Digital Commons Network^™

The Master Growth Regulator Della Binding To Histone H2a Is Essential For Della-Mediated Global Transcription Regulation, Xu Huang, Hao Tian, Jeongmoo Park, Dong Ha Oh, Jianhong Hu, Rodolfo Zentella, Hong Qiao, Maheshi Dassanayake, Tai Ping Sun

Faculty Publications

The DELLA genes, also known as ‘Green Revolution’ genes, encode conserved master growth regulators that control plant development in response to internal and environmental cues. Functioning as nuclear-localized transcription regulators, DELLAs modulate expression of target genes via direct protein–protein interaction of their carboxy-terminal GRAS domain with hundreds of transcription factors (TFs) and epigenetic regulators. However, the molecular mechanism of DELLA-mediated transcription reprogramming remains unclear. Here by characterizing new missense alleles of an Arabidopsis DELLA, repressor of ga1-3 (RGA), and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we show that RGA binds histone H2A via the PFYRE subdomain within its GRAS domain to form a TF–RGA–H2A …

Chemical Characterization And Impact Of Nipple Fruit (Solanum Mammosum) On The Characteristics Of Lactobacillus Acidophilus La K, Ricardo S. Aleman, Dany Avila, Allan Avila, Jack N. Losso, David Picha, Zhimin Xu, Kayanush Aryana

Faculty Publications

Nipple fruit (Solanum mammosum) has been considered to have great pharmaceutical potential because of its high amounts of solamargine and solasonine. This study aimed to examine the effect of nipple fruit at different concentrations (0.5%, 1%, and 2% (w/v)) on the viability, acid, bile, lysozyme, and gastric juice tolerance, and protease activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus LA K. The viability was studied in MRS broth. Acid tolerance was determined by adjusting the pH to 2, whereas bile tolerance was examined with oxgall 0.3% (w/v) in MRS broth. Lysozyme resistance was investigated in an electrolyte solution with lysozyme (100 mg/L), while gastric …

Mining Chinese Consumer Minds: Motivations For Selling Unwanted Fashion Items In Online Resale Marketplaces, Zhongjie Wang, Chuanlan Liu

Faculty Publications

With the development of China’s fashion resale market, sustainable consumption patterns have gradually become popular in China. Although the prospects of China’s fashion resale market are recognized, more and more consumers are also actively participating in the circular consumption model. Consumers have multiple identities in participating in resale, and can be sellers or buyers. However, the sales intention of Chinese consumers to participate in resale as sellers is still unclear. We need to understand what value Chinese consumers are looking for in resale as sellers. The focus of this exploratory study is to understand the intention of Chinese consumers to …

No Strong Evidence Of The Protein Leverage Hypothesis In Pregnant Women With Obesity And Their Infants, Maryam Kebbe, Jasper Most, Abby D. Altazan, Leanne M. Redman

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the role of dietary protein on macronutrient and energy intake, maternal adiposity during pregnancy, and infant adiposity at birth. Methods: In 41 women with obesity, early-pregnancy (13–16 weeks) protein intake was assessed with food photography and expressed as a ratio of Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) in pregnancy for protein (0.88 g/kg/d), herein “protein balance.” Energy intake was measured by the intake-balance method, gestational weight gain as grams per week, and fat mass by a three-compartment model. Spearman correlations and linear models were computed using R version 4.1.1 (p < 0.05 considered significant). Results: Women had a mean (SD) age of 27.5 (4.8) years and a pregravid BMI of 34.4 (2.9), kg/m2, and the majority were non-White (n = 23, 56.1%). Protein balance in early pregnancy was not significantly associated with energy intake across mid and mid/late pregnancy (β = 328.7, p = 0.30 and β = 286.2, p = 0.26, respectively) or gestational weight gain (β = 117.0, p = 0.41). Protein balance was inversely associated with fat mass in early, mid, and late pregnancy (β = −10.6, p = 0.01, β = −10.4, p = 0.03, β = −10.3, p = 0.03, respectively). Protein balance did not predict infant adiposity at birth (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Low …

A Conceptual Investigation Of Transition To Self-Driven Turbidity Currents From Along-Shelf Current-Supported Turbidity Currents, Celalettin E. Ozdemir, Liangyi Yue, Haq Murad Nazari, George Xue, Samuel J. Bentley, Shuo Yang, Sayed O. Hofioni, Robert Forney, Saber Aradpour

