Digital Commons Network^™

Reproductive Efficiency Of Captive Chinese- And Indian-Origin Rhesus Macaque (Macaca Mulatta) Females, H. Michael Kubisch, Kathrine P. Falkenstein, Chelsea B. Deroche, Donald E. Franke

Faculty Publications

Reproductive and survival records (n = 2,913) from 313 Chinese-origin and 365 Indian-derived rhesus macaques at the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC) spanning three generations were studied. Least-squares analysis of variance procedures were used to compare reproductive and infant survival traits while proportional hazards regression procedures were used to study female age at death, number of infants born per female, and time from last birth to death. Chinese females were older at first parturition than Indian females because they were older when placed with males, but the two subspecies had similar first postpartum birth interval (1st PPBI) and lifetime …

Predicting Patch Occupancy In Fragmented Landscapes At The Rangewide Scale For An Endangered Species: An Example Of An American Warbler, Bret A. Collier, Julie E. Groce, Michael L. Morrison, John C. Newnam, Andrew J. Campomizzi, Shannon L. Farrell, Heather A. Mathewson, Robert T. Snelgrove, Raymond J. Carroll, Robert N. Wilkins

Faculty Publications

Aim Our objective was to identify the distribution of the endangered golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) in fragmented oak-juniper woodlands by applying a geoadditive semiparametric occupancy model to better assist decision-makers in identifying suitable habitat across the species breeding range on which conservation or mitigation activities can be focused and thus prioritize management and conservation planning. Location Texas, USA. Methods We used repeated double-observer detection/non-detection surveys of randomly selected (n=287) patches of potential habitat to evaluate warbler patch-scale presence across the species breeding range. We used a geoadditive semiparametric occupancy model with remotely sensed habitat metrics (patch size and landscape composition) …

Ecological Guild Evolution And The Discovery Of The World's Smallest Vertebrate, Eric N. Rittmeyer, Allen Allison, Michael C. Gründler, Derrick K. Thompson, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

Living vertebrates vary drastically in body size, yet few taxa reach the extremely minute size of some frogs and teleost fish. Here we describe two new species of diminutive terrestrial frogs from the megadiverse hotspot island of New Guinea, one of which represents the smallest known vertebrate species, attaining an average body size of only 7.7 mm. Both new species are members of the recently described genus Paedophryne, the four species of which are all among the ten smallest known frog species, making Paedophryne the most diminutive genus of anurans. This discovery highlights intriguing ecological similarities among the numerous independent …

Short Conduction Delays Cause Inhibition Rather Than Excitation To Favor Synchrony In Hybrid Neuronal Networks Of The Entorhinal Cortex., Wang S, Chandrasekaran L, Fernandez Fr, White Ja, Canavier Cc

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Membrane Properties And The Balance Between Excitation And Inhibition Control Gamma-Frequency Oscillations Arising From Feedback Inhibition., Economo Mn, White Ja

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mystery Behind Hitchcock's Birds, Sibel Bargu, Mary W. Silver, Mark D. Ohman, Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson, David L. Garrison

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Controlling Macondo Oil Biodegraqdation On A Rapidly Eroding Coastal Headlands Beach, Marilany G. Urbano

LSU Master's Theses

Fourchon Beach, located along the southeast Louisiana coast, was affected by the oil leaking from the British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon Oil rig explosion in 2010. The oil, labeled MC252 oil, came ashore in a stable emulsion form, contaminating the sand, salt pan, marsh and mangroves along the beach. A unique oil form, labeled SSRB (small surface residue ball) was formed from the MC252 oil and a combination of environmental factors. The SSRB is an aggregate of sand and emulsified oil, and forms a large portion of the oil still present on the supratidal zone of Fourchon Beach. SSRBs have not …

Retrotransposons As A Major Source Of Epigenetic Variations In The Mammalian Genome, Muhammad B. Ekram, Keunsoo Kang, Hana Kim, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Transcription of retrotransposons is usually repressed by DNA methylation, but a few elements, such as intracisternal A-particles (IAPs) associated with the Agouti and Axin-fused loci, partially escape this repression mechanism. The levels of this repression are also variable among individuals with an identical genome sequence, generating epigenetically different states of loci or epialleles. In the current study, we tested the existence of additional retrotransposon-derived epialleles in the mouse genome. Using a series of bioinformatics approaches, 143 candidate epialleles were first identified from the mouse genome based on their promoter activity and association with active histone modification marks. Detailed analyses suggest …

