Digital Commons Network^™

Baseline And Stress-Induced Corticosterone Levels Across Birds And Reptiles Do Not Reflect Urbanization Levels, Allison S. Injaian, Clinton D. Francis, Jenny Q. Ouyang, Davide M. Dominoni, Jeremy W. Donald, Matthew J. Fuxjager, Wolfgang Goymann, Michaela Hau, Jerry F. Husak, Michele A. Johnson, Bonnie K. Kircher, Rosemary Knapp, Lynn B. Martin, Eliot T. Miller, Laura A. Schoenle, Tony D. Williams, Maren N. Vitousek

Global Health Faculty Publications

Rates of human-induced environmental change continue increasing with human population size, potentially altering animal physiology and negatively affecting wildlife. Researchers often use glucocorticoid concentrations (hormones that can be associated with stressors) to gauge the impact of anthropogenic factors (e.g. urbanization, noise and light pollution). Yet, no general relationships between human-induced environmental change and glucocorticoids have emerged. Given the number of recent studies reporting baseline and stress-induced corticosterone (the primary glucocorticoid in birds and reptiles) concentrations worldwide, it is now possible to conduct large-scale comparative analyses to test for general associations between disturbance and baseline and stress-induced corticosterone across species. Additionally, …

Examining Older Adults’ Perspectives On The Built Environment And Correlates Of Healthy Aging In An American Age-Friendly Community, Kathy Black, Dylan J. Jester

Aging Studies Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

Population aging has led to an increased focus on the environmental context in which we age. While researchers have identified significant health benefits associated with built community features such as housing, transportation and outdoor spaces and buildings, less attention has focused on the correlates of healthy aging and other characteristics via the perspective of community-dwelling older adults. This study utilized cluster analysis to examine health-related subgroups of older adults (n = 598) in an age-friendly community located in the United States, of which nearly half of its residents are age 60 and older. Linear regression was used to associate the …

Relationship Between Obesity-Induced Metabolic Abnormalities And Nutrient Intake: Sex Differences In Japanese University Students, Mayumi Yamamoto, Mausam Mehta, Akihiro Nishio, Ryo Horita, Ricardo Izurieta

Global Health Faculty Publications

Background: Preventive measures and interventions for obesity in young adults are urgently needed. However, evidence-based guidelines for interventional programs in this generation have not been established worldwide because of limited access to data on this group. To establish effective methods of obesity prevention in young adults, we analyzed the relationship between nutrient intake and obesity-related metabolic factors in each body mass index (BMI) group among Japanese university students. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was performed using annual health checkup data, which is conducted mandatory for all students according to the School Health and Safety Act in Japan, from Gifu University’s incoming …

Prediction Of Chronic Disease-Related Inpatient Prolonged Length Of Stay Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Hasan Symum, José Zayas-Castro

Industrial and Management Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Objectives: The study aimed to develop and compare predictive models based on supervised machine learning algorithms for predicting the prolonged length of stay (LOS) of hospitalized patients diagnosed with five different chronic conditions. Methods: An administrative claim dataset (2008–2012) of a regional network of nine hospitals in the Tampa Bay area, Florida, USA, was used to develop the prediction models. Features were extracted from the dataset using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Five learning algorithms, namely, decision tree C5.0, linear support vector machine (LSVM), k-nearest neighbors, random forest, and multi-layered artificial neural networks, were …

Early Efficacy Of Multitiered Dual-Language Instruction: Promoting Preschoolers’ Spanish And English Oral Language, Trina D. Spencer, Meghan Moran, Marilyn S. Thompson, Douglas B. Petersen, M. Adelaida Restrepo

Child and Family Studies Faculty Publications

The purpose of this cluster randomized group study was to investigate the effect of multitiered, dual-language instruction on children’s oral language skills, including vocabulary, narrative retell, receptive and expressive language, and listening comprehension. The participants were 3- to 5-year-old children (n = 81) who were learning English and whose home language was Spanish. Across the school year, classroom teachers in the treatment group delivered large-group lessons in English to the whole class twice per week. For a Tier 2 intervention, the teachers delivered small-group lessons 4 days a week, alternating the language of intervention daily (first Spanish, then English). Group …

Aca Medicaid Expansion Associated With Increased Medicaid Participation And Improved Health Among Near-Elderly: Evidence From The Health And Retirement Study, Melissa Mcinerney, Ruth Winecoff, Padmaja Ayyagari, Kosali Simon, M. Kate Bundorf

