Digital Commons Network^™

Bipse: A Biomarker-Based Phase I/Ii Design For Immunotherapy Trials With Progression-Free Survival Endpoint, Beibei Guo, Yong Zang

Faculty Publications

A Bayesian biomarker-based phase I/II design (BIPSE) is presented for immunotherapy trials with a progression-free survival (PFS) endpoint. The objective is to identify the subgroup-specific optimal dose, defined as the dose with the best risk-benefit tradeoff in each biomarker subgroup. We jointly model the immune response, toxicity outcome, and PFS with information borrowing across subgroups. A plateau model is used to describe the marginal distribution of the immune response. Conditional on the immune response, we model toxicity using probit regression and model PFS using the mixture cure rate model. During the trial, based on the accumulating data, we continuously update …

Synthesis Of Thiol-Acrylate Hydrogels For 3d Cell Culture And Microfluidic Applications, Anowar Hossain Khan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Globally cell culture is an $18.98 billion industry as of 2020, with an 11.6 percent annual growth rate. Drug discovery has an estimated worth of $69.8 billion in 2020 and is predicted to grow to $110.4 billion by 2025. Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture of cancer cells is one of the rapidly growing felids since it better recapitulates in vivo conditions compared to two-dimensional (2D) models. However, it is challenging to grow 3D tumor spheroids outside the body, and some of the existing technology can generate these spheroids outside the human body but poorly mimic in vivo tumor models. Therefore, there …

Editorial: Mechanisms And Strategies Of Arthropod Adaptation To The Chemical Environment, Chaoyang Zhao, Fang Zhu, Qian Sun, Xuguo Zhou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Design, Construction, And Testing Of A Recombinant Dna Vaccine For Brucella Abortus And Brucella Melitensis, Stephanie Lynn Korle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Brucella spp. are a bacterium that cause brucellosis, a zoonotic disease, which is commonly seen in cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and canines. Brucellosis is a problem worldwide, although it is eradicated in some countries (Garin-Bastuji et al. 1998). The reason for designing recombinant DNA (rDNA) vaccines opposed to utilizing the live-attenuated vaccines on the market is that they cannot be given to pregnant animals without potentially causing abortion, while an rDNA vaccine should be safe for pregnant animals since it does not contain viable bacteria. Also, there are no serological tests that can accurately distinguish between an animal vaccinated …

Editorial: Research Efforts, Challenges, And Opportunities In Mitigating Aflatoxins In Food And Agricultural Crops And Its Global Health Impacts, Mehdi Razzaghi-Abyaneh, Zhi Yuan Chen, Masoomeh Shams-Ghahfarokhi, Mahendra Rai

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tuning Electrochemical Interactions And Polymer Electrolyte Interfaces For Enhanced Organic Acid Separations Using Electrodeionization, Matthew Leo Jordan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chemical separations are critical processes for chemical and industrial plants to purify and isolate products however current separation technologies, such as distillation, rely on energy intensive processes. Electrochemical separation processes, such as electrodialysis and electrodeionization, are an energy efficient alternative that are emerging as an alternative for thermal-based separations. Organic acids are weakly ionizable species and susceptible for purification from process streams using electrochemical processes. Recently the fermentation route has garnered greater attention as a means for producing value-added chemicals, such as organic acids, from a renewable feedstock and aiding the circular economy. Some of the challenges electrodialysis faces for …

Computational Study Of The Reactions Of Heteroatomic Compounds On Ceo2, Suman Bhasker Ranganath

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The mechanisms of ambient-temperature reactions of heteroatomic compounds catalyzed by ceria (CeO₂), an archetypical reducible oxide, for enzyme mimetics, environmental protection, and chemical synthesis are investigated in this dissertation using theoretical methods. CeO₂ is modeled with thermodynamically stable low-index surfaces exposed by commonly studied ceria thin films and nano particles. To understand phosphatase-like dephosphorylation activity, stable adsorption states and surface reactions of model phosphates are examined. Binding of the central P-atom to surface lattice oxygen (O_latt) supplemented by phosphoryl O-Ce interaction is the only stable adsorption state for the un-dissociated molecule. Deprotonation of phosphate monoesters, …

