Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Louisiana State University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 9721 - 9750 of 13617

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Winter Bird Use Of The Chinese Tallow Tree In Louisiana, Michael John Baldwin Jan 2005

Winter Bird Use Of The Chinese Tallow Tree In Louisiana, Michael John Baldwin

LSU Master's Theses

Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera) is a non-native invasive tree that is of particular concern in the Southeastern United States. It has become naturalized in a variety of habitats and can be found in monospecific stands. The use of tallow woodlands by overwintering birds is poorly documented. I compared use of tallow woodlands to use of bottomland hardwood forests by birds in the Mermentau River Basin, Louisiana. Species richness and evenness were greater in the bottomland hardwood sites. Three species were more abundant in tallow woodlands, six species were more common in bottomland hardwoods, and six species exhibited no difference between …

Go to article

Biologically Inspired Learning System, Patrick Mcdowell Jan 2005

Biologically Inspired Learning System, Patrick Mcdowell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Learning Systems used on robots require either a-priori knowledge in the form of models, rules of thumb or databases or require that robot to physically execute multitudes of trial solutions. The first requirement limits the robot’s ability to operate in unstructured changing environments, and the second limits the robot’s service life and resources. In this research a generalized approach to learning was developed through a series of algorithms that can be used for construction of behaviors that are able to cope with unstructured environments through adaptation of both internal parameters and system structure as a result of a goal based …

Go to article

A Radiographic Study Of The Impact Of Race And Sex On 1st And 2nd Molar Development, Suzanne Price Jan 2005

A Radiographic Study Of The Impact Of Race And Sex On 1st And 2nd Molar Development, Suzanne Price

LSU Master's Theses

The assessment of child development requires standards in order to compare an apparent physiologic age to an actual chronological age. In assessing chronological age of an individual, the use of multiple indicators is ideal and important in determining age at death. For individuals under the age of about 21 years, dental development is the most reliable indicator of age. Research aimed at understanding the variation in tooth formation due to race and sex will help to more accurately determine the age at death of remains of subadult individuals. This project examined the impact of race, sex, and time period on …

Go to article

Estimating The Postmortem Interval In Forensic Cases Through The Analysis Of Postmortem Deterioration Of Human Head Hair, Jamie Hughes Collier Jan 2005

Estimating The Postmortem Interval In Forensic Cases Through The Analysis Of Postmortem Deterioration Of Human Head Hair, Jamie Hughes Collier

LSU Master's Theses

Establishing the postmortem interval (PMI) of a decedent is one of the most important responsibilities a forensic investigator may face. An accurate PMI may aid in the identification of not only the victim, but also a suspect. Although many methods for determining time since death have been proposed, there is still a need to establish more reliable dating techniques. This study determines whether head hair from an individual deteriorates uniformly and if so, what association cuticle damage, fungal growth, and changes in proximal end morphology may have with PMI. Fifteen to 25 scalp hairs were pulled from nine cadavers located …

Go to article

Control Of Vibrio Vulnificus And Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Oysters, Ligia Virginia Antonia Da Silva Jan 2005

Control Of Vibrio Vulnificus And Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Oysters, Ligia Virginia Antonia Da Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are gram-negative halophilic bacteria found in the natural aquatic environment. V. vulnifcus and V. parahaemolyticus have been implicated in foodborne illness and can cause gastroenteritis that has been associated with consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. V. vulnificus can cause primary septicemia after its ingestion, and secondary septicemia through skin lesions in individuals with preexisting conditions such as elevated serum iron levels. Bacteriophages, viruses that invade and lyse bacteria, specific to V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus are naturally found in seawater and oysters. Every summer, the oyster industry is threatened by recall of oysters due …

Go to article

An Application Of Parallel Computation To Collaborative Optimization, Shahab Nayyer Jan 2005

An Application Of Parallel Computation To Collaborative Optimization, Shahab Nayyer

LSU Master's Theses

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) has evolved as a discipline which provides a body of methods and techniques to assist engineers in solving large scale design problems. There are many frameworks for formulating MDO problems. These frameworks can be broadly classified as single-level or bi-level formulations. Collaborative Optimization (CO) is one of the popular bi-level formulations to solve an MDO problem. There are numerous design optimization problems which are highly CPU time intensive and require a long simulation time. With the advent of cheaper and faster available PC’s, distributed parallel computer clusters have become very popular. These clusters provide large computing …

