Digital Commons Network^™

Structural Processes And Local Meaning: Explanatory Models, Political Economy, And Chagas Disease In Tropical Bolivia, Colin James Forsyth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project describes and analyzes explanatory models of Chagas disease among people in a highly endemic area of eastern Bolivia, and examines the role that cultural and structural factors play in shaping explanatory models of this disease. Dressler (2001) characterizes medical anthropology as divided between two poles; the constructivist, which focuses on the "meaning and significance that events have for people," and the structuralist, which emphasizes the relationships between the components of a given society. This project endeavors to synthesize structuralist and constructivist perspectives by understanding the interaction between structural processes and explanatory models of Chagas disease.

The research took …

Evaluation And Application Of Instruments Measuring Spatial Ability And Attitude For College Chemistry Students, Xiaoying Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student performance in college chemistry courses remains a concern for educators seeking to help improve the future STEM workforce. Besides math ability and prior chemistry knowledge, spatial ability and attitude toward chemistry have been considered as important factors influencing college chemistry performance. This work includes five studies and uses data collected from instruments to examine the relationships of these two factors - spatial ability and attitude - with student chemistry performance, and provides psychometric evidence for using the Purdue Visualization of Rotations test (ROT) and Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCIv2) to measure these two factors, respectively, in …

High Dimensional Non-Linear Optimization Of Molecular Models, Joseph C. Fogarty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Molecular models allow computer simulations to predict the microscopic properties of macroscopic systems. Molecular modeling can also provide a fully understood test system for the application of theoretical methods. The power of a model lies in the accuracy of the parameter values which govern its mathematical behavior. In this work, a new software, called ParOpt, for general high dimensional non-linear optimization will be presented. The software provides a very general framework for the optimization of a wide variety of parameter sets. The software is especially powerful when applied to the difficult task of molecular model parameter optimization. Three applications of …

Variability In The Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Larval Scombrid Abundance In The Gulf Of Mexico, Sennai Y. Habtes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate fishery-independent methods for assessing the abundance of marine fish stocks are important tools for proper pelagic fisheries management. The review and improvement of standardized sampling methods used in fisheries-independent sampling, and the establishment of improved models of abundance and population dynamics utilizing novel statistical techniques for fisheries management will further improve our understanding of the way in which marine fish stocks vary spatially and temporally. One of the most important and longest running surveys of fisheries-independent data in the Southeastern United States is the spring ichthyoplankton survey conducted through the Southeast Area Mapping and Assessment Program (SEAMAP).

These surveys …

Exploring Variability In Population Dynamics And The Influence Of Environmental Factors On Recruitment Of An Estuarine Fish, Elizabeth Herdter Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation was to explore variability in population dynamics and environmental factors influential to recruitment of spotted seatrout in Florida with the end goal of testing the incorporation of select environmental variables into the current regional stock assessment models for spotted seatrout. In Chapter 2, I compared the age and size structure of six estuary populations of this species and determined whether there was significant spatial covariation in recruitment. The results of this chapter indicated that the dynamics of each local estuary population are governed more likely by environmental factors than genetic similarities. Further, they suggest that …

Hormone-Induced Calcium Oscillations Depend On Cross-Coupling With Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Oscillations., Lawrence D Gaspers, Paula J Bartlett, Antonio Politi, Paul Burnett, Walson Metzger, Jane Johnston, Suresh K Joseph, Thomas Höfer, Andrew P Thomas

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Receptor-mediated oscillations in cytosolic Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]i) could originate either directly from an autonomous Ca(2+) feedback oscillator at the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) receptor or as a secondary consequence of IP3 oscillations driven by Ca(2+) feedback on IP3 metabolism. It is challenging to discriminate these alternatives, because IP3 fluctuations could drive Ca(2+) oscillations or could just be a secondary response to the [Ca(2+)]i spikes. To investigate this problem, we constructed a recombinant IP3 buffer using type-I IP3 receptor ligand-binding domain fused to GFP (GFP-LBD), which buffers IP3 in the physiological range. This IP3 buffer slows hormone-induced [IP3] dynamics without changing steady-state …

Que(Er/Ry)Ing Christianity: Questions, Answers, And More Questions, Christina L. Ivey

Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research

Caught at a divide between fundamentalist Judeo-Christian rhetoric and secular queer discourse, queer Christians face difficult obstacles in enacting/ embodying their identity. Bohache (2003) claims that a queer Christology, or developing a queer view of Christianity, is a potentially beneficial way to reconcile this identity gap. To explore this claim, I demonstrate a need to also examine the way in which a queer Christian body enacts a queer and Christian identity by juxtaposing my own narrative as a queer Christian in a religious setting against queer theory. Using Pelias’ (1999) guidelines for poetic essay, I weave queer theory throughout my …

Complicating Practice With Success: Service-Learning Perspectives At A Research-Intensive University, Jessica A. Pauly

Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research

Although extant research has demonstrated the benefits of servicelearning for students and the greater community, faculty involvement in service-learning at research-intensive universities remains a challenge. In order to critically explore faculty perceptions of service-learning and to challenge everyday understandings, this study utilizes politically attentive relational constructionism to analyze faculty focus groups. Findings constructed service-learning as facilitating student success, but constrained by self-defined practice. Based on this analysis, transformative possibilities around the perception, practice, and institutionalization of service-learning emerge. Combined, these findings extend research on service-learning by highlighting a research-intensive university as a unique context and proposing ways to overcome service-learning …

Sustainable Urban Park Systems, Dorothy C. Ibes

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Lack of multi-dimensional, substantive research on city park systems has undermined the potential role of these public amenities in advancing urban sustainability goals. This study informs holistic policy, planning, and management of parks to balance the multiple goals of sustainability region-wide. A vision for a sustainable urban park system is introduced, informed by multidisciplinary thought and theory. This vision is then operationalized in the development of a quantitative method that examines four key dimensions of sustainability—physical, environmental, socio-economic, and built—across a citywide urban park system. The approach can be customized for use in other cities, but is here applied to …

The Cord (November 19, 2014)

The Cord

No abstract provided.

Weekly News Digest 11/19/2014, Jenna Ray

Weekly Bulletin Archive

In This Issue:

● Asking the Big Questions Discussion Series Continues

● University Units Partner To Create Interactive E-Book

● UMM AISES and Advisor Joe Alia Honored at Annual Conference

● Kate Hunt ’07 Remembers Late Chancellor Emeritus Samuel Schuman

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …

Banner News, Kimberly Teno, Megan Olson, Rose Sibbel, Obie Obumseli, Cole Englehart, Renee White, Amanda Betz, Meredith Lehmann, Abby Schubert

Banner News

No abstract provided.

November 19, 2014, Lumpkin College Of Business And Applied Sciences

Curriculum Committee

No abstract provided.

Daily Activity Budgets Reveal A Quasi-Flightless Stage During Non-Breeding In Hawaiian Albatrosses, Sarah Gutowsky, Lee Gutowsky, Ian Jonsen, Marty Leonard, Maura Naughton, Marc Romano, Scott A. Shaffer

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Background Animals adjust activity budgets as competing demands for limited time and energy shift across life history phases. For far-ranging migrants and especially pelagic seabirds, activity during breeding and migration are generally well studied but the “overwinter” phase of non-breeding has received less attention. Yet this is a critical time for recovery from breeding, plumage replacement and gaining energy stores for return migration and the next breeding attempt. We aimed to identify patterns in daily activity budgets (i.e. time in flight, floating on the water’s surface and active foraging) and associated spatial distributions during overwinter for the laysan Phoebastria immutabilis …

Prospectus, November 19, 2014, Jose Alzaibar, Humna Sharif, Kaleb Schwaiger, Zach Trueblood

Prospectus 2014

PARKLAND HELPS STUDENTS QUIT SMOKING; Average increase in college costs decline, report shows; TRiO, serving Parkland students since 1997; Scholarships help students manage the cost of college; Change needed for climate control; Tuition hikes slowing slightly; U of I rejects 'official beer' billboards; Around the World in Eighty Days

November 19, 2014 Cal Poly Report, Public Affairs Office

Cal Poly Report

No abstract provided.

Dr. Deby Cassill, November 19, 2014, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

USF St. Petersburg Campus News and Press Releases

No abstract provided.

Predicting Invasiveness In Early Stage Lung Cancer, Julie Linek, Md

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine Presentations and Grand Rounds

Objectives:

To discuss characteristic pathologic and radiologic correlates of tumor invasiveness in lung adenocarcinoma and their associated clinical implications.

To describe current advances in cancer biology related to the acquisition of tumor invasion and metastasis.

To identify areas for further research which have clinical impact for prognostication and treatment of early stage lung cancer.

Overall Goals and Objectives:

Following this activity, a participant should be able to:

1. Recognize recent advances and developments in Pulmonary Medicine & Critical Care and translate into clinical practice

2. Integrate perspectives of multiple disciplines into decision-making on behalf of patients through structured plans …

Swelling And Eicosanoid Metabolites Differentially Gate Trpv4 Channels In Retinal Neurons And Glia., Daniel A. Ryskamp, Andrew O. Jo, Amber M M. Frye, Felix Vazquez-Chona, Nanna Macaulay, Wallace B. Thoreson, David Križaj

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

Activity-dependent shifts in ionic concentrations and water that accompany neuronal and glial activity can generate osmotic forces with biological consequences for brain physiology. Active regulation of osmotic gradients and cellular volume requires volume-sensitive ion channels. In the vertebrate retina, critical support to volume regulation is provided by Müller astroglia, but the identity of their osmosensor is unknown. Here, we identify TRPV4 channels as transducers of mouse Müller cell volume increases into physiological responses. Hypotonic stimuli induced sustained [Ca(2+)]i elevations that were inhibited by TRPV4 antagonists and absent in TRPV4(-/-) Müller cells. Glial TRPV4 signals were phospholipase A2- and cytochrome P450-dependent, …

