Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Alkylation On Potency Of Benz[A]Anthracene For Ahr2 Transactivation In Nine Species Of Freshwater Fish, Justin Dubiel, Hunter Johnson, Andreas N.M. Eriksson, A. Hontela, Jon A. Doering, Steve Wiseman

Faculty Publications

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are naturally occurring or anthropogenic organic chemicals that can activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor 2 (AhR2) and induce toxicity in fishes. Alkyl PAHs are more abundant than nonalkylated PAHs in certain environmental matrices and there is growing evidence that alkylation can increase potency, dependent on the position of alkylation. However, it is unknown if the effect of alkylation on potency is conserved across species. In addition, relatively little is known regarding the extent of interspecies variation in sensitivity to PAHs and alkyl PAHs. Therefore, objectives of the present study were to characterize potency of benz[a]anthracene (BAA) …

Simulation Of Radioactive Plume Transport In The Atmosphere Including Dynamics Of Particle Aggregation And Breakup, Alexander I. Wiechert, Austin P. Ladshaw, Yong Ha Kim, Costas Tsouris, Sotira Yiacoumi

Faculty Publications

Accurate prediction of the atmospheric transport of debris particles relies heavily on our knowledge of the size distribution of the particles within a debris cloud. Assuming a fixed particle size during simulations is not always viable since the size distribution of the debris can change during transport. Various microphysical processes, such as aggregation and breakup, influence debris particles and dictate any changes to the size distribution. To track those changes that can occur, a population balance model can be adopted and instituted within a model framework. Nonetheless, many of the models that simulate the transport of radioactive debris following a …

A Cross-Correlation Study Between Icecube Neutrino Events And The Fermi Unresolved Gamma-Ray Sky, Michela Negro, Milena Crnogorčević, Eric Burns, Eric Charles, Lea Marcotulli, Regina Caputo

Faculty Publications

With the coincident detections of electromagnetic radiation together with gravitational waves (GW170817) or neutrinos (TXS 0506+056), the new era of multimessenger astrophysics has begun. Of particular interest are the searches for correlation between the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory and gamma-ray photons detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). So far, only sources detected by the LAT have been considered in correlation with IceCube neutrinos, neglecting any emission from sources too faint to be resolved individually. Here we present the first cross-correlation analysis considering the unresolved gamma-ray background (UGRB) and IceCube events. We perform a thorough …

Transcription Factor Pecs Mediates Agrobacterium Fabrum Fitness And Survival, George C. Nwokocha, Prava Adhikari, Asif Iqbal, Hannah Elkholy, William T. Doerrler, John C. Larkin, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

The transcriptional regulator PecS is encoded by select bacterial pathogens. For instance, in the plant pathogen Dickeya dadantii, PecS controls a range of virulence genes, including pectinase genes and the divergently oriented gene pecM, which encodes an efflux pump through which the antioxidant indigoidine is exported. In the plant pathogen Agrobacterium fabrum (formerly named Agrobacterium tumefaciens), the pecS-pecM locus is conserved. Using a strain of A. fabrum in which pecS has been disrupted, we show here that PecS controls a range of phenotypes that are associated with bacterial fitness. PecS represses flagellar motility and chemotaxis, which are processes that are …

Reducing The Generation Time In Winter Wheat Cultivars Using Speed Breeding, Adam Schoen, Sydney Wallace, Meghan Fisher Holbert, Gina Brown-Guidera, Stephen Harrison, Paul Murphy, Nicholas Sanantonio, David Van Sanford, Richard Boyles, Mohamed Mergoum, Nidhi Rawat, Vijay Tiwari

Faculty Publications

Reducing generation time is critical to achieving the goals of genetic gain in important crops like wheat (Triticum aestivum). Speed breeding (SB) has been shown to considerably reduce generation times in crop plants. Unlike spring wheat cultivars, winter wheat varieties require typically 6–9 weeks of cold treatment, called vernalization, for flowering which extends the generation time for the development of improved winter wheat cultivars. Here, we optimized the SB method using a set of 48 diverse soft red winter wheat (SRWW) cultivars by testing vernalization duration, light and temperature requirements, and the viability of seeds harvested after different durations post-anthesis …

