Digital Commons Network^™

Capillary And Microchip Gel Electrophoresis Using Multiplexed Fluorescence Detection With Both Time-Resolved And Spectral-Discrimination Capabilities: Applications In Dna Sequencing Using Near-Infrared Fluorescence, Li Zhu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Increasing the information content obtainable from a single assay and system miniaturization has continued to be important research areas in analytical chemistry. The research presented in this dissertation involves the development of a two-color, time-resolved fluorescence microscope for the acquisition of both steady-state and time-resolved data during capillary and microchip electrophoresis. The utility of this hybrid fluorescence detector has been demonstrated by applying it to DNA sequencing applications. Coupling color discrimination with time-resolved fluorescence offers increased multiplexing capabilities because the lifetime data adds another layer of information. An optical fiber-based fluorescence microscope was constructed, which utilized fluorescence in near-IR region, …

Regulatory Intricacies That Confer Temporal Control Of Conjugation And Antibiotic Production Functions In Streptomyces: New Variations On Old Themes, Kevin Lee Schully

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The complex life style of streptomycetes requires that the appropriate program of genes be expressed at the appropriate times. For example, conjugation occurs solely within the substrate mycelium stage of development while antibiotic production occurs in the aerial mycelium. Thus, complex regulatory mechanisms involving numerous modes of control have evolved that confer temporal regulation of functions governing these expression programs. Conjugation of the Streptomyces lividans plasmid pIJ101 utilizes only seven plasmid functions in its transmission. Two of these, tra and clt, are essential while three additional functions, spdA, spdB and kilB augment the process, with KorA and KorB regulating the …

Designing Online Instruction For Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities, Andrew Patrick Simoncelli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This case study investigates the methodologies used to deliver online course content to postsecondary students with varying learning disabilities. The research provides a holistic picture of the students in their actual learning environment. Two college students diagnosed as learning disabled were studied with three non-disabled classmates in an online college learning environment. The purpose was to attempt to explain how the design of the course affects the students’ attitudes and performance. The design of the course featured instructional methods that research has shown to be beneficial to students with learning disabilities. Some of these included digitally delivered instructional audio, various …

Pah And Pcb Distribution In Sediment Fractions And Sorptive Phases, Trudy J. Estes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Contaminant distribution is integral to environmental evaluations of contaminated sediment on every level. The technical and economic feasibility of treatment or beneficial use is a function of the accessibility or separability of the contaminants within the sediment. The magnitude of release to the environment during dredging and disposal is dependent upon the partitioning behavior of the contaminants. Yet, little attention has been paid to contaminant distribution in the fine sediment fractions. Further, conventional distribution coefficients provide little information regarding the relative contaminant loading of each of the sorptive phases. Bioavailability of contaminants in oil and grease, soot and organic carbon, …

Detection Of Biologically Important Molecules, Kyukwang Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Anions play important roles in biological systems. The design of anion sensors has been of great interest. The selective detection of a specific anion is particularly challenging. In the first chapter, I describe the synthesis of a TBS-protected fluorescein dye (1.1) and its use for the selective detection of fluoride. Solutions of 1.1 either in DCM or in aqueous media at physiological pH show the excellent selectivity towards fluoride to afford color formation while solutions of other interfering anions remain colorless. The monitoring of homocysteine (Hcy) and cysteine (Cys) levels is important since they are biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s and …

Measurement And Modeling Of Fluid-Fluid Miscibility In Multicomponent Hydrocarbon Systems, Subhash C. Ayirala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon dioxide injection has currently become a major gas injection process for improved oil recovery. Laboratory evaluations of gas-oil miscibility conditions play an important role in process design and economic success of field miscible gas injection projects. Hence, this study involves the measurement and modeling of fluid-fluid miscibility in multicomponent hydrocarbon systems. A promising new vanishing interfacial tension (VIT) experimental technique has been further explored to determine fluid-fluid miscibility. Interfacial tension measurements have been carried out in three different fluid systems of known phase behavior characteristics using pendent drop shape analysis and capillary rise techniques. The quantities of fluids in …

Wealth And Deprivation In The Delta: A Landscape Of Subsidization, Jacqueline Warren Mills

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi Delta, as defined by the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), is an area of historical and present deprivation. Persistent poverty, lackluster economic development opportunities, and the associated ills of this environment exist alongside large-scale, subsidized agriculture. These federal subsidy payments are criticized for increasing the wealth of corporate enterprises rather than stabilizing the family farmer for whom they were created. This dissertation examines the geography of agristructure, subsidies, and socio-economic characteristics in the Delta with the purpose of identifying spatial relationships among these three variables. Drawing from the Goldschmidt Hypothesis, this research proposes that areas of large-scale agristructure will …

