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The Agricultural Industry As Percieved By Members Of The General Public Of Louisiana, Julie Baker Richard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and perceptions of the animal, plant, environmental, and food sciences by the adult residents of Louisiana. This study was conducted using a survey research design. This survey utilized random telephone dialing techniques in order to survey 547 residents of Louisiana. The survey instrument consisted of fifty-five questions divided into three sections: demographic characteristics, agriculture knowledge, and perception of agriculture. The overall mean agriculture knowledge score of adult residents of Louisiana for the twenty items included in the survey instrument equaled 13.60 (SD = 2.743) or 68%. Perceptions of agriculture results …

Development And Application Of An Optimization Model For Elite Level Shot Putting, Michael Young

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Shot putting is one of the most ancient forms of athletic competition. Considerable research has been performed on the event. Despite this fact, research examining performance in the women’s shot put and using the spin technique is very limited. Also, only one attempt has been made to optimize the movement of elite shot putting and no attempts have been made to use the optimization model as a standard for technical training intervention. A series of three experiments were used to explore the development of an optimization model for shot putting and its application as a basis for technical intervention for …

Bottom Boundary Layer Physics And Sediment Transport Along A Transgressive Sand Body, Ship Shoal, South-Central Louisiana: Implications For Fluvial Sediments And Winter Storms, Daijiro Kobashi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ship Shoal, a shore-parallel sand body, was recently recognized as having a unique physical and biological environment and also as a potential sand resource for coastal restoration in coastal Louisiana. Little is known regarding such dynamics, in concert with fluvial sediments and winter storms, influenced in unique ecosystems, and likely in future potential sand mining. This dissertation addresses such the morphodynamics and sedimentary processes and their implications for the mining from the shoal using field measurements and numerical modeling studies. During the winter-spring season, fluvial sediment plumes shifted from the prevailing west to southeast during the post-frontal phases, resulted in …

Merged Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Jianan Dong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ambient ionization allows the analysis of materials in their native environment without sample preparation by creating ions outside the mass spectrometer. The goal of this research was to develop new ambient ionization techniques for application to solids, liquids and particles under ambient conditions. Samples to be analyzed were directly merged with an electrospray of droplets, and then ionized and detected by a mass spectrometer. An ion trap mass spectrometer was modified with a nanoelectrospray source and configured for three experiments: merged electrospray ionization of dry particles, merged electrospray ionization of combustion products, and infrared laser desorption/ablation using electrospray for post-ionization. …

Task Specific Ionic Liquids For Enantiomeric Recognition And Nanomaterials For Biomedical Imaging, David Kipkogei Bwambok

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ionic liquids (ILs) are organic salts that melt at or below 100°C. Interest in ILs continues to grow due to their unique properties such as lack of measurable vapor pressure, high thermal stability, tunability and recyclability. The first part of this dissertation explores the use of chiral ionic liquids (CILs) for enantiomeric recognition of chiral analytes using fluorescence spectroscopy. Chiral analyses continue to be a subject of considerable interest primarily as a result of legislation introduced by the Food and Drug Administration. This has led to an increased need for suitable chiral selectors and methods to verify the enantiomeric forms …

Anthropogenic And Natural Perturbations On Lower Barataria Bay, Louisiana: Detecting Responses Of Marsh-Edge Fishes And Decapod Crustaceans, Agatha-Marie Fuller Roth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Barataria Bay, Louisiana is a dynamic estuary with ongoing disturbances that is in need of restoration. Development and validation of a lower Barataria Bay index of biotic integrity (IBI) for the summer season was the focus of my research. This IBI was created using 2005 data and evaluated with 2006 and 2007 data to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in coastal Louisiana. The IBI successfully distinguished sites with differing levels of degradation using nine fish metrics. While pursuing this effort, two serendipitous events occurred when an oil spill then a hurricane impacted the study area. This gave me opportunities …

Factors That Influence College Students Who Choose Engineering As Their Major To Presist In That Major To Their Fifth Semester, Kelli Elaine Wildman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Individuals, institutions, and society are affected by whether or not students persist in college; therefore, persistence and retention on college campuses is an important topic for higher education systems. However, little research has been done on program retention. Since engineering as a profession is expected to increase, it is imperative to have students persist in the major. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the influence of selected demographic and academic characteristics in the decision of first time in college (FTIC) traditional-age undergraduates who declare engineering as their major at admission to persist in the curriculum from second …

