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Optimization Of The Hot Embossing Parameters And Sintering Characterization For Alumina/Berea Sandstone Sintering, Justin F. Robbins

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of hot embossing on alumina based ceramics as a cost-efficient procedure for manufacturing microfluidic testing components. Alumina ceramics were used as an exploratory phase for the final objective of the project, manufacturing of Berea sandstone based ceramic samples. Previous research has shown potential in using hot embossing on Alumina based ceramics; however, complications with extrusion and micro-structure quality were observed. For this reason, the research performed aimed to produce Berea Sandstone based components by first improving upon the embossing quality of alumina ceramics.

The thesis first investigates changes in the …

Enhancing The Performance Of Anaerobic Bioreactors For The Biological Degradation Of Volatiles Organic Compounds In Groundwater Using Alternate Electron Acceptors, Leslie Michele Pipkin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Engineered anaerobic bioreactors (ABR) constructed from mixed media and sand can biodegrade high concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Sustainable treatment of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), chlorinated ethenes and ethanes were used to investigate the use of engineered ABRs, while also analyzing the system performance of a full-scale ABR system. Experimentations conducted on environmental and biological factors that affect ABR system performance was conducted through serum bottles, columns, and reactor studies.

Column and reactor ABR systems were designed to treat VOCs via biodegradation in groundwater with varying terminal electron acceptors (TEAs). Laboratory-scale column ABRs were constructed to treat …

Unidirectional Reflectionless Light Propagation At Exceptional Points, Yin Huang, Yuecheng Shen, Changjun Min, Shanhui Fan, Georgios Veronis

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of unidirectional reflectionless light propagation in photonic devices at exceptional points (EPs). EPs, which are branch point singularities of the spectrum, associated with the coalescence of both eigenvalues and corresponding eigenstates, lead to interesting phenomena, such as level repulsion and crossing, bifurcation, chaos, and phase transitions in open quantum systems described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Recently, it was shown that judiciously designed photonic synthetic matters could mimic the complex non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in quantum mechanics and realize unidirectional reflection at optical EPs. Unidirectional reflectionlessness is of great interest for optical invisibility. Achieving unidirectional reflectionless …

Diagenesis And Formation Stress In Fracture Conductivity Of Shaly Rocks; Experimental-Modelling Approach In Co2-Rock Interactions, Abiola Olukola Olabode

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In large scale subsurface injection of carbon dioxide (CO₂) as obtainable in carbon sequestration programs and in environmentally friendly hydraulic fracturing processes (using supercritical CO₂), long term rock-fluid interaction can affect reservoir and seal rocks properties which are essential in monitoring the progress of these operations. The mineralogical components of sedimentary rocks are geochemically active particularly under enormous earth stresses, which generate high pressure and temperature conditions in the subsurface. While geomechanical properties such as rock stiffness, Poisson’s ratio and fracture geometry largely govern fluid flow characteristics in deep fractured formations, the effect of mineralization can …

Rice Hull Bioreactor For Recirculating Aquaculture, Marlon A. Greensword

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The engineering of floating media biofilters has been optimized over the years. The backwashing process has made them more energy and water efficient. Likewise, moving bed bioreactors (MBBR) are gaining interest and popularity because they are relatively affordable to build. Yet, developing countries’ aquaculture production remains largely excluded from the advances made in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). This discrepancy is partially driven by the high costs of media such plastic beads and Kaldnes (KMT) media, commonly used in MBBR.

This dissertation evaluates the usability and profitability of rice hulls (RH), an abundant by-product in many developing nations, as a sinking …

Perceived Teacher Preparation For Managing Parental Involvement In Parochial High Schools In A South Louisiana Catholic Diocese, Susan T. Crochet

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the perceived level of preparedness for managing parental involvement and the source of that preparation among secondary teachers in parochial high schools in a south Louisiana Catholic diocese. The target population of the study was secondary parochial school teachers in Louisiana. The accessible population was secondary parochial high school teachers in one Catholic Diocese in south Louisiana. Data were collected using a survey design. Key findings indicate that most of the participants held a bachelor’s degree and that most obtained their preparation for dealing with parental involvement on their own …

Experimental Study And Modeling Of Smart Loss Circulation Materials; Advantages And Promises, Ahmed Khaled Abdelmaksoud Mansour

LSU Master's Theses

Lost circulation occurs when mud or cement is lost to the formation while drilling. Lost circulation has been a huge problem and may cause heavy financial costs in the form of lost rig time, mud fluid and in severe cases, well blowout with serious environmental and safety consequences. Despite extensive advances in the last couple of decades, lost circulation materials used today still have disadvantages such as damaging production zones, plugging drilling tools or failing to seal the fractures. Here, we propose a new class of smart expandable lost circulation material (LCM) to remotely control the expanding force and functionality …

Applications Of Cfd Simulations On Chemical Processing Equipment Designs, Gongqiang He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this work is to achieve process intensification by seeking optimal equipment design with CFD investigations. In this work, two projects on chemical equipment design have been discussed.

