Life Sciences Commons^™

Reintroducing Environmental Change Drivers In Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Research., Frederik De Laender, Jason R. Rohr, Roman Ashauer, Donald J Baird, Uta Berger, Nico Eisenhauer, Volker Grimm, Udo Hommen, Lorraine Maltby, Carlos J Meliàn

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

For the past 20 years, research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B-EF) has only implicitly considered the underlying role of environmental change. We illustrate that explicitly reintroducing environmental change drivers in B-EF research is needed to predict the functioning of ecosystems facing changes in biodiversity. Next we show how this reintroduction improves experimental control over community composition and structure, which helps to provide mechanistic insight on how multiple aspects of biodiversity relate to function and how biodiversity and function relate in food webs. We also highlight challenges for the proposed reintroduction and suggest analyses and experiments to better understand how …

Temporal Variability Of Diapycnal Mixing In The Northern South China Sea, Hui Sun, Qingxuan Yang, Wei Zhao, Xinfeng Liang, Jiwei Tian

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Temporal variability of diapycnal mixing over 7 months in the northern South China Sea was examined based on McLane Moored Profiler observations from 850 to 2200 m by employing a finescale parameterization. Intensified diffusivity exceeding the order of 10⁻³ m²/s in magnitude was found over the first half of October 2014, and from 2 December 2014 to 21 January 2015 (a typical wintertime). Strong internal tides and winds in winter were the likely candidates for the high‐level diapycnal mixing in winter. As for the enhanced mixing during October 2014, we suspect the generation of near‐bottom near‐inertial waves …

The Heat Shock Transcription Factor Hsf1 Induces Ovarian Cancer Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition In A 3d Spheroid Growth Model., Chase D Powell, Trillitye R Paullin, Candice Aoisa, Christopher J Menzie, Ashley Ubaldini, Sandy D. Westerheid

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer, with over 200,000 women diagnosed each year and over half of those cases leading to death. The proteotoxic stress-responsive transcription factor HSF1 is frequently overexpressed in a variety of cancers and is vital to cellular proliferation and invasion in some cancers. Upon analysis of various patient data sets, we find that HSF1 is frequently overexpressed in ovarian tumor samples. In order to determine the role of HSF1 in ovarian cancer, inducible HSF1 knockdown cell lines were created. Knockdown of HSF1 in SKOV3 and HEY ovarian cancer cell lines attenuates the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition …

Step By Step: Biology Undergraduates' Problem-Solving Procedures During Multiple-Choice Assessment, Luanna B Prevost, Paula P Lemons

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

This study uses the theoretical framework of domain-specific problem solving to explore the procedures students use to solve multiple-choice problems about biology concepts. We designed several multiple-choice problems and administered them on four exams. We trained students to produce written descriptions of how they solved the problem, and this allowed us to systematically investigate their problem-solving procedures. We identified a range of procedures and organized them as domain general, domain specific, or hybrid. We also identified domain-general and domain-specific errors made by students during problem solving. We found that students use domain-general and hybrid procedures more frequently when solving lower-order …

Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy Contributes To The Dynamic Atovaquone Resistance Response In Plasmodium Falciparum, Sasha Victoria Siegel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Of the considerable challenges researchers face in the control and elimination of malaria, the development of antimalarial drug resistance in parasite populations remains a significant hurdle to progress worldwide. Atovaquone is used in combination with proguanil (Malarone) as an antimalarial treatment in uncomplicated malaria, but is rendered ineffective by the rapid development of atovaquone resistance during treatment. Previous studies have established that de novo mutant parasites confer resistance to atovaquone with a substitution in amino acid 268 in the cytochrome b gene encoded by the parasite mitochondrial genome, yet much is still unknown about how this resistance develops, and whether …

The Effects Of Phytohormones And Isoprenoids In Dihydroartemisinin-Induced Dormancy In The Erythrocytic Stages Of Plasmodium Falciparum, Marvin Duvalsaint Duvalsaint

