Digital Commons Network^™

New Binary Ti Vectors With Co-Directional Replicons For Agrobacterium Tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation Of Higher Plants, Seokhyun Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Small, high-yielding binary Ti vectors of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were constructed. All four basic components of the vector, ColE1 replicon (715 bp) for Escherichia coli, VS1 replicon (2,659 bp) for A. tumefaciens, a bacterial kanamycin resistance gene (999 bp), and the T-DNA region (170 bp), were modified to reduce the vector size to 4,566 bp and to introduce a number of mutations to increase the copy number and other functionality. The transcriptional direction of VS1 replicon can be the same as that of ColE1 replicon (co-directional transcription), or opposite (head-on transcription) as in the case of widely used vectors (pPZP or …

Applicability And Integration Of Plasma Sprayed Hydroxyapatite Coated Ao Cortical Bone Screws In Equine Bone, Timm Gudehus

LSU Master's Theses

To compare insertion temperatures and torques of Hydroxyapatite (HA) coated and uncoated 5.5 mm AO cortical screws in equine third metatarsal bones (MTIII) in vitro, and to compare insertion and extraction torques of HA coated and uncoated screws after 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks of healing in equine third metacarpal bones (MCIII) in vivo. No significant temperature differences were recorded in cadaveric bones for AO and HA coated screws. Insertion torques were significantly higher for HA coated implants compared to uncoated screws. In vivo, the AO screws lost 50% of their initial stability within 4 weeks of healing and …

Deterrents To Participation In Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs, Suzanne H. Carpenter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe what a sample of registered nurses in the state of Louisiana, who are members of the Louisiana State Nurses' Association (LSNA), identify as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Two hundred and eighty one RNs participated in the study. The 54 item four point Likert - type interval scale Deterrents to Participation in Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs Survey Instrument was utilized to measure what LSNA member RNs identified as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Eighteen items assessed demographic information about the respondents. A factor analysis revealed a …

In The Shadow Of Josephinism: Austria And The Catholic Church In The Restoration, 1815-1848, Scott M. Berg

LSU Master's Theses

In the 1780s, Emperor Joseph II implemented reforms of the Catholic Church in Austria. By the time of his death in 1790, Joseph had cut off the Austrian Church from Rome, dissolved one-third of the monasteries in the Habsburg Empire, made marriage a state matter, granted toleration to Protestants, controlled clerical education, and restricted many religious activities. After the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815), Europe retreated toward conservatism, and reform in Austria ended. Yet most of the religious changes in the 1780s, aptly labeled Josephinism, remained in the Austrian Church. This thesis will examine the persistence of Josephinism in …

Geothermal Resource Assessment Of The Gueydan Salt Dome And The Adjacent Southeast Gueydan Field, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Taylor Austin Gray

LSU Master's Theses

The fluids heated by the high thermal conductivity and vertical geometry of salt domes in South Louisiana have the potential to be an economic source of geothermal energy. The Gueydan dome is a piercement salt diapir in Southwest Louisiana lying along the Vermilion and Acadia Parish border. Isotherms indicate a thermal anomaly at the crest of the dome with formation temperatures of 62 ˚C recorded at 1346 m, which is too cold for a geothermal prospect. The shallowest salt encountered is at a depth of 1475 m, and the surrounding strata are Cenozoic sand and clay deposits. Previous geothermal assessments …

The Rise Of The Surgical Age In The Treatment Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Case Study Of The Mississippi State Sanatorium, Ashley Baggett

LSU Master's Theses

The historiography of tuberculosis, “TB,” covers four periods in the United States. During the Victorian Age, TB was classified as consumption. After Robert Koch’s discovery of the tubercle bacillus in the 1882, the germ theory took precedence. The early 1900s saw the rise of the Sanatorium Age, and finally, the antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s began the current understanding of the disease. Missing from this periodization is an era in which surgery took precedence as the preferred treatment for tuberculosis. This study corrects the historiography by arguing for a recognizable Surgical Age in the 1930s and 1940s. With …

