Digital Commons Network^™

Soil Seed Banks Of Fringing Salt Lake Vegetation In Arid Western Australia - Density, Composition And Implications For Postmine Restoration Using Topsoil, Eddie J. Van Etten, Brett Neasham, Sarah Dalgleish

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Although studies of seed banks in arid ecosystems are commonplace, they are lacking for the large arid zone of Western Australia. Across the six major plant communities fringing a large salt lake within this zone, topsoil (0-5 cm depth) was collected from 12 to 36 sites per community. Samples were dried, spread out on a bed of vermiculite in seedling trays and placed in a well-watered glasshouse to determine the readily germinable component of the soil seed bank. Subsamples of topsoil were treated with smoke water, hot water or flooding to help determine seed bank of species with dormancy mechanisms. …

A Method To Optimize A Typology-Based Classification System, Christopher Schnitzler, James Croft, Chris Button, Mats Ulmers, Keith Davids

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study sought to provide guidelines for implementing typology-based qualitative analysis of human movement patterns. Fifteen participant-analysts were instructed how to classify treading water behaviours into eight different categories using a training set of videos. They were later provided with two additional sets of videos called validation, and test sets. Results first identified reliable (n=9), and not reliable (n=6) analysts. A decision study outlined that one analyst was sufficient to reliably categorize the behaviours in the 'reliable' analyst group, whereas up to four were necessary in the 'unreliable' group. These data provided new insights into more objective qualitative analysis methods …

Hrecs And Journalism Research: The Uneven Playing Field, Kayt Davies

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article continues an ongoing investigation into the problems that contemporary researchers in Australia using journalism as a methodology face in meeting the bureaucratic requirements of Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs). This discussion in the peer-reviewed literature includes Richards (2009), Turner (2011), Lindgren and Phillips (2011), Romano (2012) and two articles by the author (Davies 2011a, 2011b). These two articles explored the flexibility built into the HREC's guiding document, the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, in 2007 in order to make it possible for research that does not fit the standard scientific model to gain timely approval. …

Seagrass Canopy Photosynthetic Response Is A Function Of Canopy Density And Light Environment: A Model For Amphibolis Griffithii, John D. Hedley, Kathryn Mcmahon, Peter Fearns

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A three-dimensional computer model of canopies of the seagrass Amphibolis griffithii was used to investigate the consequences of variations in canopy structure and benthic light environment on leaf-level photosynthetic saturation state. The model was constructed using empirical data of plant morphometrics from a previously conducted shading experiment and validated well to in-situ data on light attenuation in canopies of different densities. Using published values of the leaf-level saturating irradiance for photosynthesis, results show that the interaction of canopy density and canopy-scale photosynthetic response is complex and non-linear, due to the combination of self-shading and the non-linearity of photosynthesis versus irradiance …

Psychophysiological Research Of Borderline Personality Disorder: Review And Implications For Biosocial Theory, Tara Cavazzi, Rodrigo Becerra

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

According to the Biosocial theory, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is developed by a biological predisposition to hyperarousal and hyperreactivity combined with an invalidating environment. Although widely supported by subjective measures, the impaired insight present in BPD may skew results, and thus psychophysiological measures have been suggested as an alternative method of examining possible biological differences in BPD. The current review aimed to critically assess psychophysiological research of BPD by electronic searching of relevant databases, with 22 articles meeting inclusion criteria. Results showed that in contrast to the hyperarousal proposed in the Biosocial theory, BPD was associated with hypoarousal and hyporeactivity …

Biomarkers Of Alzheimer's Disease Risk In Peripheral Tissues; Focus On Buccal Cells, Maxime François, Wayne Leifert, Ralph Martins, Philip Thomas, Michael Fenech

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disorder of the brain and is the most common form of dementia. To-date no simple, inexpensive and minimally invasive procedure is available to confirm with certainty the early diagnosis of AD prior to the manifestations of symptoms characteristic of the disease. Therefore, if population screening of individuals is to be performed, more suitable, easily accessible tissues would need to be used for a diagnostic test that would identify those who exhibit cellular pathology indicative of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD risk so that they can be prioritized for primary prevention. This need …

