Digital Commons Network^™

Identification Of Quantitative Trait Loci (Qtls) For Resistance To Bacterial Leaf Streak: Xanthomonas Translucens Using Qtl And Association Mapping In Three Populations Of Soft Red Winter Wheat, Benjamin Tyler Meritt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Bacterial leaf streak (BLS) and black chaff, caused by Xanthomonas translucens pv. undulosa (Xtu), can be a very destructive disease of wheat, especially in the warmer, wetter areas of the Southeastern U.S. Yield losses of up to 40 percent have been recorded in some cases in southern wheat growing regions. With no effective agronomic or chemical method of disease control, identification of genetic resistance is seen as a promising solution. Three soft red winter wheat populations (GAWN, ARK-SNP, and AGS 2060- AGS 2035 DH) representative of soft red winter wheat germplasm in the southeastern U.S. developed by …

Divergent Effects Of Biological And Physical Processes On Dissolved Oxygen And Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Dynamics On A Eutrophied And Hypoxic Continental Shelf, Zoraida J. Quiñones-Rivera, Björn Wissel, R. Eugene Turner, Nancy N. Rabalais, Dubravko Justić, Kerri P. Finlay, Charles S. Milan

Faculty Publications

Dissolved oxygen (DO) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) represent reciprocal sides of aquatic metabolism. In closed systems, absolute DO and DIC changes follow a ~ 1 : 1 ratio, but in open systems coupling depends on mixing, air–sea gas exchange, and anaerobic respiration. To quantify DO–DIC controls in coastal waters, we evaluated their concentrations and stable isotopes together with water quality and physical conditions across the hypoxic zone off the Louisiana continental shelf in July 2002 and July 2003. This area is characterized by high yet variable productivity and strong seasonal changes in vertical stratification and river discharge. Prior to …

Religiosity And Misperceptions: The Effect Of Americans’ Religious Involvement On Their (Mis)Perceptions Of Political Parties, Rehm Nathanael Maham

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of The General: George Washington’S Aides-De-Camp And Their Campaign To Protect The Commander-In-Chief, Chloe Pellegrin

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Two Capital Cost Assessment Methods For A Styrene Process Design, Marian K. Luzier

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The History And Continuing Impacts Of Press Staff And Media Relations In Congress, Madelyn Cutrone

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Lethal Concentration And Sporulation By Contact And Direct Spray Of The Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria Bassiana On Different Stages Of Nezara Viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), Maribel Portilla, Minling Zhang, James Paul Glover, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Chris Johnson

Faculty Publications

The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is the most significant pest of soybean worldwide. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a Delta native strain NI8 of Beauveria bassiana by contact and direct spray on nymphs (2nd to 5th instar) and adults of N. viridula. Water control and four concentrations of B. bassiana were used to evaluate the survival, mortality, and molting percentage and to estimate median lethal concentration (LC50), median lethal sporulation (LS50), and resistance ratio (RR50). Direct spray at all concentrations observed the greatest reduction in survival on all life stages. …

Hydrologic Connectivity And Residence Time Affect The Sediment Trapping Efficiency And Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations Of The Atchafalaya River Basin, Daniel E. Kroes, Richard H. Day, Michael D. Kaller, Charles R. Demas, William E. Kelso, Tiffany Pasco, Raynie Harlan, Steven Roberts

Faculty Publications

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage records to determine volumes in the Basin's hydrologically distinct water management units (WMUs). Discharge measurements determined flow distribution and RT. Residence time was compared with DO to identify conditions that coincided with DO increases or decreases. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) were used to determine TE relative to calculated and measured …

Modeling The Sorption Of Ni(Ii) And Zn(Ii) By Mn Oxide–Coated Sand: Equilibrium And Kinetic Approaches, Joshua T. Padilla, H. Magdi Selim, Lewis A. Gaston

