Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Seaweed As A Resilient Food Solution After A Nuclear War, Florian Ulrich Jehn, Farrah Jasmine Dingal, Aron Mill, Cheryl Harrison, Ekaterina Ilin, Michael Y. Roleda, Scott C. James, David Denkenberger

Faculty Publications

Abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios such as a nuclear winter caused by the burning of cities in a nuclear war, an asteroid/comet impact or an eruption of a large volcano inject large amounts of particles in the atmosphere, which limit sunlight. This could decimate agriculture as it is practiced today. We therefore need resilient food sources for such an event. One promising candidate is seaweed, as it can grow quickly in a wide range of environmental conditions. To explore the feasibility of seaweed after nuclear war, we simulate the growth of seaweed on a global scale using an empirical model based …

Research Criteria Towards An Interdisciplinary Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention Assessment, Simone Tilmes, Karen H. Rosenlof, Daniele Visioni, Ewa M. Bednarz, Tyler Felgenhauer, Wake Smith, Chris Lennard, Michael S. Diamond, Matthew Henry, Cheryl S. Harrison, Chelsea Thompson

Faculty Publications

With surface temperatures already reaching unprecedented highs, resulting in significant adverse consequences for societies and ecosystems, there are increasing calls to expand research into climate interventions, including Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention (SAI). However, research and dissemination are currently fragmented and would benefit from a comprehensive international assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding impacts, risks, and recommendations for future SAI research directions. The goals of a scientific assessment would be to describe the current state of SAI research and evaluate proposed scenario-strategy combinations through well-designed evaluation guidelines. The suggested iterative approach would integrate natural and social science considerations to guide …

Response Of River Delta Hydrological Connectivity To Changes In River Discharge And Atmospheric Frontal Passage, Sajjad Feizabadi, Chunyan Li, Matthew Hiatt

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric frontal passage is a common meteorological event that can significantly affect hydrodynamics in coastal environments, including the hydrological connectivity between channels and floodplains that regulates material transport in river deltas. This study is focused on the influence of atmospheric cold fronts on the hydrological connectivity between channels and floodplains within the Wax Lake Delta using the Delft3D FM model. The results demonstrate a substantial effect of passing cold fronts on the exchange of water and transport fraction between the primary channels and floodplains. This impact is intricately connected to the morphodynamical characteristics of the floodplains, the intensity of cold …

A Scalogram-Based Cnn Approach For Audio Classification In Construction Sites, Michele Scarpiniti, Raffaele Parisi, Yong Cheol Lee

Faculty Publications

The automatic monitoring of activities in construction sites through the proper use of acoustic signals is a recent field of research that is currently in continuous evolution. In particular, the use of techniques based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) working on the spectrogram of the signal or its mel-scale variants was demonstrated to be quite successful. Nevertheless, the spectrogram has some limitations, which are due to the intrinsic trade-off between temporal and spectral resolutions. In order to overcome these limitations, in this paper, we propose employing the scalogramas a proper time–frequency representation of the audio signal. The scalogram is defined …

Quantification Of Hvac Energy Savings Through Occupancy Presence Sensors In An Apartment Setting: Field Testing And Inverse Modeling Approach, Zhihong Pang, Mingyue Guo, Blake Smith-Cortez, Zheng O'Neill, Zhiyao Yang, Mingzhe Liu, Bing Dong

Faculty Publications

While many simulation-based studies have demonstrated the energy-saving potential of occupancy-driven smart thermostats in residential buildings, field testing of these devices remains relatively limited. The objective of this study is to propose a new field-testing approach to evaluate the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy-saving potential of occupancy-driven thermostats and occupancy-centric controls (OCC) for HVAC in a residential apartment in Texas, U.S. A proprietary prototype occupancy sensing system was chosen for this study, coupled with a Raspberry Pi-based hardware framework to facilitate OCC implementation by linking occupancy sensors to the existing HVAC system. Energy consumption of the HVAC system during …

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.

