Digital Commons Network^™

Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals: Linking Air Pollution And Poor Respiratory Health?, Peter D. Sly, Stephania A. Cormier, Slawomir Lomnicki, Jeffrey N. Harding, Keith Grimwood, Griffith University

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Direct And Indirect Measurements Of The Magnetic And Magnetocaloric Properties Of Ni0.895cr0.105mnge1.05 Melt-Spun Ribbons In High Magnetic Fields, Anil Aryal, Yuri Koshkid'ko, Igor Dubenko, C. F. Sánchez-Valdés, J. L. Sánchez Llamazares, E. Lähderanta, Sudip Pandey, Alexander Granovsky, Jacek Cwik, Shane Stadler, Naushad Ali

Faculty Publications

We report the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of rapidly solidified Ni0.895Cr0.105MnGe1.05 melt-spun ribbons studied by both direct (adiabatic temperature change) and indirect (isothermal magnetic entropy change) methods in intermediate and high magnetic fields up to 10 T. The maximum values of the adiabatic temperature changes (ΔTad) and magnetic entropy changes (ΔSM) were found to be ∼2.6 K (µoH = 10 T) and 4.4 J kg−1 K−1 (µoΔH = 5 T), respectively, near the Curie temperature (TC). The ΔTad curves and magnetization isotherms were found to be completely reversible, which indicates the high degree of reversibility of the MCEs in this …

How Protein - Protein Interactions Contribute To Pyrenoid Formation In Chlamydomonas, Ananya Mukherjee, James V. Moroney

Faculty Publications

© The Author(s) 2019. The chloroplast pyrenoid, an important component of the CO2 concentrating mechanism of algae, is a structure composed primarily of Rubisco. In Chlamydomonas, Rubisco in the pyrenoid is held together by the linker protein EPYC1. Atkinson et al., (2019) determined the regions of the Rubisco small subunit and EPYC1 that are important for the protein-protein interaction, thus making progress towards reconstruction of a pyrenoid in higher plants. Why is a protein soluble in one organism while its homologue in another species becomes part of a liquidlike cell structure? That is the question being addressed by Atkinson et …

4/20 Cannabis Use Is Greater Than Other High-Risk Events: Identification Of Psychosocial Factors Related To 4/20 Use, Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, Julia D. Buckner

Faculty Publications

Cannabis is the most commonly used federally illicit drug, yet little research has identified risk factors for high-risk use. Although April 20 (“4/20”) has been identified as a day on which cannabis users use more cannabis than they typically do, it remains unknown whether 4/20 is a high-risk event for greater use than other heavy use days (e.g., other holidays) and whether use on 4/20 is related to greater use-related problems. Such information has important implications for event-specific prevention efforts. Thus, the present study tested whether 4/20 is associated with greater cannabis use than other high-risk cannabis use events (e.g., …

Bioalcohol Production From Acidogenic Products Via A Two-Step Process: A Case Study Of Butyric Acid To Butanol, Seong Heon Cho, Juyeon Kim, Jeehoon Han, Daewon Lee, Hyung Ju Kim, Yong Tae Kim, Xun Cheng, Ye Xu, Jechan Lee, Eilhann E. Kwon

Faculty Publications

This article presents the full study (lab-scale experimental study and large-scale techno-economic analysis) results of a two-step catalytic process for the conversion of organic waste–derived butyric acid to butanol. The two-step process consists of the (1) esterification of butyric acid to methyl butyrate and (2) hydrogenolysis of this methyl butyrate to butanol. The first reaction, esterification of butyric acid, was optimized using carbon-based catalysts. The production of butanol from methyl butyrate via hydrogenolysis was investigated using bimetallic Pt–Co catalysts. The hydrogenolysis of methyl butyrate on these catalysts under optimal conditions of 250 °C, 5 MPa H2, and a feed/catalyst weight …

Vibration Attenuation In High-Rise Buildings To Achieve System-Level Performance Under Multiple Hazards, Suvash Chapain, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

Rapid population growth and economic development in urban areas have greatly increased the potential of exposure to multiple hazards that may cause damage and business interruption in civil engineering structures, such as high-rise buildings. To alleviate these issues, fluid viscous dampers are employed under both wind and earthquake loads. The optimum number and location of dampers are selected based on modal drifts, and targeted values of response. Displacement, acceleration, inter-story drift ratio, shear force, and base bending moment are considered along with other concise set of system-level performance criteria that are easily understood by decision-makers and/or stakeholders of diverse technical …

Evaluation Of Reproductive Phenology And Ecology Of Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) Across The Southeastern United States, Landon Robert Schofield

LSU Master's Theses

The primary driver of population growth and sustainability of gallinaceous birds is annual recruitment. Habitat selection by wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) during reproductive activities could influence production at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Vegetation conditions at nest sites that could drive nest success have not been clearly identified, which suggests that other factors may drive reproductive success.

