Digital Commons Network^™

Opportunistic Pathogenic Bacteria Colonize Thorns Of Native Rio Grande Valley Plants, Felicia A. Charles, Sergio Cepeda, J. Andrew Mcdonald, Kristine L. Lowe

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Thorns serve as mechanical defenses of plants against herbivory. However, plant thorns harbor microorganisms that are potentially pathogenic. These pathogens may be transferred to herbivores and other animals and provide an additional defense for the plants. Thorns from 5 plant species native to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas were collected and used to isolate bacteria colonizing the thorn surface. Thorns, leaves and stems of plants were visualized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to observe any bacteria on the plant surface. Isolated bacteria were tested for their ability to grow in aerobic versus anaerobic environments, to produce hemolysis, carbon …

Mitigating Predatory Ants Promotes Establishment Of Biological Control Of Arundo By Arundo Scale In The Cattle Fever Tick Quarantine Zone, A. Velez-Bonner, W. L. A. Osbrink, D. W. Thomas, Kenneth R. Summy, A. T. Showler, A. Perez De Leon, John A. Goolsby

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Ant collection, identification, and control experiments were conducted to improve the establishment of the arundo scale, Rhizaspidiotus donacis, a biological control agent of Arundo donax, an invasive weed in the riparian habitats along the Rio Grande in Texas. Observational studies indicated R. donacis immatures are preyed upon by a variety of predator insects, especially ants. A survey of the principle ant species was made at sites along the Rio Grande with Arundo donax to help direct biological control strategies. We conclude that uses of ant baits can effectively control the common ant species found in these habitats and improve the …

The Evodevoci: A Concept Inventory For Gauging Students’ Understanding Of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Kathryn E. Perez, Anna Hiatt, Gregory K. Davis, Caleb Trujillo, Donald P. French, Mark Terry, Rebecca M. Price

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

The American Association for the Advancement of Science 2011 report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education encourages the teaching of developmental biology as an important part of teaching evolution. Recently, however, we found that biology majors often lack the developmental knowledge needed to understand evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo-devo.” To assist in efforts to improve evo-devo instruction among undergraduate biology majors, we designed a concept inventory (CI) for evolutionary developmental biology, the EvoDevoCI. The CI measures student understanding of six core evo-devo concepts using four scenarios and 11 multiple-choice items, all inspired by authentic scientific examples. Distracters were designed …

Usability Analysis Of Homepage Of Websites Of National Libraries In Asia, Paramjeet K. Walia, Monika Gupta

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper aims to study the usability features of selected national libraries’ websites of Asia with regard to their general features of website, URL, window title, date and time, navigation, content, search and graphic and animation. A usability evaluation checklist was designed on the basis of guidelines given by Neilson and NIC (National Informative Centre) which was grouped into eight major criteria. After evaluating the homepage of selected websites under study it was found that the National Library of Japan is at rank number one among 23 national libraries of Asia and National Library of Maldives at the bottom rank. …

Probiotic Pediococcus Acidilactici Modulates Both Localised Intestinal- And Peripheral-Immunity In Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus)., B. T. Standen, M. D. Rawling, S. J. Davies, M. Castex, A. Foey, G. Gioacchini, O. Carnevali, D. L. Merrifield

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The application of probiotics in aquaculture has received concerted research efforts but the localised intestinal immunological response of fish to probiotic bacteria is poorly understood. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the probiotic effect of Pediococcus acidilactici on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) with specific emphasis on intestinal health and probiotic levels as well as system level responses such as growth performance, feed utilization and haemato-immunological parameters under non-challenged conditions. Fish (9.19 ± 0.04 g) were fed either a control diet or a P. acidilactici supplemented diet (at 2.81 × 10(6) CFU g(-)(1)) for six weeks. At the end of …

The Collaged Practice : (Un)Familiar, Raina Beth Wirta

LSU Master's Theses

My thesis exhibition is an installation of works including sculpture, video, paintings, a hand made book, sound, and drawings that emanated from a series of two-dimensional collages: self-contained forms that evoke the surreal, (un)familiar, and/or grotesque. Infused with a sort of mysterious being-hood and intended to inspire curiosity (at the least), they are unfamiliar in relation to a particular biological thing, but (mostly) recognizable in the autonomous bits and pieces. I seek to question where our physicality ends and the next form of biological life begins, and our responses to that physicality. With childlike inquisitiveness and wonder, and a healthy …

Documenting Postural Changes And Repetition Among Violin Players And Their Influence In The Development Of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Cristina Handal

