Digital Commons Network^™

Cell Free Single Stranded Dna Concentration In Csf As Biomarker To Diagnose Alzheimer’S Disease, Taylor Avei, Dr. John Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is well-known as a degradation of neural connections in the brain caused by multiple deposits of Amyloid-beta peptide plaques as well as neurofibrillary tangles of tau proteins [1]. Because of this and successful research, both Amyloid-beta 42 and tau protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid currently serve as important biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD according to the New Research Criteria for the Diagnosis of AD provided by the International Working Group (IWG) [2].

Morphological Variation In Alfaro Cultratus Across Varying Stream Flow Regimes, Kaitlyn Beard Golden, Jerald B. Johnson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alfaro cultratus is a freshwater fish native to Costa Rica.1 The common name for Alfaro cultratus is ‘the knife edge livebearer’. It is named after its sharply keeled ventral surface which allows for movement through river currents with speed and agility. Yet this species is a live-­bearer, meaning it gives birth to free-­swimming young rather than laying eggs. Its shape does not allow for the normal distended abdomen during pregnancy like other live-­bearers. This morphology likely provides advantages in high flow regimes, but produces costs for reproductive investment. To begin looking at this paradoxical evolutionary trait, I looked at the …

Clinical Vs Neuropathological Diagnosis In Alzheimer’S Disease Research, Gage Black, John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and affects millions of people worldwide. It is the 6th leading cause of death in the United states and the only disease in the top 10 causes of death that does not have a disease altering treatment. Due to the complex nature of the disease, it is difficult to confirm whether a patient has AD or a different form of dementia. Misdiagnosis of AD and other dementias could be leading to the use of inaccurate data in genetic studies specific to AD. In 2014, Beecham et al. collected data from …

Integrating Arthropod And Weed Management In A Water-Stressed Agro-Ecosystem, Ricardo Ramirez

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Emotional Clarity In Young Adults: Operationalization, Measurement, And Associations With Mental Health Outcomes, Madeline D W Noland

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Emotional clarity (EC) refers to the ability to identify, understand, and distinguish one’s emotions (Gohm & Clore, 2000). The literature suggests that EC is highly related to emotion regulation (ER), such that individuals with higher EC are more likely to use adaptive ER strategies and individuals with lower EC are more likely to use maladaptive ER strategies (Vine & Aldao, 2014). EC has been measured with both self-report measures and physiological tasks. Due to the limitations of both self-report measures and physiological tasks, I aimed to develop a behavioral measure of EC using the concordance between change in individuals’ physiological …

Postoperative Pain: Factors And Tools To Improve Pain Management In Children, Mai M. Makhlouf, Eric Robles Garibay, Brooke N. Jenkins, Zeev N. Kain, Michelle Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Outpatient surgery has made it increasingly common for parents to manage pain in the home setting. Studies have shown that parents often under treat pain, leaving children vulnerable to the negative side effects of suboptimal pain management. Multiple factors affect pain management like child’s age and developmental stage, language, cultural values like stoicism, parental beliefs about medication, biological differences among groups, etc. Understanding all the factors involved can help healthcare providers and parents better understand pain and contribute to optimal pain management. Multiple tools and technological interventions have been created to help create a better understanding of pain and a …

Divergent Transcriptional Regulation Of Suppressors Of Cytokine Signaling Genes In Adipocytes, Paula Mota De Sa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Janus Kinase - Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (JAK-STAT) signaling pathway transduces several signals crucial for development and homeostasis. Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins control JAK-STAT signaling via a negative feedback loop. The transcription factor STAT5 is known to play a significant role in fat cell development and function, and several studies suggest that acetylation may affect STAT5 transcriptional activity. To test this hypothesis, we treated 3T3-L1 adipocytes with growth hormone (GH) to activate STAT5 in the presence or absence of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. STAT5 acetylation levels were low in adipocytes and mostly unchanged by the …

In Vitro Evaluation Of Ovarian Cancer Tumorigenesis As A Function Of Quinone Oxidoreducatse-1 And Cell Phenotype, Milcah S. Jackson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In vitro multicellular spheroids are attractive model systems for assessing genetic and epigenetic changes that occur in diseased tissues. Understanding how such alterations in gene and subsequent protein expression affect disease progression and metastasis, drug resistance, and recurrence is of great interest in cancer research. In this regard, examining expression and activity of proteins, such as those with cytoprotective ability that are overexpressed in cancer cells, in addition to cell phenotype (i.e., stem-like, epithelial, mesenchymal, or mixed), are two ways to evaluate genetic and epigenetic changes. Moreover, determining the impact that cytoprotective proteins and cell phenotype have on tumor formation …