Go to article

Purification And Structural Characterization Of Caged Dna Oligonucleotides, Brendan Michael Mcadams Jan 2005

Purification And Structural Characterization Of Caged Dna Oligonucleotides, Brendan Michael Mcadams

LSU Master's Theses

“Cage” molecules reversibly block the bioactivity of a target substrate molecule by a photolyzable covalent bond formed at a functional site of the target molecule. The attachment of cage molecules to DNA oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) to transiently block bioactivity, and site-specific restoration of bioactivity using targeted light exposure, would enable a new method of control for use in gene therapy, molecular/DNA computing, molecular biology, and drug delivery. The reaction of the cage molecule 1-(4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrophenyl)diazoethane (DMNPE) with DNA ODNs in an batch reaction yields a mixture of products with varying degrees of caging. Purification and verification of the hypothesized site of DMNPE …

Go to article

Comorbidity Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Low Income Urban Youth, Karen Ann Laslie Jan 2005

Comorbidity Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Low Income Urban Youth, Karen Ann Laslie

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic exposure to violence is becoming increasingly common for urban children, placing them at an increased risk of developing psychopathology. For children exposed to chronic violence, two common diagnoses are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, symptom overlap between these disorders has made differential diagnosis difficult. Most studies looking at the comorbidity between ADHD and PTSD have focused only on maltreated children. This study is the first to look at comorbid rates of ADHD and PTSD for children exposed to chronic violence, not limited to maltreatment. Specifically, this study evaluated rates of PTSD symptoms in children with …

Go to article

Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh Jan 2005

Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complaints of ADHD symptoms in college students are not uncommon and college students frequently self-refer for assessment of ADHD. Some may seek out a diagnosis to obtain academic accommodations and/or stimulant medication. Diagnosing ADHD in college students is largely reliant on self-report measures, and to a lesser extent, objective measures of attention. The typical college student has easy access to information about ADHD, potentially facilitating efforts to simulate self-reported symptoms. The present study examined the ability of college students to effectively simulate ADHD on objective and self-report measures of attention, and examined the relationship between knowledge of ADHD and ability …

Go to article

Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gas-Phase Voc Mixtures, Bing Qi Jan 2005

Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gas-Phase Voc Mixtures, Bing Qi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biological processes are increasingly used for treatment of air streams contaminated by biodegradable volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The research described in this dissertation involves systematic investigation of various facets of applying biological processes dominated by fungi to remove mixtures of VOCs representative of emissions from paint application and manufacturing. Screening studies were first conducted to assess the ability of multiple fungal species to degrade various industrially important VOCs. In the following phases of the research, studies were conducted to evaluate performance of laboratory-scale bioreactors inoculated with fungi for treatment of mixtures of VOCs representative of emissions from paint spray booths …

Go to article

Speciation, Equilibrium Distribution And Kinetics Of Rainfall-Runoff Phosphorus In Adsorptive-Filtration Unit Operations And Processes, Jia Ma Jan 2005

Speciation, Equilibrium Distribution And Kinetics Of Rainfall-Runoff Phosphorus In Adsorptive-Filtration Unit Operations And Processes, Jia Ma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the influence of hydrology on rainfall runoff phosphorus partitioning between aqueous and particulate-bound phase, and dissolved phosphorus speciation at the upper end of a Cementitious Porous Pavement (CPP) small urban watershed. This study also investigated particulate bound phosphorus temporal distribution during storm event and phosphorus equilibrium distribution on a wide gradation of solids captured by hydrodynamic separator after the storm completed. Results indicate that EMC of urban rainfall runoff phosphorus exceeds EPA water quality criteria, with majority of particulate-bound phosphorus while rainfall by itself contains non-comparable low concentration of phosphorus. Dissolved phosphorus was mainly H2PO4- and HPO4-2 …

Go to article

Aspects Of The Life History, Ecophysiology, Bioenergetics, And Population Dynamics Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus, In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Julie Ann Neer Jan 2005

Aspects Of The Life History, Ecophysiology, Bioenergetics, And Population Dynamics Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus, In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Julie Ann Neer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The cownose ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, is an elasmobranch commonly observed throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Cownose rays appear to be sensitive to water temperature. I performed laboratory experiments and collected field data to obtain basic life history information, and used the information to configure an individual-based bioenergetics model. The bioenergetics model was coupled to a matrix projection model, and the coupled models were used to predict how warmer and cooler water temperatures, compared to current conditions, would affect the growth and population dynamics of the cownose rays. The life history study determined weight at age, maturity by weight, and fecundity …

