College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Chemistry

10951

On-farm application of supplemental chloropicrin to improve Fusarium wilt control in tomato

"Florida is the second largest fresh market vegetable producing state in the country. Soil fumigation is the cornerstone for management of weeds and soilborne pests and pathogens in these vegetable production fields, for which growers have historically relied on methyl bromide. Methyl bromide was phased out in 2005 and is no longer available because it was classified as an ozone depleter. Most vegetable growers in Florida have now settled on three chemicals: 1,3-D, chloropicrin, and metam potassium as alternatives to methyl bromide and are now looking for ways to improve the efficacy of these systems for the long-term management of weeds and soilborne pests and pathogens, while reducing costs and regulatory burdens. According to a recent survey completed by Florida tomato, pepper, and strawberry growers; nutsedge (weed), followed by Fusarium wilt (disease), and Fusarium crown and root rot (disease) are the top three pest-related problems causing yield losses. These two diseases are the main target for this research. We are able to implement a new fumigation technique for tomato production utilizing chloropicrin, to directly target the zone in the soil profile in which the fumigant was not extending to before and where high concentrations of these pathogens exist. We have had great results over the past three seasons so we are very excited to share this with other professionals at this conference.

As a horticulturalist working with tomatoes, I realize the great importance of being well rounded due to the many challenges this industry faces, so I have been very excited and fortunate to include a plant pathology component as a major part of my thesis. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 16.7)" 10897

College of Public Health and Health Professions - Communication Sciences and Disorders Emotional Sentence Processing in Persons with Parkinson’s Disease Persons with Parkinson’s disease demonstrate deficits compared to healthy adults in the processing of emotions across in a number of areas including face and prosody processing. However, little research has examined emotional language processing in persons with Parkinson’s disease. This research examined how persons with Parkinson's process sentences that are emotional in nature compared to healthy adults. Participants rated sentences on their valence (i.e., pleasantness) and arousal (i.e., excitement). Overall, results indicate that persons with Parkinson’s demonstrate a reduced/blunted range of ratings compared to controls. This is consistent with prior research in the domains of emotional facial and prosody processing. This research is of importance because deficits in language that conveys emotion could significantly impact ones’ ability to communicate and interact with others, especially loved ones. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 14.4)

10887

Food Choice and Sodium Intake in American Diet

Individuals' overconsumption of sodium may lead to some diseases such as heart attack or high blood pressure. In order to see what types of food contribute more sodium in Americans' daily diet, we use a comprehensive, national data base named National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to see the relations between sodium intake and food consumed from various foods. We also consider the characteristics of individuals such as age, education and percentage of food consumed at home. We find that more than 90% of American over-consumed sodium. We also find that there are less sodium in per calorie or per gram of fruits, fruit products, sugars and so forth. Meanwhile, some foods contains high sodium per calorie or gram such as pork, crackers and so forth. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.7)

10880

Normative Values and the Impact of Demographics at Baseline for the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT3) in Teenagers

The purpose of this research was to present normative values for a commonly-used baseline concussion testing measure called the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT3). Ideally, all athletes would be given a pre-season baseline concussion test by a doctor or athletic trainer to measure their normal abilities on areas that are typically affected by a concussion such as physical symptom report, learning and memory, balance, and coordination. However, few athletes receive pre-season baseline tests, so our study provides normative values based on demographic factors, sex, and concussion history to use in the absence of individual baseline data. We used a community-based approach to gather baseline SCAT3s from 335 youth athletes. Results from this study found that there are important demographic differences at baseline on the SCAT3 and provides values that may be used by physicians to guide clinical practice for diagnostic decisions and return-to-activity judgments post-injury. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 18)

10875

The Teacher, Curriculum and Culturally Responsive Teaching: Science Learning Experiences of African American Middle School Girls in an Informal Setting