Review Of Say Hello To My Little Friend, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

R Tools For Mesoscale Soil Hydrology, Vinit Sehgal

E-Textbooks

The book R Tools for Mesoscale Soil Hydrology is a comprehensive guide designed to equip researchers and practitioners with practical skills in geospatial data analysis using the R programming language. This material is developed to bridge the gap between theoretical soil hydrology and practical geospatial data analysis using open-source tools. As mesoscale soil hydrology increasingly relies on satellite remote sensing and large-scale environmental datasets, the ability to process, analyze, and visualize such data has become essential. This guide introduces a suite of R-based tools and workflows tailored for soil hydrology applications, with a focus on soil moisture, land-atmosphere interactions, and …

Deciphering Genetic Factors Contributing To Enhanced Resistance Against Cercospora Leaf Blight In Soybean (Glycine Max L.) Using Gwas Analysis, Jinesh Patel, Tom W. Allen, Blair Buckley, Pengyin Chen, Michael Clubb, Leandro A. Mozzoni, Moldir Orazaly, Liliana Florez, David Moseley, John C. Rupe, Bishnu K. Shrestha, Paul P. Price, Brian M. Ward, Jenny Koebernick

Faculty Publications

Cercospora leaf blight (CLB), caused by Cercospora cf. flagellaris, C. kikuchii, and C. cf. sigesbeckiae, is a significant soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] disease in regions with hot and humid conditions causing yield loss in the United States and Canada. There is limited information regarding resistant soybean cultivars, and there have been marginal efforts to identify the genomic regions underlying resistance to CLB. A Genome-Wide Association Study was conducted using a diverse panel of 460 soybean accessions from maturity groups III to VII to identify the genomic regions associated to the CLB disease. These accessions were evaluated for CLB in …

Cotton Host Resistance As A Tool For Managing Rotylenchulus Reniformis In Louisiana, Tristan T. Watson

Faculty Publications

The reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, is a major yield-limiting pest of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) in the United States that has been steadily increasing in incidence in many states. Reniform nematode-resistant cotton cultivars have recently become commercially available for cotton producers; however, few field trials have evaluated their efficacy as a nematode management tool. The aim of this study was to evaluate reniform nematode population development, plant growth, and seed cotton yield of reniform nematode-resistant cotton cultivars in two nematode-infested fields in Louisiana. Replicated small-plot field trials were conducted in St. Joseph, LA (NERS field) and Winnsboro, LA (MRRS field) …

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 …

Soybean Planting Dates And Maturity Groups: Maximizing Yield Potential And Decreasing Risk In Louisiana, David Moseley, Andre Reis, Thanos Gentimis, Priscila Campos, Josh Copes, Melanie Netterville, Peters Egbedi, Dustin Harrell, Manoch Kongchum, Ronnie Levy, Boyd Padgett, Samuel Soignier, Derek Scroggs, Jason Sanders, Joe Pankey, Katarzyna Fic

Faculty Publications

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] producers in Louisiana began shifting to an early soybean production system (ESPS) in the early 2000s by planting earlier maturing varieties in April and May. Although this shift in planting practices has been supported by research elsewhere beginning in the mid-1990s, there is minimum data focusing on the ESPS across Louisiana. The overall objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of planting date, maturity group (MG), and their combination across a comprehensive set of yield environments in the state of Louisiana to determine the combination of optimum planting date and MG for soybean …

Treatment Comparisons In Adaptive Platform Trials Adjusting For Temporal Drift, Beibei Guo, Li Wang, Ying Yuan

Faculty Publications

An adaptive platform trial (APT) is a multi-arm trial in the context of a single disease where treatment arms are allowed to enter or leave the trial based on some decision rule. If a treatment enters the trial later than the control arm, there exist nonconcurrent controls who were not randomized between the two arms under comparison. As APTs typically take long periods of time to conduct, temporal drift may occur, which requires the treatment comparisons to be adjusted for this temporal change. Under the causal inference framework, we propose two approaches for treatment comparisons in APTs that account for …