Go to article

Thermo And Kinetic Studies On The Sorption And Desorption Of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants In Sediments, Yunzhou Chai Jan 2005

Thermo And Kinetic Studies On The Sorption And Desorption Of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants In Sediments, Yunzhou Chai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the correlation of desorption resistance of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in sediment and the heterogeneity of sediment organic matter (SOM). The amorphous and condensed phase organic carbon contents were defined by the method of Gustafsson et al. (1997) using thermal oxidation of sediment under 375°C. The desorption-resistant fraction of contaminants in sediments was operationally defined as the fraction that could not be removed by the adsorbent XAD-2. The correlation of the desorption-resistant fraction with sediment organic carbon characteristics was evaluated for both laboratory-inoculated and field-contaminated sediments. No strong correlation between the desorption resistant fraction in laboratory-inoculated sediments …

Go to article

Temporal And Spatial Harvest Patterns Of River Otter In Louisiana And Its Potential Use As A Bioindicator Species Of Water Quality, Daniel Gustavo Scognamillo Jan 2005

Temporal And Spatial Harvest Patterns Of River Otter In Louisiana And Its Potential Use As A Bioindicator Species Of Water Quality, Daniel Gustavo Scognamillo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Louisiana is the leading state in number of river otters used in reintroduction programs in other states and in the production of pelts. However, habitat loss and degradation have prompted concern about the status of otter populations. This dissertation undertakes a spatial and temporal analysis of river otter harvest activity and examines environmental factors related to monitoring mercury levels in streams in Louisiana. Harvest data for 1957-2004 were analyzed to identify spatial and temporal trends in otter harvest activity. Changes have occurred in the last 20 years in the spatial dynamics of otter harvest in Louisiana, these include an increasing …

Go to article

Synthesis Of Symmetric And Asymmetric Water-Soluble Porphyrin Derivatives, Caroline Owendi Ongayi Jan 2005

Synthesis Of Symmetric And Asymmetric Water-Soluble Porphyrin Derivatives, Caroline Owendi Ongayi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Novel symmetric and asymmetric water-soluble tetrabenzoporphyrin are synthesized in relatively good yields. These compounds are synthesized by the condensation of butanopyrrole with several aldehydes that contain masked water solubilizing groups followed by metal insertion, oxidation and demetallation and deprotection of the masked solubilizing groups. The biological evaluation (in vitro and in vivo) studies are described in addition to the photophysical evaluations of the corresponding compounds. A novel versatile route to the syntheses of novel free-bases and metallo-benzoylbiliverdin is discussed. The treatment of metal free-dodecasubstituted porphyrin with sodium nitrite and trifluoroacetic acid at room temperature in the presence of oxygen affords …

Go to article

Master Planning Communities With Wildlife In Mind, Helen A. Peebles Jan 2005

Master Planning Communities With Wildlife In Mind, Helen A. Peebles

LSU Master's Theses

Master-planned communities can be designed for the protection of wildlife while providing an aesthetically pleasing, eco-friendly, and affordable community for people. This study was conceived from a background of academic studies in plant biology, forestry, and landscape architecture, and a desire to rescue wildlife habitat from the encroachment of urban sprawl. A variety of books and periodicals were consulted, along with a few web sites. The primary threats to wildlife habitat are habitat fragmentation, pollution, and exotic invasive species of plants, animals, insects, and diseases. Many aspects of planning are addressed, including wildlife corridors, site selection, connecting habitat patches, and …

Go to article

Effects Of Body Size On Goose Behavior: Lesser Snow Goose And Ross's Goose, Jon Einar Jonsson Jan 2005

Effects Of Body Size On Goose Behavior: Lesser Snow Goose And Ross's Goose, Jon Einar Jonsson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Body size is highly variable among geese, both at intra- and interspecific levels. Interspecific variation in several behaviors has been attributed to differences in body size in geese: incubation constancy, tendency to maintain family units, and time spent foraging. Body size has important physiological implications for birds, mostly because mass-specific metabolic rate is greater for birds of smaller mass. The Body-size Hypothesis predicts that smaller species deplete their energy reserves at relatively faster rates than do larger species. Hypotheses and conclusions concerning effects of body size on waterfowl behavior often are based on comparisons of species that confront different climates, …

