Digital Commons Network^™

Role Of Adrenergic Neurons In Motor Control: Examination Of Cerebellar Purkinje Neurons In Mice Following Selective Adrenergic Cell Ablation In Vivo, Monica Mansour

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (Pnmt) is the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of noradrenaline to adrenaline. These catecholamines are synthesized in the medulla of the adrenal gland and by some neurons of the central nervous system. The precise location of Pnmt action in the brain and its physiological significance are unknown. Prior studies led by Aaron Owji, a graduate student in Dr. Ebert’s laboratory, showed that mice with selectively ablated Pnmt cells show signs of neurological defects such as abnormal gait, weakened grip strength, lack of balance, reduced movement, and defective reflexes during tail suspension tests.

The cerebellum is a small section of …

Quantifying The Success Of Eastern Oyster Pilot Reefs In Brevard County, Florida, Lacie Anderson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Crassostrea virginica, the eastern oyster, is a native keystone species that inhabits many coastal and estuarine ecosystems along the Atlantic seaboard. Introduction of the eastern oyster into estuarine areas with limited current populations is gaining popularity as a pro-active approach to improve estuarine water quality. In November 2014 and April 2015, a total of five pilot oyster reef treatments were deployed in Brevard County: bagged adult oysters (grown by community members under their docks through oyster gardening) collected in fall 2014 and spring 2015, bagged clean shell, oyster restoration mats, and empty plots (control). Locations of deployment included a …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels, Luca Letizia

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This work is focusing to study the structural behavior of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs). These COPVs are found in many engineering applications. In the aerospace field, they are installed onto spaceships and aid the reorientation of the spacecraft in very far and airless, therefore frictionless, orbits to save energy and fuel. The intent of this research is to analyze the difference in performance of both perfectly intact and purposely damaged tanks. Understanding both the source and location of a structural fault will help NASA engineers predict the performance of COPVs subject to similar conditions, which could prevent failures of …

The Effect Of Climate On Physiology And Immune Function In The Asian Citrus Psyllid, Diaphorina Citri, Grace Avecilla

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The variation in the insect immune system is an important regulator of insect populations and the pathogens they carry. A central component of insect immunity is melanin, whose production creates cytotoxic intermediates that help to protect against a broad spectrum of pathogens. Melanin is also used in insect cuticle where it helps to improve thermoregulation and desiccation resistance, with insects having less melanized cuticles in warmer and more humid environments. Considering that cuticle melanin and immune melanin are formed by near identical biochemical pathways, they are pleiotropically linked (that is, one or more linked genes influence multiple traits). This has …

Microenvironment Changes In The Pancreatic Stroma Induced By Inflammation, Kathryn Cline

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pancreatic cancer is the product of microenvironment alterations which emerge from inflammatory signaling and progress to more devastating cases such as Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC). PDAC is extremely aggressive with a statistical five-year survival rate of merely 3%-5%, and is more than relevant to cancer research being that it is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. Unfortunately pancreatic cancer is often unnoticed until reaching its hardly treatable end stages, which perpetuates the low survival rate.

The onset of PDAC may be facilitated by the activation of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs), which secrete collagen and markedly contribute …

Aptameric Sensors: In Vitro Selection Of Dna That Binds Bromocresol Purple, Derek B. Miller

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Aptamers being used as sensors is an emerging field that has capabilities of being tomorrow’s diagnostic tools. As aptameric sensors have become more popular, their visualization systems have been limited. The majority of today’s aptameric sensors require expensive machinery such as a fluorometer in order to visualize results. We propose a system that will cut the need for instrumentation and be detected via the naked eye. With the selection of an aptamer to bind the pH indicating dye bromocresol purple (BCP) this may be achieved. When rendered active, the binding towards BCP will facilitate a color change from yellow to …

Water Sanitation And Waste Management In Latin America, Colombia, And Cartagena: A Study Of The Relationship Between Environment, Health, Poverty, And Policy, Andrea K. Sullivan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The objective of this research is to identify the need for stricter environmental standards and regulations in three areas of study. Organized by their level of analysis, these areas are Latin America (at the System-Level-of Analysis), Colombia (at the State-Level-of-Analysis), and the city of Cartagena (at the Sub-National-Level of Analysis). This research was accomplished in two phases. The first involved conducting an exhaustive literature search of sources, germane to the objective, published in Spanish and English. The second featured a site inspection conducted over a 10-day period during the month of May 2016 to Cartagena, Colombia. The purpose of the …