Economics Faculty Publications

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) dramatically expanded health insurance, but questions remain regarding its effects on health. We focus on older adults for whom health insurance has greater potential to improve health and well-being because of their greater health care needs relative to younger adults. We further focus on low-income adults who were the target of the Medicaid expansion. We believe our study provides the first evidence of the health-related effects of ACA Medicaid expansion using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Using geo-coded data from 2010 to 2016, we estimate difference-in-differences models, comparing changes in outcomes before and after …

What Is Digital Journalism? Defining The Practice And Role Of The Digital Journalist, Gregory P. Perreault, Patrick Ferrucci

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Through the lens of theories of field and normalization process, this research seeks to understand technology’s current role in how self-identifying digital journalists define the field. The definitions of digital journalism/journalists and what constitutes digital journalism practices are essential–they shape a range of crucial activities including how journalists prioritize sources to how journalists shape their content for audience consumption. Built on long-form interviews with 68 U.S.-based self-identifying digital journalists, this article argues that the digital turn in the industry has emboldened new entrants to the field and required dominantly placed legacy media journalists to reconsider their definition of journalism as …

The Discursive Construction Of The Gamification Of Journalism, Tim P. Voss, Gregory P. Perreault

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

This study explores the discursive, normative construction of gamification within journalism. Rooted in a theory of discursive institutionalism and by analyzing a significant corpus of metajournalistic discourse from 2006 to 2019, the study demonstrates how journalists have negotiated gamification’s place within journalism’s boundaries. The discourse addresses criticism that gamified news is a move toward infotainment and makes the case for gamification as serious journalism anchored in norms of audience engagement. Thus, gamification does not constitute institutional change since it is construed as an extension of existing institutional norms and beliefs.

2020 Accountability Plan Usf, Usf

USF Accountability Reports

No abstract provided.

Low Doses Of Bisphenol S Affect Post-Translational Modifications Of Sperm Proteins In Male Mice, Hedvika Řimnáčová, Miriam Štiavnická, Jiří Moravec, Marouane Chemek, Yaroslav Kolinko, Olga García-Álvarez, Peter R. Mouton, Azalia Mariel Carranza Trejo, Tereza Fenclová, Nikola Eretová, Petr Hošek, Pavel Klein, Milena Králíčková, Jaroslav Petr, Jan Nevoral

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Bisphenol S (BPS) is increasingly used as a replacement for bisphenol A in the manufacture of products containing polycarbonates and epoxy resins. However, further studies of BPS exposure are needed for the assessment of health risks to humans. In this study we assessed the potential harmfulness of low-dose BPS on reproduction in male mice.

Methods: To simulate human exposure under experimental conditions, 8-week-old outbred ICR male mice received 8 weeks of drinking water containing a broad range of BPS doses [0.001, 1.0, or 100 µg/kg body weight (bw)/day, BPS1-3] or vehicle control. Mice were sacrificed and testicular tissue taken …

Interferon Beta Activity Is Modulated Via Binding Of Specific S100 Proteins, Alexei S. Kazakov, Alexander D. Sofin, Nadezhda V. Avkhacheva, Alexander I. Denesyuk, Eugenia I. Deryusheva, Victoria A. Rastrygina, Andrey S. Sokolov, Maria E. Permyakova, Ekaterina A. Litus, Vladimir N. Uversky, Eugene A. Permyakov, Sergei E. Permyakov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Interferon-β (IFN-β) is a pleiotropic cytokine used for therapy of multiple sclerosis, which is also effective in suppression of viral and bacterial infections and cancer. Recently, we reported a highly specific interaction between IFN-β and S100P lowering IFN-β cytotoxicity to cancer cells (Int J Biol Macromol. 2020; 143: 633–639). S100P is a member of large family of multifunctional Ca2+-binding proteins with cytokine-like activities. To probe selectivity of IFN-β—S100 interaction with respect to S100 proteins, we used surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, chemical crosslinking, and crystal violet assay. Among the thirteen S100 proteins studied S100A1, S100A4, and S100A6 proteins exhibit strictly Ca2+-dependent …

Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation By Intrinsically Disordered Protein Regions Of Viruses: Roles In Viral Life Cycle And Control Of Virus–Host Interactions, Stefania Brocca, Rita Grandori, Sonia Longhi, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are unable to adopt a unique 3D structure under physiological conditions and thus exist as highly dynamic conformational ensembles. IDPs are ubiquitous and widely spread in the protein realm. In the last decade, compelling experimental evidence has been gathered, pointing to the ability of IDPs and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) to undergo liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), a phenomenon driving the formation of membrane-less organelles (MLOs). These biological condensates play a critical role in the spatio-temporal organization of the cell, where they exert a multitude of key biological functions, ranging from transcriptional regulation and silencing to control …