Contextual Chemosensory Urine Signaling In An African Cichlid Fish, Karen P. Maruska, Russell D. Fernald

Faculty Publications

Chemosensory signaling is crucial for communication in many fish species, but little is known about how signalers modulate chemical output in response to sensory information and social context. Here, we tested the hypothesis that dominant male African cichlid fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) use urine signals during social interactions, and demonstrate that this signaling depends on social context (reproductive; territorial) and on available sensory information (visual cues; full interaction). We injected males with dye to visualize urine pulses and exposed them to full sensory information or visual cues alone of four types: (1) dominant male; (2) gravid (reproductively receptive) females; (3) mouth-brooding …

Faculty Senate Newsletter, January 2012, Louisiana State University And Agricultural & Mechanical College

LSU Faculty Senate Publications

Message from President: Few would doubt that experience carries a value, yet few would be ready to accord to experience the irrationally high esteem granted it by the various units, agencies, and boards that govern and deliver higher education in Louisiana. In an educational establishment where “retire-rehire” could almost qualify as the refrain of a top-ten tune, where retreads and reassigned old hands move from juicy appointment to juicier portfolio while youngsters scramble for bread, where middle age is all but marginalized, where “double dipping” may sometimes lead to the ejection of a Commissioner but will usually create happy prosperity …

Routes Of War: The World Of Movement In The Confederate South, James L. Roark

Civil War Book Review

Understanding the Civil War through Movement

“I seen our ‘Federates go off laughin’ an’ gay; full of life an’ health," a former slave from Alabama remembered. “Dey was big an’ strong, asingin’ Dixie an’ dey just knowed dey was agoin’ to win. An’ boss, I seen ‘em come back skin an’ bon....

Barbuda: A Caribbean Island In Transition, Andrew Sluyter, Amy E. Potter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Blacks In Establishing Cattle Ranching In Louisiana In The Eighteenth Century, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

A longstanding assumption posits that white ranchers from the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, provided the knowledge to establish the first cattle ranches in Louisiana in the mid-eighteenth century, that blacks merely provided the labor, and that the herding ecology involved was the same as that of the Acadian ranchers who followed. Reconstruction of the locations of the first major ranches and the backgrounds of their owners and slaves, however, reveals that none of them came to Louisiana from Saint-Domingue and that the ranches occupied the western margin of the Atchafalaya basin, an environment quite different than the …

A Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (Mckrae) Mutant Lacking The Glycoprotein K Gene Is Unable To Infect Via Neuronal Axons And Egress From Neuronal Cell Bodies, Andrew T. David, Ahmad Saied, Anu Charles, Ramesh Subramanian, Vladimir N. Chouljenko, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

We have shown that the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) gK gene is essential for efficient replication and spread in the corneal epithelium and trigeminal ganglion neuroinvasion in mice (A. T. David, A. Baghian, T. P. Foster, V. N. Chouljenko, and K. G. Kousoulas, Curr. Eye Res. 33:455-467, 2008). To further investigate the role of gK in neuronal infection, we utilized a microfluidic chamber system separating neuronal cell bodies and axonal termini. HSV-1 (McKrae) engineered virus constitutively expressing enhanced green fluorescence protein (GFP) was efficiently transmitted in both a retrograde and an anterograde manner. These results were corroborated by expression …

Perspectives In Ornithology: Inferring The Origins Of Lowland Neotropical Birds, Robb T. Brumfield

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grace Like Snow, Jessica Lowe

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Cat Is Back: Analyzing Newspaper Coverage Of Mountain Lions In The Midwest, Chloe Euston

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Agriculture Winter, 2012

Louisiana Agriculture

No abstract provided.

2012 Louisiana Summary: Agriculture And Natural Resources, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Summary: Agriculture and Natural Resources

This publication tabulates the value of Louisiana agriculture in 2012. Agents and specialists in the LSU AgCenter, as well as other representatives of other private and public agencies, compiled the data. Their analysis focused on the animal, forestry, fisheries, plant and wildlife commodities that make up our vital agricultural industries.

Agricultural and natural resource industries contribute significantly to our state’s economy – an estimated $11.4 billion in 2012 – and they have the potential for increased economic benefits and job creation through value-added processing in urban and rural communities across Louisiana.

