Digital Commons Network^™

Longitudinal Profiling Of Fasting Plasma Metabolome In Response To Weight-Loss Interventions In Patients With Morbid Obesity, Mingjing Chen, Guanhong Miao, Zhiguang Huo, Hao Peng, Xiaoxiao Wen, Stephen Anton, Dachuan Zhang, Gang Hu, Ricky Brock, Phillip J. Brantley, Jinying Zhao

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

It is well recognized that patients with severe obesity exhibit remarkable heterogeneity in response to different types of weight-loss interventions. Those who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) usually exhibit more favorable glycemic outcomes than those who receive adjustable gastric banding (BAND) or intensive medical intervention (IMI). The molecular mechanisms behind these observations, however, remain largely unknown. To identify the plasma metabolites associated with differential glycemic outcomes induced by weight-loss intervention, we studied 75 patients with severe obesity (25 each in RYGB, BAND, or IMI). Using untargeted metabolomics, we repeatedly measured 364 metabolites in plasma samples at baseline and 1-year after …

Effector-Triggered Susceptibility By The Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe Oryzae, Ely Oliveira-Garcia, Xia Yan, Miriam Oses-Ruiz, Samuel De Paula, Nicholas J. Talbot

Faculty Publications

Rice blast, the most destructive disease of cultivated rice world-wide, is caused by the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. To cause disease in plants, M. oryzae secretes a diverse range of effector proteins to suppress plant defense responses, modulate cellular processes, and support pathogen growth. Some effectors can be secreted by appressoria even before host penetration, while others accumulate in the apoplast, or enter living plant cells where they target specific plant subcellular compartments. During plant infection, the blast fungus induces the formation of a specialized plant structure known as the biotrophic interfacial complex (BIC), which appears to be crucial for …

Survival And Cause-Specific Mortality Of Male Wild Turkeys Across The Southeastern United States, Patrick H. Wightman, Erin E. Ulrey, Nicholas W. Bakner, Jay R. Cantrell, Charles R. Ruth, Emily Rushton, Cody A. Cedotal, John C. Kilgo, David J. Moscicki, Krishna Pacifici, Christopher E. Moorman, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain

Faculty Publications

Estimating survival and cause-specific mortality of male eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is important for understanding population dynamics and implementing appropriate harvest management. To better understand age-specific estimates of annual survival and harvest rates, we captured and marked male wild turkeys with leg bands (n = 311) or bands and transmitters (n = 549) in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina, USA, during 2014–2022. We fitted time to event models to data from radio-marked birds to estimate cause-specific mortality and annual survival. We used band recovery models incorporating both band recovery and telemetry data to further investigate harvest …

Robust Assessment Of Associations Between Weather And Eastern Wild Turkey Nest Success, Wesley W. Boone, Christopher E. Moorman, David J. Moscicki, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain, Adam J. Terando, Krishna Pacifici

Faculty Publications

Temperature and precipitation have been identified as factors that potentially influence eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) reproduction, but robust analyses testing the relationship between weather parameters and turkey nest success are lacking. Therefore, we assessed how weather influenced turkey daily nest survival using 8 years of data collected from 715 nests across the southeastern United States. We also conducted exploratory analyses investigating if weather conditions during or prior to nesting best predicted nest success. We then assessed the possible implications of climate change through 2041–2060 for future eastern wild turkey daily nest survival and nest success for variables determined …

Understanding Implications Of Detection Heterogeneity In Wildlife Abundance Estimation, Jeffrey L. Laake, Bret A. Collier

Faculty Publications

Negative bias in mark-recapture abundance estimators due to heterogeneity in detection (capture) probability is a well-known problem, but we believe most biologists do not understand why heterogeneity causes bias and how bias can be reduced. We demonstrate how heterogeneity creates dependence and bias in mark-recapture approaches to abundance estimation. In comparison, heterogeneity, and hence estimator bias, is not as problematic for distance sampling and mark-resight methods because both techniques estimate detection probabilities based on a known quantity. We show how the introduction of a known number of individuals planted into a study population prior to a mark-recapture survey can reduce …

Effects Of Metformin On Glucose Metabolism And Mitochondrial Function In Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Pilot Randomized Trial, Elizabeth R.M. Zunica, Elizabeth C. Heintz, Wagner S. Dantas, R. Caitlin Hebert, Ma Kayla Tanksley, Robbie A. Beyl, Edward C. Mader, John P. Kirwan, Christopher L. Axelrod, Prachi Singh

