Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Silicon Status Of Rice (Oryza Sativa), Joseph Eugene Kraska

LSU Master's Theses

Low silicon (Si) content in rice, sugarcane and other Si-accumulating crops can adversely affect crop performance due to reduced tolerance to both abiotic and biotic stresses. This research had two specific objectives relative to Si in Louisiana rice: develop a digestion procedure for Si tissue analysis that is robust, accurate, precise, and requires equipment commonly found in most agricultural laboratories; and survey the Si status of rice plants at mid-tiller (Y-leaf) and after harvest (straw) throughout the rice-growing regions of Louisiana. Assessing the Si status of a crop typically depends upon accurately measuring Si accumulation in plant tissue. While wet-digestion …

The Passion Over Perpetua: A New Approach To The Passio Perpetuae Et Felicitatis, Eric Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Although the Passio Santarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis has received much scholarly attention in the past twenty years, it has been used primarily as a source of information on the martyr Perpetua. Other aspects of the account, such as its Montanist theology and its unique portrayal of women have been largely ignored by scholars interested in tearing it apart for relavent information on Perpetua. The Passio contains three distinct portions, each produced by a member from the religious community of Carthage in the early third-century C.E. It therefore serves as a unique historical window into early Christian North Africa, displaying a …

Sialic Acid Conjugated Chitosan For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale

LSU Master's Theses

Amyloid-beta (Aβ), a 39 to 43 amino acid long peptide, is the primary species identified in senile plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and has been implicated in the neurotoxicity associated with AD. It is believed that Aβ toxicity is mediated through the interaction with neuronal membranes. A variety of evidence indicates that 1) Aβ may bind to the cell surface sialic acids, 2) the affinity of this interaction is higher if the gangliosides or sialic acids on the cell surface are clustered, 3) the removal of the surface sialic acids attenuate Aβ toxicity. Based on this data, we hypothesized …

The Indigenous Culture Of School Mathematics In China And The United States: A Comparative Study Of Teachers' Understanding Of Constructivism, Lingqi Meng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study aimed to explore how the indigenous (national) culture of teaching and learning mediates teachers’ understandings of constructivism in China and the U.S. Thirty middle school math teachers who are self-identified with the mathematics teaching reform movement in each country participated in this study (NCTM 2000 Math Standards in the United States or the MOE 2001 Math Standards in China). Both theoretical and empirical methods were adopted for this research. Theoretical analysis led to a new cultural model that helped select appropriate cultural elements for this study. Based on emergence theory, the new model perceives Confucianism and Taoism as …

The Virgin's Daughters: Catholic Traditions And The Post-Colonial South In Contemporary Women's Writing, Elizabeth M. Beard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the texts of contemporary women writers who consciously engage dominant Catholic, American, and southern ideologies in their narratives and who posit Louisiana as a liminal, hybrid space. Building upon postcolonial concepts of hybridity and performance of cultural memory, I trace a “pathway” to feminist recovery and reclamation of ancestral memory and spirituality in Valerie Martin’s A Recent Martyr, Rebecca Wells’ Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Brenda Marie Osbey’s All Saints, and Erna Brodber’s Louisiana. The authors enact spiritual and cultural reclamation through the written expression of key components of postcolonial reconstruction of …

Phytochemical Analyses Of Bioactive Compounds In The Roots Of Cassia Alata Linn And The Anti-Angiogenic Evaluation Of Rhein As A Therapeutic Agent Against Breast Cancer Cells, Vivian Esther Fernand

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation includes the novel phytochemical analysis of root extracts of Cassia alata L. and the anti-angiogenic evaluation of rhein in the treatment of breast cancer. To conduct these studies a combination of analytical techniques were employed, namely, chromatographic, spectroscopic, and bioanalytical. The first part of this research is focused on the phytochemical analysis of C. alata root extracts. A high performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for the determination of six phenolic compounds in the root extracts. The investigated compounds were identified by their ultraviolet spectra. Additionally, the presence of these phenolics was …

The Acquisition Of Pragmatic Competence: Compliment Response Strategies In Learners Of Spanish, James Bryant Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The areas of Pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition have existed separately in the field of Linguistics for some time. Their connection, however, has more recently seen a great deal of study by researchers like Scarcella and Brunak (1981), Rintell (1981), Brown and Levinson (1987), Koike (1992, 1996), Saito, Beecken (1997), Félix-Brasdefer (2003, 2006) and Huth (2006). A common thread in these studies is the effect of language transfer or cross-linguistic influence that the first language has while learners are attempting to acquire the pragmatic and politeness principles that are central to the target language and culture. One speech act that …

