Digital Commons Network^™

Future Crop Risk Estimation Due To Drought, Extreme Temperature, Hail, Lightning, And Tornado At The Census Tract Level In Louisiana, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Robert V. Rohli, Carol J. Friedland, Melanie Gall, Nazla Bushra

Faculty Publications

Louisiana is one of the most hazard-prone states in the U.S., and many of its people are engaged directly or indirectly in agricultural activities that are impacted by an array of weather hazards. However, most hazard impact research on agriculture to date, for Louisiana and elsewhere, has focused on floods and hurricanes. This research develops a method of future crop loss risk assessment due to droughts, extreme low and high temperatures, hail, lightning, and tornadoes, using Louisiana as a case study. This approach improves future crop risk assessment by incorporating historical crop loss, historical and modeled future hazard intensity, cropland …

The Influence Of Selected Personal And Academic Demographic Characteristics On Persistence To Degree Completion Among Traditional-Age Undergraduate Students At A Research University In The Southeastern United States, Michael Eugene Mckey Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A college education has never been more important than it is today. With nearly two-thirds of jobs in the future requiring some form of advanced education, and approximately one-third of those requiring a bachelor’s degree, it is imperative that research be undertaken to address the factors that contribute to the success of students in college, more so regarding the persistence and retention of those students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected personal and academic demographic characteristics on the persistence to graduation, specifically, within six years. A causal-comparative research design was used as the …

Understanding Community Assembly Processes Of Foundation Species Within Hyper-Diverse Ecosystems, Carrie Barker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Foundation species provide the structure for other species and can significantly affect the composition and overall diversity within a community. Multiple foundation species can coexist within a community, and each can have differential impacts. My dissertation aims to understand the effects different foundation species have on diversity and the community assembly processes responsible for structuring diversity within their respective communities.

First, I quantified the diversity of groundcover plants within the prominent foundation species, bunchgrasses, (dominated by Shizachyrium scoparium) compared to groundcover plant diversity within patches of the alternative foundation species bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) and gallberry ( …

Assessing The Current State Of Louisiana's Crawfish Fishery: Trends And Challenges In Wild Capture And Aquaculture, Mahala G. Gambill

LSU Master's Theses

Crawfish are found throughout the southern U.S.; however, Louisiana is by far the largest producer. The state’s industry includes harvesting wild crawfish from natural habitats such as bayous, swamps, and marshes, and crawfish reared in outdoor ponds. Although commercial harvest records are available, characterization of Louisiana’s wild capture crawfish fishery in recent years is undocumented, and analysis of environmental variables that could be correlated with annual harvest totals have not yet been explored. Using trip ticket data from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, I characterized monthly and annual trends within Louisiana basins to assess changes in crawfish harvest …

Human Total, Basal And Activity Energy Expenditures Are Independent Of Ambient Environmental Temperature, Xueying Zhang, Yosuke Yamada, Hiroyuki Sagayama, Philip N. Ainslie, Ellen E. Blaak, Maciej S. Buchowski, Graeme L. Close, Jamie A. Cooper, Sai Krupa Das, Lara R. Dugas, Michael Gurven, Asmaa El Hamdouchi, Sumei Hu, Noorjehan Joonas, Peter Katzmarzyk, William E. Kraus, Robert F. Kushner, William R. Leonard, Corby K. Martin, Erwin P. Meijer, Marian L. Neuhouser, Robert M. Ojiambo, Yannis P. Pitsiladis, Guy Plasqui, Ross L. Prentice, Susan B. Racette, Eric Ravussin, Leanne M. Redman, Rebecca M. Reynolds, Susan B. Roberts, Luis B. Sardinha, Analiza M. Silva, Eric Stice, Samuel S. Urlacher

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Lower ambient temperature (Ta) requires greater energy expenditure to sustain body temperature. However, effects of Ta on human energetics may be buffered by environmental modification and behavioral compensation. We used the IAEA DLW database for adults in the USA (n = 3213) to determine the effect of Ta (−10 to +30°C) on TEE, basal (BEE) and activity energy expenditure (AEE) and physical activity level (PAL). There were no significant relationships (p > 0.05) between maximum, minimum and average Ta and TEE, BEE, AEE and PAL. After adjustment for fat-free mass, fat mass and age, statistically significant (p < 0.01) relationships between TEE, BEE and Ta emerged in females but the effect sizes were not biologically meaningful. Temperatures inside buildings are regulated at 18–25°C independent of latitude. Hence, adults in the US modify their environments to keep TEE constant across a wide range of external ambient temperatures.

