Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Geoscience Videos And Animations: How To Make Them With Your Students, And How To Use Them In The Classroom, Robert J. Stern, Jeff Ryan, Ning Wang, Victor J. Ricchezza, Siloa Willis

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We are in the midst of a “tectonic shift” in the way that undergraduate students want to learn. They will attend lectures and read assignments if they must, but they are especially interested in information that they can receive as videos on their cell phones and other mobile devices (Prensky, 2001; Thomas, 2011). The geosciences are uniquely well-suited to presentation via well-crafted, scientifically robust videos and animations. Geologic processes often take place over thousands to hundreds of millions of years and occur deep under water or within the Earth, where direct observation is not possible. Geology is synonymous with travel: …

Mapping Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Pen Aquaculture In A Shallow Lake: Less Aquaculture Coming Along Better Water Quality, Juhua Luo, Ruiliang Pu, Ronghua Ma, Xiaolong Wang, Xijun Lai, Zhigang Mao, Li Zhang, Zhaoliang Peng, Zhe Sun

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Pen aquaculture is the main form of aquaculture in some shallow lakes in eastern China. It is valuable to map the spatiotemporal changes of pen aquaculture in eutrophic lakes to assess its effect on water quality, thereby helping the relevant decision-making agencies to manage the water quality (WQ) of lakes. In this study, an automatic approach for extracting the pen aquaculture area was developed based on Landsat data. The approach integrates five algorithms, including grey transformation, discrete wavelet transform, fast Fourier transform, singular value decomposition and k-nearest neighbor classification. It was successfully applied in the automatic mapping of the pen …

Estimating Dispersal And Evolutionary Dynamics In Diploporan Blastozoans (Echinodermata) Across The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, Adriane R. Lam, Sarah L. Sheffield, Nicholas J. Matzke

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Echinoderms make up a substantial component of Ordovician marine invertebrates, yet their speciation and dispersal history as inferred within a rigorous phylogenetic and statistical framework is lacking. We use biogeographic stochastic mapping (BSM; implemented in the R package BioGeoBEARS) to infer ancestral area relationships and the number and type of dispersal events through the Ordovician for diploporan blastozoans and related species. The BSM analysis was divided into three time slices to analyze how dispersal paths changed before and during the great Ordovician biodiversification event (GOBE) and within the Late Ordovician mass extinction intervals. The best-fit biogeographic model incorporated jump dispersal, …

Late Holocene Droughts And Cave Ice Harvesting By Ancestral Puebloans, Bogdan P. Onac, Steven M. Baumann, Dylan S. Parmenter, Eric Weaver, Tiberiu B. Sava

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Water availability for Native Americans in the southwestern United States during periods of prolonged droughts is poorly understood as regional hydroclimate records are scant or contradicting. Here, we show that radiocarbon-dated charcoal recovered from an ice deposit accumulated in Cave 29, western New Mexico, provide unambiguous evidence for five drought events that impacted the Ancestral Puebloan society between ~ AD 150 and 950. The presence of abundant charred material in this cave indicates that they periodically obtained drinking water by using fire to melt cave ice, and sheds light on one of many human–environment interactions in the Southwest in a …

Uncovering Host-Microbiome Interactions In Global Systems With Collaborative Programming: A Novel Approach Integrating Social And Data Sciences [Version 1; Peer Review: Awaiting Peer Review], Jenna Oberstaller, Swamy Rakesh Adapa, Guy Dayhoff Ii, Justin Gibbons, Gregory S. Herbert

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Microbiome data are undergoing exponential growth powered by rapid technological advancement. As the scope and depth of microbiome research increases, cross-disciplinary research is urgently needed for interpreting and harnessing the unprecedented data output. However, conventional research settings pose challenges to much-needed interdisciplinary research efforts due to barriers in scientific terminologies, methodology and research-culture. To breach these barriers, our University of South Florida OneHealth Codeathon was designed to be an interactive, hands-on event that solves real-world data problems. The format brought together students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, and clinicians in a uniquely cross-disciplinary, team-focused setting. Teams were formed to encourage equitable distribution …

