Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Metallothioneins In Copper Homeostasis In Arabidopsis, Matthew Vandal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Copper (Cu) is a transition metal that is an essential nutrient for plants and is required for a number of critical processes. Therefore, proper homeostasis of copper is vital for plant life and must be tightly regulated. Metallothioneins are small molecular weight proteins, rich in cysteine residues and have the capability of binding to several different transition metals such as copper. Cu induces the expression of MTs, therefore they are believed to be involved in Cu transport, however their true functions have yet to be resolved. T-DNA insertions were identified in four Arabidopsis MT genes expressed in vegetative tissues, and …

“Why We Play The Game”: An Exploration Of Sport Employees’ Conceptualizations Of Meaningful Work, Nathan Baer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Modern sport management scholars have looked to pair the fields of positive organizational behavior (POB) and human resource development (HRD) with sport management to enhance the productivity of sport organizations through their employees (see Kim et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2023a; Kim et al., 2023b; Kim et al., 2017; Oja et al., 2015, 2020; Oja et al., 2022; Schuetz et al., 2022; Zvosec et al., 2021). One area of study that has received recent attention amongst sport management scholars is meaningful work (Baer et al., 2021; Oja et al., 2022), an emerging employee well-being metric whose definition is often …

Neural Mechanisms Of Resiliency And Susceptibility After Repeated Social Defeat, Christy R. Wayne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social defeat is a powerful experience leading to drastic changes in physiology and behavior, many of which are negative. For example, repeated social defeat in vertebrates results in reduced reproductive success, sickness, and behavioral abnormalities that threaten individual survival and species persistence. However, little is known about what neural mechanisms are involved in determining whether an individual is resilient or susceptible to repeated social defeat stress. I used a resident-intruder experiment in the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to create and investigate the behavior and neural correlates of these two opposing groups. Resilient fish used both searching and freezing behaviors …

Sportsman's Paradox: Conservationism And Social Progress In Modern Louisiana, Jacob T. Gautreaux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sportsmen increasingly identified Louisiana as a destined paradise due to the abundant flora and fauna. Confirmed in the legendary visits of Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s, the conception soon served a dual purpose as individuals like the Tabasco Sauce patriarch, E. A. McIlhenny, coopted the visualization as a lure for business investment into the nascent industrial interests within the coastal region of the state. However, it should be noted that in the 1930s and beyond, cultural conservationists like McIlhenny and Caroline Dormon preserved elements of under-documented cultures throughout the state, although usually …

Evaluation Of Salvinia Weevil Establishment, Dispersal, And Environmental Pressures Impacting The Giant Salvinia Biological Control Program, Korey Danielle Pham

LSU Master's Theses

Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta Mitchell), an invasive free-floating aquatic fern, invaded the Toledo-Bend reservoir along the Texas-Louisiana border in the 1990s. The rapid spread threatens critical ecosystems, economies, and cultural services by altering water quality, and impacting fishing, hunting, and navigation. To combat this issue, the LSU AgCenter has been rearing and distributing the salvinia weevil (Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder and Sands), which has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing giant salvinia populations within a matter of months to a few years. The first study assessed the impact of propagule pressure on salvinia weevil effectiveness in outdoor mesocosms and revealed that …

Susceptibility Of Spodoptera Frugiperda Populations In The Southern Region Of The U.S. To Common Bt Proteins And Performance Of A Dual-Gene Resistant Helicoverpa Zea Strain On Common Pyramided Bt Corn Traits, Tiago H. Da Silva

LSU Master's Theses

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) are two polyphagous pests that, in the Americas, are targeted by transgenic corn and cotton expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins. A previous study during 2011-2013 demonstrated practical resistance to Cry1F corn in S. frugiperda in the southeastern seaboard of the U.S., while resistance of H. zea to Bt corn and cotton containing cry1A and cry2A genes has widely occurred in the U.S. The first objective of this study was to investigate the current susceptibility status to four Bt proteins commonly expressed in Bt corn plants, including …

Media Coverage Of Non-Ideologically Motivated Mass Shootings Versus Ideologically Motivated Mass Shootings And How The Media Affects College Students' Perceptions Of Mass Shootings, Jennifer L. Larose