Diving At High Altitude: O2 Transport And Utilization In The Ruddy Duck And Torrent Duck In The Andes, Kevin G. Mccracken, Graham R. Scott, Luis Alza, Andrea Astie, Ciska Bakkeren, Emil Bautista, Mariana Bulgarella, Rebecca Cheek G. Cheek, Beverly A. Chua, Neal J. Dawson, Alexis Diaz, Catherine M. Ivy, Peter B. Frappell, Cecilia Kopuchian, Sabine L. Laguë, John N. Maina, Violeta Muñoz-Fuentes, Elizabeth R. Schell, Matthew M. Smith, Ryan J. Sprenger, Pablo L. Tubaro, Elizabeth R. Schell, Matthew M. Smith, Ryan J. Sprenger, Pablo L. Tubaro, Thomas Valqui, Roy E. Weber, Daniela Wilner, Robert E. Wilson, Julia M. York, William K. Milsom

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

Hypoxia and cold temperatures create unique physiological challenges for high-altitude organisms that can vary depending on lifestyle. While nearly all studies of air-breathing animals at high altitude are from terrestrial species, species that breath-hold dive underwater at high altitude encounter a very different set of selective pressures influencing their phenotype. The goal of this publication is to highlight the changes in O2 transport and utilization in high-altitude diving birds relative to divers at sea level, and the extent to which these changes are qualitatively distinct from phenotypic changes in non-diving species at high altitude. For example, while high capacities for …

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Winter 2024, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Agriculture

Research at the LSU AgCenter extends well beyond the farm gate. Across 150 acres at the Hammond Research Station, experts in landscape horticulture test the best ways to grow ornamental plants and trees. In Baton Rouge, researchers study how to protect homes in the path of a hurricane. Across the state the AgCenter Healthy Communities team works to empower food pantries and improve sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure in rural areas.

This issue of Louisiana Agriculture focuses on these topics along with new research on soil health and high-tech delivery systems for sugarcane ripening agents. Other articles focus on the …

The Civil War Political Tradition: Ten Portraits Of Those Who Formed It, Christopher J. Olsen

Civil War Book Review

Paul Escott has composed ten concise but deeply learned and incisive biographies of key Americans in the years leading up to the Civil War. Escott profiles Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Stephen A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Albion Tourgée, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, illustrating how these men and women established, embodied, and advanced the opposing political and cultural trends that culminated in the great crisis of the nineteenth century.

Captivity’S Collections: Science, Natural History, And The British Transatlantic Slave Trade, Kennon H. Keiser Jr.

Civil War Book Review

Grounded in extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, Captivity's Collections mines scientific treatises, slaving companies' records, naturalists' correspondence, and museum catalogs to recover in rich detail the scope of the slave trade's collecting operations. The book reveals the scientific and natural historical profit derived from these activities and the crucial role of specimens gathered along the routes of the slave trade on emerging ideas in natural history.

Another Look: American Catholics And The Quest For Equality In The Civil War Era, Jason Duncan

Civil War Book Review

Robert Emmett Curran’s masterful treatment of American Catholicism in the Civil War era is the first comprehensive history of Roman Catholics in the North and South before, during, and after the war. Curran provides an in-depth look at how the momentous developments of these decades affected the entire Catholic community, including Black and indigenous Americans. He also explores the ways that Catholics contributed to the reshaping of a nation that was testing the fundamental proposition of equality set down by its founders. Ultimately, Curran concludes, the revolution that the war touched off remained unfinished, indeed was turned backward, in no …

This Is Our Home: Slavery And Struggle On Southern Plantations, Darian Mccorvey

Civil War Book Review

A poignant examination of Black homemaking in the face of enslavement, This is Our Home explores the unconventional methods in which Black men and women retained personhood on plantations by way of prescribing meaning to places meant to oppress.