Multi-Functional Boron-Delivery Agents For Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Of Cancers, Sebastian O. Oloo, Kevin M. Smith, Maria Da Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a binary cancer treatment that involves the irradiation of ¹⁰B-containing tumors with low-energy neutrons (thermal or epithermal). The alpha particles and recoiling Li nuclei that are produced in the ¹⁰B-capture nuclear reaction are high-linear-energy transfer particles that destroy boron-loaded tumor cells; therefore, BNCT has the potential to be a localized therapeutic modality. Two boron-delivery agents have been used in clinical trials of BNCT in patients with malignant brain tumors, cutaneous melanoma, or recurrent tumors of the head and neck region, demonstrating the potential of BNCT in the treatment of difficult cancers. A …

Population-Specific Responses In Eastern Oysters Exposed To Low Salinity In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Kyle A. Sirovy, Sandra M. Casas, Jerome F. La Peyre, Morgan W. Kelly

Faculty Publications

Eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, are facing rapid environmental changes in the northern Gulf of Mexico and can respond to these changes via plasticity or evolution. Plastic responses can immediately buffer against environmental changes, although this buffering may impact the organism’s ability to evolve in subsequent generations. While plasticity and evolution are not mutually exclusive, the relative contribution and interaction between them remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the roles of plastic and evolved responses of C. virginica acclimated to low salinity using a common garden experiment with four populations exposed to two salinities. We used three transcriptomic analyses (edgeR, …

Riverbank Erosion And Char Stability Along The Fluvial-To-Tidal Transition Zone In The Lower Meghna River And Tentulia Channel In The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta, Bangladesh, Leslie A. Valentine, Carol A. Wilson

Faculty Publications

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta has been named one of the world's most vulnerable sinking deltas. It is also one of the most dynamic deltas, with the world's highest sediment discharge and third highest water discharge, with semi-diurnal mesoscale (2–4 m) tides. The high fluvial discharge and significant tidal velocities (1–2 m/s) create an expansive fluvial-to-tidal transition zone (FTTZ) along the entire Lower Meghna River (LMR). Within this FTTZ, tidally elongated channel bars, locally called ‘chars’, rapidly evolve due to the high sediment and water discharges. Chars along the LMR have a total population exceeding 5 million people; thus, evaluating the …

Refining 2svca Method For Measuring Telehealth Accessibility Of Primary Care Physicians In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Lingbo Liu, Jennifer Alford-Teaster, Tracy Onega, Fahui Wang

Faculty Publications

Equity in health care delivery is a longstanding concern of public health policy. Telehealth is considered an important way to level the playing field by broadening health services access and improving quality of care and health outcomes. This study refines the recently developed “2-Step Virtual Catchment Area (2SVCA) method” to assess the telehealth accessibility of primary care in the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area, Louisiana. The result is compared to that of spatial accessibility via physical visits to care providers based on the popular 2-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method. The study shows that both spatial and telehealth accessibilities decline …

Computational Materials Design For Ceramic Nuclear Waste Forms Using Machine Learning, First-Principles Calculations, And Kinetics Rate Theory, Jianwei Wang, Dipta B. Ghosh, Zelong Zhang

Faculty Publications

Ceramic waste forms are designed to immobilize radionuclides for permanent disposal in geological repositories. One of the principal criteria for the effective incorporation of waste elements is their compatibility with the host material. In terms of performance under environmental conditions, the resistance of the waste forms to degradation over long periods of time is a critical concern when they are exposed to natural environments. Due to their unique crystallographic features and behavior in nature environment as exemplified by their natural analogues, ceramic waste forms are capable of incorporating problematic nuclear waste elements while showing promising chemical durability in aqueous environments. …

Clustered Sparse Channel Estimation For Massive Mimo Systems By Expectation Maximization-Propagation (Em-Ep), Mohammed Rashid, Mort Naraghi-Pour

Faculty Publications

We study the problem of downlink channel estimation in multi-user massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. To this end, we consider the use of Bayesian compressive sensing approach in which the clustered sparse structure of the channel in the angular domain is employed to reduce the pilot overhead. To capture the clustered structure, we employ a conditionally independent identically distributed Bernoulli-Gaussian prior on the sparse vector representing the channel, and a Markov prior on its support vector. An expectation propagation (EP) algorithm is developed to approximate the intractable joint distribution of the sparse vector and its support with a …

Laminar Flame Speed Measurements Of A Gasoline Surrogate And Its Mixtures With Ethanol At Elevated Pressure And Temperature, Yousef M. Almarzooq, Ingmar Schoegl, Eric L. Petersen

