College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Chemistry

9989

Genome-wide association study of resistant hypertension in INVEST

In this research project, we aim to investigate the genetic factors associated with resistant hypertension, which is defined as blood pressure that remains above the target blood pressure goal of 140/90 mm Hg despite the use of three or more blood pressure medications or a controlled blood pressure with the use of 4 medications. We will use a genome wide association analysis which relies on the premise of scanning the genome for genetic differences between cases who have resistant hypertension and controls who do not have the resistant hypertension. if a certain genetic factor was found to be more prevalent in cases than controls, then an association can be made between this factor and resistant hypertension. Any association that was found through this analysis, will be subject to molecular assays, in order to validate and further understand the role of this genetic factor (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 19.8)

9975

As a master’s student, I would like to meet other students and professors at institutions where I will apply for Ph.D. programs. For example, I arranged a meeting with Dr. Beverly Wilcox, a leading scholar on the Concert Spirituel. Her dissertation, “The Music Libraries of the Concert Spirituel: Canons, Repertoires, and Bricolage in Eighteenth-Century Paris,” won the Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Fellowship, an award for the top dissertations in musicology. Her research is informing my thesis and her knowledge of the subject has proved invaluable. Additionally, I will attend the sessions related to 18th-century music where scholars will present papers in sessions titled, “Visions and Revisions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” “Music and the Sacred,” and “Performativity in France.” These sessions will provide further insight into my thesis about the sacred music performed at the Concert Spirituel and convent concerts in 18th-century France.

This semester I am the teaching assistant for Baroque & Classical music with Dr. Margaret Butler. Since I will attend sessions related to 18th century music, I can share all of the newest scholarship with my students. For example, when I attend the “Visions and Revisions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” session, I will explain the different types of research conducted internationally. Then I can reference a specific paper like, “Venus and the Semiotics of the French Opera Prologue, 1700 – 1750,” and teach how recent scholarship applies to our study of 18th-century music. These University of Florida students need to understand that musicology is engaging and more than a survey course. They need to learn that intellectual conversations and arguments occur within the campus and not only at conferences or through writing. By explaining scholarly discourse, students will learn how to think analytically and participate in the classroom. To maintain a reputation of scholarly excellence, the University of Florida graduate students in musicology need to participate in national conferences in order to inform their students of emerging research, inform their teaching with new pedagogy, and inform other scholars of the growing strength of the Musicology Department.

9970

Linking literacy practices and academic writing: A study of Haitian generation 1.5 college students

"There are more than 17,000 students who were born in Haiti and currently attend Florida’s K-12 public schools. These students represent the second largest foreign-born population in the state’s schools. Despite their numbers, few research studies have been conducted about the Haitian student population in Florida schools.

After graduating from a Florida high school, Haitian-born students are likely to enroll in a community college where they are required to pass an English composition course. Research has indicated that foreign-born students who graduate from American secondary schools often encounter difficulties in college composition courses. A growing body of literature describes the nature of the challenges Latino and Asian students face in composition courses. However, there is a paucity of research concerning the experiences of Haitian-born students in college composition courses.

This paper presents the findings a qualitative research study concerning the college composition experiences of 4 Haitian-born students who are enrolled in a college composition course. The study used in-depth interviews to explore both the participants’ experiences in the college composition course as well as their literacy practices outside of school. This paper presents the findings of this research. In addition, the paper explores the way in which the participants’ existing literacy practices form the foundation for the learning of college writing.

(Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 14.6)"