Characterizing Habitat Suitability For Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi) In Southern Louisiana, Jenna N. Brogdon

LSU Master's Theses

A generalized additive modeling (GAM) framework was used to characterize fish-habitat relationships and develop habitat suitability maps to predict spatiotemporal and ontogenetic shifts in Gulf sturgeon distribution within an impacted estuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain. Gulf sturgeon (n = 103) were fitted with acoustic transmitters in the Pearl River during the early summer and fall from 2013 to 2018, and an array of acoustic receivers (n = 81) was used to monitor Gulf sturgeon habitat use and movement in the estuary from 2016 to 2019. Daily presence data from the telemetry array were paired with environmental …

Elucidating Factors Affecting Cercosporin Production In Cercospora Leaf Blight Of Soybean To Develop Better Tools For Disease Management, Maria Izabel Costa De Novaes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fungal toxins are pathogenicity/virulence factors for many plant diseases, including Cercospora leaf blight (CLB) of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). The pathogen, Cercospora cf. flagellaris, produces a perylenequinone toxin, cercosporin, which is activated by light to produce damaging reactive oxygen species. To identify novel solutions for CLB management, we studied factors that may impact the biology of cercoporin: fungal lipid droplets (LDs) and mineral and trace element composition (ionome) of the host. Furthermore, since artificial inoculation with the pathogen has been challenging, we also explored the usefulness of a previously developed cercosporin-based assay to study disease resistance. LDs …

Hexavalent Chromium Increases The Metabolism And Genotoxicity Of Aromatic Amine Carcinogens 4-Aminobiphenyl And Β-Naphthylamine In Immortalized Human Lung Epithelial Cells, James T.F. Wise, Raúl A. Salazar-González, Kennedy M. Walls, Mark A. Doll, Mariam R. Habil, David W. Hein

Faculty Publications

Humans are exposed to carcinogenic chemicals via occupational and environmental exposures. Common chemicals of concern that can occur in exposures together are aromatic amines (e.g., 4-aminobiphenyl [4-ABP] and β-naphthylamine [BNA]) and hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]). Arylamine N-acetyltransferases 1 and 2 (NAT1 and NAT2) are key to the metabolism of aromatic amines and their genotoxicity. The effects of Cr(VI) on the metabolism of aromatic amines remains unknown as well as how it may affect their ensuing toxicity. The objective of the research presented here is to investigate the effects of Cr(VI) on the metabolism and genotoxicity of 4-ABP and BNA in immortalized …

Effects Of Pesticides On Red Rot Of Sugarcane, Kezia Cristina Da Silva Reis

LSU Master's Theses

Red rot disease of sugarcane, caused by Colletotrichum falcatum, can be an important constraint to crop production. In Louisiana, red rot primarily affects seed-cane and is more severe when billets (stalk sections) are planted rather than whole-stalks. At planting application of seed-treatment chemicals, particularly a combination of fungicide and thiamethoxam insecticide, has improved stand establishment and increased yields in billet plantings in Louisiana. However, information has been lacking on the effect of the treatments on disease development. Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 2020 and 2021 to evaluate stalk rot symptom severity and initial plant growth for billets dip-treated with …

Comparative Genomics And Virulence Studies Of Streptomyces Soil Rot And Scab Pathogen Species, Natasha Soares

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Comparative genomic analyses were performed to gain insights into the organization and content of the genome of Streptomyces ipomoeae, the soil rot pathogen that infects sweetpotatoes. Unlike Streptomyces scab pathogens, the thaxtomin phytotoxin gene cluster (txt) in S. ipomoeae does not appear to reside within a genomic island and has diverged from its scab pathogen counterparts. Increased usage of the rare TTA codon, particularly for the txt cluster, suggests greater translational control by the bldA tRNA in S. ipomoeae. Orthologous gene searches and secondary metabolite profiling yielded ortholog groups and metabolite gene clusters that were exclusive …