Female wild turkeys maintain dominance hierarchies, which could influence how reproductively active females distribute themselves across the landscape during reproductive periods. Using high-frequency GPS data collected from reproductively active females, I analyzed nesting attempts for Eastern (n = 381), …

Eleanor Lansing Dulles And The Fate Of Berlin: 1953-1989, Chad Everett Shelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At the end of the Second World War, Berliners lived in a war-ravaged city and faced occupation under Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The occupation of Berlin and Germany became a competition between capitalism and communism. East Germany became a communist nation while West Germany recovered under the supervision of capitalist nations. In the 1950s West Berlin found a new ally in the director of the Berlin Desk at United States Department of State, Eleanor Lansing Dulles.

Eleanor Dulles came from a privileged family who participated in American diplomacy at the end of the nineteenth …

Short- And Intermediate-Range Structure And Dynamics Of Fe-Ni-C Liquid Under Compression, Jianwei Wang

Faculty Publications

Properties of liquid Fe alloys under high-pressure conditions are crucial for understanding the composition, thermal state, and dynamics of Earth's core. Experiments on such liquids, however, are often performed under pressures far below those of the outer core, necessitating long extrapolations of experimental results to core conditions. Such estimates can be complicated by light elements possibly forming pressure-dependent molecular clusters that can significantly affect the physical properties of liquids as core conditions are approached. First-principles molecular dynamics simulations were employed to compute the properties of an Fe-Ni-C liquid with a composition of Fe3.7Ni0.37C at 1673 K and pressures from 0 …

Short- And Intermediate-Range Structure And Dynamics Of Fe-Ni-C Liquid Under Compression, Jianwei Wang

Faculty Publications

Properties of liquid Fe alloys under high-pressure conditions are crucial for understanding the composition, thermal state, and dynamics of Earth's core. Experiments on such liquids, however, are often performed under pressures far below those of the outer core, necessitating long extrapolations of experimental results to core conditions. Such estimates can be complicated by light elements possibly forming pressure-dependent molecular clusters that can significantly affect the physical properties of liquids as core conditions are approached. First-principles molecular dynamics simulations were employed to compute the properties of an Fe-Ni-C liquid with a composition of Fe3.7Ni0.37C at 1673 K and pressures from 0 …

Ethylene And Phloem Signals Are Involved In The Regulation Of Responses To Fe And P Deficiencies In Roots Of Strategy I Plants, Carlos Lucena, Rafael Porras, María J. García, Esteban Alcántara, Rafael Pérez-Vicente, Ángel M. Zamarreño, Eva Bacaicoa, José M. García-Mina, Aaron P. Smith, Francisco J. Romera

Faculty Publications

© Copyright © 2019 Lucena, Porras, García, Alcántara, Pérez-Vicente, Zamarreño, Bacaicoa, García-Mina, Smith and Romera. Iron (Fe) and phosphorus (P) are two essential mineral nutrients whose acquisition by plants presents important environmental and economic implications. Both elements are abundant in most soils but scarcely available to plants. To prevent Fe or P deficiency dicot plants initiate morphological and physiological responses in their roots aimed to specifically acquire these elements. The existence of common signals in Fe and P deficiency pathways suggests the signaling factors must act in conjunction with distinct nutrient-specific signals in order to confer tolerance to each deficiency. …

Effect Of Biochar Amendment On Sorption-Desorption And Dissipation Of 17Α‑Ethinylestradiol In Sandy Loam And Clay Soils, Zhuo Wei, Jim J. Wang, Amy B. Hernandez, Andrea Warren, Jong Hwan Park, Yili Meng, Syam K. Dodla, Changyoon Jeong

