Digital Commons Network^™

Mechanisms Contributing To Differential Regulation Of Pax3 Downstream Target Genes In Normal Human Epidermal Melanocytes Versus Melanoma Cells, Danielle Bartlett, Glen M. Boyle, Mel Ziman, Sandra Medic

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Melanoma is a highly aggressive and drug resistant form of skin cancer. It arises from melanocytes, the pigment producing cells of the skin. The formation of these melanocytes is driven by the transcription factor PAX3 early during embryonic development. As a result of alternative splicing, the PAX3 gene gives rise to eight different transcripts which encode isoforms that have different structures and activate different downstream target genes involved in pathways of cell proliferation, migration, differentiation and survival. Furthermore, posttranslational modifications have also been shown to alter the functions of PAX3.We previously identified PAX3 downstream target genes in melanocytes and melanoma …

Rapid Recovery Of An Urban Remnant Reptile Community Following Summer Wildfire, Robert A. Davis, Tim S. Doherty

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Reptiles in urban remnants are threatened with extinction by increased fire frequency, habitat fragmentation caused by urban development, and competition and predation from exotic species. Understanding how urban reptiles respond to and recover from such disturbances is key to their conservation. We monitored the recovery of an urban reptile community for five years following a summer wildfire at Kings Park in Perth, Western Australia, using pitfall trapping at five burnt and five unburnt sites. The reptile community recovered rapidly following the fire. Unburnt sites initially had higher species richness and total abundance, but burnt sites rapidly converged, recording a similar …

Multiple Drivers Of Decline In The Global Status Of Freshwater Crayfish (Decapoda: Astacidea), Nadia I. Richman, Monika Bohm, Susan Adams, Fernando Alvarez, Elizabeth A. Bergey, John J.S. Bunn, Quinton Burnham, Jay Cordeiro, Jason Coughran, Keith A. Crandall, Kathryn L. Dawkins, Robert J. Distefano, Niall E. Doran, Lennart Edsman, Arnold G. Eversole, Leopold Fureder, James M. Furse, Francessa Gherardi, Premek Hamr, David M. Holdich, Pierre Horwitz, Kerrylyn Johnston, Clive M. Jones, Julia P.G. Jones, Robert L. Jones, Thomas G. Jones, Tadashi Kawai, Susan Lawler, Marilu Lopez-Mejia, Rebecca M. Miller, Carlos Pedraza-Lara, Julian D. Reynolds, Alastair M.M. Richardson, Mark B. Schiltz, Guenter A. Schuster, Peter J. Sibley, Catherine Souty-Grosset, Christopher A. Taylor, Roger F. Thoma, Jerry Walls, Todd S. Walsh, Ben Collen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Rates of biodiversity loss are higher in freshwater ecosystems than in most terrestrial or marine ecosystems, making freshwater conservation a priority. However, prioritization methods are impeded by insufficient knowledge on the distribution and conservation status of freshwater taxa, particularly invertebrates. We evaluated the extinction risk of the world's 590 freshwater crayfish species using the IUCN Categories and Criteria and found 32% of all species are threatened with extinction. The level of extinction risk differed between families, with proportionally more threatened species in the Parastacidae and Astacidae than in the Cambaridae. Four described species were Extinct and 21% were assessed as …

Obesity As A Disease: Effects On Weight-Biased Attitudes And Beliefs, Rheanna Nichole Ata

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In June 2013, the American Medical Association (AMA) made the highly controversial decision to designate obesity a disease. Proponents predicted the decision would lead to reduced weight-related stigma, whereas opponents predicted designating a third of the population as “diseased” would exacerbate stigma. To determine the effects of defining obesity as a disease on explicit and implicit weight-biased attitudes and explicit weight-biased beliefs, female undergraduate students (N = 146) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: disease or lifestyle. Participants in the disease group (n = 71) were asked to read an article describing obesity as a disease caused by …

Sleep, Depressive Symptoms And Cognition In Older Adults And Caregivers Of Persons With Dementia, Glenna Shemida Brewster

