Digital Commons Network^™

γ-Aapeptides With Potent And Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity, Jianfeng Cai, Youhong Niu, Haifan Wu, Shruti Padhee

USF Patents

The present invention is directed to a novel class of antimicrobial agents called γ-AApeptides. The current invention provides various categories of γ-AApeptides, for example, linear γ-AApeptides, cyclic γ-AApeptides, and lipidated γ-AApeptides. γ-AApeptides of the current invention are designed to exert antimicrobial activity while being stable and non-toxic. γ-AApeptides also do not appear to lead to the development of microbial resistance in treated microorganisms. Thus, the disclosed γ-AApeptides can be used for the treatment of various medical conditions associated with pathogenic microorganisms.

Antimicrobials From An Epigenetics Based Fungal Metabolite Screening Program, Danielle H. Demers, Bill J. Baker, Ala Azhari, Renee M. Fleeman, Dennis E. Kyle, Lindsey Neil Shaw

USF Patents

Novel antimicrobial compounds against drug targets such as Eskape pathogens, Leishmania donovani, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Clostridium difficile, Naegleria fowleri, and cancer are presented herein.

White-Nose Syndrome Detected In Bats Over An Extensive Area Of Russia, Veronika Kovacova, Jan Zukal, Hana Bandouchova, Alexander D. Botvinkin, Markéta Harazim, Natália Martínková, Oleg L. Orlov, Vladimir Piacek, Alexandra P. Shumkina, Mikhail P. Tiunov, Jiri Pikula

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

Natural Selection In Bats With Historical Exposure To White-Nose Syndrome, Markéta Harazim, Ivan Horáček, Lucie Jakešová

KIP Articles

Hibernation allows animals to survive periods of resource scarcity by reducing their energy expenditure through decreased metabolism. However, hibernators become susceptible to psychrophilic pathogens if they cannot mount an efficient immune response to infection. While Nearctic bats infected with white-nose syndrome (WNS) suffer high mortality, related Palearctic taxa are better able to survive the disease than their Nearctic counterparts. We hypothesised that WNS exerted historical selective pressure in Palearctic bats, resulting in genomic changes that promote infection tolerance.We investigated partial sequences of 23 genes related to water metabolism and skin structure function in nine Palearctic and Nearctic hibernating bat species …

Actinomycin D And Telmisartan Combination Therapy Targets Lung Cancer Stem Cells, Ryan Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The failure of lung cancer treatments has been attributed partly to the development of drug resistance, however the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. It has been suggested that a very small group of specific cells within the heterogeneous tumors, cancer initiating stem cells (CSC), develop resistance to treatment, survive and later initiate the growth of new tumors. Due to their pivotal role in maintenance and relapse of tumors following the acquisition of drug resistance, we reasoned that novel drugs targeting cancer cells and CSC might provide the most effective treatments, if not a cure. To this end, …

Behavioral Thermoregulation And Thermal Mismatches Influence Disease Dynamics In Amphibians, Erin Louise Sauer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amphibians are currently the most threatened vertebra taxa on the planet. Hundreds of species are thought to have gone extinct while thousands more have been listed as threatened or endangered over the past few decades. Habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, and disease are all thought to have partially contributed to these declines. Two pathogens in particular, infectious viruses in the genus Ranavirus (simply referred to as ranavirus) and the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), have been associated with global mass mortality events of amphibians. Virulent pathogens such as these tend to impose strong selective pressures on their hosts driving the …

A Secure Computing Platform For Building Automation Using Microkernel-Based Operating Systems, Xiaolong Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Building Automation System (BAS) is a complex distributed control system that is widely deployed in commercial, residential, industrial buildings for monitoring and controlling mechanical/electrical equipment. Through increasing industrial and technological advances, the control components of BAS are becoming increasingly interconnected. Along with potential benefits, integration also introduces new attack vectors, which tremendous increases safety and security risks in the control system. Historically, BAS lacks security design and relies on physical isolation and "security through obscurity". These methods are unacceptable with the "smart building" technologies. The industry needs to reevaluate the safety and security of the current building automation system, and …

Structure-Based Design, Synthesis And Applications Of A New Class Of Peptidomimetics: 'Y-Aa Peptides And Their Derivatives, Ma Su

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peptidomimetics can mimic hierarchical structures of peptides and proteins. Thus, they are extensively studied for therapeutic applications. To break the limitation of backbones and frameworks and expand the peptidomimetics family, a new class of peptidomimetics - “γ-AApeptides” was developed. Design of γ-AApeptides is based on the chiral peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) backbone.