Historical Species Distribution Models Predict Species Limits In Western Plethodon Salamanders, Tara A. Pelletier, Charlie Crisafulli, Steve Wagner, Amanda J. Zellmer, Brian C. Carstens

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Allopatry is commonly used to predict boundaries in species delimitation investigations under the assumption that currently allopatric distributions are indicative of reproductive isolation; however, species ranges are known to change over time. Incorporating a temporal perspective of geographic distributions should improve species delimitation; to explore this, we investigate three species of western Plethodon salamanders that have shifted their ranges since the end of the Pleistocene. We generate species distribution models (SDM) of the current range, hindcast these models onto a climatic model 21 Ka, and use three molecular approaches to delimit species in an integrated fashion. In contrast to expectations …

Grooming As A Secondary Behavior In The Shrimp Macrobrachium Rosenbergii (Crustacea, Decapoda, Caridea), Lauren N. Vanmaurik, Jennifer L. Wortham

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

The giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, is a large shrimp extensively used in aquaculture whose grooming behaviors were analyzed in this study. Macrobrachium rosenbergii exhibits three unique male morphotypes that differ in their behavior, morphology and physiology: small-clawed males (SM), orange-clawed males (OC) and blue-clawed males (BC). The largest and most dominant males, BC males, are predicted to have significantly different grooming behaviors compared to females and the other two male morphotypes. These BC males may be too large and bulky to efficiently groom and may dedicate more time to mating and agonistic interactions than grooming behaviors. Observations were …

Science Café | Reflection Of Use Of Agrochemicals Illness Vs Food Supply, Nov. 19, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Cave Tourism: The Potential Of Asar Cave As A Natural Tourism Asset At Lenggong Valley, Perak, Main Rindam

KIP Articles

The Lenggong Valley, from a standpoint of natural tourism research, presents strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges that can be utilized to help increase the opportunities for the local community to increase their standard of living. Asar Cave comprises one of the caves that are found in Lenggong. A series of external studies have been done on Asar Cave in order to measure its potential for natural tourism in Lenggong. The objective of this study is to discuss caves as a natural resource that has great potential in the growth of the economy of the residents of the Lenggong Valley. Marketing …

A Challenge For The Seed Mixture Refuge Strategy In Bt Maize: Impact Of Cross-Pollination On An Ear-Feeding Pest, Corn Earworm, Fei Yang, David L. Kerns, Graham P. Head, B. Rogers Leonard, Ronnie Levy, Ying Niu, Fangneng Huang

Faculty Publications

To counter the threat of insect resistance, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize growers in the U.S. are required to plant structured non-Bt maize refuges. Concerns with refuge compliance led to the introduction of seed mixtures, also called RIB (refuge-inthe-bag), as an alternative approach for implementing refuge for Bt maize products in the U.S. Maize Belt. A major concern in RIB is cross-pollination of maize hybrids that can cause Bt proteins to be present in refuge maize kernels and negatively affect refuge insects. Here we show that a mixed planting of 5% nonBt and 95% Bt maize containing the SmartStax traits expressing …

Using Phylogenetically-Informed Annotation (Pia) To Search For Light-Interacting Genes In Transcriptomes From Non-Model Organisms, Daniel Isaac Speiser, M Sabrina Pankey, Alexandera K. Zaharoff, Barbara A. Battelle, Heather D. Bracken-Grissom, Jesse W. Breinholt, Seth M. Bybee, Thomas W. Cronin, Anders Garm, Annie R. Lindgren, Nipam H. Patel, Megan L. Porter, Meredith E. Protas, Ajna S. Rivera, Jeanne M. Serb, Kirk S. Zigler, Keith A. Crandall, Todd H. Oakley

Faculty Publications

Background

Tools for high throughput sequencing and de novo assembly make the analysis of transcriptomes (i.e. the suite of genes expressed in a tissue) feasible for almost any organism. Yet a challenge for biologists is that it can be difficult to assign identities to gene sequences, especially from non-model organisms. Phylogenetic analyses are one useful method for assigning identities to these sequences, but such methods tend to be time-consuming because of the need to re-calculate trees for every gene of interest and each time a new data set is analyzed. In response, we employed existing tools for phylogenetic analysis …

Volume 52, Number 14: November 19, 2014, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

The Guardian, November 19, 2014, Wright State University Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

Twelve page issue of The Guardian, the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. The Guardian has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Developments Of Gigapixel Microscopy, Siyuan Dong

Master's Theses

Fourier ptychographic (FP) imaging is a recently developed technique to get high-resolution high-throughput imaging. FP iteratively stitches together many variably illuminated, low-resolution intensity images in the Fourier space to expand the frequency passband and recover a high-resolution sample image.

There are several latest developments of the Fourier ptychographic imaging scheme. FP scheme can be used as adaptive imaging method. An image-quality metric is defined as a guide star for the optimization process, and system corrections are then performed to maximize such a guide star. The adaptive FP scheme performs system correction by modifying the complex transfer function in the recovery …

Data Documentation & Metadata, Sai Deng

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.