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Chemical Investigation Of Floridian Mangrove Endophytes And Antarctic Marine Organisms, Bingjie Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nature creates diseases and illnesses for mankind, however, nature also provides therapeutics by making biological systems produce secondary metabolites. Although the secondary metabolites originally play roles in chemical defense or evolution, researchers have been working on them for drug discovery. Plants, fungi and marine organisms have been mostly explored by natural products chemists over the century and contributed most drugs to the market. With the increasing need of new drugs resulting from drug resistance and pathogen evolution, the natural products area has been focused on developing innovative methodologies to achieve higher efficiency of isolating new bioactive compounds.

This dissertation herein …

The Role Of Threat And Efficacy In Anti-Vaping Ads: A Test Of The Extended Parallel Process Model, Ryan Noone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Often thought of as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarette use among youth and young adults has steadily increased over the past 10 years. With over 34 percent of high school students and over 7.8 percent of young adults using electronic cigarettes, organizations like the CDC and the FDA have created campaigns and advertisements to combat the epidemic (Truth Initiative). This study uses a 2x2 between subject factoral experiment to gain insights into how varying levels of anti-vaping advertisements’ threat and efficacy elements effect college age students’ perceptions and behaviors towards e-cigarettes. While several of the study’s hypotheses …

Non-Invasive Sex Determination And Genotyping Of Transgenic Brugia Malayi Larvae, Santiago E. Hernandez Bojorge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lymphatic filariasis is a very painful and disfiguring helminth disease caused by the tissue nematodes Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori. This parasitosis is considered a Neglected Tropical Disease and it is a major public health burden for 72 tropical countries of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. Despite the effectiveness of many control programs, there remains the need to develop new pharmacological agents to treat lymphatic filariasis, as most programs rely on a limited variety of drugs that are expensive, logistically difficult to obtain, and can lead to drug resistance. The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic …

‘It’S Been A Huge Stress’: An In-Depth, Exploratory Study Of Vaccine Hesitant Parents In Southern California, Mika Kadono

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2015, the US experienced a widespread measles outbreak that originated at Disneyland, California and spread to six other states, Mexico, and Canada. That year, California passed Senate Bill 277 (SB 277), which eliminated the personal belief exemption for vaccinations required for school entry; California became the third state in the country to eliminate nonmedical exemptions. In 2019, Washington, Maine, and New York followed suit eliminating all nonmedical exemptions amid the largest measles outbreak in the US in 25 years. Many countries, including the US, are experiencing a rise in vaccine preventable diseases due, in part, to increasing vaccine hesitancy, …

Socially Aware Network User Mobility Analysis And Novel Approaches On Aerial Mobile Wireless Network Deployment, Ismail Uluturk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Service demand patterns for wireless networks are evolving with the technological developments in areas such as personal computing, unmanned vehicles, and internet-of-things, where increasing mobile service demand is one of the significant challenges introduced. In addition to these new intrinsic dynamics, natural disasters and societal upheaval are also disrupting the conventional patterns of network demand. Situations like damaged infrastructure due to a natural disaster or large numbers of displaced people caused by political strife and social upheaval demand flexible, rapidly deployable network architectures. The increasing demands of next-generation communication services are straining the capabilities of the traditional approach of the …

Hiding Under The Sun: Health, Access, And Discourses Of Representation In Undocumented Communities, Jaime Shamado Robb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines how undocumented immigrants in the United States communicate health and illness, specifically focusing on health narratives of undocumented immigrants in the South Florida region. In order to do this, I conducted 27 field interviews with undocumented immigrants living in South Florida to gain understanding of how this group meets health and wellness needs. Conversations revolved around prominent themes that highlighted the role of communication that produce stigma towards this group; the complexity of a costly bureaucratic health system, and the fears participants experience that stems from the possibility of deportation. Additionally, participants detailed the role of their …