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to document the changes in posture and the number of wrist and forearm repetitions among violin/viola players during an experiment session to attempt to understand the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Also, the perception of discomfort and pain felt by the violin/viola players in the past and the number that had been diagnosed with a disorder was documented. Finally, possible correlations were calculated between pain/discomfort with variables like the number of years playing the violin, hours of practice/day, frequency of pain, gender, and dominant hand and among different pain/discomfort variables (pain/discomfort before the experiment, after …

Effect Of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Conditions On Agricultural Spray Drift, William Tollefson

LSU Master's Theses

Drift of pesticides can be a significant health hazard, particularly in areas where agricultural land is adjacent to a school, retirement home, or other populated area. Off-target drift of pesticides depends on many atmospheric variables, both mechanical and thermal. While non-atmospheric variables, such as applicator nozzle size, height of application, and particle size, can be controlled by the applicator to reduce drift potential, understanding how atmospheric conditions set a framework for drift potential enables applicators to choose to spray when the weather conditions would minimize drift. Specifically, atmospheric stability plays an important role in the near-ground concentration of sprays downwind …

Metacognition And Its Effect On Learning High School Calculus, Bonnie Sue Bergstresser

LSU Master's Theses

The following paper discusses the effect of metacognitive training sessions on students’ calculus retention. Students in two high school classes participated. The students in both classes were then given lessons on a chapter without metacognitive training and lessons on a subsequent chapter with training in a set of metacognitive skills. After the latter chapter students scored higher on a post-test and expressed desire to incorporate the skills they learned into their other classes.

Oxidative Stress Based Response Of A Transcriptional Regulator, Ohrr, From Burkholderia Thailandensis, Anuja Pande

LSU Master's Theses

Being ubiquitous in nature, bacteria are often faced by environmental stresses. The predominant form of stress being the ‘oxidative’ one, prevalent during host invasion. As one of the host’s protective mechanisms, bacteria are bombarded by various kinds of organic and inorganic oxidants. Several bacterial antioxidant systems have been studied and characterized to be potent enough to scavenge such host-derived reactive oxygen species, aiding in bacterial survival within the host. Broadly, the antioxidant scavengers are categorized into those that are specific for inorganic or organic oxidants. Although a lot has been studied about the former, the latter still remains uncharacterized in …

Awakening The Slumbering Giant: How Horizontal Drilling Technology Brought The Endangered Species Act To Bear On Hydraulic Fracturing, Kalyani Robbins

Faculty Publications

Hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking”) is nothing new. It dates back to the 1940s and drew little environmental attention or concern for most of its existence. It is a form of natural gas extraction that involves pumping water, chemicals, and sand slurry into a well at extremely high pressure in order to fracture the surrounding rock formation and prop open passages. This frees up the trapped natural gas to flow from the resulting rock fractures to the production well for capture. Fracking operations have evolved from using a range of 20,000 to 80,000 gallons of water per well to …

Here For Life: A Chapter & Stories, Gil Filar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Four short stories and a novel chapter.

Imagining Boundaries: (Post) Humanist Understandings And Ecological Ethics In The Fiction Of Margaret Atwood, Megan Kathleen Telligman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Atwood’s concern for the environment has spanned nearly the entirety of her career, informing her fears about the future and providing the grounding for her speculative fiction. In Atwood’s understanding, ecological ruin stems from human estrangement from the natural environment, an estrangement fortified by capitalism and consumerism in contemporary societies. Instead, she strives to situate the creative, imaginative human species within a larger natural order that inspires ethical treatment of the more-than-human world. Atwood attempts to provide us with a model of interconnection and respect for nature that we must imagine if we desire to avoid the apocalyptic future she …

Getting On Nicely In The Dark: The Perils And Rewards Of Annotating Ulysses, Barbara Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The problem of how to provide useful contextual and extra-textual information to readers of Ulysses has vexed Joyceans for years. The debate has generated lively and opinionated discussions in print and at Joyce meetings, forums and listservs. On one side are scholars who argue for scaled-down annotations that present only basic information as simply as possible, minimizing the amount of interpretation involved. On the other side are the actual first-time readers, struggling to make sense of Joyce’s complex, highly allusive text, and willing to accept help wherever it may be found. The work of annotation is both complicated and enriched …

Liars Like Him, Samantha Lynne Duncan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a collection of short stories, which fall somewhere between the realist and absurdist genres of fiction. Most of them take place in or around Ohio. Birds and humans often appear side by side.

