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Cloning And Analysis Of Putative Collagenases Of The U32 Family In Streptococcus Mutans And Streptococcus Agalactiae (Group B Streptococci), Valerie Carson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of the genomic sequences of Streptococcus mutans UA159 and Group B Streptococcus (GBS) strains Streptococcus agalactiae NEM316 and S. agalactiae 2603V/R indicated the presence of two putative collagenase genes in each organism. smcol1 from S. mutans was previously cloned and analyzed and the results indicated that the enzyme belonged to the U32 family of collagenases/peptidases. This enzyme shares homology with the prtC of Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the principal examples of the U32 family of peptidases. Considering the potential role of these enzymes in the pathogenicity of P. gingivalis (periodontitis or gum disease), GBS (premature rupture of the amniochorionic …

Cue Reactivity And The Role Of Social Alcohol Expectancies In The College-Aged Drinking Population, Ashlee C. Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown alcohol expectancies to be critically important in understanding maladaptive drinking patterns within alcohol use disorders. Alcohol expectancies, thought to be automatically elicited in the presence of environmental alcohol-related cues, represent both cognitive and affective associations with drinking behavior. However, the automatic and affective properties of alcohol expectancies have not yet been thoroughly measured in the literature. Psychophysiological measures, including skin conductance, heart rate, and the acoustic startle response in particular, offer a uniquely powerful set of indices for the automatic affective processing of alcohol-related cues.

Therefore, the present study was designed to examine how alcohol expectancies moderate …

Enzyme Linked Spectroscopic Assays For Glyoxylate; The Use Of Peptidylglycine Alpha-Amidating Monoxygenase For The Discovery Of Novel Alpha-Amidated Hormones, Sarah Elizabeth Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peptide hormones are responsible for cellular functions critical to the survival of an organism. Approximately 50% of all known peptide hormones are post-translationally modified at the C-terminus. Enzymatic oxidative conversion of C-terminal glycine extended peptide precursors results in an a-amidated peptide and glyoxylate. Peptidylglycine a-amidating monooxygenase (PAM) is the single known enzyme responsible for catalyzing this reaction. PAM is an O2, Cu(II), and Zn(II) dependent bifunctional enzyme. Initially, PAM hydroxylates the glycyl a-carbon followed by dealkylation of the hydroxylated intermediate to an a-amidated product and glyoxylate. PAM is also responsible for the conversion of glycine extended fatty acids to fatty …

The Effects Of Multimedia Annotations On L2 Vocabulary Immediate Recall And Reading Comprehension: A Comparative Study Of Text-Picture And Audio-Picture Annotations Under Incidental And Intentional Learning Conditions, Zhaohui Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the effects of multimedia annotation on L2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The overarching objective of this study was to compare the effects of text-picture annotation and audio-picture annotation on L2 vocabulary immediate recall and reading comprehension. This study also sought to examine the different effects under incidental and intentional learning conditions. The participants were 78 intermediate adult ESL learners from three universities in northwest U.S. The participants read an Internet-based English text. Twenty target words, annotated in either text-picture or audio-picture, were embedded in the reading text. The participants accessed the annotations by clicking on the …

Statistical Modeling And Assessment Of Software Reliability, Louis Richard Camara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study is concerned with developing some statistical models to evaluate and analyze software reliability. We have developed the analytical structure of the logistic model to be used for testing and evaluating the reliability of a software package. The proposed model has been shown to be useful in the testing and debugging stages of the developmental process of a software package. It is important that prior to releasing a software package to marketing that we have achieved a target reliability with an acceptable degree of confidence. The proposed model has been evaluated and compared with several existing statistical models …

Monitoring Water Quality In Tampa Bay: Coupling In Situ And Remote Sensing, Zhiqiang Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water quality in Tampa Bay was examined using concurrent in situ and satellite remote sensing observations. Chlorophyll and suspended sediment concentrations showed large short-term variability, primarily driven by tide and wind forcing. Superimposed on these high frequency variations were recurrent phytoplankton blooms stimulated by decreases in turbidity 1-2 days after wind-induced bottom sediment resuspension events; the blooms were particularly strong if neap tides occurred after the wind events. The in situ data show that observations once per month are inadequate to sample short-term variability and that therefore the current monthly water quality surveys may have uncertainties of -50 to 200% …