Intrinsic Disorder In Tetratricopeptide Repeat Proteins, Nathan W. Bibber, Cornelia Haerle, Roy Khalifa, Bin Xue, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Among the realm of repeat containing proteins that commonly serve as “scaffolds” promoting protein-protein interactions, there is a family of proteins containing between 2 and 20 tetratricopeptide repeats (TPRs), which are functional motifs consisting of 34 amino acids. The most distinguishing feature of TPR domains is their ability to stack continuously one upon the other, with these stacked repeats being able to affect interaction with binding partners either sequentially or in combination. It is known that many repeat-containing proteins are characterized by high levels of intrinsic disorder, and that many protein tandem repeats can be intrinsically disordered. Furthermore, it seems …

Intrinsic Disorder-Based Design Of Stable Globular Proteins, Galina S. Nagibina, Bogdan S. Melnik, Vladimir N. Uversky, Tatiana N. Melnik, Bogdan S. Melnik

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Directed stabilization of globular proteins via substitution of a minimal number of amino acid residues is one of the most complicated experimental tasks. This work summarizes our research on the effect of amino acid substitutions on the protein stability utilizing the outputs of the analysis of intrinsic disorder predisposition of target proteins. This allowed us to formulate the basis of one of the possible approaches to the stabilization of globular proteins. The idea is quite simple. To stabilize a protein as a whole, one needs to find its "weakest spot" and stabilize it, but the question is how this weak …

Hsp22 With An N-Terminal Domain Truncation Mediates A Reduction In Tau Protein Levels, Jack M. Webster, April L. Darling, Taylor A. Sanders, Danielle M. Blazier, Yamile Vidal-Aguiar, David Beaulieu-Abdelahad, Drew G. Plemmons, Shannon E. Hill, Vladimir N. Uversky, Paula C. Bickford, Chad Anthony Dickey, Laura J. Blair

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Misfolding, aggregation and accumulation of proteins are toxic elements in the progression of a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases. Molecular chaperones enable a cellular defense by reducing or compartmentalizing these insults. Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) engage proteins early in the process of misfolding and can facilitate their proper folding or refolding, sequestration, or clearance. Here, we evaluate the effects of the sHsp Hsp22, as well as a pseudophosphorylated mutant and an N-terminal domain deletion (NTDΔ) variant on tau aggregation in vitro and tau accumulation and aggregation in cultured cells. Hsp22 wild-type (WT) protein had a significant inhibitory effect on …

Rigidity Of The Outer Shell Predicted By A Protein Intrinsic Disorder Model Sheds Light On The Covid-19 (Wuhan-2019-Ncov) Infectivity, Gerard Kian-Meng Goh, A. Keith Dunker, James A. Foster, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The world is currently witnessing an outbreak of a new coronavirus spreading quickly across China and affecting at least 24 other countries. With almost 65,000 infected, a worldwide death toll of at least 1370 (as of 14 February 2020), and with the potential to affect up to two-thirds of the world population, COVID-19 is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a global health emergency. The speed of spread and infectivity of COVID-19 (also known as Wuhan-2019-nCoV) are dramatically exceeding those of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). In fact, …

Why Covid-19 Transmission Is More Efficient And Aggressive Than Viral Transmission In Previous Coronavirus Epidemics?, Fatma Elrashdy, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The worldwide transmission of COVID-19 from human to human is spreading like wildfire, affecting almost every country in the world. In the past 100 years, the globe did not face a microbial pandemic similar in scale to COVID-19. Taken together, both previous outbreaks of other members of the coronavirus family (severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV)) did not produce even 1% of the global harm already inflicted by COVID-19. There are also four other CoVs capable of infecting humans …

Why Covid-19 Transmission Is More Efficient And Aggressive Than Viral Transmission In Previous Coronavirus Epidemics?, Fatma Elrashdy, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The worldwide transmission of COVID-19 from human to human is spreading like wildfire, affecting almost every country in the world. In the past 100 years, the globe did not face a microbial pandemic similar in scale to COVID-19. Taken together, both previous outbreaks of other members of the coronavirus family (severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV)) did not produce even 1% of the global harm already inflicted by COVID-19. There are also four other CoVs capable of infecting humans …