Differences In Knowledge Acquisition, Perceived Engagement And Self-Efficacy In Latino Promotores Delivering The Heart Disease Prevention Program Su Corazόn, Su Vida, Samuel Matos-Bastidas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Su Corazόn, Su Vida (Your Heart, Your Life) is a community-based, small-group health intervention designed to empower Latinos to enhance cardiovascular disease awareness and initiate enduring lifestyle changes to improve health outcomes and quality of life. Originally developed to be delivered in weekly sessions in Spanish or English language, it addresses several heart disease risk factors including unhealthy eating habits, poor physical activity, high cholesterol, overweight, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and tobacco smoking, among others. Instructors use diverse learning and support strategies such as group discussion, role modeling, problem-solving, health action planning, and self-monitoring. Participants help each other to stay on …

Developing Agent-Based Models To Study Financial Markets, Saurav Chakraborty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents research that employs agent-based modelling to provide a framework to support simulation as a complement to traditional economic models for policy evaluation. It consists of three studies. The first study employs cluster analysis to capture the different types of banks and the associated business models that define their decision-making. The results from study one will help us get an understanding of how different banks behave and provide an insight into their lending practices. Hence, it would be very helpful in evaluating and analyzing the impact of future policies. Study two develops a fine-grained interbank lending model based …

Understanding The Role Of Cereblon In Hematopoiesis Through Structural And Functional Analyses, Afua Adutwumwa Akuffo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The discovery and implementation of immunomodulatory drugs (IMiD®s) has revolutionized the treatment of many hematological malignancies due to the plethora of IMiD®-induced clinical responses that include anti-angiogenesis, anti-inflammation, and anti-tumor effects, as well as enhanced erythropoiesis, immune modulation and improved metabolism. More ground-breaking was the identification of cereblon as the target of IMiD®s. Upon binding to thalidomide and other immunomodulatory drugs, the E3 ligase substrate receptor cereblon (CRBN) promotes proteosomal destruction of neo-substrates by engaging the DDB1-CUL4A-Roc1-RBX1 E3-ubiquitin ligase in human cells but not in mouse cells suggesting that sequence variations in CRBN may cause its inactivation. Therapeutically, CRBN engagers …

Investigating Mechanisms Of Immune Suppression Secondary To An Inflammatory Microenvironment, Wendy Michelle Kandell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The immune system plays a dynamic role in cancer progression. The theory of immunoediting suggests that the relationship between the tumor cell and the immune cell is one that is in flux: initially highly active and responsive to tumor antigen to one that has escaped immune responsiveness. Once the tumor has formed and effectively “escaped”, there are multiple mechanisms that work against a conventional immune response. The tumor cell clones that have escaped the elimination phase are those that are less immunogenic. These clones downregulate MHC, have increased apoptosis through DAMP-driven mechanisms, and suppressive cell phenotypes are driven through cytokine-driven …

Identification Of Snps Associated With Multiple Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Eight Clinical Variants Of Enterococcus Faecium., Krishna S. Karia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of multi drug resistant (MDR) bacteria has been well documented these last decade, suggesting that resistance to antibiotics is most commonly associated to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) mutation. To this aim, several molecular methods have been performed to elucidate SNPs in the increasing number of resistant microorganisms. Early detection of MDR bacteria has become of prime necessity in order to combat the disease and ensure public health. Therefore, this research was conducted to screen for SNP mutations correlated to drug resistance in some nosocomial MDR bacteria strains donated from Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC) hospital. Blood, stool, urine, and …

Targeting The Eskape Pathogens By Botanical And Microbial Approaches, Emily Dilandro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a vital need to find new clinical treatment options to combat ESKAPE pathogen infections. Nature has thus far been the most fruitful at providing antimicrobial compounds, which have been derived from a plethora of sources. Ranging from plants to microbial communities, these organisms create chemical compounds that are used as defense mechanisms against invasive or encroaching organisms and confer the producers with competitive advantages. In this study, cinnamaldehyde was investigated as a botanical approach to finding active antimicrobial compounds that inhibit the ESKAPE pathogens. Here, we show that all the ESKAPE pathogens are inhibited by cinnamaldehyde concentrations between …