Framing Requests For Parental Participation In Family Research, David Clay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on fathers and their willingness to participate in family related research studies. Traditional expectations of parental roles have hindered the inclusion of fathers in research studies despite gradual changes in cultural norms and research studies that indicate fathers have a significant influence on the developmental outcomes of children. Recent work in this area indicates that fathers are just as likely as mothers to participate in family related research. This study sought to shed light on this issue. Employees at three large Southeastern Universities were asked to participate in one of three different types of research: Academics, Athletics, …

Performance Based Design Of Degrading Structures, Mouchir Chenouda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Seismic code provisions are now adopting performance-based methodologies, where structures are designed to satisfy multiple performance objectives. Most codes rely on approximate methods to predict the desired seismic demand parameters. Most of these methods are based on simple SDOF models, and do not take into account neither MDOF nor degradation effects, which are major factors influencing structural behavior under earthquake excitations. More importantly, most of these models can not predict collapse explicitly under severe seismic loads. This research presents a newly developed model that incorporates degradation effects into seismic analysis of structures. A new energy-based approach is used to define …

Bacteriophage For The Elimination Of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (Mrsa) Colonization And Infection, Angela Clem

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is among the most important pathogens affecting the human race in our time. In spite of recent medical advances, our therapeutic choices for MRSA infections remain limited due to the propensity of this organism to develop resistance to antimicrobials. Therefore, there is a continuing need to develop newer methods of treating MRSA infections. This dissertation examines the effects of bacteriophages 88 and 92 on ten clinical isolates of MRSA from the central Florida area. . For the majority of the MRSA isolates, bacteriophages 88 and 92 were unable to induce lysis. However, bacteriophage 88 was found …

Genetic Variation In The Chloroplast Genome Of A Newly Described Aster Species, Chrysopsis Delaneyi, Justine Ann Clark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The genus Chrysopsis (Asteraceae) contains eleven species native to Florida, including the newly described species, Chrysopsis delaneyi. Populations of this endemic plant species inhabit the Lake Wales Ridge (LWR) and the Atlantic Ridge (AR) of the Florida peninsula. Differences in morphology have been demonstrated within C. delaneyi, based on their locations. My objective was to determine the relationships between the LWR and the AR populations by analysis of chloroplast sequence and nuclear sequence variation. Approximately 160 samples of C. delaneyi and its sister species C. scabrella have been collected from fifteen sites throughout Florida. Six single base differences were detected, …

Traumatic Loss And Transformative Life Experiences: The Lived Experience Of Green Cross Traumatologists Deployed To The New York City World Trade Center Disaster, Carron C. Cherrie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines the lived experience of Green Cross traumatologists deployed to the New York City World Trade Center disaster. The deployment took place five days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The author was a member of a ten member advance team that provided crisis stabilization services to an international union in Lower Manhattan. Disaster Mental Health Services and community outreach were provided for a month. The purpose of the study was to describe in an anthropologically holistic perspective the lived experience of traumatologists, who as Americans were also affected by the terrorist disaster. Thirty-one traumatologists …

Investigation Of Normalized Streamflow In West Central Florida And Extrapolation To Ungaged Coastal Fringe Tributaries, Kim Beth Clayback

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deriving accurate streamflow estimates for ungaged watersheds provides a challenging task for water resource engineers. Traditional methods include correlation to the nearest USGS streamflow station or numeric simulation of watershed rainfall-runoff processes. Mean annual flow, ten percent exceedance and other streamflow indices can be normalized and non-dimensionalized by dividing by the watershed drainage area and the mean annual precipitation rate. Obtaining non-dimensional parameters can be especially useful for extrapolation of flows to downstream, ungaged, coastal fringe regions. Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast exhibit strong variability in the magnitude of streamflow fraction of precipitation. The irregular patterns created …