The Effects Of Exercise On Innate Lymphoid Cell Metabolism And Function In Cancer, Eunhan Cho

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Immunosenescence refers to the gradual decrease in immune competency over time, which is strongly associated with increased risk of cancer and a rise in morbidity and mortality among the elderly. Regular physical activity can be beneficial to the immune system by potentially decreasing the frequency of senescent immune cells and reducing mortality risk in cancer patients and survivors. However, less is known on the impact of acute exercise on “aggressive” cancers, such as hormone receptor negative breast cancers. Further, the mechanistic underpinnings of the exercise-associated improvements in the immune response to cancer remains unclear. In this context, past studies have …

Improved Building-Specific Flood Risk Assessment And Implications Of Depth-Damage Function Selection, Ehab Gnan, Carol J. Friedland, Md Adilur Rahim, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Robert V. Rohli, Fatemeh Orooji, Arash Taghinezhad, Jasmin Mcelwee

Faculty Publications

Average annual loss (AAL) is traditionally used as the basis of assessing flood risk and evaluating risk mitigation measures. This research presents an improved implementation to estimate building-specific AAL, with the flood hazard of a building represented by the Gumbel extreme value distribution. AAL is then calculated by integrating the area under the overall loss-exceedance probability curve using trapezoidal Riemann sums. This implementation is compared with existing AAL estimations from flood risk assessment. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the variability in AAL results based on depth-damage function (DDF) choice. To demonstrate the methodology, a one-story single-family residence is …

Covid-19 In The United States As Affective Frame, John Protevi

Faculty Publications

In this paper I attempt to contribute to the developing field of “political philosophy of mind.” To render concrete the notion of “affective frame,” a social situation which pre-selects for salience and valence of environmental factors relative to a subject’s life, I conduct a case study of a deleterious socially instituted affective frame, which, during the early days of the COVID19 pandemic in the United States, produced individuated circumstances that came crashing down on “essential workers” who were forced into a double bind. We saw here an untenable and ultimately fatal situation that forced a choice between, on the one …

Application Of Organic Fertilizers For Lawn Establishment And Maintenance In Louisiana, Matthew Lambert

LSU Master's Theses

Landscape contractors are increasingly interested in organic products for Louisiana's residential and commercial turfgrass areas. However, the use, motivations, and barriers to adopting organic practices in the commercial turfgrass and landscape industry are undocumented. A survey with Louisiana Turfgrass Association (LTA) members to gauge their perceptions on current and future use of organic products in Louisiana was performed; and a field trial was conducted to evaluate organic fertilizers during turfgrass establishment. Substantial majorities of turfgrass professionals are currently applying organic fertilizers and believe organic product use will increase due to consumer demands, potential governmental regulation, and the belief that they …

The Effects Of Drought And Shade On Bottomland Hardwood Regeneration, Charles Joseph Pell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Floodplain forests support a high diversity of tree species adapted to regenerate under fluctuating water and light availability. Regeneration regulates species composition, and shade and flood tolerance influence the likelihood of regeneration. Regeneration failure of shade-intolerant and flood-tolerant tree species commonly occurs in southcentral and southeastern floodplain forests of the United States, also known as bottomland hardwoods (BLHs). In many BLHs reduced flooding has resulted in a dryer floodplain. These changes in flooding are linked to recent shifts in species composition. The mechanisms controlling regeneration in BLHs and these composition shifts are poorly understood. In a controlled germination experiment, I …

The Association Of Cuzd1 And Stat5 In Adipocytes, Zachary Wigger

LSU Master's Theses

Obesity is a metabolic disorder that has turned into a global epidemic over the past few decades. Adipocyte dysfunction brought on by obesity can lead to increased risk of metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Knowing how adipocytes function to regulate metabolic homeostasis is critical. CUZD1 (CUB and Zona Pellucida-like Domain-containing protein 1) has not been studied in the context of adipocyte biology but could play a role in several metabolic processes. CUZD1 has been suggested to be a biomarker for several inflammatory diseases and cancers but little functional data has been published. There …

