Digital Commons Network^™

Branching Off: New Insight Into Lysosomes As Tubular Organelles, K A. Bohnert, A E. Johnson

Faculty Publications

Lysosomes are acidic, membrane-bound organelles that play essential roles in cellular quality control, metabolism, and signaling. The lysosomes of a cell are commonly depicted as vesicular organelles. Yet, lysosomes in fact show a high degree of ultrastructural heterogeneity. In some biological contexts, lysosome membranes naturally transform into tubular, non-vesicular morphologies. Though the purpose and regulation of tubular lysosomes has been historically understudied, emerging evidence suggests that tubular lysosomes may carry out unique activities, both degradative and non-degradative, that are critical to cell behavior, function, and viability. Here, we discuss recent advances in understanding the biological significance of tubular lysosomes in …

Literacy's Levels: An Analysis Of Neoliberal Literacy Sponsorship In The U.S., Misty Dawn Fuller

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While much scholarship has considered Deborah Brandt’s concept of sponsors of literacy, there remains a need to consider relationships between literacy sponsors and larger implications of literacy sponsorship at national and institutional levels. Utilizing academic theories, U.S. federal government budgets and financed reports, and discoursal analysis, this dissertation investigates literacy sponsorship at the federal, postsecondary institutional, postsecondary institutional writing programmatic, and individual levels to tease out how, and in what ways, through “enabling” and “supporting” literacy these sponsors also” regulate, suppress, and withhold literacy” (Brandt 166). Rhetorical analysis determines that, at the U.S. federal level, literacy is promoted as a …

Cardiovascular And Range Of Motion Effects After Exercise Training Interventions, Nolynn E. Sutherland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The effects of stretching and yoga on the cardiovascular and muscular systems are still being discovered and can be assessed non-invasively. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the non-invasive markers of stretching and yoga on the metabolic, cardiovascular, and muscular systems. A series of three studies were conducted to gain insight into how stretching and yoga influence the body and if there are any potential differences between them.

The first study aimed to determine if stretching would influence fiber type and motor unit recruitment. An acute bout of stretch exercise was performed immediately before a biking exercise session …

The Energy Balance Model Of Obesity: Beyond Calories In, Calories Out, Kevin D. Hall, I. Sadaf Farooqi, Jeffery M. Friedman, Samuel Klein, Ruth J.F. Loos, David J. Mangelsdorf, Stephen O'Rahilly, Eric Ravussin, Leanne M. Redman, Donna H. Ryan, John R. Speakman, Deirdre K. Tobias

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

A recent Perspective article described the "carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM)"of obesity, asserting that it "better reflects knowledge on the biology of weight control"as compared with what was described as the "dominant energy balance model (EBM),"which fails to consider "biological mechanisms that promote weight gain."Unfortunately, the Perspective conflated and confused the principle of energy balance, a law of physics that is agnostic as to obesity mechanisms, with the EBM as a theoretical model of obesity that is firmly based on biology. In doing so, the authors presented a false choice between the CIM and a caricature of the EBM that does not …

An Event-History Analysis Of The Diffusion Of Permitless Concealed Carry Laws Throughout The United States, Jackson Vicknair

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

María Dos Prazeres As A Metaphor: A Discourse On Gender And The Spanish Nation, Paola Colmenares

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Patterns Of Choice Adaptation In Dynamic Risky Environments, E Konstantinidis, J L. Harman, C Gonzalez

Faculty Publications

An important aspect of making good decisions is the ability to adapt to changes in the values of available choice options, and research suggests that we are poor at changing behavior and adapting our choices successfully. The current paper contributes to clarifying the role of memory on learning and successful adaptation to changing decision environments. We test two aspects of changing decision environments: the direction of change and the type of feedback. The direction of change refers to how options become more or less rewarding compared to other options, over time. Feedback refers to whether full or partial information about …

Artemisia Dracunculus L. Ethanolic Extract And An Isolated Component, Dmc2, Ameliorate Inflammatory Signaling In Pancreatic Β-Cells Via Inhibition Of P38 Mapk, Peter Smoak, Susan J. Burke, Thomas M. Martin, Heidi M. Batdorf, Z. Elizabeth Floyd, J. Jason Collier

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Non-resolving pancreatic islet inflammation is widely viewed as a contributor to decreases in β-cell mass and function that occur in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Therefore, strategies aimed at reducing or eliminating pathological inflammation would be useful to protect islet β-cells. Herein, we described the use of 2′,4′-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone (DMC2), a bioactive molecule isolated from an ethanolic extract of Artemisia dracunculus L., as a novel anti-inflammatory agent. The ethanolic extract, termed PMI 5011, reduced IL-1β-mediated NF-κB activity. DMC2 retained this ability, indicating this compound as the likely source of anti-inflammatory activity within the overall PMI 5011 extract. We further …