The first project is on design and optimization of fractal distributor in a novel ion-exchanger. Flow distributors are adopted extensively by chemical industry to distribute an incoming process stream uniformly to the downstream equipment. Currently, the performance of chemical equipment installed with conventional distributor is severely undermined due to poor flow distribution. For conventional distributors such as spray nozzle distributors, their design concept is based on maintaining very high pressure …

An Examination Of Agriculture Faculty Members' Involvement In And Perceptions Of Study Abroad Programs, Shelli Elizabeth Danjean

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Globalization and internationalization are not new concepts. In the context of higher education, globalization can be viewed as the environment in which contemporary institutions function, while internationalization refers to the actions taken by universities and colleges in response to the changing environment. While internationalizing education has become popular rhetoric among institutions of higher education, is necessary to reflect on the actualization of internationalization goals in the closing of the decade. Can we hope to provide mechanisms for student engagement on an international level without continuing engagement of university faculty? As suggested by prior research, the answer is no. Faculty involvement …

A Preliminary Study To Evaluate Issues Involved Under In Vivo Conditions Of A Delivery System Containing Immobilized Lactobacillus Plantarum Ncimb 8826 On Rice Bran Fiber Extract, Chen Liu

LSU Master's Theses

Gut diseases like diarrhea, irritable bowel symptoms, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be treated with probiotics therapy. Probiotics have been recognized for their ability to promote the development of gut health and improve immune system. However, a difficulty involved with the use of probiotics is the need for and the ability to deliver a sufficient concentration of viable probiotic to the appropriate site. This can be difficult since the most common (and probably easiest) method of delivering the probiotic is orally. As such, the probiotic must be capable of surviving the hostile conditions of passage through the G.I. tract. …

A Comparison Of Soils And Their Associated Microbial Communities As Affected By Sugarcane Cultivation, Adam Francis Bigott

LSU Master's Theses

In Louisiana, sugarcane has been grown in the same soils for over 200 years. A phenomenon wherein soils with a long-term sugarcane cropping history produce decreased yields compared to adjacent land without a recent history of sugarcane cultivation has been documented in multiple sugarcane growing regions. Research in both Louisiana and internationally has shown positive plant growth responses when soils with a long-term cultivation history are sterilized or treated with selective biocides, suggesting there is a biological component to the underlying soil health issue. In this study, soil microbial ecology was compared for paired sites with short and long-term sugarcane …

Advancing Democracy One Tweet At A Time, Landon T. Hester

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis takes a broad look how citizens use social media to foster political discussion, enhance political knowledge and engage in political participation in the United States. In this study, democracy is broken down into three empirically measurable components: political discussion, knowledge and participation. To begin, I provide an in-­‐depth review of past research examining the impact social media has on each element of democracy. In addition, I analyze data collected from a novel social media panel of 3,811 Twitter users by researchers from Louisiana State University (Davis et. al, 2017). From this, I measure the impact that Facebook and …

Throwing Caution To The Wind: National Weather Service Wind Products As Perceived By A Weather-Salient Sample, Paul Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Mixed Methods Study Of The Performance And Dynamics Of University Technology Transfer And Commercialization, Berk Dogan

LSU Master's Theses

The technology transfer and commercialization encompasses various activities involved in acquiring intellectual property rights for the inventions, marketing of the inventions, and diffusing into the public domain through commercialization. Although many scholars have studied technology transfer within the academic institutions' context, the process has been assumed to be sequential. The technology transfer process is a complex process to be generalized as a linear sequential process. A mixed methods approach has been used to triangulate the findings from the literature review and descriptive analyses to conceptualize an alternative model that reflects the actual process more accurately. It was found that the …