Faculty Publications

The behavior of metal cations in oxide-dominated systems is controlled by sorption reactions, which in turn depend on pH. Descriptions of such reactions are of interest for contaminant monitoring or remediation efforts; however, widely used isotherms such as Freundlich or Langmuir neglect the effect of pH and are therefore limited in their applicability. Two pH-dependent isotherms and their kinetic analogs were developed and evaluated regarding their ability to describe equilibrium and time-dependent sorption of Ni and Zn by Mn oxide–coated sand (MOCS). The sorption of Ni and Zn by MOCS at pH 4.0, 5.5, and 7.0 was investigated using batch …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Machine Learning Econometrics In Asset Pricing, Hector O. Zapata, Supratik Mukhopadhyay

Faculty Publications

Machine learning (ML) is a novel method that has applications in asset pricing and that fits well within the problem of measurement in economics. Unlike econometrics, ML models are not designed for parameter estimation and inference, but similar to econometrics, they address, and may be better suited for, problems of prediction. While some ML methods have been applied in econometrics for decades, their success in prediction has been limited, and examples of this abound in the asset pricing literature. In recent years, the ML literature has advanced new, more efficient, computation methods for regularization, modeling nonlinearity, and improved out-of-sample prediction. …

Confidence Intervals For Relative Intensity Of Collaboration (Ric) Indicators, Joel Emanuel Fuchs, Lawrence Smolinsky, Ronald Rousseau

Faculty Publications

Purpose: We aim to extend our investigations related to the Relative Intensity of Collaboration (RIC) indicator, by constructing a confidence interval for the obtained values. Design/methodology/approach: We use Mantel-Haenszel statistics as applied recently by Smolinsky, Klingenberg, and Marx. Findings: We obtain confidence intervals for the RIC indicator Research limitations: It is not obvious that data obtained from the Web of Science (or any other database) can be considered a random sample. Practical implications: We explain how to calculate confidence intervals. Bibliometric indicators are more often than not presented as precise values instead of an approximation depending on the database and …

High-Resolution Ribosome Profiling Reveals Translational Selectivity For Transcripts In Bovine Preimplantation Embryo Development, Linkai Zhu, Tong Zhou, Rajan Iyyappan, Hao Ming, Michal Dvoran, Yinjuan Wang, Qi Chen, R. Michael Roberts, Andrej Susor, Zongliang Jiang

Faculty Publications

High-resolution ribosome fractionation and low-input ribosome profiling of bovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos has enabled us to define the translational landscapes of early embryo development at an unprecedented level. We analyzed the transcriptome and the polysome- and non-polysome-bound RNA profiles of bovine oocytes (germinal vesicle and metaphase II stages) and early embryos at the two-cell, eight-cell, morula and blastocyst stages, and revealed four modes of translational selectivity: (1) selective translation of non-abundant mRNAs; (2) active, but modest translation of a selection of highly expressed mRNAs; (3) translationally suppressed abundant to moderately abundant mRNAs; and (4) mRNAs associated specifically with monosomes. …

Multiscale Analysis Of Cancer Service Areas In The United States, Changzhen Wang, Tracy Onega, Fahui Wang

Faculty Publications

The purpose of delineating Cancer Service Areas (CSAs) is to define a reliable unit of analysis, more meaningful than geopolitical units such as states and counties, for examining geographic variations of the cancer care markets using geographic information systems (GIS). This study aims to provide a multiscale analysis of the U.S. cancer care markets based on the 2014–2015 Medicare claims of cancer-directed surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The CSAs are delineated by a scale-flexible network community detection algorithm automated in GIS so that the patient flows are maximized within CSAs and minimized between them. The multiscale CSAs include those comparable in …

Monitoring Asbestos Mine Remediation Using Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging System: A Case Study Of Jefferson Lake Mine, Us, Yongsik Jeong, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Huy Hoa Huynh, Hyun Cheol Kim