Do Tops Eligibility Requirements Predict In-System College Retention?, Jason J. Droddy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) is a state-funded, merit-based scholarship codified into Louisiana state law in 1997. More than $1 billion in awards have been distributed since the program’s inception. By 2006, eligibility for TOPS required a 2.5 high school grade point average on a legislatively specified 16.5-unit college preparatory curriculum, and a minimum ACT score equivalent to the average of the prior year’s test takers. These rules were believed to promote greater academic preparedness resulting in higher college retention rates. Only recently has the six-year graduation rate for Louisiana’s public universities passed the 30% mark. Since TOPS’ …

Genetic Linkage Map Of Lcp 85-384, Genetic Diversity Of A S. Spontaneum Collection And The Contribution Of S. Spontaneum To Louisiana Commerical Germplasm, Suman Andru

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sequence related amplification polymorphism (SRAP) marker technique was used to assess genetic relationships and diversity among genotypes of Saccharum and allied genera. In the SRAP technique, the primers were arbitrarily designed with an AT- and GC-rich motif to anneal introns and exons, respectively. The level of polymorphism observed proved that the SRAP system was robust and amplified markers across species and genera and established evolutionary history interconnecting members of the Saccharum complex. The resolving power of the SRAP markers coupled with the fact that some of the amplicons could be amplifying gene-rich regions from diverse loci of the genome, was …

Scanning Probe Microscopy Investigations Of (1) Arrays Of Cysteine-Coated Cds Nanoparticles And (2) Structures Formed During The Early Stages Of The Corrosion Of Copper Surfaces, Brian Robert Lewandowski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) characterizations are becoming more prevalent for surface investigations due to their capabilities for obtaining structural information and physical measurements. New capabilities of SPM for studying and controlling nanoscale processes are emerging as valuable assets in research. A fundamental understanding of the interactions of surface reactions provides essential information for developing workable applications for nanotechnology. Two applications of SPM are discussed in this dissertation. The first investigation uses atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the characterization of nanostructures produced with a newly developed lithographic technique called “two-particle” lithography. This new technique is based on particle lithography for the …

Comorbid Psychopathology In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Intellectual Disabilities, Santino Vincent Lovullo

LSU Master's Theses

While there has been an abundance of research investigating Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in children, very little emphasis has been placed on ASD in adults, especially in regards to comorbid psychopathology. This is of great concern considering that ASD often co-occurs with intellectual disability (ID), and that both may serve as risk factors for additional psychopathology. While instruments exist that measure comorbid psychopathology in adults with ID, these scales are not targeted to the unique expression of comorbidity in adults with ID and ASD. The Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbidity for Adults (ASD-CA) was devised for this reason. This paper begins with …

“In The System:” A Qualitative Study Of African-American Women’S Foster Care Stories, Meghan Spell

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Isolation And Characterization Of Bovine Adult Derived Adipose Stem Cells For The Use In Nuclear Transfer, Alicia A. Picou

LSU Master's Theses

Since the cloning of Dolly there has been little change in the efficiency of nuclear transfer (NT). Research is beginning to investigate the characteristics of donor cells. Adiposetissue is an abundant source of adult-derived cells that have displayed “stemness” in-vitro(Gimble et al., 2003). The overall goal of this research was to define the in-vitro characteristicsof bovine adipose-derived adult stem cells (ADAS) for the use in NT. Isolation methods weredetermined by a 3 x 3 factorial design. 1 g of subcutaneous fat was collected and subjected to0.10%, 0.25% or 0.50% collagenase type I solution for 1, 2 and 3 h. Nucleated …

Asynchronous Replication Of Metadata Across Multi-Master Servers In Distributed Data Storage Systems, Ismail Akturk

LSU Master's Theses

In recent years, scientific applications have become increasingly data intensive. The increase in the size of data generated by scientific applications necessitates collaboration and sharing data among the nation's education and research institutions. To address this, distributed storage systems spanning multiple institutions over wide area networks have been developed. One of the important features of distributed storage systems is providing global unified name space across all participating institutions, which enables easy data sharing without the knowledge of actual physical location of data. This feature depends on the ``location metadata'' of all data sets in the system being available to all …

Seasonal Growth And Shading Potential Of Sugarcane (Saccharum Spp. Hybrids) And Shade Response Of Perennial Weeds, Mariana Ferreira Bittencourt