Crossover Food Businesses In Louisiana, United States: A Descriptive Study Of Their Characteristics And Food Safety Training Needs From Public Health Inspectors’ Perspective, Wenqing Xu, Evelyn Watts, Carolyn Bombet, Melissa Cater

Faculty Publications

Objectives: Integrating retail and manufacturing enables limitless potential for food businesses, but also creates challenges for navigating within complex food safety regulations. From public health inspectors’ (PHIs) perspective, this study aimed (1) to describe the characteristics of crossover businesses in Louisiana, and (2) to evaluate regulation awareness and food safety education needs for business owners and PHIs who inspect crossover businesses. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was administered to Louisiana Department of Health PHIs using Qualtrics®. A descriptive analysis was performed, focusing on the frequency of each item. Results: In total, 1774 retailers were conducting or planned to conduct specialized processes, …

Exploring The Implementation Of Dike Building And The National Endowment For The Oceans Act To Support Coastal Restoration In Louisiana, Taylor Perrodin

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Reading And Understanding: A Defense Of Heideggerian Hermeneutics And Philogy, Phillip M. Gandy

LSU Master's Theses

This paper addresses methodologies espoused by the hermeneutic tradition begun under Martin Heidegger. I argue for the methodologies of Philology, Destruktion and the use of poetic language in order to understand and communicate fundamental truths about Dasein. I demonstrate that these methods provide us, hermeneutically, with a closer and more precise understanding than simple communication in common speech.

Acknowledgement, Education, Memory: Reframing The Cemetery Landscapes Of The Enslaved, Aubrey L. Phillips

LSU Master's Theses

The landscape holds onto the nearly imperceivable cemeteries of the formerly enslaved population that have been erased through time, development, and censure of historical narratives in Louisiana. Immediate action is necessary to retie censured chronicles of enslavement to the landscape, educating the public on deep-rooted systemic racism in the contemporary environment. This thesis aims to provide reparations to the Black and descendant communities of southern Louisiana. This work acknowledges the remaining cemetery fragments, reframing and knitting them together as a network of spaces that uphold a more holistic memory of the past.

The role of landscape architecture extends beyond site …

Celebrating Wetland Foodways: Joining Ecosystems & Cultures On The Louisiana Gulf Coast, Deborah La Rue

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal Louisiana is bountiful in cultural and ecological diversity. Spotted with thriving estuaries, meandering bayous and swamps, and rippling grasses of coastal marshes, these wetland ecosystems sequester carbon, purify floodwaters, and buffer against storm surge. Historically, southern wetland landscapes have offered refuge to people of many folk and ethnic traditions escaping violence and oppression. Until the mid-twentieth century, the people living in present-day Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes enjoyed relative isolation from the rest of America, constructing cultural practices that emphasized attachment to wetland plants, animals, and ecosystem dynamics.

Today, changing environmental conditions and high rates of relative sea level rise …

Assessing The Effect Time And Burial Environment Have On The Use Of The Lamendin Dental Age Estimation Method In Two Archaeological Samples From Jordan, Sabrina L. Williamson

LSU Master's Theses

The Lamendin method is a dental age estimation method that can be used by biological anthropologists when the skeletal anatomy is not available. The Lamendin method utilizes an index derived from measurements of the tooth root height (RH), periodontal line height (PLH), and root transparency height (RTH) to estimate the age of an individual. Although this method is often used in forensic contexts, its presence in the bioarcheological literature is almost non-existent. Research that mentions the Lamendin method conflict about whether the method can be used in specimens with longer postmortem intervals (PMIs) and in various depositional environments. This study …

Recently Integrated Alu Elements In Capuchin Monkeys: A Resource For Cebus/Sapajus Genomics, J M. Storer, J A. Walker, C E. Rockwell, G Mores, J M. Storer, J D. Orkin, A D. Melin, K A. Phillips, C Roos, M A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Capuchins are platyrrhines (monkeys found in the Americas) within the Cebidae family. For most of their taxonomic history, the two main morphological types of capuchins, gracile (untufted) and robust (tufted), were assigned to a single genus, Cebus. Further, all tufted capuchins were assigned to a single species, Cebus apella, despite broad geographic ranges spanning Central and northern South America. In 2012, tufted capuchins were assigned to their genus, Sapajus, with eight currently recognized species and five Cebus species, although these numbers are still under debate. Alu retrotransposons are a class of mobile element insertion (MEI) widely used to study primate …

Intra-Articular Buprenorphine In Horses, Gabriel Castro-Cuellar Dr

LSU Master's Theses

Opioid drugs have the potential of provide local analgesia in inflamed joints. To date, morphine is the only opioid that has been tested for intra-articular (IA) administration in horses. Having an alternative drug, other than morphine, could widen the therapeutic options, particularly in cases of drug shortages or inaccessibility to specific drugs. The work presented in this dissertation reports the cytotoxic effects of buprenorphine on cultured equine chondrocytes, and the pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and analgesic effects, of IA administered buprenorphine in horses with experimentally induced synovitis.

