Life Sciences Commons^™

Bioarchaeological Analysis Of Three Individuals Excavated From Palikè Di Mineo, Sicily, August M. Stone, Madison Rieth, William Burnett

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

This study presents the analysis of three individuals excavated from the area of Palikè di Mineo, Sicily in May and June of 2023. The archaeological area contained numerous burials, but this study focuses on two adult male and one subadult (child). Burials are estimated to be from the Imperial Period of the Roman Empire (20 CE - 360 CE). Information collected includes age, sex, stature, and taphonomy of the individuals. Burial style, artifacts, and position of the burials are used to present data on the possible conditions of life in ancient Sicily. This article contributes data to the greater discussion …

Artist Statement, Shreyansh Patel

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Editorial Team

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Exposure To Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Reveals A Death Resistance Mechanism In Dictyostelium Discoideum, Zoya Nadeem Faruqui

Theses and Dissertations

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are very versatile due to their multifunctional properties including unique physicochemical and antimicrobial characteristics. They are widely utilized across various fields such as biomedical, industrial fields, environmental remediation, and agriculture. Therefore, their cytotoxic effects on biological systems necessitate a deeper understanding of the cellular responses to nanoparticle exposure. This project primarily investigates the impact of ZnO NPs on the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum AX4 (social amoeba) which has not been examined before unlike a vast variety of organisms in the literature. The cytotoxic effects of ZnO NPs on Dictyostelium discoideum AX4 cells are compared with …

Exploring Infant Toy Interactions In Free Play Environments, Emma Bermudez, Jacqueline Hammack

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Infants’ interactions with toys play a crucial role in their early cognitive and motor development, yet much of the research on this topic has been conducted in controlled laboratory settings, which may not accurately reflect the diversity of toys and interactions infants experience in their natural environments. This study uniquely examined these interactions in a home setting by utilizing an online video conferencing platform. This study investigated how toy properties influence manual infant-object interactions during dyadic tabletop free play, where mothers selected the toys for the session. Within the confines of this study, results show that infants spend significantly more …

Plant-Microbe Interactions Across Scales: Diversity, Disease, And Stress In Herbaceous Plant Communities, Philippa Tanford

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Plants interact consequentially with microbes spanning mutualism to pathogenicity, with broader effects on large-scale plant community structure. These plant communties, in turn, shape below and aboveground microbial communities through a variety of mechanisms. However, plant diversity-microbial diversity relationships remain broadly inconsistent across environments and among different plant and microbial assemblages. In my dissertation, I work to bridge some of these gaps in plant-microbial ecology in three experimental chapters assessing relationships between plant diversity and microbial diversity, including the influence of belowground-aboveground microbiome interactions, the influence of drought stress, and incorporating different spatial and experimental scales. First, I explore the microbial …

Early Detection Of Oak Wilt Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uav) & Computer Vision, Muttaki I. Bismoy

Masters Theses

Forests are critical ecosystems, delivering services such as biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, timber production, and recreation. However, they face increasing threats from pathogens like Bretziella fagacearum, which causes Oak Wilt, a lethal disease that disrupts water transport in oak trees, leading to canopy dieback and eventual death. Traditional detection methods rely on manual ground surveys, which are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to error, particularly in early disease stages.

This research presents an automated, scalable, high-precision Oak Wilt detection system using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) combined with deep learning-based computer vision. Expanding on earlier work with a lightweight CNN achieving an …

Lipid-Laden Microglia: Characterization And Roles In Diseases, Jiani Xing, Takese Mckenzie, Jian Hu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microglia are resident phagocytes of the central nervous system that play an essential role in brain development and homeostasis. When the intracellular lipid content exceeds the metabolic capacity of microglia, lipid droplets accumulate, giving rise to a distinct population termed lipid-laden microglia (LLMs). LLMs have been implicated in various neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, functioning as both regulators/indicators of inflammation and potential therapeutic targets. This review summarizes the current research on LLMs, focusing on disease-specific regulators and functions, protective roles, interactions with neighboring cells, and advances in diagnostic and analytical tools. We also discuss the blurred distinction between LLMs and macrophages, …

