Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Associated With Racial And Ethnic Minority Youths' Mental Health Help-Seeking At School, Sam Allouche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the high prevalence and associated consequences of mental health problems in youth, adolescents with these problems are often left untreated. This service gap is even greater in racial and ethnic minority youth who not only engage in treatment less frequently, but also experience far greater discrimination and systemic inequality than non-ethnic or racial minority students; factors further contributing to a need for service. Schools may provide an ideal location to treat mental health problems in youth, in part because schools eliminate structural barriers, but also because school staff have an opportunity to observe students across a range of functioning. …

Insights Into The Speciation Process From Genomic And Phenotypic Analysis Of An Avian Hybrid Zone In Amazonia, Glaucia Christina Del-Rio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the outcome of secondary contact is essential to shed light on the mechanisms governing species formation and maintenance. In Amazonia, closely related bird taxa with limited dispersal abilities are often separated by rivers, which presumably act as dispersal barriers. However, at the headwaters, rivers cease to be dispersal barriers, and this generates opportunities for secondary contact. In my dissertation, I studied genomic mechanisms associated with phenotypic differences, mitochondrial DNA structure, and putative reproductive barriers between two hybridizing Amazonian bird species in the genus Rhegmatorhina, a group of antbirds that find their arthropod prey exclusively by following army-ant swarms. …

Cover Cropping: Sensor-Based Estimations Of Biomass Yield And Nutrient Uptake And Its Impact On Sugarcane Productivity, Hector H. Fajardo Duran

LSU Master's Theses

Sugarcane in Louisiana can be harvested for up to three years from one planting. Soil cultivation along sides of established beds is done for weed control and improve fertilizer use efficiency which increases the risk of soil degradation and yield decline. Planting cover crops (CC) is a soil conservation practice and an effective strategy to improve soil health and nutrient recycling. Limited work has been done on remote sensor-based evaluation of the potential nutrient benefits from cover crops and its effect on nutrient cycling on sugarcane systems. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of two planting methods (broadcast …

Analysis Of Geographic Variability Of Fecal Microbiomes Of Fratercula Arctica And Cross-Comparison Of Fecal Microbiomes Of Different Avian Feeding Types, Eric Jose Ramon Martinez

LSU Master's Theses

Gastrointestinal (gut) microbiota have a multitude of effects on their host, from aiding in digestion, to facilitating nutrient uptake, detoxification, and interactions with the immune system. Multiple factors have been identified that influence the composition of vertebrate microbiomes; these include host genetics, environmental conditions, diet and age, sex, and geography. However, broad inferences about wild avian gut microbial diversity and function under natural conditions are limited. Most knowledge on avian microbiomes is derived from studies on domestic poultry. Information on non-model taxa may provide important contextual information about vertebrate host-microbiome interactions and aid in future management of vulnerable species. Here, …

Micro Heat Exchanger To Cool Cerebrospinal Fluid For Brain Injury Treatment, Sachin Dahiya

LSU Master's Theses

Hypothermia is accepted as a method to preserve cells and tissue. Clinical evidence shows that administration of hypothermia could lead to neuroprotection after cardiac arrest. Non-invasive methods such as surface cooling devices, drugs and cold liquid ventilation are available to induce hypothermia. These approaches for achieving hypothermia have not been optimized yet. The surface cooling methods are generally slow and may lead to additional thermal shock to the body. Here, we propose a rapid, selective cooling method for the brain using a micro heat exchanger to cool the cerebrospinal fluids (CSF). We designed and 3D printed a U-type heat exchanger …

2001 Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer Element Concentration Maps, A. Rani, A. Basu Sarbadhikari, D. R. Hood, O. Gasnault, S. Nambiar, S. Karunatillake