Tf1.3 Permanent Marshes, R. T. Kingsford, J. A. Catford, Mark C. Rains, B. J. Robson, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Tf1.4 Seasonal Floodplain Marshes, D. A. Keith, R. T. Kingsford, R. Mac Nally, B. J. Robson, C. A. Catford, Mark C. Rains, K. Irvine, K. M. Rodriguez-Clark, A. Etter

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

F1.2 Permanent Lowland Rivers, R. T. Kingsford, R. Mac Nally, G. S. Giller, Mark C. Rains, A. H. Arthington, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

F2.3 Seasonal Freshwater Lakes, R. T. Kingsford, R. Mac Nally, Mark C. Rains, B. J. Robson, K. Irvine, D. A. Keith

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Mariana Serpentinite Mud Volcanism Exhumes Subducted Seamount Materials: Implications For The Origin Of Life, Patricia Freyer, C. G. Wheat, Trevor Williams, Christopher Kelley, Kevin Johnson, Jeffrey Ryan, Walter Kurz, John Shervais, Elmar Albers, Barbara Bekins

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The subduction of seamounts and ridge features at convergent plate boundaries plays an important role in the deformation of the overriding plate and influences geochemical cycling and associated biological processes. Active serpentinization of forearc mantle and serpentinite mud volcanism on the Mariana forearc (between the trench and active volcanic arc) provides windows on subduction processes.  Here, we present (1) the first observation of an extensive exposure of an undeformed Cretaceous seamount currently being subducted at the Mariana Trench inner slope; (2) vertical deformation of the forearc region related to subduction of Pacific Plate seamounts and thickened crust; (3) recovered Ocean …

A Hydrologic Landscapes Perspective On Groundwater Connectivity Of Depressional Wetlands, Brian P. Neff, Donald O. Rosenberry, Scott G. Leibowitz, Dave M. Mushet, Heather E. Golden, Mark C. Rains, J. R. Brooks, Charles R. Lane

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Research into processes governing the hydrologic connectivity of depressional wetlands has advanced rapidly in recent years. Nevertheless, a need persists for broadly applicable, non-site-specific guidance to facilitate further research. Here, we explicitly use the hydrologic landscapes theoretical framework to develop broadly applicable conceptual knowledge of depressional-wetland hydrologic connectivity. We used a numerical model to simulate the groundwater flow through five generic hydrologic landscapes. Next, we inserted depressional wetlands into the generic landscapes and repeated the modeling exercise. The results strongly characterize groundwater connectivity from uplands to lowlands as being predominantly indirect. Groundwater flowed from uplands and most of it was …

Serpentinization As A Route To Liberating Phosphorus On Habitable Worlds, Matthew Pasek, Arthur Omran, Carolyn Lang, Maheen Gull, Josh Abbatiello, Tian Feng, Lyle Garong, Heather Abbott-Lyon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Planetary habitability is in part governed by nutrient availability, including the availability of the element phosphorus. The nutrient phosphorus plays roles in various necessary biochemical functions, and its biogeochemical cycling has been proposed to be extremely slow due to a strong coupling to the rock cycle via mineral weathering. Here we show a route to P liberation from water-rock reactions that are thought to be common throughout the Solar System. We report the speciation of phosphorus in serpentinite rocks to include the ion phosphite (HPO32- with P3+) and show that reduction of phosphate to phosphite is predicted from thermodynamic models …

Antarctic Deep Sea Coral And Tropical Fungal Endophyte: Novel Chemistry For Drug Discovery, Anne-Claire D. Limon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Considered the pulse controlling the biological interactions and contributing to the ecological survival of organisms, natural products have intrigued, challenged, and stimulated the scientific and non-scientific minds for millennia. Drug resistance and the lack of suitable potent drugs against neglected tropical diseases further motivate the biological activity assessment of these secondary metabolites, when possible.