The Civil War On The Water: Favorite Stories And Fresh Perspectives From The Historians At Emerging Civil War, Stacy Allen

Civil War Book Review

The Civil War on the Water continues the celebration of Emerging Civil War’s 10th anniversary with a compilation of favorite navy tales and obscure narratives by the group’s distinguished public historians. This eclectic collection of more than three dozen essays offers fresh accounts on unfamiliar topics as well as second looks at familiar battles, ships, leaders, and events. There is something here for everyone, neophyte and veteran reader alike.

Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story Of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running And The Slave Trade, Gerald Horne

Civil War Book Review

Historian Jonathan W. White tells the riveting story of Appleton Oaksmith, a swashbuckling sea captain whose life intersected with some of the most important moments, movements, and individuals of the mid-19th century, from the California Gold Rush, filibustering schemes in Nicaragua, Cuban liberation, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. Most importantly, the book depicts the extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade. Using Oaksmith’s case as a lens, White takes readers into the murky underworld of New York City, where federal marshals plied the docks in lower Manhattan in search of evidence of slave …

Civil War Lagniappe, Kennon H. Keiser Jr.

Civil War Book Review

The American Civil War era is a rich tapestry of stories and individuals. Moments of inhumanity and human kindness abound. The Civil War Book Review has the great pleasure of presenting this complex tapestry to our readers for our summer 2024 issue. From borderland guerrillas, naval warfare, historical memory, and the search for equality, historians have no shortage of stories to investigate and contextualize. Each of the manuscripts reviewed in this publication takes us through various moments throughout this period, and some even take us to the period long before secession, as the African slave trade knit together the Atlantic …

Final Resting Places: Reflections On The Meaning Of Civil War Graves, Paul Ashdown

Civil War Book Review

In Final Resting Places, some of the most accomplished historians of our time reflect on the importance of the Confederate and Union cemeteries that eventually emerged and explore how monuments to the fallen have become cultural flashpoints in our struggle to come to terms with the war's root causes and legacy.

A Man By Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill And The Search For American Manhood, Bradley S. Keefer

Civil War Book Review

Few men of the Civil War era were as complicated or infamous as William Clarke Quantrill. Most who know him recognize him as the architect of the Confederate raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863 that led to the murder of 180 mostly unarmed men and boys. Before that, though, Quantrill led a transient life, shifting from one masculine form to another. Using new documents and old documents examined in new ways, A Man by Any Other Name paints the most authentic portrait of Quantrill yet rendered. The detailed study of this man not only explores a one-of-a-kind enigmatic figure …

"A Look At Lincoln", Frank J. Williams

Civil War Book Review

In the midst of our country’s current debates over immigration, Harold Holzer’s new exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration, offers a timely reminder that such contentious issues are not unique to our time. Holzer’s new book delves into a pivotal subject during the Civil War and unveils Lincoln’s multifaceted stance on immigration and its profound impact on American society – both then and now.

"Civil War Treasures", Hans Rasmussen

Civil War Book Review

To commemorate the recent sesquicentennial of Charles Sumner’s death, this installment of “Civil War Treasures” features transcriptions of four of his letters held in the LSU Libraries Special Collections. Although not the most detailed of missives, they all date from significant periods of his tenure in the Senate: the imbroglio over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Sumner’s assault at the hands of Preston Brooks, and his evaluation of an ever-worsening situation during the secession crisis in the winter of 1861.

The Governor’S Pawns: Hostages And Hostage-Taking In Civil War West Virginia, Riley Sullivan

Civil War Book Review

Throughout the American Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces engaged in guerrilla warfare throughout the border states. With the emergence of this activity, non-combatants often found themselves as the principal targets; particularly in regard to hostage-taking. Both sides engaged in this practice for a variety of reasons, however, for the newly formed state of West Virginia, the taking of hostages became crucial for the survival of the state. In The Governor’s Pawn, Randall S. Gooden—native of West Virginia and professor of history at Clayton State University—illustrates the unique hostage policy adopted by West Virginia and how it proved …