As the year began, a warm and relatively wet …

Gaba Is Excitatory In Adult Vasopressinergic Neuroendocrine Cells, Juhee Haam, Ion R. Popescu, Linda A. Morton, Katalin C. Halmos, Ryoichi Teruyama, Yoichi Ueta, Jeffrey G. Tasker

Faculty Publications

Neuronal excitability in the adult brain is controlled by a balance between synaptic excitation and inhibition mediated by glutamate and GABA, respectively. While generally inhibitory in the adult brain, GABAA receptor activation is excitatory under certain conditions in which the GABA reversal potential is shifted positive due to intracellular Cl-accumulation, such as during early postnatal development and brain injury. However, the conditions under which GABA is excitatory are generally either transitory or pathological. Here, we reveal GABAergic synaptic inputs to be uniformly excitatory in vasopressin (VP)-secreting magnocellular neurons in the adult hypothalamus under normal conditions. The GABA reversal potential (EGABA) …

Subordinate Male Cichlids Retain Reproductive Competence During Social Suppression, Jacqueline M. Kustan, Karen P. Maruska, Russell D. Fernald

Faculty Publications

Subordinate males, which are excluded from reproduction often save energy by reducing their investment in sperm production. However, if their position in a dominance hierarchy changes suddenly they should also rapidly attain fertilization capability. Here, we asked how social suppression and ascension to dominance influences sperm quality, spermatogenesis and reproductive competence in the cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, where reproduction is tightly coupled to social status. Dominant territorial (T) males are reproductively active while subordinate non-territorial (NT) males are suppressed, but given the opportunity, NT males will perform dominance behaviours within minutes and attain T male testes size within days. Using the …

Limited Potential For Adaptation To Climate Change In A Broadly Distributed Marine Crustacean, Morgan W. Kelly, Eric Sanford, Richard K. Grosberg

Faculty Publications

The extent to which acclimation and genetic adaptation might buffer natural populations against climate change is largely unknown. Most models predicting biological responses to environmental change assume that species' climatic envelopes are homogeneous both in space and time. Although recent discussions have questioned this assumption, few empirical studies have characterized intraspecific patterns of genetic variation in traits directly related to environmental tolerance limits. We test the extent of such variation in the broadly distributed tidepool copepod Tigriopus californicus using laboratory rearing and selection experiments to quantify thermal tolerance and scope for adaptation in eight populations spanning more than 178 of …

Recruitment And Biological Consequences Of Histone Modification Of H3k27me3 And H3k9me3., Joomyeong Kim, Hana Kim

Faculty Publications

Two histone marks, H3K27me3 and H3K9me3, are well known for their repressive roles in the genic and nongenic regions of metazoan genomes. Several protein complexes are known to be responsible for generating these marks, including polycomb repression complex 2 and several H3K9 methylases. Recent studies have shown that the targeting of these histone-modifying complexes within mammalian genomes may be mediated through several DNA-binding proteins, including AEBP2, JARID2, and YY1. In this review, we discuss the potential targeting mechanisms in light of the recent results that have been derived from genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data and the in vivo functions of …

Components, Volume 8 (2012), Lsu Center For Computation And Technology

Components

No abstract provided.

Novel Books: The Power Of Metafiction In Female Victorian Writing, Joanna Zimmerman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Thesis On The Eiffel Tower A Stage Manager’S Account Of Working On An Avant-Garde Show, Ellen Johnson

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

To The Battles Of Franklin And Nashville And Beyond: Stabilization And Reconstruction In Tennessee And Kentucky, 1864-1866, Brian Steel Wills

Civil War Book Review

Examining the Transition to Peace in Tennessee and Kentucky

In this latest of three volumes, Benjamin Franklin Cooling continues his series examining the effects of the American Civil War on Kentucky and Tennessee. Cooling builds on his earlier work, Forts Henry and Donelson—The Key ....

Gumbo Yearbook, Class Of 2012, Louisiana State University And Agricultural And Mechanical College

Gumbo Yearbook

The Gumbo yearbook chronicles the entire academic year at LSU. In words and especially photos, the Gumbo shows the people, places, and events that make each year unique. In addition to formal portraits of schools and departments, the book contains hundreds of snapshots of students with their friends and dozens of pages showcasing organizations.

Research Matters Summer 2012, Louisiana State University And Agricultural & Mechanical College

Research Matters & RNR Newsletters

Research Matters is a publication which highlights ongoing research, international travel experiences, classroom happenings and degree program developments of and for the School of Renewable Natural Resources' students and faculty.

School Of Renewable Natural Resources Newsletter, Fall 2012, Louisiana State University And Agricultural & Mechanical College

Research Matters & RNR Newsletters

The annual newsletter from the School of Renewable Natural Resources was a publication which aimed to update and entertain interested readers with the news and research from RNR faculty, students and staff.