Life Sciences Commons^™

Microalgal Cultivation Characteristics Using Commercially Available Air-Cushion Packaging Material As A Photobioreactor, Clifford R. Merz, Neha Arora, Michael Welch, Enlin Lo, George P. Philippidis

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Air-cushion (AC) packaging has become widely used worldwide. ACs are air-filled, dual plastic packaging solutions commonly found surrounding and protecting items of value within shipping enclosures during transit. Herein, we report on a laboratory assessment employing ACs as a microalgal photobioreactor (PBR). Such a PBR inherently addresses many of the operational issues typically encountered with open raceway ponds and closed photobioreactors, such as evaporative water loss, external contamination, and predation. Using half-filled ACs, the performance of microalgal species Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oculata, and Cyclotella cryptica (diatom) was examined and the ash-free dry cell weight and overall biomass productivity determined …

Comprehensive Datasets Of The Cariaco Ocean Time-Series Program (1995-2017) In The Southeastern Caribbean Sea, Frank Muller-Karger, Yrene Astor, Ramon Varela, Robert Thunell, Mary Scranton, Gordon Taylor, Kristen Buck, Kent Fanning, Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Laura Lorenzoni, Enrique Montes, Eric Tappa, Luis Troccoli, Rafael Diaz-Ramos, Sonia Subero-Pino, Jaimie Rojas, Luis Gonzalez, Javier Gutierrez, Jesus Narvaez, Alberto Rosales, Laurencia Guzman, Juan Capelo, Digna Rueda-Roa

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The Cariaco Basin, located off eastern Venezuela in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, is the world's largest marine anoxic basin and the site of one of the longest-running oceanographic studies on record. The CARIACO Ocean Time-Series Program collected various oceanographic parameters from 1995 until 2017 at the Cariaco station (10.50° N, 64.67° W). The Cariaco Basin exhibits pronounced seasonal and interannual variations in hydrographic properties and primary production due to seasonal coastal upwelling. Additionally, due to its restricted circulation and high primary production, the basin is anoxic below approximately 250 meters.

Monthly oceanographic cruises were conducted aboard the R/V Hermano Ginés …

Vertical Structure And Trends In Co2 At The Cariaco Ocean Time Series Station: 1995-2017, Yrene M. Astor, Laura Lorenzoni, Digna T. Rueda-Roa, Frank E. Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Changes in the vertical structure of pH (total proton scale at 25 °C or pHT), total alkalinity, total CO2 (TCO2), and partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) were examined at the CARIACO Ocean Time Series station (10º30'N, 64º40'W) from December 1995 to January 2017. Long-term trends were studied in the three water masses present in the Cariaco Basin: the surface layer (SL, located between 0-100 m depth), the Subtropical Underwater (SUW, with minimum depths between the surface and 105 m and maximums between 30-165 m depending on the season) and the deep water (DW, with minimum depths between 175-380 …

Worldwide Distribution Of Cave-Dwelling Chelodesmidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), Rodrigo Salvador Bouzan, Jackson C. Means, Kaloyan Ivanov, Rodrigo L. Ferreira, Antonio Domingos Brescovit, Luiz Felipe Moretti Iniesta

International Journal of Speleology

Chelodesmidae is one of the most species rich families within the Myriapoda. However, little is known regarding their association with caves. We provide a list of all Chelodesmidae taxa reported from caves, map their worldwide distribution, and discuss the troglomorphic features of the group. A total of 25 species and subspecies from 20 genera and 2 subfamilies have been recorded from 59 caves and cave systems in 11 countries. These numbers represent a surprisingly modest proportion (~3%) of the approximately 800 described species in the family. Records of cave-dwelling chelodesmids appear to be geographically biased with most taxa reported from …

Atrial Fibrillation In Aging: Mechanisms And Potential Therapeutics, Mengmeng Chang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common cardiac arrhythmias seen in the clinics, and currently available antiarrhythmic pharmacotherapies in AF are not very effective. Although AF has been recognized as an aging-mediated disease, our understanding of the electrophysiological pathways that link aging and AF remain incomplete, which limits breakthroughs in the development of novel antiarrhythmic treatments for this disease. Studies have shown that aging increases the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the heart, and high levels of ROS have been associated with development of AF in animals and patients. Additionally, in some forms of AF, the …