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased risk for diabetes, and standard treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP) device shows inconsistent effects on glucose metabolism. Metformin is known to treat and prevent diabetes, but its effects on skeletal muscle mitochondrial function are not completely understood. Here, we evaluate the effects of metformin on glucose metabolism and skeletal muscle mitochondrial function in patients with OSA. Sixteen adults with obesity (50.9 ± 6.7 years, BMI: 36.5 ± 2.9 kg/m2) and moderate-to-severe OSA were provided with PAP treatment and randomized to 3 months of placebo (n = 8) or metformin (n = …

Embryonic Exposure To The Benzotriazole Ultraviolet Stabilizer 2-(2h-Benzotriazol-2-Yl)-4-Methylphenol Decreases Fertility Of Adult Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Yamin Raza, Emily Mertens, Lauren Zink, Zhe Lu, Jon A. Doering, Steve Wiseman

Faculty Publications

Benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers (BUVSs) are emerging contaminants of concern. They are added to a variety of products, including building materials, personal care products, paints, and plastics, to prevent degradation caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. Despite widespread occurrence in aquatic environments, little is known regarding the effects of BUVSs on aquatic organisms. The aim of the present study was to characterize the effects of exposure to 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-methylphenol (UV-P) on the reproductive success of zebrafish (Danio rerio) following embryonic exposure. Embryos were exposed, by use of microinjection, to UV-P at < 1.5 (control), 2.77, and 24.25 ng/g egg, and reared until sexual maturity, when reproductive performance was assessed, following which molecular and biochemical endpoints were analyzed. Exposure to UV-P did not have a significant effect on fecundity. However, there was a significant effect on fertilization success. Using UV-P-exposed males and females, fertility was decreased by 8.75% in the low treatment group and by 15.02% in the high treatment group relative to control. In a reproduction assay with UV-P-exposed males and control females, fertility was decreased by 11.47% in the high treatment group relative to the control. Embryonic exposure to UV-P might have perturbed male sex steroid synthesis as indicated by small changes in blood plasma concentrations of 17β-estradiol and 11-ketotestosterone, and small statistically nonsignificant decreases in mRNA abundances of cyp19a1a, cyp11c1, and hsd17b3. In addition, decreased transcript abundances of genes involved in spermatogenesis, such as nanos2 and dazl, were observed. Decreases in later stages of sperm development were observed, suggesting that embryonic exposure to UV-P impaired spematogenesis, resulting in decreased sperm quantity. The present study is the first to demonstrate latent effects of BUVSs, specifically on fish reproduction. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:385–397. © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Motor Competence And Body Mass Index In The Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis Of 5545 Children From Eight Countries, Clarice Martins, Vicente Romo-Perez, E. Kipling Webster, Michael Duncan, Luís Filipe Lemos, Amanda E. Staiano, Anthony Okely, Daniele Magistro, Fabio Carlevaro, Farid Bardid, Francesca Magno, Glauber Nobre, Isaac Estevan, Jorge Mota, Ke Ning, Leah E. Robinson, Matthieu Lenoir, Minghui Quan, Nadia C. Valentini, Penny Cross, Rachel Jones, Rafael Henrique, Si Tong Chen, Yucui Diao, Paulo R. Bandeira, Lisa M. Barnett

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background and Objective: One in five preschool children are overweight/obese, and increased weight status over time increases the risks of poorer future health. Motor skill competence may be a protective factor, giving children the ability to participate in health-enhancing physical activity. Yet, we do not know when the relationship between motor competence and weight status first emerges or whether it is evident across the body mass index (BMI) spectrum. This study examined the association between motor skill competence and BMI in a multi-country sample of 5545 preschoolers (54.36 ± 9.15 months of age; 50.5% boys) from eight countries. Methods: Quantile …

Opposing Genetic Patterns Of Range Shifting Temperate And Tropical Gastropods In An Area Undergoing Tropicalisation, Karolina M. Zarzyczny, Michael E. Hellberg, Elena B. Lugli, Moira Maclean, David A. Paz-García, Marc Rius, Ethan G. Ross, Erick X. Treviño Balandra, James Vanstone, Suzanne T. Williams, Phillip B. Fenberg