A Study Of The Elongation Of Fibrils Of The Alzheimer's Amyloid Beta Protein With A Coarse-Grained Force Field, Ana Rojas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a brain disorder named after the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, who first described the disease in 1906. AD is a form of dementia, characterized by impairment of memory and other intellectual abilities, caused by the loss of neurons and synapses (the structures that permit communication between neurons) in certain regions of the brain. Although the mechanism by which neurons are affected is not yet well understood, research points to a small protein, the beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta), as the first suspect. Ab chains are present in the brains of healthy individuals, but in AD patients, they associate …

An Exploration Of Strategy-Based Reading Instruction Using Expository Science Text In Grades 2-5, Carol Fetters

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored reading strategy-based reading instruction using science expository text between grades 2-5. The exploration revealed that elementary teachers used a variety of reading strategies using expository text for science instruction in grades 2-5, and that time barriers exist for strategy-based instruction using informational text. Spradley’s (1980) Developmental Reading Sequence, interviews, observations, and case studies of elementary science teachers in grades 2-5 were research techniques utilized for this study. This study centered on case studies of six elementary teachers and how they used reading strategies during science instruction. The findings of the study revealed that although the teachers’ use …

Analysis And Modeling Of Hurricane Impacts On A Coastal Louisiana Lake Bottom, Angelina Freeman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Tropical cyclone impacts on wetland, terrestrial, and shelf systems have been previously studied and reasonably delineated, but little is known about the response of coastal lakes to storm events. For the first time, tropical cyclone impacts on a shallow coastal lake in the Louisiana coastal plain have been studied using direct lines of evidence and numerical modeling. Using side-scan sonar, CHIRP subbottom and echo sounder bathymetric profiles, the lake bottom and shallow subsurface of Sister Lake was imaged pre- and post-Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to provide a geologic framework for assessing the effects of these storms. Box cores were collected …

Effect Of Management Awareness Of Safety Climate Concept On Organizational Safety Climate, Christopher Michael Holzner

LSU Master's Theses

Safety research and practice have shifted focus away from accident rates and accident causal information to a more proactive approach that may predict organizational safety trends. This proactive approach involves the concept of an organizational safety culture and the use of surveys to measure organizational safety climate or „snapshot‟ of the organizational safety culture. Surveys were administered to line workers, supervisors, and managers at a modular home manufacturing company before and after safety climate information was presented to supervisors and managers in an attempt to measure the effect of the supervisors‟ and managers‟ increased awareness of the factors that define …

Development And Preliminary Validation Of The Adolescent Homework Inventory, Meghan Burns Geary

LSU Master's Theses

Homework is defined as work assigned to students by teachers that is to be completed outside of school hours (Cooper, 1989). Homework completion has been shown to have both positive and negative effects at school and home (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, DeJong, & Jones, 2001; Cooper, 1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001). Given that homework will continue to be assigned, and that positive outcomes may be greater than negative outcomes, it is important to identify and address difficulties students face in homework completion. Measures are available to identify homework problems in elementary school students, but current measures available for middle and …

The Conserved Deda Family Of E. Coli Membrane Proteins: Genetic And Topological Analysis, Kandi Sheral Thompkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ludox density gradients were used to enrich for Escherichia coli mutants with conditional growth defects and alterations in membrane composition. A temperature-sensitive mutant named Lud135 was isolated with mutations in two related, nonessential genes: yghB and yqjA. yghB harbors a single missense mutation (G203D) and yqjA contains a nonsense mutation (W92TGA) in Lud135. Both mutations are required for the temperature-sensitive phenotype: targeted deletion of both genes in a wild-type background results in a strain with a similar phenotype and expression of either gene from a plasmid restores growth at elevated temperatures. The mutant has altered membrane phospholipid levels, with elevated …

Copper Oxide Wire Particles In Feed Pellets For Controlling Gastrointestinal Nematode Infection In Ewes And Lambs, Sarah Tammy Nicole Orlik