Granulins Modulate Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation And Aggregation Of The Prion-Like C-Terminal Domain Of The Neurodegeneration-Associated Protein Tdp-43, Anukool A. Bhopatkar, Vladimir N. Uversky, Vijayaraghavan Rangachari

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) has emerged as a key player in many neurodegenerative pathologies, including frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Hallmarks of both FTLD and ALS are the toxic cytoplasmic inclusions of the prion-like C-terminal fragments of TDP-43 CTD (TDP-43 C-terminal domain), formed upon proteolytic cleavage of full-length TDP-43 in the nucleus and subsequent transport to the cytoplasm. Both full-length TDP-43 and its CTD are also known to form stress granules by coacervating with RNA in the cytoplasm during stress and may be involved in these pathologies. Furthermore, mutations in the PGRN gene, leading to …

New Technologies To Analyse Protein Function: An Intrinsic Disorder Perspective, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Functions of intrinsically disordered proteins do not require structure. Such structure-independent functionality has melted away the classic rigid “lock and key” representation of structure–function relationships in proteins, opening a new page in protein science, where molten keys operate on melted locks and where conformational flexibility and intrinsic disorder, structural plasticity and extreme malleability, multifunctionality and binding promiscuity represent a new-fangled reality. Analysis and understanding of this new reality require novel tools, and some of the techniques elaborated for the examination of intrinsically disordered protein functions are outlined in this review.

Lung Cancer Cells Survive Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Exposure Through Upregulation Of Cholesterol Synthesis, Mark C. Howell, Ryan Green, Roukiah Khalil, Elspeth Foran, Waise Quarni, Rajesh Nair, Stanley Stevens, Aleksandr Grinchuk, Andrew Hanna, Shyam Mohapatra, Subhra Mohapatra

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) provide clinical benefits over chemotherapy for lung cancer patients with EGFR activating mutations. Despite initial clinical responses, long-term efficacy is not possible because of acquired resistance to these therapies. We have developed EGFR TKI drug-tolerant (DT) human lung cancer cell lines as a model for de novo resistance. Mass spectroscopic analysis revealed that the cytochrome P450 protein, CYP51A1 (Lanosterol 14α-demethylase), which is directly involved with cholesterol synthesis, was significantly upregulated in the DT cells. Total cellular cholesterol, and more specifically, mitochondrial cholesterol, were found to be upregulated in DT cells. We …

The Dual Pi3kδ/Ck1Ε Inhibitor Umbralisib Exhibits Unique Immunomodulatory Effects On Cll T Cells, Kamira Maharaj, John J. Powers, Alex Achille, Melanie Mediavilla-Varela, Wael Gamal, Karen L. Burger, Renee Fonseca, Kun Jiang, Hari P. Miskin, Dave Maryanski, Andrii Monastyrskyi, Derek R. Duckett, William R. Roush, John L. Cleveland, Eva Sahakian, Javier Pinilla-Ibarz

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The in-clinic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors idelalisib (CAL-101) and duvelisib (IPI-145) have demonstrated high rates of response and progression-free survival in clinical trials of B-cell malignancies, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, a high incidence of adverse events has led to frequent discontinuations, limiting the clinical development of these inhibitors. By contrast, the dual PI3Kδ/casein kinase-1-ε (CK1ε) inhibitor umbralisib (TGR-1202) also shows high rates of response in clinical trials but has an improved safety profile with fewer severe adverse events. Toxicities typical of this class of PI3K inhibitors are largely thought to be immune mediated, but they are poorly …

Social Media Use For Crisis And Emergency Risk Communications During The Zika Health Crisis, Loni Hagen, Stephen Neely, Thomas E. Keller, Ryan Scharf

School of Information Faculty Publications

Many public officials and government agencies are facing increased pressure to utilize social media as a crisis communications tool. However, significant questions remain unanswered regarding how social media can be best leveraged to facilitate effective communication efforts under crisis conditions. These questions are often more challenging for local government agencies, where unsupportive culture and a lack of resources tend to discourage the active use of social media in governing. In an effort to better inform these discussions, this article examines the use of Twitter by federal, state, and local government actors during the 2015–2016 Zika virus outbreak in the United …

Uncovering Reasons For Treatment Initiation Delays Among Children With Tb In Lima, Peru, J. Coit, M. Wong, J. T. Galea, M. Mendoza, H. Marin, M. Tovar, S. S. Chiang, L. Lecca, M. F. Franke

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Timely diagnosis and treatment of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) is critical to reducing mortality but remains challenging in the absence of adequate diagnostic tools. Even once a TB diagnosis is made, delays in treatment initiation are common, but for reasons that are not well understood.