LSU Master's Theses

Seasonal growth characteristics and shading ability of six sugarcane varieties were compared during the second production year. For each variety, trend analysis of data showed a significant linear trend. Differences in shoot emergence among the varieties were observed beginning in early April and as the season progressed, shoot production and shoot height increased for ‘L 97-128’, ‘Ho 95-988’, ‘L 99-226’, and ‘L 99-233’ but lagged for ‘HoCP 96-540’ and ‘LCP 85-384’. Beginning in mid-April ground cover increased most rapidly for L 99-233. In late May ground cover was around 60% for LCP 85-384 and HoCP 96-540; around 70% for L …

Turn-Taking And Gaze Behavior Among Cajun French And Cajun English Speakers In Avoyelles Parish, Andrew Mandell Riviere

LSU Master's Theses

Languages are the verbal and non-verbal codes of a culture. A culture houses a language(s) and is comprised of the gaze and distance/use of personal sphere. Linguists and anthropologists have long since argued over which takes priority: culture or language. French and Louisiana are synonymous: it is unimaginable to picture Louisiana without French because French constitutes the culture in Louisiana. Since linguists have debated the priority of language or culture, looking at Louisiana within the confines of this debate proves informative.

The language shift forced upon the residents of South Louisiana by the 1921 State Legislature made English the sole …

Chromosomal Inversions Between Human And Chimpanzee Lineages Caused By Retrotransposons, Jungnam Lee, Kyudong Han, Thomas J. Meyer, Heui Soo Kim, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

The long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) and Alu elements are the most abundant mobile elements comprising 21% and 11% of the human genome, respectively. Since the divergence of human and chimpanzee lineages, these elements have vigorously created chromosomal rearrangements causing genomic difference between humans and chimpanzees by either increasing or decreasing the size of genome. Here, we report an exotic mechanism, retrotransposon recombination-mediated inversion (RRMI), that usually does not alter the amount of genomic material present. Through the comparison of the human and chimpanzee draft genome sequences, we identified 252 inversions whose respective inversion junctions can clearly be characterized. …

Structure Of A Complete Integrin Ectodomain In A Physiologic Resting State And Activation And Deactivation By Applied Forces, Jianghai Zhu, Bing Hao Luo, Tsan Xiao, Chengzhong Zhang, Noritaka Nishida, Timothy A. Springer

Faculty Publications

The complete ectodomain of integrin αIIbβ3 reveals a bent, closed, low-affinity conformation, the β knee, and a mechanism for linking cytoskeleton attachment to high affinity for ligand. Ca and Mg ions in the recognition site, including the synergistic metal ion binding site (SyMBS), are loaded prior to ligand binding. Electrophilicity of the ligand-binding Mg ion is increased in the open conformation. The β3 knee passes between the β3-PSI and αIIb-knob to bury the lower β leg in a cleft, from which it is released for extension. Different integrin molecules in crystals and EM reveal breathing that appears on pathway to …

Uva-Induced Photo Recovery During Early Zebrafish Embryogenesis, Qiaoxiang Dong, W. Todd Monroe, Terrence R. Tiersch, Kurt R. Svoboda

Faculty Publications

DNA photorepair has been widely studied in simple aquatic organisms that live in the marine environment, but is less understood in more complex species that live in freshwater. In the present study, we evaluated UVA-induced DNA photo recovery in embryonic stages of zebrafish, Danio rerio, a freshwater model species. Evaluation of UVB exposure and UVA photo recovery of zebrafish embryos revealed different UVB tolerances and capacities for UVA photo recovery at different stages of development. Effective UVA photo recovery was observed at 3 h post-fertilization (hpf), 6-7 hpf, and 12 hpf, but not in the early cleavage stage (2-32 cells). …

Two Evolutionarily Conserved Sequence Elements For Peg3/Usp29 Transcription, Jeong Do Kim, Sungryul Yu, Jung Ha Choo, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Background: Two evolutionarily Conserved Sequence Elements, CSE1 and CSE2 (YY1 binding sites), are found within the 3.8-kb CpG island surrounding the bidirectional promoter of two imprinted genes, Peg3 (Paternally expressed gene 3) and Usp29 (Ubiquitin-specific protease 29). This CpG island is a likely ICR (Imprinting Control Region) that controls transcription of the 500-kb genomic region of the Peg3 imprinted domain. Results: The current study investigated the functional roles of CSE1 and CSE2 in the transcriptional control of the two genes, Peg3 and Usp29, using cell line-based promoter assays. The mutation of 6 YY1 binding sites (CSE2) reduced the transcriptional activity …