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While much is known about how the media covers mass shootings within the United States and how this coverage impacts the public, much remains unknown about the media and international mass shootings. To address this gap this dissertation examines the relationship between the media coverage of ideological and non-ideological mass shootings that have occurred around the world. It then examines the relationship between media consumption and perceptions of mass shootings. To this end, newspaper coverage on a sample of ten mass shootings from 2011-2021 are examined temporally using the Social Coping Model. Results show that media coverage varies across time …

Integrating Cultivar Resistance And Entomopathogens For Pest Management Of Sweetpotato Weevil, Cylas Formicarius Elegantulus (Summers), Schyler M. Lee

LSU Master's Theses

Sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam, is the number one vegetable crop in Louisiana, producing 21,178 kg/ha in the year 2021. The sweetpotato weevil, Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Summers), is an economically important pest of sweetpotato. C. formicarius elegantulus females lay eggs into feeding holes on the storage root surface. Larvae then hatch and tunnel through the sweetpotato flesh where they complete their development. This cryptic-natured brentid can cause up to 100% yield loss when left unmanaged. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry mandates protocols to limit C. formicarius elegantulus spread (e.g., clean seed, pheromone trapping, and quarantines); however, scheduled chemical …

Stolen Land: A Marriage Of Text And Music In My Country By Hyo-Won Woo, Nae Rim Moon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hyo-won Woo, a renowned female composer from South Korea, is highly regarded for her contributions to Korean choral music. Woo’s My Country is an 80-minute cantata consisting of 14 movements. As a full-time resident composer for the National Chorus of Korea, Woo composed this work in honor of the March 1st Revolution. She utilized her signature style of storytelling, incorporating narration and solo performers to portray the hardships of Korea during Japan’s colonial era. The cantata takes the mood of Requiem as a poignant symbol of Korea’s painful loss of their country and includes text derived from the resistance efforts …

Learning Dynamic Information Of High-Dimensional Signal Time-Series Using Advanced Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Guannan Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we propose a novel simulation-based device-free indoor localization and tracking system using the received signal strength indicators (RSSIs) of WiFi signals as the input features. The Feko channel-propagation simulation software is used to process the RSSI maps of the given arbitrary indoor geometry. In order to learn the dynamic information of high-dimensional RSSI time-series, we propose three procedures for the localization and dynamic tracking system.

First, The indoor geometry is partitioned into several equi-size zones and the localization problem is treated as the typical \multi-classification" problem. The advanced machine-learning techniques such as decision tree (DT) classifier, random …

Characterizing Wind-Wave Flow Physics And Loading Effects On Power Transmission Systems And Offshore Wind Turbines, Tianqi Ma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent extreme hurricanes caused extensive damage to critical civil infrastructure. Accurate modeling of the extreme complex wind fields and coupled wind-wave fields is essential to quantify the single wind or combined wind-wave loading effects on the structures. This research aims to characterize wind and wind-wave flow physics to quantify the loading effect on power transmission systems and offshore wind turbines.

First, a microscale (∼km) high-fidelity high-resolution computational model is developed to simulate hurricane wind fields with detailed physics. The generated wind field is applied to analyze the structural response of a power transmission system. The proposed hurricane boundary layer (HBL) …

The Ọkụmkpọ Masquerades Of The Afikpo Society Of Southeastern Nigeria: An Art Form And An Instrument Of Social Control., Chinenye Miriam Emelogu

LSU Master's Theses

Masquerade performances are prevalent in West Africa, but they hold particular importance among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. This thesis explores the cultural significance and artistic expressions of Okunkpo masquerade at Afikpo, a sub-Igbo group in Nigeria. It demonstrates how Okunkpo has served as a mechanism of social control using humorous skits, storytelling and dance up to the 21^st century. Okunkpo is an elaborate and the most attended masquerade performance at Afikpo. It appears only once in a year and is exclusively reserved for male initiates. Its popularity draws audience from far and near. As a community theatre, Okunkpo …

Evaluation Of A Nutritional Calming Supplement For Stress Management In Beef Cattle, Randall Mallette

LSU Master's Theses

Two studies were conducted to determine the efficacy of two formulations of a nutritional calming product, Placid 1.0 and Placid 2.0, at keeping beef cattle in a calm state when exposed to environmental factors that put them into an excited state. In the pilot study, nine crossbred beef heifers were orally drenched daily for three days with 60 mL of their respective treatments, pen scores and exit scores were recorded, and blood was collected for cortisol analysis. There were no treatment effects for either treatment on any of the measured behavioral parameters or serum cortisol concentrations.