Current reform efforts in science education that seek to promote effective instruction still fail to meet the needs of underrepresented populations, especially African American girls (Pringle, R. M., Brkich, K. M., Adams, T., West-Olatunji, C., & Archer-Banks, D., 2012). As such, our research project that seeks to provide African American middle school girls with interactive and high-quality science learning experiences aligns well with this year’s conference theme, Advocating for the Silenced: The Educators’ Vocation. The inquiry-based science curriculum was implemented in an informal learning environment during the summer to African American middle school girls, many from low-income households. The study explored the experiences of this teacher and the students in the program to determine if the implemented lessons changed the students’ attitudes toward science, sparked their interest in the sciences, and encouraged them to potentially pursue careers in science. Knowledge gained from this project can be valuable to students, teachers, project developers, and community members who are engaged in advocac y work for underrepresented populations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). As African American girls are an underrepresented population in STEM fields, a collaborative effort was made to provide culturally responsive teaching so that the girls could experience positive science learning of both content knowledge and practices, and explore careers in STEM. These science learning experiences will then allow the girls to position themselves as future scientists. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.4)

10873

Pre-morbid Characteristics of Adolescent Student-Athletes: a Sport-Related Concussion Perspective

Sport-related concussions have become a major public health concern over the past decade. These injuries are particularly difficult to manage because each person responds to the injury differently. The purpose of this study was to examine certain pre-injury characteristics that may help clinicians better anticipate and understand how an individual will present following a suspected concussion. Specific factors analyzed were 1)prevalence of unreported concussions, 2)previously diagnosed psychiatric conditions, and 3)prevalence of symptoms comprising the ICD-10 diagnosis of Post-Concussion Syndrome even before sustaining an concussion. The study included 267 high school student-athletes between the ages of 13 and 18 who were administered the Sport-Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT-3) during their pre-participation physical examination screenings. Results showed that 14.7% of males and 2.5% of females stated they had a concussion they had not previously reported to medical professionals. Participants of both genders reported a history of psychiatric diagnoses at a significantly lower rate than would be typical for the general population. Lastly, 17.1% of males and 16.1% of females reported symptoms at pre-injury baseline testing that are consistent with an ICD-10 diagnosis of Post-Concussion Syndrome. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 14.5)

10871

Pornography, Liberalism, and the Elision of Sex-Radical and Antipornography Feminisms

My research focuses on a series of late 20th-century internecine feminist conflicts over matters pertaining to sex and sexuality that have come to be known as feminism's "sex wars." Because these conflicts centered around subjects many political theorists consider impolitic or even trivial, the sex wars are widely misunderstood and understudied in my discipline. My research corrects this oversight by giving the sex wars the serious political theoretical analysis they deserve. More specifically, in my paper, I excavate and elucidate the substantial influence feminist perspectives enunciated during the sex wars have exerted on liberalism, a school of thought that occupies the indisputable center of contemporary political theory and politics. By highlighting the contributions the sex wars have made to recent liberal thinking about sex and sexuality, I make a powerful case for the seriousness and significance of the sex wars and for feminism more broadly. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.8)

10870

Organizational and Neuroanatomical Contributions to the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure in Non-demented Older Adults with Parkinson's Disease,

Poster Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) are known to have difficulties with drawing figures from memory. For this poster we asked if the difficulties they are having are related to their ability to organize the information when trying to remember what they are to draw as well as if various brain areas that have relationships to organization or memory are also involved in their ability to produce a drawing from memory. To answer these questions we compared the individuals with PD to a group of healthy individuals that had very similar demographics. Both groups were asked to draw a standard figure used in neuropsychological testing so we could measure their amount of organization and recall of the figure. Additionally they took part in an hour long MRI brain scan. For both the PD and healthy groups, the amount of organization was related to their ability to recall the drawing. For healthy individuals there were relationships between brain areas involved in memory and the amount of the drawing they recalled however for individuals with PD there were no relationships for any brain areas that were selected for this study. From these findings it is now hypothesized that recall of the drawing in individuals with PD could be better explained by brain networks rather than single areas which were researched here. We hope to pursue this hypothesis in the future. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.2)

10865

Age Related Changes in Apathy, but not Anticipatory Anhedonia in Cognitively Normal Older Adults

