Digital Commons Network^™

Designing And Evaluating The Utility Of Novel Primers For The Detection Of An Emerging Fungal Disease Of Soybean, Brooklyn Squiers

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Nonword Repetition In Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Katherine Beyer

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Velocity Distribution And Stress Analysis In A Continuous Exchange Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System, Grace Nguyen

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Investigation Of Young, Lineage Specific Alu Elements In The Owl Monkey (Aotus), Lydia Rewerts

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Association Of Sickle Cell Disease And Depression, Sarah Grace Schorr

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Listeners' Perception Of Children And Adult’S Word-Final /L/, Julia Sanders

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of [Ca2+] On Reducing The Impacts Of Salt Stress In Plant Growth Using A Stress Sensitive Model, Arabidopsis Thaliana And A Stress Adapted Model, Schrenkiella Parvula, Megan Alyssa Guilbeau

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Reversing The Regioselectivity Of Indole Addition To Cyclic Unsymmetrical Oxyallyl Cations: Construction Of Diaryl Quaternary Centers, Thomas Davis Curry Ii

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Ceci N’Est Pas Qu’Une Banane: French Underdevelopment And Green Imperialism In The “Island Of Beautiful Waters”, Kelsie Guzik

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Industrial Emission Patterns: A Study Of Two Refineries In Louisiana, Khanh Vu

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Lean Implementation In An Aquatic Cryopreservation Laboratory, Jennafer Zimmerman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Bat Species Composition And Relative Activity Across A Rural-To-Urban Gradient In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Emily Munch

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Waves, Mixing, And Resuspension In An Urban Subtropical Lake: Restoration Implications, Noel Dudeck

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Measuring College Students’ Dependency On E-Cigarettes And Perceptions Using A Behavioral Economics Model, Margaret Duplantier

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

"The Face Of The Agency": Interviews With Death Investigators In South Louisiana, Natalie H. King

LSU Master's Theses

According to the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, “the role of the medicolegal death investigator is to investigate any death that falls under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner or coroner, including all suspicious, violent, unexplained and unexpected deaths” (American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators [ABMDI], n.d.). As such, a death investigator has a job that is highly intense and stressful at a level similar to that of doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and firefighters. The majority of the literature written about death investigators focuses on procedural issues, while there seemingly is a lack of literature focused on …

Genomic Studies Of Beaf-32 In Drosophila, John Keller Mckowen Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Compared to humans, the model organism Drosophila melanogaster is particularly gene dense and encodes several insulator binding proteins (IBP) to aid in its genome organization. Our focus of research is a particular IBP, Boundary Element-Associated Factor of 32kD (BEAF). BEAF primarily binds near the promoters of constitutively active housekeeping genes. It is thought to help maintain the active state of these genes by preventing the spread of repressive chromatin. Additionally, the enhancer blocking activity of BEAF is thought to prevent aberrant activation or silencing of genes. BEAF appears to be ubiquitously expressed among cells and tissues, albeit at varying levels. …

Henry V. Howe And His Collection Of Foraminifera At Louisiana State University, Lorene E. Smith, Barun K. Sen Gupta

Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University

Henry V. Howe, the founder of the current academic program in geology at Louisiana State University (LSU), and a renowned ostracod specialist, was also a distinguished foraminiferal paleontologist. His best work in that field, involving the discovery of many new species, was on the taxonomy of Eocene Foraminifera of Louisiana. The present H.V. Howe Type Collection of Microfossils began with Howe’s gift of slides to LSU. This collection, enriched by contributions from later workers, now includes over 580 slides of foraminiferal primary type specimens, with holotypes and syntypes of 361 species and 15 taxa labeled as “varieties.” Information regarding these …

Determining The Effects Of Exogenous Human Chorionic Gonadotropin And Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin On Plasma Testosterone, Testicular Volume, And Semen Production In Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis Macularius), Alexandra Mason

LSU Master's Theses

Planet earth has now entered into its sixth mass extinction as a result of expanding human populations, posing an unprecedented threat to biologic diversity. Climate change, habitat fragmentation, wildlife trade, pollution, and biological invasions are just a few consequences of human activities that have directly contributed to unprecedented species extinctions. While widespread amphibian declines have gained more recent attention, it has been proposed that reptiles may be in even greater danger of extinction worldwide. Unfortunately, many reptiles are destined to go extinct before many of their basic biologic traits, including reproductive methods, have even been determined.