Ultraviolet Chiral Plasmonics, Tiago Ramos Leite Da Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The far- (λ < 250 nm) ultraviolet (UV) chiroptical response from protein secondary structures can aid in understanding protein interactions for drug discovery. Chiral metasurfaces have attracted attention to enhance the intrinsically weak biomolecular optical activity for improved structural biology characterization. However, due to materials and fabrication challenges, current metasurfaces mostly operate in the visible and near-infrared regimes with limited, if any, response in far-UV. The large spectral mismatch between metasurface and biomolecular resonances limits the chiral enhancement factor. In this work, we study aluminum planar metamaterials which display optical activity in the UV region. In the first part of this work, we experimentally and computationally investigate the resonant plasmonic-biomolecular interactions in the far-UV. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first to experimentally explore these resonant interactions in the biologically relevant far-UV regime. We demonstrate experimentally and computationally enhanced chiral sensing of sub-10 nm amino acid films. We develop a full-wave computational model of a biomolecular film on an aluminum gammadion array using experimentally derived chiral parameters (κ) for L- and DTyrosine films. Our model shows that detectable enhancements in the circular dichroism (CD) and birefringence (CB) signals from small amounts of biomolecules are only possible when tight spectral overlap exists between the plasmonic and biomolecular chiroptical signals. We support this conclusion experimentally by fabricating aluminum gammadion arrays on fused silica substrates and sublimating ultrathin racemic, L- and D- Tyrosine films on the arrays. Complete Mueller matrix analysis of the resonant plasmonic-biomolecular system agrees with our computational results and demonstrates the importance of using far-UV active metasurfaces for enhancing natural optical activity. In the second part of this work, we study hybrid aluminum reflective metasurfaces, which leverage both local and propagating surface plasmons (PSP). These materials display strong bi-anisotropy with rich polarization conversion properties. We explore several geometries and verify how their symmetry properties affect their far-field response. Our observations provide an opportunity for researchers to improve the chiral response of plasmonic metasurfaces, especially in the challenging ultraviolet regime.

Hydrodynamic And Biochemical Impacts On The Development Of Hypoxia In The Louisiana-Texas Shelf - Part 2: Statistical Modeling And Hypoxia Prediction, Yanda Ou, Bin Li, Z. George Xue

Faculty Publications

This study presents a novel ensemble regression model for forecasts of the hypoxic area (HA) in the Louisiana-Texas (LaTex) shelf. The ensemble model combines a zero-inflated Poisson generalized linear model (GLM) and a quasi-Poisson generalized additive model (GAM) and considers predictors with hydrodynamic and biochemical features. Both models were trained and calibrated using the daily hindcast (2007-2020) by a three-dimensional coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model embedded in the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). Compared to the ROMS hindcasts, the ensemble model yields a low root-mean-square error (RMSE) (3256 km2), a high R2 (0.7721), and low mean absolute percentage biases for overall (29%) …

A New Ocean State After Nuclear War, Cheryl S. Harrison, Tyler Rohr, Alice Duvivier, Elizabeth A. Maroon, Scott Bachman, Charles G. Bardeen, Joshua Coupe, Victoria Garza, Ryan Heneghan, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Philipp Neubauer, Victor Rangel, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Samantha Stevenson, Owen B. Toon

Faculty Publications

Nuclear war would produce dire global consequences for humans and our environment. We simulated climate impacts of US-Russia and India-Pakistan nuclear wars in an Earth System Model, here, we report on the ocean impacts. Like volcanic eruptions and large forest fires, firestorms from nuclear war would transport light-blocking aerosols to the stratosphere, resulting in global cooling. The ocean responds over two timescales: a rapid cooling event and a long recovery, indicating a hysteresis response of the ocean to global cooling. Surface cooling drives sea ice expansion, enhanced meridional overturning, and intensified ocean vertical mixing that is expanded, deeper, and longer …

Global Food Insecurity And Famine From Reduced Crop, Marine Fishery And Livestock Production Due To Climate Disruption From Nuclear War Soot Injection, Lili Xia, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Benjamin Leon Bodirsky, Isabelle Weindl, Jonas Jägermeyr, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, Ryan Heneghan

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric soot loadings from nuclear weapon detonation would cause disruptions to the Earth’s climate, limiting terrestrial and aquatic food production. Here, we use climate, crop and fishery models to estimate the impacts arising from six scenarios of stratospheric soot injection, predicting the total food calories available in each nation post-war after stored food is consumed. In quantifying impacts away from target areas, we demonstrate that soot injections larger than 5 Tg would lead to mass food shortages, and livestock and aquatic food production would be unable to compensate for reduced crop output, in almost all countries. Adaptation measures such as …