The World Health Organization estimates that one -third of all deaths in the world are on account of infectious diseases. AMPs are important because of their high activity against broad spectrum microbes, less susceptible to grow resistance and selectivity in binding to bacterial cells over human cells. γ-AApeptides …

Validation Of A New Concept For Measuring Respirable Dusts, Xiao Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sampling of airborne dust in industry is influenced by the potential health effects associated with human exposure. Health effects depend on mass concentration and particle size which influences the site of pulmonary deposition. Occupational diseases tend to be associated with dust deposition in specific regions of the respiratory tract. The ACGIH size selective TLVs are expressed in three forms: Inhalable Particulate Matter, Thoracic Particulate Matter, and Respirable Particulate Matter. In pneuomoconioses, the amount of dust deposited in the lungs can be estimated by sampling the respirable fraction. Dose-response relationships are derived by relating the health experience of workers to the …

Estimating The Elimination Feasibility In The 'End Game' Of Control Efforts For Parasites Subjected To Regular Mass Drug Administration: Methods And Their Application To Schistosomiasis, Arathi Arakala, Christopher M. Hoover, John M. Marshall, Susanne H. Sokolow, Guilio A. De Leo, Jason R. Rohr, Justin V. Remais, Manoj Gambhir

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Progress towards controlling and eliminating parasitic worms, including schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, is advancing rapidly as national governments, multinational NGOs, and pharmaceutical companies launch collaborative chemotherapeutic control campaigns. Critical questions remain regarding the potential for achieving elimination of these infections, and analytical methods can help to quickly estimate progress towards—and the probability of achieving—elimination over specific timeframes. Here, we propose the effective reproduction number, R_eff, as a proxy of elimination potential for sexually reproducing worms that are subject to poor mating success at very low abundance (positive density dependence, or Allee effects). R_eff is the …

Comparison Of Bacterial And Viral Reduction Across Different Wastewater Treatment Processes, Aayushi R. Vagadia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today billions of people live without access to basic sanitation facilities, and thousands die every week due to diseases caused by fecal contamination associated with improper sanitation. It has thus become crucial for decision makers to have access to relevant and sufficient data to implement appropriate solutions to these problems. The Global Water Pathogen Project http://www.waterpathogens.org/ is dedicated to providing an up-to-date source of data on pathogen reduction associated with different sanitation technologies that are important if the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health and sanitation provision. In this research, a subset of the …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Health Literacy And Dietary Practices Among College Students: A Test Of The Integrated Model Of Health Literacy, Alison B. Oberne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Overweight and obesity continue to plague Americans and contribute to decreased quantity and quality of life. Americans of all ages experience overweight and obesity; however, increasing rates occur during young adulthood. Young adults develop dietary practice behaviors that persist into adulthood and can contribute to weight-related chronic diseases. Approximately half of all young adults are enrolled in college, and, approximately 38% of college students are either overweight or obese.

Dietary practices are health behaviors that can either increase or decrease risk for overweight and obesity. Much research has explored predictors of dietary practices among college students; however, there is a …

Two Subspecies Of Bent-Winged Bats (Miniopterus Orianae Bassanii And Oceanensis) In Southern Australia Have Diverse Fungal Skin Flora But Not Pseudogymnoascus Destructans, Peter H. Holz, Linda F. Lumsden, Mark S. Marenda

KIP Articles

Fungi are increasingly being documented as causing disease in a wide range of faunal species, including Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungus responsible for white nose syndrome which is having a devastating impact on bats in North America. The population size of the Australian southern bent-winged bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii), a critically endangered subspecies, has declined over the past 50 years. As part of a larger study to determine whether disease could be a contributing factor to this decline, southern bent-winged bats were tested for the presence of arange of potentially pathogenic fungi: P. destructans, dermatophytes and Histoplasma capsulatum (a potential human …

Applications Of Electronic-Nose Technologies For Noninvasive Early Detection Of Plant, Animal And Human Diseases, Alphus Dan Wilson

KIP Articles

The development of electronic-nose (e-nose) technologies for disease diagnostics was initiated in the biomedical field for detection of biotic (microbial) causes of human diseases during the mid-1980s. The use of e-nose devices for disease-diagnostic applications subsequently was extended to plant and animal hosts through the invention of new gas-sensing instrument types and disease-detection methods with sensor arrays developed and adapted for additional host types and chemical classes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) closely associated with individual diseases. Considerable progress in animal disease detection using e-noses in combination with metabolomics has been accomplished in the field of veterinary medicine with new …