L1 Recombination-Associated Deletions Generate Human Genomic Variation, Kyudong Han, Jungnam Lee, Thomas J. Meyer, Paul Remedios, Lindsey Goodwin, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Mobile elements have created structural variation in the human genome through their de novo insertions and post-insertional genomic rearrangements. L1 elements are a type of long interspersed element (LINE) that is dispersed at high copy numbers within most mammalian genomes. To determine the magnitude of L1 recombination-associated deletions (L1RADs), we computationally extracted L1RAD candidates by comparing the human and chimpanzee genomes and verified each of the L1RAD events by using wet-bench analyses. Through these analyses, we identified 73 human-specific L1RAD events that occurred subsequent to the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages. Despite their low frequency, the L1RAD events …

Identification Of Adropin As A Secreted Factor Linking Dietary Macronutrient Intake With Energy Homeostasis And Lipid Metabolism, K. Ganesh Kumar, James L. Trevaskis, Daniel D. Lam, Gregory M. Sutton, Robert A. Koza, Vladimir N. Chouljenko, Konstantin G. Kousoulas, Pamela M. Rogers, Robert A. Kesterson, Marie Thearle, Anthony W. Ferrante, Randall L. Mynatt, Thomas P. Burris, Jesse Z. Dong, Heather A. Halem, Michael D. Culler, Lora K. Heisler, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Andrew A. Butler

Faculty Publications

Obesity and nutrient homeostasis are linked by mechanisms that are not fully elucidated. Here we describe a secreted protein, adropin, encoded by a gene, Energy Homeostasis Associated (Enho), expressed in liver and brain. Liver Enho expression is regulated by nutrition: lean C57BL/6J mice fed high-fat diet (HFD) exhibited a rapid increase, while fasting reduced expression compared to controls. However, liver Enho expression declines with diet-induced obesity (DIO) associated with 3 months of HFD or with genetically induced obesity, suggesting an association with metabolic disorders in the obese state. In DIO mice, transgenic overexpression or systemic adropin treatment attenuated hepatosteatosis and …

Identification Of Adropin As A Secreted Factor Linking Dietary Macronutrient Intake With Energy Homeostasis And Lipid Metabolism, K. Ganesh Kumar, James L. Trevaskis, Daniel D. Lam, Gregory M. Sutton, Robert A. Koza, Vladimir N. Chouljenko, Konstantin G. Kousoulas, Pamela M. Rogers, Robert A. Kesterson, Marie Thearle, Anthony W. Ferrante, Randall L. Mynatt, Thomas P. Burris, Jesse Z. Dong, Heather A. Halem, Michael D. Culler, Lora K. Heisler, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Andrew A. Butler

Faculty Publications

Obesity and nutrient homeostasis are linked by mechanisms that are not fully elucidated. Here we describe a secreted protein, adropin, encoded by a gene, Energy Homeostasis Associated (Enho), expressed in liver and brain. Liver Enho expression is regulated by nutrition: lean C57BL/6J mice fed high-fat diet (HFD) exhibited a rapid increase, while fasting reduced expression compared to controls. However, liver Enho expression declines with diet-induced obesity (DIO) associated with 3 months of HFD or with genetically induced obesity, suggesting an association with metabolic disorders in the obese state. In DIO mice, transgenic overexpression or systemic adropin treatment attenuated hepatosteatosis and …

Geographic, Seasonal, And Precipitation Chemistry Influence On The Abundance And Activity Of Biological Ice Nucleators In Rain And Snow, Brent C. Christner, Rongman Cai, Cindy E. Morris, Kevin S. Mccarter, Christine M. Foreman, Mark L. Skidmore, Scott N. Montross, David C. Sands

Faculty Publications

Biological ice nucleators (IN) function as catalysts for freezing at relatively warm temperatures (warmer than -10°C). We examined the concentration (per volume of liquid) and nature of IN in precipitation collected from Montana and Louisiana, the Alps and Pyrenees (France), Ross Island (Antarctica), and Yukon (Canada). The temperature of detectable ice-nucleating activity for more than half of the samples was ≥ -5°C based on immersion freezing testing. Digestion of the samples with lysozyme (i.e., to hydrolyze bacterial cell walls) led to reductions in the frequency of freezing (0-100%); heat treatment greatly reduced (95% average) or completely eliminated ice nucleation at …

Escherichia Coli Ftna Acts As An Iron Buffer For Re-Assembly Of Iron-Sulfur Clusters In Response To Hydrogen Peroxide Stress, Jacob P. Bitoun, Genfu Wu, Huangen Ding