To evaluate the potential cytotoxic effects on equine cartilage, chondrocytes were obtained from normal equine …

Court Legitimacy & The Shadow Docket, Colton Tilley

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Role Of Social Media Influencers In Promoting Sustainable Fashion On Twitter, Hannah L. Short

LSU Master's Theses

The fashion industry promotes a culture of frivolous consumption, especially with the offering of fast fashion items nearly everywhere. With the rise of social media platforms, ordinary people have been able to create a large following of people who are interested and persuaded by their opinions and lifestyles, thus being deemed a social media influencer. Social media influencers who have utilized their platforms to speak out about the detrimental effects of fast fashion and conspicuous consumption and for the need to shop with sustainable values in mind for the health of society as well as the environment are known as …

Analysis Of Briquetage (Brine-Boiling Pots) At Paynes Creek Salt Works: Implications For Classic Maya Salt Production, Rianna Bowen

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

The Classic Maya period (A.D. 300-900) is characterized by large urban centers, distinct material culture, and long-distance trade of both utilitarian and elite goods. The rise in population during this time created a necessity for essential, everyday goods, to move along these trade routes; one of which was salt. Additionally, much of the production of utilitarian goods was occurring outside of urban centers and political control at smaller, specialized production locales. The Paynes Creek Salt Works in southern Belize was one of these specialized production locales. The number of salt works located in the Punta Ycacos lagoon suggests salt …

Canopy Arthropod Responses To Catastrophic Wind Disturbances In Gulf Coast And Caribbean Forests, Manoj Pandey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hurricanes are major natural disturbances and integral components of forest disturbance regimes globally. The frequency and intensity of hurricanes are predicted to increase in the future due to global warming. The altered hurricane regime, along with direct effects of climate change on arthropod populations and communities, has the capacity to endanger the critical ecosystem processes and services provided by forest canopies. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the responses of forest fauna to disturbances such as hurricanes. This dissertation is aimed at understanding the short-term and long-term effects of hurricanes on canopy arthropods to improve predictions of the consequences of …

Privilege, Power, And Patronage: Examining The Lives And Afterlives Of Three Tudor Noblewomen, Caroline Elizabeth Armbruster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation uses the lives of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk; Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset; and Jane Guildford, Duchess of Northumberland to examine various aspects of their experiences as noblewomen and as members of privileged family groups. By focusing on these three women, whose lives and careers spanned eight decades, this dissertation demonstrates the centrality of such women to Tudor politics. Catherine, Anne, and Jane were born into powerful, landowning families. Their successful marriages allowed them to climb the ranks of the Tudor aristocracy and paved the way for their entry into the Tudor political arena. They served as …

Black Students And The Fight For Racial Equity: Integrating Qualitative And Quantitative Methods, Relius Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black student enrollment at HWIs has continued to increase for several decades. However, their success at these institutions lags behind that of their White classmates and other student groups. This study explores the extent to which these students perceive that they confront issues of racial inequality on their campuses. This study is particularly relevant as the US confronts a legacy of racial inequality in society and is experiencing a new civil rights movement, known as Black Lives Matter. This study will provide the student’s perspective on the extent and manifestations of racial inequality and the impact of BLM on these …

World War Ii, Displacement, And The Making Of The Postwar Ukrainian Diaspora, 1939-1951, Jennifer Lauren Popowycz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a result, in an effort to expand the literature on the Ukrainian DP experience, this dissertation will specifically examine how foreign occupation, forced labor, and displacement impacted the construction of Ukrainian cultural nationalism between 1939 and 1951. Using a variety of memoirs written by Ukrainian DPs, published primary sources, as well as archival material from the online Interview Archive of Forced Labor 1939-1945, Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, the United Nations Archive, and the online Archive of Ukrainian Periodicals it will argue that cultural nationalism not only served as a common link that united Ukrainians, but also served …

Re-Evaluation Of Late Season Action Thresholds And The Effect Of Seed Treatments On Early Season Colonization Of Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper, Spissistilus Festinus (Say), In Louisiana Soybean, Glycine Max (L) Merr, Tyler Ray Tagle Musgrove

