Digital Commons Network^™

Commodified Risk: Masculinity And Male Sex Work In New Orleans, Eduardo Piqueiras

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this research I examine the complexity of male sexuality and masculinity among male sex workers in New Orleans. Despite danger to their health and social standing, men engage in risky sexual behavior with other men for both business and pleasure. These behaviors may stem from the thrill of risk itself, or from other causes such as unexplored sexual inhibitions on the part of the male sex workers or their clients. Focusing on male sex workers, this ethnographic study explores why male sex workers engage in work that is high risk and potentially very dangerous. It examines the world of …

Blisters, Kristina A. Walton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

n/a

Reexamination Of Herpetofauna On Mormon Island, Hall County, Nebraska, With Notes On Natural History, Keith Geluso, Mary J. Harner

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Platte River in central Nebraska, USA, was historically surrounded by mixed grass and tallgrass prairies and wet meadows, but many of those habitats were lost or altered during the last century with unknown effects on animals that reside in them. Researchers first surveyed herpetofauna on part of a large island preserve in the Platte River, Mormon Island, Hall County, Nebraska, in 1980 when the land was protected for conservation. They documented 10 species, including three species of amphibians and seven species of reptiles. We inventoried herpetofauna after 30 years of conservation management on Mormon Island and adjacent Shoemaker Island. …

Cold Tolerance In Arabidopsis Kamchatica And Related Species, Jessica J. Armstrong

Biological Sciences

Cold is a major limiting factor in the development and distribution of plants. Many plants increase cold tolerance via cold acclimation. We determined the cold tolerance strategy of Arabidopsis thaliana and A. kamchatica by comparing the extent that plants cooled below the freezing point without freezing, the supercooling capacity, to the temperatures at which 50% of freeze damage occurred (LT50). In A. kamchatica LT50 and supercooling values were similar before cold acclimation; after acclimation LT50 was much colder than supercooling, indicating non-acclimated A. kamchatica avoids freezing by supercooling but after acclimation appears to tolerate freezing. In A. thaliana, LT50 and …

Measuring Selected Trace Metals (Mo Cd, Sn, U And Pb) In Drinking Water From The Houston Area By Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (Icp-Ms), Asma Akhter

Theses (Pre-2016)

This research was conducted for the sole purpose ofmeasuring the concentration of some trace metals in some water samples within the greater Houston metropolitan area. These water samples were collected from sources associated with the City of Houston, Texas municipal water systems such as Houston. It is the most populated city in Texas. To achieve this, twenty four water samples were randomly collected to serve as the subjects ofthe study. The samples were collected from tap water sources. The presence of trace metals in drinking water is of concern to our health. Ofthe trace elements studied, uranium is of special …

Developing A Strategic Policy Choice Framework For Technological Innovation: Case Of Chinese Pharmaceuticals, Leong Chan

Dissertations and Theses

With the growing trend of globalization and rapid development of high technologies, emerging economies face more challenges in technology development because they are chasing a fast-moving frontier. They need to identify global technology trends and adapt to local needs and capabilities. Strategies for technology development differ among countries at different developmental stages.

In this research, a technology policy choice framework is developed to link prospective high-tech areas, technology development strategies, and various innovative resources. The research approach is to develop a hierarchical decision model (HDM) and apply the analytic hierarchical process (AHP). Experts are invited from diverse sources to provide …

A Temporal Comparison Of The Eelgrass (Zostera Marina L.) Food Web And Community Structure At Izembek Lagoon, Alaska From The Mid-1970'S To 2008, Amy C. Tippery

Marine Biology

This thesis investigates food web and community structure in Izembek Lagoon, Alaska, an ecologically important sub-arctic seagrass system. Unprecedented environmental changes in high latitudes, such as increased sea-surface temperatures and a shorter duration of shore-fast sea ice, may now favor seagrass over phytoplankton production as compared to forty years ago. Any resulting shifts in food web and community dynamics could have substantial consequences given the importance of seagrass habitat for Alaskan fisheries, global migratory bird populations and benthic energy transformation. Recent (2008) stable isotope (C and N) values and benthic community metrics were gathered and compared to results from a …

"Little Things": Chekhov's Children And Discourse In The Comic Short Story, Rich W. Goode Iv

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

While most critics agree that Anton Chekhov is a funny writer and much critical commentary about his comedic techniques identifies how Chekhov is humorous, none examines why readers find him so. Using the tools of cognitive science, this paper explores the cognitive processes behind humor and narrative, as well as Chekhov’s exploitation of them for comical effect in his early short stories – namely the very concise and blatantly humorous “Kids,” “Grisha,” “Vanka,” and “At Home” – and uncovers, in these early writings, the origins of his celebrated and oft-imitated authorial legacy.

