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Landscape Analysis Of Vegetation Change In Coastal Louisiana Following Hurricanes Katrina And Rita, Gregory Dean Steyer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Investigations of hurricane disturbances on coastal vegetated communities are common, but relatively few are comprehensive across broad geographic regions. The 2005 hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, exposed Louisiana coastal landscapes to physical modifications and extensive and prolonged flooding, resulting in measurable physicochemical changes. This research used remote sensing and field investigations to regionally assess (1) porewater salinity and sulfide impacts to and recovery of coastal Louisiana vegetation communities, and (2) the importance of mineral sediment deposition on accretionary processes. Hurricane effects were most direct and prominent in eastern Louisiana from Katrina and western Louisiana from Rita, compared to central Louisiana exposed …

An Evaluation Of The Perceived Obstacles For Policy Officials Regulating The Post Harvest Treatment Of Raw Oysters To Control The Human Health Vibrio Vulnificus Problem, Amy Leah Oestringer

LSU Master's Theses

Vibrio vulnificus is the leading pathogen linked to seafood-associated deaths. This naturally occurring marine bacterium presents a human health risk when it is consumed in raw oysters. Hospitalization is necessary in 90 % Vibrio vulnificus illnesses and 40% end in death. (CDC) Several guidelines and regulations have been enacted to combat this human health issue, but have failed to reduce the steadily rising illness rate. Post-harvest processing requirements for raw oysters could be used to reduce illness rates. A survey was conducted to measure the perceived obstacles that regulators and industry representatives of the raw oyster industry face in policymaking …

Image Analysis Techniques For Vertebra Anomaly Detection In X-Ray Images, Mohammed Das

Masters Theses

"In this research, imaging techniques are investigated for the analysis and detection of abnormalities in cervical and lumbar vertebrae. Detecting vertebra anomalies pertaining to osteoarthritis such as claw, traction and anterior osteophytes can aide in treatment plans for the patient. New size invariant features were developed for the detection of claw, traction and anterior osteophytes in cervical spine vertebrae. Using a K-means clustering and nearest centroid classification approach, the results were generated that were capable of discriminating cervical vertebrae for presence of anomalies related to osteophytes. The techniques developed can be integrated into systems based on querying spine images to …

The Identification And Characterization Of Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase Gene Family Members In Glycine Max, Erin Kathleen Pringle

Masters Theses

"Gene families are collections of genes with similar functions. Studying gene families is important for understanding the evolution of genes and manipulating genes. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) is an enzyme found in plants. It catalyzes the deamination of phenylalanine to produce cinnamic acid. Genes for PAL have been identified in many different plant species. This project used the known sequence for the PAL1 gene in Glycine max to find other PAL genes in Glycine max"--Abstract, page iii.

A Rapid Method For Determination Of Alpha Hydroxy Acids In Seawater And Biological Fluids At Trace Levels, Ryan Lee Schwiderski

Masters Theses

"Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) - carboxylic acids with a hydroxyl substitution on the alpha carbon are an important class of molecules. Hydroxy Methyl Thiobutanoic Acid (HMTBA) is an α-hydroxy analog of essential amino acid methionine; it finds extensive use as a feed supplement for avian and bovine species. Efficacy of alpha hydroxy acid uptake is important for nutritional studies and such studies rely on accurate and precise methods for determination of these chemicals in biological samples. Several methods for AHAs determination have been reported, however, the methods are tedious, requiring multiple sample preparation steps. Experiments reported in this thesis were …

Passive Immunity To West Nile Virus Provides Limited Protection In A Common Passerine Species, Nicole M. Nemeth, Paul T. Oesterle, Richard A. Bowen

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Passerine birds have played an important role in the establishment, maintenance, and spread of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America, and some are susceptible to WNV-associated mortality. Characterization of passive transfer of anti-WNV antibodies in passerines is important to understanding transmission and demographic effects of WNV on wild birds. We showed passively acquired maternal antibodies to WNV in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). Although all seropositive females (N = 18) produced antibody-positive egg yolks, only 20% of seropositive mothers (3/15) produced seropositive chicks. The estimated average half-life of maternal antibodies in chick sera was 3 days, …

Sttructure-Function Correlations Of The Antagonist Effects Of Flavonoids Present In Medicinal Plants On Oxidative Reactive Molecules, Deema Khalil Al Jayousi

Theses

Flavonoids are phenolic compounds with significant antioxidant properties. The propensity of a flavonoid to inhibit free-radical mediated events is governed by its chemical structure. Since these compounds are based on the flavan nucleus, the number, positions, and types of substitutions influence radical scavenging and chelating activity. The main objective of this thesis was to establish structure-activity relationships of flavonoids by means of experimental and computational techniques.