Faculty Publications

Aim: The poleward range expansion of tropical species, and range contraction of temperate species (known as tropicalisation) has mainly been studied from an ecological perspective, with little research on its genetic consequences. Here, we used distributional and genetic data to document the consequences of tropicalisation in rocky shore gastropods and assess more broadly the future implications of tropicalisation on phylogeographic patterns. Location: Nineteen sampling sites along >3000 km of the eastern Pacific rocky intertidal zone, from the tip of the Baja California Peninsula to southern California. Taxon: Temperate gastropods: Lottia conus, L. strigatella, Fissurella volcano and Tegula gallina. Tropical gastropods: …

Mapping Crown Rust Resistance In The Oat Diploid Accession Pi 258731 (Avena Strigosa), Rawnaq N. Chowdhury, Tyler Gordon, Md Ali Babar, Stephen A. Harrison, Shahryar F. Kianian, Kathy Esvelt Klos

Faculty Publications

Oat crown rust, caused by Puccinia coronata Corda f. sp. avenae Eriks. (Pca), is a major biotic impediment to global oat production. Crown rust resistance has been described in oat diploid species A. strigosa accession PI 258731 and resistance from this accession has been successfully introgressed into hexaploid A. sativa germplasm. The current study focuses on 1) mapping the location of QTL containing resistance and evaluating the number of quantitative trait loci (QTL) conditioning resistance in PI 258731; 2) understanding the relationship between the original genomic location in A. strigosa and the location of the introgression in the A. sativa …

Simultaneous Detection And Quantification Of Multiple Pathogen Targets In Wastewater, Gouthami Rao, Drew Capone, Kevin Zhu, Abigail Knoble, Yarrow Linden, Ryan Clark, Amanda Lai, Juhee Kim, Ching Hua Huang, Aaron Bivins, Joe Brown

Faculty Publications

Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a critical tool for public health surveillance, building on decades of environmental surveillance work for pathogens such as poliovirus. Work to date has been limited to monitoring a single pathogen or small numbers of pathogens in targeted studies; however, few studies consider simultaneous quantitative analysis of a wide variety of pathogens, which could greatly increase the utility of wastewater surveillance. We developed a novel quantitative multi-pathogen surveillance approach (35 pathogen targets including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and helminths) using TaqMan Array Cards (TAC) and applied the method on concentrated wastewater samples collected at four wastewater treatment …

59th Student Senate Week 2 Meeting Minutes, Zoe Joubert

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Parental Environnement Influences Offspring Gene Expression In The Olympia Oyster, Ostrea Lurida., Mark S. Yeats

LSU Master's Theses

The Olympia Oyster is the only native oyster species on the Pacific coast of North America. Seasonality in water temperatures across this threatened species’ broad and fragmented range has been linked to its development, reproductive timing, reproductive activity, growth, and survival rates. Recent evidence suggests parental environments can have carry-over effects on larval growth and respiration rates in response to temperature. In this study, we utilized transcriptomic methods to identify the underlying mechanisms of this cross-generation plasticity. Sequence libraries of adult ctenidia tissue and pooled larval replicates were extracted and spawned from hatchery raised oysters of the same parentage immediately …

Women At Work: Pathways From Gender Stereotypes To Gender Bias And Discrimination, Madeline E. Heilman, Suzette Caleo, Francesca Manzi

Faculty Publications

Despite important advances, gender-based discrimination continues to hin-der women’s career progress. This review examines the role that gender stereotypes play in promoting gender bias and discrimination. After review- ing what is known about the content of gender stereotypes and examining both their descriptive and prescriptive aspects, we discuss two pathways through which stereotypes result in discrepant work outcomes for women and men. First, we consider how the characterization of women as com- munal but not agentic conflicts with the perceived demands of many male gender-typed jobs and fields, thus promoting perceptions of women’s lack of competence in those areas. Second, …

Incubating Education: The Lived Experiences Of Louisiana Elementary And Middle School Teachers When Piloting A 4-H Stem School Enrichment Curriculum, Crystal Rose Ahrens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study addressed a deficiency in the agricultural literacy of the U.S. population by focusing on the challenges that core subject teachers face when integrating agriculture into their curriculum. Using a phenomenological research approach, this investigation explored the lived experiences of Louisiana teachers who piloted a 4-H STEM curriculum, focusing on the growth in agricultural literacy of the teachers while instructing third and eighth-grade students on the agricultural-based and STEM-focused topic of embryology. Employing a transcendental phenomenological approach, I acknowledged my biases through reflexivity and adhered to ethical considerations, including informed consent and confidentiality. Key findings emerged through four themes …