Population Demography, Spatial Ecology, And Habitat Use Of The Florida Box Turtle (Terrapene Bauri) On A Barrier Island, Michael D. Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Turtles are one the most threatened vertebrate groups in the world due to anthropogenic threats such as habitat loss and overexploitation. In addition to occupying a range that has been vulnerable to major habitat loss, the Florida box turtle (Terrapene bauri) is particularly at risk of overexploitation due to its popularity in the pet trade. Sanibel Island is a barrier island in southwest Florida that has experienced major habitat loss and is the site of a recent poaching event. In response to these threats, studies of both the population demography and spatial ecology were conducted on Sanibel’s Florida box turtle …

Quantifying Environmental Sensitivity Of Marine Resources To Oil Well Blowouts In The Gulf Of Mexico, Emily Chancellor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focused on oil spill risk assessment techniques historically utilized for coastal resources (e.g., environmental sensitivity indices (ESIs), vulnerability assessments, species-specific vulnerability frameworks) and their application and expansion to offshore resources found in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Additional included techniques (e.g., multi-sector trade-off analysis, marine spatial planning (MSP) software) provide support in decision making processes regarding the potential siting of oil production sites and/or the withdrawal of areas from oil and natural gas production. Chapter 1 included an overview and justification for this study. Chapter 2 demonstrated an initial methodology for the creation of offshore ESIs and how …

The Nitrogen Dynamics Of Deer Cave, Sarawak, And The Role Of Bat Caves As Biogeochemical Sinks In Tropical Moist Forests., Joyce Lundberg, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Guy Van Rentergem

International Journal of Speleology

A better understanding of the role of bat caves as nitrogen sinks in tropical moist forest ecosystems can be expected to shed light on regional and spatial variability in nutrient recycling studies. We measured the nitrogen flux (in air and water) associated with a very large Chaerephon plicata bat colony in Deer Cave, Borneo, in the process generating a new, quantitative, estimate of the total bat population (774,828 ±48,320), and the first detailed modelling of an ammonia plume in a cave. Long-term storage of N does not occur in this wet cave. Our final budget numbers indicate that, of the …

Reproduction In Relation To Heavy-Metal Contamination Along An Urbanization Gradient In Aninvasive Florida Lizard Species (Anolis Sagrei), Elizabeth Hauck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental contamination is accumulating rapidly worldwide due to increasing urbanization rates. Heavy metals are known to be particularly toxic to organisms, to accumulate in biological systems, and to be found in higher concentrations in animals located in areas of high urban levels. However, the physiological impacts of these toxic heavy metals in wildlife remain largely unknown. Lizards are excellent bioindicator species for environmental contaminants due to their trophic level as mesopredators and their susceptibility of exposure via air, water, diet, and soil through egg deposition. To assess the impacts heavy-metal contamination has on reproductive parameters in lizards and how these …

Algae And Cyanobacteria In The Aphotic Habitats Of Veternica Cave (Medvednica Mt., Croatia) And Selected Caves Of The Dinaric Karst (South-Eastern Europe), Najla Baković, Tanja Pipan, Robert Baković, Roman Ozimec, Josip Rubinić, Renata Matoničkin Kepčija

International Journal of Speleology

Microphototrophs (algae and cyanobacteria) in karst environments have been intensively studied in aquatic epigean habitats. In recent decades knowledge about the communities inhabiting cave entrances and lampenflora has grown substantially, but the data about the communities in aphotic cave zone are scarce. This study aimed to investigate spatio-temporal presence of microphototrophs in the aphotic zone of Veternica Cave (Mt. Medvednica karst) and to present additional preliminary data from 22 caves of the Dinaric karst. The data were collected over ten years, in parallel with research on cave phagotrophic protists. In addition to the remains of microphototrophs, living algae and cyanobacteria …