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our ability to control malaria has been challenged by increasing antimalarial resistance. Plasmodium falciparum undergoes dormancy in the blood stages which is hypothesized to be a means by which they are able to survive under drug pressure. This helps select for resistant parasites which grow following removal of drug. The mechanisms behind dormancy and the subsequent recrudescence are not fully understood but translating knowledge from related organisms which undergo a similar phenomenon might shed some light. Higher plants utilize dormancy during the early development stages to survive under unfavorable conditions, increasing fitness of the seedling and ensuring viability when this …

Vdr-Ripk1 Interaction And Its Implications In Cell Death And Cancer Intervention, Waise Quarni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) is an enzyme acting downstream of tumor necrosis factor alpha to control cell survival and death. RIPK1 expression has been reported to cause drug resistance in cancer cells; but so far, no published studies have investigated the role of RIPK1 in vitamin D action. In the present study, we investigated whether RIPK1 played any role in 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3)-induced growth suppression. In our studies, RIPK1 decreased the transcriptional activity of vitamin D receptor (VDR) in luciferase reporter assays independently of its kinase activity, suggesting a negative role of RIPK1 in 1,25D3 action. RIPK1 also …

Quantitative Proteomic Investigation Of Disease Models Of Type 2 Diabetes, Mark Gabriel Athanason

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

PANcreatic DERived factor (PANDER, FAM3B) is a member of a superfamily of FAM3 proteins that are uniquely structured and strongly expressed from the endocrine pancreas and co-secreted with insulin. Unique animal models available to our lab have indicated that PANDER can induce a selective hepatic insulin resistant (SHIR) phenotype whereby insulin signaling is blunted yet lipogenesis is increased. The complexity of the biological networks involved with this process warranted the logical approach of employing quantitative mass spectrometry based proteomic analysis using stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) to identify the global proteome differences between the PANDER …

Gene Expression Profiling And The Role Of Hsf1 In Ovarian Cancer In 3d Spheroid Models, Trillitye Paullin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer, with over 200,000 women diagnosed each year and over half of those cases leading to death. These poor statistics are related to a lack of early symptoms and inadequate screening techniques. This results in the cancer going undetected until later stages when the tumor has metastasized through a process that requires the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). In lieu of traditional monolayer cell culture, EMT and cancer progression in general is best characterized through the use of 3D spheroid models. In this study, we examine gene expression changes through microarray analysis in …

Climate Change Drives Outbreaks Of Emerging Infectious Disease And Phenological Shifts, Jeremy Cohen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is expected to impact species by altering infectious disease outcomes, modifying community composition, and causing species to shift their phenology, body sizes and range distributions. However, the outcomes of these impacts are often controversial; for example, scientists have debated whether climate change will exacerbate emerging infectious disease and which species are at greatest risk to advance their phenology. There reason for these controversies may be that climate change is impacting diverse processes across a wide range of ecological scales, as the interplay between fine-scale processes and broad-scale dynamics can often cause unpredictable changes to the biosphere. Therefore, it …

Hypercapnic Hyperoxia Increases Free Radical Production And Cellular Excitability In Rat Caudal Solitary Complex Brain Slice Neurons, Geoffrey Edward Ciarlone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The caudal solitary complex (cSC) is a cardiorespiratory integrative center in the dorsal medulla oblongata that plays a vital role in the central CO₂-chemoreceptive network. Neurons in this area respond to hypercapnic acidosis (HA) by a depolarization of the membrane potential and increase in firing rate, however a definitive mechanism for this response remains unknown. Likewise, CO₂-chemoreceptive neurons in the cSC respond to hyperoxia in a similar fashion, but via a free radical mediated mechanism. It remains unknown if the response to increased pO₂ is merely an increase in redox signaling, or if it’s the …