Decadal Changes Of Soil Physiochemical Properties In A Freshwater Wetland After Hydrologic Reconnection, Alina Spera

LSU Master's Theses

Sediment, nutrient deprivation and salt water intrusion, among other factors, are driving widespread organic soil collapse and marsh loss in the Mississippi River Delta. Freshwater diversions were designed to reintroduce Mississippi River water and dissolved nutrients into the adjacent basins to manage salinity and slow land loss by maintaining marsh vegetation and nutrient cycling functions. These diversions are controversial by a few, suggesting that nutrient enrichment without a sediment subsidy can lead to further wetland loss in the receiving basins. In this study, a soil characterization is presented for the receiving marsh of the Davis Pond diversion in 2007, just …

Spatiotemporal Impact Of Snow On Underwater Photosynthetically Active Radiation In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica, Madeline E. Myers

LSU Master's Theses

The role of snow on underwater photosynthetically active radiation (UW PAR) in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) has been understudied due to lack of a detailed snowfall record. Research has shown that a relationship between snow cover and UW PAR exists, but the extent has never been evaluated in great detail. Although annual snowfall values in the MDVs are low (3 to 50 mm water equivalent annually), trends of increasing snowfall on the continent under future warming conditions could lead to an increased role for snow in regulating UW PAR (and associated primary productivity). Here, I discuss evidence from the …

Cardiovascular Disease And Rotating Shift Nurses, Rachel Elizabeth Wilschke

Grace Peterson Nursing Research Colloquium

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AND ROTATING SHIFT NURSES

Rachel Wilschke

Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Aquino, PhD, RN

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The implications for cardiovascular disease from working rotating shifts requires further review.

Objectives: To determine how working rotating shifts impacts nurses’ cardiovascular health.

Method: An integrative literature review was conducted, searching for peer-reviewed articles published between 2008 and 2018 in the following databases: CINAHL, PubMed and ProQuest. Using the outline from Gray, Grove and Sutherland (2017), data was categorized, analyzed and synthesized in a data matrix table to organize the review.

Results: A …

Beneficial Effects Of Mindfulness Based Interventions Used With Spinal Cord Injury Patients; Integrative Literature Review, Sharif Ahmed Rahim

Grace Peterson Nursing Research Colloquium

Beneficial Effects of Mindfulness Based Interventions Used with Spinal Cord Injury Patients An Integrated Review of Literature

Sharif Rahim

Background and Significance: The major psychiatric complication of 20 to 45% after the injury is related to depression (North, 1999). This population has 4 to 5 times of higher rates of suicide which is the leading cause of death. Seventy-five percent of suicides occur within the first 5 years of the injury. High levels of pain and lack of support further increases their status of being at high risk. This population faces a difficult transition filled with stress from the trauma …

Modeling Atmosphere-Ocean Radiative Transfer: A Pace Mission Perspective, Xiaodong Zhang, Jacek Chowdhary, Peng-Wang Zhai, Emmanuel Boss, Heidi Dierssen, Robert Frouin, Amir Ibrahim, Zhongping Lee, Lorraine A. Remer, Michael Twardowski, Feng Xu, Matteo Ottaviani, William Reed Espinosa, Didier Ramon

Earth System Science and Policy Faculty Publications

The research frontiers of radiative transfer (RT) in coupled atmosphere-ocean systems are explored to enable new science and specifically to support the upcoming Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission. Given (i) the multitude of atmospheric and oceanic constituents at any given moment that each exhibits a large variety of physical and chemical properties and (ii) the diversity of light-matter interactions (scattering, absorption, and emission), tackling all outstanding RT aspects related to interpreting and/or simulating light reflected by atmosphere-ocean systems becomes impossible. Instead, we focus on both theoretical and experimental studies of RT topics important to the science threshold …

One-Time Nitrogen Fertilization Shifts Switchgrass Soil Microbiomes Within A Context Of Larger Spatial And Temporal Variation, Huaihai Chen, Zamin K. Yang, Dan Yip, Reese H. Morris, Steven J. Lebreux, Melissa A. Cregger, Dawn M. Klingeman, Dafeng Hui, Robert L. Hettich, Steven W. Wilhelm, Gangsheng Wang, Frank E. Löffler, Christopher W. Schadt

Biology Faculty Research

Soil microbiome responses to short-term nitrogen (N) inputs remain uncertain when compared with previous research that has focused on long-term fertilization responses. Here, we examined soil bacterial/archaeal and fungal communities pre- and post-N fertilization in an 8 year-old switchgrass field, in which twenty-four plots received N fertilization at three levels (0, 100, and 200 kg N ha-1 as NH4NO3) for the first time since planting. Soils were collected at two depths, 0–5 and 5–15 cm, for DNA extraction and amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and ITS regions for assessment of microbial community composition. Baseline assessments prior to fertilization revealed …

