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Evangelical Communication: Reference Group Membership Influence On Message Interpretation And Public Opinion., Mary Diane Hollems Jan 1998

Evangelical Communication: Reference Group Membership Influence On Message Interpretation And Public Opinion., Mary Diane Hollems

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine the influence of reference group membership on message interpretation and whether one's interpretation then influences one's agreement with the message source and subsequent willingness to speak with the message source about the topic. In particular, this study looked at conservative Christian reference group membership and message interpretations about the topic of abortion. The independent variables of level of Christian fundamentalism, involvement in a Christian reference group, and socio-political conservatism were averaged to create a conservative fundamentalist composite score which was then used to split the sample at the median. Findings indicated …

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Redefining Babes, Booze And Brawls: Men Against Violence. Towards A New Masculinity., Luoluo Hong Jan 1998

Redefining Babes, Booze And Brawls: Men Against Violence. Towards A New Masculinity., Luoluo Hong

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Despite evidence that 90% of violent crimes are committed by men, higher education professionals and researchers still understand relatively little about the process by which mate students acquire the attitudes, knowledge, values and skills which serve as deterrents to perpetrating violence against women and against other men. Men Against Violence is a peer advocacy organization at a large, public Research I institution in the South which focuses on the special and unique responsibility men have to end violence. Through participation in a wide array of service learning, community action and leadership opportunities, MAV members challenge cultural norms which link masculinity …

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Beta-Carotene And Exercise Performance: Effects On Race Performance, Oxidative Stress, And Maximal Oxygen Consumption., Kim Edward Leblanc Jan 1998

Beta-Carotene And Exercise Performance: Effects On Race Performance, Oxidative Stress, And Maximal Oxygen Consumption., Kim Edward Leblanc

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

There is evidence in the literature that suggests a possible worthwhile role of antioxidants during athletic endeavors and exercise performance. Several studies have evaluated the antioxidant ability of beta-carotene and demonstrated a beneficial influence. However, these studies have investigated beta-carotene's effects within an antioxidant mixture which included other antioxidant vitamins. Consequently, this study attempted to isolate the antioxidant role of beta-carotene during exercise. Three parameters of beta-carotene influence were measured using eleven well-trained runners: serum malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration (a marker of free radical generation), 5000 meter race performance, and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max). Subjects were tested using a double-blinded cross-over …

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Rhetoric And Social Struggle: In Search Of The Topoi Of Violence., Edward Christopher Reilly Jan 1998

Rhetoric And Social Struggle: In Search Of The Topoi Of Violence., Edward Christopher Reilly

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The rhetorical study of violence tends to examine violence within larger generic boundaries such as social movements studies or war rhetoric. In order to work toward a generalizable rhetorical theory of violence and discourse, this study examines texts which justify violence across generic boundaries. Accordingly, four case studies individually examine texts which justify political violence. This study compares and contrasts the rhetorical strategies of George Bush, the Unabomber, Earth First! and Abbie Hoffman. This study concludes that there are no universal strategies among the four case studies in the justification of violence. However, there appears to be a continuum of …

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Components That Should Be Included In An Ethics Enhancement Program For State Legislatures., Kenneth Ward Jan 1998

Components That Should Be Included In An Ethics Enhancement Program For State Legislatures., Kenneth Ward

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the study was to identify the components and sub-components that should be included in an ethics enhancement program for a state legislature, as perceived by a national panel of experts in the areas of legislative ethics. A Delphi panel comprised of state legislators and state ethics officers was established and comprised of persons representing each of the four regions of the United States. In Round One of the study, the panel identified 12 primary components and 124 related sub-components for an ethics enhancement program in a state legislature. Each of the suggested items were unique and nearly …

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Literacy Stories: Attitudes Toward Literacy And Motivation To Read Among African-American Males In An Urban Community., Donna Parham Washington Jan 1998

Literacy Stories: Attitudes Toward Literacy And Motivation To Read Among African-American Males In An Urban Community., Donna Parham Washington

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Through methods of ethnographic research this study explores the attitudes toward literacy and the motivation to read of African American male secondary school students in an urban community. This study includes historical inquiry obtained through the gathering of oral histories from men who experienced their youth and adolescence in the same geographic area as the secondary school students. Over the past fifty years the neighborhood focused on in this study has undergone tremendous change, both societal and structural. Information obtained through the interviews of the older men and the younger men will be compared to determine changes in literacy attitudes, …

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Sustainable Resources Utilization And Implications For Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study Of Cote D'Ivoire., Ahile Nicolas Koudou Jan 1998