There are many emotional and cognitive changes that accompany normal aging. One of the mood related changes that occur in older adults that we are specifically interested in is apathy, decreased motivation to accomplish tasks, and its associated sub-components. Previous research has shown that apathy in Parkinson's, a degenerative neurological disease, is associated with anticipatory but not consummatory anhedonia. This simply means that the type of apathy in PD individuals seems to be associated with a decrease in anticipating the pleasurable outcomes of tasks but not with the actual experience of pleasure in completing these tasks. Some age-related neurotransmitter changes are similar to those that occur in the progression of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that these same associations found in PD individuals would also be present in healthy cognitively normal older adults. In order to test this, we used a sample of 113 healthy, well-educated older adults, between the ages of 50 and 93. All individuals underwent cognitive screening and completed the following questionnaires: the Apathy Scale (AS), the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System (BIS/BAS), and the Beck Depression Inventory -II (BDI-II). Upon examination of our results, we found clear age-related differences in apathy, drive, and depression symptoms as our hypothesis predicted. However, we did not find that anticipation of pleasure (anticipatory anhedonia) was influenced by age but we did find that it was associated with poorer health. These findings will be discussed in terms of neurological, biological, and psychological factors. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.1)

10856

Effects of Wii, Aerobic Exercise and Cognitive Interventions on Older Adults’ Self-Evaluation of Intellectual Aging

"This study investigated how older adults' beliefs about aging (e.g., what they believe they are still able to do, morale about getting older) were impacted following a 16-week intervention.

Fifty-one older adults received computer-based visual speed-of-processing training (Insight) plus either 16-weeks of aerobic exercise (n=19), Wii Sports (n=17), or Insight training alone (n=15). They were also administered the Personality in Intellectual Aging Contexts (PIC) questionnaire at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. The PIC has six subscales: locus of control (internal, external, and chance), anxiety, achievement motivation, and attitude about intellectual aging.

Results showed that the Wii group demonstrated improvement in both the Internal Control and Attitude scales after the intervention. These findings suggest that the novel and engaging Wii intervention, traditionally perceived as youth-focused, can breakdown stereotypes and improve morale about one’s own cognitive aging. Initially, the Wii seemed to highlight elders’ limitations, though this effect was temporary and participants ultimately returned to a higher level of internal control beliefs by the 3-month follow up. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.9)"

10855

Spatial learning and memory: Visually scanning the environment predicts performance on a virtual water maze

"Objective: Exploring a new environment may facilitate the development of a flexible mental representation of that environment that can be used to navigate efficiently from any starting point. We evaluated visual exploration behavior on a computerized task completed by health aging individuals, individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

Participants and Methods: Participants were 23 younger and 28 older healthy adults, 10 with MCI, and 8 with AD. Scanning of the environment was measured during search for a target and during a brief period between target acquisition and the beginning of the next trial. Performance on the spatial task was quantified as a composite score derived from the length of the path to get to the target, number of targets found across several trials, and percent of time spent in close proximity to the target on the final trial.

Results: Group differences in the amount of visual scanning while on the target were significant [H(3)=30.716, p<.001]. Healthy young and healthy older participants scanned more frequently than MCI and AD groups (all p <.01) but were not significantly different from each other (p=.169). Scanning on the target was positively correlated with performance on the composite index in only young healthy participants (r=0.423, p=.022). There were no significant group differences in scanning during search, and it was not associated with performance.

Conclusions: Visual scanning of the environment is reduced in individuals with cognitive impairment. Performing more scanning while on the target was associated with better performance among young participants. Older adults may not use visual scanning of the environment to strategically explore the environment or are less effective at doing so.

10821

Technical Inefficiency and its Determinants in US Wheat Production

Measurement of technical inefficiency provides information on whether or not maximum output is obtained from a given set of input used in the production. In spite of vast technological advancement in the agricultural sector, numerous studies have found the presence of inefficiency in agricultural crop production. Many factors contribute towards inefficiency in crop production. In this study, we examine technical inefficiency in wheat production in four major wheat-producing states in the US. The main purpose of this study is to measure the inefficiency in wheat production in those selected states. This study further investigates the impact of the drought and the share of wheat planted acres in the efficiency of wheat production. For the estimation, we use stochastic frontier model that accounts for technical inefficiency. Our study differs from other studies in that we let the drought and wheat share variables interact with both the variance of the random error and mean and the variance of the inefficiency term. We use yield and crop acreage data from USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service and fertilizer data from USDA Economic Research Service. We use Palmer drought severity index from National Climatic Data Center as a measure of drought in each region. The mean technical inefficiency across all the selected states is almost 16. This means that with the existing technology and input level, we can still increase the wheat yield by 16 percent. Our results also found the effect of drought and share of wheat acres on inefficiency. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.5)

10812

"As a member of the UF community, my attendance at the Community College Future Assembly in January 2015 will only help create preeminence within myself. The assembly will allow me the professional development opportunity that will help drive my career and educational pursuit as a higher educational doctoral student.

