Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Deepwater Horizon Oil On The Growth Rates And Pigment Composition Of Phytoplankton Isolated From Grand Isle, La, Jie Li

LSU Master's Theses

This research focused on the effects of un-weathered Macondo crude oil on the growth rates and pigment ratios of phytoplankton isolated from Grand Isle, LA. The experiments involved incubating nutrient-enriched artificial media containing a range of oil concentrations up to 19.2 ppm with small aliquots of coastal water from Grand Isle and measuring the growth rates of the phytoplankton during the subsequent 10–14 days and the pigment ratios of the phytoplankton at the end of log-phase growth to determine whether the crude oil affected the growth rate of the phytoplankton and their composition in terms of pigment ratios. Pigment analysis …

Monitoring The Survival Of Hatchery-Produced Spat And Larvae On Louisiana Public Oyster Reefs, Erin R. Leonhardt

LSU Master's Theses

Alternative or supplemental management activities may be necessary to restore and enhance oyster production on Louisiana public oyster reefs. The production of wild oysters is variable due to anthropogenic and environmental factors that affect recruitment, growth and survival. The availability and structure of cultch material for larval recruitment and survival is particularly important to maintain oyster production. Beginning in 2011, the Sea Grant Oyster Hatchery on Grand Isle, LA and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) collaborated to test the survival of hatchery-produced spat and hatchery-produced larvae deployed on public oyster grounds and cultch plant sites. In 2011, …

Three From The Bottom : Examining Racial And Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans In Bossier City, Jamie Rene Digilormo

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the use of ethnic and racial labels as they are used in the construction of social identity among Italian Americans in Bossier City, Louisiana. In particular, the researcher is interested in how racial and ethnic identities are constructed through linguistic features, such as labels, and how these labels can often reflect the beliefs, values, or ideologies that influence the speaker. By examining which labels are used and how, it is possible to better understand what it means for each participant to be an Italian American today. The researcher relies heavily on Foucault’s notion of knowledge/power and the …

Relationship Between Childhood Sexual Abuse, Weight, And Attitudes Toward Obesity In Lesbians, Amy L. Wright

LSU Master's Theses

In many professional practice settings, it is very likely that social workers will work with female clients who identify as lesbian or bisexual. These sexual minority females are more likely to be overweight or obese, have a history of childhood sexual abuse, and have more positive attitudes toward overweight and obesity than heterosexual women. In this study, the author sought to identify the relationship between childhood sexual abuse, obesity, (specifically, body mass index [BMI]), and attitudes toward obesity among lesbian and bisexual women. Eighty-five sexual minority females completed a survey. Childhood sexual abuse was found to be positively correlated with …

The Use Of Classroom Demonstrations To Improve High School Students' Ability To Understand Concepts In Chemistry, Jessica Langlois Shelton

LSU Master's Theses

This study was completed to determine if implementing demonstrations in specific chapters of a high school chemistry classroom would enhance students understanding of the topics the demonstrations represented. The study consisted of five sections of college preparatory high school chemistry. The sections were made up of both male and female students. The sections were randomly broken up into two groups. Each group acted as the experimental and control at different points in the study. Four chapters were used in the study. Each group represented the control group in two chapters and the experimental group in two chapters, flip flopping with …

Wet Meadow Plant Associations, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon, John A. Christy

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

In July 2012, we sampled 131 plots in wet meadow habitat at the southern end of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Analysis of the data identified eleven different plant associations: Alopecurus pratensis, Carex aquatilis var. aquatilis, Carex nebrascensis, Carex pellita, Carex praegracilis, Carex sheldonii, Distichlis spicata, Juncus balticus, Leymus triticoides, Phalaris arundinacea, and Sparganium eurycarpum. Plant associations spanned a wetland gradient from seasonally moist to seasonally or perennially flooded, but surface water had left most stands at time of sampling. Mean Wetland Indicator Status scores help to place the plant associations within gradients in soil moisture and alkalinity. The Alopecurus …

Investigation Of Nanodiamonds With Si-V Defect Centers For Applications In Fluorescence-Based Sensing And Drug Delivery, Sonal Singh

All ETDs from UAB

Fluorescent Nanodiamond (FND) offers a promising platform for many therapeutic applications involving drug and gene delivery, optical agents for bioimaging and labeling, and molecular detection. This is due to the potential to incorporate photostable luminescent vacancy-related defects into sub-10 nm diamond crystals which are biologically compatible and easy to functionalize. Moreover, the development of future nanoscale devices and arrays based on nanodiamonds (NDs) will require precise spatial control. Hence, the direct placement and manipulation (control of size, shape and chemical functionality) of brightly fluorescent sub-10 nm NDs offers potential for highly localized /specific imaging and sensing, while also providing the …