Sustainable Resources Utilization And Implications For Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study Of Cote D'Ivoire., Ahile Nicolas Koudou

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In the 1960's, sub-Saharan Africa had one of the world's largest rain forests. Today, however, Africa accounts for only 27 percent of the world's forest area. Expansion of agricultural lands at the expense of forests remains the fundamental contributor to deforestation in Cote d'Ivoire. Other factors include a high natural rate of population growth (3.9 percent annually) and flexible immigration policies that create land use pressures. Consequently, Cote d'Ivoire has lost almost 83 percent of its 16 million hectares (39.5 million acres) of tropical forests. Some corrective actions, such as halting illicit harvesting, reforestation and reforming logging activities, have been …

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Passion Plays In The United States: The Contemporary Outdoor Tradition., Charlene Faye Monk Jan 1998

Passion Plays In The United States: The Contemporary Outdoor Tradition., Charlene Faye Monk

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this dissertation is to trace the development of the outdoor passion plays in the United States, comparing their content and approach with the continental medieval tradition and analyzing how effectively the current American plays are modifying their presentations to meet the expectations of today's modern society. This study documents the historical development and physical plants for the eight passion play productions in the United States that maintained membership in the Institute of Outdoor Drama and played during the summer seasons of the research period from 1992-1996: The Black Hills Passion Play (1939, Spearfish, South Dakota), The Great …

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The Role Of Alginate Lyase In Pseudomonas Syringae Pathovar Phaseolicola., Charlie Mark Ott Jan 1998

The Role Of Alginate Lyase In Pseudomonas Syringae Pathovar Phaseolicola., Charlie Mark Ott

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The plant pathogen responsible for halo blight in legumes, Pseudomonas syringae pathovar phaseolicola, produces an alginate exopolysaccharide which prevents desiccation and enhances the "water soaking" effect associated with pathogenesis. These bacteria demonstrated elevated extracellular alginate lyase activity during log growth and stationary phases in batch cultures. An analysis of the substrate specificity indicated enzymatic activity on both acetylated and non-acetylated alginate. The release of the enzyme(s) in log growth phase and the subsequent decrease in production in stationary phase have not been previously reported. Extracellular activity during rapid cell growth was confirmed by continuous culture in both nutrient broth and …

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Texts And Talk: A Close Look At Gender In Literature Discussion Groups., Peggy Sue Rice Jan 1998

Texts And Talk: A Close Look At Gender In Literature Discussion Groups., Peggy Sue Rice

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated discourse according to gender-related patterns of eight sixth-grade students (four boys and four girls) as they discussed four realistic fiction short stories in peer-led discussion groups that alternated between same-sex and mixed-sex group compositions. Descriptive data were analyzed according to the constant comparative method of analysis. Quantitative analysis was used to determine discourse patterns in terms of frequency. Data were analyzed to answer the following questions: (1) Will the discourse patterns vary when the students discuss their responses in same-sex groups and mixed-sex groups? If so, in what ways will they vary? (2) Will gender differences be …

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Characterization And Modeling Of Advanced Modified Surfaces., Vadim Gennadievich Palshin Jan 1998

Characterization And Modeling Of Advanced Modified Surfaces., Vadim Gennadievich Palshin

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

A promising approach to surface modification involves diamondlike carbon (DLC) coatings with "functionally-graded surfaces" (FGS) as substrates. Titanium nitride substrates have a great potential as a FGS for the DLC coating, since titanium and titanium alloy surfaces processed by enhanced glow discharge nitriding develop a nitrogen concentration profile that results in gradual increase in the material hardness in the surface region. An investigation of the atomic structure of DLC films and the surface layer structure produced in the enhanced glow discharge nitriding was conducted in the course of this work. DLC and Si-DLC films were found to be mainly amorphous, …

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Wavelet-Based Registration Of Medical Images., Raj Sharman Jan 1998

Wavelet-Based Registration Of Medical Images., Raj Sharman

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Registration is the process of spatially aligning two objects and is normally a preprocessing step in most object recognition algorithms. Registration of images and recognition of signatures of objects in images is important for clinical and diagnostic purposes in medicine. Recognizing structure, potential targets for defense purposes and changes in the terrain, from aerial surveillance images and SAR images is the focus of extensive research and development today. Automatic Target Recognition is becoming increasingly important as the defense systems and armament technology move to use smarter munitions. Registration of images is a preprocessing step in any kind of machine vision …

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United States Foreign Policy And Media Coverage Of Uzbekistan: A Case Study., Mardon Nigmatovich Yakubov Jan 1998

United States Foreign Policy And Media Coverage Of Uzbekistan: A Case Study., Mardon Nigmatovich Yakubov