Planetary Science Lab

Chemical provinces were defined on Mars a decade ago using orbital nuclear spectroscopy of K, Th, Fe, Si, Ca, Cl, and H2O. However, past multivariate analyses yielded three sets of provinces, suggesting methodologic variability. Province-stability to the inclusion of Al and S is also unknown, presenting additional uncertainties for geologic insight. Here we consolidate key multivariate methods to define the first cross-validated provinces. In southern highlands, the highly incompatible K and Th show non-uniform distribution with higher values in mid Noachian and Hesperian than late Noachian – early Hesperian volcanic terrains. Silica- and Al-depletion trends from Noachian to Amazonian indicate …

Acidic Catalyst, James J. Spivey, Kunlun Ding, Swarom Kanitkar

College of Engineering Patents

Methods of preparing an acidic catalyst are disclosed that include heating a metal halide to produce a vapor phase metal halide, contacting an initial support material with the vapor phase metal halide in a reaction vessel causing a first chemical reaction and producing an intermediate acidic catalyst, contacting the intermediate acidic catalyst with HBr causing a second chemical reaction and producing an acidic catalyst product which is both more acidic than the intermediate acidic catalyst and more acidic than the initial support material.

Risk-Taking And Career Achievement: The Moderating Role Of "Getting Along" Personality Traits, John-Luke Mccord

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The current dissertation examined the moderating effects of personality traits on the relationship between risk propensity and career advancement. It was hypothesized that certain personalities that facilitate dependability and building support can impact the probability of successful risk-taking at work, resulting in greater career advancement. A nationally representative panel study of British households (n = 13,743) was used to examine the extent to which Big Five personality traits interact with risk propensity to predict career achievement. Results showed a strong, positive association between risk propensity and income growth over time. The “getting along” personality traits were not shown to have …

The Importance Of Co2 Recapture In The Co2 Concentrating Mechanism Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Ashwani Rai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the CO₂ concentrating mechanism (CCM) of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and to develop a quick method for estimating the activity of carbonic anhydrases (CAs). The first project demonstrates that there are two almost identical mitochondrial CAs in C. reinhardtii, CAH4 and CAH5, that help to maintain photosynthesis and minimize the leak of CO₂ generated by respiration and photorespiration. We used an RNAi approach to reduce the expression of CAH4 and CAH5 so that their physiological functions could be studied. RNAi mutants with low expression of CAH4 and CAH5 have impaired rates …

Surpassing The Standard Quantum Limit Using An Optical Spring, Torrey Cullen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves based on his new theory of general relativity. He predicted an accelerating mass with a non-zero quadrupole moment would emit energy in the form of gravitational waves. Often referred to as ripples in space-time, gravitational waves are extremely small by the time reach Earth, potentially having traveled hundreds of megaparsecs. It is common for these ripples in space-time to stretch and squeeze matter 1000 times smaller than the width of a proton.
Laser interferometer observatories were first built in the 1990s in the US and Europe, and as sensitivity improvements …

Capturing Wheat Phenotypes At The Genome Level, Babar Hussain, Bala A. Akpınar, Michael Alaux, Ahmed M. Algharib, Deepmala Sehgal, Zulfiqar Ali, Gudbjorg I. Aradottir, Jacqueline Batley, Arnaud Bellec, Alison R. Bentley, Halise B. Cagirici, Luigi Cattivelli, Fred Choulet, James Cockram, Francesca Desiderio, Pierre Devaux, Munevver Dogramaci, Gabriel Dorado, Susanne Dreisigacker, David Edwards, Khaoula El-Hassouni, Kellye Eversole, Tzion Fahima, Melania Figueroa, Sergio Gálvez, Kulvinder S. Gill, Liubov Govta, Alvina Gul, Goetz Hensel, Pilar Hernandez, Leonardo Abdiel Crespo-Herrera, Amir Ibrahim, Benjamin Kilian

Faculty Publications

Recent technological advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have dramatically reduced the cost of DNA sequencing, allowing species with large and complex genomes to be sequenced. Although bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the world’s most important food crops, efficient exploitation of molecular marker-assisted breeding approaches has lagged behind that achieved in other crop species, due to its large polyploid genome. However, an international public–private effort spanning 9 years reported over 65% draft genome of bread wheat in 2014, and finally, after more than a decade culminated in the release of a gold-standard, fully annotated reference wheat-genome assembly …