This thesis describes the chemical investigation of two marine organisms and the elucidation of eight novel structures.

The study of a deep sea Antarctic coral unveils six novel terpenoid structures from three different molecular classes: sesquiterpenoid alcyopterosins, a triterpene steroid, and three prostaglandins. While mass availability …

Chemical Tools And Treatments For Neurological Disorders And Infectious Diseases, Andrea Lemus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neurological disorders have multiple etiologies such as genetics and age. Stress related disorders are becoming more common and diagnosed more often. Mental health disorders are no longer being treated as purely psychological. Mechanisms into the underlying factors of these disorders continue to bring this area to new frontiers. Chapter 2 of this dissertation focuses on the efforts made to prove the association of the protein FKBP51 to the stress response. We synthesized and used a molecular tool to discover and prove these interactions.

The study of neurodegenerative diseases is of continued importance as the world reaches record numbers of an …

Reconstructing Geographic And Trophic Histories Of Fish Using Bulk And Compound-Specific Stable Isotopes From Eye Lenses, Amy A. Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present research examined the viability and utility of eye lenses as a source of lifetime stable-isotope records in fish. It is presented in three sections. The first section compared bulk isotopic variation (bulk analysis) within fish eye-lenses at two temporal resolutions and compared patterns obtained from left and right eyes. The first temporal resolution was lower in an attempt to expose broad-scale isotopic changes during life while reducing effort and cost. This approach did reveal lifetime patterns, but tended to miss certain life events, particularly during early life. The second resolution was higher and provided detail that was missed …

The Activity And Structure Of Cu2+-Biomolecules In Disease And Disease Treatment, Darrell Cole Cerrato

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite its relatively low concentration in the human body, copper is an essential transition metal ion. Under normal circumstances, it is a well-regulated trace element that is introduced via diet or environment depending on the organism. Its strong reactivity and binding to some biologically essential chemicals can be detrimental to the host organism. Herein the oxidative chemistry of copper and its possible prevention in humans and agricultural organisms is discussed, as well as the potential avenues as metal-targeting disease treatment via novel-peptide and peptoid products.

In the first study, copper is implicated in the progression and onset of Alzheimer’s disease. …

Effect Of Atypical Protein Kinase C Inhibitor (Dnda) On Cell Proliferation And Migration Of Lung Cancer Cells, Raja Reddy Bommareddy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer, and it is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Elevated levels of PKC-ι and FAK are implicated in the progression of lung cancer and involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell survival, and cell migration processes. Lung cancer diagnosis typically occurs in the late stages, which limits the treatment options. Hence, there is a dire need to develop drugs that are effective and safe to treat lung cancers. We used a novel aPKC inhibitor named DNDA (3,4-amino-2,7 napthalene disulfonic acid) to study the role of atypical PKCs (aPKCs) …

Construction Of G-Quadruplexes Via Self-Assembly: Enhanced Stability And Unique Properties, Ying He

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation mainly contains three parts: 1) The construction of well-defined G8-octamers through the monomer conformational design. 2) The construction of cross-layer interactions in the G8-octamer for enhanced stability in H-bond competitive solvents. 3) Design and synthesis of 8-triazole guanosine with photoluminescent properties.

Through the structural conformational design, we have developed a new class of guanosine derivatives with modification on guanine (8-aryl) and ribose (2’,3’-isopropylidene). This unique design has led to the formation of the first discrete G8-octamer with structure characterized by NMR, MS and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The selectivity between monovalent (K+) and divalent cat-ions (Ba2+ and Sr2+) …

First-Principles Simulations Of Materials Under Extreme Conditions, Kien Nguyen Cong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The investigation of materials at extreme conditions of high pressure and temperature (high-PT), has been one of the greatest scientific endeavors in condensed mater physics, chemistry, astronomy, planetary, and material sciences. Being subjected to high-PT conditions, materials exhibit dramatic changes in both atomic and electronic structure resulting in an emergence of exceptionally interesting phenomena including structural and electronic phase transitions, chemical reactions, and formation of novel compounds with never-previously observed physical and chemical properties. Although new exciting experimental developments in static and dynamic compression combined with new diagnostics/characterization methods allow to uncover new processes and phenomena at high P-T conditions, …