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study reviews the impact of U.S. political interests on media coverage of Uzbekistan, a Central Asian republic which became independent after the breakup of the Soviet Union. A content analysis of coverage from 1991 to 1996 in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times was compared to American government documents and pronouncements on Uzbekistan. Striking similarities between U.S. policy towards Uzbekistan and the negative interpretation of events appearing in American newspapers were found. The democracy and human rights agendas advanced by U.S. officials apparently prompted editors and reporters to focus more on these subjects, while overlooking …

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Antiferromagnetic Hedgehogs With Superconducting Cores, Paul M. Goldbart, Daniel E. Sheehy Jan 1998

Antiferromagnetic Hedgehogs With Superconducting Cores, Paul M. Goldbart, Daniel E. Sheehy

Faculty Publications

Excitations of the antiferromagnetic state that resemble antiferromagnetic hedgehogs at large distances but are predominantly superconducting inside a core region are discussed within the context of Zhang’s SO(5)-symmetry-based approach to the physics of high-temperature superconducting materials. Nonsingular, in contrast with their hedgehog cousins in pure antiferromagnetism, these texture excitations are what hedgehogs become when the antiferromagnetic order parameter is permitted to “escape” into superconducting directions. The structure of such excitations is determined in a simple setting, and a number of their experimental implications are examined. © 1998 The American Physical Society.

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Single-Head Spin Modes In Frontal Polymerization, Victor M. Ilyashenko, John A. Pojman Jan 1998

Single-Head Spin Modes In Frontal Polymerization, Victor M. Ilyashenko, John A. Pojman

Faculty Publications

The single-head spin mode is the first two-dimensional pattern of self-propagating thermal reaction fronts observed after the planar front loses stability. A "hot spot" is observed to propagate around the periphery of the front. The dynamics of the single-head frontal polymerization regime were studied experimentally, and two novel results were found. The "hot spot" was measured and found to be superadiabatic. The relationship between the rotational velocity and the propagating velocity was found. Experimental data were also compared with the theoretical results based on the linear stability analysis and found to be in a reasonable agreement. © 1998 American Institute …

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Overt And Relational Aggression In Russian Nursery-School-Age Children: Parenting Style And Marital Linkages., C. H. Hart, D. A. Nelson, C. C. Robinson, S. F. Olsen, M. K. Mcneilly-Choque Jan 1998

Overt And Relational Aggression In Russian Nursery-School-Age Children: Parenting Style And Marital Linkages., C. H. Hart, D. A. Nelson, C. C. Robinson, S. F. Olsen, M. K. Mcneilly-Choque

Faculty Publications

Maternal and paternal parenting styles and marital interactions linked to childhood aggressive behavior as described in Western psychological literature were measured in an ethnic Russian sample of 207 families of nursery-school-age children. Results corroborated and extended findings from Western samples. Maternal and paternal coercion, lack of responsiveness, and psychological control (for mothers only) were significantly correlated with children's overt aggression with peers. Less responsiveness (for mothers and fathers) and maternal coercion positively correlated with relational aggression. Some of these associations differed for boys versus girls. Marital conflict was also linked to more overt and relational aggression for boys. When entered …

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Accelerated Degradation Tests: Modeling And Analysis, William Q. Meeker, Luis A. Escobar, C. Joseph Lu Jan 1998

Accelerated Degradation Tests: Modeling And Analysis, William Q. Meeker, Luis A. Escobar, C. Joseph Lu

Faculty Publications

High reliability systems generally require individual system components having extremely high reliability over long periods of time. Short product development times require reliability tests to be conducted with severe time constraints. Frequently few or no failures occur during such tests, even with acceleration. Thus, it is difficult to assess reliability with traditional life tests that record only failure times. For some components, degradation measures can be taken over time. A relationship between component failure and amount of degradation makes it possible to use degradation models and data to make inferences and predictions about a failure-time distribution. This article describes degradation …

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Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Winter 1998, Lsu Agricultural Experiment Station Jan 1998

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Winter 1998, Lsu Agricultural Experiment Station

Louisiana Agriculture

No abstract provided.

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Heat Conduction In Fine Scale Mixtures With Interfacial Contact Resistance, Robert Lipton Jan 1998

Heat Conduction In Fine Scale Mixtures With Interfacial Contact Resistance, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

Heat conduction in a fine scale mixture of two conductors is examined in the presence of a contact resistance between phases. The problem is studied rigorously in the context of periodic homogenization. Unlike the case of perfect heat transmission between phases, the temperature gradients converge weakly as Radon measures. The strict ellipticity of the homogenized transport equation depends upon the geometry of the interface. The effective conductivity associated with the overall heat dissipation rate inside a composite cube is considered. It is shown that this property exhibits a size effect under rescaling.

