifurcation geometries are examined and analyzed in both twodimensional and three-dimensional systems. Finally, the comparison between the dimensions is expected …

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Bromelain Induces Osteogenic Differentiation In Human Gingiva Derived Stem Cells, Elisa Palmer, Sheena Jain Apr 2016

Bromelain Induces Osteogenic Differentiation In Human Gingiva Derived Stem Cells, Elisa Palmer, Sheena Jain

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bromelain on osteogenic differentiation of human gingiva derived mesenchymal stem cells (HGMSCs). Background: HGMSCs are highly proliferative with the ability to differentiate into osteogenic precursor cells. While dexamethasone is a traditional inducer of osteogenic differentiation, many antioxidants play a vital role in enhancing osteogenic differentiation and offer a potential alternative to dexamethasone. Bromelain, an antioxidant derived from pineapple extract is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. Studies have shown that bromelain inhibits adipogenic differentiation. Methodology: Cryopreserved HGMSCs were used for the study. The cells obtained from passage 4 were …

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Damsel To Super Hero, Liz Burbano Apr 2016

Damsel To Super Hero, Liz Burbano

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Damsel to Super Hero” is a short documentary film that explores how women are portrayed in comics. This documentary will also view how the messages within comics affect society as a whole. The film is directed by Liz Burbano. This documentary includes interviews with NSU professor and gender studies expert Dr. Kathleen Waites.

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Dead Air, Adam Deross Apr 2016

Dead Air, Adam Deross

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Dead Air” is a short murder mystery film taking place mostly in and around a local college radio station. The protagonist, a young disc jockey, finds the corpse of his co-worker after coming in for a shift late one night. The young disc jockey is forced into a situation where there is no way for him to contact help and he must solve the mystery on his own, but the solution is a sickening discovery. The film is directed by and starring Adam DeRoss. Other crew members include Ryan Dahm, Mykella Mitchell, and Stephen Rafferty.

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Detection Of Lagenidium Giganteum In Plant Axil Metagenomes, Paula Leoro Garzon, Andrew Gonedes, Gregory Edwards, Isabel Olivera Apr 2016

Detection Of Lagenidium Giganteum In Plant Axil Metagenomes, Paula Leoro Garzon, Andrew Gonedes, Gregory Edwards, Isabel Olivera

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The entomopathogenic oomycete Lagenidium giganteum is known to infect and kill mosquito larvae and therefore has been seen as a potential biological control agent against disease vector mosquitoes. Phylogenetic analyses have consistently demonstrated that L. giganteum is a close relative to plant pathogens (Phytophthora and Pythium spp.). In addition, a recent transcriptome analysis showed that L. giganteum expresses oomycete genes that have been associated with plant infection. These observations suggest that L. giganteum might have evolved from a plant pathogen to an invertebrate pathogen, and have retained the ability to establish symbiotic or pathogenic interactions with plant tissues. To …

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Digit Recognition Through Machine Learning, Patrick Alexis Apr 2016

Digit Recognition Through Machine Learning, Patrick Alexis

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Handwriting recognition finds itself in many domains. Developing improved methods for handwriting recognition is an open research challenge. I will focus on the sub problem of digit recognition. By using the MNIST dataset provided by Kaggle, I will use the Random Forest approach to train and test a digit recognition system. Random Forest is a learning technique that uses an ensemble of decision trees. An ensemble of classifiers has better classification performance than individual classifiers and is more resilient to noise. Thereafter, I shall compare the results with the Random Forest approach with those obtained using Support Vector Machines. Through …

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Does Canine Interaction Impact A College Students' Stress And Anxiety Levels During Exam Time?, Caitlin Mccoy Apr 2016

Does Canine Interaction Impact A College Students' Stress And Anxiety Levels During Exam Time?, Caitlin Mccoy

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The use of therapy dogs on college campuses has increased dramatically in the last decade. The current study will examine the impact of interaction between canines and college students during an exam period to determine any impact on perceived stress and cognitive functioning. It was hypothesized that following a brief interaction with a canine, participants would report lower levels of state anxiety and higher levels of sustained attention than participants in a control condition. Fifty-six students from Nova Southeastern University participated in exchange for course credit or a gift card. Participants were randomly assigned to a canine interaction or control …

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Does Fidgeting Affect Cognition?, Ashley Lonergan, Alexis Koob Apr 2016