Go to article

The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model Of Hostility As A Predictor Of Coronary Heart Disease, Karen Grothe Jan 2005

The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model Of Hostility As A Predictor Of Coronary Heart Disease, Karen Grothe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the number one killer for both men and women in the United States today. African Americans are particularly at risk, due to higher prevalence rates and mortality related to CHD (American Heart Association, 2003). Less than half of the new cases of CHD can be predicted with known risk factors (tobacco use, obesity, hypertension), which suggests the possible influence of personality or additional behavioral factors. Hostility is a psychological variable that has been consistently related to health outcomes, particularly to CHD. While the exact mechanism linking hostility to health is currently unknown, a psychosocial vulnerability …

Go to article

Molecular Recognition And Its Underlying Mechanisms In Molecularly Imprinted Polymers, Ryan Simon Jan 2005

Molecular Recognition And Its Underlying Mechanisms In Molecularly Imprinted Polymers, Ryan Simon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular recognition in molecularly imprinting polymers (MIPs) is governed by two mechanisms: pre-organization of functional groups and shape specificity of the binding site. While pre-organization of functional groups has been studied extensively, shape specificity of the binding site has not been rigorously explored. The goal of this research is to determine the influence of shape specificity on molecular recognition in MIPs (Chapter 2). Once shape selectivity was proven to play a vital role in molecular recognition, it was important to determine if pre-organization of functional groups or shape specificity was the dominating factor in determining molecular recognition in the binding …

Go to article

Associating Molecular Markers With Phenotypes In Sweetpotatoes And Liriopogons Using Multivariate Statistical Modeling, Thomas Mwamburi Mcharo Jan 2005

Associating Molecular Markers With Phenotypes In Sweetpotatoes And Liriopogons Using Multivariate Statistical Modeling, Thomas Mwamburi Mcharo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Two horticultural crops, the ornamental liriopogon and the sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.], were analyzed for morphological, quantitative and molecular marker variation using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and various multivariate statistical techniques. Ornamental cultivars in genera Liriope and Ophiopogon were analyzed for relatedness using AFLP marker data and statistical clustering methods. Marker data did not substantiate the separation of these two genera. Greater than 95 % of the total genetic variability present was attributed to within group variation (P < 0.05). Trait-linked molecular markers were identified using Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, logistic regression and discriminant analysis in the studies involving sweetpotato. The traits studied included dry matter content, virus disease resistance, root-knot nematode resistance, sugar content and -carotene content. Analysis of molecular variance found significant (P <0.001) differences between two phenotypic groups from unrelated genotypes for dry matter data. Using 14 markers selected through discriminant analysis the phenotypic grouping was validated with a zero error rate. Eighty-seven F1 sweetpotato genotypes from a cross of ‘Tanzania’ and ‘Wagabolige’ landraces were used to generate AFLP and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker profiles for this study. One AFLP marker linked to sweetpotato chlorotic stunt closterovirus resistance and one RAPD marker linked to sweetpotato feathery mottle virus resistance previously identified by traditional mapping strategies were selected plus new markers. Two diverse F1 populations of sweetpotato were used to identify and select markers suitable for identification of plants possessing a resistant reaction to southern root-knot nematode race 3 [Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood]. Results for plant nematode resistance indicated a binomial distribution among the genotypes for population 1 and a normal distribution for population 2. A comparison of the power of discriminant analysis models for southern root-knot nematode resistance class prediction achieved 88% classification efficiencies. An F1 population of 73 clones consisting of parents and half-sibs was grouped into 2 phenotypic classes based on their sugar and ß-carotene content. Logistic regression and discriminant analysis selected meaningful markers that had significant associations with each of the traits. These results validated discriminant analysis and logistic regression as meaningful trait-linked marker selection methods.