Structural And Biochemical Characterization Of Epigenetic And Fusion Tyrosine Kinase Cancer Targets For Drug Development, Melissa Bikowitz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is a significant global health burden, as ~40% of the human population is diagnosed with cancer over a lifetime, half of which succumb to the disease. To develop novel compounds as potential cancer therapeutics, an in-depth structural and biochemical understanding of proteins involved in oncogenesis is key. This dissertation centers around the comprehensive structural and biochemical characterization of two classes of proteins critical for cancer cell survival: bromodomain-containing proteins (BRDs) and fusion tyrosine kinases (FTKs).In 2010, small molecule inhibitors targeting bromodomains (epigenetic reader proteins) became heavily popularized due to the druggability and potent anticancer effects of BET inhibitors. …

Farmer Adoption Of Advanced Technology In Agribusiness, Justin W. Belcher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Normally, family-owned farms are slow to adopt advanced technologies though these technologies can provide several benefits to the farm and have the potential to increase farm production volumes to help meet future population growth. The goal of this study was to document the factors that influence the adoption decision of advanced technologies by family-owned farms and what strategies can be used to motivate adoption. Case study research was conducted to gather data in a more structured way from family-owned farms typically excluded from past research for the purpose of comparing similarities across similar and dissimilar farms. For generalizing similarities, a …

Anthropogenic Fecal Pollution Affects Microbial Water Quality And Multidrug Resistance In Tropical Aquatic Environments, Adriana González-Fernández

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although an often-overlooked issue, fecal pollution at recreational beaches should concerneveryone. Worldwide more than 80% of wastewater is discharged into rivers or the ocean without any treatment. Untreated and inefficiently treated wastewater can introduce diseasecausing microorganisms into the aquatic environment. Fecal-borne pathogens can also originate in animal waste, and humans can be exposed to these pathogens from poorly managed animal feces that make their way into the aquatic environment. Exposure to waterborne pathogens in recreational waters is a public health hazard, as it facilitates the transmission of waterborne illness, and surface waters serve as natural reservoirs of antibiotic resistant bacteria …

The Biological Roles Of Tau Protein In The Vasculature And The Regulation Of Vegfr1 Signaling By Heparan Sulfate, Yanan Zhu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation consists of two research projects. The first project investigated the roles of extracellular tau in the vasculature, including tau-induced angiogenesis and tau internalization, a topic related to tauopathy. The second project was to understand the regulatory functions of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in VEGFR1 signaling.

Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, and are characterized by the appearance of intraneuronal tau inclusion in the brain and the patient's cognitive decline. Recent studies have emerged that soluble and aggregated tau also exists outside neurons in the central nervous system. Intriguingly, overexpressing tau in neurons in the mouse …

American Horse Power During The Great War, Hanna K. Lipsey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation charts the significant, if understudied, history of American horses during the era of World War I, from roughly 1914 to 1919. Its chapters trace how the US Army acquired, used, cared for, and ultimately demobilized horses over the course of that conflict. Beginning with their acquisition, via either an Army Horse Breeding Program or a complicated buying process, horses faced a complex introduction into military service. Life for these animals did not get any easier once they reached the European front. Although the US military was beginning to replace horses with motor trucks and tractors, horses remained central …

Investigating Students' Interpretations Of Ecological Food Webs, Christopher Neil Grissett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To better prepare undergraduate students for current and future biological challenges, scientists, educators and researchers in the Vision and Change report recommended five core conceptual areas essential for the improvement of biological literacy, one of which is biological systems. Systems are an identified core concept that may help promote biological literacy. One example of a system that students have difficulty understanding is an ecological food web, which consists of parts or components interacting with one another to perform a given phenomenon. The intricacies of this system tend to confuse students and can produce naïve conceptions that could hinder future learning …

Design And Assessment Of A Novel Edna Survey Method For The Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon Couperi), Emily K. Galbraith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

1. Accurate information about species range declines is the cornerstone of effective conservation when habitat loss drives biodiversity loss. The Eastern Indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi) is an apex predator in Florida and, like many other native Florida species, is threatened by widespread habitat destruction. Environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring of this elusive snake would provide a low-risk and low-cost approach to expand our knowledge of the species’ range and distribution.