The Politics Of Homosexuality In The Twentieth Century Black Freedom Struggle, Glenda Elizabeth Sherouse

Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the changing status and role of queer African Americans during the twentieth century in the context of increasing black politicization. Moreover, it traces the relationship between queer African Americans and their communities until the emergence of queer black identity politics in the 1970s. Specifically, this dissertation seeks to more fully illuminate both the experiences of queer African Americans and how their communities and leaders discussed and dealt with homosexuality in the broader context of black political mobilization from the Jim Crow era and the Harlem Renaissance, through the Black Power and early Gay Liberation movements, roughly the …

Exploring Cultural Competence In Clincial Practice Behaviors, Yolonda M. Young Armstrong

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative research study explores clinical practice behaviors that influence the perceptions of college students' of color regarding cultural competence in the therapeutic dyad. Interviews were used to obtain data from six college students of color in Western Massachusetts who had a history of engagement in outpatient therapy. This study uses Object Relations Theory as a conceptual framework for understanding social constructions of privilege and identity development and as a learning tool for examining interpersonal behavior as a reflection of one's internalized perceptions. More specifically, for this study, Object Relations Theory provides academic context for understanding how external social phenomena …

Lived Experiences Of Women With Hidden Disabilities: A Phenomenologically Based Study, Michelle Jean Yee

Doctoral Dissertations

Documentation of the experiences of women with disabilities has remained sparse--benignly neglected, overlooked, and understudied in the academic fields of women's studies (gender studies) and disability studies (Depauw, 1996Article 25.1; Garland-Thomson, 2004). This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of inclusion, marginalization, and exclusion in the lives of women who have a permanent, non-visible (hidden) disability. It also explored the corporeal dimensions, such as issues of embodiment, of the lived experiences for women with hidden disabilities. Finally, this phenomenologically based study examined how women with non-visible, hidden disabilities articulated the meaning of living with an invisible disability.

The study utilized …

The Effect Of Dynamic Assessment On Adult Learners Of Arabic: A Mixed-Method Study At The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Mohsen Mahmoud Fahmy

Doctoral Dissertations

Dynamic assessment (DA) is based on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and his Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD is the range of abilities bordered by the learner's assisted and independent performances. Previous studies showed promising results for DA in tutoring settings. However, they did not use proficiency-based rubrics to measure students' progress and did not mention the method of using DA practically in classrooms. The literature showed that task-based language instruction (TBLI) is effective in adult classrooms. This study combined DA with TBLI to answer four questions. What is the change in the structural control of Arabic speaking based on …

School Psychologist Leadership In Rti Implementation: Administrators' View Of School Psychologists As A Resource In Rti, Allison Rice

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the leadership role of school psychologists in Response to Intervention (RTI) implementation, as well as school psychologists' usefulness to principals in successful implementation of RTI. The researcher asserts, that through the fulfillment of certain roles, school leaders recognize the benefit of involving school psychologists in RTI implementation. The study asks the following questions: 1) To what extent are the specific leadership characteristics associated with school psychologists' roles related to the level of RTI implementation being exemplified? 2) To what extent are the specified school leadership characteristics present in school psychologists in Dorchester …

Melatonin Supplementation Improves Glycemic Control While Lowering Oxidative Stress In Type 2 Diabetes, Carmine R. Grieco, Sheri R. Colberg, C. Thomas Somma, Andrew G. Thompson, Aaron I. Vinik

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of melatonin on glycemic control and oxidative stress (OS) in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Fourteen subjects with T2D (10 female, 4 male; 52.5 ± 5.0 years) were randomly assigned to melatonin (MEL) or placebo groups (PLA) for 42 days, in a crossover design. Subjects ingested 10 mg of MEL or an identical placebo (PLA) 30 minutes prior to sleep. Fasting blood draws occurred at baseline, 42 days, and 84 days. Plasma malondialdehyde, a marker of OS, significantly decreased on MEL (-6.25±2.10 nmol/ml) compared to PLA (0.72±3.30, p=0.028). The …

Minority Women In Stem: A Valuable Resource In The Global Economy, Ezella Mcpherson, Diane R. Fuselier-Thompson

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

While there is an expected demographic shift of the ethnic minority population in the United States to become the majority population by 2020, few minority women successfully attain baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. To address this gap, this article employs critical race feminism and narrative analysis methods to examine minority women’s challenges while pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees. Findings suggest that limited access to the field, isolation and alienation, and affordability create barriers that result in many minority women leaving STEM majors. Implications for practice include targeted institutional efforts to increase recruitment and retention efforts towards …

How Masculinities Distribute Power: The Influence Of Ann Scales, Ann C. Mcginley, Frank Rudy Cooper

Denver Law Review

No abstract provided.