Collaborative Research: Bocp-Implementation: Us-China: Multi-Scale, Multi- Proxy, Integrative Investigation Of Functional Biodiversity On A Changing Proterozoic Planet, Carol Dehler

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Trpc4 Regulates Limbic Behavior And Neuronal Development By Stabilizing Dendrite Branches Through Actomyosin-Driven Integrin Activation, Jaepyo Jeon, Travis I Moore, Insuk So, Marc Freichel, Veit Flockerzi, Lutz Birnbaumer, Michael X Zhu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 4 (TRPC4) channels have been implicated in multiple neurological functions, including anxiety and sociability. TRPC4 variants were also found in patients with autism. However, the contributions of TRPC4 to neurodevelopment remain undefined. Here, we show that neurobehavioral deficits appear early in young TRPC4 knockout (Trpc4^−/−) mice immediately after weaning, manifesting as alterations in multiple, limbic-related behaviors, such as nesting, marble burying, burrowing, self-grooming, and social interactions. Hippocampal neurons of Trpc4−/− mice exhibit reduced dendritic arborization both in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, we found that TRPC4 expression in dendrites surged at the …

Enhanced Meropenem Activity And Stability Following Load In Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofiber Scaffolds With Sitagliptin As Quorum Sensing Inhibitor On Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Samar A. Salim, Abdelrhman Mohsen, Mohamed Emara, Taghrid Elmahdy

Nanotechnology Research Centre

Background The increasing resistance of bacteria to conventional antibiotics poses a significant health challenge. Innovative strategies, such as combining antibiotics with agents like quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs), have been developed to combat this issue. QSIs enhance antibiotic efficacy without inhibiting bacterial growth, minimizing the risk of resistance. Aims Evaluate the combined effect of Sitagliptin (STG) as a QSI with Meropenem (MER), fabricate drug-loaded Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) nanofibers, and investigate their antimicrobial activity against standard Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1) and carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA). Methods The combinatorial effect was assessed using a checkerboard assay. PVA/STG, PVA/MER, and PVA/STG/ MER nanofibers were fabricated …

A Brief History Of Circadian Time In The Heart, Martin E Young, Vanya Khanna, Mallory Metcalfe, Niruththaan Rameshkumar, Sarah Harington, Leo H Li, Janan Shoja Doost, Heinrich Taegtmeyer, Tami A Martino

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This review tracks the discovery of circadian biology in cardiovascular science, starting with early clinical observations of daily changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and cardiovascular events. These patterns suggested that time of day matters, but it was not until the past two decades that the mechanisms and knowledge translation of these rhythms were uncovered. We describe the heart's intrinsic circadian properties and importantly how this leads to regulation of cardiac gene and protein expression, neuroendocrine and vascular rhythms, metabolism, cellular electrophysiology, and cell signaling pathways. Next, we explore emerging themes, including the impact of circadian timing on ischemic injury, …

Emotional Development In Infancy, Claire Sanford, Samantha Gott

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Developmental science has documented that infants’ emotional reactions are shaped by individual dispositions and their environment. This study investigated fear responses along with patterns of brain development in infants 6 to 10 months. Nine infant-mother dyads participated, with each infant observed twice (18 visits). An electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to analyze brain activity during resting-state and fear-eliciting conditions. Infant fear vocalizations were evaluated and coded during two conditions, i.e., an unfamiliar object (an electronic toy-spider), and an unfamiliar adult approaching. Results indicated infants’ fear vocalizations were stimuli-specific, with more fear expressed towards approaching strangers than the novel object. Findings also …

Use Of A Novel Plant Essential Oil-Based Insecticide For Insect Control In Household Gardens And Lawns, Mia Michnik, Alysa Suissa, Liah Brussolo Cremona, Annalise Wellman, Nicholas Nifakos, Alexander Spanoudis, John M. Harlin

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Insecticide use has increased as population and agricultural demand for crops grows. Commercial insecticides contain active ingredients that are often harmful to humans and the environment. A viable alternative to this concern is developing and using insecticides with low toxicity and minimum risk to the environment. In this study, we sought to empirically assess the effectiveness of an insecticide based entirely on plant essential oil active ingredients, which contain complex secondary metabolites. Our results show that a concoction of several plant essential oils was effective in killing a wide range of household garden insect species and bedbugs, encompassing five orders …