Spatial Variations In The Stress Field Near The Wilmington Blind-Thrust, An Earthquake Source Beneath Los Angeles, California, Justin Kain

LSU Master's Theses

A newly identified blind-thrust fault in the southern Los Angeles basin may have substantial implications for earthquakes in the region. A previous study suggests that the Wilmington blind-thrust may link up with nearby faults to produce a multisegment (M_w 6.6–7.4) earthquake rupture. These estimates are based on the joint rupturing of the Wilmington blind-thrust, Compton, Newport Inglewood, and the Huntington Beach fault segments (~85 km total length). However, stress heterogeneity near these faults may limit the size and intensity of earthquakes when incorporated into earthquake hazard modeling. This study presents a detailed model of the stress field in this …

Development And Initial Validation Of The Adolescent Social Media Use Inventory, Johannah Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Adolescents are the largest population group that accesses social media applications (Boneva et al., 2006; Gross, 2004; Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). However, there is little known on how to measure the positive (i.e., enabling privacy settings, friending parents and other family members on social media platforms) and negative (i.e., public social media account, hiding posts from parents) adolescent social media use. This is an important oversight given the relationship between negative uses of social media and increased delinquency, aggression, and decreased parent-adolescent communication (Coyne et al., 2014). The present study sought to address this limitation in the research …

Chloride Channels That Mediate A Transient Nitric Oxide-Dependent Synaptic Polarity Switch In Retinal Amacrine Cells., Tyler Christopher Rodriguez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cytosolic chloride (Cl^-) concentration determines whether GABAergic and glycinergic synapses are inhibitory or excitatory. Ionotropic GABA and glycine receptors passively conduct Cl­^- leading to membrane depolarization or hyperpolarization depending on the Cl^- equilibrium potential. Accordingly, the distribution of Cl^- across the plasma membrane has the potential to determine the properties of networks of retinal amacrine cells (ACs) and their postsynaptic partners. Ion channels are responsible for establishing Cl^- reversal potential. Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule that can be generated in the inner retina where ACs form synapses. We have shown that NO …

Breeding Ecology Of Mottled Ducks In Southwestern Louisiana, Elizabeth Sophia Bonczek

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mottled ducks are a resident species found in the southern United States that rely on coastal marsh and associated habitat to fulfill the needs of the entirety of their annual cycle. Population monitoring has revealed declines in western Gulf Coast (WGC) mottled ducks since 2008. Mottled duck populations are influenced by survival and recruitment, and changes in these factors may contribute to population declines. The overarching goal of this project was to identify the mechanisms potentially limiting WGC mottled ducks.

I captured adult female mottled ducks during molt on Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge and adjacent lands in southwestern Louisiana from 2017–2019. …

Plastic And Evolved Responses In The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica, To Environmental Variation In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Kyle Sirovy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change and other anthropogenic impacts are causing rapid alterations to many of the world’s most productive coastal ecosystems and there is an urgent need to understand how species will respond to these environmental changes. Organisms may respond through plasticity, evolution, or the evolution of plasticity. In this dissertation, I evaluate the role of plastic and evolved responses in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, to environmental variation in the northern Gulf of Mexico. I use comparative transcriptomics, physiology, and morphology to examine the relative contribution of plastic and evolved responses for oysters exposed to low salinity and outplant sites …

A Wet/Dry Point Treatment Method Of Fvcom, Part Ii: Application To The Okatee/Colleton River In South Carolina, Changsheng Chen, Haosheng Huang, Huichan Lin, Jack Blanton, Chunyan Li, Francisco Andrade