An In Silico Study Of G Protein-Coupled-Receptor Activation, Specifically In The Corticotropin Releasing Factor Receptor And The Glucagon-Like Peptide Receptor, Nicolas Angelo Scorese

Theses and Dissertations

The drug discovery process is an extremely long and expensive process that modern computational methods help to alleviate. Through the use of computational methods, we provide information and insight into the activation methods of class B GPCRs so that future drugs can be developed to have less side effects. The first study focuses on the corticotropin releasing factor receptor, which is a good drug target for anxiety and depression. A mechanism of activation was theorized which focuses less on molecular switches (as has been the focus of several papers) and more on large scale conformation at the intracellular region of …

Intracellular Retention Of Mutant Lysyl Oxidase Leads To Aortic Dilation In Response To Increased Hemodynamic Stress, Vivian S Lee, Carmen M Halabi, Thomas J Broekelmann, Philip C Trackman, Nathan O Stitziel, Robert P Mecham

Open Access Publications

Heterozygous missense mutations in lysyl oxidase (LOX) are associated with thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. To assess how LOX mutations modify protein function and lead to aortic disease, we studied the factors that influence the onset and progression of vascular aneurysms in mice bearing a Lox mutation (p.M292R) linked to aortic dilation in humans. We show that mice heterozygous for the M292R mutation did not develop aneurysmal disease unless challenged with increased hemodynamic stress. Vessel dilation was confined to the ascending aorta although both the ascending and descending aortae showed changes in vessel wall structure, smooth muscle cell number and …

Solanum Plastisexum, An Enigmatic New Bush Tomato From The Australian Monsoon Tropics Exhibiting Breeding System Fluidity., Angela J. Mcdonnell, Heather B. Wetreich, Jason T. Cantley, Peter Jobson, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

A bush tomato that has evaded classification by solanologists for decades has been identified and is described as a new species belonging to the Australian “Solanum dioicum group” of the Ord Victoria Plain biogeographic region in the monsoon tropics of the Northern Territory. Although now recognised to be andromonoecious, S. plastisexum Martine & McDonnell, sp. nov. exhibits multiple reproductive phenotypes, with solitary perfect flowers, a few staminate flowers or with cymes composed of a basal hermaphrodite and an extended rachis of several to many staminate flowers. When in fruit, the distal rachis may abcise and drop. A member of …

Molecular Detection Of Leishmania Spp. In Skin And Blood Of Stray Dogs From Endemic Areas Of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis In Saudi Arabia, Ad Alanazi, R Puschendorf, Ms Alyousif, Ms Al-Khalifa, Sa Alharbi, Zs Al-Shehri, Ae Said, Io Alanazi, Hi Al-Mohammed, Ya Alraey

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Latinx Family Engagement In Schools And Surrounding Communities: Assessing The Impact Of Parent (And Other Family Member) Development On Improving Student Educational Outcomes At Gene Ward Elementary School, Rosemary Q. Flores, Phyllis Morgan, Linda Rivera, Christine Clark

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

This article examined the success of broadly defined family engagement activities of Latinx parents of students at Gene Ward Elementary School. Gene Ward Elementary School is a part of the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada. This article is based on a larger study of parent and family member participants in these activities at 25 district schools between 2003 and 2012.

Populations Are Not Declining And Food Webs Are Not Collapsing At The Luquillo Experimental Forest, M. R. Willig, L. Woolbright, S. J. Presley, T. D. Schowalter, R. B. Waide, T. Heartsill Scalley, J. K. Zimmerman, G. González, A. E. Lugo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Is There Synergy Between Song Learning And Vocal Stimuli Discrimination Training?, Kenta Watanabe

Theses and Dissertations

Does auditory discrimination ability predict greater accuracy in imitating song? We investigated this question in zebra finch males by testing if the accuracy of vocal imitation of song syllables relates to auditory discrimination performance. The majority of birds improved on imitating their discriminated syllable pairs over non-discriminated syllable sets.