9959

Exogenous Delivery of Indoleamine 2,3 Dioxygenase for the Induction of Tolerance

The human body has several layers of protection against foreign pathogens with the most potent one being the adaptive immune system. This mechanism allows for the specific targeting and destruction of invaders. However, it is not perfect and it can sometimes recognize healthy tissue as foreign, laying the foundation for autoimmune diseases. In this research project we aim at re-storing an immune tolerance to self-antigens in order to ameliorate autoimmune diseases, in particular type 1 diabetes. Indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO), an enzyme responsible for tryptophan catabolism, has been identified as a tolerance inducing protein. During the breakdown of tryptophan, an essential amino acid, several products are formed. These include, kynurenine, quinolinic acid and hydroxyanthranilic acid. Depletion of this amino acid induces apoptosis of effector T cells, key players in the immune attack, and promotes the formation of regulatory T cells (cells needed for the restoration of balance). On the other hand, the formation of its products is also believed to have a similar effect on the immune system. Therefore, it is clear that manipulating the ratio of tryptophan and its metabolites can open new avenues in the research of autoimmune diseases especially in the context of vaccination. Herein, we present our preliminary data showing we are able to produce an active enzyme free of pathogen residues, no immune activation of key cells when the protein is provided to the extracellular environment and suppression of T cell proliferation normally observed during an immune response. We can therefore conclude that extracellular delivery of IDO ameliorates a key part of an immune attack. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 16.2)

9941

Long-term grazing land management intensification effect on soil C stocks in southern Florida ecosystems

Land use change is important human activity which can affect ecosystem C dynamics. The aim of land use is to increase plant and animal production by proper management strategies. Land use intensification in our study means the use of higher productive plant type, N fertilizer and higher grazing activity. Earlier studies on ecosystem C response to land use intensification focused on surface soil while little is known about the C dynamics in deep soil. The objective of this study was to understand impacts of long-term management intensification on soil organic carbon at 0 to 90 cm depth. Experiments were conducted in Ona, Florida. Three ecosystems under increasing land use intensification were studied: native rangeland (low management), silvopasture (moderate management) and bahiagrass pasture (high management). Results showed that approximately 64 to 69% of total soil C and 57 to 60% of total soil N were found in subsurface soils (10 to 90cm). Surface soil (0 to 10 cm) were not influenced by land use intensification while soil organic carbon were increased by land use intensification at lower soil depth (10 to 90 cm). In native rangeland there was 49 Mg carbon ha-1and it was increased to 67 and 76 Mg carbon ha-1 in silvopasture and bahiagrass pasture. The soil N stocks were increased by land use intensification in both surface and subsurface soils. Despite the consistent of vertical distribution of SOC through three land use ecosystems, the ratio of soil organic carbon at 0 to 10 cm to 10 to 20 cm depth were decreased by land use intensification. Soil C: N ratio was greater at subsurface soil compared to surface soil (~16 to 27 vs 15-22). Our study suggests that long- term grazing land management intensification may the potentially promote SOC accumulation in soils from lower depths. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 12.6)

9935

FindingNemo: Finding Your Lost Child in Crowds via Mobile Crowd Sensing

"Losing their beloved child is the worst nightmare for every parent. Sometimes after you turn around for just a few seconds, your child is gone when you turn back. If you are at home or some less-crowded small regions, you probably can find your child in some corners or immediate vicinities. But for public areas, like shopping malls, streets, or even your child's favorite Disney World, it is hard to find your child in crowds when lost.

In this paper, we propose system solutions for locating the lost child using low-power BLE peripheral via mobile crowd sensing. We focus on the investigation of the smartphone and BLE tag (peripheral) for continuous tracking and locating via transparent peer collaboration. Instead of just relying on the connection information, we propose approaches to derive the absolute location of the BLE tag even with no sufficient measurements from the immediate surroundings. Leveraging the low-power and portable feature of the BLE tag, parents could place one tag to their beloved ones, and paired with their smartphone. If the child goes outside of the warning threshold, the smartphone could wake up automatically and post alert immediately to prevent the child lost. If the child is already lost, our developed App ``FindingNemo'' installed in nearby users' smartphones could receive notifications when the ``lost'' child is passing or near by. To localize the child, opportunistic communication and ranging is performed with nearby peers w/o GPS location in a transparent way without disturbing the users. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.4)"

