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"SET A LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE": TEACHERS OF FREEDMEN IN FLORIDA, 1863-1874
Title
"SET A LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE": TEACHERS OF FREEDMEN IN FLORIDA, 1863-1874.
Creator
Wakefield, Laura, Adams, Sean, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
As the Civil War closed and Reconstruction began, a small army of teachers arrived in Florida. Under the auspices of northern aid societies, churches, and educational associations, they proposed to educate the newly emancipated slaves, believing that education would prepare African Americans for citizenship. Teachers found Florida's freedmen determined to acquire literacy by whatever means they could, but they faced a white populace resistant to outsiders. Reformers, politicians, literate...
Show moreAs the Civil War closed and Reconstruction began, a small army of teachers arrived in Florida. Under the auspices of northern aid societies, churches, and educational associations, they proposed to educate the newly emancipated slaves, believing that education would prepare African Americans for citizenship. Teachers found Florida's freedmen determined to acquire literacy by whatever means they could, but they faced a white populace resistant to outsiders. Reformers, politicians, literate blacks, and Yankee businessmen intent on socially, politically, and economically transforming Florida joined educators in reconstructing Florida. Florida's educational system transformed during Reconstruction, and an examination of the reciprocity between Reconstruction-era teachers and Florida's freedmen provides a window into how Florida's learning community changed. Teachers exerted a profound influence on Florida's freedmen and on the development of Florida's educational system. But it was not simply a matter of outsiders transforming freedmen. While previous writers have emphasized the teachers' limitations, conservatism, or sacrifice, this study examines the complex interplay, and at times mutual dependence, between northern reformers and freedmen. Teachers partnered with Florida's black community, which was determined to seize education by whatever means available; they joined with the state's white community, struggling to come to terms with radical social changes; and they worked with Yankee strangers, who saw education of freedmen as an opportunity to transform the state politically. The reciprocal process of social change created a new politically charged educational system in Florida.
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Date Issued
2004
Identifier
CFE0000199, ucf:46164
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000199
Designosaurs: Technological Evolution and De-Extinction Through an Advancing Medium
Title
Designosaurs: Technological Evolution and De-Extinction Through an Advancing Medium.
Creator
Vanzyl, Sean, Kovach, Keith, Adams, JoAnne, Burrell, Jason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This thesis is an examination of my imperative need to understand dinosaurs and their role in science and art, acting as prehistoric symbols for science and imagination. Like our understanding of dinosaurs, my body of work is evolving simultaneously with the technology of our time. Through the synthesis of artistic language with science and technology, I create dynamic experiences allowing a viewer to witness an extinct living being in its entirety, an otherwise lost experience. By utilizing...
Show moreThis thesis is an examination of my imperative need to understand dinosaurs and their role in science and art, acting as prehistoric symbols for science and imagination. Like our understanding of dinosaurs, my body of work is evolving simultaneously with the technology of our time. Through the synthesis of artistic language with science and technology, I create dynamic experiences allowing a viewer to witness an extinct living being in its entirety, an otherwise lost experience. By utilizing digital modeling, animation techniques, and interactive video games, my work speaks to the power and diversity of digital media's role in visualizing artifacts in our society and culture.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFE0007549, ucf:52596
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007549
Characterization of Novel Borrelia burgdorferi Transcripts Expressed during Tick and Mammalian Infection
Title
Characterization of Novel Borrelia burgdorferi Transcripts Expressed during Tick and Mammalian Infection.
Creator
Adams, Philip, Jewett, Mollie, Rohde, Kyle, Moore, Sean, Fernandez-Valle, Cristina, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The purpose of this dissertation is to characterize the transcriptome of Borrelia (Borreliella) burgdorferi to discover novel transcripts, important for pathogenesis. As a spirochete and the etiological agent of Lyme disease, the foremost vector-borne bacterial infection in the world, B. burgdorferi fulfills a distinctive niche among bacterial pathogens. Persisting in the disparate environments of a tick vector and mammalian reservoirs, it is absolutely dependent on its hosts for transmission...
Show moreThe purpose of this dissertation is to characterize the transcriptome of Borrelia (Borreliella) burgdorferi to discover novel transcripts, important for pathogenesis. As a spirochete and the etiological agent of Lyme disease, the foremost vector-borne bacterial infection in the world, B. burgdorferi fulfills a distinctive niche among bacterial pathogens. Persisting in the disparate environments of a tick vector and mammalian reservoirs, it is absolutely dependent on its hosts for transmission and nutrient acquisition. B. burgdorferi harbors a complex fragmented genome which is largely linear, unlike that of most prokaryotes, lacks an array of classically described metabolic genes, and contains an unusually large percentage of unique genomic sequences specific to Borrelia (Borreliella) species. To date, few regulatory mechanisms have been identified which contribute to the ability of the spirochete to sense and respond to its environment. Efforts to use global transcript analysis to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of B. burgdorferi host adaptation have proven challenging due to the low numbers of the pathogen present during infection. Previously, our laboratory successfully developed an in vivo expression technology based approach for B. burgdorferi (BbIVET) to identify spirochete promoter sequences that are active during a murine infection. This screen identified 233 unique putative promoters which mapped to locations across the entire genome. These putative infection-active B. burgdorferi promoters were not only located at the 5' end of annotated open reading frames (ORFs), but also mapped to unannotated locations antisense, intergenic, and intragenic to ORFs. Given the limited characterization of the B. burgdorferi transcriptome, this dissertation applies an RNA sequencing approach (5'RNA-seq) to globally annotate the transcriptional start sites (TSSs) and 5' processed ends of the spirochete's RNA during in vitro cultivation. This resulted in the discovery of numerous novel internal, intergenic, and antisense transcripts. Synergistic analysis combining Northern blotting techniques, alignments of these transcripts to BbIVET proposed promoters, and interrogation of promoter activity via in vivo live imaging of mice, confirmed the expression of a variety of RNAs during laboratory culture and mammalian infection. Further, as a means to improve quantitation of the expression of these transcripts, a new methodology was developed and applied to measure B. burgdorferi promoter activity during tick-pathogen interactions, in a strand specific manner. Finally, because the Lyme disease spirochete harbors many unclassified and unique genomic sequences, the mammalian infection-expressed gene bb0562, identified through BbIVET and 5'RNA-seq, was selected for targeted deletion and evaluation throughout B. burgdorferi's infectious cycle. This demonstrated that gene bb0562 encodes a membrane associated protein, whose presence is critical for establishing murine infection through the bite of an infected tick. In sum, this work contributes significant insight into the transcriptome of B. burgdorferi, provides an innovative approach for the analysis of RNA transcripts at the tick-pathogen interface, and identifies a novel gene critical for Lyme disease pathogenesis.
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Date Issued
2017
Identifier
CFE0006707, ucf:51915
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006707