LSU Master's Theses

Gastrointestinal nematode parasites cause extensive damage to small ruminants, and Haemonchus contortus is a major concern to production. In the past, small ruminants were dewormed at regular intervals and control methods were based primarily on the use of anthelmintics. At present, anthelmintic resistance has been reported worldwide and has developed into a serious problem for small ruminant management programs. In view of this, alternate control methods are needed. One alternative method is the use of copper oxide wire particles (COWP). Three independent trials were conducted during Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2008. Two trials evaluated the effect of COWP in …

Habitat Use, Movements And Spring Migration Chronology And Corridors Of Female Gadwalls That Winter Along The Louisiana Gulf Coast, Jacob M. Gray

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana Gulf Coast is an important wintering area for North American gadwall (Anas strepera). Conservation of winter habitat is a top priority of the Gulf Coast Joint Venture. Quantitative estimates of habitat use by wintering gadwall would help improve energetic demand models and subsequent estimates of habitat requirements. I used satellite telemetry (PTTs) to estimate winter habitat and refuge uses, spring migration chronology and corridors, as well as inter- and intra-regional winter movements of females. I used a split-plot MANOVA to evaluate the effects of individual females, female age, winter, hunt periods within winter, time of day, and all …

Evaluating Different Health Communicatioin Theories To Deter College Binge Drinking: A Look At Promising Directions For Future Research, Kristen Meyer Sunde

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

For more than 30 years, college administrators and health communicators have used binge drinking prevention campaigns on university campuses to deter students from this dangerous and life-threatening habit.

Despite the prevalence of such campaigns (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004), binge drinking remains the top public health threat for this population (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995).

In this study, the researcher conducted an experiment using fear appeals to see if these messages were more effective than social norms messages, which are often used in college binge drinking prevention campaigns (Real & Rimal, 2007), at prompting higher message credibility …

Evaluation Of Microfacies Controls On Hydrocarbon Seal Quality, Nchekwube Mbamalu

LSU Master's Theses

A microfacies based approach is proposed for the petrophysical prediction of the most effective hydrocarbon seals. Four distinct microfacies types deposited by different deep water depositional processes have been identified based on textural and mineralogical characteristics. Individual microfacies types include: 1) finely laminated, silt poor to slightly silty hemipelagic claystones; 2) faintly laminated, slightly to moderately silty distal hemiturbiditic claystones; 3) weakly laminated, moderately silty to slightly sandy intermediate hemiturbiditic mudstones; and 4) very silty and sandy proximal hemiturbiditic mudstones. Hemipelagic and distal hemiturbiditic claystones (microfacies types 1 and 2) containing well to modestly organized fabric, high total clay contents, …

Quantifying Tarnished Plant Bug, Lygus Lineolaris (Palisot De Beauvois), Resistance To Acephate In Louisiana, Josh T. Copes

LSU Master's Theses

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), is one of the most yield- limiting insect pests attacking cotton in the Mid-Southern region of the U.S. This pest is almost exclusively managed with chemical control strategies. The organophosphate insecticide, acephate, has been one of the most important insecticides recommended to control tarnished plant bugs. In recent years, reports of unsatisfactory acephate performance have become common and actual field rates have been increased to improve control. The objective of this study was to survey acephate susceptibility in Louisiana populations of tarnished plant bug using laboratory bioassays and evaluate acephate efficacy …

The Relationship Between Social Skills And Challenging Behaviors In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jonathan Wilkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are among the most serious and debilitating conditions with onset in early childhood. Deficits in social interaction skills are considered to be the hallmark set of symptoms and are given the most weight in current diagnostic systems. Although not considered among the core symptoms of ASD, challenging behaviors in the form of physical aggression, property destruction, and self-injury also commonly occur. Challenging behaviors of this nature are a salient feature of ASD because of their potential to cause harm to self and others as well as limit a child’s access to opportunities in community and …