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Caregivers of persons with dementia, who are often older adults, report sleep disturbance, high rates of depressive symptoms and may be at risk for impaired cognition. This dissertation examined sleep, depressive symptoms, and cognition in older adults and caregivers of persons with dementia. The aims of the review of literature were to understand, in community dwelling adults 60 years and older, the relationships among sleep parameters (sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and general sleep complaints), and the domains of cognition (Executive Function, Attention, Episodic Memory, Working Memory, Processing Speed), and global cognition. Based …

Exploring The Underlying Mechanisms Of Comorbid Adhd And Eating Disorders, Jennifer Rebecca Bleck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Evidence suggests comorbidity of ADHD and eating disorders (EDs) among females. Capitalizing on the comorbidity of ADHD and EDs and subsequent obesity could lead to improved prevention and treatment of all three conditions. However, additional information regarding the comorbidity is necessary to develop such interventions, as little is known about how or why this co-occurrence exists. A comprehensive model of the underlying mechanisms associated with comorbid ADHD and EDs is needed to improve understanding of the development of the comorbidity. Moreover, while there are gender differences within each disorder, literature is limited regarding to the comorbidity among males, leading to …

Straight Benevolence: Preserving Heterosexual Authority And White Privilege, Robb James Bruce

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes three current and popular media sites, exploring a term I coin “straight benevolence.” An ostensibly supportive and progressive attitude adopted by heterosexuals and expressed toward gay men in the United States, straight benevolence surreptitiously subordinates gayness and further entrenches white masculine heterosexual privilege. In my examination of hip-hop artist Macklemore’s “Same Love,” seven Major League Baseball “It Gets Better” gay-advocacy videos, and the “Suddenly, Last Summer” episode of ABC’s primetime U.S. television series Modern Family, I take an intersectional approach to address the interanimation of sexuality, gender, and race. I ask: In what ways is gay male …

Regulation And Targeting Of The Fancd2 Activation In Dna Repair, Valentina Celeste Caceres

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a genome instability syndrome that is clinically manifested by bone marrow failure, congenital defects, and elevated cancer susceptibility. The FA pathway is known to regulate the repair of DNA interstrand crosslinks in part through DNA homologous recombination (HR) repair. Up to today 16 FA proteins have been discovered that may participate in the common pathway. Cells that have mutations in the FA genes are hypersensitive to DNA damaging agents and display chromosome instability. A key regulatory event in the FA pathway is monoubiquitination of FANCD2-FANCI heterodimer that is mediated by a multi-component E3 ubiquitin ligase complex …

Functional Analysis Of The Ovarian Cancer Susceptibility Locus At 9p22.2 Reveals A Transcription Regulatory Network Mediated By Bnc2 In Ovarian Cells, Melissa Buckley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

GWAS have identified several chromosomal loci associated with ovarian cancer risk. However, the mechanism underlying these associations remains elusive. We identify candidate functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 9p22.2 ovarian cancer susceptibility locus, several of which map to transcriptional regulatory elements active in ovarian cells identified by FAIRE-seq (Formaldehyde assisted isolation of regulatory elements followed by sequencing) and ChIP-seq (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing) in relevant cell types. Reporter and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) determined the extent to which candidate SNPs had allele specific effects. Chromosome conformation capture (3C) reveals a physical association between Basonuclin 2 (BNC2) and …

The Relation Between Adiposity And Anxiety In Youth: Analysis Of Peer Victimization, Teasing, Sociocultural Influences, And Internalization Of Appearance Ideals As Explanatory Variables, Natasha L. Burke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine putative mediators and moderators in the association between adiposity and anxiety in a sample of overweight and obese youth. In addition, anxiety was examined as a potential moderator between adiposity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Participants were youth (N = 137) between 8 and 17 years old (M = 13.09, SD = 2.61) and their legal caregivers recruited from four medical clinics affiliated with the University of South Florida. Youth were primarily overweight (28.5%) or obese (64.2%) and ethnically diverse. Data were analyzed by path analysis. Weight-related teasing significantly mediated …

Exploring The Pathogenic And Drug Resistance Mechanisms Of Staphylococcus Aureus, Whittney Burda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We have previously identified σS, an ECF sigma factor that is important in the virulence and stress response of S. aureus. Transcriptional profiling of sigS revealed that it is differentially regulated in a variety of laboratory and clinical strains of S. aureus, suggesting that there exists a regulatory network that modulates its expression. In order to identify direct regulators of sigS expression, we performed a biotin pull down assay in tandem with mass spectrometry. We identified CymR as a direct regulator and observed that sigS expression is increased in cells lacking cymR. In addition, transposon mutagenesis was performed to identify …