The Association Of Head Circumference With Selected Cognitive Outcomes In Older Adults In Charlotte County, Florida, Cathleen Copenhaver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVE: The brain reserve hypothesis was examined in a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from a community-based sample of 468 older adults residing in Charlotte County, Florida. The objective of the analysis was to determine the association between head circumference and eight cognitive outcomes and to assess any potential effect modification of existing associations by Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype. METHODS: Cognitive outcomes include scores from the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam (3MS), the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R), Stroop Color-Word Test, Trail-Making Test A and B, and a word-stem completion task measuring implicit memory. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each variable. …

The Influence Of Performance Background On Instrumentalists’ Ability To Discriminate And Label Cornet And Trumpet Timbre, Gary Compton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was an examination of timbre discrimination and labeling, with specific consideration of the soprano-brass timbres of cornets and trumpets. This study sought to determine whether instrumentalists differed in their ability to label and discriminate cornet and trumpet timbres, and whether these abilities were influenced by the instrumentalists' performing instrument and years of playing experience. Wind, brass and percussion players (n=100) from existing instrumental groups in the Tampa Bay area participated in the study. These groups were collegiate trumpet majors from a large public university school of music, a collegiate wind ensemble from a private university, and a brass …

Implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Exploring The Influence Of Socio-Cultural, Academic, Behavioral, And Implementation Process Variables, Rachel Mara Cohen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the influence of academic, behavioral, and sociocultural variables on the implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), a system intended to improve discipline in school buildings. The number of schools that are implementing SWPBS has been increasing dramatically over the years as school violence continues to rise and solutions are needed to improve school climate. This study examined the relationship between three categories of variables and the level of implementation of SWPBS in three multiple regression analyses. The categories were school demographic variables (i.e., ethnicity, socio-economic status, teacher: student ratio, percentage of teachers who are out-of-field), severity …

The Effects Of Community-Based Service-Learning On Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs About Equitable Science Teaching And Learning, Neporcha T. Cone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and Science for all Americans (AAAS, 1989) explicitly state that all students regardless of their age, cultural or ethnic backgrounds, gender, abilities, aspirations, or interest in science should have access to equitable educational resources in science. These equitable resources also include access to efficacious teachers of all students. However, the Standards fail to explicate what practices, if any, lead to the development of these teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to identify teacher education practices that positively influenced preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about equitable science teaching and learning. More specifically, …

Herbivory By Leaf Miners On Florida Scrub Oaks, Tatiana Cornelissen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated effects of plant quality and natural enemies on the abundance and survivorship of several leaf miner species on Florida scrub oaks over several ecological scales. Three oak species (Quercus laevis, Q. geminata, and Q. myrtifolia) and four leafminer species (Acrocercops albinatella, Brachys tesselatus, Stilbosis quadripustulatus, and Cameraria sp. nova) were the main focus of five separate studies, addressing effects of bottom-up and top-down factors at regional, local, and individual scales. At the regional scale, it was observed that Cameraria sp. nova was aggregated into sites, and sites closer to …

Behavioral And Auditory Evoked Potential (Aep) Hearing Measurements In Odontocete Cetaceans, Mandy Lee Hill Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and other odontocete cetaceans rely on sound for communication, navigation, and foraging. Therefore, hearing is one of their primary sensory modalities. Both natural and anthropogenic noise in the marine environment could mask the ability of free-ranging dolphins to detect sounds, and chronic noise exposure could cause permanent hearing losses. In addition, several mass strandings of odontocete cetaceans, especially beaked whales, have been correlated with military exercises involving mid-frequency sonar, highlighting unknowns regarding hearing sensitivity in these animals.Auditory evoked potential (AEP) methods are attractive over traditional behavioral methods for measuring the hearing of marine mammals because they …

A Descriptive Analysis Of The Relationship Between Specific Teacher Characteristics And Teacher Efficacy In Florida’S Low-Performing Public High Schools, Pamela S. Craig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to collect data to determine the specific characteristics (gender, level and area of degree status, certification status, pedagogical training, gender, number of years of teaching experience, number of years teaching at the current school, and courses currently taught) of language arts teachers at Florida's low-performing pubic high schools and compare these characteristics to teachers' sense of efficacy (the extent to which teachers' believe they have the ability to bring about changes in student achievement independent of the student's background, behaviors, or motivation level). A total of 615 teachers representing 84 schools in 36 districts participated in …