Initially, a series of dietary flavonoids belonging to the most representative families (flavonols; myricetin, quercetin, morin, kaempferol, and 3-hydrxoyflavone, flavones; flavone and flavanones; naringenin) were studied during the reaction with DPPH radical following addition …

Measurement Of Nutrient Availability In Feedstuffs For Florida Pompano And Development Of Formulated Diets For Pompano Aquaculture, Craig Gothreaux

LSU Master's Theses

Consistently high market demand combined with low commercial catches have made Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus, one of the highest valued finfish from the Gulf of Mexico. Economic incentive has spurred interest in pompano culture since the 1950s, yet the body of nutritional research on pompano is still sparse. This study was conducted to measure the apparent digestibility of nutrients among a selection of common feed ingredients, and determine the optimum dietary protein level for juvenile Florida pompano at a fixed protein-to-energy ratio, in order to formulate nutritionally complete, cost-effective diets. The four ingredients tested in the digestibility trial were soybean …

Availability And Toxicity Of Nickel To Lotic Periphyton And Macroinvertebrates, Stephanie Marie Bessom

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

There is a lack of information regarding the bioaccumulation and toxicity of nickel (Ni) to lotic ecosystems. The objective of this study was to investigate the source, uptake, and toxicity of Ni by periphyton and macroinvertebrates (Hyalella azteca and Daphnia magna) in simulated stream ecosystems that included sediment and water. Periphyton were exposed to two types of sediment, a low-organic sandy mixture and a high organic silt, treated with varying levels of Ni. After 96 h, Ni levels in overlying water and periphyton were related to those in sediments, although differences existed between sediment types. Tests with 64Ni added to …

Evaluation Of Aerial Cluster Sampling Of Double-Crested Cormorants On Aquaculture Ponds In Mississippi, Brian S. Dorr, Loren W. Burger Jr., Scott C. Barras

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Concern over increasing numbers of double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) and their impacts on channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) aquaculture has resulted in increased need for quantitative information to develop and evaluate depredation management efforts. We evaluated aerial surveys in a stratified cluster sampling (SCS) design to estimate and monitor abundance of cormorants on catfish aquaculture ponds in the Yazoo River Basin of Mississippi, USA (hereafter Yazoo Basin). Twice monthly abundance estimates and coefficient of variation during winter averaged 8,128 (n = 29, SE = 1,233) and 33% (n = 29, SE = 0.02), respectively. Counts of cormorants …

Fumonisin Level In Corn-Based Food And Feed From Linxian County, A High-Risk Area For Esophageal Cancer In China, Jiansheng Wang, Ying Zhou, Wanbo Liu, Xiangcheng Zhu, Liangcheng Du, Qiaomei Wang

Liangcheng Du Publications

The level of mycotoxin fumonisins in corn-based food and feed collected from Linxian County, a high-risk area for esophageal cancer in China, has been analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatographic coupled with evaporative laser scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD). A total of 104 corn kernel samples were obtained from local households, granaries, wholesale markets (central markets), and retail markets (stores and supermarkets). Fumonisin B1 (FB1) was detected in the samples from households, granaries, central markets, and stores, with a positive rate of 61.5%, 50%, 33.3%, and 17%, respectively. No fumonisin was detected in samples from the supermarket. The highest FB1 levels (0.30–3.20 μg/ …

Mechanisms Of Hemoglobin Adaptation To High Altitude Hypoxia, Jay F. Storz, Hideaki Moriyama

Hideaki Moriyama Publications

Evidence from a number of vertebrate taxa suggests that modifications of hemoglobin (Hb) function may often play a key role in mediating an adaptive response to high altitude hypoxia. The respiratory functions of Hb are a product of the protein’s intrinsic O₂-binding affinity and its interactions with allosteric effectors such as protons, chloride ions, CO₂, and organic phosphates. Here we review several case studies involving high altitude vertebrates where it has been possible to identify specific mechanisms of Hb adaptation to hypoxia. In addition to comparative studies of Hbs from diverse animal species, functional studies of …