Faculty Publications

This study investigated an asbestos mine restoration project using Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) hyperspectral data. The distribution of an abandoned asbestos mine (AAM) and treatment area were analyzed before and after the remediation based on the spectral indices for detecting naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) indicators and encapsulation. The spectral indices were developed for NOA, host rock, and encapsulation by logistic regression models using spectral bands extracted from the random forest algorithm. The detection models mostly used VNIR spectra rather than SWIR and were statistically significant. The overall accuracy of the detection models was approximately 84%. Notably, the detection accuracy …

Tectonism Of Late Noachian Mars: Surface Signatures From The Southern Highlands, Trishit Ruj, Goro Komatsu, Gene Schmidt, Suniti Karunatillake, Kenji Kawai

Faculty Publications

Upwelling mantle plumes often instigate extensional stress within the continental crust of Earth. When stress exceeds crustal strength, extensional structures develop, reducing the effective stress and trigger magmatic processes at the crust–mantle boundary. However, such processes and their relationship to the formation of many surface structures remain poorly characterized on Mars. We identified a series of extensional structures in the southern highlands of Mars which collectively resemble continental rift zones on Earth. We further characterized these extensional structures and their surrounding region (area of ~1.8 M km²) by determining the surface mineralogy and bulk regional geochemistry of the …

Snapshots Of Coastal Ecology During Glacial And Deglacial Intervals: A Multiproxy Assessment Of Northern Gulf Of Mexico Sediment Cores, Kendall Emilie Brome

LSU Master's Theses

Terrestrial ecosystems along exposed continental shelves during times of relatively low sea level and glaciation are rarely preserved due to the mechanically erosive nature of marine transgression and regression. In this study, I investigate the geochemical and palynological characteristics of two well-preserved sites in the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) to determine the ecologic settings and subsequent mechanisms of preservation in this region. Both sites contain preserved terrigenous sediments of previously exposed coastal margins; the first is located at the Alabama Underwater Forest (~13 km south of Gulf Shores, AL, at ~15 mbsl), and optically stimulated luminescence dates to 72–56 …

Damage Monitoring Methods For Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Joints: A Review, Wencai Li, Genevieve Palardy

Faculty Publications

As the application of composite materials in structural parts continues to increase, so does the importance to monitor the structure's health condition during their entire service life. This paper presents a comprehensive review on damage monitoring methods focusing on fiber-reinforced polymer joints: adhesively bonded, mechanically fastened, and welded. In this review, structural health monitoring (SHM) methods are classified into two major groups: intrinsic sensing (embedded at the bond line) and extrinsic sensing (placed outside the interface). Main intrinsic techniques include fiber optic sensors, piezoelectric sensors (e.g., electromechanical impedance), and nanocomposite-based monitoring. The latter has attracted significant interest in the past …

Improvements To The Automatic Calibration Of Digital Focusing Color Schlieren Systems, Robert C. Frazee

LSU Master's Theses

As a diagnostic method, Schlieren imaging offers the unique ability to visualize flows with a completely non-intrusive method. By visualizing small changes in the refractive index of a fluid, Schlieren imaging is able to visualize changes in temperature, pressure, and composition. While historic Schlieren methods have been limited to providing largely qualitative information, modern Schlieren methods are able to extract quantitative information from flow phenomena. This is possible through either Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) or Digital Focusing Color Schlieren (DFCS) methods. While BOS is relatively flexible, it requires a large amount of computational effort to process each frame of captured …

Development Of Robotics & Automation Roadmap For Road Construction/Maintenance Projects, Ashrant Aryal, Chao Wang, Chintan Vijay Vora, Sueed A. Willoughby

Publications

Over the past few decades, there have been no significant improvements in the construction industry's productivity. Outside the construction industry, robots have proven to be beneficial in improving productivity, safety, and quality. There is a growing interest in adopting robots in the construction industry to address these issues. As robots get introduced to the project sites, human-robot interaction becomes an important consideration for wide-scale adoption. The success of deploying robots in the construction industry depends on how well humans collaborate with the robots. This project focused on investigating the perception of various construction industry stakeholders in adopting robots in their …