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Independent Transfers And Pressure Relief Tasks In Persons With Sci: Pilot Study, Tony J. Cresta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Persons with paraplegia who use a manual wheelchair for mobility are at high risk for overuse injuries in the upper extremities. Years of shoulder overuse performing transfers, wheelchair propulsion, dressing, bathing, and household chores, (activities of daily living or ADL) leads to an increased incidence of cumulative trauma to the shoulders. Few studies have addressed the stressful task of wheelchair transfers among SCI individuals. The goal of this pilot study is to develop valid and reliable measurement technologies to quantify shoulder musculoskeletal stressors during wheelchair transfers and pressure relief tasks among individuals with SCI. Using a standard wheelchair, 10 participants …

Parent Involvement: Differences Between African Americans And European Americans In One Florida School District, Michelle Darter-Lagos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to (a) analyze perceptions of parent involvement across raters (i.e., seventh grade students versus their parents) and across ethnicity (i.e., African American versus European American), and (b) examine how perceptions of parent involvement are related to academic achievement. A subsample of archival survey data collected in one central Florida school district was analyzed for the current study. Findings revealed a positive but weak relationship between students' and parents' perceptions of parent involvement regardless of ethnicity. Significant differences were found in the perceived levels of involvement by ethnicity, even when controlling for SES. In …

Risk And Protective Factors Related To Resilience In Adolescents In An Alternative Education Program, Kelly M. Crawford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using a multivariate correlational design, this study was designed to determine the degree to which selected risk and protective factors were related to resilience in an at-risk student population. A total of 12 individual, family and external risk and protective factors were identified and data were collected from 142 6th through 11th grade students in an alternative education program for individuals who had committed severe behavioral infractions. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted using three outcome variables: a rating of students' resilient behavior, number of behavior referrals in the students' records, and standardized reading achievement scores. Five percent …

Reconstructing 20th Century Sst Variability In The Southwest Pacific: A Replication Study Using Multiple Coral Sr/Ca Records From New Caledonia, Kristine L. Delong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coral-based climate reconstructions typically have not used multiple cores from a region to capture and replicate a climate signal largely because of concerns focused on coral conservation, analytical expense, and time constraints. Coral Sr/Ca reproducibility through the 20th century was investigated using three intra-colony and three inter-colony coral records, from the reefs offshore of Amédée Island, New Caledonia. Different sampling resolutions were examined in coral Sr/Ca (fortnightly and monthly) and delta 18O (fortnightly, monthly, and seasonally) as well as similar scale subsampling of the daily in situ SST record. The mean coral Sr/Ca, delta 18O, and daily SST values do …

Some Problems On Products Of Random Matrices, Edgardo S. Cureg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We consider three problems in this dissertation, all under the unifying theme of random matrix products. The first and second problems are concerned with weak convergence in stochastic matrices and circulant matrices, respectively, and the third is concerned with the numerical calculation of the Lyapunov exponent associated with some random Fibonacci sequences. Stochastic matrices are nonnegative matrices whose row sums are all equal to 1. They are most commonly encountered as transition matrices of Markov chains. Circulant matrices, on the other hand, are matrices where each row after the first is just the previous row cyclically shifted to the right …

Pain As A Motivator Of Smoking: Effects Of Pain Induction On Smoking Urge And Behavior, Joseph W. Ditre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco smoking has been associated with the development, protraction, and exacerbation of chronically painful conditions. Conversely, there is reason to believe that smokers may be motivated to use tobacco as a means of coping with their pain. To date, no controlled, experimental studies have tested for a causal relationship between pain and smoking motivation. The primary aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that laboratory-induced cold-pressor pain would enhance smoking motivation, as measured by self-reported urge to smoke and observation of immediate smoking behavior. The effect of a smoking cue was also tested. Smokers (n = 132) …