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The Pulses Of The Body Romantic Vegetarianism And Its Cultural Contexts, Timothy Morton Jan 1998

The Pulses Of The Body Romantic Vegetarianism And Its Cultural Contexts, Timothy Morton

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

No abstract provided.

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Removal Of Bovine Serum Albumin From Cow's Milk Using Chicken Egg-Yolk Antibodies Immobilized On Chitosan Gel, Jack N. Losso, John Vanderstoep, Shuryo Nakai Jan 1998

Removal Of Bovine Serum Albumin From Cow's Milk Using Chicken Egg-Yolk Antibodies Immobilized On Chitosan Gel, Jack N. Losso, John Vanderstoep, Shuryo Nakai

Faculty Publications

Polyclonal chicken antibodies raised against bovine serum albumin (BSA) were immobilized on chitosan gel for the immunoaffinity isolation of BSA from cow's milk. Antibodies (IgY) against BSA were isolated from egg-yolk, purified and antibody reactivity to antigen was measured. lgY developed against BSA was reduced by 2-mercaptoethylamine. The reactivities of reduced and whole IgY against BSA were not significantly different. The reduced IgY was covalently linked to chitosan gel through stable covalent thioether linkages using sulfo-succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (sulfo-SMCC) as a cross-linker. The density of antibody IgY immobilized on chitosan gel was approximately 3-5 mg per ml of chitosan gel. The ligand-binding …

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Spatiotemporal Autoregressive Models Of Neighborhood Effects, R. Kelley Pace, Ronald Barry, John M. Clapp, Mauricio Rodriquez Jan 1998

Spatiotemporal Autoregressive Models Of Neighborhood Effects, R. Kelley Pace, Ronald Barry, John M. Clapp, Mauricio Rodriquez

Faculty Publications

Using 70,822 observations on housing prices from 1969 to 1991 from Fairfax County Virginia, this article demonstrates the substantial benefits obtained by modeling the spatial as well as the temporal dependence of the data. Specifically, the spatiotemporal autoregression with twelve variables reduced median absolute error by 37.35% relative to an indicator-based model with twenty-six variables. One-step ahead forecasts also document the improved performance of the proposed spatiotemporal model. In addition, the article illustrates techniques for rapidly computing the estimates and shows how to compute indices for any location.

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Educational Technology And State Reform: Examining The First-Year Impact Of Louisiana's State Technology Policy On Public School Districts., Jeffrey Paul Gagne Jan 1998

Educational Technology And State Reform: Examining The First-Year Impact Of Louisiana's State Technology Policy On Public School Districts., Jeffrey Paul Gagne

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

During the 1990's educational technology became a major educational policy issue for every state (White, 1997; Education Commission of the States, 1997; National Council of State Legislators, 1996; Trotter, 1997). By early 1998, all 50 states had state-level technology plans in various stages of implementation, and state funding for educational technologies was rapidly increasing across the country (Trotter, 1997). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of recently enacted Louisiana state-level technology reforms on public school district technology efforts between the 1996--97 and 1997--98 school years. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data, creating …

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Evaluation Of The Toxicological Consequences Of Dietary Exposure To Individual Classes Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Or A Mixture In The Fischer-344 Rat., Mary Durand Boudreau Jan 1998

Evaluation Of The Toxicological Consequences Of Dietary Exposure To Individual Classes Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Or A Mixture In The Fischer-344 Rat., Mary Durand Boudreau

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

There is special concern about the potential health effects of by-products released into the environment after combustion or conversion of fossil fuels. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), while initially released largely into the atmosphere, are subsequently deposited in soil and water and on foods. Although the significance of PAH contamination with regard to environmentally caused diseases and cancer in humans is difficult to estimate, it is suggested that the potential hazards may be underestimated. In an effort to understand the potential adverse health effects of PAHs, a comprehensive study was undertaken to determine the metabolic fate of selected PAHs as individual …

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Antimycobacterial Natural Products From Higher Plants., Charles Lowell Cantrell Jan 1998