Risks Factors And Resiliency In Secondary School Students After The Bp Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Walt W. Hammerli Dr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on students of two coastal Louisiana secondary schools. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory was used as a framework to understand how exposure, gender, socioeconomic status, and resilience interact to influence the impact of the spill on students. Cross-sectional questionnaires were administered to 155 high school students in May 2012 and 225 middle school students in January 2013 out of 1247 possible for a return rate of about 30%.

Results showed that exposure groups differed significantly on students’ Impact of Event Scale (IES; …

The Language Of Trees, Lorraine A. Martinuik

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Language of Trees is a poetry collection based on a series of walks, and rooted in the experience of place on a small island off the west coast of Canada. Prose poems and a serial poem that gives the collection its title, reflect the poet's leanings towards experiment. The preface discusses poetics and the poet's technical approach to form.

Regulation Of The Target Of Rapamycin Signaling Pathway In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Tammy Pracheil

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An integrative, biochemical, genetic, and molecular biology approach utilizing gene manipulation, gene knock outs, plasmid based protein expression, and in vivo protein localization of fluorescence tagged proteins was employed to determine the function of an essential protein, Lst8, in TORC1 and TORC2 signaling and a previously uncharacterized complex, the Far3-7-8-9-10-11 complex (Far complex) in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mutations in SAC7 and FAR11 suppressed lethality of both lst8 and tor2-21 mutations but not TORC1 inactivation, suggesting that the essential function of Lst8 is linked only to TORC2.

Far11, a component of a six-member complex, was found to interact …

The Fii Model As An Investment In Patience: Exploring Time Preferences In Medellin, Colombia, Jennifer Graham

Master's Theses

The motivation for this research is to explore the success behind the Oakland based Family Independence Initiative (FII) as a model for poverty alleviation. During the period of June-December 2012, nearly 200 small business owners in Medellin, Colombia participated in a field experiment intended to replicate the FII model by randomizing the treatments of setting goals, receiving conditional payments, and participating in self-help groups, as well as the combinations thereof. The data shows that the subjects in the full FII treatment group achieve more goals and have significantly higher monthly sales than those subjects in any other treatment or control …

Diesel Fuel Additives: Use And Efficacy For Alaska's Diesel Generators, Chandler Kemp, Frank Williams, Gwen Holdmann, Dennis Witmer

INE Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Freshwater Growth And Recruitment Of Yukon And Kuskokwim River Chinook Salmon: A Retrospective Growth Analysis., Justin M. Leon

Fisheries

Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha recruitment in the Yukon and Kuskokwim (Y-K) region of western Alaska is important for subsistence and commercial harvest. Recruitment of Chinook salmon in this region has been unpredictable in recent years, and managers and subsistence harvesters are searching for answers. Chinook salmon require freshwater growth to smolt, and larger smolts are thought to have higher marine survival. In this study, I tested for correlations between freshwater growth and recruitment using measurements from scale digitizations. All analyses were conducted at the tributary scale, with one tributary representing each river system. Linear regressions were used to check for …

Growth And Energetic Condition Of Dolly Varden Char In Coastal Arctic Waters, Jason T. Stolarski

Fisheries

Dolly Varden char Salvelinus malma are a dominant member of the nearshore Arctic icthyofauna and support one of the largest subsistence fisheries within Arctic coastal communities in Alaska. Despite this importance, numerous aspects of Dolly Varden ecology remain poorly understood, which inhibits efforts to assess the biological consequences of anthropogenic disturbances such as hydrocarbon extraction and climate change within nearshore areas. The goal of this research was to develop and apply new techniques to measure and assess the biological integrity of Dolly Varden populations. To do so, I evaluated the precision of age determination generated from scales, otoliths, and fin …

Identifying Medical Resident Stress With Work Domain Representation, Daniel Nystrom