Numerical Experiments Of Temperature Mixing And Post-Storm Re-Stratification Over The Louisiana Shelf During Hurricane Katrina (2005), Mohammad Nabi Allahdadi, Chunyan Li, Nazanin Chaichitehrani

Faculty Publications

Studying mixing and re-stratification during and after hurricanes have important implications for the simulation of circulation and bio-geochemical processes in oceanic and shelf waters. Numerical experiments using FVCOM on an unstructured computational mesh were implemented to study the direct effect of hurricane winds on the mixing and temperature redistribution of the stratified Louisiana shelf during Hurricane Katrina (2005), as well as the post-storm re-stratification timescale. The model was forced by Katrina’s wind stress obtained from a combination of H-Wind database and NCEP model. The climatological profiles of temperature and salinity for August (the month in which Katrina occurred) from the …

Profile Of Commercialized Aphicides On The Survivorship And Feeding Behavior Of The Cotton Aphid, Aphis Gossypii, Flinn M. O'Hara, Jeffrey A. Davis, Daniel R. Swale

Faculty Publications

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is one of the most destructive agricultural pests due to photosynthate removal and horizontal transmission of plant viruses. Horizontal transmission of plant viruses by aphids occurs during distinct feeding behavioral events, such as probing for non-persistent viruses or phloem feeding for persistent viruses. We employed toxicity bioassays and electrical penetration graph (EPG) methodology to compare toxicity and quantify changes to feeding behavior and toxicity of A. gossypii after exposure to commercialized aphicides. Commercialized aphicides containing flupyradifurone, sulfoxaflor, thiamethoxam, thiamethoxam + lambda cyhalothrin, and bifenthrin induced >90% aphid mortality within 4 h of …

The Need For A Framework Addressing The Temporal Aspects Of Fish Sperm Motility Leading To Community-Level Standardization, Harvey Blackburn, Leticia Torres, Yue Liu, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Motility is a widely available parameter that can be used to assess sperm quality of aquatic species. Sperm from fishes with external fertilization usually undergo a dynamic and short-lived period of motility after activation. The common practice of assigning a single value at an arbitrary peak of motility presents challenges for reproducibility, community-level standardization, and comparisons across studies. This study aimed to explore statistical approaches to standardize motility reporting, and to develop an initial framework for community-level standards. Sperm samples from 14 zebrafish (Danio rerio) with a total of 21,705 cells were analyzed by use of computer-assisted sperm analysis with …

Icam-1 Abundance Is Increased In Pancreatic Islets Of Hyperglycemic Female Nod Mice And Is Rapidly Upregulated By Nf-Κb In Pancreatic B-Cells, Thomas M. Martin, Susan J. Burke, Heidi M. Batdorf, David H. Burk, Sujoy Ghosh, Samuel D. Dupuy, Michael D. Karlstad, J. Jason Collier

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is classified as an autoimmune disease where pancreatic b-cells are specifically targeted by cells of the immune system. The molecular mechanisms underlying this process are not completely understood. Herein, we identified that the Icam1 gene and ICAM-1 protein were selectively elevated in female NOD mice relative to male mice, fitting with the sexual dimorphism of diabetes onset in this key mouse model of T1D. In addition, ICAM-1 abundance was greater in hyperglycemic female NOD mice than in age-matched normoglycemic female NOD mice. Moreover, we discovered that the Icam1 gene was rapidly upregulated in response to IL-1β …

Reply To G Taubes, Mi Friedman, And V Torres-Carot Et Al., Kevin D. Hall, I. Sadaf Farooqi, Jeffery M. Friedman, Samuel Klein, Ruth J.F. Loos, David J. Mangelsdorf, Stephen O’Rahilly, Eric Ravussin, Leanne M. Redman, Donna H. Ryan, John R. Speakman, Deirdre K. Tobias