Faculty Publications

Wave- and current-supported turbidity currents (WCSTCs) are one of the sediment delivery mechanisms from the inner shelf to the shelf break. Therefore, they play a significant role in the global cycles of geo-chemically important particulate matter. Recent observations suggest that WCSTCs can transform into self-driven turbidity currents close to the continental margin. However, little is known regarding the critical conditions that grow self-driven turbidity currents out of WCSTCs. This is in part due to the knowledge gaps in the dynamics of WCSTCs regarding the role of density stratification. Especially the effect of sediment entrainment on the amount of sediment suspension …

Cyberinet: Integrated Semi-Modular Sensors For The Computer-Augmented Clarinet, Matthew Bardin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Cyberinet is a new Augmented instrument designed to easily and intuitively provide a method of computer-enhanced performance to the Clarinetist to allow for greater control and expressiveness in a performance. A performer utilizing the Cyberinet is able to seamlessly switch between a traditional performance setting and an augmented one. Towards this, the Cyberinet is a hardware replacement for a portion of a Clarinet containing a variety of sensors embedded within the unit. These sensors collect various real time data motion data of the performer and air fow within the instrument. Additional sensors can be connected to the Cyberinet to …

Modulating Water Distribution And The Intramicellar Assembly Of Sequence-Defined Ionic Peptoid Block Copolymers By The Ionic Monomer Position, Bailee N. Barrett, Chi Huan Tung, Guan Rong Huang, Istiak Hossain, Chang Woo Do, Vijay T. John, Wei Ren Chen, Donghui Zhang

Faculty Publications

The intramicellar mass heterogeneity of a series of sequence-defined ionic peptoid block copolymers carrying a single charged monomer has been determined through contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering analysis. We observe that the internal micellar structure, namely, the number density radial distributions of invasive water and peptoid polymer, is significantly impacted by the location of the ionic monomer. By positioning the ionic monomer progressively closer to the hydrophilic/hydrophobic block junction, the micelles become less compact with increasing levels of chain folding and invasive water to accommodate electrostatic repulsion among the ionic monomers via solvation. This results in increasingly smaller micellar aggregates …

Physiologically Relevant Fluid Shear Stress Induced Receptor Conversion In Hormone Receptor-Positive (Hr+) Breast Cancer, Jonathan James Cuccia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among all people in the United States as of 2023 and often has devastating impacts on afflicted patients. Although some treatments show great efficacy against primary breast tumors, none have been able to significantly reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer once it has metastasized to distant sites. In primary, hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancers, endocrine therapies are often used as first-line treatments and are generally well-tolerated. However, as the disease progresses, these previously sensitive cancers can become resistant to endocrine therapies and continue proliferating despite them. Therefore, there is a …

Optimizing Large-Capacity Key-Value Systems For Efficient Data Management, Kefei Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In today's Internet services, key-value system is playing a crucial and indispensable role, and has attracted extensive research in both academia and industry. During the past years, we have witnessed an unprecedented quick development of both memory-based and flash-based key-value systems. With the rapid evolution of memory and storage technologies, we are seeing both challenges and research opportunities.

In this dissertation, we focus on understanding and optimizing the efficiency of large-capacity, high-speed key-value systems from the perspective of both software and hardware to meet the ever-growing performance expectations. We first propose a multi-tier mapping structure, called Cascade Mapping, exploring the …

Bound Preserving Numerical Methods For Infiltration, Arnob Barua

LSU Master's Theses

Simulating the infiltration process in variably saturated media by solving Richards' Equation (RE) remains a computationally challenging task. The degenerate parabolic nature of RE, along with the strongly nonlinear coefficients, makes it very difficult to obtain accurate solutions with conventional numerical methods unless highly refined meshes are used. That is, in the conventional Finite Element Method (FEM), the grid size has to be fine enough to ensure convergence and limit non-physical oscillations, which is computationally expensive. This research aims to develop a second-order accurate FEM discretization with no non-physical oscillations for RE on unstructured meshes which will converge faster than …