Nanoparticle-Based Drug-Delivery Systems Studied By Second Harmonic Generation, Raju Ram Kumal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Second harmonic generation (SHG) is used to study different types of colloidal nanoparticle drug-delivery systems. The surface charge density, electrostatic surface potentials, and ion adsorptions of 50 nm colloidal gold nanoparticle samples coated with mercaptosuccinic acid are determined using SHG measurements under varying NaCl and MgCl₂ concentrations in water. Numerical solutions to the spherical Poisson-Boltzmann equation are fit to the SHG results to account for the nanoparticle surface curvature and ion adsorption to the Stern layer interface, showing excellent agreement with electrophoretic mobility measurements. In another study, nanoparticles of gold, silver and polystyrene are functionalized with microRNA using a …

2H–13C Correlation Solid-State Nmr For Investigating Dynamics And Water Accessibilities Of Proteins And Carbohydrates, Martin D. Gelenter, Tuo Wang, Shu Yu Liao, Hugh O’Neill, Mei Hong

Faculty Publications

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Site-specific determination of molecular motion and water accessibility by indirect detection of 2H NMR spectra has advantages over dipolar-coupling based techniques due to the large quadrupolar couplings and the ensuing high angular resolution. Recently, a Rotor Echo Short Pulse IRrAdiaTION mediated cross polarization (RESPIRATIONCP) technique was developed, which allowed efficient transfer of 2H magnetization to 13C at moderate 2H radiofrequency field strengths available on most commercial MAS probes. In this work, we investigate the 2H–13C magnetization transfer characteristics of one-bond perdeuterated CDn spin systems and two-bond H/D exchanged C–(O)–D and C–(N)–D spin systems in …

Anaerobic Copper Toxicity And Iron-Sulfur Cluster Biogenesis In Escherichia Coli, Guoqiang Tan, Jing Yang, Tang Li, Jin Zhao, Shujuan Sun, Xiaokang Li, Chuxian Lin, Jianghui Li, Huaibin Zhou, Jianxin Lyu, Huangen Ding

Faculty Publications

© 2017 American Society for Microbiology. While copper is an essential trace element in biology, pollution of groundwater from copper has become a threat to all living organisms. Cellular mechanisms underlying copper toxicity, however, are still not fully understood. Previous studies have shown that iron-sulfur proteins are among the primary targets of copper toxicity in Escherichia coli under aerobic conditions. Here, we report that, under anaerobic conditions, iron-sulfur proteins in E. coli cells are even more susceptible to copper in medium. Whereas addition of 0.2 mM copper(II) chloride to LB (Luria-Bertani) medium has very little or no effect on iron-sulfur …

Association Of Xylella Fastidiosa With Yield Loss And Altered Fruit Quality In A Naturally Infected Rabbiteye Blueberry Orchard, Mary Helen Ferguson, Christopher A. Clark, Barbara J. Smith

Faculty Publications

Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al. causes disease in a number of plants in the southeastern United States, including southern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum interspecific hybrids), but little was known concerning its potential impact in rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum Aiton syn. Vaccinium ashei Reade). In a naturally infected orchard in Louisiana, mean yields of X. fastidiosa-positive plants were 55% and 62% less than those of X. fastidiosa-negative plants in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Average berry weight was also lower in X. fastidiosa-positive plants. Within 3 years of testing positive for X. fastidiosa, four of nine X. fastidiosa-positive plants appeared dead. However, …

Genistein Crosses The Bioartificial Oviduct And Alters Secretion Composition, Constantine A. Simintiras, Roger G. Sturmey

Faculty Publications

The dietary derived isoflavone and oestrogen analogue, genistein, is known to perturb fundamental reproductive events such as implantation and embryo cleavage. However the question of whether genistein is able to traverse the oviduct epithelial monolayer and impact oviduct fluid secretion remains unclear. This study tests these research questions using a bioartificial oviduct to show that genistein permeates the oviduct lumen in vitro with a biphasic (burst and plateau) kinetic profile, faster than spontaneous diffusion, and alters the amino acid composition of in vitro derived oviduct fluid (ivDOF) but not as an oestrogen analogue. In addition to offering insights into the …

Cpx-Dependent Expression Of Yqja Requires Cations At Elevated Ph, Sujeet Kumar, Vijay Tiwari, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

© FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. Under alkaline pH conditions, Escherichia coli must maintain a stable cytoplasmic pH of about 7.6 that is acidic relative to the environment. Bacteria employ various mechanisms to survive alkaline pH; however, membrane cation/H+ antiporters play a primary role by facilitating inward transport of protons. Escherichia coli YqjA belongs to the DedA/Tvp38 membrane protein family and, along with its paralog YghB, is required for growth at 42°C, proper cell division and antibiotic resistance. YqjA is required for viability at alkaline pH, requiring cations sodium or potassium to support growth under these conditions, suggesting it may …

A Descriptive And Broadly Applicable Model Of Therapeutic And Stray Absorbed Dose From 6 To 25 Mv Photon Beams:, Christopher W. Schneider, Wayne D. Newhauser, Lydia J. Wilson, Uwe Schneider, Robert Kaderka, Saveta Miljanic, Željka Kneževic, Liliana Stolarcyzk, Marco Durante, Roger M. Harrison

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To develop a simple model of therapeutic and stray absorbed dose for a variety of treatment machines and techniques without relying on proprietary machine-specific parameters. Methods: Dosimetry measurements conducted in this study and from the literature were used to develop an analytical model of absorbed dose from a variety of treatment machines and techniques in the 6 to 25 MV interval. A modified one-dimensional gamma-index analysis was performed to evaluate dosimetric accuracy of the model on an independent dataset consisting of measured dose profiles from seven treatment units spanning four manufacturers. Results: The average difference between the calculated and …

Il-4rα On Dendritic Cells In Neonates And Th2 Immunopathology In Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection, Bishwas Shrestha, Dahui You, Jordy Saravia, David T. Siefker, Sridhar Jaligama, Greg I. Lee, Asmaa A. Sallam, Jeffrey N. Harding, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© Society for Leukocyte Biology. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the leading causes of bronchiolitis in children, and severe RSV infection early in life has been associated with asthma development. Using a neonatal mouse model, we have shown that down-regulation of IL-4 receptor α (IL-4Rα) with antisense oligonucleotides in the lung during neonatal infection protected from RSV immunopathophysiology. Significant down-regulation of IL-4Rα was observed on pulmonary CD11b+ myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) suggesting a role for IL-4Rα on mDCs in the immunopathogenesis of neonatal RSV infection. Here, we demonstrated that neonatal CD11b+ mDCs expressed higher levels of IL-4Rα than …

Akt3 Is Responsible For The Survival And Proliferation Of Embryonic Stem Cells, Ling Wang, Delun Huang, Zongliang Jiang, Yan Luo, Carol Norris, Ming Zhang, Xiuchun Tian, Young Tang

Faculty Publications

© 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) pathway plays an important role in regulating cell proliferation, metabolism, and survival. However, the distinct roles of Akt isoforms (Akt1, Akt2, and Akt3) in pluripotent stem cell maintenance are not fully defined. Using mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), we show that direct inhibition of Akt activity leads to ESC apoptosis. The Akt3, but not Akt1 or Akt2, activity specifically regulates this effect. Inhibiting Akt3 also leads to a cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. These regulatory roles of Akt3 are dependent on its kinase …

Inhibiting The Bfrb:Bfd Interaction In: Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Causes Irreversible Iron Accumulation In Bacterioferritin And Iron Deficiency In The Bacterial Cytosol, Kate Eshelman, Huili Yao, Achala N.D. Punchi Hewage, Jacqueline J. Deay, Josephine R. Chandler, Mario Rivera

Faculty Publications

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017. Iron is an essential nutrient for bacteria but the reactivity of Fe2+ and the insolubility of Fe3+ present significant challenges to bacterial cells. Iron storage proteins contribute to ameliorating these challenges by oxidizing Fe2+ using O2 and H2O2 as electron acceptors, and by compartmentalizing Fe3+. Two types of iron-storage proteins coexist in bacteria, the ferritins (Ftn) and the heme-containing bacterioferritins (Bfr), but the reasons for their coexistence are largely unknown. P. aeruginosa cells harbor two iron storage proteins (FtnA and BfrB), but nothing is known about their relative contributions to iron homeostasis. Prior …