A Framework For Studying Meshfree Geometry And A Method For Explicit Boundary Determination, Joseph Bradley Alford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Patient-specific biomechanical analysis is an important tool used to understand the complex processes that occur in the body due to physical stimulation. Patient-specific models are generated by processing medical images; once an object from the image is identified via segmentation, a point cloud representation of the object is extracted. Generating an analysis suitable representation from the point cloud has traditionally required generating a finite element mesh, which often requires a well defined surface to accomplish. Point clouds lack a well defined geometry, meaning that the surface definition is incomplete at best. Point clouds that have been generated from images have …

Significance Of Pten Phosphorylation And Its Nuclear Function In Lung Cancer, Prerna Malaney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phosphorylation mediated inactivation of PTEN leads to multiple malignancies with increased severity. However, the consequence of such inactivation on downstream functions of PTEN are poorly understood. Therefore, the objective of my thesis is to ascertain the molecular mechanisms by which PTEN phosphorylation drives lung cancer. PTEN phosphorylation at the C-terminal serine/threonine cluster abrogates its tumor suppressor function. Despite the critical role of the PTEN C-tail in regulating its function, the crystal structure of the C-tail remains unknown. Using bioinformatics and structural analysis, I determined that the PTEN C-tail is an intrinsically disordered region and is a hot spot for post-translational …

Variability Of Particle Size Distributions In The Bohai Sea And The Yellow Sea, Zhongfeng Qui, Deyong Sun, Chuanmin Hu, Sengquiang Wang, Lufei Zheng, Yu Huang, Tian Peng

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Particle size distribution (PSD) is an important parameter that is relevant to many aspects of marine ecosystems, such as phytoplankton functional types, optical absorption and scattering from particulates, sediment fluxes, and carbon export. However, only a handful of studies have documented the PSD variability in different regions. Here, we investigate the PSD properties and variability in two shallow and semi-enclosed seas (the Bohai Sea (BS) and Yellow Sea (YS)), using in situ laser diffraction measurements (LISST-100X Type C) and other measurements at 79 stations in November 2013. The results show large variability in particle concentrations (in both volume and number …

Quantitative Proteomic Profiling Reveals Hepatic Lipogenesis And Liver X Receptor Activation In The Pander Transgenic Model., Mark G. Athanason, Whitney A. Ratliff, Dale Chaput, Catherine B. Marelia, Melanie N. Kuehl, Stanley M. Stevens Jr., Brant R. Burkhardt

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

PANcreatic-DERived factor (PANDER) is a member of a superfamily of FAM3 proteins modulating glycemic levels by metabolic regulation of the liver and pancreas. The precise PANDER-induced hepatic signaling mechanism is still being elucidated and has been very complex due to the pleiotropic nature of this novel hormone. Our PANDER transgenic (PANTG) mouse displays a selective hepatic insulin resistant (SHIR) phenotype whereby insulin signaling is blunted yet lipogenesis is increased, a phenomena observed in type 2 diabetes. To examine the complex PANDER-induced mechanism of SHIR, we utilized quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis using Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino Acids in Cell …

Regulation Of Palmitoylation Enzymes And Substrates By Intrinsically Disordered Regions, Krishna D. Reddy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Protein palmitoylation refers to the process of adding a 16-carbon saturated fatty acid to the cysteine of a substrate protein, and this can in turn affect the substrate’s localization, stability, folding, and several other processes. This process is catalyzed by a family of 23 mammalian protein acyltransferases (PATs), a family of transmembrane enzymes that modify an estimated 10% of the proteome. At this point in time, no structure of a protein in this family has been solved, and therefore there is poor understanding about the regulation of the enzymes and their substrates. Most proteins, including palmitoylation enzymes and substrates, have …

A Compilation Of Iron Speciation Data For Open Oceanic Waters, Salvatore Caprara, Kristen N. Buck, Loes J. A. Gerringa, Micha J. A. Rijkenberg, Damiano Monticelli