The products were …

Molecular Identification Of Oomycete Species Associated With Woody Plants In Louisiana And Survey Of Oomycete Species Associated With Live Oak Trees Planted On The Louisiana State University Campus, Hamilton Crockett

LSU Master's Theses

Three Oomycetes genera, Phytophthora, Phytopythium and Pythium, contain many important plant pathogens. Historically, Phytophthora infestans, responsible for the great Irish potato famine, and Phytophthora ramorum, causal agent of sudden oak death disease, are the two better-known high impact pathogens. The LSU AgCenter Plant Diagnostic Center (PDC) has been isolating putative Phytophthora and related species from combined root and soil samples collected from various woody ornamentals and trees for over a decade. In August of 2016, Louisiana received torrential rains, which resulted in historic flooding in several southern parishes. During subsequent years, the PDC staff isolated a …

Entanglement In The Hawking Effect: From Astrophysical To Optical Black Holes, Dimitrios Kranas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Hawking effect is an exciting physical prediction lying at the intersection of the two most successful theories of the past century, namely, Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. In this dissertation, we put special emphasis on the quantum aspects of the Hawking process encoded in the entanglement shared by the emitted fluxes of created quanta. In particular, we employ sharp tools from quantum information theory to quantify the entanglement produced by the Hawking effect throughout the black hole evaporation process. Our framework allows us to extend previous calculations of entanglement to a larger set of cases, for instance, …

Intensity Modulated Bolus Electron Conformal Therapy (Im-Bect): Methods For Quality Assurance Of Prime Intensity Modulators And Evaluation Of Planned Im-Bect Dose Distributions, Andrew S. Mcguffey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Purpose: Intensity-modulated bolus electron conformal therapy (IM-BECT) shapes homogeneous dose distributions to superficial, irregularly-shaped target volumes, avoiding nearby critical structures. This dissertation provides research useful for translating IM-BECT to the radiotherapy clinic by: (1) developing and testing a factory quality assurance (QA) method for fabricated Passive Radiotherapy Intensity Modulator for Electrons (PRIME) devices and (2) verifying an IM-BECT planning and delivery process using end-to-end tests.

Methods: The IM-BECT planning and delivery process determines beam parameters and treatment devices (cutout, bolus, PRIME device) using .decimal’s (Sanford, FL) ElectronRT (eRT) planning system; calculates dose using a pencil-beam redefinition algorithm modified for PRIME …

Residential Building Flood Risk Assessment And The Benefits Of Home Elevation, Ayat Al Assi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Evaluating flood risk is an essential component of understanding and increasing community resilience. A robust approach for quantifying flood risk in terms of average annual loss (AAL) in dollars is needed to provide valuable information for stakeholder decision-making inside and outside the special flood hazard area (SFHA, which corresponds to the 100-year floodplain). To further inform flood mitigation strategies, quantifying flood risk reduction with home elevation above an initial first-floor height (FFH₀) and the cost effectiveness of federal mitigation assistance for elevation are important steps to enhance awareness of the effect of elevation in reducing flood risk. …

Interactive Effects Of The Partial Pressure Of Co2, Temperature, And Nutrient-Limitation On The Physiology And Growth Of The Coccolithophore E. Huxleyi Grown On A 12:12 L:D Cycle Of Illumination, James Bradley

LSU Master's Theses

I studied the interactive effects of pCO2, temperature, and nutrient limitation on the growth and physiology of the marine coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi. This was done to look at the effect of climate change factors on the widespread and abundant calcifying marine organism as a predictor of what the future has to hold. The strain of E. huxleyi (PnB 272 B10) was grown on a 12:12 L:D cycle of illumination and exposed to either high or low pCO2 under nutrient-replete or nitrate-limited conditions across a temperature range of 10–28C. I examined the direct and interactive effects of temperature, pCO2, and nutrient …

Impact Of Blood Flow Restricted Resistance Training On Skeletal Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, Fatigue, Mitochondrial Response, And Activation, Brett Davis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Blood flow restricted resistance exercise (BFR-RE) is a novel method that is effective at increasing strength and hypertrophy using much lower loads than the higher loads typical in progressive resistance exercise. However, the effects of BFR-RE on skeletal muscle fatigue, mitochondrial response, and activation are still being explored. This dissertation will discuss the impacts of BFR-RE, how it affects college-aged individuals that are trained and untrained, and the effects of BFR-RE on skeletal muscle fatigue, mitochondrial response, and activation.