Faculty Publications

Animal manure application in agricultural land has caused the release of steroid estrogens in the soil environment and further movement to aquatic systems. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of biochar addition on sorption-desorption and dissipation behaviors of 17α‑ethinylestradiol (EE2) in two different textured soils. A Commerce sandy loam and a Shakey clay were selected and subjected to sterilization. Soil samples with and without sterilization were reacted with a series of EE2 solutions of different concentrations for sorption followed by desorption and quantification using HPLC-MS/MS. Long-term dissipation of EE2 in the same soils was also evaluated …

Turn-On Near-Infrared Fluorescent Sensors For Selective Monitoring Of Kinase Activity, Gerard Thomas Ducharme

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reliable and selective detection of specific biopolymers is critical in a broad range of biomedical and technological areas, including availability of simple and efficient point-of-care-compatible systems for the detection of prognostic, pharmacodynamic and predictive biomarkers. Monitoring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase is of major significance due to its link to many epithelial cancers. This task is complicated by the high rate of mutation occurring in patients treated with kinase inhibitors. This dissertation describes a conceptually novel design and synthesis of turn-on near-infrared fluorescent sensors for selective and sensitive detection of EGFR. The fluorescent signal generation mechanism is based …

Accumulation Over Evolutionary Time As A Major Cause Of Biodiversity Hotspots In Conifers, Mekala Sundaram, Michael J. Donoghue, Aljos Farjon, Denis Filer, Sarah Mathews, Walter Jetz, Andrew B. Leslie

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Biodiversity hotspots are important for understanding how areas of high species richness form, but disentangling the processes that produce them is difficult. We combine geographical ranges, phylogenetic relationships and trait data for 606 conifer species in order to explore the mechanisms underlying richness hotspot formation. We identify eight richness hotspots that overlap known centres of plant endemism and diversity, and find that conifer richness hotspots occur in mountainous areas within broader regions of long-term climate stability. Conifer hotspots are not unique in their species composition, traits or phylogenetic …

Detecting Parasite Associations Within Multi-Species Host And Parasite Communities, Tad A. Dallas, Anna Liisa Laine, Otso Ovaskainen

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Understanding the role of biotic interactions in shaping natural communities is a long-standing challenge in ecology. It is particularly pertinent to parasite communities sharing the same host communities and individuals, as the interactions among parasites—both competition and facilitation—may have far-reaching implications for parasite transmission and evolution. Aggregated parasite burdens may suggest that infected host individuals are either more prone to infection, or that infection by a parasite species facilitates another, leading to a positive parasite–parasite interaction. However, parasite species may also compete for host resources, leading to the …

Reaction Sequence For The Synthesis Of Nootkatone, Dihydronootkatone, And Tetrahydronootkatone, Roger Laine

College of Science Patents

No abstract provided.

Validation Of The Dual-Factor Model Of Mental Health In College Students: An Investigation Of Group Characteristics, Ashley Perle Galsky

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dual-factor model of mental health proposes that symptoms of mental illness and markers of mental wellness can occur simultaneously, while functioning as discrete factors that contribute to mental health and adaptive functioning (Keyes, 2005). The current study investigated the utility of the dual-factor model of mental health (cf. Greenspoon & Saklofske, 2001; Suldo & Shaffer, 2008; Suldo, Thalji, & Ferron, 2011) in college students (N = 1,023). Using self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, inattention, and hyperactivity/impulsivity as indicators of psychopathology, in combination with self-reported subjective well-being (SWB) as an indicator of wellness, participants were classified into one …

The Influence Of Selected Factors Impacting The Incidence And Severity Of Accidents Involving Pedestrian/Bicyclists And Motorized Vehicles In Urban Areas Of Louisiana, Randall M. Verret Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic, environmental and infrastructure factors on the incidence and severity of traffic accidents involving a motorized vehicle and a non-motorized (pedestrian or bicyclist) individual. Identification of influential factors can aid in developing more effective countermeasures, targeted education and training programs to reduce the fatality and injury risks to vulnerable road users. A total of 9,538 crash data records involving vulnerable road users and motor vehicle drivers were utilized in this study.