Cytokines And Aeroallergens In The Pathogenesis Of Summer-Pasture Associated Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Effects On Endothelin Production, Neutrophil Activation And Chemotaxis, Lais Rosa Rodrigues Costa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Summer pasture-associated obstructive pulmonary disease (SPAOPD), a naturally occurring airway disease of horses, is characterized by clinical exacerbation associated with exposure to pasture environment during the summer. Aeroallergens are believed to trigger exacerbation of SPAOPD, cytokines are likely associated with the anamnestic response to aeroallergens, and endothelin (ET)-1 is a potential mediator of airway obstruction. The goal of this dissertation was to describe and explore the interaction of aeroallergens triggering inflammation and T lymphocytes cytokine profile with the recruitment and activation of neutrophils and synthesis of ET-1 by mononuclear leukocytes and airway epithelial cells. The temporal pattern of clinical exacerbation …

Physically Based Multiscale-Viscoplastic Model For Metals And Steel Alloys: Theory And Computation, Farid H. Abed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The main requirement of large deformation problems such as high-speed machining, impact, and various primarily metal forming, is to develop constitutive relations which are widely applicable and capable of accounting for complex paths of deformation. Achieving such desirable goals for material like metals and steel alloys involves a comprehensive study of their microstructures and experimental observations under different loading conditions. In general, metal structures display a strong rate- and temperature-dependence when deformed non-uniformly into the inelastic range. This effect has important implications for an increasing number of applications in structural and engineering mechanics. The mechanical behavior of these applications cannot …

Power, Money, And Sex(Uality): The Black Masculine Paradigm, Kendric Coleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study develops the Black Masculine Paradigm (BMP), a construct used to trace historically specific components that inform black masculinity and explores the physical and psychological defensive strategies employed by black men in Richard Wright's Black Boy, Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promisedland, Nathan McCall's Make Me Wanna Holler, and James Earl Hardy's B-Boy Blues. Specifically, this project offers that power, money, and sex(uality) are located at the core of the BMP, and these social objectives are negotiated through politicization, prescribed masculinity, and heterosexuality. This project reads the politicization of the black male body through its presence in literature and …

Radiative Transfer Modeling Of Thermal Infrared Emissivity Spectra: Applications To Martian Regolith Observations, Karly Mariah Pitman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Satellite and rover remote sensing of planetary regolith surfaces, in the form of thermal infrared emissivity spectra taken at nadir and off-nadir angles of emergence from the surface, requires use of theoretical models for interpretation of constituent grain physical properties. However, such models have remained in stasis in recent years, with nearly a ten-year gap in significant advances. To date, no radiative transfer model (semiempirical, exact, or hybrid solution) has been able to adequately predict the nadir emissivity behavior of simple mineral assemblages. Few measurements have been attempted in the laboratory or field regarding directional emissivity effects of planetary regoliths; …

Greenwashing: Visual Communication And Political Influence In Environmental Policy, Eric Jeffrey Jenner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Some contemporary theories in political science maintain that public lobbying is merely an expression of latent and resolute public opinion that is communicated to policymakers. Other theories contend that the public is highly manipulable and that public lobbying by extension can be considered a form of strategic framing that takes place through the news and paid media. Both theoretical approaches specify a function for words or text but are silent on the influence of photographs or images. In this dissertation, I hypothesize that environmental public lobbying operates as strategic framing and that text and photographs have unique and discrete effects …

Adaptive Remote Visualization System With Optimized Network Performance For Large Scale Scientific Data, Mengxia Zhu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation discusses algorithmic and implementation aspects of an automatically configurable remote visualization system, which optimally decomposes and adaptively maps the visualization pipeline to a wide-area network. The first node typically serves as a data server that generates or stores raw data sets and a remote client resides on the last node equipped with a display device ranging from a personal desktop to a powerwall. Intermediate nodes can be located anywhere on the network and often include workstations, clusters, or custom rendering engines. We employ a regression model-based network daemon to estimate the effective bandwidth and minimal delay of a …

Experimental Quantification And Dem Simulation Of Micro-Macro Behaviors Of Granular Materials Using X-Ray Tomography Imaging, Yanrong Fu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A non-invasive experimental method and a clustering DEM model were developed in this study to investigate micro-macro behaviors of real granular materials with irregular particle shape configurations. The investigated behaviors include global deformations, failure strengths and residual strengths, stress and strain distributions, local coordination number, local void ratio, particle kinematics, and fabric orientation distributions. The experimental method includes an approach to automatically identify and recognize multiple particles using x-ray computed tomography imaging (XCT) and an enhanced approach to digitally represent microstructures of granular materials. The digitally represented microstructure can be directly employed for numerical simulation setup. A compression test and …