LSU Master's Theses

Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr, is considered the most economically important oil and feed crop in the US and is grown on nearly 35,000,000 ha on an annual basis. Factors that limit yield include weed pressure, disease infection, and of particular interest to entomologists, insect herbivory. Soybean is targeted by a range of above and below ground pests which are primarily controlled by insecticides. Neonicotinoids are a recently popularized insecticide class that when applied as a seed treatment, can provide protection from early season pests. The most economically significant early season pest is threecornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say), whose …

The Early Lieder Of Josephine Lang: A Comparative Study, Rachel E. Cisneros

LSU Master's Theses

Josephine Lang's contribution to nineteenth-century song has been increasingly recognized in recent scholarship. This is largely because of Harald Krebs’s and Sharon Krebs's groundbreaking book, Josephine Lang: Her Life and Songs (2007). In their book, Krebs and Krebs draw information about Lang’s life from two early biographies, the first written during Lang’s lifetime by Ferdinand Hiller and the second written after her death by her son Heinrich Adolf Köstlin. Primary sources fill in the gaps that these two nineteenth-century biographies left open. For example, the letters between Lang and her correspondents also reveal much about her social reputation, financial hardships, …

The Rise Of Rome, The Fall Of Spain: Classical Reception In Leopoldo Alas, Galdós, And José Díaz Fernández, Meghan E. Hodges

LSU Master's Theses

The turn of the century was a period of rapid change and modernization. Spain, unlike neighboring European nations, was collapsing as an imperial force. The ensuing crisis of national identity fueled existing political tensions from the early nineteenth century which would lead to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This thesis examines various national crises from 1890 and the decade preceding the loss of Spain’s final colonies to 1929 and the decade preceding the Civil War. Both of these periods saw substantial acceleration of modernization and incredible resistance to it. Despite the hyper-presence of modernity within contemporary literary movements, there is …

Effect Of Steam Conditioning On Pecan Safety And Quality And Utilization Of Pecan Shell Extract As An Antimicrobial Coating To Maintain The Quality And Safety Of Fresh Produce, Karuna Kharel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pre- and post-harvest practices can pose microbial risk on fresh produce thus, appropriate intervention strategies to inactivate foodborne pathogens without compromising quality is important. The first part of this study investigated the effect of steam conditioning on inactivating Enterococcus faecium, a surrogate for Salmonella enterica, on in-shell pecans; and second part determined the in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial efficacy of pullulan coating incorporated with pecan shell extract on produce. The treatments’ effect on quality of pecans and produce during storage were also evaluated. In-shell pecans inoculated with Enterococcus faecium (7.28±0.17logCFU/g) were treated with steam at 70°C, 80°C …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Photo-Reactivity Studies On Mo(Vi) Dioxo Complexes For C-H Activation And O-Atom Transfer, Saeed Fosshat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metal oxos are important intermediates in various chemical transformations that include electron transfer, proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) and and O-atom transfer. Various extent of π-bonding from the oxo ligands to the central metal causes changes in nucleophilicity and overall reactivity of these species. Several factors can influence the electronic structure of the M=O bonds such as central metal oxidation state, geometry, ancillary ligands and spin state of the metal. A general strategy to increase the reactivity of metal oxos is to use electron rich metal centers that are less oxophilic. As a result of this, extensive amount of research has …

Performing Memory Forensics For Object Recovery From Android Application Memory, Sneha Sudhakaran

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The analysis of application-specific behavior has become an increasingly important technique in cyber forensics and incident response. The ability to determine the precise actions taken by a user can be the difference between a successful analysis and one that fails to meet its goals. The precise actions includes URLs visited, files downloaded, messages sent and received, images viewed, and data accessed. Evidence extraction from application memory at runtime is an effective solution to successfully extract valuable objects allocated by each application, and it is evident that there is a need for more Android forensics analysis tools that support recovering evidence …

Effects Of Engagements And Presentation Order In Informal Science Presentations, William Henry Katzman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Science museums conduct presentations for their audiences to attract and educate visitors, yet research on presentations has primarily concentrated on whether individual presentations were effective. This mixed-methods, quasi-experimental study looks at how the presenter’s mental and physical engagements within a presentation affects audience members by altering sociocultural context of the presentation.

Physical engagements involve asking audience members to physically participate, while mental engagements involved asking audience members to make predictions prior to observing a demonstration. Audiences were given presentations containing: 1) Both mental and physical engagements, 2) Physical engagements only, 3) Mental engagements only or 4) No engagements (control).

This …