Overall, vulnerable road users were found to have higher incidences of impairment than motorized vehicle drivers …

Effect Of Light Activated Self-Healing Polymers On The Performance Of Asphalt Pavement Containing Recycled Asphalt Materials (Rap/Ras), Sharareh Shirzad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A new generation of Ultraviolet (UV) light-induced self-healing polymers was introduced for the asphalt pavement application with the aim to enhance pavements durability while increasing its service life. The developed self-healing polymer was mixed with asphalt binder using two different methods, passive and reactive. For the passive method, the cured self-healing polymer was ground to smaller particle size and then it was mixed with asphalt binder using a high shear stirrer and at a high temperature. For the reactive method, self-healing polyurethane pre-polymer was added to the asphalt binder at a lower temperature and lower shear rate compare to the …

Movement Ecology Of Eastern Wild Turkeys (Meleagris Gallopavo Silvestris) And Turkey Hunters On Public Land In South Carolina, Usa, Alaina Pamela Gerrits

LSU Master's Theses

Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallapavo, hereafter turkey) are the second most pursued big game species in the United States. Turkey hunting occurs primarily during spring, and on publicly-owned lands managers monitor hunter numbers and harvest to adjust hunter opportunity. Contemporary research has shown a decline in productivity and harvest of turkeys in the Eastern United States. Studies have also found that hunting activity on public lands can influence male turkey behavior, hence research detailing hunter behaviors and hunter-wild turkey interactions is needed to better inform management activities. We found turkey hunters exhibited both stationary and active behaviors while hunting …

Ornithological Expeditions To Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, 2007-2017, Frederick H. Sheldon, Haw Chuan Lim, Phred M. Benham, Matthew L. Brady, Clare E. Brown, Ryan C. Burner, Vivien L. Chua, John C. Mittermeier, Subir B. Shakya, Paul Van Els, Mustafa Abdul Rahman, Dency F. Gawin, Zahirunisa Abdul Rahim, Luisa Duya Setia, Robert Moyle

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

Louisiana State University, the University of Kansas, and the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak undertook collaborative research on the evolution and ecology of Bornean birds starting in 2005. This collaboration included a series of expeditions from 2007–2017 to collect and study birds at >30 sites in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Here we provide information on the study-sites and summarize the main discoveries resulting from the collaboration.

Using 19F(3He, T)19Ne∗(Γ) To Study Astrophysically Important Levels Near The 18F+ P Threshold, M. R. Hall, D. W. Bardayan, S. Ahn, J. M. Allen, J. T. Anderson, A. D. Ayangeakaa, T. Baugher, J. C. Blackmon, D. Blankstein, S. Burcher, M. P. Carpenter, S. M. Cha, K. Y. Chae, K. A. Chipps, J. A. Cizewski, M. Febbraro, B. Frentz, O. Hall, S. L. Henderson, J. Hu, C. L. Jiang, K. L. Jones, E. J. Lee, A. Lepailleur, D. S. Monteiro, P. D. O'Malley, S. Ota, S. D. Pain, B. C. Rasco, A. Ratkiewicz, J. Riggins, D. Santiago-Gonzalez, D. Seweryniak

Faculty Publications

A direct test of nova explosion models comes from the observation of γ rays created in the decay of radioactive isotopes produced in the nova. One such isotope, 18F, is believed to be the main source of observable γ rays at and below 511 keV. The main destruction mechanism of 18F is thought to be the 18F(p,α)15O reaction, and uncertainties in the reaction rate arise from uncertainties in the energies, spins, and parities of the nuclear levels in 19Ne above the 18F+p threshold. To measure the properties of these levels, the 19F(3He,t)19Ne-(γ) reaction was studied at Argonne National Laboratory and …

The Importance Of Self-Monitoring For Behavior Change In Youth: Findings From The Switch® School Wellness Feasibility Study, Gabriella M. Mcloughlin, Richard R. Rosenkranz, Joey A. Lee, Maren M. Wolff, Senlin Chen, David A. Dzewaltowski, Spyridoula Vazou, Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, Douglas A. Gentile, Marisa S. Rosen, Gregory J. Welk

Faculty Publications

School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH®) is a school wellness implementation initiative focused on building capacity for schools to plan and coordinate wellness programming. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of the web-based, self-regulation system on physical activity (PA) behavior outcomes. At pre-test and post-test, students in SWITCH® schools (n = 8) completed the online Youth Activity Profile (YAP) to assess PA and sedentary behavior (SB). Students (n = 513) were categorized into high or low self-monitoring groups (using a median split) based on their use of the web-based …