The Relationship Between Self-Reported And Observer-Rated Maternal Anxiety During Mother-Infant Interactions, Annalisa Tran, Jacqueline Hammack

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Research pertaining to maternal anxiety and mother-infant interactions is a rapidly growing field. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between self-reported maternal anxiety ratings and observer-rated maternal anxiety scores. Thirty-nine motherinfant dyads participated in a four-minute free-play session via Zoom. The Parent Anxiety measure from the Coding Interactive Behavior scale was used to measure observed maternal anxiety. The General Anxiety Disorder-7 scale was used to measure self-reported maternal anxiety. No significant association was found between self-reported maternal anxiety and observed maternal anxiety. An exploratory analysis was conducted to compare self-reported maternal anxiety and observed maternal sensitivity. …

Mechanism Of Unconventional Il-33 Release In Airway Disease, Omar Osorio

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The alarmin cytokine IL-33 is a strong inducer of type two inflammation and has been implicated in various chronic lung diseases. Although much work has been done to understand the inflammatory effects of extracellular IL-33, there is still a knowledge gap in understanding how this cytokine is secreted by airway epithelial cells in steady-state conditions. In the work laid out in this document, a COPD-disease associated isoform of IL-33, that has exons 3 and 4 (IL-3334) spliced out and is tonically secreted at baseline conditions. This IL-33 isoform is secreted from airway epithelial cells alongside, or as part of, extracellular …

Genomic Editing Of A Pathogenic Sequence Variant In Acta2 Rescues Multisystemic Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome In Mice, Qianqian Ding, Peiheng Gan, Zhisheng Xu, Hui Li, Lei Guo, Camryn Macdonald, Wei Tan, Efrain Sanchez-Ortiz, John R Mcanally, Yu Zhang, Dileep Karri, Lin Xu, Ning Liu, Eric N Olson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), the predominant cell type in the aortic wall, play a crucial role in maintaining aortic integrity, blood pressure, and cardiovascular function. Vascular SMC contractility and function depend on ACTA2 (smooth muscle α-actin 2). The pathogenic variant ACTA2 c.536G>A (p.R179H) causes multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome, a severe disorder marked by widespread smooth muscle abnormalities, resulting in life-threatening aortic disease and high risk of early death from aneurysms or stroke. No effective treatments exist for multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome.

Methods: To develop a comprehensive therapy for multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome, we used …

Causes Of Symptoms And Symptom Persistence In Long Covid And Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Anthony L Komaroff, Robert Dantzer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Debilitating symptoms for many years can follow acute COVID-19 ("long COVID"), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and various post-acute infection syndromes (PAISs). Together, long COVID and ME/CFS affect 60-400 million individuals, globally. Many similar underlying biological abnormalities have been identified in both conditions including autoantibodies against neural targets, endothelial dysfunction, acquired mitochondrial dysfunction, and a pro-inflammatory gut microbiome. Each of these abnormalities may directly cause some of the symptoms. In addition, the symptoms also may be caused by ancient, evolutionarily conserved symptomatic and metabolic responses to vital threats-sickness behavior and torpor-responses mediated by specific, recently discovered neural circuits. These neural …

Optimizing Motion Management And Baseline Shifts In Magnetic Resonance-Guided Spine Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, Yao Ding, Travis C Salzillo, Debra N Yeboa, Martin C Tom, Zhiheng Wang, Parmeswaran Diagaradjane, Ergys Subashi, Jinzhong Yang, Todd Swanson, Thomas Beckham, Chenyang Wang, Amol J Ghia, Tina Briere, Jihong Wang, Fabienne Lathuilière, Sneha Cloake, Eun Young Han

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has proven effective in controlling spinal lesions with minimal toxicity, primarily due to its ability to limit spinal cord dose. Recent advances in MR-linac (MRL) technology offer superior spinal cord visualization and real-time gating, which can facilitate dose escalation in spinal tumor treatment while maintaining safety.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to optimize motion management for spine SBRT on an MRL by analyzing patient-specific motion dynamics and evaluating the most effective registration structures. We hypothesized that baseline shifts (BLS) would improve delivery efficiency while maintaining spinal cord dose constraints. The goal was to establish displacement …