Institutional Rhetoric And Campus Reactions: A Multi-Method Case Study Exploring University Communication And Social Responsibility In A Racial Crisis, Rockia K. Harris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This case study explores how an institution in the southeastern conference (SEC) responded to racial reckonings before and after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, how students came to perceive the institution's responses and commitment to diversity and inclusion. To understand this phenomenon beyond apologia and image repair theory, the discourse of renewal theoretical framework and university social responsibility guides this dissertation. This work fills a gap in the literature on crisis communication in response to racism in higher education spaces. Using critical discourse analysis and an open-ended survey, this dissertation further explores the idea of social responsibility of institutions …

Nutrient Content And Bioactive Compounds In Ornamental Type Sweetpotatoes, Sandeep Kaur Sran

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

The leaf and root composition of different cultivars of ornamental sweetpotatoes (‘Blackie’, ‘Kakura’, ‘Manihi’, ‘Makatea’, ‘Tahiti’ and ‘Tatakoto’) were analyzed, and the impact of various factors on the levels of nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, phenolic compounds, sugars, and organic acids in these sweetpotato cultivars were determined. The principal macronutrients found in sweetpotato foliage and roots were nitrogen (N), potassium (K), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), and sulfur (S). Nitrogen was the most abundant macronutrient among all cultivars in sweetpotato foliage, whereas potassium was the most abundant macronutrient in sweetpotato roots. The principal micronutrients found in foliage and roots were …

Nonlinear Optical Studies At Surfaces And Interfaces, Mojgan Dehghani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nonlinear optical studies have revealed that surfaces and interfaces possess unique optical properties due to the lack of inversion symmetry. These properties are significantly different from those of the bulk material. Second harmonic generation (SHG), a second-order nonlinear optical phenomenon, has emerged as a surface-specific technique to study these unique properties. The powerful selection rule allows generation of second harmonic light only in the bulk of noncentrosymmetric media and the regions with broken inversion symmetry, including surfaces and interfaces. The generated second harmonic provides significant information on the electronic and structural properties of the microscopic surface layer at the boundary …

Cultural Expression And Relevancy Communicated Through Marching Band Performance In Louisiana, Nicholas Ashton

LSU Master's Theses

This study explored the use of marching band membership as a medium of mass communication through in-depth interviews with Louisiana collegiate marching band participants and subsequent analysis. Since these groups tend to serve as their school’s face and brand ambassadors in many cases, this study will look to their constituent members to explore what it is truly like to be a small cog that makes the whole run effectively and efficiently. Intersections of a marching band’s outward-facing image and its members’ personally held values, beliefs, and preferences are of specific interest in an effort to understand the effects of mass …

Evaluating Vaccine Management Strategies For Edwardsiella Ictaluri Infections In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Brandy Malbrough

LSU Master's Theses

Aquaculture is a globally important industry that faces significant challenges due to infectious diseases, which can result in substantial financial losses. In 2011, a new strain of Edwardsiella ictaluri emerged as a major pathogen affecting zebrafish in the ornamental fish industry, leading to high mortality rates and posing a severe threat to the sector. Vaccines provide potential benefits for disease prevention in aquaculture, particularly live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs), which induce strong host immune responses. Bacterial attenuation for vaccine development has evolved from serial passage to more targeted genetic modification techniques. However, regulatory constraints limit the availability of licensed LAVs for aquaculture. …

Women's Interracial Friendships: Cultivating Coalitional Possibilities Across Difference Through Dialogue, Akie Fukushige Wenk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In my dissertation, I thread through the macro-structure as well as micro-operations of hegemonic ideologies, namely white-supremacist capitalist cis-hetero patriarchy (hooks, 1995, Valdes, 1996), that has historically plagued the United States, eventually gaining a global reach over time. I center interracial friendship between Black and White cis-women, where I locate coalitional possibilities that begin at the grassroots level. I situate this interracial relationship within the socio-ecological system where the personal meets the social (including racialized backgrounds). I use a series of analogies to equate these ideologies as toxins in the air, water, and soil. Soil is where we can work …

The Case For Succession Planning In Higher Education: A Study Of Knowledge Transfer Within Louisiana State University, Leila Shaik Villien

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the challenges, benefits, and perceptions of succession planning among currently employed administrators at research universities in the southern portion of the United States at the level of assistant department head or higher and the accessible population was defined as currently employed administrators at Louisiana State University at the level of assistant department head or higher. Deans, Associate Deans, Department Heads, Assistant Department Heads, and Department Chairs were invited to participate in an online survey designed by the researcher to assess the attitude toward succession planning and training, along with a variety …