Mechanisms Of Hemoglobin Adaptation To High Altitude Hypoxia, Jay F. Storz, Hideaki Moriyama

Hideaki Moriyama Publications

Evidence from a number of vertebrate taxa suggests that modifications of hemoglobin (Hb) function may often play a key role in mediating an adaptive response to high altitude hypoxia. The respiratory functions of Hb are a product of the protein’s intrinsic O₂-binding affinity and its interactions with allosteric effectors such as protons, chloride ions, CO₂, and organic phosphates. Here we review several case studies involving high altitude vertebrates where it has been possible to identify specific mechanisms of Hb adaptation to hypoxia. In addition to comparative studies of Hbs from diverse animal species, functional studies of …

Avoidance Of Hydrolyzed Casein By Mice, Kristin L. Field, Bruce A. Kimball, Julie A. Mennella, Gary K. Beauchamp, Alexander A. Bachmanov

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

When casein, a milk protein, is hydrolyzed, it renders human foods that contain it (e.g., hypoallergenic infant formula, cheeses) distasteful to many people. This rejection of hydrolyzed casein (HC)-containing foods has recently been found to also occur in a non-human species (deer, Odocoileus spp.). Identifying other animals that avoid HC would facilitate understanding how and why HC-containing food is often rejected. This study determined whether HC-containing food is avoided by Mus musculus and whether consumption patterns were sensitive to testing conditions, specifically food form (powder, pellet or dough) and food access (ad libitum or 1.5 h/day following 6 h …

Influence Of Plankton Mercury Dynamics And Trophic Pathways On Mercury Concentrations Of Top Predator Fish Of A Mining-Impacted Reservoir, A. Robin Stewart, Michael K. Saiki, James S. Kuwabara, Charles N. Alpers, Mark Marvin-Dipasquale, David P. Krabbenhoft

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Physical and biogeochemical characteristics of the aquatic environment that affect growth dynamics of phytoplankton and the zooplankton communities that depend on them may also affect uptake of methylmercury (MeHg) into the pelagic food web of oligotrophic reservoirs. We evaluated changes in the quality and quantity of suspended particulate material, zooplankton taxonomy, and MeHg concentrations coincident with seasonal changes in water storage of a mining-impacted reservoir in northern California, USA. MeHg concentrations in bulk zooplankton increased from 4 ng·g^–1 at low water to 77 ± 6.1 ng·g^–1 at high water and were positively correlated with cladoceran biomass (r = …

Management And Conservation Note: Conserving Waste Rice For Wintering Waterfowl In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Jennifer P. Kross, Richard M. Kaminski, Aaron T. Pearse

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV), USA, is an internationally important migration and wintering region for North American waterfowl (Reinecke et al. 1989). The Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) assumes food availability is the primary factor influencing carrying capacity of wintering waterfowl in this region (Reinecke and Loesch 1996). Because much of the MAV was converted from a seasonally flooded bottomland-hardwood ecosystem to a landscape dominated by agriculture, the LMVJV has incorporated estimates of the abundance of agricultural seeds such as rice into habitat conservation plans (Reinecke et al. 1988, Fredrickson et al. 2005). Biologists designed these plans to provide …

Personalized Web Content With Fuzzy System, Bassam Almogahed

Master's Projects

In this paper, we will develop a new computational intelligence methodology to automatically analyze and summarize web content during a user surfing sessions. The output of this process is meaningful keywords or phrases which will be used to bring the user other contents such as images that closely relate to the web pages that he or she is currently surfing.

A New Design For The Hudson Community School District's Website, Shannon Michelle Horn

Honors Program Theses

Technology is increasingly becoming a bigger and more important part of our daily lives. Especially in such institutions as the public education system, the Internet is becoming more widely used as a source of information and a means of communication between the district and parents, students, the community, and even teachers. The Internet, and all forms of technology, is increasingly becoming the primary way people access information, especially in education. As more and more schools are depending on the Internet to promote their schools, they are in tum becoming dependent on how outsiders view their website as a first impression …

Sex-Specific Feeding Rates And Provisioning Of Fruit To Nestling Bell's Vireo, Greg H. Farley