Use Of Spectrofluorometry To Detect Petroleum Hydrocarbons In The Marine Environment, Mary Iris Abercrombie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The genesis of this research was the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which discharged petroleum and gas into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days in 2010. High-resolution fluorescence spectroscopy was employed for the detection of petroleum in seawater samples following the oil spill. Fluorescence arises from the chemical structure of π-bonding in C=C bonds, especially those in aromatic structures. Spectrofluorometry was also used to observe and track the formation of petroleum plumes in seawater undergoing controlled physical dispersion in a wave tank, both with and without the addition of chemical dispersant. Further, the changing fluorescence characteristics of a broad range …

The Peculiar Nature Of Florida’S Sandhill Wetlands, Ponds & Lakes— Their Ecohydrology, Relationship With The Regional Aquifer & Importance Within The Landscape., Renae Starr Nowicki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ecohydrology of Florida’s peculiar and poorly studied sandhill wetland and water features, particularly those located in west-central Florida. The primary research goals include: compilation and summarization of the available ecohydrologic information for features across Florida; comparison of water level and water geochemistry data between sandhill wetlands and waters and the regional aquifer to provide evidence of regional hydrologic control; and use of geophysical applications to examine the hydraulic connections between sandhill wetlands and waters and the regional aquifer.

From this research, a natural history of sandhill wetland and water ecohydrology is presented, highlighting: the differences between …

Untapped Potential Of Gorgonian Octocorals For Detecting Environmental Change In Biscayne National Park, Florida, Usa, Selena A. Kupfner Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One consequence of dramatic stony-coral loss has been recognition that gorgonian octocorals (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) have emerged among the dominant reef fauna. However, gorgonians are notoriously difficult to field-identify and consequently have been underrepresented in most monitoring efforts resulting in a lack of long-term data. The rich diversity of habitats, close proximity to the urban center of Miami, and connectivity to other areas of Florida have made Biscayne National Park an active location for reef research since its establishment in 1968. As such, a plethora of data (e.g., museum specimen and species abundance data) has been collected and stored in archives …

Biomimetic Light Harvesting In Metalloporphyrins Encapsulated/Incorporated Within Metal Organic Frameworks (Mofs)., Abdulaziz A. Alanazi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Global energy supply relies mostly on fossil fuels and only 10% comes from renewable energy. These places humankind in an unsafe situation as the fossil fuel resources won’t last forever. More efficient use of renewable energy is required sooner than later to meet the growing energy need. A promising approach is to utilize light harvesting chromophores (e.g., porphyrin derivatives) to advance organic photovoltaics and increase its efficiency or to improve photocatalysts. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be employed to aid the self-assembly of the porphyrin chromophores in a large light-harvesting system comparable to the natural photosystem. The advantage of using …

Introducing A Mobile Health Care Platform In An Underserved Rural Population: Reducing Assimilations Gaps On Adoption And Use Via Nudges, Joseph Hodges

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rural communities are often overlooked when it comes to offering cutting edge consumer healthcare technologies. Mobile applications usually exclude populations in rural demographics due to the infrastructure requirements and available technology in the region. The population studied is a low income rural health plan in southwest Georgia. They are uniquely considered as they have the highest healthcare costs in the U.S. and are compared to healthcare costs among higher income populations like Vail, Colorado. Innovations, such as mobile healthcare applications, have the capacity to offset some of these costs, but even if adoption occurs, this does not guarantee use will …

Self-Assembly Of 2d And 3d Metallo-Supramolecules With Increasing Complexity, Bo Song