Religion And Realism In Late Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Lisa Irene Moody

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A critical approach to understanding the analytical power of realism and its representational claims in the late nineteenth-century is to examine the relationship between realism and a common cultural concern that opposes the very tenets of realism, one that necessarily pervaded all aspects of class, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or other classifiable subsets of society typically linked with various schools of literary theory: the subject of religion. In fact, religion, with its disembodied immaterialism, surely the antithesis of realism, represents a unique cultural problem that tests the conceptual biases of the realist mode. One basic issue is that religion …

Experimental Design, Synthesis And Application Of Molecular Micelle Modified Polymeric Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery Systems And Free Radical Detection, Gabriela M. Ganea Visser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biodegradable and biocompatible polymeric nanoparticles such as poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles have been extensively studied as drug delivery systems for a variety of pharmaceutical agents. Nanoparticle surface properties are primarily determined by the emulsifiers used in the synthesis process, which have a significant impact on nanoparticle physico-chemical and biological properties. Anionic amino acid – based molecular micelles were used in the emulsification process to prepare monodisperse, small (below 100 nm) PLGA nanoparticles with a well defined spherical shape. Such molecular micelle – modified nanoparticles were used as drug carriers for delivery of antioxidants. Thymoquinone is a natural antioxidant, and an …

Peptide Targeting Of Platinum Anti-Cancer Drug And Synthesis Of Water Soluble Monofunctional Pt(Ii) Complexes Useful For Biological Labeling, Margaret W. Ndinguri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Platinum has been used as an inorganic medicinal agent with various applications such as anti cancer agents. Several new targeted Pt(II) conjugates were synthesized having the NGR and LHRH targeting motif. The platinum conjugates bearing the NGR motif revealed selective delivery and destruction of cancer cells that had CD13 receptors compared to untargeted carboplatin drug. The development of targeted chemotherapeutic has opened a new approach for efficient delivery of antitumor toxins with minimal exposure to normal cells. Several peptide sequences are known to have the ability to target tumors, for instance NGR motif which home specifically in solid tumors and …

Dietary Resistant Starch Upregulates Total Glp-1 And Pyy In A Sustained Day-Long Manner Through Fermentation In Rodents, June Zhou, Roy J. Martin, Richard T. Tulley, Anne M. Raggio, Kathleen L. Mccutcheon, Li Shen, Samuel Colby Danna, Sasmita Tripathy, Maren Hegsted, Michael J. Keenan

Faculty Publications

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and peptide YY (PYY) are anti-diabetes/obesity hormones ecreted from the gut after meal ingestion. We have shown that dietary-resistant starch (RS) increased GLP-1 and PYY secretion, but he mechanism remains unknown. RS is a fermentable fiber that lowers the glycemic index of the diet and liberates short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) through fermentation in the gut. This study investigates the two possible mechanisms by which RS stimulates GLP-1 and PYY secretion: the effect of a meal or glycemic index, and the effect of fermentation. Because GLP-1 and PYY secretions are stimulated by nutrient availability in the gut, the …

Devil Of The Domestic Sphere: Temperance, Gender, And Middle-Class Ideology, 1800-1860, Jon Miller

Civil War Book Review

Antebellum Temperance Reform and Gender

Front Matter

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Creating A Blues Playground: A Comparison Of Beale Street In Memphis, Tennessee, And Farish Street In Jackson, Mississippi, Sandor Gulyas

LSU Master's Theses

Are tourists looking for something resembling the landscape described in the music they listen to or are the cities creating a false front to entice tourists to visualize what was (is?) described in folklore and myths of blues music? This paper will focus on the urban landscape of Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee and Fariah Street in Jackson, Mississippi. These cities are part of a trend called "new blues tourism" in which these cities, in the Mississippi Delta are promoting an authentic black heritage landscape. My paper critiques the authenticity of this urban heritage landscape. There have been many studies …

Dress In The United States Of America As Depicted In Postmortem Photographs, 1840-1900, Ryan Jerel Aldridge