Using Molecular Tools To Elucidate Controls On Microbes Driving The Nitrogen Cycle In Marine Sediments, Shelley Marie Brown

Open Access Dissertations

Marine sediments harbor metabolically versatile bacteria whose activities can influence the cycle of nutrients on global scales. Microbial communities driving nitrogen (N) cycling are extremely diverse, thus making it difficult to identify the functional groups and elucidate controls on their activity. Denitrifiers in sediments remove significant amounts of N from the coastal ocean, while diazotrophs are typically considered inconsequential. Recently, N fixation has been shown to be a potentially important source of N in coastal sediments, however, the environmental drivers controlling this process are poorly understood. The goal of this dissertation was to identify and target the likely active denitrifiers …

Migration And Stopover Ecology Of Songbirds And Bats Along A Major Ecological Barrier, Adam D. Smith

Open Access Dissertations

Migration is a physiologically and energetically demanding period in the life cycle of a migratory animal. Most migrant songbirds alternate between periods of nocturnal flight, when energy is used, and stopover, when energy is accumulated for the next flight period; indeed, songbirds spend most of their time and energy on stopover. Conversely, the habits of migratory bats remain largely enigmatic, but there is reason to expect that models of songbird migration can inform bat migration research. I investigated, at multiple scales, the migration ecology of songbirds and bats and the stopover ecology of songbirds along the Atlantic Coast of southern …

Feeding Ecology Of Skates And Rays In Delaware And Narragansett Bays, John Andrew Szczepanski Jr.

Open Access Dissertations

Skates and rays are an integral part of the trophic structure of many estuarine ecosystems. However, there are many aspects of the fisheries biology of these species that require further exploration. For example, few comparisons have been done of the feeding habits of sympatric species that potentially overlap in resource usage, diets over time, or food preferences between fish populations from different regions. Most of what is known of batoid elasmobranch (skate and ray) diets on the Western Atlantic coast is a compilation of data from the entire continental shelf with no distinction of diets for populations within different estuaries …

Autumn 2013

University of Richmond Magazine

No abstract provided.

Barrow Island Ute Guide - Non-Indigenous Invertebrates, Frogs, Reptiles & Weeds, Mike Grimm, Kristofer Collett, Jessica Harrison, Peter Davis, Marc Widmer, Andras Szito, Rob Emery, Peter Mangano, John Botha, David Robinson, Brad Maryan

Biosecurity published reports

Barrow Island, the second largest island in Western Australia, is a Class A Nature Reserve and home to a variety of rare and endangered fauna and flora, some of which occur nowhere else. To protect fauna and flora it is essential workers and visitors to the island are aware of the risks that a non-indigenous species (NIS) poses to the ecological balance of Barrow Island.

Workers and visitors to Barrow Island need to be aware and keep their eyes open for any unusual fauna and flora that might be in accommodation units, recreation areas or the work place. Reports from …

Thriving In Broken Futures: The Paradox Of Church In Historic Watersheds, Christopher Lars Arney

Doctor of Ministry

No abstract provided.

Worship As Playground: Living The Song-Story Of God, H. Colleen. Butcher

Doctor of Ministry

No abstract provided.

Mainstreaming Emergency Contraception In Developing Countries: A Toolkit For Policymakers And Service Providers, Wilson Liambila, Saumya Ramarao, Joyce Wanderi Maina, Mary W. Gathitu

Reproductive Health

In late 2006, the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MOH), the Population Council, and Population Services International (PSI) launched an initiative to mainstream emergency contraception (EC) in Kenya. The initiative included a core set of activities aimed at improving overall awareness of EC across the country and strengthening the quality of EC services in both the public and private sectors. It was intended to serve as a model for other countries interested in improving access to EC, and to generate in-depth knowledge on EC program strategies and utilization characteristics in sub-Saharan Africa. The MOH drew lessons and experiences from the initiative …

Michigan Academician, Volume 41, Issue 2

Michigan Academician

No abstract provided.