The first study examined the effects of 6-weeks of low load blood flow restricted resistance exercise (LLBFR) on muscular strength, …

Regulation Of Nucleotide Excision Repair, Wenzhi Gong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nucleotide excision repair (NER), a “cut and patch” mechanism, has two subpathways, namely transcription coupled repair (TCR) and global genome repair (GGR). TCR rapidly removes UV photoproduct (UV PP) in the transcribed strand (TS) of an actively transcribed gene, whereas GGR removes those DNA lesions throughout the genome. This dissertation mainly focused on identifying novel factors that function in NER and investigating the potential molecular mechanisms underlying initial damage recognition and downstream processes in NER. We identified Rpb7, a subunit of RNA polymerase II, represses TCR via its multiple regions. Specifically, the conserved region of Rpb7 that interacts with the …

Expressing Outrage, Re-Inventing Hope: Performing Nationhood In Nigerian Standup Comedy., Babasinmisola Fadirepo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The intersection of the Nigerian national identity and popular culture has been overwhelmingly located in the Nigerian movie industry and the Afrobeats, the flourishing Nigerian popular music. Further, when intervention about the Nigerian national identity is located within standup comedy performances, such analysis is vastly linguistic analysis of the performance. Through the lens of performance studies, this dissertation extends the discussion of the Nigerian national identity to standup comedy performances. In addition to the linguistic analysis of select Nigerian standup comedy performances, this work considers the location, costumes of comic acts, and the settings of the performance studied. Simply, this …

Differences In Plant Hormone Responses Between Arabidopsis Thaliana And Schrenkiella Parvula Facing Lithium Toxicities, Jifeng Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Investigating stress responses in plants is central to plant development studies and crop research. Identifying mechanisms of plant abiotic stress tolerance and adaptation will be keys to relieve the conflict between an increasing global population and declining agronomic land. Studies on extremophytes and their genetic responses to environmental stress are a way to help understand how and why these extremophile plants can develop well under extreme environments including high salinity and heavy metal toxicity. The studies herein first focus on comparative responses at the genetic level to lithium toxicity between Arabidopsis thaliana and Schrenkiella parvula. Based on elemental quantification …

Some New Techniques And Their Applications In The Theory Of Distributions, Kevin Kellinsky-Gonzalez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of three articles in the theory of distributions. Each essay focuses on a different technique or concept related to distributions.

The focus of the first essay is the concept of distributional point values. Distribu- tions are sometimes called generalized functions, as they share many similarities with ordi- nary functions, with some key differences. Distributional point values, among other things, demonstrate that distributions are even more akin to ordinary functions than one might think.

The second essay concentrates on two major topics in analysis, namely asymptotic expansions and the concept of moments. There are many variations …

Autism, Comorbidities, And Adaptive Functioning: A Potential Moderator, Joshua J. Montrenes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deficits in adaptive functioning and the presence of comorbid symptomatology are both commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous research has identified relationships between functional level (e.g., intellectual quotient [IQ], adaptive functioning [AF]) and comorbid symptomatology in ASD. However, further insight into the relationship between AF, comorbid psychopathology, and ASD is unclear. Specifically, how AF affects the relationship between ASD and comorbid conditions is not well understood. Whether AF moderates the relationship between autism symptom severity and comorbid symptom severity in toddlers with ASD was examined. ASD symptom severity positively correlated with comorbid symptom severity across domains and negatively …

Effects Of Coastal Freshening On Porewater Salinity And Nitrogen Cycling In Brackish Marsh Soils: Implications For Biogeochemical Resilience In Barataria Basin, La, Robert C. Feder