Faculty Publications

Laminar Flame speed measurements of a gasoline surrogate and mixtures of it with ethanol were conducted using a heated, constant-volume vessel. A spherical propagating flame was observed using a high-speed camera, and laminar flame speed was determined therefrom. The gasoline surrogate, which serves as the baseline for the current study, consisted of four components, namely, iso-octane, n-heptane, toluene, and 1-hexene. Different mixtures of the gasoline surrogate and ethanol were studied, governed by the ethanol percentage in the mixture. That is, E0, E30, E50, and E85 mixtures represent 0%, 30%, 50%, and 85% ethanol in the gasoline surrogate mixture by liquid …

Three-Dimensional Scaffolds For Bone Tissue Engineering, Harish Chinnasami, Mohan Kumar Dey, Ram Devireddy

Faculty Publications

Immobilization using external or internal splints is a standard and effective procedure to treat minor skeletal fractures. In the case of major skeletal defects caused by extreme trauma, infectious diseases or tumors, the surgical implantation of a bone graft from external sources is required for a complete cure. Practical disadvantages, such as the risk of immune rejection and infection at the implant site, are high in xenografts and allografts. Currently, an autograft from the iliac crest of a patient is considered the “gold standard” method for treating large-scale skeletal defects. However, this method is not an ideal solution due to …

Developing Sustainable Asphalt Mixtures Using High-Density Polyethylene Plastic Waste Material, Ibrahim Elnaml, Jun Liu, Louay N. Mohammad, Nazimuddin Wasiuddin, Samuel B. Cooper, Samuel B. Cooper

Faculty Publications

There is growing interest in sustainable road pavement technologies to protect the environment and provide economic benefits. Post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics are considered for construction to address the threat of plastic waste materials (PWM) and to improve sustainability. Asphalt pavement construction is highly considered for PWM recycling due to its large daily production. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of asphalt mixture containing PWM, specifically high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and compare its performance with two conventional mixtures. Three asphalt mixtures were considered: (1) mixture with asphalt binder PG 76-22 (SBS-modified); (2) mixture with asphalt binder PG 70-22 …

Measuring Resilience To Sea-Level Rise For Critical Infrastructure Systems: Leveraging Leading Indicators, Lamis Amer, Murat Erkoc, Rusty A. Feagin, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, Katharine J. Mach, Diana Mitsova

Faculty Publications

There has been a growing interest in research on how to define and build indicators of resilience to address challenges associated with sea-level rise. Most of the proposed methods rely on lagging indicators constructed based on the historical performance of an infrastructure sub-system. These indicators are traditionally utilized to build curves that describe the past response of the sub-system to stressors; these curves are then used to predict the future resilience of the sub-system to hypothesized events. However, there is now a growing concern that this approach cannot provide the best insights for adaptive decision-making across the broader context of …

Every Step You Take, I'Ll Be Tracking You: Forensic Analysis Of The Tile Tracker Application, Lauren R. Pace, La Sean A. Salmon, Christopher J. Bowen, Ibrahim Baggili, Golden G. Richard

Faculty Publications

The rise in popularity of personal Bluetooth trackers has incited a need for forensic analysis tools that aid law enforcement in artifact recovery. With 40 million Tile devices reportedly sold at the time of writing, Tile trackers are one of the most popular personal Bluetooth trackers. This growth has not been without consequence, as reports of Bluetooth trackers being used for malicious activities have also escalated. Our work presents a forensic analysis of the Tile ecosystem and the Tile application on iOS, Android, and Windows. This analysis revealed valuable forensic artifacts that contained a diverse set of sensitive user data, …

Expanding Digital Forensics Education With Artifact Curation And Scalable, Accessible Exercises Via The Artifact Genome Project, Cinthya Grajeda, Jessica Berrios, Sankofa Benzo, Emmanuel Ogunwobi, Ibrahim Baggili

Faculty Publications

Digital Forensics (DF) is a multidisciplinary domain that involves computing, law, criminology and other disciplines. At the core of the domain, however, is the Acquisition, Authentication and Analysis (AAA) of digital evidence. In the real world, practitioners typically find data of forensic value in DF artifacts. While this is true, educational programs and resources have not kept up with DF artifacts - which are the cornerstone of real-world investigations. Our work transforms and expands DF education by focusing the community's attention to artifacts. By leveraging our past work on the Artifact Genome Project (AGP), we expanded the platform to house …