9934

College of Engineering - Industrial and Systems Engineering

To minimize the total production cost, the independent power system operator schedules the generators to satisfy the demand of the customers. This is a unit commitment optimization problem. In our paper, this problem is modeled a mixed-integer linear programming problem, which is hard to solve. To improve its performance, strong reformulation of the original model is proposed, while further convex hull results of the feasible generator scheduling are provided. Several new families of strong valid inequalities are developed to help reduce the computational time to solve the presented mixed-integer linear program. Finally, numerical experiments on a modified IEEE-118 bus system verify the effectiveness of the proposed strong valid inequalities to reduce the computational time to obtain an optimal solution or obtain a much better optimality gap. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.8)

9927

College of Engineering - Industrial and Systems Engineering

We develop optimal electricity storage control policies to manage charging and discharging activities for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for the benefit of an energy market participant. We develop models for both risk-neutral and risk-averse aggregators to participate only in a real-time market. The proposed models capture the impact of the charging and discharging activities on real-time electricity prices. Next, we extend our study to the case in which aggregators participate in both the real-time and day-ahead markets. For each developed model, we analyze the properties of the optimal objective value function, prove the existence and uniqueness of the optimal policy, and explore the corresponding optimal policy structure. Moreover, through numerical studies, we explore insights into how electricity prices are influenced by charging and discharging activities. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.3)

9926

College of Fine Arts - Music

The University of Florida has one of the youngest musicology programs in the country. As such, it has yet to develop a reputation as a top-tier institution in this field. Along with the faculty in my area and my colleagues, I will represent the burgeoning historical musicology program of the University of Florida at the annual conference of the world's premier society for musicology. With our departmental presence at this meeting, we will seek to nurture the relationships between the University of Florida Musicology Department and the broader musicological community. I serve on the American Musicological Society's Committee on Membership and Professional Development, which allows me to represent my colleagues at the University of Florida on a national level, attesting to the merits of UF's program to scholars the broader musicological community. As many non-PhD students attend this conference, it is also a wonderful opportunity to extol the benefits and advantages of matriculating to this program. One of the major determining factors in prospective students choosing schools is financial support beyond tuition and stipend. Often times, considerations like this separate schools for prospective students. I will highlight this grant program in the effort to attract the highest caliber students to UF, which will help accomplish President Machen’s goal of UF becoming a top ten institution.

9923

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences - Soil and Water Science

"In Florida, sugarcane is the most valuable row crop with around 400, 000 acres of sugarcane reported for sugar and seed production. Currently, most sugarcane is grown in the fertile, highly productive organic soils of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and only approximately 20% is grown in the sandy soils bordering the EAA, which are characterized for their very low organic matter content and water holding capacity. However, sugarcane production in sandy soils has been gaining recent interest due to the need to expand sugar and bioenergy production, as well as to gradually relieve production in organic soils.

The addition of organic matter can have a positive influence in sandy soils by increasing water holding capacity and nutrient retention and cycling; therefore the application of biochar (carbon-rich product obtained by thermal decomposition of organic material under high temperature conditions) has the potential to enhance soil fertility and sugarcane production of sandy soils. The purpose of this research is to provide an alternative use for local residue feedstocks as biochars and evaluate their potential to improve soil fertility and sugarcane crop productivity, in order to better understand the effects of biochar amendments and the viability of biochar technology for the region.

(Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 20.5)"

9918

Validity of the Berlin Questionnaire to Predict Sleep Apnea in Chronic Kidney Disease

Sleep apnea(SA), a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts, is common and increases risk of heart disease, death and poor quality of live. Also, it has been suggested that SA negatively impacts progression of chronic kidney disease(CKD). The Berlin Questionnaire(BQ) has been validated as a sensitive and specific screening tool for SA in the general population. However, to date no SA risk-assessment tool has been validated in patients with CKD. In this study, we aimed to validate and refine a SA questionnaire to predict which CKD patients are at risk for SA. We conducted a cross-sectional interim analysis of 73 veterans aged 18-89 with CKD enrolled in the SNORE Study. At baseline, subjects completed BQ and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) questionnaires and underwent complete overnight sleep study. We assessed the validity of BQ at a standard cut-off ≥2 and the ESS>10 to predict SA using sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value(NPV), and area under the receiver operating characteristics curve(AUC). Using BQ to predict mild SA, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV was 75%, 45%, 76%, 43%, respectively. Using BQ to predict severe SA, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV was 83%, 34%, 20%, 91%, respectively. Addition of ESS to BQ increased specificity from 45%, 39%, and 34% to 86%, 84%, and 77% for mild, moderate, and severe SA, respectively. We concluded that in patients with CKD, a BQ ≥2 was a sensitive but not specific predictor of SA across various cutpoints for SA severity. Addition of ESS to BQ score in screening improved specificity but reduced sensitivity for SA. The findings from this research are important because they suggest that SA risk-assessment tools should be tailored for use in CKD patients. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.3)