Policy Brief—Mainstreaming Emergency Contraception In Developing Countries: A Toolkit For Policymakers And Service Providers, Wilson Liambila, Saumya Ramarao, Joyce Wanderi Maina, Mary W. Gathitu

Reproductive Health

Kenyan Ministry of Health (MOH), the Population Council, and Population Services International (PSI) launched an initiative to mainstream emergency contraception (EC) in Kenya. The specific objectives of the initiative were to: increase knowledge, awareness, and use of EC among Kenyan women; increase knowledge and awareness of EC among health providers; and strengthen EC provision in both the private and public sectors. This policy brief describes a toolkit designed for policymakers and service providers which draws on the achievements, lessons learned, and experiences from this project.

Measurement Of Transverse Relaxation Times Of Cerebral Metabolites In Brain Tumors, Akshay Madan

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Proton (¹H) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides a non-invasive means of assessing metabolite concentration for a range of biologically important cerebral compounds in vivo. To extract quantitative information, additional data regarding proton spin relaxation phenomena is critical. Transverse relaxation times (T₂) of cellular metabolites depend on the local molecular environment in which they reside. Several neurological diseases alter the molecular environment, which may be reflected in the changes of the T₂ relaxation times. Therefore alterations in T₂ in tumors may provide important information about the local environment and a potential non-invasive diagnostic tool. Thirty-seven adult patients with gliomas and 11 …

The Impairment Of Macrophage-To-Feces Reverse Cholesterol Transport During Inflammation Does Not Depend On Serum Amyloid A, Maria C. De Beer, Joanne M. Wroblewski, Victoria P. Noffsinger, Ailing Ji, Jason M. Meyer, Deneys R. Van Der Westhuyzen, Frederick C. De Beer, Nancy R. Webb

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Studies suggest that inflammation impairs reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). We investigated whether serum amyloid A (SAA) contributes to this impairment using an established macrophage-to-feces RCT model. Wild-type (WT) mice and mice deficient in SAA1.1 and SAA2.1 (SAAKO) were injected intraperitoneally with ³H-cholesterol-labeled J774 macrophages 4 hr after administration of LPS or buffered saline. ³H-cholesterol in plasma 4 hr after macrophage injection was significantly reduced in both WT and SAAKO mice injected with LPS, but this was not associated with a reduced capacity of serum from LPS-injected mice to promote macrophage cholesterol efflux in vitro. Hepatic accumulation of ^{3 …}

Pla/Plga Nanoparticles For Delivery Of Drugs Across The Blood-Brain Barrier, Jingyan Li, Cristina Sabliov

Faculty Publications

The blood-brain barrier (BBB), which protects the central nervous system (CNS) from unnecessary substances, is a challenging obstacle in the treatment of CNS disease. Many therapeutic agents such as hydrophilic and macromolecular drugs cannot overcome the BBB. One promising solution is the employment of polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) such as poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs as drug carrier. Over the past few years, significant breakthroughs have been made in developing suitable PLGA and poly (lactic acid) (PLA) NPs for drug delivery across the BBB. Recent advances on PLGA/PLA NPs enhanced neural delivery of drugs are reviewed in this paper. Both in …

Optimizing A Continuous Flow Lipid Extraction System (Cfles) Used For Extracting Microalgal Lipids, Javed Iqbal, Chandra Theegala

Faculty Publications

A laboratory-made continuous flow lipid extraction system (CFLES) was devised to extract lipids from microalgae Nannochloropsis sp., a potential feedstock for biodiesel fuel, with a focus to assess the workable temperatures and pressures for future industrial applications. Using conventional solvents, the CFLES recovered 100% of the lipids extracted with conventional Soxhlet extraction. The optimum temperature and pressure were found to be 100 °C and 50 psi, respectively; conditions significantly lower than those normally used in pressurized liquid extractions requiring specialized equipment. Approximately 87% of the extracted oil was successfully transesterified into biodiesel fuel (fatty acid methyl esters). Preliminary calculations based …

Growing South Dakota (Winter 2013), College Of Agriculture &. Biological Sciences

Growing South Dakota (Publication of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences)

This issue includes the 2012 South Dakota Agricultural Station Annual Report

CONTENTS:
[Page] 1 From The Dean
[Page] 2 Commitment To Collaboration: Working Together Adds Efficiency To Budgets: Effectiveness To Solutions
[Page] 7 Special Pull-Out Section: South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Annual Report: Highlighting Research Projects On Beef; Wheat; And Soybean Meal For Aquaculture
[Page] 11 Water Watchers: The South Dakota Water Resources Institute Provides Research, Education & Outreach
[Page] 12 Winter College News
[Page] 14 SDSU Extension: One Year Later: Reorganization Prompted Restructuring – And Renewed Commitment
[Page] 16 Bullseye!: South Dakota’s 4-H Shooting Sports Program Sees Continued Growth …