A Framework For Clarifying The Goal And Implementation Of Iso, Layla M. Al Hameed, Philip J. Dobson, Paul D. Jackson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Many organisations are dissatisfied with the outcomes of ISO implementations. This paper proposes that this dissatisfaction is often a consequence of a lack of clarity as to the goal of the implementation and the lack of a clear linkage to the organisational goal over the implementation. The paper proposes that the use of the relatively new tool from the Theory of Constraints –the Strategy and Tactic (S&T) tree can help to provide this linkage and to guide the subsequent implementation. The integration of the S&T Tree and Treacy and Wiersema’s Value Discipline model (1993) is used to focus the original …

Regulation Of Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (Asgm) In Ghana And Indonesia As Currently Implemented Fails To Adequately Protect Aquatic Ecosystems, Karunia F. Macdonald, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette, Clinton D. Mccullough

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) operations are largely unregulated, informal and transient. Rudimentary mining and processing techniques used in ASGM often result in degraded environmental, safety, health and social conditions. ASGM requires permanent sources of water, placing most operations close to natural water bodies. Until recently, the impact on these environments has been largely overlooked, with most studies focussing primarily on mercury contamination and health concerns. Based on Ghanaian and Indonesian experiences, regulation of ASGM is a good step toward improvement, but here we argue that regulation alone is insufficient to improve environmental performance, particularly when the impacts of …

Are We Approaching Pit Lake Closure From The Wrong Perspective?, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Pit lakes are similar to natural lakes formed by faulting, glacial action, volcanic action and asteroid collisions. These natural lakes have, after thousands of years, developed into environmentally significant ecosystems. As artificial constructs, pit lakes can be modified prior to filling to enhance lake attributes, such as modification of catchment size, creation of littoral zones and addition of organic matter. Significant advances could be made in successful closure and relinquishment of pit lakes, by 1) choosing appropriate model lakes, 2) understanding successional processes, 3) designing pit lakes to enhance ecological values, and 4) recognizing that it will take time to …

Experiences Of Heat Stress Vulnerability And Climate Change Among Farmers In Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong, Jacques D. Oosthuizen, Eddie J. Van Etten

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The trend over the last decade of increasing temperature associated with climate change with the impacts being felt in the poorest communities of the developing world is unequivocal. Bawku East of northern Ghana is assessed as one of the poorest communities. Being a farming community the study investigates the extent of farmers’ experiences on heat and climate change. A selected number of 308 farmers from a farming population of over 15,000 were interviewed about heat stress and climate change to gauge their level of vulnerability to heat stress at the household and farm levels, as well as their general experiences …

On The Application Of Genetic Probabilistic Neural Networksand Cellular Neural Networks In Precision Agriculture, Oluleye H. Babatunde, Leisa Armstrong, Jinsong Leng, Dean Diepeveen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article details the effect of Gaussian smoothing parameter (spread) on the performance of Probabilistic Neural Networks (PNN). Two (2) different Genetic Algorithms (GAs) were used to optimize the PNN spread in order to avoid under and over fitting. In this work there is a novel combination of Cellular Neural Networks (CNN), Probabilistic Neural Networks (PNN) and GA to address the present challenges on automatic identification of plant species. Such problems include misclassification species of plants that are similar in shapes and image segmentation speed. In this work, GA was used in both feature selection and PNN parameter optimization. The …

High Fibre Diets And Alzheimer's Disease, Ian J. Martins, Warnakulasuriya M. Fernando