Go to article

The Effect Of Dietary Phosphorus Level And Phytase Supplementation On Growth Performance, Bone Breaking Strength, And Phosphorus Excretion In Broilers, Syrena Powell Jan 2005

The Effect Of Dietary Phosphorus Level And Phytase Supplementation On Growth Performance, Bone Breaking Strength, And Phosphorus Excretion In Broilers, Syrena Powell

LSU Master's Theses

This research was conducted to determine the effects of feeding different P levels with and without phytase supplementation on broiler growth performance, bone breaking strength (BBS), and P excretion. An experiment with 4 trials was conducted with 7,840 Ross x Ross straight run broilers. For each trial, 1,960 broilers were allotted on d 0 to 4 treatments with 7 replications per treatment with 70 broilers per replication. The broilers were fed a 4 period feeding program consisting of starter (0 to 14 d), grower (14 to 32 d), finisher (32 to 41 d), and withdrawal (41 to 50 d) periods. …

Go to article

The Importance Of Size And Shape In Imprinted Polymers, Jason Campbell Jan 2005

The Importance Of Size And Shape In Imprinted Polymers, Jason Campbell

LSU Master's Theses

The existence of shape selectivity in non-covalent molecularly imprinted polymers has been proven using molecular probes. A series of amines varying with different structural motifs and secondary amines with different sized side chains were imprinted, and binding evaluated by HPLC for each amine on polymers imprinted with similar amines. Trends in the binding relationships revealed two major contributions of cavity structure on selectivity afforded by molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). First, sterics play a dominant role in cases where a molecules structure is too big too fit into an imprinted site formed from a smaller template molecule. Second, molecular structures that …

Go to article

Sacred Trust: The Voluntary Removal And Reburial Of Human Remains From A Historic Cemetery In Louisiana, Christian Williamson Jan 2005

Sacred Trust: The Voluntary Removal And Reburial Of Human Remains From A Historic Cemetery In Louisiana, Christian Williamson

LSU Master's Theses

Members of the Randolph family, a prominent plantation family that has lived in Louisiana since the late eighteenth century, contacted a team of anthropologists from Louisiana State University to help recover thirteen individuals from St. Mary’s Cemetery in Bayou Goula, Louisiana. The cemetery had been abandoned since 1970, its graves overgrown with weeds and desecrated by vandals. Of the thirteen individuals recovered, three sets of remains did not have associated grave markers. These three were taken back to the lab and analyzed using standard forensic procedures. Documentary research on the history of the cemetery, the once associated church, and the …

Go to article

The Yes Men And Activism In The Information Age, Lani Boyd Jan 2005

The Yes Men And Activism In The Information Age, Lani Boyd

LSU Master's Theses

Western history is filled with pranks and trickery intent on enlightening audiences by blending fiction with reality. The Yes Men, an Internet-based activist group, did just that, forging new ground and establishing themselves as political pranksters in a media-dominant global society. With an arsenal of parody, satire, interventions, and tactical obfuscation, the Yes Men attack those who they feel abuse their positions of power. They have impersonated public persons and infamous entities, including President George W. Bush, the World Trade Organization, and Dow Chemical. Their mimicry is so convincing that the audience cannot decipher between satire and the real thing. …

Go to article

Mobile Elements And Primate Genomic Variation, Jinchuan Xing Jan 2005

Mobile Elements And Primate Genomic Variation, Jinchuan Xing

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mobile elements comprise approximately 50% of the human genome and have significant influence on human genomic architecture and stability. SINEs (Short INterspersed Elements) are a class of non-autonomous mobile elements that are usually <500 bp in length and have no open reading frames. As the most successful SINEs in primate, Alu elements have expanded to more than one million copies in the human genome. To understand the biology of Alu family of mobile elements, we first analyzed the AluYd lineage in the human genome. Computational analysis of the AluYd lineage from the human genome draft sequence resulted in the identification of two new AluYd subfamilies, Yd3 and Yd6. Two hundred AluYd3 and Yd6 loci were screened to determine their phylogenetic origin and associated levels of human genomic diversity. Second, we examined the mutation spectra of Alu elements in the human genome. We analyzed the mutation patterns for 5296 Alu elements comprising 20 subfamilies. Our results indicate a relatively constant CpG versus non-CpG substitution ratio of ~6 for the young (AluY) and intermediate (AluS) Alu subfamilies and a more complex non-linear relationship when older (AluJ) subfamilies were included in the analysis. This study provides an updated, more accurate estimate of the disparity in the rate of mutation within Alu elements and provides a better understanding of the CpG decay process during primate evolution. Third, we analyzed the evolutionary history of AluYb lineage. We show that the major AluYb lineage expansion is human specific while the lineage originated in early hominoid evolution. We suggest that the evolutionary success of the Alu family may be driven at least in part by “stealth driver” elements that maintain low retrotranspositional activity over extended periods of time and occasionally produce short-lived hyperactive copies responsible for the formation and remarkable expansion of Alu elements within the genome. Finally, we identified 285 Alu insertion loci that have Alu elements integrated in sixteen different Old World monkey genomes at various time and utilized these elements to construct a phylogenetic tree of Old World monkeys. Our study represents one of the most robust Cercopithecid molecular phylogenies reported to date.