Genome-Wide Scans Detect Adaptation To Aridity In A Widespread Forest Tree Species, Dorothy A. Steane, Brad M. Potts, Elizabeth Mcclean, Suzanne M. Prober, William D. Stock, René E. Vaillancourt, Margaret Byrne

Research Datasets

Patterns of adaptive variation within plant species are best studied through common garden experiments, but these are costly and time-consuming, especially for trees that have long generation times. We explored whether genome-wide scanning technology combined with outlier marker detection could be used to detect adaptation to climate and provide an alternative to common garden experiments. As a case study, we sampled nine provenances of the widespread forest tree species, Eucalyptus tricarpa, across an aridity gradient in southeastern Australia. Using a Bayesian analysis we identified a suite of 94 putatively adaptive (outlying) sequence-tagged markers across the genome. Population-level allele frequencies of …

High-Throughput Screening Of Age-Related Changes In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Neil Copes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project was developed to identify novel methods for high-throughput culturing and screening of C. elegans to investigate age-related metabolic changes and to survey the proteomic and metabolomic factors associated with age-related changes. To accomplish these goals we developed a novel way to grow C. elegans in liquid culture in 96-well microplates for several weeks without suffering significant fluid loss due to evaporation and without needing to shake or unseal the plates for aeration. We also developed methods for assaying the total volume of live C. elegans in microplate cultures using a fluorescence microplate reader and for performing RNAi experiments …

A Semiotic Phenomenology Of Homelessness And The Precarious Community: A Matter Of Boundary, Heather Renee Curry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on the articulation of the concepts of precarity —i.e., temporary, affective, creative, immaterial and insecure labor—and community in an overheating system. My site of inquiry is homelessness broadly, but more specifically the labor of panhandling and the identity of “the panhandler.” I recognize that primary theorizations of precarity have located it as a problem of labor and economy. Others have looked at it from the sociological domain. My work looks at precarity as diffuse across social, political, and communal systems, but primarily as an effect of the problem of overheating as it manifests at varying levels of …

Vulnerability Of Larval Fish Populations To Oil Well Blowouts In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Emily Chancellor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On April 20th, 2010, a fire broke out on the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) offshore oil drilling rig on the Macondo prospect located off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). This fire and resulting explosions resulted in the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the largest marine oil spill in history. An estimated 4.9 million (+/- 10%) barrels were released into the Gulf of Mexico over the ensuing 87 days. Many economically important fish species spawn in northern Gulf of Mexico waters; the spawning seasons and pelagic larval phase of many of these species occur within the temporal …

Strategies For Preventing Age And Neurodegenerative Disease-Associated Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Vedad Delic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a pivotal role in the development of aging phenotypes and aging-associated neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Strategies that restore mitochondrial dysfunction may rescue the deficits of central metabolism in these disorders and improve cell survival. For example, we found that modulating the mTOR signaling pathway in a tissue culture model of aging-induced mitochondrial DNA mutation enhanced mitochondrial function as evidenced by increased oxygen consumption. Our previous melatonin studies also led us to hypothesize that caloric restriction and the hormone melatonin would reverse brain mitochondrial dysfunction in animal …

The “Other” Side Of Wall Street: Banking, Policies, And Adaptive Methods Of U.S. Migrant Workers, Cassandra Rae Decker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Migrant farmworkers' social and economic mobility is frequently constrained through the denial of basic resources, such as access to the formal financial sector. This thesis ethnographically examines banking policies as they apply to low-income, mobile, populations that temporarily reside in Florida. It utilizes participant observation, interviews, and participatory mapping with migrant farmworkers. It also considers how policymakers and service providers in the formal and informal financial sectors rationalize control of resources and the effects on mobile populations. Particular attention is paid to adaptive practices in the alternative financial sector – cash checking services, carrying cash, and remittances. By utilizing the …

Compassion Fatigue And Self-Care Strategies Among Addiction Professionals: A Qualitative Study, Amanda Depippo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Addiction is a prevalent disorder and is on the rise. Addiction has serious symptomology and can negatively impact an individual’s life in several areas. Not only can the person addicted become negatively impacted, but the addiction professional that treats this disorder can become negatively impacted as well. Because there is often a high co-occurrence of addiction and trauma among addiction clients, this intensifies the clinical profile of such clients which compounds the risk for addiction professionals. It is the addiction professional’s response to this combination of addiction and trauma that can cause these professionals to experience compassion fatigue.

