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2014

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Robust Preconditioners For The High-Contrast Elliptic Partial Differential Equations, Zuhal Unlu Jan 2014

Robust Preconditioners For The High-Contrast Elliptic Partial Differential Equations, Zuhal Unlu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis, we discuss a robust preconditioner (the AGKS preconditioner) for solving linear systems arising from approximations of partial differential equations (PDEs) with high-contrast coefficients. The problems considered here include the standard second and higher order elliptic PDEs such as high-contrast diffusion equation, Stokes' equation and biharmonic-plate equation. The goal of this study is the development of robust and parallelizable preconditioners that can easily be integrated to treat large configurations. The construction of the preconditioner consists of two phases. The first one is an algebraic phase which partitions the degrees of freedom into high and low permeability regions which …

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What Risks Do African Youth Face Of Gang Involvement? A Community Needs Assessment In Multnomah County, Marie-Elena Reyes, Ann Curry-Stevens Jan 2014

What Risks Do African Youth Face Of Gang Involvement? A Community Needs Assessment In Multnomah County, Marie-Elena Reyes, Ann Curry-Stevens

Center to Advance Racial Equity Publications and Reports

African youth face deep challenges in attaining success in the USA today. Opportunities for academic and economic success are limited, constrained by today’s neoliberal conservatism in public policy and facing a harsh environment for getting a foothold in employment. This report documents the risks such youth face for becoming gang-involved, drawing forth original quantitative and qualitative study of risk factors and perspectives of key local and national leaders on community needs, assets and ideas for service supports that are likely to protect African youth, and help them reach adulthood with their futures intact.

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Magazine Image Influence, Extraversion, And Body Image In Fraternity And Non-Fraternity College Males, Morgan Draxten Jan 2014

Magazine Image Influence, Extraversion, And Body Image In Fraternity And Non-Fraternity College Males, Morgan Draxten

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

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Gangs And Guns : Media Framing Of Youth And Criminality In Guatemala, Andrea Taborsky Jan 2014

Gangs And Guns : Media Framing Of Youth And Criminality In Guatemala, Andrea Taborsky

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

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Bread And Circuses : A Cultural Materialist Analysis Of The Hunger Games Trilogy, Danielle Meyer Jan 2014

Bread And Circuses : A Cultural Materialist Analysis Of The Hunger Games Trilogy, Danielle Meyer

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

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Precarious Positions: Toward A Theory And Analysis Of Rhetorical Vulnerability, David Riche Jan 2014

Precarious Positions: Toward A Theory And Analysis Of Rhetorical Vulnerability, David Riche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this project, I develop a framework for treating rhetoric as a system for managing vulnerabilities to and through discourse. I contend that, through rhetoric, we are all put into a fundamentally precarious position, an unavoidable state of exposure to material, social, institutional, and rhetorical forces that work to condition us as both agents and audiences. Rhetoric is not simply something we use; it is also something that we respond to, something to which we are continuously exposed, whether we like it or not. There is, in other words, a necessary concern for vulnerability at the heart of rhetorical theory …

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Structuring Language And Community In An Online Space, Christopher Linder Jan 2014

Structuring Language And Community In An Online Space, Christopher Linder

LSU Master's Theses

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) present an interesting area for linguistic and social research, being a setting for of computer-mediated communication (CMC) that is task-oriented in nature and often requires high level of cooperation between players. This study investigates how Spanish-speaking players of the MMO Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn use the linguistic phenomena of discourse markers, laughter and politeness to structure their communication and their community. Through analysis of in-game conversations gathered from a community of said players, this study demonstrates how each of these phenomena work together to build a community based on inclusive language and positive …

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Bone Modification In Male To Female Transgender Surgeries: Considerations For The Forensic Anthropologist, Shelby Buchanan Jan 2014

Bone Modification In Male To Female Transgender Surgeries: Considerations For The Forensic Anthropologist, Shelby Buchanan

LSU Master's Theses

No forensic anthropological standards exist for the identification of transsexual individuals from skeletal material. In fact, current standards produce inaccurate biological profiles for transsexuals. The reason being that current standard for ascription of sex from skeletal remains relies on pelvic morphology. Positive identification of unidentified individuals relies on the accuracy of the biological profile, which includes sex, provided by the forensic anthropologist. In the case of male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals, ascription of sex based on pelvic morphology will result in an inaccurate assessment of sex. This study, therefore, attempts to determine whether or not there exists evidence in the skeleton of …

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Exploring Influences On Gender Equality In Photojournalism: Is The Field Picture-Perfect?, Andrea Briscoe Jan 2014