Therapeutic Targeting Of Syndecan-1 Axis Overcomes Acquired Resistance To Kras-Targeted Therapy In Gastrointestinal Cancers, Madelaine S Theardy, Mitsunobu Takeda, Alexey Sorokin, Shuaitong Chen, Zecheng Yang, Xiaofei Wang, Preeti Kanikarla, Oluwadara Coker, Phuoc Nguyen, Yongkun Wei, Jun Yao, Liang Yan, Yanqing Jin, Yiming Cai, Masakatsu Paku, Ziheng Chen, Kara Z Li, Francesca Citron, Hideo Tomihara, Sisi Gao, Angela K Deem, Jun Zhao, Huamin Wang, Samir Hanash, Ronald A Depinho, Anirban Maitra, Giulio F Draetta, Haoqiang Ying, Scott Kopetz, Wantong Yao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The therapeutic benefit of recently developed mutant KRAS (KRAS∗) inhibitors remains limited by the rapid onset of resistance. Here, we aim to delineate mechanisms underlying acquired resistance and identify actionable targets for overcoming this clinical challenge. Previously, we identified syndecan-1 (SDC1) as a key effector for pancreatic cancer progression whose surface expression is driven by KRAS∗. By leveraging both pancreatic and colorectal cancer models, we show that surface SDC1 expression initially diminishes upon KRAS∗ inhibition but recovers in tumor cells that bypass KRAS∗ dependency. Mechanistically, we reveal that YAP1 activation drives the recovery of SDC1 surface localization to enhance macropinocytosis-mediated …

Three New Species Of Androctonus From Morocco (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

New data are presented on the taxonomy and distribution of the dark species of the genus Androctonus Ehrenberg, 1828 in Morocco and Western Sahara. Three new species, A. argoubi sp. n., A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n. from Morocco are described, characterized by having metasoma I–IV ventrally punctate, a character that is well developed in A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n., and weakly developed in A. argoubi sp. n. Dark species from Morocco are compared with A. sergenti Vachon, 1948, and A. bourdoni Vachon, 1948. We describe and compare their …

Validity And Reliability Of The 'Feelfit®' Accelerometer In Evaluating Physical Activity And Sedentary Time In Children: A Comparative Study With Two Different Accelerometers, Songdhasn Chinapong, Korntawat Klinchan, Hanif Abdul Rahman, Michael Chia, Waris Wongpipit, Jetsada Arnin, Areekul Amornsriwatanakul

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 18(2): 794-810, 2025. Accurate physical activity (PA) measurement is crucial for public health surveillance. While self-report questionnaires are commonly used, they have limitations, especially in young children. An affordable and user-friendly device like Feelfit® offers a promising alternative particularly for countries with limited research resources. This study aimed to evaluate Feelfit®’s performance against the widely used ActiGraph® accelerometer in measuring PA among children. A quasi-experimental design was applied. Thirty-nine children (19 boys; 20 girls; aged 11.4 ± 0.5 years) wore both Feelfit® and ActiGraph® during sequentially specified activities of varying intensity ranging from sedentary to …

Evaluating The Toxicity Of Electronic Cigarette Aerosols For Firsthand And Secondhand Exposure Under Different Device Operating Conditions, Kashala Fabrice Kapiamba, Hsin Yin Chuang, Weixing Hao, Ta Chun Lin, Lung Chi Chen, Yue-Wern Huang, Yang Wang

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rapid proliferation of electronic cigarettes (ECs) has raised significant concerns about their potential health effects on both users and bystanders. This study systematically investigates the impact of EC aerosol exposure on human alveolar epithelial cells (A549), considering variations in device parameters, nicotine concentration, and exposure type. Using a gravity-based air–liquid interface exposure system, we assessed cytotoxicity and epithelial barrier integrity by measuring cell viability and transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER). Our results indicate that EC aerosol exposure significantly reduces cell viability and disrupts monolayer integrity in a dose- and device-dependent manner. Notably, VUSE (pod-type) exposure led to a 16% decrease …