Toward Culturally Relevant Emotion Detection Using Physiological Signals, Khadija Zanna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that emotional distress has a statistically significant impact on a student’s grade point average and intent to drop out of college. Because students of different races have varying college experiences, it is important to understand the emotional experiences of different racial groups to better support students’ needs and academic success. In this work, we explore several physiological responses to ten different emotional stimuli captured from 140 students. We employ unsupervised learning via the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm and supervised learning via Random Forests and Support Vector machines to analyze clustering partitions and classification …

Structure Based Inhibitor Discovery Targeting Multiple Β-Lactamases Involved In Antibiotic Resistance, Afroza Akhtar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emergence of antibiotic resistance severely threatens the existing medication and prevention facilities against an over increasing range of infections caused by a wide range of microbes. Specifically, treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infection is getting more problematic due to their resilience against β-lactam antibiotics: the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in clinical settings. Production of β-lactamases is the most prevalent mechanism utilized by various Gram-negative pathogens to become resistant to the β-lactam antibiotics e.g, penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems and monobactams. These enzymes mediate their function through hydrolyzing the core β-lactam ring present in all β-lactam antibiotics which causes opening of the ring and …

Rainfall, Precipitation, And Drought Patterns Associated With Wintertime Transmission Of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (Eeev) In Florida, Bestami Cevher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Eastern Equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is a highly pathogenic alphavirus that causes disease in humans and horses. EEEV cases are common in the eastern North America, especially in horses in the State of Florida. EEEV cases are most common in Florida during May to August but also occur year-round, unlike most other locations. According to the Florida Department of Health, 65 EEEV horse cases were documented in the winter months between 2005 and 2018. This study investigates the meteorological activities that affect the wintertime transmission of the EEEV virus to horses. In this, we examined meteorological data up to a …

Chemical Tools And Treatments For Neurological Disorders And Infectious Diseases, Andrea Lemus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neurological disorders have multiple etiologies such as genetics and age. Stress related disorders are becoming more common and diagnosed more often. Mental health disorders are no longer being treated as purely psychological. Mechanisms into the underlying factors of these disorders continue to bring this area to new frontiers. Chapter 2 of this dissertation focuses on the efforts made to prove the association of the protein FKBP51 to the stress response. We synthesized and used a molecular tool to discover and prove these interactions.

The study of neurodegenerative diseases is of continued importance as the world reaches record numbers of an …

Antarctic Deep Sea Coral And Tropical Fungal Endophyte: Novel Chemistry For Drug Discovery, Anne-Claire D. Limon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Considered the pulse controlling the biological interactions and contributing to the ecological survival of organisms, natural products have intrigued, challenged, and stimulated the scientific and non-scientific minds for millennia. Drug resistance and the lack of suitable potent drugs against neglected tropical diseases further motivate the biological activity assessment of these secondary metabolites, when possible.

This thesis describes the chemical investigation of two marine organisms and the elucidation of eight novel structures.

The study of a deep sea Antarctic coral unveils six novel terpenoid structures from three different molecular classes: sesquiterpenoid alcyopterosins, a triterpene steroid, and three prostaglandins. While mass availability …

A Novel Cytokine Response Modulatory Function Of Mek Inhibitors Mediates Therapeutic Efficacy, Mengyu Xie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the recent success of immune-checkpoint blockade therapy for late-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. One of the most important characteristics of lung cancer in therapeutic decision-making are the targetable molecules, including EGFR, ALK, BRAF, and MEK. The excitement of immune-checkpoint blockade therapy has triggered concerted efforts that focus on exploring combinations of immune checkpoint therapy with other approved therapeutic regimens aiming at further augmenting positive outcomes and survival. However, the lack of understanding of underlying mechanisms and evidence-based clinical testing has hindered the progress to a cure. Hence, …

