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2011

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Characterization Of The Subcortical Interactions Between Larvae Of The Southern Pine Sawyer Monochamus Titillator (F.) And The Larvae Of The Southern Pine Beetle Guild Using Molecular Gut Analyses, Erich N. Schoeller Jan 2011

Characterization Of The Subcortical Interactions Between Larvae Of The Southern Pine Sawyer Monochamus Titillator (F.) And The Larvae Of The Southern Pine Beetle Guild Using Molecular Gut Analyses, Erich N. Schoeller

LSU Master's Theses

The southern pine beetle guild (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is arguably the most destructive group of forest pests in the Southeastern United States. Laboratory assays suggest that larvae of wood borer associates from the genus Monochamus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) may be facultative intraguild predators of southern pine beetle guild. In this study the dynamics of the subcortical interactions between M. titillator (F.) and members of the southern pine beetle guild were examined using PCR-based molecular gut content analyses. Species-specific PCR primer sets were developed to work under multiplex PCR conditions to detect DNA of members of southern pine beetle guild in the …

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A Look At The Integration Of Wetlands And Hazard Mitigation Planning In Coastal Louisiana, Kathleen Melissa Bowers Jan 2011

A Look At The Integration Of Wetlands And Hazard Mitigation Planning In Coastal Louisiana, Kathleen Melissa Bowers

LSU Master's Theses

Due to the destruction of the damaging hurricanes of 2005, Katrina and Rita, more effort has gone into the rebuilding and prevention of future disasters along the Louisiana coast than ever before. This research focuses on the use of wetlands, in the ten coastal parishes of Louisiana, as a mitigation effort aiding in the protection of coastal communities. Using content analysis and decision support software, a wetland ranking was created that represents how wetlands are utilized and protected within each parish. Criteria gathered from the plans include how many times wetlands were mentioned, collaboration with the state and other agencies, …

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Are Local Chemical Releases Causing An Increase In Cancer Rates In East Baton Rouge Parish?, India T. Anderson Jan 2011

Are Local Chemical Releases Causing An Increase In Cancer Rates In East Baton Rouge Parish?, India T. Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

Environmental pollution has become a steadily growing problem in today’s society. East Baton Rouge alone has 13 chemical plants in the parish. The goal of this research is to find out if the chemical releases in the parish are having an effect on the cancer rates in East Baton Rouge Parish. I gathered data from all 64 parishes in Louisiana. The four chemicals I chose to study specifically, Benzene, Dioxin, Formaldehyde, and Xylene. Chemical release data was taken from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) website and software from the years1988 to 2009, which was the last reporting year. The cancers …

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Stochastic Modelling Of Eukaryotic Cell Cycle, Murali Krushna Koneru Jan 2011

Stochastic Modelling Of Eukaryotic Cell Cycle, Murali Krushna Koneru

LSU Master's Theses

Stochastic models are developed to capture the inherent stochasticity of the biochemical networks associated to many biological processes. The objective of the present thesis is to present a detailed picture of stochastic approach for the mathematical modeling of eukaryotic cell cycle, to demonstrate an important application of such model in chemotherapy and to present a methodology for selecting the model parameters. The stochastic cell cycle model, developed using stochastic chemical kinetics approach, leads to the formation of an infinite dimensional differential equation in probabilities of system being in a specific state. Using Monte Carlo simulations of this model, dynamics of …

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The Design And Modification Of A Sputter System For Dc Reactive Sputtering Of Alumina And Zirconia Thin Films, Diane Van Ho Jan 2011

The Design And Modification Of A Sputter System For Dc Reactive Sputtering Of Alumina And Zirconia Thin Films, Diane Van Ho

LSU Master's Theses

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (7% YSZ) is the most used material for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to reduce the conductive heat transfer on turbine blades, but it is not resistant to infrared radiation. In order to reduce radiation heat transfer, alternating materials, such as alumina and zirconia, can be used to fabricate multi-layer coatings in which each layer is optimized to reflect a targeted range of wavelength. This research aims to fabricate these multi-layer coatings by reactive magnetron sputtering. Reactive magnetron sputtering is the sputtering of an elemental target in the presence of a reactive gas that will react with the target …