Two Decapod Crustaceans, Panopeus Herbstii And Petrolisthes Armatus, Stabilize Their Gaze Using Achromatic Visual Cues, But Not The Angle Of Linearly Polarized Light, M. Janakis, S. Guirges, A. C. Grant, I. Paris, E. F. Lopresti, Daniel Isaac Speiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Asymmetric Fgf Receptor Dimerization: Implications For Fgf23 Biology And Drug Discovery, Mohammed S. Razzaque, Moosa Mohammadi

School of Medicine Publications

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) requires both αKlotho and heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) as obligatory coreceptors to bind, dimerize, and activate its FGF receptors (FGFRs) in the kidney, thereby regulating mineral ion and vitamin D homeostasis. Cryogenic electron microscopy studies reveal that FGF23 signaling proceeds through an asymmetric 1:2:1:1 FGF23–FGFR–αKlotho–HS assembly. According to this structural model, αKlotho simultaneously anchors FGF23 and one FGFR chain, referred to as the primary receptor (FGFRP), to form a 1:1:1 FGF23-FGFRP-αKlotho triplex, which boosts FGF23-FGFRP interaction. Subsequently, the HS coreceptor aids the triplex in recruiting a second FGFR chain, or secondary receptor (FGFRS), leading to …

Meta-Analytic Insights On Cover Crop Weed Suppression In The Midsouthern United States, Amar S. Godar, Jason K. Nprsworthy

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Herbicide resistance poses an escalating challenge to successful weed management in contemporary cropping systems, prompting growing interest in integrated strategies to reduce reliance on herbicides. Although cover cropping has long been recognized for its potential to suppress weeds, it has recently gained renewed attention as a weed management tool and for its ability to help producers achieve broader goals of soil health and environmental sustainability. Although research on its efficacy in the midsouthern United States has accumulated, a meta-analytic synthesis has been lacking. This meta-analysis synthesized 746 effect sizes from 27 peer-reviewed studies (selected based on explicit reporting of weed …

08.18.2025 Ored Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

ORED on-demand training, Tableau training, Research Reception 2025

Dominant Tree Species As A Driver Of Forest Herb Community Assembly: The Peculiar Case Of Pawpaw (Asimina Triloba), Anna Wassel

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the drivers of community assembly is a key goal in ecology and conservation. One way to better understand community assembly is to understand how the presence or absence of dominant species– highly abundant species with a proportionally large effect on the ecosystem–affects assembly. This approach allows for a more generalized understanding of community assembly based on the presence or abundance of one species rather than pairwise interactions among all species in a community. In forests, studies on dominant tree species have focused on how they affect patterns of species diversity. In contrast, surprisingly little is known about how dominant …

Cardiac And Coronary Hemodynamics: Using An Integrated Ex-Vivo Beating Heart Experiments And Computational Modeling, Chenghan Cai

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Cardiovascular function arises from the complex interactions among the heart, the arterial system, and the coronary circulation. Questions such as how variations in left ventricular (LV) loading conditions affect LV and aortic functions through LV–aorta interactions; and how coronary artery diseases, such as stenosis, impact cardiac function and myocardial perfusion including left and right coronary perfusion via LV–coronary interactions, remain understudied. To answer these questions, this thesis focuses on two core objectives: (1) investigate the effects of LV loading conditions on LV and aortic functions through LV–aortic interactions by performing ex-vivo beating rat heart experiments, and (2) elucidate the impact …

Mechanisms Of Ssdna Gap Resection In Brca1-Proficient And -Deficient Cells, Isabelle Seppa

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Single-stranded (ss) DNA gaps are potentially genome-destabilizing structures that require prompt repair (or filling) to prevent DNA breakage and genome instability. We previously showed that gap repair is defective in cancer cells with deficiencies in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1. These findings explain why ssDNA gaps accumulate in BRCA1-deficient cells in response to therapies that target DNA, such as platinum-based compounds, or therapies that inhibit specific repair pathways, such as PARP inhibitors (PARPi). We also discovered that gap repair can be restored in BRCA1-deficient cells by inhibiting MRE11 nuclease activity, indicating that nuclease processing plays a central role in …