Predicted Structure And Functional Roles Of Alphaherpesvirus Tegument Protein Ul37 In Virion Morphogenesis And Innate Immunity, Therese Marie Collantes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Several members of the Family Herpesviridae are clinically significant pathogens, affecting humans and a wide range of animals. Alphaherpesviruses infect epithelial cells at the primary site of infection and subsequently invade adjacent sensory neurons. Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) is an economically important disease caused by bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1), which belongs to the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae, genus Varicellovirus. To date, vaccination is the only preventive measure against IBR. Understanding determinants of herpesvirus replication and innate immune regulation is important to help further develop vaccines that are efficacious and incapable of establishing latency in the host nervous system. The alphaherpesvirus …

Integrating Behavioral Research Findings With A Liberal Arts Paradigm, Jonathan Peterson

LSU Master's Theses

This paper explores the role of behavioral research in understanding the complexity and relevance of creativity. A brief history of the liberal arts and its current application is followed by a discussion of the importance of variability in generating novel and diverse responses, challenging the notion that creativity is solely a product of innate talent. The effects of reinforcement on variability, and how it relates to a complex relationship between reinforcement and the probability of variable responding leads to a discussion of how the combination of previously trained behaviors can lead to creative problem-solving, emphasizing the role of combinatory behavior …

The Role Of Metallothioneins In Copper Homeostasis In Arabidopsis, Matthew Vandal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Copper (Cu) is a transition metal that is an essential nutrient for plants and is required for a number of critical processes. Therefore, proper homeostasis of copper is vital for plant life and must be tightly regulated. Metallothioneins are small molecular weight proteins, rich in cysteine residues and have the capability of binding to several different transition metals such as copper. Cu induces the expression of MTs, therefore they are believed to be involved in Cu transport, however their true functions have yet to be resolved. T-DNA insertions were identified in four Arabidopsis MT genes expressed in vegetative tissues, and …

What Happens Online Doesn't Stay Online: Female Elected Officials' Experiences With Online Harassment, Sarah M. Carpenter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Online harassment towards female elected officials is a prevalent problem that threatens women’s parity in local and state government. It is used for the purpose of diminishing women’s efficacy in government by stifling their voices in public spaces through behaviors that aim to belittle, embarrass and abuse women for existing in traditional masculine spaces that reify a white patriarchal social hierarchy. Female elected officials at all levels of government are susceptible to harassment on- and offline. The aim of this study expands current understandings of how online harassment affects female elected officials by focusing on online harassment experiences of women …

Neural Mechanisms Of Resiliency And Susceptibility After Repeated Social Defeat, Christy R. Wayne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social defeat is a powerful experience leading to drastic changes in physiology and behavior, many of which are negative. For example, repeated social defeat in vertebrates results in reduced reproductive success, sickness, and behavioral abnormalities that threaten individual survival and species persistence. However, little is known about what neural mechanisms are involved in determining whether an individual is resilient or susceptible to repeated social defeat stress. I used a resident-intruder experiment in the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to create and investigate the behavior and neural correlates of these two opposing groups. Resilient fish used both searching and freezing behaviors …

Media Coverage Of Non-Ideologically Motivated Mass Shootings Versus Ideologically Motivated Mass Shootings And How The Media Affects College Students' Perceptions Of Mass Shootings, Jennifer L. Larose

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While much is known about how the media covers mass shootings within the United States and how this coverage impacts the public, much remains unknown about the media and international mass shootings. To address this gap this dissertation examines the relationship between the media coverage of ideological and non-ideological mass shootings that have occurred around the world. It then examines the relationship between media consumption and perceptions of mass shootings. To this end, newspaper coverage on a sample of ten mass shootings from 2011-2021 are examined temporally using the Social Coping Model. Results show that media coverage varies across time …

Susceptibility Of Spodoptera Frugiperda Populations In The Southern Region Of The U.S. To Common Bt Proteins And Performance Of A Dual-Gene Resistant Helicoverpa Zea Strain On Common Pyramided Bt Corn Traits, Tiago H. Da Silva

LSU Master's Theses

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) are two polyphagous pests that, in the Americas, are targeted by transgenic corn and cotton expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins. A previous study during 2011-2013 demonstrated practical resistance to Cry1F corn in S. frugiperda in the southeastern seaboard of the U.S., while resistance of H. zea to Bt corn and cotton containing cry1A and cry2A genes has widely occurred in the U.S. The first objective of this study was to investigate the current susceptibility status to four Bt proteins commonly expressed in Bt corn plants, including …