Least Of My Worries: Food Security, Diet Quality, And Antiretroviral Adherence Among People Living With Hiv, Charlotte Ann Noble

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More than forty years into the epidemic, HIV continues to impact the health and well-being of millions of people – nearly 37 million across the globe and in excess of 1 million in the U.S. – more than 44% of which live in the Southern United States. HIV continues to disproportionally affect marginalized populations, and vast amounts of money, time, and effort have been spent to understand how to slow the rate of new infections and improve health outcomes for People Living with HIV (PLWH). This study aims to understand the experience of living with and managing HIV while on …

The Chemical Ecology And Drug Discovery Potential Of The Antarctic Red Alga Plocamium Cartilagineum And The Antarctic Sponge Dendrilla Membranosa, Andrew Jason Shilling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical ecology is the study of chemical interactions between organisms and their environment mediated by small molecules involved in nonessential physiological functions, known as secondary metabolites. These compounds can be crucial to survival of the organism, and have also provided the field of medicine with some of history’s most influential drugs, referred to in that context as natural products. Antarctica is a dynamic and understudied environment, which affords the opportunity to examine the chemical ecology of unique organisms while simultaneously evaluating their novel chemistry for potential therapeutic properties as natural products.

Plocamium cartilagineum is a red macroalgal species found in …

An Assessment Of The Role Of Florida Pharmacists In The Administration Of Inactivated Influenza Vaccine To Pregnant Women, Oluyemisi O. Falope

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The influenza vaccine is a safe and effective vaccine in preventing influenza infection in the general population. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that pregnant women receive influenza inactivated vaccine (IIV) due to the high morbidity and mortality associated with influenza infection in pregnant women. Despite the recommendation, the U.S. national influenza vaccine uptake rates among pregnant women continue to remain low. Studies have shown barriers to influenza vaccine uptake in pregnant women to include issues with access, unavailability of vaccine, and lack of time during prenatal visits. These barriers can be overcome using pharmacists because, among healthcare providers, …

Epidemiological Analysis Of Malaria Decrease In El Salvador From 1955 Until 2017, Tatiana I. Gardellini Guevara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The disease of malaria is complex, with clinical presentation that ranges from severe and complicated to mild and uncomplicated or even to asymptomatic malaria. A recent effort made by several world organizations has shown important advances in the effort to control and eradicate malaria. Following the general ordinance established by the trans-border organizations, each country has tried to define, according to their local geopolitical scenario, individual ¨road maps¨ to succeed in reducing the morbidity and mortality caused by malaria. Moreover, it is now accepted universally that these road maps need to be revised and appropriated in order to correct actions …

Evaluating The Effect Of Temperature On A Human Parasite And Its Intermediate Snail Host: Implications For A Changing Climate, Karena H. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Global climate change is impacting the emergence, re-emergence, prevalence, and incidence of infectious diseases worldwide, including parasitic diseases of humans (Blum and Hotez 2018). Neglected tropical diseases, defined as a group of parasitic diseases affecting developing countries in the tropics (Hotez et al. 2007), are of particular concern because these diseases occur in areas that are also expected to experience rapid population growth and agricultural development in the coming decades. As human population and food demand increase, the greater the likelihood of humans encountering intermediate hosts that either inhabit agricultural areas or are impacted by agricultural development, which will influence …

Sundaas Story: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Household Sanitation Provisioning In Urban Informal Housing In India, Sarita Vijay Panchang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aims of this research were to examine sanitation insecurity in urban informal housing through the lens of the built environment, social disparities, and health implications. While the Millennium Development Goals for halving the global proportion of people without access to safe drinking water were met ahead of schedule, progress fell short for sanitation, creating new objectives for the Sustainable Development Goals to be met in 2030. Much research in the Global South is dedicated to community-level sanitation promotion, but often presumes a rural rather than urban setting. Urban informal housing settings constitute a unique challenge due to the range …