Pocket2drug: An Encoder-Decoder Deep Neural Network For The Target-Based Drug Design, W T. Shi, M Singha, G Srivastava, L M. Pu, W T. Shi, M Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Computational modeling is an essential component of modern drug discovery. One of its most important applications is to select promising drug candidates for pharmacologically relevant target proteins. Because of continuing advances in structural biology, putative binding sites for small organic molecules are being discovered in numerous proteins linked to various diseases. These valuable data offer new opportunities to build efficient computational models predicting binding molecules for target sites through the application of data mining and machine learning. In particular, deep neural networks are powerful techniques capable of learning from complex data in order to make informed drug binding predictions. In …

The Cdkal1 Rs7747752-Bile Acids Interaction Increased Risk Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Nested Case-Control Study, Hui Wang, Jing Li, Junhong Leng, Weiqin Li, Jinnan Liu, Xiaoyan Yan, Zhijie Yu, Gang Hu, Ronald C.W. Ma, Zhongze Fang, Ying Wang, Xilin Yang

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Aims: The study aimed to explore additive interactions of CDKAL1 rs7747752 and GUDCA/DCA for GDM risk and whether the interactive effects on the risk of GDM was mediated via increasing lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC) 18:0 and/or saturated fatty acid (SFA) 16:0. Methods: A 1:1 age-matched study nested in a prospective cohort of pregnant women (207 pairs) was organized in Tianjin, China. Additive interactions were used to test interaction effects while mediation analyses and Sobel tests were used to test mediation effects of LPC18:0 and SFA16:0 between copresence of rs7747752 and low GUDCA/DCA, and GDM risk. Results: The CDKAL1 rs7747752 was associated with …

Examining Serial Position Effects In Individuals With And Without Mild Cognitive Impairment, Daniel Scott Weitzner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Serial position effects (SPEs) have shown to be sensitive predictors of future cognitive decline (Bruno et al., 2013) and conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD; Egli et al., 2014), even when accounting for total learning and memory scores. However, conflicting results have been found in the literature, which may be at least partially related to the many ways in which SPEs have been calculated. The current study aimed to address the discrepancies in the literature by examining SPEs in participants with and without MCI.

86 participants (57 healthy comparison, 29 MCI) completed the California Verbal Learning …

Impact Of New Technologies On Weed Control In Louisiana Rice Production, David C. Walker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Field studies were conducted in 2018-2021 at the LSU Agricultural Center’s H.R. Caffey Rice Research Station (RRS) near Crowley, LA, and the Dean Lee Research and Extension Center (DLREC) near Alexandria, LA to evaluate off-target florpyrauxifen movement on soybean. Soybean was treated with florpyrauxifen at the V4-V5 or R1-R2 growth stages. Soybean injury was evaluated at 1, 7, 14, and 28 days after treatment (DAT) and soybean plant height (cm) was recorded at 7, 14, and 28 DAT. At soybean maturity, yield and individual yield components were subjected to regression analysis to describe the relationship between florpyrauxifen rate and soybean …

Applying Transformative Evaluation To Assess Service Provided To African Americans Through The Snap-Ed Program, Matthew Greene

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Obesity and food insecurity are disproportionately experienced by African Americans compared to white Americans. African Americans encounter multiple barriers to healthful eating in their food environment, in part due to structural racism. Four studies were undertaken to understand how SNAP-Ed may best address the needs of African Americans and whether the program is serving African Americans in Louisiana equitably. In the first study, a scoping review was conducted to describe nutrition interventions addressing structural racism experienced by African Americans and compare them to the Getting to Equity in Obesity Prevention Framework. Nearly all included studies focused on PSE change interventions …

Multi-Year Data Analysis And Genomic Selection To Improve The Efficiency Of A Rice Breeding Program, Tommaso Cerioli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Plant breeding dramatically improved crops performances during human history and will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of agriculture. However, this activity requires large amount of time and resources. The availability of multi-year datasets and abundant DNA information enables new analyses and breeding approaches that can increase the productivity and efficiency of a breeding program. In recent years, the LSU Rice Breeding Program has implemented marker assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) to predict performance of rice genotypes before field testing. The goal of this project was to conduct analyses and test molecular approaches to increase the …

The Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 (Hsv-1), Vc2 Live-Attenuated Vaccine Strain Induces Robust Antitumor Immune Responses And Ameliorates Intra-Tumor Immunosuppression In An Immunocompetent B16f10-Derived Murine Melanoma Model, Ifeanyi Kingsley Uche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current cancer immunotherapies include immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cellular therapy, and cancer vaccines. While some of these therapies have met with great clinical success, they are associated with several limitations. Oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) has emerged as a bonafide promising immunotherapy, that uses viral infection to liberate tumor antigens in an immunogenic context to promote the development of anti-tumor immune responses. At present, Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC; Imlygic™), a modified type 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) is the only FDA approved OVT for human cancer treatment (melanoma). While T-VEC is associated with limited response rates, its modest efficacy supports the continued development …

Relationship Of Microplastics To Body Size For Two Estuarine Fishes, Ahmed K. Gad, Stephen R. Midway

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Spin-Nernst Effect In Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors, Taiki Matsushita, Jiei Ando, Yusuke Masaki, Takeshi Mizushima, Satoshi Fujimoto, Ilya Vekhter

Faculty Publications

We investigate the spin-Nernst effect in time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors, and show that it provides smoking-gun evidence for helical Cooper pairs. The spin-Nernst effect stems from asymmetric, in spin space, scattering of quasiparticles at nonmagnetic impurities, and generates a transverse spin current by the temperature gradient. Both the sign and the magnitude of the effect sensitively depend on the scattering phase shift at impurity sites. Therefore the spin-Nernst effect is uniquely suitable for identifying time-reversal-invariant topological superconducting orders.

Vitamin D Status And All-Cause Mortality In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes In China, Yuxin Fan, Li Ding, Yalan Zhang, Hua Shu, Qing He, Jingqiu Cui, Gang Hu, Ming Liu

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Objective: To assess the association between vitamin D status and all-cause mortality among type 2 diabetes patients. Research Design and Methods: We prospectively followed 1,291 participants with type 2 diabetes aged 20–80 years during 2013–2018. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate the association between different vitamin D status and all-cause mortality risk among hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes. Results: During a median follow-up of 4.15 years (5,365 person-years in total), 61 cases of death were identified. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality across the quartiles of baseline circulating 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OH vitamin D) were …

Evaluation Of Hippocampal Allostatic Load-Associated Factors In Animal Models Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Relevance To Human Ptsd, Dennis Parker Kelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with elevated allostatic load, nearly double the risk for metabolic syndrome, reduced hippocampal volume, and contextual memory processing deficits. Emerging evidence suggests that these stress effects may predispose individuals to the development of PTSD, and there is a known relationship between chronic stress and metabolic dysfunction. In this work, we utilized two rat models of PTSD to explore these connections. We used an acute predator odor stressor to investigate the relationship between PTSD-like behaviors and mitochondrial dysfunction in the hippocampus of rats, and we observed that conditioned place avoidance was associated with reduced mitochondrial …

Peak Chlorophyll A Concentrations In The Lower Mississippi River From 1997 To 2018, R. Eugene Turner, Charles S. Milan, Erick M. Swenson, James M. Lee

Faculty Publications

Large and turbid rivers have varying temperatures, light conditions, nutrient availability, and nutrient ratios that may affect phytoplankton communities and occur within a changing world of point and nonpoint source nutrient loadings. We investigated how these physical and chemical factors affect Chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations in the Mississippi River, the largest river in North America, by sampling 878 times from February 1997 to December 2018 near its terminus at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We hypothesized that nutrient concentrations and ratios were significant factors limiting phytoplankton biomass accumulations in this turbid river. The Chl a concentrations were in the "poor" water …

Fatal Neurodissemination And Sars-Cov-2 Tropism In K18-Hace2 Mice Is Only Partially Dependent On Hace2 Expression, Mariano Carossino, Devin Kenney, Aoife K. O’Connell, Paige Montanaro, Anna E. Tseng, Hans P. Gertje, Kyle A. Grosz, Maria Ericsson, Bertrand R. Huber, Susanna A. Kurnick, Saravanan Subramaniam, Thomas Kirkland, Joel R. Walker, Kevin P. Francis, Alexander D. Klose, Neal Paragas, Markus Bosmann, Mohsan Saeed, Udeni Balasuriya, Florian Douam, Nicholas Crossland

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Host Plant Resistance On Emergence, Body Parameters, And Supercooling Point Of Cylas Formicarius Elegantulus (Coleoptera: Brentidae), Nupur Sarkar, Mark J. Murray, Michael J. Stout, Jeffrey A. Davis