Marine Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Constituting Agricultural And Food Policy In Malawi: The Role Of The State And International Donors In The Farm Input Subsidy Program (Fisp), Peter Rock Nkhoma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have been undertaken on the political economy of agricultural policies in developing countries. These studies have explained agricultural policies in terms of urban bias, economic reforms, and domestic politics. Recently, the emphasis has been on explanations that reference the existence of a rational-legal and patronage element within the African state. Such explanations tend to underplay the extent to which agricultural policies are devised in a context of power asymmetries between the state and international donors or financial institutions. In the Malawian context specifically, limited attention has been paid to the possibility that policies are a negotiated outcome of …

Influence Of Water Quality On Stony Coral Diversity And Net Community Productivity In The Florida Keys, María Vega-Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Worldwide, coral cover has declined at rates that have often exceeded 5% per year since the 1980’s. Populations of scleractinians (stony corals) in the Florida Keys reef tract have declined as well, with some communities declining at rates > 3% per year. Decreased water quality (e.g., steady increases in the ocean water temperatures and increased pollution, nutrients, or water turbidity due to coastal runoff) are commonly attributed to this decline. But actual linkages between variability and trends in these environmental parameters, and in stony coral diversity and ecosystem functions such as net community production, have not yet been well characterized.

With …

An Ecosystem-Based Approach To Reef Fish Management In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michelle D. Masi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fisheries managers have the potential to significantly improve reef fish management in the Gulf of Mexico through the use of ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management. Ecosystem-based approaches are needed to address the effects of fishing on trophodynamic interactions, to better account for ecosystem-scale processes in model projections, and to recognize the short and long-term biomass tradeoffs associated with making regulatory choices. My research was concentrated around three objectives: (1) characterizing the trophodynamic interactions between Gulf of Mexico fishes, in order to construct an invaluable tool (a Gulf of Mexico Atlantis model) to be used in ecological hypothesis testing and policy …

Responding To Modern Flooding: Old English Place-Names As A Repository Of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Richard L.C. Jones

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Place-names are used to communicate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) by all indigenous, aboriginal and First Nations people. Here and for the first time, English place-names are examined through a TEK lens. Specifically, place-names formed in Old English—the language of the Anglo-Saxon—and coined between c. 550 and c. 1100 A.D., are explored. This naming horizon provides the basic name stock for the majority of English towns and villages still occupied today. While modern English place-names now simply function as convenient geographical tags Old English toponymy is shown here to exhibit close semantic parallels with many other indigenous place-names around the world. …

Hormone Replacement Therapy (Hrt) Modulates Peripheral And Central Auditory System Processing With Aging, Tanika Williamson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After the findings were reported for the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study in the past decade, there has been a significant decline in the overall use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) among women. However, there are still millions of middle-aged, menopausal women in the U.S. who are currently undergoing hormone therapy. Their reasons for continuing treatment include relief of severe menopausal symptoms, aid in the management of osteoporosis and reduction in the risk of colon cancer (Ness et al., 2005). The purpose of the following investigation was to evaluate the impact of HRT on the central and peripheral auditory systems …

The Influence Of Oxygen Tension And Glycolytic And Citric Acid Cycle Substrates In Acrolein-Induced Cellular Injury In The Differentiated H9c2 Cardiac Cell Model, Jayme Coyle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most in vitro systems employ the standard cell culture maintenance conditions of 95 % air with 5 % CO2 to balance medium pH, which translates to culture oxygen tensions of approximately 20 % - above the typical ≤ 6 % found in most tissues. The current investigation, therefore, aims to characterize the effect of maintenance and toxicant exposure with a particular focus on the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde, acrolein, in the presence of physiologically relevant oxygen tension using a differentiated H9c2 cardiomyoblast subclone. H9c2 cells were maintained separately in 20.1 and 5 % oxygen, after which cells were differentiated for five days, …