2. We designed and tested an eDNA assay that can detect the presence of Eastern Indigo snake from soil samples of their natural habitat. This assay was …

Utilizing Maternal Investment Strategies Of Sharks To Develop Management Tools To Aid In Shark Conservation, Dennis Deeken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Every generation, breeding females and males repopulate ecosystems with the next generation of offspring. Two models link maternal investments in offspring size and number to natural selection processes. In unstable resource environments, bet-hedging models predict a conservative tradeoff in maternal investments resulting in moderate egg size and clutch size within a given range of sizes for a given species. r/K selection models make predictions on maternal investments across species. In unstable resource environments, r-selected species invest in large broods of small offspring. In stable environments, K-selected species invest in small broods of large offspring. The maternal risk management model predicts …

To Be Or Not To Be: A Tale Of Staphylococcal Gpsb, Lauren R. Hammond

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are two big drivers motivating studies into bacterial cell division. The first is a desire to understand life around us. One of the defining characteristics of life is the ability for a cell to grow and divide, and without in-depth knowledge of this process, we cannot truly understand the complexities that allow for life on this planet. The second motivator is to identify new drug targets in the ongoing fight against antimicrobial resistance. Many infectious organisms have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics, and the bacterial cell division machinery is a largely untapped essential process with many potential therapeutic …

Lord Of The Z-Rings: Uncovering The Role Of Mraz And Ftsl In Bacillus Subtilis Cell Division, Maria Louise White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell division is a complex and highly orchestrated process that requires careful coordination. The process of cell division in prokaryotes primarily occurs via binary fission, where one mother cell becomes two genetically identically and equally sized daughter cells. In most bacteria a key protein, FtsZ, forms a FtsZ ring (Z-ring) to mark the division site and recruit proteins involved in cytokinesis. Whilst much has been learned about the contents and assembly of the divisome in model organisms such as Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis factors governing the regulation of divisome are much more poorly understood. …

Ec Expression Of Activated K-Ras Leads To Capillary Deficiency Due To Excessive Lumen Formation, Reduced Pericyte Recruitment, And An Increased Susceptibility To Mmp-1-Dependent Vascular Regression, Zheying Sun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Activated k-Ras mutations play a role in a variety of pathological conditions, such as arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). To study the effect of activated k-Ras mutation on lumen formation, we engineered human ECs to simultaneously express the activated k-Ras (G12V) mutation and compared their ability to form lumens with control ECs. We demonstrated that ECs with k-RasV12 lead to marked stimulation of EC lumen formation due to dramatic increases in intracellular vacuole formation and fusion, signaling changes including accelerated Src kinase activation, and MT1-MMP-dependent lumen expansion, all of which drive the process of lumen formation. The markedly accentuated lumen formation is …

Interactions Between Juvenile Estuary-Dependent Fishes And Microalgal Dynamics, Ian C. Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ontogenetic movement of juvenile estuary-dependent fishes upstream in estuarine settings is a phenomenon observed around the world. These movements usually coincide with a shift in diet from smaller prey, such as calanoid copepods, to larger prey, such as mysids. However, the mechanism that drives this pattern has yet to be conclusively described. Prior to the current study, zooplankton/hyperbenthos (“zooplankton”), primary production, and water quality data were collected from the Caloosahatchee River estuary in two concurrent and coordinated studies over a two-year period. One of the products of these sampling efforts was a classification of primary-producer types at the sediment-water …

Effect Of Hyperoxia On Cardiac Pathophysiology In Female Guinea Pig Hearts, Chayapatou Chayawatto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hyperoxia is widely implemented in critical care and ICU patients. The administration of a high concentration of inspired oxygen to the lung can unknowingly cause hyperoxia and thereby damaging the lungs and heart due to oxidative stress. Technically, hyperoxia occurs when the patient receives PaO2 > 200 mmHg. Major research focused on hyperoxia-induced lung injury, but nothing is known on its effect on heart. Our lab is the pioneer in understanding the effect of hyperoxia on cardiovascular remodeling using mice model. Previous results show that mice under 72 hours of hyperoxia present severe cardiac pathophysiology. This research uses Guinea pigs, which …

Association Between Use Of Remdesivir And Bradycardia, Gibret Umeukeje

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Remdesivir received the first emergency use authorization from the FDA for the treatment of COVID-19. Multiple adverse drug reactions (ADR) have been reported since its approval in October 2020. Bradycardia, defined by a decrease in heart rate has been reported as an adverse event for patients receiving remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment. The purpose of the research is to systematically investigate the frequency of occurrence of bradycardia in adults receiving remdesivir using clinical data derived from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database. Patients receiving remdesivir were compared to those receiving Paxlovid, Regen-Cov, and Dexamethasone for COVID-19 treatment to see …