Faculty Publications

The wet/dry point treatment method of FVCOM was applied to simulate the tide-induced flooding/drying process in the estuarine–tidal-creek–saltmarsh complex of the Okatee/Colleton River Estuary, South Carolina. The simulation results were compared with observed currents at three mooring sites and flooded areas observed from remote-sensing hypsometric measurements, demonstrating that FVCOM can robustly reproduce tidal and residual currents in the river and the flooding process onto the intertidal saltmarsh. The simulated flow field reveals that the Okatee/Colleton River Estuary is characterized by multiple residual eddies. Driven by the periodic tidal forcing, this estuarine system features a chaotic water transport process. Numerous residual …

A Roadmap For Quality Control Of Hardening And Hardened Printed Concrete, Viktor Mechtcherine, Kim Van Tittelboom, Ali Kazemian, Eric Kreiger, Behzad Nematollahi, Venkatesh Naidu Nerella, Manu Santhanam, Geert De Schutter, Gideon Van Zijl, Dirk Lowke, Egor Ivaniuk, Markus Taubert, Freek Bos

Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the specifics in characterizing the properties of additively manufactured, cement-based materials in their hardening and hardened states. Such characterization is required for the material development, structural design, and quality control of both printable material and 3D-printed elements. The related challenges are associated with the printed material's layered structure, which results in higher degrees of anisotropy and inhomogeneity in comparison to conventionally cast concrete. Thus, in the production of test specimens, the particularities of the real-scale 3D-printing process must be considered. Here a distinction is made between the production of samples for material testing prior to or …

The Alpha-7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist Gts-21 Engages The Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Incretin Hormone Axis To Lower Levels Of Blood Glucose In Db/Db Mice, Qinghe Meng, Oleg G. Chepurny, Colin A. Leech, Napat Pruekprasert, Megan E. Molnar, James Jason Collier, Robert N. Cooney, George G. Holz

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Aim: To establish if alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) agonist GTS-21 exerts a blood glucose-lowering action in db/db mice, and to test if this action requires coordinate α7nAChR and GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) stimulation by GTS-21 and endogenous GLP-1, respectively. Materials and Methods: Blood glucose levels were measured during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) using db/db mice administered intraperitoneal GTS-21. Plasma GLP-1, peptide tyrosine tyrosine 1-36 (PYY1-36), glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), glucagon, and insulin levels were measured by ELISA. A GLP-1R–mediated action of GTS-21 that is secondary to α7nAChR stimulation was evaluated using α7nAChR and GLP-1R knockout (KO) mice, or …

Supporting Family Meal Frequency: Screening Phase Results From The Simply Dinner Study, Jean M. Kerver, Holly E. Brophy-Herb, Julie Sturza, Mildred A. Horodynski, Dawn A. Contreras, Mara Stein, Erika Garner, Sheilah Hebert, Jessica M. Williams, Niko Kaciroti, Tiffany Martoccio, Laurie A. Van Egeren, Hailey Choi, Corby K. Martin, Koi Mitchell, Danielle Dalimonte-Merckling, L. Alexandra Jeanpierre, Chelsea A. Robinson, Julie C. Lumeng

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

We aimed to test main, additive, interactive effects, and feasibility of all possible combinations of six intervention components implemented for 8 weeks (Cooking/Serving Resources; Meal Delivery; Ingredient Delivery; Community Kitchen; Nutrition Education; Cooking Demonstrations). Primary outcomes were family meal frequency and preschoolers' dietary quality; secondary outcomes included family meal preparation type, meal preparation barriers, family functioning, and kitchen inventory adequacy. All possible intervention combinations were tested using a randomized factorial trial design in the first phase of a Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). Feasibility was assessed via attendance, delivery logs, and satisfaction. Parent-reported data collection included: socio-demographics, frequency and type of …

Acylsugars Protect Nicotiana Benthamiana Against Insect Herbivory And Desiccation, Honglin Feng, Lucia Acosta-Gamboa, Lars H. Kruse, Jake D. Tracy, Seung Ho Chung, Alba Ruth Nava Fereira, Sara Shakir, Hongxing Xu, Garry Sunter, Michael A. Gore, Clare L. Casteel, Gaurav D. Moghe, Georg Jander