Factorizing 2fa: Forensic Analysis Of Two-Factor Authentication Applications, Jessica Berrios, Elias Mosher, Sankofa Benzo, Cinthya Grajeda, Ibrahim Baggili

Faculty Publications

Many sectors such as banking, academia, health care, and others have made Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) mandatory for all their registered users. The growth in the usage of 2FA technology demonstrates the need to understand how 2FA applications operate, the kind of information they store about their users, and the implications, if any, that may arise if malicious actors exploit them. Our work focuses on the forensic analysis of 15 2FA applications used by millions of people. Our analysis includes popular applications such as FreeOTP, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Twilio Authy, and more. The applications were tested on different operating systems …

Crgb_Mem: At The Intersection Of Memory Forensics And Machine Learning, Aisha Ali-Gombe, Sneha Sudhakaran, Ramyapandian Vijayakanthan, Golden G. Richard

Faculty Publications

Mobile malware's alarming sophistication and pervasiveness have continued to draw the attention of many cybersecurity researchers. Particularly on the Android platform, malware trojans designed to steal user PIIs, crypto miners, ransomware, and on-device fraud continue to infiltrate the primary Google store market and other secondary markets. While much effort has been put in place by the research community and industry to curb this menace since 2012, malware authors have consistently found ways to circumvent the existing detection and prevention mechanisms. Largely this remains so because of the restrictiveness of the feature set used in building the current classification models. Thus, …

Attosecond Charge Migration In Bromoethyne Derivatives, Colin Mcglynn

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Flammability Properties Of The Pyrolysis Gas Generated From Willow Wood, Maria Mitu, Domnina Razus, Dorin Boldor, Cosmin Marculescu

Faculty Publications

Willow wood presents a real interest for biomass pyrolysis due to its fast growth, renewability, and high energy density. Following the pyrolysis of willow wood in an inert atmosphere, a multi-fuel gaseous mixture was obtained, with the following composition (by volume): 38.20% CO/21.87% H2/17.44% CH4/1.15% O2/17.15% CO2/4.19% N2. The propagation of laminar premixed flames in these multifuel mixtures with air was investigated numerically for initial temperatures from 298 to 500 K, initial pressures from 1 to 20 bar, and fuel equivalence ratios between 0.60 and 2.00. The combustion of these gaseous mixtures as free laminar premixed flames was simulated by …

Integrating Lipid Metabolism, Pheromone Production And Perception By Fruitless And Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4, Jie Sun, Wen Kan Liu, Calder Ellsworth, Qian Sun, Yufeng Pan, Yi Chun Huang, Wu Min Deng

Faculty Publications

Sexual attraction and perception are crucial for mating and reproductive success. In Drosophila melanogaster, the male-specific isoform of Fruitless (Fru), FruM, is a known master neuro-regulator of innate courtship behavior to control the perception of sex pheromones in sensory neurons. Here, we show that the non-sex-specific Fru isoform (FruCOM) is necessary for pheromone biosynthesis in hepatocyte-like oenocytes for sexual attraction. Loss of FruCOM in oenocytes resulted in adults with reduced levels of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), including sex pheromones, and show altered sexual attraction and reduced cuticular hydrophobicity. We further identify Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (Hnf4) as a key target of …

Impact Of Sediment Diversion For Coastal Restoration On Nitrogen And Phosphorus Biogeochemical Cycling In Coastal Louisiana, Usa, Mercedes M. Pinzon Delgado

LSU Master's Theses

Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services and functions, including improving surface water quality through nutrient removal. Louisiana experienced ~4,800 km² of coastal wetland loss between 1932 and 2016 due to high relative sea level rise and reduced sediment input from the Mississippi River (MR). The 2023 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan aims to restore Louisiana's degraded coastline through restoration projects, including sediment diversions. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project will reconnect MR sediment-laden water with Barataria Basin degrading marshes. The diversion will also deliver nitrate (NO₃^-) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) to this basin, potentially negatively impacting water quality. …