If You Build It, Will They Come? Assessing Habitat Quality For Marsh Birds At Created Marshes In Southeastern Louisiana, Katherine Aylett Lipford

LSU Master's Theses

Wetland loss occurs at an alarming pace globally, with extremely high rates along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana loses a football field of wetland every 100 minutes: that is 77,000 m² of wetland bird habitat lost daily. In Louisiana, marsh creation projects combat wetland loss, and while wildlife habitat is often used as a justification for restoration, wildlife receives little to no consideration during and after construction. Habitat characteristics such as site-specific hydrology, vegetation composition, and habitat structure affect the abundance of wetland birds and understanding these features is crucial to creating habitat that will benefit birds. My …

The Relationship Between The Saharan Air Layer, Convective Environmental Conditions, And Precipitation In Puerto Rico, P. W. Miller, C. Ramseyer

Faculty Publications

The Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is a hot, dry, and dust-laden feature that advects large concentrations of dust across the Atlantic annually to destination regions in the Americas and Caribbean. However, recent work has suggested the SAL may be a contributing factor to high-impact drought in the Caribbean basin. While the SAL's characteristic dust loadings have been the focus of much previous research, fewer efforts have holistically engaged the co-evolution of the dust plume, its associated convective environment, and resultant rainfall in Caribbean islands. This study employs a self-organizing map (SOM) classification to identify the common trans-Atlantic dust transport typologies …

The Ecological Responses To Hydroperiod Of Wetland Plant Species Determined By Manipulated Soil Surface Elevation (Marsh Organs), Brandon Wolff

LSU Master's Theses

As sea level rise, subsidence, and abandonment of natural deltaic processes due to a highly engineered Mississippi River continue to threaten Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, the need for a system-wide understanding of natural wetland land-building and preservation processes has never been greater. A key component of any wetland is the ever-changing water environment that periodically floods and dries the marsh platforms. The flooding depth, duration, and frequency, known as the hydroperiod, along with salinity and soil fertility are key determining factors of vegetation and marsh types at a particular location. Different types of vegetation will have different growth characteristics such as …

Soil Improvement Using Fungal Mycelium Of Trichoderma Virens And Construction Techniques Of Mud Dauber, Park Joon Soo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Traditional ground improvement techniques involve high energy consumption and expensive and invasive earthworks. To develop sustainable ground improvement techniques, extensive research has explored biological processes and strategies. This dissertation identifies two organisms, fungal mycelium and mud dauber wasp, as sources of utilization and inspiration for the development of sustainable soil improvement techniques.

Filamentous fungi can form a root-like interconnected complex network known as fungal mycelium. Fungal mycelium can extend through soil pores and secrete hydrophobic compounds, binding soil particles and increasing soil water repellency. This dissertation conducted experimental studies to investigate the effects of fungal mycelium on hydraulic and mechanical …

Machine Learning-Based Soybean Yield Prediction And Optimizing Lidar-Mounted Uav Efficiency, Leticia Santos

LSU Master's Theses

The first chapter of this thesis explores the predictive capabilities of random forests algorithm on datasets obtained from field plot experiments on crop management systems in soybean. Furthermore, the chapter presents a complementary analysis of model performance according to dataset sizes and two techniques on how to impute and deal with missing data. Random forests are being compared with standard statistical techniques such as linear regression on a well-structured, information-rich agronomic experiment. The key findings of this chapter includes the best hyperparameters adjustment and the identification of the dataset threshold for optimal algorithms performance. The second chapter has a research …

Scenario Setup And Forcing Data For Impact Model Evaluation And Impact Attribution Within The Third Round Of The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (Isimip3a), Katja Frieler, Jan Volkholz, Stefan Lange, Jacob Schewe, Matthias Mengel, María Del Rocío Rivas López, Christian Otto, Christopher P.O. Reyer, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Johanna T. Malle, Simon Treu, Christoph Menz, Julia L. Blanchard, Cheryl S. Harrison, Colleen M. Petrik, Tyler D. Eddy, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Camilla Novaglio, Yannick Rousseau, Reg A. Watson, Charles Stock, Xiao Liu, Ryan Heneghan, Derek Tittensor, Olivier Maury, Matthias Büchner, Thomas Vogt, Tingting Wang, Fubao Sun, Inga J. Sauer, Johannes Koch, Inne Vanderkelen, Jonas Jägermeyr