Methods: To examine reasons for delay post-diagnosis, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Ministry of Health (MoH) physicians and field workers affiliated with a pediatric TB diagnostic study, and caregivers of children aged 0–14 years who were diagnosed with pulmonary TB in Lima, Peru. Interviews were analyzed using systematic comparative and descriptive content analysis.

Results: We …

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Beijing Lineage And Risk For Tuberculosis In Child Household Contacts, Peru, Chuan-Chin Huang, Alexander L. Chu, Mercedes C. Becerra, Jerome T. Galea, Roger Calderón, Carmen Contreras, Rosa Yataco, Zibiao Zhang, Leonid Lecca, Megan B. Murray

Social Work Faculty Publications

Few studies have prospectively compared the relative transmissibility and propensity to cause disease of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing strains with other human-adapted strains of the M. tuberculosis complex. We assessed the effect of Beijing strains on the risk for M. tuberculosis infection and disease progression in 9,151 household contacts of 2,223 culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients in Lima, Peru. Child contacts exposed to Beijing strains were more likely than child contacts exposed to non-Beijing strains to be infected at baseline, by 12 months of follow-up, and during follow-up. We noted an increased but nonsignificant tendency for child contacts to develop TB. …

A Positively Selected Fbn1 Missense Variant Reduces Height In Peruvian Individuals, Samira Asgari, Yang Luo, Ali Akbari, Gillian M. Belbin, Xinyi Li, Daniel N. Harris, Martin Selig, Eric Bartell, Roger Calderon, Kamil Slowikowski, Carmen Contreras, Rosa Yataco, Jerome T. Galea, Judith Jimenez, Julia M. Coit, Chandel Farroñay, Rosalynn M. Nazarian, Timothy D. O’Connor, Harry C. Dietz, Joel N. Hirschhorn, Heinner Guio, Leonid Lecca, Eimear E. Kenny, Esther E. Freeman, Megan B. Murray, Soumya Raychaudhuri

Social Work Faculty Publications

On average, Peruvian individuals are among the shortest in the world1. Here we show that Native American ancestry is associated with reduced height in an ethnically diverse group of Peruvian individuals, and identify a population-specific, missense variant in the FBN1 gene (E1297G) that is significantly associated with lower height. Each copy of the minor allele (frequency of 4.7%) reduces height by 2.2 cm (4.4 cm in homozygous individuals). To our knowledge, this is the largest effect size known for a common height-associated variant. FBN1 encodes the extracellular matrix protein fibrillin 1, which is a major structural component of microfibrils. We …

Understanding Ethical Decision-Making In Design, Danielle J. Corple, Carla B. Zoltowski, Megan Kenny Feister, Patrice M. Buzzanell

Communication Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about how students engage in ethical decision-making, especially when designing in messy, real-life contexts. To prepare ethically competent engineers, educators need a richer understanding of students' ethical decision-making throughout the course of the design process.

Purpose/Hypothesis: This study examines students' intuitive ethical decision-making as it emerges throughout the design process as well as when and how students engage in ethical reflection. Outlining these processes enables educators to better structure and support students' ethical reasoning.

Design/Method: We conducted 103 semi-structured interviews with students in a multidisciplinary service-learning program. To capture how ethical decision-making unfolded over time, we …

Commentary On: Cosmeceuticals: The Principles And Practice Of Skin Rejuvenation Of Nonprescription Topical Therapy, Clifford P. Clark, Ashley Goldston

Surgery Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Free Abdominal Tissue Transfer And Utilization Of The Umbilical Stalk For “Tubular” Reconstruction In Ear, Nose, And Throat Defects, Jake Laun, Julian Pribaz

Surgery Faculty Publications

Large head and neck burns and cancer-related defects pose many challenges to the reconstructive surgeon with the ultimate goals being aesthetic, as well as functional restoration, or as the renowned Italian plastic surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi espoused to “restore, rebuild, and make whole those parts which nature hath given but which fortune has taken away.” The face, in particular, has inherent structures that are vital to interpersonal relationships, as well as everyday function. Large head and neck burns or cancer defects may require a tracheostomy and stoma creation or reconstruction of the external auditory meatus both posing a significant reconstructive challenge. …

Expansion Of Roseate Spoonbill Breeding Distribution In Southwest Florida, Emily P. Wolfe, Kara L. Lefevre, Kelsey Lang

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.