Molybdenum Disulfide-Conducting Polymer Composite Structures For Electrochemical Biosensor Applications, Hongxiang Jia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lactic acid is widely existing in human bodies, animals and microorganisms. Recently, using biosensor to detect the concentration of lactic acid and diagnose disease have attracted great research and development interests. Nanocomposites is one of the best material used for biosensor because their wonderful conductivity, optical and electrochemical properties. In the study, MoS₂ and polypyrrole (PPY) are used for the composite material electrode. To determine whether lactate oxidase (LOD) was helpful for the biosensor’s detective properties, both PPY-MoS₂ film with LOD and PPY-MoS₂ film without LOD are being tested. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman …

Mathematical Models Are A Powerful Method To Understand And Control The Spread Of Huanglongbing, Rachel A Taylor, Erin A Mordecai, Christopher A Gilligan, Jason R. Rohr, Leah R Johnson

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, is a global citrus disease occurring in almost all citrus growing regions. It causes substantial economic burdens to individual growers, citrus industries and governments. Successful management strategies to reduce disease burden are desperately needed but with so many possible interventions and combinations thereof it is difficult to know which are worthwhile or cost-effective. We review how mathematical models have yielded useful insights into controlling disease spread for other vector-borne plant diseases, and the small number of mathematical models of HLB. We adapt a malaria model to HLB, by including temperature-dependent psyllid traits, "flushing" of trees, …

Teaching Culinary Skills Using Video Modeling To Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury, Sarah Castro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) often need to be taught independent living skills in order to reintegrate into community settings. This study examined the use of video modeling to teach culinary skills to three individuals with TBI. Video modeling is easily accessible, inexpensive, and not reliant on an additional person to directly teach skills. For all three participants, video modeling resulted in increases in cooking skills using a task analysis created for each food item prepared. For one participant, the skills maintained over two weeks and generalized to a novel food. For another participant video modeling was insufficient in …

Resource Use Overlap In A Native Grouper And Invasive Lionfish, Joseph Schmidt Curtis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species can severely disrupt biological communities through their interactions with native organisms, yet little is known about the response of marine predators to the establishment of a competitive invasive fish. In the western Atlantic, invasive Indo-Pacific lionfishes (Pterois spp.) may represent a novel competitor to several commercially and ecologically important native species. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research documenting comparative resource use of cohabitant lionfish and native fishes, as well the physiological consequences that may result from interspecific interactions with the invasive species. For this thesis, I conducted two studies designed to elucidate the strength …

Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Less than 10% of the world’s domestic wastewater is disinfected prior to discharge into surface waters; therefore, human exposure to diverse wastewater-related pathogens results in millions of cases of illness each year. Among the enteric pathogens, viruses represent an important group of emerging pathogens and are frequently the cause of food- and water-borne outbreaks of illness. Although the World Health Organization and many government agencies mandate the use of bacterial indicators to identify poor microbial water quality, it is well known that these indicators poorly correlate with fecal pollution contamination events and risk of disease. The field of public health-related …

Comparing Game Simulation To Concept Models For Student-Centered Learning In Biology, Margaurete Romero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Science education research continues to demonstrate improved learning with active-learning techniques compared to lectures. However, the question of which active-learning methods are the most effective for learning complex scientific principles in various context still remains. Models are commonly used in activities that allow students to simplify complex systems and understand how components interact. I investigated the outcomes for student learning and engagement of two model-based activities - concept models and game simulations. The activities were conducted in an introductory biology course in sixteen discussion sections. Eight sections were assigned to the concept model activity and eight to the simulation activity. …

Whiting Events Off Southwest Florida: Remote Sensing And Field Observations, Jacqueline Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Whiting” is a term used to describe a sharply defined patch of water that contains high levels of suspended, fine-grained calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). These features are named for their bright (at times white) appearance when compared to surrounding waters, and have been found to occur globally, persisting for multiple consecutive days. Although whitings have been widely studied using chemical, biological, geological, and physical techniques, there has been little effort to document their spatio-temporal distributions in a systematic way, not to mention the lack of consensus on what generates whitings and allows them to persist for days to weeks …