Faculty Publications

This paper describes the rationale and the protocol of the first component of the third simulation round of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3a, http://www.isimip.org, last access: 2 November 2023) and the associated set of climate-related and direct human forcing data (CRF and DHF, respectively). The observation-based climate-related forcings for the first time include high-resolution observational climate forcings derived by orographic downscaling, monthly to hourly coastal water levels, and wind fields associated with historical tropical cyclones. The DHFs include land use patterns, population densities, information about water and agricultural management, and fishing intensities. The ISIMIP3a impact model simulations driven …

Attochemistry Regulation Of Charge Migration, Aderonke Folorunso

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Charge migration (CM) is a coherent attosecond process that involves the movement of localized holes across a molecule. This phenomenon is potentially useful to understand the fundamental principles of photochemistry, such as light harvesting. The first part of this dissertation discusses the molecular modes of attosecond charge migration. In this work, we used first-principles calculations to investigate the modes of charge migration (CM) in halogenated hydrocarbon chains at attosecond timescales. We have simulated the creation of a localized hole on the halogen atom using constrained density functional theory (DFT) and then tracked its subsequent dynamics with time-dependent DFT (TDDFT). Our …

Subsurface Redox Interactions Regulate Ebullitive Methane Flux In Heterogeneous Mississippi River Deltaic Wetland, Jiaze Wang, Theresa O'Meara, Sophie Lafond-Hudson, Songjie He, Kanchan Maiti, Eric J. Ward, Benjamin N. Sulman

Faculty Publications

As interfaces connecting terrestrial and ocean ecosystems, coastal wetlands develop temporally and spatially complex redox conditions, which drive uncertainties in greenhouse gas emission as well as the total carbon budget of the coastal ecosystem. To evaluate the role of complex redox reactions in methane emission from coastal wetlands, a coupled reactive-transport model was configured to represent subsurface biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, along with production and transport of multiple gas species through diffusion and ebullition. This model study was conducted at multiple sites along a salinity gradient in the Barataria Basin at the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain. Over …

Charting The Scorched Trails: A Comparative Analysis Of Roadway Damage From Historical Megafires To The Unprecedented 2020 Labor Day Wildfires On The Usa West Coast, Kevin Christiansen, Ayat Al Assi, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Robert V. Rohli

Faculty Publications

Roadways in the US states of Washington (WA), Oregon (OR), and California (CA) incurred extraordinary damage during the 2020 Labor Day wildfires. However, the cost and risk of these fires have not been placed in a historical perspective. This study examines the damage to roadways affected by the 2020 Labor Day wildfires in relation to the history of megafires in WA (1902–2023), OR (1845– 2023), and CA (1889–2023) using carefully selected data sets gathered from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). A method for classifying road damage from …

Identifying And Filling Critical Knowledge Gaps Can Optimize Financial Viability Of Blue Carbon Projects In Tidal Wetlands, Tim J.B. Carruthers, S. Beaux Jones, Megan K. Terrell, Jonathan F. Scheibly, Brendan J. Player, Valerie A. Black, Justin R. Ehrenwerth, Patrick D. Biber, Rod M. Connolly, Steve Crooks, Jason P. Curole, Kelly M. Darnell, Alyssa M. Dausman, Allison L. Dejong, Shawn M. Doyle, Christopher R. Esposito, Daniel A. Friess, James W. Fourqurean, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Gabriel D. Grimsditch, Songjie He, Eva R. Hillmann, Guerry O. Holm, Jennifer Howard, Hoonshin Jung, Stacy D. Jupiter, Erin Kiskaddon, Ken W. Krauss, Paul S. Lavery, Bingqing Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Sarah K. Mack, Peter I. Macreadie

Faculty Publications

One of the world’s largest “blue carbon” ecosystems, Louisiana’s tidal wetlands on the US Gulf of Mexico coast, is rapidly being lost. Louisiana’s strong legal, regulatory, and monitoring framework, developed for one of the world’s largest tidal wetland systems, provides an opportunity for a programmatic approach to blue carbon accreditation to support restoration of these ecologically and economically important tidal wetlands. Louisiana’s coastal wetlands span ∼1.4 million ha and accumulate 5.5–7.3 Tg yr⁻¹ of blue carbon (organic carbon), ∼6%–8% of tidal marsh blue carbon accumulation globally. Louisiana has a favorable governance framework to advance blue carbon accreditation, due to …