An Essential Staphylococcus Aureus Cell Division Protein Directly Regulates Ftsz Dynamics, Prahathees J. Eswara, Robert S. Brzozowski, Marissa G. Viola, Gianni Graham, Catherine Spanoudis, Catherine Trebino, Jyoti Jha, Joseph I. Aubee, Karl M. Thompson, Jodi L. Camberg, Kumaran S. Ramamurthi

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

Binary fission has been well studied in rod-shaped bacteria, but the mechanisms underlying cell division in spherical bacteria are poorly understood. Rod-shaped bacteria harbor regulatory proteins that place and remodel the division machinery during cytokinesis. In the spherical human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, we found that the essential protein GpsB localizes to mid-cell during cell division and co-constricts with the division machinery. Depletion of GpsB arrested cell division and led to cell lysis, whereas overproduction of GpsB inhibited cell division and led to the formation of enlarged cells. We report that S. aureus GpsB, unlike other Firmicutes GpsB orthologs, directly …

Exploitation Of Mangrove Endophytic Fungi For Infectious Disease Drug Discovery, Danielle H. Demers, Matthew A. Knestrick, Renee Fleeman, Rahmy Tawfik, Ala Azhari, Ashley Souza

Chemistry Faculty Publications

There is an acute need for new and effective agents to treat infectious diseases. We conducted a screening program to assess the potential of mangrove-derived endophytic fungi as a source of new antibiotics. Fungi cultured in the presence and absence of small molecule epigenetic modulators were screened against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the ESKAPE panel of bacterial pathogens, as well as two eukaryotic infective agents, Leishmania donovani and Naegleria fowleri. By comparison of bioactivity data among treatments and targets, trends became evident, such as the result that more than 60% of active extracts were revealed to be selective to a …

Antibacterial S-Heterosubstituted Disulfides, Edward Turos, Praveen Ramaraju

USF Patents

Synthetically-derived S,S-heterodisubstituted disulfides that exhibit potent in vitro antibacterial activity against a variety of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Francisella tularensis. The present invention provides compounds, methods and compositions effective to treat microbial/bacterial infections, and, especially, infections arising from bacteria which have developed resistance to conventional antibiotics.

Compositions, Methods Of Use, And Methods Of Treatment, Roman Manetsch, Lindsey Neil Shaw, Kurt Steven Van Horn, Whittney Nicole Burda

USF Patents

Embodiments of the present disclosure, in one aspect, relate to a 2,4-diaminoquinazoline compound, pharmaceutical compositions including a 2,4-diaminoquinazoline compound, methods of treatment of a condition (e.g., infection) or disease, methods of treatment using compositions or pharmaceutical compositions, and the like.

Star Power, Pandemics, And Politics: The Role Of Cultural Elites In Global Health Security, Holly Lynne Swayne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Celebrities have historically served a variety of roles in society ranging from the inspirational to the cautionary, utilizing their platforms of visibility to promote themselves, their work, as well as their social and political causes. This study focuses on celebrities as activists engaging with global health issues, with particular attention to the form this engagement takes, the publicity it receives in the mass media, and the types of global health issues that receive the most celebrity attention. An interdisciplinary approach drawing from theories of power, social movement theory, agenda-setting, and cultural studies is used to achieve greater understanding of underlying …

Bis-Cyclic Guanidine Compound Compositions, Methods Of Use And Treatment Thereof, Lindsey Neil Shaw, Renee Marie Fleeman, Richard Allen Houghten, Marcello Angelo Giulianotti, Radleigh G. Santos, Adel Nefzi

USF Patents

The present disclosure provides compositions including a bis-cyclic guanidine compound, pharmaceutical compositions including a bis-cyclic guanidine compound, methods of treatment of a condition (e.g., bacterial infection) or disease, methods of treatment using compositions or pharmaceutical compositions, and the like.

Microscopic Fungi On Cadavers And Skeletons From Cave And Mine Environments, Alena Nováková, Alena Kubátová, František Sklenář

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

Usf Women's Club Yearbook, 2018–2019, Usf Women's Club

USF Women’s Club Collection

Yearbook of the USF Women's Club. Inside is a list of past presidents, officers, committee chairmen, and members for 2018–2019. The booklet also includes a tribute to Grace Allen, interest groups, calendar of events, and a copy of the constitution and by-laws from the handbook.