Antimycobacterial Natural Products From Higher Plants., Charles Lowell Cantrell

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Two-hundred and thirty crude organic extracts from 118 plant species distributed among ten families of higher plants have been evaluated for antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H$\sb{37}$Rv) and M. avium using the BACTEC 460 radiorespirometric assay. At 100 $\mu$g/ml, twenty-four and ten of the extracts caused more than 95% inhibition of growth of M. tuberculosis and M. avium, respectively. Bioactive chromatographic fractions of Borrichia frutescens (Asteraceae) provided two new triterpenes and one known cycloartenol. In radiorespirometric bioassays against M. tuberculosis, the new (24R)-24,25-epoxycycloartan-3-one and the known (24R)-24,25-epoxycycloartan-3$\beta$-ol exhibited minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 8 $\mu$g/ml. In contrast, the new (23R)-3-oxolanosta-8,24-dien-23-ol …

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Clinical Laboratory Science University Faculty Learning Types And The Use Of Information Technology In The Classroom., Cynthia Susan Handley Jan 1998

Clinical Laboratory Science University Faculty Learning Types And The Use Of Information Technology In The Classroom., Cynthia Susan Handley

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to explore the status of learning types of clinical laboratory science university faculty and their use of information technology in the classroom. Traditionally clinical laboratory science education has been lecture and lab sessions. However, with the advent of the information age, professors are moving from the role of lecturer to facilitator. Some professors are in tune with the new information tools while others are not interested at all. This research had a two-fold purpose: (1) to explore who was using technology in the classroom and identify what they were using, and (2) to search for a …

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Secondary Control: Examining The Influence Of School Restructuring On High School Delinquency., Michael O. Maume Jan 1998

Secondary Control: Examining The Influence Of School Restructuring On High School Delinquency., Michael O. Maume

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Recent years have seen extensive debate on the multitude of problems plaguing secondary education in the United States, and the problem of school crime and deviance is gaining a sizable share of the attention. A wave of school reform sometimes labeled the "restructuring" movement suggests that major organizational changes in schools, especially public schools, can positively affect student achievement and commitment to educational goals. Yet there has been practically no attention paid to the possible effects of restructuring on reducing delinquency in schools. I examine the impact of high school restructuring on school delinquency using a broad conception of delinquency …

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Color Measurement And Reflectance Spectroscopy Of Total Suspended Solids For Remote Sensing And Environmental Monitoring Of Aquatic Ecosystems., Dean Leslie Muirhead Jan 1998

Color Measurement And Reflectance Spectroscopy Of Total Suspended Solids For Remote Sensing And Environmental Monitoring Of Aquatic Ecosystems., Dean Leslie Muirhead

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Water color and water quality are related in complex and poorly understood ways. Suspended particulates, such as phytoplankton, bacteria, and soil particles, contribute significantly to the color and quality of natural water bodies by absorbing and scattering sunlight. There is currently no standard method to measure the color and optical properties of total suspended solids (TSS). Remote sensing algorithms estimate TSS concentrations from observed values of reflectance. There are spectral differences in TSS over time and space. A convenient, inexpensive, and quick method is developed and evaluated to quantify optical differences between different TSS. The technique links the traditional TSS …

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Characterization And Biodegradation Of Crawfish And Agricultural Processing By-Product Compost., Mounir Yehia Minkara Jan 1998

Characterization And Biodegradation Of Crawfish And Agricultural Processing By-Product Compost., Mounir Yehia Minkara

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Disposal of crawfish processing wastes poses a challenging problem to the rapidly expanding crawfish industry. Co-composting is examined as a waste management alternative to landfill disposal. Wood chips, rice hulls, bagasse, and bark were evaluated for use as bulking agents in composting crawfish processing residuals. Use of bagasse as a bulking agent led to the largest reduction in volatile solids, organic-C, particle size, and compost volume. Finished compost using bagasse contained the greatest concentration of N. Self-heating patterns and decomposition of crawfish residuals were satisfactory using all four bulking agents. The finished products of all compost mixtures were stable and …

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The Effect Of Pulmonary Infection (Actinobacillus Pleuropneumoniae), Endotoxin And Dexamethasone On Enrofloxacin Pharmacokinetic Parameters In Swine., Lynn O. Post Jan 1998

The Effect Of Pulmonary Infection (Actinobacillus Pleuropneumoniae), Endotoxin And Dexamethasone On Enrofloxacin Pharmacokinetic Parameters In Swine., Lynn O. Post

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Efficacy studies are often done on diseased animals while pharmacokinetic studies are done on healthy animals. Disease models are inherently difficult to standardize because of the many variables associated with measuring pharmacokinetic parameters in abnormal animals. Information derived from pharmacokinetic studies with diseased animals could be useful to determine if therapeutic doses of a drug or antimicrobial becomes less effective or toxic due to changes in distribution and clearance. The objectives of this study were to: characterize a pulmonary infection model in swine using Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae; evaluate the pharmacokinetic changes associated with the pulmonary infection model and dexamethasone after the …

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