Exploring Influences On Gender Equality In Photojournalism: Is The Field Picture-Perfect?, Andrea Briscoe

LSU Master's Theses

America prides itself on having a free press. Ideally, this free press would look like the communities in which they cover. However, research shows that gender discrepancies are quite common in newsrooms (Anderson 2014; Briscoe 2012; Norris 1997; Willnat and Weaver 2014). Women often have a marginal presence in newsrooms, and this is troublesome, because scholars have noted that men and women approach newsgathering and reporting differently (Beam and Cicco 2010; Briscoe 2012; Grabe et al. 2011; Weaver 1997). While research has focused on gender discrepancies in various types of media, little to no research has looked at the field …

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Effects Of Iron On Cercospora Leaf Blight Of Soybean, Eduardo Chagas Ferreira Da Silva Jan 2014

Effects Of Iron On Cercospora Leaf Blight Of Soybean, Eduardo Chagas Ferreira Da Silva

LSU Master's Theses

Cercospora leaf blight (CLB) of soybean caused by Cercospora kikuchii is an important disease in Lousiana. Preliminary screening of foliar applications of the micronutrients Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo and Al, showed that Fe decreased CLB severity consistently. The objective of this work was to test the effects of commercial formulations of Fe, Manny Plex Fe and Fe EDTA (Brandt Consolidated, Springfield, IL) on leaf colonization by C. kikuchii, symptom development (blight and purple leaves), and yield. Four rates of Manny Plex Fe and four rates of Fe EDTA were applied to field plots at R5 growth stage. Leaf …

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The Twin Taboos Of Discussing Religion And Politics : A Study Of Six "Basic" Emotions And Interpersonal Relationships In Response To Rick Perry's "Strong", Michael Francis Rold Jan 2014

The Twin Taboos Of Discussing Religion And Politics : A Study Of Six "Basic" Emotions And Interpersonal Relationships In Response To Rick Perry's "Strong", Michael Francis Rold

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A fear appeal has become a common way to describe a message created by individuals, groups, or entities to achieve an array of social and political goals. For instance, law firms may use fear-based advertisements on television by listing several debilitating diseases to educate potential clients about the side effects of certain drugs. In the realm of politics, candidates may use fear-based appeals in their messages as well: certain Republican candidates use the fear of attacks similar to the ones of September 11, 2001, to “scare” the American people into voting for the candidate who would best protect the country …

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Safer To Steal Than Score : Press Coverage Of Financial And Sexual Scandals, And Electoral Outcomes, Chance York Jan 2014

Safer To Steal Than Score : Press Coverage Of Financial And Sexual Scandals, And Electoral Outcomes, Chance York

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines communication processes surrounding political scandal. It demonstrates that scandal coverage is improperly calibrated to the severity of scandal accusations, with trivial but salacious sex scandals tending to receive inordinate amounts of press attention while deeper forms of financial corruption go unreported or underreported. Patterns of scandal coverage, in turn, result in real-world effects on public perceptions and electoral outcomes. Specifically, sex scandals generate such intense media scrutiny that accused officials often resign their offices rather than generate unwanted publicity. Financial scandals are often downplayed, resulting in little or no ramifications for the accused. Recognizing basic differences in …

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Synthesis, Characterization, And Investigation Of The Catalytic Activity Of Nio, Cuo, And Nio-Cuo Nanoparticles On Silica As Surrogates Of Combustion-Generated Nanoparticles, Nuwan Nilanka Balapitiya Liyanage Jan 2014

Synthesis, Characterization, And Investigation Of The Catalytic Activity Of Nio, Cuo, And Nio-Cuo Nanoparticles On Silica As Surrogates Of Combustion-Generated Nanoparticles, Nuwan Nilanka Balapitiya Liyanage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Transition metal oxide nanoparticles contained in fly ash are known to catalyze the formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) during the waste incineration process. The potential catalytic activity of silica-supported NiO, CuO, and NiO-CuO nanoparticles for the formation of PCDD/Fs will be discussed in this dissertation. The successful synthesis of silica-supported NiO, CuO, and NiO-CuO nanoparticles as surrogates of combustion-generated nanoparticles was important to this study. The synthesis was followed by the characterization of the nanoparticle surrogates by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Finally, the catalytic …

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The Effects Of Concurrent Driving And In-Vehicle Tasks: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Driver Distraction In A High-Fidelity Driving Simulator, Julius A. Codjoe Jan 2014