Zooming In On The Money Shot: An Exploratory Quantitative Analysis Of Pornographic Film Actors, Erin O'Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sex work is one of the rare elements of our society that is both accepted and stigmatized. Ironically enough, it is stigmatized without being studied in depth. The truth is we know very little about sex work and even less about pornography—the most legal of genres. While researchers have spent a great deal of time determining the effects that pornography has on viewers, particularly juvenile viewers, little research has been done on the men and women who make pornography. A 43 question survey was created and disseminated to those in the pornographic film industry, both amateur and professional, resulting in …

The Relationship Between Comprehension Of Descriptive And Sequential Expository Texts And Reader Characteristics In Typically Developing Kindergarten Children, Cheran Zadroga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that children need to be proficient in reading and writing expository text to succeed academically as well as in their future careers. More than ever before, children in primary grade classrooms are being exposed to and expected to comprehend a variety expository text types. However, empirical evidence to support the use of expository texts in kindergarten classrooms, in particular, is sorely lacking. To begin to fill this gap, this study was conducted to investigate kindergarten children's comprehension of two types of expository text structures (i.e., descriptive and sequential) commonly found in kindergarten classrooms. Specifically, the aims of …

Optimizing Strategies For In Vivo Exposure In The Traditional Clinical Setting, Maryann Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the ability of a pre-recorded videoconferencing (VC) audience to elicit the physiological and subjective arousal associated with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) when giving a formal presentation. This study had three objectives: (a) to determine whether speaking to the VC audience elicited significant increases in physiological response (e.g., heart rate and electrodermal activity) and subjective distress over baseline resting conditions (b) to determine whether the VC task more closely replicates the physiological and subjective experience of giving a speech to a comparable real-life audience than levels elicited by a Virtual Reality (VR) environment and (c) to determine whether …

Transparency In Human-Agent Teaming And Its Effect On Complacent Behavior, Julia Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how transparency of an intelligent agent's reasoning affected complacent behavior in a route selection task in a simulated environment. Also examined was how the information available to the operator affected those results. In two experiments, participants supervised a three-vehicle convoy as it traversed a simulated environment and re-routed the convoy when needed with the assistance of an intelligent agent, RoboLeader. Participants were randomly assigned to an Agent Reasoning Transparency condition. Participants received communications from a commander confirming either the presence or absence of activity in the area. They also received information regarding potential events along their route …

Degradation Of Hexachlorobenzene, Pentachlorophenol And Pentachloroanisole Using Activated Magnesium In An Acidified Ethanol/Ethyl Lactate Cosolvent System, Amel Garbou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many centuries, chemists have dedicated many labor-intensive hours to improving the quality of life for mankind by developing synthetic methods for the production of compounds which fulfill the needs and meet the demands of society. However, the innovation of such compounds has frequently come at the cost of detrimental side-effects that do not always present themselves until many years, or even decades, following their initial application. Many compounds in this category come in the form of globally-distributed halogenated molecules which are toxic to many living organisms, susceptible to bioaccumulation and resistant to biodegradation processes. Such compounds are classified as …

Habitat Selection In Transformed Landscapes And The Role Of Novel Ecosystems For Native Species Persistence, Lina Maria Sanchez Clavijo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To understand native species persistence in transformed landscapes we must evaluate how individual behaviors interact with landscape structure through ecological processes such as habitat selection. Rapid, widespread landscape transformation may lead to a mismatch between habitat preference and quality, a phenomenon known as ecological traps that can have negative outcomes for populations. I applied this framework to the study of birds inhabiting landscapes dominated by forest remnants and shade coffee plantations, a tropical agroforestry system that retains important portions of native biodiversity. I used two different approaches to answer the question: What is the role of habitat selection in the …

The Role Of Sod1 Acetylation In Neurodegeneration, Michael Kaliszewski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor neurons. Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1), a cytoplasmic free radical scavenging enzyme, is mutated in familial ALS (fALS) and post-translational modification of the wild-type protein has been associated with sporadic ALS (sALS). Proteomic studies indicate that SOD1 is acetylated at Lys123; however, the role of this modification remains unknown. To investigate its function, we generated antibodies for Lys123-acetylated SOD1 (Ac-K123 SOD1). Sod1 deletion in Sod1-/- mice, K123 mutation, or preabsorption with Ac-K123 peptide suppressed immunoreactivity, confirming antibody specificity. In the normal central nervous system, Ac-K123 SOD1 maps to glutamatergic …

Combat Related Guilt And The Mechanisms Of Intensive Exposure Therapy, Benjamin Trachik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly prevalent in military populations, and is associated with significant medical costs. Due to these high costs and corresponding health infrastructure required to meet the needs of military service personnel, it is essential that the most effective and efficient treatments be implemented. Exposure therapy (EXP) is one of the most widely used and empirically supported treatments for PTSD; however, some researchers have questioned its efficacy with specific populations and in targeting specific symptoms. One such symptom, guilt, has garnered increased attention in the PTSD treatment literature, as it is associated with worse symptomatology and outcomes. …