Habitat Use And Movements Of Parrotfishes In A Hawaiian Coral Reef Seascape, Senifa F. Annandale, Jason P. Turner, Daniel L. Lippi, Michael Dance, R. J.David Wells, Jay R. Rooker

Faculty Publications

Parrotfishes (family Scaridae) are important to coral reef ecosystems and highly prized by both commercial and recreational fishers in the Hawaiian Islands. Although parrotfishes are known to be strictly diurnal, our knowledge of their habitat use and movement patterns across daily timescales in tropical systems is still somewhat limited. Here, acoustic telemetry was used to determine parrotfish habitat use and movements within a coral reef seascape at Puakō, Hawai‘i. An array of acoustic receivers was deployed in a nearshore reef to track fine-scale movements of two common species: ember parrotfish (Scarus rubroviolaceus) and palenose parrotfish (Scarus psittacus). Transmitters were mounted …

Variability In Estuarine Habitat Use Of A Threatened Species In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico: Implications For Coastal Restoration, Jenna N. Brogdon, Ashley Baer, Glenn Constant, Cassandra N. Glaspie, Michael D. Miner, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Michael A. Dance

Faculty Publications

Coastal restoration projects often require sediment resources borrowed from estuarine or marine ecosystems. A generalized additive modeling (GAM) framework was used to characterize fish-habitat relationships and predict spatiotemporal and ontogenetic shifts of Gulf sturgeon distribution within an impacted estuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain. Habitat use and movement of Gulf sturgeon (n = 103) was monitored using an array of acoustic receivers (n = 81) from 2016 to 2019. Telemetry data was paired with environmental conditions hindcast from a high-resolution hydrodynamic model to develop GAMs for three life stages of Gulf sturgeon: juvenile, sub-adult, and adult. Model …

Fascism: A Reading List With Notes, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

Today, Fascism is on the rise around the world including, dismayingly, in the United States of America, threatening the rule of law, which is the basis of democracy. In the U. S. Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican nominee for president, has declared himself the standard bearer for authoritarian rule. If he wins, it is likely the United States will cease to be a democracy. If democracy is to survive, it is essential that citizens understand fascism, how it comes into existence, and what it does once it has taken root is essential. That is the reason for this reading list.

Serine Proteinase Inhibitors From Nicotiana Benthamiana, A Nonpreferred Host Plant, Inhibit The Growth Of Myzus Persicae (Green Peach Aphid), Honglin Feng, Georg Jander

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) is a severe agricultural crop pest that has developed resistance to most current control methods, requiring the urgent development of novel strategies. Plant proteinase inhibitors (PINs) are small proteins that protect plants against pathogens and/or herbivores, likely by preventing efficient protein digestion. RESULTS: We identified 67 protease genes in the transcriptomes of three M. persicae lineages (USDA-Red, G002 and G006). Comparison of gene expression levels in aphid guts and whole aphids showed that several proteases, including a highly expressed serine protease, are significantly overexpressed in the guts. Furthermore, we identified three genes encoding …

Registration Of ‘Ho 13-739’ Sugarcane, James R. Todd, Anna L. Hale, Yong Bao Pan, Thomas L. Tew, William H. White, Edwis O. Dufrene, Michael P. Grisham, Jeff Hoy, Hannah J. Penn, Blake Wilson, Albert Orgeron, Herman Waguespack, Michael Pontif, Kenneth A. Gravois, Windell R. Jackson, Michael J. Duet, Cory Landry, David L. Verdun

Faculty Publications

‘Ho 13-739’ (Reg. no. CV-214, PI 703499) sugarcane (a Saccharum spp. complex polyploid) was selected and evaluated by scientists at the USDA-ARS in Houma, LA, in cooperation with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and the American Sugar Cane League, Inc. It was released to growers in Louisiana in 2020. Results from evaluations in plant-cane and first- and second-ratoon crops at 13 field locations revealed that sucrose content and stalk weight of Ho 13-739 were significantly greater than ‘L 01-299’ in every crop and across the crop cycle. Sucrose yield was not significantly different than L 01-299 for all crops …