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Selection And Enumeration Of Low Epcam Expressing Breast Cancer Ctcs Using A High Throughput Microfluidic Device, Brandy Charon Snowden Jan 2011

Selection And Enumeration Of Low Epcam Expressing Breast Cancer Ctcs Using A High Throughput Microfluidic Device, Brandy Charon Snowden

LSU Master's Theses

Breast cancer cells overexpress EpCAM that can be used as a marker to select breast cancer CTCs from heterogeneous clinical samples, even when present in low abundance. This study used MDA-MB-231 cells which have a low expression level of EpCAM (1.7 x 103 binding sites per cell.3) Herein, we will report on the use of antiEpCAM antibodies immobilized onto the surface of a capture bed poised within a PMMA microchip that was fabricated into an HTMSU used for selection of breast cancer CTCs seeded into a buffer solution. The microchannel walls within the capture bed were UV modified for 5, …

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Caregiver Attitude, As Expressed Verbally In A Group Setting, And Its Association With Children's Attachment Security, Erin Wallace Lovett Jan 2011

Caregiver Attitude, As Expressed Verbally In A Group Setting, And Its Association With Children's Attachment Security, Erin Wallace Lovett

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore whether or not mothers’ attitudes, as expressed verbally in a group setting, were associated with the attachment style of the child and the insightfulness of the mother. The Circle of Security (CoS) was used as a 27 week group intervention for mothers who had become clients of a child welfare agency. Pre- and post test ratings were obtained for children’s attachment security and mothers’ insightful understanding of their children, using the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and the Insightfulness Assessment (IA), respectively. This study created scales for both Warmth/Empathy and Concern/Worry to …

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Screening Of Tar Cracking Catalysts For Syngas Produced By Biomass Gasification, Bijeet Mukherjee Jan 2011

Screening Of Tar Cracking Catalysts For Syngas Produced By Biomass Gasification, Bijeet Mukherjee

LSU Master's Theses

The gasification of biomass produces tars and particulates. These tars and particulates create problems in the gasification systems. Tars condense on surfaces at lower temperatures, such as exit pipes and on particulate filters, leading to blockages and clogged filters. Tars also have varied impacts on other downstream processes. Due to these reasons, syngas containing significant concentrations of tars cannot be used in internal combustion engines. Thus the processes through which tars can be removed have been subject to considerable research. The objective of this research was to identify the best catalyst for for down-draft gasifiers, including the LSU AgCenter down-draft …

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The Transient Wave Effect And Real Losses Correlation-Frequency, Temporal, And Spatial Analysis, Dina Sa Knight Jan 2011

The Transient Wave Effect And Real Losses Correlation-Frequency, Temporal, And Spatial Analysis, Dina Sa Knight

LSU Master's Theses

Water distribution systems are prone to transients since pumps need to be started and stopped, pumps may have sudden flow changes, human blunders can occur, equipment may fail, or other unavoidable natural events may ensue. Surge modeling techniques are available to calculate variations in pressure, under extreme or normal operating conditions, serving as a tool to predict extreme events in order to design a suitable system and, or, to aid in the implementation of proper measures to mitigate transients. However, modeling an entire water network system may not be cost effective and may require extensive research and time especially in …

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Admissions Brochure 2011-2012, William & Mary Law School Jan 2011

Admissions Brochure 2011-2012, William & Mary Law School

Admissions Brochures

No abstract provided.