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nutritional Quality Of Calorie Restricted Diets In The Calerie™ 1 Trial, Susan B. Racette, Valene Garr Barry, Connie W. Bales, Megan A. Mccrory, Kathleen A. Obert, Cheryl H. Gilhooly, Susan B. Roberts, Corby K. Martin, Catherine Champagne, Sai Krupa Das

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Objectives: The aim was to determine the nutritional adequacy of calorie restricted (CR) diets during CR interventions up to 12 months. Methods: The Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE™) phase 1 trial consisted of 3 single-site studies to test the feasibility and effectiveness of CR in adults without obesity. After baseline assessments, participants who were randomized to a CR intervention received education and training from registered dietitians on how to follow a healthful CR diet. Food diaries were completed at baseline and during the CR interventions (~6, 9, and 12 months) when participants were self-selecting …

Testosterone Undecanoate Administration Prevents Declines In Fat-Free Mass But Not Physical Performance During Simulated Multi-Stressor Military Operations, Alyssa N. Varanoske, Melissa N. Harris, Callie Hebert, Emily E. Howard, Neil M. Johannsen, Steven B. Heymsfield, Frank L. Greenway, Lee M. Margolis, Harris R. Lieberman, Robbie A. Beyl, David D. Church, Arny A. Ferrando, Stefan M. Pasiakos, Jennifer C. Rood

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Male military personnel conducting strenuous operations experience reduced testosterone concentrations, muscle mass, and physical performance. Pharmacological restoration of normal testosterone concentrations may attenuate performance decrements by mitigating muscle mass loss. Previously, administering testosterone enanthate (200 mg/wk) during 28 days of energy deficit prompted supraphysiological testosterone concentrations and lean mass gain without preventing isokinetic/isometric deterioration. Whether administering a practical dose of testosterone protects muscle and performance during strenuous operations is undetermined. The objective of this study was to test the effects of a single dose of testosterone undecanoate on body composition and military-relevant physical performance during a simulated operation. After a …

Gradient And Acceleration Of Decline In Physical And Cognitive Functions In Older Adults: A Disparity Analysis, H. Ip Edward, Shyh Huei Chen, W. Jack Rejeski, Karen Bandeen-Roche, Kathleen M. Hayden, Christina E. Hugenschmidt, June Pierce, Michael E. Miller, Jaime L. Speiser, Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Denise K. Houston, Robert L. Newton, Stephen R. Rapp, Dalane W. Kitzman

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Substantive previous work has shown that both gait speed and global cognition decline as people age. Rates of their decline, as opposed to cross-sectional measurements, could be more informative of future functional status and other clinical outcomes because they more accurately represent deteriorating systems. Additionally, understanding the sex and racial disparity in the speed of deterioration, if any, is also important as ethnic minorities are at an increased risk of mobility disability and dementia. Method: Data from 2 large longitudinal intervention studies were integrated. Rates of decline were derived from individual-level measures of gait speed of 400-m walk and …

Obesity Management In The Primary Prevention Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Elizabeth R.M. Zunica, Elizabeth C. Heintz, Christopher L. Axelrod, John P. Kirwan

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent primary hepatic malignancy and a leading cause of cancer-related death globally. HCC is associated with an indolent clinical presentation, resulting in frequent advanced stage diagnoses where surgical resection or transplant therapies are not an option and medical therapies are largely ineffective at improving survival. As such, there is a critical need to identify and enhance primary prevention strategies to mitigate HCC-related morbidity and mortality. Obesity is an independent risk factor for the onset and progression of HCC. Furthermore, obesity is a leading cause of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the fasting growing etiological factor of …

Valley-Floor Snowfall In Taylor Valley, Antarctica, From 1995 To 2017: Spring, Summer And Autumn, Madeline E. Myers, Peter T. Doran, Krista F. Myers

Faculty Publications

We present an analysis of the 20 year snowfall dataset in Taylor Valley and the results of a new snow cover monitoring study. Snowfall has been measured at four sites in Taylor Valley from 1995 to 2017. We focus on valley-floor snowfall when wind does not exceed 5 m s-1, and we exclude winter from our analysis due to poor data quality. Snowfall averaged 11 mm water equivalent (w.e.) from 1995 to 2017 across all stations and ranged from 1 to 58 mm w.e. Standard deviations ranged from 3 to 17 mm w.e., highlighting the strong interannual variability of snowfall …