A Longitudinal Study Of Two Teacher-Report Screening Measures For Student Mental Health: Comparing The Swtrs And Saebrs, Anthony Joseph Roberson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study compared the comparative utility of two teacher-report universal screeners for student mental health, the Student Wellbeing Teacher-Report Scale (SWTRS) and the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS), across two occasions during the school year. Both instruments measure aspects of academic, social, and emotional student behavior from the teacher’s perspective but differ in their inclusion of both positive and challenging behaviors (i.e., SAEBRS) or positive behaviors only (i.e., SWTRS). Results suggest that both have strong concurrent and predictive validity characteristics in identifying student risk but differ in which outcomes they are better at predicting.

Age And Growth Of Hardhead Catfish And Gafftopsail Catfish In Coastal Louisiana, Usa, Shane Flinn, Stephen Midway

Faculty Publications

The Hardhead Catfish Ariopsis felis and Gafftopsail Catfish Bagre marinus are marine catfishes that have low recreational and commercial landings in U.S. waters, although they are among the most abundant species in coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Few biological studies exist on marine catfishes, with most studies focusing on their unique reproductive biology. This study evaluated weight-length relationships for Gafftopsail Catfish (n = 264) and Hardhead Catfish (n = 823) sampled from across coastal Louisiana, USA, during 2016-2018; subsamples (93 and 266, respectively) were aged using lapilli for age and growth analyses. Hardhead Catfish showed a small but …

Fall Facts, 2019, Louisiana State University

Fall Facts

No abstract provided.

This Worksheet Works: Making The Dls Standards Work For You, Natalie Haber, Melissa Cornwell, Andrea Hebert

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mechanistic Target Of Rapamycin (Mtor) Implicated In Plasticity Of The Reproductive Axis During Social Status Transitions, Karen P. Maruska, Young Chang Sohn, Russell D. Fernald

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. The highly conserved brain-pituitary-gonadal (BPG) axis controls reproduction in all vertebrates, so analyzing the regulation of this signaling cascade is important for understanding reproductive competence. The protein kinase mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) functions as a conserved regulator of cellular growth and metabolism in all eukaryotes, and also regulates the reproductive axis in mammals. However, whether mTOR might also regulate the BPG axis in non-mammalian vertebrates remains unexplored. We used complementary experimental approaches in an African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to demonstrate that mTOR is involved in regulation of the brain, pituitary, and testes when males …

Longitudinal Effects Of Maternal Love Withdrawal And Guilt Induction On Chinese American Preschoolers' Bullying Aggressive Behavior, Jing Yu, Charissa S.L. Cheah, Craig H. Hart, Chongming Yang, Joseph A. Olsen

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2019 Cambridge University Press. Bullying has been understudied among preschool children, especially those from Chinese American families. Previous research has also neglected the dimensional effects of psychological control on child bullying development. This study examined two psychological control dimensions, love withdrawal and guilt induction, and their effects on children's bullying aggressive behavior using a longitudinal design. Participants were first-generation Chinese American mothers (N = 133; mean age [Mage] = 37.82) and their preschool children (Mage = 4.48). Chinese immigrant mothers reported their psychologically controlling parenting and teachers rated children's bullying aggressive behaviors in the school setting. Confirmatory factor …

Frequent Fire Reorganizes Fungal Communities And Slows Decomposition Across A Heterogeneous Pine Savanna Landscape, Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen, William J. Platt, Taylor R. Patterson, Jean Huffman, Benjamin A. Sikes

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2019 New Phytologist Trust Pyrogenic savannas with a tree–grassland ‘matrix’ experience frequent fires (i.e. every 1–3 yr). Aboveground responses to frequent fires have been well studied, but responses of fungal litter decomposers, which directly affect fuels, remain poorly known. We hypothesized that each fire reorganizes belowground communities and slows litter decomposition, thereby influencing savanna fuel dynamics. In a pine savanna, we established patches near and away from pines that were either burned or unburned in that year. Within patches, we assessed fungal communities and microbial decomposition of newly deposited litter. Soil variables and …