Faculty Publications

Iron-sulfur clusters are one of the most ubiquitous redox centers in biology. Ironically, iron-sulfur clusters are highly sensitive to reactive oxygen species. Disruption of iron-sulfur clusters will not only change the activity of proteins that host iron-sulfur clusters, the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters will further promote the production of deleterious hydroxyl free radicals via the Fenton reaction. Here, we report that ferritin A (FtnA), a major iron-storage protein in Escherichia coli, is able to scavenge the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters and alleviates the production of hydroxyl free radicals. Furthermore, we find that the iron …

Identification Of Two Genes, Sll0804 And Slr1306, As Putative Components Of The Co2-Concentrating Mechanism In The Cyanobacterium Synechocystis Sp. Strain Pcc 6803, Shulu Zhang, Kevin W. Spann, Laurie K. Frankel, James V. Moroney, Terry M. Bricker

Faculty Publications

Insertional transposon mutations in the sll0804 and slr1306 genes were found to lead to a loss of optimal photoautotrophy in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 grown under ambient CO2 concentrations (350 ppm). Mutants containing these insertions (4BA2 and 3ZA12, respectively) could grow photoheterotrophically on glucose or photoautotrophically at elevated CO2 concentrations (50,000 ppm). Both of these mutants exhibited an impaired affinity for inorganic carbon. Consequently, the Sll0804 and Slr1306 proteins appear to be putative components of the carbon-concentrating mechanism in Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Latent Common Genetic Components Of Obesity Traits, B. O. Tayo, R. Harders, A. Luke, X. Zhu, R. S. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Background: Obesity is rapidly becoming a global epidemic. Unlike many complex human diseases, obesity is defined not just by a single trait or phenotype, but jointly by measures of anthropometry and metabolic status. Methods: We applied maximum likelihood factor analysis to identify common latent factors underlying observed covariance in multiple obesity-related measures. Both the genetic components and the mode of inheritance of the common factors were evaluated. A total of 1775 participants from 590 families for whom measures on obesity-related traits were available were included in this study. Results: The average age of participants was 37 years, 39% of the …

Selection And Life History Traits Of Tebufenozide-Resistant Sugarcane Borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), W. Akbar, J. A. Ottea, J. M. Beuzelin, T. E. Reagan, F. Huang

Faculty Publications

Varying susceptibility to tebufenozide was recorded in the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), collected from Louisiana sugarcane locations with different selection pressures. Results from diet incorporation bioassays with tebufenozide indicated significant increases in LC50 (3.78-fold) and LC90 (7-fold) values for a colony from Duson (DU), an area with higher selection pressure, compared with a colony from Alexandria (ALFX), an area with no selection pressure. Differences were not detected in LC50 values among colonies from areas where use of tebufenozide was discontinued or rotated with other chemistries. Selections with tebufenozide of DU larvae over 12 generations resulted in a …

Tfiiic Binding Sites Function As Both Heterochromatin Barriers And Chromatin Insulators In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Tiffany A. Simms, Sandra L. Dugas, Jason C. Gremillion, Megan E. Ibos, M. Nicole Dandurand, Tasha T. Toliver, Daniel J. Edwards, David Donze

Faculty Publications

Chromosomal sites of RNA polymerase III (Pol III) transcription have been demonstrated to have "extratranscriptional" functions, as the assembled Pol III complex can act as chromatin boundaries or pause sites for replication forks, can alter nucleosome positioning or affect transcription of neighboring genes, and can play a role in sister chromatid cohesion. Several studies have demonstrated that assembled Pol III complexes block the propagation of heterochromatin-mediated gene repression. Here we show that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae tRNA genes (tDNAs) and even partially assembled Pol III complexes containing only the transcription factor TFIIIC can exhibit chromatin boundary functions both as heterochromatin barriers …

Host-Pathogen Interactions, Insect Outbreaks, And Natural Selection For Disease Resistance, Bret D. Elderd, Jonathan Dushoff, Greg Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The theory of insect population dynamics has shown that heterogeneity in natural-enemy attack rates is strongly stabilizing. We tested the usefulness of this theory for outbreaking insects, many of which are attacked by infectious pathogens. We measured heterogeneity among gypsy moth larvae in their risk of infection with a nucleopolyhedrovirus, which is effectively heterogeneity in the pathogen's attack rate. Our data show that heterogeneity in infection risk in this insect is so high that it leads to a stable equilibrium in the models, which is inconsistent with the outbreaks seen in North American gypsy moth populations. Our data further suggest …