The Commodification Of Yoga In Contemporary U.S. Culture, Michelle E. Demeter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Yoga is an increasingly visible and versatile commodity in the United States health market. Though its origins stretch to pre-Vedic India and its traditional religious purpose is linked to Hinduism, it is evident that yoga has undergone much change since its transmission to U.S. culture. In its popular, widespread incarnation in the United States, yoga is not usually learned at the feet of a guru, but at exercise centers and gyms. These secular locales of yoga's practice help define the "yoga phenomenon" in contemporary America. This phenomenon has resulted in yoga's wide acceptance and high visibility in American popular culture …

The Identification Of Functional, Sequestered, Symbiotic Chloroplasts In Elysia Clarki: A Crucial Step In The Study Of Horizontally Transferred, Nuclear Algal Genes, Nicholas E. Curtis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A comparison of Elysia (=Tridachia) crispata (Mörch, 1863) from the Virgin Islands with elysiid slugs from the mangrove swamps and canals in the Florida Keys that have previously been identified as E. crispata reveals many differences in habitat, gross and microscopic anatomy, food preferences of juveniles, sources of symbiotic chloroplasts and their localization within the digestive tubules, radular morphology, and nucleic acid sequences of two genes. The differences between the two groups of slugs are such that the Florida Keys animals are considered to represent a new species, Elysia clarki. Elysia clarki feeds on siphonaceous algae, and intracellularly sequesters the …

Rapid Detection Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis In Lung Tissue Using A Fiber Optic Biosensor, Kimberly A. Denton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is no rapid diagnostic technique at medical examiners' offices to determine if a decedent is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Present diagnostic testing requires at least one month for results. A biosensor-based sandwich immunoassay for the detection of M. tuberculosis was developed in this study. M. tuberculosis polyclonal antibody was used for target antigen capture and detection in the immunoassay. Live attenuated M. tuberculosis (ATCC 25177) suspended in phosphate-buffered saline with 0.1% Tween 20 was used as the antigen in the detection assay. The Analyte 2000 was the initial biosensor platform. Initial testing was of Freund's adjuvant complete. M. tuberculosis …

The Role Of Src Homology 2 Domain Containing Inositol-5’-Phosphatase 1 (Ship) In Hematopoietic Cells, Caroline Desponts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The principal isoform of Src homology (SH) 2-domain containing 5' inositol phosphatase protein 1 (SHIP) is a 145kDa protein primarily expressed by cells of the hematopoietic compartment. The enzymatic activity of SHIP is responsible for hydrolyzing the 5' phosphate of phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3), and thereby preventing the recruitment of pleckstrin homology domain containing effector proteins. Furthermore, SHIP contains protein-protein interaction domains, such as an SH2 domain, two NPXY and several proline-rich motifs. All of these different domains endow SHIP with the capacity to impact signaling pathways important for proliferation, survival, differentiation and activation. Therefore, we hypothesized that SHIP-deficiency could result in …

Evaluation Of Certain Exponential Sums Of Quadratic Functions Over A Finite Field Of Odd Characteristic, Sandra D. Draper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Let p be an odd prime, and define f(x) as follows: f(x) as the sum from 1 to k of a_i times x raised to the power of (p to the power of (alpha_i+1)) in F_(p to the power of n)[x] where 0 is less than or equal to alpha_1 < alpha_2 < ... < alpha_k where alpha_k is equal to alpha. We consider the exponential sum S(f, n) equal to the sum_(x as x runs over the finite field with (p to the n elements) of zeta_(p to the power of Tr_n (f(x))), where zeta_p equals e to the power of (2i times pi divided by p) and Tr_n is the trace from the finite field with p to the n elements to the finite field with p elements.We provide necessary background from number theory and review the basic facts about quadratic forms over a finite field with p elements through both the multivariable and single variable approach. Our main objective is to compute S(f, n) explicitly. The sum S(f, n) is determined by two quantities: the nullity and the type of the quadratic form Tr_n (f(x)).

We give an effective algorithm for the computation of the nullity. Tables of numerical values of the nullity are included. However, the type is more subtle and more difficult to determine. Most of our investigation concerns the type. We obtain "relative formulas" for S(f, mn) in terms of S(f, n) …