2014-2015 President's Faculty Grant Winners
Air Quality Impact of Ship Emissions in South Florida
The project aims to evaluate how ship emissions in Port Miami and Port Everglades may impact the air quality in local communities in South Florida. Marine vessels emit large quantities of...
A More Engaging Visual Field Test to Increase Use and Reliability in Pediatrics
The majority of young children do not think that visual field (VF) testing of peripheral vision is similar to a game [Marraffa et al. 1995]; therefore, it is not surprising that they have...
An Analysis of Global Leadership Competencies in Action in the Dominican Republic
The proposed project will analyze Global Leadership Competencies in Action. Of particular interest is the identification of global leadership competencies and skills that are consistently...
Ang II Effects on MMP-9 and Collagen Levels in Hypertensive Rat Astrocytes
Hypertension (increased blood pressure) is a major health challenge worldwide because of its high frequency and concomitant increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, stroke and kidney diseases....
A Novel Immune Fingerprint for mTBI Diagnosis and Recovery Prognosis
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most prevalent type of traumatic brain injury. Ongoing work has shown mTBI to be a major contributor to the development of cognitive and behavioral...
Assessing Migration Ability and Behavior of Small Fish in the Everglades
The Everglades is a seasonal wetland divided into regions of short and long hydroperiod. In the dry season short hydroperiod regions may dry completely, leaving water only in the deeper long...
Assessing Seabirds of South Florida for Marine Environmental Contaminants
Environmental contaminants originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources, and contamination levels have increased at a much higher rate during the past century. Contaminants enter the ocean...
AT-1 Angiotensin II Receptor Expression in the Amygdala of a Rodent Model of PTS
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), defined as recurring distress that disrupts one's work or home-life after a traumatic event, is a significant societal problem. The National Institutes...
Can Mindfulness Meditation Prevent Stress Induced Cognitive Impairments?
Experiencing stressful events is common in daily life. Stressful events range from everyday stressors, including traffic delays or conflicts with coworkers, to more traumatic stressors, including...
Career Anchors of Workforce Generations
A workforce generation is defined by the age of the workforce. With Baby Boomers phasing into their retirement, Gen Xs taking dominant positions in organizations, and Gen Ys entering the workforce,...
Conflict Analysis and Cognitive Neuroscience: An Exploration of fMRI Neuroimaging
The significance and scientific merit of the proposed research investigation is multifaceted and will help illuminate the relationship between conflict resolution styles and affiliated biological...
Coral Persistence to Ocean Warming: Phenotypic Plasticity and Symbiont Selection
The ability of coral reef ecosystems to survive global warming will largely depend on the ability of scleractinian corals, the primary engineers of coral reefs, to acclimatize and adapt to...
Detailed Molecular Profiling of Sporadic Stage I Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is a priority in U.S. research and resulting clinical advances include better detection techniques and targeted therapies. Most breast cancer in the U.S. is now detected at clinical...
Developing the Common Reef Sponge to Study the Only Non-neural Animal Eye
This study represents a new collaborative marine physiology project to study the genetic mechanisms of light sensitivity in marine sponges. While adult sponges are sessile, their larvae possess...
Effect of Baseline Platelet Count on Healing after Platelet Rich Plasma Injection
Injury to tendons, ligaments, and muscles are common patient complaints in the orthopedic clinic. Depending upon the severity of the injury, initial conservative treatment typically consists of...
Effects of Depression on Antiretroviral Adherence in Emerging Adults with HIV
Emerging adults between the ages of 20 and 29 have the highest rates of new HIV diagnosis, and this rate continues to increase. High levels of antiretroviral medication adherence are necessary to...
Effects of Type 2 Diabetes on Antiretroviral Adherence in Older Adults with HIV
One of the fastest growing populations infected with HIV are adults aged 65 and older. Recent data show the rates are likely to increase dramatically, especially for Broward County which contains...
Epigenetic Modulation of Viral Infection: Role of DNA Methylation in Recovery
Viruses persistently threaten human health. Available antivirals do not fully eliminate infections. Development of drugs that enhance innate immunity could serve as broad-spectrum antivirals...
Explorative Gene Expression and Pathway Analysis for Innovative Cancer Treatment
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. There are many anti-cancer treatments, however, such treatments are very harsh for the patients, have significant toxicity and are...
How Does Colony Size and Density Influence Paternity in a Brooding Coral?