Stolen Land: A Marriage Of Text And Music In My Country By Hyo-Won Woo, Nae Rim Moon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hyo-won Woo, a renowned female composer from South Korea, is highly regarded for her contributions to Korean choral music. Woo’s My Country is an 80-minute cantata consisting of 14 movements. As a full-time resident composer for the National Chorus of Korea, Woo composed this work in honor of the March 1st Revolution. She utilized her signature style of storytelling, incorporating narration and solo performers to portray the hardships of Korea during Japan’s colonial era. The cantata takes the mood of Requiem as a poignant symbol of Korea’s painful loss of their country and includes text derived from the resistance efforts …

Integrating Cultivar Resistance And Entomopathogens For Pest Management Of Sweetpotato Weevil, Cylas Formicarius Elegantulus (Summers), Schyler M. Lee

LSU Master's Theses

Sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam, is the number one vegetable crop in Louisiana, producing 21,178 kg/ha in the year 2021. The sweetpotato weevil, Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Summers), is an economically important pest of sweetpotato. C. formicarius elegantulus females lay eggs into feeding holes on the storage root surface. Larvae then hatch and tunnel through the sweetpotato flesh where they complete their development. This cryptic-natured brentid can cause up to 100% yield loss when left unmanaged. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry mandates protocols to limit C. formicarius elegantulus spread (e.g., clean seed, pheromone trapping, and quarantines); however, scheduled chemical …

Molecular Identification Of Oomycete Species Associated With Woody Plants In Louisiana And Survey Of Oomycete Species Associated With Live Oak Trees Planted On The Louisiana State University Campus, Hamilton Crockett

LSU Master's Theses

Three Oomycetes genera, Phytophthora, Phytopythium and Pythium, contain many important plant pathogens. Historically, Phytophthora infestans, responsible for the great Irish potato famine, and Phytophthora ramorum, causal agent of sudden oak death disease, are the two better-known high impact pathogens. The LSU AgCenter Plant Diagnostic Center (PDC) has been isolating putative Phytophthora and related species from combined root and soil samples collected from various woody ornamentals and trees for over a decade. In August of 2016, Louisiana received torrential rains, which resulted in historic flooding in several southern parishes. During subsequent years, the PDC staff isolated a …

Entanglement In The Hawking Effect: From Astrophysical To Optical Black Holes, Dimitrios Kranas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Hawking effect is an exciting physical prediction lying at the intersection of the two most successful theories of the past century, namely, Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. In this dissertation, we put special emphasis on the quantum aspects of the Hawking process encoded in the entanglement shared by the emitted fluxes of created quanta. In particular, we employ sharp tools from quantum information theory to quantify the entanglement produced by the Hawking effect throughout the black hole evaporation process. Our framework allows us to extend previous calculations of entanglement to a larger set of cases, for instance, …

Differences In Plant Hormone Responses Between Arabidopsis Thaliana And Schrenkiella Parvula Facing Lithium Toxicities, Jifeng Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Investigating stress responses in plants is central to plant development studies and crop research. Identifying mechanisms of plant abiotic stress tolerance and adaptation will be keys to relieve the conflict between an increasing global population and declining agronomic land. Studies on extremophytes and their genetic responses to environmental stress are a way to help understand how and why these extremophile plants can develop well under extreme environments including high salinity and heavy metal toxicity. The studies herein first focus on comparative responses at the genetic level to lithium toxicity between Arabidopsis thaliana and Schrenkiella parvula. Based on elemental quantification …

Expressing Outrage, Re-Inventing Hope: Performing Nationhood In Nigerian Standup Comedy., Babasinmisola Fadirepo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The intersection of the Nigerian national identity and popular culture has been overwhelmingly located in the Nigerian movie industry and the Afrobeats, the flourishing Nigerian popular music. Further, when intervention about the Nigerian national identity is located within standup comedy performances, such analysis is vastly linguistic analysis of the performance. Through the lens of performance studies, this dissertation extends the discussion of the Nigerian national identity to standup comedy performances. In addition to the linguistic analysis of select Nigerian standup comedy performances, this work considers the location, costumes of comic acts, and the settings of the performance studied. Simply, this …