Readiness For Lifelong Learning Of Volunteers Affiliated With A 4-H Youth Development Program In The Southern Region Of The United States, Kenneth Kimani Kungu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and determine the level of readiness for lifelong learning of volunteers affiliated with a 4-H youth development program in the southern United States. Based on a literature review, readiness for lifelong learning was conceptualized as incorporating aspects of response to triggers for learning, self-directed learning readiness, and a readiness to overcome deterrents to participation in learning. The Readiness for Lifelong Learning Survey, a 75 item Likert-type scale, was developed and administered online to 1815 adult volunteers who had provided usable emails in a enrollment database system. The final response count was 277 …

Effectiveness Of Forestry Best Management Practices In Minimizing Harvesting Impacts On Streamflow And Sediment Loading In Low-Gradient Headwaters Of The Gulf Coastal Plain, Kristopher Brown

LSU Master's Theses

Few studies have examined the effectiveness of timber harvesting Best Management Practices (BMPs) in water quality protection of widely-spread, low-gradient, and highly intermittent headwaters on the Gulf Coastal Plain. Also, a spatial disparity exists between the plot-scale water quality benefits afforded by BMP implementation and the watershed-scale with which most watershed stewardship programs are managed. In this thesis research, paired-watershed and Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) designs were utilized to quantify plot- and watershed-scale changes in streamflow, as well as baseflow and stormflow Total Suspended Sediment (TSS) concentration and yield for 27 months after clearcut harvesting with and without BMPs in a low-gradient, …

Communication Deficits In Babies With Autism And Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (Pdd-Nos), Max Horovitz

LSU Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by pervasive impairments in communication, socialization, and repetitive behaviors or interests. While there is a growing interest in early ASDs, very few studies have looked at the nature of these impairments before age 3. In order to better strengthen early assessment and intervention for ASDs, more knowledge is needed in this area. The current studies aimed to determine if, and in what ways, communication impairments are present in infants and toddlers (17-37 months) diagnosed with autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). In the first study, infants with autism and PDD-NOS …

Extraversion And Oral Proficiency In Esl, Joshua Boyd Howard

LSU Master's Theses

Extraversion has been proposed as an influence on the success of a second language learner, although studies in this area have produced mixed results (Dewaele & Furnham, 1999; Marin-Marin, 2005; Wakamoto, 2007). Through a narrative retell task, the current study investigated the effects of extraversion on the spoken English performance of 25 native speakers of Spanish. Extraversion was measured with a Spanish version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire or EPQ (1975). Narratives were elicited using the wordless picture story Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Drawing on the work of Dewaele (1998), Dewaele and Pavlenko (2002), and Oya, Manalo, and …

Relationship Between Dissimilar Cognitive Styles, Use Of Coping Behavior And Use Of Learning Strategies, Chevanese Latoya Samms

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on teacher learning styles and teaching styles have explained that teachers inadvertently mirror their own styles as they teach (Sternberg, 1994; Zhang, 2002) and as such apply teaching strategies that fit personal preference. With this one-style-fits-all approach, students’ individual differences are often ignored and teaching methods are rarely varied to accommodate (McKeachie, 1995) the student. This relationship between one’s preferred style and his or her teaching style may also influence student learning (Zhang, 2001) based on findings which pointed out that students who had similar styles like those of their instructors were more comfortable with the techniques the instructor …

"Do It For Me, My Dear": Structuration And Relational Dialectics Among Mother-Daughter Dyads In Lebanese Arranged Marriages, Khaled Nasser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research applied a two-step triangulation approach to the study of mother-daughter communication in arranged marriages among the religious Sunnis of Beirut, Lebanon. Combining the theory of structuration and relational dialectics in one theoretical framework, the study investigated the role of mother-daughter interactions in the socialization of the daughter into the marital experience. The study investigated the process of marital socialization by first surveying 199 mother-daughter dyads, representing 398 individuals. In the second step, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 families (three interviews per dyad), randomly selected out of the 199 surveyed pairs. The dyadic data analysis of the surveys …