Caribbean coral reefs have undergone dramatic declines in recent decades. Many reefs that were once dominated by massive broadcast spawning corals (release gametes into water and fertilization is...
Intimate Partner Violence: Contribution of Attachment Style and Dissociation
Despite the growing number of studies offering a global overview of the extent and prevalence of violence against women as well as its physical and mental health consequences, there is still a need...
Investigating the Causes of Antibiotic Resistance in Periodic Environments
Antibiotic resistance [1-3] is a significant public health concern [4-5] that threatens to reduce or even eliminate the effectiveness of some of our most important treatment options for bacterial...
In Vivo Efficacy of Gingival Mesencyhmal Stem Cells in Alveolar Cleft Grafting
Cleft alveolus is a critical size bony defect of the maxilla seen in patients with cleft lip, alveolus, and palate (CLAP). Repair of these defects often seeks a continuous and symmetric maxilla,...
Malware Detection in Android Platforms
As one of the major operating systems adopted by mobile devices, security issues related to Android platform is gaining increasing attention in the research literature in recent years. Android...
Medications resistant to abuse by crushing and hot aqueous extraction
This project seeks to deter prescription drug abuse by examining ways to transform conventional tablets into tamper resistant medications. Prescription drug abuse is at epidemic proportions and has...
Music Counts: A Specialized Treatment Program for Children with Autism
This President's Faculty Research and Development Grant will address the question of whether the implementation of a specialized music program can have a positive impact on behavioral outcomes...
Novel Transformation Assay to Identify Florida Environmental Breast Carcinogens
Environmental exposure is a significant contributor to 85% of all breast cancers. It is difficult to establish that an environmental chemical is carcinogenic in humans. The National Institute of...
Pilot Study of a Health Intervention for Women with PTSD
The need for developing effective cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention programs for women impacted by psychological trauma is increasingly evident. Women who are significantly affected by...
Port Everglades Inlet Microbiome Analysis Using High-Throughput DNA Sequencing
Marine microbes are the dominant organisms in the world's oceans. The development of high-throughput DNA sequencing (also commonly referred to as "Next Generation") techniques have...
Predictors of Doctoral Student Success in a Limited-Residency PhD Program
Historically the attrition rate from doctoral programs in the United States is 40% to 50% (Cassuto, 2013; Smallwood, 2004; Winerman, 2008). Non-traditional doctoral programs such as the Computing...
Prevalence of Vitreomacular Adhesion in Patients 40 Years and Older
As a function of age, liquefaction of the vitreous body results in separation of the vitreous cavity from the retina. This posterior vitreous separation may be incomplete, leading to areas of...
Primary Prevention for Children of Parents with HIV in Rural Haiti
Haiti, a mere 680 miles off the coast of South Florida, has the highest HIV rate in the western hemisphere, second only to that of the highest infection rate in the world found in sub-Saharan...
Proliferation and Differentiation of Human Stem Cells by Agonism of AT1 and AT2
Angiotensin II is a well described potent vasoactive hormone in the renin-angiotensin system that regulates blood pressure. Altered levels of angiotensin expression have been directly linked to...
Record of Environmental Fluctuations Reflected in Northern Fur Seal Tissues
Environmental fluctuations in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean are reflected in the tissues of one of its apex predators, the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus). The seals migrate and...
Reduce Local Stressors to Potentially Increase Coral Resilience to Climate Change
Coral reef ecosystems have declined globally in the past decades and continue to decline at alarming rates. The decline is the result of high coral mortality coupled with the inability to recover...
Reproductive Behavior of Nursery Reared Staghorn Coral: Documenting Outplant Success
Coral reefs support some of the world's most diverse and environmentally and economically productive habitats. However, these valuable ecosystems have been rapidly declining throughout the...
Synergism in antibacterial activity of phytochemicals and synthetic compounds
Overuse of antibiotics has led to an increased number of infections that are antibiotic resistant. Therefore, the development of new antimicrobials is a necessity. Synthetic compounds are explored...
The Circumstances and Antecedents of Consumers' Motivations for Internet Piracy
Using a framework that integrates Consumer Ethics Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, this research will investigate the circumstances and antecedents of consumers' motivations for...
When Physical Form and DNA Collide: Resolving the Evolutionary Tree of Crinoidea
Crinoids--sea lilies and feather stars--are one of the five major groups of living echinoderms. (Sea stars and sea urchins are others.) Despite their exclusively suspension-feeding lifestyle, they...