Apolipoprotein-Ai Regulates Hepatic Vldl Secretion By Controlling Intracellular Vldl-Trafficking, Bhavesh Gurwani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular diseases cause 17 million deaths annually, which is estimated to increase to 23 million deaths by the year 2030. One of the major risk factors for the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases is increased secretion of very-low density lipoproteins (VLDL) by the liver; however, reduced VLDL-secretion causes fatty liver disease. Synthesis and secretion of VLDL by the liver plays an important role in maintaining overall lipoprotein homeostasis. Assembly of VLDL occurs along with the expression of apolipoproteinB-100 (apoB100) and its lipidation at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) level. Once formed in the ER lumen, the nascent VLDL is transported to the …

Involvement Of Mirnas In The Development Of Androgen Independent Prostate Cancer, Richard Ottman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Development of resistance to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a major obstacle for the management of advanced prostate cancer. Therapies with androgen receptor (AR) antagonists and androgen withdrawal initially result in tumor regression but development of compensatory mechanisms including AR bypass signaling leads to tumor re-growth, independent of circulating androgens. The result is the emergence of castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), a highly morbid disease exhibiting aberrant expression of many protein-coding and non-coding genes. Under the umbrella of non-coding RNAs is a class of small regulatory RNAs referred to as microRNAs (miRNAs). MicroRNAs are believed to function in the maintenance …

Developing Methods For The Estimation Of Stature And Their Use As A Proxy For Health Among The Ancient Chachapoya Of Peru, Armando Anzellini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Population mean stature and patterns of health are often linked in anthropological studies, yet few studies control for the multifactorial nature of achieving adult standing height. This thesis explores the intersection of health and stature by analyzing the skeletal remains of 161 adult individuals from the archaeological site of Kuelap, in the eastern slopes of the northern Peruvian Andes, and also tests current biometric methods for estimating stature from skeletal remains. This Chachapoya site dates to the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900 – 1470) and Late Horizon (AD 1470 – 1536) and resides in the high altitude sub-tropical forests of …

The Woz Recognizer: A Tool For Understanding User Perceptions Of Sketch-Based Interfaces, Jared Bott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sketch recognition has the potential to be an important input method for computers in the coming years; however, designing and building an accurate and sophisticated sketch recognition system is a time consuming and daunting task. Since sketch recognition is still at a level where mistakes are common, it is important to understand how users perceive and tolerate recognition errors and other user interface elements with these imperfect systems. A problem in performing this type of research is that we cannot easily control aspects of recognition in order to rigorously study the systems. We performed a study examining user perceptions of …

Marriage And Other Trouble, Benjamin Buckingham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marriage and Other Trouble is a collection of (mostly) realist short stories. These stories explore the dynamics of marriage and family, ranging from characters dating in their twenties, to remarrying in their sixties. The characters in this collection grapple with adultery, sexual identity, addiction, class, privilege, and illness. I am interested in the lasting impact of events. Therefore, these stories often reflect on the history of relationships and on how the events of these characters' lives will carry into the future. Mostly set in Florida, place plays an important role in these stories, providing both structure and conflict. The one …

Gesture Assessment Of Teachers In An Immersive Rehearsal Environment, Roghayeh Barmaki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interactive training environments typically include feedback mechanisms designed to help trainees improve their performance through either guided- or self-reflection. When the training system deals with human-to-human communications, as one would find in a teacher, counselor, enterprise culture or cross-cultural trainer, such feedback needs to focus on all aspects of human communication. This means that, in addition to verbal communication, nonverbal messages must be captured and analyzed for semantic meaning. The goal of this dissertation is to employ machine-learning algorithms that semi-automate and, where supported, automate event tagging in training systems developed to improve human-to-human interaction. The specific context in which …

The Role Of Virtual Avatars In Supporting Middle School Students From Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds On Science In After School Programs, Benjamin Gallegos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students who receive additional educational supports in afterschool programs were the focus of the investigation. This study was conducted to measure what effects a TeachLivE avatar, a mixed-reality virtual environment, used in combination with a video game, had on the activation of prior knowledge in science for students in rural middle school. The delivery of the biology science lessons on cell structures and processes were delivered using the video game, Cell Command. The TeachLivE adult avatar was customized as a biologist who spoke to students in the treatment group about science concepts prior to playing the science video game. Unexpected …

The Influence Of Perceived Organizational Support, Perceived Coworker Support & Debriefing On Work-Related Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, And Secondary Traumatic Stress In Florida Public Safety Personnel, Anastasia Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived organizational support, perceived coworker support, and debriefing on the one hand, and compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress on the other hand in Florida law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, and dispatch public safety workers. In order to explore the relationships between these constructs, the research questions examined the relationships of the work environment of Florida public safety by administering surveys gauging perceived organizational support, perceived coworker support, psychological resilience, and debriefing activities that the personnel participate in. The Professional Quality of Life: Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion …

