Life Sciences Commons^™

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …

Application Of Web Mashup Technology To Oyster Information Services, Christian Chuindja Ngniah

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Web mashup is a lightweight technology used to integrate data from remote sources without direct access to their databases. As a data consumer, a Web mashup application creates new contents by retrieving data through the Web application programming interface (API) provided by the external sources. As a data provider, the service program publishes its Web API and implements the specified functions.

In the project reported by this thesis, we have implemented two Web mashup applications to enhance the Web site oystersentinel.org: the Perkinsus marinus model and the Oil Spill model. Each model overlay geospatial data from a local database …

Cloning, Expression, And Characterization Of Ara H 3, A Major Peanut Allergen, Cathryn E. Garvey

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract There are eight foods that contribute to food allergies in the western world and peanut is the most common. Currently, there are no medical treatments that can cure an individual of food allergy, so avoidance of the allergic food is the only option. In the United States, there are three immunodominant allergic proteins accountable for patient sensitization to peanut, Arachis hypogea 1, 2, and 3 (Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3). Therefore, research into why peanuts are more allergic than other foods that have homologous proteins is critical and may be obtained by studying the structural …

Comparing Biology Grades Based On Instructional Delivery And Instructor At A Community College: Face-To-Face Course Versus Online Course., Amanda Rosenzweig

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through distance learning, the community college system has been able to serve more students by providing educational opportunities to students who would otherwise be unable to attend college. The community college of focus in the study increased its online enrollments and online course offerings due to the growth of overall enrollment. The need and purpose of the study is to address if there is a difference in students’ grades between face-to-face and online biology related courses and if there are differences in grades between face-to-face and online biology courses taught by different instructors and the same instructor. The study also …

Localization And Mutational Analysis Of The Nuclear And Aggregation-Prone Ime4 Protein In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Patricia M. Dehon

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Ime4 is a protein that is induced during meiosis and has a primary role in regulating sporulation in starving diploids. One function of Ime4 is methylation of adenosine residues within mRNA transcripts. Recent studies have shown Ime4 to be induced in haploids during the mating response, although its role in mating has not been determined. In this report, I identify the subcellular localization of Ime4 during the mating response through treatment with alpha factor. A plasmid containing IME4-GFP under the control of the medium strength promoter CYC1 was created in order to express the protein in a …

Cyanolyase: A Database Of Phycobilin Lyase Sequences, Motifs And Functions, Wendy M. Schluchter, Anthony Bretaudeau, Francois Coste, Florian Humily, Laurence Garczarek, Gildas Le Corguille, Christophe Six, Morgane Ratin, Olivier Collin, Frederic Partensky

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

CyanoLyase (http://cyanolyase.genouest.org/) is a manually curated sequence and motif database of phycobilin lyases and related proteins. These enzymes catalyze the covalent ligation of chromophores (phycobilins) to specific binding sites of phycobiliproteins (PBPs). The latter constitute the building bricks of phycobilisomes, the major light-harvesting systems of cyanobacteria and red algae. Phycobilin lyases sequences are poorly annotated in public databases. Sequences included in CyanoLyase were retrieved from all available genomes of these organisms and a few others by similarity searches using biochemically characterized enzyme sequences and then classified into 3 clans and 32 families. Amino acid motifs were computed for each family …

Comparative Phylogeography Of Central African Duikers Using Non-Invasive Sampling Methods, Stephan Ntie

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study sets out to assess patterns of evolutionary diversification in central African duikers (subfamily Cephalophinae). The sampling strategy consisted of collecting geo-referenced duiker feces across 43 sites and seven countries. However, several challenges related to the use of non-invasive samples needed to be addressed prior to large scale DNA amplification. First, the best storage method for obtaining DNA from fecal samples needed to be established. Our study revealed that while silica is best for nuclear microsatellite analyses, RNAlater is the best storage medium for maximal mitochondrial amplification. Moreover, extracting DNA as early as possible always provided the …

Birds In Residential Metropolitan New Orleans Neighborhoods And Their Relationships To The Batture And Yard Vegetation, Ruth A. Guymon

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Metropolitan New Orleans Neighborhoods were surveyed in order to determine how bird populations responded to distance from the batture, percent canopy cover, stem counts, and understory vegetation. Surveys were conducted in the spring and summer of 2010. It was found that batture birds, urban birds, and pooled birds all had greater species richness and abundance in the spring in areas with more canopy cover, higher stem counts, more understory vegetation, and distances closer to the batture. In the summer, batture birds had greater richness and abundance in areas with more canopy cover, higher stem counts, and more understory cover. This …

Evolution Of Nuclear Integrations Of The Mitochondrial Genome In Great Apes And Their Potential As Molecular Markers, Ivan D. Soto-Calderon

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial control region (MCR) has played an important role as a population genetic marker in many taxa but sequencing of complete eukaryotic genomes has revealed that nuclear integrations of mitochondrial DNA (numts) are abundant and widespread across many taxa. If left undetected, numts can inflate mitochondrial diversity and mislead interpretation of phylogenetic relationships. Comparative analyses of complete genomes in humans, orangutans and chimpanzees, and preliminary studies in gorillas have revealed high numt prevalence in great apes, but rigorous comparative analyses across taxa have been lacking.

The present study aimed to systematically compare the evolutionary dynamics of MCR numts in …

Fish Assemblage Dynamics And Red Drum Habitat Selection In Bayou St. John And Associated Urban Waterways Located Within The City Of New Orleans, Louisiana, Patrick W. Smith Mr.

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Bayou St. John (BSJ) and City Park Lakes and Lagoons (CPLL) are urban waterways in New Orleans, Louisiana. I studied habitat selection of red drum in BSJ, and fish assemblage change in BSJ and CPLL over 40 years. Temperature was found to be the best predictor of red drum habitat selection in Bayou St. John, while salinity and change in depth also were found to be good predictors for certain sites. Potential prey item abundance did not appear to influence habitat selection. Using data from 1971 – 2010, nearshore habitats in CPLL were affected by Hurricane Katrina, but have sense …

Phylogenetic Relationships And Character Evolution Of The Neotropical Butterfly Genus Hamadryas (Nymphalidae: Biblidinae), Ivonne J. Garzon

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The butterflies in the genus Hamadryas are popular and noticeable representatives of the Neotropical Lepidoptera fauna. After a thorough taxonomic revision, 20 species were acknowledged within the genus, however no hypothesis of their phylogenetic relationship was proposed. The present dissertation provides a step further into the understanding of this fascinating group of butterflies not only by proposing the first phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus based on morphological and molecular data, but also by exploring for the first time in a group of butterflies the potential effect of venation associated with an specific behaviour on wing shape. Furthermore, this dissertation provides …

Phycoerythrin-Specific Bilin Lyase-Isomerase Controls Blue-Green Chromatic Acclimation In Marine Synechococcus, Wendy M. Schluchter, Avijit Biswas, Frédéric Partensky, J. A. Karty, Laurence Garczarek, A. Gutu, David M. Kehoe, A. Shukla, N. Blot, L. A. Hammad

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus is the second most abundant phytoplanktonic organism in the world's oceans. The ubiquity of this genus is in large part due to its use of a diverse set of photosynthetic light-harvesting pigments called phycobiliproteins, which allow it to efficiently exploit a wide range of light colors. Here we uncover a pivotal molecular mechanism underpinning a widespread response among marine Synechococcus cells known as type IV chromatic acclimation (CA4). During this process, the pigmentation of the two main phycobiliproteins of this organism, phycoerythrins I and II, is reversibly modified to match changes in the ambient light color …