The Prairie Naturalist

Provisioning of fruit to nestlings and possible sex-specific differences in feeding rate have not been reported for Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii; Brown 1993). While studying nesting ecology of Bell's vireo on Konza Prairie Biological Station, Geary and Riley counties, Kansas, I quantified feeding rate by sex and food type delivered to nestlings. Sex was determined by capturing adults with mist-nets and inspecting for a cloacal protuberance, as well as conducting behavioral observations of uniquely-marked individuals. Males sing regularly while moving around territories, as well as during incubation (Nolan 1960). I assigned "female" to the individual in these socially …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Vegetable (Soybean) Oil Based Epoxy Resin For Beverage Can Coating And Enzymatic Synthesis And Characterization Of Tailored N&C End Protected Oligopeptides, Ying Gao

Doctoral Dissertations

"Research described in this dissertation covers two topics. Part-I is related to the development of a soybean oil based epoxy resin and its application in beverage can coatings. Interior surfaces of beverage can are invariably coated with polymer coating. The most commonly used coatings at present are derived from bisphenol A (BPA) based epoxy reins. However, due to perceived endocrine disrupting nature of BPA and consequential adverse effects on humans and wildlife concerns for the use of BPA based coatings and its leaching into beverages have been expressed. The research in the first part describes the synthesis and evaluation of …

Biological Control Of Fusarium Oxysporum Wilt Disease Of Tomato By Antagonistic And Plant Growth Promoting Actinomycetes, Nada Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Shugairan

Theses

Soil-borne fungal plant pathogens cause some of the most widespread and serious plant diseases. Root diseases caused by these pathogens such as wilt, root rot, collar rot, foot rot, seedling pre- and post-emergence damping-off are the foremost of problems which are gaining importance from day to day in the world and for which no direct control measures have been evolved so far. Fusarium spp. is a widespread soil-borne plant pathogen and is the causal agents of wilt disease of many economically important crops. Fusarium spp. is a limiting factor in the plant productivity in most agricultural soils. Wilt disease of …

Statistical Issues In The Normalization Of Multi-Species Microarray Data, John R. Stevens, Balasubramanian Ganesan, Prerak Desai, Sweta Rajan, Bart C. Weimer

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Several species of bacteria are involved in the production of cheese, including Lactobacillus brevis and Lactococcus lactis. A custom-designed Affymetrix microarray was recently developed to study gene expression in three organisms on a single chip. This array contains only perfect match features for the coding and non-coding regions in the genomes of all three sequences. The multi-species nature of this array version raises interesting questions regarding the preprocessing or normalization strategies for the analysis of gene expression data. We present and evaluate several possible strategies using both cDNA dilution data and experimental expression data from a repeated measures design. …

Evaluation Of Nutrient (Protein) – Organism (Fish) Relationship Using A Saturation Kinetic Model, Zainab Saad Abdul Rahman

Theses

The primary objective of this thesis was to demonstrate that the net nutrient (protein) deposition and weight gain as a function of nutrient (protein) intake fits the Saturation Kinetic Model and utilize the model parameters to describe and predict intake-deposition relationship.

Groups of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, fry (0.01 g) and small fingerlings (0.15 g) were each separately fed twelve semi purified diets in triplicates to the fingerling and duplicate to the fry trial. Each test diet contains a percentage of protein. Protein levels were 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 54 percent …

Photochemical Studies Of Nutraceuticals In The Presence Of Cyclodextrins, Zlata Tofzikovskaya, Christine O'Connor, Mary Mcnamara

Conference Papers

The photostability studies of Folic acid and Menadione Sodium Bisulfite, also known as vitamin K3, were carried out in their aqueous solutions at room temperature. Solutions of Folic acid ( 4.8 x 10-5 M) and Menadione Sodium Bisulfite (4.0 x 10-4 M) were exposed to ultraviolet radiation at a wavelength of 365 nm. During exposure absorbance of both solutions was measured using a Perkin Elmer Lamda 900 UV/VIS/NIR Spectrometer. During the stability tests it was noted that addition of β Cyclodextrin (1:1 ratio) to aqueous solutions containing the vitamin slowed down the photodegradation process. The unique shape of Cyclodextrins allows …

Connecting With Nature Through Land Use Decision Making, Cathy Setterlin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This narrative inquiry, which draws on my experience as a land use decision maker, environmental educator, and scholar, examines the complexities of our human-nature relationship as we use and protect the life of the land in local communities. I began this research by interviewing seventeen land use decision makers representing a range of land use perspectives in New Milford, Connecticut, focusing on their views of land as a living community, their connections to land, and their sense of duty and responsibility.