Research has …

The Continuum Of Ethno-Racial Socialization: Learning About Culture And Race In Middle-Class Latina/O Families, Maria D. Duenas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the discursive messages and specific practices that Latino families use to transmit messages about culture, race, and racism. Scholars have not fully explored the complexity and range of practices and discourses that are involved in Latinos’ ethno-racial socialization. The use of the phrase “ethno-racial socialization” is important because it combines the concepts of racial socialization and ethnic socialization in an effort to account for how the lived experiences of Latinos who mostly think of themselves as a racial group, are treated as one race, and thus, discuss race with family members. This research explores this process using …

Genomic Aberrations At The 3q And 14q Loci: Investigation Of Key Players In Ovarian And Renal Cancer Biology, Punashi Dutta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genomic aberrations are primary contributors to the pathophysiology of cancer [11]. Dysregulated expression of genes located within these aberrations are important predictors of chemoresistance, disease prognosis, and patient outcome [12]. This dissertation is focused on understanding the regulation and/or functions of specific genes located at dysregulated genomic regions such as 3q26 and 14q32 in the biology of ovarian and renal cancer, respectively.

Serous epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) manifest amplification at the 3q26.2 locus [2], an observation consistent with the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) [13]. The most amplified gene in this region is EVI1 which has been extensively studied in hematological …

The Effects Of Supplemented Metabolites On Lifespan And Stress Response Pathways In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Clare B. Edwards

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how metabolites contribute to anaplerosis, antioxidant effects, and hormetic pathways during aging is fundamental to creating supplements and dietary habits that may decrease age-associated disease and decline, thus improving the quality of life in old age. In order to uncover metabolic pathways that delay aging, the effects of large sets of metabolites associated with mitochondrial function on lifespan were investigated.

Malate, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolite, increased lifespan and thermotolerance in C. elegans. Addition of fumarate and succinate also extended lifespan and all three metabolites activated nuclear translocation of the cytoprotective DAF-16/FOXO transcription factor and protected from paraquat-induced …

Maternal Stress, Breastmilk Igf-1, And Offspring Growth Among Breastfeeding Mothers-Infant Pairs In The Tampa Bay Area, Lauren Michelle Gottfredson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Maternal stress during utero has been shown to have negative health consequences on the offspring, including low birth weight and increased risk of adult disease. Variation in breastmilk may act as an environmental cue of maternal stress and continue to program the infant during early life. This research aimed to explore the role of breastmilk on developmental programming of the infant. Specifically, to examine how breastmilk may act as a medium for the exposure of stress between the mother and the offspring, and see if variation in insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) a potential mechanism for the relationship.

Methods: …

Mmv Malaria Box Activity Screening In Dormant Plasmodium Falciparum Phenotypes, Sandra Galusic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The causative agent of malignant tertian malaria, Plasmodium falciparum undergoes an arrested growth phenotype of its erythrocytic stage when under drug-stress. Recent artemisinin treatment failures seem to be indicative of such induction followed by recrudescence rather than actual therapeutic failure. Likewise, P. vivax hypnozoites are the prototypic dormants and the latent infections for which they are responsible prove most difficult to treat. Dihydroartemisinin, an artemisinin-derivative, can be used to exploit this mechanism by inducing a dormant state in ring-stage P. falciparum parasites and in turn, their recovery may be used as a screening period for compounds that inhibit or foster …

Mindfulness Attributes As Predictors Of Treatment Outcomes In Children Who Stutter, Jenna Lee Graepel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A recent U.S.-based survey (Boyle et al,. 2011) estimated stuttering prevalence in American children ages 3-17 years at 1.6% or 1 in 63 children. In comparison to the reported 1 in 68 school age children living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), stuttering affects nearly as many. These estimates suggest that Speech-Language Pathologist (SLPs) should increasingly develop their skill sets for identifying and providing interventions for children who stutter.