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Statistical Methods In The Analysis Of Copy Number Variation Data, Nathan Wineinger Jan 2011

Statistical Methods In The Analysis Of Copy Number Variation Data, Nathan Wineinger

All ETDs from UAB

Copy number variation is a significant form of genetic variation that has been shown to influence many traits. However, current methods used to estimate copy number variation are imprecise and prone to errors. This property is demonstrated in a study examining copy number variation in African Americans recruited into the Hypertensive Genetic Epidemiology Network study, and who were genotyped on the Affymetrix 6.0 array. The effect this has on downstream association analyses is explored, an alternative methods are proposed. Finally, a method is proposed that uses linkage disequilibrium between copy number variants and single nucleotide polymorphisms to improve the accuracy …

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The Limits Of National Security, Laura K. Donohue Jan 2011

The Limits Of National Security, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The United States’ National Security Strategy, issued in May 2010, articulates an expansion in U.S. interests that stems from the end of the Cold War. Departing from a policy of industrial growth and military containment in response to geopolitical threats, U.S. national security is now defined in terms of a wide range of potential risks that the country faces. The NSS is not alone in its rather expansive view—one that significantly departs from the perspective adopted at any point in U.S. history. It represents the fourth (and most concerning) epoch in the country’s evolution, and it is beginning to find …

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Mechanisms And Consequences Of Thy-1 Shedding, John Edwin Bradley Jan 2011

Mechanisms And Consequences Of Thy-1 Shedding, John Edwin Bradley

All ETDs from UAB

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by chronic fibrosis in the lung interstitium of unknown etiology, and causes death within 2 to 4 years after diagnosis. There are no clinical interventions save for lung transplantation that give any survival benefit. Aberrant collagen deposition and aggregates of proliferating fibroblasts and myofibroblasts called fibroblastic foci (FF) are the classic features of IPF. Therefore, the cell type most often implicated as pathogenic in IPF is the fibroblast, especially its differentiated phenotype, the myofibroblast. Fibroblasts are a remarkably heterogeneous cell type. Expression of the cell surface glycoprotein Thy-1 (Thymocyte differentiation antigen 1) delineates a …

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The Relationship Between Sunlight And Cerebrovascular Health, Shia T. Kent Jan 2011

The Relationship Between Sunlight And Cerebrovascular Health, Shia T. Kent

All ETDs from UAB

Sunlight radiation may be related to stroke risk through increased vitamin D production. The latter has been associated with a number of conditions including stroke, cognitive function and cardiovascular disease. We performed three sets of analyses to determine whether higher levels of sunlight radiation were associated with lower rates of stroke incidence, all-cause mortality, and cognitive decline. We explored these relationships using the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, a national longitudinal cohort of 30,239 participants. We merged the participants' residential histories with a ground and satellite-derived NASA dataset to characterize 15-year average sunlight radiation and …

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Sox2/Parylated Parp1 Complexes Regulate Pluripotency, Yi-Shin Lai Jan 2011

Sox2/Parylated Parp1 Complexes Regulate Pluripotency, Yi-Shin Lai

All ETDs from UAB

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were first derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst-stage embryos. ESCs are distinguished from other cell types by their pluripotency and unlimited self-replication. ESCs are able to differentiate into multiple cell types that represent all three primary germ layers (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm) and can form an entire adult organism. Under defined conditions, ESCs are self-renewable and have an extended life-span without compromising pluripotency. The plasticity of ESCs provides opportunities for regenerative medicine. The recent production of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) offers an ideal "personalized" substitute for ESCs. Overexpression of four transcription factors, …

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A Study Of The Relationships Among Maternal Caregiver Family Management Behaviors, Childhood Asthma Morbidity, And Asthma Control, Linda M. Gibson Jan 2011

A Study Of The Relationships Among Maternal Caregiver Family Management Behaviors, Childhood Asthma Morbidity, And Asthma Control, Linda M. Gibson