Their responses led me to further inquiry and drew me into a process that transformed my views of both …

Metabolite Analysis Of Clostridium Thermocellum Using Capillary Electrophoresis Based Techniques, Anup P. Thakur

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Clostridium thermocellum is a thermophilic bacterium that converts biomass to ethanol directly; however, high sensitivity of this bacterium toward ethanol limits its commercial utility. To elucidate the effect of ethanol on the growth of this bacterium a metabolite analysis of C. thermocellum was performed. The hypothesis of the project was that exogenous ethanol alters the metabolite profile of C. thermocellum. For metabolite analysis, capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry method (CE-ESI-MS) was developed due to highly polar and charged nature of metabolites. To increase the sensitivity of CE-ESI-MS, several parameters at the ESI interface were optimized. The application of 50% isopropanol …

Chiral Recognition Of Amino Acids By Use Of A Fluorescent Resorcinarene, Gerald I. Richard, Hadi M. Marwani, Shan Jiang, Sayo O. Fakayode, Mark Lowry, Robert M. Strongin, Isiah M. Warner

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The spectroscopic properties of a chiral boronic acid based resorcinarene macrocycle employed for chiral analysis were investigated. Specifically, the emission and excitation characteristics of tetraarylboronate resorcinarene macrocycle (TBRM) and its quantum yield were evaluated. The chiral selector TBRM was investigated as a chiral reagent for the enantiomeric discrimination of amino acids using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. Chiral recognition of amino acids in the presence of the macrocycle was based on diastereomeric complexes. Results demonstrated that TBRM had better chiral discrimination ability for lysine as compared to the other amino acids. Partial least squares regression modeling (PLS-1) of spectral data for macrocycle-lysine …

Food Limitation In Larval Fish: Ontogenetic Variation In Feeding Scope And Its Potential Effect On Survival, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Peter Grønkjær, Pierre Pepin, William C. Leggett

OES Faculty Publications

We used the radiated shanny Ulvaria subbifurcataas a model species to explore the relative gut fullness from hatch to metamorphosis of wild larvae, and compared these values with those of laboratory-reared larvae fed at maximum rates. Ingestion rates of most wild larvae were above starvation levels but below the maximum feeding levels of laboratory-reared larvae. Twenty-six percent of freshly-hatched wild larvae and 11% of large, pre-settlement wild larvae had insufficient food in their stomach to satisfy metabolic requirements. These results, taken on their own, are consistent with the much hypothesized increased foraging performance and survival of larger larvae relative …

Solid Phase Extraction Of Cadmium In Edible Oils Using Zinc Piperazinedithiocarbamate And Its Determination By Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, Mehtap Yağan Aşci, Ayşegül Efendi̇oğlu, Beki̇r Bati

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

A method was developed for preconcentration of cadmium with zinc-piperazinedithiocarbamate (ZnPDC) in edible oils and its determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). The preconcentration method is based on the adsorption of the Cd(II) on to ZnPDC and the elution of them with mercury(II) nitrate. The accuracy of the method was tested with standard reference material (CONOSTAN S-21) and Cd added samples. Under optimum conditions, the recovery and the detection limit for cadmium were 99.67% (\pm 0.67) and 0.028 mg/L, respectively. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration range 0.1-3.0 mg/L (r^2 = 0.9979). The proposed method was applied …

Chemical Constituents And Biological Activity Of Three Tanzanian Wild Mushroom Species, L.D. Baraza, C. C. Joseph, M. J. Moshi, M. H. H. Nkunya

Tanzania Journal of Science

The three Tanzanian wild mushroom species Termitomyces letestui, Lactarius edulis and Agaricus sp. aff. arvensis yielded ergosterol, 5,8-peroxyergosterol and ergosta-5,22-dien-3β-ol, and a mixture of ergosterol, ergosta-7,22-dien-3β-ol and ergosta-7-en-3β-ol whose composition was deduced from gas chromatography/mass spectroscopic (GC/MS) analysis of the trimethysilylated mixture. GC/MS analysis of the lipid fraction from T. letestu revealed the presence of linoleic (C18:2), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), palmitic (C16:0), pentadecanoic (C15:0) and myristic (C14:0) acid. Polar T. letestui and L. edulis fractions yielded α,α,1'trehalose andmannitol. Some of the crude extracts from the three mushroom species showed mild antimicrobial, mosquito larvicidal and cytotoxic activities. The chemical composition …