Fabrication Of Core-Shell Nanoparticles, Zhanhu Guo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metallic Cu and Au shells were fabricated around cobalt nanoparticles. A new technique to coat nanoparticles with carbon coatings and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was developed. The copper shell formation is a self-limiting process. A thin copper shell (0.82 nm) around the cobalt nanoparticle (1.56 nm) enhanced the magnetic property by increasing the blocking temperature from 124 K to 235 K for nanoparticles with a copper shell. The formed gold shell (0.67 nm) enhanced the cobalt nanoparticle magnetic property by increasing the blocking temperature above room temperature. The magnetic moment in the Co-Cu and Co-Au core-shell nanoparticle is much higher than …

Ceo Succession Processes And Agency Costs, Zeynep Ayca Altintig

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the 'passing the baton' succession process, the incumbent CEO/Chairman relinquishes the CEO title, but retains the Chairman title to facilitate monitoring the new CEO during a probationary period. The new CEO eventually wins the Chairman title if he is successful during the probationary period. We argue that this type of succession process can lead to managerial conformism and conservatism because reputation concerns give the retiring CEO incentives to pressure the new CEO to continue existing policies and to avoid making major changes that could substantially improve performance or increase firm value. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find no changes …

Schoolin' Women: Hip Hop Pedagogies Of Black Women Rappers, Nichole Ann Guillory

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The curriculum studies field has much to gain from an analysis of black women rappers’ texts. The knowledge black women rappers offer through their songs is worthy of study in schooling spaces and is too valuable for educators to continue to ignore if they want to become better teachers. Through their lyrics, black women rappers situate themselves in a public context and construct texts that represent young black women’s complex identities. Black women rappers create a space in hip hop discourse from which their stories enrich and complicate the public conversation about the representation of black women’s identities. This study …

This Corner Of Canaan: Curriculum Studies Of Place And The Reconstruction Of The South, Reta Ugena Whitlock

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

If place is crucial to understanding the self and society, then it is central to curriculum studies that relate the individual and the social. This theoretical autobiographical research seeks to encourage progressive conversation and social political movement in the South by attending to the anomalous forms of Southernness that emerge in the interrogation of feeling Southern. Toward that end, in this dissertation I explore and foreground a marginalized Southern curriculum of nostalgia, homeplace, grace, and queerness. I investigate aspects of Southern place and feeling Southern that are submerged in conventional white patriarchal notions of Southern identity. My narrative allows some …

Stability, Transport And Applications Of Polyaphrons In Porous Media, Le Yan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Polyaphrons are a kind of macroemulsion. The most distinctive feature of polyaphrons is their high stability. On the other hand, certain polyaphrons can be effectively destabilized by multivalent ions. In this dissertation, we devise a novel procedure that utilizes the fact that polyaphrons can be destabilized by certain ions to deliver light chemicals to lower the density of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) contaminants in situ. We first investigate how the stability of diluted polyaphrons is affected by the properties of the continuous phase. We find that polyaphrons can be destabilized by a low concentration of Al3+ or Ca2+ in …

Multiphase Mechanisms And Fluid Dynamics In Gas Injection Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes, Madhav M. Kulkarni

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, the Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG) process is the most widely practiced horizontal mode gas injection process in the industry. Although this process is conceptually sound, it has resulted in low (5 – 10%) oil field recoveries. Conversely, the gravity stable mode of gas injection has carved its niche as one of the most effective methods of gas injection EOR in the dipping reservoirs and pinnacle reefs. The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process is therefore being developed at LSU to extend these highly successful gravity stable applications to horizontal type reservoirs. The dissertation attempts to address six key questions: (i) do …

Using Partial Least Squares Approach To Predict Factors That Contribute To The Impact Of E-Folios On Pre-Service Teachers' Learning, Tasha Hoover Christmas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teacher-education programs have the responsibility to prepare their future teachers by instilling in them the desire, confidence, and ability to be reflective practitioners, lifelong learners who continues to grow and develop professionally after graduation (Klenowski, 2000). In an effort to fulfill this responsibility, Teacher-education programs are beginning to make reforms to adhere to national standards, which prompt them to create alternative means for assessing pre-service teacher's performance and the success of the teacher-education program. One such alternative is the electronic portfolio. This study investigated the use of Louisiana colleges and universities' electronic portfolio system known as PASS-PORT. The purpose of …

Pursuing Enlightenment In Vienna, 1781-1790, Heather Morrison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Radical transformations came about in Vienna during the 1780s, as intellectuals in the city embraced the Enlightenment and explored ways in which the movement could be spread. In 1781, Joseph II and his state reformed censorship. In an instant, the Viennese had access to the great scholarly works of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. In an instant, Vienna spawned a multitude of writers, publishing houses, reading rooms and all the accoutrements of a culture of print. The newly generated intellectual culture produced an amazing amount of pamphlets, an era termed the Broschürenflut in Austrian history. Public debate on the state, religion, …