LSU Master's Theses

The results of a content and historical analysis of American postmortem photographs from 1840 to 1900 found in Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America and Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement and The Family In Memorial Photography American & European Traditions by Stanley Burns (1990 and 2002) indicate that day dress was the most popular form of postmortem dress depicted in the photographs. A comparison of the findings from this examination of the dress of 89 deceased individuals depicted in 84 postmortem photographs with descriptions of dress based on nineteenth century archaeological burial remains and portraits of living individuals indicates that …

Land Alive!, Or Metamorphosis In The Sportsman's Paradise, Adam Tourek

LSU Master's Theses

"Land Alive!" is best described a multimedia work. The produce of travels to the area of the Mississippi River delta, along with text-based research, formed the materials from which two evenings of participative performance were crafted. Personal narratives were used alongside evaluations of administrative programs, and the space in the Backyard Gallery was transformed using shovels, buckets, and teamwork. Found chairs, rope, and other objects, through ritualized interaction, became an aesthetic formation; everyone present worked together in the assembly of a boat, which contained the results of these interactions between myself, six volunteers, and an audience turned participants. The evenings …

Examination Of Blueberry Anthocyanins In Prevention Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Through Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Culture Study, Naomi Marie Sundalius

LSU Master's Theses

This research investigated the ability of blueberry anthocyanins to inhibit the uptake of N-retinyl-N-retinylidene ethanolamine (A2E) by retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells as quantified by pigment epithelial derived factor (PEDF) levels in RPE cells. The A2E was synthesized and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). Freeze dried blueberry powder of 50/50 blend (Tifblue/Rubel) anthocyanins were extracted by acetone and concentrated through chromatography. A RPE cell culture study investigating four treatments using a combination of 100 ìM A2E in DMSO and 100 ìg of blueberry anthocyanins in DMSO was tested. The treatments included: (A) control RPE cells; (B) RPE …

Africanisms And Cultural Modifications: A Study At Southall Quarter, Williamsburg, Virginia, Jessie Chaiya Cohen

LSU Master's Theses

Archaeological studies at sites of enslaved Africans and African-Americans have been intensely undertaken in recent years. In particular, the search for Africanisms and cultural processes has become a common trend within these studies. I analyzed previously recorded investigations of Southall Quarter (44JC969), an eighteenth-century enslaved African and African-American site in James City County, Virginia. Dominating anthropological themes of slave resistance, owner-imposed hegemony, and agentic actions guided my search for Africanisms at Southall Quarter. I hoped to prove that the distance of the quarters from Southall’s residence and therefore the lax owner supervision provided the enslaved inhabitants with opportunities to express …

One Rhizome, Two Unstoppable Blossoms: Environmental Communication And Ecological Rhetoric, Kevin James Ells

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will contribute to the project of explaining what environmental communication studies may offer theoretically to an understanding of communication and rhetoric in general, investigate a complex problem in rhetoric from a variety of methodological approaches, offer examples of rhetorical criticism relevant to environmental communication researchers, and delve into certain salient aspects of ecological rhetoric (defined herein as rhetoric from an ecological perspective). The hypothesis of this doctoral thesis is twofold: 1) studying environmental communication can illuminate much about communication and rhetoric in general, and 2) ecological rhetoric has considerable persuasive potential in itself for reasons that can be …

"I Will Learn You Something If You Listen To This Song": Southern Women Writers' Representations Of Music In Fiction, Courtney George

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation offers a rhetorical analysis of the formation of women’s memory, history, and communities in intersections of musical and literary expression in the American South, a region graced with a vital but underexamined tradition of female musicianship. Recent scholars have deconstructed the imagined narrative of southern culture as static, patriarchal, and white to uncover alternative stories and cultures that exist outside of canonical literature. This project significantly expands current understandings of these conflicting narratives by investigating how women writers recall, reclaim, and re-envision women’s roles in southern music to challenge, comply, and/or identify with women’s prescribed place in the …

The Perils And Empowerments Of Mountain Literacies: Reading Loss And Shifting Identities In Appalachian Memoirs And Novels, Erica Abrams Locklear

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the literary portrayal of literacy events in memoirs and novels written by Appalachian women during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing from contemporary literacy scholarship, my project engages several definitions of the term "literacy," including theories defining it as a technical skill, a social act, cultural knowledge, or a potent form of ideological power. In a region historically (and often inaccurately) stigmatized as illiterate, "literacy" is a loaded term, a concept doubly associated with cultural pride and with cultural loss. By applying literacy theories to Appalachian literature, I analyze the identity conflicts literacy attainment causes for several …