Faculty Publications

Sweetpotato weevil, Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Summers) (Coleoptera: Brentidae), an in-field and storage pest of sweetpotato, is the primary insect constraint to sweetpotato production in tropical and subtropical regions. Feeding by adult and larval sweetpotato weevil induces terpenes, rendering storage roots unmarketable. To reduce storage root damage and sweetpotato weevil populations, the present experiment tested the impact of sweetpotato cultivar on developmental time, adult emergence, body length, weight, and supercooling point of sweetpotato weevil. The cultivars tested were â Beauregard' and â Evangeline,' both orange fleshed cultivars susceptible to sweetpotato weevil, and â Murasaki,' a white fleshed cultivar known to be …

Genome-Wide Pleiotropy Analysis Identifies Novel Blood Pressure Variants And Improves Its Polygenic Risk Scores, Xiaofeng Zhu, Luke Zhu, Heming Wang, Richard S. Cooper, Aravinda Chakravarti

Faculty Publications

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (S/DBP) are highly correlated modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). We report here a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization (MR) and horizontal pleiotropy analysis of S/DBP summary statistics from the UK Biobank (UKB)-International Consortium for Blood Pressure (ICBP) (UKB-ICBP) BP genome-wide association study and construct a composite genetic risk score (GRS) by including pleiotropic variants. The composite GRS captures greater (1.11–3.26 fold) heritability for BP traits and increases (1.09- and 2.01-fold) Nagelkerke's R2 for hypertension and CVD. We replicated 118 novel BP horizontal pleiotropic variants including 18 novel BP loci using summary statistics from the Million …

The Supercooling Responses Of The Solitary Bee Osmia Excavata (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) Under The Biological Stress Of Its Brood Parasite, Sapyga Coma (Hymenoptera: Sapygidae), Zhuo Yan, Lina Wang, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Shimin Gu, Xingyuan Men, Yunli Xiao, Jianwei Su, Feng Ge, Fang Ouyang

Faculty Publications

(1) Background: Many insects have evolved different strategies to adapt to subzero temperatures and parasites, but the supercooling response of pollinator populations under the brood parasitism pressure has not been sufficiently investigated. (2) Methods: This study assessed the supercooling traits (supercooling points, fresh weight and fat content) of the solitary bee Osmia excavata Alfken and its brood parasite, Sapyga coma Yasumatsu & Sugihara. We measured 4035 samples (3025 O. excavata and 1010 S. coma, one individual as one sample) and discovered the super-cooling traits relations between solitary bee and brood parasite. (3) Results: Significant differences in the supercooling points were …

Identifying Potential Drivers Of Distribution Patterns Of Invasive Corbicula Fluminea Relative To Native Freshwater Mussels (Unionidae) Across Spatial Scales, Taylor E. Kelley, Garrett W. Hopper, Irene Sánchez González, Jamie R. Bucholz, Carla L. Atkinson

Faculty Publications

This study aimed to identify the importance of ecological factors to distribution patterns of the invasive Clam (Corbicula fluminea) relative to native mussels (family: Unionidae) across seven rivers within the Mobile and Tennessee basins, Southeast United States. We quantitatively surveyed dense, diverse native mussel aggregations across 20 river reaches and estimated mussel density, biomass, and species richness along with density of invasive C. fluminea (hereafter Corbicula). We measured substrate particle size, velocity, and depth in quadrats where animals were collected. Additionally, we characterized reach scale environmental parameters including seston quantity and quality (% Carbon, % Nitrogen, % Phosphorous), water chemistry …

Med12 Regulates Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Adipogenesis And Mediator Kinase Subunit Expression In Murine Adipose Depots, Sree Venigalla, Joseph Straub, Onyekachi Idigo, Caroline Rinderle, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Jamie J. Newman

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

The mediator kinase module plays a critical role in the regulation of transcription during metabolic processes. Here we demonstrate that in human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), kinase module subunits have distinct mRNA and protein expression profiles during different stages of adipogenesis. In addition, siRNA-mediated loss of MED12 results in decreased adipogenesis as evident through decreased lipid accumulation and decreased expression of PPARγ, a master regulator of adipogenesis. Moreover, the decrease in adipogenesis and reduced PPARγexpression are observed only during the early stages of MED12 knockdown. At later stages, knockdown of MED12 did not have any significant effects on adipogenesis or …