Performing At The Block: Scripting Early Modern Executions, Jennifer Lillian Lodine-Chaffey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores the executions of noble men and women in Tudor and early Jacobean England and the theatrical representations of executions that mirrored real life spectacles of deadly punishment. Historical scaffold confessions followed a formulaic pattern and condemned traitors performed their final moments before a crowd of witnesses with the power to judge the quality of the actor’s deportment, costuming and words. As a public stage, the scaffold allowed the traitor a chance to assert and define his or her own individuality in the face of death and formulaic requirements, which I outline in the first chapter. Dramatic representations …

Narrative Reflection And Anatomical Introspection In Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus And Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Torey Elizabeth Davie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (1831) and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick or, the Whale (1851) combine the novel and the anatomy, creating a plot as well as a reflection on the human condition. The result of this combination produces a narrator whose single-minded focus on an object both propels events forward while at the same time stalling the progress of a traditional plot. The aspects of the text that connect to the novel, such as character and plot, offer a reflection of the effect truth and society have on character. Aspects that connect to the anatomy, such as the exhaustive knowledge …

Queer Panic In Native American Literature, Theodore Cecil Decelles

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Indigenous American sexual minorities and alternatively gendered voices went underground due to Eurowestern sexual colonization from the time of the conquistador invasions of the early 16th century to the political campaigns of cultural homogenization of the mid-20th century. A cultural distortion still exists in the postcolonial era. In the past many North American indigenous nations had culturally specific sexualities and genders that reflected the cultural heterogeneity of the Americas. Today cultural assimilation negatively affects queer Native Americans, and culturally imported attitudes of homophobia are reflected in Native American literature. An interdisciplinary approach must be used to study the cultural distortion …

Touch-Screan Mss, Colin Post

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a poetry manuscript that examines the epic form, concrete poetic techniques, and science fiction concepts so as to posit a created world of surfaces.

Animal-Assisted Therapy, Kayla Blasz

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Motility And Hemolytic Activity In Clinical Isolates Of Acinetobacter Baumannii From University Of Kentucky Hospital, Lexington, Ky, Amber R. Stanton

Online Theses and Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is a pathogen rising in notoriety worldwide due to outbreaks linked to multi-drug resistant strains. Research is currently focused on identifying virulence factors, which may contribute to increased ability to cause human disease, such as hemolytic activity and surface motility. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of these two virulent traits in clinical isolates. Forty-eight clinical isolates were recovered from University of Kentucky hospital in Lexington, KY. No hemolytic activity was observed for any of the isolates. Evidence of surface motility was observed in 13 isolates. The brand and concentration of media used allowed …

Assessment Of Antimicrobial Resistance In Pathogens Responsible For Causing Bovine Mastitis In Kentucky, Erica Denise West

Online Theses and Dissertations

Bovine mastitis is most significant disease seen in dairy farms worldwide, resulting in the largest profit loss of any other disease affecting dairy cows. The aim of this thesis was to determine the predominant species responsible for bovine mastitis in a subset of ten Kentucky dairy herds, and to assess the presence of antibiotic resistance in these pathogens. In this study, 308 milk samples were obtained from cow's selected based on their recent somatic cell count. Samples positive for growth were identified using the gram stain and various biochemical tests. After identification, resistance to 11 antimicrobial agents was assessed using …

Relationship Between A Proxy Of Prenatal Testosterone (2d:4d) And Determinants Of Endurance Running Performance, Simon D. Holzapfel

Online Theses and Dissertations

Low ratios of the length of the second finger to the length of the fourth finger in the right (right 2D:4D) and the left hand (left 2D:4D) have been linked to high prenatal testosterone concentrations. Low R-L 2D:4D (subtracting left 2D:4D from right 2D:4D) has been associated with high androgen sensitivity as indicated by low numbers of cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) triplet repeats on exon-1 of the androgen receptor gene. Endurance training has led to higher increases in maximal oxygen uptake capacity (VO2max) in men with relatively low numbers of CAG triplet repeats, suggesting a relationship between R-L 2D:4D and VO2max. Moreover, …

Breeding Biology Of Chuck-Will's-Widows: Incubation, Brooding, And Provisioning Behavior And Characteristics Of Nest Sites, Ryan Sean O'Connor

Online Theses and Dissertations

Chuck-will's-widows (Antrostomus carolinensis) are cryptically colored grounding-nesting nightars that breed throughout much of the eastern United States, primarily in mixed-forest habitat. Because of their cryptic plumage and nocturnal habits, little is known about their behavior, particularly their breeding and nesting behavior. Thus, my objectives were to: (1) quantify patterns of incubation behavior (e.g., on bouts vs. off bouts) and the respective roles of males and females, (2) quantify the brooding and provisioning behavior of males and females, and, (3) compare the characteristics of nest sites and randomly selected unused sites to determine those features important in nest site selection.