Theses

Resident physicians must endure substantial amounts of stress to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to become competent, certified physicians. Multiple factors that contribute to high levels of stress in different areas of the healthcare domain have been identified, but stress continues to be a major problem despite this knowledge and efforts to reduce it. This thesis describes a holistic approach to the problem of resident stress by employing methods of Cognitive Work Analysis to systematically review and organize relevant research literature, observations, interview responses, and survey information according to the area of the work domain where each stressor is …

The Menstrual Body, Ashly S. Patterson

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to develop a feminist theoretical understanding of menstruation. I first explore Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist existentialist concept of woman as Other to establish a baseline from which all other sociocultural discourses on menstruation flow. I next expand Erving Goffman’s symbolic interactionist theory on stigma to discuss the social-psychological internalization process that girls encounter as they become enculturated into menstruation as a stigmatic condition. I then use a macro-discursive, Foucauldian analysis on power and discourse to understand how menstruation has been socially constructed from premodern superstitions, to the rise of modern medicine in the …

Fish And Decapod Community Structure In Estuarine Habitats Of The New Orleans Land Bridge, Including A Description Of The Life Cycle Of Tarpon (Megalops Atlanticus) In Southeastern Louisiana, William Stein Iii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Estuarine marshes are generally considered to be productive but not necessarily diverse ecosystems. During 24 consecutive months, I collected 65,000 fishes and decapods comprising over 65 species from the New Orleans Land Bridge, an estuarine salt marsh. My research details the distribution of nekton across five contiguous but geomorphically different regions, which I defined as “Areas”. This factor “Area” was significant in explaining community composition differences in 11 of the 24 months I evaluated. That is, during those 11 months community structure was different among the Areas. Specific “month” was also found to be a significant factor as community structure …

Ritual Process, Kevin A. Baer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My art is a means for investigating the passage of time, the decay of physical things, and the truth of mortality. I explore these concepts through process-oriented sculptures that emphasize ritual and material. The process is communicated with the creation of relics, often existing as drawings or the remains of degenerated sculptures. These relics bear witness to the process. I focus on themes of temporal change and death because they remain central to our metaphysical and physical existence. I see a diminished reverence for the power of death in our culture, and through my work I aim to pay homage …

Analyzing Locational And Socio-Economic Factors To Determine Efficacy Of Trio Programs In Metropolitan New Orleans, Rita S. Camaille

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study is a predictive model to ascertain whether various factors such as income, educational attainment, and ethnic background could predict the on students participating in TRIO programs at the University of New Orleans. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration identified low-income and first-generation students as the most under-served population needing attention as well as those most “at-risk.” Educational Talent Search programs were founded in 1965 as outreach programs to provide services and activities to the “at-risk” population to promote high school retention and graduation rates. The University of New Orleans has three Educational Talent Search programs serving Jefferson, Orleans, and …

Building Bonfires, Michael Haines

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

Validation Of Antibodies Used To Study Hypoxia Inducible Factors In Two Species Of Fundulus, Jenna D. Hill

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are transcription factors and the master regulators of oxygen-dependent gene expression in animals. The focus of this thesis is the distribution of HIF protein in tissues of the fish Fundulus heteroclitus and F. grandis, two widespread species that occur in naturally hypoxic waters. Polyclonal antibodies against HIF-1α, HIF-2α, and HIF-3α were tested on proteins made in vitro and on extracts made from several tissues of normoxic and hypoxic fish. Antibodies against HIF-1α and 3α bound specifically to full length protein made in vitro, and produced bands on western blots of nuclear extracts of near …

Synthesis And Antifungal Evaluation Of Barbiturate Saponins And Progress Towards Cysteinyl Metal Peptides, Monika Madhav

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Invasive fungal infections are a major threat to immune-compromised patients. There is a critical need to develop new antifungal agents because of increasing resistance to the common antifungal drugs.