9914

Turf Performance under A Linear Gradient Irrigation System in North Florida

Water limitation and mandatory watering restriction on landscape irrigation pose a challenge for turfgrass management to avoid a loss of turfgrass quality. Different turfgrass species and cultivars vary in their irrigation needs. In order to maximize the utilization of water resource, a study was conducted to determine the irrigation requirement and turf performance of 18 different turfgrass cultivars used for residential and commercial landscapes, athletic fields, and golf courses in southeastern U.S. The study was based on a linear gradient irrigation system which provides irrigation regimes ranged from 0-120% of reference evapotranspiration. Through this efficient system, we were able to determine the minimum irrigation requirement of different turfgrass to maintain quality. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.6)

9901

Post-earthquake Drinking Water Surveillance in the Ouest Department of Haiti during the Great Haitian Cholera Epidemic: The Modern Day John Snow

In 2010 a major earthquake devastated the tropical island nation of Haiti. During the reconstruction the pathogenic bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, was introduced accidentally by UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal. Following this introduction subsequent hurricane, a massive cholera outbreak lasting from 2010 until the present day spread throughout Haiti. To combat the problem and to provide safe drinking water to the people of Haiti, non government organizations rapidly installed a large number of drinking wells. However, due to poor sanitation infrastructure and no government oversight, it was unknown if the wells were actually safe, or if they were contributing to the ongoing epidemic. Our group from the Emerging Pathogens Institute has established a UF field laboratory in Haiti and decided to test the drinking wells from the surrounding region, located in Gressier, 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Though no toxigenic V. cholerae were found, high levels of fecal contamination were identified, that were clustered around populated area. These findings suggest that most of the transmission was from human to human or from surface water, but that the wells were indeed vulnerable to diseases caused by fecal contamination. This information should help motivate the government of Haiti to establish water monitoring programs to assure the safety and health of its citizens, as they recover from this tragedy. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 14.5)

9894

"My dream is to continue my research in synthetic biology at a top research institution after receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary research field that covers biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. In order to develop my skills and knowledge in this field, it is vital for me to connect with researchers that specialize in the respective spheres that synthetic biology encompasses. Fortunately, many leading synthetic biologists will be speaking at this upcoming conference. I would especially be interested in meeting three researchers/inventors: Dr. Elizabeth Clarke (biophysicist; expert on engineering microorganisms for chemical productions), Dr. Douglas Densmore (engineer; expert on designing biological systems), and Dr. Rachel E. Haurwitz (biologist; expert on a novel genome editing system, CRISPR/Cas).

In my research, I am interested in designing useful tools for synthetic biology and creating novel molecules such as proteins. One of my papers in press is on one-pot self-assembly of DNA oligonucleotides using artificially expanded genetic alphabet (AEGIS) using unnatural DNA alphabets synthesized in my laboratory. Furthermore, I am also involving in designing enzymes for utilizing unnatural genetic alphabets. During the conference I look forward to presentations on “Gene & Genome Synthesis” and “Designer Molecules”, which may be presented by distinguished companies within their field such as Integrated DNA Technologies, Genome Compiler, and Gen9. It would be an honor to discuss with leading researchers my current research findings.

This conference is also a rare opportunity to learn how research can be applied to the real world. I would have the opportunity to meet with professional inventors at synthetic biology companies. I am convinced that this experience will help raise me to the next level as a synthetic biologist from one that thinks not only about the research in front of me, but also its effects and contributions to the world.