My …

Wintering White-Throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia Albicollis): Home Ranges, Aggression And Corticosterone, Marissa Ann Buschow

Online Theses and Dissertations

White-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) are songbirds that spend the non-breeding season in southeastern North America, where they form philopatric territorial flocks. Flocks exhibit dominance hierarchies, with dominance rank associated with an individual's age and prior residence in the territory. Although social behaviors within flocks are well studied, few studies have described winter home ranges. I tagged white-throated sparrows (n = 12) in Madison County, Kentucky, with 0.9-g radio transmitters during the winter of 2010-2011. Locations were entered into ArcGIS and home range sizes were estimated with 50% and 95% kernel analysis for individuals with at least five locations. Mean core …

Winter Behavior And Ecology Of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis): Home Ranges, Habitat Use, And Effect Of Weather On Foraging Behavior, Todd J. Weinkam

Online Theses and Dissertations

Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) are widespread across eastern North America, but populations appear to be susceptible to extreme winter weather. Declines in population following cold winters in states like Kentucky suggest the need to better understand winter-specific habitat requirements and behavioral responses to inclement weather. My objectives were to 1) describe the size and habitat composition of the home ranges of wintering bluebirds, and 2) examine the effects of weather (i.e., temperature, wind speed, and snow presence) on habitat occupancy, group size, and foraging behavior. My study was conducted at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County, …

Understanding Playground Behaviors And Injury Potential To Elementary Children, Ronald Gene Dotson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Injuries on school playgrounds have increased in recent times despite widespread adoption of playground equipment standards published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The cost of increased insurance premiums and a moral obligation to protect children on a playground while at recess increase liability exposures for a school district. This study explored the behaviors exhibited by elementary school children and playground monitors and the subsequent occurrence of increased or decreased risk potential. The project utilized analytic induction and unobtrusive observations to observe critical incidents that occurred during recess. The behaviors of the children and the monitors were targeted to produce …

Habitat Associations Of Stream-Dwelling Salamanders At Multiple Spatial Scales In Central Kentucky Headwaters., John Mark Yeiser

Online Theses and Dissertations

Headwater stream systems are productive habitats that are often at risk of human perturbation, and it is crucial that ecologists understand natural patterns and processes within these ecosystems. Using a multi-scale approach, I investigated factors influencing habitat associations of Ambystoma barbouri (streamside salamander) and Eurycea cirrigera (southern two-lined salamander) in a relatively undisturbed stream network in central Kentucky. I used likelihood ratio G-tests to identify associations between species and mesohabitat types (i.e., runs, riffles, and pools). I used second order Akaike's Information Criterion (AICc) model selection to predict patterns of presence and abundance throughout headwater reaches. Fine-scale abiotic …

Effects Of Thermal Acclimation On The Critical Thermal Maxima Of The Tropical Cockroaches: Blaptica Dubia, Eublaberus Posticus And Blaberus Discoidalis (Blaberidae), Lauren Michelle Goode

Online Theses and Dissertations

The Critical Thermal Maxima (CTMax) is a measure of upper thermal tolerance. The physiological response upon reaching CTMax is similar across taxa, making CTMax useful in comparative studies. The CTMax defines the ecological lethal temperature of an organism and has been used to predict the effects of global climate change. CTMax was determined for adults and first instar nymphs of three species of tropical cockroaches: Blaptica dubia, Eublaberus posticus, and Blaberus discoidalis. Adult cockroaches were acclimated to temperatures of 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 25°C, 31°C and 37°C for a period of seven days. Blaptica dubia was the only species to survive …

Facultative Adjustment Of Pre-Fledging Mass Recession By Nestling Chimney Swifts (Chaetura Pelagica), Sagan Brianne Goodpaster

Online Theses and Dissertations

In species that are susceptible to mass-dependent flight costs, particularly seabirds and aerial insectivores, mass recession is a crucial aspect of the nestling period, ensuring fledglings will have an appropriate wing loading. My objectives were to determine if mass recession by Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) nestlings is intrinsically controlled or facultatively adjusted by nestlings, and if mass recession is driven by changes in parental behavior (i.e., reduced provisioning rates) or nestling behavior (i.e., reduced solicitation of feedings). Nestling swifts (N = 69) were divided into three groups: controls, half-weighted, or weighted. Half-weighted and weighted nestlings had 0.6-0.7-g or 1.2-1.3-g lead …