In the first part of this dissertation, methods for preparation of novel barbiturate saponin as antifungals and their biological activities would be described. Barbiturates and steroidal saponins have shown remarkable antifungal activity in the biological assays. Therefore, attempts were directed to combine the barbiturate with the steroid to give novel antifungal agents. The need for extensive SAR studies and to better understand these compounds efforts were directed to synthesize novel saponin …

The Role Of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase In Lp-Bpm5 Murine Retroviral Disease Progression, Megan A. O'Connor, William R. Green

Dartmouth Scholarship

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an immunomodulatory intracellular enzyme involved in tryptophan degradation. IDO is induced during cancer and microbial infections by cytokines, ligation of co-stimulatory molecules and/or activation of pattern recognition receptors, ultimately leading to modulation of the immune response. LP-BM5 murine retroviral infection induces murine AIDS (MAIDS), which is characterized by profound and broad immunosuppression of T- and B-cell responses. Our lab has previously described multiple mechanisms regulating the development of immunodeficiency of LP-BM5-induced disease, including Programmed Death 1 (PD-1), IL-10, and T-regulatory (Treg) cells. Immunosuppressive roles of IDO have been demonstrated in other retroviral models, suggesting a possible …

The Current Volume 24 : Issue 1, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Predictive Modeling Of Avian Influenza In Wild Birds, Keiko Herrick

Biological Sciences

Over the past 20 years, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), specifically Eurasian H5N1 subtypes, caused economic losses to the poultry industry and sparked fears of a human influenza pandemic. Avian influenza virus (AIV) is widespread in wild bird populations in the low-pathogenicity form (LPAI), and wild birds are thought to be the reservoir for AIV. To date, however, nearly all predictive models of AIV focus on domestic poultry and HPAI H5N1 at a small country or regional scale. Clearly, there is a need and an opportunity to explore AIV in wild birds using data-mining and machinelearning techniques. I developed predictive …

Resource Partitioning Between Breeding Common (Uria Aalge) And Thick-Billed Murres (Uria Lomvia), Christopher Paul Barger

Biological Sciences

In seabirds, food availability is a driver of ecological and evolutionary processes. Here we examine how changes in food availability and energy demands affect both inter-specific resource partitioning and the genetic diversity within a species. We examined the effects of interannual fluctuations in food availability and predictable seasonal increases in energy demands on prey partitioning between breeding common (Uric aalge) and thick-billed (U. lomvia) murres. We observed strong spatial, temporal and dietary differences in the use of prey resources between the species. We found that partitioning increased as food availability declined and as energy demands increased during chick-rearing. We conclude …

Recent Changes In Plant And Avian Communities At Creamer's Refuge, Alaska Using Field And Remote Sensing Observations, Lila Maria Tauzer

Biological Sciences

Plant communities in the north are being profoundly altered by climate warming, but our understanding of the extent and outcomes of this ecosystem shift is limited. Although it was assumed local vegetation changes will affect avian communities, few data exist to investigate this relationship. In an interior Alaska boreal forest ecosystem, this study capitalized on available resources to assess simultaneous change in plant and avian communities over 35 years. Biological changes were quantified in summer avian community data (species composition, diversity, and richness) and in vegetation using archived field data, and supplemented this data with remote sensing observations for a …

Effects Of Diet Quality And Quantity On Caribou And Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus), Daniel Paul Thompson

Biological Sciences

Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) encounter natural and anthropogenic disturbances across the landscape. In late winter, Rangifer encounter acute food from disturbances such as icing events. Furthermore, as shrubs expand into the Arctic tundra, the proportion of low quality browse may increase in the summer diet of Rangifer. This study evaluated how Rangifer tolerate 1) fluctuations in food quantity in late winter and 2) changes in forage quality over the summer. Rangifer can compensate for food shortages by increasing intake after restriction, which would allow animals to restore body mass quickly during migration. High body fat reserves increase the tolerance …

Speciation Genetics In Two Pairs Of High-Latitude, Migratory Bird Taxa, Jack J. Withrow

Biological Sciences

I investigated and characterized the divergence of two pairs of putatively young, high-latitude, migratory bird taxa with data from mitochondria) and nuclear DNA. I chose pairs exhibiting natural history attributes suggesting divergence scenarios that probably did not involve strict allopatry. First, I examined Pluvialis dominica and P. fulva, migratory plover species with a largely parapatric breeding range in Beringia. Secondly, I examined Aegolius acadicus acadicus and A. a. brooksi, a subspecies pair of owls where one subspecies (brooksi) is endemic to Haida Gwaii, Canada, a location where subspecies acadicus occurs during migration, resulting in cyclic sympatry (heteropatry) with brooksi. Using …