All ETDs from UAB

A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG MATERNAL CAREGIVER FAMILY MANAGEMENT BEHAVIORS, CHILDHOOD ASTHMA MORBIDITY, AND ASTHMA CONTROL ABSTRACT LINDA GIBSON NURSING Childhood asthma, the most common chronic childhood condition, is associated with high rates of asthma morbidity (emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and school days missed due to asthma). Inadequate asthma control accounts for $1.9 billion annual health expenditures. Numerous studies have identified the relationship of the family caregiver's perception regarding asthma management and the child's asthma outcomes; though few have examined family caregiver asthma management behaviors. Knafl and colleagues (2003) defined family management behaviors as accommodations that family members use …

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Biology And Conservation Of The Diamondback Terrapin, Malaclemys Terrapin Pileata, In Alabama, Andy Coleman Jan 2011

Biology And Conservation Of The Diamondback Terrapin, Malaclemys Terrapin Pileata, In Alabama, Andy Coleman

All ETDs from UAB

The diamondback terrapin is the only obligate estuarine turtle in North America and is considered an integral member of the salt marsh ecosystem. Unfortunately, many populations throughout the terrapin's range have experienced size declines due to past overexploitation and have been unable to rebound due to current threats including crab trap mortality, habitat degradation, nest predation, and road mortality. The current study was the first comprehensive study examining various population and conservation parameters of Mississippi diamondback terrapins in Alabama. Through various field survey methods conducted in numerous salt marshes along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, it was concluded that Cedar …

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Population Characteristics Of A White-Tailed Deer Herd In An Industrial Pine Forest Of North-Central Louisiana, John Henry Harrelson Jan 2011

Population Characteristics Of A White-Tailed Deer Herd In An Industrial Pine Forest Of North-Central Louisiana, John Henry Harrelson

LSU Master's Theses

White-tailed deer are the most important game species in Louisiana, and throughout the southeastern United States. Likewise, the forest products industry represents the most important agricultural commodity in Louisiana, and industrial landowners frequently lease their properties to sportsmen specifically for white-tailed deer hunting. I conducted research assessing survival, space use, and habitat selection of white-tailed deer on a 3885 ha industrial forest owned by Plum Creek Timber Company. I captured 61 deer in Union Parish, Louisiana in 2009-2010, radio-marked 24 females and 23 males, and ear-tagged 7 females and 6 males. Season and sex interacted to affect home range and …

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Inhibitory Activity Of Ginger Oil Against Breast Cancer Cells, Namrata Karki Jan 2011

Inhibitory Activity Of Ginger Oil Against Breast Cancer Cells, Namrata Karki

LSU Master's Theses

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer related mortality in women. The estimated new cases and death for 2010 in the US for females were 207,090 and 39,840 and for men were 1,970 and 390 respectively. Breast cancer cells contain cancer stem cells (CSCs), which represent less than 5% of the total cancer cell population, but accounts for continuous proliferation and growth. Breast cancer is highly metastatic and can spread to various parts of the body. Signaling through cell surface markers, including CD44/CD24/ALDH1 in breast cancer, pro-survival factors, including Hsp90 and other client proteins, angiogenic biomarkers and telomerase activity …

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Production Of Spray-Dried Honey Powder And Its Application In Bread, Ahalya Kosal Ram Jan 2011

Production Of Spray-Dried Honey Powder And Its Application In Bread, Ahalya Kosal Ram

LSU Master's Theses

Honey is a natural sweetener with various beneficial properties including anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activity. Retrograded starch is known to have hypocholesterolemic effects and act to inhibit fat accumulation. Honey powder produced using retrograded starch can be used as an alternative to sucrose in many bakery products like bread. The objectives of this study were to produce a honey powder containing retrograded starch, characterize the powder and use it as an alternative to sucrose in bread formulations. The honey powder was produced by spray drying honey using retrograded starch as a drying agent. The spray dried honey powder was characterized for …

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Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrates Based On Nanoporous Silicon And Pattern Transfer, Pallavi Rao Malempati Jan 2011

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrates Based On Nanoporous Silicon And Pattern Transfer, Pallavi Rao Malempati