The evidence base for school-age fluency intervention, while promising, leaves much room for further development (Nippold, 2011). The majority of current interventions revolve around the traditional …

Minocycline Treatment And The Necessity To Develop A Novel Outcome Measure For Children With Angelman Syndrome, Joseph Christopher Grieco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a rare genetic disorder affecting 1/10,000 to 1/20,000 births. This disorder arises through the genetic disruption of the maternal UBE3A allele, which when coupled with epigenetic silencing of the paternal allele UBE3A allele, gives rise to an absence of UBE3A protein in the central nervous system. Clinical manifestations of the syndrome vary in severity and include poor motor function, deficits in language and severe intellectual impairments. Previous research in the Angelman syndrome mouse model revealed abnormalities in dendritic spine density and morphology of hippocampal pyramidal cells. As seen in humans with AS, mice show abnormal behavioral …

Immunological Characterization Of Duffy Binding Protein Of Plasmodium Vivax, Miriam Thankam George

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plasmodium vivax Duffy binding protein (DBP) is an essential ligand for reticulocyte invasion making it a premier asexual blood stage vaccine candidate. However, strain-specific immunity due to DBPII allelic variation may complicate vaccine efficacy, suggesting that an effective DBPII vaccine needs to target immune responses to conserved epitopes that are potential targets of strain-transcending neutralizing immunity. Anti DBPII monoclonal antibodies, which were previously characterized by COS7 cell binding assay as inhibitory and non-inhibitory to DBPII-erythrocyte binding, were mapped to DBPII gene fragment libraries using phage display. Inhibitory mAb 3C9 binds to a conserved conformation-dependent epitope in subdomain 3 while non-inhibitory …

Situating Contraceptive Practices And Public Health Strategy In The Bronx: Perspectives From Female Youth, Healthcare Workers, And Reproductive Health Leaders, Hannah Louise Helmy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, concerns about adolescent childbearing and its perceived corollaries – negative health outcomes for mother and child, the disintegration of the nuclear family, and “over-dependence” on public resources – began to circulate widely in policy spheres and popular media in the 1970’s, resulting in a proliferation of policies, programs, and services designed to address its prevention. Although national birth rates among adolescents are currently at their lowest since peaking in the early 1990’s, this decline masks persistent and significant disparities between groups of young people by race, ethnicity, geography, and poverty level. The concomitant existence of social …

Tampa Electric Company's Big Bend Utility Plant In Hillsborough County, Florida: A Case Study, Lynne M. Hodalski-Champagne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is an in-depth analysis of coal fire burning power plants, their effects on human health and the environment. It also employed case study data from Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend facility to examine environmental infractions at that facility. Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend Utility Plant, violated the Clean Air Act, which led to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 1997. This case study details the lawsuit, and subsequent settlement as well as Tampa Electric Company’s record of compliance since 2000. …

Comparison Of Isotope-Based Biomass Pathways With Groundfish Community Structure In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Sheri Ann Huelster

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared traditional community analysis with stable-isotope trophic analysis to define process-based trophic elements of community structure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and developed a predictive capability regarding changes to fish community structure that would be expected from increasing eutrophication. Specifically, it used an existing trawl survey program (SEAMAP) to compare invertebrate herbivore (sponge and sea urchin) isotopes with groundfish isotopes, and then compared the resulting spatial patterns with spatial variation in community structure, as identified by cluster analysis. The comparison was applied to seven NMFS survey zones that extended offshore from the Caloosahatchee River, FL northwest to …

Equifinality And Multifinality In Psychopathology: Can Cognitive And Emotional Processes Differentiate Internalizing, Externalizing, And Co-Occurring Psychopathology, Brittany Jordan-Arthur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite our knowledge of environmental risk factors for psychopathology, the equifinality and multifinality observed in the extant literature reveals how little is known about the role of these risk factors in the development of psychopathology. The purpose of this study was to identify processes that differentiate internalizing, externalizing and co-occurring psychopathology. Specifically, emotion identification skill and cognitive appraisal style were examined as processes where individual differences may contribute to the development of mental illness. To date no study has been conducted to examine whether emotion identification and appraisal style may differentiate forms of internalizing, externalizing and co-occurring psychopathology and lack …