In order to mitigate …

The Bioarchaeology Of The Lake St. Agnes Mound (16av26) Site: Exploring Diet From Fragmentary Remains, Kenneth Tremblay

LSU Master's Theses

The Lake St. Agnes Mound (16AV26) site, located in central Louisiana, is composed of two, temporally distinct burial components; one, a Coles Creek period component, at the base of the mound (~780-880 CE), and the other, a Plaquemine subperiod component, at its apex (~1400 CE). These burials, though heavily fragmented, commingled, and representing small sample sizes, are valuable for studying the transition to agriculture in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. It is now clear that for the Coles Creek period, maize was likely only a ceremonial crop rather than a staple food source (Kidder, 1993; Listi, 2011). The reliance on …

Effect Of Contact Time And Attachment Level Of Bacterial Pathogens On Efficacy Of Chlorine Treatment In Fresh Produce, Jyoti Aryal

LSU Master's Theses

Bacterial attachment or biofilm formation on produce surfaces may result in limited penetration ability of sanitizers. This study examined the wet and dry contact time (WCT or DCT) of produce during washing with sanitizer and evaluated the effect of attachment level of Listeria monocytogenes during storage on the efficacy of chlorine treatment. Spinach and bell peppers were inoculated with Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica. The produce was then washed by dipping into a 100 ppm of chlorine solution for 1 min and an additional 1, 3, or 5 minutes (WCT) or removed from the chlorine solution and held for 1, …

Assessing The Validity Of The Estimation Of Population Affinity From The Maxillary Hard Palate: An Empirical Approach Using A Modern Forensic Sample, Christopher M. Goden

LSU Master's Theses

In response to Beathard and DiGangi’s (2020) call to action for empirical assessment of population affinity estimation methodology, this study investigates the validity of maxillary palate shape as an indicator of ancestral population affinity for human skeletal remains through the use of Elliptical Fourier Analysis (EFA) and Linear Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). Further, this study also places emphasis on the expressed variation of palate shape within and between population groups exemplified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of EFA data.

Computed tomography scans of 180 individuals of Black, White, and Hispanic population affinities were obtained from the New Mexico Decedent Imaging …

Modeling Cumulative Risk During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychosocial And Socioeconomic Factors For Older Minority Adults, James F. Osborne Iv

LSU Master's Theses

Continued response to the sum consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has disparately affected the physical and mental health of older minority adults in the United States. SARS-CoV-2 created an acute epidemiological crisis of public health coinciding with a chronic pandemic of accentuated psychosocial stress. Biological and socio-economic risk of morbidity and mortality follow a demographic gradient of subjectively constructed social status that disproportionally threatens older adults and minority racial/ethnic communities. Pathways to increased socio-economic and psychosocial vulnerability are multifactorial and complex. Factors of race, socio-economic status, gender, and age, each contribute to individualized profiles of vulnerability to risk exposure.

The …

Distribution, Diversity, And Biogeography Of Anaerobic Carbon Monoxide Uptake By Microbial Communities In Soils And Sediments, Amber N. Depoy

LSU Master's Theses

Carbon monoxide (CO) is primarily known for being a toxic gas. However, CO is used by microorganisms as an electron or carbon source in a variety of respiratory processes. Different kinds of microorganisms utilize CO aerobically and anaerobically, using two distinct CO dehydrogenases (CODHs). Aerobes oxidize CO using a molybdenum-dependent dehydrogenase (Mo-CODH), while anaerobes utilize a nickel-dependent CO dehydrogenase (Ni-CODH). Studies of the biochemistry and microbiology of aerobic and anaerobic CO oxidation are extensive, but relatively little is known about the ecology of anaerobic CO oxidation. In an effort to test new hypotheses about the ecology of anaerobic CO oxidation, …

The Effect Of Fallow Season Cover Crops On Nutrient Cycling And Soil Health In Row Crop Production In The Mid-South, Kritsanee Iamjud

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The reliance on conventional cropping has profoundly impacted agricultural sustainability and resulted in soil degradation. Winter cover crops can preserve the soil surface, recycle soil nutrients, and improve soil health. Hence, the role of cover crops in Louisiana row-crop production was examined in small-scale plots and large-scale on-farm studies at three sites in Northeast Louisiana from 2017 to 2020. Additionally, mixed cover crops degradation and nutrient release were evaluated at Macon Ridge and Dean Lee sites to determine the optimum time of nutrient availability after cover crop termination. The small-scale results showed that integrating cover crops for corn (Zea …