“You Can’T Wash Your Hands In A House Without Running Water”: Pandemic Precautionary Behaviors In The Wake Of Hurricane Laura, Cécile Girard

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

We Are All Connected, Behnoush Tavasolinia

LSU Master's Theses

Upon personal reflection, I have discovered that economic, cultural, and social issues have become very important in my life. As an Iranian graphic designer, I used current events and responded to Iranian stories to reflect that people’s problems anywhere in the world affect other people’s lives worldwide. My thesis investigation aims to reveal the global connection with commodities by focusing on Iran’s economic inflation to create a conceptual and visual representation of impacted consumables. Persian rugs and tile designs are the centers of the culture and symbols of the Iranian people. I used graphic design to illustrate tiles utilizing economic …

A Performance Guide To Michael Patterson's "People Of The Land" For Baritone And Piano, Thaddeus Harm Ennen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this document is to supply a comprehensive performer’s guide to Iowa composer, Dr. Michael Patterson’s, People of the Land, an eight song, song cycle for baritone and piano, set to poetry by Iowa poet James Hearst. This song cycle was personally commissioned to fulfill a need in the American song cycle literature on the topic of farming and more specifically Iowa farmers. The poetry of James Hearst, farmer and poet, has never been previously set in a song cycle.

People of the Land tells the story of an Iowa farmer from the beginning to end of …

Uvite, Camg 3 (Al5mg)(Si6o18)(Bo3)3(Oh)3(Oh), A New, But Long-Anticipated Mineral Species Of The Tourmaline Supergroup From San Piero In Campo, Elba Island, Italy, Ferdinando Bosi, Cristian Biagioni, Federico Pezzotta, Henrik Skogby, Ulf Hålenius, Jan Cempírek, Frank C. Hawthorne, Aaron J. Lussier, Yassir A. Abdu, Maxwell C. Day, Mostafa Fayek, Christine M. Clark, Joel D. Grice, Darrell J. Henry

Faculty Publications

Uvite, CaMg3(Al5Mg)(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH), is a new mineral of the tourmaline supergroup. It occurs in the Facciatoia quarry, San Piero in Campo, Elba Island, Italy (42°45′04.55″N, 10°12′50.89″E) at the centre of a narrow (2-3 cm wide) vein composed of aggregates of dark brown to black tourmaline, penetrating (magnesite + dolomite)-rich hydrothermally altered metaserpentinite. Crystals are euhedral and up to 1 cm in size, brown with a vitreous lustre, conchoidal fracture and grey streak. Uvite has a Mohs hardness of 7½, a calculated density of 3.115 g/cm3 and is uniaxial (-). Uvite has trigonal symmetry, space group R3m, a = 15.9519(10) Å, c …

Application Of Direct Feedback Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy Within A Hybrid Rocket Combustor, Connor Becnel

LSU Master's Theses

With interest in space travel and space-related science increasing in recent years, significant efforts to reduce the cost and increase the safety of rocket motors have become commonplace. Liquid rockets are currently the most commonly used system, but there is interest in the reduced complexity of hybrid rockets. For these hybrid rocket motors to become the norm, extensive research on their complex boundary layer combustion needs to be performed. Modeling these hybrid systems is of much interest to companies developing rocket motors; ultimately, small-scale experiments will help validate their behavior. This paper covers the application of a near-infrared tunable diode …

Hydrogeologic Investigation Of A Covered Karst Terrain, Joseph Peter Honings

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Increasing demand for water for agricultural use within the Dougherty Plain of the Southeastern United States has depleted surface water bodies. In karstic landscapes, such as the Dougherty Plain in southwest Georgia where the linkages between surface and ground waters are close, there is a need to understand the physical characteristics of the subsurface that allow these close linkages. Having a better understanding of the subsurface characteristics will aid numerical modeling efforts that underpin policy decisions and economic analyses. Two common features on this karstic landscape are draws and geographically isolated wetlands. Using LiDAR, aerial imagery, and ground-penetrating radar, this …