Screening Pathological Protein Specific Antibodies As Biomarker Discovery Tools For Neurodegenerative Disease, Yitong Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the increase in the average life span, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases also increases, among which Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are the two most common types of neurological disorders. AD and PD share the same pathogenic mechanism that involves a class of proteins called beta-amyloid (Aβ), which, under the induction of some factors, changes from its natural monomeric state to the oligomers containing β-sheet, which is neurotoxic and thus leads to cell damage or apoptosis. This study focused on the selection of antibodies used as biomarkers for AD and PD. The selection of antibodies was based …

A Holistic Investigation Of Acidosis In Breast Cancer, Bryce Ordway

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the early 20th century, Nobel laureate Otto Warburg made the observation that cells of a carcinoma had considerably higher glycolytic metabolism and considerably lower oxidative metabolism compared to cells of a normal tissue. He postulated that within this observation was the key to deciphering the differences between malignant and normal tissue. It is now well established that tumors of the breast are unequivocally acidic, caused by an abnormal amount of aerobic glycolysis, colloquially known as the Warburg effect. Over the last decades, our group, led by Dr. Robert J. Gillies, has set out to characterize the causes and consequences …

Unique Thermal Sensitivity Imposes A Cold-Water Energetic Barrier For Vertical Migrators, Brad Seibel, Matthew A. Birk

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Alterations of marine species’ ranges with climate change are often attributed to oxygen limitation in warming oceans. Here we report unique metabolic temperature sensitivities for the myriad of vertically migrating oceanic species that daily cross depth-related gradients in temperature and oxygen. In these taxa, selection favours high metabolic activity for predator–prey interactions in warm shallow water and hypoxia tolerance in the cold at depth. These diverging selective pressures result in thermal insensitivity of oxygen supply capacity and enhanced thermal sensitivity of active metabolic rate. Aerobic scope is diminished in the cold, well beyond thermodynamic influences and regardless of ambient oxygen …

X-Linked Ubiquitin-Specific Peptidase 11 Increases Tauopathy Vulnerability In Women, Yan Yan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women experience significantly higher tau burden and increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than men, yet the underlying mechanism for this vulnerability has not been explained. Here, we demonstrate through in vitro and in vivo models, as well as human AD brain tissue, that X-linked ubiquitin specific peptidase 11 (USP11) augments pathological tau aggregation via tau deubiquitination initiated at lysine-281. Removal of ubiquitin provides access for enzymatic tau acetylation at lysines 281 and 274. USP11 escapes complete X-inactivation, and female mice and people both exhibit higher USP11 levels than males. Genetic elimination of usp11 in a tauopathy mouse model preferentially …

Investigation Of Poultry Meat Consumption Habits In Turkish And World Cuisine, Busra Erilmez Ilter, Dilek Dulger Altiner

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

It is very important to include animal foods in the human diet. When the animal production data in the world is examined, it is seen that poultry meat farming is increasing every day. Poultry meat is the name given to poultry animals whose meat can be consumed, such as chicken, turkey, quail, goose, duck, partridge. Poultry meat is consumed by billions of people all over the world every year. Poultry meat consumption amounts vary according to growing conditions, consumer income level, local cuisine culture, differences in rural or urban lifestyles, consumption frequency and amount. Since poultry meats have strategic importance …

Characteristic Of Turkey Registered Geographical Indications (Gi) Of Food And Agricultural Products In Regions, Nihan Akdemir, Aykut Simsek

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Geographically Indications (GI) is as a niche market for countries, creates value-added and has a strong link with origin and cultural heritage. The aim of this study is to examine registered GI products that can be considered as gastronomically in Turkey in terms of regions and product groups determined by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. For this purpose, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office Geographical Indications Portal (www.ci.turkpatent.gov.tr) was examined in depth, based on the descriptive scanning model. As a result of the examinations, it has been seen that Turkey has 825 registered GI of food and agricultural. It …