Antibiotic Compositions And Methods Of Use, Edward Turos, Biplob Bhattacharya

USF Patents

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for compositions including an antibiotic containing a N-thiolated beta-lactam moiety, pharmaceutical compositions including the antibiotic, methods of treatment of a condition (e.g., bacterial infection), methods of treatment using compositions or pharmaceutical compositions, and the like.

Interrogation Of Protein Function With Peptidomimetics, Olapeju Bolarinwa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proteins can be described as the “machineries” responsible for almost all tasks in the levels of organizational complexity in multi-cellular organisms namely: the cells, tissues, organs and systems. Any disorder in the function of a protein at any of these levels could result in disease, and a study of protein function is critical to understanding the pathological features of the disease at the molecular level. A quick glance at these abundantly present proteins reveals two striking features: large diversity of biological function, and the variations in structural complexity, which varies from simple random coils, to turns and helices, and on …

Differential Evolution Of Antiretroviral Restriction Factors In Pteropid Bats As Revealed By Apobec3 Gene Complexity, Joshua A. Hayward, Mary Tachedjian, Jie Cui, Adam Z. Cheng, Adam Johnson, Michelle L. Baker, Reuben S. Harris, Lin-Fa Wang, Gilda Tachedjian

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Landscape And Environmental Factors On Ranavirus Epidemiology In A California Amphibian Assemblage, Brian J. Tornabene, Andrew R. Blausten, Cheryl J. Briggs, Dana M. Calhoun, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Travis Mcdevitt-Galles, Jason R. Rohr, Jason T. Hoverman

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

1. A fundamental goal of disease ecology is to determine the landscape and environmental processes that drive disease dynamics at different biological levels to guide management and conservation. Although ranaviruses (family Iridoviridae) are emerging amphibian pathogens, few studies have conducted comprehensive field surveys to assess potential drivers of ranavirus disease dynamics.
2. We examined the factors underlying patterns in site‐level ranavirus presence and individual‐level ranavirus infection in 76 ponds and 1,088 individuals representing five amphibian species within the East Bay region of California.
3. Based on a competing‐model approach followed by variance partitioning, landscape and biotic variables explained the most variation in …

A Comparative Study On Coastal Zone Changes And Anthropogenic Impacts Between Tampa Bay, Usa, And Xiangshan Harbor, China, During The Last 30 Years, Qiandong Guo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the U.S. and China are the two largest national economic entities in the world. However, it is noticeable that the two countries have considerably different strategies for economic development, environmental protection and land supply in coastal zones. In order to understand the coastline dynamics, land use land cover (LULC) changes and land management policies in the U.S. and China, a case study of the Tampa Bay (TB) watershed, Florida, U.S., and Xiangshan Harbor (XH), Zhejiang Province, China was conducted. The two areas possess similar humid subtropical climate and dense population, but experienced different anthropogenic impacts. TB sat at a …

Chemical Investigation Of Bioactive Marine Extracts, Selam Hagos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products have been a fundamental source of medicinal scaffolds for decades; with sixty percent of marketed drugs. Many synthetic chemists are focused on synthesizing potent and nontoxic compounds for pharmaceutical targets, however, nature is still proving to be a source of new bioactive compounds. Produced by the host organism for defense, reproduction and communication, secondary metabolites also demonstrate promising bioactivity against human pathogens. Hence, natural product chemists continue their quest for new leads.

As a continuation of these efforts, this thesis attempts to explore fungi and sponges for new chemistry, and ultimately, new drug candidates. Antarctica is largely untapped; …

Landscape Structure And Ecology Influence The Spread Of A Bat Fungal Disease, Thomas M. Lilley, Jani Anttila, Lasse Ruokolainen

KIP Articles

1. White‐nose syndrome (WNS), affecting multiple North American bat species during the hibernation period, is a highly pathogenic disease caused by the psychrophilic fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Because the fungal pathogen persists in the hibernation site environment independently of the hosts, previous theory on spatial disease dynamics cannot predict WNS epidemics. However, the ability to understand factors contributing to the spread of white‐nose syndrome (WNS) in North America is crucial to the management of infected and susceptible bat populations as well as the conservation of threatened and endangered bat species. 2. Utilizing recent theory on environmental opportunistic pathogens, we modelled …

Full Issue 47(2)

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.