Design And Synthesis Of Novel Agents For The Treatment Of Tropical Diseases, Linda Corrinne Barbeto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Infectious diseases have had an impact on populations since the beginning of humanity. Despite huge advances in the fight against these conditions, they continue to be the leading cause of death and disability for a large portion of the world’s populace. Those most adversely affected predominately live in the more improvised areas of the developing world. Often treatments are made inaccessible to these areas due to cost, complicated administration requirements, severe side effects, and / or compound instability. Even when treatments are available the accelerated development of resistance has created an urgent need for the creation of new molecules with …

Modulations Of Lipid Membranes Caused By Antimicrobial Agents And Helix 0 Of Endophilin, Nawal Kishore Khadka

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the cellular membrane interaction with membrane active biomolecules and antimicrobial agents provides an insight in their working mechanism. Here, we studied the effect of antimicrobial agents; a recently developed peptidomimetics E107-3 and colistin as well as the N-terminal helix H0, of Endophilin A1 on the lipid bilayer.

It is important to discern the interaction mechanism of antimicrobial peptides with lipid membranes in battling multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens. We study the modification of structural and mechanical properties with a recently reported peptidomimetic on lipid bilayer. The compound referred to as E107-3 is synthesized based on the acylated reduced amide scaffold …

A Small Rna And Dna Binding Protein Contribute To Biofilm Development In Bartonella Henselae, Udoka Okaro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A biofilm, which is associated with 80% of chronic infections in humans, is formed when bacteria aggregate, attach to a substrate and secrete a matrix protecting the bacteria from host cell defenses and antibiotics. Bartonella henselae (B. henselae) is the causative agent of cat scratch disease, persistent bacteremia, and one of the most frequently reported causes of blood-culture negative endocarditis (BCNE) in patients. The ability of B. henselae to adhere to the heart valve, form a biofilm and vegetation to cause endocarditis increases the morbidity and mortality rate in infected patients. The presence of a trimeric autotransporter adhesin (TAA) called …

Risk And Resilience Pertaining To Mental Health Of Youth Attending A College In Kathmandu Who Were Exposed To The 2015 Earthquakes During Their Adolescence: A Mixed Method Study, Vinita Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Adverse mental health outcomes have been previously reported among survivors of natural disasters. Available studies mostly focus on risk factors and not resilience. In 2015, a series of earthquakes caused massive loss of lives and livelihood in Nepal. Epidemiological data pertaining to youth mental health in Nepal is limited. Information about the post-earthquake mental health of youth who were exposed to earthquakes during their adolescence in Nepal is scarce.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to address risk and resilience factors related to mental health among college-attending Nepali youth (18-20 years) exposed to the 2015 earthquake during their …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of The Parasitic Nematode Aplectana Hamatospicula On The Performance And Behavior Of Cuban Treefrogs (Osteopilus Septentrionalis), Kerri Surbaugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parasitic infections are ubiquitous in nature, and host-parasite dynamics can have powerful effects on wildlife populations. Many species have evolved behavioral responses to infection that can help mitigate damage from parasites. Anorexia is a common response to infection observed throughout the animal kingdom. Reducing nutrient intake can help shift host resources from digestion to immunity, as well as limit resources available to parasites. Reduced feeding can weaken the host, but in some host-parasite interactions, this cost is less than that of maintaining an infection. Here, I describe an experiment aimed to explore the effects of the parasitic nematode Aplectana hamatospicula …

Evolutionary Dynamics Of Influenza Type B In The Presence Of Vaccination: An Ecological Study, Lindsey J. Fiedler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of influenza type B in human hosts is a public health concern as we strive to minimize the disease burden in seasonal epidemics. Vaccination is considered the best defense against contracting influenza, and everyone over the age of 6 months is advised to get vaccinated before each season. The effect that vaccine-acquired immunity has on the evolution of influenza B remains unclear. In the U.S., vaccine-uptake is irregular across the states, and the differing coverages present an opportunity to study how vaccination influences viral evolution. This thesis analyzes the evolutionary patterns of influenza B in the …