The Rhetorical Myth Of The Athlete As A Moral Hero: The Implications Of Steroids In Sport And The Threatened Myth, Karen L. Hartman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research analyzes changes in the rhetoric of a sustaining myth in order to better assess what happens when a myth is threatened. By examining American sport and its current struggle to withstand the widespread use of steroids, the author investigates how public discourse about the scandal turns athletes from mythical heroes to cheaters. The author begins by explicating the rhetorical construction of the athlete as a moral hero in America and how this myth is perpetuated today. The author then examines how steroids threaten the myth of the moral athlete and uses Major League Baseball as a case study …

Disciplinary Differences In Preferred Research Methods: A Comparison Of Groups In The Biglan Classification Scheme, Mark A. Alise

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Biglan system of classifying disciplines in groups based on similarities and differences in their subject matter has been validated in numerous empirical studies. The present study sought to expand that validation by comparing two Biglan groups that include disciplines representing the social and behavioral sciences. As a unique point of comparison, preferred research methods were contrasted between Psychology and Sociology forming one group of pure disciplines and Education and Nursing forming another group of applied disciplines. A code sheet was developed to categorize the various components of published research, distinguishing at the most basic level quantitative, qualitative, and mixed …

Processes And/Of Performance: Difference, Memory, And Experimentation, Benjamin Daniel Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study enacts performance analyses by combining experimental and avant-garde performance practices of artists or art movements such as John Cage, Jerzy Grotowski, Dadaism, and Eugenio Barba with the differential philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. By focusing on the ways that performance practice informs understandings of “the ghost” and différance in Derrida’s theories, and processes of production and experimentation in Deleuze’s, this study examines performance as a process of negotiating practice and theory that continues to produce rather than disappear. To reinforce the productive capacity of performance, this study looks at three different sites and the processes at …

The Songs Of Black (Women) Folk: Music, Politics, And Everyday Living, Rasheedah Quiett Jenkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of folklore in general, but specifically Africana folklore studies can be enriched by greater analyses of Black female contributions. In this study, I position folk music as the primary interest and chosen location to acknowledge Black women’s participation from beyond the margins. My inquiry reveals folk music as a lens into the myriad ways in which Black women have translated vernacular traditions into a means to deconstruct the master narrative as well as interrogate racist patriarchy. Specifically, this study examines how Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, and Lauryn Hill have appropriated the folk aesthetic as a vehicle for social …

Characterization And Comparison Of Cell Frequency, Growth, And Multipotential Differentiation Of Adult Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Derived From Equine Bone Marrow And Adipose Tissue, Martin Andreas Vidal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Equine bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASCs) were compared for frequency within their respective tissues, cell doubling characteristics and differentiation multipotential in culture based on histochemical staining and compositional analysis. Equine MSCs and ASCs from young adult horses were harvested and isolated from sternal bone marrow and supragluteal subcutaneous adipose tissue, respectively, and grown up to passage 10 (P10) to determine cell doubling characteristics. Limit dilution assays were performed on primary and passaged (P2, P4) MSCs and ASCs to determine the frequency of colony forming units with a fibroblastic phenotype (CFU-F), and the frequency …

The Gallant Six Hundred: Performing The Light Brigade Into A Heroic Icon, Elizabeth Carrick Cawns

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

History is not so much what actually happened as how we have received and disseminated what happened. This reception and dissemination take place through a variety of media, many of which are not the purview of the traditional historian. It is in the trifles of daily life that we find the patterns of cultural norms – the ethos of the society that is as unnoticed by that society as the air it breathes. Society makes choices that affect the future based on what has been disseminated, rather than on the original event. This is especially true of such military disasters …

Reconstructions: New Perspectives On The Postbellum United States., Richard Zuczek

Civil War Book Review

Reassessing Reconstruction Scholarship

Modeling And Prediction Of Marine Microbial Populations In The Genomic Era, Raleigh R. Hood, Edward A. Laws, Michael J. Follows, David A. Siegel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

I Want To Know You I Want To Understand You, Jeane Dos Santos Alves Cooper

LSU Master's Theses

I want to know you I want to understand you is a new media work that uses the World Wide Web to discuss the issues of traditional and new methods of communication, as well as exploring the concepts of collaborative and interactive art.