An Investigation Of Selected Academic And Nonacademic Predictor Variables Of Academic Performance Of Student-Athletes At Louisiana State University, Derek Jerone Morgan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of selected predictor variables of academic achievement on the academic performance of student-athletes at Louisiana State University. This study attempted to identify cognitive and noncognitive variables that might explain the variance in the cumulative college grade point average (GPA)among student-athletes at LSU enrolled during the 2003-04 academic year. Cognitive variables included ACT composite score, high school GPA, and cumulative college GPA. Noncognitive variables included positive self-concept, support of academic plans, and community involvement. In addition, data were collected for two sport variables--type of sport participation (revenue and non-revenue generating sports) and time spent on sport …

Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters Of The Confederacy And The Preservation Of Confederate Culture, Jennifer Ritterhouse

Civil War Book Review

Caretakers of the Cause

History of organization outlined

The Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Trt2 TrnaThr Gene Upstream Of Ste6 Is A Barrier To Repression In Matα Cells And Exerts A Potential Trna Position Effect In Mata Cells, Tiffany A. Simms, Elsy C. Miller, Nicolas P. Buisson, Nithya Jambunathan, David Donze

Faculty Publications

A growing body of evidence suggests that genes transcribed by RNA polymerase III exhibit multiple functions within a chromosome. While the predominant function of these genes is the synthesis of RNA molecules, certain RNA polymerase III genes also function as genomic landmarks. Transfer RNA genes are known to exhibit extra-transcriptional activities such as directing Ty element integration, pausing of replication forks, overriding nucleosome positioning sequences, repressing neighboring genes (tRNA position effect), and acting as a barrier to the spread of repressive chromatin. This study was designed to identify other tRNA loci that may act as barriers to chromatin-mediated repression, and …

Stat 5 Activators Can Replace The Requirement Of Fbs In The Adipogenesis Of 3t3-L1 Cells, William C. Stewart, James E. Baugh, Z. Elizabeth Floyd, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

The 3T3-L1 cells differentiate into fat cells that have many properties of native adipocytes including: substantial lipid accumulation, insulin sensitivity, and the ability to secrete endocrine hormones. A substantial expense in using these cells is fetal bovine serum (FBS), a critical component of efficient adipogenesis. Our recent studies on STAT 5 proteins have revealed that these transcription factors are phosphorylated and translocate to the nucleus immediately after the initiation of differentiation. Studies by several other laboratories also suggest that STAT 5 proteins can have pro-adipogenic properties. Growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) are both potent activators of STAT 5A and …

High-Threshold, Kv3-Like Potassium Currents In Magnocellular Neurosecretory Neurons And Their Role In Spike Repolarization, Talent Shevchenko, Ryoichi Teruyama, William E. Armstrong

Faculty Publications

We identified Kv3-like high-threshold K+ currents in hypothalamic supraoptic neurons using whole cell recordings in hypothalamic slices and in acutely dissociated neurons. Tetraethylammonium (TEA)-sensitive currents (TEA) evoked from -50 I/V were characterized by a large component that inactivated in 10-30 ms, and a smaller, persistent component that inactivated in 1-2 s. UV relations in dissociated neurons revealed TEA-subtracted currents with a slope and voltage dependency consistent with the presence of Kv3-like channels. In slices, tests with 0.01-0.7 mM TEA produced an IC50 of 200-300 nM for both fast and persistent currents. The fast transient current was similar to currents associated …

F04rs Sgr No. 12 (Projectgeaux), Smith, Lobianco

Student Senate Enrolled Legislation

A RESOLUTION

To commend projectGEAUX, Co-director Michelle Gieg, Co-director Jessica Stewart, and their university partners for their outstanding commitment to civic engagment both on the LSU campus and throughout the Baton Rouge community

Louisiana Agriculture Fall, 2004, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Agriculture

No abstract provided.

Towards Scalable Linear-Optical Quantum Computers, J. P. Dowling, J. D. Franson, H. Lee, G. J. Milburn

Faculty Publications

Scalable quantum computation with linear optics was considered to be impossible due to the lack of efficient two-qubit logic gates, despite the ease of implementation of one-qubit gates. Two-qubit gates necessarily need a non-linear interaction between the two photons, and the efficiency of this non-linear interaction is typically very small in bulk materials. However, it has recently been shown that this barrier can be circumvented with effective non-linearities produced by projective measurements, and with this work linear-optical quantum computing becomes a new avenue towards scalable quantum computation. We review several issues concerning the principles and requirements of this scheme. © …