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The convergence of diet and AD may be related to the effects of phytosterols since plasma cholesterol is closely linked and regulated by phytosterols. Dietary fibre modifications that are low in fat and glucose reduce the risk for AD by not only effecting cell membranes and nutrient sensing G coupled receptors but also by regulating number of nuclear receptors such as histone deacetylases (HDAC) and peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPAR) that control glucose, fatty acids and cholesterol and have significant effects on the brain cholesterol homeostasis and amyloidosis. The peripheral sink Aβ hypothesis indicates that the peripheral clearance of Aβ …

Induction Of Nafld With Increased Risk Of Obesity And Chronic Diseases In Developed Countries, Ian J. Martins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The susceptibility of individuals to obesity has been reported in many developed countries with predisposition of humans to obesity associated with high calorie diets and unhealthy lifestyles. Obesity may closely be involved in cell suicide in various organ diseases with the importance of accelerated aging that requires early intervention with drug therapy to prevent diseases such as non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that has increased in children and reached to approx. 40% of the global population. Obesity is induced by various diets and lifestyle factors such as stress, anxiety and depression which are important to consider with the global …

The Acquisition Of Expertise In The Classroom: Are Current Models Of Education Appropriate?, Craig P. Speelman

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The study of expertise tends to focus on humans who can perform extraordinary feats. Although the way in which expertise is acquired is often characterized as similar to everyday skill acquisition, the attainment of basic numeracy skills is rarely considered in the same context as the attainment of expertise. It is clear, though, that average numeracy skills possess all the hallmarks of expert performance. In this paper I argue that the traditional classroom of Western education systems pays insufficient attention to the idea that effective numeracy skills represent a level of expertise that requires a particular form of training. Using …

Text Extraction In Natural Scenes Using Region-Based Method, Zhihu Huang, Jinsong Leng

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Text in images is a very important clue for image indexing and retrieving. Unfortunately, it is a challenging work to accurately and robustly extract text from a complex background image. In this paper, a novel region-based text extraction method is proposed. In doing so, the candidate text regions are detected by 8-connected objects detection algorithm based on the edge image. Then the non-text regions are filtered out using shape, texture and stroke width rules. Finally, the remaining regions are grouped into text lines. Since stroke width is the intrinsic and particular characteristics of the text, the accuracy of the non-text …

A New Troglobitic Ideoroncid Pseudoscorpion (Pseudoscorpiones: Ideoroncidae) From Southern Africa, Mark S. Harvey, Gerhard Du Preez

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The first blind African species of Ideoroncidae is described from a cave in northwestern Botswana, Botswanoncus ellisi, representing a new genus and a new species. Apart from the complete lack of eyes, it is also unusual in having the lowest recorded number of trichobothria of any adult ideoroncid with 17 on the fixed finger and nine on the movable finger.

Recent Trends In Temperature And Relative Humidity In Bawku East, Northern Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong, Jacques D. Oosthuizen, Eddie J. Van Etten

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Extensive analyses of trends in mean annual and mean seasonal minimum and maximum temperatures and relative humidity were examined for Bawku East, northern Ghana, for the period 1961 to 2012. Mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures were used to analyse and establish recent temperature trends on an annual and seasonal basis. The year was divided into rainy and dry seasons for the seasonal trends. Mean monthly relative humidity at 6 am and 3 pm from 1961 to 2012 were considered to show recent trends in humidity since temperature and humidity interact to determine the heat exposure for outdoor workers. Regression …

A National Investigation Of Pre-Activity Health Screening Procedures In Fitness Facilities: Perspectives From American College Of Sports Medicine Certified Health Fitness Specialists, Aaron C. Craig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is well established in the literature that the morbidity and mortality rates due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes in the U.S are alarmingly high. Likewise, there is ample data which demonstrates that participating in physical activity can help prevent and control many types of chronic diseases. Though the benefits outweigh the risks of participation in physical activity, the risks must be acknowledged.