Adsorption And Transport Of Colloids At Interface And In Bulk, Jingyun Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colloids are suspensions of microscopic insoluble particles dispersed in a continuum phase such as liquid or gas. Colloids are found in our everyday life from food and cosmetic industries to pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Depending on a global minimum of the free-energy landscape, colloidal suspensions can be classified as two major classes: equilibrium or active colloidal system. This Ph.D dissertation presents strategies to engineer equilibrium self-assembled structures and out-of-equilibrium active matter using various interparticle forces.

First, we introduce the means to promote the equilibrium self-assembled structures driven by adsorption of colloids at interface. Typically, adsorption of colloids at interface is …

Gold-Semiconductor Photocatalysts For Water Treatment Under Visible And Ultraviolet Light, Daniel Willis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Water scarcity threatens the lives of millions of people worldwide. It is imperative to improve the energy efficiency and affordability of water treatment methods to avoid a looming water-energy crisis. To meet this challenge, I have pursued research on the use of sunlight—our most reliable and abundant source of energy—to drive water treatment through photocatalysis. I explored the literature and found gold-semiconductor materials to hold promise for harvesting sunlight and catalyzing the breakdown of waterborne contaminants. Initially, I designed a novel optical cavity with gold (Au) nanoparticles on a zinc oxide / titania (TiO₂) / aluminum film stack …

Hydro-Morphodynamics Of Sandy Coastal Embayments, Shamim Murshid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the hydro-morphodynamics of two major components of a sandy coastal environment: tidal inlets and embayment shorelines. In the first study, I focused on the evolution of inlet geometry by compiling and analyzing a database with 226 inlets worldwide with a special attention given to their width to depth ratio (or aspect ratio). I found that the aspect ratio has a weak dependency on tidal range and wave height, and they lie in different ranges for three types of tidal inlets: engineered, natural single-thread, and natural compound. I also developed a 2D hydro-morphodynamic model of an idealized barrier-inlet …

Led-Based Optical Sensing Platforms For Multi-Analyte Detection, Youngho Shin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Real-time monitoring of phytoplankton groups provides important information about aquatic ecological states, nutrient abundance, and water pollution. A rapid and accurate method for monitoring phytoplankton in water is commonly performed by detecting fluorescence emission from the plankton; however, commercially available portable fluorescence sensors are still expensive, bulky, and limited in functions, such as lacking the capability of selectively detecting multiple phytoplankton groups. In this regard, a low-cost and portable fluorometer platform for phytoplankton detection was developed in order to address the issues that current portable fluorometers have.

This dissertation has four main goals: (1) perform a study on fluorescence measurement …

Exercise And Bone: Older Adults, Type Ii Diabetes, And Ketogenic Diets, Matthew Casey Scott

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Exercise is a well-appreciated modulator of bone and has other positive implications for overall fitness and health. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects of exercise on bone in conjunction with other known modifiers: old age, type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and ketogenic diets. The three studies discussed in this dissertation utilized multiple methods of measuring bone to examine the effect of exercise on bone in individuals with type II diabetes, rodents consuming a ketogenic diet, and older adults participating in a novel resistance training intervention. The first study examined the effects of a 9-month resistance, aerobic, …

Food Processing, Dysbiosis, Gastrointestinal Inflammatory Diseases, And Antiangiogenic Functional Foods Or Beverages, Jack N. Losso

Faculty Publications

Foods and beverages provide nutrients and alter the gut microbiota, resulting in eubiosis or dysbiosis. Chronic consumption of a diet that is high in saturated or trans fats, meat proteins, reducing sugars, and salt and low in fiber induces dysbiosis. Dysbiosis, loss of redox homeostasis, mast cells, hypoxia, angiogenesis, the kynurenine pathway, transglutaminase 2, and/or the Janus kinase pathway are implicated in the pathogenesis and development of inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and gastrointestinal malignancy. This review discusses the effects of oxidative, carbonyl, or glycative stress-inducing dietary ingredients or food processing-derived compounds on gut microbiota and gastrointestinal epithelial and mast …