First, I will be able to educate myself on issues and problems concerning community colleges currently. For example, discussion on reverse transfer is an important topic effecting higher education right now and the assembly will feature this as a summit. This opportunity will further my education growth. Community colleges also present their award winning ideas that are poignant within their community. This will give me an opportunity to be aware of the recent trends and the directions of technology in higher education. Since I am in the HIE cohort program, I fly from North Carolina to class three times a system. I will be able to bring the knowledge back from this conference to North Carolina.

Secondly, I will be able to network with important individuals within the community college system around the nation. My experience from this opportunity will help, influence, and lead others at my community college. I will also get to hear Joanna Barsh, the Director Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, and best-selling author of How Remarkable Women Lead and Centered Leadership. As a minority woman in higher education, this experience will also provide me with the insights and skills for being an effective leader.

By attending this assembly, I am taking a structured approach to my professional development which will enable me to demonstrate continuing commitment to my profession in higher education. It is vital that I focus on maintaining and building upon my current competences through widening my professional recognition through this conference/assembly.

" If I am provided the money to fund this trip, the student body and greater UF community benefits by providing an opportunity to create another effective Gator leader. Higher educational institutions will need more leaders within the next coming of years since many of them soon will retire. The Community College Futures Assembly will enhance my skills as an effective leader in higher education. The University of Florida has dynamic leaders in all areas influencing the nation and the world. Being a higher educational leader in North Carolina will bring the Gator Nation preeminence to my state and further expand the great work being built upon in Florida. Attending this conference will open the door for me to pursue my educational goals and become an effective trailblazer, so one day I can give back my knowledge to my students, the Gator Nation, and community.

10796

College of Public Health and Health Professions - Psychology

Veterans of the US military are often diagnosed with a psychiatric condition known as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder causes them to experience symptoms that interfere with their ability to live normal lives, such as re-experiencing a past life-threatening event. Some studies using functional brain imaging have shown that people with this disorder have a reduced ability to use the pre-frontal cortex of their brain to inhibit the amygdala (the fear center) from causing undue stress and fear when something threatening is not actively present. Another region of the brain known as the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)has been shown to increase its activation during times when people with PTSD are exhibiting symptoms of re-experiencing. While these studies show these brain regions are activated or under-activated in this population, it is not known whether these activation changes also reflect structural changes. In our study, we were able to show that the connection between the ACC and the amygdala is indeed reduced in its volume, and this decrease in volume was associated with an increase in reported symptoms of re-experiencing. This suggests a structural cause for the decreased ability of these brain regions to communicate and extinguish unwanted symptoms of re-experiencing. We also found that the quality of the connection between the ACC and the hippocampus, an area important for making memories, was positively associated with increased re-experiencing. This further suggested that the ACC is not able to extinguish traumatic re-experiencing from being consolidated in the memory system, resulting in further dysfunction. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.9)

10787

College of Public Health and Health Professions - Psychology

The question of how semantic concepts are represented in the brain has intrigued philosophers for centuries. The embodied view of cognition posits that sensorimotor cortices important for object perception are similarly important for semantic cognition (e.g. visual cortices active during the viewing of an apple are active when thinking about what an apple looks like). These cortices are likely coordinated by a higher order processing center, and the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), angular gyrus (AG), and anterior temporal lobe (ATL) are proposed candidates for the site of such a semantic “hub.” The current study investigated activity of sensorimotor cortices and potential “hubs” during semantic processing. Eighteen young adults were trained to name six novel items, with distinct visual, auditory, and movement properties. These newly acquired items were theorized to tap episodic rather than semantic memory centers. During fMRI, the young adults were asked to name these novel items, as well as carefully matched familiar items, based on their visual form, associated sound, or movement pattern. A contrast was performed between familiar and novel items to identify areas important for deep semantic processing across input modalities, both across the whole brain and more specifically in potential semantic hubs. The lateral ATL, but not the left AG or left MTG, showed a significantly increased activation for semantic processing in all three presentation modalities. Our findings are support a role for the ATL (but not the MTG or AG) as a semantic hub, which is important in processing information across sensorimotor modalities. That is, the ATL seems to be important for understanding concepts regardless of presentation modality. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 14.6)