LSU Master's Theses

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering enhances the weak Raman scattering by using a roughened metal-coated surface as a catalyst. Roughness in the nanometer range provides the best enhancement. The nanostructures for the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, in this work, are generated using an electrochemical etching process on silicon substrates. The patterns of nanoporous silicon thus generated are transferred onto transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates using the “lift-off” process. An incomplex sputtering technique is employed to coat this substrate with a ~20 nm aluminum layer. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules, when adsorbed to this metal surface, form the final SERS substrate that undergoes Raman …

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Manganese (Ii) And Protein Oxidation As Determinants Of Bacterial Ionizing Radiation Resistance, Jana Ronnette Robins Jan 2011

Manganese (Ii) And Protein Oxidation As Determinants Of Bacterial Ionizing Radiation Resistance, Jana Ronnette Robins

LSU Master's Theses

The mechanisms that contribute to bacterial ionizing radiation resistance are not completely understood. The Daly model uses Deinococcus radiodurans to suggest that bacterial ionizing radiation resistance is primarily determined by the amount of protein oxidation produced in response to ionizing radiation, so protein oxidation will be limited in radioresistant microorganisms due to a high intracellular level of manganese (Mn). This thesis investigates the Daly model by first introducing oxidative damage to Beta-Galactosdiase using increasing doses of gamma irradiation. Beta-Galactosidase activity was measured by the production of o-nitrophenol (ONP) which is produced from the hydrolysis of o-nitrophenyl-Beta-D-galactoside (ONPG). Beta-Galactosidase activity decreased …

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Spray Drying Technology For The Production And Processing Of Microencapsulated Omega-3 Fish Oil With Egg Powder, Kevin Estuardo Mis Solval Jan 2011

Spray Drying Technology For The Production And Processing Of Microencapsulated Omega-3 Fish Oil With Egg Powder, Kevin Estuardo Mis Solval

LSU Master's Theses

Protein with essential amino acids is required for recovering, repairing, and building muscles after intensive exercise. A powder produced with egg white (EW) (high quality protein) and fish oil (menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) (MO) oil or salmon oil (SO)) with high DHA and EPA content should be particularly beneficial for athletes. The objective of this study was to develop microencapsulated omega-3 fatty acids fortified EW powders. Two stable emulsions were prepared with 3.43% (MO) or (SO), 56.21% EW, and 40.36% water (E-MO-EW and E-SO-EW). An EW with water solution (without fish oil) (E-EW) was prepared as a control. Two emulsions (E-MO-EW; …

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Efficient Replica-Exchange Across Distributed Production Infrastructure, Abhinav S. Thota Jan 2011

Efficient Replica-Exchange Across Distributed Production Infrastructure, Abhinav S. Thota

LSU Master's Theses

Replica-Exchange (RE) methods represent a class of algorithms that involve a large number of loosely-coupled ensembles and are used to understand physical phenomena -- ranging from protein folding dynamics to binding affinity calculations. We develop a framework for RE that supports different replica pairing and coordination mechanisms, that can use a wide range of production cyberinfrastructure concurrently. Additionally, our framework uses a flexible pilot-job implementation, which enables effective resource allocation for multiple replicas. We characterize the performance of two different RE algorithms - synchronous and asynchronous - at unprecedented scales on production distributed infrastructure (Teragrid and LONI). The synchronous RE …

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Foldable Substrates For Micro-Ultrasonic Transducers, Karthik Balasubramanian Jan 2011

Foldable Substrates For Micro-Ultrasonic Transducers, Karthik Balasubramanian

LSU Master's Theses

Ultrasound has broad range of applications from underwater examination, nondestructive testing of materials and medical diagnosis and treatment. The ultrasonic transducer plays an vital role in determining the resolution, sensitivity, as well as other diagnostic capabilities of an ultrasonic imaging system. Current piezoelectric transducer which dominates the medical field has limited applications compared to the capacitive ultrasonic transducer. The capacitive transducer is easy to fabricate compared to the piezoelectric transducer. In this work, the fabrication of a foldable substrate for a capacitive ultrasonic transducer has been discussed. The foldable substrate was fabricated using an ultrathin silicon wafer which is 50 …