Go to article

Learning Discrete Hidden Markov Models From State Distribution Vectors, Luis G. Moscovich Jan 2005

Learning Discrete Hidden Markov Models From State Distribution Vectors, Luis G. Moscovich

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are probabilistic models that have been widely applied to a number of fields since their inception in the late 1960’s. Computational Biology, Image Processing, and Signal Processing, are but a few of the application areas of HMMs. In this dissertation, we develop several new efficient learning algorithms for learning HMM parameters. First, we propose a new polynomial-time algorithm for supervised learning of the parameters of a first order HMM from a state probability distribution (SD) oracle. The SD oracle provides the learner with the state distribution vector corresponding to a query string. We prove the correctness …

Go to article

The Establishment, Expansion And Ecosystem Effects Of Phragmites Australis, An Invasive Species In Coastal Louisiana, Lee Ellis Stanton Jan 2005

The Establishment, Expansion And Ecosystem Effects Of Phragmites Australis, An Invasive Species In Coastal Louisiana, Lee Ellis Stanton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As biological invasions have become a common phenomenon throughout the world, ecologists have intensified efforts to understand why natural communities are susceptible to invasion. Invading species can cause shifts in community structure that result in irreversible changes to ecosystem function. Phragmites australis has rapidly spread in North American coastal wetlands during the past 50 years and has become a dominant feature in Northern Gulf of Mexico brackish marshes. The rate at which Phragmites is spreading or the mechanisms controlling its establishment in these marshes is unknown. My research objectives were to: (1) determine the spatial and temporal patterns of Phragmites …

Go to article

L-Glutamine Supplementation: Effects On Recovery From Exercise, Tavis Joseph Piattoly Jan 2005

L-Glutamine Supplementation: Effects On Recovery From Exercise, Tavis Joseph Piattoly

LSU Master's Theses

Clinical evidence supports the use for exogenous glutamine in the maintenance of muscle mass and immune system function in critically ill patients. Relatively little research has examined the benefits of glutamine for athletes engaged in heavy exercise training, despite a possible link between overtraining and glutamine. PURPOSE: To examine the influence of Glutamine on time to exhaustion and power after a prolonged bout of exercise. METHODS: Twelve men (Age: 19 to 30y) involved in cycle training were asked to participate in the study. All participants performed a Symptom-Limited Graded Exercise Test (SL-GXT) using the Astrand Cycle protocol. On a subsequent …

Go to article

Adoption In New Orleans: What Agencies Are Doing To Promote It, Emily Barbara Rivers Jan 2005

Adoption In New Orleans: What Agencies Are Doing To Promote It, Emily Barbara Rivers

LSU Master's Theses

Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a national concern in the United States. In addition, many people exist who would like to become parents, but cannot or do not reproduce biologically. While adoption could offer a solution to this problem, the actual number of adoptions that take place is very small. This study examined what adoption agencies in the New Orleans area are doing to promote themselves to women with unwanted pregnancies. In-depth interviews were conducted with five adoption agencies. Three of the five agencies reported using various methods of targeting women with unwanted pregnancies. These methods included public posters, flyers …

Go to article

Energy Aware Topology Control Protocols For Wireless Sensor Networks, Shilpa Dhar Jan 2005

Energy Aware Topology Control Protocols For Wireless Sensor Networks, Shilpa Dhar

LSU Master's Theses

Wireless Sensor Network has emerged as an important technology of the future due to its potential for application across a wide array of domains. The collaborative power of numerous autonomousremote sensing nodes self configured into a multi hop network permits in-depth accurate observation of any physical phenomenon. A stringent set of computational and resource constraints make the design and implementation of sensor networks an arduous task. The issue of optimizing the limited and often non-renewable energy of sensor nodes due to its direct impact on network lifetime dominates every aspect of wireless sensor networks. Existing techniques for optimizing energy consumption …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last