Verb Diversities Of Children With And Without Developmental Language Disorder: A Study Of Language Samples, Caitlyn J. Kearns

LSU Master's Theses

Background: There have been numerous studies that have researched word learning in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). These studies have found that children with DLD present with higher vocabulary deficits compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. Many of these studies’ results suggest that verb learning is the most difficult word type to comprehend in early language development for both TD children and children with DLD. This current study aims to examine verb use in children with and without DLD and to specifically examine their usage of GAP verbs. Methods: Participants included 36 children, 18 TD and 18 DLD …

The Effect Of Word-Learning Biases On Early Vocabulary Acquisition In Young Children On The Autism Spectrum, Claire C. Bourgeois

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Vocabulary composition and word-learning biases are closely interrelated in typical development. Such word-learning biases are influenced by perceptually and conceptually salient word features, including imageability, concreteness, iconicity, and attention to shape. Autistic children often have delayed language acquisition, but there is currently little research examining the underlying mechanisms autistic children use to acquire words. The current study aimed to examine the noun composition of autistic children across a range of vocabulary sizes by examining associations between expressive noun vocabulary size and imageability, iconicity, concreteness and evidence for the shape bias, and to examine whether these patterns differ from their …

Device Free Indoor Localization Of Human Target Using Wifi Fingerprinting, Prasanga Neupane

LSU Master's Theses

Indoor localization of human objects has many important applications nowadays. Proposed here is a new device free approach where all the transceiver devices are fixed in an indoor environment so that the human target doesn't need to carry any transceiver device with them. This work proposes radio-frequency fingerprinting for the localization of human targets which makes this even more convenient as radio-frequency wireless signals can be easily acquired using an existing wireless network in an indoor environment. This work explores different avenues for optimal and effective placement of transmitter devices for better localization. In this work, an experimental environment is …

A Saturated Map Of Common Genetic Variants Associated With Human Height, Loïc Yengo, Sailaja Vedantam, Eirini Marouli, Julia Sidorenko, Eric Bartell, Saori Sakaue, Marielisa Graff, Anders U. Eliasen, Yunxuan Jiang, Sridharan Raghavan, Jenkai Miao, Joshua D. Arias, Sarah E. Graham, Ronen E. Mukamel, Cassandra N. Spracklen, Xianyong Yin, Shyh Huei Chen, Teresa Ferreira, Heather H. Highland, Yingjie Ji, Tugce Karaderi, Kuang Lin, Kreete Lüll, Deborah E. Malden, Carolina Medina-Gomez, Moara Machado, Amy Moore, Sina Rüeger, Xueling Sim, Scott Vrieze, Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia, Masato Akiyama, Matthew A. Allison

Faculty Publications

Common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are predicted to collectively explain 40–50% of phenotypic variation in human height, but identifying the specific variants and associated regions requires huge sample sizes1. Here, using data from a genome-wide association study of 5.4 million individuals of diverse ancestries, we show that 12,111 independent SNPs that are significantly associated with height account for nearly all of the common SNP-based heritability. These SNPs are clustered within 7,209 non-overlapping genomic segments with a mean size of around 90 kb, covering about 21% of the genome. The density of independent associations varies across the genome and the regions of …

Overcoming Gifted Student Underachievement Through Teacher Best Practices, Samantha Simmons Webre

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this study is to collect the best practices being utilized by gifted teachers affecting change amongst their gifted underachieving students. Data collected will explore trends deemed significant among the successful best practices being utilized by academically gifted certified teachers.

The researcher will administer surveys, conduct interviews, and classroom observations to collect data from a sample of participants who are currently employed as academically gifted certified teachers. This study will focus on these academically gifted certified teacher’s definitions and recognition of underachievement, identified causes for underachievement, best practices employed to re-engage underachieving students, as well as perceptions of …