New Age Control On A Mid-Shelf Grounding Event In Eastern Basin, Ross Sea, Amy Noelle Cone

LSU Master's Theses

It is widely accepted that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) was grounded at the continental shelf edge in Eastern Ross Sea during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), but the precise chronology is debated. Existing post-LGM ice retreat chronologies are considered suspect because nearly all have been developed using radiocarbon dating of acid-insoluble organics (AIO). Foraminifer tests yield more accurate radiocarbon dates than AIO because unlike loose sediment, foram tests are unlikely to be contaminated by allochthonous carbon, but unfortunately forams are sparse in Antarctic marine sediment cores. Here I utilized a new 3-D multibeam survey of a mid-continental-shelf grounding …

The Evolution Of Freeze Tolerance In A Historically Tropical Snail, Alice B. Dennis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Geographic range differences among species may result from differences in their physiological tolerances. In the intertidal zone, marine and terrestrial environments intersect to create a unique habitat, across which physiological tolerance strongly influences range. The snail Melampus bidentatus occurs in coastal salt marshes in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. I have used sequence data from one mitochondrial (CO1) and two nuclear markers (histone H3 and a mitochondrial carrier protein, MCP) to identify three cryptic species within Melampus bidentatus, and to infer their relationships to other Melampus. To identify microhabitat differences between two cryptic species, I modeled their distributions …

The Power Struggle Between Americans And Creoles In The First Half Of The Nineteenth Century And Its Influence On The Architecture Of New Orleans, Sylvia Starns Mince

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the first half of the nineteenth century the house types of the landscape and the footprint of New Orleans changed dramatically. Many of the changes can be attributed to the influx of the refugees from Saint Domingue and the Americans who immigrated from the North and the East Coast of the United States. Both sets of influxes reflect the impact of these two immigrant groups on the previously existing power structures in economics, politics, and society of the city. While the refugees from Saint Domingue more or less assimilated into the city, and in doing so, achieved power over …

The Effect Of Supraliminal Goal Primes On Brand Preference: The Mediating Roles Of Implicit And Explicit Attitudes, Nobuyuki Fukawa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation investigates how supraliminal goal primes affect brand preference through explicit attitude and implicit attitude and whether the effect of supraliminal goal primes and/or mood on brand preference is mediated by cognitive load. Chapter 1 develops a conceptual framework and provides a theoretical background. Chapter 2 investigates how supraliminal goal primes and/or mood affect preference (Study 1), implicit attitude (Study 2) and explicit attitude (Study 3) in the context of luxury vs. frugal brand consumption. Chapter 2 also investigates whether the effect of goal primes and/or mood on preference is mediated by cognitive load. Chapter 3 considers whether, under …

A Comparison Of Public And Private Positive Peer Reporting In General Education Classrooms, Carolyn Barahona

LSU Master's Theses

Positive peer reporting (PPR) and Tootling have shown to be effective classwide interventions in decreasing maladaptive behavior and increasing positive interactions. In the current study, PPR was implemented as a classwide intervention by using an interdependent group contingency to determine if two variations of student praise reports affect classroom disruptive behavior. PPR uses public praise reports to decrease maladaptive behavior and increase prosocial interactions, while Tootling uses private praise reports on index cards to increase reports of prosocial interactions. This study compared students’ public praise reports to private praise reports of fellow students and evaluated how different praise types affect …

Establishment': A Core Concept In Chinese Inbound Income Taxation, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

Analogous with the concept of a US "trade or business" in US federal income tax law, the concept of "establishment" under Chinese tax law determines the boundary between net-income and gross-income taxation of inbound investments. As central as the concept is, it has received surprisingly little interpretation. As China increasingly opens to foreign portfolio investment and makes new non-corporate business forms available to foreigners, the term is urgently in need of clarification. This Article describes the recent regulatory and commercial developments in China that may rekindle interest in elaborating the meaning of "establishment." It then discusses the interpretations that have …