Keeping Quiet: Investigating The Maintenance And Policing Of Male-Dominated Gaming Space, Christopher Charles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the near parity between the number of female and male gamers (Entertainment Software Association, 2014), studies on gender in videogames illustrate a culture that typically reflects hegemonic masculinity and excludes women on a multitude of levels. Because these interactions occur within real and virtual space (both online and within games), a holistic approach is warranted to analyze these mechanisms of oppression. This paper seeks to uncover the ways by which gaming culture is maintained and policed as a male-dominated space, through qualitative data collection. By using ethnographic, participant observation at a large, multi-genre convention the experiences of both male …

Non-Dispersive Infrared (Ndir) Gas Sensor Utilizing Light-Emitting-Diodes Suitable For Applications Demanding Low-Power And Lightweight Instruments, Kyle Thurmond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gas sensors that are low-power, light-weight, and rugged, while also remaining low-cost, have considerable appeal to areas from automotive to space flight. There are increasing demands for higher efficient vehicles with lower emissions in order meet regulations that are meant to mitigate or lessen the effects of climate change. An affordable, fast response sensor that can measure transient carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) has broad application which can lead to more efficient, fuel flexible engines and regulations of harmful emissions. With compact, economical, low-power sensors that are able to continually monitor gases that are characteristic of burning materials, …

Weight Discrimination Through Social Networking Sites: The Moderating Effects Of Gender, Stereotype-Consistent Behavior, And Occupational Setting, Bridget Mchugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the use of social networking sites (SNSs) in hiring increases, human resources professionals have become concerned with the increased probability of discriminatory hiring decisions. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that discrimination towards overweight and obese applicants has risen in the past decade. The present study addressed these concerns by examining the impact of an applicant's weight in a SNS profile picture on the decision to hire the applicant for a sales position. The impact of the applicant's gender, body mass index, and stereotype-consistent behaviors on hiring intentions were examined. In addition, the type of sales position …

Biophysical Sources Of 1/F Noises In Neurological Tissue, Alan Paris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High levels of random noise are a defining characteristic of neurological signals at all levels, from individual neurons up to electroencephalograms (EEG). These random signals degrade the performance of many methods of neuroengineering and medical neuroscience. Understanding this noise also is essential for applications such as real-time brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which must make accurate control decisions from very short data epochs. The major type of neurological noise is of the so-called 1/f-type, whose origins and statistical nature has remained unexplained for decades. This research provides the first simple explanation of 1/f-type neurological noise based on biophysical fundamentals. In addition, noise …

Remote Sensing Of Coastal Wetlands: Long Term Vegetation Stress Assessment And Data Enhancement Technique, Subrina Tahsin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Apalachicola Bay in the Florida panhandle is home to a rich variety of salt water and freshwater wetlands but unfortunately is also subject to a wide range of hydrologic extreme events. Extreme hydrologic events such as hurricanes and droughts continuously threaten the area. The impact of hurricane and drought on both fresh and salt water wetlands was investigated over the time period from 2000 to 2015 in Apalachicola Bay using spatio-temporal changes in the Landsat based NDVI. Results indicate that salt water wetlands were more resilient than fresh water wetlands. Results also suggest that in response to hurricanes, the coastal …

A Contextual Approach To Real Time, Interactive Narrative Generation, James Hollister

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oral story telling has become a lost art of family histories because social media and technology have taken over the personal interactions that once passed on the important stories and facts from generation to generation. This dissertation presents and evaluates a method of generating a narrative with input from the listener without actually forcing him or her to become an actual character in the narrative. This system is called CAMPFIRE Story Telling System (STS) and employs a contextual approach to story generation. This system uses the Cooperating Context Method (CCM) to generate and tell dynamic stories in real time and …

Modeling Wastewater Indicators And Effects Of Contaminant Removal Strategies On Groundwater And Spring Discharge In A Karst Aquifer, Erin Reed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on research related to groundwater and contaminant transport to the Volusia Blue Spring (VBS), an Outstanding Florida Water Body located in Volusia County (Florida). The integration of springshed water quality and contaminant fate and transport (CFT) modeling played key roles in the evaluation of anthropogenic recharge impacts on VBS. To study anthropogenic recharge into the karst limestone aquifer, wastewater effluent, golf course ponds, septic tanks, groundwater monitoring wells, and VBS discharge were sampled for boron, nitrate-nitrogen, nitrate-oxygen and their isotopes spatially throughout the VBS springshed. Data related to natural water features, rainfall, land use, water use, treated …