The Effects Of Concurrent Driving And In-Vehicle Tasks: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Driver Distraction In A High-Fidelity Driving Simulator, Julius A. Codjoe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distracted driving continues to remain a cause of concern for a number of bodies, including government agencies, traffic safety advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies, because of its traffic safety risks. The driving simulator continues to be popular with researchers in collecting data on performance variables that provide scientific knowledge of the effects of distracted driving. Several of these performance variables can be used to quantify a single distracting effect, resulting in a multivariate dataset. A literature review of related studies revealed that researchers overwhelmingly use univariate (single and multiple) tests to analyze the resulting dataset. Performing multiple univariate tests …

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Numerical Investigation Of Cryopreserved Zebrafish Sperm Cell Activation In Microchannels, Thomas Foster Scherr Jan 2014

Numerical Investigation Of Cryopreserved Zebrafish Sperm Cell Activation In Microchannels, Thomas Foster Scherr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This aim of this research project is to probe the activation process of zebrafish spermatozoa. Zebrafish are a model species for biological engineering applications, and the cryopreservation of their reproductive cells allows for inexpensive cataloging and maintenance of valuable biological material. Evaluation of cryopreservation protocols for aquatic sperm cells is typically accomplished by motility analysis after subjecting cells to a cryopreservation treatment. In zebrafish sperm cells, motility is initiated when cells come into contact with a hypo-osmotic environment. Subsequent activation analysis is currently done manually and brings with it an inherent difficulty and error. This process is slow and not …

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Painful Conversions: Reading And Writing Education Reform In Louisiana, Thomas George Sowders Jan 2014

Painful Conversions: Reading And Writing Education Reform In Louisiana, Thomas George Sowders

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In January 2013, the superintendent of a rural Louisiana school system initiated a plan to increase school choice in his district through the implementation of a new virtual magnet school and the conversion of an existing elementary school into a magnet school. Both plans were set into action in April 2013. This study uses performative writing to document the better part of a year spent engaged in this project as a contracted educational consultant. Melding William Blake’s theories of apocalypse and social metonymy with experimental modes of scholarly production as praxis, I theorize education reform as an interactive performance. By …

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Chemistry And Application Of Pulses As Value-Added Ingredients In Processed Foods, Darryl Holliday Jan 2014

Chemistry And Application Of Pulses As Value-Added Ingredients In Processed Foods, Darryl Holliday

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chemical characterization of pulses allows for varying rates of water absorption, least gelation capacity, and retrogradation depending on species. Nutritionally, pulses are good sources of protein while being low in fat. Pulses deliver a readily bioavailable food form of several key minerals. Additionally, they deliver fiber. The insoluble fiber components are both natural and formed resistant starch in addition to the oligosaccharide content. Therefore, pulses can serve both a nutritional and functional role when used as a value-added ingredient. Meat patties were produced from beef and 23 different pulses at 35%, 42.5%, and 50% ratios. Each patty was tested for …

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Wonderland, Jeremy Joseph Grassman Jan 2014

Wonderland, Jeremy Joseph Grassman

LSU Master's Theses

Wonderland is a film about a fictitious, alternate dark society, free of original thought and action. The people toil day to day in a mechanized fashion. All characters are predictable and unquestioning except for our protagonist. He seems to think something is not quite right, and possibly he discovers it too late. Wonderland is a world in which the people work, sleep and repeat this procedure daily with no end until retirement. The story takes place on the last day before our hero’s retirement. What is the next adventure to come? It must be better than the past comprised of …

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Mental Mapping The Transformation Of Social Space In Rio's Oldest Favela: Morro Da Providência, Jamie Lauren Worms Jan 2014

Mental Mapping The Transformation Of Social Space In Rio's Oldest Favela: Morro Da Providência, Jamie Lauren Worms

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Amid the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, strategic policy reforms at the federal, state, and municipal levels have reordered and re-purposed the social space of Rio’s favelas through the implementation of social and physical infrastructure. This research project contributes a geographical perspective to the ways in which fast-paced urbanization transforms and produces social space in Rio’s oldest favela, Morro da Providência. Based on Henri Lefebvre’s conceptual triad concerning the production of social space, this research uses mental mapping to understand the disparity between representations of conceived space and representational lived space. It also contributes to perceived …

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Method For Synchrotron X-Ray Computed Tomographic Imaging Of Biofilms In Porous Media, Corey Matthew Klibert Jan 2014

Method For Synchrotron X-Ray Computed Tomographic Imaging Of Biofilms In Porous Media, Corey Matthew Klibert