LSU Master's Theses

The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion will divert sediments and fresh water from the Mississippi River into mid-Barataria Basin, LA for the purposes of building and sustaining coastal marshes, potentially reducing the estuarine salinity to 0 during operation. Increased freshwater inputs to the area of project influence may reduce porewater salinity and induce ammonium adsorption in brackish marsh soils of the region, potentially impacting the activity of ammonium-producing and denitrifying bacteria. However, brackish soils occur in zones of intermediate salinity and may, therefore, exhibit biogeochemical resilience to episodic changes in surface water salinity. I hypothesized that inundating brackish marsh soils with fresh …

With Every Name But Yours: A New Orchestration Of Clémence De Grandval's Stabat Mater, David Walters

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Clémence de Grandval was a late-Romantic composer whose extensive body of work, high profile performances, and numerous accolades should have garnered prominent placement among her contemporaries. Yet her vast collection of orchestral, choral, operatic, and other stage works have been all but forgotten.

Grandval’s Stabat Mater counted among her most popular works. Though the extant score for choir, harmonium (or organ), and piano explicitly references orchestral accompaniment1 , none of the parts or full score are available. Rather than providing a conductor’s guide or chord-by-chord analysis of Grandval’s work, this document breathes new life into this lost masterpiece by orchestrating …

Year-Round Weather Alters Nest-Provisioning Rates In A Migratory Owl, Eliza D. Stein, Stephen R. Midway, Brian D. Linkhart

Faculty Publications

As global temperatures and precipitation become more extreme, habitat specialists are at particular risk of being pushed past their environmental tolerance limits. Flammulated Owls (Psiloscops flammeolus) are small migratory owls that breed in temperate conifer forests of western North America. Their highly specialized nesting and foraging requirements make them indicators of ecosystem health. Using 17 years of nest observations, we investigated how annual weather patterns affected Flammulated Owl nesting and foraging behaviors during the breeding season. We used generalized linear models with a changepoint parameter to evaluate nest provisioning and nestling growth rates in years of extreme temperature and precipitation. …

Rapidly Changing Range Limits In A Warming World: Critical Data Limitations And Knowledge Gaps For Advancing Understanding Of Mangrove Range Dynamics In The Southeastern Usa, Rémi Bardou, Michael J. Osland, Steven Scyphers, Christine Shepard, Karen E. Aerni, Jahson B. Alemu I, Robert Crimian, Richard H. Day, Nicholas M. Enwright, Laura C. Feher, Sarah L. Gibbs, Kiera O’Donnell, Savannah H. Swinea, Kalaina Thorne, Sarit Truskey, Anna R. Armitage, Ronald Baker, Josh L. Breithaupt, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Just Cebrian, Karen Cummins, Donna J. Devlin, Jacob Doty, William L. Ellis, Ilka C. Feller, Christopher A. Gabler, Yiyang Kang, David A. Kaplan, John Paul Kennedy, Ken W. Krauss, Margaret M. Lamont, Kam Biu Liu, Melinda Martinez

Faculty Publications

Climate change is altering species’ range limits and transforming ecosystems. For example, warming temperatures are leading to the range expansion of tropical, cold-sensitive species at the expense of their cold-tolerant counterparts. In some temperate and subtropical coastal wetlands, warming winters are enabling mangrove forest encroachment into salt marsh, which is a major regime shift that has significant ecological and societal ramifications. Here, we synthesized existing data and expert knowledge to assess the distribution of mangroves near rapidly changing range limits in the southeastern USA. We used expert elicitation to identify data limitations and highlight knowledge gaps for advancing understanding of …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Cleanroom Ventilation And Air Distribution Systems, Arup Bhattacharya, Mohammad Saleh Nikoopayan Tak, Shervin Shoai-Naini, Fred Betz, Ehsan Mousavi

Faculty Publications

Cleanroom ventilation systems are well-established; however, the advantages and limitations of current practices need to be examined and explained further. This study begins by looking over the history of cleanroom ventilation systems that creates the basis for understanding ventilation rate specifications, terminologies employed in ventilation effectiveness, and recognizing scientific studies that correlate ventilation effectiveness with air change rates. This systematic review includes a comprehensive summary that contains a set of historical data and evidence that may be used to specify ventilation requirements in cleanrooms. Scientific articles are classified in terms of laboratory experiments, simulations/numerical analysis, or hybrid. HVAC designers and …

Review Of Heaven & Earth Grocery, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.