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic organic chemistry played a crucial role in the construction of molecules through the formation and dissociation of covalent bonds. However, the laborious synthetic procedures as well as the low yield after multiple steps have restricted the pursuit of complicated giant molecules with high efficiency. Being complementary to organic synthesis, self-assembly provided an alternative route to achieving the giant architectures using weak non-covalent interactions in high efficiency, which is in analog to natural systems such as DNA, peptide, and protein. Among the various interactions, coordination has shown unique advantages in terms of directionality, reversibility and strength. Serving as a bottom-up …

Past Climate And Sea-Level Reconstruction Using Cave Deposits From Mallorca, Spain, Oana-Alexandra Dumitru

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The potential impacts of the increasing temperature on the water resources, as well as the hazards associated with the sea-level rise in the low-elevation coastal zones of the Mediterranean Sea, makes this region vulnerable to current climate change due to global warming. Hence, accurate projections of the future hydroclimate scenarios in this area are crucial. Long-term information on climate and sea-level variability cannot be obtained by direct observations or using short instrumental records. However, various geological archives may provide valuable data that can be then used to assess the models used for future predictions.

This thesis presents results on past …

Development Of Α-Aa Peptides As Peptidomimetics For Antimicrobial Therapeutics And The Discovery Of Nanostructures, Sylvia E. Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For decades it has been convention to use antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections. Due to the overuse and misuse of these drugs, bacteria are becoming resistant to these treatments. This phenomenon has led to the search for alternative antibiotics, and in the study of Host Defense Peptides (HDPs). HDPs are the body’s innate immune response to infection. They are known to modulate immune system response and kills bacterial using various methods causing them to be less susceptible to bacterial resistance. The method by which we can mimic these biological peptides is called peptidomimetics. Various research shows the use …

The Adaptations Of The Sulfur-Oxidizing, Gammaproteobacterium "Candidatus Endoriftia Persephone", Endosymbiont Of The Giant Tubeworm Riftia Pachyptila, To Hydrothermal Vent Habitat Heterogeneity, Juliana M. Leonard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The siboglinid tubeworm Riftia pachyptila is a dominant member of the deep-sea megafauna where seawater and hydrothermal vent (HTV) effluent interface and mix. It is one of the fastest growing invertebrates on land or in the sea. It does not have a digestive tract (e.g. mouth, gut, or anus), and is completely dependent on its sulfur-oxidizing endosymbiont, the Gammaproteobacterium “Candidatus Endoriftia persephone” for its nutritional requirements. This association was the first and is the most well studied among chemolithoautotrophic symbioses. “Ca. E. persephone” is a chemolithoautotrophic bacterium that oxidizes sulfide as an electron donor for energy, reduces oxygen as a …

The Chemical Ecology And Drug Discovery Potential Of The Antarctic Red Alga Plocamium Cartilagineum And The Antarctic Sponge Dendrilla Membranosa, Andrew Jason Shilling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical ecology is the study of chemical interactions between organisms and their environment mediated by small molecules involved in nonessential physiological functions, known as secondary metabolites. These compounds can be crucial to survival of the organism, and have also provided the field of medicine with some of history’s most influential drugs, referred to in that context as natural products. Antarctica is a dynamic and understudied environment, which affords the opportunity to examine the chemical ecology of unique organisms while simultaneously evaluating their novel chemistry for potential therapeutic properties as natural products.

Plocamium cartilagineum is a red macroalgal species found in …

Design, Synthesis, And Self-Assembly Of Supramolecular Fractals Based On Terpyridine With Different Transition Metal Ions, Lei Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fractals have existed in a variety of natural forms, and the concept of "fractal geometry" has been developed in many areas by humankind, including art, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, material science, and etc. In the field of chemistry, researchers have endeavored great efforts to express the concept using molecules either by theoretical prediction or using synthetic methods in the past few decades, and one successful example is the “Sierpiński triangle”. Challenge still remains to achieve other fractal geometries as well as high generation of fractals with precisely controlled shape and size. Coordination-driven self-assembly has witnessed a wide array of well-defined …