Phenotypic And Genotypic Characterization Of Grain Quality In Rice And Implications For Breeding, Raul A. Guerra-Lacayo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rice will continue to be a staple food for the foreseeable future, and plant breeding can foment the resilience of this crop. Applied breeding programs with clear objectives can effectively develop varieties that satisfy stakeholder needs. The majority of U.S.-produced rice is destined to export markets, and Latin America is the largest importer of U.S. rice, receiving 59% of total exports in 2021. Since 2010, Latin American importers voiced concerns about the quality of U.S. rice, mainly the high chalk content of milled rice and the stickiness of cooked rice. To address these issues, the objectives of this project were: …

Communicating Nature-Society Relationships In Coastal Louisiana: An Evaluation Of The Ecosystem Services Framework, Vanessa Van Heerden

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ecosystem services (ES) framework is a tool to communicate the value of natural environments to human well-being by monetizing services that natural environments provide to humans. The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan uses the ecosystem services provided by the Mississippi River Delta as rationale for why coastal Louisiana should be protected. Here, I am interested in determining how the ecosystem services framework is used to communicate nature-society relationships in coastal Louisiana. I conducted a meta-analysis and spatial analysis to understand the spatial relationships of ecosystem services in the wetlands of coastal Louisiana. I then conducted a survey of residents of …

Characteristics Of Yogurt And Culture Bacteria As Affected By Ingredients That Help Treat Leaky Gut, Ricardo Jose Santos Aleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At least 100 million people have leaky gut syndrome. This syndrome is associated with multiple health problems such as diabetes, celiac disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease, costing more than $3 billion per year to treat. L-Glutamine, quercetin, slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (NAG), licorice root, maitake mushrooms, and zinc orotate have been reported to help treat leaky gut.

The objectives were to explore the characteristics of yogurt and culture bacteria as affected by ingredients that help treat leaky gut. In yogurt, the pH, titratable acidity, syneresis, viscosity, color, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, yeast and mold and …

Toward One Health: A Spatial Indicator System To Model The Facilitation Of The Spread Of Zoonotic Diseases, Daniel Jato-Espino, Fernando Mayor-Vitoria, Vanessa Moscardó, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Leticia Bartolome Del Pino

Faculty Publications

Recurrent outbreaks of zoonotic infectious diseases highlight the importance of considering the interconnections between human, animal, and environmental health in disease prevention and control. This has given rise to the concept of One Health, which recognizes the interconnectedness of between human and animal health within their ecosystems. As a contribution to the One Health approach, this study aims to develop an indicator system to model the facilitation of the spread of zoonotic diseases. Initially, a literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement to identify relevant indicators related to One Health. The …

Rethinking Attention Control: An Individual Differences Approach, Vincent A. Medina

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While there is extensive literature on visual spatial attention, less is known about auditory spatial attention, especially in terms of attention control. There is also a growing literature highlighting the importance of considering individual differences in attention control ability. Given these points, the purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to understand how auditory attention control is influenced by spatial location as well as vision. The second was to examine whether individual differences in attention control ability can predict task performance in that context. We utilized two tasks for these purposes. Experiment 1a consisted of a cross-modal Stroop …

Automated Reinforcement In Construction 3d Printing: An Investigation Of Mechanical And Macrostructural Performance Of Reinforced 3d-Printed Structures, Hassan Ahmed

LSU Master's Theses

Conventional construction with steel reinforcement is widely accepted and utilized worldwide for its proven strength, durability, design flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and due to available standards and design codes. Integration of reinforcement in construction 3D printing, however, presents multi-faceted challenges that may influence the structural properties of printed components and have hindered the widespread adoption of reinforced 3D-printed structures. This study explored two complementary reinforcement techniques, namely, steel fibers and threaded reinforcement, to reinforce 3D-printed structures. This study explored both the fresh and hardened properties of 3D-printed mixtures that contain very high steel fiber dosages of up to 2.5% by volume. Additionally, …

Tracing Energy Pathways Through Coastal Wetland Food Webs, Katherine Loesser

LSU Master's Theses

Southeastern Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are important habitat for aquatic species, yet the spatial heterogeneity in habitat types and abundance of many basal energy sources makes it challenging to elucidate patterns of energy flow across the landscape mosaic. This ecosystem is experiencing substantial changes, both through anthropogenically-accelerated climate change and anthropogenic landscape modifications. Therefore, the overall goal of this thesis was to trace patterns of energy flow across coastal wetland landscapes to determine which basal energy pathways support aquatic food webs and if patterns of energy pathway dependence are altered by changes to the landscape. In the first part of this …