Published standards and guidelines in the health fitness field have been established to address operational practices of fitness facilities, increase safety of participants and mitigate these risks. The present study was …

Theoretical And Experimental Investigations To Improve The Performance Of Surface Acoustic Wave (Saw) Biosensors, Mandek Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to improve the performance of surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensors for use in point-of-care-testing (POCT) applications. SAW biosensors have the ability to perform fast, accurate detection of an analyte in real time without the use of labels. However, the technology suffers from the inability to differentiate between specific and non-specific binding. Due to this limitation, direct testing of bodily fluids using SAW sensors to accurately determine an analyte's concentration is difficult. In addition, these sensors are challenged by the need to detect small concentrations of a biomarker that are typically required to give a …

The Agency Roots Of Disparate Impact, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

The disparate impact strand of antidiscrimination law provides the possibility of challenging harmful employment, education, housing, and other public and private policies and practices without the often-difficult burden of proving intentional discrimination. And yet the disparate impact standard seems to be facing its own burdens. Rulings by the Supreme Court in recent years have shaken the disparate impact standard's footing. In Ricci v. De- Stefano, the Court rejected a frontal assault to the disparate impact standard under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but cast the standard as at odds with Title VII's true core – …

Spatial Reorganization Of Putaminal Dopamine D2-Like Receptors In Cranial And Hand Dystonia, Kevin J. Black, Abraham Z. Snyder, Jonathan W. Mink, Veeral N. Tolia, Fredy J. Revilla, Stephen M. Moerlein, Joel S. Perlmutter

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Dysferlin Mediates The Cytoprotective Effects Of Traf2 Following Myocardial Ischemia Reperfusion Injury, Huei-Ping Tzeng, Sarah Evans, Feng Gao, Kari Chambers, Veli K. Topkara, Natarajan Sivasubramanian, Philip M. Barger, Douglas L. Mann

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Clinical Implications For Patients Treated Inappropriately For Community-Acquired Pneumonia In The Emergency Department, Scott T. Micek, Adam Lang, Brian M. Fuller, Nicholas B. Hampton, Marin H. Kollef

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Development And Feasibility Of A Home-Based Education Model For Families Of Children With Sickle Cell Disease, Catherine Hoyt Drazen, Regina Abel, Terianne Lindsey, Allison A. King

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Conference Highlights Of The 16th International Conference On Human Retrovirology: Htlv And Related Retroviruses, 26–30 June 2013, Montreal, Canada, Benoit Barbeau, John Hiscott, Ali Bazarbachi, Edgar Carvalho, Kathryn Jones, Fabiola Martin, Masao Matsuoka, Edward L. Murphy, Lee Ratner, William M. Switzer, Toshiki Watanabe

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

A Retrospective Analysis Of Survival And Prognostic Factors After Stereotactic Radiosurgery For Aggressive Meningiomas, Daniel J. Ferraro, Ryan K. Funk, John William Blackett, Michelle R. Ju, Todd A. Dewees, Michael R. Chicoine, Joshua L. Dowling, Keith M. Rich, Robert E. Drzymala, Imran Zoberi, Joseph R. Simpson, Jerry J. Jaboin

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Case Records Of The Massachusetts General Hospital. Case 1-2014. A 32-Year-Old Man With Loss Of Vision And A Rash, Melvin S. Blanchard, Javier M. Romero, Mai P. Hoang

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Unexpected Abrupt Increase In Left Ventricular Assist Device Thrombosis, Randall C. Starling, Nader Moazami, Scott C. Silvestry, Gregory Ewald, Joseph G. Rogers, Carmelo A. Milano, J Eduardo Rame, Michael A. Acker, Eugene H. Blackstone, John Ehrlinger, Lucy Thuita, Maria M. Mountis, Edward G. Soltesz, Bruce W. Lytle, Nicholas G. Smedira

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Rationing Lung Transplants--Procedural Fairness In Allocation And Appeals, Keren Ladin, Douglas W. Hanto

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

The Changing Immune System In Sepsis: Is Individualized Immuno-Modulatory Therapy The Answer?, Jonathan S. Boomer, Jonathan M. Green, Richard S. Hotchkiss

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.