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Single-Molecule Detection And Microfluidics: Generating Systems For The In Vitro Diagnostics Of Stroke, Brandon M. Young Jan 2011

Single-Molecule Detection And Microfluidics: Generating Systems For The In Vitro Diagnostics Of Stroke, Brandon M. Young

LSU Master's Theses

There is currently no available molecular diagnostic test for stroke; the common modality for diagnosis consists of computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. Unfortunately, the use of these diagnostic regimens can delay proper therapeutic treatment, which requires administration within the first 3 h of a stroke event. We are developing a molecular assay that can report, in near real time and at the point-of-care, the presence or absence of biomarkers specifically targeted for the diagnosis of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. The proposed strategy uses blood-borne mRNAs that are either under-expressed or over-expressed as a result of tissue damage within the …

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Characterization Of Biocompatible Parylene-C Coating For Biomems Applications, Quoc Phuc Nguyen Jan 2011

Characterization Of Biocompatible Parylene-C Coating For Biomems Applications, Quoc Phuc Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis characterizes parylene-C films with respect to biological micro-electro-mechanical system (BioMEMS) applications. BioMEMS devices have fueled the growth and research in the area of detecting, analyzing and identifying pathogens rapidly with precision in the bio-medical applications, thereby positively impacting millions of lives and made it extremely popular among researchers. These devices are fabricated using state-of-the-art techniques usually involving more than one material which typically has different biocompatibility and is not acceptable for various BioMEMS and biomedical applications; therefore, a special biocompatible coating is required. The parylene polymer is an example of such a coating as it is known for …

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Impact Of Embalming And Burial On Decomposition Rates And Diffusion Of Volatile Fatty Acids In Kentucky, Bonnie Charlana Mcquinn Jan 2011

Impact Of Embalming And Burial On Decomposition Rates And Diffusion Of Volatile Fatty Acids In Kentucky, Bonnie Charlana Mcquinn

LSU Master's Theses

Six still-born fetal pigs were divided into two groups (three were embalmed, and three non-embalmed) to determine a postmortem interval on decomposing remains in eastern Kentucky. One pig from each group was placed on the surface, one from each group was interred at a depth of two feet, and one from each group was buried at four feet. This study focused on observing necrophagous insect succession as well as how far on both a horizontal and a vertical plane volatile fatty acids leach from a body. Soil samples were taken from near all specimens at the time of respective termination …

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Costs And Benefits Of Induced Responses In Soybean, Amanda K. Accamando Jan 2011

Costs And Benefits Of Induced Responses In Soybean, Amanda K. Accamando

LSU Master's Theses

Herbivorous insects are known to negatively impact plant fitness, such that plants have evolved defense strategies to reduce the preference and performance of herbivores on those plants. However, a plant’s investment in defense may be costly when herbivores are absent from the environment. Defense traits that are induced only upon herbivory can mitigate costs associated with defense maintenance. Although costs and benefits of induced responses are generally assumed, empirical evidence for them is equivocal. We examined the fitness costs and benefits of jasmonic acid-induced responses by soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) in the absence and presence of soybean loopers (Chrysodeix …

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Myths And Realities, Isoko Onodera Jan 2011

Myths And Realities, Isoko Onodera

LSU Master's Theses

My work explores the manifold personalities and roles of contemporary women, through depicting different female figures from western mythology. The mythic women in my paintings each have their own personalities, stories and roles to play, which are often conflicting in nature. By having my model act as a mythological character and by replacing the scenes from mythology with a contemporary setting, my paintings emphasize the universal and timeless essence of women. Each painting also utilizes the symbolic use of color to intensify the sensory experience of the viewer. The mythic figures I rendered are Proserpine, Venus, Psyche, Penelope, Artemis, and …

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