LSU Master's Theses

Modeling of biofilms in porous media at pore scale resolution has been hindered by the lack of available experimental techniques to non-destructively image biofilm structure at these resolutions. Researchers have relied upon simulation rather than experimentation to produce pore-scale biofilm models, using simplifying assumptions governing microbial growth such as Monod kinetics and random biofilm seeding locations to generate biofilms in simulated environments. This study investigated the use of absorption-edge synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography (SXCMT) in combination with a contrast agent, Lugol’s iodine solution (10% KI/5% I2), to nondestructively obtain three-dimensional images of biofilms at pore-scale resolution. The study examined and …

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Development Of Visible Light-Promoted Photocatalytic O-Glycosylation, C-H Activation Of Alkanes And Deoxygenation Of N-(Mesyloxy) Amides, Xiaoping Wang Jan 2014

Development Of Visible Light-Promoted Photocatalytic O-Glycosylation, C-H Activation Of Alkanes And Deoxygenation Of N-(Mesyloxy) Amides, Xiaoping Wang

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is divided into four chapters reporting various aspects of the background of studies and the preliminary results I obtained in three projects. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the concepts of photoredox catalysis, O-glycosylation, C-H functionalization and amidyl radicals. Chapter 2 describes the development of a visible light-promoted O-glycosylation catalyzed by Ru(bpy)3(PF6)2 or diphenyldiselenide under mild conditions. The glycosylation of primary and secondary alcohols with selenoglycosides was demonstrated with good yields, and disaccharides were constructed by coupling of the selenoglycosides in acetonitrile or dichloromethane with a glucosyl acceptor in moderate yields. The reactions catalyzed by Ru(bpy)3(PF6)2 were …

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Concerto For Laptop Ensemble And Orchestra: The Ship Of Theseus And Problems Of Performance For Electronics With Orchestra: Taxonomy And Nomenclature, Jonathan Corey Knoll Jan 2014

Concerto For Laptop Ensemble And Orchestra: The Ship Of Theseus And Problems Of Performance For Electronics With Orchestra: Taxonomy And Nomenclature, Jonathan Corey Knoll

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of the problems faced when staging a work for electronics and orchestra. Part I is an original composition and model for the exploration of those problems. Part II is a monograph reviewing those problems and concentrating on issues of taxonomy and nomenclature. Part I is a concerto for laptop ensemble and orchestra titled The Ship of Theseus. It is named after a philosophical paradox. If every component of an object (i.e. the boards of a ship) is replaced with newer parts, at what point does the original cease to exist? Likewise, if the music performed …

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Continuous Reservoir Modeling Updating By Integrating Experimental Data Using An Ensemble Kalman Filter, Ting Sun Jan 2014

Continuous Reservoir Modeling Updating By Integrating Experimental Data Using An Ensemble Kalman Filter, Ting Sun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The continuous researvoir model updating is widely used to calibrate reservoir simulation models to production data, but many challenges remain. First, few real field data are available to test the new history matching method, and most of the data sets are synthetic cases. Second, computational cost may be high when using non-Gaussian priors or nonlinear models. Third, with large complex models, the simulation runs and history matching method require huge memory allocations. This dissertation achieves a continuous reservoir model updating workflow with a meter-scale , two-phase flow experiment. Both production and seismic data are collected in the experiment. Because the …

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The Journeyers, Alyson Pomerantz Jan 2014

The Journeyers, Alyson Pomerantz

LSU Master's Theses

On May 3, 1932, Minnie Zenkel’s Original Yiddish Puppet Theater, located in the heart of the Lower East Side’s “Yiddish Rialto,” burns down under mysterious circumstances. The police suspect arson but there are no persons of interest, and the theater’s namesake, a twenty-year old female puppeteer, disappears just after the fire; some believe she has stolen the theater’s original scripts in an act of revenge. Eighty years later the successor puppet theater once again finds itself without a home, when it receives word that developers want to raze the theater, now in Tribeca, and construct a forty-foot hotel. In the …

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Hot Corrosion Behaviour Of New Candidates For Thermal Barrier Coatings Application In Turbine Simulated Environments, Mohammad Hamed Habibi Jan 2014

Hot Corrosion Behaviour Of New Candidates For Thermal Barrier Coatings Application In Turbine Simulated Environments, Mohammad Hamed Habibi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are used gas turbine engines. The current material of choice (YSZ) degrades when it contacts with impurities arise from low quality fuels such vanadium and sulfur. YSZ cannot be used in temperature higher than 900˚C. Higher efficiency and performance of gas turbine engines will require a new generation of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In current work, hot corrosion behavior of new candidates including Gd2Zr2O7, ZrO2 stabilized with Ta2O5, zirconia stabilized with both Ta2O5 and Y2O3 and zirconia stabilized with CeO2 and TiO2 is investigated. For YSZ case, the reaction between NaVO3 and Y2O3 produces YVO4 and …