Does Fidgeting Affect Cognition?, Ashley Lonergan, Alexis Koob

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Fidgeting is defined as small movements particularly in the hands and feet. It includes tapping feet and fingernails, shaking legs, readjusting one's position, or one's clothing. Fidgeting can arise in individuals for various reasons like boredom, stress, or anxiety. It may be that fidgeting behavior can be helpful with increasing attention span. However, inhibiting fidgeting may also lead individuals to pay attention to nothing else but the inhibition of fidgeting. This study was conducted to see if fidgeting, while performing vigilant oriented tasks, lead to better performances on such tasks. All participants wore pedometers on both their wrists and ankles …

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Efficacy Of Nematicidal Engineered Bacteria Against Diverse Nematode Species, Chelsey Thachettu Apr 2016

Efficacy Of Nematicidal Engineered Bacteria Against Diverse Nematode Species, Chelsey Thachettu

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Infections with parasitic nematodes remain a significant global health problem particularly in developing nations. Despite their widespread occurrence and high rate of morbidity, few strategies have been developed to prevent and treat such infections. With the growing incidence of resistance to anthelminthic drugs, there is a dire need to develop novel approaches to preventing infection by nematodes. Recent studies confirm that engineered bacteria, designed to simultaneously attract and intoxicate the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, may be effective novel biocontrol agents. However, the efficacy of these engineered bacteria against additional nematode species remains unknown. In this study, we tested the …

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Identification And Quantification Of Lipid Content In Oysters Using Gc Mass Spectrometry, Isabel Olivera Apr 2016

Identification And Quantification Of Lipid Content In Oysters Using Gc Mass Spectrometry, Isabel Olivera

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of this research was to identify and quantify lipids in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. Gas chromatography was used to separate the lipids found in the oyster samples, while mass spectrometry was used for analysis. Retention times of the sample were compared to known lipid standard retention times in order to identify the lipids. The lipids were quantified utilizing a lipid standard that is not present in the oyster. Using this same technique, oysters from various locations can be analyzed to see if there are any differences in the types of lipids or the quantity of lipid. …

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J.U.L.E.S., Juliet Romeo Apr 2016

J.U.L.E.S., Juliet Romeo

Undergraduate Student Symposium

J.U.L.E.S. is a documentary about people with sickle cell disease. Sickle cell is a hereditary, debilitating illness that affects millions of people on a global scale. Along with medical research, the film J.U.L.E.S. highlights the trials, crisis, and pain that sickle cell warriors like myself experience and triumph over on a daily basis. This film is directed by Juliet Romeo. Other crew members include Ricardo Lugo, Liz Burbano, and Aaron Abelto.

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Jurassic Dark, Ian Bates Apr 2016

Jurassic Dark, Ian Bates

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This presentation focuses on the tonal differences between Jurassic Park, the novel by Michael Crichton, and Jurassic Park, the film directed by Steven Spielberg. The novel contains scenes of explicit violence only alluded to in the film, while all sense of childlike wonder derived from the dinosaurs is absent. This sort of change at first seems without importance due to the frequency of directors altering source material beyond recognition. Evidence gathered from interviews with Michael Crichton and additions made to his own sequel novel, The Lost World, suggest that Spielberg’s film comes closer to the vision Crichton had for the …

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Late, Stephen Rafferty Apr 2016

Late, Stephen Rafferty

Undergraduate Student Symposium

“Late” is a short comedic film about a day in the life of college student Curtis Randolph, an obsessivecompulsive perfectionist turned bumbling klutz, as the wrong setting on his alarm clock causes Curtis to oversleep on the day of his final class presentation. It is up to Curtis to get to the class before he fails his presentation. The film is directed by Stephen Rafferty.

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Life In Verse: Historical Figures Reimagined, Qaas Shoukat Apr 2016

Life In Verse: Historical Figures Reimagined, Qaas Shoukat

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This presentation will revolve around the discussion of the lives of several historical figures (e.g. Rene Descartes, William Shakespeare, and John Lennon), and the reading of first-person autobiographical spoken word pieces in which the presenter assumes the roles of the historical figures. Through the use of the spoken word format, the stories of these individuals will be brought to life, shedding light on their ideas, their bodies of work, and their lasting legacies. The goal is to provoke interest in history and biographical research, and to showcase the impact and effectiveness of presenting information through new, creative means.

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