Validity Of Four Commercially Available Metabolic Carts For Assessing Resting Metabolic Rate And Respiratory Exchange Ratio In Non-Ventilated Humans, J. M.A. Alcantara, J. E. Galgani, L. Jurado-Fasoli, M. Dote-Montero, E. Merchan-Ramirez, E. Ravussin, J. R. Ruiz, G. Sanchez-Delgado

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Background & aims: The validity of most commercially available metabolic cart is mostly unknown. Thus, we aimed to determine the accuracy, precision, within-subject reproducibility, and concordance of RMR and RER measured by four commercially available metabolic carts [Cosmed Q-NRG, Vyaire Vyntus CPX, Maastricht Instruments Omnical, and Medgraphics Ultima CardiO2]. Further, we studied whether a previously proposed simulation-based post-calorimetric calibration of cart readouts [individual calibration control evaluation (ICcE)] modify the RMR and RER reproducibility and concordance. Methods: Three experiments simulating different RMR and RER by controlled pure gas (N2 and CO2) infusions were conducted on 5 non-consecutive days. Moreover, 30-min methanol …

Decreasing Phosphorus Fertility To Reduce Sweet Potato Root Growth During Container-Grown Transplant Production, L. Rouse, J. Beasley, D. Labonte, J. Kuehny

Faculty Publications

Sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.], grown as an edible ornamental, is propagated in home gardens using locally purchased transplants. However, vigorous growth of sweetpotato limits the period of transplant salability due to root confinement. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate reductions in phosphorus (P) fertility to slow transplant root growth and extend the period of salability. Cuttings were planted into containers and fertilized at 0, 5 (0.0007), 10 (0.0012), 15 (0.0020), 20 (0.0024), and 31 mg P.L-1 (0.0040 oz P.gal-1) using a modified Hoagland solution. All transplants fertilized at 5 mg P.L-1 increased in shoot length, color, and …

Post-Acute Sequelae Of Covid-19: A Metabolic Perspective, Philipp E. Scherer, John P. Kirwan, Clifford J. Rosen

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to rage around the world. At the same time, despite strong public health measures and high vaccination rates in some countries, a post-COVID-19 syndrome has emerged which lacks a clear definition, prevalence, or etiology. However, fatigue, dyspnea, brain fog, and lack of smell and/or taste are often characteristic of patients with this syndrome. These are evident more than a month after infection, and are labeled as Post-Acute Sequelae of CoV-2 (PASC) or commonly referred to as long-COVID. Metabolic dysfunction (i.e., obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes mellitus) is a predisposing risk factor for severe acute COVID-19, and …

Evaluating Stratified Substrates Effect On Containerized Crop Growth Under Varied Irrigation Strategies, Kristopher S. Criscione, Jeb S. Fields, Jim S. Owen, Lisa Fultz, Edward Bush

Faculty Publications

Growers rely on soilless substrates to provide sufficient water and nutrients to containerized crops. Traditional bark-based substrates are engineered to have relatively low water-holding capabilities, which can lead to nonuniform rewetting patterns and inefficient usage of water resources. Engineering substrates to redistribute water dynamics and maximize aeration within the container may improve water resource efficiencies. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether more efficient irrigation schedules can be used when stratifying unique substrates within a container for added crop water and nutrient efficiency. Loropetalum chinense ‘Ruby’ liners were planted and grown in a conventional pine bark substrate or …

The H3.3 Chaperone Hira Complex Orchestrates Oocyte Developmental Competence, Rowena Smith, Andrej Susor, Hao Ming, Janet Tait, Marco Conti, Zongliang Jiang, Chih Jen Lin

Faculty Publications

Successful reproduction requires an oocyte competent to sustain early embryo development. By the end of oogenesis, the oocyte has entered a transcriptionally silenced state, the mechanisms and significance of which remain poorly understood. Histone H3.3, a histone H3 variant, has unique cell cycle-independent functions in chromatin structure and gene expression. Here, we have characterised the H3.3 chaperone Hira/Cabin1/Ubn1 complex, showing that loss of function of any of these subunits causes early embryogenesis failure in mouse. Transcriptome and nascent RNA analyses revealed that transcription is aberrantly silenced in mutant oocytes. Histone marks, including H3K4me3 and H3K9me3, are reduced and chromatin accessibility …