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Why Pass On Fashion Viral Message? The Moderating Role Of Consumers’ Fashion Traits, Message Traits And Individual Dynamics Traits In Social Media, Caroline Makena Kobia Jan 2014

Why Pass On Fashion Viral Message? The Moderating Role Of Consumers’ Fashion Traits, Message Traits And Individual Dynamics Traits In Social Media, Caroline Makena Kobia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social media is being used as platforms for viral marketing. Although there is some evidence on the usefulness of viral marketing from the marketers’ perspective, little is known about the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers engaged in this marketing instrument. As the social media platform continues to grow, understanding the characteristics and motivations of key players is invaluable for marketers and communicators who deal with message strategy and media outreach. Fashion companies have noticed this change and want to be present in the social media in different ways. This research represents a comprehensive attempt to examine the factors that …

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Assessing The Effects Of Work Zone Configurations On Drivers' Visual Attention, Karthy Punniaraj Jan 2014

Assessing The Effects Of Work Zone Configurations On Drivers' Visual Attention, Karthy Punniaraj

LSU Master's Theses

This study assessed the effects of two different work zone configurations on driver’s visual attention by eye movement monitoring. A driving simulator study was conducted with thirty participants. Variations in traffic density and warning sign placement distance were added to the merge configurations to simulate the real time situation. A 2 x 2 x 3 within-subjects factorial design was used for this research. The independent variables used in this study were (1) merge configuration [(i) Conventional Lane Merge (CLM) and (ii) Joint Lane Merge (JLM)], (2) traffic density [(i) high and (ii) low] and (3) distance between traffic signs [(i) …

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Evidence Of Methane Cycling Beneath The Western Margin Of The Greenland Ice Sheet, Erik L. J. E. Broemsen Jan 2014

Evidence Of Methane Cycling Beneath The Western Margin Of The Greenland Ice Sheet, Erik L. J. E. Broemsen

LSU Master's Theses

The greenhouse gas methane mainly regulated by microbial processes. Methanogenic archaea, a major biological source of methane, are a diverse group of organisms that produce methane as a metabolic byproduct. The generation of methane takes place in diverse anoxic environments using CO2 and other reduced substrates. The release of methane into oxic environments often is regulated by methanotrophic Proteobacteria and Archaea, specialized groups of bacteria that use methane as sole sources of carbon and energy. These organisms can play major roles in the regulation of methane transport into the atmosphere and make up one part of the methane cycle. Pools …

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Physical Stability Of Poly (Lactic-Co-Glycolic Acid) And Plga/Chitosan Nanoparticles And Chemical Stability Of Entrapped Alpha-Tocopherol And Lutein, Meocha Whaley Jan 2014

Physical Stability Of Poly (Lactic-Co-Glycolic Acid) And Plga/Chitosan Nanoparticles And Chemical Stability Of Entrapped Alpha-Tocopherol And Lutein, Meocha Whaley

LSU Master's Theses

The published benefits of polymeric nanoparticles as a system for antioxidant delivery have encompassed topics of improved oral delivery, bioavailability, and modified release to name a few. Generally accepted as safe polymers Poly(lactic-coglycolic acid) and the mucoadhesive chitosan were selected to entrap alpha-tocopherol and lutein. This study proposed to assess the physical stability of PLGA and Chi/PLGA nanoparticles with entrapped bioactives in varying biological suspension medias ( water, pbs, hbss and cell media). Also, to assess the chemical stability of the entrapped antioxidants lutein and alpha-tocopherol within the same media as deemed relevant for in-vitro and and in-vivo studies. Of …

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Phytoplankton Response To South Louisiana Crude Oil Exposure: Determining Impacts At Individual, Community, Toxin Production, Enzymatic-Activity And Gene-Expression Levels, Koray Ozhan Jan 2014

Phytoplankton Response To South Louisiana Crude Oil Exposure: Determining Impacts At Individual, Community, Toxin Production, Enzymatic-Activity And Gene-Expression Levels, Koray Ozhan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) raised an important question. What is the ecological impact of the oil, the dispersant, and the dispersed oil to the GoM ecosystem? Significant and varying research efforts have contributed answers to this question. However, to better understand the complete ecological consequences of the spill in the GoM, the impact of the spill at the base of marine food web should be examined. This research aims to understand impact of the spilled oil, South Louisiana crude oil (LSC), the chemical dispersant, Corexit® EC9500A, and the dispersed oil on phytoplankton communities …

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