Intramuscular Immunization Of Mice With The Live-Attenuated Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Vaccine Strain Vc2 Expressing Equine Herpesvirus 1 (Ehv-1) Glycoprotein D Generates Anti-Ehv-1 Immune Responses In Mice, Shiliang A. Liu, Brent A. Stanfield, Vladimir N. Chouljenko, Shan Naidu, Ingeborg Langohr, Fabio Del Piero, Jacqueline Ferracone, Alma A. Roy, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2017 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Vaccination remains the best option to combat equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) infection, and several different strategies of vaccination have been investigated and developed over the past few decades. Herein, we report that the liveattenuated herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) VC2 vaccine strain, which has been shown to be unable to enter into neurons and establish latency in mice, can be utilized as a vector for the heterologous expression of EHV-1 glycoprotein D (gD) and that the intramuscular immunization of mice results in strong antiviral humoral and cellular immune responses. The VC2-EHV-1-gD …

Identification And Characterization Of A Solute Carrier, Cia8, Involved In Inorganic Carbon Acclimation In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Marylou C. Machingura, Joanna Bajsa-Hirschel, Susan M. Laborde, Joshua B. Schwartzenburg, Bratati Mukherjee, Ananya Mukherjee, Steve V. Pollock, Britta Förster, G. Dean Price, James V. Moroney

Faculty Publications

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. The supply of inorganic carbon (Ci) at the site of fixation by Rubisco is a key parameter for efficient CO2 fixation in aquatic organisms including the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells, when grown on limiting CO2, have a CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM) that functions to concentrate CO2 at the site of Rubisco. Proteins thought to be involved in inorganic carbon uptake have been identified and localized to the plasma membrane or chloroplast envelope. However, current CCM models suggest that additional molecular components …

Peg3 Control On The Mammalian Msl Complex, An Ye, Hana Kim, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

©2017 Ye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Peg3 (paternally expressed gene 3) encodes a DNA-binding protein that functions as a transcriptional repressor. Recent studies revealed that PEG3 binds to Msl1 (male-specific lethal 1) and Msl3, the two main components of the MSL complex. In the current study, we investigated potential roles of Peg3 in controlling its downstream genes through H4K16ac, the histone modification by the MSL complex. According to …

Investigation Of Pseudomonas Fluorescens Strain 3jw1 On Preventing And Reducing Aflatoxin Contaminations In Peanuts, Xiaona Yang, Qi Zhang, Zhi Yuan Chen, Hongxia Liu, Peiwu Li

Faculty Publications

Pseudomonas fluorescens strain 3JW1, which has a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, was studied to investigate whether it affects the amounts of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) produced by Aspergillus flavus. It was found that the bacterium reduced the amounts of AFB1 in potato dextrose broth (PDB) and peanut medium by 97.8% and 99.4%, respectively. It also reduced AFB1 by ~183 μg/kg (55.8%) when applied onto peanut kernels. This strain reduced AFB1 via three mechanisms. First, it significantly inhibited A. flavus growth; second, our data showed that strain 3JW1 inhibits aflatoxin biosynthesis by A. flavus; and third, P. fluorescens strain 3JW1 is capable of …

Causal Effect Of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 1 On Coronary Heart Disease, Ci Song, Stephen Burgess, John D. Eicher, Christopher J. O'Donnell, Andrew D. Johnson, Jie Huang, Maria Sabater-Lleal, Folkert W. Asselbergs, David Tregouet, So Youn Shin, Jingzhong Ding, Jens Baumert, Tiphaine Oudot-Mellakh, Lasse Folkersen, Nicholas L. Smith, Scott M. Williams, Mohammad A. Ikram, Marcus E. Kleber, Diane M. Becker, Vinh Truong, Josyf C. Mychaleckyj, Weihong Tang, Qiong Yang, Bengt Sennblad, Jason H. Moore, Frances M.K. Williams, Abbas Dehghan, Günther Silbernagel, Elisabeth M.C. Schrijvers, Shelly Smith, Mahir Karakas, Geoffrey H. Tofler, Angela Silveira

Faculty Publications

Background--Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) plays an essential role in the fibrinolysis system and thrombosis. Population studies have reported that blood PAI-1 levels are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, it is unclear whether the association reflects a causal influence of PAI-1 on CHD risk. Methods and Results--To evaluate the association between PAI-1 and CHD, we applied a 3-step strategy. First, we investigated the observational association between PAI-1 and CHD incidence using a systematic review based on a literature search for PAI-1 and CHD studies. Second, we explored the causal association between PAI-1 and CHD …

Bed Bugs And Hotels: Traveler Insights And Implications For The Industry, Jerrod M. Penn, Hannah J. Penn, Michael F. Potter, Wuyang Hu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.