Repurposing Of Glycine-Rich Proteins In Abiotic And Biotic Stresses In The Lone-Star Tick (Amblyomma Americanum), Rebekah Bullard, Surendra Raj Sharma, Pradipta Kumar Das, Sarah E. Morgan, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

Tick feeding requires the secretion of a huge number of pharmacologically dynamic proteins and other molecules which are vital for the formation of the cement cone, the establishment of the blood pool and to counter against the host immune response. Glycine-rich proteins (GRP) are found in many organisms and can function in a variety of cellular processes and structures. The functional characterization of the GRPs in the tick salivary glands has not been elucidated. GRPs have been found to play a role in the formation of the cement cone; however, new evidence suggests repurposing of GRPs in the tick physiology. …

Changes In The Spatial Distribution And Anatomy Of A Range Shift For The Atlantic Surfclam Spisula Solidissima In The Mid-Atlantic Bight And On Georges Bank, Jeremy R. Timbs, Eric N. Powell, Roger Mann

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic surfclam Spisula solidissima supports one of the largest fisheries on the US northeast coast. Using ~30 yr of data from surfclam stock surveys, variance-to-mean ratios (VtMRs) were calculated both temporally and spatially for a range of surfclam size classes to determine the degree of patchiness. The VtMR declined from the 1980s to present in all regions (offshore Delmarva, New Jersey, Long Island, Southern New England, Georges Bank); however, VtMR rose with increasing clam size. Taylor’s power law (TPL) analysis corroborated the VtMR; the surfclam is highly patchy across its range. The surfclam’s proclivity for a patchy distribution varied …

Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Marine Photosynthetic Organisms Under The Concurrent Influences Of Warming, Uv Radiation, And Deoxygenation, K Gao, John Beardall, Donat P. Häder, Jason M. Hall-Spencer, G Gao, David A. Hutchins

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Hyperoxia On Type-1 Diabetic Mouse Model, Samuel Ignatious Bolleddu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Administration of Hyperoxia (>90 % oxygen) is a pervasive intervention to supplement respiratory needs in patients admitted in ICU/critical care units. Current literature suggests that prolonged use of Hyperoxia therapy is directly associated with in-hospital mortality. The exact reason for this high mortality under Hyperoxia is unknown. Recent explorations in Dr. Panguluri lab identified that dysregulation of Kv channels plays a vital role in the pathophysiology of Hyperoxia-induced pulmonary and cardiac complications using animal models. The proposed research will focus on the part of Hyperoxia in generating cardiotoxicity and ventricular remodeling in the type-1 diabetes patients using the Akita, …

N2n N4-Disubstituted Quinazoline-2,4-Diamines And Uses Thereof, Roman Manetsch, Kurt S. Van Horn, Whittney Burda, Lindsey N. Shaw, Renee Fleeman, Megan Barber, David Lawrence Flanigan

USF Patents

Described herein are quinazoline-based compounds and formulations thereof. In some embodiments, the compounds and/or formulations thereof can be effective to inhibit and/or kill A. baumannii. Also described herein are methods of treating a subject in need thereof by administering to the subject in need thereof a quinazoline-based compound and/or formulation thereof to the subject in need thereof.

Expandable Intervertebral Cage, Kamran Aghayev, James J. Doulgeris, Sabrina A. Gonzalez Blohm, Frank D. Vrionis

USF Patents

A method and system for performing bone fusion and/or securing one or more bones, such as adjacent vertebra, are disclosed.

Hydrothermal Liquefaction Of Organic Waste Streams On A Continuous Pilot Scale Reactor, Patrick Biller, Konstantinos Anastasakis, Aidan Smith, Juliano Souza Dos Passos, Ib Johannsen

Pyroliq 2019: Pyrolysis and Liquefaction of Biomass and Wastes

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising technology for biofuel production and treatment of organic wastes and biomass. Due to the wet nature of the process where biomass is heated in an aqueous slurry at 350°C and 200 bar, wet biomass and wet wastes are particularly suited for the process. The current study investigates the utilization of wastewater treatment sludges and other organic wastes for the production of sustainable petroleum replacement products. The work has been carried out on a pilot scale continuous hydrothermal liquefaction reactor with a novel oscillating flow system and heat exchanger. The influence of these are discussed …

Data For Long-Distance Natal Dispersal Is Relatively Frequent And Correlated With Environmental Factors In A Widespread Raptor, Hanna M. Mccaslin, T. Trevor Caughlin, Julie A. Heath

Biological Sciences Data

Dispersal is a critical process influencing population dynamics, and long-distance dispersal (LDD) can be especially important for gene flow and adaptability. However, little is known about the mechanisms of LDD because of the challenges of studying large-scale movements. We studied correlates of natal LDD using North American bird banding data for American kestrels (Falco sparverius) from 1960-2015. We used Bayesian hierarchical and spatial models to investigate temporal trends and the effects of sex, migration strategy, weather, and agricultural landcover on LDD frequency and distance and account for sampling bias. Nearly half of all natal dispersal (48.7%) was LDD (classified as …

University Obtains New Patent For Poison Ivy, Oak Vaccine, Shea Stewart

University of Mississippi News

Compound in clinical development with Memphis-based company