Faculty Publications

Key message: Nicotiana benthamiana acylsugar acyltransferase (ASAT) is required for protection against desiccation and insect herbivory. Knockout mutations provide a new resource for investigation of plant-aphid and plant-whitefly interactions. Abstract: Nicotiana benthamiana is used extensively as a transient expression platform for functional analysis of genes from other species. Acylsugars, which are produced in the trichomes, are a hypothesized cause of the relatively high insect resistance that is observed in N. benthamiana. We characterized the N. benthamiana acylsugar profile, bioinformatically identified two acylsugar acyltransferase genes, ASAT1 and ASAT2, and used CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis to produce acylsugar-deficient plants for investigation of insect resistance …

Was The Decline Of Saltmarsh Tabanid Populations After The 2010 Oil Spill Associated With Change In The Larval Food Web?, Claudia Husseneder, Devika R. Bhalerao, Lane D. Foil

Faculty Publications

Horse flies of the species Tabanus nigrovittatus and Tabanus acutus are native to coastal marshlands. Their larvae are apex invertebrate predators, and their development is dependent on the food web in the marsh sediment. Surveillance of T. nigrovittatus after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed population crashes of adult flies in southeast Louisiana marshes near oil landfall, but not in southwest Louisiana where oil did not reach. Sediment collection in 2011 from Louisiana marshes showed a near-complete absence of larvae in the southeast yet high numbers in the southwest. We hypothesized that oil contamination …

Louisiana Agriculture Summer, 2022

Louisiana Agriculture

LSU AgCenter researchers constantly search for ways to improve Louisiana agriculture by increasing yields and profitability. They also seek to understand new and less popular crops that could thrive in our region. Professor Yan Chen is helping develop the tea industry along the Gulf Coast, working closely with producers to understand how to grow tea (Camellia sinensis) in the region, and her work is featured in the latest issue of Louisiana Agriculture magazine. The magazine also includes a look into Grow Louisiana and Growing Farmers, two programs designed to help beginning farmers learn the business. Researchers from the …

Northwest - Summer 2022, Lsu Agcenter

Horticulture Hints

No abstract provided.

Northeast - Summer 2022, Lsu Agcenter

Horticulture Hints

No abstract provided.

Central - Summer 2022, Lsu Agcenter

Horticulture Hints

No abstract provided.

Southeast - Summer 2022, Lsu Agcenter

Horticulture Hints

No abstract provided.

Southwest - Summer 2022, Lsu Agcenter

Horticulture Hints

No abstract provided.

Event Based Approach For Modeling Indoor Airflow Patterns, Ehsan Mousavi, Arup Bhattacharya

Faculty Publications

People spend a significant proportion of their time indoors, where the quality of indoor air affects the productivity, efficiency, and well-being of occupants. One of the oldest challenges in building construction is designing a ventilation system that ensures optimum indoor air quality. Acceptable indoor air should provide thermal comfort and minimize human exposure to contamination. Characterizing these two elements requires information on both heat/mass transfer in the microenvironment and the time-specific activity of individuals who move among these microenvironments. While researchers have utilized simulation tools to investigate this complex human-environment interaction, current numerical techniques severely limit the simulations to overly …

Ethnic Discrimination And Alcohol-Related Problem Severity Among Hispanic/Latin Drinkers: The Role Of Social Anxiety In The Minority Stress Model, Julia D. Buckner, Elizabeth M. Lewis, Justin M. Shepherd, Michael J. Zvolensky

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Hispanic/Latin individuals in the U.S. experience many health disparities, including worse alcohol-related outcomes. Thus, identifying psycho-sociocultural factors that may play a role in alcohol-related problems among these individuals is vital to informing prevention and treatment efforts. Minority stress-based models of alcohol misuse posit that some Hispanic/Latin individuals may drink (and continue to drink despite drinking-related problems) to alleviate negative affect associated with experiencing ethnic discrimination. Yet, little research has directly tested this hypothesis. Given the social nature of both ethnic discrimination and drinking, it follows that experiencing more ethnic discrimination could be related to greater social anxiety and some …